Social Interaction Mechanics that I want

I'm busy lately, but my thoughts keep returning to social interactions and my current ideals of their design. I've written it multiple times in various chats, so I'm thinking instead of repeating myself, I'll make a blog post on this that I can link to in the future.

Art for the Ghosts in the Saltmarsh, by Zoltan Boros.

"Social Combat?"

When I mention that I want my game to have "social interaction mechanics", people normally assume that what I seek is to turn a conversation into a minigame, into what I call "social combat". In combat, participants have AC that needs to be overcome with attack rolls in order to reduce the participant's HP to 0, eliminating them from the combat. Swap the labels out, and you get a debate minigame, right? Well... that's what they assume, which is why their responses boil down to two categories:

• The (insert name) TTRPG does this,
• Players prefer social interaction to be freeform.

I tried the "social combat" rules before, and personally, I didn't like them. Maybe I was running them wrong, but it felt too stilted and unnatural.

So, no. I don't want Social Combat per se. You can keep your Duels of Wits in the Burning Wheel and other types of social combat. I'm not saying they are bad, they are just not what I seek.

Perhaps the mistake I made while running social combat was that I required players to say something with every argument. Welp, hindsight is 20/20.
Argument in the Council, by Concept-Art-House

"D&D is fine with no social interaction mechanics."

I'm sorry, but I feel tired when I hear this. The conversation in this case usually goes something like this:

"D&D is fine with no social interaction mechanics."

"But it does have social interaction mechanics."

"... yeah, I guess Charisma checks count."

"No, even beyond that."

"Like... the Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws?"

"No, like detect thoughts, telepathy, zone of truth, speak with dead, and so on."

My recent conversation on the topic with Cael was rather illuminating. His labels might not be what people universally use, but they do feel accurate to my experience discussing social interaction mechanics. The big distinction I was ignoring so far was what he labeled "mechanics" and "content". The way I understood his explanation, "content" is game mechanics that aren't shared by all the players. AC, saving throws, rules for hiding and grappling and moving around, ... all these are accepted by the players as "mechanics", whereas class features, racial/species features, backgrounds, spells, and other things that only some have are all considered something separate by the players, distinct from that, "content". I find the distinction silly, but it does line up with the conversations I had on the topic so far.

I don't want to make it a separate article section, so I'll say it here. I love and hate detect thoughts, and suggestion the same way I love and hate rogues in 5e. Each of these is too good not to take. Mind reading is a solution to 90% of Insight checks and/or interrogations, suggestions a swiss army knife of solutions for social interactions unless the target has an immunity to the charmed condition and Rogue... look, does rolling 20+ on (insert skill here) get you anywhere? Of course it does!

Information Management

Here's my hypothesis: the two main sources of drama are managing who knows what, and seeing what will they do about it. This is a formula I figured out a year ago when I wrote my first entry for the One Page RPG Jam 2023, though I don't remember if I spelled the formula out the same way I did here. Skimming some of the article, it seems I was thinking the same things back then too, though my experiment arrived at a different conclusion there.

So, what do I want? I want to give the players the tools for guiding social interaction, tipping the favors, and so on. Mechanizing what the players will do about information is pointless - that's already part of the game unless they are on a strict railroad. What the players need a lot more to generate drama and interesting social interactions are mechanics for information management - manipulation of what information is known to which people, and who knows about these people knowing this information. Some categories for these include:

• Information gathering without others knowing (eavesdropping*, hiding*, scrying/clairvoyance, invisibility, seeing through another's senses, hidden cameras/microphones/drones/familiars, hacking, analysis of online activity, ...)
• Information transfer without others knowing (whispers*, written messages, codes, hand signs, invisible ink, telepathy, lie detection, ...)
• Information gathering prevention (distraction*, darkness, making a person enter/leave a room, illusions, holograms, simple lies, forged evidence or documents, ...)
• Information transfer prevention (silence, shut down a device, ...)
• Mass information transfer (shouting*, online broadcasts, speakers/megaphones, mass telepathy, rumors, displaying something on the sky or somewhere else very visible, ...)

* I know these (and some others that aren't marked) are things people could do normally, but I knew these categories are broad enough to warrant listing, and it'd feel weird if they weren't listed there.

I'm not sure if these categories are sufficient or not, but so far it's looking quite promising. Of course, I could explore more, but I'm not sure if it's all that worth it. If I were to make the exact opposites of all categories, I would get: information gathering with others knowing (watching/listening without hiding it), information transfer with others knowing (openly stating something), allowing information gathering (so... not preventing someone from listening?), allowing information transfer (letting two characters talk?), and information transfer to a small number of people (talking). All of these are something people can already do, no special game mechanics are needed there.

That being said, how about we add some universal guidelines to social interaction? I tried to make up mechanics for the volume of sounds a couple months back for my own game, but I'm afraid they are too complicated. Time to come up with something simpler.

Earshot Rules

Sometimes it's unclear which of the PCs' words can be heard by which NPCs, so let's work on that. As a starting point, how about the baseline rule that I want to be true?

You can hear a conversation that takes place in a small room that you are in. You can hear whispers only if you are right next ot the whisperer.

