#best easy rpg

[legionofmyth]

5 MORE Alternatives to Dungeons & Dragons

Are you looking for an amazing fantasy role-playing game? Here are five (more) alternatives to Dungeons & Dragons you don't want to pass up! #TTRPG #OSR #DnD5E #DnD #ACKS #CastlesAndCrusades #BasicFantasy #AdventurersDarkAndDeep #DungeonsAndDelvers

ALTERNATIVES TO DUNGEONS & DRAGONS I am back again with another list of good, nay, the best(!) alternatives to Dungeons & Dragons.  You see, no matter how GURPS and HERO System may try to convince you otherwise, there is no one-size-fits-all system or setting that’s perfect for everyone, and that includes Dungeons & Dragons. [Check out the first list of alternatives here.] In the previous list…

[arttsuka]

I've been playing a lot of Stardew Valley. Have you played any? Or since the 1.6 update?

What's your favourite video game?

I have not played Stardew valley (but I've seen stuff about it here and there, seems, not cozy, home-y? Seems nice).

As for video games, I don't really play a lot of video games, I'm not very good at them. RPGs are my worst nightmare, absolutely terrible at them. I do put gameplays of random games when I draw sometimes, if I'm not listening to video essays (yes, listening to videos. Usually videos are more organized than podcasts and the flow of the person talking is more 'smooth'). Also I do listen to video game music every once in a while (witcher 3 I'm looking at you)

Some of my favorite video games are: 'Ghost Trick - Phantom Detective' (you should definitely play it I'd you haven't already, puzzle game with pretty neat plot), ace attorney (at least the first trilogy, I haven't had the chance to play the rest yet), pokemon (specifically 'Pokemon Pearl', 'Pokemon Black' and 'Pokemon Y') and 'Mario Party DS'.

I'm not good at closing one favorite as you can see.

I tear up everytime I listen to this. Sometimes I open up my 3ds just so I can see this 'opening'.

[dr-ortex-provides]

Guys EarthBound and Mother 3 are cool games (EarthBound Beginnings too btw) go play them

[helladventurers]

Also don't let the fact I haven't been posting much about it fool you, DQ11 good

[prokopetz]

Why does genre-in-terms-of-mechanics have any bearing on genre-in-terms-of-narrative? Mechanics have names, but the names are not the mechanics.<br>You could take DnD, rename the stats Stat 1-6, and designate each game mechanical action by a letter, but it would still be the same game. How then, does this affect what story the system tells best?<br>I guess another way of saying it is, the same plot can be told in many different ways. How do game mechanics affect the former at all?

There are a couple of problems with this framing.

First, it's making the mistake of treating the shape of the dice as the most important thing about a tabletop RPG system – as though the only thing that makes a game "Dungeons & Dragons" is rolling a twenty-sided die plus your character's most relevant stat modifier versus a fixed target number, and the other 299 pages of that 300-page rulebook are more or less incidental. It's easy to frame an argument that a game's mechanics don't influence its narrative form if you're ignoring 99% of the rules.

(Now, I grant that this is how a non-trivial number of Dungeons & Dragons players experience the game, since they refuse to actually learn any of those rules and just sit there waiting for the GM to tell them which dice to roll, but that's a whole separate conversation.)

Second, even if we accept for the sake of argument that rolling a twenty-sided die plus your character's most relevant stat modifier versus a fixed target number is all there is to Dungeons & Dragons, there are a lot of narrative assumptions baked into that, including (but not limited to):

The assumption that generating binary pass/fail outcomes for performing discrete physical, mental and social tasks is something your narrative will benefit from having the rules do

The assumption that your narrative will benefit from these outcomes having a high degree of player-facing uncertainty

The assumption that your narrative will benefit from this uncertainty containing a relatively high likelihood of complete failure

The assumption that your narrative will benefit from the principal determinant of that likelihood of failure being be some intrinsic and objectively measurable attribute of the acting character

... and so forth. It might not be obvious how restrictive these assumptions are if your mental model of a tabletop RPG is reducible to sword and sorcery dungeon crawls with various coats of paint, but they actually take a great many narrative genres completely off the table, and simply have nothing interesting to say about a great many more. I don't know about you, but typically prefer my games' rules to have something to say about the things the game is about!

[erose-this-name]

Kabru is such a brilliantly written character, one of the best in Dungeon Meshi (which is a high bar as it is, most of the main cast are similarly genius). 

