R&L: Better Tactical Crunch

This is a post about our wuxia game that's currently in development. You can check it out here.

I want to continue comparing and contrasting this game with D&D, as it informed a lot of the design. I'm here to make the case that you can change relatively minor parts of a game and result in a dramatically different experience in play. To that end, I want to highlight three mechanics found in modern D&D that don't exist in Rivers & Lakes, but which are replaced with three equivalent mechanics that I like more.

Specifically, all three examples are mechanics that are meant to add tactical depth to the fighting parts of D&D. It's long aspired to be at least partially a crunchy combat simulator. 3rd and 5th Edition achieve this by including a handful of little tactical wrinkles for players to contend with. None of these mechanics are mind-blowing individually, but in aggregate they manage to twist most fights into a complicated problem to unravel. That said, I think we can do better.

R&L: Three Key Things

This is a post about our wuxia game that's currently in development. You can check it out here.

When I pitch the game to someone who's used to D&D, here's the three main features I like to highlight. They were the first three ideas that my brother came up with and have remained pillars of the game's design ever since then.

R&L: Background

This is a post about our wuxia game that's currently in development. You can check it out here.

We've been teasing the game on here for a few years now, only occasionally giving glimpses. But seeing as how we've kept it pretty close to the chest, as well as how significantly it departs from a lot of the design philosophy I discuss on this blog, I figure you may be curious about where the heck this project is even coming from.

Rivers & Lakes: a Tabletop Fighting Game (Beta)

My brother and I are making a wuxia tactical combat game. We're finally ready to release a beta version to the world.

We started this project in the summer of 2020. It began as a hack of Knave 1E, actually. At first a sort of "monk class" that you could bolt onto Knave, but then quickly it became an entire wuxia hack of Knave, and then soon after simply became its own thing. It wasn't long before the game very clearly stopped being OSR in any meaningful way. With the amount of combat crunch it has, it's probably more accurate to say that it exists in the same lineage as D&D 4E, Lancer, ICON, Gubat Banwa, and those sorts. That said, you might notice some of our old school sensibilities creep in here and there.

This game is still built using the basic D&D chassis. The core mechanic is d20 + stat, a formalized combat procedure is at the front and center of most gameplay, combat is broken into rounds and turns, when you attack someone you roll to hit against their static defense value, if you succeed then you roll damage, etc. Don't expect something avant-garde.

That said, I've long been a proponent of the power of small houserules with big impact. Obviously, changing the AC of chainmail armor from 16 to 15 won't have a noticeable effect on the game. But changing the length of a short rest from 1 hour to 8 hours is utterly transformative. In both cases, it's just one small number being replaced. But some numbers matter more than others. A design space I find myself often drawn to is that thrilling exercise of pinpointing the sometimes-subtle fulcrum points of a game's design and toying with them to reinvent the experience.

So yeah, it's true—Rivers & Lakes is, like, 90% just D&D. But where it departs from the D&D formula, the results are staggering. This game has made me enjoy Combat-as-Sport again.

Here's what we want to work on next:

1. I'll upload a "monster manual" within the week. It's taking a while. Until then, just create PCs and have them fight each other.
2. Lots more in the core rulebook. An entire chapter just for non-combat rules. Wealth and commerce, a social mechanic called "face," cooking meals, overland travel, and downtime. Plus some appendices material.
3. Artwork, and lots of it.
4. Ironing out the advancement rules, which haven't really seen playtesting.
5. More stat blocks in the bestiary, especially adding in animals and some magical creatures.
6. A fancy "example of play" booklet.
7. A proper GM's guide.
8. A proper setting guide.
9. A sample scenario to get started.

And of course, refining all the existing material with lots and lots of playtesting.

I'm also going to be writing a series of blog posts that'll serve as designer notes, explaining some of the how's and why's behind the coolest ideas in the game.

If you end up giving our game a read, or you even actually play it, then we would very much like to hear your thoughts.

And if you have any creative projects in the works, I dare you to release your beta version this year, too.

-Dwiz