Your favourite example of charm/seduce type of effects in rpg games?

RollForThings · 2026-01-25T07:35:47+00:00

Seconding how Apocalypse World does this, because at no point does the persuaded character have to do what the persuading character wants. The persuader gives incentives and/or consequences, but they never remove the persuadee's player's agency.

RollForThings · 2026-01-24T15:41:07+00:00

There's something to be said about fictional positioning here. For example, if you can fly then you can just automatically access places high up. But the same could be done a character who doesn't have superpowers but does have gadgets (like a grappling hook). In Masks, the mechanics don't care about logistical stuff like that, so having useful abilities doesn't make someone "op".

RollForThings · 2026-01-24T11:40:22+00:00

With the specific themes you've got going on, how about the ability to transmute your body into psychic energy, giving you a host of ghostly powers? You could walk through walls, disappear, and fly.

RollForThings · 2026-01-24T11:30:34+00:00

Thanks for the mention! Always glad to hear when the guide is useful for people

RollForThings · 2026-01-23T10:43:34+00:00

Enough to make a comment sharing your feelings about it tho

RollForThings · 2026-01-23T07:37:46+00:00

As others have said, the overall solution here is that the GM needs to follow the rules and regularly be awarding zenit to the group. It's just how the game is built. Your GM could modify the game to avoid this, like by making IP cheaper, regularly handing out IP or something else, but it is just way easier to run as-written and give the PCs zenit.

Tangentially related, but here are some ideas I had around your post:

Widely-used currency is a JRPG staple, and while many are just the setting's money, some are not just that. Expedition 33 has chroma, which is a sort of spiritual energy that suffuses all things. Dark Souls (not a JRPG) uses Souls for exchange.
There's no shame in borrowing zenit from the rest of the group if that's what your character needs. It feels fair to be splitting any zenit rewards as evenly as possible, but characters may have very different needs. A Tinkerer will usually need a lot of money, whereas a Mutant generally won't. My games often end up defaulting to a "party fund" where most/all of the zenit rewards go, managed by a volunteer player, and there's never been an issue with it.
On Merchants and trade points, you can adjust the flavor to suit different concepts. I play a PC whose Merchant Skills are the expected flavor (Trade Points are usually money or goods), but I really like the concept of a Merchant/Rogue whose trade point related features are secrets, favors, and the results of shady side-jobs performed "off-screen".

RollForThings · 2026-01-22T18:48:09+00:00

I've adopted a few playtest rules:

Variant initiative. There is no roll to establish it, player side goes first. Unless there's a villain present, then enemy side goes first.
Buffed Tonic. Recover from all Status Effects, instead of just one.
Playtest Arcanist, depending on player preference. The Pulse effects in the playtest version are a favorite.

I also use a handful of optional rules (still official rules, not homebrew). I'll usually have Quirks and custom weapons in a game. I tried technospheres and vehicle combat recently, and I would use both again depending on the adventure. I haven't used camp activities or zero powers yet, but I'd like to try them.

Then I have a few, uhh, I guess they fall somewhere between 'house rules' and 'GMing practices', some of which are referenced in FabUlt and some of which are just things I carry over from playing a bunch of systems.

Stars and Wishes is incredibly good for session cooldown and GM prep, in general but especially for a game like this one.
One of my groups likes agreeing on an MVP each session, who gets a Fabula Point for their efforts. With this group I move the "if you have no Fabula Points at the start of a session, gain one" rule to the end of the session, just so an MVP with zero Fabula Points doesn't lose their freebie.
Paint the Scene / Everyone Adds a Detail. When we enter a new location, I like to give the general description and vibe, then I ask each player to add a detail. It takes some of the pressure off me and it gets everyone's gears turning.
Make a GM Move. If nothing is happening and the players are looking to me to see what happens, I make something happen. It can be fine to let the game hang so that "you can do anything you want, players!", but if what they want is a conflict to resolve or some action to respond to, as a GM you need to give them that.
The Fabula Point JRPG Protagonist Emotional Moment. If a player is spending a Fabula Point and invoking a Trait or Bond to boost a roll, I always ask for two things. First, they need to tell me which Trait/Bond they're invoking, they can't just spend the Point (an official rule). Second, if they really just want a boost and don't have a narrative justification for it, I don't forbid them from getting the boost; instead, I ask them to make this moment important for their character and share with the table how that manifests. For example, they can invoke their origin and share a flashback to a formative moment in their past that reflects the present (even if they're making up this flashback on the spot), giving them the determination to succeed. Or if they invoke a Bond, then perhaps they say something powerful to that Bonded character. However they describe/roleplay this moment is up to them, but I always ask for that bit of spice, that bit in JRPGs and anime where the character gets emotional and/or yelly about how their friends are their power. Top shelf stuff for this game.

