conflict mechanics in your ttrpgs

[@Jigo22]

I said I'd do it so here it is, a summary: - CRM = Conflict Resolution Mechanic - or Game/System Engines - Building blocks of every game system - How do you tackle game's obstacles? - Do you use stats that are assigned numbers, die sizes? Do you need skills? What dice you roll? Dice pools? - Do you use something else that isn't die, like cards? How important are suits/faces? how does drawing from a deck work? - Every choice here matters, and the CRM is going to be used over and over by the players. - Conflict can be anything, not only combat, can be obstacles or just challenges. - For all it's problems, d20 + mods is easy to design for. - It needs to be either simple and straightforward, or fun. - Any rule *except the CRM* can be eschewed for ease of play or because it's hard to remember and a ruling is made in the moment. - Therefore, the CRM needs to be easy to remember, fast and easy to use (don't use tables you need to reference for your main CRM). - Needs to be robust enough to support the complexity you want for your game. - Need to make sure your CRM supports growth, advancement, if you intend your game to be played for more than one session. - CRM examples: - D20 + Mod system. The most balanced for +1 modifiers. "Big number go brrrr" - Di. Big winners, low losers. - 2d6. King of the bellcurve. +1 becomes super impactful. - Tarot cards. Interpretative. It's based on 22 results really similar to the d20 (if major arcana). Powers that pop up with a specific card. - Dice pools. Exceptional for Skills + Attributes. Much more room to fail. - Exploding dice / step-dice. Works with a variety of die sizes. When you roll a max on a dice, roll that die again and add it. Reqs good GM. - There's more. Roll under systems, Cthulhu's d100 percentage system. - Depends on what you want out of a game. - Fast quick stuff: d20 - Something a bit more complex that tends towards middling results: PbtA (2d6) - Something that develops skills depending on what you do and promotes natural growth: Call of Cthulhu (d100 percentage) - Something that's pulpy, wacky, cinematic, tends towards extreme explosive results: Savage Worlds (step-dice, exploding dice) - Choosing your CRM is a difficult journey, design is not easy! It'd be nice to see more youtube streams! and more videos of course, bring us out of the Conscious Incompetence!

[@Alpha115-YT]

Great job. Thank you.

[@madengineerkyouma]

Boat (feat. Dice Systems)

[@dicequeenDi]

boat rpg combining everythin i learned

[@madengineerkyouma]

@@dicequeenDi I have a friend who always wanted me to run pirate campaigns for any game we played, so a boat rpg system would be a good start.

[@athy8763]

"ive got a stigma against a coupel solo rpgs, i can talk about that in another video" PLEASE talk about it in another =video i love hearing your thoughts on rpgs your energy is unique!!!!!

[@dicequeenDi]

IMAGINE wanting to hear my biases against solo rpgs xD i don't consider them games but i swear i'll just get in trouble lmao

[@SegaSatchel]

MA! The weird girl on the boat is cooking again!

[@dicequeenDi]

i have a hotplate

[@grayrook8637]

So glad she is still on a boat. Actually no that's kinda alarming, are you a castaway?

[@dicequeenDi]

@@grayrook8637 I'm clearly moored in venice

[@yurisei6732]

TTRPG designer vtuber... I think the algorithm knows me too well. I'm getting really close to finishing my CRM, but there are some things that are very elusive. I think the hardest part is accepting whatever limited scope the CRM imposes though - the system I've got so far is not very tolerant of large modifiers, so it needs to be quite low scope... but I really want to be able to use it for higher scope games cos it's by far the best CRM I've ever used in terms of game-feel and character-CRM connection. It's looking like I might need an abstraction layer between character stats and roll bonuses that lets +5 stat equal +1 actual bonus, but it's so elegant at the moment that I'd rather not. And you're spot on about CRMs being the core of a system. I didn't even know what genre my game was until I had done a lot of CRM development, I just knew I wanted to be rolling d12s and I knew I wanted active defense rolls. Developing the CRM gave my game a super interesting approach to spellcasting I'd never have thought of otherwise.

