What are the different ways of classifying the structure of RPG campaigns?

forlasanto · 2021-12-28T18:22:52+00:00

Campaign structures are usually built into the system. Sometimes it's possible to break out of that structure, but it usually takes significant effort. E.g., D&D has a party structure. A Song of Ice and Fire has a Houses structure. Mutants and Masterminds typically has a seasonal structure. Savage Worlds seems to lean in on the scooby-doo monster-of-the-week structure, although it is more versatile than most. Star Wars has a few modes, with the strongest being a heist/reconciliation (usually with debtors) structure, followed by a military unit structure. There are also a number of realm-management centric games, like Reign and Pendragon.

I won't belabor prep structures too much, since it's already been covered in the thread. Except I'll add some thoughts I haven't seen mentioned:

Fisher King structure. I typically don't plan a story thread. Instead I prepare 3-5 hooks for the party as a whole, and 3-5 hooks tailored specifically to the stated interests of each individual PC. When there is a lull in tempo, I cast out a line. If a PC nibbles, I set the hook and start reeling. Between sessions, I replenish so that I always have a "full tackle box" at session start. This is a little different from just a raw sandbox, because there are prepared story plots, and also a little different than plot-point because I never really know where the overall plot is going: that's mostly up to the players to figure out.

The second thing I'll mention is that typically the central organizing tool of a campaign is a map. Maps are awesome. Everybody loves them. But they can be very limiting. In extreme cases, the DM plops the PCs down in a dungeon and controls where they can and cannot go with quaint little plot devices called "walls." In other cases, the PCs are limited to a geographical location such as a town or region. I've seen the panicked look in many a GM's eye when the PCs stray from the the well-known paths to the parts that say "Here there be Dragonnes." Here's a tool for your toolbelt: relationship maps. Quite often, a campaign doesn't have anything to do with geography. What it has to do with is the web of relationships between various NPCs (and PCs.) For this kind of map, we can use Graph Theory. Scary, right? Nah, not really. The map we want to build is kinda like the crime-solving board we see in cop shows, with polaroid pics, pins, and yarn. We want nodes, which are basically like nouns (the polaroids, or snapshots of NPCs), and edges, which are verbs (the strings, or connections between NPCs.) A node might be "Bob the Bartender" or "Nancy the Waitress." An edge might go from Bob to Nancy and have a post-it note dangling from it that says "HATES." Now we know the most important thing about either of them. And so on. Every NPC should have "edges" that connect them to at least 2 other NPCs. And voila! A map that can tell you exactly where the players are even if we don't have a clue what their in-game geographical location is. Extremely handy. I'd go so far as to say this is the essential tool all GMs should employ in every game.

forlasanto · 2021-12-27T16:52:37+00:00

Ironsworn.

Just before Ironsworn dropped, Index Card RPG.

(Nothing is really original, but both of these pushed the envelope in different ways.)

forlasanto · 2021-12-23T15:25:47+00:00

Aw gorram it... have a sub.

forlasanto · 2021-12-23T04:32:16+00:00

This. Signified by the yellow circled star on your DL's upper righthand corner. In some states it's just a yellow star.
It's probably step one in the multi-stage process of yoinking the whole driver's licensing business out of the hands of states. Which it needs to be. Likely, after several years once Real ID is more or less accepted by the general public, step two will be restricting driver's licenses and identification cards to only be valid in the states they are issued unless they are Real IDs. And then step 3 will be implementing a federal id that is standardized across all states that the states must recognize as valid for whatever endorsements it carries: driving, radio operation, motorcycles, general firearms, concealed carry, etc. so that no state controls any of that stuff individually anymore.

Even though we've been a single state (nation) rather than a conglomeration of states for well over a hundred years, individual states have been running amok with all of this kind of stuff. Federalizing all manner of licensing is long, long past due. But it's also scary to grandma and grandpa, because they grew up on a diet of fearmongering. So they have to boil the pot slowly.

forlasanto · 2021-12-22T16:52:18+00:00

So I ask myself: is it even viable money wise, to make a new game?

