Trad Games Chat: squabbled over drafts, forked, and disbanded

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Trad Games Chat: squabbled over drafts, forked, and disbanded

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ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Fiction first games really take the sting out of players really not wanting or paying attention to the adventure you had planned ahead. Its a huge relief to not plan anything ahead and still have a fun time. Nothing can be ruined because you had nothing set up.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2021 18:23

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 18:43

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Charts are for babies. I loved Shadowrun second edition�s skill tree.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2021 05:42

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

super sweet best pal posted:

Feel like the admins wasted an opportunity not changing TradGames' Halloween name to the "The Funk of 40,000 Years" line from Thriller.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2021 09:54

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

What's the full title of Lancer? can't find it on Amazon and it doesn't show up in systems of RPG driverthrough.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2021 09:57

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

1st Stage Midboss posted:

They only sell it on their itch.io page, so you wouldn't find it on Drivethru.

That's an... odd... choice. What's up with that?

ninjoatse.cx fucked around with this message at 11:03 on Oct 17, 2021

# ¿ Oct 17, 2021 11:01

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Lemon-Lime posted:

They don't need the exposure and the itch.io cut is as low as you want to set it, instead of the DTRPG cut being 30-35%.

Didn't know DTRPG was app store levels of grift.

Lancer's that popular just from word of mouth?

# ¿ Oct 17, 2021 11:13

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

FMguru posted:

HarnManor.

HarnManor.

HARNMANOR

My great escapist fantasy isn't to be a super buff courageous hero wielding a great hammer, but to be a middle manager deciding which proportions of barley and hay to grow.

ninjoatse.cx fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Oct 21, 2021

# ¿ Oct 21, 2021 16:51

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

FMguru posted:

The best detail is near the bottom of the first image, where you can see that the rules require that your lord actually have to make a roll in order to convince his serfs to change what they're planting.

Fireballin' m'small folk because they planted rye AGAIN

# ¿ Oct 21, 2021 17:58

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Just finished by read through of Blades in the Dark. There's very little information given about the areas outside Duskwall. Are there splat books that cover these, or are they supposed to be vague so that characters can make up the details like some games have spout lore? There are exp rewards for delving into your background.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2021 05:37

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Splicer posted:

There's a bit of an issue with that kind of system in that there's clear "best" breakpoints. The jump from 4 to 5 isn't as big as 5 to 6 and nothing is as good as the jumps from 3 to 4, 7 to 8, 11 to 12 etc. The "easy" solution is to only allow purchases in breakpoints, so 4 is base, then you go to 8, 12, 16 etc and 9 just doesn't exist as a stat you can take. You don't see that as a setup very often though.

Do dice modifiers affect what you need to roll, or just the value of what you roll on the dice for a skill check? If it's the former, then just let the rules ride as is.

Shadowrun's 1st through 3rd editions were much maligned for its target number systems where the probability lept all over the place, but in practice it actually played very well at the table.

ninjoatse.cx fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Oct 31, 2021

# ¿ Oct 31, 2021 04:23

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Whybird posted:

Surely the correct answer is Everyone Is John.

lol, this sounds like the winner

# ¿ Nov 1, 2021 02:58

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Just gave Spire a peep. Anyone played it? How�s it compare to Blades in the Dark? Mechanics look similar at a glance.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2021 08:33

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Anyone use the pro fantasy map making software?

https://www.humblebundle.com/softwa..._softwarebundle

# ¿ Nov 3, 2021 03:38

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

I know FASA didn't do full picture covers because the books would often get marred from people leafing through them. They did stone for fantasy and circuitry for things like Shadowrun.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2021 20:59

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

If bad poo poo happens no matter what you do, it's really just the GM roping people into playing his own misery porn.

This is fine, if it's the game (i.e. Call of Cthulhu, Heart), but loads of people play TTRPGs as a form of escapism. Even if you're used to playing with veteran groups who've done all of that before, there's still a huge draw in getting new loot, going up levels, and being hailed as a hero.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2021 15:23

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Have all of the towns folk really hate the PCs for interloping, and make them deal with why the town is so bummed out all of the time (a cult of an evil god has taken route, and they've been extorting all of the townsfolk for their money and worship).

# ¿ Nov 19, 2021 16:40

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

I'm about half way through reading 13th age, and I really wonder what why they kept the attributes the way they did. They did a better job at making "no bad attribute", but you still need to have your attributes since your saves now depend on every stat, and your class still needs 1, 2, or 3 primary stats.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2021 05:16

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Coolness Averted posted:

Don't worry clever and good DMs throw in the classic "ambush while the group was sleeping, you aren't wearing your armor this encounter!" Or
trolly problems to guarantee paladins fall, and all sorts of compelling story gotchas.
Then the sort who love that poo poo go on to become game designers and write clever rules like "actually if you rest in your armor here's the ongoing penalty you take"
Weirdly enough they never make a "As a wizard or cleric you don't get access to your magic until after you spend 5 minute pondering your orb or praying."
Yes, yes they have equivalent "you must have time to prep" but the ambush during camp is never "Oh the barbarian was oiling their axe and has it ready and the fighter is in full plate. Sorry Amazing Rando, you were in the middle of readying spells, so lose access to all of your class features this encounter."

