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I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

Last post 01-24-2008, 7:31 AM by Ogremindes. 32 replies.
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  •  12/30/2007 8:05:51 PM 803969 in reply to 803967

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    Pask Neathhallow
    Natural Were-rat Thief
    MIND:5 (5) 10cp
    ATTRIBUTESDEFECTS
    BODY:6 (6) 12cp
    Alternate Form 1 (fully powered Hybrid form) 9cp
    Alternate Form 1 (partially powered Rat form) 3cp
    Combat Technique - Concealment 1 1cp
    Combat Technique: Lightning Reflexes 1 1cp
    Gadgets 1 - Thief's Gear 2cp
    Heightened Awareness 1 1cp
    Highly Skilled 3 3cp
    Sixth Sense - Danger 1cp

    30 + 24 = 54  cp. Allowed 50 + 4
    Achilles'  Heel  -  Silver 2bp
    Involuntary Change - full moon, Rat form 2bp
    SOUL:5 (5) 10cp
    HP:55/55
    ACV:5
    DCV:3
    OUTFIT CHANGES
    Cloak, loose pants and wraps around arms and legs.
    (changes)
    INVENTORY

    Satchel containing:
      Thief's Gear (Gadgets attribute)
      6 knives (scabbards attached to satchel strap)
    SKILLS
    Acrobatics - 2 (Jumps) 15sp
    Burglary - 2 (Safe-cracking) 6sp
    Climbing - 1 (Walls) 2sp
    Disguise - 1 (Costume) 3sp
    Mechanics - 1 (Traps) 2sp
    Poisons - 1 (Synthetic) 4sp
    Sleight-of-Hand - 2 (Lock-picking) 4sp
    Stealth - 2 (Silent movement, Concealment) 7sp

    Unarmed Attack 1 (Strikes) 5sp
    Thrown Weapons 1 (Knives) 3sp
    Unarmed Defense 1 (Strikes) 5sp

    50sp. Allowed 20+40 (highly skilled attribute)






    Hybrid Form
    Fully Powered Alternate Form
    MIND:5 (5)
    ATTRIBUTESDEFECTS
    BODY:8 (8) 4cp
    Alternate Form 1 (partially powered Rat form)
    Combat Technique - Concealment 1
    Combat Technique: Lightning Reflexes 1
    Gadgets 1 - Thief's Gear
    Heightened Awareness 1
    Highly Skilled 3
    Sixth Sense - Danger

    Combat Technique: Leap Attack 1cp
    Heightened Senses - Dark-Sight 1cp
    Massive Damage - Claws 2 4cp
    Natural Weapons - Claws 1cp

    11cp. Allowed 11
    Achilles'  Heel  -  Silver
    Involuntary Change - full moon, Rat form

    Less Capable - Manual Dexterity - 1bp
    SOUL:5 (5)
    HP:65/65
    ACV:6
    DCV:4
    Rat Form
    Partially Powered Alternate Form
    MIND:3 (3) 6cp
    ATTRIBUTESDEFECTS
    BODY:3 (3) 6cp
    Natural Weapons - Claws 1cp
    Heightened Senses - Dark-sight 1cp
    Heightened Awareness 1 1cp
    Sixth Sense - Danger 1cp

    22 cp. Allowed 10 + 12 cp
    Diminutive - rodent-sized 4bp
    Physical Impairment - no hands 3bp
    Physical Impairment - can't talk 3bp
    Achilles'  Heel  -  Silver 2bp
    SOUL:3 (3) 6cp
    HP:30/30
    ACV:3
    DCV:1

    My Site: Ogremindes.net. Blog, Art and Warhammer Miniatures. Come and comment on my work!

    Myndes Felin on Discworld MUD
  •  12/30/2007 8:32:04 PM 803971 in reply to 803969

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    As you may have noticed, I don't think we should bother with skill specializations --On second thoughts, maybe we probably should. Also, the reason I want everyone involved in GM-ing is that I'm not really confident I can do a good job, at least creativity-wise. The more people running the thing, the more time I have to think up new encounters and the more I can get away with things like fairly plain fights. 

    One of the reasons I think Tri-stat is good for the framework is that it is very free-form, as GM you can use as many or as few rules as you like. Just so long as you know roughly what the various abilities do, you can run a non-combat encounter at least. And if you know the rules and are willing to fudge things a bit when things go wrong, you can run a good fight. Oh, and I feel that the GM should run most, if not all, dice rolls (change, combat or whatever), and do them in secret, rather than using the board's dice roller. There's a decent virtual dice roller at http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm.

    My Site: Ogremindes.net. Blog, Art and Warhammer Miniatures. Come and comment on my work!

    Myndes Felin on Discworld MUD
  •  12/30/2007 9:50:38 PM 803973 in reply to 803971

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    I could make a few puzzle rooms in the dungeons when we get there.
  •  12/30/2007 11:02:18 PM 803974 in reply to 803973

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    Good, good! Just the sort of thing I'm talking about!

    Ok, I probably should write some stuff about the setting...

    A small but skilled party of the expendable and the criminal are, with the promise of great reward, sent from The Eye, the largest city and bastion of order in the world, into the Wild Zone, a realm of pure chaos, insofar as much as chaos can be pure. Their mission is to recover the Rod of Portals, an artifact that can create stable links between The Eye and other shards of reality. This artifact was stolen from the Knights Justicar, an order dedicated to Mannan Rex, God of Law. One can be pretty sure that their promises will be honored. Nothing is known about the thief, but the rod's connection to The Eye has allowed the order to trace it's movements to an extent.

    The Wild Zone is made up of countless, possibly infinite, tiny shards of reality from when the Rebirth of Magic shattered time and space. It is a place where magic runs wild, and where the Old Gods, driven mad by their long exile, hold their domains. The environments within these shards are infinitely varied, some may be 'indoors', others out. They may seem normal, or they may be twisted in any number or ways. These shards are linked by random, shifting portals. The order will do what they can too keep the party on the thief's trail. There will be no return to The Eye without the rod.



    My Site: Ogremindes.net. Blog, Art and Warhammer Miniatures. Come and comment on my work!

    Myndes Felin on Discworld MUD
  •  12/31/2007 1:53:36 AM 803975 in reply to 803974

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    GM Notes

    GM duties will split amongst the willing players. These players will take it it turns to present a single 'shard', a fragment of reality, and the obstacles therein. A shard can be any size, can contain any environment, indoors or out, and can have any properties, for example, a shard could have lower gravity, or allow faster healing, or be on a different scale to the PCs.

    While GM, you are in complete control of the game. The Tri-Stat rules and the Change List are provided as tools to assist the GM, not as restrictions on what can be done or how to do it. That said, anything that carries over to the next shard should be codified in the rules. I (Ogremindes) can help with that if you're not sure of how to go about it, and I'm sure other players that are comfortable with the rules can to.

    Don't think that the change table needs to be rolled on every post (that could really mess up a combat encounter), or even every encounter. Do bear in mind that random transformations are at the heart of I See Dice, but also be aware that 'random' may be from the perspective of the PCs. Also, don't believe you have to follow the rules -at all- while running the game. You don't need to reveal your dice rolls (and you can, and probably should, take over most or all of the dice rolls for the game), or even how you come to your results. Just so long as you play fair, the other players have fun and you don't make things too difficult for the next GM anything goes.

    As for your duties as a GM, simply putting in some time every day to run the game is the main requirement. And keep things moving. If a player has been gone for 24 hours take over his/her character 'til the player returns. If you're going to be away, give warning, and if you'll be gone for more than a couple of days pass control of the encounter to another player (along with the necessary info). Be sure to allow enough time for every player to decide an action in situations where it's important (such as combat).

    Oh, and don't be afraid to fudge dice results and stuff if it makes the game more fun. If you designed a monster too powerful for the party, maybe some wild magic will cut it down to size...

    Some ideas:
    • Since your own character will probably have to stand aside for any puzzles you make, you could have a puzzle be based around the other PCs having to rescue yours.
    • Although returning to a past shard is generally impossible, you could still have a linking story or even an overarching puzzle in your shards. If the other players have forgotten the key detail then your character could remember at least a bit of it.
    • The Combat Initiative rules may be a hassle in the forum environment. Instead, maybe have all the players announce their actions at the start of the round, allowing conditionals (like: I'll throw a knife at an injured monster if possible, otherwise the nearest), and then resolving the round all at once.


    My Site: Ogremindes.net. Blog, Art and Warhammer Miniatures. Come and comment on my work!

    Myndes Felin on Discworld MUD
  •  12/31/2007 3:14:28 AM 803976 in reply to 803975

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    Really great to see that you are working so hard on this. I've been rather busy lately, so I haven't read through this thread very thoroughly, but I do like what I see. I'm especially interested in the fact that GM rolls would allow offsite rolls, meaning that the game could be expanded to less deserted forums once we get the hang of it. That is, provided any of you are interested in having more than us five (assuming Sai checks in at some point) get involved.

    In terms of acting as a GM, I do find creative endeavors rather stressful, but I suppose I could give an attempt once I've seen some examples. I'm always slow with that kind of thing and have reason to be occupied rather frequently now, so I wouldn't anticipate shards from me more than occasionally.

    What is the expected timeline for us to start? More specifically, when would you expect us to have character sheets ready?

    It's not enough to succeed, others must fail.
    What if there were no hypothetical questions?
  •  12/31/2007 4:07:21 AM 803977 in reply to 803976

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    I don't think the rules are going to be much more realized before the start (... character advancement! I better put something about that in the GM notes..) so we basically can start when everyone has a character ready (I better put up the thread). The rules can be clarified as necessary. I had better think of a suitable first encounter, a smallish fight to start to get the feel of the system, probably.

