Loot Sucks

I'm a fan of ARPG's (You know, like diablo). There's something about finding a cool item that makes you go "oh, I know what to do with this" that never gets old.

It's fascinating really, Diablo and it's ilk were born from DnD, but it isn't clear how. Loot in DnD actually kind of sucks when you think about it.

Why TTRPG Loot Sucks

Imagine you bust open the ancient tomb of the Zarath the Lawbinder, the highest paladin of this or any age, and find his enchanted mace that brought a thousand-thousand demons a true death. It's a +3 mace.

It's boring. It's so obviously boring. It's so deeply boring it spits in the face of finding a cool ancient item. 

And the issue is that all items are boring! Items tend to fit into the categories of "does something objectively better" or "emulates a magic spell". +3 mace? Does a mace, but better. Horn of blasting? Glorified fireball. Very few items do things that are interesting, such as a dagger of returning.

So Define Interesting

There are two forms of interest: opening up a new playstyle, or refining a playstyle. Let's go into them one by one:

• If an item has a unique effect that creates a new playstyle based around it, then you've allowed a PC with that item to have a unique playstyle that is inherently interesting by virtue of being new. A dagger of returning allows someone to play a real throwing weapon based character, something that is somewhere between difficult and impossible in most other games. But why stop there? Why not have a sword that doesn't consume poisons applied to it when it hits opponents, or a set of armor that allows magic missiles to reflect off of you?
• If an item refines a playstyle, that helps a player focus in on the parts of their character they think are fun. Refining a playstyle isn't just a generic buff, it's buffing certain parts in fun ways. A +1 dagger of returning isn't meaningfully more interesting than a dagger of returning, it's just better. But a pair of gloves that improves throwing damage when attacking from shadows is deeply interesting. How do you get use from that effect? Now your throwing playstyle is even more interesting.

So How Does Diablo Relate?

Diablo-likes are defined based on having interesting loot. A Diablo-like with bad loot isn't interesting, as you need the loot grind to make playing for more than a few hours worth it. Getting upgrades, getting items that make you think, that's what Diablo-likes are focused on.

You see both styles of interesting item in Diablo-likes. A unique effect item might be a unique item that changes how one of your core abilities works, or any item with a stat that you can't use without a build designed around it. Refining items are also common, such as with uniques that provide powerful bonuses when used with a certain playstyle.

Of course, Diablo-likes also have lots of items with raw damage bonuses, but this is partially to make getting new items interesting long term. A 10% damage improvement feels good when you're chasing big numbers, but we don't need that in TTRPGs. We just want interesting items. 

Side Note on Baldur's Gate 3

I've been playing through Baldur's Gate 3 for the first time. That game fundamentally understands interesting loot, and at no point have I found an item and went "yawn". Every new thing I find makes me rethink what is viable, what is possible. This ability might suck, but these two items make it disgustingly strong.

How To Make TTRPG Loot Interesting

This is going to be a bit theoretical for now, but let me toss some ideas out there:

• Remove generic +X items. They're boring. Replace them with ones that are situational. A +1 if you do Y.
• Add items with unique mechanics. Like actually unique. Don't think about if the players can use them, that's their job.
• More loot. Replace the game's primary progression loop from levels and XP to loot. Loot can't be an occasional reward, it has to be constant, many items per session.
• If we want to go full Diablo: a system to create loot from random tables. Actual items, with mechanics randomly determined. They might be useless, that's half the fun. 

I do wonder what a game where loot is your primary progression looks like. I understand that games like Cairn and Knave do that, but not really. I want a game where players buildcraft with their items (anathema as you might think it), finding interesting synergies and fun play patterns.

 

Peril and Card Based Statblocks

This post is a sequel to this post, and I think you'll have want to read said prequel post to understand this one.

In my last post, I brought up the concept of peril, a mechanic to represent how scary a monster is. I find that often, methods such as hit die or challenge rating are poor methods of explaining how scary a monster is. Monsters can do incredibly scary things with very few hit die or a low challenge rating, so they feel more like loose guidelines than anything else.

Peril is an attempt to fix that by making it clear: higher peril means the creature takes more actions. A peril 6 creature takes as many actions as 6 peril 1 creatures, thus should be approximately as effective. Truly, I dislike the concept of a creature that is higher danger just having bigger numbers. Is a 10 hit die creature more interesting to fight than a 2 hit die one? Often not. So while a higher peril creature might have higher numbers, it will come at the cost of other things. Peril is meant to be linked to options, rather than raw power (the raw power comes from how many actions it takes).

Other Notes

Hit die are weird. The fact they vary so much means that a hit die can be anything from one quarter of a sword swing to two full sword swings, but on average a hit die is equivalent to one sword swing, ie: if you stab something with 1 hit die with a sword, it should die. 

