As I mentioned in my last musings, there are a number of obstacles to overcome in bringing the two RM fan-bases together as a single fan-base. Time to take a slightly more indepth look at how to do that.
RM Toolkit
To put it simply, we need to take a Toolkit approach to the revision. Basically, this means treating the different sections of RM as modular components that can be swapped out to produce various configurations.
The biggest difference between fans of RM2/RMC and of RMSS/RMFRP is the skill system. A simpler approach versus a more detailed approach.
Therefore, the best way for the revision to satisfy the widest range of of fans is to make sure that the core rules includes several different skill systems.
This Tiered Skill System (TSS) will have at least 3 different tiers. Each one would be more detailed than the last. Each tier would also come with a specific number of DPs to be gained each level. Yes, this would mean having to decouple the DPs from the stats completely, in an official manner. Tier 1 of the skill system might have 30 skills and give 25 DPs per level, Tier 2 might have around 60 skills and give 50 DP per level, while Tier 3 might have 120 skills and give 75 DPs per level.
Included would be guidelines for converting from one Tier of skills to another. Those guidelines/rules would have to be simple and very easy to use (i’ll get back to this in a second). There would also be guidelines for how to determine how many DPs to give if you do not use all of the skills, among other things.
But were would that leave us? We would have a set of core rules with 3 different skill systems. Do we support all three? The answer to this last question would b a “No, we don’t support all three.”
We would have to pick a single skill Tier and publish products for it. This is where those simple and easy to use rules for converting from one Tier to the next would come in. This is also one of the reasons behind decoupling the DPs from the stats would come in.
Example of Tiered SkillsBy having the number of DPs given being based on the number of skills being used, we can make sure that the ratio of DPs to skills (and skill costs) remains roughly the same regardless of Tier. This combined with a simple and easy to use conversion table. Ranks in a skill in Tier 1 would equal the same number of ranks in the skills in Tier 2, and an equal number of ranks in Tier 3 as well.
The image is simply something I threw together for an example. In it, you can see that under Tier 3, you have the Medial Category, and several individual skills. A real table would also give a better correlation of which skills become which skills at each Tier. Nor does the image show how Tier 1 would most likely have sub-skills in the manner that is similar to HARP.
As I said above, we would have to pick a Tier and publish for it. The logical choice is Tier 1. It is the simplest of the three, and it would be much easier to convert from simple to more detailed on the fly than in reverse.
House Rules
Another thing that we would have to do, is to publish a version of RM with our House Rules. The options and bits that we are planning on using in all future products. We would also have to publish a technical document listing these rules as well. This document can then be updated every once in a while to show which options we are incorporating into our House Rules as we publish new products.
Just remember that everything I mused about up above is simply speculation at this point. Things can easily change between now and when a revision is actually started.
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