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The Rifter #3 🎶 Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting 🎵 Nightbane
🥋 Unlock new fighting styles and martial arts for Nightbane in The Rifter #3 by Palladium Books, Inc. Enhance your combat strategies and dominate the battlefield with these advanced techniques. 🥷 This overview is a must-watch for every serious RPG player. #TTRPG #Nightbane #PalladiumBooks
The Rifter #3 In this video, we explore the newly unveiled fighting styles and martial arts for Nightbane and other Palladium games from The Rifter #3. These advanced techniques are crucial for survival. Learn how these combat styles can give you an edge in your battles and enrich your character’s abilities. Don’t let this knowledge slip through your fingers; it’s a game-changer. Click on the…
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#fantasy rpg#game mechanics#gaming magazine#legion of myth#new martial arts#Nightbane#Palladium Books#Palladium RPG#Palladium universe#Rifts RPG#role-playing games#rpg adventures#rpg character options#rpg community#rpg content#RPG enthusiasts#rpg fighting styles#rpg insights#rpg review#sci fi rpg#tabletop gaming#tabletop RPG#the rifter#the rifter 3#ttrpg magazine
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I'm pretty much the worst person to even weigh in on this topic because I've been partial to Suvi since day one, but in my opinion there wasn't ever a need to explain or justify Suvi's choices/reactions.
Not because she's perfect, never wrong (though in my heart I know...) but because I'm very certain that the people that keep on hammering on her mistakes/shortcomings/tendencies are people that already dislike Suvi (or don't like Aabria very much, I wish this wasn't a topic of consideration but even 30+ eps in there's still people like that around) for whatever reason and gather excuses to justify their bias against her and no amount of explanation will turn their hearts in her favour.
It really feels like a parallel to the way Suvi herself tries to be understood by her friends and yet she fails time and time again.
And people insist on forgetting that Suvi is not the Citadel, she's just one young wizard of the Citadel.
And it's gut-wrenching how much I relate to that feeling of alienation before every corner she tries to fit in: amongst her citadel peers she's othered by her position and privilege, and now by her friendship to a witch and a spirit; between her friends she's the odd-one-out because of her Citadel connections and the nature of her power; and now amongst the witches she stands out by being the face of the "enemy".
I don't blame her for clinging to the little corner of the world that has not made her feel foreign despite the very nature of her presence: in Steel's family whom she's not related to by blood, yet completely by heart.
And it'll never be a fair game. The girls especially are very young and with new-found independence, they're given colossal decisions to make, and that before beings older than three generations of them combined and incomprehensively more powerful and less empathic.
As much as Mirara wants there to be a good witch and bad witch, there's no such thing as black and white, there are decisions and consequences, what one does with the power they're given. There is no right or wrong in a fight filled with so much heart, there was never a world where a fight between Ame and Suvi would be clean.
#wbn spoilers#worlds beyond number#wwwo spoilers#I don't know of the opinions spread on tumblr but reddit is doing what it always does#at no point there was in my mind a 'suvi vs ame' mentality#as the philosophers say: why pit two bad bitches against each other?#they'll always be stronger together and not apart#and yet people are crying screaming over people who like or try to see Suvi's side#'oh so you're defending fascism?' like shut up this is a RPG podcast#if you don't like suvi just say it as it is instead of trying to shame who like her through petty essays#people are trying to simplify something that is so vastly nuanced and complex with a billion factors to consider#people discuss about those girls on reddit like it's politics. it's nightmarish#suvirin kedberiket#suvi the wizard#ame the witch#rambles#rantish#long post#(( worth mentioning I don't have insight from fireside chats. so this is going off on the campaign alone ))
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I know I study psychology and all that stuff about vicious cycles but I still don't get it how can someone put themselves in a toxic relationship, with evidence of how toxic it is, with people saying how bad it seems, and it's all for a shitty boyfriend? That treats you bad?
