Desktop role-playing tactics
Good day.
Today we will talk about a desktop-role system of our own design, the creation of which was inspired by both console eastern games and acquaintance with Western table-role giants. The latter ones near were not as fabulous as they wanted - bulky in terms of rules, with somewhat sterile characters and objects, oversaturated with bookkeeping.
So why not write something of your own? With Zodiac Signs and Eidolons. That’s how it all happened. About five to six years it took for the idea to develop into a 256-page book from several scattered pages.
“Monstroy” is a role-playing game dedicated to fabulously fantastic tactical battles. Here, heroes draw new combat knowledge from their weapons, monsters have their own "artificial intelligence", and instead of gaining experience, the achievement system is used.
But first things first. A general view of role-playing games as a phenomenon formed in me somewhere in the 90s, after reading an excellent review article in one of the volumes of the Computer Games Encyclopedia. This article was called “On role-playing games”, it described both the specifics of desktop-role-playing experience and numerous examples of computer role-playing games that adopted the atmosphere and color of desktop universes. Separately, the fact was emphasized that role-playing board games were not about the competition “who won” and not about the “upbringing” of negligent participants by the master of the game, but about joint creativity and an entertaining pastime for everyone.
When we played a decent amount of adventure, the difference between the expected and the received began to emerge more clearly. The systems themselves turned out to be overloaded with excessive mathematics, every now and then there was a feeling of constant enumeration of a limited set of options, any hero with non-optimal parameters was perceived as a useless, often the most interesting and eventful part of the game ... preparation for it was the very stage of creating the characters.
It is, of course, worthwhile to separate the degree of influence on what is happening of all the individual elements. Yes, players can relate to what is happening too superficially and instead of composing vivid characters they will roam the game world in the form of gray limp spots, sort of blanks hung with valuable things or sights through which you can throw an ability. Yes, a master can abuse his position, try to forcibly drag players along story rails, ruin the atmosphere. But a lot depends on the system itself. From how it is arranged. It’s just that this moment often remains “behind the scenes”, because one of the secrets of board-role-playing games is that, one way or another, you can get pleasure from each game system, if the participants had the proper level of interest.
Naturally, not all systems can and should be lightweight. Some of them are just about the variety of content, about a complex system of rules, tied into a single ingenious mechanism and digging in all these details. And a little bookkeeping will not hurt, and the tables will come in handy, and sometimes you can’t get away from mathematics, but the measure is important in everything.
So it turned out that sometimes even interesting adventures developed with us, the characters turned out to be good and the group acted smoothly - thanks to the efforts of the master and players, we managed to get around the sharp system angles.
And I just wanted to assemble my system, because gradually a vision began to develop of what I would like to get from it. And I wanted first of all the following - a fabulous atmosphere (or fantastic, surreal), motley characters with different levels of strength (which often happens in movies and books), a simple but deep tactical component, free creative development of the character, unique game objects, travel between worlds.
The book itself can be read freely here , and below I will analyze the main points.
The fairytale Monstroy universe lives according to special laws that differ from those that act in reality. The local inhabitants are not at all surprised by the need for frequent battles with wild monsters, which are generated by the chaotic game of magic elements.
Every creature here has a hidden primary principle, irrationo . This is the inner core of the creature, consisting of interconnected particles of magical energy. Such particles, called Spheres, are also found in free form. Like electrons they circle around various objects and creatures, they can change the owner and be used to create material objects.
The hero perceives his irrationo in the form of a special range of feelings, gaining knowledge of some game-mechanical parameters. For example, that he has a certain amount of health. The hero feels most of the other parameters as some obvious patterns that are difficult to put into words. There are also such parameters, the presence of which the hero does not know at all: for example, characteristics (Dexterity, Body, Mind and Intuition). The player knows all the indicators and terms, of course, but the main principle that he is guided by in his decisions is the following: the character is not a copy of the player, this is a real living person, with his own motives and ideas about the world around him.
It is worth noting that during the battles the heroes most often do not suffer physically, because the combat attacks of the enemies do not leave marks in the form of scratches or bruises, instead damaging their health and other parameters. Thus, everything a hero attacks in battle — a sword blade, claws, a shot, a charge of magic — will affect the configuration of the irrationo, and not the material shell. Getting various kinds of physical injuries and conditions is nevertheless possible, but not during a tactical battle.
In the game world, the character is most afraid of two things: the plot death and the collapse of the irrational. The first case involves the death of a character by a combination of various circumstances: the outcome of a fatal illness, getting a fatal injury, accumulated wounds, the final loss of reason, and so on. The second case occurs when the character's health drops below minus five (-5): then his irrationality becomes so unstable that the bonds between the magic particles are destroyed.
For a long time, the inhabitants of the wizarding world have learned to create weapons and equipment that are designed exclusively for battles. These things have varying degrees of effectiveness and fairly strict rules of use. In addition, new unique ways are constantly being invented to influence the irration of enemies with their actions.
In addition to the main fairy-tale world, another dark one is mentioned.
In the Monstroy system, a flexible setting consisting of a general description of the world and some of its individual sections, the so-called Nodes, which are not previously connected by a common map. The book contains such Nodes as the fabulous city of waterfalls (Utada), the village of dragon riders (Zaskan), the restored ruins of the ancient city in the middle of the desert (New Asgard), the mysterious castle in the forest (Matorika) and so on.
Such a structure allows you to embed in this game world any other elements and locations, for example, your favorite places from different books and films. That is, the game world itself is also built by participants in the process of their personal adventure, it is not rigidly determined. Knots are like free energy in the hands of a master of a game that has not yet turned into matter. The course of the narrative transfers the Nodes from a free state to a connected, material one.
A biography is a few words / phrases about the nature of the character. For example: “elf”, “witch”, “clockwork little dragon”, “fire mage with a prosthesis instead of a hand”, “druid from the Branched Forest”, “merchant of a suspicious appearance”, “royal messenger”, “orc smith, damned” , "Student of the necromancer," "arrogant girl-paladin," "the shadow of a stranger with his inanimate dog," and so on.
This parameter contains all the important information about the hero himself, his condition, indicates possible vectors for the development of the hero.
Characteristics - this is the degree of success of the hero in various classes of actions, the strength of the connection of his internal fundamental principle with each of the 4 main elements. If the hero commits a plot action or experiences a plot effect, then verification of the corresponding Characteristics may be required.
Agility(flexibility of fire)
Body (hardness of the earth)
Mind (curiosity of the air)
Intuition (mystery of water)
Each hero has an idea of his Biography, but is completely unaware that the success of his actions is influenced by Characteristics (the magnitude of the Characteristics does not depend on the appearance of the hero , neither his strength, nor mass, nor his mind).
