Game Design General /gdg/

Looking forward to your feedback. Alas, it's a poorly compressed jpg, but it gives an idea.

When you use a real world faction you attract people who admire that real world faction. If I added Prussia as a faction, history buffs who like Prussia will be more inclined to come to the game in order to play their favourite faction. But this is a double-edged sword: if I get Prussia wrong, or give it a flavour that doesn't gel with real world Prussia, those same people will tear me apart. At least if I choose to give 'not-Prussia' the best navy in the game, I can defend myself by saying "Yeah, I know Prussia didn't have a great navy, but this isn't Prussia, this is Silessa, lead by king Freddie The Large, and they *do* have a great navy."

Having a real faction locks you into constraints even while it attracts players, having a generic faction gives you freedom, but you have to work harder to get fans. That's how I see it, anyway.

The text is off centre, but it is centred if you cover up the circle on the end showing the cost. Perhaps it's not the best compromise.

That's such a damning critique that I'm not sure how to approach it. Pic related was my inspiration, I liked the 'full art' look, and wanted to emulate it. Maybe I'll encase some of those text boxes in line borders when I get home, see if that's cleaner. Otherwise maybe a complete redesign is in order. Thanks for the notes.

Thanks. This one came together pretty easily, too. Sometimes inspiration just strikes.

The biggest thing for me on the Immorta card is the borders of the boxes where the information is. I'm okay with the blurring effect, but its just a little too soft in that example.

I like the the right one, nothing too much to say about it. Only comment is to think about adding a border around the art for more important cards, like a portrait frame around historical figures.

The left one is meh to me. Nothing wrong, clean, simple, but that's it. Doesn't 'wow' me.

That's a good idea re: putting a fancy portrait frame around important characters. Old Washington in that example image could do with one. Thanks. I agree, too, that the left card is pretty bland. might be worth zizzing it up, even if it is just for a free domain side-project. No half-assing it.

Speaking to the main attraction, I've taken yours and the other user's critique into consideration (without completely tearing the design up). Here they are: no blur, and less blur. Also added some sword graphics. Am I going in the right direction?

Looking at them, I'm going to go with the border. I like that level of blur, but it feels like for another game, like a horror based one. So it stands out against the rest of the card design.

Yeah, I like it too. Also I can jigger the border colour to reinforce the bronze/silver/gold motif of different cards, which, as pointed out in a previous thread, can be confusing (especially between bronze and gold). Thanks for your observations, my man.

Maybe homebrew general was a better denomination. at least those threads got more than twenty posts before dying.

Maybe add both tags to the op? /hbg/ and /gdg/?

Not years, but its been /gdg/ for awhile. /hbg/ was long before /gdg/, but they're the same thread.

d% makes a great one roll mechanic:

% to hit (71%, for example)
inverse % (71 becomes 17) for the hit location
plus % (so 71 becomes 7+1 = 8) is damage
minus (module) % (so 71 becomes 7-1 = 6. 17 also would become 6) is X
x% (so 71 is 7*1 = 7) is Y

Cooking in my game is a system of recipes that call for general ingredients (i.e. 2 units of meat, 1 units of herbs would equal some kind of fine meat if the difficulty check was passed)

i currently have divided ingredients into:
Meats
Fruits
Vegetables
Grains
Herbs
Other (truly weird shit)

is there anything i'm missing? it's meant to be simple but not too simple. What categories would you add?

Mushrooms
Dairy
Nuts
Fish

Thanks user

Breath of the Wild is pretty popular right now

I remember when it was decided to be renamed /gdg/. It was mostly because there was little in-system homebrewing, and we wanted to let potential designers know that new systems were welcomed.

Its always going to have a short lifespan. Game design, homebrewing or building a system from scratch, is an extremely niche subject, and a lengthy process. Most people will have something they are working on and won't be back until a week or 2 for any kind of update on their progress.

Part of the appeal of full art is being able to, well, see the art. You can also see that in the starwars example, the information and art are clearly distinct. Consider opening up more space for the art, or otherwise focusing more on the text. In either case make sure everything is distinct. Smaller text is fine as long as its legible.

bump

How much math do the players of your game have to do for each turn?

in mine, too much (but most of it is being handled via excel spreadsheet). it's very "tabletop MMO" which I personally enjoy but it results in me having to develop a UI in the form of character sheets

I try to lower the math needed during gametime, or at least have it be simple and streamlined. More intense math should hopefully be done during downtime, as I do have some involved math for spell crafting. Its elementary level, but it encourages a lot of fiddling which obviously wouldn't be good during combat or something.

