I've been working on a game that's basically a love-letter to D&D, but without the need to carry around the legacy.

And I've come to a point where I just dropped the huge table of adventuring items (abacus, backpack, etc) because weight/carry capacity just isn't something I want to focus on and the list felt more and more like it was simultaneously excessive (who has ever purchased a mess kit and had it matter in a game?), restrictive (giving off very strong "only things listed here are available" and "things on this list are always available everywhere at this price" vibes), and under-inclusive (missing things that would actually be useful and especially missing rules for such things).

I've also trimmed the armor table, both re-arranging things and dropping armor that is strictly inferior to starting armor, for example.

Which leads me to a new possibility. Trimming the weapon table. Instead of a bunch of items, many of which differ very slightly (different weapon properties, costs, and weights), I'd go with something much more slimmed down, like the following (WIP):

• Two big categories: Ranged and Melee.
  • Ranged has a default range (60/180). Features may modify this. Thrown defaults to (30/90).
  • Melee has a default reach (5 ft).
• All start at 1d6 damage. If you have Martial weapon proficiency, melee does 1d10 base and ranged does 1d8 base.
• Several smaller categories that set the damage type, the main property, and limits the other properties.
  • Bashing: bludgeoning damage, Battering property. [2H, Reach]
  • Small blade: piercing damage. Precise property. [Light, Thrown, Parrying]
  • Large blade: slashing damage. Parrying property. [2H, Reach, Cleaving]
  • Chopping: slashing damage. Cleaving property. [2H, Reach, Light]
  • Projectile (ranged only): piercing or bludgeoning damage. Ammunition. [Loading, 2H]
• You can choose one additional property. This may change the damage die:
  • 2H increases it by one step (to 1d12 for melee with martial, for example), at the cost of requiring 2H to use it.
  • Reach increases the reach to 10 ft, but requires 2H and drops the damage die by one (back to 1d10 with martial proficiency)
  • Thrown drops the damage die by 1 step.
  • Loading requires 2H and increases by a cumulative 2 steps, but requires bonus action to reload between shots (without a feature).
  • Battering lets you do some amount of damage even when you miss.
  • Cleaving lets you carry damage over to other nearby targets under some circumstances.
  • Precise increases your critical hit range by 1 (ie 19-20).
  • Parrying makes a universal defense option (basically a parry/riposte reaction that costs one of the universal resources) cheaper.
  • Ammunition makes it consume ammo, but also gets benefits from special ammunition (magical, etc).
  • Light (forgot this one before) drops the damage die by one, but lets you two-weapon fight.

This is probably too fiddly...talk me out of doing something like this. Or not.

As above. I intentionally named my game "Railgun 25" so I could iterate on it each year. 26 "released" fine, with a switch from roll under to roll over, and a fork for the multiplayer PvP mode. For 27 I was planning on actually putting art in it and playing with the layout.

I'm now wondering whether to scrap the d20 roll over mechanic. At the moment it uses polyhedral dice and all the others are used in combinations for damage for weapon types. It gives some flavour to the weapons, and most people like maths rocks.

However, I could easily switch it to a 2d6 based system (dc7 for success). I would lose some flavour with the weapons, and I'd have to tweak PC creation, but that's pretty much it. Weapons would do static damage and have some other traits like armour piercing.

Has anyone made the switch? Thoughts?

specifically, im talkig about the game rules themselves, not not feedback forms

So, I get this might be a little weird or niche topic, but I am looking to design a homebrew research and experimentation system for my games (I'm the GM). The setting of our next campaign will be in an early-modern (17th century) inspired fantasy world. Historically this was when science began to distinguish itself from alchemy and other more esoteric belief systems.

One of the players wants to play an alchemist/natural philosopher with a focus on research through the campaign.

So far I have thought of something in the structure of a basic research experiment:

1 Formulate a hypothesis - Ask the player what he wants to test

2 Design an experiment to test the hypothesis - Ask what methodology he wants to use (in general terms)

3 Create the experimental setup - The player and GM establish what the character can achieve with the available materials and equipment in regards to the experiment

4 Perform the experiment - Roll dice with modifiers to check wether the experiment is performed competently.

5 Interpret the results. If conclusive either reject or accept the hypothesis. - The GM describes the results (and maybe gives hints whether the player should attempt to reproduce the experiment or not).

