A previous post alluded to my slightly complaining as to the time it was taking me to roll up a character for a modern RPG (in this case Shadowrun 5e). A subsequent comment on Facebook got me thinking as to what would I want from a modern RPG? These are my thoughts..
"Easy" character creation
As I alluded to in that earlier post regarding creating a character in Shadowrun 5e, it wasnt straight forward to almost the point of impenetrability, Pathfinder is not far off that level that but not quite as bad. 13th Age has had one of the easiest to follow systems i've encountered for a while and that's what I want, particularly if there is no digital backup like D&D had with both the downloadable and online versions of Character Builder (I've not played with Hero Lab so can't really comment). You pick your ability scores, choose your paths, buy equipment and you are done. Both Edge of the Empire and FFG's Rogue Trader employ a tree based system that works well and shows you how the character works and is relatively straight forward.
Structured Combat
The fourth edition of Dungeons and Dragons has had many detractors and the combat system has been a constant target for two reasons, the second I will talk about later (character advancement) but the first was that people didn't seem keen of having to resort to miniatures to resolve combat. Most combat systems treat things like distance as arbitrary values at the discretion of the Game Master but 4e wrote concise miniature rules into the core system. Some thought that it felt too much like a wargame rather than a traditional RPG. I disagree, I liked the system and think this part of the combat system works. It removes confusion and helps when working out cover, area effect, line of sight, etc. Even back when I was a fairly avid second editon player we would often resort to miniatures just to be clear of ambiguity when in combat, plus people do remember where D&D came from, don't they?
Character Advancement
The biggest problem with 4e (in my opinion) is the character advancement after around 10th level, the number of powers available increases and each round of combat takes longer as players try to string together ever more impressive combination of powers. This is great at level 1 as you have multiple options in combat but what is great at early levels soon goes out of control. This problem only gets worse the higher the player level, the more powers, the longer combat takes. My ideal system would handle this by scaling the effect of powers with a player level with the option of swapping powers out at various points which I think how 5e will handle it (or at least handle it better than 4e did). I also like the mechanic in 13th Age that has the escalating die in combat that increases by one each round and that number is added to the player attack rolls.
Some kind of Tablet Interface
Using paper and a pencil is certainly traditional and has its roots in the very beginnings of the hobby (which is around 40 years old) but this is the 21st century, isn't it time for some innovation here. There are a range of homebrew spreadsheets for both character creation and management and these range massively in functionality. The only real attempt at something like I'm envisioning is by Hero Lab and that isn't quite what I would hope for (I haven't used it but going on what Ive read and been told by other users), it gives you character management and there is a reader for the iPad but it's read only and not quite the interactive sheet I would be hoping for. Wizards of the Coast, with their Character Builder have shown the way that online character management can work and be a real boon for the player. They took flak for the subscription model but it gets to the stage its almost too useful not to have, certainly in my book.
Summing Up
So is my "perfect" system out there yet? No, If you had the story mechanics/character creation of 13th Age, the dice mechanics from Edge of the Empire, combat rules and digital backup of D&D 4e. I have high hopes for D&D Next but until the official release it's hard to say what shape the final rules will be in.
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