#rpg mechanics

[open-hearth-rpg]

Links: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics: Week Eight

I dig Forged in the Dark– it’s an interesting system which people have tuned in many different ways. It is tight, with many innovations– several of which I’ve talked about earlier on these lists. But FitD's tightness means that it can be challenging to balance the mechanics. Some adaptations, like Scum & Villainy and Hack the Planet, hew close to the original with mainly a reskin and a couple of tweaks. 

Others dig in and make more substantive changes, like Songs for the Dusk and Vergence. Some Forged in the Dark reworkings are excellent but still have some gaps in the mechanical balance. For example, I love Mountain Home. It’s a strong contender for my fav game of the year. But in MH, stress acts as a significant restriction on player choices. It's a currency you're often spending to resist bad results and there’s few mechanics to help clear that until the end of the year. It’s playable, but the game needs a couple of additional options (new buildings, GM rewards) to help offset that. A minor tweak could make things stronger. That experience with Mountain Home colored our thinking about Forged in the Dark games.

So when we started our Girl by Moonlight campaign my group expressed skepticism about the mechanics. GBM makes some major changes from the Forged baseline. In particular characters have so few action dots– meaning that any roll would be few dice, which in turn meant they’d either be constantly taking poisoned promises or resisting consequences. There were grumbles but we decided to give it a try. 

And it works– it works really well, all thanks to Links. We don't have the issues we imagined. Girl by Moonlight's Links system creates dynamic, interactive play with a lot of choices. Plus, in a way we couldn’t see before we started playing, it adds new and novel space for roleplaying. FitD is sometimes criticized for not offering obvious space for role-play and character interaction. Girl by Moonlight builds that in. 

In play, you can spend links to let you or the named linked protagonist regain 2 stress. You can also spend them to give +1d to that named protag or to have them ignore 1 harm tag temporarily. Finally you can, in certain circumstances, spend it to try to keep them from falling into the negative state called eclipse. In play, this changes up things dramatically– people are spending links to help one another and describing what they do to connect. It supplements the stress mechanics while making actions feel possible. The small number of action dots don't matter as much. Links clear after each mission so you want to spend them during that phase. 

But the other half of the link system is what really makes it hum. You create links during downtime by using the Make Connections action. You choose to do something with another PC to build your relationship with them. There’s a roll made, with a 1-3 giving two links; a 4-5 giving three; and a 6 giving four. When you Make Connections, your targeted player writes those down. This becomes a crucial action in Downtime, replacing Recover Stress from base Forged in the Dark. Choosing another downtime action has to be balanced against this one– making for interesting tension when other things need to get done. 

But here’s the key– Making Connections pushes for role-playing. It offers moments where characters can interact with other PCs. They can also take links with NPCs (and their mecha Engines in the “On a Sea of Stars” framework). That’s meant that we’ve spent entire sessions– profitably letting these scenes breathe and just doing downtime. It is amazing and dynamite. 

The thing that strikes me is how much I couldn’t see this interaction and dynamic just from reading the rules. It was only once we got to playing that I understood exactly why GBM made these choices and what impact they had.

[maspers]

Find me a game where all the elemental powers have nontraditional colors.

Make fire burn bright green, a haunting reminder of life and death, and interesting copper-related worldbuilding implications.

Make lightning a harsh violet. A crashing power from the sky, from the gods, an element more regal than the greatest kings.

Make water a deep orange, the color of the ocean at sunset, a symbol of crashing waves. And fruit juice. And creamsicles.

Make ice black. Not cold, not colder, but the coldest. Chilling regrets. No one will leave this beautiful mountain with their lives.

Make earth a dark blue. The desert at night. Gemstones. Magical energy courses through the ground like veins. This world is alive.

Make wind yellow. You can barely see it, rippling across the fields. A trick of the eye. Then it picks up dust and pollen and becomes worse.

Make nature be red. The hardiest of trees and ferns, the most beautiful of flowers. And endless leaf pile to jump in.

Make psychokinesis white. Instantaneous bursts of thought, like inspiration. Neurons dancing. Brighten the world with your mind.

Make darkness brown. A deep brown, death and decay, all shall erode. And yet comforting, reassuring. Do not fear the inevitable.

