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So wait, given that heroic actions get rolled against the Doom, that means that aside from oppressing the peasants to keep their Inspiration down, the nobles are actively incentivized to make the world a shittier place, because now they're harder to overthrow. And they know this. Really gives me a bit of a Brandon Sanderson vibe. What a cool system.
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Apr 15, 2016 16:59
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This started out looking like a pretty straightforward fantasy heartbreaker, but it's getting more insane with every paragraph. I can't wait to see where this is going.
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Apr 15, 2016 17:00
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AccidentalHipster posted:The Whispering Vault! That game is so beautifully weird and surreal that I've always wanted to play it but I've never been able to properly express how weirdly beautiful it is. Please tell me that that's one of the games that's not too deep in you "to review" backlog. I'm really hacked off about Whispering Vault. I used to have a full set of the PDFs and then one day DriveThruRPG just ate them and never restored them. The author sent me the core book after I mentioned it on Twitter but I lost all the supplements. Suck.
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Apr 15, 2016 17:17
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This game looks loving insane and I love it. I can't wait to see what other insanity comes up in addition to "Love can make you immortal and people know it"
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Apr 15, 2016 17:24
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The Lord of Hats posted:So wait, given that heroic actions get rolled against the Doom, that means that aside from oppressing the peasants to keep their Inspiration down, the nobles are actively incentivized to make the world a shittier place, because now they're harder to overthrow. And they know this. Really gives me a bit of a Brandon Sanderson vibe. What a cool system. I considered myself to be burned out on fantasy games but this one sounds like it could fill the void in my heart 
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Apr 15, 2016 17:33
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Nifara posted:Not done one of these before, but this game needs more love. Like any loving love. I feel like this game exploded its "fantasy heartbreaker" d12 and busted out the d20 "actually good game" die. I am locked in on this ride.
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Apr 15, 2016 17:36
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Doesn't that mean exploding dice rarely have any effect unless you're critting on a d12? That may be intentional, I don't know, but it seems like it's an extra step that rarely matters. First, lower sized dice are more likely to explode, and also gain more from exploding. That, combined with the ability to spend mood to max out a die (but not make it explode), really helps PCs with smaller dice to punch above their weight. And if that's not enough, then you can stunt with an inspiration to make all your dice explode. Even better, both inspirations and mood can be used after you roll.
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Apr 15, 2016 17:57
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Nifara posted:Or you could kidnap his wife, torture her and murder her, and then shoot him through the head. Wait. How can you murder his wife? Does she not also get a love shield?
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Apr 15, 2016 19:11
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Valatar posted:Wait. How can you murder his wife? Does she not also get a love shield? Only if she actually loves him back. But yeah, that's 100% a complication you might run into. At which point you have to shift gears and really go to town on making them miserable and distrusting.
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Apr 15, 2016 19:17
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What do you think the second step is for? "Look, honey, it's obvious he doesn't love you. As powerful as he is, he could have stopped this days ago. Just give up, let it end."
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Apr 15, 2016 19:17
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Nessus posted:I should either finish Nightbane or abandon it and start in with System Shock one of these days. Nightbane! I want to love it, but it's the only game where I couldn't even make myself slog through the process of making a character.
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Apr 15, 2016 19:52
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This sounds like it could get real catpiss real fast. It's like Narrative Causality, but much much worse.
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Apr 15, 2016 19:53
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Josef bugman posted:This sounds like it could get real catpiss real fast. It's like Narrative Causality, but much much worse. I don't really see the potential for catpiss here, at least no more than any other tabletop game. Could you explain what you're thinking of?
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Apr 15, 2016 19:57
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Fridges. Fridges filled with women. And fresh orphans.
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Apr 15, 2016 20:14
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You're getting confused. Spellbound Kingdoms wasn't written by John Wick.
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Apr 15, 2016 20:24
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Spellbound Kingdoms sounds like it gives a mechanical reason for you to go all Iago on the guy you hate instead of trying to stab him outright, which seems pretty cool, to me.
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Apr 15, 2016 21:04
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Chernobyl Peace Prize posted:Spellbound Kingdoms sounds like it gives a mechanical reason for you to go all Iago on the guy you hate instead of trying to stab him outright, which seems pretty cool, to me.
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Apr 15, 2016 21:24
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It feels like what John Wick wants his games games to be, actually, but without all the Wickness. Being a lone wolf murderhobo makes you less powerful than the guy with a loving, caring family. And the game does it with style instead of straight up going 'you suck, nya nya!'
