This was an interesting design experiment

If you prefer to use twitter, I wrote some thoughts here. If not or it already has shutdown, here is the copy-and-paste.

Bones Machines!

The result of a three week KNAVE hack challenge (that I did with Oscar C Tango) which became just 3 restless days for me. I enjoyed this experimentation and the strict deadline. Sure, its definitely not perfect or at my preferred standard but, I made a game that I can say is done...for now?

I definitely would like to come back to this game or re-explore the concept in the future. But I want to have the satisfaction of just putting it into the itch bookshelf and making (and finishing) something else.

But, I might as well talk about some of the stuff I liked:

1. The concept of the character sheet being ONLY an inventory. The result of a few discussions/jokes about taking concept of KNAVE's inventory 'what you carry is what defines you' to the extreme level.
2. While I was sick and tired during the process, I hit a calming flow eventually of just not caring too much. I was having fun putting words on a paper.
3. While it is just images from Pixabay and I very quickly slapped them into the whitespaces. It helped my brain click. 'Yes, I now have some visuals to attach these meaningless words to.'
4. The combat actions of stealing items from enemies and forcefully giving them items (especially cursed ones). It was one of the things I wanted to first add into the game. Does it work? Probably.
5. Advancement. You are deciding between using your XP points to repair items or to eventually level up. But, if I play this, I wanted to finish this game quick, so it only takes 100xp to level up—every time. The guideline Level 1 NPC drops 1d12xp, and a Level 3 drops 3d12xp.
6. End Game. You may live long enough to see yourself become the villain. The roaming 'dark soul boss' Opulents that you try to overthrow are just other characters who got to end game. You get to make an item that your group can hunt down when they kill your former character.
7. Target 13 for default saves instead of KNAVE's 15. I don't know why that stands out to me. 13 is spooky, like skeletons, so it works. But I guess it also increases player success rate. Kind of leaning towards the metal action vibe I had in my mind.
8. Additionally to that, is the stacking of advantage or disadvantage. I want to roll loads of d20s thank you. It just feels nice and I think works for this game too. Not math-wise, but that doesn't matter.
9. Besides the d20, purposefully choosing to use the odd dice in the standard set: d12, d8, d4. I love these dice (also d3 & d2 but that's for another time) and decided to highlight them. It might not be the same for others but it just feels 'weird' to use them constantly.

What would I change/add if I had more time?

1. Lists of items with example traits beyond the basic modifiers and combat based things. At least a couple to show that groups should get weird with them.
2. Probably use a Mausritter or Into the Odd chassis instead? Mostly just system preference since I love auto-hit rolls and its saves stats. I could see how that would work with items nicely. But this was a simple KNAVE hack where I didn't want to completely change things up.

Forgive the string of words. I have energy today and thought I'd use it...and now my train of thought has vanished. I hope this all made sense and if you check out Bone Machines that you at least find it amusing.

If you're interested in what Oscar C Tango made for the for the challenge, here you go.