Diary of a Failed Game Designer

Blood Bowl... That games work shop classic. That: Rage inducing, Dice throwing, Mini smashing, Curse word inviting, mind numbing, table flipping, Classic. I've Played it..... Here's a variant rule: When a coach suffers a turnover on their turn rather than end their turn completely, the defending coach gets to take one of the following actions with any one figure on their team. (move, pick up a ball, foul, or block)  This is called an "off turn action." Each opposing figure my only have one such "off turn Action" during their opponents turn. A coach may not spend Re-rolls on off turn actions.  Once the "Off turn action" is resolved the the original coach may resume activating and taking actions with their team. A coach's turn ends only when that player has taken action with or skipped every figure on their team. Also here's  A skill for leveled up players: Opportunist:  Great at seizing opportunities as they present them selves. This player

I love Dwarf characters: This  PDF  About Historic Masonry deterioration and  preventative maintenance, is decidedly not "gamish" though I found it  pretty interesting to read. Using that PDF as a source when a Dwarf player is traipsing around a dungeon and asks, "do I notice anything about the condition of my surroundings?" If the GM determines there should be something Roll on the chart below. (Roll 1d12 for  feature, 1d10 for severity) Severity 1-4. minor 5-7.moderate 8-9.pronounced  10.concerning* TYPE: Blistering: Swelling and rupturing of a thin uniform skin acrossed the masonarys bedding plane. A the concerning level could represent something being hidden behind a masonry false front, or a hollow area behind a wall. Chipping: Large pieces are missing , usually on corners, At the concerning level , this could show signs of  alterations done to the  masonry, or  direct attempts to  damage the masonry in the past. Coving: Erosion undercutting the  base of th

You have successfully hit your target with an ax. Or you have been hit by an ax. This is not a critical hit. This is just a hit, normal damage. Combat is a crazy thing, and odd things happen. The Gm may call for a combat detail rm the  chart below. I tried to be as  system agnostic as possible, but it assumes attack rolls, Armour, damage and such.  Roll 1d12 The ax cuts the targets straps either on armor or on any packs winch are present. Things fall to the floor. the ax gets caught in the targets cloth  clothing ripping it to pieces as the weapon is drawn back. It is a flat side hit, normal damage but the type is bludgeoning not slashing. A buckle or haft is stuck, the edge of your ax is notched. Causing no modifiers, but this should be repaired as soon as possible. You have hooked a limb with your ax. You and your target both roll 1d6 if the target rolls higher, it yanks your ax from your grip, if You roll higher you  pull back your weapon doing a normal damage roll to your foe. If t

A couple of posts ago , I wrote about  playing Basic D&D again for the first time in several a couple of decades. We are two short sessions in now playing exclusively on roll20 in the  evenings. Things are going well, the  players are exploring room by room, the game is going basicly as planned. For this post I'm going to  go back to my  other post and comment in RED  on how my original observations have stood up to actual play. Here it goes. Original Post starts here: _________________________________________________________________________ I have players who have never seen Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling presented as classes. It took them a few minutes to accept that as how it is. I always like Race as class. In my mind it lets an elf be an elf, and a dwarf be a dwarf  (halflings are a bit underwhelming but .. should be given their literary source.) A demihuman class is something a player will choose because they want to play that race on it's own merits. Rather than picking a

As per the title this is going to be a quick Review of "Dungeon Grappling" by  Douglas Cole. The Preamble: This is an unsolicited review. I did not receive a review copy, nor did I request one. I don't know Mr. Cole beyond our exchanges on G+ and few e-mails regarding role playing games. Douglas Cole's Blog, Gaming Ballistic is here. His Website , is Here. The  Document started as a successful Kickstarter campaign the  description of which is still available here . Here is the  link where you can buy "Dungeon Grappling." Available in soft cover print version and PDF (or a bundle of both).  I bought the PDF so I can't speak to the physical quality of the soft cover print. I invite Douglass Cole, or anyone else to jump into the comments section  to correct any mistakes I make in the following review. OK. That covers all the prelim stuff right?  TLDR Version: I'm not a reviewer. I don't usually do reviews, and when I have they have been pretty br

My D&D 5th ed campaign has lost it's steam for the moment. The holidays brought with them a gaming drought which stole any momentum or desire I had where running my game is concerned. It happens every year. We will get back to it, we always do. * I  have proposed that we try something I have actually never done. A full on dungeon crawl. My games have traditionally been about  characters traipsing around the land, dealing with things they find and moving on. Rarely have they gone below ground. As I have gotten older I have started obsessing a bit over odd details... Why is the  mega dungeon there? How was it built? where did all the dirt go? Who paid for this huge public works project. How do those orcs get food? Air? Gravity, hows that work? and so on. Without question if I have a big ass multi-level magical dungeon in the middle of my game world I want it to have some logic behind it. with that in mind, the whole mega dungeon concept doesn't fit very well into my own game.

Skills: Most Paper and pencil RPG's have a system for skills. It makes the game easier for every one when you know what your character can and cannot do. Different games treat skills in different ways . D&D 5th edition used broadly defined skills while say Palladium Fantasy Role play uses skills that are more tightly defined. That all makes sense to me. Every game is different , there si no "right way" to handle skills Where I have trouble with skill systems is when I get into science fiction games. Tightly defined skills makes less sense to me in a future setting. In my view (and it could be wrong )  the knowledge base of the average human is become more and more broad as time moves forward. It is easier now to  get our hands on general information than it ever has been. Most of us walk around with a cell phone in our pockets that can find us any fact we need in a matter of seconds. That ability is unprecedented in history, it's basically a super power. This brin

" S omewhere under a lost and lonely hill of grim and foreboding aspect lies a labyrinthine crypt. It is filled with terrible traps and not a few strange and ferocious monsters to slay the unwary." -E.G.Gygax * This post is completely unrelated to a few other posts on the  subject lately. If you wish to take a deep dive on the subject of preparing an adventure, check out The Disoriented Ranger's series. I have come to a conclusion that has probably been  incredibly obvious to everyone else for quite some time. There are two basic styles people like  in their prepackaged adventures. Neither style is lesser, both styles are valid, but they are distinctly different. Furthermore, I understand there are modules and adventures that cover the range between Styles A and Style B mentioned below. Style A: One type of gamer wants pre-packaged adventures as interpretive as possible. Areas can be loosely defined, descriptive fluff text is nice if interesting but not necessary. Thes