#rpg rules

[icedfairy]

One of the earliest D&D settings I got into was Ravenloft.  This was back in 2nd ED, when D&D cared a lot about flavor, and the gothic horror setting had flavor to spare.  It had some impressive whiffs as well, but the Van Ricten's monsterhunting guides were generally great stuff.

However as a game... it didn't quite work out.  D&D characters are more magical strike teams than heroic but frail investigators, and most editions weren't designed to allow the play that the Guides suggested without a lot of DM fiat.

One of the tools Ravenloft tried to use to integrate the horror setting into RP was Fear and Horror checks.  Something that several other game systems have implemented as well!  And all of them (that I've seen) have sucked.  Completely terrible.  Madness some games manage (sorta), but that's possibly the least important.

And so I've decided to take a crack at a better system of Fear and Horror.  Game systems that try to steer gameplay in the correct direction, without totally overriding roleplay or becoming crippling messes.  They're easiest to work into most D20 systems but should be good for a lot of simulationist games.  (Except 5th ED because 5th ED D&D is the worst and nothing works with advantage / disadvantage.)

Basics and Challenges

These systems are designed purely for Ravenloft, and as such are tailored to impact play in ways that create the 'gothic horror monster hunter' atmosphere.  While the ideas here can be pulled in for other games, it's important to remember the goals of the mechanics and not just make assumptions based on the names.

A Ravenloft game arc focuses on confronting and defeating a monster.  One that's a terrifying threat against a party that doesn't know its weaknesses, and a lesser threat to a party who's properly prepared.  As such the suggested gameplay style is to have the party encounter the monster and usually flee, or at least force them into a purely defensive setup.  They then investigate the monster, through legends, rumors, and occasionally horrid locations.  After they learn the monster's weakness (or fall for a red herring) they plan an attack that succeeds, or if they fail, retreat and try again later.

One problem is that most combat games are designed to prevent the players from retreating.  Because if retreat is easy, kiting becomes easy, and designers don't like that.  So there needs to be a system to patch that.  

Another problem is that it's hard to force people to roleplay being off put by horror.  Simulationist players are used to ignoring penalties and pushing through.  And even experienced roleplayers can use a cue to see when RP is going into 'group sabotage' instead of 'reasonable reaction.'  And players and GMs might disagree on where that point is.  There should be a system to help smooth those edges a little.

Which leads to our two replacement systems.

Fear 

When the situation is FUBAR, when your best attack just failed, when the enemy popped out of nowhere and crit the paladin for 3/4ths of their health, that's when Fear comes in.  Not supernatural fear, this is the knowledge your character has that the situation can't be fixed and it's time to escape and regroup.

Fear is a known number, that gives a penalty equal to its value to any attempts to press the fight, and a bonus equal to its value to any action taken to get the fuck away from this mess.  Whether a panicked retreat or a controlled evac, this lets your wizard scrabble over the fence while your rogue picks up the cleric and the fighter drops obstacles between you and the wolfman that turned out not to be weak to silver.

Abilities or skills that grant fear immunity allow players to ignore the penalty, but they don't get the bonus either.  They can choose to revoke their immunity at any time, but can't then turn it back on until the conflict has been resolved.  This means Paladins are great at spending a few rounds as decoy before running, without totally ruining the whole purpose of the system.

DMs should trigger Fear when a plan fails, especially if a weapon the PCs are relying on turns out to be a dud.  Other good points are hearing/seeing sudden reinforcements, or after an ambush deals significant damage to a PC / important NPC.  Many PCs are allergic to running because most D&D editions (along with a lot of other combat systems), make running really hard.  So Fear doesn't just give PCs an incentive to run, it gives them the tools to make them feel like they'll succeed.

Of course if the PCs do something really cool and pull something awesome out of their ass to reverse the situation, feel free to drop the fear.  This is a tool to help, not a railroad track.

Fear can also be used for important NPCs who need to die dramatically elsewhere.  It's strongly suggested to use this sparingly.  But using matching rules for PCs and NPCs will make it seem less like you're fudging the results.

Horror

Whether horrid landscapes of alien dimension, or a pile of rotting corpses writhing with vermin, most horror games present the main characters with mental challenges outside of just battle.  This is horror.  The things we don't want to stare at, lest they stare back.

