What are you brewin?Also I propose we make gygax the official image header for these threads, it just makes the most sense naturally
Is it better to design my system first then write up a novel type thing about it?
Or write a fantasy novel and just invent shit along the way for world building?
I'm guessing the former
i have a game i've finished creating and now i don't know what to do with it. i have another game i'd like to make as a follow up but it feels silly starting on another project when the first one sits collecting dust.
>>47943060
If it's finished just make a pdf and put it out there
>>47943044
>that quote
I love Gygax, man.
>>47943055
Either one is fine, but you'll have an easier time making a game if you have something else to base it on.
On the other side, trying to write a novel about a game might compel you to shoehorn some weird things into the story, but it could also make it easier.
I would decide based on which one you think would be harder to do.
>>47943044
Didn't these threads used to have a really big OP with a bunch of links? Doesn't anyone have it saved?
>>47943085
>trying to write a novel about a game might compel you to shoehorn some weird things into the story
that's already planned, most of it just based on charcters I've played or just character concepts I've had
>>47943044
>>47943085
I used to make it basic, but I guess some people added stuff
A thread dedicated to discussion and feedback of games and homebrews made by /tg/ regarding anything from minor elements to entire systems, as well as inviting people to playtest your games online. While the thread's main focus is mechanics, you're always welcome to share tidbits about your setting.
Try to keep discussion as civilized as possible, avoid non-constructive criticism, and try not to drop your entire PDF unless you're asking for specifics, it's near completion or you're asked to.
Useful Links:
>/tg/ and /gdg/ specific
http://1d4chan.org/
https://imgur.com/a/7D6TT
>Project List:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/134UgMoKE9c9RrHL5hqicB5tEfNwbav5kUvzlXFLz1HI/edit?usp=sharing
>Online Play:
https://roll20.net/
https://www.obsidianportal.com/
>RPG Stuff:
http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/fulllist.html
http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/theory/
http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21479
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FXquCh4NZ74xGS_AmWzyItjuvtvDEwIcyqqOy6rvGE0/edit
https://mega.nz/#!xUsyVKJD!xkH3kJT7sT5zX7WGGgDF_7Ds2hw2hHe94jaFU8cHXr0
http://www.gamesprecipice.com/category/dimensions/
>Dice Rollers
http://anydice.com/
http://www.anwu.org/games/dice_calc.html?N=2&X=6&c=-7
http://topps.diku.dk/torbenm/troll.msp
http://www.fnordistan.com/smallroller.html
>Tools and Resources:
http://www.gozzys.com/
http://donjon.bin.sh/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
http://ebon.pyorre.net/
http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/carto.html
http://topps.diku.dk/torbenm/maps.msp
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/polygon-map-generation/demo.html
https://mega.nz/#!ZUMAhQ4A!IETzo0d47KrCf-AdYMrld6H6AOh0KRijx2NHpvv0qNg
>Design and Layout
http://erebaltor.se/rickard/typography/
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4qCWY8UnLrcVVVNWG5qUTUySjg&usp=sharing
http://davesmapper.com
>>47943044
>>47943084
Tons of potential OP images can be found here
http://www.rugusavay.com/gary-gygax-quotes/
>>47943141
Eh, that quote's kind of fedora, what with the "let me lecture you on how reality truly is, based on some stuff I pulled out my butt."
I like the one OP picked, the ones on that site aren't a very good match for this thread.
>>47943231
He's not wrong. Anybody who works in marketing would at least partially agree with this.
>>47943044
So The Alliance (of Dwarves, Men, and Elves) are at war with The Beastmen (tieflings, goatmen, gnolls, the motly crew of weirdos)
Because!
Centuries ago they warred, which resulted in the Elves using a super magic nuke destroying the frayed edges of reality on the evil kingdom
So the elder evils of the greater universe are pushing into our mortal realm, (who want the destruction of our reality)
The Evils sent Princeling demonic hordes through, but they have staked out kingdoms in the evil empire, and are ruling and terrorizing instead of working to release the great evils.
Those princes are the rules of the Beastmen, and are driving the current war for conquest of the fertile Alliance kingdoms.
Does this sound like a reasonable overplot?
Trying to think of way to incorporate tarot cards because I think they're neat.
>>47944507
Read "Promethea" by Alan Moore for some inspiration yo
>>47944366
This is just my singular anecdotal experience, but my girlfriend enjoys an RP experience that's balanced between physical and mental struggles.
Maybe there's something to be said about how the predominance of men in the RP community is a reflection of the typical RP game, namely ones that heavily prefer and enable violent solutions, but maybe not.
>>47944543
I've played with several women who enjoy the entire experience, and some who only like one part or the other, but the ratio of men VS women is easy to see. Maybe we're just coming out of the dark ages where it's more socially acceptable for guys and especially girls to be into this sort of thing.
I predict that in 20 or 30 years the ratio between men and women in the RPG hobby will be much more even.
>/hbg/
>/gdg/
>/dev/
Is it necessary to change the format every few months?
