/gdg/ - Game Design General

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I've started a new project, a pared down Bronze Age fantasy game. Something between FAE and RuneQuest in terms of complexity, with a foundation in my own homebrew system.

So while I've got quite a bit done already, I'm having trouble translating my core mechanic to percentile die - I'm a big fan of degrees of success and really want to bring it into this game. However, I cannot figure out how to create the "margin" or "threshold" between the four possible outcomes of a roll:

>No, and...
>No, but...
>Yes, but...
>Yes, and...

So here's what I was thinking: you have eight Runes, each of which has a percentage rating. Rolling under or equal to this rating gets you a "Yes, but", rolling over it gets you a "No, and". Following?

You also get a ninth Rune representing your growing Heroism, starting at 10% and increasing by 5% when you do something truly legendary. Rolling within [Rune : (Rune - Heroism)] gets you a "Yes, and" while rolling within [Rune : (Rune + Heroism)] gets you a "No, but". So you want to stay as close as possible to your Rune rating without going over; if you go over/under more than your Heroism, it gets worse.

Say you want to punch someone in the face, that's your Air rune and you got a 60% in there. You're new to this, though, so you only got 10% Heroism. You roll:

>30: Yes, but...
>58: Yes, and...
>64: No, but...
>99: No, and...

Does this make sense? Am I losing my mind? Here's something I whipped up to kind of illustrate it, please ignore its imperfection.

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outcome tables, woo! everything is relative and surprisingly not a mess!

>>53982341
either we're in the same discord and got the same lecture, or you're the same dude that helped me out with my outcomes

>>53982341
Yeah that's actually the best "luck stat" mechanic I can think of. I'd recommend putting little boxes to the under and over of each of the eight "runes" though so you don't have to do math at every roll.

What is the best place to be in terms of "addative bonus relevancy" vs "luck relevancy"

For example, in d20, luck is far more relevant to any role than your actual stats until you get to about a 10+ bonus.

I'm currently considering a system where the average stat bonus would be +6, and the average roll would be 2d6, which makes randomization very insignificant compared to a character's stats (although the randomization can get bigger with circumstance, many effects in the game "step-up" the dice)

What are some of the disadvantages to doing it this way? It seems to me that it would lead to a better experience.

>>53982341
It took a little bit but I'm seeing how this works, now.
I read the notation to mean, "Rune is Rune minus Heroism", but your example showed that Heroism lowers your left bound, the larger it gets.

The mechanic seems effective in creating degrees of success, though is anything contested? Is this a one-roll type of mechanic?

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>>53982974
I've only ever encouraged your illustration. Never been in an RPG design Discord.

>>53982985
Something like this, perhaps? But that's getting pretty complicated. This is what makes me skeptical of the mechanic; if it's too complex to intuitively express visually, it's probably too complex period.

>>53983083
>though is anything contested? Is this a one-roll type of mechanic?
I'm not sure what you're asking. Players are the only ones rolling dice and aren't necessarily required to roll for everything (more along the lines of PbtA than D&D). It would be the only means of interacting with the dice, if that's what you mean. I'm experimenting with ideas of betting wounds or metacurrency on rolls.

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A few more explorations of how to display this mechanic. Not sold on it yet but the bottom one looks much better at least.

I think I've FINALLY settled on a health system I like.

>Consequences
>Consequences are special details that describe the ways in which a character is injured or harmed. Like any other detail, characters must abide by their consequences. Each consequence also has a severity rating from 0 to 3 that tells just how impactful and damaging the consequence is.
>Protagonists suffer consequences when they fail risks to avoid bodily harm, mental fatigue, emotional abuse or other dangers. Non-player characters suffer consequences as appropriate within the fiction - often when protagonists succeed at risks to inflict consequences upon them.
>Once a character has suffered a number of consequences equal to or greater than their Rank plus five or consequences with a sum severity equal to or greater than their Rank plus five, they gain the [helpless] detail - they are unable to act and are at the mercy of fate.
>Players may spend momentum to reduce and eliminate their protagonist's consequences; each point of momentum spent reduces the severity of a consequence by one point. When a consequence reaches 0 severity, a player can spend five more momentum to eliminate it entirely.

For reference, details are like FATE aspects. This gives each injury an actual meaning, but gives the group room to adjust lethality and healing methods based on setting and increased durability over time.

For example, in my sci-fi game where armor is much more common but weapons are more lethal, the PCs might be able to withstand larger amounts of consequence severity, but in my horror game wherein armor is almost unheard of, a gunshot might be enough to kill a PC.

>>53988885
Having extensively Diaspora (FATE) I agree that Consequences are the most thematic form of injury tracking.

>>53985064
The top design looks the tightest, but there's something to be said for the octagonal layout.

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>>53989283
Yes, I prefer the octagon for thematic reasons. Not only does it illustrate the dichotomy of each opposing rune (i.e. fire vs water), it illustrates how the diagonal runes are "derived from" the elemental runes (i.e. man is the master of fire and earth, beasts are masters of sea and air; fire and air destroy life, earth and water nurture the harvest). Maybe something like this? Starting to get complicated again though.

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>>53988885
lmao stolen

>>53991781
Do it familia, I can't stop you. What are you working on?

What's the cutoff for "rules light", "rules medium" and "rules heavy"?

My book is about 50 pages right now, but I'd estimate at least half is advice and philosophy as opposed to actual game mechanics.

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I need help with building a 1v1 adventure I'm making. I might codify it into a system later. This adventure needs to be different because it is for my girl who is sick with anemia and can't do much. She wants to play Wonder Woman.

She likes to investigate and find the best decision. She doesn't like having to keep track of stats and numbers, and doesn't want to learn a system. I'm having trouble framing the adventure for investigation rather than combat, and I wondered if you guys could give me some writing examples I could model my encounters after.

She's more of a feeler than a thinker and I really just want her to start feeling good for a change.

>>53992899
Have you looked into Gumshoe? It's a fairly light investigative system, and at the very least you could glean a lot of insight about investigative adventures by reading it.

Hope you both get well soon.

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hmmmm

>>53992118
i'd say rules-light is everyone is john, rules-medium is dnd 5e, rules-heavy is shadowrun 3e

>>53993076
Thank you. The problem is that my construction isn't very good and I am stuck. I have Wonder Woman going to the military base for help with her crashed jet. But I can't seem to frame it right. The soldiers are wary because a powerful female (a villain named The Cheetah) stole Stinger missiles from the base and they think it might be Wonder Woman. But I need her to not fight the military men, because plausibly she'll either maul them, or get knocked out somehow, and I can't think of how to make that work. Talking about it helps me think of possibilities, though...

>>53993380
Maybe she has someone to vouch for her, or discovers some clue that convinces the military to work with her?

>>53993414
Yes, but then I need my player to _not_ choose to fight them... I need to reframe the situation so that fighting them doesn't come up, but I'm having ttrouble thinking of a way.