For example: the hero has a Biography “professor of technomagy,” and his Mind is “-2”. The low value of Reason does not make the hero stupid. He is well versed in techno-magical devices and theories, as well as everything that can be attributed to this area of knowledge. Reason "-2" means only that in matters requiring Reason, but with its path, technomagy, generally not connected at all, it will be unfortunate.
The character’s life is subject to faith in himself and personal ambitions. He cannot compare his achievements with anyone else on an absolute scale; in assessing his qualities he is quite subjective. Some failures do not stop, while others deceive themselves, burying true talent in the ground.
In this ignorance lies a special charm: confidence in something really turns the conceivable into the explicit - by performing various acts the hero thereby earns a Biography. Each specific Biography, in turn, increases the success of those actions of the character that are associated with it.
For example: if the hero is a "druid", then most often he will be able to walk silently through the forest on this basis. And if the master decides to assign a Dexterity check for silent movement, then its complexity for the "druid" will not be high.
Even when there are no thumbnails, you can always do with improvised means for modeling a combat situation - cubes, chips, buttons.
Frame of the battle from the prototype on Flash.
This desktop role-playing system implies that often there will be military clashes in tactical mode between a group of adventurers and their various enemies. It can be just an attack of wild monsters, or a fight with a smart opponent, a scene of unexpected betrayal or a comic duel in the arena.
Before each next bout with a roll of dice, a sequence of moves is formed. If two or more heroes have the same results, then they will receive a joint move with the ability to split and combine their actions as you like.
At the beginning of the turn, the hero usually receives about 3 Action Points and 1 Combat Action. Action points are spent mainly on moving, performing auxiliary tasks (such as using items or changing equipment) and act as an additional resource (enhancing the ongoing attack). Fighting is spent on various attacking techniques, or the activation of powerful abilities.
Unused Combat Operations at the end of a turn burn out, and Action Points can be accumulated by some heroes as fuel for special moves. Any non-standard actions of heroes in battle are also possible, if they do not contradict the situation - the master decides how much and what resources will be spent to pay for them.
Witch Truanne - one of the pre-installed characters
Each hero has a certain combat archetype. There are four of them: “Mage”, “Trickster”, “Fighter” and “Medium”. The names of the archetypes are arbitrary and the heroes themselves do not know about them (for example, the archetype "Mage" does not mean that the hero is necessarily some kind of caster according to the Biography).
As mentioned earlier, the first principle of each creature has some strength: a supply of Health Points. But besides the usual health, the heroes also have Mental: the higher it is, the more focused the hero is when performing various magical or energetic actions. If the hero loses all Health Points, he falls unconscious or even dies. If he loses all Mental health, then his combat effectiveness sharply decreases: the character cannot use the techniques and special Sacraments of Signs, he can only get a simple attack with or without a weapon.
The hero can spend his Mental health on some special tricks, but the vast majority of tricks and Sacraments spend other, more easily replenished resources (such as Mana Points). Therefore, in most cases, it is better to maintain Mental health as long as possible.
While the character is not equipped with any defenses - he takes hits on his Health Points. But as soon as the defenses appear, the hero begins to be affected by the effect of his archetype and part of the received damage is redirected to the hero’s Mental health or completely extinguished.
For example, the hero of the “Mage” archetype has the largest supply of Mana Points compared to other archetypes. Damage blocked by his physical protection is redirected from normal health to Mental. And the damage blocked by magic defenses is completely repaid - that is, if you protect 1 from fire-air magic, the hero will receive 1 less damage from a fire or air attack.
No one forbids such a hero to engage in close combat with the enemy (where physical attacks most often occur), but the game hints that staying at a distance from enemies will in most cases be more effective for this archetype.
The archetype “Trickster” is moderately universal and, due to the increased stock of Mental Health, feels good in any position. The "fighter" is better protected in close combat, but magical attacks can cool his ardor. "Medium" is the most balanced and is better than others in controlling his condition.
The game has four types of magic, each of which includes two elements. That is, protection from the Aspect Time in the character’s outfit will help him immediately against Light attacks and Dark attacks
The heroes of "Monstroy" are able to use a variety of mystical disciplines, Sacraments several times a day. There are exactly 12 of them, each of them is protected by its own Zodiac Sign. At the start of the game, each character owns the Sacraments of two Signs - his native and secondary.
Each Sacrament can be applied in two different ways: theatrical and tactical. The first method applies only during the narrative part of the game. The second method is used in a tactical battle or in some way connected with it (allows you to create a combat item or enchant weapons).
For example: The Mimicry Sacrament (Patron Sign: Cancer) allows the owner to copy the magical, energetic, or mystical effects he observes for a waste of 1 use. You can throw an oncoming bunch of fire into an evil dragon, raise a dead man in response to a similar action by a necromancer, and so on. For a waste of additional use, you can cancel the effect instead of copying it. During a tactical battle, Mimicry allows the hero to duplicate other people's attacks or techniques.
Most Sacraments do not spend Combat Actions or Action Points during the battle, so they can be used several times in one turn (while there are uses) without losing the ability to move or attack. On the other hand, Sacraments, as a rule, provoke retaliatory attacks from nearby enemies for each act of their use.
“Monstroy” uses 3 types of cubes: tetrahedron (D4), hexagon (D6) and hexagon (D20). Each of them has its own role in game mechanics: the tetrahedron and the tetrahedron are used in tactics, the hexagon most often regulates the story.
D4, weapon attack
In battle, the heroes use a different weapon, each of which has four damage positions. The roll of the die determines the position.
For example: a hero attacks an enemy with a Broadsword. Damage options for this weapon: 2/3/4/4. 1 fell on the die, which means the enemy will receive 2 damage.
Zeros, dashes, or letters can occur in positions. A dash indicates an unambiguous miss, zero indicates a hit, but with zero base damage. If the weapon has added damage or other additional effects, then in position 0 they will work.
For example: A magic wand (- / 0/1/1) is enchanted by "+1" fire damage to attack. If 1 falls on the die, then the attack of this weapon will miss. If 2 falls, then the Magic Wand hits, inflicting 0 physical damage and 1 fire to the enemy. If 3 or 4 falls, then the enemy will receive 1 physical and 1 fire damage.
In rarer weapons, letters that indicate one of the Characteristics of a hero can be found in positions.
For example: Ink sword hits enemies with darkness, not physics. Its parameters: And / 4/6/8. The owner of the sword now has Intuition equal to 5. If 1 falls on the attack dice, then the sword will deal 5 damage with darkness.
D6, checks
During the narrative, some actions of the characters require a successful check on one of the Characteristics (Dexterity, Body, Mind, Intuition). The master sets the difficulty of the check, and the player rolls the dice, folding with the required Characteristic.
