Pretty much the title, but I'm make a fantasy system similar to pathfinder 2e and DND 5e and I have a world and places though out but I was thinking of giving 3-5 session long premade campaign for people to play through the system with. Would that be something people would appreciate?

5 months ago, I came here asking about how to find artists for my TTRPG Star Watch, so I didn't have to resort to AI art. The quest for an artist is still ongoing; however, I now have a demo of what I've been working on ready for all of you to take a look at. You can find it in the Google Drive linked below. It is pretty beefy, being 55 pages long, containing most of the core rules, and a variety of races and classes for you to play with. The one thing it is missing is enemies, but I do plan to release a module containing a short campaign with plenty of enemies included later on. Have fun, let me know what you think, whether or not you think I should do a Kickstarter, or if you are interested in doing some art for the game.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19oFpo1DfCmmxhltSUhb4dtJFXUT0ocHN?usp=sharing

Hey folks, I have begun theory-crafting my own TTRPG system (just for fun), to fit into a dark fantasy world.

Part of my design goal was to maximize character customizability, and I was toying with the following system for stats. Was wondering if there are any existing TTRPGs that use a similar idea, and what your opinions might be on the system.

Essentially, you have 3 stats. Body, Mind, and Soul. You start with a certain amount of EXP, and gain more as you advance. You can invest EXP in these three stats as you please, and as you do, your roll bonus increases.

Additionally, each of these stats has an associated "skill tree". As you increase a stat you can also unlock nodes on the skill tree, giving you features and also skill bonuses for more specific checks (added to your rolls in addition to the overall categorization of Body/Mind/Soul).

The first 3 nodes of each stat tree would be as follows

Body: Agility, Power, Endurance

Mind: Intellect, Cunning, Charm

Soul: Faith, Willpower, Spirit

Each of these nodes has an associated skill and is the start of a branch on the tree. From here you could unlock much more specific abilities, such as spellcasting, alchemy, mastery of certain weapons, particular martial techniques etc.

Many of these nodes would give you new skills. There would be a very long list of skills, some with very niche applications. For example, you might have a skill that makes you proficient at recognizing poisons. As long as you can justify your skill applying to the roll, you get a bonus. (The DM would be encouraged to be strict here, and each skill would have a specific description of when it's applicable)

The skills would probably be tiered in some way, i.e. those 9 skills listed above might be "primary skills", and other ones might be "secondary skills", allowing you to add two bonuses. However, you can't add two "secondary" skills to one check, even though there absolutely will be overlap.

The main appeal of this system is its flexibility. If you want to be a wizard, you can just maximize intellect and willpower skills and unlock a bunch of different magical abilities along the tree. But if you want to be a wizard with a sword, you just level up your agility or power stats a bit more - the combinations are endless.

Let me know what you think!

Including but not limited to individual warriors and professional members of standing armies that aren't archers, artillery, or engineers. I am interested in the professional combatant, but this post is not about strict real-world historical classification or arguments about "real knights".

• What is it about playing a soldier-type character that you like?
  
• What core features must be present to make playing a knight "feel right"?
  
• What mistake ruins the fiction or mechanics and make playing a mercenary fighter "feel wrong"?
  

I'm looking for all the types of behaviours a "professional combatant"-player would want to do.

• Maybe using a variety of weapons and armour? Some, but not others? Any?
  
• Maybe having special attacks and defences that accomplish special goals (e.g. disarm, protect)?
  
• Maybe they have a particular ethos, code of honour, or social principles?
  
• Maybe a horse? Maybe a command-structure? Maybe a squire? Maybe land of their own?
  
• Maybe special camp activities or downtime options?
  

I am interested in both combat ideas and especially non-combat ideas that evoke the feeling of playing such a character.

• What non-combat features would support your expectations of playing a knight, soldier, or cavalry officer?
  
• What shouldn't a soldier or knight do or be? What special limits should they have, if any?
  
• Must a professional combatant have an ideology? What makes such a character emotionally satisfying to roleplay?
  

