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I'm so mad I came to Reign so late because the random rolling is excellent. Using Silent Legion's god generators and Hummingbird's lost city generator and all the fun little company generators, I've been working on a post apocalyptic game for friends and the random chargen resulted in two military deserters, one an enlisted officer who was formerly thief and a sage, the other who used to be an exotic dancer/object of desire who was pressganged. Together...they will run a farm.
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Jan 8, 2019 19:14
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Evil Mastermind posted:Man, how could I forget Gamma World 7e? I loved the whole combine-two-types character generation. I wish more games did stuff like that. I really ought to work on adapting 4e stuff to Gamma World's more streamlined mechanics. Porting over classes and races shouldn't be terribly difficult, I think, and if kept as a random two-type combo could lead to things like "double elf" which I can't even begin to wonder how someone would explain that.
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Jan 8, 2019 19:19
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There are half-elves The scales have to get balanced out somewhere
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Jan 8, 2019 19:24
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double elf means they absorbed their twin in the womb
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Jan 8, 2019 19:25
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Slimnoid posted:I really ought to work on adapting 4e stuff to Gamma World's more streamlined mechanics. Porting over classes and races shouldn't be terribly difficult, I think, and if kept as a random two-type combo could lead to things like "double elf" which I can't even begin to wonder how someone would explain that. High elf, the inbred nobility of the elven world. One of the few bloodlines with traceable lineage that goes back to the founding myth of their society. High elf, the result of two elves actually falling for each other and reproducing, unlike the hybridized masses that regularly coexist alongside the other species. High elf, the celestial creatures after which the Maker patterned her creations of mud and breath. High elf, smoke wonderroot erry day bruh High elf, two elves stacked on top of each other wearing a trenchcoat.
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Jan 8, 2019 19:26
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All Of Their Strengths is another RPG that does the whole mix-two-types character creation. You can play a half-vampire/half-human, a half-ghost/half-werewolf, or half-angel/half-Frankenstein. e: I can't link my review of it because my work internet thinks the F&F archive is "adult" 
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Jan 8, 2019 19:38
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Elfgames posted:it's just pointless busy work at that point Kinda. It's giving your friends who just love rolling dice and cackling about their straight 18's, or yucking it up about their 'dump stat' the ability to do that without sandbagging the game when there's massive power disparities between PCs.
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Jan 8, 2019 20:42
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Late to the dungeon tiles guy, but you can create a lot of tiles with dollar store foam board, spray paint and an exacto knife. Edit: I still want to try my Dynasty Warriors node based mass battle system, I should write that down sometime. Moriatti fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Jan 8, 2019 |
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Jan 8, 2019 20:42
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With Modiphius' 2d20 system (at least in the Conan implementation I've read), you have the option of generating a character using four different "levels" of randomness, but it's not rolling stats; much more like the old Traveller char gen, where you're determining aspects of your origin, career, social standing, etc. The outcome seems to always be a viable character. You don't need to know any of the rules really to use the online generator and get a sense of it: https://conan.modiphiusapps.hostinguk.org/ the four options at the bottom are the randomness-determinator buttons. Use "Play the Hand you are Dealt" or "Random" to have only a few direct choices, and you can make a character in about 10 minutes. For me, this kind of chargen feeds into the "throw something unexpected at me to stimulate ideas and roleplaying" fun, while never dumping me with a character like my very first ever D&D character, Vimp the Wimp, who was a Thief (because he had no prime requisite high enough to be anything else) with 1 hit point (because we rolled 1d4 and I rolled a 1) who died by falling into a pit trap he failed to notice, in the first room of the first dungeon of my first ever adventure.
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Jan 8, 2019 21:25
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Evil Mastermind posted:e: I can't link my review of it because my work internet thinks the F&F archive is "adult" It's got FATAL and probably some other terrible garbage from the early days of F&F so it does in fact count as adult. 
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Jan 8, 2019 21:32
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Slimnoid posted:I really ought to work on adapting 4e stuff to Gamma World's more streamlined mechanics. Porting over classes and races shouldn't be terribly difficult, I think, and if kept as a random two-type combo could lead to things like "double elf" which I can't even begin to wonder how someone would explain that. also I'm pretty sure gamma world didn't allow you to roll the same origin twice, though some felt as redundant in base theme as double rolls, like "Radioactive/Energy!" or "Robotic/AI!" I think the few times this has been discussed there was always the gap between "Do we go really silly and just throw in every race and class in as the origins. So you can see the silly stuff like "dwarf/elf" and "rogue/thief' or try to abstract it more and go with archetypes like power sources and traits, so sneaky/small could be a Halfling rogue or assassin, and small/fey could be a gnome
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Jan 8, 2019 21:53
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Double rolls in Gamma World led you to set your primary role as Engineered Human and your secondary as whatever you rolled as doubles. It was the only way to get Engineered Human. Also I started a similar project to map 4e onto Gamma World a while back before my daughter took all my available hours. Here's the spreadsheet if it would be of any assistance: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U6M4CB0DXUFp_62vF4hLTjJSTmdrNAvEZ8BifCrbOTk/edit?usp=sharing The general idea was that you could either roll on a table of races and a table of classes and just choose one to be primary, or roll on a big table of everything like a badass. After all, it's just Gamma World, who cares if you roll like Gnome Spider. theironjef fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Jan 8, 2019 |
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Jan 8, 2019 23:18
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grassy gnoll posted:Gamma World 7E was just an accomplishment all around. You had the same gameplay framework as D&D 4E, but vastly faster chargen, quicker combats due to the lack of fiddly poo poo, and an instant hook for characters by rolling up a random kind of mutant. Prior to Fiasco, it's the thing I used most often to introduce people to RPGs. Not to mention that while it's a complete game in and of itself(especially with the two expansions*), since it's based off D&D 4e, it means you can take stuff from that game as well if needed(this works best with monsters since that's the area Gamma World changes the least, but you could use other stuff too with a little elbow grease) Also Gamma World 7e has one of the nicest book designs in the industry(along with D&D Essentials), it's a shame that other companies didn't take notice *which ties into another nice thing about Gamma World 7e, it's so compact, you can fit all the content from the two expansions into the core game box and still have room for other stuff if needed Evil Mastermind posted:Man, how could I forget Gamma World 7e? I loved the whole combine-two-types character generation. I wish more games did stuff like that. Agreed Slimnoid posted:I really ought to work on adapting 4e stuff to Gamma World's more streamlined mechanics. Porting over classes and races shouldn't be terribly difficult, I think, and if kept as a random two-type combo could lead to things like "double elf" which I can't even begin to wonder how someone would explain that. Would love to see that, I imagine taking a look at how Essentials did stuff would be useful for that kind of thing as well theironjef posted:Double rolls in Gamma World led you to set your primary role as Engineered Human and your secondary as whatever you rolled as doubles. It was the only way to get Engineered Human. Neat, also Gnome Spider has me picturing a Lawn Gnome, but with holes on the bottom that a bunch of spider legs are sticking out of
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Jan 8, 2019 23:36
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Coolness Averted posted:Kinda. It's giving your friends who just love rolling dice and cackling about their straight 18's, or yucking it up about their 'dump stat' the ability to do that without sandbagging the game when there's massive power disparities between PCs. It's "sensory mechanics". People like big numbers. People like it when numbers go up. And people think that things they don't choose are more valuable. They might be rationally wrong, but it does all mix into the "fun" experience.
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Jan 8, 2019 23:41
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Yeah combining the two results into something is the best part. Just getting something that makes sense is comparatively lame. Creativity wins.
