|
 Wicked Ones is a Forged in the Dark RPG from Bandit Camp. Based on the engine of John Harper's Blades in the Dark and styled after the classic dungeon management games (Dungeon Keeper in particular), the game features the players as monsters who decide to build a dungeon. Players define not only their characters but the layout and functioning of the dungeon, including rooms, traps, native creatures, hired minions. Players then raid the outside world, which has its own factions with their own plans and will fight back as they become aware of the presence of the new dungeon. The official blurb posted:Wicked Ones is a Forged in the Dark tabletop RPG where you play fantasy monsters raiding human lands, hoarding the gold you loot, and building a dungeon to protect it. Your notoriety lures increasingly greedy and powerful adventurers to your dungeon. Can you stave off the inevitable onslaught of heroism that your notoriety brings?  The Quiet Valley, one of the many sandboxes for you to despoil as you see fit (or you can create your own). Okay, but how does it play? The basic mechanic of the game, inherited from Blades, is rolling a number of dice and taking the best result. The number of dice you roll is based on the number of dots in your action rating. You might be good at SMASHing the flimsy walls and objects of Good, but less adept at BANTERing with a cave troll. The game is fail-foward, so there are no results that are just "nothing happens". Something interesting should happen whenever you roll! Additionally, the game borrows Position and Effect from Blades - useful tools to help negotiate what the outcome and consequences of an action are.   A Brute and a Conniver, two of the game's Callings. Some of the things you do are defined by your Calling - equivalent to a Class in any other game. A Calling defines areas of expertise for you and is the first thing you pick in character creation (besides from your monster species, which has no gameplay effect and can be basically anything). You can be a Brute and smash down walls, or a Marauder who marshals others into a fighting force, or invoke the dark powers of your god as a Zealot. There are nine basic callings to choose from, along with four Primal Monsters - creatures so weird and strong that only one person can play them, at the approval of the rest of the group.  From the Kickstarter page - a list of types of dungeons you can run. Of course, none of this is Dungeon Keeper without a dungeon! Players collaboratively work together in order to draw out their dungeon, filling it with rooms for various functions, traps and tricks to resist invasion, and minions and creatures to populate it. Developing over time, the dungeon is what players truly invest in - it can take a few minutes to create a new character if they kick the bucket, but the dungeon remains permanent. It's a physical space that adventurers need to navigate to invade, and it's where downtime takes place. Whatever they do, they must obey the whims of Dungeon Logic, expanding the dungeon and making sure the hierarchy is respected - or disaster could be at your doorstep. Wicked Ones has several other things that make it unique from Blades;
The Dungeoneer's Guide to Stuff In This Game Callings and What They Do Handy Tools Since there's a pandemic on, it might not be advisable to try and meet face to face to play Wicked Ones. Thankfully, purchasing the game through Drivethru RPG gets you a zip folder of the tokens and art used in the rulebook to re-purpose for digital play, along with instructions for setup in Roll20. Additionally, a Foundry module can be https://github.com/eHanus/foundryvtt-wicked-ones/, containing character sheets for just about every aspect, clocks and custom dice! Coming Soon
Other Forged in the Dark Games The original Blades in the Dark, of course! You can check out the SA thread for it here. Beam Saber is focused on frantic mecha action in a world where The War threatens to overwhelm our protagonists. Can they get out alive, and bring their friends with them? Band of Blades stars the players as members of the Legion, broken by the undead hordes of the Cinder King. Bloody and desperate, they must reach the safety of Skydagger Keep before it's too late... Many more to put in as others recommend them. The Deleter fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Jan 27, 2021 |
#
?