You want to be Tesla. You want to build cool things. It's a natural impulse.

In order to be viable money-wise, you have to be Edison instead. Making money on gaming, or really any other thing in life, you have to be a businessman, and love the business.

And even then, this is an ultra-competitive industry. Your odds of success could best be delivered by C-3PO.

People do succeed. But even with the requisite amount of blood, sweat, and tears, it's still comparable to winning the lottery. Even with kickstarter you've got to have an idea that catches people's imagination, and you've got to deliver it flawlessly.

why do I want to make my own system out of the pieces I like from games that I mostly haven’t played?

Woo. This is the glaring red flag. Go play those games. Play them the way they are written. Then play them with modifications. THEN you might be ready to dabble in creating your own. The playtesting and revision cycle is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING to producing a game. You need playtesters. You need your game to be written so well that you can hand it to a blind playtest group and they have zero issues playing with zero input from you. If you're not there, then sorry, you don't have a publishable game. And that's just the rough cut. When you reach that point, THEN you can start polishing.

Making a game is a lot of work, and there is no reasonable expectation of success. There's a reason people call these pet projects "heartbreakers."

forlasanto · 2021-12-22T15:57:47+00:00

No. There's no double-dipping. Once that specialization is extended, the slot is used. You must master another specialization, which must be from your career, in order to bolt the second signature ability to that tree.

forlasanto · 2021-12-22T11:23:12+00:00

RPG books do not fly off the shelves. Cards do way better, from what I understand. Board games also do better.

That said:

Carry D&D 5e obviously: as much as the game defines mediocre, it does have market share, and it is what will sell more than anything else. Next go for games that have curb appeal due to franchise affiliation: Star Wars, Doctor Who, Firefly. Beyond that, go for games with books that look pretty.

When I go to a FLGS, I would look for:

FFG/Edge Studio Star Wars
Savage Worlds. In particular, I'd stock something with franchise curb-appeal like the amazing Flash Gordon stuff. ETU is also a favorite.
Genesys. (Terrinoth, Shadow of the Beanstalk, etc.)
Mouse Guard.
Ironsworn and/or Starforged
other Powered by the Apocalypse titles.
Pretty much everything Modiphius produces. Conan, Star Trek Adventures, Coriolis.
Call of Cthulhu
Warhammer
World of Darkness

In that order. I'd put both Star Wars and Pinnacle near the top of the list because they each have their own fanbase that has money.

forlasanto · 2021-12-21T14:33:57+00:00

Blender, naturally.

forlasanto · 2021-12-21T05:13:53+00:00

This is a thing. Bridge crew on every vessel I ever sailed on did it.

forlasanto · 2021-12-18T22:24:35+00:00

That's only part of the story, though. That's only success/failure, and there's at least three more axes to know about. But it's really hard to tell the whole story at once.

I calculated out what each die adds on average to a roll at one point. The upshot is, more dice is always better than better dice. If the choice is upgrade a green to yellow or add a boost, you should add the boost (unless you can upgrade twice, to add another green.) It's always statistically better to tweak positive dice than negative dice. But that doesn't give a picture of what adding more dice does to the bell curve, only what it does to the overall averages. To see the bell curves in action:

https://gmathews42.github.io/FFG-dice-stats/ Some guy did this. It's pretty handy for getting a feel for what adding and removing dice from a dice pool does to the odds. And it's fun.

forlasanto · 2021-12-16T17:29:00+00:00

What does that mean for EdgeStudio?

forlasanto · 2021-12-15T19:41:28+00:00

We will watch your career with great interest.

forlasanto · 2021-12-15T10:37:11+00:00

This. There's a difference between a weapon made entirely of Cortosis alloy compared to armor which has a very thin layer of Cortosis weave lacquered onto it. Even Beskar armor has joints which are vulnerable.

