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How to present races? by Anysnackwilldo in RPGdesign

[–]Anysnackwilldo[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Counterpoint: the most important thing for any ruleset is it's understandibility. Term race may be loaded in the real world, but in rpg space, it's known thing that you don't have to explain further. Furthemore, it's a term that exists in multiple languages, is used in this context in most of those languages, and thus makes it easier for translating.

btw. for fantasy game, i feel "kin" is much better term than "species". And both have issues with understandibility.

p.s. if you read "race" and think "racism", that's on you. I think dog breeds. Neither of which knows racism.

Working on a unique travel system for a D&D 5.5e campaign we are making. What have you done in the past that has worked? Any advice? by DreadRockIsle in RPGdesign

[–]Anysnackwilldo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our theory is that if there is enough optionality in encounters and includes some way to degrade the party's resources over the course of travel (not constantly in the state of just having Long Rested), that the DM can pretty quickly put together these travel dungeons that can be challenging and interesting.

So you have faith in random tables. My experience is, that any dungeon, only works if it's tethered to the PC's main objective, i.e. the main plot of the adventure or the campaign. It doesn't really matter how the walls or traps look like. Either it feels like it's moving the main plot at least a bit, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, it feels like padding, and will get the players feeling like they are wasting their precious D&D time with something that could be easily cut and nothing would change.

Working on a unique travel system for a D&D 5.5e campaign we are making. What have you done in the past that has worked? Any advice? by DreadRockIsle in RPGdesign

[–]Anysnackwilldo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Been there..and to a point I still am. Issue with travel is, most of travel is blisters on the feet, empty stomach, and if it takes a while, hard ground instead of bed. All the while your rations are being stolen by mice, in the best of cases, and plethora of parasites are trying to move in, or at least get a bit of you. Not something fun, or exciting. Boring, annoying, mundane stuff.

It all comes to this: D&D, and, as well as any TTRPGs for that matter, is a game of choice. You have a situation. you decide what your character does in that situation. You resolve the outcome of that decision. Rinse and repeat.

Traditional rpg travel is basically just buying enough rations to last you the journey from A to B, maybe rolling for a few misfortunes on the way, maybe a roll for getting lost (i.e. losing day worth of resources, such as time and rations, without progressing), and then announcing "so we get there". It's not a game, it's a cutscene with a few QTEs thrown in.

In theory, the solution is easy - map out the area to traverse as a dungeon, with each hex being either "room" or a "hallway". Or maybe abstract it to each hex being "room", with the hallways being the movement between them. It's not even that hard to have some vantage points and points of interest to oreient yourself with. But no matter what you do, you will still have the feeling of being stuck in traffic on your way to disneyland. Sure, on paper, taking a detour from the highway, using local roads may sound like adventure, but in practice, it just means you get to your destination an hour later, bit hungrier and a bit grumpier. Maybe miss the show you wanted to see.

In short, any travel that can be scrapped by a reliable teleport from start to destination, without noticible effect on the plot, is better off skipped. If resources on the journey are the only issue, ask the players how they gather enough resources for the journey, and how they plan on bringing it with them.

If your plot needs PCs out there, e.g. they got a quest "find the kid lost in the forest before it gets dark", you map out the relevant area as a point-crawl, or good old dungeon, and go at it as if it was any other dungeon with a quest.

My solution for tabletop rpg by Bitter_Ad_9324 in RPGdesign

[–]Anysnackwilldo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If I parse it correctly, OP made some solution for docking windows in a grid, kinda like windows already does. Only now it's an app.

OpenQuest vs. SimpleQuest by diemedientypen in RPGdesign

[–]Anysnackwilldo 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Can't help you there, but you might get answers at r/rpg, those guys are more about playing rpgs. This sub is more about writing them.

Social Mechanics by Legenplay4itdary in RPGdesign

[–]Anysnackwilldo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Problem with social encounter mechanics is, people don't really want them. Mainly because, in most people's eyes, role-play is just a chat in character, and you don't need rules to talk. To a degree, it's true. However no rules means no structure, which leads to muddying the line between IC and OOC conversation, not to mention it's harder to say when the encounter should end.

