RPG Design Patterns

Provide a means for players to customize their characters with specialized, well- documented abilities that do not improve in effectiveness as play progresses.

Feats, Talents

Class, Skill, Trait

Most role-playing games allow players to customize their characters with new abilities. Sometimes, it makes sense to allow those abilities to improve over time. In other cases, it makes more sense to simply bestow an ability upon a character as a well-defined “gift” and forego any possible advancement in it. There are a few reasons why this might be done.

Some gifts allow a game designer to explicitly handle situations that are likely to arise, but are not a central focus of the game. For example, a game may be set in a world where literacy is far from universal. However, the game designer does not want to require players to deal with the bookkeeping work of a full-blown “Reading” skill. In his viewpoint, knowing whether a character can read is important because it may have social implications, but trying to deal with the minutiae of what 1st vs. 5th rank in the skill of “Reading” means is beyond the level of detail needed by the game. On the other hand, a game set on a university campus may have need for that level of detail. (In such a case, the Rank pattern may be more appropriate.)

In other cases, it just doesn’t make conceptual sense for an ability to increase as time passes. For example, if the ability of “night vision” is bestowed on a character for choosing a cave-dwelling race, then the game designer may decide that there is no justification for a character to improve in that area after the gift is bestowed.

In still other cases, a gift might be used as a sort of “toggle switch” to turn on other, related abilities allowed by a game. For example, a character may have the skill “Armor Smithing,” which allows him to craft ring armor at 3<sub>rd</sup> rank, mail armor at 5^th rank, plate armor at 8^th rank, etc. However, he cannot craft magical armor or the corresponding type unless he obtains the gift of “Crafting Magical Armor.” Presumably, going through the effort and cost of obtaining this gift would open up a whole realm of armor crafting possibilities that a character otherwise would not have.

Use the Gift pattern when you want to

1. Allow players to differentiate the abilities of their characters from others in their group,
2. Keep those abilities from improving as play progresses,
3. Provide detailed descriptions of what each of those abilities accomplishes.

Goal 1 can be satisfied by the Trait pattern. It would be trivial to modify the Trait pattern to keep some traits from improving as play progresses as well, thus satisfying goal 2. So, if detailed write-ups of character “gifts” are something you want to avoid, you should consider using the Trait pattern instead.

If you would prefer an ability to increase in effectiveness as play continues, you should consider using the Level, Skill, or Rank patterns instead.

The Gift pattern is often used in conjunction with the Skills pattern. Like the Skills pattern, Gifts place a significant burden on a game writer’s shoulders, in that they require detailed write-ups of the various abilities presented as options. Gifts are one way in which a “rules-light” game becomes “rules-heavy” (which is not necessarily a bad thing). On the other hand, gifts provide a powerful way for a game designer to direct play toward the kinds of scenarios he envisions his game to be about. If well written, gift descriptions can answer most questions that will arise in game play concerning the ability, thus avoiding debate about trivial details during play. All of this costs a certain amount of flexibility, though. Some players find skills and gifts based games to be confining regardless of how many gifts are offered as options.

You will need to decide when, how many, and what kinds of gifts a character can gain. One possible way would be to create some kind of resource that a player can “spend” to purchase gifts (see the Resource pattern). Another might be that gifts are bestowed by race, one of which a player must choose for his character initially. A third option is that gifts are bestowed by classes (see the Class and Class Tree patterns) which are themselves limited by some means.

In writing up your gift descriptions, you will need to be careful to temper your enthusiasm for creating “kewl powers.” Gifts can be used effectively to augment a game, but can just as easily upset game balance if you do not maintain some amount of consistency from one description to the next. One way to allow gifts of varying effectiveness without upsetting the integrity of your game is to have the more effective gifts cost more (see the Resource pattern).

A game might specify a “Ciphering” gift in the following way:

Gift Cost: 1 Character Point
Ciphering enables a character to perform simple arithmetic. He understands the basic concepts of numbers, tables, and charts. Of course, almost any character can keep track of numbers under 20. Nevertheless, a character with this talent need not stop after he runs out of fingers and toes. He easily deals with addition and subtraction and can multiply and divide with difficulty.

Dungeons & Dragons v.3.5 has a list of 109 “Feats” such as “Brew Potion,” “Dodge,” and “Quick Draw.” Feats are bestowed both at the time the character is initially created and as the character advances in levels (see the Level pattern).

HERO System 5th Edition has a list of 18 “Talents” such as “Ambidexterity” and “Eidetic Memory.” Talents are purchased through the expenditure of “Character Points,” which is a resource spent by players in designing their characters.

Warhammer Fantasy Role Play has a list of 133 “skills” such as “Gamble,” “Pick Lock,” and “Spot Traps.” These “skills” actually match the Gifts pattern because they do not change in effectiveness as play progresses. These gifts are bestowed upon characters as they gain new “professions” (see the Class pattern) throughout their careers.