>>53983039
>What is the best place to be in terms of "addative bonus relevancy" vs "luck relevancy"
System dependent. An even balance is popular and nice, but there's no reason it can't be more luck or less luck dependent. Also, Averages alone don't mean much, so consider how the dice and mods interact at the minimum and maximum values also.

>>53992118
I'm gonna go ahead and call that "rules medium-light".

Fifty pages, with game-running advice, seems to be minimal on actual rules but enough to produce a flavor. Which is, from my perspective, a good place to be.

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>>53981681

I'm looking for a nice dicepool system that I can hack for my own game, any recommendations ? I want a simple enough system that doesn't make things end up in dice buckets like pic related, I also don't want something that makes you roll 4 times for a single combat action (like in the Old World of Darkness).

>>53995011
you could replicate WoD and make combat rules from scratch

"i'm gonna grab this thing that works and i like and fix the things i don't like" is the premise for like half the games and videogames in the market right now

>>53992118
It's hard to generalize what rules-weight is, especially from writing standpoint.

Hell, my own game has about as much words as RISUS but the difference in rules-complexity and similarly robustness is staggering. It's all about how you use your pages, like how you say.

25 pages of rules, if it's just rules, sounds like rules-medium to me, honestly. Because if you take something like D&D 5e and distill just the rules, it's about 25 pages long. It just has a lot of fluff and additional content in between. And my game's rules are like 6-10 pages long in A4 (Depending on font size, I use a much bigger font than RISUS), and it's somewhere in the grey area between rules-light and rules-medium.

The most important part though, is to focus on making the game feel good and feel like it has enough options to justify its weight. If you make a complex game where still basically the only thing you can do in combat is walk next to the enemy and whale on it, there might be a problem.

>>53995011
I can't bring myself to give you recommendations just off-the-cuff, because I would like to know what kind of game you're making first. The resolution system needs context, and that context is the game. A resolution system that works with X won't work with Y.

You can look at Legends of the Wulin to see this. The resolution system works very differently than most (you roll before choosing what to do, and can do multiple things with a single roll), but it works due to the game itself being about kung-fu, where careful consideration of your actions is very in line with how the it is perceived in the world. It wouldn't work in a fast and gritty game, because it's slow and meticulous in nature.

So, what is your game about, anon? Tell me that and I can throw you a bone.

>>53992118
I'd go with rules-medium. Rules light for me feels like anything that's around a dozen pages, rules medium is less than a 100, and rules heavy is anything more. But it also comes down to how the actual rules work. Rules light always feel more free-form to me, while the heavier the rules, the more rigid and precise they are.

>>53995011
While I generally agree with >>53997053, there are a few dice pool systems that are simple enough you can inject them into likewise simple games.

MouseGuard has a nice core mechanic: roll a number of d6 equal to the relevant skill and count the number of fours, fives or sixes rolled. If you got more successes than the Ob (obstacle rating) set by the GM, you succeed; otherwise, something bad happens. You're often rolling for the outcome of entire scenes, or at least big enough chunks that stuff happens as opposed to rolling for every six seconds of action (ie D&D). Short, simple, easy.

>>53982341
So I understood it to be Rune is kinda like a 'regular' stat (or, the one that's being tested) and Heroism is this ever-present sort of 'luck' stat (although actually tied to narrative, which imo is a pretty great idea).

"No, but" and "Yes, and" are both results of the test which are coming with a positive twist of fate, while the other two are the opposite. What you could do is have the Rune be the roll-to-beat. If it's roll-under then anything below the number is a Yes, and anything above is a No. Then, anything within [Heroism] from the Rune number gives you one of the positive twists, and anything more than than gives you a negative twist. Or if you want to preserve the neutral results, more than double away from it gives you the negative twist. The idea here is that if you're heroic enough, then some of that chance for bad things just gets cut off.

I have no idea how well that will run, though. Just throwing out an idea.

>>54001942
I've been leaning toward making the stats 1-9 and using two differently-colored d10, one being success/failure and one being positive/negative twist.

However, I would like to keep the percentile flavor if possible. Normally I wouldn't care but this is kind of intentionally "retro" (RuneQuest).

>>53997053

I've talked about my game one time in /tg/ here's the thread

>>54002404
Then here's an idea: d% where the individual numbers and doubles matter.

doubles = good twist
1s over 10s = nothing (ex. 67, 24, 29, 19, 58)
10s over 1s = bad twist (ex. 42, 51, 32, 63)


>Success with good twist: [Under % TN, doubles]
>Success: [Under % TN, 1s is bigger than 10s]
>Success with bad twist: [Under % TN, 10s is bigger than 1s]
>Failure with a good twist: [Over % TN, doubles]
>Failure: [Over % TN,1s is bigger than 10s]
>Failure with bad twist: [Over % TN, 10s is bigger than 1s]

Swapping (10s over 1s) and (1s over 10s) places as nothing and bad twist is also legit, making the bad outcomes more likely. I can try charting this out in anydice, though it might be hard to make legit.

>>54003637

Forgot the link :

>>53776981

>>54003637
>>54003664
Welp, that's not too much to go by. It might sound backwards, but think about the systems around the dice before settling on what dice to use. In the end, the dice almost exclusively choose ONLY the number range you use for the game. Sometimes they can mold the rest of the game, but that is a thing that comes from the other systems and ideas, not the dice themselves.

You need to flesh out the idea first. The game is based on colonization, so is its emphasis on exploration, settlement building or trading? These three premises have different needs, and you gotta get those in line before arbitrarily deciding the dice you use.

Do you want stats to be target numbers or give modifiers?
Will there be skills? How do you want them to affect the dice?
Do you want to have binary or non-binary success tracking (meaning either "yes" or "no" vs. "yes, but" and "no, and" and the like)?

And in your case, do you want to make an entire game, or do you want to fit an entire system to the mold, maybe filing off the numbers and customizing some of the skills? These are very different things to start from, and in the original thread you were just looking for a game to run a setting. Has that changed?

>captcha: FARM STOCK

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>>54003643
I do like integrating doubles (maybe triumph if they're under your rating and despair if they're over) but I specifically want to avoid results without twists. Not only does this play into some other mechanics in the system, but I feel it really helps lend some momentum to the play.

Speaking of which, I added a few new rune pairs, but I'm not sure I'll keep them. Eight should be plenty and most of these can be rolled into the other runes anyway. Still, it's strangely fun to make these. Is the formatting obvious enough at least?

I just have a few other things to lay out in my main game, then I can fork it for Bronze Age. Gonna be fun.

>>54005333
In that case, you can make it like you said:

doubles --> "Crits"
1s over 10s --> Positive
10s over 1s --> Negative

About the runes though, I never read your original post, so let me see...

Is each point to a direction supposed to be +10? I don't know shit about runequest (guessing it was used as inspiration for it), so this is very new to me. What kind of bothers me is that even though aesthetically it looks pleasing, the different sizes would seem to imply that the middle one of each direction is more important than the other ones. Is this intentional?

I stole the doubles idea from Eclipse phase though, I just added the comparison between the numbers myself.

>>54005507
Oh wait, now I think I get it.

