TTRPGs

Highlights from the WoD Contest Game

Jul 13, 2022 · 6 min read · RPG White Wolf

I've made an alternative World of Darkness system, where players enter Contests instead of Combat . Here are the highlights from a campaign. Setting In Belgrade (in Hungary), in the year 1130 AD, four people fell to the Cainite embrace in a church, and were forced to survive the political machinations of the existing …

Systems and Genre Representation

Jul 12, 2022 · 3 min read · RPG Theory Design

Systems should represent genres, and some do this better than others. System Excellence Dr Who One Dr Who RPG (I forget which) contained an absolutely genius initiative system. The initiative turn-order was: Speak Run Use an item Attack This clearly produces unrealistic results. The system cannot allow anyone to shoot …

Show, Don't Tell

Jul 8, 2022 · 2 min read · RPG Theory

Radio dramas often have their characters speak so as to indicate their actions. Does anyone have an extra blanket? If I get cold I'll wake up with a bad back. Hearing this, we know The group is sleeping outside, the speaker is old, and the speaker wants to sleep. I wonder if the group adopting this habit might enhance …

White Wolf Combat Sucks

Jun 30, 2022 · 4 min read · RPG Theory White Wolf

White Wolf games always mentioned how small their system was - roll a number of D10's equal to your Wits + Athletics (or whatever), and count all the dice which land on 6 or more. The player then reads the dice like so many runes, and the final result would yield detailed information. 0 successes means failure, or at …

I Want Realistic Dragons

Jun 14, 2022 · 2 min read · RPG Theory

Weighing into an ancient (or at least senile) fantasy debate, I'd like to go back a step. It usually goes like this: An elf punching a dragon to death because of monk-training isn't realistic. 1 You think dragons are "realistic"? No, but a certain semblance, in certain regards, to reality, which we might call …

I Wish Neo-Pronouns had been Adopted

May 17, 2022 · 3 min read · Prattle Language RPG

Tabletop RPGs have struggled with pronouns more than most places, because they speak through constant examples. The fighter rolls a '10' on Initiative, and the goblins roll and '8'. He goes first. A,D&D used the default 'he', throughout all examples, and in the second edition, printed a small box explaining that …

Escape from the Horde

Apr 12, 2022 · 2 min read · RPG BIND

This one-shot adventure starts the characters off deep underground. Goblins have taken over a gnomish warren, and transformed the gnomes into goblins. Next up, they intend to turn the characters into strange monsters. Any dwarves will become hobgoblins, and any humans will become ogres. The party of random prisoners …

Fate Points in BIND

Apr 12, 2022 · 8 min read · RPG BIND Design

Remember that book or film where the protagonist received a nasty wound, then persevered, and won the day? Well that can't happen in RPGs, and that's a shame. So my solution is Fate Points (FP). Reasons People Created Hit Points Hit Points make sense as a standard game abstraction, until they apply to PCs. If PCs …

BIND's Story Point System

Apr 11, 2022 · 5 min read · RPG BIND

The Problem While I'd hope to rock up at the gaming table and just game with friends, the DM had other ideas. Everyone had to write a character back-story. Having three jobs at the time, I didn't feel enamoured with my homework, but a while later, I had read enough about the campaign world to begin writing something …

Ideas People

Mar 26, 2022 · 2 min read · RPG Theory

Oh young one! So you think you have an idea. Well let.me.tell.you: EVERYONE has ideas. Nobody cares if you have ideas. The real results are in work, in the execution. It's about labour, not inspiration. I've seen this kind of patronising lecture a few times on various RPG boards, and speaking as someone without any …