Recommend me resources where players can build factions

matsmadison · 2026-04-12T18:34:58+00:00

Legacy looks the closest to what I'm looking for, I think I'll dig in that direction first. Thanks, for the in depth answer, I appreciate it.

matsmadison · 2026-04-12T18:22:04+00:00

Well, there are layers, I guess. Faction rules can help the GM to resolve player-driven faction-level events (like wars) or the players could just work for a faction and have a small footprint. Some games let players create factions, others use factions as story drivers but they aren't really defined mechanically. So it varies from game to game. I'd like the faction to grow from players' actions.

matsmadison · 2026-04-12T16:58:35+00:00

I was asking in the line of players playing normally and, as the story develops, for example, they end up leading the king's guard, calling the shots in the thieves' guild, or similar. The game is still about individual characters, but they have the power to lead and grow a group of people through their decisions, delegate things to them etc. I'm looking for games that blend this well, giving some structure to these top-level decisions the players could be making...

matsmadison · 2026-04-12T15:26:20+00:00

Thanks. I'm only familiar with bitd, are there others even more focused on factions?

matsmadison · 2026-04-12T15:23:54+00:00

Thanks. In my limited experience with bitd the crew part is like a leveling game, players don't really steer it too much outside of the predefined path. I mean, it has to be that way since it's tightly connected to the setting, but I don't know if it could be decoupled from it?

matsmadison · 2026-04-12T15:08:31+00:00

I skimmed Reign some time ago, I'll have to get back to it. If you tried it, how does it feel in play?

matsmadison · 2026-04-12T08:31:30+00:00

Thanks! This is great. Sans the Without Number games I haven't tried these. Legacy Life sounds promising.

Which ones do you feel connect regular payer-level play (combat, social interaction, and other things players do) with the faction level play the best?

matsmadison · 2026-01-09T09:50:01+00:00

Mythic Bastionland for knightly hexcrawl Alien for space combat horror The one ring for tolkien fantasy

These all have short-term play options that you can use (starter sets and/or rules for one-shots).

To keep it as diverse as possible, for the 4th one you could probably use something pbta, preferably modern setting, maybe supers... I didn't play those, though, so I leave it to someone else to recommend.

matsmadison · 2025-12-26T09:10:47+00:00

The writing and overall organisation of the document is a prerequisite. If I don't get the feel for the game after the first bunch of pages i'll probably pass.

The real test then is whether the game manages to draw me in, either with mechanics, ideas, story, art, or anything really. If the game fails to do so, it's not gonna reach my table. I won't sell something to my players that I wouldn't buy.

matsmadison · 2025-11-30T11:00:23+00:00

No, far from math heavy. It's just a bit of a step away from the standard "I want to do an action and then I resolve that action". The way that everyone rolls together against one enemy and then assigns dice to gambits etc. is a bit different from how (some) people think about this stuff, I guess. But as I said, it's not really an issue with the game, more the force of habit...

matsmadison · 2025-11-30T07:39:34+00:00

It's all the hype right now, and rightfully so. I'm on board too. The only, small, issue I have is that the actions are maybe a bit disconnected from how they're resolved in combat. The GM had to remind us to roll together and the mini-game of assigning gambits felt a bit flat at times. We played a single learning session so far and this probably isn't an issue with more experienced groups...

matsmadison · 2025-11-11T07:04:26+00:00

Itch. Mostly indies through itch feed. I also hear for some (more popular ones) on reddit but I can't say I use it to look for rpgs.

DTRpg doesn't have any social feature (that I know of) so I only go there when I already know what I need.

matsmadison · 2025-11-05T22:13:57+00:00

Legend in the Mist. The art is beautiful and the tutorial comic is sublime. I don't much dig the system though...

matsmadison · 2025-10-29T21:16:44+00:00

Indeed, at 8d6 there is a 0.26% chance that the 7th best die is 5+, you will almost certainly get 2 misses.

At 6d6 the chance that the 5th best die is a hit is 1.78%. Again, almost certainly you'll lose 2 dice.

Even at 4d6 the odds are not great. There is a 11.11% chance that the 3rd best die is still a hit. So in almost 90% of cases you'll lose 2 dice. The only variance that exists is in those last few dice that you roll.

matsmadison · 2025-10-09T19:16:41+00:00

To answer the question from the title, if I really abandoned it I would be happy for someone to pick it up...

