CSJ's Things Repository (RPGs, writing, music, oh my!)

I've been putting this off for half a year plus.

Anyway, I have bunch of things to post here over time, but the main one I will be posting about here is this:

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Spoiler

What is Homestuck?

Homestuck is a hybrid webcomic/animation/musical experience/online adventure/multimedia work written/directed by Andrew Hussie about four kids playing a game.

What is Homestuck?

Homestuck is a story about growing up.

Homestuck covers a huge variety of themes and features incredible variation in tone and presentation. Ludicrous amounts of content are wrapped around a core theme of adolescent struggles with adulthood, self-identity and change.

What is SVRSE?

SVRSE is a customised pen-and-paper game system featuring the use of dice rolls and descriptive statistics designed to allow players to explore and experience worlds/universes inspired and/or derived from Homestuck.

What is SVRSE?

SVRSE is a game about growing up.

Yeah, it's one of many attempts to make Sburb into a pen and paper-y RPG. I've been writing it out and bouncing ideas for ALMOST two years. The ultimate plan is to come up with a market-ready system that can be pitched to WhatPumpkin (or what remains of it) without worrying about third-party licenses that other attempts have.

Things I Have Done:

- Framework for Character Design & Creation
- Frameworks for important setting-specific mechanics (alchemy, classpect, strife, grimdark and possibly more)
- Variety of stuff on interpretation of canon
- Mathematical analysis of some possible dice systems

There's a lot more undone but some of the things I really want to work out remain, like;
- Picking which dice mechanic to use (if any!) and planning gameplay loop
- Finalising the basic mechanics
- Completing the alchemy system
- Codifying ideas and options that have yet to be finished
- Recovering my self-esteem enough to work on it more in my spare time

There's a lot more beyond the above, but that's enough to start off. Examples of things I've worked on already can be found on this tumblr blog, but there's a lot of unreleased material. I've held this shit back for a long time due to the origins of this very forum, BUT I'm hoping to design this in a way that would directly appeal to an older segment of the relevant fanbase.

Sometimes I start and fail to finish adventures. Here are some of them on this site and beyond.

• SPENTURE: https://eagle-time.org/showthread.php?tid=2803 (originally older than my involvement in a certain fandom but influenced by it)
  
• DIESELDAMNED: https://eagle-time.org/showthread.php?tid=3848 (was also an rpg stuck in dev hell at one point)
  
• ONLY ROAR: https://tgchan.org/kusaba/graveyard/res/881097.html and https://eagle-time.org/showthread.php?tid=3185 and/or https://onlyroar.tumblr.com (became a worldbuilding project, ended up on hiatus due to data losses)
  

I also occasionally make "music". It is usually here: https://soundcloud.com/freshercheddar

Here's one of the issues I ran into that's bogged down development. This, along with other things was originally posted on the omegaupdate forum which is sadly rather dead and incapable of helping out with these sorta dilemmas.

I have had a hard time deciding between one of two options.

Option 1: Fixed d20 dice pool (5d20)
Under this mechanic, you roll five dice. Like in a d20 game, you aim to beat a given target number. However, success is not simply pass/fail. Instead, the number of rolls meeting or exceeding the target number is counted. Three or more passing rolls = success. I've done a hella amount of math and the like for this thus far, but there are some pros and cons.

Obviously, WotC's d20 system is the closest real-world analogue, but since this is built from the ground-up, the mechanics will be rather different. All dice rolls will be d20s for instance, because screw having to buy a whole bunch of dice to play.

+ Degrees of Success/Failure (No need to roll twice for crits ever again!)
+ Allows some fun dice mechanics (remove a die, add a die, boost 1 die, etc)
+ Scalable (Can handle large changes in player attributes, provided ingame challenges keep up)
- Big d20s on the table
- Potentially calculation-heavy (you will need to calculate a target number)
- Odds of success shift a lot from buffs

Option 2: d8 pool
Basically, somewhat like above, but with a larger number of smaller dice. Player stats determine how many dice are rolled. This could either be direct (ie; everyone starts with 1 die) or from a base (ie; everyone starts with 8 dice).

For those familiar with them, think games like Shadowrun, World of Darkness, and ye olde D6

+ Gr8est system ever!!!!!!!!
+ No big d20 dice
+ Easier to design
+ Also allows fun dice shenanigans
- More dice on the table
- Balancing numbers in base 4
- Can also require complex calculations
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Most design work has gone into option 1, but nothing has been fixed to it yet; there's not much yet to be lost from a switch and it might be faster in the long run.