/gdg/ - Game Design General

A thread dedicated to discussion and feedback of games and homebrews made by Veeky Forums regarding anything from minor elements to entire systems, as well as inviting people to playtest your games online. While the thread's main focus is mechanics, you're always welcome to share tidbits about your setting.

Try to keep discussion as civilized as possible, avoid non-constructive criticism, and try not to drop your entire PDF unless you're asking for specifics, it's near completion or you're asked to.


Useful Links:
>Veeky Forums and /gdg/ specific
1d4chan.org/
imgur.com/a/7D6TT

>Project List:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/134UgMoKE9c9RrHL5hqicB5tEfNwbav5kUvzlXFLz1HI/edit?usp=sharing

>Online Play:
roll20.net/
obsidianportal.com/

>RPG Stuff:
darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/fulllist.html
darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/theory/
therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21479
docs.google.com/document/d/1FXquCh4NZ74xGS_AmWzyItjuvtvDEwIcyqqOy6rvGE0/edit
mega.nz/#!xUsyVKJD!xkH3kJT7sT5zX7WGGgDF_7Ds2hw2hHe94jaFU8cHXr0
gamesprecipice.com/category/dimensions/

>Dice Rollers
anydice.com/
anwu.org/games/dice_calc.html?N=2&X=6&c=-7
topps.diku.dk/torbenm/troll.msp
fnordistan.com/smallroller.html

>Tools and Resources:
gozzys.com/
donjon.bin.sh/
seventhsanctum.com/
ebon.pyorre.net/
henry-davis.com/MAPS/carto.html
topps.diku.dk/torbenm/maps.msp
www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/polygon-map-generation/demo.html
mega.nz/#!ZUMAhQ4A!IETzo0d47KrCf-AdYMrld6H6AOh0KRijx2NHpvv0qNg

>Design and Layout
erebaltor.se/rickard/typography/
drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4qCWY8UnLrcVVVNWG5qUTUySjg&usp=sharing
davesmapper.com

Other urls found in this thread:

1d4chan.org/
imgur.com/a/7D6TT
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/134UgMoKE9c9RrHL5hqicB5tEfNwbav5kUvzlXFLz1HI/edit?usp=sharing
indie-rpgs.com/articles/1/
diku.dk/~torbenm/Troll/RPGdice.pdf
therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21479
gamesprecipice.com/category/dimensions/
angrydm.com/2014/01/gaming-for-fun-part-1-eight-kinds-of-fun/
discord.gg/qRHhfZ6
roll20.net/
obsidianportal.com/
darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/fulllist.html
darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/theory/
docs.google.com/document/d/1FXquCh4NZ74xGS_AmWzyItjuvtvDEwIcyqqOy6rvGE0/edit
mega.nz/#!xUsyVKJD!xkH3kJT7sT5zX7WGGgDF_7Ds2hw2hHe94jaFU8cHXr0
anydice.com/
anwu.org/games/dice_calc.html?N=2&X=6&c=-7
topps.diku.dk/torbenm/troll.msp
fnordistan.com/smallroller.html
gozzys.com/
donjon.bin.sh/
seventhsanctum.com/
ebon.pyorre.net/
henry-davis.com/MAPS/carto.html
topps.diku.dk/torbenm/maps.msp
www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/polygon-map-generation/demo.html
mega.nz/#!ZUMAhQ4A!IETzo0d47KrCf-AdYMrld6H6AOh0KRijx2NHpvv0qNg
erebaltor.se/rickard/typography/
drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4qCWY8UnLrcVVVNWG5qUTUySjg&usp=sharing
davesmapper.com
contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/03/content-marketing-diversification/
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

Seems like it's been an age since we've had one of these. How are your projects going? Any major breakthroughs? Any big news?

As an aside, here's that game design pdf I promised about a hundred days ago. I flicked through it, it looks useful (but so useful that you should feel bad about pirating it).

Gnawing at the same old problems, designing comprehensive stats scalable by size mainly.

A little question to liven up the thread:
What do you think of the use of the value zero (0) in stats, skills and other gauges?

...

I keep coming up with new game ideas, and just as quickly shelving them.

>value 0
It depends heavily on the rolling mechanic used by the game. In some it might not be possible, while in others the ability to have a 0 in something might be a necessity.

