/gdg/ - Game Design General

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I was the OP, I admit.

Mostly wanted to see if this trainwreck can be revived.

All in all, my Misfortune system has gone through an entire rehaul. I still need to remodel the YankESP pdf:s to have the same information as the current version.

New things:

>Despair Mechanic: Imagine it as my own rendition of the TBZ's death-mechanic... Somewhat. You gain Despair when you fail when stakes are high, fail miserably or push your character to get autosuccesses or massive bonuses to rolls.
>If you roll same or under your Despair, you gain a detriment: First one is Self-Doubt, second is Grievous injury and third one is Death.
>Despair heals really slowly, so it is really dangerous in the long run.

>New rules for Powers, whatever they are in the setting:
>You never roll against your Ordinary score, instead whether you can activate your Powers is dependent of the same roll. If you roll over your Ordinary score, you can activate your powers freely, if you roll same or lower, you can activate it, but you gain one Strain.
>Strain works as a number stacking on top of your Ordinary score. If your Ordinary + Strain = 10, your character runs out of juice.

>Reintroduced stacks as a general mechanic, works the same as before.

Still to add:

>All-out: Using strain until Ordinary + Strain = 11 and getting X amount of bonus to a roll. (Probably huge amounts).

Always pop up when I'm at work. Course, that feels like I'm here all the time these days.

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>>50665836
I like the idea of it, it seems like it works better in a one-shot format rather than a multi-session format though. Overall though, nice progress.
>>50665890
Such is life, been a while since I've seen one of these threads and I've been meaning to get some feedback.

Now, here is HVM, described by some as the bastard child of Savage Worlds and Dungeon World. Originally started out as me trying to make Not!Conan (hence the name), but soon developed into a generic system.

Additions since 1.3
>Removed Valor, it was a meta-currency that I liked, but was a hold over from previous editions.
>Put in Open Resource, pretty much the "I want my game to have X," like a Wealth Mechanic, Insanity, etc
>Renamed my 2d6's to Action Dice. They can, and should be, abused by your GM.
>Added Advanced Combat, adding more to do during a combat encounter if that's what you want out of the game.
>Tweaked some of the numbers for combat.

Go to town /gdg/
Also, BUMP FOR THE BUMP GODS

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From the OSR general-

Somebody had the bright idea to take the traditional 1d20 attack roll and instead make it a 3d6 roll instead. I really liked this idea because if you get a pair (1, 1, 6 for example) in your roll you can do combat maneuvers or special moves- this could happen if you hit or miss your target as well which is really nice.

However because of the bell curve of having multiple dice like that means its harder to control armor or AC scaling; what sort of number would be good for 'base' AC and what kind of armor bonuses should limit it?

I feel as though a potential +1, +2, or +3 Agility modifier added to armor seems 'too good' for this 3d6 rolling method, unless proven otherwise. I'd certainly relegate armor to a damage absorption roll instead of a deflection roll in this case.

Making a 2d6 based game, skills are:

> Agility
> Fortitude
> Survival
> Perception
> Fighting
> Shooting
> Persuasion
> Deception
> Acrobatics
> Driving
> Riding
> Piloting
> Throwing
> Strength

Where Agility and Strength and Fortitude can be reduced to -1 to give you back 1 character point.

You start with 10 character points, and costs are triangular. So 1 point in a skill costs 1 point, 2 points in a skill costs 3 points (total), 3 points in a skill costs 6 points (total), and so on.

Checks are 2d6 + skill versus TN

Defense is 8 + Fighting or 8 + Agility, can't decide which, probably one for parry and one for dodge.

Armor gives DR of some kind.

Basic hand weapon deals 1d6 damage. A rifle or shotgun will deal 2d6+2. An average human has 8 + Fortitude vitality, which is basically hit points. At 0 they are dying. I was considering adding a Savage Worlds / MiniSix-esque injury table using 8 + Fortitude as the character's "Toughness" which I sitll might do but I am meaning this to be fairly lethal so it seems weird to play characters who are either totally fine after a rifle shot, or lying dead on their backs (though I would add permanent injuries and gimps as this is meant to be a gritty system for a zombie apocalypse game).

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>>50667322
Alright, you have the right idea. Two questions though.
>Is there a "Default" skill number. You said you can reduce Agility, Strength, and Fortitude.
>Do enemies have this same stat line up? Are they separate?.
From the get-go it seems like a good start. I would up the Character Points a bit though, 10 seems pretty low for the amount of skills.

>>50667060
DR seems like a good counter weight, I'm not to familiar with OSR, but 3d6 method with normal AC worked fine for a OSR-thing my friend made (his system was also B0rkEd in other ways, but I digress.)

>>50667503
>but 3d6 method with normal AC worked fine for a OSR-thing my friend made

I refuse to believe that.

The average roll of a 3d6 is 10.5, with anything more or less being much less likely.

If normal AC values are preserved, with Fighters having somewhere around 15-16 AC or more, monsters having +1 AC per HD and so forth, these creatures would be too difficult to hit this way.Your chance to get a 15 or better is a little less then 10 percent, where as with a regular d20 it's 25%.

Not too mention cap at 18 instead of 20 messes things up further. There's no way this game was functional, or if it was functional it would be downright hellish in its difficulty.

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>>50667936
>The system my friend made was a clusterfuck of cannibalized ideas and attributes from around 4 systems and a metric-fuckton of homebrew wavey strangeness.

I see your point though, maybe basing the idea off of that "cap" of 18 could be beneficial. Your range changes from 1 - 20 to 3 -18 (barring +'s)
As always, 10 seems a decent starting point for "The Average Joe." Yet again I say I'm not to familiar with OSR. Maybe even toning back that "default" AC would be beneficial, 8 + HD. Average fighters having a decent AC (12 - 14), Rogues having average AC (9 - 11) and your wizards having a below average (6 - 8) for startingish characters. Because for every time you roll an 18, there is also a fair chance you're rolling a 3.

Just spitballing ideas here.

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>>50668133

Thank you.

Like I said originally, I think the best idea here is to have Armor be absorption instead of traditional AC, which could be renamed Evasion or Defense. Defense would only raise with level/agility, this way the numbers will kept lower.

Traditional DnD has 'average' AC being 10, and the average d20 roll is an 11. We could argue that player character level and monster level scale together linearly, so this +1 or 5% advantage to attackers is the impetus that drives the game forward. Therefore a similar way to give 3d6 attack a forward momentum is to set AC that 9. However this might be too much, as the chance of rolling above a 9 is 62.5 or so, which is much more then a mere 5%. If you added absolute or guaranteed protection for armor though, this may not be a problem.

However if we literally make it 10 then 11 or up is an exact 50/50 chance of hitting, which is pretty much exactly fair as well.

So yeah, thanks for theory crafting. I will certainly work out the kinks on my own time, but I hope other people reading have imput to this idea.

>>50666330
It looks fund and very engaging, this would be a bunch of steps ahead of FATE as a general, light and fun system. I do enjoy "dice assignment" as a game mechanic and your "organic" encounters seems pretty good too. I just skimmed over it, so I'm not sure how solid it stands as a game, but it looks good.

>>50668323
Progression is troublesome to deal with in 3d6 system, the range is far too short and the results are "too stable", I would rather use 3d8 increasing the range from 18-3 (15) to 24-3 (21) and increase variability a little. Compare the graphs:
http://anydice.com/program/a121

What do you guys think of this spell list?
An end-game spellcaster/spellweaver is able to learn 30 spells from this list, do you think that is too much or too little?
Would you change/add any spells to this list?
(feel free to suggest names and other changes)

>>50670093
forgot the link...
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vpg3XrHtniU5jWsfGCInwXZJ-iI-tOGaGPlSXjzPm_w/edit#gid=0

>>50669859
>Progression is troublesome to deal with in 3d6 system, the range is far too short and the results are "too stable", I would rather use 3d8 increasing the range from 18-3 (15) to 24-3 (21) and increase variability a little. Compare the graphs:

Interesting. Thanks for the graph.

The only issue I see thus far is the fact that part of the reason I wanted to use a 3d6 system in the first place was to have it possible for die to land on the same number more often, resulting in nice combat moves or tricks for every double or even triple hit. However if you used d8s that would be less likely.

>>50670410
Chance of rolling a match is 44% for 3d6 vs 34% for 3d8...unless your game is focused in said moves and tricks I would recommend using 3d8

>>50670801

So you'd probably recommend using any match instead of using match skill levels?

The original idea was a match skill level system going with the traditional OSR roll X in 6 or in this case X in 8 chances, so you'd need 2 ones to get a 1 point skill in whatever. I like the idea of using any matches though.

>>50665636
I'm not sure if this would be totally the right spot but I've been working on making a scale map of Dark Souls 3. Does anyone have any references that would be good for figuring out the scale? So far I've just been using maps from the game guide and estimates.

>>50665636
The thumbnail makes this thread look very phallic

>had the same gooby little idea knocking around my head for ages
>the concept has been received well most places I've posted it
>settling on a core mechanic has been one step forward two steps back since conception
>it's been months now

AAAAAAAGGHGGHGGHGHGGHGH

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>>50671881
Post it anon, just post your idea, it's why we're here.

>>50669859
Thanks! I've ran a couple of test-sessions and even a full campaign in the WoD setting. Combat has always been that thorn in my side, so numbers, as usual, will get tweaked as I throw it against players.

>>50672254
Alright I'll post it again, some people might recognize it.

>The world of Under is inhabited by a myriad of creatures left behind by the enigmatic Humen. Though the Under is dark and dangerous, pinpoints of light and hope exist wherever Friendly Folks gather.
>Skeletons: These bony fellows may appear spooky to our eyes, what with their spindly arms and generally gravelike countenance. However, Skeletons are perhaps the most courageous and openhearted of all the Friendly Folk.
>Autos: Sturdy and metallic, these Folks can take a hit and keep on ticking: literally! Of all the Folk, they most similarly resemble machines, and are as a result more in tune with them.
>Goblins: Goblins are squishier than Skeletons or Autos, given that they have real fleshy bodies. They disguise this by wrapping themselves head to toe in all manner of clothing. Goblins are a deft and crafty folk to say the least!
>All the creatures of Under are powered by the mysterious essence known as Heart. Heart naturally appears whenever folk spend time together, enough so that even two friends wandering the dark will never go without sustenance: towns of folks produce enough Heart to power all sorts of fun machines!
>For heroic Folks, one's Heart can be manipulated to use powerful and mystical abilities! Be careful though, when one's body is damaged enough, one can become Heartbroken! This means that your Heart is all leaking out and you might fall Asleep if no one is around to help!
>Even the nasty creatures of the dark have a form of Heart that Friendly Folks can absorb: but taking Heart from Friendly Folks is just about the worst crime there is!

The mood is sort of like a cartoony Dark Souls with more hope: The world is dark and full of evil, but as long as we stick together, things can be alright.

>>50666330
Well, it was originally conceived as a one-sheeter and one-shotter, but to be entirely honest, after I've added all the bells and whistles I want and worked around some good experience system, I think it's campaign-viable, overall. I don't detest complex games, I just don't see the appeal anymore. Ascetisism kind of speaks to me, and while this is a game where your character sheet is literally an index card (it's very condensed), I see possibilities for campaign material, when I get some accompanying games ready. This is just the engine, after all.

Playtesting will happen tomorrow, so I'll see whether Despair is a fair system or an absolute homewrecker. Becoming a meatgrind is my biggest worry with it currently.

The other worry would be that Despair doesn't rack up at all. But we'll see. It also depends on the player, as different players might have wholly different levels of despair.

>>50672662
Essentially: Heart is a combination of mana, XP, and health. When you run out of Heart you don't die, you just go Asleep until you can get more Heart. (Being Asleep is unpleasant and definitely something you want to avoid).

I wanted combat to be pretty light mechanically, with maybe two or three categories of weapons and three tiers of armour. Statwise, I'd prefer maybe four core attributes, a health stat, and each player gets two or three skills, as well as a special Heart-related ability or two.

I'm not really sure, that's the problem.

>>50672662
I like it

>>50672662
>>50672747
Sounds like Dark Souls + Undertale, to be honest, and that's pretty neato.

Hmm... Maybe I could give you some pointers, I have some experience with systems. Do note that I can become overbearing at some points. If I go too far or off rails, I have no qualm about discarding any train of thought.

So, so so... Best way to implement a system like that...

Let's start with something fun(?), naming attributes. This can be a fun process if done right, but a heartwrenching and annoying if stuck.

Start with an acronym. Even though the number you specified was four, HEART would make a pretty nifty acronym for skills, would it not?

For example:

Heart (Why not use the same word twice)
Endurance (For your physical capability)
Affinity (For your social aptitude)
Reflexes (For quickness)
Thought (For intelligence)

Something something, think about how Heart would come into play:

-It seems to be the most important resource in the world, so in what kind of increments do you plan people having it? Single digits? Tens? Hundreds?

-If it works as health, mana and experience, how will you balance the risk and reward? How do you gain more Heart in the long run? Is faffing about with your friends enough or is a grand adventure a prerequisite for a grand heart?

Some other things you mentioned:

-Few weapon types and armor types: You can make them into a rock-paper-scissors type of deal, to keep the game fair, or make some progression in armor to make grand adventurers different from the rest.

There's some pointers to start with. Games that employ light and hope are welcome, because the dark and the gritty are getting pretty stale.

Hope any of this helps. Your game oozes potential for fun, so seeing it die wouldn't be fun.

Bamp

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I was trying to do my own Dark Souls inspired system, but now it seems everyone is doing them. I wasn't really trying to go for a super "let's replicate Souls combat in pen and paper form!" style system, because I think that's stupid, but I wanted to focus on Stamina, and having all actions in combat cost some sort of Action Point, with action points used for both attacking and defending, as well as movement and anything else. The idea is more to focus on every action being taxing and costly as opposed to trying to deal with timing and proper hit locations and all of that.

It's a d% system, but I'm honestly unsure how to handle damage, since I want as few rolls as possible. I don't want bloated health numbers, but the 10s place of a d% roll plus a weapon die plus the 10s place of the Strength mod has the potential for a *lot* of damage at the high end. I also wanted to do hit locations, though those might be a little too complicated.

------------------------------------------

But I'd actually come to the /gdg/ to ask if anyone knew of any card based systems for me to look at. I've been musing over that and wanted to try something. I was looking to ORE, but in general you'll never get a Width of more than 4, barring squishing the dice (removing two height to add one width... or is that squashing?). I'm also not sure what to do with face cards.
CthulhuTech V2 has the fucking dumbest solution available: Take out all the face cards and shuffle two decks together and have everyone draw from an 80 card deck. I'd much rather each player have their own deck.

I may use cards for said Soulsborne game, but I feel like cards are something that really only fits with a cowboy/Weird West style game or a Magical Girl game.

>>50675143
I usually like condensing things to a singular roll, but yours would probably work best if after the to-hit -roll, you roll for damage as usual, but the dice do different things. Tens dice would tell the hit location, ones dice would tell the damage bonus. Then, if you have the additional weapon damage AND static bonus from strength, I would say...

Ascending die type for additional damage rolls, maybe?