Make light a searing pink or magenta, that doesn't shine so much as it assaults your senses. This is power. I wonder what it means.

I want to play a game like this.

Also I want a creamsicle.

[skunts-own-truth]

I think one of the greatest RPG mechanics of all time is Fear and Shock from the Black Industries/Fantasy Flight Warhammer Games. Nothing feels better in RPGs than having your pathetic putrid little rat dick of a character die vomiting and shaking because they saw some fucked up vision from the Warp and had to roll on the brutal shock table. Or, you know, just being forced to run away as fast as your little tiny feet can take you, you freak. Get outta there. It’s awesome, and makes for some of the very best gameplay experiences I’ve ever had.

[prima-materia-ttrpg]

Resolution Mechanics and You

Last post, I promised to talk about the dice mechanics in Prima Materia and why they exist the way they do. I also promised this would be a shorter post, so let's get this road on the show.

There were a few things I kept in mind when designing the resolution mechanics. Firstly, it had to involve dice, and a respectable amount of them. I enjoy rolling the click clack rocks quite a bit, and rolling more dice for me seems like a fun time. Secondly, it had to feel right. Feeling right is unfortunately very ambiguous, but I knew I wanted the dice system to feel like Attributes and Skills both mattered and contributed to a roll. I also wanted the system to be able to account for someone being abysmally bad at something, as well as very competent; with measurable steps along that path that feel distinct.

At the start, the only reference I really had was DND, so I researched different dice systems, what their pros and cons were, and branched out to play some other games. It's partially thanks to this that I got introduced to Star Wars D6, Warhammer Fantasy, and LANCER (excellent games, all of them).

After a month or so of this, I decided that no dice mechanics were up to snuff with the image in my mind of the dice system that struck the "correct balance." I didn't want to use a d20 system because there wouldn't be much variety in dice, and it's too swingy. I've never particularly liked d6 dice pools, partially because of the lack of dice variety. Other than that, I just don't subjectively like d6 dice pools in the games I've played that have them. d100 systems seemed interesting to me, but I felt they didn't allow for the kind of nuance I was looking for between the Attributes and Skills.

Regardless of whether or not my assumptions were correct, I decided to make my own dice system. Ironically, it turned out being fairly similar to d6 dice pools with a twist. This also ties in with how the Attributes and Skills work; but the simple version is that every roll comes down to what kind of dice you're rolling, and how many you're meant to roll. Attributes have a dice assigned to them; d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12; that represent how honed that attribute is. Skills have a number of pips that tell you how many dice to roll. For example, someone with a Vitality of d8 and endurance of 3 will roll three eight sided die when rolling endurance.

I think this system, if nothing else, is at least interesting. I'm in the process of playtesting to make sure it's actually fun to engage with and to see how much I need to tweak the math (particularly now that Character Creation mechanics exist), but so far it seems to be working nicely.

Thanks for reading, next time I'll post about some lore. I don't want to overload the blog with mechanics; the setting is just as important to this project (and I have art in the works for it!)

[patchwork-crow-writes]

More pointless RPG ideas, this time to make healer classes (slightly) more dynamic:

Perfect Heal - if you're able to cast a healing spell within 2-5 frames of being attacked by an enemy, you completely negate that attack. Not only that, but the damage you WOULD have taken is expelled outward in a large circle around you, knocking enemies back and giving you and your teammates much-needed breathing room. (inspired by the fabled "Resta-dodge" in Phantasy Star Online)

Overhealing - if a healing spell would raise your HP over the maximum threshold, the remaining HP-gain forms a barrier that protects against one enemy attack. This effect cannot be stacked, and does not gain strength according to how much HP is healed - using a full-restore spell at Max HP -1 would produce exactly the same result as a level 1 healing spell overhealing by 1. Good for surviving powerful single hits, but not so great against quick flurries.

Heal Orb - for a moderate Mana/TP cost (more than a singular heal would cost), create a ball of light that zips around the battlefield for a short duration, casting healing spells when it detects that its caster or a teammate is in danger, allowing the healer to reposition or concentrate on buffing. This does not stack with either of the above abilities. Increased proficiency in this spell would allow for the creation of up to three orbs, for a corresponding increased in cost.

