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LORD OF BOOTY posted:so, genuine question Not LotFP, the characters are too dirtfarmer for what you would want to do.
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Jul 7, 2017 16:12
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Plutonis posted:Well dude in tactical combat videogames like Fire Emblem I place my archers to shoot those loving Pegasus Knights for their combo damage bonus and they still manage to loving miss in a 80 to 90% hit chance so 4E definitelt catches that feel. This is why you play Advance Wars so you don't have to put up with that poo poo.
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Jul 7, 2017 16:37
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:okay, legit question: how easy is it to transfer NBA to an American setting? it seems like Dracula Dossier in particular is absurdly loving British, and the way I'm planning to run it would likely necessitate me transferring the setting to Texas (I'm doing it as a pseudo-LARP/ARG and I live in Texas; the PCs are internet normies recruited by a rogue Edom agent and sent PDF copies of the Dossier/Dracula Unredacted, and I'm going to be running a 24/7 IC discord for them to discuss their findings with each other and me. if they find something and enough of them can agree that it's a thing, I go into OOC mode and run it as a mini-session). Honestly, adapting Dracula Dossier as it is to America is pretty difficult. As you correctly point out, it's fairly setting specific in terms of the history of British espionage, Dracula's history in Europe, etc. Honestly, Dracula just isn't going to loving care about America when there are any number of incredibly vulnerable first world governments within a much easier reach. It's tightly married to its source material, which is on balance a good thing but does throw a wrench into your plans. My approach would be to take the generic high level structure and translate the themes over to work with the history of American espionage. Boiling it down to the thickest, saltiest solution makes the story about "Movers & shakers in American espionage learn of a powerful sentient being from native folklore, decide to make it an asset, get played and it takes a century of work to correct the original mistake." You'd need to dig around in Native American folklore to find something suitable as the asset, then sketch forward the equivalent of the individual eras as the various incarnations of US spy agencies wrestle with the thing they dug up that they should have left alone. Now, if your players are set on vampires then you've got to alter the thesis a bit. Let's say that the first part of the Dracula Dossier happened, but Dracula decided that returning to his homeland was untenable and any territory of the British Empire was right out. He finds a way to travel to America where he, like all American immigrants, can make a fresh start. If the native soil theme is important to you, his dwindling powers are such that he gets to America only long enough to sire progeny (maybe he takes a new bride?) and the story is about how American intelligence tries to prove they're better than their OId World counterparts by succeeding with the child where the British failed. They gently caress up of course, and you're off to the races. Or as a third option, work backwards instead of forwards. Instead make the thesis "Pop culture story about vampires is a cover-up for what REALLY happened, and the players learn The Truth." Interview with a Vampire is the obvious choice, but you might also find good raw material in something like The Hunger or The Lost Boys. However, this means you have to throw out Dracula Unredacted entirely and create some sort of new secret source material for your players to comb through for clues.
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Jul 7, 2017 16:41
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Kai Tave posted:This is why you play Advance Wars so you don't have to put up with that poo poo. Too bad Advance Wars is a dead series
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Jul 7, 2017 16:47
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Kai Tave posted:This is why you play Advance Wars so you don't have to put up with that poo poo. Yeah sure, waiting for the new one to come, Intelligent Systems is sure to make one this year instead of yet another loving FE. 
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Jul 7, 2017 16:49
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Better that Advance Wars fell on its sword than becoming whatever the gently caress Fire Emblem is now.