His thing is that he is very friendly and nice confident and maxed out his charisma stat, but is also kinda ambitious and manipulative. But not in an overtly malicious way. Which kinda scares me.

The most impressive thing about him, writing wise, is that it’s all show-don’t-tell. He very frequently uses his charm and empathy and understanding of how people think in really clever ways.

We’re often walked through his thought process of how he does these social deductions. We’re never told he’s scarily charismatic, besides other characters reacting to him being scarily charismatic.

Kabru is a natural-born leader and social engineer with superlative skills in both, which makes him the perfect foil for Laios, who’s too autistic and unambitious that he’s not even the de facto leader of his own party that he’s the official leader of. He’s so bad at leadership that his party just, sort of, doesn’t have a leader. They just kinda argue and do stuff.

What’s also neat, and perfectly inline with Meshi’s general theme of clever and logical subversions of fantasy tropes, is that Kabru’s character design in no way clues us in on this fundamental character trait of his.

He’s sort of a human fighter / knight archetype, which in the language of fantasy RPGs is a class most would associate with being a white bread jock, chivalrousness optional.

(Laios subverts the same trope in the same way. It’s really funny that the walking exposition dump of the group looks like the character creator default preset spec’d as the most generic class available.)

If Kabru was a bard or noble and Laios a wizard, their character traits would be far less interesting

Even better is that we would expect someone who looks like Laios to have Kabru’s personality, and vice versa. Their character designs are flipped; the confident super charismatic leader is a short wide-eyed twink, while the slightly naive and very autistic monster enthusiast is a tall conventionally attractive Aryan lookin’ mf.

(see what I mean by Kabru being such a good foil for Laios?? No wonder everyone ships them, they’re perfect for each other!)

Yet, their designs also work for them. Kabru just has a face that’s easy to talk to, his piercing blue eyes and curly hair gives him a false sense of naïveté, while his iconic 👁️👁️ expression hints that there’s actually quite a bit going on inside his head. Meanwhile, Laios believably looks like someone who doesn’t know what hair conditioner is. His armor’s collar gorget thing is also pretty dorky.

You can’t trust people like that (I mean overly charismatic people with a manipulative streak, not blue-eyed twinks) because you can’t know what their real motives are. You can’t know they aren’t pretending, you can’t know they aren’t trying to or haven’t already manipulated you. How could you? When he has so much more social intelligence than you do, average socially awkward Tumblr user? He’s touched all the grass!

In episode 16 (spoilers, btw) Kabru finally meets Laios’s party, who he’s been trying to find and fight for the better part of the season, and he just decides that no confrontation is necessary. Like, immediately upon meeting the guy. Just from how Laios looked at him. He figures that since Laios didn’t seem to recognize him, they either have never met meaning he has the wrong guy, or Laios forgot meaning he didn’t think it’d be a big deal, meaning the treasure was a trap or something. Which is pretty in line with Kabru’s established ability to always roll nat 20s for every charisma and deductive reasoning check, so cool.

But he doesn’t even seem curious about which of those cases is true. (He might be interested to find out some of the treasure wasn’t dangerous, but accidentally got thrown off a bridge). Much to Rin’s dismay, he’d rather just not bring it up because that could upset the leader of the party he might be working with for the foreseeable future.

Actions speak louder than words. So, all we really learn in this scene is that Kabru’s goals and M.O. can change on a dime, and that he values reputation and political capital more than money and vengeance. More than his own party’s desire for those things. Not only is he someone with a silver tongue, but he knows its value and is determined to use it at every opportunity.

Kabru and his party might not be very good at fighting or surviving in the dungeon, in fact their frequent TPKs are a running gag. But, he also doesn’t need to be when he can just manipulate Laios’ and Shuro’s much more proficient parties into helping him.

So far, Kabru seems like the most likely one to become king of the dungeon or whatever the mcguffin is. He is the only protagonist so far who has said that’s an actual goal of his. He’s said that he doesn’t think someone like Laios who isn’t a born leader should get it.

In fact, Kabru seems to have very strong opinions on what kinds of people should be allowed to adventure in the dungeon, evidenced by the fact that he murdered an entire party over it, justified or not. Kabru seems to think that Kabru is such a leader, and he’s probably right about that, but what kind of leader? 

