As in any conceptual process, the important thing to remember is that at this stage of design there are no bad ideas. You simply want to brainstorm as many ideas as possible and then narrow them down eventually. It might even be that you create mechanics for many more abilities than you actually end up using.
The Master List
I like to start the process with a few pieces of blank paper. I then jot down the name (if you have it) of the class, the general concept, and the few areas I want to focus the class around. This is my starting pool of inspiration from which I’m going to draw all the special abilities. You’re also going to want to include the entry prerequisites; they can serve as good inspiration and stepping stones for more powerful abilities.Once you have all of your basic information jotted down, we’ll be making a few lists. I like to start with a list of class strengths. Simply jot down as many things that this class excels at as possible. Don’t worry if the rules allow for such strengths or if they even make sense. You’re simply gathering ideas for special abilities.
For example, let’s take the imaginary class called the Stone Warden. This is a melee style class based around stone and possibly dwarves (we haven’t decided that at this step in the process, but that’s all right). It requires the feats Endurance, Toughness, and Iron Will. So our list of things that the class excels at might include:
- Surviving a lot of hit point damage.
- Ignoring ability damage.
- Moving or altering stone.
- Communing with the earth and earth creatures.
Not a bad place to start, really. We have a few defining strengths of the class. Your list is likely to be a lot larger, and that’s very much a good thing. I simply didn’t want to list a massive list for the sake of illustration. Just keep jotting down ideas until you can’t think of any more. Ask your friends and other players for ideas as well; the more ideas you have on the list the easier time you’ll have coming up with suitable special abilities.
Next you want to repeat this process only with for things the class has difficulty performing. Try to avoid listing strictly mechanical drawbacks (as these are generally covered with saves and the like) and focus more on general concepts. Our Stone Warden might be bad at dealing with air spirits or swimming. Just try to get as many things the class might have difficulty doing as possible. You can set the list aside for now, as you’ll be coming back to it later in the process.
Finally you want a list that at least considers mechanical concepts. Make a list of things that break the rules. Keep the general rules of the game in mind and detail a small list of things that this class can just flat out do despite the rules. Don’t even worry if they make sense right now, you’ll be coming back to this list soon enough.
Narrowing it Down
Now that you have a few lists of things the class does really well and focus around, you want to narrow it down a bit. Take out your list of things the class does poorly and look over the list of things that break the rules and the class does well. See if you can’t narrow down the list by figuring out if these two lists clash at all.At first glance it might seem like the two lists have nothing in common. Try to see if you can’t twist either list into contradicting the other. What you’re trying to do is narrow down your list by removing abilities that flat out contradict each other. It’s not too likely that you’ll find a lot of contradictions (or even any), but it’s worth doing as it can save you time and help tighten up the mechanics later down the line.
Once you’ve checked for contradictions, go ahead and start pouring over your lists. If you find two similar things try to combine them into one concept. Take out the ideas that seem conceptually weak or just flat out silly. All you’re looking for here is narrowing down your ideas to the strongest dozen or two concepts.
After this is done, start thinking in general mechanical terms while looking over the list again. Just roll the concept of game mechanics around in your head as you check the list. You’re looking to see if any of your concepts might be too difficult to translate into a game mechanic or if there are any mechanics that are easily represented by feats or the like.
By the end of this process you should have anywhere between a dozen and thirty ideas for special abilities. This will be your working list for the next step, where we begin to think about actual game mechanics. If you find that you have many more than thirty concepts, go through and try to narrow it down a bit more by combining ideas. If you find that you can’t think of more than five or six concepts, repeat the entire process but take less time narrowing them down. You’re going to want a decently sized list when it comes to game design, as some ideas just aren’t going to work out.
Conclusion
With your list in hand you’re now prepared for the next step in the process. While this might seem like a strange way to go about things (and for you it might be so) this is the process that I use myself. I find that in the end this process tends to give you a good starting point for designing the real mechanical abilities. If you find that this step doesn’t really work for you, try to search around and find an alternate method for generating special abilities.Another final word would be that if you have a strong conceptual and mechanical idea for the class, go ahead and jot it down now. It might be that if you have strong mechanics right at the get-go that your list might become a bit more structured and useful. You don’t have to totally ignore the mechanical aspects of design during this process if that doesn’t work for you. The only main goal for this step is generating enough material later down the line.
Be sure to tune in next week when we actually start putting mechanics to these ideas! Until next time, good designing and happy gaming.
