The Obliging Wench Tavern - OOC Chat

[IsabellaRose]

@roll to seduce Pardon my language, but Microscope is fucking amazing.

Cortex Dramatic Roleplay has a system called Pathways that is also collaborative worldbuilding, but more focused on these specific characters and this specific setting/time. If you strip out the stat building part, you can use it to build an amazing world with interconnected PCs, NPCs, and locations and everyone gets creative input. I use a version of it for almost every game I run, regardless of system. Its biggest benefit is that everyone is invested in the setting, but that's also its biggest drawback, because if you lose more than a player or two it tends to fall apart.

Personal opinion: Carbon Pink is just a D&D hack and that's uninteresting and uninspired to me. Not meant to be an insult, just an opinion.

I only just heard of Vice & Violence, It's pretty, but I'll have to dig into it to find the actual rules. Saying the art is distracting is an understatement.

My personal opinions center around a custom Cortex hack because it's super easy to just make it about seduction, sex, and relationships. Also, it has the option to just give in at any time so you don't even need dice. But I've covered that elsewhere in this thread, and I don't want to bore you all with it. But I feel like that was already explored and didn't get us anywhere.

If someone else is running, system is their choice! No one says we can only run one game at a time!

[roll to seduce]

I might've read through Cortex before. But my memory fails me. And if Pathways is anything like Microscope it's definitely worth checking out.

Though if it depends on player retention this might not be the correct format for it. Seeing as if I run a game I'll set it up so we never depend on a singular character to proceed, because that's how games die.

If we get more interest we could totally run a few rounds of microscope. It might even develop into another game.

[IsabellaRose]

I think we even tried it here once before, though not in this group. If I remember correctly, WritesNaughtyStories may have been the one trying to get it going. 

[Rob4ix]

Best place to look for interesting systems is itch.io and fan subreddits, i found out about caultrop core SRD, four points SRD, Lumen SRD and each has a mass of rpgs and all systems are simple enough to read through, also ICRPG is simplified DnD, and its so amazing that i am making borderlands suppliment for it because why not.

[IsabellaRose]

itch.io is great. I've found some amazing games there. 

[roll to seduce]

How'd the Microscope game turn out?

[IsabellaRose]

I don't think it ever got off the ground. To be fair, there are better sites for that kind of thing, but it's often hard to get a game that allows lewd fun going on those. 

[roll to seduce]

That's true. I might still give it a shot.

I had a quick flip through of the basics of Cortex. I think it's a real virtue that you can play it with really basic rules.

@IsabellaRose what kind a traits would you recommend for a really lewd game. Any mods?

[SheylinHalfGoblin]

I don’t know any of those systems lol

[IsabellaRose]

1 hour ago, roll to seduce said:

That's true. I might still give it a shot.

I had a quick flip through of the basics of Cortex. I think it's a real virtue that you can play it with really basic rules.

@IsabellaRose what kind a traits would you recommend for a really lewd game. Any mods?

I would use:
3 Distinctions (2 stolen from Fate- (High Concept and Trouble) and one specifically for sexy time called something like Sexuality. They're all rated at d8 and can be Hindered at d4 for a Plot Point. I'd probably also use Values with Value Statements because they can apply to anything and tell a little about your character. Then I might use Roles or Skills if there was more to the game than just running around fucking. I'd use Stress tracks and Complications, as well as the Doom Pool and Crisis Pools for sexual encounters.

Distinctions

• High Concept is your “go-to” Distinction that epitomizes what you are in a short statement. When you’re doing what you’re known for, it’s usually your High Concept. Something like Cleric of the Goddess of Love, Seeker of Arcane Mysteries, Newest Werewolf in the Pack, The Easiest Girl in Town, Flirty Nature Witch, etc.
• Trouble is your trait that seems to complicate your life. Like No Concept of Stealth, Just This One Last Fling, Easy to Ignore, Anger Control Issues, Drunk, I Really Mean It This Time... trouble is most fun when you can use it for something good and the GM can use it for something bad.
• Sexuality is whatever you define your characters sexual attraction, desire, etc. - whatever gets them hot and bothered. It could be as simple as Bisexual, Elf Fucker, Anyone Can Fuck My Ass, I'll Stick My Cock in Any Willing Hole, whatever you want. Use it to define the things your character wants and is into. 

