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anim-ttrpgs · 1 year ago

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Example of Investigative Gameplay in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

Here is the recently rewritten and updated example of investigative gameplay from the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy rulebook.

Here’s a simple example of an investigative scene featuring Investigation Rolls, Full Successes, Partial Successes, Failures, Investigation Points, and the Eureka! Mechanic. In this example, 1920s detectives Nick Morgan and Hector Law, played by players Addison and Ash respectively, are on the trail of a gang of bank robbers, and have found the office where one suspect works as a dock supervisor. On their way up, they can hear two voices from within the room and some sounds of shuffling. They walk in, but find only the suspect’s secretary, Hugo, standing there awkwardly. The Narrator also describes that the office is a small room without much furnishings. There is an open window facing back towards town. There is a desk with several papers on it, and a marble paperweight, but an overturned wine bottle has soaked them. Wine is dripping off the corner of the desk to the floor.

[off to the side in final formatting] In an actual session, there should always be more description than just the points of interest, but for this example we are cutting flavor and extraneous detail for the sake of being concise and clear. It’s already multiple pages long.

It’s plain to see that the suspect tried to make an escape, but to where, they don’t know. Law’s player, Ash, decides that Law is going to play it cool and just ask where the suspect went. His Charm skill is better than his Threaten anyway.

At the same time, Morgan moves straight to the window, thinking that the suspect might have fled that way, and there might still be time to catch a glimpse of him getting away.

Politely stopping the secretary from intercepting Morgan, Law tells Hugo “Hello, we’re here to talk to [the suspect], and we thought he was in here just now. Can you tell us where to find him?”

Ash rolls the dice, 2D6 + Law’s Charm, which is +1. The first die lands on 2, the second lands on 3, and adding that with the skill modifier makes it a total of 6. (2+3+1=6) Uh oh, not good, a 6 is a Failure. Law isn’t smooth enough to get Hugo to rat out his boss just like that.

The Narrator tells the players that Hugo just kinda sweatily twiddles his thumbs a bit before saying “He, um, is out of the office right now.” That isn’t very helpful, they could already plainly see that. At the very least, from the Failure, Law gains 3 Investigation Points. He already had 10 from all the investigation that led them to this office, so now he has 13/15. He’s very close to a Eureka!

Ash writes down in her notes “Failed roll to ask Hugo where the suspect went.” A Eureka! Point might be able to be used on that later.

Meanwhile, at the window, Morgan looks out and his player, Addison, asks what he sees. The Narrator says that Morgan sees a small lot of fresh mud below the window between the office and the rest of town.

Addison asks if Morgan sees any footprints in that mud.

The Narrator says no, Morgan sees no footprints.

Neither Addison nor Morgan need any sort of roll to figure out that if the suspect had hopped through that window and ran through the field, there should be a fresh trail of footprints there. He can’t have gone this way. So where did he go?

Note that the Narrator did not outright mention the lack of footprints until Addison asked.

Now back to Law. Ash asks if Law can get a look at those papers on the desk. The Narrator tells her that he can, but Hugo is going to try and stop him, saying “No no, that’s confidential customer shipping information.”

Ash decides that Law is going to try his Charm again to talk past Hugo. She rolls the dice as Law says “Relax, I just can’t stand to see wine go to waste like that.” He moves past Hugo to set the bottle back upright.

The 2D6 roll is a 6 and a 5, plus 1 from Charm, but the Narrator interjects. He says that Law isn’t just going to the desk to clean up, he’s trying to get a look at those papers. And plus, earlier in the adventure, Ash said that Law doesn’t drink wine, he prefers whisky, which means he’s outright lying about the wine. That means that this is more a job for the Manipulate skill than the Charm skill.

[off to side in final formatting] The Narrator is not saying this to punish, talk down to, or otherwise antagonize Ash, it is just his job to make sure that all the mechanics are correctly applied to the actions of the story.

“Hm, that’s right, I did say that.” Ash says. “Then we’ll use his Manipulate skill, since he’s definitely lying. He hates wine.”

Law’s Manipulate skill is -1 instead of +1, making the roll 6+5-1=10. Luckily, a 10 is still a Full Success.

