I have been playing and running Draw Steel's playtest since August of last year, and have since moved on to the release version. I recently ran a brief level 5 game. This is my play report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Be1a7GJ1gjK7SqYQWZmxA2Tx_nIF6vRcTNqOKuUUQ3g/editThe full version is above, but to summarize:• I had four players. One had already played the system a fair bit, and had experience with grid-based tactical games like D&D 4e and ICON. The other three were new, but also had experience with tactical games.• I set this in the timescape's space-fantasy upper worlds, in a UNISOL-aligned manifold. The story began with a counterattack on the fleet of Lord Syuul, and culminated in delving into the minds of two Space Gods to save a planetary system.• I kept basic numerical statistics transparent, but enemy traits and abilities opaque.• Negotiations were received poorly by the players. They felt too rote (uncover, appeal, uncover, appeal, repeat), and it quickly became evident that some PCs should just step back and let the characters with relevant perma-edges (e.g. High Elf Glamor) handle everything.• Montages had a somewhat better reception, but the players still were not too warm on them. They just do not like 4e-style skill challenges.• Combat was the most well-received facet of the system. The consensus seemed to be "decent, would definitely play again, but nothing special compared to other grid-based tactical games we have already played."Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>96508157Water is not actually difficult terrain by default:https://steelcompendium.io/compendium/main/Rules/Chapters/Combat/#climb-or-swim>Climb or Swim>A creature who has "climb" in their speed entry, or who gains the temporary ability to automatically climb, can climb across vertical and horizontal surfaces at full speed. Likewise, a creature who has "swim" in their speed entry, or who gains the temporary ability to automatically swim, can swim in liquid at full speed.>Creatures without those types of movement can still climb or swim when a rule allows them to move, but each square of climbing or swimming costs 2 squares of movement. If a surface is difficult to climb (for instance, a sheer cliff or ice-covered wall) or a liquid is hard to swim through (a raging river or whirlpool), the Director can call for a Might test. On a failure, a creature can't climb or swim but wastes no movement in the attempt. The Director can also impose other consequences to failure, such as being caught in the spinning current of a whirlpool.https://steelcompendium.io/compendium/main/Rules/Chapters/Combat/#difficult-terrain>Difficult Terrain>Areas of thick underbrush, rubble, spiderwebs, or other obstacles to movement create difficult terrain. It costs 1 additional square of movement to enter a square of difficult terrain.Water that is also difficult terrain thus costs 3 squares of movement to enter.
>>96504681>No I always assume some sort of interesting battle map, but the "not him" anon's issues with the shadow didn't seem to have anything to do with good or bad terrain, they are just repetitive on their own.I haven't played the game extensively, when I played a character that didn't really move or push the others around, I found it really boring. So if that sniper build is like that, I can understand why someone would find it boring. As I said, if you are not pushing others around and moving around the map, like a tactical game, there is no point in playing Draw Steel over other systems.
>>96505249>>96505259>>96505361>I think that D&D baggage has polluted common consciousness so that even many normies know the basic class archetypes, and I think draw steel is trying to get away from that but in a shitty way doesn't actually succeed. "Fury? Oh, so it's a barbarian!"I agree. It's not unusual, many games make the same dumb mistake of trying to escape the archetypes of public consciousness instead of leaning into them. Matt gives me the impression of an egotist too (Who the hell names their RPG after themselves?) so it makes sense that he'd not realize how dumb it is.I'm reminded of old /v/ memes like pic related. Instead of arguing that you don't have Wizards, you have Thaumaturges or Elementalists something stupid, just make your Wizards look cooler.>Replace "total defense" with "fighting defensively" and the broader point still stands in my mind.I see. I don't know pathfinder well enough to say. I know that it IS a viable strategy in 3.5e with Robilar's gambit, though it has many restrictions in when you can even start doing shit like thatI think it's better when it's not though, defensive playstyles suck and should be less optimal, if not entirely non-viable.>I think we are discussing different archetypal fantasies.Yes.My main contention is just that the one you describe is very rare. Most players I've met approach the game with something from popular media in mind. Better players come up with an actual character and use archetypes as a means of flavoring and guiding themselves. But,>but for the party to come out on top cause they're the big daddy protector, not just the grizzled, brawny hp sponge.Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>96506859I approach things in a different matter. On the mechanical side, whatever concept I want to play with I just try to optimize without straying from the concept. This is usually simple since all optimization means is finding the quickest win condition. In most systems, that's just upping damage output. In some, you're more encouraged to raise defense. In fewer yet, you aim for win conditions instead, and do whatever makes your win condition(s) easier to achieve.In Draw Steel (And all D&Ds+directly D&D-derived games), it's a DPR race, so I find optimizing and other things of that nature inherently boring because all builds have the exact same goal and practically the same (or sometimes the literal same) methods towards achieving it.To that end, emphasizing balance just heightens the issue of making everything feel the exact same.