#ive tried to open her eyes#ive tried to make her listen to herself#ive tried pointing it out how toxic it was#ive even gave her an insight of what a toxic relationship ship was like and it met basically all the criteria#ive tried to not say anything and just listen to her#i know that was wrong of me but ive tried to ask her to break up so many times#i suffer for her and want to see her well but maybe it will be better for me to let her go#to not send messages first and not ask anything bc shes my friend and bc of that it makes me feel really bad#its not about me i know but its making me fall back into disordered thoughts#today we were roleplaying and there was what i think happened irl. i stared at the message for so many minutes wondering what to do#and i know i told her to vent in the rpg but im afraid ill break the character and this time i dont want to be incisive about anything#stopping the roleplay is something ethical isnt it?#thats that me bru <3
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The moon! The Moon! THE MOON!
I got this Moon-head Mage from keira.kreations’ Etsy. Ive wanted this miniature since I first saw it on their instagram, so when they opened an Etsy I jumped at the chance to get one.
In my DCCRPG campaign They would be a Loon Priest a mad prophet who worships Zrollgrar The One True moon. They travel across The Far Realms of Xor spreading their “Lunar Insights”, Stargazing and imbibing various psychedelics. Although their ramblings seem nonsensical there may be cosmic truths in their lunacy.
Zrollgrar The One True Moon. God of Moons, Magic, Truth, Knowledge, Insight, madness, Observing and being Observed. A god worshipped by scholars, wizards, Dreamers and Lunatics all those who seek knowledge whatever the cost. The Lunar Insights he offers can be great truths and revelations that can shatter the minds of those who gaze upon his face. The Moon you see in the sky above is not Zrollgrar it is simply one of his many faces watching and learning.
#rpg#d&d#dungeons and dragons#dnd#pathfinder#dnd miniatures#fantasy miniatures#miniatures#resin miniatures#hand cast miniature#hand sculpted#moon head#moon magic#moon man#moon mage#lunar insights#the moon#moon
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Venía a querer presumir mi firma nueva aquí también porque la verdad me emociona la nueva aesthetic que planeo para Ileana
also que dejé easter eggs de lo que ha sucedido en su ausencia, como de lo que se avecina
i'm just saying there slightly might o might not be some kind of patricide... but not exactly that... but something like it
P.D.: supe que no podía abandonar kaelkoth templo máximo del folliroleo y la depravación con tendencias a volverse secta, en especial viendo su actualización de nuevo sistema de juego
@kaelkoth tu humilde servidora vuelve de rodillas por su flagelación, y en su defecto que la imparta el puto de ezekiel @bei-xxx
#hrowdyn mas te vale empezar a contar tus días#he tenido la epifanía de que la relación de hrodwyn y ahelissa haya sido muy como la de gone girl#if you know you know#lo que significa también que pronto podré cumplir mi fantasía de abrir un diario de ahelissa para tener insight de la casa ravenhill#y obvio también de cómo ha sido el matrimonio con el patriarca#y también de su backstory why not#también se viene backstory de hrodwyn#tengo esta pequeña idea de caso detectivesco con ileana#eso y que también quiero revelaciones de la historia antigua de los ravenhill#aka ileana se ha mudado a la casa ancestral en el bosque eterno durante su ausencia y técnicamente aun reside ahí#se vienen cositas uwu#also un mini cameo sorpresa#pero eso sigue en bocetos todavía#lysander te amo dejame hacerte un hijo con ileana pofavoh su útero te necesita#ok ese fue mi fangirleo momentáneo#ya me recuperé#also que la ileana hater de dioses resulta que le reza a lo largo de los años a ozzi???? y que le deja ofrendas en sus templos cada tanto??#rpg#kkoth#los extrañé
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Been seein some rather cold takes about Daisy lately…
I’ve seen some people say that she has no personality outside of fanon, but that’s just not true. There is a very very common misconception among the fandom (at least that I’ve noticed) that if a character doesn’t appear in a “mainline” game, then they have no personality. But I’d argue that the spinoffs actually offer waaaaay more in terms of looking into character personalities. And no, I’m not talking about the RPGs ala M&L and Paper Mario as those are obviously full of personality (and Daisy isn’t in those). I’m talking about the Party, Kart, Tennis, and other sports games.