Jan 20, 2021 16:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 16, 2024 12:10 |
|
|
The old Blades in the Dark thread looked pretty dead, so I'm posting this because this game owns. Last session I did with my group, they did a raid on a heavy trade boat going down the river in the quiet valley. This started with our Kobold Shaman communing with the spirits in the water, who exacted a blood payment from his hand in order to pull the boat closer. The Dwarf Crafter then fired a harpoon at the paddle of the boat, jamming it and allowing our Fae Elf Hunter to climb aboard with the Brute, a pain demon. The undead Warlock, however, had a much flashier method for getting aboard the boat - she summoned the spirits of those who had drowned in the river, flashing back to use the dungeon's Library to confirm their existence, to carry her across and rip a hole in the side of the boat to get into the hold. Fights broke out as an Adventurer emerged to duel the Brute and Hunter, only to be stymied by the Kobold doing a Dioblo-style Corpse Explosion on a dead guard to unbalance her and get her taken down - but not before the Fae Elf lost his hand. The boat was eventually secured and the gang made it home with a lot of loot. The dwarf immediately went into a weird frenzy making a replacement hand for the fae elf, prompting a few Star Wars jokes. The Kobold then had to negotiate with a Drider who lived in a chasm in their dungeon, promising to feed her as compensation for all the noisy excavation they were doing to build a mushroom garden. Everyone in the group is having a lot of fun and we're really getting the hang of popping into each other's scenes in the dungeon. We're planning to pause once we go up a tier and head back to Lancer, but I honestly really enjoy the relative lack of prep I have to do as a GM. The one thing I will say is that the rule book is a little all over the place - there's fairly critical rules and rolls that are in weird sections, and I was often jumping between the GM rules, the rules for casting spells, and the rules for doing downtime projects which were in pretty disparate sections. The people at the Bandit Camp Discord are working on lots of reference sheets and things to make this easier, and hopefully that can cover some of it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2021 16:19
|
|
|
Oh poo poo this looks good. I recently found out about A Nocturne, which is kind of a bladesy take on Rogue Trader. You're the crew of a huge, ancient, and weird near-light speed ship, journeying between systems for profit. One of the beginning ship options comes with a world destroying gun usable from the get go, although it takes about a month to reload. Kind of thinking about running a game or at least a CYOA in the system.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 04:16
|
|
|
You should!  I've also stuck the link to the Blades thread in the OP. That thread might absorb this one at some point, who knows.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2021 12:38
|
|
|
Nice thread you got here...! I added it to the newly stickied thread navigator. Aside from that one of the biggest Forged in the Dark things seems to be the concept of "factions as playable things" so there is a discrete "player character" entity, and "team" entity, which can also mean player characters can enter/exit play dynamically but the team is always there. Wicked Ones and Forged in the Dark in general is pretty new to me, and the sell is pretty dope sounding. I was running a very short lived climate fiction / cyberpunk inspired game called "Hack the Planet" which was a Forged in the Dark game. I threw out the setting and instead ended up making a game where all the factions and such were handled in a VRMMORPG where all the pro gamers were situated in Battle City in the real world. Sadly it collapsed before I could get some real traction with it but it is still an idea I'd like to come back to someday. I don't know that I recommend it? But if you're looking to see how Forged in the Dark works in another genre context not already listed (mecha, fantasy crime, dungeon management, military dark fantasy, and so on) then add "climatepunk" to that list.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 03:22
|
|
|
To add to the OP, maybe - the FoundryVTT version is out, and it seems to be pretty well done!
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 09:07
|
|
|
canepazzo posted:To add to the OP, maybe - the FoundryVTT version is out, and it seems to be pretty well done! Threw this in the OP as well! Work's pretty slow again today, so I might make some effortposts about the cool stuff in this game. Going through the Callings sounds like the first thing to do, but I'll also go through the Dungeons and some of the systems that makes Wicked Ones what it is.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 11:59
|
|
|
Work remains slow, so here's the Callings! They're not the most interesting part of the game IMO - the Dungeons, the sandboxes and the loop of the game are more of the meat. But they are how you interact with the game, so it's worth going over them! Each Calling has:
