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Have dice, will [game design].

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  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Please do. I’m interesting to know the setting you’re going for with this, if anything as yet.

  • JonBobJonBob Registered User regular
    I am looking for playtesters for an escape room game that will be going to print soon. You'd need Tabletop Simulator and it takes about an hour for most groups. I'm happy to playtest your game in exchange (or to help you get it into TTS)!

    jswidget.php?username=JonBob&numitems=10&header=1&text=none&images=small&show=recentplays&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&inline=1&domains%5B%5D=boardgame&imagewidget=1
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    If work wasn’t keeping me from home, and therefore actual good WiFi and a computer, I’d be down. This post is mainly a bump for you.

    Can you tell us any more about how it works?



    I’m plugging away at my roleplaying system, and a few settings for it side by side. It’s really easy to write for, if anything my troubles are getting rid of chaff, and putting into words what’s instinctive for me, to answer questions before the reader has them.

    So far I’m including little boxes that are just me talking to the reader in conversational terms alongside the slightly stricter rules. Does that sound helpful?

    For example:

    Ignite
    When you push yourself beyond your limitations and defy the odds, your call, you must ignite an aspect you possess to gain success without rolling dice. Once you’ve described how you succeed, the stakes are lowered. Cross the aspect; you cannot add it to a roll until the team resolves the episode.
    Basically, when Power Princess absolutely needs to be strong enough to hold back the oncoming train, or Casanova Raygun pulls out all the stops to talk around the Getaway Gang, rather than leaving it to chance they can detonate a relevant aspect.

    Power Princess crosses out her [Strong] aspect, Casanova crosses out his [Witty]. They can’t use their aspect until the team overcome the episode’s main obstacle, change the status quo, reveal something vital—you know, when things come to a satisfying point.

    This’ll be a big deal to the hero, as there’s a high chance they’ll be using their favourite aspect to pull off something grand, at the risk of being without it later. You’re straining yourself, using up something, calling on more force than you should be able to must. Do make a face as you describe your ignition, please.

    Last thing, the host will lower the stakes from whatever they were at, maybe just a stage lower, perhaps all the way. A scene where a hero ignites knock it out of the park, granting the team a little breather—until!

    Endless_Serpents on
  • JonBobJonBob Registered User regular
    Can you tell us any more about how it works?
    Sure. It is similar to Unlock or Exit, but with minimal components. Cards provide the story, the clues, and the puzzles. When you find an answer, you enter it in the companion app, which verifies your answer and tells you which cards to take next from the deck. I'm focusing on puzzle density (there are a dozen main puzzles across the 18 cards) and making the hint system robust and adaptive to the amount of help you actually want.

    jswidget.php?username=JonBob&numitems=10&header=1&text=none&images=small&show=recentplays&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&inline=1&domains%5B%5D=boardgame&imagewidget=1
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    For the few of you that look over this thread, I’m really pleased with this character sheet for my latest roleplaying project, Near Light.

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BTL1yNhSCliOO0d4OgctpaYwlsISDwP23fcKSx6LWJg/edit

    Without the full game in front of you I suppose your eyes will glaze over it. Basically you’re an ace pilot in a space war, and you have a hologram AI in your personally modified starfighter!

  • WhelkWhelk Registered User regular
    Looks good! I feel like the final logo needs a space plane ship flying near it, but I really like it.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Thanks for taking a look Whelk!

    Yeah, I was thinking two ships on a collision course behind it, so NEAR has one going right and LIGHT has one going left.

    A friend has asked to test the game today, because they’re a world class human being.

    I’m thinking of kicking it off with an attack on a water planet, with two separate floating towns as the target. This is mainly to test a system where the pilot has hundreds of not too clever drones they can use to bridge the gap and provide cover until they can get to the second locale.

    They’ll be playing Smoke, a rough and ready rookie, with their newly switched on pin-up, Flame.

    Ships have a three word phrase naming convention in this game. We haven’t decided yet, I’ve had both Over the Top and Killing it Softly text to me in the past minute.

  • WhelkWhelk Registered User regular
    edited August 2020
    Please do. I’m interesting to know the setting you’re going for with this, if anything as yet.

    Essentially it's the RPG setting I've been working on. It's a post-WWI industrial magical society, but out in essentially the Australia of this world. Except, a magical goldmine is found out there. So it's a gold rush, with the major nearby city being a 1920's swing New Orleans. The major themes of the setting being your generation has to decide what to do when they're handed crap and that humanity corrupts everything.

    Also, it's steampunk with flying islands and the major magical gewgaw that everyone is after is sky-whales. That appears to be overdone lately, so I might change it.

    Edit: To expand on it, magic mostly comes from stuff. It is a resource, it requires a price. That price can be paid by you or someone or someTHING else. The world is essentially animist, but we can't grasp that side of reality. The chain of events that led to magic being around are because human psychic trauma corrupts those animist spirits into ghosts. Those ghosts pick up power via human worship and ritual, and they can eventually interact with the physical world, in a way. Most of them are just furious they can't get a hit of reality any more. So the original sorcerers were taught by mediums who could speak with the spirits teaching them rituals to allow them to interact with reality. Spells are pretty much just the base, raw spirits of an area being contorted into reality for a fraction of time.

    Most wizard traditions are kind of like getting a religious law degree. These are the rituals you must complete to get X result, but none of them know the full why because a lot gets lost in translation. The traditions mostly work around conceits of worship, subjugation, or persuading the spirits into cooperating, with the promise of a dose of reality for compliance. Many of the ghosts who stay around long enough form personalities and become akin to a small god. They become divorced from both humanity and the spirit world in a way that worries the sane. They have agendas that we can't exactly figure out, but a lot of the people who actually know about their existence downright fear them. Doesn't stop many would-be sorcerers from entering a crossroads and making a deal. Some of the paranoid have decided these spirits are secretly running governments. Some of them are right.

    The rest of humanity who doesn't have to worry about those things can buy what I'm thinking of as commercial magic. Some of that sky whale oil can be processed into taking the tithe of magic for you. This has caused a mercantile upset the world over. Machines, miracles and science have all combined into a factory-driven hellhole for the average layperson.

    The flying islands is a trope that I've seen a lot of worlds do, but I find it fun. They all float in a river of magic over the surface of the planet, which is covered in water and houses gigantic beasts, making it mostly unusable for travel. Humanity has had to be inventive then. The major factions of the world war got into it over control of the major highway between three of the continents: an elevator slung between floating rocks. This elevator has potentially become obsolete with the discovery of the whales who fly through the sky-river near the major city on the frontier. Their oil has revolutionized air travel, as well. Where before zeppelins and hot air balloons had run the skies, now they have flying ships and floating fortresses. Before, you'd need to travel by railways slung through the dangerous asteroid belts between islands. Now you can skirt them.

