Skip to main content

1st Post, RPGaDay, and if it aint broke is it worth fixing?

So here after weeks of trying to get this blog off the ground, I have finally picked a name and started posting. This blog will contain my thoughts on tabletop rpgs, board games, and other games.  I am thinking I will include write ups of game sessions and even reviews of new products I try.  

At the beginning here I am also going to be writing with questions for you the reader as I work on my RPG I working on using the Awful Good Games Dice Pool rule set. The game is currently being called "Enchanted Kingdoms" and has 6 new/reworked classes and 16 "Bloodlines" or "Heritages" which takes the place of races.  It will include a ready to play campaign setting. I am going to have a few named kingdoms and towns but want to leave it open and vague enough that players and DMs have a lot of freedom. I will continue to discuss the game here as I work towards getting it onto Kickstarter in order to drum up the funds a professional art company. Shooting for some time between November and February, but we will see...

I was planning to use the RPG-a-day challenge to help me start posting every day for a little while. Even though I have missed the last 7 days of the challenge I will still try and use those to drive me towards a habit of posting and I will make up the missed ones as I go. Probably.

Today's RPG-a-Day is "what is a good RPG to play for 2 hour sessions or less?"  I am going to fudge this a little and give a few games.  Honestly any game can be played for only 2 hours if you have a good group.  You probably want some specifics though.  The one that kind of pushes the envelope on if it counts is Super Dungeon Explore.  An average game with set up is about 2 hours, and I am expecting their "Legends" RPG rules to be about the same. It has been my experience that games based on the Apocalypse/Dungeon World rule set work well for shorter sessions because of how flexible and fast their rules tend to be. Awful Good Games new Dungeons and Delvers "Black Book" containing streamlined d20 based rules also have worked well for our 2 hour sessions. 

Lastly let’s talk about a game that is not good for 2 hour sessions. It is my favorite edition of D&D 4th edition. I really love 4th edition, maybe I can talk about what I like about it on another day, but all of the moving parts on both sides of DM screen, especially in combat, make it ill-suited for short games.
Ok so after all that rambling I am going to end on the question I alluded to in the title of this post.  If it isn't broken is it worth the time and effort to fix it? I will probably come back to this question spotlighting other rules or mechanics but today I am thinking of the Attributes or Stats a game uses.  More specifically the number and names for those stats.  This comes up as I am trying to decide what to call attributes in the Enchanted Kingdoms game.  Many games nowadays run with the same six: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.  Dice pool is intended to be a more simplified and approachable system that in the early stages had distilled those stats into Might, Agility, Intellect, and Grace.  However during development they decided they wanted 3 casting stats to help differentiate the different classes and it was changed to Might, Agility, Intellect, Spirit, and Charm. Also Grace is kind of confusing as it could mean the more physical grace as opposed to personality social grace. Personally I really like the simplified 4 stats but am not sure what to call them.  It would be simplest to go back to the most common stats and use Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma. But I did like the differentiating effect of having the renamed stats.  I even went so far as coming up with more eloquent versions Like Vigor, Elegance, Brilliance, and Allure. But then I remembered this version of the game was supposed to be able to also be played by a younger audience.  Now I am leaning towards Might, Grace, Intellect, and Charm.  But it could still be easier to use the more common Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma.  So what do you think? Which do you personally like better of those two?


Might
Grace
Intellect
Charm

Or

Strength
Dexterity
Intelligence
Charisma

And what are your thoughts on changing the names of stats in general?
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 8, 2017 at 7:13 PM

    Congratulations for starting a blog Adam.

    My opinion on the stats is that while obviously anything can work, by now people are very familiar with the D&D abilities, so differentiating should be done with care.

    I would Do

    Might Because it is more than just strength if you have no Constitution
    Dexterity/Agility Because Grace is too much associated with beauty
    Intellect/Mental Vague enough to cover a variety of mental applications
    Charm Works just fine for covering the usually complex social interactions

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Adam AlbrightAugust 8, 2017 at 9:42 PM

      Thank you for your response David. I wondered about grace as is evident from the part hahaha.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Enemy information and fighting robots

One of the things that I always do when I am dming is make a small table for each monster characters encounter, or at least the ones i am planning for.  Having a quick table that could be duplicated and filled was one of the things I knew I wanted right away for Enchanted Kingdoms.  Obviously this is still in developement but here is what it looks like so far: Now as you can see its currently very generic but the point is for it to serve 3 functions. 1 is what I said before easy to use and duplicate for encounter tracking. The second is that it simplifies making new enemies for the people using the game.  It boils down into it's simplest form what makes a creature and allows a person to quickly put a monster together, on the fly or in advance. The third thing has to do with the last two columns.  As a player I have long lemented the inability to know things about monsters.  You either know about the monster out of character or you dont. I have had DM's try...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hunter class

In last Monday's post I talked about the Thief and mentioned how the “backstab” ability has been moved to the Hunter class. It seems logical to me to cover the Hunter next then. So the Hunter is also found in folklore and fairytales like the Thief.  In Enchanted Kingdoms the hunter will be a character who has been trained in how to survive in the wild. For combat they have the ability to focus in bows and spears or axes and hammers. They also can take a talent that alludes to their time learning about creatures in order to hunt them. This Talent, currently called Predator, lets you roll to see how much you know about a creature when you encounter it. Each creature will have a small table that shows what information the character knows about the creature/monster and it’s abilities.  Hunters start with talents that give them bonuses to hiding and to fighting side by side with their allies. Over time they can expand their abilities to deal damage and impede the movement of their...
2 comments
Read more

Character Lineages and Nintendo games

Characters in the “Dice Pool” rules base are made by choosing a race and class and then choosing specific talents from those.  In Enchanted Kingdoms races have been replaced by “Lineages” in the core rule book. Your “Lineage” is the bloodline that you are able to use the powers from. However, this does not necessarily mean that it is the family that you are currently in. The bloodlines that you choose from are hundreds of years old and a person may manifest different abilities from their current family.  This can make for interesting interactions and motivations.  Also some Heritage talents could also be a curse that has been applied to the character. Either a monstrous beast form, or a small (mostly) harmless animal form, that the character transforms into could have been forced on your character. Or they could be magic inherited through their bloodline, it’s up to you; the player. Currently there are 14 Primary Lineages that you can choose from. There is also the “Anci...
Post a Comment
Read more