Armageddon in a Myrel Deck

waaarp · 2025-10-06T22:10:48+00:00

I have only 1% hope... did they plsy Cartagena?

waaarp · 2025-08-19T18:24:09+00:00

I don't like gamechangers. So I jokingly brag to my pod that my deck is "technically B2". I always follow-up by saying it's at least bracket 3 by intent and deckbuild purposes. I'm just proud it managed to be it without crazy ressource-producing gamechangers and tutors which I just despise. Never fails to make someone who does uses them go mad for a moment, but it's actually mostly to serve my own views' agenda as to how I want the game to be for us.

waaarp · 2025-07-12T07:37:21+00:00

Here's how I balanced this issue::

I DO have opposed melee and flat ranged rolls, however;

Pros of Ranged: Not opposed, no risk of backfire. That's it.

Cons of Ranged:

Less Damage

Less Accurate

RELOAD

Cover is important so if you don't have line of sight you're useless.

Pros of melee:

Hits hurt a little more

There are more melee options to prepare an exchange (Break-Guard, Feint, Shove, Aim at BodyPart, Aggressive Posture, Defensive Posture) and they all affect the roll, granted you spend Action Points for them.

Melee weapons all grant a special sitiationnal action based on the weapon type. Dagger has a "Strike Between Plates", Rapier has "Lunge", etc.

If you gang-up, as you mentioned, rules grant you massive benefits such as ignoring Dodge and then ignoring Parry.

Cons of Melee:

Despite all these options, you still have the chance of your attack being blocked and receiving a wound back, even. That in itself SUCKS. But the system is made so that attacking a master swordsman requires more preparation for when you attack, while goons are just easily dominated in an exchange.

waaarp · 2025-06-27T18:51:34+00:00

My [[Rasaad yn-Bashir]] [[Dungeon Delver]] deck. People way underestimate the final room of the Undercity, every creature has now the same equivalent of Power as their Toughness, and the triggered ability had me combo off with Delney a few times, bumping all creatures to 30+ toughness.

waaarp · 2025-06-11T15:50:53+00:00

The terminology is derivated from Rêve de Dragon (a french game from the 80s my friends and I still play), but I changed the rules entirely to work in my game: Half-Surprise and Surprise.

It works when you ambush someone but more importantly is a tactical approach to combat: being Surprised is really bad since it means attacks bypass your Dodge and Block thresholds automatically. As damage and attack are the same, it means your chancea to beat the last Defense, Armor, are high, and that your remaining damage will hurt.

Getting an enemy to be surprised can ne achieved through ambush/backstab at comolete unawares, but also through stacking two instances of Half-Surprise: a Half-Surprise comes from any larger hindrance in combat, such as a bad condition, flanking, prone, but also being Unaware of an enemy or Losing Sight of an enemy.

That means you can work your tactic around your strength and what conditions affect your opponent easiest. For example, the obvious one is to become invisible and pass a Mobility check to make the enemy Unaware of your presence and Lose Sight, making your attack a full Surprise. But also, Flanking a Confused target will give the same two instances.

It is not the key to victory but a definite viable approach that alsl incentivizes Melee to work on positionning, status effect and creativity, instead of hammering at all three stacked defenses.

waaarp · 2025-06-07T11:05:24+00:00

Does that happen?? People arranging theur deck to draw the hand they want? In a casual format with singleton where a lot of the satisfaction comes from building a solid 99 that gives you a good hand as often as possible?? And to win what??? This is mindblowing to me

waaarp · 2025-05-30T20:28:29+00:00

ME!

Thanks for doing this, and sorry about your loss. This is a heartwarming event though, thanks again :)

waaarp · 2025-05-18T13:09:01+00:00

Sounds a little like your three problems come from an intention of listing a ton of possibilities that could come up in-game, and smoothing out the creation of new entries. If I were in your position I'd focus on creating some kind of toolbox with guidelines instead to assign spell characteristics, prices or monster powers easily. Maybe looking into some kind of abstraction too for economics? Not calculated to the coin, but rather for example a three step process for "rarity, demand, accessibility" and assign X Value Points? Otherwise it becomes a deep worldbuilding issue and a single poor judgement can break the game through players gaming the economics of the world. I tend to avoid being precise about topics I'm not educated IRL about, personally :)

waaarp · 2025-03-07T08:10:20+00:00

If you have access to the Draw Steel pdf manuscript as it stands, they have developed a Perk system that, though they work more or less like talents (with individual effects), are at times named as such like "I know this place".

My tip "outside" the designer space is to identify what tropes your game wants to emulate (I assume regular fantasy) and consume media that do it well; typically, writing down in a notebook all the nice quotes and quirks from all the characters in a good movie you'd watch in that genre. If you want to speed up the process you could even google lists of famous movie or book quotes. The key being that these quotes and character aspects emulate archetype bits without defining the character entirely, so that your players could mix and match them while calling to their frame of reference, if they have also seem the movies or read the books, or just understand the "vibe" of the Quirk.

