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Joic

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A member registered 15 days ago

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I really like the idea behind this, but I have quite a few questions as this system has quite a few holes.

Starting at Character Creation, I think everything is very well put together in terms of hearts, hunger, and inventory. Note I didn't mention the 8 "skills" because this does not make any sense. It comes up again in the inventory explanation, but it only states that items increase skills. Do you mean these are skill points that you get to put toward the tests? Or are you referring specifically to the 8 skills mentioned in the test portion?

In Taking Tests it mentions that if a test fails, the world decides what happens. Is this referring to the Game Master? Not using the term Game Master and not establishing an alternative directly is quite confusing, but I digress.

I have no issue with the Taking a Rest portion of the system.

When it comes to the tests I think it is the most well put-together part of this TTRPG and it does a good job conveying elements of Minecraft into a TTRPG. My issue lies with the final 4 skills. Talking, Taming, Enchanting, and Brewing.
It goes into Talking and Taming so loosely that it loses the intention, I think. It states the success requirement is that "all required spaces are filled" but this is more akin to the Crafting Test. Isn't Talking and Taming more akin to the previous Dueling and Shooting test where you are aiming for a single one and therefore can choose to increase the number by an amount up to your level in that skill? Also, while I think it's clear what you're trying to do, conveying emotions like "Angry" and "Violent" are strange to me. I understand the idea with 5 being the sweet spot but the fact you can't decrease the amount makes talking really clunky. It's arbitrary and won't fit many situations, such as negotiation or taming a horse. Imagine trying to tame a horse and it just becomes sad instead of "helpful" or "ecstatic." Which carries into the fact that the success conditions are bit iffy when there are only 2 you'd likely ever want to get when taming, and even when talking, when you intimidate someone the you want them to be scared, but if they're helpful, no one's gonna complain right? Overall I think Talking and Taming is one of the worst tests in your system.
Enchanting and Brewing share the problem that they don't do anything. It's up to the Game Master to decide what those effects do. Many are just differently worded Minecraft Enchantments and Effects (Blazing could either be Flame or Fire Affinity, Stealth is likely invisibility) but they don't help with anything. At best they solve problems, like Vision allowing you to see in the dark, or Leap allowing you to jump higher to escape an encounter. But Enchanting has none of this grace, does Blazing give like a +1 to combat in general? Does it increase the damage of a success in combat? Does Smiting increase damage against undead mobs? Who knows. I guess it's up to the GM and with such a tiny system that's fine but it makes Enchantment redundant because you might as well have left it out and if a GM wanted to add enchanting and brewing into their game they probably would have without needing to make it a test (it's unnecessary since usually players just succeed if they know the recipe)

Lastly, the Items in their entirety seem a bit, weird? They serve as the class, yeah. Your character gets items to fit their build, which'll allow you to give them increases to skills you want. Items like the Ancient Trident or Ancient Mace, why do they increase your duel and not just have a higher total damage? Dungeon Weapon and Tipped Arrow are problematic for much of the same reason as the tests themselves. (And you're fucked if you get a tipped arrow that has a positive brewing effect) I presume whenever an item has skills separated by / it means you get to choose one, but this isn't made very clear. TNT is overpriced for its function, basically just guaranteeing one hit per combat or giving you a better chance at winning a mining test. It being once per rest makes it useless all the same.

Lastly, I have some trifles with the mechanics because of how they relate to Minecraft. You definitely didn't have space to fit mobs and other relevant parts of minecraft into this. You didn't have space to make a comprehensive list of items that'd actually do something (assuming you can craft stuff outside of the item list for overall buffs, like armor for higher defense). So while that is disappointing, I respect the attempt at a 1-page. The issue I hold is with how the mechanics for hearts and hunger work in relation to rest. We are assuming this is set in Minecraft and exists for an outlet of storytelling that we can't get in the game due to not being able to host large servers or just not having friends willing to do roleplay in-game. Going unconscious isn't how losing your hearts work in Minecraft. I'd have said you just die after losing your hearts and losing your hunger sets you to 1 heart until you eat. Then you could have had rests still return players who died with the respawn mechanic, saying they just couldn't return sooner because they needed to find their way back to you. Whether a GM allows pre-rest returns based on location of their respawn point is up to the GM and wouldn't need to be put on paper.

Joel Happyhil, I hope you understand this comment does not come from a place of insult but from a place of genuine critique. I hope you will read this and give me your honest opinion. I really like your system, and I might test it out, run a game with friends, and get back to you to see if I have any more critiques I couldn't work out from one look. But truly Joel, keep being creative, and don't let my words be discouraging. I did really like the concept you came up with, and while my comment may make it seem like I hate everything about it, I actually really think it could work. Cheers!

It's a neat little game, nothing too crazy that I'd get lost in, but neat.