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Whybird posted:Is there mechanical support for all the off-field hijinks you can get up to, like kidnapping the star player's pet rat so they can't concentrate during the game, or having your striker unexpectedly fall in love with the enemy goalkeeper? As one of the current testers I can say there's a lot more focused rp rules than vanilla Strike, primarily focusing on classes, clubs, and magic. Also the new Roles are quite exciting, and the way being Taken Out works being that you just keep playing feels good and is probably better for the GM too since it helps avoid any "is it wrong to take out this person even if they ot themselves in an awful position?" brainfeels.
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Feb 22, 2021 21:10
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Whybird posted:Is there mechanical support for all the off-field hijinks you can get up to, like kidnapping the star player's pet rat so they can't concentrate during the game, or having your striker unexpectedly fall in love with the enemy goalkeeper? This is something I'm trying to consider carefully. I want to include mechanics for tying the Kazzam stuff into the off-the-field antics, but it's also the case that some players at least will want the Kazzam matches to be kind of more pure. A Kazzam match takes longer than a regular combat - our matches have usually gone around 8-10 rounds, while a regular Strike! combat is more like 4-5 rounds - and I wouldn't want to make a player miss a combat in regular Strike! anyway. In a regular Strike! session, you might have multiple combats, some with more effort put into them than others, but you're probably going to have just one Kazzam match, and it's going to be a real centrepiece of the session. Every Kazzam arena will have interesting stuff going on in terms of its terrain and its layout, unique neutral creeps, and a whole new enemy team. In a novel, the main character might miss a match because they have detention or get hurt. But in a team RPG, having one player sit out for a Kazzam match is a non-starter. And even having a character's efficacy compromised feels like more of a downer. So I'm really considering carefully the kinds of connective tissue I need to design to make the matches feel like part of the story while also allowing them to feel like proper fair contests of luck and skill. Like Countblanc said, I've already got a lot of stuff written for off-the-field stuff. The connections between on-and-off-field play have not yet been written. I want to get the Kazzam matches firing on all cylinders and get the off-the-field story flowing smoothly and then consider how they can interact in ways that enhance one another. Ignite Memories posted:Let me know if you need any help with 2nd edition, that's the thing i really crave right now. I've also got some non-combat stuff that could be tested, including a totally new take on Conditions and some tweaks to Costs generally. And I've got some subsystems that need external playtesting to see if they make sense to people who aren't me and the Strike! braintrust. So if you (or anyone else) wants to try out some new stuff in a Strike! game, just PM me or let me know in this thread and I can spend some time cleaning stuff up and putting together a playtest package.
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Feb 23, 2021 07:16
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Yeah, i'd be interested in seeing what you're thinking of changing for the roles and conditions. I'm sure I could get some friends interested in doing a few one-shots, everyone's really bored. I also make silly art for my games sometimes if you ever need silly game art  Ignite Memories fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Feb 23, 2021 |
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Feb 23, 2021 09:06
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Jimbozig posted:In a novel, the main character might miss a match because they have detention or get hurt. But in a team RPG, having one player sit out for a Kazzam match is a non-starter. And even having a character's efficacy compromised feels like more of a downer. So I'm really considering carefully the kinds of connective tissue I need to design to make the matches feel like part of the story while also allowing them to feel like proper fair contests of luck and skill. I was thinking of something like Strings in Monsterhearts, where your character's personality determines both how you can get Strings on other characters and how you can spend those strings to manipulate them. So if you're the Swot, getting someone detention doesn't mean they miss the match -- it means they're skipping detention for the match, and the Swot can then spend the "Skipping Detention" string to have them notice the professor who put them into detention is watching them play and make them miss a key shot.
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Feb 23, 2021 14:37
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Jimbozig posted:What sort of help do you mean? If you mean playtesting, I do have some stuff that I'd like tested. The revised roles I'm using for Kazzam should replace regular Strike! roles in the 2nd edition. They are being playtested now as part of Kazzam, but testing them in the context of original Strike! combat and classes would be useful, too. The original Strike! classes will be revised, too, and some of the role changes (especially to Blaster) will allow me to do things I couldn't do before, like have AoE class powers in any class. I am down for it, I am about to start a Strike! campaign, so I should have the opportunity to test stuff that would be applied to second edition. Caveat is that my Strike! experience before this is three one-shots, so I can't say my group or I have actual mastery of the 1E system. On the other hand, we do have a lot of experience with my own homebrewed system that's in perpetual alpha, so dealing with rules in draft format shouldn't be a shock.
