u/urquhartloch

Im still working on weapons, hp, and attacks. Im trying to figure out how to mix them and keep it interesting.

How it currently works is you roll your attack dice pool and counting successes along an effect track. So if you roll 4 successes and you have an attack that looks like: 2/[W]>2/prone you would do 1 instance of weapon damage and knock your target prone. (This is oversimplified.)

Right now weapons are based on weight.

Weightless: 1 dmg

Light: 2 dmg

Moderate: 3 dmg

Heavy: 4 dmg

Players can specify weapons traits such as reach, concealed, etc. That either give combat benefits or advantage on certain tests (or the reverse in case of a drawback). These traits come at a cost of reducing damage. -1 point per benefit, +1 point per drawback.

Hp is your elemental stats. If you or a monster take 4 damage you/they lose 4 elements. (Elements determine how many dice you can roll. Its too much to explain here exactly how it works but the tldr is losing Elements reduces your dice pool depending on how you allocate the losses. You have 18 Elements.)

What I've been struggling with is attacks. 1 damage is a lot and a single weapon strike can devastate a creature.

I dont want to add hp wildly and I like that damage reduces your stats but I need some breathing room. I also dont want to give more Elements. Im struggling with coming up with attacks that have variety. I also want to give the ability to create attacks unique to your character which is not working under the current system.

Heres an interesting hypothetical. Lets say that Batman kills the Joker and turns himself in. Could he even be tried?

My curiosity rests on the fact that the Joker and supervillains like him have terrorized Gotham so much and Bruce Wayne, through his identity as Batman, have saved so many even in neighboring cities that an untainted jury is impossible.

As im designing my own system im starting to realize that some of my design issues would be fixed if I had less and less level ups. If characters were static I wouldnt need to make monsters get stronger, if monsters arent getting stronger then the player move set doesnt need to get stronger, etc.

At this point characters would get 4 basic moves/spells at character creation and if they want any more that would have to come from magic items gathered in game.

I come from playing DND and though I've read and played a bunch of non dnd systems the expectation always seems to be that something like this is for oneshots only and that for campaigns players are going to level up and get stronger, however that looks like.

Im getting ready to playtest my resolution system and only my resolution system. I dont want to test builds, players options, combat, or monsters. My biggest problem is that im having trouble creating a skill challenge only encounter.

Im hoping that there are some pre-made ones I can pick up and use.

Good afternoon everyone! Ive been researching dnd 4e and right now im trying to build a character. I love characters that can pull whatever bs is needed. Fireball? Target a specific weakness? Random utility spell/power?

The concept i had in mind was a tutor to a member or royalty or nobility. That royal member is now old enough that the swordmage is no longer needed. So the swordmage is now going off on adventures.

Here is what i have:

Race: half elf

Class: swordmage

Ability scores: str: 12, con: 16, dex:12, int: 16, wis: 14, cha: 10. (After racial)

Dilettante: eldritch strike/aggressive assault.

Class attack powers: at will: booming blade, sword burst. Encounter: undecided, daily: undecided.

Class feat: intelligent blademaster (at level 11 this will be retrained into something else once I can use eldritch strike/aggressive assault at will as a basic attack.)

For the sake of discussion i will be using the following character:

Dwarf assassin

Elements (dice)

Earth: 3(1d6)

Metal: 6(2d6)

Fire: 2(1d8)

Air: 5(2d10)

Water: 1(1d12)

Wood: 1(1d4)

Deception: advantage(2)

I will explain what these mean when relevant in the process. I just wanted to get these out ahead of time for ease of reference.

Here is how my system resolves checks in a step by step process.

1. Define the end result and process.

Start by defining what the end result of the check is. If our Dwarf assassin wants to trick a guard of the mages guild into believing that they are a member (even though they cant cast spells) by pretending to discuss magical theory. The end result is deception but their process is using the magic skill.

2. Build the dice pool.

The dice pool is built using the two identified skills plus any advantages. Each skill is made up of two different elements. For this check it will be deception (1d12(water)+2d10(air))+magic(1d8(fire)+2d10(air)+2d8(advantage(2))). So the end dice pool will be 3d8+4d10+1d12.

3. Assign a difficulty.

The GM will next assign a difficulty between hard, average, anc easy. This determines the success range. A hard check only succeeds when you roll a 1 on the dice, average is a 1 or 2, and easy is 1,2, or 3. In this case the GM decides that this will be average difficulty.

4. Determine success track.

Next, the GM decides what the success track looks like. These are the rewards based on how well the character rolls. This takes the form of X/Y>X/Y where X is the number of successes required to get Y effect. For our example the GM has decided that the track will look like:

2/Convince the guard character belong>3/Gain advantage(1) on the next deception check about belonging>1/find out the location of the target.

5. Roll and allocate successes.

Now we roll the dice pool and count successes and then allocate them to the track left to right. If we roll 3 successes we apply the first 2 to convincing the guard we belong but then we only have 1 success remaining that must be applied to the second stop along the track. Even though we might want to apply it to finding out the location of the target we cannot because we didn't get the middle result.

This works great for situations where the price of failure is you simply dont progress. The guard turns you back at the gate and nothing else happens but you need to find another way.

Here is my problem though. What happens when the price of failure is not so simple. What if the price of failure is that the guard alerts our target?

The way i have it set up right now is that its one of the conditions along the track. Instead of gaining advantage on future checks for the second result, the GM might say that an automatic effect of even making the check is that the guard alerts our target and we need to roll to remove that.

Its workable but im not super enthused with it. Is there a better way to do this?

Im new to seriously tracking my calories and trying to lose weight. Previously I would watch what I eat and limit the number of meals per day to make sure I dont get too fat.

I live a mostly sedentary lifestyle and recently (over the last 2 months) decided to try and lose some weight after seeing some older pictures of me.

My lunch today was:

Homemade Mac and cheese, 2 unsweetened applesauce cups, 2 yakult yogurt drinks, and a popsicle. Usually my lunch consists of similar food. I rotate the entree between pasta, fried rice, stir fry, and chili (all a cup and a half to 2 cups). I usually have a piece of fruit instead of the applesauce and just 1 yakult but my diet is a little funky right now due to recent dental work.

Once a month I do get pizza and a jarritos soda (eat half and then save the rest for lunches across the next two days) and on the weekends I either make myself a basic sandwich or I make a breakfast consisting of pancakes and eggs with peanut butter or a couple bowls of cereal.

It all looks to be pretty similar portion sizes. The reason why im telling you all this is because i just sat down and calculated how many calories are in my lunch. My calculations are saying that this is around 700 calories. Which might sound fine but I only eat 1 meal per day. So that lunch is all the calories im going to get until tomorrow. All of those meals are the only ones i eat that day. And I've eaten this way for years.

My activity level in previous years was largely sedentary. It still is but since may I've been biking to work three times a week (5 miles each way) and trying to work my way up to every day. Ive also been doing workouts at my desk daily since last October (mostly a handful of push-ups using the desk and squats at random points). According to online this gives me an active lifestyle(?).

Here is where im getting confused by the efforts and results. In October I weighed 250 lbs. At the end of may I weighed 230 lbs, not 235lbs, 230lbs exactly. I weighed myself this morning and I am still 230lbs. Not 227lbs, 230lbs exactly.

Lets make the introductions quick, Im a 29 year old man who has been struggling with dating in the US. I have a strong job as an engineer and while I think the biggest factor holding me back is my weight (230 lbs at 5 ft 3in) the women are just not as interested in me and the ones who are, are not that strong of contenders outside of that.

Im starting to wonder if maybe the problem is that Im in the wrong dating pool and going abroad might be the solution. I have never been outside the US but I do have some online friends in India who are making it work (Indian woman and German man). I want that for myself.

Here is where I currently am:

• Working out and losing weight. Im trying to lose weight by riding my bike in to work as often as I can. This ends up with a weekly distance of 30 miles into work (5 miles each way, 3 times a week) as well as lifting weights (5 pounds but it was what I could find for free on facebook marketplace). I cant do a pushup or situp. I tried but Im not able to for some reason. Im also trying to cut back on how much im eating. Im down to 1 meal per day that usually consists of a cup and a half of pasta with homemade marinara sauce a piece of fruit, and a yogurt and plenty of water throughout the day (gallon to a gallon and a half). Ive lost 20 pounds already but it seems to have stalled.
• Passport. I need to go down to the post office and get a passport. Ive been holding off on doing it for a while because I didnt have anywhere to go and I didnt go anywhere because I didnt have the passport. That needs to change if Im going to do this.
• Destination. I have no idea where Im going. I am called in the direction of Asia but where specifically I dont know. This is important because I want to practice the language on Duolingo so im not reliant on her English proficiency. I also want destinations to go other than to a matchmakers business. I want to see the local sights.