    But what happens if the whales are hunted to extinction? What about the failed seccession of the country that is now the frontier to a world defining industry? What do you do when the town you call home is divided by foreign governments and your people shamed for an attempt at independence? Are the people who have taken the harsh journey out there hard people or those full of hope? What terrors lurk behind the promise of healing in a bottle or an academy of sciences out here on the fringe? There's a lot of work to be done for crews who can do it, but most will die trying.

    Whelk on
  • SurfpossumSurfpossum A nonentity trying to preserve the anonymity he so richly deserves.Registered User regular
    I was reminded of this thread's existence so I figured I'd drop this in here as well.
    DOME
    Players take the role of researchers in a Deployable Observation and Mobile Experimentation unit that has been sent to a hostile planet. They have to work together to survive events ranging from inconvenient to catastrophic, while individually trying to obtain and analyze as many samples as they can for personal glory. Once a majority of the players feel like they are ready to go, they can call in the Expedited Vehicular Assistance and Collection ship and return home, but: due to their remote location, the EVAC will take 5 days to arrive, so they had best not push their luck too far….

    esbbjqeli4ig.jpg

    Here's the full "rules" document so far. It's still quite a mess but I think it's got most of it in there in some form?

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/10e-rmb_cRG1zTmVhIsm8Xz4Oen7EQQSyQSyKotJTrJY/edit?usp=drivesdk

    *smoke bomb*

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    I’m late to my own thread, but that’s a wonderful project! Keep it up!

  • JonBobJonBob Registered User regular
    I am volunteering for the Tabletop Mentorship Program this session. I will be paired with a newer designer and will try to help push them along toward their goals over the next three months. I'm sort of nervous but I'm expecting it to be a rewarding experience on both ends.

    jswidget.php?username=JonBob&numitems=10&header=1&text=none&images=small&show=recentplays&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&inline=1&domains%5B%5D=boardgame&imagewidget=1
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited January 2021
    Hello all, right now I’m making a card game, but I’m taking a break from that today to make a card game. It goes like this:

    Villy 2021

    Self contained card game. 3-6 players.

    Establishing Concept

    You are an entrant of an English village trying to win this year’s Best Village Award. To do this you want to show off your village’s features, and show up the competition.



    How to Play
    All that is required to set up the game is for someone to shuffle the Villy deck of cards and place them face down in the middle of the play area.

    Play begins by picking who is first in the turn order. Choose the youngest player if you can’t decide. The turn order now proceeds from their right in a circle until no more players remain. Everything is done in the established turn order.

    Each player draws four cards from the Villy deck into their hand.

    Next the players place two cards from their hands face down in front of them.

    Then they choose one of the two cards to reveal. This is the card they have chosen to play this round.

    The played cards are activated in turn order, and players follow the instructions on their card.

    With the round complete the players bank any points they earned during that round.

    Both the cards placed face down and the played cards are discarded until the game is finished in a separate pile. Cards that remained in the players hands are shuffled back into the Villy deck.

    The player to the right of whoever went first during the last round is now first in the turn order. The next round begins, and continues until one player ends a round with five points in two separate categories; they have won!

    Should a round end with a shared win, their overall scores are compared to determine who is victorious.

    If all cards are discarded before a win, the closest to either method is deemed the winner.



    There are three kinds of points in this game; spirit, tradition and beauty. Any points are good, but you’ll need to focus on acquiring more of certain kinds if you want to win.



    There are only 3 or less copies of each card in a shared deck. Judging what remains and who wants what kind of point is a factor in succeeding.

    Villy Cards
    Hearty Pub (3)
    You gain 1 spirit point.

    Manor House (3)
    You gain 1 tradition point.

    Windswept Meadow (3)
    You gain 1 beauty point.

    - The basic card. These leave you open to others as they don’t project any force, but as they’re inoffensive you’ll be the most likely to be left alone, at least until the match hits its stride.



    Hilltop Apiary (3) bee farm
    You gain 1 point in the category you have the least points in.

    - As they’re points you don’t exactly need, whether you play this will depend on how far you are in the match.



    Riverside Mill (2)
    When Riverside Mill is placed face down, you may reveal it at the end of the round and choose an entrant. In secret, you may trade 2 category points for whichever 2 category points they are willing to offer in return.

    - You’re not getting more points, just different types. 2 Nature for 2 Tradition, 2 Spirit for 1 Tradition and 1 Nature, etc.
    - This is just to put other players off what category you hope to come out on top with—you can even just not do it.
    - How secret the trade ends up being will differ per match, but I think that’s okay.
    - This one is kind of a big deal, more in terms of how it creates a temporary alliance, or is perceived to be doing that.



    Humble Pie (2)
    When Humble Pie is placed face down, you may reveal it and add underhand to the card you played.

    - A real game-changer, this card allows you to play your card as declared—as in, any time you like, this round.
    - In theory you could just play it, but it would have no actual use 99% of the time. If you’re sure someone intends to steal from you, you could play this to grant them no stolen points.



    Wishing Well (2)
    When Wishing Well is placed face down, you may reveal it and gain an extra point in the category of the card you played.

    - May being the important ruling. It’s your call when you think it’s safe to get that extra point.
    If the card you played is stolen, you don’t get an extra point.



    Charity Fair (2)
    When Charity Fair is placed face down, you must reveal it and look at the top four cards on the Villy deck, then put them back.

    - Now you know what the first player in the turn order is going to get next round.



    Lost Sheep (3)
    When Lost Sheep is placed face down, you must reveal it and steal 1 point from the entrant on your left. If they have no points, you must give them 1 banked point from the category of your choice.

    - This is a must, rather than may. It forces unexpected rivalry, making sure you don’t just pick on one person.
    - It’s always plausible deniability, that’s just what the cards says!
    - It also gives a point away if they didn’t make any this round, which is a fun balancer.



    War Memorial (2)
    Whenever points are stolen this round, gain 1 tradition.

    - Everyone is out to steal, so why not make some points off it?
    - But if you play this, who will want to steal? This card guides players to place a steal and other card face down, making their choice if they think War Memorial is or isn’t in play.



    Sinking Fort (2)
    When Sinking Fort is placed face down, reveal it at the end of the round. If you did not make the most points, gain 1 spirit point.

    - A come back card, plus a way to still make points if you want to play a card that doesn’t get you any.
    - A nice way to backfire theft too.



    Foxglove Trail (2)
    If you are first this round, you gain 2 beauty, otherwise you gain 1 beauty.

    - You’ve only got a chance of this hitting right, but this single element of chance in the game will turn the tables and so change the plans of those playing.