For example: a witch wants to understand the meaning of ancient symbols that cover the walls of the catacombs. The master assigns a check on the Mind with complexity 6. The witch’s mind is 2, the dice dropped 3. In total, 5 is received, which is lower than the required complexity, so the meaning of the characters could not be solved.
D20, Monster Intelligence
Most regular monsters are controlled by a die, which tells them to take a specific action from the list. It remains for the master to choose the target, and also to decide when the monster will move: before or after the action.
For example: the battle is on, the enemy Goblin gets the move. The master rolls the dice, it’s 19. In the parameters of the Goblin it is indicated that if the value falls from 15 to 20, he is supposed to put the Poison Aura on the target in radius 1. The master moves the Goblin to one of the heroes, after which he puts the Poison Aura on that one.
The concept of the gameromechanical model of a monster includes the following parameters:
Identification - rank (from 1 to 5), Badge (one of 12), type (undead, animal, goblin, and so on).
The main ones are Health Points and Speed (sometimes there are Mana Points).
Actions - a list of attacks and techniques tied to the intervals of the 20-sided.
Optional - physical and magical defenses, immunities, other features and limitations.
Players control the summoned monsters and Eidolons in the same way (special creatures in which heroes can transform with the help of the Sacraments of the Sign of Scorpio).
For example: for several moves the paladin of the 2nd level turned into Leviathan, the Architect of the Depths (Eidolon of the water element). Each turn, the player rolls a die, figuring out the prescribed action, now it is 2. A number from the range from 1 to 9 instructs Leviathan to inflict targets within a radius of 1 water damage equal to 2 + hero level. Thus, Eidolon inflicts 4 water damage to the enemy.
In battle, characters can unlock Titles - various simple achievements. You can have many titles, but only one of them is active during the game day and gives the hero his specific bonus. Those heroes who can access the Speech (Sacrament of the Sign of Aquarius) during the battle can hum the title known to them, sharing its effect with all allies. In addition, there are secret (unique) Titles that can be opened only once, after which they become inaccessible to other heroes.
Example of the Title:
“Savior”, secret Title.
Conditions for obtaining: you have experienced a state close enough to death, but have not died, and besides there is someone who loves you.
Advantages of the Title: “the one you hold by the hand cannot die” (biography line).
But only Titles "Monstroy" is not limited. He develops these ideas and goes further, completely abandoning the use of gaming experience (Exp) in favor of global gaming achievements - Milestones. The hero begins with the first level of the Milestone and can open those Milestones 9 times that are provided for by the development plan (pumping in this way from the first level to the maximum, 10th).
Examples of Milestones:
“Mission” - the hero completed an important task received from the game subject
“Taste of the battle” - the hero won 3 battles
“Echo of Reflections” - the hero was in a state of Trance
As a starting point, a set of nine different Milestones is proposed, which each hero can open once. Such a development plan will be rather difficult, but very diverse. The master of the game can assemble his own plan, forming a certain style of adventure: to focus on drama, on exploring the world, on military successes and so on. The final version is approved before the start of the game.
The plan can be quite simple and narrowly focused, for example, “Mission (9)”, that is, the hero will receive levels only for completing important story missions and to get the maximum milestone level he just needs to open the “Mission” 9 times in a row - that is, complete 9 different instructions taken from the characters of the game world. Also, the plan can be very diverse and as free as possible when many Milestones are offered at once, each of which can be opened more than once.
Of course, in Monstroy you can create a hero from scratch by reading this chapter. However, I decided to offer beginners not only the “build it yourself” designer, but ready-made unique characters. Each of them belongs to a separate class and has a hint of character. This is important because I would like to emphasize the point that the hero is not a copy of the player. It is difficult to feel such a thing when you are just starting to go into a hobby and they are given the hero’s constructor - the temptation is to collect blanks easier, without any special history, and do the same in the future. This is not a problem in computer games, but at the table it can become.
Thus, a new player can simply print out a card with a character, where all his starting abilities are indicated. Mandatory bonuses for raising levels are provided, but the abilities of the hero and his class can be developed as you like during the game - it depends only on the creativity of the player and the master, on the emerging story situations. The hero knows a lot already from the very beginning, he does not need to wait for some high level, just to begin to enjoy his class.
In other words, there is no magician-illusionist who can only show magic tricks on the first level, always become invisible on the seventh, and is able to create an illusory city on the fifteenth. The local magician, an illusionist, follows the player’s thoughts on his account, having at the start only a general concept and some already prescribed mechanics, such as creating educational illusions, for a certain time with a waste of a certain resource. Strictly speaking, this system does not deny the presence in it of heroes with scheduled enhancements at specific levels (since the levels themselves are present), but they become a special case, and the freedom of development is preserved.
Weapons and combat items also have levels - strength levels or ranks. With these items, the heroes learn various combat abilities - after spending two or three battles with a magic staff, the hero studies the magic contained inside him, so that later he can use it without this item. Abilities from low-ranking items more or less remain relevant even when the hero has abilities from items of a higher rank. In the first versions of the game, a situation was more often observed when some abilities looked more “passing” and became not particularly needed when a more powerful analogue appeared. On the other hand, from the very beginning, the game provides the ability to disassemble irrelevant items. I won’t say that now everything that the character has studied, benefits him constantly, but even a small correction has benefited - more variability,
In addition to the basic characters from the book, there are about 15 cards with additional characters. There you can find representatives of the race of gizmos (intelligent magic items), heroes from the dark dimension, a mushroom man, and even a virus that infuses monsters. Based on them, it is easier to construct your own new heroes.
Yes, of course, the master will need the ability to improvise. The player will have to figure out how to use the hero’s abilities in a particular situation, he will have to invent a new one. But this is the most interesting thing that non-computer role-playing games can give! In addition, other elements of the game constantly provide food for creativity, facilitating this task. I myself, as a master, practice prepared improvisation, and in the book the game is considered from this position, offering the master various tools for implementing what was planned.
You just need to change the vector of your aspirations - you should not sculpt a monolithic dramatic-cinematic epic, so that later you can give it to the group as a non-interactive monologue in the middle of wooden decorations. No, we will not go on rails and drive players by all available means to the only right door. Instead, I propose to make before the game a certain supply of key events and clues that will arise in the game on the way of the players and adapt to the current situation. The output is a sandbox game with noticeable interspersed plot, more or less complete story and good involvement of the participants, despite the greater degree of freedom of the players.
A couple of thoughts regarding gaming supplies. In general, like many, I like highly detailed stylish miniatures in board role-playing games. However, in practice they are not so convenient when it comes to use in the game.
Personally, in tactical roles played at the table, I would like to see some standardized, not very pronounced miniatures. Something universal in the style of cubism-minimalism, especially for opponents / monsters. Usually, the gamers use those miniatures that were at hand, collected from different sources, sets and games.
