Question of the Week #109 · 2:30am Jun 7th, 2023
Hello everyone and welcome back to the question of the week.
So I've been exploring some ideas for table top rpg design and while I am currently just working on the gaming system I have had a few ideas for some settings/variants of the game.
One is a post-apocalyptic fantasy with the emphasis being less on death and the end of the world and more on renewal, rebirth and rediscovery.
Another idea I've been exploring is something kind of along the lines of a modern setting where events happened resulting in Halloween themed monsters appearing in a city in the American Northwest. Years later these creatures live relatively peacefully with humanity and the city has become a tourist attraction. The players would take on the role of these humans turned monsters, interacting with humans, other monsters and the mysterious ruins underneath the city.
As I was considering this last idea, a thought occurred to me that I thought I might ask.
What sort of features/gameplay mechanics do you think can give an rpg a sort of punkish/rebellious feel?
And that's all I have for this week. It's getting hot and I'm tired.
I hope you all have a wonderful week. 
-This image can be found: here.
making illegal weapons(pipe bomb :3) and giving it to the npc for frend(:3) points
I think we are still missing the overall feel for such a game. Is it more combat oriented, roleplaying like Tails of Equestria, or a mix of both like DnD?
For a punkish or rebellious feel, you could mix the setting up by sprinkling something from combat side into the heavy roleplay or vice versa.
One moment you are talking to some NPC, suddenly one of the players got an option to do something over the top like ARandomLonelyDude just mentioned. I'd imagine everyone scrambling when they finish talking.
But that seems much too chaotic, so maybe toning it down like being chased by authorities for undiscernable reasons.
For combat with roleplay sprinkled in, the user could get an option to pull a wildcard, an approved scenario you've premade, that does something crazy. For example: a player builds up enough "punk points" and he cashes it in. So he draws or choose the wildcard scenario, which is him getting all enemies to surrender through roleplay intimidations.
Tl;dr
Simply put, indroduce a "punk" mechanic where the character can earn points for doing your milestone and/or performing actions against certain factions like the cops, or even rolling a critical.
Then you can make a "cards against humanity" cards and lay all your scenarios out for the player to get interested about. Heck, you could put a coverted blank card in and the player could engineer a scenario.
E.g. The player cashes in Punk points and chooses: "If you are in combat, pull a target in for therapy. Else, drop a pipebomb where you stand."
5732197 It will be a bit of a combo of action/roleplay.
I was thinking of something along these lines where every time you fail a roll, you mark a point on some sort of punk/rebellion meter. At certain points, after failing so many rolls, when you do fail a roll, you can choose one of a few options: regain some health equal to your character's level, regain an "Action Point" or turn the failure into a success. Once that milestone is activated, you have to reach another milestone in order to do it again. If you max out the meter you suffer a level of exhaustion, and the meter isn't reset until you have finished a rest.
5732341
The system iself is fine. The big issue though, is regarding how the system is being used.
Should this "punk" mechanic be limited as a get out of jail free card? Or would it be better suited as a reward system?
Because the issue based on your preference seems to limit this "Punk" system in such a way that doesn't sound punk-ish. This would just be DnD with a fail mechanic.
If you want to have a failure system in place, it gotta live together with a reward system too. It'd be just regular DnD until someone fails, otherwise.
Unless, your intention is to make it as hard as Dark Souls where dying is expected.
5732560 admittedly this is just one idea. Personally I think it would be cool to have 2-3 punk feeling mechanics to help the game stand out. So one could be a fail system and then maybe find a way to work in a few others as well.