What would Kabru do with that kind of power if he gets it? Because I’m not sure. All I know is that he is the kind of person with the ability to use real political power to its full potential. For good, or for very, very bad.

I’m not saying that Kabru is evil or that he’s secretly gonna be the surprise villain. I dunno, I haven’t read the manga. He could just be a nice guy that’s just, like, is like that. Everything he’s done could be justified by the explanations he’s given. He actually reminds me a lot of one of my IRL friends, and I’d trust him with my life.

But, I can’t help but feel a distinct sense of unease whenever he’s on-screen. I try not to trust confident natural-born leaders like him right out of the gate. I don’t like that our instinct as humans is to blindly follow them without thinking about it.

Tyrants and psychopaths also use confidence and charm and a friendly demeanor to make people think they’re a good guy, while manipulating everyone into thinking their self-serving actions are altruistic. Benevolent, confident, skilled leaders do exist. But there exists many more snakes wearing their skin. Wolves rarely bother with sheep’s clothing, they dress as shepherds and sheepdogs.

Anyway, my point is that I think it’s kinda neat that it’s possible to overthink this much about a character whose probably just a nice guy that is the mirror opposite of an autistic person. Writing that kind of ambiguity is hard, and employing it in this way is inspired.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

A mistake I think some people make when trying to get into a particlar genre or niche of media they're unfamiliar with is looking up which are considered to be some of the best works in the genre and try to use those as a starting point.

Because like. Often (not always but Often) the works that are widely critically acclaimed and considered to be the best in their genre are so because they elaborate on, deconstruct, subvert, or otherwise play with the conventions of the genre in a way that's not exactly easy to appreciate without a base level of familiarity with it. Like a lot of the time they're so highly regarded because they are exceptional in a way that makes them not really representative of the rest of the genre.

I remember when I was a young teen trying to get into superhero comics I tried to start with Watchmen, because I heard so much about how good Watchmen was and how it was probably THE best superhero comic. And turns out, I ended up not really getting Watchmen or why it was considered so good because a lot of what makes Watchmen good is the way it's in conversation with other superhero comics, which went completely over my head because I hadn't built up the level of familiarity needed to understand that, and I know a few other people who went through the same experience.

Similarly I don't like how common it is to see Undertale get recommended to people trying to get into RPGs because like. A huge chunk of what makes Undertale good is how it plays with the expectations of an RPG, which is something you're not gonna get if you're not familiar with those expectations in the first place.

[devsgames]

HOT GAMEDEVS DON'T GATEKEEP

Inspired by this post by @midwinterhunt, here's a compilation of all the game dev resources I have come across, most of which I use fairly frequently. Most of these are free, some are paid but fairly cheap. Feel free to add your own resources. ✌️

Important reminder: When using basically any works or programs someone else created in your games, make sure you thoroughly understand the licenses and terms it has been shared with. If you don't know what the terms are, reach out to the resource and ask. Don't be lazy about this; it's not only dishonest but it can come back to bite you.

Engines

Unity - Best suited for mobile and multi-platform.

Unreal - Tailored for shooters and high-fidelity experiences.

PICO-8 - Virtual console for simple games

Godot - Open source and free!

GameMaker - Good for 2D games

Bitsy - Great little engine for making simple games and experiences

Construct - Never used but have heard nice things

Scratch - If you've never coded before, this is the best place to start. Great for young devs and those who want to get their feet wet.

Adventure Game Studio - Best suited for adventure games

RPG Maker - Best suited for top-down classic JRPG style games

Twine - Text-centric games like Interactive Fiction

Assets

OpenGameArt - Many assets, various licenses, and plenty of CC0 content.

Unity Store - For Unity only. Some free.

Unreal Store - For Unreal only. Some free.

Godot Asset Library

Jean Moreno's Toon Effects - Some of the best effects available on the Unity store. Unity only but I've used them in basically every project.

Steamworks.net C# Wrapper For Unity - Unity only C# wrapper for integrating Steam compatibility to your game

Itch.io - Plenty of free art assets and game dev resources

Kenney - Kenney makes tons of open-source assets for devs to use.

Art

Mixamo - Generates rigs for your humanoid models and lets you apply a library of free humanoid animations to them. Super helpful for prototyping. Adobe.

Blender - Free, open source and fully featured 3D program.

