I'm designing my own tabletop RPG - TIDES OF AMBITION

▶ GAME DESIGN JOURNAL - Entry 1: The Core Game Mechanic ◀

Despite the click-baity thumbnail, I do still love D&D, as well as almost a dozen other RPGs I've played over the years. And I know the market is saturated with TONS of new games all the time. But I haven't yet found the perfect one for me, that plays exactly the way I want it to. Combine that with an insatiable need to design, and you get this project: TIDES OF AMBITION.

This video is the first in a series of "devlogs" where I go over a specific aspect of my tabletop RPG project. I don't currently have any plans in place to launch a Kickstarter or anything like that, I'm still in the design and playtesting phase.

If you'd like to see more content like this, please do all of the usual YouTube things. You know the ones.

0:00 - Introduction
1:58 - Character Sheet
4:39 - Core Dice Mechanic
6:03 - How to Roll
7:29 - Beyond Success and Failure: Boons and Banes
12:16 - Hidden Complexity of Big Dice
13:12 - Stroke of Luck
17:06 - Conclusion and Final Thoughts

#tabletopgaming #rpg #gamedesign

[orangedragoon]

Wow, this core mechanic is really incredible, it could very well be adapted for almost any ttrpg, good job mate and i wish you good fortune!

[DwaineWoolley]

I like the 3 Dice mechanic. Sounds cool man hope it takes off for you!

[AreRiksaasen]

I really love the dice mechanic. Especially since I have been trying for almost 25 years to figure out how to make a 3 dice mechanic work - and you have nailed it. I had a LUDO-rule in there - if you rolled a six, on any type of dice, you rolled it again and added (like in Parcheesi, sold under the name "ludo" (Latin for "I play") where I live) - feel free to use the name.

I sense a weakness, or perhaps it is intentional. Condition, the track on the left of the character sheet, will be involved in all dice rolls a character makes, so maintaining a high condition is 5 times more important than having great attributes. So, if a Bless spell increases your condition by one step that spell will be more popular than a "might" spell increasing your strength by one step. This fits well with games like Exalted, where the essential character attribute is, well, essence, or Mage where Arete is all-important, or an eastern game where Honor is the central aspect of your character or for a mix a game like Pendragon where characters can be ruled by passions. But I am uncertain how well it fits with a generic system. However, you have probably given this a lot more thought than I have and I look forward to the video where you talk about Condition. For another example, if I wanted to emulate "3:16 Carnage amongst the stars" in the 3-dice system (3DS for short) I would put "Rank" in the place of condition.

Anyway, this mechanic is so good that I have to rewrite my own RPG to use this instead of my own roll and add system - this is much cleaner.

Also, with the roll and add method you will at a minimum have a 1 in 1024 chance of success on any roll, so your advice in a later video to GMs about not letting players roll unless you are willing to let them succeed is very solid advice. Conversely, with all ones being a failure no matter what, there is always at least a 1 in 1728 chance of failing.

[generalbismark]

This sounds simple yet with satisfactory depth I hope to try it at some point in the future.

[aqualithmedia]

Great start! As a fellow indie creator, I wish you the best on this process. I'm working on just a micro setting to start, but always interested to see what new systems are out there. Love the name so far!

[jaketurnbull]

I don't think I've ever been so immediately excited by a game mechanic

[delroland]

Oh also: doesn't a difficulty 8+ mean you will always get a boon when you succeed? Maybe diff 8+ could mean you either lose 1/2/3 boons automatically (for 8-9/10-11/12+ respectively), or it's so difficult/dangerous you automatically receive banes merely for the attempt (which could perhaps be offset by rolled boons).

[imwatchin]

it was randomly suggested this, I guess i'm juste wathing a lot of TTRPG content, but i'm quite interested to see how it goes!

