General Discussion

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I don't want to derail the Busty Barbarian Bimbos idea, but Izzy gave me an idea that rounds out a system I've been toying with for quite awhile.

I love TTRPGS but they can be difficult to use in a play-by-post setting. Since I play by post a lot, I have been looking for something that works well in a forum, but really haven't found anything, so I cooked one up:

3F. Flexibility, Force and Fortitude. They're all both mental and physical. It steals from PbtA in they have values from -2 to +2. Assign what values you like that total 1 (-2,1,2 or 0,0,1 for example) Resolution is 2d6 + stat, 2-6 failure, 7-9 partial success, 10-12 success, 12+ spectacular success.  

Damage is tracked as mental, physical and social, all start at 6, Mark one to take damage, can be healed over time by "healing" activities, like rest, communing with loved ones or community service.  Accumulate 6 unhealed damage and take a scar, reset the track. Scars are permanent truths in the fiction. 

Stress track (scar = phobia or neurosis)

Body track (scar = permanent injury)

Merit track (scar = NPC enemy)

(Depravity track for Ecchi (scar = new kink))

If you want to lower stats and add more granularity, drop the stat total to 0 and add a skill stack:

Skill stack: (customized to the game)

3 that use stat

2 that get +1

1 that get +2

 

Each character creates a location where they sleep every night, a place they go and an NPC who frequents that place (the store owner, the librarian, the barista etc). All the characters also add a short description (a word or short phrase) that describes how they feel about each other character.

Edited October 4 by WritesNaughtyStories

[Rob4ix]

i got another idea, so i had this RPG in the works for a while. The gist of it is this.
You have stuff that has dice assigned to it and when you do something, both you and GM roll to see what wins. The difference tells how powerful is the effect.
There is no HP instead you get conditions that stack and can be healed.

Example:
i play a big thick witch and she cast a spell with d8 genius, d8 staff and d8 sorcery specialism perk while enemy has d6 power and d12 armor. So i roll 3d8 vs d12+d6. 
Lets say i roll 2, 5 and 8... the 8 explodes but has -1 penalty so i get a 4 on the exploded die... i get 2+5+8+3 which is 18. Enemy rolls 8 and 3 so its 11. I beat them by 7 so i apply 1 effect because i beat them, then i apply 2 more stacks of effects since these 2 stacks apply after difference of 6.

obviously then there are some extra things like consumables and stack rules. The idea of stack rules is you got a stack of items but instead of tracking actual amount you roll for it. Lets say we got d8. The stack reduces size to d6 on a 1, then to d4 and d2 and after i roll 1 on d2, i just run out of stuff.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

My concern with something like that is it sounds like there's a lot of "which dice get awarded to what things" and bookkeeping as things get used. At a physical table this sounds really fun - I love dice rolling mechanics (anyone else a fan of 1st edition CthulhuTech's FrameWerk Yatzee/poker mashup?

[Rob4ix]

5 hours ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

My concern with something like that is it sounds like there's a lot of "which dice get awarded to what things" and bookkeeping as things get used. At a physical table this sounds really fun - I love dice rolling mechanics (anyone else a fan of 1st edition CthulhuTech's FrameWerk Yatzee/poker mashup?

Its a lot less complicated than it sounds, since if you change the die for "amount" immediately and remember at which difference values effect increases, it becomes way simpler, and things do get the "default" die value, but GM can just change them if it doesn't make sense to have it's default value for the die roll, for example a dagger used when lockpicking going from d4 (since it the die dagger uses for combat) to d2 (smallest possible die)

[IsabellaRose]

For online play it's easiest to run straightforward and simple dice mechanics. It took a lot to get the Cortex running smoothly online in games I ran on other sites, and that was WITH  built-in dice roller and pre-set Cortex-specific dice mechanics coded into it. Something like a PbtA 2d6+stat is a lot easier to run online than anything where dice step up or down, adding/removing dice from a pool, exploding dice, or any other stuff that I find fun and exciting at the table. 

