/gdg/ - Game Design General: I'm Back Again Edition Use

File: Realms of Triumph PRODUCTION VERSION.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

This is the current version of the game. It's basically complete, but I'd just like some opinions.

>>49711829
nm;dr (no memes; didn't read)

Working on a game that plays as follows:
each player chooses 1 'Hero' and builds a deck of 30 cards, each card representing either a unit, a weapon, or some sort of spell.
On turn one players draw a hand of 5 cards. (Heroes start on the table)
Each turn, players can play cards to either summon new units or cast spells.
Game ends when one of the Heroes dies.

Plays like M:TG meets 40k Killteam

What does /tg/ think?

File: 24 hour rpg.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>49711740
>no thread logo
one job, OP

Rolled 42, 494, 476 = 1012 (3d500)

>>49713016
whoops, forgot my roll

My current hangup for my card game is what values should have an special space reserved for them on the card template and which should just be written into the rules text.

The objective of the game is the defeat the enemy Avatar. The basic Avatar has 5 strength and starts with 5 basic crowns in play, each of which has 1 strength and grants an additional 1 strength to their controller's Avatar. Combat is "higher strength wins, tied strengths mutually destroy". Crowns are the de facto noncreature permanent, but some crowns are also creatures. All crowns and only crown provide bonuses to the Avatar. If the Avatar attacks, blocks, or dodges(tap to avoid incoming attack), its controller sacrifices all of their crowns. Some permanents provide anchors; each anchor lets you retain one crown when your Avatar takes a combat action. Another element of combat is speed. Each point of speed allows an additional combat action to be taken by a creature throughout a turn cycle.

So we have a few things here:
-Strength granted by crowns to the Avatar.
-Anchors
-Speed
-Speed granted by crowns to the Avatar.
Which ones should be part of rules text, and which ones need to be easily glanceable by standing out in special spaces on the card template?

>>49712828
Not /tg/ but I'd look at Duelyst. Its a video game with a very similar premise. You play on a grid with a lord for each player and you summon things onto the board, and they act like a standard tactics game on the field.

>>49713016
I stopped coming to these threads around the same time we started using thread logos.

>>49711829
Thought you were on the commercial marketing stage for this?

>>49714138
Didn't get anywhere with that. I've decided that if I do any kind of advertising, I'll just buy an ad here.

Question for the thread:

How did y'all decide on your resolution mechanic? Was it shamelessly ripped from another source because it was already pretty good? Did you have to create something you had never seen before? Was it just the best you could come up with at the moment?

Working on ideas for how neutral models would work in a game. The idea is dangers on the battlefield, creatures that wander in and such.

Core idea is that each creature's profile would have a behavior on it. When there's no non-neutral models in line of sight, the neutral models move in a random direction. The behaviors come into play when they see a non-neutral model. I have Aggressive[Ranged], Aggressive[Melee], Cautious, and Cowardly.

>Aggressive[Ranged] - When this model has Line of Sight to one or more non-neutral model, it must spend all its AP to attack the closest model. If the target is far enough away that this model suffers more than -2 to its Attack Hit roll due to range, it will instead spend as many AP to make Move actions as it can to move closer to the target, until it is only suffering a -2 for range.
>Aggressive[Melee] - When this model has Line of Sight to one or more non-neutral model, it must make a Charge action targeting the closest model if able. If it is not able to Charge the target, it must spend as many AP as to make Move actions towards the closest model until it can make a Charge action or is Engaged with it. If this model is Engaged with a non-neutral model, it must spend all its AP to make Melee Attack actions against the model it is Engaged with.
>Cautious - When this model has one or more non-neutral models in its Line of Sight, It continues to make random movement. However, it must re-roll the scatter roll if it would bring this model closer to a non-neutral model it has Line of Sight to. If this model is every attacked, its behavior switches Agressive[X].
>Cowardly - If this model has Line of Sight to one or more non-neutral models, it must spend all its AP moving directly away from the closest non-neutral model. These Move actions may not bring it to Engage a non-neutral model, and this model will stop before Engaging. If this model is Engaged with a non-neutral model, it will always attempt to move away from it.

>>49715998
my philosophy is that resolution mechanics should be as simple as possible to achieve the desired result.
If you can do it in a single dice roll, awesome. Keeps the game moving

>>49715998
Little of column A, little of column B. Looked at things I liked, things I didn't like, from various systems, and kinda went from there.

>>49716170
Look into how Warhammer 40k does Instinctive Behaviors for Tyranids.
It's similar to your system, but with more variation.

r8 my hard scifi Fate-based homebrew.

Been running a game in it and it's been a blast. We've used all the rules, though there's only been one or two instances of Gear. I'm really happy with how Space Combat and Wealth works, though that's mostly just tweaked and updated from Diaspora.

I'm considering adding something like Old School Hack's Awesome Points in as a form of Fate Point as I love how it basically encourages players to grandstand for each other, but I'm wary of upsetting the Fate Point Economy (as I love how tight it feels at the moment).

>>49712828
>builds a deck
As in you make the deck before you start playing or during play a la deckbuilders like Dominion or the *Realms games? I'd be interested in the latter, as the former is less fun as a game and meant to support a CCG business model.

>>49713036
>what values should have an special space reserved for them on the card template and which should just be written into the rules text
>Which ones should be part of rules text, and which ones need to be easily glanceable by standing out in special spaces on the card template?
Cards should have exceptions to the usual rules on them and nothing more. Use symbols in lieu of text whenever possible on the cards.

>>49716170
Looks good, nice and simple, keep it that way. Depending on how much else in going on in-game it could be simpler even. Tabletop games AI is always going to be dumb, don't try to make up for it by being convoluted.

On the other hand you could make some little AI decks a la Kingdom Death, they're a pretty popular game mechanic atm.

File: DecodeDiaspora.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>49717260
Forgot the pdf.

If you don't care about the genre or mechanics, r8 my formatting. I tried pretty hard to make sure it wasn't a wall of text like a lot of homebrews tend to be.

File: Warfare Test.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

How does this look? Every character will pick two of these sheets (after a fashion), and these are the moves their class grants them.

The number on the left is what level you unlock the move at. The "FGPL" is what stat you roll to use it (the one in red is the only usable stat). The blue diamond is the "When you..." symbol, green is if you pass your roll and red is if you fail.

Never mind the actual text, this is just crap I threw in there.

>>49718249
Looks good but wouldnt it be better to just write the used stat instead of all four and mark the used one out?

>>49718342
I tried that too, but it takes up a lot of space. More importantly, because some moves can be used with multiple stats it's important to point out both those it CAN be used with and those it CAN'T be used with.

>>49718249
Is it meant to be A4? If so it's a bit big. Would work well as a A6 card though.

