if i were to do dark souls i would use Dungeon World; you can abstract a lot and make interesting traps that do other things beside just deal damage using the moves system. not only that, you can map out dungeons without having to worry about drawing them on a grid
not only that, you can use the move system to make things arbitrarily difficult or easier at your whim to keep tension high
Super Namicchi on
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
if i were to do dark souls i would use Dungeon World; you can abstract a lot and make interesting traps that do other things beside just deal damage using the moves system. not only that, you can map out dungeons without having to worry about drawing them on a grid
not only that, you can use the move system to make things arbitrarily difficult or easier at your whim to keep tension high
Dungeon World will not gel with my local group. 4e would fit much better.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
if i were to do dark souls i would use Dungeon World; you can abstract a lot and make interesting traps that do other things beside just deal damage using the moves system. not only that, you can map out dungeons without having to worry about drawing them on a grid
not only that, you can use the move system to make things arbitrarily difficult or easier at your whim to keep tension high
Dungeon World will not gel with my local group. 4e would fit much better.
They are both very good systems that do very different things very well.
And they would both be good for adapting into a Dark Souls setting, for different reasons.
the reason I suggested dungeon world is due to the vagueness of it; my original dungeon world game actually pulled a lot of inspiration from dark souls in its own way.
it really depends on what you value most about dark souls I think--for me personally a game with a high gamist bent like 4e would take me out of experience. so much of the souls games are about vagueness and never knowing, and the meticulous planning that goes into 4e seems antithetical. the game is precise and surgical and meticulously balanced, unambiguously heroic and empowering; the fantasy of dark souls is vague, nebulous, and hostile
i actually would probably take 5e if I had to use a DnD flavor
this isn't me saying any choice is bad. i think you can do it in a lot of ways. i just like games that closely emulate their source material a lot
When you die, roll +Humanity. On a 10+ you lose xp equal to your level and return to the bonfire. On a 7-9, as a 10+ but also choose one:
Subtract 1 from Humanity
Take a debility
On a miss, both.
Special: unlike other moves, failing this move does not allow the hero to mark xp. Welcome to Dark Souls.
When your Humanity reaches -0, take a debility. When your Humanity reaches -1, take two more debilities. When your Humanity reaches -2 you take the final three debilities.
Debilities cannot be restored by usual means--the only way to restore a debility is to consume an Ember (for unkindled) or a human effigy.
If a character has a debility in every score (six total) he becomes Hollowed, a monstrous, hungry shell of his former self. This is effectively true Player Character death.
Note that characters always resurrect and return to the bonfire upon death. This move above replaces Last Breath.
Bonfires
The only true safe harborage for chosen undead and the unkindled. The bonfire is an anchor that allows for rest, development of abilities, and even the ability to touch other worlds for a brief time.
Bonfires are essential to your survival... but there is a price to be paid. An unkindled bonfire is just a sword in the dirt, pitted from rust, its purpose and owner forgotten. It must be kindled.
When you kindle the bonfire subtract one from Humanity and increase the bonfire's Kindle by 1.
When you rest at the bonfire roll +Kindle. On a 10+ you may do any or all of:
Replenish lost hp
Gain Estus equal to +Kindle
Teleport to another kindled bonfire
Spend Souls
On a 7-9, as 10+ but all defeated encounters and monsters respawn.
On a miss, as 7-9 and subtract 1 from the bonfire's Kindle.
i will think more on this tomorrow but i like the idea
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
edited December 2017
Just reserved an art commission of my DH2E main group. Gonna be them and their handler spread out over a small pub they took from a heretic.
Really excited. I wanted something to keep as a memento of this game. My first long running non-bad game.
It did occur to me though that the first campaign I homebrewed, besides giving them experience and having all of us learn how to play/gm at the same time, was kind of inconsequential to how it involved the players. The whole continuity thing I’m doing could have started right after the big ritual event that occured.
It is setting up characters and stuff that are important later so not a total waste. I am giving both my groups dire consequences for failing their current adventures though besides burning fate if they died.
Edit: as in consequences that naturally arise from the situation, like the planetary governor and a ton of nobles dying in a false-flag/assassination and an invasion from the underhive and the deeper parts of the planet where mutants and worse things live.
Anyone use Tabletop Simulator for RPG games? Does it work well or not at all?