Hugo mumbles and doesn’t move any further to get in Law’s way. He can’t see a way to stop Law without looking more suspicious than he already is. Law sets the wine bottle upright.

Also, with a Full Success, Law gains 1 Investigation Point, giving him 14/15.

Ash says “Now that Law’s gotten close to the desk, he’s going to try and look at those papers. That would be Paperwork, right?” The Narrator confirms, it would be a Paperwork roll.

While Ash check’s Law’s character sheet to remind herself what his Paperwork skill is, Addison says that Morgan is going to really study Hugo. Does he look like he’s hiding anything else? Addison makes a Social Cues roll for Morgan, whose Social Cues skill is +2. (4+3+2=9)

A 9 is a Partial Success. Morgan gains 2 Investigation Points for himself, and the Narrator says that Hugo definitely looks supremely nervous, he has his fingers crossed, and his eyes darting around the room, which might mean that he’s hoping beyond hope that the investigators won’t notice something else. Exactly what, though, Morgan can’t guess with only a Partial Success.

Now Ash makes the Paperwork roll for Law. His Paperwork is +1. (3+3+1=7).

A Partial Success. The Narrator says that he’s reading the paper upside-down, so it’s hard to make out exactly what it says, but he can at least see that it appears to be a spreadsheet dividing $10,000 between four people, whose names are listed. Linda, Terry, Marcus, and “Me.” When Law tries to turn the paper around, however, it disintegrates, completely ruined by the wine. Darn.

Ash checks her notes from the previous session. “$10,000 is how much money was stolen from the bank, so Law thinks this must be the names of the other robbers. Oh, also, he just got a Eureka! Point.”

That’s true, the Partial Success on an investigation roll gave Law 2 Investigation Points, taking him from 14 to 15. Ash erases all but one of the check marks on the investigation Point Bar on Law’s character sheet. Normally, she would erase them all, but the extra leftover Investigation Point carries over towards Law’s next Eureka!.

Law could save this Eureka! Point for something later, but Ash thinks it would be most helpful if he had his Eureka! moment right now.

Ash points to her sheet where she wrote “Failed roll to ask Hugo where the suspect went.” and says she wants Law to retroactively succeed at this failed investigation roll, and get the information that he would’ve gotten if he had done a better job questioning Hugo.

The Narrator nods and says that when Law looks back at Hugo, he notices that the secretary’s eyes are fixed on something near Law’s feet for just a moment, before darting away. When Law looks down at the floor, he sees that the wine is pooling weirdly just under the desk, and seems to be disappearing into a small crack there....

The Narrator doesn’t say any more, he doesn’t need to.

Ash says that Law crouches down and starts to push the desk aside. She asks if he needs an Athletics roll for this, and the Narrator says no, the desk isn’t that heavy. Even if the desk was that heavy, an Athletics roll would probably not need to be made, because a Failure would not add anything interesting to the scene. If there were mobsters about to break down the door and Hector was trying to push the desk around to make a barricade, then would be a good time for the Narrator to call for an Athletics roll, because there are stakes, and so a success or failure would result in the something very different happening in the scene.

What the Narrator does confirm, however, is that when Law pushes the desk back, he sees a small trap door, but suddenly Hugo grabs the marble paperweight off the desk and goes to smash Law’s head with it!

What will happen next?! Read the exciting conclusion in [melee combat example].

You can have investigations like this by either downloading the free shareware rulebook from our website or getting the full version for $5 on our Patreon.

Also, behind the scenes, this example of gameplay is based on the actual gameplay of our group using Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy to play the Call of Cthuhlu adventure module "A Mother's Love", written by Seth Skorkowsky.

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klerothesnowman · 5 months ago

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Why You Should Play A Different TTRPG, but without treating you like an idiot this time

As the anti WotC discourse continues to intensify I am once again reminded that nerds are famously really, really bad at selling people on things.

I don't blame us for it, we're all neurodivergent here, it's a safe space. But now that D&D is becoming a little "Ethically Challenging" to continue to engage with and let's be completely honest here guys, isn't inspiring much hope with its recent releases it's becoming increasingly pertinent to encourage people to reach out to other RPG games.

