/gdg/ Game Design General

Okay, so aces are nukes then that you hoard until absolutely necessary to wreck your opponent's dynasty.

I feel like the game would end in draws semi-frequently though. Still, it's simple enough and would be very easy to test.

While that might work, I worry that would involve everyone having two character sheets essentially.

I'm tempted to just leave all hacking as handwaved except for commandeering of drones mid combat

that would work, my main thought is not to miss out what could be really cool. GitS and Neuromancer spent a lot of time in virtual environments, and glossing over that seems like lost potential.

That would also depend on how much information each player character needs to keep track of. I personally doubt you'd need an entire character sheet to keep tracking of hacking skills.

I'm making a rules light game where the characters are part of a village in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world.

My question is: should I make the village part RTS like with resource gathering, or try to make it more narrative instead? So like the event table would be based less around affecting resources but more around driving what the characters do?

Or should it be more dispassionate almost like a D&D 3.5 system for managing a village would be?

What kind of mechanics / resources should I include?

I've already made the system but I am starting to redo the village rules as they need the most work. I also have rules for garnering favor with other settlements and spending it. I have a merchant class but I am still trying to give it a role in the game. Part of the idea is that the different classes can contribute different things to the village mechanically (like the botanist developing crops to help the village resist drought better)

Thoughts?

I suppose I could go deep on VR and make actual combat take place there, giving hackers spell like abilities in there.

Perhaps the shared hallucination has some underlying restrictions that make actual combat expertise come in handy for say, transmitting data packets to enemy units

Isn't this kind of what Kingdom Death does, except with less explicit horrible things happening?

Regardless, you should definitely make it part RTS. Don't make it dispassionate, make it so that you can go elbow deep into the mechanics and potentially affect the lives of every individual villager.

There aren't enough games around that do this sort of thing, so having one that does it really well would be very nice.

Oh and it's a roleplaying game by the way. In case that wasn't obvious. The combat mechanics are very simple, the classes are very basic, and it's meant to be like D&D 3.5 epic 6 kind of play, with crafting and downtime mechanics.

part of the rules involves co-op settlement creation, drawing a map of it, saying who the characters are and how they know each other (you are encouraged to be brothers, sisters, childhood friends, apprentices to each other, etc. as it is a small village so everyone knows each other). Then each month you roll on the Fortune table to see what event befalls your village. This is meant to be like an adventure generator but the GM is supposed to make more out of it (though some stuff like Drought is just an event that happens). The characters are supposed to help contribute to the village by going on adventures and stuff.

I am curious how many rules there should eb for the village management. Right now, you get 10 food per month per farm, and you subtract your population from the resulting food. Any people who dont get fed get moved to the starving column then die the next month. Problem is it's phrased oddly so its kind of confusing.

I can't decide if its better to have a set number for population, and have an RTS-style resource flow? Or something more abstract. I like the idea of a set population. Like you have 53 people in your settlement. Oh but 8 died in a raise, now you have 45. And so on. But at the same time I don't want things to be too complicated.

I also have season mechanics but those shouldn't be too much of an issue. I might integrate those into the fortune table instead of having them be a separate thing to remember. Like if you roll 12 on the fortune table you pick an effect depending what season it is.

Hey thread! Been a while since I've seen this one active, so decided to drop in. Got a skirmish over here and also came up with an idea earlier today.

Summoners playing a ball game (handegg or blitzball) and the objective is to score five points by throwing the ball through the opposing goal posts. Each point gained allows the opponents to summon one creature for the game, and summons can be swapped out between matches. What do you anons think?

I don't think you'd need to go that far, though you could if you want.

Remember, your source material is Ghost in the Shell and Neuromancer. Snow Crash had a live virtual world where you have an avatar and can do direct battle with your problems. GitS are more abstract and functional-- you don't literally take a hammer to a firewall to smash it down, but you fire code at it that does the same.

