Interest check for a Dwarf Fortress-inspired All-Kobold Survival Sandbox game.
Players will play as world-hating Kobolds in a newly formed Kobold Tribe attempting to destroy/take over nearby settlements. You will establish a trap-filled warren, survive against the elements (and the local fauna), ward off pesky adventurers, and plan sieges against nearby villages, all while attempting to raise the last true, chromatic dragon of the region from egg to full-grown wyrm.
Willing to hear any feedback, suggestions, and ideas.
Basic Homebrew Mechanics:
Time flows quickly in-game, with one year lasting only four 28-day (4 week long) seasons; Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Kobolds will follow the Half-Orc aging effects chart to determine Middle, Old, and Venerable ages. The Dragon will age by making a 1d100 check at the beginning of every year, with +1 per each year the Kobolds have survived since the last Dragon advancement, if the result equals or exceeds 100, the Dragon advances by one age category (Egg > Hatchling > etc.)
The game will have a maximum of 10 players. 5 Kobolds with PC classes and 5 Kobolds with NPC classes. The game will start with merely 4 1st-Level Kobolds (2 PC-class, 2 NPC-class), but every Summer a random number of Kobolds (0-3) will be allowed to immigrate, in which cases recruitment will temporarily re-open. All Kobolds start at 1st-Level and are allowed to multi-class and take prestige classes (so a starting NPC-class Kobold may take PC levels later on, and vice versa). PC class Characters roll standard starting gold, but Characters with NPC classes start with 390 gp.
Experience points will not be used, characters will advance by choosing a class and making a roll on the Kobold Random Starting Age chart whenever they advance (starting at 1st-Level). When that many years pass, they gain a level in that class. When taking a level in a NPC class, you will always advance in 1 year.
EXAMPLE: A starting 1st-Level Kobold Fighter wants to become a 2nd-Level Fighter, so he rolls 1d6 (as Fighter falls into the Self-Taught category on the Kobold Random Starting Age Chart) and gets a result of 3. Thus, the character will advance to a 2nd-Level Kobold Fighter after 3 in-game years, after which he chooses his next class level and rolls again.
At the beginning of every season, weather and encounters will be rolled. Weather starts on the beginning of the season and persists throughout the entire season. For encounters, 1d100+Kobold's APL+Dragon's CR will be rolled, if the check equals or exceeds 100, then random monsters or npcs appear on a random day (d30) with a total CR equal to or less than the total number of years survived.
Survival (Wis) can be used to gather food and water for the warren. Survival checks to gather food resources require a whole days worth of dedicated work. During Spring and Summer, these checks are made at DC 15 for 1 Food resource, with an additional food resource for every 2 points the check exceeds 15; during Autumn, the DC for this check is lowered to 10; and during Winter, the DC is raised to 20. Creatures that are Small or smaller need to consume 1 Food per day to avoid Starvation and Thirst penalties, Medium creatures need to consume 2 Food, Large 3, and so on.
Profession (Wis) is used to gather resources, instead of paychecks. These checks will be made as normal, but instead of getting half their check in gp, they will get half their check in items relating to their profession with a value equal to or less than half their check in gp. These items are added to the Tribe's Stockpile. These checks may be aided and might require tools to perform.
EXAMPLE: A Kobold with Profession (Miner/Mining) wants to mine into the side of a mountain, making a check with a result of 14. This allows her to find 7 gp worth of items relating to her profession (in this case, stones and metals). She may choose have mined out 1 lb. of Silver (5 gp) and 20 lbs. of Iron (20 sp or 2 gp), or a different set of items.
Kobolds are naturally hateful, and are easily frustrated. During character creation, you must choose 1 Creature type and Subtype, besides Humanoid (Reptilian) and Humanoid (Gnome). Whenever the Kobold encounters or so much hears about this type of creature, takes damage, fails a check, or otherwise has something bad happen to them, they will gain a point of Frustration (FP). Whenever a character gains a FP, they must roll 1d20 and add their total number of FP, if the result of this check is 20 or higher, then the Kobold becomes "FRUSTRATED!" and must attack the closest living creature for a number of rounds equal to their number of FP (3 FP = 3 rounds). A Kobold's FP will reset to 0 after being "FRUSTRATED!". A Kobold may not gain more than 1 FP a day. Kobolds may lower their FP by causing harm, playing pranks, or by making clever insults, but cannot lose more than 1 FP a day. Kobolds cannot lower their FP while "FRUSTRATED!". All Kobolds start out hating Gnomes.
