Biggus Geekus

Combating Combat - Building The Mechanics Episode 166 Streamed Live Tuesday November 21, 2023 Main Topic: Combating Combat - Things to consider as you design a combat system for a fantasy TTRPG. What kinds of feel or experience do you want combat to give? Frenetic, fog of war, cinematic/heroic action, gritty blood-n-bone combat, other? Emulation vs. Simulation Need to decide if BALANCE is important, and HOW to handle it Complexity can often stall the game. How “old-school” do you go? (all attacks do d6, weapon vs. armor, speed factor, phases) How should the offense and defense capabilities interact? D&D: AC, attack roll, damage rolls vs HPS Armor as DR, wounds vs vitality Simplified comparison: combat skill vs defensive skill/opposed rolls. Include a separate Dodge/Parry/Block/Evade mechanic? How many actions does a character get per turn? And how does it affect combat Movement: double moves, running, AOO’s, withdrawals Attack: melee, range, spell, number of attacks, Other types: speaking, opening a door, interacting with an object. Do actions effect initiative order? Character types and limitations if any in combat. Armor and weapon limitations. Combat skill limitations. Who gets to be good at what? Can wizards wear armor and cast spells? Can warriors sneak around? Spell disruption (OSR vs 3.X vs 13th age) Fear of Magic dominance How does the initiative system interact with combat? Is it turn-based? Side initiative (OSR), individual (3.X, Savage Worlds), # actions based on speed (GURPS/Hackmaster/Shadowrun), He who starts the fight goes first/free form, highest roll goes first then around the table in clockwise order (horde Wars) How important is it? OTHER considerations: Setting and Rules often feed into each other. If the game is mainly about combat, then perhaps the combat system should be robust and detailed. If the game is meant to be about the story that gets told around the table, then maybe the system needs to be more fluid with interchangeable pieces to increase or decrease complexity in the system. Shameless Plug Time: If you would like to support our show, please like, subscribe, and share us where you are listening or viewing the show. We are on all the socials, video and podcast places as well. Cash Support PayPal: https://paypal.me/biggusgeekus Streamlabs:https://streamlabs.com/biggusgeekus1/tip Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/biggusgeekus Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BiggusGeekus On the Web: Website:www.biggusgeekuspodcast.com Email: thegeeks@biggusgeekuspodcast.com Big Geek Emporium: https://biggeekemporium.com/

Handling PC Death (a re-visit) Episode 157 Streamed Live Tuesday September 19, 2023 Main Topic: Handling PC Death 1) Should it be on the table at all? 2) How much does it suck to have your PC to die mid-session? 3) Types of Death? Fair (Player poor choices or fairly rolled combat deaths). VS Unfair (GM Fiat/unfair targeting of a PC/1 save or die) 4) Classic D&D solution: Raise Dead/Resurrection 5) Basket full of PCs (old school Dark Sun) 6) How is Death handled in Games outside of the fantasy genre? 7) How has your opinion on PC death changed/evolved/stayed the same since EP7? 8) Death Mechanics You’ve seen in a game? Squishing Gaming Myths - Roll Players vs Role-Players Is there a divide? Does it matter? Why or why not? Can the two gamers mix? Random Geek-itude: Report from Big Geek Land Big Geek Con: September 22-23, 2023, at the Four Points Hotel in Saginaw, MI. This coming weekend is the weekend! Tickets sold day of show: $40 whether you come Friday(22nd) or Saturday(23rd). Shameless Plug Time: If you would like to support our show, please like, subscribe, and share us where you are listening or viewing the show. We are on all the socials, video and podcast places as well. Cash Support PayPal: https://paypal.me/biggusgeekus Streamlabs:https://streamlabs.com/biggusgeekus1/tip Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/biggusgeekus Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BiggusGeekus On the Web: Website:www.biggusgeekuspodcast.com Email: thegeeks@biggusgeekuspodcast.com Big Geek Emporium: https://biggeekemporium.com/

