It’s a card game. There’s a deck of voice cards the players draw a hand from, and they use them to best influence a character.
Alternatively, each voice is a deck.
Every player picks a voice, so there may only be 3-5 voices at a time. They have to pick a new voice whenever they fail a roll. Everyone cycles through the voices.
It’s a token system, and players can bet on what voice they want to take charge of the next action. To earn tokens players must... do... thing. Maybe they each have a secret goal?
With a CYOA you could have enough players to give everyone control of a voice, but it’d tough to give them freedom with the bounds of the voice, so you might have to make them broader in scope.
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)!
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."
Likewise, where are you at with this? Sounded cool to me!
The first two entries in the series are published, with reprints on their way to stores. Playtesting is complete for the third, which is just waiting on some art and graphic design work, and the fourth had its first playtest last night.
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
edited May 2021
I've completely rebuilt my combat system and sketched out several classes to go on top of it. I just did my first combat simulations over dinner tonight. The roster:
Ceralon, Tranquil Serpent
Thomas Firebreak, disciple of the Ashen Scales
Thrandal, student of Lightning
versus:
3 Nibblers and 2 biting pixies.
Nibbles are your standard tiny bastards who pelt you with noxious fruit. The noxious fruit drives the biting pixies into a frenzy and then they chew you up like the rind.
Simulation 1:
Thomas, the one with the lowest defense and highest initiative, rushes in and punches a nibbler for minimum damage.
All three nibblers pelt him with fruit.
Ceralon punts a nibbler.
Both biting pixies gnaw the shit out of Thomas.
Thrandal punts a nibbler.
Thomas finishes off the last nibbler.
Ceralon misses a pixie.
Biting pixies finish gnawing Thomas to death.
Result: Leeroy Jenkins.
Learnings: Pixies need to consume the frenzied status when they attack cause 1d6 + 1d4 adds up quick when you've got 25 shields and 7 health.
Simulation 2: Repeat of the first except Thomas actually takes defensive actions, pixie frenzy adjusted. Thomas survives with 1 shield and all his health remaining.
First level has a lot of swing right now. Attack die is 1d10, damage is either 1d8 or 1d10 + (0/1/2). The highest +hit we have in our little party is +4 and that's only when Thomas is flanking a friend. Defense for the party varies between 4 (Thomas Jenkins the nibbled) and 7. This means the potential for a lot of damage in a short space. Of course, the entire point of Auras (shields) is to enable high-damage combat without crippling the party's ability to complete expeditions.
Then again, these simulations are running low-health high-action economy swarms against 3 brand new adventurers. Maybe they fare better against a smaller number of stronger opponents?
Overall, I need to decide if this kind of variability is acceptable for first level. Higher levels begin to differentiate based on the weapon school, what armor you craft, and your class' innate affinities, but first level has a strong component of "as the 1d10 wills it" right now.
Edit: And thanks for asking. I appreciate the interest.
So anyway, I did say I was gonna take over the thread, and I will. I smashed out the rules for a roleplaying game in four days, then began work on a (digitally) hand written rule book for it. It’s taking longer than planned, but it will be finished!
It’s called Wreckage.
It’s way more in the vein of a tactical skirmish than a story game, which is unusual for me, but works for this one.
Finally, what a day. I wish I’d had time to write this essay style beforehand, but instead I’m just going to throw my thoughts into this post as I go.
I’ve nearly completely a hundred projects, but finished and published none. So what makes Wreckage different? I guess it’s that I purposefully limited the time I allowed myself to work on the rules, and narrowed the scope of the game. It’s not an everything game, it’s a tactical combat game that allows for roleplaying—pretty much what D&D is embarrassed to admit it is all about.
