Bloodborne RPG

Working on a homebrew system for campaigns set in Yharnam during Nights of the Hunt. Relatively rules-light, wouldn't want more complexity than (say) NWoD. Right now the thing I'm working on is combat mechanics.

-Dice pool mechanic, currently thinking 8+ is a Success.
-A hunter PC would start with 8 stamina dice, leveling can improve it to 12 and runes can grant up to +3 additional.
-Recover 3 stamina at start of your turn. You can take 1 Major and 1 Minor action, or 2 Minor actions; latter grants 3 additional stamina recovery at your turn's end. Some actions (attacking) cost additional stamina, some don't.

-Attacks are made using 2-5 Stamina dice depending on your weapon, successes = damage.
--Getting at least two successes on a single blow will Stagger human-sized targets. (larger enemies require more)
--If your initial attack hits the target you can declare additional Chain attacks. You can keep declaring & resolving chain attacks so long as you've got at least 1 stamina.
--Reach weapons (e.g. transformed Hunter's axe) can make Chain attacks even if the initial attack whiffs.

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bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Enemies
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-Combat uses large grid approach, grid spaces are about 10-15 feet in size, you can melee attack others in same grid space.
-You can expend 1 grid space of movement to instead "close" with a target in your square (the two of you remain "close" until one of you moves). Once per round, you can reroll an attack against an enemy you're close to; you must keep the results of the second roll.

-Evasion Pool: Your evasion dice pool lasts until the start of your next turn, and has a maximum size of 4 dice. Roll it each time you're attacked, negating 1 enemy success per success you get.
--You lose 1 dice from your evasion pool any time an enemy attack deals damage to you.
--You can assign stamina dice to this pool on your turn (using the Quickstep minor action, so you can assign 2 dice if you also attack and 4 if you do nothing but dodge)
--You can also add stamina dice to your Evasion pool in reaction to an enemy attack. However, each die you add also forfeits one of the 3 stamina dice you'd recover at the start of your next turn(assuming any remain)

-Quickstep (Minor): You get 2 movement and may assign up to 2 Stamina dice to your Evasion pool.
-Shift (Minor): You get 1 movement.
-Sprint (Major): Spend 1 Stamina and get 4 Movement.

Further mechanics in mind.... will start with gun parries.

-Reactive Shot: Declare before attack roll is made against you. Instead of using Evasion Pool vs. that attack, roll ranged attack with Snap Shot penalty (-1 pistol, -2 for shotgun?). If your successes exceed theirs, you Stun them and they make no attack.

-Ready Shot: Minor action. Next Reactive Shot has no Snap Shot penalty. Benefit lasts till start of your next turn.

And now Readied Attacks. I don't know, this one's intuitive to me but also seems like it'd be confusing as hell to everyone else?

-Ready Attack: Minor action. Once before the start of your next turn, you may declare a Reactive Attack in response to someone making a non-chain melee attack against you. Instead of using your Evasion Pool vs. that attack, you make your own attack against them.
--If one attack is using fewer dice, resolve that one first. Staggering the opponent will prevent them from making their attack.
--If both attacks use the same amount of dice, resolve them simultaneously.
--If the attacker has an Evasion Pool (typically from using Quickstep before initiating their attack), they may use it against the reactive attack.
--Reach weapons may also declare a reactive attack when an enemy tries to Close with you. Staggering the enemy will prevent them from Closing.

-Charge Attack: Major action, 5 stamina, ends turn and empties your Evasion Pool. You ready an attack; this readied attack is lost if you are staggered, stunned, make a Reactive Shot, or add dice to your Evasion Pool. If you neither lose nor use this readied attack, you may instead begin your next turn by making a Charged Attack which uses 5 extra dice and Stuns if it inflicts at least 3 hits. Or something.

SWEET SEXY JESUS FEED SOME MORE OF THIS TO ME

Do readied attacks make sense?

Something else I'm on the fence about: I'm thinking weapons could have options to make each attack a "heavy" attack, spending 1 extra stamina and getting.. some benefit, quite possibly just +1 dice on the attack.

So like, untransformed saw cleaver's base attack is 2 stamina dice. Every time you make any attack, you can declare it's "heavy" and attack with 3 stamina dice instead.

Benefits:
-Sometimes 3 stamina is exactly the amount you want to spend?
-If target has evasion pool, they're using it for each attack, so more dice makes your attack harder to evade. (This is more a weird side effect of mechanics than a deliberate representation of some bloodborne thing. Chalk it up to quick attacks normally lacking range.)
-You need 2 successes for an attack to stagger. Assuming I have 10s explode, 2 dice means about 1 in 8 chance of that while 3 means 1 in 4.

> I'm thinking weapons could have options to make each attack a "heavy" attack, spending 1 extra stamina and getting..
what is your opinion on the impact staggering mechanics here? these run on d100 roll under but I like the idea of heavy weapons doing more than just "more damage"

how about status effects?
like bleed, fire, poison, acid, etc?

>readied attacks
I'm looking back to you in a bit?

