Thanks for the input, guys. (Especially Jacobkosh; I did like the sound of several of those).
I think my GM wants to do some sort of high fantasy campaign next, but we're in agreement that focus should be on non-combat stuff.
Anything stand-out in the non-combat fantasy genre?
Fellowship. I haven't played it, but I see it pop up constantly.
Essentially, the DM is NotSauron, and each player is representative of their respective races. The elf, dwarf, human, halfling, etc. The kicker here is that each player has pretty much carte blanche to how their race's civilization works.
I did pick this up, still haven't played it.
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
That was one of the nice things about 4E. You could white-room a "best build" for a specific class but that best-build might be outperformed by one that you built specifically to work with your team.
even simple shit that doesnt pan out mechanically is super fun
i think one time in a huge fight with a village of minotaurs i cast a wall of fire on a bunch of minotaurs surrounding the fighter? Something about if they tried to walk away he could hit them and if he hit they got stuck
Burning Wheel is the thing that I pitch whenever someone says something about playing a fantasy RPG. It's got great non-combat stuff, including what are essentially social combat rules. To top it all off, combat is horrifyingly lethal, giving your players every reason to avoid ever getting into it.
Thanks for the input, guys. (Especially Jacobkosh; I did like the sound of several of those).
I think my GM wants to do some sort of high fantasy campaign next, but we're in agreement that focus should be on non-combat stuff.
Anything stand-out in the non-combat fantasy genre?
Fellowship. I haven't played it, but I see it pop up constantly.
Essentially, the DM is NotSauron, and each player is representative of their respective races. The elf, dwarf, human, halfling, etc. The kicker here is that each player has pretty much carte blanche to how their race's civilization works.
In that same area, wasn't The One Ring supposed to be pretty good? I've never played it myself but I recall hearing good things about it.
The One Ring is one of my favorite RPGs ever.
Jacobkosh on
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VanguardBut now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERSregular
To answer some questions over the last few pages:
Torchbearer is a game that absolutely requires teamwork to get anything done. It is definitely focused on the nitty gritty of dungeon crawling with some light RP elements built on top of it, but you pretty much can't do anything without support.
As far as RP goes, Burning Wheel is the most robust system I've ever played (the same goes for combat too). It's a game that has a lot of moving parts that, while many are optional, requires everyone to really be on the same page; be that at some level of rules mastery or willing to learn. Players that just want to show up, roll their dice when the GM tells them to, and go home will be dead weight that everyone at the table will have to shoulder. If you can find the right group, it will be among the best RPG experiences you'll ever have; if not you'll wonder why it receives the praise it does.
Apocalypse/Dungeon World is a nice middle ground between the traditional D20 system and the more story game-oriented stuff. If I was going to introduce someone to RPGs today (or try and get hardcore D20 gamers out of their box) I would start here as the system is simple, fast, and fun. I do feel that it's a little shallow so players who need some deep mechanical systems to sink their teeth into will be disappointed after a few sessions. I would also caution new GMs to not reward bad behavior; we had player who was a Wizard and every new topic that came up he would lead, "Let me spout some lore." This is obviously the GMs fault for not pushing back, but players need to describe their character doing something rather than calling out moves for this to work as intended.
Anything stand-out in the non-combat fantasy genre?
People usually talk about spellbound kingdoms from the setting side, which is fair because the setting and the rules compliment each other really well and help build a cohesive theme for the game.
I'm falling in love with the game for the mechanics, however, and think it might replace 13th age for my standard fantasy rpg of choice.
I've been playing around with the idea of doing a "let's read", because there's a lot to unpack, but brief overview:
-characters have inspirations. Inspirations are things/people/ideals/goals that a character loves/hates/fears. It's why your character gets up in the morning, and as long as they are sufficiently strong a character (NPC or PC) cannot be removed from the game permanently. This solves the "PC dies in a narratively unsatisfactory way" AND the "oh no my players killed the big bad in the first encounter through sheer luck" problem. If someone is important enough to have high inspiration, you have to ruin their marriage and take down their criminal organization before you can get to them permanently. Inspirations are built up through dedicated roleplay, and can be torn down by attacking the focus of the inspiration or by social combat.
Characters also have Mood, a resource that acts as HP and a way to maximize rolls on demand. Mood is recovered through RP, spending time (and resources) doing something your character loves, some class features, even some attacks. If your mood ever reaches 0, a) you're easier to kill in actual combat because mood can soak damage and be used to maximize defensive/offensive rolls and b) your inspirations can be damaged through social combat, as you're so emotionally vulnerable someone can shake your faith in your deepest convictions
Mood ties everything together. You care about social combat because it can damage your mood, which can damage your inspirations, which can make you worse at combat and vulnerable to death.
