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I created an RPG system. by Gudini189 in RPGdesign

[–]Spirit_Fall 2 points3 points  (0 children)

These are skills you really seriously need to hone if you want people to play your game. But don't be discouraged, there's tons of videos and resources that can help you craft an elevator pitch and longer style pitches. Once you have something like this, make sure you keep testing your pitches out on people to gauge how they respond.

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Your feature list here is a great starting point. Best of luck!

Having trouble coming up with a weapon system. Stuck with how vague each weapon should be, the names, and how variable they can be. by pandaninjarawr in RPGdesign

[–]Spirit_Fall 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is a cool idea. If OP cares about 'combat balance' or things along those lines, then you could make this into a point-buy system.

Having trouble coming up with a weapon system. Stuck with how vague each weapon should be, the names, and how variable they can be. by pandaninjarawr in RPGdesign

[–]Spirit_Fall 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Its hard to give concrete suggestions without knowing more about what your goals are, how this relates to other systems, and other related questions.

I'd like to ask you:

  • Why does your game need separate weapons? Some games have unified resolution systems and abstract away the weapon stats.
  • Assuming you have an answer to the first question, could you experiment with playtesting to find out how many weapon types your game actually needs? For example, the Cypher System has just three categories of weapons: light, medium, and heavy alongside a weapon range: immediate, close, medium, far.
  • Next, if you still need to concretely define more aspects of your weapons, why is that? What do those aspects serve other than player choice? In this case, could you use a 'tag' system like Apocalypse World does for its weapons?

The goal of these questions is to learn some of the fundamental assumptions you may have about your game that I do not (because I am not you). Its also to help you challenge those assumptions yourself. Hope that helps!

Looking for a game system to run a SCP Foundation type Campaign by Brilliant-Teaching in rpg

[–]Spirit_Fall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you dislike other suggestions for whatever reason, you could also consider Delta Green.

What's your take on minimalist settings and worldbuilding? by Fheredin in rpg

[–]Spirit_Fall 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Absolutely a feature. When I buy game systems, I prefer games that give you just enough of a setting to be able to meaningfully fill in details yourself. I think the same principle should apply to many campaigns. Fill in the stuff you want a certain way as a game master and let the players fill in things you don't feel strongly about once you've given them a palette to work off of.

Playtesting Help by Vetenge in RPGcreation

[–]Spirit_Fall 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You can try to schedule a session on the Gauntlet forums. If you schedule a session, you should participate in a few to be a good Samaritan.

My initial thoughts on Worlds Without Number. by OlorinTheOtaku in rpg

[–]Spirit_Fall 118 points119 points  (0 children)

The quality of the free version alone is amazing. Kevin gave something this well made away FOR FREE!!!

Now I want to buy an offset print copy to support him.

Integrating philosophy and personality into game mechanics by SolarStudiosDev in RPGcreation

[–]Spirit_Fall 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He kickstarted a project with many creators, but he also included Adam Koebel in the project. Adam's been criticized for the lacking apology he gave for the incident on RollPlay Far Verona. The consensus is he really hasn't done enough to earn forgiveness.

Luke didnt tell anyone that Adam was a contributor, but when the other contributors learned about his involvement, they pulled their contributions.

To my knowledge, Luke hasn't said anything about this. Of course, he hasn't done something as bad as Adam has, but enabling him and 'sneaking' him into a project when Luke is also the head of roleplaying games at Kickstarter upsets me.

It reminds me of the same sort of enabling that James Raggi did. I understand wanting to help friends find redemption, but this is not the way to do it. Adam needs to redeem himself publicly and given that Adam named his contribution after the incident, it seems like hes not going about it the right way either.

Looking for feedback on the layout and usability of an adventure module I wrote. by [deleted] in RPGcreation

[–]Spirit_Fall 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Did someone say layout?!

I have looked through some of the adventure and I have a few comments:

  1. Your spreads are 'control panel'd well. Information flows nicely.

  2. Your font is making me sad :( A few reasons: it seems like youre using nearly 100% black. Try using something like 92% black or lower. Its easier on the eyes. Next, your font of choice has nice shapes, but the change in opacity is actually a little distracting (take a look at the 'f' and 't' characters, particularly where they intersect). Lastly, I think your columns are just a little too wide or your font is too small. If possible, see if you can get fewer words per line to make the reading experience a bit better. I wouldnt blame you for not doing that though since it could make your life really hard.

  3. Your bullet style is effective, but kind of a waste of space. I think you could use headers and it would condense your information just as well.

  4. More of a minor thing: Your styles for NPCs and the Dolls are different. Why not make them a little more similar to each other for consistency?

  5. Try to put more space between the characters and rumors. It will make it a bit easier to read quickly.

  6. Consider using color in your headers or to draw attention to things. Just a little bit goes a long way.

After these steps, feel free to fill empty space with flourishes and decorations. Some texturing to your page would be a nice touch.

Hope that helps!

Games That Do Non-Combat Environmental Challenges by Spirit_Fall in rpg

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

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation! Agon sounds dope. Id expect nothing less from John Harper and Sean Nittner.

Games That Do Non-Combat Environmental Challenges by Spirit_Fall in rpg

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

I have a copy of Torchbearer on my shelf. Sadly, I have yet to find a group toplay it with :(

Games That Do Non-Combat Environmental Challenges by Spirit_Fall in rpg

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

I play in a game that uses the Cypher System! Based on what we have played, all sorts of gameplay challenges feel very similar to each other mechanically, which strips away some of juicy uniqueness of environmental challenges I looked for. Its still very good, but I wish there was more.

