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Hello everyone, canīt really believe my first post to be on the GWW but hey, thatīs how life goes. As it is, I am currently working on a diceless rules system but find myself badly in the need of some serious playtesting. If I were to translate the rules-as-is in itīs current form could any of you point me towards where I could get a test run going? Not to mention some critique of the rules as to their current state? I apologize if my english is bad, itīs not my native language. Mr.Misfit fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Mar 24, 2014 |
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Mar 24, 2014 13:15
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32/97 pages translated. Iīd most likely will want to gnaw off my hands before I ever finish translating my current design project "d10 - generic ruleset" for input and presentation.... Anyone here know something more worthwhile than Google Translator? Cause that one only gave me garbage (how unexpected, I know...)
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Jan 7, 2015 19:49
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Another issue, another question has arisen, help me fellow Goons, you are my only hope! During writing and testing the game, I was up until now using a d10-version of the Silhouette Core dice mechanic, that has attributes and skills and you only ever roll skills, adding similar dice and lowering the result for every 1 you got. Up until now you got degrees of success for every 2 points above the necessary result to succeed and it worked somewhat, but somehow I am not satisfied with such a system, especially as the attributes are by far too important because they basically are worth absurdly more than every die ever could be, after all, another die adds a 1/10 chance to uppen the result, while an attribute point always adds +1 to your result, not matter the result. So, right now I am trying to find a solution for this. Make attributes more expensive? Somehow this doesnīt sound so good. But abolish attributes? Doing so would force me to change the basic system mechanics, using only skills while also making them the basic devices of the system. Most likely it would force me to go the route of the Vampire:TM skill dice mechanic, which, while not really that bad, well...as I said, it changes many assumptions about the system completely. On the other hand, I could just limit attributes to +5 instead of +10 as I have been using them up until now....or abolish attributes and rework the basic premise stemming from there? A difficult decision in the design process, and not one I am really happy with. This problem was encountered during playtesting the system with Star Wars and the due to the fact that two players who basically built their characters as combat titans worth every point basically went and dominated every scene due to the way they are using the mechanics. Does this speak ill of the mechanics as designed or am I just a bad person for thinking this might be not WAI?
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Jan 28, 2015 00:44
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Bob Quixote posted:If you changed the attribute maximum from +10 to +5 how much would that alter the degree's of success on an average die roll? What's the curve or the sweet spot that you are aiming for in terms of player success? 75%? 60%? 50% How often SHOULD a skilled character succeed at a task depending on the degree of difficulty? Well, lowering the maximum attribute from +10 to +5 basically costs them 2 Degrees of Success and all accompanying abilities or bonus effects they could achieve with those. The sweet spot is a hard thing to tell. You see, the attribute is representing base talent while the skill is representing training and experience, meaning that a character with +10 would basically be the single most suited person to the task at hand. Since the base difficulty is to roll against 6, that means with +10 he has a 90% chance to succeed on a single die, upping that for every further die. But with +5 this doesnīt change. Where it does change, is in the higer regions. Currently, a roll against 14 would mean that you basically roll against it as if you subtract your attribute from the target result. With +10 that against 4. Even with a single die roll thats still a 69% chance. However, on +5 this becomes a 9. Against a difficulty of 9 the single die has only a 20% chance, as it would better reflect the difficulty inherent. I think, my basic problem here isnīt even the mathematics (at which Iīm bad it seems...) but the fact that I have two players dominating the game due to them immediately pumping up two stats to the max ability and thus tearing down all difficulty...one comment a tester gave was "With the ability score, itīs immediately clear how good you are, with the skill dice, not so much.". How do I challenge that problem?
