Dragon Forest Development

[Cave Bear]

For the last couple years or so, I have been working (off and on) on a game that I'm sure the Pundit would hate. But I'm not designing this for the Pundit or even for the mass market. I'm designing the kind of game I want to play, and the kind of game I imagine would be enjoyed by people I've gamed with in Korea (and by this sort of ideal gaming group that only exists inside of my head.)

The project started as a sort of 4E D&D clone, but over time it's sort of meandered around and picked up influences from Japanese roleplaying games like Gancrest and Night Wizards.

The biggest change is in the game's resolution mechanic. I spent a lot of time combing through 4E's math, looking for ways to patch and streamline it, but I just kept hitting my head against the insurmountable wall of the d20 system. It's the damned 'Roulette wheel' effect. It doesn't matter if you've tightly crunched the numbers so that every roll has a 65% chance of success every time; that doesn't mean that 65% of your rolls are bound to be successful! Every roll is an independent event. No matter how tight your game's math is, the d20 can still give you losing streaks. (And no, 2d6 isn't any "less random". The probabilities are just weighted differently.)
It's not just about combat balance. We use RNG in roleplaying games to help guide our emergent narratives toward unexpected directions, but the d20's roulette feel just doesn't lend itself very well to the idea of rising and falling action.
That is a large part why I've decided to change my game's resolution mechanic.

Here's what I want in a resolution mechanic:
+Dependent results, so that more failures now mean more successes later, and more success now means less success in the future. This gives us a feeling of rising and falling action.
+More control over the results, so that you feel more like an active participant than an observer making sense of randomness. This way, when you fail, it really does feel like YOUR failure.
+Minimal contrivance. I don't want to have to resort to a lot of extraneous meta-currencies like 'plot points' just to mitigate the RNG. The resolution mechanic should be as self-contained as possible.
+A way to model stamina and fatigue without a lot of annoying book-keeping.

My solution: card-based resolution.

Each player is dealt a number of playing cards equal to their character's Stamina attribute (usually ranges from 4 to 7.)
You have to use up actions during your turn to refresh your hand, so your cards are a resource that you have to carefully manage.
When called on to 'make a test', you play two or more cards of matching suit and rank, and add their values plus your ability modifiers to determine the result.
You compare the result to the test's difficulty rating, and succeed if your result equals or exceeds the difficulty.

Damage uses the value of either the highest or lowest card played (depending on whether your weapon is one-handed or two-handed) plus modifiers. You get bonuses to damage depending on your equipped weapon and how many cards you played on your attack test.
If you have two weapons equipped, you can make a split attack where you make one attack test with your main hand weapon and then another attack test with the off-hand weapon.

There will be an option for random character creation. You simply draw cards from the deck to determine your classes, ability scores, and equipment.
While classes in Dragon Forest will relate to D&D's familiar archetypes, I'm going for a very different feel.
There will be twelve character classes in all, divided up into four themes (veteran, occult, undead, and corrupted) and three roles (defense, support, and control).
Player characters start with three class ranks at 1st level (single classed, primary/secondary, or triple-classed).
You don't select race (characters are all... human?).
You do get up to three 'dark gifts' in addition to your class ranks though. Dark gifts are themed around the 21 major arcana cards of the tarot (and The Fool), and each gives you an additional ability along with a curse effect.

Advancement uses 'doom points' instead of XP. In D&D you start at 0 HP, then killing monsters and stealing gold to gain XP and level up. In Dragon Forest you start at 13 or more doom, and wager doom points like poker chips. When you screw up, the GM gets to spend your doom to throw monsters and disasters at you. When you succeed, you convert the doom points into hope points.
When your doom score is at 0, you gain a level and reset your doom to full.

Gold has absolutely no value in Dragon Forest. It's useless.
Equipment has no monetary value listed; only weight and degradation rate. You start play with as much stuff as you are willing and able to carry. Encumbrance penalizes Stamina (meaning fewer cards in hand for tests.)
Instead, you spend hope points to maintain or replace equipment.

Instead of spending 'Healing Surges', you gain Delirium points when you heal! Drink a potion? Gain Delirium! Receive magical healing? Gain Delirium! As Delirium approaches the limit of your Sanity stat, your character becomes aware of themselves as a game-piece and starts to question the abstract and disassociated nature of hit points.

