Welcome to the May Thread of Homebrew discussion on /tg/. This is part of my effort to get people discussing classic homebrew and assist the board in general when it comes to their game design endeavors.>Who is this namefaggot?After fighting may way out of the Crystal Slave Mines, I managed to return. I'm just a dude who helps facilitate discussion, but usually I pop in once in a blue moon to wax about my own projects.>Why should I homebrew?/tg/ products are fairly unique in that it's actually pretty simple to make them these days, with a plethora of products to assist in making and playtesting your game. Making your own games helps understand why games are made the way they are, as well as being fun to do.>What you should postIdeas for games, games you're currently making, updates to your own games in broad strokes, and any homebrewing for existing products that don't get much attention. Discussion about the above is welcome. Post good, be good, and look over others products, they care if someone looks more than anything.>Oh No! The Thread is Over!Have no fear, the thread will resume at the first of every month. If you want to make another during the month, go for it. I can't, and won't, stop you. If you want to make a thread on your own game, go for it!One suggestion: Don't add General to the name.>Resources for the aspiring developer>https://anydice.com/ (A fantastic resource for checking probabilities)>https://miro.com/ (A online whiteboard with tools to help organize yourself)>https://www.notion.so/ (Similar to the above, but in a bit cleaner format for those who work in larger teams)>https://obsidian.md/ (Notetaking and other assistance)Anything else for this section would be nice, tools are always hard to come by.
>>92673107Getting stuck in traffic and lines during "five minute" errands is fun for the whole family. But here we are again, in this land of coke and misery.RPG>How do you die? Can you even die?>How many "Savior Mechanics" does your game have? How many times can we spite the reaper?>How do you replace a character, any odd mechanics, or is it roll from 0 and hope for the best?Wargame>How do you handle "Recovery" if at all, can your troops even hope to get back up should they take some hits?>What's your limit for routing, 50%, 75%, or will your brave fools fight to the death? What happens IF your dudes choose to run like hell?>For "Captain / General / Hero" Units, how much punishment can they sustain compared to the regular grunt?Cardgames>What's the "Ideal" victory condition? Life points to 0? Milled to oblivion? Esoteric Combination of the Forbidden One?>If there are "Monster" Units, how durable are they? Are they meant to take some hits for you, or are they a vehicle for just damage?>What's the difference between a "SIGNATURE" Card of a Deck versus a fairly common grunt?Boardgames>How competitive do you think your game is? Co-Op Excitement or Friendship Ruining Hell?>Do you have any comeback mechanics, or if someone has the lead, they're going to keep it?>Do you have any "Endgame" mechanics? The final round having special rules or a method to provoke a victory condition?
I once played in a pbp game with a homebrew system that totally wasn’t related to our table’s mutual fetish for catfighting. I lost contact with the guy who made the system, and I want to make my own.My question is, where do I get started with homebrew?
>>92674008Start with an idea, and then try to come up with/steal mechanics that facilitate that idea.
>>92673169>Can you die?Yes, though "fail forward" options such as enslavement are possible and encouraged. Make them suffer.>How do you die?When Fortitude reaches 0 you drop onto Death's Door; proper treatment within a few minutes can bring you back up from 0, and applies a random Wound (physical or mental).I've been tinkering with ways to deal damage during exploration and social, especially as I don't want a combat-focused game. Current idea is that failing a check allows you to bump your roll by a small amount, but this could make Fortitude builds too powerful even if it's just a 1 Fort to 10% boost with no scaling. Not the worst thing, since it does make that stat useful outside of combat. No clue when this version would apply Wounds.An alternative or addition is that failing any roll more than 20% damages the roller, and failing more than 50% adds a Wound on top of that; this could make it feel like a double jeopardy, though it is easy to make universal.
>>92674179This.And since you're homebrewing into an existing game, stealing mechanics is even easier. Or worse, depending on what you're trying to cram into the system.
What's the best system that doesn't involve hitpoints?
How do I introduce my homebrewed alternatives to a friend's homebrewed system without upsetting him with the fact that I think 90% of the material in his book is chaff and worth discarding and the other 10% needs fixing?
Been looking for people to review a lewd adaptation of a Japanese game.
>>92674648>JournalingWe make games here, Anon.
>>92674812Post yours, then.
>>92674819>>92674299Verification not required.
>>92674314Here’s the thing though. When I said I lost contact with him, I mean his discord got deleted. I can’t find his catfight rpg mechanic rules, and neither can the other guy I keep in touch with.I know I want to focus on 1v1 battles with the occasional special ability (darkness for a drow, a powerful uppercut for a street brawler, etc)
>>92675257Then just do what the first anon said. Steal any mechanic you think will make the catfighting theme work.
Hi, I'm working on a system for a ttrpg and I'm having trouble. Here's what I've got so far:Definitions:Belief - A mutable element of a character's identity, that gives them a "Move" in an environment where it makes sense. Drive - A motivation of the character, which grants them XP for performing specific actions that fit with the Drive.Principle - A foundational element/part of a character's identity. Who they are at a baseline. I think characters should have 3 or so of these.1. I want players to be able to construct their "identity" through a set of choices. This will involve detailing what their Principles are, what Drives the character, and what they have Beliefs in. It will also detail how they interact with other people, and how they form 'Bonds'.2. I want this creation of the identity to be somewhat freeform, basically constructing a "playbook" like PBTA or FitD. But I want it to be created by the player, for their character.3. I would like each of their options to influence the others; I envision Principles as the 'foundation' of the character. These are short phrases that define the fundamental aspects of that character's identity. Phrases like 'Always the Hero' or 'Always Unlucky' or 'There is good in the world' are all examples of what I envision as Principles. 3.1 The Principles should then influence the choices available. I don't want someone with 'There is good in the world' to pick a belief like 'Everything sucks and it's miserable and I hate it', because those are opposed. I'd like Principles to also help decide the Drives, or at least how to gain more.4. The Principles should be small in number, because they should have a lot of 'Downstream' options. No other game seems to do this, so I'm a bit lost. Gameplay wise, I want Principles to sort of 'choose' what kind of character you are, Beliefs to give you things to do that reinforce who you are, and Drives that give you XP for acting 'correctly'.You guys got any ideas?
>>92676392Look at World of Darkness, Warhammer Fantasy RPG, and Call of Cthulhu for starters.WoD especially, as something like Ghost Hunters has Demeanor, Concept, Conscience, Self-Control, and Courage.
ya'll explain this to me. why do you waste your time making games knowing no one's going to play them. most of the time if somebody want to play something different they'll just gonna homebrew something up with 5E.
>>92676655For me it's a desire. I have to make the game, otherwise I'll go insane. But I also have a group to actually play, and I figure if I polish my game up, release it, someone else might play it, and that's cool.
>>92676655Because the only thing worse than making games, is not making games.
>>92676840i once did have a desire to write games. but that desire faded along with my enjoyed men of the hobby. especially since i haven't actually had a full game in years. i would settle for a one shot if i could find a creatible dm to complete the story.
>>92674008Write shit down. Write everything down. Take what you like and crowbar it together and ta-da, you're game designing. The hardest part is taking all of your schizo notes and distilling them down into something actually usable. >>92674499Just talk to him, be EXCITED to help him out and patch things up. It's not "wrong" it just needs some patching with a new pair of eyes and other various corporate jargon to gaslight him.>>92674648Check out the Lewd RPG Thread and find the Discords tied to them. They may be able to help with a lot more . .. enthusiasm. >>92674450Darkbad.But there are quite a few games that use Wounds or other such types of "Health." What are you looking for exactly?>>92676655Why do you do things that are fun? For fun. There is no greater reason or deeper purpose. I find writing enjoyable and for some reason other people also enjoy watching me write or reading things that I write.
>>92677301>that desire faded along with my enjoyed men of the hobby.
>>92676655I'll play it. That's enough for me. I have no intention of making money from my games.
>>92677374>Check out the Lewd RPG Thread and find the Discords tied to them. They may be able to help with a lot more . .. enthusiasm.Have several times, actually. Literally just one person that bothered to say anything, and they didn't quite seem to get how the game worked.
>>92676655Why do kids waste their time making shitty crayon drawings when no one is going to frame them and put them in a museum?Because creating things is satisfying and fun.
I recently started working on a project, taking bits from the game Warcaster and putting it into a fantasy spin, and now trying to decide what flavor of fantasy to take it. I was thinking of going either generic fantasy, similar in idea that MtG originally was (two wizards summoning spells and monsters to attack each other), which I would go with either classical elemental theming, or something more esoteric like the MtG color wheel; or go with the idea of demons invading and scavenging from dying mortal planes, right before they collapse. I do want to keep it kinda loose, so when composing your force, its more general themes than pre-defined armies and factions.
>>92678524Demons. They're a girl's best friend.
my game runs on raceasclass, but gives you a background in the style of 5eFor example: class:fighter, backgeound: thiefor class:elf, background:rangerbackgrounds have a randomly rolled score themselves, so you can be a good thief or a shitty one to the point your background does not matter at all.the list is still growing but it looks similar to 5e one.My main priblem right now is that alchemist has proven to be an OP background, able to research and create poisons, medicines, antidotes, smoke bombs, acid, flaming oil and ordinary shit like soap. Makes sense from a "common sense" perspective to split the background into two things? like medicine man and chemistry tinker, for example? Or are those concepts irrevocably mixed?