See, combine the strength bonus and weapon bonus to a single number (say, 34 str + 3 wpn damage = 6), and if the number is large enough, you get a bigger additional damage die. I call them damage tiers. For example:

1-2: 1d4
3-4: 1d6
5-6: 1d8
7: 1d10
8: 2d6
9: 2d8

And so forth.

Some effects can turn a damage tier up, so it's just the next in the list.

This 1) Reduces the mathematics
2) and in turn, makes combat faster
3) Doesn't have that ridiculous damage and health bloat

>Action points
Basically Shots from Feng Shui, make a single sheet of paper that has numbers from 0 to 20 or whatever the maximum there is for AP. Then everyone places their tokens on the paper, and the one with highest goes first.

Different actions take different amounts of AP, naturally.

>>50675822
Essentially you roll d%+XdY. If the d% is under your to-hit chance (so Dexterity+Melee, for instance) you succeed, then add your Strength Bonus and then the result of the XdY to the Bonus of the roll.

So let's say you roll 34, your Dex+Melee is 65, your Strength is 46, and your weapon die is a 2d6 that rolls 4. You do a total of 11 damage.
Your opponent would also get a chance to avoid this with their own Dodge or Parry roll, and then there's armour, though since I'm going for something more Bloodbornesque, that's likely to be low.

The problem here is that the damage could get as high as 20 before weapon dice. But then again, maybe I'll keep the maximum for traits below 60% before modifiers and skills.

>This 1) Reduces the mathematics
>2) and in turn, makes combat faster
I feel that comparing numbers to a chart makes things slower and increases the math. This is actually one of the reasons I'm against hit locations: Comparing your die roll to a chart is the only reasonable way to do them.

As for AP, that's not quite what I mean.
It's more that you'd have X AP and each action has a different AP cost. So if you want to do a regular attack that would be [W] where W is the weapon's base AP cost, but if you want an attack with a higher chance of hitting or an attack that deals additional damage, it might cost 2[W], and if you want to make a flurry of attacks, it might be 1.5[W]+.5[W] per additional attack. Things like Dodging would be [A], based on the base AP cost of your armour, and Dodging might be [A] while a combat roll to put yourself in a better position might be 1.5[A] and flat out breaking off an encounter and fleeing might be 2[A].

As opposed to breaking things up into Full Action, Half-Action, Swift Action, Standard Action, Reaction, etcetera, like so many games do.

Bomp?
Also, Misfortune thanks for being OP and keeping the thread alive, do you need any feedback/help on anything?

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Some time ago I came up with this Wounds system that would have a limited number of slots (in this case, 12) where characters would track their wounds. The basic gist of it is that attacks on a slot mark that slot once (/) representing a Wound, and hitting it again would give you another mark (X) that would represent a Severe Wound, your Severe Wound threshold being your primary health stat (Vigor) before you started being in risk of death.

You'd also have the little colored or empty dots beneath each slot representing your Armor, which would deflect damage but put your armor at risk instead.

However, I found some issues with it, which I tried to compile into the image. I really want to make this work, but I haven't been able to move past this issue as of yet.

Any suggestions?

>>50677190
General weapons have low dice ratings (1d4~1d8) and a "size" bonus (0~+4).
Ranged and precision weapons have larger dices (1d8~1d12), but you can take Aim before shooting taking penalties on your attack roll to add a modifier to you damage dice (-4~+4) (any result <0 or >12 is a miss)
Armor can be light, medium or heavy (1~4, 4~8 or 8~12)

>>50677190
I have no idea what I'm looking at. I'd suggest looking at the way that Chronicles of Darkness handles things, since you seem to be cribbing from them anyway. Or from Fate, I can't really tell.

You have a number of boxes equal to your Size (usually 5 for humans) plus your Stamina (so between 1 and 5, human average being 2).

There are three types of damage. / Bashing, X Lethal, and ※ Aggravated (not sure that symbol will show up on 4chan)

Fists and stun guns and so on do bashing, while weapons deal lethal. It takes severe trauma or magic to do Aggravated.

A melee attack would be rolling a dice pool equal to Strength+Weaponry minus the target's Defense, in d10s. Each of them that come up an 8, 9, or 10 are a success, and 10s are rerolled. You then add the success to the weapon's damage modifier and then subtract the opponent's armour from that number. Then you mark that many boxes of damage (which will likely be lethal). No matter how many health boxes you have, marking off the right three will give you a -1, -2, and -3 penalty, and having bashing damage in the rightmost box means having to roll Stamina to stay conscious. Any further damage will upgrade bashing boxes to lethal. If your rightmost health box is filled with lethal, you pass out automatically, any further damage upgrades to aggravated, and you start bleeding out at a rate of 1A per minute.

If I'm understanding your system right, you ONLY mark off the box equal to the roll's result? So if I roll d6 and get 6, my target would ONLY mark off 6? Wouldn't that kind of be shit, though? What happens if I just can't roll 1 but that's the last box they have unchecked? What if someone's Vigor is 5? Then no matter how many times they get stabbed with a dirk (1d4), they can't die. What if I stab someone and roll a 6 four times? Does that just not count? You actually have at least one ※ asterisk there, but how do you get that?

>>50676097
I was actually talking about the latter part of the damage system, not the hit location on 1) + 2). Hit locations are always tricky because they increase fiddling, but not the math necessarily. The only problem would be the increasing number of dice that could confuse the fuck out of players.

Alternatively to a randomized hit location system would be simple challenge upgrade: This would especially work on Dark Souls-scale boss enemies.

>Hitting its legs = +0
>Hitting its arm = +3
>Hitting its tail = +1
>Hitting its head = +5

For example, and the player simply decides whether they sacrifice missing to get that sweet critical headshot.

On AP-system, you still gonna want a token board. I have tried micromanagering six different players' AP, and that was beyond a handful (I used an abacus, absolutely awful). If the numbers, for example, would get to over 30-50 per round, some wizardry is needed to keep the numbers in check. Such as a tokenboard that has numbers 1-10 (the first digit) and then the player's sheet would have the last digit, or something.

That AP system seems like a handful, unless the individual crunched on the sheet beforehand AND this is done for all individual weapons the character carries.

>>50677159
I'll probably get myriads of feedback tomorrow when I playtest Misfortune. On the other hand, I have several other games on hiatus currently, because of various reasons, so maybe I'll ask about them at some point.

But not now, I'm too tired and I need to clean up my house for the game tomorrow *sigh*.

>>50677300
>>50677726
This is some prime feedback, I appreciate it.

>If I'm understanding your system right, you ONLY mark off the box equal to the roll's result? So if I roll d6 and get 6, my target would ONLY mark off 6? Wouldn't that kind of be shit, though? What happens if I just can't roll 1 but that's the last box they have unchecked? What if someone's Vigor is 5? Then no matter how many times they get stabbed with a dirk (1d4), they can't die. What if I stab someone and roll a 6 four times? Does that just not count? You actually have at least one ※ asterisk there, but how do you get that?

Most of those are also issues I'm trying to work on, I considered having some weapons instead of / deal / / / or / X / or similar patterns that affect more than one tile, the asterisk is a broken armored slot with a severe wound
What you pointed out with vigor is still an issue that I haven't been able to fix as of yet, but hopefully I'll be able to do something about it
Maybe I'm standing on an approach that simply doesn't work and I'll probably come up with something that allows me to have my way with the wounds while taking in account your feedback and concerns

One thing I did consider was that damage caused in the same slot would spill to the one(s) next to it, so for example your dirk that causes 1d4 damage would eventually spill to the 5th slot if you have 4 severe wounds, and rolling 6 four times would mean that you either cause severe wounds to 6 and 7, or that you cause light wounds to 5 and 7 instead of aggravating the 6th severe wound

>That feeling when you find the /gdg/ at work and don't have the time to type long questions and explanations on your phone.

Feels bad man. I need feedback on stuff.

>>50678433
Well, I can keep this thread alive for a while at least. I'm cleaning my up my house currently for the game tomorrow, so I can keep on bamping every so hours.

>>50677766
>I was actually talking about the latter part of the damage system, not the hit location
I know. But comparing things to a chart is why I'm so on the fence about hit locations.

Also, hit locations in Dark Heresy are based on your d% roll. 00 to 10 is one location, and so on.

AP is unlikely to be over 20, and characters can probably use counters or a die.

>>50678053
I think you should look to either Chronicles of Darkness or Fate. Although I have no idea how Fate's damage works. I'm not really sure WHY you'd want your system the way it is, where damage only affects one box. I mean, what does it accomplish?

>>50678983
Sure, if you feel you can manage it without token board. Token board just makes it easier to keep track whose turn it is, expecting that the turn order is by highest AP.

If it's not, what happens when a character runs out of AP?

>>50678433
Same. Worst part is, after I get home and finish making dinner, doing any dishes or laundry that needs done, and finally get to sit down at my computer, I forget what I needed to post.

>>50679216
That seems misfortunate. Well, it'll come to you eventually. I could try reviving these threads for shits and giggles, /tg/ has been bit of a bore lately without them.

>39 replies
That's not a lot to go by, still.

But maybe people who came here exclusively for /gdg/ have dispersed for the time, so probably just keeping making these threads is probably the cure for the infrequent population.

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>>50679737
Probably the best idea
I'm honestly surprised it's lasted this long
Wished I could have put some more in, but last night I had a Final and had Work this morning. Maybe we could do a Saturday Game Design General or something, schedules help people I've noticed, mostly with small Generals.

>>50679900
Not a bad idea. We could try something like that out when this thread dies out.

It just depends on the time zones, really.

What is a good amount of special abilities over a PC's career?

I'm working on a system with various specializations that grant combat abilities, but the abilities are piling up, and too much of a good thing is bad.

Right now, I'm setting my sights on the equivalent of one special combat ability per level in DnD.

>>50680324
Depends on the breadth of a single ability. Elaborate on that.

Like, if the special abilities are equivalent of Quirks in Boku no Hero Academia (Very applicable in multiple different situations with a lot of leeway how to use them) or whether they are like singular charms in Exalted (Does one specific thing REALLY WELL), the answer is going to vary wildly.

Safe estimates:

Widely applicable --> Maximum of three to four
Situationally applicable --> Maximum ten maybe
Really specific --> About twenty

>>50680577
First of all, thank you for your elaborate and helpful reply. Each ability will be pretty specific - think singular, active action (there are no passive abilities in this particular list at all), things like Whirlwind Attack or singular spells from DnD.

Characters can gain passive and active abilities from character options that are available to everyone but these "special attack" type deals are class-specific and should define the character in combat.

Twenty sounds about right. The abilities are fairly similar to your average DnD spell (not Wish or anything like that) in terms of applicability.

So in another thread, I was throwing around my idea for dice pools with "popping" dice for resolution, when someone misread it and how he understood it actually came up with an idea.

The basis is each player rolls a pool of D12's. How many is determined by stats, and each die that rolls a certain score, also stats, is a success. Rolls of unmodified '12' count as 2. The original idea is that a weapon's power modifies the roll needed for a 'pop', i.e. a power of 1 means any unmodified rolls of 11+ for the attacker counts as 2. The attacker rolls their dice and counts successes, while defender rolls and any successes cancels an attacker's. If there's any left, they become damage on the defender, and armor absorbs some before its applied, example: the defender has 1 armor and takes 2 damage, you only apply 1 because of the armor.

What was the misunderstanding was the guy was thinking of it as armor working like power; it causes an increase in "pops" on the defense roll. This adds a symetrical take on the rolls, but at the cost of a more steady result of armor. Its goes from a guaranteed 1 armor stops 1 damage to a variable of how much it stops, but also allows higher values. The current system means the more armor, a dramatic decrease in potential damage taken. What do people think, stick with the old system, or go with the more dynamic, but less reliable system?

>>50682232
It is important to have consistency within a system, so having something modify the defend roll the same way as the attack roll would make sense.

However, that might not be armor. Perhaps a shield could manipulate defence pops while armor absorbs damage.

>>50682361
Well, terms can be juggled around. Right now, its 3 offensive stats and 3 defensive stats.

Offense has:
>Attack Skill - What's needed to score a success
>Strikes - How many dice you roll
>Power - Modifies "popping"

And defense has:
>Defense Skill - What's needed to score a success to counter the attack's roll
>Protection(?) - Number of dice rolled
>Armor - The currently debated stat, either a flat absorb, or a counter-power that modifies "pops"

I'm not even happy with "protection", need a better name there.

>>50679125
A character with no AP can't do anything. It'll probably be an option to trade life for AP, or even to reduce your maximum AP for the rest of the encounter. Just like running out of Stamina in Dark Souls, there's not much you can do other than move around.

>>50683070
The system I'm working on allows stamina (AP) to be burnt to keep acting. If maximum stamina hits 0 the character passes out.

I find its a good way to simulate a person pushing themselves to the point of collapse and think it's a good idea for most AP systems.

Burning life for more AP is a risky prospect that I like, but I don't think that option should be available to everyone. Burning HP for more actions could be an option to certain classes/species.

File: Majestic Knight in Red Cape.jpg (113KB, 600x800px) Image search: [Google]

113KB, 600x800px

>>50680944
Remember to look at them not as a GM but as a player. I've designed enough abilities that looked balanced only for my players to find some insane use for it I didn't think of.
Good start though.

>>50682595
Instead of protection, you could use reaction or reflex to represent the number of dice rolled.

>>50688709
Yeah, like that better.

Do you guys think it's even remotely possible to somehow combine medieval fantasy and science fantasy into one setting? Future weapons, magic, knights, and spaceships? or is that too autistic?

>>50689686

People have done it before.

Check out ASE (Anomalous Subspace Environment) and Endless Legend.

>>50689686
Yes, but it has to be delicately handled. This might be more /wbg/'s thing.

>>50690175
Thanks for the information
>>50690237
Thanks for the info, I asked here because I may make a homebrew of it one day for my group, after a lot amount of planning and research. I just wanted to test the waters, make sure it's not too far fetched

>>50690374
I went and did a high sci-fi/Stone Age fantasy mix one time and I thought it came out okay.

>>50690730
Yor, Hunter from the Future?

So /gdg/, now that school's out for christmas break I've got some time to work on my projects. Tell me what to spend my time on:

1) Rewrite a partial system from memory and actually put it into google docs this time so the same thing doesn't happen againsince the original was lost to computer failure. Its my main project and has the most done, but also the most still to do. Its anachronistic fantasy that has elements from anywhere between ~400BC to 1800AD where you can build anything from the parts provided. Its like a Build-a-Char Workshop.

2) Actually do something with an pseudo-minimalist Ace Combat homebrew that I've just stopped working on. I haven't really been able to playtest it in any sense and it still needs some basic rules like plane and weapon statistics, but at least I have a google doc. It's also the closest to playtesting and release of the three, but that's only if the core mechanics don't need to get trashed..

3) delve deeper into a conceptual game where even the rules want you to fail. Everything, from the mechanics to the aesthetic is negative. This one has some more difficult problems like "How do I remove the idea of bonuses from the game?". The only thing I have is notes and a decent idea of the game's feeling. I just need to figure out how to translate that into mechanics.

Tell me what to spend my free time on.

