Here’s a collection of ideas, the kind that make heartbreaking tabletop role playing systems. Mostly, I’ll post TTRPG tech concepts that I come up with, litt...
Hey y’all. I’m back. Remember that blog post I made with the self-pacing oracle? 1 Regardless of your answer, I did. I recently started thinking about solo play again, and I decided to write up another yes/no oracle, because you can never have too many options for resolving uncertainty in a game. This oracle uses a coin and a pre-flip negotiation. It asks you to consider the cosmic weighting…
I very much like luck mechanics. That is, to say, I like mechanical systems in TTRPGs that represent the ephemeral force of luck. I also very much like mechanics that force the player to make and lay in their own bed. So I wrote up a little mechanic to fit both of those criteria. It’s also part of a little hack of Micah Anderson ’s Dagger! that I wrote up relatively recently just to stretch my…
I am obsessive about mechanical systems in tabletop role playing games. It’s true. I can never truly get the ceaseless swirling ideas out of my head. I do know, however, that there are some areas of design that are extremely overexplored. One of those areas is the humble resolution mechanic . Even so, I relatively recently had an idea for a resolution mechanic with a variable DC and buying off…
So, I'm currently working on a TTRPG, which shouldn't really come as a major surprise to anyone. It's called Ye Who Enter, and the goal is to make something that is a hybrid between O/NSR and Storygame. Naturally, that means that I need to make mechanics for the game. Here, I present the tentative current morale system. Creatures have a morale score between 4 and 36, with higher numbers being…
By now, everyone who is deeply in the TTRPG development sphere knows what a clock is in the context of TTRPGs. If, somehow, you’ve stumbled across this and you don’t already know about clocks, allow me to explain for you: Draw a circle, and have in mind a task that takes multiple steps to complete. Make some lines across the middle of your circle, ideally resulting in a circle with 4-10 slices.…
I have long been of the opinion that binary success in TTRPGs is not ideal for generating interesting situations when playing. So, I drafted up a rough attempt at coming up with a procedure for what it would look like if a difficulty check were to generate a narrative twist in addition to determining whether you succeeded or failed at your task. The natural roll is compared to a chart assembled…
This one has been a long time coming. A long time ago, or rather a few years ago, I became somewhat interested in solo ttrpg play. Something that I noticed even back then was that none of the oracles or game master emulators that I was reading had any sort of pacing mechanics. That, in my humble opinion , is dumb. So I made a one move success level based self pacing oracle. The basic rule is…
At the start of the game/battle, shuffle a 54 card deck and place it on the table. The deck shall be a standard deck of playing cards, with two jokers, one red and one black, shuffled in. Each round, each competitor guesses a specific card still remaining in the deck. The top card is then flipped over, into a pile next to the deck. For each matching attribute, the competitor will get a number of…
WHEN YOU TRY TO GERRY-RIG, REPAIR, OR COMBINE ITEMS roll 2d6 - the number of items included in the process, + the number of tools that you have on hand to aid in the process. On a 7+, you successfully do it, but you must pick 2 from the list below. Additionally, the GM picks 1. On a 10+, you only have to pick 1. On a 12+, pick none instead. On a 6-, you’ve seriously messed this up. Your materials…
Before you roll, ask the following questions of the attacking force’s situation: For each “yes” answer, add 1 positive die to the pool. For each “no” answer, add one negative die to the pool. Is the aggressing side performing an ambush? Is the defensive side in an open and vulnerable position? Do the aggressors have superior numbers and/or skill and/or technology? Are the aggressors experienced?…