thetoughestbean posted:

Look it could be worse, it could be a multi day argument about a hypothetical Pokémon role-playing system.

Covok posted:

Oh, what did you work on? I do vaguely remember you and me discussing things once. IIRC, I had to judge your work once. I did a playtest. That was a while back. Unfortunately, I couldn't use FEV for that contest so my contest entry in that thing was bad.

Covok posted:

I think both of you are going in different directions than I am thinking. I think step one is deciding if you're going to emulate the games or the shows.In the games, one person can have multiple digimon and the whole thing is basically a Shin Megami Tenshi game. In the shows, it's more like a mecha anime meets Pokemon meets coming of age story.

I only like two or three Digimon games and like every season of the anime so that's easy.

We ignore the motifs of season 4 because its too radical of a departure in that department. Its theme and structure is fine, though.

What are we left with? We have to boil it down like British cooking to get all of the IP out. We need the basics, bland as they may be, to get a basis to work off of. I identify the following:

• Children are brought into extraordinary circumstances
  
• Children obtain a fully sapient partner monster who becomes their best friend
  
• Children must go on a big quest
  
• Children face insecurities and personal flaws
  
• Children grow past these insecurities and flaws
  
• Their partner monster grows stronger as they grow past these flaws
  
• Children have friends in their quest
  
• Friends grow into conflict with one another
  
• The conflict with their friends helps them overcome their personal insecurities and flaws
  
• Children eventually grow closer with their friends and end their conflicts
  
• Children hit their lowest point when all hope seems lost
  
• Children push past this and find the strength to fix everything
  
• Children grow into stable and well-functioning adults

That is the core of a Digimon story to me.

I think a few things are probably necessary to make a game like this work, regardless of structure

• The GM should NOT control the partner monsters. It's too much on one person. Instead, a system should happen where the player to your right or left is your partner monster. They are also their own human character, of course. This diverts the burden and allows for the partner monsters to be more distinct. It also makes it clear the partner monster is their own separate entity.
  
• The partner monster and human characters should have their own character generation system, but the human character should be the main factor. Their advancement drives advancement for the partner monster.
  
• Advancement should be tied to personal growth. If their is XP, it should be like Chuubos where its earned for completing personal goals. Perhaps more like Fellowship where you answer questions at the end. The flux has got to be personal growth.
  
• Do NOT get lost on trying to emulate all of Digimon's foibles. We don't necessarily need Jogress (DNA) Digivolving or rules for Digi-Metals just because the series has. That is cruft that can be cut.
  
• Because I want to go off the shows, I think a looser, more narrative driven combat system should work. Combat in Digimon has a point. Instead of it being about Hit Points, I suggest a MORAL SYSTEM. Every session focus on a different player's human character. You can't repeat until everyone goes once. The player of the human and the GM work out the MORAL the character needs to learn to grow. Be it facing an insecurity or a personal flaw. It should be a minor goal that is a step along a major series long arc. The GM and Player work out 3 or so steps that need to be achieved for the Moral to be learned. As the session progresses, they try to hit those steps. When they are all hit, only then, can any conflict in the session be resolved. Combat, for example, is automatically finished when this occurs with the player getting to have a MOMENT OF AWESOME where they narrate how their MORAL allows them to best the trial.
  
• The game should be broken into arcs with tiers. Like champion --> ultimate ---> Mega. These three tiers decide the series. Each one gets a big bad with 5 requirements to beat them. 1 requirement is always that each kid must learn a moral. The other 4 are related to in-game things that sessions are based around like FIND THE TAG AND CRESTS or something. Once these keys are unlocked, a final battle can occur where everyone has to work together to gain a moral so they can beat the big bad. Then, a bigger bad presents themselves and a new stage of power is unlocked. Do this three times (or so) and the campaign is over.

It's 12 am so I should stop. But that's what I got so far.

Agent Rush posted:

It was something I started on after that contest ended, but a hard drive failure ate a lot of what I typed up. I was specifically inspired by The Host playbook and the idea of growing power leading to an internal conflict.

Agent Rush posted:

So you're thinking a Wraith-style setup? Would everyone be expected to play their kid and another's monster at the same time, or would there be any time where you're only playing one or the other?

