Homebrew General /hbg/

Whoever keeps promising to do so, please give me some feedback on my character generation rules.
pastebin.com/c5fuctcK

If anybody else wants to check it out keep in mind that it's for a solo-oriented system.

I'm assuming a percentile system? Is 99 a hard cap, or are there ways to raise above it? If its a hard cap, I'd specifically say that it can't be raised over 99. You'd be surprised how players find ways around things like that.

Also, what's the average stat range supposed to be? If it is percentile, 2-20 is very low to start with. Not sure if intentional or not.

I do like specifically saying what happens when you hit 0 in a stat.

Your stats and skills are like a THAC0, kind of. For basic actions, you want to roll under relevant stat + relevant skill + 50. Attacking, for example, might be strength + fighting + 50 - enemy evasion.

Ah, okay.

Then that's a good range to start with.

Should we not use that doc then? or keep going with it?

Maybe just add a note warning that it may be out of date, or start dating when the last time something was added or changed.

I'm the OP from the this thread and the previous two.

I need some help naming my game system.
It's an rpg, supposed to be gritty and punishing high magic, high fantasy, also allowing GMs to use no magic and transplant in nearly any setting.

Right now I call it AlphaProject-1. Suggestions for a better name?

>Gritty and punishing
>High magic/fantasy
>Lets you use no magic/use any setting
Could you explain how you accomplish this?

The default/the setting I will be using is high fantasy, but other GMs could use any other setting they want without needing to change much.

No character starts with any spells, nor do they gain spells from leveling up, they must all be found and studied.

There are no classes, and things like feats and perks are all custom and must be earned by playing.

A normal lonsword will deal 5 damage, a starting player will have 8-12 health.

There are no set skills, at the start the player must choose any three skills. They make these up and can be as specific as they want but not too general.
A skill could be
>longsword fighting
>musket wielding
>endurance swimming
>trap setting
but nothing as vague as
>shooting
>building
>Athletics

Is that enough information?

Calling it high fantasy seems disingenuous to me when nobody can start with magic. I also question why somebody has to study during the game to get magic, rather than having studied it as their backstory, as one might study swordsmanship. I assume it's for setting reasons?

As for gritty/punishing, that sword does do a big chunk of hurt for starting characters, but how will the progression go? I assume there are feats that will make heroes harder to kill, but will there be levels or the like? Will there be crippling of limbs/poking out eyes, or is it more of an abstracted pool?

So I'm working on an idea to allow models to help boost attacks of other models in there unit. Different system, different rules than what I was posting last thread. What I'm wondering is should I limit it to models that can attack the enemy, or should it be that they are in a certain range of the model they are boosting?

I want this to be a core mechanic, so weaker troops can group up to take down big targets, but at the same time, I need to put things that limit it, so its not a no brainer. Right now I have it that it increases the chances to do damage, but still can only do one damage as a limitation, but not sure if that's enough.

So I have a question about my current rolling system that I detailed here . I'm very happy with how it works in making difficulty feel organic depending on the difficulty of a task, but one thing doesn't work as well: Opposed rolls. My current idea is stealing from the previous thread, rolling 4d6-4, and then adding the secondary to their roll to determine the...quality of their roll. My question is, is there any way I could keep using my original system for opposed rolls, so I don't have to use a different kind of die just for that.

High Fantasy means it's in a world entirely different to our own e.g. LOTR or Forgotten Realms, whereas Low Fantasy means fantastical elements within our world, e.g. Harry Potter or DC.

All of the characters will start off with next to nothing, peasants or liberated serfs, maybe a band of robbers who've come about hard times. The point is, everything they get in the game, they have to earn.

There won't be any leveling. Characters may have their stats increase and intense exertion or overcoming a formidable obstacle, this will usually come in the form of a perk or trait being awarded to them by the GM. I will place examples of these perks in my rule-book and also a table for creating custom ones.

Well, I just learned the technical definitions for Low/High Fantasy and I hate them. I thought it meant power levels, not whether or not physical laws were changed. That explains my initial confusion.

Sounds like it'll be pretty brutal. Hope your project goes well!

So do you have any thoughts for a name? So I can stop calling it AlphaProject.

