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Author Topic: Repeat from Onyx Path  (Read 4051 times)

Snowman0147

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« Reply #30 on: September 25, 2019, 05:36:11 PM »
Gave you your rank BoxCrayonTales.   You should be able to see more of that discord than just anyone that can get into the server with the server link.

The basic mechanics is roll down d20, or d10 if your using a asset.  In short you got your attribute checks (d20) and your asset checks (d10).  You want to roll lower than your TN (target number) which is your attribute score, or your rank in the asset.  Now what makes assets so special is that they cannot suffer critical failure and if maxed out cannot suffer failure at all.  Assets do suffer a weakness in that they cannot be used in moments were you are required to make rash actions and you have no time to concentrate.  So for action events assets cannot be used.  This also means there are no combat assets.  

Now there are five results in these rolls, or usually four if it is a asset.  Nat 20 is critical failure which not only does that mean you fail, but the worst happens.  Above TN is failure which means something bad happens.  Equal to TN is a tie which means something good, but something bad happens.  Ties are always interesting.  Below TN is success which you get what your striving for.  Natural one is critical success which you get the best result which is more than what your asking form.

This is also the system in which only the players roll dice just like any other hack.  The only time the GM is rolling dice is for monster damage which even that has a work around so he can skip that if he wants to, npc saving throws, and tables.  I did this to make the game so streamline and simple that you can basically run your game with as little effort as possible.

As for the second question not really.  I read WitchCraft, but never played.  I did played Dresden Files and run it on a chat once.  Though that was short term as one of the admins started to PM people telling them how much they suck at role playing including me.  I got honest with him because that was bullshit.  The other Admin sided with because it became a point where it was either me, or him.  So I left with no hard feelings, but I wasn't surprise when I later found out that after getting every thing he ever wanted the asshole admin bailed out on the team when they still needed him.  So even then I cannot say I know Dresden Files that well.  Man I wish I screen saved those conversations.  Oh well chat is dead and I will never see that shit ever again.

Final question which is the OGL.  I should, but I will need legal advise from that because I feel like I made game into a hybrid between D&D and nWoD.  So I guess only a lawyer could answer that.

BoxCrayonTales

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« Reply #31 on: September 25, 2019, 07:10:15 PM »
I thought using retroclone rules like Opening the Dark would make it easier for players familiar with World of Darkness to adopt it. Switching to something like Urban Shadows seems like it might be more difficult for those used to the White Wolf school of design.

Opening the Dark is based on the Storyteller System, not the Storytelling System. At some point I'll try to write optional hacks for various mechanics from the latter. These include Fixed Difficulty (only one success is needed on a roll, difficulty is relegated to modifiers), Two Axis Attributes (attributes use power/finesse/resistance model), Derived Traits (hit points, will, etc are derived from attributes), Variable Speed (character speed is derived from attributes), Abstracted Combat Rolls (reduce combat rolls made per round), Merits (non-linear background traits), Conditions (flaws, circumstantial modifiers, etc), etc.

Let me know if you are interested in hearing more.

jan paparazzi

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« Reply #32 on: September 25, 2019, 07:11:00 PM »
It seems like typical WoD material. A lot of mood creation, the books look great as usual, but what do you actually do in a game? It seems thematically interesting, but also made for a GM to go into full 'frustrated novelist' mode and ramble on about the dark mood of the game with the players being either railroaded by the GM or otherwise clueless what to do. It doesn't seem to be made for playing, but more for telling a scary story by the campfire holding a flashlight under your face.
May I say that? Yes, I may say that!

Spinachcat

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« Reply #33 on: September 25, 2019, 08:05:50 PM »
If you're designing an alternate WoD, you definitely should at least read Nightlife. You'll probably enjoy it. The game was wonky, but we enjoyed the couple of sessions we played back in the day.

I'd suggest checking out Palladium's Nightbane as well.

BoxCrayonTales

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« Reply #34 on: September 26, 2019, 07:37:02 AM »
Quote from: Spinachcat;1105987
If you're designing an alternate WoD, you definitely should at least read Nightlife. You'll probably enjoy it. The game was wonky, but we enjoyed the couple of sessions we played back in the day.

I'd suggest checking out Palladium's Nightbane as well.