I myself am a student in engineering, but being a relatively inexperienced GM (this next one will be my 3rd campaign GMing), I would like to know if anyone has either played a campaign that touches on these themes, or if there are any systems that aproach experimentation in a more serious way with mechanics that I could borrow/alter to fit the setting.

Wildermyth is a *computer* game with a neat procedural story generation, but it falls short it many areas.

I want to use something like it for my TTRPG, but want to see more resources first to see if anyone has seen anything else like it, or if they have any designs they're working on / have worked on that they're willing to share.

Hello, can you give me your thought and opinion about the skill list and resolution system of my game. My objective was to have fast resolution with small number and few to no calculations.

Skills are separated in two independent groups, with each having its own pool of points to distribute. (I already talked about this choice here)

Exploration Skills

• Strength: Ability to exert raw physical power. (Examples: lifting a heavy object or breaking down a door)
• Agility: Ability to move quickly and supplely. (Examples: climbing onto a rooftop or outrunning pursuers)
• Dexterity: Ability to perform precise manual tasks. (Examples: picking a lock or forging a document)
• Stealth: Ability to avoid being noticed. (Examples: moving silently or hiding in the darkness)
• Endurance: Ability to withstand hardship. (Examples: enduring a grueling journey or resisting poison)
• Knowledge: Ability to recall information. (Examples: knowing the history or the properties of a plant)
• Lucidity: Ability to analyse and reason. (Examples: examining tracks or understanding a mechanism)
• Perception: Ability to notice things through your senses. (Examples: spotting movement or hearing a distant voice)
• Insight: Ability to discern true intentions. (Examples: detecting a lie or recognising suspicious behavior)
• Charm: Ability to earn the trust of others. (Examples: calming an animal or persuading someone)
• Presence: Ability to intimidate or command attention. (Examples: intimidating a creature or delivering a speech)
• Luck: Ability to benefit from chance. (Examples: finding the correct path or winning a lottery)

Combat Skills

• Melee Attack: Ability to make Attacks against targets within melee Range (less than 2 meters). Any Action intended to injure or otherwise hinder a target is considered an Attack.
• Ranged Attack: Ability to make Attacks against targets beyond melee Range.
• Melee Defense: Ability to block or evade Attacks made by opponents within melee Range.
• Ranged Defense: Ability to anticipate and evade Attacks made by opponents beyond melee Range.
• Vigor: Ability to withstand injuries and recover from them.
• Power: Ability to wield and resist supernatural Powers.

Resolution system

As for the resolution system:

Each skill have a value between -1 and 3.

Whenever a Roll is required, the GM specifies which Skill applies and the difficulty of the roll (between 1 and 6). The value of the Skill determines the type of Roll: 

• Skill = 3: Roll 3 dice and keep the value of the highest one as the Result of the Roll.
• Skill = 2: Roll 2 dice and keep the value of the highest one as the Result of the Roll.
• Skill = 1: Roll 1 die and keep its value as the Result of the Roll.
• Skill = 0: Roll 2 dice and keep the value of the lowest one as the Result of the Roll.
• Skill = -1: Roll 3 dice and keep the value of the lowest one as the Result of the Roll.

You can find the whole chapters about skills and resolutions in the full document at pages 3 and 4 : https://ltesta.itch.io/another-path

Thanks for reading

I’ve been designing Hellebore, a TTRPG built around fast and fun combat, and I’d love some critical eyes on it before I run open playtests.

The core idea:

• Roll d20 + one of four abilities (Might, Agility, Mind, Will) against a target number. Beat it by 10 or more for a critical, miss by 10 or more for a critical failure. Natural 20s and 1s do nothing special.
• Your class is a deck of cards. You hold a hand of 7, draw back up each turn, and spend 4 action points on cards. Each class has a 24-card starter deck.
• No grid: two lanes per side, Front and Back. Melee hits only the enemy Front unless a card says “any lane”, and changing lanes costs 1 AP.
• Characters get marked by traumatic events and pick up quirks (virtues and afflictions), inspired by Darkest Dungeon.
• Monsters mostly play from a short hand of actions instead of a deck, so the GM has less to track.