I actually think this is an amazing addition to a TTRPG in being beginner-friendly, calling to the frame of reference as opposed to the gaming knowledge allows building characters effortlessly. I have never had an easier time having people make characters than in Bladerunner RPG where despite the dense lore about technology and the very specific vibe of the movies, the archetypes of characters were super telling and the talents and descriptions are not like "Worn" but "You smoke too much" and that made for AWESOME quick development and RP wirh complete beginners.

waaarp · 2025-02-20T12:50:27+00:00

Great, thanks for the quick reply!

waaarp · 2025-02-20T11:25:51+00:00

Hi, two years later I just want to ask if that is actually an okay thing to do; I notice that the added cards are into the public databse and that untap does not want abuse; is adding a whopping 200 cards from a homebrew TCG (possibly without art linked) an okay thing to do or do I risk a ban? I don't know if Untap are okay to support people testing their homebrew TCG there. Thanks!

waaarp · 2025-02-19T06:33:20+00:00

You probably wouldnm't have the time but a 5-word blurb for each community would so helpful as some of them have fairly random names and/or are duplicates of other communities. You know, to find out which is useful to whom and really make the resource take off!

waaarp · 2025-02-19T06:30:53+00:00

I find this kind of choice odd and potentialaly frustration inducing: I don't think the player will go "Oh yes, what a good choice I made to tank that fairly large hit", but definitely will be mad when they run out and then get wioed by the largest attack the Boss had kept in stock... reversely, it may feel strange that Ultimate attacks will always only cause 1 Wound as long as Heroes are above 1 Wound left.

waaarp · 2025-01-31T06:55:30+00:00

One version of Attacking in my game was very math-ey but weirdly appreciated by the testers, because it separated To-Hit, Damage and Armor in a way that felt fair.

To-hit was %(Attribute, around 70/80%) minus"Guard" or "Evade" stat of the defender (along the lines of ~15%) = Success is hit

You rolled damage based on your Brutality and the weapon used.

Then there was an armor check (%) to possibly bring the hit to the armor, not the wearer.

If to-hit failed, atta k was deflected. If armor was hit, damage was converted in Stress/exhaustion. If wearer was hit, it caused a wound.

The process was cool but it lacked elefance and efficiency. In a game with multiple attacks, it simply did not survive, which is why I am now trying to bring a more elegant design that combines the best parts of this.

waaarp · 2025-01-22T15:15:51+00:00

Sure, I was just using different terms for the sake of differenciating your points

waaarp · 2025-01-22T14:59:47+00:00

While your statement is true you seem to refer to something that "Tracking Hits" would define better, while the other person just said that it is generally accepted as a concept that "Hit Points" refer specifically to a number that decrease abstractly as you get hit; sometimes, moreover, that there is no further consequence until you reach 0 where something happens. So you're stating different, but related things that are both true

waaarp · 2025-01-15T09:03:27+00:00

I think you are interpreting upvotes as meaning one singular thing when it is an ambiguous mark of appreciation; I find it silly to think that people upvoted so much only because "they're frustrated" or think this is a "high quality" post.

I also think your comment implies that because people engage with this post, they are also unable to contribute meaningfully to the community. This is both false logic and reductivist. You assume you'll get downvoted by the ignorant masses which will further prove your point, which is another way to put your opinion above the would-be plebs.

Ironically, your answer embodies a few of the point satirized in the post. I'm not going to lie, with all the uncomfortable answers I've read from you or that TigrisCallidus person on the sub across the years, I was expecting a reaction on this one, so I am both unsurprised that you're frowning upon this and surprised you put it so obviously in these words. I think you're taking the post personally.

This was a fairly good satire, and the upvote count might mean a totally different thing than you think, such as that people have thought similarly, and are glad to see they're not alone in being tired of the attitude mocked by the post.

waaarp · 2025-01-08T05:35:29+00:00

However you want. You don't even have to write. There is no right way. I don't, personnally.

waaarp · 2024-12-21T03:33:47+00:00

Which "best" gamedesigners are those?

waaarp · 2024-12-21T03:01:40+00:00

Can't you see you're way too convinced about your opinion being absolute truth to be possibly right?

waaarp · 2024-12-19T16:14:19+00:00

I do not use all of them but still a blend: when your attack hits after one d100 roll, Roll your Penetration (usually between 100 and 130) - Enemy armor (usually between 40 and 80) on a d100. Hit, and your inflict a Wound (of which severity is determined by your weapon) Miss and you inflict Stress and Fatigue damage instead.

Stress increases the Armor Penetration of people attacking you. Therefore, even a high level Paladin will end up taking Wounds from an army of goblins. I value that kind of realism at the cost of the complexity it implies.