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Apr 15, 2016 21:47
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Tsilkani posted:It feels like what John Wick wants his games games to be, actually, but without all the Wickness. Being a lone wolf murderhobo makes you less powerful than the guy with a loving, caring family. And the game does it with style instead of straight up going 'you suck, nya nya!' How dare these pesky PCs actually get anything out of having these "flaws"!
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Apr 15, 2016 22:23
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Kurieg posted:What do you think the second step is for? And then because she loves her husband, he chooses to bust into the room at that moment, comrades at his back. And then Kevin Costner sword fights Snape through a castle as his band of merry men hold off the sheriff's back up. Digging how heroic you can make the important events.
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Apr 15, 2016 23:37
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^ This is true. It's not that she invulnerable / steel skin, it's that the future in which her throat gets cut will not occur. Something will happen such that she doesn't die. Maybe her husband bursts in with his retainers. Maybe the monster you keep in the basement gets free and you have to run off to deal with it. Maybe she slips the knots and now you have a dramatic swordfight with her. (Assuming I'm understanding things correctly)
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Apr 16, 2016 04:15
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Maybe it turns out she's the one who taught him how to swordfight and she's still the teacher.
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Apr 16, 2016 04:23
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It would be a cool scene for the evil vizier to come into the torture chamber and find the wife standing over the bodies of the ex-guards inside, with but one line reaching the room outside as the door swings shut: "Thou done goof'd."
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Apr 16, 2016 04:37
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Bieeardo posted:Fridges. Fridges filled with women. This, and the fact that you can't die and yet you probably can still feel pain. I mean of course every system has the potential for cat piss, but I'd just be a bit worried about people going all "Look at all the cruelty I can inflict and the person still won't die!"
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Apr 16, 2016 06:14
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lovely GMing, like Nature, will always find a way. Something like this, in its natural state, makes me think of things like the latter half of the Princess Bride, when Westley's been electrocuted and the only thing that keeps him hanging on is true love, or when Inigo goes all slasher on the six-fingered man.
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Apr 16, 2016 06:39
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I don't get any sort of "uh-oh catpiss imminent" vibe from Spellbound Kingdoms, like, at all.
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Apr 16, 2016 06:43
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Kai Tave posted:I don't get any sort of "uh-oh catpiss imminent" vibe from Spellbound Kingdoms, like, at all. I am still very new to how the systems of RPG's work, it is just something I could potentially see happening. I don't mean to downplay the coolness of a setting, but I just think that it could end poorly. That and a slight dislike I have for "The world sucks entirely" settings.
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Apr 16, 2016 07:17
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So has anyone done a review of either Mekton Zeta(and/or the Z+ supplement) or Battle Century G, cause if not maybe I'll give it a shot, haven't done this sort of review before but it seems fun to me
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Apr 16, 2016 07:21
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Josef bugman posted:I am still very new to how the systems of RPG's work, it is just something I could potentially see happening. I don't mean to downplay the coolness of a setting, but I just think that it could end poorly. That and a slight dislike I have for "The world sucks entirely" settings. Unless Spellbound Kingdoms has a whole chapter on lovingly detailed rapetorture and how to inflict it for maximum cruelty points, it doesn't strike me as any more susceptible to this sort of thing than any given RPG not written by Chris Fields or Abby Soto. It's going to have a ways to go to even stand on the same pedestal as Cthulhutech with it's actual literal Nazi rape machine.
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Apr 16, 2016 07:31
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Kai Tave posted:Unless Spellbound Kingdoms has a whole chapter on lovingly detailed rapetorture and how to inflict it for maximum cruelty points, it doesn't strike me as any more susceptible to this sort of thing than any given RPG not written by Chris Fields or Abby Soto. It's going to have a ways to go to even stand on the same pedestal as Cthulhutech with it's actual literal Nazi rape machine. Very true, but prior to this I didn't even know those things existed and now I want to go have a good long cry.
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Apr 16, 2016 07:38
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Giving a poo poo about fellow PCs in spellbound kingdom seems hella imba and I love it. You're a Young Knight staring down a firing squad of archers in the grand cathedral? Too bad, your devotion to the Capricious Sorceress means that there's a convenient rope tied off just an arms reach away that leads to the chandelier all the archers have chosen to stand under. Halfway across the castle, the Capricious Sorceress is fighting the dark wizard. She doesn't love the Young Knight back (And might even routinely mock and berate him when they travel together), but as long as she has SOME place in her heart, as long as she has strong emotions about him? She'll get that same plot immunity.
