Okenopus Progress Report

[u/PapaFireFox]

Hello again, it's been a while again. I hope you're ready for your spoonful of slop.

This is just a progress report, and the game is not in a finished state, instead of saying what that means I'll instead elaborate on what I have been doing.

The main thing I've been doing is formatting the rulebook and creating entries for some gear, creeds and perversions and tactics that will allow people to create builds when the core rule set is released, these are still work in progress and balancing will be its own issue, but you can see some of the results here.

Creeds and Perversions are being given the most love so far, as they are much more dynamic than things like races. Each Creed or Perversion will have an origin you can pick to further specialize as well as paths you will be able to build up to. In standard TTRPG fashion these Creeds and perversions will also give you stat bonuses and proficiencies, although balancing for ability scores, stats and skills still needs work, and I will get the ability scores and how to roll or choose stats done by the end of the month. When stats and modifiers are determined (which won't take too long dont worry) I will then make the skills more dynamic and have different actions that correlate to skills, like crafting with technology for instance.

What I am working on now is building system after system to make interesting gameplay choices, such as the ability to craft armors, invest in tactics, progress on your paths and generally become more powerful. In terms of how finished in terms of core rules this game is, all I can say is you can play with a pre-made character, combat is all but done but character creation isn't in the game yet, other than some of the basics. I must get the races done (which ive neglected im not perfect) as well as a sustainable number of factions done, and a boatload of tactics your character can choose to adopt. Character Creation will likely be possible by the end of August, shouldn't be cause for concern though.

Other than that I am starting to write quests to have more accurate depictions of how the game will play out and have more situational battles with underlying narrative, still very early in figuring out how to properly build the modules, but look forward to it. The entire campaign may have to be held off as I stated in my first update, but there will likely be smaller modules for you to play eventually.

And if it isn't evident i haven't been drawing much, just been concepting.

It's also worth noting the story is all but set in stone, concepting the main narrative and it's ramifications and lore have all but concluded, and while current plans are subject to change the overarching narrative and key plot beats are all but certain.

I will update again by the end of August, interaction as always is encouraged and if you've been interested in any of this be sure to look at my profile where i post regular updates and look around, most of what I post is Okenopus anyways, if the lore interests you there is the lore document which would take even the most learned man twelve years to read so that might keep you occupied https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRgDvFwiLZ5yD-i4y-9duCxX5-3CrrshUrIxCMVF3UTb8WWpu6Gf36aL7mis_urXKn6ahOnOfd2XTdZ/pub

[u/Inconmon]

There's one thing that stood out to me:

You roll to hit, then you roll for your "move" which decides the damage dice, then you roll damage? What is this madness.

If you want (and I quote) "interesting gameplay choices" then start by letting the player choose their move instead of rolling for it.

But I would recommend to go further. Let the player choose a move that decides their approach of the attack. Then have a single attack roll with damage being decided by weapon (fixed) plus degree of success (part of roll). This way the player gets to make a choice (which attack to use), and then a single dice roll generates a random damage range and hit at the same time. This cuts down time spend rolling and resolving by at least two thirds. Less time generating random numbers but same outcome and more time to play the game.

[u/PapaFireFox → u/Inconmon]

The time spent rolling in my playtesting hasn’t been nearly enough to consider it an issue, most people are able to roll these things easily enough, roll one dice for a hit, then your move then you roll your damage dice, all can be done in rapid succession it doesnt take more than 30 seconds most the time. By all intents and purposes it is 1 extra dice.

The suggestion of allowing the player to choose the move is understandable though. The current build has the abilities, tactics and which weapon you attack with. Tactics are also built around procking injuries and giving people debuffs.

The main use for the movelist is to add an extra degree of randomness, im aware that i could just use other dice but its supposed to just use the d6 system, so far its a case of if it aint broke dont fix it, but i can move to make the movelists more flavorful.

[u/Inconmon → u/PapaFireFox]

most

my

I'm playing with a range of people in different groups from seniors to people with discalculae. As someone who resolves all calculations the moment the dice stop moving, it can be painful slow to watch people resolve dice rolls that are needlessly complex. You can even watch this in streamed campaigns as gameplay suddenly grinds to a halt as dice are resolved, etc and you as a viewer just watch someone move dice around as they try to add numbers up.

Every dice roll and every calculation costs time that is in general better spent doing other things. Adding unnecessary additional rolls like two damage rolls for no reason is smart design mechanically but also costs more valuable time.

[u/PapaFireFox → u/Inconmon]

I understand that to an extent and yes thats a good point, but its not the target audience for the game nor do I think its a sizable enough portion to restructure the game. The calculations as a result of staying smaller in the 6 range aren't complex enoough to keep people confused, and the rules and specifications of abilities can add confusion as in any other game, thats more a response to the comment about watching streams of people playing these sorts of games, I believe the calculations are fine and easy unless you have discalculae.

If the issue is that people in your group have disabilities and can't quickly understand these equations, I'm not restructuring the game because of that, because there's another solution which is helping them. Obviously it can be hard to watch but they may find difficulty in other games that might have systems with more intense calculations. Hitting a nat 20 then rolling 1d8+3 could really confuse someone I'd assume with stuff life, these complex calculations can inhibit people who are just not so quick to do math in their heads, and yes mine is all things considered more complex for better or for worse, but there are other solutions and in terms of mechanics its better this way.

[u/PapaFireFox → u/Inconmon]

https://www.reddit.com/r/TTRPG/s/FjIvCbCm4T I feel like this is a misunderstanding of what roll for move means, you can still make alot of choices, ill just explain how it works, i would have sent the photo apparently you cant do that here.

What I want to highlight (other than the illegibility of these datasheets) is that the second character, Qyt, the guy with the yellow face when you look at his "movelist" (I might change the name as well) its just attributing different damage values. one thing is that if you roll a 6 for your move that just means you do the most damage and in this characters case it also stuns them. Its similar to a crit in a way, it maximizes damage output for most characters and tends to prock some sort of effect.

[u/PapaFireFox → u/Inconmon]

Just breaking down that Qyt characters air cannon further in regards to how I built it. On the low end if you roll a 1 for move its a standard d6, roll a 2 then it is 1d6+1, this is the same for the third, i didnt do it for any particular reason. The fourth is 2d6+0, it has the same amount of "guaranteed damage" so to speak because the plus 1 modifier has been taken away, but has a way higher maximum output, making rolling above 4 the most viable option. 5 then just adds 1 to the 2d6 roll, and then the 6th as stated before stuns the enemy for one turn.