>>92677374>Darkbad.>But there are quite a few games that use Wounds or other such types of "Health." What are you looking for exactly?I'm looking for something where injuries are distinct, where a kobold stabbing you with a knife has a lasting impact. I made a thread a couple of days ago, but I don't like WHFRPG or Dark Heresy because they still have hitpoints, they're just named wounds instead.
>>92678524If you want something slightly different you could go for east asian elements
What are the basis of designing a card game? As someone who has never ever homebrewed anything ever, where do I even start?
>>92680423At the start you should generally write down all your ideas without worrying too much how everything works in detail and get a rough idea what your game should look like from there. Questions you'll have to answer are:>What's the theme of the game? Are you building a medieval city or fighting in WWII?>How do players interact with the cards? Do you play a card from your hand and does it have an immediate effect? Or do you place it on the table and pay resources every time you use it's ability?>What's the goal of the game? Do you reduce your opponents HP to 0 or are you trying to get a combination of cards on the table?So e.g. magic is a game about>wizards summoning creatures and casting spells>slowly gaining mana to play increasingly powerful creatures from your hand that attack your opponent>Reducing the opponents HP to 0There's obviously more to it but that forms the core. Also keep in mind that you will most likely have more than one player so consider what the "passive" player will think and do.
Thinking of splitting weapon skills/training into multiple categories, but I'm not sure what level of granuality to get into. I don't want 50 different weapon groupings, but grouping also represents weapon types so I want some degree of choice.Right now I'm thinking something like>Duelist weapon proficiency covers one-handed swords, pistols>Brawler covers unarmed and improvised weapons>Barbaric weapons covers two handed melee, medium melee and thrown weapons>At X skill level your group gets a bonus, eg Duelist weapons get a free attack at combat start, brawling weapons allow you to attempt to grapple your foe and barbaric ones get a cand so on and so forth, but there's a billion ways to group things. There's no formal weapon table, instead weapons are>light, medium, heavy and melee or rangedSo a sword and a mace might both be medium melee weapons, but may use different proficiencies depending on which weapon skill you have. How do I balance choice with the fact there's a billion ways to do weapon groupings?Part of the reason I'm worried is because weapon skills take the same type of advancement as regular skills. I don't want to incentivise using all of your skill increases on weapons just so you have a decent level of competency
I like my resolution system, but I need to hear from other people that it's not convoluted because I made it in isolation.>Each stat and skill has a die associated with it>Each difficulty level also has a die associated with it>To roll for something you roll the stat die + skill die vs difficulty die. If either of your dice are higher than the difficulty you succeed in your actionI messed around in anydice for quite a while and I like the probabilities the method gives quite a lot. I suppose my main point of contention is that it requires someone playing to have 3 of each die step available for the easiest experience, which is 15 dice total. Seems a bit much for offline play but is no issue for online.>Why rolled DCGave better probabilities, I found. Things can get a bit swingier with static DCs.>Why not more static numbers in generalMakes it easier to deal with bonuses and maluses IMO. No "+1 from this, -2 from that" when you can just remember the current step and increase or decrease it. Also dice go brr.For what it's worth, I'm trying to build this as a solo RPG, so it's not like you need an entire table of people with that many dice.>>92673169>How do you die? Can you even die?>How many "Savior Mechanics" does your game have? How many times can we spite the reaper?Not sure how I want to implement, but I want some kind of Death's Door mechanic for players. Something like once you hit zero you start rolling willpower or constitution to see if you can stay up and stave off death, with every hit from then on potentially taking you out completely, and further damage when you're out finally killing you. The specifics are hazy, though.
>>926731696mm Sci-Fi Wargame>What's your limit for routing, 50%, 75%, or will your brave fools fight to the death? What happens IF your dudes choose to run like hell?Each formation makes a roll when activated with modifiers for casualties, the results determine whether the whole formation activates, activates with a bonus, activates with a penalty, or routes from the table.>How do you handle "Recovery" if at all, can your troops even hope to get back up should they take some hits?The combat system is d10 based with roll to hit, then roll for effect. The effect roll can be No Effect, Suppressed, Disordered, Casualties, or Out of Action. The appropriate marker is placed next to the unit and when that unit is next activated it is resolved by taking a quality check. Depending on what marker the unit has or whether it passes or fails the quality check determines what happens to it.
>>92681251Your predicament sounds a lot like mine.Do any of the weapons in question overlap? I think your system can benefit from overlap if you can organize them by theme:Brawling is Unarmed and Improvised weapons, but I can see the Monk also being Unarmed and Peasant weapons (Staves, farming tools, etc). The Barbarian is all about big and savage weapons, but I can see a little overlap with the Knight if both of them use two-handed swords.Then if a player wants to specialize, they can pick a specific grouping of weapons, or a specific weapon from it. I think it only needs to be mentioned, and then let the players decide for themselves what it means.Embrace the overlap! That's my vote, and if I'm getting you right.
>>92681378I'm assuming by dice steps, you mean d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12, correct?To be technical, opposed rolls are a form of what you made, as it's two rolls against the other. But with the way you have it, you can brand it as some different in concept from the opposed roll and thus I see no problem with it.Before I ask more, I need to know the dice increments themselves.
>>92682140>Do any of the weapons in question overlap?I'm not concrete in what goes where, but I imagine there'll certainly be overlap.>organize them by theme:I'm torn on that because there's so many potential themes (street brawling with unarmed and improvised vs monk with unarmed and tool/simple weapons, marksman vs soldier who happens to have bows, etc.) that it's easier to do it by weapon type ie swords, polearms, bows, etc. I do prefer the idea of doing it by theme though.>Then if a player wants to specialize, they can pick a specific grouping of weaponsOn this note, I was also considering having some themes, then giving players the option for to make their own theme groups. Something like "If these don't fit your character, pick 2-3 overarching weapon types like 'swords, bows, firearms' and call it whatever you want", but I worry that's too broad and leans into "just make it up yourself lol" territory
Modern RPG and wargame offerings are basically artbooks I have realized. You aren't really selling rules, you're selling an aesthetic. Personally I'm not an artist, and the process to become a good/competent one would take (charitably) 2-5 years of serious practice. This isn't really that bad, and developing a skill like that has worth in itself, but it's not what I wanted to do. I wanted people to have fun rules to play games with their friends, and they already have those. Sharing the fun I have with my friends is basically impossible, I should have spent my youth in an atelier instead of playing dice games.
>>92682215>I'm assuming by dice steps, you mean d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12, correct?Yeah that's exactly what I mean, though I added two more for a degree of granularity, those being d4/d4 (roll 1d4 twice and take and the lowest) which is below d4 and d12/d12 (roll 1d12 twice and take the highest) which is above d12.Numbers work in theory and it's not hard to understand, so my concern is less "would people playing understand/recognise the system" and more "how annoying is it to be 1d4+1d8 vs 1d10 on one roll, then 1d4+1d4 vs 1d12 immediately after" with the changing dice.
>>92673169As for my system:>How do you die? Can you even die?Death can happen, yes. All characters have a Threshold associated with each Attribute (Might, Agility, Vitality, Coordination, Perception, Acumen, Prudence, Will, and Charisma). One must add Marks against any one of those Thresholds. The first time a Threshold is met or exceeded, they succumb to a nasty but non-fatal effect (Take a malus until they rest, or their next turn doesn't come up, etc), and so long as the effect makes sense to be imposed by the course of action that caused it. Any Marks that exceed the Threshold this way are ticked off against the Threshold again. The second time the Threshold is exceeded, the next effect can be fatal, and so long as the action that Marked them so is conceivably fatal (Blasting ridicule to Mark the Charisma Threshold won't kill, but the eldritch horror applying Marks to the Charisma Threshold from devouring his personality will be).There are mechanics in place to Mark more than one Threshold at a time, and one doesn't have to apply Marks if they don't want, but can instead use the Effect Points they rolled up to afflict other maluses onto the target, or to apply bonuses to themselves and others depending on if it makes sense for the action to do so.>"Savior Mechanics"?None in the core. Going to introduce Hero Points and/or Luck Points as optional rules.>Replace?Never thought about that one, but it is to make a new character which can take a bit.
