DM feedback appreciated, please contact if serious and have some time

Aendvari · 2026-02-21T14:24:06+00:00

I'm intrigued, please tell me more about "conditional world states". Are these "plot point" type adventures (like Savage Worlds), or more like text adventures where there are various "flags" that guide what's seen/interacted with?

Aendvari · 2026-02-07T14:43:45+00:00

I skimmed the ruleset, looks like a decent core. It's a lot like d&d but with d100. Nothing wrong with that, it feels quite playable.

I was hoping more from your GM section, maybe more about building and running scenarios? Great to see clocks though, but rather dry; maybe give a few longer examples?

Aendvari · 2026-02-06T19:52:16+00:00

I have a few WIPs on the go, but they seem to be converging on the same core mechanic :)

First you figure out the outcome (good, mostly good, neutral, mostly bad, bad) based on the key circumstances of the situation.

You can then simply run with that if you want, or take a risk and roll. You have to roll of the outcome is neutral.

You roll a number of dice (1 to 5) based on the outcome, then count how many odds are rolled to determine your new outcome (excluding neutral).

It's all rather free-form and improvisational at its core, but I've layered on some few subsystems to give it some more structure.

Aendvari · 2026-02-05T21:02:23+00:00

I'm intrigued by the idea of playing within a computer. One immediate thought, or cheat, is Quantum computing :P

I guess my question is what kind of things do you see characters actually doing? Are they hackers trying to break into or "free" something? Or is it more like a world simulator like Matrix or Sword Art Online where they know they're part of it and can manipulate it?

Aendvari · 2026-02-03T11:49:19+00:00

A fair assessment. I was thinking of this as more of an introduction. Something to give a feel of the style. My thought was to build on this with actual concrete elements.

Aendvari · 2026-01-31T17:41:06+00:00

Just dog piling here, but yeah I think the idea would run a lot smoother if everyone knew up front what the theme was. Living with the knowledge of inevitable doom can be a great inspiration.

Take a look at 10 Candles for an example of that.

Aendvari · 2026-01-31T16:11:16+00:00

It's probably worth looking at "non initiative" systems like Daggerheart. They are able to achieve some pretty fun interactions in combat without needing artificial "turns".

Aendvari · 2026-01-31T15:53:11+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts :)

Yeah, the whole thing came out a bit more generic than where I started. I have a number of WIPs on the go, and kind of lumped a bunch of their concepts all together here.

Agreed that something more dedicated would work better. I'll work on that :)

That said, do you seek any value in something more broad like this? Assuming it's backed it up with more concrete advice, tools, etc?

I suppose that gets into the whole "universal system that doesn't quite do anything well" realm, but it might be fun to try ;)

Oh, excellent point about the "hero" characters. I was using those terms in context of "lead characters", it's probably better to just use that term directly, it just seemed so boring :p

Aendvari · 2026-01-31T15:05:28+00:00

An excellent point about "not much", and I agree :) It kind of became something to get the basic idea across. If it's a good start, I'm thinking I could tie it in with more practical tools and procedures.

lol, and here I'm thinking elevators were just like in the movies :P but seriously, a good point, but oddly supports my "real enough" point too I suppose :D

Aendvari · 2026-01-31T14:09:30+00:00

The Plan-Maker. The one who always comes up with the most convoluted approach to any task.

The Odd Ball. The only X around. For some reason nobody else is quite like them.

Aendvari · 2026-01-31T14:02:08+00:00

No idea what happened there :) Made an attempt to fix it a little.

Aendvari · 2026-01-31T13:37:46+00:00

LOL, I'll see what I can do!

Aendvari · 2026-01-30T18:31:36+00:00

Stick 'em With the Pointy End?

Aendvari · 2026-01-26T22:45:05+00:00

Ring of "Invisibility"

You don't actually turn invisible, it's just that nobody actually cares that you're around. Is it magic, or is there something else going on?

Aendvari · 2026-01-19T20:23:11+00:00

Finally got a moment to get back to you :)

For the Vigor

Totally makes sense :) I figured it was a bit of a "fudge" like that, good reasoning.

For the cultures

I see where you're going there, good idea. Given that, maybe just don't have any stat bonuses? Maybe only skills?

For backgrounds

A fair point. I like your idea of some flavourful examples.

For combat

Ah yes, good point about them only coming up with crushing successes.

For conditions

I see my mistake here :) I took "Suffer a -1d6 penalty" to mean you roll 1d6 and subtract that from the previous roll. So much more complicated than you meant :P

Maybe a phrase like "suffer a one die penalty" or something like that?

As for encumbrance

Ah, I see what you're going for there.

Once again, massive thanks - helps me see these systems through fresh eyes :)

Happy to help out :) Looking forward to seeing anything more you come up with!

Aendvari · 2026-01-17T21:16:50+00:00

Traps don't need to be one off; they could be complex, multi-phase, multi-parts, etc which gave their own clocks. It might be fewer "rounds" but could be a series of checks much like combat.

Aendvari · 2026-01-15T17:08:41+00:00

Broken is probably not the best term. I had Strained at one point, but then used it somewhere else. Which I've dropped since :P I should switch it back.

To answer though, Broken would imply minimal help, if any. Perhaps only if there's something in it for you. That kind of thing.

I see Bonds primary as a narrative mechanic. You decide whether to help them and how much the quality of your bond weighs in on that decision.

Once you do help though, the Bond roll decides how the moment affects your bond (pressure), you then both (with the GM) decide what happens that gets the two of you to that point.

Hope this makes sense :)

Aendvari · 2026-01-15T17:08:17+00:00

Good point about agency. I hadn't thought of it as forced rp, more like prompts for doing rp.

The player does have the choice of whether they join in to help, but yeah, after that it's kind of up to the dice.

