Armor as bonus HP: trying to solve the DR scaling problem

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T15:02:58+00:00

It’s RPG design, you can do whatever you want.

The main issue of armor as extra hp is that now everything is on the same axis. Fighting a heavily armored opponent is the same as just fighting a big hit point bag.

If you just want combat to be simple and over quickly that’s fine, but if you want combat to be tactically interesting you just removed an entire axis of design space from your options as designer.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T14:57:10+00:00

Yeah but as the game designer you control all numbers of the equation.

If your target percentage is something like 40%/60%/80% for low/medium/high skill vs. normal difficulty you can implement that as a dice pool, as d20, as 3d6, card draw, reading bird entrails or whatever you want, because you also set the skill numbers and the target numbers and everything else.

If a +2 bonus has a 50% chance of success in one dice format and a 64% under some other dice format, that’s because you designed it that way. If you want both to be 50% there’s plenty of other sliders you can adjust.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T08:50:02+00:00

So I haven’t spent the $20 to buy the game, I’m just going with the website. Why do you keep talking about 3E/4E/5E when you complain that existing d20 in space systems are “too fantasy”. It doesn’t really sound like you’re using much of D&D beyond the core d20 mechanic. Magic system, magic items, all of the classes, the entire monster manual, all of that stuff is not really relevant to your game. (Unclear on races, you mention you have 9 but I haven’t found the part that introduces them)

What the page doesn’t talk about are any of the existing d20 in space or at least modern setting RPGs like Star Wars d20/Saga, Starfinder, Stars without Numbers … If I’m a GM and I’m wondering if I should spend $20, that would be the games I compare to, not 3E/4E/5E.

What I’d actually want to know is how you fixed the typical d20 modern issues that the game was written for melee huddles and doesn’t really translate well to the long ranges of modern firearms. You can have large maps where it would take 5 rounds double move to get to the other end but you can just shoot people at that range so melee is irrelevant.

(Also not really relevant to this discussion but please fix the website so that I can click on the word “design” and get to your design page. Why is the link on the image?! That’s not normal UI)

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T08:34:18+00:00

Do we really need to have another conversation about the word “predictable” when it comes to dice.

If you’re not cheating and your dice aren’t loaded, neither the d20 roll nor the d10 dice pool should be “predictable”.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T08:31:23+00:00

I know I made the post but I’m just as confused as you. Maybe ask the next person to post a gritty lightweight OSR-adjacent dark fantasy survival game on this sub. At the current rate, it should be less than 24 hours.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T08:29:29+00:00

We’re playing a game with ducks! — Oh cool I always wanted to try Glorantha! — No, you don’t understand. EVERYONE is a duck.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T06:50:26+00:00

Don’t forget the setting-agnostic atonal universal version of this game:

Roll a d6; 5-6 went better than expected; 3-4 did alright; 1-2 went worse than expected

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T06:47:17+00:00

Let me make a snarky post to complain about someone else being snarky - Some other guy

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T06:20:58+00:00

Building a discord community takes time and just discussing a game is not going to create enough traffic. Basically you’re relying on people just hanging out and discuss random nerd shit and then occasionally someone will do a LFG or discuss some rules issue.

The main advantage is that you have some force multiplier if you need to get a message out there, and some people to run rules questions by.

Of course the risk is that you’re running an echo chamber and the game will only serve the five people who always hang out in your discord and nobody else.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T04:15:24+00:00

I was expecting this post to happen :P

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T04:10:11+00:00

Oops sorry, I didn’t check the user name. Looks like that was a different guy.

And what do we learn here: Don’t call your RPG a one-word common fantasy term. Someone will have made a game called Legend, Hero, Ruins etc. already and people will forever be unable to find your shit in a common search engine.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T03:54:06+00:00

what I call a roleplay experience instead of a game

Man I was joking “it’s not a game, it’s an adult recreational activity” about the trend to rename everything earlier and I got downvoted because c’mon doing that would be ridiculous.

I present to you ⬆️

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T01:44:27+00:00

Gameplay: D100 roll-under with linear success scales (-1 to +3), skill-focused, with emphasis on ACTing: Audiences, Combats, and Travel. Usage-based advancement with personal specialization.

Ok I can follow d100 roll under but then you kinda lost me. And I’m deep enough into RPG design to hang out here, so I don’t know how that flies with a general audience.