This is our promo video for Big Geek Con 2023! September 22 and 23 at Four Points Hotel in Saginaw Michigan

Episode 156 Streamed Live Tuesday September 12, 2023 Mental Illness as badge of Honor https://dotesports.com/dnd/news/first-canonically-autistic-dnd-character-arrives-in-the-book-of-many-things Main Topic: Planescape Reimagined The Great Wheel Cosmology: https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/environment/planesDescriptionsAndCosmology.html Randy’s Big IDEA: The prime (Prime Plane) is prime real estate throughout the Multiverse and all the other planes want it. Why? It is the only plane that is not dedicated to a single idea or alignment. It has desirable resource (its residents) and it is not primarily dedicated to a single idea or alignment. Sigil: City of Doors is run by a Great Council of Dominant representatives of non-deity level leaders from the planes of the multiverse They are in a constant political dance called the Kreigstanz in an attempt to outmaneuver each other. This keeps them from mounting a full assault on the prime material plane. Of course, many of these powerful individuals will do a little ‘invading” secretly or sometimes not so secretly from time to time. Lady of Pain: head of the table- a powerful entity who can keep out powerful immortal creatures due to the nature of the City of Doors. She has a seemingly endless horde of warriors called Dabus who do not speak, but only act. They might be constructs or a race of mute beings, no one knows for sure because as they die their bodies dissipate into nothing or meld into the streets of Sigil. The Factions: these could be human/PC race led organizations that attempt to win favors from the Great Council, the Lady of Pain, or perhaps to just keep an eye on the dealings of these planar entities who would wish to dominate the Prime Material Plane. The PORTALS: These exist as the only way to access Sigil and only the Lady and Dabus have control to their access at least officially. Joe’s Big IDEA: Skip Sigil and keep the focus on the PCs’ homeworld as much as possible. - PCs’ home world has occasional invaders from the wider multiverse, maybe other prime worlds - Invasion forces vary in strength - Forces are after a valuable resource (make one up lazy!) - May be a single force, maybe multiple - May be independent forces, maybe coordinated - Can easily be used to springboard a campaign - Can be used as a one shot “Stop The Invaders” adventure -- get to ground zero -- battle to penetrate a stronghold -- find and eliminate the leader/close portal (not necessarily connected) Squishing Gaming Myths: D&D is NOT a GOOD TTRPG. It is just the most popular. It doesn’t represent magic well. Levels are dumb and skills are where it’s at. It is just an adventure game, no roleplaying support. It doesn’t work past level 6/10/12 It is too complicated. Report from Big Geek Land Big Geek Con: September 22-23, 2023, at the Four Points Hotel in Saginaw, MI. “Do Not try that at a Small Con!” We got some good help working on the non-gaming stuff. Tickets sold day of show: $40 whether you come Friday(22nd) or Saturday(23rd). Shameless Plug Time: If you would like to support our show, please like, subscribe, and share us where you are listening or viewing the show. We are on all the socials, video and podcast places as well. Cash Support PayPal: https://paypal.me/biggusgeekus Streamlabs:https://streamlabs.com/biggusgeekus1/tip Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/biggusgeekus Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BiggusGeekus On the Web: Website:www.biggusgeekuspodcast.com Email: thegeeks@biggusgeekuspodcast.com Big Geek Emporium: https://biggeekemporium.com/

This week we discuss resistances and immunities in DnD and other RPGs

Tonight we discuss tiered exp gains in DnD

On the stream tonight we discus portals and Gates and other transportation shenanigans!

We discuss some odd things in the hobby, in the real world and in the game itself

We finish the retro review of Best of dragon vol 2 and give an update to our Hyperborea campaign.

We go into detail with Best of Dragon vol 2

We conclude our discussion of Dragons, and we talk about Best of The Dragon Volume One

This week we cover DRAGONS!

We talk about our favorite shape shifters!

This week we talk about the player's "role" at the ttrpg table.

This week we discuss the job of the DM ... or GM if you prefer https://tabletop.events/conventions/big-geek-con-2023