In my systems, the room is a couple of areas, so "room" is more along the lines of theatre of mind. If the room is too big, you won't be able to hear a conversation that happens on the other side of it. Let's establish three types of environments, and how far away can sounds be heard depending on their volume in the environment:

Environment	Quiet	Moderate	Loud
Quiet sound	1	0	0
Moderate sound	3	2	1
Loud sound	5	4	3

The distance is measured in areas, which I've been using for my games for a while now. If the distance is 0, you need to be physically close to the source of the sound to register it, and actively listen to it to understand it. Decrease the distance by 1 for a Tiny source of sound, and increase the distance by 1 for a Large source of sound. I don't think I've posted formal definitions for those on the blog yet, so let's say for now that a Tiny thing can be easily held in a hand by a human, and a Large thing is one that multiple humans could fit into. Of course, at GM's discretion, exceptions can apply.

A simple way to turn the table into an equation is to start with a 2 (assuming both the environment and the sound are Moderate), and then apply the following:

• +1 if the environment is Quiet, -1 if the environment is loud,
• -2 if the sound is Quiet, +2 if the sound is loud,
• -1 if the sound source is Tiny, +1 if the sound source is Large,
• apply exceptions at GM's discretion,
• 0 if the final distance is less than 0.

Examples of sounds and environments based on the volume categories

• Quiet: silent room, whispers, footsteps, ...
• Moderate: a conversation in a casual volume, rainfall, ...
• Loud: shouting, speakers/megaphones, heavy machinery, ...

Let's see a couple of examples.

• A ball is happening at the king's palace (Moderately loud environment, +0), and your character is trying to eavesdrop on a conversation that the lords are having (Moderate sound, +0). One of the lords is Tiny in size though (-1), so to get the full conversation, you need to be (2+0+0-1=) 1 area away.
• At night, you break into a building that's closed for the night and empty (Quiet environment, +1). The cops are onto you though, so they are outside, using a megaphone to get your attention (Loud sound, +2). Despite it being Tiny, let's say the GM makes an exception and says it gets a +1 bonus instead because the device is literally made to be loud (+1). You can hear the cops (2+1+2+1=) 6 areas away.

Are the new rules simple? Somewhat. Are they easy? Certainly easier than what I originally wrote, the original rules would have you measure the volume of everything, comparing them and seeing which one is the loudest. Though I'll have to test this in practice and see if it's actually simpler or not and if it feels accurate. A speaker that can only be heard 6 areas away sounds rather mediocre for now, so we'll see. Maybe Loud sounds could spread without a limit in a Quiet environment, or maybe I could come up with a new category for loud sounds that would have no distance limit.

Social interaction is rooted in drama. Drama is about managing who knows what, and what they do about it. Players already have ways of deciding what to do about things, which is why I believe the social interaction pillar should be primarily about information management. Charisma could be neat for skipping unnecessary conversations, but then again it also decides the conclusion of an important conversation, so I want to drop it and give players tools instead. You may think you need to convince the guards to let you into the palace, but maybe they'll let you in if you feign a common hatred for (insert fantasy creature here). Maybe a merchant trying to blackmail you could be silenced somehow.

That's about it for my opinions on social interaction mechanics. I want them, and I've struggled for a while with coming up with them, but I feel like I have a decent framework right now. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Concepts, Manifestations, and Archons

Let's go on a small trip down memory lane. It's been a while since I wrote something for high-fantasy worlds usable in a game like D&D. Back in June 2017 (I too am surprised how long I've been going), I wrote an article about souls. In it, I described genies as "souls lost outside of ethereal plane's reach that some element sticks to". Elements have always been a fascinating idea to me, and back then I only worried about addressing actual D&D things instead of coming up with my own ideas. In March 2018, I wrote an article about the senses. This one I admit is only tangentially related, you'll see it later. Later, in October of the same year, I wrote a cosmology article about Chained Realms. I don't think I actually played any D&D game that would explicitly take place in it, I just wanted an excuse to show off my cool new take on the elemental planes and how simple the cosmology could be. This is a crucial article for today's write-up. Last but not least, I wrote about the Tahjinn in March 2022 on Reddit. I made it because I knew that making the genasi more interesting would take very little effort.

All these things crossed paths in my brain when I read Izzy's simple question minutes into June 22nd:

Have y'all ever thought of the idea of an anti-elemental?

Concepts

Let's go from the ground level, just in case you forgot the theory written in articles from years ago. The significant part of the multiverse is covered by two transitional planes: Ether and Aether. Mortals named these, and they named these mainly because they found out about the Ether first, and then judged that Aether is its opposite. Aether is the realm that contains all of the elements: fire, water, earth, air, and spark. It also contains the mind, which is an animating force, though perhaps it can be treated as an element of sorts too.

Previously, I've said that the Ether is a realm of souls, as well as pure light and darkness. I think I've changed my mind on this, and it's time to build this up more. Let's start with a new term: Ether's realm doesn't contain elements, it contains concepts. They too have physical manifestations of sorts (listed alphabetically):

• Amber is a concept that encapsulates artistic and aesthetic ideas.
• Blood is a concept that encapsulates psychological and emotional ideas.
• Bright is a concept that encapsulates existential and metaphysical ideas.
• Crystal is a concept that encapsulates social and cultural concepts.
• Dark* is a concept that encapsulates ethical and moral ideas.

Similarly to how the mind is one of the elements technically, the soul is one of the concepts technically. An animating force is required, after all. There would be mixtures between the concepts too, but I didn't feel like coming up with those yet, because I have more exciting things to talk about. By the way, the concepts and elements would mix too, though I have no idea what would come of those unions.