    Peaceable Chapel (2)
    When Peaceable Chapel is placed face down, you may reveal it to immediately bank the points you’ve gained this round.

    - So much stealing! This is a defence against it. Rather than waiting for the round to be completed you bank your points on your turn.
    - Like many cards, there are only two, so you can judge when to steal, which is most of the time.



    Fairy Circle (2)
    Laggard - Always goes last.
    Gain 1 nature point and choose an entrant. If they’ve gained only 1 point, steal it and give it to another entrant.

    - Very powerful, but as it must go last it can be anticipated.
    - Since it goes last, your point can’t be stolen very easily.
    You can simultaneously make an ally and enemy, but really, who trusts fairies?



    Rose Garden (3)
    If no one else plays Rose Garden after you, you gain 2 points from the category of your choice.

    - You’ll need to judge if someone has a Rose Garden to play after yours. Later on, if two have been played, and you hold the third, you’re guaranteed your points… unless they’re stolen. Playing this as the last card of the round is ideal.
    - Having a choice of point category means you can spread them between the two you intend to win with. Nice!



    Chalk Bluff (2)
    If you have the lowest score overall, you gain 2 nature points.

    - A simple come back card.
    - If you see someone play it and they’re only a point behind you might try to give them a point to cancel this.



    Shared History (2)
    If your score is equal to other entrants, you each gain 1 tradition point.

    - If you’re anywhere from last to second, you’re gonna drag some players up with you. Good for chasing someone with a big lead.
    - If you’re in joint first, this isn’t an ideal card to be playing unless you’ve got some serious scheme going.
    - But mainly, do you want to help others? If not, you could play it face down and then discard it.

    Prizewinning Bull (1)
    Choose an entrant. You both gain 1 beauty point and you gain the benefit of the card they’ve played.

    - You give points to get points.
    - This’ll usually end in your favour, but if their card is stolen you’ll end the round having given them 1 point and you’ll get nothing back.


    Joyous Marriage (2)
    Choose an entrant. You both gain 1 spirit point and they cannot steal from you during the next round.

    - Another steal block, but focused on one player in particular.
    - Making sure they don’t steal from you also forces them to steal from others by default, if those are the only kind of cards their next hand provides.



    Market Day (2)
    Underhand - Play as declared.
    Choose an entrant. If they would gain more than 1 point this round, you steal 1 point.

    - A simple way to even out point gain.
    - The best strategic use of this card is to nix someone playing Enormous Pumpkin.



    Enormous Pumpkin (2)
    Choose an entrant. If they would gain more than 1 point this round, you steal those points.

    - Probably the best card, save for the fact you can now be stolen from.



    Terrible Gossip (1)
    Choose an entrant. Reduce their banked amount of points in the category of your choice by 2, then reduce your own by 1.

    - If someone is close to winning you can forgo getting a point just to screw them over.
    - 2 is a big number in this game, but every time you play this you stall yourself and let another player get ahead.
    - Of course, this means war between you and the one you’ve screwed.



    Buttercup Walk (2)
    If at least one face down card is revealed this round, you gain 1 beauty.

    - A stopper on revealing cards, unless another player things what they gain is more important than allowing you a point.

    Not playtested yet, it’s just a sketch. Thoughts?


    Endless_Serpents on
  • WhelkWhelk Registered User regular
    So my question is, are scores kept in a temporary pool until the end of the turn or....?

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Okay, so, on your turn you can use a card to earn points. However, these are not banked, they’re not safe yet. On another player’s turn they can steal them.

    At the end of the round (everyone’s had a turn) your points are banked. These are permanent.

    Now the next round begins and you try to earn points again.

  • WhelkWhelk Registered User regular
    Got it. It looks like a solid framework. I definitely think you could iterate a bit on the cards, but I'd probably give this a shot as is on a game night. I'd want a card or two that helps the target of someone else. Like a defensive card in the vein of the enemy of my enemy, etc. Maybe a single up the ante card where the whole table benefits.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited January 2021
    Yeah it definitely needs those. I think the next run through will be about temporarily picking sides and double crossing.

    Edit: I’m thinking for each new card added I’ll reduce the number of copies of some other card, and that cards should indicate how many copies there are, so even if you’re new to the game you’ll know if that kind of card will only appear 1/2/3 times.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • WhelkWhelk Registered User regular
    edited January 2021
    My question is, why the hidden information in the played face down card? Do those get revealed at the end of the round or is it supposed to be a memory type situation?

    Edit: Looks like you want card counting of some kind. I think the tally on the cards works. I wonder if you could make too many categories of cards and have people draft them at game start. Kind of how Dominion works.

    Whelk on
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    The general idea is everyone plays a card face up and a card face down in turn order (starting from one chosen person, going right).

    After everyone gets a second to see what’s up, everyone does what their card says in turn order. Right now, they’ll do what looks best judging by what people have played face up, but everyone has a face down card that they can potentially reveal on their turn to mess things up.

    You might not always have a card you feel like revealing, but there’s threat there, you know?

    You can also place a card face down you have no intention of using, but want to be discarded at the end of the round rather than shuffled back into the shared deck.

    Still, it could use some work.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    I’ve made a complete write up of Villy I’m pretty proud of. I think I’ll make a plain set of cards for it, and in the future I might even pay an artist to polish it up one day.

    Meanwhile I’m still working on another card game, and I’m trudging through the slog that is writing a roleplaying game up in detail. I should have a version I can post this weekend. It’s nothing you’ve not seen before, it’s just the system I want to run things in.

  • WhelkWhelk Registered User regular
    I'm interested to see it, regardless. I like hearing about this stuff, even if I get shy with posting my own.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited February 2021
    Villy?
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dzpsHvJ3kN1I6hkVp-DFigUHCuE5yK4F2JHuujFDtJY/edit

    No big changes honestly. There’s not much to the game, just try to get certain points from a limited and ever shrinking deck.

    Edit: I said complete earlier, I’d actually need to write up a terminology bit and make it clean to actually teach people it.

    More edit: Have a roleplaying game idea. The idea is a little ripped back one-shot story game to run if you’ve got no prep time:

    The Midnight Hunt
    At the stroke of midnight the realm of nightmares and that of your own intersect. Yours is a rare soul able to perceive and inhabit this half-space. With your fellows, you hunt those nightmares that seep in like poison through the cracks of time, for it must be done. For you midnight lasts an queer length, measured in hot blood spilt on cold earth.

    Core Rules
    Activities
    When your action is uncontested you do it to the best of your ability as established by your aspects and skills.



    Challenges
    When you are challenged, or challenge a threat, describe what you intend to do and your current goal, then roll...
    * +1D if you have an appropriate aspect.
    * +1D if an ally assists you.
    * +1D if you have a situational bonus.
    * +1D if you spend momentum.

    On a 6, you succeed. Additional 6’s create momentum.
    On a 4 or 5, the outcome is mixed.
    On a 1, 2, or 3, your action is twisted against you. Take a condition, as established.

    If you then choose to take further risk, roll your dice again and keep the new result.

    If you go too far, you succeed, but there’s immediate fallout.

    Finally, if you have a relevant skill, always take an option.



    Conditions & Scars
    While you have a condition you will be barred from fully succeeding at certain physical, social, or mental actions. A condition comes with a countdown clock. When it is filled the condition becomes a scar. Scars are permanent debilities. Conditions can be removed when you acquire appropriate healing.

    Your hunt continues until you can’t reasonably go on.



    Equipment
    When you take out a useful item you definitely brought with you, treat it as a challenge.

    On a 6, you have just the thing. Describe it.
    On a 4 or 5, work with what you’ve got. It’s close, fragile or volatile.
    On a 1, 2, or 3, it’s not what you want.

    Add the item to your pack for this hunt.



    Creation
    First, describe what you intend to create. The host must say “yes, and” or “yes, but”, then choose a number of caveats, such as:
    * It will take longer than you’d hope.
    * You must acquire particular ingredients.
    * You need proper workspace and tools.
    * You must settle for a fragile, volatile or lesser version.
    * You must sacrifice something precious to complete it.
    * You must contact the eldritch.
    * It will draw in nightmares.
    * It has a desire all its own.
    * Once made, it threatens challenge.



    The Eldritch
    To cast spells, first you must make contact with the eldritch.

    You may bargain for a particular spell in return for service or a unique price.
    You may trick the eldritch to gain access to its portfolio for a time, at the threat of retribution.
    You may bind the eldritch to your soul for further power, with certainty of being eventually subsumed by it.

    Whatever the case, your spells must adhere to a given portfolio, consisting of one or more eldritch words. The broader and more potent the word, the harder it is to control.

    Weaving a spell is a matter of creation. Casting said spell is a challenge.



    Advancement
    Once per hunt; take an advancement when you share intimacy, your call, with a fellow hunter. Intimacy includes showing weakness, revealing your past, expressing kinship, engaging in their planned action, or simply sharing equipment.

    Once per hunt; you can accept horror into your heart in order to take an advancement. When you do, the host completes the countdown clock of their choice. Describe the beastly tell that has now affected your visage.

    When you have reached your 10th advancement, beginning the next hunt is a challenge.



    Momentum
    Momentum is a shared pool of dice any hunter can use.



    So my basic thoughts are no HP, or set time for death, but it’s a game all about getting your hand bitten off by a werewolf, eye poked out by a witch, so you drag that character along as long as you want, if you’re fine fighting a great old one while wheelchair bound and deaf. Your death, or retirement from the hunt, is in what’s left of your hands,

    There’s no stats, just aspects for you to leverage as often as you can. You might be Smart and Strong, or Feminine and Calm, or Sinister and Foul. They’re just descriptions you can shake a d6 out of.

    Skills aren’t initial bonuses, they’re safety nets of options. For example:
    Subterfuge
    * Leave no trace.
    * Do it quick.
    * Divert attention elsewhere.
    You can still fail to steal the jewel without alerting the guards, but your fail isn’t like an unskilled person.

    You level up Hella fast. Pretty much whenever you like during the session, either by roleplaying or allowing things to get worse. Advancements wouldn’t be deep, but I still think it’d be a cool to build your character on the fly to accommodate the moment.


    A character would just look like:
    Catherine Ashfield, Midnight Hunter
    Aspects: Bold, Proud
    Skills: Manipulation
    Eldritch: The Weeping Spirit. Portfolio: Tears, ash, cinders. Wants: Pity for the undead.
    Scars: Fear of fire. Prosthetic foot.

    She might use bold to stand against something frightening, and boss folk around with proud. Her manipulation skill might provide a safety net option like ‘they never sense your ill intent’ or ‘they always let something slip’. As for magic, she could probably wrangle a blinding spell, or cloud of smoke, or very slowly make something catch on fire, but won’t be able to create a fireball spell. However, these spells are much more controlled than if she had access to the word ‘incinerate’. Her scars might make certain situations tougher, like denying her an aspect or skill, or just making bad rolls hit harder.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • gavindelgavindel The reason all your software is brokenRegistered User regular
    I'm still working on my dream RPG, rebuilding the dang thing from the ground up. As I define turn order, I follow the general idea we see in most RPGs: 5 second rounds, initiative order, each player gets to Move + Act. You know, the usual. Yet one thing has always bugged me: speech during combat rounds.

    I've seen many GMs say "you can only talk on your turn". In my 5e campaigns, I would allow players to spend their bonus action/reaction to deliver messages. Others allow complete freeform. After all, talking and fighting are divorced actions, especially in more heroic fiction like the wuxia genre I'm emulating. (Totally want to have a special ability that allows players to deliver an entire speech on their turn)

    Combat rounds are an abstraction. Initiative order enforces a strict ordering to simultaneous action. Facing the problem that the person with crucial information may be last on initiative, how do we resolve the matter of talking back and forth but maintain the idea of timing?

    Here's a heuristic approach: "Any time during the round, you can speak one full sentence. You may also respond to others with simple, one or two word responses at any time. GMs, if your players start constructing sentences like they're writing the Odyssey, feel free to restrict them to 5 words."

    Book - Royal road - Free! Seraphim === TTRPG - Wuxia - Free! Seln Alora
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    I’ve got to say, are you creating a solution before the problem?

    How often are you finding talking to be a problem? I’m genuinely interested.

    @gavindel

  • gavindelgavindel The reason all your software is brokenRegistered User regular
    Entirely possible it simply doesn't come up much. The question came up three times in my last campaign, each time due to a situation where the party had just started combat. The last person in initiative had yet to react to the sudden combat and wanted to provide info. As a group, we wondered what this meant in terms of the actual game world.

    Book - Royal road - Free! Seraphim === TTRPG - Wuxia - Free! Seln Alora
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    That’s cool. I can see that. :+1:

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    @gavindel
    How is the design of your game going?

  • gavindelgavindel The reason all your software is brokenRegistered User regular
    Its pretty slow going. This is by far the most complex game system I've ever tried to assemble. I finished rebuilding the generic portion of the combat system in the last two weeks. Then I'm defining weapon styles to get a feel for what bonuses I want to allow there. Once I have a few weapon styles, I'll use those plus the generic combat to rewrite my class abilities for the new scaling system.

