I fully expect a series of themed dice for various gaming genres covered by their new game. Fantasy with swords and fireballs, cyberpunk with datachips and whatnot.
I have a group of people wanting to play 'dnd' but they really just mean a tabletop roleplaying game. I would like to do something fantasy and classical DnDish, but I wasn't super into 5.0 when I played it when it came out.
Are people still into 13th age? That seems to fit the criteria
I have a group of people wanting to play 'dnd' but they really just mean a tabletop roleplaying game. I would like to do something fantasy and classical DnDish, but I wasn't super into 5.0 when I played it when it came out.
Are people still into 13th age? That seems to fit the criteria
13th Age and Dungeon World are the two front runners if you want D&D that's not actually D&D (and aren't into an old-school nostalgia trip).
Reading quick descriptions of Dungeon World and that seems good too
hrmmmm
I'm leaning towards 13th Age if only because of the dice rolling aspect. This would be several peoples first time playing any sort of tabletop roleplaying game and missing out on rolling them dice seems kinda sad.
Reading quick descriptions of Dungeon World and that seems good too
hrmmmm
I'm leaning towards 13th Age if only because of the dice rolling aspect. This would be several peoples first time playing any sort of tabletop roleplaying game and missing out on rolling them dice seems kinda sad.
Dungeon World has dice rolling too! Just not for the GM.
I've enjoyed Dungeon World and tried to introduce people to roleplaying with it, but a lot of people bounced off of it because they played NWN or saw RolePlay and want the whole 'D&D experience' (number crunching, splats, counting rations).
If someone says "I want to play D&D" I'd probably bet on 13th Age over DW.
Yeah they are more into the idea and flavor of dnd I think.
I love me some numbers and splat personally, but I think this might be more of a flavor is king sort of group.
Im now leaning towards Dungeon World. Its also 10 dollars for all of the rules which is pretty low investment. I really do want to play 13th Age at some point though. I'll probably just get both
Yeah they are more into the idea and flavor of dnd I think.
I love me some numbers and splat personally, but I think this might be more of a flavor is king sort of group.
Im now leaning towards Dungeon World. Its also 10 dollars for all of the rules which is pretty low investment. I really do want to play 13th Age at some point though. I'll probably just get both
Turns out that OPP may have been up to some very shady business practises when it comes to paying their employees
Also, it turns out John Morke said to OPP that Ex3 would take two years to write. Minimum. written in two years. This was in 2013. So the Kickstarter manager promised it in 2013, six months after the KS, but the writers were saying it should be going into layout in the first half of 2015. Which... it did?
This is pretty crazy. So according to the fired Devs, Ex3 wasn't so much late as it was handed into layout when they said it would be, give or take a few months. They are then extremely pissed it sat in layout for almost a year because they consider that an extreme clusterfuck.
Hmmm! If this is to be believed then basically the reason for Ex3's lateness was that it's given ETA was drastically shortened to pull in as much cash as possible from the KS.
Haven't checked in over here in a couple days, this is the first I'm hearing about this. Holy shit, that was quite a read!
I mean, in a hypothetical OPP with competent management, Holden still would have been super fired, probably a lot sooner. Well, no, actually in a competently run company they would have expressly forbidden him from taking on any kind of customer relations responsibilities, and had an actual community manager, so that we never would have found out what an abrasive jerkass he was, and he could have kept on cranking out wordcount forever behind the scenes. Either way, it's shameful that he and Morke aren't being paid, and I regret the share of the blame I directed towards them, especially compared to how long I stayed willing to give Rich Thomas the benefit of the doubt.
Realizing lately that I don't really trust or respect basically any of the moderators here. So, good luck with life, friends! Hit me up on Twitter @DesertLeviathan
Haha I'm fucked. My group rolled up their gamma world characters yesterday and 3 out of 5 of them ended up with the hawkoid origin, which means flight at level 1.
I've had two player characters in my game roll Hawkoid over the campaign. The first grew disillusioned with it because some encounters were indoors and the flight didn't help much; she was also annoyed that many enemies had ranged attacks and could shoot her even if the fight was outside.
The other player liked it fine because she thought having wings was fuckin sweet.
The only point of wings is to ignore climb checks and have super sweet DBZ fights with other flyers. Trying to do anything else with it, aside from circumvent puzzles or run away, is asking too much.
I can't think of any player flight combat rules being easier to implement than 3.5 grappling.
I've enjoyed Dungeon World and tried to introduce people to roleplaying with it, but a lot of people bounced off of it because they played NWN or saw RolePlay and want the whole 'D&D experience' (number crunching, splats, counting rations).
