/games/ - Games

>>25614
That's a fair consideration, but it was just meant to be an illustrative example. A more practical implementation might be giving humans resistance to any fatigue-related effects. However, the main reason for that particular advantage is bipedalism and temperature regulation through sweating, so it probably wouldn't be unique to humans among fantasy races.

Some other ideas:
<Humans are more social than others, maybe by having reduced penalties to communicate without a common language or across cultures.
<Humans make better connections, getting a bonus to making people like them or faster advancement on the reputation or similar social track.
<Humans are better at learning, earning bonus experience points for certain things like observing others gain XP or by tinkering with things.

>>19412
>fascist dwarves
Come to think of it, how would you present a race that's above capitalism, feudalism, communism? The only thing I can think of is having a race that lives in a post-scarcity via magic - they can just conjure whatever they want (except for services from "lesser races" and each other).

>>25629
Now that I think about it,faerie creatures already are like that in pathfinder,they also lost empathy because they're immortal and unaging,so think murder is a fun side activity. (they just respawn in the fae world,unless killed there in the first place,then they're dead)

>>25629
>Come to think of it, how would you present a race that's above capitalism, feudalism, communism
They never developed a class society or developed something different. For fantasy races it makes the most sense to do this based on the aspects that make them different.

Elves live forever so the original elders hold onto power indefinitely. Instead of producing heirs they just keep having offspring, who they keep loyal to them. Controlling reproduction is still important but for different reasons - only the elders get to reproduce, because the more generations removed you are the less loyal you are.

Dwarves are so focused on crafting by nature that they don't need class to emerge for them to start producing a surplus, and because they all bond over their common drives to mine and craft, they naturally lean toward a planned economy accumulating treasures and devices. Their greed might make them vulnerable to the kind of people who became early capitalists in human society, but without an already-existing feudal state to seize, the wannabe capitalists lack the power to do primitive accumulation or to proletarianize other dwarves, making capitalist production at most an oddity on the periphery of dwarven society. Through their tendency to tinker and dig, they are most likely to start burning coal and to develop the steam engine, leading to steampunk communism. However, they also tend to be insular and knowing the kinds of things that the capitalist dwarves get up to, are extremely protective lest early industrial technology proliferate among other races who lack the worker-centric ethos of dwarven society.

>>25694
>who they keep loyal to them

By means of?

>>25698
That's up to them, but probably the least resource intensive is infantilizing the kids emotionally and making them desperate for parental approval that motivates them. Maybe that's why elves reach maturity at a much older age, too. The more kids you have the more they have to compete for attention but also the more opportunity for rebellion, so there would be a balance to strike.

The thing about being immortal is you have plenty of time, and you don't need to have a high birth to maintain your population because nobody dies of natural causes. So the leaders of the society can personally keep raising a new generations of mommy's boys and daddy's girls as necessary. You don't have to rely on some ideological apparatus or state institution if you can personally raise your people the same way generation after generation. Elves would have the least dynamic society by far, and probably be continuously speaking basically the same language and holding the same ideology with thousands of years of continuity.

Elves tend to me more magically inclined as well, which means the elders would have more time to master magic than entire civilizations of other species. They wouldn't even need mundane psychological abuse. They have charm spells and such. In a really extreme version (like the drow perhaps) they might dominate person so much that younger generations don't even form individual identities and their society is more like an ant colony than a human-like culture.

In Spirit Island, does the fact that we play as wondrous spirits, as opposed to the island's inhabitants proper, detract from the anticolonial struggle?

My friends want me to run a campaign but I've never played any TTRPG. We decided on a space setting, like firefly or farscape.

Is SW5e good enough? Just a little homebrew so it's not just a starwars campaign.

>>30261
The Star Wars system is pretty easy to work with from what I've played of it, but it uses special proprietary dice. Might be awkward to use if you don't have those, but you can use standard polyhedral dice and convert the numbers to symbols using a table.

If you are new to games then just reflavoring things like you suggest is a good way to go. Keeping the game mechanics as written is best if you don't have experience with how they work, but the flavor/fluff can be whatever fits the story you want to tell.