    This being a system heavily influenced by wuxia style, the weapon techniques need to really inform that kind of flavor. For example:

    The boartusk guardians. Role is defensive area of control. Use spear. Elemental affinity: earth. Across the fifteen levels of my system:
    1. Expand threat range when using a spear.
    2. Additional damage (light)
    3. Gain stacking defense while stationary
    4. Spend chi to reposition without breaking the stacking defense
    5. Boar's charge -> a rushing spear flurry that converts stacked defense into an offensive surge
    6. Empty.
    7. Bonuses to resist effects that force a move such as being thrown
    8. Spend chi to add stacking damage resistance while stationary
    9. Additional damage (medium)
    10. Expand the number of opportunity attacks as people cross threat range
    11. Expand threat range even more?
    12. Additional damage (heavy)
    13. Spend chi to make opportunity attacks multiple times as people move through threat range. Instead of a single OA when they enter range, you can punish them for the extent they travel through your range.
    14. Empty
    15. Boar's charge now attacks all targets in the line of movement

    As you can see, that's a very rough sketch. The mental image we want to sell is the implacable spearman who plants his feet on the ground and punishes anyone who tries to dislodge him.

    I've tried to explain the system to several of my IRL friends, and we've agreed that I need to find a cohesive pitch that ties together all the systems. Base building, foraging, crafting, wuxia combat, social combat...its too much to digest, and "Its Harvest Moon meets Exalted" has not landed well overall outside of the heavy nerd crowd.

    ...So for our purposes? Its like if Stardew Valley was run by a Xianxia master.

    Book - Royal road - Free! Seraphim === TTRPG - Wuxia - Free! Seln Alora
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    Figured it would be a quick joke to throw out in a D&D campaign where I'm playing a grung.
    But, then I could not sleep, and had a bad pun in my head that slowly wormed it's way around and become an idea for a game.
    I'm picturing it on a standard 8x8 chess board for the standard game.

    Frog'sPawn (Or, Grung's Chess)
    Frog'sPawn
    Standardized rules:
    Each side's spawn is the same and begins arrayed the same.
    4 eggs, 4 tadpoles alternate in the front rank
    4 (f)roglets and 4 Frogs in the second rank
    Matriarch in the Queen's Seat (a single space centered behind the last row on each side)
            M
    e e t t t t e e
    f f F F F F f f
    
    Rank - pieces
    1 - Egg
    2 - Tadpole
    4 - Froglet
    8 - Frog
    12 - Matriarch (only one allowed per side)

    Players take turns moving one piece per round, or forfeiting movement to have their Matriarch spawn an additional egg (If she is in the Queen's Seat, and at least one of the spaces immediately adjacent to the Queen's Seat is empty).

    Capturing
    A superior piece can capture a piece of the opposing side of lower rank by moving onto it's space on the board
    Pieces of lower rank can capture higher ranking pieces by surrounding them with an equal or greater rank value. (IE: a tadpole with opposing eggs on two or more sides is captured, a Matriarch with 12 points (one Frog, one froglet or 1 Frog and 2 tadpoles) of opposing units surrounding her is captured)
    Pieces involved in capturing superior pieces are advanced 1 rank.
    Eggs -> Tadpoles -> Froglets -> Frog
    Advancement only happens when capturing a superior unit. A froglet does not advance for capturing a tadpole.
    As each side can only have one Matriarch, no advancement beyond Frog is possible.

    Victory condition: Capture the opposing Matriarch, or leave the opposing Matriarch as their last piece on the board.

    Movement
    A piece can move into a space with an allied unit of lower rank, when this is done the lower ranked allied unit is captured and removed from the board.
    A piece can move into a space with an opposing unit of higher rank, when this is done the lower ranked unit is captured.
    A piece can move into a space with an opposing unit of equal rank, and both will occupy that space for purposes of group capturing until one piece moves or is captured.

    Eggs move one space in any direction (reminiscent of drifting in a minor current)
    Tadpoles move 2 spaces forward or forward diagonally (darting ahead, but not fast)
    Froglings move 3 spaces in any direction

    Frogs jump, allowing them to evade being eaten when moving through occupied spaces. A frog moves 4 squares in any direction, these squares do not have to be in a straight line, so long as no square is revisited during the move. (IE 3 spaces forward, 1 space left or 1 space forward, 2 spaces left, 1 space forward would be legal; however moving forward 2, back 1, forward 1 would be illegal)
    The exception would be a Frog jumping through a space occupied by another unit of lesser rank, the frog can end their turn and capture that unit.
    Frogs can only move up, down, left or right during their jumps. Diagonal movement can be accomplished by moving up one and over one taking up two of their 4 moves.

    Matriarchs are slower than Froglings, and move two spaces in any direction.
    A Player with a Matriarch in the Queen's Seat can skip their movement to spawn an egg in one of the two squares touching the seat.

    Thoughts? Suggestions?
    Recommendation for a good sleeping tea so I can fall asleep before I have to go to work?

    see317 on
  • MrBlarneyMrBlarney Registered User regular
    edited April 2021
    see317 wrote: »
    Figured it would be a quick joke to throw out in a D&D campaign where I'm playing a grung.
    But, then I could not sleep, and had a bad pun in my head that slowly wormed it's way around and become an idea for a game.
    I'm picturing it on a standard 8x8 chess board for the standard game.

    Frog'sPawn (Or, Grung's Chess)
    Frog'sPawn
    Standardized rules:
    Each side's spawn is the same and begins arrayed the same.
    4 eggs, 4 tadpoles alternate in the front rank
    4 (f)roglets and 4 Frogs in the second rank
    Matriarch in the Queen's Seat (a single space centered behind the last row on each side)
            M
    e e t t t t e e
    f f F F F F f f
            M
    
    Rank - pieces
    1 - Egg
    2 - Tadpole
    4 - Froglet
    8 - Frog
    12 - Matriarch (only one allowed per side)

    Players take turns moving one piece per round, or forfeiting movement to have their Matriarch spawn an additional egg (If she is in the Queen's Seat, and at least one of the spaces immediately adjacent to the Queen's Seat is empty).

    Capturing
    A superior piece can capture a piece of the opposing side of lower rank by moving onto it's space on the board
    Pieces of lower rank can capture higher ranking pieces by surrounding them with an equal or greater rank value. (IE: a tadpole with opposing eggs on two or more sides is captured, a Matriarch with 12 points (one Frog, one froglet or 1 Frog and 2 tadpoles) of opposing units surrounding her is captured)
    Pieces involved in capturing superior pieces are advanced 1 rank.
    Eggs -> Tadpoles -> Froglets -> Frog
    Advancement only happens when capturing a superior unit. A froglet does not advance for capturing a tadpole.
    As each side can only have one Matriarch, no advancement beyond Frog is possible.

