|
unseenlibrarian posted:So apparently this came up in the comments on the kickstarter, and Wade's response was that basically Natures could represent several different things and depending on your take different natures might all be viable for the same concept, so basically look at the mechanical benefits and reskin as you see fit. You could do a tethered who doesn't care whether they live or die and just wants to fight the biggest poo poo with apex predator -or- martyr, etc. That's good but he should have said that in the books, right? "Here's some examples I thought of for reskinning these mechanical traits, you might think of more."
|
# ? Dec 12, 2017 17:59 |
|
|
# ? Jun 10, 2024 07:37 |
|
Yeah, I could have done with that instead of the 17-page opening fiction.
|
# ? Dec 12, 2017 18:07 |
|
No argument from me, just saying that's what his response was when asked point-blank about it.
|
# ? Dec 12, 2017 18:21 |
|
For those who didn't back the kickstarter, all the PDFs are up on DriveThru, and Fragged Empire is 50% off.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2017 04:17 |
|
unseenlibrarian posted:Looking at the Outfit rules for Fragged Seas it's really hard to resist the urge to kit out at least one PC as being naked but with a really impressive hat. (He'd have to be a wizard probably since no room for equipment with that outfit, but.) Wait, how can you do this? Impressive hats are an outfit variation and naked doesn't permit variations. Am I missing something there? Because it sounds amazing.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2017 04:27 |
|
I actually missed the no variations line, sadly. It'd be easy enough to pencil it out though, because why -can't- you be naked but for a fancy hat?
|
# ? Dec 13, 2017 04:33 |
|
Any GM who'd deny you that is not a GM worth playing with. OP could probably use some work, and definitely time for a new thread title.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2017 08:49 |
|
Side note: Classic Races and Magic is now available for sale- it actually wasn't a backer reward, so if you want to play elves and dwarves in Fragged Kingdoms, well, it's just 3.50 USD. It feels weird and wrong to have stats for humans in a Fragged * game, though intellectually I know they're a thing in Fragged Seas and Fragged Aeternum (They just don't use the race/species thing there as a distinction, so.) unseenlibrarian fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Dec 13, 2017 |
# ? Dec 13, 2017 13:14 |
|
What’s the magic in the Classic Races and Magic book? Is it a more traditional RPG magic system or more options for the one in Fragged Kingdoms?
|
# ? Dec 13, 2017 15:17 |
|
Harrow posted:What’s the magic in the Classic Races and Magic book? Is it a more traditional RPG magic system or more options for the one in Fragged Kingdoms? It's an adaptation of the Fragged Kingdom one to be more traditional D&D style. Alchemy is split into magery and sorcery and all the weapons are tagged as natural. All-power user are reskinned as clerics, Ta-di shamans as summoners and druids as, well, druids. There's new variations to do more traditional D&D style magic, as well as arcane utility items to do big rituals and minor spells. An example of each: Major Ritual: posted:Spell, Hell Gate: Natural, One Use per Week, A gate to hell opens up and bad things come out. The more you spend (time, Trade Minor spell posted:Friendship: Casting Time ten minutes, You gain +2 to your next social Skill Roll (does not Stack) Acquire: 12t. Most minor spells either have a long casting time or work like the Fragged Kingdom magic where it still takes a skill use and a skilled mundane could get the same result with an equally good roll, just in a different way.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2017 15:36 |
|
New variations and stuff might be cool, though I do like the way that Fragged Kingdom ties magic into its existing systems. It's tough to explain to someone used to spell lists and stuff, but it works well, especially for a system where magic isn't supposed to be a solve-all-problems thing. On another note, reading Fragged Aeternum and Kingsom and playing the Monster Hunter World beta has me really wanting to come up with a way to make a Monster Hunter-like game with Fragged. Given how thoroughly all of the systems are built around resource management, customizing weapons and outfits, and deciding which utility items to bring along seems like it'd be perfect for a game all about hunting big, dangerous monsters.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2017 17:11 |
|
I've said it elsewhere but one of these days I'm gonna (probably never) make a Shadowrun hack out of this system.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2017 22:12 |
|
One of these days I'm actually going to put together Fragged Max.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2017 22:43 |
|
Well, Classic Races and Magic should probably do a bit to push stuff toward Shadowrun at least. All it's missing is trolls.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2017 23:43 |
|
unseenlibrarian posted:Well, Classic Races and Magic should probably do a bit to push stuff toward Shadowrun at least. All it's missing is trolls. Take Legion. Give them tusks.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 00:52 |
|
Evil Mastermind posted:One of these days I'm actually going to put together Fragged Max. Probably start with Kingdoms, strip out the obvious magic and reflavour the starships. Empire's already post-apoc so you're 90% there.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 03:20 |
|
ProfessorCirno posted:I've said it elsewhere but one of these days I'm gonna (probably never) make a Shadowrun hack out of this system. Seems like it wouldn't be too hard. The aforementioned race swaps, diversifying what you can get with Influence into a more generalized thing (for contacts, vehicles, boltholes, etc), and stealing FK magic traits/adding or refluffing stuff for cyberware would probably get you pretty much there. What other distinctions would you be looking for from it?
