Map Movement

[SiliconKitten]

Hey! Uh I need some ideas for a mechanic in a game. I thought about using the idea prefix but i figure that mechanic is better.


Anyway this one idea I need help with is Map Movement. I want to emulate parkour and obstacle course style mapping. However, Im not really sure how to write movement mechanics that emphasize preforming cool tricks as you travel over a map while trying to keep up either in a race or in a chase.


Any ideas are welcome, especially ones that have been play tested.

 

[Chisengen]

Sorry if this question may seem dumb, but what system are you planning to use for this? Or do you not have an idea yet?

 

[SiliconKitten]

No game system yet. Im making all the rules but figure that ill take in ideas before trying and failing on my own.

 

[Chisengen]

Hmm ok, well if parkour is going to be a very key element to the rp then you might want to split it apart into multiple skills/talents/abilities/whatever system you decide on for deciding what plusses they get to a roll. That way it won't seem like such an obvious choice to simply max it out before you do anything else. For example, in dungeons and dragons 3.5 there's a skill named Concentration. To not go into too many details it's pretty much ludicrous for any spellcaster not to max it out at any given opportunity. It's a rough starting point, but make things like vaulting, climbing, recovery, sliding, and leaping each a different skill so players would have to choose at least a few things they're bad at. Of course, if this isn't a very key component of the game I'd suggest simplifying it to one or skills.


Also, I've tried using parkour in the past in my campaigns. In general there's one big wall I hit every time with it. The first being what happens when someone succeeds, but the rest of their team can't possibly succeed at a maneuver. This can easily be fixed with some proper GMing, but it's still something to look out for. If you plan for the players to leap from roof to roof you should probably have a plan b just in case the paladin can't jump to save his life. Which leads me to my next point, when player characters fail parkour related rolls things can get... messy. Depending on the RP this might be fine, but you might be going for a realistic setting where a 10-foot drop has some serious consequences to it. I'd recommend coming up with a recovery system for botched rolls, or possibly allowing certain items to work as fail-safes.


Anyway, I hope my little advice helped you in your endeavors. I've been gming for 5 years or so, so if you have any more questions I'd be glad to answer them.