Welcome to the ALL AMERICAN JULY 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?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)
>>93219358Finally got sick of and abandoned my victorian-esque fantasy RPG. I have an idea of a game I could use the mechanics I made for, but at this point I don't trust myself not to abandon that too.
I've been taking a break from working on my game. I probably shouldn't do that, though.
>>93219358As we're all celebrating AMERICA'S BIRTHDAY in a few days (God Bless), I thought it was only appropriate to talk about the greatest country on Earth today.RPG>How do you measure wealth in your game? Completely abstract, hard penny counting, something gooey in the middle?>How many weapons can you expect a PC to carry on their person? How easy is it to switch between them?>How much of a force multiplier (if any) is a PC among a group of mooks, goons (non-sexual), or henchmen? One man army? Regular Joe?>Stat Duke Nukem, he is the perfect man after all. Wargame>How much "Off-Map" Support does your game have? Can we call in air support or a artillery barrage?>How much heavy ordinance does your "Big Gun" faction actually have? If you don't have any firepower, your absolute "Strongest Army" can get "How Strong?">Contrasting the above, what's your current "Weakest" Armies one gimmick or advantage to give them an edge in the fight?>Would you be able to scale your game up by a operational step (Squad - Platoon - Company - Battalion, etc) Cardgame>How fast can you resolve a game under ideal circumstances? How long can a match take under VERY POOR conditions for both sides?>Spikey haired twats not with standing, how much deck control does your game employ?>Does your game have a focus on its playstyle (Aggro is favored, Control is weak, etc etc)Boardgame>How many moving pieces does your game have?>Sorry! Only Expansions! Infinite time, infinite effort, what kind of expansions would you want to add to your game?>Have you managed to print things out to be physical? If not, do you plan on doing that, or keeping it entirely online?
I have a happy update on my game CAPS: Fantasy which has been given a whole new makeover. I was obsessing for a good part of last year with making the Introduction something I'm happy with. Thanks to no small part from Notepad Anon, I realized what the essence of CAPS: Fantasy has been all along.What I'd like is for some Anons to read the Introduction of CAPS: Fantasy (p. 5 to p. 7) and give me some feedback on it. What I want to know is, does it make you want to read more? Does it suck you in? Or does it just plain suck? Anything weak about it? I want the Introduction to be pristine as this will set the tone for the rest of the game.There is a Primer which is still half-done being written, but since Notepad Anon made the thread, I'll just have to wait next month to present it at best. If you want to read the Primer and give me feedback on it so far, you're welcome to. A previous anon gave me a tip, "Mention, don't explain". Explaining is a bad habit of mine, but does it look like I fell to those bad habits in the Primer, or didn't I?But honestly, I appreciate any honest feedback at all on whatever. If reading it is too painful or is going to be too painful, just stop reading and tell me it's too painful to read. Forcing yourself to read it at that point isn't on me.Thanks, guys. And thanks again Notepad Anon for your video of Fantasy (tm) (c) (r) that gave me my epiphany.
>>93219546I'm the CAPS: Fantasy Anon. I realize that I should cut out comments on the document before making a pdf of it.Here's the updated pdf for those anons who are bothered by the lopsided look of the previous pdf.
>might have to be running the long outdoors trek soon.Shit I need to fix up my fucking rules.Been fucking around with a movement system where the "scale" is more similar to some vidya games like NeoScavenger and you move multiple hexes per day, potentilly running into several encouters instead of the classic "1 hex, maybe 2 per interval and one random encounter roll"Would be nice if someone knew a system that already works that way I could steal ideas from. Currently been mostly stealing from the FreeLeague Twilight 2k books.
>>93219508RPG>How do you measure wealth in your game? Completely abstract, hard penny counting, something gooey in the middle?I desperately want to find a way to make wealth as a stat work in a fantasy game but I just cant make it fit without playing nobles which is no fun. Its so good in rouge trader it made me mad.>How many weapons can you expect a PC to carry on their person? How easy is it to switch between them?2 or 3, unless you are rocking like 6 pistols so you dont have to reload>How much of a force multiplier (if any) is a PC among a group of mooks, goons (non-sexual), or henchmen? One man army? Regular Joe?every human character shares the same generation rules so those goons are going to be pretty on par with the heros>Stat Duke Nukem, he is the perfect man after all. where you would find the stats on his npc page it just says "You lose" with a list of 1d6 one liners
>>93219358God I love America.Just been working on my game, "The Fade - Abyss" as of recently. Converting some mechanics from TFT 3e over to the new hex grid, d12 success system, and whatnot.I've been overhauling not just mechanics but also lore to the setting. For example; I've completely removed a ton of the "generic fantasy" races like Elves and whatnot.They have been replaced with the pic related, a Nyarlathotep-worshiping group of Ibis-headed cultists.
>>93219358I want to make it known I hate America
>>93219508>How do you measure wealth in your game?Hard penny counting, and there's an emphasis on disposable equipment. My playtesters can practically hear cash register noises, every time they use a grenade.>How many weapons can you expect a PC to carry on their person? How easy is it to switch between them?One or two main weapons, with their other equipment slots filled with single-use items. Though nothing is stopping you from using just one item type.>How much of a force multiplier (if any) is a PCYou're a heavy metal action hero. Mooks die in one or two hits even if you aren't using decent weapons. Elites have a bit of a difficulty spike, and can be an actual threat. PC-tier enemies can and will kill you.>Duke "The King" Nukem>3 Violence>2 Instinct>Tier 3 Hand Cannon> 2 Tier 4 Disposable Launchers
>>93219508RPG>Measure WealthIt depends on what kind of Fantasy you want to run. By default, we've got the Silver Pieces, Gold Pieces, etc. If, however, you're going to have an Estate like if you're going to be a nobleman who has all the money they really need, there will be a Wealth mechanic to measure their passive revenue from their holdings which will be more abstract. Of course a nobleman can cash out some of it for numerical money as their pocket change. Money is a reservoir, and Wealth are the streams feeding it. I have no mechanics about it yet.>WeaponsIt'll take a minor action to switch between them, unless they have the Draw perk, in which case the act of drawing it and sheathing it don't cost a minor action. This can be cheesed, so this is prone to change.>Force MultiplierAgainst mooks, a since PC can just "take 10" to affect them, but Mooks are for the kinds of Fantasy where the PCs are the heroes and not zeroes. A PC can handle around five mooks pretty easily, but if they all act together, they get a Mook bonus equal to the extra Mooks doing it with them. Mooks are still not to be ignored.>Stat Duke NukemNot enough character space!
>>93219616A pox be upon ye
>>93219571I wish I could help you there, but I want to say the classic 1-2 hex and one random encounter roll comes from a system that demands Resting after X encounters. My question is, how deadly is your game? If we're talking about ambushes, then it needs to be emphasized that it's up to the players if they fall into ambushes or not.
So, I've been hammering at a not!D&D idea for well over a decade now. For the most part a side project that's gone through a fuck tonne of iterations. But very recently I had a chance to run it beyond just a test session and it sucked. Not that the game itself was bad per se, it was okay enough. But that it didn't gel with my own game mastery style. To structured, to rigid. It wasn't built to let the game master fly by the seat of his pantaloons. Adversaries and items had way too many moving parts that made them all but impossible to create on the fly, etc. It was like running BESM all over again.So, I just scrapped it all and for some reason I don't feel bad about that. I feel like this new thing that I got playable in under a month is so much better. Both for me as an improv-forward GM but also like in general.My only real complaint is that it feels more like a D&D family game instead of a Fuzion/interlok family game where it started... though renaming perks to feats and using D&D names for a lot of them can't be helping.>>93219508>How do you measure wealth in your game? Completely abstract, hard penny counting, something gooey in the middle?Dollar counting. A single currency unit that is tracked closely.>How many weapons can you expect a PC to carry on their person? How easy is it to switch between them?I use a pretty bog standard Major/Minor/Move action system, and if you ahve shit at the ready you can on a minor. I expect my players to keep a main weapon, and a side arm.>How much of a force multiplier (if any) is a PC among a group of mooks, goons (non-sexual), or henchmen? One man army? Regular Joe?A single PC of the 1st-level can take on about three normal ass non-adventuring men with relative ease but once you add that fourth it gets messy.>Stat Duke Nukem, he is the perfect man after all.Picrel
>>93219775What would you say is the difference between D&D and Fuzion/interlok?
>>93219546Don't put colons at the end of titles.Needs an editing pass to remove redundant nonsense. This is not unusual. Most obvious is>Without further ado, let’s begin! Which is completely redundant. It's pure conversational fluff that says nothing. Later on>CAPS: Fantasy is known as a tabletop roleplaying gameThe expression is "what is known as", but it's also redundant here. "CAPS: Fantasy is a role playing game, or RPG" is more direct and entirely sufficient.I don't find your opening clear. I think you're trying to say that the important part of fantasy to focus on isn't setting details but tone and theme. Not "where the characters are", but "what they hope to do". That the key feature of LotR isn't the elves or maps or history but the humility and heroism of its cast in the face of evil and their journey through strange lands.I assume this is supposed to tie into the chapter on genres, but you don't actually say that there.(cont)
>>93219834Interlok is the core engine that Cyberpunk and Mekton are built on. They have almost no character progression beyond skill improvement, and the combat is both very loose and deadly. Fuzion is just a half-step between Interlok and Hero, a fusion of the two rulesets. While it has more stats to track, I don't really see it as a different ruleset.