Horror is a known number that gives a character a penalty to any action to interact with the horrific scene/area/item until they perform some act to counteract the penalty.  This can be as simple as taking a really deep breath before pulling a key out of a gore stained hole, or as complex as an expensive day long ritual to ward your party from the terror of the other realms.  Some actions can reduce the penalty instead of completely removing it, while others might fail (leading to a bit of trauma.)

Specifically this mechanic is designed to let things be horrific without PCs looting it like it's just a red themed dungeon room, while at the same time not drowning the party in penalties.  (Though unavoidable penalties are a great way to say 'get the fuck out of here fast.')  Treating their innate revulsion as a challenge to be overcome prevents more hardcore players from being annoyed by futility, while letting RPers milk the moment for what it's worth but not going overboard.

(Some people are reasonably asking 'why not use a different system for this?'  The answer is because most of these either have the same issues, or have heroes that are a lot more 'frail' than 'heroic.'  Systems that allow combat competence and that allow for this style of play are rare to nonexistent.)

[nivenus]

Hey folks! Here's something I've been working on awhile. If you're on the ALIEN RPG Discord server or subeddit, you've probably seen it already, but if not, feel free to use these for your game!

Thank you to those who've already offered feedback and helped me revise these rules, most notably kylki on the ALIEN RPG Discord server and Plas-verbal-tick on the ALIEN RPG subreddit.

[break-rpg]

More artwork for the Raider Calling, warriors who rely on speed and precision to take down foes.

[dr-archeville]

Top 5 Dungeons and Dragons 5e Rules Everyone Gets Wrong [source]

Today we're talking about 5 Simple Rules in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, that everyone gets wrong!  Well, ok I get them wrong... sometimes... ok most of the time. Mostly this video is for me, I'll be honest... ;-) 

Da Rules

Surprise

Cantrips

Concentration

Initiative tie-breakers

Death/Death Saves

Bonus: Paladins can lay themselves.  I.e., Paladins can “Lay on Hands” on themselves.

[adventuresandshopping]

A Christmas in July? Absurd! DriveThruRPG mid-year sales nonsense. http://bit.ly/DTRPGxmasinjuly

[simply-sithel]

Another 1/4th page book, this one covered entirely with custom “book cloth” because I want to use it and it needs to be durable. Deployed my new gold ink for the edges and it’s damn sweet.

This book contains the following game rules (actually paid for the PDFs this time for those that weren’t free)

Dr Magnet Hands by Grant Howitt

Maze Rats

Bunnies and Burrows

It’s a Dog’s Life

Duckman RPG by the System Mastery people

Honey Heist by Grant Howitt

Am particularly excited to try my hand at Maze Rats as well as Bunnies and Burrows (which Adam and I really enjoyed listening to the System Mastery review)

[break-rpg]

During the "Great Crystal Debate", you mentioned that healing in Break!! is pretty harsh compared to other games but seemed to stop yourself before going much more detail. I'd be interested in hearing more about healing in the system. Also, on a potentially related note, I believe at some point, during the Break!!casts, you had mentioned that you could talk for a while on status conditions. I thought I would extend the invitation hear your thoughts on that as well.

OK!In BREAK!! - you have your Hearts, which are basically a buffer for damage, representing luck, courage, and gusto. Once those are depleted you start taking injuries (or damage, if you’re a synthetic character). Enough injuries/damage can render you inert or kill you, of course. Hearts are fully restored at the start of every dangerous situation, and lots of magic and items can give you a bonus heart or two. Injuries/Damage does not - you either have to get them treated by someone trained or you have to take downtime actions to rest to heal them. A few spells assuage them for a time, but these are temporary solutions.

Hence why I say it’s harsher - it’s not gritty or anything, but a lot of games give you ways of restoring yourself instantly. BREAK!! doesn’t,

Status Ailments in BREAK!! are another harsh but not terribly gritty thing. I wanted to skew a bit more fantastic/animated, as well as have ones that make things odd or challenging rather than totally debilitating - so you might end up becoming a slime version of yourself, squashed into a chibi like state, blown up like a balloon, or randomly acting in ways counter to what you are trying to accomplish. Of course, some of the classics are in there too (being turned to stone/calcified over time, being blinded/deafened, etc) but I was careful when implementing them.

[dr-archeville]

5 Most Commonly Misremembered Rules in Pathfinder

Pathfinder has a lot of rules. We might think we know those rules pretty well, but it often pays to crack the book to actually look at them from time to time. While you might remember how to...

