BIND | TTRPGs

Spreadsheets are Great

Jan 27, 2023 · 3 min read · Theory Design BIND

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 …

BIND's Attack Style: Aftermath

Jan 16, 2023 · 2 min read · BIND Theory

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 shields don't work. Or they work with swords, but don't provide any use when holding a …

BIND's Attack Style

Jan 11, 2023 · 3 min read · BIND Theory

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 …

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 · 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 · 4 min read · 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 …

The OGL is not Open

Mar 22, 2022 · 4 min read · BIND Design FOSS

The Open Gaming Licence (OGL) does not in fact produce terribly open games, so I wish people would stop referring to such RPGs as 'open source'.

No Real Books

The OGL specifically excludes Product Identity.

"Product Identity" means product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including …

RPG Stuff only LaTeX Does

Mar 2, 2022 · 7 min read · BIND Typography

Environments

In Word and Acrobat, you can make some limited environments, like a header. But in LaTeX, you can make literally any type of environment you want. Need 10 encounter environments? Just make one macro.

Arranging some encounter table then copy/ pasting it and filling in new monsters doesn't sound like a lot …

Weaving Stories

Jan 30, 2022 · 9 min read · Design BIND

Classic RPG adventures suffer from chronic flaws. When PCs should to go somewhere, they don't. When they should take interest in an item, they ignore it. Any NPC who will lead them to a secret cave in Chapter IV gets stabbed in Chapter II because the players thought he was up to something. After all the carnage, they …
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