Yes, Daisy hasn’t appeared in any mainline game since her debut, but she’s been in nearly every sports game and her traits, stats, abilities, victory/loss animations, and various other tiny details add up to her personality. The fact that she’s nearly always yelling or just speaking really loud in general (noticeably more than any other character), the fact that she constantly feels a need to say her name and make herself known, how she loves flowers and considers even a small patch of flowers worth protecting, how she’s easily bored by tasks that don’t excite her and isn’t so reliable for them. She tends to jump around a lot, and spin and dance around when she’s excited! She’s apparently a rather fast runner and that is considered her specialty! These are all traits that are displayed in the spinoffs, and there’s probably soooo many more that I just can’t remember right now.
Now, I do think her tomboyish nature is probably fanon, as I don’t really remember seeing anything to show that she acts that way in the games. I think people probably think she’s tomboyish due to how loud and energetic she is. But hey, there’s plenty of fanon for just about any character from any fandom out there. And what’s so wrong with that? Isn’t the whole point of making fanworks to expand on the framework already provided by canon? If we want to stick to what’s actually “canon” then nearly everything the fandom has created would have to be tossed, because there really isn’t much to work with. Fanworks and fandoms thrive on what fans can create based on the canon work, not just sticking to it perfectly.
It’s fine if you think the “fanon” Daisy outshines the “canon” Daisy and you dislike that. But to say that she has no personality aside from fanon interpretations just tells me that you have a very narrow idea of what counts as “canon” in an already rather simplistic world. The Mario games are very simple and straightforward without much consistent lore that actually makes sense cohesively, but the characters are what keep everything tied together despite that. The characters are nearly always consistent, and that includes Daisy. Even when the setting is completely different and some random new villain shows up with some random new power source to steal or species to torment, our same well-known lovable characters will be the center of the story and that’s what makes it fun!
#devin speaks#super mario bros#princess daisy#i mightve gotten a bit too personal with my views of canon vs fanon but i still think it needs to be said#people who argue over what is considered canon in a video game series are so funny to me#especially a series like mario that has expanded soooo far from its original premise#its different than a show or movie since most shows will finish their main story before delving into spinoffs#most of the mainline games are literally just bowser kidnapped the princess and mario has to save her#very few of them offer any insight to personality of anyone#that isn’t to say theres none at all but i still think the party kart and sports games offer waaay more#of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions and if you dislike daisy or think shes boring then whatever you do you#i am simply sharing my opinion as well :)#sorry time to be salty real quick#literally the entirety of waluigis personality comes from the spin offs but no one talks about him???#he is literally in the same boat as daisy but i never see anyone saying they dislike him for his ‘fanon personality’#really makes you think#people rag on peach for ‘having no personality’ too but hers shines through the spinoffs as well#and even the rpgs!! shes actually in those and has multiple voicelines and cutscenes and people *still* say she has no personality!#i know this is about daisy but gosh mario ladies in general are treated rather poorly unless theyre eye candy#im glad rosie debuted in a mainline game with a clearly given backstory spoon fed to the player so she doesnt get this treatment lol
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Cleric having an existential crisis: Do you guys ever think about how convenient it is that when one of us dies, two or three days later another person just shows up?
The Party: ...
