#the more i want to make it into some sort of ttrpg
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teslacoils-and-hubris · 2 years ago
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As I work out the finer details of Loams magic system, a lot of very fun (read, horribly fucked up) possibilities open up to me
The most basic starting point for how to develop a magic system is to define:
1. What magic can do (practically anything, if you know what you're doing)
2. How does it feel to cast (you become literally connected to all the threads of reality, pulling them apart and weaving them together to suit your whims. More complex spells almost become weaving on a loom, to say nothing of multipersonspell circles where one person is weaving, one is deconstructing the exsisting tapesty, one is making new thread, and another is keeping it all from tangeling)
And 3. What are the consequences
And that's the one I'm really thinking about. It hits different depending, of course. Someone who did too many cantrips in a row suffers a lot less than someone who like, tried to alter a fundamental Law of existence and fucked up. It just makes sense.
I think there's sort of repetitive strain injuries, from overworking yourself, doing too much too fast. That looks more like migraines. At least at first. If you don't stop then strange things can start to happen as your body becomes fundamentally changed by the continued exposure to fucking up reality. Physical things like growing a tail or your skull changing shape, or even metaphysical things like gaining clairvoyance are all possibilities.
But then there's something more on the extraordinary side. If you tried to do something TOO big, or just monumentally fucked something up, then the resulting fallout of reality trying to snap back into place around you can be truely disastrous.
I dont think it's the same every time. One guy tried to go back in time and just erased his whole village from existence. I think someone probably exploded outwards into some sort of horrific giant monster toad a la soulsborn boss. Reality doesn't want to be changed, and when you fuck up it snaps back hard. Often pushing you far out of your rightful place
Idk this is all very nebulous still, if anyone wants to chat about it I'd love to
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triangulum-theory · 10 months ago
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Wistfully thinks of Spellwind, I should make a headcanons up to ep 31 list its just my equivalent of like Skyrim or lotr where theres so much going on and so dense but god damn one of my favorite episodes was when two of my favorite characters became trees and the entire experience was like...they were tripping on shrooms but also one with the shrooms? Its like episode 8
and I love the dms orc captain that hates going on land and is there for the in between transportation from sea to sea land to land ferryman (not really I feel like its mostly hard to narrate and have a character at the same time) I just love captain buttocks' (yeah I'm pretty sure thats his name) humor and how him and djett ('jet') were closer in the beginning
I love ty and varsha together but I also ship smith with them as time went on, I can't tell who I want to joke as the third smith and varsha are friends to lovers, ty and varsha are irritated assholes to lovers, smith is just a jaded old fuck that loves his morons (he respects varsha a lot and thinks ty is an entertaining idiot)
Varsha and Djett are siblings they love each other like family and share different spells and potions and knowledge of interest notes
I feel like the only person really thinking too deeply about this tabletop story and wanted to drop a few lines of appreciation, I like listening to it to go to sleep since its so slow paced and gently spoken and the music and sound efx is so sweet
#spellwind#ttrpg#table story#homebrews are my favorite of genre of story telling right now#its what got me into midnight burger#Spotify knew what kinda creative storytelling I liked and said#pbbt here you go guy you need to listen to more audiodramas without the dice in the mix#the way podcasts can tell stories is so cool#dice rolling#describing everything thats going on in a natural dialogue so that it paints a picture for the person listening as if theyre part of it#like youre in the environment with them it was a really smart way to carve a story and narrative#wolf 359#wolf 395#idk off the top of my head I'm trying out a few episodes but I like how its a blend of that similar storytelling method but like also??#log entries and some conversation between characters which is mostly how midnight burger does it#aaaa I just love audiodramas#and tabletop actual plays#I want so badly to do ttrpgs but this is my live vicarious through the media I consume era until I can find ppl that wanna let me take try#and be a DM#I could totally make engaging stories like the things I listen to#its like execution of the stories that go on inside my head the tones the themes I wanna touch on the emotions I want to convey#at the same time theres a small part of me thats like mehh but they did it already but I can still share that vibe for people that either#have or haven't chewed up the same things I love over and over and over like a maniac#plus I still have my own take and taste and ideas its just a time and place thing#I have a trillion ideas written out I just have to sort them out and do some stitchwork on the canvas that is the blank page#embroidery on those sweet words and patchwork a story ive been brewing in mind#this is slightly a personal ramble about story making#and also a segway into a sideblog thats not 100% midnight burger#I wonder how this blog will evolve over time
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dashcon-two · 3 months ago
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Volunteering, Virtual Dash, and Various Other Happenings!
Hey y’all!
Buckle up, we’ve got a bit of everything in this one.
Volunteer Applications!
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We’re excited to say that volunteer applications for DashCon 2 are now open! You can apply to our form here (https://forms.gle/aaBjd9eSGZBsARBE7), or find out more on our website (https://www.dashcontwo.com/volunteering/). Our convention relies on volunteer staff to keep everything running smoothly, and there’s plenty of work to go around. We’re really glad to have received interest from so many of y’all, so applications will be open until we’ve filled all of our positions.
All regular volunteers will be assigned to at least one 4-hour shift between 7 AM and 11:30 PM on July 5th, 2025. Volunteers who complete their shift, or otherwise work 4 or more hours, will get free access to the con for the rest of the day.
Successful applicants will be required to sign a waiver to volunteer for the convention. Applicants who are under 18 years old must have a parent or guardian sign their waiver.
What about Virtual DashCon?
We appreciate all of the feedback we got after our announcement post last week! We’re happy to say that we’re going ahead with our plans for a virtual convention! However, considering how many of you were enthusiastic about the concept of virtual dash, we’d like to address a common question!
Why would a virtual con cost money? Because it costs money to run! We’re partnering with Live Media to ensure that the live-streamed panels, pit, and duel will run smoothly. We want to make our convention as accessible as possible, we’ve received hundreds of messages from people who couldn’t get a ticket, but we just don’t have the resources or expertise to run a virtual event with volunteers alone. Even with a professional live-streaming team, we’ll need to organize moderators for the official server, vet digital panellists, and all the other administrative work that comes with a virtual event. DashCon 2 is going down in history one way or another, but we’ll be damned if we don’t get good footage for the next generation of documentarians.
We’ll also donate 15% of every ticket to the Canadian Cancer Society! That’s 15% of the total price of the tickets, not the profits. You can learn more about our fundraiser here, and donate directly to our campaign on the Canadian Cancer Society’s website.
Drag at DashCon 2!
DashCon 2 is excited to announce that we’ll be featuring a spectacular showcase of talented drag performers! Performers will be lipsyncing, dancing, and generally serving, to the tune of such classics as How Bad Can I Be? We’re happy to say that we have two confirmed drag artists: Heaven/Hellish Lee (@heaven_lee_court.hellish_lee) and Pandora’s Box Muncher (@pandorasboxmuncher), both on Instagram! They are both incredibly talented - please check out their work and give them some love :)
We hope to announce a few additional performers before the day of the con, so stay tuned!
If you’re an interested local performer: please feel free to reach out to us directly at [email protected] with a link to your website/social(s), a few example photos, and what sort of performance you’d like to give. Portfolios may contain 18+ content, but performances at DashCon 2 must be appropriate for ages 13+.
LVLUP Board Game Room
We’re happy to remind you all that DashCon 2 will have a board game room, kindly sponsored by LVLUP Games! A quick FYI: while they will be providing board games of all sorts, they will not be providing TTRPG materials, dice, or DMs, so you’ll have to BYOD (Bring Your Own Dice). There must be at least a few dice goblins in our audience who have collections to show off.
As always, you can find more information on our website or follow us on Substack!
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psychhound · 3 months ago
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im musing on bleed & the types of character-player relationships between my pcs and npcs
for a quick primer, bleed is the exchange of thoughts and emotions between player and character (great article about bleed here). for a lot of people, bleed leads to more immersion in the character, which can mean a more emotionally resonant and rewarding experience. some people try to play for bleed and some try to avoid it, but a lot of the time its not controllable. and some people tend to experience high bleed generally while others rarely have bleed with their characters
i was pondering why i, broadly speaking, tend to have higher bleed with my npcs than i do with my pcs, because i assume that is the opposite of a lot of people. especially coming off of a changeling the lost arc with @theresattrpgforthat that was intended to be high bleed (& succeeded!!) which is not an experience i get with pcs a ton, especially so quickly
and i think what i landed on is that i almost always create pcs and npcs with different relationships to myself according to bowman's 9 types of character-player relationships
for my npcs, i have to put pieces of myself into them intentionally from the get go because im inhabiting a lot of different people and have to have some sort of connection point to jump into these different minds in unpredictable situations as quickly and smoothly as i can. sometimes an augmented self, sometimes a regressed self, sometimes an idealized self. i take all the Me and then i hit it with a pickaxe and put the fragmented pieces into all these guys so i have tethers to the whole cast
and then of course i have to take all these fragments of myself and figure out their role in an overall story and figure out what their personas are going to be ... then they get a character sheet, if they get one at all, if the game calls for them to have one
whereas almost all of my pcs start as experimental selves. depending on the game, theyre either mechanics-forward because i want to try a funky build, or i have one Concept i want to play with that i build a whole character around. a recently divorced wolf dad guardian in wanderhome. an former-hivemind-member insectoid cult leader in starfinder. a bard/paladin who works at medieval knights orlando in 5e. sometimes i end up finding a new relationship with these characters that invites some bleed and sometimes i dont. sometimes they just stay me doing mad science with the game mechanics
which is really interesting to me as someone who really enjoys bleed and immersion, when it goes well. i didnt realize this pattern at all until i was like okay. mint asked me to make a high bleed character, why did it actually work
i definitely think there are ttrpgs that invite bleed more than others. when done intentionally, these are called 'bleed designs'. im aiming for a bleed design with spiritkeep since thats kind of the whole point. of the ttrpgs ive played (i need to count, but maybe around 17 now? multiplayer games at least), i think the two that come to mind are apocalypse keys and changeling the lost, especially in character creation. maybe thats too telling about me, though! theyre both games that very intentionally play with themes of trauma and thats a big bleed factor for me
idk ... curious to hear what yall think!! adding a poll cause why not :)
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bitegore · 3 months ago
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I made a character sheet to plot your OC's development over time! (There's supposed to be a character name in the big white space next to "over time" but it got eaten a little lmao)
You can use this for whatever you want, and you don't have to credit me. Feel free to change or edit anything you feel like. Please don't tag me if you credit me - just link to the original post.