I'm thinking 2 successes on an attack is enough to stagger, and that's 2 on an *individual* attack.

So for targets with no Evasion pool:
2 dice staggers 13% of time.
3 dice staggers 26% of the time.
4 dice staggers 39% of the time
5 dice staggers 50% of the time.

Saw cleaver would roll like 2 or 3 dice. Transformed kirkhammer would roll 5 on its heavy attacks.

And yeah, this is alot more RNG that bloodborne, where basically all r2 attacks stagger and all r1s do not. But 1: RNG here is covering chance of player to fuck up, and 2: you gotta do something to balance the fact that players will be fighting beasts in groups of 3-5 rather than hunting solo.

As for effects, Staggering costs a PC one action from their next turn or, if done via readied attack, terminates the ongoing action of attacker. Mob NPCs would probably use a different action system (basically a list of things they can do on their turn and the GM picks one), so being staggered would either cost them a turn or just block them from doing the more offense-oriented actions.

Something else I need: a decent cleave mechanic? Or ideally, two of them. I want certain weapons (thrusting ones like rifle spear) to always only strike your target, a majority to have some chance of also striking other enemies in melee range (at least in their transformed modes), and certain weapons to have a better chance thanks to their wide, sweeping swings.

Right now my best stab is this:
-Default cleave is that each 10 rolled lets that attack target another enemy (in melee range, with no evasion pool).
-Weapons with strong cleave (ones that make big sweeping swings, like transformed Hunter Axe) target a total of 1 melee-range enemy per success rolled on the Initial Attack, both for said Initial Attack and all follow-up Chain Attacks.
--All targets can make Reactive counters and potentially stop your attacks. Targets who use their Evasion Pools are only protecting themselves, not their neighbors.

I feel like there's gotta be something better, though.

>reading through and rambling

>Getting at least two successes on a single blow will Stagger human-sized targets. (larger enemies require more)
I might say rolling 10s does this, not successes

>Chain attacks.
perhaps you have a start pool in combat and a peak in combat pool
start pool is 8 and adjustable by stats and runes, and you can "save" dice up for chains past the start pool

>Reach weapons (e.g. transformed Hunter's axe) can make Chain attacks even if the initial attack whiffs.
this doesn't quite sound right, maybe call them "parry" or "combo" weapons giving reach to another effect?

>large grids
perhaps reach weapons can hit adjacent blocks?
>close
or don't require you to close

>evasion pool
hmmm, I like it

>movement
the grid system needs more explanation than it's got for me to get this.

>reactive shot, ready shot
reaction shot could use the evasion pool, with some weapons given bonuses for this kind of shot(blunderbuss)

ready shot allowing players to keep stamina dice from the action pool between rounds to react with weapons that need a higher standard of accruacy, and might serve better to defend a party member(mid-line defender type move)

>ready attack
you're right, it is somewhat complicated.

why not simply declare a readied action, count out saved dice for such a maneuver and then treat it like a D&D Held Attack using that saved dice for the action, giving initiative to the held attack.

>"heavy" attack, spending 1 extra stamina and getting.. some benefit
tag your weapon types maybe? heavy weapons get a bonus?
perhaps bonus damage per die spent on an action past the minimum threshold for the weapon?

makes it a gamble(and feels like the vidya) more damage in exchange for less choice later.

>And yeah, this is alot more RNG that bloodborne,
still fine

>cleave mechanic?
take it right from 3.5e D&D maybe?

perhaps just a crit of some kind on a 10?

>I feel like there's gotta be something better, though
probably is, look around, you might find it?

>how about status effects?
>like bleed, fire, poison, acid, etc?
Haven't thought about it yet. A weapon upgrade system a la blood gems is definitely not a priority.

Fire and arcane would be alternate forms of attack dice that don't normally count towards Impact (i.e. staggering). There'd be a minor action to use an equipped torch or similar to menace beasts that have a phobia of it.

Poison... the most important thing is to have it be in attacks of certain beasts, and to be an interesting terrain hazard in some encounters. Looking beyond that, I'm thinking there'll be a Medicine skill that covers everything Blood Work (alt name: "ministration"?) skill does not, including both the treatment of poison and the effective application of it. Whatever mechanic I go with will need to fit those priorities.

>>Chain attacks.
>perhaps you have a start pool in combat and a peak in combat pool
start pool is 8 and adjustable by stats and runes, and you can "save" dice up for chains past the start pool
Oh I see zero issue with letting a player who has full stamina literally spend all of it on a single enormous series of chain attacks. That's totally a gamble you can make in Bloodborne so I wanted to let players make the same gamble here.

Basically the in-game time length of a turn in this system's kinda flexible. If you make this giant string of attacks, that turn represents a longer time interval but you're assumed to be buying that time by making your enemy flinch (and thus slightly delay their own actions) with each hit.

>>Reach weapons (e.g. transformed Hunter's axe) can make Chain attacks even if the initial attack whiffs.
>this doesn't quite sound right, maybe call them "parry" or "combo" weapons giving reach to another effect?
Might not literally be labeled reach. The other big effects I'd give weapons with long reach would be improved cleave (if they're the type to make wide, horizontal swings) and that option to also use ready attacks against targets who try to Close with you (i.e. if they want to close and then attack, they always have to let your readied attack resolve first.)

