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Originally Posted by JimMorrison
- The extreme complexity which would kill the game in PnP, becomes a great tool, when you decide to commit the system to only be used with a computer doing all the complex calculus.
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On general terms I'd disagree with that.
In fact I tried to make a RPG myself with a system similar to a relatively complex PnP system. Once I had finished the UI I realized that I could have just gone with a third of the skills and attributes, as I could only create very few situations where it would have made a difference (*). Just having an attribute isn't enough, if it is only used in internal calculations and doesn't have a point where it shines it doesn't help to personalize the characters.
Plus it becomes a PITA when you're actually trying to implement a plot (or AI!) into the game cause every person/event/etc needs to have it's stats and checks set. Of course you could simplify that by making generic templates or something but that again beats the purpose of high complexity.
(*) (Needless to say I never finished that project
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@Omniziron
I'd drop the thing with the harmonic mean and instead us a linear or custom formula.
With the harmonic mean chance is that a character focusing on a certain weapon will do worse in combat than a character just leveling up all attributes evenly - even with the weapon that he's specialized in.
To make personalizing the character rewarding specialization has to pay off, I'd even say to the point that you get a big boost in the field where you are expert. The drawback would be that a specialized character has a hard time of dealing with situations outside of this field.