Recent content by Reynard

Sure. I did not mean that flashbacks are bad. They solve a perennial problem. It is juts that they aren't nearly as much fun as a plan that goes right... for once.

Flashbacks aren't really a replacement for that feeling of a plan coming together just right.

That is super interesting. How common is it for the characters and the scenes to be aligned?

Despite having run many different games for many, many players over the years (due to running at cons) I think the "I roll perception!" player is pretty rare overall. Same for the "I run my hands over the rim of the chest looking for irregularities" player. Most players engage with the fiction...

Shadowrun: 3 hours of planning, only for the Street Samurai to go in guns blazing...

I am not sure that this is tied terribly strongly to consumable resources, versus how the actually game engine resolves attempts and actions (but that's another thread).

I don't believe those things are mutually exclusive. You can certainly designs systems where the players have to come up with clever solutions while using what's on their character sheets. And a "GM may I" style system is not better than a "I roll perception" style system if the challenges are...

Yeah, I wanted to distinguish since it can get a little fuzzy with things like hope. here I am talking about power points and spell slots and such.

I think there is a lot of inertia in adventure design -- especially for games that go for that "old school" feel. I love nothing more than an adventure that surprises me with cool ideas and well designed challenges for the players. I haven't run a ton of Dragonbane, so I don't know how good its...

NOTE: this threads is yet another in my "series" to get me thinking about a specific aspect of TTRPG design, as I try and build a conceptual foundation for my own RPG. As it pertains to the subject, the resources I am talking about here are things like spell slots, power points, Hope (not as a...

Even in Dragonbane, if there is no time pressure and no consequence of failure, there is no reason to call for a roll. So include a consequence or throw out the test. Half the time, you can probably throw out the "challenge" entirely because itisn't one -- it is just a speed bump. We aren't...

Mine ended up a casualty of one of my periodic purges. "I am never actually going to play this." Ugh. So dumb.

Interesting. I think Hackmaster 5E Basic was a really good game, but it was too much when the full books came out. That bestiary tho!

One potential solution, if you are looking for such, is to make sure failed skill rolls have real negative consequences commensurate with the benefit of success. The trap goes off or the door is now jammed. The enemy gets a surprise attack. Or whatever. So every roll is a real choice of risk...

So I finally had a chance to write up some potential pre-gens for my bumbling villains con game and want some feedback. I am using the Marvel multiverse RPG and have a friend helping building them at rank 2 or 3 (I have not decided yet). Here they are: Killbot Komando: Formerly just a minion...