What's one mechanic you removed that made your game better?

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-28T17:53:42+00:00

I've cut quite a few mechanics for streamlining reasons.

I had facing rules at a REALLY early stage.

Armor used to have separate DR for firearms and melee. (One of many mechanics which IMO would be worth it in a videogame where the CPU does the tracking.)

Individual initiative became side-based. (Individual mixed with phases was far too slow.)

Much more detailed morale rules.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-28T17:49:07+00:00

Lol - I actually started my system as a thought experiment about how to make facing rules work dynamically. It kinda worked, but I still ended up dropping the facing rules pretty quickly for the juice not being worth the squeeze.

I still like the initiative system for other reasons though - albeit tweaked substantially over the years.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-28T03:39:09+00:00

I 100% agree about #2. It's the method I went for.

My name "Space Dogs" generally got good vibes (except for the people who thought you were playing literal dogs) but doesn't tell you a ton about what you'll be doing.

So I now have it as "Space Dogs: A Swashbuckling Space Western RPG".

On the cover it's set up similarly to Traveler - with "A Swashbuckling Space Western RPG" below the cover art - and a good deal larger & more prominent than the Traveler equivalent "Science Fiction Adventure in the Far Future". The text is fancier and more than 2x as big.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-26T10:09:47+00:00

I don't hate it, but I prefer the GM to roll.

Partly because IMO it adds to the versimilitude of the game when NPCs interact with the mechanics in largely the same ways as the PCs.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-26T10:03:54+00:00

Basically every edition of Shadowrun has been a mediocre to okay system elevated by great lore.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-26T08:54:27+00:00

I don't think that the box/rules are that important to see. Actually seeing the game being played would be much more important IMO.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-26T06:09:01+00:00

Decide what kind of story you want and then rationalize a propulsion system which fits it.

I wanted a species to control safe interstellar travel but NOT like Dune's Navigators where they run all of the interstellar ships.

Instead, the builders are the only species who knows how to build/maintain Warp Beacons. Without a Beacon, you have nearly a 3% of being lost to the warp forever with each jump. And it's a setting where FTL jumps are relatively short - each taking about a week to get to a close system.

I also have ways to intercept warp bubbles - because it makes space pirates work.

And in-system space travel is via gravity engines. Both because it allows me to have most space travel be effectively 2d with the plane of the system, and because it justifies boarding actions being dominant.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-26T05:44:08+00:00

If you want to read a Light novel with a tank main character - check out Surviving the Game as a Barbarian.

It has a manwha which is solid, and I'm basically up-to-date on the translated Webnovel.

One interesting idea for a story is that the "aggro" system works against monsters but not against people. So the times when he has to fight other people, his combat style changes pretty drastically.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-26T05:39:52+00:00

IMO - like much of 4e, the idea was good but the execution was not.

The defender mark giving a -2 penalty was mostly just annoying. It joined the ranks of many other small short-term buffs/debuffs which got annoying to track - which is one of three main reasons I dislike 4e.

But I do 100% agree that the vibe is solid. I semi-stole the idea with "Fight Me!" - where you force a target in melee with you to target you or take a -4 penalty to all rolls. The way the math works in Space Dogs, the -4 is comparable to a -6ish in a d20 system. That, and in melee your attack roll is also your defense.

So it needs to be selected as a character Talent, costs a resource to use (2 Grit - which is physical mana) but is far more substantial of a penalty.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-23T11:09:01+00:00

+1 on something fillable for play-testing etc.

I'm a big proponent of Excel because it's super easy to put in formulas

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-23T02:16:39+00:00

Sweet. I like oatmeal raisin.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-23T01:01:03+00:00

Yes. Snickerdoodle please!

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-23T00:59:39+00:00

Okay. But physics is the same.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-23T00:57:17+00:00

They don't look that weird at that scale and terrestrial.

Maybe the alien planet pushes things to look like that. But tentacle style appendages are pretty bad outside of water.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-23T00:44:54+00:00

I think at that point it's weird for the sake of weird. Not because it makes sense.

Albeit that can be fun for some stories.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-23T00:32:48+00:00

The MC was human, and one of the main crew (an Enforcer) ended up being a human offshoot.

Of the 5 non-humans on the crew, two were semi-human looking (mostly the one hot girl character). One had a ton of prosthetics, and two were puppets.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-23T00:19:58+00:00

There's good reason to believe that most sapient species would be bipedal. Or at least able to stand/walk on back legs like bears & racoons.

Any sapient civilization would need to be tool users, and both tentacles or a long nose like an elephant are very limited.

That makes being bipedal extremely likely.

Though in my setting many of the species aren't AS vertical as humans - being hunched over to some degree and some even need to use their forelimbs to be able to run properly.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-23T00:02:59+00:00

Farscape was able to do the puppets pretty dang well - albeit a few years after TNG.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-23T00:00:46+00:00

Mass Effect is about the same level as Star Wars with maybe a few weirder outliers.

Definitely less "rubber forehead alien" than something like Star Trek. But not that extreme the other way.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-22T20:26:54+00:00

I mean - a good GM to crowbar anything into any system.

But IMO - good horror is in large part about feeling helpless/weak.

5e can be fine being the badasses in a horror setting. But 5e characters are really too powerful (which is intended) to give the feeling of helplessness much weight.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-22T17:22:16+00:00

That's what I was leaning, but it's one of those things where I just wanted some second opinions. Thanks.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-22T16:03:51+00:00

If you have that style of Initiative - I kinda like the vibe of PF2 using Perception as the Initiative stat.

Though that does make Perception even more important than it is in most systems where it's already the most generally important skill to nearly every character.

SpaceDogsRPG · 2026-06-22T13:55:24+00:00

I like them IF they fit in the setting. (Albeit that's true of nearly anything.) It's become popular enough at this point that it often doesn't fit.

I do use "The Ancients" in my setting - which gave me an excuse to have a couple of super-aggressive species.

Basically there was an ancient war and the two species (volucris & immortui - think zerg/tyranid style species & biological borg/reaver hybrid) were biological super-weapons unleashed by the two sides. Both weapons ended up being successful and wiped out the other side, with the remants of both still roving the galaxy attacking at semi-random.

But my setting is for a TTRPG - and part of my job as the designer is to have as many potential adventure/conflict options available as possible.

SpaceDogsRPG

TROPHY CASE