>>30262
We're going to be using tabletop simulator, so the special die should be on the workshop somewhere.. I'll check when I get home.
It'll be a learning experience for everyone because nobody has really played a ttrpg before. I suggested something like traveller or stars without number, but they insist on having "ebin nat 20s" so it's good to hear that sw5e is a good choice.

>>30267
>We're going to be using tabletop simulator, so the special die should be on the workshop somewhere.. I'll check when I get home.
IDK you might need to get a pack for that. Maybe there's a community plugin for it that's free.
>but they insist on having "ebin nat 20s" so it's good to hear that sw5e is a good choice.
…well the Star Wars RPG doesn't use a d20 or have you rolling numbers. It does have a critical system though.

>>30270
>>30267
>>30262
Oh nvm, SW5e is something different from what I thought. It's just a D&D5e hack. You should be fine, you are still playing D&D. It's going to probably be more or less the same experience as any general D&D game. I would guess that's no better or worse an entry point into TTRPGs than 5e is in general.
>but they insist on having "ebin nat 20s"
You may be struggling against bad attitudes toward the game if they're coming in from watching "actual play" streamers. Even if those productions are improvised, they usually have professionals planning out a narrative for a show behind it, and it works very differently from a typical game. If some of the players flame out because it's not what they expected you may talk to the ones who remain about switching to a system that was actually built for the setting you are playing.

>>30267
>but they insist on having "ebin nat 20s
I feel bad for you anon this is gonna be a dogshit group I have met this type. :(
Please don't let it dissuade you to future groups most tarot gamers are not like those weird redditors.

Is there anything that's good to play alone?

>>30292
Yeah there's a whole category of solo RPGs, just google it. Alternatively if you want a group there are places you can look for that and even a gig economy with places like startplaying.games

What do you think of this card design?
Been working on a tabletop game for several months now, without too much context, what do you think?

Also, note that there's extra margins on the sides for printing reasons, ergo the final card will be a bit smaller.

>>30296
tl;dr overall looks good but you have several relatively minor "user experience" things you should tweak.

Pros:
>good overall layout, no notes except the credit/copyright would fit better at the bottom
>distinct and fairly consistent aesthetic (the symbols are simplistic compared to the grungy detail of the art and "frame" but that helps with recognition)
>thematically distinct and eye catching art
>design of the dice for stat display is good conceptually and easy to read especially the white pips

Cons:
<all of the text and symbols should be bigger (readable at card size) - do some test prints to see how it looks at the size you will use and adjust to make sure it's easy to read anything important
<red color is more attention grabbing than the other colors used besides white and yellow, making the purple, blue, and green details stand out less, and the red text especially harder to read (lower the saturation and/or darken to more neutral color and that's fixed).
<color associations are usually pretty strong, and your main stats don't really need to be distinguished that way on a card (assuming they'll use a consistent layout). Unless you have some other feature that specifically uses color coding it's extra information that may distract or confuse players and increases the complexity of the design. Distinguishing with the symbols is enough unless you are doing something that won't use the symbols and needs the colors to match with it.
<symbols next to the dice have different alignments, which is a little inconsistent and makes it feel "noisy" and the middle one looks like it's being emphasized - pick one (top left, top right, above, below, whatever) for all of them
<dice pips use different orientation for the 2s for some reason, which makes your brain take slightly more time to process than if it was the exact same symbol (your 2 and 3 pips should also use opposite corners to make them quicker to distinguish)
<Black and white concentric circles in the art's background is very distracting, from the foreground of the art and the rest of the card. Stark black and white is going to draw the eye more than almost anything. Keep that for text or important symbols. The pattern also draws the eye but wouldn't be as much of an issue if it was 2 similar shades of gray or something.

Other suggestions:
- Make all the text bigger and white so it's easier to read (maybe do a few iterative draft prints in black and white at the intended size to help you adjust)
- Consider making the "attack" stat red, since it's an easier association to make, and avoid using yellow except on some feature that's particularly important and unusual since that's a very noticeable color.
- Darken (don't desaturate) the colors of the dice a bit to increase contrast with the pips further.

>>30292
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson%27s_Sorcery!
There's also a mobile/pc adaptation that's pretty good

>>30298

We plan on using different colored cards to indicate different types of cards, like Yu-Gi-Oh!
Here's an older mock up (still rough, unfinished, alpha state) for an item card.