>>large grids
>perhaps reach weapons can hit adjacent blocks?
Leaning towards the spaces being too large for that to work (unless it's a special attack move where they charge in, like with two-handed rifle spear's charged R2)

>>close
>or don't require you to close
The only weapons that would require you to close would be the super short ones- stake driver, unarmed, maybe a couple others. Closing just gives you a really nice attack boost (one free reroll on an attack).

>>movement
>the grid system needs more explanation than it's got for me to get this.
Okay, I made a demo thing.

Say we're the GM and we want to do an encounter as soon as the players enter Old Yharnam. Purple diamonds are Patient Beasts (as the guide calls them), red diamond is the heroic PC Billy Bloodlust.

Instead of trying to map the entire area out as a 5-foot grid, I sketch out the general layout and then arbitrarily chop it into zones, the borders of which are represented by blue lines on this map. (calling this approach a "large grid" may have been misleading, at least when it's not a big open space like the Vicar Amelia boss arena) Rule of thumb is that it should take about 2-3 in-game quicksteps to travel from middle of one zone to any neighbors.

During combat, you don't track anyone's precise position- everyone's assumed to be juking and jiving around SOMEWHERE within their current zone. You can move to a neighboring zone for 1 Movement. If you need to be somewhere specific within your current zone (right next to an enemy/a lever you want to pull/a discarded weapon you want to grab, etc.) then you can spend 1 Movement to get there.

SO: Billy could Shift to get 1 Movement, use it to move the neighboring Zone with two beasts, and then attack.

If he instead spent 1 stamina to Quickstep, he could move 2 zones and attack that solitary beast on the bridge, or move into the zone with the 2 beasts and then spend the other Movement to Close with the one he's gonna attack (which'll give him that reroll-your-attack buff).

And if he really wanted to reach that zone with the three beasts ASAP, the 4 movement he gets from a Sprint would be enough for him to get there.

Also, if I decide to have Movement work like it did in one of my past projects, then it'll also have the following mechanics:
-Actions which grant Movement do not stack. The highest amount of Movement you can get on a given turn is 4, by taking the Sprint major action.
-Movement can be spent at any point before the end of your turn. You can use 1 movement to enter a zone, attack, and then spend the other movement to leave the zone.
-Straightforward environmental interactions (picking things up off the ground, flipping a table over for cover, opening an unlocked door) can also be performed for 1 movement.

>A weapon upgrade system a la blood gems is definitely not a priority.
calling them blood gems was dumb but thats quibbling to the game

>ministration
good name
different strengths of poison might well be useful for imposing a sense of urgency.

>and you can "save" dice up for chains past the start pool
cool, for future reference though you might add that to the documentation so it's clearer.

>The other big effects I'd give weapons with long reach would be improved cleave
maybe a HEAVY weapon like an axe or a hammer that will hit one enemy and keep going on momentum.

>reach and charges
Legend of the Wulin does it like that with flexible sized combat zones...

>closing isn't necessary
yeah, but it's dangerous(right?) and imposes bonuses to the opponent.
you might find a way to implement the recovery mechanic in bloodbourne where you can recover a fraction of last rounds damage based on what you deal this round. not 1:1 though...

>moves
you might look at Legends of the wulin about their combat "zones" it handles movement pretty similar to this.

in a sort of quantum positioning the PC is anywhere within a given zone but "closing" moves them up to an opponent

does moving through a zone occupied by hostile entities provoke an attack of opportunity?

>The highest amount of Movement you can get on a given turn is 4,
maybe a feat or perk that grants extra moves?

>cool, for future reference though you might add that to the documentation so it's clearer.
That line was a quote from you that I failed to put a ">" behind, sorry.

D&D cleave would probably work from a KISS standpoint- if you kill one enemy you can target another in melee range, maybe improved version even lets you make a free repeat of the last chain attack against the new target.

>>closing isn't necessary
>yeah, but it's dangerous(right?) and imposes bonuses to the opponent.
Opponent gets same benefit if you're still close when it's their turn.

>you might find a way to implement the recovery mechanic in bloodbourne where you can recover a fraction of last rounds damage based on what you deal this round. not 1:1 though...
I was totally thinking 1:1. And that you count all damage dealt on last attack, not just the amount needed to get enemy HP. One balancing factor is that PCs would normally have alot more health than most enemies, I expect.

>does moving through a zone occupied by hostile entities provoke an attack of opportunity?
Wasn't planning on it, unless it became some kind of gameplay issue. In which case I could do like, a Battle for Wesnoth deal- LEAVING a zone containing active enemies gives them free attacks unless you give up a die from your Evasion Pool?

>>The highest amount of Movement you can get on a given turn is 4,
>maybe a feat or perk that grants extra moves?
Possible. Old Hunter's Bone technique would probably Quickstep's movement as well as Evasion Pool bonus.