The trope is literally "taking the wizard's spellbook". In 2nd edition D&D, if the wizard loses their spellbook, they're pretty much screwed. As a result, it ends up being a once in a campaign plot device or else it got old fast. Adding an unseen challenge , but turning a character into a lump is not.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2021 06:30

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

bbcisdabomb posted:

A friend of mine was looking through his Forgotten Realms stuff and came across this picture. He swears it's from an official book but can't remember where. Does anyone recognize it?

The weird thing is there's three signatures on it in different parts. I got closeups of them:

If it helps, this was apparently in a big box of gaming items he picked up from a junk store 15-ish years ago, and he has it in his Spelljammer binder.

That's a trace from the AD&D fiend folio.

edit: https://www.amazon.com/Fiend-Folio-Creatures-Malevolent-Advanced/dp/0935696210

ninjoatse.cx fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Dec 3, 2021

# ¿ Dec 3, 2021 05:30

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Xiahou Dun posted:

I ain�t mean to put you on blast, hoss. I just� That�s some pretty bog-standard I-learned-this-in-3rd-grade cursive.

Can�t even imagine what you�d think of my gross scrawl.

It clearly says amante da anime :colbert:

# ¿ Dec 7, 2021 16:14

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

You know there are real world religions that wash things with animal pee pee and put the pee pee in their mouths and bathe in the pee pee.

I'm glad my table top group isn't so deep into meta that they'd probably get a huge laugh out of the scenario and would go to comically far lengths not to touch the pee pee in any way, shape, or form.

pee pee

# ¿ Dec 17, 2021 18:47

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Plutonis posted:

The neurotypicals of this forum

The null set

# ¿ Dec 19, 2021 08:20

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

RPGs I really want to run:

Blades in the Dark (would love to get my real life group to switch to this, if we ever go back to work)
Dungeons & Dragons 5e (when I find a VTT I like)
13th Age
Nobilis (again)

# ¿ Dec 20, 2021 03:57

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

KingKalamari posted:

There's two sort of thoughts I have in regards to the fantasy dominance of TTRPGs:

The first is the simple fact that D&D is not only the most well known and successful TTRPG property, but also the general "face" most people associate with roleplaying games in general. As has often been discussed on this forum: to many people, roleplaying IS D&D and that leads to the particular strain of fantasy D&D traffics in being a lot of people's understood default as to the type of setting and assumptions of RPGs as a whole. The "D&D-like fantasy" setting has also become a very broadly understood setting archetype that's been picked up by the public at large because of the success of not only D&D but also video games and media that's taken direct inspiration from D&D.

My second idea is one that's a little less fully-formed, so don't mistake the next couple of paragraphs as me speaking authoritatively or making strong assertations. This is going to be much more a case of me working out ideas by thinking aloud...

I feel like the origins and conventions of the science fiction and fantasy genres leads to the public at large having a much clearer picture of what a generic fantasy setting looks like vs a generic sci fi one. The fantasy genre as we know it largely emerged as an outgrowth of older folk and mythological storytelling traditions which heavily dealt in things like archetypes and existing tales that were changed and expanded upon as they moved from one teller to another. This not only leads the fantasy genre being better geared to support characters that can be moved across settings within the genre without feeling out of place (To a degree), it also affects how settings are designed within the fantasy genre.

The philosophy that separates science fiction from fantasy also plays into this: While there are exceptions and edge cases, what's really at the core of a science fiction story is exploring how a particular piece of technology or hypothetical scientific principle interacts with people and society: It's very much focused on exploring the granular details of speculative scientific ideas. That's why a lot of science fiction settings are built around the idea of a particular piece of technology existing, whether that's FTL, cybernetic augmentation, mind uploading, time travel, etc. This kind of makes it harder to make a generic, kitchen sink sci fi setting because it would necessitate including a lot of different speculative technologies from a lot of different types of subgenres and, because the genre as a whole is more concerned with the how these technologies interact, it's going to make something that feels very different from any of the stories it borrows ideas from.

Like, Alien would have been a very different film if they had lightsabers or mind uploading, or time travel.

Pretty much this. It's also worth nothing that you can fit a ton of fantasy settings into D&D, and run loads of different campaigns with it. Much less so for sci fi. This also makes every fantasy setting occupy a mind space with D&D. Every souls-like can fit into D&D pretty nicely with just a bit of tweaking. Nobody's playing more Star Wars when Cyberpunk 2077 came out.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2021 22:28

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

e: nm

# ¿ Dec 23, 2021 00:02

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

pog boyfriend posted:

for sci fi i have been playing stars without numbers and have been having a good time with it

That reminds me,

I had an idea for a homebrew star-faring campaign. Basically the PCs would be on a ship and be going to different planets with different races and cultures. Combat would happen, but would not really be the focus of a campaign.

