LibriumArcana.Games

I decided to put this here because it concerns role playing and a RPG system.

I've been thinking of introducing a Feat/Flaw system. If you're at all familiar with d20, you get 'Feats' which are supposed to represent higher training as well as greater combat potential. Generally, - and I do stress the word 'generally' - Feats come in two shapes and sizes: those that increase combat potential, and those that give 'synergy' bonuses to skills.

Now, I was looking through the SWd20 rulebook and I noticed they had two feats which were very similar, but had different roleplaying implications: Fame, and Infamy.

The implications ought to be obvious. Let's take a soldier character. You want to play a soldier, a war veteran, and you want to select Fame. Perhaps you're famous in some circles for bravely attacking a pillbox, or leading your troops to victory, or whatever. But what if you were infamous at the same time?

Remember Babylon 5? Sheridan was the only Earthforce captain who won a victory against the Minbari. That carries with it a certain amount of prestige, I'd think. But what did the Minbari call him? Sheridan Starkiller, because they're just a little bitter he sucker-punched them in the 'nads.

I'm not sure exactly where I want to go with this, but I'm thinking of adding a Flaws feature to the system. How this will work is open for ideas.

Maybe I want to play a Rogue who's your typical fantasy back-stabbing sneaky rogue (so I have Sneak Attack and Skill Focus: Move Silently), and at the same time he got 'Deathmark' on his Flaws list - he pissed off the wrong Wizard and every so often he's assailed by magical bounty hunters or something. Or maybe he has a 'special relationship' akin to Cugel and Icounou.

Maybe I want to play a Jedi who's arrogant? Mechanically, perhaps he has a -2 to Diplomacy checks or something.

It's a Cyberpunk game and I want to play a computer hacker who's also good at kung fu, but also nurses a tragic drug dependency...

etcetera etcetera. Thoughts? Opinions? D20 Feces-flinging*?

* AKA "Argh! The horror! The horror! Someone mentioned D20! I'm going to defenestrate you!"

As many problems as I have with D20, there are several fixes which do a decent job of making it play better. A perks and flaw system works nicely (and has been covered in Dragon Magazine in the past). Generally speaking, it can lead to abuse (as all such systems can), but the general rule is that at character creation, for every flaw, you gain an additional feat. You can impose your own limitations, of course, like perhaps giving additional skill points for flaws, but that's entirely up to you.

That said, I prefer Silhouette, D6, and INTERLOCK. ;)

GURPS has the flaw perk system as well. BUT they also have limits set into said system. This is 3rd ed rules ...so you can have a maximum of 40 points from disadvantages...5 quirks each at 1 pt piece for a total of 45 points . Thus a starting lowlevel character may have 145 points to spend on abilities, stats and skills.