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Jul 7, 2017 16:50
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Two things that I think are important to Fail Forward, and help prevent a lot of abuses. First of all, the players should know the consequences are related to the roll. It shouldn't be something the GM does behind the scenes because it lets the players know that the dice they roll are important. Second, it should be something that springs naturally from the narrative. To take an example earlier, you wouldn't just switch out goblins for tougher kobolds because either you aren't telling your players (which disconnects that roll from the narrative as they experience it), or else it doesn't spring from the narrative (it doesn't make sense for the goblins to "turn into" kobolds). What would work would be if they failed their gather information, survival, or what-have-you roll and ended up in the wrong village, running into angry, more dangerous kobolds instead of the goblins they were expecting. This connects their roll to the consequences and it's a natural consequence from what they're doing in the story. Now, you also want to make sure that there's some way to advance the story from there, so it's properly Fail Forward. Maybe the kobolds have information that lets them bypass the goblins. That'll depend on why they were going after the goblins to begin with. The other issue, of players feeling like they made things worse, is an issue of stakes. The stakes have to be something that's appropriate to what the roll is. What feels appropriate is going to depend on how the scenario is set up, and what the expectations of the players are. One thing that can help a lot is that you don't have to wait until they fail to tell them what the stakes are. Sometimes, especially when the stakes flow out of the narrative naturally, the characters can know that, hey, there are guards listening around. There are multiple hostile villages in the area. There are bears in the woods. Not only does this help make the stakes seem more natural, it also makes them feel better about their rolls when they succeed.
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Jul 7, 2017 17:11
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The Deleter posted:Better that Advance Wars fell on its sword than becoming whatever the gently caress Fire Emblem is now. A really good and popular series?
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Jul 7, 2017 17:53
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Rand Brittain posted:A really good and popular series? For weirdos.
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Jul 7, 2017 18:00
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The Deleter posted:Better that Advance Wars fell on its sword than becoming whatever the gently caress Fire Emblem is now. Fire Emblem Fates is really, really good from a gameplay standpoint, though. Like I know people get annoyed at the relationships/kids stuff, and I can't blame them (the kids were really shoehorned into Fates and didn't belong at all), but Fates has some incredible map design, especially in the Conquest campaign. Playing Conquest on Hard/Classic (permadeath) and getting through with zero deaths was one of the most satisfying tactics game experiences I've ever had. The maps use enemy skills in really clever (and mean) ways and they're legitimately challenging and fun to think through and play. The story is absolute garbage, but this is one time where the sheer quality of the gameplay way more than made up for it.
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Jul 7, 2017 18:01
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I liked the Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Conquest but the rest of the games since the Wii one was really really uninspired. Valentia took away the stupid genetics mechanic but now you have insanely lovely growth rates and repeated crappy maps, jfc. E: Yeah Fates Conquest kicked rear end and had some real cool and challenging maps and had good ways to use the Dragon Vein gimmick
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Jul 7, 2017 18:04
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Plutonis posted:I liked the Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Conquest but the rest of the games since the Wii one was really really uninspired. Valentia took away the stupid genetics mechanic but now you have insanely lovely growth rates and repeated crappy maps, jfc. Valentia is kind of weird in that it's a faithful remake of a game from back before they'd really nailed down what Fire Emblem is. It carries a lot of its original incarnation's weirdness. I'm hoping the next actual new Fire Emblem game continues in the direction Fates went in, specifically Conquest. Though I hope they ditch the "marry and have kids and then recruit those kids" thing, because the justification for it in Fates was amazingly stupid. Like they can keep romantic supports and stuff, I know that's a big draw for some players who came to the series with Awakening, but the kid unit part is going to get harder and harder to shoehorn in.
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Jul 7, 2017 18:06
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JackMann posted:First of all, the players should know the consequences are related to the roll. It shouldn't be something the GM does behind the scenes because it lets the players know that the dice they roll are important. Second, it should be something that springs naturally from the narrative. I was just about to post this. Setting transparent stakes for a roll goes hand-in-hand with the fail-forward concept. I once had a player much like hyphz described, who hated making difficult rolls for fear of what the consequences would be - she hated the tension. Once I started setting stakes, that all changed. There was still plenty of tension (I'd argue more), but because she knew exactly what would happen if she failed a roll, suddenly there was a lot more buy-in. Doing it this way makes it clearer when a player is going to want to spend their metagame resources (if you're playing with those) to improve the odds of a roll, rather than "Well, if I'd know *that* was going to happen, I would have/wouldn't have bothered spending all my hero points on the roll." I also stopped getting objections along the lines of "Hold up, I want a sense motive check to see if I can tell he gave us wrong directions" when I started setting stakes on the roll: i.e., "Succeed and he gives you directions to your destination. Fail and he's a street thug who leads you to his gang's ambush."