Credits, explanations & a transparent version under the cut :D
Credits:
The actual image was made with the free NBOS character sheet creator, which is a sort of dated but free and solid text-layout sheet maker intended for ttrpg style character sheet creation.
Fonts used were Bisdak (titles) and Rockwell (body). Both are free! You can use them to fill it out if you like.
Inspired by a comment @maybe-solar-powered-calculator made on this other post about filling it out for characters at multiple points along their arcs. Thanks for putting the idea in my head :D
This is explicitly released under a CC0 1.0 deed, ie: you can do fucking whatever you want with it and I don't care and you don't have to tell anyone where you got it from and no one gets to stop you.
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Last time I made one of these I got a bunch of questions on all manner of things, and I can never keep up, so I'm just appending a set of notes for how to use it and a glossary because I know some of these phrasings will be confusing.
Ignore or change anything you don't feel like works for you here. You can do whatever you want forever.
Suggested / intended use & general notes:
This sheet could work for something story-level, if you want. But it's really only good for individual arcs; if the character goes through multiple arcs in your story, then they're going to fit poorly here. In that case, you're probably better off doing versions for each arc, or just adapting this to a different format more suited to your thing.
Also, if your arc has a nontraditional structure - divorced from the typical "rising action - climax - conclusion" type of structure where there's a clear 'important turning point' - it may not work as well either.
The mindset section is meant to come at it from a 'golden mean' standpoint - that is, everything on either extreme of the slider is 'too much' and therefore bad. It's not bad-to-good! The far right side is a flaw too. They're only grouped the way they are on basis of the specific OCs I personally had in mind when I put it together.
Growth is labeled 'worse'-to-'better' but it means, like, active decrease in that area vs active increase; if nothing changes, it should stay at the center even if it sucks. The category is about contrasting changes, and sometimes changes are for the worse!
The entire sheet is very deliberately subjective. It should really be answered from the character's perspective - how they feel about it, not what's necessarily true. Technically you can do whatever you want and I can't stop you, but it's a better tool if you approach it from the point of view that the character may believe things that aren't true - that will define their behavior way more than the objective facts of the story.
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Definitions:
This part is long as hell - recommend using ctrl+f to find the specific words you're stuck on. I defined everything.
General categories:
Mindset: how your character thinks about themself and how they act. Their understanding of their own approach to life. Attitude, viewpoint, decision-making process, that sort of thing.
Circumstances: the relationship between your character and the world around them. Where they are, what that place is like, and how they feel about it.
Growth: how the character and their impact - their attitude, their behavior, their immediate surroundings - changes over time.
Outset: the start of the character's arc.
Present: the 'center' of the arc. If you're planning something ahead of time and it hasn't 'happened' yet, then this is the near future.
End-game: where they are after the conclusion of the arc.
Mindset terms:
Center of the world: "If I have a problem, it's the only thing that matters to me." Self-centered, self-absorbed. Doesn't necessarily mean anything beyond that - they don't necessarily have to be unpleasant to be entirely focused on their own life.
my life isn't relevant: "Everyone else's problems are so significant, I don't pay any attention to my own". Someone who ignores or neglects their own life in service of some other thing, or doesn't consider their own behavior to have any real importance.
Only see enemies: Paranoid. Everyone's out to get them. Anyone who seems nonthreatening is hiding their potential for danger and everyone who seems threatening is a threat. The character must remain ever-vigilant, lest the cashier at the 7/11 suddenly stab them, or their best friend turn out to secretly be trying to poison them to death.
Only see friends: Naïve. Everyone is a good actor who wishes everyone else well, and if they don't seem like they're acting from a place of kindness or care then you probably don't understand what they're up to. The character is pretty sure the stranger holding that knife is, like, someone to chat up maybe, they're clearly only hanging out in this dark alleyway because it's a nice spot and no other possible reason.
overthink everything: Ten thousand thoughts per every single action taken. Maybe they never get around to acting at all. They have to consider every possible outcome. What if by eating lunch they accidentally trigger the apocalypse?! Who's going to think about these things if not them?!?!?!
impulsive to action: Act first, think never. What do you mean "consequences of actions"?
Unilateral decisions: "I will make every choice and no one else's opinions or thoughts are relevant". Discounts outside suggestions. Firmly convinced that they know best in any situation, and will brook no disagreement with their views when it comes to actually doing things.
Command me, please: "I don't know what to do and I don't know what to even start with, someone please tell me what to think". No confidence in their own views. Will not make any decisions unless forced and even then will beg someone else to please tell them what to do. Has no idea what's best and is pretty sure anyone else will have a better idea.
can't ask for help: No one will ever help the character; they have to do everything themself, even the things other people have repeatedly offered to do for them and have much more experience with. Doesn't necessarily mean that no one will help them or that they are explicitly barred by some real-world circumstance; just that, for whatever reason, they refuse to ask for help. This is an attitude thing - will they ever reach out? No? Then they're here.
too reliant on others: Have they ever solved a problem alone? Do they believe they're even capable of doing so? The character all the way at this end of the scale absolutely never expects to be able to do anything themself, has no trust in their ability to solve a problem, and needs someone else to come save them from it. The kind of person who needs ChatGPT to do their homework. Again - doesn't actually mean anyone will help them, or that the people they're relying on are reliable - just that they think they are helpless without ... well, help.
Weapon maker: This has to do with problem-solving strategies and not actual weapons. The weapon-maker is a character who views every situation as a conflict that cannot be de-escalated or solved by cooperation, and responds appropriately. The most fundamental weapon maker character turns everything into an argument, a fight, a war, etc. There are a bunch of other responses to conflict, though - they might avoid problems that need solving because they avoid conflict generally too. Fundamentally what you want to answer here is: when they see a locked box and they don't have the key, do they respond to it the same way they'd respond to someone telling them "you can't open this box"? And how do they respond to that? Typical weapon-maker approaches: - brute-force the box open or try and then give up if it doesn't work; and also get into an argument that might turn physical with the hypothetical person - shrug and give up immediately, in both situations so on and so forth. Another hallmark is that they kind of suck at problem-solving and give up if brute-forcing a problem doesn't work. This is not someone who is picking locks unless someone else told them to - they have one solution, it's to make everything into a conflict, and then to win that conflict by beating them or to give up because they think they'll lose.
Tool maker: This person approaches every situation like it's a puzzle, not a fight - up to and including actual fights. Tool-maker characters generally assume that a situation can be solved by just finding the right approach and doing it the clever way. There's the same fundamental question as above - if your character sees a locked box and has no key, would they approach it differently than someone telling them they're not allowed to open the box? 'Typical' tool-maker approaches: - I can trick the person into giving me the key by saying the right things, and I can also pick the lock because fundamentally there are 'right answers' to both of these - If i make friends with this person, they might change their mind, because now we're cooperating. I can still pick the lock because there are 'right answers' there. - The person has a reason for wanting me not to open the box, so I can definitely figure out what that is and solve the reason so then they'll let me open it. I can take whatever it is even if they really want to keep it if I just find the right answer. I'm going to break this box into little pieces because that's the easiest way to get into it but I could probably open it some other way if that wouldn't work.
A note - the center of this bar is someone who generally has different responses to different kinds of situations - like, in the box example, they'd approach the box and the person with two different general attitudes and processes - but generally responds to those situations using the same kind of decision-making process for each category every time. Most people are nowhere near either extreme. Characters tend to be classifiable into weapon-maker and tool-maker because they are fictional and it's easier to define one kind of approach than many. Approximately average approaches: - pick the lock if no one's around, but give up if someone is there because someone telling me not to open the box is a conflict i think i'll lose but a locked box is just a puzzle that i can solve - argue with the person, but give up on the box, because they're approaching the box as a puzzle and they don't think they have the skill to get into it, but the person is someone who can be convinced or bullied into handing over the key
I made this particular dichotomy up, which is why I think I get a lot of questions on it whenever I put it into anything, but I also don't know of any other snappy way to describe this sort of thought or approach variance, and it's genuinely useful for character writing in my opinion.
Pessimist spot-finder: Generally a downer but not necessarily. This kind of character just approaches everything with a close eye for problems, issues, reasons to find fault. If they're miserable, it might be why, but like, they can be a cheerful spot-finder if you want, I just wanted to get at "the glass is half empty" and "the glass is half full" more than anything.