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 03:21 |
|
So I picked this up... a couple of days before it went on sale? I rolled up a stealthy spy type to test char creation and was generally impressed with what I saw- the system seem clean, readable, flexible, evocative, etc. But reading Hacked now I note that the stealth system has been completely reworked- does it just not work as written in vanilla? I did notice there are a whole bunch of ways to pick up stealth bonuses. Other notes: Level one characters seem really poor. Not exactly shitfarmer poor, but still pretty limited when it comes to equipment choices. The statlines for antagonists are... odd. 16 defence is huge and 3 armour substantial enough to negate half the weapon list. And that's the baseline?
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 03:58 |
|
The rework in hacked is an optional rule; I think one or two of the sourcebooks use it as written and the other uses the default rules. Henchmen have a high base defense and generally good armor because there run in packs and go down as soon as you do one point of attribute damage. A standard henchman group for facing starting PCs will either have 2 armor or one less resource of equipment. It's sort of like how a minion version of a monster in 4E would be higher level and have higher base defenses but only do flat damage and go down in one hit.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 04:25 |
|
Autonomous Monster posted:Level one characters seem really poor. Not exactly shitfarmer poor, but still pretty limited when it comes to equipment choices. There are a lot of variations that reduce the resource cost of stuff. As long as you don't go hog wild on stuff that reduces your to-hit, you can get some good stuff out of there.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 04:28 |
|
Autonomous Monster posted:The statlines for antagonists are... odd. 16 defence is huge and 3 armour substantial enough to negate half the weapon list. And that's the baseline? You're making the same mistake I did when I first ran the game: you're missing the level adjustments. Henchmen for "levels" 1-5 get lower armor. Starting-stage henchmen should have Armor 2, not 3.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 04:32 |
|
Evil Mastermind posted:You're making the same mistake I did when I first ran the game: you're missing the level adjustments. Henchmen for "levels" 1-5 get lower armor. He should really just make the baseline 16/2 armor and add from there on that chart, it's pretty missable. Some of the traits also get an armor penalty on top of that. In addition to that, though, you can use the Critical Boost strong hit to get past high armor if you have a wimpy weapon. Ratoslov posted:There are a lot of variations that reduce the resource cost of stuff. As long as you don't go hog wild on stuff that reduces your to-hit, you can get some good stuff out of there. Especially worth noting on this front is the Particle variation for guns - it makes any Small Arms weapon pretty cheap for a penalty that, given the aforementioned armor reduction, isn't the biggest deal in the world at level 1.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 05:12 |
|
I also highly reccomend smoke grenades. They cost 0 Resources, weigh 1, and you get 2 grenades that make a burst 2 area of visual light cover. They're practically mandatory for Kaltoran PCs. Smoke shotguns are also a good idea.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 05:29 |
|
Fragged Aeternum gives henchmen more armor, but less defense than even the baseline henchmen in Empire, but it also has the Rush action, where you kill one henchman adjacent to you when you use it ,+1 per momentum you're willing to spend, presumably to encourage people to avoid hunkering down behind cover, but instead zip around the battlefield in their stylish greatcoats and tricorner hats stabbing things.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 05:38 |
|
reading through the copy i just got, this game talks a lot about how encounters won't be "balanced" but like... how do I design an encounter to be appropriate for a group of new characters things are neither over or underpowered.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 06:16 |
|
It does provide guidelines- all other things being equal (Cover, existing attribute damage, etc) a henchman group or skilled opponent is equal to one PC, while a nemesis is equal to 3 PCs. Want an equal challenge for a group of five? One Henchman group, one skilled opponent, one nemesis, and use the statline adjustments appropriate to the PCs' resources. Or just 5 henchmen groups. Or 5 skilled opponents. Etc. unseenlibrarian fucked around with this message at 11:18 on Dec 14, 2017 |
# ? Dec 14, 2017 11:15 |
|