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Jul 7, 2017 18:38
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Plutonis posted:I liked the Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Conquest but the rest of the games since the Wii one was really really uninspired. Valentia took away the stupid genetics mechanic but now you have insanely lovely growth rates and repeated crappy maps, jfc. I like the low growth rates
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Jul 7, 2017 18:41
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hyphz posted:The last case is especially bad because it tells players "an easy way to progress is to be bored". Are you worried that your players will choose to be bored in order to advance a plot they care about advancing?
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Jul 7, 2017 18:59
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I got really fed up with Fates, but I bought Birthright cos I assumed I was a scrub who would get owned. If Conquest is good I might try that.
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Jul 7, 2017 19:01
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The Deleter posted:I got really fed up with Fates, if Conquest is good I might try that. Just don't expect even a passable story. The gameplay is excellent, the story not so much.
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Jul 7, 2017 19:02
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Andrast posted:I like the low growth rates Man killing twenty gargoyles for a level up that gives me just a goddamn +1 on luck is a horrible experience
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Jul 7, 2017 19:05
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Conquest has Odin Dark and Arthur so it actually has the best fire emblem story
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Jul 7, 2017 19:06
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Subjunctive posted:Are you worried that your players will choose to be bored in order to advance a plot they care about advancing? If the players are excited to try and defeat Mr Dragon, but they're exploring a planar fortress and enjoying it, occasionally finding a hint or a power up but never a lead to where he is, they would be mightily annoyed to tell them that they would never have been able to learn where to find Mr Dragon until they were bored of the fortress. Or "until the end of the session" which is the other horrid pacing fudge.
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Jul 7, 2017 19:18
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hyphz posted:If the players are excited to try and defeat Mr Dragon, but they're exploring a planar fortress and enjoying it, occasionally finding a hint or a power up but never a lead to where he is, they would be mightily annoyed to tell them that they would never have been able to learn where to find Mr Dragon until they were bored of the fortress. Or "until the end of the session" which is the other horrid pacing fudge. That was the other half of your post, which I didn't quote because I don't care about it. I'm not asking about "bored as only way to advance", that's obviously stupid if not a straw man. I'm asking why it's harmful for players to know that if they get bored, you as the representative of the world will move things so they stop being bored. Will it make your players decide to be lazy in order to not have to do something fun?
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Jul 7, 2017 19:37
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I mean, there's a balance to be struck there. Players should feel that their actions should be what's driving the story, not their GM worrying that they're bored. On the other hand, GMs should avoid boring their players, and may need to shorten sections to do so.
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Jul 7, 2017 19:52
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The Deleter posted:I got really fed up with Fates, but I bought Birthright cos I assumed I was a scrub who would get owned. If Conquest is good I might try that. Yeah, Conquest's gameplay is seriously among the best in the series, but do yourself a favor and skip every cutscene. Conquest is definitely harder than Birthright, but it's harder for interesting reasons (enemy skill combinations and map design) instead of just swarming you with strong enemies.
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Jul 7, 2017 20:00
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hyphz posted:If the players are excited to try and defeat Mr Dragon, but they're exploring a planar fortress and enjoying it, occasionally finding a hint or a power up but never a lead to where he is, they would be mightily annoyed to tell them that they would never have been able to learn where to find Mr Dragon until they were bored of the fortress. Or "until the end of the session" which is the other horrid pacing fudge. Literally every GM I've played with, as well as myself, know to move things forward somehow when players get bored. And, honestly, the idea behind "fail forward" is something we've been doing long before anybody gave it a name because it's basically the codification of common sense, sound advice that you see in a lot of core rulebooks for a lot of games that aren't D&D. Because, frankly, smaller games don't have the same wealth of resources that allow for the same meticulously-planned, little-improvisational-skills-required experience that, apparently, certain D&D GMs create and certain D&D players crave.