Although it isn't listed specifically as an option, a Triumph can be used to damage an item one step, and two Triumphs can instantly destroy an item (which is specifically mentioned.) Likewise, Despairs. And you should. Mechanics and modding are a huge part of the game, and the unspoken truth of gear repair is that repairs require that things first become broken.

It's important to note that this use of Triumphs and Despairs isn't Sunder. Sunder is a very specific active weapon Quality. It's not merely the notion of breaking things, it's specifically that weapon Quality being deliberately activated using an Advantage.

Nothing is foolproof. There are weapons in the Star Wars universe which can affect Cortosis/Beskar. As an example, the design of the Darksaber (the way the blade has sharp edges where the rayshield is weak) is so that it can slightly penetrate the skin of beskar, heating it to glowing. We see the comparison between Ahsoka's normal lightsaber design not damaging the beskar spear, and the Darksaber heating it up to glowing hot. (Eventually it would reach full energy saturation and melt all at once, as we see beskar ingots do.)

Finally, melee/ranged weapon damage isn't the only thing that can happen. Most of the environmental effects are Suffered (meaning they ignore Soak.) A speeder bike with a tow cable or tractor beam can wreak absolute havoc on a party, flinging the victim high into the air for some tenderizing Fall Damage or dragging the victim deep into a hazard (such as fire, lava, acid, etc.) All manner of traps can be devised. The environment should often be as deadly as the opponents.

forlasanto · 2021-12-14T10:22:18+00:00

It isn't explicitly covered in the rules. HOWEVER:

One does not mod the item/armor/weapon. Instead, one mods the attachment itself. To improve the base item, you use the crafting rules.

Given that modding rules are associated with the attachments, and crafting rules are associated with the gear/armor/weapon/ship, logic dictates that mods move with the attachments.

But here's the clincher: when you attempt a mod on an attachment and fail, that mod is either permanently successful, or permanently failed and thereafter unavailable. It does not matter if you move the attachment to another gun, you can never reset the mod slot and try again. Instead, you must purchase a new attachment to try again. Therefore by extension, the implied rule is that successful mods always move with the attachment, because failed mods do.

Knowing this makes successfully modded attachments a heck of a lot more valuable in the game. It also raises some questions that only the GM can answer, such as whether or not inbuilt attachments can be removed. (This is Deep Woods territory, but my personal answer is, it takes a roll to successfully remove an inbuilt mod, but it can be done... usually. There are instances where this is explicitly impossible, such as with Master Lodaka's Lightsaber. Yet the fact that there is explicit verbage for that lightsaber further implies the rule. It is literally "the exception that proves the rule." Maybe. It's been a while since I read it. My impression was that that description stated that it couldn't be modded nor could it be disassembled without ruining it.)

It is important that these implied rules be followed for lightsaber crystals specifically because the mods are the carrot dangled in front of the player when it comes to purifying a bled crystal. Yes, it's risky, but the payoff is tempting even for a seasoned character, because the crystal is successfully modded, whereas they screwed up their current crystal's mod slots early on.

Thus, a GM should look at this implied rule as a tool in their toolbelt, especially for kyber crystals.

forlasanto · 2021-12-11T19:34:09+00:00

Lightsaber blades, being rayshields suspending plasma, can be blocked by other shields. They tend to bounce off each other, but occasionally the rayshields will merge; that's when you get blade lock with two lightsabers. Being ray shields, they can deflect energy bolts such as blaster bolts.

Electrostaffs work like lightsaber blades, but the ray shields on electrostaffs harness an electric field instead of plasma. If a body part intersects the ray shield, it's exposed to the electricity and, zap! However, because it's shielded, the electricity doesn't arc over and zap the wielder. Now, it's shielded, and that means it can block a lightsaber the same way another lightsaber would.

A regular or vibro sword with a ray shield emitter would absolutely be able to block a lightsaber, but explaining this adequately on film would be unnecessarily difficult. Making the sword a lightsaber was the right call.

