Decision Paralysis

Hey guys! Dev diary #9 wasn't very juicy, so here's an extra one for today! In this dev diary, I want to go through the various means of character progression I am going to implement in SMA. Progression I'm planning for progression in SMA to follow a pretty free-form system, predictably inspired by the widespread point-buy progression systems in JRPGs. My current plan is for characters to gain a couple different types of points as they level up which can be spent on a different things to improve their strength: Improving Attributes Gaining new Skills Improving existing Skills Gaining new Abilities Gaining new Feats Improving Attributes Just like so many other RPGs, you'll be able to impove some attributes of your atttributes as you progress through levels. This will just be a simple system, something like "whenver you reach a level that is a multiple of 5, gain an attribute point". Pretty standard stuff all in all. Gaining New Skills & ...

Hey all. In today's SMA dev diary, I wanted to go over the actual mechanical bonuses a character will get from their attributes. I did debate for a little while whether to use only modifiers in SMA or to use a modifier/score system like D&D, but I settled on using a modifier system pretty quickly. The arguments for and against using both don't really seem all that interesting, so I won't waste time going over them in detail here. Also the last dev diary was one of those sorta comparison-y posts, didn't wanna do the same thing twice in a row. To give a quick summary, I just don't think having attrbute scores adds enough to justify their existence, and a lot of the stuff they are used for could easily be handled by just a modifier when the system is built around that. My current plans for player characters are to have modifiers that range -4 to +4 at character creation, before counting any boosts a character might have from their species. Players will be able ...

Hey all! In this  Saturday Morning Adventure  dev diary, I talk about saving throws and their inclusion (or exclusion as the case may be) in SMA. I've spent enough time browsing D&D subreddits to have seen the idea of removing saving throws brought up a couple times. I do think there's a legitimate argument against saving throws to be made, so I wanted to go through some of the major points for and against them quickly. Though before that, I should probably explain what the main alternative is. The most common proposal I've seen for replacing saving throws is a set of defence scores, like Armor Class. This is sort of what the  Unearthed Arcana: Variant Rules  system of "players make all rolls" uses, though they don't specifically refer to defensive scores. So what are the benefits of each system? Point to Defence Scores: A Defence for Every Attribute is Too Much Having a separate defence for every attribute in the game usually ends up with some ver...

In today's  Saturday Morning Adventure  dev diary, I wanted to go into my plans for designing the action economy in SMA. It seems to me that the majority of RPGs these days use what I'm gonna call a "fixed slots" system when it comes to their action economy. Every round, each character has the same fixed slots that they can use to perform certain actions. For example, in D&D you have exactly one Action, one Bonus Action, and one Reaction to spend every round. This system works pretty well for obvious reasons: it's simple, easy to balance, everyone gets the same opportunities to act during the round. And while I do think I'm probably going to implement this sort of system in SMA, I first want to at least consider an alternative: action points. Action Points In an action point based system, each character would get a number of action points or AP at the start of each round. This number would be determined by their attributes, and could be a fixed numbe...

In today's Saturday Morning Adventure dev diary, I discuss my plans for the magic system in SMA. In the video games that inspired this entire project, magic tends to work quite differently to D&D. Sure magic can be used in combat, using set spells to create certain effects. But outside of combat there is usually no need for ruleset to govern the magic, so it tends to be narratively hand-waved. Characters seem to just create various effects on the fly using their own prowess and knowledge without necessarily following a set formula. This vibe of having magic more like a skill than bunch of set effects someone can create is really something I want to come through in SMA. The mechanical inspiration for my proposed system comes from listening to The Adventure Zone , an actual-play podcast that's just fantastic. In one season of TAZ, they used the RPG system " Monster of the Week ". In Monster of the Week, magic users have access to two options: the "Use Magi...

Hey all, in this  Saturday Morning Adventure  development diary I'm going to go into what my plans for the skill system in SMA. It should be no great surprise to regular readers of this series that I am once again citing The Angry GM, this time particularly the articles " I Hate Ability Scores (In D&D 5E) " and " Being In-Flex-Able ". The core ability check system that is widely used in many modern RPGs can go really underappreciated. I would wholly recommend the Angry GM articles I mentioned earlier for anyone that wants to learn a little more about what RPGs were like before the ability check was broadly adopted. But to summarise, the ability check system - in which a player describes their action, then the GM decides which attribute it falls under and if any skills apply - is a very solid and versatile foundation when done right. However, Angry also points out one of the issues with the skills system, in that often players can see their skill li...

Hey all, in this Saturday Morning Adventure dev diary I wanted to talk about something a bit less direct than just the mechanical systems of an RPG, but more a particular design philosophy behind RPGs, that being design symmetry. So what is it? I'm glad you asked, imagined reader. Design symmetry means when the design of a game applies in the same way to two different things somehow. Here in particular I'm talking about symmetry between how player characters and non-player characters are mechanically treated in the rules. In a symmetric system, a player should be able to point to an NPC and say "I want my character to do that", and it should be possible within the rules. Whether the GM lets them is another story. For example, in D&D 5e the NPC mechanics are somewhat symmetrical. NPCs can make attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws in exactly the same ways as PCs. The ways in which they interact with the game world are symmetrical. However, their ...

Hey all, in this Saturday Morning Adventure development diary I discuss the use of character attributes in RPGs, and attempt to decide on a set of attributes for characters in SMA. First of all, I should probably clarify what I mean when I say "attribute" here. It's a fairly common and intuitive term in RPGs but for the sake of avoiding any ambiguity let's give it a solid definition regardless. I'm using the same definition put forward in the Fudge RPG system - an attribute is some trait that is shared by all the actors within the game world. So in D&D your "attributes" are your ability scores, for example. Objective Attributes vs Narrative Attributes Before getting into my plans for SMA, I wanted to briefly mention the main two "styles" of character attrbutes in RPGs. Most mainstream RPGs use some form of what I'm calling "objective" attributes. Objective attributes describe something solid and measurable about a charac...

Hey lads, I'm here with a very  minor update today. As was helpfully pointed out to me on twitter , there was an error in the Warlock of Firetop Mountain adventure for D&D 5e I released back in 2018. Basically, after a certain point the rooms were numbered wrong. A pretty small issue, but also easy to fix so why not. The document was initially released using Homebrewery, but I've since switched over to GM Binder and don't know where the original document is. Luckily, I ported the document over to GM Binder a while ago so I've just updated that file. My apologies to any hardcore Homebrewery fans. The Fixed Document on GM Binder Looking back on this adventure now has really been a trip down memory lane. I'm honestly surprised by how much work I put into my first major project looking back on it, and how well it turned out. But with the benefit of hindsight I can definitely see some of the flaws of the adventure - the main one being just how many combat enc...

In this weeks deep dive into the minutia of tabletop RPG design, I will be discussing various methods for determining turn order, or "initiative" as it is more commonly referred to within RPGs, and talking about my plans for initiative design in  Saturday Morning Adventure . The method used for determining the order turns are taken during combat in an RPG is an integral component of combat design, and implementing different methods can serve as a useful way to incentivise certain behaviours of the players. I thought I would start of by classifying what I think of as the three major "families" of initative determination. Fixed Rounds This is the name I'm using for the initaitve rules in D&D 5e. I call it "fixed" in the sense that once it is determined there isn't any changing it. Roll at the start of combat, follow the order from there onwards, unless some special abilty says otherwise. Easy to use, light, few dice rolls. This form of init...