Complex hacks in GitS look kind of like playing Rez, where you're interacting with shapes and colors that represent elements of the system that you're affecting, rather than what they themselves appear to be. In that way you could actually have a lot of fun with it.

My feeling is that people who really want to play a hacking game are probably be less interested in "fight this digital ogre to gain access to the root file directory", because that's just taking existing tropes and stapling hacker jargon to them. Approaching it from a more abstract but still object based perspective might have better results.

You mentioned that you have CSE friends, right? Consult with them on how they visualize programs and networks to get a better idea at how to do so in your game.

I was thinking more along the lines of "you want to hack this dude? load your program into that sword and shank his ass"

But I'll worry about this after getting a robust run and gun

In that case you should totally read Hannu Rajaneimi's The Quantum Thief and its sequels, since that's in large part how it handles hacking.

Oh and I'm probably off for tonight. Hopefully this thread will be around tomorrow.

Hey guys. I've been tooling around with a game of my own making... and the biggest hang-up that I have right now is how turns are taken. I want to do something non-traditional (I.E, not D20 and similar games), and actions occur.

What I came up with is an "Initiative" system. You have a certain number of points to spend on various actions (skill rolls, movement, attacks, etc).

I kinda borrowed a bit from Magic the Gathering in this concept...

drive.google.com/open?id=0B9FE25lqbSbDQzVpR3NSVE1XajA

Any thoughts on this would be nice.

Hello there Veeky Forums. I'm trying to work on something related to a little space fantasy setting I have, and I'm currently thinking of carrying capacity. A great many groups dislike having to deal with keeping track of how much the shit they pull around weighs, but at the same time a core part of this system involves magic with a physical form. While you might not let someone carry a chaingun, ammo for said chaingun, AND an entire backpack full of bricks at the same time, it might get a little out of hand when everyone with a medium load also carries a backpack full of fucking bricks.

Should I consider having "how many spell bricks you can carry" be a separate counter to carry weight? Is there a less annoying way to deal with how much you can hold on to at once?

H'lo folks. I posted this in the osr thread but didn't really get any feedback I've been muddling around with my homebrewed LotFP/Into the Odd style hack. I plan to keep it level less, and give characters abilities after they devote so many levels in either their skills, spells, or attack bonus. I could use some help coming up with about 3 or 4 thiefy/specialist tiers.

You could go the Numenera route and say the spell bricks have bad ju-ju when in close proximity to other bricks. Kind of like carrying too many radioactive things at once.

I like this

Add a bestiary , email it to me at tenduril at gmail.com and I'll help you more with it .point is it looks interesting

That's already a thing, kind of. Miscasted spells are something that happen frequently enough and enough shock to the actual bricks (or even a specially enchanted weapon) is enough to cause one or even the entire pack of bricks to chain-miscast. Obviously you would be taping bricks to the inside of sleeves and armor, but a backpack is a better option because you can just plop it behind cover and just snatch however many you need when you need to cast something, at the risk of someone stealing them all at once if the enemy gets close.

But why would you ever let the enemy get close?

Real life hacking isn't interesting unless you consider dumpster diving and digging up info on social media interesting.

What if I consider ARP-cache poisoning and hash-code matching interesting?

Like detect and disable traps and pick lock. in D&D it's basically not connected to anything.
Best it's to keep it quick from player's perspective. it can take time in game, but for players it can be as simple as one dice roll + consequences.
Just make it a set of skills.

hacking tolls are custom written programs. made by the hacker or bought.

Cyperpunk has never cared about real life hacking.

That's...
just to abstract for normies to care about.
Just like child soldiers somewhere in Africa.

If you want to go full 80's cyberpunk with your hacking, make it some sort of cyerspace mini-combat versus the security program. Let multiple hackers (and counter-hacking security personell) partake in the same "battle".

