Inspiration is a funny creature. Sometimes it's a demon that tears at your brain 'till you write a thousand pages and sometimes it's a ghost who won't visit you no matter how much you beg.
This morning I was looking over my printed copy of RBH2 and kind of daydreaming about the session of Supercrew I recently GM'd. BAM! Inspiration. I wrote a fresh outline of what I need to do to make RBH3 happen and then immediately followed that with about five pages of actual mechanism changes.
With a constant flow of inspiration, I may be ready to present RBH3 in just a couple weeks. Keep your fingers crossed that the demon sticks around for a while.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
What if I removed Connections?
Hey all, I'm back. I fixed those links there and they lead to the 2nd edition rules and character sheet again. No updates yet.
But I think I just had a really good idea. I'm going to remove "connections" from Arenas. Instead of having a map of circles connected by lines, where the circles indicate arenas and the lines indicate ways of getting from one to the other, one can instead move from any one Arena to any other Arena with a single action.
Say what?
Yeah. Naturally, the move must still be consistant within the fiction. BUT! As we all already know, that fiction is fluid and subject to change by means of a player taking the Move action with their character.
For example: Your character moves from the Courtyard, to the Stairs, to the Balcony, establishing each as Arenas, and further establishing a connection C-S-B. But what if someone wanted to move from the Courtyard to the Balcony in a single move? Simple! You just have to describe how your character manages to bypass the stairs. Does he run up the side of the tower with Bird Feet? Or make the jump in a single leap via their amazing Daring? That's for you to describe and for your fellow players to agree to.
That leads me to another bit of rule that I don't think I've let you in on yet. See, we were just kinda playing around with the thing this past spring and I never really decided how I wanted to impliment it: Requiring a successful Attribute roll to enter an Arena.
In one particular session we decided that a particular arena was "hidden". One had to make a successful Alertness roll (vs. 8 IIRC) before one could enter the arena. There was another Arena, a crumbling aquaduct, that was difficult to scale, and so required a successful Daring roll to enter.
Those two rules solve most of the issues I was having when we played last. I just have one more really important thing to resove with the combat rules, then I can re-tune the Talents to fit the new system, and I'll have a 3rd edition ready for playtest.
But I think I just had a really good idea. I'm going to remove "connections" from Arenas. Instead of having a map of circles connected by lines, where the circles indicate arenas and the lines indicate ways of getting from one to the other, one can instead move from any one Arena to any other Arena with a single action.
Say what?
Yeah. Naturally, the move must still be consistant within the fiction. BUT! As we all already know, that fiction is fluid and subject to change by means of a player taking the Move action with their character.
For example: Your character moves from the Courtyard, to the Stairs, to the Balcony, establishing each as Arenas, and further establishing a connection C-S-B. But what if someone wanted to move from the Courtyard to the Balcony in a single move? Simple! You just have to describe how your character manages to bypass the stairs. Does he run up the side of the tower with Bird Feet? Or make the jump in a single leap via their amazing Daring? That's for you to describe and for your fellow players to agree to.
That leads me to another bit of rule that I don't think I've let you in on yet. See, we were just kinda playing around with the thing this past spring and I never really decided how I wanted to impliment it: Requiring a successful Attribute roll to enter an Arena.
In one particular session we decided that a particular arena was "hidden". One had to make a successful Alertness roll (vs. 8 IIRC) before one could enter the arena. There was another Arena, a crumbling aquaduct, that was difficult to scale, and so required a successful Daring roll to enter.
Those two rules solve most of the issues I was having when we played last. I just have one more really important thing to resove with the combat rules, then I can re-tune the Talents to fit the new system, and I'll have a 3rd edition ready for playtest.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The d12
Hi everybody. It's been a while since I've posted. But, except for a few weeks last month where my mind was fully occupied with camping, RBH hasn't been far from my thoughts.
If you're reading this, then you're probably a dedicated fan of this thing. Thank you. You rock.
I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on the use of the d12. I've had lots of folks tell me that they don't like it, or that they thought the system would be better off without it. I understand and respect that opinion, but I don't agree with it.
I love the way the d12 works in this system. Not just the way the math works with the attributes, but also the very fact that you do have to switch between your dice when you're killing and when you're, you know... doing anything besides killing. That's right: I like the fact that you have to switch dice. It feels good. It's a switching-gears feeling that I think is appropriate and fun.
If you use a d10 in place of the d12, you may not be screwing with the math much, but you are certainly going to loose that gear-switching-feeling.
And hey, be honest with me, the reason why you're balking at the d12 is because you don't have as many sitting around you're house, isn't it? I mean, if you had as many d12s as you had d10s, would you feel the same way?
Food for thought.
If you're reading this, then you're probably a dedicated fan of this thing. Thank you. You rock.
I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on the use of the d12. I've had lots of folks tell me that they don't like it, or that they thought the system would be better off without it. I understand and respect that opinion, but I don't agree with it.
I love the way the d12 works in this system. Not just the way the math works with the attributes, but also the very fact that you do have to switch between your dice when you're killing and when you're, you know... doing anything besides killing. That's right: I like the fact that you have to switch dice. It feels good. It's a switching-gears feeling that I think is appropriate and fun.
If you use a d10 in place of the d12, you may not be screwing with the math much, but you are certainly going to loose that gear-switching-feeling.
And hey, be honest with me, the reason why you're balking at the d12 is because you don't have as many sitting around you're house, isn't it? I mean, if you had as many d12s as you had d10s, would you feel the same way?
Food for thought.
Friday, May 2, 2008
What not to do?
