/tg/ - Traditional Games

So the measuring of difficulty of NPCs to fight against seems a bit vague, there are categories but not every quality is actually weighted in the way they imply they are and they even admit that NPC qualities aren't a science so what sort of enemies do you use for different character levels in your own games? Are there are specific ones you use for easy, challenging, or ball-busting encounters?

>>425180

The guidelines given work fine for anything you'd pull out of the bestiary or rogues gallery, templates included. If I'm making bespoke NPCs...

>easy

Keep it simple, maybe a gimmick or two with stats very in line with the guidelines, not many NPC qualities.

>challenging

Actually build the characters to have few weaknesses, usually something that requires non-standard behavior, outside-the-box thinking. With these I'm going to compare stats and do some fuzzy math about how likely each side's attacks and other actions are to succeed. I want the numbers to make it so they won't win in a simple straight fight, that they have to either prepare and weaken them, go after some weakness, etc.

>or ball-busting

Build the NPC (or group) as a hard counter to the party, forcing them to use character abilities they neglect. Give them NPC qualities that can mill the party's resources (e.g. tough mills action dice and crits). Loads of natural attacks and the flurry ability is also painful.

Crafty has their own booth at Gencon foe the first time in years, but the only stuff they have is all Mistborn rpg booka and board game stuff, and oddly enough, Little Wizards. No word or announcements on NEVEREVERbound.

>>425761

>latest post in the spellbound thread is from the 30th of August

jej

https://www.crafty-games.com/forum/index.php?topic=8028.555

also a little (((test))) cucked website if removed

>>417502

>No it's all about the money and length of a game

So yeah it is rank and flank by design. Find me a cheap, reasonably length game time game thats a rank and flank. Just one.

>>417497

WFB has an actual world, AoS has a low entry barrier. I guess that GW didn't realise that "make it like Wh40k" doesn't have to include the lore.

>>417435

If you like Bretonnians just buy Perry Hundred Years War miniatures, which is an era that some of the past ranges had been based on (maybe 5e? That was before my time). There's Fireforge too but frankly they aren't that great.

>>417505

Kings of War, Saga, Warmaster, etc

With GW bringing back the old world, I guess Tomb Kings will be back with it.

>>421217

Demand virgin sacrifices.

>>421243

I really miss having friends. ;_;

going to use this for my next campaign, thanks Jumanji reboot

>have each player create two character sheets, let them choose one to start with and I take the rest

>during the start of the journey the players encounter a mysterious artifact that, when activated, transports them to an alternate dimension where their characters are changed

>swap each of their character sheets with the ones they gave me at random, so they're each playing someone else's character and any tricks they had to break the game are thrown out the window unless they metagame like a bunch of faggots

>final boss battles them back in the real dimension with their initial, low-level characters

>>423594

I wouldn't say he was being an obnoxious dick by any means, and the language barrier was part of my own lore for the setting. (Though I didn't really expect any players to want to play a small foreign slave monster.) He just really took a liking to how the language barrier related to his wildman character concept. But yeah, I would have thought the steady vocabulary building would have gone faster than he wanted. He didn't even chose to study in his downtime.

In any case, it was his character, he played what he enjoyed, and it worked, if not perfectly smoothly. With that said, eventually three more NPCs of the wildman's kind entered the story. And while it only made sense for them to start with the same language barrier, I made sure to have them learn Common or English or whatever as fast as I could reasonably justify them doing so. Just last session the party was ready for some good ol' language barrier trouble and found that two who'd been out of the plot a while were now functionally English proficient, thanks to knuckling down on study with the help of a magic empath. Maybe wildman will feel a bit silly when his archrival is around and being treated like a fellow human rather than a dog.

>>423598

>final confrontation

>wild-man vs. wild-man

>PC opens his mouth, his first human words

>"I was only pretending to be retarded."

>>423603

That would be funny.

>>425614

Stuff relevant to one of the more popular non-tournament formats being played.

http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php

>>425543

>I'm surprised, though, I haven't heard anyone say D&D was well designed since 3.5, and even that statement has loads of conditionals attached to it.