No more than basic arithmetic. Worse is single digit division rounding down.

How many operations per turn, generally? (if you had to estimate in about 3 seconds)

That's why the math is simple. Its a wargame, so each action is a few rolls with modifiers. The most complex part is when rolling off to hit, you divide the difference of the rolls to determine how many extra hits you get.

Hm, good point. Maybe I need to zoom out on the character a bit.

In my opinion the sweet spot for arithmetic is: complicated enough that it takes a few seconds to do in your head, not so complicated that people need to bring a calculator or begin using their fingers. There's an anticipation that comes with a few seconds delay on knowing the result, enough time for a person to see the dice roll, to register the result, to feel uncertainty in their gut, and then experience the satisfaction of succeeding (or the chagrin of failing). Resolving a conflict is like a small journey you take your player on, and getting the balance between a short jaunt and an exhausting hike is the most important part.

That being said, the threshold for exhausting hike is audience dependent. The arithmetic in a game for children and the arithmetic in a game for the math club will be kilometres apart. So above all else know your audience.

I'm getting closer and closer to getting the core of my system up and running. But I can't decide which genre I should develop into first.

I was thinking post-WWI Bloodborne stealth.

It wasn't Hitler that spurred the Germans into WWII, it was the Cthulhu werewolves.

If you're looking for saleability, the first two genres you'll want to adapt to are Sword and Sorcery, and Not-Firefly. Hit the two big player bases first, then expend out into the more interesting fields.

If you're just looking for self/hobby, go with whatever your heart desires. I don't know what Bloodborne is, but the interwar period is very interesting and somewhat undertapped. The 20s mark the last great surge of mainstream spiritualism, and I've felt it could do with more exploration.

Bloodbourne was a game by the guys that did Demon/Dark Souls about a Victorian style world of werewolf hunters and infected blood from moon gods.

I don't plan to set it in our world specifically. I want to take some liberties with technology and culture, ala Dishonored.

Moreover, Bloodborne is a sort of reverse Catholicism wherein humans, try as they might, cannot ascend to the godly realm - not by spiritual rites, academic learning or biological experimentation.

I want to make a game about doubting your reality and that doubt being reflected in the people around you. Are the PCs legitimately insane? Everyone else seems to think so, but the abilities they have been cursed with DO work. How much of it is a lie? How well can they hide it?

>I want to make a game about doubting your reality and that doubt being reflected in the people around you. Are the PCs legitimately insane? Everyone else seems to think so, but the abilities they have been cursed with DO work. How much of it is a lie? How well can they hide it?
Have you ever played 'Paranoia' ? Some great approaches to that sort of thing.

What about hings like honey or syrups? Alcohol is often used in cooking as well.

I need some critique on my combat system. Is it too complex? Or should I add more depth?
Thank you my ever-loving chums.

The flowchart makes it seem complex, but it seems actually pretty simple. You could build on it with different weapon effects (ie bludgeoning-type weapons dealing higher Pain for less actual Damage, thus being more likely to incapacitate without actually dropping them to 0HP, piercing weapons ignoring a limited amount of armour while dealing less Pain and thus being less likely to incapacitate enemies early)

I assume the idea is for this to be fairly lethal, seeing as even failed attacks can deal damage, and primarily martial-based (low magic?)

fuck

so my crafting system at present is meant to be "modular" (i'm tired i can't think of the better word) in that instead of calling for "2 units of boar meat" it calls for "2 meat" and that each different type of meat can have varying benefits (i.e. boar meat and turkey meat are both filling but turkey increases fatigue slightly)

but many of the other "professions" that use similar modular methods have hybrid systems so i might just make certain "specialty" items unique--or "other"

i.e. Honey is an "Other" item that is called for in Honeyed X or something

sorrry if none of this makes sense

It's meant to be brutal combat for players without proper equipment.

>low magic?
Magic is almost unheard of, only existing in ancient, dead languages that most people can't read. So yes.

Neat. That's my jam, so colour me interested - what's your dice mechanic?

Recipes may call for generic or non-generic materials, probably list its effects on the ingredient if you're going that deep with it. ie, on the entry for Honey state that you can make Honey-grilled Meat using Honey and any meat, which has some extra benefit on top of regular grilled meat. Of course, I think this is too much crunch for a regular tabletop game - specific crafting like that would generally require too much inventory management and thus be something you do when you want a specific thing, like a local guy wants you to make him something with some strange esoteric ingredient, rather than the day-to-day state of affairs being looking for interesting single items. Unless crafting is the focus of the game.