-speaking of which: social combat. Social combat is vital in this game, and gets a lot of love. There are lots of effects social attacks can have depending on the intent, usually it's a straight opposed charisma roll to damage Mood, but you can also lift your allies moods, raise your own reputation with a watching faction, ect. Fashion items exist which can add bonuses to social combat, and even new moves (for example, having a fashionable pet lets you stare at it, pretending you didn't hear someone's social attack.) If that's not enough, the game comes with some improv style social games for groups that would be into that sort of thing, adding a mini-game element to a set-piece social encounter.
-actual combat is also really interesting. Players fight using combat styles. Each style is a flowchart of maneuvers, allowing you to try and combo maneuvers together or build up to a big finisher. What I especially love is that for most of the attacks, your attack roll and your damage is tied to the maneuver and isn't affected by your stats. For the most part, stats only act as a minimum score you need to reach to be in a style. This means that the math stays flat across all 20 levels: you get better mainly by getting more options. This also works because most people just have like 5 meat hitpoints, with the rest being their mood, so even one damage is significant.
-Magic is powerful, and isn't tied to vancian casting. There's a mix of lists of spells and freeform magic (with guidelines). The catch is that casting spells in the vicinity of other spellcasters or magic items can cause "surges" of power, which causes damage to all spellcasters in the area scaled to how many spellcasters there are: this can get lethal, fast. Usually this isn't a big deal, most of the time the spell only interferes in close proximity and a spellcaster can remove themselves from other casters. But to cast powerful high spells they need to draw on power from the greater region: suddenly you're putting every spellcaster in the city at risk... And they'll be able to trace who caused the surge.
Oh, and also if a surge critically hits anyone, it becomes a crisis surge and really weird, bad magical effects happen.
- the game is really good at giving you a cruel world, and then giving the players more and more agency to change it. Your characters are expected to eventually start or take over organizations, and theres rules for how organizations interact with each other and with the surrounding landscape. Gaining levels makes you stronger as an individual but more importantly makes you more narratively powerful. Because combat is dictated by your combat styles, your classes serve as ways that you impact the narrative
- warriors are hands down best at combat, and also excel at leading troops on the battlefield
-savages are a combination of barbarian and ranger, they focus less on armies and weapons and armor, and more on their own abilities, building a tribe, and fulfilling vision quests
- Wizards are best at magic, which is very narratively powerful.
- fixers can do mad Science and alchemy, but crucially can undo any magical effect or disease
- engineers eventually build great wonders that can change the course of wars or nations
- traders, from level one, can see what Inspires people and affect inspirations more easily. They are also good at having connections, and selling people on anything (including ideas).
- nobles start the game with an organization, and with more money, and their abilities in social combat can be devastating
- rogues ambush, sneak ect. But they are also great at running underground shadowy organizations, and their fake identies and sham organizations can take a life of their own and become real in later levels.
- assassin's are like rogues, but you trade away a lot of the fake identity/shadow organization stuff for one simple ability: you can kill anyone, regardless of their inspiration.
- last but not least, the Chosen One is an archetype that gives you a destiny, and as you grow into it you get zealots who will die for you, and the ability to change a regions culture overnight.
I'm on mobile, so I'll wrap this post up, but there is so much to love. I haven't even touched on the setting (which integrates all of the mechanics and builds a world by taking them to their logical conclusion in the narrative) and extensive sample stunt table (swashbuckling stunts are highly encouraged and examples for mechanical consequences are abundant, my favourite is "using a nearby puppy/grandmother as a human shield, " which damages the reputation of you and the attacker severely if they hit you, and a chain of stunt involving sipping tea while fencing.)
If anyone has questions, I've pored over this book for like a month now and will talk about it for days.
Anything stand-out in the non-combat fantasy genre?
People usually talk about spellbound kingdoms from the setting side, which is fair because the setting and the rules compliment each other really well and help build a cohesive theme for the game.
I'm falling in love with the game for the mechanics, however, and think it might replace 13th age for my standard fantasy rpg of choice.
