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I'm now getting errors trying to access Erebus, 'the file is invalid or has been deleted'. Sucks because I was shooting the link to my group, and I only downloaded it to my home computer.
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Jul 31, 2014 14:35
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SageNytell posted:I'm now getting errors trying to access Erebus, 'the file is invalid or has been deleted'. I just downloaded it no problem. Did you actually open the link provided and click the download button there?
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Jul 31, 2014 17:18
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It seems to be an intermittent problem, I tried downloading it earlier and got the same 'file is invalid or deleted' issue, but was able to get it fine just now 
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Jul 31, 2014 17:32
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SageNytell posted:I'm now getting errors trying to access Erebus, 'the file is invalid or has been deleted'. Oh, dang! That's weird. Try this link. I did delete and re-upload to make a couple minor corrections last night, but I'm certain I edited the hyperlink! This one definitely works, though. If there's any other issues I can e-mail it straight to anyone who wants to PM me. And yeah, it would be amazing to get an external playtest!  E: Oh my god, SteakPunk 
Zeerust fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 18:17
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Alright, Land of the Manitou is officially entered! At its core it's a stripped-down, squad/army based version of 4e with some unique mechanics - think some kinda mashup between 4e/X-Com/Final Fantasy Tactics. I also included sprites for each class, monsters, some sample maps, as well as tiles and objects to make your own map.  Character creation is laid out in the document but I HIGHLY suggest you use the Excel spreadsheet I included in the Dropbox folder as it automates basically the whole process for you. Writeup is on Google Docs here The Dropbox folder with all the goodies is here I'm anxious to see what people think of this, and this whole thing has been super fun! edit: Also Steakpunk is goddamn excellent, for the record.
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Jul 31, 2014 23:22
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dog kisser posted:Steakpunk is my favorite entry so far. Frankosity posted:E: Oh my god, SteakPunk dog kisser posted:edit: Also Steakpunk is goddamn excellent, for the record. I take absolutely no credit for anything interesting that's going on in SteakPunk But I'm still  about these
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Aug 1, 2014 01:09
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P.d0t posted:I take absolutely no credit for anything interesting that's going on in SteakPunk "And they say Error's ego grew three sizes that day."
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Aug 1, 2014 01:30
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Also, P.d0t shouldn't sell themselves short, if you go back and look at the original system docs for the mechanics, this thing is 1,000,000,000% a team effort, this wasn't just "slap a setting on it and call it good" by any stretch. Also, even though I basically ripped off all the *World style moves with only the barest of efforts to try and hide it, they work pretty drat well as a Frankenstein monster-ish bolted on wholesale replacement abomination of D&D's skill system.
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Aug 1, 2014 01:43
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It's only a few hours until the contest is over. If you have any entries you want to submit, now is your last chance. At 12:00 AM EST (my timezone), the contest is over.
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Aug 1, 2014 01:56
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Error 404 posted:Also, P.d0t shouldn't sell themselves short, if you go back and look at the original system docs for the mechanics, this thing is 1,000,000,000% a team effort, this wasn't just "slap a setting on it and call it good" by any stretch. pre:P.d0t: "Make me a list of stuff you need me to do on this." Error 404:  pretty much this is actually A Thing That Happened But yeah, anyway. The setting, races, Skill/Move system, and any/all accompanying fluff on literally everything was done by Error 404; I was basically just there to teach him the system from the mechanical side and help derive mechanics for stuff he wanted the fluff to do. And even then he came up with like, the entire levelling/Consuming system on his own. Nevertheless, I'd say anyone who's wanting to get in on a contest sometime, having someone to bounce ideas off of and ask "is this poo poo?" is helpful.
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Aug 1, 2014 01:59
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Just checking I'm submitted. And 4th Trifold is a longer term project than just this contest - but thanks for the contest for taking the project off my "To do one day" list and giving me motivation. On the other hand I've no immediate plans to stop tinkering. So for a record what's currently part of 4th Trifold is: Basic Rules Fantasy rules module Fantasy FAQ Fighter Rogue Warlord Holy Warrior (Cleric/Paladin/Blackguard) Innate Mage Archivist Wizard (Spell list is WIP) Warlock Spirit Warrior (Barbarian/Warden) Who needs a plan? Three strikes and you’re out - skill challenges Fast and Fun Combat - What do you need for a battlefield and what for monster tactics? It needs a Monster Vault of some sort to use properly, but the player-side material is all functional (I trust) although friends have requested Moar Classes (the Vessel (Invoker/Caster Cleric) and the Bard) - and some of those friends are going to be playtesting 4th Trifold. It also needs some sort of basic intro-doc. So I think the submitted docs are going to remain more or less unchanged before judging.