I'd replace the blue diamond with the actual text "When you" and intent the green and red ones.

Graphic Design is joocy. What font?

>>49718432
>it takes up a lot of space
How? You're putting less stuff on there. Print ONLY the stats that can be used

>>49715998
Decided what probability curves I wanted, decided I wanted D6 only, and stared at anydice until I found something simple that had those properties. It was Xd6, keep highest 3, vs target number. It's nice for 3 ≤ X ≤ 8, but would fall apart if you wanted a wider range of skill than that.

I also found a simple way to make correlated dice rolls during that process. I've never found a reason you'd actually want correlated dice rolls.

>>49718445
It's 6" x 9", going to be printed paperback. I plan to 8.5" x 11" versions for home printing when I do the character sheet.

I'll have a primer at the start of the chapter explaining each symbol - I used diamonds to save space, again.

It's Source Sans Pro.

Again, I want to print the stats that aren't used too, making it more explicit. I also feel that leaving only the usable letters would be a little more confusing, while writing the words would take more space. I'll probably do a test run tomorrow regardless.

I need some opinions on how clear these two wordings are. They're functionally identical, just different ways to express things. The sort of effect described will be very common.

---

Polymorph - Do 3d6 damage. If this or an additional 2d6 damage would kill the target, instead turn them into a small, harmless animal.

-or-

Game-wide rule: phantom damage goes away after every attack, but if it kills you you're still dead.

Polymorph - Do 3d6 damage and 2d6 phantom damage. If this would kill the target, instead turn them into a small, harmless animal.

Rolled 376, 449, 301 = 1126 (3d500)

>>49713016

>>49718482
Oh, and by the "probability curve I wanted," I mean that I wanted people to be able to stack modifiers, but I wanted diminishing returns so that optimized character builds behaved reasonably alongside other stuff.

5d6k3 is better than 4d6k3, but by as much as 4d6k3 is better than 3d6.

And it's easy to explain, the players don't need to know how much math is behind the scenes.

>>49718526
First is definitely more clear. I can't understand what this means without it as reference:

>phantom damage goes away after every attack, but if it kills you you're still dead

>>49718660
The one major advantage of the second approach is that a player can pick up a feat or whatever that gives them more phantom damage for attacks that have it.

And I can't think of any way to phrase that conveniently with the first approach. Any ideas?

File: navaltest.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

So after some feedback, I've been playing around again with some naval warfare rules meant to be bolted onto the main combat system. What do you guys think of them?

Trying to consense my list of ~12 very specific attributes to 4-5, but getting a little hung up on how to compartmentalize things. Im down to

Physique, Finesse, Intelligence, Focus, Charisma.

Physique, Finesse, Intelligence, Charisma.

Or

Physique, Intelligence, Focus, Charisma.

What it comes down to is whether to have Finesse (dexterity, nimbleness, and balence), Focus (awareness, coordination, reflex), or both.

If I only keep Finesse, Intelligence ends up representing too broad a scope of traits or "focus" gets added to finesse and you end up with a stat that somehow represents both distinctly mental and physical qualities.

If i only keep focus, "finesse" gets added to physique, which now awkwardly represents intuitively unrelated physical qualities of brute strength and nibleness.

If I keep both, Finesse ends up feeling a bit unimportant, since there are few functions of Finesse (acrobatics, fine motor manipulation) which dont involve other stats (striking required physique, shooting/dodging requires focus).

File: c52fea3880b7cfa595db8e33a84b4803.jpg (65KB, 935x549px) Image search: [Google]

65KB, 935x549px

https://discord.gg/QGCfMcR

Brand new Discord for building a Dead Space inspired science fiction horror system. It's basically all fluff and no crunch at the moment.

Central themes are player-customized equipment, limited resources (including oxygen and power), and Zero-G operations.

>>49719548
Looks way cleaner and is clearer, good job anon.

File: Untitled.png (22KB, 650x357px) Image search: [Google]

22KB, 650x357px

So, I'm doing guns rules, apart this ones I have, what would you suggest?

I can adapt them to the system rules, I'm just not much of a /k/omando to add them off the top of my head.

File: thumbs up.jpg (48KB, 474x460px) Image search: [Google]

48KB, 474x460px

Remember that YOU are making a game, and unless you're making a game solely for the purpose of selling it to the largest amount of people possible, it should make you happy. It's important to listen to criticism, but don't let subjective remarks dictate your workflow.

It's YOUR game, and you shouldn't cater to anyone but yourself.

>>49722171
Thanks Anon. That helped a lot funnily enough

>>49718985
Here's my best shot off the top of my head:
>Phantom Damage
>Phantom damage lasts only one turn; any non-fatal phantom damage is undone at the end of the turn.

>Polymorph
>You deal 3d6 damage and an additional 2d6 phantom damage to your target. If this attack would kill the target, they are instead turned into a small, helpless animal.

Looking over it again with fresh eyes, I think the second one leaves something to be desired when it says "an additional 2d6 damage". Should players roll an additional 2d6 to find out? Should they assume a range of anywhere from 1 to 12?

>>49723663
*the first one, should say

Need some feedback. I want to make something generic in the vein of GURPS but much less rules-y. I want to use a 2d6 mechanic because I've played a lot of Savage Worlds and I am sick to death of exploding dice. I mean I love the system but I need a break.

So I'm not trying to do anything *too* new and fantastical here. I'm planning to use this for a zombie campaign so things are going to be pretty lethal.

But anyway, my idea is, 10 character points, skills cost 1/3/6 for 1/2/3 points, the system is 2d6 + skill versus 8 for a basic check. Each range bracket has a TN to hit (6/8/10) and there will be some other ranged combat stuff. Hit points are 8 + Fortitude skill, Defense is 8 + Agility skill, Movement is 8 base I think. Maybe 5. I don't know how long rounds should be. I almost feel like 3 seconds is better than 6. Or 1 seconds like GURPS but that's almost too long.

Anyway, my skill list is:

> Fighting
> Shooting
> Throwing
> Strength
> Agility
> Piloting
> Stealth
> Perception
> Persuasion
> Survival

etc etc.

Traits are going to be stuff like Sharpshooter specialization that give you an extra bonus when you spend a round to aim (aiming will be a default action anyway), or Heavy Hitter that lets you reroll 1s on your melee damage dice.

For damage I'm figuring 1d6 for small melee, 1d6+1 for medium melee, 1d6+2 for 2-handed melee. A pistol will deal 2d6, a rifle or shotgun 2d6+2, and shotguns will give a +1 to hit because muh buckshot, but also get -2 / -4 damage at longer ranges.