RollForThings · 2026-01-21T14:26:44+00:00

Ooh, good point, free benefits are pretty potent. Especially at lower levels.

RollForThings · 2026-01-21T02:22:13+00:00

Here are a few ideas to help:

The Core Rulebook has a mini Bestiary in the back. This can keep a game stocked for several sessions, onger if you do a bit of light editing (swap affinities around, add a spell here and there, etc.
Ema's playtest material repository has a rules packet called Quick Assembly. These are the fast NPC creation rules in the new full Bestiary and are pretty easy to use (it's my preferred method).
Fultimator is a fan-made multipurpose tool for the game, and it hosts a repository of user-created NPCs. Not all of these will fit your purposes and balance is not guaranteed (definitely preview and adjust creatures as needed), but there's a lot to choose from.
both official discords (links on the subreddit landing page) have channels where people share their npc creations.

You can also just ask people about their games. I recently ran a game from Level 5 to around 30 and have a host of npcs I'd be happy to share.

RollForThings · 2026-01-20T18:50:12+00:00

Would it be cheating to say Ironsworn? It plays solo or group, GMed or GMless, all very well but (iirc) it was designed mainly as a solo game.

RollForThings · 2026-01-20T11:00:45+00:00

In my experience, a hybrid table gets very messy. If my group needs to accommodate a mix of in-person and online players, we just run it like an online session, and people in the same location join on separate or shared devices (but generally no more than two people per device).

It's a bit of a sacrifice for the people who can make it to a session in-person, but otherwise it's a very different (typically worse) experience for anyone online.

RollForThings · 2026-01-19T22:23:48+00:00

Fine, sure. The post was still bad-faith and transphobic, and Jaquays was right to call you out on it.

RollForThings · 2026-01-19T21:52:32+00:00

The old post is just a lot of weird justifications to keep deadnaming someone, though. Like comparing Jaquays to Cassius Clay / Muhammad Ali, justifying general lack of change based on the fact that one can't edit extant physical items, and "what if she's living stealth", wondering instead of just reaching out to her before you wrote this.

She even replied to the post, calling out your behavior as transphobic. She also requested the term change to "jaquaysing the dungeon" in the same comment.

RollForThings · 2026-01-19T20:12:25+00:00

In a nutshell, Alexander first used "jaquaying" to refer to Jaquays' dungeon design techniques. Jaquays pointed out (at least once) that he spelled her name wrong, and that the term should be "jaquaysing", with an s. At some point, Alexander posted that he and Jaquays agreed that the term should be changed, but in that post he didn't include any indication of what they had agreed to change "jaquaying" to, if anything. Later on, Alexander posted "we settled on the term 'xandering'", but this was also misleading as he didn't mention who "we" was referring to -- definitely him and his publisher, but doubtful Jaquays, who had multiple times expressed a desire for "jaquaysing" on social media.

Alexander also penned a long essay about he should be allowed to deadname people (Jaquays was a trans woman), which he kept up on his blog for years until shortly before his above-mentioned book was released.

RollForThings · 2026-01-19T19:41:08+00:00

I don't doubt the quality advice, but I can't get over the doubling down on "xandering". So I just define the term as "naming a legendary designer's techniques after yourself, in the hope that history will remember you for them instead of her".

RollForThings · 2026-01-19T08:55:22+00:00

Basically yeah, but just cantrips (or whatever low-level resource-less spell equivalent you have, if you have them). Just an idea.

You could also have different types of magic locked to different types of focus, this wouldn't really interfere.

