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 Gameplay thread is here! Welcome to the wonderful world of The Next Project! Alright, so after pushing out the last of the classes that needed to be written (back at the end of 2016) I've basically been refining and retooling and tuning and whittling that poo poo down to a fine point for an additional 3 months, and now it's time to do some loving PLAYTESTING. There are now 15 classes to choose from (!!!) each with their own forms of subtypes and customization.What is The Next Project? It's a d20-based fantasy game, designed to emulate the feel of low-op, low-level 4e/Essentials D&D; it's intended to be something easy for newbies to get into, as well as something fun for experienced gamers to pick up and play. If you want a game with levels, full of itemization, char-opping, or MC shenanigans, this is expressly NOT the game for you. Who is this game for? This might be the game for you, if:
What can I expect from this playtest? YOU WILL FIGHT STUFF YOU WILL USE SKILLS Rules about Rules Anything in the Core Rules is A Rule (duh) Any 'suggestions' made by P.d0t in the google docs can be considered rules (everything should be clean at this point, but sometimes I forget stuff.) "Specific beats General" so if your class does something that breaks the rules of action economy or etc., it's probably intended. That all being said if you are unsure about any of the written rules please ask, and I will make a ruling if needed.Since this is a playtest, I reserve the right to overrule or otherwise hot-fix any absurd dogshit that I wrote, if it turns out to break the game once play has begun. What Classes can I play? (d4 classes)
(d6 classes)
(d8 classes)
(d10 classes)
(d12 classes)
Pretty much once there's enough players to form a party (3-6,ish) and we've had adequate time to address any questions or concerns. I check the forums 5-6 days a week, so I should be able to keep up with posting at least every other day. Would you like to know more?
If you use Discord, why aren't you running this on there, instead of PbP? Because I have a lame job and scheduling is too hard 
P.d0t fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Apr 13, 2017 |
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Apr 6, 2017 08:07
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Will get something up later this afternoon/evening. This has really come together into something cool P.d0t.
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Apr 6, 2017 14:28
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I'm in, something later today or tomorrow maybe?
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Apr 6, 2017 15:15
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I always wanted to check this thing out. I'm interested.
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Apr 6, 2017 16:54
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This looks rad, I'd like to roll paladin!
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Apr 7, 2017 02:40
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I'm definitely thinking Assassin is the class of choice.
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Apr 7, 2017 06:08
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 Ominous Jazz posted:This looks rad, I'd like to roll paladin! Paladins are a fairly solid class; they use d10, which means they basically poo poo damage. They've also got most of the stuff you'll want in order to play defender, but you can also be the healer if you commit to it full time. Keep in mind with the Paladin that you don't have to pick an Archetype, but not doing so will lock you out of the extra riders on your abilities, or any skill/power source customization. slap me and kiss me posted:I'm definitely thinking Assassin is the class of choice. Assassins are your standard sneak attack class. You benefit a lot from being Hidden, and if you kill something in one shot, your stand a good chance of being able to hide again, for free. An important quirk is that while you can stack a fair bit of damage, you're not a multi-attacking class; you pick one dude and then assassinate them. Rogue Tactics gives you some perks for being in melee, if you want to play rough-and-tumble.
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Apr 7, 2017 07:24
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I'll start out with a Cleric.
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Apr 7, 2017 23:44
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Interest post, waffling hard between Druid (Shapeshifter) and Spellbinder (Swordmage). e: yea, think it'd be cool to try that Swordmage out. Will have more of a character up later. Generic Octopus fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Apr 8, 2017 |
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Apr 8, 2017 19:06
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Look Around You posted:I'll start out with a Cleric. Clerics in this game basically get Warpriest (actually 'Crusader') and Invoker as their Paths to choose from; these are the melee and ranged subtypes, respectively. In either case, you natively get a X/encounter heal ability, and for Archetypes you also get to pick either War domain (focused on attack and damage) or Life domain (focused on defense and healing.) Invoker gets to spend their reserves to fire off bigger nukes, and Life domain lets you use your reserves in place of someone else'; in either case, you gain some healing when you spend your own (in combat) which is an exception to the general rule. Long story short, the 'primary role' is healing, and then you can kinda dabble around a fair bit from there. Generic Octopus posted:e: yea, think it'd be cool to try that Swordmage out. Will have more of a character up later. Swordmages are one of 2 classes that do the defender role by using marking. You get the choice to either focus on an enemy you want to counter-punch, or an ally that you want to keep protected; in either case, you teleport around to achieve your goal. You get some perks to OAs and Counter-attacks, so keep those in mind on your off-turns. Spellbinders also get a bit of an easier go (in terms of action economy) at using their combat skills, so keep those moves in mind, particularly Intimidate. As a d12 class, you can take quite a beating, but you're almost always going to be in melee and won't have as many tools for damage mitigation as something like a d4 class would. ----- Current Roster
Look Around You -- Cleric [???] -- (d8) Captain Walker -- ??? -- ??? Ominous Jazz -- Paladin [Blackguard] -- (d10) slap me and kiss me -- Rogue [Assassin] -- (d6) Generic Octopus -- Spellbinder [Swordmage] -- (d12) Alright, so ideally I'd like to get someone into a d4 class, and then we can start doubling-up on Class Dice after that, but to anyone who hasn't picked a class/posted in the thread yet please play what you feel you would enjoy. (e: Also probably want a ranged specialist in the party somewhere) My next day off is Tuesday (11th) so if we have all the players set by then, that'd be awesome. 
