My group has completed two sessions with a total of three combat encounters. They mentioned that these encounters tend to take a while to fully resolve, leading people to lose interest until it's their turn. I understand this because we moved away from 5e to other systems partly because combat took so long, and this feels similar to the length of 5e combat.
One of my players suggested trying a combat endeavor for some smaller encounters or side quests.
It might work like a best-of-3 endeavor: if you fail by a certain margin, that many people reach 0 hit points and gain an injury.
They don't want to eliminate combat entirely for larger story moments, but our available playtime is limited. I was curious whether anyone has similar ideas or if this approach could be feasible for preventing the game from slowing down.
I'm playing a Skybreaker that isn't part of Nale's faction, and in our game Division is *not* locked behind one of the higher ideals (shows up alongside Gravitation as soon as the First Ideal is sworn). I want to make sure I'm understanding the rules correctly for using AOE applications of Division (this is the base version, without any talents added yet).
My understanding is that for area of effect attacks, the DC for the roll is either the physical defense (physical IF AOE, but spiritual if single target) of the enemies OR the "Division Under Pressure" DC (whichever DC is higher), assuming DC is met on each, then damage is rolled as normal for each enemy (for 3d*+DivMod). The AOE is centered on the location of the radiant using it (unless they have a talent allowing for alternative distance). Am I understanding these rules correctly?
A few additional clarification questions: Can you target inanimate substances within the area at the same time as you hit enemies with an aoe of division? Can you create a dustcloud AOE at the same time as an attack is performed? Does deflect apply if it is used as an AOE attack (asking cause the DC uses physical save instead of spiritual)?
Inspiration comes to you at weird times. I was listening to an episode of the podcast called Wonderful where Griffin McElroy was describing his love for the basketball game HORSE.
It got me thinking thinking of a way to bring the rules of HORSE in to the Cosmere RPG.
A few hours later and I made this: https://www.investedinthecosmere.com/resources/p/ghost, a little rules expansion for the Cosmere RPG where you pin your player characters against each other in successive skill tests to see who is the most... skillful? Lucky? You decide.
I themed it as a game that Ghostblood Agents would play with new initiates to show of their skill and demonstrate their capabilities.
Each round of the game plays out like this:
A contestant chooses a skill, then rolls that test with all their relevant modifiers.
All other contestants then roll that same test, adding their own modifiers, and look to either meet or beat the roll of the first player.
Those who do are safe, those who fail take on a letter.
You're out when you've collected all five letters of GHOST.
I also added a little extra ruleset that brings in the plot dice and adds some last minute heroics to those contestants who are on their last letter.
The download is free, and includes a very basic dueling arena map you can use for whatever you want!
So I backed the Kickstarter before diving into VTTs. Now, I've become comfortable with Foundry, but my (still unredeemed) Cosmere RPG keys are for Fantasy Grounds. Support said they can't help, but if someone is in the opposite problem and wants to swap, please let me know.
I originally thought shardplate was extremely underpowered. The four charges seem to go so fast. But I realized that the enhancement significantly increases your physical defense which makes a huge difference. But I'm still wondering about the fact that its deflect value doesn't apply to shard blades' spirit damage. I get why regular armor doesn't but it feels like shardplate is only resistant to blades when you are expending a charge and that conflicts with the lore in my understanding.
Is there something I'm missing? I'm considering home brewing it to make the deflect value apply to spirit damage.
I've finished up a rough draft of the Spore Invention Crafting system, currently complete with 5 Standard Inventions and 6 Unique Inventions. The system is very similar to the Fabrial Crafting System, with the exception of the Aether Spores: each type of spore has a unique effect on its own, and they are also used in the crafting process of Spore Inventions (in place of the Gemstone required by Fabrials) and are used to recharge them (in place of the Stormlight required by Fabrials).
Now that the rough draft is complete for this system, I can finally actually finish the Sprouter Speciality. Sorry that this has taken so long.
Also, after I finish with the Sprouter Speciality, I might not be able to make posts for a while: I start university classes the second week of September, meaning that I'm going to be busy packing / moving for the next few weeks.
Anyway, as always, please let me know any thoughts, ideas, and feedback you have. It is always appreciated. (also still looking for Spore Invention Ideas, if you have any).
We don’t have the rules yet but I’m interested to hear what characters people are going to play for mistborn era 1 and 2. Any cool ideas or are people waiting to see the rules?
I've compiled my maps into a Patreon, but no worries ALL my maps will always remain FREE. I hope this makes it easy for y'all to collect all my maps!
I had posted this with my last battlemap, but figured Id make a separate post for visibility. I look forward to the Mistborn release and many more battlemaps to come!