You've no doubt heard the refrain before, someone tries to do a political Game of Thrones-esque campaign in 5e and someone chimes up and says "5e isn't designed for this you should play a DIFFERENT game." It's a conversation we've been circling the drain around for so long. And the thing is, these people are kind of right, but with enough wrong in their argument that makes it unhelpful. Because look, you've been running your political 5e game for a while, or you've been watching a Crown of Candy, you have SEEN it work, you KNOW it can work. So when people come at you with the absolutist argument of "A campaign like this can't work in 5e" they've already lost the discussion. A campaign like that CAN work in 5e. But. It will work in 5e despite 5e. It will work, but only after the DM has invented reasons you can't use magic to solve the problem, either by preventing you from doing it in the first place or by introducing magical counters to that magic. And if it's the latter, that tilts the board a little further, because now the setting is one that has high powered mages deeply involved with the political game. Great if that's what you're angling for, but a bit of a problem if you're not.

The gameplay of a game informs how the game feels to play. D&D has a lot of mechanics for combat, and not a lot of mechanics for political RP. To bring up A Crown of Candy again, everyone playing that game is a skilled improv actor, they can rock the Political RP. But how often does things turn into a big fight? That's the game of D&D rearing itself again.

But look, you've probably heard this before right? Even this isn't a new argument. But here's what I think people miss out on. Showing examples from the other side of the fence.

This whole post has actually been an excuse to talk about Wildsea

The Wildsea is a cool indie RPG that my group has been playing recently. It's a post apocalyptic game where flora grew at an absurdly accelerated rate, covering the entire world in rapidly growing trees and vines. Now, people live on the top of mountains or bits of earth pulled up by the trees, and sail across The Wildsea on big ships with chainsaws on the front that cut their way through the treetops. It's weird and mysterious, with a lot of character options to make weird and mysterious characters. But also, crucially, the various aspects of its design from how it handles travel, character building and conflicts reward creativity and narrative focused play in a way that 5e just doesn't. And it all comes together to invoke a very specific vibe.

In Wildsea your character is built from three options, your Bloodline, your Origin and your Post. All three of these options give you access to an equal number of potential "Aspects" for your character. As an example, one character could have the Bloodline of an Ektus, tall cactus people, the Origin of Anchored, the ghost of a deceased Wildsailor and have the Post of a Char, the ship's Cook.

These three options are all really whacky in of themselves, but what's cool is that how important they are depends on how much you invest into them. If you primarily want to play a Cactus Person, who defends themselves with their spines and filters water through their flesh, you can take more Aspects from your Bloodline. If you want to play a Ghost, floating through walls and throwing around objects like a poltergeist you take more Aspects from your Origin. If you want to be Sanji from One Piece, constantly on the look out for cool ingrediants to cook with, you take more Aspects from your Post. All options are equally viable, and available to you.

Compare that to 5e. In 5e (specifically 5e, I haven't messed with the new stuff) your character is built from three point five options (Plus Feats, but I'll get to them). Your Race, your Background, your Class and your Subclass. Your race gives you extra bonuses to your stats and some flavour abilities. Your Background gives you extra skill proficiencies and a flavour ability. Your class and subclass meanwhile give you your entire suite of gameplay options.

As an example, one character could have the Race of Dhampir, a half vampire, the Background of Noble and the Class of.... Let's say, Rogue with the Subclass Swashbuckler. I'm trying to make something like Alucard here, from Castlevania. The son of Dracula, using his vampiric powers for the good of humanity.

Baseline, this is pretty good. But... What if I wanted to lean into the Vampire aspect really hard? As a Dhampir I gain access to the ability to walk on walls and a bite that deals 1d4 damage and restores health/boosts my next roll. And that's kind of it. It's not something I can build my entire character around, that 1d4 damage gets out classed very quickly. What if I wanted to go all in on being a noble? Well my options are even bleaker there, as your Background only gives you a single hyper specific ability that wont be applicable to anything else.

My character is my Class, and my Class is a linear path that's decided for me in the first three levels. I've chosen Swashbuckler, but what if the reason I wanted to play a Swashbuckler was so that I could use my charms and Panache to bedazzle and beguile my opponents? Well... Panache is a skill that you don't get access to until level 9. If I chose this class for this character fantasy, I'm not going to be able to achieve it until half way into my character build, meaning a very large chunk of the campaign is going to involve me not doing what I wanted this character to do.