Autofire I'm not sure what to do. I'm thinking iterative attacks: you can spend 5 bullets to shoot once normally, another 5 to shoot another attack at -2, another 5 to shoot another attack at -4, etc., thus escalating recoil. I mean with 2d6 you're going to have to roll these attacks one at a time anyway. So you could empty a mag in one round if you wanted to but by the end you'd be shooting at like -8.

Oh and boxcars / snake eyes are autohit/automiss in combat.

So yeah that might be pretty gay but I'm just going to be using it for myself. So some starting character can have like Fighting 2, Shooting 1, Agility 1, Stealth 1, Cooking 1 (i dunno) and that would be a total of 3+1+1+1+1 points spent, so he could spend 2 points on the heavy hitter trait for example and then 1 point on another skill. He'd have Defense 9, Vitality 8 and he could wear armor for DR. So 1 or 2 shots or a couple swings would put someone down.

I kinda want to recreate the Savage Worlds toughness system but with bounded accuracy. Almost like M&M but less swingy. Dunno what to really do. I don't want to have to use exploding dice but I don't want the whole "lol you literally can't do damage to this guy cause you deal 2d6 and his toughness is 13" issue.

>>49717260
I want to keep it simple, since the idea is for a skirmish wargame where players compete for loot in ancient alien ruins. The idea is that models can trigger an event that'll bring in neutral creatures that inhabit the ruins (alien beasts, defense robots, claim jumpers, that kind of thing), so players have to handle them while still competing with the enemy players' models. I need it to be easy and something that can be handled by either player if they have to.

>>49722171

>It's YOUR game, and you shouldn't cater to anyone but yourself.

That's a great way to create a huge heap of steaming garbage.

If you want to make an RPG like that, feel free. But you might as well not share it with anybody because no one will want to read it.

I have (well, had) a friend who liked to homebrew. And all of his systems were shit, even by the standards of this thread. And you know what? He had that exact same kind of opinion. No one really wanted to criticize his game because he wasted hours and hours on it and not wanting to play it would offend him deeply. So we suffered through, until we eventually kicked him from the group.

Because, you see, roleplaying games are not a solo activity. Unless you are truly autistic. No, they require a group, and thus the system you are creating is going to have to be okay with said group. Which means that no, you cannot just design for yourself. Thus we have these metrics that we generally adhere to because they are widely accepted as good traits of good RPGs.

But, I'm sure yours is different. I'm sure YOUR d12 dice pool system with a complex margin of success rules as well as interesting tactical combat that is about 1800s space pirate ass rape, will be well-written and well-received.

But probably not.

>>49721108
I'd suggest some sort of cover system. Suppression fire could be used to ignore soft cover for instance.
>>49720933
Ah thank ya. I got some feedback and ended up changing some things. I feel like it needs to be polished somehow but I'm not sure where. It's serviceable and does what I want it to do so I think I'll just put it on the backburner for later.

I've been working on an idea for non-lethal damage which has become a bit of a bugbear for me. My current idea is as follows.
When attempting non-lethal damage, any damage rolled which is below the attack score is non lethal. So an attack score of 4 means that on 6 damage, 2 of that is lethal and 4 of it is non-lethal. Lethal damage is applied before non-lethal is. A roll of 1 on a damage dice deals 1 non-lethal damage and a max roll gives all its damage in non-lethal form.
If the non-lethal damage brings a characters hp to 0, then the target is unconscious or incapacitated rather than being dead.

So in a situation of 2 npcs with 22 hp; one has 10 lethal and 10 non-lethal damage while the other has 18 lethal and 2 non-lethal damage. In a roll causing 2 non-lethal and 2 lethal damage, the first npc is unconscious while the second one is dead.
Specifically non-lethal weapons roll twice and take the lowest for damage but a players attack score is counted as double for dealing non-lethal damage.

The circle I'm trying to square is to have non-lethal damage not be better for ending a fight quickly than lethal damage, it's difficult to knock someone out rather than killing them, and avoiding the situation where only the last hit actually matters.

>>49711829

Traits are pretty good, the rest is whack. Nice job straight ripping off Armor Class despite it being a terrible mechanic. Remember, though, since you called it Armor Rating, it is COMPLETELY different! Brilliant idea! Also can't tell if HP increases triangularly, or just very slowly. Hopefully the latter so that I can die quickly and stop playing your shitty game.

> once per day
> three times per encounter
> once per hour

Please go back to playing D&D 4e and stop trying to spread it's shit around like a mop in an elephant cage.

The bestiary formatting makes me want to slit my fucking ass veins. The tables are unnecessary and glaring, the stat block in general looks ugly as hell. Learn what columns are.

Other than that, same basic bitch bestiary creatures that are boring as fuck. Also a character sheet that is two pages, but doesn't need to be. Did you make it that way to accompany your wife's son's scribbles? No? Then make it fit on one page you fucking autist.

You really checked all the boxes of a shitty homebrew. I hope you aren't trying to promote this commercially, because I wouldn't pay jack shit for this and I would question the mental condition of anyone who would.

>>49711829
Immediate issues I notice in the first couple pages.
Color coding isn't used often as an organizational tool in books because 20% of men have some level of color blindness. Especially blue and purple can be difficult to tell apart for people with red-green colorblindness.
Do you really need all the race descriptions? Unless you have amazingly evocative writing, most folk don't need race descriptions. I know what an elf or an orc is.
The amount of wasted white space is huge. The end of page 7 for example. Or how if monster stats were
HP AR Speed XP
rather than
HP
AR
Speed
XP

Then the entire bestiary could fit in half the number of pages.

Decided I'd just go ahead and list it. Hope to be able to reduce the price once I make enough to afford another black ink cartridge. http://www.ebay.com/itm/182308467079

>>49726710
Why not sell PDFs on DTR?

Rolled 129, 436, 241 = 806 (3d500)

>>49713016
Why is preferably 1 page?

>>49727668
>American Natives
>Tarot
>Glasses

It would be entirely unreasonable to expect people to have a tarrot deck, wouldn't it.

>>49726322
So looking at this again, I crunched some numbers and decided it needs revision.

Ability modifiers aren't added to damage when making non-lethal attacks. Only the minimum roll guarantees non-lethal damage. Non-lethal weapons simply double the cutoff point for when damage is lethal.

>>49726322
Thanks anon, this are the full rules on suppressive fire and cover:

Suppressive fire (3 skill points, Rapid Fire weapon): You get disadvantage twice (-2 to all rolls) but fire in a cone of the same size category as your weapon. Everyone not in cover in the Area of Effect takes damage equal to the successes you rolled.

>>49726346
review like these are mostly funny with just enough truth that you can do something with it.

Angry, but quality critique is still quality and therefore better than poor quality critique.