Agent Rush posted:

Also, I've seen Chuubo's mentioned a few times here, is there an F&F or something where I could read an overview of the system?

Agent Rush posted:

It was something I started on after that contest ended, but a hard drive failure ate a lot of what I typed up. I was specifically inspired by The Host playbook and the idea of growing power leading to an internal conflict.


So you're thinking a Wraith-style setup? Would everyone be expected to play their kid and another's monster at the same time, or would there be any time where you're only playing one or the other?

Also, I've seen Chuubo's mentioned a few times here, is there an F&F or something where I could read an overview of the system?

Parkreiner posted:

I’m mildly surprised Monsters And Other Childish Things never came up during all the *mon chat.

Parkreiner posted:

I’m mildly surprised Monsters And Other Childish Things never came up during all the *mon chat.

Covok posted:

Ooooof. This is why I only use google drive for my documents. If google goes down, I got bigger problems.

Anyhoo, I hope you eventually are able to get back on that horse. And, to too me own horn, I like that you liked the Host. People only ever talk about the Jobber, which is funny since that was heavily based off a similar playbook from WWWRPG.


I suppose. Never read nor played Wraith. I would think it would be defined by the narrative. If everyone is together, you can swap. But, if only one character is in a scene, keep to them, unless it makes sense otherwise. Perhaps you can use a little sign to say who you're playing lol. I do know that people have trouble telling one of my voices from another. Or it could be kind of an ebb-and-flow mechanic, but I'm not sure how to do that exactly.

Lots of people posted:

Chuubo's Chuubo's Chuubo's

Leperflesh posted:

TG Secret Santa thread is up!

Magnusth posted:

Man, i wish i was rich enough for both this and snulsmass.

Plutonis posted:

That Old Tree posted:

This is the worst post you have ever made, congratulations.

Admiral Joeslop posted:

A show for intellectual adults.

Isn't Patrick Rothfuss some kind of weird sex-bragger? I liked him on that One Shot episode of Kids With Bikes.

Zurui posted:

"I am in great pain, D&D."

NGDBSS posted:

Edit: This tweet is basically rothfuss.txt. https://twitter.com/littlethiefs/status/1152314481940324352

NGDBSS posted:

Edit: This tweet is basically rothfuss.txt. https://twitter.com/littlethiefs/status/1152314481940324352

NGDBSS posted:

Edit: This tweet is basically rothfuss.txt. https://twitter.com/littlethiefs/status/1152314481940324352

NGDBSS posted:

He's a weird creeper who's apparently tried to entice women for one-night stands or somesuch with ice cream, IIRC. And an inflated egoist who will sometimes decide to sign his own name in other people's books at bookstores. And an awful writer with minimal grasp of how to write well-rounded characters let alone cogent plot structures. I recall an exhaustive review of his first two "Kingkiller" books (with zero kings dead yet!) that referred to the protagonist as "Kvothefuss", and which highlighted how reliably the author would run screaming away from anything that might possibly be interesting. His descent into Martinitis is probably the best gift he could give the literary scene, because it means that he won't inflict any of this nonsense on the rest of us for a while longer.

Also holy poo poo why is that example page more than half just "witty" commentary? It's not actually witty, just logorrhea, and it serves to clarify nothing about the rules that isn't already stated. It's taking up space and little else. Contrast this with what the Dresden Files RPG did; there, the text was a lot more terse, and it gave some side commentary on Why X Rule Exists to boot!

Edit: This tweet is basically rothfuss.txt. https://twitter.com/littlethiefs/status/1152314481940324352

Halloween Jack posted:

Why would people who can actually travel to pretty much any alternate reality they can imagine want to play D&D?

Xiahou Dun posted:

"You can eat any food ever made by humankind! All of the world's culinary inventions are at your beck and call! You have but to ask!"

"I'd like to go to a Denny's."

Antivehicular posted:

Yeah, and I feel like introducing it as post-apoc Nobilis isn't the best way to sell it? Especially not calling Town a "theme park." Town is the last pocket of reality (well, entirely consistent reality; there are other places floating in the Outside, but it's complicated/wacky), and there are lots of elements of that in the setting, but it's also a living community where people just live. You can readily tell whole stories in Chuubo's without ever touching the Outside or the Excrucians.

Covok posted: