Post B0nGi1bQiXPRDMe4PY by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
(DIR) More posts by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
(DIR) Post #B0kv1TT0kxmNpPemIq by Longwing@wandering.shop
2025-11-29T23:31:34Z
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I'm having an Allan Turing/Binary problem with my #ttrpg design.I've got an injury system that I'm pretty proud of, but every time I try to add other negative effects (poison, disease, paralysis, etc.) everything I do can just be streamlined down to the existing mechanics.
(DIR) Post #B0kv1UmBt8iPtBdbpw by Longwing@wandering.shop
2025-11-29T23:31:48Z
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"What if they take damage over time from the poison?""Lingering effects are covered by the injury system""What if Diseases make everything a little harder until cured?""The injury system makes everything a little harder until resolved."
(DIR) Post #B0kv1VydQMGPc4T3s8 by Longwing@wandering.shop
2025-11-29T23:32:33Z
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On the one hand, the point is to make a game that's more focused on narrative than on simulation... on the other hand, lumping in all negative effects into a single mechanic makes them mechanically boring.
(DIR) Post #B0kv1WvTtZKqYa03ay by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2025-11-30T01:28:38Z
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@Longwing I don't see what the problem is here. You have a unified, simple approach to dealing with debilities.If you can't come up with a good reason that a thing is different from what's already described, then trying to multiply entities is just doing it for the sake of making things more complicated.So mechanically, should there be any difference between a lingering poison and a wound that isn't healed? In a mechanical sense, does there need to be? Is the problem just as easily addressed by making a note on the character sheet "poisoned" instead of "stabbed in the side"? Or is the narrative and fictive requirement covered simply by the notation and how that affects your choices of narration and fiction going forward? I'd say that seems to be perfectly fine.
(DIR) Post #B0n1VElcxiogxyrLUm by Longwing@wandering.shop
2025-12-01T01:50:39Z
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@lextenebris And maybe that's all there is to it. Why add additional mechanics?I'm still chewing on it, I have a few _ideas_, but maybe there's nothing to fix, and I shouldn't lose sight of that.A lot of this comes from a desire for loose compatibility with DnD content (namely adventures). DnD cares a great deal about status effects. Especially poison, disease, paralysis, etc.But then again, I'm NOT emulating DnD's granularity. If I'm throwing out 97%, why keep the last 3%?
(DIR) Post #B0nGhMh0osVsKnwRv6 by Longwing@wandering.shop
2025-12-01T01:53:43Z
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@lextenebris All this stems from writing the bestiary. I've been pulling from older versions of the Monstrous Manual with a focus on foes that actually come up a lot (I'm not bothering to write an entry on _sharks_ for sod's sake).DnD's rogue's gallery is _lousy_ with status effects. Most of them save-or-die, or at least save-or-don't-participate-in-the-next-hour-of-combat. The in-game _rules_ for these effects are horrible, but the effects themselves are often narratively evocative.
(DIR) Post #B0nGhNZbXuBL47U30q by Longwing@wandering.shop
2025-12-01T02:49:00Z
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@lextenebris Ruminating on this more, I think your answer leads me to a solution. It's basically what you describe: Have them tag their character sheet with negative effects like "diseased" or "poisoned". Right now these will only have narrative flavor.I might later come back and plug in a subsystem that builds on the tags, but I don't _need_ that in this draft.
(DIR) Post #B0nGhOc7g1n4IDfZZo by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2025-12-01T04:40:56Z
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@Longwing One of the things I love about *Ironsworn* from a mechanical perspective is that creatures and the entire bestiary really only have one stat that has mechanical import: the rank. And even something's rank is relative and can be adjusted up and down depending on narrative circumstance.Something that is formidable to a single adventurer in tight quarters, capitalized Formidable, may very well be merely Troublesome to a prepared party. And everything else about anything is about fictional positioning.(cont)
(DIR) Post #B0nGi1bQiXPRDMe4PY by lextenebris@social.vivaldi.net
2025-12-01T04:41:05Z
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@Longwing So when I think about status effects like diseased or poisoned, I think about it from the perspective of how do I do those things in *Ironsworn*. For short-term effects, they provide fictional explanations. If I'm trying to take out a cave spider and roll a miss on my Strike, and I need to capitalize Pay the Price. Then it's perfectly reasonable for me to say that price is that I'm poisoned by its bite. Now that's part of the ongoing fiction. Let's say that later I roll a weak hit on a Clash. I do my damage, but also have to Pay the Price. In this case, I know my character is poisoned. Maybe it starts setting in, and this explains why I lose health. Moreover, this is going to be an ongoing problem that I have to deal with until I do something about it, perhaps with a Face Danger roll to see if I can put together an antidote.It's amazing how useful just a purely narrative tag to explain things that happen mechanically can be.