Yeah, that's more or less the format

I.E.
Recipe: Grilled Meat
2x Meat
-1 Hunger (+ Ingredients)

if you use Meat Y, which reduces hunger by 1 and fatigue by 1, for both slots you get -3 hunger and -2 fatigue

listed in inventory as Grilled Meat (-3 Hunger -2 Fatigue)

idk if it's too much crunch, haven't tested those mechanics yet (i just have combat "down" and in a nice weekly test, more or less just started on the other mechanics)

the specific ingredients would come into play on certain recipes, of which there would be few

i.e. Honey Grilled Meat
2x Meat 1x Honey
y benefit z results etc etc

The same as above but with the caveat you need honey

(crafting is not the focus of the game, the format i was talking about refers to the top of ur post, tired etc)

I plan on using a D21 system. Roll 4d6-4 giving you results between 0 and 20 with a smooth bell-curve.

This game is still entirely in alpha and a=has not been tested. I need all feedback and suggestions I can get.

While the probabilities may be fine, I think that might be a little unintuitive - a piece of extraneous (if simple) arithmetic on every roll will likely bog down play. You could just as easily use results from 4-24 instead and adjust the written numbers, resulting in the same probabilities but a more intuitive but less tidy system. That being said, I think chasing a statistically smooth system rather than one that's satisfying and fun to play with is a mistake - people have fun with shit systems all the time, and I think having a good system is definitely secondary to having a good group. Depends if that's what you're after, or if it's a pet project built for the satisfaction found personally in building the game that works how you want it to work.

Yeah, that's basically how it should work IMO. Don't stress too much about categorizing every ingredient - where an ingredient doesn't fit a generic descriptor, don't list one. Alternately, approach it from the other direction - rather than categories full of ingredients, have ingredients with keywords. Any type of meat obviously has the "meat" keyword, and where a recipe asks for "Any meat" you can use anything with the "meat" keyword. You could even add "meat" to larger mushrooms, since that's a somewhat common substitution, and if it can't be that you'd also have "plant" on the mushrooms and specify "Any non-plant meat" in the recipe. For Honey, you'd have "sweetener, tenderizer, fermentable" - and recipes may call for sweeteners, or tenderizers, or fermentables. That's even MORE crunchy, though, and is outright co-opted from an old videogame project of mine - but it's food for thought (ha ha ha)

>Roll 4d6-4 giving you results between 0 and 20 with a smooth bell-curve.
I think this is a good system. Pursuant to my earlier comments regarding anticipation, 4d6-4 is a simple bit of arithmetic which has the necessary one second delay between reading the result and realising that you succeeded to reward anticipation and be fun. Plus rolling a handful of d6's is inherently satisfying.

1. Label the steps with some numbers or letters or something to make it easier to refer to them.
2. Bundle together the target's armour-save and pain-threshold-save roll into one. You already have critical successes and failures, so an idea would be to make that roll modified by the damage taken (in comparison to the health and with some extra mod for the critical attacks), then go incapacitated if it doesn't succeed (in case of a critical attack, if it doesn't critically succeed).

What do you think of this approach, /gdg/? I like the idea of having stats and narrative in the same block as a sort of presentation card for the characters, but some people prefer to keep mechanics and fluff separate - while others think that it's a great reminder of the fact that you're playing a character and not a spreadsheet.

I like it, but i'd love to hear as many opinions as I can about this kind of thing.

I like it, for the very reasons you laid out: that it keeps the stats and the narrative shell around the stats firmly connected. However, I've never played many RPG's, and my experiences largely revolve around a single, epic three year campaign in FATE, so I'm prone to preferring narrative to rollplay.

Where do players record their equipment, spells and the like? On a separate sheet, or is that not an issue in your system?

