Dungeon Stomp: Ruins of Ironshore

[Zombehs]

Zero Hex said Dual wielding is not too viable in real life, truth be told. But that's neither here nor there.

That's a nice block of answers but it still doesn't give me any kind of perspective over what that 2 means beyond "You're proportionally better than people with 1s, but weaker than things with 3 or more, and it's just a flat bonus to a d6 roll". How low is 2 in the world, how big is 10, what's the maximum possible in stats, do monsters get higher maximums than players? I could potentially have a character that starts with 11 wis and 1 everything else, what would that make it in this world? Would he be a spellcasting prodigy that can't wipe his own bum, outrun a snail or survive a stiff breeze? Would he be normal (meaning shit for adventuring) except for his wondrous uberbrain of spellcasting?

And since we're at it, why can't a defender pick his own defensive stat to pit against an attack, situation allowing, except for spellcasters? Why would a creature that relies on agility try to enter a battle of strength instead of simply dodging/parrying and counterattacking unless it's backed against a corner and can't feasibly use his agility to escape or somesuch? Doesn't this just mean casters have a far more reliable defense than noncasters? Sure they don't get to deal damage back when attacked but they can always use their main stat to add to their rolls, like I'm saying everyone should be able to.

This is why trying to establish a system is generally meh. Lil details, and stuff like all of that get in the way, of what is ultimately supposed to be writing.

[PhoenixWhite]

Zero Hex said
Why would a creature that relies on agility try to enter a battle of strength instead of simply dodging/parrying and counterattacking unless it's backed against a corner and can't feasibly use his agility to escape or somesuch? Doesn't this just mean casters have a far more reliable defense than noncasters? Sure they don't get to deal damage back when attacked but they can always use their main stat to add to their rolls, like I'm saying everyone should be able to.

If we resort to using dice we are willingly throwing caution to the wind and relying on luck, except for the few occasions he said he may mandatorily use said dice. However, as per his previous post he also said he might very well torch the entire dice mechanic and skip over it entirely. Of which I have no comment on.

Keia Vewyx said
Have no fear: being the butt of a few jokes [read: all of them] among my friends has turned me into a masochist. I'm able to laugh at myself far more than I should...

Welcome to the club, we use the back door and discreetly offer snide remarks to others comments whilst maintaining casual distance.

[IncredibleBee]

Zombehs said
This is why trying to establish a system is generally meh. Lil details, and stuff like all of that get in the way, of what is ultimately supposed to be writing.

Actually systems are great for role plays. They give a fair method of conflict resolution, and more importantly, a sense of danger. You can't get a sense of danger without the real threat of a fail state created from a dice roll.
The only problem is that the system Hamster is trying to create is clunky and poorly made, which is understandable, because making a system from scratch is hard and takes really good math. The thing is that Zero and I are both presenting an easy solution in the form of an extremely simple four page system. All he has to do is say "Hmm, maybe using a readily available system would be easier than designing, playtesting, and editing my own over the course of many hours."

[Zero Hex]

Yes, that's a nice opinion on the writing part, but when you have a game that's going to heavily feature combat and wants to portray danger to the characters, you kind of want a system to avoid the typical freeform pitfalls of players not ever wanting their characters to be in any real danger, poor definition and scaling of abilities, gear and powers and a general lack of appropiate, codified conflict resolution.

EDIT

PhoenixWhite said
If we resort to using dice we are willingly throwing caution to the wind and relying on luck, except for the few occasions he said he may mandatorily use said dice.

I don't see how this relates to my asking about why a character who relies on and has trained, say, his speed and reflexes would try to outpower an enemy attack instead of using his speed and reflexes to dodge and potentially initiate his own counterattack. Or why a character who's all about DA BEEF would try to do fancy footwork just because the enemy is doing it instead of smashing them aside like he's trained to do. I can see why magic users get to use their magic to block shit, but on the same vein I don't see why a wizard wouldn't block shit with a literal wall of materialized hurt, so removing their counterattack damage doesn't make that much sense, not to mention the issues with a guy being able to always defend with their best stat while others are at the mercy of their enemy.

