File: Comparative_Probabilities.jpg (200KB, 1876x1262px) Image search:
[Google]
200KB, 1876x1262px
As a run-of-the-mill /tg/ autist I've been looking at the homebrew system threads and thinking about existing systems...What purpose do attributes serve in a game design sense?
Context: D&D has Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha; Exalted has Str/Dex/Sta Cha/Man/App Per/Int/Wit; Numenera has Str/Spd/Int; etc
In all systems having only one stat gate your ability to hit or not makes it automatically next to (if not actually) the most valuable stat. Even saying you make it more fairly distributed (say Str gates melee accuracy and Dex ranged, for instance) Attributes are almost never such that they can be part of someone's "build," you don't get to have fun with your attribute allocation usually, it seems, because your class demands specific priorities.
There are some off-class tropes that pop up now and again (high-Int fighter being the most famous) but the attitude of "this is what you have and you have to deal with it" seems like a sub-optimal way to design a system.
Numenera each class has a basic spread of stats with additional points to allocate on top of that, which I think redeems attributes a bit - your warrior will always have pretty good physical stats, it's up to you if you go hard on that or bring up Int to be the highest. Numenera's attribute system in general though is significantly different so it's hard to draw other comparisons.
tl;dr What's the purpose of attributes in TTRPGs, can we do without them via some other system (class-determined attributes?), is there a way to make them more fun and give people a chance to actually create their own "builds" etc?
39 Posts / 3 Images
View this topic
>>
>>47337351
Attributes are the qualities of a character that are present at birth and through all stages of life, and cannot be taken away except through permanent death/disability. Contrawise, they are never learned abilities.
>>
>>47337351
Wait, do you mean you're better in a job when you have natural qualities for it? Who would have guessed!
If you don't like that kind of attributes allocation, consider playing a game without classes or something better, a system where characters must act as normal human beings as well.
>>
>>47337390
That's more of a "what" rather than a "why," even if it is pretty accurate. There's plenty of "unlearned" traits on a character though, other than just their ability scores. Sorcerers and their magic is the most obvious example.
>>47337445
What I'm saying is that in the current setup in, say, D&D, if you want to play a Wizard, you MUST allocate your abilities in a particular way (typically Int, Dex, Wis in that order), or you will literally take penalties to your ability to do the thing that you are. (Grammar intentional.)
If you look at something like League of Legends, Ability Power, Attack Damage, Armor, Magic Resist, Attack Speed, etc, there's a pretty wide range of stats, and given characters have particular stats which are BETTER for them, but off-builds are pretty plausible. For instance, on Aatrox, you're not likely to build AP because he's a melee duelist, his focuses are on lifesteal, damage, and health.
He has two abilities that scale on AP, though, so it's plenty possible to build AP on him, even if that'd be absurd at a tournament level.
The point is that Attributes are not currently set up to be fun. It's already a fantasy escapism game, if you're saying that each class MUST HAVE certain ratings in each score, make that part of the class so you select Barbarian and have 14 Str 10 Dex 16 Con before having to random-gen or point allocate or anything else. It's a non-interactive and unfun part of the system, and THAT is the point of the thread.
ADnD, I've played, and I've seen how it was intended that you would roll your stats and then see what classes you qualify for based on those.
Those days are behind us, though. People choose the class they want to play first, and rolling attributes just seems to be a chance to have less fun because you got unlucky, more than anything else. Hence the many different rolling methods in the image up top.
File: 1452261865093.png (187KB, 500x375px) Image search:
[Google]
187KB, 500x375px
>It's a Red dragon encounter
>he spits fire
>it's lyrical fire
>Player: ''I perceive the dragon''
>DM:''You notice he is about to drop the most lit rhymes of 1491 DR''
42 Posts / 11 Images
View this topic
>>
>you have to survive the dragon's shitty mixtape
I bet he only speaks in ebonics too.
>>
File: 1397101923979.jpg (213KB, 827x1169px) Image search:
[Google]
213KB, 827x1169px
>>47337267
I could see this working in a viking setting, with flyting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyting
>>
>>47337280
>YEAR THIS ONE
>not being fluent in AAVE
Fo' realz?
File: 436333.jpg (68KB, 736x588px) Image search:
[Google]
68KB, 736x588px
Are Skaven real?
21 Posts / 4 Images
View this topic
>>
Don't know. Did they made it into AoS?
>>
>>47337248
Absolutely absolutely not, man-thing. We're all pink hairless man-things around here here.
>>
>>47337248
I'm planning on having a Skaven Invasion from underground the theme of my next End of the World RPG.
It'll be awesome.
File: f81fd8a53731a8a69ed58a398a1343c7.jpg (22KB, 236x313px) Image search:
[Google]
22KB, 236x313px
What's your favorite RPG company?
40 Posts / 11 Images
View this topic
>>
File: 1457701071680.png (14KB, 143x286px) Image search:
[Google]
14KB, 143x286px
>>47337066
Pro tip: Don't say Games Workshop.
>>
>>47337218
Games Workshop doesn't make RPG's. FFG makes the 40K/Warhammer RPG's.