>>93219416Nothing wrong with a temporary break. Don't force yourself to work. Take some time to recharge and then get back into it with a fresh perspective.>>93219508>How do you measure wealth in your game? This has made me realize none of the projects I've put out there have wealth systems. If I do add one to a future project, it'll be hard counting using 1 form of currency.>>93219571>Currently been mostly stealing from the FreeLeague Twilight 2k books.Well, there goes my recommendation. OSR games are pretty popular for hexcrawls. Maybe even some of the other grid-based Free League games could work too.>>93219616You do you, anon.For me, I finally made progress on overhauling combat, damage, and recovery rules.Agility>Damaged only on fumbles (~6% chance of rolling).>You have 3 marks, each fumble fills in 1.>Each mark increases difficulty of Agility tests by 1.>After you hit 3, you get the Exhausted condition.>Recover Exhaustion by getting a good nights sleep.Chivalry>Damaged by normal failures.>Same 3 mark system and penalties as above.>The condition this time is a hit to your Reputation. >People don't want to listen to you or take your words seriously.>Recover Chivalry by telling tells around the campfire at night (listeners needed).>You can partially recover by spending time hyping yourself up.Weaponry>Gear has Durability and this goes down by 1 a on successful use/attack.>If Durability hits 0, the item is Broken and needs repairing.>If Durability is above 0, but less then full, the item is Dirty/Dented/Dinged, etc.>At the campfire you can either repair 1 broken item or clean 2 dirty items.Thoughts on this? Anything missing or seem odd? I am conflicted on 2 of the 3 stats being hurt by failures and the last by successes, but it makes sense from the perspective of actually using the gear. A swing and a miss won't hurt your sword, but clattering it against armor will.
>>93219951I'm no expert on Cyberpunk 2020, so I unfortunately can't help you directly. From what I understand about Cyberpunk 2020, its geared to be antagonistic to the players (I only read "Listen Up, Your Primitive Screwheads").Is that what you wanted from your game? A D&D with an antagonistic feeling, or is there something more that I just wouldn't get?
>>93219949I'm reading it, but I'll give a response when you're finished. Take your time!
>>93219546>>93219949>Its core system is also based on the core system of the classic games that inspired this game that a good majority are already familiar with for their ease of working with itVery awkward. "Core system" sounds technical, and not just mentioning your inspirations makes things worse. "The game is heavily based on Old Maid, which many players will already be familiar with.">Great care was taken to ensure as few hard limits were built into the system, as well as what the players can do and how often.Again, I don't care about your "great care". It's not clear at first how the clauses here match up. Having worked it out, I don't know what distinction you're drawing between "the system" and "what the players can do and how often".This section needs to nail why it was worth you creating a whole new game, and why it's worth me reading it. I think you're trying to, but I don't get it."What should I read" should go at the end of the intro, as it's telling me where to go next. Also I assume "veteran or rookie" means "to RPGs".
>>93219546Page 6 is pretty basic. The list of dice looks weird and takes up a lot of space. Also you specify "one" of each die, then suggest having multiple which is - strictly speaking - contradictory. "At least one die with each of four (d4), ... sides".Explaining what cooperation is seems very strange. If anything needs clarifying it's how the GM's role stands relative to player cooperation.
>>93219949>>93220070You're the first person to ever tell me not to put colons at the end of titles. Now that I think about it I've hardly ever seen that happen in any other book I've read. I'll be more careful about that.Same goes for the conversational fluff.Honestly, I'm just ecstatic that you were able to derive that much from my opening. My previous openings were even worse! I'm just trying to introduce my system and what it aims to do- being to adapt to your needs. But if I didn't convey that well enough, that's a problem.I'll admit that the "About CAPS: Fantasy" part was an afterthought I threw down just yesterday when I realized I never introduced my system. It's no excuse, but it's what it is.I'm sure that mentioning D&D falls under Fair Use and won't be bait for Hasbro to squeeze me dry for royalties (I don't have money, but I know Hasbro loves to try), but I guess I took a halfway approach and just didn't make it clear.Just mentioning D&D, Lord of the Rings, etc should all be protected by fair use. I know calling Halflings "Hobbits" is lawyer-bait, but still.All that aside, it sounds like the real hangup is the "About CAPS: Fantasy" part. Maybe I should finish the Primer first before going back to that.Thanks for your time and getting back to me with feedback. I appreciate it! Are there any lingering thoughts that I need to hear off the top of your head, or is that it?
>>93220194The multiple die part are leftovers from when I had mentioned keeping dice as tokens. I probably should mention it again.Explaining cooperation is weird. You said "Explain", when I should have "Mentioned" it instead. Thanks for catching me on that.I was thinking, "Lots of people know you have to 'win' games, and that's not a good attitude to have here." But now that you said it, explaining cooperation really doesn't serve the text, does it?Any other final thoughts? If or none, thank you for your feedback! I appreciate your taking the time to give it to me.
>>93219508>>How do you measure wealth in your game? Completely abstract, hard penny counting, something gooey in the middle?I started with penny counting but I think I'm starting to hate it in general. Trying to come up with something more abstract. Current thoughts are>You have a wealth level represented by a die>Anything you want to buy has two levels: cost and significance>If your wealth > significance it's something you can buy it without affecting your wealth>If your wealth is lower than the cost you can't afford it>Otherwise you roll wealth + 1d4 (to balance the odds a little) and roll the cost die. If either the d4 or your wealth die are higher than the cost you can afford it no problem, if they're lower then you can only afford it by decreasing your wealth die by a step>Considering adding an expense value (ie something at expense value 3 means you need to decrease your wealth 3 times to afford it, but expense value 1 means you only need to decrease it once)Once you learn it it's less tedious than coin counting, but I fear it's too complex for what's just a measure of money. Also kind of falls apart when considering things like "what if I want to split my money to keep some in a safehouse".>How many weapons can you expect a PC to carry on their person? How easy is it to switch between them?Too lazy to open the doc but IIRC you can carry something like 2 + Strength items on you, minimum 6, average 8, maximum 14. Most items, including weapons count as 1 item, but really big weapons like muskets and greatswords count as 2, and really small ones like knives are 1/2. Ammunition is 1 point of encumbrance for every 10 pieces, and things like coins and parchment are negligible in the amounts a person would carry them in.>>How much of a force multiplier (if any) is a PC among a group of mooks, goons (non-sexual), or henchmen? One man army? Regular Joe?Still trying to work that out lmao. Not sure where I want them
>>93220038I'm not looking for help, I just wanted to vent anonymously. I'm rather happy with where my game is since it caters to my looser more freeform GMing style.
>>93219508>How do you measure wealth in your game? Completely abstract, hard penny counting, something gooey in the middle?Technically whoever has the most scrap is the richest, but in the thick of it you want to be the one with the nicest gun and armor and most bullets and stimulant delivery packages, scrap be damned.>How many weapons can you expect a PC to carry on their person? How easy is it to switch between them?Probably 1-5, but as many as you can carry technically. Usually a PC carries 2 on them and then potentially stores 1-3 more situational weapons in their backpack (Like a launcher for heavy armor or a shotgun for close distance). By default a Character can equip 1 two handed weapon and have 1 one handed melee weapon in a holster or sheath. They can equip 2 two handed weapons if they purchase slings/sheaths for each of them. You can switch to a one handed weapon for free and a slung two handed weapon for 1 Time Unit. It takes 4 time units to search your backpack for an item, so you usually won't have enough left to shoot something after fishing it out of your inventory unless you're particularly agile or using a low TU weapon, so it's best to take cover that turn. >How much of a force multiplier (if any) is a PC among a group of mooks, goons (non-sexual), or henchmen? One man army? Regular Joe?Depends on the experience of the PC. Early game PCs are still just grunts, but once they've got some experience and perks they turn into 80s action heroes.>Stat Duke Nukem, he is the perfect man after all.Brawn 8 (boosted to 12 when on Steroids), Empathy 10, Sense 6, Toughness 8, Agility 12, Intellect 5, Luck 12. Sunglasses at Night, Mad Minute, Death WishEnergy Weapons 100, Explosives 150, Small Arms 150, Hand to Hand 150 (Specialization: Kicking) Primary 1: 12ga Winchester 1300 (Sling, VFG) Primary 2: 7.62mm TКБ-059 'Ripper' (Sling, Extended Magazine)Secondary: 9mm Austrian Pistole 80 (Full Auto Switch, Laser Aiming Module)Pipe Bomb x20
>>93220403That's good, because as I said I had no idea how I could help! I'm sure with more playtesting, an idea will come up eventually.
>>93220252>what it aims to do- being to adapt to your needsIt's mentioned, but not really clear what you mean. The introduction alludes to it, you say the game is, "modular for the ease of tailoring the game to your liking" and mention, "workshops to help create your own content". But I can't grasp what's special about your method. GURPS is famously (perhaps infamously) modular and adaptable for instance, and lots of games have ways to stat up new monsters or gear.Tell me how your game lets me adapt it to swashbuckling adventure, courtly intrigue, murder mystery, and so on as your opening suggests. How does your game make that easy when it isn't in D&D?>Fair UseHonestly irrelevant. I understand people are cagey about this shit, but most of us are just hobbyists. It's not even worth a lawyer's time to send you a letter, assuming anyone even notices your game exists. Besides which whether or not they have a case doesn't matter, because you can't afford to defend one anyway.>final thoughtsFocus on why your game isn't every other RPG.