I'm a nerd so I love the bookkeeping aspect of many games, but online it can really kill a game when you want to roll something, but you have to wait for the GM to assemble their dice pool, then figure out what you're rolling, and then re-roll exploded dice. The more back and forth, and the more people involved, the slower the game plays online. When some people can only post once a day, a single die roll can stretch half the week. It tends to kill online games.

I think for online, a single roll game, where the GM doesn't even roll, like PbtA, is probably best. You roll, the very next post from the GM keeps moving the story forward. And this is from someone who isn't super fond of the barely there stats of PbtA. 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

That was the design goal of 3F: rules that are clear and simple, with as little bookkeeping as possible. The damage tracks are simple enough that they can be a header on a post. Hell, practically the whole character can be a header (especially if you skip skills). The point was to make something tailored for play by post.

Now, I suppose, the question is, do we want to talk about a game? I have a couple of vague notions, but nothing more than "a vibe".

[Rob4ix]

17 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

That was the design goal of 3F: rules that are clear and simple, with as little bookkeeping as possible. The damage tracks are simple enough that they can be a header on a post. Hell, practically the whole character can be a header (especially if you skip skills). The point was to make something tailored for play by post.

Now, I suppose, the question is, do we want to talk about a game? I have a couple of vague notions, but nothing more than "a vibe".

Uh, sure, why not, do you mean your game or my game? Also by that you mean you got the base idea but non if the structure surrounding the system?

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I meant a setting. I have a vague notion of some kind of resistance. Is that anti-colonial taken from something like Burn the Fort or a disparate coalition fighting off the forces of an oppressive state like A|State or Sigmata? Fighting the vampire overlords a la Hammer and Stake? I don't know - splatter punk seems like it might be fun too, Pandemonio for Hallowe'en, anybody?

I want intimacy, individuals who may not always like each other trying to figure out how to get along to do something more than just survive.

So, what have y'all got?

[Rob4ix]

How about... Being chased by some sort of law enforcement because an evil king is chasing a mcguffin that one accidentally acquired... Or maybe we could do something skullgirls since i had this weird homebrew coming along for a combat system for a module i wanted to make for cortex prime.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I'm not entirely sure what "skullgirls" are but if it's what it say on the box,  it has no appeal for me. I've run Black Crusade here and the whole line of Fantasy Flight Games' 40k series in other forums - I'm good on mechanical combat posts. However, if that's what everyone wants to do, I'll read along and cheer from the sidelines.

[Rob4ix]

12 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

I'm not entirely sure what "skullgirls" are but if it's what it say on the box,  it has no appeal for me. I've run Black Crusade here and the whole line of Fantasy Flight Games' 40k series in other forums - I'm good on mechanical combat posts. However, if that's what everyone wants to do, I'll read along and cheer from the sidelines.

Skullgirls is a tag-team fighting game (like marvel vs capcom) it looks like a noir movie, lore-wise is typical-ish fighting game kitchen-sink but plot wise game can be pretty dark despite the cartoony graphics, like, the game features dismemberment, kidnapping and unethical science experiments within one character's story line, but its fair you dont find it appealing. What about the evil king chasing mcguffin thing? 

Edited October 8 by Rob4ix

[WritesNaughtyStories]

9 minutes ago, Rob4ix said:

Skullgirls is a tag-team fighting game (like marvel vs capcom).

Ooh, yeah, no. None for me thanks.

"King" sounds like fantasy to me, but with BBB starting up, I've got my fantasy fix. Again, if that's what anyone else wants to do, y'all have fun.

[Rob4ix]

6 hours ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

Ooh, yeah, no. None for me thanks.

"King" sounds like fantasy to me, but with BBB starting up, I've got my fantasy fix. Again, if that's what anyone else wants to do, y'all have fun.

It can be fantasy but also I recently discovered this pulp fantasy thats actually also a mix with sci fi, though considering i play a witch it wouldn't make much sense unless we just wing it and say magic exists alongside tech.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

If you want to run a fantasy game, by all means, do. I'm unlikely to play but that shouldn't stop you from playing what you like.