 The Brute The Brute exists to smash things. They're not subtle at all, and get through the game through the blunt application of violence, cruelty and arrogance. They're comparable to a Fighter, or to the tougher minions in Dungeon Keeper. Your core ability, Rage, allows you to spend stress to do some incredible feat of strength - lifting boulders, smashing walls, fighting bigger monsters than you, that sort of thing. Suggested flashback topics for a Brute are torturing a prisoner for information, getting just the right weapon for the fight or threatening violence. The Brute's abilities are about increasing damage, throwing your weight around or reducing harm to you. The most interesting ones are Living Weapon, which makes your body count as a weapon (and implies you weren't like that before!), Fury (an extra dice if you lash out against something that injured or humiliated you), and Taskmaster (an extra downtime action that can be only used to recruit minions, or make them do a downtime action without paying them). The best Brute item in the list is "a bag of tasty snacks". Presumably it's not candy. The Conniver Working behind the scenes, the Conniver lays out plans and makes other players do their bidding. They do this usually though buffing allies by giving them advice or criticism. Words are their weapon (although a dagger helps). The core ability, Strings, allows an ally to reroll failed rolls by remembering advice you gave them - if they roll at least one six, you get to bank a Dark Heart. The Conniver's suggested flashback topics are setting up contingency plans, acquiring information or manipulating and bribing others. The Conniver's abilities play into this theme of manipulation. Of note, Tongues allows you to speak the Light Tongue - Wicked Ones does the old school D&D thing of having good and evil speak their own languages, and the language barrier can be an issue. Missed A Spot allows you to click up project clocks for other people during downtime, which is incredibly strong since this is how the dungeon grows! Finally, Wordplay allows you the option of deflecting blame, planting ideas or getting secrets from the gm if you succeed on particular rolls. The best Conniver item in their list is soap and perfume. Scary monsters need to look good.  The Crafter The Crafter is pretty much what it says on the tin. It makes stuff, and is the Calling most likely to interact with Monster Science such as concoctions. Notably it does this with disregard for their own safety. Their core ability, Ingenuity, allows you to combine concoctions, quickly make a contraption, or ignore volatility (we'll cover these in a future post). They can flashback to acts of sabotage, grabbing materials they need or brewing something "just in case". The best ability the Crafter has is Creative Frenzy. When they are working on a crafting downtime project and roll a success, they don't use up that action. This means you can, with lucky rolls, slam out a complicated project in a short time (like, say, making a prosthetic hand). The other most interesting ability they have is Prototype, which allows them to start a tier 2 or 3 contraption and keep using it even though it's not finished, ticking up progress on the clock if they use the prototype in dire situations. The best Crafter item in their list is the good old shovel.  The Hunter The Hunter is a patient, deliberate Calling that exploits weaknesses in the enemy. They have one of the more complex core abilities in Thrill of the Hunt - they establish a small weakness in a target, and gain increased effect when exploiting it to catch them, stalk them or bring them down. If they succeed on that roll, they gain a Dark Heart. They can flashback to setting traps, scouting locations and hunting for food. One of the Hunter's coolest abilities is Scout. When you're planning a raid, you can just state a weakness in the target's defences that your allies can exploit, and can spend stress to establish a second one mid-raid - since how well a raid goes ties to blowback and responses from the forces of good, this can make or break some situations. They can also take a Hunting Pet, a minion that has a bonus towards doing certain actions, and can pull off Hawkeye-style trick shots with, uh, Trick Shots (although you have to sell how you did the shot). The best Hunter item in their list is fishing gear, because even a monster needs a nice afternoon in the outdoors.  The Marauder 4e Warlord fans rejoice - the Marauder is a narrative version. A tactician and commander, the Marauder controls the battlefield through planning, defending allies, and occasionally just losing it. They're the thinking man's Brute. Their core ability, Battlemaster, allows you to pull of a sick athletic feat like throwing axes, handling numerous foes or just turning up where you need to be. They can flashback to giving orders, surveying the foe or maintaining discipline. Two of the Marauder's abilities are Cohort and Commander - the former makes your minions much stronger, and the latter allows you to spend stress or Dark Hearts to give them an extra dice on rolls. You can also become a Bulwark for your allies, getting bonuses to resisting consequences on behalf of an ally, or become a Tactician to gain a defense against the raid plan going off track - which means you simply can say "nope, things going okay, I planned for this" and it is! The best Marauder item in their list is a battle horn to toot out your arrival.  