In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 305):

I will only provide the base numbers for Xiuwei gain, as it is possible for there to be other multipliers in the future.
And yes, Xiuwei resets to zero after each breakthrough.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 23:01, Sun 01 Aug 2021.

Hah, I'm honestly getting kind of nervous in my own game right now, and I am really hoping for the best right now that this isn't as bad as my paranoia seems to think it'll be.

Huh, then I'm sitting at 2022/2000 for rank 2. Gotta punch some trees for the attributes.
And Zhiqiao Muyu Fa ranked up too.



Yup, I'm aware. I'm mostly trying to juggle that knowledge with a pretty pressing need to do good now on the character's side.

And apparently, Azure Dragon helps A LOT in that juggling.



Depends A LOT on just how immortal that bandit leader is going to be xD
It IS a pretty cool story, though!
This message was last edited by the player at 23:11, Sun 01 Aug 2021.

I'm also really anxious for you Wei Jing. Play smart, and flee if you have to!

None of our fights have been 'easy' so far, but I guess that makes sense considering the world we live in and our relatively low-status in it (amongst other cultivators, that is).

Frankly, Lei doesn't pick fights, so the only times in the future where he will be having difficult encounters would be with other cultivators attacking him first.

Dunno why he's being attacked right now, probably from one of Gao Li's enemies, but IDK 100%. If this mass series of attacks doesn't fell the assailant, Lei could get downed via shenanigans. Either way, he's really messed up rn.

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 315):

Also, Wei Jing isn't allowed to die before making weapons for everyone! ;P

Speaking of, small edit to my post made :3

Since I ended up chatting half the day about game design with nerdy & nerdier friends, a consideration:

I'm seeing Self and Opposed rolls being a bit rough - there's occasionally doubts on what kind of roll you're making, and it flows down in not knowing if you should spend a luck to reroll because you're not certain you should have rolled low or high.

Would it break anything important to move to a Difficulty Class system for the Self rolls? It's probably easier than trying to turn Opposed rolls into a roll-under format (even if it could probably be made work)

I do agree with that idea, I often find myself confused about what exactly i need to roll when thinking about different things.

Admittedly been thinking the same thing myself.

It would be better for the combat system overall if it would follow the same logic everywhere, so both Self and Opposed rolls would be either "roll high" or "roll low"

Since the general theme seems to be "Roll low to succeed, but failing (rolling high) gives you a chance to improve", i'd say the combat system would need some work. Probably along the lines of making attack actions Combat Self tests in that if you roll above your weapon skill, you miss.

However, that would pose a problem with how Dodge, Parry and Block are supposed to be Opposed rolls. There's not really a 'clean' solution for this as at the extremes, 99 Dodge means you only have a 1% chance of actually taking damage, so probably making it a Self test that can only apply to one single attack per round (so one Dodge, one Parry and one Block at most) might work best there. That could potentially mitigate three attacks per round (assuming three successes), and limited to one attempt per attack, which is about fair for a character optimized towards not getting hit.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:49, Tue 03 Aug 2021.

Or you could go by degrees of success, where a defense is only successful if it succeeds at least as much or more than the relative attack. As for HOW to calculate degrees of success that's another can of worm - the usual alternatives would be 'The lowest roll wins', 'the roll with the most difference from the skill level wins' (similar with 'lowest roll wins', but with the actual skill level being important) and 'Highest (but still below skill level) roll wins'.
The first and last method make comparations easier, while the second is more internally coherent but requires a smidgen of extra math.

It's still probably overall easier to move everything to a Difficulty Class system, but I admit advancement would require some thought.

Well, there are plenty of ways to deal with d100s, its a rather forgiving dice mechanically (though not luck wise! D100s tend to be the worst for swinging luck) so you can take a look at the many options avaliable. One way to do it is the way the 40k rpgs do it, with looking for low rolls, and every 10 bellow your TN is a degree of success. Though, the dms stated desire to give players extra d100s as they go through cultivation stages makes that one rough

Yeah, another option would be to make Dodge a Self test to see if your attempt succeeds, and then roll below the attack roll to see if you can actually dodge the strike, though that would make avoiding attacks have two points of failure and, right now, every time an attack is made it automatically succeeds unless an opposed roll is made.

You could flip it though, in that the weapon skill is deducted from the d100 roll, and similarly the Dodge rating would be deducted from the d100 roll for that, though that would be a throwback to THAC0 days where lesser is better, and psychologically bigger numbers feel better than smaller ones.

If you're going for a Difficulty Class system (WH40k player? :P), you need something to take crits into account. There's the Space/Rolemaster system that uses d100s, and when someone rolls 96-100, a second d100 is rolled and added to it, and when rolling 1-5, a second d100 is rolled and subtracted from it. Given that Dodge and Weapon skills (should) cap out at 100 (since it's impossible to roll a standard d100 and come up higher than 100) it allows for displays of exceptional skill from both you and your opponents if they get lucky (or not).