For example, my homebrew which will likely never be finished has skills that can be 0 or even a negative value.

here's my shitty homebrew, simplebeans
tri-stat, d6-dice-pool, D&D-like, simple game for simple times such as when you're shitfaced drunk or have players that can't even read a single-page-system

"borrow" any mechanic you like
tear it apart and slap me up with critique

Seems okay at a cursory glance. I just can't get excited about these kind of games and they are decidedly not for me.

Quite fair, thank you.
I ran a Wolfenstein game with the ruleset and it worked okay, though this is because it's so shit-simple to run and recolor.

Had another big resolution shift, so woop woop.

Definitely has to do with how the mechanis use the stat/skill, but not inherently against it. Especially if you use it simply as a modifier, no reason +0 can't be the way baseline is represented in your stats/skills.

I already have 0 as a baseline/average for stats. I am debating on if a (not exhausted) resource can be zero too.
Such as stamina, so at the lowest end of constitution there would be no usable stamina.
Although that opens the question if actions that need stamina are prohibited in this case, or you get one before passing out.

What would be a good system to run a Codex Alera game?
It's a book series by Jim Butcher (the Dresden Files guy) in which every human has access to one or more elemental spirits called furies.

Each type of fury provides abilities and powers, but also has a set weakness.
For example, a powerful wind fury allows its user to fly, create optical concealment, and increases their speed. It's weakness is earth, so the user is less powerful inside of stone buildings, and the fury is actively damaged by salt.

Are there any existing systems that could pull that off with just a little tweaking?

I can see an exhaustion system like that working. I'd say something that's like, if you push it into the negatives, you pass out, could work. For example, a character wants to do a power blow that costs 5 stamina, but they only have 3 left. They could make the power blow, but be out afterwards. 0 would be winded, less would knock them out, so they could use the 3 to do something else and still be around, but pushing below that is too much to handle.

This may sound weird, but Ironclaw can be worth a look. Replace species stat with fury stat. (Heh, furry stat with fury stat.)
Stats are ascending die sizes that are rolled whenever relevant to an action.

I'll check it out (though I fear for my Google search history).

Tell me about your rolling mechanics /gdg/.

I'm trying my hand at GMless scene creation. Game for 3-5 players. In this instance in the context of hardboiled crime fiction. So far I have it where when you build the city and get important themes every player chooses one of five different questions and they correspond to a role in establishing scenes. Multiple if they are lacking five players:

>What are the people in the city like?
>What does the city look like?
>How does the oppressor interact with the city? (oppressor is rolled for previously)
>What are the laws like in the city?
>How is this world different from our own? (A wildcard option)

When the investigation begins and everything else is established a player would choose a lead they have and narrate their character investigating it while all players use their roles to narrate the elements of the scene. For the player who owns the turn they would play their narrative role and their character.

For assistance, I give the suggestion to start building scenes by choosing your lead and then stating what you will be trying to do, where, and with who. From there everyone else can start working together to build the scene together.I'm not sure if this structure is necessary but it's my suggestion.

Now there is more stuff to be done in the scenes but I just want to make sure people can start building and establishing scenes collaboratively without much trouble. I'm doing my first playtest with this in a few days and I just don't want it to be a monumental failure. Any criticisms?

Currently I'm playing with an opposed roll dice pool mechanic that has limited exploding die mechanic.

The idea is when you attack, both players roll 3 D12's, and score a success depending on their model's stats (the attacker could have an attack skill of 5+, or the defender could have a defense of 7+). Each success the defense rolls negates a success of the attacker's, and how many leftover determines which damage bracket on the weapon you use (if the weapon has a damage tract of 2/3/4, one success does 2 damage, two does 3, and 3 or more does 4 damage). The limited exploding is that rolls of natural 12 add another die to the roll, but these can't generate any more extra dice. If doubles or more are rolled, you add +1 to the damage.

Why all this default structure? It seems clunky to build the setting in some kind of codified theater exercise way. Organically you would have done parts of that to get people on board for the game in the first place.
What you need to do is adjudicate in case of conflict and I don't see how this is done from what you have written. Are players just settled with any dissonant thing someone puts into a scene?

