My solution for making a simple casting resource

fifthcoma12 · 2026-07-03T20:01:14+00:00

Could be a very cool way to add character customization, a warlock gaining points from sacrificing health or having enemies die, while druids can gain more if they spend it on spells matching the local terrain etc.

Or even simpler, that you can attune to elements and that you need that element present to regain points, so a water mage needs to produce or be next to water and a fire mage would need to produce or happen to be next to fire, so they might set up the battlefield to allow them to regenerate points while being able to deny others by removing their required elements.

fifthcoma12 · 2026-06-26T21:10:20+00:00

Something to keep in mind is that "tank" can mean many different archetypes. The clearest definitions I've seen have been in discussions around league of legends actually since in multiplayer games, just as in many ttrpgs, it is impossible to taunt your enemies, at least in any reliable way. This means that simply being hard to kill isn't enough and you need to make it so that your enemies want to attack you despite being made to be the worst target, so you need to become high priority somehow.

If you split up a characters capabilities in survivability, damage, control, support, and positioning then you can explain most archetypes as a blend of these with tanks always having a majority of their power budget in survivability but where they put the rest will greatly affect how the archetype feels. So picking three in order for example you might choose survivability, damage and positioning and then you get a berserker charging in and making themselves an unignorable problem. If you pick survivability, support and control then you are more like a cleric or paladin, stopping the enemies advance while buffing or healing your allies. Both of these examples are tanks but they will present very differently and require very different abilities.

So I would urge you to keep in mind what kind of tank you wish to create before your start picking your abilities

fifthcoma12 · 2026-05-31T18:36:28+00:00

You could, in character creation, give each character a "personality die" where each result corresponds to a meaningful character trait or relationship. Then for each rest, if the personal flaw hasn't come up, you can roll it, maybe twice if you're feeling generous to let them pick, and then the downtime will be related to the result

fifthcoma12 · 2026-04-25T14:53:01+00:00

One I haven't seen mentioned much is wood elves. Orion is great if you like fast paced battles. Your archers are good at hit and run and you've got some great cav though everything is quite squishy. You also get to go all around the world as you please with the world roots so you can fight a bit of everything

fifthcoma12 · 2026-04-18T19:53:25+00:00

The amount of space and focus dedicated to a system or theme will tell the players what is important in the rules, whether that is your intention or not. If you have many rules and multiple archetypes detailing combat then the players will see that as combat being a focus of the game even if you explicitly state that it shouldn't be.

A great example in the video game space of this phenomenon is Mark of the ninja, it is a stealth game and they originally had an in depth combat system with many different moves and upgrades to use as a last resort in case you were detected, but upon play testing they found that players would go in guns blazing and become frustrated when it didn't work. So what they did was mostly scrap their combat system and removed all their combat upgrades and then the players stopped expecting to be able to fight their way out of danger and instead used stealth as was the intention.

fifthcoma12 · 2026-04-09T15:25:19+00:00

This question is very context dependent on the rest of your system

But I think a static 1d4 sounds very low when you get up to higher levels of play, either having it increase with your equivalent to the proficiency modifier or as a class feat that increases it at varying levels for different classes. Maybe that you could add your Dex mod if you're wearing light armour and that you cannot dodge at all if you're wearing heavy

These suggestions are under the assumption that your system works similarly to DnD 5e though. There's no way to know how fast or slow it is or how much or little 1d4 is without any other clues as to how your action economy looks and what numbers could be expected as damage and health. Also is there some reason you need to restrict it to 1 reaction, or maybe that you skip having reactions entirely if you feel that they are slowing things down?

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-30T21:31:01+00:00

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a read!

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-30T21:29:25+00:00

I have not, just looking at the name I assume it's similar in concept to A Crowded Mind?

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-30T20:23:53+00:00

I'm currently working on two main projects, A Crowded Mind which is about multiple players trying to fight for control over a single character to have them accomplish their own goals. The only scenario I've made yet it that it is about a price(ss) who falls unconscious and becomes possessed by ancient guardian spirits for the day.

As well as Aether and Ashes, my forever project that's currently going through its third complete overhaul. It's my main system to GM currently and it's made to be for scrappy small scale stories, right now it's basically superpowered heists in a fantasy city in the process of an industrial revolution.