> I just try to optimize without straying from the conceptI would say that's about what I do as well, you just put it better. I don't think you're right in that dnd and all its derivatives have optimization that's just about dpr though. Frequently something like the god wizard that can do anything is considered S-tier, the one who has the most variety in skills at hand both for combat and outside of it. The bard in 5e is considered very good for this reason, and its control spells that waste the enemy's turns and put the action economy in your favor is considered the optimal build. Defensive stuff is also still valued high, which is why you see people opting for feats that give you good saves in almost all optimal builds.
Frog Edition >Previous Thread>>96475905>Pastebinhttps://pastebin.com/WiCHizn0>Mediafirehttps://mediafire.com/folder/s9esc6u7ke8k5/CofD>Mega Ihttps://mega.nz/folder/ePQ1BKhJ#RCosRCh59Ki2Mpb1M9H3Uw>Mega II (also containing fanmade games)https://mega.nz/folder/ZbQ2zLJA#DOT-3df6rS2lLet4_RmqJQ>WoD5 Megahttps://mega.nz/folder/7rQQ1LbQ#16_AiXVGo0P3_rVOJuoZyA>STV content foldershttps://pastebin.com/9i9zhydQComment too long. Click here to view the full text.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r__Dk4oWGJQIf this can't be in your game, you're playing garbage.
>>96513865I think it was a running gag in oWoD that every gameline claimed Rasputin was one of them (though they all end that statement with a soft ...maybe?), or at least that's how I've treated it over the years.Sadly, that wasn't the case for Hunter and Demon because those gamelines just had to be stuck in the revised-era metaplot dip.
>>96513939Hunter's probably the last oWoD splat I would ascribe to Rasputin, admittedly, though it's a shame about Demon.
>>96513958Hunter would be the ultimate cope interpretation of Rasputin where he was an actual honest to god healer protecting the Czar and his family while being smeared by the vampire-owned media.
Is V5 a good edition mechanically? Do the simplified mechanics work well for combat orientated campaigns or should I seek a different system? Would Hunter 5 or Werewolf 5 better suit my purposes?I ask because I always hear people complaining about the V5 lore but never talking about the mechanics.
What exactly is wrong with them? We're living in one!
>>96513332>the creator's preferenceMy preference is whatever random bullshit I find amusing tho
>>96513145Cassowaries are fine as long as people don't feed them. Then they get angry and want everyone to keep feeding them or they get aggressive.
>>96513499When 3 of 4 attacks against humans involve food that means 1 out of every 4 attack does not. Moreover, they have a far longer history of attacks than is found in the white fella's books.
>>96513145>implying the real world isn't shit
>>96513145Traditional games?
Work in Progress "Rise From Your Grave!" Edition>Full-on /WIP/ OP Links Pastebinhttps://pastebin.com/BE42AEcD>WIP Tutorial Images Megahttps://mega.nz/#F!TvQFCaLb!w8WZKCcOsTRasxrI0JWezw>Saint Duncan's "Six Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Painting"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufP8ka3KGno>Saint Duncan also explains thinning your paintshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxWgsqSf74s>Paint thinning 102Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>buy some gook metal recasts recently>good detail and actually sturdywhat the fuck
>>96514304koreans do recasts?
>>96506961chink shit off amazon
>>96511875I hate static grass but the trick is to use PVA glue and make multiple layers until it looks good.One layer usually isn't enough.
