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Yeah, pretty much. And there are themes that don't really gel with PbtA mechanics, too--that's one of the issues that kept cropping up during the trend of people seeing PbtA as an "easy" way to make their own RPG and creating something crappy and boring.
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Apr 13, 2018 19:01
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Pollyanna posted:That’s vastly different from what I’ve heard is the big draw of PbtA games: “play to find out”, and the promotion of and focus on collaborative storytelling. Did I misunderstand? Play one and find out (  ).Jokes aside, the strong interlink between theme and mechanics is what makes fiction-first actually work, because in a good PbtA game, the mechanics exist to facilitate playing through whatever narratives the game is about (i.e. there are rules for what's important, and there are no or minimal rules for what isn't important). Harrow posted:Yeah, pretty much. And there are themes that don't really gel with PbtA mechanics, too--that's one of the issues that kept cropping up during the trend of people seeing PbtA as an "easy" way to make their own RPG and creating something crappy and boring. Yeah. Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Apr 13, 2018 |
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Apr 13, 2018 19:03
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Pollyanna posted:That’s vastly different from what I’ve heard is the big draw of PbtA games: “play to find out”, and the promotion of and focus on collaborative storytelling. Did I misunderstand? You only really got the very high-level overview of it. I don't know if you've read any PbtA games specifically, but the way they work is that situations that require a player to roll dice are codified as "moves." The players narrate what their characters do and, when something they narrate triggers a move, the GM instructs them to roll dice. Then, depending on the roll, the GM and players play out the results the way the move directs them to. What differentiates PbtA games, fundamentally, is what moves there are. How moves are triggered, how they resolve, what situations are covered in moves, and what special moves player classes ("playbooks," in PbtA terms) have can do a lot to set a tone, establish a theme, set a danger level, and push the narratives in specific directions. Ultimately, yes, they focus on collaborative storytelling, but each PbtA game is made to help the players and GM tell a specific kind of story. Trying to use Dungeon World for something that isn't a fantasy action-adventure story is going to be very awkward. Apocalypse World is supposed to build a post-apocalyptic survival story. Fellowship is a framework for a good-versus-evil, Lord of the Rings-style struggle against an evil overlord. But there are big-picture things that PbtA, as a mechanical framework, just isn't meant to do. PbtA is intentionally very narrative--anything that would conflict with the sort of cinematic/novelistic narrative pacing the games are meant to achieve ends up chafing with the system as a whole. If you want something where the system helps you simulate parts of the world in more detail, you're going to have to look elsewhere. Similarly, if you like the idea of combat that is more of a "game" than a "story," PbtA isn't a good place to start. If you want a game that isn't always in that novelistic or cinematic mode, you probably also want to look somewhere other than PbtA. Even though Blades in the Dark is similar--the action during the heists plays out similarly to a PbtA scene in pacing and flow--it zooms out during between-adventure downtime to have a lot of crew management, downtime management, turf wars, expanding your crew's influence, and all that sort of thing.
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Apr 13, 2018 19:12
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If you want a mech game that's got tactical hex stuff without getting crushed under BattleTech's crunch, Heavy Gear 2e is old and out of print (like two editions old IIRC) but still a pretty solid system. But if you're not interested in things like facing and ammo count, I'd definitely recommend Battle Century G. I haven't tried LANCER yet, what's that like?
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Apr 13, 2018 21:15
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The rules are crunchy enough to have satisfying mech customisation with tactical combat but simple enough in play to not be fiddly (though this does mean character generation takes forever, because there are a lot of options, and it's too easy to build something that can't hit anything right now). It can't do the all-encompassing variety of mechs that BCG can since it's not trying to be the unofficial SRW RPG, but if you've ever wanted to play Titanfall with a bit of BattleTech thrown in, it's pitch-perfect.
