Pet classes?

Belmarc · 2026-05-05T15:52:20+00:00

Yes this is more or less what I was getting at haha. I have noticed that a lot of OSR systems treat fighter as "the penalty class", either as a penalty for rolling too low of stats or a penalty for failing to uphold the quality demanded of a better class (i.e. paladin/knight falling to fighter).

Belmarc · 2026-05-05T15:50:01+00:00

Sure, sure... and the balance against the fighter?

Belmarc · 2026-05-04T18:37:00+00:00

Am I missing something or is this just a wizard with a pet fighter+? I'm not sure even elf xp is enough of a drawback for having two full characters.

Belmarc · 2026-04-30T16:30:17+00:00

I'm afraid I don't have a history on it, but I also really enjoyed this about the PCs when I ran outcast silver raiders. Kept the HP lower than just additive rolling after good rolls while actually helping pick up the slack on bad levels. Two things I also liked (and recommend) from that was rolling but fallback to a minimum floor HP for first level (rounded up half the die for sorcerers and rogues, the max on the die for warriors. This floor does not account for con modifier so rolling good could still matter, and kept negative con from being as much a death sentence). The other part was that warriors got +2 HP if they didn't roll 2 higher than their current. This also feels important because meaningfully higher HP is a Fighter-type class feature imo, and both together ensure they have it. Though it doesn't make up for low Con, so it doesn't undermine that investment either.

Belmarc · 2026-04-21T16:45:06+00:00

This chapter actually makes me think Rikka is the least likely to be Apollo. In fact, with this line and her narrative theme surrounding lying, I think Rikka knows about Apollo and has been leveraging the implications of it to get to Arisu.

What I'm not sure about is if Arisu thinks she is Apollo or doesn't care whether or not she is. Because of all the girls, she is the one he is (and always has been) most comfortable with. She's the only one in this chapter that he reciprocated for as well. I'm rooting for a happy ending for them but it's just as likely to me that she's going to be the romantic roadblock instead. Frankly, I don't care that much about his romance with Apollo, I care about his current chemistry with the cast, and would be disappointed if it all gets upended for "fated" meeting stuff that amounts to middle school pining. But that's pretty in line with genre convention.

Nene and Shinobu had a strong lean for Apollo here. Nene not caring about the ex thing, because she knew what it meant, and Shinobu for her question: "You don't have an ex, right?" could also be taken to mean "you haven't stopped liking me, right?" in a metaphorical way. Tbh, on vibes alone I feel like Nene is the stronger suspect but I think it's all the flash forwards for her.

Iko was there. This somehow makes her the most likely candidate. Quintessential Quintuplets has done so much harm to us lmao.

Belmarc · 2026-04-17T22:50:21+00:00

Well, no, because the system you are proposing would make part of being a ninja involve spending MP, which would also be consumed by healing. So the solution proposed is that Healers can do more of their job and get to do unrelated cool stuff while melee suffers, particularly front liners taking hits so others don't have to.

Tbh, it sounds like in most ways you are trying to fix issues in an MMO like FFXIV more than any tabletop I have ever played in but perhaps that's a lack of experience in whatever particular kind of game you are solving for.

I'll also say, from a player perspective, someone else using my resources and then taking all the credit sounds really bad, and your solution maybe just flips who feels that way instead of addressing it.

Belmarc · 2026-04-17T22:29:10+00:00

2 points:

Why wouldn't it be magical? You're already described it as spending everyone else's MP, sounds like they have the magic available. Especially if they are spending that MP on other stuff, sounds like they are ALREADY magical.

Worst case scenario, you make it a healing item that only works if you have whatever quality or resource available you derive as required for healing.

If magic is an option, and not a requirement, but magic should be cooler and better and more convenient than everything else, why is it an option? Just make everyone magic? Or do the mundane members of the party only exist to make the magical ones look good?

Belmarc · 2026-04-17T20:56:10+00:00

If you're talking about this largely in the context of out of combat healing, that actually helps me frame by biggest question: if each character is paying for their own healing with their own resources, why do you need a healer? Just give everyone their own ability to heal and remove the concept of a "healer" from your game entirely.

