Forums » Smalltalk » Writing your own tabletop RPG.

I've recently become fascinated with more traditional tabletop games. I've watched plenty of D&D campaigns despite having never played more than a one-shot. After that I kind of fell off in interest due to not really liking the heavy battle simulator nature of it. Now though, my eyes are open. There's so many RPG's via websites like DriveThruRPG ranging in creative focus to combat focus. I'm taking it slow reading very light systems. It's really making me want to write my own barebone systems for a Forum RP specifically, since I really cant find any dice systems for that cater to daily posting and not live play around a table or google hangout.

I was really interested in anyone else who's written their own game rules or played a structured forum specific dice game. I can only find so much discussion on it since it's so niche. I'd love to hear if anyone has experience like that.

I've been playing with a slightly modified version of the original D&D rules, which works pretty well 1x1. Though perhaps a bit slow for a group RP? (That experiment is still in progress, so we'll see...)

I've also been pondering something like this, though haven't tried it yet (or thought through how contests directly vs another player would work out.)

Roll d10

1-2 Fail and another player gets to narrate the bad outcome
3-4 Fail, but you get to narrate the outcome
5 Something makes it harder. Attempt again at a -1
6 Something makes it easier. Attempt again at a +1
7-8 Success and another player gets to narrate the outcome
9-10 Success and you get to narrate the outcome

If desired, could have a small ability pyramid that would probably max out at +3.

Ugh, Forum Group D&D makes me groan just thinking about how much decision making and tedium there is in any given encounter in live action. At least with 3.5. I've heard 5th is more streamlined. Which version have you modified? And I'd love to hear how that pans out any time in the future.

On top of your general D10 idea for action resolution, I had an experience with a very experienced GM long ago running the closest thing to a Forum specific system. The long and short of it was a modified D&D-esque homebrew. It had structured main quests starting and stopping in an IRL months time, pairing off characters for side quests focused on development, and a mostly flavor character progression system that didn't exactly matter given it's imbalance. It was too lacking to fall on to decide how things played out, so the heroes usually won except when the enemies needed to. Very railroady like that.

I bring it up because a side feature to this was writing lore for a few extra points to put into your character. Creatures out in the world, important places that would soon be important, religions your character may participate in, etc. Whatever the GM might use for next month, or whether it was just a detail to world build, he'd reward it mechanically. Very, very cool for me who loves writing stuff like that. And the reward was never anything too big so the players who didn't have the time wouldn't be held back too much. I still think that'd be a bummer for those busy players especially if they eventually get very weak compared to their peers. But in theory this rewarding world building and side content is very enticing to me to incorporate in some may. Maybe the rewards should be contextual, like the player can call on whatever knowledge their player wrote, or a brief buff to their next roll, etc. Instead of permanent stat raising.

3.5 was my first intro to D&D and it made me think the entire game was stupid and too slow. It wasn't until years later that someone introduced me to the some of the OSR (old school renaissance) clones, which roughly mimic the original D&D.

The one I'm currently using is Swords & Wizard White Box.

Honestly, there are a couple rulesets I like better. (Castles and Crusades might be my favorite). But White Box has the great selling point of being free, which sure makes it easier to share with other people.

Feel free to check out the game (and even join if you're interested! We're early enough in):
https://www.rprepository.com/community/forumthread.php?t=62750

Oh you sneaky sneaky GM you, Ms. Juls. Thank you I'll be sure to check out this Swords & Wizard White Box. I'm full to the brim on RP's though. ~Anyone else you stumbles on this please do so~ Unless we're like months in the future. Hi future.

Again, thanks for the name drops.