If someone says "I want to play D&D" I'd probably bet on 13th Age over DW.
I'd agree if they have that experience. If somebody is completely new and doesn't have previous D&D exposure at all I think Dungeon World works better. Dungeon World's chief issue is that it is very different from D&D in resolution and folks familiar with D&D can easily get wrong footed with it. If they're just learning the idea of RPGs and rolling to do stuff and what not that DW can slide in there about as easily as D&D-esque things could.
Do I want to buy a copy of Index Card RPG? I feel like I do, but I haven't played D&D (or a d20 system, period) in yeeeears, and had pretty much figured I'd moved on from them. But ICRPG looks pretty damn cool, and like it shares a lot of DNA with Dungeon World.
I've enjoyed Dungeon World and tried to introduce people to roleplaying with it, but a lot of people bounced off of it because they played NWN or saw RolePlay and want the whole 'D&D experience' (number crunching, splats, counting rations).
If someone says "I want to play D&D" I'd probably bet on 13th Age over DW.
I'd agree if they have that experience. If somebody is completely new and doesn't have previous D&D exposure at all I think Dungeon World works better. Dungeon World's chief issue is that it is very different from D&D in resolution and folks familiar with D&D can easily get wrong footed with it. If they're just learning the idea of RPGs and rolling to do stuff and what not that DW can slide in there about as easily as D&D-esque things could.
I think if I had several new people to introduce to RPGs and no one in the group had previous experience that was going to make them snobbish about it, I'd probably run something in the DW vein. There's enough there to get the idea, but not enough that it's going to bog down at the table even with newbies.
man i am finding a lot of great games i missed in the last year or so
Symbaroum? Not ready to play fantasy again yet, but this might be the game for when I am.
Symbaroum is fantastic, but it is definitely not for everyone. Fantastic writing, amazing artwork, setting is a special kind of grimdark. Grimmdark, I suppose.
Do I want to buy a copy of Index Card RPG? I feel like I do, but I haven't played D&D (or a d20 system, period) in yeeeears, and had pretty much figured I'd moved on from them. But ICRPG looks pretty damn cool, and like it shares a lot of DNA with Dungeon World.
I've looked it up since you've mentioned it, looks pretty cool! Seems expensive for a PDF (especially when the print version is cheaper!), but it seems like he provided a made-for-roll20 module for it, which is both baller and gentlemanly. I might pick it up if I get an online group together.
Do I want to buy a copy of Index Card RPG? I feel like I do, but I haven't played D&D (or a d20 system, period) in yeeeears, and had pretty much figured I'd moved on from them. But ICRPG looks pretty damn cool, and like it shares a lot of DNA with Dungeon World.
I've looked it up since you've mentioned it, looks pretty cool! Seems expensive for a PDF (especially when the print version is cheaper!), but it seems like he provided a made-for-roll20 module for it, which is both baller and gentlemanly. I might pick it up if I get an online group together.
It also comes with a Tabletop Simulator Mod and sheets of paper standees to print. The pdf has also already received two "expansions" with some new item tables, and I believe even an adventure for the sci-fi setting. So, it does seem like it's worth the extra with that kind of support.
I did end up picking it up, and it's pretty cool. Some GREAT GM advice. But it's got some holes in the rules that make a few things weird and up to GM-fiat, but that seems to just be the way the designer rolls.
So my friend is running a homebrew game that is basically a Walking Dead emulator. My character is a former social worker and camping enthusiast who found a fire axe and has basically made it his signature weapon against the undead.
We're trying to cross the territory of a bunch of religious nuts, driving through dirt roads to avoid their main thoroughfares. We had all painted crosses on our foreheads and my character, who had a number of ranks in Religion (despite being basically a pinko liberal commie with extreme distrust for right wing churches), was going to pose as the "preacher" of our "pilgrims" in case we got caught.
I botched my drive roll badly and blew the radiator of Rodan, my 1980 Country Ranger woody wagon. The fundamentalists approached us from three sides while we were repairing her. I stepped up to negotiate as decided, playing a fire and brimstone preacher to the fullest. They weren't willing to let us pass without checking us for zombie injuries and keeping us under observation for 48 hours... we had folks who were bitten, but we still don't know if the bite is a guarantee of infection, so we weren't willing to stop for that.