The Shadow Do you like to sneak? Do you like to stab? The Shadow does both of those things real well. They use surprise as their weapon, and can use their core ability of Prowler to sneak and hide at will Assassin's Creed style, like slipping through a mob or hiding in plain sight. They can flashback to stealing items, creating opportunities from lying or stealing something valuable (which helps in the loot phase of the game). One of the Shadow's Abilities, Dark Mind, allows them to compel the dark impulse of other players to get Dark Hearts out of it, goading them into something reckless. Another one is Sticky Fingers, which allows them to establish where some good loot is during the raid and allows them to get and keep more Gold for making stuff happen - make sure you share that loot with your allies, of course. The best Shadow item in their list is a bag of rocks. What you'll do with that is anyone's guess. The Shaman One of the three magic-focused Callings. The Shaman deals with witchcraft, drawing their power from spirits and nature either via seeking their favor or enslaving them. Whilst any monster can cast a tier 1 Witchcraft spell with the appropriate tools, only a Shaman can cast tier 2 and 3 spells from a chosen path with their Witchcraft core ability. They can flashback to interacting with spirits and animals, brewing concoctions and pre-emptively sowing terror. The Shaman can turn into an animal with Beastform, which allows you to swap action ratings and gain an extra ability but with the burden of a second Dark Impulse. They can also upgrade their minions with Bonded Spirit, turning them into familiars or guiding spirits, gain a free downtime action to brew potions of any tier (which are like concoctions but slightly more reliable) with Wild Brews, or gain the ability to pull information from the spirits with Spirit Whispers. The best Shaman item from their list is the bag of snakes. The best items in this game seem to come in bag form! The Warlock The second magic-focused calling, the Warlock grabs reality by the neck and chokes it until it gives in. Their core ability of Sorcery allows them to invoke tier 2 and 3 spells from a single sorcery path. If this sounds familiar to what the Shaman does, don't worry about it. They can flashback to acquiring knowledge, striking deals with demons and the occult, or creating magic trinkets. The Warlock has quite a few fun ability options. Reaper allows you to take the souls of slain foes, spending them to remove the stress cost of higher tier spells and reducing the dice penalty for casting them. You can get a pet with Familiar, which gives you something to channel weak spells through and do some things remotely for you. Or you can take on a Vile Form and turn yourself into a swarm of bees, or fog, or a giant amoeba! The best Warlock item from their list is the skinbound spellbook, because it's an excuse to introduce an Adventurer with a chainsaw hand.  The Zealot The third magic-focused calling. Zealots channel the powers of their dark god in a similar manner to Warlocks and Shamans through their Channeling ability - the difference is, the player can make up their own god, defining two domains that god controls to act as magic paths. They can flashback to interrogations, rituals and commanding their followers. Defilier starts a 4 segment clock that fills up each time you destroy something antithetical to your god, immediately casting a tier 2 ritual when it's full. Fervent Aura allows your minions to redshirt for you if you would be bloodied or killed - take the time to make them Acolytes and they will also incant a ritual for you each downtime without requiring payment. Who said cults were difficult? The best Zealot item from their list is the simple sickle. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 16:15
|
|
|
Those are all really cool, thanks for the write-up! I'm hoping to take some time this weekend and give the book a read-through because it looks like there's a lot of really interesting things going on.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2021 16:44
|
|
|
I am hype to buy and play this, and yet I realise if I do, it'll never see the light of day, and that makes me extremely sad.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2021 00:25
|
|
|
Welp. Thanks to your OP I'm buying Wicked Ones!  Edit: Just bought Wicked Ones and received the following message... quote:Also, keep an eye out for these upcoming titles: Helical Nightmares fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Jan 27, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2021 02:04
|
|
|
Helical Nightmares posted:Welp. Thanks to your OP I'm buying Wicked Ones! That's two people I've got to buy the game! Success! Also yes, those expansions are being worked on. They're talking about Undead Awakening as more of a "take and hold territory" style game, but all of the Callings in it will be compatible with the base game.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2021 11:24
|
|
|
This game is really fun! I am enjoying thinking and planning out what to do if/when I run it in the future! However I do think that the layout needs work. So much of the moving parts are spread throughout the book that it can sometimes make it hard to refer to things quickly. That and, sometimes, it feels like some bits aren't included all at once. Lets take the monsters that live in the dungeon but aren't minions or you. Do they do the same amount of heart damage as the number of dice they roll, or do they always do 1 "cut" like traps? Alongside that, am I alone in thinking that some of the dungeons are more mechanically potent than others? Or am I being too negative?
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2021 12:30
|
|
|
They do 1 damage a go, the same as anything else. The intent is that adventurers stick around and are a real pain in the rear end to fight - they'll get through the dungeon eventually if they're high-level enough. Higher-level creatures are just better at dealing those blows than others. As for dungeons, I'm gonna make an effortpost on them soon so people can judge for themselves - but I think the Temple isn't the hottest. Usually it's a combo of the core ability and available T3 rooms that makes a dungeon, and the Temple's lacking in all of those, plus it doesn't have anything as striking as, say, the murderous greenhouse of the Enclave or the humor of the Foundry's Guild Hall.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2021 12:46