P.d0t fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Apr 10, 2017 |
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Apr 9, 2017 20:21
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By popular demand, there is now a TNP discord server 
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Apr 10, 2017 01:47
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Jozan - Human Cleric [Invoker, Life] Power Sources: Divine, Arcane Skills: Trained: Influence (Intimidate, Persuasion, Animal Handling) WIS (Animal Handling, Perception) Expertise: CHA (Persuasion, Bluff, Disguise, Insight) Knowledge Medical, Religion, Royalty & Nobility, Arcana, History, Religion Iconic Ability: Bless [Concentration] Iconic Ability: Divine Inspiration [Restoration] Iconic Ability: Divine Smite Jozan is a typical cleric of Pelor: kind, caring, good natured and slightly stoic. He went into seminary at the age of 15, orphaned after his family was killed by skeletons raised by the local necromancer in the woods. He began as a simple priest, spreading a message of renewal, of hope, but after the same necromancer attacked his hometown again, he had enough. He petitioned to undergo combat training, so that he could join the Dawnbreakers, the militant wing of the Church of Pelor, and wade into battle. His aim is not only drive out the necromancer menacing his town, but to eradicate the greater undead scourge as his deity preaches. Look Around You fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Apr 10, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2017 03:14
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Vladimir- Human Paladin [Black Guard] Powersources: Martial, Divine Skills: Trained: Influence (Intimidate, Persuasion, Animal Handling) Blackguard option: Subtlety (Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Bluff) expertise: CHA (Persuasion, Disguise, Bluff, Insight) Iconic Ability: Holy Aura (Blackguard) Iconic Ability: Zeal (Blackguard) Iconic Ability: Lay on Hands (Blackguard) The Paladins of the Frozen North are a nomad sect who worship from a pantheon of gods representing the virtues of civilization. In many ways, Vladimir is your typical paladin, sparse on material possessions, immediately recognizable by his faded holy symbol: the tattooed tally marks representing the northern pantheon. Despite his age, he lacks the cynicism and darkness in his eyes that most other paladins have. In his heart he still believes there is good in civilization, in conscious beings, and in himself. And he'll fight anyone who says otherwise. Ominous Jazz fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Apr 11, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2017 03:53
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Alessa, the Half-Elf, Druid Shapeshifter A restless spirit more at home in the wilderness than in sprawling cities or kingdoms, Alessa has been traveling the realm with one goal in mind; the preservation of balance. When Alessa took her druidic oaths in the fey wilds, she swore she would dedicate her life's work to the preservation of balance, be it through might, subtlety or discourse. Kind hearted and soft-spoken, her firm will comes as surprise to many, but nature demands order, and she'll see to it. quote:Subclass: Shapeshifter Anomalous Amalgam fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Apr 11, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2017 14:34
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Rae, Elven Swordmage Rae was a knight in service to the kingdom of Yllise; just a few months ago, she was assigned to the prestigious Queensguard, an order of knights founded to protect the royal family. An ever loyal soldier, Rae was a vigilant guardian up until the coup two weeks ago, when the King was assassinated and the Queen went missing (along with the captain of the Queensguard). With the kingship uncertain and the order fractured, Rae now finds herself reduced to little more than a sellsword, hoping to someday regain her lost status. quote:Rae, Spellbinder (Swordmage)
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Apr 10, 2017 14:46
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Slayn of the Shambling Order Assassin [Shadow, Martial] Power Sources: Shadow, Martial Die d6 Core Skills: Trained: AGIL (Balance, Jump, Tumble, Escape, Stealth) Abilities DEX (Search, Sleight of Hand, Open Lock) CHA (Persuasion, Bluff, Disguise, Insight) Skillsets: Detection (Search, Insight, Investigate, Perception) Expertise You have Expertise on all untrained skill checks, as well as all Infiltration checks and Subtlety checks. Iconic Ability: Rogue Tactics [Assassin] Assassin Ability: Cloak & Dagger Assassin Ability: Sneak Attack Slayn has killed many things. Dreams, hope, joy; once he even killed love. Slayn hails from many different places, all of them filthy, overcrowded, and dangerous. Wretched and lousy with vermin, Slayn is all but invisible to decent folk. He roams, lurching from parish to village, from town to fortress. Slayn doesn't seek out his victims; invariably, when someone falls to his blade, a contract with the Shambling Order is fulfilled.
