Sam Seer's Blog

Next time you're running a combat encounter, try telling your Players this: A creative stunt will always do more damage than your weapon. A stunt is anything: cutting a chandelier, collapsing the roof, pushing off a ledge, choking with a grappling hook, etc. It just has to be creative. As for "more damage", it doesn't have to be game-breaking. Just increase their weapon die a step (d8 -> d10) or, if it's a wound-based system, increase damage by 1 wound. The important thing is that Players know they will be quantitatively rewarded for their creativity.  Are those doubts I hear? Now, I hear what you're saying: why would a chandelier do more damage than a tool literally made for bloodletting? Where's the goddamn verisimilitude ? And to that I say: I don't give a fuck! It's more fun this way! This is a way purer expression of the tabletop RPG medium because it capitalizes on tactical infinity. Plus, it reminds me of another unrealistic rule that...

As a design exercise, I've been messing around with a tabletop RPG of Skyrim. It's been really productive to get away from my preferences (d20, a few good rules, story-focused) into stranger design territory (d100, no attributes, many skills).  Along the way, I got thinking about a rule for Armor— Armor Pool You have a pool of HP and a pool of Armor. When you take damage, you lose Armor.  If your Armor is 0, you lose HP. Some damage— like critical hits, fire, and magic— bypass your Armor and you lose HP directly. During a rest, you can recover HP. But your Armor can only be repaired in a settlement. I like this because it's piecemeal, degrades, and dead simple to track. It also gives Players another reason to leave the dungeon (or wilderness) and visit town. That's it. It's a new idea to me, but I'm sure systems already use it. Let me know below.

As promised, we’re exploring Stamina as a dynamic alternative to HP. Stamina Instead of HP, you have Stamina. When you take damage, you can choose to spend any amount of Stamina to negate an equal amount of damage. Any remaining damage is subtracted from your CON score*. If your CON is 0, you die.  Burning Stamina In addition to negating damage, you can also burn stamina to: Do Something Extra. Carry extra weight, take a bonus action, perform a stunt. Gain Advantage. Before you make a roll, you can burn Stamina to add an equal amount to the die roll. Mitigate Failure. When you fail a roll— but before any damage is rolled— you can burn Stamina to add an equal amount to the failed die roll. If you succeed, there is a cost. Recovering Stamina & Constitution Stamina is your energy level and restores quickly: Short Rest: +d6 Stamina Eat Ration : +d6 Stamina Constitution (CON) is your physical health and restores slowly: Long Rest: +d6 CON / day Magic: As specified (Cure Wounds, et...

I’ve been thinking a lot about this post about stamina . You should read his entire post, but in short: stamina is a substitute for HP. You burn stamina to take actions— not just soak damage. I love the idea of HP as a resource pool that Players can choose to spend. After all, if HP is defined as “the ability to avoid injury”, then there’s an implicit choice every time a Player loses HP— they have chosen to spend their HP and avoid injury. What if we made this choice explicit? Revised HP (Stamina) A Player can choose to spend 1 stamina to do one of the following: Let’s see this in action with some examples of play: Examples of Play 1. Avoid Injury GM: The wild boar charges at you. Make a DEX save! PC: (Rolls DEX) Damn, I fail. GM: The boar has you down on the ground. It’s going to gore you with its tusks— roll on the Injury table. PC: Wait! I’m going to exert myself and roll into the undergrowth. GM: OK, you spend 1 stamina and avoid the Injury roll. 2. Do Something Extra GM: The sun ...

Some big changes to  Sellsword , a one-page OSR ruleset, recently and none of them necessitated by a playtest (though I’m eager to get it to table). In brief... 1. Overhauled the layout.  Old Butterick said Minion is a bad font choice because it’s an automatic font choice. As Calibri is to Word, Minion to Adobe. Except Adobe users are supposed to have their aesthetics about them, so it’s a graver sin. So, inspired by the 24XX games I went for a condensed sans serif, similar to Futura, but a little rounder. It’s Proxima Nova, and I’m sure Butterick would have his qualms.  I also replaced the Souvenir headings (another automatic font, pulled straight from classic D&D) with something more Western-tinged. But hopefully not too Western tinged. It’s a delicate, challenging, and fun balance between maximum readability and theme/flavor. At times like this, I’m jealous of Mothership. A game that’s set in the future feels like it has endless graphic design choices. And, ba...

This week I ran the second-ever session of  Sellsword , a one-page OSR ruleset. For an adventure, I used “Incident at Torn Throat Gorge”, a work-in-progress one-page adventure with an Old West flavor. In no particular order, here are my dominant takeaways: 1. Extend the “noob” stage. When I started playing Runescape in 2005, the most fun I ever had was playing on a free account, fishing for shrimp in Lumbridge and trying to get enough gold to buy a green cape. I was a noob. And the smallest things— like selling an inventory load of mined iron, or picking up 10 gp from a dead guard— mattered. That changed as I leveled up and gained more gold. As I leveled up, the percentage of the game that posed a challenge and offered value— that delivered joy — decreased. How might a game designer avoid this? I’ll be reflecting on this for a while I imagine. But off the top of my head, two things come to mind... First is Dark Souls. I’ve never played a Souls game, but my impression is that even t...

On Thursday night, I ran the first playtest of Sellsword , a one-page OSR ruleset. For an adventure, I used The Undying Flame of Gal-Bog , a one-page dungeon I wrote, inspired by this all-time classic illustration. In no particular order, here are my dominant takeaways: 1. Scenario drives Player behavior. Starting out dirt poor: the Players murdered an NPC for his hand-axe and sling. Starting out as strangers: one Player led two other Players into known danger. Playing as swords-for-hire: the Players were inclined towards chaotic-evil levels of violence. Is this a problem? Not necessarily. The game should incentive multiple types of problem-solving. If the ruleset makes Players feel they have choices, it works. The PvP conflict is an issue if the Players feel incentivized to kill one another endlessly; this brings the story to a standstill. 2. Action and resolution were in lockstep. It felt like the story was happening at the same speed as the game. Often, roleplaying games can feel ...

As I prep a one-shot of The Warren (the PbtA game about a colony of rabbits: yes, rabbits) I got to thinking about making a place "gameable".  What works in fiction does not work in tabletop RPGs. I can describe a meadow, sun-struck and brimming with bee buzz. It's unbearably green and the smell of the honeysuckle here at summer's peak is almost erotic. That's fun to read and fun to imagine. But try giving that to your RPG table: "OK, sounds nice. I lay down in the grass." "You lay down in the grass. It's green and itchy." "OK... I smell the flowers." "You smell the flowers. They smell so sweet." "Let's leave." What's missing is a game-able element. Why would a Player want to come here? Why would a Player not want to come here?  Every location needs both an opportunity and a threat. With these two elements, you create a push and a pull — tension— and promote meaningful risk-taking. Let's see som...