[matthewbarker]

Definitely want to see this game sounds cool and we'll thought out

[kurga]

Your three dice mechanic is a very good idea, there's no modifier to the rolls and the advantage / disadvantage is auto included, this is brilliant because the resolution is very quick and intuitive. However the dice pool selection can be a bit slow due to constant checking of the character sheet, especially for new players or rpg newbies. Interpretation of the roll, with the boon/bane counting, can also slow the game if you have to reference the book for special effects. Here are ways you could "fix" those issues:

- Remove the dice scale from the character sheet, and put the dice on the table / virtual table as an indication of PC party's fatigue/morale. You start with the d12 then after each encounter or challenge you can decrease the die one step (from d12 to d10) depending on how well the party handled the challenge.
- You can decide as a GM the rythm of attrition of the morale/fatigue die or you could track the banes rolled and decide to decrease the die one step (12 banes rolled = decreasing d12 to d10, 10 banes rolled = decreasing d10 to d8, etc..). As a GM you will choose what to do with banes, should I decrease the die? Or Should I trigger monster/npc abilities, or even trigger a special event? The bane tracking will work especially well if you don't have to Roll as a GM (player facing), so you can focus on reacting to the players rolls.
- Simplify the boons: if the max value is rolled on a die = 1 Boon. A player can use a boon to trigger an ability (or describe a special effect) OR to reroll the selected die to meet a high difficulty. You will think it makes weak PC stronger (more chances to roll a boon on a d4 than a d10) but remember that boons work in pair with banes and small dice have more chances to provoke banes, plus if you take into account the moral/fatigue die mechanic described above, PC will have more chance to trigger their special abitilities in dire situations, end bosses will also activate their special abilities more often (because PC will be fatigued when they encounter them), making tense situations very swingy/epic and speeding up the game (preventing too many rests).

There are also great ideas on your character sheet: the flow chart from stats to secondary stats, the symbols you've found (the experience symbol can be improved - an arrow up for xp box is more intuitive for instance-). Try to make a one page character sheet:
- There are too many empty lines, you don't need so much space for skills and abilities,
- Notes don't have to be taken on a character sheet, even the portrait/drawing space doesn't need to be there. Both can be on a separate page.
- You need an artist to tailor the sheet to your game universe, the typos, the symbols and the background/decorum can be reworked/drawn, the character sheet has to be an invitation to adventure, an invitation to play your game. Remember that, with the book cover, general layout and illustrations, it's among the first things players/buyers will look at, and during play it will constantly be referenced, rewriten, corrected, so it needs to be sexy and the information must be easy to find, scores must be easy to track, to sum up: the less the better (less flipping, less entries, etc..).

I hope you read this and it helped you in a way. As a game designer, I wish you the best of luck with your game.

EDIT: typos and missing words.

[ZarbanDerek]

This looks like a great system. Lots of flavor possible when you know more than just that you succeeded or failed.

[andynonimuss]

It's simple and easy to understand. I like it!

[nooctip]

I got nine boons. Screw this I'm going to Vegas baby:)

[tristunalekzander]

6:05 That's a clever way of having a narrower curve around the average without having to add up a bunch of dice.

[echedp]

This is a very similar game system to Tales of Xadia/Cortex Prime. In that you always roll three dice, your stats are dice, rolling ones are bad. The differences are you count two of your dice for your total, not the middle one. Also you get good things/boons not when you roll high, but when the DM rolls a 1. Playing that system I can say it is a lot of fun.

[BokettoNekomata]

The dice system you came up with is very nice. I am looking forward to seeing more videos on this as I am trying to make my own game as well. Sometimes youtube really showes me something that I like and I am glad it recomended you.

[martinmatoska]

Thanks for the interesting video. I'm already looking forward to the next one. I love finding something new and inspiring. I know how long and difficult the development process is, with lots of dead ends. So I keep my fingers crossed and wish you lots of strength and determination.

[warlockelder]

This was just randomly suggested to me, and I am glad it was! Huge respect and all the power to you, from someone who is also in the middle of designing their own TTRPG! So, here's my question to you: when it comes to the stroke of luck mechanic, do you think the GM should just not allow the player to roll if something is meant to be logically impossible (eg. convince the king to hand over the kingdom just out of the blue), or do you think that theoretically, with enough strokes of luck, anything should be possible?

[noxiousbones]

This is so clever, what a fun way to put the math behind the curtain! I’m very interested in what “gaining a stress” would be equivalent to. Subscribing to see more!

[danielchan]

Thou hast been blesst by ye algorithm.
May thy blessing push you forward with the development of your marvellous game.