I had attempted to use it at one point and...it's really more gimmicky than anything else. It's not suited for RPG when you've got something like Roll20 in comparison. I wouldn't recommend it.
As far as playing an RPG online in real time with people, I don't know if there is a client better suited than Roll20. It's something of a gold standard in my mind as far as tools and ease of use go.
Yea, just maybe farm the voice chat out to discord as roll20 can be a bit wonky on that front. Otherwise it's the prime choice.
We had to start doing that this last session. The whole time we've had people reconnect multiple times a session so everyone can hear each other. We didn't even think of discord but I can't go back now.
There's a discord bot that has a dice rolling function. Well, there's two, but one of them has a function to post images from danbooru, so avoid that one.
That's been my favorite way to run D&D so far. I wish there was a way to transcript speech to text.
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
Pony's RPG crew and my Star Wars groups play in Discord with a dicebot and it's been great. We use voice for OOC stuff and text for the actual game and I think it's the best of both worlds - the immediacy of real time face-to-face conversation, but everyone has time to really think about what their character says and does. It's a great aid to roleplaying.
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MsAnthropyThe Lady of Pain Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the RhythmThe City of FlowersRegistered Userregular
Pony's RPG crew and my Star Wars groups play in Discord with a dicebot and it's been great. We use voice for OOC stuff and text for the actual game and I think it's the best of both worlds - the immediacy of real time face-to-face conversation, but everyone has time to really think about what their character says and does. It's a great aid to roleplaying.
Yeah, I think we’d probably play the same way if we were ever to all get together in person. Chatting away across a table while we type out character actions in channel.
That said, I am probably going to start using Roll20 for my in-person group. Gives me just enough organization to my notes so that I can search/sort by tags, and allows me to pop info up to everyone’s laptops/tablets when they inevitably forget the dude they’ve met 11+ times and the planet which houses their secret base.
When you use the soapstone tell the GM which color and roll +Humanity.
On a 10+ you are pulled to another world in a position poised to your benefit. The GM will tell you how.
On a 7-9 you are summoned and choose two:
* Another Phantom of the opposite color did not join alongside you
* Your Estus flasks are not empty
* Your party is not split
On a miss the summoning has gone terribly wrong; the GM will tell you how.
Traversing Other Worlds
When using the soapstones to cross betwixt times and places the effect is generally the same. What differs is the intent of the user, signified by the color of the soapstone.
White Soapstones
The tool of Jolly Cooperation, the white soapstone allows you to render aid to those who have need. When the summoner's objective is complete any debilities are cleared and Humanity is restored to maximum (+3). Any souls you collect over the course of your sojourn are yours to keep and spend upon your return. When you are slain as a White Phantom, you make the Death move at an additional +1.
Red Soapstones
The mark of the Invader, the red soapstone allows you to enter another chosen's world as a malicious crimson spirit. The only objective is the slaying of the host. Like the white soapstone, when you have slain the host of the world you are cleared of debilities and your Humanity is restored to its maximum (+3). When you are slain as a Red Phantom you make the Death move at an additional -1.
Being Invaded
Sometimes a Red Phantom will cross into your own world. The world darkens, the bonfire goes out--you must fight.
When you slay an Invader choose one:
* Add +1 to your Humanity score
* Consume the Invader's Soul
* Receive a boon (a piece of their armor, weapon, etc.)
GM Move:
Hard Move - Bring a Red Phantom Note: This move can only be used by the GM when one of the Player Characters has a Humanity score of +1 or higher. When you make this move designate one of the player characters as the target of the Red Phantom. When that player dies the Red Phantom returns to their own world.
Using Discord for virtually all online games now. Sidekick bot is my usual choice for dicebot.
Do you use primarily text or voice for actual in-game stuff? I like to keep things to text to pump out a game log easily, but Discord doesn't export text logs all that well.
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
Using Discord for virtually all online games now. Sidekick bot is my usual choice for dicebot.
Do you use primarily text or voice for actual in-game stuff? I like to keep things to text to pump out a game log easily, but Discord doesn't export text logs all that well.
This was my hangup too, but I found a utility a while ago that scrapes an entire channel's log back to the beginning of time and exports it to your preferred format. It even preseves the URLs of image and video embeds.
Using Discord for virtually all online games now. Sidekick bot is my usual choice for dicebot.
