/gdg/ Late Night edition - game design general

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>>49054380
Tsk tsk, no links. very lazy.

Useful Links:
>/tg/ and /gdg/ specific
http://1d4chan.org/
https://imgur.com/a/7D6TT
>/gdg/ on Discord
Channel: #dev
https://discord.gg/WmbThSh
>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

I'm working on an E6 D20 Modern STALKER
. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VbZBkOL9qJQyKNFhAyFG4_g9eiT5lYd1_hw7AprBo4U/edit?usp=sharing
I'm currently working on repairing of armor and weapons. I'm trying to ape d20 Apocalypse's parts system(everything you make uses just "parts"), but since the repair cost should be tied to the real cost of the weapon i'm not sure how much should a part cost. Should there be different tiers of parts? If there's less damage than a part is worth should a bit of it remain or all should be spent? what do you think.

Just reading that one urban fantasy noir homebrew thread and all that scathing advice actually really helped me out on my own system. Probably stripping an armor system out completely.

>>49054380
>tell us about your game design

Getting back to working on a homebrew that's sort of a mashup of 4e's formatting, RQ/WFRP's faster combat and persistent wounds, and the OSR's focus on adventures over encounters. Setting is generic fantasy with tweaks from the D&D formula (for example gods are more like you'd find in Hellboy or Princess Mononoke).

Almost anything you roll is going to be your ability score (0-5) plus a bonus for training (+5 if trained) plus your level, on a d20.
Class and race give you free 5s on a different ability score (you get to pick a second one if they overlap) but the rest are rolled. Skills can use different scores depending on circumstances and the character sheet is formatted to make that easier.

Combat is mostly standard D20 fare, but with active defense (there's a reaction action used for defending or AoOs), wounds (triggered by a single hit dealing high damage, randomly rolled), and armor as DR (it mitigates hp loss but more importantly reduces the odds of wounding). Also numbers are calibrated so that combat hopefully doesn't last more than 1 to 3 rounds. Partly because I want surprise rounds to be a big goddamn deal.

Instead of AEDU the power format is based on stances, at will stuff, and sometimes long "casting" times. Stance limits eliminate the need for duration tracking. Magic stances have kind of a different feel because they take a while to cast and can be interrupted if the caster takes damage. Gives them that "spell prep" vibe without as much tracking or brokenness.

Probably going to call it "A Fool's Errand" or something like that. Would probably pitch differently to a novice player or the general public, honestly. Otherwise, how does it sound?

>>49054380
I'd say when it becomes necessary for a playstyle. For example, I have a simple crafting system in my game. A craft focused player though wanted to make crazy custom items. So it may be bloat but it's necessary to really support a crafting player. The key is to get these component parts to not be super complex. Figure out what you're trying to do and figure out the most elegant way of doing it. Being like "Well you'e just not going to have rules support for a part of your character because I want it to be rules light." is how you end up with a lightweight game that only has a very narrow range of useful characters or gameplay.

On the other end of the coin, I have some parts of the rules that none of the players are using or we're forgetting about. That all might be bloat.

I had a sort of vanilla nar subsystem I had that could be easily ported to different game. After some playtesting, I decided to alter it a bit. The main difference is that it's less focused on pre-game discussion and is more amenable to "discovering your character through play" so that it'll be a bit easier to handle for casual players.

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>>49057241
Shit, forgot the pdf.

>>49057168
Are you thinking of having some resource tracking type gameplay? One thing in a lot of OSR games, especially basic, is a focus on tracking out of combat time. So things like torches are put into the out of combat strategy level of managing time, risk and resources.

I've always thought that comboing a 4e thing with basic style out of combat would make for an excellent dungeon crawler.

>>49057283
Mostly I'm reducing the focus on mechanical attrition and emphasizing play that's a little closer to action economy limits. To the extent that it applies in the dungeon as well. For example healing isn't coming from a limited pool so much as it just takes a while and pushes you closer to the next random encounter. If your party is all on their last legs it might be better to get the hell out of the dungeon rather than spend several hours healing them all. Just as an example.

There'll be attrition where it diagetically makes sense though. Torches being a pretty good example.

>>49057252
>>49057241
Out of curiosity have you taken a look at Pendragon at all?

>>49057705
Actually, yeah. It's given me some ideas for how to handle things like children and whatnot. I like the personality mechanics in pendragon though the game is trying to do something a little different. Maybe get a sort of "meta" version of what pendragon is doing? It's wedded to its setting which isn't a knock against pendragon since it does the setting beautifully but it makes it hard to adapt into other themes.

With my idea with the motive dice, the assumption is that the GM is running a sandbox type game with the players largely directing their own goals. One issue I've ran into is players being reactive rather than proactive as well as them splitting off in 9 directions if they do start being proactive. So I'm wanting to have a system that rewards a cohesive party that creates and follows its own goals if that make sense.
>>49057437
Ah, I feel yeah. So I take it that time is "base resource" being managed then? How would your game manage say 5 minute workdays or power levels becoming unbalanced with how much time the players have to work with? Those both being issues that crop up when time is a resource.

>>49057845
>Ah, I feel yeah. So I take it that time is "base resource" being managed then? How would your game manage say 5 minute workdays or power levels becoming unbalanced with how much time the players have to work with? Those both being issues that crop up when time is a resource.

Limited stances, mostly. The option to "nova" straight out doesn't exist. Long casting times and easy interruption also fuck with casters in particular. There aren't any SOD spells, and save-or-suck has a simple solution: punch the caster in the face, and threaten him with an AoO to prevent further casting.

Beyond that, combat isn't really balanced around the assumption that you can run around at half hp and win anyway. Rather than full hp meaning an easy win, low hp means you run and never fucking stop. High levels shift this differently in my game than they would in standard D&D. To start with, you don't double hp in the transition between first and second level. Beyond that, your odds of being wounded shift more slowly than your hp total does and you don't get more reactions by leveling up.

>>49054380
Bloat is where you have content which does not contribute in any meaningful way to any of the main goals of your game, IMO.

For example, if you have detailed rules for gambling, but the game isn't about gambling in any way and isn't made an important part of the game world, why have rules for it? While "let the GM handle the gaps" isn't a good mentality to default to, it is useful to keep in mind when it is a simple solution to an unimportant issue.

I can't stress enough how important it is to establish clear goals during development and to base all your work around one or more of those goals. Better universal/kitchen sink systems than you can make are already commercially available. Specialize, and do something special that other games can't.

>your game will never match the crunchiness of Song of Swords
Suffering. I wish I could rip the arms and armour wholesale for my game but I don't want to just make SoS homebrew.

>>49063486
>but I don't want to just make SoS homebrew
Why not start there and tweak later though, if you like what you see?