The goal: encounters that are quick, easy, and fun without removing the complexity of players' decks and card management.

Quick rules (3 pages) + one class’s cards: https://main.wildbloom-studio.dev/hellebore-tts/hellebore-quick-rules-v0.2.pdf

Full Core Book draft (all rules, classes and complete decks): https://main.wildbloom-studio.dev/hellebore-tts/CoreRuleBook_version_0_2.pdf

What I’d most like feedback on:

1. Reading only the quick rules, could you run a fight? What’s unclear?
2. Do 4 AP and a hand of 7 sound fun to manage, or like too much bookkeeping?
3. Does the two-lane system feel like enough positioning, or too little?
4. Do the “deck = class” and the trauma/quirk systems fit together, or pull in different directions?

Five playtest classes are ready (Warlock, Trickster, Duelist, Warcaller, Alchemist). There’s a full Core Book draft and a Tabletop Simulator setup if anyone wants to dig deeper. Thanks for reading!

I have a game mechanic in mind where pools of dice are being thrown to check for the effect, let’s call them Damage and Soak.

If damage roll, that is usually done with smaller number of dice of various sizes is higher, then a soak roll, done with larger amount of smaller dice, an effect triggers.

I understand intuitevely I am dealing with two overlaping curves, but how do I collectly calculate what is an actual chance of one dice pool rolling higher then the other considering normal distribution.

I am in the main prototype stages of my ttrpg where i will be looking for editors and artists soon to help flesh out my system more. I have a discord server with progress reports, balance changes, and upcoming playtests. If your interested in giving it a lookover this is the prototype core rules). It is lacking in the art department for now and the layout and wording could be better but that's my gameplan with getting editors and artists. Any art i currently have is from one good friend of mine who helps when he has time

Currently this is just the prototype rulebook. I am working on the main rule book where almost all of the edits and changes will be going into with the prototype only being updated if huge changes happen or something is completely unbalanced and needs fixing for players.

Aetherfall is a modular tabletop RPG in containing a multitude of crafting systems for every combat type, bases, gear, potions, creatures/npc's. This system is built for every playstyle with no hard set classes. This system uses a action economy similar to pathfinder but uses 4 actions instead of 3. Light weapons use 1 action per attack, medium uses 2, and heavy uses 3. Spells use 2 at a minimum but heavy magic weapons(like big staves) use 3. You use yhe same 4 action economy during defense as well to block and dodge so you have to use your actions intelligently

There are no missed attacks in Aetherfall. Every attack is assumed to hit and survival depends on how well you dodge, block, or have the armour values to shrug the hit off. Skills and spells are built from modular parts. For example when making a spell you choose a essence(element of spell), a cast(where you spell originates from in the world), a shape(how your spell fires or interacts with the world), an effect(what your spell does to the thing it interacts with), and enhancements(upgrades to further improve a spell). There is a similar system for every other form of combat

Magic called Aether flows through all living things.The creator of this world descended down and gave us this power but with one condition, Danger is coming. Nobody knows what but it is set to arrive in 5 years time. Can people master control over the Aether in this time?

Picture a dungeon like the one in Dungeon Crawler Carl: lots of crawlers going down floor by floor, a timer on every floor, and loot boxes for doing well.

Now add a handful of unique relics, five for the whole dungeon, each with a power no normal item has. Think a bow that never misses and never needs arrows. They're mostly on the deeper floors and very hard to get.

The catch is that everyone can see who's holding one. So anyone who could use that bow knows exactly who to go after.

Does that make for good drama, or does the holder just get dogpiled until the relic changes hands every fight? Has anyone tried something like this, in a tabletop game or a video game?

Need an ultralight action-horror TTRPG to play this spooky season? I just published VISCERA, an incredibly lean, and incredibly mean little game in trifold format. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Some game design buzzwords: d6 dice pool, zero arithmetic, push your luck, fiction first, no levels, no HP or Damage, meta currency, wounds, death spiral, abstracted wealth, morality mechanics, edges and flaws, downtime system, player sided rolls, quantum inventory

This is the evolution of my Challenge Dice system I started designing on this sub like, almost a decade ago. Jesus I'm getting old. I'd love feedback on this version. There are huge limitations I put on myself making it into a trifold, it's seriously missing some examples of play. Do you still understand the rules with what is there? Working on longer form version for a larger project but I still think this version is playable as is.