The symbols are used here to indicate what the item does to your stats. In this case it's
>It gives you +2 to your attack stat
> X means it doesn't effect defense (need to change this bc X is a variable in most contexts like this)
>It takes -1 HP each time it's used

It also has these traits:

| Cursed | Must pick up if slot is empty; can't drop
| Virulent | +1 Attack, +2 vs Akasha |

We dropped the Augmented ability so ignore that.

>>30298
thanks for this constructive feedback, we will be discussing this during our next team meeting

>>30300
My father actually has a bunch of these books, maybe I'll borrow some.

>>30262
I actually own the Edge of the Empire books and ran a campaign with an Ewok star ship Captain which was the funniest shit because he talked so much shit in Ewok no one knew what the hell he was saying, a Twilik that got roped into trying to carry out an assassination of a crimelord on Nar Shadaa hiding a gernade in her boobs, I forgot what the other two were but it was good time. Although I hate the properietary dice Table Top Simulator is a god send.

On another note there is this TTRPG that I thought was cool was called Forgotten Lands.

>>30358
As trash as proprietary dice are, I actually really like the principle of having polyhedral dice work differently than a number from 1 to [size of die]. It's just bullshit that it requires you to buy several alternate sets. In communism we will have gaming halls with dice people can borrow like at a library so we can have all sorts of dice with minimal plastic. I don't care about owning my own dice just to have them sit unused 99% of the time.

>>30359
Honestly I agree, if we going to have polyhedral dice we could make them out of light weight metals and give them different colors based on the metals used. But I actually like your idea game halls where no one has to worry about bringing their own dice and can borrow the large array of dice.

Would anyone here be, by chance, interested in learning bits of obscure-but-not-really russian wargaming?

>>30720
You mean like the actual game rules? Maybe if we can play it somehow. Or drama/general trivia would be fun.

>>30379
Metal dice are nice but there issues with them including damaging tables. Even lightweight ones are relatively rigid compared to plastic ones, so they have less give to them when they hit the table. Plastic also tends to roll better because it has more bounce. We can create biodegradable bioplastics too, plastic isn't inherently bad and has applications that other types of materials just can't match.

>>30721
So, among other things, about two years ago i have attempted to translate STAR HEROES: THE CHRONICLE OF BATTLES TO COME - the setting book for the world of СТАРСИС ("STARSYS"), mostly known for the tabletop game of БРОНЕПЕХОТА ("Armoured Infantry") by ТЕХНОЛОГ; the translation is still incomplete (missing two descriptions of exemplary battles), and its formatting could use a pass or more.

I am, however, unsure on how to share it; the site doesn't seem to allow attaching MS Word files, and the PDF of the untranslated original seems to be too heavy for the site to handle. Where should i upload these?

>>30723
You should stop using fucking MS Word for a start.

>>30723
Print to .pdf upload

>>30729
>>30723
The English is quite probably not as good as it could be, and the writing itself is of debatable quality, to say the least.
Anyway, here it comes; maybe i could manage to finish and enhance the translation later.

What really gets me about the "you don't need systems, just adhere to the world and your prep" types in RPG spaces is that they're all also frustrated writers so the stuff they make is all empty twee vibes that are useless for actually basing any rulings off.

>>31910
Possibly related: how comes "this is a narrative game" seems to mean "we have an excuse for not actually writing rules" at times?

>>31941
because it is about egos and group dynamics, not games, like a cult or a disc0rd server. if it was a narrative exercise, you wouldn't need the player-character pair

>>31910
>>31943
>>31941
I feel like you guys are getting too offended by stuff that has literally nothing to do with you

>>31944
I feel like you are getting too offended by a conversation that has literally nothing to do with you
offended enough to try to shut it down

in a very bitchy, passive-aggressive way, of course

>>31945
Well I am annoyed by your statements that narrative based games are a 'cult', I dunno what else you want me to say.

>>31947
exactly that, but instead your first response was
>uhm you are looking offended sweetie, stop talking, okay?
would sect be a better euphemism? I think that's precisely why this type of game is so popular among self-proclaimed socialists, specially the easily influenced and not very smart ones, that, more often than not, end up in ultra-left cults or terminally online circles

>>31948
You are deranged.