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Jan 28, 2015 10:02
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I am currently trying to write an OSR-inspired little game about Sword and Sorcery adventures in a Late Medieval Fantasy world but hit kind of a snag. Where can I find people to playtest/critique my creation
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Nov 5, 2015 13:59
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I found that, the further I've written, the more distant BECMI seems to be. Can I still call this an OSR-game despite moving this far away from some of its basic premises? And, of course, I am missing playtests about some of the concepts used in the game. About Race, I thought that the word was harmless within common roleplaying territory, but you are correct about it being problematic. Will most likely change that soon. Also interesting notes, will add as soon as I get back to writing =) Mr.Misfit fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Nov 6, 2015 |
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Nov 5, 2015 21:02
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I suppose, whichever variant I am choosing, currently Iīve changed it to Species, wonīt really matter in the long run, so long the choice isnīt worse.quote:That's probably a question for the OSR thread -- or the OSR at large -- rather than this one. True, I should take that question there. Just as soon as Iīve ploughed through the 20 or so pages of thread of the discussion I am missing, to know at which point I can most strategically place this  You are correct in that itīs not necessarily a good thing to keep trying to fit within the corset that OSR provides, but I started writing this based on the OSR-premises and thought that it allows me to more precisely define both the mechanics needed as well as the audience available for such a product? Update: Iīve now added the collected tables section as well as an index at the end of the document, fixed the race, added several species affinity talents and thought at length about a possible deeper background for the game. Woodyhoo.
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Nov 6, 2015 14:19
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Interesting. I recently had the chance, the latest a few hours ago, to test the game I wrote about, Gates of Gehenna, as both as written (OSR-style DnD medieval hackīnīslay) and as rewritten (Star Wars...bwahaha) This has yielded some very differing experiences. As an OSR game First of all, drat combat is fast in this. I already knew that combat can go quite fast in this style of game, but drat that went fast. We finished several different encounter in the span of three hours which lead to the players rushing through the module I actually planned an entire sunday to work with. Furthermore, the danger of using occult powers actually appealed to the players, because it gave them something unique and made them more worthy of powers from beyond the normal situation. The durability system as modified by the rpg.net crowd worked much better than anticipated and led to the warrior of the group destroying several shields both to block and of enemy soldiers as they stormed the city. All in all a very succesfull first test, though I wasnīt completely happy with the way both armor and critical hits worked, which leads me to rethink them but how remains to be seen. Using backgrounds was a bit wonky at first, but the players quickly eased into it, which makes them a solid choice fo something useful to copy from a modern game. As Star Wars Itīs not SAGA Star Wars, but I tried to get them trough the first module of Dawn of Defiance. Considering that they had to create entirely new characters, choosing between very different talents and powers from the sunday game and then playing the first part of DoD, it worked, if a bit wonky. Mostly because the way the current system works leads to people making critical hits very often as long as they hit but lessening their crit-chance as they level up which makes this all the more strange. This is also combined with the fact how the GoG module went, that I am thinking of revamping the critical hit system. Though mostly, I just see the damage wandering up very quickly at higher levels, while the crit-chance sinks. We will continue to play the Star Wars version coming sunday, and I am still unsure on how to use ship-to-ship combat and stuff like that. Not to mention that I somehow have to work in the stuff from rpg.net that was useful as a critique and dismiss that which is kinda useless. And finally, I need a new group of testers to playtest my game. Harumph.
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Nov 19, 2015 00:39
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Cloak Gaming posted:Don't write off a feature after a single test, it might just be that the group didn't understand how to use it well at first Of course, that always important as a rule. Never let yourself be guided by only one group of testers as the game one might design will fit their taste but not a common taste you actually might want to reach. Unless of course you are designing simply for your gaming groups pleasure. The problem, as it seems right now, is that the crit system is wonky and both too powerful. Currently every crit is from a mechanical standpoint working similar. It feels too powerful for some weapons, which is might illusionary if played with in other constellations or groups. And it feels strange that the possibility of critical hits both only add to the strongest of hits according to my own system as well as become less likely the better a character becomes at fighting. As currently written, a character deals damage equal to the roll differential, so with combat 10 and a rolled 19 thats 9 points of damage. And with the way critical hits currently work that means that the crit value is also the crit range from 20 down. So CRIT 9 is a critical hit on 11-20 but also allows adding either 9 damage or doing a sucessful maneuver against the enemy. Of course nothing should go as high as CRIT 9 unless a player boosts a CRIT rating with a talent, but that still makes crits rather incredibly powerful. Of course this also means that even in early stages the damage output (at level 1 most player characters fight with Combat 15+, so at most they get up to deal at most 5 damage without the escalation bonus) is wonky because itīs either low (no crit) or very high (crit). This seems strange and not necessarily what I intended but it might be bias on my part. The players seemed to enjoy the ability to crit and do cool stuff with maneuvers. The idea about differing crits is interesting and will be used to create special weapon mastery talents that should equal to those crits but no further complicate the combat system themselves by being extras the player can get, not something everyone has to have a handle on.