Some more rambling on guns and character progression.

-Definitely gonna be some measure of like, special weapon moves (hunter axe whirlwind attack, rifle spear charging thrust) that get reassigned to being character abilities hunters can learn and use for any fitting weapon. Same for some of the more complex things you can do in-game like transformation attacks.
-A weapon tag system was the original plan for this system, but it's hard right now because I can't predict the value of different tags while the combat mechanics are still settling. So plan B is now stat some classic hunter weapons as package deals, make sure they play good and have interesting variety, then see if I can extrapolate a working weapon tag system backwards from there.
-At least equal weight's gonna be given to players starting as something closer to Yharnam militia than to the videogame's moonlit-scented Hunter protagonist. So a weapon upgrade progression could revolve more around starting with pitchforks & regular axes and then slowly adding tags by modifying/trading up until you've got proper hunter-esque arsenals of crazy trick weapons.
-Definitely not gonna be any kind of "+1 weapon" or "+1 armor" system.

Suppose what I'm thinking is... you might have two major kinds of character progression. Let's call the first type "levels" and the second "character development."
-Levels: Might be gained purely via boss battles, i.e. killing powerful monsters (including those in human form, if GM says so). May grant general benefits- +1 stamina, +2 HP, unlock next tier of skill ranks (and by extension abilities with prereqs tied to those skill ranks).
-Character Development: Have talked in previous posts about categorizing skills in one of 3 categories and having a core score for each which can raise or lower based on character developments. Those 3 categories being Bestial, Mundane and Cosmic. You basically choose how much your character becomes more bloodthirsty a la Gascoigne/fixated upon higher truths like Micolash & Iosefka/stubbornly eschews both in favor of a growing commitment to some concrete mission, like Eileen & Djura.
--Each of these would have direct benefits (Bestial score would boost surges of physical power and strength of Visceral Attacks, Cosmic score would be used for Insight checks to notice & fully perceive paranormal phenomena, Mundane score would be used to get others to trust that you and/or they are a still decent person.) and unlock their own potent character progression options (bestial would enable physical power, strength, and limited bestial transformations; Cosmic would be like an Arcane Stat, enabling use of Occult Implements to cast spells and even call on messengers/great ones/ghosts/etc. for unpredictable aid... Mundane might not match the others in potency (tradeoff for less risk of madness), but could still enable things like forging bonds with others, doing detective work, and developing gehrman-tier tinkering skills.

I really like the concepts presented in the Character Development sections!
So, I assume a character with a high Mundane stat might be like a Powder Keg hunter?

another cleave idea might be allowing the expenditure of several dice to "unlock" a cleave for that weapon?

>Opponent gets same benefit if you're still close when it's their turn.
good

>totally thinking 1:1
seems too powerful
maybe 3:1 for any character that's 'close'
2:1 for a mid-level character sinking points into "reckless melee"
with 1:1 for top-tier melee fighters.

>attacks of opportunity
>unless it became some kind of gameplay issue
perhaps a monster perk?
hold those back for when the players try sprinting past too many things?

>leaving a zone provokes
also pretty gud

>Definitely gonna be some measure of like, special weapon moves
call it "style"

>tags
might be fine to save it till the system is done enough for custom weapon forging.
thats where tagging can really shine I think.

>Definitely not gonna be any kind of "+1 weapon" or "+1 armor" system.
fucking GOOD, cause that's boring as BALLS

>Bestial, Mundane and Cosmic.
might be that's not enough things?
>french-user ran up pic-related for me you might find it useful?
perhaps branching sub-paths?

Dudes, I'm gonna need a pdf of all this. This is fucking awesome.

That'd absolutely be one option. I'm wondering if bombs, arson and the like should be folded under Mundane skill.

Strength of rally (the official term in the video game for this mechanic) can be sorted out with testing. But it's a potentially significant gamble to go for rally the round after taking damage; if you invest, say, 6 dice towards offense and use Close benefit to reroll that's still an average damage of like... well I just did a test run and wound up with zero successes because my reroll of initial attack ended up being a whiff.

So yeah, not super worried about 1:1 at present.

Character sheet's neat but not what I'd use in this system. Not planning to have a set of attributes based directly on bloodborne, though some of them will crop up.

>I'm wondering if bombs, arson and the like should be folded under Mundane skill.
I'd agree with that. Reflects the hunter's use of good ol' human ingenuity in the absense of a supernatural crutch like Beasthood or arcane secrets.
Hell yeah!

I would simplfy cleave a bit, even if it makes it more generous.

Mainly becasue bloodborne fights are split into one big bad or mook clearing. This gives the cleave user a bonus in one of these.

You can always balance this weapon by weapon since it's tied to the weapon.

Players (should) be restricted to three weapons and three guns, an addition of Thrust/Slash/Blunt damage makes weapon choice more meaningful.

Reach gaining chainability sounds more like a quick weapon perk. Reach should be a defensive mechanic.

