ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

So I was thinking of making a new module on a more modern setting, in a standard world.

I began thinking on the classes and the troubles began.
In a modern worls it's hard to come up with a reason NOT to use firearms so, how can I make classes thay play differently when all they do is point and shoot?

With that in mind here's what I've thought

Sniper - Uses Sniper Rifles, fragile on close combat

I thought on giving him stealth and survival, making him like a long range rogue

talents (I'll describe the new talents further down):

Sniping
Ammunition
Sharpshooting
Stealth
Survival
Combat trainig?


Gunslinger - Fights with two pistols. Since they have shorter range, he'll see himself in close combat more often

Lots of shots but with less accuracy, range and damage. I was imagining him using ranged weapons surrounded by enemies, firing on all directions

Twin-guns
Ammunition
Sharpshooting
Combat techniques?
Combat training
...

Soldier - Uses Assault Rifles. A bit between the two others

Assault
Ammunition
Sharpshooting
Combat training
Survival?
...


Obviously I would need 3 new classes of weapons, all the casses have Shoot to start with

So... the talents:

Sniping - Uses Cunning

Aim
Double Shot - fires two shots with increasing damage
Piercing Shot
One shot, one kill - After a few rounds of preparation (dazed?) one shot with a % of instakill


Twin weapons - Uses Dexterity. I'm assuming that with 2 pistols, Shoot fires them both

Ambidexterity - I was thinking that the offhand shot should have lesser accuracy, this talent will offset that
Perypheral Vision - Can fire each gun at a different target (more levels give a bigger arc between the targets, 180' on level 5)
Shoot and move - Fires at a target and "jumps" (teleports?) a few squares away depending on the talent level
??? - Maybe firing on all directions, or a ball centered on the player, or flurry?


Assault - Uses... strength to deal with the heavier weapons? Con?

Burst - Fires 3 shots. Damage increases with talent level
Spray - Cone, several shots on each target?
Shot on the run - Activated. For a few rounds you can move and fire as an action (with less accuracy, and damage probably)
Full Auto - A _lot_ of shots. Is 10 too much?


I thought of these next talents as "general" for all the gun using classes. I found that they lacked more utility options

Sharpshooting

Bull's Eye - Increases damage with guns
Crippling Shot
Anatomy Study - Increases % crit with guns
Critical Shot?


Ammunition - Except for the first, all these talents are sustained and only one can be active at a time. The last 3 are all level 2 and only require one other talent in this class

Bullet creation - Maybe melting metal objects?
Armor piercing bullets - Increases penetration on all shots
Corrosive Shots - Add Acid damage to each shot
Poison darts - Add poison damage to each shot




So, this is what I came up with but I'm not sure it is enough to make playing the 3 classes all that different. I'm now thinking on weapon add-ons (silencers, scopes) that may add variety

Also, I'm not sure on the exact number on the talents to make them balanced... and advanced talents would be cool because they look too similar, no?


What do you guys think?

Welcome Kemsha! I am also working on a module set in the modern world and you are right, getting classes to play differently seems to be a challenge. One thing that I have been considering is having classes vary in what types of guns (pistol, shotgun, machine gun, heavy weapons) they can use and various abilities for them. A cool feature that I added was to limit each gun's range and then depending on what fraction the target distance is of the maximum range the bullet's actual trajectory is shifted randomly. This will drastically change the range at which players will feel comfortable using ammo at (assuming ammo is a limiting resource).

In regards to specific talents we seem to be thinking along similar lines, for example I was planning a double tap talent for pistols and a spray talent for machine guns. Your "shoot and move" talent is something I hadn't considered, and sounds really neat. Maybe add a modern trap talent tree for the sniper? Setting claymore mines, trip wires, things to slow enemies down as they move toward your firing position.

Good luck and keep us posted.

SpecOps
Camouflage - hiding in trees, water, mud, maybe some special armor talent to allow diferent types of terrain (immobilizes player and makes him almost invisible);
Silenced guns / silenced shot - no monster can hear you shooting, but you make less damage;
Backstab - devastating melee attack, when monster passes near tile where player is hiding;

Engineer
Summon/Create Turret - summons friendly turret with lots of firepower, but limited activation range, maybe allow several for high-level player;
Heavy Weapons - gives player the ability to use devastating anti-tank weapons and grenade launchers, maybe add some heavy ammo creation talent;
Electronic Warfare - causes enemy gear to interere, making enemy unable to attack, stunning electronic targets, and making engineer invisible for survelliance cameras and automated turrets.

Hi yufra,

I thought the same as you regarding the types of guns. These classes that I made were a bit pointed to specific gun types (sniper - sniper rifles, gunslinger - pistols, soldier - assault rifles).

I simply limited their range but your option is probably cooler. Do you make the bullets continue to move if we miss?
I was thinking on a few scenarios where we have civilians and have to be careful about stray shots

yufra wrote:Welcome Kemsha! I am also working on a module set in the modern world and you are right, getting classes to play differently seems to be a challenge. One thing that I have been considering is having classes vary in what types of guns (pistol, shotgun, machine gun, heavy weapons) they can use and various abilities for them. A cool feature that I added was to limit each gun's range and then depending on what fraction the target distance is of the maximum range the bullet's actual trajectory is shifted randomly. This will drastically change the range at which players will feel comfortable using ammo at (assuming ammo is a limiting resource).

Hi Flit,

I really like your ideias, but I'm not sure if that's enough to make a new class engineer... maybe something to enhance the weapons he uses, I'll have to give it a bit of thought

I also thought of heavier weapons and grenades and stuff but I don't want to make the classes too equipment-dependant and can't think on other ways to do it

Flitvious wrote:SpecOps
Camouflage - hiding in trees, water, mud, maybe some special armor talent to allow diferent types of terrain (immobilizes player and makes him almost invisible);
Silenced guns / silenced shot - no monster can hear you shooting, but you make less damage;
Backstab - devastating melee attack, when monster passes near tile where player is hiding;

Engineer
Summon/Create Turret - summons friendly turret with lots of firepower, but limited activation range, maybe allow several for high-level player;
Heavy Weapons - gives player the ability to use devastating anti-tank weapons and grenade launchers, maybe add some heavy ammo creation talent;
Electronic Warfare - causes enemy gear to interere, making enemy unable to attack, stunning electronic targets, and making engineer invisible for survelliance cameras and automated turrets.

Kemsha wrote: I simply limited their range but your option is probably cooler. Do you make the bullets continue to move if we miss?
I was thinking on a few scenarios where we have civilians and have to be careful about stray shots

I currently do not have the bullets continue to move, but I do think this should be added. If you are interested I can point you towards the code in my module once I have added the bullets not stopping code.