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Nov 19, 2015 12:06
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Sentient Data posted:How about if the crit is what happens if the character rolls exactly the attack number and instead of dealing damage at all is an auto-success for whatever appropriate maneuver? Simplifies the rules, easy to understand what has to be rolled, solves the overdamage issue, and it breaks your game away from the common convention Iīm not sure I understand you correctly. Currently when one rolls his attack within crit range, he can a) deal additional damage equal to CRIT value or b) do a maneuver (aka. something crazy) which is automatically sucessful What would the attack number for something like this be? The CRIT value?
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Nov 19, 2015 13:29
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Whew. After quite some time Iīve finally gotten myself to rewrite my OSR-inspired little Game and add something like a, well, barebones setting to it, as well as trimming some of the flowery or really bad language problems. Of course, just as last time, this means I will need someone to test this with, but at least this time I have a better working basis on which to test it and something on which i can probably add a boatload of talents. Anyway, if you are interested in taking a look, you can find it here. Meanwhile, Iīll be over in the gameroom trying to find someone to test it with me =) Merry Chrismas btw.
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Dec 25, 2015 20:29
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Dr. Doji Suave posted:[snip] Sure. Getting the right "feel" for the mechanics and the game you wish to achieve can be among the hardest parts of what you do, as you might have something specific in mind, but that doesnīt mean that it will come out like that. D&Disms can be hard to shake, and big numbers can be epic, but so can small numbers, as long as you understand the difference between them. In D&D, getting +40 or +41 to your attack roll doesnīt mean all that much anymore. Its just more of the same. The unique flavor is long gone and sometime ago the game became an exercise in math instead. In games with only very small numbers or smaller dice pools, getting a +1 or +2 can be a huge deal. But you, as the designer, have to communicate this switch within your design. And I suppose, wondering whether we gently caress is just natural. Itīs great that your guys had a good time. But for designīs sake, ask yourself, did they have fun due to the design, or in spite of it? That can give some very important hints as to where a design can restrict/limit or support a certain kind of fun.
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Sep 4, 2016 23:16
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Last Night Iīve finished the expansion of Gates of Gehenna to v0.45. Still remain somewhat skeptical about the talent system, as, as youīd expect, its a whole lot easier to write new occult talents, than it is to write normal talents, or even skill talents, of which the game needs many, many, maaaany more, but Iīve just not hit that goldmine of ideas that Iīd need. Is that normal? Why should the Face and the Rogue be less interesting than the Magic-User or the Fighting-Men?
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Nov 1, 2016 13:24
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It seems Iīve got far too much time on my hands, considering that Iīm basically throwing these out the window as soon as Iīm done working...*sigh* Anyway. Iīve recently finished a new version of my OSR-inspired Dagger&Cloak game "Gates of Gehenna". The changes in v0.48 include, among others: - No more skills - Vices out, Ambitions in - Many new examples - Rewritten rules text for several sections - Tried revamping combat and game so that the GM rolls less. Much less. Best would be doesnīt roll at all, but...well..baby steps. - Example Character Creation with images - Quick Rules Overview added - New talents, Styles, Colourful Icons....and....so....much....more?...heck, I donīt even know. Have fun and happy holidays =) PS: If you are one of those playing in the PbP-game "Where Wenches Weep", ignore this post for all game-related purposes.