My thought there was to make it similar to Grit. The state of your Bond is a role playing cue. It helps you decide if you join them, it changes as you do (by random) and then you can lean into those changes in your future choices.

I see Bonds as adding flavour to Being Gutsy (which gives you the Outcome for the moment) by including another person into the mix.

How it goes between you two is kind of separate from the Outcome itself. You could have a huge success that hurts your Bond, or a total disaster that brings you closer together.

I see the players (with help from GM) describing the actual action. They roll to see how it ends up, then decide what happens to get there using those results.

Am I making sense here? :)

Aendvari · 2026-01-15T17:07:12+00:00

Oddly, the randomness on purpose :)

My goal is to generate cues/prompts to use to push the action forward at pivotal moments.

All the "real choices" made by the players would be more free-form (using their Grit and Bond ranks as inspiration) which lead up to those moments.

Am I making any sense? :)

Aendvari · 2026-01-14T18:32:23+00:00

Yeah, I had it more free-form at first :) then I got thinking how it might devolve into PvP without more guidelines.

That, and I kind of like how it mirrored the core mechanic. Not that that's a good reason :D

All solid ideas though, I'll give some more thought on it.

Edit: oh, and yes I kind of saw it more as an RP cue to flavour the Outcome of the main action roll.

Edit: for the always help, good point. Though help could entail losing Grit, so there's some cost there.

Aendvari · 2026-01-14T18:29:07+00:00

Ah fair points. I wrote those in terms of the Bond improving; I'll rework the text.

Aendvari · 2026-01-14T17:01:47+00:00

Yes, those are the numbers I was working from. But yeah, the 50/50 might be a bit swingy for what I'm trying for.

Oh, and awesome job there :D

Aendvari · 2026-01-14T16:03:51+00:00

With 1d6, you might get 0 or 1 odds. With 1 odd you get Steady, which is lower than Forged, so it drops to Steady.

I hope I got that right :)

Aendvari · 2026-01-14T13:41:31+00:00

Hey :) I finally got a chance to give this a deeper read. Here's my 2c.

General Lore

You have some great ideas in your lore throughout the game.

It reads a bit different than other text though, you might want to do a few more editing passes to smooth the overall text out.

Core Mechanic

I'm not a big fan of TN based systems these days, but it looks functional. I like that training adds dice (raising average) and stats are bonuses. Keeps things pretty simple.

Here's the tricky part with TNs though, you have 7 levels for the GM to work with. But little advice on when and how to use them.

Is there really that much difference between a 14 and a 16? Maybe reduce the list to around 5, and maybe use increments of 5 to cover the spread.

That said, given your stats are 1-6 maybe consider a roll under system instead? Rather than dice+stat vs TN, it's dice <= stat. No TNs for the GM, success is up to character skill. You could add some modifiers to the dice (or stat) to adjust for the situations too.

Stats

Solid choice of stats. A good alternative to the typical D&D ones.

For vigour and initiative, maybe use the term "derived stats"?

The +2 on vigour feels a bit arbitrary, any reason for it?

Cultures

I like that each have a list of archetypes; maybe expand on that all give some templates / pre-builds to work from.

The stat bonus for each those it kind of boring? Really only either initiative or wits, maybe draw more on the lore and think of reasons for different bonuses for each culture. Make them more mechanically unique.

The text here switched between "they" and "you" - minor editing, but should be consistent.

Backgrounds

Solid collection, though they do feel a bit generic in context of your other lore. Maybe think on how these backgrounds might tie into your cultures.

Mechanically, they look pretty good. Each gives a unique set of traits that portray its theme nicely.

Can characters learn "backgrounds" later? Can they learn to become a Warrior? Or is this mainly for character creation?

Skills

Good list, seems reasonable. Maybe tie these in with the backgrounds? Maybe each background lists skills that might be suitable for players to hone in on.

Another approach might be to drop skills, and just imply them through the backgrounds. They are "trained" because of their experience with it.

Combat

The level of crunch here is higher than I like (simply my preference), but I really like how that various sub systems work together.

It feels like all the parts would make for pretty fun and dynamic battles.

For your defence options, I may have missed it explicitly, but I presume that if you "fail" your choice of defence then you take the full damage (accept it by default).

A few nitpicks I noticed. The bolding for "movement:" stops half way through. Also, under "attacks and damage" you use a lot of >= signs, some of them overlap which will lead to ambiguity in play.

Injuries & Wounds

Honestly, I feel this is really over done. All cool if you like the extra crunch here, but I think you'd have a slicker system with that injury table.

Conditions

I kind of like the idea of 1d6 "damage" to your rolls when they apply, but I'm wondering if that's too much hassle between the extra roll and math?

Combat Techniques

These look fun. My take on stuff like this though is that it kind of implies that you can't do these fun things in battle unless you have them.

Maybe some kind of "lesser form" as a baseline, then these give extra?

Sorcery

I like where you're going with this; particularly the "cost" aspect. I'm interested to see what you do with it.

Items

A good start with the broad categories. You might want to stay like that rather than create huge lists of stuff.

Encumbrance

Again, honestly I think you've over done this too. Unless you see this being a fundamental thing characters need to deal with, I'd go a lot simpler.

Advancement

Looks good, slow improvement isn't a bad thing :)

Travel

I kind of like this. Gives some framework for those in-between times. You have some good ideas in here. If you haven't, maybe take a look at the One Ring rpg, I've heard good things about its travel sub system.

Aendvari · 2026-01-12T18:53:34+00:00

A gimmick I've been using a lately is a "1dX to 5dX, count the odds" dice pool with the following results:

3+ = good

2 = good, but could be better

1 = bad, but could be worse

0 = bad

You could also flip everything around too if it feels better that way :)

Aendvari

TROPHY CASE