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Aug 1, 2014 02:43
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neonchameleon posted:friends have requested Moar Classes (the Vessel (Invoker/Caster Cleric) and the Bard) - and some of those friends are going to be playtesting 4th Trifold. It also needs some sort of basic intro-doc. Make a ranger and/or druid. 
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Aug 1, 2014 02:59
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P.d0t posted:Make a ranger and/or druid. Ranger's on my to do list, certainly. I need an archer. It's on hold because I'm not sure what a Ranger is trying to do. (As ProfCirno went through recently 1e was Aragorn, 2e was Drizzt, 3.0 was terrible, 3.5 was confused and vaguely nature-y and magic-y, and 4e was vaguely nature-y cuisineart of death or turning the air black) Given a Ranger appeals to you, what do you want to see it do?
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Aug 1, 2014 03:04
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neonchameleon posted:Given a Ranger appeals to you, what do you want to see it do? It really depends on what your game is built to handle. In terms of skills, you can do the forest-guide route and be all nature-y OR charismatic/leader-like. Usually there's agility and stealth in there, too. Personally, I come from this weird RPG school of archery where I like any of:
This is what happens when you play Diablo 2 as a non-Amazon archer. But yeah, I fall into the camp where cramming TWF into the archery class seems sort of odd. Particularly if you hew close to D&D rules, switching between a ranged weapon and a two-hander makes more sense for when you get caught in close-quarters. Or else some sort of light-weapon duelist thing.
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Aug 1, 2014 03:18
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And the submitting phase of the contest is officially over. The final, submitted entries are: Dog Kisser: Land of Manitou Frankosity and Captain Hats: Erebus Pd0t and Error 404: Steakpunk Neonchamelon: 4th Trifold Fuschia Tide: Space Death If I missed your entry, inform me of my error and I will correct it. While I may not have commented on any of them previously in the thread, I feel I should say that all of these entries look amazing and I look forward to dissecting them. Regardless of who wins, you all did an amazing job with this contest from what I've read so far. Now the judging phase begins. Hopefully, it will not take as long as some other contests have taken during this phase. That said, all of the entries have decent page length so I will need time to judge them. I can't give any concrete date, but I do hope to get it done before I return to university. Covok fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Aug 1, 2014 |
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Aug 1, 2014 05:00
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Hmm my formatting seems to have been eaten by Google Docs  Sorry to miss the deadline.Still SPACE DEATH is available here if anyone is still interested. I didn't quite get to enemy design yet after all.
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Aug 1, 2014 05:08
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It's only been ten minutes since the deadline, I really don't have any problem accepting your entry. It's all good mate.  Edit: I guess I should mention that if time zones meant you were in work right now or you otherwise couldn't submit before the deadline, I don't have any problems accepting late entries. Things happen. Covok fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Aug 1, 2014 |
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Aug 1, 2014 05:13
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What might be a good way to recruit GMs and/or players to volunteer for test driving these systems? Error 404 and I have had cursory discussions about it, I'm just not sure what'd be an efficient approach.
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Aug 1, 2014 06:36
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I didn't get as much written as I hoped this week. So it never reached a completed point for the purposes of this contest, but I wanted to share what I hammered out. Basic rules Making a character Actions
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Aug 1, 2014 06:52
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Covok posted:Frankosity: Erebus Just FYI, this entry was a collaboration between Captain Hats and myself.
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Aug 1, 2014 07:33
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neonchameleon posted:Ranger's on my to do list, certainly. What you need is a Monk. A good one. 4E's about the only good example of a D&D Monk there is. The "full discipline" system might be too complex for what you're doing but I think the biggest success of the 4E Monk was finally making good on the promise of "a highly mobile skirmisher" by giving Monks lots of tactically useful movement options while also giving them lots of decent multi-target attacks and reasonably decent damage.