Negotiations went badly, and they fired a warning shot when I bust out Ezekiel 25:17 and stepped towards them holding an axe. At the back end of the convoy, our military contractor PC took gunshots as the signal to start unloading with LAW rockets and white phosphorus grenades. Needless to say, the situation went badly. I ended up taking one of the ambushers hostage to try and mellow the situation a little, but her boyfriend said that she had been "infected" by my proximity and shot through her to get to me.
Now, my character had never killed a human before, but the wound, combined with the ice cold action of the religious nut sent him into a rage. My friend's system uses poker chips to measure things like Effort, Resolve, Story, and Wrath; certain situations in-game will result in getting more chips; like if you make everybody laugh at the table, you can get a white Story chip, which you can then use for small story alterations (like I used one to say that I had a Good News Bible that would fit in my breast pocket to sell the preacher image). I used two blue Effort chips to increase my movement, and two black Wrath chips to increase my damage to make sure that guy was dead. All the while he spewed bullshit of laying down God's vengeance.
The fight had casualties on both sides; we lost two NPCs (including a supposedly charmed park ranger that we all loved), a Jeep, and, most heartbreakingly, a mint condition 1970 Dodge Challenger that was my character's favorite ride. The fundies probably lost over a dozen people and a bunch of their guns, and the survivors are going back to their reverend with a story of hellfire and an unstoppable, axe-wielding preacher. It also turned out that the girl who got shot by her boyfriend survived. "You're in luck, pilgrim," I said, duct taping her wounds and throwing her over my shoulder as a prisoner. "You aren't going to hell today." FADE TO BLACK.
It's a pretty good day when your 4 ranks in Religion makes a difference in a firefight.
Zombie survival games are always an interesting way to side session if someone important is missing week-to-week. One of my groups set one up by saying that whatever gear you had with you right then (i.e. on your person or in your vehicle) was what you started with in the game. Then everyone voted on everyone else's attributes by filling them out and aggregating the results. Skills were determined by the skills everyone knew you had or skills you could demonstrate.
My friends were somewhat surprised to learn that I kept a shotgun, a pair of kukris, a hatchet, a tent, winter blankets, and a change of clothes in the trunk of my car along with my go-bag. (Active duty, not a survivalist; survivalists have bug-out bags. Go-bags typically have two combat uniforms, a pair of boots, accouterments, your favorite knife(s), first aid materials, professional supplies related to your specialty, etc. i.e. what you need to "go" if you get a WARNO away from home.)
I think we ended up playing like 17 or 18 sessions of it all told between other actual campaign sessions. It was a source of truly ridiculous stories that encapsulate what happens when a group of people don't take a game too seriously. Some of the finer points:
* we built our own battle wagon B.A. Baracus style. Because why not?
* we found out what happens when someone throws a live grenade inside of a panel trailer full of zombies (nothing good)
* we started a land war in Texas
* one of us turned out to be a closet serial killer
* i beat a slaver half to death and then used horses to draw and quarter him because i don't go for half
* i can't recall feeling like we accomplished a whole lot, but we did establish a survivor fort
Zombie survival games are always an interesting way to side session if someone important is missing week-to-week. One of my groups set one up by saying that whatever gear you had with you right then (i.e. on your person or in your vehicle) was what you started with in the game. Then everyone voted on everyone else's attributes by filling them out and aggregating the results. Skills were determined by the skills everyone knew you had or skills you could demonstrate.
My friends were somewhat surprised to learn that I kept a shotgun, a pair of kukris, a hatchet, a tent, winter blankets, and a change of clothes in the trunk of my car along with my go-bag. (Active duty, not a survivalist; survivalists have bug-out bags. Go-bags typically have two combat uniforms, a pair of boots, accouterments, your favorite knife(s), first aid materials, professional supplies related to your specialty, etc. i.e. what you need to "go" if you get a WARNO away from home.)
I think we ended up playing like 17 or 18 sessions of it all told between other actual campaign sessions. It was a source of truly ridiculous stories that encapsulate what happens when a group of people don't take a game too seriously. Some of the finer points:
* we built our own battle wagon B.A. Baracus style. Because why not?
* we found out what happens when someone throws a live grenade inside of a panel trailer full of zombies (nothing good)
* we started a land war in Texas
* one of us turned out to be a closet serial killer
* i beat a slaver half to death and then used horses to draw and quarter him because i don't go for half
* i can't recall feeling like we accomplished a whole lot, but we did establish a survivor fort
That reminds me of my friends car in high school, just more professional and with fewer sex toys.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
@Dracomicron That poker chip system sounds interesting. I'd be interested in hearing more about it!
