There are a number of themes that you will see as you begin looking through the Pinwheels Role-Playing System. This page highlights a few of our primary approaches to designing the system.

You Are What You Know

This is the concept that started the ball rolling. Over 25 years after the first release of D&D, TSR still seems overly enchanted with the idea of "class". You assign this label to your character and suddenly that defines everything that he knows, or at least, has a possibility of knowing. In real life, there is a different word for this process: stereotyping.

Think about what you know. Think about how you learn new things. Think about how you define who you are. What you have learned to do - your skills - are a big part of defining the course you take in life. You find it easier to learn new skills that are related to ones you alreay understand. If you want to strike out on a completely new course and learn something you have never experienced before, it is possible, it just takes a little more effort. To put it into the terms of AD&D, in real life your skills define your class, not the other way around.

The Pinwheels System is purposely skills-centric. Eventually everything is derived from the skills you have learned, including your character's special abilities, attributes, and more.

Solid Rules Provide More Fun, Not Less

Traditionally, games which give the players a lot of freedom also rely heavily on the input of the GM. The White Wolf games are good examples of these. They are wonderful, wonderful systems that provide a great amount of freedom, but they can also tend to place the burden of ruling on the GM. We think AD&D has gone the other way. Too many rules. Too many tiny special cases. Too many little obscure references tucked away in the Complete Book of This or Manual of That.

One of my players (who just happens to be one of this system's designers) has a saying that he has used many times in my past games: "We'll remember that for next time." He would say that every time I had to make a ruling that seemed to go more in the bad guy's favor than his. And next time he would remember. Unfortunately, I didn't always remember, so I had to just kind of take his word for it. The problem with this wasn't the fact that I didn't write down every little ruling I made. Rather, in a system that is cohesive, the answer to any in-game rules question should be obvious to everyone at the table. A good system makes sense and is easy for everyone to remember, causing fewer case-by-case rulings... and less headaches for the GM... and less grumbles from the players.

More Rules Don't Make It Better

While we believe in a solid structure to the system, we don't believe that having more rules means that the game is a better experience. We don't need a chart to represent every little thing that could happen. In combat, every tiny motion by the character does not need to be analyzed. This problem is what we often refer to "gurping up the game".

Pacing is probably the most important element in making a game fun to play. We want combat to feel realistic, but we also want it to flow. We want the character to feel like he has total control of his actions, but we don't want ten seconds of combat to take three hours to play. In creating the system we have had to walk that very thin line between realism and ease of play. Here are some of the ways we approached this problem:

• Use consistant numbers throughout the system. You'll see the numbers 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 everywhere. That was purposely done to draw connections, giving less for the GM and player to think about.
• After playing a few times, you should never again have to look up a chart in the book during combat.
• When designing a new rule, use existing methods where possible. You'll see the words "you roll with a penalty equal to how much your opponent made theirs by". This is just one example of us trying to build consistent approaches.
• Players can only really handle subtracting from one, maybe two, pools of points during combat. HP are obviously the one neccesary pool. Spells are another. Add any more (armor HP, fatigue, etc.) and chances are, everyone will forget to track their points after just a couple sessions.
• Avoid fractions. No one should ever have to think about which way they need to round something.

Battle Should Be Bloody

One thing we have seen in many games is that players don't really worry about dying until they are at only a handful of hit points. In real life, even a minor cut is painful. Don't believe me? Pick up that piece of paper beside you and give yourself a paper cut on the soft skin between your fingers. Now consider getting the same from a sword. Not too fun.

Battle is scary. You can die. Death is scary. No one should ever be looking to get hit by a big hunk of steal. We think the system should reflect that. That's why we keep the HP low and make you take action to protect yourself. When each of your health points matter, you'll think twice about running headlong into a horde of armed warriors.

If you are the kind of person that looks up the cheat codes for a video game right after you buy it, this system is not for you.

Modular Design

From what I have heard, one the big weaknesses of "skill web" based systems is that they are tough to customize. We really want this system to be modular at every point. The pinwheel structure allows pinwheels to be added, removed, or made temporarily unavailable without reducing the integrity of the system as a whole. For example, a GM might decide that the characters can't have access to magic at the beginning of the game. He can simply say that the appropriate pinwheels are unavailable and the rest of the system will remain playable and stable. In fact, part of the plan was to make a system that could withstand having an entire replacement pinwheel web, say, for example, one with all sci-fi pinwheels.

The modular nature of the system has now followed through to our spells and weapons. Spell groups can be shuffled back and forth or removed entirely, and nothing breaks down. Going to a completely new land with weapons that aren't in the system? You name the weapon you are holding, describe it, and then simply look up the speed and damage on a common weapons chart. This far reduces the worry of having a new addition become a game-breaker.