You'd be surprised at the amount of shit taste outside of /tg/. I love my friends, but they aren't as cynical as your average grognard, so they tend to accept things at face value instead of picking the game apart until that point where they could even stop having fun when they realize the gigantic dumpster fire the game is. That said, in real life, in Reddit, in rpg.net, in Enworld, in Giant in the Playground... all the shitty normalfag communities, that are much, much bigger than /tg/, suck the game's proverbial dick to the lingest extents. In fact, it may be the only game where most players and DM have such a cult to its rules that they may endlessly argue about the true meaning of its rules, either in forums or in blogposts. No other game has a community so devoted to picking apart every single word of the rules to play the game the way it's meant, and no other community has DM so opposed to obviously balanced homebrew simply because it's not part of the base game, and therefore, it must be badly designed It's also the only game where pretty much half of the community is divided on whether allowing the underpowered Eldritch Knights bond with a shield should be allowed or not, because apparently, donning a shield with a Bonus Action instead of an Action for flavour is too much of a mechanical advantage, compared to simply wearing the shield all the time, and also because Crawford is a huge no fun allowed bitch.

>4th was a dumpster fire that killed the brand and 5e isn't designed at all, it's 3.5 minus rules or fun.

5e made a few steps in the right direction of fun, but then proceeded to take a few backwards. Capping stats at 20 and giving 2 points per ASI is a very good decision but then only dropping magical tomes that increase the cap as well is stupid due to the way rational parties distribute loot; there is no vanilla solution to characters with spread out stats, and so is free multiclassing without dumb XP penalties; this is fun stuff. Using the rules to prevent fun and logical synergPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

>>425625

Most people praise D&D because it enables them to play whatever stupid fantasy game they want. Will it do it well outside of the stereotypical D&D settings and expectations? Not really. I'll have to take your word on people sucking 5e's dick, since I deliberately avoid all normalfag communities like the plague. It's always weirded me out how many D&D GMs are opposed to homebrew when the most busted and stupid shit is all completely sanctioned by WOTC. I guess people have to sit around and argue what the rules mean because the 8 dudes who made 5e had no idea how to write them in a parse-able syntax. 5e is for the kind of person who only ran E6 games and thinks D&D is good for low-magic, gritty games.

The biggest problem with D&D from where I'm sitting is that D&D means something different to everyone. Including the people making it.

I've been running a magical girl campaign in GURPS since January. I chose it partially because I knew that the notoriety of the system would scare less dedicated players away.

It's been fun so far. Right now the crew is fighting a bunch of wendigos+Krampus who worship an ice-themed magical girl that really doesn't like the attention she is getting. There is some yuri stuff popping up too which I will claim that I didn't initiate, but I am learning to roll with it.

>>425614

>What's Commander 2019?

the newest release from wizards of preconstructed decks for the EDH (elder dragon highlander)/ Commander format. these decks have new cards that aren't legal anywhere but edh/commander and legacy/vintage

>What's Command Zone?

a play area devoted to your "Commander / "General" for the EDH/Commander format

also a shill good goy mtg podcast that's been sucking rosewater dick from the getgo

>>424622

/tg/ Strategy Guide

Formation: 4-1-2-3 - https://ibb.co/6sMY7bp

Attacking Instructions

Attacking Styles: Counter Attack

Build Up: Shortpass

Attacking Area: Wide

Positioning: Flexible

Support Range: 5

Defensive Instructions

Defensive Styles: Frontline Pressure

Containment: Middle

Pressuring: Conservative

Defensive Line: 4

Compactness: 7

Advanced Instructions:

Attack 1: Centering Targets (Guts and Conan)

Attack 2:

Defence 1: Swarm the Box

Defence 2: Counter Target

Player Settings:

Select Captain: Conan

Long Free Kick Taker:

Short FK Taker:

FK Taker 2:

Left Corner Kick Taker:

Right CK Taker:

Penalty Kick Taker:

Players to Join Attack: (This is a setting specifically for corners/free kicks. It tells a player to come up and be part of the set play, rather than staying in his position on the field)

Substitution Strategies:

Sub off most tired defender at 60'

Sub off most TirePost too long. Click here to view the full text.

FINALIZED SCHEDULE

August 4th - Draw Stream (2PM Central, 3PM Eastern, 7PM UTC)

Stream to determine the groups of four in the Cup. Might do a test game or two, show off some fun stuff in the meantime, but it's mostly about determining the layout of the Group Stage.

August 10th - Matchday 1 (2PM Central, 3PM Eastern, 7PM UTC)

The first nine Group Stage Matches will be held.

August 11th - Matchday 2 (2PM Central, 3PM Eastern, 7PM UTC)

Nine more Group Stage Matches held.

August 17th - Matchday 3 (2PM Central, 3PM Eastern, 7PM UTC)

Nine more Group Stage Matches held. Group A finishes the first stage of competition.

August 18th - Matchday 4 (2PM Central, 3PM Eastern, 7PM UTC)

Final Group Stage Matches held. Groups B through F finish the first stage of competition.

August 24th - Matchday 5 (2PM Central, 3PM Eastern, 7PM UTC)

First round of the Knockout Stage occurs. 8 games in total.