Rouge: Hey yeah-
#dnd#probably bad rpg idea#characters with good insight#this is how the cleric dies#mysteriously#and then someone takes their place#rogue has been here from the start
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can you imagine tho
ffsixteen might not be getting that sweet sweet best rpg trophy when fucking. tales of ari$e got one. amazing
#i don't want anyone in my comment section telling me arise won by default due to the 2021 lineup being the weakest in the history of mankind#game awards are 100% reflective of a games inherent quality and overall enjoyment factor; game journalists are wise and insightful creature#anyway my heart goes out to larian if bg3 does indeed nab best rpg but that is just. so funny.#kontxt#tho i gotta recognize the possibility that bg3 is gonna get every award EXCEPT best rpg that way ff16 gets its participation trophy but lik#naaahh theres no way#you gotta think about the other games in the other categories too right#and like. come on. ffsixteen isnt getting no award. theres no way. like. pssshht. pssssht. get outta here#then again. maybe. maybe bg3 is getting ONLY best game. but like. that's Best Game so like. no ones gonna complain#and that way other games can get awards too#anyway.#kon awards
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The Rifter #3 - The Xiticix
🦟 Explore the latest official Rifts information on The Xiticix in The Rifter #3 by Palladium Books, Inc. Delve into new lore and game mechanics that will transform your campaigns. 👁️ Don't miss this vital update for any Rifts enthusiast! #RiftsRPG #TTRPG #PalladiumBooks
The Rifter #3 Embark on a perilous journey as we uncover the latest official Rifts information about The Xiticix in The Rifter #3 by Palladium Books. This issue provides invaluable lore and game mechanics that are essential for any adventurer facing these formidable foes. Discover the secrets of the hive and enhance your strategies for dealing with these relentless enemies. Stay ahead of the…
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#fantasy rpg#game mechanics#gaming magazine#legion of myth#new martial arts#Nightbane#Palladium Books#Palladium RPG#Palladium universe#Rifts RPG#role-playing games#rpg adventures#rpg character options#rpg community#rpg content#RPG enthusiasts#rpg fighting styles#rpg insights#rpg review#sci fi rpg#tabletop gaming#tabletop RPG#the rifter#the rifter 3#ttrpg magazine
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🌟 Step into the world of Visions of Mana in Chapter 5: We're Alm in This Together! 🎮 Our latest blog post breaks down everything you need to find Aesh, the head curator. 🗝️💫 From tips on travel to crucial insights to defeat Daelophos, we’ve got you covered!
#Visions Of Mana#Find Aesh#Head Curator#Daelophos#Epic Quest#Gaming Guide#Chapter 5#Loggrattzo#Dark Archives#Ferry Flute#Gaming Tips#Strategy Guide#RPG Gaming#Game Quest#Character Insights#Curator Aesh#Adventure Awaits#Watch Out For Traps#Resource Management#Team Synergy#Mana World#Combat Strategies#Video Game Guide#Gaming Community#Fantasy Gaming#Boss Battle#Player Tips#Quest Completion#Secrets Of Mana#Hiding In Shadows
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#also the fact that rpg games like this bring out the truth in people#at least the people who cant accept that fiction doesnt equal reality#praying for the people who want some irl version of these companions as their partners#honestly so much therapy needed for all of them#that isnt to say im not all for the people who saw the dynamics in game with certain interactions and bad endings and said wait#this is a reflection of my life and it's staring me in the face and it's bad#we love learning moments from media#im going to keep adding to these tags rip but#i do NOT like the people that take the interpretation of a character one way because it resonates with their personal experiences the best#especially people who have gone through Bad Events in their life so they use it as leverage and they shoot down other interpretations#because these companions with their different personalities all deal with The Bad Shit in such different ways#it doesnt make one method more valid than others#but in a game revolving around so much trauma and (possible) healing ive seen some TRULY unhinged (in a bad way) takes#please for the sake of something anything keep your mouth shut ashkjdflsajl#actually funnily enough minthara's insight into the companions is so real and im here for that
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📚 A List Of Useful Websites When Making An RPG 📚
My timeloop RPG In Stars and Time is done! Which means I can clear all my ISAT gamedev related bookmarks. But I figured I would show them here, in case they can be useful to someone. These range from "useful to write a story/characters/world" to "these are SUPER rpgmaker focused and will help with the terrible math that comes with making a game".