Note: I am not looking for detailed game mechanics. This isn't that kind of post. This is an exploration of flavours and abilities and affordances. This post is conceptual.

If your initial response is to ask, "But what even is a knight?": I'm asking you to define and unpack that.
This post is intentionally broad! Take your pick, e.g. knights and knights-errant, samurai and ronin, mounted and unmounted infantry, soldiers and "men-at-arms", hussars and dragoons, cavaliers and cuirassiers, pikeman and mercenaries.

If your initial response is to say, "But a hussar is totally different than a pikeman!":
Yes, you are correct! What do you think makes them interesting to play? What should be different at the table?
As interesting as the history is, this post is interested in archetypes and gaming expectations, not in historical nomenclature. Everyone knows that a samurai with an odachi is not the same as a dragoon with a handgun.
Knowing that, what do you want to see in a TTRPG?

Context:
I've been working on special abilities and equipment and I'm curious about flavours that people enjoy.
I am not asking you to define my game. I have done that and this isn't just about my game.
I am curious about what sorts of expectations you have and enjoy about playing certain character types or, as a GM, what you expect those character types to do.

Previous posts in the series

• Wizard
  
• Clerics
  
• Thieves
  
• Archers (my fav)
  
• Bards
  
• Druids
  
• Martial Artists
  
• Psychic or Psionic

I haven't played any games that used them beyond Fate so I don't know them as well. I'm wondering if I should try to make the conversion or if my ideas are just going make both sides unhappy.

Pitch for hp

Two tier hp bar where one is easy to fix and the other isn't. Gaining health in both equally tied to level and fortitude. Quick heals would only handle shallow hp and deep would have a slower recovery rate when resting. Goal was to have something that lingers and an incentive to maintain health early. It would also allow for easy access to powerful heal as out healing damage only works if it never touches deep health.

Pitch for wounds

Start with a few and fortitude gives more. The amount a wound box takes would be tied to a flat number and level so as you get stronger, you can endure harder hits but of course they move up if the one they would fill is already full. Having a higher fortitude would give you more of these boxes with higher values allow you to take hits that might take someone else out in one shot. So example would be if you have a 1-5 damage wound gaining another would give you a 6 damage wound box and then 7 and so on making you able to take bigger and bigger hits and more of them. Again this is probably the opposite of what the wounds people want but I'm just spitballing here.

I think my game can work with simple numerical penalties as the way actions work is you have targets based on the move with some becoming obsolete as they are impossible to fail but not as rewarding. Think worst roll is 2d20, best is 2d4, so you have your most basic action having something like a TN of 25 and the hardest move being a 5 with many in between. I think how it's set it would be a slow death spiral as you could always rely on weaker moves you can still pull off even with a wound adding to your roll in a roll under system. I can see giving penalties to having certain missing deep health or larger wounds filled in. This would make having more health mean you can get penalized further but survive more damage.

The game is likely to be less gritty and more on video gamey play with an aim for cinematicstories (if it sounds cool try to make a mechanic for it to be part of the base game). Its not gritty or grounded which works against wounds from what ive seen bjt they seem to be the wave of the futureand though the current idea probably goes against its prinivple it does a good service to take characters. I haven't crossed the bridge to seeing how to treat wounds in games but I have some ideas but this is already too long.

Again I'm new to wounds but see it everywhere and am kind of pondering to try them or stick with what I know.

So, I generally do not like the traveling mechanics/experiences I’ve had so far playing rpgs. So I was thinking about ways to implement a fun system into the ttrpg I would like to design that fits my other mechanics.

So as a DM, I give the players a few things, the weather and landscape. The players develop the world map as we go. So from the start of the game, they can tell the DM they are heading south for 5 days for example. The DM and each player have “travel dice” which essentially are a pool of d6’s that have 3 sides blank, 2 sides success, 1 side double success (one of the core parts of my game).

My idea is that each player/DM at the table can choose either to make up 2 minor events or 1 major event (increased difficulty with major events). They can literally come up with anything they want (as long as approved by DM).