Using dice in RPs is not all random chance either, not to mention all that stuff about defined characters and conflict resolution I've already talked about. In this case characters who are good at something will have a better chance of succeeding at it, because they're actually good at it, worked at it and usually have equipment that helps them at it. Characters that suck at something don't have all that, but might still pull through because sometimes shit/miracles can happen.

[Zombehs]

IncredibleBee said Actually systems are great for role plays. They give a fair method of conflict resolution, and more importantly, a sense of danger. You can't get a sense of danger without the real threat of a fail state created from a dice roll.

The only problem is that the system Hamster is trying to create is clunky and poorly made, which is understandable, because making a system from scratch is hard and takes really good math. The thing is that Zero and I are both presenting an easy solution in the form of an extremely simple four page system. All he has to do is say "Hmm, maybe using a readily available system would be easier than designing, playtesting, and editing my own over the course of many hours."

Yeah, pre-made systems are great.

Establishing your own system?

[Zero Hex]

I did offer Risus a couple pages back and all I got was a polite "Let's try it my way" from the GM, which is fine, and a snide remark implying 4 fucking pdf pages is somehow too big a system.

[PhoenixWhite]

Hmm...You all do have a point, and I certainly didn't intend to get as involved in this debate as I have xD To be honest, I'm more amused and arbitrary than I am siding with one or the other. Either way the roleplay shall get up off the ground in the end, should we all co-operate.

...pff, snide remark about 'four' pages? Even I can't pull that off with all my snarkiness xD

[Keia Vewyx]

I read up on that Risus system. Do note that I was planning out my groceries, wandered around my house mindlessly, and half-drowned myself in cider along the way so I took thrice as long as one normally would (and probably misunderstood more than a few points, aha).

It's a quite interesting system, I'll give it that. Very little math involved and quite simple, if a bit "free-form" for a stat-based system. Barely any limitations. I suppose that means it's suitable for the more creative writing focus that is RP Guild as stated earlier, though the system itself caters towards more... light-hearted roleplays (not that it can't be used for more serious roleplays).

But, I can't say if it's a good match or not for this roleplay; that's SyrianHamster's decision.

[Jivusa]

Zero Hex said
I did offer Risus a couple pages back and all I got was a polite "Let's try it my way" from the GM, which is fine, and a snide remark implying 4 fucking pdf pages is somehow too big a system.

Smarmageddon.
...
No?
Okay then.
Something about vegemite.

[IncredibleBee]

Keia Vewyx said
I read up on that Risus system. Do note that I was planning out my groceries, wandered around my house mindlessly, and half-drowned myself in cider along the way so I took thrice as long as one normally would (and probably misunderstood more than a few points, aha).It's a quite interesting system, I'll give it that. Very little math involved and quite simple, if a bit "free-form" for a stat-based system. Barely any limitations. I suppose that means it's suitable for the more creative writing focus that is RP Guild as stated earlier, though the system itself caters towards more... light-hearted roleplays (not that it can't be used for more serious roleplays). But, I can't say if it's a good match or not for this roleplay; that's SyrianHamster's decision.

Risus is a great system for games like this, and can be used for any genre, even serious ones. All you do is distribute ten points among varying skill types.

Say you wanted to be a samurai. You place up to six points in "Samurai", and gain an equal number of d6's for anything applicable to the career. This could be swordsmanship, horse riding, and even speaking formally; it's up to GM Fiat if a skillset is too broad or you use something that can't apply. One point means you know the basics, but not much else, and six means you are the best of the best. Stat checks vary depending on how hard the task is, with 5 being simple routine, like displaying basic sword kata, then scaling up to 30 for an impossibly hard task, like cutting a fly out of the air blindfolded. Since all skills cap at six, you have other points you can put among things like "Chef" and "Medic".
In combat, you and your opponent pick an appropriate skill. Say, you pick Samurai, and your foe has six points in "Fencer". You both roll 6d6. The loser loses a dice from his dice pool, and has to roll 5d6 next round. This continues until the loser runs out of dice, and appropriate consequences are applied (Probably usually either KO or Death for Ironshore).