I looked into Nightlife. The basic concept is almost identical to Vampire, except with more diverse monsters. Only one of them is outright called a vampire, even though most are essentially vampiric. I will definitely incorporate that sort of diversity into my treatment.

I said in my last post that I wanted to hack Opening the Dark to incorporate innovations from Storytelling System and such. Anyone interested in seeing me work that out here? Or should I discuss that in the design forum?

Aglondir

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« Reply #35 on: September 26, 2019, 09:46:01 AM »
You might also want to check out Frank Trollman's work. I think it is called After Dark. You should be able to find it as his forums, The Gaming Den.

One of the main advantages is that Frank tells you what's in the public domain, so you can avoid using copyrighted terms.

BoxCrayonTales

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« Reply #36 on: September 26, 2019, 11:03:54 AM »
Quote from: Aglondir;1106076
You might also want to check out Frank Trollman's work. I think it is called After Dark. You should be able to find it as his forums, The Gaming Den.

One of the main advantages is that Frank tells you what's in the public domain, so you can avoid using copyrighted terms.


After Sundown is the name. Thanks for reminding me, it's currently located at: https://thegamingden.github.io/after-sundown/

The problem is Frank's tone. It is extremely condescending and makes reading really unpleasant. You should read the Something Awful review of it.


[/HR]
I noticed something interesting while hacking Opening the Dark. One blog post notes a number of idiosyncrasies in the Storytelling System rules and proposes some alternatives. Several of those alternatives, while differing in implementation, try to accomplish the same result that the Storyteller Rules did.

The section about modifiers not penalizing enough stems from a misunderstanding of the rules (in STing, any single modifier normally doesn't exceed +/-5, but any number of modifiers may apply to a roll, and that's before you remember rule zero saying to ignore the rules as written if they don't do what you want... so GM's can apply arbitrary penalties rather than adding a needlessly complex subsystem about subtracting successes), but the section on abstracted combat does hit upon an interesting problem. Although reducing combat to one roll per round rather than one for attacking, dodging, soaking, and damage each is good for streamlining, the downside is that this reveals the opponent's defense statistics to the players.

If only there was some way to marry the strengths of both the abstraction and hiding information from the players... would it be particularly difficult to devise a group dice rolling app that can hide some or all modifiers from the players? Does anything like that already exist?

Again, let me know if I should move this tangent to the design forum.

Warboss Squee

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« Reply #37 on: September 26, 2019, 01:27:29 PM »
You woke up different, changed, by unknown forces.

I can smell the politics coming of this.

Orphan81

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« Reply #38 on: September 26, 2019, 02:58:18 PM »
Quote from: Warboss Squee;1106101
You woke up different, changed, by unknown forces.

I can smell the politics coming of this.

No politics so far actually. Beast was supposed to be the metaphor for being Trans, but this one was headed by Dave Brookshaw before being passed over to another bloke whose name I can't remember. There's been no heavy handed politics of any kind.

Edit: To add further, the big thing about Deviant is You didn't want to be what you are now. Out of the 5 Deviant "Origins" only 1 sought out it purposefully and even then didn't end up the way they originally planned to.

And since the Conspiracies can be literally anything, in terms of organized groups... there's no heavy handed political leanings one way or another, since you can have the Super Leftists Pagan eco group that decided you were going to be a host for a nature spirit, versus actually being descended from a Nazi super soldier program.

Quote from: jan paparazzi;1105981
It seems like typical WoD material. A lot of mood creation, the books look great as usual, but what do you actually do in a game? It seems thematically interesting, but also made for a GM to go into full 'frustrated novelist' mode and ramble on about the dark mood of the game with the players being either railroaded by the GM or otherwise clueless what to do. It doesn't seem to be made for playing, but more for telling a scary story by the campfire holding a flashlight under your face.

Basically you fight the Conspiracies that helped create you. There are two types of Deviants, "The Devoted" and the "Renegades". This book is dedicated to playing the Renegades with plans for Devoted getting their own supplement further down the line. All of your goals are going to be wrapped up in your two defining attributes.. "Loyalty" and "Conviction" they both go to 5.  Every dot of Loyalty you have, is someone you love, someone you want to protect and keep safe. It can be a pet, another human, or even another Deviant in your group.

Every dot of Conviction is someone, or some place, or something you want to get revenge on, and want to destroy.