I've been playing around with the idea of doing a "let's read", because there's a lot to unpack, but brief overview:
-characters have inspirations. Inspirations are things/people/ideals/goals that a character loves/hates/fears. It's why your character gets up in the morning, and as long as they are sufficiently strong a character (NPC or PC) cannot be removed from the game permanently. This solves the "PC dies in a narratively unsatisfactory way" AND the "oh no my players killed the big bad in the first encounter through sheer luck" problem. If someone is important enough to have high inspiration, you have to ruin their marriage and take down their criminal organization before you can get to them permanently. Inspirations are built up through dedicated roleplay, and can be torn down by attacking the focus of the inspiration or by social combat.
Characters also have Mood, a resource that acts as HP and a way to maximize rolls on demand. Mood is recovered through RP, spending time (and resources) doing something your character loves, some class features, even some attacks. If your mood ever reaches 0, a) you're easier to kill in actual combat because mood can soak damage and be used to maximize defensive/offensive rolls and b) your inspirations can be damaged through social combat, as you're so emotionally vulnerable someone can shake your faith in your deepest convictions
Mood ties everything together. You care about social combat because it can damage your mood, which can damage your inspirations, which can make you worse at combat and vulnerable to death.
-speaking of which: social combat. Social combat is vital in this game, and gets a lot of love. There are lots of effects social attacks can have depending on the intent, usually it's a straight opposed charisma roll to damage Mood, but you can also lift your allies moods, raise your own reputation with a watching faction, ect. Fashion items exist which can add bonuses to social combat, and even new moves (for example, having a fashionable pet lets you stare at it, pretending you didn't hear someone's social attack.) If that's not enough, the game comes with some improv style social games for groups that would be into that sort of thing, adding a mini-game element to a set-piece social encounter.
-actual combat is also really interesting. Players fight using combat styles. Each style is a flowchart of maneuvers, allowing you to try and combo maneuvers together or build up to a big finisher. What I especially love is that for most of the attacks, your attack roll and your damage is tied to the maneuver and isn't affected by your stats. For the most part, stats only act as a minimum score you need to reach to be in a style. This means that the math stays flat across all 20 levels: you get better mainly by getting more options. This also works because most people just have like 5 meat hitpoints, with the rest being their mood, so even one damage is significant.
-Magic is powerful, and isn't tied to vancian casting. There's a mix of lists of spells and freeform magic (with guidelines). The catch is that casting spells in the vicinity of other spellcasters or magic items can cause "surges" of power, which causes damage to all spellcasters in the area scaled to how many spellcasters there are: this can get lethal, fast. Usually this isn't a big deal, most of the time the spell only interferes in close proximity and a spellcaster can remove themselves from other casters. But to cast powerful high spells they need to draw on power from the greater region: suddenly you're putting every spellcaster in the city at risk... And they'll be able to trace who caused the surge.
Oh, and also if a surge critically hits anyone, it becomes a crisis surge and really weird, bad magical effects happen.
- the game is really good at giving you a cruel world, and then giving the players more and more agency to change it. Your characters are expected to eventually start or take over organizations, and theres rules for how organizations interact with each other and with the surrounding landscape. Gaining levels makes you stronger as an individual but more importantly makes you more narratively powerful. Because combat is dictated by your combat styles, your classes serve as ways that you impact the narrative
- warriors are hands down best at combat, and also excel at leading troops on the battlefield
- Wizards are best at magic, which is very narratively powerful.
- fixers can do mad Science and alchemy, but crucially can undo any magical effect or disease
- engineers eventually build great wonders that can change the course of wars or nations
- traders, from level one, can see what Inspires people and affect inspirations more easily. They are also good at having connections, and selling people on anything (including ideas).
- nobles start the game with an organization, and with more money, and their abilities in social combat can be devastating
- rogues ambush, sneak ect. But they are also great at running underground shadowy organizations, and their fake identies and sham organizations can take a life of their own and become real in later levels.
- assassin's are like rogues, but you trade away a lot of the fake identity/shadow organization stuff for one simple ability: you can kill anyone, regardless of their inspiration.
- last but not least, the Chosen One is an archetype that gives you a destiny, and as you grow into it you get zealots who will die for you, and the ability to change a regions culture overnight.
I'm on mobile, so I'll wrap this post up, but there is so much to love. I haven't even touched on the setting (which integrates all of the mechanics and builds a world by taking them to their logical conclusion in the narrative) and extensive sample stunt table (swashbuckling stunts are highly encouraged and examples for mechanical consequences are abundant, my favourite is "using a nearby puppy/grandmother as a human shield, " which damages the reputation of you and the attacker severely if they hit you, and a chain of stunt involving sipping tea while fencing.)