>paint a mini a few years ago>want to do nmm because I like shiny things>learn how to glaze>spend a whole day glazing a few armour panels>"fuck, it actually looks like the old nmm stuff. This shit is easy!">realize it's easy but takes fucking forever to do>look to a whole squad of models for my army>"fuck that">painting a squad of legionaires now with a metalic paintjob with an airbrush>looks kinda cool, but all the loose detailing sticks out to my OCD brain but I also need to paint an army on scale>take photos but because it's true metalic and not flat 'eavy metal it looks shit>look back to the nmm test model>realize even if I did nmm and used it for characters in an army painted with non-metalics it would still look bad in how much it would contrasts against everything elseIt's suffering. I want perfect things but I can't also have a perfect army on a practical level. If I hadn't have invested into tabletop so much I would do exclusively standalone models.
What makes PbtA games so disliked on /tg/? I hate to admit it, but I was interested in the Avatar game before becoming disappointed after learning it was PbtA, but I've never even played a PbtA game let alone read the system. The only times I've seen people talk about it is to say it's not really a game but I don't really understand what makes it not a game? Characters still have to roll when they attempt an action, still have progression, can still fail.
>>96514124Most Pbta don't work like what you're describing. Hell, it's weighted that you'll get a lesser success more than half of the time on an unmodified roll.Are you thinking of Forged in the Dark?
>>96514297A lesser success in PbtA wouldn't be a success at all in most games
>>96513045Notably, this is the same problem the OGL had, except that the fundamental skeleton of 3e is also quite bad.
>>96513357I have to give credit to Dungeon World for being the pluperfect game for groups that normally play D&D as a fuckaround game. Throw 90% of the rules out, give the GM more license to mess with stuff, make player abilities more freeform. Exactly what those groups need. Is it what _I_ want to play? No. But that's not the game's aim.
>>96514317>make player abilities more freeform.I wouldn't even say that much, at least anymore than flavoring any 5e Class Feature would be.
Helsmiths Edition>Previously, in the Mortal Realms>>96502924>Official AoS website:https://www.ageofsigmar.com>Downloads, Rules Errata and FAQs:https://www.warhammer-community.com/warhammer-age-of-sigmar-downloads/>Toolswarhammer-community.com/2017/09/26/make-your-own-free-city-the-easy-way-sep26gw-homepage-post-4/https://runebrush.pa-sy.com/warscroll/Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>96513933I wish I was gay.Hang out with dudes all the time, sex on tap, party and test, never need to interact with women.Trust me, I've tried. I wish it was a choice
>>96514321gays are no different from women tbhon t.gay Fyreslayers player
>>96514345No way. There's a gay couple at my gym, they're both jacked as fuck. Work hard together. I assume their weekends are spent partying and fucking.Living a mad lifestyle
>>96513000Unfathomably basedDon't see too many stormcast players around here
>>96512520>tqI used to have 13000ish points of Stormcast pre-squattening, now it's about 7000, so Soulblight is now my biggest at 8200ish.
He was right (Also outercircle and Gamza too)
who?
>>96509472Its a 2000s/early 2010s autist throwback. Before autists got caught up in knowing what cringe is but being agonizingly uncertain how to avoid it. Before they were afraid of being cringe. This is the fedora era. There was this concept of a form of cool based on being barely ironically like fancy and sophisticated, some people would constantly bring up Ron Burgundy-like affectations like how you drink whiskey or something, and some people have this idea of certain british accents being casually sophisticated and connoting a renaissance man breadth of interests and tasteful hobbies. They were still into like anime and general nerd culture of course, and to an extent this whole vibe was a way of trying to water that down with "normal", adult interests and behaviour and virtues, going to friday night magic with a cane and conspicuously carrying around a single cheap cigar, not realising that stuff, the way they went about it, was more cringe than just being super into the regular nerd stuff.
>>96512454People have been "pointing out issues with the long term health of GW" for literally 25 years. If he is actually 40 and not new to the game he would know this and be self-conscious about beating the same old worn out drum of cope.
>>96514264It is honestly on the same level of performativity as an AMAB wearing dresses and saying they're a woman.Arch is pretending to be intelligent, confident, cultured and capable and the other person is pretending to be a woman, and both depend completely on the charitable, altruistic grace of people around them to play along with their chosen role.
