Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 7:10 am
I consider concept to be a form of fluff. The most basic and fundamental kind of fluff, in fact.
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A lot of people just go with what is their first like DnD Xe and use that for everything even if hit points and the diplomacy skill blank space of a system don’t match a normie drama talk settingThaluikhain wrote:Ok, admittedly this is a big broad question, and I don't expect a definitive answer, but still...
A common complaint for many games is that the fluff doesn't match the rules. Is it generally wiser to try to come up with an evocative setting, and try to make rules that work for it, or to come up with rules that make for a fun game and write your fluff to justify it? Or to herd both the rules and the fluff in the same direction as you go along?
The former seems better, the second seems easier, and the third what happens in practice.
Setting first.Thaluikhain wrote:Ok, admittedly this is a big broad question, and I don't expect a definitive answer, but still...
A common complaint for many games is that the fluff doesn't match the rules. Is it generally wiser to try to come up with an evocative setting, and try to make rules that work for it, or to come up with rules that make for a fun game and write your fluff to justify it? Or to herd both the rules and the fluff in the same direction as you go along?
The former seems better, the second seems easier, and the third what happens in practice.
LitRPG garbage anime are clearly setting first, though. The game rules are a fig leaf for lazy worldbuilding, unless you're talking about Log Horizon or .Hack.hyzmarca wrote:Setting first.Thaluikhain wrote:Ok, admittedly this is a big broad question, and I don't expect a definitive answer, but still...
A common complaint for many games is that the fluff doesn't match the rules. Is it generally wiser to try to come up with an evocative setting, and try to make rules that work for it, or to come up with rules that make for a fun game and write your fluff to justify it? Or to herd both the rules and the fluff in the same direction as you go along?
The former seems better, the second seems easier, and the third what happens in practice.
Attempting to create rules and then a setting for it invariably creates an utterly insane setting that stretches WSoD and isn't very good. See Every Anime that uses RPG mechanics as a real world thing.
True.OgreBattle wrote:A lot of people just go with what is their first like DnD Xe and use that for everything even if hit points and the diplomacy skill blank space of a system don’t match a normie drama talk setting
Gandalf was 5th level and all
Here’s a summary of King of Fighters Iori went to a fantasy land where he kicks ass because he’s got trained magic powers and is already a highly experienced fighterMask_De_H wrote:LitRPG garbage anime are clearly setting first, though. The game rules are a fig leaf for lazy worldbuilding, unless you're talking about Log Horizon or .Hack.hyzmarca wrote:Setting first.Thaluikhain wrote:Ok, admittedly this is a big broad question, and I don't expect a definitive answer, but still...
A common complaint for many games is that the fluff doesn't match the rules. Is it generally wiser to try to come up with an evocative setting, and try to make rules that work for it, or to come up with rules that make for a fun game and write your fluff to justify it? Or to herd both the rules and the fluff in the same direction as you go along?
The former seems better, the second seems easier, and the third what happens in practice.
Attempting to create rules and then a setting for it invariably creates an utterly insane setting that stretches WSoD and isn't very good. See Every Anime that uses RPG mechanics as a real world thing.
You need to have the concept of the game and what you're trying to accomplish, both mechanically and narratively. Then you make sure your rules outputs create the narrative outputs you want.
Owning player chooses, that's also why a whole squad of plasma guns is often worse than less guns and more fodder... but that's a problem with certain weapons being superior against all targets.Thaluikhain wrote:
Was wondering what people thought the best way of resolving this was, with a view to keeping things fastpaced.
That's true. Also strikes me that you might have different armour or toughness or whatever throughout the squad as well, but "owning player chooses who is hit" would still work.OgreBattle wrote:Owning player chooses, that's also why a whole squad of plasma guns is often worse than less guns and more fodder... but that's a problem with certain weapons being superior against all targets.Thaluikhain wrote:
Was wondering what people thought the best way of resolving this was, with a view to keeping things fastpaced.
So with "owning player chooses" you can then add ways around it like
"Sniper weapons get to choose on a roll of X"
"Super elite sniper heroes have the power to always choose"
The above then gets countered by bodyguard rules of "wounds taken by X can be transferred to Y"
Actually, I think it's a problem with point costs. When you only have one super weapon and the rest of the squad is cannon fodder, then in owner chooses the super weapon should be costed for the full bonus durability of all those spare lives. While in attacker chooses the spare lives don't matter so the super weapon is equally useful with or without the allies (or maybe slightly worse with, if you have a rule against splitting your attacks).OgreBattle wrote:Owning player chooses, that's also why a whole squad of plasma guns is often worse than less guns and more fodder... but that's a problem with certain weapons being superior against all targets.
