Idea For an RPG tournament

Hey all I was thinking about starting a new RP contest for the summer, but I wanted to get all of your consent here first. my RP Idea is for a battle tournament that plays like a RPG video game, but it's very different.

Every member is allowed to create their own original character. That character will participate in battles. There would be one person writing the battles of the tournament most likely me. The outcomes of the battles written by that person would be determined by the contestants' stats and inventory.
For example everyone would start out with a set of 27 points that they could spread out evenly or unevenly among the 9 stats.

HP 3
MP 3
Str 3
Mag 3
Def 3
Mag Def 3
Eva 3
Agility 3
Luck 3

A profile of all threes would make the average character, but by purchasing weapons, armor, or stat boosting items you can break the 27 point average and raise your chances in winning a battle. Money is earned by betting on fights. You can't bet on your own fight, and there should be some kind of limit when betting ends. If you bet on the loser you lose the amount you betted and if you bet on the winner then you win that amount.

So for an example on a tourny battle you could have two characters like this.
Character 1
HP 5
MP 3
Str 6
Mag 2
Def 1
Mag Def 7
Eva 3
Agility 8
Luck 3

Total Stats = 38
Inventory: 2 potions, 2 ethers, 1 eye drop, 5 echo screen, 10 antidotes, 4 holy water

Character 2

HP 4
MP 4
Str 2
Mag 5
Def 2
Mag Def 5
Eva 4
Agility 6
Luck 4
Total Stats = 36
Inventory: 4 potions, 1 ether, 3 echo screen, 10 antidotes, 4 holy waters


in this case character 1 would win because his total stat points is two points higher than his opponent's and his inventory is more varied than the opponents, but if the opponent had about say 30 potions then it would be likely that he would win the fight.

So the members determine the outcomes. I was wondering if any of you here would be interested in a RP like this? One thing though is i have to manage all this math stuff with the stats and money, and I'm no math major. Well I sort of am, but I didn't really want to do it.

Hm . . . this sounds kinda interesting. I have a few characters I'd like to try out.

I've got five ready and willing. Also does it depend on the character's era? Like would you find a medieval character fighting a futuristic character?

I see a major flaw in your example: no one carries 10 antidotes but only 2 potions. thats ridiculous.

Not necessarily, they may have a majority in bio/poison status magic.

Yup, working out the math and the system is really the clincher here. You need to make sure to have a system that's fair; and if you do get into status ailments, elemental strengths and weaknesses, and weapon qualities; it can get pretty complex pretty fast. A list of what you'd need:

- Method for deriving damage from attack and defense values (possibly with randomization involved)
- Determining how evasion and agility play into defense.
- Method for deriving damage from Magic attack and defence values.
- Luck should be a very sublte effect based on randomization. It's likely that you could somehow use dice for this, but now we're almost getting into a computer-programmed solution.
- Effect of different spells on M. Atk and M. Def. Are some spells more potent than others? If so, you'd need a list of available spells with their attack values.
- Effect of different weapons on attack and defense. As with spells, some weapons may be more potent than others, and would need to be planned out.
- Status effects like poison; what are they, what do they do, and how do you determine the outcomes of those effects, stats-wise?

Personally, I think it's a really good idea. But if you're starting from scratch, you have a LOT to think about. True, you can dumb down/mitigate a lot of these questions by keeping it simple. But there's still work to do.

Suggestion #1: Take this thread over to the Worldbuilding forum, and get help on working out the exact details, recording the ones you want to keep as you go. Let everyone dig in and help a little.

Suggestion #2: Use something pre-packaged that deals with most/all of these issues. For instance, use the d20 system (Dungeons and Dragons et. al (even though that'd be a little cumbersome to make and play characters, and everyone would need to go get the SRD at least)).

Suggestion #3: Write a computer program that handles the majority of the calculations for you. I can tell you from experience that programming is a very fun activity, and it doesn't hurt anyone to learn. I think I'd recommend Python as the language of choice for something like this because of its ease-of-use, interpreted nature, and simplicity. But I don't have much experience with that particular language, so not sure.

Rant over. You may now ponder your existence.

I know a friend who could probably make a calculation program involving all of his ideas.