>>96508086Traditional games?
what causes this mentality? is it retardation?
>>96504327Most chapters take volunteers
>>96502871Cain's model will come eventually. If GW did the Taniths' models, they won't pass the option of releasing Cain's. Maybe alongside a Valhallan refresh?
>>96487386>>96500896Calling them Orcs is reddit Trump=Voldemort tier a much more accurate term would be something like rape apes
>>96475107>slurKek. So what turned you into a crybaby bitch?
>>96465624you should of made an better meme tho
High Adventure Edition>RPG Rulebookshttps://rentry.org/40kRPGLinks>Homebrew Collection (Feb 2025)https://rentry.org/40RPGHB>WANG/Imperium Maledictum Newshttps://cubicle7games.com/blog/warhammer-40k>Bestiary, armoury, weapon quality and NPC databasehttp://www.40krpgtools.com/>Dark Heresy 2e Character Creator:https://apps.ajott.io/dh2chargen/>General 40kRPG Encyclopediahttps://www.scholaprogenium.com/>Offline Combined Armory (v6.48.161023)Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>96512605>How aware of history do you like the Imperium to be?Not very. Galactic history is an obscure and uncertain subject at best and a heavily-censored or outright forbidden one at worst. Most historians have enough trouble keeping track of events in their own home sectors in the last 2 to 3 thousand years. A healthy dose of obscurantism can keep stupid nulore Primach Marvel soap opera BS out of your games, so make sure to maintain it.>Would space marines have a deep knowledge of the Heresy after 10,000 years?Space Marine training would mostly focus on things they need to know in order to fight. A few Chapters might make a point of remembering the Imperium's early history and teaching to their initiates, and might have a unique perspective (especially if they are First Founding Chapters). I do suspect that shallow knowledge of those events (at least the fact that they actually happened and some of the names of the leaders and factions involved) might be more common since it's useful to know about potential enemies.>Does everyone still remember who the traitor legions are and their primarchs?Most people - including a lot of scholars - are not aware that things called "primarchs" ever existed. Knowledge of the existence of Traitor Astartes might be more common in places where they've caused trouble, though not necessarily their ancient origins (and not all are ancient - the Astral Claws certainly aren't). Talking about the Horus Heresy in the 40K era would be like talking about the details of wars and political incidents among the ancient Sumerians today, except that 40K people might be inclined to view such discussions as punishable heresy rather than just confusing nerdy speculation.
>>96512605I'd imagine the space marines only teach the history of their own chapter (and legion depending on how much they care about that) so and Imperial Fist probably knows who the Iron Warriors are but would have no idea about the night lords besides that they were one of the traitor legions
once described my nurgle cultists appearance so well I gagged
>>96511998Metric is actually pretty good for measuring grand constructions, because everything is essentially just a multiple of 10. While language would definitely change significantly over such great amounts of time and distance, the meter should remain a meter, as it is not subject to slang or bastardization via functionally illiterate people. Though I imagine that feral worlds (or worlds that were feral for a time and then moved up on the civilizational scale before being discovered by the Imperium) could have developed their own unique measurement system, alongside pretty much everything else. Still, it wouldn't be difficult for explorers and pilgrims to teach the natives a standardized language and measurement system, so those things shouldn't really be a problem in your games, at least as long as the players are in imperial territory.
>>96514333Can you describe it again here so I can gag too?