Any recommendations for a good system for giving this a go? I got Starfinder, but D7D in space is a bit too D&D in space.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2021 20:47

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Siivola posted:

That sounds like a Star Trek adventure so uh

Star Trek Adventures?

I was thinking more first person stellaris. Is the system robust enough for handling things not in the TV show? I've never been super duper into star trek.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2021 20:59

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

S.J. posted:

As well, the big breakthroughs in RPG streaming started with 4th edition D&D's Penny Arcade stuff and mostly stuck with D&D from there.

Was PA's stuff every really big? I remember them doing it, but I don't remember it more than one of their side projects.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2021 22:08

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

PerniciousKnid posted:

I must've gotten bored of AI by then because I don't remember this at all. Kinda want to find it now.

Any write ups or links?

# ¿ Dec 25, 2021 04:59

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Mirage posted:

If you wanna get really out there for your SF space adventures, there's always Transit: The Spaceship RPG, where every PC is an AI and their bodies are starships crewed by filthy biologicals.

I didn't until I read this.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2021 08:36

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Coolness Averted posted:

I think it was blipped out as a potential thing in the same way any house rules are allowed, but yeah I remember the 3.5 PHB is written from the assumption of grids and mats.

Moving away from just bashing the Bad Game, I wonder what really is the best reaction to emergent gameplay stuff in a non digital game.
Like do you errata in nerfs and buffs, write clarification posts, Or just roll with it? If the players want the game to be focused on X instead of Y let's write future materials with those updated assumptions?

With older games the toothpaste was kind of out of the tube until a new edition, but with modern digital distribution for most RPGs and selling folks subscriptions to tools I think it would be easier to make adjustments.

I just started reading Tasha's Cauldron for 5e and the opening section pretty much says "if you don't like the original rules, just swap them out. Or don't." With a ton of optional house rules. The solution is to make the DMs/player pay money for a new physical book that explains you can obviously house rule stuff, if the DM agrees.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2021 07:48

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Siivola posted:

5E also hides the map rules in the DMG, which sucks because I would actually like to know what the difference between a sphere and a cube is.

I see it on page 204 of the PHB. Am I missing something?

# ¿ Dec 26, 2021 08:03

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

My Lovely Horse posted:

But look there is a funny gnome and he explains game concepts diegetically.

IMMERSION

Wizards know the shapes their spells effect, and new wizzies gotta learn somehow. Immersion maintained :colbert:

CitizenKeen posted:

I think about this constantly. I think it's why a 6th Edition D&D is super far off. They'll release new PHBs, and they'll be backwards compatible, but they'll be backwards compatible with the current state of the game up through some book (like Tasha's or whatever). WotC wants games as a service.

They could print their own money by doing what they've been outsourcing and/or getting a VTT thingie going.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2021 10:11

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Splicer posted:

I think it would have to be a game where everyone's a wizard or wizard variant because otherwise you've got this super in depth minigame only one person is playing. Which is why it just gets glossed over in D&D because there's 3 to 5 other people at the table with 0 interest in spending half the session watching Jim play wizard librarian.

Just play Shadowrun. You can play with each individual player separately for hours and still advance the story. Might actually be better that way.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2021 02:28

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

What exactly is the game drive of glitch? I played nobilis, so I�m familiar with the setting, but i don�t see what you�d do that was different than playing a power.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2021 08:09

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Thanks for the write up!

What about chuubo�s? Is it much more light hearted? The descriptions mention ghibli movies and i�m trying to picture kiki�s delivery service married to the world of Nobilis.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2021 08:46

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

Is it more of a collaborative story telling thing? What role does the GM play?

# ¿ Dec 29, 2021 09:17

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

VTT really suffers from the fact that there's no "clear winner" in terms of features, ease of use, and cost. No reason to really invest in one platform when there are a half dozen of them and your userbase is split between them.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2021 23:45

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

pog boyfriend posted:

yeah there is. tabletop simulator baby!!!!!!!!!! lets go!!!!!!!!!! (moving poorly rendered 3d model of sonic that someone insisted they should use for a fig glitches collision and causes a nearby tree to fly around the screen violently and lags everyone)

My players discovered the table flip button before I did :eng99:

# ¿ Dec 31, 2021 05:23

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 18:43

ninjoatse.cx: Apr 9, 2005; Fun Shoe

It's kinda not a good thing. The closest analogies are video game consoles if everyone would need to have the same console to play together. Crossplay is much better for the lifecycle of any given game, but barring that, having everyone on one system is the best way for a gaming system to thrive.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2021 22:26

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Trad Games Chat: squabbled over drafts, forked, and disbanded

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