File: Jew Hamster.jpg (19KB, 480x480px) Image search:
[Google]
19KB, 480x480px
>Rodents have gain genius level intelligence
How does this affect your setting?
44 Posts / 8 Images
View this topic
>>
Everyone wants to kill them more
>>
>>47336952
They go on to form a country called Isreal.
>>
>>47336952
Are they all Jewish?
If so, gas them.
File: nivvy-bye.jpg (46KB, 421x484px) Image search:
[Google]
46KB, 421x484px
I used to play MTG back in college and I always enjoyed it. For the last few weeks I've been thinking if I should return to it. The thing is I don't intend to play at shops. Just want to play kitchen table / casual magic with my lil' bro. He is vehemently against it because he remembers how much of an addiction TCGS where for us both (and my rational brain agrees with him if I'm honest).
Should I get back? One idea I had was getting into Commander and have us each start with a precon deck or two each and just upgrade. Commander has another benefit, single cards cuts cost of buying singles. Not interested in Pauper magic with while cheap.
31 Posts / 3 Images
View this topic
>>
You shouldn't get into Magic at all. It is a waste of money where you pay 20 bucks for a bunch of cards with shitty 3D art that you can't even see cause the cards are so damn small.
The game has little tactical depth, likes to create mechanics that require you to remember eight different status effects, and in general is full of autism. The game is basically "attack with creatures when you have the advantage unless you think your opponent's going to get some shit out onto the field with haste" and generally just counterspell guessing and bluffing instants. The rest of the game is just deckbuilding, which consists of going onto tappedout and searching for good deck builds that will set you back 500 bucks.
MTG is not a good game, and it hasn't been since probably the Kamigawa block.
>>
>>47336379
Kamigawa was my favorite because of theme
>>
>>47336334
Get into an LCG like Netrunner or Deadlands Reloaded.
Anonymous
"Rate-My-Plot" Thread 2016-05-19 17:32:29 Post No.47336120
[Report] Image search: [Google]
"Rate-My-Plot" Thread 2016-05-19 17:32:29 Post No.47336120
[Report] Image search: [Google]
The princess has been kidnapped! are you a bad enough dude to find her and bring her back?
However, unbeknownst to the public (and of course, the players), she's cursed with fire powers (due to her father being cursed by the witch-king, the last ruler of the land, when he slew him in his rebellion) with which she accidentally killed her sister and mother when she was just a little girl
She was then brought to a distant tower and guarded day and night, for her "protection" (more like the king couldn't bring himself to kill her, but hated her guts for killing the rest of the family).
She was freed from her prison many years later by a wandering wizard apprentice, and now together they will try to raise support from the witch tribes which aren't too happy about the current monarch and take the crown.
Will the PCs find out the truth? Who will they side with?
39 Posts / 6 Images
View this topic
>>
>witch tribes which aren't too happy about the current monarch
What are their grievances? Do they have foreign support?
>>
Sounds like frozen with fire.
I know it's actually pretty different, but thats what stands out.
>>
>>47336120
Literally a mix of Frozen and Tangled.
File: gondola_worldviews.jpg (487KB, 940x2296px) Image search:
[Google]
487KB, 940x2296px
How do we fix turn based tabletop combat?
32 Posts / 5 Images
View this topic
>>
>>47334475
Dynamic initiative like Traveller does
you can make reactions like dodging attacks, diving for cover, or parrying but you lose 2 initiative next round only and become -1 to everything you do for each reaction.
You can also boost initiative next turn by using leadership skills, or boost the whole parties initiative at the start of a combat using the Tactics skill.
>>
>>47334740
Yeah, I've been thinking something like that too. But there should be a software that would keep track of who's turn is it, since the math can get bit too complicated for GM to handle.
>>
>>47335190
>needs soft to think for him when tokens work just fine
File: 1265836010841.jpg (10KB, 250x285px) Image search:
[Google]
10KB, 250x285px
Am I the only person that can't find any sane, rational people to play RPGs with? Be it IRL or online, I can't seem to find a party with even one rational, level headed, sociable person to game with.
Wargames and card games are a little better, if only because they happen at stores and conventions, so you can walk around and pick out the handful of okay people swimming with you in that figurative shark tank. Even if you end up not playing you never have to waste time testing to see if the people are worth playing with, you can just speak to them fore-hand, or stand around and listen to them talk.
With RPGs though you've basically got to reserve an entire afternoon to playing with a bunch of people who you may have, best case scenario, met one of already. Which, in my experience, the rest of them are "okay," at best, and one hundred percent anti-social sperglords at worst. So often even that one guy you've already met turns out to be a completely different person at home/at the table/in-game (if online).
Then you've either got to give them the benefit of the doubt and sit through another game or two, which they're going to expect of you (and I perosnally feel obligated to do if they were mid-campaign since the GM was nice enough to write me in), but you inevitably have to make that super-awkward call of excuses or flat out lies and then you think to yourself, "I'm never going to do that again; I'll just wait until it's a party of people I know."
And then weeks go by, then months, maybe even a few years. You get desperate, you've got that itch that needs to be scratched. You want to make a backstory, you want to roll some dice, you want to have those cheers and jeers of an adventure.