I have a couple of notes on the above list, so let's talk about them.

Firstly, I've put the metaphysical and existential ideas into the Bright concept because of the senses article. Preception can be quite important to existence itself (something something quantum physics).

As for the Crystal, it refers to any kind of organized structure, not merely ice, salt, or gemstone.

Finally, I'm putting the morality and ethicality ideas under the Dark concept because I couldn't figure out a better place for it yet, and I didn't want to drop it. Sure darkness is just an absence of light, but in a fantasy context that can be ignored. Honestly, most of these are kind of placeholders, if I find something better I'm all in for replacing them.

Mystery is a strange thing. It cannot be held, yet it can be grasped. It cannot be seen and understood, for that undoes it. It is a fickle phenomenon, and yet it exists persistently throughout the universe. It is not an element, however, for it is not made up of molecules, atoms, or quarks.
Raziel, angel of mysteries, by Peter Mohrbacher

Manifestations and Archons

An elemental is a pile of elemental matter animated by a mind. Analog to that for the Ethereal planes would be a manifestation: a pile of conceptual matter animated by a soul. Angels are bright manifestations, fiends were formerly dark manifestations but now I'm not so sure. Crystal manifestations sound kind of like modrons, though I'd assume they would be more human-ish if that makes sense. Blood manifestations and amber manifestations would be just generally cool, even if I have no idea what those would entail.

When a mortal perishes outside of the reach of the Aether, somewhere in the Ether, their soul will travel wherever it needs to. That much I've made clear back when I wrote that article about souls I linked above. But what about their mind? If the souls go through a great recycling process, shouldn't the minds go through one as well? Now they do. And without access to the Aether, a mind will be stuck in the Ether. Conceptual matter will begin to clump around it, and what you'll end up with is an archon - a conceptual equivalent of a genie. I know, I know, archon already stands for a highly-ranking angel in D&D, I just wanted something that could share some sound with the word "archetype" but wanted to avoid using the label "archetype" itself for beings as numerous as genies.

Conceptual Mixtures

So let's give this a go. What could the mixtures of the concepts above be like as physical manifestations? I seriously doubt I'll get it all perfectly on the first try, but that's what happens when one treads an unfamiliar territory. It's going to sound silly, since we could map these to the already existing elements, but it is what it is.

Concept	Amber	Blood	Bright	Crystal	Dark
Amber	Amber	Paint	Glass	Mosaic	Ink
Blood	Paint	Blood	Dream	Wine	Venom
Bright	Glass	Dream	Bright	Prism	Shadow
Crystal	Mosaic	Wine	Prism	Crystal	Obsidian
Dark	Ink	Venom	Shadow	Obsidian	Dark

Following the same logic I outlined in the Chained Realms article linked above, we could thus deduce how would the different Conceptual Planes look.

• Conceptual Plane of Amber would have seas of ink and paint, with mosaic islands that have glass and amber structures on them.
• Conceptual Plane of Blood feels the most watery to me, so we could make the dreams in it a physical thing that one could stand on.
• Conceptual Plane of Bright (the closest thing to a fantasy heaven) would be made of glass lands and prismatic mountains, perhaps with liquid dreams as the oceans, but still with some shadow here and there.
• Conceptual Plane of Crystal feels the most like earth, but wine would make for an amazing ocean among all those hard materials.
• Finally, Conceptual Plane of Dark (the closest thing to a fantasy hell) would be islands of Obsidian among venomous ink, with darkness all around, and yet shadows that lurk within the darkness.

It ain't perfect, but frankly it's some cool mental imagery.

Air, earth, fire, spark, water, and mind. Five plus one elements. Amber, blood, bright, crystal, dark, and soul. Five plus one concepts. The multiverse is perfectly balanced, as all things should be. And it feels great, as long as you don't ask me what the difference between mind and soul is supposed to me. So far, I'm gonna claim it's the split between one's internal logic, versus emotional side.

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Updates to the Opposed Rolls Combat System

Originally I wanted to write an article just on "sword dance", but I figured I'd add some more stuff to it. This article will therefore be made up of a couple short ideas.

Sword Dance

The secret to a combat that changes all the time is to make stuff change all the time. And the simplest way to change the circumstances always is to add motion.

When you attack another creature, you can choose to attempt entering its space. The opponent can decide as part of its reaction whether it stays in its space, or moves away from you (some reactions can allow for a movement in different directions), letting you enter it. If it stays in its space, you gain a [substantial] bonus to your attack roll. If it leaves, it must enter an adjacent space, and it is still attacked.

Extra mini rule: When someone reacts by dodging, they must actually move to an adjacent space. Yes, you could in theory duck or something, but making that an option will only be another element keeping a battle static.

What the [substantial] bonus would be depends on playtesting.

Fighting in a constant motion is way more interesting than standing in places smacking each other with weapons.
Screenshot from the movie Princess Bride.

Regarding the Opportunity Attacks

I gave this a lot of thought, and the best way to avoid the opportunity attacks seems to be letting you freely leave the presence of a foe you attacked in this turn, assuming they didn't counter-attack. Think of it this way: you attack them, they decide to go into a defensive stance, and now you surprise them by running away. Before they realize what's going on, you're off. Simple!