Does anyone know where/how to create good tables? I want to make lots of random tables, but Google docs tables aren't quite cutting it
>>92682266There are a lot of potential themes, but I say don't fret about capturing all of them. Instead, provide room to branch out. Brawler could mean a lot of things, but a Street Brawler is a specialized form of it that uses cheap shots and can retreat from really bad situations. If your system has Feats in it, or if it uses Class Abilities, give them room to specialize with that theme.The beauty of theme is that it addresses the medium of fiction that everybody has grown up with and share. Of course a Knight can use all kinds of Knightly weapons, so why can't the Knight use that Shield effectively? Oh, right! Because he isn't proficient in shields. But this sucks! Why doesn't my Knight have the means to use shields!?I say that if your system leans in on archetypes, my vote is to keep it themed. The Knight is great with swords, shields, lances, heavy armor, etc. Here's my idea: List each of the Archetypes in terms of Bullet Points. For (an oversimplified) example:Brawler:- Skilled with his fists and whatever objects happen to be in reach.- Gets a bonus in close-quarters combat!- Recovering from a blow costs 1 less Resource than normal!- Talk With Your Fists: Get a bonus for analyzing your opponent as the fight wears on.Then we have the Knight:Knight:- Skilled with the noble weapons, armor, and shields.- Gets a bonus in engagements if acting in a chivalrous manner- Unchivalrous attacks against you are at a malus!- In Shining Armor: Add the Armor bonus to all rolls made to inspire companions or put fear in his foes.But does it always have to be fighting?Merchant:- Can use common tools and weapons without penalties- Get a bonus to negotiate a better price in his favor- Gets a bonus to gleam what's in demand, be it with goods, services, or other.- Gets a bonus to catch news and gossip quickly- Get a bonus to determine the fair value of goods or services1/2
>>92682639From those three example archetypes, you can see around Four Points worth of abilities. I figure being able to use everyday tools and weapons (staves, clubs, knives, etc) shouldn't count as a point to make the archetype at least be able to contribute directly in a fight is the least that ought to be done.But if you do a custom/adventurer archetype, give the player three points as opposed to four points and let them come up with their own. Give the prompt with weapons to be "A general theme". Across a general theme "Noble, Brawling, Barbarian, etc", but if it's going to be "All", make it cost 2 Points. Yeah, the Adventurer is good with all weapons, but it's like having more buttons on your remote control; you can still only click one button at a time. On the other hand, exactly what weapon gets found isn't an issue for him, whereas a Knight would have a hard time with a Meteor Hammer but the Adventurer or the Monk would be able to use it without a hitch, like how the Monk would have a rough time with a zweihänder but a Knight or Adventurer won't have issues.I hope this is helping. You can't have both specific weapons and a general theme without things getting hairy in my experience. Keep it to a theme, and I'm sure it will keep the players thinking in line with it.2/2
>>92682306Your system does have an upper limit and a lower limit. I imagine that with opposed rolls, it becomes die + die vs. die + die, with the higher of each roll being used and them compared?I'm thinking that if it's 1d4/1d4 it's a step above trivial in difficulty, with 1d12/1d12 it's world class.I can see your system being better off utilized in more grounded settings and games, and not for godhood/high fantasy shenanigans.The kinds of people who will be checking out your game are those who want something different from 1d20 + Modifiers or other classical methods of conflict resolution. Your system sounds really simple and great for a pick-up game- I'm thinking mysteries, or even adventure scenarios with people with more grounded distinctions (Thinking of The Goonies). I like it so far, anon.
>>92682817Right now I'm thinking die + die vs just die, with the higher being compared. It's vs only 1 die because that surprisingly makes difficulty alright already, and I don't want too many dice flying at once for simplicity's sake. So there's gonna be some innate Player/NPC asymmetry, since it's solo oriented. Though die+die vs die+die sounds better for varying difficulty if a DM's involved.>I'm thinking that if it's 1d4/1d4 it's a step above trivial in difficulty, with 1d12/1d12 it's world class.What I was going for>I can see your system being better off utilized in more grounded settings and games, and not for godhood/high fantasy shenanigans.Also what I was going for. The idea is the human baseline (so a 10 in a stat for a DnD-esque game) is 1d6, and being untrained in a skill is 1d4. 1d10 is where humans peak for stats, but supernatural class features and equipment can push you to 1d12 or d12/d12 territory. Anyone can theoretically reach a d12/d12 in a skill, but doing so would make you an absolute master in your craft.Trying to strike a balance between power fantasy and grounding. Something where a Player Character can mow through no-name thugs without much issue, but you'll need to be very careful or risk getting destroyed vs supernatural threats and well-trained humans. Might be over-ambitious, but I'm hoping the end product is sandboxy, such that it works well enough whether you're investigating the disappearance of a noble or need to search a cave of undead.>I like it so far, anon.I appreciate the feedback, anon. I have a lot I need to iron out before I can even properly playtest it (so far attempts end up quickly stonewalled by "oh wait I have no rules for that yet"), but it's nice to know the core resolution isn't unusable or anything.
>>92676392I like your ideas, but you will need creative, proactive players for that sort of freeform character creation to work, especially if there are number of aspects they have to make up in advance before they start playing. Often characters gain pronounced personalities when they are played for some time. Also people are lazy or not in mood, so giving them some options or at least some inspiration is recommended to get them really excited about playing your homebrew. >A motivation of the character, which grants them XP for performing specific actions that fit with the DriveI have done something like that in the past, and the result was the most active and extroverted players got most XP, and more lazy/quiet/having bad day players' characters were underpowered, so subsequent sessions felt even worse for them. You have to be careful not to introduce such feedback loop. I still think roleplaying and following characters motivations is worth rewarding, but I now do it with stuff like luck points/bennies or similar small temporary bonuses.On a kind of related note in one of my homebrews I introduced two characteristics to describe characters' temperament and life views. One scale was Careful-Impulsive and the other was Ruthless-Sensitive. They had 1 point to assign to each scale (so a character could be Careful 1 and Sensitive 1). During play if they did something fitting one of the scales they could gain a point in appropriate direction (so if Sensitive 1 character killed an innocent they became Ruthless 1 instead). Certain powers and items were dependent on those scales, so there was a pretty clear mechanical motivation to play a character in a consistent way.
>>92683050I'll need to formally playtest NPC creation in my setting and I need to make it simple enough to cobble something together more swiftly than a PC. So, thanks for reminding me.If the core mechanics roll off of the tongue and it's really easy to make more rules and rulings on the fly, you've got an amazing rough draft already.What kinds of rules need to be made now?
>>92683736>What kinds of rules need to be made now?Tons of things I want to add, but the core is>Fleshing out the classes/archetypesThere's 3 of them, I know what they are, but I haven't written down the mechanics concretely. They're also meant to have sub-choices that I haven't made yet.>Working on weapon damageWeapons have a crit value (what you need to roll over deal extra damage) and base damage. They're semi-arbitrary right now so I want to make them a little more balanced, but I doubt I can do that without playtesting>Sample bestiary + NPC creation rulesSo it's easy to pull NPCs during play>Game structureBig one since I'm trying to make something that works GMless. Want to create some structure for different types of play, like investigations and dungeon crawls, so I'm not just rolling dice in vacuum during testing.>Character creationNeed some CC options that are fully fleshed out because so far I've been handwaving it when trying to test.>Magic systemWanted magic, I think I have the general magic rules in place, but I don't have many spells to test things with. I'm happy with the core magic mechanic though.From there I can add in the details, tweak the numbers, and work on stuff that isn't necessary but I think would be cool to add.
>>92684107My idea for crits is if both rolled numbers are above the opposed rolled number. Or maybe it's less a crit, and more an extra effect.As for the other stuff, it mostly sounds like stuff that only you can do because it's mostly fleshing it out. I'm not an expert on solo RPGs, but I'm happy to see whatever you cook up with it. It might teach me a thing or two, too!
What is your opinion of a platoon sized wargame where units have different bases (square/round) according to their type/role/function?Example: An line infantryman that is designed to be in formation would have a square based meanwhile a skirmisher would have a round base.
>>92684377It's a cute idea and gives some clarity at a glance but I don't see any deeper function to it, and at the cost of making it marginally more tedious to base things. How important is it that someone knows what role a unit is at any given time?
>>92683640The best part is the rest of my system is basically kind of Warhammer Fantasy 4e, I'm just trying desperately to attach a more narrative system to it that I think it could use. I think I see your problem where players who actually do things get XP, and players who don't, don't get XP, and I think that's kind of okay, because I want to use XP in my system to encourage the play I want, which is characters that do things. Here's an example of a Drive; >A sucker for a pretty face>1 XP When you flirt with someone you find attractive.>3 XP When you perform a dangerous action because of your romantic interest, and you take stress because of that dangerous action.>10 XP When you save your romantic interest from great danger, and that romantic interest either returns your affection, OR when they leave as soon as they get the chanceI think I've settled on making a set of playbooks, which players attach to their characters, maybe?
>>92678229I don't want to be rich. I don't want notoriety. I just want to be happy and to be able to have fun with a hobby again.
>>92673107Was there a game design discord at some point?
>>92684538I was thinking of making it so that units with square bases get a bonus of some sorts if "in formation" (adjacent to another model of the same unit).On the other hand, the round based units would be able to have more space than normal between each model to reduce damage received by artillery and to help in positioning for cover.Though I do get what you're trying to say, in that the intended function would not justify the headache it might cause.
>>92686499There are several. They all suck and are filled with various levels of schizos.
>>92673107Post more resources/guides. https://www.youtube.com/@AdaminWales/videos feels good, but I prefer reading over watching videos.I have a few ideas for Uno mods, an idea for Ticket to ride with line cards instead of the map and I need something about CCG/TCG design.
>>92673169>>How do you die? Can you even die?You die when you have lost twice as much HP as your normal maximum, so a character with 12hp would perish at -12. Its slightly more complicated than that though. You're incapacitated and dying when you hit 0, at which point you roll d6 each turn to see if you stablize. On a 6 you're safe, 1-5 and you bleed out another hit point. Characters with high vitality have bigger health bars so it becomes very unlikely that you will actually die so long as your teammates get to you before whatever downed you can finish the job. >>How many "Savior Mechanics" does your game have? How many times can we spite the reaper?None? Death is rare enough, just avoid it i guess>>How do you replace a character, any odd mechanics, or is it roll from 0 and hope for the best?Just make a new guy, nothing fancy
>>92687227I forgot to say, i hit all the objectives i set myself last month. The item system and monster manual is in, weapons got rebalanced, class features got a once-over and the entire PDF got a legibility pass. Still not playable though
>>92682639>>92682718>I say that if your system leans in on archetypesIt does and doesn't, what you do is determined by your background. If you were a knight you can put points in a skill called "knight" that covers everything knightly (courtly manners, horse riding, etc.) accept the actual sword swinging part, that's what the "Knight" weapon skill would be for, which would cover lances, swords and other such knightly weapons. Out of combat stuff has complete freedom, which is why I want weapon skills to be able to cover an extremely broad amount of ground without being too specific. The thing holding me back the most is a desire to tie weapon skills to your actual skill level than feats or classes, without that it'd be really easy to just let players pick what weapons they believe belongs to an archetype. Your advice has helped a lot, thanks anon. I doubt I'll have much to share before autosage gets the thread, but hopefully by the next thread I'll have been able to action your suggestions.