Vampire EditionTell us about your horror settings, games, etc. Share inspirational art, prompts, etc.>List of games:Call of Cthulhu, Chill, Cold and Dark, Degenesis, Delta Green, Don't Rest Your Head, Dread, Esoterrorists/Fear Itself+Book of Unremitting Horror, Fall of Delta Green, GORE, Into The Shadows, KULT, Little Fears, Mothership RPG, Nemesis (free on Arc Dream's website), Nights Black Agents, Silent Legions (Mostly for the tables), Stalker: The SciFi RPG, Symbaroum, Ten Candles, Trail of Cthulhu, Unisystem (All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Witchcraft, Conspiracy X, etc.), Unknown Armies, The Whispering Vault, Vaesen>Inspirational stuff:Caitlin R Kiernan, Castlevania, Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Doom Watch, Fear & Hunger, George Romero, Ghostwatch, House of Leaves, I Am In Eskew, John Carpenter, Kolchak the Nightstalker, Laird Barron, John Langan, M.R. James, Nick Cutter, Old Gods of Appalachia, Quatermass, Ramsey Campbell, Remedy Series (Alan Wake, Control), SCP Foundation, Scarfolk Council, Shaun Hutson, Silent Hill, Stand Still Stay Silent, The Evil Dead, The Magnus Archives, The Secret World, The Stone Tapes, Anatomy, Thomas Ligotti, Twin Peaks, Vault of Evil forums, toomuchhorrorfictionOther News:"The Sutra of Pale Leaves: Carcosa Manifest" coming later this yearhttps://www.chaosium.com/blogcoming-in-2025-for-call-of-cthulhu-the-sutra-of-pale-leaves-carcosa-manifest/Current Book Club Topic:Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
My friends all love the Alien franchise but it can be like herding cats getting them to do something or focusThat said, how exciting and captivating is Nemesis? And is it easy to play/teach if I learn it and walk them through a playthrough?
Currently airing anime.
Anyone have any spooky circus games, any system offical or fan don't care. I still have no confidence in my writing so I wanna at least shop around to get ideas.
>>96432033The substitute is only made viable after vampire society has started to collapse and doesn't address the other issues in the film, like the degeneration into a more animalistic form of vampire or psychological issues accompanying agelessness. The film practically beats you over the head with the theme that being a vampire, never mind vampire society, sucks by opening with a vampire committing suicide because she couldn't live with being stuck in the middle of puberty forever.
Recommendations for vampire literature?
These are the most hit or miss aspect of my games. How do you run them? How do you deal with misseable clues and dumb player derailments?
I don't "run" investigations because I'm not in charge of what the players decide to do. If they want to investigate something, they can. They might succeed or the might not.
>>96513806>I don't "run" investigationswith that kinda bmi its not surprising
>>96509801As >>96512895was implying, things move on even if the investigation fails or falters. If it's a murder, more people die; if it's a theft, the shit ends up in an auction. If the mystery is air-tight aside from given clues, look at things from a motivation perspective, and give tools to analyze the situation along those lines. Player/GM disconnect is somewhat a given in any campaign, so give out rolls to pick up on clues relevant to the investigation (even the ones that aren't just Perception and/or Sense Motive fuel), and maybe some suggestions as to what they imply in the greater mystery. The tricky part is being as clear as possible to have a solvable mystery, without being so translucent they just solve the damn thing instantly.
>>96512895>outcomes that entrailsVery Call of Cthulu.
>>96509801Stop running storyshit games. TTRPGS suck for storytelling. Proof? All "story telling systems" suck shit through a straw out of a hippos ass.
The spicier the better. I'll start to get the ball rolling: MTG, DnD and Warhammer are actually good for the hobby. They get new people started in this hobby and they keep the trend chasers contained and away from the rest of the hobby.Appealing to the normie masses is a necessary evil in order to keep what you love afloat. Even if it comes with the negative baggage of doing so.Generals are good for /tg/.
>>96514085Cherish what you have then. I think out of over 30 people I've played TTRPGs with I can count less than 10 that weren't involved in some sort of similar drama, the percentage sees to go even lower for MtG (but YGO has great numbers for some reason). As you mention, the normier you go seems to influence how large of a problem this is, but TTRPGs seem to be normier than fishing trips at least from my numbers.
>>96514104We're just spergy enough we would probably completely miss any drama taking place
yes, obviously, left looks better than right, no one is going to disagree with that. but when playing a GAME, right is obviously going to be a funner experience for BOTH sides, just look at the utter lack of balance in the left terrain set up. the near side has to traverse a river and then fight through open fields while the far side immediately gets access to most the hard cover of buildings on the map and on top of that gets the hedgerows overlooking the open fields. its blatantly not fair and poorly set up.>but just give the attack side more units!ok then, how do you balance that? how do you know how many points to allocate to balance out the terrain advantage? double? triple? what if thats too much and now the attacker has the distinct advantage? its way too much trouble to figure out. thats why tourney tables will always provide the better gameplay experience for BOTH sides. GAMEplay. WarGAMES. These are GAMES. A good game needs to be fun for all involved. It is not fun when one side has an inherent advantage over the other. There is a reason why 40k tournaments are by and far the most popular wargaming events and playstyle over every single alternative.
