Seekers of Lore: System Choice

Seekers of Lore
Seekers of Lore

I’d always assumed I’d run Seekers of Lore under some form of D&D or AGE System. D&D has been my system of choice for decades, and AGE scratches the same itch, better.

Turns out they both struggle in some ways. A major aspect of Seekers of Lore is that ‘new options’ are one of the rewards you can gain. Because of how D&D-type games work, though, it can be tricky to integrate things.

A cleric picks their deity and domains at first level, and sticks with them throughout their career. If they reclaim a lost temple, they either rebuild, or the reward goes to another character.

I’m not averse to ‘reclaiming’ meaning the character retires. You reclaim a lost temple, you become the new high priestess and stay there. You have the powers but you’re tied up, and it’s your disciples who spread the word. In fact, I rather like this trope.

I don’t want it to be necessary, though, especially when it’s something small.

Speaking of size, one of the stickier elements is making rewards that fit build resources. That is, in Pathfinder-type games you have classes and levels and feats as the main building blocks. There are also class options like domains and mysteries and bloodlines, of course. Making balanced rewards that match these and be grafted only arbitrary characters is hard.

Similar restrictions exist for most D&D-type games. The class structure is fairly rigid, and while the level mechanism is looser, it can still be awkward.

Echelon, as I’ve planned it, comes pretty close to what I want here: classless, and talents scale with tier (i.e. level range). Writing talents is… a work in progress. I’m not yet confident I can write them as they need to be for this to work.

Looking at my requirements on rewards here, I see:

  • A reward can be ‘any size’ (small thing you add to a character, or something you base your character on).
    • Gaining a small reward should not block other advancement.
  • A reward can nominally be given to any character.
    • Some characters will use a particular reward better than others, but anyone can have it.
    • A character does not need to be designed in a particular way to gain a particular reward.

The best fit I’ve found for this, that still fits my taste, is: Hero System.

  • Point-based power system. I can make rewards of any size.
    • No blockers, as long as you have Character Points (CP). At worst, you delay getting something else until you get more CP.
  • No class or level involved, though different tiers have different point caps.
    • Yes, you can have a paladin with wild shape (Multiform). At least, unless the paladin’s faith prevents it.
    • A ‘fighter’ or ‘thief’ can learn magic. They probably won’t be as good as a dedicated wizard, but nothing stops a thief from gaining ‘magesight’.

Going with Hero System solves a lot of my problems here. It undoubtedly provides some problems of its own, but I haven’t seen those yet. :)

Postscript

As often happens, more ideas came after I posted.

Savage Worlds also would be a good choice. I lean toward Hero System because I like the high-resolution power design, but Savage Worlds’ simplicity is pretty compelling. That Savage Worlds has a Hero Labs plugin also is nice.

GURPS can be a good choice, but honestly I’m not a big fan of GURPS.

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