Been scribbling lots and lots of notes for RBH over the past week or two. And more than once I've found myself stopping, sitting back, and wondering "Is this what I want to do with this game?"
See, I've got all these wonderful options, a bulging sack of idea-lewt if you will, and they don't all work together. Some of it, most of it, has to get thrown away. And it's hard to make the decision about what goes and what stays. Like, I've got these great ideas for how I want the setting to be presented and how the character classes should interact with that material. And those ideas keep pestering me to change up the classes and their powers pretty significantly. But then I look at all those changes and I start wondering if I'll starting to loose my connection to the simplicity that makes the game cool.
I don't know. I'm still working on it. I'll keep you updated.
See, I've got all these wonderful options, a bulging sack of idea-lewt if you will, and they don't all work together. Some of it, most of it, has to get thrown away. And it's hard to make the decision about what goes and what stays. Like, I've got these great ideas for how I want the setting to be presented and how the character classes should interact with that material. And those ideas keep pestering me to change up the classes and their powers pretty significantly. But then I look at all those changes and I start wondering if I'll starting to loose my connection to the simplicity that makes the game cool.
I don't know. I'm still working on it. I'll keep you updated.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
RBH 3 - Not yet, but soon
The past few weeks, say six of them, I've been kinda low on creative juices. I just haven't felt like designing much. Which is okay and normal for me. When I hit a slump like this I just do a bit of refueling. I read a lot. I watch a lot of film and television. I play a lot of games. Eventually something sparks my imagination again and off I go.
I can't say that I'm off and running yet. Not really. But I did pick up one of my ragged composition notebooks today and started scribbling some notes about RBH. I have some really big ideas about how I want to change it. Not all the changes came to me immediately. I still have lots and lots of work to do.
If you're still following along with this project, then awesome. Thanks for your support. I never really expected to get any. I love it. And I promise that you, the loyal friend of RBH will have something new to look at soon.
I can't say that I'm off and running yet. Not really. But I did pick up one of my ragged composition notebooks today and started scribbling some notes about RBH. I have some really big ideas about how I want to change it. Not all the changes came to me immediately. I still have lots and lots of work to do.
If you're still following along with this project, then awesome. Thanks for your support. I never really expected to get any. I love it. And I promise that you, the loyal friend of RBH will have something new to look at soon.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Yari Master
Recently Antoine related a tale to me of two players taking the Yari Master talent. Apparently these players found that it's particularly useful to perform a Show Off action in conjunction with their attack.
That's a problem.
It's not a problem because it's powerful. I want the talents to be powerful. It's a problem because it's boring. It encourages the Yari Master characters to be islands of efficiency instead of part of a team. That sucks. It also sucks because it lets players make a big-assed attack all by their lonesome on their very first turn. The monsters don't even get a chance to be all scary!
In the next iteration of the rules, that version of Yari Master will be gone. This is what I'm considering replacing it with:
I'm still scratching my chin over the awesomeness of this version. Will it be cool or will it suck when the yari master character kills off an entire arena's worth of mooks in one turn? Playtesting will tell.
Edit:
Changed my mind!
After a couple hours of contemplation, I decided that the new Yari Master ability sucks. Sucks bad. I can name at least two good reasons why it should be tossed right now. Instead, I offer you yet another version of the same talent.
Very simple and to the point.
That's a problem.
It's not a problem because it's powerful. I want the talents to be powerful. It's a problem because it's boring. It encourages the Yari Master characters to be islands of efficiency instead of part of a team. That sucks. It also sucks because it lets players make a big-assed attack all by their lonesome on their very first turn. The monsters don't even get a chance to be all scary!
In the next iteration of the rules, that version of Yari Master will be gone. This is what I'm considering replacing it with:
Yari Master
When your character makes an attack with a reach weapon you may immediately make an additional free attack with that same weapon against another target. If your second attack is successful you may make a third attack, and so on. However, you may not attack the same target twice in the same action. Once you miss or are out of targets, you're done.
I'm still scratching my chin over the awesomeness of this version. Will it be cool or will it suck when the yari master character kills off an entire arena's worth of mooks in one turn? Playtesting will tell.
Edit:
Changed my mind!
After a couple hours of contemplation, I decided that the new Yari Master ability sucks. Sucks bad. I can name at least two good reasons why it should be tossed right now. Instead, I offer you yet another version of the same talent.
Yari Master
When you attack with a reach weapon you may make two attacks instead of one.
Very simple and to the point.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Hacking the Hack
There's this interesting thing happening around this game. It seems like everyone who's excited about it wants to change it. Certainly it's not the first time this has happened to a game. But it is a first for me.
On the one hand it's a little dissapointing. I'd be happier if everyone were excited about it the way I wrote it. But, when it comes right down to it, I can take it for the compliment that it is. When I think about the hack-hacking in the right light, it makes me smile. It almost certainly means that I've done something right with this design.
Unfortunately, I can't help with those hack-hacks. I have to keep myself seperated from them so I can finish my version of the game. Getting mixed up in thinking about converting it over to a western, or pulp, or some other flavor of fantasy would only cause me to loose track of what needs work in the heart of the game.
On the one hand it's a little dissapointing. I'd be happier if everyone were excited about it the way I wrote it. But, when it comes right down to it, I can take it for the compliment that it is. When I think about the hack-hacking in the right light, it makes me smile. It almost certainly means that I've done something right with this design.
Unfortunately, I can't help with those hack-hacks. I have to keep myself seperated from them so I can finish my version of the game. Getting mixed up in thinking about converting it over to a western, or pulp, or some other flavor of fantasy would only cause me to loose track of what needs work in the heart of the game.
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