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Aug 1, 2014 08:37
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Kai Tave posted:What you need is a Monk. A good one. 4E's about the only good example of a D&D Monk there is. The "full discipline" system might be too complex for what you're doing but I think the biggest success of the 4E Monk was finally making good on the promise of "a highly mobile skirmisher" by giving Monks lots of tactically useful movement options while also giving them lots of decent multi-target attacks and reasonably decent damage. That's already on the drawing board - it basically uses the rogue swift action as restricted move or standard action chassis (with slightly different options) and more multiattacks and trips than the rogue has. For the Ranger would people like or hate it if I mixed stupid trick arrows like boxing gloves and boomerangs in with the poisons, turnip heads, incendiaries, and rope cutters? (No need at all to take a boxing glove unless you want to).
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Aug 1, 2014 10:24
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neonchameleon posted:For the Ranger would people like or hate it if I mixed stupid trick arrows like boxing gloves and boomerangs in with the poisons, turnip heads, incendiaries, and rope cutters? (No need at all to take a boxing glove unless you want to). It sounds similar (fluff-wise, at least) to SBBQ's Archer class, which is worth taking a look, IMO. (It seems sort of a martial controller, since the arrows do not impose status effects directly; instead, it functions in a way that's similar to a fighter's mark — if the target moves, or doesn't move, or attacks someone o designate, etc., it takes punishing damage.)
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Aug 1, 2014 12:05
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Wasn't the OD&D Ranger a dude with a big weapon that hunted giant monsters or I am misremembering it? That sounds super awesome.
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Aug 1, 2014 16:26
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Frankosity posted:Just FYI, this entry was a collaboration between Captain Hats and myself. Corrected.
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Aug 1, 2014 20:49
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Oh man, just got the chance to really sit and read through the other entries. I figured I should post some general impressions and critiques. I really liked all the entries. Erebus I really like how the new rules mesh with the 4E rules. You can easily slot some or all of this into a standard 4E game (Shotgun Barbarian, Assault guy with sword and shield, Hybrid Wizard) and I like the idea of pushing cover mechanics via lower defenses a lot. I can definitely see room for more development though, like expanding on cover. Is it like X-COM where you have half cover, and full cover? Is cover completely indestructible or can someone hammer through it to eventually kill you? if it is destructible what kind of HP or defenses are required there? And a suggestion: As-is you've got each player playing one of these soldiers, but I could easily see this being expanded to where each player has control of a "squad" just like X-COM, where the GM is the aliens and you could have each player running a 3-4 man squad moving through the area. Perhaps a simple alternate ruleset is worth looking into? I can't wait to try this thing. SPACEDEATH I love the concept, but I think the execution might need some more work. like, I understand composer=HP, but I gues I have trouble understanding the way it's supposed to look in practice. So if I lose all CP, I can only do Move and Minor actions? There are still a lot of powers that use Move and Minor, and most of the ones I've seen heal your CP, and so it kinda makes that a not-really-status effect (Move ends). Everything looks really interesting, but it also needs more work. I hope you continue working on it because I definitely want to see what it looks like. Land of the Manitou Right off, I get the feeling that this would be better suited as a video game. I don't mean this in a bad way at all, even your sprites and artwork evoke that kind of old-style strategy rpg feel. I liked the fully linked Table of Contents. As I go through I keep getting the feeling I don't know what exactly is going on, there's a lot of stats and mechanics and GM tips that I don't understand (probably because I haven't reached the section that explains them.) But even aside from this, I don't really know much about the setting except for the half page intro text at the very top. I know that Manitou are nature spirits, and that players play as Manitou helping armies mankind wage war. (Against who?) My critique here is more than likely just a matter of personal taste and preference, but I don't feel like I've got a good grasp of what this setting is about. When combined with the fact that the first quarter of the document so far has been pretty dense mechanics-wise and I'm just now getting to what being a Manitou actually is and how you play one, I'm kinda left feeling a bit lost as a reader. Looking at Unit creation though, things have gotten a bit more straight forward. The different unit types and then classes of unit. This section is laid out in a very logical and easy to understand fashion. The combat rules section is likewise well laid out and I'm now 'getting' how armies work, but I'm seeing that a lot of the mechanics that were introduced at the beginning are being repeated here, and in more detail. Summary: I feel like this will definitely be a cool game should you decide to keep going with it. If I may make some suggestions, perhaps you might want to move your Totem rules to the end of the playing a Manitou section and the army building section with the DM advice after the actual rules for choosing units/classes. I would focus on one primary way this game is played and stick to it in the main rules writeup, and then explain things like campaign scale, and Tactical vs Strategic play in their own sections or sidebars with the new or changed rules that apply in those instances. 4th Trifold This is exactly what it says it is. This is an excellent take on simplifying 4Es rule set, If I were going to introduce someone to 4E today this is how I would do it. You've cleaned up and streamlined everything to an astonishing degree.
