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[Toaster]

Working on Roll to Loot, and this part is throwing me:

Adventuring consists of rolling modifiers based on your gear and seeing if you beat a certain number based on the difficulty of the location. 

How can I make separate stats on equipment relevant (to provide a modicum of choice) without this roll becoming needlessly complex?  My first thought would just be all numbers summing into one plus some random element, seeing if that number could beat the required number for that encounter, but then separate stats become near irrelevant.

I could break them out into separate relevant stats (example: accuracy, damage, defense, HP), but then I've got to resolve combat somehow, with some sort of turn mechanic- at this point I pretty much have to write a program to resolve combat for me.  [Which isn't necessarily a bad idea.]

The compromise is to have certain stats have wider random range (for gamblers) and others be midrange, but stable (for those who want to know exactly what they're capable of.)

I could just simplify it into three or so pieces of gear and only three stats, which each modifier changing one of those three stats.  Gear could easily roll more than one of the same type mod, with the results adding.  I don't think it'd be too hard to simulate combat with just three stats*.

Another option could have limited stats, but mods to static adds, min rolls, and max rolls on gear.  That'd be a way to get more modifiers out of few stats.


*Attack, defense, and HP.  Damage would be 1dAttack-1dDefense or similar.


Any brilliant insight?   Sorry if this post reads like a unedited brain dump.

[monk12]

I'd say that there should be a few different types of challenge- Monsters, Traps, Boss, Puzzle, etc. Each location consists of X types of challenge, and each challenge requires its own stats. Monsters would need attack and defense, Traps would be defense and intelligence, Boss would be attack and intelligence, etc etc. Thus, play consists of configuring a loadout that matches up well with the expected challenges and having at it. More difficult locations might have more challenges and/or more diverse challenge types, with correspondingly better gear. Whatever final encounter you are working toward would require all of the stats, forcing players to be somewhat balanced.

[Gatleos]

Okay, this is what I have so far:

Each player gives one or more actions to their party of wagon members, each action being assigned to one of them. The action is resolved by a single roll, regardless of how many actions were taken. If the player's wagon is traveling, the actions are performed in addition to the travel as long as at least one wagon member is tasked with driving the wagon.

After actions are resolved, the player may encounter a random event on the road. If they choose to interact with the event for the next turn, the wagon stops for that turn and the actions are rolled for. If not, they continue along the road. After player actions are rolled and random events are calculated, rolls are made to check for contracted disease for each wagon member.


I'm considering different ways to simulate the wagon members. I don't want to make rolls for every individual member, so for now I'm considering all members of the wagon as a single entity. The problem, then, is how to fine-tune actions based on the status of wagon members. What's the difference between one wagon member fighting a bear and three? A wagon member with Cholera vs. a healthy one? Perhaps I should just bump rolls up to d20?

[IronyOwl]

Working on Roll to Loot, and this part is throwing me:

Hm. My first thought would be to tailor the stats to different encounters, so instead of Str, Agi, Int or Acc, Dmg, Crit, you've have Trap, Monster, Obstacle or similar. Then when you run into X, you use X stat, which means the question of X or Y is pretty much directly "What sort of situation/problem do I want to get better at?"

Of course, this runs the danger of being irrelevant/having a correct answer (if dangers are the same quantity everywhere) or encouraging people to stack one stat and then spam that dungeon/place.

Part of the problem depends on which strategies you want to be viable or a good idea. Like, balanced stats vs focused ones. Are they both supposed to be equally viable, or is one just not the way you're supposed to play? What are the consequences for, intentionally or not, having each situation?

I'm considering different ways to simulate the wagon members. I don't want to make rolls for every individual member, so for now I'm considering all members of the wagon as a single entity. The problem, then, is how to fine-tune actions based on the status of wagon members. What's the difference between one wagon member fighting a bear and three? A wagon member with Cholera vs. a healthy one? Perhaps I should just bump rolls up to d20?

Wagon leader does everything, wagon members are ablative armor/+1 bonuses, or +0.5 while sick. If you really need/want them all performing separate actions, just give them smaller bonuses, halved/lowered by being sick and either stacking additively or simply increasing by +1 per member.

Obviously, all numbers used for example.

[Digital Hellhound]

Elaborating from the 'players are superhumans locked in a specific area and duking it out ala Arkham City' idea I talked about earlier and merging it with wanting to design an enormous castle - a gigantic castle has been used as a makeshift prison but *something* happened and now all the bad guys are loose. Of course, there needs to be some kind of explanation why they haven't broken out (the entrances are sealed shut, mystical barriers, giant-ass walls). The real superpowered bad guys could be in cryo or some kind of stasis at first, but wake up/be woken up as the game progresses. With the players being the first to be released.