Secondly, I have an edge I’ve never had before; a tablet with a funky little pen I can use to make digital art with. I decided early on I’d just draw each page. It was the best idea I’ve had in a long time. Prior to this whenever I’d try to properly write out the rules to some game I’d get stuck on the formatting, or I’d get so far and then the text would suddenly go haywire and I’d be unable to rectify it. Maybe it’s just me. For me, drawing each page has allowed me to push and pull stuff where I want it without having to fight against whatever text program I was using.
In addition, it’s made me want to write less per page, further reducing unnecessary text and forcing me to streamline the rules.
This is an example of the average page in the Wreckage rule book. For those intrigued, dice are rolled to determine who hits what in a fight, and while it can be swingy during round 1, Battle Rhythm steadily increases those hit chances until combat becomes a lethal event.
This incentives the players to act fast, hit hard and take chances before the enemy becomes too accurate. This also allows fresh reinforcements to be a scary prospect rather than more fodder to clear up.
There’s not much meat on the game’s bones, but i do like the initiative rules, you know, who goes first in turn based combat and all that.
Basically, the players decide what order they’re going in, and a bunch of their abilities react to what position they’re in a given combat encounter’s turn-order.
Let’s say we have Nutz and Bört.
If Nutz is first in the squad’s initiative order, her DR (Dodge Rating) is increased by 1. If Bört goes last, his first attack hits—no roll required.
Flip it on its head, and Nutz is considered to have 1 kill if they’re last (kills are the cost of casting spells), while Bört’s speed is increased by 1 hex for the whole encounter if he’s first.
The few seconds of planning before combat are potentially the most important choice the players can make.
Even without the abilities, deciding to send the buff guy in first, or have the sniper pop the enemy leader before they can give an order, or even letting the injured buddy run out of danger before the fighting starts—these are all options that matter, which I think is better than simply rolling for who goes when. This is pure game, not simulation, not roleplaying. It’s a concept I’m willing to allow for the sake of fun!
I’m pretty close to having the book done, and it’s mostly due to accepting my limits in terms of art and design. I’ve a lot of perfect unwritten games, and fine unfinished games, this’ll be a crude finished product… and we must ask ourselves, which of those is more worthwhile?
If I can get a solid game off work (I’ve worked today and I’ll be working today) I’m pretty sure I can wrap it up. From there I intend to set up an itch.io account and sell Wreckage. The price will be whatever you like. A quarter of the cash will be going to Cancer Research UK, who I have zero affiliation with, but I thought it’d be nice to do.
Maybe I’ve not said enough of the basics and this is all haphazard. I don’t want to reveal everything though, so here’s a pitch:
This wreckage is all that remains.
This world is eternally dying, teetering on the brink and it plans to go out screaming!
You are a squaddie—a strange thing in a strange body, spat out into the mud; exile, pariah, mutant, monster. But you’ve got something the creeps in their forts and the beasts at your back don’t… your squad. By slug and fist, together you’ll survive… for a little while longer, at least.
Most pages are black with handwriting over it, maybe a rough outline drawing, but some are a bit more detailed and psychedelic. I especially like the title page for the magic spell section (magic is called noise in Wreckage).
Anyways, feel free to ask me about Wreckage, those three people that look at this thread.
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
How many hits do you expect a player to take? It was my experience with 13th age and its escalation die that a combat making it to the +6 was less "epic" and more "is this over?". Most combats for me ended at +3 or +4. As a result, I don't know I agree with wiping battle rhythm if nobody does damage. Sometimes, the dice say everyone misses. Maybe decrement instead of wiping?
Given you have the pages freeform, I would also recommend a condensed appendix at the back with plain text. I always recommend this, but doubly so when you're using non-standard formatting.
Player characters begin on average with 7 blood (HP), while enemies tend to range from 1 to 12. Players can take advances upon level up that increase their blood, but even if you gunned only for blood each level up you probably won’t end up with more than 20, ever.
Damage tends to be weapon (1 to 3) + stat (-1 to 3), with the players having the option to spend one of their accumulated Wrecking Dice (1d6) to add to their damage. Real damage in Wreckage comes from teamwork, focusing fire and setting off chain reactions.
