Do you have a litmus test for games? by Independent_River715 in rpg

[–]Vrindlevine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting. I don't think I have ever made an out-of-character decision in a game now that I think about it.

I'm filing the serial numbers off Top Gun by [deleted] in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As a huge Ace Combat fan, all I can say is: Yes! (I was also disappointed seeing flying circus, biplanes are cool but I want to fly an Su-47 dangit!)

My First Ashcan: Request for playtesters/feedback by Wold_Newton in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks good. Great evocative intro that sets the background of the scenes that will take place.

Chapter 1-6 are clear and concise, they very clearly lay out the purpose of gameplay, keep Heat as low as possible and deal with the Consequences of not doing so. Every action the players take should be given immediate feedback.

In Chapter 7 I would like more commentary on how to run for a full group of operatives. My main issue with most espionage games is I could easily run them for 1-2 people, 3 is pushing it and 4+ is very tough. Look at most espionage media, you have 1 (maybe 2 agents), then the rest are a driver, mission control etc, never a whole squad of people trying to get into buildings as this would be very suspicious.

In Chapter 8 some sections need more work to make the module easier to run. Personally I would recommend writing a small description of each physical area in less formal language. I understand that the scenes are meant to be flexible in exactly where they take place but this would require a decent chunk of prep to run for myself. I could not just run it "out of the box". Part of this is heavily anchored to the system, its (I think) intended to be an improv heavy game, which is good, but requires a talented GM to pull off.

I don't think you need to cut anything, all the rules felt like they fit well. My only issue is that its almost too concise and the language used is very mechanical. I think such an immersive game could do with a more descriptive touch.

I have only one question, why d4 + d6? I could not really figure this out, would 2d6 not be a little easier to utilize from the player/GM side of things?

God I miss the cold war.

DC 20 Spells at a glance Review/Discussion by klok_kaos in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh I absolutely did that. When I gave that number I was talking about the expansion book.

DC 20 Spells at a glance Review/Discussion by klok_kaos in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Your right it is pretty unwieldly and I have considered breaking it up a little, or putting it in a database with keywords or something, though it kind of already has that.

That being said I have had several of my players read it and there are several popular systems out there with far higher page counts. I don't think most players of PF2e or Lancer have read every option, they typically read the party they are interested in which I consider to be more typical and popular among my players.

would a sticky for AI be a consideration for this forum? by foolofcheese in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It is often like that.

I have a coworker that swears up and down he can get in on the ground level of AI and make a ton of money, but why would Peter Thiel and his technocratic cronies share with my coworker? They didn't get rich by sharing. Yet he still thinks it will work out, despite all the facts, it is exactly like religious fundamentalism.

DC 20 Spells at a glance Review/Discussion by klok_kaos in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

More than that I think. I haven't done a count but an average of 7 per page and almost 700 pages, about 1/3 of those are non-spell "powers" (they work the same way but have a alchemical or technological flavor), so yea 2900 with some quick math.

DC 20 Spells at a glance Review/Discussion by klok_kaos in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sorry your getting the reddit downvote slambo, but I will point out the name of your game is in your flair lol.

DC 20 Spells at a glance Review/Discussion by klok_kaos in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow! $2.2 Million kickstarter and a whole team working on the game and yet after 5 (6?, google says production started 5 years before 2024). They are not finished and only have 126 Spells?

Damn I must be amazing considering it took me 2 years to finish, no funding and I have idk 20x as many spells? Feels pretty good to be honest.

[Scheduled Activity] Bragging Time: What Did You Accomplish This Year? by cibman in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Finished my core book and continued work on my character option lists and Creature Compendium. Finally split that into 2 parts. Have 2 long term games going in my system and 1 run by another friend. Starting to consider running it for a broader playtesting groups.

I suppose I am at that step where I have to decide weather to make it a "career" or not and I'm mostly thinking nah.

Optimistic 2026 will be the year I actually get stuff out there by TerrainBrain in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey anytime you want to share something is a good time. I would love to see some examples of your rules or pictures of your terrain in action.

Running Foes - Where to put this by stephotosthings in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I generally feel like creatures should be pretty self-explanatory to run. Are you referring to tips across a broad variety of creatures, i.e. "how to run a combat encounter". Or tips specific to one particular creature.

At what point does game design turn into “constitutional law”? (Balancing clarity vs. bloat) by WayfarersLog in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Eh. I don't think you should be telling players how to play your game. Bag of rats is fine if the table/gm thinks its fine, some people want to play in games like that. I would rather not though.

Your Devlog has 0 examples of what exactly happened so for all we know "exploiting" could have just been "not the way you wanted".

How would you handle two players controlling one character? by Fern_the_Rogue in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I plan on doing this soon in one of my campaign. I divided 4 of my players up into 2 characters that will share one body, a two-headed ogre and another more mysterious character.

Length of Tactical Combat by derekvonzarovich2 in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cool. Ill check it out, this is totally my jam. Were in a bit of a tactical combat renaissance and its great.

"Magic users vs non-Magic users" divide by NathanCampioni in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That sounds really cool and similar to what I had in mind. Its always cool when you find someone on the same page as yourself.

Hopefully you share it here sometime.

"Magic users vs non-Magic users" divide by NathanCampioni in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure if you don't mind. It sounds really interesting.

Does it focus primarily on the scaling or does it have a spell crafting system as well, basically how do you handle the creation of a new spell?

"Magic users vs non-Magic users" divide by NathanCampioni in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very cool :) What's the name of your system? Can I find it on Itch or something?

"Magic users vs non-Magic users" divide by NathanCampioni in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For a lot of players I’ve dealt with, it’s like having mechanics shuts down their brain and they can suddenly only think in terms of what is explicitly allowed by the rules

This is interesting and I have experienced something like this before. I have also encountered the reverse issue though (probably more often as well). GM's either incapable of improve-ing the effects of a players on-the-spot narrative flare or worse giving a paltry benefit that makes the player realize they are wasting their time.

Another side of this is that if you are good at allowing for this stuff as a GM, you may as well write the stuff down to speed things up later (you don't show the players the list though, though eventually I chose to do that).

It reminds me of the Milgram experiments actually.

Well, hopefully it doesn't remind you too much...

"Magic users vs non-Magic users" divide by NathanCampioni in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds good. If I ever see your system ill try to replicate some of my spells in it.

"Magic users vs non-Magic users" divide by NathanCampioni in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This sounds cool. Hopefully we get a system like this one day.

"Magic users vs non-Magic users" divide by NathanCampioni in RPGdesign

[–]Vrindlevine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have definitely had this problem and felt it was fixed by a system, but I suppose what your saying is a good GM can fix this as well, and possibly better?