I was thinking that the players could themselves design/describe with a few paragraphs a section of the castle they're using as their base of operations (the Tower of Eagles, where my inventor-super regulary jumps off with his glider to enter other areas of the castle, the Cold Room, where my ice-themed bad guy likes to hang out). Players could also detail some of their henchmen types or tactics.

[Superior_Tomato]

I like it. The whole reason could be that the authorities got there quick enough to put up a barrier around the huge-ass castle (Must be a castle, otherwise we can't have awesome towers and proper exploding walls.

[Digital Hellhound]

Yes, a sort of 'they're all waking up from cryo at the same time, and we don't have the manpower to deal with them. Let's just lock them in and move in once the dust's settled' thing. Even better if unfairly prisoned heroes (players oughta be villains or morally ambigous characters only) and trapped guards and staff are still there with them. Plus all those minor or just non-ambitious villains who could either work for or against the player or just do their own thing somewhere on the side.

Players could start off weak as a result of drugs and cryo, but regain their powers either over time (leveling up or just a time limit) or absorbing the powers/'energy' of others - obviously more risky, but faster.

[Nighthawk]

I'm making spells for my RtD game, since magic is going to be used a lot. The spells contain lore, A.K.A. funny backstory that's just there for the heck of it.

Here's one I made. I'd be pleased if you gave me an opinion.

Spell Name: Aqua Clasp
Spell Level: 1
Spell Cost: 3 MP
Cooldown: 2 turns
Spell Effect: A throwable watery orb forms on the user’s hand and clings to whatever it hits – hopefully your enemy’s head, which will suffocate them.
Lore: This spell was made in a well-known college of magic, by a student putting together his class project at the last minute. His intention was to create a ball of water that would act as a shield for the user. However, the spell malfunctioned, sticking to his hand. In a last ditch effort to make the grade, (and stop the jeering of his peers) the young wizard hurled the ball at his nearest classmate’s head. It stuck fast, and since then, the Aqua Clasp has been a common prank, as well as a useful spell in combat.

[Superior_Tomato]

I like it. But what kind of RTD are you making?

[Nighthawk]

I like it. But what kind of RTD are you making?

If you're wondering about genre, it's obviously fantasy.
The RtD is in the traditional style that I've learned, in which there are no Hitpoints, but the injuries are rather realistic.
There is mana, however, as a way to balance the powerful magic.

[monk12]

Roll to Pierce the Heavens!

Players are pilots of Ganmen, Humongous Mecha powered by the Fighting Spirit of the pilot. Each Ganmen has special abilities that consume Fighting Spirit- Fighting Spirit is restored in small amounts every time a player rolls a 6, or in larger amounts when they hear a successful Friendship Speech. Pilot Classes include Brawler, a durable close range specialist with regenerative abilities, Boomstick, a ranged class that specializes in high damage and Macross Missile Massacres, and Hero, a class that gives more potent Friendship Speeches and can demoralize the Fighting Spirit of his foes.

Sidenote, who else has done a Humongous Mecha RTD? I'd like to see the rules they used and how it worked out for them.

[Darvi]

There has ben a HM RTD but that was more tactics-focused than a TTGL based RTD ever could. Also, do want.

[monk12]

There has ben a HM RTD but that was more tactics-focused than a TTGL based RTD ever could. Also, do want.

Remember what it was called? I pitched the TTGL idea after browsing through my hard drive and finding a setting I had forgotten about- it's basically a combination of TTGL's soul powered robots and the Arthurian Cycle, and would benefit from a bit more tactical thinking.

I threw the TTGL part of it out there because hey, it should exist. Somebody run it

[Theifofdreams]

Actually, that would be awesome. RT Go beyond the impossible!
I suggest a d6 system for combat, with a roll for hot-bloodedness per turn, with a the second roll using the original HM RTD system, if you can find it, for actual attack/defense. (Obviously, the hot-bloodedness roll would simply be used to decide if you can go through with whatever, or not, and if you do, how awesome it is.)

[Gatleos]

A RTD based on a high-stakes bank heist.

BUT THERE'S A TWIST.

The RTD itself takes place not during the heist, but afterward. The players, all world-class thieves, have been captured and are being interrogated under suspicion of being the perpetrators of the caper. The players' actions are not being performed by them, but told about in flashback.

And, since the player characters obviously survived the events to be able tell about them, they can't actually die in the flashback. The danger, instead, is in blowing their cover and being hauled off to prison. Players have to pull off a balancing act, steering the story in the direction they want it to go while keeping their own story straight. The story of what happened during the heist isn't planned out beforehand, so the ultimate goal of the players is to retroactively work together to pull off the heist while simultaneously trying to pin the blame on each other and escape to claim the money for themselves. May the best liar win.