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That's fantastic! Would it help to have the original text to work with instead of the PDF?

I appreciate the feedback. I've pretty much determined a 3rd attribute is getting added to the game.

I ran some solo scenarios using the rule the rolled attribute die is lowered when taking the 3rd strain. It did make the game more deadly, but not in a good way. I then ran it with the original rules and it didn't feel OP.

So, right now, I'm leaning toward adding the 3rd attribute and not changing the rules other than the die sizes allocated to said attributes. d4, d6, and d8.

Enemy Surprise Attacks a Character

When play testing I encountered a situation where the character heard a rustling sound from a dark corner in the room. The character readied their weapon and slowly approached, hoping to get a view of whatever made the sound.

Because this is a risky situation, I decided a Mind roll vs. a difficulty was in order. Here's what I decided would happen based on the Mind roll:

• Full Success: The character sees the creature in the corner and will not be surprised if it attacks
• Partial Success: The character knows there's something in the corner, but he can't make out the details. If the creature attacks, he'll still be surprised (jump scare anyone?)

The player rolled and got a Partial Success (muah ha ha!)

Of course, that means the creature attacks! It springs from the shadows and surprises the character. Because he's surprised, I bumped the difficulty die up 1 level and called for a Body roll for the attack. Here's what I decided would happen based on the Body roll:

• Full Success: The character was quick enough to evade the attack, but the enemy doesn't take damage.
• Partial Success: The character takes Strain equal to the difficulty cost, but the enemy doesn't take damage.

The player rolled and got a Partial Success, so they marked Strain equal to the difficulty cost.

Now we're onto normal combat rolls and normal difficulties for the enemy.

Character Surprise Attacks An Enemy

When thinking through the opposite, I decided it was pretty close to what is described above.

Because it is a risky situation, a Body (or Mind based on the situation) is required vs. an easier difficulty (enemy doesn't know they are there). Here's how I'd rule based on the roll:

• Full Success: The character maintains their stealth, so the enemy will be surprised when they attack. Depending on the situation, increase the characters attribute die, drop the enemies difficulty die, or both. To make it SUPER simple, you could declare the characters attack is an auto hit and the enemies hit count is decreased by 1.
• Partial Success: The character did something so the enemy is suspicious, so the enemy will not be surprised when they attack. The attack will be a normal attack. You could also decrease the difficulty die to simulate the enemy being unprepared even though they are suspicious.

Summary

Hopefully this gives some insight into how to run the game in different situations. It really boils down to adjusting the attribute and difficulty die based on the situation. Sometimes a test is needed to see how much the die should be adjusted.

When in doubt, just adjust one or both die and call for a roll. It'll be epic!

Another idea, which may avoid the player arguing the characters role applies to everything.

• Advantage: Roll an extra Attribute die, take the highest
• Disadvantage: Roll an extra Difficulty die, take the highest

That's a good idea, thanks. The game this core mechanic was taken from has a Momentum/Karma mechanic where characters earn 1 Momentum on each full success. 3 Momentum turn into 1 Karma and characters can have a max of 3 Karma.

Karma can be spent before the roll to:

• Decrease the difficulty die (no lower than d4)
• Increase the attribute die (no higher than d12)

Karma can be spent after the roll to:

• Avoid taking strain

I really like that mechanic and it's fun at the table, but there's quite a bit of record keeping involved AND it was way too much to explain in this one page pamphlet! 

Perhaps I should create an addendum of optional rules and put that in there (along with the 2 attribute die when the role applies if you'd allow me to use it).

I appreciate the review!

Good points on quirks and gear. I will look into those improvements among others.

That's completely up to you. If you do, bump the die of an attribute (if you didn't already) and see where it goes.

Correct. The player would roll their characters Wit die and the referee (or player) would roll the guards Wit die (d4) and compare the two results to see who wins.

Great!

Yep, the difficulty die is what I was referring to. When we play tested it, I facilitated and just had the players roll the die. I could have rolled, bit the players seemed to enjoy rolling both (and it was faster). It is a natural fit for solo play too.

I also lean on AI when playing solo. It really helps when I get an odd Oracle answer or when I need some inspiration for situations.

Have fun! Oh, and if you're following CyberPunks, I will probably have an update later this week if I can figure out how to fix the imbalance.

You've discovered why it is a partial success system. Characters wouldn't make it very far if it was a complete fail. Are you using opposed rolls or static #'s? I generally use opposed rolls when playing.

The CyberPunks resolution system is fun, but boy is it unbalanced. I have been testing it and the success rate is crazy high when you start getting into the d10 range. I am trying to see if different target #'s will help.

Thanks for the comment on gear in Galactic Ops. I need to circle back to this game and make some updates. That would be a good one to get in there.

As for Facilitator Karma when playing solo... I would skip it, or maybe incorporate an Oracle roll to see if the Facilitator uses it against you.

I am glad you're enjoying it. I really like the simplicity of the Pay The Price mechanic. Building fail forward into the mechanic makes the game more enjoyable for me anyways.