Well, it's my GM's homebrew system; I won't go into too much detail outside a few bits.
You can have as many chips as you earn during the session, but you can only take a number to the next session based on your stats (Charisma is the key here, but you can get bonuses to chip carryover from having certain skills or perks).
Effort: Earn from frustrations and failures, spend to do stuff like get a +1 to a die roll or run faster.
Resolve: Earn from acting according to your Motivations, spend to shake off negative effects or to stand up with a free action.
Story: Earn by entertaining the players, spend to add a minor detail to the story (Player: "I dig in my purse and find an airhorn and honk it to attract the zombies." GM: "Is an airhorn on your sheet?" Player: [hands over a Story chip] "Did I forget to mention it? I got it from my Personal Defense for Ladies class." GM: [takes the chip] "Alright, carry on.")
Wrath: Earn when your allies or cherished items are hurt or destroyed, spend to do more damage or get an extra attack.
The whole system is built to interact with the chips; various professions or merits/flaws have special uses for the chips; for example, as a Social Worker, I can spend an Effort chip to heal someone else's Sanity by a little; I get a Resolve chip in return.
It is an interesting system; the GM came up with the idea while we were playing Serenity, because he kept track of our XP with poker chips which he would award based on either our RP or entertainment value of our actions in-game. He thought it would be cool if the chips had different effects based on color, and the rest is history.
That sounds bit similar to Savage Worlds or Deadlands Classic.
You get 3 chips for each session at random. Uou get more chips by fulfilling adventure goals or getting screwed by your characters flaws.
There are 4 colours of chips of different power level that can normally be spent to prevent wounds, roll extra dice or add one dice to your highest dice result.
There's also few background options at character creation that allow more uses.
For example characters born out of wedlock can spend white chip to find hidden objects, see sneaking enemies (red chip) or see invisible creatures (blue chip).
Do I want to buy a copy of Index Card RPG? I feel like I do, but I haven't played D&D (or a d20 system, period) in yeeeears, and had pretty much figured I'd moved on from them. But ICRPG looks pretty damn cool, and like it shares a lot of DNA with Dungeon World.
I've looked it up since you've mentioned it, looks pretty cool! Seems expensive for a PDF (especially when the print version is cheaper!), but it seems like he provided a made-for-roll20 module for it, which is both baller and gentlemanly. I might pick it up if I get an online group together.
It also comes with a Tabletop Simulator Mod and sheets of paper standees to print. The pdf has also already received two "expansions" with some new item tables, and I believe even an adventure for the sci-fi setting. So, it does seem like it's worth the extra with that kind of support.
I did end up picking it up, and it's pretty cool. Some GREAT GM advice. But it's got some holes in the rules that make a few things weird and up to GM-fiat, but that seems to just be the way the designer rolls.
I broke down and bought it today after about eight hours sitting in the hospital. I figured if I could spend $10 on the vending machine I could spend some money on a book.
I'm pretty impressed with the layout, and the art is certainly enjoyable. After reading through it twice, I picked up the two art volumes, which I'm not sure was worth the price, but I'm sure I'll get my use out of them. This definitely feels like a more d20 version of Dungeon World. Not as well designed as DW-not to say it's bad-but you could more aptly say that it's less designed.
So, for anyone wondering, the core mechanic is that each room has a DC, think armor class, and every monster and trap and whatever is at that DC. Characters describe what they're doing, roll 1d20+ an appropriate modifier, and pass if they beat the DC. Each trap, spot check, monster, and any other difficulty under the sun has a number of Hearts (read: 10hp). Based on the type of action, you roll an Effort die (weapon damage is d6, magic is d8, non-attacks are d4). When you commit enough Effort to the target's Hearts (aka deal 20 damage to a 20hp creature), you've succeeded at verbing the obstacle. You can also crit, which turns your effort die into a d12.
In action:
Nanoc the Wildling attacks the goblin, rolling 1d20+2 against the room's DC of 12. She deals 1d6+4 damage, rolling a 6, for 10 damage. The goblin dies.
Nanoc the Wildling breaks down the door rolling 1d20+2 against the room's DC of 12. She deals 1d4+6 damage, rolling a 4, for 10 damage. The door breaks.
Nanoc the Wildling casts a spell to climb the cliff face, rolling 1d20+2 against the room's DC of 12. She deals 1d8+2 damage, rolling an 8, for 10 damage. The spell is cast.
