TG Chat Thread 2017

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That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

The only proper way to play TES tabletop is to precisely replicate the Daggerfall engine on paper. It already used dice notations for much of its random numbers, many of which are laid out plainly in giant tables in an old out of print third-party guide.

HALTHALTHALTHALT

Now that's gaming at the highest level of all.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 03:22

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# ? May 13, 2024 21:46

Haystack: Jan 23, 2005

Josef bugman posted:

It's pretty Gloranthan. The guy who designed it even got some inspiration from the old runequest stuff.

Hell, he outright wrote a decent chunk of it.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 03:28

Countblanc: Apr 20, 2005; _{Help a hero out!}

rumble in the bunghole posted:

Donald trump is going to push me down the stairs?

this post ftw

# ? Jan 27, 2017 03:29

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

That Old Tree posted:

The only proper way to play TES tabletop is to precisely replicate the Daggerfall engine on paper. It already used dice notations for much of its random numbers, many of which are laid out plainly in giant tables in an old out of print third-party guide.

HALTHALTHALTHALT

Now that's gaming at the highest level of all.

I remember writing an email to Scorpia, a columnist on the Computer Gaming World magazine, about what the heck "1d8" meant as a damage number on weapons while playing Might and Magic 7, because I had zero exposure to that kind of notation before.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 03:37

Ratpick: Oct 9, 2012; And no one ate dinner that night.

What games are there that actually have some manner of rules for character death beyond "roll up another character, you're dead Gary"?

I started thinking about this a while back because most traditional RPGs still have the idea that all fights are to the death and once you die you just roll up a new character. I know some games have qualifiers for character death (like "If you TPK the whole group it doesn't actually count for reals unless they were fighting a big baddy, but having the entire group beaten should carry some dramatic consequence") but I'm thinking more along the lines of games that actually prescribe in the rules what happens upon character death beyond having to roll up another character. Not necessarily even death, but codified consequences for what happens when you reach the point of critical existence failure where by the rules your character is taken out.

Examples of the sort of stuff I'm looking for: being reduced to 0 hp (or whatever the equivalent) doesn't kill you, but instead gives you a permanent scar of some kind; your character dying meaning that you immediately come back as some kind of undead with appropriate drawbacks; being killed meaning that you must roll a new character, but your new character already starts with some benefit relative to our previous character's power level or achievement (alternative: if your character dies in a really dramatic manner that perfectly encapsulates what the character was about, the player's next character might start with dramatically better benefits).

The reason I'm thinking about this stuff is that most RPGs are still based around what you might call challenge-based gameplay (i.e. the GM's role is largely one of setting up challenges and obstacles for the players to overcome) and death is almost always on the line in that sort of gameplay, but most games don't seem to consider the effects of death beyond having to scrap your character or waiting for the rest of the group to resurrect them.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 10:34

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

That Old Tree posted:

The only proper way to play TES tabletop is to precisely replicate the Daggerfall engine on paper. It already used dice notations for much of its random numbers, many of which are laid out plainly in giant tables in an old out of print third-party guide.

HALTHALTHALTHALT

Now that's gaming at the highest level of all.

Check out Reelism. It's an amazing arena survival mod for Doom that includes the Daggerfall guards and some of the class sprites as enemies. Nothing quite like turning the corner in Dead Simple and coming face to face with HALTHALTHALTHALTHALTHALTHALT. I lost my poo poo.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 10:42

unseenlibrarian: Jun 4, 2012; There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.

Ratpick posted:

What games are there that actually have some manner of rules for character death beyond "roll up another character, you're dead Gary"?

I started thinking about this a while back because most traditional RPGs still have the idea that all fights are to the death and once you die you just roll up a new character. I know some games have qualifiers for character death (like "If you TPK the whole group it doesn't actually count for reals unless they were fighting a big baddy, but having the entire group beaten should carry some dramatic consequence") but I'm thinking more along the lines of games that actually prescribe in the rules what happens upon character death beyond having to roll up another character. Not necessarily even death, but codified consequences for what happens when you reach the point of critical existence failure where by the rules your character is taken out.

