PDA

View Full Version : What Cool Stuff Are You Working On?



Horatio@Bridge
2020-08-13, 09:17 PM
I've been working on a role playing game using Fate called Senjitsu Jidai: The Era of 1000 Realities. It's set in a warring states Japan, but instead of fighting over who is going to be shogun, the clans are fighting over who is going to define reality. Each clan has their own reality framework, and I've been writing about the clans for the last few months. I'm kind of happy with the work I've been doing and want to share. I bet there are a lot of other people out here who are working on cool things too, like cool character backstories, adventures, homebrew content, novels, short stories, or even new games. Care to give us a glimpse? Not really looking to get around the rules on promoting, but it would be neat to see what people are working on and encourage each other.

-----------

History of the Asakura

Asakura Toshikage was an underground artist during the Oni Rebellion, whose pop-up works showed the people the possibilities of freedom by their creative reimaginings of reality. He spent most of the rebellion on the run from the forces of ASHIKAGA, putting up his works of art ever so slightly faster than the officials could take them down.

In the aftermath of the destruction of ASHIKAGA, Toshikage traveled to the valley of Ichidojani in Echizen province to found an artist commune. It was his vision that the most creative peoples of the age would gather together to explore impossible art and new visions of what reality could become. When fighting broke out between the forces of Yamana Sozen and Hosokawa Katsuko, he invited all of the creative types from Kyoto to take refuge in his commune. He set up hilltop forts on either side of the valley to keep watch for partisans, and walled off the north and south ends of the valley to protect the artists, writers, thespians, and craftspeople who had come to take refuge with him. Then he turned his attention inward to work on creating his artist’s utopia.

Toshikage’s heirs maintained the peace of Ichidojani over the next 100 years, mostly by fostering friendly relationships with the nearby Ikko-ikki. As a result the region was more peaceful than most of Japan for this period, attracting refugees from across the tumultuous Kansai region. The Asakura also maintained friendly relationships with the Revolutionary Council, though they tended to keep themselves out of the political side of things. With Oda Nobunaga’s rise to power, however, the Asakura are facing increased pressure to take an active part in events.

-----------

Powers of the Asakura

The Asakura have created a reality where imagination is transmuted into life by the skill of an artist. An Asakura artist might draw an image of a flower, then draw it into existence to present to her beloved. A poet speaks a frog into existence that then plops into a pond, while a potter might enamel a vase with images of fauns and fairies who spring to life and dance at the first sound of a musician’s instrument. The basic power of the Asakura is “Art Incarnate,” which brings their creations to life. As the artist advances, they follow particular art schools and philosophies which can lead to extraordinary creations. Also, the Asakura are generally quite famous, and have learned to use that fame to their advantage.

Art Incarnate

The Asakura clan has developed techniques by which they can infuse their works of art with reality. A painter might sketch a vine on a wall, then pull the ink off the surface into a real plant that helps them to climb the building. A poet may speak barbed words to sling at her enemies. An actor may shelter behind a prop shield, imbuing it with such life that it shelters him from the blows of his foes.

Prerequisites – None
Cost – 1 Refresh
The artist may use Art for create advantage actions to create a tool, object, or plant in the physical world. These creations last for one scene and then dissolve into a puddle of ink, burst in a puff of air, or revert to their base nature, as appropriate.
These artworks can include any inanimate object or plant life that may be no larger in any one dimension than 10 feet times the artist’s Art skill.

Art Explodes

There are fierce debates among the Asakura about the nature and meaning of art. For this artist, art is something which occurs in a fleeting moment. Each sunset is a unique beauty, and the cherry trees are beautiful for a time, but are just normal trees the rest of the year. Their art is meant to be experienced once, and then is gone. Sometimes this means that their art literally explodes. On the battlefield, they mix explosive chemicals into their materials and detonate their creations.

Prerequisites – Breathing Words, cannot have Art Endures
Cost – 1 Refresh
The artist may attack with Art by detonating a minion created with Breathing Words. The Minion is destroyed by the attack.
A Minion may be detonated anywhere within the line of sight of the artist, and may move one Zone before being detonated. Each minion sacrificed in the Attack, including the first, gives a +2 bonus to the Attack.

Art Endures

There are fierce debates among the Asakura about the nature and meaning of art. For this artist, art is something which lasts into future ages. The work of masters is displayed in museums and preserved in buildings for a thousand years or more. Beyond that, their work can become ingrained in the culture, lasting as long as humanity itself. On the battlefield, their creations fight with tenacity, and have enough self-possession to carry out orders on their own.

Prerequisites – Breathing Words, cannot have Art Explodes
Cost – 1 Refresh
Minions created with Breathing Words last for a full day and can persist out of the line of sight of their creator. Such minions can carry out simple instructions.
Instead of creating and controlling two Average minions, the artist can create a single Good Minion. This minion has one aspect, one Good (+3) skill, one Fair (+2) skill, and one Average (+1) skill. They have 3 Stress 1 point boxes and a -2 Consequence slot. It takes one action to create this Minion.

The Ichijodani Art of Fame

The artists of the Asakura frequently become renowned for their work. Their artwork travels the world ahead of them, winning the artist friends among people they have never met personally. A savvy artist learns to groom this reputation and leverage these relationships to advance their own causes.

Prerequisites – None
Cost – 1 Refresh
The artist may use Art in the place of Contacts for create advantage actions to find a useful person who would reasonably be among their network of fans and hangers on.
The artist gains a bonus called Fame. It has a value of +2.
The artist may apply their Fame bonus to create advantage actions with Art to find a useful person who would reasonably be among their network of fans and hangers on.

Razade
2020-08-14, 11:27 AM
I've been working on a 250ish page fanbook for Masks: A New Generation, we're on the editing stage and getting all the art finished. Moving on to some other projects while my side of the book is finishing up.

Horatio@Bridge
2020-08-14, 02:35 PM
What's Masks about? Also, what is a fanbook?

Palanan
2020-08-14, 03:17 PM
And where are you sourcing the art?

Telok
2020-08-14, 06:27 PM
Appatently reasonably soon I may be bothering to produce a serious errata/rebalance for DtD40k7r.

More currently I seem to be translating statistical dice roll models and a dice roller/perils of the warp for the game from an andriod app into a straight web page format.

Mastikator
2020-08-14, 07:30 PM
I'm making a webpage (https://thorvaldursaemundsson.github.io/infinitedarkness/)for my RPG ruleset & campaign setting "Infinite Darkness". The most recent addition is 3D rendering of solar systems in javascript (no plugins or anything, just vanilla javascript, 3d rendering of solar systems, the rest of the page is a react project). Go to "World & Lore" in the top menu and then "The Sol System" in the menu that follows, then beneath the initial blurb there's another button "View The Sol System" which opens up the 3d rendering.
The Fringe World -> Ashra also has a full set of textures.

Still working out the kinks, currently it's like 90% kinks. This is my first time doing 3d animation and it turns out 3d animation is like super hard.

Edit- before that I made a body armor customizing tool that I think turned out pretty good.

Grod_The_Giant
2020-08-14, 07:35 PM
I've got a whole mess o' things brewing!

I'm preparing a new release of my Guide to Greatness (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/267038/Grods-Guide-to-Greatness) with better editing, one or two new base classes (a shapeshifter (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?585774-The-Wildling-(Shapeshifting-Base-Class)), and maybe an alchemist (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?616036-Alchemist-base-class)), two more Paladin oaths (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?616960-New-Paladin-Oaths-Vigilance-and-Faithfulness-(aka-bows-and-horses)), and racial feats for the Eberron races.
I'm also putting together a new 5e book, tentatively titled "Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque," that's going to be something like 3.5's Unearthed Arcana-- new rules, revised classes, system overhauls for gritty, high-power, and low-magic campaigns, stuff like that. Only two more big elements to go...
Most excitingly, I've finished the third draft of my queer superhero novel and started sending it off to agents. Only rejections so far, but one was really nice and enthusiastic, so I'm holding out hope :smalltongue:

Cluedrew
2020-08-14, 09:06 PM
I'm currently working on a game where you desperately try to keep a ship just barely stilly capable of faster than light travel together for just a bit longer. Still very early in development but the notable features I am working on are:
One-shot Game-Play: This is all I can arrange right now so why not.
Ship & Crew Generation: Everything is tied back to the ship, right now you actually build your PC as kind of an add-on to the ship. There is a very thin line between your character abilities and the ship's facilities.
Random Breakdown Tables: So many ways for the ship to break. It is constantly under stress and that causes problems and you have to fix them just well enough to keep going. In fact acquiring all the things you need to keep going is kind of the driving reason to interact with the places you go by.

First draft thematic introduction:

The ship is broken, has been for years really. Every jump may be its last, every stop might be its final resting place. It leaks and groans, it's half blind and stumbles forward at best. We should of abandoned it years ago.

We didn't, its all we have. Patching it up for one more jump, then another and another. Scavenging wrecks for parts when we can and cannibalizing the ship when we can't. Sometimes we have to choose between food and fuel. We go hungry every time.

At this point I'm not sure if we really are heading towards something or heading away. I'm not sure it matters either. Maybe it will someday - the day we get there. But for today and tomorrow all that matters is that we keep flying.

NichG
2020-08-14, 10:22 PM
Finishing touches on Mythclad, a more or less total d20 rewrite for high powered Lovecraftian sky pirate ascendancy to godhood while redefining the fundamental structure of reality gameplay. There's a lot of risky mechanical stuff in there which I want to see players break - an action point system rather than move/standard/etc actions, everyone is a Tier 1 character, dramatic editing stuff, etc. The bulk of it is done so at this stage its things like adding setting details, PrCs, tying setting elements to hooks and putting stuff in the book to grab players' attention and interest.

This is the book so far (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Jb-bbEfNNvFsKCroV1ONaJ4umTOTTQ_/view?usp=sharing), minus some stuff on crafting materials, a few item modifiers and spells, etc that I've added recently in my local copy.

EdokTheTwitch
2020-08-15, 01:43 AM
I'm currently working on a new TTPRPG, set in a standard-ish fantasy setting. It is inspired by my love of E6 back in D&D 3.5 days, at least with regards to the assumed power levels of the characters.

