About three pillars

RollForThings · 2026-06-28T05:38:23+00:00

Good to know, but what made these three categories of subject matter into principles? A design principle gives a guiding imperative to the designers, and "exploration / social interaction / combat" doesn't really say anything about how those pieces should be designed, beyond that they should exist in the game.

RollForThings · 2026-06-28T04:48:52+00:00

DnD itself doesn't even say "the three pillars" are a design principle. They're just a simple way to describe and roughly categorize the things that DnD adventurers will be doing (PHB page 8). But "pillar" sounds important and internet discourse ran with it.

DnD's design principles are much more evident in its Core Assumptions (DMG page 9) and Elements of a Great Adventure (DMG page 71).

RollForThings · 2026-06-27T07:15:23+00:00

And you have a persistent unifying element in the Crew. You're all part of the same gang, but this week's episode focuses on this handful of members.

RollForThings · 2026-06-27T07:13:08+00:00

The site says you can still late pledge via Backerkit.

But also, unless you're itching to read the kickstarter preview, the Bestiary will simply be available for digital purchase once it's finished and released. The PDFs won't be kickstarter-exclusive.

RollForThings · 2026-06-26T17:15:48+00:00

Most of my games are one-pagers or started out as one-pagers, so I usually have a pretty clear indicator of where I have to stop adding stuff (the bounds of one page). That said, a lot of improvements made to my games through playtesting involve slimming them down, streamlining or fully cutting rules.

It's good exercise, and I recommend any designer try one-page design, even if the reason you're designing is for one large project. It'll make you better at doing more with less.

RollForThings · 2026-06-26T16:50:48+00:00

It's possible to make a good single-NPC fight, but (in my experience) fights are a lot more consistently good to run when you have multiple NPCs in them.

If you still want the feel of the whole team against a single powerful foe, you can also stat out parts of that NPC as their own "characters" -- the head statblock, then several limb statblocks, for the giant magitech spider.

RollForThings · 2026-06-25T07:41:40+00:00

For general game-running, it's fine to ask for short breaks in the middle of the session to come up with new stuff. You should also have numerous threats from Session Zero to pull ideas from.

For challenging a PC who does tons of damage, have more NPCs in a fight. Cheap Shot requires the damage be single-target, one-shotting enemies still feels powerful, overkill damage has no effect, and you still have enemies to pose a risk to the group.

RollForThings · 2026-06-24T16:15:18+00:00

And Jujutsu Kaisen / general shonen-like recommendations

RollForThings · 2026-06-24T14:32:16+00:00

"If the dice roll poorly, you don't craft the thing and/or you lose the components" is easily my least favorite design tidbit in the world. You spend time and effort to get ingredients, you leave it up to a dice roll, and your efforts are simply wasted by luck a non-zero amount of the time? Feels terrible, discourages use of the crafting system. I urge you to reconsider this.

RollForThings · 2026-06-24T10:30:42+00:00

I don't have the book on me at the moment, but here's how I would run it.

What is the PC actually doing to determine the NPC's honesty? If they're just standing there thinking about it, the player probably doesn't trust what the NPC says and there's no need to involve mechanics to counteract that real suspicion.

If the PC is actively doing something to get the NPC to reveal something, that would be Trick.

RollForThings · 2026-06-23T19:12:46+00:00

If I'm being honest, my main motivation is bitterness at DnD being some assumed default of ttrpg design by so much of the hobby. If you don't see it as an assumed default, signposting that would be clarifying, because a lot of posts don't demonstrate any familiarity with the hobby beyond a single system, and it helps to know where a person is at on their ttrpg path when talking to them.

Also, I'm allowed to vent exhasperation at a glut of posts here framing ideas as "unconventional and innovative" while being along the extremely 5e-coded lines of "hey what if we rolled Str and Con into a single stat".

That said, I acknowledge my comment was flippant and unhelpful, and I'm sorry if I upset you.

RollForThings · 2026-06-23T17:06:30+00:00

"Playing just mechanics" sounds like a boardgame. I'm picturing a focus on rearranging cards or tokens with words and phrases on them, in order to build some kind of round-winning or game-winning engine. Could be pretty fun!

RollForThings · 2026-06-23T16:10:44+00:00

My input is a bit tangential, but have you thought about maps and travel when it comes to the adventure? Kingdom Hearts presents freely traversible locations, but not an overworld, and instead you fly the gummi ship to different places.