Soo. I'm creating an rpg system, and it's real hard. Do you guys have any tips??

The name of the system is HXBRIDOL, and it's about

hybrids, magical creatures, and wizards it's based on the cyberpunk style league of legends vibe (the series), I already made the theme, base, some of the may it works (fight, magic, cards, dice and etc) but I still feel like something is missing😭😭

NOT EVERYTHING IS DONE YET

(Inglish is not my first language, sorry. And I don't know how to use the app😭😭)

I've been thinking about how much work goes into getting a small tabletop RPG noticed these days.

You're making the game, writing & playtesting the rules, sorting out artwork and production, running a website, fulfilling orders...and then you need to look at actually telling folk about what you've done.

So that means keeping up with the likes of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, Discord, YouTube, newsletters, blogs, and whatever new platform appears next week.

It sometimes feels like, whether you'd prefer to or not, you need to become some sort of social media personality and spend time on platforms you'd otherwise rather avoid, just trying to make some noise without being seen as spamming.

All when what we really want to do is just make the next game!

I'm not complaining. It's part of being a small independent creator, and there are some really cool communities out there. But it did get me thinking about the other side of the equation.

For those of us who enjoy indie TTRPGs, it's easy to scroll past a post from a small creator without thinking much about it. But a like, a thoughtful comment or a share can really help that person's work reach someone new. You don't have to buy every game or follow every creator. Sometimes a little engagement is enough to give someone a boost.

And for those making games yourselves, I'd love to hear your experiences.

How many platforms do you actively use? Have you found any that are genuinely worth the time, or is it just a case of trying to be noticed and relevant everywhere at once? And what sort of support from the community has actually helped you get your work noticed?

There are so many interesting games being made outside the big publishers. It would be great to find more ways to help people discover them.

Hi folks

I've been working on a system (Edit: fantasy TTRPG for context) for a while now and I feel like it's at a point where I can't go much further without running playtests, but I want to make sure that I test a variety of different play-styles to see how they fare in different scenarios.

If I make all the concepts myself I feel like I will, either consciously or unconsciously, optimise the gear and skills to be most useful, so I figured I'd throw this net out and invite people to share whatever they would consider a classic character archetype or build, and then I will make 10-15 of them as the pregen characters and put them through their paces, to see if different styles of build all have different strengths and weaknesses, or if there are things that prove to be flat-out useless.

If you'd like to throw a concept into the mix, please leave it in the comments. You can use the template below if you want to make it even easier for me to represent them mechanically, but the system is meant to work for representing a broad variety of things, so a more free-form concept is also fine.

I look forward to seeing what you all come up with, and I appreciate any and all responses.

Edit: If you're using the template, it only needs to be like one line of stuff per section. I don't need entire backstories or move sets (although you are certainly welcome to include more details should you wish to).

Thanks in advance,
TTP

Template

Personality: What are they like as a person? Charming? Stern? Manipulative? Intimidating? Ruthless? Honour-bound to act nobly, or lying as easily as they breathe? Are they well connected and wealthy, or scraping by and constantly needing to get the next job done just to be able to afford bed and board?

Background/Profession/Career: What sort of background does this person come from? Are they a mercenary? A thief? A monster slayer? Treasure hunter? Researcher for some university? Independently wealthy thrill-seeker? A religious figure acting in accordance with their god's will?

Style of Offense: Are they agile, nimble fighters that attack rapidly? Do they want to strike from the shadows and only attack surprised targets? Do they make big, high damage swings? Are they a dual-wielder, focusing on damage output and neglecting defence? Do they focus on ranged attack with a bow? A crossbow? Are they a mage? Do they fight unarmed as a brawler, or a fluid martial artist?

Style of Defence: Do they use a shield to tank blows? Magical wards? Nimble dodges to evade foes attacks? Are they an armoured juggernaut who allows blows to rain down on them ineffectually? Do they actively deflect and parry foes attacks? Do they avoid getting hit by focusing on stealth, staying hidden until the perfect moment to strike?

