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PurpleXVI posted:I may just be fundamentally juvenile, but I keep having trouble getting into any Anbennar lore just because one of the main characters is named "Dookan." It's too close to scatological jokes for me to keep my head in the fiction. It's a corruption of Ducaniel, the precursor elf ultramage that not only caused the catastrophe that ended their empire by dropping their capital city as a magic nuke on the middle of the continent but also created Orcs a few decades before as a secret weapon on the Precursor Elf vs Ancient Dwarf War. Some Orc nations can find out about it and go "ah gently caress guess we'll found a new religion based on our customs and songs instead of worshipping this prick"
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Jun 4, 2023 12:18
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SEX ARSE TYCOON would be an absolutely magnificent username e: and/or sim game
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Jun 4, 2023 15:59
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Plutonis posted:I think only MonsieurChoc here cares about this other than me but man I wanna run a tabletop set on the Anbennar setting. Hell yeah.
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Jun 4, 2023 22:31
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Plutonis posted:I think only MonsieurChoc here cares about this other than me but man I wanna run a tabletop set on the Anbennar setting. I may have liberated the concept of the Command for some of my solo play endeavors. There's a lot of good stuff in the mod as a whole. Just a shame engaging with it requires EU4 and DLC; probably my least favorite PDX game. The wiki is far from complete so you can't really get much from there either. SkyeAuroline fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Jun 5, 2023 |
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Jun 5, 2023 01:22
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I can ramble on about Anbennar lore if you want. I'm in the discord keeping current. I even have a Jadd t-shirt.
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Jun 5, 2023 02:53
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I know there was a big ol Lore doc on the Hobgoblin Command when they were still unfinished back on the discord...
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Jun 5, 2023 03:01
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The wiki is being worked on. More stuff is there than used to be, but it suffers from having to conform mostly* to Vicky 3 start date canon. Whereas the eu4 mod can include content that didn't come to pass for each of the different nations. *I say mostly because it does mention at least the Boek Kingdom's defeating fate as being an in universe thing that's both true and not true at the same time.
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Jun 5, 2023 03:17
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What’s the best way to offload a bunch of D&D stuff? I have a pile of 4th edition D&D books and maps and tokens collecting dust in my closet. I don’t want to just send it all to goodwill. Is it worth posting on craigslist? Do people actually buy this stuff? Worse case, maybe donate it to a local game store?
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Jun 5, 2023 07:45
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I mean, if it's the Set of 4th Ed Sourcebooks That Is the Actual Playable Game Everybody Here Keeps Talking About® I might be persuaded to take it off your hands if you're willing to ship, but I'm overseas until later in the month.
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Jun 5, 2023 08:49
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Mordiceius posted:What’s the best way to offload a bunch of D&D stuff? I have a pile of 4th edition D&D books and maps and tokens collecting dust in my closet. I don’t want to just send it all to goodwill. Is it worth posting on craigslist? Do people actually buy this stuff? Worse case, maybe donate it to a local game store? Noble Knight Games will buy used gaming stuff. I did it many years ago to offload my old TTRPG books. They made it very simple. They sent me labels, I boxed them up and shipped them, they mailed me a check. Not sure I got a 'good' price for them but I was just trying to keep them out of a landfill. It may work differently nowadays.
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Jun 5, 2023 09:05
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Anbennar slaps. Running a game in it is definitely on my bucket list. Anyways, came here to ask if anyone has opinions on Fabula Ultima.
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Jun 5, 2023 12:11
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ZearothK posted:Anbennar slaps. Running a game in it is definitely on my bucket list. It does a lot of presentation right, but for me something just feels missing. 90% of the game is a combat system, and the combat system doesn't really have any particular depth to it, with everything outside of combat being reduced to just rolling your basic stats to see if you can do things or not. Almost everything on your character sheet is another kind of combat system attack or ability, and very little is non-combat talents and options. You're also somewhat at the mercy of having picked a "character concept" that's relevant relatively often(since being able to spend Fabula Points tends to require that you can tie it to your concept). Like, it's perfectly workable, but to me it's just missing the spark that makes characters come to life or gets me invested beyond just hitting the "attack" button repeatedly in combat. The basic mechanic is also EXTREMELY swingy due to its relatively large dice and absence of static modifiers. Though I will say that its "IP" system rather than having meticulously detailed and organized character inventories is an approach that I like and I'm surprised no one's thought of it before since it's a deceptively simple idea. It keeps resource management relevant, but without descending into fiddly spreadsheets.
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Jun 5, 2023 12:21
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PurpleXVI posted:Though I will say that its "IP" system rather than having meticulously detailed and organized character inventories is an approach that I like and I'm surprised no one's thought of it before since it's a deceptively simple idea. It keeps resource management relevant, but without descending into fiddly spreadsheets.
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Jun 5, 2023 13:56
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CitizenKeen posted:Would you please expand on this? https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3898332&userid=220017&perpage=40&pagenumber=1#post530985207 Scroll halfway down this post to the section on inventory points.
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Jun 5, 2023 15:31
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Lemon-Lime posted:https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3898332&userid=220017&perpage=40&pagenumber=1#post530985207 Thank you. Does IP in practice feel any different than Blades in the Dark inventory?
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Jun 5, 2023 16:18
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Plutonis posted:Wait holy poo poo the original was by STOLZE??? It was. Back in the day there was a Samurai era (more accurately Sengoku Jidai) rpg called Sengoku by Gold Rush Games. It used "Fuzion" as a system. The background info in the book was excellent, but the game system itself was a mess. Usagi Yojimbo - the first edition - used the same system but cleaned it up and stripped it down enough to be playable. I ran a really good game using the Sengoku background info and the Usagi system.
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Jun 5, 2023 17:02
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I've used preparedness rolls in pretty much every system I read Esoterrorists. In any game where you're not a wandering hobo who carries everything in a bag of holding, keeping detail of what you have on you is an arduous chore. Especially if it's in a modernish setting.
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Jun 5, 2023 17:25
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Sorry to blunder in randomly, but I'm new to all this. I've never played or done any TTRPGs, but I impulsively bought the Alien one because I really like Alien and am about to run a campaign with a couple people and I had two quick questions. From what I understand, the idea with these books/systems is that they're more like guidelines to help the DM rather than an ironclad system that the DM must function within. Is that more or less true or are there serious unanticipated consequences for changing the formula as seems contextually appropriate? And second, if you have a system that you like (the Alien D6 based one seems perfectly serviceable) is there anything to stop you from just saying: "Okay, we'll do a fantasy campaign based on this framework," instead of messing with D&D or another whole game? The focus for me and the people I play with is more on stories than on gameplay mechanic minutia.
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Jun 5, 2023 17:31
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Danknificent posted:Sorry to blunder in randomly, but I'm new to all this. I've never played or done any TTRPGs, but I impulsively bought the Alien one because I really like Alien and am about to run a campaign with a couple people and I had two quick questions. From what I understand, the idea with these books/systems is that they're more like guidelines to help the DM rather than an ironclad system that the DM must function within. Is that more or less true or are there serious unanticipated consequences for changing the formula as seems contextually appropriate? The answer to the first mostly has to do with expectations from your players*. If they're expecting to play D&D 5E (using that as my example because that's probably the best-known system globally) and you start throwing the rules out the window and starting in with all sorts of ad hoc systems, then you'll probably experience disappointment or pushback. Now, with something like Alien, which is less popular and the rules are less well-known, so long as you let your players know what you're doing, then it should be more or less fine. Do keep in mind that in theory the rules are the way they are for a reason, and throwing them out the window can lead to unexpected consequences. (*There are some systems, such as PbtA, where the GM/MC/etc. has to follow the rules or suffer problems with the game.) As to the second, there are no reasons why you can't hack (the usual verb for what you're talking about) a system, but in many cases, there's already a system that does the genre/setting/flavor as well as what you're trying to accomplish so why not look for one that already does it instead of putting in all the work to do it yourself? If there's not one, then hack from there.
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Jun 5, 2023 17:46
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CitizenKeen posted:Thank you. Does IP in practice feel any different than Blades in the Dark inventory? It's a resource you spend like MP or whatever rather than a checklist of things you pick X from as you go along, and there's a bunch of things that use IP as a cost, so generally yes?
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Jun 5, 2023 17:48
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Absurd Alhazred posted:I mean, if it's the Set of 4th Ed Sourcebooks That Is the Actual Playable Game Everybody Here Keeps Talking About® I might be persuaded to take it off your hands if you're willing to ship, but I'm overseas until later in the month.     This is everything I'm trying to offload. I don't even care about getting money for it. I just would like to see the stuff end up somewhere that isn't my closet and isn't the dumpster.
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Jun 5, 2023 17:52
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Danknificent posted:Sorry to blunder in randomly, but I'm new to all this. I've never played or done any TTRPGs, but I impulsively bought the Alien one because I really like Alien and am about to run a campaign with a couple people and I had two quick questions. From what I understand, the idea with these books/systems is that they're more like guidelines to help the DM rather than an ironclad system that the DM must function within. Is that more or less true or are there serious unanticipated consequences for changing the formula as seems contextually appropriate? A good, well-designed game is designed and playtested as an actual game, with a system that is designed to be followed to the letter and works well when doing so. If the game doesn't work well when run as-written, that generally indicates a problem with the way the game is designed. That said, there is no elfgame police that will break down your door for houseruling things if they get in the way of your group enjoying the game. Just be aware that making changes to one part of the system will generally have a knock-on effect on something else, which may or may not be intended. These consequences will be easier to identify if you have a lot of experience with RPGs, or are just used to looking at systems as a whole rather than a bunch of disparate parts. In general, if there's something you and your players hate in a system in play and it's getting in the way of everyone enjoying themselves, feel free to change it, just try to keep an eye out for how those changes might impact other parts of the game. Danknificent posted:And second, if you have a system that you like (the Alien D6 based one seems perfectly serviceable) is there anything to stop you from just saying: "Okay, we'll do a fantasy campaign based on this framework," instead of messing with D&D or another whole game? The focus for me and the people I play with is more on stories than on gameplay mechanic minutia. Games that are well-designed also almost always have tight integration between theme and mechanics, using the former to inform the latter and the latter to drive the former. Form example, the Alien RPG has rules for running out of oxygen and flashlight batteries. Those are things that make sense in the context of survival horror as a genre (these things happen frequently in that genre), in the context of Alien specifically (echoing elements from the films, comics and games that the RPG is drawing from), and in order to exert time and resource pressure on the players (which in turn ramps up the tension, which are both parts of the genre the game is in). You could hack the Alien RPG to remove all of the rules that don't make sense for a fantasy campaign, and then hack in a bunch of rules that do genre emulation and thematic reinforcement for that genre, if you really wanted. This is very difficult and labour-intensive to do, drastically more so if you don't have a ton of experience running, playing and reading other games. It's infinitely easier to simply pick a different game that is actually designed to support the genre or things you want to do. We have a thread for system recommendations right here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3430847 In general, D&D is not particularly well-designed, is expensive to get into, and is very rules-heavy. It's not really emblematic of what roleplaying games are like, and learning another game is generally pretty easy (especially in cases where they share a core system or design philosophy).
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Jun 5, 2023 17:52
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Admiralty Flag posted:The answer to the first mostly has to do with expectations from your players*. If they're expecting to play D&D 5E (using that as my example because that's probably the best-known system globally) and you start throwing the rules out the window and starting in with all sorts of ad hoc systems, then you'll probably experience disappointment or pushback. Now, with something like Alien, which is less popular and the rules are less well-known, so long as you let your players know what you're doing, then it should be more or less fine. Do keep in mind that in theory the rules are the way they are for a reason, and throwing them out the window can lead to unexpected consequences. (*There are some systems, such as PbtA, where the GM/MC/etc. has to follow the rules or suffer problems with the game.) Thanks! I don't think my players care that much, but that makes sense. Like, my LGS is recruiting DMs right now, and if I was doing that I'd be more by the book because those strangers probably expect it. But for the sake of the crew I'm playing with, making changes to streamline the experience and keep it moving seems to make sense. The Alien book just seems so full of "If it makes sense, do it," Like it seems aggressively loosey goosey (on purpose) Has anyone played the Witcher TTRPG? Is it at all approachable for newish people?