Success! A party of 4 (Cleric, Magic User, Ranger, Fighter) managed to rescue Flindia. The swarm of spiders was an embarrassing display of combat, so they all had a few minor wounds when they encountered the lizardmen, who put up a pretty good fight. Thanks to the cleric's healing they managed to defeat the leader which caused his guards to run away.

It was a fun run!

Hola, I use Google slides to layout the PDFs. Getting the pocketfold all lined up is a bit of a challenge, but it works.

Nice! Let me know if you have questions and post a link to your blog if you do write about it.

This looks great. I plan on using it for a solo session using Mythiria sometime soon.

Thanks! I don't know of anyone who's posted an actual play of the game. I'm running a private PbP Mythiria game which is basically Flexpiel with some extra rules for magic. So far it's going well and the players seem to enjoy it.

That's awesome! Great to hear you're having fun with it. I'm planning on starting a solo hex crawl game with it.

I don't know of anything off the top of my head. Please post a link to your review when it's ready. I'm really interested in seeing it.

Thanks!

I did! Good catch and thanks for letting me know.

Thanks! It was fun putting the pocketfold edition together.

Thanks!!

Hello! 

I created a Pocketfold version of my rules-lite post-apocalyptic game Rough Destiny. You can find it here: https://squidhead-games.itch.io/rough-destiny

This is great! Thanks for putting it together.

Actually, a change is coming. I spent some time with Rough Destiny, the post-apocalyptic game based on Flexpiel. There were quite a few rounds where nothing happened, which isn't good. I'm reworking the optional rules to use player facing rolls. One roll determines who takes a wound and how severe it is. In some cases, both the character and opponent could take a wound.

I've written it up, I just need to get some quick testing in. It is a mechanic I've used in other games based on FlexD6, so I know it works. I just want to make sure it works well with the wound mechanic.

No worries. That is good feedback. I didn't get into details in the document, but I will review that and see what I can do to make it clear.

This is an early draft of Flexpiel. I've done some simple solo play testing and plan on getting it to the table soon. I wanted to share an early version before diving into layout. 

Thanks! I actually struggled with the amount of information to provide, but in the end I decided a little more guidance would make the game easier/quicker to play. In the end, it is still only 3 pages of rules. The rest of it is guidance.

Gotcha. I have a plan for the Character Expansion and game to update the current abilities to simply provide advantage. Giving advantage and a skill die is a little too powerful. It is much easier to just give advantage.

One other thing to consider is if something seems too powerful, you could reduce the max health to offset the power of the ability. Also, specializations can be something only that species can do. An example of that is the Linguist special ability in the Weird West supplement. They can "overcome communication barriers with area natives." That is something only the Linguist can do and doesn't provide any bonuses, it just happens.

Great question. I didn't have plans to. For enemies, following the table of health and attack rating should do it. An enemy with 5 or 6 health and a 2 attack rating is going to be about an even match for a character with 2 or 3 skill die. I've seen 1 tough enemy with 10 health and 3 attack rating almost take out two characters with 3+ skill die.

Only advantage and disadvantage should change the check die. Everything else should change the skill die. Also, skill die should only succeed on a 6. Anything less and the balance will be thrown off.

Does that help?

Or, if you're on discord, you can join my server here: https://discord.gg/taygp9t4

Awesome! Cool to hear you're enjoying it.

You can reach me at [snip]

Hello!

Correct, weapons don't matter, but you can "upgrade" them so they provide skill dice when rolling. That translates into increased damage as each success (5 or 6 on check die and 6 on skill die) inflict 1 point of damage. The optional rules include more ways items can be enhanced to provide skill die or even inflict more damage.

There are no rules for unarmed combat at this point. Personally, I would restrict the damage inflicted on the target to 1 hit regardless of the roll. I think that would work well and wouldn't break the system.

I responded to your email, let me know if you don't get it (new email address, so hopefully it works)

Awesome, thanks!

I used the following font sizes:

• Header: 18pt
• Body: 10pt

I'm trying to find a simple way to share without exposing things to spammers or hackers, but there doesn't seem to be a way to direct message on itch.io 

So, when you're ready, you can send a link to [redacted].

I'm looking forward to seeing what you've created!

I'm glad this game is hitting all the high points for you! I'm currently working on a new supplement that I'm in the middle of play testing. So far it is going well.

There are 2 fonts used through the document:

• Source Serif Pro - body text
• Almendra - purple header sections

I'd be interested in seeing your appendices if you're inclined to share. :)

Hello!

One of the great things about systems like this is it is very easy to add home rules to make the game your own. You can easily bring back the increasing cost for more difficult spells. I personally would max out the cost at 3 maybe 4.

Interesting idea on an item that reduces the cost! Sounds like a great find for a magic user or cleric.

Done! You can download Solo Tales for the solo game. :)

Great! Looking forward to it.

Gotcha. I can look into that for those without a printer. In the meantime, you could use the main PDF for the rules and use page 2 of the Pocketfold PDF for the game. It wouldn't be as convenient as singles or spreads, but it may work.

Thanks for the suggestion!