Assorted 'Indie' Role Playing Games Megathread

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Nyaa: Jan 7, 2010; What's so fun about playing with yourself?

Here's my opinion. I mostly compare it to the level of the techniques in the book.

Mors Rattus posted:

Basic Technique:
1: Guarding the Doors

If you are struck by an attack, you may Reply.

Reply is a powerful effect, so they usually cost 2-5 and come with a activation condition with the latter requiring something like a successful dodge while the prior require something like a stat bonus and chi condition to activate it.

quote:

3: Purified Temple Body

Duration: One Round

You have a +15 bonus to Chi Aura rolls. This doesn't stack with your Toughness bonus, but it does apply against rolls such as energy attacks that don't allow you to make use of that statistic.

If you used this technique last round as well, you have a +5 bonus to your Toughness this round.

Chi aura roll bonus usually only target one condition like protect again shock damage, especially one that +15 at third rank. Not stacking with toughness might make this technique even better for those low toughness kung fu while those with high toughness would just choose something else.

quote:

3: Defending the Altar
With your blood as a sacrament, the temple of your body is able to produce power. When you are harmed, your power only grows!

When someone makes a Rippling roll against you, you may convert normal chi into Earth chi, up to the number of ripples you are currently suffering. This may not bring you over your maximum Earth chi.

This seems like a cultist technique and pretty abusable since rippling roll happens all the time especially if you pair with someone with subtle force that can do artificial wound. Basically free element conversion using 3 chi in 70+% of the battle and "practice" battle.

Since the description mention blood, it should be when you receive a wound from a successful rippling roll. Doesn't need to be bleeding I guess.

Also word it to convert X normal chi to Y earth chi so it's not switching your whole neutral pool to earth pool.

Don't forget you will also suffer a hell lot of earth chi deviation with this.

quote:

3: Monk Shows Hospitality

This is activated after being struck by an attack.

Your next attack deals one additional Ripple if it strikes.

If you suffered a rippling roll which caused a chi condition, your next attack deals two additional Ripples if it strikes instead.

This should be something at rank 5, the activation condition is common and the effect is basically double damage.

quote:

4: Foundations Do Not Crumble

When someone makes a Rippling roll against you to cause a wound condition, halve the number of dice in the roll. This does not apply to any Rippling roll caused by a Secret Arts attack.

I'm fine with this at 4, but be specific on how to halve the set of dices because the dices in real life will be all over the place.

quote:

5: Buddha's Unbroken Heart

Duration: One Round

All chi conditions are considered Hyperactivities, with all Weaknesses temporarily converting their penalties into commensurate bonuses so long as the condition as fulfilled.

This feels broken, if you want to weaken it, then maybe replace All chi condition with a certain type of chi condition.

Or, add a roleplaying requirement that require you to act out the negative hyperactivities as positive to justify turning any negative chi condition that you can act into Hyperactivities. Anything that your character can act out will probably be weird or creepy though.

Nyaa fucked around with this message at Mar 4, 2012 around 02:32

# ? Mar 4, 2012 02:28

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# ? May 24, 2013 23:47

Mors Rattus: Oct 25, 2007

Nyaa posted:

Reply is a powerful effect, so they usually cost 2-5 and come with a activation condition with the latter requiring something like a successful dodge while the prior require something like a stat bonus and chi condition to activate it.

Reply is free on at least one weapon if you get a critical success defending, as do several external techs that are fairly cheap. This also requires you to be hit and take a Ripple; this is largely the point here - get hit, hit back. I admit that is easier than a critically successful defense, though.

quote:

Chi aura roll bonus usually only target one condition like protect again shock damage, especially one that +15 at third rank. Not stacking with toughness might make this technique even better for those low toughness kung fu while those with high toughness would just choose something else.