[@stm7810]

I love active defenses! if I'm stabbing you in the back you don't have some game like AC that protects you, I see your spine, if you're aiming your gun at me, I'm going to dive behind cover.

[@dicequeenDi]

i've been around for a while, and i'll be around for longer! i'm worried that this topic might've flown over a buncha people's heads. this is barely an intermediate topic, so i'm scared about going into advanced or expert topics

[@yurisei6732]

@@dicequeenDi Well, I've subscribed, and I do hope to see more on topics like this in the future. Tbh it's rare to find people talk about game design on this sort of level, especially in the TTRPG space which is usually dominated by D&D and ruleslites, neither of which typically put much attention on the feel of mechanics.

[@dicequeenDi]

Tbh the reception on this wasn't as good as I'm used to so I think I need to help build up a stronger base of basic topics on this channel before I expect to delve deeper into stuff like illusionism

[@yurisei6732]

@@dicequeenDi I wonder if there's anything in structuring videos to put more advanced concepts towards the end of videos, so that they start off accessible but also have something for people who think they already know the basics and might be jumping through the video already?

[@IronicCliche]

In theory, any form of challenge where it's you vs. the challenge, rather than another person, could be a crm for a ttrpg. Minesweeper could be a CRM, as could sit up or drinking. Once you understand your goals, the sky is the limit.

[@dicequeenDi]

Ayo you're getting it. As long as there's a manner in which you can adjudicate the result of a conflict, anything is a CRM. Even a coin flip, even a drinking content.

[@IronicCliche]

@dicequeenDi I would imagine the conversations with you over drinking games are fun. Like my one friend who would teach me gun mechanics after drinking. Some of my best memories.

[@dicequeenDi]

@IronicCliche oh I'm an Asian woman so tbh two or three drinks would put me under the table xD but one drink would have me start lecturing on games yes xD

[@IronicCliche]

@dicequeenDi my tolerance is about as bad. I got a little too much wine at communion once and I was buzzed enough to go into a detail rant on the idea of synergism between inverse forces.

[@AJarOfYams]

Dice system? Let's go!

[@dicequeenDi]

tbh i lied. i covered tarot/playing cards as well orz

[@Alpha115-YT]

was a good video Di. Definitely enlightening.

[@dicequeenDi]

Thanks!! I do my best! Thinking on the next vid already

[@slammurai6492]

#FreeDi The boat cant win

[@dicequeenDi]

#FreeDi!!!

[@shadesofnier1]

You can't escape the boat but it didn't absorb you at the end of the video this time so I think there's improvement

[@dicequeenDi]

I've made a life here. You can't take that away from me

[@StarkMaximum]

CRMs are one of those things that really opened my eyes as I learned about them in re: RPGs. I think it's really interesting how much my RPG journey started in "this is how things are done, it's just the way it is and there are distinct rules you can't break", and the longer I remain engaged with them the more I realize every single thing I thought was an unassailable rule of the genre was usually just the way DnD did it and was in fact just an option you could change. I think the CRM is the core of an RPG. It's pretty hard to have a game that doesn't have one, and the one you pick goes a long way to determining your game's tone and vibe. A d20 is swingy. XdY gives you a bell curve. Dice pools let you play the odds. Cards can be exhausted and counted. Diceless mechanics might reward a totally different skill, like being able to bet well or argue a point. There's even a bunch of subcategories; is your dice pool "roll these and add them"? Is it "roll these and look for successes"? "Roll X keep Y"? It's one of the more interesting things to think about when designing a game, but it's always good to have some go-to comfort picks that you can always use if need be.

[@dicequeenDi]

DnD is kind of like an abusive ex. It convinces you to stay because there's nothing better out there. You can't change it cause you shouldn't. I hope I've been a solid step in your trpg journey thus far

[@StarkMaximum]

@@dicequeenDi I've made a lot of stops on my RPG journey and you've always been one of my favorites. There's just a bunch of little things about you that keep me coming back.