If it can fit on one sheet, then you better put it on one sheet. Immersion aside, it's better to have it all in one so you don't have to keep track of multiple bits of paper. Simple logic

Which idea would you like to see as a backdrop to an rpg? My partner and I are spit balling some ideas for an original game for our friend group

>Everything has a spirit a'la shinto/shamanism, and some modern people can access them (WoD meets Mushishi for feeling)

>All major civilization around 0 B.C. are vaulted up with Atlantean technology

In the current layout, there's two pages (front and back) that take care of the things you use actively (weapons, skills, knowledge, status) and the back which has either passive or more specific things that dont come up as often (abilities, stock inventory, gadgets, vehicles and mounts, etc)

I should be able to keep most of the important bits on one sheet, which is partially why i wanted the character's narrative aspect laid out in the main face. The other reason is that I made my stats too small after changing them because they took too much space and then I didn't know where to fit them

It's all in one neat package, then? That's pretty sweet. I also like the style of the layouts, feels both modern and generic, so as not to be out of place running it in any setting. Nice work.

What is the line for 'intellectual property'?

Say an internet reviewer made a simple throwaway line while talking about a game that inspired a game you wanted to make and pitch to a friend who owns a small games company. Basically

>"This game sucked. It'd be so much better if it was about XYZ..."

And then they never mention it again. Where would I look to find more about this sort of situation, legally speaking?

from a lawyer

Your example is too vague to give a meaningful answer to, but generally speaking, someone can't claim ownership over the broad strokes of an 'idea' - rather, before they can claim ownership, they have to produce specific material related to their idea. Even then, the parts that they 'own' and the parts that others can copy are very specific. You can create a setting which is in effect identical to Ravenloft, but as long as you call it Crowattic and don't steal any of the specific characters, you aren't violating their intellectual property.

So if you heard someone make a throwaway comment, and you thought: "Hey, that idea is awesome, I might take that and make something of it!" You're totally in the clear.

I'm warming up to the idea of tags, but I think 90% of items should still only have 1 "tag"

I'll need to think on this for a while, and the system I have for herbs/potions--at the moment there are 4 main herb groups that produce 4 main potions, but every other potion is made by a unique herb--available only in certain regions or at a very steep markup from "import traders" (no idea what the final, setting-appropriate name will be)

What I'm considering is expanding the"families" system so every named herb is just a family + a grade (a potency value) but making certain families limited (ie you still might not be able to find them on your continent)

it's all so very tiresome

Is your system built for a specific setting, vice versa, or are they completely unrelated?

bump

A mix of both. I try to keep things in flavor with the setting, but sometimes a mechanic doesn't feel right with the current setting, so I tweak the setting to fit it in.

listen to Breath of the Wild is right up your alley.

Consider having at least one descriptor tag (meat, fruit, vegetable) and one effect tag (hot, cold, stamina, w/e its supposed to be). That's enough to both differentiate the items and keep the potential combinations interesting.

By effect tag, do you mean effect on the meal or effect as in my system?

If the second, I think that'd simplify the system a lot without sacrificing any depth. For example, very unit of food of one descriptor type (meat, etc.) might have a standard effect, but certain ones will have the tag "Filling 2" where they reduce hunger levels by 2 points or some such

either really. You already have the one tag that determines what kind of food something is. The second determines what that does in relation to others of its own kind.

“Shot One” - WW2 Styled Tabletop RPG

Shot One is a squad-level tabletop RPG that puts you in the role of a downed paratrooper squad shot down in enemy lines or cut off from the rest of your platoon. With limited ammunition, rations, and enemy soldiers all around, you must use your wits, cunning, and nerves of cold steel to survive. Shot One's gameplay is designed for quick one-shots, but can easily be converted into whole tours of duty.

-Gameplay-

Shot One is best played with a battlemap. Squads progress start their tours of duty cut off from a main fighting force in Not-Europe against the Not-Nazis (Or Not-Allies, if you're into that sort of shit). The mission may vary with each game you play, but with a oneshot in mind, an easy mission goal would be to destroy a Not-Nazi MacGuffin such as a radio tower or regroup with the rest of the platoon while making your way through a Not-European town/city/countryside taken over by the Not-Nazis (Or Not-Allies).

The game uses simplified d4 and a minimum of die rolls to facilitate faster, lethal combat. HP and stats are intentionally kept low, with the bulk of die rolls being d100s for determining hit locations. The game rewards planning, correctly assessing the skills and capabilities of your team, scavenging for weapons and items to use, and knowing when to fight or retreat.

The strength of a squad can not depend on one supersoldier. With suppression, cover, destructible environments, differing marksmanship skills, differing equipment that can be modified with battlefield implements, players that can take more than a few actions per turn and assist their squadmates, and players that can perceive the environment and learn the enemy better than their squadmates, squads face an enemy more numerous than they are and just as cunning as they are. Awell-rounded team is required to come out alive.

