overgeeked
B/X Known World
Well, it looks like a lot of people are suddenly interested in doing fantasy heartbreakers again so let’s have a thread for it.
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D&D General Fantasy heartbreaker mechanics…
- Thread starter overgeeked
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DMZ2112
Chaotic Looseleaf
So passes Denethor, son of Ecthelion. And so pass also the days of Gondor that you have known; for good or evil they are ended. Ill deeds have been done here; but let now all enmity that lies between you be put away, for it was contrived by the Enemy and works his will.
Anyway, I've got this system where the core mechanic involves a package of pre-sliced bologna and a bottle of flat Sierra Mist.
Seriously, did you know that if you roll three of the same kind of die but only read the middle result, it imparts a bell curve on the result of the roll? Sorcery, I know, but embracing the black arts is a small price to pay for a good statistical distribution.
Anyway, I've got this system where the core mechanic involves a package of pre-sliced bologna and a bottle of flat Sierra Mist.
Seriously, did you know that if you roll three of the same kind of die but only read the middle result, it imparts a bell curve on the result of the roll? Sorcery, I know, but embracing the black arts is a small price to pay for a good statistical distribution.
TwoSix
"Diegetics", by L. Ron Gygax
I’ve homebrewed this to use honey ham and Mountain Dew, but the core mechanic still works great.
Sacrosanct
Legend
Not really. It's really any knock off of any D&D system where a good idea is buried beneath bad mechanics. Just ask the guy who coined the term in the first place:
The basic notion is that nearly all of the listed games have one great idea buried in them somewhere.... That's why they break my heart, because the nuggets are so buried and bemired within all the painful material I listed above. - Ron Edwards, 2002
Vaalingrade
Legend
I have never heard this definition nor seen a heartbreaker that was OSR
The definition I remembered was that they were games designed by people that did not acknowledge gaming had evolved past AD&D.
The OSR bit was a joke.
TwoSix
"Diegetics", by L. Ron Gygax
Yea, although the usage of the term has broadened a bit over the last 20 years, and isn't necessarily a pejorative. It can also be used for any of the myriad games that are "like D&D but I made it better (for my values of better)".
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
Yep, love 3d20 take middle for D&D:
y = -0.075x2 + 1.575x - 0.775 is the equation for 3d20 take middle.
It doesn't generate a "bell curve" necessarily, but it is a nicely symmetrical distribution.
Sorcery was just an early name for mathematics after all.
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