Let's Design Better "Stuns" for TTRPGs

Comments · 127

• GH

  @ghyr_0 · 3 months ago

  This is the first time I've seen any youtuber or content creator for that matter talk about a negative aspect of the sponsor product. Immediately added honesty points!

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• TA

  @talscorner3696 · 3 months ago

  Bonus point: if you're adding stuff that requires a choice on the player, you're also opening the door to massively badass scenes like the character trying to kill the monster in spite of being burned alive, for example. They could leave the burning jet of fantasy rocket fuel, but that would mean losing something else that they can't afford to.

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• CA

  @carnivorze1052 · 3 months ago

  This happened to me twice in a row, each for more than an hour, and I swore to never touch that game ever again, even with a 10ft stick. And I&apos;ve honored that sermont. <br><br>For my own games, I&apos;ve never added any mechanics that remove you temporarily from the whole game. You can always attempt actions, but conditions, injuries and other afflictions simply make them harder and riskier (often way more).

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• MO

  @MossyAntler · 3 months ago

  I really like MCDM&apos;s Flee Mortal&apos;s solution to this:<br>DAZED: A dazed creature can only do one of the following things on their turn: move, use an action, or use a bonus action. (There is more text but it&apos;s just 5e&apos;s wordy qualifiers.)<br><br>They took it over to Draw Steel as well:<br>DAZED: A condition that limits a creature to doing only one thing on their turn: use a maneuver, use a main action, or use a move action.<br><br>The nice thing about this in Draw Steel is you have a significant choice on your turn— &quot;What is the most valuable thing I can do?&quot;

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• TH

  @ThomastheLess · 3 months ago

  Closely related: persuasion/mind control mechanics on PCs. I like how the Mist system handles it: You can still take any actions you want, but anything that contradicts the command must be done at a penalty

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• MR

  @MrJerks93 · 3 months ago

  DnD has a lot of great spells that follow these designs and then those that don&apos;t. Web is very interactive. You can push your way through (Strength), cut it, or burn it. Slapping works wonders against Sleep. It wouod be nice if every spell had some mundane way to drain party actions to subvert stun lock.

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• LU

  @LupineHero · 3 months ago

  I recently watched a video with an interesting perspective on another way to handle stun mechanics, though on a GM-level rather than a designer-level: telegraph the ability heavily before the player ever interacts with it. Then, the players have the opportunity to plan countermeasures and potentially avoid dealing with the stun effect entirely. This method treats even getting caught having to make the save in the first place as a fail state already because the players had the opportunity to avoid that situation.

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• BR

  @brimstone6665 · 3 months ago

  Working on my own game, and I tackled this by making each status effect a counter that only influences 1 stat (Accuracy, Dodge, Movement) and they automatically reduce counters at the end of their turn. The only real exception is Petrification which fully incapacitates you, but it also reduces damage taken and is reduced when you take damage, so the true stun is VERY temporary.<br><br>Inversely, on the monster side, I gave monsters more turns at higher levels. Mid-level monsters have 2 turns, and boss level monsters have 3, so status effects become less effective on stronger monsters, but still affect them

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• TO

  @tonysladky8925 · 3 months ago (edited)

  I think the best implementation of a &quot;Lose your turn&quot; type of stun (partially, I think this because I&apos;ve only read, not played, the game, partially because I don&apos;t know every other way it&apos;s been implemented) is in The Mecha Hack.<br><br>In that game, you&apos;ve got exactly one usage die (which for the uninitiated, is a die used to track certain types of resources in some games; the more sides on the die, the more of that resource you have. After a scene where you use that resource, you&apos;ll roll the die. On a 1 or a 2, you replace it with the next smaller die. If it shrinks from a d4, you&apos;re out of the resource and have to resupply), representing the reactor that powers your giant robot suit. As you put it through its paces during a mission, you&apos;ll tax your mech&apos;s reactor, represented by the shrinking of your Reactor Die. If it shrinks below a d4, your turn ends immediately, and you lose your next turn.<br><br>The important part is that only actions the player takes run the risk of shrinking your Reactor Die. Enemy mechs or Kaiju don&apos;t have attacks that affect your Reactor Die. It&apos;s only a risk that you invite when you activate powerful modifications to your mech or spend both your actions on your turn taking the same action (such as moving twice or attacking twice).

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• BF

  @BF-rn3oz · 2 months ago

  This is a valuable video and I hope every GM gets to hear this. Difficult decisions and cost benefit analysis are a huge reason we play these games.

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• CH

  @charlesreed5839 · 3 months ago (edited)

  Two comments on this. First, this exact thing happened to me in a game. The other characters had the means to fix it, but instead just played through with the encounter, which was a big one. I was annoyed enough to end my engagement with that game. Second, the same mechanic can also impact player decisions when one player uses a stun on a big bad, effectively ending the combat but also making all the previous limited use powers that were expended in the encounter basically a waste. If a player is going to use such an ability, declare it to the other players and try to use it FIRST, so the rest of us don&apos;t burn limited resources in a battle that will end with a stun and follow-up dogpile. When you get to play less than once a month, losing out on one big encounter is a waste of that whole session.

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• OU

  @Outlaw0451 · 3 months ago

  I respect the honesty with the advertising. Makes me more likely to consider a product. I&apos;m a skeptic by nature and when I hear &quot;It&apos;s all great!&quot; I distrust the recommendation.

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