Project Heracles - Design Journal, Day Three

Day Three(11/22/19)

Well, day three was a bit less productive than I would have liked. My non-game design life was particularly demanding today, so I wasn’t able to get my game to the table. That being said, I was able to create 7 pieces of gear, as well as one new power.

The gear is still very rough, and probably unbalanced, but here’s what I have in order of creation: Veritanium Sword and Shield, Mk III Seeker Bow, Utility Belt, Grav Net, Power Gauntlets, Stun Ammo, and Ballistic Ammo. The new power, Veritanium Skeleton, is the first to increase HP.

I also made some progress on the dice system, thanks to a handy app that lets me make custom dice so I can playtest on the go. I found it to be mostly solid, but it became tedious retooling dice too frequently. Perhaps I will increase the quantity of dice from 5 to 10. Oh, and I added an Armor stat which I forgot I hadn’t created yet.

Well, though I didn’t get as much done today as I had hoped, I did at least do something productive. This may not be the case, though, over the weekend, as I have a family gathering tomorrow(and family gatherings tend to take all day, about half the time taken up with saying goodbye over and over as you get slowly nearer to the car), and Sundays tend to be very busy for me. Expect day four’s post to arrive on Monday, and until then, keep on geekin’ on!

Comments

Free Art Assets for Tabletop Games

I know as well as most of you what a pain it can be to get decent art on a tiny budget. In fact, for me at least, finding art is one of the biggest hurtles between a good design and a finished game. It's expensive, it can be hard to find, and it's stressful. And if you're like me, it's really hard to barter over the price of another creative's services; You know they're pouring out their heart and soul for your game, and that's priceless. But at the same time, most of us game designers don't have deep pockets, and anywhere we can save a few dollars gets us that much closer to actually getting your dream out there. Because of this struggle, I've compiled a list of some of my favorite resources for getting %100 free art, no strings attached. Of course, it won't be tailored to your game, and you probably will need to commission some of your own stuff before all is said and done, but it can get you pretty far with your game, and might save y

Project Heracles - Design Journal, Day Four

Day Four(11/25/19) After a full, but sadly gameless, weekend, I finally got some playtesting done today, as well as a rough draft for the graphic design of my cards. Not too bad, but I wish I could have done more. The playtesting mostly just verified that the system was solid enough, though I did end up doing a bit of power-tweaking to make things more even. I’m considering taking out the more mundane abilities of Marksman, Brawler, and Multi-Tasker, as they don’t add much flavor, and they are impossible to reflect on the standees. A possible replacement for Marksman(+3 Ranged Skill) would be X-Ray Vision(+1 Ranged Skill, Ignore line of sight). Other than that, the only new content I’ve added is a new power, Flameskin(Ranged attack, and when you’re attacked in Melee, deal damage). As for the graphic design, I’ve got a pretty decent draft for my cards done: As you can see, it’s very rough at the moment, but I think it gives a pretty good impression of

Don't Be Shy: DMing 2.0

W e’ve all seen that player. The one who never interacts with the group, and only really exists to jam their “slash” button during combat. No one wants their players to be this way, and these players aren’t having much fun, either. The only real issue is shyness, or unsureness of what they’re “supposed” to do. This, of course, can be remedied, and that’s today’s topic. Ask the Player Directly One of the best ways to get players to interact is simply to ask them to do so. This is very simple, and equally effective. Essentially, when players are doing something, such as talking to an NPC, and one player isn’t saying anything, simply say something like “Jeff, do you have anything to say?” They may say no, and if they do, just say “Okay” and move on. Reward Roleplay In psychology, this is known as Positive Reinforcement. In short, when you reward good actions, people tend to repeat those actions. In RPGs, you can do this in a variety of ways to pr

The Mindful Geek

Search This Blog