Questing for Tabletop Adventure Games
Shipwright Thinking about CosmicOrrery's post about diceless violence and the reference to this post about combat maneuvers. Skorne's no to-hit rolls or even damage rolls is something I didn't realize all the implications or applications of when I wrote it. Such is design released to a larger world, I suppose... This is really leading to … Continue reading Damage to dilemma, the diceless way
Let's get to it: My name's Thomas and I will soon be running Skorne on Roll20 as theater of the mind. Very soon in fact: in three days! While I am excited to run combat without dice rolls, I am wondering how combat maneuvers will work and I am hoping that you can give me … Continue reading Ask the Dragonslayer #3: Diceless Maneuvers in Skorne
Artwork from my young cousin. A style unseen here on the blog! 🙂 Part of watching the contrasted reception of Adventure Hour! and Skorne was learning this lesson: more specific pitches resonate with more people, despite having a smaller scope. Use structured campaigns with a beginning, middle, and end. Have something short and sweet that … Continue reading Delivery Knights Meditation
The cover Skorne is now in-print from Amazon with an all-black matte cover. This project has been quite satisfying for me to revisit. I'm glad for all the buzz and support around this from reviews to discussion to game recommendations I see popping up every once in a while. Cheers!
Digitally warped art from my brother, to whom Adventure Hour! is dedicated. In response to the news about Dark Souls 5e and the subsequent jams (there's two?!), Skorne is getting a full layout. I'm re-upping the design (AKA letting it breathe) and adding more advice and tables. I'll be adding content from recent articles written, … Continue reading Becoming souls-like (plus sample monsters)
Been a while since we've had a Shipwright piece around here... This is a sequel to the Diceless Violence post. Main takeaways: Dice can cheapen victories and deliver cheaper losses.Diceless combat (no to-hit rolls, no damage rolls) moves the game away from elements of luck to strategy and critical thinking.In order to make combat a … Continue reading Decisive Combat
This stink bug wizard makes me happy. 🙂 "Roll an Athletics check to jump the pit." "Make a grapple roll." *Reaches for the rulebook.* "We'll just roll dice back and forth until we know which army won." We've talked diceless resolution. Let's do it again. Quick summary: give the world/obstacle/enemy the Upper Hand. If the … Continue reading Diceless examples
Lest we forget, fiction is diceless. Books, movies, radio dramas. They tell stories of problems that have the Upper Hand (which we talked about last time). The protagonists must then find solutions that give them the Upper Hand: The rebels are a rag-tag bunch of fighters with rusty X-wings against the armada of the Empire, … Continue reading Diceless Warfare
Fear no evil. We did diceless violence before, but the process for making diceless resolution, diceless violence, and diceless warfare is all the same: give the "bad guys" (orcs, evil nobles, the mountain, the world in general) the Upper Hand. The players must find a solution to change the current outcome. Each solution they attempt … Continue reading Diceless Resolution and the Upper Hand
Bring a boulder to a fistfight. Shipwright. I saw hints of this in the Maze Rats campaign I ran, but this is typical of many, nearly all fantasy role-playing games. In that game, the players were often against overwhelming forces, but would continue to run into the fight and make Attack Rolls, with or without … Continue reading Diceless Violence
DREAMING DRAGONSLAYER 