Various tabletop stuff not deserving its own thread

[Rand]

Fucking weirdos.

[rusty_shackleford]

Fucking weirdos.

cc @Lord of Riva

[Lord of Riva]

Fucking weirdos.

cc @Lord of Riva

Yeah I have already seen this analyzed.

Hilarious. It just means we are getting under their skin.

[UltraFan123]

How long until the DnD version of Asmodeus is repainted from red to orange, I wonder.

[Rand]

Demogorgon will be made a half tranny...

[LemonDemonGirl]

What the goddamn fuck is this

[RangerBoo]

What the goddamn fuck is this

they/he/xe? Yeah, that about sounds like your average resident of King County, Washington. I don't know what it is about this place, be it the weather, being so close to Canada or having a nuclear waste dump be in this state but nearly everyone in that fucking county are some of the most pompous, smug, entitled faggots you will ever meet. What makes things worse is that King County, Washington is known as the "Nerd Capital of the World" and it is these smug, mentally ill fucks who mostly make video games and table tops here in the West. I hope to God that our new governor Turd Ferguson tax these fuckers so much that they will be forced to move to a red state and fire their mentally ill gender special employees.

[Rand]

[Boontaker]

I have played a "session" of the new ttrpg Draw Steel! By MCDM. We did a few (very poorly built) battles, and mostly just rolled some dice and used character abilities. However during the short and dirty time I had with the system it has intrigued me.

The most direct comparison I can make is that the system is a streamlined 4E with a focus on high fantasy fun. Battles are very fast and in a 4 hour session we completed 3 group battles and a solo monster battle.

The systems main 2 mechanics are No to hit rolls, when you spend your action on an ability you automatically hit. Instead you make a power roll to see how effective your hit is. This applies to monsters too. I made a melee tank character because I wanted to see how rough it would be in a system where nothing misses. To be honest it wasn't that bad, and because of the character I had built I often wanted to be attacked.

The other mechanic is how hit points are handled, HP are called Stamina in draw steel. Most importantly you do not fall unconscious when you go below 0 stamina, instead you gain the dying condition and start to take damage every turn (representing your character bleeding out from a mortal wound). This brings the action to a redline when people start getting low, as people will fall below 0 HP and suddenly put MORE effort into the combat in order to survive.

A classic issue in d20 games comes from the resources and rest balancing of the game. Often has a GM you have to come up with arbitrary reasons why the PCs can't just go long rest. "It's storming outside, too many wandering monsters, the gods say you cant". I have heard and used them all and probably so have you, sure it works but as a player you know it's just to limit your ability to rest/retreat.

In draw steel the players are incentivised to keep adventuring as long as they can. Each battle earns the characters victory points, which directly contribute to the class resources they have in combat. More victories = stronger fireballs, with victories turning into exp after a long rest and effectively resetting the power loop. This means even after the barbarian has spent 3 battles getting punched in the face, they are still hungry for more and don't want to retreat.

This game is clearly built for high fantasy combat games, sure any system can handle heavy RP and intrigue but I haven't put draw steel to the test in that scenario yet. What the system is not, a gritty grim dark torch counting survival game where you fight goblins for 4 months before the group gets bored and quits (sorry my bias is showing).

Why play this over 3.0 d20 if you want super powerful characters? I don't know enough to answer that question, except you can't be a reborn kobold monk/fighter/rogue -> assassin/divine smiter godling born. There is no multiclassing and the system is designed as a fantasy small unit war game.

I'll say this as well, I think this system will be TERRIBLE for some players. It is wargaming, the GM makes an opposing force and fights the players on decent footing. Someone being some candy ass not paying attention will struggle.

[Rand]

Each battle earns the characters victory points, which directly contribute to the class resources they have in combat. More victories = stronger fireballs, with victories turning into exp after a long rest and effectively resetting the power loop.

This game isn't for me. I prefer Gygaxian low fantasy, I guess, with ordinary heroes of circumstance and reasonable powers.
(Yes, I am aware of the magic/wizard problem in his game)

[Boontaker]

Each battle earns the characters victory points, which directly contribute to the class resources they have in combat. More victories = stronger fireballs, with victories turning into exp after a long rest and effectively resetting the power loop.

This game isn't for me. I prefer Gygaxian low fantasy, I guess, with ordinary heroes of circumstance and reasonable powers.
(Yes, I am aware of the magic/wizard problem in his game)

I wouldn't mind low fantasy, except every system that advertises as such is just boring. You get one attack roll for 1d4 damage every 25 mins during a tabletop combat, fuck my life that shit is cringe.

[Rand]

Each battle earns the characters victory points, which directly contribute to the class resources they have in combat. More victories = stronger fireballs, with victories turning into exp after a long rest and effectively resetting the power loop.

This game isn't for me. I prefer Gygaxian low fantasy, I guess, with ordinary heroes of circumstance and reasonable powers.
(Yes, I am aware of the magic/wizard problem in his game)

I wouldn't mind low fantasy, except every system that advertises as such is just boring. You get one attack roll for 1d4 damage every 25 mins during a tabletop combat, fuck my life that shit is cringe.

That's why I prefer GURPS.
The problem is I always have to run it because the GM has to understand the rules and too many people are dummies.

[Rand]

If you play GURPS, I strongly recommend you change the success roll from "roll UNDER target number based on skill modified stat" to roll vs. target number 21.
Why?
Because the math the first way is a pain in the ass. You add or subtract some numbers to the floating, character dependent target number, then roll versus that, then see how much you rolled under to determine the degree of success.
And most people don't do so good with all that adding and subtracting and invariably mess it up.

With a TN of 21, you roll and then subtract all the disadvantage numbers from the advantage numbers, add the total to the roll, and then look at the result and see if it's 21 or higher.

Another simplification you can make is to add/subtract difficulties from the TN, and add all bonuses to the roll, simplifying the math streams even more.
It sounds complicated, but it's easier for your brain than adding negatives and subtracting positives all over the place.
A few times and it becomes second nature pretty quickly.

"Okay, roll to see if you pick the lock."
"I rolled 10, plus my skill of 8, plus my fine pick set at +2. 20 total. Not enough."
"You forgot, I told you it was an easy lock, difficulty -4, so you only needed a 17. You managed easily. Degree of success 3 so it took only a couple of minutes."