>>92673107Are there any good books/courses for game design? Or even puzzle design.
>>92687241>Still not playable thoughWhat's next to make it playable? And how big is your monster manual?
>>92676655It's fun. Simple as that. I love testing mechanics, writing lore, and even fucking layout design. I play it with friends and then put it up on the web. Sometimes people bite, but more often than not they don't. I got a review recently where someone actually used a silly little game I made to play a solo story. That's enough to keep me going. >>92679433>class:elfHell yeah brother. The only thing I'm not a fan of is your background being shitty/not mattering. I'd do something to make them all at least a little worthwhile. For the alchemist...either split it in two, or make it so that the player has to pick which path they want to go down (which is effectively the same thing).>>92687251Kobold Press has all their "Guide to" books. Game Design, Board Game Design, Worldbuilding, Monsters, etc. I can't vouch for them as I haven't read them, but they are pretty popular.Aight, my updates. Trying a dumb game jam on itch, but I'm not really feeling the what I've got for it. However it did help me finally figure out how I'd make a game using the 4 humors as attributes and keeping them balanced somewhat. I think I'll set it aside for now and get back to work on fixing my old projects, starting with my most recent.Last time I worked on it, I fixed the wonky math because for some dumb reason I decided rounding down was cool. It is not. Now I round up and it's nice and easy to switch between die types as you spend Effort. Solves a lot of problems. Next step is reworking items and actually writing an equipment list. What's a good frame of reference for that?
>>92687395What's the game jam?
>>92687250In that case, maybe have each of the archetypes come with the necessary skills (Weapon proficiencies) and then let players pick options to specialize in ones that fit?I hope you get out of your conundrum soon. But even that is part of game design, I've found out.
Made another bite-sized game with poker cards againKind of wish my brain didn't go that direction, since it's fun to playtest with my design group, I can't really do much with it other than I guess wait for bgg to open its yearly contestNot that there isn't inherent value in improving designs skills, it's just like, man, I wish I was smarter to figure out which cards I can modify to sell it like all those Japanese trick taking games
>>92673107Hey what do you think about Action Points like Pathfinder?That means players on average have 3 AP. They can spend 1 to move 10 feet. They can spend another 1 to attack once, and they can spend another as a reaction, to defend.Casting a spell or countering a spell requires 2.Is this based, or cringe?I'm worried it might overcomplicate and slow the game, but if we don't make actions a resource, what's to stop players trying to roll to dodge every attack?Why not just make dodge default, if that's the case?
>>92688869AP, on paper, gives a lot more flexibility by putting any kind of action be it to draw your sword or cast a spell on the same level. On the other hand, AP is still another thing to keep track of, much like Swift/Move/Standard Actions. It does lend some flexibility to say that each attack you do costs 1 AP, and if you spend AP on moving to the foe beforehand, that's that many APs you can't spend on attacks.On the other hand it doesn't really change much else. Once your AP runs out, you get to sit back on your ass until your AP comes back.As for your point about spells costing 2 AP rather than 1, that would complicate it. If all actions cost 1 AP, it'll be easier to keep track of. If the Spell takes longer to cast, then sure, make it cost more, but it should say so in its description.
>>92688869I'm doing something similar with mine. PCs start with 6 AP. Any action that doesn't require a roll costs 1, and any that do cost 2. Movement actions in melee combat are just a single space, though it's also extremely close quarters.
>>92688869Im using a more complex AP system than that and i havent had any real loss of speed in my testing. Granted its not play testing, but theres lots of precedent in games like dark heresy that it can be played fast
>>92687264"Done" might be an exaggeration. The manual has a bandit, a horse, a giant bird, a giant spider and four warrior templates for benchmarking. The "done" part is the formatting to make sure it can account for different sizes and extra limbs and such, as well as attack modifiers. Its not playable simply because there's nothing to play. Once i write a module the monster manual will be populated as part of that process, so it'll be good to go
>>92687428>What's the game jam?I was attempting 2. One of them was a Menu TTRPG jam, more about layout design and doing something that looked like a menu. Optionally it could be about food. I still have 19 hours, so I might crank something out after work today.The other jam was Noun Borg. Use a generator to get a stupid supplement idea for MB and you get 1 page to write it. I ended up with Humor and the optional tagline of "we only have d2s" so I'm trying to make it based around coin flips. Not a huge fan of MB but I like the challenge of a d2 only game so I'm trying to figure something out for it. Amusingly I'm getting tripped up on the aesthetic, my idea looks too "clean" compared to the other submissions.
>>92690273maybe base it around improv? 1s let's you continue with the premise, 2s mean you have to alter the premise.
>>92682611Check out perchance dot org, one of my top faves.
>>92691009Interesting idea. I was leaning more towards a dicepool thing with coin flips, mainly based on the old Prince Valiant RPG.
I'm not sure what the next design step to test on my (board) gameI've gotten a lot better at not just splurging everything at once and then trying to disentangle why things aren't working, taking the >fail hard, fail fastmotto to heart by doing essentially vertical slices.So it's a Worker Placement and I've got a core action selection system that works. I want to start working on the actual actions themselves, but as its the most elaborate part, it feels like the wrong step I should take. Because there's 5 distinct "modules" of the board, my thought is keeping them kind of a black box with just generic inputs/outputs so I can test the action selection with some more tangible direction.I guess in less nonspecific terms, if this was Agricola, I have how your workers are gained/maintained, but before I get into the nitty gritty of how you should place food in the fields, I'm trying to figure out how more to test the Wheat => Bread => Food pipeline instead.
>>92686499I was part of one with Notepad anon at some point. Foolishly, I left it when I was pruning my discord memberships.
>>92694413discord.gg/mMKVPM5VeFIt's on his twitch and youtube, my [racial slur]
>>92695383>requires phone number verification to send messages
>>92695686>not having a $10 burner phone from the corner store for random bullshit verification
General question for you guys. Some games sport a Jack-of-all-Trades ability. The iteration I know about from D&D 3.X has it as a Feat that makes it so you are considered trained in all skills whether or not you have ranks in it (by having a 1/2 Skill Rank in each one). While neat in concept, it does loose its power the more skills one takes up.What I want is to make such an ability or feat or what-have-at-you that offers a lasting benefit even if someone were to max out every skill in the game. How would you pull this off?
>>92695794My cfirst thought would be "Add a dice that increases in size as you increase in level, that you add to your rolls"So with the 3.5 comparison, taking this feat would give you a d4 you roll with your d20 for every check, and add them together at level one.Level 3, d6. Level 8, d8. So on and so forth. If you have training, keep the flat +2/+4/+8 etc, but also add in the extra dice.
>>92676655Counter-point : I've played a dozen game of my homebrewed with anons on this site, I'm set to play another one this coming Wednesday, and people have played it on their own and posted battle reports. A few folks have started getting minis for it. If it can happen for me, it can happen for anyone.
>>92696094What game?
>>92691050Whoops, should have specified that I specifically meant formatting them in a document rather than a tool to roll on them. But perchance is great so seconding it regardless.
>>92695794In DnD 5e the Bard's Jack of All Trades ability applies to some things that aren't skills due to its wording, for example you get to add it to Counterspell when contesting a higher level spell. I think it'd be neat to have your nature allow you to be to skilled in different roles and checks one doesn't traditionally add their skills to.
>>92696197Agartha Descent. The lore was shitposted by group in >>92679993but until recently the game design was mostly left to me. It is still unfinished and getting polished, but we have ~8 factions, each with on average a dozen units, its playable, the scenario components and NPC rules are mostly what's left to be worked out.
>>92696250I have little else to add as skirmish games aren't my forte, but I'm happy you have some fans and I hope you only get more fans!
I think with all the people on the board who say "you just want a video game" or "just play a video game", I should make a small game where mechanics are tied to keywords based on controller buttons.Everyone seems to like video games on this board, so I should make a TTRPG to their tastes.
>>92696278Thanks, a campaign mode is planned and should shortly become the focus of design, so perhaps you or other anons here might have ideas that are useful to that, I have played any hexcrawl, least of all one built around a mini wargame, and that's what its shaping up to be, so I'm a bit lost there. In any case I'm really only saying all this to show other anons you can 100% get a homebrew developed/to be played here, that's what this site *should* be mostly about, its where it shines the most imho, and its too small of a part of it. There should be way more of /tg/ homebrewed generals, not less.
>>92696396I agree with everything you said, 100%. I don't think the campaign mode is a bad idea, considering how many campaigns were run using WotC D&D. I imagine a skirmish game is a form of board game, and thus the rules need to be tight knit. My expertise is in roleplaying games so I'm constantly thinking of all the different courses of action to take and how to make the system accommodate it.How is your game with utilizing the environment, such as to use them to set up traps and what-not? I love when games give the means to go well outside the box, because it gives the players the means to make it their own.
