I’m not sure, right now, which conflict resolution system is better. Likely, I’ll want to do some beta testing to see what actually works best. On the surface, both options should work for their intended purposes of allowing informed, strategic decision making without being totally predictable. One unintended side effect is that individual rounds of conflict will take longer to resolve. I think that’s a good thing – if something is meaningless, don’t perform a skill check. Just let it go. And if conflict must happen, it should be impactful. Rather than 10 rounds of combat, scratching away at a monster’s hit points, increase the stakes in each round and resolve it in 3 or 4.
Up next, I want to sketch out some ideas for character creation and leveling. Character creation is something that takes forever in many RPGs, yet rarely manages any ‘characterization.’ Consider a Dungeons and Dragon’s character – the vast majority of time is spent looking up stat bonuses, spells, and weapons, and other than some very general prompts for alignment and background, you’re left on your own. Also, leveling is a problem. With the structure of the playing system, that’s been sketched thus far, this isn’t something where we can simply add numbers to modifiers. In D&D, that doesn’t matter because the modifiers for your adversaries go up. Here, the threshold is fairly static (if somewhat random). Perhaps it’s too early to determine without knowing the world of the game, but I believe it’s worth looking at other methods of rewarding continuous play.