XNormal - Free offline normal map generator

Normal Map Online - Free online normal map generator

Crocotile - Cheap tool for building 3D models from sprite sheets

MagicaVoxel - Free voxel modelling tool

Piskel - Free online sprite drawing tool

Aesprite - Paid sprite drawing tool

TurboSquid - Not always great quality, but can be good source of free placeholders.

Textures.com - Limited texture downloads per day but free for personal use.

Pexels - Free stock photo resource. Most are free for commercial use. Check licenses.

Clipstudio - Good for illustration or graphic design. One time payment.

GIMP - Image editing program a-la Photoshop. Free.

Audio

Audacity - Free and fully-featured DAW/audio editor.

sfx.me - Free 8-bit synth-style sound effect generator for games.

CastingCallClub - Easy forum to find amateur voice talent for your project (p.s.: you should pay them).

FreeSound.org - Free sounds, searchable by license. A go-to for my audio needs.

Incompetech - Royalty-free music by Kevin McLeod.

Scott Buckley Music - Royalty free with conditions. Generally more on the cinematic side of things but very good stuff!

SoundCloud - 'Search -> By Track -> Filter: Use Commercially' leads to songs posted with allowance of commercial use. Always reach out to the artist to understand their terms and confirm that it's okay to use with your project.

Project Planning

Keymailer - Handy for mailing keys to influencers (don't expect a lot of traction unless you're paying for some of the features though).

Trello - Kanban board. Great for organizing tasks, managing bugs, etc. Free.

Notion - Private text and wiki page editor. Good for project organization, note taking, and fleshing out ideas. Free.

Obsidian - Alternative to Notion, with similar features.

Miro - Free whiteboard for organizing thoughts, images, brainstorming, etc.

Wave - Free Bookkeeping site. Great for keeping finances organized.

[janmisali]

Super Mario Bracket: BOWSER vs "MALLOW"

"My plan is too far along now! Do you really think you can stop me?!"

Bowser

SEED: 14 (45 nominations)

PREVIOUS OPPONENT: 5-Volt

SPECIES: Koopa

DEBUT: Super Mario Bros.

NOMINATION EXAMPLE: He is easily a far more interesting character than any of the protagonists. His relationship with Bowser, Jr. is surprisingly wholesome and endearing. It is also very easy to believe that his villainy is not entirely sincere, although he would never admit it. It's an air he puts on to make himself feel powerful, not who he really is.

[Super Mario Wiki article]

"Hey, vote for me! I'm Mallow from Super Mario RPG! I'm a cloud or something! Yuk yuk yuk!"

"Mallow"

SEED: 46 (14 nominations)

PREVIOUS OPPONENT: Dry Bones

SPECIES: Frog (?)

DEBUT: Su_er Mario RPG

NOMINATION EXAMPLE: ERROR

[Su_er Mario Wiki article]

[link to all polls]

[catmask]

genuine question – and i hope it doesn't come as weird – but how do get into...pokemon? </3

pokemon universe feels so big and there are so many games and i really like their designs – both for pokemons and trainers – making ocs in this setting would be so cool but i have no idea how to. begin!

could you give some advice?

ps leaving compliments for your comic and art in general!! i really like how your pieces are so colorful! gives the vibes of some small but cozy and fun town in a videogame..

no worries!! it seriously depends on what you are interested in - gamewise, region wise, and story wise.

heres what i can say. if you like typical top-down style pixel art rpg games where you solve tile puzzles and build a little team of monsters, any of the games before x and y is a good choice. platinum is a great introduction to the series because it doesn't baby you but is still decently difficult, heartgold/soulsilver are the 'coziest' games imo but may spoil you because of how much content there is, black/white and black/white 2 are the most story-driven of the games and bw2 is probably the longest play of all the games. emerald is also great, but its genuinely a hard game even as someone whos been a fan of the series for years. i would say to start with hgss because they're my favorites, but they're so good it might raise the bar too high for all the other games pixel-art games.

if you prefer 3D graphics, but still like the 'run around catching guys and solving tile puzzles', i think sun and moon are the best of the 3D games! the story is engaging and a little more modernized so that there are actual cut scenes, i think the pokemon available are cute and the region is really pretty. i thikn after that, x and y is pretty cute! the story is less strong in comparison to sun/moon. importantly; every game in the 3D era has a new type that was not present in the pixel art era - the fairy type, so if you want to learn the MODERN type chart and balances, the 3D games are where you'd need to start.