What's more, if someone else is playing a Swashbuckler our characters are effectively going to be played exactly the same. The Vampiric Noble Swashbuckler will be indistinguishable from the Renegade Drow Street Urchin Swashbuckler during play.

The image of a party of adventurers sitting around the campfire is pretty iconic to D&D. The downtime is very important to players roleplaying, it gives everyone a moment to stop, have their character relax, and provide an environment to discuss things with other players. There's a reason there are so many commissioned art pieces of PCs interacting around a fire. There's a reason Baldur's Gate 3 made it the place you primarily interact with your party members.

The thing is though... Are you actually encouraged to? Mechanically, this is a Long Rest. It's how the majority of classes restore their abilities and that's basically it. The opportunity is there to do more through RP, but the encouragement and reward to do so is entirely on the player. How many times has your D&D party gone. "Okay we camp and do a long rest"? Be honest with me here. You're not thinking too deep about it. It's a moment to stop because you need to stop for the next combat encounter. There is nothing encouraging you to do more than that than your own desire for it. For some groups that's enough, but not every group can do that, sometimes a group really needs a little push in the right direction.

It's the same with traveling. The D&D party traveling from location to location is equally as iconic. But in practice what does that actually look like? Same with when I asked how often your D&D party brushed over the rest, how often do they brush over the travel? How often do you just have one or two "Who goes on watch tonight?" rolls and call it a day?

In Wildsea, traveling across the treetops on your chainsaw boat is the game. It's what it's all about. There's a whole ass character sheet for your vehicle for when you need to get gnitty gritty with it, but typically your travel journey will be handled by a montage of actions. Instead of just having a single PC making an obligatory "On Watch" roll, characters can take a variety of tasks like watching the weather, tending the engines, cartographizing, working the helm. Your characters are encouraged, required, to take a position on the ship and work.

What's more, "resting" isn't really a thing like in D&D. Much of the itemization of Wildsea revolves around managing specific resources, Salvage, Specimens and Whispers (which is magic stuff that I wont really be touching on.). Instead of health points your skills and equipment can take damage, which you can recover during these montages. You can use Specimens to cook meals which heal your wounds, you can use Salvage to repair your broken equipment or make new things. Specimens and Salvage can also come with extra tags, providing bonus effects when used. You can also gain Aspects for yourself and your ship that provide recurring access to these resources, or ways to improve them and add tags.

What this translates to in gameplay is that traveling in Wildsea becomes a combination of doing your job on the ship, your chores and your personal projects. You might find it weird that I'm describing a task as a "Chore" positively, but I think it's the perfect description because it sells an aspect of the game world, and the game itself.

The Wildsea is a post apocalypse setting. A major aspect of this game's world is all the different ways that people have adjusted to living in this environment. Having a series of menial tasks like tending to your night garden and hauling up the fishing trawlers that attract bugs to eat puts you, the player, in this environment. By making meals your method for healing it puts you, the player, into a position where a well cooked meal is something immediately desirable from a practical position. It makes getting your group together for a big dinner impactful, not just from a roleplay position but from a mechanical one too. It makes roleplaying a person just trying to get by in this world the gameplay. It encourages you to care about meals and salvage.

There's no guidance for this stuff in 5e. In fact, 5e discourages it. If you want your character to be a chef in 5e there are two options to you. Proficiency with Cook's Utensils and the Chef feat. The Cook's Utensils provide you with the ability to cook meals. If you roll above a 15 the meal is "Gourmet". This doesn't really mean anything. It also allows you to "Prepare Meals" that give a whole single hitpoint more when you rest. It's not very impactful. Meanwhile the Chef Feat allows you to also cook meals, "provided you have ingredients". There's no reason to seek certain ingredients of a higher grade or anything, and in my experience it's more likely for the DM to turn around and say you don't have access to ingredients to try and make narrative tension rather than reward the player for keeping track of them. These meals you can cook restore a little bit more HP, and can provide temporary HP too.