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Jun 5, 2023 17:57
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Danknificent posted:
In this particular case it would just be easier to buy the official fantasy version of the same ruleset, Forbidden Lands and optionally bolt on a few of the rules from Alien that you like (stress, health, spaceships lol).
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Jun 5, 2023 18:00
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Danknificent posted:Sorry to blunder in randomly, but I'm new to all this. I've never played or done any TTRPGs, but I impulsively bought the Alien one because I really like Alien and am about to run a campaign with a couple people and I had two quick questions. From what I understand, the idea with these books/systems is that they're more like guidelines to help the DM rather than an ironclad system that the DM must function within. Is that more or less true or are there serious unanticipated consequences for changing the formula as seems contextually appropriate? I mean the answer is "both, sort of." Think of it this way: if you're changing the rules you're basically inventing a new game. There's nothing wrong with that per se, making up new games is how the original game got made in the first place. It's just a question of whether you trust your design sense better than the author's. To be brutally honest, the average standard of design in TTRPGs as an industry is kind of poo poo, so it's very common practice for people to houserule things they don't like, and sometimes it's even an improvement. Just do it with consciousness that that's what you're doing.
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Jun 5, 2023 18:42
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It can be very easy to accidentally break scaling or power levels if you aren't aware of the interactions of certain items and abilities. But plenty of games do that themselves.
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Jun 5, 2023 18:45
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also as to the question of whether this is intentional, i think some of the industry leaders tacitly approve of extensive homebrew because it helps their image more than it hurts -- leaning on free GM labor to fix your broken garbage heap of a game, or to make it suitable for a tone or genre of play that the actual rules are completely unsuited to, still translates into positive word of mouth. this kind of creates a feedback loop where things stays broken because "GM'll fix it!" covers any problems... which is frustrating, if your interest as a GM or player is to simply purchase and run a game that functions out of the box. but it's also squarely the fault of developers, not players (including the GM) and the moral of the story isn't "don't homebrew" so much as "understand that system design and GMing are two different things and ideally you should know which one you're doing" (and this isn't really something you need to worry about except as background for why people might be a little touchy about it in either direction)
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Jun 5, 2023 18:51
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:I mean the answer is "both, sort of." That makes sense. I'm not adding much new, I'm more skipping/glossing/simplifying certain others, which I think is spiritually kind of like the 'Very Easy Mode' that some video games include for people who are more interested in the story than the combat. The main reason for it is to reduce the amount of time I expect to spend flipping back and forth in the book to look at tables of critical injuries and stuff.
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Jun 5, 2023 19:04
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Lemon-Lime posted:It's a resource you spend like MP or whatever rather than a checklist of things you pick X from as you go along, and there's a bunch of things that use IP as a cost, so generally yes? So gear* in FU costs 2-4 "IP" (based on the F&F image), and have either mechanical or narrative effect. Are there things other than gear that fall within the bucket of "a bunch of things"? And you can spend IP at any point as you go along? Gear in Blades costs 2-3 "load" and have either mechanical or narrative effect, and you spend it as you go along. I'm missing what makes IP novel from the short descriptions that I've seen. It appears to be Schroedinger's Inventory like we've seen before? * "Gear" in FU exclusing weapons and armor, right? Whereas in Blades it includes weapons and armor.
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Jun 5, 2023 19:08
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CitizenKeen posted:So gear* in FU costs 2-4 "IP" (based on the F&F image), and have either mechanical or narrative effect. Are there things other than gear that fall within the bucket of "a bunch of things"? And you can spend IP at any point as you go along? It's consumables only. Some of the classes have abilities that spend or regain IP, including a good chunk of everything the Tinkerer does. It's an actual resource you manipulate, rather than something you spend to get gear and that refreshes automatically for the next score. It's not a revolution in game design, but it works well for the genre Fabula Ultima is trying to emulate and is a clever way to get around having to track Fiddly Inventory Bullshit. Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Jun 5, 2023 |
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Jun 5, 2023 20:01
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Feels like I'm in this picture. Most of the group back in Boise is still playing together.
