Do it

I'm actually really tempted to skip most of the planning phase of this game and come up with stuff on the fly.

I still have to perfect my system first, though. And that means I'll need a bit more time. Already have two good NPC characters planned, and coming up with a third.

All I'm really missing is a plot I can follow, and creatures that you can run into and fight and hunt and such. I have a rough sketch of what the plot is going to be like, though, so I guess I could wing the rest of that too.

So all I need is more creatures/enemies, and to finish the system I'm making.

Remember to create your magic system and universe-physics to keep players from doing OP things.

CC you're the only one who pokes the system enough to turn it explosively OP.

If the player becomes overpowered, why can't you just adjust the difficulty to match? There's no need to work up a whole damn magic system.

You people and your rules.

RTDs were born to be FREEEEEEEE

This.

I agree with letting players be free, but it's also nice to have a consistent set of universe rules that define how certain things happen without having to make things up on the fly.

Consistent rules can be a player's tools, BS is just a mess.

The fact that that rhymes makes it sound like ultimate wisdom.

Okay, guys, new random question!

Do any of you know of some kind of program that I could use to keep track of values assigned to characters in, well, an RtD game, obviously?
I need something that lets me assign stats, and do simple calculations and rolls using those numbers so I can hit a button to see the result of an action as opposed to doing a bunch of extra simple math on the side.

... This sounds a lot like simple programming, but I hardly know anything about that, so a tool would be much more helpful.

If you guys have any ideas whatsoever (or even if you don't) a response would be appreciated. I fear that horrible ambiguous forum silence. I can never tell if it means that nobody has an answer or nobody really cares.

I don't KNOW of any, but yes that would be a lot of simple programmage.

Microsoft Excel, could probably do that.

Then I shall learn to properly use Microsoft Excel (since I've never delved much into it before). Thanks.

Though with no access to excell, i use googledocs.

Good for colab projects too.

Alternately, OpenOffice.

And yet MORE questions I have about RtD system-based stuff. I hope ya'll will share your opinions with me again.

So:
In an RtD where the system is more numbers-based for the purpose of making consequences more black and white rather than determined by GM whim, (which, as you all know, is what I'm planning) is it better to come up with a bunch of spells beforehand so that you can assign set-in-stone stats to them, or let players come up with what THEY want to do within the area of their expertise, and then name the spells they generate and come up with stat information for them on the fly?

I'm leaning towards the 2nd one, not just because of laziness, but because I seriously doubt I can come up with everything that people will want to use in this kind of game.

What do you good people think?

Edit - Also, should I just make a completely new thread for "Nighthawk's Insane Theories and What We Think of Them?"