The thing is, Feats in D&D are something you have a very limited amount of, and they're not created equally. Chef is more useful than some, but taking Chef still means your combat ability is diminished. Taking Chef means you can't take feats that are more versatile and impactful.

This is why people encourage you to play games tailor made to deliver on certain vibes and themes rather than playing everything in 5e. Because they can more effectively deliver the experience that you're looking for, without needing to struggle against the system in the first place. It guides people toward certain behaviors and rewards choices that suit the vibe. Even the best roleplayers can do even better with a bit of guidance.

#rambling #dungeons and dragons #wildsea #ttrpg #anti wotc #rpg design #the gameplay and the roleplay are intertwined not seperate

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dimension-20-every-introduction · 1 year ago

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Everyone Introduced in Dimension 20′s Mentopolis episode 6 (finale)

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #d20 introductions #mentopolis #mentopolis spoilers #d20 mentopolis #HOT DAMN............. what a season #that was unbelievably goofy and looney toons level silly but like. what a fun ride #i feel like the kids on bikes system really opens the door for a lot of those moments from what i've seen it's so great #also having a secret narrative stat that uses the fucking d100 as the die roll was like VERY silly but also like.#it has me going a little bit insane about like ways that could be used in like other genres or things or whatever #like god damn that's a good way to represent some aspect of character that is just so impossibly strong that like......#when they tap into that they just cannot fail #which kinda sucks in terms of balancing for gameplay but like god damn‚ narratively?#and like restricting it so that stat only sort of becomes awakened or usable when that sort of deeply rooted personal growth comes into pla #this might be kind of a weird stretch but like.... the crests from the og digimon adventure?#like if they managed to tap into those aspects of themselves and their crests glow‚ that's their d100 stat‚ their crests #and all sorts of astronomically powerful shit could sort of come about from them acting within their strongest parts of themselves in turn #i don't know. maybe i'm just too digimon brained maybe i'm just a little too hooked on that digimon ttrpg show that uses kids on bikes too #but like...................................... fuck.#i don't know‚ it could be something!#anyways i really enjoyed these sort of lightly animated scenes of the real world that elias hodge got to star in as the pov #very VERY fun how they played across the dome in game too #also oh my godddddd anastasia and fawnbrooke......... bro i'm gay #was this season sillier than fantasy high? or escape from the bloodkeep? probably #like the lore and worldbuilding was unabashedly bonkers due to it all existing in the mental manifestation of the human brain #and VERY funny at that #probably the silliest d20's ever been! but i loved it #alright‚ guess that's it for this one #see y'all next season!!

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wordrew · 10 months ago

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Artefact: Pendacour, Testament of the Phoenix (Tome) Session 1

Lately, I have been increasingly interested in the world of solo RPGs as a way of exploring game design and as a creative outlet. Over the years, I have managed to collect a number of solo RPGs, but I have never actually played any of the games I own. I decided to finally start by picking up the one I have been most intrigued by, Artefact, a game created by Jack Harrison and published by Mousehole Press.

In Artefact, you become a sentient magical item exploring the item's history from creation through its line of Keepers - what a fucking rad idea! So I grabbed some candles and my new soloRPG journal and dimmed the lights down really low - this was going to be some intimate gaming time sans interruptions from the fam.

To start your journey in Artefact, you must first decide on what type of item you're going to play as - for this first experience, I decided to be a Tome based on its tagline - "A receptacle of knowledge, lost or forbidden." If you've ever gamed with me, you know that I love the trope of lost or forbidden knowledge. My characters are always seeking.

After choosing your item type, you follow a creation process which is unique for each item. For the Tome, you give the item three Traits, draw a picture of it, and name the chapters within. This happens before you start answering the Artefact Questions (which includes giving yourself a name), but I went right into naming since one had already manifested itself.

I was now Pendacour, Testament of the Phoenix. I was penned in the stale air of the now-lost temple of Saint Melacour, by the fanatical monk, Pendax. Since I skipped the three Traits portion, I will stop here and return to what I was supposed to do first.