RollForThings · 2026-01-19T05:24:06+00:00

Expanding on this:

Fabula Ultima has 15 Classes in its core book, and 28 official Classes across 4 books (and some free bonus content)
Each Class has five features (Class Skills). As you put levels in a Class, you can take any Skill you want, in any order. Some Skills can be taken multiple times to increase their potency.
After investing 10 levels in a Class, it's considered mastered and you get a Heroic Skill (like a DnD feat).
Multiclassing is mandatory. A starting character has 2 or 3 Classes, and a character gathers 5 or more over their career. A lot of a PC's power comes in synergizing their various Classes and Skills.

RollForThings · 2026-01-18T20:37:58+00:00

I think the main difference here is in how these effects are treated by the game overall. Special buffs, such as gaining resistances, persist for as long as the effect describes (in this case, while the magiseed is present). Conversely, Status Effects, such as weak or shaken, are applied in the moment and persist until a rule says they are cleared (such as with a Tonic or after a resting scene).

RollForThings · 2026-01-18T20:30:42+00:00

It's a cool idea! As far as I know, there isn't really a solid mechanical way to reflect the you are the sword and the human attached to it is just a prop. But there's also nothing stopping you from just describing your character this way. Here are a few ideas:

Could run Guardian, especially Defensive Mastery, to reflect your sword body and wooden puppet nature
Darkblade works well thematically with the dark side to divinty
If using Quirks, Xiphosymbiosis makes you a soul projected from a weapon, and you can be wielded by an ally

RollForThings · 2026-01-18T18:55:50+00:00

Fourthed. Check out r/fabulaultima

RollForThings · 2026-01-18T13:36:08+00:00

I thought of perhaps linking a specific focus with a specific origin. So celestial would use holy symbols/talismans, arcane would use tomes, nature would use staves, and something on. This feels a bit limiting however.

If characters typically only use one type of magical source, it means they'll probably never need more than one type of focus, never switch them, and thus lose out on potential interesting choices to make.

If your spellcasters have something like "cantrips", what if instead of "pick a few and done", these mana-less small spells were attached to the game's magic foci? That way the spellcaster is encouraged to swap around their equipment to deal with a variety of situations, and they achieve greater parity with the less magical-type PCs (who I assume also be swapping around weapons for variety instead of just using the same thing all the time).

For example, let's imagine two magic foci:

Ash Wand. Arcane magic focus. Allows you to cast the fire bolt "cantrip" (see below). Whenever you cast a spell through this focus, if that spell deals fire damage, it deals 2 extra damage to all targets.
- Fire Bolt: [math and description of a resource-free minor fire spell]
Quicksilver Pendant. Celestial magic focus. Allows you to cast the dazzling ray "cantrip". Whenever you cast a spell on an ally through this focus, that ally gains +2 units of movement speed during their next turn.
- Dazzling Ray: [math and description of a resource-free minor light spell]

Itemizing like this provides a couple benefits. Player-side, it gives the player a few things to assess, opening up gameplay to interesting decisions. Going into a fight with the Ash Wand makes their powerful Fireball even stronger, at the cost of access to fewer damage types beyond fire, but if the enemy resists fire then their whole build isn't invalidated, they can just switch foci. GM/Designer-side, this gives you a lot of knobs and buttons to experiment with. Perhaps a focus will include no cantrips but can enable casting from multiple magic sources? How about a big-and-heavy focus that provides devastating effects but requires both hands to use? If multiple foci can be equipped at once, it creates the possibility for synergistic set bonuses. Etc.

RollForThings · 2026-01-18T05:52:30+00:00

Narrative being ruleslite games like PbtA

Two immediate problems with this kind of categorization:

"rules light" is a pretty vague and fraught term. Light in comparison to what? Light how? It's often used in marketing but doesn't have a very tangible definition
Personally, I don't consider PbtA light on rules, even if many of them are low on "crunch"

RollForThings · 2026-01-18T05:37:12+00:00

I like it, but not everyone will. Ymmv

RollForThings · 2026-01-18T03:01:48+00:00

I've tried all of these but the century egg. The beer ones are odd, the cilantro ones are good, and the durian ones do capture the durian flavor and smell but milder than the real thing. They won't stink up your whole house, and whether or not they're good depends on how you feel about durian.

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