So I deeply love the died-in-production Red Box Hack (2). But I didn't actually play it much, and when I did I noted a couple of things that I wanted to change. I still have a set of notes that I poke at occasionally but there seems to be this black hole in my knowledge that I can neither see nor really describe clearly.
Eric's not working on this anymore, but gave everybody a thumbs-up to making their hacks / making it their own. I'm probably going to do that.
So can you tell me about Things That Are Boring Or Crummy That I Don't Know About Or Am Blind To?
Whenever I look at that game, all I can think of is that I want to make getting hurt more fun. Subtracting numbers from hit points is so old-school, you know?
I'm attracted to the combat subsystem, with its interaction of weapon types and arenas. But I feel a distinct lack of overarching structure to the game... Like some way to structure "adventures". Formal ways to stat "standard" opposition are also sorely needed (you only have "minion" rules and "big endlevel boss" rules).
2) Awesome tokens are underutilised - they could represent so much more than +2 on a roll/+1 damage.
3) Heart Song makes recovery after battle immediate, completely changing the flavour of the game.
4) Some talents are only useful in battle, making them boring.
5) Talents that are only useful out of battle do little to define a class's role (I'm thinking mainly combat role here, but not entirely - it extends to roles like party face, explorer, healer, information gatherer, etc.)
6) As for not being able to change zones, can you explain what you mean?
7) I hate the attributes. I don't think they work. I don't think they do a good job of defining characters. I don't think they map up to how you'd describe a character. There's a reason Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma have so much traction and 'Sneakiness' and 'Stubbornness' do not. That said, I like Daring.
8) A little more setting information/theme information would be nice. So would some sample monsters.
9) You already know my gripes with the warrior class. Most of the classes have similar (albeit smaller) problems.
10) Each of the attributes should be tied in with some kind of combat and out-of-combat use.
11) Combat maneuvers could be reworked as Eric suggested on his blog - the warrior's Charge talent becomes something anyone can attempt with a -1 penalty to Armor Class for 1 turn. Push becomes route so it can be used at range, magically and so on. Show off becomes stunting because that's more interesting.
12) More talents - there aren't enough as is.
Over the last few months, I tossed around some ideas for a Hackbox Hack which would make radical changes to the system. Would you be interested in seeing them, Ry?