>>49727690
sure, but that doesn't need to stop you when its a 24hr RPG

>>49728849
Not that guy or the guy he's critiquing, but the style makes me roll my eyes. Reminds me of AVGN 10 years ago.

>>49728919
its not as good as AVGN. It reminds me more of the various "why your favorite [sports team] sucks" articles. Amusingly frothy but not without a small foundation of truth.

Its enough that for RPG critique, they'll usually comment on aspects that really are bad, but just blow everything out of proportion. You can still identify the problem spots (or the non-problematic ones), unlike when someone just says "wow, this is really good" and that's it.

File: 1469340769492.jpg (492KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

492KB, 1920x1080px

What do you guys use for character sheets? Word docs are making this a nightmare.

>>49723663
Yes, you'd have to roll twice, or two different colors of dice, to sort it out.

That seemed obvious as I wrote it, but in actual play it would probably be annoying. I could just make a design rule of never making the player roll both though. It'd be a bit of an odd rule, but as a design rule the player doesn't actually have to know it exists.

Polymorph - You deal 3d6 damage and 7 phantom damage to your target. If this attack would kill the target, they are instead turned into a small, helpless animal.

Dominate - You deal 3d6 phantom damage to your target. If this attack would kill the target, they are instead placed under your control for one hour.

Firebolt - You deal 4d6 damage to your target.

>>49730471
If you're serious about making a book (or character sheets), you need Adobe InDesign. It's easy to learn the basics and you will get a much more professional-looking product than you would otherwise.

Looksh like I had a bit too much to drink a hit the posht button early!

>>49730771
I would make sure that unless your game has a very compressed scale, you make the flat damage component scalable - i.e. 7+level.

In my game all weapons simply do [your level] damage.

>>49731247
I should add that I always prototype layouts in Illustrator first because it's easier to just toss boxes around in there.

>>49730471

MS Paint, faggot.

>>49726852
DTR?

>>49726520
I didn't actually organize that part. The other guy that works on this with me did most of the stuff on the GM section. All I did there was provide a very rough draft and he went from there. Thanks for the input though, I'll see what I can do tomorrow. It'd really be great to cut down on the total page number.

>>49732078
drive thru rpg

>>49732232
Fuck, I'm retarded. I already do. Never sold a single copy.

>>49726852
I have never sold anything /tg/ related, but I believe no one buys from DTR unless it is already famous.

There are piles upon piles of content, most of which is very shitty. No one is going to search in there for what could be a decent RPG.

>>49732513
Yeah pretty much this. RoT has been for sale there for about a year now along with Guns 'n Grenades. Hell, GnG had more success on fucking eBay than DTRPG.

>>49730471
I prototype in Inkscape, make the final version in Inkscape or Latex.

I don't actually recommend Latex for normal people. Use Illustrator to prototype, InDesign for final product. If you want free, use Inkscape for both. (Last I checked the open source world still hasn't made a good alternative to InDesign.)
>>49731284
Noted, but yeah, compressed scales are my jam.

File: Playtest Copy.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

Started working on some playtest material for Hellsgate. Now to find playtesters...

>>49733977
Latex ahouldn't be reccomended to anyone ever.

File: Screen Shot 2016-10-11 at 15.32.00.png (245KB, 1440x900px) Image search: [Google]

245KB, 1440x900px

So a quick update i have been quite quiet the last few months, rule doc is essentially done ready to send off to a few people to proofread / edit.
Models are currently in the pre-design / concept stage (will be done in 2 to 4 months)
Had first open play testing at a local club last night and it was really well received.

>>49734455

I am realizing I am unqualified to comment on mini wargames with terrain cause I'll just try to turn it into a battlegrid powerwank game like D&D 4e / 3.5 miniatures, but I am glad to see you are still working on this. I wish you luck. It is looking better for sure.

Multiple resources in a rules medium/rules lite game, yay or nay?

Right now all the classes in my game have one resource that is used as both HP and MP. Should other classes get additional unique resources?

One thing I've played with is tokens. Each class has a unique token that powers their abilities in some way.

For example, red mage has Alternator tokens: when you alternate between white and black magic you gain an alternator token, reducing the cost of your spells by the number of alternator tokens you currently have. You can spend your alternator tokens to deal extra damage.

Dark knight, on the other hand, has Voidwalker tokens. You start with a predefined amount and use them throughout the battle to give your moves special extras.

Is this a good idea or am I making things too complex?

>>49740117
Sounds interesting, but a bit complex if simplicity what you are going for.

>>49737807
Thanks. I did cleaning up, mostly C&P each section from the last version, and read through before copying the next one, so I hope it does read better. I tried fishing around /awg/ to see if there's any interest, but wasn't any bites.

I've got a few free days coming up, hope to get some work done. If the 3 year-old allows it.

File: HardSuit Rules WIP 1.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

Still figuring out modifiers for rolls for my game? Going for a more fluffy, situational based set of skills thing over 3 factors -

Pilot Trait
Specialist Equipment
Environmental Factor

3 factors that could accrue a modifier (in combat for example)

>'pilots traits associated with the task' e.g the Sniper trait removing ranged penalties over long range
>'specialist equipment' e.g stabiliser on cannon, improved targeting software
>'environmental factors' e.g range to target, cover target may have, weather effects

That way a player would have maybe +2 from the sniper trait, +1 from the equipment, +/- weather effects
A different situation might have different modifiers but ideally I'd like no more than a +5/-5 modifier to any given roll.

I'm also trying to write up more 'pilot traits' in the following format and am open to suggested pilot traits

>Hardy: You are tougher than most and can resist the damaging effects of poisons and environmental hazards

This would mean pilot traits are fluffy but would need to be referenced to a 'general bonus' range of +1, 2 or 3 to a roll based on the details or severity of what is being tested. Unfortunately that then leads it to being down to 'as written' which might be too open.

Thoughts and ideas?

>>49740570
>Difficulty Modifiers
Seem kinda counter intuitive to affect the stats instead of the roll itself, why not just add to the roll if the check is hard and subtract from it if its easy? That way other abilities that increase stats for a roll would be easier too.

>trick shot
Why is that a skill instead of just a good to hit roll?

Also, have you figured out how would fighting be made? Didn't find anything on the rules.

Do you study game theory in order to design a game, or first design the game and then use game theory to evaluate how well it's balanced?
I'm a complete newbe in game design, but I would like to design one too.

>>49741703
I was designing and homebrewing stuff well before I started getting into stuff like game theory. Was me getting into it that led me to taking a serious enough approach to study and ultimately start writing my own rulesets. But that's just my experience.

>>49741596
I think what i'm trying to go for is that characters stats have multiple uses have application in various places so modifiers are based on situation

I'm not sure about 'Trick Shot' myself or if I should even have it. I think originally it was going to be a sort of 'outstanding performance' stat but really it seems like something I could remove completely and have such things it would cover as just a harder penalty to the shot.