|
|
|
Dungeons - "Who would live in a cave like this?" I don't have any pretty pictures for this, sorry. I'll add them later. Players work together collaboratively, drawing out their dungeon and growing it through downtime projects, discoveries and their imps occasionally losing their minds and digging somewhere random. It's a place where raids are launched from, where loot is brought back to, and where you rest your head and plan your master plan. There's a lot of aspects to running a dungeon, and I'm going to go over them bit by bit. We need to get some boring bits out of the way first, so let's go through the step by step of making one first. The first thing you pick will be your dungeon's Theme, which gives you a thing to base your campaign around. It's recommended that creating a dungeon actually happens before character creation, since you want your monsters to be unified in their goal and the theme informs that. Wicked Ones come and go, but dungeons (hopefully) live forever. Dungeon Themes grant a limited list of Tier 3 rooms with significant effects, and a passive ability to help you out. Second, you need to find where to put it. This will be a physical location on the map of your Sandbox, and often will need a session to clear out anyone who's there already or make deals with any factions that exist there. Once that's done, you pull out the Dungeon Sheet and decide on some stuff together - cosmetic things like what the floors are made of, what the lighting is like, etc. The GM then draws the outside, and you roll for a Discovery, which is a natural feature that you come across during your initial excavation. Notably, this step isn't actually in the Dungeon Creation section, even thought it's mentioned in the overview. The folks at Bandit Camp have promised to errata this. Go figure. Then you get into it! The players take turns picking things from a list of rooms, traps, tricks and so on, drawing out the dungeon and taking responsibility for anything that needs it - if you put a trap, door, trick or creature in, you're responsible for rolling for it when adventurers stumble across them (although you can pass these to other players if it gets too burdensome). The GM inserts the Discovery they rolled for here at some point here. You'll also need to put in a set of stairs for the Sanctum, where your Wicked Ones live, guard the hoard and delegate responsibilities. The stairs can be moved as the dungeon expands, since it's just a convenience for "the end of the dungeon". Finally, you create your Master Plan, a multi-step plan for what you're gonna do to take over the world! This always starts with growing your hoard, which is your big pile of treasure you have. Working towards this plan rewards you with XP, so be sure to follow it! Since the hoard is important, let's get into it now. The Hoard The hoard isn't necessarily gold - it can also be magic items, weapons, food, and other resources. The size of the hoard directly relates to your dungeon's Tier (the games keeps using the word Tier). The dungeon's tier is a measure of how powerful you are in relation to other factions. A bigger hoard means you can equip and train your minions better, meaning you face less dire consequences when fighting adventurers or other enemies and can launch attacks on bigger factions without struggle. To grow your hoard, you need to launch a two-part raid on another faction on the map that's of a higher tier than your dungeon, directly taking their wealth in order to grow your own and increase your tier. When you do this, your dungeon grows in strength, getting you a new discovery, a new creature lair and more imps (more on them later!). You can lose hoard, but it's pretty rare and should only be inflicted when you get a particularly nasty consequence - adventurers busting into the sanctum, for example. Losing hoard doesn't make you drop in tiers, but you need to replace or reclaim what you lost before you can begin climbing again. The Master Plan The same thing we do every night, Pinky! Your Master Plan determines your overall goal, and its made of about four or five steps that you need to accomplish. Step 1 is ALWAYS "grow the hoard", but the rest of the steps can be figured out on the fly by the players - the characters know what the plan is, but the players don't have to decide anything until it comes up. The book recommends each step should take around 3 to 5 sessions to complete, although I can see people adjusting this if they want shorter or longer campaigns. Dungeon Themes The exciting stuff! There's five dungeon themes to pick from, each with their own ability and rooms. You can grab one room from another dungeon theme if you like. Let's go over the theme, core ability and some of the choicest rooms.  Enclave The Enclave is about doing horrible magic. Even the lowliest minions here have some kind of magic aptitude and scrawl their graffiti in fancy runes on the walls! The Enclave's core function is Twisted Landscape, a distortion of the area around the dungeon that grows with tier. It acts as a natural defense against dungeon invaders, forcing them to deal with a trap and trick before they even get inside. The Enclave's coolest room is the Library, where you can just establish a fact about the world once per cycle and can flashback to do it again. You may also fancy the Greenery, a greenhouse of carnivorous plants that not only counts as a trap, but will devour living prey to get you ingredients and shared supplies.  