sapphim

[sapphim]

I mean if it hadn't fallen apart for other reasons first then it would have fallen apart shortly after for personal health reasons only I would have felt way more like I was personally letting everyone down about it so maybe I should say "thank you, friend group drama" lol

ahhh are you doing curse of strahd??? My group just started this one! I hope you have fun!!

unfortunately that group imploded several years ago for multiple reasons only one of which was out of character player drama but it's fine I'm over it (←lying)

[sapphim]

im gonna be picking it back up as a play-by-post one-on-one with one of my friends who was in the original campaign (can't catch me, friend group drama) as soon as I can work out the logistical kinks but to clarify a lil I am not "doing" "curse of strahd" I am doing some complete bullshit 90s ravenloft nonsense while liberally ripping off curse of strahd plot elements but only the ones I liked

ahhh are you doing curse of strahd??? My group just started this one! I hope you have fun!!

unfortunately that group imploded several years ago for multiple reasons only one of which was out of character player drama but it's fine I'm over it (←lying)

[sapphim]

ahhh are you doing curse of strahd??? My group just started this one! I hope you have fun!!

unfortunately that group imploded several years ago for multiple reasons only one of which was out of character player drama but it's fine I'm over it (←lying)

[sapphim]

look at my props, boy

the other thing about no/low-prep games that doesn't particularly jibe with me is that I loooooove a good prop. I love a handout. I love a physical object that I can waggle enticingly at my players. look at my props, boy.

[sapphim]

like the number of props I'd want to prep for a potential Paranoia one-shot is actually disgusting

the other thing about no/low-prep games that doesn't particularly jibe with me is that I loooooove a good prop. I love a handout. I love a physical object that I can waggle enticingly at my players. look at my props, boy.

[sapphim]

the other thing about no/low-prep games that doesn't particularly jibe with me is that I loooooove a good prop. I love a handout. I love a physical object that I can waggle enticingly at my players. look at my props, boy.

[sapphim]

So I've had this longstanding agreement with our current Lancer group that if our regular DMs aren't up to run a session on our scheduled weekend then I'm happy to step in and run a low prep rules light one-shot.

This was the second time I've been tapped in. The first time I ran Ten Candles, because it was October, and because I've run it before (and I'll run it again, too!) This time I/we picked out Pros & Cons, which is the most intriguing Lasers & Feelings hack I've ever seen, in that it uses a deck of playing cards instead of dice, with additional rules for plot twists and flashbacks to emulate the feel of high stakes heist films.

Everyone had a good time but in the end it felt like it played rather like I imagine a game of Fiasco would, and in the future we might just elect to try Fiasco instead. Personally, I love the heist genre, they comprise some of my favorite films and TV shows, but I am poor at running improv-heavy no-prep games, and my love for and familiarity with the genre didn't provide as much as a crutch as I hoped it would.

I've been trying to find the low-to-medium-prep sweet spot that feels most comfortable for me without ending up doing too much out-of-session, but going in without any game plan for the session like no-prep games demand never leaves me feeling afterward like I've run a good game. Doing some prepwork beforehand feels like it spreads out and externalizes a good deal of the mental load that is otherwise very hard for me to keep on top of throughout the entire course of the session unless I'm really at the top of my game, and as a result I have more brainspace at the table to manage spotlight and pacing. And I was not on top of my game today lmao.

If we do play Pros & Cons again we will probably just play it entirely GM-less (as opposed to how we played it today, which was mostly half GM-less after it was clear that I was struggling to power through brain fog partway through the session and the players stepped up to throw out their best ideas when plot complications were called for, which was often). The playing card mechanic works perfectly fine as an oracle in that respect.

We all agreed that the card mechanic was interesting but one of the players felt they were more difficult and unintuitive to read than dice rolls, having to combine the classic L&F roll over/under mechanic with the additional degrees of success attributed to the different card suits.

We all liked the plot twists introduced when drawing face cards—but between the plot twists, normal failures, and the complications introduced when drawing cards of a certain suit color, it felt like complications were just a bit too much a bit too often, and having to constantly pause to cook those up stole some momentum out of the middle of the session.

The flashbacks (if you botch a roll with one approach (either Pro or Con) you can narrate how actually you were planning ahead for this all along and retry with the opposite approach to try and pull out a success) were a fun idea but a bit hard to justify in practice, and the typical flashback just boiled down to "by doing ABC I was actually cleverly distracting them while I was doing XYZ instead." I also found it hard to arbitrate the difference between what counted as being a Pro (reliable, efficient, restrained) and what counted as pulling a Con (improvisational, showy, creative) in a number of circumstances that called for rolls but weren't really clearly one or the other.

We had two deeply unlikable cons and one sweet and simple hitter who we were all rooting for. When the hitter—quite unnecessarily, but I'm still rooting for him—murdered in cold blood our evil tech CEO mark halfway through the session and we shifted from what was once a straightforward heist to suddenly everyone biting each other's heads off while trying to cover up the murder, it really felt like things clicked into place and the plot started cooking.