Values

These represent your personal beliefs regarding each value. Each value gets a rating (d4 - d12) and a statement. Statements reflect your characters view of that trait. For instance, one character could have "d10 Sensuality: If a hot girl says yes, who am I to say no?" The d10 is the strength of the rating, the statement says what that character thinks/feels/believes. If at some point you get hit on by the hot evil queen who killed your brother, you can challenge that Value in a roll. Challenging means something makes you doubt or act against your convictions; you act in a way that doesn't comply with your statement. When you challenge, you roll 3x the Value die, in this case 3d10. You then step the trait back by one die size (in this case to d8) for the rest of the session.

• Duty: Obligation, service, responsibility, and commitment, but to whom? For what reasons? 
• Glory: Honor, distinction, credit, renown, and fame. Do you demand to be the center of attention or are you constantly in the headlines against your will?
• Love: Affection, caring, kinship, and devotion. Perhaps you have it, have been searching for it, love only yourself, or have no time to commit to such trifles.
• Sensuality: Embracing and seeking out physical pleasure and sensory experiences, or the avoidance, inexperience, or shame in feeling those things
• Justice: Fairness, impartiality, righteousness, and integrity. can you make the world more fair, or does the universe owe you?
• Power: Control, influence, command, and clout. You may crave or avoid these things, or just always be in a position of less power.

Roles

Roles are sort of like Classes in that they define what your character does and how they do it. Each role has specialties within it. You take a primary Role at d8 and a secondary Role at d6. Add specialties from there, 

• Warrior: Skilled in all forms of combat, from swordsmanship to archery to unarmed fighting. They are typically courageous and strong, capable of leading the charge and protecting their allies.
  • Example Specialties: Swordmaster, Axe Fighter, Shield Defender, Duelist, Tactician, Battlefield Commander, Grappler
• Rogue: Adept at stealth, thievery, lockpicking, traps, and navigating dangerous environments. They are resourceful, cunning, and often prefer to operate outside the law.
  • Example Specialties: Assassin, Thief, Lockpicker, Trapspringer, Shadow Walker, Infiltrator, Poisoner
• Mage: Wielders of arcane energies, capable of casting spells, creating magical items, and manipulating the forces of nature. They are typically intelligent and studious, but may be physically frail.
  • Example Specialties: Fire Mage, Water Mage, Illusionist, Enchanter, Summoner, Necromancer, Ritualist, Loremaster
• Priest: Devout followers of a deity, drawing power from their faith to heal the wounded, inspire hope, and banish undead. They are compassionate and selfless, often acting as mediators and guides.
  • Example Specialties: Healer, Exorcist, Divine Warrior, Miracle Worker, Seer, Counselor, Ritualist
• Possible additional roles:
  • Ranger: Masters of wilderness survival, tracking, hunting, and animal handling. They are attuned to nature and skilled in both ranged and melee combat.
  • Entertainer: Charismatic storytellers, musicians, and entertainers who use their skills to inspire allies, deceive enemies, and gather information.
  • Crafter: Skilled artisans and inventors who create weapons, armor, potions, traps, and other valuable items. They are meticulous and resourceful. 

Stress Tracks

When these hit d12 level, you are either knocked out of a scene (injured/exhausted/emotional), aroused to the point of NEEDing sex (aroused) or overstimulated to the point of orgasm (Overstimulated)

• Injured: Physical injuries, bruises, scrapes, cuts, broken bones, etc.
• Exhausted: Mental stress and physical exhaustion, studying too hard, staying up too many days, concentrating too long or hard. 
• Emotional: fear, anxiety, insecurity... when someone causes you emotional pain, you take stress here.
• Aroused: Tracks physical and emotional stimulation. 
• Overstimulated: Represents sensory overload, pushing a character toward a breaking point.

[roll to seduce]

This is a lot of information. I like the traits. Especially values. I need to read up on further options, but I suppose it depends on what the premise is besides lewd.

I like the doom pool, it gives the GM "fair" means to influence the story. That's cool. 

