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Tag Archives: skills
Fire Down Below – Character Creation
So you’re on a quest to retrieve the Fire Down Below, but first you need some heroes. Specifically, four: too large a roster would be hard to keep track of… but wounds, afflictions, and even deaths will demand a regular … Continue reading
Posted in Rules, World-Building
Tagged character classes, character creation, fire down below, house rules, menace, RPG, skills
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Fire Down Below – Core
The mechanical aspect of play in The Fire Down Below campaign will rest on the twin bases of attributes and skills. About Attributes and Modifiers When each hero is created, roll 3d6 seven times and assign six of the resulting … Continue reading
Posted in Rules, World-Building
Tagged attributes, fire down below, house rules, RPG, saves, skills
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YAOSC: Time to build some magic
Background Recently I’ve been putting renewed thought into my fantasy heartbreaker RPG; in this case, the long-deferred question of how the magic system will actually work. My Magic Monday series has ended up as a sort of catch-all for fantasy RPG … Continue reading
Magic Monday – YAOSC Character Creation
As long as at least one member of your group (the GM) knows the rules of YAOSC and is able to guide the rest of you in play, all you need to do is create a character and you should be … Continue reading
Posted in Rules
Tagged abilities, character classes, character creation, saves, skills, species, YAOSC
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Magic Monday – YAOSC Skill Rules
Skill use basics YAOSC, like all RPGs, is based on talking: the players describe what they want their characters to do and how they want them to do it, and the GM describes the results. When there’s doubt about whether … Continue reading
It’s just a mallet Gotye used to know?
It’s like falling off a bicycle: you never forget how 昔取った杵柄 (Mukashi totta kinedzuka; “The handle of a mallet that one used to use”) Definition: Abilities and skills gained in one’s youth. By extension, such skills that one has managed … Continue reading
Posted in Japanese, Kotowaza
Tagged 餅つき, mallet, mochi, riding a bicycle, skills, 昔, 杵柄
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A learning mechanic for YAOSC
Some readers may remember that I’ve got my own “fantasy heartbreaker” tabletop RPG system perpetually on the back burner, whimsically titled YAOSC (Yet Another Old-School Clone). The basic design elements for most action resolution are: Roll equal to or under your … Continue reading
Magic Monday – Seeing the unseen; smelling the unsmelled
Wizard Eyes (Submerge in Wind) It is said that the most powerful and skilled of magicians have senses that surpass those of normal men and women. And this is true, to a degree: any good practitioner of magic will train … Continue reading
Magic Monday: governed by skills
One of the funkiest tasks in making a fantasy game has got to be the magic system. Rules for travel, combat, and any number of other mundane tasks can be modeled on real-world data, as in Justin Alexander’s famed breakdown … Continue reading
More Musings on Skill Points and Economies Thereof
When I think about pen-and-paper RPG design, I invariably come around to skill systems and skill points. One thing that strikes me as odd about D&D is the almost complete disconnect between the systems for combat and the systems for … Continue reading
Posted in Nonfiction, Rules
Tagged brainstorming, D&D, gaming, history, rules, skill point economy, skills
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