Forge Want to make a factory hellscape? The Forge is a hub of monster science, where you create and invent with reckless disregard for danger. Your sanctum doubles as your Power Source - a geothermal spring, volcano or similar. By diverting power, you can get an extra die on a downtime action. You can also boost a single trap, lock or trick you're responsible for during an invasion. The Guild Hall gives your minions the illusion of unionizing, granting an extra die to avert dungeon calamities as they don't grumble so much. A much more powerful option is the Factory, letting your imps produce single tier 1 contraptions or ticking up clocks for more complex contraption projects. The best one, however, is the Vehicle Bay, which grants your group a vehicle to go do raids in.  Hideout A much more humble option, the Hideout is your choice if you just want to lay low. This is themed more as a thief's den or criminal syndicate than a traditional dungeon. This dungeon grants you Agents of Chaos who meddle with other factions - successfully avoiding blowback grants your minions morale and allows you to finish or reset a faction's clock in the sandbox, hindering or helping plans as you see fit. The best room is the Dojo. You need to defeat or impress someone to train you to complete it, but they act as a free creature and improve your ability to work together as a team. If that's not your thing, you can build a Roost of bats or ravens to scout out your target and establish facts about it.  Stronghold Unsublte as hell, the Stronghold is a war camp. Parties that take a stronghold are about conquering through military might. The Stronghold has a Warband, a minion pack shared between the party and a few upgrades. If you don't bring it on raids with you, it can be sent to do its own mini raids across the map, with the players allocating dice to targets (combining them is allowed) and then rolling them to find the outcome. Notably, one of the possible goals is to setup for a pillaging raid - this skips a step in the process needed to upgrade your dungeon tier if it goes well! The Combat Pit allows your players to bet on who lives or dies from the people you throw in there, gaining a Dark Heart if you bet right. More usefully, the War Drums ability grants your imps an extra die on their actions (useful since Imps do NOT start out well) and allowing players to tick up project clocks once per downtime. Finally, the Bestiary grants you cool mounts and a creature equal to the dungeon tier.  Temple There's dark gods out there, and if you pray and chant loudly enough, they might hear you and give you the path to fulfilling their desires. The Temple allows you to beseech the diety for Unholy Intervention, rolling the dungeon's tier with no dice penalty in an attempt to cast an appropriate Tier 3 spell. The GM decides who suffers any consequences. Making sacrifices at an Altar grants you a boon from a list of three. That's cool, but if you built a Penance Chamber, your minions become so afraid that they'll never betray you and ignore the dice penalty from being Bloodied. Finally, the Scriptorium is a record of your deeds that generates more XP, but only if the players prove themselves worthy of the dark god's notice. This is an individual XP trigger, so expect some jostling as people try and take credit! Next Time: Denizens, Defenses and Discoveries! The Deleter fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Jan 28, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2021 18:24
|
|
|
I'm interested in Wicked Ones but I'm really interested in the undead stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2021 21:23
|
|
|
spectralent posted:I'm interested in Wicked Ones but I'm really interested in the undead stuff. I second this sentiment. The last supplement I was this excited for was Ravenloft's undead campaign, Requiem the Grim Harvest.  I even found some STL files (for 3D printing) and physical minis that look like they would work well with the Undead supplement https://www.tigerskullrpg.com/collections/physical-mini   
|
|
#
?
Jan 28, 2021 01:30
|
|
|
In the "Other Forged in the Dark games" category, new kickstarter just launched for 13th Fleet. You play a group of captains of different ships within a fleet (the 13th, apparently), with phases being Jump-Ship Combat-Mission-Intrigue-Downtime. It seems interesting, as it has some additions to FITD that I haven't seen before, such as intra-crew backstabbing during the Intrigue phase (Wicked Ones briefly touched on this with Power Struggles, but this seems to be more overt) and taking a humourous tack from the start. I've pledged, seems interesting, will report back.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2021 12:22
|
|
|
Just picked up this game on the strength of this thread and it looks, well, wicked. Looks like there's some very clever hacks to the basic Forged in the Dark engine to keep gameplay pointing in the right direction. I think it might be a much cleverer hack of BitD than Band of Blades. It'd make an excellent starting point for an XCOM-esque game, for example.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2021 12:30
|
|
|
canepazzo posted:In the "Other Forged in the Dark games" category, new kickstarter just launched for 13th Fleet. You play a group of captains of different ships within a fleet (the 13th, apparently), with phases being Jump-Ship Combat-Mission-Intrigue-Downtime. Okay, initial first impression is that the art needs work badly. The actual art itself is not that bad and can convey a great deal of interesting themes and thinking. The problem is that they look like they were done in pencil. If you have a product that you are trying to sell then at least get the drawings done in pen. As a secondary thing, I would like to have a look at this, but comedy in games is really really hard to get right. I hope they pull it off though!