>Hasbro/WotC lay off 1100 people two weeks before Christmas
They are really determined to kill the D&D brand huh.

>>32500
Isn't D&D the only thing making them money besides MtG?

>>32502
Yeah as mentioned in the video, not just WotC but Hasbro itself has been buoyed by D&D's popularity surge.

I'd like to run a game for anons but a certain gamer chat app is frowned upon here and roll20 lags my computer
I was thinking The Fantasy Trip, it's like GURPS but stripped down for old school fantasy adventures, fairly intuitive once you grasp it (and, as an aside, the creator Steve Jackson isn't a reactionary twat)
Three possible issues (aside from the issue of what app to use):
1. Game assumes the use of proprietary hex maps for combat, running it theater of the mind is possible but annoying because the game references hexes (or "megahexes") for distance rather than actual distance
2. The game, like GURPS, is lethal, taking a "realistic fantasy" stance, and finding ways to give players a way to feel more powerful is hard even being generous with XP (like GURPS, every humanoid is squishy)
3. This is my own personal stance but, like GURPS, I feel the game is fundamentally broken, the notion of "balance" may as well be non-existent, this all stems from the aforementioned "realistic fantasy" stance that makes simply the idea of adventurers stupid, as well as questioning how a D&D-esque setting could exist at all with such scrawny humanoids not being wiped out by bigger monsters
But these issues aside, the game has a certain old school charm, and appeals to the inner strategy player with how tactical fights can get, as well it's super simple to make characters (bonus points for effectively being classless) and as mentioned is fairly intuitive to play once you grasp it

>>32500
>Christmas layoffs
This is disgustingly common, yet there's never any solidarity. Everyone left just thinks "at least it wasn't me". I was at a web development firm that got dismantled by private equity scrappers. The first round of layoffs were right before Christmas. I made the cut, but we were left without any QA on our team. I wish we had stood up for the people who got laid off that round because in the end, the only guy left was the one with 10 years of tenure.

>>32503
WotC revenue is mostly cardboard crack.

>>34932
What's the hook? What sets it apart from other TTRPGs?

>the creator Steve Jackson isn't a reactionary twat
no but his games tend to have some galaxy brain logic in the mechanics to facilitate making things more proprietary.
>running it theater of the mind is possible but annoying because the game references hexes (or "megahexes") for distance rather than actual distance
case in point lol
Sounds like a job for homebrew. If hexes are a consistent size it shouldn't be that hard to convert to distance (and maybe angle). If the abstraction is more important, then a "zone" system might be a better alternative. Knowing what solution is best would require familiarity with the whole system though.
>The game, like GURPS, is lethal
>finding ways to give players a way to feel more powerful is hard even being generous with XP
Playstyle preference tbh. Games like this are less of a straight power fantasy and more about trying to be clever.
>this all stems from the aforementioned "realistic fantasy" stance that makes simply the idea of adventurers stupid, as well as questioning how a D&D-esque setting could exist at all with such scrawny humanoids not being wiped out by bigger monsters
Adventurers make sense as long as the rewards are worth the risks. IRL you have a long history of grave robbing and hunting big game. Going back further, stone age people were exploring caves and killing ice age megafauna. The only unrealistic part is maybe how people didn't manage to kill all the monsters before reaching a medieval tech level. Another Steve Jackson galaxy brain moment.

>>34936
>What's the hook? What sets it apart from other TTRPGs?
Tactical combat, flexible and simple character creation that can cover many possible concepts, ease of play.

Trying to find info about a dice based tabletop game - Haywire. It's supposed to have strong political themes. Anyone heard of it?

>>36261
Search is turning up nothing but https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/302307/haywire which doesn't match the description. You probably got the name wrong and strong political themes is pretty vague. Maybe Paranoia (Cyber-McCarthyism) fits the bill?

I wanna run a oneshot (or a short chronicle) about the Spanish Civil War in WtA. Problem is, I dunno which edition is better, since I never played/dmed Werewolf before. Is it Second or Revised? I kinda want to utilize Wod Combat rules, so Second Edition makes sense. Am I right?