Such figures for role-playing games are usually released already under a certain setting. A sufficiently high degree of detail allows you to consider the race of the character, his clothes and other details. All this is wonderful, but the settings and classes of heroes in games change very often, not to buy new figures every time for a new style / class, and so on.
Great if you have a line of thumbnails in the same style. But these people have too much fantasy, in a game about a cosmoopera or in a Lovecraftian detective story they will no longer look so advantageous. Although when it stopped someone.
This is all to what figures I would put in a box with my game, if such a box were produced:
For starters, these would be colorful figures of the main characters for the players. If more or less detailed models, then it is possible for each color in male and female versions. Or just make more different colors, each with one abstract model of the "adventurer" type. If a player brings his favorite figure, then to health, but in this way we have a basic option for any occasion.
For opponents - several groups of identical models. Then it will be convenient to make packs of several enemies of the same type. I usually form the majority of military clashes, like “party against a group of skeletons”, “party against goblins and their leader”, “party against a pair of werewolves and a pair of zombies” - as you can see, monsters of the same type are often found here. Therefore, for a group of goblins, I want to use the same figures, and not put up different ones and then forget who I have.
It is very desirable to see some numbering on models from the same group. It can be numbers, dots, stripes, letters, symbols. On the stomach are figures, on the back or on top. It would be very convenient to track the amount of remaining health of the enemy. That is, when the hero poked that figure to the left of him from a group of skeletons, we immediately see that it was some kind of “skeleton number 3” that was received from the cap, and not someone else. Again, it helps the master to keep track of which of the opponents he already resembled and which not yet.
When so many things are on the table - go figure out who is who.
In principle, for convenient display of different groups of enemies cubes are very well suited - they can just be picked up by the same ones and set different numbers up. But if it were a figure with a number, it would be great. So I would make enemies with numbers.
Actually, even very abstract models are best suited for opponents, on which notes are read very well and which, when changing locations and worlds, will not distract us from the current atmosphere with their details. Just make the groups a little different in color, sets of different sizes, mark them - all that is needed for universal battles.
But for various exclusive opponents, you can already exhibit any other figures from all the collectible chaos that you have at hand. Or the Master can take one of the color figures not taken by the players. And, since we are talking about figures that would go in a box with a game, we could make several such specific ones and put one random figure of an exclusive enemy in each box.
I dug up such cute miles on the Internet.
Thus, in the most minimal version for playing tactics, I would like to see several minimalistic multi-colored figures for heroes and several groups of abstract numbered miniatures for opponents.
But, of course, the basic equipment can be more diverse and more detailed. However, I am definitely against practice, when in the house tons of beautiful detailed miniatures are laid out in cardboard boxes and we diligently dig into them, trying to get the closest possible figures to our situation. Then we suffer that they are again not in the same style. Then we buy another zombie, because now we often come across zombies in the game, but there are no suitable figures. And then we put everything on the table and all the same, we get completely entangled in them. There can be many figures, but they should be convenient to navigate, if we want to use them in the game, and not just decorate the shelf with them.
In principle, the game mechanics of Monstroy can be adapted for computer implementation. Although it is not as simple as it seems. I just always liked Final Fantasy Tactics, I would like something in a similar style, and the Monstroy fight is pretty close in spirit. Be that as it may, computer tactics is just one of the ideas put aside for now. There was only a small flash prototype with one scene and this one here is a video showing the direction of thought.
The tesserfact is a special powerful stone that opens the passage to honey with dimensions, which is mentioned in the book. As planned, the plot would revolve around him.
And this video is later. Collected in Unity one of the hypothetical locations. Here it is more like the FFT style.
“Monsterboy” is not the only role-playing game I wrote, but certainly the healthiest and definitely it contains this basic impulse that led me just to the development of board-role-playing games - the desire to make an accessible game with tactical combat. Other desktop role-playing books that I dealt with are much more narrative. It is understandable, because they are exploring other role niches.
All my role books and related materials can be found on the site .
On this I will finish the story. Have a nice weekend.
Today we will talk about a desktop-role system of our own design, the creation of which was inspired by both console eastern games and acquaintance with Western table-role giants. The latter ones near were not as fabulous as they wanted - bulky in terms of rules, with somewhat sterile characters and objects, oversaturated with bookkeeping.
So why not write something of your own? With Zodiac Signs and Eidolons. That’s how it all happened. About five to six years it took for the idea to develop into a 256-page book from several scattered pages.
“Monstroy” is a role-playing game dedicated to fabulously fantastic tactical battles. Here, heroes draw new combat knowledge from their weapons, monsters have their own "artificial intelligence", and instead of gaining experience, the achievement system is used.
But first things first. A general view of role-playing games as a phenomenon formed in me somewhere in the 90s, after reading an excellent review article in one of the volumes of the Computer Games Encyclopedia. This article was called “On role-playing games”, it described both the specifics of desktop-role-playing experience and numerous examples of computer role-playing games that adopted the atmosphere and color of desktop universes. Separately, the fact was emphasized that role-playing board games were not about the competition “who won” and not about the “upbringing” of negligent participants by the master of the game, but about joint creativity and an entertaining pastime for everyone.
Master of the game: Standing on the bridge of the declining Millet, the sun elf Sigmar peered into the approaching fog. Yes, somewhere there were supposed to be those rare species of monsters that would be needed in the experiment. He put his palm in the steering pearl of the ship to adjust course, and the shell-like dish obediently leaned to the side, bypassing the sharp peak of the rock. Finally, a gap appeared in the mist and the Psheso rushed there. The shell-like ship crouched on a small rocky ledge, the lights of the power lines on its hull partially went out, switching to standby mode. After a couple of minutes, the bottom of the sink snapped and pushed down. An elf, a mushroom girl and a goblin came out of the ship’s womb onto a stone ledge ... Although, no, let them just be an elf and a goblin. So, ladies and gentlemen, you are in the Dungeon of the Mists!Somewhere in the zero years, I made various small tables so that there was something to play with friends, I simultaneously plunged into the marvelous world of console exclusives (the unforgettable first PlayStation), found in the city the Magic: The Gathering card club (at that time the colorful Kamigawa, little by little, the most powerful block of Mirrodin retreated, and the cards had not yet begun to be printed in Russian) and ... finally joined the role-playing games, too, finding a game company and a practicing master.
Intriguer: Stop, stop! What about the mushroom girl?
Master of the game: For now, let's start with these two characters, but we'll see.
Expert in rules: So say you forgot to prescribe her parameters.
Game master: * sarcastically * Maybe I just decided that she was too good to give it to you?
When we played a decent amount of adventure, the difference between the expected and the received began to emerge more clearly. The systems themselves turned out to be overloaded with excessive mathematics, every now and then there was a feeling of constant enumeration of a limited set of options, any hero with non-optimal parameters was perceived as a useless, often the most interesting and eventful part of the game ... preparation for it was the very stage of creating the characters.