However, the game is not limited to combat. Subterfuge, disguise, and sabotage are all possible, if difficult.

CHARACTER CREATION -

Character creation is simple.

d4 system, roll 1d4 to determine your starting stats. There are 3 main stats: Endurance, Marksmanship, and Wits.

-The Stats-
ENDURANCE
Governs HP, Carry Limit, Fatigue, number of actions per round (minimum of 1)-

Endurance is unique in that each character starts with 1 ENDURANCE guaranteed before die rolls.

HP is calculated simply by Endurance +2

Carry limit is Endurance x 10 + 60 lbs

Fatigue is Endurance +4. Fatigue is reduced by 1 for every action you spend that causes fatigue. Not all actions cause fatigue. It is important that fatigue is accumulated during your turn, but only added and takes effect after your turn ends. When fatigue reaches 0, you start to use up HP for actions until you take a Full Rest (Use all actions available to rest), or use one of your actions to regain 2 Fatigue. Fatigue affects your ability to avoid incoming fire.

Actions per round – You get number of actions equal to your endurance per turn.

Actions include but are not limited to:

Spending 1 action to move 5 squares
Reloading a weapon one step
Fire a weapon
Fire an automatic weapon
Rest to restore additional fatigue. Does not increase fatigue.
Reduce recoil by 2. Does not increase fatigue.
Use initiative to gain information. Does not increase fatigue.
Add to marksmanship bonus +2 once only for one turn.
Add to initiative bonus +1 for 1st actions pent, then +2 for 2nd action and so on. Does not increase fatigue.
Regain health +1 for every 2 endurance spent. Does not increase fatigue.
Traverse abnormal terrain (ladders, prone, rubble)
Change weapon
Special combat manuevers as stated by player.
Change stance. Does not increase fatigue.
Assist another squadmate in an action that can be assisted, such as a heavy MG reload. Does not increase fatigue.

Actions may have intended or unintended effects such as increased dodging shots, increased concealment, increased accuracy, etc.

MARKSMANSHIP
Governs Melee Damage, Firearm Accuracy, Loading Speed, reduces aiming difficulty (aiming for specific parts of the body, normally it's:

Melee damage is Marksmanship + 1, and is normally done only in close range unless a bayonet is used. It can be modified by weapon type such as bayonet (+2 to melee damage) and by location and movement. Opposing melee attacks can be contested and parried by a successful Initiative roll. Rifles can be used but do not give additional melee damage without a bayonet.

Melee success is determined by:
Marksmanship + Endurance vs. Initiative + Marksmanship. Circumstantial factors may afford +d4 to either side.

Firearm accuracy is a factor of marksmanship, weapon type, and recoil versus target cover bonus, initiative, and fatigue.

Hits are determined by:

Marksmanship + Effective Range accuracy - recoil > Cover bonus + initiative – fatigue.

Firearms will never hit an enemy or player behind full hard cover.

Damage is based on firearm type and location assigned randomly as per the rule of nines. In low cover, you can not be hit in the legs. In full cover, you can not be hit at all.

Recoil is generated every time a weapon is fired. Each recoil point temporarily reduces your marksmanship by 1 for the next time you fire your weapon, then by 2, then by 3 for semi automatic fire.

Example: John “Snake” Biggs has Endurance 4 and Marksmanship 3. He fires his M1 Garand for his first action at a target within his weapon's effective range of 30 squares and gains 1 point of recoil. For this step, he has:
Marksmanship (3) + Effective Range Rifle Weapon Type (3) – Recoil (0) = 6

His enemy has:
Cover bonus for low cover (2) + Intiative (3) + Fatigue (0) = 5

John's Firearm Accuracy score is higher or equal to the enemey's score and thus hits the target. Hit location and full damage is dealt as per the random d100 and weapon/ammo type. John gains 1 fatigue because he spent an action.

He uses his second action, and fire his M1 Garand again with minus 1 recoil.
Marksmanship 3 + Effective Range Rifle Weapon Type (3) – Recoil (1) = 5

Enemy:
Cover Bonus for low cover (2) + Initiative (2) + Fatigue (0) = 5
John's Firearm Accuracy score is lower and misses the target. No damage is dealt, but the subsequent firing causes John to gain an additional 2 recoil for the second shot for a total of 3 recoil, and his fatigue is now 2. The enemy is considered suppressed since their initiative is 2, and they were shot at 2 times.

