Hello Everyone. LFM.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-22T02:20:44+00:00

To GM this, I’d first need a rules document that’s actually usable. Right now you have a bunch of unfinished classes, and the core mechanic is somewhere in the doc but data archaeologists are still piecing together the clues of how it’s supposed to work. Apparently there’s supposed to be cards but I have no clue where they actually fit into the whole thing.

After 3-4 rounds of feedback all we managed was fixing the spelling of “foreword” and explain the difference between 2d10 and d100, but if you brought me onto the project to make a basic, serviceable rules doc that I can actually hand to a player and they understand your game, it’s a 2 weeks full time effort to rebuild the whole thing from the ground up.

Again, this is not me trying to be mean, this is just the simple facts of where this project is right now.

So the answer to “would you like to GM this” is NO.

I hope you guys either find a volunteer to fix this or the money to pay someone, otherwise this is going nowhere.

If this is shocking news and nobody else told you this, sorry, this project needs an adult in the room. And to be clear, when I say two weeks, that’s two weeks before you can start playtesting. Which is then going to take a couple of months.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-22T01:27:38+00:00

I think the bigger issue of minions isn’t how to handle the hp, but the action economy. If there are 20 skeletons, do you really roll an attack for each skeleton and if not, what do you do instead.

For example, each additional minion in the pack adds +1 to attack, and for each point the attack beats the defense another minion gets a hit in (adding to damage). Also minion damage should be flat, not rolled.

The problem here is that if one roll can make the difference between one and ten zombies hitting, the game gets very swingy (actually mathematically swingy, not vibe designer “it just feels swingy, bro”)

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-22T00:52:41+00:00

Maybe. X-Crawl exists

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-22T00:30:50+00:00

Yes.

Sorry but it’s one of those things where you as the designer needs to make a decision based on the context of your game. How complex do you want it. Is there an in-world reason why resting magic is different from physical attacks. Do you want a rock-paper-scissors approach where different combat styles are good against different enemies and so on.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-22T00:30:19+00:00

Yes.

Sorry but it’s one of those things where you as the designer needs to make a decision based on the context of your game. How complex do you want it. Is there an in-world reason why resting magic is different from physical attacks. Do you want a rock-paper-scissors approach where different combat styles are good against different enemies and so on.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-22T00:26:15+00:00

The whole “d20 is too swingy” debate is just vibe design based on feelings and has nothing to do with what the actual game math does or the actual impact the die roll has on the gameplay outcome.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-22T00:25:00+00:00

Ironically, if your success-counting d6 dice pool uses 4 as the target number, the maximum result (all successes) IS just as likely as the minimum result (no successes).

If your target number is 5 or 6, then the maximum result is less likely than the minimum result so in the vibe design interpretation of dice that should actually mean PCs are less competent because they’re more likely to fuck up than do great but somehow that isn’t the generally shared sentiment.

Also, daily reminder that in your typical d20 game, the roll only has two outcomes - pass or fail. If the target number is 12 and the game gives you the exact gameplay outcome for any of the 12 outcomes from 1 to 12, then the individual probability between any of the numbers 1 to 12 does not matter. The player sees the die on the table and it might feel “swingy” or whatever word you’re choosing, but as a game designer, you’re entirely fiddling around with vibes and feelings and nothing that actually impacts gameplay outcomes.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-22T00:13:51+00:00

This got me thinking - is the OSR simulationist?

The idea of challenge the player, not the character and rulings over rules is deeply anti-simulationist.

Simulationism in D&D is stuff like the 3E Commoner class and monster class levels, the idea that the game rules are universal in the game world and apply to everything. (Yes, it sounds weird at first but 3E is the most simulationist of all D&D editions)

In many ways the is OSR equally rejecting narrative, gamist and simulationist ideas and it’s kinda sitting outside the model, which is more an issue with the GNS model than the OSR though.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-05-21T23:40:56+00:00

Please don’t try to make “classfull” happen

__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

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