u/OompaLoompaGodzilla

Er VAR alltid så inkonsekvent??

I'm making a rules lite, classless d20 game (w/4 tiers of results) that wants to focus on roleplay, but still have some depth to combat, with room for lots of creativity and on-the-go strategies. All while being beginner friendly.

As a disclaimer; I know the proposed mechanics aren't especially original, but would love your thoughts on the problems and questions I'm facing.

The system will use weapon and armor kits. So there's light weapons(daggers etc), medium weapons(sword, rapiers etc) and heavy weapons(greatswords, warhammers etc). And similar for armor.

1st option:
have a separate stat, not connected to the 4 attributes(DEX,STR,INT,CHA) representing "combat ability". So +3 for your combat ability let's you do weapon attacks with +3, no matter the kit your using. Here, every character is on equal ground wielding a warhammer, and it allows for every type of character to try whatever weapon they want. You get total freedom. But as a beginner you might not realize that using a dagger stealthily will often come with DEX tests. Or when you wanna smash a door with your warhammer but realize your character has +0 STR. There's no mechanics to inform the players as to what might be the better choice.

By time new players will learn what they're good at and what should be left to other teammates. But doesn't it feel kinda bad the first couple of times? And there's also the aspect of bringing boundaries to help creativity. If everyone can wield any weapon it might be harder to think of solutions than if the players know that this one PC is crazy good with his dagger because he's so dexterous, so he should totally sneak up onto the roof to backstab the guard.

2nd option:
I think something as simple as this could work:
Light weapons use DEX as attack modifier, and heavy weapons use STR.
Light weapons can be concealed on your person and crits do 3xdamage not 2x. They have the lowest average damage.
Heavy weapons give +2 to destroying objects, and average damage is equal to medium weapons, but tier 3 results do a bunch of damage, while a tier 1 result does very little(a weapon for the gambling man!)
For the medium weapon kit I'm not sure exactly how to make it unique. But I'm thinking of just having it be the most reliable and diverse, allowing DEX,STR or INT to be used as attack modifier(there's not much magic in my game so INT will not be used for spell casting regularly)

This alternative limits the players a bit, but also guides them, making the dexterous person pick up the light kit., so that when they wanna use their dagger in the situation that the fiction implies the dagger would excel, they don't feel stupid, punished or frustrated, because the relevant stat is already their strong suit.

Also, when it comes to armor, where heavy armor grants more HP than light and medium.. Without any mechanical differences heavy armor is just always best, so here it's more obvious that some mechanical differences should be implemented. Like having high strength negate the punishment to tests related to swimming, acrobatics.

I must say option 2 seems to be the better one. But this route kinda creates a limited number of archetypes in my game. There's the sneaky and dexterous rogue-archetype, the big strong brute-archetype, the high charisma smooth talker, and the calculating, intelligent archer that shoots arrows from afar.

Option 1 has no archetypes from the rulebook itself, letting players decide what their archetype is, at the cost of it not being awarded mechanically, maybe making the archetypes less clear in gameplay, thereby also making RP more demanding as the game doesn't feed the players with consistent "archetype moments".

Maybe a bit on the side, but I think draw steel has surprisingly many mechanics that could easily fit into a rules lite game. The big ones are the set success tiers and the death mechanic. Do you have any other rules worth adding?

I'm asking a bit because I'm working on my own ttrpg but also to highlight some of what you guys think are great rules/concepts that are elegant, dramatic or just fun!

Looking to try draw steel but having trouble finding how to get in touch with other Norwegian players.

Like on weekends or after work. 100km in less than 5 hours or stuff like that? Something that you feel helps you prepare for long days on the bike, or simply just gives you motivation for those weekday/weekend trips?

A quick rundown of the system:

• It's a d20 roll-over system.
• Players slot a standard array (8, 10, 12, 14) into four stats: STR, DEX, INT, and CHA(level 1).
• Standard "Weapon Attacks" have their own separate stat, which starts at a TN of 6(level 1). Here, the damage scales up in tiers. 6-9=weak hit, 10-13=good hit, 14-17=solid, 18+= a perfect hit.

But!
Because a weapon attack has a TN of 6, it’s mathematically easier to pull off than a maneuver requiring an attribute test(8-14). I'm worried players will just spam basic attacks because it’s the "safe" and optimal choice, without exploring more creative maneuvers. But at the same time... attacking with your weapon should perhaps be the most effective in a combat situation. But yeah, unsure if there is a math problem here.

Anyways, I've found a ruling the GM can use. If you go for a creative weapon attack(Pinning the enemy to a wall with your dagger, slashing your greatsword to hit two enemies etc), you make two rolls:

• Roll 1 (Weapon Attack vs TN 6) - This determines the damage
• Roll 2 (Attribute test(TN 8-14 at level 1) - Determines if the narrative effect succeeds.

Hit the weapon attack but fail the test? You deal damage but don't achieve the narrative effect. Miss the attack but pass the test? No damage but they're pinned to the wall / they dodge the sweeping sword but are now trembling with fear from watching your might(maybe -2 to their next attack on the PC).

So im looking for some input and insights from you guys...

1. does the core math gap (TN 6 vs TN 8-14) make combat stale? Or should using your weapon in combat be optimal, and creative ideas be something that is used only when it comes natural to players or the situation is dire enough(Enemies will be design with their own creative attacks to help give inspiration to players for what's possible)?
2. Do you think this ruling is a good way to support GMs dealing with creative ideas from players?
3. Does rolling twice slow down this rules-lite game too much or is it dramatic enough to stay the way it is?

What do you think about CC in rules lite games and what do you think are some great examples of CC in a rules lite TTRPG?

My two cents:
There's so few resources to take away from the PCs. There's HP, the action economy, debuffs to tests and attacks and potentially the characters gear. There's also movement, but since my game is played without a grid, just theater of mind, this becomes a bit hard to implement as distances aren't a big factor in combat.

And being that my system only allows 1 action per turn, having CC take away player's actions would take away their turns. "You've been disarmed. You need to spend an action to get your weapon back".. Just feels a bit lame.

-2 or -4 to attacks/tests works better IMO, but I think it needs to be reserved for tough enemies to really feel dramatic. If not it almost becomes mundane and bothersome. But even if used sparringly it doesn't really make the enemy feel that unique. A penalty like this will be something my players face in other circumstances as well, for example if they want to try something the GM considers them to have a disadvantage at.

Enemies smashing players weapons to bits as an example is a fun and unique way of taking gear away from players. But this can't happen often at all, because it would just become so tedious getting new stuff all the time.

Firstly, what is my goal?
My goal is to create a rules lite TTRPG thats focused on narrative play and RP. Like Knave but not for dungeon crawling, but social interactions, heists, infiltrations, battle etc. If a TTRPG is a play put into a system, my game wants to stay close the the “play” part. I want the game to be approachable to people completely new to TTRPGs(which is why the setting is low fantasy), but also aid new players with having fun with roleplaying and creative problem solving.

Core mechanic:

When the outcome of an attempted task is uncertain the GM will ask the player to roll a test.
Here, the player rolls a d20 and needs to meet or beat their TN for the appropriate attribute. There's Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence & Charisma.
But if the GM considers the circumstances of succeeding at the task to be difficult, they may have the players subtract -2, -4 or -6 from the roll. Luckily this works the other way around as well, meaning if the player, or the group, has come up with an action/circumstances the GM considers beneficial they may gain +2, +4, or +6.

The GM is to be liberal with these bonuses, especially with new players and in the opening of the game, so that players learn early on the benefit(and extra fun) of being creative and problem solving.

But here's my challenge; I also want the players to get into roleplaying by rewarding them for taking actions that are true to character. Why? Because I enjoy games with RP, as im sure many others do, and I wish for more people to experience the fun of TTRPGs.
But a common problem I see is that players often choose the easiest way to achieve the goal - even if it goes against their character. a PC who's honest and naive quickly becomes cynical and comfortable with lies when they need to sneak into the heavily guarded grand hall. This is of course natural, but I think adding some mechanics will help players stay in character, creating more moments of RP and where they truly feel the fun of staying true to character.

So the thought of creating “Traits” connected to personality naturally arises.

In combat i have an idea for a potential solution:
On a turn a PC may perform up to three actions; movement, an action, and some dialogue/RP.
Theres two kind of actions: Maneuvers and weapon attacks. Maneuvers will most likely demand a test, and with a weapon attack you roll a d20 and every increment of 4 above your TN, you deal more damage(As an example: 1-5=0 dmg, 6-9= 1 dmg, 10-13=3, 14-17=6 dmg,18+=10 dmg).

I want maneuvers that intend to do damage to have players roll a dice pool(Lets just say 2d6. So a weapon attack does a set amount of damage based on tiers, and a successful damaging maneuver does 3d6 damage.)

So if you choose to do a maneuver, I want some way to categorize the maneuver, so that the traits can activate ONLY UPON ITS SUCCESS. So if a character has the “Chaotic” trait and succeeds on a dexterity test to jump from a stairwell onto a chandelier to cross the room and flykick the bad guy - they get to add 2d6 to their damage roll, because the maneuver is in line with their character.
This creates a lot of questions of course.

• A big one being how to categorize maneuvers. The easy way out is to let it be up to the GM, but it would be interesting to see if this could be put into a sort of (rules lite) overview.
• Another issue is that a lot of actions can be done in a lot of different ways, so players could convince the GM theyre swinging from the chandelier in a very professional, calculated way, making it so that it falls under the “analytic” trait, a trait almost the exact opposite of chaotic hehe.
• Im also unsure how to reward maneuvers(and tests outside of combat) that don't intend to do damage.

In the end, I really want something that can aid new players to actually live out their character and their traits and have fun doing it. But Im afraid it will add too much rules to make it worth it.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you have any feedback?

And whether im scrapping this idea or not, Im looking for someone to bounce ideas off of for fleshing out the rest of this system, so please let me know if that could be something your interested in. 

Edit: perhaps an idea would be to create some value-tags that each character gets, and if they try something that's true to their characters values, if they fail the test they get +4 on their next roll. Making it more fun and less risky to stay in character.

I want to create a game that's like Knave but for RP-heavy, narrative style of play and aimed towards people new to ttrpgs.

And I'm playing with the idea of creating traits based on the PCs personality that plays into combat and skill checks. So a player would create their character, and get to chose a trait/class based on their PCs personality.

So if you chose "lawful" you would get +2 on charisma-checks if you haven't lied and in combat you would deal bonus damage if you didn't attack using dirty tricks of any kind.

My intention is to help players get some "creative bounderies" so that they don't get too overwhelmed with options and get a loose direction as to how you may approach combat. And also aid players to stay true to character and live out the fantasy of their character and getting rewarded for it.

What do you think of having the PCs personalities play into combat in this way?

I've kinda lost steam after some months where there's little time and energy when I hit the gym, and being a guy who wants to pursue training enjoyment I'm wondering how to enjoy training even when it's not the main focus.
So there's the question in the title, but I also have some specific ones:

1. Do you find it more enjoyable with a low exercise selection when life is busy? ( I do full body 3xweek, with 3 separate sessions. But I'm considering just using 1 so that I don't "spread myself out too thin", but rather can focus on fewer movements.)

2. Do you find deloads aid your long term training enjoyment? How do you do deloads? I've worked out every week for 27 weeks straight, mostly 3xweek, sometimes less. But I'm wondering if my lack of enjoyment recently could be helped by a deload/break.

3. How locked in does an intermediate lifter have to be to see progress? Does coming in to workout tight on time and tired make it too hard to progress or is that just a mindset thing? What does it take to progress when the gym isn't your top priority?

Trenger litt avkobling, og er også interessert i å lære om gode sykkelruter for en som bor i gamlebyen. Gjerne med litt fine landskap og ro.

Jeg har vært på endel dates, og kanskje er det «gentlemannen» i meg, men når jeg hører venner fortelle at de hadde sex med jenter etter første date klør jeg meg litt i hodet. Det har aldri hendt for min del. Aldri i nærheten. Jeg føler jeg og min date etablerer en slags dannet tone og felles forståelse om at dette er for å bli kjent. Noen ganger avsluttes første Date med et kyss, men så er det fort farvel. Så jeg bare skjønner ikke hvordan man tar seg til å si «vil du bli med meg hjem?» etter date 1. Hvordan setter man egentlig tonen og initierer til at det kan gå den retningen i det hele tatt? Spør både som nysgjerrig og en som lurer på hva en selv kan gjøre for å kanskje få det til, siden det jo ikke høres så verst ut i ny og ne.