August 24th - Matchday 5 (2PM Central, 3PM Eastern, 7PM UTC)

Remaining rounds of the Knockout Stage occur. 8 games in total. Final day of competition

Everything can be seen live on https://cytu.be/r/8cup

3 Eastern, 7 UTC tomorrow. Draw stream: https://cytu.be/r/8cup

For a quick explanation of the draw: >>>/8cup/3406

>>425668

I actually fucking adore this group and I unironically want everyone to win.

here's the rest if anyone is interested

THE GROUPS

GROUP A

/christian/

/unna/

/2hu/

/y2k/

GROUP B

/b/

/a/

/pone/

/ck/

GROUP C

/strek/

/ausneets/

/wooo/

/kind/

GROUP D

/bmn/

/tv/

/u/

/sw/

GROUP E

/test/

/monster/

/ita/

/v/

GROUP F

/co/

/tg/

/animu/

/gts/

>>425407

The Inquisition was ready to sterilize all the Guardsmen on Armageddon who saw the Grey Knights fighting Angron, they only stopped because Logan Grimnar and the Space Wolves called bullshit and started physically protecting the guardsmen and fighting the Inquisition.

>>425411

Depending on the canon, quite a few of those heretics deserve it. And mutants are generally an unhealthy thing to have around.

>>425420

>>425411

Sure, it happens, but that poster was acting like it's a regular thing.

>>420406

The power of puzzles, and a suspicious empty space in a grid map.

>>420406

>secret rooms

You can literally steal from video games.

>notes explicitly or implicitly talking about secrets

>like history of all architects and their families killed after completion of the project

>giving them a weird ass key/crystal/"klaatu verita nektu" magic phrase that unlocks a treasure chest/lock/portal

>that doesn't just takes up space if they didn't find the secret

>literally give a tutorial floor

>only way to proceed is to find the secret passageway

>or Indiana Jones' father's journal, that gives hints to what is to come

Secret rooms are like traps. Sometimes, they need to be downright be shown to let the players know what they are getting into.

If its the single player you're talking about. You can also play with passive scores. Normally, people only use passive perception to notice small details, or enemies. A passive intelligence check can mean that the layout of the floor doesn't make sense. A passive equivalent to survival or tracking can notice tracks that lead nowhere. A dwarf might notice stonework is weird. A thief might know rumours about treasure. A bard might know legends or songs about said treasure.

>>420408

Worse is a properly detailed map, with a portion blacked out or covered, and stays blacked out.

>>420406

>Here's a more general question that's bugging me, now that I'm making some Egyptian-themed pyramid dungeons and the like. How does everyone handle secret rooms and puzzles?

I do OSR-style play so it's pretty easy:

For generic secret doors that I don't care about (i.e. just ways for the baddies to maneuver easier and to hide a little bonus treasure) you can passively notice them if you have a racial bonus (elves, etc.), but otherwise, it's by searching. If you spend a turn searching a 10ftx10ft area, it's 1-in-6 chance. Each turn is a chance for a wandering monster, and eats up your time (10 minutes), so you can't afford to just scan ever space; you need good reason to suspect something is hidden (i.e. a suspicious gap in the map).

However, that's just for generic secret doors. For special ones, or ones that hide important things, I designate a mechanism in advance. You have the same chance to find it by just rolling the device, but if you specifically call out an action that triggers a result ("I wist the deer's antlers") then you don't need to roll; you figured it out by being clever enough. I tend to accomplish this by putting in things that can be interacted with, like statues or bookshelves, and using them as the basis for the trigger. The combination of these two mechanisms rewards clever thinking, but still lets you stuff like secret passages all over that just use basic 'press the wall lever' tricks, and the like.

On that note: When the players enter the room, I tell them what they see. If they see, they see it. No rolls to say 'you notice X in the corner' if it's in plain sight; let them fiddle around and mess with stuff. This helps out a lot with puzzles and the like, since it turns everything into a sort of puzzle to interact with.

Rules and stat cards for 1st wave are live: https://www.wyrd-games.net/news/2019/6/26/waldos-weekly-feet-dont-fail-me-now

Preorders now out in the mail. Ids habbeding.

>>422678

Necrotic Machine is a rite of passage, the /tg/ version of Duwang.

>>412839

With the game out the scene has been doing well near me. We even had some guys come from out of state to play in our weekly games. Overall it seems like the reception was good enough, as Wyrd seems to have avoided the worst mistakes PP made when switching editions.

PF2E SRD is up if anyone just wants to see the trainwreck of the rules

https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx

>>425428

Link is gone.

>>425479

That's weird, the mediafire still has it.