Combat consists first of an initiative role (1d10 + SENSOR + REACTION +/- situational and skill Modifiers = Initiative Value): Highest score goes first followed by the next highest.

Pilots have 3 action points (AP) per combat turn (any unused AP is lost until the players next combat turn)

Players can then spend AP to perform actions subdivided into 'attacks', 'movements' 'reactions' and 'misc' (some actions are a combination of two but for clarity sake I've left that out) Each action has an AP value that is spent.

A brief example of each would be
Attack - Melee or Ballistic attack, Lock On
Movements - Moving, Taking Cover
Reactions - Parry, Dodge
Misc - Aim, Scan, Reload

Players may only make one Attack action per combat turn
At the moment i'm considering throwing the entire combat system out for something simpler and less granular

>>49743224
Well, I believe modifying the roll is simpler, but if you believe tinkering with the stats is for the best then try it, maybe it is, and at worst you just need to make a few changes later.

I would scratch trickshot, I always try to have as few skills as possible, maybe because I hated D&D skill bloat.

Regarding Combat, I have not playtested the game but by reading that I believe giving players 3 AP with one always being spent on attacking is not optimal. Even more by the fact that you need to save one for reactions. I would just use the normal 1 attack, 1 move and 1 reaction formula most RPGs use. That way you could even have suits with special qualities like 2 reactions or 2 movement actions per round.

>>49718985
Not that Anom but

"Phantom Damage is a unique form of damage in {GAME}. Phantom Damage is rolled for normally, but is never dealt to the target unless the Phantom Damage is enough to kill or incapacitate it."

>>49720405
I encountered the exact same issues in my Homebrew.

I was using basically those exact same attributes with slightly different names. I also was using the Focus equivalent for ranged attacks.

My solution was to use finesse for hit rolls in melee for most weapons, using only strength for large weapons. Additionally, I used finesse for dodge instead of the focus equivalent. That way my party of riflemen weren't dodging machines

>>49740117
Settlers Of Catan has five resources and is pretty simple. They all use identical rules though, that's the trick.

What you've said isn't too complex if you want to do it that way. I think you could simplify it a bit and get most of the same effect though. Specifically if every class has "focus" tokens (a generic name), which can be used for some activated abilities, but each one generates the tokens differently.

The reason being that a list of activated abilities is really cheap in terms of cognitive load (it's popular for a reason), players can recycle most of their knowledge when learning new classes, and you can still actually do completely different stuff with all the classes with just that setup.

(That is - a class with easy focus generation and weak abilities vs one with very limited focus generation and strong abilities are very different, but share most rules.)

>>49741703
Despite the name, game theory is rarely relevant. I'm a very math-oriented designer and use mostly combinatorics and high school algebra. Many other designers avoid math like the plague though. It's cruise control for superb balance if you're good at it, but brute force playtesting works too.

Also try looking at some of Donald X. Vaccarino's design blogs and games. He's a master of finding and exploiting situations where you don't need balance. (Gauntlet Of Fools is a really obvious example, but Dominion has a fair deal of it too.)

>>49743751
That's a really good way of phrasing that, thank you. I didn't think of the idea of "not actually dealt unless."

>>49740570
Too many boxes.
You don't need to confine your text to stifling grey boxes when you can use negative space to great effect. Give your text room to breathe.

Also, shouldn't Upbgrining & Education grant a Pilot Ability or Equipment or something?

As for pilot trait suggestions...

>Big Job: While you are inside a hardsuit, roll vs. Intelligence + Servo for Fabricate skill checks.

>Feint: While you are inside a hardsuit, roll vs. Charisma + Sensor for Bluff skill checks.


>

So there's basically four kinds of scenes in Dragon Forest:
Exposition Scenes
Exploration Scenes
Combat Scenes
Rest Scenes

Resting actually makes up a huge part of gameplay, and I want to do what I can to make this part of the game comfy to contrast the severity of combat and exploration.

I really want to make cooking a big deal in rest scenes. Mechanically, each player would be able to consume one meal per rest scene to gain bonuses to their combat abilities during the next combat scene before the beginning next rest scene.
I'm sorely tempted to write up extensive tables of different kinds of ingredients and the bonuses they grant.

When do you think granularity gets to be too much in cooking mechanics in a game that's otherwise about getting lost in otherworldly-forests and being attacked by horrible monsters?

>>49746481
I've thought of singing like this, where each job has a different "specialty dish" it can cook during a rest.

>>49746481
>When do you think granularity gets to be too much
When it takes more effort than the enjoyment it gives.

Rest isn't very exciting, and the bonus thing sounds like tedious modifier soup that will slow down the rest scene and the next combat one.

Surely there'll just be a single stat a given PC will want to buff, making it a non-decision as to what they'll eat. You could make the system extremely convoluted but that'll just slow things down even more, and it'll get minimaxed in about 10 seconds by anyone who cares and ignored by anyone who doesn't. There's a reason hyper-complex crafting systems aren't a thing in RPGs.

If you still want to do it look at Kingdom Death's crafting, it strikes a good balance. But that's because it's an extremely random roguelike where that sort of system is appropriate.

>>49746481
> I want to do what I can to make this part of the game comfy to contrast the severity of combat and exploration.

Looking up tables of ingredients isn't comfy. You need game mechanics that evoke the feeling you want, not just a description of events that would evoke that feeling were the players there.

Maybe a cooperative tile-laying minigame.

File: 2016-10-12-135835_3840x1080_scrot.png (140KB, 557x967px) Image search: [Google]

140KB, 557x967px

>>49721108
>>49728616

You should check out The Regiment // Colonial Marines. It's a PbtA game with some good firefight rules.

http://www.onesevendesign.com/regiment/the_regiment_2_5_colonial_marines.pdf

>>49746720
>>49746599

Well, I have a more complex idea that I was noodling around with earlier, and I have a simpler idea I was noodling around with the other day.

Simpler idea:
Each PC has a number of retainers.
Each retainer has a Fear score that can be raised or lowered depending on events in the game.
Each retainer has a job skill.

You can be awarded Hope points after successful Exploration and Combat scenes.

You can use a retainer's Job skill during rest scenes by spending a number of Hope points equal to their Fear score (you want to lower your retainer's Fear score as much as you can in order to make more efficient use of your Hope.)

Cooking would be a function of the 'Chef' job skill. If tables of different dishes and their effects is too complicated, then I might simplify it down to a simple +2 Fortitude.

What do you think?

>>49746840
So you have a bunch of Rest options and only a small amount of Hope to spend it on? Sounds good. That's enough of a minigame right there, no need to complicate it any further.

