I have finished the first draft of the last of the Playbooks for my set, The Orc.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6szfA8NMCTRVy1ZTWpqV2gtdFE
You can check out this work in progress or any of the others in this set.
The Gnome: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6szfA8NMCTRcDF2bGFGaUFzcnc
The Goblin: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6szfA8NMCTRR0lVaHJBb1V2cUU
The Hobgoblin: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6szfA8NMCTRcTV2Y0ZMckJBcms
Is stone skin supposed to replace iron, or wood skin? I like the keepsake options.
Damian Jankowski Yeah. Originally I called the moves Iron and Steel, but then I realized those were almost exactly the same as the Fighter names for those moves so I changed the names, but I forgot to change it where it said what move it replaces. I’ll make sure to fix that when I can.
uhm, in Iron Belly you wrote Defy Death. Was it meant to be Defy Danger, maybe?
Nikitas Thlimmenos Of course. I’ll fix that one too. It’ll be fixed in a couple minutes.
I like the orc. I was planning on introducing the orc as a kind of Klingon race in my game and this seems to fit perfectly. Thanks.! Is there a move that you can think of that would add honor to the class, ala a Klingon warrior?
David Benson If you want honor, you should check out the link to the Hobgoblin. It is more about honor, teamwork, defense and social interaction. I don’t know why, but I got 0 feedback on it.
Thanks andrew ferris, I downloaded all of your racial playbooks and will take a look.
A little bit offtopic: what are you using for the playbooks?
Both David and Andrew
Paride Papadia Do you mean to ask which program I made them in?
Yes, sorry, it should have been what software are you using.
Also, andrew ferris are you ok with the playbooks been translated and shared?
Paride Papadia I use adobe illustrator. You can feel free to translate them, but they aren’t finalized. I have been making corrections due to feedback almost daily.
andrew ferris how much do you expect to change? If it’s just a couple of moves, I can translate them, then update before giving for final typesetting.
What’s the difference between a starting Orc and one who’s taken Shaman?
More to the point, nothing really sings to me here. Just a bunch of +1s to things and one move you actually roll, which kind of kneecaps your actual combat effectiveness on a 7-9.
Paul Arezina The difference between normal and Shaman is that normally the GM gets to decide what useful information to give you. It can be literally anything. Once you have Shaman, you can ask a specific question you want answered.
As for rage kneecapping you… well, +2 to damage for a -1 to your hack & slash roll seems a pretty decent trade-off, particularly when you do d10 damage to begin with. That means so long as you get a 7+ on that roll, you are dealing 3-12 damage on a hit. That easily kills most things.
Was there anything more you were expecting me to do with an Orc? Its basic, dirty, straight-forward and focused on direct melee combat. You really only need 2 attributes to dominate with it, though having some points in Wisdom is sort of nice. But I am happy to consider other ideas. What do you think is missing?
Consider your starting Orc. They’re probably going to have +1 Str and +2 Con or +2 Str and +1 Con, right?
Run the math on those numbers and work out how much extra damage the orc is going to do going into rage, assuming the GM makes a move other than “you just get the drawback” on a 6-. I got… about +1 damage.
The fighter and barbarian are both fairly straightforward melee combatants, and they can advance to get more complex moves or advance to get +1s to the occasional thing. Here there’s really nothing interesting outside of two kind of alright moves for talking to the spirits, but getting a bonus XP every day or every time you talk to them seems a bit overdone.
Paul Arezina Well, if you feel it is too weak then there are a number of things I could do.
1) Make the penalty less harsh. I could even make the flaw effectively non-mechanical such as “you’ll find it difficult to stop yourself from attacking anything before you”
2) You don’t have to roll at all. This would take the only move that requires a roll from the class.
3) Increase the bonus (it is already pretty high)
Have you looked at the Fighter class recently? Because I think you need to look at it again. The Fighter class starts with all of 1 ability that you actually roll for– Bend Bars & Gates (which is hardly any different than a straight-up Defy Danger Strength roll anyway). Armored and Signature weapon don’t have rolls attached to them. In fact, armored is almost a waste of an ability and Signature Weapon just lets you craft a weapon that is no better than what the Paladin or Ranger (or this class) get for free except that you get to customize it to your delight rather than having a rigid choice between 2-3 options.
Now, in advanced moves there are 3 advanced moves that have rolls attached. One of which is much akin to this class’s ability to commune with spirits, but can be done whenever you are holding your signature weapon.
Now, I could certainly add a roll to this class’s ability to consult spirits, though I’m not sure how it would be better. If I did, you could get an XP every time you tried it– just be rolling a 6- and failing your attempt. In the current version, you need to fulfill a task.
Which isn’t meant to be “please move that rock 10 yards” and more “find the sword that was looted from my corpse and return it to me” or “find the monster that is spreading a disease through the forest and slay it”.
Usually I offer people the Improved Fighter:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?guyk534kdg3gg4j
edited for Battle Instincts to key off Wis.
Say, there’s an idea! When you enter a battle rage, lose all hold from this move and roll +Con. On a 10+ get 3 hold, a 7-9 2 hold, a 6- 1 hold in addition to what the GM says. Spend hold 1-for-1 on the following:
Dunno what “the following” is but there’s a structure that lends itself much better to having advanced moves that build on it.
I suppose that’s another complaint. The “speak to spirits” move is the only starting move that’s even notionally built on.
Also the whole “fulfill the wishes of the spirits for XP” business additionally seems weird because that’s the alignment move for a Neutral Orc. So, what, they double-dip?
Paul Arezina Honestly, the rage was supposed to be a gamble to make up for the fact that the class starts with worse armor than the Fighter and Paladin, especially since they get the same base damage with a shield in hand and they can equip platemail later. Yes, it gets 2 more hit points, but that doesn’t seem enough to make up for the gap.
Since it starts 2 armor down, I wanted to offer a random chance to deal 2 extra damage that effectively becomes less random and more reliable as you level and increase your Constitution score.
But, tell you what– I have about 30+ pages of fluff about Orcs over D&D history I am going to comb through this week and reduce down to about 8 pages by eliminating purely mechanical stuff and redundant information just as I did for the Gnome, Goblin and Hobgoblin. After I do, I’ll see about replacing some of these abilities with something more interesting if I get any ideas.
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