I have a moba-esque game i asked for opinion on last thread

I am thinking whether to use dice for randomization or cards with numbers and/or additional effects

What would be a smooth way to emulate "level up powers" like in Pokémon and other JRPGs? For example, you've got a pool of powers which can be learned at certain levels, one or two powers at once. It would be easy to emulate in Fate, except that you cannot learn the better powers unless you have tried to learn the weaker first. Moreover, the powers are not unique to each character, so everyone could learn different things before.

I'm trying to do away with levels and XP, and looking for ways where this could be justified by narrative instead. The simpler the better.

>>50692125
I think some of the ease would depend on some other factors of the game existing. How do you plan on getting rid of levels and xp without creating pseudo-levels? and for that matter, how do you have characters learn level up moves when they don't level up?

>>50692125
>>50692225
Fuck I forgot to specify that this is for Fate. Fate specifically doesn't have levels or XP, and everything is narrative driven. In fact I'm trying to hack in such level up moves without resorting to levels and XP.

>>50692278
I'm not familiar with Fate (though I should probably start with all the questions I haven't been able to answer)

Perhaps you could go the FF6 route and have "Magicite" that people attune to. Whenever is narratively appropriate, have them learn the first move and just go down the list. Magicite doesn't have to be unique and might be swapped out at any time. There's a metagame in FF6 of giving characters different magicite at different times so that they can get optimal spells and stats, so mimicing that aspect might be a good solution.

>>50689686
Working on something similar right now

>>50692329
>I'm not familiar with Fate (though I should probably start with all the questions I haven't been able to answer)
You should check it out at least. Being super hackable is one of its features.

>Perhaps you could go the FF6 route and have "Magicite" that people attune to.
Wait, so characters get Magicite and this lets them learn powers and such, right? When do they get this Magicite?

>>50689686
For settings with this feature, check out Phantasy Star, a videogame. It's exactly what you're asking for.

>>50692386
In lore its the husk of a dead Esper, but in game they're just items like FF7's Materia. Its like a variation of FF's job system. Equip Ramah and get experience to learn lightning spells, Odin for Fire(?) and Shiva for Ice. In fact, just check it out http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Magicite_(Final_Fantasy_VI). I think it serves the purpose you want without needing the numbery bits.

I want to make a quick system, so I reduced the attack + damage to one roll only. But added damage is the roll minus target AC. And additional effects happen at each 3 points over the AC. I'm afraid this might make the resolution slower than rolling for damage and such.

>>50692433
I was thinking something like that. But, there is a problem.

Let us assume that we can actually change the Magicite. And we do, right at the middle of learning the next spell. And, narratively speaking, we're at a point where learning the basic spell of the new Magicite is pointless and we should be learning something better instead.

One thing that just came to my mind is to allow the character to learn all powers with learning requirement less than X, X being the amount of magic points (in terms of FF) that is needed to learn the next power, and up to the first power with that requirement.

For example let's assume that we're learning a power that takes 5x to learn, and we change our level up movepool. The character now automatically is able to learn all powers with requirement of 10x and all the MP earned is now transferred to the first power with 5x requirement.

Y/N?

>>50692501
Responding to my post.

This has a weakness. If the player gets a way to learn a move with high requirements, and changes the movepool, the player can abuse this system by learning a lot of stuff at once. This can easily become broken.

Jesus this is difficult.

>>50692501
Maybe. Those numbers are basically just the order that they should be organized with higher numbers learned first. In some cases you'd want to learn the basic spell anyway, so for that I don't think you'd really need to change anything. In the event that you've already learned a lower tier skill, then maybe go ahead and convert the effort.

The only odd part is when you have two equivalent skills that aren't related, like two x5 skills with the same X10 skill. Maybe you learn Fire 2 95% of the way, and then swap it out for another that grants Cure 2 instead. The next battle grants you that last 5%, but you've only been wearing the second for a single fight. They both teach you Fire 1, so you don't need to learn that again, but would that make narrative sense to learn Cure 2 so quickly? You could always design your own Magicite to avoid those problems, but in some senses you would get the benefit out of the effort you put into it. On the other hand, having to track all those partial skills would be a pain. Again, you could design it so that you only ever get one skill of each level (x10, x5, x2 etc) and you can get partial conversion when equipping another magicite, and that might alleviate some problems.

It's ultimately for you to decide.

>>50692629
Btw I'm talking about a metaphorical Magicite. I'm not going to add items because it doesn't make sense - my idea is to replace this with a Fate equivalent, a stress track that indicates training.

The reason why it cannot be changed when a power with different requirements is being learned is because this could cause another system abuse. If a move with low reqs fills the track too fast and the player decides to change the movepool (it can happen in a limited fashion), then they could easily abuse it by filling a too powerful power with too little effort.

>>50692629
speaking on the partial conversion, it could make narrative sense. You could justify something like 50% conversion as being the aptitude required to use higher level skills. The other 50% might be specific to the individual skill you're learning, so in that 95%vs5% stiuation, you could retain up to 50% of your total effort (or cut your current investment in half, whichever you prefer). The other 50% would be specific to learning Cure 2 over Fire 2 for example.

>>50692673
I figured.

To fix that problem you'd just need to make separate tracks and invert the numbers to match (which I would do from the beginning anyway). A basic spell might finish in 5, while a higher spell might finish in 10, 20, or 50. Or depending on how the track works, it might be 1, 5 or 10 times that it's completely filled. Those numbers will just be changed to whatever makes sense. Matching the concept is more important than matching the numbers.

>>50692705
Hm, maybe the solution is simpler: force the character to learn weaker skills if they haven't learned, or tried to learn, them yet. What's the worse that could happen? They're trading one thing for another so that's their calculated risk, isn't it?

>>50692778
>worse
Worst*

>>50692443
So players roll attack+damage with the enemies AC as the target, and every point over that is damage?

I'm not seeing how that is any more complex than rolling to hit then rolling for damage.

>>50694149
It is common to assume pluses are easier to math than minuses. So damage being (roll - AC) + weapon (fixed number) could be slower than two rolls.

And that (easy and quick math) was what kept me with a d20 and its linearity (and 5% steps) instead of a 3d6 bell curve (or a d%).

>>50692778
Its what I would do. The lower tier skills might even be desirable on their own so that shouldn't cause an issue.

I'm making a game where players roll for successes. More dice rolled mean more chances of success, more successes result in greater outcomes.

As it stands I plan on the chance of any die being a success to be 50%. However, rolling the maximum value on a die results in a critical effect. These effects are specific to the action taken.

What might /gdg/s opinion be on the size of die I should use? Thus far I've been assuming d10s, but I could potentially use any die type. The only difference being the odds of getting crits.

Would you, as players, prefer to see crits more or less often?

As an example; the basic attack action allows you to launch your target one space per crit in a direction of your choice. An average player would probably be rolling 4-5 dice for this action.

>>50698280
Maybe look into WoD or Exalted to see how they do success-based rolling.

Personally I think d6 is still best for dice pools due to the divisibility of the number 6 in comparison to 10.

Although a d12 dice pool would be dreamy because all them divisors. Especially if something to the effect of coloring different sections of the dice with different colors.

>>50698362
Continuing to the actual question you talked about, a possible solution would be crit confirmation, meaning two maximums would trigger a single crit.

/gdg/, I was working on a card game with card zones similar to the Neopets card game, but I've been trying to figure out how to make it more tactical without adding a lot of mental load to players. Basically, I want the order and arrangement of the cards in the zone to matter when it comes to targeting effects and dealing damage.

Is that too limiting though? Would it be too easy for players to forget it?

>>50665636
Game Design is probably a seasonal interest. Personally, I haven't been able to work on anything until now because I just recently had finals to finish up.

Also, maybe you guys can help me out. I'm trying to engineer a system that can be used for basic tactical style combat (think like Xcom) but I also want some of that 'action movie' thing going on.

I think I can do both, but I'm looking for suggestions on the actual firearm mechanic and core rolling system. I want to give guns mechanical differences, but I can't make anything too in-depth as my players are all ADHD. I was thinking of maybe giving guns a Rate of Fire and when rolling degrees of success determine how many shots hit, followed by rolling damage for each hit.

Can you anons think of any well-executed shooting mechanics for pen and paper games?

>>50700404
There us a game called Zombiecide (or something like that) that had an attack system that, in my opinion, was pretty solid.

A weapons stats were:
Range. How far away a target could be.
Dice. How many d6s were rolled when you fired it.
Hit. The value you have to roll or roll over to hit. (3+ would be 3, 4, 5 and 6, for example)
Damage. How much damage the weapon deals on hit.

The game had good diversity in its weapons. Some rolled a ton of dice but only hit on 5+, others had few but accurate dice. There were differences in range and damage, all sorts of possible combinations.

You could go further and add qualities to the weapons in your game. For example, maybe a scope let's you reroll misses.

>>50701189
Thanks brother, I may tweak that or borrow ideas. I hadn't considered not using skills to determine hit. Making it a weapon choice makes your equipment matter a lot more.

>>50701970
Weapon skill could instead work backwards. Being unskilled brings penalties, while being skilled results in the stat block as presented.

>>50702062
That's not a bad idea, I may use that.

I've got a 3-hr drive ahead of me, and sleep if I'm lucky, but at the rate /tg/ moves the thread ought to be fine. I may bounce some more ideas off of you in the coming days if /gdg/ is still around. Thanks for your help

>>50702357
I've got a 26 hours drive myself, so here's hoping /gdg/ is still alive by Friday. Maybe my questions will have been answered by then too.

>>50702357
>>50702394
I do my best to help where I can and ask what questions I can find non confusing wording for.

So long as other anons bring their issues to the thread, I will be trying to answer them. (I may or may not also be withholding answers until the thread hits page 9)

RATE MY SIDE-QUEST(middle to high fantasy, low character level game)
party enters a town on their way someplace

rumors abound regarding the road being extra bad this year just one stretch of road on the far side of the village and the surrounding forest, and its been getting progressively worse

villager1;;;"the merchants have to have someone watch the horses at night"

villager2;;;"I swear I saw a pair of wolves and a bear working together to break open my hen-house, ate them all!"
////
///
//
/
several small packs of wolves attack the party on the road prioritizing smaller targets(children, gnomes, etc.) or the weak and wounded, going after already downed opponents rending chunks of flesh where possible.

mauled and mostly eaten bodies are found on the roadway, pilgrims of a god to wanderers. tracks and dribbles of blood, can be followed to the ruined crumbled remains of a small tower.

fights and beasts and heavily gnawed bones getting thicker all the way to the old ruin.

a pair of dire-wolves reside in the basement of the tower sleeping around a half-buried sphere of polished onyx inlaid with brass and copper wires.

it cannot be dstroyed by any process available to the party. magical detection has it individually highly strong and neutrally alligned, with gentle emanations or slight magical radiation.
////
///
//
/
there is no immediate effect for holding this sphere, but over a month of close-ish proximity a simple continuous Willpower Test causes entities to begin consuming more food. supplies are consumed faster and faster a weeks food is eaten in 5 days more water is drunk.

once the will check is failed a harder check starts, and when it is failed an impossible amounts of food begin being consumed. characters get aggressive if food is withheld.

a week outside of contact with the sphere removes these effects.

>what might the sphere do/be?
>I thought of one thing but it may not pan out

>>50679900
THIS

is there a good term for a gunslinger specialization that focuses on two small weapons in close quarter combat? like pistols or sub machine guns?

Yeah, gunslinger could work, but I like the idea of that being the name of the class itself and having X amount of specializations for the class to choose from.

>>50677190

Well, the range of the weapon is the main factor, so the smaller range weapons are more dangerous as you note. High and low really doesn't have any actual tie-in to the effect of the weapon, do drop high=good, low=bad entirely.

Armor gives so many dots that players can put anywhere they want. So say a player gets 5 dots of armor, they cover 1,2,5,6 and 7 with armor.

Weapons are a dice of damage, but bonuses/penalties allow players to shift the number rolled around, but up to the weapon's dice. So a sword at d6+3 is actually the range of 1-9.

This means that the first few attacks just kind of fall where ever, and give the players some idea of where armor is/isn't on the target, or other wounds to aim for.

After a couple hits, they start start looking to pull the same number, so say they've hit 2,3 and 4 on previous 5 armor target. The players know that 2 is armored, but 3 and 4 are not, so when the long sword comes up and rolls a 5, the player uses his +3 bonus to modify the roll down to 3 or 4. (Maybe allow a hit with extra mods left over to do an extra damage).

You could armor up better against the smaller weapons (more armor on the lower ranges) but big range weapons could get nasty since they'll pass such armor up more often than not.

>>50703571
pistolier?
doublefire?
deuces wild?
wild-card?

>>50703633
Perfect thank you. For some reason I just had a mental block on this subject. Earlier, I couldn't even remember what the hell a clipboard was called.

>>50703678
sure thing.

whats your opinion on this miniquest module?>>50703211

I figure a sphere of gluttony might have some neat uses to a mage or alchemist or some other creature...

>>50703744
I mean is the side-quest passably idiot-resistant

I want for there to be very few loopholes

>>50703744
as for side quests, this seems very in fashion and what i would expect one to be like. As for your question in green text: The sphere could be a conduit for something embodying the sin of gluttony. Think like frostmourne from warcraft. Through a series of events your party would eventually have to track down the 6 other spheres representing the other sins.

Although I could just be reading too far into your question and overstepping my boundary, suffice to say, your formatting confused me with the forward slashes and semi colons.

>>50703880
>frostmourne from warcraft
???
assume I live under a rock...

>the 6 other spheres representing the other sins.
I was thinking stuff with wendigoes but thats some other ideas, especially as a side-quest series...perhaps the 7 spheres unlock some secret macguffin fortress as a potential player retirement location.

>Although I could just be reading too far into your question and overstepping my boundary
no boundary to step over. I was asking for opinions and ideas and you got me some.

>>50703970
Frostmourne is a blade that belongs to the Lich king in the warcraft universe. A prince named Arthas found the blade and eventually it lead him into madness, and eventually (after culling his own kingdom, to save them from a plague turning them undead) becoming the Lich king himself. It's a pretty cool story, if you want to experience it play warcraft 3 some time.

Also, I would drop some very subtle hints in the quest, not a lot, but award the astute. You said the dire wolves were living in a basement, so if the rest of the home is still inhabited maybe the other villagers could remark how that family has been eating like pigs lately.

>>50704067
it's an old nearly abandoned tower so old it's more like a first floor and round basement.

the wolves just moved into the basement as a good place to sleep.

the chest the orb was stored in finally just rotted away enough to let it's powers out into the world around it.

party hitting this doesn't have a wizzard or even a fullcaster so I have to decipher

>>50703571
Gun Kataist?

I want to make a magic system where you have actual rules about how different reagents and components react to create potions, alchemical concoctions, etc. so that players can make their own potions on the fly with the ingredients they have on hand. I might also want to extend that to spells, though I haven't yet figured out how to handle component costs.

I'm thinking of either doing a point-based system for convenience, or making it so that the effectiveness of potion-brewing decreases with more ingredients you add.

The question I have is: I haven't encountered an RPG yet that has such a system. Is it too complex to expect players to use as opposed to just buying potions of health or poisons of whatever?

Should I even bother?