Let's say in this hypothetical card based TTRPG, that a sword does 3 damage, thus a 1 hit die creature has 3 health.

Also: monsters also get to specialize in a suit, but this should tell you something about the monster. Spades monsters are strong front line fighters, clubs monsters are either squishy ranged skirmishers or fast and high damage melee fighters, hearts monsters are healers or battlefield manipulators, and diamonds monsters are artillery pieces. 

In terms of the statblocks themselves, bolded entries are major actions (only one can be used and only on the creature's turn), and italicized entries are minor actions (can use after any creature's major action). Entries that are neither are simply things passive to the creature.

Peril Descriptions

• A peril 0 creature is a mook. It should go down quickly and easily and be of minimal threat. It should be weaker than a trained human soldier.
• A peril 1 creature is a normal enemy. It should be a fair fight for a trained human soldier.
• A peril 2 creature is superhuman, but not massively so. It should defeat a trained human soldier on average.
• A peril 3 creature is beyond the realms of normal human ability. A trained human soldier should only beat it with specialized equipment and planning. No real world creature is higher than peril 3.
• A peril 4 creature is beyond the limits of any normal animal's ability. It would take a group of trained human soldiers having specialized equipment and planning to beat it.
• A peril 5 creature is powerful, but not all powerful. It should be able to take on a large group of trained human soldiers with some difficulty.
• A peril 6 creature is the most dangerous thing that there can be. It should be able to fight large groups of trained human soldiers with ease.

Peril 0: Goblin

Squeamish and weak, goblins prefer horde tactics and indirect fights.

3 Health, Spades

Horde: Abilities that strike multiple creatures can harm no more than 2 goblins at once. Excess melee damage is dealt to another goblin in the same zone.

Half Rusted Weapon: Melee, 2

Scram!: The goblin instantly moves and then falls flat on its face prone.

Peril 1: Trained Human Soldier

The soldier core of many an empire.

5 Health, Spades

Heavily Armored: Soldiers always play the highest card available for initiative.

Formation: When three or more soldiers are in a zone, they take 1 less damage from all sources.

Swords: Melee, 3

Crossbows: Ranged, 2

Peril 2: Orc

From the barren north, where survival is earned. Fast, lethal, and excellent hunters.

6 Health, Clubs

Feathered Javelin: Melee or Ranged, 3

Sparking Trap: The orc plays a clubs face down until the orc next moves. When a creature attacks the orc, flip the card up. If the card would hit them, they are stunned until their next turn.

Wyvern Venom: The orc plays a clubs to poison their next feather javelin attack.

Peril 3: White Lion

When a lone lion survives for 9 years, it is blessed with pale fur and incredible magics.

9 Health, Hearts

Blessed Presence: At the end of each round, all allied creatures in the lion's zone are healed 1 health.

Blessed Claws: Melee, 2

Guardian Dome: The lion plays a hearts to change the initiative for all allied creatures in its zone to the cards value for the purposes of armor.

Silvered Shift: The lion teleports to one of its allies.

Peril 4: River Devil

Horrid beasts born of the deep abyss, the worst possible combination of crocodile, lion, and hippo.

9 Health, Spades

Rampage: The river devil attacks all creatures in its zone at the same time (including allies).

Ravenous Maw: Melee, 3, If this kills a creature, the river devil swallows it in a single bite.

Stomp: The river devil plays spades to stun all creatures with a greater initiative in its zone (including allies). 

Submerge: If the river devil is in a zone of water, it dives down. It may play another card as a minor action to rise up out of the water and make a free ravenous maw attack using that card.

Peril 5: Manticore

Evil and heinous, with barbed tails and wicked grins.

9 Health, Diamonds

Flying: Manticores are flying.

Barbed Spray: Ranged, 3, hits all creatures in a zone, but cannot be used in the manticore's zone.

Sting and Claw: Melee, 3  

Swoop: The manticore plays clubs to move for free.

Barbed Shower: The manticore plays diamonds to cause its next barbed spray attack to hit all zones except the one the manticore is in.

Peril 6: Dragon 

You know what a dragon is.

 

12 Health, Spades

 

Flying: Dragons are flying.

 

Fire Breath: The dragon plays spades to exhale a flame breath on all other creatures in its zone. Those that are hit take 6 damage. The dragon may only use this ability once per combat.

 

Claws: Melee, 3

 

Tail Whip: The dragon plays royalty to strike a creature in its zone for 3 damage.

 

Cracked Scales: When the dragon is first defeated, its scales are cracked, it gains an additional 12 health, and gains the following abilities: 

Volcanic Maw: Melee, 4, The dragon draws a card

 

Eruption: The dragon plays spades to cause all creatures hit by it in its zone to take 1 damage and be knocked prone.