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2021 13:22
|
|
|
Working on the dungeon effortpost, and oh god there's a lot going on. I'm trying to condense it without doing the Fatal and Friends problem of just restating stuff in the rulebook as well. Maybe you'll see it tomorrow, so hang in there.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2021 17:57
|
|
|
If anyone's interested, their discord sent out a request for beta testers for the solo rules (one of their stretch goals IIRC). They also posted their first draft of the reference sheet. Bit rough, but useful.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2021 12:35
|
|
|
A long slow day so it's time to finish up the dungeon explanation! Dungeons Part 2 - Creature Feature The dungeon isn't an empty place - it'll be crawling with imps, creatures and minions, and traps and tricks to stop invaders. Dungeon Denizens Imps are, well, imps. If you haven't played a Dungeon Keeper, they are tiny creatures that have traded their services in manual labor for the protection of the dungeon. Imps get two traits to help you narrate their activities. They exist to handwave away the logistics and boring manual stuff a dungeon needs. They can attempt to do something each Downtime, rolling the dungeon tier. This means that to start with, they suck, since a Tier 0 dungeon means they roll two dice and take the worst. As the dungeon grows, more Imps join which means they get better at doing stuff. Creatures are monsters that hang out in their own lairs. You can define what they are and they have their own tier - you get a Tier 1 for free to start with and add a new lair equal to the dungeon Tier every time they level up. Creatures don't bother you or your minions, but they defend the dungeon when adventurers invade, and invaders will always try and fight creatures if they stumble across them. There's always the possibility a creature can be killed by this - but you get a replacement during the next downtime, so don't get too attached. Make sure there's a progression of creatures getting tougher as adventurers progress to satisfy Dungeon Logic! Minions are a band of goons you can hire during downtime. They essentially act as a secondary PC, and you're in charge of roleplaying your minion pack, so give em a good personality! They're limited in a few ways, but you are free to define their appearance and role - they get a few actions they can do and whatever equipment they need to do their jobs. They defend your dungeon and can be paid to do downtime actions or come with you on raids. They can also get upgraded with various abilities like being fluent in Light Tongue or being an expendable gaggle that can always be re-recruited. All hiring, jobs and upgrading is done with Gold gained through raids, although certain abilities can let you bypass this. Additionally, they can gain Morale, which is basically a Dark Heart they can use once and can be regained through certain actions. Traps, Tricks and Locks Sometimes, warm bodies won't be enough to keep adventurers out. So, you need to put some ingenuity into defense. Sometimes just locking the door will do, but the application of spikes and pits can create a more permanent solution. No matter what you make, all Traps, Tricks and Locks have their own Tier, which defines how strong they are and how complex they will be to make. Traps damage adventures, tricks divert or distract them, and locks keep them out of places. Traps are the most straightforward - you just roll their tier and they damage adventurers based on what you rolled. Locks keep people out, although they won't keep them out forever - if they exhaust any other paths forwards, they'll come back and try until its open. How they get opened is defined by their material and lock mechanism - the adventurers might need a wizard to get through a magic door, or a rogue to pick a puzzle lock. Tricks are a little more complex - they have a method that details how they fool adventurers, a trigger that details when they activate, and an intent which is what happens when they work. That means you can get a little freeform with that they do - you can set up alarms, set up deep pools that force adventurers to leave behind heavy armor, or split up the part. You can't make a trick that traps an adventurer forever , and they'll overcome it eventually. You also can't make a trick that makes them leave the dungeon - they want that loot! Defending The Dungeon! Your dungeon will sometimes be invaded, obviously. This can happen due to blowback from a raid, with adventurers seeking vengeance, or calamity rolls going bad, in which case its more likely to be adventurers just wandering in responding to rumors of monsters around the area. A lot of mechanics of how adventurers interact with the dungeon is dependent on their own moves and abilities, which I'll cover later. However, the main thing is that there are two kinds. Minor invasions are a handful of adventurers and their hirelings wandering in and can be taken care of easily. Major invasions are existential threats, and they should get tougher each time they happen. When the invasion starts, all of the player characters are in the sanctum, and a roll is used to determine where their minions are and if they're ready for the challenge or not. Then the invaders start at the dungeon entrance and work their way towards the sanctum, although they might have different goals. If they come across a creature, they'll fight it and whoever is responsible for the creature rolls for it. If they encounter a lock, trap or trick, whoever's responsible for them rolls to see what happens. Adventurers can blow moves to bypass obstacles too. If they come to a crossroads, a roll decides which way they move. If they enter a tier 3 room, they'll loot it and heal up half a heart. Minions will become aware of commotion in adjacent rooms and move to investigate and fight, but they can't act on player knowledge. If they get to the sanctum, the player characters have to fight off the enemy! This can result in the death of the player characters and the hoard being stolen - which is fine. The dungeon is what remains, and character creation is so short that players can create new characters and rebuild. If the adventurers get pasted, then their bodies are looted - if this is from blowback then add to the loot roll coming up, otherwise make a new loot roll. Phew! That's everything for dungeons, I think. I'll cover future stuff if people have questions.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2021 13:23
|
|
|