The game is designed to provide a ridiculously wide range of choice for creating characters, while attempting to create as few "trap options" as possible. Each character is created by picking 3 base classes (out of the 25 in the original book), and grows by learning new abilities from those 3. The classes cover most of the standard archetypes I could think of, including a Berserker, Weapon Master, Knight, Thief, Acrobat, Hunter, Druid, Negotiator, Bard, Enchanter, Healer, Hexer, Elemental Mages, etc.

Each class has 8 base abilities (the player only ever needs to learn four) and 3 Mastery abilities (with the player only ever learning 1). From a couple of mock-up games and theoretical builds I've made, the system holds up in combat, exploration, and social encounters. Now, all I have left is the fine-tuning of the numerical stuff, populating the monster menagerie (I'm trying to come up with original concepts as much as possible), and creating the guidelines for the Game Master.

Hopefully, I'll feel confident enough to playtest with strangers soon, and then set it out for sale... somewhere.

Lord Torath
2020-08-15, 01:05 PM
I'm currently working on my Orbit Tracker for Spelljammer. Trying to implement a 3D Bralspace flight distance calculator. Check my signature for a link to the current version (which as of today does not include Bralspace/Spiralspace). If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let me know.

Anti-Eagle
2020-08-15, 04:02 PM
I've been working on a game system for running god/nation/narrative games for the past several years alongside a setting for it. The current name for the system is Ascendancy and I've so far run 4 games through the various prototypes with the setting in various points in the setting. The world started with Bronze Age socities, transitioned to a post apocalyptic medieval setting, going from there an industrial society rebuilding and securing the coasts against invasion, and then in the end a setting on a continent to west of the previous one in an american/pacific theme.

Things have hit a lull lately so I'm considering putting some more effort in and running another recruitment for the Western game... or alternatively finishing the epilogue for the East, copying all the text and finalizing that as a game setting for people to use.

Horatio@Bridge
2020-08-15, 06:47 PM
Appatently reasonably soon I may be bothering to produce a serious errata/rebalance for DtD40k7r.

What is DtD40k7r?


Still working out the kinks, currently it's like 90% kinks. This is my first time doing 3d animation and it turns out 3d animation is like super hard.

This describes, like, every coding project I have ever done.


I'm currently working on a game where you desperately try to keep a ship just barely stilly capable of faster than light travel together for just a bit longer.

Feels like a mix of Firefly and Red November. Really cool!


The game is designed to provide a ridiculously wide range of choice for creating characters, while attempting to create as few "trap options" as possible. Each character is created by picking 3 base classes (out of the 25 in the original book), and grows by learning new abilities from those 3. The classes cover most of the standard archetypes I could think of, including a Berserker, Weapon Master, Knight, Thief, Acrobat, Hunter, Druid, Negotiator, Bard, Enchanter, Healer, Hexer, Elemental Mages, etc.

This has a Final Fantasy III/V feel to it. Very cool. If you're looking to playtest, I've found a lot of success going to conventions. They're all online these days, so I have been able to do a lot of demos there. I've even done games in Germany! (I am in the U.S.)


I'm currently working on my Orbit Tracker for Spelljammer. Trying to implement a 3D Bralspace flight distance calculator. Check my signature for a link to the current version (which as of today does not include Bralspace/Spiralspace). If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let me know.

DnD and orbital mechanics, not something I expected to see today. Spelljammer is so weird.


I've been working on a game system for running god/nation/narrative games for the past several years alongside a setting for it. The current name for the system is Ascendancy and I've so far run 4 games through the various prototypes with the setting in various points in the setting. The world started with Bronze Age socities, transitioned to a post apocalyptic medieval setting, going from there an industrial society rebuilding and securing the coasts against invasion, and then in the end a setting on a continent to west of the previous one in an american/pacific theme.

This is the RPG that I dream about every time I binge play Civilization. Very neat!

Anti-Eagle
2020-08-15, 10:45 PM
This is the RPG that I dream about every time I binge play Civilization. Very neat!

If you want any information on it, feel free to peruse the links below. The Index thread in the Mythweavers forum links to all the threads this is spread across.
Even if you're just interested in the rules or using them for something it would be fine.

I'm probably going to start editing things soon and moving forward with a re-recruitment at some point or alternatively as I had mentioned that epilogue. The rules for the various versions are listed to the best of my recollection in their folders on the mythweavers. Only Ruins was the most complicated and ran the longest, with rules based on the previous game's PDQ based mythopoeia. 1900 and the Far West are systems designed to simplify the rules, 1900 being a simplification of Only Ruins, and the Far West being a modification with rules based on Lords of Creation.

The main problem I think people have had with it is understanding it as a narrative game, built more on what you want to do rather than predefined actions.

LordCdrMilitant
2020-08-16, 12:46 PM
I'm currently working on my Orbit Tracker for Spelljammer. Trying to implement a 3D Bralspace flight distance calculator. Check my signature for a link to the current version (which as of today does not include Bralspace/Spiralspace). If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let me know.

Interesting. I have no idea what bralspace or spiralspace are, and probably don't need that capability, but I've often thought to myself that I should use an application that can plot trajectories, computer velocity change requirements, show relative positions of engaged bodies, and determine intercept opportunities in my RPG's.

Not really because I need this functionality for an RPG, but it would be nice to have a digital visualization to show my players of what is actually happening during the engagement.

Fortunately, such software exists, and I actually have licenses for some versions of it. Unfortunately, it's not really suitable for spur-of-the-moment visualizations because it takes a lot of work to set up anything in it, and can require even more work to make fictional solar systems and such.



As for "cool things" that I'm "working on", I've sometimes thought about revisiting and re-working a system I put together for a little "design your ideal D&D system" activity I did one time. The activity had some stipulations, mostly that it had to have classes and levels and be D20 based, most of which I would do away with if I didn't have to meet them to instead shamelessly stealtake inspiration from mechanics from other systems I like better. That said, I never really do end up revisiting it, because like, I probably would never run a homebrew system.

lightningcat
2020-08-16, 01:13 PM
Appatently reasonably soon I may be bothering to produce a serious errata/rebalance for DtD40k7r.

I am not suprised by you saying this. :)


What is DtD40k7r?

It is a unholy combonation of Warhammer 40k, D&D, Exalted, and random pop culture using the framework of the Legend of the 5 Rings rules, that was made as an April Fools joke. It has its flaws and needs a revised edition, but is actually playable.
Telok is reviewing it here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?609813-Let-s-Read-Dungeons-the-Dragoning-40-000-7th-ed-v1-6).


As for myself, I continue my insane task of building my Transformers (plus GI Joe and other stuff) game.
Currently at 6 books, and a total of 1250 pages. Link in in my sig to the current version.
I should be working on writing up antagonists, but keep getting distracted with other random ideas.

Telok
2020-08-16, 11:43 PM
It is a unholy combonation of Warhammer 40k, D&D, Exalted, and random pop culture using the framework of the Legend of the 5 Rings rules, that was made as an April Fools joke. It has its flaws and needs a revised edition, but is actually playable.
Telok is reviewing it here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?609813-Let-s-Read-Dungeons-the-Dragoning-40-000-7th-ed-v1-6).

It makes you do things like this:https://i.ibb.co/CJ4T2V2/onlycybertrex.png (https://ibb.co/CJ4T2V2)

Lord Torath
2020-08-17, 09:25 AM
Interesting. I have no idea what bralspace or spiralspace are, and probably don't need that capability, but I've often thought to myself that I should use an application that can plot trajectories, computer velocity change requirements, show relative positions of engaged bodies, and determine intercept opportunities in my RPG's.

Not really because I need this functionality for an RPG, but it would be nice to have a digital visualization to show my players of what is actually happening during the engagement.

Fortunately, such software exists, and I actually have licenses for some versions of it. Unfortunately, it's not really suitable for spur-of-the-moment visualizations because it takes a lot of work to set up anything in it, and can require even more work to make fictional solar systems and such.Bralspace (http://www.spelljammer.org/worlds/Bralspace/) (formerly Spiralspace) is the crystal sphere that has the Rock of Bral, according to the Spelljammer Cloakmaster Cycle novels. It also has a planet (opposite from Bral, on the same orbit) called Spiral (http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?t=20880), which was fairly important to the Elven Imperial Navy. Paul Westermeyer (http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=285) did a lot of work on the sphere. It has a non-traditional layout (http://www.spelljammer.org/worlds/Bralspace/Bralspace.gif), which makes it tricky to implement.

Just to clarify, all this thing does is plot out the locations of the planets and calculate travel times between them. It tracks the locations of the planets (and the phases of the moons) based on how many days your campaign has been going for, and tells you what space on the planetary display they should each be in. There's also pair of charts on each tab plotting out their locations like a gridless planetary display. It's not much use in combat.

Razade
2020-08-18, 04:13 AM
What's Masks about? Also, what is a fanbook?

Masks is a Powered by the Apocalypse system about teenage superheroes ala Young Justice/Teen Titans. It's published by Magpie Games. A fanbook is just what we're calling it. 3rd Party material printed under the Creative Commons Attribution license.


And where are you sourcing the art?

We have a graphic artist on payroll. We're not sourcing it from anywhere, it's being done in house.

Democratus
2020-08-19, 11:44 AM
You people are amazing. This is all so cool! :smallbiggrin:

I'm working on a 5e campaign world that is essentially 40s detective noir.

Man_Over_Game
2020-08-19, 01:25 PM
Working on a video game project for a 1v1 MOBA-esc Dungeon Crawler kinda game, called "Enter the Crucible". The plot is that you are an Einjerhar that's fighting for freedom in a maze that's controlled by Death, and he has you fight and earn your worth against every other damned soul that wants out, basically as a means to get the damned to fight amongst themselves instead of working together and being a real problem.

You grind through different phases of randomized enemies and picking up randomized and unique weapons, akin to Dead Cells in that your playstyle changes with your gear.

However, every few checkpoints, you enter an arena against another Einherjar, a player, that you must defeat to proceed. You get his loot, and you continue through the Crucible, until you're the best or you fail.

The game will have a Karma weapon-style-leveling system, where the more you use a weapon, the more "karmic potential" other weapons get as a sort of experience. Using a weapon with "karmic potential" spends it as experience that increases stats and drop rates, so you're constantly forced to use new weapons that you're not comfortable with in order to level up. Only players who are masters at everything will be able to progress through the Crucible, while those that refuse to adapt get stuck at the bottom.