>>50698280
Dude, I was doing the opposite. Success is a given, dice are added to resolve things that might go wrong. More factors you have to overcome, more dice. Say your trying to pull yourself up onto a ledge. One die, do you pull up. Now there are zombies. Two dice, you've goto pull up BEFORE the zombies catch your ankle. Say you're with a child, and you've goto host him up from the top. Now you've goto make essentially the same roll twice.

Each failure rolled gave you one XP. The problem was with figuring out how to break down situations into these distinct threats. You run into the problem of being able to reasonably argue for almost any amount of dice. Do you add another die because you've goto outrun the zombies and have time to pick the kid up? Is that really just one speed contest? What's going on?

>>50706135
That sounds like a dream system (the alchemy one specifically); I tried making one way back, I probably don't even have my notes anymore from it.

That said though, it is made for very specific type of players, and usually those systems get broken FAST.

Like, I had this weird magic system based on symbols, and the first person I talked about it to invented a way to create life out of thin air, or how to cause someone eternal pain in death and rebirth forever.

Granted, that person is a homebrewer and a novelist, so creativity was to be expected.

So, to answer your question: It's gonna be hard, but it can be rewarding as all hell. The problem is with balance, of all things. How do you make it that alchemists don't become overpowered but still useful?

And why couldn't they buy potions? It's not like the party alchemist is the only alchemist in the world. The alchemy tables would, in the end, be a niche thing, so not every party would even have an alchemist.

>>50703783
I appreciate your use of the term idiot - resistant.

I've been trying to idiot - proof my stuff for years and I'm starting to think it can't be done.

>>50709119
the use of proper terms is important

no armor us bullet PROOF
no fortress is UNBREAKABLE
no set of instructions is Idiot PROOF
no machine is ABSOLUTELY SAFE

so you have to make things resistant to bullets and idiots is the best you can do.
making the fortress hard to break is the point, and making the machines to prevent injury where possible

but people are stupid so I have to check stuff.

Do you like game documents with little lore or traditional writing in them that don't have anything directly to do with game mechanics, or do you prefer them blunt and to the point?

>>50709414
I don't mind fluff being in a game manual, but it needs to be separate and easily distinguished from the crunch.

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I'm interested in creating a homebrew wargame/RPG, just something to play with friends. But I don't know what the best dice mechanics would be for something that hits a sweet spot of hitting/missing 50% of the time, while modifiers still matter for the various bonuses provided by the unit's abilities or terrain.

I think a single d6 would limit the number of meaningful modifiers available, though it does have a clean 1-3 fail 4-6 success roll.

2d6 seems to give enough space for that sweet spot if I place the average target number to hit being 7, though I may not be understanding it completely.

What are some dice mechanics in other games that are able to reach this target number or at least make rolling something that seems fair rather than usually missing rather than hitting? I've made little playtest projects before and one of the biggest problems are broken dice mechanics - consistently.

>>50710151
The method I've been working with might work for you, or at least give some insight.

Players roll a number of dice equal to whatever stat they're using, each has a 50% chance of success. More dice means more chances of success and more successes means greater effects.

Modifiers don't change how the dice are rolled, they simply change how many dice a player is rolling.

This can sometimes result in players rolling huge piles of d6s, but there's a certain satisfaction there that they seem to enjoy.

This system doesn't lend itself very well to flat modifiers, but it can have other bonuses such as being able to reroll failures or straight up changing successes to 3+.

>>50710260
That isn't something I considered, thank you.

Creating a tactile sensation to throw a fistful of dice if you manage to use a powerful advantage is like rewarding good play in a way. I'll see what I can do with it.

>>50710151
You can get 50% on any dice, when using multiple dice to know the average (target number for 50% of success) use the following equation: Target= (Min.Roll Value+Max.Roll Value)/2
Dicepool can be a bit more complex if you want to know all the odds, here follows a program to help anyone working with dicepools
http://anydice.com/program/a1a6

>>50710794
For success/fail dice pool rolls, a good rule to remember is that the fifty-fifty spot for rolling required amount of successes goes up by one for every two dice added.

For one success, you have 50% success chance with one dice. For two successes, with three dice. For three successes, with five dice. And so on.

>>50710794
>>50711087
Thank you for your input. I've played around with anydice before but I didn't know stuff like this was possible.

>>50710690
Trust me, going from throwing a couple dice to a shit ton is a great feeling as a player.

That's why I love using Disintegrate in Pathfinder. If I hit, get past their SR and they fail their save I get to roll 30d6. I need both god damn hands to hold them all and anyone not paying attention to the game immediately focuses.

>>50712881
Well, it's one thing if you do it once a while ok, but if it's your favorite spell and you are going to be casting it again and again I would make you roll "only" 10d6 and multiply that by 3

If I already have a system in place to represent things like physical size and strength difference, damage stats limited to weapons, yay or nay?

>>50714742
ay? limit damage stats to weapons but throw in some improvised weapons (sharp and blunt)

>>50714677
I can only use it via staff, so it's more of a special event sort of deal when I cast it.

Which is something I really like. It's like my ultimate attack or finishing move, not something to be spammed.

>>50714896
Its going to be used in a wargame using the ideas in:
>>50682232
>>50682595
so improvised isn't a big deal. I just want to avoid how a lot of games do it, which is different profiles for weapons depending on ranged or melee, and unnecessary stats on the model that only cover melee or ranged combat. I'm looking at you, 40k, with your extra close combat stats.

for the attribute of 'Intelligence' should I combine willpower and wisdom into it? For a home brew project? I'm feeling stumped here. if not, how could i differentiate the three?

Hey /gdg/, I come to you in a time of need.

I recently designed a CCDG system in the format of recent trendsetters (Ashes, Marvel Dice Masters, Star Wars: Destiny) which, in playtest at least, is quite fun without being too much of a clone of any of the big contenders. However, the theme I was using does not suit the system.

In play, the system feels almost like a brawling game. One of my playtesters said it felt like playing the tabletop version of 'Super Smash Bros' and another compared it to the arcade fighters of the late eighties. This is fine, but now I'm strapped for a theme. Which leaves me wondering, in your opinions:

How important is it that mechanics match theme? Should I ignore the arcade feel of the system and continue marrying the system to its current, more serious, historical subject matter? If not, do you personally prefer a unified concept, or a series of concepts from which you can mix and match? Hell, anyone have a good theme for a brawling card and dice game where two teams of fighters square off that isn't gladiators or superheroes?

Thanks

>>50718697
I'm a fan of minimalism, so for me I'd combine the three attributes into a single 'Mind' attribute. What is willpower, wisdom and intelligence if not strength of mind?

Of course, then you can't mechanically express an idea like a wise professor with a weakness for beautiful dames, but that kind of thing can always be resolved through: A) roleplaying or B) a system of specific strengths/weaknesses.

>>50707483
>it is made for very specific type of players, and usually those systems get broken FAST.

I think I want it to be broken by the players. The idea is to sort of give them basic elements and ideas, and see where they take it. I definitely agree that it's for only certain types of players, but the sort of person who'd worry about which spells to take every day in D&D or what the most effective feats over the course of a campaign are is the sort of person I'm designing the system for. I know that I myself, while I enjoy the simple magic-creating system in Tyranny, don't care all that deeply about it.

I was thinking, in regards to balance, is that there are limitations on what can be done with just pure alchemy as opposed to magic spells and words. Like, just because of the ingredients you have you're limited in the effect of mixing. I was also thinking maybe these items would have a point cost, and mixing more and more of them would increase the points used, until it's impossible to brew anything without basically rolling 1% chances.

As for buying potions, well, why can't they co-exist? The party could just buy potions, and if there are no players who care they wouldn't have to do anything. But if they find themselves in the middle of an adventure and need healing and all they have are some berries and roots, hey. It could be useful.

>>50710260
That sounds like fun.

How do you decide what dice to use in a homebrew RPG?

I want to use d20 because that's what everyone knows and I like the probabilities. But d6s seem more homebrewy and simpler for players to pick up. And d100s are probably the easiest to determine odds for when players have to roll.

>>50720524
if your goal is to make big bucks, theme is very important

Can someone explain to me what effect different dice probabilities have? I understand pros and cons of basic stuff like 3d6 vs d20 but I don't understand which system would be best for realizing my design ideas. I'm not sure I'm explaining this right. For example I have many 4 lvls to a skill and no other stuff that interacts with that skill. I want to make every lvl feel like a big bump in power but how do I know what probabilities count as big in players head? Or say I have many skill lvls, 20 for example, but I don't want to keep all lvls competitive between themselves. Like lvl 10 can fight with lvls 6-14 but beyond that it is almost autowin or autolose. I know a lot of this comes down to playtesting and actual mechanics, not just dice, but I hope there is some math that I can use to make my job easier.

>>50720730
What kind of game is it (setting etc) and who is it aimed at (casuals/hardcore)?

I feel like d6's for casuals and lite systems of any setting, and for modern settings. d20's for more experienced players, and especially for medieval settings (they love those funny dice). d100 for sci-fi and tacticool, and hardcore gamers. Personal opinion alert: don't mix dTypes, it feels archaic.

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>>50721118
I'm about to step into work, but you should acquire this book if you want to really master probabilities.

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>>50721118
>>50721167
Here's the page explaining 3d6 and probability curves.

>>50720550
the mind idea is top notch. Thanks man.

>>50721145
Medieval fantasy, something like the 1100s. I was thinking it'd have a low skill ceiling and be easy for casual players to pick up, but have complexity that'd make it more interesting for more experienced rollplayers. I like rules-lite, but I also like probabilities to be gameable and bonuses to be meaningful.

I only didn't want to mix dice types because I wanted it to be accessible to casuals, otherwise I would totally go with different dice for different skill tests.

So what's the recommended program for PDF layout and authoring? I'm not ready for publishing and play testing yet, but I'd like to be able to see my text in layout to get a better ideal of pacing and readability soon.

>>50721533
If you've got money, Adobe Indesign (Of course), but if not, Scribus is a good, free alternative that I see thrown around a lot.

>>50721118
3d6 have numbers float to a common one. It is easier to get 10 in 3d6 than with a d20.
So, if you want raw numeric bonus to really matter (and be scarce), 3d6 is the go.

>>50720959
But is it important that theme and mechanics meld, or is it okay to have mechanics as a separate mini-game over which theme is draped?

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Has anyone thought about doing a single player game?

I've taken a few looks at those "Choose your own adventure" threads and a lot of them don't really seem to be about choosing an adventure so much as character creation without a game. I kind of want to do a game that's an actual CYOA, where you roll on random tables for what happens next and try to use the resources you have to make choices that pay off in the long run. Sort of a pen and paper version of Darkest Dungeon (which I unfortunately haven't played; hopefully it'll be on Steam sale).

Essentially you start out with a handful of choices like a CYOA, but then you actually *use* those for something. I'm not sure how to make random tables interesting, though.

Current idea is to break the game into a few different aspects. First is the CYOA style "here is your money, here are your starting options" section. You buy your starting set up (base, gear, minions). Then you get to send them out on missions, where they more or less act based on a script. Missions will also be broken up into phases, to determine whether the adventurers can do their job, how badly they're hurt, and then what the rewards are. Then they come back and there's another sort of resource management phase.

Characters can have quirks or special abilities that trigger in the various stages. Whenever it comes to things like that, I always tend to think to Magic, which has a really good handle on triggered abilities and a lot of choices. I kind of want something that has a feel similar to a single player version of Magic. Only with dice instead of cards.

Not sure how to accomplish that without being super fucking complicated, though. Does anyone know of any good single player RPGs?

So I've been working on my system which is currently roll under d12 with heavy use of modifiers and rerolls which are earned by skill score. Is this the best way to put emphasis on skills/values? I know pools tend towards the middle more but I'd rather have some variance that makes skills matter than not.

Sorry if this is stupid, dice theory is a weakness of mine that I really struggle with getting my head around alone.

>>50723104
There were huge in the eighties, especially Lone Wolf (see below). Mongoose tried to revive it about ten years ago, but no one bit. Now might be the time for a revival, though... Especially if you can write some kind of app tie-in.

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Wolf_(gamebooks)

>>50722444
Think about mechanics as tools to achieve a result, for instance do you think that it would be the best choice to play a flying fighting robots in space game using WoD core system? Probably not.
Combat should too be a reflect of this, playing a gritty game of investigators, then combat should probably be simple and brutal.
For instance, based on your inspirations and what you described about your combat system, your game should be about "champions", people above the norm, capable of defeating anyone easily (except for another champion)

>>50723104
I'm not sure if going TTRPG-ish is the best choice, I would rather make/play a single-player board game/card game.

On that note, random tables can get tiring/boring quite fast, it could make things cheaper but not better (A deck or app for all those random events would be much better).

>>50723963
>your game should be about "champions"
Good call. I started shifting it from historical factions to historical figures and it's starting to feel a lot more appropriate.

>>50724983
It looks like it could be fun, once you have something resembling an alpha version share it with us...

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I really want to make a wargame but I never played one before
Should I dive in without experience?

>>50725434
At least read up rules of one thoroughly before. That's for any game you're trying to make, really.

Maybe read up on one old one and one new one (preferrably a new edition), see what pitfalls the old design had.

>>50723104
I feel like if you're doing single-player you're either going to do a Quest or a video game.

>>50689686
Writing a novel in this kind of setting right now, actually.

>>50691935
How do you manage to not do #2 after that kickass Ace Combat 7 trailer at this year's PSX? What is wrong with you?

>>50725434
While playing some is a good idea, it'd be more important to expose yourself to as many as possible. Hit up the 40k, WHFB, Mantic, and /awg/ generals, throw yourself through the various rulebooks. Some popular games have the rules for free on their websites, like Privateer Press, Infinity, Dark Age, Wrath of Kings. If you can, cut out sone paper tokens and play a few quick games, even if its only against yourself. If nothing else, you'll start to get a feel for spatial awareness and how actual mechanics playing out feels. You don't have to be a veteran that knows every game system out there by heart, but you do need to expand your horizons. Easy mistake it being influenced by only one or two game systems and getting stuck in just making clones of them.

>>50726122
>>50727930
I've already read the rules to several games that interest me but never had the chance to play but personally just reading rules isn't enough for me.

>>50728247
So, this may sound kinda stupid and over-done, but a good starting practice is writing a ruleset for using plastic army men. The reasoning is that everyone knows what a plastic army man is, and they are standard, so you can focus on how you write. It allows you to focus on how you translate ideas from concept to the playing field, which is the point of wargame rules. And because its for something that people are familiar with, you don't need to get hung up on the technical writing just yet. Eventually you'll have to approach from a stance of "My player has no idea what the game pieces are going to be like, so I'll have to introduce them to it", but for now, focus on your writing and mechanics while using a standard base to work from.

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>>50691935
I can give you pointers on number 3 -->

Check out my game, up top and pic related (A little bit newer version). It is KIND of similar, except things like bonuses do exist.

>Your stats are weaknesses, the higher the weakness, the harder the roll
>Roll-over system, rolling same or under your stat means the roll fails
>Emphasis on character's problems, pretty freeform overall in execution, those
>If you are failing in a roll, you can take despair to succeed
>If you have taken despair recently and roll under your despair, you take a Detriment, third of which (in sequence) is death

The tone in my game is more mocking than outright hostile, even the positive modifiers characters can have are called "Saving graces."