A character's "specialty" is the reason they've joined or been forced to join the shrine guards, patrols of spiritual peacekeepers. Here are a few examples:
>The Craftsman
>You joined the guard to practice your craft in distant lands, learning new techniques.
>The Bounty Hunter
>Every town has its problems; you can solve them, for a price.
>The Foreigner
>Pressed into service in a strange land, you struggle to understand the customs of these strange people.
>The Thief
>Greed, thrill, the reason didn't matter when you were caught.
>The Murderer
>Most people have no need to repent of their temper; you, however, do.
>The Scholar
>The road is hard, but it leads to knowledge.
>The Seeker
>What is lost shall be found.
And so on and so forth, with minor mechanical differences between them. What are some other ideas, or do you think I've covered the bases already?
>>47944841
It's a /wip/
>>47944903
actually most of the time it's /trash/
Alright /hbg/ I have a powerful need for mechanic help. Here's the situation.
The game I’m working on has a stamina system tied to how physically strong and stable the character is. Stamina is used for everything physically draining like combat, traveling, performing long skill checks, and using special abilities in and out of combat. Stamina increases based on the class and race allowing for a max level character to go for a long long time before getting tired.
Pros:
It gives mechanical weight to characters with incredible endurance.
It has worth for combat and non-combat characters.
The math is very resourceful
Cons:
It’s nitpicky book keeping.
At higher levels it’s hard to keep track of. (Max level can have upwards of 175sp)
Players tend to forget it exists which is bad for the balance of the game.
Removing the stamina is a big deal, changing it would be easier, but might mess with the flow and balance of the game.
I’m open to any and all suggestions on this matter.
>>47945114
Just make the numbers smaller or make it like Base 5 or something
or write software for it
>>47945147
It's a perfect system for computer, but that's out of the question for table games.
The base of 5 isn't a bad idea. I'll try playing with that. Still open for suggestions tho.
>>47944903
/wip/ taught me to thin my paints
>>47945259
Alchemist! (the boardgame) seems to work just fine...
>>47945114
What's the game about? Please don't say is a Dark Souls-like game
>>47945712
It's a dice RPG that is very open to interpretation, but it's fantasy for the most part. Characters start of as commoners. None of that "A level 1 PC is already incredible" stuff. They max out at level 10, being very exceptional mortals.
Some of the key things are:
There's no cap on skills and no regulation on how fast they progress. A min-maxed level 1 character could possibly defeat a mediocre level 10 character.
Combat and non-combat characters are both valuable. They rely on each other in many situations.
Actual social interaction mechanics like debating, and emotions that can easily be tossed aside in favor of roleplay if the DM wishes.
It's open-ended. Over the top at times, but also very grounded in reality. Characters get tired, get sick, need to eat and rest and work together, but in the end it's anything the group wants it to be.
>>47945114
>It’s nitpicky book keeping.
>At higher levels it’s hard to keep track of. (Max level can have upwards of 175sp)
>Players tend to forget it exists which is bad for the balance of the game.
maybe try cards?
>hand is stamina
>use stamina = discard
>recover stamina = draw
Poker chips could also work
>>47945903
I initially designed it to work with glass beads.
Red for HP
Yellow for Stamina
and Blue for Magic...
But the numbers got too high for that to work. I'd love to get back to that, but jeez. It's a nitpicky kind of system.
Let me explain a bit more about stamina usage. If you're traveling or doing a skill check for an hour that costs 1 stamina point, but the next hour costs 2 stamina points and then 3 and so on. However, if you take a break, then the counter resets. So if you travel for 8 hours straight, as opposed to traveling for 4 and stopping for lunch, you'll save a little bit of stamina. This is important because if you use up all your stamina, you'll be useless if you get into combat. I'm in love with this idea, but I'm not in love with keeping track of how much stammy you've got left.
>>47945838
>There's no cap on skills and no regulation on how fast they progress
I don't know how this would work. I still have no idea what the premise of the game is but I will asume hat the PCs are adventurers. Maybe the game doesn't care about group balance and that's ok. I would like to know how the players are rewarded.
>Actual social interaction mechanics like debating, and emotions that can easily be tossed aside in favor of roleplay if the DM wishes
Can combat and more physical mechanics be tossed aside as easily?
>>47946090
The players are referred to as adventurers, but it's a loose term. They could be adventurers or just common travelers. Very little about the character's class implies their past or intent.
As far as rewarding the player goes, I never really thought about a specific way to do that. For me, it's getting to see a character go from commoner to whatever the player wants them to be. But I suppose one could reward them the traditional way with riches and treasure. Another feature of the game is that there are no experience points. Players instead level up by accomplishing goals set by themselves, or by the GM, or by taking major steps towards accomplishing those goals. So this way, the character and the player can always stay tied to the story.
The more I think about it, the more I realize many mechanics can be tossed aside. Of course, tossing mechanics aside makes certain things invalid. You could ditch combat entirely, but combat is arguably the largest portion of the game by necessity. If I had to set the game into modules...