Just make sure the +2 is balanced against other things you can spend Hope on, if there's an obviously superior option you'll start climbing the Ivory Tower.

Reminds me a bit of Darkest Dungeon's camping thing.

>>49746942
I'll watch out for that, thanks.

Other job skills I was thinking of:

>Blacksmith: Replace one modification on a weapon or armour with a different modification.

>Jeweler: Replace one enchantment on a weapon or armour with a different enchantment.

>Squire: Gain +1 Encumbrance limit until the beginning of the next rest scene.

>Scribe: Gain +1 Memory limit until the beginning of the next rest scene.

>Child: Summon a dog with a backpack to fetch an item stored at your stronghold.

>Entertainer: Reduce each retainer's Fear by one until the end of the scene.

>Chaplain: Reduce one other retainer's Fear by one until the end of the session.

>Tea Master: Perform a tea ceremony, granting you +2 Will until the beginning of the next rest scene.

I'm always salty that nobody comments on my pdf so I'm going to go through and critique the ones I haven't done yet.

>>49711829
The coloured text is awful, use symbols or something. It'll help breakup the walls of tables/text.

You have a lot of wasted whitespace where ever you have lists not in tables (Skills, the bestiary, GM guide) you should have two-column page layout there.

The character sheet looks like absolute ass. Often it's the first and/or only part of your game people will see, you need to be able to make people interested based off it alone.

All in all seems like another uninspired fantasy heartbreaker homebrew that'll go nowhere, sorry. There's absolutely nothing that sets it apart from the hundreds of other fantasy RPGs of its ilk.

>no /gdg/ in the credits
Fuck you too, buddy

>>49747088
Instead of a list I'd suggest giving players a framework to create their own hirelings.

> increase/decrease [stat] by [X] until the next [scene/session]
> once per [scene/session] do [thing]

>>49747236
Which pdf is yours?

>>49719548
You should make a little stat sheet for your ships, perhaps with a little reference for the checks various actions require.

>Fishing
Maybe make a note about gathering rainwater, with an associated weather chart to go with the wind.

>Wind
All the reroll conditions seem pretty clunky. I'd suggest you make the results relative to the current conditions instead, like so:
>Direction
1: Same as yesterday
2: Same as yesterday
3: Same as yesterday
4: 1/2 point clockwise (e.g. East becomes Southeast)
5: 1/2 point clockwise
6: 1 point clockwise
7: 1/2 point counterclockwise
7: 1/2 point counterclockwise
7: 1 point counterclockwise
10: wind reverses direction

The combat seems to lack nuance compared to the other rules, nothing about ship facing or the affects of different kinds of ammo or cannon (is that elsewhere in the rules?). It seems like you intend this to matter.

Also if you didn't draw/paint those ships you should credit who did, I hope it's CC.

>>49747272
Maybe you should comment on all them too?

>>49734455
I don't play wargames so I'll just comment on the formatting.

Double columns is good, though you should increase the margin between them a bit or add a dividing line.

You're inconsistent with titles some are underlined, some aren't. Later on the opposite is true. Generally you only want one or the other anyway.

Oh I see now, the bold but not underlined stuff are lists. Put them in a table or bullet points OR make all your subtitles a font point larger.

I'd suggest section numbering and page numbers since I'm guessing you'd want to quickly look up rules mid-game. You could also make a one-page reference/overview for the core rules.

Breaking up the text with a few more bullet point lists, tables, diagrams or symbols would make it a bit more readable too.

An example of a round would be a good thing to put at the end. Remember, you should be able to give this to a stranger and they'll be able to play the game as you intended without you ever being there to correct them or explain your intentions behind anything.

>>49747428
Goof'd the numbering, should be 1-10 obviously

>>49740570
>whatsa GM? whatsa d20?
Guys stop, nobody playing whacky 4chan homebrews are not going to know what these are.
You do not want people's eyes glazing over on the first page, they probably won't read another.

The lifepath tables are nicely laid out. You could keep stealing from Traveller and do some simple(!) branching as that's still pretty novel in RPGs.

The boxes surrounding text and tables is good where you have double-columns but distracting and unnecessary on the other pages as >>49746360 says

>derived stats
Gross. If you have base stats that are useful only as contributors to derived stats, cut them. Less is more.

>degrees of success
Just cut that section or make actual rules. Saying "beating the TN better is better" and giving no rules for it is useless.

>Skills
>The ability to The ability to The ability to
Looks like ass, just remove those bits. Replace "Description" with "Used to..." if you're worried about grammar.

>Skill list
>Suggested Alt Sta
What? Either have all Stat modifiers be up to the GM on a per-check basis or make it consistently one stat per skill. The latter does make balancing it so you don't have a God Stat harder. Again, I believe you should remove some stats to make this easier.

>feat prerequisites
Gross

>pilot traits
Same advice as Retainer skills for >>49747088
Make a templating system instead of a list. Gives the players much more freedom in character generation.

>>49743224
>big clunky derived initiative
>DnDesque combat action division

Seems like you're just mashing together mechanics you like instead of designing towards a specific game goal.

>At the moment i'm considering throwing the entire combat system out for something simpler and less granular
I'd recommend rolling it into your general scene resolution mechanics, but I'm not a fan of isolating combat as a minigame separate from the rest of the rules. It makes people stop rolepalying and start wargaming. Which is fine if that's what you want.

>>49747088
This idea is much better than the alternatives. I prefer having the specific list rather than framework. That list already seems to cover most of what you might want as a player, and making a framework that covers everything you should be able to change probably won't be any smaller than a specific list. I personally would make sure there's a reason every character might want every bonus so that their Retainer's jobs are meaningful. .

File: images-10.jpg (18KB, 443x332px) Image search: [Google]

18KB, 443x332px

>>49748311

What are your different sub-systems (i.e. magic, skills, combat) /gdg/ and how do they interact with each other?

File: porcupine mountains.jpg (58KB, 640x640px) Image search: [Google]

58KB, 640x640px

>>49749839
For Character Creation I try to balance things by offering multiple solutions to a single goal as far as character building goes. Players choose Archetypes that give them arrays of stats that grow each time they gain a level while also getting "free points" to place wherever they want. This means you can be a Warrior Archetype and put all your points into Magic in order to be a gish, or you could take the Mage Archetype and put all your points into Power to accomplish the same thing. Both become good gishes, but their Archetype arrays mean they'll still be different in other areas.

The Martial vs Magic debate is always strong, so they're designed as two paths with the same options. Martial focused characters will end up with more actions per round while Magic users will have more complex actions. They each will have similar access to battlefield utility through different means. A gish type character will have many complex actions, but it'll always cost them in a combination of defenses, accuracy, and movement.