>Why all this default structure?
Well there is to be no prep. The city setting, the crime, and their individual characters and made by dice rolls and player input but when I tested this with a friend of mine the idea was to just have the player who owns the turn to simply choose a lead and narrate them pursuing it while other characters could interject as they please. This came to two big issues:

>We felt we didn't have enough context to improv off of well
>We had no reason to interject at all unless we really wanted to

Assigning roles in creating the scene was my attempt at not putting all the responsibility on one player to improv at first and foster worldbuilding better.

>Are players just settled with any dissonant thing someone puts into a scene?

Forgive me, what do you mean by this?

Your stats determines how many d6s you roll when performing an action. Rolls of 4+ pass, the rest fail. Skills are used as rerolls. A positive skill value means you reroll that many fails, a negative skill value meams you reroll that many passes.

Some effects can raise or lower your effective skill, others can make you pass on a 3+ or other value.

As you are building an improv game, feel free to disregard it. As I understand it, in improvisation "yes, and..." and flow is king. I was coming from a freeform roleplaying or collaborative writing angle, where Everything is up for discussion.

The point was, what if some introduction sucks plainly speaking. If you split the creation between players there will be different vision. How is that reconciled? Now if you are looking at it from a stage angle it may very well be that it isn't supposed too and players/actors are supposed to roll with whatever. In a run of the mill roleplay game this would lead to disenfranchisement with the story and would thus have to be worked out.

I treat zero to mean either "nothing" or "off".
It's not revolutionary but I would prefer zero to mean "completely unskilled in that regard" when used for a skill.

Yesss, Aegeos is still around
Do you use the Discord, or were you patient?

Actually, I've been over in /awg/, since there's been a recent surgence in interest in homebrews there.

Ah. That's a good question. Since the aspects of the setting in these questions would largely interplay I expect there to be discussion so it is done collaboratively while each has their own individual say on the story's themes. Likewise, I figured the best way to handle unfitting stuff would be to give everyone veto power that could be handled by discussion but I'm not sure what the extent of that veto power is at all.


This plus the elements rolled for (the abstract 'vice' of the city, the oppressor of the city, and the rolls for the crime and the individual characters) are this game's methods of forming uniform themes alongside its content.

Trying to add monsters to Mordheim in a homebrew.

By monsters i mean things like Carnosaurs, Forest Dragons, things that are big but aren't the biggest in Warhammer. Mainly for more variety and to get use of some of the bigger guys who I rarely get to play.

My problem is trying to determine the cost of these guys, as the biggest guy you can recruit in vanilla mordheim is a rat ogre (who is quite tough and could kill any of these in a single turn)

Any thoughts other than to give up?

>Game Design General

How would I go about protecting something I made?

1.Unique art/Character Concepts, locations as well as names?
2.I plan to use above in a book. Do i need copyrights or patents for them all individually or just the book?
3.What is the time turn around for a copyright or patent? Is the process expensive?
4.How do I know if something has already been copyrighted or patented? (I don't know which to use.)
A character name I made up for example.
5.How would I protect a miniature I made? Would it be protection of the miniature or the art of the miniature
or both?

I've seen people be ripped off for creating something new and rich- and the Idea that I put all this time into
something- have someone else love the idea and "patenting" and giving me a cease and desist order doesn't
sit well with me.

>no response
>not sure if they lost interest or I fucked up

This can depend on the country you live in. Where I live (NZ) as soon as you publish something, it is automatically copyrighted, so no need to actually do anything.

Look up the copyright laws in your country.

Unless you're a big company or you've already sold 100+ copies of your game, I wouldn't worry too much about someone stealing your ideas. Its unlikely they will know about your game, let alone steal from it.

I honestly wouldn't worry about cost, and set them up to be scenario specific encounters. Kind of like how daemons are handled; they are really powerful, so instead of trying to balance them, they add to the risks of Mordheim.

Its a tough task, and the biggest hurdles are going to be toning down the stats without losing the menace the big monsters would have. But its also a great opportunity for coming up with new stuff: Instead of the D3 wounds rule Carnosaurs have, it can have a rule to forfeit attacks to make a special one that chomps a model, recreate the feel of movies with the big dino just eating people. Flying in a city is hard to do for big things, so instead, winged monsters can climb easier and get a bonus when they charge, to show them blowing things around with their wings. Little things like that can change it from "its a big stat stick to fight" to interesting encounters, especially if they show up in the middle of a match between gangs. "You gangs heard rumors of a stockpile of food and supplies, only to find a griffon has wandered into the city and eaten it. Still, a beast that size would provide enough meat for a good long while..."