You're supposed to write the number on the middle one, and then color the direction it leans towards?

That's cool, but also kind of weird. It took me seriously a second, because it "feels" like a place where you color instead of writing. If there were numbers I would've caught it.

>>54004412

I think I'll just go with what said >>53995204
, I'll just take WoD system and change everything I don't like (The combat, replace the attributes with D&D type attributes, change the skills,Change the health system) and roll with it.

Pretty much yeah the goal has changed, instead of fitting the universe into a system I'll just build a new one by hacking rules.

>>54006027
That works. If you need help with the hacking itself, come back to the thread by all means.

>>54005507
>>54005564
You have a rating in each rune from 10 to 90. These ratings almost never change. This is written in that Rune's diamond space.

Each "opposed" pair must add up to 100 - thus, if you have 80 in Fire you will have 20 in Water.

You also have a "Heroism" rating that begins at 10 and increases whenever you achieve some significant milestone in play.

If you roll less than or equal to your rune's rating, you succeed with a negative twist; if you roll more than your rune's rating, you fail with a negative twist.

However, if you roll between [rune - Heroism] and [rune], you succeed with a positive twist; if you roll between [rune] and [rune + Heroism], you fail with a positive twist. Write [rune - Heroism] in the left triangle and [rune + Heroism] in the right triangle.

The external directional arrows on the bottom five rows show which two runes "influence" the rune they point to; for example, Man is influenced by Fire and Earth, because his mastery of Fire, agriculture, pottery and mining differentiate him from Beast. Right now, I think this is only for flavor but it might have some mechanic later (i.e. these runes being equal to the average of their parents).

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How do you guys feel about TCGs were the damage dealt to a player is done in the form of putting their deck into a discard pile? I think the Harry Potter TCG did this ages ago but I can't think of another TCG where "mill" is the primary win condition.

Off the top of my head I see some pros and cons:

>Pro
No need for lifecounters/dice/scrap paper
Allows for cards that trigger when milled as part of damage
Makes it easier for the discard pile to be an alternate resource
Prevents games from going on too long, as long as there's not a not of effects that put cards back into your deck
Some players in other games really like mill mechanics

>Cons
Counting the cards in your deck could be inconvenient of a way to check a life total
Some players do not getting milled

Thoughts? Pic somewhat related.

>>54006543
Also, I suppose this could apply to LCGs too, but I haven't played as many LCGs as I have TCGs.

>>54006457
That heroism thing makes the system quite a bit more complicated than it should be, I think. The numbers are munched in advance, so it isn't that bad, but... Well, not my style, honestly.

I gotta admit the idea of the stats connecting to each other is, well... Good on paper, but it might get messy in the meanwhile. How about if the connecting attributes give like +5 modifiers to the "heroism" score of that attribute if the connected attribute is higher than the base one.

(say, having 25 in truth, 55 in fire and 10 in heroism: normally, Truth would be 15-25-35, but because the fire is higher than truth, it would be 10-25-40)

That is, unless you take in the doubles idea and run with that. I still don't catch how heroism is actually supposed to work. Is it a stat you can raise?

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I swear fucking around with the character sheet is like half the fun
Also, I continue to backwards-engineer shit based on the character sheet and what it can fit because i'm an asshole
More at 11

>>54006543
To answer this, I suppose what bothers me is how the format handles it. Like there's never any choice one way or another from most games.

Either make mill a viable option, or don't include those cards in the game. This wishy washy sometimes you can mill, but its not reasonable to make a deck based on it shit is stupid and creates these conversations instead of it just being another mechanic you have to watch out for.

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>>54008094
Well, I think the problem with mill in most of the TCGs I've played is how mill tends to be a mechanic that requires you to go all-in to that particular strategy.

For instance, let's make a hypothetical MTG deck that consists of 20 Volcanic Island, 20 Lava Spike, and 20 Tome Scour. Now, if you manage to win a game with that deck, it most likely means you burnt or milled out your opponent, and if you won via burn, every Tome Scour you played was irrelevant, and vice versa if you won via mill. This problem doesn't exist in a deck of 20 Taiga, 20 Lava Spike, and 20 Grizzly Bears.

What I'm curious about if there's any game that does away with the traditional life total, and all damage whether through a creature-esque card or a spell-esque card is done in the form of mill. Additionally, I'm curious what would be the ramifications of such a mechanic.

Hey guys, sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you make your character sheets? Is there a program where I can make one easily?

Thanks.

>>53982341
It didn't make sense until you posted >>54006457
But now its simple. Roll under Rune for the large pass/fail, but roll within the difference of Rune and Heroism for good twist, roll outside difference for bad twist.

I don't know what your questions are beyond "Does this make sense?" which it does once you explained it better. That's really all that needs to happen.

>>53981681
How do you guys like my wargame system? Its a 15mm system made to be strategic in nature. It's module based, so each game is basically an expansion with armies and additional rules.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iJVaPD0VXYfQ_xhv__J6Ne01CtgXp-ONOGeTEbbLPeU/edit?usp=sharing

>>54008351
There's quite a few simple card games that are all about keeping cards in your hands with you considered "out" when you don't have any more cards. Egyptian Rat Screw does pretty much exactly what you're thinking with playing cards. I'd expect it would be simple enough to make some TCG style cards with only mill mechanics and test it out.

>>54008351
While I agree with what you're saying 100% and never thought of it that way I would like to point out poison counters in MTG. You can still damage an opponent and deal with monsters without shying away from using infect, it's just not the most straightforward strategy.

Cards that could mill for damage, or mill when tapped but are still creatures would start to solve the problem of being a mill only idea. It would create multiple win conditions in one deck that neither mtg or yugioh really has right now.

>>54008411
Try Adobe InDesign and/or Illustrator. For free alternatives, you can use Scribus and InkScape. I recommend using a simple spreadsheet for your first attempts though; the design is going to evolve a lot over time, so it's best not to sink too much into the first attempts.

>>54006974
Heroism is basically your level, it's just expressed as a percentage. Instead of "leveling up" by accumulating XP, you record your narrative milestones on your character sheet - each one is a "level" that increases your Heroism.

By using Heroism to increase the probability of positive twists (by widening the range around your rune rating), things are just more likely to "go your way" as you grow into a more legendary, mythological hero.

>>54008506
Thank you. I'll focus my official write-up more toward the latter style of explanation than the original.

I'm working on a few CCG projects, but i want to be able to easily and quickly spit out cards. I _REALLY_ don't want to use MSE, as some of my playtesters are pretty anti-mtg, and the frames sour them to the game.

Are there any other tools I should be looking at for creating card frames and cards?

>>54011095
If you aren't that far into the game yet, making the experience system where you write the deeds the character has done would be pretty neat. Each deed regardless of nature gives a certain amount of heroism, and may change the character's runes to accommodate to the deed. Outwitting an ancient monster is something a smart guy does, so the character's runes start leaning that-a-way.

Similarly, when a new character would join the frey, they should have the same around of "myths" around them, and they can be used as plot points later.