Players get to create their own spells using the framework provided. Effects are additive and Metamagic is multiplicative. Weapons and Armor are made similarly with the Power and Defense stats respectively.

My skill system is still a wip, but I think I've found a good solution. Skills are performed at relatively static DCs, but can be augmented by "skill metamagic" for lack of a better term. Changing the circumstances (rushing, taking your time, doing it quietly, etc) will change the DC, but only because the player "opted-in" to that change.

I'm also thinking about creating a procedural generation system for environments. Much of the focus is on dungeon crawling and similar things, but even towns might be able to be made on the spot. The idea would be to help the GM improv, or assume the DM is improving a lot, and share some of the burden with the group as a whole. If I get really ambitious I might try to make a GM-less option. Who knows.

>>49747933
>>49746360
Thanks for the suggestions!

Trick Shot is gone and will probably be turned into a trait that cover the areas it used to

I've added a pilot trait for Upbringing & Education and removed some of the unnecessary boxes. (They were there initially to fit things onto pages without fumbling around with page-break and border issues)

I've removed the 'degrees of success' element as yes, it seemed weird to have a suggested extra effect then have actual effects.

Prerequisites are gone for traits

All base stats have a use outside of being just a derived element but in the pdf I posted I had not included status effect tests as follows

>Stun Test = Vigour +/- modifiers: If d10 value is equal to or lower than the result the test is a pass
Failure and the Hardsuit is unable to take any action in the next turn. Any melee attacks made against a stunned Hardsuit automatically hit. Any ranged attacks have a Ballistic Attack Value bonus of +2 The effect lasts 1 turn unless stated otherwise

>Internal Fire = Reaction +/- modifiers: If d10 value is equal to or lower than the result the test is a pass and no wounds are taken. Failure and the pilot takes 1 wound until extinguished. Fires burn out in 3 combat turns. Fire cannot be stacked.

>Panic Test = Morale +/- modifiers: If d10 value is equal to or lower than the result the test is a pass. Failure and pilot panics and a table is consulted. Panic is forced when a pilot is reduced to 3 wounds or less

Minimum bulk is a requirement for certain pieces of equipment as it represents a size

As most combat is inside a hardsuit Initiative could be simplified to 'Sensors + 1d10' with the highest going first

How might I adapt combat into the roleplaying element with the current mechanics because I've noticed that I've pretty much got two games - a wargame and a roleplaying game which doesn't gel when I kind of want a roleplay game more now. (probably because a good chunk was based from Dark Heresy)

>>49730471
I personally use Illustrator and it comes out pretty good

>>49733977
>Last I checked the open source world still hasn't made a good alternative to InDesign.
Anything particularly wrong with Scribus?

File: Nation building rules summary.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

Summary Doc is getting there - still want to tweak hunters, medicine men, and the priest character class before playtesting, as well as lock down the religious upgrade mechanics

Anyone got any Negative specialty ideas?

File: nation wars-page058.jpg (2MB, 5846x4134px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 5846x4134px

>>49751971
and an updated core rules summary, finally

>>49749839
I use a skill system that's pretty similar to the cliche system in Risus. A different dice mechanic makes it feel more serious. It's also set up so the best way to munchkin your skills is to make them interesting.

Combat uses a tactical grid. Same dice mechanic to hit, simple roll for damage, two action types per round, a lot of the same core verbs as D&D 4E (difficult terrain, pushing, pulling). You can use skill checks during combat, particularly for movement, and lots of character abilities give you ways to do that more efficiently.

I try to make it so each character option gives you combat, social and adventuring options, plus hopefully a way for the GM to use you for plot hooks. There's a mathy system used for figuring out how good combat options should be - this is entirely hidden from the players. (I'm still picking away at a few problems with this math before finishing the system.) Most abilities are just freeform text that's open to interpretation - combat is the board game portion of the game, which is more rigidly defined.

Magic uses the Phantom Damage system you see earlier in this thread so you can have things like petrification attacks still interact with HP damage. Otherwise it's just a special case of other options. For example, you'd probably get the spell to turn someone into a mouse, some dice in intimidation, the spell to turn yourself into an owl, and a sense that tells you when the area's mice are restless, all in one option. The package approach keeps things thematically interacting, even when specific pairs of abilities are unlikely to matter together.

>>49751233
I haven't tried it in about four years. It was just incredibly clumsy last time I tried.

>>49749839
Magic and martial abilities work the same in combat: you have a limited number of stamina points to fuel your moves, after that you're done. Out of combat they can be used for free if it's something minor like using fire magic to light a torch.

Skills are binary, you have them or you don't. They let you automatically succeed at any check with a difficulty less than or equal to your level, grant a +1 bonus to checks above your level and give you better results when you succeed.

My game has ten levels of difficulty, measured by chance of success:

>100%
>83%
>66%
>50%
>33%
>16%
>8%
>4%
>2%
>0%

Is this a good spread, or should I redo my core mechanic?

>>49758165
is that the starting chance of success which can then be further modified? or is it the ending chances? If its the starting chance with modifiers then its probably alright. If its the ending chances, it look pretty fail-heavy. Psychologically, players are more prone to remember failures than success. When people say they had a 50% success rate it actually is much closer to 66% statistically. If a true 50% is 4th/10 and the assumed 50% (66%) is 3rd/10, players are going to feel like they aren't able to accomplish much.

Then again, I could always be missing some context.

>>49758296
This is after modifiers, but in a typical game players will usually be around the 50% mark.

The way difficulty works is every obstacle has a challenge rating - at least monsters do, the GM eyeballs it otherwise - and to get the target number you subtract the character's skill. Roll 1d6 to meet or beat the target number.

If the result is 1 (or less) there's a 100% chance of success, so don't bother rolling. 10+ and it's just not gonna happen. 2-6 and you have an 83%, 66%, 50%, 33% or 16% chance. 7, 8 or 9 and you'll need bonus dice - a 4+ on one of these adds +1 to your d6, and you can have up to three at a time (so 6+3 let's you meet a 9, but because you can't get more than +3 you'll never meet a 10).

Other than bonus dice, though, factors that would be modifiers in other games are factored directly into difficulty. Advantage lowers the difficulty by 1, disadvantage raises it by 1 and so forth.

That's for success and failure. You roll another d6 without bonus dice to determine whether you get a positive or negative circumstance.

That's the cliffnotes anyway.

Rolled 115, 351, 483 = 949 (3d500)

>>49713016

>>49758869
>Law
>Arabian Knights
>Fond Memories

If you where to chose the most iconic modern weapons, which ones would you chose?

>>49762736
M16 and AK-47. Nothing says modern weaponry better than one or both of their silhouettes

bumparino

>>49765709
page 9 bump

>>49763624
The problem I have with the AK-47 is that its name is copyrighted.

