#Monte cook

[rqbossman]

Just so you know I'm having an amazing time playing the Magnus Archives TTRPG with my friends.

I've got to ask, how did it feel to put definitive statblocks on all the fun little monsters and artifacts? On one hand their abilities are horrific and devastating enough they remain scary but also reducing them to numbers feels unfittting of such mysterious beings.

So here's the thing.

I ran Rusty Quill Gaming for years. There, I took start blocks and engineered mysterious monsters out of them.

This time I just had to reverse my thinking and eventually it clicked.

That said, the Monte Cook team did all the real work, I just had to yell "iceberg ahead! " if they went off course (which I don't believe they ever did)

[eggnoodlesoop]

just got my physical Magnus Archives TTRPG book and its SO COOL AAAAAAAGH

[jonnywaistcoat]

Right, kicked COVID to the curve, so coming out swinging for the last few days of The Magnus Archives RPG crowdfunder. It looks absolutely *sick* and there's a whole bunch of fun extras and gubbins that are only available through the campaign, so check it out!

[thedispatch]

Running a TMA campaign comes free with art dumps of character dynamics, soft scene, and an obscene amount of memes made by @queenelizabethiii 😌 (did I infact put a Bouchard in the game? Maybe👀)

[vintagerpg]

So, my pal Clay sent me a box of books. They weren’t a gift, they we more like an extended loan and they amount to perhaps the most direct “please post about these books” I’ve gotten since the feed started. I’ve taken care of a few at this point, but now, well. Ptolus. How the hell do I tackle Ptolus in 300 words?!

Ptolus (2006) is a massive all-in-one setting book for D20 designed by Monte Cook. It consists of a city and two dungeons, one above — the Spire — and a megadungeon below. The book runs 670 pages and features a density of information — maps, cross-sections, various type sizes, sidebars, tabs, cross-references — that I am not sure has ever been achieved before or since. It is truly a monument to a particular moment of BIG DESIGN in RPGs that was fueled by the near universal adaptation of D20. Unlike a lot of other similar projects (World’s Largest Dungeon comes to mind) there is a ton of deep thought and care on display in nearly every design decision I’ve read.

I wanted this book real bad when I learned about it a couple years after release, but it was already scarce. If I had gotten copy back then, it might very well have become my favorite RPG book ever. I’d probably still be playing in it. Because you totally could, there are decades of adventures here. Reading it cover to cove now in 2023 just feels like an impossibility. It’s too big! It works really well as a book to dip into a read a box or two to think about, for inspiration or rumination, but I wouldn’t know where to begin in putting together a cohesive campaign here. I don’t think my brain can fit it all in! I appreciate the painstaking detail, don’t get me wrong, but I would much rather this thing be carved up into a bunch of small books. That’s the main reason I didn’t back the recent re-release on Kickstarter; I knew before Clay ever sent this to me that this book was going to defeat me.

[starofdelphi]

guess what came in the mail today

[teawitchgremlin]

So I’m planning on running a Magnus Archives TTRPG game based in the Usher Foundation (American Magnus Institute). And instead of actually writing the game I’m instead making assets for the game. So enjoy Magnolia Usher, director of the Usher Foundation.

Speed draw and her isolated portrait below the cut!

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played NUMENERA ?

By Monte Cook

In the distant, distant future (approx. 1 billion years), the Earth is littered with the ruins of ancient technology from fallen empires that might as well be magic.

[cackled0g]

Okay real talk, are there any DMs here who run the Cypher System? I'm running a game for a party of five, and two of my players are getting way more XP than the others. I don't want to just toss the others XP for no reason, but their character arcs aren't really getting followed up on enough to get them consistent XP. Any advice? I can elaborate if needed.

[stlgeekgirl]

It's here! My precious! ❤️. I helped crowdfund The Magnus Archives Role-playing game, and got a hard copy of the game. Plus a Training cassette tape and some Leitner bookplates which I am extremely excited about.

Its all so pretty! 🥺

[probablyevilrpgideas]

Old Gods, Cyphers and What Games Do

I've been listening to Old Gods of Appalachia at night to fall asleep recently, and got curious about the OGoA RPG. To my disappointment, it uses the Cypher system.

And, honestly, whatever. I think Monte needs to stop writing rules because he clearly doesn't enjoy it, and would rather spitball ideas and write fluff. Which is fine, honestly. He's a big enough name in RPGs these days that his job is literally whatever he decides it is, so he seriously could just hire a designer and just write the fluff. But all that said, fill your bliss. Some systems are better or worse for some games, but use what you want.

But reading through (ok, skimming) the Cypher book... Well, my opinion on Monte's design skills aside, I think it's a bad choice for Old Gods of Appalachia. The Cypher corebook talks about XP being the reward for what you want the players to do-

And, like, that's not what Old Gods of Appalachia is about? There's combats, there's stand offs, the characters literally get into fights as the main thing that happens. The thing that characters do in Old Gods of Appalachia has way more in common with D&D character activities.

This ain't Lovecraft. These stories aren't about stodgy academics reading tomes and going mad from what they learn. These are stories about people in Appalachia meeting eldritch shit and fighting for their fucking lives.

Am I wrong?

[zoefannet]

Spreading the word far and wide -- the long awaited sequel to DORKNESS RISING (2008) and GAMERS 3: HANDS OF FATE (2013) is kickstarting through June 29th!

Writer/Director Matt Vancil has gotten the original Dorkness Rising team back together to finish the story

Gamers 4: Dorkness Falls - www.dorknessfalls.com

[coolcomicbookcovers]

[appendingfic]

Magnus Archives tabletop game???

[vintagerpg]

OK, this week is one of those exercises in me looking at a game that doesn’t appeal to me for reasons I can’t quite express, and then you try to educate me as to its charms. The game in question is Numenera, the first iteration from 2013, before Cypher System really becomes Cypher System.

So, Numenera is a very light mechanical RPG, using a D20 for resolution. Only the players roll; they’re trying to beat values on a sliding difficulty ladder that reminds me vaguely of Fate. Characters are defined through key words (though not, like, totally open ended keywords as in HeroQuest, there are constraints and those build in a lot of structure that makes me feel comfortable). Magic items are little doo-dads that have a bunch of unique minor effects, so they have a lot of application, feel special and can interact with each other in lots of ways (good and bad). It’s a way more welcoming and usable system than I expected (the last Monte Cook game I read was Invisible Sun, which is neither).

The game is arranged around exploration and discovering things to wonder at — the world has a deep history, full of lost technology, weird magic, strange civilizations. Page after page after page of stuff that I feel should thrill me (I love the fact that there is no experience rewards for combat and that damage is basically static). Especially since I love Cook’s Planescape work and at enjoy the majority of his other D&D material I’ve read. And I like worlds with similar histories, like Talislanta or Jorune. But for some reason, Numenera leaves me under-wondered. The same is true of the videogames (and Planescape Torment was for a long time my all-time favorite).

So what’s my malfunction? What am I missing?

[lavender-wiitch]

this will be me GM’ing my TMA-inspired campaign