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This is a great rp idea.

What I've seen done:
1. established homebase/town. Gives players a stomping grounds that they can feel safe in and store their loot. It's also a place that they can quickly gain recognition in. A big city won't know who a small time adventurer is as much as their home town. At least until they get big.

2. Make world creation a necessary part of joining. They are allowed to create their character and join, but they must also submit a filled out template for a location, faction, piece of history concerning the world. This fleshes out the world, gives their character immediate attachment to the world beyond simple adventurer in random down. It also makes them more invested because they are immediately part of the rp creation process.

3. Do you plan on using stats or dice, or will the adventurer be purely players interacting with each other they way they deem fit?

4. Will you be controlling the world elements like time, weather, and npc's including monsters and antagonists?

5. Do you have a story line that will gradually carry the players to legendary heights or will the adventures be largely created at random with no over arching story? Unless you impose a system that lets them level up or something else to give them measurable advancement, it may be hard to make them feel like they are improving their skills and powers.

I encourage you to keep the system simple, but you should definitely use a system if you don't have things planned out that much. This will allow the characters to do what you want them to do and that's completing quests to improve character and progress in story.

Most things can be rp'd, but giving characters and monsters stats will allow them to better gauge their abilities. Rolling a d20 can then add in the challenge element....otherwise they are likely to slaughter monsters by the dozens because they think they can.

Without an overarching storyline, a random adventure here and there sounds fine. However, you will want to flesh out that infamy system.
What activities grant infamy?
How much should those activities/quests be worth?
What class or roleplay features will be unlocked at what levels of infamy?
How will you determine what items/quests are feasible at any given levels of infamy?


I propose following an xp system of sorts. you can call the xp infamy so its quantifiable in game and out of game. The more popular they are, obviously the stronger, more developed, etc... they are.

You could make each creature/battle/dungeon/and or quest worth a fixed level of infamy. Tracking individual points may get confusing or prone to cheating/error. If you know a character won't be infamy level 2 until they complete dungeon X, it's easy to know and track infamy levels by structuring it like that.

At each infamy level you may give them a perk that they choose from: new ability, higher stat, magical item.

Whatever the case, the upgrade should make them more proficient as an adventurer in some degree.

Clearing dungeon X or unlocking level X in infamy will also unlock further quest lines and adventurer locations to help usher the characters towards story and bigger adventuring opportunities.

When it comes to magic items and abilities for character, i encourage you to let them create their own. Less work for you. All you'll have to do is look at it and see if it feels balanced to you. Obviously, splitting mountains with an excalibur'esque weapon is absurd.


That brings me to my next thought that you should determine a general power level for the adventurer. A players going to be normal people with training and magical gear? Are they meant to turn into superman level powers at the end? Will they always be some degree of realistic power and not epic fantasy powerful?

If you can determine what they will look like at the end of the rp, you can create a gradual advancement system of infamy that will gradually get the character from point A to point B.
Ex: if you know that jack the slayer will be insta killing giants at the end, then you can look at the giant health and know that at level X jack should be swinging for about that much damage. You can then determine that at any given level he needs to be a given percentage of that X amount. level 20 jack needs to do 100 dmg. He is level 5. He should be doing around 20 points of damage.

While it seems complicated, it's easier than it looks since you are letting them pick their abilities and gear and all you have to do is check the final numbers.

Obviously if a character is trying to make themselves immune to damage, you'll need to curb that a bit as you feel the need since that doesn't play well with numbers.

-Pities you for only playing 4e-

It's all pretty good. the stat system you came up with where strength is the attack as well as the defense against the attack is pretty good and simple.

How do you determine the quest worth? Do you just have the players roll a d20 at the end of the quest and give them random infamy points based on that?

In keeping things simple, I encourage you to roll advanced gear into a stat increases. It's simpler to say:
1. Jan got new armor. Her attack is now 23.
than it is to say....
2. Jan got new +3(atk) armor. Her attack is now 23(20 + 3armor).

by making the stats the number that matters and making them explain away their stats through whatever means they decide, you don't have to worry about weapon balancing. The characters can then wear whatever they wish and fight with whatever they wish.

My only concern is: are all melee weapons atk, all ranged attacks dex, and all magic int? If that's the case then it works easily enough. If you allow some weapons to fall into multiple categories, that can make it tricky/complicated.