So, each 'room', or encounter, has a DC, as opposed to traps or monsters each having their own personal AC/DC. Depending on DM Fiat, special abilities, or certain triggers (such as failing on the roll the previous turn), the DC can be made Hard or Easy, adding +3 or -3 to the DC. There's two important benefits to this system that I can see. First, it's simple and it's quick: awesome. Second, it means that characters who can't (or won't) interact with the scenario in the most straightforward way (I hit the goblin) are not penalized. The fighter who wants to distract the guard by taunting him is not at a disadvantage because the taunt DC is higher than the AC or stealth DC. Outside-the-box tactics like throwing a waterskin at a light source are just as viable as casting a spell or shooting an arrow.
The author says that putting an emphasis on time is extremely important, and details his system of saying "In d4 turn, bad things happen". The lone goblin calls for backup, which will arrive in d4 turns. The players could decide to kill the goblin and then run away, or they might set up traps, or even wish hold the goblin hostage. They also have the option of expending resources to kill the goblin more quickly so they can avoid or prepare for the next encounter, promoting player choice and freedom.
To sum up: The DM controls the game with room DCs, round/turn based environmental effects, the hard/easy system, hearts, and the individual abilities of monsters. The system seems both simple and powerful; I'm excited to try it out.
The main problem I see in this book is the weak character creation system. You get 6 points to divide between the standard 6 stats, weapon damage, magic damage, and AC. You race gives some extras stats and a special ability. Classes give you some starting gear, a special ability, and milestone rewards (think perks à la skyrim/fallout) that the DM gives at as he deems fit. Aside from that, players gain abilities derived from randomly rolled loot tables as a reward for killing most monsters, or for completing objectives.
The good news is that the loot tables are decent, and the game's math is simple enough that I've already thought of three or four replacements for character creation.
Solid 8.5/10.
please like rate and subscribe merch store coupon code referral link. Catch phrase!
The character creation is interesting. I really like that it's loot-based, though I wish the loot-tables were much bigger and a little more consistent (there's a common dagger on the common loot table, but no sword, and only a partially broken shield, which, in the end, makes the table kind of useless as is if you really want to use it randomly). No costs on items, but coins are a thing. Bundles of ammo in the loot table, but no mention of them in starting gear for archers. Vague magic item descriptions. Basically that whole part requires a whole bunch of GM creativeness on the fly.
The Heart/Effort system is really cool. And I love the timers he recommends--just rolling it and letting it do there on the table for everyone to see and be tense about. Also the mechanic that basically amounts to an "I missed" die that keeps ticking up and gives the person an increasing bonus until they hit is actually really clever as well.
Overall, even if I never run it as is, there's a bunch of stuff in the book that are great systems to plug into almost any system.
Actually, maybe I should order a copy of Diablo II: Diablerie and just use that for the ICRPG loot tables. Should only take some minor tweaking to make it work since it's 3e.
It's been a while since I've posted in the RPG thread, but I might get to play something soon!
If I was really into the tactical combat of 4e, what game should I look into today for a mixed group of new and veteran role players?
I saw a similar question on Reddit recently and someone recommended Strike! that sounded interesting. Apparently it's 4e with a bit of Narrative First thrown in. Might be something to look into?
It's been a while since I've posted in the RPG thread, but I might get to play something soon!
If I was really into the tactical combat of 4e, what game should I look into today for a mixed group of new and veteran role players?
I saw a similar question on Reddit recently and someone recommended Strike! that sounded interesting. Apparently it's 4e with a bit of Narrative First thrown in. Might be something to look into?
I strongly disagree with that assessment. It is a narrative game that has an optional bolt on that is heavily 4e influenced. I know that sounds nit picky but I really do not think it is. Strike! is set up that you could resolve combat like all the other checks or you can slot in this huge 4e-esque tactical module if you want. Other than combat Strike! characters tend to be stuff like a list of skills and descriptive ways they can ignore certain rules.
It's been a while since I've posted in the RPG thread, but I might get to play something soon!
If I was really into the tactical combat of 4e, what game should I look into today for a mixed group of new and veteran role players?
I saw a similar question on Reddit recently and someone recommended Strike! that sounded interesting. Apparently it's 4e with a bit of Narrative First thrown in. Might be something to look into?
I strongly disagree with that assessment. It is a narrative game that has an optional bolt on that is heavily 4e influenced. I know that sounds nit picky but I really do not think it is. Strike! is set up that you could resolve combat like all the other checks or you can slot in this huge 4e-esque tactical module if you want. Other than combat Strike! characters tend to be stuff like a list of skills and descriptive ways they can ignore certain rules.