To account for a "ranking" system, despite everyone starting at the beginning, it'll have reward checkpoints similar to Dead Cells. If you best Arena #4 by 5 minutes, and you lost less than 50% of your HP through that time, Arena #5 is a massive treasure room that gives you the next tier of gear instead of a player match (and since the player you'd fight would have lower tier than the treasure, you're usually better off just taking the treasure instead of fighting the player for different-but-equal gear). This ensures that most players are usually fighting other players of similar competency while decent players rush to get the treasure rooms.

Random environments will be a thing, even with player fights. One example I keep thinking of is a Maze with a darkness/vision-impairment effect, so you don't know where your opponent is until they're close, and you don't really know what their capabilities are until you clash. Other environments include things like triggered or timed traps, wind or ice effects, and indestructible monster spawners on opposite corners.

It'll also have some cooperative moments where players work together against hordes of badguys (basically a random environmental effect of a mob room), and I plan on incorporating a cooperative same-screen gametype called "Enter the Gauntlet" (a reference to Gauntlet) where you and your friends work together while also competing for gear, facing off between checkpoints in minor skirmishes for gear and levels, before facing off one final time with increased HP and a changing environment.

Took ideas from a lot of my favorite games over the years, between Dead Cells, Hades, CRAWL, Diablo 3, MOBAs, and the classic Gauntlet.



For now, just working on the simple stuff, like getting the movement to be responsive enough for everyone and deciding on how I want the weapons and mobility powers to feel like.

Pleh
2020-08-19, 05:22 PM
Tying my various D&D homebrew setting together. Several ideas that came up independently being woven into a single setting.

Got a planet orbiting a small brown dwarf, which itself is orbiting a binary star system. Each of these stars has magically infused light, creating different seasons on the planet as the different stars take dominance of the sky. Mages have only recently discovered a fourth star, a magical black hole, just outside the system threatening to end the entire star system with hungering, inky darkness. Instead of the Planes being alternate dimensions, the Outer Planes are incanate on the various other moons of the brown dwarf.

Most of the game takes place in the Lowlands, a swampy river-crossed shard of the northeast continent trapped between mountains to the west, ocean to the east, a harrowing desert to the south, and a cursed frostfell to the north. The people of the lowlands live in near perpetual poverty, as the land has most its nutrients constantly washed away by the water flowing from the mountains to the sea. On top of the land being generally poor for farming, the lowlands are periodically raided by viking dwarves from the mountains and imperial elves from the islands just off the east coast. And every winter, the blighted Frostfell creeps a little further south, causing those who die in the blizzard to become zombified.

The lowlands are designed for low level play (level 10 cap), with the intention that level 11 characters are quickly swept away into the "Outer Planes" to deal with problems more befitting their abilities. Generally, the reason no threats over 10th level (maybe an occasional CR 13 monster) exist in the lowlands is that the higher level conflicts of the Outer Plane Moons always end up drawing such creatures and persons away to higher concerns.

Also working on some personal interpretations of combat and magic, but those are far less concrete at this point.

Horatio@Bridge
2020-08-19, 05:56 PM
I
As for myself, I continue my insane task of building my Transformers (plus GI Joe and other stuff) game.
Currently at 6 books, and a total of 1250 pages. Link in in my sig to the current version.
I should be working on writing up antagonists, but keep getting distracted with other random ideas.

Man, if you ever get the rights from Hasbro, that would be an epic game. It reminds me of the TMNT game from Rifts, or the various licensed games from Modiphius.



I'm working on a 5e campaign world that is essentially 40s detective noir.

Then you introduce the mythical colored Rubiks Cube. :-D


Working on a video game project for a 1v1 MOBA-esc Dungeon Crawler kinda game, called "Enter the Crucible". The plot is that you are an Einjerhar that's fighting for freedom in a maze that's controlled by Death, and he has you fight and earn your worth against every other damned soul that wants out, basically as a means to get the damned to fight amongst themselves instead of working together and being a real problem.

That is intense! I hope it gets picked up.


The lowlands are designed for low level play (level 10 cap), with the intention that level 11 characters are quickly swept away into the "Outer Planes" to deal with problems more befitting their abilities. Generally, the reason no threats over 10th level (maybe an occasional CR 13 monster) exist in the lowlands is that the higher level conflicts of the Outer Plane Moons always end up drawing such creatures and persons away to higher concerns.


That reminds me of the Matt Colville video on why higher level adventurers aren't dealing with the local problems. There are bigger fish to fry. The whole thing has a dying Earth vibe. Very cool!

-----------

I have an update on the Azai, a clan of samurai who get powers from their oaths.

The Azai were originally vassals of the Kyogoku family, where Azai Sukemasa was a prominent general. The Kyogoku, like many of the clans near Kyoto, were heavily involved in the internal politicking of the Revolutionary Council. Sukemasa grew increasingly disgusted by the lies and betrayals that characterized this infighting, and dreamed of establishing a world of honor where the powerful would serve the weak and a samurai’s oath of loyalty would be unbreakable. Unfortunately, in order to do this, he would have to betray his masters and take control of the clan.

Sukemasa was eventually successful in overthrowing the Kyogoku and establishing himself as a daimyo, but in the process found himself at war with the Rokkaku clan. The Rokkaku were close relatives of the Kyogoku, so they naturally came to their kinfolks’ defense when Sukemasa rebelled. The Azai were driven out of Omi province and into Echizen, where they found refuge among the Asakura. Given a chance to rest and regroup, Sukemasa returned to Omi province and reclaimed his territory.

Once back in power, Sukemasa built Odani Castle, one of the great mountain fortresses of Japan. From this fortress, his son Hisamasa and grandson Nagamasa continued to defend Omi against the Rokkaku and the neighboring Saito clan. At one point Hisamasa was forced to swear fealty to the Rokkaku, but he got around this oath by retiring so Nagamasa could lead the clan. Nagamasa was victorious in the subsequent battle, and restored the independence of the Azai.

At about this time, Oda Nobunaga conquered the Saito clan and established his new capital at Gifu. He negotiated a marriage between his sister, the Lady Oichi, and Azai Nagamasa. This gave the Oda a clear path to Kyoto, and for a decade the Azai stood aside as the Oda swept away the Rokkaku and the Miyoshi and brought the Revolutionary Council under their protection.
Now, though, the Council is sending out missives to ask for help, and the Asakura are calling in their old debt to ask the Azai to stand against the tyranny of the Oda. Many of the Azai vassals, including Nagamasa’s father Hisamasa, wish to side with their old allies. Caught between two oaths, Nagamasa is unsure what to do. However, the Lady Oichi encourages him to do what his family has always done, and stand up for whatever he feels is right. She will support him, come what may.

-----------

The reality of the Azai is a place where a warrior lives by their skill in bow and blade and by their unshakable oaths. The skill of Azai sword masters and horse archers is nearly supernatural. They can deflect bullets with their blades, and a shot from their bows can pierce a tank’s armor. They carry on the tradition of Japan’s mighty horse archers, and their skirmish tactics and superlative skill as warriors enables them to take on armies many times their size.
In the end, though, the martial skills of the Azai are their lesser abilities. The greatest abilities of the Azai come from their code of honor, bushido. An Azai, once sworn to an oath, cannot be forced to betray it. Their integrity can bind others to their cause. When they have appointed themselves to a task, no injury can dissuade them – they can even put off death until they have fulfilled the terms of their oath.

Meiyo
The samurai of the Azai are famed for their code of bushido, the warrior’s way. The first principle of this code is Meiyo – honor. When they swear an oath, they cannot be swayed from it. Most commonly this oath is to serve a particular lord, though it may also reflect an oath to complete a task, to honor an alliance, or an oath by a lord to serve those who follow them. The samurai is the sole judge of their own honor, and is not swayed by the opinions of others. Once they have decided what their honor demands, though, they cannot be swayed from it.
- Prerequisites – None.
- Cost – 1 Refresh
- The samurai gains a modifier to certain rolls called Bushido. The bonus is equal to the number of Extras the samurai possesses from the following list, each of which represents a principle of bushido: Meiyo, Yu, Rei, Jisei, Jin, Chugi, Makoto, and Gi. The maximum value of the bonus is +8, when the samurai has mastered all eight tenets of bushido.
- One of the samurai’s aspects is changed to reflect the nature of the samurai’s oath.
- The samurai may change one of their aspects to reflect additional oaths at any milestone.
- In any scene where the samurai is compelled on or invokes the aspect relating to one of their oaths, in addition to the normal benefits, they apply their Bushido modifier on overcome and defend actions made with Will made for the rest of the scene.
- The samurai cannot be forced to betray their oath by losing a contest of persuasion, and cannot be forced to betray it by the terms of being taken out. They may reject compels that would cause them to break their oath without spending a Fate Point.
- The samurai may offer to betray their oath as a concession, be maneuvered into a position where they cannot simultaneously fulfill two oaths, or otherwise choose to betray their oath. In this case, the aspect representing their oath changes to represent their status as an oathbreaker. While they have this oathbreaker aspect, they may not gain any benefits of this Extra or Extras which have this Extra as a prerequisite. They cannot change this oathbreaker aspect until they reach a significant milestone.

Makoto
Makoto is the virtue of honesty. Asking a samurai of the Azai to swear to do something is redundant – to the follower of bushido, speaking an intention is the same as doing it. If they say they will deliver a message, capture a fearsome weapon, or retrieve a sacred gem to prove their worth to marry a daimyo’s heir, then no hardship will keep them from accomplishing the task. A samurai can even push themselves beyond death to achieve such a task. However, wise samurai are cautious about what they agree to do. There are many tales of Azai samurai who found themselves forsworn when they set out to accomplish a task that was beyond their means.
- Prerequisites – Meiyo
- Cost – 1 Refresh
- The samurai may spend a Fate Point to create a situational aspect reflecting their intention to carry out a particular task. This aspect counts as one of the samurai’s oaths for the purpose of any power that is keyed off such oaths. It lasts for one scene, though the samurai may take it as a character aspect at any milestone.
- Any time that a samurai is taken out, they may invoke an aspect relating to one of their oaths to put off being taken out until they take one more action, or one more turn during a conflict. Instead, they are taken out at the conclusion of that action or turn. However, they may continue to defer being taken out for as long as they can invoke a relevant aspect. Once they can no longer invoke such an aspect, they immediately suffer the original consequences of being taken out.

