Amateur Game Design and Homebrew ThreadWelcome to the thread for homebrew discussion on /tg/, Late Edition! It's an effort to get people to have classic homebrew discussions and assist the board in general when it comes to their game design endeavors.>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.>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://rolz.org/ (Impromptu playtesting at its finest)>https://www.youtube.com/user/georgephillies/playlists (Game Design Lectures)Thread Questions: What are you working on? Are you stuck on anything? Have you make any breakthroughs?
>>98300257SEXOOOOOOOOOOOOO
>>98300257>TQBeen stuck on dealing with fulfilment contracts regarding a physical print run of Primrose before I move it over to a PoD service. Working out the quirks of dice sets and what not. Im also just burning through all the supplementary books now and probably will start looking at art soonish.
>>98300257>TQNothing at the moment, aside from occasionally chipping away at my action shooter TTRPG (think COD4, John Wick, Payday 2, that sort of thing) every now and then.Though, I did shore up a bunch of 2024/5.5 homebrew for my overhauled rules/classes including an alternate version of my overhauled ranger and some wholly new classes.I have been told by my players for the game I'm gonna run of my own modern fantasy system not to update the sheets again so I'm leaving it alone for now.
>>98300257>What are you working on?a personal project that can be summarized as "advance wars but board game">Are you stuck on anything?the core principle of advance wars is attackers shoot first then defenders counter-attackwhich necessitates keeping track of HP to determine the strength of the counter-attack and prevents a single powerful unit from simply punching through dozens of smaller ones due to cumulative scratch damage from counter-attacks, weak as they arewhich wouldnt translate to a board game very well, since you would need to keep track of damage states across potentially dozens of units at once and thus either a notepad or a forests worth of counters>Have you make any breakthroughs?possibly just treating it like risk, where you stack 10 counters on top of each other representing one unit and you remove one counter for each damage taken
>>98300257So what is she supposed to be? A secretary or a lawyer or what?The correct answer dictates how attractive she is.
>>98302064A secretary, I'd assume.
>>98302473Damn, that'd be less attractive than something like a junior lawyer. Competence is hot.
>>98296496Ah, I made my own thread because this one wasn't up, I'll move here
>>98302907I'm sure she's a competent secreta-- oh. Nevermind.
Capitalism TCG hereOne of the most significant changes to my rules is the addition of a Planning Zone and Construction Time (CT) stat. Before, any Production or Infrastructure that you could afford you would be able to instantly play. This resulted in Drag Race style gameplay where it was just a rush to dump out your whole hand.With the introduction of Construction Time, more significant cards may take 1-2 extra turns before it is able to see play and make you money.>Planning Zone has initial limit of 1 card>playing a card in to the Planning Zone has no cost>add a number of Time Counters to the card equal to its CT stat>at the beginning of the turn, before your construction phase starts, you shave 1 Time Counter off any card in the Planning Zone>when a card in the PZ has 0 counters on it, you may then Construct it for the cost on the cardThis created a nice obstacle to getting your powerful cards out as well as provides design space for PZ or Time Counter manipulation.I also began working on playmat designs. The design with individual zones is an example of something that would come with a starter product.
>>98303710>give your opponent a headache strategy
>>98300257I don't even know what to homebrew now since I rarely play with my friends now. I wanted to make a West Marches -like campaign for randoms, but I am conflicted on what to make. I am thinking about:- d20 Darks Souls OSR homebrew in D&D multiverse.- d20 homebrew Ironic fantasy.- YZE homebrew Ironic fantasy.- Mystic Bastionland.- YZE homrbrew about fairy tales, political intrigue, domains, economy, investigation.
>Practiced a lot of mechanical nesting and game mechanics that interacted with one another>Now that it's time to "clean up" and adjust said mechanics I am now overwhelmed to figure out which block of mechanics to change firstThis isn't helping my motivation issues.
>>98305453Thought experiment time. Imagine players setting up the game: what rule do they need to know first?Do that one.Then whatever it connects to or affects, that goes second.There’s going to be a linear logic for introducing mechanics to new players, so start by getting that sorted and revise it front-to-back after you get it in some sort of order.
>>98305453To add to >>98305516, I'd suggest start with working on a flow-chart of the references then plan out the order you'll work out from. The final form of the flow-chart should double as a decent starting point for ordering the rules in whatever format you're looking to provide them.
>>98305516Good idea, do the most important surface rules first and keep a flow chart. Thankfully it's not too far gone where that will be diffacult.
I'm designing a system where i had the idea of tying the weapon classes and armors your characters have access to to your ability scores.Heres strength for example. The idea is that if you go to Rank 0 in a stat you lose access to a fundamental ability, which for strength is being able to grapple and that kind of stuff.
>>98301657Are the units on any sort of base, like sitting on the grid? You could use a rotary life tracker like for magic or something to count down from 10 to 0. If you made it similar to something like heroclix you can even put the unit's stats on the base.Can't really do fog of war with that, but I can see something like a modular tile set which contains a bunch of grid squares on them, and you build out a game area that way.A direct tabletop translation for Advance Wars sounds awesome, I'd love to see what you have.
>>98306656You can take this as a good thing or bad thing, but this feels very Videogame.Vidya RPGs usually have linear progression where you gain more damage and unlock access to new items, abilities, etc. on a linear path of progression. That’s pretty much verbatim how Oblivion handles skills, and, just an opinion, I fucking hate Oblivion.Matters of taste, but I prefer games where levelling up feels like an opportunity to customize my character and change how they play a little. Having one fixed upgrade is less exciting because I don’t get the Poindexter Pleasure of reading the rulebook and comparing options, imagining what I can do and what toys I can add to my toybox. If it’s just linear upgrades, I guess that’s logically good, but it doesn’t feel as compelling.Decisions are something pen & paper games do infinitely better than vidya, and decisions tweak people’s brains. It’s exciting and rewarding to make a choice and see how it pays off.Consider adding Specialties, or Techniques, or some other jargon that gives you interesting ways to use the new equipment; limit the player’s ability to pick these features so they have decisions to make. As a bonus, it will mean that two people can start with similar characters, but wind up with very different playstyles at higher levels: players will feel more attached to the character for having a hand in making them, not just their personality or backstory, but how they actually behave and operate within the game.
>>98306697>If you made it similar to something like heroclix you can even put the unit's stats on the base.that would probably be the best way of handling ita dial numbered 1-X that can spin but it would really limit the board size and thus the number of units, since the size of the dial determines the size of everything elsethe idea i was toying around with was what axis and allies usesa colored base representing 1s, another for 5s, and another for 10sso you just add or subtract the markers as you take damage or get repairedif you combine 2 units that would go over 10, im still thinking of what will happen, since getting re-imbursed resources would be fiddlykeeping track of ammo and gas is going to be another pain in the assmaybe it can just be simplified to a binary state any time you roll the lowest number on the dice twice in a row, the unit is "exhausted" and remains exhausted until resupplied
>>98306780Maybe, instead of game statistics on the base, the base could just rotate through letters, then you have a set of little pools of tokens in piles corresponding to a unit type, and its identifier.You would have a little Mancala-esque board for your tank units, with slots for marbles that represent your remaining hit points, with those slots marked A, B, C to correspond to tank pieces on the game board with the same letter on the base.This allows you to keep some of your information secret from the opponent, and lets you track all your numbers in one place without furiously scribbling notes for minutes on end. It’s also just a fun thing to fiddle with, plunking little stones around.You’ll run into logistical problems with this too, like army bloat, or needing an entire tray for a certain unit even if you’re only fielding one. But maybe you can refine it into something more useful.
>TQI'm the guy working on a former WW2 TF RPG- turned-solo wargame. None of my friends have given feedback on the test rules I did up so going back to the drawing board. Concept still has transforming alien robots fighting in linked serialised WW2 campaigns. Trying to rewrite from the ground up and... yeah. I kind of liked the last rules. I might do a mix of what I've been writing this afternoon and what I've written before. I don't know. I still think I'm missing something obvious here. I know how I want this to work. I want it to look and play in a cinematic form. Simple rules. Easy to set up and play. But I don't think I'm there yet. So, more navel-gazing.
>>98306772Granted, there are a lot of nuances that i have yet to work out. The idea is that while you set your scores at 1st level, you do still get to increase them later, but are limited to only having one attribute at Rank 5, and cant get a rank 5 attribute until 3rd level. And thats not even considering that you will pick a class that gives you abilities and such as well.Another thing is that the Intelligence equivalent grants Martial classes techniques, and Casters extra Mana (while Hybrids get a little of both). I dont have it very well visualised yet, but you can imagine Techniques to work in the way that Pathfinder 2e handles action feats.Speaking of Mana, thats another thing. Spells work by the caster spending up to their "Mana Threshold" to pump power into their spell for more effects, because damage is increased by Spell Potency (given by the Charisma equivalent). Pumping 4 mana causes Firebolt to do more damage than just 2, that kinda shit. Some classes have more Potency but a lower Threshold, and vice versa.
>>98306860Fair and valid. A 4chan post is not a rulebook.On-the-fly spellcrafting and/or spellbashing as a core mechanic sounds like my kind of game.Give ‘er. Lookin’ forward to seeing more.
>>98300257Hello guys, I kind of finished my Mystic Powers creation system. They are closer to superpowers than magic, and it is a bit complex to make, but i sacrificed some versatility in the hopes of making it simpler.Please come up with some superpower/magic spell ideas and try to use this system to make them. Tell me how that turned out.drive.google.com/file/d/1tvBFyCyRXECkjwJXsvXQZ_jYTEoyZaZe
>>98300257I am working on my own RPG taking thematic inspiration from "vice and violence" and "Vagabond", while mechanics-wise taking inspiration from cortex prime and kids-with-bikes, with a pinch of Fate CORE.In my game, resolution works the following way - you have a die assigned to a stat (Lets say d6 on Cunning), you a die that comes from your items and gear (Lets say d6 on lockpick) and then some other dice, be it contextual/narrative bonuses). And when you perform an action, you roll them against a target number (lets say lock with difficulty of 7), which typically is half of die's highest number + one (4 for d6, 7 for d12, etc.), and then boost the result by 1 for every 3 over the target number (so if we roll 11 vs 7, then your effect is doubled, and if you roll 13 then its trippled and so on)Right now i am stuck on idea on how to make spells work. I want spells to be simple names like "Fireball" and leave the mechanics up to interpretation, sort of. Ans have 2 tiers - minor and major, but i dont really know how spells should work so they can get miscasted (which implies a roll) i had a thought of a flat difficulty that the player rolls against when casting and miscasting if the roll goes bad, but it seems pretty basic, so i wanna do something more interesting.
>>98306833That's rough, buddy. Feeling like you have to rewrite the entire thing, especially if you liked them, sucks. Post your 1e rules here? Maybe someone here could give them a once-over.