>Mundane skill.
I mean, technically? yes. it is a 100% mundane skill.

so maybe mundanes offer the most utility in terms of skills. (versatile humans of the workshop)
bestial covers athletics and similar (the strong beast of the common blood)
and cosmic gets you magic shit (the clever academics of Bergenwerth)

>So yeah, not super worried about 1:1 at present.
I'd say test it a few more times to be sure...
it could also depend on the damage and starting health numbers.

The defensive perk weapons with long reach are getting is that they can make readied attacks in response to enemies trying to Close (not just when enemies make melee attacks).

Current thoughts on cleave:
>D&D cleave would probably work from a KISS standpoint- if you kill one enemy you can target another in melee range, maybe improved version even lets you make a free repeat of the last chain attack against the new target.

Crashing for now. Should probably give this project a specific name. How's "Night of the Hunt"? (Nights of the Hunt?)

singular works better for me...

...

night of the hunt is good

I get the mechanic.Or at least, I get where you're coming from. I'm presuming that somewhere you've got a mechanic similar to Bloodborne where you regain recently lost health by attacking? That way you could have an incentive to get into combat and stay there.

Haven't written it out but yeah.

I'm envisioning a physical space on the character sheet for little counters/pips that represent your current HP. Lost hp gets moved to a neighboring space marked "Rally". Dealing damage lets you move that many pips back to HP.

At the end of your turn, your remaining Rally either drains by like 4 or is just flat-out lost. Latter option's in case we're getting over memory budget (i.e. asking the players to keep track of too much already)

>I'm envisioning a physical space on the character sheet for little counters/pips that represent your current HP. Lost hp gets moved to a neighboring space marked "Rally". Dealing damage lets you move that many pips back to HP.

you can buy a sack of flat bottomed glass beads for like, a buck, at most for aquariums so this is a pretty solid idea

I like the "flat out lost" over the "decreases by 4 per turn" but then that can be a sort of toggle on how lethal you want combat to be.

On that topic: I do want combat to be lethal. Bloodborne's devs were really happy with Rally helping make the fights feel like vicious life-or-death battles, and I share that general aim.

Frankly, like... Night of the Hunt is a fitting name for this system because your character sheet is entirely about what you can do during the Night of the Hunt- an event where reality becomes progressively less so, where the passage of time is no objective thing, where ghosts and messengers unlock doors, where beasts roam and anyone who's ever undergone blood ministration gains new measures of vigor and strength.

Well, to get to the main point: I think that during the Night of the Hunt nobody who's taken blood can die. Beasts, Militia, Hunters... the blood gives them new life in a matter of hours. Moon-scented hunters just have the advantage of despawning upon death & respawning somewhere safe.

So if you're not playing capital-h Hunters (on par with the video game's protagonist, kinda like playing Jedi in a star wars game), dying's more than just getting benched. You'd better hope your comrades win the fight, or at least have a chance to retrieve your body- otherwise you might wake up in a beast's lair, or lashed to a burning cross. Dying once isn't good for your mental stability; repeatedly burning to death is even less so.

And of course, if players want to have a lasting impact on the beast situation they'll have to start stringing up bodies themselves...

I what you're saying and it does make sense for that perspective.

KEEP COMING UP WITH THINGS!!!

...

How would you handle mind-splitting events such as a Cleric Beast transforming before one's eyes, or eldritch fuckery? Some system of debuffs for progressing madness?

FINE GEEZ. Have a tentative skill list.

BESTIAL
-Ferocity: Intimidate, damage on visceral attacks
-Stalk: sneak, silently approach without detection
-Instincts ("Awareness"?): oppose sneak, detect threats.
-Hunt ("Scent"?): Track & seek out prey. (Could just label this "scent")
-Fitness: Climb, swim, jump, etc.
-Stature: Physical size & amount of musculature. (Doesn't determine physical strength, but useful when trying to keep a door shut, hold someone down, etc.)

MUNDANE
-Decency: find empathy/humanity within yourself and inspire it in others.
-Weapon Handling: fancy weapon tricks and mechanisms, prereq for many maneuvers
-Marksmanship: aim with guns. Prereq for firearm maneuvers.
-Pyrotechnics: Working with fire and explosives.
-Deception: Lie, feign a different Nature (a higher or lower bestial/mundane/cosmic score)
-Take Measure: Oppose deception, assess Nature.
-Craftsmanship Fashion weapon, crucifix, barricade, contraption...
-Investigate: Detective work. Search for & analyze clues, make deductions based on evidence, maybe gather info.
-Navigation (Streetwise?): Know your way around Yharnam.

COSMIC
-Insight: Perceive the paranormal, the higher workings of the cosmos. (low successes mean you just see glowing lights or know there's SOMETHING there.)
-Arcane: Conduct rituals and use Hunter Tools. (acquiring such tools for personal use is a separate investment)
-Occult: Knowledge of things Byrgenwerth specialized in. Recognize a pthumerean and what their deal is?
-Entreat: Sense proximity/nature of intangible entities, and call upon or pacify them? Spirits, Messengers, potentially attention of great ones? Functions more like social skill than anything.
-Medicine: Everything that ISN'T about blood healing. Treat and/or inflict poison, other maladies.
-Ministration: Blood work. Blood ministration, healing, refinement, knowledge thereof.
-Wayfinder: Navigate Forbidden Woods, dreamlands, tomb of the gods, other surreal & mazelike environments.