If you want to emphasize negativity, take strides from that one guy here had as a negative dice pool. Instead of each 6 being a success (for example), each 1 is a failure. The more failures you have the worse you fuck up the action.

And don't remove bonuses from the game, just make them negative. Call them detriments (or so) and have the best rolls be ones where character has no detriments. Like, each detriment adds one more die to the pool, but what if they add different sized dice? Like, a minor detriment would add a d8, moderate d6 and a major d4 or something.

>>50729253
>>50728247
Adding, another good practice is to write things for a system that you like. This is how I started, used to homebrew stuff for WHFB. What it does is allows you to practice writing while working within an already defined set. Good practice for things like additional rules expansions later on, like new army choices and such.

>>50721167
tnx I ordered it

>>50721691
>Money
I pirated the entire CS6.0

>>50723408
I meant a roleplaying game, not a CYOA RPG book. I used to play some of those that were Star Wars based.

>>50723963
A board game is a likely end result, but for now random tables are easier to handle than cards. If I like what I've got, I can put them on cards.

An app is basically out, since I wouldn't know how.

>>50727112
Quests are stupid. I'm more looking to do an analogue version of a procedurally generated game.

>>50730012
There's nothing wrong with quests. They're basically singleplayer RPGs except you have more than one person making decisions for one character. Otherwise they're basically the same as RPGs.

>>50730133
Twitch Plays Pokemon. But I don't want to argue about quests.

So ideally

Attributes primarily determine accuracy of results and potential heights of success.

Skills primarily determine precision of results, making you hit your high possibilities more often and sharply reduce the likelihood of abject failure.

Equipment primarily determines. . . ?

I'm having trouble figureing out what mechanical weight to give equipment choices in my game. Flat bonus' feel weird, because they interact so little with the other two variables (a Bigguy should get better use out of a big axe than a waif, who should get better use out of an expensive dress).

Are there other options to consider? Am I overthinking things?

>>50732223
equipment would be the base of the outcome, at least I think. You get some bolts, the bolts do their base damage, then your attribute modifier adds to it and your skill determines any special effect they have.

I could have interperated this wrong though.

>>50732223
If that kind of math doesn't phase you (and the numbers are otherwise low) the equipment could be an multiplier / factor of the attribute.

That way a higher attribute gets more out of the item than a lower one.

But multiplication can be iffy, so instead, the item could have a static bonus (hear me out on this) that is half of the attribute or skill.

>>50732223
>(a Bigguy should get better use out of a big axe than a waif, who should get better use out of an expensive dress).
That's why a huge axe should have a strength requirement, while an expensive dress only works if the character makes an effort to look nice, as opposed to just wearing a dress and ribbon and, oh, now the Barbarian has a +10% social bonus without any make up.

You're overthinking things in that you're taking the group and the situation out of things and focusing only on the mechanics.

Well, my Endtown RPG went down in flames when the publisher tried to sneak the rights to my system, the comic author didnt want to go in without his publisher so it didn't work out.

So I've cannibalised the system with my own story.

Things are alot easier not having to deal with their nonsense.

>>50733994
I feel like you'd need to give us more context.

>>50727384
I don't know, I'm sorry. I have a link to my current rules. They're few enough to just link the whole doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-x7vMbcJeXps8ZaeTa2ovoXK2yoB7ICqcEmNKP1dlww/edit?usp=sharing

>>50729336
Nice I'll be reading through it soon.
The main premise of this game is that players can choose at what "power level" they start at, but in any case they go into debt to get those resources. That debt is used by the GM to generate contests. For example, maybe you want to make a really strong character. Maybe you proved how strong you were by winning fights or taking resources from other people. However, now you have some enemies that want you dead. You can also offset the cost of character generation with vices and addictions which will provide a constant source of encounter-generating meta currency.

I also want the game rules to mislead the players in certain, specific ways. This is where the "no bonuses" part comes in. I want the game rules to tell players, "Don't ask for help, do everything on your own". However, the underlying rules will actually support teamwork. An example I've used before is lets say Player A wants to move a boulder that requires 12 Strength. However, Player A only has 10 Strength. Player B offers their help, but accepting help comes with a -4 penalty. The players may initially see that a -4 penalty each is pretty hefty, but ultimately that means that together they would indeed have 12 Strength and be able to move the boulder. I need to figure out a way where it feels like those actions are discouraged on the surface, but encouraged at a deeper level. A similar system will ideally also be used to help characters overcome addictions.

>>50723104
There's the Mythic (?) System. They had a GM emulator so you can run games by yourself. The pdf should be easy enough to find.

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>>50734301

Well, I liked the comic Endtown and people wanted rules for a pen and paper game so I figured I'd make one using the rules I had been tinkering around with. The author and the publisher of the comic liked the idea and purposed making it a for-profit book. They then strung me along avoiding making a contract for over a year. Just incredible incompetence, so much it was suspect.

I made a big write up on it around but basically the contracts they gave me were designed to ensure that only they could sell the book and only at furry conventions. But it was stupidly written all around.

Then I told them to make a third draft and to include the name the system was copyrighted under and publisher pulled out and the author actively refused to work without the publisher.

They were doing stupid shit from early on but I gave them too much patience.

>>50737425
>only they could sell the book

Mistype, I meant only sell the book and wouldn't credit it used my game rules, officially. That sounds complicated but it meant I may or may not have been able to use my system or get paid for royalties depending on how they spun it.

It still lives!
Keep going guys we might reach thread limit

>>50732223
You already got a few answers, but here goes my piece of mind, the thuth is that most equipment don't determines nothing, it's only some tool/utility. For instance beauty products are only worth if you have the skill to apply them, and on the other hand your skill can only take you so far if you don't have the proper tools.

Mechanically you could limit some skills use to their equipment, if you want to get bonuses to something you have to apply a proper skill (using disguise to make yourself more natural at a ball).

On the other hand, there is some equipment that "could stands on its own", weapons are such an example, heavy/blunt weapons would contribute to an "damage attribute" while light/sharp weapons would contribute to an "damage skill".

>>50730012
>I meant a roleplaying game, not a CYOA RPG book.
I'm not sure I see the distinction between an incredibly complex single-player RPG and an incredibly complex CYOA book.

bump?

>>50737425
As much as I love the comic, I'm not surprised. The author seems like a nice guy, but also seems to be autistic as fuck, and may be too reliant on his publisher.

>>50736169
Reading back through my Ace Combat rules/notes, I'm wondering how clear everything is. The rules themselves should be simple enough, but that could be lost if players are getting confused. Once I stat out some planes and weapons, I'd be able to run some more intricate sims.

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What are some good way to make guns not to complicated
anything with single fire is easy enough but damage calculation for high rpm weapons seems like it would be a chore

plus there's mag size, reloading, etc

>>50740304
Those RPG books more or less follow the same plot. If you go through it, the same things will always happen. I'd rather random outcomes. So that each time you turn to page 45, it's not the same page 45

>>50746417
>to complicated
too*

>>50746417
I really like the idea of having the difference of your roll and "to-hit TN" factoring into how many bullets hit/are fired.

Like, die size could represent how long of a burst you fire. RoF could be inversely proportional to how much you exceed the target number (a high rof weapon would land a bullet for every 1 or 2 points you beat the TN by, while a slow rof weapon might land a bullet for every 4 or 5). The caliber of bullets would determine how much flat damage is done.
I think something like the above would be a pretty decent system for automatic weapons.

>>50747060
that's really good
I'll be shrinking the numbers a bit due to the game using a lot of low values, but yeah I'll be trying that

>>50747060
>>50747236
should probably mention that this is the first time I'm trying to make a rule set and it could and probably will fail miserably

Having trouble staying motivated to work on my game now that I have a full time job. When I'm at work I think about how much I'd like to be writing, when I'm home I'm too tired to write. On the weekends I still feel tired.

The ideas are so ready to go in my head that writing them down seems like such an effort, and I stumble over my words for awhile before giving up. I used to do a chapter a week, now I can barely complete one page.

I need some input on my dice rolling mechanics. I've mentioned them before in this thread, but I've reached a point where I'm not sure what to do with them all, or even if I should drop some features.

Here's the basic mechanic:

Most actions performed by characters in the game call for Tests. A Test is performed by rolling a number of d6s equal to the stat being tested. Rolls of 1-3 are considered failures, while 4+ are successes. The more successes a character has, the better they did in the test.

Unopposed tests have the character trying to match or beat a Target Number (TN), while opposed tests have two or more characters rolling against one another.

A die that lands as 6 is considered a critical. Crits have additional effects depending on the action that's being performed.

And here are the features I'm having trouble applying:

>Bonus/Penalty Dice
Bonus dice are attached to a stat and increase the number of dice rolled when that stat is tested. Penalty dice do the opposite, they reduce the size of that stats dice pool.

>Bonus/Penalty Pool
This pool of free floating dice are not tied to a specific stat and are automatically applied to whatever actions a character performs as though they were Bonus/Penalty Dice. Unlike those dice, the pool is depleted as it's used.

>(Unnamed effect)
Some effects can simply change what counts as a success when testing a stat. It can be improved to 3+ or 2+, or worsened to 5+ or 6+. At 5+ you'd need two 6s for a crit, at 6+ you'd need three.

>(Second unnamed effect)
This effect allows a character to reroll their failures once per test.

My problem in the next post...

>>50748115
These four features all seem to work quite well with the base rolling mechanic, but I'm having trouble trying to think of what situations would grant them to a character.

The Bonus/Penalty Pool might be a good representation of psychological effects. Encouraging people to add to that pool, discouraging them to subtract from it.

Buffing effects or transformations could grant bonus/penalty dice to specific stats for their duration.

But the other two, the unnamed effects, I'm not sure how to use them or what events in gameplay would call for them. While bonus dice increase a characters maximum potential, these unnamed mechanics only increase the likelihood of them reaching that maximum.

I guess I'm looking for thoughts and ideas on what kind of situations might prompt the two unnamed mechanics. If I can't find any I might just have to drop them entirely.

>>50747446
Yeah, have the same problem. I work a job where I have a lot of downtime, but no access to anything really, so I spend all day mentally working on stuff. Buy when I get home, I just want to unwind and turn my brain off for the rest of the day.

I'm hoping I can get something down tonight.

>>50748129
Not sure about the first one, the second one could be Elite? Someone that's extremely skilled that can make last minute adjustments to change the outcome of the skill being tested.

A lesser version could be just re-rolling 1's, more like good luck take on it than pure skill.

>>50748115
>>50748129
The first unnamed effect seems to have five steps to it. You could make it it's own type of super buff.

>Major Buff: 2+
>Minor Buff: 3+
>Normal: 4+
>Minor Nerf: 5+
>Major Nerf: 6+

Given that bonus and penalty dice modify the number rolled while this modifies which ones succeed, it could be considered a different type of buff. Maybe this one comes from a different type of effect.

>>50747446
>>50748175
Have a place where you can take notes and write those down immediately as you get them. I used to have a job where I had some frequent downtime while doing calls, and I was able to make a lot of progress that way. I still have a paper notebook somewhere that holds all my worldbuilding, design notes, and napkin math from my earlier projects.

Now I make sure to write notes on Google Keep so I can access them from my computer, phone, or whatever happens to have internet. Paper or Online doesn't matter as long as I have somewhere to leave those ideas. I can always pick them up later and I don't lose as much focus while doing non-game design things.

>>50748129
What are players going to be doing in your game? How you expect them to act will likely have a huge influence on how they can change their chances of success.

>>50673496
Thanks for the feedback! Sorry for being so slow to reply, finals and all that.

I like your idea of having HEART as an acronym for stats.

To manage heart, I was thinking it would make sense to have Heart refill every night to a limited degree; eg if your Heart is less than x, it will increase by y each night. You can also pick up more Heart through finding Heart caches/defeating enemies/special situations.

Rock paper scissors sounds like a nifty idea:three types of armour, three types of weapons, each armour has a weapon it is weaker against, stronger against, and neutral to.

Along those lines, attacks could be:
magical (Thought)
strong (Endurance)
quick (Reflexes)

Affinity could be used for non-offensive spells like repairing things, buffs, etc. Hope (I worry about using Heart for two different things) could have some connection to regaining Heart/special abilities.

As well, each stat can have a special trick or move associated with it.

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I as thinking about Writing an RPG for playing 40k orks. Not sure if anyone would be interested in it. I was thinking of either using some sort of D6 system for quick fun play or trying to work within Rogue Trader's frame work. I generally want a feel somewhere between Gorkamorka, Kill Teams and Only War.

Otherwise has anyone seen an RPG like this?

I'm working on a skill-based classless RPG and I've encountered a conundrum.

Would it be feasible to not include any kind of Stealth skill, and instead use movement skills at a penalty for moving stealthy? I think that would streamline the gameplay but feel that some problems would arise.

>>50748129
Hold up, I'm wrong.

Bonus/Penalty pools are not good indicators of psychological effects, as they are literally changing a characters potential.

Unnamed effect one is a better indicator of a persons mind. It doesn't make them stronger and faster (or slower and weaker), it just changes the likelihood of them achieving their potential.

I'm thinking that Bonus/Penalty Dice are suitable as longer lasting buffs/transformations, Bonus/Penalty pools are good for temporary powerups, Unnamed effect one is an Encourage/Discourage mechanic and unnamed effect two is...

...still unclear.

>>50751873
Stealth isn't necessarily the skill of moving quietly as much as it's the skill of being unimportant enough to notice. It's up to you if you want to make a stealth skill or delegate the individual forms of stealth to its component statistics, but a unique stealth skill streamlines on its own and allows for some more specific builds without having to spread out among the other skills.

>>50752237
Stealth might actually work better as a mental skill than an agility/speed/dexterity/whatever skill.

Keeping quiet and unnoticed requires excellent awareness of ones surroundings and careful planning.

>>50751873
Stealth is an application of moving quietly, hiding well, knowing the environment, and blending in. the only 3 of those 4 items can be handled through narrative but moving silently is a skill for the most part.

>>50751873
I'd say make it like a stunt. It modifies whatever you are doing. stabling a dude is easier than stealth kills. so to do something on the down low you take some penalties

Late night bump.

>>50753469
bsd.u <3

>>50665836
>>50729336
Actually, new update (Not very shocking taking account that this thread is almost a week old).

No new version this time, it's unnecessary.

I added two additional stats to the game, because after my playtest, I just noticed that with basically 4 stats to play with, even a small group can minmax to hell and back without even meaning to.

So, my current stat block looks like this:

Old ones:
>Clumsy
>Awkward
>Dull
>Ordinary

I replaced Reserved with a new one:
>Meek

And the new ones:
>Frail
>Naive

So, these new stats give me more freedom. You see, I realized that you almost never check against Reservedness, so instead I'll just make it into more of a health stat and emphasize on boldness, removing that part from awkwardness.

Then, I added Frailty, because having all physical be under Clumsiness is kind of undesirable, at least we need the basic STR-DEX differentiation (Although, because Clumsy is not as a "loaded" word as Dexterity, my regular nitpickiness about Agility and Dexterity being two separate things doesn't come to play). Frailty also works as a Toughness stat to see whether a character gets hurt when they lose physical conflicts.