>>98300257I could really use some advice on how to handle crafting.I have found that it's complicated enough that it's basically a game unto itself. It tends to dominate the game if you allow it into your rules.I would really appreciate it if anyone could direct me toward some traditional games with good crafting mechanics.The game I'm designing is a tabletop RPG, but I am open to borrowing from other systems.Thanks.
>>98307352I'd say crafting systems are for videogames and board games. In TTRPGs is better to use per session uses, abstract resources, and GM rulings.
>>98301639If you're curious, the system I mentioned at the end is in here, Preeminence. It's modern fantasy, and is me making what I want out of a fantasy system. The Experimental Changes doc (I think it's still there and not in the core book yet? It's been a minute) has rules for more traditional fantasy games. Some of the flavor text hasn't been updated on the sheet for the reasons I mentioned but it's flavor text so it's not as important. Mechanically nothing has changed for the species options that I did new art for (I did all the art for the book myself).https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1R38u-Q5ekMaEvFsnTuwClVdecAN5OJE1?usp=drive_linkAlso, this doc has hotlinks to all my "Unchained" content for D&D 2024. If your group refuses to run/play anything else pitch this stuff to them, especially if you're a martial enjoyer such as myself. Whine all you want about my custom weebshit inspired classes, your GM can just not use them at the table. I will say this, my design philosophy stems from how the official content words things or handles things except in instances where such content doesn't exist.https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hDd0Xe-k9jbLqqIlDvDtnsQULf-u7lVRp01mgzJYfOU/edit?usp=sharing
>>98307352In my opinion, the best way to handle it is to assign material rarities a cost rather than having a 3000 page index of every single possible material item and their cost.For monster parts like antlers or teeth, you could use the power level of the monster, be it a D&D-like CR system or a simpler difficulty system for each creature, or what I did was give each creature difficulty a unique pool for single and multiple encounters, meaning that a singular foe will be stronger than multiple foes to keep things more balanced.Then, you can simply reflavor the materials or keep from turning crafting into a whole minigame by saying "to craft X, you need Y materials". Some might not be purchasable, but they would have a value all the same which determines their rarity and thus the power of the crafted item.Making a dagger out of the bones of a wild boar shouldn't really offer any advantage other than maybe one based on cost; maybe you can make 10 of those for the price of one proper dagger or something.Making a suit of armor out of the corpse of a dragon that required the party to fight a losing battle they only barely won should confer significant benefit however.As for what the armor/weapons/items do, you could make a list of effects based on rarity, and assign a number of "Effect slots" to equipment based on its rarity. You can either have each effect cost 1 slot, or make it so that different equipment has different amounts of slots, and the rarer and more powerful the effect, the more slots it costs in the equipment.For example, let's say you had a common Effect that caused your sword to light up and emit light when you say a command word. That could be worth one slot. But say you had something that let the sword ignite in flames when you speak the command word, dealing extra damage. That could be worth two or even three slots, meaning only certain weapons could support it.
>>98307810This sounds good. It’s more than just “having a crafting kit lets you buy stuff at half price” but not that much more work on the GM side.You could also have rare items that can make magic items, essentially having crafting be a way for players to customize magic weapons instead of just begrudgingly accepting whatever longsword you throw at them.>Here’s a raw Spirit Stone.>You can refine it to produce a metal with magical properties.>You can use the stone, and 50GP worth of supplies to craft any kind of weapon, and imbue it with (Magic Property X)Then the player can figure out the weapon between sessions.RPGs benefit from downtime activity, specifically, something players can do on their own between sessions, then just recap quickly when the group meets up again. Levelling Up already kinda fits this mould.
>>98300257Ive veen working on something I don't plan on posting in this thread since it's a DIFFERENT thread.As for the thread questions: ive been working on the aforementioned thing (and expansion for one of my games i keep putting off doing art for). Im not stuck, but I am unfortunately in the "drawing the rest of the owl" phase for parts of the game design process I really don't like doing. Namely, I prefer working on the mechanics rather than the fluff or filling out tables of entries.
>>98302064Is it not the Reasonable Daemonette?
>>98306802logistics should be included at one point, but keeping it as a numerical value is a non-starter because that triples the amount of book keeping players need to dobut for the core gameplay, it should at least match the feel of advance warssomething like "roll one die for each HP in the unit, and cause 1 damage per success" would be a system so simple a child can understand it, but its going to be way swingier than actual advance warsso a tank hits infantry on a 5+, armor on a 4+, medium armor on a 3+, and heavy armor on a 2+while you are going to average 50% enemy casualties per attack, theres a non-zero chance that you can hit drastically over or under the averagefixed damage multiplied by N/10, where N is remaining units, is closer to how actual advance wars works and reduces the impact of luckbut that then introduces basic arithmethic
My game is a fantasy heartbreaker with a focus on alchemy / herbalism / construct crafting / rune magic / poisonmaking / basically everything but direct magic, and domain rules.>2d8 core mechanic>roll 2d8 and add your skill>you pick a class and get +3 to a particular skill>assign +2, +2, +1, +1, +1 to other skills>pick one Trait to start>plus free trait from your class>classes each have list of traits that only they can access, but you can also pick generic traits>there are levels, but each one takes twice as long to get as the previous, so games are concentrated at low levels>successful adventures that are well-known also earn you Prestige that will gain you followers and eventually grants of landNow for the combat:>you get 2 actions per round: a major and a minor>the major action is your typical attack/use power>the minor action is a combination of "bonus action" and "reaction" >you regain it at the start of each turn>you have to decide whether to hold it for a reaction, or use it right away>the traits give you a lot of things to do with that minor action>some of the leader classes can use it to inspire someone for a free attack or something like that>some use it to steady their aim>fighter-type characters are actually about tanking in many cases, hitting enemies and making it so they have a penalty to attack anyone besides the fighter, and they are aware of it too>combat is mostly about lining up actions to help each other hit or maneuver>very few "floating bonuses">a lot of abilities are also "attack at a penalty, for some status effect on a hit" instead of X/day abilities, so it's always a trade off to decide whether to use themAnd damage:>damage is a bit weird. You roll 1 to 3 d8s based on your weapon>for each d8 that is greater than or equal to your target's Armor, you deal 1 Wound>most "mooks" go down after 1 wound, making combat low-bookkeeping>unarmored armor is 4, light/medium/heavy is 5/6/7Thoughts?
>>98316054Dont you think the skill bonus is too small? a +1 and +3 are nearly irrelevantly different before the granularity of 2d8 (2 to 16). You are increasing your chances by less than 20%.Unless of course, there are many other add modifiers.
>>98315693I swear this is the bane of my existence. Creating tables of options and items is so time-consuming and not at all fun.
>>98300257I’m building a Homestuck TCG.A 4-6 player game were each is assigned one of the 12 classes (hero, thief, etc). The Narrator deals each player a battlefield card (a location, character or scene). Then a dice roll is spent to unlock the location or fight/make ally. The reward for the victory is grist points, which can corresponds to the 12 aspects (I know, 12 elements, 12 classes, I didn’t make Homestuck, I’m just making a game of it) The player is also dealt an item card, these can be weapons, disposable buffs, or spells.
>>98317252My problems rn are class balancing. The classes and abilities are as follows.## Witch Struggles to master a familiar, or is undone by it.- Act — Bind: Attempt to master a Character card as a familiar (Bond item, no roll). Success: persistent passive perk (e.g. free reroll once per round). Failure: familiar goes feral — immediate Doom Stack draw, and it becomes a standing tax until removed.- Counter — Unbind:Cancel any single action targeting any player.### Heir - Act — Claim: Take over any active effect/modifier in play, regardless of ownership or Aspect match.- Counter — Fall Back: Discard a held Item to redirect an incoming Doom Stack draw onto that Item instead of yourself.- Note: Inherits any Doom Stack pressure already attached to whatever they Claim.### Seer - Insight Track (four stages: Doubt Glimpse Sight True Sight). Gain one stage on a correct Call.- Act — Call: Predict another player's roll outcome before it's rolled. Correct: gain Grist matching that card's Aspect, advance the Track. Wrong: Doom Stack draw, severity shrinking by stage (full at Doubt, least at Sight).- Counter — True Sight: Once per game, at the final Track stage, spend the whole Track to declare a single Call automatically correct — no roll needed to confirm it. Resets Track to Doubt after use.
>>98317287Continued. Mage — - Act — Foretell: Before rolling on any Battlefield card, call the exact number of successes. Called correctly: treat the roll as automatic Overkill regardless of actual dice. Called wrong but roll succeeds anyway: normal success, no bonus or penalty.- Blind spot: Snake eyes can never be called via Foretell. When it happens to a Mage, it triggers a second, separate Doom Stack draw on top of the normal rule.- Counter: none — total fluency is the whole identity; Mage has no reactive answer to anything.### Knight — - Act — Answer the Call:Fully commit to your Aspect on this card — bigger dice pool, but a failure doubles the resulting BITE/Doom Stack draw. *Or* refuse the call for a flat, small, safe action instead — no bonus, no extra risk. The choice itself is the ability.- Counter — Guard: Take BITE damage meant for another player onto yourself instead.
>>98317310### Page — - Act — Stow: Bank one face-down Item from any resolved Battlefield, yours or not, no threshold.- Counter — Unveil: Flip any stowed Item face-up to boost a roll in progress, anytime.### Thief — - Act — Lift: Take any single unresolved Item in play instantly, no roll required.- Counter — Vanish: Block an action specifically targeting you.- Note: Lifting anything still attached to an unresolved Battlefield effect triggers a Doom Stack draw; lifting a settled/banked reward does not.### Rogue — - Act — Share the Take: Receive a reward regardless of your own outcome, but must split it immediately with another player.- Counter — Redirect: Move any unresolved Item to whoever's turn is currently active.- Tax: Can never hold more than a small fixed cap of unresolved Items.### Prince — - Act — Break: Destroy or force-redraw any single Battlefield card, Item, or effect in play.- Counter — Undo: Cancel a Narrator's attempt to detonate a Doom Stack card.- Tax: Every Break adds to a personal Doom Progression tally; at cap, all of the Prince's own held Items/Grist are wiped.### Bard — - Act — Double or Nothing: Double the current Battlefield's reward and its risk simultaneously.- Counter — Hedge: Halve an incoming Doom Stack draw's severity for any player — but if their roll would have succeeded anyway, their reward is voided instead.### Sylph — - Act — Interfere: Redirect the target of any in-progress action or Battlefield effect to a different player or card entirely — helpful or harmful, Sylph's call.- Counter — Invert: Flip the polarity of any just-resolved outcome — success becomes a lesser failure, failure becomes a lesser success — for any player, including themselves.
>>98317325Good god, I’m finally done.### Maid — - Act — Harvest: Take a free Matched Grist tick, no roll, uncounterable, always available.- Counter — Attune: Spend 2 Matched Grist to auto-resolve a Battlefield card matching your own Aspect as an automatic success. Only works within your own Aspect — no Counter at all outside it.
