Ridiculously overbearing posting rules, administrators' manipulation of my threads, the inability to edit my posts, and whiny nerds who love to criticize but can't handle it themselves makes for a terrible experience.

I wish this site was more active because it's the most user-friendly format I've seen so far.

Can anyone else provide alternative sites where I can share my ideas without furfags and teh interweb police?

Fucking Microsoft Works for Windows 7. I was working on a table of contents for the Nevercast manual, but the program resists my every attempt to do something as simple as a branching numbering scheme. Here's what the previous version let me do:

I. Mechanics
((indented)) A) Combat Mechanics
((indented 2x)) 1. Close-Quarters Combat

Here's what Microsoft Works keeps insisting that I do instead:

I. Mechanics
II. Combat Mechanics
III. Close-Quarters Combat

Clearly, Bill Gates knows better. Let's all email him and tell him how much of an asshole he is for dashing the dream

So I've fiddled around with three of the however many possible origin stories there are (I think some are practically the same, whilst others differ wildly)I've got a good grasp of what Dragon Age: Origins is like. A little dissapointing.

It might of been all the hype, good reviews and I expected a little more from the 'Spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate' but the game is filled with lots of little things that seriously bug me.

1) Camera: You can move around using Right click on location or WASD (+ Q and E) the right click method is far too slow for exploring (perfect for tactical desicions, but running around not so good) but the WASD set up is horribly twitchy, you can't turn the camera just 10 degrees, no you have choices of around 45, 90 or 180. Also without any quest compass (there are markers, but you have to find them before they show up) it makes getting to where you need to go quite difficult.

Is it me, or we are not as entutiastic as we were 20 years ago?

In the hey day of RPGs we coulnd't get enough of it. We had conventions on a regular basis, our own adventures writen and played, our own magazine that was supported by local businesses which would advertise... It was awesome.

Now?... well, now is not the same.

I started the main mailing list in the town where I live about 6 years ago. It has worked really well, we have over 90 members. That list has worked really well to make sure we have quite a few active groups playing lots of games and at a good range of ages.

So far so good...

so anyway last night I was in town and I got some renewed motivation for working on my game. the one I mentioned in my last post which got cut off because I used that symbol for greater than. Well the idea is that you use your hand, the three stats are written on the backs of your pointer, middle and ring finger, it doesn't matter which finger you write each stat on and it might be a good idea for each character to choose a different finger to write each stat.
the game works like rock, paper, scissors with strength beating skill, skill beating magic and magic beating strength. the number for the stat determines how successful what ever the player was doing. character info and equipment is written on the back of the players hand.

I'd like to begin this setting as a series of rants, so I can receive some feedback before writing an actual book. This idea has been around my mind for some time, and I'll use the discovery of this site as an excuse to plasm it somewhere ^_^.

The idea is creating an RPG where the rewards come not for what the players do, but how and why they do it. The game has 8 ideals (subject to feedback), which are opposed by pairs:

Light: represents all that is honest, open and truthful. A "Light" action would be uncovering a con, telling your enemy of your plans before using against them, or telling a person that he has cancer without roundabouts. Opposed to Shadow.

The premise

There are three things that count when trying to determine if a certain task is done:

+ The skill on such area
+ The difficulty of the task
+ The degree of success

While making a Dice/Cards/Whatever mechanic to settle the result of an attempt, what we do is assigning this 3 values as the numeric variables of the draw/roll/whatever.

For example:

d20:

+ Skill: a numeric bonus (higher = better).
+ Difficulty: a numeric threshold (higher = more difficult).
+ Degree of success: difference between 1d20+skill and difficulty.

WoD (pre Requiem):

Trying to make a new RPG that doesnt use dice but the page count i keep seeing head is rediculous...too much information...too many variables...not enough space.
Makes my head hurt...

You will be able to understand everything I write here, but you can look at all this as the extensions to my functions model if you exchange content element to function in the text. Elements of content can be anything from story elements to things like the GM asking a player to roll the dice.

A roleplaying session is made up of people introducing content to the game. Usually that means that the GM introduces many-many prepared content and all players (inclusively the GM) adlib some content while playing.

Let's have a look at this act of content generating. The adventure writing is somewhat complex, so its discussion will be postponed. Now it is time for the adlibbed content.

Cross-posted here.

Functions

Everything the GM sais has a goal, a purpose. Let's call that purpose FUNCTION. For example if the GM tells the players to do a skill check, that's a function. If you want the players to get intrigued by an NPC, that's a function, too.

A game session consists of such functions. When you are GMing, you GM to achieve these functions and if you achieved the purpose of the functions in a session, it is a successful session. You achieve catharsis by the good chosen pattern of successful functions. For example if you want to make the players laugh or cry, that's not a function, because it's very hard to tell one single function wich would achieve that. But a combination of functions could help. So, don't forget: a function alone won't have a big impact on the players - always think about the function as the direct purposes and goals of a story element. For example rolling the dice or uncovering an information.

Of course these functions aren't static. Sometimes (or many times) you have to alter functions on the fly, that's fine. But always be aware how that will affect the game session (the pattern of functions) and how that will affect what you are telling the players.