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Apr 13, 2018 21:31
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Pollyanna posted:So wait, I remember about a year to a year and a half ago that Dungeon World and other PbtA games were the new hotness and basically the modern version of pen and paper. Did that change? So, history lesson: Apocalypse World came out in 2010. Dungeon World came out in 2012. (Lasers and Feelings, being inspired by the album of the same name, is a child of 2013.) AW released a second edition in 2016, and early inspired works Monster of the Week and Monsterhearts have each had their own second editions too. Dungeon World has had a cosmetic redesign, but no major rules revisions. Blades in the Dark calls itself Powered By The Apocalypse, despite not using the same resolution mechanic. The game itself is set long after the bad ending of its creator's campaign in World of Dungeons (the minimalist "prequel to" Dungeon World), and it follows the general development of that setting in a more conventional PbtA game called Ghost Lines, about being a railroad bull in a universe where the hop-on hoboes are murder ghosts who look like your mum. Several of the features, like marking stress to avoid taking harm, formalizing downtime activities, and saving for retirement, make it through to Blades. Formalizing downtime isn't somehow against the PbtA spirit. Apocalypse World is in a lot more flux than Duskwall, so dropping anything formal in the way of downtime mechanics makes unwarranted assumptions about the world; Love Letters are explicitly for bringing people back into the game after a long amount of in-character time has passed, but they're highly individual and expected to be crafted by the GM. Blades tightened its focus, but in so doing it was able to essentially pre-code an applicable downtime mechanic, and that's neat but also takes a decent run of dev time to plan. But the original AW was itself a highly personal creation. "For Meguey, the rest of you are just lucky." The quality AW stuff that's come out since then are about things their own creators have cared about deeply, and whether or not they work for you is pretty much in line with how much you care about the same things. So, like, "an AW about Scythe" will get about 80-90% of the way there by taking AW, restricting a couple playbooks, and find-and-replacing "vehicle" with "robot", but the remaining connecting bits are down to what in Scythe your playgroup really cares about exploring, or what you want to show them. Carving a country out of a dangerous territory where robots are still going wild? Exploring the dangers of Science that both led to the creation of the Factory and the collapse of the civilization that made it? Looking at the relationship people develop with the machines they rely on and work beside?
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Apr 16, 2018 02:27
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Is there an actually good Western RPG system?
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Apr 16, 2018 05:28
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ross the boss posted:Is there an actually good Western RPG system? Well, Dogs in the Vineyard isn't being sold anymore, but I'm told Law's Out is pretty well fit for purpose.
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Apr 16, 2018 06:22
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Glazius posted:Well, Dogs in the Vineyard isn't being sold anymore, but I'm told Law's Out is pretty well fit for purpose. Several people have tried PbtA Western hacks. I'm going too drop an email to the author of Cowboy World, since the PDF copy I have isn't marked not for distribution. Dogs in the Vineyard is certainly worth trying.
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Apr 16, 2018 07:08
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Has anyone played Ryuutama? I'd love to hear some thoughts about how it's run and what DMing/Playing a campaign is actually like
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Apr 16, 2018 15:00
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ross the boss posted:Is there an actually good Western RPG system? The Devil, John Moulton does some really interesting stuff and is worth a play. Waffles Inc. posted:Has anyone played Ryuutama? I'd love to hear some thoughts about how it's run and what DMing/Playing a campaign is actually like Yes! I'm running a once~monthly Ryuutama game and it's going great. We're going into session 3 in two weeks, so it's still early days, but here's what I've got: Make sure everyone knows what to expect. The game is about having the greatest adventure, and that can mean different things to different people. My party decided to focus on the mercantile aspect and is heavily focusing on the trade/load systems and creating a caravan to move products. Combat is not the main mode of this game. In fact, I'd recommend not having every session even contain a combat unless your group really wants to focus on that aspect (and I'd recommend against this). The bigger, constant enemy in Ryuutama is the elements themselves. Think Man v. Nature rather than Man v. Monster or Man v. Man. Use the session planning sheets. They encourage you to think in a modified three-act-play structure that seems to work exceptionally well for a ~3 hour session. This game feels very much like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles from a looks-and-feel standpoint, and it's pretty heavily JRPG in the mechanics. If your people don't at least tolerate that kind of thing, they won't have fun. Run the free introductory campaign to see how a session is supposed to run. I think it's called The Grandile Road. Spoiler alert: there's no combat in it unless things go very off the rails. One big personal note: You've gotta run it saccharine-sweet. I can't imagine it working otherwise. When in doubt about how something should resolve, think: Sunday Morning Cartoon Show.
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Apr 16, 2018 16:57
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The only thing I'd add to the above is to remember that the GM has a GMPC baked into the story that can make things interesting for the players, and it's well worth it to lean into that. Also good things to take inspiration from are The Oregon Trail (of course) and Dungeon Meshi.
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Apr 16, 2018 17:04
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Leraika posted:The only thing I'd add to the above is to remember that the GM has a GMPC baked into the story that can make things interesting for the players, and it's well worth it to lean into that. Yes, but when you say "GMPC," it's not what this character really is. They've got an agenda and special tools and don't, at all, use the PC character systems. They're an NPC with an extra-special role. An interesting note, the example session I mentioned doesn't even use this NPC. It's totally unnecessary, but cool to have.