Travel
Survival
Combat
Crafting
Magic
Social Interaction
and yeah, any one of those can be taken out. It would certainly make for a different kind of game, but the game itself would still be playable.
Anyone have any experience with DMless systems? I'm toying around with the idea. It seems feasible if you have good players and are willing to accept some inconsistencies.
d6-only games are the best way to hit a wider market of players without being forced to aim for the more "casual" audience, since sometimes even gamers don't have polyhedral dice, but they will always have d6s. Do you consider this true or false?
>>47946392
It seems to me that your game is lacking a central design objective, but I have not read it yet. Maybe you could say your game is about normal commoners in a fantasy setting that travel or take quests to achive their goals?
What levels represent in the context of the game? progression and goal accomplishment is tied in some way? What are the rules about writing goals and how do the modules that you listed relate or serve the player to achive his character's goal?
It makes me remember Burning Wheel, have you read it?
Is it even remotely reasonable to try developing a collectible miniatures game with a small team, or do you need to already work as a designer for a company that produces collectible games? Do game companies even accept pitches from prospective designers?
>>47946774
>lacking a central design objective
I suppose that's partially true. For the most part the rules lay out mechanics that all kind of reinforce that the players are just commoners, but they can become more than that. Actually, that's all laid out in the early pages,
>You are common
>You are reliant
>You are mortal
But the rules just kind of simulate without too much emphasis on themes, except the reliant part. I guess it is very much a generalist system. I don't see that as much of a problem, but that's just me, and I like to cannibalize other systems to fit my needs anyway.
I've heard of Burning Wheel but haven't looked into it. Maybe I'll do just that.
So I need a little help with scaling money. In the far future, you have to be able to buy everything from rations to starships. Running it all with straight dollar amounts gets unwieldy pretty quickly. Any recommendations on how to better form it?
I was thinking of 10k and less beung handled traditionally, with everything above being abstracted into "assets" that include money, goods, loans, and favors. But even that I'm not sure how to structure.
>>47948447
Or just have any mundane purchases be basically unlimited within reason, and have a small credits system for larger purchases
whatever happened to /gdg/?
>>47949516
people forget to remake it
>>47949042
This, and consider limited storage capacity for mundane goods. You can only take so much with you, given the ship's storage.
>>47943044
Trying to make a Mutant Future/MMC setting book forAlaska/Yukon Territoryincluding an adventure.
>>47948447
For big ticket items such as large ships or holdings, I personally think that the best way to do it is by a favor system where you might have to help a star lord out in his war by raiding supply ships in order to get ownership of a space station, or maybe you have to assassinate a politician for a mafia group to get access to a souped up starship.
For how much money to charge for lower level stuff in a general sense, I personally think that a thousand should be a medium to low amount for most PCs, a million should be a lot but not too unobtainable, and a billion should be bank heist levels money. For a space game in the far future I think it's normal to expect there to be a bit of inflation.
I'm trying to make a Mega Man X / MMZ inspired RPG -- robots fighting robots, action and explosions, special weapons and upgrades, that kind of thing -- and while I've got the basics worked out (classless system, talent trees based on different methods of fighting (mobility, melee, ranged, defense, hacking, shit like that)) as well as some basic stats, I haven't decided on a resolution system yet.
My initial idea was 1d10+stat+skill for most things and have defense options divided into blocking and dodging, with advantages and disadvantages to both options, but I'm just not satisfied with using a d10. It feels like I'm just using d20 cut in half, and I don't want to make "D&D but with Mega Man." It doesn't feel right, and it doesn't match the fast pace of the game.
Are there any resolution mechanics for combat that might fit?
>>47950120
I had a resolution mechanic I was intending to pitch that might work for you.
>Roll 2d20, one for a statistic and one for the skill
>If both d20s are below their respective TNs, you succeed.
>If one TN is below but the other is not, you have a partial success.
>If both d20 results are equal to or above their TNs, you fail.
>In any case, reduce both TNs by one until sufficient rest has passed.Yes, this means that you can reduce a TN into the negatives (though you'll suffer additional penalties for 'pushing you limits'.)
>If the roll comes up as a 21, a 2, or a 40, you gain a Stunt- this changes a partial success into a success, a failure into a partial success, or a success into a major success, or else can trigger other abilities. There is a 5.5% chance of a Stunt coming up on any given roll.
I think it's an interesting enough dynamic, though it still needs to be crafted a bit more and tested in game.
>>47950313
I normally don't like roll-under systems but I actually like this. Thanks, I'll see what I can do with this!
>>47950466
You could try it with d100s for 'operating at x percent efficiency' and charge power percentage costs for different actions, if you wanted.
You'd get stunts or critical success on a roll of 101 (interestingly enough, occurring only 1% of the time), and it could be fluffed as 'operating at 101% efficiency'.
....I'll see myself out.
>>47943044
>What are you brewin?
Playable skeletons for 5e. Kind of a pain to keep it to a similar level of power as the PHB races. I at least don't want to make something OP.
>>47943141
So Gygax is an idiot AND a sexist. Well okay then.