Examples of the sort of stuff I'm looking for: being reduced to 0 hp (or whatever the equivalent) doesn't kill you, but instead gives you a permanent scar of some kind; your character dying meaning that you immediately come back as some kind of undead with appropriate drawbacks; being killed meaning that you must roll a new character, but your new character already starts with some benefit relative to our previous character's power level or achievement (alternative: if your character dies in a really dramatic manner that perfectly encapsulates what the character was about, the player's next character might start with dramatically better benefits).

The reason I'm thinking about this stuff is that most RPGs are still based around what you might call challenge-based gameplay (i.e. the GM's role is largely one of setting up challenges and obstacles for the players to overcome) and death is almost always on the line in that sort of gameplay, but most games don't seem to consider the effects of death beyond having to scrap your character or waiting for the rest of the group to resurrect them.

Weirdly, your third example goes all the way back to 1E AD&D: Oriental Adventures gave your next PC benefits if you died with a high honor score.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 10:48

Kai Tave: Jul 2, 2012; Fallen Rib

Ratpick posted:

What games are there that actually have some manner of rules for character death beyond "roll up another character, you're dead Gary"?

I started thinking about this a while back because most traditional RPGs still have the idea that all fights are to the death and once you die you just roll up a new character. I know some games have qualifiers for character death (like "If you TPK the whole group it doesn't actually count for reals unless they were fighting a big baddy, but having the entire group beaten should carry some dramatic consequence") but I'm thinking more along the lines of games that actually prescribe in the rules what happens upon character death beyond having to roll up another character. Not necessarily even death, but codified consequences for what happens when you reach the point of critical existence failure where by the rules your character is taken out.

Examples of the sort of stuff I'm looking for: being reduced to 0 hp (or whatever the equivalent) doesn't kill you, but instead gives you a permanent scar of some kind; your character dying meaning that you immediately come back as some kind of undead with appropriate drawbacks; being killed meaning that you must roll a new character, but your new character already starts with some benefit relative to our previous character's power level or achievement (alternative: if your character dies in a really dramatic manner that perfectly encapsulates what the character was about, the player's next character might start with dramatically better benefits).

The reason I'm thinking about this stuff is that most RPGs are still based around what you might call challenge-based gameplay (i.e. the GM's role is largely one of setting up challenges and obstacles for the players to overcome) and death is almost always on the line in that sort of gameplay, but most games don't seem to consider the effects of death beyond having to scrap your character or waiting for the rest of the group to resurrect them.

Off the top of my head later Dungeon World based games began including unique effects that happened upon a character's death based on their class/playbook, Tenra Bansho Zero has strictly codified rules for character death in that characters are only able to die if players themselves tick a box saying "yeah I can die now" which then goes on to provide various effects, and Keith Baker's card-based RPG Phoenix: Dawn Command is about characters who can die and be reborn multiple times, gaining power as they do so.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 10:52

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

Ratpick posted:

What games are there that actually have some manner of rules for character death beyond "roll up another character, you're dead Gary"?

I started thinking about this a while back because most traditional RPGs still have the idea that all fights are to the death and once you die you just roll up a new character. I know some games have qualifiers for character death (like "If you TPK the whole group it doesn't actually count for reals unless they were fighting a big baddy, but having the entire group beaten should carry some dramatic consequence") but I'm thinking more along the lines of games that actually prescribe in the rules what happens upon character death beyond having to roll up another character. Not necessarily even death, but codified consequences for what happens when you reach the point of critical existence failure where by the rules your character is taken out.

Examples of the sort of stuff I'm looking for: being reduced to 0 hp (or whatever the equivalent) doesn't kill you, but instead gives you a permanent scar of some kind; your character dying meaning that you immediately come back as some kind of undead with appropriate drawbacks; being killed meaning that you must roll a new character, but your new character already starts with some benefit relative to our previous character's power level or achievement (alternative: if your character dies in a really dramatic manner that perfectly encapsulates what the character was about, the player's next character might start with dramatically better benefits).

The reason I'm thinking about this stuff is that most RPGs are still based around what you might call challenge-based gameplay (i.e. the GM's role is largely one of setting up challenges and obstacles for the players to overcome) and death is almost always on the line in that sort of gameplay, but most games don't seem to consider the effects of death beyond having to scrap your character or waiting for the rest of the group to resurrect them.