This is what I used to make my RPG game, but it could be useful for writers, game devs of all genres, DMs, artists, what have you. YIPPEE
Writing (Names)
Behind The Name - Why don't you have this bookmarked already. Search for names and their meanings from all over the world!
Medieval Names Archive - Medieval names. Useful. For ME
City and Town Name Generator - Create "fake" names for cities, generated from datasets from any country you desire! I used those for the couple city names in ISAT. I say "fake" in quotes because some of them do end up being actual city names, especially for french generated ones. Don't forget to double check you're not 1. just taking a real city name or 2. using a word that's like, Very Bad, especially if you don't know the country you're taking inspiration from! Don't want to end up with Poopaville, USA
Writing (Words)
Onym - A website full of websites that are full of words. And by that I mean dictionaries, thesauruses, translators, glossaries, ways to mix up words, and way more. HIGHLY recommend checking this website out!!!
Moby Thesaurus - My thesaurus of choice!
Rhyme Zone - Find words that rhyme with others. Perfect for poets, lyricists, punmasters.
In Different Languages - Search for a word, have it translated in MANY different languages in one page.
ASSETS
In general, I will say: just look up what you want on itch.io. There are SO MANY assets for you to buy on itch.io. You want a font? You want a background? You want a sound effect? You want a plugin? A pixel base? An attack animation? A cool UI?!?!?! JUST GO ON ITCH.IO!!!!!!
Visual Assets (General)
Creative Market - Shop for all kinds of assets, from fonts to mockups to templates to brushes to WHATEVER YOU WANT
Velvetyne - Cool and weird fonts
Chevy Ray's Pixel Fonts - They're good fonts.
Contrast Checker - Stop making your text white when your background is lime green no one can read that shit babe!!!!!!
Visual Assets (Game Focused)
Interface In Game - Screenshots of UI (User Interfaces) from SO MANY GAMES. Shows you everything and you can just look at what every single menu in a game looks like. You can also sort them by game genre! GREAT reference!
Game UI Database - Same as above!
Sound Assets
Zapsplat, Freesound - There are many sound effect websites out there but those are the ones I saved. Royalty free!
Shapeforms - Paid packs for music and sounds and stuff.
Other
CloudConvert - Convert files into other files. MAKE THAT .AVI A .MOV
EZGifs - Make those gifs bigger. Smaller. Optimize them. Take a video and make it a gif. The Sky Is The Limit
Marketing
Press Kitty - Did not end up needing this- this will help with creating a press kit! Useful for ANY indie dev. Yes, even if you're making a tiny game, you should have a press kit. You never know!!!
presskit() - Same as above, but a different one.
Itch.io Page Image Guide and Templates - Make your project pages on itch.io look nice.
MOOMANiBE's IGF post - If you're making indie games, you might wanna try and submit your game to the Independent Game Festival at some point. Here are some tips on how, and why you should.
Game Design (General)
An insightful thread where game developers discuss hidden mechanics designed to make games feel more interesting - Title says it all. Check those comments too.
Game Design (RPGs)
Yanfly "Let's Make a Game" Comics - INCREDIBLY useful tips on how to make RPGs, going from dungeons to towns to enemy stats!!!!
Attack Patterns - A nice post on enemy attack patterns, and what attacks you should give your enemies to make them challenging (but not TOO challenging!) A very good starting point.
How To Balance An RPG - Twitter thread on how to balance player stats VS enemy stats.
Nobody Cares About It But It’s The Only Thing That Matters: Pacing And Level Design In JRPGs - a Good Post.
Game Design (Visual Novels)
Feniks Renpy Tutorials - They're good tutorials.
I played over 100 visual novels in one month and here’s my advice to devs. - General VN advice. Also highly recommend this whole blog for help on marketing your games.
