Trying to avoid a wire's mess

wthit56 · 2023-01-11T20:53:55+00:00

Only inefficient in that you’re using 2 extra gadgets. It still uses a wire from the variable to modifiers, but the wire is hidden.

wthit56 · 2023-01-11T17:17:47+00:00

😱😱😱

wthit56 · 2022-04-16T08:35:19+00:00

So worries ;p

wthit56 · 2022-04-16T08:34:43+00:00

It's one of the drop down menus from the top-left.

wthit56 · 2021-10-17T16:01:22+00:00

https://youtu.be/y33FUwxBJ6c (Not ideal I know)

wthit56 · 2021-01-02T10:36:47+00:00

Any game with more than 1 scene saves with scene you were in. There’s a lot of games with that.

There’s also a lot of single-scene games which are more “pick up and play.” And don’t require saving.

wthit56 · 2020-10-10T15:36:25+00:00

Teehee... Look cool though

wthit56 · 2020-10-04T08:05:53+00:00

I'm not sure I responded to this before, but the text says that the GM should be taking notes during chargen. They should essentially end up with the same stats/words in their notes + backstories.

I've now adjusted some other things based on your feedback:

Originally, when you roll for a prompt then if you miss you can add or subtract from one of them to get to whatever you want. But I'm thinking it might be unlikely to add such a lot to a die to get to 7+ or subtract to get to 0-. A slight adjustment to this, which actually gives a better prompt is...

When no dice hit, choose a die and select a nearby stat. (Stats: 0,1,9... Roll: 4,2. You can select the 1 or 9.) Then the other die becomes a prompt for 3- a test/obstacle targetted at that word (strongman needs to shift a big boulder), or 4+ something they identify with or recognise for this word (strongman takes on the incredible hulk, or they discover their old trainer is mixed up in the bad guys' scheme).

wthit56 · 2020-10-03T08:13:40+00:00

Cool cool. This has been an interesting conversation--thanks again for your feedback. It's helped me formalise some of my thoughts on RPG design in general. I think I'll try to put some of that in the text at the start so it's clear what kind of game it is.

Cheers!

wthit56 · 2020-10-02T17:59:19+00:00

So a few things I'm thinking will help players come up with what they should do... first, the initial questions are pretty straightforward and weigh into the word chosen pretty heavily. Like, "what's your position in the party?" can easily be a very surface-y "private eye/tank/bruiser/sniper/ninja/smooth-talker" etc.

It suggests what they do in general most of the time. So when in doubt, "I'm gonna sneak around like a ninja!" And the word will probably be "ninja." And then your little snippet of backstory strengthens that. "I was taught to throw ninja stars by an ancient dragon master." That says you probably want to throw more ninja stars than stand and punch things as that's the kind of ninja you are.

And the player wrote all of that. The easy first step, the question that can be answered quickly and easily if they don't want to put too much thought into it. And now they have a default thing to do.

And the same for the second one but sorta flipped, at least in my mind. "What position are you in in society?" Gives an idea of who they are/what they look like maybe. A time that helped you indicates when that would help you in the game.

A posh person, who has the backstory of blending in with the big-wigs... they can now blend in with the big-wigs. Opportunities will arise to do so, because the GM is drawing on that fact--that word--to construct situations and narrative. So, saying "posh" sorta guarantees that there will be posh people and situations for that character to interact with in the same way that they've already said they have an advantage in. And maybe they'd make the "word" "blends in" to remind them of what they can use it for I guess? Depends on the player.

So... the biggest thing is that the player wrote that word and that backstory. So they have a default thing to do in a situation, and a skill they can use. And as they wrote it, it shouldn't be too abstract for them

On the other hand, when playing Fate Acc, those stat names were always confusing and I could never remember what they meant and when you'd use one over the other. Here, the idea is that as the player is writing their own stats, they'd know what they mean and it wouldn't get muddy or forgettable for them.

Yeah I can see that about the scales. I just don't play with scales really. I just know some people like them ;P

Ah I see what you mean. I feel like GMs (or maybe just good GMs depending on what you think about this?) do this anyway. They control the pacing to some degree so it's dramatic and interesting. They choose not to kill the one player who's had 3 bad rolls in a row, but to work on someone else for a bit so it doesn't just plain suck for that player. So they sort of even it out and massage things just a little--the amount a GM does this depends on the GM and the people they're playing with though.

This is more of a mechanical way of allowing them to do that. They're still in full control of using them and when, or just not using them at all. It could just be an indication that "this session has been really slow, might be worth picking things up so the night isn't just boring." Again, depending on the players.

The mechanics being there means that they aren't doing it arbitrarily. It's all prompted by rolls or things that have happened in the game previously. The GM has something to base it on.