Do you use primarily text or voice for actual in-game stuff? I like to keep things to text to pump out a game log easily, but Discord doesn't export text logs all that well.
Both. Depends on the group. Some play via text as if Discord is IRC, some do both like voice for OOC, some do everything via voice.
So if I didn't want to go through the effort of creating and balancing my own races in Genesys, I can safely reskin Star Wars races...yes?
In theory they're built with the same guidelines. I'm not sure if practice bears that out.
Do the talent tree abilities that certain races get match with up Genesys talents?
IIRC they basically line up to the lowest XP cost they have in any of the talent trees—which should map to the talent costs in Genesys. I know some people on the FFG forums have done some work to map all of the talent trees into Genesis talent tiers, so you might want to check over there as well.
Made an Infinity character for a short mission game my friend is running to get into the system
Gavrilo Svecha, codename "Apophis." Tunguskan assassin and intelligence agent. Looking forward to this one! Not quite sure what personality he's going to have though, yet. He's from a middle class, happy upbringing mind, and he does the job out of a love for the Nomad Nation and the Tunguskan mothership. Thinking that he might be disarmingly pleasant and convivial haha
So for my Genesys game, we did a character building session and I tried out something new. I told them to come up with a back story/character idea/history and that's it. Stop there.
So we sat down, I handed them sheets and said ok put your char name and age on there, then hand em back.
I turn to the first player up and say "Ok tell me about your character? Their story, start from the beginning." As they did so I would occasionally ask questions "Ok so what did you do in the Army? Mechanic, rifleman, medic? Were you an officer?" etc etc. Then at the end I hand them their character sheet with starting characteristic scores and career skills tagged. All based on what the story dictated.
As we continued to the next, we would break back to chain characters together. "Oh maybe I know Penny because her dad was in my unit in the war!" "Yeah that's perfect and I don't know how he died but you do!"
It worked.....So good. So so good. They were so into tying the stories together, and they're already more invested more in these characters as people than stats and gear.
Edit - handout guide to secret societies that I gave them. I stole so much shit from other games but whooooo cares I'm not publishing this and names are hard!!
The Society – Broadly, a coalition for the protection of both the human race and the Veil. Made up of four main factions and several smaller offshoots.
Guild of Relics – Society members whose main charge is research, acquisition and safekeeping of items of power or historical importance. Largely a scholarly order that also boasts the preeminent prophetic research division in the Veil.
Menders Union – The Societies healers division. Including experts in standard medical fields as well as Celestial and Necromantic healing.
Guild of Alchemists – Originally focused only on alchemy, the Guild has branched out to cover both tech and technomagic. Still the go to for potions, elixers and magical solutions.
The Strife Pact – Law enforcement, soldiers, security. The long, violent arm of the Society. Drawing their strength from Unveiled worldwide, they are known and respected wherever they are found.
Bright Ascending – The Bright believe in the right to rule by strength. Believes in the necessity of the Veil but only as a temporary measure. Would like to eventually break the Veil and take their place as rulers over the world.
Holy Union of Sacred Tyrants – The political arm of the Bright. Maintains the Veil but has long voiced support of Meta Supremacy.
Bride of Battle – The Bright’s enforcers, assassins and soldiers. Known for their cruelty, and the vicious effectiveness of their methods.
Adventus Tenebrarum – A loosely affiliated group largely consisting of Necromancers, and various vampire courts who believe in the prophecy of The Arrival of Darkness. Prophecy concerning the rise of undeath to reign over what remains of a world after a mythical apocalypse.
The Courts of Hell – The Courts have many factions and take many sides. Many wish to rise and conquer the world that they consider theirs by right. Others are content working behind the scenes and reaping the benefits of their station.
The Far – Not much is yet known about the recent emergence of this cult. Appear to be in communication with previously unknown outside forces.
Posts
not only that, you can use the move system to make things arbitrarily difficult or easier at your whim to keep tension high
Dungeon World will not gel with my local group. 4e would fit much better.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
They are both very good systems that do very different things very well.
And they would both be good for adapting into a Dark Souls setting, for different reasons.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
it really depends on what you value most about dark souls I think--for me personally a game with a high gamist bent like 4e would take me out of experience. so much of the souls games are about vagueness and never knowing, and the meticulous planning that goes into 4e seems antithetical. the game is precise and surgical and meticulously balanced, unambiguously heroic and empowering; the fantasy of dark souls is vague, nebulous, and hostile
i actually would probably take 5e if I had to use a DnD flavor
this isn't me saying any choice is bad. i think you can do it in a lot of ways. i just like games that closely emulate their source material a lot
Subtract 1 from Humanity
Take a debility
On a miss, both.
Special: unlike other moves, failing this move does not allow the hero to mark xp. Welcome to Dark Souls.
When your Humanity reaches -0, take a debility. When your Humanity reaches -1, take two more debilities. When your Humanity reaches -2 you take the final three debilities.
Debilities cannot be restored by usual means--the only way to restore a debility is to consume an Ember (for unkindled) or a human effigy.
If a character has a debility in every score (six total) he becomes Hollowed, a monstrous, hungry shell of his former self. This is effectively true Player Character death.
Note that characters always resurrect and return to the bonfire upon death. This move above replaces Last Breath.
Bonfires
The only true safe harborage for chosen undead and the unkindled. The bonfire is an anchor that allows for rest, development of abilities, and even the ability to touch other worlds for a brief time.
Bonfires are essential to your survival... but there is a price to be paid. An unkindled bonfire is just a sword in the dirt, pitted from rust, its purpose and owner forgotten. It must be kindled.
When you kindle the bonfire subtract one from Humanity and increase the bonfire's Kindle by 1.
When you rest at the bonfire roll +Kindle. On a 10+ you may do any or all of:
Replenish lost hp
Gain Estus equal to +Kindle
Teleport to another kindled bonfire
Spend Souls
On a 7-9, as 10+ but all defeated encounters and monsters respawn.
On a miss, as 7-9 and subtract 1 from the bonfire's Kindle.
Really excited. I wanted something to keep as a memento of this game. My first long running non-bad game.
It did occur to me though that the first campaign I homebrewed, besides giving them experience and having all of us learn how to play/gm at the same time, was kind of inconsequential to how it involved the players. The whole continuity thing I’m doing could have started right after the big ritual event that occured.
It is setting up characters and stuff that are important later so not a total waste. I am giving both my groups dire consequences for failing their current adventures though besides burning fate if they died.
Edit: as in consequences that naturally arise from the situation, like the planetary governor and a ton of nobles dying in a false-flag/assassination and an invasion from the underhive and the deeper parts of the planet where mutants and worse things live.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
I had attempted to use it at one point and...it's really more gimmicky than anything else. It's not suited for RPG when you've got something like Roll20 in comparison. I wouldn't recommend it.
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
We had to start doing that this last session. The whole time we've had people reconnect multiple times a session so everyone can hear each other. We didn't even think of discord but I can't go back now.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Skype, TS, Ventrillo?
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Play-by-mail?
Mothman. He does 40k stuff. His art style also is somewhat grounded which I like.
That's been my favorite way to run D&D so far. I wish there was a way to transcript speech to text.
Yeah, I think we’d probably play the same way if we were ever to all get together in person. Chatting away across a table while we type out character actions in channel.
That said, I am probably going to start using Roll20 for my in-person group. Gives me just enough organization to my notes so that I can search/sort by tags, and allows me to pop info up to everyone’s laptops/tablets when they inevitably forget the dude they’ve met 11+ times and the planet which houses their secret base.
"The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I’d beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it." -- Jack Kirby
Yeah, we have Sidekick for (most) Discord dice rolling. Still use Roll 20 for maps though.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
When you use the soapstone tell the GM which color and roll +Humanity.
On a 10+ you are pulled to another world in a position poised to your benefit. The GM will tell you how.
On a 7-9 you are summoned and choose two:
* Another Phantom of the opposite color did not join alongside you
* Your Estus flasks are not empty
* Your party is not split
On a miss the summoning has gone terribly wrong; the GM will tell you how.
Traversing Other Worlds
When using the soapstones to cross betwixt times and places the effect is generally the same. What differs is the intent of the user, signified by the color of the soapstone.
White Soapstones
The tool of Jolly Cooperation, the white soapstone allows you to render aid to those who have need. When the summoner's objective is complete any debilities are cleared and Humanity is restored to maximum (+3). Any souls you collect over the course of your sojourn are yours to keep and spend upon your return. When you are slain as a White Phantom, you make the Death move at an additional +1.