Non-lethal Combat

Now this one might sound silly at a glance. What the heck do I mean by non-lethal? I have an issue with an anticlimactic character death due to a random encounter that has nothing to do with the main story. I had a chat on this recently with a dude named Rachayz on Discord, and I realized something - why have hit points in a fight that you can't lose anyway? Let it cost you something else. I mean, it could still cost you some hit points, but "losing" this fight should give you some handicap while winning it could grant you some benefit. How powerful this benefit/handicap is and how long it lasts depends entirely on how difficult the encounter is to conquer. If you meet a single goblin, it could be something you get over in a day. If someone sends after you the Cerberian Hellhounds with a boss fight bar and all, you might not be able to walk for the rest of your life.

I've kept this article as a draft for weeks at this point. I don't know if there's anything I can add to it at the moment, it's just a couple of unrelated ideas that I want to put out there so I can move on to processing other ideas. I might make this into an actual RPG eventually, just as an experiment.

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Runehack RPG 1: Freerunning Pillar

I've taken too long with this article. With 10 articles written in the meantime, it's been enough time to process most issues I had with writing this down. This won't be perfect, there are already things I changed from the first article, it's better to just go ahead and do it so that it's out there.

Vault, by thegryph

Freerunning Pillar

This is a pillar focused on mobility and action-packed scenes. Their focus is to deliver or retrieve information, items, or even people, moving them between a safe place (local hideout, team's van, etc.) and a dangerous place (megacorporation's offices, etc.). Optimally, you'd do this without getting noticed, but getting noticed is an inevitability. However, in this process, you can't remove your pursuers.

Let's begin by defining the environment. I've already talked about the areas and passages in the first article briefly, and they are described in greater detail in Runehack: Fairy Heist. Areas are discrete locations that could contain one or more characters, and passages (sometimes called routes) connect them. Since the pillar is all about navigating this space, several types of passages are introduced, mostly described as obstacles. Some examples of these include:

• Around is an obstacle that you navigate by making multiple turns (such as a crooked alleyway, a crowd of people, etc.). It doesn't require hands to be passed through, and it blocks sight.
• Low is an obstacle that you navigate by slouching slightly (such as a low ceiling, etc.). It doesn't require hands to be passed through, and it doesn't block sight.
• Water is an obstacle that you must swim through. It requires hands to pass through, and it doesn't block sight.

A resource energy is featured in this pillar. It equals three times your highest tier, and it can be spent on navigating obstacles (see below), as well as on avoiding attacks. Whenever you are attacked, you can choose to either take 1 wound, or spend an amount of energy that your opponent rolled, provided you have enough energy. When your energy is reduced to 0, you gain 1 wound and your energy can't be increased until you rest after the mission.

By default, when a character tries to move through a route with an obstacle on it, they must either spend an extra act or 1 energy. Through the player options offered in this pillar, players can learn how to master these obstacles and navigate them for free without being slowed down. Each of the obstacle types also has an advanced obstacle (for the examples above it's Around -> Between, Low -> Below, Water -> Underwater). An advanced obstacle can only be mastered after mastering the base obstacle it's derived from. There are additional types of routes that aren't obstacles, and therefore can't be mastered:

• Glass is a passage that can't be passed through, but one can see through it.
• Door is a passage that can be seen and passed through only when it's opened. It takes an act to open, close, and in some cases also lock or unlock.
• Hole is a passage that only tiny characters can move and see through. Others can see through it only by taking the Search act.

During a freerunning mission, players can build up momentum by passing through routes without being slowed down. Momentum can be spent to take the Call, Open/Close, Read, or Search act. When you reach Tier 3 in Freerunning, you can spend 3 momentum to take a Move action (which can produce further momentum). You lose all your momentum either when you take an act that's not Move or spends your momentum, or when your turn ends.

Senses are an important factor during the missions. A character can see clearly anything in their current area, with the exception of the contents of the hiding spots (they can see their contents only if they use the Search act). Each character can be looking in one direction of their choice, which can be changed during their turn, or at the end of any turn. They see clearly anything in that direction until an obstacle blocks their line of sight (some obstacles could maybe allow the Search act to let someone see through, like Hole), and they have a peripheral vision in directions perpendicular to it: it lets them see shapes, colors, and motion, but not specific details.

When it comes to hearing, it's determined by the volume of every sound. For every two routes the sound has to cross, its volume decreases by 1. You can hear all sounds that can reach your area, but you can only choose to hear clearly one of the sounds with the highest volume to you. You can try to focus on a sound with lower volume by making a Comprehension roll with a difficulty of 4 * its volume. A route that dampens the sound (like water) reduces the volume by 1, echo increases the volume by 1. Sounds produced by Tiny people or items built for Tiny people produce sounds with a volume that's 1 less.

Example volumes:

0: whispering
1: talking, rainfall, walking
2: swimming, flying, talking loudly
3: shouting, multiple vehicles
4: loud vehicle

(I don't know how viable the sounds will be in practice, for now it just sounded interesting enough on paper, so I'm including it here. Worst case scenario, I'll need to simplify it, and everyone will get to learn from my mistake.)

The other senses, usually labeled auxiliary, are mostly less refined than hearing and sound. One can sense the temperature and smell in their area without being able to trace its exact source or distribution. Touch can work on anything a character can reach, while taste can work on anything a character can taste. A character can always tell which way is the north.