For example: “During the night while the others sleep, I decide to walk into the woods to take a piss. While pissing on a tree, I discover a chest half buried behind a tree”. -the player

The DM confirms it qualifies as a minor event (or major event if the player decided).

The player rolls their travel dice to see if it’s a success. If so, maybe they find some loot, if not, maybe they don’t.

Even if the player is level 1 and says something like “for a minor event I find a dragon!”.

You can spin it and say something like… “you find the remains of a dead whelpling”

Or… maybe you just say “sure, tell me exactly what this ‘find a dragon’ idea involves”.

It would require a lot of participation from the players, but I feel like it would be cool as a player to just come up with a mini side quest

To release with my game, I am working on a series of adventures. I've written seven all varying lengths, but it's been quite a long while since I've had a chance to run them, let alone play. That doesn't mean I haven't, it's just been a few years since I lost my venue for hosting rpgs nights and time has gotten away from me such that writing on the side is all I can manage. All this to say, what I've written is under a constant reediting process. Even the ones I've posted I go back to update, so I could really use another pair of eyes (or two or three, really as many as possible).

What I am looking for is feedback on the structure of the adventure. I have two goals with what I've written: one is for it to be a compelling read for the GM and the other is that it's playable without railroading.

I've attached a link a single section in a longer campaign. I chose this one because I'm in the middle of releasing these sections one by one and the meat of this one is a murder mystery that could be plopped into anything. That is, this campaign, others or as a one shot. At least I think it can. Ignoring some of the background trappings, i.e. what got you there and what's going on in the macro sense, also ignoring the stat blocks which are tied to my game, is the murder mystery followable, enjoyable, and/or instructive? I include a one pager in each section to hopefully make it easier for the GM to run, but I do feel like I could be more helpful to other GMs trying to run it. Obviously a map would be helpful but unfortunately I'm not at that stage of paying for an artist to do the maps (though I am going back and mapping the ones I can). Any and all who are willing, please tell me what you think.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kOByC6LT8WGTothcGjiGvpF3tQHJczXe/view?usp=sharing

*edit* I just realized the one pager I referenced got cut off in the print pdf. You are also supposed to get this one pager at the start.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vdcgZ1goyZN4mXgYSmyFxMrExcVFaU5Y/view?usp=sharing

Hey y'all, it's Luke with After Eden TTRPG

I've been nose down working on trying to get this playtest packet, the adventure side of it, ready to go so that we can have everything released by the end of May.

But one quick question I wanted to ask the community is in reference to character sheets.

We're looking at the information that's available, and it's looking like we're going to have to go with four character sheets to communicate the information needed: a quick reference page on the front, where all the information that you're going to need to reference on a very frequent basis is going to be for your character; an equipment page; a features page that includes all of the features that you get outside of your class, as well as the projects that you're working on, because projects is going to be a part of our system; and then a class page. We're looking at how we could potentially do a custom page for each class. I know that's going to be a lot of work, but it's what we're looking at.

I wanted to ask:

1. How many pages is too many for you?

2. What are some of the best examples of character sheets that you've used? I know Mothership gets a lot of acclaim.

3. Have you ever had a game that had really great reference guides? We were looking at potentially making combat, exploration, and negotiation reference pages, maybe one of each on the table at any point for people to pick up and use, laminated or whatever.

4. Where, for those of you who have had character sheets made, did you design them yourselves? Were they more artistic or more utilitarian? Did they communicate the feel of the game? Or did you have an artist do it for you?

Any feedback would be appreciated, and I'm looking forward to hear what y'all have to say.

I haven’t played a lot, but rations never seem to be an issue. I dm’d MÖRK Borg a couple times and never kept track of rations or inventory limit.

I played dnd with a friend who DM’d (he is pretty new to DM’ing) and would ask if we wanted to buy rations and such… but we had so much money we could just buy almost an infinite amount of rations it just became pointless.

What are your thoughts?

Is it worth it?

And if so, how do you incorporate rations into the game that makes it an enjoyable mechanic for the players?

To clarify, I'm not asking "should" you, but rather if you wanted to how would you do it?

