WritesNaughtyStories

There's a lot of great ideas in here. Dangerous Successes. I especially love this idea. I think I have a thought about how to implement it but it would have to be adapted to fit whatever game was being used to run the world. The core notion comes from kind of the way 2d20 or other dice pool games work (Riddle of Steel taught me so much...): You roll and count successes. Easy. Split your dice into two colors - a Skill color and an Element color. Roll 1 Skill Die for each point in the skill, roll one Element Die for each point in the element. If you get enough successes to succeed but no Skill successes - Dangerous Success. Some wild, unpredictable effect occurs. I vote boost DDC's magic side effects table, but there are plenty of options for that - or leave it to the table to figure out what makes sense. In a d20 system it gets a little harder, but how's this: adopt a tiered success system. Every x you get above the target number counts as a success. Less than x and it's a Dangerous Success. I think you're right about coming of age rituals, at least for some cultures. In other places, where it's all attributed to gods, they probably go to the temple and the priests sort it. As we dig into the world more, we can see what at least some of those look like. I think many are a Trial that involves working a sample of each element. I like the idea of there being people who not primarily something other than spellcasters though. Someone who uses a Fight skill + Water to swing a sword; a merchant who rolls Negotiate + Life to cut a deal. They can work minor magic - perhaps the Wine Maker uses Cast + Water to avoid spills or enhance a jug for a limited time to get a better price... I'm intrigued by these organizations that recruit powerful casters. What does the headquarters of The Empty Heart look like? I feel like they're Void magicians, do they have some secret agenda? Is there a secret band of Life magicians who are necromancers (or are they actually Void attuned but strong in Life?) Which reminds me - your quenching mages; here's how I think that works: They're strong in Fire but attuned to Water, with everything basically being a transformation, they transform Fire to Water. Their control of Fire is strong but they can instinctively see the path to water, so they can make that transformation more easily. I think players making those kind of descriptions should be encouraged with bonus dice, extra successes or modified difficulties. I think that the limit to the number of Rote spells is your Rating in an Element, but you have perform what amounts to a Ritual to craft it. Your Flamethrower example might work like: Casting (3) Fire (14 - just going with a D&D scale as an illustration), Short Range (-3), Instant (0), Individual Target (-1), 3d6 Damage (-3 for # of dice * 2 for stepping up from d4 for a total of -6) looks like a target of 27. The extended test is 27 successes. The easy way to do it is allow one roll of (27-(Casting + Element = 17) each week and tally the successes. The system could be complicated to break the extended test into the components. One thing this does points out is that it will take some thought to adapt the "core conceit" to varying systems. It's not an insurmountable problem, but one to consider. Alternatively, we can home brew the system as we work - in which case I suggest a short set of broad skills. As I was writing this, I see @Balthier gave us permission to use his map. Is that OK with everyone or do we want to do something else?

Long and winding post incoming. It will, I think, eventually get around to @IsabellaRose's points. Please note I did say, "I think." Getting back to our 6 elements - what if they also become our 6 attributes? Void mapping to Mental Strength/Willpower; Air, Intellect; Water, Strength; Life, Empathy/Wisdom; Earth, Constitution/Toughness; Fire, Agility. This gets us out of having a second set of attributes ties only to magic, and I like that. But, and here's where we begin to work back to Izzy's magical potential - it offers a quick way to measure how "strong" someone is in any given element. If you have more negatives in a spell than you have rating in that element, you run the risk of a Catastrophic Failure (DCC, anyone?), regardless of skill, Rituals avoid that problem, but I think there needs to be some kind of "conductor" role who has to lead the ritual and make sure everyone is doing the right thing at the right time. Is that based on Spellcasting Skill or the rating in the Element? I like the idea of focuses made by the caster being more powerful, and places of power. My Rifts people, are we down with Ley Lines? I also think, given the current community where we're having this discussion, pain and pleasure should be powerful totems too. Are there spell casters who specialize in casting on-the-fly? The DND sorcerers of this world? The can help in rituals, and understand totems but their real power is getting things done NOW. If we thinks using the Elements as attributes as well, I'd like to suggest that our Zodiac roll stand, but the Element values be randomly generated. Fate doesn't always smile - sometimes you're shit at your ruling element. I think that might help create non-casters - which raises another question, is this like Xanth where everyone uses magic to some degree or another?

Stories only work with characters and we only see settings through characters interacting with them. What are the character concepts? They'll tell us a lot about what the game looks like

Some additional thoughts about magic. I invite everyone to tear this apart, rebuild it, modify it - it's an idea offered to the project to be molded into something non-Vancian, useful for the world building and fun to use. Basically every magic effect is a transformation. Want to disintegrate that spider-ape? Sure. It's just transforming it into Void. But that's complicated. The two elements are diametrically opposed so that spell is hard. Want to do it right now, from far enough away that the attacking spider-ape hasn't pulled you apart? Now that spell is really fucking hard. Spells, from both the fictional and game mechanics points of view, have the following parameters, which are largely inspired by Ars Magica: Effect: measured in damage (dice, points, wounds etc. as appropriate to other mechanics), pounds, cubic feet (I actually prefer "hands" because it's a little smaller and moves volume closer to matching the mass of "pounds" for most things). Each unit of measure makes things harder. Each sense affected for either the caster (for scrying) or target (illusions) adds 1 step of difficulty. Area: Point, Item, Individual, Room, Structure, Town, County, Region, Continent World. Each step is harder - maybe orders of magnitude harder. Should there be some kind of game mechanic unit of measure? Each hex (point, item, individual, hex and each added hex gets harder?) Range: Self, Touch, (short, medium, long combat ranges), Sight, (anything beyond? I like the idea of anchors like a lock of hair, true name etc. allowing spell casting without seeing the target but the farther away (town, county, region, continent, world?) the target is, the higher the difficulty. Or, to simplify matters, does having a physical focus just reduce the range by a step or two depending on how intimate the focus is? Duration: Instant, Minute, Quarter Hour, Hour, Sun (or Moon, implying that the effect lasts until sun or moon set), Day,Week,Month, Year, Age, Permanent. Is it too complex? Do we just go with a DM decides how hard the roll is? I both love and hate that.

I love the idea of rituals - things that take even days to complete as (a) character(s) build enough success to achieve something. Can time invested in accruing successes mitigate failure? For instance, in your removing a curse example, you could try to do that as a single action, but the difficulty is high and if you fail, that's it, no more tries. If, instead you work it as a ritual, choosing to craft your magic meticulously as you watch the magic of the curse unwind, you can miss but continue. Life and Void: I see Life as mostly biology. Plants, animals. Things that grow and are bound by the order of their structure. Void is the core harmony of the universe, the formless potential at The Source. Where magic comes from, I expect. Our main continent: shall we all draw just an outline and then put up a poll to choose which one? Or, @Balthier, can we boost your map and decide on one of the continents from it? Another option would be to have everyone put together something more complete and put that to a vote. As we start looking at who lives here, are humans present or is everything here unique to it? Was there some other civilization(s) that fell in eons past, and little trinkets of technology remain to confound magical philosophers and theorists? (I'm looking at you, Tekumel...) And if there was an ancient civilization, was its collapse the slow work of entropy or an apocalyptic disaster that gave rise to the current world. I'm open to there being no prior civilization, or a continuing rise and fall more like our own history as well. And I don't know that we want, or need, to fully explore any history in the way Microscope might. Again, maybe we do, what's everyone think? One idea I've given some thought to over the years is the (I think) Alan Dean Foster short story Night. The core concept is the planet exists in a multi-star system and only gets "night" once every (insert astronomically high number) years. Is that an impending apocalypse?

Guilty, but not in the way I think you really mean. I have food allergies, so there's plenty of stuff I don't eat, but make no mistake, I do not restrict my calories to lose weight. I'm pretty active so weight's not much of a problem. Next poster is pretty sure veganism sucks.

Ok, Globe. Fantasy, Drill down on one continent to start. Vancian magic is out. I've been kicking around an idea kind of bastardized from Ars Magica and Hearts of Wulin. Roughly, it works as elemental magic, but it works off 6 "elements". Going around a hexagon from the bottom, moving clockwise, the elements are: Void (or Source - think Tao), Air, Water, Life, Earth, Fire. Every character has a Key Element - kind of like a zodiac, I guess. Should you be a spell caster (and who that is or isn't is another discussion) the element you're attuned to is easier to work, The one opposite yours is much harder. (Mechanically I think "your element" is +1, the adjacent elements are +/-0, the next ones (two away in either direction) are -1 and the opposite is -2). The other thing I like here is that I think this can be used to make different martial styles. Sure, some of that is going to look kind of like wuxia but it's just as possible for that to apply to more "western" combat too. Spellcasting is a skill. The larger the impact on the world, the harder it is to manifest. In game terms it becomes a skill roll - modified for the amount of damage (or amount of material affected etc) and whatever other conditions there are. Distractions, trying to do it fast, or quietly or while distracted doing something else at the same time. I can see a way to a dice pool mechanic or other tiered success mechanic to determine how effective spellcasting is. We can get into the weeds of the actual mechanics if anyone thinks it's an idea worth pursuing. As for gods. Sure, fuck 'em. In the fiction though, I think, maybe, varying cultures ascribe gods' names to elements or combinations of elements and what is actually magic is often mistaken for divine intervention?

We've found that Microscope is more of a management headache than you'd think. Without a whiteboard or some other way for everyone to insert eras, scenes and whatnot, someone has to edit a main "game" post. utgars-chronicles.app offers a purpose-built online tool that works well. Be advised that, while anonymous links to the game are available and you don't need to register to play, links are time sensitive and the game owner will need to send a link every time anyone wants to play or people will need to register. All that said, I'm in.

Guilty. Somewhere there's a post where I admit to buying macchiato that I don't really like, but I like the the experience of trying to like it - but yes, beyond philosophical forays into experience, black coffee, please. Next poster has roasted their own coffee beans.

So, one of the first things we're going to need to do is set the basic ground rules: I suggest a fantasy world. Science fiction does not seem to sell. This implies magic. I vote we toss the trope "cultures" like orcs, elves etc. and build out creatures native to this place. Is it a globe? Islands floating in a limitless sky? Are there gods, and if so how "solid" and active are they? Any other fundamental bounds, limits or off limits things to include or exclude?

This is where Apocalypse World and Microscope really changed the way I play and run games. I rarely have anything but the barest sketch when I sit down at the table. I love the NPCs players come up with when I ask who they have to meet to get whatever McGuffin I've come up with. The world-building that gets done in this little conversations is SO powerful. Everybody was there and it sticks and the stories take root in the world they know. I'm going to open a world building thread, if that's okay, @IsabellaRose.

Not guilty. I have dogs... The grass is NOT greener. Next poster is a coffee or tea snob.

Guilty on many occasions and, if nothing else, the wisdom and confidence that I can endure was the gain. Often, more than that. Next poster is good at being uncomfortable.

I've been kicking around the TTRPG community since Eldritch Wizardry was new so I've had a lot of favorites over the years. Champions, look I get that it's a math problem. It's a super fun math problem though. Its ability to mod powers and customize characters led the way for GURPS. It's also the first place I saw relationships codified and given mechanical weight. Apocalypse World taught me more about how to improvise well and follow players' leads than any other book. It also taught me about gamifying relationships between player characters. Rifts taught me everything I needed to know about, "Fuck it, it's your game. Play it however you want." Ars Magica taught me that I can love mechanics but hate a setting. I love that magic system. Love. It. But Mythic Europe and the Houses of Hermes are miserable. Somehow the whole Mages pretend they're not magical pisses me off more than the Camarilla not being apex predators.

I intend to consider it. @IsabellaRose has asked me to help with the mod duties of this club, so I'll certainly be along for the trip one way or another.

Guilty. Most of the time. Next poster is currently drawn to crushingly heavy music.

Tomb of Annihilation is actually designed to be completed. Tomb of Horrors, the old 1E adventure, was intended to be ridiculously hard, but ToA took the themes and ideas without reveling in lethality. I might be down for a 5E game but I already have quite a lot going on.

Some time ago I proposed a science fiction game based on the Expanse novels and SciFi/Amazon show The Expanse using the Green Ronin The Expanse RPG. Initially that got a little traction but once I repurposed an old pirate themed club to run it it went nowhere. Is there any interest in a game centered around a single ship owned and operated (whether stolen or not) by the player characters? My thought had been the dynamics of the polyamorous belter crew/families from the novels seemed interesting and well suited to ED's intimate bent. However, if that's not if any interest, is there a science fiction setting or game that would interest anyone?

Not guilty. Pho and cà phê đá are the things I always order when the opportunity presents itself. And I go out of my way to make sure that the opportunity does present itself pretty frequently. Next poster's food weakness is fries - but just the ones from a specific place.

Currently, not guilty. Next poster is uncomfortable with sex toys.

Do pornographic stories count? Guilty. The next poster sews, knits or crochets - embroidery, cross stitch or needlepoint count.

Not guilty. I've never been but it doesn't seem like something I'd enjoy. I'd give it a go, but I think it would be like a cruise - something I do once and realize, "This is not my scene." Next poster likes to eat at the hotel restaurant.

weed man

Not guilty? I've learned how not to be miserable and have become less of a miserable prick as a result. Hell, I might even traipse towards content from time to time, but reliable happiness, yeah, no. Next poster did not have seeing the word "traipse" on today's bingo card.

Lost World