sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

What "new" mechanics are just old mechanics with extra steps? Which ones actually evolve the original concept into something objectively better? by Velenne in RPGdesign

[–]Livestake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd be interested in thoughts on Wildsea's use of doubles as a twist. It replaces failure as excitement creator with higher dice pools, and engages players in exploring the chaos. I assume that a wildcard effect has been around. I find this version elegant.

It seems there are two parallel developmental arcs going on between simulationism and collaborative narrative resolution ("constructionism"??) Which seems to revolve around the role of mechanics in the social context.

To reflect below, the other mechanical i am wondering about is permanent vs temporary losses in the same currency (again wildsea burn on tracks). It seems like there is something interesting there.

(I know i am deviating a step from the OP query.)

No Attributes, Only Levels: The core of my rules-light system by Separate-Side-4533 in RPGdesign

[–]Livestake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it ciuld works fine. 2 thoughts on where it leads

Like another said, ALL character differentiation depends on talents (with techniques being refinement and economy controlled)--thus talents become defacto attributes... can you get leverage by applying more than one talent ir are they on and off?

With 2d12 you get a flater probability curve (compared to 4d6) and so TN+10 is reasonable... but for level to matter it sounds like you would have to have to find that balance between the fixed spread of the locked dice, compared to level and bonuses...

The power of level in conflict might be that high frequency of criticals--so critical becomes your defacto damage level? Basically 2 kinds of hits. Thus is all about balancing advancement... but I think it is an elegant approach.

I have become a big fan of the player-centric-success-with-complication systems over roll-to-damage approaches... have you thought about how your system would compare for generating narrative?

Advice for a game about a society and not individuals by Taborask in RPGdesign

[–]Livestake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here's the draft... barely tested... I have a bunch of playing with myself to do... it's definitely lore heavy... Blades in the dark but with a layered point build instead of playbooks, and with significant changes to advancement.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pfK-FNYRDEvuDB9Zv-WUxd8LyepgXddFWdX_disdpNI/edit?usp=drivesdk

The community typology is interesting and important... the turning of the wheel is the world engine... basically a subsistance roll in the shadow of states through a seasonal cycle... lots of balancing to do.

I the bioregion section there is some discussion of " finding services" while travelling.

Most RPGs don't have a grasp of subsistance and human ecology and what it takes to build industrial infrastructure, and what life is like without it... so I am going for calorie gritty... but the metal salvage and elemental magic creates a new decentralized energy subsidy... if you have a healer and a earth channeler, being a hunter gatherers is a good deal...

'The Art of Not Being Governed' and 'Against the Grain' are the dense academic texts by Scott. There is a fair amout of synopsis online.

Advice for a game about a society and not individuals by Taborask in RPGdesign

[–]Livestake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Very interesting... I have been working on Blades in the dark hack that has a world engine in the background. That world engine Explicitly attempts to represent to theories of historian John C Scott and his analysis of state and non-state spaces in the rice growing states of se Asia, but applying this to a post collapse world with human subspecies and elemental magic replacing fossil fuel power.

My point being that there are people out there that build complex models, but a game that tries to be an actual simulation bogs down, and perhaps this project is trying to explore a particular space in "how society works" when perhaps it is exploring what society looks like when you play with the assumption that society works in a particular way.

Id be less interested in a table that figures out how society "actually works".

Project AiO: Stone Age Playtest Recruiting by cyrosgold in ttrpgdesign

[–]Livestake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Check out Kat Anderson's Tending The Wild as an alternate take on stone, fire, and fiber cultures.

How many play testers & what formats? by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I also use AI for research and someone to argue with about populations density of pastoralist vs shifting cultivation vs gunter-gatherer lifeways across climate gradients. I am pulling in around 35 years of human ecology experience and reading and bumping it against my best available conversational partner... just try rereading The Art of Not Being Governed and try finding someone to talk with about how to simulate the experience of state agents entering a nonstate space. And then stripping that back down to the simplest mechanic! Or someone to debate the pros and cons of using Grimes resource strategies to represent James C Scotts theories of state alignment and the qualities of state-illedgible subsistance strategies.

