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Heroic Knight
 
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Last Login: Monday, August 11, 2008 11:09 AM
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| Playtest is on 14th September at Horley Scout camp near Banbury and will cost either £25 or £35 if we decide to cater it. We're starting to put the rules and background up for this - you can find it here: http://www.mandalalrp.co.uk/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=7 When we're done and we've gone through all the criticism/suggestions we'll put this into a nice pdf rulebook for download etc so please have a look and if you do have suggestions, criticism, or just find areas confusing then please let us know and we'll try and improve things. Booking for the playtest is not yet open - it will be limited to 50 people and judging by the amount of interest could book out quite quickly (famous last words....) Format is intended to be a chillout Q&A session on the friday with some drinks, and then Saturday/Sunday play a mini event, testing as much as possible. In order to do this there will be some fudging of situations as the aim is to test the rules not necessarily create the best event ever! That said we still want it to be fun and there will be a carryover from the people attending the playtest into the main game. What form that will take is not yet decided. Any questions please reply on here or join the Mandala website (http://www.mandalalrp.co.uk - and go to My Account) and post on the forums there. I will also be asking for a forum on here as soon as we get a bit further down the line.... So - get in at the start!
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and Minimeister
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Last Login: Sunday, April 06, 2008 8:31 AM
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| I have a question. What themes would you like to see in your game? What feel are you aiming for? What level of complexity are you prepared to tolerate? TBH if someone hadn't frothed extensively to me already about how great this game was going to be then I wouldn't have spent the past 15 minutes copying and pasting into a word document. Can you make a "beta" version .pdf available in future?
There is only overconfidence and terror.
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Heroic Knight
Group: System Moderators
Last Login: Monday, August 11, 2008 11:09 AM
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| Thanks - first thing I'll do is start putting this into pdf format then and update that way (forums are easier to edit but I didn't think about reading it for the first time!!) theme - think film style fantasy rather than D&D style fantasy. Setting is loosely Ancient (eg Conan) rather than Mediaeval so leather and chain armour rather than full plate, no black powder, and Non Tolkien world but Tolkien is great for costume/general theme reference. Magic is rare and powerful - no point and click magic is the intention. That means no magic missiles, no lesser/greater heals, no magic weapons....well there are legends of some..... We're hoping for many subgames within the overall game - not sure I get what you mean by "what complexity are we aiming for" but I can't think of a reason why we'd want to limit it. The overriding guideline though is to make the game very simple to get into, but very complex if you choose to delve deeper. Eg we're trying to cater for the guy who wants to turn up and roleplay but isn't too fussed about downtimes or rulesmongering - but equally we want to provide enough to get your teeth into if you're all about the power playing ie building empires, political wrangling, economics etc
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I do talk a good fight
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Sounds ace. Clashes with both Dumnonni and Dark Times though... I'll have to see which one I can afford (in Typhum's favour it's definitely cheapest).
http://www.hyboriantales.com
PD: Ghostdance ("The most irritating curse I've ever encountered" -- NPC played by H.)
Riftworld: Rossar Kuug ("Clearly mad, because he thinks he's a Com-Trow Skirmisher" - Aela)
Hyborian Tales: Crew, cook, dogsbody, general labourer, toilet cleaner ("Dangerously overoptimistic ref" -- Tom Nowell)
Otherwise usually crew ("Quite spry & fit, & willing to wear a big costume & run around a lot" -- various event organisers)
"My other oversized foam weapon is THE LORD" -- Questionable Content
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Champion
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| Ian, Dark Times is on the 28th-30th of September so it doesn't clash Just had a quick nesy through and looks pretty interesting. Love the idea of the Flayde
Dark Light LRP
www.darklightlrp.com
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I do talk a good fight
Group: System Moderators
Last Login: Today @ 9:40 PM
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Ah, excellent, thanks Trez. As usual I don't know my else from my arbow.
http://www.hyboriantales.com
PD: Ghostdance ("The most irritating curse I've ever encountered" -- NPC played by H.)
Riftworld: Rossar Kuug ("Clearly mad, because he thinks he's a Com-Trow Skirmisher" - Aela)
Hyborian Tales: Crew, cook, dogsbody, general labourer, toilet cleaner ("Dangerously overoptimistic ref" -- Tom Nowell)
Otherwise usually crew ("Quite spry & fit, & willing to wear a big costume & run around a lot" -- various event organisers)
"My other oversized foam weapon is THE LORD" -- Questionable Content
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and Minimeister
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Sunday, April 06, 2008 8:31 AM
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fat goth (5/21/2007)
Thanks - first thing I'll do is start putting this into pdf format then and update that way (forums are easier to edit but I didn't think about reading it for the first time!!)
Good. If you put your first draft of what you want your game to be about than that makes a good leaping off point, a sort of "vision statement" if you use it as it's meant to be used rather than corporate shitification of said concept.
theme - think film style fantasy rather than D&D style fantasy. Setting is loosely Ancient (eg Conan) rather than Mediaeval so leather andchain armour rather than full plate, no black powder, andNon Tolkien world but Tolkien is great for costume/general theme reference. Magic is rare and powerful - no point and click magic is the intention. That means no magic missiles, no lesser/greater heals, no magic weapons....well there are legends of some.....
Check, you want interesting magic. I hope you've got that all planned out as currently they're looking a bit uninspired and unbalanced. May I also say, why not have base hits as say, 4/loc. That would encourage more heroic play surely? Ooh, and if you trade in 2 hits you get an extra point to spend on non-warrior or Artisan/magic user? To represent time spent studying.