Kenjutsu
Kenjutsu is the study of the blade, which provides the basics of self-defense vital for all warriors of the Azai. A fully trained student of the blade is even able to cut down arrows in full flight and deflect bullets with their sword. The samurai may also join a particular school of swordcraft, where each school teaches its own philosophy of combat and special techniques that give the samurai new tactical options. Among the Azai, two schools are popular – Kage-ryu, which is a battlefield art, and Shinkage-ryu, which focuses more on dueling.
- Prerequisites – None
- Cost – 1 Refresh
- The samurai may use the sword to defend against Ranged attacks using the Melee skill.
- The samurai gains a +2 bonus on all defend actions with the sword.
- The samurai selects one of the following two schools
- Kage-ryu – this Kenjutsu tradition is a battlefield art, emphasizing discipline and coordination with your fellow soldiers. The soldier survives by protecting his fellows. The samurai gains a boost called Infantry Tactics whenever they use an attack or create advantage action with Melee against a foe that has attacked one of the samurai’s allies in the same zone.
- Shinkage-ryu – this school is a new style of Kenjutsu that focuses on dueling. It teaches the student to commit to a single, perfect strike to fell their opponent before they can strike back. Students of this school may choose to gain a boost called Single Blow on their next attack or create advantage action with Melee, but the next enemy to attack them before the start of their next turn gains a boost called Open Defenses in return.
- A samurai may take this extra multiple times to master the special techniques of other schools of combat. The bonus on defend actions does not stack – only the largest such bonus applies from each school mastered.

Bajutsu
While the image of a samurai is of a warrior wielding a katana, their true power on the battlefield is as a highly trained cavalry force. They learn to use the speed, mass, and power of their mount to their advantage on the battlefield. The Azai are followers of the ancient Ogasawara-ryu school of horseback fighting, which focuses on firing a bow from horseback. The skirmish tactics from this school have been key in several battles where the Azai defeated armies much larger than they were.
- Prerequisites – None
- Cost – 1 Refresh
- The samurai gains a +2 bonus on all defend actions with Drive.
- The samurai gains the benefit of the following school:
- Ogasawara-ryu – this tradition focuses on horseback archery and mobility for shoot and run tactics. Even on foot, practitioners of this school stay on the move. Whenever the samurai moves at least one zone, they gain a boost called Mobility on any action made with Drive or any attack or create advantage action Ranged at the end of the movement.
- A samurai may take this extra multiple times to master the special techniques of other schools of combat. The bonus on defend actions does not stack – only the largest such bonus applies from each school mastered.

Kyutaru
2020-08-19, 06:43 PM
A form of D&D that eliminates the biggest issue I see with roleplaying game balance: the Attack stat. Any time there's an Attack or something like it whether in tabletop games, video games, or MMORPGs it becomes the most important stat of all. It's most noticeable in tabletop games like Warhammer 40k where if you get the 1st turn you can potentially wipe out half the enemy's army before he's even had a chance to shoot putting you at a staggering lead. People will build around min-maxing this stat and then sure up defenses to offset this stat -- leaving everything that is utility or fluff laying unloved and unwanted. Even with 5th edition, the game is balanced mostly around Hitpoints and having more of them makes you a god.

So instead, scrap that idea entirely and normalize damage and accuracy to more consistent, focusing instead on what people can actually do to gain the advantage or place their enemies at a disadvantage. With a stat system that exemplifies combat tricks and an assortment of stat interactions I aim to produce a roleplaying experience likened to a wizard's duel. To date, games of many genres have managed to produce such a strategic layer. Chess being the most notable, MOBAs with their identical shops and starting levels, TCGs with their reactive play, even Starcraft. Yet they all feature the downside of the snowball effect primarily due to the Attack stat (or in chess's case, running out of pawns).

I've started beta testing this summer and ironing out the mechanics with my crack team of testers that I pulled from the LARP I frequent. Corona has given us much time to spend in online play (which is why I've been so active these months). There will be no one dominant strategy in the final product though currently the warlocks are a bit strong owing to their debuffs. In such a system without personal stack abuse making someone else worse is the next best thing.

LordCdrMilitant
2020-08-20, 12:59 PM
Bralspace (http://www.spelljammer.org/worlds/Bralspace/) (formerly Spiralspace) is the crystal sphere that has the Rock of Bral, according to the Spelljammer Cloakmaster Cycle novels. It also has a planet (opposite from Bral, on the same orbit) called Spiral (http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?t=20880), which was fairly important to the Elven Imperial Navy. Paul Westermeyer (http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=285) did a lot of work on the sphere. It has a non-traditional layout (http://www.spelljammer.org/worlds/Bralspace/Bralspace.gif), which makes it tricky to implement.

Just to clarify, all this thing does is plot out the locations of the planets and calculate travel times between them. It tracks the locations of the planets (and the phases of the moons) based on how many days your campaign has been going for, and tells you what space on the planetary display they should each be in. There's also pair of charts on each tab plotting out their locations like a gridless planetary display. It's not much use in combat.

Oh. Disappointment. Both at the intended purpose for Spelljammer, which I detest with a passion, and at just calculating time.

How does it calculate transfer time, though, because that's a nontrivial problem with way too many variables once you leave the realm of 2-impulse hohmann trajectories. I mean, I've got 6 years of university education to teach me how to do this...


I guess I'll have to look elsewhere, do it my self, or be content without having an STK-for-RPG's.

Lord Torath
2020-08-20, 02:06 PM
Oh. Disappointment. Both at the intended purpose for Spelljammer, which I detest with a passion, and at just calculating time.

How does it calculate transfer time, though, because that's a nontrivial problem with way too many variables once you leave the realm of 2-impulse hohmann trajectories. I mean, I've got 6 years of university education to teach me how to do this...Spelljammers travel at over 4 million miles an hour (100 million miles per day). That's fast enough that most planets can be treated as stationary for the purposes of plotting your course, and any discrepancy can typically be made up in a matter of minutes. So I just plot the location of the planets and calculate a straight-line distance between them, divide that by the speed, add on the lift-off and landing times, and call it "close enough".

It's actually a lot like Star Wars. You hyperspace to your destination and fight at tactical speeds after you arrive.

I actually could calculate the actual orbits (courtesy of my Orbital Mechanics course with a refresher from Kerbal Space Program), but there's really no point in doing it for Spelljammer.

Sorry it won't be useful for you. :smallfrown:

Wraith
2020-08-20, 02:20 PM
I have just finished contributing to Restaurants & Retail, the next expansion for Monsters of Murka which is due to hit Kickstart on September 8th.

It's going to be so much fun and I am completely stoked - it's my first ever accredited writing role, and Action Fiction are all great people. Check it out, if you like D&D and satirical humour (https://monstersofmurka.carrd.co/?fbclid=IwAR2HP6gfpYRgWP98M0SPHDX2dYHUM9JKfHQ0_rmy eLYHu-cjn9yUFdk-K1Y)!

LordCdrMilitant
2020-08-21, 05:55 PM
Spelljammers travel at over 4 million miles an hour (100 million miles per day). That's fast enough that most planets can be treated as stationary for the purposes of plotting your course, and any discrepancy can typically be made up in a matter of minutes. So I just plot the location of the planets and calculate a straight-line distance between them, divide that by the speed, add on the lift-off and landing times, and call it "close enough".

It's actually a lot like Star Wars. You hyperspace to your destination and fight at tactical speeds after you arrive.

I actually could calculate the actual orbits (courtesy of my Orbital Mechanics course with a refresher from Kerbal Space Program), but there's really no point in doing it for Spelljammer.

Sorry it won't be useful for you. :smallfrown:

Well, good luck in your project. I may hate Spelljammer, but I don't hate other people for liking it.

I mostly run sci-fi games, and as I am an aerospace engineer running usually for people with about as much background as "Star Wars is Cool", I've often thought it would be fun to have an STK-like program to put up and show what exactly is happening with trajectories and delta-V costs and everything as they head for and engage in combat to kind of share what I know with them.

Like, I dunno, drag and drop some planets into orbit, drag and drop some spacecraft, and then maybe plot their trajectories KSP-style and animate forward and pause so that things like the incoming trajectories of missile and gun salvos and the orbits required to go out, intercept somebody, and then return and the consequences and costs of tactical maneuvering and etc would all be visualizable and animatable.

ngilop
2020-08-22, 10:39 AM
I am currently writing a Spycraft 2.0 campaign with d20 future tossed in as well.

Since they are both d20 based the foundation conversion isn't as hard, but giving those finishing is a bit rougher than I initially thought.

For those who want to know, the campaign is Call of Duty Infinite warfare inspired except instead of crazy space russians blowing up geneva its a fight between two space nations, one of which is out for total annihilation of the other side.

Ides Usher
2020-08-22, 02:24 PM
I have been updating a few of the crystal spheres that I created when Spelljammer first came out and also expanding my Cenotaph Road project. The two things are intertwined. Also, I want to get some of the spells I created about 30-35 years ago for an intrigue based campaign to a place where other people can use them. I don't have any rules system newer than 3.5 so I am updating them to that before I post them. It is harder than I thought it would be because 3.5 is very different from the little boxed set I started with. Keep, Capture Voice and Spell Echo are being difficult, but I will get there.

Lacco
2020-08-24, 06:22 AM
Dunno if it's cool, but I've been working on social combat for my newest project.


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4e/8c/0c/4e8c0c780669753b174ff31bf6ddf0ef.jpg

So basically, I'm trying to fit all the crazy maneuvering and dicerolling of combat into social situation. Two philosophers enter, only one leaves!

Also, re-working the rules for postapocalyptic racing rules with terrible cars across Europe based on first playtest.

Xervous
2020-08-24, 07:30 AM
Shimmering Reach is a dicepool based system that features resource trading and tempo in its combats, eschews most numeric abilities in favor of active or reactive features, skews somewhat gritty, has MTG thematics, aims to cover a similar span as 1-13 3.5e, and is structured with build points to encourage diversification while still rewarding specialization.

