Jan 26, 2024
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Ya heard of the game Diplomacy?
I actually dreamt of the Game Diplomacy. It's an old war game with a lot of genuinely fun and smart mechanics. My favorit being both the support system, which makes coperation with othe players essencial for winning, and how actions in the game are handled with note cards or wipeboards. With players then putting their actions face down near the center of the table. Then, when everyone has placed their note card or shipboard face down, denoting they've finished what they wanted to do, all are flipped over, revealing all actions at once. And I've been thinking, "What if A TTRPG did this instead of initiative?" I think it's a neat idea.
Abstract position-n-metrics melody board for theatre-of-mind-lite play. For when you want people to have a body in a fixed spot but don’t want to clear the table for a full-on airbnb battle house using clawfoot tubs as flooded arenas and tiled kitchens as chessboards.
Like in a self-driving car or van or mess hall table or bleachers, you can just pass a percentile bodymat around, mark with circles, squares, diamonds, triangles, Xs, smiley tongues, pluses, w/e where things are. Cribbage, but not.
No board? Use bodydice: Each person gets an d8+d12 yOu-roborus! [[d8: floor]] [[d12: room]]
alt Flavor1: d8[4 liver; 3 lung; 2 heart; 1 brain] d8[8 rectum; 7 intestine; 6 stomach; 5 esophagus] d8[0 upper jaw/ lower jaw] d12[2 north; 5|8 left(odd)/right(even)-center; 11 south]
alt Flavor2: d8[4 exo; 3 outer; 2 belt; 1 inner] d8[8 comet; 7 planetesimal; 6 asteroid; 5 moon] d8[0 sun front/ sun back] d12[2 north; 5|8 left(odd)/right(even)-center; 11 south]
Example places within every encounter:
66 pocket is [level 2 (+4)] level 6 room 6.
flavor: “you find yourself in the pit of this encounter’s stomach. You, jammed-in, involuntarily squirm as it squirms; whatever act you’re thinking: you’re likely to fail it.”
15 pocket is level 2 room 3.
flavor: “you have entered an airway of this encounter, the winds of fate fill the pockets of time sequentially marked around you some leading down deeper into the encounter, some leading out, exhausted fates drag dying choices passing silently each moment here, scraping along the walls of your decision’s finality find voice.”
50 pocket is level 0 room even roof
flavor: your vision tunnels into two choices, two mouths: one ribbed with razoring teeth, the other with festering polyps, rivers of the encounter’s possible moments of bloodshed flows in veiny lightning-looking columns below the teeth’s braces you now traipse.
49 pocket is level 0 room odd ground
flavor: your vision tunnels into two choices, two mouths: one ribbed with razoring teeth, the other with festering polyps, rivers of the encounter’s possible moments of bloodshed flows in veiny lightning-looking columns above the lathering tongue you now traipse.
98 pocket is [level 4 (+4)] level 8 room 12
flavor: your vision tunnels into a choice, another mouth: one ribbed with razoring teeth away from the the festering polyps you’ve become used to; the other, rivers of the encounter’s possible moments of bloodshed flows in veiny lightning-looking columns around you.
17 pocket is level 2 room 5
flavor: you enter the heart of your stake in this encounter. Every well beats, ever gear whirs, every slip kills
99 pocket is level 0 room odd roof
flavor: you dangle from the course roof of this encounter’s great maw with no hope left -- you only choice is fail in all else save focusing on what’s most important: the edge, the encounter’s teeth, the tongue, the pit, the safety of a destination still in sight. Your choices are terribly limited.
you’re failing every action you attempt this turn. Advise? Perform non-actions like movement (or roleplay failing an action to roll a new position for next turn).
Bored now; someone else take over the examples.
Set d100 down on your Action’s rolled value. Your position is your auto-roll for non-actions like upkeep, turn order checks, opposed saves, ect. Auto-roll can’t resolve Actions; it’d break your game. Actions can move dice either manually (costly) or randomly, if at all.