Then, Naivete. I always like to have a separate cunning stat aside from the basic social stat. Naivete, as the word suggests, also works as vigilance and noticing ill intent, so basically trying to cheat someone is a Conflict done with Naive stats.

And with this, the system nears its ultimate form, because even if this adds a tiny bit of complexity, it's still quite intuitive and sleek.

And finally it starts to get in a form that it can be used outside of oneshots. Like, something as little as adding a few stats changes the balance of the game that much.

>>50752098
I think you have the first two down well.

Unnamed 1 and 2 both do the same thing, 2 just does it slower. The only advantage to 2 is that you see the results of the roll first, so if you want to keep it you need to take advantage of this by making 2 a choice.

I would recommend combining bonus pool with it, so that dice from the bonus pool are spent to reroll failures when you see your results and realize you need to do better.

Alternatively, have the rerolls cost something or be a seperare limited resource. Though having 2 meta currencies may be tedious.

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>>50665636
>Starry Night Wars IS
A grid-less tactical tabletop game inspired by traditional monster battle RPGs of yore.
>Utilize a point-buy system in order to create your three-monster party, or spend all of your points creating a "boss monster"
>Draft play using a random party of prebuilt monsters from the "Beast Codex"
>Tactical d6-styled combat is carried out moving across a simple, tiered battlefield
| | | | |
>with players starting their monsters on their own respective sides
Balancing is a bitch, but it's fun to design abilities, which are inspired by innate abilities in Pokemon.

>>50754948
I like the way you designed your game, it makes it very compelling for a "horror movie" kind of game

>>50750109
Efforts in building this game fills your Heart with Determination...

Determination: Meta currency...

Other than that, who are going to be the antagonists? I thought a little about it and the idea of Sleepwalker came up, when creatures of the Under are under the Sleep it's like living in a dark world without joy or satisfaction,a negative world if you may, usually creatures under the Sleep will slowly slip through the corners of society, some of those will never be seen again, others will become Sleepwalkers, lonely creatures that hope to bring everyone into the Sleep so they may be a part of society again...

>>50756499
It can be taken that way. I see personally more as ironic mockery, in humoristic sense, but the view of it as something horror-esque is not bad by any means.

I mean, it can be used effectively for horror, even the game emphasizes on movie logic, where you can only die if your roll under your character's despair (of course, in a horror game you could have an alternative stat for that, such as insanity or savvy).

>>50750109
Oh snap, didn't notice this post yet! No problems about the slow answer, this thread has been quite resilient.

Allrighty, let me get down to business...

>affinity
I usually use affinity as a social stat, due to the word connotations to empathy and warmth, and your game seems to lack it. Although, as a social stat the connection to regaining hearts would be even more apparent than before.

You could even have things like group Affinity, where a group's entire affinity would be summed up, and it would do things... Like maybe raise the defense of the character? Power of friendship --> Affinity --> Defense.

This would also explain why towns can exist in hostile environments. Their whole town has shared affinity, meaning the bonuses they get to defense are IMMENSE.

Random offshoots again but: What about when the group gets too large to hold singular affinity a la a city for example? Would the different turfs and places have mixed affinities with each other, would this bring conflict to the city? I dunno, random offshoot.

>Worry about using Heart for two different things
True, Hope is pretty good actually. Your use for it seems solid, some sort of regeneration attribute seems solid. Although, if I could manage a new word for Endurance more in line with strength, making Hope the primary health stat would probably fit the game better?

I can help with a character sheet (in time), they wouldn't be extremely pretty (at least, in a decor sense) but I can provide clean and clear sheets, especially good for playtesting.

TBC...

>>50757732
Cont.

And about weapon - armor RPS:

In my main system (Ironically, Misfortune isn't my main system, as of now) I have a weapon tag system, which is like RPS but way more complicated. Maybe I should rework it at some point.

Anyway!

My bottom line idea for the RPS could be something like this:

Each weapon has a weapon bonus (It's not a clear cut thing, but imagine a really sharp weapon having a high weapon bonus, as would a really heavy mace. On the other hand, a regular sword or a lighter mace would have a smaller weapon bonus) and higher weapon bonus is not always a good thing.

If Weapon is Strong against the Armor Type, the attack gains + = Weapon Bonus to the attack.
If the Weapon is Neutral to the Armor type, ±0.
If the Weapon is Weak to the Armor type, the attack gets - = Weapon Bonus to the attack.

Meaning later-game weapons are not necessarily better, just more specialized. Run of the mill weapons (really low-level weapons mostly) would have really round stats, so their max and min damage differ only slightly.

Imagine there being three different weapon types (Or even damage types) (names pending):

Sharp: Swords and other sharp objects
Blunt: Blunt objects, fists, improvised weapons
Magic: Any charmed items, such as staffs etc

Similarly, the armor types could go as follows:

Hard: Metal armor, duh
Soft: Padded armor, leather etc
Magic: Magical clothing, robes etc

Metal: Strong against sharp, weak against blunt, neutral against magic
Soft: Weak against magic, strong against blunt, neutral against sharp
Magic: Strong against magic, weak against sharp, neutral against blunt

Huh. In a few minutes, I made a better weapon-armor RPS than with my several months of honing my main system. This is so typical of me.

You could even have defensive magic that turns the RPS "wheel" around, meaning weaknesses become strengths and vice versa I guess?

That's one idea, of course not very honed one yet, but a possible and manageable one.

>>50757732

>affinity
>I usually use affinity as a social stat, due to the word connotations to empathy and warmth, and your game seems to lack it (A SOCIAL STAT NOT WARMTH). Although, as a social stat the connection to regaining hearts would be even more apparent than before.

I'm trying to find a way to keep strength and constitution/stamina as separate stats while not making strength an automatic dump stat for casters/magic types

So far no luck, I feel like I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too. Any ideas?

>>50759199
Give some spells strength requirements (like, physically pushing the boundaries of time and space), make weapon enchanting / conjuration spells worthwhile (so they can close or almost close the gap between themselves and non-casters in that regard) or limit the ways stats can be dumped.

Is there a reason for wanting to have non-noodle-armed mages?

>>50759199
>>50759320
Or even, maybe the simplest of all measures:

The most basic magic missile -type attack? You can create it, but you gotta hurl it physically.

>>50759199
The solution I chose was for Strength to become the abstract damage increasing stat. The Intelligence stat by comparison increases all DCs, for spells and maneuvers alike. If you have more abstract stats you can have concepts like the muscle wizard and Int Fighter make mechanical and narrative sense.

Energy has to come from somewhere. Wizards charge their fireballs through intense flexing.

More reasonably. Make your encumbrance system robust and equipment important?

>>50759320
>>50759353
I just dislike the idea of a useless stat/dump stats in general. The rest of my stats have at least some use for most anybody, but strength seems kinda one dimensional

I do like the idea of physically throwing spells though, thanks

>>50759500
I remember seeing a system like that once. It's a cool idea, but I feel it kinda has the opposite problem, where strength is a prime stat for everyone

>>50759503
I don't mind a good encumbrance system, but my group tends to flat out ignore even simpler ones we've used, and they would be my primary audience

I still plan on having strength requirements to wield big swords or wear heavy armor though

>>50759919
Also, another idea (to the part of strength requirements) would be spells that cause your body massive strain.

>as you're trying to hurl that Comet Artillery, if you fuck up your Strength save, you might have your arm ripped right off yourself.

>when you're trying to make a portal, the last part of the spell is to physically rip open the fabric of reality between the two places.

>The most basic spell is the magic bomb. You gotta throw it, and it ain't exactly light (imagine a fair-sized carton of milk, at least, maybe even a gallon). Additionally, dropping it to your feet might be very dangerous to your toes

>Want to fly? What if you had to jump or climb things to gain altitude, and you just glide slowly down. A regular item used with it is a rope with a magic hook in the end that, if pulled hard, can hook into air, until the tension goes away.

>Telekinesis? It feels like you're lifting the real thing! Because you are.

So in short, if the spell does anything remotely physical, make the mage feel the physicality. Maybe lighter than it would be otherwise, like lifting things with telekinesis (Every 20 kilos you feel the spell lifts 100).

>>50759919
It would only become a prime stat if damage was all that mattered in combat. As we know from dnd wizards, often the best spells are ones that don't deal any damage.

It is a point, however, where your individual system comes into play. Perhaps it really does cause an issue, but the design doesn't inherently cause the damage stat to become the best.

Another idea I had, similar to having to physically throw spells and also heavily dependent on other rules, is needing to make Strength checks for frequent casting to avoid exhaustion. Depending on how you've defined Constitution spells could take a physical toll on the casters not reflected by stamina.

I don't know if /gdg/ knows enough context to offer anything more creative than what you've got, but the current suggestions are still pretty good.

Anyone want to help me come up with some terms? I have a Morale system with five steps, the middle step being Normal. I could just come up with some generic names for the heightened and lowered morale states, but I'd like to see if there are any more interesting words or terms that could fill those in.

>>50764041
++ Resolute
+ Steadfast
- Shaken
-- Broken

Asking for opinions

So I'm working on a tabletop game with a friend. We want combat to be tactical and it'll have hexes. For ease of use and fast play, I wanted to do something using dice pools a la White Wolf or (more accurately) 40K, using d6's for dice.

Baseline for an attack would be something like:
Weapon's Damage + Related Stat = Pool
So Rifle with 3D with a Perception of 5 would give you 8D6 for an attack.

For simplicity sake, my baseline TO HIT is 4+, meaning any die out of that 8D6 Pool that shows 4 or higher scores a Hit. 1 Hit = 1 Damage.

My question regarding Skills and modifiers is: a lot of them simply modify the pool. "Steady Shot" would give you another 3D to work with on an attack, for example. Being at Far Range would knock off -2D. Firing at a target that's behind cover would be a straight 1/2 penalty to the Pool, etc.

Do you guys feel as though it's too boring? Adding more dice gives you more chances to do more damage, but each die is only giving you a 50% chance at doing an extra point of damage. Should Skills be modifying To Hit instead? I originally had a admixture of both, but wanted something more "fast paced" than going through a list of

-How far is the target? Far? -1 To Hit
-Cover? -1 To Hit
-Skill? +1 To Hit
-Special Ammo? +2D6
-Armor type? -1 To Hit
"So 4+, -3 To Hit brings it up to 6+, and your Skill brings it to 5+ with an additional 2D for the attack" Seemed too drawn out. Now, I'm looking at:

>My total Pool is 8D
>Far Range, -1D
>Medium Armor with 1 Evasion, -1D
>Skill im using for the shot buffs by +2D
>Target in Cover, 1/2
>8-2+2=8. 8/2=4D, let's roll

Hey /gdg/, I've been working on a game for a bit. It's based off the steam game FTL: Faster Than Light. I've currently got everything set up in a notepad file, and was wondering if people would want me to upload it as is, or see about porting to a pdf or something.

>>50764433
I could kind of see this working with a personal mat for every player that acts like a Ship Layout from FTL. Need some sort of PVP action, though, otherwise it would get pretty boring sitting around for 8 minutes while a player diddles around with their shit fighting an NPC robo-drone or the like.

>>50764529
I've expanded it a bit, so that you can go onto enemy ships and hack systems and what not. Basically take any other space based game's plot and quests/missions, but you use FTL's tech and simultaneous pvp combat and ship combat.

>>50764593
At the start of the game everyone designs a ship, if they don't want to use one of the prebuilt ones. As part of session 0 the GM, makes some covers for each of the rooms. So if sensors go down or in a nebula, you can't see anything that the others can't see, because comms still work. GM has his own ship map as well so he can track things like fires, stealthed units, and things.

>>50764646
I feel I should say everyone is all on the same ship for ease of play.

Would there be any merit to a system with active defense and passive to-hit (based on the rationale that it's pretty easy to hit a bloke in front of you with a stick/sword/what have you *unless* he cares to block or parry) or would it come off more as being different for it's own sake?

>>50764291
I might keep modifiers for special things, if only to have some room to change things up as you make more skills and items and things.

But most things just adding or subtracting from the pool seems like a good idea to me. Plus throwing around big fistfuls of die is fun

>>50764291
To me, it sounds complicated. Like it would be difficult to calculate on the fly how many dice I need to roll, and what my result means. I feel like you'd be taking a break in the action every time you pick up the dice.

Though that being said, I'm not very experienced at dice pool games.

>>50765825
I understand, part of cutting the time down is the fact that you'd have a "static" attack pool you'd know of. That is, if you're a Sniper with 5 Perception and a Sniper Rifle that gives a bonus of 3, you know all of your Skills and attacks are going to work off of a pool of 8 Dice.

From there it's just figuring out how it gets modified, mostly via Range to Target, if Target is in Cover, and if Target has Evasion.

Since Range is only really either Close, Medium, and Far, you'd only worry about Medium and Far since those take off 1 and 2 dice respectively from your pool of 8.

Evasion is another off the top. Target has 1 Evasion? Take a die away.

Cover halves your pool, at the end of everything else.

I think the breaks would happen on the first few turns of any given encounter, mostly feeling out what the enemy has as far as Evasion, but since you know you're working (in your case) with a Pool of 8, you can already see how your Pool is going to be affected in just about every base scenario without factoring Evasion in.

>Okay my Pool is always 8 (barring Skills)
>So at Close it's still 8, Medium 7, Far 6.

You can look at it more here, probably easier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cTYmJI8BPY&feature=youtu.be

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>>50744886

Oh completely. Every question I asked him about was replied with trusting the publisher, who in turn told that he would not be handling it.

One was determined to not make a decision and the other not to make an effort. My new rpg should be consumer worthy buy January, 20% of the dev time without their fiddle faddle.

SAVING BAMP!

>>50767557
Oh wait, it seems this thread, as good as it was, after 6 days of activity, is finally heading the way of the dodo.

Godspeed, Game Designer pals. I will make a new thread pronto.

New Thread: >>50767701

>>50767712
Wait, excuse.

Something weird happened, Catalog just straight up lied to me. It showed me this old thread dying (even though bump limit isn't full yet).

Whatever, mistake fixed.

So, actually, a thing about these threads, not about games that I brought up in the fluke thread:

How would you feel like about anchoring posts like in drawthreads? Like if a thread dies suddenly and you answered some question, but are unsure whether the asker ever saw your answer.

Like, if this thread had died, I would've anchored the post for The Under -poster in case they jumped threads and didn't see my text walls.

>>50767814
Like just linking to it in a post? Couldn't that be done in a new gdg thread when it's up? Seems like that'd be the most likely place for them to see it.

>>50746417

I'd figure out the stats then determine how much a burst does, then list out the damage for a burst weapon by weapon.

When you are summating things with a damage value you are really kinda rounding things up into pretty big units. Really it's like McDonald's, figure out what people are going to want most of the time and make that the easiest choices.

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>>50740304
>>50730012

Kind of off topic but CyOA books are freaking tight. This one was my favorite.

>>50768229
Exactly what I was implying. That's what anchoring is. I seem to have been unclear about it.

