Game designers talk about balancing powers far more than airtime. In fact, I've not heard anything about balancing airtime in some years. Balancing power restricts stories. We'd have to class Buffy the Vampire Slayer as 'unbalanced', even if all characters receive equal airtime in an episode, with equal decision-making …

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For anyone making an RPG system, I recommend the following systems/ patterns. One Roll Per Action If Alice's PC wants to kick down the door, and Alice rolls a '5', then the roll is '5' for everyone. If Alice's character has a +2 Bonus then the total would be '7', and if another character has a +4 Bonus, then their …

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Every time I find some interview with an RPG creator, I notice some trickery, or perhaps confusion. The presenter brings up a question about how they make their RPGs, and the answer explains how they make money. There's nothing wrong with having a job, but how a woodcarver carves wood isn't the same as how they market …

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"I'm doing open source", I said to myself, in a sensible internal-monologue voice. "I should pull from more open source creators", I concluded with naive hopes, and then I downloaded all of the onepage dungeon entries . As it turns out, most were not compatible with the GPL, because they did not have an up-to-date open …

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The time has come to extend the Bluff System . Effects The exact effects would depend on various Skills and Attributes. Possible pre-written effects would include: Knock someone off balance (-3X to their next roll) Gut-punch (-2X to all rolls for the rest of the scene) Bone-breaker (-X to all rolls, until they can …

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The old A,D&D Ravenloft modules were some cheesy shite. Even the most sullen and macabre Goth in Gotham couldn't extract a nugget of honest fear from the campy Hammer Horror rip-offs. But we loved them. Why? Ravenloft began with Dracula-but-with-hitpoints, then added wagons of gypsies carrying plot, Frankenstein's …

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A vision came to me of a perfectly tactical RPG system, and then I realized it was worthless, because tactical RPGs are tacky. This perfectly tactical system could be memorized in minutes, and let you play without any board or counters. Skilled players would do well, unskilled players would do badly. Players would …

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Linear dungeons, where players see room 1, then room 2, all in order, can feel constraining. Dungeon: any location in an RPG scenario with details of opportunity and danger. Jaquaysing: to make a dungeon non-linear, so players must select which paths their characters take. The 'how' falls directly out of the in-world …

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Standard Initiative rules are the devil. Your basic combat action is an Attack roll. If you roll Damage at the same time as the attack, then adding another roll for Initiative means every combat takes twice as long. If you just spent 20 minutes on a combat scene that would have been 15 seconds of screen-time in a film, …

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My third BIND campaign ended in glorious disaster and nonsense which forced me to reforge magic. Lax Theory I had a magic system with a bit of metamagic 'bend', where people could do basic spells (fwoosh, fire!) then add a little metamagic to boost literally any spell (fwshhHHH FIREBALL!). No more 'control person', …

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