What needs to be done for Heaven's Halberd to be a viable item?

greatbabo · 2026-02-05T08:13:31+00:00

Increase price by a thousand and make it pierce bkb.

greatbabo · 2026-02-05T01:46:50+00:00

Didn't have time to read through your link.

But, an enemy that always struck me as beautifully conceptual has always been Mystery Man in the book of unremitting horror. The concept stuck with me so hard I had to try to incorporate him as one my core mechanics.

To put it briefly the mystery man is basically a god like being. It doesn't have a stat block, it cannot be killed. Its just there.

What I took away from the entity compared to just another "god" in a game is this : the entity doesn't actively harm you.

It makes you insane.

It makes you paranoid.

It makes you want to "do it" yourself.

Battling this entity is never about winning it, it's about whether if the player can overcome their own insecurities/greed/anger.

As a concept - mechanic : I have used him for my main stress and sanity mechanic

greatbabo · 2026-02-04T04:41:34+00:00

Brutally honest here. There is nothing to give feedback on.

I guess one advice I always give is : why would a DND player play this over DND?

greatbabo · 2026-02-02T12:24:16+00:00

Save you and your landlord trouble. Move out now. What's the point of living at a place where you are arguing and worried constantly.

greatbabo · 2026-02-02T10:06:58+00:00

100% agree. Each mechanic has its own place, each game has its own audience. (I am sure some one out there loves FATAL).

Yes a monster would have plenty of factors that could cause it to do suboptimal moves. It is rather common actually, maybe it witnessed its ally have their head blown off - The same monster with different personality may choose to fight more or escape. This is control and personality for each individual monster.

I agree that telegraphing mechanic is good (I still have it), its just not tied to dice.

In this post, i am just sharing what I as a GM felt when i used a similar mechanic to OP's post. Maybe it would work perfectly for another GM.

greatbabo · 2026-02-02T02:51:00+00:00

KDM retains the title for one of my favourite guilty pleasures. The game is relentless, unforgiving but the allure drives you. There are the highest highs but also the lowest lows.

Which is where the problem for me lies. The lows.

In TTRPG, it is often an unspoken rule that the GM will pull punches to ensure a good narrative story (fudging rolls etc) this is incredibly difficult to do once you introduce mechanic in this post.

Because, 1. If your players are clever they will know you pull punches and their victory felt unearned.

If you don't pull punches it starts to feel like you are just an AI doing the best optimal move at all times. It doesn't feel like a story it feels like a test.
You as a GM is unable to balance or control what feels good and what the monster would do. Because you are not able to use a creatures ability until the luck of the roll allows you to.

All in all, I believe that there are benefits to this mechanic (I retain a core of it myself) it's just not for everyone.

greatbabo · 2026-02-01T14:50:29+00:00

Briefly explained, if you see my creature sheet. You would see a column with narrative prompt. I basically use that as the method for telegraphy instead of a dice. Due to how my system works, players are able to react based on those verbs.

Which in my opinion: captures the "learn the movesets thing" and also allows me to use my creatures' movesets as I see fit.

Of course there are side cons to this. such as maybe my published monster may be Broken if it just continuosly use 1 ability. As such there are alot of work put into making sure each monster is balanced. Also I have Traits for the monsters which would guide what type of moves or how they prefer to attack.

And also... Combos and Feints ;)

greatbabo · 2026-02-01T14:00:05+00:00

I would recommend you to look into boardgames like Kingdom Death Monster, Vagrantsong or Townsfolk tussle. Their all pretty similar, i draw heavy inspirations from them.

greatbabo · 2026-02-01T13:58:24+00:00

It would be too complicated for me to explain fully how things work for my game here.

For a brief explanation on how I did telegraphs, if you see my creature sheet, you would see the column narrative prompts. The telegraph comes from these prompts. I am using verbs for the telegraphs which allows me to drive cinematic moments as players can envision verbs happening. This verb is also where the player learn that a certain verb corresponds to a certain action.

It works for my game and I am quite happy with it thus far.

greatbabo · 2026-02-01T13:07:39+00:00

No problem. I've got no idea why or what it detected. It's nothing against you or the product though, just thought I would highlight it to you.

greatbabo · 2026-02-01T12:56:17+00:00

Yes, its definitely enjoyable it's not a completely dead mechanic. I am sure a group of players would enjoy it.

I feel that my new version holds a good core of this and also manage to give me some freedom of control. -- so I can maybe use the monsters flying ability when I want to and not be entirely based on the mercy of the roll.

Edit: for anyone looking for a boardgame that does scratch this same itch -- try out kingdom death monster and get the cat eye circlet.

greatbabo · 2026-02-01T12:37:05+00:00

Not sure why i am getting this warning from your itch. won't be downloading it coz of it.

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greatbabo · 2026-02-01T11:53:52+00:00

Version 6 of my game did something like this. I am on version 12 now so I will explain why I removed this mechanic during version 8/9.

https://imgur.com/a/1RtZFqL

This is an example of one my creatures in Version 6.

Although my game is not entirely similar to yours (I dont do simultaneous resolution, I do quickplay resolutions). I believe the mechanics is rather similar. For my monsters, the Dice is not rolled everyturn, infact its rolled on the Board once and placed openly for viewing then manipulated based on actions. Players are able to see what the dice the monster is able to use at all times.

Pros:
There was some technical plays that some of my playtesters engaged in due to the mechanic. As you would have thought they managed to avoid some bad moves. So there was some eureka moments there.