As an aside, I (Drew) am finding that soloRPGs are a bit of the Wild West in terms of how they are intended to be played or used. From the information I've gathered on social media and places like itch.io, soloRPGs are meant to provide a general guide on how to play the game but openly allow for players to deviate whenever and however they like. For me, naming comes first. Almost always. Names have power, and they serve to help me really embrace whatever character I am writing (even if said character is, in fact, a magical Tome). Often times, I will have a character's name in mind before I begin "rolling them up."

Back to me, Pendacour, and my Traits, though. Artefact gives each item type a list of suggested Traits, which is a useful starting point. In fact, reviewing the list now offers some other intriguing options outside of the three that I embraced. My first trait is Blessed, followed immediately by Divine. In the end, I decided that they were synonymous enough for me to combine these traits. I then embraced Loyal and ultimately decided I was loyal to Saint Melacour and those who embraced His path. Finally, after synonymizing Blessed and Divine, I embraced Eager as my final Trait. We'll get to Eager in a later post...

Then I outline my chapters:

On Saint Melacour

His Blessings Upon Us

Invocations for Channeling

Offerings, Rituals, and Prayers

To Know His Presence

How to Live to Honor Him

Remembrance of Those Before

The final step before diving into the Artefact questions is to draw a picture of myself and give it some brief descriptors.

So my styling is a purple-dyed leather tome with a fiery silvery-orange/red ball of flame. The flame has stylized wings and tail of a phoenix embossed in gold. I have metallic corner protectors made of ornate, filigree gold, and several ribbon place markers. I am colorful and regal and of superior craftsmanship. I am a labor of fanatical love, but that story will have to come later...

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #solo rpg #ttrpg community #ttrpgs #gameplay #artefact

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wardens-of-wanderlore · 7 months ago

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This game is Monster Hunter and Pokemon inspired. The players play against a monster with its own deck that plays itself in reaction to attacks and actions from the player. This means the players work together or even play alone as no one controls what the monster does.

Work together to defend the peoples of Wanderlore from monsters like the Frogshroom, the Dandy Lyon and the Wyrd Wolf. Use monster material discarded from the battle and favor earned for your deeds to gain new attack, action, item and equipment cards to modify your deck and prepare for the next challenge.

#fantasy #solarpunk #cozycore #monsters #ttrpg #card games #indie games #game development #gamedev #monster hunter #pokemon #puns #legacy gameplay #deck building

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the-princeps · 2 months ago

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ttrpg jargon explanation #2 gameplay and roleplay

Gameplay and Roleplay are two terms that are thrown around a lot when talking about game design.

Gameplay generally refers to moments created and facilitated by interaction between the player (generally via their character) and the rules. Any interaction between the players and the rules where the player has meaningful choice qualifies as gameplay. In places without choice it's not really gameplay, moreso the mechanics resolving as they will. Examples of gameplay are things like a battle in Lancer, or an investigation in Brindlewood Bay.

Roleplay is any moment that is the expression of a character, for example a noble paladin giving a final speech, but it can be smaller things, like a warrior picking up a flower after a battle.

Notably these two are not mutually exclusive, you can have roleplay and gameplay at the same time and you can have neither of them at moments.

#ttrpg design #ttrpg jargon explanation #ttrpg jargon explanation 2 #gameplay and roleplay #ttrpg devving #I might make a longer running smt outta these explanations

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droppingartintotheinfinite · 6 months ago

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concept sketches for some commissions i’m doing for Jackasses With Swords

#it’s a ttrpg #by the same guy who did Antagonist if you’ve heard of that #i don’t know too much about the gameplay since i don’t really do ttrpgs #but the descriptions for all the species are pretty interesting and it was really fun to play with them #art #sketch #commission #digital art #color #fanart #(i mean. sort of?)#jackasses with swords #phase 57

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imogens-temult · 4 months ago

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played my first ever ttrpg session tonight and had so much fun, we were all v much getting to terms with the game system but honestly had the best time i love that my recent spiral into the world of dnd and ttrpgs has brought us back together and attempting this stuff together hehehee

#sometimes my nerd spirals are just me alone #then there’s these ones where hella introduced me to d20 #and then I spiralled onto crit role #and now I’m reuniting with friends from our lockdown animal crossing vc days and playing ttrpgs #i got to roll my dice for gameplay finally and it was GREAT #treena.txt