An important part of this pillar are the Apps, which you can use as an act. An app is software installed in your runecard for assistance during a mission. Since these are rune-based, they do either telekinesis, illusions, detection, or a combination of these. What apps your character gets depends on your character's role.

Let's see an outline of an example role below. Apps are written in italics, and the current format is more elaborate than this.

Masker

Tier 1

• You can choose whether your footsteps can be heard as long as you have one hand free.
• Master Water obstacles and one other obstacle type of your choice.
• Illusory Item allows you to create a static illusory item. Make an Agility roll to determine how close does one have to examine it to determine if it's real or not.
• Silencer lets you pick one target person that can't be heard until the start of your next turn.

Tier 2

• Choose your specialization: Tinker or Veiler
• Tinker masters the Low obstacle and gains the Illusory Fairy app that lets them make an illusion of a fairy for 1 hour. The illusion can be moved twice on each of your turns.
• Veiler masters the Slope obstacle and gains the Virtual Mask that lets them mask themselves until the end of the current turn, preventing others from seeing or hearing them.

Tier 3

• You master either Around or Over obstacle, as well as one advanced obstacle of your choice.
• Distract lets you pick one target who can't see or hear until the start of your next turn. If you spend extra (TBD) credits, they fall asleep for 1 hour. While asleep, they can't see and are incapacitated until woken up by someone or a loud noise. The app can't put another target to sleep until the last target wakes up.
• You can spend extra (TBD) credits when using the Illusory Item to animate the item, letting its appearance change. Furthermore, you can have up to 8 illusory items present at the same time.
• The Silencer app lets you target any number of people.

Tier 4

• You master one obstacle of your choice, and gain any one app of your choice from Tier 2 or below from any role.
• Depending on your specialization, you gain one of the following upgrades:
• When you use the Illusory Person app, you can make a person of any species, not just a fairy. You can consider it a disguise if its size matches yours.
• When you use the Virtual Mask, its effects last until the start of your next turn. Alternatively, 1/day, you can instead make it last until the end of your next turn.

Tier 5

• You master one obstacle of your choice, and gain any one app of your choice.
• On your turn, you can use your act or spend 1 Momentum to focus on something and ask the GM whether it is an illusion. The GM must answer truthfully.

Tl;dr structure

• Tier 1: unique ability, 2 obstacles, 2 apps
• Tier 2: 1 obstacle, 1 app
• Tier 3: 2 obstacles, 1 app, 1 upgrade
• Tier 4: 1 obstacle, 1 app, 1 upgrade
• Tier 5: unique ability, 1 obstacle, 1 app
• Total: 2 unique abilities, 7 obstacles, 6 apps, 2 upgrades

The roles are mostly written already, the rules for freerunning are pretty much ready. I will admit I got sidetracked by going after my 12 Good Games new year resolution for a bit, and I actually got inspired to run a D&D 5e trishot themed after One Piece. I keep delaying the actual playtest, because I dread finding a group of people to play with regularly, plus making up the story and everything. I feel like I should talk about the hacking next when it comes to the Runehack RPG, but to be honest, everything I have for that has been already featured in Runehack: The Asterist.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Inherited Powers System, MHA Style

I need to get another idea out of my head so I can focus on things more urgently, let's do this.

Superpowers are fun. Superheroes are fun. Though you could also maybe have these featured in non-superhero-centric games, but that's beside the point. Ever since binging My Hero Academia with my wonderful girlfriend, I've wondered how would I translate stuff like this into a tabletop roleplaying game ruleset. To give a brief overview, the powers (called quirks) are mutations that keep getting wilder over the generations, there's a large variety of them, and most people seem to have one quirk each. Just to be clear, for this thought exercise, I'm ignoring the cases of more than two quirks in one person, like the blonde guy from the 1B class or some spoiler characters. No meta-quirks that manipulate the quirks.

Now that the summary of the anime's premise is done, I'm gonna go back to calling them Powers, because I prefer that name. Quirk is fun, but in TTRPGs it tends to stand for something else. I hope you'll enjoy this, and have a wonderful day!

Sidenote: Anything below isn't set in stone, it's just a proof of concept for now, barely functional for a game.

Superpower, by Dan Su

Inherited Powers System

The Powers are generally inherited from the parents, though sometimes they can be manifested completely spontaneously. Since they are genetically based, they are made up of several components:

• Trigger
• Ability
• Limitation

In a usual approach, you'd just get a bunch of points to spend on each of these, and be done. Boom, there, you got your Power, now you can go fight crimes. But as it is becoming obvious to me, some people love to gamble by rolling the dice, if there's a chance they could get some kind of an advantage out of it. So let's mix the game design with worldbuilding. Here are guidelines on how you could inherit your Power from your parents.

Everyone has two of each of those, one dominant and one recessive. There isn't any ranking as to which traits are more dominant than which, this is all just about pure luck of what one is born with. So, get a pair of color-coded dice, let's say 2d20's: one for dominant traits and one for recessive traits. Roll them for each parent's every trait (Ability, Trigger, Limitation). The higher roll defines which gene is passed onto you from that parent. If both rolls are equal, congratulations, the gene mutated and you instead get to roll on a random rolltable for that trait! (If I weren't busy with other stuff like preparing for a One Piece trishot, I'd make one, but I'll leave that for another day.)