Either for providing unique benefits or making your sessions more time effective.

Lunges for both leg volume and grip work, single leg rdls for improving stability and hamstring hypertrophy and so on.

Share your favourite exercises that smack 2 or more birds with one stone!

I'm making a rules lite TTRPG inspired by OSR, but with more heroic PCs and a focus on more social, role-play type play rather than pure dungeon crawls.

I want combat to be fast and dramatic, but not super lethal for the PCs. I also want it to be forgiving for complete newbies. So the direction I'm exploring currently is this:

When you get taken to 0 HP in combat, you're "downed". When you get downed you're unable to act until combat is resolved. You also get a permanent scar that decreases 1 of your stats(STR/DEX/INT/CHA). at 3 scars your character is dead. When combat is resolved a fellow PC can bring you to half HP.

The idea here is to make it more forgiving, giving new players a grasp of the game while still being able to proceed with their character. It also helps create character arcs with perhaps the beautiful one getting a scar across the face, reducing her CHA, and hurting her ego.

Some things to improve would be making downed PCs able to do something when they're downed, without causing a Yo-yo effect where they get back up, downed & rinse and repeat.
I also am considering making it a check for the other PCs to get them back up when combat is ended. So that on a failed check the downed PCs take 2 scars, on a successful check they take 1, and on a nat 20 they take 0 scars.

But I am sure this death mechanic can be improved upon, so my question is what do you think about this, and how would you improve on it?

Currently owning a pair of Sony wh-1000xm4 these two seems to be my two most appealing options.

I think the bose beat out the Sennheisers if you look at it objectively, but with Bose having removed functions from their customers Im not sure i want to give them my money. I also prefer the more silent design of the sennheisers, and they seem to look better on, staying closer to the head all the way around.

My biggest gripes would be that the mic sounds bad, and that the ANC is a tad behind. Also the QCs are foldable, but im trying not to let that minor convinience weigh too much.

What are your thoughts on these two headphones?

Im situated in norway with a budget capped at around 650$, as ive considered the apple airpod max 2, but not really willing to pay more than those.

Ive kinda used my headphones as allrounders, using them in my office, the gym, out and about and at home. Dont really use them for movies, mostly music, podcasts, social media & calls.

I like physical buttons pver touch, mainly because i find the touch can be triggered from steam when cooking, laying in bed etc. (At least the mx4 did.)

I would love to be impressed audiowise, but im no expert and will most likely just use the out-of-the-box sound.
I would love if they excelled playing my favorite artists like The War on Drugs, Daft punk, norwegian folk/country, Røyksopp.. and george michael!
I think the mx4 are quite bass heavy so thats something im used to, but would love to get adjusted to a less bass heavy sounds if it means more details etc.

Noise cancelling is also something i want. I know ANC isnt that great at blocking out talking, but working in an open office some ANC to help block out all the talking would be great.

I also will use it for calls, and the mx4 was horrible at blocking out background noise, making the conversation really bad on the other end with just basic traffic.

Comfort is also important as i wear them for lonh periods of time at work. Its also nice if theyre able to stay firmy on, as i as of now will probably continue to workout with over ear headphones.

I also wish for something thats low friction. Everytime i answered a call on my iphone with the sonys connected i would have to manually change on the iphone to get the caller on my headset. Sony would also never turn of automatically, sometimes draining battery if i put them away without remembering to turn them of. They also take quite some time to connect to my iphone, leaving me waiting several seconds before the music would play on the headphones.

From my research my top 3 contenders are currently Bose QC ultra II, apple airpods max 2, and sennheiser momentum 5.
The recent removal of features on the bose has me worried, and with its better sound quality the momentum 5 might surpass them for me. The somewhat weaker ANC and comfort sounds to me to be barely noticable.
The airpods max 2 would probably score high for me in regards to frictionless everydayuse with my iphone and mac, as well as physical buttons. The mic as well seems drastically better than the competition. But i cant really see myself workout in them? As well as them not being foldable and having low battery.

Anyways! Would love some insights and tips from you guys!