I'm about to publish my game on Amazon.

I don't bring up my system alot because the system is furry.

Sorry man. It is hard to give feedback on a game style you fundamentally don't want. I didn't want to spray negativity over the place and designing to placate people outside of the target audience harms games.

Recommended Ironclaw in this very thread, it's fine in my book.

...

Accidentally posted this to the worldbuilding thread. Derp.

I love the idea of d100 systems. I have some familiarity with the d100 WHFBRPG and the Dark Heresy family of games, but now I'd like to branch out and see what other systems I can steal from. I mean take inspiration from.

From what I understand, Call of Cthulhu uses a d100 system that isn't all that focused on combat, so I'm already giving that a go, but can anyone here suggest other systems I should take a look at?

Fucking custom game dice.

I hate how I had an idea to work on and expand right as I was falling asleep last night, but now I can't remember it. Anyone else have tge problem of hits of inspiration when you can't record it (taking a shower, falling asleep, driving, etc.)?

That's the thing, me and a few others want to have a leader mounted on a big gribbly as a mount from time to time. I could see it as a pay to use for the scenario and set up some specific rules to have it enter the board later or something.

Could be a rare item found when searching after a game. One use item that summons a big monster for a game. You'd still have to come up with gang rating for it, I think.

Could again go for the random scenario, set up rules for trying to capture it, and add a rating and upkeep cost.

How complex is your core mechanic? Mine is five steps and takes two pages to explain but only uses 3d6.

Hey game designers! Been waiting for this thread to pop up for a while and am excited to get some feedback on a macro rpg I've been working on. I've got some friends together to start playing a beta soon and was hoping some professionals could offer some ideas and advice on my system.

The idea is that each player is a provincial lord ruling a province that is part of an empire. They start the game with a number of points to purchase infrastructure for their province, alliances, marriages, heirs, advisors, military and things like that. Each turn is two part, one is a senate meeting where all Lords vote on issues of the Empire with the emperor, the second part is the players each take private turns where they send spies, fight battles and influence npcs.

The roll system is d10. When in combat you roll a d10, and add bonuses like , +1 if you're a general, +2 if you have 1000 more troops than your enemy. Your enemy rolls as well. If you win the enemy loses (your roll - their roll) * 100 troops. Repeat till the battle is over. Intrigue is played out with a d10 roll with added modifiers like your a noble so +1 in general, but also part of the imperial rave so +1 to other imperials. GM determines how hard the convincing is, sets a DC and you roll adding modifiers to see if you convince the npc.

My main question is what type of bonuses would you as a player like to purchase in a game like this? What spouses, what bonuses, what military would you like to use and abuse?

>spouses
futacharr wife

Hey guys!

I'm in the middle of creating a first prototype for my board game idea. It's a skirmish/arena combat game and you use dice for attacks and spells to determine damage. There are 4 different types of dice. Worst to best they are: Yellow, orange, red, purple
During the game you can upgrade your attacks/spells so they use better dice.

I'd like your opinion on this. On how I want the dice values to be. They are all d6 by the way.

>yellow
0-1-1-1-2-2
>orange
1-1-1-2-2-2
>red
1-1-2-2-2-3
>purple
1-2-2-2-3-3

For example the Lightning Bolt attack would start out that you roll a yellow and orange die. By upgrading it you'd roll 2 orange dice. Next upgrade 1 orange and 1 red etc. Or you could also add another yellow die instead of upgrading.

Please let me know what you think or if you have ideas!

That may not be the most loreish version of it but I like the idea of doing a mission to obtain one with an upkeep cost.

I'm almost finished the basic framework of a game I have been working on for some time. So far I have been able to keep guns and melee somewhat balanced with each other, but magic is posing a problem. The idea I'm toying with here is that players pick 2 options from a list of classes to create a hybrid. So out of 8 options there are actually 56 possible combos. The problem arises when I try to add the last class, the magic user. I can't find a sweet spot between "auto pick" and "never use" for magic. What are some limitations placed on magic in other systems that you guys find good to keep it in check while letting it remain fun?

Tl;dr what can I steal from another system that makes magic risky to use but still powerful?

>using the old pasta and links

Maybe it's time consuming to use. Like, you have to dedicate your entire turn to casting a spell. Bigger "fuck this guy" spells might take even longer to cast.