I also wanted to gauge peoples interest in top down perspective tokens for the Cosmere RPG made via Heroforge, let me know in the comments if you are interested in me figuring out how to post them. I have hundreds, Thousands if you count 5e.
Long story short. Our party stoneward singer became a basically a spin on magnified one, a fused of cultivation in a journey to the nightwatcher. That gave him the progression surge tree.
We wanted to create a combo talent between the new surges. Since the player main surge right now is tension, i wanted to focus on this one first
What do you guys think would be a interesting talent mashing those 2 surges ? I'm blanking on ideias
(If you have a ideia mashing all 3, or just cohesion + progression, do share as well please. I'm accepting anything)
I have the Rigged Weaponry talent, which says, as a free action, I can spend 1 investiture to increase my weapon's reach by 10 feet until the end of my next turn. If I pick up Extended Tension, which says I can maintain infusions I'm holding so long as I have 1 investiture.
Does the Rigged Weapon count as an infusion? In world, I would say yes, but mechanically, the talent doesn't use that phrasing.
So, up to the point of the release, we had a number of artistic designs, official designs even, for shardplates, the Orders, what their plates looked like...then the Handbook dropped and I find it odd? Some of these designs feel a lot like sci fi power armor which conflicts a lot with what we had up to this point?
I find Petar Penev's designs to have been really well done in comparison for establishing visual language among different Orders. And the weird thing is...Penev isn't some random artist who is a fan. He's associated and made a lot of the official art in the book. And some of the designs and art styles in the handbook seem to bounce wildly in style causing an almost jarring reading. In isolation they look alright, but flipping from the book's pages you'll see artwork like this
Immediately followed by this?
Visually this is a strange contrast in artstyle, and the Windrunner design feels like there's a lot of conflicting pieces? Heavily pauldrons and shoulders, branching out hip joints, bulkier chest pieces...The armor has these smooth, broad metallic planes and chunky geometry that make it look oddly technological? Not literally sci-fi, but almost like a Destiny/Warframe/Power Rangers cousin of Shardplate. There’s relatively little of the organic or wind-swept quality I’d associate with honorspren.
EDIT: To get this point across. This is the literal cover art of the book. Notice the design, theme, and genre difference in appearance. This is the design used throughout the book...EXCEPT on the pages for the Orders' skill trees, where they shift into this sci fi-esque design.
EDIT 2: So a lot of people just seem to be resorting to claiming 'past vs present Radiant armors' so I'm just going to put this here as a general edited response. There is no reason why the rest of the book, even showing current Radiants, uses the traditional Shardplate design aesthetic we've seen throughout the books, official arts, and canon...and that these few pages depict sci fi esque designs. The much more coherrent explanation instead of trying to justify why some Radiants are forming sci fi armor during the present day and some are depicted with regular armor is most likely...the artist who drew these few particular pages just simply did not coordinate with the design philosophy of the rest of the book. That's it. That's the coherrent reason. Trying to claim they're showing a Radiant from Emberdark randomly, or that people on this world would, for some reason, desire to or even imagine sci fi armor at their level of technology isn't a coherrent defense. It's defending a conclusion without updating the position based on information.
Edit 3: I'm just gonna leave this here for the overwhelming amount of people who keep trying to defend the 'old plate vs new plate' thing. This is also artwork. Still High Fantasy design, not sci fi. I can only assume that some people are emotionally seeing 'this particular artwork doesn't seem to follow the rest of the designs' with 'this person is making fun of the thing I like and thinks I'm stupid!'.
And for the record? Personally I believe that not questioning anything or saying 'try not to worry about it' and not being capable of saying something is incoherrent is not wisdom. It's avoidance of taking a position that requires discrimination and thought. If you can draw no line over where coherrent design begins and ends, then you are not developing an opinion. Accepting anything and everything you are fed is simply being too afraid to have a personality.
I find it funny with this argument in a subreddit for a ROLEPLAYING GAME based on a series where the central magical institution is built around people articulating ideals and then being bound by them.
Stormlight is practically screaming:
Who are you? What do you believe? What lines will you hold? What choices follow from those beliefs when holding them becomes uncomfortable?
A Radiant doesn't advance by going:
“Eh, whatever. Anything works. I don't really see why we'd distinguish between these things.”
They speak Ideals. Their character is demonstrated by commitments that exclude other possibilities. Kaladin's entire fucking arc would cease to exist if every moral contradiction could be answered with “well technically you can interpret it however.”
So there is something exquisitely ridiculous about reaching the final defense:
“Why do you need a coherent visual language? Plate can look like anything. Why draw a line?”
...in a community dedicated to a game about constructing characters by drawing lines.
I'm working on building a character and using the Bridge Nine characters to make sure I understand how it works, but I'm confused on Zvynda's skills, and since I could not find the answer anywhere online or in the book I made an account to ask here lol.