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wizardcowpoke · 2 months ago

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the problem i have with a lot of indie ttrpgs (especially ones that are trying to Be The Next D&D) is that they do half the damn worldbuilding for you. its very very difficult to build a new game with as broad an appeal as dnd 5e, because conceptually and thematically, dnd is a very open system. so many indie ttrpgs are pretty restrictive in what kind of story they can tell because the genre or plot structure is so built into the ruleset.

this is not a bad thing per se. and it's hard to sell a new indie game without a strong conceptual hook. but when you build a role playing game with worldbuilding on the scale of a module or campaign, youre never going to have as broad a narrative reach as something like pathfinder or dnd 5e, whose rulesets are disconnected enough from the assumed default sword-and-sorcery setting that other genres can be used for flavor, and whose narrative concepts are broad strokes like "people have access to magic spells" and "monsters and elves exist, lord-of-the-rings-style."

#i just have seen too many ttrpgs claiming to be the next dnd when they're actually more on the scale of like. curse of strahd #like stop it youre doing yourself a disservice advertising that way!!#if youve created a semi specific world to play in with metaphysical rules that tie directly into gameplay.......#youve created a module with its entire own ruleset. which is fine but its not as broad an appeal as you think.#dnd #m talks

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bee-the-whovian · 7 months ago

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"We're not pirates, just really effective seaborne thieves”

#i'm making a new RPG Character #I love her #and yes #there is a distinction #big differences in fact #Dnd #rpg #ttrpg #gameplay #Oc #character creation #pirates #pirate #writer #writing #storyline

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legionofmyth · 7 months ago

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Mage: The Ascension: Nodes - Creating Realities Using Nodes

🌌 Learn how to create realities using Nodes in Mage: The Ascension by White Wolf Publishing! Discover the secrets to bending reality with the power of Quintessence. Elevate your game and become a true mage! Watch now! #MageTheAscension #TTRPG #TabletopRPG

Mage: The Ascension (1E) Mage: The Ascension (2E) Dive into the divine art of creating realities using Nodes in Mage: The Ascension. These sacred places are more than reservoirs of Quintessence; they are the crucibles where new worlds are forged. Learn how to bend reality to your will, crafting new dimensions with the power of Nodes. Don’t miss this enlightening exploration of magickal creation.…

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gorgonarcher · 1 year ago

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Different Character Creation Methods Weaknesses and Strengths

These first two (on this blog) character creation bits have had me thinking a bit about the advantages and disadvantages of different character creation methods.

Now, I'm not going to be completely unbiased here and the styles that fit my preferences better won't be as easy for me to see the downsides to.

Level-Based Template System (D&D and Pathfinder)

The biggest downside to level based template systems is that you will not be able to complete some concepts immediately at level one. Some powers and abilities will often just not available at lower levels.

For example, the lowest level you can get "Living Hair" to do snake hair for a gorgon concept IS 1st level, but only if you're a Human Witch and you take the Natural Ambition feat. 2nd level if your a Witch of any other Ancestry and 4th level if you are not a Witch.

Now, you can certainly fluff having snake hair before that, but knowing there's a mechanical representation that you can't get easily kinda dampens that.

Also note that there is a Medusa's Wrath ability that gives the stoning stare but it's a 16th level minimum Monk feat.

The main issue here is that games like D&D and Pathfinder tend to flavorgate some stuff to only appear at higher level of game play. It's certainly possible to create low-level appropriate equivalents to the stoning gaze, snake hair, and other features mentioned for a gorgon (or other powers for other concepts), I do have a gorgon sorcerer heritage sitting around for D&D 5e that does this, but by and large the more bizarre the power, the higher it's power floor will be in these games.

That's the biggest downside. With a lot of concepts, you're going to come out of the gate with an incomplete build for the overall concept. Which to be fair, a lot of concepts assume a somewhat higher competency level than a first level character. Even with masterful warriors, rogues, or martial artists... key components of your vision are likely to only appear at higher levels.