>inb4 you already did this and this post is redundant

>>54008577
The dice pool mechanic is good at the base, can't comment much more than that without examples. Reactions are a nice touch, the range limit and limit to the number each turn prevents it from turning into a dominoes issue that can occur in some systems, like Infinity.

The movement can be fleshed out. I find that its something that a lot of rules writers tend to skim over, since it seems straight forward to someone experienced with wargames, but there's plenty of "well, duh" kind of rules that still need to be written out, such as how to measure movement, or placing models when they overlap bases, or sometimes base to base interactions when they can't make it into base to base. I haven't kept track of it, but I know when AoS first came out, you could stack models onto each other's bases to get more guys into combat.

I was just watching an 8th edition 40k battle report that had exactly this problem, where how the rules were written meant that while a unit could climb up a set of ruins to charge a unit, they couldn't actually charge, because the unit was situated in a way that no enemy models could ever get to it, allowing the unit free reign in shooting, since it was high enough that nothing was blocking LoS. Yeah, freak occurrences like that can happen in any ruleset, but there are still ways to safeguard against or to clarify in situations like that.

Quick nitpicks, there's a misspelling in the Attacks section:
>remoge one from the damage pool
Also the Attacks section could be broken up a bit. Its a little hard to read.

Otherwise, its a good start, and I'll continue to keep an eye out for updates.

page 11 bump?

>>54012153
That's about what I imagined; great minds think alike?

I also intend for new characters to join at the same Heroism level. I have a chapter in the book about creating your own world as a group, including the tribe to which the PCs belong.

One thing I'm waffling on is how closely the game should hew to King of Dragon Pass. I really like the idea of characters being part of their clan's Ring, taking on quests every season to help their clan and maybe having to wait out some seasons to heal up or just bide their time managing their settlement.

>>54017263
Sounds interesting, I'll keep an eye out. I've really wanted to make something bronze age -related for a long time, due to it being such an underutilized setting, and having a lot of potential.

What parts of the bronze age are you going with? I guess it's more akin to mid-european tribalism, where honestly I am kind of looking at Greek age of heroes stuff. But bronze age is a big period, a lot of different themes and ideas are part of what we think of as bronze age.

>>54017365
>What parts of the bronze age are you going with?
I plan to leave that up to the group, taking influences from wherever as they create their tribe/clan/city culture. The rules will assume a specific subset of technologies and societies from throughout the Bronze Age, and it will be up to the group to decide where they sit.

As a template, it will be something like Glorantha insofar as runes will be more or less universal across cultures (due to their self-evident power), but there will be a variety of distinct cultures. Unlike Glorantha, however, I want it to be a little more down to earth with no non-human races (or at least no rules for them).

What are some of the best settlement/community management games? I've never really heard of any.

What stats do you think are a must-have in RPGs? I had 7, now I have 6, and I'm almost going to 5, and they are practically the same of the system I'm cannibalizing.

>>53988885
It's similar to the one I'm working with. The mechanics of the health system are: Health Points, that measure small amounts of damage; Afflictions, that translate negative effects such as poisoning and curses; and Wounds, which are grievous injuries (physical, mental, emotional, or whatever).

So far, Health Points work as you'd expect. You don't die when you reach 0. Currently I'm thinking you only die when you reach -5, and you can avoid getting to that point by willingly taking Wounds, and even then you can roll to avoid death.

Afflictions have numbers attached to them, reflecting how strong of an effect they are. For example, "Fear of Heights 1" means you probably need to roll to convince a NPC to stay up in a mountain with your party. "Fear of Heights 3" means any attempts to keep him there cordially fail and he'll do something crazy like fight you if you stand in his way. They can also be something like "Curse of Snakes 2 - Whenever you roll an 1 in a die, a snake bursts out of your body. Choose one: reduce the rolled value by 1 or take 1 damage (ignore armor)."

Wounds are things like losing an arm or being betrayed by a loved one, and will usually take a few sessions to cicatrize. After they do so, you gain 1 XP and a minor ability, to represent how it changed your character.

I still haven't decided if I want ressurection to be a thing or not, and how much of a thing I want it to be. If character growth is going to be important, losing a character at a point a new character won't get to do much sounds unfun. But if it's easy to come back from the dead, shouldn't that impact the setting?

>>54011335
It's probably not what you want to hear, but if you spend an hour or two in GIMP making a solid frame, then set it up as a template, you can can crank out the cards fast. I once produced 68 cards in six hours using this method. Once you get set-up, it's quick.

As far as 'plug-and-play' template programs go? I've yet to find a great one. StrangeEons3 is freeware, and you might be able to use that, with someone else's design, to make cards.

Sate my curiosity as a fellow cardfag: What elements do your cards require? Post a mockup in paint?

>>54022769
>What stats do you think are a must-have in RPGs?
I just have four: Force, Guile, Passion and Logic. I didn't feel tracking the individual characteristics of a character made much sense, because the actual characteristics don't matter - what matters is how you apply them to solve problems. These four stats are the four broad methods of solving a problem, I think - and if you're good at those, it doesn't matter how or why, mechanically speaking. You just have free text to explain that.

>losing a character at a point a new character won't get to do much sounds unfun
Just introduce new characters of the same power level as the rest of the party, don't make players start from scratch.

>>54011335
>>54023311
Look into data merge for InDesign, you'll thank me later.

>>54023472
My current stats are Might, Fortitude, Wits, Charm, Dexterity and Agility. I'm considering rolling Dexterity and Agility into one, because the actions I'm thinking about using Agility for also require some amount of dexterity (flavorfully), and mechanically I only use one modifier at a time.

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Who else /research/ ?

I've been putting in the hours getting the data for a modern air combat game, starting with Vietnam era aircraft and going to about 2000 tech.
Holy shit the US had a lot of different aircraft in Vietnam...

Finding the range of each aircraft's radar proved to be the hardest part - still a few gaps.

>>54022769
In my case, it depends on how the stats are framed. But a perfect mix, for me, is to have the big three attributes, each divided to two:
>Physical: Fortitude and Agility
>Mental: Intelligence and Willpower
>Social: Presence and Cunning

This doesn't sell any of the big 3 short, and it flows pretty well.

Of course, my own flagship game does things differently, because each stat is a mirrored version of their respective stat: (Agility -> Clumsiness and so forth). But at least two aspects of each of the big 3 should be present, nonetheless.

>>54025482
Well, kind of. I /research/ mostly for recreational purposes though, because learning things is fun.

I watch everything from nature documentaries to gun disassembly videos (god bless Forgotten Weapons) on a semi-regular basis, usually my interest jumping between making systems and researching stuff to learn stuff, and occasionally put something I've learned to the game.

>>54025536
Nice. Forgotten weapons is based.
I guess considering I write exclusively historical wargames, research is such a large part of the process. The more I research the more accurate the game will be and the more "flavor" it will have which is incredibly important for me (and for the players!) I'm always interested in representing real life weapons and tactics as accurately as possible in a simple and fun way. It can be quite challenging sometimes.