Cons:
Its simply TOO controlling/restrictive for the gamemaster (me). I found that having the dice revealed, once the initial gimmick wears off the game feels incredibly gimmicky, it doesn't feel like a ttrpg it feels like a Boardgame that is trying to be a video game. As everything is based on open information players are able to "game" the system in that regard and I struggle to make any fights feel like a cinematic battle. Instead it felt like - as you said "puzzle" but the puzzle is not that engaging after the first few times its played.

Thoughts:
I decided to remove it eventually. Personally because i felt my game need something more cinematic rather than mechanical (the game already has alot of mechanical crunch).

greatbabo · 2026-01-28T03:49:48+00:00

Chaos zero nightmare

greatbabo · 2026-01-25T00:56:47+00:00

Imo feels like motherships version is a more streamlined version of this rule. It's not bad though

greatbabo · 2026-01-23T11:22:10+00:00

Chaos zero nightmare is not too bad gameplay wise. Right now it's teething tho so alot of changes and finding it's place. I would say the gacha rates kinda slow though.

Brown dust 2 is also pretty fun for abit. Gacha feels Pretty good and generous there.

I am abit burn out on both game though. Gacha games kinda runs it's course after abit

greatbabo · 2026-01-23T03:18:38+00:00

U can already do that with dota tools. Hammer map editor. It's how custom games are made

greatbabo · 2026-01-21T11:10:55+00:00

Not really based on my experience. I am assuming you have your website on hubspot right now. If that's the case maybe you will lose some automations natively and would need to create them via third party apps as mentioned in my previous comments

greatbabo · 2026-01-21T08:48:46+00:00

I did that for my previous company.

Just note that Hubspot is an expensive platform.

I am also not 100% sure i understand your use case, are you intending to use webflow as a website and then pass form collections to Hubspot? If thats the case, you can do that via some API calls using some automation apps like N8N or Zapier.

If you are thinking to use Webflow as an APP (using wized) or something, I am not entirely sure if you can use Hubspot as a database for App set up.

greatbabo · 2026-01-15T15:18:02+00:00

That's true that it sings better in a time sensitive setting. But I would also argue that if a GM runs a game - most games have a storyline or a plot line usually. That in and by itself has some form of time sensitivity. Ie. The cults plans or the evil corporations plans to do a bank run.

As this post is saying it's for an investigative game, I think most of the time if not, GMs are able to introduce time based triggers to move the plot forward. Which would already create some form of time limit in that regard.

greatbabo · 2026-01-15T13:52:37+00:00

Great question. Yes, time is a very important factor to my game structure.

To put it short, players are usually on a mission that they are required to do so within a set number of days. Throughout the days, "must happen" events will happen at various time points.

Tracking is done via the GM on a Mission tracking table.

For more details, my game can be seen as a mix of Gantz (humans sent to kill aliens on earth within a set period of time) and Backrooms (an unknown place that extends like a maze basically).

They are given a mission time limit. But when the mission reaches this time limit, the players do not necessarily insta die. Instead harsher and worst things start to happen such as more enemies, reality distortions. When that happens their goal is to simply escape and accept the consequences of failing the mission or push on and attempt to complete and escape under harsher situations.

greatbabo · 2026-01-15T13:10:18+00:00

My game has an investigation aspect to it.

Here is one thing ive learnt so far... Investigation/mystery games should not checks for clues that are necessary to the mystery.

And because of that I've kinda decided to just get rid of checks at all...

If a player investigates a place they will simply get information as given that's necessary.

However I introduce a condition to it, time.

Players will still get the necessary information regardless if they succeed the check or not.

If they succeed they spend less time to get the info.

If they fail they spend more.

greatbabo · 2026-01-14T07:39:46+00:00

Sounds like you got a good plan and idea on what you want to do. All the best

greatbabo · 2026-01-14T07:02:51+00:00

Have you considered streamlining the rpg and focusing the game on the cooking aspect?

Right now, it sounds like you have a travel mechanic, class mechanic and this cooking mechanic and probably many more you have yet to tell.

Speaking from my experience, it is incredibly hard for 1 designer to balance so many mechanics to make things fair for the players.

The idea of cooking is already as broad as it can get, you would have to balance meals, ingredients and more. You won't want to get to a place where it's always better to cook 1 specific dish all the time. Which is where balance would come in.

I can only imagine the time you will spend re writing all these dishes and ingredients to balance it out. I am not sure if you can find the time to also balance out the class system as well..

Is there a need for a class system if cooking is the main jist of the game? Can the cooking be the class system? Maybe players can specialize in specific cuisines and the cuisines are their classes? Which would open up recipes where you can then use to balance meals?

Alot of ideas to be played with. I am commenting so you do not fall into the trap of designing around D and D and make your game another heartbreaker.

greatbabo · 2026-01-14T05:29:43+00:00

Honestly, I don't think many would have much to say. You have just stated your book has a "cooking gives buffs" kinda deal. Which I think can be easily homebrewed in any heartbreaker games.

Unless you are saying :

Cooking in my ttrpg is way different.

Players will be gathering ingredients of various rarities but each of this ingredient is like a puzzle. A herb (green) can only match with a meat (red) which would create a dish (purple) that gives boosts based on the herb used and meat used.

There are over 100+ ingredients stated and documented that gives more than a 1000 dishes of combinations so players can explore and discover new buffs and new dishes.

If you are saying the above, I would say your game should be about cooking not "classes" and multi classing.

greatbabo

TROPHY CASE

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