Pathfinder has a lot of rules.  We might think we know those rules pretty well, but it often pays to crack the book to actually look at them from time to time.  While you might remember how to calculate your to-hit bonus, or that you get bonus spells based on a high casting stat, there are a lot of other rules you might remember incorrectly, and to your detriment.

Rule #1: The Heal Skill Can, In Fact, Restore Hit Points

Most of us don't bother investing points into the Heal skill.  Sure you can use it to stop a party member from bleeding out, or to figure out what sort of wound killed a man you find in a dungeon, but what else can you do with the skill?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

According to page 98 and 99 of the Core Rulebook, you can make Heal checks to treat deadly wounds.  If you have a healer's kit, and expend 2 of the uses in it, you can make a check against a DC 20.  Success means the character heals a number of points equal to their level.  If you beat the DC by 5, they also heal a number of hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier.  You can only do this for wounds acquired in the past 24 hours, and never more than once per day.

This is in addition to treating disease, poison, and long-term care.  So, in the future, it might be worth investing a few points.

Rule #2: The Difference Between Being Flat-Footed, and The Surprise Round

Being ambushed is something that happens with a fair bit of frequency in Pathfinder, but when combat starts and only some people are aware of it, you get a surprise round according to page 178 of the Core Rulebook.  Everyone who is aware combat is happening (the ambushers, and sometimes everyone in the other group who makes a high enough Perception check) gets to act in the surprise round.  You get a single standard or move action, as well as free actions, and after that comes the first round of regular combat.  This can be particularly nasty for characters like diviners, who always act in the surprise round, giving them one more action over everyone else because of their ability to glimpse into the future.

This is different from, but connected to, being caught flat-footed.  According to page 567 of the Core Rulebook, a flat-footed character is one who has not yet acted in combat.  They do not gain their dexterity modifier to their armor class nor can they make attacks of opportunity.  It also makes you vulnerable to sneak attack.  However, any character with Uncanny Dodge cannot be caught flat-footed, which makes barbarians, rogues, and others quite tricksy to ambush.

Rule #3: Acrobatics Can Make Fighting Defensively More Beneficial

Fighting on the defensive is a rule we don't usually invoke, but according to page 184 of the Core Rulebook you can choose to fight defensively.  You take a -4 penalty on your attacks, but gain a +2 dodge bonus to your AC.  However, as pointed out on page 90 of the same book, if you have 3 or more ranks in Acrobatics, you gain a +3 dodge bonus to your AC instead.  If you take the total defense action, which normally grants you a +4 dodge bonus to your AC, you will instead gain a +6 dodge bonus to your AC.

Rule #4: Vital Strike is a Specific, Standard Action

The Vital Strike feat, which starts on page 136 of the Core Rulebook, are the bread and butter of many great weapon-wielding builds.  In short, you take a standard action to make a single attack. If you hit, you roll your weapon damage dice as if you had hit twice (three times with Improved Vital Strike, four times with Greater Vital Strike, etc.).  So if you are a level 7 barbarian, and you use your standard action to attack with your greatsword, you would roll 4d6 instead of 2d6 for your weapon damage.

That seems pretty straightforward, but it's important to remember that this standard action is its own, unique action.  You cannot weave it into other special actions.  You cannot, for example, use the charge action and Vital Strike at the end of it.  You cannot use Spring Attack and Vital Strike on your target.  Nor does Vital Strike have anything to do with the target's anatomy, despite the name.  It is not related in any way to whether a creature is susceptible to critical hits, or if it has an alien anatomy.  All you're doing is hitting it really hard, but we'd already named a different feat, Power Attack.

Rule #5: Sneak Attack Applies to Anything That Isn't Immune to Precision Damage

In the old days of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, sneak attack had big blind spots.  You couldn't use it on constructs, undead, plants, and dozens of other creature types. Unfortunately, a lot of players (and DMs) choose to use the rules they remember, rather than checking Pathfinder's update.  Because unless a creature is specifically stated as immune to precision damage, such as oozes, incorporeal creatures (unless you have a ghost touch weapon), and elementals, you can still apply your sneak attack damage under the right circumstances.

So be sure your DM knows this rule, and always ask before you don't roll your bonus dice.

Know the rules!