If anyone has questions, I've pored over this book for like a month now and will talk about it for days.
Thank you. You have the system more love than I ever remember to when I describe it, which is a disservice. I've read some of the game journals at Obsidian Portal of people playing campaigns, even the creator's group, but some day I'll try it as well!
Anything stand-out in the non-combat fantasy genre?
People usually talk about spellbound kingdoms from the setting side, which is fair because the setting and the rules compliment each other really well and help build a cohesive theme for the game.
I'm falling in love with the game for the mechanics, however, and think it might replace 13th age for my standard fantasy rpg of choice.
*snip*
If anyone has questions, I've pored over this book for like a month now and will talk about it for days.
Based solely on this, having no additional knowledge about this, I immediately purchased it. I'll probably have questions later, but it sounds amazing.
Diagnosed with AML on 6/1/12. Read about it: www.effleukemia.com
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I just got my first d20 book in over a decade (maybe even a decade and a half) - Starfinder.
My Pathfinder Society GM friend sold me on it. It sounds like an awesome setting.
Also my friend Jay ran an excellent table of a game called Inferno Road on Saturday night at GenCon, to the point where he made some massive contacts and friends, and had people paying $40 a pop to ressurect at his table!
I just got my first d20 book in over a decade (maybe even a decade and a half) - Starfinder.
My Pathfinder Society GM friend sold me on it. It sounds like an awesome setting.
Also my friend Jay ran an excellent table of a game called Inferno Road on Saturday night at GenCon, to the point where he made some massive contacts and friends, and had people paying $40 a pop to ressurect at his table!
I have been reading my Starfinder book at night. Everything I've read I have liked.
Anything stand-out in the non-combat fantasy genre?
People usually talk about spellbound kingdoms from the setting side, which is fair because the setting and the rules compliment each other really well and help build a cohesive theme for the game.
I'm falling in love with the game for the mechanics, however, and think it might replace 13th age for my standard fantasy rpg of choice.
*snip*
If anyone has questions, I've pored over this book for like a month now and will talk about it for days.
Based solely on this, having no additional knowledge about this, I immediately purchased it. I'll probably have questions later, but it sounds amazing.
One of us. One of us.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
What am I rolling in Spellbound Kingdoms? Just because I find the various dice schemes interesting.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
What am I rolling in Spellbound Kingdoms? Just because I find the various dice schemes interesting.
It uses the exploding die mechanic so instead of putting points into quickness and rolling d20 plus those points, you're investing in different die sizes for those attributes. One attribute could be a d4, another could be a d10.
If you roll a 4 on a d4 it's a crit, and you roll a d6 additionally like 5e Advantage and keep the higher result. If you roll a 6 on that d6 it exploded and you roll a d8. If you crit/explode three times one one check/attack you're still keeping just one result, but always the highest you've rolled.
I just got my first d20 book in over a decade (maybe even a decade and a half) - Starfinder.
My Pathfinder Society GM friend sold me on it. It sounds like an awesome setting.
Also my friend Jay ran an excellent table of a game called Inferno Road on Saturday night at GenCon, to the point where he made some massive contacts and friends, and had people paying $40 a pop to ressurect at his table!
I have been reading my Starfinder book at night. Everything I've read I have liked.
Starfinder works for me a lot because camp science fantasy is so very much my jam and Envoy is a very me class.
Now to just make sure my GM is on board for me making a Catfolk Envoy so I can cheese out my racial stat bonuses.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Aaand.. suddenly I realized why I prefer narrative games.
Well, except Shadowrun. But as I GM that, I'll ALWAYS have better toys than you.
Oh yeah, I think that, while I find more involved games interesting, ultimately I prefer narrative/games which put crunch where the story is (see the 2d20 system) because they encourage player expression way more.
Oh yeah, I think that, while I find more involved games interesting, ultimately I prefer narrative/games which put crunch where the story is (see the 2d20 system) because they encourage player expression way more.
In Star Trek Adventures my awful hippie betazoid doctor always faces a higher difficulty due to the fact that all his medicine is crystal healing or homeopathic.
His assistant and the ship's hologram are furious every single time it works.
Oh yeah, I think that, while I find more involved games interesting, ultimately I prefer narrative/games which put crunch where the story is (see the 2d20 system) because they encourage player expression way more.
In Star Trek Adventures my awful hippie betazoid doctor always faces a higher difficulty due to the fact that all his medicine is crystal healing or homeopathic.
His assistant and the ship's hologram are furious every single time it works.
It works every time.