Getting knocked to 0 blood is a fairly common thing, and not instantly fatal.
—
Yep, there will be a separate free system reference document in orange on black, blue on white (OSR style) and dark grey on off-white for easy on the eye reading.
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
My last playtest concluded yesterday with good feedback. Players thought that the dice pool was rather small since they were generally rolling 1d10 + (1-3); there was some confusion on timing of how elements are drawn into chakra to power abilities; need to find better terms to distinguish defense and armor since nobody could remember which was which; players understood the "move and two actions" economy fine but then struggled with why they could only attack once; players often lost the second action.
Honestly, not bad. Every system needs refinement, after all. Tweaks:
Clarify the difference between the challenge dice pool and the damage dice pool visually on character sheets.
Increase the dice pool for PCs: untrained (NPC) 1d10, student (1st level) 2d10, warrior 3d10, master 4d10
Since we are clearly using dice pools, we can streamline the complex bonus/penalty system into +/- d10s
Simplify action economy: do two things a turn. Pick from a list of the usual like "attack" or "move". Some specials and such can consume both.
Add a "bank" for lost actions. Right now thinking something like "if you can't use your second action, you can bank it. Every four banked points, you can have an extra action that turn".
Probably also need to better delineate the difference and uses of chakra versus chi. Chakra hold elemental power and are expended for attacks and specials; chakra is generated and spent on a per-round basis. Chi internally regenerates over a long period of time and operates more like a player currency.
I like the play on initiative you've done, it's neat! I actually really like the chunky lineart, by the way. I keep thinking I want to leave more substantive feedback, but I want to shoot 5 bucks your way to buy the damn thing. I just haven't gotten around to it. Can you PM me the link to the itch.io or is it not up yet?
I like the play on initiative you've done, it's neat! I actually really like the chunky lineart, by the way. I keep thinking I want to leave more substantive feedback, but I want to shoot 5 bucks your way to buy the damn thing. I just haven't gotten around to it. Can you PM me the link to the itch.io or is it not up yet?
Still a little to go before it’s ready, but I’ll send you a link once it’s up.
Initiative really comes into play as people pick up abilities that alter how you play based on your order in the squad’s initiative.
Don’t worry too much about giving me feedback, as long as no one is aghast at Wreckage I’ll call it a win. It’s only a little project.
As some folks on here have asked I’ll be running a game on here Play by Post style once it’s up, so buying the book won’t go to waste!
@gavindel
Maybe armor could be protection and defence could be deflection, or something generally more action based in its wording. “My Imperial armor protects me” vs “I use my kung fu to deflect the oncoming attack.”
This will overturn the action economy you’re building, but Wreckage has a simple 2 action system. You can do any two actions, even the same two in a row if you want. That means two moves, or two attacks, or a move and attack etc.
It seems to be very intuitive and players love attacking twice as a standard thing—the trick, naturally, is to balance that potential damage output. Might be a thought for your own game.
Also chakras and chi are, well, I won’t say they're the same thing, but they’re similar.
Why not simply name the elemental power source after the Han period Chinese elemental philosophy/divination concept of Wuxing?
Chi and Wuxing are very different sounds, yet clearly part of the same language, which is a good start.
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
Hmm, chi and chakra sounding too similar? First I've heard that. I'll have to think of I can distinguish them better.
My six elements don't match up with Wuxing, and I'm a bit leery of any political connotations that might be embedded in the word outside of my American bubble.
Hmm, chi and chakra sounding too similar? First I've heard that. I'll have to think of I can distinguish them better.
My six elements don't match up with Wuxing, and I'm a bit leery of any political connotations that might be embedded in the word outside of my American bubble.
I think what @Endless_Serpents meant is that chi and chakras both have to do with internal energy flows. They're not equivalent, exactly; but they are two different cultures' takes on the same general idea. It's a bit like naming two different concepts in your game "queso" and "fromage."