At least one OSR game(I think it's Whitehack but I'd have to double check) has rules where if your character dies you play their ghost till the end of the session(or earlier if there's a good opportunity to introduce a new character)

# ? Jan 27, 2017 11:15

occamsnailfile: Nov 4, 2007; zamtrios so lonely; Grimey Drawer

Ratpick posted:

What games are there that actually have some manner of rules for character death beyond "roll up another character, you're dead Gary"?

I started thinking about this a while back because most traditional RPGs still have the idea that all fights are to the death and once you die you just roll up a new character. I know some games have qualifiers for character death (like "If you TPK the whole group it doesn't actually count for reals unless they were fighting a big baddy, but having the entire group beaten should carry some dramatic consequence") but I'm thinking more along the lines of games that actually prescribe in the rules what happens upon character death beyond having to roll up another character. Not necessarily even death, but codified consequences for what happens when you reach the point of critical existence failure where by the rules your character is taken out.

Examples of the sort of stuff I'm looking for: being reduced to 0 hp (or whatever the equivalent) doesn't kill you, but instead gives you a permanent scar of some kind; your character dying meaning that you immediately come back as some kind of undead with appropriate drawbacks; being killed meaning that you must roll a new character, but your new character already starts with some benefit relative to our previous character's power level or achievement (alternative: if your character dies in a really dramatic manner that perfectly encapsulates what the character was about, the player's next character might start with dramatically better benefits).

The reason I'm thinking about this stuff is that most RPGs are still based around what you might call challenge-based gameplay (i.e. the GM's role is largely one of setting up challenges and obstacles for the players to overcome) and death is almost always on the line in that sort of gameplay, but most games don't seem to consider the effects of death beyond having to scrap your character or waiting for the rest of the group to resurrect them.

Chronicles of Darkness has the possibility for dead mortal PCs to return as ghosts, though I am hazy on the specific mechanics involved. I imagine it wouldn't be a permanent state-change for the player (ghosts have very pressing mechanical needs) unless the campaign had a lot of ready ways for the living PCs to interact. Resurrection is much, much less common and certainly not assumed--a new PC would be more likely, though having the ghost hang around as an NPC is also possible.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 13:14

Nuns with Guns: Jul 23, 2010; It's fine.
Don't worry about it.

Ratpick posted:

What games are there that actually have some manner of rules for character death beyond "roll up another character, you're dead Gary"?

Pendragon, I believe, has generational mechanics that assume a new player's PC is the child of the old PC, who probably died honorably and accumulated wealth, domains, and honor. I know I've brought it up before, and Kai Tave just mentioned it again, but Tenra Bansho Zero characters can't die unless the check the "Dead" wounds box. Healing the dead wound box is possible, too. The game states that characters who recover from checking the more serious wounds boxes are left with some pretty sick scars.

Technoir characters can permadie, but it's always possible to save them before that happens. After any scene where a character received a negative adjective from a physical injury (that doesn't go away at the end of a scene) the player rolls a d6 for each ongoing negative adjective they have. If one die comes up a 6, the PC takes the dying negative adjective. If two or more dice come up 6, then the PC takes the dead negative adjective. Even these adjectives can be treated before real death happens. Treating the dead adjective requires you to spend some time and money installing a new cyber limb/organ in the dead PC, which gets added to their equipment list. Failing the treat roll on a dying character means they shift to the dead adjective, and failing to treat the dead adjective means for-real death for the character.

This also reminds me of that aborted 3.0 D&D setting, Ghostwalk, where characters who died could still hang around as ghosts. It's a shame it flopped.

Nuns with Guns fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Jan 27, 2017

# ? Jan 27, 2017 14:05

Ratpick: Oct 9, 2012; And no one ate dinner that night.

Thanks for the responses. This is all good stuff, and I wouldn't mind seeing more if people can think of more examples.

Another one that I was suddenly reminded of: Paranoia, which does have death but gives each player a number of clones, which essentially act as extra lives.

