Litrpg Skill System?

[CountVanBadger]

Abilities and skills play a big role in XNPC, but until now I haven't really had any way to limit which skills the characters can use. They get new skills as they level up, but they can also learn skills outside their class' skill tree with skillbooks. The problem there was that there was nothing to stop a level 1 character from getting his hands on the "Level 999 Become An Invincible God" skillbook and breaking the universe.

First I tried making it so some skills just weren't usable if you were beneath a certain level, but that leaves me with another problem: there's nothing limiting how many skills they're able to learn and have activated, so what's stopping one person from collecting every single skillbook and being able to do literally anything? Sure, I could just not have that happen, but that's how you get "Why didn't the Weasleys know Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew?"-style plot holes. They totally could have done this one simple thing to become ludicrously overpowered, but they just didn't for some reason.

I can think of two ways to fix this. Option 1 is to implement an AP system where you can learn as many skills as you want, but each one costs a certain amount of AP to become "active." Option B is for each character to have a set number of skill slots they can have active at one time, and they'd have to manually switch what skills they've got activated if they want to use different ones.

I'm leaning more toward the AP system right now, but I'm not sure what the best way to go about it would be. I want there to be a constant sense of growth, but I don't want them to grow too fast, you know? Right now I have it so that lower level skills cost between 1 and 3 AP, and the characters gain 1 AP per level up. That makes it so that their progress is constant and easily measurable, but doesn't give them any loopholes that they (or the audience) can exploit to become OP. Again, though, there's a problem. XNPC is probably going to be one of the least crunchy litrpgs ever, so I'm not interested in coming up with a really complicated leveling system, but even with that in mind, a 1:1 point gaining system just sounds...boring? Like, it works, but showing it to litrpg fans would be like "Wook at me, big bwo! I'm a witrpg auffor now!"

Ugh...I feel like I need to go wash my hands after typing that.

Anyway, one thing I've had implemented since all the way back when I started writing it, and that I don't plan on changing, is that people can also imbue spells and skills into their gear, so they gain access to the skill just by having the item equipped. Whichever method I end up using, that'll give them a little bit of leeway to work around the system without it coming across as too much of a cheat.

Any opinions?

 

[Deleted member 167438]

Whatever you do, just make the system interesting. Why should we read another basic "whoops now I'm op" LitRPG when there are so many others out there.

Here is a free suggestion: maybe learning a skill eats away at your humanity, making the most powerful people also the most monsterous and evil? The MC needs to balance gain power with retaining sanity.

Think outside the box my guy ?

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Can you do specialization trees?

Have a bunch of base skills your characters can all get, but the advanced stuff needs to be specialized, which locks out the other trees. You can still learn/keep the non specialized skills in other trees, but to use them properly, they would need to go pay a church to swap their specialization to the other tree.

That would prevent the barbarian in the tavern from suddenly tossing fireballs around, but if said barbarian respec'd at the church, he could throw fire around, but couldnt use any of his melee skills.

 

[Jerynboe]

Proposal: Have cross class skills be slot limited while class skills aren’t. Further, you can’t hot swap them. You want to learn a new skill from a book and you already have all of your slots full? Time to choose which of your existing book-skills you want to get rid of.

For added drawback, skill books are locked to a level. You might get a level 5 lightning bolt skill book but those lightning bolts will not be scaling unless you find a level 7 lightning bolt skill book to replace it with. This may end up unnecessarily crunchy though

Important question: Skill book rarity.
You said there’s nothing stopping a level one nobody from getting a level 9999 invincible god skill book. Well there’s nothing stopping me from rocking up to a Dennys parking lot fist fight with a M1 Abrams tank. You know. Except for all the armed men guarding those things. Powerful things tend to have powerful people trying to monopolize them.

Skill books should have a range of rarities from fairly common (and fairly mediocre) to plot device tier. You MIGHT be able to save up some money and buy a level 1 Endurance book from the general store that lets you survive on 7/8ths as much food and rest while also allegedly curing erectile dysfunction. That Summon Eldritch Titan book, in contrast, is not in fact going to be commercially available.

Are spell books consumed on use? If not, is there a cooldown, or can you pass it around the campfire? How long does it take to use a skill book? Do you need to read a 40k word manuscript about fire to learn fireball, or do you hold it in both hands and glow for 5 seconds?

Where do spell books come from? By killing monsters? Are they written by people who already have the skill? Magical rituals? Do they form from crystallized mana in the depths of dungeons? All of these would have their own implied limits and world building opportunities.

 

[Golden_Hyde]

for each character to have a set number of skill slots they can have active at one time, and they'd have to manually switch what skills they've got activated if they want to use different ones.

Or Option C: instill a hard limit and resort in skill evolution & combination instead of swapping this and that. Some people are so fixated on numbers (both damage measurement, basic & advanced stats as well as ability arsenal) that they can't be creative at their fullest.

I'm leaning more toward the AP system right now, but I'm not sure what the best way to go about it would be.