>>54022741
Kingdom Death is the main one i've played, unless you were looking for one where there was no combat.

>>54025627
I am more of a pure systems guy myself. Kind of like munchkinning, except optimizing a system instead of a character. Writing fluff is a total nightmare for me.

Like, my current system, before long, became a challenge of "How little mathematics can I have to make a rules-medium/light system work?"

That's also kind of the reason I'm more prone to making generic systems rather than specific ones. Less fluff, more rules to make.

>>54025482
I don't research nearly that much. All my games have some sort of vidya attachment unless they're just that lite they they don't need one. I do try to get my approximations as close as reasonable, but I'm willing to lose nuance for simpler math and balance.

However, a modern air combat game piques my interest. I'm making an Ace Combat system myself, so I'll be interested in seeing how you handle your rules.

>>54022769
There's no hard answer for must haves. Each RPG is different, so the requirements will be unique. Games have had anywhere from 2 to 17 attributes, so the amount is also pretty open. You just have to determine what exactly you want to represent, and the best way to do that.

>>54025487
>because each stat is a mirrored version of their respective stat
I'm sorry, what?

>>54025834
True, true. I'm asking around to see if anything sticks to me.

>>54025759
My original idea for a system was a generic one, but creating some fluff has helped me develop it. Now I'm actually thinking I should come up with a little more fluff so I can have a clearer idea of how I want some of my classes to work and make up my mind on some mechanics (e.g. ressurection). What I'm going for is very little fluff that can be built around as needed.

>>54025927
Ugh, I'm getting tired, can't even explain things properly. Well, you need to look at it in a skewed light to see why it is like it is.

You see, it is a roll-over system, where stats are weaknesses. The higher the stat is - say, Clumsiness - the worse that weakness is, and harder it is to beat a roll against it.

I've turned the game into more customizable form these days, but the original seven weaknesses I had were:

>Frailty -> Fortitude
>Clumsiness -> Agility
>Dullness -> Intelligence
>Meekness -> Willpower
>Naivete -> Cunning
>Awkwardness -> Charisma
>Ordinariness -> [Magic stat]

The system works on its own level, where the bigger almost any number on your sheet is, the worse off you are. Each roll you make is compared against multiple things on the character sheet, and the more things you try to accomplish, the riskier each move becomes. It's kind of a downward spiral, and that's the heart of the system. But the thing is, I'm trying to not make this edgy, instead aiming for kind of cheesy with dark humor.

It's called Misfortune, after all.

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>>54025792
>I'm making an Ace Combat system myself, so I'll be interested in seeing how you handle your rules.
Nice, I'll keep you guy informed of my progress.
My tentative title is "Missile Threat" and I have a draft of the mechanics written up and playtested, and it should prove to be pretty fun. I have already written WW1 and WW2 air combat games so have some experience in the genre.

I'm aiming for maximum fun and simplicity with the mechanics, but still having many many aircraft variants available. The goal will be to provide an air 'environment' where SAM sites, ground targets, AWACS and aircraft all interact and all have a part to play.

Currently typing up the deployment and radar detection rules - Players will need to write a flight plan showing when a flight of aircraft will arrive and when it will leave (as an aircraft's range dictates the maximum number of turns it can spend on the table).
Aircraft are initially placed as radar contacts (either small, medium or large) and depending on their initial tactics (like flying on the deck or very high) could potentially be placed very close to enemy aircraft. Of course AEW and AWACs aricraft will prevent radar contacts being placed within a certain distance, giving those types of aircraft a reason to exist.

I ideally want aircraft to be able to avoid detection by flying extremely low or by ambushing from high altitude, as was quite common in Vietnam. That way real life tactics can be used.

Having a flight plan will also mean you can send in SEAD aircraft to suppress air defenses, and fighters to draw out enemy fighters before sending in your more vulnerable ground attack and bomber aircraft.

A flight plan will also make things a bit more rigid in-game - you will have to wait for aircraft to show up on their specified turn instead of being in complete control all the time. Aircraft will also have to RTB once they're bingo fuel...

Missiles will also be incredibly fun to try to out turn and evade...

How many premade monsters or NPCs does your game include?

>>54027442
0. Everything from monsters to masterminds work with the same framework: they have one stat depending on their story relevance, and advantages and disadvantages depending on other things. It's to maximize the effectiveness of the GM and allow the GM to just make up stuff as needed without looking up anything.

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>>53981681

Dice pools or percentile system ? What's the easier roll mechanic to design around for a total newbie like me ?

My first RPG project would be a game that's very similar to Arcanum : Of Steamworks and Magicka Obscura

>>54030548
2D6 is pretty based for RPGs. 8 is a success, add bonuses like +1 through +4 for skill level or stat modifiers.

>>54030630

2D6 ? I've never heard of such system ? Can you tell some games that use this roll system ?

>>54030548
I'm probably starting to sound like a senile old elitist, but I gotta remind everyone aspiring to make a system that turning their thinking upside down is usually a better approach than starting the climb straight out.

Unless you've come up with a contemporary rolling system (like digital root of 3d10), you should never start thinking about the game with the fiddly bits, that meaning the dice and resolution system. And even with contemporary resolution systems, it's better to bend the resolution system than bend the rest of the game.

Think about everything around the resolution system first, and then ponder or ask what resolution system would work best.

Stuff like:

>Do you want to invoke something specific in the players and GM while they play?
>Are stats arbitrary (give modifiers) or direct (dictate TN or amount of dice)?
>How do skills work? Do you roll against them or do they give modifiers to stat rolls?
>Are rolls binary or complex (including "and"s and "but"s)?
>Do you roll against only one thing at a time or multiple simultaneously?
>How many rolls should be rolled before a single action is completed?
>Is combat made with opposing rolls or against TN?
>How are TN's defined?

After answering all those you should not only have a grasp of how you want to make the game, but also what kind of resolution system would work for it.

>>54030651
Traveller is the one I think of. 2D6 is nice because it has a bell curve. You know you'll mostly be rolling between 6 and 8, with 7 the most common result.

That way small modifiers like +1 or +2 can have a substantial effect on the result.

If an 8 is a success, with a -4 you're very unlikely to succeed although you could still get lucky, while with a +4 your more than likely to succeed, although you could still roll a double 1 and fail...

You can get the core rulebook here - its at the bottom of the list
https://mega.nz/#F!lM0SDILI!ji20XD0i5GTIUzke3iv07Q!hINylSwa

Based entirely on the actual action of rolling the dice, looking at the results, and calculating if you succeed or not, which RPG does it the best?

>>54032826
The question is too broad in my opinion. Doing something best as in most accurate, quickest, most clearly, or least confusingly? Overall best is a hard sell due to many different definitions of good. Instead, what you should be looking at is "How the dice answer the question the game asks" and define the question the game asks, and then we're talking.

Legends of the Wulin is a personal favorite, due to the flexibility of each roll, showing opportunities and possible failings in myriads in the same roll. But the actions you make are decided only after the roll is, making it invalid in the question you pose.

