Thoughts on systems in LitRPGs (Patreon)

It's interesting, in a way, for me to keep writing in this genre. As I've written and grown as a writer, I've come to realise that there are certain things that I really want to remove / keep out of any new 'system' that I make up. Here's a few things that I think either need to be removed, or become a huge part of the game.

- Charisma & other social skills

Let me be clear - this is in relation to NPCs. If (assuming the NPCs are somewhat 'dumb') they are in, these need to clearly explained. Otherwise, increases in this stat and social skills like 'negotiation' or 'diplomacy' or the like becomes very difficult to write. Especially when you realise you are writing this on a growing scale. Unless the series is very limited (3 books, etc), you're going to see a major issue with power creep.

- Intelligence & Wisdom

Big, big issues in writing 'smart' characters who grow wiser. Again, you get readers complaining that characters aren't growing smarter / wiser / etc when stats go in, especially if you, as the writer miss it. More importantly, if a game is making a player 'smarter', this has HUGE ramifications in the real world.

So unless they're just Mana Pool / Regeneration, these stats are either going to be not as well written or can be renamed to something more neutral. Frankly, I'd probably name them as Mana Pool, Mana Regeneration and maybe, Mana Waste. :) If you wanted to add a 3rd nastiness to it all like lactic acid for Mana.

- Agility & Dexterity

It's interesting people break these up. I know it's a fundamental issue with the way Dex in earlier games was actually overpowered compared to pure strength builds, but I always found it weird. 

- Systems which give XP per Skill up

See Randidly Ghosthound and the like. I'm always impressed by the people who want to do all that math, but I'd rather not. It just becomes word bloat for me, seeing all those things written all the time. It can be fun to showcase a character growing in strength really early on and it's exciting in the beginning, but in the mid-end of the novel, it just bloats and bloats. And you can't even pull it off-screen too much because it's so intrinsic to the system.

- Classless Systems

Interesting idea. I like the idea behind it and I'll probably play with something similar in my next series. Basically, something like 'Wasteland' where people get roles and pre-set Skills that can be swapped out if wanted to make each person unique, but also making it simple enough that a casual player would be willing and able to jump in.