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Dec 23, 2016 21:59
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A bit belatedly late, but stil at the right time and right place. heyho everyone. Iīve recently finished my current draft of v0.50 of Gates of Gehenna. Iīd really appreciate any comments you guys might have ^^ Rules v0.50 Character Sheet v0.50 Changes: - Reworked Attributes (From 9 to 6) - Reworked Talents (Mostly modified to work with new mechanics and changes) - Reworked the Ambitions mechanic to "Corruption", complete with Track, Flaw, Anchors to embed character background etc. - Reworked some small background details, extended background in small places - Reworked Character Advancement - Added "Anchors" to embed characters in game world, also to drive home point of sliding scale of corruption, finally as hero-points - Reworked combat and armour and hp. Players now collect "Exhaustion" and armour serves as bonus exhaustion points. - Reworked Opponent mechanics, further simplified to three-state mechanic and easier construction - Added "Tension System" as well as some smaller changes - Took out Example of Play, it needs reworking, very much so. Also WAR-system. That was bad. - And a lot of small stuff.
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Nov 8, 2017 10:54
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Wheww...exhausted. Just finished writing the newest iteration of my homebrew dark renaissance game Gates of Gehenna. Can I interest some of you in throwing some opinions my way? Helpful suggestions what I might do to improve it? And yes, a regular editor would be nice, but Iīm poor and not a native speaker =/
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Oct 10, 2018 23:58
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LatwPIAT posted:[...] Interesting. Not only in questioning whether Chivalry & Sorcery actually holds anything downright slimable, but whether the same approach can be used for other games. Could you use the same logical steps to slim down ADnD, for example? Also, couldnīt you pair down the d100-roll to a d20 as well, only using it akin to Unknown Armies with a flip-flop in to-hit? 20 becomes 02 etc., thus reducing the number of dice down to 1d20+1d6?
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Oct 16, 2018 09:24
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Question: Given modern design sensibilities, concepts like "Design to Type" and "Design according to the play experience you want", I am currently thinking of writing a new game, but am somewhat stumped due to the overwhelming number of different resolution mechanics I could use which somehow do offer deeply different ways for play. The game: The players take the role of low-level monsters in a fantasy world and are given missions by an evil overlord to destroy and enslave the world of the living. Think your standard DnD Fanasy World from the side of the monsters. Like players play skeletons, become stronger if they survive and develop into bone giants, or zombie warriors, or soul-eating spirits, etc. - But Iīm kinda miffed by the idea of a d20-resolution mechanic because it feels...well not like the best it could be for that kind of game. - I was thinking of using Blade in the Darks dice and resolution mechanic, but it seems inappropriately focused and I donīt really want to go into the whole playbook direction because player death feels like something that might be needed and Blades didnīt strike me as a game with a whole fat chance of character death, more of defeat and consequences. - I tried a first look at the system used by Fragged Empire, but I donīt really grog the whole game, something about it just doesnīt click. Maybe returning to the F&F of it might help... - At first I was inspired by something like Cthulhu Dark, because of the idea that players use relatively little dice, only d6 and get the chance to use a concept like "corruption dice" to represent the evil overlords power slowly taking over but Iīm unsure if that is the focus I wanted to go on when I want players to also level up, develop greater powers and have the idea of the corruption dice slowly go into the background. Furthermore it feels like overloading what otherwise would a quick and easy resolution process. Iīm...at an impasse. Help me, SA Game Writing Hivemind =|
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Nov 13, 2019 09:05
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Game as described above. No-Mech #1: ...as they come upon the wooden palisades, numerous arrows fly through the air, hitting and felling many of their sort. It is with horror, as the barbarians see your compatriots rise again, the arrows useless against the fleshless bodies. Many start whispering prayers to their gods as Yorik next to you starts taking some of the arrows and rams them into the wood to use as a ladder for his bony feet. As you climb, you attempt to evade the big stones they throw down, some even hitting one of the other skeletons warriors the master gave you, flatteting and breaking their grey and ashen form, some hands, fingerbones and a rib poking out here and there. Finally, as you overcome the palisade and its thorny upperside, you throw yourself on one of the defenders, young men whose flesh vibrates with a tinge and makes your hatred at the living grow all the more. Deeply you thrust your sword into his belly and the clap of your skull can be heard widely as you begin the terrible chattering outsiders would think of as laughing...if you still had flesh and muscles at this point. No-Mech #2: ...Surely, raiding another masters dungeon is one of the more dangerous events in your unlife, but the masters order still holds strong in your mind. Take the Stone of Werdna from its throne inside the Mouth of Hatred, seat of the Elder Dragon Roahr. Already you can hear the others being impatient. Yorik already wants to stomp on the great visage extruding from the stone, yet you know, the danger in defacing Roahrs property. Slowly you begin to rotate the eyes, just long enough to wait for that click-clack that will open your passage. Just then, you hear it from above. Harpies! They threaten to attack your position, reveal it to the dragon himself. Suddenly you find yourself under much more pressure, yet I ask you, will you just let them rotate or continue to control each rotation? No-Mech #3: The village is asleep. The night is dark, and you can see the bright-red moon has risen. Blood nights. Best time for skullduggery. Yet, even from this far you can feel the holy power that emanates from somewhere within. Surely there must be some heroics going on in this godsforsaken little hovel. But you shouldnīt let yourself be found. Slowly, you sneak towards the graveyard, and begin spreading the dark seeds the Master gave you. Soon the Master will arrive, and legions will rise on his command, even from among the villagers few. But hark! A light? You can see, among the bloodred mist that has taken the world that some brave soul dares travel towards the graves, even at this doomed hour. Will you whet your swords? No-Mech #4: Your situation is bad. While the city around you burns, you know that these few will stand against you. Despite all the dead surrounding your legions, and the Master in close pursuit in the sky, here stand a few beings, willing to take a stand. Already you can feel the fire emanating from the elemental that burns with passion, and his companions, the heroes party, readying themselves. With but a cry you order your troops to attack, before throwing yourself into the fray, a tomb king among those waiting to be slaughtered. In a fierce battle, you exhaust all your options, yet find the human warrior more than a match for your mettle. Finally, as his strike disarms you and threatens to pierce your skull, you call to the Master, and feel his dark power envelop your breath... Mr.Misfit fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Nov 13, 2019 |
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Nov 13, 2019 14:24
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Any of you ever had this moment, when, after a playtest, your players most unanimously say "You know, this would be great as a boardgame, as an rpg, not so much." ? Feel a little bit crushed after last nights playtesting of my latest project =|
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Nov 26, 2020 08:31
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Didn't SA used to have some sort of rpg artists board somewhere? Can't for the life of me find it....  Was looking for someone to help out with a few cool scifi pixelarts on a shoestring-budget 
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Dec 19, 2020 04:52
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I took a long, hard look at my design and have since divorced them, but sure. I was trying to recreate a card-focused soft scifi strategy game where players invest as leaders of factions ressources into missions, and afterwards play out the mission most players focused into, with options of strategic betrayal and a sort of dramatic reversal towards the end. Think "Band of Blades" but more freeform, less playbooky and much much more interfaction rivalries and players vying for ressources and developing their "shared nation" while fighting tooth and nail for reclaiming the lost stellar empire. During missions, players would either take on the identity of the special characters they sent into the missions, or generic helper minions who could even be exploited as their death could tighten the campaign game clock towards a darker end. It was...rather complicated, truth be told, and in retrospect fraught with far too many choices for an rpg, but an interesting exercise at least in seeing what mechanics can be used and which seemingly don't survive player contact. Oh, also almost everything was basically card-based, from the player sheets, to ressources, characters to sectors, enemies etc. I still want to make something like that at a later point in times, but I know now that it'll have to be much focused than what I did in my early playtest drafts.
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Apr 7, 2021 22:06
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IshmaelZarkov posted:It's taken me three damned years, but... it's done. I've finally managed to get a system built from the ground up, playtested it, edited, and got it up onto drivethru. I've been fighting to get the manuscript to a point where a hard copy would work and... it's done. First of all: Good job!
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Feb 25, 2024 01:46
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Finally I had the time and energy to convert my self-written hex wargame into something I wanted to enter into gamecrafter. Turns out they don't do maps 22"x34". poo poo. Now I have to either work on a half/half map solution, or find another way/solution for an all in one indie board game making plattform. But in other news, my current project about the Hundred Years War nears writing completion and the artists have begun drawing needed maps. Now if only Osprey mailed back like they promised on their facebook page, I might have even had access to more than just historical pictures -_- Yay, progress.
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Mar 15, 2024 08:33
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