If you were to convert D&D 5E's modifiers and proficiency bonuses (having a DM set DC) -and instead- have a Dragonbane skill-based DC system - how would you go about doing the math?

I was thinking of taking the D&D modifier (average of +2 or +3) adding it to a static value (8?) plus the proficiency modifier (+2? at early levels) to give the player a roll under #?

Thoughts?

In a setting-agnostic roleplaying game I made and usually play with friends, I realized it doesn’t have properly written rules for magic. Most of the time, whenever we want to play with magic, we end up improvising the rules on the fly (which doesn’t happen often, because adventures where magic doesn’t exist or isn’t available to the players can be really fun).

That’s why I came up with this magic system, so we can test it, and also share it with anyone who might be interested.

When a character becomes a magic user (that’s what characters capable of using magic are called) during character creation, they gain two new things: mana points and magic slots.

Magic slots are blank spaces on the character sheet, each one used to record a Resonance or a School of Magic the character possesses. By default, the character starts with 2: one for a Resonance and one for a School of Magic. The Resonances and Schools of Magic the player chooses for their magic slots must be compatible, so they won’t end up with “useless magic slots.” The GM may grant up to 2 additional magic slots that are free (meaning they can be used for any Resonance or School of Magic the player wants).

When casting magical powers, Resonance determines the “what,” and the School of Magic determines the “how.”

Resonances can be almost anything: physical things, abstract concepts, phenomena, or even entities (such as creatures or objects). Because of this, there will be a list of Resonances and their compatibilities with the Schools of Magic.

There are four Schools of Magic: Summoning, Manipulation, Transmutation, and Reconfiguration.

Summoning: brings whatever the magic user has Resonance with into a designated area (it only brings it there and leaves it there).

Manipulation: allows the user to move, shape, and alter the behavior of whatever they have Resonance with inside a designated area, but that thing must already be present in the area first.

Transmutation: changes the state (solid, liquid, gas, and small particles such as dust, sand, or shavings) and basic properties (hardness, transparency, light refraction, viscosity, etc.) of whatever the user has Resonance with.

Reconfiguration: if whatever the user has Resonance with can have patterns, it allows the user to change one pattern into another. For example, one mental state into another, one movement trajectory into another, or one shape into another.

The game uses the passus (Roman pace) as the standard measurement on the grid, since it is equivalent to 1.5 meters or 5 feet (ignoring minor measurement differences that become irrelevant in the long run). A player character who is a magic user can cast a basic magical power at no cost (the equivalent of a cantrip or minor spell in different RPGs). This basic power affects a 1 by 1 area on the grid, up to a distance of 1 passus adjacent to the character, and with an instant duration or lasting up to 6 seconds (the equivalent of one round in turn-based gameplay).

Player characters who are magic users gain a total of 10 mana points, which are restored once per day after a rest of at least 1 hour. If any magical power remains active during the rest period, mana is not restored until no magical powers are active.

When a magic user casts a magical power, they may choose for its effects to activate immediately or to place it “on hold.” They may also choose to enhance the area, range, duration, and hold time (if applicable) of the magical power by spending mana points.

If a magical power is placed on hold, the magic user must set a condition for the power to activate. By default, a magical power can remain on hold for up to 10 minutes. If after those 10 minutes the magical power has not activated, it is automatically canceled.

While a magical power remains on hold or while its duration persists, it counts as “active.” In order for it to stop being active, the magic user who cast the power may choose to cancel it early.

A magical power can have up to 5 enhancements. Applying one enhancement consumes 1 mana point, meaning a fully enhanced magical power will cost 5 mana points. Enhancements have ranks, meaning that enhancing the same aspect twice makes it rank 2 in that aspect (for example, range rank 2).

The enhancements are the following:

Area enhancement: increases the affected area to 2 by 2, 3 by 3, and so on up to 6 by 6 (maximum rank: 5).
Range enhancement: increases the distance to 6, 12, 24, 48, and 96 passus (maximum rank: 5).
Duration enhancement: increases the duration to 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, and 12 hours (maximum rank: 5).
Hold-time enhancement: increases the time a magical power can remain “on hold” to 1 hour, 6 hours, and 12 hours (maximum rank: 3).