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Aug 1, 2014 21:48
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Hey, thanks for going through my effort! I hope to do the same with the rest of these later tonight. I'll address some of your comments:Error 404 posted:Land of the Manitou Error 404 posted:As I go through I keep getting the feeling I don't know what exactly is going on, there's a lot of stats and mechanics and GM tips that I don't understand (probably because I haven't reached the section that explains them.) But even aside from this, I don't really know much about the setting except for the half page intro text at the very top. Error 404 posted:I know that Manitou are nature spirits, and that players play as Manitou helping armies mankind wage war. (Against who?) Error 404 posted:Looking at Unit creation though, things have gotten a bit more straight forward. The different unit types and then classes of unit. This section is laid out in a very logical and easy to understand fashion. The combat rules section is likewise well laid out and I'm now 'getting' how armies work, but I'm seeing that a lot of the mechanics that were introduced at the beginning are being repeated here, and in more detail. Error 404 posted:If I may make some suggestions, perhaps you might want to move your Totem rules to the end of the playing a Manitou section and the army building section with the DM advice after the actual rules for choosing units/classes. All in all, great feedback, and I'll make sure to keep these notes in mind when I make my edits (for today though, I'm not touching it - sick of lookin' at it!) edit: Also, make sure you take a look at the Excel sheet in the Dropbox folder - it makes making soldiers WAAAY easier, and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out!
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Aug 2, 2014 00:35
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Error 404 posted:Erebus Thanks for the feedback! This is still very much a work-in-progress - we're currently going over our goals for 0.2 as I speak, so any comments are majorly appreciated. To clarify, cover works as in core 4th at the moment, so it's the standard light/heavy cover system. Cover destruction/degradation is definitely on our minds though. Rather than cover having HP and defences, right now I'm writing it as a simple system where certain explosive effects and weapons will destroy/downgrade cover in their AoE - see the Assault's frag grenade maneuever. Having it occur organically from crossfire will be a little more interesting to implement, since I'd personally want to stay away from tracking HP/Defences for scenery but I also always loved Plasma weapons in XCOM just destroying in their line of fire  The squad idea is an interesting one, and early in development me and Hats briefly discussed the idea of a Redshirt system, or the Sergeant having some kind of squad feature. We decided it was way too fiddly for a single class feature set, but the alternate ruleset idea is an interesting one!
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Aug 2, 2014 00:43
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P.d0t posted:Make a ranger and/or druid. Your wish is my command. I seem to have killed both Green Arrow and the Executioner Assassin and taken most of their stuff. But I'd really like feedback on this one; no one in any of my groups really plays archery rangers and I try to design with players in mind (my Spirit Warrior, for example, is not pitched so much to 4e players as to the type of players who want to play a Barbarian or Garou and just bring the smashy).
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Aug 2, 2014 01:19
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Hi folks, These are great! I'm looking forward to reading through each of them. Overwatch (from EREBUS) is I think the solution to something that's been bothering me - how to model suppressive fire. And Trifold 4E's *World-style playbooks seem like a lot of fun. I keep a list of 4e-inspired games that are under Creative Commons licences/the OGL here: http://fossilbank.wikidot.com/engine:dungeons-dragons-4e - but in a month quite a few of your submissions are more developed than most of the projects on there. Would any of you consider licensing your stuff under say Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike, to potentially serve as the chassis of future games?