The purpose here is to defend against all energy attacks; similar techniques at this level give +20 to 2 or 3 such types. (See: Fire Sutra, rank 3 - Nine-Fire Seal. Heaven's Lightning, rank 2 - Bringing Together Heaven and Earth. Ice Sutra, rank 3 - Unmoving Yin Air. Iron body Skill, rank 2 - The Jade Tiger Techniques.) It is not meant to be able to replace Toughness and I will reword it if it allows that.

quote:

This seems like a cultist technique and pretty abusable since rippling roll happens all the time especially if you pair with someone with subtle force that can do artificial wound. Basically free element conversion using 3 chi in 70+% of the battle and "practice" battle.

Since the description mention blood, it should be when you receive a wound from a successful rippling roll. Doesn't need to be bleeding I guess.

Also word it to convert X normal chi to Y earth chi so it's not switching your whole neutral pool to earth pool.

Don't forget you will also suffer a hell lot of earth chi deviation with this.

Oh, that's...that's not quite what it does. It converts individual chi points - so if you've spent 3 earth chi and 5 generic chi, you can then spend more chi to activate this and turn generic chi into earth chi to refill your pool. It does not enlarge your Earth pool at all.

quote:

This should be something at rank 5, the activation condition is common and the effect is basically double damage.

I compared it to Thousand Venoms' level 3, Devil-Flower Essence, and stuff like Ice Sutra's level 4, Devastation of Black Ice. Comparing that again, this could probably do to be nerfed a bit.

quote:

I'm fine with this at 4, but be specific on how to halve the set of dices because the dices in real life will be all over the place.

'Halve' was meant to be the dicepool, not the results dice.

quote:

This feels broken, if you want to weaken it, then maybe replace All chi condition with a certain type of chi condition.

Or, add a roleplaying requirement that require you to act out the negative hyperactivities as positive to justify turning any negative chi condition that you can act into Hyperactivities. Anything that your character can act out will probably be weird or creepy though.

Well, it does have that requirement. You still have to fulfill the condition - as a Hyperactivity, that means playing into it or you don't get the bonus.

# ? Mar 4, 2012 02:44

Nyaa: Jan 7, 2010; What's so fun about playing with yourself?

o...kay, I guess it just down to the fundamental stuff that I have issue with.

Mors Rattus posted:

Reply is free on at least one weapon if you get a critical success defending...

This also requires you to be hit and take a Ripple; this is largely the point here - get hit, hit back. I admit that is easier than a critically successful defense, though.

There's probably a reason the creator want it be expensive on an internal/external technique though, but at least we can agree that it doesn't just cost 1 chi? It doesn't seem fair to those other basic technique that only give + bonus to the roll while reply is 100% chance to cause a ripple.

quote:

Oh, that's...that's not quite what it does. It converts individual chi points - so if you've spent 3 earth chi and 5 generic chi, you can then spend more chi to activate this and turn generic chi into earth chi to refill your pool. It does not enlarge your Earth pool at all.

I didn't mean enlarging the earth pool. The problem is the ability to refill your elemental pool, which bypass the process of element conversion system and the normal method of recovering elemental chi.

Elemental chi also count double for associating technique, so spending 1 neutral chi for 1 elemental chi is a gain.

# ? Mar 4, 2012 03:45

Mors Rattus: Oct 25, 2007

Hm. I understand where you're coming from on the Reply thing, and will definitely consider that. I don't think getting a Reply is all that expensive, though, in my experience. I have a player who gets them fairly reliably with a special Paired/Sword weapon and Eight Legends. I am going to rework Monk Shows Hospitality.

As for the chi refill, it's meant to be limited by how beat up you are. If you have 1 ripple, activating it can change at most 1 chi to Earth chi. If you have 2 ripples, 2 chi can be transformed. Do you think that's still too good?

# ? Mar 4, 2012 03:51

Nyaa: Jan 7, 2010; What's so fun about playing with yourself?

Mors Rattus posted:

If you have 1 ripple, activating it can change at most 1 chi to Earth chi. If you have 2 ripples, 2 chi can be transformed. Do you think that's still too good?

Ah, I forgot it base on how much ripple you have, my bad.