Computer expert just needs equivalent of sneak attack and greater evasion to not feel gimped in combat. (if you're making combat driven system)

Alternatively, you could probably abstract real hacking down to something vaguley comprehensible. It could use a resource system, with "Information", "metadata" and "Crypto", or something like that, and a short list of techniques that use them to gain other resources, remove security measures, or gain actual valuable access or information.

I kinda wanna try this now. You might hear back from me in a few days.

Which is pretty much what I outlined here and , so by and large I agree, though perhaps not in the same literal intention as your post.

This is what I'm talking about. Don't downplay it, make it something that everyone in the party cares about, not just the one guy designated "hacker".

My plan for hackers mid combat is hijacking drones and then fighting with those. Implies a few rounds of doing dick all followed by a few rounds of being a monster

How about this idea. Most hacking is done against captured drones from combat that for one reason or another didn't self-destruct. That becomes a matter of time (abstract), processing resources (items you buy), and technical know-how (rolls and decisions)

I'm thinking something like a 4x4 grid kind of like Battleship. You roll to see how many points the system has, that dictates how many squares are blocked/trapped, so you start probing until you find the undefended square and everything goes FUBAR if you hit a trapped square and roll low. Each company would have finite profiles of trap arrangements.

Or perhaps I simply make three types of hacking for three specializations that correlate with skills you have anyways. Hacking a drone requires the tech wizard to grind away on it. Hacking a person requires VR combat from the physical adept (to borrow the term) and hacking a full AI involves slipping inside and tricking the AI by talking to it and getting it to expose data, move it through lines filtered by your tech wizard, or spill the info out of hand accidentally.

bump

How about rather than rolling to get past traps, the hacker(s) has a sort of suite of tech, gadgets, and skills that work on specific traps. They'd have to prepare them early, then use them while hacking. However using them disables them for a period, so if they're not up again by the next time they hit the same type of trap, they'd be in trouble.

Companies would have a certain definite distribution of types of traps, that way the player can somewhat predict what traps they may encounter. The traps themselves can also be varied in effects or requirements to break, as does the suite of gadgets the hacker has.

For those who noticed, yes this is basically Netrunner.

I'm not going to do cooldown mechanics, although I do like the idea of gear dictating which squares on the grid can be attacked.

Oh, now here's an idea, maybe everything has two layers, the ICE layer and the FIRE layer (open to anagrams for them) You can safely probe around on the ICE layer to find where there's gaps in that, which has a corp based correlation to the spots on the FIRE layer that will burn you out and blow the mission if you probe them. While the ICE layer may have about 3 holes you can enter through, there'd be about 9 kill spots in the FIRE layer on or near those holes

So would the process be:
>Probe ICE > find hole > go through ICE > probe FIRE > find win spot

or

>Probe ICE > wrong probe either bounces off, activates FIRE, or goes through hole > only one hole is correct

The first one might have the problem of taking time since you'd need to scan more spaces (once for both layers), assuming the win spot is not directly underneath the holes. The second one is weird, since if you can probe around on the ICE safely without activating FIRE, then you'd only go for the holes, which is a 1 in 3 chance of being correct. If probing ICE activates FIRE though, then there's not really a reason to have the ICE layer in the first place.

A suggestion would be to stick with "kill spots around holes", but to also have the win spot be around the hole as well. That way you can introduce some form of deduction ("this is a hole, which means the win spot may or may not be around this hole) and avoid "I go in this space on ICE, then go to this space again on FIRE" situations, adding a sort of uncertainty and tension since the player doesn't immediately know where the win spot is..

