Editor’s Note: This article by Brad Murray was originally posted here. I loved it so much that I asked to repost it on Stuffer Shack. Thanks, Brad! +Cam Banks got me thinking about layout and thinking about it from my usual location, 10,000 meters above looking down. So I think there are three things layout serves and hitting any one of them is probably enough [Read the article]
There are a small set of skills that tend to recur in almost every game, as they represent common tactics and approaches that players use in games. One of them is intimidation – representing under various names (coercion, threats, etc), the skill of being able to get others to do what you want through threats or power. While most skills comfortably sit in one of the [Read the article]
When is too much of a good thing too much?
I’ve not made a secret my disdain for skills in d20-based games. They always feel tacked on, a sop offered to players who need more numbers to truly realize the character they want to play. Rather than just say, “My dude spent a lot of time in the king’s court” and let the GM interpret what this means, most players feel it’s important to have mechanics that represent capabilities beyond the core task resolution system. Today, I want to talk about why I feel this approach is bad for d20 games and probably make you super upset as a result. But I have a solution and it comes at the end…
If you’re thinking of making your own RPG, you probably have an idea of what dice you want to use, what characteristics you want to model and how heroic you want the characters to be. Those are important to think about, but where do you go from there? Let’s look at some guiding principles that will help you make a system that flows. Simple RPG [Read the article]
Some pitfalls and roadblocks to avoid, and tips to heed, when writing your own RPG…