Our ship also has a Betazoid doctor with dubious medical skill. And we also have an EMH!
For some reason it's really pleasing to be a good-natured pain in the ass in Star Trek Adventures?
@jdarksun our captain is a hyper competent Picard-inspired Trill. @DevoutlyApathetic is our ferengi-raised Science Officer (who cannot overstate his hatred of my science-defiling doctor). @OptimusZed is playing an Action-Captain-track XO who cannot science to save her life or others, but if she throws a punch it's lights out.
So far we've failed to science hard enough at a Nebula, I've completed two autopsies, we disabled a Cardassian fighter, negotiated with a Cardassian cruiser, and a Romulan bird of prey which later blew up THROUGH NO FAULT OF OURS.
Oh and we have a hyper competent NPC chef that my doctor shares his stash with.
What am I rolling in Spellbound Kingdoms? Just because I find the various dice schemes interesting.
It uses the exploding die mechanic so instead of putting points into quickness and rolling d20 plus those points, you're investing in different die sizes for those attributes. One attribute could be a d4, another could be a d10.
If you roll a 4 on a d4 it's a crit, and you roll a d6 additionally like 5e Advantage and keep the higher result. If you roll a 6 on that d6 it exploded and you roll a d8. If you crit/explode three times one one check/attack you're still keeping just one result, but always the highest you've rolled.
Is that mostly accurate, laservisioncat?
Yup, that's how it works! Although if I wanna be a jerk, technically a critical hit happens when someone rolls a 1 on their defense die and the attacker rolled in the upper half of their attack die, which causes you to deal an extra point of damage (and can cause a crisis surge if a wild surge is critically hitting).
Generally you roll is the biggest dice that "fits" in the stat you have. So a strength check with a strength of 7 would be rolling a d6. Stats go up to 12.
The game has no modifiers. Skills are 13th age backgrounds basically, but you can add to them and change them around every sessiona to reflect your growing character. They give you another die to roll when they apply, and you take the best one. This means that if your character is both trained in a skill and naturally high in an associated stat, they are good more consistently but don't actually reach higher numbers than if someone was just skilled on their own. So it's worth picking up skills outside your main stat shtick, which is good because you're encouraged to evolve your skillset based on your experiences.
Also, a characters reputation can act as a skill. If you're known in the land as "The Woman Who suplexed the Duke's bear" you bet you'll forever be better at suplexing, maybe better at bear handling, and definitely better at boasting about it.
Yeah see everyone shits on Voyager but then you've all got EMHs don't you? Mmhmm.
Question about Spellbound Kingdoms: If you only ever roll a die size, why are the stat values a number instead of just a die size? What's the point of all the odd-numbered stat values?
Yeah see everyone shits on Voyager but then you've all got EMHs don't you? Mmhmm.
Question about Spellbound Kingdoms: If you only ever roll a die size, why are the stat values a number instead of just a die size? What's the point of all the odd-numbered stat values?
The EMH was the best part of Voyager. The character arcs of the Doctor and Seven of Nine are the only reasons to watch the show.
Question about Spellbound Kingdoms: If you only ever roll a die size, why are the stat values a number instead of just a die size? What's the point of all the odd-numbered stat values?
It's definitely better to aim for even levels, but in the game there's a plethora of attacks that lower stat values, which doesn't really have an effect in combat until it knocks you out of an attack style and really nerfs your combat abilities, so having that buffer is useful. Also, sometimes your stat number is important (your max reason score caps how many skills you have, your max heart score determines your max mood)
If you're like me you read "lowers stat values" and get 3.5 ptsd of having to recalculate everything about your character, but combat styles are the only real things you have to worry about with lowered scores other than rolling lower dice in skill checks.
Question about Spellbound Kingdoms: If you only ever roll a die size, why are the stat values a number instead of just a die size? What's the point of all the odd-numbered stat values?
It's definitely better to aim for even levels, but in the game there's a plethora of attacks that lower stat values, which doesn't really have an effect in combat until it knocks you out of an attack style and really nerfs your combat abilities, so having that buffer is useful. Also, sometimes your stat number is important (your max reason score caps how many skills you have, your max heart score determines your max mood)
If you're like me you read "lowers stat values" and get 3.5 ptsd of having to recalculate everything about your character, but combat styles are the only real things you have to worry about with lowered scores other than rolling lower dice in skill checks.
It's also probably a bit like D&D with only even numbers providing a modifier bump - to provide meaningful half steps of improvement/degradation.