>>98315728Reasonable Daemonette usually was depicted with a turtleneck sweater.Worst case outside of outright softcore porn was a blouse with the classic chest button opening due to a low quality shirt
>>98317121Well the skill ranks increase every couple levels up to potentially +6 to +8 so it's like a "zero to hero" thing as in D&D.But yeah I thought about adding in maybe +1 or +2 bonuses from attributes, I just didn't know if they were worth adding to the game.
>>98315737Yeah, I don't know. Lots of options you could go with. I definitely think that with the average size of an advance wars game, you're going to need to track a LOT of information for each model based on what it can and can't do, its movement speed on various terrain, its damage and effectiveness vs certain targets, it's ranges for artillery, different states for units like embarking an APC or diving a submarine, the constant fuel tax for vehicles and aircraft. Not to mention your own personal funds and star power if you're doing that sort of thing.It's probably best to keep the bases simple with a representative model like the grid mode of the game does, and have a simple base that counts 10-1 and has a second dial that tracks unit number. That way you can have unit card's off to the side of the table with each unit's base stats and like a tracker for up to 10 unit's ammo or fuel or something. Or you can ditch the 0-100 fuel or ammo tracker to simply a number of activations unless they're on a controlled city or next to an apc or some shit.Sounds like a ton of fun though, and pretty simple to do since all of the stats are already known and tested values. Biggest obstacle is figuring out how the actual damage calcs work and making that make sense on the tabletop.Looks like someone on TTS tried something similar to this a while back, called Skirmish Wars if you want to look it up on the Steam Library. This could actually work if written correctly, it's got my gears turning at least!
>>98321082for funds, its probably better to reduce it from $$ value to discrete tokens so each turn, a base or city grants 1 production tokenand you spend X production tokens to buy a unitless granular, since you cant do half-values, but its easier to keep track ofrepairs can be simplified to just costing time rather than moneya unit can choose to repair instead of movewhich is free, but costs a units turn
>>98303453Man, the shit hot girls get away with is crazy
Minor update on my magical girl system. Could use critiques and advise on literally everything. https://cvl-industries.itch.io/magia-msa
I've been developing board games and TTRPGs among friends for like 20 years. Only now, within the next couple week, I'm I releasing my first "real" TTRPG rulebook.I've released smaller games and supplements before. This one is feeling very different.
>>98325525Just make sure you actually get someone who knows what theyre doing to do the layout i swear to god
>>98325930Thankfully, I know how to use LaTeX.There are some empty columns because I'm rearranging the interstitial art.
>>98300257I had this idea for a class or subclass (IDK for which game since I play a few, dnd 5e, Barbarians of Lemuria, Mini 6) thats a variation on the classical ranger, Lets call it a Surveyor.Instead of focusing more in depth on specific natural knowledge, the Surveyor combines the wilderness pathfinding ability with human intelligence. Acting more like military reconnaissance or well, a surveyor rather than a pure woodsman. Someone who figures out the geopolitical climate of an area before an army comes in, who are the local notables, what is the main industry, what are the major concerns etc. And also someone who scopes out tactical locations like chokepoints, river crossings, and open fields. Trading some herbal knowledge for some more clerical and human knowledge.As an action they can point out tactical elements in the feild like high ground, loose footing or cover to grant allies bonuses like better protection or attack bonuses.Probably little to no magic. and if they do it would probably be clerical or arcane rather than druidic.I really like the idea of someone who is more maps and intellegence focus rather than someone who is "I can tell that this scat is 5 days old" focused.
>>98327002Is this not just a scout?
>>98327049Scout to me just doesnt really imply the human intellegence side side of things, like learning who the local lord is and the local industries. Just more geographical intel. But maybe that's a misnomer.
>>98327207NTAScouts do exactly what you describe. They note the lay of the land, as well as enemy positions, or look for foretelling clues about an opposing force’s strategy.Spies (in case you’re trying to avoid making another spy-there are too many as is) use disguises and subterfuge to get closer to an enemy administration in social settings, while scouts use stealth in the field; both of them collect intelligence about an opposing force. Scouts also fight, but usually in small one-on-one dust-ups, like killing a sentry to leave a guard tower empty, for example, and Hunter’s Mark would be a good fit for that kind of Sniper/Assassination role.It definitely reads “scout” to me. It also sounds better than the usual flavor of “this subclass goes on nature hikes” that the rest of them have. Rangers were already purpose-built as scouts, but none of the other subclasses feel like they double-down on that concept. Even the Hunter, the sort of default, is just a dude who lives outside.
>>98327251Fair enough, for purely military goals, scout does sound better. though I feel that surveyor also has a non-explicitly military vibe. Like a surveyor of property or a administrative counter a la doomsday book population and industry survey. "Count Gulgo has 20 acres of land and 20 servents, and his land produces 60 bushels of wheat" type stuff in terms of occupation.
>>98325951Post game. I wanna read it.
>>98328133It releases on the 19th, and at 14.99 USD on DriveThruRPG. After which, I'm sure someone will pirate it.
research is fun
Why does it feel wrong to have my resolution die be also usable in damage rollsThis is what's holding me back from trying 2d10 versus a d20, it just feels wrong.
>>98329849Is it clear when youre rolling damage and when youre doing an action?
>>98329855I think so, it's not like it's wildly different than most any other system. You have to make an attack before you can do damage, so you roll 2d10 and if its a success you roll damage, which may or may not also include a d10.I guess if someone wasn't paying attention and they were just told to roll 2d10 they wouldn't be able to discern what they were rolling for, but that hypothetical doesn't really point out a flaw with the system so much as the imaginary player.
>>98329849Rolled it 40 million times.
>>98329849>>98329891Thus if you give ties to the 1d20, they are basically equal.
>>98300257An Elder Scrolls campaign set in the Niben Valley (think Bravil, Leyawiin and Elsweyr frontier) using GURPS. I'm stuck at setting the initial clues of the plot, the starting area and hexcrawl map and mechanics. At the moment, I have already created the main villains and important allies and the outline of the plot.
I got 7 more pieces of interstitial art left to make today. Once they are in the book, it will be ready for sale on the 19th.I can then target update content.You see, I plan for the game to always ever be a single book. I'm just going to update it ad infinitum.
>>98332552Update, the book is now in its release state.
>>98300257Anyone else have a hard time picturing a character before they actually stat them out? I do for some reason. I Was experimenting how I could represent it in a way to make it more clear to myself. Here I have a quantitative and qualitative representation of characters with a bar graph for the quantitative info and a short 3 bullet list for qualitative factors. I hope this allows it to sink into my mind better.
>>98335820I made a little app that creates a character. Helps to instantly come up with stuff on the fly. Other than that, I usually have a general idea of the character before statting then out. The actual details come into clearer focus once stats, background, traits, etc. are established.
>>98329897That's not exactly true. 2d10 leans more towards the average, while 1d20 has no leaning within its range.While the average ARE the same number (rounding up for the d20), the odds of hitting those values are not identical. No idea what was used to roll that many times but if you look at the odds, 2d10 hits the average more often.Almost twice as much, in fact; 2d10 hits a 10 9% of the time, while 1d20 only hits it 5% of the time. I'll give a d20 this however, it does improve your fringe odds more, whereas 2d10 is overall more consistent.So basically, if you want a higher chance to hit low or high values, use a d20. If you want a higher chance to hit the average, use 2d10.
>>98337538Yes, I know what a normal distribution is lol.>>98329849>2d10 versus a d20>versusI assumed this was talking about a contest between two sides. One of which using 2d10s, the other 1d20.What apparently was meant was...>This is what's holding me back from trying 2d10 in place of using a d20, it just feels wrong.
>>98307171I did earlier in the year but I think I put too much in. I'm going to pull a bunch of stuff out and repost, although I can't remember where it was recommended to host it :D
>>98303701I've also been working to flesh out the main characters for the game. Since it's a game about economy rather than fighting it's interesting trying to come up with unique ideas that are also grounded in realism. I'm also trying to be aware of the silhouette test and giving them some kind of iconic object to have
>>98337538The reason 2d10 wins is that it has a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 20 with an average of 11While the 1d20 hasa minimum of 1 and a maximum of 20 and an average of 10.5
>>98329891>>98329897>>98337577Just checked back in after a few days, I appreciate the testing anon. But yeah, what I meant was that something about it just doesn't *feel* right about rolling 2d10s in my hand compared to a d20.The only reason I'm playing around with the potential of 2d10 is because I've been toying around with allowing the player to increase how many they roll for a check. Adding another d10 is significant enough without feeling too big, but adding a second d20 feels like both extremes are gonna cause a lot of balance issues.
>>98300257I did the first session of my second round of playtests today Anons. Been working on a TTRPG for a good year or so now, and actually seeing the reactions of people has been amazing. Its real weebshit, but damn it seems to have connected with them pretty nicely.
>>98342477The system here>>98325525>>98325951>>98334711Is 1d10 only, adding relevant modifiers.That means if a player is 11 away from success, they have to think of a different way to solve their problem.
>>98300257Opinions on this map for a game I am making? Clear? Ugly? is this even the right place for maps?
Wanted to make a homebrew simulationist Pokemon TTRPG just for shits and giggles and currently I'm thinking my best option would be to just extend GURPS with Pokemon mechanics.So I'm makin' some custom skills.Heavy WIP
>>98345129>Opinions on this map for a game I am making?It's not great.>Clear?Sort of.>Ugly?Yes, it has naively created landmasses.>Is this even the right place for maps?No, because it looks like a map for a campaign an not a game you are designing. Belongs in /wbg/
>>98300257>TQStuck on determining point values. Its such an abstract concept to work on.
TIL there's a truckload of Japanese homebrew/amateur TTRPGs on the interwebssee https://x.com/hashtag/1%E3%83%9A%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8TRPG?src=hashtag_click for an example of 1-page engines
>>98300257>TQI want to make a very freeform power system for point-buy characters for a skirmish war game thing. You have X points to make a character, including stats, equipment, and their super power. Weaker powers leave more room for the other stuff.Is there a better way to set power levels than to just like a bunch of powers for each tier, with GM design notes, and let players and GMs compare it to the player's power? Specifically while keeping the powers themselves very open, not some Mutants and Masterminds point system for making powers out of specific building blocks.Here's an first pass example of five t1 powers. Too niche to come up in a typical fight, but it gives you enough points left to bring a gun or something instead. And who knows, maybe it will come in handy anyway.
Idea:>Look through wiki of random fantasy IP>???>convert setting into system-agnostic campaign/adventure module>???>profit
Live.