I'm trying to find a way to make it work like this
>Probe Ice
>There are X holes in it
>A good check tells you how many points the system is worth (how many holes/FIRE points)
>Every hole leads to a FIRE spot
>That FIRE spot is in fact part of a shape (think Tetris or maybe chess) based on the corp
>You have to deduce where they couldn't possibly put FIRE and probe it

Like, say you find these holes, and know that their FIRE is a 4x1 (or 1x4)

X X X 0
0 X 0 X
X X X X
0 X X X

There's numerous places it /could/ be safe to break through, but only one that is guaranteed safe

Ahh, that sounds pretty neat, simple but still requires a bit of thinking. Not sure how you can introduce gadgets and stuff into this though, maybe use them and the character's knowledge to reveal more info? Terminology will also be important to avoid confusion.

Gadgets would do things like give you a free fuck up, determine the orientation of a FIRE block, boost your identification of possible FIRE blocks (imagine how hard that would be if it could also be 2x2's?), squelch certain FIRE blocks (though if you squelch the wrong type, you trigger it), and so on.

How do you guys feel about a dice system in which the constant is greater than the random component? So that a fighter will succeed at hitting most of the time, mechanics will succeed at repairing most of the time, etc. While doing things you're unskilled in will more often than not result in failure?

Just means less variance, means a different playstyle, typically more strategic.

It can be seen to inhibit creativity since if the larger the random element, the more stuff you can try to get away with. But it also means you have to actually think about your decisions which has its own rewards

Depends on how high that constant gets.

There's a Final Fantasy D6 system that's actually fairly fun to play that uses a growing constant + d6 for randomness. The issue with it is that after a certain point, you're just doing loads of damage and the rolling is more of an afterthought, contributing little to no help in the overall roll.

So it depends on how flexible you want things to be, and how big a role that randomness takes.

Hey guys, so based off this exchange;
I had the idea of a little co-op mostly card based Inn management/social game.

Basically you and your friends build your Inn and take on the main "Jobs" trying to get up to either a certain value or patron number (not sure on that one yet, maybe objective cards) kinda like roller coaster tycoon. While avoiding disgruntled customers and the threat of property value plummeting barfights.
Patrons have a sliding Mood scale (so far 1 to 5 but I'll probably go up to at least 7). This goes from Thrilled(5) down to Angry(1) which is when punches start flying (or earlier).

Patrons walk into the bar as various adventurers with traits, moods and desires.
For a rough example a Dwarf Barbarian shambles in one night and asks for a drink. He drinks twice the amount of liquor as a normal person. Paying more money but also depleting your stores. He is a jolly fellow, so his 'Mood' starts on Friendly/Happy(4). However if you don't serve beer which he 'Desires' he drops one point down to Neutral(3). If he sees a Troll he will drop another 1 which would make him Disgruntled(3) (His 'Trait' being Barbarian means he starts fights when he's Disgruntled instead of waiting to be Angry).

The players on the other hand can employ a number of things to try and deal with the Dwarf such as having a Bard play a tune, hiring a Bouncer to throw him out or by other means such as feasting him Roast Beast if they have a Kitchen.
You can also build extensions onto the Inn such as adding the aforementioned Kitchen so you can serve meals (which also brings a new list of demands from your customers of course). A stage so your Bard can gather and entertain a proper audience, or maybe a underground gambling den where fat cats and whales learn that the house always wins.

Still kinda hammering the main idea out, but it helps to type it out. Whatcha'll think?

Hey guys. A thread or two ago, I posted an idea about a setting/system that tried to combine dark, moody fantasy with cartoonish hopefulness. Like Dark Souls meets Adventure time. I've been putting thought now into character creation, and though I haven't quite settled on a system yet, I have the gist of some of the core "traits and abilities," the closest analogue to class. At creation, characters have a pool of points to buy equipment, abilities, and othe rsuch interesting things: the most powerful abilities parallel class, but aim to be nonspecific enough to allow a variety of thematic and stat approaches.

The gist of the setting is: you and your friends play a band of bold heroes and adventurers in a dark world known as Under. Under is populated by a vast assortment of creatures left behind by the enigmatic Humen, powered by the mysterious energy known as Heart. Most of these creatures are unpleasant at best and downright terrifying at worst; however more friendly varieties do exist, the most common three (coincidentally, the player "races") are skeletons, autos, and goblins.

Skeletons are outwardly spooky-looking and rather gangly, but often boast a bold hero's heart and a genuine caring for others.

Autos are mechanical in appearance, a stout and sturdy folk with a knack for interaction with the inanimate.

Goblins are unique among the Friendly in their squishy, fleshy bodies. They often wrap themselves thoroughly in silks and scarves to disguise themselves.

Heart is consumed very slowly when performing mundane tasks such as running, jumping, and general life, to the point where it need not be tracked. Further, Heart is generated in sufficient quantities for survival when friends spend time together: in this way, so long as you keep company, you will never be without Heart. For heroes and adventurers however, this is not quite enough. Heart can be found stored in various trinkets and items scattered throughout Under, as well as within every creature and critter. Heroes will often brave the darkness to do battle with foes, taking their Heart as just reward and using it to power a variety of mighty abilities to further the cause of hope.

The closest thing to dying in Under is running out of Heart, most commonly by suffering from Heartbreak. When one is Heartbroken, their Heart is released into the surrounding world; an attentive bystander can focus on absorbing this raw Heart. Heartbreak is most commonly induced by having one's body worn down by physical wear and tear, such as one may experience from vigorous combat, falling from heights, or other painful calamity.

Not to fear, however! A creature without Heart can be revivified by having Heart bestowed upon them (however this does not necessarily cure them of their Heartbreak!).

I don't have the time nor documents right now to fully explain this question but;

Conceptually speaking, how should one balance Medium weapons and armor? Or rather- heavy weapons and armor deal the most numerical damage and protect against the most, light weapons and armor have the best armor piercing and flexibility in what they can do, but what should medium get beyond just acting as a middle ground?

At creation, characters can buy abilities, traits, and nifty items. The following traits are, I suppose, the closest analogue to classes, though I'm trying to make them as open ended as possible to allow for as many playstyles as possible (without falling into the trap of letting everyone be able to do everything).

Vampire: Through mysterious means, you can siphon Heart from non-Heartbroken creatures with a touch. This is a violent, imperfect thing and 1/2 of the Heart is lost in the process. Do note that this is viewed as a pretty questionable act by most intelligent creatures (especially Friendly ones) and should be used carefully.

Chevalier: You are a master of all things mounted! Whenever you need to roll for anything to do with mounts (such as daring maneuvers, charging an enemy, or calming a spooked animal), you may elect to re-attempt it. Note that there are no takesies backsies: the second roll is used even if its worse! Further, choosing this trait grants the character their choice of mount, from a fuzzy spider, to an autocycle, to a simple hoss!

Guardian: You are an immovable bulwark against evil and calamity. You ignore armour penalties to Defence, while retaining armour bonuses to Deflection. Further, you may re-attempt rolls made to hold your ground in the face of adversity.

Breaker: You are assault incarnate, throwing your soul into every strike. You may spend Heart to add a proportionate bonus to attack rolls. Further, you increase the damage of all weapons by one step (ie., d4 to d6).

Storyteller: You are a bringer of cheer and entertainment, heartening your fellow heroes. When you rest with friends, you may spend Heart to create a pool of re-attempts from which the party may freely draw. When you next rest, 1/2 of Heart spent is restored to you, and unspent re-attempts are lost.

Martyr: You are a selfless soul, a rare pure spirit in the darkness of Under. You may freely bestow your own Heart upon others with a touch. Further, you may expend Heart to cure a companion of their Heartbreak or other ailment. 1/2 of Heart lost in these ways is restored when you rest with friends (note that abusing this to create more Hear than you began with will likely end in loss of this ability!).

Enchanter: You are a weaver of a valuable sort of magic, temporarily infusing Heart into various items. When you rest, you may infuse Heart into weapons, armour, and other sundries to grant them special properties. For this, you must have knowledge of the practices required for each properties: the purchase of this ability includes a book of basic enchantments (with many extra pages to add new formulae as you go along your adventure!).