After this is done, you should be left with a pair of Abilities, a pair of Triggers, and a pair of Limitations, one from each parent (unless they mutated). Now, assign the colors to your parents, and roll once for each pair. The higher roll determines which of the traits is considered dominant for your body. If both are equal, congratulations - you get to keep both somehow! ... look, anime makes it work for Todoroki, so I might as well include it in this ruleset.

If you want "quirkless" (or in this case Powerless) to be an option, that will occur when both rolls are a 1 on either Power or Trigger. You have a gene for it, but alas - the dominant one turned out to be a blank.

I did say that I don't have rolltables or energy to make them, but I might as well leave you with some examples. Of course, these are not complete in any way, I'd spend a lot more time if I wanted to make them complete.

Trigger

1. Always active (Invisible Girl)
2. Line of sight and focus (Eraser Head)
3. Voice and focus (Present Mic)
4. Touch and focus (Uravity)
5. Consuming something (Sugarman)
6. Focus (Creati)

Ability

I write them broadly, but with more time I'd make them extra 

1. Boost a personal characteristic (strength, speed, senses, ...)
2. Produce something (fire, sticky spheres, ...)
3. Manifest traits of an animal (frog, seal, ...). Maybe this one could come with limitations on what triggers are allowed with it.
4. Manifest a supernatural characteristic (invisibility, weightlessness, locking something in place, ...)
5. Transformation into and back from some substance (dust, paper, ...)
6. Area influencers. Not sure how this would be different from numbers 2 or 4, but I wanted there to be six items on each list.

Limit

I'm not sure if these shouldn't just come prepackaged with the Abilities and/or Triggers. For now, they are separate.

1. Time limit
2. Line of sight
3. One target at a time
4. Fuel consumed
5. Knowledge
6. Environmental condition

That's all for today. This could make for a neat core of a system. That being said, there is also a downside to this: One power per character can work well in a TV show, but it might not be ideal for a TTRPG. Depending on your Power, your character could fall somewhere in the range from "can resolve any situation on their own" to "one trick pony that needs support". 

Runehack RPG 0.1: Pivoting in a New Direction

It's time for the truth to be revealed. Maybe I never really wanted a game that's action-filled in the first place. I have always dreamed of a D&D game with an all-bards party, where they'd go on a world tour. Or something similar for another system. I lost this dream of mine somewhere along the way to Game Dev years ago and have forgotten about it... until today.

It's time to showcase how the musical pillar will work for the Runehack RPG!

A quick musician doodle redeemed from Mishroomarts

Music Pillar

There are four qualities that the music can have:

• Intensity can range from Calm to Strong, describing how loud the music's loudest tones are. It utilizes Muscle.
• Tempo can range from Slow to Fast, describing the general speed at which the music is played. It utilizes Agility.
• Authenticity can range from Bright to Dark, describing whether the music is more upbeat or emotional. It utilizes Comprehension.
• Creativity can range from Stock to Fresh, describing whether the music is predictable or if it's unafraid to experiment outside of the music theory's range. It utilizes Hunch.

Training isn't represented as a musical genre because it defines your expertise with musical instruments. You can play a number of musical instruments equal to 1 + your Training, and they can have a total number of unique properties equal to your Training.

Note: You can select a musical instrument in place of one of the expert areas that your Training gives you in the Core Pillar. If you do so, you will have expertly knowledge in how this instrument works, its history, maintenance, and significant artists who primarily played this instrument.

The musical instruments can have the following properties:

• Pedaled. Advantage on rolls for Intensity.
• Two-handed. Advantage on rolls for Tempo.
• Multi-tonal. Advantage on rolls for Authenticity.
• Contiunuous. Advantage on rolls for Creativity.
• Static. Advantage on rolls for both Intensity and Tempo.
• Custom-made. Choose one of the musical qualities. You can use Training in place of the original stat when rolling for that quality using this instrument. You can take this property multiple times.

Musical Performance

When performing, it is important to appease the crowd's demands. The GM begins by secretly rolling 4d6 and dividing the numbers between the qualities. The highest roll stands for a preference for high rolls in that quality, the lowest roll stands for a preference for low rolls in that quality, and anything in between begins neutral. If multiple numbers are the highest/lowest, it's applied to multiple qualities. If all four numbers are the same, they correspond to low (1-3) or high (4-6) rolls. The GM keeps them in the order of Intensity, Tempo, Authenticity, and Creativity behind the screen.

At the start of every round, the GM rolls 2d12 without adding them together to see which preferences flip. If they were neutral so far, they get tipped either way at GM's discretion.

• 1-3: Intensity
• 4-6: Tempo
• 7-9: Authenticity
• 10-12: Creativity

These preferences can be represented in crowd actions. These are, on purpose, ambiguous to keep the band guessing. For convenience, each is listed twice to be easier to reference. The GM should mention ideally two of them (one if there aren't two) at the start of each round to clue the players in on what the audience demands.

• Intensity (low)
• or Tempo (low): swaying
• or Creativity (low): whistling
• Intensity (high)
• or Tempo (high): head-banging
• or Authenticity (high): stomping
• Tempo (low)
• or Intensity (low): swaying
• or Authenticity (high): lights above heads (e.g. lighters)
• Tempo (high)
• or Intensity (high): head-banging
• or Creativity (high): playing air instruments
• Authenticity (low)
• or Creativity (low): screams
• or Creativity (high): crowd wave
• Authenticity (high)
• or Intensity (high): stomping
• or Tempo (low): lights above heads (e.g. lighters)
• Creativity (low)
• or Intensity (low): whistling
• or Authenticity (low): screams
• Creativity (high)
• or Tempo (high): playing air instruments
• or Authenticity (low): crowd wave

The DC for all music-making rolls is 8 unless said otherwise. However, the players must either roll above the DC as usual, or under if the audience demands low for some musical quality. Whether a player is trying to roll over or under 8 should be announced before the roll along with the musical quality (e.g. "I'm trying to go for low Tempo). Due to this, any musician can choose to roll with a disadvantage at will, and they can choose whether their stat is ignored, added to, or subtracted from a roll after it is made. The goal is to play according to the crowd's preferences, confirmed by the reactions described by the GM. If a musician succeeds in playing according to the crowd's preferences two times in a turn, or when they roll exactly 8, they get a Starpower Point.

Starpower Points are a way of performing extra actions while keeping up the performance. The pillar will feature some special actions that can be performed by spending an act or a number of Starpower Points. The details aren't worked out yet, but for now, examples could include:

• getting the crowd to sing in your place,
• dance moves,
• musical instrument tricks,
• activating special effects such as fireworks,
• jumping onto the crowd and letting it carry you,
• tossing a keepsake into the crowd.

Each would have its effect, but right now I don't have any further details worked out. Maybe some could coordinate their preferences or something like that.

---

That's about it for now. Of course, once finished the pillar would feature its own roles, their features, and so on, but that all should be done on another day. All that being said, ... it should be obvious this isn't what I want my game to be about, but I do want it to be an actual part of the game. It's not on my priorities list, but I had some time to spare during Easter and thought of working this out before I get to the final details of the core system I want to release this year as a way of relaxing. It might not come off as all that funny of an April Fools joke, but I came up with it not too long ago. The article was written in about 2 hours, most of this isn't set in stone yet. Obviously, it borrows some ideas from Play It by Cheer!, and that's because I really liked the foundation I've laid out there. Its stats map nicely onto this system's stats, Training is an awesome "ace in a sleeve" stat that'd work universally elsewhere, and... I think when I get to making the roles for this system, I'll make it so that the roles are named differently. Writing all this out made me realize that the roles probably should have different names in every pillar.

Anyway, writing the Core Pillar article took me too long, I wrote like 5 or 6 articles since I mentioned it last time it, so I can't promise I'll publish it before I begin the playtests. I'll see what I can do though. I like the way the game's development is going, and my 12 good games resolution is going to be finished soon enough. Or, it would be, if Witcher 3 wasn't still ahead of me.

That's about it! Thank you for reading, and happy beginning of April, everyone!

Extra Actions

Two articles in one day? That's right. I'm catching up with what I wanted to write these days. The Shadowfell article was supposed to come out yesterday. Anyway!

In Opposed Rolls Combat System, I wrote of a different way to run combat. The core premise of it is a focus on actions either happening on your turn or as a reaction to others' actions. It felt bland and dry to me, but it got the point across. The other day, Izzy brought up a video he called a perfect example of what he'd want the combat in his ideal game to feel like (paraphrased). After a couple watches of the video and analyzing it by writing out what would the actions of it look like, I realized what's the missing element. The system needs more actions.

This happens a lot in cinematic fights. Why didn't I think of it sooner?
League of Legends: Clashing Winds, by ae-rie

Clashes

Let's first make an example using the Opposed Rolls Combat System. Let me first clarify, that's not its "official name", I'm just using the article title for now. ... though looking at the abbreviation, ORCS is kind of genius as a coincidence.

A clash occurs when one creature attacks, the other creature reacts by attacking also, and the two rolls are within 5 points of each other. It's that moment when the two blades meet and there's tension between the two combatants. At this point, the higher roll (if any) doesn't deal damage, it can instead take a "mini-action". I'm not sure if all of these would be general or some would be granted as class features, but examples could include:

• knocking the opponent prone,
• shoving the opponent away from you,
• breaking the opponent's weapon,
• casting a spell,
• attacking him without using the weapon that's involved in the clash,
• tossing some grainy/powdery substance in the air, possibly at the opponent.

The key concept here is that this wouldn't cost you a maneuver. It'd be an extra action on top of your action economy but with fewer options. It's you taking the opportunity to do something to the enemy.

There are two other things, unrelated to the clashes, that I want to add to the system since I'm already writing a minor 'update' to it here. The video inspired me with two more possible things one could do. A reaction to catch an ally that's about to fall within your reach, and an action to toss an ally some distance. But that's beside the point of this article.

My Theory

Things clicked together when I realized... I wanted to do something very similar in my freerunning system for the Runehack RPG. For months, I've known how I want to do the Momentum in that game. Momentum is gained by traversing routes without being slowed down (so either a clear route or a mastery of the obstacle). Momentum also lets you take "mini-actions" immediately after you move.

This is what has led me to my theory.

• In a mobility-focused tactical game, it would suck to just move and have no option to do something else on every turn. But movement is essential, so you are assumed to move on each turn.
• In a combat-focused tactical game, it would suck to just attack and have no option to do something else on every turn. But attacks are essential, so you are assumed to attack on each turn.