None of these are for any game in particular, and haven't been balanced in any way, shape or form. I just thought they'd be cool ideas to implement :P

[library-of-legion]

Project 1837 – A Dark Fantasy CRPG

Hi, I’m working on Project 1837, a personal game project inspired by CRPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3, Divinity: Original Sin, and the minimalist yet captivating aesthetic of Hyper Light Drifter. The game is a historically reimagined dark fantasy set in an alternate version of 1837, where survival, morality, and the choices you make shape the story.

The World

The game takes place in a multiverse inspired by the real-world events and struggles of the 1830s, with a fantasy twist. The Blight, an otherworldly plague, isn’t just a sickness—it challenges the afflicted to face moral dilemmas, forcing them to decide how far they’re willing to go to survive.

Throughout the journey, players will encounter factions reimagined with magical influences. From the manipulative yet healing Church to the protective Arawak people, each group brings unique perspectives to the story.

Dynamic Class System

Classes in Project 1837 are flexible and reflect the decisions you make. A Paladin who compromises their ideals may lose their connection to magic, having to become a Fighter instead.

There’s also gear freedom—you’re not locked into certain items based on class. However, choices come with tradeoffs. For instance, equipping heavy armor as a Mage might result in penalties like slower movement or casting times.

Magic and the Veil

Magic in this world connects to the Veil, a mystical force between the ordinary and extraordinary. Pushing your abilities too far can trigger the “Child of the Wyld” status, making spells unpredictable.

This adds a layer of risk and reward—sometimes luck will be on your side, but other times, your spell might backfire in unexpected ways.

Bonfire Camping System

There’s no central hub in this game. Instead, you set up camp wherever it’s safe, and it becomes your base for resting, repairing, and planning.

These moments aren’t just about mechanics—they’re opportunities for your party to interact. Conversations during downtime might reveal their hopes, fears, or just offer some humor to lighten the mood.

Survival, Not Power Fantasy

In Project 1837, you’re not a chosen hero. You’re a survivor trying to make it through a fractured world.

Failure Isn’t the End: Mistakes or bad luck don’t stop your journey; they create new paths and challenges.

Dynamic Endings: The world evolves independently of your actions. Missions you ignore or fail are resolved without you, often with surprising outcomes.

Let’s Talk

This project is still in development, and I’d love to hear your thoughts:

Does the system works for you?

Are you interested on a CRPG game that focuses in aesthetics and fashions of an era as much as the story?

Feel free to share your feedback or ask questions—I’d really appreciate it!

[fictional-calculations]

Fate: Genre Aspects

I was recently re-reading the section on Aspects in the Fate RPG, and realized I had never done anything interesting with the idea of "Game Aspects": aspects that exist throughout the world, and can be invoked by anyone.

Initially I hit a mental block, until I started thinking of them instead as Genre Aspects: a description of what sort of stuff the system wants to reward and encourage.

For instance, an action game might have the aspect "but explosions are cool" to emphasize the way things tend to explode spectacularly. Or you could just cut straight to the chase and make "rule of cool" into a genre aspect.

Conversely, "somehow, that succeeded" can go in a different direction, and allow actions to succeed despite the protagonist's failures - it turns out that weak punch was really all it took to knock out the guard. Or maybe you missed, hit the wall, and then a moment later a lose chunk of ceiling falls and takes out the guard.

You could also use these to create mechanical biases like "the best defense is a good offense" - easy to invoke on attacks, much harder to invoke on defense. You could even use it to establish power tiers, by saying "dragons are just better than you".

A clear factor here is that the more aspects you can bring to bear on a situation, the more Fate Points you can spend. A single generic aspect like "rule of cool" makes it easy to spend at least one Fate Point. Numerous Genre Aspects ups the drama level and lets you reliably save up for epic moments where 3 aspects converge on a very expensive +6 to a critical roll.

[legionofmyth]

Aliens Unlimited: Introduction

Embark on an epic journey with our intro to Aliens Unlimited by Palladium Books! Discover a universe of heroes & villains. #AliensUnlimited #SuperheroRPG #TabletopGaming

Aliens Unlimited Heroes Unlimited 2E Embark on a thrilling adventure with our introduction to Aliens Unlimited by Palladium Books, Inc. This video will guide you through the game’s universe, where humans and aliens coexist in a complex galaxy of conflict and camaraderie. Learn about the innovative character creation system, the dynamic powers, and the rich lore that makes Aliens Unlimited a…

[grayrazor]

I don't dislike the idea of isekai, but I am really tired of the whole "fantasy world works just like D&D/Dragon Quest" trope. Like, it was kind of novel when Slayers did it in the 80s, and it kinda fits with comedy stuff like Konosuba, but it mostly results in the most boring fantasy settings ever.