In particular, calling a volatile, short-lived energy source/battery "chakras" doesn't make much sense because that's pretty much the opposite of what chakras actually are, afaik.
Fànwéi, which depending on what Chinese symbols are used is either reach, scope or spectrum?
I mean, you don’t have use Chinese, so it could just be Internal Energy and External Power. I look forward to hearing more about it!
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
I crowd sourced "Do you think chi and chakra overlap?" to a few friends and every one of them said yes, so I will need to find names that better exemplify the concepts: the fast-generating and fast-spending combat ability resource and the slower-generation "mana" used for big effects.
Really, the "chakras" are probably the part that needs to go away. Originally - five years ago! - the chakras were literally your ability equipment slots, and you slotted in abilities to your chakras to generate effects. Over time I abandoned the concept of equipping your abilities to specific slots, but referring to your storage as "chakras" lingered.
Jeez, I've really been toying with this homebrew system for five years now...
@Whelk
I feel like I have to make a call to Whelk here because I have wasted my time making a name generator when I should be wrapping up Wreckage. Uh, one week until it’s done, I guess?
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Ah yes, Hiss-Eb, Melf-Tho and Zo-Low, the most feared squaddies in Kur Abandon!
@Whelk
I feel like I have to make a call to Whelk here because I have wasted my time making a name generator when I should be wrapping up Wreckage. Uh, one week until it’s done, I guess?
Ah yes, Hiss-Eb, Melf-Tho and Zo-Low, the most feared squaddies in Kur Abandon!
@Zonugal
Just out of interest, how’s your modular roleplaying game going? I’ve seen an early draft of your weapon generator, but I think you’ve got it for attire and magic now too?
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Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
@Zonugal
Just out of interest, how’s your modular roleplaying game going? I’ve seen an early draft of your weapon generator, but I think you’ve got it for attire and magic now too?
I was going to try my hand at designing a modular spell-design sub-system for the game but ended up hitting pause on that idea for a while (I potentially may replace it with a more invocation-style magic sub-system instead).
As to any progress made on it? I'm a teacher so all of my free time that would go towards that instead is funneled into lesson prep...
@Zonugal
Just out of interest, how’s your modular roleplaying game going? I’ve seen an early draft of your weapon generator, but I think you’ve got it for attire and magic now too?
I was going to try my hand at designing a modular spell-design sub-system for the game but ended up hitting pause on that idea for a while (I potentially may replace it with a more invocation-style magic sub-system instead).
As to any progress made on it? I'm a teacher so all of my free time that would go towards that instead is funneled into lesson prep...
No worries, I’ve had years of not completing things due to my career! It was all very cool though.
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Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
@Zonugal
Just out of interest, how’s your modular roleplaying game going? I’ve seen an early draft of your weapon generator, but I think you’ve got it for attire and magic now too?
I was going to try my hand at designing a modular spell-design sub-system for the game but ended up hitting pause on that idea for a while (I potentially may replace it with a more invocation-style magic sub-system instead).
As to any progress made on it? I'm a teacher so all of my free time that would go towards that instead is funneled into lesson prep...
No worries, I’ve had years of not completing things due to my career! It was all very cool though.
Thanks! Yeah, its something I would love to return to! Just when I have the free time to do so.
Being a substitute teacher was great for that. Just hours of relatively free time to work on TTRPG stuff.
Not the case so much now.
But I do think that modular TTRPG system as some good legs so I will eventually return to it.
One week until I get things sorted to sell Wreckage! Potentially set up an extra bank account to avoid getting robbed?
I keep jumping between giving 25% and 50% of what I make to charity.
Thing is I have no presence online, so the smart thing would be to advertise it… somewhere, somehow… before setting up the store.
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
Modular RPG systems have always been a struggle for me, mostly because of the combinatorial explosion of options. As a teen I tried to build a "build your own spell" system several times, and it could never stand up to sustained trials. Many paths, but it wouldn't take long to discover the best ones.