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Jan 8, 2019 23:42
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theironjef posted:Yeah combining the two results into something is the best part. Just getting something that makes sense is comparatively lame. Creativity wins. In a Gamma World game I was going to run a couple years ago, the combination one player got led him to decide his character was a mutant Christmas Tree, with it's weapons fluffed as it wielding a tree stand as a club, and throwing ornaments as projectiles Shame that game died before it could get started
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Jan 9, 2019 02:16
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remusclaw posted:Dude, I agree, but some people just want to roll. There is no reason to get into an argument about it at the table. Sometimes you just need to come up with a weird Rube Goldbergesque method for rolling that gets them the rolling they want, and the characters you want them to have. Coolness Averted posted:Kinda. It's giving your friends who just love rolling dice and cackling about their straight 18's, or yucking it up about their 'dump stat' the ability to do that without sandbagging the game when there's massive power disparities between PCs. Honestly I don't get why you wouldn't just say "Randomly rolling stats means that there's a chance your character will suck because of random luck at character creation, fixed stats put everyone on an even playing field" instead of masterminding a way to trick your players into thinking their stat rolls will matter when it won't. I mean, there will be rolling once the game starts - a ton of it. Why not just say what you want up front?
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Jan 9, 2019 02:52
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Heliotrope posted:Honestly I don't get why you wouldn't just say "Randomly rolling stats means that there's a chance your character will suck because of random luck at character creation, fixed stats put everyone on an even playing field" instead of masterminding a way to trick your players into thinking their stat rolls will matter when it won't. I mean, there will be rolling once the game starts - a ton of it. Why not just say what you want up front? Be Heliotrope posted:Honestly I don't get why you wouldn't just say "Randomly rolling stats means that there's a chance your character will suck because of random luck at character creation, fixed stats put everyone on an even playing field" instead of masterminding a way to trick your players into thinking their stat rolls will matter when it won't. I mean, there will be rolling once the game starts - a ton of it. Why not just say what you want up front? If people got that, I would do that. They often don’t get it, they want to roll, and then when they roll bad, they say it was practice, or find some other way to roll more, or build from those scores, get pissy and play to get their guy killed, or whatever. Playing a better game, like Reign is an option, but these are often the sort who are only playing because the name on the marquee is D&D.
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Jan 9, 2019 03:18
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Heliotrope posted:Honestly I don't get why you wouldn't just say "Randomly rolling stats means that there's a chance your character will suck because of random luck at character creation, fixed stats put everyone on an even playing field" instead of masterminding a way to trick your players into thinking their stat rolls will matter when it won't. I mean, there will be rolling once the game starts - a ton of it. Why not just say what you want up front? It occurs to me that this is part of the appeal of tables where you can roll character elements, aside from being a jumping-off point for characterization. Rolling for personality/background traits doesn't put anyone at a disadvantage in play, but if someone wants to roll a bunch of extra dice during character creation, that gives them an avenue to do so. And it still has a meaningful impact on the game, but not mechanically.
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Jan 9, 2019 03:22
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Otherkinsey Scale posted:It occurs to me that this is part of the appeal of tables where you can roll character elements, aside from being a jumping-off point for characterization. Rolling for personality/background traits doesn't put anyone at a disadvantage in play, but if someone wants to roll a bunch of extra dice during character creation, that gives them an avenue to do so. And it still has a meaningful impact on the game, but not mechanically. If nothing else offering it will reveal that most players don't want to arbitrarily roll a bunch of dice at the start of a game, they just want to be the one to "win" by rolling a lot of high stats, because lotteries are addictive.
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Jan 9, 2019 03:33
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I mean, there are plenty of players who like rolling for stats in old school games and are perfectly happy to play a brainless foolish weakling if that's what they roll up because they really honestly place no value on character effectiveness and are equally happy playing a poo poo character and a great one. The issue is that it's hard to get an entire group who think that way, and if you try, you'll often end up with the cheaters and whiners instead.