Doesn't that depend on the weapon? Or rather, how it compares to the weapons of the rest of the squad? Give your Retributor squad multi-meltas, you probably want to fire at tanks and having sisters with bolters are just to soak up wounds, sure. But give the squad heavy bolters, and the sort of target you'll probably choose is likely something that boltguns can affect, at least when they get in range. Give them heavy flamers, and the bolters are well within range once the flamers are (and you'll likely get charged by anything you don't kill, so you'll likely care about those bolter rolls).Foxwarrior wrote:Actually, I think it's a problem with point costs. When you only have one super weapon and the rest of the squad is cannon fodder, then in owner chooses the super weapon should be costed for the full bonus durability of all those spare lives. While in attacker chooses the spare lives don't matter so the super weapon is equally useful with or without the allies (or maybe slightly worse with, if you have a rule against splitting your attacks).OgreBattle wrote:Owning player chooses, that's also why a whole squad of plasma guns is often worse than less guns and more fodder... but that's a problem with certain weapons being superior against all targets.
It sure is a good thing "tactical squad" and "devastator squad" are usually different units that can be priced differently, huh.
So humans are not humanoid. What is more like a human than a human?RelentlessImp wrote:So, this isn't exactly a question, but I was going back through some of the sourcebooks I have on my hard drive to consider doing some kind of OSSR on something (my urge to write is flaring again) and I ran across this in World's Largest City:
Fuck you! Of course there's going to be confusion!
In second edition there were humans, demi-humans and humanoids. Demi-Humans were the player available races.Iduno wrote: So humans are not humanoid. What is more like a human than a human?
Though that doesn't traditionally include orcs and definitely doesn't include kobolds.Thaluikhain wrote: Also, if you mean goblinkin, you can say "goblinkin" or something.
I do agree, and the whole product can be convicted of utter failure of the imagination. The guiding principle of the book was 'make it bigger' and never 'make it better'.angelfromanotherpin wrote:Seems like a total failure of worldbuilding. I guarantee you that nobody outside of City Hall would call the place something as cumbersome as the 'Humanoid District.' Not knowing anything about the setting, my guess would be that the traditionally evil races would be lumped together as 'Uglies' and the district would be called 'Uglytown.' But they apparently all attacked the city together, in which case swap out 'ugly' for whatever slang was used to describe the evil attacking force. So if it was 'the Sanguine Swarm' that they all used to be part of, they might be called Sanks and the area called Sankton.
The book divides the city into 16 roughly equal square blocks (and they are VERY square) and isolates everything into it's little section. The Dwarves are in the Dwarf district; the Elves are in the Elf District; the Guards are in the Guards District.The city's permanent hive of scum and villainy is quite embarrassing to those who view the metropolis through rose-colored lenses. How can it be the center of life and civilization if tribes of orcs, gnolls, and worse things are living in its very midst? The humanoids who dwell here are violent and uncouth, clashing violently wiht each other in an endless struggle for dominance. The district resembles a war zone, with many buildings reduced to rubble and many more only barely habitable. Watchfires burn openly on the streets, throwing grotesque shadows across the rooftops and alleyways, and the sounds of clashing arms are never far away.
And yet, some would argue that the Humanoid District is an indication that the city's highest ideals are being met. For if orcs and bugbears can coexist here, than anyone - no matter what their race or philosophy - can find a home here as well.
AD&D and earlier lumped orcs under "goblinkin", at least? But yeah, this is ... not a good book. Fuck doing an OSSR of it, though; there's nothing in 703 pages worthy of more than idle scorn. The last 82 - yes, 82 - pages are nothing but a level-by-level build guide for city NPCs of various types, from NPC classes (yes, there is a level-by-level breakdown of fucking Aristocrats for 20 levels, as if 20th level Aristocrats are a thing) to all the PHB classes. That's about all the vitriol I can muster for something so... bland and forgettable.deaddmwalking wrote:Though that doesn't traditionally include orcs and definitely doesn't include kobolds.Thaluikhain wrote: Also, if you mean goblinkin, you can say "goblinkin" or something.