Whenever I'm unsure about a rule, I pull out a basic spreadsheet, and start populating numbers. The image I had for the ghoul spell began with a mage who could raise small things from the dead, like a cat, or dog. Slowly, the dark sorcerer would learn to raise gnomes, then humans, and finally raise undead ogres or …

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I've found myself aghast at the multiple (not loads, but still) conversations I've had online where I've proposed an open-source RPG, and I'm told that this really isn't adding much, because people can already copy systems. I have personally copied a system. I have rewritten White Wolf's rules so that I could modify …

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The previous post went over changing BIND's Combat system significantly, but I've not been able to resolve the problems. Every change I make demands other fixes. Everything I fix breaks something else. Once combat's simplified, the shield's don't work. Or they work with swords, but don't provide any use when holding a …

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I warned ye! but did you listen to me? Oh no... you knew didn't ye? It's just a harmless little licence, isn't it? ...sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

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I've implied all this heavily in other writing, but just to be clear, here is the game plan for BIND. Firstly, BIND doesn't matter. I want to see an open-source RPG that's actually open source. I want to see the community able to break away from a corporation telling them what they can do, and just make their own …

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BIND is changing how attacks work, and I can't believe I didn't think of this trick before. Very Bad Attacks The worst way to perform attacks must be GURPS Alice and Bob roll for Initiative Alice rolls to attack Bob rolls to dodge Bob rolls to attack Alice rolls to dodge That's 1 roll for the Initiative (both roll at …

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A player rolls the dice, and the table watches the result, like a roulette ball bouncing about. Rothgar has a +4 to make the jump, but the chasm demands a Target Number (TN) of 12. The player rolls 2D6... 1 (( _______ 2 _______ /\O O\ 3 /O /\ / \ \ 4 / O /O \ / O \O____O\ )) 5((/_____O/ \ /O / 6 \O O\ / \ / O / 7 \O …

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Game designers often lecture (or bemoan) that nobody can possibly make a realistic game. But in the words of Queen Victoria, I am not interested in the possibility of failure. Instead of looking at 'is this showing what would happen if you really mounted a dragon while wearing armour', I prefer to look simply at the …

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My favourite word-game is Ghost. You go round in a circle, each person stating a letter, which builds to a word. If someone completes a word of four or more letters, they lose. If someone receives a set of letters which cannot complete a word, they can challenge the person before them. If the person before states a …

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My favourite WoD RPG will always be Changeling. I've run one campaign, and I wish I had time to run more. I don't know if I'll ever have time to re-write it, like I did with Vampire, but I have plenty of concrete plans for changes. Seelie vs Unseelie The book began by saying 'Seelie' does not mean 'good', and …

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