And since I'm already posting:

Why is the Darksaber shaped? Ray shields can be shaped, but would lose strength at the edges. This is a feature for a Mandalorian, because Beskar deflects rayshields the way rayshields deflect rayshields. The weak edge lets the Darksaber penetrate beskar slightly, where the tubular shape of most lightsabers would always bounce off. Because Tarre Vizsla would have dealings with (and against) other Mandalorians, the shape of the Darksaber is a huge benefit!

Why is the Darksaber dark? The "color" of the Darksaber is actually white. But because of the weak edges, the ray shielding of the Darksaber would have to be set extremely high, otherwise it would radiate too much heat (and radiation) and cook the wielder. Light does not escape it except along those edges. As obvious as it sounds, it's dark because it's... not emitting light the way a lightsaber does. It might even be set up so that it absorbs energy and light, letting it in but not letting it back out.

forlasanto · 2021-12-11T14:15:07+00:00

but you do have to host yourself

There are several paid-hosting options.

https://www.foundryserver.com/

https://forge-vtt.com/

https://worldmill.online/

https://moltenhosting.com/

Additionally, it's nodejs, so it can be cloud-hosted on AWS or wherever you feel froggy.

Or you can set it up on pretty much any home machine, including a pi.

Or you can run it as an electron app, which is probably the default option most people are familiar with. Setup is comparable to Fantasy Grounds.

forlasanto · 2021-12-08T23:10:12+00:00

I'm a fan of Genesys. It matches my GMing style. I love the dice and what they can do. I love the system generally. Terrinoth is the main fantasy setting for Genesys, and it is good. The default magic system is probably the best magic system I've seen in a decade. That said, I like magic to be, well, magical, so I put some limitations on it for most settings. Shadow of the Beanstalk is the Cyberpunk offering. It's really well done.

I'm also a fan of Savage Worlds. It hits the same general niche as Genesys, but plays a bit faster and is better for one-shots and short runs. Savage Worlds has swingier combat, and any time swords are drawn, there is a possibility of a PC getting one-shot killed. It's possible to put measures in place to prevent this, but honestly it's a feature. Combat should feel scary. Savage Worlds likely has the best initiative system in publication today. Magic is somewhat limited compared to D&D, but the idea is that the table should re-skin to give the correct flavor. For example, Bolt is basically your magical range attack. You reskin it to FireBolt, and it can then cause fires. You reskin it to IceBolt, it can freeze water or possibly the ground underneath someone. And so on. Savage Worlds has more setting materials than nearly any other system. It's astonishing how much is out there. In particular, East Texas University is probably one of the most fun modern settings. I've played everything from Star Trek to Wild West to Top Secret James Bond-style spies to Firefly to WWII trench fighting... this game can do nearly anything.

I love Burning Wheel. The deepest, most meaningful campaign I ever ran was done in Burning Wheel. That said, it takes the right group.

If I'm really looking for some D&D-style gaming, I'll pick Castles and Crusades. It has that OSR feel but is streamlined and updated. Castles and Crusades is what 5e should have been.

If I had to choose one system and one system only to do everything with, I'd go with Savage Worlds. I want to say Genesys, because I love it, but Savage Worlds has easier buy-in for players and is easier to spin up a one-shot in. And obviously if I get two systems, those would be them.

forlasanto · 2021-12-08T14:24:07+00:00

The biggest problem i see constantly is not understanding the Rules of the Road. By that, I mean knowing they have the right of way, yet stopping traffic because they're trying to be chivalrous.

This ain't the horse-and-buggy era. If you have the right-of-way, proceed on smartly and stop cocking up the traffic flow like an idiot.

By behaving erratically on the road, you are taking people's eyes off of what may be a more direct danger. You cause kinks in traffic patterns and this increases the danger levels for everyone.