finally, if you're not a fan of the 'catch pokemon run around region' type games, pokemon has a LOT of really awesome spin off games. my favorites are as follows...

pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky. its the strongest story the pokemon company has ever written, and im a big fan of the mystery dungeon style gameplay.

pokemon ranger (any ranger game!) the story and graphics are cute, and it focuses on rescuing/rehabilitating pokemon more than capturing them. really lovely expansion of the pokemon universe.

pokemon go, because its free! so if you dont want to download a rom, or sink money into a new franchise, its an easy way to get into it.

pokemon snap - this was actually my very first pokemon game i ever played! (never owned it though heha) but there was just a remake for the switch, if you've got a switch that is. the game focuses on photographing pokemon in their natural habitat, and its really quite cute. slow paced and fun if you're not sure about battling yet.

finally... if you weren't looking to get into games at all, pokemon art + fan creations are personally my favorite things in the entire fandom! artists and writers and fangame devs are the people who hold this fandom up, engaging with their creations is a great and typically free way to involve yourself... im sorry this is so long, i hope this helps!! and ppl are free to add on to this hehe

[brotheralyosha]

Hey so if you've been seeing all of my posts about Fallen London and thought to yourself, "Huh, I should check this game out sometime," well! I have good news for you!

Sunless Skies, a game set in the Fallen London Universe, is currently free on the Epic Store until July 4, 2024. It combines the text-based narrative rpg elements of Fallen London with top-down action and exploration, set in an alternative future of the FL universe. It's very easy to pick up and play, and imo it's very accessible to someone who has never played FL or any of the other spinoff games before.

It's genuinely one of my favorite games of all time with some of the absolute best writing and worldbuilding I've ever seen in a video game, and I honestly can't recommend it enough.

[indierpgnewsletter]

The Tom Bloom Phenomenon and Sub-cultures Generally

For the first time ever (as far as I can tell anyway), there are 5 games in the top 10 of itch.io that are from the same creator.

Tom Bloom is an artist probably best known for his comic, Kill 6 Billion Demons. He’s also one-half of Massif Press and co-creator of the tactical mecha game, Lancer. And recently, he’s been publishing games under his own solo label, Chasm.

So far, under Chasm, he’s put out three products, which are all in the Top 4. Magnagothica: Maleghast is a miniatures war game without the miniatures. The assumption is that you’ll play it online using his stylish art. Cain is a dark investigation game where trained supersoldiers hunt down monsters created by trauma. And then there’s Games for Freaks, which is a little magazine that contains supplementary material for his other games.

As far as lineage goes, my understanding is that Bloom’s primary touchstone for narrative games is Blades in the Dark (oh, look, a new supplement is out). He tends to combine that with various degrees of crunchy combat, stunning art, shonen anime aesthetics, and angst. They sound interesting but I don’t know if I’ll ever get to play them. Lancer was definitely too rules-y for me.

I’m talking about this because I think it’s interesting that more and more, the huge diversity of RPG clusters are becoming apparent to me. This newsletter tries to take a wide view of the gaming scene but because I’m writing it, there’s a focus on storygames. There’s thriving groups and sub-groups that I almost never talk about – those around World of Darkness or GURPS or the 2d20 games from Modiphius or all the new Osprey Games or Jenna K Moran’s work or even solo games or larps or lyric games. And of course, there’s geographies and technologies and on on.

It’s not about the absolute number of the population of these various sub-groups – that’s not where their notability comes from. The point for me is that there is a huge diversity in the breadth of “who is playing tabletop RPGs”. There is a huge variation in what is considered approachable, fun, interesting, life-affirming, comforting, and so on. Anyone still talking about what games are or should be (without the requisite nuance) is just wasting their time.

We don’t all share the same context anymore. The games that you know aren’t the games I know. The way you play isn’t the way other people play. And this is a part of broader cultural trends – globalism, the rise and fall of mass culture, consumerism, monopolization – all of which I’m not smart enough to explain in 600 words. But it was also always the case – maybe it was just a little harder to see.

I think there are a lot of people who, like me, have a curiosity that exceeds their grasp. Thanks to Rascal, I get to do some spelunking into these communities. But I really can’t do them all. And I really shouldn’t. I’m excited for folks from all these groups to speak for themselves to others – to articulate their own contexts and speak passionately about what brings them together. That’s not easy honestly. It’s hard to talk about games without some critical language and some broader sense of the landscape and so on. But at the same time, we can figure that out along the way. I’d definitely like to help.