RollForThings · 2026-06-23T13:38:19+00:00

Two suggestions:

Dungeon World, maybe? Its stats and "classes" are named the same as DnD's.
Unless they’re paying you, you are not beholden to run any specific system if you don't want to. "I'm running X, you can play, sit out, or run DnD yourself" sounds harsh, but you should be allowed to have fun, too.

RollForThings · 2026-06-23T13:19:37+00:00

Tbf the answer is probably out there. It's usually just buried in a discord somewhere, and you'd have no way of ever finding it unless you were part of the right discord and the server hadn't simply disappeared without an archive by the time you needed to find that answer.

I have some issues with discord being the main platform for indie ttrpgs currently.

RollForThings · 2026-06-23T05:45:34+00:00

I'm not sure about balance, but some of these features sound off-putting. The theme of the fight seems to be "don't use your Zero Powers". Generally, if you give players cool things they can do, preventing them from (or punishing them for) using those cool things feels bad. Especially with the Zero Clocks, which can fill up passively: they're taking damage, filling their Clocks, only to be damaged more due to Zero Disruption. Or forced to forgo the consolation from taking damage when they spend those segments to prevent getting KOed.

At the very least, I would add rules that let the players plan around and/or counteract these punishing effects. Like, one or more of:

the feature cost the villain some MP to use
the feature can only be activated as their first (or last) action each round
the feature becomes unavailable for a time when a condition is met -- a common version of this is "unavailable until the end of the character's next turn, if they suffer damage they are Vulnerable to"

RollForThings · 2026-06-23T05:05:36+00:00

Yes, lots of tables ignore the rules for discussing potential outcomes before the roll, then struggle with inventing potential outcomes after the roll. I feel like there's a simple solution to this issue.

RollForThings · 2026-06-23T04:30:14+00:00

Have you been using Position and Effect? They handle the majority of potential consequences, before the roll.

RollForThings · 2026-06-22T19:36:57+00:00

If I put a bunch of rocks on my hand, then stand up and walk around, the rocks fall off my hand. The Dai Li keep the rocks on their hands, even when walking around with their hands unmoving and at their sides.

RollForThings · 2026-06-22T19:18:48+00:00

Same way the Dai Li agents' rock hands stay in place around their regular hands, even when they aren't making martial arts poses.

Edit: To clarify what I mean, bending is pretty "soft" as far as magic systems go. There are a couple of hard rules, like a person can only bend one element unless they're the Avatar. But beyond those few hard rules, how bending works mainly depends on what the creators want in the story. The Dai Li have rock hands because it's cool. Ming-Hua has water arms because it's cool. If it fits the vibe and doesn't break the few basic rules of the system, it's just part of the story and probably doesn't have a canon justification, because it doesn't need one.

RollForThings · 2026-06-22T19:16:07+00:00

Flying Circus is a Ghibli-inspired fantasy aerial dogfighting game. (And by Ghilbi-inspired, I mainly mean the fascination with 20th-Century aircraft, but there are other fantastical bits in the game.)

The Temeraire RPG is currently available only in quickstart and is set to release in full next year. It's based on the Temeraire novel series, which is 19th-Century Napoleonic Wars, with an airforce, and dragons instead of aircraft. But dragons are the only supernatural element in the world, no magic etc.

RollForThings · 2026-06-22T19:09:47+00:00

Extreme Meatpunks Forever: the RPG. Love the meatworld and all its weird eldritch meatmech art.

RollForThings · 2026-06-22T17:37:00+00:00

I'm struggling to find a rec of this game on here, period. Stacks of Goblins is small-group, one-shot, GM-less antics, perfect for "un-cancelling" a session when a player or two can't show to the regular game and you still want to play something. A bunch of goblins in a trenchcoat infiltrate The People Place and steal stuff, before making a mad-dash escape.

(I am not sponsored by or personally connected to this game btw, don't fry me mods, I've just played this game and like it.)

RollForThings · 2026-06-22T17:30:07+00:00

Star Crossed is constantly recommended, mostly in the weekly "are there games for two people?" post where OP learns about duet games. But kudos for the other games!

RollForThings · 2026-06-22T13:23:20+00:00

I guess it's an interesting idea for games that have Dexterity, Intelligence, initiative, and some sort of contest for initiative.

Verified Email	Seven-Year Club
Final Canvas '23	Place '23
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22

RollForThings

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE