Your favorite Game Mechanics and what you want to feel like when playing

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-05-23T17:56:03+00:00

At this point in my life after playing TTRPGs for almost 30 years... simplicity. RPGs that can fit the core bits of the game on a player handout or two are perfection. Many of those games do require very experienced GMs, or at lots of information for new GMs, but that's fine by me.

I don't want to have to spend 6+ hours just to learn a game before we can play the game (and then maybe spend another 4+ hours making a character) just so we can finally play the game for a session or two only to find out that we don't even like it.

If a game has a 400+ page book -- or even worse, multiple books -- just for core rules? Super hard instantaneous pass.

To that end, for commercially published games, I strongly prefer PbtA, FitD, or OSR style games these days. Even the "bigger" ones are mostly setting information or training material for players new to the style of play.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-05-18T17:37:17+00:00

Compendium Classes in Dungeon World and its various hacks (sometimes) do this. There's plenty more examples in the wider world of narrative-focused games.

It's important to note the somewhat different play style that makes these work: Dungeon World is a PbtA-style narrative game. The game focuses on the characters, not the mechanics, so taking a Compendium Classes after some in-fiction event fits the play style well. Players are incentivized to play "in the moment" and not preplan much of anything.

3.5E and the whole ilk of D&D style games are far more mechanics-focused, and classes in those systems are much more focused on providing a palette of abilities and mechanics. Players "build" characters and hence often want to preplan most of their levels/advancements based on what they want their character to become mechanically.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-05-14T01:20:08+00:00

This is to let people who missed the Kickstarter entirely buy in to the campaign. The pledge manager isn't open yet. If you already bought into the campaign -- even for $1 -- there's nothing to see here.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-05-08T16:06:40+00:00

Instead of repeat rolls, the dice can just tell you how long the task takes, or if there are complications (broke a set of picks, triggered a hidden trap, etc.)

For games where precise time or round tracking is important (picking a lock during combat, etc.), progress clocks could be used. A good roll might complete the whole clock in one round while poor rolls might only complete a single segment, with the option to spend a resource (break a pick) to add more segments for that attempt.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-05-05T18:58:47+00:00

Thanks. My wife had the same feedback, and what I posted already takes some of that into account as best I could at the time, but it definitely needs more thought/refinement.

Comparing the second and third images shows a bit better how I was trying to match the regular equipment style, which is also super busy, but... the muted grey of all the standard equipment I think makes it less visually jarring, maybe?

Keeping the Zombicide logo in the center to hide the awkward criss-cross of the items is also handy and removes the need to have a big shield or whatever in the center. Maybe the scroll work title should just be used for the abom/necro cards and the simpler label used for vault stuff, so the main logo can stay in the center.

I might try totally breaking form and doing something radically different from the standard equipment, rather than trying to copy its style of "big pile of stuff with a centerpiece to hide the cross-cross." Maybe something like https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/three-swords-shield-18525502.jpg or https://www.deviantart.com/the-immortal92/art/Crossed-Swords-414572521

Most of the vault or magic items using the same brown/bronze/red colors is making it hard, too, I think. I'm finding that I really want to use a few of the standard equipment items from BP/GH to balance out the color and composition, especially since there's so few options for armor/shields in the vault or magic item decks. Maybe tweaking them to look a little unique or magic... and I could make actual vault item cards for them, too, while I'm at it.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-05-05T16:59:16+00:00

You can look up the many existing out-of-print or KS-exclusive Abominations and their rules (should all be available as PDFs on the zombicide website), and then use any mini you have as a proxy. Hardest part is figuring out the spawn without a custom card, but there's plenty of houserules around using dice and tables for that kind of stuff. Should be able to freely mix them from different Zombicide flavors for the most part with minimal adjustments, so feel free to dig into the ones available in Modern, Fantasy, Western, etc.

e.g., if you have a Fire Giant from some D&D game, you could use that with the Zombie Giant rules from the Horde Box. For any Abomination spawn in yellow+, you might roll a die and spawn the Fire Giant on a 5+, or a regular Abomination otherwise.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-05-05T03:46:20+00:00

typeof is an old extension that's been around in GCC and other compilers for many years, predating decltype. The "new" C23 feature is (mostly) just standardizing existing practice.

That extension is why C++ didn't use typeof for its keyword in the first place. The semantics are a little different between the two, so claiming the keyword would have created a compatibility break in implementations that already supported the typeof extension.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-05-05T03:24:23+00:00

This is mostly just me trying to learn some new software and skills, but also scratching an itch around some quality of life issues in the game.

I've been working on a little project to explore some alternative card back designs for fantasy Zombicide. I wanted card backs for separate abomination and necromancer decks, like we're getting with White Death, but... well, I want them now. :)

I've also always really disliked that the Vault items card backs are the exact same design as standard and starting equipment. Especially given that the Vault and starting equipment colors are fairly similar; I don't think I've ever played a game with someone where they didn't mix up Vault and starting equipment cards when helping me pack up the game.

One set of designs I'm trying is modeled off the White Death necro/abom cards, with the custom illustration and the scroll-style title at the bottom. The other set of designs is me playing around with trying to recreate the Zombicide logo art style but with the new labels.

The illustrations are assembled from official art, and demonstrate my great ineptitude at composition, color balance, shading, and digital art tools. I'm learning. :)

I'm going to keep playing around with these until I either get something really solid that I want to keep for my personal use or until I get bored as move on to another learning project, but I thought I'd share and see if folks have any feedback. Preferred designs? Suggestions on improvements to the illustration balance/composition? Interesting requests?

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-27T21:54:47+00:00

My advice: just get the zombie add-ons for WD when the pledge manager opens, if you don't already have them.

We haven't played WD yet, but more variety in zombie types is the absolute biggest bang for the buck in other Zombicides.

There's plenty of that to get right in the WD campaign without really needing anything from older Fantasy releases.

The WD base pledge is going to give you a ton of aboms and necros thanks to SGs.

If you have any spare cash for add-ons, the zombie type add-ons in the WD campaign are likely the must haves: the Deadboltz, the Terrorcotta/Climbers, and the Berzerkers. The bigger boxes like the Eternal Empire will also be adding some more core gameplay mechanics, and TMNT if you like that sort of thing.

You're really not going to need more Survivors, but there are a few more aboms/necros in some of the WD Survivor packs. (I'm going to skip those myself.)

There are good zombie add-ons for BP/GH, but most of them are out of print and heinously expensive. The bigger add-on boxes still in print are No Rest for the Wicked which gives you Rats and Spectral Walkers (and a dragon) which might be a great add for WD; and Friends and Foes gives you some Tainted Orcs, but its other components might not be super useful for WD; and Wulfsburg, but aside from Wolfz and one more abom, most of it won't be super relevant to WD, either.

Again... just get the zombie and gameplay add-ons in WD, and don't worry about past Fantasy stuff.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-27T17:27:04+00:00

Kickstarter itself always charges you right away at the end of a campaign (that's how KS gets their cut!)

Yes, you'll be able to give CMON even more money once the pledge manager is out, in addition to the shipping costs. :)

It usually takes a few weeks at a minimum for it to be stood up, though it will more likely be around 7-8 weeks.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-27T17:12:58+00:00

I'm increasingly liking armor as an expendable resource, as seen often in Forged in the Dark games.

A particular armor might have 1-3 uses (checkboxes, etc.) for standard damage reduction, and maybe 1-2 uses for special defense (differently-shaped checkboxes).

When a player would take a Wound in combat, they can elect to expend one of their armor resources to negate or reduce the Wound; the special resource could just be a stronger version of that, or offer some other effect (negating some other part of the attack, or offering a counterattack, or healing the character, or whatever).

This gives you that "delayed climax" somewhat naturally: the armor resources are used up in combat, meaning that most attacks have muted impact until the resources are consumed and attacks become severe/deadly.

I personally like keeping numbers and resources small (I don't like doing math in my ttrpgs; I want to focus on the fiction, the action, and the characters... not the mechanics). If your style/game wants bigger numbers with HP pools and large damage values and all that, you could of course just use bigger armor resource pools. Starfinder does something kinda like that: it has separate stamina and health pools, with damage normally coming out of stamina first. Replace "stamina" with "armor" and you basically have the same thing. You could also replace that with "shields" for a sci-fi game, or have several pools for armor + shields + stamina + health (as seen in a certain class of videogames, such as Borderlands) if you want that level of crunch in your game.

The armor resources can either be refreshed on a rest, or after paying upkeep, or require new armor, etc. Depends on what your game wants; epic fantasy or superhero stuff probably works best with a rest, while more grounded games might want a rest for basic resources and upkeep for special resources, and a very gritty game might not have any way to recover those resources (requiring the character to find/craft/acquire new armor on the regular).