The cheaper alternative for either, probably. Heavy obviously requires more or better materials, while light could require a certain technique or material to make. Medium needs neither.

Not a complete list yet, of course, but its the idea. Exact numbers will come once I have a system nailed down for sure.

For weapons, fine-detail isn't important: Big weapons require two hands to use, and deal a lot of damage. Normal weapons require one hand to use, freeing up your off hand to hold a shield, cast spells, or throw gang signs. Little weapons deal the least damage, but are light enough to be dual wielded, allowing for two attacks in one turn! (have yet to think of how Little weapons and shields interact)

There are two defensive stats: Defence, which indicates your ability to avoid being hit altogether (decreased by wearing armour, increased by having a high dexterity and using shields), and Deflection, which indicates your ability to shrug off the hits that do land (increased by wearing armour and having abnormally high strength).

Spells will be available to anyone willing to invest Heart into learning and using them (have yet to come up with a trait that benefits spellcasters), and castable with either the Brain or Spirit stat.

Sorry for spamming up the thread, but things seem to be pretty slow anyways. thoughts so far?

Been a while again, /gdg/. For some reason whenever I sit down and actually focus on my game, something else comes up and steals my time. Anyway.

My card game, Frontier Fables, has entered the version 1.2. Last time I posted I talked about revamping one of the playable classes and with this version, the revamping is done. The latest version also included quite a lot of rewriting and card adjusting, but the workings of the Glyphscribe class were most prominent.

If someone is seeing this mess of a thing now for the first time, a quote from the book;
>Frontier fables is a competetive card game where the players battle, strategize and explore to emerge victorious over their opponents. This is accomplished by building their own unique exploration parties that are supported by various cards that are compiled into a deck. Special skills,valuable treasures, even creatures of the new world are theirs to utilize. The explorers need every tool in their disposal to reign supreme and claim the glory that belongs to them, but even more so, to you!

As usual, ANY kind of feedback is appreciated. I do have couple of questions though. The game in its current state is pretty much complete gameplaywise, but that requires something I have no access to. Playtesters, where do I whip them up? To my eyes, without extensive playtesting, the gameplay cannot be refined enough. Sure it COULD be done, but it would be lot easier. Yet, finding playtesters for a card game is very difficult, due to the need of physical media being printed out.

Another thing is, how do I post almost 300 cards? If I compile them all to a single image, it crosses the file size limit. I guess I could make them into smaller images or post the entire thing to imgur or something similar.

Once again, thanks for any feedback!

The concept for your game is frankly fantastic; I'm really interested in seeing how you balance those two themes. I assume the goal of the players is to maintain hope in the face of increasingly dense despair?

I love that the most heroic race you have are the skeletons. Wanna be that skellington.

>Heart
So Heart = Souls, yes? I like how you can clearly see what the inspiration is, but by changing the context and names of things a little bit it completely alters one's understanding and connection with the setting and what it requires.

Seriously, the core concept is quite excellent. What I'm interested in is what sort of mechanical framework you're planning on to support it.

Either imgur or pdfs per faction, depending on the resulting size of the pdf. You could probably make them smaller to decrease the size.

As for playtesters, any local FLGS around you? Or you could persuade your gaming group, friends, colleagues, etc.

Btw what kind of game are you looking to achieve with this again? A TCG/LCG?

>Either imgur or pdfs per faction, depending on the resulting size of the pdf.
Seems like the most effective thusfar, considering the numbers are only going to get bigger with time.
>As for playtesters, any local FLGS around you? Or you could persuade your gaming group, friends, colleagues, etc.
My main problem is with trying to do something locally is my lack of equipment to print out all the cards in multiples. While also being unlucky enough that the local FLGS is dead. And I have no friends left in the area.
>Btw what kind of game are you looking to achieve with this again?
I kinda wish it was a TCG since I like them slightly over LCG, but that is not really a realistic goal at this point. Until an opportunity comes along, the game is LCG.