Though I'm not sure both stress and crisis pools are needed for sexual encounters. As I see it they're both more complicated complications. An example would maybe help me understand what you mean.

Though I don't think I'll start anything before I've wrapped my head around it. Also there's the problem with universal systems that I can never decide what genre of game I want to play.

[IsabellaRose]

The Crisis Pools represent "a challenge to overcome".

When a player rolls a 1, the GM can buy that die to add to the Doom Pool for 1 Plot Point. You can remove dice from the Doom Pool to create a Crisis Pool. This gives you dice to roll to represent a challenge that gets slowly weaker as the PCs find ways to defeat it. So the GM could spin off 3d6 into a Crisis Pool representing a building that has caught on fire and the PCs need to put it out. They would build and roll their dice pool to take actions against the fire, the GM would roll the dice in the Crisis Pool. If the PCs overcome the challenge, they can remove a die if their effect die is the same size or larger than one in the Crisis Pool, or step it down by 1 die level if their effect die was not as big as the dice in the Crisis Pool. In this way, the Crisis Pool is slowly diminished and their task gets easier as they wrap things up.

An example from a superhero game I ran was when an inventor rolled multiple 1's when trying to use his weather control device to make a sunny day so he could enjoy the beach with his girlfriend, he accidentally created a tornado. I set the tornado as a 3d8 Crisis Pool. The heroes had to find a way to stop it.

• Lightspeed used his speed power to run around it in the opposite direction to try to slow it down. He rolled higher than me, his effect die was a d10, so he removed a d8 from the Crisis Pool. It was now a 2d8 Crisis Pool.
• The Fridge failed in his attempt to use his ice blast to try to slow the tornado, and rolled a 1, so I used the d8 he rolled his 1 on and added the complication "d8 Spinning Ice Shards" to the 2d8 Tornado Crisis Pool. Now I can add the ice shards to my roll if they'll effect someone's action.
• CopyCat touched Lightspeed to copy his power and joined him, running in circles around the tornado in the opposite direction. I got to add my ice shards to my roll, but she still beat me with a d8 effect die. She stepped the Crisis Pool down to 1d8.
• The scientist made adjustments on his weather control device and this time rolled better, beating my now much smaller Crisis Pool and eliminating the tornado. With the tornado gone, the ice shards dropped to the ground and were no longer a threat. 

In a lewd game I might roll a random encounter that's 2d4 horny goblins and end up with 6 goblins. I could set them as a 4d6 Crisis Pool. They might fight or fuck, and the characters could approach it either way, rolling to beat or screw them into submission. Once the Crisis Pool is gone, the threat is over. 

 

The Stress tracks would represent the character's own arousal or orgasm. So if you're trying to seduce someone, you'd try to inflict Aroused stress on them to get them in the mood by being seductive, playing to their ons, or whatever. If you roll and win, your effect die becomes their stress level in that track. So you could roll a low effect die and only give them d6 Aroused, or you could roll a higher effect die and give them d12 Aroused stress. They're on the brink and the next time someone turns them on with Aroused stress, they stress out and they've got to have it. It would be a fun way to add a little randomness to seduction, even for PCs. Obviously, you don't have to have sex with the person who aroused you; you might run off into a closet and masturbate furiously, but the point would be that when you hit d12+ on the Aroused Stress track, you're going to fuck something, even if it's yourself.

[roll to seduce]

That's a great explanation. 

So I can use Crisis pools kinda like I would use a clock in FitD. But it naturally becomes easier to fix as you go. Honestly being able to abstract encounters like that makes it tempting to run a dungeon delver with this. 

Stress still feels a bit like just more complex complications, but having them codified like that is probably fairer.

[IsabellaRose]

Stress can also be used against your opponent. If you cause someone Angry Stress and then get into an argument against them, you can use the fact that they're angry against them and include that die in your dice pool. If someone doesn't use your Stress against you, you can add it to your own pool.

If you get too much Stress (over d12) you get Stressed out of a scene. In a dramatic game where you're not killing everything you encounter, Stressing someone out is like taking them out. You hurt someone's feeling (Emotional Stress) so bad they run away crying, or try too hard to hold the magic of the ritual (Exhausted Stress) that you collapse and just lay there, or take a tire iron to the back of the skull (Physical Stress) and get knocked out.

