A definitive "tabletop mode"

[hamskii]

With Magran's Fires and the advent of turn-based combat, it is now possible to customise the gameplay to create a much more simulative experience. This thread is about discussing the combination of NG+ options that come closest to providing a tabletop RPG-like gameplay experience.
 
Things I'm pretty certain about are:

• Turn-based mode: of course.
• Eothas' Challenge: creates a sense of urgency implied by the narrative but not previously reflected in gameplay, and forces players to plan and prioritise rather than swanning about every corner of the map, much like they would in a tabletop RPG.
• Abydon's Challenge: equipment maintenance is a part of many tabletop RPGs, but can be tedious for the GM to track. One of the advantage of video games is that this complexity and tedium can be handled by the game engine.
• Skaen's Challenge: makes light sources a necessary part of adventuring, as they are in many tabletop RPGs.
• Rymyrgand's Challenge: for much the same reasons as Abydon's Challenge.
• Woedica's Challenge: combined with Eothas' Challenge and Rymyrgand's Challenge, it turns resting into a careful game of resource management. And of course, resource management, particularly with spells (not so much abilities) is an important part of most TT RPGs.
• Trial of Iron: no do-overs on the tabletop, I'm afraid.
• Classic Difficulty: enemies' stats are enemies' stats, and enemy composition is designed around a balanced gameplay experience. I think Relaxed or Veteran also probably fall into the range of difficulties allowable by this, as although they artificially change enemy composition they don't give them stat buffs or debuffs.
• No Level Scaling

Things I'm not so certain about (would be interested to hear peoples' opinions on these):

• Expert Mode: I guess it's a question of how tough your GM typically is. Do they let players sit and calculate effect radius so that they can avoid friendly fire? If not, then Expert Mode probably needs to be on as well. But given that tabletop is new, it's much more frustrating having it on.
• Berath's Challenge: This simulates the "bleeding out" mechanic of a lot of tabletop RPGs, but given that there is no way to mitigate this, it might be overly punishing, particularly when combined with Woedica's Challenge.
• Magran's Challenge: A common houserule is for players to have only a few seconds to decide their action. In practice, Magran's Challenge gives you less time than that, because you have to wait for your move action to complete before you can take another action. Also, you have to decide what to do for a whole party of characters instead of just your own, so the pace is much more frantic than it would be on the tabletop.

Has anybody else tried a playthrough in "tabletop mode"? What settings did you use? What did you think?

Edited February 16, 2019 by hamskii

[Lamppost in Winter]

Veteran now has stat increases for enemies, although smaller than PoTD. Relaxed and Classic are the only dififculties that don't change enemy stats now. Pretty easy to mod out though.

 

I've tried a modded version of Rym's challenge where it includes Woedica's stipulation that only prepared meals cure injuries. At first I really liked it, resource management felt really meaningful compared to vanilla, but I found the combination of the two to be overly strict, even with longer shelf life for food. I removed the Woedica mod and found Rym's challenge to still be very enjoyable on its own.

[Franknstein]

 

• Eothas' Challenge: creates a sense of urgency implied by the narrative but not previously reflected in gameplay, and forces players to plan and prioritise rather than swanning about every corner of the map, much like they would in a tabletop RPG.

 

Erm. In a TT RPG one can be whatever one wants to be, and can literally do whatever one wants to do, imagination the only limitation. Railroading is like vampires. It sucks.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Franknstein

[xzar_monty]

The freedom of tabletop RPGs is immortally summarized by that apocryphal player whose first comment in the beginning of a painstakingly planned Middle-Earth campaign was, "I kill Gandalf".

 

Railroading is the death of role-playing, although it definitely is unavoidable in CRPGs, at least to a certain extent.

[Franknstein]

The freedom of tabletop RPGs is immortally summarized by that apocryphal player whose first comment in the beginning of a painstakingly planned Middle-Earth campaign was, "I kill Gandalf".

 

And so the murderhobo was born!

[hamskii]

 

 

• Eothas' Challenge: creates a sense of urgency implied by the narrative but not previously reflected in gameplay, and forces players to plan and prioritise rather than swanning about every corner of the map, much like they would in a tabletop RPG.

 

Erm. In a TT RPG one can be whatever one wants to be, and can literally do whatever one wants to do, imagination the only limitation. Railroading is like vampires. It sucks.

 

 

Depends on the story that they're playing, surely? If there's a god rampaging around the game setting and the player doesn't intervene, then it makes sense that bad stuff would happen.

 

Imo Eothas' Challenge isn't so much railroading as it is another resource management challenge.

[thelee]

Magran's Challenge: A common houserule is for players to have only a few seconds to decide their action. In practice, Magran's Challenge gives you less time than that, because you have to wait for your move action to complete before you can take another action. Also, you have to decide what to do for a whole party of characters instead of just your own, so the pace is much more frantic than it would be on the tabletop.

I don't know why this is a maybe, because it accurately simulates the experience of having a room full of players and a DM yelling at you to hurry up or lose your turn.

 

FYI like in tabletop you can be thinking about your next move during other players' (the AI) turns (slow down combat speed if needed). Unlike in tabletop you can also "bank" time by using the 10s on an "easy" character (like a tank who just needs to attack someone standing next to them) to think about the moves for a "hard" character (a complex caster build).

Edited February 26, 2019 by thelee