[@tahunuva4254]

D20 isn't swingy. It's _perceived_ as swingy, because of the widespread use of crits (and critics fails), but there's nothing that makes its 20 potential results inherently "more random" than a weighted 11. Like, you never hear d100 systems called swingy, despite there technically being far more results on those, do you?

[@StarkMaximum]

@@tahunuva4254 It's swingy because every result has the same possibility of getting rolled, so you're just as likely to get a high result and succeed with a low skill as you are to roll very low and fail with a high skill. All single die mechanics are more swingy than multi-die mechanics with a bell curve.

[@dicequeenDi]

Yeah. Pretty much that. When it comes to dice pools of any size (even a 2d6), things average to middling results, which makes single die rolls more swinging. D100 is just as swingy, it's why call of Cthulhu is stressful, but the granularity of 100 results doesn't feel as intense as only 20

[@yourgoodfriend276]

Thanks for touching on cards. I prefer them for what I'm working on, and I feel they are generally very underutilized, often just being used as a stand-in for dice. But they offer so much! At face value, a stack of cards is a D52, and a lot of people just... use them like that. Draw a card, note the value, return it and shuffle to keep it random. But you don't need it to be wholly random. You can incorporate drawing cards without replacement, rewarding basic and complex card counting. You can incorporate a hand of cards. Look at poker, new players will always try to shoot for big hands and fold when they don't get that full-house, and that is viable and satisfying, but experienced players understand even bad hands can serve specific purposes, and that can be incorporated into TRPG design pretty easily. Playing kamigakari, it was cool to trade dice values, but cards make that so much easier and more tactile imo. You aren't changing one of your dice to face a new direction, the player next to you is straight up handing you a value. That's fun! You brought up suits, yeah, suits can easily allow for a lot more. Maybe the values are doing different things, like a Spade is actually a negative number while a Diamond is doubled. At its simplest, they can simply stand in as a coin flip, or a D4. The number of decks can also play pretty strongly into it. Keep decks small enough and your game of pure chance quickly becomes a game of players mathing out what card comes next. "I know Player B needs a face card ASAP, and half of the remaining cards should be faces, so I will hold my turn until they draw" or similar. And then replacement vs. non replacement. Do you want this deck to always be a 1/52-4? Or do you want the odds to shift with every draw? You can even have some draws replace, and others not, making some choices more viable at specific times. "I can cast this spell, but if I do, whatever I draw gets removed and nobody else can use that Ace that I know is there... or I can use this weaker one and it won't change anything." Sorry, rambling, but I really, really like cards. Great vid overall, thanks for respecting those slips of paper.

[@dicequeenDi]

It's a good rant. I absolutely love cards as CRMs. I might honestly make a video about cards alone because they can really make the game different

[@yurisei6732]

Entirely true. A card system is the next thing I'm going to do after my current pile-o-dice game, I'm so excited for all the possibilities that cards have.

[@stm7810]

I'd love to play a game that uses a hand of cards heck, very wild idea, but what about a game based on memory? the card game, getting pairs allows it to stay your turn as you rack up combos of actions determined by the cards, getting a set that doesn't match still causes an action but the cards stay there on the board and can continue being used. as a trade off, each pair you collect is stress or damage, taking enough damage either due to pairs or the complications of the challenge takes you out of the scene, be it damage in combat, using up your soy milk whilst baking, or going onto the benches in sports.

[@benwilliams5786]

I've been working with changing the dice size for rolls where I want the modifiers to be more impactful. First time I made it way too small (from a d20 to a d6) and there was a point where one of the players didn't bother rolling because they realized the chance of them not getting last was so meager it wasn't worth the effort of trying ( -1 vs +2 on a d6 is more extreme than I thought in my head). Work-in-process only works if you have time to process. I do like the concept, but I need time to find the right number, as well as ways to make it consistent with other mechanics so it's not just a random d10 roll floating out in a d20 system. Sorry you're still stuck on the boat. At least it's a good boat.