The reason I'm asking this is that I'm thinking of finally writing one of my many heartbreaker ideas into an actual game. I really want the game to be geared towards the aforementioned challenge-based gameplay (because it's what I personally enjoy playing and running) but because "You died, roll up a new character" is the worst and most anticlimactic thing that can happen and completely breaks the momentum of the game I'm thinking of different possibilities of handling death (or defeat) in the game.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 14:13

Haystack: Jan 23, 2005

Ratpick posted:

What games are there that actually have some manner of rules for character death beyond "roll up another character, you're dead Gary"?

In Spellbound Kingdoms, you can't remove from the game anyone who's passionate enough about anything, especially love. Can't kill them, can't permanently capture them, can't throw them off the edge of the earth, they always come back or get away. Doesn't matter if they're a villain or a hero. The best part is that the mechanic is a known fact in the setting. The whole society is shaped around it, so you get things like killing someone by insulting his wife.

It's basically The Princess Bride, the mechanic, the game.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 14:40

Nuns with Guns: Jul 23, 2010; It's fine.
Don't worry about it.

Haystack posted:

In Spellbound Kingdoms, you can't remove from the game anyone who's passionate enough about anything, especially love. Can't kill them, can't permanently capture them, can't throw them off the edge of the earth, they always come back or get away. Doesn't matter if they're a villain or a hero. The best part is that the mechanic is a known fact in the setting. The whole society is shaped around it, so you get things like killing someone by insulting his wife.

Yeah, fate rearranges circumstances to ensure any attempt to kill someone sufficiently passionate about something (love, the arts, devotion to the king, whatever.) fails. Assassins are thwarted, there's a convenient wagon of hay at the base of the building, they wash to shore after a shipwreck, etc. Some nations have set up entire state religions and philosophies to ensure that the peasants remain as apathetic and disconnected as possible so they can't rise up and overthrow the current power structure. If you plan on toppling a tyrant, you need to undermine what he is passionate for before you can strike a mortal blow

# ? Jan 27, 2017 14:50

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

I think it'd be cool to have an explicit "Plot Armor" sign at your table as you progress through a campaign.

Like, you're traipsing through a dungeon at level 1, and you have a Plot Armor sign up, meaning no matter how badly the players gently caress up, the rest of the universe just gets worse, but the players can't explicitly die.

Until they get to a critical point in the dungeon, where you take it down and all bets are off.

Conversely, you can put it up for a villain so that the players know that the best they can do is to foil their plans, but not kill them.

Unless they go through a particular "side quest", or perform the "main quest" so well, that it's only fitting to take it off.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 14:56

potatocubed: Jul 26, 2012; *rathian noises*

That kind of reminds me of 13th Age's 'campaign loss' system, which I like a lot. Like, sure, you can take a long rest after every encounter -- but every time you do the world gets worse and worse.

When the Plot Armour sign is up, PCs don't die but their failures are reflected in the world at large, and NPCs can't be killed but the PCs can improve the world by wailing on them anyway.

Or something.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 15:08

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

I'm mainly just sharing this so I can find it later, but this is a really awesome Flash-based random island map generator. Lots of options, and it can generate realistic-looking maps or hex/grid based maps.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 15:17

Rockopolis: Dec 21, 2012; I MAKE FUN OF QUEER STORYGAMES BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO WITH MY LIFE THAN MAKE OTHER PEOPLE CRY

I can't understand these kinds of games, and not getting it bugs me almost as much as me being weird

Buddhist RPG where you can die all you like, but the goal of the game is to escape suffering and achieve Nirvana.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 15:21

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

Is this a thing? I'd totally play a Buddhist mythology RPG with that premise. Buddhist myths are weird.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 15:50

Ratpick: Oct 9, 2012; And no one ate dinner that night.

Rockopolis posted:

Buddhist RPG where you can die all you like, but the goal of the game is to escape suffering and achieve Nirvana.

CottonWolf posted:

Is this a thing? I'd totally play a Buddhist mythology RPG with that premise. Buddhist myths are weird.

Hell, same.

I could actually see an RPG where reincarnation was an important mechanic being really cool.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 15:55

Mr.Misfit: Jan 10, 2013; The time for
SkellyBones
has come!

I was recently thinking, some games include a "consequence" mechanic, where, instead of losing hp or dying, you get something equal to the strength of wound or occuring problem, like "nicked finger" or "broken arm" or "skinned alive". I was recently thinking about really liking this, but it feels rather..."brutal", so to speak.

