*Thanks for watching!* Are you making your own TTRPG system? Let us know in the comments below! If you wanna grab a copy of Bounty Hunter, digital or in softcover, head on over to our book store! www.greatgamemaster.com/dm/shop/
Suggestion for the "last ditch effort" mechanic: When a character reaches 0, he has a choice - 1) pass out and hope his allies save him OR 2) perform ANY action, including complex actions or spells and then die irrevocably. Option 1 is for situations where "we've got it, just undrestimated our opposition a bit". Option 2 is for the "OH NO WE ALL ARE GOING TO DIE!!!111" situations, where a dying character's action can save the rest of the party.
I remember messing around with bounty hunter and it was fun!! Such a cool concept. I personally like dice, but, I love the creativity to make a game you can play on the fly, with no components. especially once you internalize the rules.
Wow this reminds me so much of the Ars Magica magic system, it sounds so similar yet a lot more simplistic. I bet it can fit in the Mage Hunter logic very well.
I like the "anything is possible" magic concept. A GM friend of mine has a similar concept in his fantasy games, and he describes it like this; Magic is like a language, anyone can learn a few useful phrases; these are spells. However, if you are fluent in the language, you can say anything you want, these are what real mages do and can manipulate their magic in any way that they can imagine. I won't explain his rules for this, because they are his design, not mine, but I like his explanation.
I have been working on my own ttrpg and this channel has been so helpful in providing me with inspiration and the steps i should take in order to make my own game so thank you very very much!!
*Thanks for watching!* Do you have any ideas or input for me? Are you writing your own system? Let us know in the comments below! If you wanna grab a copy of Bounty Hunter, digital or in softcover, head on over to our book store! www.greatgamemaster.com/dm/shop/
For the inventory system, you could do something similar to forbidden lands, and class items into different weights/sizes (such as small, light, large, heavy) and allow the players to only carry a certain amount of each type, or assign each type a numeric value, and then players can only carry a certain number value.
In our system we had a traveling merchant independent of the towns. Each town had special stock it's known for. The merchant had all the special stock. It worked on one day a week random merchant. dm rolled 4 sets to see what overall town stock they had with 4 from nearby towns the merchant passed thrue. Sometimes we would end up in the town the previous merchant was heading to and had the same stock.
Loved Bounty Hunter and have run one-offs of it for several different groups. The one thing it seemed to be missing was a rule for how many action points to deduct from a big monster when the PCs "do something clever". So if they are fighting the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (50 AP) then shooting it is clear - it takes 5AP for a blaster pistol shot. But if they are clever with non-combat skills and trip it up by laying a tripwire, or befuddle it by doing the Bugblatter Beast mating call, it seemed a bit mean to only deduct 1 AP from the Beast. So I handwaved and took a random amount.
I almost brought Bounty hunter! Then I watched a bounty hunter game that you lead. AP sounds like a great idea: players need to think carefully what they do or don't don. However in practice everyone seems to just do all needed and very rarely make a decision not to spend AP. So no random, no real decisions... a good idea but would require still some work on it (judging only based on that one oneshot adventure).
I liked Bounty Hunter tried convincing my players but despite being RP heavy they wouldn't try it. I'm hoping mage hunter being fantasy based might be a smaller step for them. We love dice but I really wanna see how the AP influences and adds tension to each decision. Also big fan of the rules light aspect I hope that's maintained in MH.
Magic system seems really close to the one in Mage: the Awakening! Do check that one out for solutions to that problems, they already did a lot of work on that
Will check the video later but if it's of your making then it is quality work. It's good to see that, as I recall, a question with some sort of resistance initially turns into something exciting. If I may say so.
I am making my own game with its own spell creation rules as well, only I went the route of higher complexity. I haven't gotten to the point of being able to playtest it (still working on the initial balance pass and class creation). So this has definitely given me something to think about when it comes to spell creation.