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Apr 16, 2016 09:01
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Spellbound Kingdoms makes me mostly think - so far - of the tendency for fans to insert explanations for things which are usually just genre conceits. I'm not looking to prejudge, but it makes me think of a lot of the self-referential media landing lately where people are at least vaguely aware of the genre they exist in and can exploit its rules for their benefit.
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Apr 16, 2016 11:16
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drrockso20 posted:So has anyone done a review of either Mekton Zeta(and/or the Z+ supplement) or Battle Century G, cause if not maybe I'll give it a shot, haven't done this sort of review before but it seems fun to me There's an unfinished review of Mekton Zeta, nothing about Zeta+ and also nothing about BCG. Feel free to inflict any of these upon us. Tasoth posted:And then because she loves her husband, he chooses to bust into the room at that moment, comrades at his back. And then Kevin Costner sword fights Snape through a castle as his band of merry men hold off the sheriff's back up. Digging how heroic you can make the important events. I love this system already.
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Apr 16, 2016 11:21
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Valor - The Heroic Roleplay System That took a bit longer tha expected, but here he is: Example Character: Kirby  I love the 90s. A starting character has 25 Attribute points to play around with, with an initial maximum of 8 on any given Attribute. Since he's a small, pink orb of doom bouncing all over the place, spreading chaos and misery and switching powers at the literal drop of a hat, I went with making Agility his top Attribute. A bit of Guts can also never hurt (he is pretty darn durable compared to other denizens of his world), and we should points in other Attributes to cover the damage dealt by his copied powers. Lets stick with Strength and Spirit. To further go with his speedy death theme, I use the starting Skill Points to purchase Balanced Fighter (always handy, though for him it'll mostly be for out-of-combat utility), Feint (for possible extra damage), Jump (he does jump pretty good), and one level in Sprinter (for more speed) and Tireless (for more Stamina to spam Techniques). Now this puts us a bit into the negatives, so I'll also get the two Flaws Compulsion (he really likes to eat) Feeble (he's small and lightweight, after all). This makes his character sheet now look like this: Level: 1 Strength (Muscle): 6 (5) Agility (Dexterity): 8 (5) Mind (Intuition): 1 (2) Spirit (Aura): 6 (5) Guts (Resolve): 4 (4) Health: 130 Health Increment: 26 Critical: 52 Stamina: 34 Stamina Increment: 7 Strength Attack: 14 Agility Attack: 18 Mind Attack: 4 Spirit Attack: 14 Damage Increment: 6 Defense: 12 Resistance: 9 Move: 5 Valor: 0 Skills
Flaws
Now for Techniques, I have 12 points to play around with. The most important Technique will be a Mimic Technique for his power copy shtick. This one definitely needs to be at the max starting level of 4 so he can make full use of any Technique he might come across at level 1 (in fact copied Techniques with a lower level with just level-up accordingly). The nice thing is that every mimiced Technique will use the Active Attribute assigned to the Mimic Technique, but not the damage (which is why he can't slack off when it comes to the other Attributes). Now the slight drawback of this system is that we can't limti this Technique to only work on stuf he has swallowed. It's just a slot to swap out for a Technique he has seen. He just got a whole lot scarier. Of course, Kirby can also inhale stuff to either steal its powers and puke it out again. This one's a bit tricky to pull off as you can't just swallow people in Valor, so I'll abstract it to a Technique that deals damage and lets him move around his target, possibly throwing it against a wall or another target. He's basically doing the inhaling and puking in one move. As Kirby also has that thing where he can shoot out inhaled air from flying, I give him an Air Blast for a general attack. I deliberately make it only level 2 and save up some Technique Points for later so he has a very cheap to use attack to fall back on if his Stamina reserves go a bit low. Now for him to actually fly, he has to wait till he reaches Level 6, since then he qualifies for Season 2 Skills and Modifiers and can get Season 3 Skills (which is where Flight is located) through a Boost Core. Techniques (2 leftover points)
Example Mimic Techniques (Everything boosted to level 4)
Now since this post took a bit, here's a second character who totally works well with Kirby in a group: Dante  Too cool for White Wolf to not trace. Level: 1 Strength (Muscle): 8 (5) Agility (Dexterity): 7 (4) Mind (Intuition): 2 (2) Spirit (Aura): 2 (2) Guts (Resolve): 6 (4) Health: 160 Health Increment: 32 Critical: 64 Stamina: 28 Stamina Increment: 6 Strength Attack: 24 Agility Attack: 22 Mind Attack: 6 Spirit Attack: 6 Damage Increment: 6 Defense: 16 Resistance: 10 Move: 4 Valor: 0 Skills (1 leftover point)