Having started from little more than the dicepool mechanic and the attributes/skills system snipped out of Shadowrun 4e (yes the SR nod is intentional) it has been a relatively smooth journey in the ongoing play tests. Some of the hottest debates have been over the balancing of mobility options and how those abilities affect the narrative assumptions the system imposes on a world. Tester commentary has encouraged the pruning of passive +n in favor of more non numeric triggers or activated abilities that encourage engagement.

Though little more than a footnote in the rules at the moment, the general framework for followers has been a great boon in running quickly thrown together mooks or supplying a player a temp character when their main is offscreen. The last part has been remarkable for how it seems to have expanded our storytelling options if ever so slightly.

Ken Murikumo
2020-08-24, 02:54 PM
I'm in the very early planning stages of a new system. It doesn't even have a name yet, just an objective of how to build character abilities and such. I've played quite a bit of pathfinder & 3.5, mutants & masterminds, dark heresy, & anima, so i grabbed a few things from the systems that i liked and abandoned the rest (leaving behind anything that is basically "the problems" with the systems). Mix the above with some fresh ideas.

To start, it's a 3d6 system. And i'm going to be using relatively low numbers with simple addition. Anything beyond simple addition will have already been calculated and written on your character sheet, before the session. Like weapon damage. It's listed in "tiers" depending on roll results and situation.

One key point i want to mitigate is an overabundance of numbers and math (as hinted at above), especially on the fly math to add bonuses and add up damage from spells and attacks. Of course there will be die rolls and simple math for attack rolls and skill rolls, but that's something i actually want in the system.

For combat, there are 7 branches of magic and 7 branches of (martial) techniques. You invest in skill trees that unlock more variations of the core ability that you purchase. For magic it's the ability to sculpt the spell in unique ways, for techniques it's passive bonuses or variant techniques based on the core technique.

Players choose a class that gives a basic suite of abilities and changes how expensive or cheap it is to invest in trees (IE, a black mage would be able to buy black magic trees the cheapest, other magic would be a bit more expensive, while techniques would be the most expensive).

But you are not limited to specific trees. You are given character points and can invest however you want. There will even be cost reducers to allow "cross-class" purchases at fair prices; in addition, all abilities contained in a class suite are purchasable trees anyways. This makes "classes" less traditional and more of a cost-assessment/investment.

The big thing of the system is what i call "ability junction". Basically combining spells, techniques, or both to get different results. For example, there is a technique that allows you to charge your weapon with Ki allowing you to deal energy damage & physical damage at the same time. While investing in that Ki charge tree, you can pick up Ki blast, allowing you to fire a blast from your weapon, effectively dealing the mentioned damage at range.

Well, since your melee attack is now considered ranged when you do this, you can apply any combo of ranged techniques that you know. The possibilities become endless and left entirely up to player creativity.

I plan for there to be HUNDREDS of ability trees. Im toying with the idea of having "signature attacks" that cost less mp or whatever i name it in the system. I'm intentionally writing everything crunch-wise. Zero fluff. You, the player describe what your attack/spell looks like. My system simply supplies the mechanics to do so (see mutants and masterminds).

But combat aside, i've been consulting the playground (with mixed results) about non-combat systems. I have some ideas that get outside the simple, "roll above the DC to see if your character can use xyz skill".


Dunno if it's cool, but I've been working on social combat for my newest project.

So basically, I'm trying to fit all the crazy maneuvering and dicerolling of combat into social situation. Two philosophers enter, only one leaves!

This is something i've been pondering for some time. The big hurdle is making it fun to use & not clunky. My guys like combat so i don't want to impose a system that they can't stand, let alone a clunky system.

This applies to every non-combat facet of the system, too. I could make a "mini-game" sub-system for EVERY skill in the game, but that would probably make even simple tasks take forever, not to mention clutter up the system with more numbers and math.


Aside from that, i'm actively making a Pathfinder weapon & armor enchantments generator with excel. It'll generate equipment with ALL pathfinder & 3.5 enchantments, tell you how much it costs, suggested pc level, and i've even pulled some ideas from the list of 101 useless weapon enchantments thread that was here some time ago so some equipment will generate with random unique descriptions.

When finished i plan on randomly gen-ing like 500 different weapons & armor and getting each one printed on like index cards or something. It'll make random loot that much easier and with the suggested level indicator, i can give out loot that's over or under the pc level and the players can be like, "wow this sword is meant for someone like 3 lvls higher!"

So far, i've got 100 PF weapon enchantments entered into the system. Another 70-ish to go. Then like 80 3.5 enchants. Then armor...

Anonymouswizard
2020-08-26, 11:35 AM
Resurrecting the name Wraiths and Ruins from my first homebrew project (and will probably replace it when I hit the second draft), and have been working on a TTRPG since near the beginning of lockdown.

It began as 'let's try to squeeze a classless D&D style game into ten pages plus monsters', and has since evolved into yet another classless low powered heroic fantasy game, centred around a roll under d20 mechanic. Everything is kept as simple as possible, and the system is specifically designed to say nothing about you physically.

Characters are defined by four basic values known as Virtues, Courage (ability to act), Grace (ability to please),Wisdom (ability to know), and Faith (ability to be certain). These determine the character's Health and Fatigue pools, as well as their Speed, Perception, and default skill scores (then bought up with skill points or XP). Characters also have Talents (which tend to improve existing options, although some add new abilities) and Spells.

Virtues are decided by point buy (default) or rolling 2d4+6, skills default to two to six points below this. Rolls are 1d20 trying to get under the appropriate value, with an exact match with your (post modifiers) Skill or Virtue being a critical success, and a 20 being a critical failure. To quote the rules 'Often this will have no effects (although players are encouraged to make up entertaining descriptions of their success)'. Spells are cast as skillls or attacks, but cost points of Fatigue to attempt. When it matters the higher a successful roll the better, higher success wins a contested roll, and there's an attempt to limit calculations to determining damage where possible.

Most of the rest is your standard FRPG fare, with the setting attempting to draw on more West Asian influences, potentially more Russian. The biggest development has been moving to city states over kingdoms to keep areas smaller.

Composer99
2020-08-26, 04:39 PM
I'm alternating between working on my homebrew campaign setting, which I am running a game in, and working on my 5e fantasy heartbreaker.

Reathin
2020-08-29, 11:40 AM
For a long, long time, I've been working on a Fate game (which is to say, Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero etc.) using, ironically, the FATE gaming system. Instead of a traditional free-for-all Holy Grail War, the players will be members of the same team (the Teal faction) against 7 other Servants (the Gold faction). In essence, very similar to Fate/Apocrypha's format.

So far, we have the following servants chosen for Teal (I'm keeping the Gold faction hidden, in the unlikely event one of my players sees this):

Saber: Unchosen. NPC Backup is Saint Michael, the Archangel, General of the Armies of Heaven (not at full strength)
Archer: Lyudmila Pavlichenko, "Lady Death", the most successful female sniper in to date
Lancer: Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the Monkey King, and all around master of deception (again, not at full strength)
Rider: P. T. Barnum, Circus Master and conman extraordinaire. Just as in life, he's found himself surrounded by the extraordinary, and intends to make the best of it by winning a wish.
Caster: Baba Yaga, the Great Slavic Witch. In keeping with the "trio of witches" coven style, she actually has three forms from different cultures, from flying around in a mortar and pestil (Rider form), marching about in a hut with chicken legs (Caster form, her default), or enjoying eating children with her evil gingerbread house (Berserker, known as Totenkinder)
Assassin: Unchosen at this point. NPC Backup is Doctor Abraham van Helsing, Vampire slayer and personal nemesis to Dracula.
Berserker: Unchosen at this point. NPC Backup is H. P. Lovecraft, mad author of the Cthulu mythos and countless existential horrors.


REALLY looking forward to it. Hoping to have everything ready to start in a few weeks. Wish me luck!

Jophiel
2020-08-31, 09:08 PM
Working on a 5e campaign setting that's "real world" 1640 with the characters tasked with investigating/stopping fantastical occurrences before they gain the attention of the Church(es)/Crown(s) while keeping themselves as secret as possible. I'm envisioning a Monster-of-the-Week style of campaign in various locations rather than tracking the party in real time as they hike across Europe. Picked up a few lesser-known RPGs that I'm using as references and it's coming along -- mainly something to give me something to look forward too as we wait to one day sit around a table again.

Pelle
2020-09-01, 04:31 AM
Working on a 5e campaign setting that's "real world" 1640 with the characters tasked with investigating/stopping fantastical occurrences before they gain the attention of the Church(es)/Crown(s) while keeping themselves as secret as possible. I'm envisioning a Monster-of-the-Week style of campaign in various locations rather than tracking the party in real time as they hike across Europe. Picked up a few lesser-known RPGs that I'm using as references and it's coming along -- mainly something to give me something to look forward too as we wait to one day sit around a table again.

That's basically the LotFP setting, "weird 17th century Europe". Using 5e for that seems to me like a big mismatch in setting-system, however. I would suggest looking into OSR games instead. I have used Into the Odd for that, worked great. At the moment I am toying around with hacking ItO in lines similar to Mausritter, with a dash of magic/tomes from how it works in Call of Cthulhu.

Jophiel
2020-09-01, 08:01 AM
That's basically the LotFP setting, "weird 17th century Europe". Using 5e for that seems to me like a big mismatch in setting-system, however.
Eh, it's working for me so far. Early-mid 17th century still relied enough on whacking and stabbing that, once you add in some crude shooting, you're most of the way there. Certainly easier than trying to convert 5e to modern settings; calling it a "big mismatch" seems like a weird analysis but to each their own. That said, I could write a couple paragraphs about it and maybe it all makes more sense in my head but I doubt anyone really wants to read me babbling on. Suffice to say that, for my purposes, some of the high fantasy elements of 5e are more feature than bug.

I actually have a few systems I could run that are designed from the ground up (Witch Hunter, All for One, etc) but 5e is working for what I want and I know it'll make the game much more accessible to my local player circle than trying to get them to learn a new system and buy/borrow books in order to get started. Nothing about LotFP is really mechanically amazing for 17th century, just OSR with some firearms rules, and I can lift elements if I want although LotFP's "everything is super weird-slash-horror-slash-gore porn" vibe isn't really what I'm going for.