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Jan 9, 2019 04:47
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Jimbozig posted:I mean, there are plenty of players who like rolling for stats in old school games and are perfectly happy to play a brainless foolish weakling if that's what they roll up because they really honestly place no value on character effectiveness and are equally happy playing a poo poo character and a great one. I've known players like that, and sure anything I say is anecdotal, but it is always because they are excited to trot out their "retarded" accent.
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Jan 9, 2019 05:10
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Otherkinsey Scale posted:It occurs to me that this is part of the appeal of tables where you can roll character elements, aside from being a jumping-off point for characterization. Rolling for personality/background traits doesn't put anyone at a disadvantage in play, but if someone wants to roll a bunch of extra dice during character creation, that gives them an avenue to do so. And it still has a meaningful impact on the game, but not mechanically. I fell in love with Traveller when I found out that it's possible to have your character die during character creation. There is absolutely fun in having aspects of your character rolled-for, or even the entire character, provided the system isn't set up so that you can be screwed (and by extension, you can screw your whole party, the adventure, and even the campaign). theironjef posted:If nothing else offering it will reveal that most players don't want to arbitrarily roll a bunch of dice at the start of a game, they just want to be the one to "win" by rolling a lot of high stats, because lotteries are addictive. theironjef posted:I've known players like that, and sure anything I say is anecdotal, but it is always because they are excited to trot out their "retarded" accent. These are indeed the real reasons I've encountered, and were particularly so in the late 1980s when I was playing older D&D editions. Dumping your lovely rolls into WIS/INT/CHA let you horse around being the
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Jan 9, 2019 06:28
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remusclaw posted:If people got that, I would do that. They often don’t get it, they want to roll, and then when they roll bad, they say it was practice, or find some other way to roll more, or build from those scores, get pissy and play to get their guy killed, or whatever. Playing a better game, like Reign is an option, but these are often the sort who are only playing because the name on the marquee is D&D. Yeah and once again, this isn't just about 'tricking the players who like the bad thing' into our better system, it's letting them still get joy from minmaxing or randomness, without it having the negative impact it would have in another system. Haven't you ever compromised with a group? Or found something that makes everyone happy at the table? Even if they weren't all coming for the same reason?
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Jan 9, 2019 07:15
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In the OSR games I know which are vaguely good (Black Hack and Knave) you do roll stats but the scaling is such that an average roll is actually average, not useless. A 10 stat hits 50% of the time in BH; compare that to a +0 stat in D&D. In Knave you’re guaranteed an 11 at least on everything. But, you’ve seen Fear Of Girls? The parody movie that caricatures roleplaying as one dude saying what he does and the other saying how incredibly awesome he is and it’s just incredibly awkward? That’s what most heavy stat rollers want to avoid - or rather they want to avoid the feeling that’s what they signed up for as opposed to what they randomly got.
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Jan 9, 2019 09:07
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Halloween Jack posted:How quick is Chainmail to learn and play? I'd be tempted. In case you haven't seen it, I started digging into Chainmail on the back of your post. ProfessorCirno posted:The main problem the vast majority of RPGs have with mass battles is that they assume you're going to be just another loving chump-rear end in the middle of the fight instead of someone important. This is actually something that D&D <-> Chainmail manages to capture somewhat fairly well, in that your D&D Fighter character becomes a "Hero" on the Chainmail battlefield, and despite being just one person, they are important and powerful enough to represented as a single figure, and their "stats" make them a significant force on the battlefield.
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Jan 9, 2019 13:25
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https://twitter.com/urbanfriendden/status/1076820259246665730 I don't know why there is any debate here when dick sucking is obviously a feat chain
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Jan 9, 2019 13:54
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It's a tool. You either have proficiency or you don't.
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Jan 9, 2019 14:13
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Gives a decent bonus to Diplomacy and Bluff if you do, though.
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Jan 9, 2019 14:16
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grassy gnoll posted:High elf, two elves stacked on top of each other wearing a trenchcoat. But when do we finally get Low Elves? D&D has just left that gap wide open for 40 years or something.