[Rob4ix]

24 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

If you want to run a fantasy game, by all means, do. I'm unlikely to play but that shouldn't stop you from playing what you like.

Im just confused at this point, do you mean a game as in a system or a game as in a campaign?

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Both? Either?

The game I am thinking about GMing (and GMing to me is play, just a slightly different kind), regardless of setting, will use 3F. It will almost certainly not be fantasy. 

If you want a fantasy game, or a game using your various dice system, run it. Obviously I can't run your system and I have no intention of running a fantasy game in the foreseeable future.

It appears you have a clear idea of what you want to play (and/or GM). That's great, it's more than I can say, I have little more than a vague notion of fists (and legs, nearly as frequently) in the air. Rebellion, resistance and revolution seem to be where my head's at (can't imagine why).

What I do know is that running a game featuring magic, elves and the rest of the usual fantasy tropes has no appeal for me at the moment. Playing in BBB will cover my need for fantasy.

If thaf kind of fantasy appeal to you: go, do that. I will root for it to be a success, enjoy kind of following along if it happens where I can see it, but it doesn't interest me enough to invest in playing it.

It was the same with Izzy's Cortex game - it took a turn that didn't appeal, so I opted out. Some very cool stuff was shaping up, but it was a thing I didn't really connect with. Dresden Files is the same; people love it but I'm pretty meh on it. Y'all go, Harry Dresden it up if that's your thing. I'll sit on the couch and watch for a minute, but I'm probably going to go shoot pool at the first commercial.

[IsabellaRose]

Yeah, I'm in that "I don't know what I want, but I'll know it when I hear it," kind of mood for a roleplay, and so far nothing has lit my fire.

I think it's more that I'm not really actively looking, but if something trips all my alarm bells and looks like it offers a chance to play something intriguing, I'm in. Otherwise I'm being that jaded "been there, done that" kind of lame. Sorry if that makes me difficult.

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I'm with you, Izzy. I know the tone I want but not quite how to pull it off. I want coal wars, but sexy, with a generous side of cozy eldritch horror. But when I frame it that way it sounds - dumb? insane?

[IsabellaRose]

Not to me it doesn't. But I'm the mashup queen.

I think I want oppression, being forced into submission by something which cannot be defeated and finding a way to tolerate it until help arrives. But that might just be me trying to use writing and play to figure out how to bumble my way through real life as I so often do, and when I put it in writing, it really doesn't sound like a thing I want to play.

So I'm back to "I don't know what I want to play, but I'll know it when I hear it!" which is literally the least helpful thing I can say. I'm like that partner who shoots down every idea of where to go out for dinner but offers no ideas of her own. Infuriating. 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Well, I'm having pho. You're welcome to come if you want.

As for a game, oppression is where I am too. Eendurance, the bonds of shared resistance...

Dark, claustrophobic streets and greedy, hungry vampire overlords and their simpering, slavering lackies?

[IsabellaRose]

I really want to intertwine the oppression with the sex. Make it so you can't have one without the other. The thing you want is the thing you want to escape from and vice versa.

Vampire overlord premise is already dripping with erotic potential: power imbalance, predation, the body as currency.

I think it would be fun if we played it as hunger = arousal, feeding = sex. Not metaphorically but literally. When a vampire feeds on your character, it is the sex scene. The bite is penetration, the blood is fluid, the aftermath is the post-coital haze of someone used and left trembling. But vampires don't just drink, they savor. They hold you still, murmur against your throat about how you taste, and your body betrays you: knees buckling, involuntary moans, arousal you can't explain or control.

Being fed on is the most intimate thing that can happen to a human in this world.

The main vampire overlord should be beautiful, bored, and casually possessive. He's had centuries to perfect the art of making people want to be devoured. He's so good at it, he's even written a book - The Art of The Meal. Sorry, couldn't resist the stupid joke. But seriously, he treats humans like fine wine, appraised, selected, tasted. He's generous with pleasure and stingy with freedom. He'll make you beg for his bite. He dresses you, collars you, parades you, then fucks you mercilessly in a blood-warm room while the city rots outside. His cruelty is the point: he can make you come harder than any human ever could, and he knows it, and he uses it as a leash.

His lackeys should play more as "desperate middlemen" than simple ghouls. This is where it could get really lewd. The simpering lackies are half-turned thralls, ghouls, lesser vampires, all of them starving for a scrap of the overlord's attention and a taste of you. They compete to "prepare" you for the master: bathing you, oiling you, holding you down. They're allowed to touch but not to feed. So they rely on touch, hands everywhere, mouths on skin that never breaks the surface. A lackey who feeds on you without permission is committing a crime, so they find other ways to feed their arousal. They whisper to you about what the master will do to you and they get off on your fear.

The overlord's manor is a labyrinth of velvet, candlelight, and locked doors. In this place, sound carries. You can hear other people being fed on through the walls. You learn to recognize the sounds of different kinds of pleasure and pain.

I can imagine scenes like being brought before the overlord with other humans. He walks the line, touching, sniffing, lifting chins, chooses you. The others are sent to the lackeys. I imagine the first bite. He doesn't warn you, just pulls you into his lap mid-conversation and bites, and his bite alone makes you come. He laughs. Then he uses you, repeatedly, feeds on your blood and your arousal. Eventually you see an opening, and you run, and he lets you because the hunt is fun for him. Of course he finds you in a dark alley and takes your blood and your body against the wall, and asks if you've learned your lesson.

I don't know if we'd need special mechanics. I have to assume we could just use some kind of 2d6+stat thing, but probably have your stats lowered by constant feedings and you're probably partly enthralled to him.

But maybe you could use blood as currency and trade a feeding for favors, information, protection. Or have something where you're marked once bitten, you're  and other vampires can smell it. maybe it makes them want you more, or have to resist you, or something. I think playing with some kind of addiction track might be fun. Like, the bite is euphoric and you start craving it, offering yourself, desperate for the sensation. That's the trap. Or maybe you're cattle, there to be fed from by the masses, but if you feed the same vampire enough times and you become theirs, some sort of chemical, bond, triggering a carnal desire even if you aren't attracted to them.

I'm rambling. I guess I just got an image of being pursued by an amused vampire who knows I can't escape but feeds on my fear of him as he gets ever closer, then finally pounces on me, pins me face first against a wall, hikes up my skirt, touches me roughly, lets his tongue trail along my neck, letting me know what he's going to do, as I tremble in... fear? anticipation? He says something like, "You're trembling. Is it fear, or are you finally learning what you're for?" and then bites and enters me simultaneously. The fear is the realization that I'm prey that cannot escape, the horror is that I like it.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just getting lost in some teenage vampire fantasy I haven't really thought about for decades. See what happens when I start typing every stupid thought that enters my brain?

[WritesNaughtyStories]

It's a fun twist on the sexy vampire. I like the idea of the addiction - the vampires' psychic abilities give them direct access to their cattle's pleasure centers. They can give you orgasms so soul-shatteringly powerful that it's almost instantly addictive. Unfortunately, the vampire only enjoys it as much as it damages you - it's a delicate balancing act that doesn't hurt the vampire to be wrong about.

But their egos are remarkably human - having the cattle beg you to bleed them, "ooh, transcendently luscious. Makes their blood so much sweeter, the bloodgasm so much more intense...." The vampires try to cut it close, just because the more they do, the more addicted and eager the bloodbag gets, and the more intense the experience. It's just way less permanent for the vampires  if they fuck it up. Meat dies and you get a new one.

And that's why the thralls aren't allowed to feed - makes it to hard for the master to tell how much they can get.

[IsabellaRose]

I got ahead of myself and starting writing it as a story. See how I get?

[WritesNaughtyStories]

All the rest of us do is watch in awe, we are in no way mad. Well, except with jealousy.

[IsabellaRose]

It's an illness, honestly. I'm happy to be writing again, wish I could focus on just one project, and am weirdly into the idea of being eaten/fucked by a vampire who I know will kill and I can't say no and somehow that makes it all the more arousing.