Author: Ant Wu

Has anyone seen or commented on this?

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/240445/Arecibo-o-A-World-of-Adventure-for-Fate-Core

It’s a Fate game about playing Puerto Rico children in a magical realism world, and while I can’t claim it does anything unique in the design world, the author’s voice, the donations, and the fact that more and more we’re seeing games like this, with not just niche but authentic representations of people who don’t get the spotlight that often in stories?

I’m really excited about that on a gut level.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/240445/Arecibo-o-A-World-of-Adventure-for-Fate-Core

For D&D-esque games, how would the Chinese folks here localize the ability scores in Chinese? (Or if not Chinese folks, Chinese-speakers)

力量 – Strength

灵巧 – Dexterity

耐力 – Constitution

知识 – Intelligence

智慧 – Wisdom

魅力 – Charisma

I’m taking some liberties with both Constitution and Intelligence, because of how they’re frequently used – in Lamentations of the Flame Princess specifically, Intelligence is a sum of your knowledge. It doesn’t supplant player logic. And then I can’t really find a non-awkward way to translate “Constitution” – there’s a word for physique but to me it connotes bodybuilding and strength? And then 耐力 connotes stuff about resolve and determination. Neither is really great for it.

How do people here feel about so-called “Paizo” principles of design?

Namely, they view customization as king, as an inherent good which is necessarily for the hobby. These principles aren’t widespread, because Paizo hasn’t really inspired an entire school of designers in the same way that Storygame principles have, or OSR principles have.

But you can see this in some of how Shadow of the Demon Lord was designed, you can see this in how Paizo designed Starfinder, and of course Pathfinder remains the second best-selling tabletop RPG, so it still definitely has a fanbase which admires these principles.

Paizo principles also involve other ideas, such as the idea that the GM can’t be trusted in terms of challenge design (which is why there are so many DCs for checks, so much nominal “balancing math” for encounters, etc). It looks and feels different in implementation, but those principles actually share philosophical similarities to how GM-less storygames create genres and stories via the mechanics because they want to take those powers a bit out of the GM’s hands, out of the GM’s perhaps “arbitrary” control.

So. They are a set of principles, even if not as influential necessarily among indie designers. How do people feel about those principles?

Hello there everyone! I’m relatively new, and like a lot of folks here I’m making my own game.

Sadly, I’ll be the first to admit I’m basically making a D&D-inspired fantasy heartbreaker – it’s more a game to fulfill the little tweaks I want in my gaming experience rather than something universal. Nonetheless, I hope that over the next year I can get a few folks interested.

As is typical with heartbreakers, even if the final system isn’t necessarily a groundbreaking achievement, some of the discoveries or fun mechanical quirks along the way can be shared, stolen, and disseminated by everybody.

A quick example of some jokey ‘Perks’ that the game will have:

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Hidden Depth of Character

You gain 3 additional aptitude points, which do not need to be assigned at the moment. You can assign them on the adventure. You may also spend an aptitude point to know a language, as it comes up.

Snake Eater

A lifetime of poor decisions has miraculously resulted in your immunity to poison. You are immune to the poisoned condition, and when subjected to poison damage, you ignore all of the listed effects and instead heal 1 HP in response.

Stubbornness

Your mule-like stubbornness is legendary, serving you well in everything from facing your mother to facing dragonbreath. You gain a +1 Stubbornness bonus to all saving throws.

Vitruvian Proportions

Calculate the average ability score of your party’s members, not including your own ability scores. Change every ability score on your character sheet to that average score.

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