The Gaming Den

This. I've seen one "social" system that was better than MTP, and that's Shadowrun shopping/Shadowrun asking your contacts to look into stuff. I wouldn't classify this as a social system, as it doesn't support interactions between PC-PC, only PC-NPC. A proper social mechanic should accomm...

Jt, thanks for clarifying. Makes sense.

Do you think you could give an actual example of a game and it's pillars, it's character types/archetypes and the chargen options in regard to those pillars? It would be a fun exercise I think? How about Shadowrun?

... So while I think there's room for some abilities that flavor a characters social prowess I don't think you want to go further than that. I think there's a difference between: a) having social interaction as a strong, or even the main pillar; and b) relying solely on social interaction, with no ...

We did . But, the short version: Earthdawn was a legit effort to rationalize a lot of the tropes of D&D. You live in a monster-haunted wilderness because you just survived the magical apocalypse. You have dungeons to raid because some communities did not survive the magical apocalypse. There ar...

If you don't expect the games you run to include long stretches of social interactions, you don't need to do anything special to balance them. How about games where the expected interactions vary according to the archetypes players bring into play? I think there's a spectrum in regard to this, that...

many folks do most of their roleplaying on their character sheet, if it doesn't say they're a lost prince with beautiful harp music then saying 'hand wave it' won't do it for them. I figure that's a big part of the appeal of the DnD's and the notDnD's that let you write down 'dorf brewer' on the sh...

What kind of story is being told will affect the story. If combat is a second by second gridmap affair while negotiations are handwaved or a single roll then combat is the focus of the game. Now... many games do combat in ways that are satisfying to a table of people, but few really do 'talk to the...

Ancient History wrote:But Earthdawn nailed it, essentially: you make the levels an in-setting, in-character concept, equivalent to initiation grades in Shadowrun...except applied to everybody.

Sounds very interesting! Can you tell more about it?

Amber Interesting. I find Amber chargen mechanic (the auction) indeed genius for bringing on the competition that's central to the stories. But then the actual resolution mechanic always felt like a bummer, relying excessively on GM fiat/mother may I. Are you praising the chargen or the actual in-g...

More: Dark Souls : it sounds simplistic, but the fact that upon death you lose all your souls and go back to the last bonfire - while all enemies come back to life - makes for a huge impact on the players psyche. "I'm full of souls. Do I keep going or go back all the way to the last bonfire? Hm...

Great stuff, Fox. Is Heat Signature on Steam or PS4? I was thinking more on tabletop rpg terms, but now that you did it, I remembered a videogame mechanic that to this day continues to impress me: Ultima 4 virtue axes . Basically the game is a normal top-down RPG with exploration and combat. The cav...

What mechanics do you think are really clever? Be it due to innovating in some way, doing things in elegant fashion or some other reason altogether.

OgreBattle wrote:A lot of people just go with what is their first like DnD Xe and use that for everything even if hit points and the diplomacy skill blank space of a system don’t match a normie drama talk setting

Gandalf was 5th level and all

True.

For a game that prizes itself in being about storytelling, I'm still bemused by how they introduce a rule that goes so blatantly against proper pacing of storytelling. What does storytelling in the context of Vampire even mean? A game focused on the characters personal stories? A game with a pre-ma...

PS I'd also like to mention that: Average WoD book: This is a game about MATURE storytelling! Dark drama! Intense, personal journey on paths of damnation and struggling with one's dwindling humanity in intense, personal ways! This could be a movie directed by Bergman! in Black and White! Average Wo...

FrankTrollman wrote:Kitsune, Nezumi, Buffalo Woman, Selkie, Anansi, Swan Mays

Such a group would be perfectly at home in City of Mist. Just saying.

https://rtalsoriangames.com/2019/07/12/kitbashing-combat/ My take: Rules-wise it seems out of the 80s, which is not what I want from a game these days. Setting-wise I find this flavor of obvious cyberarms and obvious dirty streets too retro and generic. I would rather have something more nuanced, li...

I think you just answered your own question (with that last phrase). But generally speaking, I suspect it's easier coming up with an premise (more than a setting) and then creating rules for that. So defining "players will be dungeon crawlers" or "players will be covert operatives&quo...

The thing is that What we do in the shadows exists as a parody of what the current license holders think Vampire should be. I don't see any future where VtM trends towards that instead of the other direction . What other direction do you mean? Because until now there wasn't any directions. Only a r...

The thing is that What we do in the shadows exists as a parody of what the current license holders think Vampire should be. I don't see any future where VtM trends towards that instead of the other direction . What other direction do you mean? Because until now there wasn't any directions. Only a r...

f you're going for angst, I'd structure your monsters as needing to maintain certain boundaries and rituals to maintain their humanity instead of backsliding, and then every session is a threat to one of those. The blood bank got better security, how will you feed without biting down on a human? I'...

Vampire's biggest failing was not letting the players start as princes. Giving ownership of the city from the start solves all engagement problems. Why should you investigate the weird rumors about the old mill? Because it's your city and if something is about to blow your sweet gig you want to sto...

Found the description below in another forum. It seems the game requires a degree of system mastery that I'm not really willing to commit these days. Well, I think I'll pass. I think City of Mist requires a much higher degree of player mastery than any other PbtA game, and more than most games in ge...

In Shadowrun, you play shadowrunners, and you go on shadowruns. In Dungeon's & Dragons, you play adventurers, and you go on adventures. In Call of Cthulhu, you play investigators, and you go on investigations. In Masquerade, you play vampires, and you... ...feed on the prey, fight fellow predat...