>>47953153
Nice. Got any prototypes to post?
>>47943044
I want to run a Half-Life rpg thing for one of my friends. I made a very simple system that consists of 21 skills, without classes, abiloty scores, et cetera. Since i'm only going to have one player, i don't want to spend too much time on details; it's going to be a bit more freeform than other systems. The problem i have is that i don't know how to give a sense of progression. Do i just give him skill points? Do i design a few "perks"? How many skill points does he start out with? Skills work with a d20, since it started out as a modified/simplified DnD 5e until i started stripping off more and more.
>>47943141
That's pretty cringey. But he is from a different time, and kind of crazy, so I'll let it slide.
Even though I hate dnd, I can't not have some respect for the guy.
Wow just had a buddy test my battle chess type game and he said he liked it.
Any one have a 2 player skirmish type games you want to trade?
We can play test...
I want to make a d6 based system but I have a question as it feels like something is off, like the math and probability.
Basically what I want characters have a stat ranging from 1-6. By default a player rolls 1d6 and has to roll equal to or under their stat for a Success. More difficult Challenges cause the player to roll more dice, which they have to roll under for a Success. For example if the Challenge of a roll is 3 and their stat is 4, they would have to roll 4 or under on 3 of the d6 dice.
The problem I feel is that higher Challenge is disproportionately more difficult to succeed the lower your stat is, while with a higher stat Challenge seems to matter very little.
I was going to compensate for this with having to spend experience points to increase a stat rather than leveling up and you get to just increase things. This lets me make higher points cost exponentially more as higher stats trivialize Challenges in that category. I don't know how to math so balancing the numbers is going to be difficult. What does /hbg/ think?
Maybe I can reverse it, with player stat determining the number of dice rolled and the challenge difficulty determining what needs to be rolled under. But then it places more of the burden on the GM to come up with appropriate stats for npcs. It makes me want to stick with the former idea. GMs have enough shit to deal with.
>>47953339
I don't think he is necessarily wrong though. At the time, DnD did not appeal to both sexes as it does now, and since culturally gender equality wasn't as prevalent as it is now it wouldn't be amiss for most of the female public to show little to no interest.
>>47955669
Ah I actually had a decent idea. Instead of more difficult challenges making the players roll more dice, have Full Success, Partial Success, Partial Failure, and Full Failure.
Challenges instead range from Strict to Flexible with 1d6 being the most Strict ( it's either you have a full success or a full failure ) while 2+ are Flexible with more dice allowing you to have more of a gradient with partial successes and failures but it makes a full success/failure unlikely.
>>47955710
I think it's less that he's wrong there (in the context of D&D in the 80s) than he's very short-sighted, and he's basically taking a narrow set of data and using it to make broad claims.
But hey, none of my heros are without their warts.
>>47954492
I do, but its in the middle of a re-write.
>>47956264
Men and women are psychologically different, and most women don't fantasize about being a barbarian and breaking things with a club. There is a reason that even though 5th ed has all sorts of duh versity it's still predominantly played by males.
If you think with the exception of genitals men and women are identical you need to spit out the kool aid.
>>47953339
>in general
Literally everything he said is pretty obviously true, tabletop is played predominantly by men largely because men and women just have different things they tend to gravitate towards, considering tabletop rpgs are generally about physical conflict it's absolutely no surprise they tend to appeal to men more.
>>47943044
>Also I propose we make gygax the official image header for these threads, it just makes the most sense naturally
Why? Gygax never made a good game by himself, he always had someone like Perren or Arneson who actually made his crap playable.
>>47956373
>Men and women are psychologically different, and most women don't fantasize about being a barbarian and breaking things with a club.
Yep, that's that narrow set of data I was talking about. A game centered around a male fantasy doesn't appeal as much to females, and Gygax is equating it to "women don't like games."
>duh versity
>If you think with the exception of genitals men and women are identical you need to spit out the kool aid.
And now you're just being retarded.
>>47956469
That's a highly debatable point. D&D was Gygax taking Arneson's ideas and making them into a playable game. Arneson's Blackmoor was a mess of ever-changing rules and weird fiat; while I think Arneson was a brilliant guy and a great DM, he truly sucked at getting anything done. We still know hardly anything about the Blackmoor campaign except third-party accounts of sessions, because Arneson's only real published version is just a jumbled mess of half-finished notes on a handful of topics.
Arneson didn't even have hit points or saving throws. Character death in Blackmoor was done by the player describing how his character didn't die, then everyone at the table voted on the story, and if you got more thumbs down than up, your character just died.
>>47946754
False, just don't use a whole lot of different dices (or too many non-d6) and things should be fine
>>47946827
Possible but much harder. You'd have to put some money on it or else you would probably end with a subpar product (unless you have all the artistic abilities required), and even if you game is really good you will have to put more even more effort into final production and distribution (unless you find someone to do that for you...)
>>47955669
>>47956264
If you are having trouble with balancing numbers learn how to use anydice.com, it makes things a lot easier. Use this code and you'll already have somewhere to begin with:
http://pastebin.com/5Zy1m5xM
>>47956548
>Gygax is equating it to "women don't like games."