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Feb 23, 2021 17:51
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I won't be able to run any games until the plague ends, but I am intensely nosey if that helps
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Feb 23, 2021 18:32
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Okay, I'll try find time to slap together a package. I'm booked solid today for my online tutoring job, but maybe I'll have some no-shows. If I can't get it ready today, I'll get it done over the weekend. Gort, if you're not going to be able to playtest it, no worries - I'll still send you the package, but I just might have a different set of questions for you.
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Feb 25, 2021 15:28
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Put me down as another person who would absolutely run a playtest of Kazzam.
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Mar 2, 2021 16:40
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Ignite Memories and ZearothK, check your PMs - I sent you the link to the updated Costs and Roles playtest package yesterday.Serf posted:Put me down as another person who would absolutely run a playtest of Kazzam.
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Mar 2, 2021 22:53
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Jimbozig posted:Ignite Memories and ZearothK, check your PMs - I sent you the link to the updated Costs and Roles playtest package yesterday. I saw it, thanks! I am going to give it a proper read through on THU when my schedule eases up a bit.
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Mar 3, 2021 01:28
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Hey, I'm looking to recruit 1 or 2 people to join the playtest of Kazzam/Tailfeathers. We're changing schedules right now - we're probably going to be playing on Sunday nights, but it's flexible - the time will definitely be 9PM eastern, but the day of the week is potentially movable. I figured I'd post in here first before casting a wider net.
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Apr 17, 2021 04:25
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How long does it take for them to send the PDF after you pay? 'cause I paid an hour ago and still haven't gotten an email.
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Apr 17, 2021 20:04
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ZZT the Fifth posted:How long does it take for them to send the PDF after you pay? 'cause I paid an hour ago and still haven't gotten an email. The "them" is just me. If you buy through the website, I fulfill it myself, and I always get to it within 24 hrs. It's a bit low-tech, but it's the method that nets the biggest cut - only paypal gets a little bit. If anyone doesn't like that for whatever reason, I also sell pdfs through itch.io that takes a little bit more of a cut, and through drivethrurpg, which takes a still bigger cut (but is the only option for physical copies).
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Apr 18, 2021 00:07
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Jimbozig posted:The "them" is just me. If you buy through the website, I fulfill it myself, and I always get to it within 24 hrs. It's a bit low-tech, but it's the method that nets the biggest cut - only paypal gets a little bit. If anyone doesn't like that for whatever reason, I also sell pdfs through itch.io that takes a little bit more of a cut, and through drivethrurpg, which takes a still bigger cut (but is the only option for physical copies). Oh gosh. Well, thanks a ton for fulfilling it earlier; the link came in while I was at work but I didn't have a chance to update my post up until now, sorry!
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Apr 18, 2021 05:15
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No worries! I probably wouldn't have set it up this way if I had known about itch.io 5 years ago - their cut is small enough that I would have just gone with that for pdfs. But at the time, it seemed like it was give drive thru 35%, figure out some more complicated webstore setup, or just send links myself, and I opted for the latter.
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Apr 18, 2021 05:46
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Some people in a Discord server I hang out in are interested in a TTRPG campaign, and I’ve started to get the GMing itch again cause I’m insane. We seem to have coalesced on Strike! for the system, and I find it very attractive as a combat system, but I have no idea what to do for the rest of the game (i.e. story, exploration, other non-combat stuff). I mostly have PbtA experience, so I tend to rely on “play to find out” and similar techniques to keep the story going. How well does Strike! play with that? Will I have to abandon that PbtA-influenced GMing style? I also have very light combat-specific GMing experience, especially with anything like D&D. Will it be a difficult adjustment?