For my own RPG, I think I've resolved the resource problem. Instead of chakra and chi, we will tearfully bid farewell to the "chakra system" I started 5 years ago and move to new names: (Elemental) charge and ki. Charge to imply that its a brief empowered state, and ki for the deeper wells of power (with "k" instead of "ch" for visual distinction).
I was asking myself how I could encourage interesting kung fu maneuvers. I think I have a decent answer. You get two actions a turn by default; repeat or combine as desired. We can add a third, conditional action per turn for ki spending. Spend a small amount of ki to generate an extra move, to adjust your place in initiative, or as an "oh shit!" defensive response. Spend a larger amount of ki for an extra attack or special on your turn. In other words, basic combat defines the flow; ki lets you alter its tempo.
Of course, that means ki is now dangerous to the action economy, so I get to re-balance ki generation. I want ki to feel like martial arts, and so my idea is that you can regenerate a capped number of ki per challenge by basically scoring achievements. A Path based on fast moves and quick hits might gain ki from "First person to make a hit in combat" or "breeze past X enemies without a scratch". A Path based on busting heads might gain ki from doing exceptional damage or breaking something. All Paths can regenerate a bit of ki as compensation for botched rolls.
Man, I really wanna make a card game like Magic: the Gathering. 300 cards, simple rules, rough art made by me. Just put it out there for free as a print and play thing. I can’t start it until Wreckage is set in stone though (starting twenty projects is my curse).
I think I’ll call it Shuffle City, and make it about… dance battles?
The idea for now is there’d be a front and back row, and every card can either be a damage dealing creature or a land/ resource/spell if you put them in the back. Add in some switching places shenanigans and I think you’ve got a game.
The take on Magic I made back in the day was emphasizing the mana bonds from lands way more. Lands were the actual objectives and controlling them gave you mana, severing a mana bond was the major way to hamstring your opponent. I got like 50 cards in and then lost the physical file. I've cried a single tear every day since.
That's fantastic! The only problem I see with publishing under a company is that there is usually some paperwork required. I'd go for your name for now because you can always change it later, right?
That's fantastic! The only problem I see with publishing under a company is that there is usually some paperwork required. I'd go for your name for now because you can always change it later, right?
Yeah, you’re right.
Sorry for taking so long all, it’s not even that special. In fact I threw it all together for the express purpose of getting it publish faster.
Hey, I am excited you're publishing ANYTHING. Regardless of how it turns out, it's an accomplishment. I sold a game I built in a programming class on the Apple app store like 8 years ago. I made less than it cost me to register to sell it. But it's an accomplishment that's important to me. So be proud dude. You're a creator.
Anyways, new topic. Just for fun I’m going to make a battle style card game (Magic, Hearthstone); so far all I know is there will only be creature cards, no spells. My plan is for where you play a card to matter, and in this way they’ll double up as different kinds of cards. There will be ways to move cards around later too.
But rather than talk about it any more, I ask you, have you ever made a card game? If you haven’t, what would you do one about?
Our local design group is currently collaborating on a card game about the lifecycles of beetles. There are tons of beetles out there (350,000+ species) and they do some wacky things.
Posts
It’s a card game. There’s a deck of voice cards the players draw a hand from, and they use them to best influence a character.
Alternatively, each voice is a deck.
Every player picks a voice, so there may only be 3-5 voices at a time. They have to pick a new voice whenever they fail a roll. Everyone cycles through the voices.
It’s a token system, and players can bet on what voice they want to take charge of the next action. To earn tokens players must... do... thing. Maybe they each have a secret goal?
With a CYOA you could have enough players to give everyone control of a voice, but it’d tough to give them freedom with the bounds of the voice, so you might have to make them broader in scope.
How’s this been going for you?
Likewise, where are you at with this? Sounded cool to me!
@mrpaku Any new thoughts on Everyone is Disco?