Gygax is dead, bruh.
>And now you're just being retarded.
If you don't think men and women have different psychological and emotional needs/desires, you need to return to whatever hugbox from whence ye came.
>>47956873
>http://pastebin.com/5Zy1m5xM
Thanks a lot, this makes it easier
>>47956548
Look at male wish fulfillment movies. James Bond and Rambo can very easily be turned into dice games.
Look at female wish fulfillment. Now how can you make a dice game about Sex and the City, or Twilight? You can't emulate love and emotion with dice, and pretending to fall in love with another player at the kitchen table doesn't make compelling gameplay either.
>And now you're just being retarded.
If you think that the fact that men and women are entertained by different things is a "social construct" you're the one who's retarded. Men and women are different, deal with it.
>>47946754
False-ish? It's true that gamers will always, ALWAYS have d6s, but they will also always have d10s. These two dice are necessary for basically every popular modern card game, and anybody who's ever played MtG has at least a few d10s they borrowed from somebody for life tracking. If you're looking for dice that people who play games will always have, it's those two.
But more importantly, why even design a game for ONLY d6? What is this, gaming in 90s Japan? It's not like it's hard to drop ~5 bucks on a set of Chessex dice.
>>47957087
>how can you make a dice game about Sex and the City
If you could somehow make a table of roll outcomes that generated immensely banal dialogue laden with stupid dick humor, then maybe...
>>47957087
I bet you are a virgin.
>>47957275
Good Argument.
I bet you are a cuck :^)
>>47957087
>>implying men and women can't be entertained by the same stuff...
They are different, but to say that women only care about emotions is the same as saying that men only care about violence is plain stupid.
>>> play oWoD
>>>play with guys
>>overpower builds
>>modern murder-hobo game
>>power-seeking alliance
>>lots of awesome battles
>>NPC are tools and enemies
>>>play with girls
>>strong builds
>>investigation-social game
>>power-hungry backstabbing bunch
>>Some NPCs are Characters (but not GMPCs)
>>Still lots of meaningful violence
>>most of it was a better gaming experience
>>47956963
>Gygax is dead, bruh.
No shit.
>If you don't think men and women have different psychological and emotional needs/desires, you need to return to whatever hugbox from whence ye came.
My whole point is premised upon the idea that there are differences between men and women, dipshit. Quit talking to me like I"m your goddamn feminist boogeyman.
>>47957087
>Men are rollplayers
>Women are roleplayers
At last I truly see
Now going back into topic.
What do you guys think of using digital devices in TTRPGs, I've been having a hard time balacing ease/fast play with the number of "hard" mechanics in use. So I've been thinking of making an App to make multiple resources tracking and rule seeking fast things easier to manage.
Actually, when I think about it, I want to have every rule built into the App to the point where you would only need either the book or the App...
I want to keep my game low-requirement, but I also like using some more materials than just d6 and sheets.
If a game asked you to have a deck of cards and optionally some poker chips, would that be a deal breaker?
>>47957918
depends if they're replaceable
if it's a set of specific cards or marked chips needed it might be, but if you can just use coins or extra dice or whatever you have on hand it'd be fine
most people wouldn't care either way though I'd imagine as long as it isn't a huge amount of them
>>47958028
Nope, all standard stuff:
>Required
>pen and paper
>at least 1d6 (if you want to roll it multiple times)
>poker deck
>Optional
>poker chips or some other tokens for ease of bookkeeping
>6d6, 3 of one color, 2 of another, 1 one of a third
Also thinking of new mechanics to reduce the dice requirements.
>>47958112
reducing from 6d6 is pretty hard , and also why would you need 3 colors?
I myself was going to use very low dice requirements too, but then I noticed some people do have fun using different and multiple dice at times (even if it can be bothersome)
>>47958372
>why would you need 3 colors?
Different rules for each color. One ignores failures, for example. You could just roll them in different batches, but this speeds things up.
>I noticed some people do have fun using different and multiple dice at times
I like that in OSR games, but that's not the kind of game I'm making.
>>47958436
The one i'm making is going to be pretty weird, I'm not sure whether anyone but my group is going to play it...Fate points, Doom Points, Temp. Advantages, around 12 possible resources/pools (usually using ~3 per player), group "characters", classless-OSR-like characters with building points...
Im currently brewing a 5e conversion of the 3.5 shadowcaster.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ORCC8IwwqgTv6kSy-wnGgfkegEYejOke9OwGnsN16c/edit?usp=sharing
For now, tell me what you guys think! Is the class balanced? Any ideas for other mysteries I should add or take away? Is the Master of shadows too strong? Shadowblade too weak? I feel particularly let down by its level 10 ability, but I couldnt think of anything else to add to it. Perhaps slippery mind? Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!