>>92696493Most mechanical resolutions are very simple, units have a standard profile, event calls for a Test on relevant Value, sometimes with a mod (most of the time not), success is rolling equal or under on a d10. Trap! Test (they are their own mechanical rule, like Explosion Damage or Fire Damage, etc) are > Test Awareness and Evasion. For each failed test, take a X Wound. Wounds follow the oWoD system, units have a few Health boxes (usually 2 for normal troops), Wounds go / -> X -> "filled", model dies when all boxes are "filled". More important models have a Health track per body location (Limbs/Body/Head).There's a lot of things getting worked in beside just straight up fighting. There are "econ" units, mining for precious ores, searching for oil and building wells, and you can win on it. In >>92696094 this game the French side won purely because they found a better Treasure and were able to hold unto it until the end of the game. I've got a "Tribal Village" npc scenario in the works, one for competing over hunting Alpha monsters, one where the maps falls apart (the whole thing is supposed to happen in the underground discovered by Vernes in Voyage to the Center of the Earth) or lava starts pouring in... Hopefully gonna be able to wrap all of that into the Campaign mode.
>>92696556As you say, it isn't just fighting.My question is, what good do those resources do? Do you replenish fallen units? Upgrade them? It reminds me of RTS games to a point.
so, I had an idea for a combat system but I'm not sure if it's a good one>the combat is played on a chess board, with the DM controlling one side and the party controlling the other>the goal is simply to capture as many chess-points worth of pieces as possible>each party member has an body stat and a mind stat>body determines how many moves a player can make on their turn>mind determines how many points worth of pieces they can "buy" for their side>the GM also has a mind and body, both of which should usually be a little less than the combined body and mind stats of the party>players can place the pieces they buy wherever they want on their side, and then you go around the table taking turns>Each player can use their moves to move any piece on their side, not just the ones they put down>no matter how high your body stat is, you can only move each piece once on your turnIn addition, players have classes like Bishop, Knight, Jack, and Magician which give them abilities like reviving captured pieces, moving a piece multiple times, granting other players moves, and moving enemy pieces, etcthoughts?
>>92696587The game theme is not really about warring it out, its competing expeditions of various Nations rushing to colonize the Deep and which end up fighting as a result, so the main way to win is simply to get a high Battle Chest result than your opponent. Any Silver (aka recruitment points) gathered in a battle is added to your Battle Chest, as well as the Cost of enemies you kill. Eventually in Campaign the Silver gathered could also be used to replenish lost Expedition members.
>>92696612It sounds like it's more of a test over who can play chess better than the other. Is your game supposed to be a modified chess, a wargame, an RPG?>>92696629Kind of reminds me of Civilization or even some of the game modes of Age of Empires. So all of that oil and other treasures amount to adding (a lot) to the Battle Chest.Campaign then is what I assume to be a string of scenarios that all follow after the other.I don't have much else to add, and I can't say I know of many boardgames that focus on that multitude of aspects at once, but then again I know little of boardgames. I hope you keep making progress on it, though! Whatever the outcome, something good will come of it I am sure!
>>92677374Not gonna work chief. During play test phase almost every single criticism of mechanic was met with defensive explanation of why it is the way it is.
>>92696682the game is supposed to be a traditional dnd-style ttrpg with a chess/cards motif, though I'm still figuring out out-of-combat conflict resolution. I know I want it to be something involving playing cards but I'm not as familiar with those systems
>>92696975The thing about chess is that it is a purely skill based game. It sounds like the point is to get more advantages in your favor over the other, but it still boils down to how good of a chess player you are. If you break the game down enough so that your skill in it doesn't really matter, then why have them play chess?
>>92696629>Any Silver (aka recruitment points) gathered in a battle is added to your Battle ChestSounds like a virtuous spiral: the winner gets more resources to win harder next time. This can kill campaigns very quickly.
>>92698989>This can kill campaigns very quickly.Thank you! One thing we are planning on having is Sponsors, basically different subgroups within the lore which may have interest in funding an Expedition. These would give advantages during Recruitment and slight modifications to gameplay, as well as add larger conditions which needs to be achieved during the Campaign or else you lose major part of your Chest at the end. For example Saurs have started popping up into the American South West, and some weirdos have tamed them. The Triassic Ranch Sponsor for US allow members of an Expedition to use Saurs as Mounts, but requires you to either kill or capture a number of Saurs during the Campaign or lose 25% of your Chest. These don't fix the whole problem, especially since they are optional, but it adds and alternative route to take for some. Any suggestion? Ideally without scrapping entirely the whole "Battle Chest dictates battle win". Campaigns are meant to be built around a certain story or scenario, like "we hear of a potential new Entrance, Expeditions are sent to locate it." so alternative Wincons would be in theme but I'm not sure they fix the issue at all...
>>92699329I don't see how the sponsors help a virtuous spiral. They can help differentiate teams, but I don't see how they stop a winner using their winnings to become the runaway winner.I'd suggest something like: winning a scenario gets you territory, which is what wins you the campaign, but has to spend a lot of their winnings on securing it. So they end up financially behind but ahead on "campaign points".>But that's rewarding failure and punishing success! People will lose games on purpose!Success is literally its own reward. Throwing a game to get better toys later might be a workable strategy, but it has such small dick energy that winning that way is its own punishment.
>>92699749How about having a "hunger" mechanic, where you have to keep your men fed? There's already Rations as well as Alcohol as Equipment, for the moment they are Morale tools, but there was always a sense that they would become more in the Campaign. So you can't just recruit massive Expeditions with your earnings without increasing their upkeep?
>>92673107Alright anons, I need help to make some firearms/shooting techniques for early guns like muskets and blunderbusses. Because things like supresive fire do not work with guns with that low of a RoF
>>92700016Seems like that would benefit elite factions more than it'd hold back runaway winners.
So I want to take some elemants from various games and mash them together, since I'm not the best at making a game entirely from scratch. But some of the rules aren't super compatible between the game systems I want to take inspiration from. Anyne have tips when it comes to mashing ideas or rules together? I'm trying to brainstorm a game for making toyetic cartoon shows, similar to cartoon action hour or the essence20 system.
>>92673107Wargame Projects I have active:> Fleet Scale Spaceship combat (alpha stages)> Medieval Platoon level (alpha stages)> Mecha Themed skirmish (pretty mature)Board Game Projects:> Draft-and-Place hex grid Citybuilder> Group Chicken / Push-your-Luck with Dwarf themeStarted the alpha stage wargame projects bc I ws bored and I think the Mecha project is done-ish. I can't really test out the customization module as much as the core rules, too many options to really go through and I should just release it to the world and see what happens.I considered both of the boardgame projects mature but I am recently tempted to think that I need to go back to the drawing board with both, which is inconvenient because I have a whole new idea I want to develop on that is a lot more work.>>92673169> War Games:I don't like troops getting back up, it tends to drag out the game and encourage randumb mechanics.> Card GamesI think duel masters had it pretty good with shield-cards as life so that you don't end up having to have separate tracking of life points and it facilitates catch up mechanics.> Board GamesRecent Idea hinges on a combination of setup-payoff and short term gains. A lot of mechanics create side effects that shape what the future payoffs will be, but the last turn has no setup, it's all payoff. It's been weirdly difficult to get the last turn to use the same mechanics without kludgy carve outs.
>>92694325I think board games are pretty hard to do blackbox design for in practicality. I would design the entire game such that you can play it, but focus your design efforts on one slice at a time and leave the lesser ones at a minimum viable product state until it's their turn. Changes to the active slice will probably affect small changes to other slices.Since you have the worker placement mechanics and presumably you have some player experience goals, I would work backwards from your player experience goals towards your worker mechanics and see what food mechanics support your experience goals while fitting inside your worker mechanics.
>>92688869It's probably okay to have certain active things that cost resources and other things that are less impactful be free/unlimited. Like an active dodge is going out of your way to be evasive and a free dodge is just a short reflexive movement that can't dodge as much.On AP in general, I wouldn't worry about it being too complicated, I think it's pretty easy to understand. My problem with AP is how it scales and pushes action economy stuff to be the most important thing in the game.
>>92697306im not any good at chess, and this wont really follow the normal rules. like I said, the combat system wont have the same number of pieces or the same number of moves each turn. more to point, every player will have other abilities that break the rules of chess, like ressurecting pieces, moving in strange ways, randomly replacing pieces with checkers, etc. the game doesnt even have the same win condition, being about taking ever piece rather than checkmating . almost none of the same principles applyall games require a degree of skill and strategy. this isnt really any different and skills arent completely transferable
>>92701519Yes indeed, all games worth engaging with require a degree of skill and strategy. Maybe I just don't understand your system.Can you spell out the process of resolution in your system? Is it a roleplaying game? Is it a wargame? What kind of game is it?
>>92701833i already answered these questions here and here>>92696975>>92696612
>>92701919That you did, and I stand corrected. I was a bit lost in what's going on with your proposal.Perhaps you should demonstrate how it all works to me. It's like chess, but it isn't, and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this.
I'm new to card games but I really enjoy them, specifically somehwat solo ones. I've got some vague ideas for a solo sci fi thing where you have an "encounter" deck or something similar that you work through, with each card representing something you have to deal with, probably based on your hand/deck. your hand/deck is contructed by you, representing the abilities of a squad of people. I have a little more formulated that I'm putting here, but being new to this whole thing I'm trying to find card games that have a similar concept to help me get mechanics ideas and stuff. Anyone have some recommendations for me to check out?