No print shops in the area at all? Even a dead FLGS is fine if you can get atleast 1-2 people to test it out with you. Even without printing, you could write stuff down on cardboard paper and use that instead, like that one guy with the alchemist game thing.

Without any physical options though, you're probably going to have to settle for some form of online play on a medium that lets you add custom games. Then you can see if you can find some playtesters in Veeky Forums. Do make some starter decks for each faction though, include cards that explore as much of the possibilities available as you can.

Yes, unbelievable as it is. No print shops in this city, atleast from what I have heard of. The dead FLGS gets only very aggressive 40k and MTG players who are not up for chatter, speaking from experience.

Of course something that would allow online play would be the most optimal solution, since then no one needs physical objects and the testing step is easier to arrange. From the top of my head there is Tabletop Sim, but I am not sure how easy it is to develop modules for it.

No Office Depot? They print.

Wrong country, unfortunately.

Nitty gritty penny pinching? Or resource dots?

For the cyberpunk game still

Resource is my preferred when it comes to modern, non apocalyptic settings. Penny pinching doesn't well represent the day to day life of someone with income in a relatively structured economy

Yes, but how lame is it to get paid for that huge heist with "another resource dot"

You know what? I'd normally go with Resource Dots but so many games do stuff like that now (understandably) that I'd love to see one that does penny pinching well.

This is a rather important point. Pennies might not be important, but Money is. Therefore, money should be exact. Also, Shopping lists of cool guns and stuff loos better with actual pricetags.

You know, I kind of want to include a mechanic for collateral damage.

>Get awarded 10,000
>DM rolled for every time a bomb went off
>Rolls up an invoice for bullets
>Modifies based on subtly
>Reward reduces to 7,890 split four ways

God yes, I love this idea. It's super crunchy but nails certain specific themes really well.

I like this idea. Not so much because it discourages destructive playstyles (although some players could do with a bit more thinking before exploding), but because it puts a score on the mayhem. And nice flavor.

Bump

Have any of you guys had a Kickstarter? What about hiring an artist or manufacturer?

I posted a week or two ago, since then I have put together some more concrete notes on the game. It was the cyberpunk hashing game, anyway I put my notes into a markdown document here: notehub.org/nuyma

I am looking for feedback, I understand it can be a bit complicated to read the first time through so feel free to post any questions.

Here we go. I made a collab of every single card done thusfar. I need to start linking this alongside the rulebook too.

imgur.com/a/Gm8Fm

Hey gents of /gdg/,

I have a question on turn order mechanics in a partially-narrative-based ttrpg I'm working on. The game is narrative based to the extend that actions, combat especially is not meant to work in a completely mechanical way. Many abilities change the way combat works and most actions involving another entity are treated as fluid occurrences rather than discrete sets of actions.

The system focuses on upsets and reactions as core components. For example, the mechanics dictate that two dueling swordsmen both roll a difference in ability each round, and based on the difference in ability one player is given an upset which is used to do one of a number of actions - in a traditional system, each player might just use their round to attack the opponent, then their opponent attacks back, then they attack, etc...

The system has some problems I'm working on, mainly that if actions are treated as simultaneous events, occurrences can run together and be impossible to keep track of mechanically. I've created a set of narrative rules for the GM that I'm hoping keep everything in order, but if anyone thinks of a better way to keep track of such complex actions, or knows of a game that does something like this right (or wrong), I'd love to know.

I'm hoping this type of mechanic makes combat situations more engaging and narrative based, but I haven't had anyone playtest with me yet, so I'm in the dark as to what cracks such a narrative-heavy system has. If you have any suggestions or think the system is stupid for some reason, let me know. (If you like it enough to help me playtest and polish that set of mechanics, let me know.)