Actually, I'd say it'd be one if the closest things to lore to explain it. Most bands in Mordheim are just mercs and treasure hunters, most wouldn't have the coin or prestige to have a large creature like that at their service when first entering the ruins. So finding a lost artifact to summon them, or capturing and binding them in the wild makes a lot of sense. Some of the more esoteric ones you could even say that they were on a caravan to a nobleman or the Imperial zoo when something happen and the monster broke free, wandering Mordheim's ruins.

Not a fan of the custom dice.
It needs a way to place and subvert agents covertly.

Fair enough, I appreciate the comment.

I'm ok with them, if it a board game. The idea that its contained and already has everything you should need. But I hate it when its something like miniatures game, where they are an extra purchase or they don't give you enough in the starter set. I'm looking at you, Star Trek Attack Wing, with your one set of 5 dice and several ways in the core set to get higher than that.

So following up on this, there's been something I've been tossing around and trying to get a feel for.

I'm trying to add an armor mechanic, as something to make the Knights Templar and Cabalist factions stand out in Hellsgate, without relying on stat bloat. I've had 2 ideas on how to represent the protective power of the Templar's power armor.

The first is stolen from Malifaux, where the inspiration for the damage tracts came from. Its simply that every point of armor reduces the damage you take by 1, to a minimum of 1. Its really simple, but each point has a lot of weight to it, and like I said, its taken straight from another game.

The second system is that the armor has a value. When you take damage, if the damage is equal to the armor or less, you reduce the damage by 1. If its over, you take the full damage. For example, if you have an armor of 3, taking 3 or less damage is reduced, while taking 4 or more at once is applied normally. I may or may not add the minimum 1 damage clause to it. Its a bit wonkier, but it means higher armor doesn't have as big of an impact like the other rules version does.

If I'm looking at a basic level of a soldier with a rifle having 6 HP and the weapon doing 2/3/5, with a base level of either Armor(1) for Templars using the first version, or Armor(3) with the second, which feels like a better choice, taking into account this rule would apply to all Templar, not just special case ones?

Here's how the hipster life system in my card game idea works:
Each player has five "anchors" that can be attacked and damaged. When an anchor is damaged, its owner puts cards from their deck equal to the damage into it, plus one more card for each anchor they have that had more cards than that one. If your deck ever hits zero cards, you lose. "Burn" and heal effects deal with entire anchors. You either double the amount of cards in an anchor, or recycle every card in an anchor. Additionally, there is an action called "discharge" that lets you take every card from a single anchor and distribute them however you wish among their owner's anchors.

>How are your projects going? Any major breakthroughs? Any big news?
I've had my project reamed by a few different people. Its in the process of shifting focus and I'm never able to properly explain, but Its hardened my resolve and confirmed that I'm still on the right track with everything. I also have a few more systems to really dig into for inspiration.

I keep shelving different mechanics for use in other games and then bring them back because suddenly they fit again.

Contested d20 rolls. The difference between the rolls determines state and quality of outcome.

I run a pretty solid STALKER shadow of chenobly group

Homebrew rules too large to attach pdf

Looks cool, what scale do you guys play at?

You should upload the rules to mediafire or mega, I'm always interested in STALKER rule sets. Is it more RPG or wargame? Do your players all play on the same side vs you as DM? or do they fight against each other?

How about extra max health?
That's my favorite approximation even if it doesn't make much sense.

How rigid are character roles in your game? Do you have strict classes, lifepaths or playbooks, or do you gravitate toward something freeform like FATE? What are the pros and cons of each?

Here's my simple idea so far, the players are Ghoblin Dungeon Crawlers with magictech equipment, gotta go through the Space Hulk and clean out all the mutants and recover the treasure. Kind of a streamlined simplified D&D4th edition mixed with a fantasy flight board game.

Characters have 3 stats, Grit, Triks, and Wits, each one is rated from 1 to 5. If you make a check, you roll your stat plus 2d6 to try to beat 10. There will be a very small list of skills, maybe like 4 taken somewhat from Fate accelerated, (Interact, Observe, Figure out, and Cover Up). Equipment and weapons directly adds a small bonus to your rolls.

For classes there will be a short list of a few archtypes. Each class has a list of basic skills, attacks, and abilities, plus some Advanced skills. Each PC chooses two classes and combines their abilities and weapons into a hybrid. You can pick from a skill or ability from each of your classes and then maybe get some random ones. When you level up you can select more skills, and eventually unlock your advanced class skill after some amount of levels.