When Natural 1s are rolled bad things can happen. This includes but is not limited to: Running into wild animals while gathering food, possibly contracting the black lung while mining, and possibly injuring yourself while crafting, with the exact nature of the bad luck being left up to the GM.
This really does sound like a PBP version of Dwarf Fortress...
I'm interested to see how it plays out, but I think your character advancement houserules are going to turn away a lot of people.
Plus the inclusion of temper spirals...
This really does sound like a PBP version of Dwarf Fortress...
I'm interested to see how it plays out, but I think your character advancement houserules are going to turn away a lot of people.
Well, my dilemma is that I can't really assign XP for cutting down trees. And because it plays out more like a game than an adventure, it's hard to decide a good level up time.
Any ideas? Maybe I could have all characters level up at the beginning of each year?
Plus the inclusion of temper spirals...
Before posting, I did a quick playtest with 4 Kobold Warriors from the Bestiary. Day 1 temper spiral, and back then Kobolds didn't have the 1 FP per day limit and gained FP just from being attacked, resulting in a drawn out fisticuffs match between very angry little Kobolds over not finding any food that day. Not a single one landed a blow, missing every single hit until they both managed to calm down. It was both hilarious and extremely depressing.
I like to imagine they were both doing elaborate psuedo-Kung Fu moves in an attempt to intimidate the other, frantically waving their arms and dancing around while the other two placed bets on who would chicken out first.
You know how in Dwarf Fortress how groups of dwarves will be assigned certain tasks? I think that should be the way the PC group is handled.
The PCs probably aren't going to want to be the folks digging tunnels or piling lumber. That's what NPCs are for. The PCs should be the ones on hand to deal with threats and solve big problems.
Scenario-based story might be the best way to go. Something like:
Year 1, Week 2
The expedition is beginning to starve because foraging has not gone as well as hoped and someone got greedy and ate an entire barrel of sugar beets that were supposed to be for planting. The culprit must be found, and enough food must be gathered to last for the next two months before the harvest is ready.
Then, play goes as normal, probably starting with some Kolbold-style detective work to find out which NPC is the glutton, and then some hunting, exploring or maybe just cannibalism to up the food stores enough for the tribe to survive for a couple months.
After the scenario, give a quick wrap-up and cut-scene to the next scenario.
If you design any given scenario to happen in (or take) one month, then you could have the PCs level up on a scale something like-
"The next level x2 is the number of successful missions you need to complete in order to level up".
Getting to second level would take 4 missions. Getting to 3rd would take 6, etc.
You could even have everyone start as NPC classes and "graduate" to a PC class after two successful missions.
That's how I might do it anyway.
As a general rule, when the PCs have to micromanage things, games tend to die because they lose a lot of momentum. Having the GM handle that side of things, and dropping the PCs in at the pivotal moments where their actions determine the course of the future, that keeps momentum going and PCs interested.
Yeah it would be Pbp. And the idea was that NPC-class characters both—potentially—level up faster and get more gold.
Right now though, I'm rethinking the mechanics as I take what Doomed Hero said to heart. Make it more sandboxy and less micromanagey and gamey, moving the PCs more to the role of leaders and champions, rather than hole diggers and tree cutters.
I'll still run this, if there is suddenly a bunch of support for the mechanics as written. But otherwise, I'm gonna let this thread drop until I can come up with a concrete setting and better mechanics.
Well, I'll definitely be running a campaign in the future, with most/all material on the d20pfsrd being fair game (with 3rd party and Homebrew stuff having to be approved first).
Maybe I'll refocus on that campaign, where all I really need to do is write up a setting.
I think some of it sounds interesting. Seems like very much of the "I spend 2 weeks cutting down trees to kill the forest" could get boring.
Not sure about the frustration rules thing. I seems like it could get frustrating. =) But it could also be amusing depending on how it is done.
But the protecting a small dragon and trying to take over the area seems like a good idea.
I'm not totally opposed to the advancement scheme though it does seem kinda odd. I guess I'd have to see how it worked out in play.
I would probably be willing to give it a whirl with a kobold ARG sorc, ARG alchemist, or UM dragon totem druid.