Techniques
I build him as more of a pure physical attacker, using most of his Skill Points to cover his weaknesses while not having any Flaws for foes to take advantage of. He translates a lot better to Valor, and I already know how his Devil Trigger would look like: an Ultimate Transformation Technique granting him more levels of Physical Attacker (for even more damage) and Sprinter (since he's faster). Once Regeneration and Stamina Recovery are available to choose, they will end up there as well. Oh wait, Transformation can let you pick any skill from the start. Nice. Next Time: The GM section - how to build mooks. Doresh fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Apr 16, 2016 |
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Apr 16, 2016 14:18
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SPELLBOUND KINGDOMS PART 3: SKILLS, HISTORIES AND CLASSIC VS SCENE ORDER PLAY So we’ve seen how inspirations can give a character some dice, but where do the rest come from? The answer is characteristics (which we’ll come onto later) and skills and histories. Skills and histories are basically just measures of your character’s learned ability to do stuff. The terms are used pretty interchangeably, and in practice most of them are really histories - snippets of your past experience that give you an idea of the kind of tasks that your character would be good at. A history might be something like Tomb Robber for the Rithaign Factors, Haulers and Panhandlers. That history would let you roll the appropriate die (considering its value) when trying to do anything related to robbing tombs or interacting with the Rithaign Factors, Haulers and Panhandlers (a group from the setting that’s basically a thieves’ guild). It’s a cool idea, and cooler still because in play between levelling up you get experience in the form of history points… that you should spend on a history that describes what you were actually doing in that session, or on a history that you’ve “increased” by playing to it heavily. The book also encourages you to tweak your histories as you play, so you might start out with one that says Ran away to sea and then replace it with Able hand on the good ship Pentaghast and then eventually with Mighty pirate and veteran sailor. It allows you to really feel like your character is being directly impacted by the events of the game. The bad in this section is that it’s just not clear enough about what is an acceptable history and what’s not. It says “the GM and the group must accept your skill phrasing”, but there are very few examples given, and no good guidelines drawn. It’s probably the bit of the game most open to abuse… or just misunderstandings. With a few more paragraphs of detail, and some better advice on how to word them, this would just be an awesome thing. As it is, it’s an awesome thing with some big flaws. One important note is that histories can’t aid combat rolls or magic rolls. That sounds a little strange, but we’ll see in a future part of this review why that’s the case. Brunner next outlines one of first big choices anyone playing the game will need to make: whether to opt for classic or scene order play. Basically classic play unfolds like most other RPGs do - time passes as you do stuff, things happen in a chronological order for the most part and play has a recognisable rhythm to it. Scene order play is… not like that. If you’ve played a White Wolf RPG you’ll probably recognise some of the concepts that Brunner explains in this section: instead of play just progressing organically, it instead takes place in scenes which have delineated beginnings and ends. Spellbound Kingdoms pushes the concept much further than White Wolf ever did, though. In scene order play, the GM and the players take turns presenting scenes. Whoever’s presenting it outlines what it’s going to be about, and what they want out of it… and who is in the scene. It makes the group much more of a collaborative partnership, with control over your character not being solely in your hands. It also relies upon the players being just as aware of and in control of the story. I can totally see why you might want to play like this (it reminds me strongly of Dramasystem and I like that game a lot), but even though I’ve known it’s an option, I’ve never played or run a game of Spellbound Kingdoms using it. It’s a cool collaborative idea, but it’s just not one that appeals greater to me. Brunner covers the subject in some depth, and reading his guidance I’d feel comfortable running it like that… I just don’t want to. Next up: COMBAT
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Apr 16, 2016 19:50
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I feel like if you want to add more outlines to Histories, you could use 13th Age's Backgrounds as a good starting point. You can't level up Backgrounds like you can Histories, but the two have a lot of overlap.