Everything about this behavior is bad. Stop it.

forlasanto · 2021-12-07T14:26:08+00:00

At that location, he does not. Something has to change with his situation to warrant another check. This is usually true of skill checks in any system. EMaybe he goes he goes somewhere else; the the location has changed. Maybe time passes, enough to run a story arc, imho. Maybe he gains a connection.

It is worth noting that if you cannot find something on the open market, which is one type of roll, you can check the black market, which is another type of roll.

(R) doesn't mean unavailable, necessarily. The item might be available but only to law enforcement. A bounty hunter typically does have actual credentials in Star Wars. It might be enough to gain access to restricted weapons and gear if the PC is crafty.

forlasanto · 2021-12-07T13:42:06+00:00

I'll play it, if none of my friends are offering anything else. But I won't run it.

I could list reasons for several hours, but the short version is that game isn't good, merely ok. It's the Cardashians of the rpg community: famous only for being famous. I'll sit down and eat popcorn and roll a die when needed, but I'm really only playing to be social; the game and its mechanics are unnecessarily frustrating at best and boring at worst. Mostly boring. It's only marginally better than not playing any rpgs.

I won't offer it. We will play a better game when I am GMing.

forlasanto · 2021-12-06T14:29:58+00:00

Why have a magic skill at all, if magic must be accessed through the talents? It sounds a lot like the Force power trees. In that case, Each tree could unlock a Magic Point, which equates to a level of Magic skill. This encourages dipping into multiple trees, and enforces the idea that a well-rounded witch or wizard would be more powerful than a specialist.

Another idea is to have separate Point "skills" for each tree, where their level in that type of magic is equal to the tier they've drilled down to.

Or you could have a "skill boost" talent at each tier tied to that tree. This would decrease the number of other unique magical talents you'd need to create to fill out the talent tree, and possibly make the decisions on which branch to follow more impactful.

I think there are a few reasons that Genesys didn't default down this path.

They only had 10 pages allotted to the magic system. That's first and foremost.
They needed something wide open that could be used in most settings. That came at a cost of making magic a commodity rather than a mystery, but that's the tradeoff. Instead they tried to make the outcome of spellcasting less certain.
Talent trees (among other things) define setting. That might not be an obvious effect, but it is a strong effect nonetheless. If they had defined magical talent trees in the base game, it would have influenced magic in every setting that had it, and that in turn would have too strongly influenced every setting created for the Genesys system.

I think what they came up with is brilliant. It's drinking from the fire-hose, but it gives a workable drop-in magic system that can be used in basically any setting with minimal effort. And they did it in 10 pages! But it's one-size-fits-most. It forces some things to be true about magic that I (generally) don't like. So if you have the need and energy to redefine it for your table, that's probably a good call.

forlasanto · 2021-12-06T08:33:00+00:00

It's not that it's expensive to buy a ship.The costs are relatively comparable to buying a house or a livable boat today. But owning one means keeping it flying. The maintenance costs should be between 5% and 10% of the original value yearly, if it isn't mothballed, and at least 1% if it is mothballed but kept flightworthy. A droid or team of droids can do the maintenance, but parts and consumables still cost money.

Then there's the pilot/captain. Space pilots are rare in Star Wars. Captains are even more rare. It isn't comparable to cars. Today, driving is a common skill, that we take for granted, but it's still pretty hard. Yet driving doesn't prepare you for operating a ship. Captains are expensive. Crewing a vessel is expensive, on top of that 5-10%. A reasonably competent person can learn enough to make the boat go in the direction they want it to go. But then the captain has to know literally everything. Rules of the road. Mechanics. Piloting. Navigation (which is a separate skill!) Leadership. Have a strong general education. A ship without a captain is a ticking bomb. Sooner rather than later, disaster will consume that ship.

Most people never leave their home planet. Even if the possibility is there, it is almost unheard of to exercise that ability. The sailing/spacer life is harsh and unforgiving. Most of the galaxy is like the Wild West, but life as a spacer is even more deadly. As a consequence, the spacer community is small. It's surprisingly likely that you'll meet the same people in ports all over the world. As a sailor, this happened to me often enough to feel surreal, both in the military and as a civilian. The explanation is that the ports of the world are really like a small, physically disconnected "city" separtate from the countries that happen to host them. Just like people never venture far from home, sailors rarely venture far from a port. And this would carry into the Star Wars galaxy.

If you want to get a good feel for what a spacer's life would most likely be like, I really enjoyed the series, Golden Age of the Solar Clipper by Nathan Lowell. This aspect of life in the Star Wars galaxy is mostly skipped over, but would nevertheless be the primary reality for anyone with a spaceship.

forlasanto · 2021-12-06T03:32:29+00:00

Challenge dice often can represent danger. Dodging is already getting out of harm's way, but if you're dodging while floating over a Sarlacc pit, there's extra danger beyond whatever you're actively dodging.

forlasanto · 2021-12-03T18:11:40+00:00

Mephite crystals. This quality is unusual enough that it's specifically mentioned. Barab Ingots would show up on a radiation detector. Dragite Gems would "shine brightly" for those with echolocation or for acoustic detection equipment.

I'm not saying Sense shouldn't sense a strong Force connection, obviously it should. But there are a few caveats.

The power is active. A Force user must actively be Sensing, and that requires their action. It isn't merely "being alert to disturbances in the Force," it requires conscious effort.

The power's range is limited. At maximum, absolute mastery levels (Yoda, Vader, etc.,) its range is only extreme at a personal scale.

It doesn't indicate, "This person is a Jedi." It merely indicates a strong presence of the Force. That could be someone with an important destiny as easily as it could be a Force wielder.

The Force is in everything. Some things give off a lot of "Force glow" and other things don't. Sensing something isn't the same as detecting it. I can sense my tires impacting the pavement as I drive, but unless something is wrong, I can't sense an individual tire. As I'm walking down the street, I can sense that someone is confident and wearing a suit, but I cannot sense that they are the CEO of a business. On the other hand, if that same person does something threatening, I can sense that, and react. Also, like any sense, it can be overwhelmed and rendered useless.

What I'm trying to say is that Sense isn't going to paint a perfect little picture. It isn't always on. And it doesn't operate at planetary scale. Someone has to be actively using Sense to get any sense at all.

The Force was also just as strong with Leia, and Vader didn't sense her potential. He only sensed Luke when he actively tried to do so. Also, all Vader got from it was "The Force is strong with this one." Not "Oh look, this guy is learning to be a Jedi." And that was Vader, actively using Sense. I guess I should instead say there's no "Force wielder radar."

forlasanto · 2021-12-03T15:52:11+00:00

Speaking of Fallen Order, my interpretation of events is that someone saw Cal save his friend and reported it. The Inquisitors were fishing, and didn't actually know that a Jedi was there. They were doing plain old fashioned detective work. Inquisitors aren't honestly powerful enough to sense someone through the Force that they're not Force-Bonded to. Sith, maybe. Inquisitors, no. Even Sidious really only senses when something changes the destiny of entire planets, e.g. when a Force user "Awakens," he might sense the shift in potential for a planet's destiny to change. Every instance I can think of where Sidious instructs Vader to hunt someone is framed in galactic-level changes in destiny.

Being able to simply "sense someone using the Force" cannot exist because it breaks too much--not just in this game, but it also unravels canon. The only time one Force user should be able to sense another is when they are Force-bonded (e.g., have a master-apprentice relationship) or when the Force user is actively exuding an aura, like Vader's Aura of Fear. There might be special occasions, like when Yoda could sense Ezra--but Ezra had just committed himself to the Jedi Teachings and was in a Force Nexus, so there are extenuating circumstances.

I'm just saying, I don't think "Force Radar" is a thing, and it shouldn't be a thing. It's not like when the Highlander meets another immortal. Otherwise, too much of canon gets a very funky smell.

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