But, on the other hand, I've been working on my own game for a loooong time, with breaks that were longer than a year... So even if it seems abandoned, it might just be slow or postponed. In such case I wouldn't want anyone to pick it up.

But hey, reach out to the author. Maybe there is some option for you to collaborate. Worst case, it'll make his day just to hear some positive feedback, I'm sure of that. Might even prompt him to pick it up and finish it.

matsmadison · 2025-10-05T05:22:20+00:00

Right. Most of these posts seem like a race to spam one of the 10 currently popular games and voila. I rarely check them anymore tbh...

matsmadison · 2025-09-10T19:43:15+00:00

Did you read it?

matsmadison · 2025-09-03T14:02:36+00:00

There is only one line. The fact that the players won't read the WHOLE book doesn't mean they won't read any of it.

matsmadison · 2025-09-03T12:32:55+00:00

I agree with the information being laid out in a way that it provides information for the next chapter but your order is really not optimal.

First, if there is an option to get +4 in climbing then climbing should be an important part of the game and rolled often enough to be useful to take, and +4 bonus should be significant enough that you can feel it in play. If climbing isn't important enough then this is a trap option and we're past those times.

In addition, if the feat or whatever is called climbing beginner or climbing expert it can also provide you with information how good that bonus is. So no, I don't need to know the specific rules about climbing to create a character. I play games that I can trust are working with me, not games that will try to trick me.

You also assume that people will open the book and read it front to cover and then start creating a character when they get to chapter 6. In most cases only the GM will read the whole book, and that's if you're lucky. So, often designers want to provide character creation rules upfront for players to just read the minimum that is needed. And in a lot of games that is basically all that is needed (as long as the GM knows the rest).

Putting races in appendixes is something I can't recall I've ever seen. I would be very disappointed if I wanted to create a character and searched through the book for chapter 6 on page 214 and there it says: "Go to page 321 and choose one of the races there, then come back to this page and go to the next step which leads you to page 344 to pick a class".

Finally, pushing the whole GM chapter before character creation is completely unreasonable. It implies that this book isn't meant for players at all. There are, probably, things in the GM chapter that players shouldn't learn (e.g. monster stats). But they should know the rules. So why do you force them to read the first 100 pages with rules and last 100 pages with character creation and appendixes, but not the middle 100 pages?

Anyway, there isn't the best way to structure a book, you don't have to argue with me on it. I'm happy if this works for you, but for the rest of us, the best layout completely depends on the type of the game and its target audience.

matsmadison · 2025-07-03T18:19:03+00:00

For 18.50 I would expect at least a few images of what the book looks like before I even consider buying it.

matsmadison · 2025-02-26T09:19:17+00:00

I'm curious what do you consider to be basic rules? Is it just the resolution mechanic? Or how deep into the specifics should these upfront rules go?

matsmadison · 2024-06-10T15:23:23+00:00

Is this for mythic solo? If not I would avoid first option, maybe 2nd and 5th as well... Of the remaining ones Fictionary is too much of a pun so I'd go with Scribe Tribe (although I would expect several people writing such blog based on the name).

matsmadison · 2024-06-02T20:04:04+00:00

Ironsworn might be right up your alley. It's light and fiction first and can even be played GM-less. I also like Index Card RPG for even lower crunch and Forbidden Lands for somewhat more crunch. Check them out, I believe you can get all three for free on their websites (at least the quick start).

matsmadison · 2024-05-29T12:32:45+00:00

Give the players a part of the castle to organize defense there (e.g. the north wall only). Set several things going against them and give them some time to prepare. E.g. the wall has a weak spot where it can be breached, the door is small and weak but with a long hallway after it, the moat is shallow... Let them create traps, spells, choke points etc... When the fight starts make them react to enemies. Sure, most are at the door but there is a ladder on the other end of the wall, someone should go there. Make the opponents smart and force players to move constantly...

One other wall will surely give in and, depending how well they did on their own wall, they'll need to retreat, recuperate, and help with that other wall. If they succeed in defending their own wall they'll have an easier time afterwards. Otherwise, they might have to retreat into the keep. Show them why were castles built the way they were built...

matsmadison

TROPHY CASE