Lets try again.:

https://cutt.ly/E77shC

GenCon is pretty much over right? What kind of drama and bullshit happened? Anything juicy?

>>425519

Either way it seems a bit apples to oranges to compare it to races.

>>425395

>Like a race of Witchers.

Bootleg space marines who are author's leftist hot take on the social injustice where highly skilled professional has the audacity to demand a lot of money and goes through rigorious training to provide a service that is necessary for continued existence of people?

>>425577

As for pets, I've read about tiniest beholders called Eyeballs, that can be used as pets, but I can't find any art of them. I think they're just supposed to be a fist-sized flying eyeball.

>>424855

>Lone Wolf

https://www.projectaon.org

the author released all his books for free which makes him a true hero.

since it's open there are a few automatic versions (web based and standalone) to make stuff easier to digest. it's not all combat and you have some skills which affect your route. was even working on my own version before I found those, least got problem-solving lessons out of it

>Finally, I remeber someone posting about a group of books, "Mystic something or other" that could be used a resource to remove the GM work from a game.

just pick any dungeon crawler boardgame which has more or less fluff and integration of it to some the degree (heck magic realm is basically that and it's 40 years old), there are also a few solo pnp modules for various systems. on the opposite end there's stuff like sherlock holmes consulting detective. dunno if any fantasy stuff exists, but probably.

if you're into boardgames there's also time stories which is kinda like a game book which can be played as a group with different characters (and since it's pretty popular it should've spawned some clones).

in general gamebooks.org is an incredible resource for finding stuff etc.

>What I'd like to see is a system where character creation starts at the beginning with you selecting certain traits (brash versus cautious, outspoken versus introverted, booksmart versus streetsmart, etc.) that then either directly decide your actions at certain parts or add modifiers to rolls.

there's legacy of dragonholt from FFG (the only book probably, since the designer behind it quit), certain entries have several options depending on skill and what you did before. it was sold as a dm-less adventure you can play with more than one player, but char creation seemed pretty pointless for half it's options (I highly doubt the trans character will have any relevant entries,Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Blood Sword was my gamebook series of choice.

i have never heard of these before. i had heard of pick your own adventure but found it boring. trying out the java game right now. thank you for sharing this.

>>418543

how to say its utter trash without outright losing the same

>powered by the apocalypse.

note its not on the cover, Ms Cluney is as bluehair as they come no doubt.

>>418608

You can go dig around on the guy if you want, but for the most part, he seems sincerely obsessed with game design and writing silly tables, than any kind of typical poz'd up virtue signaling.

So what exactly is the expected format of a 'read along' in this thread? Do you have to scan and post a picture for every table and chart while summarizing every page that has rules on it? I mean it's a neat idea and all to get ideas flowing but it seems like a heck of a lot of work to do it with a full sized rule book, something that could take up to an hour or two of time if it's especially large and has complex material you need to try and fit into the character limits.

>>420202

Flip through the previous thread to get a better idea. It is time consuming, but you're not expected to cover everything or summarize each and every page and you're not supposed to get it done in a rush. Just give a rundown of mechanics and how to play while throwing in your two cents here and there.

Reading "Drone Warrior" by Brett Velicovich for cyberpunk/sci-fi ideas.

>>425541

No, apparently I said Tomboy in heat.

>>425551

You do realise nobody is going to visit your shity diskike, right? Sage for offtopic.

>>425553

you do know that you're talking to a bot there, right?

>>413054

I think 0.25% is a good number, it means it happens rarely but still has a chance to happen. Bad luck can affest anyone after all.

>>412535

That's not entirely true, in 2e you can critically succeed or fail with your skill checks.

Granted, the success is basically a "you make an item so good it can be used for enchantment" and the failures are "you get the wrong information".

>>412535

I just do: if die=1 automatic failure unless your bonuii are really high, or die=max number auto success unless your bonuii are really low. It also helps stave off munchkining. I don't do anything insane, but lockpick + crit success plus no or any bonus in lockpicking then it's successful. Lockpicking plus one on the die is just a failed attempt, no broken tools or door, hell they can try again if they want.

Fumbles are just a penalty for being willing to try more. Don't use them.

>>413054

I homebrewed for my Cyberpunk 2020 group that critfails and critsuccesses only happen if you fail/succeed a LUCK save after rolling. Effectively, you can build a character with the full vanilla 10% critical chance and 0% critical failure, or a character that can never get anything right. Average characters (LUCK 5) get a 5% chance to both, which is still fairly high, but not absurdly high like the flat 10% of the vanilla game. And, if you don't like it, you can always invest in LUCK during chargen and stop being such a minmaxer.