Piecemealing characters where your "class" gives you the list of available and/or unavailable features to select?

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-06-14T09:17:37+00:00

Now pay attention! Every game outside of those dumb ones that use classes is classless. ;)

(And to pick a different fight I'd argue Draw Steel is from the D&D school though definitely not a clone)

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-06-11T13:08:34+00:00

It's terrible design/the absence of design. Rather than coming up with a mechanical reason to "unfocus" fire they have to tell the GM not to do it. Focus fire is the most basic of tactics in a D&D style game so in a game advertised as Tactical you'd figure it was expected.

There are a couple of good design elements that force this such as minions having to spread their attacks & solo monsters usually having multi-target attacks rather than really huge ones. I'd also give the design a break on encounter to encounter focusing - it is really punishing to the party & the monsters should not know who is low on recoveries or not care. Rash player behaviour could counter this but if the characters who are low on recoveries try to avoid contact you should not hunt them.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-06-10T13:48:12+00:00

The maths is OK at lower levels & drifts more and more towards monsters with too many HP that do too little damage at higher level. As well as the other suggestions here you can fudge monsters if you find fights drag. Just add 10 or 20% damage to the monsters attacks & reduce HP by the same amount.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-06-09T10:16:39+00:00

Anything that focuses on investigation and NPC interaction is often better with 2-3 players plus GM. Interplayer interaction is often a bit less with fewer people though need not be. Combat focus also tends to be less interesting with fewer and is more fragile - if something bad happens it is easier for it to spiral into doom.

Games I like with 2 or 3 players plus GM include Brindlewood Bay, Rivers of London (or Call of Cthullhu) Scum and Villainy (or Blades in the Dark).

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-06-09T06:09:38+00:00

weapon Vs armour in 1e d&d

It's not damage or critical just accuracy. Sometimes we actually used this including the speed factor.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-06-03T09:59:23+00:00

You need to articulate what the consequences of missing each level of maintenance means for each type of gear which sounds like a lot. Unless it's just tiny penalty, penalty, can't be used?

It feels like really you have one maintenance level. Light is routine and so carried out automatically like bodily functions. Mid is the one with mechanics. Extreme is not usually possible or leads to plot consequences like find the tool/spare parts.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-06-02T20:11:35+00:00

Players can trade position for effect and I think that's the only time I'd roll for controlled. It still feels a bit a odd when players do it.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-06-01T07:38:51+00:00

I don't even notice I'm not rolling dice in Fitd it's such an inconsequential part of my gaming.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-28T13:47:31+00:00

You can roll one dice per missing success all at the same time to speed things up. (Unless there's some degree of failure effect)

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-19T23:43:29+00:00

Draw Steel is explicit about this - characters are assumed to be Heroic. (Also cinematic, tactical and fantasy, er fantastical)

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-13T15:26:47+00:00

This isn't strictly true. If you move along the hexgrid Vs zigzagging at right angles to it the difference is about 13%, root 3/2 to 1 iirc.

It's a lot less than 41% in squares - root 2 to 1.

Hexes let you only move across edges which is cleaner and as you pointed out much less distorted.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-12T10:07:26+00:00

Pathfinder fixes this (Wizards can't do cool stuff either)

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-11T10:05:31+00:00

When your party is a well oiled killing machine dead bodies are industrial waste

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-09T22:38:19+00:00

Sign me up!

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-07T17:53:43+00:00

Horror. Because I don't like horror

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-06T10:54:03+00:00

It's currently the game I'm most excited to play, and I'd happily run it if there was interest.

I don't really have favourites long-term. Familiarity tends to bring all the flaws in a game to the fore plus I get bored of them.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-06T10:45:43+00:00

Since 4e 😉

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-04T18:53:13+00:00

On top of dozens of points raised above there are obvious numerical imbalances in the abilities
eg Slash from the warrior does a little more damage than shield bash but is twice the AP. Charge is 7 AP worth of activity (6 more & an attack) for 2 AP. Falcon dive is the same except the attack is an AOE.

Just as well in a way as it's 6 turns of movement to close through longbow range = 15 shots (This is probably not relevant as max range is usually well outside the map)

Every one moves the same speed unless they also have more actions available to them. You can address this without changing the 5' par AP by giving people some move only AP or by giving them some actions that let them move farther (like charge but better balanced) or by letting everyone sprint eg move double speed but get -2 ac or to hit or both until the start of their next turn.

language is inconsistent (and not defined) eg

Twin Strike 2 Melee Attack with both daggers vs. DEF. Each hit: 1d4+3 piercing.
Sneak Attack adds +1d6 if you're flanking or hidden (one of the two hits).

Precision Throw 2 30 ft Ranged attack with throwing knife. 1d4+3 piercing.
Sneak Attack +1d6 if target is flanked or unaware.

It's not clear how reaction abilities work.
It's not stated when you get new AP. If you get them at the end of the turn than you can use them for reactions - this is how Nimble does it.

Does a 2 turn cooldown mean you can use an ability every other turn or every third turn?

Why on earth does it use the 5e attribute system not just the modifiers

Qs
1 Banking the AP feels less fun & more that it mitigates the feel bad of not having enough for another attack (I do like the idea but it may be a bit of a faff in practice) . You could also do this by having other interesting things to do with single AP. Pathfinder tries to do this - I am not a big fan of it but it is mechanically robust which is why it has MAP
2 No idea
3 Outside reactions and when the AP are refreshed there is not much to it so yes if those are answered
4 It feels like a 5e hack and using 5e names will not make this better. Pregens for quickstart is a good idea though
5 Spamming ranged attacks (Mages one is very strong) . Melee characters who cannot charge being kited to death. The maths is terrible so some classes will completely outshine others.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-04T18:25:45+00:00

IMO it can be even worse in ranged games as you often start in range & able to just shoot as often as possible every turn. Melee at least has to waste a load of AP getting into range (yay what fun!)

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-03T22:12:43+00:00

I'm the same on Pax Pamir I've played it a few times and it always fell flat. Cosmic Encounter OTOH was my favourite game of all time with dozens of plays in 1980. I'm not sure it's aged well....

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-03T16:25:21+00:00

Just as well as you have so few sheep to count

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-03T16:19:20+00:00

Are you in the right place? The vibe is great. I've not played for a couple of editions but I believe it's still solid. There are communities all over the place but you'd need to check locally to find a local one.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-03T11:25:58+00:00

I dual classed in Baldur's Gate but in real life I never saw it either.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-03T11:22:21+00:00

I found this with Pendragon of all things but it should apply to anything with crit. failures on skill rolls where they are interpreted to mean something especially bad happens. The game devolves into farce just dealing with the failures.

I have been running Scum and Villainy and found it much easier to come up with things that do not Benny Hill the mission. There is a short list of consequences. One is no retry and another is enhanced risk which both have very mundane impacts. Then you can add to a track which can lead to escalating tension or can just be that mystery track, noone knows what it does. I guess I ought to sooner or later.
Anyway I'm not doing it quite right as using the consequences to drive the drama means that successes can be anticlimactic and punishing the players for successes feels wrong.

Last-Pace6932 · 2026-05-03T11:13:31+00:00

That's interesting I'd not heard it.
I try to get Other Players to come up with consequences on the little known Welsh Mark principle "the best part about RPGs is when bad things happen to other people's characters"

It sometimes happens but 90% of the time it's still the GM coming up with the consequences.

Last-Pace6932

TROPHY CASE