It is, of course, worthwhile to separate the degree of influence on what is happening of all the individual elements. Yes, players can relate to what is happening too superficially and instead of composing vivid characters they will roam the game world in the form of gray limp spots, sort of blanks hung with valuable things or sights through which you can throw an ability. Yes, a master can abuse his position, try to forcibly drag players along story rails, ruin the atmosphere. But a lot depends on the system itself. From how it is arranged. It’s just that this moment often remains “behind the scenes”, because one of the secrets of board-role-playing games is that, one way or another, you can get pleasure from each game system, if the participants had the proper level of interest.
Naturally, not all systems can and should be lightweight. Some of them are just about the variety of content, about a complex system of rules, tied into a single ingenious mechanism and digging in all these details. And a little bookkeeping will not hurt, and the tables will come in handy, and sometimes you can’t get away from mathematics, but the measure is important in everything.
So it turned out that sometimes even interesting adventures developed with us, the characters turned out to be good and the group acted smoothly - thanks to the efforts of the master and players, we managed to get around the sharp system angles.
And I just wanted to assemble my system, because gradually a vision began to develop of what I would like to get from it. And I wanted first of all the following - a fabulous atmosphere (or fantastic, surreal), motley characters with different levels of strength (which often happens in movies and books), a simple but deep tactical component, free creative development of the character, unique game objects, travel between worlds.
The book itself can be read freely here , and below I will analyze the main points.
Game world
The fairytale Monstroy universe lives according to special laws that differ from those that act in reality. The local inhabitants are not at all surprised by the need for frequent battles with wild monsters, which are generated by the chaotic game of magic elements.
Every creature here has a hidden primary principle, irrationo . This is the inner core of the creature, consisting of interconnected particles of magical energy. Such particles, called Spheres, are also found in free form. Like electrons they circle around various objects and creatures, they can change the owner and be used to create material objects.
The hero perceives his irrationo in the form of a special range of feelings, gaining knowledge of some game-mechanical parameters. For example, that he has a certain amount of health. The hero feels most of the other parameters as some obvious patterns that are difficult to put into words. There are also such parameters, the presence of which the hero does not know at all: for example, characteristics (Dexterity, Body, Mind and Intuition). The player knows all the indicators and terms, of course, but the main principle that he is guided by in his decisions is the following: the character is not a copy of the player, this is a real living person, with his own motives and ideas about the world around him.
It is worth noting that during the battles the heroes most often do not suffer physically, because the combat attacks of the enemies do not leave marks in the form of scratches or bruises, instead damaging their health and other parameters. Thus, everything a hero attacks in battle — a sword blade, claws, a shot, a charge of magic — will affect the configuration of the irrationo, and not the material shell. Getting various kinds of physical injuries and conditions is nevertheless possible, but not during a tactical battle.
In the game world, the character is most afraid of two things: the plot death and the collapse of the irrational. The first case involves the death of a character by a combination of various circumstances: the outcome of a fatal illness, getting a fatal injury, accumulated wounds, the final loss of reason, and so on. The second case occurs when the character's health drops below minus five (-5): then his irrationality becomes so unstable that the bonds between the magic particles are destroyed.
For a long time, the inhabitants of the wizarding world have learned to create weapons and equipment that are designed exclusively for battles. These things have varying degrees of effectiveness and fairly strict rules of use. In addition, new unique ways are constantly being invented to influence the irration of enemies with their actions.
In addition to the main fairy-tale world, another dark one is mentioned.
Story nodes
In the Monstroy system, a flexible setting consisting of a general description of the world and some of its individual sections, the so-called Nodes, which are not previously connected by a common map. The book contains such Nodes as the fabulous city of waterfalls (Utada), the village of dragon riders (Zaskan), the restored ruins of the ancient city in the middle of the desert (New Asgard), the mysterious castle in the forest (Matorika) and so on.
Such a structure allows you to embed in this game world any other elements and locations, for example, your favorite places from different books and films. That is, the game world itself is also built by participants in the process of their personal adventure, it is not rigidly determined. Knots are like free energy in the hands of a master of a game that has not yet turned into matter. The course of the narrative transfers the Nodes from a free state to a connected, material one.
Researcher: * impatiently * Well, so what's next? Arrived, and?
Game Wizard: Actually disassemble the characters. Who is the elf, who is the goblin?
Intriguer: I would have taken a mushroom, but you didn’t give it!
Game master: Later there will be more characters. You need to show the basics of the battle so far.
Tactician: Yeah, combat! What does a goblin have?
Game master: The goblin can throw bombs. And grenades. If you find a pomegranate tree.
Tactician. Oh, take it.
Researcher: * looking around the party * I am then an elf, if no one is against.
Intriguer: Yes, please.
Game Wizard: Good. By the way, he has a very curious background.
Biography and Characteristics
A biography is a few words / phrases about the nature of the character. For example: “elf”, “witch”, “clockwork little dragon”, “fire mage with a prosthesis instead of a hand”, “druid from the Branched Forest”, “merchant of a suspicious appearance”, “royal messenger”, “orc smith, damned” , "Student of the necromancer," "arrogant girl-paladin," "the shadow of a stranger with his inanimate dog," and so on.
This parameter contains all the important information about the hero himself, his condition, indicates possible vectors for the development of the hero.
Characteristics - this is the degree of success of the hero in various classes of actions, the strength of the connection of his internal fundamental principle with each of the 4 main elements. If the hero commits a plot action or experiences a plot effect, then verification of the corresponding Characteristics may be required.
Agility(flexibility of fire)
Body (hardness of the earth)
Mind (curiosity of the air)
Intuition (mystery of water)
Each hero has an idea of his Biography, but is completely unaware that the success of his actions is influenced by Characteristics (the magnitude of the Characteristics does not depend on the appearance of the hero , neither his strength, nor mass, nor his mind).
For example: the hero has a Biography “professor of technomagy,” and his Mind is “-2”. The low value of Reason does not make the hero stupid. He is well versed in techno-magical devices and theories, as well as everything that can be attributed to this area of knowledge. Reason "-2" means only that in matters requiring Reason, but with its path, technomagy, generally not connected at all, it will be unfortunate.
The character’s life is subject to faith in himself and personal ambitions. He cannot compare his achievements with anyone else on an absolute scale; in assessing his qualities he is quite subjective. Some failures do not stop, while others deceive themselves, burying true talent in the ground.
In this ignorance lies a special charm: confidence in something really turns the conceivable into the explicit - by performing various acts the hero thereby earns a Biography. Each specific Biography, in turn, increases the success of those actions of the character that are associated with it.
For example: if the hero is a "druid", then most often he will be able to walk silently through the forest on this basis. And if the master decides to assign a Dexterity check for silent movement, then its complexity for the "druid" will not be high.