There are several extremely streamlined rolling systems like d% roll-under against a number, where the difficulty is counted beforehand. In pure dice-rolling action, Eclipse Phase has an elegant system in place. The higher you roll, the better, but going over the % is a failure. Crits, both positive and negative, happen with doubles. That's all there is to it. All the calculations are done beforehand, so the game can resolve solely on the dice.

I would like to say the same about my own game, Misfortune, although it misses some of the elegant marks due to a single roll needing to be compared to several numbers on the character sheet. The system itself is simply a roll-over system where every action you make becomes more difficult as some of the numbers rise during scenes. Easy way to keep this in check mentally is to just look at the largest one of them and aim to roll over it, only checking all that goes wrong when it goes under that. The thing in Misfortune, though, is that the numbers don't fluctuate within a single scene. They just go upwards. It's a different kind of elegance, I guess.

>>54033254
When I said "best," I meant it as an opinion, because I was actually thinking of the question as ignoring most of a game's mechanics.

Like, Legends of the Wulin's dice works great with its theme/system, but on its own, it's a bit of a hassle. Another example is Time Wizards, which uses a lot of d4s (and d4s are cancer)

I'm just asking this because I want to make a system, and I want to make sure that the actual act of rolling the dice is fun in the system. I can then make the math of the actual mechanics I've already thought about work with the dice system.

But yeah. What do you like? Are you a fan of big fistfulls of D6s, or do you like just 3d6, or a d20, or maybe something like Roll and Keep?

>>54034214
I like to keep things simple. Personal favorites in style are advantage-based systems (Best thing to happen to D&D in ages in my opinion) and direct comparison systems that are fast to resolve.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise when my own game is... Direct comparison advantage-using dice pooling, kind of, except not as complex as it sounds.

Basis is 2d6, and you add dice when it's more advantageous or disadvantageous. Unlike D&D 5e, the advantages stack, one disadvantage undermines all advantages and vice versa. So in a rare case you might have a double advantage or in a less rare case a double disadvantage, and you roll 4d6 and take the two lowest / highest. Pretty slick.

I also like step dice systems, particularly Ryuutama due to it's awesome simplicity. You just choose two stats that fit the task and roll their respective dice. Can't get easier than that. Shame that the rest of the game is a bit of a hassle. In pure dicetacular joy, I guess the step dice would actually be my personal favorite, and the less you need to work with static numbers (extra dice instead of +2s for example) the better. The best is none.

d%, as I said before is good in the way that it informs immediately whether a player has succeeded, and that's also one of the things I like. It keeps the dice roll exciting, and the focal point of the act of rolling dice. In modifier-heavy games like 3.PF, the better you become, the more arbitrary the dice become, and the excitement of the dice roll itself kind of disappears when you start counting all the modifiers for the roll.

So in short, I think the amount of dice varying from 2-5 is pretty much my game, keeping the granularity high enough for a game without it dice resolution becoming too slow. Having different kind of kinesthetic feeling in the hand (not always just plain d6s) is a bonus, albeit a minor one.

Immediate reaction is the best.

>>54034463
I like your system idea, and I might steal it. Do your dice explode, by any chance?

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>>54035244
They don't. Honestly though, my system is a pretty unconventional one, the basic resolution system is just a really small but influential part of how it works.

PDF related if you want to see the other factors that come into each roll.

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Thinking about making a homebrew based around standard rpg elements but with mechanics revolving around collecting and playing with cards.

My go to is yu-gi-oh for this since I have plenty of cards; the plan is to start everyone off with a standard-ish deck with their 'class' being an archetype, rush, toolbox etc. Through trading and battles they would slowly fine tune and improve their decks as opposed to gaining exp.

This way the GM gets to control what cards enter the game world to stop stuff from becoming just a boring reflection of the metagame + allows for possible introduction of egyptian gods or homebrew cards with special rules.

Currency probably wouldn't exist, instead players would just trade surplus cards for either new cards or whatever quest items they need.

Also not quite sure how to deal with losing a battle- I guess the player would just lose a card(s) since permanent life point damage would have major balance implications.

For setting, I'm thinking of deviating from the standard anime since that's more or less an advert with questionable worldbuilding. Not sure what to go for though, maybe a tournament arc sort of thing in a more western setting? Something like a western chess championship?

Also considering having the monsters that are summoned be actually physically manifested into the game world to make damage and attacking seem more dramatic.

Not really looking to fine tune the existing yu-gi-oh rules, as strange as they are, but rather build a game around them with a world that makes sense to the game.

Is this any good? I just came up with the whole thing not long ago so it's probably very rough around the edges. Criticism appreciated.

What games have interesting but simple inventory/equipment mechanics? I feel like this is the final piece of the puzzle for my game's base mechanics. I've been through so many iterations that never really feel satisfying.

It's a rules-medium, narrative-focus science fantasy system with little character advancement.

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Decided to make a little visual guide to roll results since it's kind of hard to explain with words.

>>54039308
I've seen a few games with Diablo-style grid-based inventories. Each item is a certain shape made of squares. Usually things are rectangles, but they could be tetrominoes or something even weirder. For degrees of encumbrance you could have sections of the grid that impose penalties if they're used.

>>54041358
For some reason, Children of Mana jumped into my head when you mentioned this. It used a grid-base inventory for ability gems, for instance a 1x2 gem that gave arrows a piercing property. It was an fun mechanic until late in the game when you acquire gems that essentially let you slot all abilities.

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(Copied from thread)
What does /gdg/ think of this rolling system?

d6 success system where every weapon has a Speed and Impact rating which negates Dodge and Armor.

Attacking is resolved like this:
Attack roll - [(enemy Dodge roll - Weapon Speed) + (enemy Armour - Pierce)]

You roll your attack, enemy rolls Dodge.
Your Speed negates enemy Dodge successes, your Impact negates enemy Armour (static number). Each success in Dodge and each Armour remaining now reduces your total damage.

It works in practice but is a bit clunky and slow, but is nearly impossible for me to streamline without sacrificing the weapon depth by removing either Speed or Impact.

>>54025482
What has plagued my development is trying to find the balance between drama, simulation, and fairness.

This has led to a good deal of hours spent on near future tech (for believable progress in an alt-history) and very importantly, the practicality of exo-skeletons and how to protect them.
I ask my more knowledgeable friends for shit like, "can a guy in a big metal frame get hit by a sabot round if he's wearing reactive armor".

>>54040656
I'm a little confused as to why you didn't have "yes and" and "no and" on opposite ends of the spectrum.

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>>54025482
I research for fluff as well as crunch.

Searched if you can make bronze arquebuses, how much blood you can lose before dying,
hardness of metals and alloys (still would like to know an alternative alloy to bronze that isn't just iron),
when the crossbow was invented,
and I'm in the process of working out orbital mechanics.

All for the same game. Doing space-fantasy-esque bronze age, no humans, high granularity.

Picture is relevant to valuing charisma scores.

>>54043145
Because the idea is that the closer you get to your rune rating, the better your result - even if you go over, it won't be as bad if you're within the margin.