Ah, well, I was just going off what I saw said, that it was designed with the combat side first on the SomethigAwful forums to be a 4e replacement.
Posts
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Are people still into 13th age? That seems to fit the criteria
13th Age and Dungeon World are the two front runners if you want D&D that's not actually D&D (and aren't into an old-school nostalgia trip).
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
hrmmmm
I'm leaning towards 13th Age if only because of the dice rolling aspect. This would be several peoples first time playing any sort of tabletop roleplaying game and missing out on rolling them dice seems kinda sad.
Dungeon World has dice rolling too! Just not for the GM.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
If someone says "I want to play D&D" I'd probably bet on 13th Age over DW.
I love me some numbers and splat personally, but I think this might be more of a flavor is king sort of group.
Im now leaning towards Dungeon World. Its also 10 dollars for all of the rules which is pretty low investment. I really do want to play 13th Age at some point though. I'll probably just get both
@Wassermelone you can actually get the rules for free if you don't mind web-based. http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com
http://www.13thagesrd.com/
Haven't checked in over here in a couple days, this is the first I'm hearing about this. Holy shit, that was quite a read!
I mean, in a hypothetical OPP with competent management, Holden still would have been super fired, probably a lot sooner. Well, no, actually in a competently run company they would have expressly forbidden him from taking on any kind of customer relations responsibilities, and had an actual community manager, so that we never would have found out what an abrasive jerkass he was, and he could have kept on cranking out wordcount forever behind the scenes. Either way, it's shameful that he and Morke aren't being paid, and I regret the share of the blame I directed towards them, especially compared to how long I stayed willing to give Rich Thomas the benefit of the doubt.
I've had two player characters in my game roll Hawkoid over the campaign. The first grew disillusioned with it because some encounters were indoors and the flight didn't help much; she was also annoyed that many enemies had ranged attacks and could shoot her even if the fight was outside.
The other player liked it fine because she thought having wings was fuckin sweet.
I can't think of any player flight combat rules being easier to implement than 3.5 grappling.
Symbaroum? Not ready to play fantasy again yet, but this might be the game for when I am.
I'd agree if they have that experience. If somebody is completely new and doesn't have previous D&D exposure at all I think Dungeon World works better. Dungeon World's chief issue is that it is very different from D&D in resolution and folks familiar with D&D can easily get wrong footed with it. If they're just learning the idea of RPGs and rolling to do stuff and what not that DW can slide in there about as easily as D&D-esque things could.
I think if I had several new people to introduce to RPGs and no one in the group had previous experience that was going to make them snobbish about it, I'd probably run something in the DW vein. There's enough there to get the idea, but not enough that it's going to bog down at the table even with newbies.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Need to check it out
It's on the list of games to play
the list is very long mind
Yes, but lower rolls = better.
I've looked it up since you've mentioned it, looks pretty cool! Seems expensive for a PDF (especially when the print version is cheaper!), but it seems like he provided a made-for-roll20 module for it, which is both baller and gentlemanly. I might pick it up if I get an online group together.
It also comes with a Tabletop Simulator Mod and sheets of paper standees to print. The pdf has also already received two "expansions" with some new item tables, and I believe even an adventure for the sci-fi setting. So, it does seem like it's worth the extra with that kind of support.
I did end up picking it up, and it's pretty cool. Some GREAT GM advice. But it's got some holes in the rules that make a few things weird and up to GM-fiat, but that seems to just be the way the designer rolls.
We're trying to cross the territory of a bunch of religious nuts, driving through dirt roads to avoid their main thoroughfares. We had all painted crosses on our foreheads and my character, who had a number of ranks in Religion (despite being basically a pinko liberal commie with extreme distrust for right wing churches), was going to pose as the "preacher" of our "pilgrims" in case we got caught.
I botched my drive roll badly and blew the radiator of Rodan, my 1980 Country Ranger woody wagon. The fundamentalists approached us from three sides while we were repairing her. I stepped up to negotiate as decided, playing a fire and brimstone preacher to the fullest. They weren't willing to let us pass without checking us for zombie injuries and keeping us under observation for 48 hours... we had folks who were bitten, but we still don't know if the bite is a guarantee of infection, so we weren't willing to stop for that.
Negotiations went badly, and they fired a warning shot when I bust out Ezekiel 25:17 and stepped towards them holding an axe. At the back end of the convoy, our military contractor PC took gunshots as the signal to start unloading with LAW rockets and white phosphorus grenades. Needless to say, the situation went badly. I ended up taking one of the ambushers hostage to try and mellow the situation a little, but her boyfriend said that she had been "infected" by my proximity and shot through her to get to me.