On a sidenote:
Is such a mechanic a good thing to replace common health points? I have a feeling that it makes being wounded much more immediate, but it feels "more abstract" than the number of points representing "life/health/stamina/whatever", which is strange seeing as the later is even more abstracted, but I cannot explain why. Is there something I�m missing about this?

# ? Jan 27, 2017 16:04

Yawgmoth: Sep 10, 2003; This post is cursed!

Mr.Misfit posted:

I was recently thinking, some games include a "consequence" mechanic, where, instead of losing hp or dying, you get something equal to the strength of wound or occuring problem, like "nicked finger" or "broken arm" or "skinned alive". I was recently thinking about really liking this, but it feels rather..."brutal", so to speak.

On a sidenote:
Is such a mechanic a good thing to replace common health points? I have a feeling that it makes being wounded much more immediate, but it feels "more abstract" than the number of points representing "life/health/stamina/whatever", which is strange seeing as the later is even more abstracted, but I cannot explain why. Is there something I�m missing about this?

That sounds like Fate consequences, honestly. Whether or not it's good, I don't know because I have gotten through every combat in Fate so far without getting hit. I know Legends of the Wulin has conditions that represent trivial/minor/major wounds that compound and eventually knock you out (killing you only if that's what your opponent is actively trying to do) and it works pretty well.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 16:19

Ratpick: Oct 9, 2012; And no one ate dinner that night.

I'm pretty sure some game has replaced health points with some manner of simply tracking specific injuries. Burning Wheel sort of has it, and Fate has consequences which you can take, but in Fate that's in addition to Stress which is a more traditional health track.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 16:19

Haystack: Jan 23, 2005

CottonWolf posted:

Is this a thing? I'd totally play a Buddhist mythology RPG with that premise. Buddhist myths are weird.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 16:35

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; Can't post for 3 hours!

drat it, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna hack Mass Effect into Strike! As soon as I finish 3 F&Fs, and probably rugby season.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 17:20

Rockopolis: Dec 21, 2012; I MAKE FUN OF QUEER STORYGAMES BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO WITH MY LIFE THAN MAKE OTHER PEOPLE CRY

I can't understand these kinds of games, and not getting it bugs me almost as much as me being weird

Haystack posted:

Yo

Cool! How was the first edition?
Is it possible to play as Shaolin Buddhist Herakles?

Wasn't this the story where it's like, Buddhist missionaries don't just convert people, they convert the people's dieties as well?

# ? Jan 27, 2017 17:32

Plutonis: Mar 25, 2011

Rockopolis posted:

Cool! How was the first edition?
Is it possible to play as Shaolin Buddhist Herakles?

Wasn't this the story where it's like, Buddhist missionaries don't just convert people, they convert the people's dieties as well?

There were local demons and dieties that were converted by Sanzhang yes. And IRL there is a massive amount syncretism on several Buddhist communities in which for example the Herakles of Bactria was turned into a diety that protects the Buddha and his iconography inspired the fierce Nioh statues of Japan.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 17:39

Kwyndig: Sep 23, 2006; Heeeeeey

Hey, everybody forgot Eclipse Phase, where it's really hard to permanently die but you can still be killed. Basically (for those not familiar with the game) your character's body, called a morph, is essentially a piece of very expensive equipment. Outside of a few circumstances it's relatively simple to reclaim a dead morph's consciousness and memories, called an Ego in game, and either slot it into a new biological or mechanical body or just have it live in the game's equivalent of the internet for a while if you don't have a body handy.

There's consequences to doing this though, because any time you switch bodies (even to a virtual one) it's a kind of mental shock, especially if you died, and you can go temporarily or permanently crazy from dying a lot unless somebody goes in and erases those memories.

This also happens if somebody manages to erase your current Ego (by completely destroying your Morph, cyberattack, or a few other methods) and they have to restore you from a saved backup, because discontinuity of your life experiences is also psychologically scarring, since you have to adjust to the fact that at the least a version of you really hosed up and died for reals. There are a couple of stories and at least one adventure in EP based around this premise actually, where the PCs have to retrace their steps because they got restored from backup and nobody is sure what happened to them.

edit: And for anybody still concerned about my mental health, I've been undergoing treatment for years now, it's just, you know, not that successful because I'm really messed up and the state of the world and my life isn't doing me any favors. Progress is slow.