John uses his 3rd action to reduce his recoil by two, bringing it down to one. His fatigue is still at 2.
John uses his 4th and final action to rest and reduce his fatigue to zero. His turn ends.

Even if a shot misses or has absolutely no chance of hitting an opponent, it still counts towards suppression.

Automatic fire allows you multiple attempts to fire per attack at the cost of multiple points of recoil and more bullets per firing.

Example: Bolt Action Tiger fires his Thompson as his first action on automatic fire at a target within his effective range, 100m (10 squares). He has an Endurance of 3, Marksmanship 4. For this step, he has:
Marksmanship (4) + SMG Effective Range (2) – Recoil (0) = 6

The enemy:
Low cover (2) + Initiative (2) + fatigue (0) = 5

He repeats this step 3 times for the Thompson's x3 Automatic Bonus for a total of 3 confirmed hits in one step. Automatic fire with the Thompson uses 5 bullets for each step. Automatic fire gives Bolt 4 ponts of recoil for the first attack, and the opponent and surrounding enemies gains 3 points of suppression from the Thompson's x3 automatic bonus. The opponent is suppressed because his initiative is 2, and he was shot at 3 times.

His second action is used to reduce recoil by 2, bringing his recoil to 2.

His third and last action with an Endurance of 3 is used to fire in automatic fire once again.

Marksmanship (4) + SMG effective range (2) – Recoil (2) = 4
Enemy:
low cover (2) + initiative (2) + fatigue (0) = 2

The step is repeated, and the shots do not hit because Bolt's score is less than the enemy's. He gains another 4 points of recoil for a total of 6 recoil. This recoil carries over to his next turn. However, the opponent gains 3 points of suppression from his Thompson and is suppressed further along with the surrounding enemies. It will take longer for them to regain their composure under fire.

Bolt's fatigue is now 3, and he takes -3 to avoid getting hit until he can rest. He better be sure his teammates are ready to cover him!

Loading Speed – each weapon has a loading speed., which determines the amount of actions required to reload. Loading speed requirements are reduced by Marksmanship by 1 step for each point of Marksmanship to a minimum of 1 step.

Pistol – 1-2 loading speed
SMG – 3-4
Rifle – 3-4
Anti-Material – 5

Example: Jack has a Marksmanship of 4. He needs to reload his empty M1 Garand. At marksmanship 4, he has mastered many firearms and is able to load the M1 Garand in 1 action.

Jill is a fresh recruit that just barely understood the basics of her rifle. With a marksmanship of 2, she needs to spend at least 2 turns and 3 actions to reload her M1 Garand.

Aimed Shots – By spending an additional action, you may determine which part of a visible enemy's body you are aiming for. This carries over until you use an action to make an aimed shot, take any other action that isn't an aimed shot, or are shot at, and you gain fatigue as normal.

By spending an additional action once per turn, you may gain +2 marksmanship for that round in order to hit the target area specified by aimed shot. You gain fatigue as normal.

NITIATIVE – Governs Intuition (more info about enemy troops and their intentions), Battle Sense (more info about the battlefield and environment including cover and concealment), Supression Resistance, and avoiding shots.

Use an action for Intuition to gain information on troop numbers, organization, location, and behavior. The higher the initiative, the more information.

Use an action for Battle Sense for information regarding the surrounding environment. Be creative.

Suppression resistance is the amount of times you can be fired upon before you are suppressed. When you are suppressed, you can not move normally, fire your weapon, or rest your fatigue. You may throw grenades as normally, speak to teammates, and crawl, however. Actions you may be able to take depend on the situation.

Initiative is the main stat used to avoid shots. You can spend an action to increase your initiative by +1, and an additional to increase your initiative by +3 until next turn.

And “SPECIAL TRAIT”, which is determined by the player. Can be an item or small unique buff.

Examples include:

Reducing recoil gained by – 1 for the first attack action in semiautomatic or automatic fire
Movement speed of 7 squares instead of 5
Extensive knowledge of Not-Nazi troop strategy
A Not-Allies' weapon chambered and modified to accept Not-Nazi ammunition.
Extra helmet
Drum Magazine x1
Suppression resistance doubled
Increased effective range of SMG
Equipment -

Many equipment found fall into these categories. Some are unique.