This first appeared on the Indie RPG Newsletter: https://ttrpg.in/2024/11/03/the-tom-bloom-phenomenon-and-sub-cultures-generally/

[plaidos]

I've basically given up on the idea of rep for us, maybe Arcane really is the best treatment our allies can give us

I wouldn't be surprised if Dropout thinks drag queens count as rep for trans women honestly

well don’t give up. the reason you can’t find good “representation” for trans girls is because you’re looking for it in a netflix show and a company of lab-grown mcelroy brothers and children of career politicians. that isn’t to say we shouldn’t demand more — we should, this shit is dire — but there is plenty of tabletop stuff being made out there BY trans women ABOUT trans women BEING trans women and it’s not even that hard to find if you go on itch or just ask a girl who makes tabletop rpgs on this website. you could probably find dozens of transfem exclusive actual play podcasts — they just won’t have the same overproduced feeling or lost of snazzy special effects and celebrity guests (well. tme celebrity guests. it’s pretty easy to get Chelsea Manning on your podcast so i hear).

and that’s just actual play! like, this website in particular is full to the brim with independently made transfeminine art. webcomics have also often historically been spearheaded by (sometimes then-closeted) trans women — like here’s some webcomics about/by transfems that i personally like; Haus of Decline, close your eyes look at the mountains, Homestuck, Shencomix (well we’ll get him one day) — i hear Questionable Content and Dumbing of Age are made by the two biggest eggs in webcomic history and both comics have transfems galore in them too (go figure)

i… do really wish there were more transfems in animated tv though! the scraps we get are fucking dire.

[bigfan-fanfic]

Boy Scouts (Superdad x Steve Rogers x Clark Kent)

Requested by anonymous for  I love the idea of Bruce/batdad/Bucky and Steve/superdad/Clark. Please write a headcanon about their relationship if you’re ok with it

Clark was more than a little excited to interview THE Captain America.

"I can't take it easy on him, can I? I have the chance not only to interview a living legend but to help him tell whatever he needs."

You have to say, you're only just a little bit jealous.

Not really of Clark; more of how Captain America was lucky indeed that your boyfriend had turned his inquiring eye to him.

Although Steve would blush to hear you put it that way.

In any case, Clark and Steve decided to take their interview on the road, instead of professionally conducted over the phone or something.

They played pool together (Clark is hopeless at the game, making Steve chuckle sympathetically), and Clark asked him some tough questions, which intrigued Steve, who was happy to find someone genuinely curious and who wasn't treating him with overwrought reverence or clinical interest.

It's through this interview that Steve finds some interest in Clark, and Steve waits until the article has come out to congratulate the man and call him up to ask if he'd like dinner sometime.

Steve's disappointment was palpable when Clark mentioned his spouse, but he accepted the offer that was suddenly presented to him of dinner at your apartment.

And much to Steve's sheer confusion... he likes you too.

It took a lot of these semi-flirtatious friend dates before you all kinda worked out what the source of Steve's unease was, and helped him through it.

Steve is also much smarter than people tend to give him credit for - he's a quick learner and incredibly observant, and so he figures out quite easily that Clark is Superman.

But without the secrets in the way, Steve dives in with both feet. He's not entirely sure how dating men works, let alone dating two married men - married to each other for that matter, but he's communicative.

Plus having love to deal with makes him forget so much that he's away from his own time for good because, well... love is timeless, isn't it?

Considering neither man is gonna stop with his hero work, it makes security all the more necessary. Steve has a lot of enemies and is eminently aware that SHIELD has a vested interest in holding on to him.

Meanwhile Clark has other enemies but the main issue is ensuring he has a clear line to speed away to change into his suit.

Canonically, it seems like Steve considers his fellow Avengers friends at best and colleagues at worst. But he doesn't really have a particularly great rapport with them or sense of camaraderie that would compel him to stay with them when the Justice League is right there.

Steve still does morning runs, but once he actually has someone to talk to that he trusts instead of wallowing in his feelings of discomfort and dissociation, he finds himself searching for hobbies more often.

(it's almost like socializing and being with people that care about him as a person and not a symbol or teammate is very good for his self-esteem and he doesn't focus on his time displacement or do things to "catch up" because that'll happen automatically with friends...)