I've had a hard time dialing in encounter difficulty myself. I think I keep underestimating just how much damage Fragged Empire PCs can put out if they focus-fire a threatening target. It kind of reminds me of when I used to run Savage Worlds--combat feels like rocket tag. Threatening enemies can take a PC out in a single lucky crit, but that can go the other way just as easily. It's certainly not a bad thing, but I have to get used to the idea that individual threatening opponents need more backup than I'm giving them. In the last session I ran, the "boss fight" at the end had one overleveled nemesis and two henchman groups against a party of four. I downgraded the nemesis from the 5 armor it had in the Antagonist Archive to 3 armor because otherwise only one PC would actually be able to damage it, but poo poo, maybe that should've been the point. Keep the high armor value so the Legion with the puncture rifle is the only one who can do real damage and have everyone else support her and keep her safe from the swarm of Mechonid drones, I dunno. As it stands, the nemesis almost one-shot one of the PCs in the three rounds it was alive, so they still felt like they had a thrilling encounter. But that was definitely a fluke--had that one attack roll gone a little differently, the nemesis would've gone down after barely scratching anyone--and I'm working on getting a better handle on what makes a good Fragged Empire combat.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 15:54 |
|
One thing I'd definitely consider when building a high-armor Nemesis and my PCs don't have a lot of penetrating weapons is to give them a trait that reduces armor when they're at 0 end, of which there's several. Armor doesn't block End damage so other PCs can wear them down to 0 and then unload once they're more vulnerable.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 16:11 |
|
Ah yeah, that's a good idea. I keep forgetting that's an option, despite it being on a whole lot of outfit variations and mods. That's probably exactly the point--high-armor enemies are hard to actually damage until their endurance is down, but penetrating weapons get a bonus.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 16:19 |
|
It's also real easy to underestimate henchmen groups - they are terrifyingly good at attacking if they haven't been picked down to one or two henchmen.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 16:41 |
|
Yeah, they ended up posing a real threat, which was fun, especially because I had them act like drone swarms controlled by the main Mechonid so they tended to focus-fire one PC at a time. Eventually it just turned into picking off individual henchmen so I ended the fight early (each group was down to like two or three and it was just a matter of rolling attacks until they went away), but it was a fun fight. Just want to make that happen more consistently now.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 17:32 |
|
A terrible and sudden realization. With Fragged Seas+ Classic Races and Magic+ the core, you could -probably- hack together a Spelljammer game.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 18:11 |
|
unseenlibrarian posted:A terrible and sudden realization. With Fragged Seas+ Classic Races and Magic+ the core, you could -probably- hack together a Spelljammer game. I think by "terrible" you meant loving awesome.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 18:20 |
|
I pre-emptively label all my ideas terrible on the basis that someone will probably agree with me.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 19:08 |
|
Finally, what everybody's been waiting for: a decent system we can run Starfinger with.
|
# ? Dec 14, 2017 20:17 |
|
No, no, just a system to run Spelljammer or Treasure Planet in. Obvious hacks: Use the ship system from Fragged Seas, but give them Starship perks, including life support, etc. This probably means using the Fragged Seas skills rules, too, because pirates in space still swash bucklers and so on. Do the Fragged Kingdom Race+ Background in chargen with the classic races, which may mean tweaking the races to have the right skills, but. unseenlibrarian fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Dec 15, 2017 |
# ? Dec 15, 2017 14:32 |
|
Best campaign I ever ran was pretty much Treasure Planet so I'm quite on board with some sort of unholy rules fusion to make Fragged Spelljammer.
|
# ? Dec 15, 2017 15:14 |
|
I really do like how Kingdom handles the interaction of magic and skills: Which is to say, magic essentially just gives you an appropriately themed toolkit for relevant skill uses. Alchemists can make gold with the Stewardship (Wealth) Skill, Druids can navigate the wilderness by making the wilderness alter itself to lead them in the right direction, and enchanters can use persuasion to gently caress with people's senses. (The specific example in the book is, of course, to wave your hand and go "These aren't the druids you're looking for.") There's also a sidebar that specifically says magic shouldn't be explicitly better than a non-magic use of the same school, assuming everything else being equal.
|
# ? Dec 18, 2017 04:08 |
|
Man my group is late on the train for these games but they are just great. This has basically everything I love about most of my favorite games but with near none of the bullshit.
|
# ? Dec 22, 2017 00:23 |
|
|
# ? Jun 10, 2024 07:37 |
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:Finally, what everybody's been waiting for: a decent system we can run Starfinger with. I'm running a Fragged Empire game, and ended up in a Starfinder game, so it'll be interesting to watch the rest of the group - who are largely new to the hobby - learn that engine differences do matter, first hand.
|
# ? Dec 22, 2017 03:49 |