Game Wizard: Continuing. As soon as they left the ship, Sigmar and Otto came across a group of metal golems, whose appearance resembled revived armor. Mist swirled around each of these strange creatures, penetrating through cracks in the metal. One of the golems was dragging a resisting shock of dark hair, the other clung to a strange magnificent creature with ruddy, as if fried sides. Other armor, seeing an approaching elf and goblin, rushed at them ...
Tactician: I suppose, with the aim of kissing?
Game Wizard: Worse. Throw a dice ... Although, while we will not overload with throws. The elf will go first, then the goblin.
Even when there are no thumbnails, you can always do with improvised means for modeling a combat situation - cubes, chips, buttons.
Frame of the battle from the prototype on Flash.
Battles
This desktop role-playing system implies that often there will be military clashes in tactical mode between a group of adventurers and their various enemies. It can be just an attack of wild monsters, or a fight with a smart opponent, a scene of unexpected betrayal or a comic duel in the arena.
Before each next bout with a roll of dice, a sequence of moves is formed. If two or more heroes have the same results, then they will receive a joint move with the ability to split and combine their actions as you like.
At the beginning of the turn, the hero usually receives about 3 Action Points and 1 Combat Action. Action points are spent mainly on moving, performing auxiliary tasks (such as using items or changing equipment) and act as an additional resource (enhancing the ongoing attack). Fighting is spent on various attacking techniques, or the activation of powerful abilities.
Unused Combat Operations at the end of a turn burn out, and Action Points can be accumulated by some heroes as fuel for special moves. Any non-standard actions of heroes in battle are also possible, if they do not contradict the situation - the master decides how much and what resources will be spent to pay for them.
Game master: Having scattered hostile armor to the sides, you free their prey. This is a girl with extremely long, slightly moving hair, which almost completely hide her figure. Along with her, another saved creature looks around you with curiosity - a lump levitating above the ground, something like rosy buns, it smells like freshly baked bread. Looking closely at the lying armor, Otto noticed that streams of fog were leaving them.
Tactician: Hmm, what could that mean? It is necessary to reflect.
Game Wizard: Meanwhile, we have new heroes available for selection. So let's decide who will be who.
Intriguer: So-and-so. What do we have here? A lady in trouble and a bun on legs?
Tactician: * rolling with laughter * Well, you give!
Researcher: What a passage!
Master of the game: * instructive * In fact, this witch here is never a lady in trouble, as you put it. She is quite capable of standing up for herself. By the way, in addition to this couple, you can take metal golems.
Witch Truanne - one of the pre-installed characters
Archetypes of Heroes
Each hero has a certain combat archetype. There are four of them: “Mage”, “Trickster”, “Fighter” and “Medium”. The names of the archetypes are arbitrary and the heroes themselves do not know about them (for example, the archetype "Mage" does not mean that the hero is necessarily some kind of caster according to the Biography).
As mentioned earlier, the first principle of each creature has some strength: a supply of Health Points. But besides the usual health, the heroes also have Mental: the higher it is, the more focused the hero is when performing various magical or energetic actions. If the hero loses all Health Points, he falls unconscious or even dies. If he loses all Mental health, then his combat effectiveness sharply decreases: the character cannot use the techniques and special Sacraments of Signs, he can only get a simple attack with or without a weapon.
The hero can spend his Mental health on some special tricks, but the vast majority of tricks and Sacraments spend other, more easily replenished resources (such as Mana Points). Therefore, in most cases, it is better to maintain Mental health as long as possible.
While the character is not equipped with any defenses - he takes hits on his Health Points. But as soon as the defenses appear, the hero begins to be affected by the effect of his archetype and part of the received damage is redirected to the hero’s Mental health or completely extinguished.
For example, the hero of the “Mage” archetype has the largest supply of Mana Points compared to other archetypes. Damage blocked by his physical protection is redirected from normal health to Mental. And the damage blocked by magic defenses is completely repaid - that is, if you protect 1 from fire-air magic, the hero will receive 1 less damage from a fire or air attack.
No one forbids such a hero to engage in close combat with the enemy (where physical attacks most often occur), but the game hints that staying at a distance from enemies will in most cases be more effective for this archetype.
The archetype “Trickster” is moderately universal and, due to the increased stock of Mental Health, feels good in any position. The "fighter" is better protected in close combat, but magical attacks can cool his ardor. "Medium" is the most balanced and is better than others in controlling his condition.
The game has four types of magic, each of which includes two elements. That is, protection from the Aspect Time in the character’s outfit will help him immediately against Light attacks and Dark attacks
Assistant: And how many golems were there?
Game Master: In what sense?
Assistant: Well, how many characters will be in the group as a result?
Expert in rules: Probably as many as we choose.
Game Wizard: Naturally. Actually, golems were introduced specifically as an additional choice and as an opportunity to expand the number of participants if more people came to the game.
Intrigue: Interesting.
Tactician: But these are clones. Being a clone is bad.
Game master: If a lot of people take golems, then yes, the initial game-mechanical parameters of their heroes will be the same. But this does not prevent different players from playing different characters and making some changes to the appearance of their heroes.
The sacraments
The heroes of "Monstroy" are able to use a variety of mystical disciplines, Sacraments several times a day. There are exactly 12 of them, each of them is protected by its own Zodiac Sign. At the start of the game, each character owns the Sacraments of two Signs - his native and secondary.
Each Sacrament can be applied in two different ways: theatrical and tactical. The first method applies only during the narrative part of the game. The second method is used in a tactical battle or in some way connected with it (allows you to create a combat item or enchant weapons).
For example: The Mimicry Sacrament (Patron Sign: Cancer) allows the owner to copy the magical, energetic, or mystical effects he observes for a waste of 1 use. You can throw an oncoming bunch of fire into an evil dragon, raise a dead man in response to a similar action by a necromancer, and so on. For a waste of additional use, you can cancel the effect instead of copying it. During a tactical battle, Mimicry allows the hero to duplicate other people's attacks or techniques.
Most Sacraments do not spend Combat Actions or Action Points during the battle, so they can be used several times in one turn (while there are uses) without losing the ability to move or attack. On the other hand, Sacraments, as a rule, provoke retaliatory attacks from nearby enemies for each act of their use.
Intriguer: Great, I'll be a metal golem!
Game master: I thought you would take a witch.
Assistant: I'll take the Witch. Does she have a spellbook?
Intriguer: I wanted to take a mushroom. Oh, can my golem be filled with a bas-relief in the form of a fly agaric?
Researcher: It doesn't seem to be boring.
Game Wizard: Directly make me happy. Yes, there is a book. Yes, you can bas-relief. * looking at the connoisseur of the rules * Who do you take - a bakery elemental or a metal golem?
