TTRPG-a-Week - Week 10
To make it feel like an old-school RPG video game.
Art
- Use pixelated tilemaps and sprites for artwork. 8 or 16 bit.
- Limited colours would also be good. Like CGA or EGA style PC graphics.
Video Game Rules
Pausing
Players can pause the game whenever it is a player’s turn. Then they can discuss things, reorganize their inventories (though trading items between players isn’t possible while paused). They could even pause the game and drink 5 potions all at once.
Respawning
If a player drowns, falls into lava, or falls from a really great height, they take damage and respawn on the edge, approximately where they fell from.
Enemies also respawn after the players leave the area for too long. They just reappear, they don’t come from anywhere.
Destructable objects shouldn’t respawn, but only because we don’t want players to waste time running around bashing crates.
Charisma
The GM can have a player roll a Charisma check to see if an NPC will be friendly. This is effective without the NPC knowing anything about the character. They just become friendly towards them. This is only for minor NPCs that won’t directly affect the story. A friendly NPC might give discounts on gear or services, they might provide helpful information, or even let the players borrow things.
Simple World
The world can be generated as the players explore. A castle could just appear, even though it wasn’t visible from far away. This can be explained away as objects “popping in” as the players get closer, or as parts of the world finally loading. Could even describe the world at the horizon as being just a featureless plane until the players get closer.
Simple NPCs
Some NPCs are very one-dimensional. They will often just repeat the same line over and over again.
Simple Towns
When you enter a town or city, there are often only the same few people walking about. They have simple routines that they are always doing. There are buildings that seem to be lived in, but you never see anyone go in or out.
Simple Economy
If you are wondering how the economy of these small towns works, don’t. There is no explanation for how they keep things running, or keep people fed.
The stores just seem to get restocked every now and then, and the items available seem to improve as the players get more powerful and have more money.
Selling items to the shop is always possible. The small town shop can somehow pay you 1000s of gold for the legendary artifact you bring back to town to sell.
Simple Enemies
Monsters have no sense of self-preservation. They have very simple goals, such as guarding a cave or stealing from the town.
Self-Awareness
The characters in the game are aware of the game mechanics. They know about things like HP, XP, and character classes. They reference looting, inventory slots, and stats. To them it seems normal.
NPCs will refer to the things they want you to do as quests and will often post them to a “quest board” in town. They think it is normal to ask the wandering heroes who just walked into town to help the town with very important jobs.
This also means characters can use game terms when describing a spell or magic item. Such as saying that a magic sword deals +1 damage while the wielder’s Strength stat is at its maximum.
Looting
When an enemy dies, items or gold can just appear out of thin air. Random chance should be used for determining loot. Destroying some objects might also cause items or gold to appear. Such as destroying crates or pots. Even cutting a field of tall grass might cause a couple gold pieces to appear.
A monster’s body will slowly disappear after it dies. It doesn’t rot, it fades away into nothingness. Including their equipment, which they players can not use, they can only use the items that drop as loot.
Keys and Locks
Generic Keys
Players can find generic keys that can open any generic lock. The keys are large and metal. They disappear after being used. They can open things like doors and chests. But a character with lockpicks can also pick the locks. The keys found in one dungeon can work on doors in a different dungeon.
A keyring of 3 keys takes up one inventory slot.
Specific Keys
Some important doors and chests are locked with special keys that are unique to them. Such as a boss’s lair being locked behind a door that needs a boss key. Locks for these types of doors and chests cannot be lockpicked, only the key will open it. These keys are larger and heavier. They take up a whole inventory slot on their own.
Limits
Invisible Walls
The edge of the map is blocked by an invisible barrier that cannot be passed.
If the plan is to have the players travel by boat or caravan away from this place when they finish the current story, the boat should be perpetually stuck “preparing to leave” until it is time in the story for the players to move on.
Character Limits
For no reason, no one in the world can swim. Entering water that is too deep will cause your character to start drowning. If they are not pulled out by another character within a short time, they drown and take damage. Then they will reappear on the shore or boat where they entered the water from.
A character can only have up to 999 gold coins. Any more and they will disappear as soon as they are placed into a bag. The weight of the coins doesn’t matter while being carried.
“Hidden” Information
Sometimes there is something that the players can easily recognize but the characters in the game will refuse to see until the story says so.
Such as a royal princess hiding as a peasant, but the players can easily see that she has the same face as the princess and has fancy clothes underneath her rags.
Or a villain who is wearing a very poor disguise. The villain might reveal himself when the players call him out, but until then the NPCs won’t acknowledge that he is clearly the villain in disguise.