 

In some Cortex builds, Stress is also used for Growth. (I adore this option, because it makes you take stress to improve, so you want to get into conflict and take stress in order to learn and grow, which you can only do with the help of others, thereby enforcing player interactions and teamwork)

In a dramatic game where relationships are important, you recover Stress by having a Recovery Scene at the end of the episode with another main character. You play out the scene, it could be a backrub to recover Exhausted Stress, a quiet chat in cafe to recover Emotional Stress, or a few minutes of first aid to recover Physical Stress. The character helping you assembles a pool of dice to roll against your all your current stress values. If they beat it, they help you recover the stress they were trying to fix. Then you get to add the same size die as your stress to your Growth Pool, which you use to increase your abilities.

Example of Stress Recovery:

• Sara and Jade just got back from a night in The Warren, the maze of back alleys and underground establishments where anything can happen. They did a little pickpocketing, met a couple randy gang members, each had a quickie in the backroom, and then headed home. During the course of the night, Sara tried to seduce the gang leader but failed. She took d8 Emotional Stress when he told her she wasn't his type. She still got her freak on with one of his underlings, but now she feels unattractive and is sad about it.
• After the escapade, Jade gives Sara a sensual backrub, letting her know she's gorgeous and that guy was just an idiot.
• Jade assembles her dice pool - d8 Distinction of Seductive Con Artist, d8 Love (because she loves her friend Sara), and d6 secondary Role as Priest (because she's being supportive and using what she learned in the abbey) against Sara's d8 Emotional Stress and d6 Physical Stress.
• Jade gets higher, and her effect die is a d8 - equal to Sara's d8 Emotional Stress, so it's removed!
• Sara gets to add the d8 to her Growth Pool. When she wants to try increasing one of her abilities, she can use it and any other dice in her Growth Pool to increase her ability.

[roll to seduce]

Hmm. I've reread the Microscope rules. Running it in a forum setting might be tough. It'll require a lot of coordination and engagement.

So rules. Microscope is about creating a world history. It's played in rounds. Every round every player adds something to the history. The history consists of a couple of different elements.

The Big picture: which there is only one of, so after it is decided another cannot be added. It's a short description of the history as a whole, for example:

"Monsters and Heroes fight over the Catacombs of wonder."

Periods: are descriptions of longer sections of time where multiple things happen. Two are created in the setup, the start and the end periods. They consist of a description. For example:

"An ancient dragon carves out the catacombs"

Event: in each period you can add events. They're more specific than periods, for example:

"Knights of Hightower raid the dungeons"

Scenes: an event can contain multiple scenes. These are the most complex and where most rp happens. For a scene you define a question, and you rp until the question is answered. eg.

"Which knight manages to seduce the dragon, and leave the catacombs alive?"

There are a couple of more rules to help guide the game, but these are the most important ones. For a PBP forum game I don't think player order matters that much. Players add to the history when they have time. Once everyone has done they part, someone in charge, probably the lens or me, compiles and overview of the history, and starts the discussion of the next round.

Each round probably needs like a deadline. Like every Saturday we end a round and every monday we start the next.

Scenes can probably play out in parallell, as they are basically just short rps. And as they reach conclusion be added to the history.

[IsabellaRose]

There's a sit that was previously recommended to run Microscope online called Utgar's Chronicles.

https://utgars-chronicles.app/

 

[roll to seduce]

I think I was playing around with that some time ago. But I'd like observers also to be able to view the history. Maybe we can use that and just post a screenshot every round.

[IsabellaRose]

I'm good with whatever works and makes it easy to manage.

[Rob4ix]

Hey, what yall think is a good way to balance martial classes to not seem lame or weak, compared to spellcasters?

[IsabellaRose]

Use a system with balance built in? I know that probably sounds snarky, which wasn't my intention. But that kind of issue is why I don't play the Ampersand game anymore. That whole level progression thing really doesn't work. I prefer systems where balance is built in, or where it doesn't matter.

[Rob4ix]

Like tiny dungeon, where you build a character from a list of traits and items probably have some unique properties like "Dagger - Deals 1 damage, but if character has an advantage, it deals 2"?

[IsabellaRose]

I've never played Tiny Dungeon, so I can't speak to its balance or imbalance.

The games I most enjoy don't rely on things like standard abilities (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha), hit points, damage, or balanced encounters. The typical RPG is what I used to call a "physics engine" - trying to make a realistic replica of the chances someone of a certain strength with a certain amount of training and experiencing swinging a sword would have to hit someone else with that sword, and if they did, how much damage they would do. Someone else described those games as "procedural" which makes sense. The rules are there to replicate your characters chance of succeeding or failing at a task based on their ability, skill, gear, etc. 

The games I've been playing focus more on the dramatic elements of roleplay. Rather than codify "a person falling X number of feet will take X amount of damage per 10 feet" or whatever, these games are designed to emulate stories we read, movies we watch. How many movies have you seen where the main character gets killed in the first 20 minutes and that's it, movie over? It's rare if it has ever happened, because that's not a satisfying narrative. I don't care if it's "realistic" for the protagonists to die in the cold; it's an unsatisfying ending. In a movie or book, someone would find a way. It's what protagonists do. It's why we read their stories, because we know they're going to at least make it til the end. So the games that interest me now replicate that kind of narrative. The dice you roll are your character's ability to affect the narrative, not whether or not they will survive. Then you craft the narrative from there. 

But that's what I enjoy. It's not for everyone, and it's a huge paradigm shift from most RPGs. When I was first introduced to the concept of narrative games, I despised how loose the rolls felt, how inconsequential rolling seemed. I came from D&D and the like, where the chance of dying in any encounter was always there. Knowing I could spent some kind of metacurrency to succeed seemed like cheating. But then I started to understand the design of the game, how it was made to randomize the telling of a story rather than randomize each procedural step. 

Anyhoo. Games I play now are things like Cortex Dramatic Roleplay and The DramaSystem from Hillfolk. There's not a lot of resolution. Hillfolk is almost all narration with some voting by everyone involved to see if one character got what they wanted from another. In Cortex Dramatic you don't roll To Hit or base things on your stats. You don't even have stats. You have Relationships, Values, and Distinctions. That's how someone like Lois Lane can lend as much narrative weight to a story as Superman. The balance isn't in making sure Lois can stand off against Superman in a fight. She can't. The balance is that her character arc is just as important, her ability to affect the narrative is just as important, as Superman's. 

[Rob4ix]

Oh, yeah, thats what i tried to say about DnD this whole time, it feels like it takes too much unnecesary rules to just emulate some small thing, like fall damage or something, more narrative based games are way more fun, because their rules are easier to understand, tweak or homebrew. I personally strive for more video game-y feel, where its not flat, but also not too hard to understand, which is why i love systems that play with dice sizes or dice's unique possibilities, like caultrop core srd uses only d4s, but it managed to make something that is more than just meet or beat.

About tiny dungeon, basically most traits give you advantages on rolls, but thr deal is that you have to explain why, for example, crafting with "nimble fingers", which usually is for cheating and lockpicking, but there are some traits that open new possibilities, like spell-reader, healer or alchemist, or oppertunist, berserker or marksman

[roll to seduce]

I'm a big fan of simulationist games. I think GURPS, for example, is amazing. But I don't think they're suited well for the kind of games most people want to play. And they're especially troublesome in a forum setting, as they need a lot of discussion and fiddling to resolve very minor and unimportant things.

Especially for lewd games, the simulationist approach is horrible. As much fun "roll for dick size" is, having to roll 15 checks to reach orgasm just because your fortitude is massive kinda sucks.

[IsabellaRose]

I have fond memories of games like GURPS. although my brother's choice was the Palladium system, so it's what I found on the shelf for a "universal" system when I was looking for one.

But I always felt like something was missing from every game I ever played. They all had awesome ideas and mechanics I really liked, but somehow they never quite felt complete, or didn't quite do what I wanted them to do. I always had to change something, ignore something, or add something. 

But yeah, once I discovered, rejected, finally understood, and then embraced narrative games, I figured out what was missing from my gaming experience my whole life.