Fire & Iron? Way of Blood? The Peasant's Journey? I've never been good at names. Worst comes to worst, name it after your setting or what the system does.

Are we staying completely in the realms of magic or can Psyonics and other mental abilities be discussed if its burning on mana?

I'd say anything within that realm, or shares similar rules. So magic, psionics, super-powers, science wizardry.

Just curious, in what situations would opposed rolls come up in the system?

I'm having trouble with my system, basically the PC race is borrower-esque and have mental abilities to help make up for their small size. Most of them are utility and augmentive but the big ones are pretty effective. However the big ones require collaborative effort to work, and that's where I'm having issues.

I'm trying to figure out if I should make a PC a single individual or a small unit of individuals of their race working together. But if I do that, multiple groups for each PC would be kinda overwhelming to some. Idk which to choose.

I thought about having the PC's working in a group themselves but everything is basically collaboration and well... let's be honest sometimes that's almost impossible to see in a game from your PCs.

things like contests of quality, Awareness vs. Poise (Stealth) and some others. It might not come up *too* often, but often enough that it needs a system. I came up with an idea last night where each character in the opposed roll situation would roll 3 or 5d10, and then the character with the most successes would win the opposed roll. works pretty good imo.

I think that you should go with PC's being single characters and balance your collaboration system around that. Sounds like a pretty cool system by the way, could we learn more specifics?

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Alrighty...

So, as I said before, the race is small. Roughly around 4.5 to 5.5 inches in height. They get around with free running, parkour, teamwork and the various gadgets and contraptions theyve set invented and set up.

Pretty much your standard Borrower type.

However comes the major difference, they're all pretty much mute by choice, unless they need to cause a noise based distraction. They start out able to vocalize pretty much like us until they hit puberty when their ability to project their mental abilities kick in. Then it's pretty much telepathy from their on. There's this celebration and what not but I really don't need to get into the specifics of that for this.

So once they hit this stage in their life, all the mental abilities kick in. Passive Telekinesis kicks in allowing things just out of reach to meet them. Jumps that would normally be too far get just got more ompf behind them to make it and falls that are just a bit to high would be cushioned just enough to escape injury. A passive cloak of sorts to allow them the chance to stay still and blend into their surroundings.

These are an example of the singlar abilities that every one has alone.

Now together a group could use a more powerful and direct form of Telekinesis to push or pull a heavier object or obstacle away. Like if a human door sized door was in the way. An experienced group could pull off some minor pyrokinesis that to us would seem minor but to them unleash a raging inferno.

A group experienced or specialized in illusions and charms could beffudle a human into moving away from their territory or something like that.

I'm still working on what to do, but most of everything is based on teamwork and unity. The more their are or more experienced and powerful they are unlocks greater and stronger abilities.

So kinda like the Orkz?

hello Veeky Forums, i have recently tried making of an RPG game, just a little game to play with my friends, could you make critique of it for me? sorry i don't have the best english but i would love all advice you could give me.

So the parties will almost never be balanced? At all. With some players being able to do ALL of the work, with the others just hanging in the back waiting for a dialogue encounter...

That's what happens when you have some players getting +8s and others getting no bonuses. Maybe consider giving minuses to titans and giants? To even the playing field.

Unfortunately there's a major flaw in having players roll randomly at character creation, with the roll determining the power level of their character for the duration of the campaign. This makes some characters blatantly under/overpowered when compared to others.

Additionally, this would make balancing absolute hell for the GM, as either you balance to the OP characters and have the Humans and Rock Giants sitting out, OR, you have the encounters balanced towards these weaker races, and the Stronger races blow through them like wet paper.

Generally systems with Racial Modifiers allow for each race to have its own Boon/Bane. If your system had Magic or maybe a separate system for Ranged damage or something like those, I would have the less Strength-based characters more skilled in those areas.

Have you thought about each rolling on the system you have, but have a penalty based on the other's own stat? Then whoever has the better result, wins?

I'm not going to guess the math, but it could be something like the opposing party has a low stat, -1 to the player's stat, midlevel would be -2, and the highest -3. Similar to how you described the GM's modifications.

Bump

I've thought of something similar. The idea could work.