As far as attacks go, each class will specialize in hitting 1 target hard, hitting more than one target, having ranged attacks, being able to counterattack, basic grid-based strategy. Have some status effect, bonuses and disadvantages tacked on to the attacks, such as changing your roll from 2d6 to 3d6 drop highest, or drop lowest.

The last thing I have to figure out is if I want hit points, or some overall metacurrency like Mission Time, if you get knocked out it costs your team and the storyline changes.

Predominantly free pointbuy. A small amount of compulsory skill in Language and Culture. Some soft stratification via species choice.

10mm easier to have large scale open field fights

Haven't really worked on it lately but sure.
Pardon the rough'ness, it is after all in the works and is very largely unfinished.

Shit sorry didn't read the entire thread.
I suppose I'm looking for ideas in base modern day equipment stats.

Not exactly game design, but I have a formatting question for my design document.

Basically I want to have a table of contents on the side of the word processer, like when reader a PDF. So its always on top except when minimized, and I can easily organize and the document and jump to the relevant section.

Is there a way to do this in standard word processors like open office, MS word, etc. or do I need specialized software?


I know its kind of a cop out, but it really depends on the sort of game your making. In some genres, having strict archetypes could be really ideal since the fiction tends to work that way anyway. Personally I prefer things more freeform (assuming an RPG and not some sort of cooperative board game).

Mechanically, I think its safe to assume that it would be easier to design around stricter classes, since there would be fewer interactions to worry about.

How would you feel about dropping all int and cha type skills?

I've been trying to hack together a Magical Girl conversion of Warbirds (since in Nanoha and such fights tended to boil down to dogfights with friendship lazers) and so far I've been drawing a blank on how to incorporate magic into the system. BESM seems to he the only similiar tri-stat game with magic but I hate BESM and the less I copy of it, the better. Anyone got any ideas to help me out, or should I just pluck out the combat rules of Warbirds and shove them into a more suitable system for Prepubescent Friendship Laser games

What's a good way to add recoil to guns in a dicepool system instead of just saying "you loae X dice from your pool on your next attack"

or if that is how I do it, and the average dice pool is 6, how high should X go?

Target number to score successes rises.

Interesting. I like it!

I'm sure you can do it on Word, but I'm not quite sure how

I'm working on a super simple dice betting game akin to liars dice. Is this the right thread to get some input / testing on it?

I guess I"ll just post it anyway.

Working name
> King's Keep

> Two players each have 4d6
> Roll 3d6 hidden via a cup
> Roll 1d6 out in the open
> Can either give (King) your dice to the other player, or keep (Keep) your dice

Goal is closest to 18 without going over. You can add betting to any of the steps. This started as an in-universe game for my D&D campaign, but my wife actually tried it and we've played for a bit. Tried it with a game design minded friend and he really dug it. Anyone wanna test for optimal strategies, number tweaks, etc.?

Do you decide to king or keep simultaneously?
Or can you see that your opponent is keeping and king him to try to get him over?

Each round is done simultaneously. Once giving or keeping (again, decided at the same time in dramatic fashion yelling out "King!" or "Keep!"), all dice are revealed so you have anywhere between 3-5 dice, and try not to bust on 18.

How much RP do you need in an RPG? I can easily make combat and similar rules, but I don't really make rules for interacting with other people. Exploration rules are kind of a toss up.

I just think philosophically, RP should be allowed to stay pretty freeform and doesn't need a lot of mechanical support to work. Never been a fan of "social combat" or "RP bonuses to xp".

>How much RP do you need in an RPG?
Totally up to you my man. There's a whole spectrum of thinking on the subject. Know your design goals, know who they appeal to and make that game.

I have archetypes that determine a few things at the beginning, but during the course of play you can change through addition.

I like to think of it like a track event. You start in your lane at the beginning of the race, but by the end of the race you could finish in any lane.

Are there any existing games which hybridize TTRPGs and deck-building? The concept is that instead of having a character sheet, you have a deck you build gradually by drafting cards over the course of a campaign.

I don't care if it's already been done, but if it has, it would be useful to be able to crib notes from it.