>>92701449>hard to do blackbox design for in practicalityYeah my meager attempt felt more like handwaving than seeing the full system in motion.>I would work backwards from your player experience goals towards your worker mechanics That's perfect. The worker mechanics are indeed heavy limitators as I'm using a worker-loss mechanic (think Brand's Village) whose tempo is integral to my player experience - but felt nebulous when in isolation. Working backwards from the MVPs would definitely keep the vision intact, especially if the need comes to eventually butcher such an inherently 'unfun' mechanic.Thanks
>>92702433Probably would help to list what solo games you've dabbled in first as it's hard to not wondering how you'd want to differ from picrel to say the more recent Earthborne Rangers
>>92700521Wargame, skirmish game, card game, or RPG?Scale of how many musketeers you're working with changes what options you have.
>>92702521good point. Arkham horror, one deck dungeon/galaxy, arkham noir(actually the first solo cg I ever played), and a few little basic pnp's (64k samurai, galdors grip). the idea came from playing Space Infantry which is pretty fun but 1. not a card game and 2. seems like it should be. And I really liked the emergent narrative of AH/AN implied by the card art/flavor and requirements. Basically I really like the medium of card games but have very little experience with them. I haven't looked at LOTR or ER so I'll give them a gander, thanks
>>92682269Well, it's really never been easier to apply Fancy Art to books, and you have to realize that 95% of those """Games"""" that come out aren't actually played and bought by people who pretend to play at the best of times.Don't get discouraged. Welcome to the Grind.>>92695686We were getting SPAMMED with Bots for a while there, it was a temporary measure, but one I've been struggling to come up with a satisfying answer to. Compromises and Checks, nature of the beast.>The Game Design Guild (https://discord.gg/3gf7P2q) is the remnants of the old thread for eons ago. Most people there are now depressed, racist, Latin American, gay, or all four. >The TTRPG Design & Playtesting (https://discord.gg/EQMnF8rG) is derived from /r/RPGDesign before it collapsed catastrophically. It's . . . debatable in quality but is quite active (and retarded).There are a handful of others, but most fall into either hyper niches or autism personality cults (like mine).>>92696344It's be amusing if anything. The Vidya argument usually boils down to "Hyper-Gamist" stuff bogging down the game itself, because while a computer can do fifteen calculations in an instant, your friend Ted cannot. Though it's also a deeper philosophical question about Vidya and TTRPGs, and how they interact with one another. >>92700521If you're working on a One-Man Scale, consult WHFRP's rules on it. May not be perfect, but it may help with the idea of "I'm a damn good musketeer, because I reload it faster.">>92701006Take both sides of what you actually want to include and start making compromises. You like how combat acts in A, but the system of B, alright, not too complicated. Want the dice system of both with characters of one or another? It gets a bit messier.What are you actually fully looking for?
Hello faggots.Here's homebrew someone made for FATAL 2.
>>92703142Np, definitely check out Space Hulk: Death Angel (on TTS since finding a copy is stupid expensive)I think the best place to start is figuring out what the exact experience you want and going from thereLotR being a 'how can we simulate MtG' in a solo/co-op spaceArkham being 'how can we take distill narrative' like the original gameEarthborne being 'how can we create an emergent sandbox'etc.Seems obvious but it's easy to let the medium of cards limit your ideas of what you can accomplish instead of letting it inform it.Personally I get the feeling people are getting a bit tired of solo/coops where the event deck is always "bad event after bad event", hence the insane success of Earthborne. But don't let that discourage you, just know it's an uphill battle
>>92702603RPG, we are talking about a singular dude here that learn some neat tricks with his gun, afterall I could have a higher RoF if it was an army for a wargame.
>>92696612This could work very well as kind of virtual battle of netrunners or magical conflict of mages. Possibly next to a more traditional simple chance-based traditional combat. I think rolling dice brings a certain kind of excitement that could be hard to replicate with pieces on a board.I would think about cards though. They have that sweet aspect of random chance.
>>92673107hmm. hi anons. a bit of conflicted musing for you. I used to have a big notepad with a ton of ideas for games I was excited about. I always thought it would be cool to bring them to life, but to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure my heart was ever in the right place. I liked the aesthetic of my projects, and I liked tinkering with ideas and problem-solving to get the effect I wanted. but ultimately, do I believe in games very much? they're a fun little trick but I think I have more fun just talking to people than playing a game with them. I'm not sure what games are meant to do or what they can do. they were a big part of my childhood, so I have a lot of affection for them, but ultimately isn't playing games shallower and less interesting than writing or talking or other stuff, for how much time it takes? this isn't to bash anyone, just a perspective. maybe it's a 'if you've got the bug, you've got it' thing. there are lots of frivolous hobbies which are valuable even if they're not technically the *most* valuable use of your time.
>>92703661Do you have fun doing X? Then X is worth your time. Nothing matters on this world except doing good by yourself and the people around you.
>>92703602If it's not core to the system, focusing on aiming shots to apply debuffs/cripple limbs fits well within the fantasy of a gunslinger; whether that be handgonnes or pistols.
>>92703190I like the freeform character creation system of the cartoon one, but some of the dice rules and other stuff isn't entirely compatible with the other game system, so yeah picking and choosing what works best together seems like a good way to go for now
Are there any anons here who speak dutch by any chance? I'm making a game in my own language and i'm to lazy to translate it all for this thread.
>>92673107I learned today that I'm going to be a father, so I want to write down and release my game before I'm too busy raising the next generation of permaGM.What's a good layout for a ttrpg's main manual?>Intro to the setting>Creating a PC>List of PC options >System>Equipment>Sample NPCs/enemies/elements>Character sheet and system recapDid I forget anything?
>>92703661Well... Did you play recently?A great motivation for creating, often, is just trying it with someone else, with another system, seeing where you feel it doesn't work and then try to do better.TTRPG are a human experience with no real equivalents. Seems grandiloquent, but it's true:I enjoy a good conversation, but RPGs get you to a completely different place. It's pretty close to the feeling of travelling together, for me. There's nothing like it.
>>92700521I'm not sure what's the assumed setting.So, on a sliding scale, from obvious and believable to more anime:>Improvised weapon (using the gun stock)>Reload under stress>Aimed shot>Quickdraw/hip shooting>Faster reload >Field repair (gun)>Alternative ammo>Gunpowder chemistry (play with the composition of the black powder to create various effects: higher armour penetration, more or less smoke, incendiary effects...)>Funky alternative ammo (bolas, explosive rounds...)>Directed ricochetI have zero experience with guns though
Sorry if this has been asked a lot before, but is there a tool that lets you make your own TCG cards easily? I returned to my card game project after I didn't work on it for over ten years or somesuch, and back then I used Magic Set Editor to make makeshift cards to get my game to a playable state quickly. But now I am sick of looking at the MTG templates on my cards and I'd like to design my own cards, but also in a way that its easy to edit them. I am at the playtesting and editing phase now so the ease of editing and shit is pretty important. I am also somewhat bad with common software usage so photoshop isnt really an option. I've heard of https://www.dextrous.com.au/but something about it just strikes me as odd, any experiences in using it?Thanks for any advice you can give!
>>92708637As long as you're not too retarded to use a programming language rather than a GUI there's squib.rocks
>>92708709Looks useful, but admittedly I AM unfortunately too retarded to use a programming language, even something as simple as that. Thanks anyway!
>>92707860I could take a look to help you out with dutch translation if you want? How can I get into contact with you and would there be some kind of payment?
>>92708317Sounds like you've got everything, at least from not knowing shit about your system. Though I'd organize it as:>Setting intro>System>Character sheet>Creating PC>PC options>Equipment>Sample NPC
>>92673107Link to board game prototyping services on each continent.
>>92708317Congratulations, anon. I have two months until mine is born :) Let's get ours out the door
>>92695724The law here requires every phone number to be tied to a certain person. I'm not sure if it's the EU or just my country.
>>92708709holy cow this looks nice, thanks
>>92708770If you can handle basic HTML nandeck is pretty solid, not to mention there's tutorials for people with zero programming experienceBut do note its a janky af program with a terrible ui
>>92700527>>92699749I've been thinking about it a bit more. Currently Expeditions are capped to 20 members (with a few exception allowing to go to 30 for spam factions). Since the game takes place Underground, one part of it is that the map is partially covered by Walls which can be Excavated to allow movement. You ideally want cheap models around to be able to do that, using your combat and specialists for it is a huge Action drain. Workers can fight, but not well. So an Expedition gaining terrain on the others can't just bloat itself, at best it can replace parts of it by better parts. Also, I've started including more ways to gain Silver alternatively to fighting or just finding scenario Items, such as building Camps and Fortifications and controling it at the end of the game. I think these would help avoiding the spiral since a lower-scored player will always be able to try and build up his Chest this way, even if winning the battle is hard, defending the Camp might be a lot easier. Finally, I'm thinking of having the size of an Expedition influence how often one can replenish or send back folks to home base to turn in their goods or whatever. If I can find a way to have this increase the more "goods" and Silver one carries it would be cool, but it might be hard to implement.