>>93220531Your life will become a lot easier if you stop looking at things as problems that need to be solved.
>>93219616You and the rest of the civilized world.>>93220629Is that even truly possible or are we talking hypotheticals here?
>>93219358How hard would it be to hack a semi-splatbook for CofD that was a supers game that allowed for adapting anime like JJK with cursed techniques and everything?Sorcerer: The Exorcism. People who are able to gather and manipulate the energy manifested from negative feelings and use it to reinforce one's physicial capabilities, activating blessed objects, usage of cursed tools and fueling cursed techniques that can present in a variety of ways and are essentially super powers but with a granularity as to how with a couple of techniques that the brain can learn a variety of What i want to make with this is give mortals a simple magic system that limits them to a couple of "spells" that can be amplified, inverted or be amplified in order for their effects and uses to change and give sorcerers a more flexible arsenal with their signature ability.I think that DtR despite being the best for whatever is this has too little focus and boggles the mind of players who want to do weird sorcerer fight rather than deal with the themes of vengance.
>>93220665It's actually super easy, my guy. If someone doesn't explicitly ask for a help, don't look at what they're saying as a problem to solve.
>>93220544To answer that first question, I'll need to write everything out. I've been avoiding doing that until I get an Introduction and Primer where people are unanimously asking, "Where's the rest of it!?" Rather than, "Whatever."I see you asking that, so I'm happy to see that. Granted, I'm sure the reason you're saying that has its prefixes, but I'll take it for what it is.My hangup I guess is my wanting to see if I can't catch issues with the writing and voice before I write 100+ pages of it. I figure that if I have some text written down that strangers on an anonymous website who can act like whatever they want to would approve of reading, I can look back on that as a reference for what I should look at going forward. But I can't help but think that if that happens, I would have no idea how I did it.Yeah, I'll be more apt to cite my sources and mention names.Your final point is a tough one, but I also wonder if it's even my place to answer that. I should just make something, and let others see what they want in it. That being said, I do endeavor to make this play out as its own thing. I know GURPS has an interesting time with granularity, and to me the games run in it all feel "gritty" in some way. But I should focus instead on CAPS: Fantasy and not GURPs.In closing, I hope you know I spent the last several minutes transliterating your posts into comments in microsoft word. Your take on the introduction fascinates me, and I wonder why you got that impression. I think I want the introduction to spark different throughts, but in the way you put it in your posts, I think I need to double check it.I said it before, and I'll say it again. Thank you very much.
>>93220629True that, but I'd also hate to be the guy who did need help but have everyone pass you by.
Full Plate Harness updatenot much updates, havent really worked on the game since february in any tangible or posteable way, i started working on some tools for enemy design, but seems ill have to rework thema few months ago i tought about re-working the damage calculations to use onl d4, d6 and d8 + some fixed damage if needed, so, i wouldnt have to use the d10 for damage and in consecuence, i could roll damage alongside attacks (which would cut one step), and after a prophetic dream, i decided to pursue that, so, im reworking damage calculations, i already set the new values but need to test themalso another dream told me to rework how health works but that would be quite a big changei also been wanting to do a proper setting for it so i been colecting a few ideasoutside of FPH i have the one farkle based thingy (this pdf) but im still undecided of what to do with it, or rather, i dont feel ok with going full on to do something with it until i finish one other of my projectsi also saw last thread that there was another dude with a similar idea, tho, he was focusing it onto making combos like a fighting game and coming in from a yatzee inspiration rather than farkle
does anyone know any rpg mechanics that allow players to cheat in controlled ways?
>>93222178As in, using metacurrencies or letting you change the face of a die as part of an ability?
>>93222198I mean any feature or mechanic that is explicitly meant to condone or resemble cheating out-of-universe rather than in-universe
>>93219508>How do you measure wealth in your game? Completely abstract, hard penny counting, something gooey in the middle?I'm making a mechanized mercenary TTRPG where the game is half managing income and expenses from your contracts, and the other half is mecha action. If you're a mercenary in it for the money, the money should be a part of the game in my opinion.>How many weapons can you expect a PC to carry on their person? How easy is it to switch between them?In their mech, they can have anywhere from four to six at a time. Four of those are big arm weapons, and the last two can be shoulder weapons/equipment.>How much of a force multiplier (if any) is a PC among a group of mooks, goons (non-sexual), or henchmen? One man army? Regular Joe?Somewhere in the middle. A PC in their mech is definitely a game-changer, but enemy pilots can come at them in equivalent mechs.>Stat Duke Nukem, he is the perfect man after all.Guts 5Handling 3Precision 3Wits 2
>>93219508Remember last month when i said i would finish my game? I didnt.>>How do you measure wealth in your game? Completely abstract, hard penny counting, something gooey in the middle?I have currency values, but the heavy lifting is an "item value" system which prices objects according to how many levels its benefits are equivalent to>>How many weapons can you expect a PC to carry on their person? How easy is it to switch between them?Depends, PCs have a larger item budget depending on their level. A level 10 guy could have up to 10 shortswords for example. It takes 25% more speed to attack with a weapon you drew that turn.>>How much of a force multiplier (if any) is a PC among a group of mooks, goons (non-sexual), or henchmen? One man army? Regular Joe?Low level swarms tend to lose to their equivalent levels in a single hero, but it depends on the level. Three 1s will beat a 3. 10 1s will be ruined by a 10Perhaps today i will actually be productive. We will see.
I ended up trying to implement cheating mechanics like this. Think of these as invocations for rogues
>>93222253somewhat related, might be worth something to you.I remember this story, might have been a video or a blogpost, about a GM running a LoTFP module called Veins of the Earth.his interpretation of the monsters called "dero" was that they KNOW they're in a simulated world and are trying to escape. He'd created this rule so that some trigger event-- if a dero was present while the players were speaking out of character, or a dero heard them mention game mechanics while speaking in character, it would give the dero a chance to 'escape' the game, and start vandalizing it from the 'outside'.the GM put blank post-its on the character sheets and in the rulebook, and declared that anything covered by a post it simply didn't exist anymoreThis would get worse and worse until the players realized that the only way to stop the dero from annihilating the gameworld was to destroy the Dero section in the Veins of the Earth sourcebook.
Does making an adaptation from an existing game count?
How do you guys actually organize your shit?
>>93223873I keep them in a word document, but I prefer to write them down on paper with a pencil when brainstorming.
>>93219508I've been dicking around with the idea of redoing Red Markets to be less retarded. I swapped it with a dice ladder system, so instead of all checks being 1d10 vs 1d10, it's 1dX vs 1dY. X is your stat, Y is the difficulty, and skills just add to the roll.For example, you're a bit stronger than average and you're trying to break a rusty lock. That seems easy, so you roll your strength of 1d12 vs 1d6, getting a 9 vs 4; you succeed. >How do you measure wealth in your game? Completely abstract, hard penny counting, something gooey in the middle?Unlike the base game, everything is calculated down to the dollar, and everything is about 10x more expensive than it is at the moment. >How many weapons can you expect a PC to carry on their person? How easy is it to switch between them?I haven't fiddled with encumbrance yet, but I'm tempted to steal a slot-based system from LotFP (I think;) shotgun would probably take two while a handgun would be one, so about two long guns or a shitload of pistols assuming you're buttass naked.>How much of a force multiplier (if any) is a PC among a group of mooks, goons (non-sexual), or henchmen? One man army? Regular Joe?About a notch above Regular Joe, you can kill a few easily but a stray bullet can end you just as quickly. The real edge is how smart the player is at strategy or who has the biggest gun with the best ammo (aka who's more tacticool?)>Stat Duke Nukem, he is the perfect man after all. STR - 1d12[2 Unarmed, 2 Melee, 1 Resistance]SPD - 1d10[3 Shoot, 1 Athletics]INT - 1d8[3 Profession: CIA]CHA - 1d10[4 Persuasion]His single greatest skill is scoring babes, system works flawlessly.
>>93223873Usually a txt file (or series of txt files depending on how autistic I am that day,) with a note app on my phone to write shit whenever I get an idea. Eventually I combine the latter into the former and revise.
>>93223944>That seems easy, so you roll your strength of 1d12 vs 1d6, getting a 9 vs 4; you succeed.Why have the lock roll? Seems pointlessly cumbersome.
>>93223873I just make a folder for a project and then stuff anything I make for it in that folder.
>>93224030>the lock rollIf you mean the dX vs dY thing: it's a personal challenge to keep the one unique thing about Red Markets while making the system as a whole more interesting. If you mean the literal example of breaking a lock, I just pulled that out of my ass. Every roll functions the same way, with minor differences (say, you can use items to add flat bonuses or possibly an extra die.) Determine bonuses, roll the dice, check result.
What systems do a good job of handling things that are internal to the PC? For example, you have a prisoner. I don't want the decision of keeping them alive vs killing them to be arbitrated by the GM alone, since this always leads to arguments. I want the PC to self-identify when they're being evil/dishonorable/whatever.