>>50746417
Not claiming to be an expert (I have made whopping 0 games to date that have guns), but I could imagine burst weapons having bonus to-hit, and have the possibility of multiple hits.

The player can take different bonuses to-hit, but each increment uses more ammo and gives less bonus (due to recoil and people running to cover).

Say, there are three increments:

Short burst (+3 to-hit, uses 3 rounds, each +3 over TN is additional hit)
Long burst (+5 to-hit, uses 8 rounds, each +2 over TN is additional hit)
Full Auto (+6 to hit, uses 16 rounds, each +1 over TN is additional hit)

If ammo is scarce, this would give some real questions whether you want to use ammo to get hits.

Every bullet has a die size (SUPER ROUGH ESTIMATES):
>Pistol 1d6
>Short Rifle 1d8
>Long Rifle 1d10
>Anti-Materiel 1d12

And that's how you do damage. You just roll xdy, where x is the amount of hits and y is the size of the bullet.

>>50768424
I thought you mean anchoring the post *in* a drawthread, not like they do in drawthreads. It seems I've stayed up too late.

>>50768488
That was definitely out of the box thinking, but also egregiously wrong.

It seems it's time to go to sleep, dubs-kun.

Would it be valid for every arcane spell to have 3 paragraphs? One descriptive, one for out of combat effect, and one for in combat?

>Distracting sound
>You create a sound.
>Out of combat NPC can heard it and may follow the sound if they fail a Will check
>In combat you can create the sound to distract one enemy. If it rolls Will and fail, is considered flanked.

Placeholder text, terms and mechanics. Is this good or trying to be generic as possible better? For both the GM/DM view and player view.

>>50768424
And if you want more exact damages for different bullets (I'd even imagine things like explosive payload bullets just jump to the next category, like pistol --> Short rifle), then different bullets of the same size category have different static modifier to damage.

>>50768539
You might want an additional paragraph for flavor text, in the current it's very functional, but dry.

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>>50768424
>rolling maximum to-hit with full auto
shit looks like pic related

Any recommendations for software to make character sheets? My current thing has been stitching it together in word via clever use of tables. I'd prefer a system where it can be made into a PDF and filled out digitally, I've little interest in actual written sheets which is why I've stuck to word since most everyone has a word processing tool of some sort.

>>50768642
Scribus and Indesign are good, Photoshop is decent (PDF might be tricky though).

I personally design in Indesign, and if I want to make it form fillable, I use acrobat.

Another would be using Inkscape or Illustrator to make it in vectors, probably the best option in the long run, but I've grown to my own style atm.

You're gonna need Acrobat (or equivalent) to make form-fillable sheets, but Acrobat can't be used to make the sheet itself (I reckon?)...

Acrobat is actually surprisingly smart, it can recognize vectors pretty well these days, so whether you make it in Scribus, Indesign, Illustrator or Inkscape, it should be able to read the sheet.

>>50768676
Alright, thanks for the help. If you don't mind me asking, whats the big gain for designing in vectors? Is it for sake of future proofing or is more a scalability thing?

>>50768701
For me it's scaling and printing.

I am an extreme control freak over my character sheets, I want them to look perfect, thus vectors. Also, there is a higher chance the printer fucks something up if you make a non-vector sheet.

I have had so many problems with inappropriately scaled sheets and images that I can't even go back to non-vector sheets anymore.

>>50768736
Yeah I can see that. I don't know if scaling or printing is something I really need for this project but I'll definitely keep it in mind.

I don't even know why I'm doing this project, it's not likely ever going to see use or even light of day. It came out as an idea from an old dev guy I worked with after our last project died out (mostly by my hand) and I guess I just want to redeem myself before I begin work on my 'magnum opus' piece.

Ninth-page bamp

>>50764195
Your negative ones are on spot, the positive ones could reflect a bit more of your game for instance hopeful/headstrong/unyielding/unwavering/passionate...look at dictionary, it can be a bit of help at those times...

>>50764735
Or they could be a fleet flying together...

>>50765372
There's merit where there's a reason, for instance you could go through a player-active route where players are the only ones rolling or make it a mechanic about an unforgiving world where you are "always under pressure" and must use your efforts to resist it...about your logic, that's why some system are big on giving an initial high rate of success to attacks (to the point where rolling to-hit is mostly a step to determine damage) and the only proper way of not being hit is defending yourself

>>50765450
I think this is the way to go, and avoid using situational modifiers to change your to-hit (choose one or two at most), other than that >>50765970 has it pretty much on point

>>50768424
>>50768640
I'm currently using a system like this but I feel it's a bit more balance on a 2d10 system, aiming can also increase your multiplier(+1x capped by your attribute) or your to hit (+1 with the same cap), other than that burst and full auto add straight to the multiplier but reduce your to-hit (-1th +2x,-2th +3x, -4th +4x)...other than that my armor system does not increase your defense but rather it decreases the multiplier you're hit with (to the min. of 1), it seems pretty strong but each hit will make the armor less effective (first hit -3x, second -2x, third -1x and it breaks)

So, experience.

We gain it to grow more powerful. Sometimes by leveling up at a certain threshold, sometimes by spending it like currency to increase our stats.

But the actual act of leveling up or spending xp is typically an offhand, instant thing in between adventures.

I was thinking of players having to spend time training in order to spend their built up xp. Thoughts?

>>50770524
That seems like a handful, to be honest. I hope you can manage it.

>>50770575
My friend is making a system like that. You get experience points you can use to raise your skills, but your skill gets upgraded only when you use time on it or use it enough in-game.

I think it's a fine system, I liken to think experience just as an abstraction, I tend not to think about it. It's like character development to me, it can be initiated, but usually it's subtle and unnoticeable to everyone in the world.

The fact that that guy now has a Clumsy score of 4 instead of 5 is only noticed in the long run, because stats only change probabilities, they aren't that concrete.

Given, my system ONLY has attributes (Weaknesses, so they're kinda reverse), so that can be part of why. Skills are more easily classified than attributes, but the change from expert to master doesn't happen overnight, but the realization that one is might.

>>50770575
That's usually an optional rule for every game that use xp-like mechanics, on that note, most of those that don't use level ups as a mechanic usually state that a character can only upgrade a certain stat when the DM agrees that he has had enough RP or training in that...I find those pretty reasonable

>>50770689
I already had some playtests, characters usually have little life (~40) and damage tends to go high (~25 without protection) proper protection and active defense is the only thing standing between them and death (It's funny to watch their armor go down).... and if they like to fight, unless they are willing to go without armor they are forced to either spend tons of resources on body armor or diversify their skills to learn how to fix them fast enough...

>>50770811
>little life (40)
Lemme tell ya buddy, on my scale, 40 is a fucking massive amount of health.

But that's my own bias toward the system I have used for a long time now; the roll-under-wounds-and-you're-out, and that on relatively small dice, where maximum totals are 16 at best.

I really like unpredictable damage systems, because sometimes the smallest amount of damage can fuck you up (as it sometimes does) while other times you just keep on going beyond what is considered healthy or sane.

On the other hand, my damage systems also create something of a case when it usually deals well in single digits, ever causing more than 3 damage is an outlier. Our systems are diametrically opposed in that. Kinda funny, that.

I'm going to add playable "monster races" in modern fantasy, what races do you think should be included besides vampires and werewolves? Reptilians (from the conspiracy)? Big-foots?

>>50771839
Mole people

>>50771839
Ayyyys? Chupacabra? Skinwalkers? Ghosts maybe even? Dullahans?

Reptilians are good, bigfoots seem more of a local thing, I guess.

Make an NPC Wendingo to fuck them up and have fun.

>>50771935
Mole people as a society is very interesting for my setting (thanks for pointing it out), but I'm not sure about using it as a "race" (Unless I use "mutated" humans as a base)

I fail to see how could a chupacabra as PC, I think they are too far on the monster aspect...

Skinwalkers are pretty awesome, if they don't overlap too much with anything else, they sure are going to make it.

Dullahans, I'm not sure about them, they are more of an specific entity rather than a monster race (if anything they are classified with the fairies or the undead)

Ghosts look like a good idea at first, but then when you stop to think about it it's a bit troublesome...having someone play a mostly invisible and untouchable character would make the "perfect" scout and perhaps rogue, having them haunting something/someone sounds like a good balancing option...

>>50665836
typo on the first page
>"a 2 6-sided dice"
Doesn't need the "a"

pedantic, but it's the first thing I noticed.

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>>50772840
Gawd dammit, probably tried to write "a pair of", but then just erased "pair of" and forgot the a. Lemme fix that and actually update it, the changes I have made actually came to being.

I started working on working on a setting book to play apocalyptic games with it, of course not included yet, still on the drawing board.

I will implement (somewhat) what I wrote here>>50768424, except the damage is highly reduced. 1-5 (on a damage roll) deals 1, 6-9 deals 2 and 10-12 deals 3 damage. The individual rounds were changed into shots (an abstraction of actual ammo, counts how many times you can attack with the weapon before reloading).

Short bursts (+2 to-hit, each +3 over TN is additional hit, 2 shots)
Long bursts (+3 to-hit, each +2 over TN is additional hit, 4 shots)
Full Auto (Consumes all shots (5 or more), 3+1 per each after 4th to-hit, each +1 over TN is additional hit)

Armor reduces the severity of damage by one if the defender wins the stack, otherwise it has no effect.

What is the necessity of the Accuracy check in table-top rpgs? Could we do without them?

In D&D, it's a 1d20+modifiers, versus a threshold. The attacker rolls, the defender does nothing. If the attacker is accurate enough, they hit. If they're not, they miss. This could be due to the defender's skill at avoiding blows, their shield, their armor, or other factors.

The largest deciding factor, however, is just luck. A bell-curve makes the difficulty less swingy. So 3d6 achieves numbers with a similar range, but results will more frequently hit the averages. If two characters have relatively equal mechanical modifiers in their respective roles (the attacker in attack, or the defender in defense) the attacker will not hit any more using a 3d6 as he would with a 1d20.

The bell-curve instead reduces variation, meaning an attacker with higher skill (or a defender with higher skill) will succeed more often, effectively driving a wedge between results based on comparative skills. It increases the degree of specificity while reducing the degree of variation. That's nice, but really has nothing to do with my original point.

Humans are relatively accurate creatures. An untrained snowball-thrower will usually be able to nail a stationary target within a few meters. Those with good hand-eye coordination should be able to coat a moving target with a fine dusting of powder more often than not. This implies that they should usually succeed more than 50% of the time (A level 1 character versus a naked opponent can hit their opponent usually 55% of the time, increasing by increments of 5% depending on their skill) which isn't bad.

And this may be relatively realistic! A well-built first-level character could expect +4 to attack, hitting that same naked target 70% of the time. Of course, if their target has any skill in dodging, this decreases.

(1/???)

>>50774028
I haven't found any systems myself (there may be a few) that don't use some method of accuracy rolls in their combat step. Some use a d%. Apocalypse World uses 2d6 (with a bonus of -3 to +3) versus a threshold to hit and be hit in turn, outright hit, or outright miss. It's a time-honored tradition.

Some other games add an additional step, with a Dodge skill or similar. This give agency to the defender, allowing them to actively dodge, however it seems an unnecessary extraneous step which essentially just establishes the difficulty of the accuracy roll.

Many games also go a step further, implementing ways to mitigate damage once it's been established that a character was being harmed, and may in fact reduce the damage to zero effectively preventing the hit from occurring at all (unless the attack had some sort of carrier effect that could affect the target even if it did zero damage.)

All of this goes towards the concept that a character must make a check in order to aim and strike a target.

Ultimately my question is by and large: "Why?"

It's a real asspull of a question, I know, but stick with me for a moment.

Unless you're playing a rank amateur who doesn't basically consume violence and carnage on the reg: is it appropriate to check and see if your character successfully hits a huge, fat ogre standing close enough to be considered legally married in the state of Kentucky?

At this point, if we continue with our D&D example, it may be appropriate to use the Flat-footed mechanic, essentially preventing the enemy from using any of its skill to defend itself. This means, in D&D, you have a flat 5% chance, even if you're using your arbalest to pop the zits on the ogre's hind quarters to completely whiff. A miss. No damage done. This could be explained as, perhaps, your weapon malfunctions—alternatively, maybe the ogre is that thick skinned. This also prevents any carrier effects from taking place, generally.

(2/???)

>>50774028
Concerning accuracy checks, you could always implement passive defenses and passive attacks.

So you'd have an Armor Class, and you 'd have an 'Attack Class' and if it exceeds it connects. You could then add variance by saying if the attacker or defender has an edge that it gives their passive stat a d(x) boost.

Myself I find a better mechanic to be just making damage static. The unforeseen consequences have been minimal in my designs.

It just makes everything automatic and the amount of interplay seemingly is shut off. Of course, you could implement variance everywhere else where there is normally not, and 'flip the switch' so to speak. Fiddle with it and see where it goes.

If I were to design a system like that, I would then focus on Damage versus Damage Reduction variance. 'Ok, you hit, but does it actually do anything through his gambeson?' And then make interplaying variables.

>>50774216
Okay, okay—that example may be a non sequitur. Either way.

Boiling things down and sticking with the D&D example, we have the following:

- Roll 1d20 + modifiers
-- if the roll is a 1, miss.
- Compare this result to the target's AC
-- if result is higher than or equal to the target's AC, hit. Otherwise, miss.

Then you apply damage. Three opportunities to miss. One to hit. Generally three steps. We have to check the math for two values, increasing or decreasing modifiers as necessary, then you must deal your damage and check for how that damage will be done.

My suggestion is this: in the effort of streamlining, would it perhaps be worthwhile to plainly implement a more robust damage reduction system in a game that takes into consideration a target's armor, skill at dodging, and whatever other effects they may have?

If the damage is reduced to zero, it counts as a complete miss, no longer possibly applying carrier effects.

You no longer have a to-hit roll, or accuracy statistics. You simply hit, and check your damage. If it doesn't beat your enemy's threshold, it then becomes a miss instead. In D&D, if an enemy has DR, you'll perform this step anyway. It removes a full step from the combat sequence, and may be manipulated further.

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

>>50774352
You went to the same place as I did with that. I'm glad to know that my initial instincts on this matter haven't been completely off.

>>50774376
These accuracy arguments depend heavily on the idea that your target is right in front of you, easily struck.

At range, against a moving target, the argument starts to have some issues. There is a great deal of variance in lining up the shot, travel time of the projectile, wind effects on the projectile, the weapons natural inaccuracy (it's spread) and the targets ability to react to being shot at (at sufficient range it is possible to dodge even bullets, let alone arrows or bolts).

These could be applied as modifiers to a characters attack stat, thus allowing your argument to apply to the situation, but the number of variables (some of which are random and beyond a characters control) complicate matters.

>>50774376
>>50774396
I went in the complete opposite direction in there. Well, completely opposite, as in, combat itself causes no damage. Well, damage is Despair, so it tells you something.

All Despair caused to you is from your own rolls, more or less.

If you lose in a conflict, usually the opponent's winning move isn't the deciding factor (unless the opponent gets a crit), but your losing move that failed to surpass the opponent's winning move.

Similarly, you can push any roll, making any failure (save crit fails) a success. This gives you one Despair, because you succeed, but incredibly barely.