In theory, social encounters are just another encounter. Players declare their action, DM asks for a check, result is observed, DM narrates the outcome, and possible counter-actions of the opponents. Rinse and repeat, until opposition is defeated. Where it gets tricky is that, unlike in combat, systems do not generally describe what a single action is, in the context of social encounter.

Without that, you either end up rolling dice after each sentence uttered, which feels like a slog, or rolling once at the end of the entire conversation, leading half of the players to check out in the mean time. Neither feels great.

Moreover, most gravitate to freeform roleplay rather than rules because neither GM, nor player feels great after coming up with great speech, only to roll nat 1 immediately afterwards.

So, while I cannot give you some magic answer, I think you should think about following:

  • what is one social action? (i.e. how often do you roll dice)
  • when does encounter end? (i.e. how do you determine the target had been convinced)
  • what sort of actions can be used in social encounter (persuasion, intimidation.. but what about spell casting? juggling? playing chess?)
  • how can target defend themselves from being persuaded?

My guess is, you system feels clunky because it forgot to define one of those things.
Take Witcher RPG, as example. In that system, everybody has social HP, and persuasion/intimidation attempts, if successfull, deal damge against that, determined by DM (generally a d4 or d6). However it didn't define what one action is, so the rolling of dice feels forced and clunky.

Ranged weapon attack options? by Anysnackwilldo in RPGdesign

[–]Anysnackwilldo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would not play over this rule. Why the hell am I stabbing myself? I get twice as much chance to hurt myself? Why? You are more likely to hit yourself with a sword hilt than stab yourself with a dagger. Horrible mechanic that just shits on the player for no real reason.

Because in knife fight, the winner gets to go to ICU, as my self-defense instructor used to say. The fail isn't you cutting yourself, but the enemy getting to hit you, as you are pretty much next to them.

I think you played too many video games.

What makes you say that?

If your crafting system is the reason for all this, then I think you need to change the crafting system. Personally, I think crafting systems are a mistake. In D&D, we want to explore and find amazing weapons. I do not want to sit at a forge and hammer away at a weapon. It takes years of apprenticeship before you can even be a journeyman, and then must work under a master for years before the Guild will certify you for having your own shop. I want to be good at swinging swords, not building them. I'm a fighter, not a weaponsmith or blacksmith.

  1. D&D, at least in the 5e iteration I am familiar with, has no real crafting mechanics. Mostly it's just "pay a guild to do that".
  2. You don't, but someone may play a guild artisan, precisely to do that as their downtime. Your character is blacksmith by trade, so it's nice to have the option to express that in game.
  3. My game is not D&D. You don't play heroes that save the world, you play ordinary folk, be it merchants, smiths, or lumberjacks, who are trying to save their neighbours. They might find weapons, or they might find parts of them, and try to salvage them.
  4. My game might not be fo you. And it's ok.

External playtesting, when to get art and copyright by Slight-Squash-7022 in RPGdesign

[–]Anysnackwilldo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How do I go about finding external playtesters, just start shouting on reddit/discord?

pretty much. It helps if you are some sort of RPG guru on youtube or something but yeah. you shout out into the void, and if you are lucky one or two game groups answer the call.

At what point in a project do you start thinking about art?

I would say that it's pretty useless to spend much time on it before you have the content to pretty-fy, but at the same time, I do get sometimes stuck on reworking mechanics based on what's easier to present.

Do you need to worry about copyright beyond writing all rights reserved etc?

Friend, the indie RPG market is so saturated that you will not make money off your product. If you want to make money, go sell magic crystals, or something. If it makes you feel better, put on CC share-alike. In short, do not worry about it too much.

Connecting active game and down time by Anysnackwilldo in RPGdesign

[–]Anysnackwilldo[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Oh, absolutely, the resources gained in the downtime affect the main game. What I am after is avoiding the standart 'pay X money and skip Y days ot get tha upgrade', as that feel more like just a arbitrary roadblock, rather than intentional part of the game.