Firearms

[Name]
[Type]
[Magazine Size]
[Ammo Type] (Country) (Weapon type)
[Effective Range] (In squares)
[Range Bonus] Typically +3 within range bonus for rifles, +2 for SMGs
[Reload Speed] 1-6 steps
[Fire Modes]
[Automatic Fire Bonus]
[Weight]

Uniform/Clothes
[Country]
[Quality]
[Rank]

Magazines
Clips
Ammunition
Helmet
Boots
Gloves

Etc. More to follow, but this is all of the basics of the game I have, tailormade for a quick game.What do you think?

Second one sounds better.

How "done" does a game have to be before playtesting can begin? How long did it take you to reach that stage?

I've been working on my game for a couple years now, but I only write when I'm inspired and I often rip out chunks of what I had previously written. Looking at my early drafts, I feel like I've already made a way better game that gets far, far closer to my ideal. That being said, I still only have the intro chapter (which covers core concepts and mechanics), character creation and how to play/GM chapters in a state that I think would be "playable" - and I still make frequent changes.

Where do you draw the line?

It could be rare or even blue for all that matters. As soon as you have a mechanic you should playtest it, both alone and as a part of the whole.

As soon as the rules are written, you can start play testing. If something goes wrong, note it down, finish the session, and work on fixing that issue in the interim between now and your next game. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Is there any good examples of combat through magical "dancing"?

I've been influenced by fighting of benders in Avatar and alchemists in FMA to come up with something similar.

I was thinking if elements are needed or should i stick with just forces (push, pull, etc).

What I'm hoping it's too have a system where a player can combine a force and a punch/kick, plus whatever else that works (a sweeping wave attack, a focused column, etc)

D&D 4e. You can only dance if you have room to dance. It only matters to dance if the room is not a white featureless room.

In 4e the PC could "dance" to get behind the enemy for a sneak attack, or to shove it into a pit. Look specially into the Monks (PHB3) powers that allows for both a move action and an attack action.

So I've had an RPG idea floating around in my head, and I think I've come up with a resolution mechanic for it, but I wanted to hear people's thoughts on how good an idea it is.
Basic premise is: Risk resolution with a dice pool.
The idea is a kind of dice pool. Every action roll is opposed by some form of reaction roll, which may be an opponent trying to duck for cover or gravity pulling down on you when you make a difficult jump. The actor rolls a number of dice equal to their associated skill, adding their stat to every result. The reactor does the same, using the associated skill and stat for their reaction. In the case of non-living reactors, such as gravity, I'm honestly not sure, potentially just setting a set number of "hits" needed and a target number.
After dice are rolled, the actor and reactor "line up" their results, lowest to highest. If one actor rolls more dice, the actor who rolled less simply compares their lowest die to all the overflow dice. Every time the actor scores higher than the reactor, they score a "hit". The number of "hits" determines the degree of success. For example, an actor firing a handgun at a reactor would roll Handguns, adding... lets say Ballistic Skill to the results, and the reactor chooses to dodge, so rolls Dodge, adding Agility. Every "hit" the actor scores might add 1 damage to his attack.
Sound good? Too complicated? Can I simplify it at all, or should I just scrap it?

>If something goes wrong, note it down, finish the session

Something I've found valuable for revising your rulebook itself is when something like this comes up and the group doesn't know what to do or doesn't understand what they should do, ask them what they think they should do based on what the rules say. Lets you know specifically where you went a little wrong and what specifically you're correcting against.

What are the advantages of this system over, say, the actor rolling against a fixed integer? If the 'gravity' (difficulty) of jumping from rooftop to rooftop is 4d6, and the actor rolls 6d6, what makes rolling two dice pools more effective than than having the difficulty of jumping from rooftop to rooftop be 13 and have the actor roll 6d6 against it? Even if the dice pool gives you the ability to add more dice for difficulty, that can be done as simply by increasing the integer.

It sounds interesting, but I'm having trouble grasping why it would be advantageous to use opposed dice pools over the more usual method.

Yeah, I wasn't sure how it'd work for non-combat things. The system originally came from a wargame I wrote rules for a couple years ago for kicks, and it worked pretty well, but I can see how for at least some things simply rolling against an integer would be better.

I enjoy dice pools, especially since I like throwing a lot of dice (it has a lot more 'impact' for me, I guess), I was simply trying to think of something different than say, Shadowrun. (I will admit part of it has to do with simply wanting to do something 'different' for the sake of it)

As a system it really shines in opposed combat, which is why I can see it working for a wargame. Any RPG system could be two-tiered, with fixed integers outside combat and an opposed dicepool minigame in combat.

Okay, I can run with that idea. Outside of combat was the part I really wasn't sure about, since I've had experience that it works in a combat setting.