Optimist upside fan: The opposite. "The glass is half full". If there are problems, they can find something about them that's not so frustrating or bad to focus on. Pretty damn good at overlooking minor issues if there's no reason to fixate on them. Not necessarily cheerful.
Abysmal company: could not give less of a damn about treating people the way they 'should' be treated. Maybe they take pride in that. Maybe they just think it's irrelevant. Either way, they know they treat people badly and they don't see any reason to stop. Does not necessarily mean that they treat people badly if they think they're doing the right thing and are wrong. Doesn't mean they're actually pleasant or unpleasant to hang out with, either, unless you really want it to mean that.
Decent to others: treats people well as a matter of course, or at least they sure think they do. Makes an effort. Would probably care and/or consider changing their behavior if someone said they were treating someone poorly. As before - they can be completely un-self-aware and just think they're doing right by people while treating them completely horribly.
Morality is irrelevant: 'abysmal company' for broader approaches to life and problems. Maybe they just know they're myopic and don't think other people's problems matter. Maybe they just gave up on trying to differentiate between 'good' and 'bad' and outsourced it to someone else or stopped paying any attention. Maybe they just like to take morally unjust actions and can't be bothered giving a damn when someone points out that they're morally unjust, or maybe they're proud of it. Kind of a villain trait generally, but not necessarily - it doesn't have to mean they act badly, just that they don't care if they do. Also, this is about how they choose their own actions and view their own behavior. They can think morality is relevant for other people as long as they ignore it when they act themself.
Always in the right: feels morally righteous in every decision they make. Standard superhero type of trait. Doesn't necessarily pass judgement on others, doesn't necessarily act well according to everyone's moral code (see: blue and orange morality), but they are extremely principled and will never deviate from the moral code they personally believe in. And they do genuinely believe in it.
Circumstances terms:
Generally terrible to generally excellent: how subjectively decent is your character's situation, overall? If they think everything is horrible, but the situation is charmed to everyone except them, then it's generally terrible.
Need for changes to passive tolerance: will they do something about it? Do they feel like they have to?
No agency in action to decisions are huge: agency being "how much power do I have to make changes here?", this just asks how much they have. No agency means that, no matter what they do, nothing will happen - they might be locked in a cage or somehow otherwise completely unable to use any sort of power at all, even the power of just leaving. The other end of the spectrum is where every decision the character makes makes a huge difference, not just to themself but to everyone around them as well. They can start wars, they can have anyone they want killed, they can do anything whenever they feel like it. If they think they have no agency even though they do actually have agency, they don't have agency here. If they feel like they have all the agency in the world and can do anything, then they do even if it's not true. It's perceptual again.
Stakes are deadly to mistakes solvable: what are the consequences of failure? Will you die, will you lose status you can't afford to lose, will you lose belongings, will you have to apologize, will nothing happen at all? Mistakes solvable is where they think every mistake is solvable forever - the character pushes someone through a woodchipper and they come out and to fix it, maybe an apology has to occur, but not much else. Does not necessarily mean no one gets hurt or killed as long as the character thinks there are no permanent consequences. This is the most important one on this section to keep subjective because it will greatly influence how your character approaches situations. A character who thinks everything is deadly-stakes may go to cartoonishly-extreme lengths to avoid turning a report in a day late. A character who thinks all mistakes are always solvable may push someone through a woodchipper and then just assume they can say they're sorry and it'll all go away. The setting and their approach do not need to be applicable.
Needs go unmet to attended with care: how do the people around them treat them? Do they pay attention when the character needs something, or do they ignore it? Does the character have to do everything themself around here, or are there people who will help out?
Regarded poorly to regarded well: how do they think other people see them? Are they respected, are they liked, or are they disliked? Do people broadly trust them or are they pretty sure everyone regards them with suspicion?
Nothing changes to changes in seconds: functionally the 'stability' meter of your setting - is the situation generally stable, or are things constantly changing? Does your character feel like every five minutes, there's a new problem that needs dealing with, or do they feel like nothing has ever happened ever?
Growth terms:
Changes in place: do they go somewhere else? Does the physical setting otherwise change (eg; earthquake, war, etc) ? Are there any other reasons that the 'vibe' or 'experience' of the place is different from before?
Change in power: does the character's percieved agency (see: no agency in action to decisions are huge) change? Alternately you can use it if they've gained or lost power in some percieved way (deposed, assigned a commanding position, etc).
Change in bonds: do their relationships with people change? Have they made new friends, lost old friends, changed the nature of their relationships with friends or partners, etc?
Change in beliefs: straightforwardly, have their beliefs, morals, etc, changed?
Change in hurts: have they undergone some horrible experience? Do they have past trauma from some pre-arc horrible experience they're healing from and/or discovering they're more powerfully subject to? Did they experience a physical injury that they're recovering from or which materially changed their life? Did something recent dredge up old issues? So on and so forth.
Change in hopes: Do their desires for the future look the way they used to? Do they care about different things now? This is something the character is not actively working for, but may be tied to actual goals.
Change in fears: are they overcoming fears? Growing past them? Gaining new ones? Are they scared of shit different from how they used to be?
Change in goals: Not the same as a hope because it needs to have a specific, achievable outcome the character is actively working toward. Do those material goals look different? Perhaps they no longer want to work against something, maybe they didn't have any goals and now they do. Or maybe they've realized the goal is impossible, or something has happened to make that goal unachieveable. Whatever it is, if there's a change, it's a change.
Change in self-awareness: their beliefs about who they are and what they're like, and what their circumstances are. Have they gotten more self-aware, have they gotten less self-aware, or has nothing changed?
Change in relationships: their relationships' overall health and resilience, as far as the character is concerned - which doesn't mean they're necessarily good, just that the character thinks they're how they're supposed to be. Have they improved? Have they gotten worse? Have they not changed?
Change in knowledge: do they feel like they know more about the world, their place in it, the people around them, etc? Not necessarily how to do things - just general information and awareness.
Change in social standing: how does others' regard for the character change over this part of their arc? Do people like them more or less? Are they respected more or less than before? Has nothing changed? And so on.
Change in skills and abilities: do they feel more skilled than they were before? Do they feel like they know how to do as many things as before? Again - not necessarily rooted in reality - a classic example of a character being wrong about this is a 'big fish in a small pond' character who used to be the high school sports star going to college on a sports scholarship and discovering they're not the best any more, and suddenly feeling like they're the worst - when they're better than they've ever been in an objective light. Use a subjective viewpoint for this.
Change in agency in life: how does the character's percieved agency change? Do their decisions matter less now than ever? Do their actions make way more happen than before? (See: no agency in action vs decisions are huge)
Change in outlook: Here's the upper/downer part. Are they more or less hopeful for the future? Do they think things are more terrible now? Are things improving as far as they're concerned? Or has that not changed?
Change in goal progress: how do they feel like they're progressing on the goals they've set for themself? Are they getting further and further away? Are they getting closer?
If some of this doesn't make sense and you want a clarification, you will have to tag me to get my attention, because I'm turning notifications for this post off the minute it leaves my immediate social circle.
Transparent version: (sorry you had to scroll so far)
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in-case-of-grace · 1 year ago
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Alternatives to "GM" in TTRPGs
Spurred by a recent post from @imsobadatnicknames2 that found its way into my feed by way of @anim-ttrpgs' addition (this post got too big to be a reblog sorry), I've been thinking about the influence of the terms we use for the host-and-narrator role in a TTRPG. Each tends to carry some connotations and implications as to what the role might entail, and these can influence how people play your game.
At best, this may enforce your intended roles for the game, alongside its themeing. At worst, your chosen term for this role may create false assumptions, and lead to people approaching it in a way that makes it unfun for them.
There's also an aesthetic component to consider! Having a term that matches your genre and vibe can go a long way! It's gonna be a balancing act— does the term change how people interact with your game enough to become a problem? Does it match and enforce your themes and aesthetics strongly enough to balance some of those problems out?
Below, I'm gonna go over a couple common (and uncommon) terms for this role and what I think their connotations, implications, and best usecases are here. These are gonna be beholden to my own biases, of course— and you may see different connotations entirely! Maybe it'll help folk think more about what terms they want to use!
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"Game Master" is very gamey. It implies that this person is setting up a bunch of specific, pre-made mechanical challenges-- like an obstacle course. I will admit that it does have the weakest connotations of all the commonly used terms I'm aware of, though-- simply by virtue of it having become so commonplace across all sorts of games.
I think it works best with chunkier, mechanically heavy games. Due to it having a weak connotation, though, it won't hurt your game if you use it elsewhere, it is kind of the baseline these days, after all.
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"Storyteller" implies that this person is sitting everyone down and telling them a story. Like putting on a play. There's an implication that they are going to be controlling most of the narrative here-- and that the players don't have as much say in it.
It's also technically incorrect, given that...well, the players are storytellers too! The point of these games is to tell a story together!
It can work for more narratively focused games, it has some lighthearted, cutesy vibes that can be a good fit for some-- but its connotations can lead to this person taking more control than you may actually intend for them to have in your game.
It's one that I don't think accurately fits a lot of games, and is chosen more for its aesthetics and vibes. (Something I have done before, and with time it bothers me more and more.)
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"Narrator" is the opposite of Storyteller-- it implies, to me, that this person has less say in the narrative than the players. They are there to impartially narrate and describe the world's reactions to what the players do, little else. A passive observer, almost.
