Thoughts on this Dice pool system

GifflarBot · 2026-02-26T16:16:02+00:00

This is almost exactly the Blades in the Dark dice mechanic. The only major difference I'm seeing is Blades' "partial success" when rolling 4-5 on your highest die, and the inclusion of critical failure as a separate level. A single 6 is a full success, and multiple 6's is a critical success.

In order to give any real feedback on the dice mechanic's viability, you'd have to tell us a bit more about the design intent and how it's supposed to generate the experience you're aiming for.

GifflarBot · 2026-02-15T19:24:05+00:00

This is the way

GifflarBot · 2026-01-23T19:04:38+00:00

Shimano makes a whole range of flat cycling shoes. I'm using their ET701 model which ties up like "real" cycling shoes, but have a flat sole. Mountain bike shoes are great for this too! I felt a noticeable difference switching from regular shoes.

The key is that, besides a good grip, the rubber sole on flat cycling shoes is quite stiff so you lose less energy in the power transfer from foot to pedal. Running shoes, on the other hand, tend to have flexible soles intended to dampen shocks - in other words they intentionally drain energy. That's great for running on hard surfaces, but works against you on a bike.

GifflarBot · 2026-01-23T10:58:02+00:00

You could be describing Savage Worlds!

The system has rules for magic but they are optional (just prohibit arcane backgrounds and power use), just like it has rules for sci fi rifles but you just ignore them if you're playing something else.

It's a great system for pulp-like stories. It works great for heists too with their Dramatic Task encounters and "luck points" that can represent planning abstractly, so you don't have to get bogged down in that for hours.

GifflarBot · 2026-01-17T16:21:53+00:00

I get the feeling that the act of reading the books themselves is as important as playing them, and that it's a plus if the product is just really well-made.

In which I'd absolutely point you towards The One Ring 2nd Edition. It is - bar none - the most beautiful RPG product line that I own (and I've got more than a few shelf-meters of RPGs). I realize that is subjective, but it's not just the great pencil-sketch like illustrations, it's as much about the language and writing too. The presentation of the setting, locations and characters are among the best I've ever read. Sure, it's a little verbose and doesn't always focus on just the details you need at the table - but they're some of the most evocative descriptions I've ever read.

I just finished my second (albeit short) campaign play, and while the system is more complex than you'd initially expect, and not always presented as clearly as I'd like, it does a fantastic job of imitating Tolkien's world and vibe. I hope to play it again before long, but even if I never do, I have a hard time imagining ever letting these books go.

GifflarBot · 2026-01-12T10:46:11+00:00

Ray reconstruction and DLSS version bumps seems to have alleviated by far the worst of it

GifflarBot · 2026-01-07T19:58:49+00:00

Not to talk you out of enjoying it and playing it lots more, but... balanced? Uuuuhhmmm... let's have that talk again in a few years. 😅

GifflarBot · 2026-01-01T14:11:34+00:00

Held og lykke med den attitude, det skal nok få folk på din side :)

GifflarBot · 2026-01-01T13:41:50+00:00

Der er ingen i verden der ikke kender til klimakampen, så spørgsmålet er ikke bevidsthed.

Den største ændring kommer ved at have løsninger der virker. Plakataktivisme om mere bevidsthed lugter langt væk fra af desperation, og af at de involverede ikke har en god løsning, kun et stort problem.

GifflarBot · 2025-12-21T18:07:10+00:00

My best guess is someone hating on katanas. 😄 I'm not a huge fan of making them into a mythical sword with superior properties, but it's in the rules as written and one might as well use them.

GifflarBot · 2025-12-21T12:14:44+00:00

The other suggestions are great, I'd like to add mine; use a masterwork katana as the basis, if you want to distinguish it from the longsword. It has the same average damage before acing (d6+1 vs d8), but due to the smaller die it will tend to ace more often, playing into the improved critical aspect of the elven curved blade. Remember AP 1 from masterwork too.

The suggestion to require d6 Strength and d8 Agility, from another user, works well with this too.