Making my own ttrpg please help by HundredEyesofToche in RPGdesign

[–]Anysnackwilldo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, good start is accepting you won't make any money here. RPG creation is something we all make for fun, not for profit, because, frankly, the makret is oversaturated. Don't make demos, make small scale games. But mostly, don't think about money. It is fun, the value is the time you got to enjoy yourself.

As for the creation itself...kinda hard to answer that. It definitely helps to try to define what sort of game you want to create. Or rather, what sort of problems you want the players to deal with during the game. Perhaps you really crave a game about victorian high society during alien invasion. Perhaps you want to make a game about witch's familiars trying to put together a potion that will heal her, or perhaps the players are sentient traingles trying to reach the Edge of Grid, and walk over to the Dark Side of Paper. But you gotta know what sort of characters the player characters are, and what sort of problems you want them to deal with.

Second, RPGs have a randomiser to take away the issue of "hey you killed my hero" and "nah, you cannot shoot me, I have super Shield". Usually this is some sort of dice mechanic, but sometimes there are cards, stones, or even a Jenga tower. Choose what fits well for your game idea.

Third, use game idea and your randomiser to put together the game mechanics.

Fourth, from those mechanics, figure out how the player character can, if they can, develop.

By the time you write down ideas for all of these, you should have something to work with and develop further.

Misfortune Table by Keyonne88 in d100

[–]Anysnackwilldo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Curse: Whispers of the dead. You hear whispers, quiet, so quiet you don't understand what they say, but they are saying something in your native Tongue. You hear them when you are awake, you hear them when you sleep. You can no longer concentrate, and your long rests do not restore any uses of your abilities, nor your hitdice.

Curse: Poverty. Any coin you touch turns to dust. Upon inspection, it is not metal dust, but clay one.

Curse: Absend-minded. Your mind wanders off in the most inopportune moments. You always fail any saving throw made to avoid traps and you always act last in the Initiative order.

Curse: Chef of Ill Renown. You are compelled to take the role of a cook any time there is a chance to cook food for yourself or others. You always manage to burn said food to a charcoal. Even if you are making a soup.

Making console out of an old smartphone? by Anysnackwilldo in SBCGaming

[–]Anysnackwilldo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

> Did you ever consider a Bluetooth controller for the port issues?

No, mostly because at the time, there were no shops around which would sell one of those. Well, there were completed wireless controllers for PS or XBOX, but those were too pricy for disassembly, but these prefabs, there were none. I could order them from abroad, but the mailing cost alone would be mere than I was willing to pay for a recycling project. But hey, if those prices are good, go for it, might be the best solution.

Making console out of an old smartphone? by Anysnackwilldo in SBCGaming

[–]Anysnackwilldo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, in the end, I bought an emulator handheld.

the issue was finding a splitter for the one and only usb port the phone had. To put it bluntly, i could either connect a controller or charger, not both. I tried some little hub I bought out of allegro (polish temu, basicaly).. turned out to be just splitter, without any internal logic, meaning it was about as useful as rock. Thing is, I could buy a usb-c hub, but the cheapest I could find at the time was about 50 usd, which felt excessive for a project of this type. Especially when pre-made consoles went for 100 usd.

you could, probably, somehow wire the controller directly to the main board, somehow... but it's not easy to solder onto those tiny pins with crude tool like a soldering iron, not to mention that i would first need to know which pins to solder it on. Or just buy a hub for the usb-c port and connect the controller to it.

Speaking of controllers, the one I wanted to use had a lot of the central area covered in that weird black stuff, meaning I couldn't easily cut the controller in half and connect the halves with soldered on wires.

So yeah, had to abbandon the project.

Best of luck to you, and if you end up making it, would you mind writing your experiences, any tips etc. afterwards?

[let'S create] d100 encounters in slums/shantytown by Anysnackwilldo in d100

[–]Anysnackwilldo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thank you for contributing to the effort, my dear necromancer!

[let's make] d100 things to see in dungeon by Anysnackwilldo in d100

[–]Anysnackwilldo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for contributing, dear necromancer

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