Kwyndig fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Jan 27, 2017

# ? Jan 27, 2017 17:41

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

Haystack posted:

Yo

I think I may need to give this man some money. Cheers!

# ? Jan 27, 2017 18:45

Haystack: Jan 23, 2005

Rockopolis posted:

Cool! How was the first edition?
Is it possible to play as Shaolin Buddhist Herakles?

Wasn't this the story where it's like, Buddhist missionaries don't just convert people, they convert the people's dieties as well?

Someone's answer in the Kickstarter thread

Druggeddwarf posted:

I played the first edition at Con-ception in england last year - was a cool card mechanic that definitely played through scenes quite fast, but you needed a deck per player. New edition eliminates that, and now it's a deck for the GM, and a deck for the players. You draw cards according to the level of the abilities you have, then play your highest card (if you want) against the enemy's highest card. You can also store a card for future use, but you USUALLY only one card at a time.

Sometimes the GM gets to play multiple cards against you, either because he's laying out the tasks you need to beat to accomplish an over all action, or because the villian gets to play a second or third card down because that's just how deadly it is. Could also be because you are at a disadvantage for certain things in a scene. You must beat all cards, and usually every player has their own set of GM cards to beat.

Oh almost forgot - if they are enemy attacks, they are placed face down. Normal trivial tasks are played face up.

I think that's it.

Over all, I am backing it at the Silver Monkey part because I really had a good time with the game and the system. I highly recommend it.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 18:54

Parkreiner: Oct 29, 2011

Wacky space-opera apocalypse RPG Empire of Dust (which really deserves a F&F write up just for its amazing character creation advice of "imagine what an action figure of your character would look like") has a pretty fast-and-loose approach to HPs and death--essentially, take one unsoaked hit and you're unconscious (but still able to be revived and rejoin the fight), take two (or just one from certain extra-deadly attacks) and you're gored and out of the fight. After the battle, the player can choose if their gored character is dead, or survives with an ongoing injury (roll on a random table, which usually comes to a small stat penalty, which can be leveled back up-- character advancement is kind of easy-come-easy-go in this game).

In the case of a TPK, there are other random tables to see where/when the party wakes up, and in what circumstance (taken prisoner, robbed and ready to follow their trail, etc).

potatocubed posted:

That kind of reminds me of 13th Age's 'campaign loss' system, which I like a lot. Like, sure, you can take a long rest after every encounter -- but every time you do the world gets worse and worse.

EoD does this too. The game's premise is that Satan crashed his spaceship on a technofantasy world and is setting about to conquer it, and there's a random "the war progresses" table that gets rolled on basically whenever downtime happens, including after a TPK. It's not all bad news, but it can be.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 18:58

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; Can't post for 3 hours!

Sounds fascinating, but it appears to be an out of print board game.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 19:13

Parkreiner: Oct 29, 2011

Halloween Jack posted:

Sounds fascinating, but it appears to be an out of print board game.

It is OOP (could have sworn the PDF used to be on drivethru, but can't find it there now), but it's not a board game-- the physical release was a box set a la Red Box D&D and the pic that comes up in google from RPG geek is of the cardboard chits provided for its maps & minis combat (which is pretty much the only maps & minis RPG combat that doesn't bore me silly; it does a lot of things Savage Worlds claims to but always bogged down at table during my time with SW), which include markers for PCs, NPCs, and certain useful status effects like "in stealth" and "on fire".

# ? Jan 27, 2017 19:32

Nea: Feb 28, 2014; Funny Little Guy Aficionado.

Parkreiner posted:

EoD does this too. The game's premise is that Satan crashed his spaceship on a technofantasy world and is setting about to conquer it, and there's a random "the war progresses" table that gets rolled on basically whenever downtime happens, including after a TPK. It's not all bad news, but it can be.

As does Fellowship- the party can rest to recover all their gear and tricks, but except under a few specific circumstances the Overlord gets to move forward with their plans.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 20:01

Elfgames: Sep 11, 2011; Fun Shoe

so someone in the contest got "shounen" as their genre, a category ranging from dragonball to death note

# ? Jan 27, 2017 20:55

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; Can't post for 3 hours!

