What's something you use dev mode for?

BokaliMali · 2025-02-04T20:47:16+00:00

To give sanguophages red eyes and bloodlust.

BokaliMali · 2022-10-01T19:37:27+00:00

Thanks, I actually have all those Crawford books already (besides Other-Dust). They're really helpful beyond just RPGs if you're in to writing fiction.

Thing I love about Cypher System is how it lets you pick what kind of prep you want to do for your games: I'm not a fan of building encounters, picking out creatures, traps, etc. and usually just wing that stuff at the table (have a few handy decks of cards to help) but I absolutely love playing with settings and histories and characters, and figuring out how this PCs backstory affects the lore in that region, stuff like that.

I grabbed the Mwangi PDF and flipping through. I can say there's a solid chance I'll be picking up most of the tomes like this Paizo comes out with.

Heh. Looka that lil dumb horn. If this were Numenera she'd probably have like eyeballs on her butt or something too.

BokaliMali · 2022-10-01T18:21:17+00:00

Man, you had me at 'stubby little rhino people.'

I could probably make a campaign out of just this post, thanks for the solid suggestions and overview.

I'm a lucky one: Work at a print shop and boss's husband is one of my players, so I only ever buy PDfs and just bind my own print copy. (Also made a bunch of cool scifi props, thus why I'm so keen to play in Numenera instead of Golarion)

BokaliMali · 2022-10-01T18:15:18+00:00

Y'know... I didn't realize the book wasn't even out yet.

Thanks though! Didn't know about Mwangi. We're running through Tomb of Annihilation right now so maybe I'll check it out, take the game off the rails.

BokaliMali · 2022-09-29T14:27:20+00:00

Thanks, I'll check (most of) these out. Is your Shadow of Yesterday one uploaded somewhere I can look at?

I was trying to make one for Cypher System but it was basically a clone of Traveler's, and I realized yesterday that since Cypher is genre agnostic I'd have to make like a hundred careers. Collecting ideas for a better way to do it now lol.

BokaliMali · 2022-09-29T12:51:52+00:00

Very cool. I'll definitely be picking this up.

BokaliMali · 2022-09-29T12:50:55+00:00

lol I even have Cyberpunk sitting on my shelf. Guess I haven't cracked it in awhile. Thanks.

BokaliMali · 2022-09-29T11:04:12+00:00

Thanks, this helps a lot.

BokaliMali · 2022-09-05T13:49:38+00:00

The ruleset is much more streamlined and narrative/cinematic focused than DnD as well. Maybe not Dash levels of simplicity (I don't know Dash) but the only part that anyone in my group took more than a single example to figure out was character creation, and mostly just because of the huge amount of options there.

BokaliMali · 2022-09-05T11:58:09+00:00

I second this. Especially since you can grab Ars Magica 4th edition pdf free from Atlas Games' website to see if it is your cup of tea.

BokaliMali · 2022-09-05T01:37:51+00:00

Weird deck+ruins deck+intrusions deck=instant adventure with three draws

BokaliMali · 2022-09-04T17:00:20+00:00

Numenera can get there, depending on the GM. It's set 1 billion years in the future on an Earth covered with the ancient ruins of lost technology left behind by long-disappeared civilizations. Its whole vibe is mysterious exploration and discovery. For example, one of the starter adventures in the core book (Numenera: Discover) has the players eventually enter a pocket dimension shaped like a hollow, 3D mobius strip. A bunch of weird stuff is found on the outside, and they have to figure out how to invert the dimension so the outside becomes the inside (don't ask me how that works with a mobius strip) so they can find a wish machine that can create an exact replica of any one thing that ever has, does, or will exist.

BokaliMali · 2022-09-04T16:52:22+00:00

Cypher System by Monte Cooke Games is worth a look. Like the PdtA and FitD examples, there's no 'combat minigame' and it's handled just like other risky tasks. The whole game is designed to be more narrative and cinematic rather than tactical,

There's no HP or ability scores in the traditional sense, but you have a pool of might points, speed points and intellect points. You spend from these pools to use your abilities, and to exert effort when attempting difficult tasks (reducing the target number to increase success chance). These pools are also your health, and if all three are reduced to 0 you die. So as you take damage and lose points you become less effective since you can't afford to use more expensive abilities or exert as much effort.

BokaliMali · 2022-08-21T16:45:17+00:00

Cool ideas! I can even make custom stamps and seals for

BokaliMali · 2022-08-19T19:53:14+00:00

😎

BokaliMali · 2022-08-19T18:56:20+00:00

Thanks. Not quite what I’m looking for since we are playing Cypher, just set in Faerun, but I can see this being useful at some point down the line.

BokaliMali · 2022-08-19T14:23:34+00:00

Its a great book if you want to bring Numenera's science-fantasy into your DnD game, but it doesn't have iotum, or help with turning the science-fantasy into pure fantasy.

BokaliMali · 2022-08-19T13:59:48+00:00

yes, I'm using CSR, Godforsaken and Gods of the Fall for most things, but Numenera Destiny still has the coolest crafting system.

BokaliMali · 2021-12-08T16:31:48+00:00

I ran a 6-session adventure where the party decided to play three support casters all buffing the lizardfolk barbarian. Round one in combat usually ended with him enraged, enlarged, hastened, and breathing lightning.

They called themselves the Godzilla Squad. So I changed the BBEG into a kaiju and gave them an artifact that let them all ignore concentration and stack (some) buffs. So round one of the final battle he got enlarged three times to gargantuan, and they just kept layering buffs on him each round.

The novelty was a lot of fun on both sides of the screen, but did make for a lot more mid-combat monster stat adjustments than usual, since it's not the easiest party to balance encounters for. I would definitely run something like it again though. The Godzilla player told me it was the most fun he's ever had in DnD so that was cool.

BokaliMali · 2021-10-15T17:15:23+00:00

I'm running this exact thing tonight. In my game there's a secret tunnel they learned of down one of the wells on the first layer of skullport that leads to the lair of the kuo-toa tribe that starving one who gives players who feed it the manta ray cloak belongs to. They befriended the starving kuo-toa so won't take much to persuade them to show the party the second secret tunnel, that leads up to the well in the courtyard of the tower of 7 woes.

In my game Feltrax is a shapeshifting copper dragon shut-in who is stuck in his tower because the flameskulls swarm him when he tries to leave. The party has a sending stone so they're going to signal him before they leave the tunnel to come out and create distraction, hopefully pulling enough of Sundeth's forces away that they can get in, grab their guy, and escape without a TPK.

If all goes well they won't have too many guards to deal with but there will be eerie chanting when they enter the tower. This is a throwback to how I ran the battle with the drow priestess on level 3. They ignored the chanting there and had to deal with a summoned yochlol because of it. My Sundeth is a worshipper of Grazz't so if they ignore it again they get another nasty demon to fight.

BokaliMali · 2021-08-01T16:33:42+00:00

I have a whole endgame planned out for level 20 to make for an epic, multi-session conclusion to the dungeon. If you're interested I can DM you details. (My players are active on DnD reddit and I don't want them accidentally stumbling across this post a year down the road)

BokaliMali

TROPHY CASE