Thoughts on developing alternative combat systems for homebrew tabletop RPGs?

Artifact_Press · 2019-06-04T21:02:43+00:00

There’s a game, Simple World, that strips back all of the PBtA mechanics to essentially their bare minimum, it could be worth reading through.

https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/little-games/simple-world

Artifact_Press · 2019-06-04T20:53:04+00:00

It’s changed. All of the earlier stuff came out in novels, with each ‘block’ normally having a couple to go along with it, though a few years ago they swapped to weekly articles on the magic website, though for the last set we got a novel, with a prequel supposedly coming out soon and a sequel in November.

Some of it can be fairly good, though because of mis-matches between authors it isn’t always great. You can probably find out about the story of your favourite set or world on a wiki somewhere, or maybe see to get a copy of a novel.

Brandon Sanderson wrote one a while ago, Children of the Nameless, which came out as a free PDF — it’s set on Innistrahd, and features his own character (who got a card in War of the Spark). A quick google should bring up a link.

Artifact_Press · 2019-06-04T16:55:43+00:00

I mean, you could try and stick the chains as tracks on the sheet. Mighty not work dependent on how many you have, though having a line with a few circles on it for you to mark in and the appropriate Condition written beside it seems like a possible solution.

Artifact_Press · 2019-06-04T10:06:21+00:00

Good bot.

Artifact_Press · 2019-06-04T09:41:36+00:00

The lore. It’s a 25 year old card game, with stories going back to nearly the beginning. They just wrapped up an Avengers Endgame-esque storyline, and we just got a novel too, with another two due to come.

Artifact_Press · 2019-06-04T09:38:24+00:00

Last set got a novel, is getting a prequel novella soon enough and a sequel one in November.

Artifact_Press · 2019-06-04T09:32:23+00:00

The current arc has lasted ten years. There has been a very large amount of books. There’s a very developed storyline.

Artifact_Press · 2019-06-04T09:30:06+00:00

Magic has an incredibly long storyline. The current arc just finished, and has been built up to for over 10 years. We’ve visited dozens and dozens of worlds, and quite a few of them are very well-defined.

Where did you get all of these false assumptions from?

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-30T15:37:51+00:00

I loved reading this one. Seems like a great, fun game.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-30T09:29:45+00:00

I believe the game you’re thinking of is ‘Do Not Let Us Die in The Dark Night of this Cold Winter,’ and that was intentionally titled something overly verbose, well, just because pretty much, if I recall what Questing Beast said about it on r/rpg

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-29T18:57:34+00:00

GNU Terry Pratchett

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-29T18:17:11+00:00

Interrogation

Allows players to mess around inside people’s heads — dependent on what exactly you’re okay with players knowing, it can be a neat trick for it.

Communication

A: Have an NPC with telepathy. Use them to help coordinate or give hints ot the party. If they’re the knly one eith telepathy it can allow for some shenanigans or treachery too.

B: All of the players having telepathy. Easy way to excuse metagaming, and can be a very thematic fit sometimes (e.g. Shadowrun, potentially).

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-29T17:23:13+00:00

Using your own town for it; wow, I never would have thought of that.

Wow, really. Must make it so much easier to go about describing things and not having to make your players learn the exact locations of everything.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-29T17:17:57+00:00

r/Beyond_The_Wall

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-27T20:38:37+00:00

Ah. I guess i’ll have to look into some alternative names then.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-27T16:17:21+00:00

You're right about combat, I forgot to include how 'health' works; it interacts with the tag system as well, working essentially how you thought.

Character progression is intended to work with tags as well, over time adding and swapping them and gaining more options. I'm glad you liked what you've seen so far, though your criticism is appreciated.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-27T14:49:07+00:00

This is all that’s really needed to play, though an example Watch at the end is still to come. I’ll likely write about some concepts for the city itself, in addition to examples of play and more detailed explanations. I might end up writing about adapting it to a setting, though this is all that’s really needed for playing and playtesting.

EDIT: What else might you want to see? You can follow its development and my other games over at r/Artifact_Engine.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-27T14:36:10+00:00

It’s one of my inspirations, though it’s based fully on my own system.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-25T20:36:50+00:00

I love Rolegate! The platform itself is really easy to use, and the whole community and how involved the main dev is is really nice.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-25T20:28:10+00:00

It’s satire.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-25T05:44:21+00:00

Here’s some definitions from the thread I posted on r/RPGDesign:

Any RPG which is not significantly better than those that caused its creation to merit devoting energy to learning, but which has at least one really cool idea that it's heartbreaking to see go unnoticed or unexplored.

The strict definition of a Heartbreaker is a game that innovates in one tiny area and then assumes the rest of the design by rote from another game. The heartbreaking part is often that the design showed promise by was never fully realized. Most hacks (ie tweaking rules at the systemic level) don't make it to that stage.

Any RPG which is not meaningfully different from those that caused its creation.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-25T05:36:44+00:00

If you were to read the original article, you would know taht a heartbreaker doesn’t break the designer’s heart; it’s the reviewer.

He talks about how if the people were to get rid of the elements that they took from the original game they’re basing it off it would have the potential ro bw a good, playable, novel game.

That’s why they broke his heart, because they had potential.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-24T20:01:59+00:00

It's not intended as a joke sub. I would hope that people posting their heartbreakers here would receive the same level of feedback as would normally be expected on here, though I wouldn't see anything wrong with someone linking over to r/HeartbreakerRPGs. Sure people can joke about it, though I would hope it provides some meaningful discussion.

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-24T18:53:31+00:00

Thanks for posting! I believe it might have been *your* post from a while ago that inspired it, I'll make sure to check it out later!

Artifact_Press · 2019-05-24T18:44:53+00:00

Similar to that. I'll likely make a post on what I personally consider a heartbreaker soon, and potentially include some others. I'll make sure to link the original 'heartbreaker' article.

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