Diagnosed with AML on 6/1/12. Read about it: www.effleukemia.com
Question about Spellbound Kingdoms: If you only ever roll a die size, why are the stat values a number instead of just a die size? What's the point of all the odd-numbered stat values?
It's definitely better to aim for even levels, but in the game there's a plethora of attacks that lower stat values, which doesn't really have an effect in combat until it knocks you out of an attack style and really nerfs your combat abilities, so having that buffer is useful. Also, sometimes your stat number is important (your max reason score caps how many skills you have, your max heart score determines your max mood)
If you're like me you read "lowers stat values" and get 3.5 ptsd of having to recalculate everything about your character, but combat styles are the only real things you have to worry about with lowered scores other than rolling lower dice in skill checks.
It's also probably a bit like D&D with only even numbers providing a modifier bump - to provide meaningful half steps of improvement/degradation.
Well, and in remember the attribute damage, I'll take an odd number if it means less chance of not being able to use the one or two social abilities/feats my character took because they're more martial or shadow. In this way, attributes and their dice almost directly translate into options. I was looking at my SK core book and just thought to make a party that all belongs to a Noble House organization...
Jon - Chosen One (Martial)
Sansa - Noble
Bran - Wizard
Arya - Assassin
Now tell me that wouldn't be a fun campaign. Fun and/or depressing.
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RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
Posts
I did pick this up, still haven't played it.
even simple shit that doesnt pan out mechanically is super fun
i think one time in a huge fight with a village of minotaurs i cast a wall of fire on a bunch of minotaurs surrounding the fighter? Something about if they tried to walk away he could hit them and if he hit they got stuck
in the fire
burn baby burn
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
The One Ring is one of my favorite RPGs ever.
Torchbearer is a game that absolutely requires teamwork to get anything done. It is definitely focused on the nitty gritty of dungeon crawling with some light RP elements built on top of it, but you pretty much can't do anything without support.
As far as RP goes, Burning Wheel is the most robust system I've ever played (the same goes for combat too). It's a game that has a lot of moving parts that, while many are optional, requires everyone to really be on the same page; be that at some level of rules mastery or willing to learn. Players that just want to show up, roll their dice when the GM tells them to, and go home will be dead weight that everyone at the table will have to shoulder. If you can find the right group, it will be among the best RPG experiences you'll ever have; if not you'll wonder why it receives the praise it does.
Apocalypse/Dungeon World is a nice middle ground between the traditional D20 system and the more story game-oriented stuff. If I was going to introduce someone to RPGs today (or try and get hardcore D20 gamers out of their box) I would start here as the system is simple, fast, and fun. I do feel that it's a little shallow so players who need some deep mechanical systems to sink their teeth into will be disappointed after a few sessions. I would also caution new GMs to not reward bad behavior; we had player who was a Wizard and every new topic that came up he would lead, "Let me spout some lore." This is obviously the GMs fault for not pushing back, but players need to describe their character doing something rather than calling out moves for this to work as intended.
People usually talk about spellbound kingdoms from the setting side, which is fair because the setting and the rules compliment each other really well and help build a cohesive theme for the game.
I'm falling in love with the game for the mechanics, however, and think it might replace 13th age for my standard fantasy rpg of choice.
I've been playing around with the idea of doing a "let's read", because there's a lot to unpack, but brief overview:
-characters have inspirations. Inspirations are things/people/ideals/goals that a character loves/hates/fears. It's why your character gets up in the morning, and as long as they are sufficiently strong a character (NPC or PC) cannot be removed from the game permanently. This solves the "PC dies in a narratively unsatisfactory way" AND the "oh no my players killed the big bad in the first encounter through sheer luck" problem. If someone is important enough to have high inspiration, you have to ruin their marriage and take down their criminal organization before you can get to them permanently. Inspirations are built up through dedicated roleplay, and can be torn down by attacking the focus of the inspiration or by social combat.
Characters also have Mood, a resource that acts as HP and a way to maximize rolls on demand. Mood is recovered through RP, spending time (and resources) doing something your character loves, some class features, even some attacks. If your mood ever reaches 0, a) you're easier to kill in actual combat because mood can soak damage and be used to maximize defensive/offensive rolls and b) your inspirations can be damaged through social combat, as you're so emotionally vulnerable someone can shake your faith in your deepest convictions
Mood ties everything together. You care about social combat because it can damage your mood, which can damage your inspirations, which can make you worse at combat and vulnerable to death.