Is this a good place to ask which are the good animes? I'm a WoD nerd, so I tried to get back into anime through Tokyo Ghoul, but it seems like it totally abandons its premise about halfway through in favour of "Whose tentacles are the strongest?" I'm also slowly reading the manga, but haven't caught up to where I am in the show, so I don't know if it goes off the rails similarly.

Parasyte is great so far, except for the lovely metal.

I heard that Kill la Kill and that Yo La Tengo Toppin' Gurrin' Laggin' thing that I can never spell have actual artistic value.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 21:04

Yawgmoth: Sep 10, 2003; This post is cursed!

Elfgames posted:

so someone in the contest got "shounen" as their genre, a category ranging from dragonball to death note

I would watch and/or play a thing that combined these two.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 21:04

Parkreiner: Oct 29, 2011

Ah, I misremembered; it was IPR that still carries Empire of Dust.

I also reproduce some :words:

I wrote about the game ages ago:

EoD and 3:16 are currently my fave low/no-prep "let's go wander weird places and bash some faces in" beer & pretzel games.

EoD's setting is an apocalyptic sci-fantasy kind of thing influenced by '80s cartoons and video games (I believe one piece of character creation advice is "visualize what your character would look like as an action figure"), where Satan's spaceship crashes into a technomagical civilization and wreaks such massive havoc that large masses of the population surrender outright in hopes of surviving. Space Satan's porcelain-masked psychedelic-drug-addicted minions battle the rebel alliance of Glitter Boy pilots, cyberwizards, androids, and psychic kung-fu priests, while the native shamanic minotaur population who predate the planet's human settlement decide now is a great time to wipe out all the colonists while they're having their civil war. All three factions are available as PC fodder, but the rebel alliance has the most class options (and you should definitely avoid mixed-faction games).

Mechanically, it's a relatively rules-light game that uses a single d20 resolution mechanic, with heavy use of feats & special powers to distinguish PCs from one another, with some feats marked as unique in the storyline, so taking them means your character is the minotaur khan, or the Messiah sent by God to either defeat Space Lucifer or blow up the entire planet with him on it, or so dead sexy you seduced one of God's kung-fu angel brides, or what have you. There are no HP; you basically make a save vs damage every time a hit lands-- fail once and you're unconscious (your pals can revive you during battle, or wait for the fight to be over), take another hit and you "die"-- your choice to either die and reroll a new guy, or roll on the long-term injury table and take some stat penalties. There are no XP either-- I think when you roll a natural 20, the stat you're testing goes up 1 on the spot. There are also luck points to reroll dice, which can be earned mid-battle by taunting your opponents.

Combat is map-based, with chits and counters for destructible terrain and hazards (my favorite bits are the tokens to mark things that are on fire or invisible), and since the combat rules are fairly stripped-down and fights end when everyone on one side is knocked out, combats go fast, even if the PCs are leading a squad of NPCs (and there are several "leader" type feats that give you an entourage). There's also a world map with the major cities marked, and basically every time the PCs travel between landmarks you roll to see if they get lost or have a random encounter (I can never not hum the map theme from Bionic Commando when travel happens). Actually there are scads of random-roll tables for all kinds of things, from battlefield setup, wandering monsters, TPK consequences, effects of snorting the magic dust that runs all the advanced tech, and even the course of the global war, that you roll on whenever a significant amount of time passes.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 21:04

Alien Rope Burn: Dec 5, 2004; _{I wanna be a saikyo HERO!}

Yeah. I think the better term for what most people think of when they think of shōnen or Shōnen Jump manga is "battle manga".

But then, I got sci-fi, which is... pretty much anything that isn't slice-of-life or fantasy.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 21:06

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# ? May 13, 2024 21:46

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Halloween Jack posted:

I heard that Kill la Kill and that Yo La Tengo Toppin' Gurrin' Laggin' thing that I can never spell have actual artistic value.

Tengen Toppen Gurren Lagaan is tied with GaoGaiGar as my favorite giant robot anime every.

# ? Jan 27, 2017 21:07

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG Chat Thread 2017

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