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Aug 2, 2014 01:45
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Sanglorian posted:Hi folks, I'd actually been planning to license Trifold 4e under the OGL rather than the CC Share Alike license; I consider it a much safer license for a retroclone that remains in the fantasy niche. So yes I would be
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Aug 2, 2014 02:16
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Trifold 4e looks really good. I'm digging it. I'm also really digging Erebus. I haven't looked at anything else except the meat one.
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Aug 2, 2014 02:35
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Neonchamelon, can you tell me what order to read your trifold in? Like which box to read first, then second, etc.
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Aug 2, 2014 04:42
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neonchameleon posted:Your wish is my command. I seem to have killed both Green Arrow and the Executioner Assassin and taken most of their stuff. But I'd really like feedback on this one; no one in any of my groups really plays archery rangers and I try to design with players in mind (my Spirit Warrior, for example, is not pitched so much to 4e players as to the type of players who want to play a Barbarian or Garou and just bring the smashy). Looks pretty good. what is Create Shade supposed to do?
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Aug 2, 2014 07:20
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Covok posted:Neonchamelon, can you tell me what order to read your trifold in? Like which box to read first, then second, etc. Start with the core rules, the fantasy module, and the FAQ. Then the Skill Challenge section. (The combat design is useful but moreso for people who don't get 4e than those who do; simple changes are that I'm using 13th Age names for roles, have split the Skirmisher into the Trickster and the Militia, and have abolished the Controller). Then go on to the classes. P.d0t posted:Looks pretty good. what is Create Shade supposed to do? "Our arrows shall blot out the sun." "Then we shall fight in the shade." After you enter the Create Shade stance you get an extra attack per round for the rest of the scene as long as you don't faff around with things like poisons.
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Aug 2, 2014 12:32
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neonchameleon posted:Start with the core rules, the fantasy module, and the FAQ. Then the Skill Challenge section. (The combat design is useful but moreso for people who don't get 4e than those who do; simple changes are that I'm using 13th Age names for roles, have split the Skirmisher into the Trickster and the Militia, and have abolished the Controller). Then go on to the classes. While that is helpful, I'm referring to the order of boxes within the trifold itself. I know the documents are meant to be folded a particular way so I'm presuming the boxes aren't just left to right. I can tell which one starts it off, but I don't which would be next in order and so on.
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Aug 2, 2014 15:58
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Covok posted:While that is helpful, I'm referring to the order of boxes within the trifold itself. I know the documents are meant to be folded a particular way so I'm presuming the boxes aren't just left to right. I can tell which one starts it off, but I don't which would be next in order and so on. Ah, gotcha. This actually changed slightly while I was writing. The core rules have the introduction on the far right tab on the first page, and inside the trifold (page 2) is "GM tables to refer to" so it can stand up like a DM screen printed on A4 - lookups facing inwards so the GM can see them at a glance. But when I showed things to my group they promptly printed them flat and stapled them together just as a matter of course - so the character sheets and the fantasy rules module read left to right, page 1 to page 2.
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Aug 2, 2014 18:04
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I've made a start on a bestiary and am transferring everything else about 4th Trifold to the 4e Retroclone thread.
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Aug 2, 2014 23:39
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Error 404 posted:
Thanks for the review! CP is kinda like HP in 4e: if you take any damage whose result ends up exceeding your CP max, you're unconscious and need to start saving. So as your CP gets crossed off over the course of a fight, that becomes more and more likely to happen on any given future attack. That can't-standard-action status is only if you have lost ALL your CP, and not a point over. Maybe that's a bit too unlikely; it's based on the 0HP status I remember from a past edition, which was actually subsumed into negative-HP in 4e anyway. As I mentioned before, I didn't finish everything I wanted, and of course the formatting is messed up. I'll see what I can do with it in the future. Fuschia tude fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Aug 3, 2014 |
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Aug 3, 2014 02:03
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I did a little post on SteakPunk and (mostly) The Unnamed RPG that a lot of the mechanics for it are based off of, over in the "Retrocloning 4e" thread. Give it a read if you're interested in the subjects at hand.
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Aug 3, 2014 20:10
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