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Apr 10, 2017 19:17
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Keep in mind, since Druid has subclasses, you can swap between them (Summoner and Shapeshifter) when you enter initiative -- or stick with one, throughout. Also, each one gives you an additional Iconic Ability (on page 1 of the class); I didn't see mention of it on your 'sheet', so I just wanted to make sure you knew about it. -------- Still waiting on a couple people, and I have a blogpost due on Saturday, so hopefully we'll get rolling before the weekend, but it might take a bit longer than that.
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Apr 11, 2017 03:39
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Game thread is now live!
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Apr 11, 2017 23:32
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Posting here to not clutter the combat too much, but regarding the Swordmage's counter-attack feature: taking the highest of the two dice as the defense result without the trade-off penalty applied makes it succeed 25% of the time, which is probably reasonable, but given that a d12 class' defense roll on a counter is facing similar odds (napkin math, average d12 yielding 6-7 means needing 16-17 on the d20, 20-25% chance), this means a Swordmage counter-attacking everything has comparable defense to a swordmage (or other d12) not countering (~45-50% vs 55%). Might be something to look at more closely, since it gives the Swordmage a neat catch-22 with the Sigil, but puts it in the position where always countering might be ideal. At that point the feature might be better off as "when you Counter, ignore the penalty," but that'd be an aggressive simplification that mostly removes a set of off-turn decisions for the sake of faster play/easier use. Generic Octopus fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Apr 14, 2017 |
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Apr 14, 2017 17:11
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Generic Octopus posted:Posting here to not clutter the combat too much, but regarding the Swordmage's counter-attack feature: taking the highest of the two dice as the defense result without the trade-off penalty applied makes it succeed 25% of the time, which is probably reasonable, but given that a d12 class' defense roll on a counter is facing similar odds (napkin math, average d12 yielding 6-7 means needing 16-17 on the d20, 20-25% chance), this means a Swordmage counter-attacking everything has comparable defense to a swordmage (or other d12) not countering (~45-50% vs 55%). Might be something to look at more closely, since it gives the Swordmage a neat catch-22 with the Sigil, but puts it in the position where always countering might be ideal. Yeah, I was discussing counter-attacking with Ominous Jazz a bit, and as a baseline, just always doing it might even be a viable strategy; as such, if anything, I might want to make counter-attacking more risky, particularly with the Swordmage stuff. An adjustment I'm kinda mulling might be to make it something like "if you counter-attack against an enemy bearing your sigil, you have Advantage on the defense roll." So it'd be a little bit stronger overall, but also limited in scope (instead of being usable against every enemy, ever.) (edit:) On another note, I'm probably going to cap the Engage Move Action, so that you can only become engaged with a number of enemies up to the maximum value of your class die; tankier d4/d6 builds will probably get double this value i.e. defender Fighter, Dire Bear druid. Generally, you should be fighting even more minions than what I threw at you guys, and there are enough powers that target all enemies in one maelstrom, that there needs to be some limitation; I think combat will be fast/short enough even with something like this in place. P.d0t fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Apr 15, 2017 |
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Apr 15, 2017 02:11
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Anomalous Amalgam posted:I believe I'm doing this right: I get to declare a target in the maelstrom to immobilize because I rolled a successful initiative? I'd like to apply that to tinbones. If that is not the case and I needed to roll to try and apply the immobilization, Wisdom Check (Immobilize): 1d20+1d6 14, I'd like to try and immobilize the tinbones. So the idea with the RAW is that if the skill check you roll for initiative is "successful" you get a little perk, depending on the skill. The problem is, if you roll high enough that you're at the top of the order, this one is kind of useless, since you (RAW) end up spending your action just to maintain it on the first round. I'm going to have to iron it out so that the rule is more succinct and works with each of the skills somewhat uniformly, but we'll hotfix this to say the Immobilize lasts at least through the 1st round/until your 2nd turn. Anomalous