Thomas Firebreak, disciple of the Ashen Scales
Thrandal, student of Lightning
versus:
3 Nibblers and 2 biting pixies.
Nibbles are your standard tiny bastards who pelt you with noxious fruit. The noxious fruit drives the biting pixies into a frenzy and then they chew you up like the rind.
Simulation 1:
All three nibblers pelt him with fruit.
Ceralon punts a nibbler.
Both biting pixies gnaw the shit out of Thomas.
Thrandal punts a nibbler.
Thomas finishes off the last nibbler.
Ceralon misses a pixie.
Biting pixies finish gnawing Thomas to death.
Result: Leeroy Jenkins.
Learnings: Pixies need to consume the frenzied status when they attack cause 1d6 + 1d4 adds up quick when you've got 25 shields and 7 health.
Simulation 2: Repeat of the first except Thomas actually takes defensive actions, pixie frenzy adjusted. Thomas survives with 1 shield and all his health remaining.
First level has a lot of swing right now. Attack die is 1d10, damage is either 1d8 or 1d10 + (0/1/2). The highest +hit we have in our little party is +4 and that's only when Thomas is flanking a friend. Defense for the party varies between 4 (Thomas Jenkins the nibbled) and 7. This means the potential for a lot of damage in a short space. Of course, the entire point of Auras (shields) is to enable high-damage combat without crippling the party's ability to complete expeditions.
Then again, these simulations are running low-health high-action economy swarms against 3 brand new adventurers. Maybe they fare better against a smaller number of stronger opponents?
Overall, I need to decide if this kind of variability is acceptable for first level. Higher levels begin to differentiate based on the weapon school, what armor you craft, and your class' innate affinities, but first level has a strong component of "as the 1d10 wills it" right now.
Edit: And thanks for asking. I appreciate the interest.
Keep it up!
Not today… but soon I’m going to take over this thread to do a run down of a finished project…
It’s called Wreckage.
It’s way more in the vein of a tactical skirmish than a story game, which is unusual for me, but works for this one.
I’ll post more tonight!
I’ve nearly completely a hundred projects, but finished and published none. So what makes Wreckage different? I guess it’s that I purposefully limited the time I allowed myself to work on the rules, and narrowed the scope of the game. It’s not an everything game, it’s a tactical combat game that allows for roleplaying—pretty much what D&D is embarrassed to admit it is all about.
Secondly, I have an edge I’ve never had before; a tablet with a funky little pen I can use to make digital art with. I decided early on I’d just draw each page. It was the best idea I’ve had in a long time. Prior to this whenever I’d try to properly write out the rules to some game I’d get stuck on the formatting, or I’d get so far and then the text would suddenly go haywire and I’d be unable to rectify it. Maybe it’s just me. For me, drawing each page has allowed me to push and pull stuff where I want it without having to fight against whatever text program I was using.
In addition, it’s made me want to write less per page, further reducing unnecessary text and forcing me to streamline the rules.
This is an example of the average page in the Wreckage rule book. For those intrigued, dice are rolled to determine who hits what in a fight, and while it can be swingy during round 1, Battle Rhythm steadily increases those hit chances until combat becomes a lethal event.
This incentives the players to act fast, hit hard and take chances before the enemy becomes too accurate. This also allows fresh reinforcements to be a scary prospect rather than more fodder to clear up.
Basically, the players decide what order they’re going in, and a bunch of their abilities react to what position they’re in a given combat encounter’s turn-order.
Let’s say we have Nutz and Bört.
If Nutz is first in the squad’s initiative order, her DR (Dodge Rating) is increased by 1. If Bört goes last, his first attack hits—no roll required.
Flip it on its head, and Nutz is considered to have 1 kill if they’re last (kills are the cost of casting spells), while Bört’s speed is increased by 1 hex for the whole encounter if he’s first.
The few seconds of planning before combat are potentially the most important choice the players can make.
