Recent content by Fenris-77

So my book is Shadowdark specific, not system agnostic, so there will be stat blocks. Confined, for the most part, to a long appendix section though, with only core NPCs and the occasional necessary block in the city ward write-ups.

On a mechanical level I'm thinking about using something I'd call NPC abilities. These would be abilities listed in a stat block that only work on other NPCs (as opposed to the PCs). I'm still looking for another first reader or two. This sucker is going to be close to 200 pages and have a lot...

You hush.

Each of the wards has a list of 20+ jobs and types of folk in a list for just this purpose. Like this one... There will also be a random doode generator.

Based on this I wrote up a list of ideas for two (or four) page spreads - Criminals and toughs Militia The Authorities (Watch and Inquisition) Fops and dandies actors and dilettantes alchemists and students sewer horrors

Yeah, this is the kind of thing I was thinking about. I favour a Skerples approach to bestiaries for SD, which means a range of stat blocks and some associated random tables for a 'group'. Like this one for Orcs.

Another question. What kinds of stat blocks would you want to see in a city setting (aside from core NPCs, obviously)?

We aren't even really talking about the dice themselves as much as the decision that rolling the dice represents (i.e. a meaningful decision point that a player elects to go ahead with based on the diegetic situation). Obviously rolling dice without context is meaningless, btu RPGs tend to have...

@pemerton - that the game presents a difficulty number means it's applicable to the die roll, correct? That doesn't change anything I said.

The breadth of application is actually what has me keeping it close to 'meta'. Not quite meta, but pretty close. The thinnish diegetic index gets thinner the more things you apply it to.

When you toss a coin to see where you're going for dinner the implication is that the result doesn't matter - you are randomizing between two equal choices (for some value of equal). Nothing about the example really applies to RPG play as far as I can see. No, I mean rolls made at the table...

IDK, there is a diegetic tie for stress, but I don't think that really means it escapes being a metacurrency completely. It's not luck points mind, but the connection to 'the fiction' (shudder) is pretty gauzy and ephemeral.