I think it can still work fine for plenty of games-- especially those with contemporary settings. It's the sort that, to me, feels more suited to sandboxy games that are more focused on providing a bunch of simulationist tools for players to poke and prod the world with, rather than on telling a structured narrative.
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"Dungeon Master" is particularly genre-limited. It carries a lot of the same implications that GM does, but for fantasy games in specific-- especially dungeon crawlers.
Only making a special note of it here since it is tied to A Particularly Big Game in the community. Its connotations are much stronger than GM's, though, and it feels out of place in rules light games— unless they are specifically set in a dungeon.
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"Director" is one that can have drastically different implications depending on the background of who reads it. If they're a film buff, they'll think it implies that this role has final say on everything, and retains high levels of control that the players do not share. Very much akin to Storyteller.
However if the person reading it is more familiar with video games, and the Left 4 Dead series (and games inspired it) in particular, they'll see the Director role as something more reactive and behind the scenes. They may think this person is responsible for improvising and presenting the players with challenges and scenarios that match their current situation— be it narrative or mechanical.
There may have been a specific plan made ahead of time, but it is filled with a ton of contingencies, with an expectation that improv will fill in the gaps.
Though like Narrator, the L4D type of Director implies a somewhat passive, observer role that isn't meant to have a say in the story.
I think most people will see it with film connotations rather than the Left 4 Dead connotations— which is unfortunate, considering that the L4D type of Director is actually really well suited for certain types of TTRPGs. I think "Game Director" vs "Director" may help alleviate this somewhat, but I'm unsure how effective it'd be as I don't think most people share the L4D brain association I do.
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"Referee," "Arbiter," "Judge," and "Moderator" all share the same problem as Narrator-- but 10 times worse. These are all heavily laced in passive connotations-- and imply that this person is there simply to determine the outcomes of mechanical situations, but has no say in the narrative.
They can work nicely with like, sports or competition TTRPGs in specific, though.
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"Master of Ceremonies (MC)" implies that you're not playing a game, but that this person is about to lead you through an awards ceremony, drop some bars, or host some stuffy 500 year old regal event called "the Ceremony of the Ballet Fish" or something.
I don't think this one fits in TTRPGs like, at all, frankly. I just cannot imagine someone in that role being referred to as an "MC" unless we're talking about a game that is specifically about a ceremony, or rap.
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"Caretaker" implies that this person's role is to maintain and care for the world, game, and story. It implies that they not only facilitate the garden you're all playing in, but that they also trim or rearrange it to suit everyone's needs-- including their own.
I actually think this one is very nice. It doesn't imply that they're an absolute monarch, nor does it imply that they're a passive observer. It also manages to encapsulate the amount of background work the role can often require, without taking away their say in the resulting narrative.
A Caretaker has agency in the story, while remaining cognizant and receptive of the players' agency, too.
This works really well for games focused on telling collaborative narratives, but I think it can also work fairly well for mechanically focused ones as well. It feels pretty versatile!
This one is new to me and I honestly might start using it for my games going forward, unless someone knows of a common connotation I'm unaware of!
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"Facilitator," and "Host" both imply that this person provides the space and tools for the game, and nothing else. They handed the players the keys, told them to lock up after they're done, and left to go do sick flips in their motorcycle or something nerds do.
To me, the term by itself implies this person has very little to do with the actual game. I don't think these work any better than, say, GM, without a thematic justification.
Host could be amazing for some sort of bio-horror game— or for a game show RPG. Facilitator feels DoA to me. Both, however, could work if your game really is set up so the Facilitator/Host just provides tools to the players and does little else.
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"Guide" implies that this person takes on a fairly hand-holdy role in leading the players through the game and its narrative. Maybe not quite railroading, but they definitely do a lot to keep the players on track.
This one, I feel, carries some "teacher" connotation— as if this person is responsible for teaching the players the rules. It's on them, not the players, to read and remember the actual rules.
I feel that this connotation largely ruins what good this term could do.
But, it can still work well in certain cases. If your game really is meant to have a focused, linear narrative, it can work quite well. The same goes for specific genres or settings— such as anything dealing with camping, national parks, or tourism.
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"Overseer" taken at face value, actually could be pretty apt. They'd be someone who oversees the game and does what they can to keep things fun.
Unfortunately, due to the word's use in workplace environments and dystopian fiction— it has some pretty heavy cultural connotations that turn it more into a dictator role. They have complete and total control over the game and its narrative, even if the players disagree with their choices.
I think it can work well for games that deal with dystopian or corporate settings, where this person might actually be meant to have more control, or simply for the flavor— but not a ton else.
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"Producer" is vaguely similar to the film-style Director-- in the sense that it comes from film. However, unlike the Director, a Producer coordinates and works together with the players to tell their story. It's a more collaborative role that shares power and agency more evenly with the table.
This also somewhat accurately implies the amount of work that goes into the role, much like the Caretaker.
However, given its origins, it doesn't imply they're playing a game— I can't entirely explain why, but it feels similar to MC in this sense. The term is very heavily entrenched in its origins, and carries strong film connotations— even though, yes, video games have producers too!
I think it'd be rad to see games using this, though. In time the strong film connotations may shake off! Like Caretaker, I think it's fairly versatile and could be well suited for a wide variety of games.
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Niche terms such as keeper, warden, overlord, president, deity, and fixer are always worth considering, too! These tend to just be one-offs used in a specific TTRPG, that suit their setting and tone in particular.
Now, each can and does have its own implications and connotations to consider— weigh those against how well it serves the vibes of your game before you lock in!
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"Host and Narrator (HAN)" implies the same things that these terms do separately-- but combines them to offset (some of) their downsides. This implies that they host and provide the tools needed for playing the game, yes, but also that they actually stick around to narrate and respond to the players.
When Narrator is combined with Host here, I think this also transforms into something a little closer to the Caretaker— as the Host and Narrator both, they have more of an active role in maintaining the space (and story) they've provided.
It feels similarly versatile, as a result. I just made this one up and don't know if there are any games that use it already, it could have legs— it is a little dry and flavorless, though. This may give it a potential leg up on Caretaker, which does have a lil bit of a lighthearted vibe that may feel off in, say, a horror game.
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Honorable mentions - Scenestress - Conductor - SOUP (Story Overseer United (with) Players) - Their Majesty - MOMMY (Mediator Over Making Mythic Yarns) - JOE (Joe Ojoe Ejoe) - Representative (REP) - Doormat
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Again, these are all just according to the implications and connotations I find in these terms— you may find others! What you pick is going to depend on you, your game, and your intended audience!
I don't know if perfect terms exist, and it's wise to explain whichever you use within your rulebooks— just to ensure that someone else's biases and assumptions don't lead to them misinterpreting things.
Is there anything I missed? Any terms you like to use? Do you have a vastly different set of assumptions for one of these terms? Please share!
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anim-ttrpgs · 10 months ago
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How to Choose Music for a TTRPG Session & Eureka Song Selections
When our own group plays any TTRPG, we always like to have some amount of background music to help with the mood and tone, and if you do too, then here's a post about how best to choose it, because it is a learnable skill!
I am one of the creators of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy
and the idea for this post grew out of making a curated list of songs for Eureka sessions, each sorted into different categories for easy access. The Narrator in a Eureka campaign exercises very little control over the story and pacing of the game, so it isn't very helpful to plan for a specific reveal of specific scene set to a certain song. To that end, I have sorted these songs into various types of scenes, tones, etc. for you to grab as the story is emerging.
You can find these lists here:
Session Intro Music (in case you wanna open each session with a musical theme like an episode of a tv show)
Investigation Scene Music (low-stakes) or Meal Scene
Investigation Scene Music (tense/creepy) Part 1
Investigation Scene Music (tense/creepy) Part 2
Foot Chase Music
Vehicle Chase Music
Scooby-doo-ass Chase Music
Investigators Fleeing/Hiding from Monster Music
Unarmed Combat Music
Deadly/Armed Melee Combat Music
Deadly/Firearm Combat Music
Monster Rampage Music
Monster Hunting Music (as in the monster is a PC who is hunting prey)
How to Choose Music for a TTRPG Session
There’s a few things that make a good TTRPG session song that aren’t immediately obvious.
Avoid Lyrics
Lyrics are a no-go 90% of the time. You gotta assume that the players will be trying to read rules and/or do math during the session and lyrics can make that harder.
Avoid Loud, Dissonate, or Disorienting Music
For the very same reasons—and this is especially useful to keep in mind for a horror-themed game like Eureka—it can't be too dissident or grating. A lot of horror video game music is really dissident screechy and offensive to the ears because this induces a tiny sense of panic, but again, like with lyrics, this means it’s hard to actually play a TTRPG while listening to this.
Don't Outpace the Combat
For combat music, a fast-paced “action” song can work, but if it’s too fast-paced it really quickly outpaces the combat itself because TTRPG combat is necessarily kind of slow. I do have plenty of fast-paced actiony songs in those lists, but those are best grouped into a playlist in sequence rather than looped, because then you at least have the rather frequent serendipity of the song changing on a per-turn basis.
The usual better option is something “tense” and “cool” but a bit more understated, usually with a mid-intensity repeating beat. Complex action songs work in other mediums like movies because their notes can be tailored to sync up to the actual actions on-screen, but that won’t happen in a TTRPG 90% of the time, even if just because describing a character throwing a punch takes way longer than a character throwing a punch in a movie.
For Eureka I also had to like make sure there was a good selection of action music in there that wasn’t too “cool” or “heroic.” Eureka characters are not fearless action heroes nor usually trained soldiers. If they are in a fight, it usually isnt cool, it’s scary. If anything, the combat music should be the bad guy’s theme, not the protagonists’, because they’re the ones with the advantage. When a Eureka PC does have the advantage and can be super “cool” in a fight, they’re probably a monster, in which case it’s the other way around, they’re the terrifying bad guy in the NPC’s story, and I tried to pick music to reflect that with “darker,” more “sinister” tracks.
Choose Songs without Shifts in Tempo or Intensity
You want something that is very easy to loop. Lots of cool songs go through pretty dramatic changes in their intensity over the course of their runtime. This is cool like I said when they can be synced up to action in a movie, but they’ll never (or rarely) sync up with anything in a TTRPG session. They’re going to be playing over and over on like a 3-minute loop as you roll dice and occasionally look up rules, and if this loop is really noticeable because of how the song starts out slow and then swells in intensity, that is going to be annoying fast. You want a song that has a relatively consistent level of intensity throughout its whole runtime.
Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but you can still check out the public beta on itch.io to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, etc.!
You can also follow updates on our Kickstarter page where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.
Beta Copies through the Patreon
If you want more, you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy earlier, plus extra content such as adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.
The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club
If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes
Other Stuff
We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.
We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.
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synchodai · 5 months ago
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"Mystra groomed Gale" takes rustle my jimmies like no other. I get how some people who don't know much about her beyond BG3 may have this interpretation, but if you're like me, a woman who's been playing since the days of AD&D, you'd understand why accusing Mystra of being the bad person in this scenario may hit a nerve.
TL;DR: Did Mystra take advantage of Gale's devotion to her as his goddess? Definitely, she's a Faerûnian deity — they subsist on worship and adulation. Does that make her his abuser? Eh... man, maybe it's high time that a lot of us learn different terminology for unhealthy relationship dynamics other than abuser-victim. I've seen a couple of posts that are really gung-ho about forcing every companion character to be some sort of abuse victim, because that's what they've decided the game is about. I mean, they're free to interpret the game that way, but damn, we're really out here flattening god, the very concept of magic itself, into the role of an abusive ex, huh? A fantastical, nuanced relationship between mortal and immortal set against the backdrop of a rich palimpsest multiverse digested like a YouTube drama video.
Let me try to explain my perspective by going through the history of Mystra, how she's utilized in Forgotten Realms lore, and treated within D&D games in general.
MYSTRA THE MAN-EATER
Since her creation, she has always been depicted as the sexy goddess whose main purpose was to be a wizard player's muse as well as their patron. Back then, D&D (and TTRPGs in general) was a heavily male-dominated hobby, so Mystra (and Mystryl, her avatars, and all her other incarnations) was catered and shaped by that demographic.
Because it's the player characters and Wizards of the Coast who have narrative agency and many of them want to fuck a goddess, they make stories where Mystra comes on to them because their character is just so good at magic. They designed Mystra to be a mysterious, beautiful love interest because they wanted to use her as the crown jewel of their power fantasy of being a super cool and powerful magic man. You can pretty much see this in the Elminster books and the Avatar series with Midnight (one of Mystra's avatars). Gale himself seems to be an exploration of this typical kind of wizard character.
As far as power fantasies go, making the goddess of magic have an intimate relationship with a mortal character is fine. It's the ultimate validation for a burger-flipper when the god and all source of burger-flipping is head over heels in love with them. It also doesn't have to have a sexual component to have "magic" and the magic system itself enamored with a character — depending on the game and DM, Mystra's favor can be entirely symbolic and metaphorical. A fine power fantasy in the power fantasy generation game.
So because everyone literally wants a piece of her, you end up with Mystra having more Chosen running around than any other god. Understandable given what she has to do to maintain her massive portfolio. It fits her as the personification of magic — someone who entices ambitious young spellcasters but burns them out through obsession and overreaching. Consume any Forgotten Realms-related media, and you've probably come across at least one campaign, novelization, or character backstory that use Mystra for the role of sexy sorceress goddess that's the alluring (yet often demanding) patron of some magic man. Whomst amongst our wizards haven't been visited by Mystra in the night ordering him to do plot point, he rolls to seduce her, and she has no choice but to admit that she's actually attracted to him because the dice said so? It was a community inside joke passed around tables: Mystra the Man-eater.
But then some BG3 fans started taking the joke seriously...
MYSTRA THE GROOMER AND WHORE
This piece of dialogue has done so much irrevocable damage.
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Some (Galemancers specifically) have interpreted this to mean that Mystra is known to go after young men. She does not. She has more documented Chosen than other gods due to her massive portfolio and power level, but there are just as many female Chosen as there are male Chosen. Minsc, like most of us in this fandom, is speculating and doing so in a way that uplifts Gale at the cost of taking a bit of a jab at Mystra.
"Mystra's a whore. She boned Kelemvor and Elminster and so many of her Chosen, taking advantage of them as a goddess," they say as if she didn't have her romantic relationships all as different people and in different bodies. Her avatar Dasumia was the one who had an intimate relationship with Elminster, and it was the human Midnight (who later ascended to become Mystra) who was Kelemvor's lover (who himself was a mortal adventurer at the time).
This is why Mystra is, how other people put it, "a whore." Because WotC canonized a handful of those stories where different sexy female mage love interests whom otherwise have nothing in common are slapped with the Mystra label for one reason or another. Sometimes they're mere avatars or magical projections, sometimes they're actual people possessed by Mystra, and sometimes they're destined to be the new Mystra but don't know it yet. But those sort of nuances are lost to people who learn their lore secondhand from deliberately provocative tweets and reddit posts, flattening extremely fantastical relationships to clumsily fit a more relatable framing that'll net them more online engagement.
I don't want to argue what is and isn't grooming. But I have encountered arguments taking Gale's mentions that he was "a young man" to mean Mystra groomed him as a child. But I doubt he would have said "young man" if he meant child...
Mystra took off the gossamer veils from her body to fully reveal herself to him — or whatever romanticized way Gale tells you that they were intimate. The man speaks in half-abstraction and metaphors because it's revealed later on in the romance that all their love-making happened outside the Material Plane. They were very intimate, but never physically had sex (or had any physical contact at all because gods are only allowed to interact with mortals through their avatars or projections). If Mystra "groomed" Gale, so did every other god who revealed themselves and made themselves vulnerable to their followers. Shar grooms her justiciars when she brings them into her dark embrace. Umberlee grooms her clerics when she swallows them up and gives them her wet kiss.
MYSTRA IS A FAIR GOD ACTUALLY
Look, gods in D&D-verses are, more often than not, dicks. They have to be or else there would be no need for adventurers to fix wrong-doings if the gods weren't so detached to the suffering of mortals and regularly making earth-shattering calamities.
Mystra, as a patron, is actually one of the more fair and hands-on dieties. She's one of the few gods who rewards benevolent ambition and punishes destructive hubris, knowing the line between the two. In the Elminster series, she (or one of her avatars) assists Elminster in taking down one of her rebel Chosen who has abused her blessing to become a tyrant. Azuth, one of her Chosen, has achieved godhood through her. In fact, she is divinely obliged — forced against her will, some might say — to help mortals she would personally rather smite. There have been so many instances where Mystra has to be the bigger person. As far as gods abusing their followers go, Mystra is low on that list.
There are barely any stories of magic abusing spellcasters, but there are cautionary tales aplenty of spellcasters abusing magic.
ON GALE SPECIFICALLY: HOW IS MYSTRA THE BAD GUY HERE?
Gale is the first to tell you that he "violated her boundaries." Mystra told him not to mess with the Tome of Netheril and he did it anyway, so he's fully aware that the orb in his chest and his fall from grace is his own fault. Mystra didn't cast him aside just because she felt like he was getting too big for his britches. His actions actively endangered her and the Weave.
(Mystra is wrong about certain details on the Karsite Weave if we're going by Forgotten Realms lore, but she's not wrong about its existence being a danger. BG3 takes a lot of liberties with the world Faerûn, so I can't definitively say whether Mystra being wrong was her lying, Larian rewriting canon, or this incarnation of Mystra not knowing the true nature of the Fall of Netheril. I could go on about what effects the Karsite Weave actually would have on magic, but this post is already long enough. )
Gale only starts to resent Mystra when she asks him to detonate himself. Elminster makes it sound like an order, but from the way she doesn't punish him in the epilogue if he chooses to keep the orb, it feels more like a suggestion. If Mystra wanted Gale well and truly dead, she has so many options.
Throughout Faerûn's history, Mystra herself has constantly been betrayed and taken advantage of — her power coveted by ambitious men who claim to worship and love her. Honestly, as far as goddesses with traumatic histories of being killed by ambitious men go, she's pretty chill about Gale. The fact that she allows him to become the god of ambition in the end if you choose that path? Well... let's just say she's not the one who looks like the evil ex who was only with their partner to take advantage of them in this scenario.
CONCLUSION
Mystra isn't the only goddess to have romantic relationships with her followers. I've already yapped on about how Forgotten Realms writers and D&D players love to make goddesses fuck their heroes, and all that pearl-clutching over "power imbalance" and "consent" is moot when the mortal party is actively rolling to seduce the divine entity.