Amalgam posted:I take the form of the Stalking Cat, Subclass Shapeshifter Your starting HP is the "stacked maximum value of your basic roll" so as a d4 class, your basic roll is 1d20+1d4 = 24 So when you "gain HP" from Wildshape, you're adding that amount to 24. As a side note, your animal companion (if you go Summoner) will max out at 4hp, which is kinda low so I will probably boost that up. But you can also summon more than one (over the course of the combat) so long as your summons never exceed the cap of 8. I kinda think the startup for this is a bit too long for something with short combat as the goal, so I'm thinking I might allow the summoning to also be part of initiative, rather than having to wait for your turn. P.d0t fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Apr 23, 2017 |
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Apr 23, 2017 19:12
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Alright, throwing this guy in the ring per the Discord chat (SaracensFTW on there). Wendell is an....eccentric...scholar, spellcaster, and all around unethical lawbreaker. Claiming to have studied at nearly every institution known to man (and several more that are entirely unbelievable) depending on who he's talking to at the time, Wendall doesn't seem likely to have much of a truly scholarly background. But he makes up for that with the fact that he does, usually, seem to know what he's talking about when it matters. Where he picked up all of his information and magical talent is anyone's guess. quote:Wendell the Wonderful, Sage [d4] (Wizard) Slab Squatthrust fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Apr 27, 2017 01:54
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The Gate posted:Alright, throwing this guy in the ring per the Discord chat (SaracensFTW on there). Since you're going with School of Divination, you also get Detection skills trained. Pro-  Tip: Always Be Power-Attacking™
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Apr 29, 2017 09:55
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P.d0t posted:Since you're going with School of Divination, you also get Detection skills trained. I knew I was missing something skills wise. And yeah, being able to roll with advantage and then decide to power attack seems pretty good.
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Apr 30, 2017 23:48
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Added to the hotfixes in the game thread, but using skills is gonna be limited to "once per turn" just to kinda clear the air on that.
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May 7, 2017 20:29
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I've been tinkering with some of the classes that have been played so far; here're some links: Druid (4.1) Rogue Cleric (4.1) Spellbinder (4.1) Druid: - Added the Rejuvenation and Druidic Focus abilities; rejuve is the heal ability, DF replaces a bunch of the "double roll and stack" that the class had, by rolling it once at the start of initiative. - Beefed up damage on a couple of the forms, for Shapeshifter; beefed up summoning to get more + stronger summons into the mix, faster - Changed damage on RBA to use DF even with a form active (effectively only for Summoner or non-shifted shapeshifter) Rogue: - Put in the restriction on using the d20 damage ability. - Assassin's skill expertise changed to "all untrained skills" Cleric: - Backed off on giving Invoker basic attacks, but made it a War Domain option instead. - Invoker gets a Minor Action self-teleport and a Move Action that lets them shift enemies into a proper nukable formation. - Crusader gets advantage on Opportunity Attacks. - Divine Smite basic attacks still get advantage on the damage roll, but you can now stack the damage if an ally is engaged with the target; Life Domain smite basic attack now heals a Nearby ally instead of being limited to one engaged with the target. - Changed the Crusader's iconic attack from "make a basic roll and use either result for damage" to "you can power attack with this ability; you gain Advantage on the attack rolls if you do." - Invoker's reserve-burning damage on iconic attack now does damage, hit or miss. - Bless changed to a minor action, but now only benefits 1 ally. Also gains the [Sustaining] keyword. Spellbinder: - Change skill training again, mostly for the sake of Bards  - Swordmage Beguiling Blade changed as per the hotfix - Swordmage can now make an MBA or skill check as part of a teleport (not both) - Intimidate checks can target enemies who are not Immobilized, so long as they are bearing your sigil or hex. P.d0t fucked around with this message at 16:38 on May 10, 2017 |
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May 10, 2017 16:08
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Just posting another summary block for me to reference:quote:Rae, Barbarian
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May 12, 2017 13:48
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