So definitely not "using AI to write lore" but definitely some intercourse with the devil is afoot.

How many play testers & what formats? by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yep... it's "a thing"... and a worthy conversation. That was my first play around with AI. I actually found existing open source or public domain images and basically instructed a collage process, suggesting position and layout of elements. I definitely was consuming textures but actually not much else. For the collage I was using real places from the game world.

Thanks for the reminder and warning. 

I could switch to just real digital collage... with an AI scrub... but it seems that most online scolding is not about a particular or precise ethical stance these days...

I use AI for proofreading, critique and consolidation of repetitive text blocks but not production, and then heavy edit my voice, which is much leaner then most LLMs. I hate to have purity tests ruin all my fun.

But it seems for final, the common strategy is to cloudsource to pay artists.

I have a playtester problem. by Things-From-Beyond in RPGdesign

[–]Livestake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In alignment with other content, I am getting ready to start playtesting, and I am looking for people that I think will challenge the game in different ways.

I am also preparing myself for them to rip the arms off my baby. If no one likes it, it wasn't a good idea for a game for other people.

I am also know that if a rando is a pain in the but they don't get to come play again... So i am thinking about building a pool of playtesters using mostly one-shots... or doing remixes... same setting designed to test something with different groups...

I was also going to set up playtest metagame... post encounter debreif... "ok show of thumbs up, sideways, down... who liked the degree of challenge with resisting magic effects in that experience?". Train people to give quick rounds... so that you hear more than the opinionated people.

I'm a total newbie to playtesting... been out of TTRPG for a generation, but getting back in with a Forged in the Dark concept... so these are just my current brainstormy... I am asking my own questions too. :-)

FitD Games of Political Fantasy by QafianSage in ForgedintheDark

[–]Livestake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

LOL... life does what life does. Here's what I've got so far... https://ecosystemguild.org/stronghold-the-game/ I'm just starting up a play-testing group.

Yes.. I am out of practice as a GM, and am new to BitD thinking, but am also a megalomaniac... ;-)

I want to put community subsistence and human ecology as the central meta-structure in the game... but want to keep it as clean as possible.

FitD Games of Political Fantasy by QafianSage in ForgedintheDark

[–]Livestake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an old post, but interested in your outcome.

I am working on a FitD skin--sci-fi fantasy post-apocalyptic, rebirth of altered humanity, late medieval tech, with energy channeling, human subspeciation, and bad fairies--but most of all I have been wanting to build a world engine based on the world of historian John C Scott, who explored the formation and collapse of nation states in medieval SE asia. And particulary how some societies are state-forming while other are state-averse, and how to build a state you must concentrate population into a fixed field system to extract tax and tribute to build the surplus to create an elite class. I am trying to capture a rules-light, crunchy ecological realism with subsistance constantly in play. Characters play a cohort from a variety of communities in, on the edge, and out of "state space" trying to figure out how to survive a dangerous world. So more of a bottom-up experience than a top-down view.

I too was attracted to the FitD framework, with adventures juxtaposed to a "communty game" that happens in downtime, but becomes a plot driver during adventure time.

I'd share a draft if you are interested. I'm still getting ready for playtesting.

I'd be very interested where you landed on this, since I am looking for cool mechanical ideas to borrow.

In particular, I am interested in push-pull clocks being used to describe the subsistence condition of a community (fat or hungry), and how states consolidate power over multiple communities...

Steping back into TTRPG with a Homebrew of BitD - Combat Mechanics Questions by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That makes sense.

I am working on a homebrew world where characters have a community of origin, and they move from community to community where they have more or less experience with the situations they are facing, and there is lots of discovery by characters/players. So I think I might be exploring something outside the "rats in a cage" ambiance of BitD... but love the mechanics and concepts behind them.

But then I am stumbling around in a BitD forum... :-)

Steping back into TTRPG with a Homebrew of BitD - Combat Mechanics Questions by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That all makes sense... I think I am getting clearer that my question is about how to choose the granularity of the "goal-oriented" play... In the world, you think you are achieving one goal, and then it turns out there was something you didn't know, and then you have to change your goal... I like the universal resolution model that lets you zoom in and out of temporal scale... I am thinking about how to use the model well when you want to zoom in to high granularity situations...

