a man who has never
had his metal truly tested"
Welcome to Gold & Glory: A Knight's tale. A sports RPG set in a fantasy land, where you will take on the role of a knight, vagabond, noble, peasant, or some other colorful character who's decided to take up arms and compete in various tourneys for fame and fortune. The goal of this RP is to give the players the feeling of being a competitor in the medieval tournaments, as well as face them with the every day risks and adversities that come with the occupation. The results of each match will be decided via dice roll and players will RP their victories and losses as they come. A player's stats and attributes can help in giving them an edge in certain events, allowing them to be very proficient in certain fields, while being less than useful in others.
This isn't just a simple sports RP, however. There will be plenty of time between tournaments for the characters to talk and get to know one another. To forge friendships or rivalries. To deepen their own character's backstory and personality and to expand the lore of the world they live in. You can be a loner who doesn't get along well with other competitors, a friendly gentleman who's always in the mood for a bit of jolly cooperation, or an over prideful ass who sees all others as beneath their station. You could work together with other characters, protecting one another from bandits during your travels, or helping pay for expenses, or you could look out only for yourself, keeping all your prize money for your own benefit, at the cost of alienating yourself.
Things will not always be sunshine and rainbows, though, as there will be plenty of random events between and even during tournemants that could potentially hinder a characters performance in the games. You could be ambushed by brigands while on your way between towns, preventing you from improving or repairing your equipment in the next tourney, or get injured during a game and suffer penalties in your next match. Anything could happen and you will have to deal with the consequences as they come.
There will be an attribute system that players can customize and tailor to their character to help them in different situations. Having higher dexterity and will make you better in the dueling ring, while a higher strength/endurance will give you an edge in the joust. Players will be able to use their prize money to pay for different services, such as armor/weapons repair, buying better equipment, lodging, and training which will increase their stats and give them a higher chance of succeeding in any events they participate in at any particular tourney.
While this is a sports RP and will involve a lot of stats and rules and dice rolls, I want this to be primarily about the characters and their interaction with each other and the world around them to create a colorful and whimsical story about a bunch of jolly folk winning tournaments, getting drunk, competing with or against each other, and having a good time doing it.
So what say you, brave champion?
While a lot of the concept for this RP has already been thought up, there's still much that needs to be established. Many of the mechanics, including stats and attributes, die rolls, random events, and the currency and glory systems need to be further fleshed out. On top of that, I'm debating on whether or not there should be set classes or not. I'm not the best at this, so any and all help is appreciated. If we can get this to work, then I know this will be a very interesting, if not fun RP.
So here're a few things I still needs assistance with:
- The leveling system - How often should one level up, as well as how and where? I don't know about a base system, but I was thinking about adding in an expensive training option that can immediately level up any of a player's stats by one for a hefty sum.
- Earning Gold & Glory - I was Thinking of making each event in a tourney worth different amounts of glory/gold, with the joust obviously being the most rewarding, but I don't know exactly how to rank them, or even what all games to include in the tourneys.
- Price of services - There will be many different services open to the players that could boost their performance in the next or even ongoing tourneys. These range from better supplies and equipment, to good lodging at an in (rather than sleeping on the ground), and buying/selling equipment or repairing/reinforcing old stuff. All of these will have different effects on your stats to help you perform better at different things. Getting better sleep at an inn may increase your perception and allow you to be more accurate at your archery, while improving your armor and weapons may just save you from that next lance slicing through your armor and hitting your soft little belly, or prevent your sword from snapping in half in your next sparring match.
- Classes, Attributes/Stats, and Tourneys - Should there be a set group of classes with specialized skills that players can choose from, or should they be allowed to distribute their starting stats however they like? On top of that, what should the attributes be and what should they encompass? Also, since a lot of characters will more than likely be specialized in one or two skills, they will likely be very good at winning certain games than other. For instance, a character with light-medium armor who's light on his feet and with high dexterity would probably be best suited for sparring, but would be under equip for the joust. Is this how it should work? On one end, it allows for players to be very proficient at winning a select group of games, but on the other hand, they would be next to useless in others. This would only allow them to make certain amounts of money every tourney and could potentially lead to poverty and failure if they suffer too many losses. On the other hand, it could promote cooperation between players as they all work together to win in their respective fields so that there's a better chance of one of them making enough money to survive until the next tourney, while still allowing for some friendly rivalry. I hope you understand what I mean by this.
- Scoring and determining the winner - How should this be done? G-Tech said the scorinator would be a good fit, but I've never used it, so I can say with certainty.
There're other things to discuss, as well, but there are what came to my mind, first.