For anyone who didn't read it, that's Risus in a nutshell. You can sum up the entire ruleset in two paragraphs and stat your character in about twenty seconds. I highly recommend it to anyone making an action play by post.

[PhoenixWhite]

That's certainly not an overly strenuous system, and does allow some open inteperetation. It does seem somewhat one sided in a combat scenario though, if one person simply overpowers the other by a few dice. I can see it playing out fairly though. I'm still arbitrary and indifferent however, I am rather new to forum roleplays and have only minorly experimented with tabletops in the past-- but text based, pure roleplay, stories are what i'm used to.

[IncredibleBee]

PhoenixWhite said
That's certainly not an overly strenuous system, and does allow some open inteperetation. It does seem somewhat one sided in a combat scenario though, if one person simply overpowers the other by a few dice. I can see it playing out fairly though. I'm still arbitrary and indifferent however, I am rather new to forum roleplays and have only minorly experimented with tabletops in the past-- but text based, pure roleplay, stories are what i'm used to.

A player short a few dice can still win with luck, but generally speaking, the player starting with more dice in their pool has the advantage, because that represents a higher tier of skill. It's similar to how a person with five years of fencing training will usually -but not necessarily always- beat someone with only three.
This encourages players to specialize in at least one area, but it's also possible to spread out and have a few dice in many skills that other players might not have. Even if you dedicate the maximum six dice to a combat-centric skillset, you'll also still have four leftover for other things. However, if you don't put six dice into a fighting skill, you should know it's still possible to use other skills to escape an encounter safely. You could sneak, for example, try to use diplomacy, or any other option you can come up with.

[PhoenixWhite]

Ehhh, I think certain aspects simply can't be dice roll-ed out of. I'm one of those individuals who doesn't believe that throwing up numbers on the screen substitutes for roleplay efforts. Dice rolls are still somewhat foreign to me, but this is less important in this context because it's my bias xD

[SyrianHamster]

Lol.

No RP sponsored/endorsed mechanics. Reverting to traditional RP style; will be done at some point during this week, with a bit of luck.

But by all means skip right past this post, and carry on discussing whatever it is you're discussing. :D

[IncredibleBee]

PhoenixWhite said
Ehhh, I think certain aspects simply can't be dice roll-ed out of. I'm one of those individuals who doesn't believe that throwing up numbers on the screen substitutes for roleplay efforts. Dice rolls are still somewhat foreign to me, but this is less important in this context because it's my bias xD

You don't dice roll when you roleplay. Talking, moving around, and most simple actions and social situations don't require dice. Dice are just there so there's a form of challenge in combat and dungeoneering.

[SyrianHamster]

Ahem, hey it's me, the possible future GM of this train wreck.

I know you're all still hung up over my disastrous attempt at innovation, but if you refer to the first post, you'll see the RP has taken on a wholly different form.

It'll be getting bigger hourly, until I have the lore covered, along with the character sheets, the "rules", and other things.

Still retaining the dungeon exploring idea and fuck-yeah-adventuring mentality, but coating it with darker and grittier undertones.

[Jivusa]

Since we're not going the original route, I think it's a good idea to whip out my favorite build for things like Skyrim when I feel a bit dark and creepy, and have a need to roleplay.
I'll still be using the Archer archetype, just a bit more...macabre than your usual elven archer. *Coughcoughcannibalcough*

[Nib]

I am interested in joining.

[Jivusa]

Welcome, new blood.

[PhoenixWhite]

Oh my, it does have that certain gritty feel to it now, Ser Hamster xD

And indeed! Welcome aboard ^~^