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Apr 16, 2018 17:54
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Man it just sounds like the most chilled out thing. My friends' and I's schedules are pretty packed with work/games/etc already so I don't know when I could ever run it but it just seems like a heck of a fun time
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Apr 16, 2018 18:06
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Guys I have been running a Heroquest Glorantha campaign for some time, but I wanted to get peoples perspectives on the system. I personally love it because I am not the best at maths and enjoy having a loose framework to create interesting stuff around, as my players are all relatively new to Roleplaying and like simple mechanics. Do you think the ruleset can work for other areas? As I think the basic resolution mechanics could be used pretty much anywhere.
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Apr 16, 2018 18:49
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Lemon-Lime posted:Jokes aside, the strong interlink between theme and mechanics is what makes fiction-first actually work, because in a good PbtA game, the mechanics exist to facilitate playing through whatever narratives the game is about (i.e. there are rules for what's important, and there are no or minimal rules for what isn't important). Huh. Didn't really think of it that way. I'm starting to get a better idea of PbtA now...
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Apr 16, 2018 19:28
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Pollyanna posted:Huh. Didn't really think of it that way. I'm starting to get a better idea of PbtA now... I think it's just important to remember that, even though those systems are quite popular, there's no One True Way to Roleplay. There's a lot that I think GMs can learn from PbtA games even if they don't run actual PbtA systems, though--things like "play to find out what happens," "draw maps, leave blanks," and the general philosophy of making sure dice rolls result in something interesting happening no matter if it's a success or a failure are good things to learn. Even when I run crunchier games, games with tactical combat or things like that, I still do a lot of things that I learned by running PbtA games.
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Apr 16, 2018 20:39
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Glazius posted:So, like, "an AW about Scythe" will get about 80-90% of the way there by taking AW, restricting a couple playbooks, and find-and-replacing "vehicle" with "robot", but the remaining connecting bits are down to what in Scythe your playgroup really cares about exploring, or what you want to show them. Carving a country out of a dangerous territory where robots are still going wild? Exploring the dangers of Science that both led to the creation of the Factory and the collapse of the civilization that made it? Looking at the relationship people develop with the machines they rely on and work beside? This is a really cool write up, and I enjoyed the history lesson. For Scythe, if it were me, I would create custom moves to reflect the game actions of the world. It seems not too hard to make Bolster or Upgrade a longer term action that a player could work towards creating. The boards themselves, Agricultural, Industrial, Innovative, etc. could be used as good backgrounds to determine what type of village the players came from, as though there were only 7 personality "types" in the world of Scythe. I would also try and get people to narrow down their class focus into the different sort of archtypes of the game. "Explorer" vs. "Warmonger". "Mechanic vs. Pilot". It might be interesting to send the players on a mission to protect a village, refurbish a mech or build a mill on a "hex" in the game. I would look towards the encounter cards and try to come up with a "move" that basically mimics each encounter card as a 6<7-9<10+ outcome. I think your biggest issue is whether to have the players be all from the same faction (boring) or from different villages just struggling to survive. I think there's an option for some really unique gameplay there.
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Apr 16, 2018 22:21
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Blasphemeral posted:Combat is not the main mode of this game. In fact, I'd recommend not having every session even contain a combat unless your group really wants to focus on that aspect (and I'd recommend against this). There's loads of rad monsters to fight with names that are all puns, but a fight even once every 4 sessions is probably too much. Just having monsters like the eggs show up in the distance for your guys to either chase after or ignore is enough.
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Apr 17, 2018 01:19
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Josef bugman posted:Guys I have been running a Heroquest Glorantha campaign for some time, but I wanted to get peoples perspectives on the system. I personally love it because I am not the best at maths and enjoy having a loose framework to create interesting stuff around, as my players are all relatively new to Roleplaying and like simple mechanics. It’s pretty solid but you need a replacement for Runes, and whatever is genericised will probably need a focus on community and cultures, and fit extended conflicts as a mechanic. You could do a great MTG hack, but more than that will need a bit of hacking.
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Apr 17, 2018 02:10
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I need a supers system. M&M3e is dead and buried, Marvel Heroic is arse if you don't wanna be Wolverine, MASKS is way too riddled with ~teens drama~ and it shits me to death. What other halfway decent superhero systems are there? Just plugging in ‘superheroes’ into RPGnow gives me two dozen loving systems and I have no idea how to cull the shite from the gold. V&V? City of Mist? Worlds in Peril? BASH? Capes cowls and villains fowl? Seriously, who made all these drat things. RULESET: Anything under GURPS level crunch and bloat is fine SUPPORT: As long as there is a decent core book I can work from or disregard, I’m good CHARGEN: Less than involved, if it is at least slightly less crap than M&M was that’d be good SETTING: Supers related
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Apr 18, 2018 04:29
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What do you want the focus of your game to be? Why don't you like MHR? I'm assuming character creation but I would like to verify.