Pelle
2020-09-01, 12:44 PM
Eh, it's working for me so far. Early-mid 17th century still relied enough on whacking and stabbing that, once you add in some crude shooting, you're most of the way there. Certainly easier than trying to convert 5e to modern settings; calling it a "big mismatch" seems like a weird analysis but to each their own. That said, I could write a couple paragraphs about it and maybe it all makes more sense in my head but I doubt anyone really wants to read me babbling on. Suffice to say that, for my purposes, some of the high fantasy elements of 5e are more feature than bug.

I actually have a few systems I could run that are designed from the ground up (Witch Hunter, All for One, etc) but 5e is working for what I want and I know it'll make the game much more accessible to my local player circle than trying to get them to learn a new system and buy/borrow books in order to get started. Nothing about LotFP is really mechanically amazing for 17th century, just OSR with some firearms rules, and I can lift elements if I want although LotFP's "everything is super weird-slash-horror-slash-gore porn" vibe isn't really what I'm going for.

I guess it depends on what you're going for, grounded or more high fantasy. My issue with 5e for this kind of historical based setting is that practically all the 5e classes are magic-users, its superheroic advancement and HP bloat.

I agree on the LotFP system not fitting its setting, that's why I suggested basing it on Into the Odd instead.

Anonymouswizard
2020-09-01, 01:05 PM
I guess it depends on what you're going for, grounded or more high fantasy. My issue with 5e for this kind of historical based setting is that practically all the 5e classes are magic-users, its superheroic advancement and HP bloat.

I agree on the LotFP system not fitting its setting, that's why I suggested basing it on Into the Odd instead.

Agreed here, 5e is intentionally very magic heavy, with a rough rule of 'if it's supernatural then magic' (not a solid rule, but ki is very much the exception).

I'll note that LotFP's setting seems to have been developed several years after it's rules, and apparently after it's actually had it's referee book release there's going to be a new core rulebook with an updated magic system (it seems to be a case of 'one free spell per level, then start rolling for side effects') and Clerics and Demihumans being made optional. It's got half decent early firearms rules at least.


The view I get of the proposed setting is that characters are mostly mundane but might pick up some magical abilities along the way, and if my understanding is right than core 5e really is a terrible system for it (although the Adventures in Middle-earth classes might help you make it runnable). What you'd want is something similar to 5e but with a good variety of nonspellcasting classes, and possibly a good inbuilt system for running investigations, and I cannot think of much that satisfies the latter. But I could be on completely the wrong track.

Jophiel
2020-09-01, 02:30 PM
The view I get of the proposed setting is that characters are mostly mundane but might pick up some magical abilities along the way
Almost 100% the opposite. Think more like the 2004 Hellboy film, or Men in Black or 1990-era Vampire: the Masquerade*. Nominally mundane setting with "superpowered" protagonists working in semi-secret to prevent Bad Things from happening in a largely unaware world. I'd likely cap it with E6 rules (if it went that long) and go with gritty rest variants so what you start with for the adventure is likely what you get until it's done, but overall the high fantasy aspects are intended. If you want to play a largely mundane thief, cool. If you want to play a spell-casting Tabaxi and figure out a way with your party to not bring the wrath of Church & Crown down upon you, also cool. Vary settings and locales so sometimes it's all about keeping a low profile, sometimes you're in the middle of nowhere and can bust it all out without worrying about some goodwife seeing you.

*Granted, not trying to stop Very Bad Things but the powered protagonists who are supposed to keep it on the down-low aspects

Xuc Xac
2020-09-01, 10:40 PM
I just released a minimalist fantasy RPG called "3 BONES" on my itch.io page (http://brianbinh.itch.io). It's for when you want to play D&D on short notice but don't want to bother with getting out several books of options to make up a character to get the perfect combination of spells and abilities to represent your "halfling rogue who casts illusion spells". If you have 3d6 and a piece of scrap paper for a character sheet, you can start playing in a few minutes.

My next project is a survival horror game about a cursed town like Silent Hill where you play to find out why you were called to this place and whether or not you can escape with your body and soul intact.

I have a few other projects in my inbox too, so I might switch to one of those before I finish the survival horror game. One of the nice things about having so many projects going at once is that I can procrastinate on one by making progress on another, so something is always getting closer to finished. I think I'll be on the survival horror kick for a while though. I've already got a big headstart on the art and illustrations, so if I get bored with writing I can take a break to work on finalizing the art and laying out some backgrounds.

Waterdeep Merch
2020-09-02, 11:00 AM
A few of my friends approached me a while back about starting up a game studio. We're still ironing out details on things.

While the business savvy members and artists of our group handle what remains on our first project, I'm onto the next project- a full TTRPG called Lost Wings, based on my decades of experience as GM and what I've learned through past attempts at doing this. I've been slowly putting it together for the past two years, and suddenly I have a team backing me. Gotta stop being lazy and finish it!

Lost Wings is a fantasy roleplaying game set in a late renaissance/early industrial revolution-style world where magic and physics are the same thing. It's a classless, skill-based system with lethal, tactical combat and a suite of non-combat capabilities aimed at fully realizing a more simulationist style of gameplay as desired. It's meant for games that want occasional punchy combat but don't want a full-blown dungeon crawler because they're more focused on presenting a broader story, getting deeper into social intrigue and politics, or dealing with simple fantasy life scenarios. This is for those groups that only want 1-3 fights in a session but still want them to be meaningful and challenging.

The core setting it's built on is a world where humans have entered a sudden era of prosperity at the tail end of several horrible wars thanks to advances in technologies being widespread by a once-powerful religion trying to both bring a lasting peace and reassert it's own dominance through it. While the political situation between all of these nations and the church is extremely tense, there are other people on the fringes of society where progress hasn't fully penetrated that are in need of help. Just like humans in this world, beasts sometimes morph into new creatures thanks to magic, sometimes into titanic and dangerous forms that can threaten distant communities where they appear. And always, hidden in the darkest recesses of the world, there are the daemons- the original people of the world, hostile beings that usually stay far away from humans, but sometimes appear without warning and lay waste to human civilization.

Man_Over_Game
2020-09-08, 10:33 AM
My best friend and I decided we wanted to start working on games and see where it takes us, and we have something that we are fleshing out the details for.

It's a Dice & Card game, using a lot of similar concepts to Magic: The Gathering, but having a universal currency and conflict resolution system, so that you can create your own solutions to whatever problem that comes up.

The game revolves around your 5 d6 dice, which are spent to enhance or play new cards, make an attack against a target, or to improve the defense of something.

Rules are simple: If your Attack meets the Defense of the target, the target is destroyed. If the "destroyed" target is a player, that player instead gains another d6. First to take a hit after having 10d6 loses.

Players are treated the same as units, they just happen to have an Attack of 0, and a Defense of 10.

Cards are immediately replaced, but drawing a card when you have no deck means you instead gain a d6 and choose a card from your discard.

So the game has several ways of playing, whether it's through:
Casting cheap spells that don't cost dice, in order to mill through your own deck for a quick and fast win. Good against units, bad against items.
Generating minions that can launch their own attacks and trade against your enemies' to prevent any long-term bonuses they're granting. Good against items, bad against spells
Enhancing yourself to solve your own problems by using equipment and sacrifcial effects as you slowly counter your opponent's naturally high defense. Good against spells, bad against units.

Cards also have several ways of being played, for example the Aegis spell can block a Ranged Attack (which is an Attack that doesn't receive an attack back unless the defender also has Ranged), or it can be invested into as an item to slightly increase your defense for each die you put on it and to block a hit the next time you'd gain a die (and move closer to death).

Or the Wall of Stone spell can be instantly used to massively increase the defense of a target for a single fight, or it can be summoned as a unit that can defend anything on your board.



So far the initial idea is that you're a hero with a special power that allows you to convert your soul into raw power that can be used to alter the world around you, whether that's enhancing your units, weapons, or spells, and your power grows the closer you get towards death. The dice represent both how close you are to death and how powerful your magic is (based on how much dice you have). The fun thing about all of these individual elements to the game means that you can add more players and still play the game, even if your decks end up being too small (due to not having enough cards), and that the game gets harder and faster the closer you get to the end.

Right now, we're just working on making cards, meta-mechanics, and theme. It's been a blast!

Mr.Sandman
2020-09-11, 11:24 PM
Working on a Class and 'Race' system for use in d20 games for vehicles, spaceships in particular but could probably work for others, so you can have things like The Serenity or The Falcon which your party uses throughout the campaign without upgrading to a better model of ship like you would with your weapons. Thinking of doing the same for weapons themselved, but that might be more difficult.

Xervous
2020-09-15, 06:56 AM
Working on a Class and 'Race' system for use in d20 games for vehicles, spaceships in particular but could probably work for others, so you can have things like The Serenity or The Falcon which your party uses throughout the campaign without upgrading to a better model of ship like you would with your weapons. Thinking of doing the same for weapons themselved, but that might be more difficult.

Working out something like manufacturers bonuses for weapons is difficult if you don’t have a wide array of stats that compose a weapon, or tolerance for zany rider effects.

Pleh
2020-09-15, 08:36 AM
Working out something like manufacturers bonuses for weapons is difficult if you don’t have a wide array of stats that compose a weapon, or tolerance for zany rider effects.

As someone who has attempted to adapt Borderlands to TTRPG based on a D&D background, I feel this deeply.

The reason manufacturers and weapon types make each gun feel unique enough for the variables to play into which gun you use, you have to get crazy detailed with the gun stats.

Hyperion is supposed to get more accurate the longer you hold the trigger. Easy enough to say you have an increasing bonus to attack modifier, but how do you determine if they've kept firing? Is it only if they attack with that weapon every round, or do they have to keep aiming at the same target to keep the benefit?

Most tables don't even like tracking their quiver ammo, say nothing of both a total ammo for each weapon type, plus individual magazine sizes for each unique weapon. D&D is set up to handwave away all these stats with abstraction, but when you do that, there is little-to-no game of comparing a few weapons with their pros and cons

Mastikator
2020-09-15, 08:58 AM
As someone who has attempted to adapt Borderlands to TTRPG based on a D&D background, I feel this deeply.

The reason manufacturers and weapon types make each gun feel unique enough for the variables to play into which gun you use, you have to get crazy detailed with the gun stats.