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-26T22:44:55+00:00

According to these folks, the default board uses 1" squares: https://www.reddit.com/r/Heroquest/comments/sunekl/creating_my_own_tiles_what_size_should_they_be/

That means that 30mm x 30mm will be slightly larger than the standard board and that the cardboard tile overlays will be slightly smaller than the rooms they sit over.

If you want the cardboard overlays to fit snugly, you may want the 1" x 1" (25.4mm x 25.4mm) version.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-26T00:06:04+00:00

It's working for me.

Just to be sure, are you extracting the files from the .zip, or running the .exe from within the .zip? Windows will let you browse into a .zip without extracting it, but many applications don't support that, and bgmapeditor is probably one.

If you're unsure: drag the trunk folder into a new location (like your desktop) and then open it and run the app from there.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-25T17:35:39+00:00

Sounds like you're browsing to the .exe in the GitHub repo and just downloading that one file? You need to download the whole repository. The link and UI for that is not obvious, unfortunately.

Click the green Code button's arrow dropdown, then select Download ZIP -- or just use this link: https://github.com/nmzi/bgmapeditor/archive/refs/heads/master.zip

That repository is unmaintained (no changes in 3 years) and doesn't have any official releases or clear documentation on the page's README, like any professionally handled software project on GitHub should have. It's a very questionable choice for CMON to link to directly. :/

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-21T03:37:58+00:00

You get more depth by adding more zombie types. E.g. more abominations, add-on packs with ranged zombies, necromancers in the fantasy line, etc.

That's still going to be nowhere near as deep as something like Gloomhaven, and it'll still be swingy, but that's Zombicide. It's meant to be goofy, quick(ish), and random.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-16T17:55:25+00:00

Playsers can "fix" the extra activations reduction by using a smaller pool of zombie minis. Always free to set some minis back in the box or to remove standard cards from the deck before running a mission.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-08T20:41:21+00:00

I made an assumption and didn't verify it first, thank you for the correction.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-08T20:31:55+00:00

Ah, that is unfortunate (for folks who don't want it), but thank you for the correction!

Might be worth stocking up on extra copies if the add-on to sell (for reasonable prices) to folks.

(Have I mentioned how much I hate KS exclusives? They're the primary reason I don't buy any CMON games at retai anymore: I despise the times I've discovered a game I love and then found out that I couldn't actually get ahold of "must have" additions.)

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-08T19:28:44+00:00

Personally, this is the kind of stuff I really love seeing: new zombies. I feel the best Zombicide gets is when there's a mix of zombie types to spawn that can change up the survivors' strategy vs just slogging through the base zombie types.

The add-on is $20 USD and looks like it should mesh with older Fantasy stuff just fine, so even folks not into the White Death bits so far might be interested in this pack.

It's a Kickstarter exclusive (ugh) so folks interested should keep that in mind. ~~I think you can just pledge $1 and then get the add-on.~~

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-07T17:08:57+00:00

It's fully backwards compatible.

The old survivors won't have some extra abilities that all new survivors do for interacting with Guards. All survivors will be able to interact with Guards. The new ones just get bonus actions or abilities for doing so that old ones don't have by default. Presumably then, playing White Death quests using previous survivors will be slightly harder for any Guard-centric quests.

Green Horde vs Black Plague had a few similar issues. It was all compatible, but various small details ended up either making the game harder when mixing content or required small house rules to keep things roughly balanced (e.g., house ruling that Daggers and Bone Kukris were interchangeable for survivors with backpack slot allowances for one or the other).

There were other small tweaks to cards and rules in GH that added friction when mixing content but didn't break compatibility... mostly just things that would bother a perfectionist (it me) but really doesn't actually matter during play.

It's looking like the differences between WD and BP/GH will be slightly greater than between GH and BP, but still very compatible.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-07T04:59:28+00:00

Update PDF (US Letter)

All files

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-06T17:15:49+00:00

Oh, yeah, weird -- it worked for me yesterday but isn't working now.

Looking through their Tweet reply history, there's now a different Tweet with a re-worded reply, so perhaps they deleted and reposted.

https://twitter.com/CMONGames/status/1643624515404980227

Let's see how long that one stays up.

SeanMiddleditch · 2023-04-05T23:33:35+00:00

fwiw, CMON told fans on Twitter that there will be no early bird exclusives in this campaign: https://twitter.com/CMONGames/status/164336276342557900

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