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Apr 16, 2016 19:57
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SPELLBOUND KINGDOMS PART 4: COMBAT (STYLES, MANEUVERS AND INITIATIVE OPTIONS) Brunner introduces the combat chapter in his usual chatty style: Spellbound Kingdoms posted:Blade, pistol, and fist all have their place in combat, as do falling sandbags, eggshell grenades soaked in flake spores, and the most unpredictable destructive force of all, magic. No matter what your combat style is, clear tactical thinking is vital. He then launches into an overview of how combat works. Basically, every character has access to one or more fighting styles, which range from free sword (classic fantasy sword combat) to swashbuckler (which involves lots of swinging on things and spouting insults) to more unusual fare like dagger and wine (which is half sneak attacks and half destroying your enemy’s morale with nasty secrets). Fighting styles are made up of a number of different maneuvers - specific moves you can make that have different effects and let you do different things. But you can’t just choose maneuvers freely - you have to work your way through the styles like combat styles. Here’s what free sword looks like:  Let’s drill down a bit before we talk about how the styles themselves work as a whole, and look at a maneuver on its own. Here’s Dodge and Feint:  The number to the bottom left of the circle is the attack die - in this case it’s zero because you don’t actually get to attack when you perform this maneuver. The number to the bottom right is the defense die, which you roll to contest any attacks made against you in the round of combat when you’ve selected this maneuver. d8 is pretty good, making dodge and feint, as you’d expect, a good defensive choice. The underline indicates that this maneuver is a balancing maneuver. That means that you can open up a combat in it, and when you’re forced to rebalance (some moves for your enemy to rebalance, and some make you rebalance) you can select it as your next maneuver. Once you’ve selected a balancing maneuver, on your next turn you can move to another maneuver, as long as it’s in line with it, and you’re not jumping over any gaps. So from dodge and feint I could choose: spin, counter strike, unbalancing feint, lunge and warrior’s strike. The line underneath the name of the maneuver tells you what the maneuver does - there are more in depth guides to what each maneuver actually does if it’s not clear. Most of them do some amount of damage (which depletes your body, or if you spend mood gets absorbed by that). In this case, dodge and feint makes your attacks and defenses better until you’re forced to rebalance. Alongside the more mundane combat styles, you’ve also got magic styles. Every type of magic (and we’ll look at that more later on) has a style sheet to go alongside it. That means you can use every type of magic in the game in combat, and they’re super cool. Magic styles have a very different feel - they tend to have a lot more wind up than combat styles, but a big pay off when you get through the process. So, here’s Death Lore:  And here’s Death Spell, the pinnacle of that style:  The M means this is a mastery maneuver - you can only use it if you’ve mastered the style. The ability to use a combat style comes in one of three levels: neophyte, apprentice and master. Neophytes can only use the balancing maneuvers and three others, apprentices can use all of them except the master maneuvers, and masters can use all of them. The (r) means that you have to rebalance after performing the maneuver. If there are dice in the top left or right that means that they have magic attacks and defenses - which circumvent mundane defenses and can defend against magical attacks. So, to recap: everyone knows some combat or magic styles, and in combat you broadly pick maneuvers off of them with some restrictions of which ones they take and when. That’s pretty much the basics, and the styles themselves are awesome. They’re extremely pleasing to use (my groups have had minis or tokens to keep track of where they are), and for the GM they’re incredibly quick and easy to use - if you’re running 8 antagonists in free sword, you just need the one sheet and 8 numbered tokens. Initiative has a couple of options: duel and traditional. Traditional is a standard initiative order - you all roll, and then act one at a time in order. We tried it, and it’s fine, but honestly it misses a lot of the excitement of the styles. In duel initiative, you all pick the style you want and then reveal them all at once. You then resolve the effects simultaneously. That works brilliantly in practice, and makes the whole thing feel very tense and exciting. One on one duels are great fun, but actually group combats work as well - the whole thing breaks down into little back and forths, and there’s a lot of cool tactical stuff to do with anticipating your enemy. The styles are one of my favourite things about the game, and there’s a lot of variation. In total there are about 40 styles in total, some of which are only for enemies. Dragon is terrifying:  Next up: COMBAT (MOVEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL TRICKS, GEAR AND THE REST)
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Apr 16, 2016 20:54
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There is some eurogame in my combat system, and it is glorious.
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Apr 16, 2016 21:29
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Nifara posted:I can totally see why you might want to play like this (it reminds me strongly of Dramasystem and I like that game a lot), but even though I’ve known it’s an option, I’ve never played or run a game of Spellbound Kingdoms using it. It’s a cool collaborative idea, but it’s just not one that appeals greater to me. Brunner covers the subject in some depth, and reading his guidance I’d feel comfortable running it like that… I just don’t want to. Having run Dramasystem, it's definitely an element that makes a game almost run on its own. Dramasystem and Apocalypse World have done a lot to push me towards handing control over to players. It's worth a try, even if it's only for a lark.
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Apr 16, 2016 21:34
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Nifara posted:Fighting styles are made up of a number of different maneuvers - specific moves you can make that have different effects and let you do different things. But you can’t just choose maneuvers freely - you have to work your way through the styles like combat styles. Here’s what free sword looks like: I can't help but feel this is crying out for some colours and shapes to break it up a little.
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Apr 17, 2016 00:52
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