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Jul 7, 2017 20:00
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Cinnamon Bear posted:I was wondering if anyone could recommend a decent bear rpg Clearly you need Drunken Bear Fighter: http://lookrobot.co.uk/2012/04/03/drunken-bear-fighter-an-rpg-i-wrote/
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Jul 7, 2017 20:06
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hyphz posted:If the players are excited to try and defeat Mr Dragon, but they're exploring a planar fortress and enjoying it, occasionally finding a hint or a power up but never a lead to where he is, they would be mightily annoyed to tell them that they would never have been able to learn where to find Mr Dragon until they were bored of the fortress. Or "until the end of the session" which is the other horrid pacing fudge. What scenario are you arguing here? All I can decipher is: "The players are excited to do Thing A. They are currently doing Thing B, which they also like. They'd be annoyed if Thing B didn't somehow feed into Thing A organically." Which, I mean... yeah. That's good narrative design, especially in a goal-focused tabletop RPG, or really any episodic story that still has an overarching plot. But what does that have to do with failing forward?
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Jul 7, 2017 20:10
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Plutonis posted:Yeah sure, waiting for the new one to come, Intelligent Systems is sure to make one this year instead of yet another loving FE. RIP.
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Jul 7, 2017 21:02
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I'm too depressed and it's affecting my GMing... someone do a fire emblem rpg based on the good ones...
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Jul 7, 2017 21:25
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Plutonis posted:Yeah sure, waiting for the new one to come, Intelligent Systems is sure to make one this year instead of yet another loving FE. There's a new Advance Wars coming out, it's called Wargroove and set in a fantasy universe for some reason.
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Jul 7, 2017 21:32
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Moriatti posted:There's a new Advance Wars coming out, it's called Wargroove and set in a fantasy universe for some reason. We have no idea if the developers of that are any good at all
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Jul 7, 2017 21:37
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Oh, I'm aware, I just hadn't seen it mentioned and figured I'd bring it up.
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Jul 7, 2017 21:39
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Speaking of tabletop RPGs based on video games, I was wondering what it would take to do a good Monster Hunter-ish tabletop game. I'm thinking something where a big draw is fighting big creatures that require preparation ahead of time. I've tried to think through it and I'm not sure how to make that fun, though. Anyone tried a similar sort of game? Also I really want to play in a Final Fantasy-based Strike! game now that I've been playing way too much FFXIV. I want to do like a Martial Artist/Leader Red Mage, where stances are Enspells where you enchant your weapon with elemental magic and Leader powers are white magic, or maybe see if I can flavor the Archer class to be a Dragoon (all the shots are jumps instead). Harrow fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Jul 7, 2017 |
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Jul 7, 2017 22:33
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I think Strike's Titans are probably your best bets. you can use typed damage optional rules if you want to emulate the prep time.
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Jul 7, 2017 22:37
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Try playing FFD6! It's actually good!
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Jul 7, 2017 22:49
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I'm playing in a D&D4e game set in an alternate Ivalice from FF12. I couldn't tell you how well it matches the feel because I only ever played the first one on NES and the SNES one with the giggling psycho god-clown, but the other players are all far more familiar with FF12 and seem to enjoy it fine. Mechanically just about the only thing that's differed is home brew Ivalice races - I play a Bangaa. Edit: oh, and he's set up custom abilities for Job Crystals and the traditional FF status effects and such.
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Jul 7, 2017 23:05
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Well as far as Ivalice is concerned the only games that are set in it are FF12 and FF Tactics.
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Jul 7, 2017 23:22
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And Vagrant Story + the Tactics Advances
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Jul 7, 2017 23:24
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Neither of those count
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Jul 7, 2017 23:24
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S.J. posted:Neither of those count 
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Jul 7, 2017 23:30
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i'm fairly certain that the only game which takes place in Ivalice is Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.
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Jul 7, 2017 23:38
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