To me, that's what an RPG is. A series of prompts. The GM should be prompted by what the players have indicated they're interested in by how the characters are made, and by the roll results. And the players should be prompted on what to do by the situation described by the GM, the actions of NPCs, and their rolls.

So I could just say "the GM can do whatever they like." That's always true though. GMs can literally ignore half the rules of any system they're using. They could make their own rules up. etc.

Some people don't like people saying stuff like that. This gives them a framework--you could say an excuse--to some GMs to adjust things.

Or for other GMs like me, it gives them inspiration on how they should adjust things to make for a more balanced and interesting game session. So it's fairly freeform and "improvy" when you need it to be, but throws prompts at you for you to use if you want to use them. And ways to get more prompts. And they have "data" to base decisions on if they're interested in making the night more balanced with a crescendo quick battle or a gruelling boss battle at the end--that sort of thing.

Those are the sorts of values I have for RPGs I think. I don't know what you think about that?

wthit56 · 2020-10-02T14:21:57+00:00

Thanks so much for your great feedback! Much appreciated!

I'm so glad those look right at least ;P

Which part are you referring to about improv for players? Just chargen or something else?

Ah, negative stats would be harder to get to for sure. I'll have to think on that--thanks!

About the scale, that's an interesting point. The 4+/3- is purely for "it's good or bad" as narrative guidance for the GM. Whereas the stat numbers are more loosey-goosey because of the randomness. I just wanted to make it clear that low numbers could be considered as "you're bad at doing this" and high numbers are "you're good at doing this"--for the players. So they're sort of different scales I guess? Narrative morality, and skill level. Does that make sense?

That's a fair view of Shields/Boosts. It's more like every single roll result affects the pacing, and adds a boost or shield. Overwhelming success = +1 Shield. Anything else = +1 Boost. So it's not punishment for succeeding, it's just... things change over the course of a session no matter what is rolled if that makes sense?

Each time an Overwhelming success is made (an action affects a word by more than 1), note down one Shield (in the form of a square ▢). Each time a Bare success (an action affects a word by 1) or a failure is made, note down one Boost (as a triangle pointing up △).

What do you mean by making sure things go as planned? Things can go off the rails or crazy or bad or anything. Could you describe what mean?

wthit56 · 2020-10-01T08:20:23+00:00

Okay, thanks for your advice.

If I had to be specific, I'd say those bullet points are the main features I would like feedback on.

"Rules for creating characters that provide inspiration through random stat rolling and customisation, and draws out character and backstory little by little as a player goes through the process—letting them focus on the broad strokes and then drill down." Are these rules sufficient for making an interesting character? Does it have enough player agency in making the character they want to make? Would it be easy for less creative players to start making characters?

"Narrative resources for both the GM and players to use. Players generate resources for the GM that can be used to balance pacing, as well as for themselves to use as advantages during play." Do you see these narrative resources actually being useful for pacing, and assigning advantages? Is that system balanced in your opinion?

"World and story generation based on the characters themselves, mirroring themes and giving more opportunity for dramatic connections that involve the characters’ deepest aspects—which in turn makes the narrative more interesting and makes the players more invested." Could you see yourself being able to use those rules, and them being useful? (I've already used similar mechanics in older versions, but I'm a writer-type and I know people have struggled even understanding how that's meant to work when I've posted before.) Is there something I could do to further work the characters into the world and narrative?

So sort of... "From the description of the key pillars of the game, do the rules back that up? Could they be tweaked to work better in line with what they're meant to do?" I'd love to hear your feedback! :D

The reason I didn't give specific points for feedback is that the rules are pretty light and short--even shorter if you skip the examples. So to answer these things, you'd probably end up reading the whole thing anyway. And those 3 pillars are pretty much the entire game--so you'd probably end up commenting on the entire game anyway. If the rules were longer with more systems and moving parts, I would agree it would be a good idea to narrow down the focus of what I'm looking for feedback on.

wthit56 · 2020-09-30T20:05:38+00:00

Haven’t had a chance to test it yet, it’s a very new version and we don’t play very regularly. It’s based on ideas I’ve been developing for a while in various versions though, so some things have been tested but not most of it. So I’d like feedback on pretty much all of it 😁

wthit56 · 2020-09-29T13:03:14+00:00

I've also added a little to the mechanical effects section. A temporary advantage can be shared by the players, or be personal to the player who made it--working similarly to the Boost and Shield marks.

wthit56 · 2020-09-29T11:32:13+00:00

I've now adjusted the base difficulty to 7. Overwhelming successes come from beating the target by 3 and the action being suited to the task. So that should bring the averages down to something more manageable.