The only difference here is the focus of the game, otherwise, the statements are identical. This is why I propose my theory:

A game should provide the player with an option to do something extra when the focal action of the game fulfills some conditions.

Think about it. It'd suck if your attack dealt just 3 points of damage, so let's make it worth more. And traversing the routes that you've mastered or clear routes to gain more Momentum just makes sense in a parkour-themed game.

That being said, I would advise against combining it, since that would get too cumbersome to keep track of. Especially if clashes let you move, which would let you build up momentum that you could use to try to make more attacks possibly and keep the clashes up. The risk of an infinite action economy increases the more of these Extra Actions you introduce into the same system, so... I'd urge you to keep it down to a single type of Extra Actions. I don't know if I'll follow this advice myself, I might give it a go in my playtests, but I'll have to be extra careful to avoid any case of infinite actions.

I wonder what would be the reasons behind these mini-actions in other minigames I have on my mind. You'll have to wait to see that when I get to those games.

Until then, thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Describing Shadowfell

Yesterday, I was looking over some of the discord servers I frequent and stumbled upon a message on the discord server run by a YouTuber called Holstic Dungeon Master. He wanted some inspiration for the descriptions, atmosphere, monsters, and challenges of this realm. I started writing and didn't stop for a while, because it seemed the inspiration was just flowing out of me. In the end, his group ended up going to the ocean's depths instead. That's why I decided to compile what I wrote here and share it with anyone interested. I should add that these are all things I came up with on the spot, they don't necessarily fit the D&D canon.

More game design articles coming soon. For now, indulge me in the brooding moods of Shadowfell by reading on, and have a great day!

Unchanging, eternal.
A screenshot from Death Note.

Colors

All colors are less saturated in this world, including the colors of those not native to the plane, and the magic they use. Think of it like someone applying a sepia or grayscale filter partially to everything everyone sees. Grays, beiges, and other muted colors dominate the realm, though you can still distinguish the shades of formerly highly saturated colors.

Weather

It's almost always overcast. Rains are common, snow only in cold regions. Sometimes, the rain could be toxic. In some extreme areas, the rain could age anything it touches, just like in Death Stranding.

Slopes

Most of the time, you are encouraged to move downhill in the realm of Shadowfell. Going uphill without equipment is almost impossible, even if in the Material Plane it'd be easy to walk up that kind of hill. Meanwhile, Shadowfell feels deep, like one could go lower and lower indefinitely. Its depths feel just as gloomy as the surface, so it's hard to tell how high up or how low you are unless you keep track of it.

Buildings

Since it's an echo of the Material Plane, the buildings and cities could exist in this realm, but they'd be warped by the plane's influence. In this case, the buildings are a bit bigger and therefore emptier. They are big enough for their walls to be in contact. If there are doorways on the inside, or one uses the spell passwall, you could traverse an entire city without ever going outside.

Emotions

The native creatures mostly express low-energy moods here. Boredom, sadness, and hopelessness are way more common than anger, fear, or joy. Non-native creatures will have a harder time expressing high-energy emotions too.

Exit

This one is quite dark, so read at your own risk. In some places, it's possible to leave Shadowfell by taking your own life. Once you pass such a place, though, you never know if you left it for sure.

Nameless

It's normal for the native denizens of Shadowfell to not have a name. It's hard to care about such unnecessary things in a realm like that and makes passing away easier.

Hunger

Anyone in Shadowfell feels less hungry than they otherwise would, but this doesn't mean they are less hungry. One would starve themselves to death without knowing it if they were to only eat in Shadowfell like they normally would when they begin to feel genuine hunger. The natives are used to eating less, and their biology allows them to survive longer with lesser sustenance.

Plantlife and Mushrooms

The plants of Shadowfell generally either don't have leaves, or all the leaves are dead and shriveled. One could in theory grow mushrooms or even fruits in some rare places. The taste is reduced significantly though - a fantastic meal would taste okay, an okay meal would taste rather bad, and a rather bad meal would taste outright awful here. Like sand and sawdust.

Shinigami apple from Death Note.

Water

Nobody is quite sure what's wrong with the water, but non-natives should not drink it without purifying it first. Natives are unaffected, assuming they need to drink water.

Passage of Time

The time passes as normal, but psychologically it feels like the time is not passing at all. Unless one would enter and leave Shadowfell within an hour or keep track of time while inside, you could spend any amount of time there and exit feeling like you've been there only for an hour. You will always be surprised about how much time passed when you leave Shadowfell.

Sleep

The denizens of Shadowfell need to sleep more than an average creature would. It's not unheard of for them to sleep for 10-16 hours a day, unless magic powers them they need some energy source afterall.

Physical Manifestation

A non-native will reshape their surroundings subconsciously if they reside in one spot for too long. The surroundings will take shape that will remind them the most of their own past failures, guilt, and trauma.

Memories

Recalling memories uncharacteristic of this realm (joy, anger, etc.) requires actual concentration if you spend too much time in Shadowfell. After a while, it would literally break your concentration on spells and effects like that.

---

Most influences are from the Shinigami Realm featured in Death Note, with lesser inspiration from Spec Ops: The Line, Junji Ito's Uzumaki, and Death Stranding.

Anyway, yeah, that's all for now. Have a great day, and thank you for reading!