>>93224100Could you explain this a little better? I'm reading this as "your PC takes a prisoner, and I don't want the GM to determine if he lives or dies." If you mean the prisoner is a PC, then that makes even less sense.
>>93224096I bet the pages of that book are sticky
Here is my crappy game idea for a tattoo drafting game I thought of on my way to work. If you want to tell me that you hate it that's feedback I'd really value.>receive a player board with limited slots, representing your skin. You are trying to cover all of it to become unemployable or whatever, idk.>you draft tattoo designs, which are cards in varied styles and with specific placement criteria (cant get a chestpiece on your leg). Each one has to be done by a specific artist(s)>then, you book an artist using a design in your hand. Artists have limited availability so when one is booked they are gone for the round. this happens on a shared central board. Im considering making "flash" designs able to subvert this somehow, at the cost of less flexibility or settling for worse cards.>you score at the end of the game based on how consistent your style is (all black and white gives a bonus, shit like that), but each tattoo also gives a bonus of some kind when played.still needs:>to figure out if paying for your tattoo is part of this, and how to incorporate. I like "lots of cheap guys" strats in games, and I think getting a bunch of cheap crappy tattoos being a viable strategy is funny. don't like using paper coins or other non-cards in card games but I might have to bite the pillow on it.>I want very light enginebuilding in this game, but will need more resources or design spaces to make that happen.>every card is unique, "non-repeatable" with maybe some exceptions.
>>93224684I imagine scoring based on how many tattoos you can fit too, but how would you go about it with style? Will there be points marked at the edge of certain tattoos that, if the colors on the points match as you lay them out on the skin grant you more points?
Are there any good guides for nice formatting or example templates? I'm stuck using Libre/Open office. I've been suggested Google docs before but I like that with the offices I can slap in full-page arts. I still feel like no matter what I'm wrestling the program to do even simple things like creating an image to look like documents and then adding my text over them, or just trying to do anything fancy.
>>93224719I'd like to know this, too.
>>93224221Underrated.
>>93220936>I'll need to write everything outI want broad strokes, not details. Some people think you can make D&D into a cyberpunk game by changing the names of everything. Give some hint that you're not one of them.>see if I can't catch issues with the writing and voice before I write 100+ pages of itYou probably can't. It's advice I wish I could force myself to take, but: write it badly, then edit it better. Anything else is incredibly rare, even for pros.>I also wonder if it's even my place to answer thatIt is. You're making it a specific way on purpose. No one else will know that until you tell them.
>>93224719>>93224746Have you tried using Scribus for formatting?
>>93226156That does look pretty good. I'll have to look into it in a few hours. I was also just hoping for a list of (free) fonts that are better than Times New Roman, or ways to get cool sidebars in your text (definitely useful for a tabletop RPG book) especially without the program fighting you constantly. I swear using Libre office I can touch something on page 8 and something cute I did on page 3 gets completely obliterated. I understand I suck at this but come on...
>>93224882Broad strokes that still give you something to work with in other words. The challenge I have, then, is to figure out what exactly the reader needs.I do have a core set of rules down on a different document (and formatted horribly), but the Genre statements are brand new, as the epiphany to do so was only a couple of days ago because I realized that I didn't want my game's framework to get in the way of people having any kind of fantasy adventure they want (no doubt a fool's errand, but I'm a jackass so it'll suit me nicely). I started this back in 3.X when I got so fed up with how I had to wrestle with the system to do what I want it to do. What I wanted at the time was 3.X, broken free from all of its frustrating limitations (And 3.X was sold to me as a system that's all "Tools, not Rules"). You know, the story of every fantasy heartbreaker there ever is and will be. As a matter of fact, I was about to make another post about that.But now, I want my game to stand on its own while reflecting its origins. To feel like the fantasy game that fits all of the conventions the players picked out for it. Right now, I feel like that essence isn't there just yet. The core is great for for the sorts of games that demand management of your resources (dungeon crawls, battles, etc), but for high flying Sword & Sorcery or Swashbuckling, that alone won't cut it. Something's missing.I'll be making a general post about it here in a little bit.
What makes games like 7th Sea and Honor + Intrigue great for Swashbuckling? What makes games like Barbarians of Lemuria and Conan 2d20 great for Sword & Sorcery? What makes D&D and its respective heart-breakers great for being D&D?It can't just be the core mechanics. I mean, 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings deal with two different genres (Swashbuckling and Wuxia), yet their core mechanics are practically the same.Despite Mutants & Masterminds using d20 rolls as its core mechanic, it still feels to me like a superhero game and not D&D. How did it do it?Then we have GURPS and other general RPGs. General RPGs ought to feel incorporeal on its own, but even they need to give the tools to be tailored to be according to the player's vision, though even they have their own essence. GURPS makes any game made with it feel "gritty", and with accentuated characters (3d6 has a rough time with granularity, so having maluses is a good way to keep the pluses under control), but GURPS did lean in on this. I know you can play high flying swashbuckling adventures with GURPS, but will they feel like they're high flying swashbuckling adventures like 7th Sea or Honor + Intrigue would have? Are these questions hinting at their respective games' essences?I guess I'm looking for that holy grail. What gives a game system its essence?
How many races is a good number to include as playable races in a homebrew setting? I want the players to feel like they have options, but I don't want option paralysis, and at a certain point, too many races makes the worldbuilding clunky.
>>93227645So long as each of your races are distinct and feel distinct, then it's not too many of them (imho)
>>93224704I was thinking less visual and more categorical - like in scoring you get a bonus for having tattoos categorized as the same style - styles being things like traditional, neo traditional, fine line, ultrarealism, blackwork, et . The idea of laying cards as a collage instead of just slots is really fascinating though.
>>93228016Like, if you have a sequence of cards that you can lay out? It reminds me of Scrabble where you spell out words, except in your case it's to complete tattoos. Am I getting this right?
I'm thinking of having two objectively power races for people to play (super soldier and robot) in my game. Would it be unfun to balance them by giving really restrictive negatives?Like my idea is that a robot will come preprogrammed with certain skills/abilities that the player chooses at the start but gains no XP like other races. Their "level ups" would come from upgrading their parts/programming which would need to be found. Would this be anti-fun?
>>93219358How do you feel about systems where you can do many actions in a turn, but each additional action accrues a cumulative penalty on all actions?I ask cause I haven't personally played a system like that, but it seems both intriguing and flexible but also liable to a lot of fuck ups.
>>93219358 often have a dislike for systems being entirely too crunchy or entirely too fluffy. I honestly believe that usually the best basis for a game is to have a good balance of both. enough crunch to keep you grounded, enough fluff to inspire imagination. So I want to do something that takes a really fluffy system (risus) and a concreate base (adnd) and try to meet half way.Basicly writing down a few major life experiences on one side (like risus), but then make a very concrete stat block on the other (Like an ad&d monster stat block) as a point of mechanical grounding. One side gives you a firm mechanical baseline, and the other ample inspirational material.The other thing I dont like about overly fluffy games is that while they say "you can do anything!", without an example as a starting point, imagination doesn't come as naturally and tends to die in vagary. Often amounting to your skills just being reduced to pluses to basic roles "I'm a barbarian (5) so i.... attack!". So I like writing down one or two rather concrete unique special abilities for an entity. Not that they cant do other things, but it gives a nice jumping off point. like as an example of what's in the character's mechanical wheelhouse. Like Fred here might Use his iron hands to swing on a rope and attack, knowing he has legendary grip might make this advantageous, maybe moving in and out of range without prompting attacks. Not just " A soldier".Also think I might add the base bonus of each experience to the side, but it felt a little cluttered, so I didnt here.so basicly:(Name, description)(life experiences) (Basic stats)(special abilities)Easily Readable. Inspirational. Grounded.
>>93228322It Depends. Just off the top of my head, Black Crusade has a significant power disparity between CSMs and regular cultists, with the balancing of the party falling squarely into the GMs hands - CSMs can't show their face outside chaos space, get different roleplay reactions, maybe can't fit in certain doorways, and so on. The system itself does very little to try and even things out. And if you ask anyone who's played BC, they'll probably have some qualms with mixed parties. From the fact your races are explicitly combat focused, you could easily fall into some of the same pitfalls. Any fight that challenges a super soldier or robot will paste a weaker race, so the obvious negatives would be to limit their non-combat abilities. However, that creates a dynamic where the combat character is only having fun in combats suited to them while everyone else likely gets fisted, but then has no fun outside of combats since their character doesn't function to the others' level. Alternative progression can be fun to use as a balancer, but that also creates odd dynamics depending on the exact mechanics. Say the other characters get stronger with XP gained every session, but one character gets stronger from money via buying parts and such. So do you create scenarios where that specific character gets more money so everyone progresses at a similar rate, or do they become a crack fiend that's constantly begging for cash from the others? If their progression is limited to rewards doled out by the GM, then they aren't in control of their own progression. If they need to hunt for specific parts, then any time they're not doing that they're getting weaker comparatively to the others who get stronger regardless of what they're doing. Ultimately though, who can say whether it's fun or not, especially without more information on your actual system. But no harm in giving the option with a footnote that it's not for everyone.
>>93227673Okay, so if the list is Planetouched (good/evil/elemental)BirdfolkDwarvesElvesGnomesHalf-Breeds (dragonkin/giantkin/half-orc/half-elf/beastkin)HalflingsHumansAutomatonsChangelingsGoblinsKoboldsLizardfolkWhich races do you feel are too similar to others?