I hope that was useful! If it was. Maybe. You'd like to buy me a coffee. Or maybe you could check out my comics and games. Or just my new critically acclaimed game In Stars and Time. If you want. Ok bye
#reference#tutorial#writing#rpgmaker#renpy#video games#game design#i had this in my drafts for a while so you get it now. sorry its so long#long post
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👾 wonwoo x streamer!reader.
the one where wonwoo is pretty down bad for you, a popular streamer. headcanons under the cut. ➤ see also: svt burner accounts series
👾 new save file ?
game start. getting in to you had been an accident, really. wonwoo already had a relatively established list of streamers that he followed and subscribed to, but then he saw a clip of you dominating as gangplank and he just had to check you out. he didn't even start with one of your streams; instead, he sifted through a couple of youtube video compilations until he found one that wasn't too long. just about fifteen minutes. he watched that— only to find himself watching another one, then another, then another.
wonwoo is roughly three hours and eleven videos deep when he concedes: okay, maybe he should check out one of your actual streams. these video compilations are just a taste of the real thing, and he already likes what he's seeing. sure, you could probably use a bit of work when it comes to fps games, but you're a menace in multiplayer online battle arenas. and you have some pretty cute rpg/life simulation game content, too. he can get behind that, he decides.
when wonwoo finally finds time to tune in to one of your streams, he's absolutely floored. all those clips of you don't do justice to the real thing. you're engaging without being overbearing; you manage your chat and your stream like a pro. what really gets him, though, is your voice. he adores the accent, the cadence of it. he's convinced he can listen to it all day. without much thought, he's already signed up to subscribe.
level one. he starts with watching your streams when he catches them. maybe he'll tune in specifically when he hears you're playing a game he's particularly in to, like when you tried your hand at stray. wonwoo pays about as much attention to you as he does with the rest of the other streamers/content creators that he follows.
but that voice. you're easy on the eyes, sure, but it's that voice that always seems to just reel him in. it gets to a point where wonwoo will sometimes have reruns of your stream playing in the background, if only because he likes the sound of you. he might be playing a game of his own or doing something entirely different— whatever it is, you're a muted drone that offers a semblance of company.
wonwoo realizes he may be a bit screwed when he realizes he's started looking forward to your bi-monthly streams. twice a month, you're slotted in to his busy schedule. if he can't catch you live, he'll watch the replay. wonwoo tries to convince himself it's a hyperfixation; a passing thing, one that he just has to get out of his system.
check point. except it decidedly isn't a hyperfixation, because three years later, wonwoo is still subscribed, still racing to catch any and all of your streams. it's not something that the public is particularly privy to; it's one thing for wonwoo to be a fan of pro gamers and a completely other thing for him to be simping for a streamer. the boys all have varying levels of awareness as to why wonwoo is always glued to his phone on the first friday of each month, or where some of his hard-earned money goes— but, for the most part, this is just his.
this, as in you. mingyu is constantly exasperated about it, though it's something of a small and simple truth at this point: jeon wonwoo is a fanboy, and you are the object of his affections. you, with your comforting streams, your insightful commentary, your stellar gameplay. you give the idol a taste of his medicine. he understands, though you, what it means to be just a little delusional and parasocial.
mingyu is always saying that wonwoo ought to make a move, ought to make himself known. the truth? wonwoo is fine with this. he's not sure he even wants to meet you, if he's honest. he's okay with watching from afar, with the illusion of unattainability. there's already dozens of factors piled up against him to begin with. he's not about to complicate things, to hope for more.
wonwoo is happy to donate, to send you gifts, to participate as the nameless and faceless gam3bo1woo in your chat. he's happy to watch your streams, to see you grow in to yourself as a creator; to fail and get back up again, to succeed every so often. this is enough, he thinks to himself time and time again. you're already being selfish as is. this is all we can have, wonwoo, and it's enough. — ... right?