You'd have to think thrice on considering using this system, since I can bet 50 cents that you would purposely tip off the restraint and grant them millions of APs just to make your character hoard more skills to the point of, what you said:

"Level 999 Become An Invincible God"

This

 

[CountVanBadger]

Have a bunch of base skills your characters can all get, but the advanced stuff needs to be specialized

It has that already, more or less. Not every class has branching paths, but they all have multiple tiers to progress through. One of the main characters is a Cat Burglar. To get there, she started as a Pickpocket, then progressed to Cutpurse, then Footpad. At that point she could have branched off into Bandit, which eventually ends with Highwayman, but she chose Moonlighter, which became Cat Burglar, and will eventually cap out at Assassin. All of those classes fit under the wider umbrella of "Thief."

For added drawback, skill books are locked to a level. You might get a level 5 lightning bolt skill book but those lightning bolts will not be scaling unless you find a level 7 lightning bolt skill book to replace it with.

I actually did this, but with weapon mastery. You can instantly become a Level 1 Swordsman, for example, but your skill level will be stuck there unless you find a Level 2 and Level 3 skillbook(?). Whereas, learning how to fight the old fashioned way is slower, but you're actually able to improve through hard work.

Are spell books consumed on use?

Yes

Where do spell books come from? By killing monsters? Are they written by people who already have the skill? Magical rituals? Do they form from crystallized mana in the depths of dungeons?

They're a side effect of the world suddenly being remade into a fantasy world that runs on RPG rules. Nobody knows why or how it happened. Yes, there's a reason why all of this is happening, but I'm not going to spoil it here. Bottom line is, they don't really come from anywhere. They just kind of appear in places where people are likely to find them, like treasure chests in dungeons or store shelves in the general store.

 

[Jerynboe]

They're a side effect of the world suddenly being remade into a fantasy world that runs on RPG rules. Nobody knows why or how it happened. Yes, there's a reason why all of this is happening, but I'm not going to spoil it here. Bottom line is, they don't really come from anywhere. They just kind of appear in places where people are likely to find them, like treasure chests in dungeons or store shelves in the general store.

Cool, but that wasn’t my point. Whatever reason you have behind the curtain will determine how they are distributed. Think through what the implications are, what the intent of the process is, etc. That will almost certainly have its own logical reasons as to why there is scarcity if you look for them.

If it’s following tropes, then the good shit will be rare and found in ancient ruins guarded by giant robots and the common basic stuff will be everywhere.

If it’s truly random, then probably a decent number of people have indeed gotten overpowered books, and most of those people then ended up getting shot or otherwise not really using their powers to best effect because they were random people with random superpowers in a world where other people also got superpowers. There would also be random guys with invincible godmode skills that never use them because they read the book because they thought it sounded cool but they didn’t actually want to become a warlord or whatever.

If they all spawned at once then they are a finite, precious resource. If they keep spawning, then powerful people will become collectors, going out of their way to gather a selection of books that are relevant to their interest. Books (or categories of books) that are desired by the rich and famous will fetch far too much on the open market to waste them by learning the skill yourself.

 

[Cipiteca396]

"Level 999 Become An Invincible God" skillbook

Don't make a skill book like this. Skills should be... all around pretty basic. Any one skill should have comparable power to any other skill you could possibly find.

so what's stopping one person from collecting every single skillbook and being able to do literally anything?

Time and resources, mostly. But I don't see any reason everyone shouldn't be able to do this eventually. You don't even need a system to become skilled in multiple paths, so it's (imo) utterly stupid to create artificial limits in the number of Skills you can learn. The AP thing is much better than some methods I've seen, but it still feels irrationally limiting to me personally.

First I tried making it so some skills just weren't usable if you were beneath a certain level,

To me, a skill is like a mold. If a level one person pours all their power into your godtier skill, the result will be... Suitable for a level one. So pretty much nothing. As their level goes up, they'll be able to pour more of their power into the Skill until it starts to show its real potential. Eventually, it'll be possible for them to unleash a cataclysmic level of power.

This should be true whether they have the God tier [Reality Melter Ray Beam of Annihilation] or the Common tier [Dry Clean] Skill. Poof, you just dry cleaned an ocean out of existence.

which became Cat Burglar, and will eventually cap out at Assassin.

Unrelated, but I don't like that progression at all, lol. A cat burglar is a thief who's good at climbing. An assassin is a killer who doesn't want people to witness them killing. I'd expect assassin to be a possible advancement of your bandit instead. For the maxed out thief profession, I'd expect something like mastermind, infiltrator, phantom thief, or acrobat, depending on what facet of being a cat burglar they want to lean into.

 

[Author_Riceball]

XNPC

idk what that is

 

[CountVanBadger]

Don't make a skill book like this.

That was clearly a joke.

idk what that is

Thanks for letting us know.

 

[Author_Riceball]

Thanks for letting us know.

dude. Don't be rude about this, I was asking what that is.

 

[CountVanBadger]

dude. Don't be rude about this, I was asking what that is.