The enforced plot twists I think really sell the game and make it a more shoot-from-the-hip emergent experience than something like Fiasco would be. When a face card is drawn, you're given a question to pose to the players and whatever is the most dramatic answer is immediately made canon. Throughout the course of the game we escalated from revealing that the hacker's girlfriend worked at the company and was feeding him inside information, to the hacker's girlfriend was also sleeping with the CEO, to the hacker's girlfriend was trying to set him up to take the fall while she scooped the company out from under the CEO, to the hacker was actually double cross manipulating her this whole time while he did the same thing Uno reverse, to the hitter was actually wearing a wire this time and now they're both going to jail. None of which we would have arrived at given our own devices but many of which prompted me to clap like a seal. I really like the compulsory plot twists.

One of the players was disappointed in retrospect that it played out more like a Fiasco comedy of errors than a sleek and sexy Ocean's Eleven heist. But I pointed out that if that was what he wanted then he would have been better served creating a character that would fit into Ocean's Eleven rather than a Coen brothers film and it probably would have played out very differently, and he conceded the point. He's just plagued by the terrible gremlin instinct.

In conclusion. Fun game, well-thought out, many pros, a few cons, would work very well GM-less, and also I love my friends they're very funny.

[sapphim]

We Have Disco Elysium At Home (game about a psychically tormented detective) (House of Danger) (1979)

[sapphim]

werewolves would be barreling down the backroads in a two door pickup truck blasting Rob Zombie's Dragula and vampires would be like "um that's kind of offensive actually :\"

person who is making a Vampire Honky-Tonk playlist: vampires would love Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline

[sapphim]

same guy again (me): vampires would love Stevie Nicks

person who is making a Vampire Honky-Tonk playlist: vampires would love Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline

[sapphim]

person who is also making a Vampire Jazz Club playlist: vampires would love Billie Holiday and Nina Simone

person who is making a Vampire Honky-Tonk playlist: vampires would love Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline

[sapphim]

person who is making a Vampire Honky-Tonk playlist: vampires would love Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline

[sapphim]

#love sebastian and all of his many problems re: inheritance & paternal legacy #also yet again convincing evidence that he thinks power is hot & blood power is EXTRA hot #and this is why he should kiss reaver!hawke on their bloody mouth <3 (via @thedragonagelesbian)

you're the only person on this post who truly gets it

Bethany: A key? Tuned to Father's blood? He-he wasn't a blood mage, was he? He can't have been… Carver: Keys and blood. Not a good sign, and not how I want to think of Father. Anders: A key, tuned to your father's blood. Sounds like a ritual element for blood magic. Be careful, Hawke. Aveline: A key… tied to your father's blood. Be careful, Hawke. Fenris: A key tied to your father's blood? If he was a blood mage, you would do well not to make his same mistakes. Sebastian: A key… that belonged to your father? We should find this thing, see what powers are rightfully yours.

everyone else: blood magic is dangerous Hawke, please be careful Sebastian: it's time to get JACKED hawke let's fuckin gooo

Merrill: I've never heard of a key used as a focus for blood magic. What do you suppose it opens? Merrill: Or is it to shut something in? Keys can do either, I suppose…

p.s. Merrill you genius I'm kissing you on the lips

[sapphim]

How many different ttrpgs have you played ?

We are counting them all. To answer what has been asked on the Anim ttrpg book club where this poll originated, yes solo and one page games count of course.

The Stipulation : you have to have sat down for at least one session of gameplay

For the sake of this poll, different editions count as different games, if they are major rules or design changes between the different editions.

[sapphim]

our current Lancer campaign arc is wrapping in a week or a few so I'm prepping pitches to run a series of one-shots (or maybe a ~3 session mini campaign?) for a change of pace before we jump right back into our other main GM's other Lancer campaign lmao

been seriously eyeing Paranoia and Fiasco as a potential good time. presently at a loss for more. (Ten Candles has always played well for me but that's a fall/winter sort of game. can't play Ten Candles when the sun doesn't set until after 9 pm! mood's not right!)

anyway if anyone wants to shill their fave one-shot systems then please do

[sapphim]

games (mostly text-based) about houses and places-- exploring them, haunting them, feeding them:

childhood homes (and why we hate them) - after a decade, you return home.

return - a text-based horror game about coming home.

singing from the far side of the hill - about a trans woman, homeless after a bad breakup, who rents a stranger's spare room. it's a decision she comes to regret.

anatomy - Explore a suburban house, collect cassette tapes, study the physiology of domestic architecture.

leave house - leave house

the open house - We at Northtree Real Estate (in partnership with Optix Dynamix Labs) are proud to present our new, state-of-the-art, open house simulator!  Come and take a quick tour of 15615 Hollow Oak Lane, a familiar and comfortable showcase home in one of our premier developments!

what girls do in the dark - This little game is based off one of the greatest fears they had as a teenage girl: showing up late to a stranger's slumber party.

unbecoming - a sonically-textured interactive horror fiction exploring cycles of trauma and unspeakable forces of nature in a mythic rural American landscape.

13 laurel road - an interactive fiction game about the relationships we have with places and reconciling with trauma. You play as a young man named Noah who has been tasked with picking up some things from his cousin’s old house.

domvs - a gothic mystery game in which you rely on your environment to uncover the truth.

flesh, blood, & concrete - you find yourself in a vast, empty apartment complex.

i am still here - a short, unconventional ghost story and vignette reflecting on the end of a long lockdown.

vacant - Film a ghost-hunting show.

[sapphim]

I got a little (very) carried away is this anything. (I made the base color dark grey to hopefully be more migraine friendly)

[wrt this post] is the archdemon... dunking on me?????