Encumbrance is abstract, and largely inspired by Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
In addition to an encumbrance limit, you also have an attunement limit; each magic item equipped counts its bonus toward attunement, so there is a hard cap on 'Christmas-tree effect'.



I've gone through multiple rewrites already, and I have a huge folder full of drafts and notes from previous versions. After a long hiatus (spent in preparation for a move and a new job abroad) I am finally settled into my new apartment and office and gearing up for my next rewrite! I have a good feeling about this one. I'll keep you updated!

[Xanther]

Sounds pretty neat your resolution idea.  I always like resource management based approaches.  There is still a random element, what your dealt.  There is also a huge difference IME in the roulette wheel feel if you use add dice together (2d6, 3d6, 2d10, etc.) versus d20.  Instead of cards and all the fiddly math you could just use dice pools.  You start off with a bunch of dice, roll 'em, then spend them/apply them as you go along as you see fit.  To add some uncertainty, you can roll monster/obstacle dice secretly then reveal simultaneously.  In a sense, this is almost like scripted combat, but more abstracted as in do you use a high dice or low dice.  Items and spells and abilities that can get your opponent to reveal first would be valuable.  Level, magic items, weapon differentiation, etc. can be used to add/take points from dice, add/take away dice, change dice type.  For example maybe warriors roll a pool of d4 (a success on a 4) for combat, thieves d6 and wizards d8.

Love the delirium and attunement ideas.

[Cave Bear]

Thanks, Xanther!
That dice pool mechanic you proposed reminds me of Dogs in the Vineyard. I'll consider it, but there are is also a certain aesthetic and thematic element to the cards that I like. I've been drawing up sketches for a custom Tarot deck I'd like to print for this game.

I was thinking of including major arcana cards in my deck.
The Triumphs are a group of 22 interdimensional alien insect beings worshipped in the game's setting as chaos gods. They are known to sometimes grant their Dark Gifts to mortals.
If you have a Dark Gift, you may count its corresponding major arcana card as a 'wild card' and play it as though it were a card of any suit or rank to any meld.
All other major cards are considered 'bug cards' for you; you may play them as though they were any suit or rank only to melds of five cards or more (they are dead cards the rest of the time.)
This is in addition to the gift effects and curse effects associated with your Dark Gifts.

I'm also using the four suits and their symbolic associations as a recurring element.
Veteran classes are associated with spades/swords/air via war and peace. They are the old warriors with shattered swords.
Occult classes are associated with diamonds/coins/earth via buried treasures of the crumbling wizard's towers. They are the disenchanted sorcerers with broken wands.
Undead classes are associated with clubs/wands/fire via embers and ashes of a dying world. They are the undying priests cursed by their dead and apostate gods.
Corrupted classes are associated with hearts/cups/water via blood and transformation. They are the wild men of an alien nature.

4E D&D is all but dead, and I'm here digging it up and suturing strange pieces onto it so I can reanimate it as some horrific abomination. I want to tie that into my game's setting.

[Cave Bear]

Now, while I mostly play OSR, I do have a special place in my heart for 4E (unpopular though it may be.)
As I've said before, this project started out as a sort of 4E clone. But with all the things I'm changing, you may be wondering what it is I'm leaving the same.

Gameplay focused on tactical set-piece encounters with a loose framework around it for exploration.
Emphasis on cooperative, team-based tactics.
Easy on the GM. Quick monster creation. Quick encounter building.
Fun character creation mini-game with no trap options.
Even power level between player characters.

Most of the familiar mechanics that 4E fans appreciate, such as healing surges and rituals, will be there with cosmetic changes.
The classes will be more or less based on 4E classes, but with mechanics adapted to card-based resolution, and different flavor. Players are encouraged to reskin.

I am also taking a lot of elements from the most recent version of Gamma World. Hence the looser approach to treasure and equipment. The card-based mechanics will be adapted to work with a standard deck.

It will be more of a mutation than a clone of 4E, but I'm aiming for a lot of the same design philosophies while also looking to Japanese Roleplaying games like Nechronica and Kancolle RPG for ideas.