I've got the absolute barebones of a turn figured out. it's boring at this moment but I know the sequence works at least
>>92708975Oh no, I am flemish myself. The game is written in Dutch and I assumed that the Low Countries weren't very represented here.The game is university themed. Think 'into the odd', but in Leuven. It's a bit of a joke game for my student union.Here is a rough version of the game. It's supposed to be a small game. If you you're interested, I would appreciate feedback.
i would like to make a mana based card game, where you have like 3 mana per turn and you must sacrifice cards or lifepoints to gain more mana. maybe elemental groups have different mana sources. for example. dark tribes can remove cards from the graveyard to gain mana, or light tribes gain mana, when they heal lifepoints.i was thinking about the 3 mana you start with are 3 cards from the top of the deck that are face down and you cannot use them ever. i like the idea that maybe your best cards are gone from the get go by random chance.monster gets stronger with each mana, you must discard 3 cards to sacrifice summon a level 10 beater monster with huge attack power or you can remove monsters from the battlefield for lower cost.some cards have effects that ingrease the cost. monsters with effects have high mana cost and low attack power.>1 mana - temporary effects like attack up or attack down>2 mana - tap monster or permanent attack or down effects or discard random hand cards>3 mana - bounce backrow traps or totems that effect the whole field>4 mana - bounce monster back to hand or destroy backrow traps>5 mana - destroy monster or remove backrow traps>6 mana - remove monster from play>you can add 2 mana to make the effect count for ALL cards on the field (board wipe destruction or discard all cards)>you can add 4 mana to make the effect count for ALL opponent cards on the field only (enemy board wipe destruction or discard all cards)i would like to add a party mode, too. where the rules are wild. something like:>roll a dice for mana>every card is one mana, but you have only one mana per turn.>you can attack hand cards, you destroy spells and traps instantly, but you attack hidden monsters and can get hurt>destroying monsters hurts for burn damage>discard your hand every end phase of the turn and gain 5 new cards>start the game with only one lifepoint
>>92710627Daaaamn. Congrats to you too!>>92709866I reworked it a bit. Now I'll go with>Short intro (tone of the game)>System>PC creation>Team creation>Equipment list>The setting>Game mastering tools>Sample NPCs, Monsters/enemies, Obstacles...>Rule recap>PC sheetI'm wondering if the list of equipment should be right after "PC options" or in "the setting".It's a game which is not very equipment-centric, a big chunk of the equipment goes with the stats and specialties of the PCs.It's nice, writing this list I realised a lot of it was already written.
>>92716289If equipment is short and mostly supplemental, then put it right after character creation/options.
Been working on a system for about 2 months and one of my play testers pointed out it was way too similar to different, but moderately well known system, system.Started looking in to it and it is like an 80% match in character creation, resolution mechanics, setting, and theme.Should I just suck it up and rebrand as a supplement for the original system; or keep on pushing through and potentially get more questions later down the line?
I am working on a fantasy skirmish game at the moment, something in a genre similar to Warcry. I am currently looking at alternate methods of combat resolution. Something more skill based as opposed to Warcry which is extremely dice (luck) based for combat. I came up with the "combat pennies" system as a form of resolution but I wanted to get some feedback on it. The system works as follows;>In a melee of two players' units/models one is noted as attacker and one as defender.>The two players are given a number of coins based on the Attack or Defense stat of their respective units or models. (Attacker uses Attack stat, Defender uses Defense stat)>The attacker's coins has attack on one side (heads) and feint on the other (tails).>The defenders coins has attack on one side (heads) and block on the other(tails).>The person who has more coins auto retains the number they beat their opponent by and decides immediately if they will deal that many instances extra damage or extra blocks. >The two sides then, from left to right decides their coin faces in secret. >They then reveal left to right and resolve them one at a time.If both chose attack then they both deal full damage to each other.If the Attacker chose attack and the defender chose block then nobody takes damage.If the Attacker chose feint and the defender chose block the defender takes full damage.If the Attacker chose feint and the defender chose attack the Attacker takes full damage.As such there is no attack roll or save to defend. It is entirely up to the player to mindgame their opponent or hedge their bets as to the combat outcome. Unit stats still matter of course, but a unit can be better at defending or attacking.The questions are;>how does this feel to play with?>Is it sufficiently fast enough?>Is it relatively easy to understand?>What is a sufficient loss state for a ranged vs melee attacker? Maybe on a loss state for a ranged attacker the melee defender may be able to move 1"?
>>92703229cute, but has some weird edge cases like "what if a whole bunch of people are participating in danmaku" or "I scored 10 bullets, but I'm adjacent to my target" among other things
Is there a better way to do damage in a D6 system derivative of Shadowrun that isn't "roll to resist damage"? I don't really like the idea of damage just being "roll Xd6 and total it, compare to toughness" like in Savage Worlds either.
>>92715512Cards as Mana is kind of everywhere now for better or worseFor constructed games I'm not the biggest fan, felt like the idea works better in things like RftGOr at least, the realization MtG had that >players want to play their cards, not throw them awayRings more true when you spend time building a deck for cards you don't get to "use">roll a dice for manaI always thought this was an underutilized system, PSO III has it and never took it to its full potential imo (you roll 2 dice for 2 mana pools, you don't get to choose which one goes where, and the 'Def' pool is more or less useless)
Friend of friends offered to blind test my gameLittle did I know it was going to be a retard stress test instead.Quote>Group decided to skip ahead [in rules] to player setup since it made more sense before setting up the board 3 comments later>Stopped player setup because of confusion and went back to board setupLike I'm genuinely aghast that not explicitly saying "there is no discard pile" melted their brains for some reason (it's not a card game).But feedback is feedback, just hard to put the ego (or maybe the id) aside to parse it properly
>>92719212Name names and specifics
>>92720961The game I've accidentally ripped off is FIST in the following ways:Cold War alt-history action espionage;2d6 rules lite system based off of PbtA, 4 stats, no Moves;High lethality (characters start with 6HP, weapons start at 1D6 DMG);One-Shot Mission based structure;Characters start with a Title (Role in FIST) which defines a small bit of their back story alongside what they need to do in the mission to level up;Characters start with 2 traits that each give an ability, a starting item, and a stat bonus;Rare weapons or items get Tags that give extra abilities;Only thing I've got going for me is that I'm leaning more into the MK ULTRA/Psychic experiments/Secret Space Race stories from the Cold War whereas FIST has a more gonzo Aliens/Anime/literal magic influences.
>>92703661In the words of a Far Right Ultranationalist Chinese Cartoon: "Fun things are Fun.">>92706490Freeform Character creation is mostly a game of breaking down the parts of a "standard" character and working from there. E20 does have its rather extensive Not!Class System, so starting from there may help.>>92708637if you have any program with Master Pages (Affinity for example), you can "Design" the Card Frame and then just apply the Master Page as appropriate. Pic somewhat related, but Graphic Design is (not) my passion.>>92719212Good news! You now have a game that you can reference if you have questions and rework things you don't like. This industry is built on games that are 98% similar to other games, so only being 80% means you're a genuine original cindy.>>92719403Well, there's set damage methods, where you're simply rolling to hit with base damage and then further successes increase that damage slightly. A "Derivative" of Shadowrun can be a few things though. What do you want this damage system to be like? Lethal? Enduring? "I have been shot and all my limbs have blown off?">>92719866Have a section earlier in the book very clearly laying out "DO X - DO Y - DO Z" with a nice little flowchart if need be. "I play a lot of games and I know what to do" can sometimes mean "I don't need to read the rules and can go off of vibes."When in doubt, spell it out.
>>92721111I'm not sure what you mean by Lethal vs Enduring, but it should be done in a way that involves as few rolls as possible and discourages players from taking damage via wound penalties of some kind.The Shadowrun way of "roll to resist a flat amount of damage and then reduce it" is a lot of calculation that I'd rather avoid, and doesn't do a great job of expressing the *scale* of damage. Basically, I want damage as raw numbers, wounds systems, but also to not be a copy of Savage Worlds, since that's the system I'm trying to move away from.
>>92719273Certainly not fast enough unless you are balancing the game such that even one good melee is enough to swing an entire game.It's easy enough to understand but I'm not sure how extra-blocks interact with the normal resolution system.The biggest problem is that this doesn't actually seem skill based. Since the results of any one coin flip out of X in a melee are independent, you are just guessing what the other person will do. It's essentially rolling a die, but in two peoples heads instead of on the table.If you want it to be skill based imho it needs some sort of resource consumption to keep in mind, or some sort of feedback cycle that makes one coin comparison feed into the next and form the basis for tactical choices.
>>92721933First off thanks for the feedback!>First off not fast enough unless a single combat is swinging a gameYeah my concern is that the system may bog down normal gameplay to the point where it all grinds to a halt. In the test instances of it I've run it went faster than I expected it to though so I had some hope for it.>Extra blocksSo every coin is an attack. If you land an attack you deal one instance of your weapon damage per success. A block negates one success. An attacker can only block if they have auto retains.>Not sure if skill based...Maybe true, yeah. A defender who attacks will always deal damage as an attacker cannot block. The entire system was based on the Prisoners Dilemma. Maybe it is random? It certainly doesn't feel random from what I tested, but I will keep this feedback in mind and see if I can poke holes, so thank you.>More skill based...use resourcesThe magic casting system is resource based as of right now. It's similar to GURPs threshold magic. If you overspend on a spell one of your casters brains explode, but your limit resets.Thanks again for the feedback. I'm not sold on coin combat, which I think I'll call Battle Cents, but if the avenue doesn't pan out I can always return to the original which was modified strength versus toughness ala Warcry with two extra steps in either direction and on d8s.If anyone else had feedback on Battle Cents I'd love some more before the monthly thread closes.