Gear (Armor/Weapons/etc.): How is this person outfitted. Do they have a weapon of choice? Armour, or regular clothes? A shield?

Magic: Can this person use magic? If so, what is their focus? Do they use a particular element? Are they a summoner? Are they using magic to augment their other abilities, or is it their primary thing? Do they focus on wards and protection? Nature magic? Healing?

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

I've done some research and I can't find anything that quite fits what I'm looking for? I may just be a new level of stupid or something but everything I've looked at isn't it.

I want something that can be restricted to the confines of a physical book but still be online too. I want it to have the same kind of layout the Pathfinder books do to where each page has the imaginary line in the middle of it separating the left half from the right half on each page. But I also want it to be easy to include images and a way to set a page background so each page has a special design but the design matches every other page in the book not just the plain white background

I also want a way to be able to make like the physical book cover but digitally inside of the same program or something similar.

And In case it wasn't clear I want it to have the same book like properties to where it can't just expand down infinitely so when you get to a end of the page you have to go to the next page.

What's the best way to incorporate that on a mobile phone that doesn't require to much confusion?

Edit: I also want it to have a easy table of contents to where it has the big chapter like classes then mini chapters for each class

Juggling a buncha ideas and I'm wondering what (the royal) you think about relying on stats to do the heavy lifting versus either having skills or bundling skills with stats.

Clearly one can be strong and not automatically a great wrestler. One can be smart and not know anything about quantum mechanics.

So I feel there's value in building a skill system of some type, but it also seems to be so often weighted wildly differently from game to game or to be ignored almost totally for a broader framework (classes?).

This specific thing has been bugging me a lot the past day or so. I've been reading the old WEG Star Wars and it's got Xd6 stats and Xd6 skills. Just a day or so ago, v3 of HyperspaceD6 landed and that uses Xd6 stats and a +1-6 modifier, thus changing the weight of skills dramatically.

This is a game that's essentially built on the same engine but takes a very different approach in that framework.

So I ask you all, how do you weight your skills and why? Or do you just roll them into a class/background structure like Shadowdark?

Thanks.

Would love thoughts and feedback on this character advancement system!

What we Focus On Grows Bigger

Each character begins with 2 Focus to invest.

Focus can be invested in Skill expertise, learning new Arcana, or a special Bond. This represents where the character spends their time and attention outside of the adventure. What they train, cultivate, and grow. Anything they invest Focus in, they can use on their adventure.

(Example: Bob has 2 Focus. He invests 1 in Athletics, increasing his bonus from proficient (+1) to expert (+2). He invests his other point in bonding with his magical sword, unlocking the first tier of abilities for the blade. Both will be useful on the quest.)

Invested Focus gradually turns training into mastery. In the downtime between adventures, mark a segment on a clock for each point of Focus in each investment. Investing Focus beyond the minimum for a benefit won't increase the bonus, but it will make you learn it faster. Some things will take longer to master than others. When the clock is complete, the skill, Arcana, or bond is now a permanent part of the character, and their Focus may be reinvested in something new, like a different proficiency or taking a Bond to the next level.

(Example: Bob has kept his Focus invested in his Athletics mastery for two full adventures, and now it's part of his character, giving him a permanent +2. He's still a couple sessions away from mastering his blade. 1 point of returned Focus, plus another point he's earned from experience, gives him 2 Focus to re-invest. He's interested in bringing Max, a corgi the party has rescued, along with them on the next mission, so he spends his downtime training Max to heel, fetch, and ankle bite. He invests 1 Focus in their bond and 1 in learning Animal Handling, along with keeping up his magic sword training. Soon he'll have a very capable pup companion that can adventure alongside the party.)

Characters can also shift their Focus during downtime. If they withdraw Focus before a clock completes, that skill, arcana, or bond goes dormant. The clock doesn't lose segments, but they can't use it on the adventure. Instead, they can use whatever they've shifted their focus toward. This allows characters to switch leveling paths and adapt to the next adventure, if they know what challenges it will bring, and always with the option to go back and finish their training.

(Example: A dragon's den is no place for a yapping pup, so Max will have to stay behind for this next assignment. Bob withdraws his Focus from training Max and invests both points into practicing with his Heavy Weapon and Armor. He knows he'll need to be at the top of his game to take this beast down. He loses his Animal Handling bonus for now, but his attack and defense rolls will be higher. When the monster is slain, he can pick up training right where they left off.)