Now, my character had never killed a human before, but the wound, combined with the ice cold action of the religious nut sent him into a rage. My friend's system uses poker chips to measure things like Effort, Resolve, Story, and Wrath; certain situations in-game will result in getting more chips; like if you make everybody laugh at the table, you can get a white Story chip, which you can then use for small story alterations (like I used one to say that I had a Good News Bible that would fit in my breast pocket to sell the preacher image). I used two blue Effort chips to increase my movement, and two black Wrath chips to increase my damage to make sure that guy was dead. All the while he spewed bullshit of laying down God's vengeance.
The fight had casualties on both sides; we lost two NPCs (including a supposedly charmed park ranger that we all loved), a Jeep, and, most heartbreakingly, a mint condition 1970 Dodge Challenger that was my character's favorite ride. The fundies probably lost over a dozen people and a bunch of their guns, and the survivors are going back to their reverend with a story of hellfire and an unstoppable, axe-wielding preacher. It also turned out that the girl who got shot by her boyfriend survived. "You're in luck, pilgrim," I said, duct taping her wounds and throwing her over my shoulder as a prisoner. "You aren't going to hell today." FADE TO BLACK.
It's a pretty good day when your 4 ranks in Religion makes a difference in a firefight.
My friends were somewhat surprised to learn that I kept a shotgun, a pair of kukris, a hatchet, a tent, winter blankets, and a change of clothes in the trunk of my car along with my go-bag. (Active duty, not a survivalist; survivalists have bug-out bags. Go-bags typically have two combat uniforms, a pair of boots, accouterments, your favorite knife(s), first aid materials, professional supplies related to your specialty, etc. i.e. what you need to "go" if you get a WARNO away from home.)
I think we ended up playing like 17 or 18 sessions of it all told between other actual campaign sessions. It was a source of truly ridiculous stories that encapsulate what happens when a group of people don't take a game too seriously. Some of the finer points:
* we built our own battle wagon B.A. Baracus style. Because why not?
* we found out what happens when someone throws a live grenade inside of a panel trailer full of zombies (nothing good)
* we started a land war in Texas
* one of us turned out to be a closet serial killer
* i beat a slaver half to death and then used horses to draw and quarter him because i don't go for half
* i can't recall feeling like we accomplished a whole lot, but we did establish a survivor fort
That reminds me of my friends car in high school, just more professional and with fewer sex toys.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Well, it's my GM's homebrew system; I won't go into too much detail outside a few bits.
You can have as many chips as you earn during the session, but you can only take a number to the next session based on your stats (Charisma is the key here, but you can get bonuses to chip carryover from having certain skills or perks).
Effort: Earn from frustrations and failures, spend to do stuff like get a +1 to a die roll or run faster.
Resolve: Earn from acting according to your Motivations, spend to shake off negative effects or to stand up with a free action.
Story: Earn by entertaining the players, spend to add a minor detail to the story (Player: "I dig in my purse and find an airhorn and honk it to attract the zombies." GM: "Is an airhorn on your sheet?" Player: [hands over a Story chip] "Did I forget to mention it? I got it from my Personal Defense for Ladies class." GM: [takes the chip] "Alright, carry on.")
Wrath: Earn when your allies or cherished items are hurt or destroyed, spend to do more damage or get an extra attack.
The whole system is built to interact with the chips; various professions or merits/flaws have special uses for the chips; for example, as a Social Worker, I can spend an Effort chip to heal someone else's Sanity by a little; I get a Resolve chip in return.
It is an interesting system; the GM came up with the idea while we were playing Serenity, because he kept track of our XP with poker chips which he would award based on either our RP or entertainment value of our actions in-game. He thought it would be cool if the chips had different effects based on color, and the rest is history.
You get 3 chips for each session at random. Uou get more chips by fulfilling adventure goals or getting screwed by your characters flaws.
There are 4 colours of chips of different power level that can normally be spent to prevent wounds, roll extra dice or add one dice to your highest dice result.
There's also few background options at character creation that allow more uses.
For example characters born out of wedlock can spend white chip to find hidden objects, see sneaking enemies (red chip) or see invisible creatures (blue chip).
I broke down and bought it today after about eight hours sitting in the hospital. I figured if I could spend $10 on the vending machine I could spend some money on a book.
