Retrocloning 4e: Shouting hands back on

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Retrocloning 4e: Shouting hands back on

Moriatti: Apr 21, 2014

Maxwell Lord posted:

Accidentally posted this in the general 4th thread, I'm getting good feedback there but I'm curious as to what you guys all think:

Started writing up guard powers- mostly fighter rewordings but I have hope that as I get more used to the ad hoc formulae I'll be able to come up with more original ones with similar effects. (I'm trying to simplify some of the weapon specific ones though).

Observation- a lot of fighter powers would be good for a pro wrestler type if you gave them something to bypass the "requires weapon" bit. Feat or class/theme feature? (I'm trying to really limit growth of the former.)

Basically thinking that the guard shouldn't be quite as weapon dependent- your Worf types may have a favorite Bat'leth or whatever, but they do a lot of just plain brawling too. I'm already axing/revising a lot of the "if you're carrying an axe/polearm/mace" conditional powers mainly because that feels much more like a D&D thing.

I think for a space adventure, that's a good idea, I'll be doing the same thing for my 80's Video Game brawler.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2014 05:14

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 17:03

Moriatti: Apr 21, 2014

Something I'm doing for my system, which may circumvent that, is a 3-skill system.

Basically you pick a profession (different from class), a hobby, and a familiarity. They are relatively vague things, like proffession may be Chemist or Bodygaurd. Hobby might be skydiver or board games, either way, they give a flat bonus to any type of skill reasonably encompassed within their bounds. A bodygaurd would be especially perceptive, but lacking in the chemist' scientific knowledge.

This means skills are tied directly to your backstory, with you being best at the things you do for a living, but having some other aspects to your character as well. It also means ability scores are purely combat based now, and only represent your characters capabilities during a life-or-death situation, their abilities while panicked, if you will.

EDIT: I'm telling you this so you can steal it if you want, my system is going to take a long time to develop because of all the poo poo I've got going on.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2014 15:23

Moriatti: Apr 21, 2014

Maxwell Lord posted:

Background is where your skill selection comes in. I may, like defenses, have skills use the best of two or more abilities- or have them all tied to your background ability, but I want some variance, so you're not always just using your best ability for everything.

Yeah, my system divorces skills from abilities and weds them directly to your background via a priority type system, for instance, you may get a +5 (number not set in stone) to all skills under the umbrella your professional background and a +3 to your hobbies.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2014 18:38

Moriatti: Apr 21, 2014

Do whatever, as long as you keep ruinous phrase. Aka: the best way to enter every room.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2015 15:02

Moriatti: Apr 21, 2014

If I wanted to run the original Ravenloft module, but in 4e for some of my friends over Spring Break, how doable would that be and has any good work been done in adopting it?

EDIT: Wrong thread!

Moriatti fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Mar 8, 2015

# ¿ Mar 8, 2015 23:05

Moriatti: Apr 21, 2014

wallawallawingwang posted:

I just finished up with grad school, so I can switch my rpg tinkering from thing I do to procrastinate to normal person hobby. So, sorta?

One of the big strengths of the OSR is, despite there being about million rules sets, they are largely compatible. Adventures, monsters, and rules modules from all different lines and the originals can all cross pollinate or at the very least provide a bigger pool of content to work with. I was wondering if that is worth trying to replicate in a 4e retroclone?

Pros:

players can use existing 4e content

players can also use other, at this point mostly theoretical, 4e clone content

your clone can be used as an idea mine for 4e games and vice versa

you'd be inheriting 4e's play testing, to an extent anyway

Cons:

it would mean importing 4e's cruft

you'd be stuck not only reverse engineering 4e math but trying to fix it too

it limits the number of fixes and tweaks you can do

do 4e players like the rules, or do they just like rules that work? Do they like them more than compatibility?

most of the 4e adventures aren't that great, so why bother

Thoughts?

From reading this thread, it sounds like you'd have to keep the two holdovers from old editions that people in this thread seem to like the least, leveling up and ability scores. I personally enjoy these things in my fantasy swat game, but I can see why a retroclone would want to get rid of them.

If you're going... Pathfinder, for a lack of a better term, generally including feat expertise, inherint bonuses and removing feat/power bloats seems the easiest option.

Plus, if we keep stuff compatible, we can use Maxwell Lord's stuff with a theoretical super-power retroclone!

# ¿ May 21, 2015 00:06

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 17:03

Moriatti: Apr 21, 2014

Gizmoduck_5000 posted:

FF3 is cool.

Have perks for each class? Like casters can maximise spell dice x times per day and martials get studies on their Melee attacks? Therefore spells don't become obsolete, but focused mages are better at Magic then martials are, and vice versa.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2015 19:33

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