Then you say something like "Every 10 points your attack beats the Dodge roll with you get +x damage per die", which would play off of both critical successes and fumbles, and say something bad happens on a fumble (negative dice result) like "your weapon flies out of your grip" or "Your attempt to dodge has ended up with you twisting your ankle, -10 to Kick and Dodge rolls for the remainder of combat". You can mitigate earlygame from being particularly lethal by simply not allowing the enemy dice to 'explode' and rolling standard d100s for them.

Admittedly, i rather like the system myself, and it adds a measure of unpredictability even when two people are using the same dice.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:14, Tue 03 Aug 2021.

An easy way to think about when to do self or opposed rolls is to consider the target of the action.

Self rolls are often something that has to do with oneself internally, i.e. one's ability to make items they already know, training, fortitude in the face of a stunning strike, loss of strength/qi in the face of some bewitchment magic. The idea is that you have an innate ability to overcome these obstacles, but might fall short of it mainly due to bad luck.

Opposed rolls on the other hand has to do with oneself externally, i.e. one's ability to make an item they are not familiar with making, throwing a cut at an enemy, trying to jump across a ravine etc. There is often an identifiable challenger, and there is a likelihood that it is impossible to accomplish because you are simply not good enough. "Luck" in terms the game world and the character is less of a reason for failures of events that require opposed rolls, and the player may just be simply powerless in a face of a demigod etc

In, short if the event has something to do with your personal demons its a self roll.
If an event has something to do with an external challenger (be it animate or inanimate) it is an opposed roll.


------

I was actually thinking of doing the degrees of success thing, but i figured that i only wanted 1 roll to resolve a situation instead of having to roll twice and look up a table. The way that has the fastest and the most furious is the one I decided was the best.

Ideally, if I could I would have stuck to only self rolls, like Kimari said it becomes more confusing how to do those parries. And I want to keep it to 1 roll one action (excluding damage of course).

In a sense the idea of opposed rolls is a method for using rolls to determine a fluid difficulty class (base difficulty of opponent's skill + dice) This way you can have some unexpected moments - much like combat in real life.

Edited my post while you replied, the degrees of success thing could work with Rolemaster, what's your thoughts on that?

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 327):

It is certainly a fun system, and I think I might spend some time trying to hack it in someday to add more flavor to rolls.

Though admittedly I'm kinda on the fence about criticals and fumbles, but I ultimately am more towards the more old school way of doing things where you are rewarded for being prepared, strategic, or making a good decision as opposed to obtaining glee from luck.

True, though the luck factor is pretty much unavoidable in any system where dice are involved. Now matter how well you prepare and strategize, if you fail your roll you've failed your roll. The GM toolbox at your disposal remain the same though, like for example rewarding creative thought by adding a little extra treasure at the end of it, the Big Bad being delayed from joining the fighting for another round, or facing one enemy instead of two, and the same would apply to determining what shape the (dis)advantages that are rolled would take.

Looking forward to seeing those attempts to work it in, this is a Playtest RP after all ;)

Edit: I know there's a system called Wushu that relies almost entirely on the Rule of Cool. The amount of dice you get to see if your actions succeed is determined by how well you've described them. For example, a post full of elaborate planning and execution would get 5 dice to roll, whereas a handful of words would only get 2. It's a decent system in theory, though i find it relies more on player skill to describe a good scene than on character skill to perform it... and tends to be rather heavily influenced by GM tastes.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:07, Tue 03 Aug 2021.

It also sounds like a nightmare in play by post format. If the GM doesn't take the burden of making every roll, it's one extra back-and-forth in the always clunky 'what do I roll here' moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:28, Thu 05 Aug 2021.

Was not expecting this turn of events! This definitely isn't something Lei is versed on how to handle... The scale is frankly to big for him to make any moves with confidence...

If there had been just a little more time, Lei would have broken through to the second layer of his technique, and my confidence in a direct confrontation wouldn't be so low.

Yeah, it's pretty much a system for use during tabletop or chat/Discord sessions. PbP is wholly unsuited for it unless you have a GM that F5s the screen every five minutes since they would need to reply to pretty much everything where dice are involved, but in terms of systems that reward player creativity with mechanical bonuses it was worth mentioning if anything.

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 331):

Personally, I'm ALSO feeling the lack of a defensive skill, oh brother in standing target-ness.

As for your situation... well, I'm all out of great ideas to help. Go with the flow and punch them all, we're all with you! Gogogo! xD

Haha it may come to that depending on how much I decide for Lei to hate this guy's answers!

Then again, if they get suspicious of Lei's questions, they may attack first. Which is similar but with a worse chance of victory for Lei XD

Well, Lei won a bunch of money, right?

Th best tactic is obviously the Osakan Destroyer.

Option B:

It gets even better once you can move items using Qi after cultivation:

Yeeeaahh... I'm just going to leave this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJxM3POU92w