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Apr 18, 2018 17:58
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Robodog posted:I need a supers system. There are a few options. People talk very highly of Icons. It's one of those random super creation systems, relatively rules lights, and has some support. Though, I heard Assembled Edition is better. Wearing The Cape is a good Fate superhero game, but its heavily tied to it's "grounded" setting. You can probably ignore it's "what if superheroes were real" setting stuff and just play it as a generic super's game, but the power system might work against you. Prowlers and Paragons is just West End Star Wars but for superheroes. The corebook is decent, but there is no support. If you like the d6 system, it could be good for you. It is rules light and has no bloat.
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Apr 18, 2018 19:05
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If you don't mind your superheroics being ANIME AS HELL, Double Cross is a great fuckin' system. There was a F&F writeup of it here: http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/cyphoderus/double-cross/ e: you'll probably want to ignore the metaplot beyond yanking npcs from it though
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Apr 18, 2018 22:27
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Are there any D&D 4E-like systems (or, failing that, just grid-based tactics systems in general) that aren't structured around an attritional grind, i.e. "X encounters per day by which time you'll be out of resources and will need to rest?" It's okay if it's just designed so that every encounter is completely self-contained, but it would be even better if there's still some kind of overarching resource management but it's not a given that every fight will result in you having less resources than you started with. Something where abilities or healing or whatever refresh on specified triggers, for example. For context, I'm thinking of running an "infinite dungeon" sort of game after I'm done with my current campaign in a very narrative-focused system, but I don't know that I just want to use vanilla 4E. Tuxedo Catfish fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Apr 18, 2018 |
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Apr 18, 2018 22:38
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Obligatory mention of Strike. If you can't find anything better than 4e, you could just come up with some kind of houserule about restoring powers and surges. Just as an example, maybe critical hits also give you a surge back, and whenever you gain an action point, you can also refresh a daily. Or maybe have it completely combat independent, just linked to doing cool things/making people laugh.
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Apr 19, 2018 00:02
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13th Age has a mechanic where some “daily” powers can be recovered with a rolled check after every battle.
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Apr 19, 2018 02:55
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Moriatti posted:What do you want the focus of your game to be? Character creation is 90% of it for sure. Not that big on picking from a list for a sheet. System is great if you just want to pick up Hulk and fight Wolverine or whatever, but building anything of your own and it just runs around. Core dice system stuff just ain't my jam. Covok posted:There are a few options. Leraika posted:If you don't mind your superheroics being ANIME AS HELL, Double Cross is a great fuckin' system.
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Apr 19, 2018 10:05
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Robodog posted:I've got no great ambition for the idea atm, roughly a group of established and competent hero types in a team. Not up and coming teens or anything of that ilk. Tackle missions slash monsters of the week to represent comic book 6 issue arcs and such. stealing these answers for personal use. ross the boss posted:Is there an actually good Western RPG system? deadlands is rather nice.
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Apr 19, 2018 10:27
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Robodog posted:I've got no great ambition for the idea atm, roughly a group of established and competent hero types in a team. Not up and coming teens or anything of that ilk. Tackle missions slash monsters of the week to represent comic book 6 issue arcs and such. As always, if fighting villains, stopping heist and doomsday devices or any pther type of objective based combat is a focus, I strongly suggest Strike! In which just about every imagineable superhero archetype is well represented on the tactical combat side and superpowers as skills is... Well it's passable on the noncombat side. To be a bit more specific, a Batman type could be created as a Gift of Terror Necromancer with the Striker role (giving him intimidation and stealth tactics as well as prep time mechanically being represented.), while a Captain America might find themselves as a Warlord Defender. (Able to command his alies while protecting them.) There are also rules for titans with breakable parts to represent giant robot foes, as well as unfair monsters that could easily represent cosmic entities that the heroes might have to find creative solutions to stop or contain. Finally, since the creator visits these forums, system support is amazing. Now the downsides, There is no established setting. This is pitched as a strength, but I think may have overall hurt the system. The noncombat mechanics are lacking. They are serviceable, I usually acoid the team conflict and chase rules because I have found them less than satisfying, opting instead for a good old-fashioned skill challenge. Also monster creation can be confusing at first, since all monsters wprk similarly, but are to be levelled up. All in all, Cortex+ (either Marvel Heroic or Smallville) are my favourite Supers RPGs, however, for a combat system, Strike! Is one of my favourite games. Fights play fast and have a lot of satisfying player-facing options.
