Quote from: GiantToenail on May 10, 2023, 07:57:25 PM
I just found out about TTRPG systems that use things other than dice for resolution like SAGA/Amber/Castle-Falkenstein and it lead me to a game called Crimson Cutlass; A game about using Tarot cards for resolutions and I thought it was the most thematic way to play a pirate ttrpg, The DM playing the part as maritime baron samedi or gypsy fortune teller stuck in a box you'd probably find at a port royale tavern, what with all the talk of fate and mysticism of that era.

I wanna know your favorite diceless systems, whether you think it's high-quality, clever, nails a theme, nails rules-light rules, has a great deal of interesting complexity or just enjoy because of fond memories!

You are just rolling dice with extra steps.  Its the same thing, a random system or generating a numeric outcome.  I've never been a fan of removing statistic dice for something to increase "immersion".  I mean we could buy a game with live cockroaches, with a race track and the cockroaches are numbered and we could insert rotten meat at the other end of the track and whichever cockroach reaches the meat first, that's the number you got for your Post Apocalyptic world simulator, but dice are faster and easier.  Plus you don't have to worry about Barry doping the 20 cockroach to win.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on May 17, 2023, 12:36:48 PMPlus you don't have to worry about Barry doping the 20 cockroach to win.

Ah, you mean the 'race with advantage' game mechanic.  :-)

There are some value to other random methods than dice.  For example, cards and dominos have 'memory' and you don't get the same value again until you shuffle.  To could do that with dice, but you would have to track every rolled value and constantly re-roll as you use up dice combos.  Similarly, the Jenga tower offers a combination of skill, risk, and tension that dice do not (well unless you're stacking dice.)

Me personally, I don't get on with Diceless games. The only one I got on with was a game called Dread. Instead of dice, you have a Jenga tower that is shared between all players. The game is horror focused and "character sheets" are just a questionnaire to flesh out the character from an RP standpoint. You do tests by taking a brick from the Jenga tower and putting it on top as you would regular Jenga. Obviously as the game goes on the Jenga tower gets more precarious and eventually someone will make it fall during a test. Which counts as a failure.  You then set the tower up again, rinse and repeat until the end of the session. This is supposed to mimick the tension in a horror film. It's quite fun. But certainly not for people who want an actual RPG. It can be quite tense when you're running from the monster, you have to pull a brick out when you know the tower is very precarious and your hands are shaking as you pull the brick out hopping the tower doesn't fall. 

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on May 17, 2023, 12:36:48 PM...a game with live cockroaches, with a race track and the cockroaches are numbered and we could insert rotten meat at the other end of the track...

Ah, the One D&D marketing strategy method.

Quote from: King Tyranno on May 17, 2023, 03:09:31 PM
Me personally, I don't get on with Diceless games. The only one I got on with was a game called Dread. Instead of dice, you have a Jenga tower that is shared between all players. The game is horror focused and "character sheets" are just a questionnaire to flesh out the character from an RP standpoint. You do tests by taking a brick from the Jenga tower and putting it on top as you would regular Jenga. Obviously as the game goes on the Jenga tower gets more precarious and eventually someone will make it fall during a test. Which counts as a failure.  You then set the tower up again, rinse and repeat until the end of the session. This is supposed to mimick the tension in a horror film. It's quite fun. But certainly not for people who want an actual RPG. It can be quite tense when you're running from the monster, you have to pull a brick out when you know the tower is very precarious and your hands are shaking as you pull the brick out hopping the tower doesn't fall.

Sounds ridiculous.  Glad you had fun though.

Quote from: jhkim on May 11, 2023, 06:56:35 PM
Mishihari - If you're interested in playing, there are a number of Amber-RPG-specific conventions that are across the US, UK, and Ireland. There's a list here:

http://www.ambercons.com/

Thanks for this, I wasn't aware of the AmberCons.

Allan.

For everyone who posted about Nobilis and Chuubo's- check out Glitch.

It's the most recent game in the series by the same creator and focuses on everyone playing Excrucians (the main bad guys of the setting). Specifically, Excrucians who've decided that actually they don't want to destroy all of reality after all and have retired from the war. The idea is this means the Nobilis and other powers of Creation are still antagonistic to them but not in open warfare because they don't want to drive them to start fighting again, while other Excrucians will be trying the soft sell to bring them back at first.

What it's most worth mentioning for in this thread is that Glitch is basically a playtest version of the 4th Edition of Nobilis. Given the author makes GRR Martin look fast when it comes to new works there's no telling when this might see the light of day but based on Glitch it would be the best version of Nobilis ever.

Glitch's mechanics take the best aspects of Nobilis and Chuubo's and combine them together along with several tweaks that make it all work. This is the first version of this engine that I can see working in play without all players agreeing to not break the system.

It's the best diceless game I've come across and would recommend it to anyone interested in them.

My only experience is Amber, and I love the setting but abhor this non-game. Like all our team pushed for GM to include at least limited dice mechanics, because without them it was so so stale.

Lords of the Olympus (and I guess amber, but I've never tried it).

Ben Robbins' games (Microscope, Kingdom, In this world ecc)

Hmm, just for fun, you might want to look at Four Houses in Amber and hack that.  It uses a tarot deck in a number of ways to randomize things.  If you decide to go with hands of cards for each of the players (and the GM) you then have values from 1-10 and you can use face cards and major arcana to add narrative events and plot twists.  That would give you a strategy as when to burn low value cards or use high value ones to give you an edge (you could even treat it like instant 'good stuff'), or throw the GM a curve ball.

Ok, I thought it was diceless as in no random, but OP means literally not using dices.
My bad.

Well:

Kata Kumbas, old italian games using a deck of cards.
GDR, a 007-like Italian rpg set in Cold War Berlin using domino tiles (a lot of work to do online, actually)
Archives of the Sky, a sci-fi storygame using a deck of index card with made up keywords
Follow, a sto

Well, they all can be fun. Anyway, I don't think making alternative random system is worth the effort. For once, if you play online you have to come out with something to emulate it...