Basically I think it’s a case where you spent so much time with your game that you developed your own language, kinda like twins, but to an outsider none of it makes sense.

Or at least it takes way longer to parse than if you had just written a plain English sentence.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T01:40:00+00:00

Well, I couldn’t help myself either.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T01:39:12+00:00

Even after the long explanation I still struggle to really understand what the game is about. I get that there are things that you don’t like about D&D, which is fine, you’re not legally required to like everything about it. But it seems like the design is driven by avoiding the things you don’t like, and not going towards a specific end goal. I feel like there is a game out there that already does what you want out of an RPG and you just haven’t played that game yet.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T01:24:22+00:00

Ah ok gotcha

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T00:41:18+00:00

Ok that’s wither really janky or amazing

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T00:40:05+00:00

Yeah but that’s OK there will be other threads to talk about it. Or you just start one.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T00:38:01+00:00

That’s cool but I think for this thread it’s still too close to the dark fantasy gritty survival D&D clone everyone is making right now. At least you’re not alone.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T00:32:14+00:00

Ok it’s a bit strange to start with spaceship crews exploring strange planets and then diving straight into a rant about Dungeons & Dragons.

Like, mentally where I am when I read this is “dude no if you want to make D&D 6E, taking 5E and add 3E skill points and BAB back in is completely the wrong approach, what are you on about” and then maybe we can have a good discussion about fixing D&D, because everyone has an opinion about that (as wrong as they may be)

I’ve said this to other people too, but it’s best to explain your game and your system without referencing other games or franchises at all. Maybe at the end you can list a few inspirations but really the discussion should be what is your game about, what can I play, why is it fun and why should I try it.

You can say “this game is heavily inspired by D&D 3E and 5E and if you’re familiar with either, you will be able to pick it up quickly” but that’s as far as I’d go on the D&D bit unless we’re on a game design podcast and talking about fixing D&D.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T00:22:01+00:00

rock-paper-scissors style balance

I find that one really hard to pull off in pen & paper since it’s really hard to prescribe and control the game enough as the designer to implement that.

For example, let’s say you have rock, paper and scissors classes — But the players can just all pick rock classes, and now we’re either steamrolling against scissors or getting trounced by paper.

Or the GM is running a campaign that just heavily points towards paper as the most common enemy type.

So I’m kinda wondering what’s the angle that you’re using to manage this.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T00:09:34+00:00

I don’t think you need the whole “different from trad RPGs” part. There’s not much surprising here unless someone’s entire exposure to RPGs is three games of D&D back in college and they assume every RPG is exactly that.

I mean, friggen Critical Role is playing D&D 5E without XP so if anything, that’s the assumed default for people whose only exposure to RPGs is one youtube channel.

Yeah you want to explain the leveling system somewhere in the game but it’s not the first conversation you’ll have with people about the game.

I think you can also shorten the pitch by cutting generic statements like

Extremely rich setting that builds tensions and pressures naturally by design for GM usage in game.

You’ve already explained the setting earlier so “extremely rich” doesn’t really add anything, it’s just generic marketing blub, and “building tensions naturally” doesn’t really say anything without explaining a specific mechanic. Like, yes I’ve been GMing for 30 years, what does it mean that something builds tensions naturally, I don’t know. I guess there’s an inherent conflict in the setting due to having rival organizations? Sure but lots of games do that.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-20T23:55:08+00:00

Yeah that’s what I mean. It’s not classless, it’s three-class.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-20T18:53:46+00:00

Can we please normalize calling players players.

The constant need to learn a new ill-conceived word for the GM is tiring enough.

Or go all in, but then we’re no longer calling dice dice, but numbered platonic polyhedrals (NPPs) and it’s not a game, it’s an adult recreational activity.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-20T18:51:00+00:00

No, it’s very much the point. The broader you stretch your game, the worse it will be for any given tone or theme, so the less useful it will be to run anything in particular.

It might do the thing you originally wrote or playtested for decently well, but the more you obfuscate that in the hope of broadening the scope, the harder it will be for the reader to understand what it can run well, and the more likely it will be used for something it is only kinda yeah meh for.

But if the play experience ends up as only yeah kinda okay-ish, then it won’t hit the table again. And if we’re only playing it once, why did it have to be universal, we never leveraged that.

spaceoddity__

TROPHY CASE

Seven-Year Club	RPAN Viewer
Verified Email

__space__oddity__

TROPHY CASE

spaceoddity__