>>93228779Are you going for a fantasy kitchen sink? Also tell me of Goblins, Kobolds, and Lizardfolk. Some games have Goblins and Kobolds filling a similar niche (ambushers). But if Kobolds and Lizardfolk are similar to how they are in D&D, they're both reptilian with their respective tropes.How are Gnomes in your game? Are they eccentric hobbyists? Do they hearken back to their origins as generous if shy beings that dwell in the earth?And "Birdfolk". Sounds like people, but birds. I need more information.
>>93228831Kinda. I don't necessarily need the whole kitchen sink, but I do want to include all the elements I personally enjoy.Goblins are highly adaptable scavengers/pack hunters, which used to just mean 'they can live in any biome', but as the wilderness got smaller, some of them adapted to living within the bigger races' cities without being so much of a nuisance that they got culled.Kobolds are reptilian, and are exclusively the servants of dragons (kinda the way D&D lore has them, but you will not find kobold packs who aren't actively in service to a dragon, though individual kobolds can wander off or be sent on missions). Gnomes are more like WoW gnomes than generous and shy elemental fae.You got it with birdfolk. Distinct crane, owl, raven, and hawk subgroups, leaning into the folklore archetypes of each bird.
>>93228387>The other thing I dont like about overly fluffy games is that while they say "you can do anything!",This is an incredibly important point that gets too little reocngition. Rules are not restrictions. They are frameworks. They are a foundation to build on.If you want to make a character who flies through the air so fast that he leaves a sonic boom in his wake, the system with rules that say you fly 60' per round is better than the system that "leaves it up to your GM's discretion." Because that's just a shitty way of saying "I dunno put it all on the GM." Which is fine, but then as a GM, the fuck did I need your game for in the first fucking place?
>>93228894Care to expand more on birdfolk? Aside from flight (maybe), why have birdfolk when Humans are already there, unless you want those different races to feel less fantastical (which I don't see as a problem per se)
>>93229463It's mostly because I think birds are really cool, if I'm being honest. Wise and stealthy predator owls, ravens that can remember and mimic everything they've ever heard, birds of prey that can powerbomb you before you realize they're there. Cities build into cliff faces with no means of traversing between levels except flight. I just like 'em.
I'm trying to develop a system using 2d6 die as a near-universal with some other die to represent things like weapon types (d6 for daggers, d8 for shortswords, d10 for bastard swords, etc) and I have been trying to figure how to handle combat.In my system I think there should be a Dodge Rating and an Armor Rating. Dodge Rating allows you to avoid a hit, while Armor allows you to tank damage taken.So if you have a Dodge of 7, you have to roll 7+ to be hit. But if you have an Armor Rating of 3, you reduce the incoming damage by 3. So you roll 2d6 to hit, and roll 1d6 to 1d10 for damage.My question is will this get too sloggish to look at these numbers and engage in this kind of combat? Because I would also like to lower the Armor Rating of both Players and (most) Monsters by -1 per round to also represent fatigue and to make sure that combat cannot drag on for 10+ rounds.I want to try and escape the choking atmosphere of D&D's AC system because I want to be able to answer "Why play this system over X". Furthermore, as a followup question, how the heck do you handle multiple attacks? I've been stumped with this one. I was thinking Character Level /2 for Fighters, /3 for Rogues or /4 Spellcasters = how many attacks you get in a round, maximum lvl 12, so there's a natural progression for how many attacks you'd be able to achieve. I personally hate how DnD does multiple attacks regardless of the edition and Pathfinder 2e's 3 possible attacks with a -5 penalty system is also kind of bewilderingly stupid at times.
>>93228586>From the fact your races are explicitly combat focused, you could easily fall into some of the same pitfalls. Any fight that challenges a super soldier or robot will paste a weaker race, so the obvious negatives would be to limit their non-combat abilities. However, that creates a dynamic where the combat character is only having fun in combats suited to them while everyone else likely gets fisted, but then has no fun outside of combats since their character doesn't function to the others' level.I'm pretty afraid of that. >Alternative progression can be fun to use as a balancer, but that also creates odd dynamics depending on the exact mechanics. Say the other characters get stronger with XP gained every session, but one character gets stronger from money via buying parts and such. So do you create scenarios where that specific character gets more money so everyone progresses at a similar rate, or do they become a crack fiend that's constantly begging for cash from the others? If their progression is limited to rewards doled out by the GM, then they aren't in control of their own progression. If they need to hunt for specific parts, then any time they're not doing that they're getting weaker comparatively to the others who get stronger regardless of what they're doing.I'm also afraid of that as well.To be frank I already mostly came to this conclusion but I wanted a 2nd opinion.>Ultimately though, who can say whether it's fun or not, especially without more information on your actual system. I don't have a "system"... yet. Just at the brainstorming stage.Thanks for your response.
Finally released my game on itch. It's rules completely enough that I'm comfortable calling it an alpha. Here's that version.I have some rules changes I still want to make, but I need to playtest it more to see if they work the way I expect. Major things I want to work on next are the layout, and filling out content in the GM section.
>>93229587I think birdfolk are pretty neat, too. But in a way they sound a lot like elves. They live in cities away from the other mortal races that only they know. It's true that traditional elves don't fly, but they still make themselves as inaccessible like they could.My concern is that the birdfolk are redundant with the other races present.
>>93229892Have you been playtesting your game on your own to gauge if it's sloggish or not? It'll be a slog when all that happens is X damage without the damage meaning anything until the target is dead.
>>93230551The system is d12 + Modifiers by the looks of it. At a cursory glance, it looks like it's of a similar spirit to D&D. Though I am curious about Rumors. I only glanced at the Rumors section, but do they only serve to flesh out who the character is, or do they have a more direct bearing in this system?
>>93228904largely agreed,though i was more focusing on how “you can do anything” often doesnt amount to all that much in more abstract games. cause you dont have the “necessity” (distinct parameters) that “mothers invention” (inspirational use of those parameters).rules are ment to be bent, but they are also like you said meant to be referred back to as a constructive jumping off point.
>>93230755Hmm. I could remove the elves. I'd rather remove elves than birdfolk. I could give the dwarves more of the long-lived aspect that is traditionally an elven thing.
>>93230551>get an error message trying to post it 3 different times.>leave for like 2 hours.>it just postsWell, at least it finally worked.>>93231570>do they only serve to flesh out who the character isJust that. They used to have a much higher impact on character power, but it lead to play patterns I wasn't happy with when people made character.The kinds of mechanical impact they used to have was reworked and turned into Developments later in the book.
>>93231862Sounds like a done deal then. So long as they're all distinct in some way, then I don't see how you could go wrong.>>93231893The way rumors are formatted right now tells me that it is a necessary step. It's not off to the side in a box, or even just a sentence long. As you said it's a remnant of an older version, but as the reader I don't think it serves the book anymore, and it does take up a couple of pages.
>>93219358I'm going to make an RPG where you can play as anything from the loneliest beggar to the most powerful of emperors. It will have an emphasis on leadership--managing the finances and supplies of your men as a captain of a mercenary company, a lord with his retinue, an orcish warlord with his warband, and so on. You'll have your traditional RPG combat where you just control your own character (if you happen to be alone) but also mass combat for battling armies against one another or raiding treacherous crypts with your men. The player characters will not be any more powerful than the NPCs. As you could tell, I don't have any friends so this will mainly be a solo system that you can also optionally play with your friends if you have some.What are your thoughts on this?
>>93232146I like the idea, i'd play it if the implementation was good.
>>93219358How do you know when your thing is 'done'?
>>93232166I second this.
I can't even get a game going for existing systems, so I have no hope of playtesting or getting feedback from others playing something I make.So is working on a system a retarded idea on my end? Considering my goal is to use it to play campaigns with others.
>>93232387You can play the campaigns solo, but I need to ask what you mean by your not being able to get a game going?
>>93219358A problem of dice/stats I'm wrestling with:Roll under systems are very user friendly and neatly allow your success probability to get modified by the opponent ability in an opposed roll without any table lookup. However they lack normalization - if you have two low skilled opponents, they can whiff at each other turn after turn, which isn't fun, and further hurts the idea that you are trying to outmaneuver your opponent, not just the dice.You can do a very simple difference and mod or difference and table lookup to normalize to values, eg on 2D6, if I have 1 more than you, I need a 8 and you need a 6 (again, roll eq/under). This is okay but it has the draw back off 2x reducing your effective granularity, as when one side loses one TN when the other one gains for a net slide of two pips; the opposed roles get harsh very quickly. At a 4 diff on 2D6 you are looking at 90% chance of victory for the stronger model, and only a 3% chance that they lose (the rest are ties of one sort or another).Infinity uses roll under on a D20 and somewhat gets away with it bc even basic troopers have a 75% hit chance, and being really good at CC takes the form of various bonuses that push you over 100% or gives penalties to your opponent. A d20 would somewhat address the doubling increments by just throwing extra granularity at the problem but I would prefer not to switch to D20s cause there are other mechanics in the game that work well enough with D6s.So - Trying to figure out a way to do opposed normalization without destroying the granularity of 2D6. Expanding up to 3D6 just gives one extra tier before you saturate at a +5 mod.