Does anyone know of any games that are largely based on equipment progression rather than character progression?

I'm rewriting my game to involve more growth from the types of equipment you have, and I'm looking for some sources of inspiration.

>>54045516
shadowrun has a lot of augments/equipment types that you can buy and not much in the way of character progression

>>53988885

That's pretty tight.

>>54045516
>>54045908

Eclipse Phase is in that line as well.

Although abit of it is based in skill progression.

>>54046303
Eclipse Phase is very close to what I was looking for, but for other reasons. I haven't gotten to looking at gear quite yet, but it's looking like what I decided to remake my game into is a much lighter, (Renaissance?) fantasy, non-point buy, Eclipse Phase. My main, driving inspirations for game feel have been some mashup of Monster Hunter, Borderlands, and Breath of the Wild now too, with additional inspiration from Guild Wars and Chrono Trigger. Eclipse Phase is looking to become a great resource for gluing all this together.

>>54043264
>Picture is relevant to valuing charisma score

i.e. what you would expect from somebody of charisma 1? (or whatever the default chrism a score is)

God I'm so fucking close to getting a feature-complete playtest version of my game. There's so much left to do but the finish line is in sight lads.

The mechanics are just about there, just need to write examples and advice. Maybe some infographics. Do some editing and polishing.

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>>54045516
Traveller

>>54048964
It logically would be an indicator among others and conclusiveness sinks on the extreme ends of the scale.
In a way this table is to formal and close to game mechanics, as you wouldn't use the size of your tribe determined by CHA in game.
I use it as a measure to compare social stats across species, because the traditional orientation via roughly perceived "uglyness" isn't exactly fair.

Was going to make a new thread, but I'm guessing this is a better place to ask.

Anyone recommend a DM-newbie-friendly message/forum board to host a play-by-post game of D&D 5e?

I've always wanted to try my hand at DMing but with a distinct lack of interested friends in my town I was thinking of doing a play-by-post game with my friends abroad.

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>>53981681
So FFG just announced a generic version of their dice system, which means I might not have to use my redesign of the system. But that's only if (huge fuckin if) they allow third party publishing/supplements.

What are the pros and cons of using of using an OGL, specifically this one?

Pros
>game engine is made
>brand power
>smaller cheaper books to make

Cons
>jump through their hoops
>players need to buy someone else's book, which might go out of print
>same with the dice

It's really tantalising. What are people's thoughts? Part of me wants to stick with my own system (uses standard dice), but this is intriguing?

>>54051819
Well shit. Simultaneously I'm stoked because Genesys DOES look good, but it also strips me from the chance to do it myself.

Expecting that the FFG SW games have some deep influence in your game, do you think you do things differently enough to not be called out upon?
Is there no reason to buy your game instead of just playing Genesys?
Is the reason good enough to outweigh the weird dice, at least for people who DON'T want the weird dice?

We don't know much about Genesys yet, but how would you compare your own game to it (expecting a generic version of FFG SW)? Do you need to fundamentally change the game to escape from what that possible behemoth can reach? Would it be worth it?

Depending on your answers, try to find out, maybe even inquire about OGL before making a FFG Heartbreaker. Or just go with it. If the game is very close what you think Genesys is, you can either CAPITALIZE on it, making it a game close to Genesys without the weird dice (Everyone doesn't like buying new dice for a game), or try to avoid it, changing the game to not be like Genesys at all.

Bumping. Be merciless in design, don't blindly recreate the same drek everyone else is making.

I just can't stop fretting over what advice and philosophy to include. I feel like my GM philosophy, which has been influenced by tons of different games, has left a huge mark on my game - now I find it difficult to distill these ideas to something tolerable.

>>54056668
Then a good way is to present them as humble guidelines.

Really.

Just put them in there, in a coherent fashion, and remind the reader that Rule Zero of roleplaying games is that no rules are absolute. The charm of the genre is the malleability of game mechanics and settings.

That really brings me back to one of the biggest questions of anyone in here:
>Have you taken house rules into account in your game? How?

>>54050530
the DnD Beyond forums are probably your best starting point. They already have a section for pbp

How is this for equipment? To be used in conjunction with >>53988885

>Equipment
>Protagonists begin play with one weapon and one armor. By default, a protagonist's weapon inflicts a consequence with severity equal to their Rank, starting a second consequence at severity 0 when the protagonist's Rank surpasses 3. Each unit of armor donned can be sacrificed to prevent a consequence; the armor may be repaired later (fiction allowing), but carries the [broken] tag until then. Each unit of armor adds one unit of weight.
>Protagonists have a pool of [equipment points] equal to their Rank that can be invested to improve either weapons or armor. Each point invested in weapons increases the severity of the consequences a protagonist inflicts by one. Each point invested in armor decreases the total weight of a protagonist's armor by one.
>Players may describe their protagonist as wielding any sort of weapon or wearing any sort of armor appropriate for their character, but they must always follow the rules above. Any weapon a protagonist carries inflicts the same damage. Any armor a protagonist wears can only resist as many consequences as they carry in weight.

>>54049467
Have you tried running a non-controlled playtest without examples or advice? It makes it easier to write those because, if you have a good group, they point out exactly what needs them.

>>54058959
Unfortunately, I moved to a new city and haven't got a group or friends here. So, I feel I cannot just dump something small on strangers.

I drank after work, so I hope the above makes sense.

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Does anyone have any writing samples from modules they are developing? Bump.

>>54059045
I understand that pain.

>>54060481
What kind of samples are you looking for?

>>54060735
I am writing an adventure, and I'm having trouble framing the situations. I want the party to explore and find their best answer to a problem. But I don't want them feeling railroaded past decisions that would capsize the adventure for whatever reason.

I want to see how other anons have framed situations like this. For example, I have some NPCs that, if the party attacks them, I see no way to save the adventure. I have created a crisis situation to make everyone automatically friendly, but it might not be enough, and I wonder if there is another plausible way to do this.

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>>53981681

Here is a new first draft of my Pokemon: Hopefully Simpler Edition in progress. I had to come to terms that just giving Pokemon a Strength and Agility value was too difficult to balance out, so I had to give them the full Stats. I feel though that despite doing so, the system I'm constructing will still allow Battles to be quick and efficient by using Dice Battles, taking inspiration from FFG's Opposing rolls system. I still need to add quite a bit, like a full Pokedex, Pokemon Abilities, Move Descriptions, Check Difficulties and more, but I'm pleased with where I've gone so far. As for difficulties, they might not be like FFG's opposing difficulties and instead be more like a list of thresholds that Trainers need to roll higher than in order to pass. Examples are:

Effortless - 0 (Implied checks that take no effort to pass)
Easy - 5
Average - 10
Moderate - 15
Hard - 20
Grim - 30 (There will be a way to get an Attribute to 5, so these are more "endgame")

Also apologize for the rules currently being an unedited mess. When I get to revisions I'll try to add some more order to how they laid out.

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>>54062023

And here are some sample Pokedex entries to use as reference for some of the rules.