I really feel like this should be done using FATE, each character assigns points based on Bloodbornes stats. Each character would have thier own Trick Weapon that has Two or Three traits, one of which can be switched into a different trait as an action. Viserals are stunts. Etc.

HEY ALL: What is missing? What are things hunter PCs (or like, any Bloodborne NPC) would want to do on a Night of the Hunt, especially outside combat, that might not be covered by that list of skills?

HOLY SHIT, YELLING AT DEVELOPERS ACTUALLY WORKS SOME TIMES.

WOOOOP

>hunt
perhaps "track"?
>stature
perhaps "mass"?

but how do skill checks or opposed checks work?

>: What is missing?

perhaps a grappling or beast-riding system?

In the game you had Insight, which acted a both a currency and a form of debuff because it gave certain enemies more attacks or something. It's also implied to be knowledge of Eldritch fuckery.
I might go about it as giving a boost to Arcane and perception, maybe unlocking certain power within the Hunter while making enemies tougher.

No, adding boosts to arcane and such is a bad idea because then characters that use it will never spend their insight.

Just keep it like it is in the game.

So combat is cool and all but how are you gonna handle situations that aren't resolved with violence? I'm assuming that this is meant to be a roleplaying game and not a skirmish-level wargame.

Under the Bestial category, what about something like an Endurance skill that you'd roll to resist inclement weather or status ailments? Soulsborne loooooves its status ailments.

...

You know, that's a good question. I've put alot of thought into how PCs's frame of mind would change or unravel on the Night of the Hunt, but it's been more about how much the lure of blood and/or cosmic truths gets to you vs. how much trauma and forcible exposure to the impossible can unravel your head. Seeing a Vicar turn into a Cleric Beast... hadn't considered how that might factor into things.

I mean, I might be content to leave mechanics out of that kind of moment? Having the GM arbitrarily categorize how significant that moment was to my character kinda feels intrusive. Dunno, I'll write up my current thoughts on a "what doesn't kill you makes you stranger" set of mechanics. We can see if people think it's enough or if there should be more mechanical impact to seeing crazy shit.

>HOLY SHIT, YELLING AT DEVELOPERS ACTUALLY WORKS SOME TIMES.
Honestly I get like, 5x less productive at these projects if they're not being done FOR some specific IRL person. Just the way my brain works. So yeah, you speaking up actually helps out alot.

>but how do skill checks or opposed checks work?
Same dice pool mechanic (d10s, TN 8+ is a success, 10s explode). Harder tasks require higher number of successes, opposed rolls are won by side with highest number of successes (idk how ties resolve yet). All skill rolls are relevant Nature plus that skill- if I want to sneak up on a hunter, I roll Bestial+Stalk and try to get more successes than his roll of Bestial+Awareness.

>perhaps a grappling or beast-riding system?
Given the in-game situation of everyone, friend and foe, receiving continuous healing and strength from the blood in their veins, I figured the equivalent of "grappling" someone would be impaling their body with something pointy, nailing them to the wall or floor and then doing your damnedest to keep them that way. Beast riding feels like a bit of a genre mismatch, at least if it's a reliable ability.

Nice

>Honestly I get like, 5x less productive at these projects if they're not being done FOR some specific IRL person.
happy as ever to crack any number of different sorts of literal or metaphorical whips over someone.

ARE THERE CHARACTER GENERATION GUIDELINES YET?

>Same dice pool mechanic
to clarify, is it skill only? or is there an attribute list I don't know about or missed?

I've got it as a skill under Cosmic, very important one. You make Insight checks to notice the paranormal shit- get no successes and you don't even comprehend that anything abnormal happened, e.g. you know this Church official knocked you down and the fact that they were 10 feet away doesn't register with you (or you assume something else knocked you down).

Get at least 1 success and you can tell SOMETHING is happening, but can't really perceive what- there's something coming from the church elder's left hand towards to your chest, and that's what hit you. Sometimes you'll see indistinct shapes made from shadows and/or from light.

Get more successes and you can start to properly see what's happening. Oh, that church official is opening some kind of hole in the universe through which tentacles are briefly emerging to smack you around. Well then.

>So combat is cool and all but how are you gonna handle situations that aren't resolved with violence?
Combat was the task at hand when I started this particular thread. gets into skills a little. I mean let's be clear, this is not a genre where a nonviolent approach is always a viable option, but chars will certainly be able to try. In the tabletop version of the video game's storyline, you could roll Mundane+Decency when you came upon Gascoigne in the graveyard, and theoretically get enough successes that he doesn't attack on sight. (For him to actually let you depart without violence you'd then have to very quickly piece together certain key factors about his situation, maybe roll to spot Viola's body, and make at least one more strong Decency roll while simultaneously saying the right things. There'd be no outcome to that scene where you "fix" him.)