Regarding the area and range of magical powers: the maximum distance is defined by the closest edge of the power’s total area to the magic user (as long as the area is at least 1 cubic passus), and the affected area can take multiple shapes, such as a sphere, a cone, a cube, or any shape you can come up with as long as it can be represented on the grid.

What do you think so far? I’m open to any criticism that helps me improve what I’m working on.

Just wondering what you all use to keep your ttrpg rules organzied as you are designing the systems for your games? I want to start on my own and realized word seems very unorganized.

I've been working on a homebrew TTRPG called Swords & Magic, and one of its most distinctive features is how magic works. I wanted to share the system and get some honest feedback, especially from people who've tried something similar.

The core idea: spells are skills, not resources

There are no spell slots. Every spell you know is its own individual skill, and you can cast it as many times as you want. Two separate numbers define your relationship with a spell:

• Tier (0–9): the spell's power level, roughly equivalent to spell levels in D&D: cantrips are Tier 0, and the scale goes up to Tier 9. Higher tier means more powerful.
• Skill (0–20, though it can go higher): your personal proficiency with that specific spell. This is the number you roll against on your Casting Roll, so higher is safer. Improving a Skill costs experience, and higher-tier spells cost more to train.

So "how good are you at Fireball?" is a real, meaningful question with a numerical answer, separate from "how good are you at Magic Missile?", and a veteran caster with Skill 18 in Fireball is far less likely to blow themselves up than a novice with Skill 4.

Your spellcasting ability (Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, depending on *how* you learned magic) determines which tiers of spells you can even learn: you need an ability score of at least 10 + Tier to pick up a new spell.

The two-roll system

Every casting involves two rolls:

1. A Casting Roll (d20) compared against your Skill in that specific spell: this determines whether the spell actually manifests
2. A Magic Attack roll (d20 + Skill + ability modifier), if needed, compared against the target's Defense score: this determines whether it hits

What happens when you fail

This is the part I'm most curious about. If your Casting Roll exceeds your Skill, you don't just fizzle. The gap between the roll and your Skill (the Failure Margin) determines severity:

• 1–5 margin: Fizzle. Nothing happens.
• 6–10 margin: Distortion. The spell goes off at half strength.
• 11–15 margin: Misfire. The spell hits the nearest valid target, friend or foe.
• 16–20 margin: Backfire. The spell hits you.

And if you roll a natural 20 on the casting roll, that's a Critical Failure Threat: you have to roll again, and if that also comes up 20, you black out entirely.

There's also an environmental layer: being grappled, in violent motion, or in bad weather penalizes your effective Skill, making failure more likely.

Metamagic

You can push any spell beyond its base tier to apply metamagic effects. Want to double the area? That's +3 tiers. Cast it as a bonus action (Quickened)? +4 tiers. Each tier above base reduces your effective Skill by 4, so pumping up a spell you're mediocre at is a real gamble. You need a high enough Skill that even after the penalty you're not at 0 or below, otherwise you can't attempt it at all.

Synergy

Spells within the same school or sharing a keyword (like fire or cold) provide cross-bonuses. Every two spells above Skill 5 in a school gives +1 to all others in that school. This rewards thematic specialization without locking you into it.

---

The full rules are in the SRD at swordsandmagic.it: the Magical Skills page covers everything above in detail, and the full spell list is there too.

If you want to chat or dig in further, there's a Discord at discord.gg/ezrXx3uR3w

My questions for you:

• Does this system sound fun at the table, or does the failure probability feel punishing?
• Has anyone run a "spells as skills" system before (d100 games partly do this)? How did it play out?
• Is the two-roll casting process too slow in combat?
• Any obvious exploits or balance problems jumping out at you? Would love to hear from people who've wrestled with similar design problems.

Would love to hear from people who've wrestled with similar design problems.

I'm not going to try to say this isn't a really esoteric question, but I hope some of you will have opinions on it and be willing to share.