I also question why health is complimented by the highest stat. It means folks can put all their stats into an attack stat and leave the health stat alone. A tank with 25 stamina has 25 health 10 atk. A fighter with 25 atk has 25 health and 25 atk.....something seems off there. You'll want to either remove the bonus to health based on the highest stat (which will give meaning to adding stamina), reduce it somehow so they stamina guy will always have more health that will allow him to take another hit or more from the guy that focused str. Or keep it as is and remove the stamina stat.

You should probably set a stat cap or make sure to increase the stat modifier table to accommodate folks that take more purist builds.

Do you have a way for determining the general level/rating of an ability? Example: would a fireball that can kill human targets within 10 feet of it make sense at level 3 or 40?

I suppose as a last check, you should try thinking of characters you would make and how you would quantify them with stats. If you pit the characters against each other or the monsters you have in mind, would some be clearly superior? Is it fairly even? Are they killing and achieving what you hope they would at the level you have them at? Stuff like that.

I feel that you should keep the attacks as d20 + mod of stat for the attack roll/accuracy.

d20 + 15 str vs 20 str is overpowered. A d20 + 3 str mod vs 20 str is a lot more reasonable. This means most attacks will miss (which rp'ers tend to prefer).

I would also make the damage caused by the player on a successful attack equal to their attacking mod. Character that attacks with a str mod of 3 will do 3 damage every time they hit with a str attack.

This means a level 1 character with pure attack will most likely hit and do 6 points of damage. Characters with a base health of 10 will be killed in 2 shots. This encourages players to attack first, to raise stamina, and/or make friends since they can be easily downed if they don't plan properly and work together.

this will obviously impact how abilities work. If I can already do 6 dmg consistently with an attack, what will the ability do? I believe abilities should be used to supplement the attacks damage, or to add additional effects like knocking them down, poisoning them, etc....I also believe abilities can have out of combat uses like 'jump' which lets them jump higher than other characters or 'move earth' which lets them control earth to a degree. Stuff like that.

I also believe that all attacks should be able to do at least 1 point of damage if they hit and that all attacks should have a chance to hit. Let's say that the following:
1. jack has 23 str
2. dan uses str attack with str of 10
3. dan's attack is a d20 with no mod
4. dan's max to hit is 20
5. Dan has no way to hit Jack with str.

I believe the above should never happen. I propose you include the crit system. If a player rolls a natural 20, they should always hit and do damage. It's up to you if you make crit do bonus damage, but the point is that no one can become unhittable.

You should decide what happens to characters if their hp reaches 0. should they die? Should they be dying and have limited amount of time to be saved? Should they just get knocked unconscious and not die unless they are left behind or the whole party dies?

Something else that should be considered is healing. If someone gets a healing ability, there is currently nothing to prevent them from spamming said healing ability every post. Healing isn't bad, however, healing for a lot can be. If the healing ability is driven by a character's int as I suspect, full time healer can do a +6 at level 1 heal per turn. Depending on how much damage you intend monsters to do, this could be potent. I wonder if healing abilities should deviate from the other spells.

However it really just depends on how many monsters you intend to sick on a group at once and how much damage they are capable of.......

I got it: what if the healers have to roll to hit just like attackers. This would mean healers would have an easy time healing their tanks and attackers, but would have a harder time healing themselves and other mages who may have magic resistance. This would encourage formations where magic folk and healers would be in back while the fighters and tanks go to the friend and try to hold the line. This also allows heals to work like any other spell without the risk of becoming overpowered do to the chance of failure. Same can go to other abilities/spells that offer buffs.

well you did mention that there may be multiple dm's. Were you not planning on running this? or was there a point in the story where you would go hands off and ask someone else to run?

Do you have a character profile/skeleton and/or world template for the rp'ers to fill out when they join?

I say they start with no abilities unless they put points into int up to the first mod point (15-16). You then allow them one ability to represent what it is they intend to be. Wizards get fire something. Healers get some kinda heal, etc....

Warriors and ranger types that use dex and str will already have a means of dealing damage and defending themselves. Leave abilities as a way for them to customize how they fight and handle various situations based on leveling up and learning those skills.