WotBS A wholly unofficial thing I'm tinkering with called Streets of Ragesia

[RangerWickett]

Update August 2nd, 2023. Scroll down to today's post to see a working version of the rules.

Inspired by this dumb pun -

- I'm tinkering with a tabletop game that uses dice pools for quick combat resolution to better capture the visceral fun of classic Beat Em Up video games. This is not an EN Publishing project, just, um, fanfiction of my own prior work. I need to do some playtests, but here's a tease of how it looks so far.

Character portraits courtesy of Hero Forge and me spending way too much time posing people.

 

[BookTenTiger]

This is really intriguing, I look forward to reading more. Is the idea that you roll your dice pool, and then certain abilities are unlocked by rolling those numbers?

And yes, I also know the siren song of spending way too long posing Hero Forge characters!

 

[RangerWickett]

This is really intriguing, I look forward to reading more. Is the idea that you roll your dice pool, and then certain abilities are unlocked by rolling those numbers?

And yes, I also know the siren song of spending way too long posing Hero Forge characters!

The core mechanic is PCs and bosses rolling dice pools, while weaker foes typically roll one die each. Rather than the D20 style of declaring an action and rolling to see if you succeed, here your dice results show you what options you have for the turn.

1+ is typically a trick that isn't directly damaging.

2+ is a light attack.

4+ is a heavy attack.

6+ is a 'super move.'

A starting dice pool is six d6s. I'm planning to build at least three 'stages' with different themes and foes, and you'd probably get bigger dice pools as the game gets farther along.

PCs and bosses roll their whole dice pool at the start of the round and have to keep track of them. Other enemies just roll when they take their turn. Play order goes back and forth between the sides of the combat, and each side decides who acts in what order. Each 'turn' is one character taking one action, which costs one die (or sometimes multiple dice if you perform a 'combo').

You can also spend dice in reaction to another creature's turn for defense and counterattacks, and there are 'basic maneuvers' like pushing and grabbing that you can trigger off any hit by spending an extra die.

Once you have spent all your dice, you can take no more actions. Once all dice pools are empty and all non-boss enemies have acted once, a new round begins.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

this pun is worse then the edwin starr pun in zeitgeist book 11.

 

[RangerWickett]

this pun is worse then the edwin starr pun in zeitgeist book 11.

I'd forgotten that one, heh.

 

[Lylandra]

This sounds like fun! And the visuals are spot on
Also, the Guthwulf vs. Katrina would have been quite intense in our campaign

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Solid Heroforge work, @RangerWickett.

 

[RangerWickett]

This sounds like fun! And the visuals are spot on
Also, the Guthwulf vs. Katrina would have been quite intense in our campaign

Do I know that story?

 

[Lylandra]

Do I know that story?

maybe. They had a sort-of relationship prior to the campaign's start, as Katrina was also the ex girlfriend of one of our players before she ran to Ragesia and I wanted to connect them to Guthwulf. That... backfired

 

[RangerWickett]

I put in a fair bit of work trying to get this ready for a playtest . . . and I haven't been able to wrangle people to try it out. So thank you for the bump. Maybe one of you would like to do a test, or give a look to the rules and tell me if they seem playable, or what sort of enemy designs would be fun to face.

The Rules

If I were to actually release this, I'd definitely want flashier layout. This is wholly utilitarian now. Apologies.

Also, I got through figuring out how PCs should work, but I haven't really designed any enemies yet. It is a work in progress. Apologies.

Streets of Ragesia - A Burning Sky Beat'em Up RPG - 2 August 2023

docs.google.com

The Characters
Click each name to see the character sheets.

Guthwulf. His upgrades are drawn from apocryphal details of the inquisitor's three siblings, who were challenged by their father to punish the world for taking his wife and their mother away.

Katrina. Her upgrades are themed on various fiery elements of the campaign (the caves under Seaquen, the Fire Forest, and the Torch).

Rantle. His upgrades are basically sidekicks who show up to join the fight.

Shalosha. Her upgrades are different magical swords, including her father's flawed attempt to create an artifact to rival the Torch of the Burning Sky.