>>47959065
I'm not quite aware of the class balance in 5.0 but in overall this one looks awesome. About the Shadow blade, I would add an "aggressive" option for the 10th level, both defensive options are really good, but you could rework with ephemeral strike, move it down as a damage boost for this level nad make a Shadowstrike where you can "ignore" armor to some extend
>>47959513
What do you mean 'ignore' armor? something that reduces targets AC? a flat bonus to attack rolls? something that pierces resistances of all types? Maybe advantage on the attack? Im not sure about the power level either, seems as if though advantage on the attack would be pretty strong.
Thanks for the input!
>>47956469
He's the first one anyone thinks of when it comes to D&D and making RPGs
http://pastebin.com/E4HFkEmG
I've posted this before, and gotten some good feedback. For a refresher, its a translation of the Pokemon vidya rules for tabletop. This means that it's designed to use the games' stats and whatnot, but make various calculations much more palatable.
Here's what I need help with:
Based on previous feedback, I've decided to change how I do damage. I no longer like the idea of what's currently written. The problem is, I don't have a very good alternative. I was close to coming up with a breakthrough, but I never had that fully realized epiphany. If anyone has some ideas they'd be much appreciated. At worst I could be inspired by an idea.
Working on a hex and miniature game that is meant to bridge wargames and RPG. The game is inspired by Ace Combat and Metal Gear, by which I mean I basically took Skull faces plan and basically made it the setting.
The core of the game is that the cold war has destabilized the nation's of the world and nuclear weapons are proliferated to the extreme, nuclear warlords demand ransoms for stolen weapons at the cost of millions, sometimes billions, and blackmail weaker ones for percentages of their GDP. Mechs exist as specialized attack vehicles and mobile nuclear weapon platforms, which allows warlord to engage in their own nuclear wars against rivals and even other nations.
The setting is a combination of antiquated yet advanced, Soviet backed forces advance in their BMP2s while 'Caraban' mechs illuminate targets with their CO2 lasers. Overhead defense via the Star Wars program can be countered with anti sat weapons or kill vehicles which are launched from the walking silos.
Overall, the power level of the settings warlords is insane, ranging from a single dude in a tiny Walker Gear mech with the Davey Crockett nuclear launcher to project Pluto screaming over the battlefield with its nuclear ramjet and its many bombs.
The game is played with hexes that represent a mile, on which players engage with real and fictional cold war weapons, vehicles, and nuclear devices. Once engaged on the large strategic map, combat is resolved on an abstracted tactical level; except when calculating blasts from conventional and nuclear ordnance.
The warlords, aka the players and NPCs, are specifically not the nation's they may represent. You can choose to build an army sponsored by the Warsaw Pact, United States, the AI singularity hiding in Antarctica; or a mix if you're willing to sacrifice specialized items like the Soviets laser technology.
Pic related, I want more than just walkers. Will post more if people brave the text wall.
>>47943044
Working on a turn based system for resolving battles between ancient and medieval armies. It works in its current form, but turns are very time consuming as the whole thing is currently spreadsheet based and requires manually altering unit cards when casualties are taken. Ultimately the system will account for supply and attrittion, morale, weather conditions, soldier health, equipment quality, terrain and effects of leadership. Currently I'm working on getting the core functionality of the battles system working, at which point I will create a roadmap for a programmer friend in my RPG group who has expressed interest in helping me with the project so that he can put together a program that handles the calculations and updates the database as each turn is performed. Additionally rules for army management and world interaction are being drafted for the commanders (the players).
>>47964927
What are some of the mechanics?
>>47965538
The core system relies on a d12 for input, where variables are added including negative defensive values , and the total divided against the defending variable. I'm also experimenting with minimum damage for blasts and having hard deductions from the output for cover or what have you.
For example, if you have a t55 fire upon a mech, it would roll a d12(4) add it's combat score(5) and any other bonuses, before subtracting armor (3). The sum(6) is then divided against the evasion of the target (5). In this case it's a successful attack with one point of damage delivered. Though perhaps cover would remove this point after all has been said and done.
If the evasion was 3, and there were two mechs to shoot at, both would have been destroyed since the score of 6 is double the evasion score.
I similarly have plans to make differing weapons to attack differently. For example, lasers both attack the armor of a unit to check to see if a hard kill was delivered (as in, physically destroyed) and then to see the effect of soft kill (destruction of equipment and maybe crew) potential against their shielding score, which also is what defends against radiological damage.
>>47966299
I do enjoy the D12.
What's the best damage system you've seen? Trying to house rule Savage World's damage system to make it slightly less bad.
>>47966894
The best systems I've seen are the ones that do what they're supposed to. That might not be immediately helpful, but ultimately the best thing might be to determine what you want your damage system to accomplish/cover, and then make it happen.
For examples of damages systems in various games, the below link is pretty good.
http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?21479-Design-Alternatives-Analysis-Archive/page4&p=497236#post497236
>>47956301
Ok right on, we can exchange when you are done.
>>47962545
>>47957843
bumping for responseless.
>>47957843
That would be great, but quite an undertaking. Not to mention that you might get into some legal trouble depending on what licensing you use.
Thinking of switching entirely to poker cards away from dice, but I think I might have to change the way enemies work.