[@dicequeenDi]

Thanks for sharing your journey! We're all stuck in our own boats

[@IronicCliche]

Love the skill trigger idea.

[@dicequeenDi]

Tarot cards are woefully underutilized in the indie sphere, and that only does harm to it's visible viability outside of it

[@Ytilee]

Very cool video overall. First the form: I love the camera angles you chose, the environment, the background sound. I do think the video is a bit slow in pacing, and most importantly, lacks a good hook. You kinda meander into who makes CRMs way before explaining why someone should care. I should know why your video deserves my attention quicker than that because if I didn't already have confidence that in the quality of your work I probably would have left before it got interesting. Saying you're answering a question someone gave you before is good for those who asked that question, but it's not telling much to new folks. Then the substance: I do think this video is a good introduction to what CRMs are and covers a good enough diversity with more exotic ones like dread (even if not talking about dice pools and d100 systems in your segment about the different CRMs is a bit weird). But I'm a bit worried about even framing the problem like that. CRMs are a very common thing but also they are not exactly ubiquitous nor do they always encompass the entirety of the relevant system(s). For example in Fate, is invoking an aspect negatively to create a problem and gain a fate point really part of the "CRM"? No, right? you are not in the business of "resolution" here. But it's a vital part of the system that feeds into the CRM, so much so it's even a bit weird to separate these two systems in my opinion. The more just, but definitely more esoteric, way of framing it is as 'tools to which you delegate the responsibility to make the fiction progress'. And since these tools are conceptualized by players (and by that I mean everyone around the table) as a neutral external force, they give credence to fiction. That's why they are often used in conflicts, because this credence is way more important when the fiction is screwing you over. It also gives the opportunity to talk about the different tools that bigger TTRPGs typically have and why you should or should not have these, or how similar and interconnected you should make them. Like how D&D has two completely separate even if sharing similar elements and resources CRMs: skill checks and tactical combat. But Lancer has these same two systems (skill checks and tactical combat) but makes them completely different and separate resource wise. This reframing from "CRMs" to "fiction tools" may seem like a useless distinction, but I think the best thing your video does is showing there are other tools than d20 + flat number, that there exists a world beyond D&D. But it is still very much presented through the lense of a D&D centric world, and I think it maybe is a missed opportunity. Small addendum: If we're talking strictly about how to construct a resolution mechanic in TTRPGs, there is a very important thing to keep in mind: they tend to devolve into toys. Only what's visible in front of players during play "exists", and everything else tends to fade away and that includes rules. So you either need very strong guides included into the character sheets, or you should expect every complexity of your system to be progressively sanded down through play until only the "toy" remains. Because everytime a rule isn't understood or remembered, it'll be infered from what they have in front of them and that's the game material: dice, cards, maybe the character sheet if you're lucky. So design with this in mind. Design small, simple, solid and with redundancies baked into the game material. Maybe the strongest appeal of DD5 is that the main way you interact with it is very toy-like from the get-go, and advantage & disadvantage only reinforces it.

[@dicequeenDi]

I tend to meander as I like to take these as an exploration on a topic. It's hard to come at it from a very academic angle because so much of tabletop RPGs is bardic. I'm also just not the list making type. I might try to cut videos shorter and try to hit my points quicker cause maybe the 18minutes might have been a bit long for most folks. That said I do believe I covered that rules tend to get eschewed into the background and I think that's an ailment of modern dungeons and dragons "storytelling" style which puts too much onus on the narration, when a solid game slips in and out and navigates the rule in balance.

[@grognardgaming8952]

Im working on a system called the ARC Engine where the CRM is a dice pool system but you are only rolling for evens. Every even is a success and the difficulty of the task and or modifiers determine the number of evens/successes needed. Dice pools are Attribute + Skill. Players also have a pool of TAP dice that can be burned to add to certain rolls or to power abilities.

[@dicequeenDi]

Sounds pretty solid. What's the dice size? Ultimately it doesn't matter much since you've created a coin flip system

[@grognardgaming8952]

@@dicequeenDi D6 because stats are 1-6 an im using "roll under" for saves.