Then, if you get a crit fail, you gain one despair, no buts.

If you have gained despair recently and roll any roll under your Current Despair, you get the first detriment, then if you manage to do it again (before the first one heals), you get the second detriment, and then similarly the third one which is death.

The only way another character can cause your character despair is to do something, well, that affects your character deeply, like killing their children.


But all that nonwithstanding, yes, we need fewer steps in our attack rolls. Godspeed.

>>50775457
I was referring to your statement as quoted below:
>If I were to design a system like that, I would then focus on Damage versus Damage Reduction variance.

>>50775439
I agree. I figured that it (movement) could apply a (static) bonus to the defender's DR rating, or a penalty to the attacker's D rating. I should have touched on that.

The additional variables you mention could also be reflected in a decrease/increase in the final damage.

>>50775533
Check my name, I'm not that anon. Sorry for confusing you.

>>50775635
Oh, right. Sorry about the confusion.

If I include explicitly race-based advantages and disadvantages to an RPG, does that make it inherently racist?

>>50776210
Does it matter if they are or not?

>>50776210
We talking RPG "race" which is more species, or like "black guys get +1 to pickpocketing"?

>>50768642
I use Google Sheets for my character sheets. They may not look the best, but it's alright once you put some effort in. And then you've got a fillable sheet that can run formulas and be linked to a larger collection of information. I run a DM sheet that collects all the info from the character sheet and does any calculations for me automatically

>>50776374
Like
>Blacks get +1 to athletic stats
>Jews get +1 to intellect
>Asians start with certain skills
etc.

>>50778291
Then yes.

>>50778760
But is it an inherently bad thing?

What tools do you guys use to make your rulebooks, manuals, etc? I have some background with Scribus but it's kind of awkward.

>>50778918
>Objective value system

Its almost definitely a bad idea, yes, but I suppose it would be unfair to say it is "inherently" bad. There are probably ways you could execute it where some people would find it comical rather than outright racist. And you can always just own up to the racism and say that if it offends the potential player than this game is probably not for them.

Are you using real world races as examples of races in your setting? If so, it's not a big deal at all, in my opinion. If you are using them directly, then yeah you should probably give more context as to why you want to do this in the first place.

I, for one, stat males and females differently in my game, and they have meaningfully different character creation options based on culture and background. It is generally seen as a stupid thing to do, but it was important to the work from an artistic perspective and I've resolved to make it work.

>>50779112
Microsoft Word

It ain't pretty, but it works

>>50779112
First, I gather the ideas and start writing the outline for rules: This I do in Google Docs so I can write with my phone while taking a shit, or no matter where I am.

Second, I start putting it on indesign. Nothing fancy, just two-column pages filled with text, as of now. Just making the header 1:s look legit, like putting them on top of a new page and spanning both columns, and have a line under them and shit.

Then I just start revisioning and spellchecking the text.

>>50774028
>>50774216
>>50774376
There's some assumptions that are being missed. It's not just accuracy that the "to hit" roll is determining, especially when we talk about DnD. Hitting in DnD is defined as "landing a solid, damaging blow". Its why AC rises from both Armor and Dexterity. Both dodging and Full Plate can remove the threat of an attack. This is also why you can have both Flat-footed and Touch AC. Flat-footed doesn't let you dodge, while Touch doesn't let your armor get involved.

Most martial arts are about landing hits in order to score points. This emphasizes speed over power. Fighters will get hit often and not suffer much damage. Street Fights or other martial arts do emphasize power, and you'll see some significant injuries happen early in the fight. In both cases, you'll see plenty of literal missed attacks, and plenty of effectively missed attacks as strikes are dodged, deflected, blocked, or weren't on target to begin with.

And that's just with Melee in mind. We haven't even started to discuss Ranged attacks.

Now with the DR-only idea, plenty of systems have used it more heavily than DnD, but maybe not to the degree of exclusivity like you're suggesting. It could definitely work, but once again considering DnD, how exactly would it be implemented?. DnD is built with high damage variation which makes this idea tricky. How do you reconcile damage that comes in 1d4+2, 5(2d6+15), and 10d6 sized packages? It's not impossible or improbable, but it would take a very specific damage and DR system to make work.

>>50774352
Funnily enough I went in the opposite direction. I gave both attack and defense rolls, and the difference between those determines the results. There's an opportunity cost between increasing damage or accuracy which was something I wanted to play with. That opportunity cost may or may not be there in a different system depending on design. Some decisions will depend on the higher level goals of the system.

>>50776210
It depends on how you define Racism, because even a dictionary definition is interpreted differently.

>tfw don't want to post until the new thread

>>50786681
This one has lasted over a week and has a bit to go until it hits the bump limit.

If you want to wait you'll be holding off for a couple days.

File: Fighter vs forest monster.jpg (901KB, 1000x637px) Image search: [Google]

901KB, 1000x637px

>>50787048

Alright.

DnD. Roll 2d10 to make an attack.

On any pair you get a combat move, ie; trip an opponent, try to disarm them, knock off a point of their armor, interrupt their spell casting, etc. The attack doesn't have to hit for this to count.

Every 10 you roll adds +1 damage

Every level Fighters who take the 'offensive' bonus get another attack die, and for each strike they always take the 2 biggest dice but keep all the combat moves and 10 damage bonuses if they roll them regardless. They can also split up their dice among multiple enemies for multiple attacks.

Some combat moves or using the right type of weapon grant an additional attack die, as well as surprise on the first round- even fighters can get these in the right conditions.

How does this sound for an alternate combat system? I really like the idea of using this method, though obviously AC levels have to be tweaked a bit.

>>50787190
I like what you are proposing but fixed +1 damage is too little, you will probably want to scale that with level....combat moves are good and they would be very common (pairs have a 10% chance of happening, unless you have to roll above AC for them to count, then it would be around 3%)...
http://anydice.com/program/a277
I recommend looking over the summary...

>>50787470
>I like what you are proposing but fixed +1 damage is too little

I didn't want to mention beyond what was necessary but in my game people don't really get more HP per level, and monsters only scale so far as well. I'm limiting HD to like 5-6 and that's only for the most bad ass of creatures.

Exceptions being the Fighter himself, if he chooses to upgrade 'Defensive' bonus when he levels.

But thanks for the advice and charts, I didn't know anydice could show stuff like that. Appreciated.

>>50756398
Anything you'd like to share as of now?

Is it lame that I shove the advantage/disadvantage rule from D&D 5e in all my homebrews? It seems so good from a mathematical approach (it is not that overpwer), a mechanical approach (with reduced bonus, less bonus bloat and quicker rounds) and a fun approach (rolling more dice is always more fun).

I'm shoving it on d20 and even 3d6 (by making the player roll 4d6 and discard higher/lower).

For those unfamiliarized, Adv/Dis is a conditions that makes you roll 2d20 and pick the higher/lower one. Having both conditions negates the mechanic, making you roll 1d20 as usual - even if you have more sources of advantage than disadvantage, or vice-versa.

>>50787543
It not lame at all; Adv/Dis is probably the best thing to come out of DnD in a long time, and some would argue is the only really good and interesting idea in 5e.

>>50712166
>>50787511
Twice in the same thread...

>>50787543
It's a good mechanic for "small boosts" as it main effect is increasing the roll's stability towards some value different from your straight bonuses...but for more sources or "heavier" sources it would be better to use modifiers too...

I don't find it lame as it's a sound dev. strategy that reduces the influence of dice on a roll instead of providing raw modifiers (that may not matter at all on a D20 roll...I usually find D20s a distasteful choice)

Anybody can help on deciding on:
A: multiple dice pick highest
B: card from a variable hand

>>50787750
>>50787543
Or better, you could have multiple disadvantages and advantages on the same roll, for each one you roll +1 dice and discard +1 from highest/lowest...A roll against DC with a dice pool! (that tends to the middle ground once you pile too much stuff)

>>50787773
Multiple dice pick highest tend to have mechanics for increases number of dices or dice "sizes", it gives solid increases...

Having a card from your hand, gives you the option of increasing the value of the card and hand size, it makes for interesting strategic games...

>>50787543
It's lame if you toss it in everywhere without thinking about it. Every design decision should have purpose.

>>50787803
Thank you very much for the prompt response
Another because it is the last thing i need:
how good is having multiple hand sizes for diffrent card types

>>50787905
Trying to deal with multiple hands is messy at the very best, I would recommend making different "decks" a player can buy from or a "unique" deck per player and keep hand-size as a single value. For instance, players draw from single-suit decks (I'm a fighter I buy two spades and one hearts) and you can only use each suit on certain tasks (if you lack the proper suit you may play another with negative modifiers), I would recommend using at least 2 basic decks.

Guys what would be the name for an expendable resource to get extra-planar help? I was thinking about boons or blessings...
(e.g. to cast cleric spells, to invoke nature blessings, to invoke the powers of a demon)

>>50787993
Dubs
Bennies
Also maybe diffrent names for diffrent gods/pantheons

>>50787993
also i meant something like a hand of x cards of diffrent types like:
3 fight
4 ability
2 farm
Which are used for diffrent task sets and you always have at least that many

I know I will get the bump limit death ticking with this bump, but as OP, I will assure that I will assure to make a new one immediately (read: within a hour or so) unless someone else does it first of course.

This is to ensure that we get gdg properly revived

>but what about Saturday Night GDG?

The concept isn't deaf, this singular thread just has been so alive that it would be ludicrous to wait until saturday just because.

So, cheers.

>>50764195
Those are certainly better than the Maximum Morale, High Morale etc. I was working with earlier. Thanks.

I'm probably going to add a special morale state at the bottom (shattered) that is roughly equivalent to death. Shattered characters are incapable of taking actions other than fleeing or begging for mercy. It'll be hard bringing someone down to that point though.

>>50788775
Dude, I think we have until post 350 before we hit the bump limit. That or my phone isn't showing the red text in the catalogue that indicates we've hit the limit.

>>50788827
Wut? I thought 300 was the bamp limit? Fucking bad memory it seems.

>>50788868
Its a little over 300. Like, 310 or so.

>>50739370
Makes sense.
>>50733572
Nothing wrong with abstraction, but marrying the narrativistic feel of a narreme with its mechanics does feel better, and I am currently motivated enough to keep trying to find that perfect mechanic.
>>50733369
Yeah I've spent a lot of thought in that direction.
>>50732506
You didn't interpret it wrong, but your idea is basically just sticking with additive bonuses, which is tried-and-true and not really faulty, but the purpose of this exercise it to try to figure out something better until I lose motivation and just do go with that answer.

Here is my mechanic so far.

XdYk2 format. X is 2 + ranks in expertise (skill level, 0-5). Y is the type of dice rolled and is based primarily on attributes.

Attributes range 1-12. 1 means you roll 2 d1s by default (automatic 2). 2 means you roll 2 d2s (coins). past this point things are pretty straightforward (and really, attributes should never get that low. 5 is default). On even numbers you roll 2 dice of sides equal to your attribute (attribute 6 = 2d6), on odd numbers you roll one of each dice you fall between (attribute 7 = 1d6, 1d8)

Gear determines kind of dice are used for dice beyond the default 2. By default, all bonus die are your lowest default die. However, equipment increases your effective attribute when rolling bonus die.

So if you have 6 Physique, 3 Expertise (sword), and a +2 sword, you roll: 2d6, 3d8, keep 2.

If you have an odd number of bonus dice and the bonus die score falls on a odd number, round in favor of the smaller dice.

So 6 Charisma, 3 Expertise (etiquette), and +1 finery, equals: 3d6, 2d8 (the bonus was 3d7, so +1d6 and 2d8)

Some equipment, weapons in particular, give other bonuses like a flat increase to damage dealt.

What do you think, too much?

>>50788775
>The concept isn't deaf, this singular thread just has been so alive that it would be ludicrous to wait until saturday just because.
Personally I think it's better to wait for a set day to revive the thread than to force it. Stop writing before you're out of things to write, and all that.

>>50789295
Hmm. I doubt I'll remember to anchor for that Under -fella, but sure, let's try again Saturday.

Everyone cool with that? If you got urgent game design questions, just set up threads normally or wait until Saturday?

>>50784652
Then perhaps I'm still at a loss for what the conceit of the game is. You say "failing forward," so should I take that to mean the game is farcical in nature?

>>50789295
Having a set day is alright, but what should do when it lasts longer than a week? Force reset, saging the previous one and starting a new one on the proper date? For now, I would say go ahead and make a new one once this one expire.

>>50789864
Depends on what conceit you mean. I would say that the direction of the game is that it employs simple numerical values, that, while abstractions, are directly representative of the character, rather than being numbers that affect other numbers, in a sense.

Farcical? Not necessarily. The tone of the game is definitely somewhat humoristic, with its mocking and sarcastic tone to even the game mechanics.

That said, I wonder, maybe it should be farcical, but in the sense, the Farce should be the enjoyable part, even for the player themselves.

Usually, the GM dictates much of what happens in the game, down to character actions (indirectly and subtly, by saying things like "As you open the door, you see a monster the size of a horse, and although it was idle when you first saw it, it suddenly gazes at you"). But what if, when you fail (and especially when you fail miserably), it would be the player's job to describe what happens.

How's that sound? This would allow some nifty failing forward, as in, even when you fail, you have the ability to gain something in return. This could make the failing part of the game (which is usually seen as upsetting and annoying) engaging in on itself.

>>50789874
Valid questions, valid questions. I believe people's drives won't be this strong if we make another, so it would probably die before Saturday anyway.

I gotta say, I'm kind of on the fence here. I can't say yes or no to either idea.

>>50790147
I think I'm beginning to get a clearer picture of what you're intending. In a sense, it's a game against yourself and not a direct competition with other abstract statistics.

If that's the case, then a farcical take might emphasize how failure is the source of entertainment (or A source in any case). Of course, making failure an entirely frustrating affair would dampen this tone. If your goal is to be self depreciating and sarcastic, the mechanics should probably reflect how everyone is in on the joke.
You want the game to help players laugh at AND with themselves. Otherwise the play experience might just be singularly frustrating.

>>50790437
I could see that. Especially when I now added a slight rule that alters the game somewhat, even when it's only one sentence long: "Whenever a character is faced with a problem of theirs in a meaningful way, no matter the situation, they must roll."

>game against yourself
Well, that's a neat way to put it. Well, yeah, I kind of devised it as a game to create interesting character arcs for your characters, down to the very mechanics.

--> A character has problems
--> It is impossible to get rid of problems without facing them
--> While facing your problems, most of the time you will encounter new ones, like it or not.

Maybe I should actually emphasize the gaining of problems, all in all. Make some mechanic where...

Hmm... Actually, I could change how Despair works, just a little. If you ever roll under your despair, you gain a new problem (instead it going to a death spiral of sorts). This isn't a game about death. Every character is supposed to be the comic relief, and comic relief never dies.

>>50790741
That would make it even better a game, like you can keep pushing it but in the end it's gonna end REALLY bad for you, (just make a a few cap ranges to how bad a player can get until he dies/retires), also include rules for next characters, I would suggest a number of problems equal to the average+number of "deaths" (getting too much problems is a skill that improves when your character "dies")