Still, it's a bit hard to wrap my mind on a style base on inanimate object that focus on counter attack.

# ? Mar 4, 2012 04:02

Mors Rattus: Oct 25, 2007

Have you tried punching a wall lately?

# ? Mar 4, 2012 04:21

Nyaa: Jan 7, 2010; What's so fun about playing with yourself?

Mors Rattus posted:

Have you tried punching a wall lately?

Yeah, I thought about newton's law, and... nevermind.

# ? Mar 4, 2012 04:46

SirFozzie: Mar 28, 2004; Goombatta!

Has anyone else here played Fight! The Fighting Game RPG?

It's a cross between an RPG and a fighting game emulator:

From a small press guy (Divine Madness Press), but it's rather interesting: It's in the vein of the old Street Fighter RPG, but its main selling point is that it's designed to emulate just about every fighting game out there.

Only three "main" stats (Strength, Speed Stamina) but the core selling point is that it can build just about any move out there through its move builder, which is kinda cool when converting fighters from video games in that you get a number of "slots" to build your move depending on how difficult a motion it is to pull off:

For example, Ryu's Hadoken is fairly simple to pull off (down, down-forward, forward+punch), so that's three seperate things, so it's a level three damage, so you'd have three slots to put in to improve the move from a base damage (to make it ranged, do extra damage,e tcetera)

I figured with the cross over between folks who play RPG's and folks who play fighting games here, that there'd be at least some interest.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/produ...oducts_id=79179 (the main book, there's an additional book out with additional tricks, how to do fatalities etcetera)

# ? Mar 4, 2012 13:25

Mors Rattus: Oct 25, 2007

I have replaced the level 1 technique and modified Monk Shows Hospitality; changes are on the last page. The level 1 is now just +5 Toughness so you can't miss out on a tank bonus somehow and the level 3 now increases damage and sometimes Strike after being hit.

# ? Mar 4, 2012 20:51

Tasoth: Dec 12, 2011

malkav11 posted:

World Burning!!!

I read this and the only thing I can think of is 'What happens when the Followers of Amalak find them?' 'Cause, seriously, they've got the backing of at least two empires plus their own standing military force. Heretics beware!

# ? Mar 4, 2012 21:23

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Tasoth posted:

I read this and the only thing I can think of is 'What happens when the Followers of Amalak find them?' 'Cause, seriously, they've got the backing of at least two empires plus their own standing military force. Heretics beware!

The who now? I assume something to do with the Mundus Humanitas church, but I confess that I'm not done reading the main rulebook and that sounds like the sort of setting detail that's more likely to be in Bloodstained Stars (which I haven't even started yet). I will say that the Dunedin crusaders are one of the two armadas camped on their doorstep, so yes, their heresy is likely to be an issue.

We're new to this game, so we'll probably make some mistakes. I look at it as a training run.

malkav11 fucked around with this message at Mar 5, 2012 around 02:16

# ? Mar 5, 2012 02:06

Mors Rattus: Oct 25, 2007

I kind of want to use Burning Empires at some point to run a game based on The Mote In God's Eye and The Gripping Hand, but I'm not sure how one would handle seperating it from the Vaylen, psychics and other associated setting features without having to utterly rewrite several lifepaths.

# ? Mar 5, 2012 02:09

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Mors Rattus posted:

I kind of want to use Burning Empires at some point to run a game based on The Mote In God's Eye and The Gripping Hand, but I'm not sure how one would handle seperating it from the Vaylen, psychics and other associated setting features without having to utterly rewrite several lifepaths.

I'm pretty sure there's no getting around that. It's the dichotomy of the Burning games. On the one hand, Burning Wheel and Burning Empires both do very little in the way of explicit setting definition. Even stuff like technology in Burning Empires is build as you go. On the other hand, there are a ton of implicit setting elements baked into the mechanics.

# ? Mar 5, 2012 02:19

Doc Hawkins: Jun 15, 2010; Dashing, you say? But I'm not even moving!