I didn't expect that. So you have two starting hashes, goal is to create hash of certain of composition and sell it. You can combine 2 hashes. What will [0xFA][0xF] produce? How are you supposed to find new symbols for hashes? Reboot and trade ad infinitum? What should you do with bad hash pieces?

I don't see the point of this game desu senpai.

> What will [0xFA][0xF] produce?
[0x109][]

But... I guess it is too complicated that it's being asked.

> How are you supposed to find new symbols for hashes?
By trading with other players, combining, or gaining income, which happens when you make 5 trades with different players. Each new hash has an associated behavior.

> Reboot and trade ad infinitum?
I just put reboot in there for starting over, you shouldn't need it often, and maybe not at all.

> What should you do with bad hash pieces?
Trade them, the behavior is likely unknown by the other players until they have it in their slot.

> I don't see the point of this game desu senpai.
I'm sorry. I really need to work on "how the game works" because it is pretty different. The idea is that there is a "bounty" hash that you are trying to make, so you keep crafting (combining) until you can make it. The hashes combine predictably (e.g. just hexadecimal math) so you can understand how to get to it.

I am rethinking hex as it has been a point of confusion for everyone I have shown this to. It was mostly for theme anyway.

Thanks for the feedback.

I like using index cards for games with simultaneous actions. You might consider something like that, or maybe something like the action sheets in Burning Wheel.

>[0x109][]But... I guess it is too complicated that it's being asked.
You should've said outright that it's a game about making a really big number with right sequence of symbols.

Good point, I was trying to keep it on the theme, but you're right.

New Fearsome Gods update- game is looking as good as ever.

Alternate rules in the back help balance medium weapons and armor if you want to balance them better.

Not yet, but that might be an option in the future.

I'm probably getting too far ahead of myself with all this graphic design for a game that isn't even playtested yet, but here's a rough mockup of my game's cover. Obviously, the finished product will be a bit more refined.

This is dope.

Loving it. It needs a little color, something subtle for the title and icon, for some contrast, like an earthy brownish red or gold. But nothing too bright or heavy.

How about Helmets that use a persons brain as a supplemental data network for the hacker. Letting you run an extra attack program with your buddy being plugged in.

Have you tried Tabletop Simulator for playtesting?

Makes me wonder if you should retheme it and use more conventional methods of play, maybe replace it with cards or something. Because expecting normies to understand what happens when you add up hex numbers is a tall order. It still looks fun even you retheme it to be about farmers trading around misbehaving farm animals.

IMO you should sample photographs of foggy forests or something for the texture along the bottom, like creating a suggestion of a treeline. That could be either me liking that sort of thing or the name or both, though. Stuff like the cover of Infinity by Jesu or any number of kvlt black metal albums.

Also agreed on needing colour, possibly blending a textured red-gold through green on the dragon (which, looking at the color theory, would suggest royalty in decay. I dunno that that's applicable to your game). Obviously darkened/washed-out.

Thanks! Will work on color.
Verdigris on copper perhaps?

100% Fantasy RPG, v1.00

the site id dead, anyone have the pdf ?

I think that will fit really well with the theme.

I can't express how much my friends and I enjoy playing your game!

This reminds me to put this down.

gatekeepergaming.com/article-6-how-to-get-minis-made/
boardgamegeek.com/thread/838422/mass-production-custom-made-miniatures
flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/ - Free illustrations

Your friends are playing my game, already?!

I need details. Please email me. Thanks!

Yes, it done right, I think that would look great.

Does anyone have a character creation system they would like me to test? I figure I should give back before posting my shitty knock-off systems and trawling for ideas.

Have you tested [Dragon Forest] yet?

I feel like I made a character in this before it was called Dragon Forest. Or at least a similar system that used Doom Points by you. Am I nuts?
Regardless, lemme read through it. If I can grasp the mechanics, I'll make something.