>>96514109Maybe I need a spergier group. Is Card Ranker translated yet? Maybe I can call the YGO crowd.
>>96514142Actually I inadvertently lied when I said there has never been any drama, but it was minor and happened so long ago I almost forgot it happenedI was still a teenager like most of the rest of us back then lmao, now mid-30s, since then, nothing.
How comfy do you like your fantasy?
>>96507339The Dark Eye art?
>>96507347I really like giving elves antlers or horns, especially wood elves.
>>96507762based
Max comfy like all my hobbies and my life in general My life be like ooooooooooh aaaaaaaaaaah
>>96507339Traditional games?
It's interesting just how little you can learn from other types of media that helps you actually play TTRPGs.For example you can watch as many fucking heist films as you want but when you try to apply it to a game it never fucking works. Ever. It always crumbles in the details. Lessons learned from real life are way more applicable.
>>96513917Maybe you're just retarded and trying to learn the wrong things.
>>96514008Yeah, definitely agreeing with that second portion. Often times I feel like I just made the wrong character for the campaign we actually ended up playing.From the GMing perspective, I feel a lot of the time what seems blindingly obvious to the GM is just absolutely opaque to the players. I used to get very frustrated with how foolish my players seemed, now I just give them a free Knowledge skill (or whatever equivalent skill a system might have) check before they try to do something that seems like an obviously awful idea to me.
>>96514094Being opaque and maliciously interpreting player choices comes from the wargaming tradition which was meant to teach officers the virtues of writing down clear and unambiguous orders. A lot of military screw ups comes from breakdowns in the chain of command writing half-assed orders.
>>96513987Hmm almost as if it is a game.
>>96513917>For example you can watch as many fucking heist films as you want but when you try to apply it to a game it never fucking works. Ever. It always crumbles in the details.>Lessons learned from real life are way more applicable.OP robbed a bank.
Trench Crusade General - /trench/Weird love Edition >What is Trench Crusade? An alternate weird history 28mm/32mm tabletop skirmish game still in a pre-release playtesting phase but with the full release slated for this year. Based on the art and lore of Mike Franchina, whose illustrations you may have seen floating around on /tg/ for a several years now, and designed by Tuomas Pirinen, one of the original creators of Mordheim. It's grimdark, it's visceral, it's awesome, and it's very Blanchitsu. >What Trench Crusade is not TC not an excuse for you to discuss IRL religion, history that didn't occur in the game, culture war shit, or discord bullshit on /tg/. Keep it on topic. >What's the QRD on the background? The Knights Templar turned heretic and opened the Gates of Hell when they took Jerusalem during the First Crusade. Over 800 years later the war is still ongoing as technology has developed to a pseudo diesel-punk WW1 standard and a third of Humanity has sided with the Infernal Princes. >How do I get started? All the files are free online, but are split between the website and the discord. They have all been collected here for your convenience: https://mega.nz/folder/70QH0BBa#Eg-blxYQKkY_C02wErnFTQ Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
I dont own a 3d printer or know anyone with one, onlygames.co is pretty good right? Ive heard good things about them before and 45 euro for a bunch of TC minis sounds goodAnyone with experience or alternatively a better option?
>>96514275Only games has QC issues and are backed up till November at least. You can find better on ebay as another anon mentioned
>>96514316Never used eBay I'm a yuropoor how reliable is it? Etsy also has sellers I believe but idk if it's better or worse
This and Turnip28 existing are such a relief, the 40k price hiking 24/7 is just depressing and I feel like the charm or WH lore is slowly being lost
>>96514330Just like any direct sales service it's only as reliable as the vendor you buy from, that said I've never had issues though horror stories aren't uncommon. Etsy would be about the same so find whatever models look best from someone who has a high rating