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Jun 5, 2023 20:53
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CitizenKeen posted:So gear* in FU costs 2-4 "IP" (based on the F&F image), and have either mechanical or narrative effect. Are there things other than gear that fall within the bucket of "a bunch of things"? And you can spend IP at any point as you go along? Think of Fabula Ultima's Inventory Points as being Equipment Mana that you whip out you cast a spell of Rope, Healing Potion, Pipe Bomb, etc. whatever you need. I'm not claiming it's the only system to do it, but Fabula Ultima was the first system where I encountered it.
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Jun 5, 2023 21:13
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Mordiceius posted:
Hell I'll pay shipping and some extra for that stuff easy. Just the Monster Vault alone is solid gold.
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Jun 5, 2023 21:16
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I've heard good things about the 4E-era Gamma World, too.
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Jun 5, 2023 21:17
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It's completely awesome. If anything the only reason I'd feel bad about buying all that stuff up is I already have two copies of Gamma World 7e! But I'd happily take a third to use as a giveaway for show listeners or something. Seriously though PM me if that stuff's still available, I will happily buy it up. 4e is my jam and I'm a collector in general. theironjef fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Jun 5, 2023 |
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Jun 5, 2023 21:18
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Couldn't find a thread for this, hope it's fine to ask here. A couple friends and I recently finished up Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. We (and a couple others) are interested in playing some more legacy/persistent games but not really sure where to turn. Is there a good list or resource for solid games in the genre? We're currently looking at Pandemic Legacy as a possible next game, but honestly I wasn't huge on base Pandemic's gameplay - is Legacy sufficiently different that I'd still have fun with it? Are there other games y'all might recommend? I don't think we're looking to dive into base Gloomhaven or Frosthaven at the moment, but I personally had a good time playing through Jaws and feeling a definite sense of progression and strength - hopefully looking to find something similar. Thanks!
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Jun 5, 2023 21:37
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Cessna posted:Usagi Yojimbo - the first edition - used the same system but cleaned it up and stripped it down enough to be playable. I ran a really good game using the Sengoku background info and the Usagi system.
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Jun 5, 2023 21:52
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TSR's Buck Rogers Adventures was actually very solid. A fast fairly minimalist system and tons of background information included.
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Jun 5, 2023 21:55
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theshim posted:Couldn't find a thread for this, hope it's fine to ask here. So Pandemic Legacy's backbone is the Pandemic system, but in Season 1, things happen that affect play. Some of them are emergent. Supermild spoiler that I'll put behind a bar just in case but the rule might even be in the base rulebook: If a city outbreaks, that city goes up a panic level, and each panic level makes it permanently more and more difficult to interact with the city. Some of them are programmed. Fictional example: In April (on a 12 month play cycle), you have to deal with a fifth disease that starts spreading. But you're also helping yourself during the game, as you get upgrades to your characters and city cards that give you bonuses as you play, so it's not all one-sided. Core message: Pandemic backbone with twists, some foreseeable, others not. Seasons 2 and 0 still use the basic backbone of Pandemic with some modifications (2 more heavily modified than 0), but have significantly different gameplay systems bracketing the backbone. 2 is a real adventure; 0 is closer to "regular" Pandemic. But none of them stray too far off the reservation.
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Jun 5, 2023 22:33
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theshim posted:Couldn't find a thread for this, hope it's fine to ask here. There are a LOT of legacy games by now. It’s a really cool design decision and there was/is a bit of a fad for it, so you’ve got enough options that you might wanna narrow it down to what kind of gameplay you like. So like genre, how you feel about Euros, etc. I’m a huge sucker for The King’s Dilemma for instance, but that’s a competitive-cooperative kingdom simulator where you’re playing as great houses through several generations. You collectively run a little kingdom making strategic and narrative decisions, but you also each have your own goals and desires for lots of negotiation/backstabbing/bros4lyfe. There’s also, y’know, actual Gloomhaven and its sequel Frosthaven if you want that. Jaws of the Lion is the slightly friendlier intro version : it’s streamlined to be less fiddly in some ways, mostly character options, so there’s a lot of second-order strategy you haven’t seen. Jaws and Gloom aren’t any harder or easier than each other either. In fact Jaws has one of the most difficult scenarios in all three towards the beginning. (Those loving. TABLES!)
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