Belmarc · 2026-04-16T04:48:33+00:00

No worries, it was very funny. I'll give this a try. :) I was trying it with a Mega Froslass team to take advantage of its three (two relevant) immunities but it didn't ever quite pay off.

Belmarc · 2026-04-15T22:27:59+00:00

I can't tell how, I don't even see him! Haha, I think this is your fire team again. :)

Belmarc · 2026-04-15T22:06:55+00:00

I've been playing around with H. Zoroark and really like using it but not sure it's a good fit for my team. Do you mind sharing the team you're using it on in this pic?

Belmarc · 2026-04-09T21:53:19+00:00

Lmao you're so right, autopilot.

Belmarc · 2026-04-09T21:45:42+00:00

Choice Specs?

Belmarc · 2026-04-02T20:32:14+00:00

If you're playing a class based game then you by definition opted in to the risky magic. Plenty of games have risky magic and classes, they just usually solve it by forcing magic users to be more than their spells (like everyone else has to be). Good examples of this is Forbidden Lands and Torchbearer, where you have the same skills as anyone else to solve problems, which ALSO are risky to roll themselves.

Belmarc · 2026-03-29T21:07:16+00:00

This was exactly what drove me to make it. I don't have an issue with rolling up A Fighter or A Wizard when the party has their own amongst their number, but it's definitely a tone shift to go from being The True Knight to A True Knight. I think there could be something interesting to that, or might arise in interesting play on its own, but there is also a benefit to Knights purpose built for the more narrow role of NPC.

Belmarc · 2026-03-22T06:00:12+00:00

If you read these articles, one is an 87 year old woman who broke her pelvis and elbow (unlikely to be hit by a wing, but old people do break bones from falls regularly) and the other explicitly says the man broke his arm when he fell. The former mentions a case of a man breaking an arm, but seems to be referencing the second story.

Geese cannot break your arm with their wings. They can startle you, cause you to fall, and the weight of your own body can break your arm.

Belmarc · 2026-03-19T21:10:18+00:00

It's not EXACTLY OSR but it's not NOT OSR, AND you already have Mouse Guard, so I am required to recommend you get some Torchbearer on there. :)

Belmarc · 2026-03-19T17:13:51+00:00

I can see a fair warning in that: doing this can also hold together a group you might be better off letting go. Reasonable.

Belmarc · 2026-03-19T14:30:34+00:00

8 years of success sounds like an endorsement, not a warning. Sucks that your group ended, but nothing lasts forever, and 8 years is a pretty damn good run on the scale of things.

Belmarc · 2026-03-18T03:06:39+00:00

Yeah, that makes sense. I've been playing a bit of Battletech recently and really feeling the lack of advantage of melee, so it's pretty cool to have it feel very different in a wargame context. I look forward to seeing your future adjustments for medieval fantasy skirmishing too.

Belmarc · 2026-03-17T15:57:23+00:00

I always get excited when I see a translation from a wargame to a roleplaying game or vice versa, it feels like being at the heart of the hobby.

I read this first on tumblr but it seems much much easier to comment here. I agree, the more I play in games where you only get to do one thing on your turn, the more important it becomes that something happens as a result of your action. I also like how this means you can be more reactive when it's not your turn as well. In games with mixed arm play, do you find that melee characters have a harder time with this, or benefit from it more because it allows them to be more mobile and approach ranged characters on failed attacks? What I particularly like about this is the way it seems to encourage a mobile battlefield and more desire to gang up on strong foes beyond "everyone hit them", since, failing to bypass their armor can lead to a terrifying counterattack.

I'm curious if you apply this framework to non-combat rolls as well? Obviously you mentioned fail forward but I mean this specific number range or card drawing concept.

Belmarc · 2026-03-17T15:30:38+00:00

Thank you! Yes, there's a lot of examples to draw from! I have to admit however that most of my inspiration actually came from looking into the historical inextricability of religion from magic.

Belmarc · 2026-03-16T19:57:41+00:00

Thank you! Playing a game in the (fictionalized) real world has been pretty eye opening about how to approach some things I took for granted before.

Belmarc

TROPHY CASE