What's the point of a hexcrawl when pointcrawl exists? Not trolling, genuinely wondering. irl when hiking you are following a path, you don't just go from A to B in a straight line, it doesn't work like that (cause traversing through foliage or whatever takes way more effort - irl hexcrawl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO0XbbL_gBE). Hexcrawl seems so unnatural even in a game sense. Which leads me to the question, are there any good streamlined rules for wilderness travel? Ironsworn goes about it well with the Undertake a Journey move - basically don't care about distance, but about time, and how it went. But looking for something simple which can give good variance, and be also spatial - for example if I steer into this forest for some reason, what happens next?
>>98354803Partly inertia, partly an impression of better degrees-of-freedom, partly that hexcrawl REALLY bluntly translates onto "proper" mapping. You're "supposed" to have hexes with different terrain-types covering what you're complaining about, but granularizing that eventually breaks down. You could probably mix them with hexes serving as the "regional seed" then the pointcrawl "baking" the free-travel rolls into defined paths between locations of interest.
>>98354803>>98354976Do mappies really?
>>98354803Not all game setups works for every system, or even every campaign of a given system. An aspect of why people use hexcrawls over pointcrawls is simply because it breaks the map into a visual scale without necessarily needing a measurement listed. It also allows vast distances to be abstracted (its not a straight line, its a general direction that is taken even when factoring in lots of little twists and bends). If the game places heavier emphasis on resource management, then hexes being a standard abstraction of size also allows easy calculation for how many resources you burn through. If distance and resources really dont matter though, the hex isnt a necessity.You can also say "why should i use grids in dnd when i can use measurements or totm", and that will certainly work for certain things but the game has been pretty consistently set grid-based sizes for things like dungeon rooms or spell effects, and the game still sticks with it because everything else uses it already and conversion would be a large effort for little actual reward.Tldr, nothing is strictly objectively better, it just works better at that moment.
>>98356249>It also allows vast distances to be abstractedHow does a hex map do this better than a map which has waypoints connected with lines with time estimates on them?>If the game places heavier emphasis on resource management, then hexes being a standard abstraction of size also allows easy calculation for how many resources you burn throughHow does "traversing this mountain hex takes x time and resources" create better game experience than "you can take this route, it will take x time and resources"?I just don't see anything a pointcrawl cannot do which hex map can. Hexes within hexes within hexes is point crawl anyways. What's the point of a hex system if you have separare points of interest in there anyways?
>>98356328>I just don't see anything a pointcrawl cannot do which hex map can.Straightforwardly if not outright natively fill for MUCH fiddlier routing work between arbitrary or even outright unknown locations, which can be important in certain kinds of Domain play. Of course, these routes and the variance within them can then be turned into the point-to-point relationships you're insisting on primacy for, effectively turning the hexcrawl travel into procedural generation for the travel-times.
>>98356328What if as a player, I don't want to go to one of the predefined points?
>>98356328Play more games
>>98354803>What's the point of a hexcrawl when pointcrawl exists?pointcrawls are for when travelling between 2 points on a known or semi-known regionhexcrawl is all about exploring the wilderness.the entire point of the hexcrawl is to game the journey. not abstract it with a couple of rolls and be done with it but actually fully game it.The point of hexcrawls are detailed exploration. Exploration itself is the goal of the game or session.Some games have it as a minigame between dungeons and others as the full on purpose of the game.Also it aint unnatural in a gaming sense. It is the exact opposite actually. It is so very gamey with it's own set of rules that narrative minded parties and games cant handle it naturally so these games abstract travel in different ways.See the one ring rpg for example. For modern games that aint osr and do hexcrawls free league's the forbidden lands is the only one i know of
>>98356373>>98356547>>98357831>"Let's try to locate a hidden ancient temple which is rumored to be facing sea somewhere near Stonetalon Peak."How can a journey to that place be like using pointcrawl:From the village, walk on road/follow known route. You can stop and camp at waypoints which have been mapped beforehand (because they are located near streams, or well-sheltered etc.). But what if you spot a hostile warband you want to evade or a spring thaw makes a river no longer fordable or otherwise you decide to take a different route? You can let's say give GM a compass bearing, state your intention ("We want to hide in a forest until they pass" or "We want to evade their camp with this kind of safety margin") and roll. Draw a line on a map from the place you walked into forest from into a new waypoint - it took you x time to walk this route, you estimate you covered about y distance, you drank this much water, and now you are at [location - new waypoint] because the sun is setting and you are looking to camp for the night/because you have been spotted by a hostile patrol/because there are wandering monsters in your path/because there is something interesting etc.Okay the situation is resolved. What do you do next? Okay, let's draw a line on the map, you arrive at [location - new waypoint], it took you x time, you estimate you covered about y distance...Is there anything pointcrawl cannot do which hexcrawl can?Are there any good streamlined rules for wilderness travel?
>>98357880>what if there is no road or known route? if you discover a new uncharted region, an uninhabited island, uncivilised lands where locals traverse through landmarks and no roads exists etcyeah when the point of interest is somewhere near civilization a couple of days away from the nearest roads villages settlements etc then sure a pointcrawl can handle it just fineBut there are plenty of situations where a pointcrawl just isnt gonna cut it mostly because it wasnt the reason it was created for.So to finalise because you seemed to not understand it the first time. Pointcrawl cannot do total wilderness.If your game/setting doesnt feature that then sure a pointcrawl is enough for all your needs>Are there any good streamlined rules for wilderness travel? Streamlined how? i already told you one ring has streamlined travel that can be adapted to pointcrawls as well.Did you check it out?
>>98357936>what if there is no road or known route?>Pointcrawl cannot do total wilderness.I literally described in previous post how a new route through wilderness has been created cause for whatever reason the old route was not used.>"Let's try to locate [a point of interest] which is rumored to be [somewhere in relation to a known point of interest]"Describe the hexcrawl gameplay process for this and tell me what it does better than the pointcrawl process I described. I can also describe the gameplay process of clearing a hex using pointcrawl system if you want (hint: it's the same damn thing).If anything hexmaps and hexcrawls fence you into mindstates which hamper game experience:"it takes x time to traverse this mountain hex" instead of "it takes x time to traverse this mountain range using this route. you need to refill your water right now? you can walk towards that tarn you see but it will take you x time cause you have to route uphill through rocky terrain".
>>98357991>Describe the hexcrawl gameplay process for this and tell me what it does better than the pointcrawl process I described.It is not better, it is different. It does more. It gives you periodical rolls fro weather, fatigue, foraging, getting lost, random encounters and all the other minutia that you would have to personally insert there consciously if you tried to hexcrawl with a pointcrawlThere is one simple thing pointcrawl cant do. It cant do detail if travel as well as hexcrawls. It is an abstraction of a hexcrawl for when you dont need all of it's hassle.If you want the extra you go with a hexcrawl.If you still cant get why x is different from y then i cant halp you anymore.You just removed all mechanics from travel and you said since it's a forest you can get this far today and now camp.Yeah sure anything can be solved narratively. I dont see your point exactly. If you just wanna handwave that shit and just say the party can travel x miles per day in a straight line and i took a ruler on my map and decides this is a three day trip then sure you dont need anything more.I still cant see your point in all of this. Most games either completely ignore travel or they abstract it keeping the bare minimum there. Your opinion is not a controversial one. It is the norm. Hexcrawl exists for all those who arent satisfied with it.
Stop arguing with a man who's concerned solely with being right
Question: Anybody know a good way to handle a superpower system that is very freeform and easy to understand, but does have some math and checks involved. Basically I want something that is mostly roleplaying based but can still be measured and tested.
>>98359424id suggest dice pools and handling powers mostly the same way most games handle skills (attribute dice + skill dice, attribute + power dice in this case)maybe have two axis for powers, one representing ability to use it/to hit/to make it work (the number of dice added to the check) and the other representing the scope of it, IE how powerful/how big/etc, modiying damage and other effectsthink this would cover most powers really well
>>98301657There was a prototype advance wars board game made by an amateur over a decade ago (link below). Keeping track of HP isn’t difficult if you have a limited number of units. Perhaps there’s just one phase of buying units in the beginning. You create your own little army and field it against the opponent. If you’re looking for more units maybe make it so the unit is destroyed in 1 or 2 hits. If using counters to represent units than have them flipped when hit, or color code based on HP and print multiple copies of each one (1 counter has two faces, full strength, 75%, 50%, 25%). I’ve been interested in this idea. Think it could be fun for two players. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40455/skirmish-wars-advance-tactics
>>98359424wild talents 2e is your system my man.the best superhero rpg system imo
>>98359424Your description was broad, but I believe I'm releasing something similar to this in 2 days.>>98325525>>98325951
How would people feel about a combat system in which movement is more abstract/focused on enemies? Instead of a battleboard the party moves around, its positioning around monsters with weapons and classes having ranges. I think it sounds a little video gamey but I wanted a second opinion. (Yes this is broad bare with me)
>>98363291I also choose to deal with this immediately.>>98360756
>>98363291So, range bands?
Ideaa lightweight/streamlined/minimalist/simple, simulationist-ish, and universal/genre-agnostic/modular 1980s-esque retroclone TTRPG
>>98363291i dont understand your desired implementation but many theater of mind games abstract movement and either use range bands or common logic, so if you were to start combat close enough to a monster you could just go to it and hit it without a movement cost
>>98365104I know this is a shitpost, but how it is both genre-agnostic and 1980s esque?
>>98365843>this is a shitpost...but I wasn't shitposting?
>>98365843As in the game design style of the 1980s I'd guess
>>98365889That makes a lot more sense.I would have said OSR, but that's just me.>>98365856oh...
Making some battle anime inspired homebrew for a fantasy setting. Can anyone help me find a more fantasy-style way of saying "power level"? It feels out of place amongst standard fantasy language
>>98366691Level and XP
>>98365907Only OSR if its based on dnd
>>98365104I should download a bunch of TTRPG books from the 80s and read them.Anyone got those specific resources?
>>98366691Titles. original dnd had different titles for each level. So a cleric would not be just a name but a power level as well, same with acolyte, same with priest, bishop etc. Wuxia novels do so as well, with first rate warriors, masters, peak masters etc.
>>98365104so you want to make BRP once more
>>98368096Brap?
>>98367846It's by no means perfect, but the Designers and Dragons series has a book about the 80s that covers a ton of different TTRPGs published in the 80s and their conceptual broadstrokes.
>>98300257the deadline is fast approaching to submit the rules for this year's Ciutat de Granollers Game Design Contest!I'm almost ready... I just need to add the finishing touches to the prototype and I'll be doneI've been polishing the rules nonstop since last year, so I hope it does better than before...
>>98368621Have you prepared photographs of your physical game components?
>>98369163this is the last thing I need to do before I can submit everything
>>98366691AdvanceAchievementRankCircleBandOrderSkyToss level in an online thesaurus and choose the one that suits you best
https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/comments/1uzu6a4/choosing_a_base_system_for_the_next_book_which/friend of mine is trying to decide on a game engine to use for his next game.
