In developing an RPG, it is common for characters to have attributes. I am wondering if "Luck" would make an acceptable one. It is possible to have a character score that determines how lucky a character can be, but I am wondering if this is an attribute that players can accept or if they would generally prefer something more like "perception" or some other attribute that makes things seem less random.
Comments welcome.
Corey
As SiCrane said, Luck is found in quite a few games, and you can be pretty creative in how to apply it.
In some, Luck has a small affect on skills. It's usually much less of a bonus than you would get for a 'core' attribute, but it affects all of them. Or it can affect random events like loot drops and monster encounters. Many use it as a major component of critical hit formulas.
Luck often affects chances for critical attacks, and weights a little on all the other skill's values (ie, chance to knockdown, chance to miss, chance to paralyze, and so on).
You could go further from that. Chance that a normally locked door appears unlocked, chance that a trap will fail to activate, chance of finding particular stuff in loot, chance of the final boss dropping dead by a heart attack! :P
It would be fun to play a character that succeeds at everything by pure luck alone :D
Luck often is like a (hidden) allround attribute which has a little influence on everything, but less than other things. It could affect lucky hits, lucky dodges, own critical hit rate, enemy critical hit rate, could be bonus to elemental resistances, chance of opening a chest, chance of not being hit by an explosion, chance a merchant offers better items, chance of higher gold drop, ...
Thanks, everyone. Essentially I am working on a mobile game that is an adventure book/interactive fiction. The player can adjust character attributes before play, and in order to help make the story less linear, a "luck" check is needed to branch certain choices that don't fall into the category of other attributes such as physical prowess or perception. The luck check may determine if there is an encounter in the next turn.
I was originally thinking players may not accept it as a visible attribute they may choose to adjust, because they would prefer something more concrete like "perception" or "physical prowess".
Just want to say that when it comes to luck attributes in RPGs I've generally felt like it's too invisible. Usually you don't really know when your choice for a luck attribute is coming into play so how do you know that your choice has any meaning? The only time you get a sense of it tends to be in gambling places and then it can seem like the attribute is interfering with enjoyment of a mini-game that's meant to be a bit of relief from the task at hand.
The only time I really remember luck being interesting I think was Fallout 2. My character had a low luck attribute in the first place and then the pariah dog joined up. I seem to recall winning more battles as the result of weapons being destroyed or exploding in the hands of the enemy.
as a gamer, hardcore competitive gamers don't like luck to be influencing more than 0.01~5% . the more luck there is the less skill-based it is. although we'd be happy to land a critical hit and change the tide of the battle, but if it happens too often we'd only feel like, "if we lose its cuz we didn't have luck, nothing to be learned from; if we win its cuz of luck, nothing to be proud of".
as for majority gamers, they like slot machine basis and skill doesn't matter. rig the system so they would only win after an amount of repetitive attempts, and make sure no one wins the jackpot right after someone else did. there's a specific mathematical formula for stimulating the players that would drive them nuts and pay the most, but i do not possess that knowledge.