Bestial, Mundane and Cosmic basically ARE the attributes.

Bestial reflects physical abilities (i.e. blood-derived superhuman speed and strength), sharpness of the senses, and how in-tune you are with your inborn bestial nature.

Mundane reflects general competence and skill. It covers qualities like a steady + practiced hand, capacity for coherent rational thought, and the strength of one's convictions regarding consciously-chosen goals.

Cosmic reflects your awareness of & attunement to higher matters- how engaged you are by the abstract, the transcendent, the downright impossible. It denotes genius, flexibility of thought, and one's level of faith in a higher power.

I'm thinking all 3 would have their own associated form of derangement- Bloodlust, Obsession, and Mania. These could be 3 different sub-scores, or just different rp prompts for when a general Madness score gets to high. (i.e. when your character becomes more unhinged, their strongest Nature determines the WAY they become more unhinged.)

>I'm thinking all 3 would have their own associated form of derangement- Bloodlust, Obsession, and Mania. These could be 3 different sub-scores, or just different rp prompts for when a general Madness score gets to high. (i.e. when your character becomes more unhinged, their strongest Nature determines the WAY they become more unhinged.)

I love this idea to bits. Kinda reminds me of the Stress Explosions in MAID.

Dude, still waiting for my playtest pdf....

But seriously, this is some awesome shit. I've kept the thread up the whole time. Wish I had something to contribute.

I'm back at the drafting table right now, hashing out further details on char development mechanics. But as a fun tidbit to tide you over, have some quotes I've earmarked for the PDF sections explaining each Nature and linked Derangement.

BESTIAL
"Ripping apart the flesh of one's enemies and being rained upon by their splattering blood invigorates one's sense of beasthood, feeding strength and euphoric feeling alike."
-Beast Blood Pellet description


BLOODLUST
"Without fear in our hearts, we're little different from the beasts themselves."
-Eileen the Crow

"...What's that smell? The sweet blood, ooh, how it sings to me. It's enough to make a man sick..."
-Father Gascoigne


MUNDANE
"This too is hunter's work, but it bears no honor. A burden you may choose to carry. The decision is yours alone."
-Eileen the Crow (good route)

"But you did all ya could, and so many owe you so much. Amazing, really. Not 'cause you're a hunter, but because you're you."
-Chapel Dweller


OBSESSION
"A strong will produces thick blood. Doubtless, the product of obsession, a potent source of human strength."
-Thick Coldblood description.

"Sometimes, when hunters burn beasts, they appear intoxicated by the euphoria of purification."
-Oil Urn description

"All hunters must die!"
-Eileen the Crow, last words (bad route)


COSMIC
"Ah, yes, I see... You sense a secret within the nightmare, and cannot bear to leave it be. As if the spirit of Byrgenwerth lives on within you!"
-Simon the Harrowed

"We must find a way. To surpass our own stupidity. You're one of the bright ones. Don't you see how much this means? [more crazed laughter]"
-False Iosefka


MANIA
"No, we shall not abandon the dream. No one can catch us! No one can stop us now!"
-Micolash, Host of the Nightmare

"Don't you see? How they writhe, writhe inside my head. It's rather... rapturous..."
-False Iosefka

This is all really, really cool.
Tragically, it's also already far too complex for my group to learn when we have so little time to play these days just due to the bullshit of adulthood, so unfortunately I can use nothing of it.

Once the ideas are compiled, it can be streamlined.

...

How are you going to work out how to run narratives and especially endings?

Bloodborne was a perfect cosmic horror game despite being completely focused on combat.

If you don't put some good narrative design philosophy in your game, it'll just be a lame copy of the real thing.

insight seems important enough to almost be it's own stat.

I like the different derangements. idea.

>ramble ramble ramble...
what if the attributes each governed different weapon types?
like Bestial likes big fucking weapons or rending weapons like the kirkhammer or the saw cleaver

mundane covers all the plain weapons like swords or daggers etc.

and cosmic covers weapons with weird special effects like the tonitrus or pic related here or the kos-parasite

AL OF THIS, DO MORE.

>Stress Explosions in MAID.
what is this thing?

this seems ethically wrong to me...

thats hard to design and will get tweaked or ignored by GMs a lot, for now we need systems to cover shit like combat and exploration.

>entirely about what you can do during the Night of the Hunt
If that's the case one little game mechanic I suggest would be something involving the time leading up to that. Like what happened during the few hours where your guy was gearing up and getting ready to head out that might affect his performance during the hunt?
Like take Father Gascoign I could imagine him and the misses having a terrible fight about what the hunt is doing to him. She wants him too stop, he's partially afraid that if he does the beast problem might get worst and then part of him is getting Bloodrunk. Out on the hunt he's mad at himself at what this is doing to his marriage but damn he loves it. This could easily have driven him over the edge.

Every Maid has a certain vice, a certain set of actions they do to calm themselves. Self-harm, binge eating/drinking, hard drugs, isolation. When the world becomes to much and their stress stat maxes out, they drop everything they're doing and indulge in their chosen vice until they feel better.