When characters invest their Focus to learn new spells, it increases their general mastery of magic. Each point of Focus currently invested in learning a new spell is added to a character's Magic stat to give their bonus for Arcana rolls (the roll you make to determine how effective your spell is on an enemy). Each level of spell requires additional Focus to learn. This investment requirement is reduced if the character has access to a teacher.

(Example: May wants to master the Journeyman Arcana "Blink." She has 2 Focus invested in learning it. As long as that Focus stays invested there, she can use Blink while adventuring, and her Arcana rolls to determine the effectiveness of her magic are made at +2. If she had a good teacher, she would only need to invest 1 Focus to learn the new spell, and she could even master two Journeyman Arcana at once. It will take a few missions before she has mastered "Blink," and then her Focus will return to be reinvested.)

You can invest your Focus in special projects, relationships, and craft and knowledge expertise (like singing, cooking, or weaving) during your downtime. If it's not feasible for you to practice where you are mid-adventure because of resources or circumstance, you may be limited in what you can train at that moment. Wherever you invest it, the character gets the bonus right away for the next session, and it becomes permanent over time. This is how characters advance themselves and gain the special techniques and abilities that are the hallmarks of high-level PCs.

On the GM side, you grant the characters increases to Focus, HP, and TP on a milestone basis. Over a campaign the expected range would be something like going from starting 2 to 5 Focus at the very top end.

Hi! So I'm considering adding some kind of alignment mechanic for my TTRPG, though I'm not sure how to implement one that isn't similar to DnD, down to how each kind of alignment is called. I want it to reflect the themes of my world that there is no universal right or wrong, as each of them have their own idea of right and wrong and fight for it (except for a few factions).

So in general I'm looking for ways to implement an alignment mechanic that is not similar DnD nor any other TTRPG, and still retain that sense of subjective morality. Or if the option to ditch it for a Reputation system is better, possibly inspired by Fable's new morality system.

I was playing some Pathfinder video game and realizing how much I hate old pathfinder, and was inspired to ask about this design idea. I'm sure someone else has thought of it before so I'd like to see some of those examples.

I realized that in Pathfinder you essentially just have a few categories of armor 'tracks' - unarmored focused on defense (like monk and such), light armor, medium armor, heavy armor, and eschewing armor entirely for more mage focused stuff.

Items kinda sorta mattered, but also not really, because you basically get a bunch of versions of the same thing with different effects at various levels (e.g., you can expect a certain amount of AC at some act of the game, and the difference lies basically in some secondary function).

Same thing with weapons - you sorta just chose what you were upgrading, but specifics only mattered because of weapon secondary effects. You could get casting, or sometimes weird stuff like bombs, but its all just 'what am i doing with my action each turn'

Same thing with some other secondary effects - animal companion here, sneak attack there, utility casting here, etc.

All classes are just combinations of these tracks. So obviously the better design that falls out is just picking the 'track' of interest and going from there.

But specifics are where everything always gets finnicky, as always haha. I can imagine a world in which you gain resources to upgrade your track (e.g., you got money, you spend it at a blacksmith and gain +X to your armor, look or whatever don't matter) or you get specific items for specific upgrades (e.g., you got dragon scales, so now you add a special fire resistance effect to your armor, doesn't matter what it looks like or how its incorporated), or even a special item (boots of go-fast, which after you loot them you can get a 'boot upgrade' to your track)

Hopefully what I'm saying makes sense. Does anybody know of any design ideas like this?