Thanks for the help

Some other things to consider.

You could keep opposed rolls and lower the size of the pools. One of my projects uses opposed d20 rolls with results based on the difference of those rolls. The smaller amount of dice allows the opposed roll to provide additional variance than just a single roll against a target number. Having larger pools of 6d6 provides plenty of its own variance, so opposed pools as you described wouldn't be as necessary.

Another way of doing it would be to look at Dogs in the Vineyard. They have a mechanic where you keep bidding and escalating until one side stops, and then rolls are made. For your specific idea, you could have a system where you bid and escalate dice in your pool. Once used, they go into a separate pile, so you can only bid as many as you have. You could keep your risk-style resolution while also having various mechanics, like ways to gain dice, minimum pool sizes, and limits on spending.

Hello /gdg/ it's been a while. This is mainly to drop off the newerish rulebook of Heroes Valor and Mead, and to ask three questions.

1. I took out weapons and armor, and I'm going to add it to the alternate rules, they didn't quite work the way I wanted them to, but eh. My question is replacing weapons with a "Technique" skill be slightly better? You define it, and if you can justify it, you get more dice. Ye? or Nay?

2. Been hitting combat over the head yet again, my question is for a game designed to be a one-size-fits all, is a crunchy combat system or a more narrative one a better fit. It's currently fairly narrative, but I feel it's to narrative if you catch my drift.

3. Any settings/books/movies you want made in this system, I'm trying out my chops on making things for the system to better facilitate the "Play Anything" idea. Go nuts, I like ideas.

Also, a while ago somebody asked me for a Vampire Hunter D-esque setting, I'll be replying to myself with that pdf, sorry for the delay user, life sucks.

The Not!Vampire Hunter D thing.

Had to create a basic setting because I don't know Vampire Hunter D to well, but you can easily change anything you need to.

As soon as you have something stable enough to actually string along a scenario.

You want to playtest early and often. If you put together too much before playtesting, you may find that you have to scrap or revamp large portions of your rules, that you may have spend months on.

Hey /gdg/ this is my first time posting in here but I finally remembered I had this on here and figured it'd be good to post.

A month or two back we had a 24 hour game design thread, and I typed up roughly 2/3rds of an rpg based on "racism, mediterranean eruope, cards" before I passed out and missed the deadline, then forgot about it. I found it again the other day and tried to think up some ideas for the unfinished bits, but am lacking in inspiration at the moment.

Ideally, I wanted this whole thing to be a comfy as fuck game about being fantasy gypsies, but it's pretty unfinished.

What do you think about it? Any suggestions?

bump!

>get excited to try out a new mechanic
>realize it actually sucks

What's yours, /gdg/?

Being able to determine that a mechanic is flawed without having to go through playtesting is a good thing though.

>think up setting idea for game
>start to flesh it up
>think it sucks/corny/cliche/dumb
>scrunch up and throw away
>repeat ad nauseam

However, I do think I'm onto something at least half way decent. Combing a few details from the others I liked. The mechanics also need tweaking. I need to run a bunch of simulated fights with someone(s) to test it. The long and short is how often can an action fail before it feels boring/a slugfest. Example; with a D10 roll under system, how often is too often to fail? Things like zombies or simpletons obvious should have 2-3s for stats, but the average human? 4-5? 5 solid? The problem with starting them at 5 means most stats will have an upper limit of 8-9 depending, so there's little room for campaign growth. I've got plans in the work to make levelling up and campaign a little more interactive and flavourful than mordheim but still, it's bugging me and I can't seem to convince myself to "cross those bridges when we get there"

Also, thank you so much to those who voted on the polls, and I'm gonna shill them again for any who haven't yet. Your opinion is very much appreciated. See here

So, I'm having problems

Right now in my ttrpg i need to focus on adventure mechanics

But i just can't, it doesnt come anywhere as natural as combat

Does anyone have an example of a good format for describing towns, wildernesses, etc? i need inspiration

Describing? In what sense? Like just listing descriptions?

-description of environnement

>towns/cities
-points of interest
-vendors
-info on laws, potential encounters/events
-maybe even a few example plot hooks

>wilderness
-points of interest
-description of terrain for purposes of travel time/difficulty
-events (weather)/encounters that mighthappen

i have a rudimentary system for a portion of them but i just always have this fear im missing sonth

I would throw in little cultural tidbits for the towns/cities as well. Superstitions and traditions go a long way to give places personality and feel.