Expert on the rules: So this was a bakery elemental? I’m taking it straight without looking.
Game master: You will like it, he is also a healer.
Expert on rules: Servant of the Great Heavenly Bakery?
Game Wizard: Almost.
Intrigue. Oh, he will bake us healing buns!
Tactician: Or lethal.
Researcher: Everything depends on the filling.
Assistant: Buns are good!
Game Wizard: Let's introduce the heroes better. Tell each other about yourself.
Cubes
“Monstroy” uses 3 types of cubes: tetrahedron (D4), hexagon (D6) and hexagon (D20). Each of them has its own role in game mechanics: the tetrahedron and the tetrahedron are used in tactics, the hexagon most often regulates the story.
D4, weapon attack
In battle, the heroes use a different weapon, each of which has four damage positions. The roll of the die determines the position.
For example: a hero attacks an enemy with a Broadsword. Damage options for this weapon: 2/3/4/4. 1 fell on the die, which means the enemy will receive 2 damage.
Zeros, dashes, or letters can occur in positions. A dash indicates an unambiguous miss, zero indicates a hit, but with zero base damage. If the weapon has added damage or other additional effects, then in position 0 they will work.
For example: A magic wand (- / 0/1/1) is enchanted by "+1" fire damage to attack. If 1 falls on the die, then the attack of this weapon will miss. If 2 falls, then the Magic Wand hits, inflicting 0 physical damage and 1 fire to the enemy. If 3 or 4 falls, then the enemy will receive 1 physical and 1 fire damage.
In rarer weapons, letters that indicate one of the Characteristics of a hero can be found in positions.
For example: Ink sword hits enemies with darkness, not physics. Its parameters: And / 4/6/8. The owner of the sword now has Intuition equal to 5. If 1 falls on the attack dice, then the sword will deal 5 damage with darkness.
D6, checks
During the narrative, some actions of the characters require a successful check on one of the Characteristics (Dexterity, Body, Mind, Intuition). The master sets the difficulty of the check, and the player rolls the dice, folding with the required Characteristic.
For example: a witch wants to understand the meaning of ancient symbols that cover the walls of the catacombs. The master assigns a check on the Mind with complexity 6. The witch’s mind is 2, the dice dropped 3. In total, 5 is received, which is lower than the required complexity, so the meaning of the characters could not be solved.
D20, Monster Intelligence
Most regular monsters are controlled by a die, which tells them to take a specific action from the list. It remains for the master to choose the target, and also to decide when the monster will move: before or after the action.
For example: the battle is on, the enemy Goblin gets the move. The master rolls the dice, it’s 19. In the parameters of the Goblin it is indicated that if the value falls from 15 to 20, he is supposed to put the Poison Aura on the target in radius 1. The master moves the Goblin to one of the heroes, after which he puts the Poison Aura on that one.
The concept of the gameromechanical model of a monster includes the following parameters:
Identification - rank (from 1 to 5), Badge (one of 12), type (undead, animal, goblin, and so on).
The main ones are Health Points and Speed (sometimes there are Mana Points).
Actions - a list of attacks and techniques tied to the intervals of the 20-sided.
Optional - physical and magical defenses, immunities, other features and limitations.
Players control the summoned monsters and Eidolons in the same way (special creatures in which heroes can transform with the help of the Sacraments of the Sign of Scorpio).
For example: for several moves the paladin of the 2nd level turned into Leviathan, the Architect of the Depths (Eidolon of the water element). Each turn, the player rolls a die, figuring out the prescribed action, now it is 2. A number from the range from 1 to 9 instructs Leviathan to inflict targets within a radius of 1 water damage equal to 2 + hero level. Thus, Eidolon inflicts 4 water damage to the enemy.
Intriguer: Well, what are you standing, turn it into a toad!
Assistant: Can I? Master, master?
Game master: I think your specialization has this in mind, but you are still a beginner, so you don’t own this particular spell.
Intriguer: Well, okay, all the same - threaten, bluff, intimidate!
Assistant: Let's just let go of this shadow in peace, but she hasn’t done anything to us yet.
Intriguer: Somehow you're not a very wicked witch.
Assistant: Why should a witch be evil? She's not old, after all.
Expert in rules: And here I finally understood everything about witches.
Intriguer: You then signal how you get old. I’ll even have time to hide.
Assistant: Late, I remember you!
Titles and Milestones
In battle, characters can unlock Titles - various simple achievements. You can have many titles, but only one of them is active during the game day and gives the hero his specific bonus. Those heroes who can access the Speech (Sacrament of the Sign of Aquarius) during the battle can hum the title known to them, sharing its effect with all allies. In addition, there are secret (unique) Titles that can be opened only once, after which they become inaccessible to other heroes.
Example of the Title:
“Savior”, secret Title.
Conditions for obtaining: you have experienced a state close enough to death, but have not died, and besides there is someone who loves you.
Advantages of the Title: “the one you hold by the hand cannot die” (biography line).
But only Titles "Monstroy" is not limited. He develops these ideas and goes further, completely abandoning the use of gaming experience (Exp) in favor of global gaming achievements - Milestones. The hero begins with the first level of the Milestone and can open those Milestones 9 times that are provided for by the development plan (pumping in this way from the first level to the maximum, 10th).
Examples of Milestones:
“Mission” - the hero completed an important task received from the game subject
“Taste of the battle” - the hero won 3 battles
“Echo of Reflections” - the hero was in a state of Trance
As a starting point, a set of nine different Milestones is proposed, which each hero can open once. Such a development plan will be rather difficult, but very diverse. The master of the game can assemble his own plan, forming a certain style of adventure: to focus on drama, on exploring the world, on military successes and so on. The final version is approved before the start of the game.
The plan can be quite simple and narrowly focused, for example, “Mission (9)”, that is, the hero will receive levels only for completing important story missions and to get the maximum milestone level he just needs to open the “Mission” 9 times in a row - that is, complete 9 different instructions taken from the characters of the game world. Also, the plan can be very diverse and as free as possible when many Milestones are offered at once, each of which can be opened more than once.
Character Cards
Of course, in Monstroy you can create a hero from scratch by reading this chapter. However, I decided to offer beginners not only the “build it yourself” designer, but ready-made unique characters. Each of them belongs to a separate class and has a hint of character. This is important because I would like to emphasize the point that the hero is not a copy of the player. It is difficult to feel such a thing when you are just starting to go into a hobby and they are given the hero’s constructor - the temptation is to collect blanks easier, without any special history, and do the same in the future. This is not a problem in computer games, but at the table it can become.
Thus, a new player can simply print out a card with a character, where all his starting abilities are indicated. Mandatory bonuses for raising levels are provided, but the abilities of the hero and his class can be developed as you like during the game - it depends only on the creativity of the player and the master, on the emerging story situations. The hero knows a lot already from the very beginning, he does not need to wait for some high level, just to begin to enjoy his class.