Thank you for this video it was cool and it gave me a lot of super interesting ideas. I'm not a game designer nor a particularly skilled or knowledgeable player. But I was thinking about your problem with the unbalanced melee class VS the magic class and I think it would be cool to represent the difference between those classes with a speed system. For example the time required for a complex spell is way longer than the time required to draw a sword or an arrow. So somehow the complexity of the enchantment should penalize the caster. For example connecting the action cost with the time requested to cast or something like that. On the other hand another idea could be if system the effort you put in parry/dodge/fight -ing the spell could be cumulative in a way similar to the casting system. So you could have the fighter try to run than slide than attack for a total of X action point in a similar way the caster build his spell. This way the mechanics could be more comparable.
20:18 I think this also depends on the perspective of how the two different spells work. For example, freezing the door shut, let's say that's just rapidly slowing down the molecular movement of the water molecules in the air around the door causing them to solidify into ice, where the warping the stonework is actually much more impactful on the nature of reality, especially of the warping is supposed to keep the density of the stonework relatively close to its starting point so that it doesn't become warped, but brittle. There are many ways to look at this and one could make the argument that either is better or simpler, depending upon perspective and how, exactly, the effect is achieved.
If a fantasy setting follows dream logic, you're not slowing down molecules to freeze a door shut, you're warping reality to realize the concept of a door frozen shut and encased in ice and frost. Warping stone would follow the same exact reality-warping process in this instance. (This is how magic works in The Elder Scrolls In-universe. -and The Matrix, to some extent; the spoon isn't real.)
This is very interesting as a video, I like it. I don't know if you're open to suggestions, but for the carry limit thing, what if there's a super simple limit like 1 heavy object only, but you simply ignore the limit by having a horse, or perhaps by having a horse drawn wagon or carriage?
That isn't a bad idea. The character can carry many - non-heavy objects, but specific objects listed as heavy - only 1 per person. Horses and wagons become problematic as players sometimes 'forget' which is on which and they leave their horses behind lol. So I really like it! :) Thank you for the suggestion!
The magic system sounds a lot like Genesys. I'd reference their magic rules for some inspiration if need be. (It's probably way too late but who knows)
I have played such a magic system and I'm trying to make my own system based on it. The thing you say is exactly the problem. There is always many different ways to do something. For example, you can use magic to heat stuff up, makes sense, right? Now what if one decides to heat up the water in a big cauldron by 80°C (to boiling)? That should not be a very difficult spell. On the other hand, what if someone wanted to heat up the body temperature of an enemy by 30°C? That would lead to immediate death and thus should not be an easy spell. These things make balancing the whole system a nightmare and I am not sure it is such a good idea to have this kind of open magic system.
Carrying things should not be strength based but stamina/constitution based. It's not about the maximum weight you can lift for an instant, it's about carrying things for hours while traveling.
"Kudos to giant corporates!" I mean... if you think making the entire RPG community collectively shit itself and finally galvanize itself to start moving away from D&D and Wizards is a good thing. Wait, the second thing is a good thing, nevermind. Haven't picked up Bounty Hunter yet, thinking about it. But at the same time I need to focus on my own space opera/science fiction system especially since it looks like I got another test group together...
WotC: Start to show signs of failure Everyone: Hey, we made a new system! Honestly the more new games there are, the more it makes me want to stay playing 5e. Way too many choices.
*Thanks for watching!* Are you making your own TTRPG system? Let us know in the comments below!
If you wanna grab a copy of Bounty Hunter, digital or in softcover, head on over to our book store!
www.greatgamemaster.com/dm/shop/
Suggestion for the "last ditch effort" mechanic:
When a character reaches 0, he has a choice - 1) pass out and hope his allies save him OR 2) perform ANY action, including complex actions or spells and then die irrevocably.
Option 1 is for situations where "we've got it, just undrestimated our opposition a bit". Option 2 is for the "OH NO WE ALL ARE GOING TO DIE!!!111" situations, where a dying character's action can save the rest of the party.
I remember messing around with bounty hunter and it was fun!! Such a cool concept. I personally like dice, but, I love the creativity to make a game you can play on the fly, with no components. especially once you internalize the rules.
I'm excited to see your nightmare inducing spell tables; I'm just interested in seeing as many different ways of bringing magic to the game.