Even without the abilities, deciding to send the buff guy in first, or have the sniper pop the enemy leader before they can give an order, or even letting the injured buddy run out of danger before the fighting starts—these are all options that matter, which I think is better than simply rolling for who goes when. This is pure game, not simulation, not roleplaying. It’s a concept I’m willing to allow for the sake of fun!
If I can get a solid game off work (I’ve worked today and I’ll be working today) I’m pretty sure I can wrap it up. From there I intend to set up an itch.io account and sell Wreckage. The price will be whatever you like. A quarter of the cash will be going to Cancer Research UK, who I have zero affiliation with, but I thought it’d be nice to do.
Anyways, feel free to ask me about Wreckage, those three people that look at this thread.
Given you have the pages freeform, I would also recommend a condensed appendix at the back with plain text. I always recommend this, but doubly so when you're using non-standard formatting.
Player characters begin on average with 7 blood (HP), while enemies tend to range from 1 to 12. Players can take advances upon level up that increase their blood, but even if you gunned only for blood each level up you probably won’t end up with more than 20, ever.
Damage tends to be weapon (1 to 3) + stat (-1 to 3), with the players having the option to spend one of their accumulated Wrecking Dice (1d6) to add to their damage. Real damage in Wreckage comes from teamwork, focusing fire and setting off chain reactions.
Getting knocked to 0 blood is a fairly common thing, and not instantly fatal.
—
Yep, there will be a separate free system reference document in orange on black, blue on white (OSR style) and dark grey on off-white for easy on the eye reading.
Honestly, not bad. Every system needs refinement, after all. Tweaks:
Probably also need to better delineate the difference and uses of chakra versus chi. Chakra hold elemental power and are expended for attacks and specials; chakra is generated and spent on a per-round basis. Chi internally regenerates over a long period of time and operates more like a player currency.
Still a little to go before it’s ready, but I’ll send you a link once it’s up.
Initiative really comes into play as people pick up abilities that alter how you play based on your order in the squad’s initiative.
Don’t worry too much about giving me feedback, as long as no one is aghast at Wreckage I’ll call it a win. It’s only a little project.
As some folks on here have asked I’ll be running a game on here Play by Post style once it’s up, so buying the book won’t go to waste!
@gavindel
Maybe armor could be protection and defence could be deflection, or something generally more action based in its wording. “My Imperial armor protects me” vs “I use my kung fu to deflect the oncoming attack.”
This will overturn the action economy you’re building, but Wreckage has a simple 2 action system. You can do any two actions, even the same two in a row if you want. That means two moves, or two attacks, or a move and attack etc.
It seems to be very intuitive and players love attacking twice as a standard thing—the trick, naturally, is to balance that potential damage output. Might be a thought for your own game.
Also chakras and chi are, well, I won’t say they're the same thing, but they’re similar.
Why not simply name the elemental power source after the Han period Chinese elemental philosophy/divination concept of Wuxing?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxing_(Chinese_philosophy)
Chi and Wuxing are very different sounds, yet clearly part of the same language, which is a good start.
My six elements don't match up with Wuxing, and I'm a bit leery of any political connotations that might be embedded in the word outside of my American bubble.
I think what @Endless_Serpents meant is that chi and chakras both have to do with internal energy flows. They're not equivalent, exactly; but they are two different cultures' takes on the same general idea. It's a bit like naming two different concepts in your game "queso" and "fromage."
In particular, calling a volatile, short-lived energy source/battery "chakras" doesn't make much sense because that's pretty much the opposite of what chakras actually are, afaik.
Or Yuán, which means source?
Fànwéi, which depending on what Chinese symbols are used is either reach, scope or spectrum?
I mean, you don’t have use Chinese, so it could just be Internal Energy and External Power. I look forward to hearing more about it!
Really, the "chakras" are probably the part that needs to go away. Originally - five years ago! - the chakras were literally your ability equipment slots, and you slotted in abilities to your chakras to generate effects. Over time I abandoned the concept of equipping your abilities to specific slots, but referring to your storage as "chakras" lingered.