#wonwoo x reader#jeon wonwoo x reader#wonwoo smau#wonwoo imagines#svt x reader#seventeen x reader#svt smau#seventeen smau#── ᵎᵎ ✦ mine#[ this has been on the back of my mind for quite some time now c: so jipeee ]#[ i'll go back to ot13 posting after this + i owe the shua childhood bsf thing i polled !! ]#[ but loser!wonu / down bad!wonu is my religion i fear ]#[ mingyu alw at the scene of the crime xDD ]#── ᵎᵎ ✦ series: svt burner
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youtube
Leaked footage of me shopping at Netto.
#ok but jokes aside#i watched the film this is from yesterday#it's actually pretty good!#it starts with the typical tbbt sitcom humor like 'haha he's an rpg nerd who lives with his grandma'#but then it totally turns it on its head and becomes more of a drama#someone insightful on imdb wrote that this film is about the difference between oldschool and hipster nerds#i have to say though#wearing a sitra ahra shirt but only ever listening to theli = peak therion fan representation#music stuff#therion#video#zero charisma
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Honestly it's weird that roleplaying as we know it evolved from historical wargaming.
Like for example DBA rules contain some suggestions for running campaigns with narrative and "propaganda" so I wouldn't say that it's something incompatible, and 0E looks way more like wargames than say PbtA games do, but storytelling games were a feature of artistic salons for way longer and they appear much closer to roleplaying than rulesets for reenacting ancient battles on tabletop.
Salon games didn't have skill checks but neither did wargames and it's strange that nobody came up with simplistic skill checks to add uncertainty and realism to the game
I think the line is a lot clearer when the role of dice and rules in tabletop roleplaying games is correctly understood.
"Uncertainty" and "realism" are, at best, secondary to what the dice are actually doing. Even most tabletop RPGs get it wrong when they try to explain themselves – they'll talk about the rules as something to fall back on to prevent schoolyard arguments (i.e., "yes I did!/no you didn't!") from derailing the story, when in fact it's the exact opposite.
If we look at freeform roleplaying as an illustrative parallel, we see that, while newly formed groups may in fact fall to bickering when a consensus can't be reached about what ought to happen next, mature and well-established groups tend instead to fall prey to excessive consensus-seeking: the impulse to always find an outcome that isn't necessarily one which everybody at the table can be happy with, but at the very least one which everybody at the table can agree is reasonable – and that's a lot more constraining than one might think.
In this sense, the role of picking up the dice isn't to build consensus, but to break it – to allow for the possibility of outcomes which nobody at the table wanted or expected. It's the "well, this is happening now" factor that prevents the table's dynamic from ossifying into endless consensus-seeking about what reasonably ought to happen next.
Looking to the history of wargames, this is precisely the innovation they bring to the table. Early historical wargames tended to be diceless affairs which decided outcomes by deferring to the judgment of a referee or other subject matter expert, but the use of randomisers increasingly came to be favoured because referees would tend to favour the most reasonable course, precluding upsets and rendering the outcomes of entire battles a foregone conclusion. This goes all the way back to the roots of tabletop wargaming – people were literally having "rules versus rulings" arguments two hundred years ago!
(This isn't the only facet of tabletop roleplaying culture which has its roots in wargaming culure, of course. For example, you can draw a direct line from the preoccupation of early tabletop RPGs with punishing the use of out-of-character knowledge to historical wargaming's gentleperson's agreement to refrain from making decisions based on information that one's side's commanders couldn't possibly have possessed when re-creating historical battles.)
To be clear, I don't necessarily disagree that salon games could have yielded something like modern tabletop RPGs. However, first they'd have had to arrive at the paired insights that a. excessive consensus-seeking is poison to building an interesting narrative; and b. randomisers can be used to force the breaking of consensus, and historical wargames had a substantial head start because they'd figured all that out a century earlier.
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