Previously the GM calculates a difficulty for each opponent depending on who it attacks or attacks it (NPC's skill minus PC's skill) and the player rolls the dice accordingly. NPCs would be handled individually like in most games.
I think instead the GM might add all the NPCs together and handle their sum resources narratively (ie the enemy group has 30 sum HP across three guys, so one dies on whichever attack gets the group down to 20).
This prevents the GM from having to carry tons of cards or remember which cards belong to which NPC - the players will essentially be fighting an amalgamated blob outside narration.
I know a few systems do something similar to inflate mook numbers (ie stormtroopers in FFG SW), and any sort of rival character could just dominate the calculations.
Just rambling while I take a shit at this point.
>>47971148
If I had the basic know-how of android development it wouldn't be so troublesome...Unless I tried to implement the "GM server" where every player has "limited acess" allowing them to make changes in their resources and send private msgs and rolls to the GM....that would require a bit more of skill
>>47971330
This kind of mechanics looks kind of cool, but you need additional mechanics for strong NPCs with groups, for instance, strong NPC are the last to fall (unless the players take a penalty to take him down first) and they provide bonus to the group, such as increased hand size (you can have more cards), increase or decrease card values, swap, whatever
I'm trying to make a card game. Have pretty much all the rules figured out, but now I need to design the cards themselves.
What are some things you like/don't like to see on your cards, /tg/?
>>47967664
I'm hoping to get it done soon. Started a new job, so time's been tight.
>>47972489
Clean designs with easy to read information. Look at MtG, there's reasons its so popular. Their card design is very clean and effective, you can easily find what information you need on the card.
I'm not saying its the best and everyone should copy it, but its very well done and a good example of layout.
>>47972489
Information in consistent geographically distinct locations that doesn't overlap card art
Simple muted information displays no big round red look at me circles which inevitably end up on a stat that you don't need to pay that much attention to
No meta information other than a series sigil and the artist name
Flavor text only when space allows
>>47972849
>>47972935
Is this "clean" enough?
I have cut down A LOT on unnecessary detail from my original designs (posting those next).
Please ignore the messy textbox background - It's just placeholder.
>>47972970
Older version
>>47972970
This isn't bad, I would only work on the Name Tag, change it's layout, location, size, or the three of them, it just doesn't work "as it's" for me
Fixed the textbox
>>47973259
>I would only work on the Name Tag, change it's layout, location, size
In what way(s)?
>>47973437
you could take it out and just put the name in Bold or Italic at the top of the textbox, you could use this same design but resize it a bit a put it centralized above the image or on the bottom of the textbox, you can go MTG-like and put it in the top-left corner....
>>47973623
Thanks for the suggestions.
Will consider it!
>>47973623
You could also make it a running bar covering the width of the textbox...the large blank space to the left of the present name box just weirds me out
So there's this question that comes up every now and then on /tg/, and I've been trying to figure it out myself: can you make a good RPG set in the world of Tove Jansson's Moomin? And while RPGs based on children's books are usually designed as half-assed jokes at best, there's a dark, almost Lovecraftian horror vibe to this series, that makes me think it could make for interesting role-playing. I'm not very good at the mechanical parts of game design, but I'm gonna list the goals that I feel that a Moomin RPG must fulfill. Note: I'm basing this on the books and to some extent the comic strip, rather than the anime.
1 The characters are flawed, almost helpless creatures living in a dark, scary world. They have adventures and face perils, but are are not heroes.
2 While physical obstacles are plenty, the biggest challenges is always the emotional ones. Self-esteem, anxiety, depression and feeling like you don't belong are very central themes in all the books, and should be central in the game as well. Insecure, scared characters should also be more at risk of being affected by scary, unknown places.
3. Combat is really rare, and might often not even show up at all. There is danger, but death is very, very rare in the world of Moomin.
4 A system for social bonds would be nice.
5. While players should be free to create whatever character they want, there are some fairly well established races in the setting that make great archetypes. Races suitable for PCs are Moomins (torn between their love of routine and their curiosity), Mymbles (very confident, but this tend to make it hard for them to empathize with others. Snuffkin is one of these), Fillifjonks (very organized and confident when everything follows the routine, completely fall apart in chaotic situations. Very prone OCD.) and various Small Creatures (knytts, homses etcs. Terrified of the world around them, with absolutely no self-esteem. Are hard to notice.)
So what kind of system would be good for this?
>>47973684
And please don't just say GURPS or Apocalypse. I want to build something simple, that encourages players to play up their character's insecurities and personality flaws, but without turning into everyone being an asshole to each other.
>>47973623
>>47973657
Thanks again for the advice.
I think I've arrived at a design which seems much better.
Having some phrasing trouble. In my game characters have wounds and stress. Armor reduces incoming wounds by its armor value; the reduced amount is suffered as stress instead. How can I succinctly phrase that?
Example:
>Character with 5 armor takes 3 damage
>Suffers 2 wounds and 3 stress
>>47974194
Yeah, I nice, strong font for the card name in this format would work. That's a good example of a clean design.