    Victory condition: Capture the opposing Matriarch, or leave the opposing Matriarch as their last piece on the board.

    Movement
    A piece can move into a space with an allied unit of lower rank, when this is done the lower ranked allied unit is captured and removed from the board.
    A piece can move into a space with an opposing unit of higher rank, when this is done the lower ranked unit is captured.
    A piece can move into a space with an opposing unit of equal rank, and both will occupy that space for purposes of group capturing until one piece moves or is captured.

    Eggs move one space in any direction (reminiscent of drifting in a minor current)
    Tadpoles move 2 spaces forward or forward diagonally (darting ahead, but not fast)
    Froglings move 3 spaces in any direction

    Frogs jump, allowing them to evade being eaten when moving through occupied spaces. A frog moves 4 squares in any direction, these squares do not have to be in a straight line, so long as no square is revisited during the move. (IE 3 spaces forward, 1 space left or 1 space forward, 2 spaces left, 1 space forward would be legal; however moving forward 2, back 1, forward 1 would be illegal)
    The exception would be a Frog jumping through a space occupied by another unit of lesser rank, the frog can end their turn and capture that unit.
    Frogs can only move up, down, left or right during their jumps. Diagonal movement can be accomplished by moving up one and over one taking up two of their 4 moves.

    Matriarchs are slower than Froglings, and move two spaces in any direction.
    A Player with a Matriarch in the Queen's Seat can skip their movement to spawn an egg in one of the two squares touching the seat.

    Thoughts? Suggestions?
    Recommendation for a good sleeping tea so I can fall asleep before I have to go to work?

    OK, I'll bite and play this straight. Just approaching this mostly from a rules standpoint and not a gameplay standpoint.
    'Cause honestly, I think there might need to be some rules cleanup for me to understand what you're doing in your fairy chess variant.

    "Rank"
    Rank is a loaded term in chess, since it refers to the rows of the chess board: first rank being where the specialist white pieces are, second rank being where the white pawns are, up to the black pieces on the seventh and eighth ranks. The 'ranks' you've given to your pieces are also confusing, since ranks are often thought of as ordinal, A > B > C, etc. rather than based on numeric intervals. So rename the 'rank' to a 'strength' value to reduce confusion.

    Setup
    Your code board has two "M" characters in it, which makes it confusing as to where the Matriarch is actually supposed to be. Is one a starting position for the Matriarch, and the other the Queen's Seat? It's also not clear whether the Queen's Seat is on the 0th rank (or 9th rank for the 'black' side) or not. Additionally, it's not clear if Queens' Seats face each other on the fifth (e) file or if they are rotated (white on e, black on d).

    Movement
    Really, piece movement should come up in the rules before capturing. It's not clear whether two allied pieces of equal rank can occupy the same space, based on the rules. I would probably suggest removing all rules about co-occupation of spaces to keep things simple. No need to introduce such an odd stacking rule unless it significantly enriches the gameplay.

    The use of "any direction" can be somewhat ambiguous. If you mean "any direction" like as a Queen does, it can be clearer to say "orthogonally and diagonally", at least when conveyed in text and not an image. If you just mean "any direction" as "orthogonal" like a Rook, that's a crucial distinction. You might consider using some kind of Fairy chess piece notation to describe your pieces depending on the audience you're approaching with the game. Though visual diagrams are probably best.

    So Eggs can move like chess Kings, or they move one space orthogonally, depending on what "any direction" means. Easy. Can higher-powered pieces move for shorter than their maximum lengths? That is, is a Tadpole locked to exactly two spaces of movement, and Froglings three spaces? If these two pieces are locked to their maximum movements, that makes them incredibly awkward to use. Also, what happens to a Tadpole that hits the final rank of the board without promoting, is it stuck there for the rest of the game?

    Frogs are a tricky piece. One reason why I had a question about the use of "any direction" earlier is that you clarify that as meaning the Frog gets four orthogonal moves (no diagonals). In any case, Frogs are incredibly powerful pieces. Have you heard of the Lion piece from Shogi (Japan's native flavor of chesslikes)? It's found in larger-board variants of the game like Chu shogi (12x12 board), not in the standard 9x9 game. Lions make two King moves, giving them a wide area of influence. In Chu Shogi, this actually makes them a more desirable piece than a chess Queen, and there are rules on Lion trades in order to keep the pace of the Chu Shogi game stable. While Frogs lack diagonal movement like Lions do, they also get twice as many actions, so their sphere of influence actually ends up being larger, in addition to being on a smaller board than where the Lion gets to prowl. Frogs could probably stand to be nerfed.

    Matriarchs might be fine in terms of strength, but my gut tells me that they're a little overpowered in their ability to slip around the board. It's unclear how there could be two squares adjacent to the Queen's Seat where eggs can be spawned, if the Seat is a lone square off the standard board's square edges. As an aside, I wonder if there's an alternative win condition there to escort one's Matriarch to the opposing player's Seat, similar to how Onitama works. (As an aside, that's a good research case for abstract chesslikes if you haven't played it before.)

    Capturing
    Again, it's worth clarifying what spaces count for "surrounding" here, whether that's just orthogonal spaces or if diagonal spaces are allowed. I assume diagonals are not allowed, but that L-shaped pincers count for surrounding conditions. Promoting multiple pieces for surround capture feels a little overpowered at first blush, but it might in fact be a viable reward. I'm somewhat reminded of the pushing, pulling, and capture rules of Arimaa, which does not have promotion rules and whose win conditions are generally focused around the weakest units.

    Welp, that ended up being much more of a time investment than I expected it to take. Anyways, if you wanted to explore your ideas further, there's plenty of abstract chesslikes that you can draw from for inspiration, beyond the couple that I linked in the post. That research I'll leave to you, I'll call my contribution here complete.

    EDITS: minor grammar and clarifications.

    MrBlarney on
    4463rwiq7r47.png
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    I’ll reply to this in full later, but as a concept it’s legit!

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    For some background information, the DM asked all the players to give him an interesting fact about their characters backstory. I went with the classic "Childhood cannibalism" and said that I had eaten three of my siblings.
    That kind of rolled around in my head thinking it's a fucked up thing, but, what if it wasn't a fucked up thing? What if it's just the culture of the Grung? They lay a few hundred eggs per spawning and only the strongest can survive because there's not enough resources to raise a few hundred grunglings. So they've got games about eating your siblings and the other frogs in the pond. Original version of the rules used "Devoured" instead of "Captured" but was trying to use more standardized terms, so swarms of weaker tokens could take a larger target if working as a team, but still keeping the chance of being eaten by a larger, ostensibly allied, frog.