1. They are automatically copyrighted and are protected by default
2. The book is also copyrighted as a work in itself; if you use other people's copyrighted work you will need to negotiate royalties
3. Patents are virtually never applicable to games design, but take months
4. If you didn't copy something you're probably not in breach of copyright. In general, unless it is a trademark, anything less than a paragraph or so of text is going to be nearly impossible to protect the copyright on. Protecting the copyright on image or sound is easier, but things like photo edits and mosaic overlays are sometimes hard to successfully protect
5. If you're serious about it, miniatures could, in theory, be trademarked, but the copyright is probably all you need. That is, you are protecting the original artwork that constitutes the miniature. I don't know what would constitute protection of the miniature, maybe put it in a safe?

I really doubt you've seen people ripped off for creating something new and rich. It doesn't actually happen very often at all. On the other hand, people claim it's happened to them all the time on the internet, but they're wrong.

An important point is that you cannot trademark, copyright or patent a mechanic, you can only trademark or copyright the specific expression of the mechanic that your game uses. Anyone can use dice labelled with +/- and blank, but they have to agree to the licencing terms if they want to use the fudge logo. Anyone can use a sanity system just like Unknown Armies, as long as they write their own description of it

Hi /gdg, I really want to make a a roleplaying game where the conflict resolution is done by trick taking. Still doing research on trick taking games because I am a procrastinating fuck, but I wanted to ask: what are you favorite trick taking games? (preferably classic since I plan on using standard playing cards) and/or are there any trick taking games you know that have particularly novel/creative designs?

/gdg/ is a place for full-on game designers and homebrewers alike. Feel free to share your games, ideas and problems, and comment to other designers' ideas and give advice to those that need it.

Useful Links:
>Veeky Forums and /gdg/ specific
1d4chan.org/
imgur.com/a/7D6TT

>Project List:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/134UgMoKE9c9RrHL5hqicB5tEfNwbav5kUvzlXFLz1HI/edit?usp=sharing

>Game Design:
indie-rpgs.com/articles/1/
diku.dk/~torbenm/Troll/RPGdice.pdf
therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21479
gamesprecipice.com/category/dimensions/
angrydm.com/2014/01/gaming-for-fun-part-1-eight-kinds-of-fun/

>dev on Veeky Forums discord:
discord.gg/qRHhfZ6

>Online Play:
roll20.net/
obsidianportal.com/

>Games archive:
darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/fulllist.html
darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/theory/
docs.google.com/document/d/1FXquCh4NZ74xGS_AmWzyItjuvtvDEwIcyqqOy6rvGE0/edit
mega.nz/#!xUsyVKJD!xkH3kJT7sT5zX7WGGgDF_7Ds2hw2hHe94jaFU8cHXr0

>Dice Rollers
anydice.com/
anwu.org/games/dice_calc.html?N=2&X=6&c=-7
topps.diku.dk/torbenm/troll.msp
fnordistan.com/smallroller.html

>Tools and Resources:
gozzys.com/
donjon.bin.sh/
seventhsanctum.com/
ebon.pyorre.net/
henry-davis.com/MAPS/carto.html
topps.diku.dk/torbenm/maps.msp
www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/polygon-map-generation/demo.html
mega.nz/#!ZUMAhQ4A!IETzo0d47KrCf-AdYMrld6H6AOh0KRijx2NHpvv0qNg

>Design and Layout
erebaltor.se/rickard/typography/
drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4qCWY8UnLrcVVVNWG5qUTUySjg&usp=sharing
davesmapper.com

Had this saved, how old is this one?

Sounds like MegaMan Battle Network, which is a pretty cool vidya. Don't know of any published RPGs that've pulled it off, but I've heard of some anons with similar ideas.

Misfortune is nearing completion, somewhat. Still needs editing, layout and for Pilgrim to finish the art.

I might hire a freelance editor, because standard rates make it cost only like 60 bucks for me, due to Misfortune being so goddamn short.

Any tips on advertising? The game is fairly unique in some aspects (The core of the game is basically the players actively hampering their own progress, for laughs and experience points), the whole idea of the game might not sit with a lot of people. It's a niche product, to say the least, but like with Chunky Salsa, how do you advertise something that people don't know even exists as a thing?

Bumpan for critique

Euchre is best.
Hearts a shit

Consider expanding it so more people can play simultaneously.

There's non-chunky salsa?