Bounty Hunter was my first Kickstarter backed project, so this is a Hard YES! I am designing my owen system for my group and your Videos helped a lot
Thanks for making this guy! I've always loved the idea of reserve points 😉
Wow this reminds me so much of the Ars Magica magic system, it sounds so similar yet a lot more simplistic. I bet it can fit in the Mage Hunter logic very well.
I like the "anything is possible" magic concept. A GM friend of mine has a similar concept in his fantasy games, and he describes it like this; Magic is like a language, anyone can learn a few useful phrases; these are spells. However, if you are fluent in the language, you can say anything you want, these are what real mages do and can manipulate their magic in any way that they can imagine. I won't explain his rules for this, because they are his design, not mine, but I like his explanation.
I have been working on my own ttrpg and this channel has been so helpful in providing me with inspiration and the steps i should take in order to make my own game so thank you very very much!!
Finished our campaign last week, we'd be happy to do a few one shots with Mage Hunter while prepping for the next adventure.
*Thanks for watching!* Do you have any ideas or input for me? Are you writing your own system? Let us know in the comments below!
If you wanna grab a copy of Bounty Hunter, digital or in softcover, head on over to our book store!
www.greatgamemaster.com/dm/shop/
Your discussion of spell customization just makes me want to play Ars Magica again.
GUY! You make me believe in the craft! keep up the tremendous work!
I love working on new ttrpg to run with friends. I liked what you did with bounty hunter.
For the inventory system, you could do something similar to forbidden lands, and class items into different weights/sizes (such as small, light, large, heavy) and allow the players to only carry a certain amount of each type, or assign each type a numeric value, and then players can only carry a certain number value.
In our system we had a traveling merchant independent of the towns. Each town had special stock it's known for. The merchant had all the special stock. It worked on one day a week random merchant. dm rolled 4 sets to see what overall town stock they had with 4 from nearby towns the merchant passed thrue. Sometimes we would end up in the town the previous merchant was heading to and had the same stock.
I presume the number is some sort of weight-bulk ratio so that something compact, but heavy may have the same number as something bulky, but light?
@@XianHu that's sort of what I was thinking, like a sort of matrix to assign values to objects based on their characteristics
Loved Bounty Hunter and have run one-offs of it for several different groups. The one thing it seemed to be missing was a rule for how many action points to deduct from a big monster when the PCs "do something clever". So if they are fighting the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (50 AP) then shooting it is clear - it takes 5AP for a blaster pistol shot. But if they are clever with non-combat skills and trip it up by laying a tripwire, or befuddle it by doing the Bugblatter Beast mating call, it seemed a bit mean to only deduct 1 AP from the Beast. So I handwaved and took a random amount.
I love everything about this. You are a titan in the gaming community as far as I am concerned. big kudos and thanks to you oh great GM.
This sounds really interesting. Might need to look at bounty hunter
I almost brought Bounty hunter! Then I watched a bounty hunter game that you lead. AP sounds like a great idea: players need to think carefully what they do or don't don. However in practice everyone seems to just do all needed and very rarely make a decision not to spend AP. So no random, no real decisions... a good idea but would require still some work on it (judging only based on that one oneshot adventure).
I liked Bounty Hunter tried convincing my players but despite being RP heavy they wouldn't try it. I'm hoping mage hunter being fantasy based might be a smaller step for them. We love dice but I really wanna see how the AP influences and adds tension to each decision. Also big fan of the rules light aspect I hope that's maintained in MH.
Magic system seems really close to the one in Mage: the Awakening! Do check that one out for solutions to that problems, they already did a lot of work on that
Why does Guy remind me of a cross between Ricky Gervais and Eddie Izzard? Good stuff here, Guy!
Will check the video later but if it's of your making then it is quality work.
It's good to see that, as I recall, a question with some sort of resistance initially turns into something exciting. If I may say so.
I am making my own game with its own spell creation rules as well, only I went the route of higher complexity. I haven't gotten to the point of being able to playtest it (still working on the initial balance pass and class creation). So this has definitely given me something to think about when it comes to spell creation.