-speaking of which: social combat. Social combat is vital in this game, and gets a lot of love. There are lots of effects social attacks can have depending on the intent, usually it's a straight opposed charisma roll to damage Mood, but you can also lift your allies moods, raise your own reputation with a watching faction, ect. Fashion items exist which can add bonuses to social combat, and even new moves (for example, having a fashionable pet lets you stare at it, pretending you didn't hear someone's social attack.) If that's not enough, the game comes with some improv style social games for groups that would be into that sort of thing, adding a mini-game element to a set-piece social encounter.
-actual combat is also really interesting. Players fight using combat styles. Each style is a flowchart of maneuvers, allowing you to try and combo maneuvers together or build up to a big finisher. What I especially love is that for most of the attacks, your attack roll and your damage is tied to the maneuver and isn't affected by your stats. For the most part, stats only act as a minimum score you need to reach to be in a style. This means that the math stays flat across all 20 levels: you get better mainly by getting more options. This also works because most people just have like 5 meat hitpoints, with the rest being their mood, so even one damage is significant.
-Magic is powerful, and isn't tied to vancian casting. There's a mix of lists of spells and freeform magic (with guidelines). The catch is that casting spells in the vicinity of other spellcasters or magic items can cause "surges" of power, which causes damage to all spellcasters in the area scaled to how many spellcasters there are: this can get lethal, fast. Usually this isn't a big deal, most of the time the spell only interferes in close proximity and a spellcaster can remove themselves from other casters. But to cast powerful high spells they need to draw on power from the greater region: suddenly you're putting every spellcaster in the city at risk... And they'll be able to trace who caused the surge.
Oh, and also if a surge critically hits anyone, it becomes a crisis surge and really weird, bad magical effects happen.
- the game is really good at giving you a cruel world, and then giving the players more and more agency to change it. Your characters are expected to eventually start or take over organizations, and theres rules for how organizations interact with each other and with the surrounding landscape. Gaining levels makes you stronger as an individual but more importantly makes you more narratively powerful. Because combat is dictated by your combat styles, your classes serve as ways that you impact the narrative
- warriors are hands down best at combat, and also excel at leading troops on the battlefield
-savages are a combination of barbarian and ranger, they focus less on armies and weapons and armor, and more on their own abilities, building a tribe, and fulfilling vision quests
- Wizards are best at magic, which is very narratively powerful.
- fixers can do mad Science and alchemy, but crucially can undo any magical effect or disease
- engineers eventually build great wonders that can change the course of wars or nations
- traders, from level one, can see what Inspires people and affect inspirations more easily. They are also good at having connections, and selling people on anything (including ideas).
- nobles start the game with an organization, and with more money, and their abilities in social combat can be devastating
- rogues ambush, sneak ect. But they are also great at running underground shadowy organizations, and their fake identies and sham organizations can take a life of their own and become real in later levels.
- assassin's are like rogues, but you trade away a lot of the fake identity/shadow organization stuff for one simple ability: you can kill anyone, regardless of their inspiration.
- last but not least, the Chosen One is an archetype that gives you a destiny, and as you grow into it you get zealots who will die for you, and the ability to change a regions culture overnight.
I'm on mobile, so I'll wrap this post up, but there is so much to love. I haven't even touched on the setting (which integrates all of the mechanics and builds a world by taking them to their logical conclusion in the narrative) and extensive sample stunt table (swashbuckling stunts are highly encouraged and examples for mechanical consequences are abundant, my favourite is "using a nearby puppy/grandmother as a human shield, " which damages the reputation of you and the attacker severely if they hit you, and a chain of stunt involving sipping tea while fencing.)
If anyone has questions, I've pored over this book for like a month now and will talk about it for days.
Edit: forgot the savage class
Thank you. You have the system more love than I ever remember to when I describe it, which is a disservice. I've read some of the game journals at Obsidian Portal of people playing campaigns, even the creator's group, but some day I'll try it as well!
We don't start up again until another couple of weeks, so I'll see what I can work out with my GM.
Based solely on this, having no additional knowledge about this, I immediately purchased it. I'll probably have questions later, but it sounds amazing.
My Pathfinder Society GM friend sold me on it. It sounds like an awesome setting.
Also my friend Jay ran an excellent table of a game called Inferno Road on Saturday night at GenCon, to the point where he made some massive contacts and friends, and had people paying $40 a pop to ressurect at his table!
I have been reading my Starfinder book at night. Everything I've read I have liked.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
One of us. One of us.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
It uses the exploding die mechanic so instead of putting points into quickness and rolling d20 plus those points, you're investing in different die sizes for those attributes. One attribute could be a d4, another could be a d10.