But notice how the male gods rarely have intimate relations with their mortal charges? It's almost as if Mystra was objectified for years by horny nerds to be the sexy sorceress who validates the more important male hero. Fast forward years later, she's now being slut-shamed for all the lore of her sleeping with the more important male hero by a new crop of fans who would love to think they're more progressive than the horny nerds of the 80s, but fall into the same trap. Mystra has so much potential for complexity, but they choose to flatten her because they ultimately don't care about making stories involving complex female characters.
Instead, one of the most powerful beings in Faerûn has no bigger role in this universe than to be your girlfriend or your current boyfriend's evil ex. Wow, the realms of your creativity and respect for women truly know no bounds.
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shorthaltsjester · 7 months ago
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love (loath) this version of ‘empathy’ for characters that exists in fandoms that somehow means taking any articulation of the fact that x character is given responsibility and context by the story and that their poor choices lead to poor outcomes is actually a slight against the character (and implicitly somehow whatever oppressed group which they belong to or are alleged to belong to by sections of fandom)
to be clear this is something i’ve noticed in several fandoms which is why the beginning of this is general language but the pertinent example to my current frustration is liliana temult and the defence of her that lays on a claim that those who enjoy the narrative showing her poor actions leading to poor outcomes for her have somehow failed the empathy test is beyond incomprehensible to me. like even ignoring the very basic level understanding that fiction is a place to experience satisfaction in narratives that we cannot fulfil in non-narrative reality, it’s also like… holy fuck do I not want the kind of empathy that tells me it will all work out no matter what choice I make. it is actually imperative to human life that the choices we make have substance in the outcomes we arrive in, otherwise we would’ve long given up on the notion of free will. and to look at a narrative, particularly one built in the context of a ttrpg. a game notably influenced by the choices that players-as-characters make. and then see sections of an audience find it compelling and enjoyable that a character who has made categorically poor choices that have caused immeasurable harm to others is now dealing with the very obvious face-eating panthers consequences… idk man. if you see that as a lack of empathy i implore you to consider what role empathy is playing in your world.
like. if empathy to you is about comfort and stagnancy and not about growth and community, then sure i can understand how it might not be empathetic in your view to notice patterns and see their obvious outcome and acknowledge that . but as someone who has been in the position of making horrible choices with obvious outcomes, far more essential to my personhood was those who looked at me with careful but critical eyes than those who nearly babyed me into my grave. that’s actually why i love imogen’s choice to insist that liliana make her own choice and then quasi-encouraging her to stay, because it was a clear reminded to liliana that her choices have consequences, and one of those is that the terrible things she’s down in the name of her daughter have led to that daughter not being able to easily trust her.
and i think another thing that’s related that gets misconstrued with liliana (and as always unfortunately many such cases) is that the satisfaction of seeing her absorbed isn’t that it’s retributive harm done or some sort of punishment (at least not for me, skill issue if people in your fandom spaces are that cop-minded but, yknow, what can you expect from the thought-crimes capital of fandom spaces). the satisfaction is in the analogue (that i’ve seen well memed) to the face-eating panthers joke that liliana’s actions which have pushed an agenda that’s depended on the consumption and threat to her child and the children she specifically has aided in placing in danger via her choices, has led to situations where a) she’s ‘burdened’ by her care for imogen and the children (both of which she has played a hand in inviting into the context of danger) b) she is now the person in danger of being consumed after spending weeks simply shrugging off concerns about what might be consumed in the name of ludinus’ Just World™. like it’s not just ‘liliana does bad things, must be punished’ it’s ‘liliana has played a hand in creating a situation that is threatening to many including herself, it is narratively satisfying and engages in Common Narrative Tool: Irony to have that create situation negatively impact her directly.’
to that end that’s why the ‘if you’re like this about liliana you should also be like this about essek’ takes are beyond missing the point (without getting into the horribly built scarecrow that it is, understand that it’s actually undermining decades of feminist’s philosophical and political development to see a critique of a female character and go ‘well actually if she were a man you wouldn’t be saying that’ when it’s a provable fact that people Would be (and have been) saying that if she were a man. so not the feminist slay you think it is). like, as someone who Was just as interested in essek’s story having consequences as I am in liliana’s, there very much WERE consequences for essek that, just like liliana, were well contextualized and suited to the specific choices he made. they are ones that should be obvious even to the most surface read of the campaigns given that essek still appears in disguise years after the end of c2, should also probably be obvious in the rebuilding of relationships essek had to do with mn after they discovered his betrayal. like the notable difference between liliana and essek is not their gender, it’s that we’ve seen the end of essek’s story (in the sense of like. campaign containment, obviously his Story™ is ongoing) and have yet to see liliana’s— it’s entirely possible that liliana does get saved and goes on to repair her relationship with imogen (or goes on and is unable to repair it) or she just dies and part of imogen’s story is dealing with it; all of those are narratively satisfying. what wouldn’t have been satisfying, in the sense that would leave liliana feeling like a non-agent in a story dependent on her agency, is if her role was entirely dictated by imogen’s interest in reconciliation. because sure if you want to look very microscopically the current threat to liliana that exists is 1-to-1 caused by the fact that she’s been helping imogen, but taking seriously the story, the consequences bloom from all the choices that liliana has made leading to ludinus’ decision to trust her however far he does that made liliana’s choice a betrayal and affirmed ludinus’ strength and position so that he can do something like siphon someone’s life force away.
further the ‘why does liliana deserve to be funnelled and relvin gets off easy’ relvin doesn’t get off easy. once again the satisfaction of his narrative is that he did his best and it was insufficient and that cost him a relationship with imogen they both clearly wish for but neither can rectify. the consequence for relvin is that he’s in an empty house that is no longer home to the woman he loved or the daughter he was left to raise alone. surely i don’t need to unpack why i think someone who tried but wasn’t well equipped to raise a daughter with superpowers doesn’t need to evoke as ‘drastic’ consequences in their story as the stated right hand of the campaign’s bbeg for their story to feel complete.
and idk at least for me that’s the salient point; that the consequences that are happening feel like a plausible and suitable conclusion to the story we’ve seen of liliana even if she perishes at ludinus’ hand. it will be sad but it’ll be satisfying, and maybe i should have realized seeing the frequency with which parts of fandom have been campaigning to undo maybe the most weighty and narratively satisfying choices & consequence of vox machina’s story, but it’s truly confounding to me the amount of people treating the presence of any complex and non-traditional happy ending notion in a story set in a world defined by pyrrhic victories. like, empathy for vax isn’t saying he’s the puppet of a god that manipulated him into service, it’s acknowledging that he made a choice that he knew would have consequences and acknowledging that the consequences he demanded with that choice were pretty severe ones. that doesn’t mean i’m watching the end of cr1 seeing the characters destroyed by the loss of vax being like ‘dumbasses, they knew this was coming, vax chose this, these are his consequences’ it means that when i’m crying watching the end of cr1 it’s paired with my deep love for a story that takes seriously the weight of the character’s choices in the determination of their lives. idk man. maybe interrogate how much of your notion of empathy is dependent on individualism to the point of near complete alienation and get back to me on how empathetic it is to look at someone who has caused unarguable pain with their choices and say ‘no no it’s fine you didn’t mean to + you’re a woman :/‘ while the victims of those choices rot in their graves
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toskarin · 4 months ago
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one subtle but notable shift in TES's writing over the years is in how it understands a party to be structured. this mostly seems relegated to ESO and spinoffs, but it's been increasingly written into canon, so it's prime for rambling about, at least to some extent
or, another post in which toskarin rants about shifts in TES writing and its intent, entirely presented as a stream of consciousness with only a little bit of editing (beware)
(asides are included in [boxes] so you can skip those if you want)
so,
when parties come up in TES lore, because they rarely come up in gameplay (and mind you they sometimes do, but we'll get to that) they tend to be structured less as something that works on a particular gameplay system and more as warbands or small groups. when you look at the structure of groups of notable adventurers, insofar as they appear in the sidelines, it's much closer to something like the fellowship of the ring than a balanced ttrpg party
there ARE a few D&D style parties that crop up, but it's generally assumed that a "party" is less of a formal concept than like, a few people who know each other or a group of cultural figures that need to be in interaction as a function of folklore. beyond that, in the third case, you enter into the territory of warbands and armies by scale, and those obviously don't make much of an appearance in games with entity logic held together by sap and twine
the exception to this that's most notable (imo) is in Shivering Isles, where a party of D&D style adventurers appears for you to torture in your position as a dungeon keeper. this is pretty obviously a skit, but it bears mentioning because it really emphasises how weird it is for that sort of thing to exist in the setting. outside of what the player actually does, people in the setting tend to behave more like characters in a fantasy novel than characters intended explicitly for tabletop gaming
[well, I'd also point out that this is a bit less true for daggerfall and arena, but trying to take those as The Way The World Works in anything past those games is silly, since they literally canonised a time distorting phenomenon that ensures the world doesn't work the same way it used to lmao]
a lot of this comes down to the fact that, on the whole, the player's role as "the adventurer who does RPG stuff" is an anomaly in the setting. most of the other characters who are similarly weird in the setting are like... weird in the way that figures like Fionn mac Cumhaill are weird
anyway, as ESO rolls around, adventurer parties are definitely more of something the writers include in the lore. a party of heroes is a normal thing, or at least not a joke anymore
the obvious manifestation of this is in The Five Companions, who kind of exist in a weird role of modelling what a party of real players might look like, and of course to make that idea less jarring as it's inserted mechanically for the first time in the setting
[before anyone mentions it, I know Battlespire had multiplayer, but that's not what it was. have you played it? it's objective-based and every time it gets brought up I feel insane because everybody seems to lie about having played it. it's like the Moby Dick of computer rpgs. nobody can remember it but everyone's allegedly played it. it had more in common with Unreal Tournament than anything. it had a capture the flag mode]
the Five Companions are, fundamentally, an MMORPG party, down to their roles, but they are written with the sort of backstories you'd expect from a typical D&D table. they stand out in the setting because they interact with the world like a player character
this is significant because it marks a veritable foot in the door
after this, D&D style parties of adventurers begin to pop up in the writing in earnest, not as references to anything in particular, not towards a function of gameplay, but as an accepted fact of the world. you start running into other parties during quests in ESO, and Creation Club stories (which are the modern incarnation of the a la carte DLCs for Oblivion and Morrowind) gesture towards Castles and Blades being canon as well, both of which could have their background lore taken as D&D fanfic if you scraped off the setting terms
TES isn't remotely subtle about what it's ripping off, and you'd have to be reading with your eyes closed to miss the writers paying lipservice to Tolkien's later-life view of the Silmarillion as a subjective elven text
this lends itself well to the setting subjectively acknowledging the identity of past player characters and their interactions with the world, but also necessitates that the player characters act more as lone wanderers than anything else. there's really just no telling whether the player actually valued any of their connections to other people, even as Skyrim moved towards having followers that were a bit more similar to the BG2 style companions typical of Fallout (only ever really getting all the way there with Dawnguard)
because of this, there hasn't really been a window for "the party of heroes" to exist in a way that's intended to reflect the player experience, so it didn't really exist
the player does not have more than one companion for the simple reason that they wouldn't have anything interesting to say, and if they did, they wouldn't be able to do much in the narrative due to their proximity to the vaguery of player action in a setting where all player choices are technically canon
[this isn't something they had in mind while making Daggerfall, as I kind of touched on earlier, and that's why all of the major actors in the story end up with a comical degree of ambition in contrast to The Agent, and their plans all have to be retconned to collide in the Dragon Break or the story would literally just not work]
I'm going to say something a bit weird at this point, because I don't think I'd say it without roughly this much preamble: as a self-imposed rule of the writing, as a floodgate, it's generally been a good thing that characters in direct proximity to the player don't have as much agency as the player
on the flip side of that, it's generally been a bad thing now that they are allowed to have it, persisting in the world as RPG heroes
drawing out from that, I think that the prior state of things was bad when it came to giving the average outside-of-books NPC meaningful non-extrapolated interiority, but it was good when it forced the player character to act as a quarantine for the video-gaminess of the writing
ESO has lots of good bottle episodes (a line which I'm repeating from a previous rant) but, in being canon, it also brings with it the problem of how it handles adventurer parties, and more specifically, how the writing now assumes that the average person of note in the setting is (or once was) in a D&D party
and it's specifically a D&D party, which is the part that makes it annoying. so much of the setting material is now written in such a way that it could be transplanted into the Forgotten Realms without feeling even a little bit odd, all in service of reinforcing a brand identity the series doesn't even have
of course, a lot of this has to be taken in the context of the recent renaissance of D&D. TES is far from the only game that's been nudging its writing more into the shape of an actual play podcast, but it's obnoxious to watch it happen
like with a lot of these rants, I don't really have a particular synthesis to draw from this. the way things are being handled is unfortunate, but it's not exactly like it was ever going to have a ton of integrity, and it's still just a silly fantasy RPG at the end of the day. a not-insignificant portion of the deep-pseudocanon lore was written play-by-post on forums, so it's not even unprecedented
either way, I can't help feeling like it's a bit of a shame
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heliosail · 16 days ago
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Get the game for free! Patreon Itchio Gumroad GameJolt
Heliosail is Finally Here
Words cannot possibly capture how I am feeling today. I am joyous, overwhelmed, proud, humbled, and terrified all at once. This game is, in many ways, a very personal reflection of my heart and soul. I could have released it years ago, when it was "playable" for the first time, but I held back. I knew that it had not yet bloomed into the rose that I could see within it. 
This game has changed me in a profound way over the years I've devoted to it. When I started this process, I was in my mid twenties, severely depressed, being entirely supported by my father, and completely unable to see a future for myself. Since that time, I have moved halfway across the country, put my depression in full remission, come out as nonbinary, changed my name, written a novel, and now fully support myself. I am unrecognizable from my younger self. I used to be unable to make new friends, and now I have a whole group of people I met and bonded with over TTRPGs. I used to have screaming, crying meltdowns over my math homework well into high school. Now, I understand mathematics, statistics and probabilities with ease, and know that I am AuDHD. I used to be constantly anxious that if I ever did the wrong thing, no matter how slight, I would be rejected by the people in my life. Now, I can sit down at a work meeting and accept discipline without crying (Sometimes.) I used to not have the energy to do more than two things in a week. Now, I am running out of days in my calendar for everything I want to do. 
I cannot credit all of this change to one project, of course, but this game really has been a guiding force through this chapter of my life. I've been in a sort of dance with it, where I began to create answers to my anxieties, and in turn, Heliosail gave me resolve and hope. I was worried about climate change, so I imagined a future where we go back and fix our mistakes. I felt like I didn't fit in, so I created a fantasy where I could run away on a ship and be queer with all my friends. I was anxious about surviving in this capitalist world, so I imagined a society that tries to take care of everyone in it.
I fell into a comfortable pattern, where I could experience the joy of puzzle-solving that is the design process, and literally build the world that I wanted for myself.
And so, the truth is that, while I am excited and proud beyond words to finally let the world see my work, I am kind of mourning too. There will be more Heliosail to work on; I am already planning more content for the game, and will continue to try to spread it to those who will enjoy it most. But that is not the same. To achieve my dream for this work, I will need to develop a whole new set of skills. I feel rather like Sisyphus, having just reached the top of the hill only to realize that somehow I'm at the bottom once again. No matter how daunting I find the road ahead, though, I believe that Heilosail is worth it. Maybe it makes me sound conceited and self-important, but the truth is that I feel a drive and responsibility to make this project a success, as if it is for something greater than myself. It's like I'm pushing this boulder, not up a hill forever, but towards someone who badly needs it. I don't know who they are, but I am driven to reach them as if both our lives depend on it. 
More Content Coming Soon
More files will be coming in the near future, added to the download for Heliosail everywhere you can find it. I will be adding a "Home-Printer Friendly" version of the handbook very soon, which will be black and white with no images, and will be reformatted to use the fewest number of pages possible. I will also be releasing a free adventure to provide you all with some content for your games. Adventures I publish after this will be paid supplements, but I will continue to publish "Monster Mondays" and other free content on Patreon. 
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cripplecharacters · 10 months ago
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hello! feel free to ignore me if this is slightly outside the boundaries of this account, but i'm a tabletop roleplaying game (ttrpg) designer looking for opinions on mechanics for disability in games.
my game specifically covers a lot of themes that, while not about disability, would make me feel remiss to not include some explicit mention of how physically/mentally disabled characters fit into the greater picture of the game. it has a specific focus on telling stories of diverse characters, for one, and on fighting the unfair capitalist systems that harm these marginalized groups.
my issue lies in how, exactly, to both treat this topic respectfully and make the characters not feel out of place or unbalanced. i've considered several options, and was curious to hear from a physically disabled perspective how to proceed (i am mentally ill & neurodivergent, but to my knowledge not physically disabled).
option one: mention that disabled characters of all kinds are encouraged, and talk about roleplaying them or provide resources for how to handle them respectfully, but don't apply any specific rules with hard mechanics or numbers to them. this option is least likely to be inadvertently misconstrued or written poorly on my part, but may make disability feel like a "flavour" side note.
option two: provide examples for some common disabilities on the mechanical effects (such as a low vision character rolling less dice on rolls to notice visual details) without any "counteracting" mechanics. this one gives mechanical weight to disability, so it feels less like an afterthought, but may discourage people from playing disabled characters as they would be more likely to fail than other characters.
option three: the above, but with mechanical incentives for roleplaying in a way that acknowledges the character's disability. a "benefit", but less "giving a blind character echolocation" and more "gain XP for showing your characters disability and any aids they use" (similar mechanics exist for following your character's goals/personality traits). this would make disabled characters be more on par mechanically with other characters, but i fear it may come across as... viewing disabled characters as not worth it without some sort of benefit, i suppose?
apologies for the long rambling message, but i'd love to hear which of these options (or another suggestion) you'd be happiest to see in a game written by someone who isn't physically disabled! this is far from the focus of my game, but it's still an important part of the greater theme that i'd love to be able to get right. thanks! (similarly, if there are any groups not covered in the "underrepresented but common disabilities" post from your FAQ that you'd want to see in a game, i'd also be happy to hear those!)
Hello!
First things first, thank you so much for thinking about this! This isn't something that most TTRGs consider and, as a massive nerd who plays DND, Pathfinder, and other tabletop games, this has always been a big pet peeve of mine since making a disabled character is always unnecessarily hard to do with the game mechanics and rarely works out well.
Most of the time, I have to talk to my GM about how to make it work in their game and, unfortunately, I'm often told they won't allow it because it's "too much trouble".
This is all just to say, I really love the idea here and the fact that you're actually thinking about these things and wanting to do well by them is great!