[kaelor0409]

I literally had a half hour argument with a player who insisted that a specific D&D AoE spell affected its entire area and wasn't blocked by walls, ceilings, and floors, because the description didn't specifically say they blocked it. I eventually won by pointing out that Fireball's description doesn't explicitly say its area is blocked either, so does that mean Fireball can go through walls too?

The player agreed with my conclusion but was very disappointed, because the spell was much cooler his way and fit the flavor better. Unfortunately letting it ignore obstacles would have been way too easy to exploit, and I know the people I play with. They'd have exploited the hell out of that.

Most tabletop RPGs don't bother to have a rule like "characters can't walk through walls." It is either implicit or prescribed through having a special ability that specifically allows one to do. Now, an RPG that specifically had a character option that stated "this character cannot walk through walls" would instantly reframe every other character in the game. If only a specific type of character has some limitation that we humans would assume to be self-explanatory, what the hell is the baseline in this game?

Games have implicit or explicit assumptions about their characters. In D&D it is assumed that characters can see, hear, speak, walk unassisted, and so on. These capabilities can be taken away but only through very specific rules interactions. A character's ability to see isn't marked until a player says that they would like to play a blind character.

I don't even know where I was going with this. This started out with me thinking about how funny it would be to make like a supplement for a game that features these really strange and specific abilities that suddenly change the assumptions of the game. Like, a supplement that has a creature with an ability like "Floorwalker: this creature can walk on floors." Because none of the other creatures in the game have that ability, it's now implicit that they can't walk on floors.

Anyway if anyone would like to help me salvage this post by saying something insightful go right ahead, I'm gonna go make some pasta.

[open-hearth-rpg]

Journeys: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics: Week Five

In Playing at the World Jon Peterson mentions the impact of the board game Outdoor Survival (1972). It influenced early D&D– framing the act of crossing wild distances as an adventure unto itself, with perils beyond monsters. This theme appeared in several early board games– traveling out into a blank map, filling it in, and dealing with random events (Source of the Nile, Magic Realm, The Mystic Wood). The third booklet of original Dungeons & Dragons, “The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures,” specifically references Outdoor Survival and using it in play. 

So, while dungeons have always captured the imagination, travelling through great spans has always been a close-run second. The popularity of hex-crawls and point-crawls, moving through unknown space, illustrates something basic. There’s no functional difference between different spaces and locations within a game. A dungeon, in terms of motion through it, mechanically operates like a forest or a city. The party moves through a space and arrives at an event. There’s some description possibly of the passage, but functionally it is the same. 

The difference lies in the trappings and mechanics: time, obstacles, physicality, travel resources, etc. There are some meta-considerations as well. I remember running a city-based campaign which had a set of maps I’d drawn of different neighborhoods and areas. I had a player complain that he wanted a traveling campaign, to see different things. I explained that the city was varied and interesting– going to other places and neighborhoods could be just as cool. We went back and forth as I tried to drill down on what he wanted. 

It eventually came out that he wanted a game where his character could loot, destroy, and shit on folks and then move on. Having a game in a city meant he’d have to deal with people and potentially suffer consequences. 

In any case, if time and distance function mechanically the same across different sizes and instances (dungeon, wilderness, city), how does a game differentiate? The most common tool has been random encounters– with chances varying based on the terrain. Different environments have different appearance rates. That’s an approach ubiquitous to early FRPGs. That might then be elaborated with guidelines for speed, exhaustion, weather, supply, and encumbrance. The level depends on how crunchy the game is. In fact these kinds of systems have been a hallmark of trad approaches. 

So it was interesting to see a more modern, story-driven game take a swing at travel and work to integrate it into play. The One Ring (with the original subtitle of Adventures over the Edge of the Wild) aims for this. TOR has some trappings of the trad game, like Encumbrance but handled simply. It has the need for a map and the calculation of possible distance and travel time. Resolution here goes through setting route, judging distance, multiplying by terrain, and comparing that to speed. That generally determines the number of fatigue tests being made. 