The kickstarter for Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack is up.

This is the 10th (!!!) year anniversary second edition of Mechaton, Vincent Baker's game of lego mecha squad tactics, updated and expanded with campaign rules.

e: The video is not the slickest I've seen.

Doc Hawkins fucked around with this message at Mar 5, 2012 around 18:21

# ? Mar 5, 2012 18:19

ImpactVector: Feb 24, 2007; Look, that rock came from space. You don't own space, so stop acting like you do.

Doc Hawkins posted:

The kickstarter for Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack is up.

This is the 10th (!!!) year anniversary second edition of Mechaton, Vincent Baker's game of lego mecha squad tactics, updated and expanded with campaign rules.

e: The video is not the slickest I've seen.

Oh snap! This reminds me that I need to hit up bricklink and map out what I'd need for a squad or two, since I finally found a couple people who want to play Mechaton with me. I hope to hell this gets funded.

Also those mechs are works of art.

# ? Mar 5, 2012 18:58

BetterWeirdthanDead: Mar 7, 2006; Ask me why I really
went to see Terminator

Just when I said I wasn't going to be spending more money on Kickstarter for a while...

Those new mech models look awesome.

# ? Mar 5, 2012 19:10

Verdugo: Jan 5, 2009

have it your weigh posted:

Is anyone else excited about the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG? Reading through the beta makes it sound really fun. I'm not really into the retro gaming thing but to me it takes the best parts of it and updates it to make it more playable. I wouldn't want it to be my main game but I can't wait to see the full rules.

http://www.goodmangames.com/DCCRPGbeta.html

Yes, Dungeon Crawl Classics, "Adventure as 1974 intended you to," with the added bonus of esoteric dice that not a lot of people who this game is directed at actually have:

quote:

This game utilizes polyhedrons of unusual shapes. Speciﬁ-
cally, it utilizes the standard suite of dice, as well as what the
author refers to as �Zocchi dice.� As an experienced gamer,
you undoubtedly own a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. DCC
RPG also makes use of Zocchi dice in the following conﬁgurations: d3, d5, d7, d14, d16, d24, and d30. Later this year you
will be able to purchase these dice from Goodman Games.
For now, you can purchase from your local game store (ask
them to special order if they do not already stock them), and
from http://www.gamestation.net http://www.chessex.com and http://www.
koplowgames.com (as well as other select internet sites).

Not to mention that they also use his d100.

Reminds me of the d5 fantasy heartbreaker that got stomped to death in the grog thread.

# ? Mar 5, 2012 19:49

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008; You pick up the nugget of URANIUM and...

Oh that was so stupid. Why would you do that?

Doc Hawkins posted:

The kickstarter for Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack is up.

Man, that $120 level reward is reeeeeealy tempting.

# ? Mar 5, 2012 20:30

inklesspen: Oct 17, 2007; Though they carry nothing forth with them, yet in all their journey they lack nothing. For wheresoever they come, they be at home.

I'm not really sure how to describe this, but I think it might be a writeup of the Polaris videogame for the Amiga 500, as released in an alternate universe.

(The videogame writeup actually reminds me a little more of the description of "Thou art but a warrior"; so far I've not played either game, so I may be way off, but I thought I'd mention it.)

# ? Mar 5, 2012 22:01

Man Dancer: Apr 22, 2008

Doc Hawkins posted:

The kickstarter for Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack is up.

I've been playtesting this a bit.

It is baller.

(Also, Sebastian Baker's Blasters for Hire is shockingly fun and I can't wait for it to be released).

# ? Mar 5, 2012 22:17

Swagger Dagger: Dec 13, 2010; You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural.

Doc Hawkins posted:

The kickstarter for Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack is up.

This is the 10th (!!!) year anniversary second edition of Mechaton, Vincent Baker's game of lego mecha squad tactics, updated and expanded with campaign rules.

e: The video is not the slickest I've seen.

Backed it for 10, but only because I don't actually want physical books anymore.