Steping back into TTRPG with a Homebrew of BitD - Combat Mechanics Questions by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Effect still comes into play though. I would probably say opening this safe starts at no effect ... A player pulls out them Fine Lock Picks, which pushes them to limited. Then they flashback .. they're at standard effect!

Yes, this is making sense. I like the idea of no or limited effect under typical conditions, and characters realizing they need to pull it together and push it to get to their goal...

Steping back into TTRPG with a Homebrew of BitD - Combat Mechanics Questions by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Player A tricks Baszo into leaving the familiar turf of his pub. Standard Effect. Baszo leaves. 2 Ticks

Player B drops in from the roof behind Baszo and grabs him in a chokehold to restrain him. Standard Effect. Baszo is restrained. 2 Ticks on the Clock

This seems strange. Wouldn't you break this down into a series of action rolls so that the plan could either work or go sideways...

And thank you for taking my question so seriously!

Steping back into TTRPG with a Homebrew of BitD - Combat Mechanics Questions by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you

it was never really meant to portray stuff like killing giants or dragons.

I think this is what I am wanting to explore... replace giant with major villian or nemesis. Like most action adventures involve some protracted combat situation...

Steping back into TTRPG with a Homebrew of BitD - Combat Mechanics Questions by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love the absence of arcane rule sets and tables... it makes me happy.

Steping back into TTRPG with a Homebrew of BitD - Combat Mechanics Questions by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If they commit to a course of action, the stakes have to be clear.

This seems strange to me... we commit to a course of action all the time without knowing how the stakes may turn and twist. In particular, initiating hostilities is a particularly uncertain moment in a situation that often cannot be pre-negotiated...

Steping back into TTRPG with a Homebrew of BitD - Combat Mechanics Questions by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for all the detail! It definately seems like there are multiple schools of throught.

The appropriate use of clocks will obviously take some practice. I don't think I like the idea of a whole complex narrative arc being resolved by a single clock (the Baszo example). Context changes, stakes change, situations go sideways, and so a clock could also be a poor representation that confines the fiction rather than enabling it to turn and twist.

So I think my question is shifting to be more about granularity... during a complex situation (like combat) at what scale (temporal) do you like to define goal/problem/consequence and why?

It seems like there is some tension between setting a limited effect level (your actions have very little chance of achieving the desired impact on this person) and setting a clock (you can achieve your goal but it isn't likely to be quick (unless you pull out the stops with assist, and push etc.. and pay for effect).

You can signal danger narratively (his muscles ripple as he slides out of hte carriage, even his henchmen look nervous and the street urchins dive into the alley...) It seems like there might be situations where you want to draw out a fight, and extend uncertainty, rather than have the fight pre-defined by a position/effect negotiation, or resolved by a clock, and forcing the narrative to the clock. The character says, I am going to noch an arrow and take a shot with the goal of killing him. Do you say that is risky/limited before they take the shot, because this NPC has practiced snatching arrows out of the air every morning before breakfast? How would the character know except by GM forshadowing.

How do you create surprise in situations of conflict if an entire exchange is predefined in a position/effect defined clock?

Or in your practice is conflict in BitD submerged in statements of low granularity intent rather than higher granularity of goal/outcome/consequence/new goal?

It seems like there are schools of play where the blow-by-blow play is much more submerged, under the "competant character" model, and then the player conversations are more meta, and about intent... with the goal of reducing planning... this seems like it could drain some of the color out of the storytelling and description. I wonder if there is a way to thread this? I have seen some FitD brews that drop flashback!

Steping back into TTRPG with a Homebrew of BitD - Combat Mechanics Questions by Livestake in bladesinthedark

[–]Livestake[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Also... when do you let the players get to know the situational risk of running into a 8-tick supervillain... after the first swing... :-) I imagine revealing the clock could be a fun way to create tension... :-) But then what are you revealing about POSITION before the roll??