[@Mystra]

Nice to see you again ❤

[@dicequeenDi]

Hoping to release regularly in the new year

[@Mystra]

@dicequeenDi I'm hoping things will only get better for you :)

[@commonviewer2488]

Wow, that's a lot of examples. Even so, I think I'll make my own to throw in. Just for fun

[@dicequeenDi]

There's plenty more CRM to work with! I think you'll be able to find something!

[@SethAbercromby]

I was thinking of using a system in a small homebrew that uses "roll X d6, keep 3 largest", with X being the attributes or skills being checked against, with the score representing how many dice you're allowed to roll. It allows for more consistently high rolls that are in line with increased proficiency, without bloating CRs. It also allows the DM an intuitive system for advantages and disadvantages by granting or taking away dice when appropriate to the situation.

[@dicequeenDi]

hmmmmm how many attributes/skills would this have?

[@SethAbercromby]

@@dicequeenDi Currently I want to keep the system compact, with attributes and skills being more broadly applicable since the system is more roleplay-oriented. I'm still working out the kinks, but at the moment I'm hovering between 4 and 5 attributes and about a dozen skills. As an example lockpicking would be a combination of the dexterity attribute and finesse skill, with possible contextual modifiers like how expereinced the character is with lockpicking or if they are forced to work under time pressure.

[@DragonicDude]

Idk if this is obvious, but Jenna blocks makes sense in a way for a situation that get worse as things go on. Say like the party is trying to escape from an area where more and more guards are waking up each round. I've been very curious in how different systems or as I now know crms can effect the emotional feels of the experience.

[@dicequeenDi]

mhmm it's excellent in building growing tension which is why it works so well in horror

[@DragonicDude]

@@dicequeenDi gotcha

[@Missure_E]

Remember: Comments are good for the KZbin algorithm!

[@dicequeenDi]

YEEHAW

[@AyameAkito]

Correction, World of Darkness games have a success threshold starting from 4 all the way up to 10 depending on the difficulty of the task, but being a d10 dicepool system it means you will be rolling at the very minimum 2 dice not to mention the system has ways to give players at least one extra success, so it isn't a good example to have together with Blades in the Dark that is just a slightly modified PBTA system if I remember correctly.

[@dicequeenDi]

oop

[@TheoMurata]

MY GOAT THE BOAT IS BACK!!!

[@dicequeenDi]

It never left

[@nichlasbundgaard5583]

For years, I have been making a ttrpg as an on and off project. I use 2d6 as a resolution mechanic, but players only add bonuses to skill rolls, and things like grappling in case of combat, but I also try to make a VERY relaxed rule set. Not because it is the easy way out, but because I don't want to limit the player experience. Here's an example. In combat, everyone uses a pool of action points, probably most similar to Pathfinder 2E, that can be used on whatever and whenever the player wants. These get refreshed at the start of a new round so they act as the players offense, defence, and utility. So you can attack someone who attacks you before you take damage and empower that attack to hopefully knock them out before they hurt you, however that leaves you with less opportunities to defend yourself against others for that round, before you need to put your faith in the hand of the dice gods at least, so I hope it creates some interesting decision making. Outside combat it is the usual roll + modifier, but there is a pseudo leveling system where you can get weaker and stronger relatively quick and often. This is an attempt to forgo the usual level up table as that can lead to some same feeling characters, that's what I have been told anyway, so yeah lots of things that could be considered untraditional.

[@dicequeenDi]

interesting interesting. tbh the thoughts behind this kinda cracked a wall i've been having with a trpg of mine lately. hmmmm will get back to this xD

[@nichlasbundgaard5583]

@dicequeenDi Cool! Let me know if you want to know more.