One problem might be that, since I wouldnt be using a 1:1 Modifier to skill rating number, some skill ratings would have the same modifier as others, making those numbers not as impactful (or making the Skill ratings with the increased Modifier *more* impactful.

I guess its a question of whether or not I want that kind of feel vs a more fluid "Impactfulness"

Hi guys. Is this the thread we post what homebrew games we're working on? Like a WIP thread for RPGs right?

Yup.

Ty. I'm writing a zombie apocalypse rpg and thought I might share it with you guys if you were interested? The fighting system is going to have a marvel ultimate alliance feel (I hope) that I thought was weird enough to warrant bringing to your attention. Thanks gents. I ran this game here on tg as an experimental play by post game and it was pretty fun. I creeped a few anons out too much I think because they posted a few times but when they were about to encounter a zombie I never heard from them again. If they were they scared I'd call that a success, right?

I can deal with a couple of chunky 2spookies, tell me what's up?

I'm still in the crunch phase but I can tell you it'll be stats light and set in modern day n. America. I was thinking of making a bit of your background random so you could get neat survivor groups like soldier, nanny, club dj and nurse together for next to no reason other than 'hey, I survived!". I'm stumbling over skills. I could use way too many imo. Some other game influences would be the dead rising games, especially the first one. Dead reign is sorta ok but how the zombies operate in that is extremely dumb and unfortunately it's a mechanic that's too firmly tied in game to get rid of completely. I feel like it should be easy to make a modern game and so far it has been. I'll get my notebook and get back with you. Thank you so much!

Hey, I'm always up for helping with home brews the more games out there and fleshed out the more fun I'll have.

More work on my Homebrew. Hoping to have alpha rules finalised by the end of May with campaign work finished by June.

Question. While doing some thinking on armour, weapons, magic, etc I stumbled into a sort of chicken and the egg scenario. Armour/weapons/items/magic define the setting but at the same time the setting defines those too. Where would you start? Build a setting and incorporate appropriate items and wares, or build a list of wares and define the setting around them?

Right now I haven't given much thought to setting/mood, but over last night I had some ideas come to me that'd be sort of Malifaux-like in a weird sort of amalgamation of themes. I'll be finalising some of the notes I have on that setting idea to dump here for C&C.
Some Polls if you could
>Setting
strawpoll.com/9c846ee
>Tech Level
strawpoll.com/dwcx5r5

Thanks in advance

What's the best way to incorporate spells into a low-magic world? I'm guessing most should be non-combat related, or at least not deal any direct damage alone but facilitate creative play.
The world is one where magic has long since died and only faint traces can be found in ancient forests and structures, most of the land's residents dismiss it's existence and the only records of it live through folklore and old wives tales.

Well I look at it in two halves; The natural resources of the land dictate what materials are available, while the people and their culture determine how the materials are used.
For example, if you have a land rich in a certain gemstone and the culture of the people is one that encourages vanity, then you're going to have a lot of jewellery and items adorned by that particular gem. Slap a property on the gemstone, such as fire damage for rubies, and you now have a land of people who have harnessed the properties of fire to perhaps expand their conglomerate into less wealthy neighbouring nations. The story begins to write itself.

Spells that use runes or writings on the surface of objects, to fortify the attributes they already have. Hardening a sword, increasing the weight of a stone, making a piece of wood burn for longer.

I always do setting first.

Buffs are a good suggestion, one that I overlooked. I like the idea that magic resides mainly in inanimate objects and is accessed by runes and such.

You could also make scarification magic a thing. Etching spells into the flesh for different effects.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarification

That fits with the darker atmosphere that I'm going for as well as the idea of using runes. I would probably implement some sort of penalty system for using magic that requires scarification, temporary HP/stat reduction or some sort of social stigma which affects the player when interacting with NPC's of certain alignments.

The closest thing to magic would be the artifacts that can be activated to have some effect. Think the talismans from Jackie Chan Adventures, but the power resides in any mundane object and not a magic stone talisman. The power comes from close contact with alien presences from other dimensions, and players can only find them if they are the class that associates with these outside things.

I really don't think this is working as i envisioned it

Back to the drawing board i guess

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