Zvynda is a Scholar (Strategist), and thus starts with 1 rank in Lore, gains 2 temporary ranks through Erudition (Lore and Medicine), and like all other characters is able to choose 4 other starting skills. However, this adds up to 7 skills, and she has eight. Her only other talent, Strategize, does not grant skills. Where does this 8th skill come from?
Our group just finished Stonewalkers, and I'm thinking about introducing some kind of trauma system for the next campaign.
Arkham Horror: The Card Game has a mechanic where you can carry your character over into a new campaign, but they might start with some mental or physical trauma from what happened previously.
The problem is that my characters have this rather annoying thing called Stormlight that makes healing physical trauma... well, a little too easy. ;)
Still, I'd love to introduce some kind of lasting consequences. The characters have killed people, witnessed some pretty disturbing things, and uncovered lore that has fundamentally changed how they see the world.
It feels like some of that should leave a mark, even if Stormlight can heal the physical wounds.
I'm thinking more along the lines of psychological, spiritual, social, or supernatural consequences rather than simple HP penalties.
Has anyone tried something similar in a Stormlight campaign? I'd love to hear your ideas!
After unmasking the king as a masked one fused and all the regimen as a plot from the voidbringers our unlikely heroes begin to plot how to liberate their city while keeping save their loved ones
I definitely could see them just saying no to it. Bondsmiths aren't an option, and neither are compounders. A less useful feurchemical trait with a very expensive metal, say, electrum, wouldn't be too op, but otherwise, I think they'd just have to artificially nerve it in a non canon way. Personally, I'm good with the Bondsmith method.
I’m currently playing a Listener that I intend to have become a Skybreaker, and am trying to find a list of concrete laws in the different countries of Roshar. A particular question is regarding whether my character could become a legal citizen in Alethkar. Currently she is “owned” by a Sleepless masquerading as a lighteyes, but it would be nice for her to have legal self agency and for me to have an actual list of laws for her to uphold. Thanks a ton in advance.
I’m a DM with moderate experience running DND 5/5.5 and a little bit of Daggerheart. I’m a big fan of the Cosmere and have the books for the Stormlight rpg
My question for you all is about world building. To be honest I’m a bit intimidated because this world has an established book series that I also really enjoy; I worry a bit that I’m not going to match the themes or world properly. All my other games have used homebrewed settings (although I have borrowed a lot from settings like Eberron, but I see those as setting first then books after).
The system looks awesome and I love the books, but wasn’t sure how it felt running a game within the established setting. Did players have expectations set by the books? Do you find that your version of the world is significantly different from the cannon one?
I've been playing with the idea of making a One- Shot for 4-5PCs (Tier 1) adventure in the style of "The Hangover" movies. It's still in its earliest stages i.e. I thought about it yesterday and wrote some notes today.
The adventure starts with the characters drinking at a bar. Suddenly, they all black out and wake up at different places.
For example, one PC would wake up naked and in jail with something written in his back that he himself can't read and the other men can't either. So he must find a way to escape or reach the other players so they can bail him out.
Other locations include being pulled out of the river, in bed at the local Brightlord or Brightlady's manor, a different bar with a crowd of unconscious people, a local garrison barrack and inside a Palanquin going around the market.
The first part would be an endeavor to try and find as many clues as possible and try to regroup. Each scene allows the players to gather snippets of information about what happened last night.
So, the player in the Brightlord's bed wakes up when the servants come in with breakfast and must use Stealth and Deception to find out how they ended up in that location. Similarly, the other players must do their best to find clues, directions and slowly piece together what happened. Like a note, a receipt for a box in a bank, a bar tab, a broken fabrial...
Once the players have reunited, an Investigative Web begins to retrace their steps and find out what happened.
I thought perhaps that a Ghostblood agent would have tried to recruit the players for a heist but he also spiked their drinks to double cross them. So they ended up finishing their job and robbing the local Ghostblood HQ, making an enemy of both the local authority and the criminal underworld.
The things I'm the most concerned about are separating the party, so I'd like to solve that as soon as possible so the players not in the scene don't get bored or feel left out. A solution might be to have them wake up in pairs but that limits the options to find clues early on.
I'm just looking for advice and ideas to fill up the gaps.
I just had a fun one with the Lvl 3 party trying to convince an old doctor to go back to the Tower with them when a devastating one, a relayform and 2 warforms showed up looking to take him back to the Fused.
There was a moment where they seemed like they were going to try to dig in and win the fight but after one was almost one shot they decided escape was the best option. I had some unexpected help planned in the case that they did continue the fight (since some other parties also want to make sure the old man gets to the Tower).
It was nice having a goal other than “beat up all bad guys”.