Jeez, I've really been toying with this homebrew system for five years now...
I feel like I have to make a call to Whelk here because I have wasted my time making a name generator when I should be wrapping up Wreckage. Uh, one week until it’s done, I guess?
Geth roll 6d6
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Geth roll 1d6
Geth roll 6d6
Ah yes, Hiss-Eb, Melf-Tho and Zo-Low, the most feared squaddies in Kur Abandon!
Oho-Marge, the most fearsome warrior.
Geth, roll 1d6 for Name 1a
Geth, roll 6d6 for Name 1b
Geth, roll 1d6 for Name 2a
Geth, roll 6d6 for Name 2b
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Just out of interest, how’s your modular roleplaying game going? I’ve seen an early draft of your weapon generator, but I think you’ve got it for attire and magic now too?
I was going to try my hand at designing a modular spell-design sub-system for the game but ended up hitting pause on that idea for a while (I potentially may replace it with a more invocation-style magic sub-system instead).
As to any progress made on it? I'm a teacher so all of my free time that would go towards that instead is funneled into lesson prep...
No worries, I’ve had years of not completing things due to my career! It was all very cool though.
Thanks! Yeah, its something I would love to return to! Just when I have the free time to do so.
Being a substitute teacher was great for that. Just hours of relatively free time to work on TTRPG stuff.
Not the case so much now.
But I do think that modular TTRPG system as some good legs so I will eventually return to it.
I keep jumping between giving 25% and 50% of what I make to charity.
Thing is I have no presence online, so the smart thing would be to advertise it… somewhere, somehow… before setting up the store.
For my own RPG, I think I've resolved the resource problem. Instead of chakra and chi, we will tearfully bid farewell to the "chakra system" I started 5 years ago and move to new names: (Elemental) charge and ki. Charge to imply that its a brief empowered state, and ki for the deeper wells of power (with "k" instead of "ch" for visual distinction).
I was asking myself how I could encourage interesting kung fu maneuvers. I think I have a decent answer. You get two actions a turn by default; repeat or combine as desired. We can add a third, conditional action per turn for ki spending. Spend a small amount of ki to generate an extra move, to adjust your place in initiative, or as an "oh shit!" defensive response. Spend a larger amount of ki for an extra attack or special on your turn. In other words, basic combat defines the flow; ki lets you alter its tempo.
Of course, that means ki is now dangerous to the action economy, so I get to re-balance ki generation. I want ki to feel like martial arts, and so my idea is that you can regenerate a capped number of ki per challenge by basically scoring achievements. A Path based on fast moves and quick hits might gain ki from "First person to make a hit in combat" or "breeze past X enemies without a scratch". A Path based on busting heads might gain ki from doing exceptional damage or breaking something. All Paths can regenerate a bit of ki as compensation for botched rolls.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I think I’ll call it Shuffle City, and make it about… dance battles?
The idea for now is there’d be a front and back row, and every card can either be a damage dealing creature or a land/ resource/spell if you put them in the back. Add in some switching places shenanigans and I think you’ve got a game.
Dance battles are a dope idea, tho.
Might go for CHAINLANCE, it just sounds neat.
I keep getting waylaid with life and work, but WRECKAGE is complete!
Yeah, you’re right.
Sorry for taking so long all, it’s not even that special. In fact I threw it all together for the express purpose of getting it publish faster.
I think I did good by making shield a weapon. I’ll admit that much. In play-test I actually had a player briefly wield two!
But rather than talk about it any more, I ask you, have you ever made a card game? If you haven’t, what would you do one about?
@Whelk @Elvenshae @gavindel @Zonugal @JonBob
My first published game was a card game about a psychological phenomenon called the Stroop effect.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/212376/stroop
Our local design group is currently collaborating on a card game about the lifecycles of beetles. There are tons of beetles out there (350,000+ species) and they do some wacky things.