This is a great excuse to use the Lego Master Builder Academy mecha set that I just got.

# ? Mar 5, 2012 23:10

Tasoth: Dec 12, 2011

malkav11 posted:

The who now? I assume something to do with the Mundus Humanitas church, but I confess that I'm not done reading the main rulebook and that sounds like the sort of setting detail that's more likely to be in Bloodstained Stars (which I haven't even started yet). I will say that the Dunedin crusaders are one of the two armadas camped on their doorstep, so yes, their heresy is likely to be an issue.

We're new to this game, so we'll probably make some mistakes. I look at it as a training run.

Yeah, it is the Mundus Humanitas. My mind completely blanked on their name, although I could pull out Cotar Famas Iron and Amalak.

# ? Mar 5, 2012 23:17

Doc Hawkins: Jun 15, 2010; Dashing, you say? But I'm not even moving!

inklesspen posted:

I'm not really sure how to describe this, but I think it might be a writeup of the Polaris videogame for the Amiga 500, as released in an alternate universe.

(The videogame writeup actually reminds me a little more of the description of "Thou art but a warrior"; so far I've not played either game, so I may be way off, but I thought I'd mention it.)

I've played both, and I think you're right. Reminds me of Invisible Games.

Swagger Dagger posted:

Backed it for 10, but only because I don't actually want physical books anymore.

That seems a bit ironic, since you need scads of physical objects to play anyway.

# ? Mar 5, 2012 23:17

InfiniteJesters: Jan 26, 2012

I...May need to plunk down $10 for that. And a whole lot more for some actual Legos.

Curse being a college student (and therefore poor).

# ? Mar 5, 2012 23:18

Swagger Dagger: Dec 13, 2010; You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural.

Doc Hawkins posted:

I've played both, and I think you're right. Reminds me of Invisible Games.

That seems a bit ironic, since you need scads of physical objects to play anyway.

It's because I've downsized my book collection so I could get rid of a bunch of bookshelves, while my Legos currently all fit in one box.

Space-wise it's night and day.

# ? Mar 6, 2012 01:41

Kestral: Nov 24, 2000; Forum Veteran

Has anyone linked Mobile Frame Zero's kickstarter to the GBS Lego thread yet? That ought to get them over the mark nicely.

# ? Mar 6, 2012 07:19

CNN Sports Ticker: Apr 18, 2007; The Aristocrats!

I don't suppose anybody is interested in playing the Marvel Heroic RPG via Google Hangout on my Sunday the 18th starting sometime between 9am and 1pm? GMT+10

Either that or the awesome Apocalypse World hack The Regiment (WW2 military action) or that Death School mentioned earlier.

Edit: Added date

CNN Sports Ticker fucked around with this message at Mar 6, 2012 around 08:34

# ? Mar 6, 2012 08:20

Doc Hawkins: Jun 15, 2010; Dashing, you say? But I'm not even moving!

Kestral posted:

Has anyone linked Mobile Frame Zero's kickstarter to the GBS Lego thread yet? That ought to get them over the mark nicely.

Yeah, someone did. Good on them, too, I had forgotten about that thread.

# ? Mar 6, 2012 08:26

Lemon Curdistan: Aug 6, 2009; THIS POST IS UNACCEPTABLLLLLLLLLLLLLE!!!

So I don't suppose the rulebook comes with a list of LEGO pieces that would be useful for making mechs? Building instructions loving own, but being able to improvise my own mechs easily would be cool.

# ? Mar 6, 2012 10:53

Stagger_Lee: Mar 25, 2009

Cool Indie RPG Internet Drama

# ? Mar 6, 2012 12:21

InfiniteJesters: Jan 26, 2012

There's both a Mouse Guard and an Eclipse Phase game going on in the PBP Forum.

I am wracked with indecision! (Though I'll probably go with the Mouse Guard one since the EP one starts in a day and I'm really curious about the Mouse Guard one anyway.)

# ? Mar 6, 2012 12:33

Drox: Aug 9, 2007; by Y Kant Ozma Post

Stagger_Lee posted:

Cool Indie RPG Internet Drama

Oh my goodness. I don't know what is actually happening but there is some grognards.txt worthy bad thinking going on here.

# ? Mar 6, 2012 13:00

InfiniteJesters: Jan 26, 2012

~~What was the name of that one RPG from the original Maid RPG maker where you played Youkai or something?~~ Nevermind, found it!

InfiniteJesters fucked around with this message at Mar 6, 2012 around 13:43

# ? Mar 6, 2012 13:07

DiscipleoftheClaw: Mar 13, 2005; Plus I gotta keep enough lettuce to support your shoe fetish.

Stagger_Lee posted:

Cool Indie RPG Internet Drama

Huh! That is interesting. The comments are getting spicy.

# ? Mar 6, 2012 13:12

InfiniteJesters: Jan 26, 2012

DiscipleoftheClaw posted:

Huh! That is interesting. The comments are getting spicy.

Wow. I remember Ben Lehman from back when I first heard about Bliss Stage.

Kinda alarming to see him go off the deep end like this. (Did he ever finish Bliss Stage, anyway?)

# ? Mar 6, 2012 13:45

BetterWeirdthanDead: Mar 7, 2006; Ask me why I really
went to see Terminator

Lemon Curdistan posted:

So I don't suppose the rulebook comes with a list of LEGO pieces that would be useful for making mechs? Building instructions loving own, but being able to improvise my own mechs easily would be cool.

There's an option for $120 backs to get a set of bricks with their order, but there were only two of those left last I checked.

# ? Mar 6, 2012 13:50

Lemon Curdistan: Aug 6, 2009; THIS POST IS UNACCEPTABLLLLLLLLLLLLLE!!!

BetterWeirdthanDead posted:

There's an option for $120 backs to get a set of bricks with their order, but there were only two of those left last I checked.

I mean just a list, rather than actual pieces - like, part codes from the LEGO catalogue, "if you need to make a robot leg use X and Y," that sort of stuff.

# ? Mar 6, 2012 14:28

Swagger Dagger: Dec 13, 2010; You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural.

Lemon Curdistan posted:

I mean just a list, rather than actual pieces - like, part codes from the LEGO catalogue, "if you need to make a robot leg use X and Y," that sort of stuff.

I'm 90% sure the answer is yes because they talk about including instructions on how to build all the basic robot types, but I sent the question over Kickstarter to get a solid answer, I'll post again when someone responds.

Fun links I found while trying to find a concrete answer (these are mostly linked on the kickstarter but w/e):

http://nobsjustabs.wordpress.com/ mech design blog thing
http://www.flickr.com/groups/438009@N25/pool/ flickr pool full of robots

Swagger Dagger fucked around with this message at Mar 6, 2012 around 17:37

# ? Mar 6, 2012 17:29

Doc Hawkins: Jun 15, 2010; Dashing, you say? But I'm not even moving!

InfiniteJesters posted:

Wow. I remember Ben Lehman from back when I first heard about Bliss Stage.

Kinda alarming to see him go off the deep end like this. (Did he ever finish Bliss Stage, anyway?)

The post is pretty in-line with what I know about him. He's a person of strong moral convictions.

I'm not sure if he considers Bliss Stage finished, but the edition you can now buy (choose your own price!) from his website is the "Interim Stage," as opposed to the original ashcan/"Ignition stage". Although I could have sworn that there was an printed edition that had art. I thought I remembered drawings for each pilot template, specifically? Oh well.

The rules certainly feel complete. It's a full game.

# ? Mar 6, 2012 17:38

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# ? May 24, 2013 23:47

aldantefax: Oct 10, 2007; ALWAYS BE MECHFISHIN'

Neat. I had thought something like [Mobile Frame Zero] existed in the past but I never looked deeply into it. I plonked down the 20 for it because I like print copies if I ever get the chance to play it!

# ? Mar 6, 2012 17:44

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