need some help

[roamer]

Hey all, got a serious favour to ask of you:
I am in the process of desinging a new rpg game, loosely based on an alternative timeline around the middle ages. What i would like to know is which style of systems you like and why. (for character creation, gameplay ect..)
through the use of the information you give me, I will try to configure an easy to understand and enjoyable rule system for the game.
any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

[tllith]

Mar 3, 2010 16:03:44 GMT -6 roamer said:

Hey all, got a serious favour to ask of you:
I am in the process of desinging a new rpg game, loosely based on an alternative timeline around the middle ages. What i would like to know is which style of systems you like and why. (for character creation, gameplay ect..)
through the use of the information you give me, I will try to configure an easy to understand and enjoyable rule system for the game.
any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Speaking as a game designer with a published RPG book out ... fitting a system to a setting, and making it fit well, requires thinking about what aspects of the setting you want to have in your system. The single little detail I am proudest of is, in a system set in modern US highschools, I used letter grades for attributes, so characters had an A in Intelligence or whatever.

I generally favor having a single game mechanic that works for nearly everything, and is simple to apply and use. I used a (loosely) Ars Magica style Attribute + Skill + d20 roll for my main RPG. (The d20 system hadn't come out yet at the time.) Attributes ranged from about -5 to +5; skills from about 0 to 15. It worked fine, but adding three numbers, some of them two digits, wasn't easy for everyone.

For a quicker game, I'd pick a smaller die type: perhaps 2d6, which nearly everyone can add easily. Probably I'd go with lower=better, so that there's not nearly so much addition involved.

I like skill-based systems, but they tend towards very long charsheets and lots of detail. Well, I like that, too.

With an Earth-based setting, though, you can do what Over The Edge did. A typical character might have (say) three good qualities and one bad one. These qualities might be things like "travelling friar", "very attractive", "great at getting money", and "utter coward" for the bad one. Then if the character tried to do something that a friar ought to be able to do (like find an inn), or that an attractive man ought (like seduce the princess), he's got excellent chances.

For some ideas.

-- Tllith

[Niemz]

"Speaking as a game designer with a published RPG book out ."

What's it called?

[tllith]

Mar 12, 2010 10:43:46 GMT -6 Niemz said:

"Speaking as a game designer with a published RPG book out ."

What's it called?

World Tree RPG

www.amazon.com/World-Tree-Playing-Species-Civilization/dp/1890096105/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268416757&sr=1-1

[john]

Badical. I play on saturdays with a guy who wrote his RPG and got it published as well, Dawnfire. It's kinda like playing with Gary Gygax . You can't rules lawyer well. ;-P

[tllith]

Mar 12, 2010 14:29:53 GMT -6 john said:

Badical. I play on saturdays with a guy who wrote his RPG and got it published as well, Dawnfire. It's kinda like playing with Gary Gygax . You can't rules lawyer well. ;-P

I've got a copy of Dawnfire! They were at GenCon the year World Tree came out. Fun game, though I never got to play it.

I just got told we've been tvtroped: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WorldTreeRPG

But I dunno about rules lawyering. When I was playing, it was pretty much the opposite: my players knew the rules fairly well, and, when I was GMming, I could never override or house-rule stuff, since, well, I had written it and all.

[john]

Dawnfire is pretty cool beans. I can talk to the guy who runs it to see if he knows any gamers in your area who play it. Sadly tonight's game I was skyping in for... well, it crapped out because of a power outage.

Nice Tvtropage, there. Should put one up for dawnfire.

[halfmoon]

Hi,

To avoid starting a new thread ill post here:

I need some help remembering the name and properties of a magic item.
it's dagger that on a successful backstab you get to roll to hit again and every time you hit. there have been a couple/three versions of it described in modules or other books. it has an evil alignment and i believe there is talk of victims blood to activate or something.

I've come across one in at least two campaigns over the years randomly and I've since decided to make it sort of a quest item for my characters if i'm playing a thief at all.

i'm strictly a player and I avoid keeping dm guides and artifact and relic guides around. I'm not above peeking though...

thanks in advance!

Hey! I remembered where i saw it last. Believe it or not a brief description is in one of the charts in 'the temple of elemental evil' module. different versions of the module have different attributes as far as +'s. i dont have the module.
i believe the name is 'backbiter' and the earliest version allows, after a successful backstab(?) a to hit roll. a 17 or 18 i think is what you need to attack again. it could just be a 17 or better. like i said there are different descriptions in several sources some better than others

if anyone tracks down a detailed description could you message it to me?

[halfmoon]

Hi all,

I've been searching pdf files for this magic dagger and come up blank

here is where its not:

DMG's 1 and 2
Encyclopedia Magica
unearthed arcana
book of artifacts

It's just a cool, hard to find item buried in the game that i took a shine to

Im sure a description exists, i just forgot where......


aug 25:

I'm pretty frustrated over my own search for a description in writing

here is what i remember which im sure is pretty accurate:

+2 tohit, on successful backstab roll of 17 or18 allows additional attack roll. (separates critical hit a special abilities, cool...)

LE alignment and will try to change player's alignment to same
(description DOES NOT make that a sure thing though...)

blood must be drawn with the weapon before full abilities are revealed or else it id's as a +1 dagger (my character actually had to draw his own blood reluctantly, for a fellow's spell once and i happened to use that dagger after i had it for a while and never used before)

character will resist parting with the weapon....
(pretty close to the exact wording i believe....)

that's bout it.....

cool weapon huh. i've seen several described. even one with the magic number being 20 tohit for additional attack natural 20? they never specified. even a couple with the 'backstab' requirement not there.

thanks.

[halfmoon]

anyone, no luck?

I'm willing to donate a player's handbook ,purchased online, to the cause (yers) if you can show me where, in which book (guide,handbook,manual,etc..) the dagger's description can be found. 1st or 2nd edition will be accepted.

I can't take a modules description because old mods tends to be missing pages at times...

lol it will be a bulk purchase potentially because i will be buying the book with the dagger's description also.

thanks in advance!

[Niemz]

halfmoon?

[roamer]

niemitz: I'm thinking of possibly calling it the Mists of Avalon or something along that line.