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Jan 9, 2019 14:17
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Alien Rope Burn posted:But when do we finally get Low Elves? D&D has just left that gap wide open for 40 years or something. When WotC releases the limbo rules I've been demanding all these years, and not a minute before.
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Jan 9, 2019 14:39
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Probably-dumb Patreon question: Would you, as a patron, be put off if a new creator (like, on the platform for a matter of days) didn't have some example of what they were creating already posted as a reward for patrons, or is that a nice-to-have that wouldn't stop you backing?
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Jan 9, 2019 15:35
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This type of question is why skills were invented. Edit: gently caress, why did I go read the replies? Dude in there talking about 12-inch half-orc dongs reminding me that D&D is mainly just fantasy racism. Jimbozig fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Jan 9, 2019 |
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Jan 9, 2019 15:43
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DigitalRaven posted:Probably-dumb Patreon question: Would you, as a patron, be put off if a new creator (like, on the platform for a matter of days) didn't have some example of what they were creating already posted as a reward for patrons, or is that a nice-to-have that wouldn't stop you backing? I would think long and hard before backing someone who didn't have some kind of example of what they were doing/what they're trying to do. It doesn't have to be on Patreon / be a reward, but I'd like to know that this person has actually done some work on something?
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Jan 9, 2019 15:48
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I run a very modestly successful Patreon and we didn't start it til we had 30 or so episodes in the can and a solid design for what our patron bonus stuff would look like. You need that proof of concept.
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Jan 9, 2019 16:11
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gradenko_2000 posted:I would think long and hard before backing someone who didn't have some kind of example of what they were doing/what they're trying to do. It doesn't have to be on Patreon / be a reward, but I'd like to know that this person has actually done some work on something? Makes sense. I have links to what I've done, including both free and commercial products, in my Patreon description (15 years/1.8 million words is a hell of a body of evidence...), but I'm concerned that nobody's going to throw (speculative) money at someone if they don't get something that other people don't get as a reward for clicking the button.
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Jan 9, 2019 16:42
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DigitalRaven posted:Makes sense. I have links to what I've done, including both free and commercial products, in my Patreon description (15 years/1.8 million words is a hell of a body of evidence...), but I'm concerned that nobody's going to throw (speculative) money at someone if they don't get something that other people don't get as a reward for clicking the button. As long as it doesn't lay fallow for too long, which tends to look bad, I don't think a month or so of no content would make a big dent in your potential backers. Still probably most ideal to have something, though.
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Jan 9, 2019 17:23
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Alien Rope Burn posted:But when do we finally get Low Elves? D&D has just left that gap wide open for 40 years or something. The only direction I see this going is the gully dwarf path, and no one should venture down the gully dwarf path
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Jan 9, 2019 17:45
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LatwPIAT posted:The Millenium's End GM book did have a bunch of suggestions for how social rolls could fail, though they weren't always the best. A lot of them were "You forgot sharing a flight with this man several years ago, ruining your attempt at a disguise" or similar, and the worst ones were "you have a giant booger hanging out your nose, making it impossible to get anyone to take you seriously". Elfgames posted:lol what the gently caress is the point of even rolling then? just make people do point buy instead of trying to voodoo yourself backwards into acceptable stats A funny aspect of a lot of fantasy games (and almost every fantasy heartbreaker) is that they realize rolling 3d6 down the line sucks rear end, but can't break up with random rolling. So they have all these rules to boost, normalize, and select the scores while still rolling dice for them. Hostile V posted:Hummingbird's lost city generator and all the fun little company generators, Evil Mastermind posted:I can't link my review of it because my work internet thinks the F&F archive is "adult"
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Jan 9, 2019 17:46
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While the joke answer are the Valley Elves of Greyhawk, who spend way too much time hanging at the mall, I think Low Elves basically describes those damned foolish Mirkwood Elves who sing and dance and hang out in the woods all the time. So Wood Elves.
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Jan 9, 2019 17:47
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