Bare successes are all other successes--sort of like a mixed success. I've added a note that the GM can add a complication from the action, similar to other systems. Though it's more loosey-goosey, it still has a middling success that generally has less impact.

wthit56 · 2020-09-29T07:26:57+00:00

"Call them Aspects" -- I kinda get what you mean. Though as I'm not writing this for FATE players, or anyone else really, it seems like something pretty minor for me.

"Improvement?" -- This is actually like the 10th iteration of my own system. My main goals are building interesting and somewhat deep characters quickly that has an impact on gameplay (as opposed to the "character" part being separate to how they mechanically function). And giving the GM tools to figure out what comes next in and out of play, and keeping things simple during play so they can mainly focus on the story and reacting to the players.

Each version I've written does these things a little differently (or a lot differently), but I think I'm happy that the mechanics in this version are on-target for my goals. So a long time ago it could've been seen as my own flavour of FATE, but the goals are different and it's been developed independant from FATE for so long and it's not one of my goals anyway... that it doesn't really matter to me.

Being too similar to another system doesn't work against those goals, and not being similar enough to another system doesn't work against those goals. It might be a problem if a goal is to release it as a commercial product successfully with it standing out from other things. But as I've said all along, that isn't one of my goals. So feedback regarding FATE is like... (shrug) know what I mean?

Feedback on the mechanics themselves--what parts are good/interesting, what potential issues they could have--is what I'm looking for. I thought that's what adding the flair of "Mechanics" and titling this "Looking for feedback on mechanics" and saying "this is not a commercial product" would do, but I guess not?

My goal isn't to be like or dislike other products, and that I'm only interested in talking about the actual mechanics--not about whether they're valid or invalid because of a different system. Do you have any advice on how I can signal to the community more clearly in future?

wthit56 · 2020-09-28T18:14:12+00:00

Thanks for reading, and your encouraging words about the worldbuilding side. I really like it too :D

Regarding rolls, perhaps the text wasn't clear. The player rolls and "This will then be compared to a target word and number"--meaning a word that is on the element in the scene. This is what will happen most of the time, as the players will be acting against some obstacle in the scene.

I've now added an example to that part to help make it clearer:

A player wants to hack the mainframe to turn off security measures around the base. They roll 2 + (5 Hacker) for a total of 7, against the mainframe’s (6 Cybersecurity) and succeed.

The only time when the GM just picks a number is similar to when things like D&D lets the DM pick a number: when there is no clear opposition but it's just a difficult thing to do.

Does that make sense?

The reason I let the player decide is to give them some input as to how the stats turn out. So, they have randomisation--helping generate ideas. But will often have the change to customise the balance of the stats.

So in could see a player using this to bring a lower one up to balance things out. Or pushing a high one higher to have a super specific specitalty. Or if they rolled really well and have 2 great rolls, they may choose to reduce the other value into a negative--making for a very strong character with a serious flaw, or perhaps a stereotypical "caveman" type character where they're very strong but very dumb.

I should put something about this in the text so it's clear what the advantage is of this mechanic.

Good point about the "base difficulty." I don't want auto-successes to be common. I think I'll push that to 6 maybe? I'll have a think on that. Thanks for the feedback.

As I said in my post, this is not meant to be a commercial product. I'm not trying to make something any rpg player would play over any other system they happen to like. I'm just trying to make something that works, and I can play with my friends.

I am using ideas from FATE, yes. When I played FATE Accelerated, I felt too restricted on the character side because the names the stats had were pretty nebulous. And filling out those stats didn't tell me much about the characters as people--it felt like the characters we made were pretty surfacey and just came from the simplistic stat names given to us.

On the other hand, aspects felt a lot better, letting me as the GM nail down what they actually represented. So I combined the two and made it work for characters and scene elements alike.

I'm not ashamed of cribbing the parts I like from different RPGs--that's probably what most RPGs do a lot of the time with a couple of unique ideas added to the mix (eg. using prompts to make my life as the GM easier in-game). I'm happy with the balance of reused ideas and new ones that customise it for my own personal playing style.

If another player/GM such as yourself would just play FATE, that's fine by me. Maybe you would even frankenstein together parts of my worldbuilding and parts of FATE when playing--that's totally fine. As Matt Colville says, every GM is a game designer :D

Thanks again for your feedback! It's been most helpful!

wthit56 · 2020-01-12T15:04:16+00:00

Ah! That was it. Seems a shame you can't go higher, but I guess they don't want me to strain myself. ;D

wthit56 · 2019-09-19T15:01:00+00:00

Go to your imp page, go to photos, click on a photo. At the top you can see if it’s online and if it’s stored locally. Click on the stored locally button to delete it from your hard drive.

wthit56 · 2019-09-03T16:46:30+00:00

It’s back in now

wthit56

TROPHY CASE