You get your moral degradation to unplayable character status if you lose all of your loyalty and conviction dots. Like you would if you lost all your Humanity in Vampire, or all your Wisdom in Mage. You lose those dots when you fail to follow through on your loyalty or Convictions. Loyalty person in trouble? Better go help them. Chance to pursue your Revenge? Better go after it. Renegades start with 1 loyalty dot and 3 conviction dots. If a Renegade achieves more Loyalty than conviction, they enter a state known as "Guardian" where most of their disadvantages from their abilities are lessened.

Players and the GM create the conspiracies that created them, together... and all the Conspiracies are supposed to be intwined like an incestuous family. The Deviant whose a cyborg finds out the Head Scientist in charge of the black ops Military program that made him, is also a member of a secret occult group that bound the essence of a shadow spirit into the other member of his group. The occult group is how the scientist "enlightened" his mind and figure out how to make man and machine viable in the first place. The occult group is regularly provided the drugs they need by the Street Gang who sold out the third party member to the Corporation that created them.

Devoted by the way, those loyal to the Conspiracy that created them, reverse their two virtue traits... They start with loyalty 3 and Conviction 1. If they end up with more Conviction they end up in the state of "Fury" which has all the benefits of the Guardian Status from Renegade... Guardian and Fury are also not forever statuses, you can lose them and regain them as the story goes on.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2019, 03:05:46 PM by Orphan81 »
1. Some of you culture warriors are so committed to the bit you'll throw out any nuance or common sense in fear it's 'giving in' to the other side.

2. I'm a married homeowner with a career and a child. I won life. You can't insult me.

3. I work in a Prison, your tough guy act is boring.

BoxCrayonTales

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« Reply #39 on: September 26, 2019, 03:59:46 PM »
Quote from: jan paparazzi;1105981
It seems like typical WoD material. A lot of mood creation, the books look great as usual, but what do you actually do in a game? It seems thematically interesting, but also made for a GM to go into full 'frustrated novelist' mode and ramble on about the dark mood of the game with the players being either railroaded by the GM or otherwise clueless what to do. It doesn't seem to be made for playing, but more for telling a scary story by the campfire holding a flashlight under your face.


I'd love to see your contributions to a monster mash game. You sound like someone who knows how to design something for actual playing than waxing gothic emo.

Given the popularity of indie urban fantasy games on DriveThru, it seems like a fairly good time to write a World of Darkness retroclone. Drop the edition wars that divided people. Recapture the good old wild west days of B.J. Zanzibar's archive.

Spinachcat

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« Reply #40 on: September 26, 2019, 05:48:08 PM »
I gotta say Deviant sounds more interesting than most of Onyx Paths other offerings.

I'd play a demo of Deviant at a con if I had the chance.

remial

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« Reply #41 on: September 27, 2019, 12:39:39 AM »
or Kamen Rider!

remial

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« Reply #42 on: September 27, 2019, 01:45:52 AM »
Quote from: Snowman0147;1105948
Your going to love Weird then.

One universal mechanics such as spirit (energy) and potency (aka power stat).  Not to mention cyptics are universal.

Even if you hate my own setting there is going to be a Build Your Own Setting section where you can make any thing.  Your own world, cities, roles, edges, cryptics, powers, and so on.  Simply because I don't assume what is best for your table.

your ideas are of interest to me, where can I read more?

Snowman0147

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« Reply #43 on: September 27, 2019, 02:35:52 AM »
Quote from: remial;1106189
your ideas are of interest to me, where can I read more?

Discord link is sent.

BoxCrayonTales

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« Reply #44 on: September 27, 2019, 06:58:41 AM »
I think for my hypothetical urban fantasy pastiche, I should go with a more parodic and satirical tone.

Statements like "most monster characters permanently emigrate to other planes because Earth is boring and gratuitous space battles against The Man are cool," "the celestial bureaucracy's agents typically engage in random and nonsensical tasks that we pretend are deep and meaningful in some way incomprehensible to human minds," "typical PCs are murderous psychopaths so the sanity/karma meter is optional because I do not want to arbitrarily punish players for having fun," "the sheer number of secret societies working at cross purposes with too many members to manage means that none of them get anything done on reasonable time scales, much like public societies," "near-apocalypses happen on a literally weekly basis but a scoobie gang always manages to save the world," etc.