Visual Novel Fantasy Stat System

[Emanzi]

[SOLVED]

I want to make a stat raising game with visual novel maker and I came up with this. I just want to know if it makes sense to the player as I want to make it a hidden stat system so you don’t get messages like “your strength is 50 points” instead you’ll get ranked like “your getting much stronger, you can now do X skill”.

Spoiler: Stat System

#Simple Stat System
#Main Traits
Health
Energy
Experience

#World Traits
Fame
Power
Money

#Morality Traits
Integrity
Subterfuge

Hubris
Humility

Vengeful
Merciful

Spiritual
Religious

#Base Traits
Agility
Dexterity

Charisma
Persuasion

Intelligence
Wisdom

Strength
Toughness


#Personality Traits
Trusted
(Integrity + Wisdom)

Seductive
(Subterfuge + Persuasion)

Confident
(Hubris + Charisma)

Skillful
(Humility + Dexterity)

Respected
(Vengeful + Toughness)

Graceful
(Merciful + Agility)

Disciplined
(Spiritual + Strength)

Virtuous
(Religious + Intelligence)

Remember it’s for a visual novel so the combat will be simple stat check puzzles. Like you need to be virtuous enough to recruit the elf or you need to be graceful enough to jump over the pit, e.t.c

Hope I’m not reinventing the wheel but I need this to be obvious enough to the player without having them read a walkthrough.

Edit: I’m using this as my guide.
https://www.choiceofgames.com/2011/07/7-rules-for-designing-great-stats/

 

[hsw2201]

might be different from what you want, but I suggest you play Magium. it is text based story game and has ok reason for having stats, and multiple choices are based on stat check.

 

[Emanzi]

Funny, I actually already have this game on my android phone. It’s what inspired me. I liked how the stats blend into the story telling without feeling forced upon the player, also the combat is very simple stat check.

While I really liked the stat system in Magium. I wanted to have contradicting stats for example you have to chose between integrity and subterfuge and strength or toughness and you can’t chose both for an ethical dilemma.

In Magium you can diliberatly raise your stats but you don’t know how it affects the story. What if instead you had to make choices that raise stats without actually knowing the outcome or score of your stats.

My question is would contradicting hidden stats work? Or would this be more frustrating to the player trying to figure out what to choose?

Im thinking of at least having Métis tell you your rank for each stat, I will have to roll some dice and check if the contradicting stats work.

 

[kairi_key]

The amount of stats, wow.

I'm not sure how these stats will play out in your game, but no matter how hidden it is, it should be known to some degree. I think the player should be able to know how much traits/stats they'll have in this game. It will give them some kind of how much boundary they have with their stats. When given a choice, the player can probably guess it out which choices will effect which of their stats, so you can give more weight to the choice in terms of gameplay too. How much hidden would these contradicting stats be? These are a lot of stats to keep up with for both you and the player.

I think you need to think about how your game progress and how much the stats will impact these progresses. How will player raise these stats? Is it only through story moment? Do you have activities to raise these stats? How your game works kinda dictates if it will work or not, but with this little information you give, I can't say much, lol.

 

[Emanzi]

Edit:
After reading this I learned a bit more about rpg stats (attributes).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribute_(role-playing_games)

The Storyteller System used in games like Vampire: The Masquerade took this one step further, breaking the attributes down into three by three classifications. Power, Finesse, and Resistance, and Mental, Physical, and Social, leading to nine different combinations each of which has a separate name with, for example, Mental Finesse being the attribute Wits and Social Resistance being Composure.[8]

I want to have a system similar to this, so I’m going to revise my stat table and narrow it down to what fits the theme of a fantasy rpg and think more about how the game progresses.

Some game systems such as those using the Cortex Plus system or those Powered by the Apocalypse work on the basis that the attributes should emphasise elements of the setting thus making them different from game to game even within the same family. So, for example, Dungeon World is meant to resemble a game of D&D so it uses the same statistics as above, whereas Monsterhearts, with its mix of teen drama and paranormal romance uses the statistics Hot, Cold, Violent, and Dark.

So the setting comes before the stats.

Thanks for your help.