Rolled 238, 46, 367 = 651 (3d500)

>>49713016

Rolled 219 (1d500)

>>49766936
apocalypse, low magic, heat.
hmmm.... rerolling heat.

>>49766933
The AK has copyright?
So that means I cannot use the name right?

>>49750779
You essentially have two games in one:
Half the game is inside hardsuits
The other half is outside of hardsuits

Your inside half is essentially a wargame
But the outside half is eluding you now

What is it exactly that you want players to do while they are outside of their hardsuits?
I mean, what sort of adventures are PC's expected to get into while they don't have their hardsuits on?

How does this sound?

All items have tags. Common tags for equipment items are: {Weight X}, {Memory X}, {Nuance X}, and {Faith X}.

>{Weight X}
Add up the weight of all equipped items to determine your total weight. If your total weight exceeds your weight limit statistic, you have encumbered status (fatigue costs are increased by +1 for you.)

>{Memory X}
Add up the memory of all equipped items to determine your total memory. If your total memory exceeds your memory limit statistic, you have distracted status (mana costs are increased by +1 for you.)

>{Nuance X}
You can't benefit from an item's modifications if its nuance exceeds your nuance limit statistic.

>{Faith X}
You can't benefit from an item's enchantments if its faith exceeds your faith limit statistic.

Weight Limit is derived from Strength.
Memory Limit is derived from Intelligence.
Nuance Limit is derived from Dexterity.
Faith Limit is derived from Charisma.

Thoughts?

>>49770020
Honestly I'm at the threshold of dropping some elements as the wargame part seemed far more fleshed out and organised than roleplaying one. Outside and players would be kind of limited as the environment they are in is hostile and inhospitable environmentally and limited to inside hub cities or larger vehicles

At a mechanical level too, most rolls are two stats added together to roll against so rolls on a single stat has a whole different layer of percentages that doesn't sync with the rest of the system (part of the reason why person vs mech combat wasn't really accounted for) If I was to change or use the charisma skill as a kind of way of applying morale buffs or debuffs it might function better.

All in all, after re-reading and going over my original inspirations (Front Mission, Venus Wars, and Maschinen Krieger) I'm unsure of the game working as a roleplaying one at all and might benefit from being a pure wargame. (And with it the rigmarole of wargame systems like minatures or cardstock although maybe it could function in a similar way to Necromunda etc)

What do you think? What direction should Hardsuit take?

How bad of an idea is it to stat genders differently? Are there any games that have done this?

Humans are the only sexually reproducing race in my setting, and all the other races have a variety of interesting sub-species, so I thought it would be cool to use male and female as "sub-species" for humans to give some context for "sub-species" and give humans extra flavor and options.

On the other hand, many would argue that tying mechanical weight to gender choice would simply annoy players, to say nothing of the extreme delicacy of the matter (beyond giving men a small strength bonus, which would probably be accepted without argument but would make females a strictly inferior option mechanically).

>>49770735
I love tag systems, and 3 out of 4 of those seem very clever. Memory, however, seems kinda silly, no one is constantly thinking about all the items on them in a way that might burden them. I understand that you want a intelligence based limit to the items a character can carry though, how about some kind of penalty to how long it takes to retrieve the item (remember that you have it)?

>>49771768
I think you should write, write, and write some more, then keep writing until you have 100% of a game written. Then cut 10%.

I think it will work just fine as a roleplaying game. It's just a matter of figuring out what you want PC's to do when they are outside of their hardsuits.
You mentioned that non-suited play is restricted to hub cities and the inside of larger vehicles since the environment is inhospitable. Okay, work from that. What exactly do people do when they are inside of hub cities? What sorts of adventures might happen in hub cities?

As for the mechanics, I would cut it down to a consistent 1d20 roll-under.
Combat-related skills are pilot+suit stat while inside your suit, and just pilot while outside the suit, so that suited-up characters are just flatly better in combat.
For non-combat skills, you might consider adding just pilot while inside your suit, and pilot +(something else) while outside of your suit.
Whatever (something else) is will depend on what PC's do while they are inside of hub cities and larger vehicles.

>>49772764
I was also thinking of 'Attunement' or 'Concentration' instead of Memory.

As for genders:
If gender is the !important thing! in your game, then by all means stat genders differently.

>>49773058
Ok, well I could have pilot + intelligence or pilot + charisma but i'm concerned then that pilot would become the dominant and most important stat as it and another combined would cover all out of suit interactions.

Maybe intelligence, reactions and the charisma stat combined could be used for more

File: Gods of Mana :tg:.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

After another good night of play testing, I'm wondering what you guys think of it?

File: Kotsu.Masumi.full.1816052.jpg (221KB, 600x734px) Image search: [Google]

221KB, 600x734px

So for a while I ben toying with ideas for an RPG with card based combat, think a Yu Gi Oh RPG.

But fitting a game inside of the other is complicated because I want a symbiosis, for example I want the characters stats to play a role with the cards or the card game be flexible to handle several players at once.
The card game seems to be the most difficult one because of the ideas I have to make it more "dramatic" more fit for a story driven game and not a stand alone thing. for example I want ties/draws to be common because of the dramatic possibilities or having different formats with more or less cards if the plot or players want the combat to be short or long.

Has anyone else done something like this?
Anyone with more experience can give me advice?

What are the essential elements of a character background? What systems have the best character background mechanics?

I'm torn between making pre-packaged backgrounds, like 5E, or making freeform backgrounds like Fate.

page 10 bump

>>49775885
I do like 5e's system. If anything have plenty of sample backgrounds so people have a examples to look towards.

A background for most systems should probably deal with level 0 things. Whatever they were doing or known for before they became a character. It gives precedence for having certain skills/abilities over others, so as long as you cover that you should be good.

bampu

Bamp

>>49783263
Bank

Rolled 234, 220, 450 = 904 (3d500)

>>49713016

>>49734455
Looking over this, I think the base Morloc is too durable for the role I want it to fill.

I'm also thinking of adding a severe damage system. My thought is that, after modifying with the power of the weapon, if the roll is over twice the resilience of the target, you take 2 damage, instead of one. Its mostly to cover things like a rocket to the face is easier to wound, but does as much damage as a regular bullet right now; also to reinforce the idea of the horde with the Morlocs, reducing the resilience and adding a way for out-numbered forces to handle the action economy (right now, while its easier, it still takes the same minimum resources to kill a Morloc Trog as it does a Templar Knight, this should help).

>>49734455
>>49789333
Would help if I put on my name.

Also thinking of lowering the base attack on the common Morlocs, and compensating with a gang up rule. I'm trying to encourage the idea of grouping up with them, and that they are frail, but dangerous in melee.

Blump

Is it time to let theses thread die?