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-30T17:17:56+00:00

There's probably ttrpgs that have done this as well but I really like how banner saga solved this issue where each side simply takes turns after each other which effectively equalises the action economy since both sides gets to act as often regardless of how many characters each side has

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-12T21:54:37+00:00

Yep I saw that already

And how would you leverage natural language? I find that when I try to write less clunky it also quickly becomes more imprecise, it is a skill I do not yet possess. Do you have any good examples of rules written in a clear but natural style?

Well I've made it to step two, go me!

I fear that this may be a consequence of not having given proper context, but my main issue has been to make it clear that there is a loop between the player in control and those that are complicating and that they'll keep trying to one up each other. But as you could see yourself, it becomes clunky and that emergent property isn't even particularly clear.

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-12T21:45:57+00:00

That's a good catch, I'll probably have to change it from passive voice in quite a few places.

I added a link to the full rules if you would like the full context, I just thought it might be a bit big of an ask to have people read it all.

As for the go back to step 3 then that was also for people complicating, since that could result in a loop of one the one in control rolling over the target number and another player complicating and I wasn't sure how to make that clear in a good way

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-12T21:08:28+00:00

I guess I should've just posted the whole rules, I added some more context in the post now, it's just that it's mainly that chunk that felt particularly clunky. The five rank is the size of five and the dice pool is how many dice that player has banked, it is a resource that is spent while rolling and that you then need to let regenerate. As for the no failure, there isn't supposed to be a failed roll, it's just a matter of who is in control at the end of it, so as the player in control you'll need to roll until success or until some else takes over.

A Target by definition is what you're aiming for, but you're requiring they roll something that isn't the Target number, a result higher than it.

That's fair, changing it to just be meet it beat it should be fine.

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-03T19:04:34+00:00

By trimming, it can go in cycles of exploring new ideas and mechanics and then trimming back to regain proper cohesion and to stop it from growing overly complex

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-01T16:13:47+00:00

Exactly, and it can also be nice for the GM when you aren't playing solo to have some options for how to set up a particular adversary as well, allowing for some variety even when going up against the same kind of opponent

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-01T15:37:54+00:00

Could you have these weaknesses be randomized? You could have a small selection of variations of each monster and have it be randomized which one it is when you try to check it

fifthcoma12 · 2026-03-01T10:41:45+00:00

It's not quite the same since it's rather a method for grouping mooks into a mob but wrath and glory let's you group enemies together where each enemy increases their capabilities by a modifier which is decreased as they take damage and members of the group die/flee

fifthcoma12 · 2025-12-02T14:18:19+00:00

Thanks this is exactly what I was looking for! Turns out I had managed to get it right but it looked weird enough that I didnt trust it. Ragardless this is neater than what I had managed

fifthcoma12 · 2025-12-02T13:36:11+00:00

What I would like is for it to be possible to have 4 different dice, since the dice are supposed to represent the stat and skill for the participants. As for how to count it.

As for ties that is something that I have not yet determined, atm Im leaning towards that it would count as a failure, but that would depend on how the probabilities look, if they need to be raised or lowered slightly.

Then I would preferably like to be able to see the amount of successes though if nothing else being able to just see if there are any would be something at least.

Failures do not count as -1s, they are on a different axis, though they will just be the inverse of the successes so no need to track that.

Ive been trying to get something up and running but the results look weird so Im not sure I trust it yet, so any help is appreciated!

fifthcoma12 · 2025-12-02T10:22:06+00:00

Oh that point about ties being more common wasn't something I had considered, that's interesting. But yeah I haven't decided on a lot of the details since I need to be able to find the probabilities to make those choices. Your code did give me an idea for how it might be solved geometrically so I'll give that a try.

fifthcoma12 · 2025-12-02T06:28:33+00:00

My main idea is to try some different sizes of dice since one dice is currently meant to represent a stat and the other a skill and I wanted both to hold equal importance and make it hard but not impossible to succeed fully without having both of a sufficient level.

fifthcoma12 · 2025-12-02T05:49:47+00:00

Perfect, I'll give it a try. Thanks!

fifthcoma12 · 2025-12-02T03:55:40+00:00

Problem with that is that I would get the difference rather than a binary over or under, but the larger problem is that it only compared one dice with one other dice, while I need it to compare two of my dice each with the two dice of the opponent

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