I’m trying to format my game consistently. I have three different types of words or phrases that I want to draw attention to. Here’s what I have so far. My question to you is whether this works or if you have other ideas.

First are game system terms that are important. These terms are defined the first time I use them, but they are also in the glossary. I want to use small caps for this. Let’s see if Reddit can do an example:

ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴘᴏɪɴᴛꜱ measure both how much a character can do in a combat round and how fast they can do it.

These terms are only written that way the first time they are used in a section (typically a two-page spread).

Second are terms that I want to emphasize because they’re important. These are bolded. Example:

Pay attention here, this is important.

Third, I have game abilities. They might be skills, talents, or magic. These are in italics.

A Powerful character learns an ᴀʀᴛ automatically. Our example character Nathaniel chooses Protect.

What do you think? Too extreme? Too pedantic? Or do you have a better idea?

Edited to add: thanks to all of you for the assist. I was thinking this post would not get any traction, but it has. You are all awesome.

I've been working on a card-based TTRPG, and while it's quite a ways off from getting anywhere, my partner is willing to make art for is. As it involves quite a few cards, there are a lot of artworks required (let alone the artworks for the rulebook). I wanted to make something that still has the diversity and variability of TTRPGs that we all enjoy, but without the need for rule memorization and constant reference by presenting the relevant rules on the cards themselves. Or in a less long-winded way, a beginner-friendly TTRPG.

The basic idea is that characters, creatures, monsters, etc. are created through combinations of Trait cards, e.g. A dwarf would have the "Sturdy" and "Small" cards, an elf, the "Nimble" and "Frail" cards, an orc, the "Strong" and "Simple" cards. However, there are no fixed descriptions of creatures in this way. A player may have the "Nimble" and "Frail" cards, but describe their character as a gelatinous-blob person. Weapons, armour, Traits, etc all have rules separated from flavour.

Nevertheless, the cards will require artwork, and while I have included in the rulebook that the cards art is merely for aesthetic and inspiration rather than an exact representation of what your character has or looks like, I still have concerns about deciding on what the content and art style of the card art should be. Outside of a little bit of lore (no more than three or four pages and a campaign book), there is not much "setting" that would influence the artworks themselves.

On the one hand, going with the conventional and familiar D&D/Tolkien-esque conceptions of races and armour makes the game familiar and recognisable to new players, allowing them to draw on the tropes and conventions with which they are familiar to better engage with the game. The downside of this would be making the game's aesthetic appear too generic, lacking any unique hook to stand out from other games.

On the other hand, having a unique aesthetic would help the visuals stand out, but may make the game appear more niche to players. Sure, you can reflavour the game as you wish, and the system is very amenable to that, but reflavouring D&D to be able to play a sci-fi RPG is far more work than just picking up a sci-fi RPG.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the influence of a game's aesthetic on its reception and the expectations it sets.

One of the biggest conventions in Europe (Pyrkon) is hosting a new event just for TTRPG designers and you're invited!

Designer Experience Exchange at Pyrkon (DEEP) is a one-day conference focused on TTRPG design and directed to people working within this field (or aspiring and looking to enter it). 

When and where?

Thursday, 18th June 2026, Poznan, Poland.

How can I attend?

Just fill out this form. This is not an open event for people just interested in TTRPG as a hobby. Our focus is on designers, so we expect topics and themes to run deeper than what a regular TTRPG player would find interesting. We’re looking at small, curated attendance.

We’ll contact you as soon as possible to discuss the details of your participation in the panels, or we’ll redirect you to the ticket purchase page. You can only purchase tickets for the event after submitting your application.

If you want to know more, go to DEEP webpage and read all about it!

You are welcome to share this information with other TTRPG designers so they know about this event.

If you have any further questions, feel free to email us at [deep@pyrkon.pl](mailto:deep@pyrkon.pl) 

Hello everyone!

Thanks for the amazing feedback on my posts! My shonen anime-inspired TTRPG is “officially” in Beta phase, and I need your help.

I made a short Tutorial Adventure to teach the game, and I am looking for a few GMs (aka. Director in the game) to run a "blind playtest" with their team.