Present turf to players as percentages of “get to thing”. 4 flavors below each mean ”It’s a bar, so about 20% of this turf offers cover”:
GET OUTTA MY WAY, GAME:
values 1-20 have cover. (=20%)
AIRY, ATMOSPHERIC:
values ending in 5 or 8 have cover. (=10%+10%)
MATH WILL EAT YOUR FAMILY:
9, 10, and values whose digits equal either have cover. (=1%+1%+18%)
BANK|CHURCH PILLAR|PEWS
column-2 white & column-3 black values have cover. (=10%+10%)
TECHNOBABBLE ME SWEETIE:
basket, 8|11 split & 22nd street have cover (=10%+4%+6%)
jargon defined under “bet names” on the last image
& on wikipedia’s roulette article
(Second image is for a c-line/transparency/projector print option for preserving readability when laid over any inspirational image, boardgame board, magazine cutout, old poster from work, schematic for collaborative hacking, figure for collaborative surgery or other important heal check, fridge for that fringe fridge pbp game you never knew you wanted, mound of dirt cause i like dirt or a regional map you might like to use as a backdrop)
Also compatible with Martin Killmann‘s excellent 200-word Tokyo Drift Racers (Adapt theme to your needs -- horse race, ship race, foot race, pod race, research race, construction race, chase scene, race around a world, time attack/countdown, cook-off, etc.)
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Universal Serial Bodymat
⠛⠢.
1. Stare at (x12 multiples’) body parts ◦ I – 12 @ bicep ◦ II – 24 @ hip ◦ III – 36 @ knee ◦ IV – 48 @ foot 2. Results 50+ hit behind ◦ so subtract 50 and hit behind resulting part. Done! [or, if you’re speed-reading: “Time!”] • Review roll’s x12 multiple (1, 2, 3 or 4) ▪ recall associated body part (I, II, III or IV) ◦ Body (Left) is (x3 multiple) ◦ Body (Right) is (x3 multiple) +1 ◦ Body (Middle) is (x3 multiple) -1 ▪ Body (Top) is a Dice (Top) [00, 99] Example: [56] is [I] so bicep. [x3] so left. [x6] so halfway to [I]. [50+] so back. 56 is [left trap]
You’re rolling d100s all the time anyway. Make their juicy factors work for you. Roll a couple now to get this strange idea to completely inseminate your brain for a velvety bit of world-building available anytime you roll.
• Wait, the length from your bicep to your hip joint is the same as the length from your hip joint to your knee is the same as the length from the top of your head to your b…? ◦ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_proportions ▪ Heh. • Weird. Fun Exercises • [02] ____________________ • [62] ____________________ • [44] ____________________ • [93] ____________________ • [36] ____________________ • [73] ____________________
Example: Player (speed stat 55) rolls surprise check [99]. places token at position 49^99. Next round Speed check resolves at player position for result [99]. Enemy takes a turn: rolls attack [98]. Places token at position 48^98. Player takes a turn: attacks with SMG at [-] (Range 3) [00, 33]. Places token atop dice at position 33^83. To preserve this position, player forgoes 2nd action. Round speed check resolves at player position [33]. Player takes a turn. rolls Speed check [50] to open an office door. Places token at Position 00^50. Enemy opposed Speed check resolves at enemy position [98]. Player moves into room. Player accesses computer (key fob – no check imposed) and queues the previous print job. Warden rules it an APC with a 2d10 hr wait. Enemy takes a turn: rolls Instinct [27]. Warden says the enemy seems to have left and concludes combat. All tokens return to neutral positions. Enemy looks for a way inside the room.
Designer’s Note: Goal is to elicit vulnerable moments and impart a snappy, revolving lack of options in curious ways. Per-round initiative builder, range visualizer and unit faculty modulator. Table aims to create then at a glance show some actions a player would auto-fail/-succeed that round.
Bookworm: WHAT MADE YOU THINK DIFFERENTLY?!?
((Guest appearances by @askturnorder and @acesleeves))
((To everyone who had a crummy year, here’s to a much better 2016!))
“I have to go.”
Happy(belated) Halloween everyone!
((Special guests this Halloween update include:
Kingsley and Coffee Talk from @ask-king-sombra Pirate Dash and Bookworm from @askpiratedash Spirit from @askspirit Evil genius Twilight from @askevilgeniustwilight Spitfire from @askfirestarterspitfire Inkblot from @inkblot-answers (don’t expect updates anytime soon)
The text is an excerpt from the poem “All Souls” by Edith Wharton))