    As for moving, well the location doesn't really matter, but I wouldn't be sure that this game could handle many players.

    My Site: Ogremindes.net. Blog, Art and Warhammer Miniatures. Come and comment on my work!

    Myndes Felin on Discworld MUD
  •  1/2/2008 12:37:25 AM 803991 in reply to 803977

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    I'm largely satisfied with the change list now. Though I feel it would be more interesting if there were some more 'harmless' changes (numbers 1-20), reducing the chance for the ones already there. There'd be room for four more doing that, (well, five, but gender reversal probably should stay at the higher probablity). Of course there is no requirement for the list to ever be used, as GMs can create and use changes of their own as and when they desire.

    Urgh, I just relised I have a couple of doubles in the list. damnit. ...one now, but it's an uncommon...

    My Site: Ogremindes.net. Blog, Art and Warhammer Miniatures. Come and comment on my work!

    Myndes Felin on Discworld MUD
  •  1/7/2008 2:42:35 PM 804003 in reply to 803991

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    My Braaaaain!
  •  1/7/2008 8:36:02 PM 804004 in reply to 804003

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    I think I've gotten rid of all the doubles now... and what's so brain-hurting?

    My Site: Ogremindes.net. Blog, Art and Warhammer Miniatures. Come and comment on my work!

    Myndes Felin on Discworld MUD
  •  1/11/2008 10:24:30 PM 804012 in reply to 804004

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    Heh, I just remembered a book I have for the Fighting Fantasy rpg system (I bought the book for 20 cents or so at a school fete),  which I could use for three sizable shards.

    My Site: Ogremindes.net. Blog, Art and Warhammer Miniatures. Come and comment on my work!

    Myndes Felin on Discworld MUD
  •  1/13/2008 10:54:59 AM 804019 in reply to 804012

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    Too many rules, and I'm not sure what point they serve. I See Dice got bogged down when it had too many rules - and they were introduced one at a time over months.

    I have to confess I've come to hate learning new RPG systems. In most campaigns, most skills & abilities are worthless, and you have to guess which ones will be relevant to the adventure at hand. If you guess wrong, or don't spend points efficiently, or role badly for stats, you spend the whole campaign being ineffective and left behind.

    All too often I've gotten stuck in campaigns where other players are vastly overpowered because they knew some extra rule quirk from some supplement that I'd never see. Half dragons in AD&D second edition were a particularly obnoxious example.

    That plus the number of times I've had to learn a new system, only to have the game never start or only play once, gets very discouraging.

    So I'd say keep it simple for your players. If you want a lot of rules, manage them yourself, or introduce them one at a time while the game is already going, so that people know why they are playing.
  •  1/13/2008 6:33:41 PM 804020 in reply to 804019

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    I don't think it's too bad by way of rules. As a player, the only thing you need to get from the Tri-stat rules is character creation, as a GM you also need to be able to recognize what the characters are capable of. If you have that you can do the rest by the seat of your pants, so to speak. The extra rules for changes boil down to: changes take precedence over natural abilities, equipment takes precedence over other changes, remove changes that are doing nothing.

    Getting left behind shouldn't be an issue as long as you can do something useful in a fight (including healing, incapacitating enemies and such). Skills aren't that big a deal in this game. There are ways for GMs to deal with overpowered characters. Such as arbitrary turning them into monkeys. But I don't think anyone playing would be trying to break the game anyway.

    Come to think of it, the Tri-stat rules also encourage creative use of abilities, so even attributes with no given combat effect could be used in a fight. Outside of fights it's likely to be more about what the players think of than what the characters can do.

    Did my waffling make sense?

    My Site: Ogremindes.net. Blog, Art and Warhammer Miniatures. Come and comment on my work!

    Myndes Felin on Discworld MUD
  •  1/18/2008 8:28:39 PM 804044 in reply to 804020

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    Oh, and there is the Dynamic Powers attribute that lets you do pretty much anything within a theme if you're worried about picking the right skills.

    And now for something completely differnent: Pask's human form.

    My Site: Ogremindes.net. Blog, Art and Warhammer Miniatures. Come and comment on my work!

    Myndes Felin on Discworld MUD
  •  1/21/2008 8:39:40 AM 804053 in reply to 804044

    Re: I See Dice Dungeon - Development Thread

    Firstly, Hey Ogremindes. Long time no see.

    Looks like you're putting a lot of thought into this RP of yours. Anything I can help you with?

    Also,

    <-Acanous, in case you forgot ;)

     

    What in the zot has happened to the User interface?

    Jeesh, it's like going from a SNES to a Wii.


    when time is forgotten, the world sleeps, and monsters roam, and demons creep, when fear is king, and death is sweet, I wait for you there, in shadow deep...
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