Traverse Fantasy

This is an ugly ugly draft, posting for WFS’ reference. I’ll clean this up later, in a separate post, just to present a more straightforward ruleset rather than whatever this is. Simplifying In-Game Equations The base equation for damage is: Damage = (2/5 × Level + 2) × ( Attack / Defense ) × ( Power / 50) + 2 We can simplify this equation in two steps. First, assume that the ratio between the attacker’s Attack value and the target’s Defense value is one. Then, assume that the power of a move is on average 50. This reduces the equation to: Damage = 2/5 × Level + 4 The base equation for Hit Points is: HP = ((2 × Species + Individual ) × Level ) / 100 + 10 + Level We can simplify this equation by assuming an average Species value of 50, and an average Individual value of 15 [1]. This reduces the equation for Hit Points to: HP = 130/100 × Level + 10 + Level The fraction 130/100 only adds an additional 3 HP for every 10 levels [2], so we can just pretend it’s a one. This reduces ...

I’m not even going to grace this book with a photo, and it’s totally not because my nails are overgrown and I need to get them redone. I alluded earlier to the online proxy war between J. Sakai’s Settlers and Peter Kroptokin’s The Conquest of Bread , a.k.a. “The Breadbook”, around 2016. It turned out that Settlers was excellent , so why not also give the anarchist offering a taste? It’s only fair! Y’all. It was not good. At least in my opinion. Not good at all. Also need to preface this by saying that I've been out of town lately, and so I can't respond to comments for the time being. But I really appreciate all y'all's thoughts, and will reply once I'm able. :) The Plan Kroptokin offers a plan for how to enact a “social revolution” and transform the state of things from capitalism (or feudalism) to anarchist communism. What is that plan? Overthrow the state and all the firms in one go, as quickly and as definitely as possible. Revolution for Kroptokin is like ...

Was thinking about two similar methods of single-roll attacks with damage points built into the outcome. The first is subtracting a value from the (random) damage dealt, to a minimum of zero. The second also uses random damage, but the damage is only dealt if it meets or exceeds a certain value (and it is not itself modified). These are called reduction and resistance. I did some quick math to compare the two, using 1d6 as the damage roll. The average of 1d6 is, of course, 3.5, so that’s my baseline to compare. Below is the table for damage reduction, down to an average of 1 point of damage per attack. For example, a target with reduction 3 would take 0 damage on a roll of 1, and 3 damage on a roll of 6. Reduction Average % Max Δ 0 3.50 100% — 1 2.50 71% 29% 2 1.67 48% 23% 3 1.00 29% 19% Below is the same for damage resistance. The value is what the damage die must meet or exceed in order for the resulting pips to be dealt as damage points. For exa...

My friend WFS at Prismatic Wasteland came up with the following algorithm for using dice to randomly determine the money-value of your treasure : So when the party decides to sell, they tally everything they want to sell in the following categories: […] (d4) magic items, relics and artifacts, (d8) gems, jewelry, and art objects, (d12) trade goods, (d20) undamaged arms, armor, and equipment, and (d100) miscellaneous (but not worthless) junk and trinkets. Then roll all of the dice and tally how many dice roll 1, 2 or 3. The total sale is 200 gold per each such die plus 1 gold for each item sold. Let’s look at a table showing the average gold pieces earned by each item category; this is calculated by multiplying the likelihood of a result of 1-3 times 200 gold pieces. Category Die Avg. Gold Junk and trinkets d100 6 Undamaged tools d20 30 Trade goods d12 50 Gems, jewelry, and art d8 75 Magic items and relics d4 150 He gives one example: imagine tha...

The Party for Socialism and Liberation is a communist party in the United States. In August 2022, they published Socialist Reconstruction: A Better Future for the United States . The book serves, basically, as a party platform and onboarding document for potential members. It’s written for general audiences, not assuming that the reader has any previous knowledge about Marxism or general theory. The pitch is: what will the first ten years of socialism look like in the United States? The title recalls the promised Reconstruction era after the American Civil War, which was supposed to have rebuilt the South and integrate black ex-slaves into a more modern economy (it didn’t happen). By this, the book promises a plan to make the United States egalitarian and sustainable through a socialist revolution of the economy and government which will reorganize society to meet people’s needs. What does that plan look like, and is it any good? PSL’s Ten-Year Plan I took notes of what I felt like...

Another character origin for Fivey ! By the way, I’ve published a collection of all the house rules I’ve talked about so far, plus ones I didn’t want to make separate blogs for. Origin: Hellchild The birth of a hellchild is a travesty that befalls families through no fault of their own. Although folk have traditionally believed that one is born of a mother’s combined heresy and infidelity—i.e., by having sex with a demon—the educated know that there is no reason why a child should sprout horns and a devil’s tail. Yet the hellchild becomes a pariah, outcast from all levels of society and condemned to make their own way. Some hide their nature made manifest, tucking their tails into trousers and shaving their horns so they don’t peek out from their hair. Others cannot stand to be what they cannot. Hellchildren have the Deception skill, and they begin either with a religious book “gifted” by their parents (tier 1 spell scroll) or with a change of clothes which they can use to put on ...

My friend Ènziramire and I were chatting about how hard it is to find a based Stalin who, at some point, must have existed in history. Was he a four-dimensional entity who bled into our reality at certain key points of time, but never at once? Is he a myth of Stalinist great-man theory? Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR wasn’t exactly flattering , but he was basically retired by that point (and, as my partner remarked once, it might as well could have been written by a committee and published under his name). So, I went back in time and read his 1913 treatise called Marxism and the National Question . Here’s how it goes: “Nations totally have the right to self-determination, guys… but:” Nationalist revolutions are almost always going to be bourgeois, especially since they are most often between a national and/or petite bourgeoisie (or peasantry) and an international big bourgeoisie. They’re ultimately about market share. Dividing workers’ parties along national lines spli...