Do you feel any of the mechanics would have to change to incorporate more people?

With every extra person, you just have to consider one person getting completely targetted and shafted by everyone dumping their dice on them.

In your example, with the two armor systems as written, the second system is categorically inferior. In fact, it is only ever better if you do allow it to reduce to zero, and if there is a reasonable spread of 1 damage attacks. Compared to the Malifaux system I think it probably adds complexity for fairly little benefit, unless the idea of armor being useless against powerful attack is something you feel is important in the feel of your mechanics.

Can I suggest a split compromise, if you do want armor to feel like it has a 'failure point'? Give armor two components, a skill threshold and a damage value. Have armor only apply up to a given 'tract value' (assuming all damage has three steps, then its just 1/2/3, but not sure how high you expect explosions to go) and have applied armor reduce damage to 1 unless the damage exceeds the armor value, then apply it in full. So a strong breastplate might be 1/4; it only applies to a minimally successful attack, but in this case it reduces all damage of 4 or less down to 1. A full mailshirt and coif might be 2/2, and a suit of articulated plate might be 3/5, making it extremely difficult to injure the wearer without overwhelmingly high damage or an exploded success (effectively allowing the possibility of a four-success roll finding the armpit, groin or similar)

I fucked up, it wasn't salsa, it was pasta sauce.

contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/03/content-marketing-diversification/

Based on the fact that extra chunky pasta sauce did not exist before Moskowitz. Similarly, I don't think a game with the same thematic core as Misfortune has ever existed. Or if has, I've completely missed it. Like, some games veer into the same category, like TOON, Paranoia and Everyone is John, but I don't really think they come close to what the game is actually about.

Because I'm trying to make failure the main enjoyment of the game, and surprise the second. And not surprise from the GM-to-player, but from player-to-player. The players don't know much about each other's characters, but they can weave their backstories into the game fluently by adding stuff retroactively to their character sheet. Like if the old sage in robes is revealed to be a Shaolin Monk and kicks serious ass from now on.

>With every extra person, you just have to consider one person getting completely targetted and shafted by everyone dumping their dice on them.
Its not a very elegant solution, but you could avoid this by playing the game like emperor MTG (at least I think thats what that game type is called, haven't played in years) where you can only target people sitting adjacent to you emperor mtg is also done in teams, but that isn't something you want

Or you could make it so that King only works on the person sitting adjacent and clockwise from you.

I like that. I'll first test it with the rule of only being able to King the dice to an adjacent player.

Probably. The easiest solution would to have a Hearts-like mechanic where exceeding a certain number also becomes a win.

Another option is to gather all "donated" dive into its own pool, and if the dice reach a certain threshold then it's the lowest total that wins rather than the highest.

I just don't personally see much value in a two player party game

Having a significant other and an infant reveals a lot of that value :)

That's a whole different kind of party

Let me share some words of wisdom I heard years ago:

>What are you working on user?

I have several projects in various stages of development.

So I'm putting together a system based heavily on the FF 40krpg systems, but with a setting that's a bit more accessible to normies (Less conforming to the imperium, being able to play as aliens, stuff like that).

I've been tinkering with the idea of having passice stat bonuses be given by the Characters background, and havung the racial bonuses be mostly activated abilities.

How well do racial activated abilities work, in practice? I tried to make them broadly applicable, like the [space elf] being able to enter a trance for one minute, getting a large bonus the whatever skill that [space elf] has chosen to specialize in. Or humans being able to apply +10 or -10 to any roll, even one they didn't make (humans are famously the luckiest bastards in the galaxy).

>Instead of rolling for initiative each turn or rolling once and then keeping the order for the rest of the combat, players roll initiative for their initial position on a priority ladder
>The ladder has a limited amount of positions, an action that would move you too low on the ladder is considered outside of combat and the priority system
>Different actions take a different amount of time, moving them down on the priority ladder according to how much time they consumed with their action
>Whenever someone takes an action, everybody else goes up on the priority ladder one position
>More than one person can occupy the same position on the priority ladder, in that case the person who got there first acts first
>You can use actions outside of your turn as reaction to other people interacting with you, but only if there's enough space bellow you on the ladder, if there's not, you just can't react
>Reacting to things also consumes more time than acting in your turn

This is something I've been thinking about for a while, Is there any board game or RPG with a system like this?
Does it sound inherently flawed or limiting?