I recalled that from memory, so I might be inaccurate.

I feel like Amelia was a missed opportunity. Our first introduction to a Vicar of the Healing Church is her literally exploding into a massive monster. And the other vicar we come across has already transformed anyway.

We could've hyad a side quest where we ran across a Vicar who's got themselves together for the most part, if not shaken by the fate of their peers. Lot of options there, having the Vicar resign themselves and looking for an isolated spot. Or a quick death.

I love everything happening here, and desire to see more. Alas, I have no good Bloodborne pics.

>Nwod
>Rules light

Ahahaha hahaha

The fuck is that plastic blue thing in the center?

it's the case for my whartenburg pinwheel

And that why on other board /tg / is known to end properly things.
Thanks you a lot Op!
Also how will you build characters? (Stats inventory weapons etc. ..)

It's better that you don't know....

Just dropping in to say, I dig all of this!

I think OP needs to work out power-levels before he can do character-gen

but according to shouting for one from behind a name is your best bet.

perhaps work out some scenarios so we can try testing the system?
or some monsters?

stop scaring people away.
you scare them BEFORE they try anything they might not ever try in the first place.

also bumping the thread.

On that note, how will monsters be statted?

If the bestial or cosmic paths are taken to the extreme would those result in obvious physical changes like Gascoigne? If so, what you get if a player specs for both bestial and cosmic, a darkbeast?

How's this idea, Crits don't do extra damage but set up for visceral attack.

Also you have to have large bosses with targetable limbs which "break" like they do in game. It's too good a concept to pass up.

probably not as extreme, unless the players decide to make it so by taking mutations ... perhaps corruption or mutation levels can be implemented later?


not enough data at this time...lets start throwing ideas around.

first things first.
LIST THE MONSTERS WE KNOW ABOUT FROM THE GAME

BRICKTROLL
dog
citizen
sharpshooter
beast(quadruped)
beast(standing)
greater beast(ex. gascoigne second form)
executioner
not really dead crows
etc.
bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Enemies

Are we including the labyrinth monsters too?

That would be good, but I'm also interested in locations and elements that would fit in the game, but weren't. I wouldn't like a player who played the game instantly know what's going on in each location after all. Personally, I wanted to see more of what was going on with the church (Full disclosure, I never got to play the DLC.)

yes

I wouldn't like a player who played the game instantly know what's going on in each location after all.
do recall that the area of the game is also extremely truncated. you could add to them nearly indefinitely

Yeah, Bloodborne's actual game space when put in relation to each area is pretty tiny. You could set a game entirely in Yharnam and easily not intersect the few buildings and roadways that comprise the game. Plus you're always free to make a new location.

You could different levels of beasthood to define enemies. Yharnamites being the least beastly, followed by Beast Patients and then Scourge Beasts.

Darkbeasts, Beast Possessed Souls and Cleric/Blood-Starved Beasts could be more or less unique on a given hunt. Although Dark Beasts and Beast-Possessed have elemental attacks that could set them apart as their own enemy types.

I think you should broadly divide the enemies according to attribute or derangement.

Aight, finally got some of the new stuff ready for y'all. Had some thoughts about more dice pools & dice regain, but after sleeping on it I decided to leave that bit out for now. Felt like bloat.

-Your character has 3 Nature scores, and each has a linked Derangment score. Bestial is linked to Bloodlust, Mundane is linked to Obsession, and Cosmic is linked to Mania.

-Starting Nature scores would be, oh, 3, 2, and 1 (you choose which is which), with the linked Derangement for your strongest Nature starting at 1 while the others start at 0.

-The sum of all your Nature scores is your Mettle. The sum of all your Derangement scores is your Madness.
--Your Mettle can't go above 12; at that point, you must decrease one of your Nature scores to increase another.
--When your Madness goes up, choose a derangement that's less than its linked Nature score and increase it by 1.
--If your Madness exceeds your Mettle, then your character has lost control and by extension so have you. The GM can now decide their actions, and is free to declare that they've gone past the point of no return.

-Any time your Nature score adds to the number of dice you can roll, you can choose not use some or all of those dice. This is because they can come with a potential drawback- any nature die result that fails to exceed the linked Madness score grants a point of Frenzy.
--Example: Say a hunter has 4 Bestial, 2 Bloodlust, and 3 Stalk. They get 3 regular dice and up to 4 nature dice when rolling to sneak up on a target. Any nature die rolls (including rerolls when you get a 10) that come up as 2 or less give them a point of Frenzy.

-Frenzy points denote the level of strain being placed upon the fraying nerves of your character's mind. If your total Frenzy points reach a threshold of (5*(current Madness+1)), reset them to 0 and increase one of your Derangement scores by 1. You can't select a Derangement whose score already meets or exceeds that of the linked Nature.

What build should I finally beat Bloodborne with Veeky Forums?

Waste of Skin, no leveling, no armor, no items, no tools, gun and fists only, no weapon upgrade or gems, no visceral attacks.

pebble only