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Apr 19, 2018 14:57
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Per this thread’s recommendation my group has been enjoying Star Trek Adventures. But we’re losing a member next month and I’m thinking it’s time to shelf STA for a bit and try something else. The guys all say they’re open to trying anything I want to run, and I have a hankering for some good old dungeon delving. I really want to try running some old D&D modules with puzzles and traps and epic fights with cool magical rewards. The group doesn’t have any min-maxers or powergamers so I’m okay with systems that aren’t super well balanced as long as everyone can do cool stuff with their character. So my question is: should I try and learn ye olde D&D to play old modules in their natural environment or is there a newer, less crunchy system that has remakes of old modules that would be better? Follow-up question: What old D&D modules are best for a good balance of puzzle-solving, exploring, combat and cool magic loot?
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Apr 19, 2018 15:12
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BD&D and AD&D 2e are fine, and I don't think they are particularly more crunchy than 5e unless you use every optional rule. Chargen is quick on purpose because death is easy to come by. This is the most authentic way to run these modules. If you want a lot of work you can convert the modules to 4e which has the loot treadmill you want and more engaging combat system, but ypu will have to heavily modify all encounters and traps so...
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Apr 19, 2018 18:22
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I would use B/X D&D for those old modules tbh - running B2 or even Caverns of Thracia would be real fun and easy. Be warned though that the fights aren't really "epic" because most of the time you die and have to run away, and there isn't a lot of sweet magic loot (I think there are some +1 weapons and armor in B2, maybe a +2 sword, and some potions and scrolls, but not as much as players now are probably used to). It is pretty fun to die a lot and roll up a character in 5 minutes and hire a bunch of henchmen to fall into pit traps or get eaten by orcs or whatever though. In my experience, players get used to the play style pretty quickly and if the group likes it, it's very fun. Lots of ludicrous planning, plenty of henchmen abuse, oil flasks and negotiating with goblins. So not epic, really. DCC is crunchy in its own weird way but old school feeling and the modules are really fun for it, and first level characters def feel more epic than in old school D&D, but if your group isn't into gonzo sword and sorcery fantasy you might not like it. Unlike old school D&D, most characters can do something cool that's built into the rules.
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Apr 19, 2018 20:45
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Robodog posted:I've got no great ambition for the idea atm, roughly a group of established and competent hero types in a team. Not up and coming teens or anything of that ilk. Tackle missions slash monsters of the week to represent comic book 6 issue arcs and such. There's a ton of older superhero games going back to Superhero:2044, Superworld, Golden Heroes, DC Heroes (two different versions) and Blood of Heroes, MSH... For what you want I'd actually recommend M&M 3e. Character creation is pretty easy and the GM Screen actually has a random hero/villain generation system included.
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Apr 20, 2018 03:02
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Robodog posted:Yet more systems I've managed to never come across before, thanks! Honestly they could all work, I'll need to look into them a bit more. I'm not that flash hot on using the default settings in things like this, so if that really does kinda screw Wearing the Cape then that might not be the best. I actually decided to re-read Wearing the Cape and it's not nearly as tied to the setting as I thought. Or it is, but the setting is kind of kitchen-sink anyway. The only weird thing is how the power system is kind of explicit on limiting you to like Superman: TAS at max and not, like, crazy poo poo like Superboy Prime punching the walls of reality and stuff.
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Apr 20, 2018 03:27
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The last few years I've been running an event at a convention called the "Speed Dungeon" and I'm looking to change the system we use. The con organizer has an ungodly amount of the Dwarven Forge terrain so we set up a dungeon and provide pregen characters to guests with the goal of getting through as much as possible in 1 hour. I've been using simplified 13th Age characters with just Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard; limited skills since its straight dungeon crawling. Any suggestions for some other game system that would work better for this? RULESET: Simple, grid combat SUPPORT: NA CHARGEN: Will be using pregens SETTING: Fantasy
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May 8, 2018 22:15
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You might try Shadow of the Demon Lord.
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May 8, 2018 22:24
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LongDarkNight posted:RULESET: Simple, grid combat
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May 9, 2018 00:07
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Hello friends, I am going to be running a spooky game and am not sure what system to use. Call of Cthulhu and Delta green both look good but which is more appropriate for midnight games? Or is there a better system? Jarvisi fucked around with this message at 23:40 on May 9, 2018 |
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May 9, 2018 15:46
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Dread
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