>>92678569Demons it is.>>92680415For some reason, the east Asian elements system doesn't do much for me, and I have absolutely no idea why. Its not even an anti-eastern thing, just specifically that element system is 'meh' to me. Its really weird.>>92723327Echoing some concerns the other anon had, one thing about the "Feint-Block" thing, if the defender is in a position where they can easily tank the damage of the attacker, then there's no reason to not attack. If they are on equal ground, saying they both have the same attack power and health, it works; but if it something like the defender has more health or does more damage per hit than the attacker, then you'd always attack, since you'll always do damage o the attacker while only having a 50-50 chance of taking the damage yourself.Same line of thinking with feinting, not really a good reason to use it, since while it trumps blocks, you risk hurting yourself without hurting the target. At that point, just go with attack, so you either damage the target or not, without risk of hurting yourself.
>>92724612>Concerns about defender only attackingThis was what I was most worried about. I'd already thought of attack only spam from defenders. I could always just make it worse for a defender from a damage perspective, having units with high defense scores deal very low damage and have high attack score units deal a ton of damage so trading is never worth it.But it definitely sucks the joy out of the mind game.I could always make it either can attack or block. But then you have three scenarios in which nothing happens.Oh well I have two or three more resolution systems I can try yet. Dice are always easier to develop around than trying to come up with an entirely new system.I'll post another for review when I get home from work.
>>92725170Maybe instead of binary, go with a rock-paper-scissors thing? Like, Attack > Feint > Block > Attack. Not sure how the extra attacks and defenses would work, though, but would make it less likely for an optimal play to come out in each engagement.
>>92725292I think I could also change it so that if both the attacker and defender attack then the attacker wins and negates the defenders attack. Thus the system would become:>If both choose attack then Defender takes an instance of damage.>If the Attacker chose feint and the Defender chose block the Defender takes an instance of damage.>If the Attacker chose feint and the Defender chose attack the Attacker takes an instance of damage.>If the Attacker chose attack and the Defender chose block then nobody takes an instance of damage.As such only 25% of the time does nobody take damage. Additionally if you can mindgame your opponent or bluff you can get quite the leg up on instances of damage. Does this seem better?I will also post one of the other combat resolution systems below for review. This will be much more familiar.>Using a d8, check your skill to hit. >Your skill will hit on 3+(Extremely Good), 4+(Good), 5+(Average), 6+(Bad) or 7+(Very Bad). >Check your strength versus your opponent's toughness. >If your strength is double their toughness or more you decrease your target number by 1 and increase your crit range by 1. >If your strength is greater than their toughness you decrease your target number by 1. >If your strength is equal to their toughness you make no change. >If your strength is lower than their toughness you increase your target number by 1. >If your strength is half their toughness or less you increase your target number by 1 and you lower your crit range by 1. >Neither strength nor toughness can ever be a value lower than 2 or greater than 8.Yes, this is just Warcry's strength vs toughness mechanic but stretched out a bit and with variable base skill. One of the issues I had with Warcry was that your SvT mattered very little. So much damage is packed into crits and you always crit 1/6th of the time while big models miss 1/3rd of their rolls. Expanding the range out to give more granularity could solve some feelsbad moments.
>>92721091Most of those are fine. Cold War alt-history action espionage is fairly unique for a tabletop game setting. It may have been done in FIST, but every setting has been done somewhere. Basing it off an engine that's literally designed to be used by dozens of games is fine, and one-shot mission structure kind of comes with the territory of such a setting.I think where it gets dicey is the lethality and progression mechanics. Having the exact same forms of progression is kind of off, and while there's nothing wrong with both being high lethality, having the same hp and damage numbers is probably a little too close.If your playtester has played FIST before, ask them for insights on what they feel the similarities and differences are, and lean into what makes your game more unique. Or read up on it yourself and identify what you don't like in it and what you could expand on. I've obviously never read/played your system, and I've never even heard of FIST, but I reckon they're probably more distinct than you're giving yourself credit for.
I've tried, but I simply can't get classes, or even broad archetypes to sit right with me in my system. I want to go classless, but how do I balance a large number of options to encapsulate a large number of possible character archetypes with avoiding option bloat? It's not really rules lite or anything, but relatively low-mid crunch (closest example I can think of is Crawford's Worlds/Stars/Cities Without Number line), so I want to avoid 50 pages of feats or whatever
>>92725696Don't avoid bloat from option numbers, just consolidate and compartmentalize options. Having tiers of those options is another possibility, depending on how you handle mechanical growth.
>>92725594A lot of GW's games would be greatly improved if they broke out of their reliance on D6s. Like, MESBG with a D10 would be amazing.
>>92730392I've often heard people say this and I'm willing to put up or shutup. I think d10s are a bit too far, and d8s never get any love and still open up options in variability.Any opinions on half vs double strength and toughness? I'm not sure crit changes will be substantial. I could always cut 3+ and 7+ skill ranges to hit and have double and half toughness push to hit by 2 in either direction.I was hoping bounding maximum and minimum strength and toughness values would alleviate some issues where values are too far apart to interact properly.
>>92730743Oh, I said D10 for MESBG because specifically for that game, with how wounding works, the D10 works better.
>>92677413Why not even leggings?
Hi, wondering if anyone could lend a guy a quick pointer? Trying to design a system at the moment, the basic idea takes a little inspiration from Arcanum but simplified. The system uses a combination of Major Skills and Minor Skills. Each Minor Skill is tied to a Major Skill, which you combine for your modifier. So say you wanna hit with a sword; Combat is the Major Skill, and Melee is the Minor Skill; roll 1d20, add your Combat modifier, your Melee modifier and there you goMy problem is trying to create a balanced defensive system. DnD has its AC, M&M has toughness saves, I'm trying to find my legs on this topic. The trouble comes in the level-up system; like Arcanum, I want it to be "1 point buys 1 thing" so you can buy a spell, get your next modifier improvement, whatever, for 1 point, and each level up giving you 1 or maybe 2 points, still trying to balance. But I'm trying to devise the defense system in such a way that someone doesn't just pump all of it into defense at character creation and become an unstoppable bulwark
>>92735686Why not? If a player wants to be able to take hits and nothing else, let them do that. Since your game has levels and scaling if they don't keep putting points in, it will eventually taper off.If anything lean more into that face tank fantasy, by adding abilities and Minor Skills that encourage enemies to attack the player.
>>92735701That's true. I mean, if the other stats have their hard limits, that does make sense that the defense stat should have one too, and if they wanna use their early game being invincible, sure, why not? Thank you, I appreciate the insight
>>92730392The big probability jumps on a D6 are perfectly fine when you need to roll a ton of dice. I don't know if your space orcs hitting on 6/10 as opposed to 3/6 would be a meaningful difference. When it really hurts is when there are single, VERY important D6 rolls.MESBG actually relies on the low granularity of a D6 because of how fight values work. If the probability space was wider, fight values would matter much less. I do remember being annoyed at the wounding system for how often everything wounded on 6s, but I would argue that is a problem with the table, not the D6 itself.In a lot of cases a D8 or D10 would be slightly mechanically better to give the designer more space for stat design without complicated mechanics, but it's also a physical hobby and the abundance of cheap mini-D6s in nearly every war gamers collections is a factor. Ask someone to roll 12D10 for your game and they simply may not have that many. Just about everyone who is already in the genre will have 12D6 sitting around.
>>92731091I see, I haven't played MESBG myself. I have been churning through skirmish games for the better part of the last year.>>92737401I mean there are an abundance of dice rolling apps nowadays. Additionally many people only ever interact with systems over things like tabletop sim simply due to distance constraints. (I play with a friend on Sundays who is almost a thousand miles away).Finally you can always buy specific physical dice from online stores too if you need them.All that said you make a good point. I certainly couldn't roll 12d10 in person, I would have to turn to an app. Not everyone is going to want to do that and it may turn people away. I figure if I ever want to publish my skirmish game physically and I do end up using d8s I am going to have to work out a deal with someone like Chessex to bundle ~20d8 with physical book copies.Though very few of us have any hopes at popularity in a wider market though. I don't ever expect to make money on my skirmish game, in fact I am quite certain I am going to lose several thousand dollars doing this. But I am doing it for myself, my friends and to prove I can. Maybe I end up fortunate enough my LGS would be willing to carry a few physical issues of anything I publish. I am already sacrificing mass appeal by even doing all this, I might as well use the dice (or coin) system best suited to the game as a whole and make the absolute best end product I can. That way at least I know I did all I could. I think the only thing that would really hurt my feelings would be to get called a GW ripoff, which I do risk by even using strength versus toughness at all.
How to prevent falling into bring/kill/escort rumors/quests cliches in hexcrawl? I don't want it to feel like they're playing elder scrolls
>>92737401If you are rolling something like 6+ dice at a time, then definitely, go with D6. At that point, the math is about the pool, not the individual results. But at that point, that should carry through the design of the whole system, you really shouldn't have many instances of lone D6 rolls deciding important things.I haven't played the latest versions of MESBG, when I played, the movies were still being released, so they may have changed how somethings work. But when I did play, Fights still really wasn't that important. In fact, that was one of my biggest gripe with the system, that it really just came down to fishing for a '6' on the roll to win the fight, that really wasn't a whole lot you could do to influence the outcome, save for a few things like Might or using a two-hander.
>>92741575Mostly a non-issue, but try using plot hooks related to the PCs.
it seems that my system struggles to handle more than 10 enemies at a time, but i think i can roll many small enemies into conglomerated "mob" enemies with combined attacks and health. enough damage to outright kill a member would reduce its attacks, otherwise it would lose members at maybe half and then a quarter and so on. >is this just a blogpost so you dont forgetyes
Looks like we hit autosage time.Congrats on lasting a whole week, this time.
>>92743115What? Didn't know this existed.
>>92743350They implemented it a few months back. Thread on /tg/ now have a 7 day limit.