Rolled 5 (1d8)Gonna design a system around a random dice pool.1: 2d6 roll over2: 3d6 roll under3: 1d20 roll over4: 1d20 roll under5: 2d12 roll under6: d% roll under7: 2d10 roll over8: 2d10 roll under
>>98306656I like this.I hate people put 8 int on their characters
>>98370060Even 4chan knows the superiority of the D12.
>>98363923Alright, put the game up for sale last night.>https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/575982>https://soaringmoon.itch.io/orrosI'll see how it performs.
>>98373121godspeed, anon
>>98300257is this thread for people who are trying to learn how to DM and make a new campaign/game or is it more focused technical stuff?
>>98374401For making games that never get played
Anyone been through the process to the point of ordering 500+ units of their game? I am working on a skirmish game and I am getting pretty far along and wondering what factories are good to focus on
>>98375472Just do what im planning on during playtesting. Get your hands on 1/16th-inch thick paper (or ever so slightly thinner), then either draw the units, print them onto the paper, or glue em on to thinner paper. You can then slot them into standee holder bases like the ones used for pathfinder pawns.That is, unless youre making something historical or visually generic and can find tons of stuff that fits what you need
>>98375711I am a bit past that part and it has worked so well that I am planning on having the models in the main box be standees with print files/model agnostic options. I have art, playtests, and the rulebook nearly done but I am hung up on who to focus on for production and stuff like do people do ad buys or is that a waste of time
>>98301657>>98306780>>98315737>>98321082>>98321123Idk if you're still in this thread AW anon, but you got my gears turning so much i spent the last week trying to make it work myself. I've got enough created to start prototyping and testing.The game translates well to tabletop except for the damage calculations and the amount of bookkeeping. Not really sure what to do about the latter without it not feeling like Advance Wars, but I have a solution for both. I made unit cards and C.O. cards for everything in the game, and you can print them on dry/wet erasable cardstock. You can track things like war funds (which i shortened by 100, so a 1000pt infantry costs 10pts), ammo, fuel, HP, all on the unit cards. Maybe if you made actual models they can have a heroclix style rotary base that holds their HP or something as well.Attacks are done with D10s trying to reach an 11 after modifiers. 1D10 per HP in your unit, each unit has a +ATK value vs each other unit and +ATK abilities like Max's day-to-day ability. +DEF reduces the D10 roll by that much. Makes the dice a little swingy but thats how dice games go. Also causes a little issue, where you can only kill units that are full HP if you yourself are full HP. So a 5HP Md Tank won't be removing a 6HP Recon, but it'll have a much better time guaranteeing 5 damage than something else would. Not really sure how to mitigate that with dice rolling outside of having effects that give you more dice, but I don't particularly care, it's an acceptable change to make the tactics interesting.Game setup, each CO has their own 5x5 grid tile, players alternate setting up unknown tile sets from plains, roads. Mountains/forests, and sea tile sets on the board face down then place their HQ tile. Players flip and place the 5x5 tiles until the board is set up, then play begins.
>>98376546Everything else pretty much works 1:1 from the GBA game. Got to do some tweaking for the C.O. abilities. Unit abilities and attack/defense percentages scale with unit HP, which somewhat works in my system, but some don't translate as well.Things like Max giving +20% to direct units in the vidya can turn into +2ATK for direct units on the TT, and functions the same for a 10HP unit, but a 5HP unit that gets +20% attacks would deal 60 damage, where in my system it will just deal their 5pts of damage easier. And some very different stuff happens with the higher boosts like Sensei giving +50% boost to B-Copters. A 50% boost to 50 damage is 75 damage, but a straight +5 ATK for a B-Copter unit might just down a Md Tank on average. Tweaks and adjustments must be made.
>>98373121Would you say its doing better on itch.io or on drivethrurpg? and how well is it doing?
>>98368621>>98369185done!let's see how it fares this time...
>>98376701Definitely DriveThruRPG.With not banner ads DriveThruRPG is at>12 Page Visits>3 Sales (4 Page Visits per sale [insane])>9 in Wishlists>2 in Shopping CartsWith itch.io>129 Page Visits>1 Sale (129 Page Visits per sale [pretty bad])>3 in collectionsOverall 1 sale per 9 hours, 1 per 12 hours on DriveThruRPG
>>98377926no* banner ads.I have publisher promotion points for DriveThruRPG, enough for 80k impressions. Averaging 1% CTR, so 800 page visits which at this rate would be 200 sales.
>>98377733As someone who has designed a lot of cards, these are pretty good.
does this make sense?>Your stats are Physical, Mental, and Social>Physical is your ability to solve things with force>Mental is your ability to solve things with skill>Social is your ability to solve things with words>Each has an associated progress die you roll to make progress towards a challenge>Challenges have a single progress track, so combinations of approaches can work together>However, not all challenges can be solved by different approaches equally>Talking to a zombie would have no effect, while punching a king would cause you to lose progress instead
>>98381732Congratulations, you reinvented TriStat x BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth).
>>98381732This feels more like a boardgame, but yeah there is no issue with having three general stats
>>98380228thank you
>>98307085Not sure if you're still here, but add a 'push' mechanic, allowing the players to use additional dice at casting, but too many 1s and 2s fumbles the spell. Potential for higher numbers against your target, more power to the spell, but also potential miscasts.
If anyone is interested, here's the link to the final version of the rulebook, the one I've submitted to the contest.This version has been translated from Spanish, so expect some errors.>https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZrKCucICXoNOoHdG7X-I46Vd4VxVCq4f/view?usp=sharing
>>98384358and, for comparison's sake, here's the previous version that got sent to the contest last year.>https://drive.google.com/file/d/1crqjmX9Q1buzBkpzmduPaJIcPDHyTwmt/view?usp=drive_link
I just released a game book called Château Misère. it's a minimalist choose your own adventuretype book where you must escape a dark and surreal castle.Rules are short and material requirement is minimal for fast and tense runs. All artwork are collages made using photographs originally featured in a book series from the 60's called Châteaux Fantastiques.You can buy the book or download a digital version at the links below :https://zltz.bandcamp.com/merch/ch-teau-mis-re-game-bookhttps://zltz.itch.io/chateau-misere
>>98384987that is a pretty cool idea
>>98376546>>98376566The basic rules of advance wars aren't that hard to implement on the tabletop and I've seen other people try to do something similarThe problem is that the premise itself just doesn't fit well in a tabletop game imho. Advance wars games can easily turn into slogs where both sides have comparable production and one side inches towards an advantage one turn at a time with plenty of combat while new units keep getting churned out to replace losses. As a vidya it is hit or miss even with the computer doing all the math and info tracking for you.In a TT implementation you'll be rolling dice manually combat after combat just to replace those units quickly, turn after turn. Fucking miserable. I think if you want to implement the concept in a TT setting you have to try to play to the strengths of the medium and probably make some concessions.
Trying to make my card template less bad. Which of the first 7 looks the least bad?
What are people's preferred damage systems for vehicles (mechs, ships, tanks) etc? I'm trying to find an incarnation that works well for my mech game.Randomly deciding where each hit lands ala Battletech is incredibly tedious. Don't like that.Warhammer, DFC and many other systems just have a hit point pool which gets depleted with particularly nasty hits or thresholds inflicting effects. I don't like the idea of a shell breaking through the armor of a vehicle and exploding just to deduct some HP with no actual reduction of combat effectiveness.My current system has each hit rolling on an abstracted table which selects from all parts on the mech, regardless of facing. If you roll the maximum result on the table (which starts very unlikely) you actually kill the mech by killing the reactor/engine. The more damage results already suffered the higher your chances of rolling a kill. The result is that to start off with, each hit that gets through armor WILL degrade combat effectiveness by blowing off a weapon or lowering mobility, etc, and eventually you will kill the mech once there are enough damage results suffered that rolling a deathblow is statistically more likely.The problem is that I fear there will be a lot of 'Feels Bad' when you hit an enemy mech a bunch of times and it keeps on stumbling forward, highly degraded but still kicking, while your own gets that unlikely 1HKO rolled on it.It could just be a matter of people having to accept the will of RNGesus in a wargame. I could also see tweaking the table slightly so that an instant kill isn't possible on your first damage suffered unless the weapon has a damage boost.
>>98387806West / Left of center.
>>98387821Havve you considered taking a page from older 40K?Vehicles have an armor value, any hit that equals it glances, any hit that beats it penetrates. You then roll on a table to determine the type of damage done by the hit with penetrates having worse results than glances.
>>98387842I actually played 5th/6th editions of 40k and that is EXACTLY what makes me fear my given scenario.You shoot a lascannon at a tank. It's stunned. You shoot a missile launcher. It's shaken. You throw every autocannon and melta weapon in your army at the metal box and it just vibrates like a methed up bumblebee.Your tank gets shot once. 6 Kablooey.I at least have dice mechanics that make 1HKs very unlikely and gradually increase the kills odds with increasing damage, so I've mitigated that, but I don't know if it is enough - or if there may be a better way I'm not thinking of.My system is (I think) fully operational and ready to play but sadly my playtesting pool has dried up so it remains something I can't answer for now.
>>98377926Updated NumbersDriveThruRPG With category feature.>32 Page Visits>6 Sales (6.3 Page visits per sale [extremely high])>14 in Wishlists>1 in Shopping CartsItch.io>142 Page Visits>1 Sale (142 Page Visits per sale [pretty bad])>3 in Collections>For some reason 3 dollars is missing from my sale.1 sale per 12 hours overall.1 sale per 14 hours on DriveThruRPG
>>98388270For the record, the category feature has had 0% clickthrough rate (nobody has clicked it). I would say its a pretty terrible use of promotion points.The category features has done absolutely nothing. So I hasn't effected numbers at all, except maybe people seeing the name of the game.
>>98388270Yet again a mistake, 5.3 page visits per sale. Not 6.3.This data implies I only need 26,505 views of the sales page to be in the top 0.1% of sales on DriveThruRPG. At a rate of 0.39 views per hour, that would mean 67,961 hours or 7.75 years.Obviously, I have to drive more traffic to the sales page.
>>98388292>Obviously, I have to drive more traffic to the sales page.
>>98388120That's an easy problem to fix with damage escalation. Essentially any hit result gets upgraded if rolled again. So if a Pen is:1: Shaken2:Immobilized3: Weapon Destroyed4-5: Vehicle Destroyed6: ExplodesThen every pen other than the first 1 in a turn is permanent damage to the vehicle, and makes it more likely for the next shot to kill.If you don't want 1HK for big vehicles you could make Destroyed into Critical damage with most vehicles having 1-2, but each one taken is a penalty to the vehicle (Maybe -1 armor, -1 to hit).