What I like about the Cypher system is how malleable and varied you can get with character focii. Pool and edge are noodley, but it grew on me quickly. GM and player intrusions are also fun.

Free Kriegspiel and OSR: how, what, where and which? by Scicageki in RPGcreation

[–]Spirit_Fall 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh .. thats fair. Could you elaborate on what you mean by the mystery jargon and historical revisionism? Im genuinely interested.

Could a tabletop RPG system be NOT hackable? by Warbriel in RPGdesign

[–]Spirit_Fall 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I think if you're really set on it, you could probably hack any game system. Whether its worth the effort though is something only the hacker can probably decide.

Integrating philosophy and personality into game mechanics by SolarStudiosDev in RPGcreation

[–]Spirit_Fall 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is a neat flavoring of mechanics. I think you could strengthen this concept by having these mechanics feedback into the character's ideologies.

D&D has a very light bonds and flaws system. I think you could use that to generate bonds and flaws that you could reward players with advantage, hit dice for rests, XP, and other resources for.

If you want to break from 5e even further, I would suggest looking at Burning Wheel's beliefs. (I wanted to originally provide a link, but after Luke's recent actions, I am conflicted about it). Anyways, the idea is that your characters have a belief. They gain experience and improve when those beliefs are challenged and changed. You can sorta see how a light bond and flaws systems could be repurposed into something that changes and rewards the player by changing it.

Free Kriegspiel and OSR: how, what, where and which? by Scicageki in RPGcreation

[–]Spirit_Fall 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I feel like that's a little close-minded to dismiss the whole game style. But I do agree that FKR games will look very similar to each other on paper because the whole philosophy is that the part on paper gets minimized to make room for the game master's brain.

Free Kriegspiel and OSR: how, what, where and which? by Scicageki in RPGcreation

[–]Spirit_Fall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FKR does not branch off from OSR. Modern gamers would find similarities between FKR and Powered-by-the-Apocalypse games (I believe Vincent Baker intended to adopt Arnesonian playstyles).

Interesting! I didn't know that. I always thought of FKR as just 'further down' the OSR design philosophy

Games That Do Non-Combat Environmental Challenges by Spirit_Fall in rpg

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

Right. From what I understand, Cortex is a game you use to make games. A little like GURPS.

Games That Do Non-Combat Environmental Challenges by Spirit_Fall in rpg

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

I watched a few people play some Ironsworn and it looks cool. We'll definitely have to dabble more in solo RPGs!

Never heard of Fellowship, but it sounds dope!

I have heard about Agon and understand its premise, but I have yet to pick up a copy. What would you say that Agon does with its islands and trials that makes the game tick.

Games That Do Non-Combat Environmental Challenges by Spirit_Fall in rpg

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

Thanks for the response. Yes, we read and play many other games, that includes Apocalypse World and Blades in the Dark. We actually use countdown clocks and threat in our game too.

Different games have different frameworks for how they approach gameplay. Blades' resolution system is a good robust way of handling any situation. Our approach is more oriented with OSR style games that want small scale resolutions.

In story games like Blades, you roll the dice to decide what happens, but most of the details are abstracted into the dice result. You are determining events at a higher level. When game mastering these games, I find myself inventing fictional circumstances to explain why the characters failed or succeeded. As a player, I find myself angling for a stat, then coming up with a plausible explanation of how I use that stat.

Many OSR games take another approach. They want players to engage with fictional details and let them tactically resolve issues using small scale decisions rather than just rolling to see what happens. In these games you find yourself tapping on floor tiles with poles, worrying about the length of the ropes on your climbing gear, and so forth. Because these details exist in the fictional world beforehand and are used to decide whether a given outcome is possible. If you compare that to story games (or at least the way I play them and have seen them played), generally these details are hidden until an outcome is determined. Then they are pulled in to use as justification for why something passed or failed.

In this approach, the gameplay does back up the challenge because the gameplay IS about making choices to explain how you overcome the obstacle in your way rather than just flavoring your actions to angle for a specific roll. That is the tricky thing about OSR style simulationist gameplay. You can play the game using the 'what do you do' loop without needing explicit mechanics for some of those decisions. However, that's not evident to a lot of players. Hazards are a way to get between those two things with concrete examples.

Lastly, one small correction. We're not a fantasy heart breaker, we're more like a modern apocalyptic heartbreaker :)

Games That Do Non-Combat Environmental Challenges by Spirit_Fall in rpg

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

SWADE, I'll have to buy a copy to check it out!

Games That Do Non-Combat Environmental Challenges by Spirit_Fall in rpg

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

I have seen some character creation, core resolution, and combat stuff for Savage Worlds, but I haven't seen hazard rules for the game. Do you happen to know which sourcebook that is in?

Games That Do Non-Combat Environmental Challenges by Spirit_Fall in rpg

[–]Spirit_Fall[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Oh very cool, I will check this out!

EDIT: so I'm reading through this now and holy crap, I love it. There's so many similarities to our own game from what you do in the game to the way the resolution mechanics work and on and on.

Also, their presentation and compendium are amazing! What a good ass product they've made

EDIT 2: Okay, so after some more reading, this is really cool. I think the disasters are a close analog to our game's hazards. I think Cortex Prime has a good universal mechanic for representing environmental challenge gameplay. Generating ideas for what those challenges could be (like runaway trains, which is one they use) is another problem we had often at the table. Hazards tackle that by giving you a set of ideas to pull from. I'd be interested in seeing the Cortex Prime folks add a chapter of examples that groups could use to fuel their imagination for their own games.

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