The RPG Homebrew Extravanganza Thread

[Quirk]

A reference to monty python? That'd be an interesting campaign to play through if so

Ayup.

Wouldn't that be 787, then?

I could have sworn it was 982. Whelp. Changin' that.

EDIT Oh, it was 932. I was close.

[Damian_River_Bandit]

The Tears of Blood Campaign Setting received a fairly significant update today. Among the more important changes are:

Everyday Things on pg. 99 received a complete rewrite. The pages-long list of goods and services was removed and replaced with a shorter section describing the effects of The Weeping on the economy, and suggestions for how to handle buying and selling.

Special Materials on pg 105 also received a complete rewrite. The section was edited to avoid possible problems with non-OGL material, and to give a "Tears of Blood" feel to it. Readers are now referred to the Pathfinder Core Rules for materials that appear there. Sources were kept, but are now called "inspirations."

New material was added to the Halfling Pantheon, which begins on pg 281. This includes a fair amount of description, but also several new Domains and new spells.

New material was added to the Caltan section of the Human Pantheon, which begins on pg 293.

And strangely enough, the page count for the whole document remained the same, 388 pages. It must be a sign from The Five Gods that this update was divinely decreed.

Work continues on new material for The Beneath and the Gnomes, which will likely be in the form of a Campaign Supplement.

Enjoy!

Link: http://tears-of-blood.weebly.com/

[Damian_River_Bandit]

Editing continues on the Tears of Blood Campaign Setting.

Newly added is the Tears of Magic - New Spells in Tears of Blood, 50+ pages of new spells.

Enjoy.

Tears of Blood Homepage

[Magnum]

Oh man. I have just stumbled upon the most awesome thread ever. You see, I am a master of never finishing role playing systems that I start working on. I have it down to an art form. But this here, this is a magnificent place for me to throw out my ideas.

So, question is, should I just start writing stuff I have? Or should I compile this into a free website and post a link? I don't wanna be spamming this.

[Quirk]

So, question is, should I just start writing stuff I have? Or should I compile this into a free website and post a link? I don't wanna be spamming this.

Whatever works best for what you have.

[Damian_River_Bandit]

At first I set up an account on a file sharing site, and used a message board for discussion. But file sharing sites are getting trickier to use (due mostly to intellectual property rights, I imagine), and so I went out and set up a web site on a free host. It's not much, but it does come with a blog, and it gets the job done. The thing to watch with the free web sites is how big can the files be (mine has a 5 GB limit per file) and how much "bandwidth" the account allows. More is better, because that is what allows poeple to download your stuff.

Web sites also take a bit of getting used to as far as how they allow you to design the pages. Most free ones are very simple, allowing basic text and graphics, with a size limit commonly on the graphics.

Most of the "free" ones I looked at do offer a way to upgrade to a paid site, so that is an option if yours really takes off.

[Wiwaxia]

Hijacking to try to hammer out my Sburb 4e hack (yeah, yeah, I know about the Gamma World one). I have no idea if it'll look anything like 4e when I'm through with it, though.

Things I'm thinking of:
Time travel/paradox/Frag system cannibalized from C^ontinuum
Advantage/disadvantage cannibalized from 5e
Some manner of roll to determine if the things what would be really useful right now are, in fact, lying conveniently nearby
INTERESTS to modify that roll
Cull that stupid 1/2 level bonus from attacks, defenses, skills, monsters, &c.

Things I'm more unsure about:
Maybe make enhancement bonuses and whatnot innate to leveling up
Maybe replace standardized skills with a Good At/Bad At (pick x Good Ats, get 1 additional Good At per Bad At taken)system, to be applied to any relevant rolls (may or may not tie in w/ Interests)
Maybe add in this cool second chance mechanic I saw for Good Ats: (if you fail a task that you are Good At, roll 1d6. If it's under your level, you get another chance to save yourself from horrible failure, if you fail again, add another 1d6 to your original roll. If it's still under your level keep going &c. Looks cool, but might be more trouble than it's worth)
Hexcrawl/pointcrawl overworld?
Do something to substitute for armor


Thoughts?

e. Specific Aspect-y stuff

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Breath +2 Wis, + Any
Breath players have resistance 5+ ½ level to falling damage
Windfall utility, encounter
Roll 1d20. If you roll 10+, a mundane object of your choice weighing 20 lbs or less blows in on the Breeze

Time +2 Dex, +2 Any
Flash Step, Utility, encounter, minor
Shift your speed

Space +Int, +2 Any (Prospitian Knowledge ???, if this is Int, change either Light or Mind)
bonus to knowledge checks?

Light +2 Int, +2 Any (all the Heroes of Light are huge nerds, but maybe Dex would go better with luck)

Doom (I got nothin)

Blood +2 Con, +2 Any (maybe Cha, if it's blood-like-family-blood rather than blood-like-in-your-body-blood)

Heart +2 Cha, +2 Any (Maybe Wis?)

Mind +2 Int, +2 Any (maybe Wis instead)

Void (????)

Rage +2 Cha, +2 any

Hope (????)

Life: +2 Con, +2 Any

[Dxpenguinman]

I suddenly have this urge to flesh out Librus for real this time.

EDIT: To start with, I've been thinking it should be made free-form rather than limited to specific skills and whatnot. Firstly, I propose to get rid of an experience system all together. Keep the stats, but the experience system should go and be replaced with a point-reward system (akin to HERO System) where completing explorations/missions should reward the players with 'points' (or whatever they will eventually be called) which can be expended on improving stats, or buying powers.

Which leads to the second point, getting rid of the preset skills and making it free-form. I propose that within the three categories of skills (Active, Passive and Utility), there should be subcategories. In the Active Skills case, perhaps things like PROJECTILE skills, BARRIER skills, AREA skills (which affect an area) and DIRECT skills (which affect something directly), to name a few.

Eloquent Artes are still in though.

I'll do a proper writeup of it later on.

[Dxpenguinman]

New Combat System (in progress) :
(wall of text below, broken into spoilers)

Rather than have a set of maneuvers, combat in Librus is relatively freeform - there are four different ways to attack: regular ATTACKS, INCANTATIONS, POWERS and FANCY MOVES (a new addition).

ATTACKS:

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First you roll to see if your hit connects by rolling a d20 and adding any weapon bonuses. This becomes your ATTACK ROLL, and the enemy then rolls a d20 and adds their agility (BRISKNESS) bonus (if any), which becomes their EVASION ROLL.

If your attack roll is higher than their evasion roll, continue on to roll for damage. Vice versa, if your attack roll is lower than the enemy’s evasion roll, you miss the attack.

To roll for damage, roll a d20 and add any weapon bonuses (just like your ATTACK ROLL). This becomes your DAMAGE ROLL and the enemy rolls a d20 and adds their armor bonus (which becomes their DEFENSE ROLL).

If your damage roll is greater than their defense roll, deal damage equivalent to your damage roll.
And likewise, if your damage rolll is lower than their defense roll, find the difference between your damage roll and the enemy’s defense roll, subtract that difference from your DAMAGE ROLL and deal the newly subtracted DAMAGE ROLL as damage.
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Example: your ‘Mightier than the Sword’ pen gives you a +3 weapon bonus, and you roll a 13, thus bringing your DAMAGE ROLL to 16. The enemy’s shield provides them with a defense bonus of +4, but they only roll an 8, and therefore only get a DEFENSE ROLL of 12. Your DAMAGE ROLL is higher than their DEFENSE ROLL, and as a result, you deal 16 damage - since 16 is equivalent to your DAMAGE ROLL.

Example 2: your ‘Mightier than the Sword’ pen gives you a bonus of +3, and you roll a 9, thus bringing your DAMAGE ROLL to 12. The enemy’s ‘Writer’s Block’ shield provides them with a defense bonus of +6, and they roll a 10, and therefore get a DEFENSE ROLL of 16. Since their DEFENSE ROLL is higher than your DAMAGE ROLL, we find the difference between the two rolls (in this case, 4) and subtract it from the DAMAGE ROLL (in this case 12), so the resultant damage you deal from your newly subtracted DAMAGE ROLL is 12 - 4, which is 8.

CHANTS:

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Next, chants and incantations. CHANTS are words which can be strung together into INCANTATIONS (which need a minimum of 2 CHANTS to work). Out of the chants you chose for the incantation, pick 2 of them to make up the incantation's EFFECT (i.e. if you pick FIRE and WALL, the EFFECT would be constructing a wall of fire). The total number of chants in an incantation * d6 dice make up the incantation's damage. So if you picked 3 CHANTS for the incantation, it will deal 3d6 damage.

POWERS:

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I will expand on POWERS in a later post.

FANCY MOVES:

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Finally, I've added a freeform FANCY MOVE mechanic, allowing you to pull off insane stunts and all sorts of creative attacks. Fancy moves use a risk/reward mechanic.

This is how a fancy move is carried out:
1. Player decides what his fancy move will be (e.g. having his sword bust into flames).
2. GM decides what stat this fancy move will use (a sword bursting into flames would probably require BOOKSMARTS)
3. Players choose from up to 1 to 6 d6s to roll, and then roll that number of d6s.
4. If the total roll is lower than the relevant stat (in this case, BOOKSMARTS), the fancy move succeeds, and it deals damage equivalent to the resultant roll. The player can narrate how his fancy move was carried out.
5. Likewise, if the total roll is higher than the relevant stat, the fancy move fails and the player takes damage equivalent to the (number of d6s rolled * d3s). The GM narrates how the fancy move failed spectacularly.

Example: READER decides to vault off the wall and grip onto an enemy’s back and pummel away at it. The GM decides this uses the BRISKNESS stat, and the player decides it’s a pretty risky move so he takes 5d6s to roll. His BRISKNESS stat is 21, and his roll of 5d6 comes up as 19, which means he succeeds at his fancy move. He describes how it was carried out, and the enemy takes 19 damage - equivalent to the resultant roll.

Example 2: READER decides to vault off the wall and grip onto an enemy’s back and pummel away at it. The GM decides this uses the BRISKNESS stat, and the player decides it’s a fairly risky move so he takes 4d6s to roll. His BRISKNESS stat is 17, and his roll of 4d6 comes up as 18, which means he failed his own fancy move. The GM describes how he missed his vault spectacularly, and the READER takes 4 (since the READER rolled 4d6s) * d3s worth of damage - or in other words, 4d3 damage.

Oh by the way, Quirk, the doc file for Librus got wiped recently and had to be restored, so I've transferred the information into a new doc which is only editable by certain people (PM me with your email if you want access to edit the doc). Anyone is still able to view and comment.

Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...Xbq9V3zCU/edit

[Quirk]

LIVE, THREAD! LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

Summer work is over, so I'm ready to get the ball rolling. It's time for BHC V2.

Now, adding material is basically done. If anything, stuff is going to be cut (and some will be revised. Added stuff will be more original material based on what is already there.) For V2 we're going to focus exclusively on Era 1, from the end of WW2 to Evangelion.

Point the second: We have a system: Chaosium Basic Roleplaying. I already have a general list of skills that will be used, and whipping up species skill sets will be a piece of cake.

Point the 3rd: Systems for Alchemy and Spiral Powers are under construction. Basically:

Alchemists will have a basic percentage score for their skill (for example, we have an alchemist with an Alchemy skill of 60: he needs to roll a 60 or less to succeed). Modifiers will be added or subtracted depending on available materials and the scope of the transmutation. (For example, he is attempting a Moderate Unaided Transmutation, and takes a -20 penalty for being unaided and another undetermined penalty for being of moderate size)

Transmutations draw from a pool of charges, with larger transmutations taking more charges, and the pool expanding with more points in the skill.

Spiral powers will be used somewhat the same, with an available pool of points (though they will recharge slower, I'm planning). Each skill has its own % of success, to be determined.

Spiral skills will be: AT-Field, Fight the Power, Inspiring Speech, Light of the Soul, Spiral Blast, Spiral Strike, Twist of Fate, Wisdom of the Ages

There will also be a section on commonly trained Pokemon, which needs to be filled: should have 10-12, if not 15. Preferably gens 1 & 2.

Ideas which I will be extrapolating in V2: The Poleepkwa ships used as habitats at the Lagrange points / Life under Combine Rule / The LCL revolution.

[Wiwaxia]

Ooooooh.

Why not have 17 basic pokes one for each type, and then some guidelines on how to manipulate the statblocks to get similar Pokemon?

Want a Joltik? (And who doesn't?) Well just do x, y, and z to the Pikachu stats and add some web thing and go!

Also, I don't have the Chaosium rules. Will the quickstart ones work?

[Quirk]

Also, I don't have the Chaosium rules. Will the quickstart ones work?

Yes, quickstart works dandy. Nab the Call of Cthulhu quickstart too, just for a backup.

As far as pokemon go, I forgot that they don't really come into play until later and so they go into the "questionable" box. There will be some finagling and re-organizing to be done, but that is for the future.

In other news, I've decided to put a lot more focus on the Combine: they are now from our universe, and act as a suppression force (before the Reapers, even) under control of the Anti-Spirals. SEELE wants the Combine to rule, hoping to use that domination of mankind to their own ends (Breen is actually a member of SEELE himself)

[unvoicedAspiration]

Accent Diner
A roleplaying game by unvoicedAspiration

Character Creation: Everyone picks a foreign accent, preferably one they are very bad at mimicking.

Play: You are all strangers in a crowded diner who have been forced to be table-mates due to sheer busyness. Begin by going around the table and having everyone order. Once this is done, set an egg-timer for fifteen minutes.

Rules:

* Always speak in your accent.
* None of you can understand anyone else's accent.

The game ends when the timer rings and everyone gets their food.

The End

Be on the lookout for Accent Diner's first supplement, Inexplicable hand gestures, due March 2013.

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Five AM me finds the weirdest stuff funny.

[Wiwaxia]

Blueprint for an AtLA RPG, because I can.

So you start with a BRP like list of d% roll-under abilities. Five lists actually, one for mundane skills (sword, boomerang, fan, dodge, diplomacy, research, tinkering, tracking, history, etc.) and one each for each type of bending with various forms, techniques, etc. (the Avatar Wiki has a frankly terrifyingly complete list of every technique used in the series), and then a general knowledge skill for each kind of bending.

X amount of training time will give you an automatic success with a skill, then you roll to improve it, as per BRP. Training with a scroll or someone slightly more talented than you might give you a bonus to your confirmation.

X amount of training with a master (someone who has a score y higher than yours in the ability you're trying to improve) gives you an automatic success and an automatic success on the confirmation roll.

The expectation is that all your bending skills (or weapon skills/other key skills for a non-bender) will hit 100% fairly quickly (when was the last time Katara failed to waterbend a water whip or Sokka missed with his boomerang?), and that you need a master to get there.

For any given situation, you can pick any skill that you think will work (the GM won't tell you if it'll work or not, unless you're doing something obviously ineffective, like trying to cross a river with the water whip or flame punch skill). While you're still learning this creates a decision between using a skill that you know you can pull off and one that is better suited to the task at hand, but you don't have mastered. An experienced character should have a skill at or near 100% for most reasonable situations.

An ability can be improved beyond 100%. Looking at the series this seems to be mostly a scale thing: once you can get a water whip perfectly any time, start making bigger ones, or two at once. I'm not sure if this should be a scale of increasingly punitive modifiers, such that you need a skill well in excess of 100% to even attempt it, or new skills that are only "unlocked" when the prerequisites hit 100%, and start again at 10% or whatever, or what. Neither quite simulates the series. I think the first might be more fun, but I'm not sure how one would improve a skill past 100%.

Combat is mostly about maneuvering your opponents and initiative (Go-ways, not D&D-ways), with little in the way of damage. The attacker picks a skill and rolls, the defender picks a skill to defend and rolls. If the defender rolls under their skill by more than the attacker rolls under their skill, they get to attack on their turn this round. If not, they don't, and might suffer some additional detrimental effect, like being pushed back or something. If they don't, and the difference exceeds x margin, or if the skill they used isn't quite good enough, they take damage. HP totals are low, let's say you can generally take damage 2-4 times before going down, and another 1-2 times before dying. Combat is mostly a back and forth of trying to get your opponent in a bad position, then a couple decisive blows, or, failing that, attrition. If the defender rolls over their skill, or has no way to reasonably defend themselves, it's a critical hit, and the defender is incapacitated, if not dead. Also, stuff happens to the surrounding environment depending on the skills used (things catch on fire! the stone bridge you just earthbended a shield out of is no longer structurally sound!). I'm not sure what to do about someone being attacked by multiple people in a round, or counterattacks and other stuff. I'll probably tweak this a bunch if I ever come back to this thing.

Non-benders are about on par with benders in combat (see Sokka, Suki, Tai Li, Mai), but aren't so great at solving problems out of combat, at least not without additional training.

The bending knowledge skills are used when trying to explain bending to a pupil or devise a new bending technique. You can also use the bending knowledge skills for other types of bending to devise a bending form inspired by them (e.g. Iroh's lightning redirection) or to improve mundane skills associated with that type of bending (studying airbender forms gives you better dodge, using earthbender stances improves your ability to block attacks, &c.). They may also be used to improve skills past 100%, I'm not sure.

If you were doing a campaign with this, I'd suggest some manner of time constraints (you're being chased, defeat Sozin before summer's end, &c.) so your characters don't spend all their time training (cause that's boring as shit), but make sure that they have chances to train with masters.

[Damian_River_Bandit]

Looking for some ideas/feedback/etc. on a playtest campaign that is set in the Tears of Blood Campaign Setting available Here, but you don't really need to read the material for this question. Basically, it's a D&D setting where the world is recovering from a massive plague called The Weeping. Society has collapsed in some areas, and is being held together in others. This is a custom setting with its own set of divine powers called The Five Gods (the "Five" cover Life/Death, Nature, War, Magic and Travel). The original project team stayed away from stating any reason/cause/source of the plague, instead leaving that up to the GM. I have been kicking around various reasons that were speculated and came up with this:

• There is a Child of the Fey who many of that race believe is destined to fulfill a Prophesy. They believe that this child will lead the Fey to their rightful place as lords over all/masters of the universe/etc etc.

• Soon after being born, this Fey child is stolen by a mortal, described as somewhat like a Witch, who was aware of the Prophesy. This witch then began a line of successors whose sole purpose is to keep the Child away from the Fey and from fulfilling the Prophesy. The whereabouts of the current guardian and Child are unknown, even to me (I haven't decided yet).

• The Fey have continuously tried to find the Child, and have failed in their search. Some Fey began to consider other ways of either bringing about its return or recovering it themselves.

• By some means, this group came upon a plague that affects all sentient creatures and unleashed it on the world. Presumably, the Fey are immune to it, and it will either force those hiding the Child to give it up, or will allow the Fey to find the Child by the "process of elimination" that results from deaths due to the plague.

• A small outbreak was recorded by Sages a couple of decades ago. Unknown to the world at large, this was a trial run by the Fey. A much larger outbreak then occurred and is the one that the world is just now recovering from. It became called The Weeping after a symptom of infection where the victim bled from the eyes.

• Some of the Five Gods have either become aware, or suspect, what is going on. They may suspect it is the Fey, or not.

• These Fey are planning on releasing increasingly deadly forms of the plague until they get what they want. On a previous encounter with an agent of The Five Gods, the agent described to the party what was unfolding on their world as an "extinction event."

• Not all of the Fey are behind this (or even know about it), just a group of them. Fey in this setting are described as "The Thousand Courts," and it is one of the major "Courts" that is behind the plague. What reaction the other Fey would have to this is so far unknown, but if they depend on the dreams of mortals, they are not likely to be 100 percent behind it.

• Enter our Heroes, a band of adventurers who some or all of The Five Gods hope will stop this madness. Somehow.

As far as the players (and their characters) know, no one is immune to The Weeping except for a strange race called The Giantkin (Campaign-specific). Again, the creators of the setting stayed away from any explanation about how or why Giantkin are immune. Perhaps it has something to do with their origin, which pitted their ancestors (Giants) against the Fey in the early ages of the world. The playtest party is about 7th level, and is currently undergoing a series of minor quests that will get them some answers from an Oracle. They have no idea what is really going on, other than they have a dislike for all things Fey.

There aren't any specific questions here, I am just looking for reactions, ideas, inspiration... things to develop the idea further.

Thanks in advance!