Hyperion is supposed to get more accurate the longer you hold the trigger. Easy enough to say you have an increasing bonus to attack modifier, but how do you determine if they've kept firing? Is it only if they attack with that weapon every round, or do they have to keep aiming at the same target to keep the benefit?

Most tables don't even like tracking their quiver ammo, say nothing of both a total ammo for each weapon type, plus individual magazine sizes for each unique weapon. D&D is set up to handwave away all these stats with abstraction, but when you do that, there is little-to-no game of comparing a few weapons with their pros and cons
How do you determine whether someone is continuing to fire?
Simple: You need to have different kinds of "fire gun" actions.

Single shot
Multiple shot (requires semi-auto)
Short burst (requires full auto)
Long burst (requires full auto)

Why wouldn't you always just shoot the most bullets all the time? Won't I have to keep track of bullets? Keep track of how many turns it takes to deplete the magazine/clip for each mode and gun. When it's empty you reload. You only need to keep track of how many magazines/clips you have.
This adds tactical depth to gun play beyond just "my turn... I shoot", especially if you add extra modifiers or effects to different shot modes.

Man_Over_Game
2020-09-15, 10:46 AM
How do you determine whether someone is continuing to fire?
Simple: You need to have different kinds of "fire gun" actions.

Single shot
Multiple shot (requires semi-auto)
Short burst (requires full auto)
Long burst (requires full auto)

Why wouldn't you always just shoot the most bullets all the time? Won't I have to keep track of bullets? Keep track of how many turns it takes to deplete the magazine/clip for each mode and gun. When it's empty you reload. You only need to keep track of how many magazines/clips you have.
This adds tactical depth to gun play beyond just "my turn... I shoot", especially if you add extra modifiers or effects to different shot modes.

Don't even need to take it quite so rigidly.

Just have each "bullet" be represented by a number of dice. For each die added to the attack pool from your Action Points (of which you have like 5 of, or something), deduct that from their chance to hit, but not their damage (or however you want to do it).

Simply picking a target costs 1 Action Point (so if you picked 1 target, you have 4 dice to shoot with, picking 2 targets means you have 3 dice to divide between them, etc).

Then Hyperion just gets a flat -2 to hit for each attack and instead gets a +1 bonus for each die, with the limiting factor either being the die size or the number of dice used (so a gun could only go up to 3 bullets per round).



So you have incentive to burst all of your dice on your one attack for a round, even if it lowers your accuracy to shoot that much, as long as you don't overkill the target (and so are wasting your Action Points on the target). Hyperion, in this regard, would make your Action Points more efficient when it comes to dealing consistent damage to a boss and conserving your Action Points (due to their limited mag size), but would fail against mooks that would otherwise die in one hit.


Just an example of something that could work without locking yourself into a rigid Single/Semi/Auto system that has has too many mechanics to memorize and runs into problems with content diversity.


Using good math to do it for you makes it both easier to remember and gives you a lot of freedom to play with weird mechanics.

For example, you could just make Jacobs guns cost an extra Action Point for each attack roll, but they add 2 bonus dice to your attack, with Sniper Rifles doing the same (so a Jacobs Sniper costs a base 3 Action Points to pick a single target, but Attacks with an extra +4 dice).

All Shotguns and Rocket Launchers have Splash (which says that, for each enemy you target adjacent to the first, you can roll all of your attack dice against them as one attack instead of dividing between them), with the difference being that Rocket Launchers have more range but are also Slow (costing an extra Action Point to attack and can only be shot once per round).

You could just make stuff up by that point. Like having a Jacobs Rocket Launcher that takes 3 dice just to target, but gives you +2 dice on your roll and lets you hit the enemy team hard at range before they have time to scatter, which is kinda how the real game actually plays. Blow up a group with a grenade/rocket launcher, then finish off the stragglers with a Hyperion.

Make it so that you can swap between two sets of weapons (maybe more as you level), and now you basically have a role system based on what guns you use, with your "Class" giving you some extra gimmicks that you can spend Action Points on (like using Zer0's hologram as both an evasion tool for a Sniper or a setup tool with a Shotgun), making sure to keep them "role agnostic" so that there are no limitations on how you choose to play (bored of your sniper character? Make him an assassin!), and you could really see some cool stuff come out of it.

To make room for the Action Skills, I'd probably make it something like having them be available at the start of each fight, and using them has no Action Point cost, but recharging them requires you to spend Action Points to "reduce" their cooldown for another use . This would make Action Skills not get in the way of your guns (instead amplifying them), while also giving value back to playstyles/guns that don't burn all of their Action Points in a single turn (so builds that are weaker have greater combo/burst potential by leveraging your Action Skill frequently).

Mr.Sandman
2020-09-15, 01:26 PM
To those above: Yah, I am super excited to see how the upcoming Bunkers and Badasses tabletop handles it when it comes out next year.

Azuresun
2020-09-16, 03:53 AM
For a long, long time, I've been working on a Fate game (which is to say, Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero etc.) using, ironically, the FATE gaming system. Instead of a traditional free-for-all Holy Grail War, the players will be members of the same team (the Teal faction) against 7 other Servants (the Gold faction). In essence, very similar to Fate/Apocrypha's format.


.....


REALLY looking forward to it. Hoping to have everything ready to start in a few weeks. Wish me luck!

Good luck!

You know, it's just an idle thought, but I'd really like to play in the Fate/X setting outside of the Grail Wars. The glimpses we get of mage society in Fate/Zero seemed really rich with possibility--decadent, somewhat crazy dynasties of mages hoarding their secrets, delving into forbidden knowledge with no care for collateral damage, and engaging in seriously screwed-up magical transhumanism and body horror.

Horatio@Bridge
2020-09-18, 01:50 PM
It's really neat to see people helping each other out with design tips in this thread! Cool stuff all around, and I am excited at all the neat projects. Keep up the good work!


For a long, long time, I've been working on a Fate game (which is to say, Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero etc.) using, ironically, the FATE gaming system. Instead of a traditional free-for-all Holy Grail War, the players will be members of the same team (the Teal faction) against 7 other Servants (the Gold faction). In essence, very similar to Fate/Apocrypha's format.

...


REALLY looking forward to it. Hoping to have everything ready to start in a few weeks. Wish me luck!

Good luck. Fate in FATE seems like an interesting match, and it's cool to see more FATE stuff being made around here. It seems a little niche on the GiantITP forums.


A few of my friends approached me a while back about starting up a game studio. We're still ironing out details on things.

That's a big project! But it sounds like you are making good progress. Keep it up!


My best friend and I decided we wanted to start working on games and see where it takes us, and we have something that we are fleshing out the details for.

...

Right now, we're just working on making cards, meta-mechanics, and theme. It's been a blast!

My favorite part of game design is when you are having fun making your game. As long as that is the case, then it's been worthwhile. And it sounds like you've got some interesting design concepts going on! I am intrigued by the idea of getting more powerful the closer you are to defeat - kind of the opposite of the death spiral effect in games with wound penalties.

Anonymouswizard
2020-09-20, 11:14 AM
So my previous project is on hold while I work on a new idea I had, an incredibly rules light space opera game using only six sided dice, with the working title of Intelligent Hamsters from Beyond the Stars. It's inspired mainly by science fiction from the 50s and 60s, particular Star Trek, Doctor Who, and the works of Issac Asimov.

It does away with the idea of 'Attributes' entirely, characters are instead defined by three Traits (their Archetype, their Ideal, and their Failing), their Ten Abilities (closer to very broad skills than attributes), and their Gear and Powers. Everything is either rated from one to five dice, which are rolled as a dice pool, or are static and provide a one die bonus to relevant dice pools. Rolls are resolved by counting dice which show four or more as successes, with larger pools generally winning in the case of a tie (and players winning if they are still tied).

So far everything is going well, and I'm passing sections of rules by friends to make sure they read clearly. My favourite piece is the section on aliens, simply pointing out that such characters are generally assumed to be humans with prosthetics, and an alien who significantly differs from a human should express that with Traits and Powers.

LibraryOgre
2020-09-20, 02:10 PM
Just finished a sizable update to my project to make 2e AD&D into a create-a-class system (http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/2020/09/updates-to-cp-based-d.html).

Blackhawk748
2020-09-20, 02:16 PM
Two things actually:

One is a, Apocalyptic Gothic Fantasy setting for a story I want to write with roughly early 1600s era tech level based on Eastern European cultures with two magic systems in it.

The other is an e6 styled D20 game built from the ground up to be that way set in a, you guessed it, Post Apocalyptic Fantasy setting. I plan on taking the best stuff from 3.5, Pathfander and Stars Wars Saga and combine them together to make a better D20 game.

Horatio@Bridge
2020-09-21, 05:48 PM
One is a, Apocalyptic Gothic Fantasy setting for a story I want to write with roughly early 1600s era tech level based on Eastern European cultures with two magic systems in it.

Ok, what is Apocalyptic Gothic Fantasy?

Blackhawk748
2020-09-21, 06:07 PM
Ok, what is Apocalyptic Gothic Fantasy?

Exactly what it says, Fantasy in the Gothic style taking place during an Apocalypse.

Ignimortis
2020-09-21, 11:43 PM
I'm currently rewriting the entirety of Shadowrun 5e. Zero lore tidbits that might be copyrighted, almost pure mechanics and some small fluff. Corebook is mostly done (going through proofreading at this point), so I'm currently combing through all the other books trying to decide what to keep and what to discard.

In the process, it hit me hard to (again) realize just how much useless or completely unbalanced stuff has been printed, as if someone just had to fill the pages with something. Seriously, even if we don't take lore into account, about 30-50% of printed stuff per book (I've gone through Chrome Flesh, Street Grimoire and Rigger 5.0 so far) is either absolutely useless and will not come up in 99.9999% of the games (who needs vehicle stats for a luxury resort ship worth almost 90 million nuyen? Furthermore, why can it be sunk in about 10-15 seconds by a single troll with a decent melee weapon?) or broken (oh yeah, sure, let's just let the mage channel a superpowered spirit, remaining in full control of their buffed-beyond-normal-limits body).

Man_Over_Game
2020-09-22, 02:40 PM
My favorite part of game design is when you are having fun making your game. As long as that is the case, then it's been worthwhile. And it sounds like you've got some interesting design concepts going on! I am intrigued by the idea of getting more powerful the closer you are to defeat - kind of the opposite of the death spiral effect in games with wound penalties.