In other words, there is no magician-illusionist who can only show magic tricks on the first level, always become invisible on the seventh, and is able to create an illusory city on the fifteenth. The local magician, an illusionist, follows the player’s thoughts on his account, having at the start only a general concept and some already prescribed mechanics, such as creating educational illusions, for a certain time with a waste of a certain resource. Strictly speaking, this system does not deny the presence in it of heroes with scheduled enhancements at specific levels (since the levels themselves are present), but they become a special case, and the freedom of development is preserved.
Weapons and combat items also have levels - strength levels or ranks. With these items, the heroes learn various combat abilities - after spending two or three battles with a magic staff, the hero studies the magic contained inside him, so that later he can use it without this item. Abilities from low-ranking items more or less remain relevant even when the hero has abilities from items of a higher rank. In the first versions of the game, a situation was more often observed when some abilities looked more “passing” and became not particularly needed when a more powerful analogue appeared. On the other hand, from the very beginning, the game provides the ability to disassemble irrelevant items. I won’t say that now everything that the character has studied, benefits him constantly, but even a small correction has benefited - more variability,
In addition to the basic characters from the book, there are about 15 cards with additional characters. There you can find representatives of the race of gizmos (intelligent magic items), heroes from the dark dimension, a mushroom man, and even a virus that infuses monsters. Based on them, it is easier to construct your own new heroes.
Improvisation
Yes, of course, the master will need the ability to improvise. The player will have to figure out how to use the hero’s abilities in a particular situation, he will have to invent a new one. But this is the most interesting thing that non-computer role-playing games can give! In addition, other elements of the game constantly provide food for creativity, facilitating this task. I myself, as a master, practice prepared improvisation, and in the book the game is considered from this position, offering the master various tools for implementing what was planned.
You just need to change the vector of your aspirations - you should not sculpt a monolithic dramatic-cinematic epic, so that later you can give it to the group as a non-interactive monologue in the middle of wooden decorations. No, we will not go on rails and drive players by all available means to the only right door. Instead, I propose to make before the game a certain supply of key events and clues that will arise in the game on the way of the players and adapt to the current situation. The output is a sandbox game with noticeable interspersed plot, more or less complete story and good involvement of the participants, despite the greater degree of freedom of the players.
Miniatures
A couple of thoughts regarding gaming supplies. In general, like many, I like highly detailed stylish miniatures in board role-playing games. However, in practice they are not so convenient when it comes to use in the game.
Personally, in tactical roles played at the table, I would like to see some standardized, not very pronounced miniatures. Something universal in the style of cubism-minimalism, especially for opponents / monsters. Usually, the gamers use those miniatures that were at hand, collected from different sources, sets and games.
Such figures for role-playing games are usually released already under a certain setting. A sufficiently high degree of detail allows you to consider the race of the character, his clothes and other details. All this is wonderful, but the settings and classes of heroes in games change very often, not to buy new figures every time for a new style / class, and so on.
Great if you have a line of thumbnails in the same style. But these people have too much fantasy, in a game about a cosmoopera or in a Lovecraftian detective story they will no longer look so advantageous. Although when it stopped someone.
This is all to what figures I would put in a box with my game, if such a box were produced:
For starters, these would be colorful figures of the main characters for the players. If more or less detailed models, then it is possible for each color in male and female versions. Or just make more different colors, each with one abstract model of the "adventurer" type. If a player brings his favorite figure, then to health, but in this way we have a basic option for any occasion.
For opponents - several groups of identical models. Then it will be convenient to make packs of several enemies of the same type. I usually form the majority of military clashes, like “party against a group of skeletons”, “party against goblins and their leader”, “party against a pair of werewolves and a pair of zombies” - as you can see, monsters of the same type are often found here. Therefore, for a group of goblins, I want to use the same figures, and not put up different ones and then forget who I have.
It is very desirable to see some numbering on models from the same group. It can be numbers, dots, stripes, letters, symbols. On the stomach are figures, on the back or on top. It would be very convenient to track the amount of remaining health of the enemy. That is, when the hero poked that figure to the left of him from a group of skeletons, we immediately see that it was some kind of “skeleton number 3” that was received from the cap, and not someone else. Again, it helps the master to keep track of which of the opponents he already resembled and which not yet.
When so many things are on the table - go figure out who is who.
In principle, for convenient display of different groups of enemies cubes are very well suited - they can just be picked up by the same ones and set different numbers up. But if it were a figure with a number, it would be great. So I would make enemies with numbers.
Actually, even very abstract models are best suited for opponents, on which notes are read very well and which, when changing locations and worlds, will not distract us from the current atmosphere with their details. Just make the groups a little different in color, sets of different sizes, mark them - all that is needed for universal battles.
But for various exclusive opponents, you can already exhibit any other figures from all the collectible chaos that you have at hand. Or the Master can take one of the color figures not taken by the players. And, since we are talking about figures that would go in a box with a game, we could make several such specific ones and put one random figure of an exclusive enemy in each box.
I dug up such cute miles on the Internet.
Thus, in the most minimal version for playing tactics, I would like to see several minimalistic multi-colored figures for heroes and several groups of abstract numbered miniatures for opponents.
But, of course, the basic equipment can be more diverse and more detailed. However, I am definitely against practice, when in the house tons of beautiful detailed miniatures are laid out in cardboard boxes and we diligently dig into them, trying to get the closest possible figures to our situation. Then we suffer that they are again not in the same style. Then we buy another zombie, because now we often come across zombies in the game, but there are no suitable figures. And then we put everything on the table and all the same, we get completely entangled in them. There can be many figures, but they should be convenient to navigate, if we want to use them in the game, and not just decorate the shelf with them.
Tesserfact
In principle, the game mechanics of Monstroy can be adapted for computer implementation. Although it is not as simple as it seems. I just always liked Final Fantasy Tactics, I would like something in a similar style, and the Monstroy fight is pretty close in spirit. Be that as it may, computer tactics is just one of the ideas put aside for now. There was only a small flash prototype with one scene and this one here is a video showing the direction of thought.
The tesserfact is a special powerful stone that opens the passage to honey with dimensions, which is mentioned in the book. As planned, the plot would revolve around him.
And this video is later. Collected in Unity one of the hypothetical locations. Here it is more like the FFT style.
Total
“Monsterboy” is not the only role-playing game I wrote, but certainly the healthiest and definitely it contains this basic impulse that led me just to the development of board-role-playing games - the desire to make an accessible game with tactical combat. Other desktop role-playing books that I dealt with are much more narrative. It is understandable, because they are exploring other role niches.
All my role books and related materials can be found on the site .
On this I will finish the story. Have a nice weekend.