...so you call that one guy that said he needed a new player, and the cycle begins again.
Why is it so hard to just find normal funking people with my hobbies?
> inb4 they're not normal hobbies
> inb4 gtfo normal fag
12 Posts / 2 Images
View this topic
>>
Chances are you're the problem and you refuse to acknowledge it.
>>
>>47334126
Jesus mate, I feel sorry for you. Of the 5 groups I've played in for more than 1 session, 4 have been good to great. They might have had the odd player or 2 that were a bit spergy but never so much as to make our gaming nights unenjoyable.
>>
File: 1462371974516.png (330KB, 600x800px) Image search:
[Google]
330KB, 600x800px
>>47334126
You're talking about a hobby that requires very little effort:
>sit a comp desk
>download skype or similar "social" program
>download pdf of game system
>pretend to be mighty hero
>roll to sex
Of course ttrpgs are going to appeal to the less social among us. If rpg nerds could make real friends they wouldn't be rpg nerds.
File: doomII.jpg (1MB, 2000x2325px) Image search:
[Google]
1MB, 2000x2325px
Background
> Senior in Computer Science
> Live and breath code
> Truly realize game rules are just programs
> Obsess with this realization
> Attempt to write new rules for games in code.
> Attempt to translate board games into code, such as Space Hulk
Then it hit me.
I'm not a gamer.
I love everything else. Theorizing, list building, deck building, rules tweaking, dice roll statistics, you name it; but I hate actually playing the game.
I think I do this because, in the end, I know my opponent just wants to have a good time, but I secretly want to sperg out and execute things as flawlessly as a processor.
Is anyone else this irreparably autistic?
Oh, and post your confessions. Bumping with non-screenshot Doom to keep it closer to /tg/
12 Posts / 9 Images
View this topic
>>
File: icon_diorama.jpg (858KB, 960x792px) Image search:
[Google]
858KB, 960x792px
>>47334029
>>
File: iconofsin.jpg (294KB, 2048x1119px) Image search:
[Google]
294KB, 2048x1119px
File: New Space Marine kawaii.png (50KB, 169x343px) Image search:
[Google]
50KB, 169x343px
What does /tg/ think of the new space marine design?
22 Posts / 6 Images
View this topic
>>
File: Space Marine Desu.png (68KB, 211x382px) Image search:
[Google]
68KB, 211x382px
>>
File: Space Marine.png (82KB, 275x456px) Image search:
[Google]
82KB, 275x456px
>>
Looks like the Orks stole all the red paint.
File: Canadaraidsm.png (58KB, 260x262px) Image search:
[Google]
58KB, 260x262px
>Player: "I want to do X so Y happens!"
>DM: "Roll Wits/Wisdom/whatever."
>player fails the roll
>DM: "You proceed to do X, but you fail to notice a flaw in your plan that I've already noticed before I made you roll, so Y doesn't happen."
>player succeeds the roll
>DM: "You suddenly realize that even if you do X, Y won't happen unless you also do Z. Do you still want to proceed with X?"
Is this acceptable?
25 Posts / 3 Images
View this topic
>>
>>47332657
So uuuh. So what about that?
>>
It's a good method to help players play characters that are smarter than they are.
>>
>>47332657
Sure, may be warn them ahead of time saying 'this is going to be complicated though, but roll away'.
File: steamflogger_boss[1].jpg (30KB, 210x300px) Image search:
[Google]
![steamflogger_boss[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/AWpYPxr.jpg "steamflogger boss[1]")
30KB, 210x300px
Why is this the top selling card of the week? Why is it going up in price for no reason? It's still useless.
32 Posts / 6 Images
View this topic
>>
Maybe the hype for Kaladesh made people believe Contraption since its now an Artifact subtype or stores got some info leaked.
Remember people thought the same for Big Game Hunter and it never appeared in SoI despite having the Madness mechanic.
>>
>>47332582
Is this going to be the new Mirrodin?
>>
Pretty sure this happens anytime an obviously artifacts matter set gets announced. I'm willing to bet the same thing happened around Scars of Mirrodin as well.
File: com__prinny77_7_by_bobstickles-d5rt12s.jpg (119KB, 1024x1024px) Image search:
[Google]
119KB, 1024x1024px
Have you ever used a Guise of the Thespian in your games, either as GM or player?
If so, how did it go?
43 Posts / 2 Images
View this topic
>>
>>47332263
Nah.
It's a dumb item.
>>
>>47332281
Sure.
>>
No but as a kobold I got into some pretty wacky antics with the bard.
File: trazyn.jpg (57KB, 736x1104px) Image search:
[Google]
57KB, 736x1104px
Come up with a plan how Trazan can steal a string of the Emperor's hair in golden throne.
11 Posts / 1 Images
View this topic
>>
>>47331548
First we assemble a top-notch team of individuals from across the galaxy.
Say, Trazan and 10 others with skills that complement Trazan's plan.
>>
Raid the Blood Ravens. They will have a spare lock
>>
>>47331548
I misread that as Tarzan.
I think I should go to bed.