#game systems

[smbhax]

Omega Entertainment Machine - consolized Neo Geo MVS arcade system

I'm selling mine, with component & composite video out and an official Neo Geo AES game pad : )

Update: sold!

[burnt-by-marigolds]

Yes, this is an actual spell in Pathfinder.

Source: Archives of Nethys

[hellpupp]

has anyone played, or at least heard of a TTRPG system that incorporates tarot cards mechanically?? i'm doing Research & need some cool systems to check out. 🔍👀

please RB so i can hopefully get more input!

[askagamedev]

Whose job is to pull separate systems together? For example, when the FPS player fires, an animation plays, an enemy is damaged and killed which gives experience triggering a level up, an ally barks plays, and the player automatically reloads, playing a different animation. Who brings all those different events together?

It's usually the most senior engineers who bring all of this stuff together. They have a good understanding of how the various game systems work and how to build those systems to work within the way the program itself works. Every game system has three major elements in common - whether to do the thing, when to do the thing, and what "do the thing" entails.

Whether to do the thing is the set of conditions under which the thing happens. Each system usually has a set of necessary conditions under which they start - leveling up requires crossing certain XP thresholds, which necessitates checking for things like how much XP the character has and what level he already is.

When to do the thing is how the game handles task performance timing. For example, we probably don't want a fireball spell to generate a fireball specifically when the player presses the cast button - we want the character to perform a casting animation that ends with a specific pointing animation, and then we want the fireball to appear from the character's hand when the character points. The animator needs to mark the animation frame at which the fireball appears, and the bone (pointing finger) as the position to make the fireball appear.

What "do the thing" is pretty much handling the event when it happens. Most games usually have some kind of core event system where the game will fire a specific kind of event on a given frame with relevant context (who did it, who the target is, where, any other necessary context, etc.) and event handlers are set up to listen for specific event types, see the event, and do what they are set up to do when that event happens. This can mean "do damage", "play vfx", "save the game", or whatever. Event handlers can also fire off their own sub-events with their own conditions and timings (e.g. "cast a spell" can fire off "play this animation", which can fire off a "spawn VFX (fireball)" event).

Essentially, the senior engineers that are familiar with how game systems work and interact with each other are the ones who ensure that all of the work plays nicely with how the software is built. It's kind of like visualizing a flow chart and making sure that each sub-section works the way it should on its own and within the greater context of the overall game flow.

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[macrolit]

Which one did you start with?

[pythonmelon]

Introducing RETRAUX: The Genre-Savvy RPG, a one-shot system inspired by those like Lasers and Feelings that focuses on the tropes, themes, and plot devices of 80's horror, thriller, and drama films while allowing you to craft highly player customized scenarios, coming in April

[thelogicalghost]

About Roleplaying

The internet is really useful at bringing people together, but it’s also, in my experience, sometimes useful for someone to point out places to start.

Roleplaying is a vast umbrella term that covers a diverse spectrum of activities, and if you enjoy any part of it, you might want to consider trying other styles.

I say this because, as someone who has been involved in both the least and most regulated forms of roleplay, it took me far longer than it should have to find out that there are dozens of gradients and variants in between, and I want to get more people involved in that growing diversity. 

I’m prompted to do this now because everyone being stuck in isolation has caused a boom in virtual gaming through apps like roll20, and I’ve discovered Discord-based text roleplay games that feel like the evolution of the LJ forums I used to love. So this is a great time to research, experiment, and find games to help keep us connected and sane. But finding the right game is extremely important.

Here’s the thing: there is a whole world of tabletop RPG outside of Dungeons and Dragons. D&D absolutely has its place in the TTRPG world, but oftentimes I see people frustrated with its limitations because they’re trying to use it in unintended ways. I’ve learned that different rules systems exist to help promote or restrain different kinds of stories. 

I like to think of RPG rulesets as falling generally into these (highly overlapping and by no means all-inclusive) categories:

* Numbers-intensive, or “crunchy” systems are very granular and the most intimidating to new players. Crunchy systems are often built to try to quantify things that other systems handwave. There are players who really love these kinds of games. They can be really rewarding to master, for one. Because so much is quantified, they can allow complex interactions that other systems can’t handle, such as simulating the mechanics of a play-by-play fight between a werewolf and a psychic alien. 

* In contrast, a Rules light system will try to lower the barrier for entry as much as possible for new players. It’s much more like collaborative story-writing, with the rules mostly existing to help tell the story, add an element of chance, and give the players numerical reminders of their strengths, weaknesses, and progression.

* Live Action Roleplay, or LARP intended systems are meant to be run live by a group of people actually acting out the characters, kind of like cosplaying an OC with a bunch of other people and doing improv of their interactions. These systems are designed for two purposes: to define the world and relationships between people in it, so that players build characters suited to the setting and know how to interact with it and each other, and to make the process of breaking out sheets (having to stop and calculate the results of something done by numbers) as fast as possible so people can get back to playing.

* Other systems are more necessarily true Tabletop. Some require maps and grids, different sets of dice for different rolls, or even armies of small figurines. In the old days, this could be intimidating because of the money and effort needed to amass materials, but these days, digital systems can let people play many games for free, and players who are more invested can spend money for fancier programs. Even if you just want to run your game over voice on Discord, you can upload a dice-roller bot to keep play transparent and fair.

* Another important set of terms are one-shot, scenario, and campaign, which are probably the most common ways of discussing intended game lengths. Some game systems are specifically written to be played in a single session and tell a single story. These usually have the most work done for you, such as handouts and schedules of when events should happen during the game. Other game systems have potentially hundreds of pre-written scenarios, which contain all the information a game runner needs to run one or more sessions through a pre-written story. Not every game is intended to be a campaign that extends out over weeks and months of increasingly hard encounters, and often shorter games are much better ways to meet new people, try new systems, or just have fun for an evening.

What I’m trying to say with all of this is, if you like roleplaying, there is a game out there for you and this is the perfect time to find people to play with.

Is D&D too rules-heavy for you? Why not try a rules-light system like FATE or Powered by the Apocalypse? The former is incredibly flexible and can easily be edited to fit any setting, while the latter has a dozen fun varieties like Monster of the Week (a Buffy/Supernatural show setting) or MonsterHearts (more of a CW supernatural teen drama vibe). 

Do you like the rules, but not the setting, of D&D? How about Shadowrun, a near-future heist game in a Bladerunner-meets-magic world? How about World of Darkness, which has specific settings for modern-day clans of vampires, werewolves, fairies, and mages?

If you’re particularly fond of a certain licensed property, check around: there might be a TTRPG made for it. Star Wars has multiple systems geared towards telling different stories. There are games for everything from Serenity to Leverage, and many of these are available in less-expensive PDFs you can download to both save shelf space and maximize how much of your money supports the creators. 

I utterly love some of these less-common systems. I love what they can do and the kind of stories you can tell with them. I really, strongly feel that if more people knew these options were out there, more people would try them and play them.