>>98387799Very valid points.I've never shyed away from meticulous games myself, and being faithful to the source matters to me more than having a game exist solely for the name and setting.I could 100% see it instead being dumbed down and simplified, and it probably would be easier to run through if it was.I'll test some ideas. Right now limiting the battle area and the simplification of the damage formula and CO abilities is already a step away from a 1:1 replication in an attempt to simplify things, if I can find a good way to replace the HP, fuel, and ammo points system with something similarly simplified I think it would do good.
>>98393056Just joining the comment chain now, but some obvious places to simplify:Reduce health to just healthy/wounded, gives less granularity, but also less to track when you have 20+ units on the board. It's also simple component wise as you can have a double sided tile.Fuel and Ammo are unnecessary complications. They can probably be removed entirely and not felt as a loss. CO powers might be easier if it's just one gauge like AW1 rather than AW2.
>>98393056I should clarify it's not the info tracking and dice rolling that's the hard part; you can easily just put a D10 next to the unit - happens for many games.The issue is unit replacement making games go very long. In the vidya the computer autocalculates damage and adjusts HP counters in a millisecond; that's what enables you to have long games with many combats each turn. IRL looking up something on a table, rolling the dice and then adjusting your tracking dial/dice/whatever might take half a minute or more. Multiply that by the number of combats in advance wars, then you still have all the decision making time.I think the goal of the adjustments made should be to adjust game length and focus decisions on key ones that respect the medium. If I was undertaking the project it would be something like:"Instead of giving income, each city captured outright gives you a unit ONLY if you're the first to capture it. Units are spawned at the appropriate building. you control."This keeps the incentive to go out and capture cities to bolster your forces but because they are one-shot only it would get rid of the potential for long attrition games and focus your decisions on which units you 'buy' more since you only get a limited supply of reinforcements. Natural game tempo for something where you have to move stuff around physically; opening scramble, big clash, reinforcents enter, gradually wind down as balance tips and units run out. Number of units trending downwards also keeps the game going faster.You could do something like T1,T2,T3 cities. With T1 giving units like infantry, T2 giving tanks/AA and T3 givings wartanks, battleships etc.
>>98390977My system currently works like this, very similar in spirit;When you do damage roll 2D6. Sort the dice and take the two highest (you'll see why later). The LOWER of those two dice is your damage result. Results 1-5 are all various parts being crippled with 1 (most likely result) being weapons and gradually getting more severe. A 6 is a reactor hit. This means you need double 6s to get a kill.For each additional hit you score on the current attack OR have previously scored, roll another D6. Because you pick the two highest dice you rolled your odds of getting two 6s increases:1: 2.8%2: 7.4%3: 13.2%4: 19.6%and so on.I can easily just say that X classes of mech Y reactor hits to destroy. I may be overthinking it but I need to actually get it on table and see how it feels.
>>98393228I have two questions with that:1) Why not just say "take the second highest result"?2) What happens if you roll a result previously rolled?
>>98393235bc when I developed the idea the 'pick lower of 2' came first and the possibility of rolling more came later. I think you're right that 2nd highest is a simpler way of explaining that is mechanically identical.If you roll a damage result is already maxed out you just get the next highest result instead. Ex 5 is armor cracked (permanent armor reduction). So if you get 5 again it turns into a 6 - reactor hit. Idea is that damage ALWAYS degrades combat ability while statistically pushing you towards death/wreckage.
>>98393228>>98393235I agree with anon, it's a little convoluted.
>>98382472Hey, thanks for the suggestion. I figured instead i would make spells work kinda like moves from PbtA. Minor spells are just "Roll to see how powerful the effect is", while major spell work the following way: 4-: Miscast, 5+: Success at a cost, 9+: Clean success and then there goes my mechanic of overroll, where for every 3 above target number makes you deal +1 effect, so when you roll 15 on a major spell, you deal spell's effect and get +2... Something, idk, maybe some sort of advantage or you give more insight, or make enemies burn on top.
>>98300257>>98302473>>98303453Post the one where she's Pomni
>>98381732expanding on this, this is the planned dice system>Checks are 2d6 + stat (0-3) vs. DC 7 + stat>on a pass progress equals the higher rolling die + stat>on a fumble, progress equals the lower rolling die + stat>advantage and disadvantage are a flat ±2in terms of challenges>challenges generally have HP equal to 10x to 30x the number of players required to defeat them>creatures and challenges use the same stat format>this means challenges can have actions, even if they're not creatures>for example, a burning building the players might try to escape would have actions like "smoke", "cave in", and "backdraft"
>>98402472I'm debating which system would be better for this sort of gameplayzones>each discernable area that is up to 30 feet across is a zone>larger areas are broken up into 30-foot zones>multiple characters can occupy a zone>melee actions target the same zone>ranged actions target an adjacent zone>aoes target a whole zoneobjective range bands>each faction in a combat has its own "side">creatures can't leave their side without switching factions>each side has a Short Range and Long Range>creatures in Short Range give creatures in Long Range cover>short-ranged and long-ranged actions can only be taken from the appropriate range band>aoes target a whole range band>range bands largely exist but don't matter in social encounters
>>98402630This post reminds me that I should make a nice pretty version of a list i made of every kind of map (both true or abstract)
>>98402902give us a preview?
I am facing an issue with health and damage.The game i am making will hae huge variation in damage (from 1d6 all the way to 12d6 and above).I feel like rolling 12d6 is too much for an attack, but i want to keep the variance in damage high enough. Also how can i Avoid someone putting everything into reaching high damage levels and as such one-shotting everything (should i even avoid this?).
I've come to the sad realization that my game works better if I remove the mechanic that made it unique...I mean, the game worked before, but without that mechanic, it works far better.
>>98404404>post number mechanic not foundCan you drop in replace a different unique mechanic?
>>98404711well, I suppose I could, but the game works better without itlet me explainIn my game, you summon agents much like you summon creatures in Magic: The Gathering.The main difference is twofold:>When you play an agent, it doesn't enter the battlefield immediately. Instead, it's placed face-up on top of your discard pile.>The discard pile is cyclical: at the end of each turn, it rotates back underneath your deck.In other words, after you summon an agent, it effectively joins your deck. As the discard pile cycles, that card gradually moves upward until it reaches the top of the deck.Only then does the summoned agent enter the battlefield.The main reason I kept this mechanic was thematic. It abstracted horizontal movement through space and adapted it into a card game. In practice, though, it was underdeveloped and barely used.Call me crazy, but simply putting cards directly into play works much better.
>>98404808Did you have a large number of cards that manipulated the position of cards in the deck? For example>discard from your library until you reach the first agent is summonedSometimes a mechanic just needs more fleshing out rather than discarding
>>98404870no, in fact, I avoided these types of effectsand the deck size was fairly small, with 30 cards per deck
>>98404955>no, in fact, I avoided these types of effectsAny particular reason why? Did they get playtested and found to be too powerful?
>>98404966not too powerful, but annoyingbecause the deck could contain both face-up and face-down cards, keeping their orientation was something that I'd rather avoid
>>98405166Why are you keeping their orientation? Do this but flip the top card back face down.
>>98403175Part 1: True mapsThe actual area (dungeon, world map, town, etc.) is represented by illustrated maps or physical props the tokens or minis move through.>Static MapA map acting purely as a reference, rather than having a gameplay function. These include world maps outside of hexcrawl scenario.>Maps with MeasurementsPlayers measure out physical distances for movement, ranges, and sizing of things like AoEs with a ruler or other measuring device.>Maps with ShapesThe map is layered with patterns like grids, hexes, or octagons+squares (if you're a faggot). These represent set sizes and remove the need for a ruler, though at the cost of restricting movement options.>Maps with ZonesRegions of the map form distinct areas the characters can move through. As these are not set sizes, ranges become more abstract and hard distances and ranges are foregone.In some cases, zones may be given traits tied to their features. For example, a zone with a skirmish happening within it may be "under fire", which has an effect on characters within it.
>>98405252because, otherwise, it would be impossible to know which card was played and was yet to enter the field and which cards haven't been played yet
>>98405286Part 2: Abstract MapsMaps that visually represent the characters and distance between them, but does not the actual area they are occupying within the world.>Action MapNechronica or Mecha by Chris Perrin are examples of this. Like an abstract board game (chess, go, etc.), the map has a set shape and size that does not reflect specific in-world terrain. However, it is still possible to create gradation between ranges.>Position MapThese maps are meant to note positions within the groups formations rather than the generalized area they're in.For example in Ryuutama, characters fit into their team's front and back areas. The back area surrounds the front area, and characters flee combat by moving out of the back area.>Element MapThe terrain features and other objects of an area are depicted solely by their effects. For example, a character may create and utilize "distance" to flee from combat.This differs from a zone map in that a zone map assigns gameplay elements to delineated areas, while the effects in an element map are handled narratively.Part 3: In-Between Map Types>Index Card (or similar) MapsLike Maps with Zones, the map comprises areas of varying sizes represented as singular zones. However, differences in size are made by description alone.While locations aren't visually shown and rules for things like line of sight become impossible, a physical map representing the overall area does exist.>PointcrawlsCharacters can only move to specific points on the map and only if a line connects said points.While these can be overlaid on top of a normal map, pointcrawls themselves can also serve as the map.
Have you guys considered turning your homebrew system into a text based game to let people test it out en masse? That's what I ended up doing and my card game turned into my secondary product, the text based one took off instead (but I'm still working on converting it to a better TTRPG). Even got lucky enough for some players to make fanart for me.www.auraclash.com/adventure
>>98405420What is the difference between this and a visual novel?
>>98405575Same different between any other CYOA and a VN, a focus on choice branching and skill checks (TTRPG simulation) over pretty looks. The pics are trash and can be shut off, but there's 1,400,000 words for constant branching and variable caching to remember your choices. Attributes + Skill system, 5 different martial arts styles you choose from later + 8 elements. The general idea was "what if I wanted to make a whole game but sucked at visuals", so instead of trying to make a text based game into something more, I took the general idea of an RPG and made it text-based. No AI text btw, been writing it for 3 years and fans have been liking it so far. My original point still stands though, that it was made as a homebrew simulation to test my card game ("spending" your Cores [Attributes] to simulate tapping a stat card) and it played out pretty well.