[@EunoiaRPG]

Need some more love for d8's out there. Its ny favourite die size :)

[@dicequeenDi]

same tbh. it's just such a hard die to use since it's too close to the d6, and not as even as the d10. it's fairly hard to justify its use outside of pools that said i'm kinda pilled on d8+d12. i think it has a lot of potential

[@EunoiaRPG]

@dicequeenDi yeah, and if you can come up with a fun theming for it, say, Daggerhearts hope and fear mechanics for their 2d12 system, it could also really hit with the people that enjoy the interpretive aspect of the rolls

[@stm7810]

@@dicequeenDi d8 is great in crab truckers. it's not the best idea and might change it, but for now I'm enjoying a dice pool of the 2 relevant attributes, relevant skill if you have it, and relevant advantage or broad skill (naming is hard) if you have it. was a friends idea to do it this way though I admit I still love my D6s just since it's the 1 pair of dice basically everyone has, heck, you can even make them out of a sheet of paper.

[@ThorsShadow]

Tentacles will not be happy about the boat.

[@dicequeenDi]

i'm down for ika karage

[@obsessivelooter3573]

Oh I never knew how close the playing card CRM are to d20

[@dicequeenDi]

Specifically tarot cards. It is a remarkably close CRM that also offers a 0, or a wild card result, in the fool

[@IronicCliche]

3rd comment, but you got me thinking. I could make an entire system based on the number 24 by using spinners or cards. I love 24 because it's an antiprime. There is so much you can do with that in a design space.

[@dicequeenDi]

spinners are nice but do consider the proprietary nature of it. In all my years in trpgs I still don't own a spinner myself

[@IronicCliche]

@dicequeenDi that's fair. A digital only solution would be the obvious choice as log dice are uncommon, and cards require shuffling. I'd still prefer a tactile solution for those with tactile preferences.

[@IronicCliche]

You know if I was going to be really cynical, those would be a premium feature for a Kickstart.

[@stm7810]

2d6 or a cheap deck of 52s are the dice of the people, 2d6 are tactile for the blind, they're in basically every household, they're what people think of as dice, you can even make them from cutting and folding paper, also they have a good curve, half your rolls are 6, 7 or 8 but there's still a 3% chance of a 2 or 12 if you want to have crits. other systems are great and sometimes better for what the game is doing, like exploding dice, percentiles, pools etc. but the classics work.

[@dicequeenDi]

oh i like that thought. the dice of the people. its exactly the reason why tabletop rpgs in japan primarily use d6s! because they couldnt get non d6s for near a decade

[@stm7810]

@@dicequeenDi Yes, that's part of why I'm hoping my friend sees the merit in them, beyond the maths, there's something nice about using 2d6 for a game where being able to play games based on all sorts of isekai was the inspiration. like it can handle other stuff, it's just that cross over of cultures and tech levels, and some character awareness of their own stats are baked in ideas. I can respect adding up dice in a pool, or dice size based stats, but as someone blind telling d10 and d12 apart by touch, let alone reading them just doesn't happen, heck, in most parts of the world where would you buy funny dice, even in so called Australia you need to find an obscure store and be lucky they're in stock.

[@Solinaru]

nice boat

[@dicequeenDi]

...a nice boat...

[@ScyllaCephalopod]

been thinking a while about how to make blackjack into a crm

[@dicequeenDi]

It's a bit tricky, but consider having a small hand of cards.

[@DragonicDude]

Nova the axler action seems interesting is it any good?

[@All4Tanuki]

y'know there's like live TTS and stuff these days, you don't have to do the talking rat sidekick voice

[@dicequeenDi]

That's just how I sound

[@dicequeenDi]

Just to be clear btw, I got serious vocal damage from COVID and it shredded the middle tones of my vocal folds. I'd like to sound normal. I just can't no matter how much I recover.

[@Kodiak_P]

Remember: Comments are good for the KZbin algorithm!

[@dicequeenDi]

they are!!

[@symmetryftw4317]

Remember: Comments are good for the KZbin algorithm!

[@dicequeenDi]

HELL YEA

[@rolllinggolem6095]

Remember: Comments are good for the KZbin algorithm!

[@dicequeenDi]

:3