Tuesday, May 14, 2019

The Masked Ones (“Just Use Goblins”)

Here's another attempt at wrangling unruly layouts and the “Just Use Goblins” concept into something useful for handling encounters and descriptions at the table.

This time, I've taken some of the feedback from the previous post and replaced most of the “stat-block facts/lore dumps” with Rumors that harness that old workhorse: The Requisite Reaction Roll. You can choose to have even/unshaded numbers be True or False, or they can be deemed accurate on a case-by-case basis through direct interaction with these pesky thesps during play. It ends up doing quadruple duty by also determining the factions (my line of thinking here is that some are more likely to be friendlier than others) and even provides some sample descriptive assistance in addition to setting the traditional disposition of the encounter with the good ol’ bell curve.

I don’t mind how this seems to work on the surface, but as always feedback is greatly appreciated. I probably wouldn’t have hit on this specific line-of-thinking without the gracious and helpful observations of HDA from My Terrible Sorcery Is Without Equal In The West and Anne from DIY & Dragons. Thank you both ever so much!

8 comments:

  1. This rules dude. You are on fire lately!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks HDA! I just hope the Muse hangs around and keeps me from falling into a rut! This is proving to be a fun distraction from the stack of unfinished Hexes I've been staring at :)

      I'm really digging the "Reaction Roll for Rumors/Factions" thing, I just hope it doesn't prove too taxing to come up with 36 entries for each monster! I might end up going portrait with the layout too...If I can cram this on half a page, that opens up some room for some illustrations/artwork!

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  2. That is SO MANY rumors! I do really like the tribe/mask pairing mechanic, and I enjoy their very literal names.

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  3. If you have a template for this, care to share? :D

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    Replies
    1. Not really a template per se as these were just tables I slapped together in a spreadsheet and then arranged for layout with a spot of formatting. Since I've been changing them up for the different "Goblins" I really just go with whatever I can cram into a single page.
      Are you needing something like this, but blank? Is there a particular file-format you're looking for? I'm not sure very many standard document formats will play-super nice with the tables here and respect the page limits/printing, but I might be able to generate something...

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    2. Actually, it seems the best way is to dive into table creation and worry about formatting later! Thanks

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    3. Definitely let me know what you come up with! Always curious to see what others might be able to do with this!

      Delete

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