>>47974311
>When a character takes damage, block a number of wounds it would suffer by its armor. Any damage blocked this way is turned into stress, instead of wounds.
>>47974311
I'm going to assume you meant 3 Armor and 5 Damage.
"Damage is reduced by a character's Armor value. Damage reduced in this way is recorded as Stress while the remainder is recorded as Wounds."
>>47973684
Golden Sky stories. Though I disagree with the dark and scary world being a thing in Moomin.
Also the feeling of insecurity and helplessness just won't make a decent mechanic, because that would mean the players need to actually feel this. It's a hard gap to bridge.
I was browsing the civilization quests on /qst/ and I noticed a common thread. Though there are many races to choose from at the beginning of the quest, the civilizations remains relatively homogeneous in composition (dwarf-societies are comprised exclusively by dwarfs, minotaur-societies are just made of minotaurs, and so-on). This is pretty much how it is in most fiction as well, and I've always wanted to play out a Mos-Eisley scenario with a town that is comprised of many different races.
I've been working on a system for a city-building game where different races are attracted to a town depending on how the town is built. A town with a mine would attract dwarfs and goblins, a town with high stone walls and cramped streets would attract humans but repel elves.
>>47972970
Lets see
Crisp up the blurry ass textures, making my eyes cross from trying to focus
Simplify the busy border lines, for instance the filigree around "Furniture" is too much, and those double lines next to the 2/2 are overboard
Loose the drop shadow on the text, in fact lose the internal text field shadow.
If that 2/2 thing is important make it bigger. Maybe centered too? If you like those corner squares don't make the 2/2 compete for the corner.
Double check the aspect ratio of the card, it seem "tall".
>>47943044
Vaulthunter - Started as a Dark Heresy 2nd Edition OneShot, but now i am thinking about doing something more then just just a Pandora-Like World with 6 strange Anti-Hero-Pre-Generated Heros, looking for a shard-key to a demon prison, with a few tables for random weapons. Like building cities, thinkign about shields and leveling up, making stats for monsters like non-skags and so on.
Bone-Civilization - A long time ago there was a nice skeleton civilzation quest on here, my first and only quest on /tg/ I ever joined. Loved the Ideas the language and the mysteries of the setting. If i could somehow find all the old quest threads i'd had something to do this night. But right now, I am just searching and brain-storming, what to make out of it.
>>47976480
>Though I disagree with the dark and scary world being a thing in Moomin
You should read the books, then. They're great.
And I don't understand the second point. You know that role-playing, by definition, is about pretending that you feel, think and do things that you don't actually feel, think and do in reality, right?
The Dangerous Journey is a great example, but pretty much all the books portray the world outside of Moomin Valley as dark and dangerous. Late in November or The Invisible Child are also great.
>>47976958
>>47977072
I've read the collections 1-4 and they were pretty light hearted sans the occasional really melancholy statement here and there.
That's a textbook definition. You can't expect everyone to think and feel completely different from their characters. They can have their characters act accordingly but the player doesn't really FEEL those things. Sure you can include it as a mechanic, but without the feeling it's just that. Mechanical.
>>47979845
Yeah, that's why absolutely nobody likes Call of Cthulhu, FATE etc, because having mechanics for becoming emotionally and mentally affected is just so unreasonable
>>47979845
It's pointless to have rules for physical damage, attributes and so on.
They can have their characters act like they got their arm chopped off but the player doesn't really FEEL those things. Sure you can include it as a mechanic, but without the feeling it's just that. Mechanical.
![heres-my-passive-aggressive-meme-expressing-my-current-feelings-in-hopes-i-prove-a-point-or-piss-someone-off--d1771[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/1i8GO43.png "heres-my-passive-aggressive-meme-expressing-my-current-feelings-in-hopes-i-prove-a-point-or-piss-someone-off--d1771[1].png")
>>47979963
Are there any meme-based RPGs? I want to make a memepunk game but I want to be lazy and rip off someone else's work.
>>47982560
>I want to make a memepunk game
>>47982707
What's wrong with memepunk? It's one of my favorite emerging genres - it has a lot to do with the way memes and culture I fluency each other, and how powerful corporations can use that power to influence the populace.
>>47953339
I'd like to point you out the chucklefuckers in Paizo.
>>47943044
Boardgame/ wargame in which magical girls battle against each other using their forest friends.
Basically I got some $1 packs of figures from Target, and decided to make a game centered around them.
For the "magical girls" I have: princess, fairy, and meremaid. For the animal friends I have: cat, fawn, raccoon, owl, and squirrel. The animal friends will each have a special ability, and the magical girls an ability that effects nearby allies.
>>47966894
Traveller is pretty good. Damage is done to your physical stats, so as you take more damage you become incapable of doing things.
Also 1 shot from a revolver against someone with no armor will knock them out, so it works for western duels and is pretty realistic when it comes to modern firearms.
>>47980320
Guess it's my own fault for expecting /tg/ to know the very basic concept of role-playing games.
