Fancy Feats Work

Been working on feats for the past two weeks. For the playtest of my Fantasy / Western RPG, a lot of our feats were combat oriented, with a noticable lack for Skills, now we have corrected that and the feats feel much more well rounded.

Testing

Tested out our Fantasy/Western RPG, Cobweb, on Saturday. Everyone had a lot of fun while they totally broke the game! The spellcaster was able to line up some feats that made him guaranteed to hit and hit HARD. So now we are going through and creating feats where there were none and getting rid of feats that were either unnecessary or relics from previous drafts.

Personally I think we will be ready for Metatopia next year, so that is my next goal.

Beta Testing

Preliminary beta testing rules for my Western Fantasy RPG are going to the printer. We will be hosting our first beta testing session on Saturday the 20th!

Contact us at CobwebRPG@gmail.com if you are interested in running a beta game

New Pages!

Sorry about the long time silence, here are the new pages where you can follow this project!

Here's our new WEBPAGE!
western tabletop RPG www.CobwebRPG.com


Like us on FaceBook!
www.facebook.com/CobwebRpg

Who’s your audience?

When you’re writing a technical manual or something like rules for an RPG, how much do you assume that the reader knows? Are you writing for a veteran or a newbie? As I see it there are a couple of different things you (and subsequently, I) could do.

Option 1) Assume your reader has never picked up an RPG (or whatever) book and explain every detail.

Option 2) Assume your reader has an understanding of how RPG’s work and gloss over finer points.

Option 3) Somewhere in between.

#1 or My audience might be people who have never played an RPG before.

So you write up every detail of every rule. You go into the minutia like, “this is a die, it has 6 sides, you roll it and add the result to this other number…”

The most obvious benefit is (as long as you explain everything well) everyone knows how to do everything. There will be a clear understanding of how this works, how it interacts with that other bit etc. This can be good for anyone new to the hobby of RPG’s because it makes the learning curve softer.

The very obvious downside to this is that it makes the text very dry and slow. This can itself turn people off.

#2 or In all likelihood anyone playing this gave has played at least one RPG before.

SO you hit the points that make “your game”, “your game” but assume some familiarity with the RPG thing.

Benefits include brevity which might make for an easier read. If you don’t have a daunting 3 chapters before you learn how to make a character, you will probably be more likely to keep reading.

The major downside to this is that things get muddy. Something that is clear to you and 20 others isn’t quite understood by someone else. Then their off looking at the next pretty book.

#3 or the fine line between writing so everyone likes it and writing so no one does.

This can go two ways:

You get the best of both worlds, brief where it should be brief, but clear and concise where you need that too. Everyone’s happy and you sell a million copies.

Or:

You try and split the difference and jack up everything. Anyone who you might pull in with your cool cover art immediately puts it back down because your book looks like a space shuttle owner’s manual. Your book sits on store shelves till their thrown away or worse yet, in a server of some POD website, never, ever to be printed.

To me the best option is the good side of 3. However, the risk of falling over into the bad side of three is kind of big… so I’m thinking number two… with a good index.

…maybe??

Yawn... Cracks knuckles,,, Where were we?

Well I have the magic system as down as I can get it without playing it.
I have skills and how they interact with traits.
I have traits.
I have combat.

Chargen is almost written out. So I can give it to someone and say, "make a character".
I'm thinking of testing soon.

Game @ Work or G@W

The story so far:

Hexeous, a brilliant scientist with amnesia and Max Von Clark, an ex ace marine sniper get recruited to an organisation known as Aldera. Unfortunately before they make it to their orientation they are sent to Antarctica to re-establish contact with an Aldera research facility.

Max and Hexeous quickly find the generator room and turn the power back on and then begin to clear the 5 small building that make up the complex. After they turned on the power, they entered a laboratory where it became readily obvious that the researchers were trying to re-animate the dead. Further investigation would reveal that the goal was to reanimate dead soldiers to continue fighting in wars. This was accomplished by introducing a fungus into the dead soldiers nervous system.

Before entering the next building, they saw an pink and blue ethereal humanoid run through the building screaming. While totally creepy, they didn't seem to pose a threat so the team pressed onward into what  appeared to be a storeroom and workshop. It was here that they encountered the first fungus victim. A man, whose head had split open revealing a fuzzy goo, revved up an 8ft chainsaw and began manically attacking our heroes.  The two tactically retreated through the doorway, but not before Max slapped a bit of C-4 in the doorway. The chainsaw wielding monster chased the two to his doom. His Ka-boom doom.

In the rec-room the team was ambushed by a fungus mohawked mad-man. The shock of the attacker caused Max's shots to go wide, but Hexeous' sub-machine gun plowed through the bestial man's flesh. Unfortunately it didn't stop him from getting within striking distance of Dr Hexeous. If it weren't for Max steeling his nerves and ending the beast, the fungus powered man would surely and destroyed the ping pong table, with Hexeous quickly afterward.

Tune in next time to find out:
Will the team remember that their mission is to re-establish radio contact?
How long will the team stay barricaded in the laboratory doing experiments?
What is that thing chasing them?