>>98405627off topic>vg/agdg/
>>98406113eh I'd disagree and tell you to fuck off but I did go into too many details about the work instead of the purpose (a mechanic for playtesting TTRPG homebrew) so I'll take it, will keep the idea out of these threads.
i was interested in making an action economy out of FP in gurps, but the hardest part is combining it into caster fatigue as well.mages would spend FP equal to a spells magery level (i would have to catalogue spells into levels, probably to amximum of 7 or 8). a mage can begin preparation of a spell, but only has to make an IQ test in the round it is ready to cast. it can still be interupted obviously. the caster can choose to end it at anytime on his turn before the spell is cast and lose no FP. failure to cast does not burn FP either, my justification being that the effort of casting spells is when the magic is being channelled through the caster. actually shooting a bolt of lightning is the thing that is physically taxing on a mortal frame. failure means the spell did not manifest for whatever reason. magespells require vocal and/or physical posturing to castpriestly magic works differently. priest spells cost 1 FP always, regardless of level. they cannot be cancelled, but they do not require the same amount of time to cast like a mage. priests also use WL to cast. 1 FP is always lost whether a priest was successful or not. priests are also the only casters with access to healing and turning magic. priests are also limited by their god/religion as to what spells they can learn, unlike mages who can learn all spells. priests pray to their god for spells, and therefore do not require vocal or posture components like magesi have no idea if this is retarded or not, but ive just been thinking about how to actually balance it, if its possible. one type of caster might be clearly better
>>98405286>>98405293Anyone have any map types theyve seen in a game that I missed
>>98409301>Diegetic MapsMaps of an area represented as someone would in universe, including its expected historical inaccuracies.
>>98390977I like this and have something very similar. Persistent damage is placed on a system and counts toward the next hit as well.
>>98406139I actually think this is helpful and the only issue the other anon has is framing.
>>98300257>What are you working on?trying to come up with interesting "meta" abilites that can be picked up as skills>the ability to declare a flashback action (like having bought X item or talked with Y npc). Basically doing a Blades in the dark flashback but only for your character>the ability to having invented X alchemical thing. Basically the same as the other one but only for alchemists and able to bring more powerul items (but only those items)>the ability to know an answer to a single mysterious happening, if you can describe what seemingly innocent thing gave you the serendipia (gm will tell you the answer, you do not fabricate it, but you choose the question). This one is inspired by Colombo and Murder She Wrote>the ability of finding a cheap version of any item (1 tier cheaper) when you spend time on a marketplace. 50% chance that you get to declare why the thing is so cheap, on a failure you will find out later (when the GM sees a good moment to punish you)The more I use this skills the more I enjoy them at the table. It's incredible how much crap they cut and how many good moments they add to a session. In fact I am trying to come up with more of them.
I'm cleaning up the rules for my own TTRPG Kagekiri after completing a campaign of it with my friends. It's a card-based samurai TTRPG with mind games. I gotta overhaul a lot of the rules, but luckily my players enjoyed the game, even in its rough form.
working hard trying to finish my Touhou card gameI'm trying to keep all its mechanics as straightforward as possible and distinct enough to other games I've been playing lately
>>98413896Oh hey another person making a touhou card game! By chance, did you see mine at any point (picrel)?
>>98414594Didnt mean to have a name in that one. Oh well, it wont let me delete it
My IP lawyers are happy to announce our latest trademarked tohou tcg project
>>98414594>COCKSfagTime to search the archives for every other time this namefag was used.
>>98415021Just once, earlier today
>>98387821How Warmachine handles Warjack damage is pretty good. Its like a middle ground between Battletech's location system and blob hitpoints system.
>>98393197I suppose there's something you can do to simplify combat and stat tracking down a bit. The unit cards in game give a simple "good against, bad against" at-a-glance system that you can use, though I'm not too sure how to translate that to an actual rules set. Just because a Mech unit is good into tanks doesnt mean its going to be as good as a Neo Tank is into a tank as an example. Maybe each unit has their own power level that gets stronger or weaker vs their chosen type or something. The AW2 setting looks marketable at least. 5 orange star COs, 5 Black Hole COs, 3 "expansion" nations with 3 COs each. A starter box of orange star and black hole, the others as expansion sets. Cardboard chits for units stylized from the nations. Possibility for miniature sets based on the nations, fun stuff.
>>98414594>did you see mine at any pointsadly, nocan you talk about it, anon?I'm curious
>>98416411https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M2CQF3MCsj2IYUMPHpjhWky7-_3YMocN2SU5DqXe3zU/edit?usp=drivesdkSomething i will preface is that development has been on hiatus since i haven't quite figured out how I'll fix the game.The basic idea though has always been that theres a 3 by 3 grid you play cards on. Spell cards can be used to destroy enemy Girl cards or make your opponent discard cards. Girl cards protect your near row and power up spells the character knows. Theres also charms which are items, locations which are body blockers, and incidents.Cards have a power level acting as attack power or health (girls have a second power level for melee damage they deal), a point cost to play, and a maximum size (cards can be played to take up 1, 2, or 4 spaces on the board). Girl cards can move around the board, and their size allows them to potentially dodge incoming spells and melee damage.As of the last playtests, the gameplay revolves around causing your opponent to run out of lives (you have a row of cards acting as lives or points) by destroying their girls, or decking them out.However, the big issue is that girl cards have always been potentially worse to play than to not because they can kill you if destroyed, even when theyre made to be more useful than just having a turret deck.Theres a card type called incidents, and in the last playtests they were basically just cards with special effects when used as point cards, that were never played onto the field itself. The plan for the next version of the game is that incidents will instead radically change how a given deck functions by determining your starting points (which are merged with lives now) and your win conditions. By default, losing a girl wouldnt bring you closer to losing the game, but having an incident could allow you to win if you get rid of your opponents lives.
>>98416832The game is somewhat bloated, but its because my tism demanded that i make a touhou card game where characters are able to visually dodge spells like in the main games. I will figure it out some dayz just once im done with some other projects and have time to really chew on this one.
>>98416832arigatou, anon-kunI'll take a look as soon I'm able
>>98410334>>98410334cont.I'm trying to work out one to make up setting details on the fly (once per session, and roll 1d6: on a 4 or 5 it is true; on a 6 you can use it again this session) something like a LORE skill as if your character was a sage or a well traveled bard, but I don't know if its too demanding for me later as a GM. I dont fear edgelords saying "This town is famous for his rape parties", my players are relativelly normal. But I don't know if it will force me to come up with plots too convoluted for my mental bandwidth on the long run
Inversion Beta 4 layout work continues. 75% of the way through chapter 3. Things are progressing slower than I had hoped, but there's a mountain of balance number adjustments to do to equipment after making treasure player facing, and swapping turning Dodge into a spendable dice pool.Hoping I can post something substantial in next months thread before it closes. Here's an early look at a sketch for social skills art as a preview.
>>98419956keep at it anon, I've been eyballing the 3.1 for months
Fucking FINALLY figured out how to give all my approaches actions associated with them. the secret was assigning each action to two approaches rather than one>Move: Force or Skill>Discern: Skill or Charm>Hamper: Force or Charm
>>98413896the rules are now setwhat I'm struggling with is compressing the rules into something less verbose and lengthymore akin to One Piece TCG
Anyone here doing 1 page jam?
>>98425605Is there one? I have an idea
>>98421968done>https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lPD6t9gThdxJ1JThRacfRlcQ8Kpsv4vC/view?usp=drive_link
>>98426376https://itch.io/jam/one-page-rpg-jam-2026
bump
Haven't made anything in years because I slowly realized I hate other people, and my brain got too good at generating pseudo rng so now I just think about game systems and play them in my head and forget them, writing them down just seems tedious
>>98426979The following step is to create custom files for Tabletop Simulator
it LIVES!!!
I've been coming up with ideas to make a mass battle game for like a year and yet I keep returning to the very first step which is settling on the basing scheme lol
>>98403556the question is: What kind of feeling would you like to evoke here?A Quest of survival with death around every corner or superhero power fantasy?Min maxing is unavoidble but there are many ways to lower the chances of being a max damage character being usefull.
>>98437420it's trully amazingafter all this time, I have a "final" version of my gameand, it WORKSI'm happy, my fellow anons
>>98443113Time to finish your card design anon.
>>98443121in due timenot my highest priority right now
I'm hoping someone here could help me, I've been working off and on on doing some unit building for the old wargame Mutant Chronicles: Warzone 2nd edition. And for the few units I've written I've just been assigning points costs based on vibes, but I'd really want something more firm to work with to see this project through. I reckon I could get a workable points cost formula out of the actual printed material but I don't quite know where to start actually breaking down the printed points costs. Maths was never something I was particularly good at, so something seemingly as simple as this leaves me more than a bit stumped.Pic related is my last effort, and that was entirely eyeballing things in regards to point costs, it worked out, but I really don't want to have to do that for every unit on my list.
>>98398149
the grinding never endsnor should this threadbump
I finally got some playtesting done for my space battle wargame. I ended up completely reworking the movement system to something more intuitive. Of course now I have to redo all the statlines for units before I can test combat rules.There's one thing in the combat rules that I would like to come up with a better alternative for, but I'm not really sure how to do it. Currently torpedoes and such use a Battletech-style cluster hit table, which is a bit clunky and I would really want to do away with mandatory tables, but I'm not sure how to replace it. A simple idea would be to just roll a number of d6 equal to the cluster size and every 4+ or whatever corresponds to a hit, but I also have a point defense value that varies between ships that imposes a penalty for the cluster table roll. And with a 2d6 roll on the cluster table you can have a lot more variance, with -1 on the roll being fairly minor while something like -4 means that on average only a minirity of torpedoes get through. But on 1d6 even -1 to roll is a pretty significant reduction. Another idea I had would be point defense reducing the amount of dice rolled, but that would make ships with high PD value always completely negate torpedo attacks with small cluster sizes.
>>98453028You could take a look at dropfleet. It's been a while since I've read the rules, but I know they have missiles/torpedoes and pd interaction.
>>98425605I want to but know I probably won't.
before the thread dies, I'd like to know somethinghow should I share my Touhou fan game so you, and other people, may play it?like, Tabletop Simulator files? Magic Set Editor files? any other method?
>>98459846There are actually restrictions on how you can distribute touhou fanworks, but the main thing I'd say would be to put it on itch.io since its allowed and also allows people to download without an accountYou dont need to include tts deck files, but you do need to put the cards as pngs at the very least
>>98461064>There are actually restrictions on how you can distribute touhou fanworksis that so?I'll look into itthanks anon
>>98461222https://touhou-project.news/guidelines_en/
I don't get it. I spent nearly a month figuring out and perfecting a roleplay system like that you would find in VTM but every time I look at it I feel disappointed at it and that it shouldn't belong...
>>98425605Here is what i have for now. Only some few alphabet letters to go, any ideas?
I used to play this TCG with my brother. I collected the whole set of regions and made card decks from wood. I wanted to implement some simple board game mechanic using quick card matches as events or so, travelling the moonlands and unlocking 4 geysers to face the final boss. Anything existing I could ape? Rolling dice and moving markers.