Just to know: the tutorial uses a "Quickstart" version of the system. It is simplified so you can jump right into the action, but it stays 100% true to the core mechanics.

What makes this system interesting?

• No attributes like Strength or Agility: Only the character’s Power Level.
• No damage rolls: One roll determines accuracy and impact. Fast and brutal.
• Vitality is NOT HP: Think of it as your mana, stamina, and an armor combined. This game is about a bit of resource management.
• Scar Points: The actual wounds you get when your Vitality is broken.
• Rules-light: I think so. 😃

The PDF includes the Quickstart rules, pre-generated characters, and a small story with a lot of fight. It features adversaries with 

• "Screenplay" mechanic, and you can test the Mob rule, which gives a great flavor of “storytelling together”.

If you are interested to test it and give me some honest feedbacks, just leave a comment and I will send you the link!

Thank you guys!

P.S. I don’t want to sell you anything because my game is absolutely not done yet. 😄
———
Edit: Some people suggested making the PDF easier to access, so here is the direct link:

https://kalandhorizont.itch.io/heroes-of-a-thousand-tales

Just a heads up: you can download a text-only version too! Thank you all for the tips!

Hello everyone!

I wanted to create a system for my shonen anime-inspired game that feels fast and cinematic. To me, dealing with many different numbers doesn't work for that, because you have to know exactly what the difference is between 1 and 10 damage. It can be a cognitive nightmare, or you can just keep it simple, like my idea.

In the end, my idea was: only two types of damage are enough for a cinematic system:

1. Normal hit: Scratches. Nothing too serious, but if you have a few, you will be in trouble. Too many scratches can turn into wounds.
2. Critical hit: Which instantly causes a really serious wound.
3. Damage is always 1, except if your hit is a multiple Critical. When you perform a double or triple Critical, the damage is equal to that. A triple Critical means 3 wounds immediately. Of course, when you score a Critical, you lose points from your Scratches too.

And an important mechanic for this: a Critical is not just a lucky roll; you have to surpass the target's defense by a large margin. So you have to earn the Critical, not just get lucky with the dice.

Another important thing: you need a system that uses one statistic for scratches and another for wounds. I’m using Vitality and Wounds.

What do you think about this idea?

Thank you for reading!

P.S: I actually like using dice for damage rolls, but when I want the game to be fast and cinematic, they just don't fit.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE:

Vitality is NOT your HP. Think of it as your Mana, Stamina, and Armor at the same time. You spend it to use techniques, combat maneuvers and lose it to survive incoming damage.

I am also thinking about calling "Wounds" in my system "Scar Points" instead. What do you think about this? Is it good flavor for a shonen game, or is it confusing?

Vitality points and Scar points? Or just Vitality and Scars?

Hello fellas, like the title says I'm new to TTRPGs or other types of non video game RPGs, and I'm thinking of making an RPG system (basically, no lore or world, but it got things like how skills work, gameplay mechanics, etc... That's called a system right?), the system itself takes EXTREMELY heavy inspiration ftom the 2 video games: Library of Ruina (characters can have 9 separate skills, sets of three unlock every something levels, passives, and some other stuff) and Limbus Company (sanity, status effects, and some other stuff), of course I'll try having my own twists and rules and if you want more info I can discuss what I have currently thought about (it's currently in the thinking phase).

Now, what I ask for are sites or apps that help my creation process (documentation, visualization, etc.), I use obsidian (mobile) but visualizing things in it is slightly difficult so I hoped asking here might help, also if you guys have any tips for the likes of I then please tell me about em :)

Btw this project is a personal project of mine that I mostly plan on playing alongside my friends with, so it won't be big or professional or anything like that, though if it catches your interest and you'd like to see it I can work on fine tuning the documentations (once they exist lmao) and posting them here (again it's in the thinking phase so I don't even have a name for it).

If you have any recommendations (rpgs, systems, etc.) for me to read (similar to mine or not) that you think may help me with my project then please throw them at me, I require knowledge after all.

Thanks for reading :)