Adam and I are definitely in the “retreat and think” stage of making the barbarian now, but I wanted to post some follow up thoughts in the interest of showing people what our design process is like.
As usual, I’ve fallen out of love with an idea I thought was killer. Heedless dice have some issues. Some of those could be fixed, sure, but the really problematic one is that they’re reactive.
The barbarian is all about being an active force. They upset the order, do the unexpected, and are generally unpredictable. Making their signature move something that was reactive just doesn’t sit right.
Thanks to all the threads over the last few days I think we’re narrowing in on something cool, with a core idea of what the barbarian is that I think is pretty solid. Thanks!
Good luck with your creation!
As a young lad, I was always entranced by the Barbarian’s high-level ability to summon a horde.
The thought I had last night that made me feel a little guilty but also a little excited? Steal rampantly from Diablo. War cries? Scavenging/looting moves? Leap Attack? Mmmmm…..
Ben Wray we are stealing everything from everywhere.
The truest homage to old school D&D!
SKYRIM BELONGS TO THE NORDS
How is retreating and thinking in any way suitable for a Barbarian design process? Really now.
They are charging forward towards what they know is right, heedless of the cries of their companions.
I am excited to see your next iteration on it. Cool thoughts! 😀
For our next trick, Sage and I will attempt to murder each other and whoever survives designs the Barbarian.
😉
That sounds like a proper start. Also, would you like to making fuck?
Adam Koebel, wait! That’s the process for designing the Gladiator, not the Barbarian. For the Barbarian, you each have to tear down a place of corrupt magic and then compare scars.
I can get behind that idea. I mean, if we’re taking Conan as an example, he’s never really reacting in the stories has much as he enters an area with a given status quo (there’s an evil wizard in that tower keeping prisoner a weird elephant alien! He’s aweful!) and proceeds to fuck it up. With violence.
I only recently heard you were making a Barbarian, and I was cooking one myself. The signature move for the barbarian would be a Rage equivalent. I thought along the lines of the following:
Rage
When you enter battle with a furious warcry, roll+CON. *On a 10+, hold 3. *On a 7-9, hold 2. *On a miss, hold 1 in addition to whatever the GM says. For as long as the battle last, you may spend your hold to gain the following benefits:
– Ignore damage
– Make monsters flee in terror
– More coolness
I have no idea what your intentions were, but this was what I thought of.
I personally never liked “rage” as a barbarian mechanic.
It was pretty much what made the barbarian “special” in D&D. That and damage reduction. Why didn’t you like it?
It’s what made the barbarian special in 3E. In 1E, they’re all kinds of not like that. http://www.mjyoung.net/dungeon/char/clas004.html
Ahh, I see. I never played anything before 3E.
I’m a big fan of the barbarian from the more recent printings of Castles and Crusades.