I haven't worked on Dice of Rage at all but now this thread is up and I feel guilty
Hey what did you guys use to make those slick looking PDF? I've been running a homebrewed game that I'd like to start documenting better.
>>93232425Which isn't what I'm looking for.IRL groups fell apart due to things out of my control, and the same goes for an online group. Posting ads for new games has only gotten me crickets. Finding a new group to join has been its own string of disasters.
>>93219508>>Spikey haired twats not with standing, how much deck control does your game employ?What do you mean by "deck control" exactly?
>>93232583Aye, but I mean by playing the campaigns solo, you can still playtest the mechanics
may be an unpopular subject to ask. But with Heroclix, I own some really old figures, which have been powercreep to oblivion. where modern characters have better stats for the value.Wizkids release "Legacy cards" which pretty much are "new rules" for old characters and figures, there are many of this examples. the new version will often just get better value points, and some times better abilities. So I was thinking, and If I homebrew pretty much some equation to grab old figures point values, and remove some of their cost and make it better... but im thinking, how much could I do that on a "balanced" way.a cheap way could be "if this figure is as old as this legacy card and share t he same point value, I guess it could get it, and for all the ones that dont match, just round it down"Here are some examples... an ahead of time, I appologize again.
>>93232048>The way rumors are formatted right now tells me that it is a necessary stepThey are a necessary step. Something doesn't have to impact player power to be important to character creation.
>>93232952Right. But it has no direct bearing into it. Rumors are a way to do it, but not the only way to do it.
>>93224176The question is (using DnD as an example, not that I am using sch a system, but hopefully it conveys the idea) how the morality of your character is evaluated.So your PC takes a prisoner and decides to kill him. To use DnD as an example - again noting that I am not using such axes - is doing so lawful? Is it good? Is it evil? Since characters have different codes and ideas, I don't want to have this just be arbitrated by the GM. In other words, can we put how a character feels about their own actions into game terms?
>>93228065not even sequence of cards, just single cards for different body parts, and your whole tableau is your whole body. You build your tableau slowly and methodically, sorting out different options in a drafting phase before trying to secure artists before they get occupied by other players in a worker-placement phase. Here's my general order of play:>drafting round: players receive a handful of designs, picking and passing. You can (usually) only actually play one per round, but taking backups that other artists can give you options.>booking round: in a (flexible) turn order, players book designs with available artists.just these two rounds, repeating until one player is fully covered? or maybe a set round count. idk yet.the tattoo cards themselves will contain rules for scoring, and perhaps instant bonus like access to extra artists, booking priority, additional design card draws, but generally cards will scale well with other same-style cards.
>>93232146So Mount and blade?Maybe some ACKS?
>>93231431From what I've tested, it's not as much of a "slog" because the HP values of most things are meant to be low. I know when reducing damage, the base HP of Players and Enemies cannot be high, because damage should be meaningful. My idea is that 3 lethal damage should cause a Player to sweat. My concern of the slog comes more from bigger numbers and keeping track of them all. Against 1 single target, it's fine. What about against 10 goblins? Or rather 10 well armed orcs? I've run some tests against goblins because their Armor Rating is garbage, but against things that may have 5+ Armor Rating then it becomes questionable.Then I thought about what if Armor Rating acts as "extra HP" a round, so 3 Armor Rating reduces 3 total damage dealt each round. So if you have 3 Armor Rating and 10 HP, someone deals 4 damage with their first hit that means you are reduced 9 HP. But because your Armor Rating is exhausted, the next hit someone rolls is 3 damage, you are dealt 3 damage and are reduced to 6 hp. This definitely makes fights faster.My current rules are that because you have 3 Armor Rating, you reduce the 4 damage to 1 damage, and the 3 damage to 0 damage, then next round your Armor Rating is reduced to 2 (to signify exhaustion, armor damage, etc). So the first round is trying to gauge what the opponent is capable of, and rounds 2-4 are when the kill tends to happen. I think this as a concept is not bad, but when it comes to greater numbers, not even mass combat, this is when I fear for "the slog". So I guess what I'm asking for is a suggestion on whether it is possible to have a system that has both a Dodge System and an Armor/Damage Reduction Combat System, or should I keep it simple? And if so, how do I not just lump it all together ala DnD. Any suggested reading material I'd be more than happy to look into.
>>93232146I would like TTR0G like that to run a semirealistic political or military campaign in ancient times. For example, when players can be a part of the legion.
I made this system and posted it in another thread earlier this week.Its ttrpg about being mystics, who are something between wizards and supers, set in a victorianesque world with demons and the like.The reason i made this ttrpg was mainly the magic system, I want someone to check it out and make a couple mystic powers and tell me how it works for them.
Hi, I'm sure this question gets asked and answered alot but what's a good free or pirateable program for making a ruebook pdf? (Acrobat costs, Office suite is shit, libre is shit)
>>93234859just make a word document and print it as pdf?what do you mean by making a rulebook pdf?
>>93234859LaTeX. Free but the skill barrier is high.Affinity makes a suite that is paid but also a lot cheaper than Adobe. you used to be able to get just the publisher for $60, not sure what it is now.Google docs writer.The truth is that you can make a good looking rulebook with office or libre, or any doc writer, it just requires extra time and knowledge of the software features. There is no "professional rulebook" magic button in any software.
>>93224088What's in the D6 Caed game folder, anon
How many stat blocks is "enough" for a monster hunting game? Monster hunting erring more on the side of the Monster of the Week games than DnD dragon slaying. I want enemy creation rules too, but default stat blocks help get the point across.
>>93235180personally if i was going to make a monster for a monster hunting game, i would like the designer to have provided me with a minimum of one monster of each type or "category" so that i can figure out how to do it myself. I don't care if you have 100 ghosts with slightly different abilities, i only want one ghost.
>>93234859Powerpoint is the ascended choice
Me looking through every single rulebook I can find to see if my resolution system idea has been used in any published games before.
>>93235888Why the fuck does this matter? If you're going for nothing but being "the first" you'll end up with a bunch of disjointed mechanics.Is your resolution system's math good? Does it fit the type of gameplay you want? Is it able to be used by a bunch of drunken high-schoolers at 2 in the morning?
>>93237383To be fair to that anon, if your system has been used before you can see if there's anything to grab for yourself. No need to reinvent the wheel if the work's been done.
Decided to try my hand at making a game. Was looking through a bunch of skirmish games and saw that there wasn't a cyberpunk-themed game that wasn't just set on another planet. So far I just have some loose design goals, an idea of what the stat block for units and equipment will look like, a faction write-up, and a very empty equipment list.Hope I can stick with this project and get to some point of completion.
>>93237883What games were you thinking of? I don't think I've seen any cyberpunk themed skirmish games that ARE set on another planet.>Reality's Edge>Chromehammer>Exploit Zero
BLKOUT or however it's spelled looked interesting and then I learned it was on a whole 'nother planet and I kinda just lost interest. Infinity's aesthetics were cool but I never got really into the setting.Never heard of Chromehammer or Exploit Zero, I'll have to check those out later, but for me, Shadowrun was my main Cyberpunk squeeze, and I really just like magic regardless of setting or game which is why I'm never fully satisfied by other games since I'm always tempted by the idea of a chromed up mega-wizard without having to deal with essence costs.
>>93238030Chromehammer has wizards and elves as well as cybernetics and hacking. Unless that was just Ascension, but I think that was the solo version. I forget.
>>93238109I'll definitely have to check it out then. If only to see what I can steal from it.
>>93219571May help to look at Ruin Masters, game's out of print and currently locked in CMON's Cum Dungeon, but you know how to use PDF Threads. Game is entirely based around hex exploring based on hex types with some larger hexes. It may help. Or you can just consult the Pizza Chart.>>93219616Communism was a Mistake.>>93220396Seems a viable enough wealth option, going to be a nightmare to get all the variables set up with Value / Cost being the way that it is, but shouldn't be too complicated. >>93220669It's not impossible, the hard part would be adding the "I Can't Believe It's Not JJK" Techniques due to some of their natures ranging from "I hit you really hard" to esoteric nonsense of swapping places or calling down the hammer of dawn. >>93223864Go for it.>>93223873Starts with my Miro Board of schizo notes, then a Google Doc which I make everything pretty for all my various notes. Unless you're talking about book layout, that's a different beast.>>93223944Someone playing with Red Markets? In the year 2024? Mein Gott. Idea seems solid enough, Red Markets had its flaws, but there is something interesting buried underneath a lot of its jank and communist gobblegook.>>93224684That's actually kind of clever. Don't worry about the unique cards, there should be some cheap, similar, but reliable cards that can fill you up (your cheap ass tribals for example) but the real fancy shit should be Heart of the Cards tier draw that can win (or lose) you the game.>>93227642There's a combinations of answers to this, but the core is "Can the game sell it?" I adore Barbarians of Lemuria, because every aspect of that game's system, writing, and setting doubles down in how it presents itself and "Sells" the idea that this is Sword and Sorcery.In contrast, GURPS is a game that does everything, you're "Adapting" what you're doing to GURPS. I could probably meander longer, but I've reached the text limit.