>>98453028>>98453157V1 dropfleet had some attacks (close action missiles, bombers) be vulnerable to point defense. Ships had PD values which specified a number of D6 you rolled when hit. On each 5+ you rolled you got a block, with critical hits requiring two blocks.The strength of the system was that there was still some variability with good and bad rolls but the effectiveness of your PD was strictly limited by how many dice you had. Boosting your PD with fighters or aegis was as simple as just adding dice to your pool.I think it was a good system as it easily simulated the phenomenon of ships having a curve where low amounts of attacks could be easily deflected by a high amount hopelessly saturates the defenses and gets through. V2 of dropfleet did away with it because it was an additional roll and if you stacked fighters you could end up rolling something like 20+ dice at once which for dropfleet was a lot.It really depends on what kind of decisions and strategies you want your torpedo vs PD system to support.
>>98300257I'm not really working on anything right now because my opportunity to playtest has completely dried up and lately I've become a bit more pessimistic on whether I can actually make something FUN. I can make mechanics that work together and have overarching design philosophies that seem interesting, but I don't know how to capture FUN.I do have a previously completed design on the shelf for if I ever get the fire going again. Medium weight mecha skirmish.I do have a bunch of thoughts in my head I occasionally write down and ponder. Current ideas:>How to make a TCG that doesn't suck?My thoughts are:1. draw your entire hand at once to speed the game up instead of drip feeding cards2. resource system that can turn any* card into fuel with some cards being variable worth. Guaranteed mana ramp (hearthstone, gundam, others) is boring and MTG style is way too unpredictable.What I'm not sure about is the combat system. Don't really have enough TCG experience to go further with this rn but I think it makes sense to try and utilize the nature of cards with their ability to flip over as a core part.>How to make a better turn system for wargames?I've been big into infinity recently because allowing you to spend multiple orders on the same guy keeps the game flowing really well, lets you look at time as a tradeable resource and most importantly lets you play out action stories quickly rather thatn stopping and starting as one model/unit gets one thing to do per turn. The problem is infinity has the potential for alpha strikes like any other IGOUGO system and first turn play style vs second turn play style is radically different. Alternating actions seems to have become the standard nowadays but I find it pretty boring still unless you do something like DFC v1 to make it more tactical.Trying to brainstorm a mechanism that keeps the initiative in play while also allowing players to make multi-step, coordinated attacks.
>>98463196>How to make a TCG that doesn't suck?I had some ideas about it myselfI think the resource system should be the foundation of the game, not something separate from it.>Tie the economy to board control.In Disturbia, resources don't grow automatically. Players establish Districts (like Lands) on the battlefield, then sacrifice them to generate Advantage (like Mana). Expensive plays require giving up territory you've already earned.>Avoid permanent resource accumulation. The economy expands and contracts over the course of the game. Every big turn should have an opportunity cost.>Make every system feed the same gameplay loop. In Disturbia, the loop is: to draw cards; to Deploy Agents; to Secure Districts; to sacrifice them for Advantage; to play stronger cards; to secure new Districts. Economy and board presence are the same system.>Use the discard pile as an engine, not a graveyard. The Vault rewards players for cycling resources instead of simply preserving them, so spending cards contributes to long-term strategy.>Prioritize combat decisions over combat math. The resource system gets players into interesting positions; combat should reward positioning, commitment, timing and risk assessment rather than simply comparing larger numbers.I don't think drawing your entire deck or hand is necessary. In my game, for example, each player draws three cards each turn from a deck of thirty. I believe, a healthier approach is to ensure players have meaningful decisions throughout the game while letting the resource system create explosive turns naturally instead of relying on either mana flood/screw or guaranteed resource progression.
>>98463279You've posted disturbia here before right? Does it have a home online where the most recent rulebook and cards are?My theory on drawing your entire hand at once is that I would rather play out a little combat vignette with both players having a full set of tools from the get go rather than have a few turns of build up until someone assembles a combo. No idea if that would actually work out or not.I do like the idea of your resource base fluctuating as you use it instead of just going ramping. I do think there needs to be a pace to the game towards finishing beyond the deck limit so I wouldn't want players restarting all their tools to zero and then having to ramp up entirely again.
So i know one page rules are a thing but is it possible to do something similar but on a smaller scale?Im talking hex based teams of 3-5 or small skirmishscale. So you can use any character you've 3d printed . Like I wanna use my kingdom death and other pinups on a smaller and faster scale.I unfortunately don't have the brains to make my own system. Too Goon brained.
>>98463838>You've posted disturbia here before right?I did, yesbut the game doesn't have a hub where I post things I just wait for these kinds of threads to pop up now and thenperhaps it should? where should I upload it?
>>98463196>How to make a better turn system for wargames?Brent Spivey's The Battlefield uses a team action point system where you can activate the same unit multiple times but it costs that multiple of action points, eg twice as many for the second action. That lets you focus on your best guys doing the most important shit, but at the cost of doing less shit overall.Alternatively there are push-your-luck systems like Song of Blades and Heroes or Xenotactices. For the latter you select a model you haven't yet activated and perform 1-3 actions, then roll that many dice against their Quality stat. If you fail two then your turn ends and they start picking models to activate. Also when you have control you can pick an enemy to activate - this ends your turn and gives them control, but they have to start with that model.
>>98464497itch.io or cardgame vaultItch makes it easy to put your shit online for free and update it whenever you want but in my experience I could never find my own stuff through the search so I'm guessing it doesn't search index your stuff unless you let people pay for it. You can still just give people the link directly.Cardgamevault allows you to set your own price or PWYW and I actually got some small amount of sales from it but the interface is terrible.
>>98465397I've done games before where repeat activation has increasing cost similar to Battlefield. It's fine but doesn't quite scratch the more ambitious goals I have.I do like the idea of push your luck making the amount of actions create scaling risk but I don't like that it's so random. I've been working with some mechanics that do something similar in spirit but strictly deterministic where both players bid a certain number of actions in secret then you reveal your bids and the person who bid LOWER gets to choose initiative. You are 'pushing your luck' but against the strategy of your opponent instead of chance.I used a similar system for another game and it worked well enough. Want to try it in a different incarnation but haven't had the opportunity to play test.
I keep picking up my card game project, reworking it a bit, then drop it when it's time to playtest. I can't figure out a way to automate card making through programs or excel, I get frustrated and quit. I need a partner that's as excited as I am about the project but how do you get excited about someone else's dream? What a shitshow
>>98469087>I can't figure out a way to automate card making through programs or excelDextrous.com.au is what I use for that
>>98469087>I can't figure out a way to automate card making through programs or excelSquib.
>Skirmish wargame that uses 4-arc facing despite claiming that "bases shape doesn't matter guys, you can play with anything just fine!"Please don't do this guys.
>>98307352Tell us more about the game so we know what role does crafting into it. It is different if the PC can craft a boat or a magical potion. Mechanically, crafting a weapon is not much different from buying one, it just solves the problem of "no shops". For more potent things, setting a limit of obejcts produced per downtime can suffice.
>>98474105If /awg/ taught me anything, it has to be as model agnostic as possible, otherwise people will bitch about having to put effort into something.
>>98469087Use indesign or affinity if you want to get accustomed to publishing software (i.e., what you use to create layouts more complex than whats possible in Microsoft Word). Nandeck if you wanna focus JUST on cards. In the case of both you want to learn how to data merge. Basically you fill out all the card text and image filenames into an excel sheet, and name all of the columns the same thing as the fields on the card. When you hit a button, it will replace all of the fields so you have different cards with only one master file but greater ease than manually recreating each one whenever you make a layout update.
Example of the unit stats for my space battle game, with annotations for clarity. What I think I could do with the cluster table issue I mentioned earlier is to have all attacks hit with the full cluster size, and for weapons affected by point defense you roll 1d6 for each cluster, negating the his wit (7-PD value). So whip with PD1 have a 6+ save against torpedoes, ships with PD2 have a 5+ save etc.That would mean direct fire weapons, which ignore point defense, would deal a lot more damage on average, since I've currently balanced things on the assumption that they also use the cluster table so the average damage is about half of the max damage. But I can fix that by just increasing armor points.Also, the reason why the cluster size still matters for direct fire weapons is that some ships have hardened armor that reduces the damage of each cluster, making it so you can't plink battleships to death with tons of weak guns unless you can maneuver behind them to hit them in the weaker rear armor.
>>98426979Now that this project is finished, I'd like to try my hand with something more similar to Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. A dice-based card game.I was thinking of naming it >Fortune of Tumbling Jewelsit sounds very Touhou-ish, IMO.
>>98477706I read that as "Fortune of Tumbling Jews" and briefly wondered what the fuck would a game called that be about.
>>98477828if it exists, it surely uses a dreidel
>>98477706TumbleJewel
does anyone else here find themselves wondering what the point is?I don't really have any ideas I'm passionate about. My group doesn't want to try my games, I don't like running them, and I don't have any idea I'm particularly passionate aboutIt all feels pointless
>>98477828>>98477842I saw a jewish rpg at my lgs. it did in fact use dreidels.
> making my own tcg with my brother> got like 300ish cards already> used AI for artwork, pretty happy with it.> gameplay is good too> have some friends that play regularly too> Pretty happy overall
>>98482063godspeed, anon
one last bump before bedtomorrow I'll try to post my progress with >>98477706
Made a game in 2 days for that shit. >>98427463
>>98477706>>98485692ok, so this is what I have right now:Each player has a character, deck, and d6. There are five colours of dice:>White: Spirit / neutral>Red: aggression>Blue: control>Green: flow/graze/recovery>Black: tricks/disruptionColours have no inherent abilities; cards are what care about die colour.There are three main card types:>Spells These are your main combat cards. They have Spirit Cost, Level and Power. You can either play them normally or "channel" them by discarding cards equal to their Level and placing white dice on them equal to their Power. Channelled Spells can't attack; instead, you gradually take their dice for other uses and discard the Spell when empty.>TechniquesAre persistent support cards with effects such as the following: "Bind a blue die: Draw a card" or "On 6 — Draw a card"Binding commits the die, while "On 6" simply checks the result.>Tricks Are smaller one-shot effects: extra dice, rerolls, manipulation, etcThe main mechanic is revolves around "Scenes".When a Spell attacks, it generates negative dice equal to its Power. The defender rolls their own dice from cards/resources. After rolling, those dice can either be Bound to Techniques or used to cancel negative dice.A die can cancel any number of negative dice whose combined total is equal to or lower than its result.Anything left uncancelled resolves, currently with the baseline idea that each surviving negative die deals 1 damage. Cards can also trigger from specific surviving results.So the central decision is basically, "Do I use this good roll to defend myself or spend it on one of my abilities?"Hand size is currently 5, drawing back up to 5 each turn.White dice are rolled to generate Spirit, with each die paying toward one cost only and excess being wasted.My main inspirations are:>Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn>Warhammer Fantasy RPG 3rd Edition>Genesys>Pathfinder Adventure Card Game
what do I do if I want to make a game don't really have any idea I particularly give a shit about?
>>98492357Help someone else with theirs. /tg/ in general is meant to be a collaborative process and that's what this board used to be really good at before sloppers started mining all the fun out of the place.