If you roll a 4 on a d4 it's a crit, and you roll a d6 additionally like 5e Advantage and keep the higher result. If you roll a 6 on that d6 it exploded and you roll a d8. If you crit/explode three times one one check/attack you're still keeping just one result, but always the highest you've rolled.
Is that mostly accurate, @laservisioncat?
Starfinder works for me a lot because camp science fantasy is so very much my jam and Envoy is a very me class.
Now to just make sure my GM is on board for me making a Catfolk Envoy so I can cheese out my racial stat bonuses.
Well, except Shadowrun. But as I GM that, I'll ALWAYS have better toys than you.
In Star Trek Adventures my awful hippie betazoid doctor always faces a higher difficulty due to the fact that all his medicine is crystal healing or homeopathic.
His assistant and the ship's hologram are furious every single time it works.
@jdarksun our captain is a hyper competent Picard-inspired Trill. @DevoutlyApathetic is our ferengi-raised Science Officer (who cannot overstate his hatred of my science-defiling doctor). @OptimusZed is playing an Action-Captain-track XO who cannot science to save her life or others, but if she throws a punch it's lights out.
So far we've failed to science hard enough at a Nebula, I've completed two autopsies, we disabled a Cardassian fighter, negotiated with a Cardassian cruiser, and a Romulan bird of prey which later blew up THROUGH NO FAULT OF OURS.
Oh and we have a hyper competent NPC chef that my doctor shares his stash with.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
i am unsure if this means that the chef may be a cyborg or may be poisoning a cyborg
oh man what if you gave a cyborg food that had malware in it
It would get the Runs?
Yup, that's how it works! Although if I wanna be a jerk, technically a critical hit happens when someone rolls a 1 on their defense die and the attacker rolled in the upper half of their attack die, which causes you to deal an extra point of damage (and can cause a crisis surge if a wild surge is critically hitting).
Generally you roll is the biggest dice that "fits" in the stat you have. So a strength check with a strength of 7 would be rolling a d6. Stats go up to 12.
The game has no modifiers. Skills are 13th age backgrounds basically, but you can add to them and change them around every sessiona to reflect your growing character. They give you another die to roll when they apply, and you take the best one. This means that if your character is both trained in a skill and naturally high in an associated stat, they are good more consistently but don't actually reach higher numbers than if someone was just skilled on their own. So it's worth picking up skills outside your main stat shtick, which is good because you're encouraged to evolve your skillset based on your experiences.
Also, a characters reputation can act as a skill. If you're known in the land as "The Woman Who suplexed the Duke's bear" you bet you'll forever be better at suplexing, maybe better at bear handling, and definitely better at boasting about it.
Question about Spellbound Kingdoms: If you only ever roll a die size, why are the stat values a number instead of just a die size? What's the point of all the odd-numbered stat values?
@Farangu would have all the lurid details.
Don't take this from me I need all of you to secretly kinda like Voyager with me.
It's definitely better to aim for even levels, but in the game there's a plethora of attacks that lower stat values, which doesn't really have an effect in combat until it knocks you out of an attack style and really nerfs your combat abilities, so having that buffer is useful. Also, sometimes your stat number is important (your max reason score caps how many skills you have, your max heart score determines your max mood)
If you're like me you read "lowers stat values" and get 3.5 ptsd of having to recalculate everything about your character, but combat styles are the only real things you have to worry about with lowered scores other than rolling lower dice in skill checks.
It's also probably a bit like D&D with only even numbers providing a modifier bump - to provide meaningful half steps of improvement/degradation.
Well, and in remember the attribute damage, I'll take an odd number if it means less chance of not being able to use the one or two social abilities/feats my character took because they're more martial or shadow. In this way, attributes and their dice almost directly translate into options. I was looking at my SK core book and just thought to make a party that all belongs to a Noble House organization...
Jon - Chosen One (Martial)
Sansa - Noble
Bran - Wizard
Arya - Assassin
Now tell me that wouldn't be a fun campaign. Fun and/or depressing.
Hybrid rules don't come out till the third book.
The Evacuation of Dantooine.
THROW ME IDEAS!
Keep in mind Dantooine is being evacuated at more or less the same time as the Battle at Scarif, so forces that are there can't be at Dantooine.
Green Squadron will be there, obviously.
Probably not as badly awesomely as this:
http://imgur.com/gallery/kHtP2
Painting a wizard on the side of your house?
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain