FLAMY in: Fluffy and the Homebrew Video Game

2021/09/12
[9:59 AM] Fluffy56547: Hey uh, I’m not a professional writer, nor do I have any formal training in game design. I’m mostly just doing this because I wanted to roleplay with some friends, and I made the system because I don’t understand dnd. I think you’re looking for something a little more formal, and while I can’t recommend any places, I don’t think you’ll be quite that happy with us, as we’re pretty lax with everything, a lot of improv and making up rules on the fly and all that.
[9:59 AM] Flamy: Mm, my apologies for being harsh on you
[10:00 AM] Fluffy56547: It’s alright, no worries.
[10:27 AM] Flamy: Hey, Fluffy, as a GM, what part of a character's sheet do you look at the most?
[10:31 AM] Fluffy56547: In sheer numbers it's the skills equipped, but I also look at the bios every now and then
[10:31 AM] Flamy: Yeah, that's fair
[10:31 AM] Flamy: You'll likely not be in a situation where you're so pressed for time, that you're not unwilling to scroll down, yeah?
[10:31 AM] Flamy: Secondary query: For every 2 points put into Stamina or Focus, does their recovery rate increase by 1? What's the policy on rounding here
[10:33 AM] Fluffy56547: You get one point to upgrade your regens per level, which comes out to 0.5 for stamina or focus, or 1 for health. For X.5 upgrades, you can take that as increasing it every other turn, or just putting X.5, since roll20 allows decimals
[10:34 AM] Fluffy56547: For 2 points though, yeah it's an increase of 1
[10:34 AM] Fluffy56547: I designed the sheets so I can see the entire vertical at once, I only have to scroll horizontally for range
[10:35 AM] Fluffy56547: In previous iterations when we did have verticals, I did scroll though
[10:35 AM] Flamy: So recovery rates are increased separately from the actual resources themselves-- I see, I see
[10:35 AM] Fluffy56547: Yeah
[10:40 AM] Flamy: That sounds about right; It opens the way for interesting concepts like "high resource generation, but lower resource cap" and "super-high resource, but not many ways to recover afterwards"
[10:40 AM] Fluffy56547: Yeah
[10:42 AM] Fluffy56547: As for the 2 manas, usually what people do, at least from my observations, is they delegate one to pure attacking, and the other to like, support or defense (some of the styles represent this as well, with the support/buff skills using the other mana (usually the blue one))

2021/09/15
[6:38 PM] Fluffy56547: Hey uh, I don’t quite know how to put this nicely, but I don’t think we’ll quite mesh well together, got very different viewpoints on RP and stuff, and I don’t think our RP will have quite the standards you’ll looking for; I’m pretty lax and stuff, seriousness isn’t really a me thing. You’re free to stay in the server, but I’d like to ask you not to participate, sorry.
[6:38 PM] Flamy: oh, okay...
[6:39 PM] Fluffy56547: I don’t think I can quite meet your expectations, apologies.
[6:46 PM] Flamy: Do I really ask that much? I didn't feel like I was
[6:46 PM] Flamy: mostly just wondering what's possible and trying to make sure I'm compliant to the setting/mechanics
[7:10 PM] Fluffy56547: It’s just that it’s like, quite meticulous, and my philosophy is the opposite of that, I design very loosely and for interpretation, not for exacts. Very much a group process to build the world, that’s why it’s so empty at the start.
[7:12 PM] Flamy: You gave no impression of that-- I would also like to add that combat is also NOT a good idea for when the combination of abilities should be something up for interpretation
[7:14 PM] Fluffy56547: The combat itself isn’t quite up to interpretation, everything has an exact description, inconsistencies are just things I forgot since I didn’t have anyone helping me this time around (long story there).
[7:14 PM] Flamy: Working as a one-man design team does suck, I agree
[7:15 PM] Flamy: Especially when you're the only one aware of how mechanics work
[7:15 PM] Flamy: (ie making a homebrew system or something detached from what your target audience will immediately understand)
[7:48 PM] Fluffy56547: The roleplay itself really is much more free form, the prompt is one of the most structured things in it, and I build the world and story in response to the players. There is an ending that’s built towards, but the path there isn’t written ahead of time.
[7:49 PM] Flamy: For what it's worth, I very much appreciate that you are willing to accept Health as an abstraction, and don't have a to-hit check
[7:58 PM] Fluffy56547: The current system is like the uhh 9th or 10th iteration of my systems
[7:58 PM] Fluffy56547: The first time the system actually felt good to run as a DM was when we took away RNG (hit and crit)
[7:59 PM] Flamy: Interesting; Was this because of inherent uncertainty in outcome, or because the numbers never seemed to work?
[7:59 PM] Flamy: Has the intended goal of the system or your method of approaching it changed over time?
[8:04 PM] Flamy: ...sorry if that's too prying of a question for me to ask
[8:15 PM] Fluffy56547: isn’t, was just eating, still typing reply
[8:22 PM] Fluffy56547: System 1: Pure d20s with skills and a text based map.
System 2: No RNG JRPG, all skills, terrible regeneration.
System 3: Fire Emblem with combat arts, and we finally have maps. (Roll for hit, roll over 100 and you crit. [there was an equation])
System 4: System 3 but hit and crit are two rolls now.
System 5: Etrian Odyssey jrpg row system with bravely default turn storage (what we call ebb and flow). 3 weapon types, 5 elements. No more hit or crit chance.
System 6: The prior one but with more customization on weapons and skills.
System 7: The prior one but with 16 elements, way more skills, and 2 more weapon types.
System 8: Prior with 20 elements, ~500 skills. The grid returns, and skills have AoE too. Different mechanics for robots. We experimented with crit rates here too but we usually forgot.
System 9: Back down to 3(.5) weapon types, more concentrated skills, no hit or crit, 5 elements. Robot mechanics merged into system.
[8:23 PM] Fluffy56547: At the end of system 3 I realized I didn’t really like RNG or complex math.
[8:23 PM] Fluffy56547: This was a like 4 year journey from system 1 to 9 btw
[8:24 PM] Flamy: How complex are we talking about?
[8:24 PM] Fluffy56547: I just never really liked doing math more complicated than simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
[8:25 PM] Flamy: Division's out of the question?
[8:26 PM] Flamy: But if so, a sheet can do the math for you
[8:26 PM] Fluffy56547: Hit rate was like, Stat x Value + Weapon hit rate - Enemy Stat x Value +/- Weapon triangle stuff
[8:26 PM] Fluffy56547: It’s more like, I didn’t enjoy doing it, even with a sheet
[8:26 PM] Fluffy56547: Just wasn’t what I wanted in a game
[8:26 PM] Flamy: That's interesting-- What IS it that you want in a game?
[8:27 PM] Fluffy56547: I try to keep it out, it’s in there occasionally but it’s rare
[8:27 PM] Fluffy56547: Mental math with 2-3 numbers
[8:27 PM] Fluffy56547: Weapon + Skill - Armor
[8:27 PM] Fluffy56547: Occasionally element bonus
[8:28 PM] Fluffy56547: It’s also just like
[8:29 PM] Fluffy56547: Not fun to miss
[8:29 PM] Flamy: It isn't, yes, I do agree with that
[8:29 PM] Flamy: I have gone through at least one system that allows players to rig their rolls
[8:30 PM] Flamy: as well as reading systems that have no concept of "hitting" or "missing"
[8:30 PM] Fluffy56547: With our current system we’ve got a much better sense of “nearly” perfect information.
[8:31 PM] Fluffy56547: Enemies still hide stuff but it’s never anything too crazy
[8:31 PM] Flamy: There are a few ways to go around with creating an anti-frustration mechanic, but ultimately, if something is up to doubt, there should be a mechanic to arbitrate that-- I think you'd be interested in Into the Odd, but maybe not
[8:37 PM] Fluffy56547: Never heard of it. I don’t actually play tabletop games, the irony in my system is that I made it because tabletop systems are too complex for me, but even then I still have a 20 page manual.
[8:37 PM] Flamy: Have you played a board game?
[8:37 PM] Flamy: Especially co-operative ones
[8:37 PM] Flamy: Is your sample size of tabletop games from solely Dungeons & Dragons?
[8:41 PM] Fluffy56547: I’ve only played a single game of DND, so it’s barely included.
[8:42 PM] Fluffy56547: I don’t have an interest in tabletop games really, I just like running roleplays with my created systems.
[8:47 PM] Flamy: On one hand, it seems like you're trying to reinvent the wheel on freeform RP, but also you like, have some okay-to-alright design choices here for a game-- Have you looked at narrative games like Powered by the Apocalypse-type games or FATE Condensed/Accelerated?
[8:53 PM] Fluffy56547: For the first comment, we’ve done this style of RP before, and it’s commonly agreed as our best campaign ever, for the second, nope, never heard of them.
[9:02 PM] Flamy: Were the reasons for it being the best campaign consistent among people? Were they primarily related to the system itself?
[9:03 PM] Flamy: If nothing else, I think games like FATE are an interesting read on ways to make a game interesting without having complex mechanics https://fate-srd.com/fate-condensed/introduction
[9:14 PM] Fluffy56547: Story and combat were the best, highly consistent.
[9:14 PM] Flamy: Interesting to hear
[9:15 PM] Fluffy56547: Our combat system now is definitely an improvement on it, we just haven't finished a campaign with it.
[9:27 PM] Flamy: If you're up for a long read, try this one lasers_and_feelings_rpg.pdf (58.02 KB)
[9:36 PM] Fluffy56547: Interesting
[9:37 PM] Fluffy56547: Reminds me a little of the original system 1 combat at least
[9:37 PM] Flamy: Do you see now that role-playing games can be both a lot more and a lot less?
[9:38 PM] Flamy: Of course, for what you seem to be doing (having a somewhat crunchy tactical combat system), this might not be a good concept
[9:38 PM] Flamy: Ultimately, what I'm trying to present are... ideas, mostly!
[9:38 PM] Fluffy56547: Yeah
[9:42 PM] Flamy: And, hopefully, what you might gain from this is that role-playing games can vary in complexity and scope
[9:43 PM] Fluffy56547: Yeah

2021/09/17
[11:03 AM] Flamy: What are the "Knights"?

2021/09/19
[9:45 PM] Fluffy56547: Please stop changing the sheets, I designed them the original way and intend to keep them that way.
[9:52 PM] Fluffy56547: In addition, I requested for you not to participate. If you're still insistent on participating, then my requirements are to not step out of line, I designed things my way, and I didn't ask for assistance there, nor did I ever say you had permission to be a Knight; that's designated for people I know fairly well and can rely on. I'm trying to be nice and give you the benefit of the doubt, but you're really getting close to a border here.
[10:04 PM] Flamy: Well, in that case, may I help you with designing a better sheet?
[10:10 PM] Fluffy56547: I'm not really looking for that right now, I'm happy with them as they are.
[10:11 PM] Flamy: Well, what are you looking for?
[10:11 PM] Fluffy56547: Not really anything right now, just working on moving into my apartment before I can focus more attention back here.