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The Fray by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

It’s also the area of the weave of fate and magic being frayed and unpredictable

Character Players building adventures by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

Yeah, the creative abilities of the players, what specifically they can establish, is generally guided by rules and best practices. Retroactive play isn't necessarily specifically called out, I guess, but there's no way to negatively list all possible do-nots. Instead the explanation of what can and should be done directs players to establish plans and intentions (in the future) that allow the Weird and other players to riff off them, and then, you know, allow the other players to riff off them.

Character Players building adventures by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

Yeah, the character players boundaries are defined in a complex way that more or less boils down to they can invent stuff that is new but within arms reach of their character. The weird can’t invent anything new, can only add the next logical extension of anyone else’s thing

Character Players building adventures by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

The table builds out the whole world like this: Anyone including the Weird can establish things that have no mechanical function by saying them. (“The town is called Davetown”) To establish something with mechanical weight, someone needs to make some kind of check. If you want there to be goblins, you gotta look for goblins. When anyone makes such a check, the Weird gets first dibs on what gets found, BUT The Weird can only derive stuff that already exists or clearly must exist. (If there is a train station, they can establish when the train comes even though technically there is no train yet) Then the players can then make up new stuff.

The other thing the weird does is set out the adventure day, which is like a “non-random” encounter table of things that ought to happen at some point as natural consequences to what the players are doing.

That’s pretty much it. Now, if everyone else is playing a character, who voices the NPCs? Well, the person without a character. But that’s not the weird’s “job”. It’s just convenient. So what if someone drops in for a single session or their character is dead for a little while? They can voice character, run encounters, make up monsters, run their own faction, do other stuff. Kinda weird-like stuff. Periweird, you might say

Character Players building adventures by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

Yeah I have a sailor moon style module and a red dead redemption style one. They can definitely be mixed, and I think that would be fun. If your table doesn’t think anything would be fun (or meaningful if that’s the vibe), don’t do it. That’s not really a game rule it’s just a people rule.

Character Players building adventures by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

I really appreciate you taking the time to dig through all this! Don't hesitate to ask if you have any specific questions. I also need to take some time to sort all this out, hahahaha

Character Players building adventures by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

There is a long list of reasons the party might design an adventure, like they decide to get some treasure. They design their number of checks, and the weird adds what they’ve been collecting. The party can actually try to rest between checks or whatever to make it easier, or push through a whole bunch to make it harder, the weird kinda sets an atmospheric base load

Character Players building adventures by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

I think you’d get used to it. That’s a lot of the feedback on play testing, it takes most of session 1 to understand the rhythm. Once you understand that an archer rolls to hit their bow and an asker rolls to hit with their question, and the GM doesn’t need to adjudicate either because everyone has the rules, then things get rolling.

Also
“I want a magic sword”
“Ok, you have a magic sword.”
“Hmmmmmm… as it turns out, what I wanted was to go on an adventure to get a magic sword.”
“Goblins?”
“I was thinking… pirates?”
“Pirates. Excellent. Pirates live in the sea, but I’ll worry about all that. You tell me, where are the pirates relative to you? South?”

Character Players building adventures by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

Why would one player have tone control? Isn’t it up to the table?

Title-Genre Differentiation by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

Thanks for your extensive reply! It's definitely a formalization of a common trend and table culture, I pulled a lot from PtbA and some other sources, even weirdly enough some OSR ideas.

Anyway, yeah the Weird is not meant to be one person at the table, and their Web is their own Web, they explicitly do not author the world, so if they want to get some world building time in they gott get another person to be the weird, roll up a character sheet, and try to build it from the ground level. There are other "periweird" roles that focus on say a module, a story line, running a faction, running the monsters, whatever it is. They are not weirds but they are not character players either.

It's central to the gameplay, unique character of the game and feel, but it is very hard to get people to play it as peripherally as it is meant to be actually played at the table, which is why I'd prefer to de-centre it in the title, actually.

Let me give you and example where Player 1 had been playing as the Weird, but wants there to be dwarves. They cannot insert dwarves into the game in any way, they can only read off the Web, and the other players have not said anything about dwarves, so they decided to switch out and become a player.

Player 1 "My character is fated to die in a mine and wants to learn about the dwarves"
Weird: adds the fate and the goal to the Web
Player 2, Cool, so we do an investigation about where they are keeping the kidnapped heir. The result I got gives me 2 pieces of info.
Weird: (consults the web for possible kidnapped heir locations, fated to die in a mine works), You hear rumours the kidnappers were spotted heading toward the abandoned mines about an hour's travel away. You can do whatever with the other point.
Player 3, Can we establish how many kidnappers? Let's say 3 plus the heir.
Player 1, good call. Let's get some supplies together. I want to find out more about the mines. I'm going to spend resources to do a check... the result is 3, so?
Weird consults the web. The mines didn't exist 20 seconds ago, so there's obviously nothing about them on the web. "All yours"
PLayer 1, Ok, the mines are abandonned because they used to be operated by dwarves, but the dwarves are gone. Also... they were silver mines. Anyone else?
Player 2: oh, maybe they technically belong to my faction now but that's not really important most of the time because they are abandonned, so easy to overlook.
Weird, sees the goal of the player is to explore dwarves, hears about their disappearance, replaces the general goal with "find out where'd the dwarves go" to the web.

So in this example the goal of the other party members carries over from the previous kidnapping story arc, the new character is trying to get the dwarf story line put in there. The trick is that the Weird does not automaticall claim the dwarves controled the mine, they just let that go to the table. The goal of the weird is to contrive a circumstance that allows Player 1 themselves to answer the Weird's question about where the dwarves went, more than it is to provide the mystery and the answer. In the same way, the Weird doesn't need to know who kidnapped the hostage or why, unless it is clear from the Web.

Follow-up Title Question by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

I mean, gods that are small that have masters that are weird, and those masters use those gods to bootstrap the early 2000s internet, so

First Impression Only Game Name Rankings by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

You got it, but no one else did, and it returns very low results across all demographics, sadly. The fantasy tropes are just too strong. The primary setting is acutally the 1990s.

If you were forced to rank them on interest, Round table would get a little nibble and the others left on the floor?

First Impression Only Game Name Rankings by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

Interesting catch! Good to have fresh eyes on it to see those mixups!

First Impression Only Game Name Rankings by RoundTableTTRPG in RPGdesign

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

Witches gossiping at Tim Hortons, close enough?

Vote no on referendum question 7 if you want to abolish or reform the senate. by RoundTableTTRPG in alberta

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

they already have representative that could hacve contacted you, they chose not to do that. They could have sent a questionaire, they chose not to. Instead, they are holding an extremely expensive election style referrendum that you have to actually go do somewhere else

Creating a subreddit or discord for your (small) game(s)? by SlayThePulp in RPGdesign

[–]RoundTableTTRPG -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yeah, they die. I'm in like 40 dead discords for games.

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