    I'll see if I can get back into the brainspace I was in so I can remember what I was thinking.
    Rank -> Strength, good point. I don't want to run into the level issue by reusing terms incorrectly.

    Setup: I had pictured the two Matriarchs starting the game on an additional board row behind their forces consisting of a single square centered on the board. so there would be two squares in front of it available to spawn eggs. I don't know why I put a second M on the setup. I've edited my post to correct this.

    Movement: I'll look into Fairy Chess notation, I hadn't heard of it, but it'll definitely be helpful to use an established movement language instead of trying to make one up to flesh out a half thought idea at 1am.

    I had pictured higher power pieces being locked into their movement speed. Sharing spaces with equally powered units and being captured or capturing weaker unit as they move.

    For the Tadpole that makes it across the board, I'm not sure. My first thought is to have the tadpole piece be directional and it just rotates and moves the way it came, but I think that may be confusing in a longer game. Having a tadpole stuck on that side of the board could make group captures on the opposing side a little easier to pull off, until the tadpole is captured.

  • WhelkWhelk Registered User regular
    I've been toying around a concept in my head this morning about how to make a Mystical Iron Chef. The concept I came up with was Uno, but with a meta game built around it for scoring points. The core framework would be the same for moment to moment gameplay, except you're trying to discard down a hand full of particular cards to complete a recipe instead of to just one card. Those recipe cards would be handed out at random and would grant points based on difficulty of completing. Recipes would be something like "5 Blue cards," "3 Wild Cards," "A Straight," "A Flush," "A Straight Flush," etc.

    Now, the rub would be the extra systems on top. Everyone has terrible house rules to every game, Uno included. Those house rules would be the secret ingredient. So each round would play differently based on that secret ingredient. Examples being "Hydra Eggs: You can play up to three cards a turn." "Gorgon Snot: All cards may be counted as Green." or something like "Gemini Fruit: You may steal the turn if you play a copy of the top card in the discard pile."

    The last meta system would be a set of Secret Judges who all have their own likes and dislikes. These mostly give out bonus points on top of the Recipes like Mario Kart bonus stars.

    The fun would be the non-numerical cards that change up the flow of the game. Instead of Skip, Reverse, Draw +4, there might be Give +2 (Give an opponent two cards of your choice,) Steal +2 (Take two cards from an opponent at random,) Flip (Replace or add a Secret Ingredient,) or Peek (Look at a Secret Judge or Recipe card.) I'm trying to come up with ways to make playing down to those recipe cards easier, and I think I've settled on focusing on a color wheel where you can play onto adjacent colors. The hard part might be drawing enough cards into your hand to drill down into the right ones.

  • JonBobJonBob Registered User regular
    You might have a good seed of a game there. It is really rewarding to play a game where the variable setup makes for a very different puzzle to solve each time. It's hard to pull off such a design, though.

    For good examples of this idea done well, look at pretty much any Donald X. Vaccarino game. Dominion, Kingdom Builder, and especially Nefarious. Rather than wacky player powers as in Cosmic Encounter, these games all have a global state that drastically changes the best strategy.

    I think if you are trying to refine a design with this quality, you need to focus on the core game without those mutators first. To succeed, that core game needs to be:
    - Really simple to learn
    - Alterable along several distinct axes
    - Short
    - Fun by itself before adding the mutations

    If it is not simple to learn, then the added exceptions will make matters worse and you will lose players before they even start. This means the game has to be simple, but to the second point it can't be too simple because you also need to have knobs to turn. In Nefarious, the Twists can change how inventions get played, the money economy, how minions work, etc. The game must be short because the players should want to play again right away with a different twist. And the last point is key because you'll really need to playtest the game a lot without the twist for basic balance before you obscure the workings with the special rules.

    jswidget.php?username=JonBob&numitems=10&header=1&text=none&images=small&show=recentplays&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&inline=1&domains%5B%5D=boardgame&imagewidget=1
  • WhelkWhelk Registered User regular
    I am going to run a test by jamming some regular playing card decks together and using poker hands with arbitrary point values assigned. I don't think it works without the basic "Fish for this type of hand," gameplay before adding the other stuff like skips or draw or discard or whatever.

  • JonBobJonBob Registered User regular
    Oh, I didn't mean to suggest that. Just that I feel your early tests should focus on finding the minimum rule set that is fun and has knobs to turn before adding in the "theme ingredient" idea. Sounds like you have a good plan for a first step!

    jswidget.php?username=JonBob&numitems=10&header=1&text=none&images=small&show=recentplays&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&inline=1&domains%5B%5D=boardgame&imagewidget=1
  • WhelkWhelk Registered User regular
    I was thankful for the feedback! I don't own an Uno deck, or I'd try it that way. I'm just thinking I better run a test once or twice to see if I like the basic structure before making a legit prototype. It is fun to daydream the bells an whistles, though.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    see317 wrote: »
    For some background information, the DM asked all the players to give him an interesting fact about their characters backstory. I went with the classic "Childhood cannibalism" and said that I had eaten three of my siblings.
    That kind of rolled around in my head thinking it's a fucked up thing, but, what if it wasn't a fucked up thing? What if it's just the culture of the Grung? They lay a few hundred eggs per spawning and only the strongest can survive because there's not enough resources to raise a few hundred grunglings. So they've got games about eating your siblings and the other frogs in the pond. Original version of the rules used "Devoured" instead of "Captured" but was trying to use more standardized terms, so swarms of weaker tokens could take a larger target if working as a team, but still keeping the chance of being eaten by a larger, ostensibly allied, frog.

    I'll see if I can get back into the brainspace I was in so I can remember what I was thinking.
    Rank -> Strength, good point. I don't want to run into the level issue by reusing terms incorrectly.

    Setup: I had pictured the two Matriarchs starting the game on an additional board row behind their forces consisting of a single square centered on the board. so there would be two squares in front of it available to spawn eggs. I don't know why I put a second M on the setup. I've edited my post to correct this.

    Movement: I'll look into Fairy Chess notation, I hadn't heard of it, but it'll definitely be helpful to use an established movement language instead of trying to make one up to flesh out a half thought idea at 1am.

    I had pictured higher power pieces being locked into their movement speed. Sharing spaces with equally powered units and being captured or capturing weaker unit as they move.

    For the Tadpole that makes it across the board, I'm not sure. My first thought is to have the tadpole piece be directional and it just rotates and moves the way it came, but I think that may be confusing in a longer game. Having a tadpole stuck on that side of the board could make group captures on the opposing side a little easier to pull off, until the tadpole is captured.