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Apr 18, 2021 22:57
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If you and your group are already acclimated to "play to find out" gameplay I think you'll have a good time with Strike's non-combat stuff. Firstly Strike's non-tactical rules are mostly modular - the main thing that acts as a base is the "name a skill, roll 1d6, consult the Trained or Untrained Skill chart respectively", most other things such as Chases, Team Conflicts, etc., are optional. I'd say just try with the base skill-rolling system to start and add in the other systems after a few sessions of they seem appealing (ie. you get a good idea for a setpiece that'd lend itself to the PCs chasing someone or being chased). The results of the skill rolls aren't exactly PbtA but there's some shared DNA without Twists and Costs work. The book has good guides on how both should be applied but generally Twists are changes in the narrative but not exactly "mechanical" nor are they necessarily bad (though they often are), and Costs are always bad and mechanical. Here's an example: Amelia finds a set of thieves' tools in the hideout the party just cleared out. She is not a rogue or scoundrel of any sort, but she's a trained machinist and used to working with fine tools so the table agrees to let her try to pick a locked door with an Unskilled "lockpick" check. Note that she likely wouldn't have been able to make the check at all if she didn't find the tools because nothing about her character would have suggested she'd just keep something like that on her person (for example, if she WERE a known scoundrel you could probably handwave it away since of course she'd have some tools like that). The dice are rolled and... 6 (Success + Bonus or Learn): The door opens, revealing a treasure room! As this was Unskilled she can now choose to either get a one-time bonus or learn the skill, and she chooses to learn it. 5 (Success): The door opens, revealing a treasure room! 4 (Success with a Cost): The door opens, revealing a treasure room! Unfortunately Amelia's unpracticed hand breaks the tools, making her unable to attempt the same later. 3 (Twist): The door opens, revealing a treasure room!... which has been picked clean, and has a note from a rival party taunting the PCs for being slow. 2 (Twist): Amelia can't seem to get it to open, and her attempt set off a self-destruct system in the vault causing an explosion in the treasure room. 1 (Twist with a Cost): The door opens, but the self-destruct system activates, destroying most of the contents and blasting Amelia across the room (she is now Injured, a major condition). So the results with a Cost generally impact the character's ability to do an action (ie. removing an item) or inflict some sort of minor/major condition (page 7 has examples), while a Twist won't have that sort of direct penalty. I will say that something which hurts Strike in my experience is when people aren't rolling dice frequently. This isn't unique to Strike but of the games I've played it seems to come up somewhat often, particularly with new people - I think it's a symptom of people not seeing something on their sheet and thus not thinking they can do it. I'd say at least half of all rolls players should be making outside of combat will be Unskilled, they just have to still make sense for their character. The physical paragon Rami doesn't need a "lifting" skill to try to pick up the debris that has their friend trapped, but Josh the wimpy scholar probably couldn't attempt the same feat. So just encourage people to roll a lot, and if you're ever unsure if something should be rolled for just do it! As for combat, if you and your players have any familiarity with tactical games - board games, video games, etc. - I think you'll be fine immediately. If not it's still not too bad and the intro chapter does a great job explaining the basics - with diagrams! - but you may have some stumbles along the way. My biggest piece of advice is to keep a sheet open and just record any time a question comes up ("can I use my Push power to force someone into the fire?"), come up with a ruling that makes sense ("that's cool, so sure"), then check it later ("oh yeah that works, but creatures who are moved into dangerous terrain can make a save to fall prone and avoid it"). Strike's combat is pretty speedy by tactical RPG standards but it will slow to a crawl if you stop and check every single rule clarification your first few games. e: one last bit of advice for tactical stuff, if everyone is new to that sort of gameplay I recommend letting people build out their toolkits over the course of 2-3 encounters. So maybe for the first fight make it so players don't have Class Features (the "choose one of these 3 options" most classes have, like the Sniper/Blitzer/Sentinel options for Archer) or a Feat, they just have their class powers and whatever their role gives them. Then after they've seen their character and the combat mechanics in action they can make a decision with a bit more context about what it actually means. Countblanc fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Apr 19, 2021 |
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Apr 19, 2021 00:24
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Yeah, I’ll probably do a session 0.5 with an excuse combat encounter to let people get a feel for what they want, following a session 0 where we talk about the characters and the setting+world based on them. Would be a good spot to gradually let people choose feats or whatever. Good to know that outside of combat it resembles PbtA closely enough for me to be comfortable with it! I’ll still probably skip out on rolls for actions that don’t cry out for them just because I like to keep the story moving along, but the rest sounds good to me. I really like the Skill system, I think that helps a lot in making unique, stand-out characters.
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Apr 19, 2021 01:06
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I honestly just do pretty freeform stuff for out of combat with the occasional roll since I run strike largely for the combat.
