Rpgs

“This is a game that is fun.”

When I wrote my original post on Into the Woods, I mentioned the original box-set rules for Basic D&D, also known as “The Red Box.” The first line of this rule book: This is a game that is fun.

Let’s ignore both the clumsy childish sentence structure and the somewhat cringy “I have to tell you it’s fun or else you might not realize it” sentiment, and focus on the content. “This,” meaning the original Basic D&D RPG, “is a game,” meaning not a sport or tool but something to enjoy in your leisure hours, “that is fun.”

I’ve talked a lot about this amorphous concept, both in passing and as a nebulous “good” that we should all be aiming for in our RPG games. I’ve talked about how competition is a kind of fun that RPGs tend to eschew, opting for a co-op play-style. I’ve talked about how different kinds of practices both support and weaken the “fun” of the medium. I’ve talked about how the “Tyranny of Fun” can limit the medium, and how “fun” might not even be the be-all-end-all of our games.

I think it’s time to stop beating around the bush, be a Better Socrates, and explore this core concept of our hobby.

Iron Valley, by M. Kirin, is a solo RPG powered by Ironsworn and based on Stardew Valley. You play a recent transplant to Iron Valley, a quiet little community where an old family farm sits waiting for you to build it back up to its proud industrial roots. Or, maybe you’ll make friends and get married, or spend your time exploring and charting the spooky forest, or any number of other adventures that await your attention.

Iron Valley is one of any number of RPGs that have come out in recent years that are, for lack of a better word, cozy. The goal of the game isn’t to amass loot or slay dragons, it’s not to save the galaxy or avert planetary destruction, it’s to spend time with community, find new friends and nurture the world. That’s not to say you couldn’t be a monster-slaying defender of the town — you can do anything in an RPG — but the focus of the game isn’t violence, it’s humility.

The art of playtesting is a rich one, and I won’t have the time or the energy to spell all of it out.

Instead, I’ll detail the things I want to explore with playtesting, and how I will do so.

Tactiquest is a Tactical RPG still currently (at time of writing) in the beta playtesting stage. Written by level2janitor, (who you may remember also wrote Iron Halberd) Tactiquest is a half-diceless sandbox RPG designed for fast fights, diverse play-styles, and fantastical stories. Each creature-type you chose grants you bonuses, each class has multiple perks to shape your strategy, and there is the requisite extensive list of spells.

What’s half-diceless mean? I’m glad you asked.

Last time I looked into a whole new ruleset. Now, I’d like to put all the rules I’ve come up with so far in one place, slot in some numbers, and see if that shakes anything out. The following are three different rulesets with…wait, three?

I told you this would happen. After the last post, my mind kept working, and shook out a few more ideas, as well as some polish to previous ones. When my brain gets wandery, it gets wandery.

First, let’s go over the universal basics of all the three rulesets:

I knew this would happen.

My brain goes through phases. I tend to get interested in something, and then as my excitement starts to wane, a new idea drives me in a new direction. In some cases it’s a whole new subject or project. In other cases, its a fundamental rework of the project I’m working on.

To explain: After describing the system to one of my friends, he made a suggestion that grabbed my attention. I liked it enough that I started rethinking the entire Power Roll mechanic. The idea that my friend gave me was “what if the Manifestations give you a pool of dice that you can distribute between them for actions? That way you can decide where to put your energies.”

Now, I had given a fairly bare-bones description of the full(ish) ruleset, so I needed to adjust a few things, but the result is…well, I could say simpler or cleaner, but really what appeals to me about it is it’s different. I’d had a good length of time to get used to the other way of rolling, so this new idea was, if not better, at least new.

Last time I explored the strategic impact Agents had on the game. This time, I’d like to get down to some brassy tic-tacs, and look at one of the most important and fundamental aspects of Manifestation Combat: Abilities.

Abilities are anything from basic moves to special attacks. Each Manifestation has at least 1, possibly 2. They can be active, passive, reactions, stances, or anything similar. They are, in short the possible actions any Manifestation can make.

Each active Ability also has a Sync ability: when a Power Roll is made, any die that shows equal or less than the Manifestation’s Bond level causes a special effect. This can be adding damage, conditions, free movement, or anything that a regular ability can do.

On second thoughts, we could turn Sync from an Ability bonus to a Manifestation bonus: the effect will therefore be the same whichever ability the Manifestation uses.

Last time I discussed how Manifestations “die.” This time, I’d like to develop Agents as a tactical consideration.

Because Agents are units too; They move about the battlefield and engage in actions. They can have weapons, tools, and one of the two actions every turn can be used by them. All that said, what impact do they have on the game?

The obviously simple answer is “a target.” It makes sense that Manifestations are only present because of the Agent, so if the Agent “dies,” then so do the other Manifestations. This would turn every combat into a complex “defend the Agent” combat, but without significant balancing and rule-rewriting, the best strategy is a cross-the-map sniper that kills the Agent in one hit. I think we can do better.

How do Manifestations die?

“Die” probably isn’t the best word for it. In Pokémon, the mons simply “faint.” You can’t permanently lose a Pokémon, and I doubt Manifestations are any more transient. They must be able to “demanifest,” however, else combats will last forever, and all the damage-dealing and condition-applying is so much nonsense.

So, how does a Manifestation demanifest?

The obvious answer is, as always, their HP reaches 0. That’s not a terrible metric — there are reasons why cliches stick around — and a lot of systems will naturally fit into it. While I may find a more interesting ludo-narrative later, this is a good place to start. Let’s play with some numbers.

Last time, I looked at Abilities and what sort of “Special Effects” Sync could add to their basic attacks. One of the more obvious options is conditions, so this time I’d like to look into what kind of conditions Manifest could have.

Luckily, I have two great sources of inspiration: Trespasser and Demon Crawl – Gothic.

Demon Crawl – Gothic, similar to its spiritual sequal Steel Hearts, has a small number of conditions, one for each damage-type. Designed to be a quick paced action game, these conditions aren’t the more narratively focused conditions like prone or grappled. Instead, they are closer to the hinderances of an action-adventure video game. Burning, for example, causes you to take three damage whenever you deal damage to an enemy. Rotting means you take an extra 2 damage whenever damage is dealt to you. Being Hexed causes you to receive 1 damage every square you move.