    I love this idea. I hope you come back with a working prototype!
    Whelk wrote: »
    I've been toying around a concept in my head this morning about how to make a Mystical Iron Chef. The concept I came up with was Uno, but with a meta game built around it for scoring points. The core framework would be the same for moment to moment gameplay, except you're trying to discard down a hand full of particular cards to complete a recipe instead of to just one card. Those recipe cards would be handed out at random and would grant points based on difficulty of completing. Recipes would be something like "5 Blue cards," "3 Wild Cards," "A Straight," "A Flush," "A Straight Flush," etc.

    Now, the rub would be the extra systems on top. Everyone has terrible house rules to every game, Uno included. Those house rules would be the secret ingredient. So each round would play differently based on that secret ingredient. Examples being "Hydra Eggs: You can play up to three cards a turn." "Gorgon Snot: All cards may be counted as Green." or something like "Gemini Fruit: You may steal the turn if you play a copy of the top card in the discard pile."

    The last meta system would be a set of Secret Judges who all have their own likes and dislikes. These mostly give out bonus points on top of the Recipes like Mario Kart bonus stars.

    The fun would be the non-numerical cards that change up the flow of the game. Instead of Skip, Reverse, Draw +4, there might be Give +2 (Give an opponent two cards of your choice,) Steal +2 (Take two cards from an opponent at random,) Flip (Replace or add a Secret Ingredient,) or Peek (Look at a Secret Judge or Recipe card.) I'm trying to come up with ways to make playing down to those recipe cards easier, and I think I've settled on focusing on a color wheel where you can play onto adjacent colors. The hard part might be drawing enough cards into your hand to drill down into the right ones.

    I working on a game that has an extra rule per round, so I’m real happy to see someone else running with the concept.

    I don’t have much in terms of critic, but I hope everyone keeps us up to date on your ideas!

  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    I had the privilege tonight of playing a local developer's board game! It's called Battles of the Daimyo, in which players command either five Samurai defending a castle or five Ninja assaulting it. It was a great time with the flavor and mechanics fitting together great. I did have a few niggles with the layout of action cards and keeping track of laid traps, but overall it was a solid experience that I hope everyone else here gets to try someday.

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  • mrpakumrpaku Registered User regular
    edited May 2021
    I’ve been playing through Disco Elysium for the first time whenever I can. So naturally I’ve become obsessed with it, and the Inner Voice system is taking over my actual IRL dreams.

    I’ve narrowing down what Inner Voices I would hear, while trying to compress the ones in the game down where it seems appropriate or like it would simplify using the system for something. I don’t know what I’d do with this information: maybe a CYOA? Maybe a one player RPG? Honestly, it’s just been a fun mental exercise to engage in.

    How do these look? It’s basically the same Disco Elysium system, just smaller: are there different ones I could and should include? Ones that are redundant? Do the four fields seem “balanced”, or would there be a better way to organize them if you wanted to gamify it somehow? Does the basic [4 4 2 2] point system from Disco Elysium still hold now that there are 16 instead of 25 voices? Any other notes?
    Intellect

    -Judgement: (Logic + Rhetoric) Pros: Logic and Reasoning. Cons: Science is simply an illusory cage against the crushing weight of the Unknown.

    -The Professor: (Encycopedia + [Erudition]) Pros: Learning and Education. Academic Authority. Cons: There is knowledge that cannot be found in books. No one likes a know-it-all

    -WORLD: (Conceptualization + Visual Calculus) Pros: Big Picture thinking. Seeing the forest for the trees. Cons: Losing sight of the small things. Sometimes a tree is just a tree.

    -The Tinker: (Interfacing + [Technical Skills]) Pros: Ability to interact with tech and tools. Applied training or specialized experience. Cons: Specialized skillsets bring specialized hazards.

    Psyche

    -Poise: (Volition + [Confidence]) Pros: Grace under fire. Know yourself. Cons: Ignoring personal limitations. Bristle at challenge or criticism.

    -The People: (Empathy + Esprit de Corps) Pros: Care and understanding for one’s fellow man, be they friend or foe. Innate empathy. Cons: People. The problem with people always ends up being *people*.

    -Thanatos/Eros: ([Love +Death]) Pros: Live harder. Love stronger. Understand how important "Today" is. Cons: Your very actions will cause you to die one day. You didn’t temporarily *forget that*, did you?

    -4th Wall: (Inland Empire + Shivers) Pros: Awareness you exist inside a story. Awareness of those listening to the story. Meta-knowledge from Outside. Cons: [ Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” starts playing at full volume from somewhere nearby ]

    Body

    -Grit: (Endurance + Pain Threshold) Pros: Keep your ground. Hold the line. Remain standing. Cons: You can't punch every problem. You can’t go down with *every* ship

    -Appetites & Vices: (Electrochemistry + [Distraction]) Pros: Read people’s weaknesses and desires. Attempt to grapple with and understand your own. Cons: Do you *really* control yourself? Or are you being *controlled*?

    -Primal Instinct: (Half-Light + Authority) Pros: Immediately understanding power dynamics. Identifying who is predator and who is prey. Cons: People don’t appreciate being preyed upon. And there’s *always* a bigger fish.

    -Force of Nature: (Physical Instrument + Reaction Speed) Pros: Quick as a cat, swift as a bird, sly as a snake. Cons: Overconfidence is a slow and *insidious* killer

    Finesse

    -A Knack: (Hand/Eye Coordination + [Life Skills]) Pros: Acquired abilities, natural talents, street smarts. Cons: Jack of All Trades is a master of none. You're not as smart as you think you are

    -Charmer: (Drama + Suggestion) Pros: Social Butterfly. Social graces. Magnetic personality. Cons: Talk is cheap. Words can come back to bite you, one way or another

    -Joe Cool: (Composure + Savoir Faire) Pros: Maintain eye contact. Laugh off danger. Be admired. Cons: Biting off more than you can chew. Being "too cool" for school. Disappointing your fans

    -Focus: (Perception + ([Meticulous]) Pros: Notice small details. Catch things others miss. Cons: One Man's detective is another's Space Cadet. Attention is a finite commodity.

    mrpaku on
  • MrBlarneyMrBlarney Registered User regular
    edited May 2021
    There's a one-shot TTRPG activity called Everyone is John that you could draw inspiration from. In Everyone is John, each player is a voice or facet of the titular John, and each voice is attempting to use their influence to get John to perform a particular compulsion. Everyone is John is meant to be pretty silly since it's mostly competitive (players will be antagonistic towards each other to achieve their individual goals), but a bit of higher formalism in mechanics and you could get things to feel more Disco Elysiummy with a somewhat more cooperative bent.

    MrBlarney on
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