System Message

Halloween Jack posted:

Anyone familiar with Barbarians of Lemuria? It was a RPGnet Darling for awhile, but I found it to be a very bare-bones game that solved the "fighter vs. wizard" issue by just pulling out all the wizard stuff. So you're just rolling to hit, or rolling to succeed at a combat stunt like flipping a table or swinging from a chandelier. (And lo and behold, when they introduced alchemists as an optional class, it got options that baseline warrior characters don't get.) It seems like it was made in a period where people wanted to do "low fantasy" but hadn't come up with mechanics to make a game interesting without feat-like abilities or magical powers.

The Lone Badger posted:

Footskull.

Mors Rattus posted:

The pronoun for dragons is dre

Don't forget about dre

Because the book sure won't let you

Mors Rattus posted:

Its closest relative, to my mind, is My Little Pony, but it is not actually that good at it.

Halloween Jack posted:

So, having listened to the review: I have never seen a game where the true nature of the setting was hidden not only from the players but the GM, that managed to carry it off well. SLA Industries, Insylum, Noumenon, Lacuna, a|state, all of them are just half-baked as a result.

FMguru posted:

Mors Rattus posted:

Epyllion: The Dragon is perceptive, his eyes alert as his mind. Only he discerns a difference in a mirror.

So, moves! Let's see what they actually are.

When you stand up to an older dragon (NPC), roll +Courage. On a hit, they acknowledge your worth and address your concerns. Pick one:

Night10194 posted:

Also still not seeing why they're dragons instead of people (or horses, it sounded like the MLP Adventures RPG was actually perfectly serviceable for younger, newer players from its own review)

DalaranJ posted:

Saber Lasar, yeah that sounds like a human name
- Kevin Siembieda

wdarkk posted:

So out of curiosity, what is the ideal number of stats for a PbtA game in your opinion? Monsterhearts uses four, Dungeon World uses six, and Apocalypse World itself uses five.

Reflections85 posted:

Is Urban Shadows that bad?

Night10194 posted:

Man With Dog being a hero is universal.

Covok posted:

http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/asimo/teenagers-from-outer-space/

There ya go. Ursei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, etc. Just refluff it. And it's rules lite.

Mors Rattus posted:

In fairness, Blades in the Dark lets you take stress to get bonuses, too, but it does it...actually well?

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Alien Rope Burn posted:

[*]Healer: Fairly self-explanatory. Lets you heal people in combat by spending RP, take on their damage, sense others' conditions, vampire-drain people's lifeforce by spending RP, etc. Spells mostly center around removing conditions and afflictions.

Alien Rope Burn posted:

This looked cool and then I realized "Hey, wait, they can't hit a guy ten feet away?"

Alien Rope Burn posted:

It does raise of the question of "but what I rob the shop?"


To an extent, yeah. We'll have an absolutely essential stat-boosting kit later on and it's good to have it just readily available, but at the same time it doesn't actually say "by the way, this is very important", it just puts it there in the section and trusts players to find it and use it. So it's good that it's more clear than Pathfinder, it still isn't completely clear and can be missed by novice players fairly easy. It also raises the question of "if you're expecting PCs to have these ability score boosters, why isn't that just baked into the leveling system?"

Halloween Jack posted:

Plus, as expected, equipment is a big part of your character in a game where every 5th level Fighter is almost identical.

If I remember right--and possibly just due to odd phrasing--swords in Brown Box D&D are different from other magic weapons. First, in that they're the only ones that have intelligence and alignment and can grant special powers. But also in that while an Axe +2 gives a bonus to hit and damage, a Sword +2 only gives a bonus to damage if it has a bonus against a specific creature type (like a Sword +1, +3 vs Undead gives +3 to hit and +3 damage against undead, but just +1 to hit against everything else).

Mors Rattus posted:

...

gradenko_2000 posted:

3e/Pathfinder is a perfectly playable game, and a lot of what we've come to regard as "broken" doesn't even really "break" until at least level 5 and up.

We tend to look down on it because our standards are better than "literally isn't offensive and the rules are not beyond human ken", but for a lot of people, that's more than good enough for them.

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Starfinger Core Rules Part #12: "We’re tweaking the rules around gear and economics and magic. We want to make it a little less bookkeeping and a little more 'sense of wonder.'"
_{(Credit: James L. Sutter, Starfinger Creative Director, Geek & Sundry Interview)}

Alien Rope Burn posted:

[*]Spell Chips: So, these spell functions that cast spells through spell gems. It's notable that non-spellcasters can't use spell gems, but computers can. So if you're a engineer and you want to cast a spell, you get a computer to do it for you. Sure. Makes sense.

gradenko_2000 posted:

I recently discovered the Primitive Technology youtube channel, so I gotta ask: besides Wurm, are there any other games with a pre-Bronze Age setting?

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Vehicle Chases

So, chase rules.