Those tests are made by the traveling companions, with each having a different role. We have the Guide (making decisions), Scout (setting up camp), Huntsman (finding food), Look-out Man (keeping watch). Journeys have a set procedure beyond fatigue tests with players carrying out their role and comparing it to a hazard target, with different events possible.   

Forbidden Lands takes a page from TOR, echoing this procedure. It falls somewhere between Mutant: Year Zero’s zone exploration and TOR’s role system. In practice it feels a little more mechanical and wearing than a Tolkien-esque journey. Forbidden Land’s travel can be brutal– that’s a feature of the base game system. The land is supposed to be harsh, newly opened after a post-apocalyptic calamity. In that sense it works, but in play it can seem absolutely punishing for players who don’t expect it. I definitely want to explore travel in play– with something more than just an Undertake a Perilous Journey move. In theory I love the idea of a deep journey procedure, but neither TOR or FL exactly hit what I want. The former feels like too much calculation and too many rolls potentially and the latter like a procedure for beating down the player’s resources. I love the idea of Journey mechanics, but I want something which falls in the middle of those– offers interesting play, adds to the story, and feels like the sweeping grandeur of crossing great distances.

[fogaminghub]

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[iamthespineofmybook]

Started reading the TV Tropes page on The Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration on a whim and I had a thought about the RPG Mechanics Verse I made in Experia.

Specifically, getting hit with a sword should do more than just "my numbers went down." D&D4e attempted to explain this by saying that HP isn't actually how healthy you are, but how well you can defend yourself or something to that effect, so that losing HP doesn't mean you're getting progressively more hurt, you're getting worn down.

But I decided to go in a different direction. Specifically, I think I'm going to toss two new modifiers into the rules as well as tweak the fall damage rule.

The fall damage rule will gain a clause about intent: did the character jump down that height, or fall down that height? Because if a person falls, they're far less likely to land well.

The two new modifiers are debuff only. Normal debuffs have timers that count down and they disappear when that timer runs out or if the person afflicted gets healed via an item or Tech. The first debuff modifier is Indefinite, which means the debuff has no timer; without something to heal it, the person with an indefinite debuff will have that debuff forever. The second is Incurable, which means the debuff can't be removed by normal items or spells; the person just has to wait out the timer or find a special artifact to heal the debuff.

So, off course, the biggest issue is when someone gets an incurable indefinite debuff. Or as we would call it in our world, a chronic disability. As an example, someone with incurable indefinite Poison either has to go on a massive Quest to find something or someone who can heal it away or have a large supply of Potions to constant restore their HP as it ticks down over time.

These two things add together, where taking a particularly high amount of fall damage (or sometimes high enough of any damage) can add one or even both of those modifiers. Fall badly enough, and your broken leg means you're probably going to have a modified HIndered (Speed reduced 50%), because your leg will no longer work properly.

[thebelovedlion]

-621 HP

Why the hell would you post something like this. I cast Penis Blast. (Cost: 25 SP, DMG: 50HP —Homes in on opponent’s weak spot. If it connects, damage is multiplied by 10x)

*grabs you by the throat* You're MY employee. *growls* Mine. No one elses. *bItes your neck and starts grinding against you* *cums after 3.5 seconds of dry humping* oh. okay i'll be in my office if you need anything. buh-bye

[patchwork-crow-writes]

Isn't it interesting how, in RPGs and the like, the Luck stat only ever benefits the player? Because like, bad luck exists, doesn't it? Having no luck isn't the same as having bad luck - kind of like how being asocial isn't the same as being antisocial.

So I propose that the luck stat should work as a kind of "variable chaos" kind of thing, where with a higher Luck you're more likely to land Critical Hits or find money on the ground, but in return you're potentially exposed to enemy criticals and that money you just found might belong to a violent mobster or something.

And then, to give an actual incentive to invest in the stat, you could make it so that the "bad luck" events could, through skill and know-how, be turned to your advantage. So it's not just the "lul randum" button or whatever, but a potential risk-reward mechanic for players looking for a bit of spice in their playthrough.

I expect this already exists in a number of games, so let me know which ones, if you can think of any! Would really like to hear about them!