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Apr 19, 2021 01:15
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That's fair, I just suck at GMing and need the dice to feed me plot ideas.
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Apr 19, 2021 01:25
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Skill rolls in Strike are really "powerful" though - as the example above shows, a flubbed roll might completely change the adventure's conclusion from "here's your reward" to "here's another adventure you'll have to go on if you want your reward". Rolling tons of dice out of combat isn't really required since it's generally pretty impactful when you do. It does mean there's a responsibility on the GM to only ask for dice rolls if they've got an idea of what to do if the roll succeeds and if the roll fails. Luckily the list of twists is extremely extensive and you can always fall back on, "While you do that a baddie shows up and hassles you" in basically any situation, or ask the player, "OK, it goes wrong somehow - what happened?"
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Apr 19, 2021 11:10
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So I know that in Dungeon World the GM is basically called upon to set up a single starting situation and after that session to write a few fronts and then decide almost nothing else ahead of time. Is that still doable with Strike, or does it expect up-front work (designing encounters and dungeons, coming up with geography, etc.)? It seems like it supports “just make it up as you go along” since it’s mostly about combat, but being grid-based implies a measure of pre-made combat design.
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Apr 19, 2021 15:39
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You need to plan and design encounters in advance, you can't really just wing it and have satisfying fights.
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Apr 19, 2021 15:59
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Yeah, you can pre-prepare level-appropriate encounters though and reskin on the fly. You can prep, say, a fight against two defenders and two snipers, and that'll be mechanically satisfying whether it's orcs or space zombies the party actually ends up encountering. For completely off-the-rails stuff (EG: I planned a dungeon and we're now playing a dramatic game of mahjong) you can just fall back on the skill system. When I was running Shadowrun Strike I'd usually have a run in mind, I'd plan a few encounters the players might have on that run and a basic outline of the geography of the place, then the skill system would determine if the party actually had the encounters or were able to avoid them. ----- One resource I miss from my 4E D&D game when I run Strike is an easy-to-use monster generator. Like when I'm prepping 4E D&D five minutes before the game I can go, "I need a level 8 monstrous humanoid opponent", flick to the back of the Monster Vault book and go, "OK, Ettin Thug, level 8 brute, page 119" and the monster's stats are already calculated and ready to go. I'd pay money for a Strike Monster Vault full of pre-made monsters with the stats pre-calculated, basically. Gort fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Apr 19, 2021 |
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Apr 19, 2021 16:21
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Good to know! That implies that I know what encounters will be coming, and am expecting the players to make the necessary choices leading up to those encounters. That, or to make encounters generic enough to slot in whatever enemy/faction gets tagged. I’ll take a look at the encounter rules  ).Gort posted:Yeah, you can pre-prepare level-appropriate encounters though and reskin on the fly. You can prep, say, a fight against two defenders and two snipers, and that'll be mechanically satisfying whether it's orcs or space zombies the party actually ends up encountering. What happens if the players instead decide to antagonize a group that doesn’t mechanically fit into the scenario you prepped for the game? e.g. you have a scenario for a group of orcs and the party decides to pick a fight with the pope? Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Apr 19, 2021 |
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Apr 19, 2021 16:23
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Pollyanna posted:What happens if the players instead decide to antagonize a group that doesn’t mechanically fit into the scenario you prepped for the game? e.g. you have a scenario for a group of orcs and the party decides to pick a fight with the pope? The pope has the same stats as the orc warlock you prepped earlier, except he throws holy bolts instead of necrotic ones and summons the Archangel Gabriel instead of Orcus the Demon Lord
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Apr 19, 2021 16:28
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What if I didn’t prep an orc warlock  Really, I should just make a Deck of Encounters at that point. Wouldn’t be hard to just pre-make a bunch of them and pull out the one I need. Or, I can just say gently caress it, it’s not combat and you’re doing skill rolls instead and we’ll fight later.
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Apr 19, 2021 16:46
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I'm not sure how long or frequent your session typically are but I usually more-or-less alternate RP and combat session, so I have time to prep the appropriate fights.
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Apr 19, 2021 19:20
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I am going to be the voice of dissent here and say that you can totally improvise encounters mid-session for systems with a tactical battle layer. On virtual tabletop I just take ten and tell the players to draw the battle map based on my description while I draft the opposition, before the plague era we did likewise with the battle map, except the players used my random assortment of Lego blocs.
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Apr 19, 2021 19:49
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Oh, I fully agree. I'd just rather not put the game on hold for ten minutes so I prep what I think they're likely to encounter and reskin if something changes
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Apr 19, 2021 19:54
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Gort posted:Oh, I fully agree. I'd just rather not put the game on hold for ten minutes so I prep what I think they're likely to encounter and reskin if something changes Snack time! Stretch your legs!
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Apr 19, 2021 20:01
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Subjunctive posted:Snack time! Stretch your legs! Except then the GM doesn't get either of those.
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Apr 19, 2021 20:14
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homullus posted:Except then the GM doesn't get either of those. gming is suffering
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Apr 19, 2021 20:35
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It's worth noting Strike does have SOME sample monster templates, like a dozen iirc, and I regularly just use those, especially for new players since they rely on simple effects. So maybe you didn't prep an orc warlock to easily reskin into a dwarven pope, but you can just look in the book at one of the 3-4 "caster-ish" templates and say oh ok they're a blaster and you're off to the races. Once you're more comfortable you can start ad libbing a bit too, like maybe you wanted to use a big hulking enemy but the Brute template didn't quite look right for this giant lashing vine monster... so you give the brute +1 Reach. Yeah that probably makes them a bit stronger but that's fine. Or you replace the Sniper template's 2 extra damage ability with an "ongoing 1 damage" ability because that enemy is shooting poisoned darts.
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Apr 19, 2021 21:31
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Countblanc posted:It's worth noting Strike does have SOME sample monster templates, like a dozen iirc, and I regularly just use those, especially for new players since they rely on simple effects. So maybe you didn't prep an orc warlock to easily reskin into a dwarven pope, but you can just look in the book at one of the 3-4 "caster-ish" templates and say oh ok they're a blaster and you're off to the races. There's more to a monster than picking a template, though. You have to calculate the hitpoints on it, give it extra powers if it's level 4 or 8, more extra powers if it's level 6 or higher, modify it some more if it's level 10 or 12, and do any goon/elite/champion conversion you need. It's not a ton, but it's a lot more work than "open book, stats are there". Some of those are in the book, but it'd be great to have more.
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Apr 19, 2021 22:49
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homullus posted:Except then the GM doesn't get either of those. Have them bring you snacks, and walk while you think! Maybe?
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Apr 19, 2021 23:43
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Gort posted:There's more to a monster than picking a template, though. You have to calculate the hitpoints on it, give it extra powers if it's level 4 or 8, more extra powers if it's level 6 or higher, modify it some more if it's level 10 or 12, and do any goon/elite/champion conversion you need. I made a buncha 'pre-modulated' monsters for world of ruin catering because I have dozens of beautiful miniatures and it's fun having stats for them. It doesn't always make for balanced combats though.
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Apr 20, 2021 03:36
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I’m sure you can GM fiat “oh no the monster tripped teehee” if the battle is too hard or something.
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Apr 20, 2021 03:45
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I wrote up a little bestiary of common monsters for one of my prior strike games a while back for throwing together quick encounters or providing minions for major fights, but these days I mostly do more involved fights with a lot of unique mechanics.
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Apr 20, 2021 03:48
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Pollyanna posted:Good to know! That implies that I know what encounters will be coming, and am expecting the players to make the necessary choices leading up to those encounters. That, or to make encounters generic enough to slot in whatever enemy/faction gets tagged. Something I think is worthwhile is making sure to do a scene where you establish the broad strokes of the players next moves at the end of the previous session. Strike lends itself to big raids and dungeon runs and like, multi part missions pretty well, so you can establish that the players want to raid King Bastards, or burn down the Pie Palace, or sneak aboard the skycarrier, or whatever. That gives you time to prep and sets up an expectation of what you are doing without it being "this week you're going to do this because I said so" - I think in any kind of prep heavy game there's a line to be walked with prep vs railroading, and getting the players buy in on the next prepared early should sidestep a lot of the issues on that front. Strike supports wild twists and turns, but it's also a tactical game with some crunch, and it's a lot easier to meld those things together if you establish the framework up front to get the players and GM on the same page.
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Apr 20, 2021 13:59
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