Devlog #1: The concept of Journeyman

STATS, CLASSES, AND THE CRPG

I love old school RPGs. Games like KOTOR and Elder Scrolls give you the freedom to be who you want, to personalize your looks, and to choose your strengths and your weaknesses. As a result, each playthrough feels totally different than the last. Everything in these games dates back to good old D&D with the most successful iterations evolving the D&D formula beyond random dice rolls. Stats no longer determined the success of an action by themselves, but rather they would blend seamlessly with a player's skill, bolstering their ability to perform an action in Realtime.

Stats in Journeyman will be a hybrid of Dark Souls and older D&D-style CRPGs. Currently, the character stats are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Endurance, Intellect, Spirit, and Charisma.

Classes will be restrictive. Put simply, you can't be everything all at once. This allows class identity to emerge, and there will be moments when you are called upon to reach into your bag of tricks and find the most creative solution to cater to your party's specific niche.

HYBRIDIZATION OF ARPG/CRPG

But even so, games that cling to dice rolls will always have a certain charm. ARPGs like Dark Souls speed up combat significantly and are unmistakably fun evolutions of the old formula. So what would it look like for a game like Dark Souls to have a true D&D-style class system? Ideally something like this:

Rangers actually aim their arrows. Warriors have to know when it's time to block or risk taking a swing. Rogues stealth into the darkness and avoid conflict altogether. And why do it alone? World of Warcraft, Baldur's Gate, and Neverwinter Nights are some of my all-time favorites because they proved just how fun these RPG mechanics and intricate class systems could be when brought to multiplayer and experienced with friends. Sadly, multiplayer versions of this classic RPG experience seems to have vanished.

Journeyman is all about the balancing act of the WoW-style dungeon formula of TANK, DPS, HEALER. I want to encourage players to hold true to that dependable formula, but feel comfortable enough to break away and experiment with groups of all dps, all support classes, or multiple tanks. Each class will have abilities to shore up weaknesses of other classes. For instance, a Druid may be able to light up a dark forest with a Sunlight spell, but only a mage can cast Magelight from the tip of his staff which he can carry into a dark cave or while running circles around a boss.

When the game first becomes playable, encounters will be restricted to a randomized, infinite dungeon much like the old WildTangent game FATE. However, this will be expanded to an open world with bespoke dungeons and boss encounters. Both will require creative solutions and unique party configurations to solve.

I hope this helped shed some light on development. I will outline specific systems in later Devlogs as they are being worked on, but please feel free to join our Discord or ask me any questions directly.