I'm pretty impressed with the layout, and the art is certainly enjoyable. After reading through it twice, I picked up the two art volumes, which I'm not sure was worth the price, but I'm sure I'll get my use out of them. This definitely feels like a more d20 version of Dungeon World. Not as well designed as DW-not to say it's bad-but you could more aptly say that it's less designed.
So, for anyone wondering, the core mechanic is that each room has a DC, think armor class, and every monster and trap and whatever is at that DC. Characters describe what they're doing, roll 1d20+ an appropriate modifier, and pass if they beat the DC. Each trap, spot check, monster, and any other difficulty under the sun has a number of Hearts (read: 10hp). Based on the type of action, you roll an Effort die (weapon damage is d6, magic is d8, non-attacks are d4). When you commit enough Effort to the target's Hearts (aka deal 20 damage to a 20hp creature), you've succeeded at verbing the obstacle. You can also crit, which turns your effort die into a d12.
In action:
Nanoc the Wildling attacks the goblin, rolling 1d20+2 against the room's DC of 12. She deals 1d6+4 damage, rolling a 6, for 10 damage. The goblin dies.
Nanoc the Wildling breaks down the door rolling 1d20+2 against the room's DC of 12. She deals 1d4+6 damage, rolling a 4, for 10 damage. The door breaks.
Nanoc the Wildling casts a spell to climb the cliff face, rolling 1d20+2 against the room's DC of 12. She deals 1d8+2 damage, rolling an 8, for 10 damage. The spell is cast.
So, each 'room', or encounter, has a DC, as opposed to traps or monsters each having their own personal AC/DC. Depending on DM Fiat, special abilities, or certain triggers (such as failing on the roll the previous turn), the DC can be made Hard or Easy, adding +3 or -3 to the DC. There's two important benefits to this system that I can see. First, it's simple and it's quick: awesome. Second, it means that characters who can't (or won't) interact with the scenario in the most straightforward way (I hit the goblin) are not penalized. The fighter who wants to distract the guard by taunting him is not at a disadvantage because the taunt DC is higher than the AC or stealth DC. Outside-the-box tactics like throwing a waterskin at a light source are just as viable as casting a spell or shooting an arrow.
The author says that putting an emphasis on time is extremely important, and details his system of saying "In d4 turn, bad things happen". The lone goblin calls for backup, which will arrive in d4 turns. The players could decide to kill the goblin and then run away, or they might set up traps, or even wish hold the goblin hostage. They also have the option of expending resources to kill the goblin more quickly so they can avoid or prepare for the next encounter, promoting player choice and freedom.
To sum up: The DM controls the game with room DCs, round/turn based environmental effects, the hard/easy system, hearts, and the individual abilities of monsters. The system seems both simple and powerful; I'm excited to try it out.
The main problem I see in this book is the weak character creation system. You get 6 points to divide between the standard 6 stats, weapon damage, magic damage, and AC. You race gives some extras stats and a special ability. Classes give you some starting gear, a special ability, and milestone rewards (think perks à la skyrim/fallout) that the DM gives at as he deems fit. Aside from that, players gain abilities derived from randomly rolled loot tables as a reward for killing most monsters, or for completing objectives.
The good news is that the loot tables are decent, and the game's math is simple enough that I've already thought of three or four replacements for character creation.
Solid 8.5/10.
please like rate and subscribe merch store coupon code referral link. Catch phrase!
The Heart/Effort system is really cool. And I love the timers he recommends--just rolling it and letting it do there on the table for everyone to see and be tense about. Also the mechanic that basically amounts to an "I missed" die that keeps ticking up and gives the person an increasing bonus until they hit is actually really clever as well.
Overall, even if I never run it as is, there's a bunch of stuff in the book that are great systems to plug into almost any system.
If I was really into the tactical combat of 4e, what game should I look into today for a mixed group of new and veteran role players?
I saw a similar question on Reddit recently and someone recommended Strike! that sounded interesting. Apparently it's 4e with a bit of Narrative First thrown in. Might be something to look into?
Fragged Empire is medium crunch, tactical combat and has a fantastic setting.
I strongly disagree with that assessment. It is a narrative game that has an optional bolt on that is heavily 4e influenced. I know that sounds nit picky but I really do not think it is. Strike! is set up that you could resolve combat like all the other checks or you can slot in this huge 4e-esque tactical module if you want. Other than combat Strike! characters tend to be stuff like a list of skills and descriptive ways they can ignore certain rules.
Ah, well, I was just going off what I saw said, that it was designed with the combat side first on the SomethigAwful forums to be a 4e replacement.