>>93238477>"I Can't Believe It's Not JJK"I found a 5e Hack that tried to implement JJK throught a hybrid system of custom class/cursed techniqued that adapted a good chunk of the show's abilities.Since i hate 5E for how clunky it is i looked for a fan splat for CofD and found an attempt that added the basic mechanics through merits and some added stats for how it works in the show.I think if i can canibalize how CTs were adapted into a TTRPG i am pretty sure i'll have a lighter weight.
I've been puttering away on this TTRPG for a couple years now and I'm still not happy with the name at all. For context, the game is a mid-level crunch game trying to balance tactical combat and social encounters with a lot of progression tied to looting the ruins of an ancient high tech civilization and using their fancy weapons, called Armaments. Most of the ruins take the form of giant ruined towers dotting a vast and incredibly dangerous forest.It started out being called These Ancient Armaments, then The Ancient Armaments, and now it's The Pillars of Old. I'm playing around with Pillars Unto Heaven, which sounds sick, but doesn't fit the lore at all. Same with Armamentarium as I've been trying to avoid latin-ish names.Any ideas anons?
>>93239131You got any more of your game? It looks really interesting. You could just go something like 'The Spires of the Armaments'.
>>93239131Armory Assault
>>93239131Don't make it too much of a mouthful.The Ancient Armaments is a good enough name.You can use Holy Armaments or Heaven's Armaments.
>>93239220I've got the pdf on hand, but it's in a sorry state as a lot of the testing and development is happening on Foundry.Also, I'm halfway through a revamp on the classes so there's some outdated terminology in their powers.
>>93238477>I could probably meander longer, but I've reached the text limit.You're not alone with that sentiment. Yeah, "Brevity is the soul of wit", but if all we can get is brevity, prepare for people with 2000 character limit attention spans.
>>93239495Shieeeeet, dude, I quite like the look of this. Do you have a discord or email I could get ahold of you with?
>>93239131When naming things I like to also think how they'd be abbreviated by players. I have no idea if others do this or if it's required but it's something I autisticaly adhere to.Armaments of the Ancients. (AoA)Lost Armaments. (LA)Raiders of the Spires. (RoS)Tower Thieves. (TT)I don't know your lore but I personally really like Pillars unto heaven. It's pretty sick.
>>93239571Thanks mang. It's dassauerkraut on discord if you want to message me>>93239581Yeah, The Pillars of Old has the rather unfortunate acronym of TPoO which isn't great. Pillars unto Heaven doesn't really work lorewise as there's not really any culture with a Heaven equivalent, but it is also cool enough that I might just use it anyway and write it in as an afterlife for one of the culture's that hasn't had their religion fleshed out yet.
>>93235032a TTRPG where the player is a deck of cards and the only dice rolled are D6s. Wild West/Weird West themed.Still in early prototype stage. I have a core resolution and card system worked out, but I'm working on getting a basic player deck feel good to play moment to moment.
My stat blocks feel far too verbose (pic related). Any tips for cutting down on words, or at least spacing things so that the text doesn't blend together?
How do I git gud at Affinity Publisher/InDesign/Impress/whatever? My system is somewhat complete and I'd like to get started on the layout
>>93241047Do it wrong a bunch of times and then keep doing it.For more practical advice that can help you learn step by step:>Figure out what a Master page is>make 2 different Master pages, and apply them to different pages in your document so you see how they work.>Figure out how to add Page Number to your master page>Figure out what the "text style" box full of options means>change your Base, Body, Heading 1, and heading 2 text styles.>Figure out what a "table of contents or Anchors are>add some anchors to parts of your document.>add a table of contents to your document>see if you can edit the look of your table of contents using what you learned from changing your "text styles"Obviously there's a bunch to learn about making stuff look good, but that really comes down to artistic skill, which is the fancy bullshit way of saying it comes down to doing it a bunch of times, seeing what sticks and sucks, and trying again.
>>93223944change it to solar and its actually a funny image
>>93240757Perhaps breaking the variants into a small chart box into the upper right corner would help and giving the foreign variant it's own small addendum.
>>93238477>my Miro BoardYour what?
>>93242107NTAbut for what I could find, it's some sort of digital white board
I want to design a horror-themed card game, and all I can come up with are boring MtG rip-offswhy is it so difficult to translate horror into game mechanics?
>>93234859Depending on your needs Canva could work - it's all browser based. very limited options and some you have to pay for premium to use.
>>93245300I highly recommend dice for horror. Dice are a very uncomplicated way to inject a ton of tension into your game. I also really recommend asymmetry in design, based on your post about making "mtg rip-offs" it seems like you're making a card dueling game? What about making it one vs many?
>>93228387I always liked the principle of trying to make different things feel different. Not just swapping names and apropriate situations and essentially just rolling the same checks between barbarian and bard. just that barbarian ihas bigger bonuses at combat and bards bigger bonuses at social.I like having some mechanical distinction that complement fluff distinction. Doesnt have to be super crunchy, just distinct. like a polearm can attack from 2 places as opposed to a sword that does one. So they FEEL different to play in addition to just being NAMED different. or a conversation being a 2d6 roll while a combat is d20 roll, to highlight the more measured nature of a conversation illustrated by a probability curve, and the more fernetic nature of a combat illustrated by a linear distribution.OFC, there is something to be said about standardization between actions too, and going too bespoke for everything can get over complicated. So I like the differences small and somewhat compatable, but meaningful.One of my biggest inspirations is the traditional roguelike Sil, which is pretty dang basic by roguelike standards, but makes different approaches to situations feel mechanically different. Stealth has you clinging to walls and watching enemy patters, direct combat has you managing enemy facing and not getting outflanked, skirmish combat has a focus on hiting and retreating, Magic has a focus on stacking buffs while balancing resource expendeture, etc.
>>93245300I think you got to figure what core aspect(s) of horro you want to focus on. If its tension building, then find a mechanic that builds tension, a creepy worry of whatever, if its a sudden scare, figure out what really mechanically causes someone to go immediately pail, rolling snake eyes.What aspect of horror do you want your mechanics to mimick, and focus on that as a base.
>>93245823>I highly recommend dice for horrorI'll take that into considerationin fact, my approach to horror is very mild, it's just a theme. Its objective is not as much to horrify the players or scare them, but to create a disquieting feeling. Like something that doesn't belong, tending towards the grotesque.
I need a list of really obvious "tells" for people with supernatural abilities. Things like "You have a true form that's revealed under duress" or "Your strange mark glows when you use your abilities".Related question, do you think something like this should have mechanical drawbacks or be purely narrative? The game has 3 archetypes/classes. This one gets slightly higher stats and an ability that can be used every scene (vs one that is better at using spells and gets a once/day ability based on their "subclass" and one that gets more skills and luck points), and I wanted it to have a drawback. Not sure how far the drawback needs to swing
>>93247388>I need a list of really obvious "tells" for people with supernatural abilities. Things like "You have a true form that's revealed under duress" or "Your strange mark glows when you use your abilities".Should clarify that I'm not asking someone to make the whole list for me (ideas would be nice though), more for places to look for inspiration
>>93227645If you're looking for philosophical standpoint, seven, because people can count up to seven before their brain begins to slightly melt for some reason.As for your note >>93228779 most fit fine enough. As long as you give them their quirks. Give Birdfolk a better name though. >>93228356Personally like it, but the math can get hectic and fight you if you're not prepared for it. Usually the limit is "three actions reliably, four if you're risky, and five if you're desperate." The main hiccup I see is going too extreme in either direction where people pull off a ton every round or after the second action it becomes crippling to do anything.>>93229892>>93233476You can have both, but Damage Reduction needs to be low. If it's too high you have a bunch of rogues and wizards rolling around in platemail to avoid being killed in two seconds. Though I AM a large fan of Armor as bonus HP personally. >>93232289That's the fun part, you don't. Sometimes there are natural conclusions like reaching the final chapter, but other times you always feel you can add a bit more. My suggestion is set a goal for yourself, what do you want in it, how do you add it, and then ship it off to the testers and others to see if you're missing anything drastically important.>>93232464In GURPS, yes, GURPS, if you have two "Low Skill" people in a Full Contest you'd just add a +6 (IIRC) to both and have them roll to see who wins and loses.So if you're working with Dumblefuck with 2 and Heroman with 10, you're probably going to have Heroman win. However if Dumblefuck and Brickman are both at 2 and 3 respectively, just add a flat modifier to both and have them "Compete" from there. But GURPS also has a few ways of handling contests, so it can't hurt to take a peak. >>93232539I use Affinity Publisher for most things. Been playing with Affinity 2 with mixed results (fucking tables holy shit). >>93232601How you draw, reshuffle, etc
>>93247388It’s hard to say how much of a drawback is needed without further system knowledge or play testing. If the spells can be used outside of combat, and are stronger than what the other classes can do, they shouldn’t be able to hide what they’re doing at all.Inside of combat, you could play around with having the spell’s effect resolve after a turn or two, to allow for potential counter play. But if the class issues only marginally better, that might be too much of a drawback.
>>93235180If you're planning on expanding it later, about 20, but there's a magic secret that you can multiply the number of entries by adding some options to adjust various monsters around (Stronger, Weaker, Different Types, etc). >>93242107Miro is an online Whiteboard, I use it for all of my notes (pic related). You can be fancy with it, but I'm not and the sticky note function works good enough for me. It's free and they still won't pay me for shilling them (fuck!).>>93247388Can't hurt to look through some fairy tales, usually some weird shit in there when magic gets brought up. Drawbacks wise, I'd say keep it pretty light mechanically, if only "Control" over the tell. Abuse your power too much and your "Strange Glowing Mark" becomes a giant beacon for otherworldly sodomizers. >>93219358Quick Update on the Notepad Anon Experience Requiem>Cruciform is getting its update gradually done. Managed to power through to Relics which means we're ahead of schedule if things go according to plan. (pic related)>Metal Saviors 1.3 is coming along, fixed a lot of the niggling little issues and now I'm trying to hacksaw and nailgun the rest of the game into place.>Pretty Derby Duwang is getting PDF'd formally, fucking Affinity Tables are making this far more complicated than it needs to be. We're trucking along. Cruciform's manuscript SHOULD be done by next thread which I'll post in here.
>Start making a solo game, in no small part so I could do part of the testing myself and not have to force the game on my regular group>So worried the game will play like shit that I can't bring myself to even try and test itI can't even give it to other people in its current state because my my current rule writings and design notes read like madness to anyone who isn't me and doesn't know what I've already abandoned or have new (unwritten) rules for
>>93247872Write normal rules.
>>93219358>>93219508Hello again /gdg/ the SATTAR System has updated to the v1.5 beta, and it's looking better than ever. We've been playtesting this game with a semi-regular group of players and have really worked hard to streamline the game, cut out the jank, and make the system more flexible.For those who haven't seen the project in previous threads, SATTAR is a medium crunch narrative focused system that centers around having a secondary axis of resolution beyond pass-fail, with a semi-independent advantage-disadvantage axis to guide the flow of the unfolding narrative. And it only uses d6 and d10 dice! If you like PbtA (but wish it had more depth), or Genesys (but don't vibe with proprietary dice), or like more traditional systems (but not binary pass-fail resolutions), give this system a look!RPG questions>How do you measure wealth in your game? Completely abstract, hard penny counting, something gooey in the middle?Something in the middle. Everything has a 'cost' but instead of counting how many silver or gold pieces everything cost, it's assigned a Value Rating, and it's all base ten. Everything costs exactly Value 1, Value 10, Value 100, etc so there's no need to track how many coins you have, it's more about tracking how many purchases you have at various purchasing power brackets.>How many weapons can you expect a PC to carry on their person? How easy is it to switch between them?Two or so. A main and a secondary. We are still testing an encumbrance system.>How much of a force multiplier (if any) is a PC among a group of mooks, goons (non-sexual), or henchmen? One man army? Regular Joe?I'd say a 1.5x multiplier. PCs get really cool talents, and often have weapons with cool secondary abilities. But when it comes to health, there's a surprising amount of parity.>Stat Duke Nukem, he is the perfect man after all.Special Rule: Ignore the dice results, The DUKE always wins.
>>93248879And here's a content pack. It's got all the player facing 'stuff' like talents, heritages, items, weapons, etc. It's got a very 'light' setting, meant to be more a very generic Brothers Grimm faerie tale setting, but could be adapted to near anything. It also has some sample enemy blocks in the back.Also, here's a google drive link to everything, including a folder that has all the character sheets some rules reference sheets. We might have some pre-made starter character samples in the near future.https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_6LIS5pNmsUW9GE4poleOmNLudZ3PKNh?usp=drive_link
>>93219737>My question is, how deadly is your game? If we're talking about ambushes, then it needs to be emphasized that it's up to the players if they fall into ambushes or not.It's savage worlds based so you have metacurrencies to prevent instant death but an ambush by a strong enemy can one shot you (as it did in the last time I tried an outdoors thing)>>93238477>Or you can just consult the Pizza Chart.
Can someone please give me some advice on how to fine-tune a resources skill for a Victorian era D100 game?I'm mainly looking to do something like Call of Cthulhu's Credit Rating skill where your skill rank determines the number of pounds you start with, but for a game where money plays an important role because players trade occult stuff like artifacts, spell tomes, and powerful consumable alchemical elixirs. Essentially, money (and the things you can buy with it) would be the primary means of character progression and I want players to focus on buying expensive things with prices starting at a lower-middle class family's annual income and taking shady, but lucrative jobs to afford it.The main thing I'm having trouble with is how to adjust the numbers and ranges on such a skill in a way that has a nice power curve so it's a good trade-off between dumping it for more skill points or raising it for more money. Right now I'm looking at putting upper class at 90% and above, but I'm not sure where to draw the line between the underclass, working class, and middle class. Any thoughts?
>>93247872>too afraid of failure to continue Weak. Failure is how you learn.
>>93251568Via playtesting.
>>93247579I guess in this case, I can give some numbers for damage output and for Damage Reduction and for the sake of clarity, I'm referring to it as as Armor Rating because I have a Dodge Rating.The idea is that damage is 1d6 to 1d10, and you have either enchanted +'s to add more base damage to it or your stats that add to it. So an average lvl 1 character would have 1d8+1 damage.The current Armor Rating values are:1 AR for Light Armor2-3 for Medium Armor4-5 for Heavy ArmorShields give +1 AR, or +2 if they are Tower Shields.However, the heavier the armor, the lower the Dodge Rating is by the same value starting at Medium Armor. Every character has a Base Dodge Rating of 7. So wearing Medium Armor can reduce your Dodge Rating from 7 to 5, and Heavy Armor can reduce it from 7 to 2 (shields don't count to this penalty). So in the case of a Heavy Armor user and Tower Shield, that would be 7 AR. If the 7 AR works are reducing all damage, then you have the Tankzard issue. However, if the AR acts as temporary HP, I can see how this would just give the Wizard increased survivability, especially because I want Spell Interruption to be a thing where if you deal lethal damage to a Spellcaster then their spell fizzles. If a Spellcaster wants a spell to go off, they should have their comrades helping protect them and giving them cover to get those big spells.And I think a fear I have is I want the system to be fairly easy to understand and easy to pick up, I don't want to have a 300+ page tome for players to comb through and get overwhelmed by all of this. However I then get caught up in detailing little details like this, and it makes sense to me, the author, but does it make sense to others? Which is also why I'm sharing this on the board because it's my current point of figuring shit out.
>>93220396Same anon still working on the wealth system. I've simplified it a bit by dropping significance. Currently it's>Wealth level represented by die>Everything has a die cost>Your wealth >= cost you can afford it (maybe with a roll)>Your wealth < cost, you can't afford itMaking money is similar with>Your wealth <= treasure value, then it increases (maybe with a roll)>Your wealth > treasure, the treasure is too small to change your financesWhat's bothering me is someone who's broke with a d4 Wealth level and someone who's very well off with a d10 wealth level, increase by the same level if they find d12 worth of treasure. Something that turns a comfortable person rich also turns a broke person to just alright, which is really messing with my head.
>>93241598>giving the foreign variant it's own small addendum.I think putting all the variants in their own shared addendum is the answer. Thanks, anon. Continuing the theme of being overly verbose, does anyone have suggestions for how I can word this more succinctly? The idea is you can use the ability to say>hmm, I need a rope now but don't have one in my inventory. I'll spend this resource point to declare I actually bought one on the way here/there's one on the table right now/the guard I beat up had one/whateverThe wording gets weird towards the end because I want people to declare they bought/found a sword, for example, but not that they totally prepared for this werewolf by commissioning a silvered sword 2 weeks ago
Started fiddling with a little tableau builder thingy called Planet Cauldron, about witches travelling the cosmos to create more and more potent brews to fill a cauldron the size of a planet and awaken the thing inside it. Nothing too innovative about it, and nothing to go off in terms of mechanics yet since it'd all be in cards that I haven't made yet, but you can probably imagine the typical fare. Mostly just getting a second opinion on the theme of it before I bother going further, whether it feels too forced, too unfocused, etc. But otherwise, I'll happily take any other input if you can see something awful from the brief outline.
>First pitch they kind of hated it and were expecting a completely different type of different game, but gave decent feedback>Different company pitch, they liked it but expressed it wouldn't be until 2029 with their scheduleC'est la something
>>93245300Agreed to >>93246388 You have a theme underpinning your design so now your goal is to find what mechanics can tap it.If it's grotesque then sacrificing, melding abilities, even the much maligned Lifedecking is appropriate.If it's terror then uncertainty and tension of what your opponent can do is key.For a dueling game, I always like to think about the immediacy of a the turn with the mana system and then the ultimate end condition they're working towards (wincons). Those two alone drastically affect the feel and tempo and separates MtG clones from others, even if it all comes back to "my card destroys yours". (Something like Keyforge has more shared DNA than other "Not Magic" games and yet feels totally different because of its tempo and wincons)
>>93253725>Thanks, anon.Np anon.>Continuing the theme of being overly verbose, does anyone have suggestions for how I can word this more succinctly? Here's my crack at it.Prepared(true blood only)- you may spend a point of grit to have always had a mundane object with you. This object must fit onto your person comfortably, it's value cannot be greater than your current wealth, and it cannot be an object that would require a commission to create or a significant time to craft.
thoughts on this system for maneuvers?note on some term definitions:>Advanced Tactics: you can use these once per SR>Shift: funtions as forced movement (i.e., doesnt expend movement or trigger reactions. ignores difficult terrain)>Standard Action: your Action (Actions now refer to standard actions, bonus actions, and reactions)>immobilized: your speeds are all 0 and cant be increased