I'm extremely tempted to purchase this since it sounds like it's something I'd want to run. Is this something that can be run at a one shot to introduce new players to the system? About how long do you think each session would be? I'm thinking about running it for a local TTRPG Meetup.com group to gauge interest as a one shot then see if they'd be interested in continuing it as a campaign.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 20:53
|
|
|
ihatepants posted:I'm extremely tempted to purchase this since it sounds like it's something I'd want to run. Is this something that can be run at a one shot to introduce new players to the system? About how long do you think each session would be? I'm thinking about running it for a local TTRPG Meetup.com group to gauge interest as a one shot then see if they'd be interested in continuing it as a campaign. I have purchased it, I'm half way through reading it, I'll likely never play it but I have no regrets. It's just an awesome system and if you need a little clarification for how the game flows, or what a session zero for this game looks like, check out their three part actual play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXO-69U26c0
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2021 21:38
|
|
|
Got a game going, we're on session 3. I'd say its pretty great so far. My players love their little dungeon. The only downside is that the weapons / equipment system is pretty 3d chess, even for FITD. Took several explanations and some hard thinking for it to stick.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 01:07
|
|
|
From their Discord the authors have a new Twitch stream: https://twitch.tv/banditcampio
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2021 23:30
|
|
|
 Wicked Ones now has a Free edition! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/354307/Wicked-Ones-Free-Edition?src=discord quote:FEATURES (FREE EDITION) Also Undead Awakening and War for the Overworld are about to come out according to the devs.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2021 16:39
|
|
|
Huh, well that's fair enough.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2021 16:41
|
|
|
Hahaha, this is all good to know! This thread is pretty ghostly but I might throw together some ideas for sandboxes and post them in here. Who knows? Keep an eye out.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2021 16:56
|
|
|
I'm a fool and I decided to run a Wicked Ones CYOA. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3965536
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2021 19:00
|
|
|
Bandit Camp just released Wickedly Solo, solo rules for Wicked Ones. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/355136/Wickedly-Solo-Solo-Rules-for-Wicked-Ones quote:This supplement includes rules for setting up a dungeon on your own and playing all of its denizens, switching out your main PC when it's thematically appropriate and controlling the remainder with fortune rolls. Anyone familiar with Forged in the Dark will instantly understand the logic behind using fortune rolls to guide the game in place of the GM and a handy oracle table provides inspiration for your improv. Also there is the Wicked Ones: Toolkit Deck https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/351515/Wicked-Ones-Toolkit-Deck?src=wickedlysolo quote:Make running your game of Wicked Ones even easier. This deck of 80 tarot-sized cards includes:
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2021 20:03
|
|
|
So I saw that the google sheets that came with the free edition were really a template that didn't have the class specific stuff filled in so I took a few minutes to fill that in: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1URGliJISfVzk1gNdAEF9FrTtrzXbeKdf6ytrrx6GfDM/edit?usp=sharing Haven't done done versions for the Dungeon types but I'll get around to it some day.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2021 19:21
|
|
|
I've been running a campaign of Wicked Ones and I think I'm finally getting better at running the sessions. Overall I think the biggest problem that i had with the system (I had never really GMed a FitD game before) was not using either clocks or position/effect correctly. Basically the first few raids I ran, I ran the game like it was PbtA, where the mechanical effects of a roll are well defined and the only thing that you are affecting/deciding as the GM is the narrative effects of the rolls. I also did not use clocks at all, even when a suitable situation should have made it easy to use them. Once I understood the system, however, the sessions became a lot more interesting, for both me and the players. The key was to tie mixed/failed rolls to mechanical effects that were clear to both me and the players, and mix up the consequences. At first I only really used narrative consequences, but now I feel a lot more confident about just giving shock/bloodied status, or just ticking a clock, which makes it easier to have a consequence such as "well, you do it, but it took you a long time" and for the players to see how long it took because I ticked the "Sunrise" clock by one or two ticks. As well as that, I think position/effect is a crucial part of making the combat and action resolution within the game feel meaningful. This is especially important for Adventurers, especially considering that any uptiered adventurer is an overwhelming condition for position/effect. When you can only hurt an adventurer by rolling a 6, and that only a single tick, and every time you roll against them you potentially can be bloodied or worse, and the adventurers has moves they can use to shrug off your blows/put you in even more precarious positions, it makes the act of facing uptiered adventurers a daunting one, which I think really sets the mood appropriately for the game. Anyway, been really enjoying this and we are currently in our second invasion: I just used 4 tier-appropriate adventurers and they got a licking from the dungeon defences so far.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2021 13:52
|
|
|
Very cool! That's good to hear, I always pull my punches with my players and it's likely a disservice to the game
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2021 14:31
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 16, 2024 12:10 |
|
|
Yeah I think the system really flows well if you don't pull your punches too much and make the possibility of death very real. Fortunately the game does make it clear that if your player is a Deadly position, you need to make this clear to them, so the feeling player agency is there.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2021 14:45
|
|