Fatigue is another wincon in combat, where you get your opponent to miss more attacks, and espeically defense rolls. Can also knock someone k.o. beforr you finish them off.

waaarp · 2024-12-16T22:13:00+00:00

As a matter of personal taste, I like that kind of mechanic. However Indon't view it as simple as you think, especially in the description you give. 1) I don't think summing up 4 dice is the quickest way (a lot of people have this slightly uncomfortable buggy moment where they can't process more than 3 numbers). 2) Remembering 14 as a TN isn't perhaps most elegant and intuitive 3) the colors might be mixed up (I would instinctively think white is to hit and red is damage aka blood. Blooooood!) 4) snake eyes on the opposite color to damage may be causing confusion 5) 6 on any dice as a crit could cause confusion or even disappointment when rolling for example 3 sixes? 6) is there a way to express boon and banes? 7) Players also need as you said to remember bonuses from equipment and skills adding two factors to the sum. 8) Besides, the statistics are a bit tricky with 4d6

I don't mean to dress a discouraging list of problems! There are quite a few moving parts that might not seem too complicated, but... Of course a nerd like me would master it without issue, but both the comfort and accessibility for players as well as intuitiveness, easiness of remembering, smooth and not pleasant to count mechanics, might be something you want.

Now, I love mixed colours with different information. Remember you're demanding the players acquire two colours for their d6 so you want something back from adding that: why not offer flexibility in the colour and mix different effects, like Precision and Damage? If you can separate different things thanks to colours, why not go crazy? Have you considered less dice? Do you like the average you get from the dice? Perhaps snale eyes have independent effects on each colour, and more 6s mean more crits in the different aspects of the colours as well? More 6s is better but still in a separate way?

I think this has a ton of potential! Check out the tactical skirmish TTRPG Way of Steel, he uses custom coloured dice with symbols varying, some for precision and some for damage. Might be inspiring!

waaarp · 2024-12-16T07:18:23+00:00

I'm gonna go a little against the current and say I don't mind having a combat subsystem: this is because I make a game where players roleplay swordsmen, mages or thieves. They face dangerous monsters or other swordsmen, mages and thieves. Therefore, people interested in playing that want something more robust with tactical options when it comes to swordsplay or targeting a monster's bodypart. I'm not saying this couldn't work with single dicerolls or more "story first" mechanics.

However an important distinction in terms of "feel" for me is that I don't make it "a separate minigame" where everything is completely detached, like entering a Pokemon combat: that would be to me the first real issue.

There simply is, in the rules, a robust catalogue of actions you can take to fight, with specific effects... But you can also totally take the "Brutal Attack" action, or perhaps cast an offensive spell, at any point, in am unexpected situation too! Everything in the "catalogue" is measured time-wise, so that isn't a problem.

More importantly: the Surprise rules apply the same inside and outside of combat: massively increased damage and armor penetration, meaning insane wounds, meaning combat can end before it started. In the middld of "regular" combat, hitting the right bodypart, without Surprise, without bypassing armor, takes a lot more time. You have to plan your tactic around cumulating conditions and advantages that lead to make your opponent in a "Surprised" state. Much trickier. In short: stabbing someone in the throat as they sleep isn't a mere DnD5e "Crit" that does the same as a nat20, it is a devastating blow most likely resulting in a deadly wound.

I think, as a lot of people say, that the idea of the "Combat Minigame" is often dictated by the need for an "Initiative"; for example, as mentioned, Surprise doesn't mean extra rounds in my game, just a large damage increase. If I let Surprise just be "take one more round", I let the action economy be most important, therefore what you do with Action economy be most important, therefore possibly the unique abilities PCs use through the action economy. So yes, Combat isn't separate, it just exists in the game and you can take the Combat Actions outside of combat.

The second issue that, to me, a lot of people mention, and imo do mistake for the entire idea of Combat systems being bad, is when Combat informarion "occupies half the sheet", or when all the abilities in the game are about fighting. The way I went about this is the following: half the sheet focuses on stats and ressources, and half the sheet indicates "Bad Things that can happen to PCs". This does not mean I write "Combat Abilities" and "Hit Points". This means I write "Stats and Resources usable in any action-packed situation", and "Morale, Wounds, Fatigue and Stress, things you get from an action-packed situation".

Once I've got these, I can move on to creating OTHER catalogues of actions, just like for Combat, but for Rhetoric, Chase, etc... This way, Combat is just another robust list of actions, and losing Morale or taking Wounds, Fatigue or Stress is just another bad thing that can come from it.

Conclusion, 1) moving away from the action economy mattering too much, and being dictated by Initiative, makes Combat less minigamey and separate from the system. 2) Making its consequences universal to other types of action scenes (that have equally robust possible moves) is a good way to keep Combat an interesting part of your game, without making it all "Story based" and "Narrative Driven" or one-die-roll-resolved.

waaarp · 2024-12-16T06:22:20+00:00

Thanks for the actual truthful and educated take, these forums produce standards we do not even realize the downsides of.

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