>>54061950
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

So for your example, you have some NPCs that are "essential". Just get rid of that. If the players attack those particular NPCs, they become enemies to that faction, and allies to another faction. Perhaps they end up running an evil campaign by "mistake", but they'll have a record of how their choices led them to their situation. Give players just enough rope to hang themselves and see if they do it.

>>54062471
For this game, my players would be upset if I let them make such a mistake. They are playing tier 1 superheroes, and they want boundaries so that they wind up looking super and not foolish. It is I who want those boundaries to not be trite. For the example I mentioned, the party would annihilate the army men, realistically causing a military reaction that would upend the whole adventure.

>>54062674
Then they probably wouldn't be attacking random army men in the first place. If they do happen to do so, they deserve what they get.

>>54062746
The situation is a case of mistaken identity. The superhero looks a little like the villain, so the army men are on alert. The superhero is supposed to need the help of the army men to get a vehicle fixed, because that is what would plausibly occur. I'm afraid I've described the situation shittily, confusing the players and making them think its best to attack. I wanted to see how other people describe these things in their games so that I don't ball up the adventure.

>>54063002
write two paths, one where they do attack and one where they don't. Activate whichever one you need, but have them dovetail back to progressing the story. Only the GM sees all the different ways the story could go. The players experience just one.

>>54026344
Pretty different from the direction I'm going, which is good. It looks like it's going to have a pretty interesting flow, like American football where you draw up a play and then execute. I haven't seen many games do that.

I'm trying to get some solid dogfighting feel from a war room pov. Dogfighting obviously because that's what it's about, but war room pov because it's hard to get a cockpit pov in tabletop. The war room also allows for a grid map which plays into my current mechanics. I'm interested in your missile dodging comment as that'll be a core part of my own game's feel. I'm also in the middle of rewriting my combat rules because I realized how much better a tick initiative system was compared to the previous phases system I had. Dogfighting doesn't really work in phases.

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>>54064979
>I'm interested in your missile dodging comment as that'll be a core part of my own game's feel
In our air combat games each aircraft must move directly forward at the start of each turn. This "mandatory move" is usually 2 X the aircraft's speed indicator in inches. We track speed on a D6, so this means an aircraft will be moving anywhere from 2" to 12" directly forward.
After mandatory moves, aircraft can do their maneuvers, starting with the highest quality pilot and working down the pilot ratings. If both sides have equal pilots at any stage, they roll off each turn to see who goes first for that stage.

Missiles have a 12" move during the mandatory move phase, and can correct their course up to 45 degrees to track a target. They then move again after all aircraft have maneuvered, moving another 12" and correcting again. If the target is outside the 45 degrees that the missile can track, it loses it's target and is removed. Aircraft can also go "evasive" if about to get hit by a missile - which sacrifices an action from next turn but allows them a pilot check (based on their quality). If succeeded they avoid the missile and it is removed.

At least this is the basic ideas I have, I've playtested it and it seems to be a lot of fun. Breaking left or right to avoid missiles and having them track you is what modern air combat is all about imo. Only problem comes when you're low on E and you can't break, or you fail your pilot checks or have already evaded too much - then you're in trouble and will probably be shot down.

Pic is from one of our WW2 games (Lacquered Coffins). Speed and altitude are tracked on dice on the aircraft's base - white is altitude, green is speed. You can see the spitfire turning around the radius of a protractor, which is another integral part of our air combat games, and will allow you to get some displacement against missiles instead of turning on the spot.

>>54056820
Thanks! I'll dive deeper into Dnd Beyond. I played a Deathwatch game once on Mythweavers and it was pretty rough. Beyond looks like it has better support for DnD specifically, which is good.

>>53981681
Hello Op and everyone on this thread, I am just beginning my long quest to create my first RPG. Now that I am out of my track A summer class I got about 6 weeks to create a basic playtest for the rules.

Now here's the pitch, a Lovecraft Adventuring game that uses a deck of cards instead of Dice.

Can anyone help me though with a game Idea I've been struggling to get hard rules for? Obviously if this is to be a Lovecraft game we need a sanity system of some description, which I am drawing a solid blank.

If anyone has any Ideas/relevent examples I would grateful.

>>54067811
Drawing cards are a great way to do randomization, so its a cool idea, especially for something with your theme.

You could use a variety of dynamics with a single pack of cards. One might be "Draw a card - if its a face card you succeed" This would have a lower chance of succeeding
Needing a non-face card would have a higher chance of success.

Then you could have randomizers that give 14 results (13 without the joker), which you just need to write up a table to represent. Like this:

Random enemy table
2 Giant Insect
3 Gangster
4 Mutant
5 Wild animal
6 Law Enforcement
7 Vigilante
8 Military Squad
9 Bounty Hunter
10 Possessed one
J Half-Breed Abomination
K Lesser Abomination
Q Small Abomination
A Large Abomination
Joker Colossal Abomination

You could write up a bunch of tables depending on what you want to randomize. You could even randomize a second time, like have a loot table, and if you get the "weapon" result, you draw another card and check the "weapon" table.

You could also use the suits to randomize things.

So a PC has a sanity event (something crazy happens - their sanity is in question), They draw a card:
Hearts - They are fine
Diamonds - They become colder, more disconnected
Spades - They develop a morbid sense of death and degativity
Clubs - They become more violent and unhinged

Something like that. Good luck man. I suggest starting small and writing up something simple to do the things you want, then expanding on it once the basics seem to work ok.

>>54067209
Okay, so pretty similar to what I have. I use a grid like I mentioned, and I've converted each square (or inches in gridless) into about 1/2 mile areas. Your speed roughly translates to 300-350mph chunks. Speed and movement are based on the momentum from previous actions, similar to your forced movement. There's also a, maybe poorly explained, calculation that determines your turning arc. Max speed is 9 for planes. At speed 1-4 you can turn a number of squares equal to your speed, but at 5-9 it's the inverse of 1-4, so it creates a diamond shape of possible movement options. Missiles follow the same movement rules as planes, so you'll be out turning and jinking as you'd expect.

I think I just need to finish the turn structure rewrite and clean up some other sections to make it more presentable. A lot is still in conceptual development and I'm not able to work on it too often.

>>54067966
Thanks! I'm working from a perspective of minialism till I must add something otherwise the system would bloat quickly, I copied your post, and I plan on ripping several ideas.

I am getting down some rules today, thanks for the kind words.

>>54068246
Hey! just saw your post, consider checking out battle tech Aerospace rules, it sounds similar to your rules and you might find some ideas to rip, also if you are doing grids consider hexagon instead, makes gradual turning more realistic, best of luck!

>>54068309
I'll check that out. Thanks!

As I was thinking it over, I realized they my turning assumptions didn't make sense. I'll have to rework those I'm pretty sure. I've got a thought in mind, but after not seeing my mechanics for awhile, I have to figure out why I chose the originals in the first place before I change or add more.

Any systems that have a nice process for designing a setting? How much background of the general tone/theme do you think is required for groups to get into the groove of making something?