The upside is that it tends toward being simpler to build a character. You pull from a menu of options and place them together. This makes it easier to immediately grok how to build a character and move forward. That said, with more complex games like Pathfinder, a newbie is more likely to make choices that don't work well with what they want to do. Overall, building a character in a template system is very simple and easy to comprehend.

Point-Based System

A point-based system directly answers the issue of starting the game with an incomplete build as you can start the game off with exactly the suite of powers and skills that you want to fill out the concept. There may still be holes dependent on your skill with budgeting your points. So you can start right off the game as a snake-haired gorgon with a stoning gaze and archery skills.

The problem I mentioned at the end of the previous section about complex template level-based games is much worse here. Increased granularity makes it easier to accidentally create a character that just doesn't work mechanically. Sub-optimal play can still be very fun, but there is a wide-variance that comes with increased granularity where a character can become so sub-optimal that they are simply not fun to play.

Another problem that point-based character creation faces is the lack of advancement milestones. When you earn experience in most point-based games those points spend exactly like the points you got at the start. So, if you start with a 450 point character in Hero System and you earn 4-10 points a session, those points have the same value as the initial points.

This tends to mean that advancement is very incremental and unless you save points you won't get the feeling of hitting 5th level and unlocking 3rd level spells or Extra Attack in D&D 5e. Instead, you'll see the skills and attributes you started with growing strong over time. This makes advancement a bit less visible as each step isn't substantially different from the one that game before it.

You can set aside some points for bigger purchases later, and some systems have ways to make new abilities easier to acquire. But knowing to do that comes with expertise in the system.

Narrative Systems

Narrative systems address a lot of the same concerns that Point-based systems do but in a different way. Instead of purchasing powers or attributes individually, you instead declare yourself a gorgon and that assumes you have every thing that makes a gorgon be a gorgon.

The downside of this style disproportionately impacts people used to Template-based and Point-based systems. The lack of guide rails and limits presented by those styles can cause someone to just feel very lost when approaching narrative systems. The questions of "what does this mean?" and "what can I do?" comes up quite frequently among players used to having their capabilities spelled out by the feats they selected or points they spent. Players new to roleplaying games take this much easier, coming straight as they are from pure make-believe and improvisational theater.

Narrative games are also very inconsistent with how much attention they pay to developing mechanics. For every game like Fate Core that makes sure that mechanics are clearly stated, come with thoughtful advice, and have appropriate heft, you have dozens of games whose mechanics is virtually Calvinball. This is part of why a lot of people think Narrative RPG and Rules Lite RPG are the same thing.

To be clear, there's also low-effort versions of Point-buy and Template-based games and products as well. But the lack of effort is more readily apparent in the "crunchier" games. A lot of this is admittedly due to lack of exposure. There's more people who've played D&D than Fate, so it is harder for people to understand why Fate works well and thus recognize when a narrative system is poorly conceived.

This also impacts coming to narrative games from other styles of system. You CAN play Fate with the same perspective as you play D&D, but if you do that then it will feel like a sluggish version of D&D. And if you haven't played too many systems, you're more likely to fall afoul of this error in approach. Similarly, if you try to play D&D like you should play Fate, then it will feel like a restrictive, straight-jacketed version of Fate.

Even with true rules-lite games like one-page RPGs you have good, well thought out products that know exactly what they are, what they want to accomplish, and pull it off beautifully. And then you have rules-lite games where the maker clearly lacked understanding, effort, or both.

Hybrid Systems

This is where I've started to settle in recent years. Games like Monster of the Week have the narrative element of "you are what you say you are and have everything associated with that" you get from Fate aspects, but it also has the templates and leveling bits of games like D&D with appropriate milestone advancements to allow for very visible advancement.

Then there's Scion from Onyx Path, or perhaps I should generalize it to Storypath. In this case, there's some elements that function narratively, like the Paths acting very much like Aspects. Other systems are very much point-based, such as purchasing skills and attributes. Or a mix of templates and point-buy where you can buy individual Knacks. And there also a substantial part of the character creation that functions like a level-based system where raising Legend comes with specific benefits and clear advancement milestones.

Even the way I run Fate tends to borrow from a lot of optional systems, not just in gameplay but also in character creation.

Side note: I should make some more gorgon archers in Hero System, Scion, and other systems.

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