Red Soapstones
The mark of the Invader, the red soapstone allows you to enter another chosen's world as a malicious crimson spirit. The only objective is the slaying of the host. Like the white soapstone, when you have slain the host of the world you are cleared of debilities and your Humanity is restored to its maximum (+3). When you are slain as a Red Phantom you make the Death move at an additional -1.
Being Invaded
Sometimes a Red Phantom will cross into your own world. The world darkens, the bonfire goes out--you must fight.
When you slay an Invader choose one:
* Add +1 to your Humanity score
* Consume the Invader's Soul
* Receive a boon (a piece of their armor, weapon, etc.)
GM Move:
Hard Move - Bring a Red Phantom
Note: This move can only be used by the GM when one of the Player Characters has a Humanity score of +1 or higher. When you make this move designate one of the player characters as the target of the Red Phantom. When that player dies the Red Phantom returns to their own world.
Do you use primarily text or voice for actual in-game stuff? I like to keep things to text to pump out a game log easily, but Discord doesn't export text logs all that well.
This was my hangup too, but I found a utility a while ago that scrapes an entire channel's log back to the beginning of time and exports it to your preferred format. It even preseves the URLs of image and video embeds.
You can add it to your server from here.
Do the talent tree abilities that certain races get match with up Genesys talents?
IIRC they basically line up to the lowest XP cost they have in any of the talent trees—which should map to the talent costs in Genesys. I know some people on the FFG forums have done some work to map all of the talent trees into Genesis talent tiers, so you might want to check over there as well.
"The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I’d beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it." -- Jack Kirby
Gavrilo Svecha, codename "Apophis." Tunguskan assassin and intelligence agent. Looking forward to this one! Not quite sure what personality he's going to have though, yet. He's from a middle class, happy upbringing mind, and he does the job out of a love for the Nomad Nation and the Tunguskan mothership. Thinking that he might be disarmingly pleasant and convivial haha
So we sat down, I handed them sheets and said ok put your char name and age on there, then hand em back.
I turn to the first player up and say "Ok tell me about your character? Their story, start from the beginning." As they did so I would occasionally ask questions "Ok so what did you do in the Army? Mechanic, rifleman, medic? Were you an officer?" etc etc. Then at the end I hand them their character sheet with starting characteristic scores and career skills tagged. All based on what the story dictated.
As we continued to the next, we would break back to chain characters together. "Oh maybe I know Penny because her dad was in my unit in the war!" "Yeah that's perfect and I don't know how he died but you do!"
It worked.....So good. So so good. They were so into tying the stories together, and they're already more invested more in these characters as people than stats and gear.
Edit - handout guide to secret societies that I gave them. I stole so much shit from other games but whooooo cares I'm not publishing this and names are hard!!
Guild of Relics – Society members whose main charge is research, acquisition and safekeeping of items of power or historical importance. Largely a scholarly order that also boasts the preeminent prophetic research division in the Veil.
Menders Union – The Societies healers division. Including experts in standard medical fields as well as Celestial and Necromantic healing.
Guild of Alchemists – Originally focused only on alchemy, the Guild has branched out to cover both tech and technomagic. Still the go to for potions, elixers and magical solutions.
The Strife Pact – Law enforcement, soldiers, security. The long, violent arm of the Society. Drawing their strength from Unveiled worldwide, they are known and respected wherever they are found.
Bright Ascending – The Bright believe in the right to rule by strength. Believes in the necessity of the Veil but only as a temporary measure. Would like to eventually break the Veil and take their place as rulers over the world.
Holy Union of Sacred Tyrants – The political arm of the Bright. Maintains the Veil but has long voiced support of Meta Supremacy.
Bride of Battle – The Bright’s enforcers, assassins and soldiers. Known for their cruelty, and the vicious effectiveness of their methods.
Adventus Tenebrarum – A loosely affiliated group largely consisting of Necromancers, and various vampire courts who believe in the prophecy of The Arrival of Darkness. Prophecy concerning the rise of undeath to reign over what remains of a world after a mythical apocalypse.
The Courts of Hell – The Courts have many factions and take many sides. Many wish to rise and conquer the world that they consider theirs by right. Others are content working behind the scenes and reaping the benefits of their station.
The Far – Not much is yet known about the recent emergence of this cult. Appear to be in communication with previously unknown outside forces.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan