Hi there! I’m gonna reveal class art every week and talk about their design as I do. I’m gonna go start to end alphabetically, so meet the Bard and the Berserker! On roles and sub-roles I’m going to be talking about roles a lot in these posts. This is because I designed every class using Total//Effect’s role and sub-role concepts as a basis. Each class has three sub-roles: two from one role and one from another. ...
Hi there! I’ve uploaded the third new Class, made possible by a very generous backer. Meet the Astrologer! The Astrologer is a stargazing, prophetic hero. It can easily provide full support via re-rolls, Advantage, and Disadvantage. It has a lot of effects that mark or apply to locations, letting it shape the battlefield. It’s in that backer classes PDF. Enjoy! (If you want to up your pledge to get one of these, itch doesn’t really do that unfortunately. ...
Hi there! This post is about the various mechanical choices made in Valiant Horizon at a very high level. I group these into three categories: Diceless mechanics (stuff that works), Roll for Magnitude mechanics (stuff that works but you roll to see how much), and Roll for Success mechanics (stuff that works if a roll goes your way). Diceless The simplest kind of mechanic. This is what Assets, Exhausting Assets, and Burdens are: ...
Valiant horizon logoThis post is about the various mechanical choices made in Valiant Horizon at a very high level. I group these into three categories: Diceless mechanics (stuff that works), Roll for Magnitude mechanics (stuff that works but you roll to see how much), and Roll for Success mechanics (stuff that works if a roll goes your way). Diceless The simplest kind of mechanic. This is what Assets, Exhausting Assets, and Burdens are: ...
Hi there! I’ve uploaded the second new Class, made possible by a very generous backer. Meet the Assassin! The Assassin is a deadly, subtle hero. It can choose to gain bonuses to its Total against debuffed enemies, with the caveat that the debuffs are removed afterwards. It’s a great combination of deadly and mobile, with debuffs and “finishers” - moves that cap out at extremely high Totals, but provide incredible rewards if met. ...
Hi there! I’ve uploaded the first new Class, made possible by a very generous backer. Meet the Adept! The Adept is a skilled, highly-trained hero. It combos off of self-buffing/taking self-targeting utility actions. It gets a lot out of taking/being given extra actions. It’s the most mobile class I’ve written thus far! It’s in that backer classes PDF. Enjoy! (If you want to up your pledge to get one of these, itch doesn’t really do that unfortunately. ...
For @liananana's Narrat Jam 2, I'm poking my ideas for a political, intrigue-based mecha game that cares deeply about ties between people with power into a little linear VN storyline. A TTRPG designed for PVP troupe-level play is pretty different from a story following one person! So I'm gonna think out loud about what I'm changing and why. Ah no I'm writing another dicelessness article by accident oh god help Off the bat, one of the technological aspects I ran into is that Narrat is very particular about skill rolls. ...
ANOINTED v0.2 coverSo ANOINTED just got a big update. Part of that is that I added a Tutorial region! I wanna talk about it. The region ANOINTED's premise is that you are an immortal warrior (an Anointed) who has been locked away for years following ages of glory, intrigue, war, and disillusionment. When you emerge, you have no memories, but are called/drawn/etc to return to the side of the (long dead) king to whom all Anointed are beholden by ritual bond. ...
Hi there! I’ve just released ANOINTED v0.2! This has: A revamped combat system that removes dice entirely. (You can see a preview of my initial formulation here, I changed a few things from there but that’s the general idea.) At long last, rules for exploration! A tutorial region. If I did it right, it should hopefully give you some idea of how to play the game! Give it a play, let me know what you think. ...
I don't have an actual cover for this one yet so for now you get a screencap from the SRD title. This one's still at pretty high level. But I did some of that high level work and I wanna talk about it! Speaking of the SRD, this is the third Total//Effect game I initially proposed/outlined/etc on the Total//Effect SRD. My general (self)-pitch was: Mecha, But Politics This Time, This One's About The People, Not The Mechs TM (But it's also about feudalism and how internecine struggles between people in power completely do not care about the average person) Political maneuvering and such. ...