And let's be honest, Clark loves a passionate person he can help learn to chill out and take time for themselves.

A lot of the early relationship will be finding Steve something he likes to do, not just with you, but genuinely enjoys. I suggest getting him into fandom and nerd culture. Tabletop RPGs provide him with a good, low-tech and tactile activity he can really get into and he'll spend hours sketching his characters, ideas, and painting lil minis.

Meanwhile, Steve's success in finding creative outlets also get him to enlist your help in getting Clark some relaxing time as well.

And then they both team up against you.

Steve and Clark both have a reputation for being goody-two shoes and have independently, by separate people, been called Boy Scouts.

But while they present that image, Steve is actually quite mischievous, almost to the point of being a brat. He's passionate, sarcastic, and quite fiery. Clark is whipcrack smart and playful. He has a sincere wit, and a great sense of humor. They're a great duo to be with.

Plus I can imagine Steve helping Clark find a workout routine instead of simply being maintained by the Sun. I can definitely see them training together and letting you watch.

[evercelle]

You played In stars and Time a while ago, do you have any thought about it a review maybe?

ISAT is easily one of the best indie RPGs i've ever played ✨ since the one year anniversary just passed, here's my PSA to play ISAT for siffrin's very bad, terrible, no good day (and conversely, you the player's very good, excellent player experience)

the gameplay & narrative of ISAT is centered around the time loop mechanic: protag siffrin and their party are on a quest to defeat the evil king... but when siffrin dies, he wakes up again on the same morning the party set out to the castle. being able to start again is a huge advantage, especially since siffrin has the accrued experience of his past "life." things will be different this time. there are definitely no downsides to this!!!

obviously there's a lot of downsides to this, and the game's main focus is on the deteriorating mental state of its protag as sif tries to escape the time loop. it pays a LOT of attention to detail as sif relives the same or slightly altered experiences in everything from major plot points to character relationships to minor interactables and menu UI. ISAT is a game that i feel rewards your curiosity even as the narrative framework squashes it--it's hard for a timelooper to maintain a sense of novelty when you run through the same sequence over and over and over again... in that sense, i think the gameplay does a phenomenal ludonarrative job. i've heard some players feel the looping/progression mechanic can be overly repetitive and frustrating, but... that's sort of the point haha. combat is easy though!

i don't want to spoil much else, so please check it out! easily clearable in 15-20 hours, the art is charming, the writing is wonderful, and it's got such lovely things to say about change and found family and thoughtful inclusivity. DO mind TWs for the game though (non-graphic violence, self-harm/suicidal ideation, trauma)

[prokopetz]

so I've been considering trying to make a ttrpg instead of just criticising all the ones that exist, but I thought I should ask someone who would know - have there been any successful projects in the "universal" sort of scope in recent memory? every example I can think of is so granular as to become totally inaccessible, even if I appreciate what they aspire to do. somehow it seems that every design which aims to cover every use case somehow circles back to rigidity and prescriptivism, perhaps reflexively in order to retain a distinct identity as a "game" unto itself rather than a set of steps to construct games?

There's no such thing as a "universal" tabletop RPG. Game rules by their very nature encode assumptions about how the game ought to be played. Any time a game claims to be universal, either it's lying to you for marketing, or its designer has mistaken being setting agnostic for being unopinionated about what player characters actually do.

To pose an obvious example, it's fairly easy to stat up the cast of Pride and Prejudice in GURPS, but the actual gameplay loop of GURPS has nothing interesting to say about the things that Pride and Prejudice is about – i.e., it can construct a game-mechanical model of the setting, but that model doesn't have the tools to address the source material's premise, and the latter is where the trouble starts.

About the best you can realistically expect to manage is to bash together a tabletop RPG which supports a grouping of closely related ideas about what player characters do. The trick is that the shape of play isn't particularly tied to the aesthetics of the setting, so material that doesn't seem to be closely related can often fall into the same grouping of gameplay assumptions.

For example, it's feasible to construct a game which can do fantasy dungeon crawls, contemporary heist capers, and cyperbunk netruns, because in gameplay terms those are all fundamentally similar activities, with similar resource-and-reward loops, similar preoccupations with logistical play, and so forth – and it can be awfully tempting to look at a game like that and say "well, it can do fantasy, contemporary, and science fiction settings, therefore it's universal", but what the game assumes player characters are going to do within those settings is the important part, and that's a much narrower remit.