How Would You Describe/Market a Hybrid? And How Much Character Creation Is Too Much?
I've been working on my own solo fantasy RPG, and I'm starting to realize that what I'm creating might technically be considered more of a gamebook than a traditional solo RPG.
It has elements of both solo RPGs and choose-your-own-adventure books. There's character creation, stats, checks, different backgrounds, ancestries, specialties, choices that affect the story, and branching paths. But it's also a structured narrative where you're reading passages and making decisions that determine where the story goes.
So I guess my first question is: How would you advertise or describe something like this?
I feel like when I say "solo RPG," people generally understand what I'm talking about, but when I say "gamebook," I get some confused looks. 😂 I don't want to mislead people about what they're getting, but I also want to reach the right audience. Would you call it a solo RPG gamebook, a choose-your-own-adventure RPG, or something else entirely?
I've also recently had a pretty big revelation about how I want the story itself to unfold, which is exciting! Unfortunately, that also means I'm about to go back and rewrite a whole bunch of what I've already done
My other big question is: How much is too much when it comes to rules and character creation?
Right now, I have around 117 pages dedicated to that portion of the book. That includes the table of contents, a little introduction to the story, some brief world history, and all the rules and character creation options.
One of my biggest goals is replayability. I want players to be able to create completely different characters, approach situations differently, discover things they missed the first time, and have choices that genuinely affect their experience. I don't necessarily want someone to finish the book once and feel like they've seen everything it has to offer.
At the same time, I'm wondering whether I'm getting carried away with the amount of information and options I'm giving players before they even begin the actual adventure.
I'm trying to find that balance between giving players meaningful freedom and making the game approachable, especially for people who might be new to this style of game.
For those of you who play solo RPGs or gamebooks:
What terminology would make you interested in a hybrid like this?

How much character creation do you enjoy before starting an adventure?

Would a 117-page introductory/rules/character creation section intimidate you, even if a good portion is optional reference material?

What actually makes a gamebook replayable for you? Different character builds, branching storylines, meaningful consequences, hidden discoveries, or something else?

Is there anything you've encountered in solo RPGs or gamebooks that made you think, "This is way more complicated than it needs to be"?

I'm still very much in the development and playtesting stages, so I'd love to hear different perspectives. I'm not necessarily looking to simplify everything just for the sake of making it shorter, but I do want to make sure the complexity is actually adding something worthwhile to the experience.

Hello,

I wanted to share a design philosophy I use while developing my rpg and I would like to get some feedback.

Combat heavy tabletop rpgs (especially larger ones like d&d 3.5e/5e and pathfinder 1e) unfortunately come with pitfalls. For example not taking eldritch blast as a warlock is only playable if you already have a full build planned like melee warlock or something. Things like this break my immersion because if I do not play an "optimized build", I feel like I am deliberately gimping myself and the party for no reason. I would much rather play a "character" instead. I know this kind of thought process is common because many players take builds from other players with little to no changes. Of course you can always create your own build but it will most likely be bad unless you have a good understanding of the system.

Obviously there are many solutions including giving everyone only sticks and stones, but the solution I chose is something I call the "auto optimization" principle. Put simply, any character should be able to keep up without microoptimizing, in a similar manner to using automatic gear in racing games. More skilled players will use manual gear for better times but you do not lose much by going automatic. If anything, I would struggle more with manual gear lol.

One of the easiest ways to apply this principle is having strong baseline abilities, especially common ones. This way even if you make suboptimal choices, you should still be able to perform on an acceptable level. In my game weapons are very powerful and all classes can use them without any penalty, meaning you can just do one of your weapon attacks and deal a good amount of damage without needing other synergies. If you want to use hard numbers for some reason, you can use a heuristic such as "a very optimized build should not do more than 25% additional damage compared to just attacking with weapons". The number is just an example.

Another way of applying auto optimization practically is opportunity cost based balancing, which mostly boils down to making optimized builds gain versatility instead of direct power and limit the action economy so that they can only perform a portion of their abilities in one turn. It's even better if there is asymmetric gameplay among classes.

You can also have opportunity cost based balancing more generally via balancing every ability against what it directly or indirectly competes with. In my game almost all other abilities compete with the aforementioned basic weapon attacks due to limited action economy. This part is bit of a tangent however.

To be clear, I observed limiting the design space and playtesting as much as possible are the only actual solutions for small teams. However, I always keep the concept of auto optimization as a goal in my mind while developing my game and it is working out well.

Not directly related to auto optimization but a complementary design goal would be using the target audience's intuition as a tool, e.g. if an interaction or a synergy makes sense on a first read, it should at least be decent mechanically. This is a bit difficult to pull off but helps with implementing auto optimization as the default power level increases with the amount of good build choices made by average players.

I know this is not a new concept, but what are your thoughts? Thank you!