Hah! You sound a lot like my friend. And thanks!

If you're interested, I have a thread on it asking folks if they have ideas regarding mechanics, and I'd love any kind of feedback that you might have (as limited it may be right now): https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?618897-I-m-making-a-card-dice-game-Got-tips

We're playtesting this Saturday with the cards and mechanics we have so far. We plan to just take a bunch of blank paper, writing stats/mechanics on them, and just seeing how fun the base foundation works and see if there's anything that isn't very fun.

MrStabby
2020-09-22, 06:58 PM
I am working on a few things... dipping into and out of for the past two years. In order of most recent progress:

1) A spy game set in a low magic world - social heavy, a spot of the occult, lots of mystery and intreague. My most recent progress has been tearing up about 65% or the rules. The issue is the tension between narative flexability and codified rules. I want players to not be constrained but for different players/characters to have different skills... The new format pretty much ditches character skills in favour of backgrounds - you get different spy networks, resources you can use in your investigation instead. No combat per se, but lots of evasion to try and avoid being caught.

2) A board game. A very styalised conquest game. My observation has been that a lot of multiplayer games suck. If you are in the lead, then everyone trys to bring you down so there is little point in striving to be in the lead. If they can't bring you down it means it isn't interactive enough... or the other players are too weak in which case you have the problem that players are being bored playing a game they know they can't win. My approach is to use a lot of face down cards for hidden information - hoping to enable sound tactical choices, some interaction but to avoid making it too clear who is actually winning to make it a bit harder to gang up on the leader... it also means you don't know that you are not winning yourself. Trick is trying to give enough information to enable informed strategic moves whilst not so much that it just opens up the whole game. So far in testing the games seem to go through about 8 rounds of deployment and positioning followed by two turns of cascading violence (I saw your big army was in region X so I know it isn't in region Y so I can move my armies in... in turn revealing where they are...). Quite fun but still unpollished and it feels a little one dimensional.

3) D&D campaign world. Purely for my own pleasure. I am using this to help identify what I like thematically in a world and what I wouldn't miss if if were to be gone.

4) The heartbreaker. A lot of people have these; I am no exception. It has been on the back burner for a while and I am struggling with balance in my mind. A>B>C>A type of non-transitive comparison of the effectiveness of abilities is givingme headaches. I feel I have about 30% genuinely good ideas, about 50% filler that is uninspired but enough to make things work... feels like a placeholder. And then 20% badideas that I have become so attached to that I don't see their issues.

5) A book. I started writing it 10 years ago. I got about 250k words in then stopped when I got a new job. It is only writing for pleasure but I would love to pick it up again. Hard with a young child and other commitments. Still, I add it to the list!

Horatio@Bridge
2020-09-23, 02:18 PM
I am working on a few things... dipping into and out of for the past two years. In order of most recent progress:

1) A spy game set in a low magic world - social heavy, a spot of the occult, lots of mystery and intreague. My most recent progress has been tearing up about 65% or the rules.

Oof. I've been through that a time or two with my stuff, and I feel like it's always resulted in an improved game or bit of writing, but boy is it painful.

Xervous
2020-09-24, 12:39 PM
Mostly at the idea stage on this one.

Unnamed Bard Inheritance Game.

Daddy Bard was a stereotypical bard, romancing every dragon and talking boulder he could on his trip through life. Now he’s dead and all the players are vying for a slice of the inheritance, each one of them half human offspring from the various romances.

The general concept of play involves multiple rounds where samples of loot become available. Players will use standard actions or cards drawn from a communal deck to aid them in acquiring items, hinder their opponents, gift undesired ones to opponents, arrange for things to be donated/destroyed etc. There will also be the will, a concealed stack of end-of-game events that players will be situationally allowed to view and alter. Each player will have a public facing agenda (Specific scoring bonuses and penalties) and some unique play options as defined by their choice of heir. One or more secret agendas will probably be in the mix, possibly as things you draw from the central pile or that come tacked onto specific pieces of loot.

Lacco
2020-09-24, 01:33 PM
My next game should include:


combat dance-offs
militarized boomboxes running on depleted uranium
bass battles and militarized guitar riffs
mexican standoffs using bananas (among players)
combat stances = famous poses ("I'll go with MJ's anti-gravity lean!" / "I'll counter with Freddie Mercury's Victory Pose!")
players have to actively change places during game round
"Power of Meme" - memes are magic


Just a braindump. Sorry for that.

Yora
2020-09-25, 06:14 AM
I've got most of my prep work done for a Star Wars d6 game set during the Rebellion that I want to run in the winter. The players get to pick backgrounds as simple mechanics or cargo pilots, or as former staff members of disappeared senators or deserted Imperial Navy officers who went into hiding in the Outer Rim after the senate was dissolved and the military replaced planetary governments. Things heat up when the Moff in charge of the hyperlane between Hutt Space and and the Sullust-Sluis Van-Eriadu-Malastare industrial region cracks down on spice smuggling, leading to a drug war between the Hutts and Black Sun who are fighting over the smugglers and corrupt officials who still take bribes and have not yet been arrested.
Everyone between Tatooine and Sullust is really pissed at the Empire for taking away the autonomy of their planets and causing the increasing criminal violence, which makes the region a prime target for rebel agents. And we'll see where things go from there.

Meanwhile I am reviving old ideas I've used for three different campaigns in the past (Pathfinder, Basic Fantasy, and 5th edition), but completely severing it from any D&D baggage by moving on to Barbarians of Lemuria.
The idea for the world is a continent based on Pangea during the Permian period (full of pseudo-dinosaurs), which has one region populated by cultures based on the Bronze Age empires (Myceneans, Hittites, Egyptians around 1200 BC) blended together with elements from the Hellenistic World (Greeks, Scythians, Persians, Indians around 300 BC). Aiming for a weird environment and culture like in Morrowind and Dark Sun, but with the relatively low magic of the Hyborian Age. And it's primarily a jungle and forest world, instead of the typical desert settings that you almost always get with this style of fantasy.

CharonsHelper
2020-09-25, 07:27 AM
I've spent several years off & on writing "Space Dogs: A Swashbuckling Space Western RPG" (totally playable - in my signature). The basic set-up is that in the near future an alien species called "the builders" come to Earth looking to recruit enforcers. They control the only means of safe warp travel (without their beacons, there's about a 2-3% of being lost to the warp with each jump), but they suck at fighting, and the starlanes are dangerous (space pirates, maruading zerg/tyranid style bug aliens etc.). So they came to Earth to trade their technology and access to the starlanes for soldiers.

So - humans become the badasses of the starlanes. Both manning The Armada, and *cue soundtrack* as Space Dogs - privateers who go places and take jobs across the starlanes.

I'm pretty proud of it. I like the fluff & crunch. At this point I'm mostly adding foes (I want a full book of NPC foes & starships, as I have a whole theory about how important variation in foes is to longevity of campaigns) and creating starship maps - which are important as the starship combat mechanics are streamlined and make boarding the enemy ship the alpha tactic for PCs, bringing combat back to the infantry/mecha level ASAP, which is the system's focus.

I'm hoping to Kickstarter it in 2021, but I'm making sure that the system is 95-98% done first, as I want to be able to assure everyone that it won't be delayed for years. Basically I'll use the Kickstarter backers as the last round of beta testers while I get more artwork (already have a good bit) and get someone to do the layout.

MrStabby
2020-09-25, 01:29 PM
Oof. I've been through that a time or two with my stuff, and I feel like it's always resulted in an improved game or bit of writing, but boy is it painful.

Yeah, it hurts. You realise X and Y are incompatible... but each of these have a huge amount built on top of them. You have to get rid of a lot, but sometimes you have to chose which of your sacred cows to get rid of.

LordCdrMilitant
2020-09-27, 07:03 PM
I just recently started working on a set of 5e compatible rules for early modern firearms [that is to say firearms of the American Western Period and British Victorian/Edwardian periods, which pretty much covers most games I've played in/run which feature firearms].

It's not really a secret that I have issues with the implementations that are usually offered by default or by other people's homebrew and they usually wind up never being touched by the players [usually as a consequence of having rules that make them undesirable for the only classes eligible to use them], so for my own use, I'm doing my own.

Objectives include:
Damage and range profiles such that no adjustment is required to the existing weapon options of D&D to have them fit seamlessly together with verisimilitude.
Basic traits and rules that interact to naturally encompass and within their framework encourage the players to reflect the general changes in combat trends between 1066 to 1880
Weapon Feats for each category of weapon of similar power and desirability to Sharpshooter, but with unique condition and effect for each category to facilitate meaningfully diverse playstyle.
Fighting Styles of similar strength and diversity to the extant ones that cover different types of weapons.
Support Spells that buff and work with firearms based martial combatants.
And possibly as a reach goal subclasses or reworking of subclasses to avoid having features that don't work with new weapons and techniques.

Man_Over_Game
2020-10-12, 03:08 PM
My favorite part of game design is when you are having fun making your game. As long as that is the case, then it's been worthwhile. And it sounds like you've got some interesting design concepts going on! I am intrigued by the idea of getting more powerful the closer you are to defeat - kind of the opposite of the death spiral effect in games with wound penalties.

We got to do some real playtesting this week. So far, the game actually is fun to play! We designed it around being a "strategic sandbox", where the plethora of mechanics and decisions you can make allows you to create your own strategy, rather than follow several straightforward ones.


At first, I was a bit worried about the system. I looked at my cards and realized I didn't really have an obvious plan on how to make any of it work, so I just tried to spitball together some kind jury-rigged plan, and it worked. The RNG kept things from being too consistent, but most of the strategies we individually made all came to fruition because of the fact that each decision you made had lasting repercussions on later mechanics. Like how assigning more power towards a card forced it to act sooner, and that could actually be a problem if you wanted that card to act last.


Weirdly enough, Dead Cells made me think of it, which is a fast-paced combat-focused platformer that has a lot of interesting mechanics that the player can create their own strategies around, like how enemies create a splash damage explosion when they fall or collide with walls, or how busting through a door can stun an enemy. By having multiple mechanics that tie into other mechanics (like how a hidden/facedown card gets the Protect trait), how each mechanic works is completely up to the player, as opposed to other card games where an effect's use is fairly straightforward and 1-dimensional.