We're hoping for many subgames within the overall game - not sure I get what you mean by "what complexity are we aiming for" but I can't think of a reason why we'd want to limit it. The overridingguideline though is to make the game very simple to get into, but very complex if you choose to delve deeper. Eg we're trying to cater for the guy who wants to turn up and roleplay but isn't too fussed about downtimes or rulesmongering - but equally we want to provide enough to get your teeth into if you're all about the power playing ie building empires, political wrangling, economics etc
Right, let me lay out my credentials. When it comes to economics, I'm a pleb. However, I fear I may be less of a pleb than you. ;-) The first mistake of any fantasy game is that it needs money sources and money sinks. If it helps, think of money as being like magical healing. You want your players to feel the pinch and to fear what happens if they can't make supply balance with demand. Classically money is just "there" and so you get hyperinflation and R/L cake becomes worth it's weight in "silver".
That's a matter for background, I'd think seriously about having a map if I were you. Then you can consider the possibilites of cultures which, whilst possibly monolithic, are possibly more interesting than division on racial grounds solely.
What else:
My god. You really like your warrior skills. If you're going to rank everything, that's fine, I'm happy with the 3 tier system, but if I may suggest:
1) Don't let starting characters have tier 3 skills. These are generally really rather minty.
2) Define your calls somewhere, so far I've found "Through" "Crush" "Strength" "Fear" and "Locationtozero". That's before you've looked at magic. (And strikedown) Also define what they _mean_. It will simplify your system if everyone knows what the calls do, but _not_ how to produce them.
3) Bushcraft is a better name than "woodskills". (Thank Sturrock & co from HT)
4) Rather than escapology, have rope use. Then you can contest rope use against a number of things including escape attempts.
5) Lockpicking is clearly an "Artisan" skill, accessible after you reach level 2 in Blacksmith and level 2 in Jeweller (possibly silversmith, goldsmith?) as locks are actually a lot more complicated than you seem to think and a lot more fun.
6) Tier 3 skills could include the leap from Journeyman to Master through creation of a "Masterpiece" i.e. a superb sword. Or Gemcutter, for tier 3 jewellers who could make ooooohhhh I don't know, some sort of magic focus jewel object? :-p (Your system is quite open and I suspect unintentionally so about that.)
7) Going back to economics, crafting should be VERY expensive for your MC versions considering what you want them to do. (You basically have superior and MC and have filed off the serial numbers from CP.)
8) Stalking is broken. OK?
9) Constitution is why you shouldn't have tier 3 skills at start of game. Unless you want immortals?
10) I recommend artisan- Herbalist with tier 3 specialisations in alchemist and barber and probably combine it with forage rather than nicking CP's rubbish system. Why should ranger's gather herbs if they know SFA about them? How can Alchemists work if they can't find the herbs? If you're going to have poisons then tier 3 "maintainence needed" skills are the way forwards.
11) Also consider "dangerous dan the dagger merchant". Have a statement about how combat works (e.g. you can only CALL damage once per second*)
QUESTION: What does armour do? Apart from look call. Reductive or ablative damage? Please share. Will it affect magic use?
Have stalking come off Tracking in the skill tree! That makes sense and reduces it from "Really ridiculous" to "Ridiculous".
Have combinations of Artisan skills for downtime with uptime skills, e.g. Trappers can benefit from being woodwrights, blacksmiths etc.
You have neglected to have first aid OR herbalism in your rules. This play test will be bloody indeed. And possibly quite short. :-p Again Herbalism is the way forward and what the hell, just call them "Healers" or "Wise-ards".
I recommend stealing the GD rules for alchemical and "nursing" healing and bunging them
e.g.
Apprentice Herbalism (Forage for x herbs, apply 1 herbal bandage per location. MAke various potions, e.g. sleeping dust etc)
Journeyman (combo forager l2 and 2 bandages /location + brew more advanced potions + add time to death count)
Tier 3 Specialisations
Alchemist
(forager 3) Research Potion/poison.
Barber
Re-attach limbs, 4 bandages, Add time to death count x2
OK, that's enough frothing. I'm going to bed now.
*Which is actually how the 1s rule works.
There is only overconfidence and terror.
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Heroic Knight
Group: System Moderators
Last Login: Monday, August 11, 2008 11:09 AM
Posts: 201,
Visits: 494
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| thats fantastic - exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks for the time you put in to do that. Here follows an enormous post in response to each of your points! We do have a "vision statement" for the game - I just haven't put it up yet (will go in the general world guide I think unless I find somewhere more appropriate for it) Magic - very young art and as such there will be limited knowledge about this at the start of the game (so you're not likely to see very much on this in the rulebook). Its very much a FOIP issue. Hits - the aim of character generation is to allow people to mix and match their skills, as representative of what they spend their time doing. Anyone can buy the body dev skill but it represents you spending a proportion of your time building up your resistance. Hence why base hits will be only 1 per. I think this effectively works the same way as your trade in option but tell me if I'm wrong. Economic - absolutely agree with you. No idea if I'm more of a pleb than you! To give you some idea we're working on a computer-based model using AI learning to develop the economics in the game world which should help define imports, exports, trade routes etc etc Map - its there - its not at a level of quality I'm happy with yet but I may put up an interim version very soon. onto the numbered points... 1. level 3 skills are intended to be very very good. I'm also a strong advocate of the school which says starting characters should be not far removed from long term characters - in fact this is one of the points in our vision. We might not agree on this  2. Good point - I'm compiling a list at the moment but I'll try and put it up soon 3. Bushcraft is much better - Ian, do you mind if I steal this term? 4. Rope use is also better 5. I take your point but I think I'm going to stick with this as you don't need to be able to create a lock to be able to pick it 6. Great idea - will use this. I think we actually discussed this fairly early on and then | | | |