Think I’ve finally come up with a game idea…sort of a cross between ‘DnD’ and ‘Jumanji’ meet in School.
Creating the basic character sheet is easy enough. What I’m looking for is a way to transform the player’s ‘before’ activities into a character modifier.
For instances…did they play football? How would that affect the player’s stats (STR+2, DEX+1, WIS-1, etc.).
This won’t be unlimited, mostly to about 4-6 sports and 3-5 academic styles to choose from. Also trying to give a ‘weight’ to each so out of a pool of points a player might possible be able to select one or two from each category, maybe even double them…so say…Football+Wrestling or Gymnastics+2xSwimming; or where one has big negatives…Super-Nerd + Stoner (Should be interesting to say the least).
Almost as difficult as the modifier stats is Weighting; because I had a friend in high school who was not only a decent gymnast and swimmer in school, Karate after; and went to (community) college…getting both his 2-year degree and HS diploma the same time.
Tried seeking google’s advice…2+million hits…and it’s either about athletic checks in RPGs or stats in sports games.
Anyone out there delved into this or know of a resource?
I’d suggest don’t limit yourself to sports, and don’t pigeonhole “nerds” and “stoners” as pure negatives. I find choices that offer a plus/minus can be interesting.
Since your finding not a whole lot of diversity in sports, maybe try having the player pick their class lineup: PhysEd bumps strength and constitution (whatever your stats are), Health bumps constitution and charisma, Math is double intelligence, Science is wisdom and dexterity, etc. After school activities could bump stats also, your after school sports, but don’t forget “nerdy” stuff like Chess Club (double intelligence) Drama Club (intelligence and dexterity) cheerleading (dexterity, charisma) Band (double dexterity) etc. You could even implement a “Mean Girls” style clique system, if you sit with the stoners you get plus wisdom minus constitution, with the shop class dexterity with a chance to injure yourself frequently…
This kind of reminds me of Monster Prom which is a game solely about stat-building. Maybe check out some let’s plays to see how those kind of choices apply for ideas?
Thanks, there is some interesting ideas there I hadn’t considered. As to the ‘Nerd’, “Punk”, and ‘Stoner’ ideas…I didn’t see them as purely negative as the name implies. They are or will be compared to some of the antagonists, but from a player perspective…they simply have strengths in areas where the ‘stereo-typical’ jock won’t.
3 decades since high school, so I’m sure (at least hoping) things have changed since then. Jocks were ‘king’, more so if they played football and could almost do no wrong. I wasn’t a 4.0 student, but smart enough to seriously throw off the curve…and I wasn’t into sports for several reasons.
I want reasons for things, and a teacher or coach saying “because I said so” does NOT cut it - which is why I left track, caused issued with the shop teacher and a high school counselor. Tried to go out for gymnastics when I got to high school…the gymnastics coach (turns out HS only had a female team) looked at me and said, “Um…you’re a guy…” like that explained everything. The school had a ‘clear’ if not stated idea of what constituted male and female sports…gymnastics was for females and…using the vernacular of the time…queers, f-gs and homos. They tolerated swimming because for one our school had a pool, but it brought in a lot more trophies that they could put on the signs leading into the city. (Yes…they actually had large signs on the major roadways leading into the city espousing their athletic prowess)
Think you get my point…and while my experience is dated (again, hopefully)…it’s what I know so that is the predominating perspective I’m writing it from. That stated, this is the predominate behavior of many of the antagonists in the story/game.
Tried watching the video…between all the chit chat and superfluous BS…couldn’t get past like the first 7 minutes. If this is how most youtube videos go…can see I’m not missing anything.
Again though…thanks for your reply and ideas to ponder.
I admit that I have done rag IFs and mini-IFs, about my middle and high school, and its denizens, but are things I wisely kept them in “never-for-release” status and kept 'em locked in my HD backups (because I sometimes use the source code as recipe books)
On your question, I recommend watching vid walkthru of Persona as (IMO) excellent examples of school-setting RPG with solid build systems (in Persona 3-4-5)