Location: Maryland

TLDR of the past 5 months is that tenant has been a problem and demanding to be let out of her lease but wouldnt sign any agreements. I also discovered that she has a history of evictions with 17 in the past 7 years. She has also claimed that I was a racist and misogynist pig for enforcing that rent was due on the first and having dishes in the sink (im not exaggerating). I am not sorry to see her go.

Yesterday I get a text from the tenant that she wants to end her tenancy early on May 31st and wants to sign the lease break documents Saturday.

I agreed and asked that she also bring a signed letter to the signing that she initiated it and that she agrees to give up her security deposit. While she is willing to agree to the security deposit she will not be doing the letter. Iam not signing the lease break without that letter. My concern is that she will try and file a lawsuit arguing that I created a constructive eviction or something similar. I want protection against that.

She let me know in her response that she is turning in the keys on the 31st regardless.

Assuming that she and I do not come to an agreement on Saturday I will be enforcing the rent due June 1st and proceeding with the eviction following that.

Here is where it gets complicated. She likes to travel internationally and I doubt she will give me a forwarding address when she gets back. I know she wont be at the property so I dont think that I can give that address to have her served.

Question for you about movement.

The way combat works in my system is I dont have a set "initiative" where players and enemies take their turns one at a time and do everything for the round on their turn. Instead I have a time step initiative where players and monsters declare their actions and then move along a timer track labeled 1-30 (each label is supposed to be number of seconds in a round).

Combat example: at the start of combat if player A has a heavy slam with speed 18 and a firebolt with speed 5, player B has a basic attack with a speed of 8, and a monster has a claw attack with a speed 7 the first round of combat (with no movement) might look like:

All characters decide their first action and move their token along the tracker: Player B casts firebolt at time 5, the monster makes a claw attack at time 7, and player A makes an attack at time 8.

Player B goes first because they have the fastest action (in the case of a tie the GM decides how the actions resolve). After casting Firebolt they decide to use heavy slam and so moves their token to time 23. Then the monster and Player A (because they dont have any other tactics and I dont want to complicate the example further) swing at each other twice deciding each time whether or not to continue the assault. Each time they do so they move their tracker to the next spot on the time tracker. At time 23 Player B gets to make their heavy slam and then they decide to switch back to their firebolt and move their token to time 28.

What im not so sure about is movement (which Im going to use as a basis for non attack actions). I have three options I can use:

• Each movement is 1 meter at a time. So if you want to dart in and out at a speed of 3 you can absolutely do that. Its extremely granular and the combat is incredibly dynamic and reactive to combat. So you can absolutely get hit by the lightning dragons breath attack mid stride as you race across the battlefield and not just because you ran out of movement. The problem is its every meter. So every square/hex takes you 3 seconds and is tracked individually. That might be too much bookkeeping. It also runs into the issue of a character with a speed 18 heavy slam attack not being able to hit literally anything because any target can move out of the way.
• All creatures have movement speed and thats the time cost for them to move some larger distance, say 5 meters. So you declare that you are going to move and move your time tracking token up 15 seconds and then you resolve as normal. The problem is its less dynamic as you stand around for 15 seconds waiting to move rather than actually moving. And then what about if you only needed to move 2 meters? You just wasted so much time that doesnt make sense.
• Its dynamic. So you declare "I want to move X meters" and then you move your time tracking token 3X seconds. Its more dynamic and it limits characters from being able to dart in and out but I dont like it. It has all of the second options issues and I do want skirmishers to exist.

Ultimately my preference is for the first option but Its a ton of bookkeeping to use.

My second question is if I instead have this set up wrong and maybe it shouldnt be 1-30 seconds but 1-30 with some other conversion that will make everything make more sense. I thought about making it so every 10 time is 1 second and them move speed is 1 meter/10 seconds but then that bogs down the battlefield.