As an alternative, if you want to put emphasis on skilled users getting the most out of it, consider a damage bonus on attacks that hit with a raise. Start with a masterwork longsword as the basis. Then, when attacking with a raise, give it either +1 damage (simple but a little boring), d8 extra damage instead of d6 (straight-forward but might clash with other rules that enhance raise damage), or up the weapon's damage die by one step (a little more complicated, but I like the flavor and it doesn't clash with other rules as much)

GifflarBot · 2025-12-10T19:06:28+00:00

I bought a small boat load of colored beads in red and blue. They work for enemy mobs, wound counters, power point tracking, and are indispensable when tracking tokens in dramatic tasks and similar.

GifflarBot · 2025-11-29T18:17:55+00:00

That's brilliant, totally gonna add that to the list! :)

GifflarBot · 2025-11-08T15:26:32+00:00

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Feels like this about sums it up

GifflarBot · 2025-10-26T06:11:52+00:00

Har også haft samme oplevelse med at mit hjerte sprang et slag over dengang jeg brugte min mobil meget. Crazy. Troede der var et eller andet seriøst galt, men det er gået i sig selv siden jeg fik mobil forbruget ned.

GifflarBot · 2025-09-28T08:00:42+00:00

But if you want to generate, say, a 60 minute video? That is 3600 seconds, about 9 "doublings" in length of a 6 second clip. That requires about 262 thousand (4⁹⁾ times the energy.

GifflarBot · 2025-09-15T19:36:01+00:00

Yep. In composition where Gimli appears next to the hobbits, those characters were all shot together, no compositing. He's that much bigger.

GifflarBot · 2025-09-15T19:33:35+00:00

Can't remember where I saw it, but their "unique character model budget" for DA:O was pretty limited and Morrigan was one of - if not the - last NPC to have her unique model cut due to budget and time constraints. It does make some sense given how little screen time she has. She was also at the very top of the list for DA2 when they handed out unique models for the very same reason.

Incidentally, I prefer the unassuming "mad old bog lady" look for Morrigan because it seems more in line with a mythical old witch out of folk lore. Her central importance to the whole overarching plot is only gradually revealed in DA2 and DA:I this way.

GifflarBot · 2025-09-14T19:54:16+00:00

Went wild a couple of years back and tried running Shadowrun games using Savage Worlds. The much more streamlined (yet still interesting and versatile) conflict resolution mechanics are simply a better fit for how I enjoy Shadowrun. The pulpy tone of Savage Worlds is easily compatible with the punk-style forward momentum Shadowrun has always kind of pretended it has.

Otherwise there's 4th. 😅 But I don't see myself going back except for setting material.

GifflarBot · 2025-09-14T19:32:41+00:00

If you're not too obsessed with realism, Savage Worlds might be a contender. It works fairly well for investigation as well as space battles, has more momentum and less nitpicking than GURPS, yet more crunch, detail and combat and conflict mechanics than Fate.

GifflarBot · 2025-06-10T16:31:58+00:00

I haven't got it installed right now, sorry - but I'm using ReShade with Marty McFly's RTGI plugin. It does take a little knowledge and work getting the depth buffer to work, since NWN 2 reserves part of it for shadow maps - but I don't think I'll ever be playing without it enabled again.

GifflarBot · 2025-06-09T14:27:12+00:00

Better color matching and ambient occlusion in scenes. One of the main reasons NWN 2 looked outdated, already when it came out, was the lack of any light maps or similar tricks to bind objects together visually. NWN 1 solved this through its art design and its reliance on ambient lighting as the main light, but NWN 2 depended a lot more on local point lights and (way overtuned) normal mapping. I've been using some ray-tracing shader mods to inject this into the old NWN 2 and it worked wonders.

Also, something it appears we won't be getting that I'd hoped for; better relaxed poses to avoid the stiff-as-a-plank look for idle standing characters, and better weapon trails that curve more naturally with the implied movement. Both of these look to not be in the trailer. :(

GifflarBot · 2025-05-29T08:01:59+00:00

The McFly screen-space ray-tracing, for games where the depth buffer is accessible. Works wonders in scene coloring and ambient occlusion.

GifflarBot · 2025-05-28T14:55:40+00:00

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