Xambrian wizard hunters from talislanta and the mode system remind me of your system
The reserve points seem like it would work if they don't replenish, making them only useful for a campaign
Awesome.
Thank you for this video it was cool and it gave me a lot of super interesting ideas.
I'm not a game designer nor a particularly skilled or knowledgeable player.
But I was thinking about your problem with the unbalanced melee class VS the magic class and I think it would be cool to represent the difference between those classes with a speed system.
For example the time required for a complex spell is way longer than the time required to draw a sword or an arrow. So somehow the complexity of the enchantment should penalize the caster. For example connecting the action cost with the time requested to cast or something like that.
On the other hand another idea could be if system the effort you put in parry/dodge/fight -ing the spell could be cumulative in a way similar to the casting system. So you could have the fighter try to run than slide than attack for a total of X action point in a similar way the caster build his spell. This way the mechanics could be more comparable.
Had to click this as fast as I could
20:18 I think this also depends on the perspective of how the two different spells work. For example, freezing the door shut, let's say that's just rapidly slowing down the molecular movement of the water molecules in the air around the door causing them to solidify into ice, where the warping the stonework is actually much more impactful on the nature of reality, especially of the warping is supposed to keep the density of the stonework relatively close to its starting point so that it doesn't become warped, but brittle. There are many ways to look at this and one could make the argument that either is better or simpler, depending upon perspective and how, exactly, the effect is achieved.
If a fantasy setting follows dream logic, you're not slowing down molecules to freeze a door shut, you're warping reality to realize the concept of a door frozen shut and encased in ice and frost. Warping stone would follow the same exact reality-warping process in this instance.
(This is how magic works in The Elder Scrolls In-universe. -and The Matrix, to some extent; the spoon isn't real.)
I had to write up spell examples as well.
This is very interesting as a video, I like it. I don't know if you're open to suggestions, but for the carry limit thing, what if there's a super simple limit like 1 heavy object only, but you simply ignore the limit by having a horse, or perhaps by having a horse drawn wagon or carriage?
That isn't a bad idea. The character can carry many - non-heavy objects, but specific objects listed as heavy - only 1 per person. Horses and wagons become problematic as players sometimes 'forget' which is on which and they leave their horses behind lol. So I really like it! :) Thank you for the suggestion!
The magic system sounds a lot like Genesys. I'd reference their magic rules for some inspiration if need be. (It's probably way too late but who knows)
Does your discord have a design section that would be awesome
‘Ello ello, what’s all this then? 😅
I have played such a magic system and I'm trying to make my own system based on it. The thing you say is exactly the problem. There is always many different ways to do something.
For example, you can use magic to heat stuff up, makes sense, right?
Now what if one decides to heat up the water in a big cauldron by 80°C (to boiling)? That should not be a very difficult spell. On the other hand, what if someone wanted to heat up the body temperature of an enemy by 30°C? That would lead to immediate death and thus should not be an easy spell. These things make balancing the whole system a nightmare and I am not sure it is such a good idea to have this kind of open magic system.
Do you plan to make a super heroes rpg with you system ?
So, are we calling this the "Hunter System" or the "Sclanders System"?
Carrying things should not be strength based but stamina/constitution based.
It's not about the maximum weight you can lift for an instant, it's about carrying things for hours while traveling.
Hi. I backed your Bounty Hunter kickstarter. It never arrived
Please send your backer number and name to guy@greatgamemaster.com. If we didn't send the book to you, we'll immediately send you one.
I don't think many people understand the importance of play testing, and iterative game design.
"Kudos to giant corporates!" I mean... if you think making the entire RPG community collectively shit itself and finally galvanize itself to start moving away from D&D and Wizards is a good thing. Wait, the second thing is a good thing, nevermind.
Haven't picked up Bounty Hunter yet, thinking about it. But at the same time I need to focus on my own space opera/science fiction system especially since it looks like I got another test group together...
WotC: Start to show signs of failure
Everyone: Hey, we made a new system!
Honestly the more new games there are, the more it makes me want to stay playing 5e. Way too many choices.
ffs that chat notification blip at 23:05 is irritating........