Context clues. I was asking for advice on how to implement skills into my litrpg. Literally the first thing I said was "Abilities and skills play a big role in XNPC." If you had read a little farther than that, you'd have seen me say "XNPC is probably going to be one of the least crunchy litrpgs ever." Instead you read the first sentence and then ran straight to the reply box to tell everyone you didn't know what an XNPC was.

 

[Bimbanana]

".............." *want to jump in the threads but cannot, since his mc skill tree is basically just a google browser*

Building World Peace with My Bloodthirsty Demon Army

 

[CharlesEBrown]

"Super Skills" like, oh 'Break the Story" or "Walk Into Room, Kill Everyone but Hostage, and Look Cool While Doing it" should have difficult prerequisites.

"To get Break Story you need to have Master Level in Editing. Expert Level in Self Awareness and Master Level in Author Fell Asleep at the Wheel Again"
"To gain WIRKEbHaLCWDit you must first Master Graceful Entrance. You also must have Expert level in at least one type of weapon or Super-Expert level in Unarmed Combat (Specialization). You have a chance of failure if you don't also possess the Pinpoint Accuracy Talent and the Nice Outfit perk"

As a more serious answer...
When working on Digital Cowboy, I stole some ideas from an actual RPG, and some from two System novels I've listened to.
The skills are kind of vaguely based on Aces and Eights, but I added multiple tiers to the skills and a few other tweaks.
Once skills hit certain levels, they potentially unlock Talents, special powers the character can use.
Dane Coleman starts out with a lot of gun skills because he was a Sniper before being killed and shoved into a game. This includes a perk that lets him "zoom in" on a target at range. Some later advances give him access to faster healing, and some other special traits (plus the "Dramatically Appropriate" rule - he will only run out of ammunition when it is Dramatically Appropriate for him to; otherwise, his six-shooter can just keep going....)

 

[Author_Riceball]

Context clues. I was asking for advice on how to implement skills into my litrpg. Literally the first thing I said was "Abilities and skills play a big role in XNPC." If you had read a little farther than that, you'd have seen me say "XNPC is probably going to be one of the least crunchy litrpgs ever." Instead you read the first sentence and then ran straight to the reply box to tell everyone you didn't know what an XNPC was.

Still never gave you a reason to be rude

 

[CountVanBadger]

Still never gave you a reason to be rude

Whatever you say. Welcome to the ignore list.

 

[Deleted member 167438]

Still never gave you a reason to be rude

Don't worry, I've found a lot of people on here take asking any sort of question as a personal attack against their character.

 

[CountVanBadger]

Don't worry, I've found a lot of people on here take asking any sort of question as a personal attack against their character.

 

[Author_Riceball]

Don't worry, I've found a lot of people on here take asking any sort of question as a personal attack against their character.

internet moment

 

[MFontana]

Abilities and skills play a big role in XNPC, but until now I haven't really had any way to limit which skills the characters can use. They get new skills as they level up, but they can also learn skills outside their class' skill tree with skillbooks. The problem there was that there was nothing to stop a level 1 character from getting his hands on the "Level 999 Become An Invincible God" skillbook and breaking the universe.

First I tried making it so some skills just weren't usable if you were beneath a certain level, but that leaves me with another problem: there's nothing limiting how many skills they're able to learn and have activated, so what's stopping one person from collecting every single skillbook and being able to do literally anything? Sure, I could just not have that happen, but that's how you get "Why didn't the Weasleys know Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew?"-style plot holes. They totally could have done this one simple thing to become ludicrously overpowered, but they just didn't for some reason.

I can think of two ways to fix this. Option 1 is to implement an AP system where you can learn as many skills as you want, but each one costs a certain amount of AP to become "active." Option B is for each character to have a set number of skill slots they can have active at one time, and they'd have to manually switch what skills they've got activated if they want to use different ones.

I'm leaning more toward the AP system right now, but I'm not sure what the best way to go about it would be. I want there to be a constant sense of growth, but I don't want them to grow too fast, you know? Right now I have it so that lower level skills cost between 1 and 3 AP, and the characters gain 1 AP per level up. That makes it so that their progress is constant and easily measurable, but doesn't give them any loopholes that they (or the audience) can exploit to become OP. Again, though, there's a problem. XNPC is probably going to be one of the least crunchy litrpgs ever, so I'm not interested in coming up with a really complicated leveling system, but even with that in mind, a 1:1 point gaining system just sounds...boring? Like, it works, but showing it to litrpg fans would be like "Wook at me, big bwo! I'm a witrpg auffor now!"

Ugh...I feel like I need to go wash my hands after typing that.

Anyway, one thing I've had implemented since all the way back when I started writing it, and that I don't plan on changing, is that people can also imbue spells and skills into their gear, so they gain access to the skill just by having the item equipped. Whichever method I end up using, that'll give them a little bit of leeway to work around the system without it coming across as too much of a cheat.

Any opinions?

For most of mine, I went with Option B personally, and detailed the heart of the mechanics in my general notes for the story.

Short Version
Characters can learn skills from leveling up in their classes, and can equip up to ten of the skills they know. (Separate from Spells or Techniques).