Now, taking a look at the options:
Option One
One of the unfortunate things that I see a lot is people that are too scared to get something wrong with representation (Or social justice on a broader scale) that they don't try to do it at all. With this current era of cancel culture and people's reactions to what they deem 'offensive', it's understandable to be a bit apprehensive but if you're approaching the subject from a place of respect and you're receptive to learning and improving, most people will appreciate the effort.
While this option does sidestep the main issue you've identified, I do think it sidesteps the attempt at making disability part of your game as well. You can encourage people to make disabled characters all you want but without any real content for them in the game, it won't do much.
If you do go with this option, I'd strongly suggest including some information on the culture of your world and how it relates to disability, both to provide more substance to the content and to give players a bit to go off of when making a disabled character.
Option Two
I like this option much more than the first one, though I do agree that it may discourage people from choosing to play a disabled character.
Within the game mechanics, I think it makes a lot of sense to have these kinds of effects but I would encourage you to include more variety with it. Disability isn't 'one size fits all' and two disabled people can have different needs, strengths, and experiences -- even if they have the exact same disability. Instead, I'd suggest going for a slightly different model that includes more choices.
For example, a character with low vision may:
- Roll lower on perception checks involving vision
or
- Have disadvantage with ranged weapons/attacks
or
- Have lower rolls/less success in dim lighting
Do you see where I'm going with this?
Having more options for how the character's disability affects them allows players to make a choice for how they want to play the character while also encouraging them to think more about how their character's disability might affect them and impact their life.
The examples given are all reflections of how blindness can affect somebody. Blind spots or blurry vision can make it more difficult to notice certain visual changes, severe nearsightedness can make it difficult to aim/focus on things that are far away, night blindness can make it difficult to see in the dark or in dim lighting, etc. That being said, there are dozens of other ways to go about this (Though I'd advise sticking to five options per disability at most to avoid overwhelming people).
Option Three
Personally, I like this one and the second option the most. Although I understand where your concerns are coming from, it feels less like it's implying that disabled characters have to be 'worth it' and more like it's just balancing it out.
Like with the second option, I'd suggest going for more of a choice model here where the player can pick what 'benefit' (For lack of better word) that their character has -- or even to choose no benefit at all.
Many physically disabled people develop our own skills or tools to compensate for where we struggle, whether this is an intentional decision or just something that happens.
For example, my boyfriend is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair full time. As a result, he has kick-ass upper body strength from it.
Similarly, many deaf and hard of hearing people are more observant when it comes to visual cues and many blind people are more sensitive to other senses (Though, of course, the whole 'super senses' thing is a myth).
While this isn't true of all disabilities or all disabled people in general, it is something worth considering.
That being said, if you do decide to implement this option, make sure that the benefit makes sense for the disability or is related in some way and isn't just something random being tacked on -- that would make it seem more like a 'disabled characters need to be worthwhile' thing.
As a few extra notes:
If you go with the second or third option, I'd suggest separating the different stat effects into different types of disabilities. You don't need to go too into specifics with it but something like 'low vision/blindness/vision loss', 'deafness/hearing loss', 'limited mobility', and 'chronic illness' would work. While disabilities are more nuanced than this in real life, setting it up this way would keep it pretty simple and allow players to tweak the mechanics slightly for their own characters.
If you go with the first option, I'd probably avoid discussing how to roleplay disabled characters. Because roleplay and character development is much more open than stats and game mechanics are, showing one or two 'proper' ways to play a disabled character is more likely to reinforce stereotypes, dismiss certain experiences that disabled people have, or just come across as more of a 'lecture' than anything. The same goes for including information on what to avoid. I'd stick to providing information about your world and how disabilities are seen in them instead of giving instructions here.
I'd suggest including ways for players to bypass the mechanics of disability if they'd like to, even if their character is disabled. That would allow for a bit more freedom with how they portray their character and would also ensure that they aren't being 'penalized' (For lack of a better term) with their stats for playing a disabled character. As a bit of an example of what I mean: A character in DND could have been a criminal growing up without necessarily taking the Criminal/Spy background.
In general, I think as long as you're approaching this respectfully (Which you are!) and reaching out to physically disabled people for their input (Which you are!), you don't have to worry too much about misrepresenting it.
Cheers,
~ Mod Icarus
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talenlee · 1 month ago
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What are some indie TTRPGs you'd recommend?
It sort of depends on what you mean by indie TTRPG! I'm just gunna throw out some names here, and unpack them in groups.
First of all if you think of an indie TTRPG as something cheap on itch, probably made by a small team of like 1-5 people and are willing to accept all the roughness that can come with that, my first thoughts are Arkball, Pine Shallows, and Tidebreaker. These are all really solid games, with either intentionally limited scope or a lack of greater support. Like, Tidebreaker is a game which includes building the world of the game with it — that's great, but it means that it's a game system that's asking you to do a lot of work, which many of the more established games take off your hands. Arkball is fantastic at conveying its vibe but it is asking the players to make a Sci Fi Sports Story and it might not click if you don't know those genres. Same with Pine Shallows and its excellent Gravity Falls/Hilda vibes.
I don't think most people would consider Blades in the Dark an indie TTRPG, for example. It had a really successful kickstarter, lots of people know it, and while it's still being sold on an itch website, it's still established enough you probably can find it at an actual bookstore, right? But still, it's definitely a game I'd recommend. Similarly, while I haven't played them, I'm really excited to try out Girl by Moonlight and Brinkwood, Blood of Tyrants in the same space.
There are some other indie games that I recommend people check out to learn lessons from them, specifically in the context of 'hey, there are good ideas here, maybe this could benefit from a revision or two.' Like Sleepaway is a game that feels like it's 80% towards perfect at what it's doing, and it has a beautifully excellent kind of structural prop (the conspiracy board). Picking up the PIeces is a really well thought out, excellently considered sort of two person narrative, but also it's about navigating a breakup, and the novelty of what it's doing runs headlong into whether or not I think doing that is interesting to do a second time.
In terms of polish, like, for pure quality of product at a price, Ironsworn is untouchably good. I don't want what it's offering, since it seems to be a story in contest with D&D, a sort of 'look, here's how I'd do D&D right' and I don't need that, because I like what D&D does.
Finally, I guess my favourite indie TTRPG is Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition.
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thydungeongal · 4 months ago
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Wow me. What's the actual pitch for playing Apocalypse World?
A surface-level read of Apocalypse World mostly reveals some neat RPG technology that, while cool, is mostly unremarkable. There's moves, there's playbooks, that sort of thing. On the surface it's just injecting a bit of trad RPG structure into freeform roleplaying.
But the actual pitch, the actual reason I would suggest playing Apocalypse World is if you want to experience an RPG that does not operate on a "group of adventurers go fight against adversity" structure (which still is a majority of TTRPGs) but more like "what if there was a post-apocalyptic prestige TV drama following multiple characters and their intersecting storylines."
The thing that often gets lost in discussions of Apocalypse World is that it's very much a drama engine, about the MC looking at the world as a powderkeg and the player characters as major actors there. The playbooks (which are basically classes by another name) really reinforce the fact that the characters are not supposed to be working as a united front against an outside threat, but rather be people at different levels of post-apocalyptic society whose stories will end up intersecting (because the MC is supposed to actively look at the world in terms of "how can I put these people at odds with one another").
To just give a snapshot, among the playbooks you will find:
A Gunlugger, a no-nonsense gun-toting mercenary who is an absolute force of nature in one-on-one fights and can even potentially take out an entire gang by themselves.
A Chopper, the leader of a post-apocalyptic motorcycle gang, whose gang is very much a source of strength but also of conflict, as the members of the gang will sometimes choose the absolute worst possible moment to mutiny or challenge their boss's authority.
A Hardholder, the leader of an entire post-apocalyptic stronghold, whose interaction with the setting happens at such a high level that it will inevitably end up affecting everyone else's narrative.
An Angel, a lone medic who will probably be put in an awkward position between all of the other playbooks, because medical services are absolutely at a premium in the world of Apocalypse World.
Those four are not even the most interesting playbooks (to be fair, I think all of the playbooks are pretty interesting), but they illustrate the point really well: Apocalypse World is a game about people in a messed up post-apocalyptic world, and because of the nature of the world they will almost inevitably end up holding something the others want or being at odds with one another. Once you go in with this perspective and start looking at the individual game pieces, like the individual moves and playbooks and MC principles, you realize that it's all for the purpose of making an explosive story.
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arsene-inc · 4 months ago
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TTRPG Inspirations
There are 3 games that served as major inspirations for Where the magic never ends? . Let me present them and their influences
Hunt by Spencer Campbell
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Of course this one hits the list, it is where i took the system. Hunt is the first Lumen game from GilaRPGs to go diceless. A sort of Lumen 1.5. After 2 years of not slaying the NaGaDeMon (game jam), I decided to not create the system but do a hack instead. And this game was in my mind a lot by in autumn 2023. Along the way, I made it more pacific, taking inspiration for the players moves in the monsters moves from Lumen games' bestiaries. But the core, the diceless, 3 ressources management system is in there. Now that Lumen 2.0 games are available, I may revise some of the design to adapt it.
Here we used to fly by Kurt Refling & Ian Howard
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Well the cover should give an inkling for what I took there... This is a game about theme park, about childhood memories when the park was active and adult visiting the abandoned parc the night before it is destroyed. I love theme parks. This is where the abandoned theme park and childhood wonder come from.
The Happiest Apocalypse on Earth by Christopher Grey
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The other major inspiration for the theme. A game where animatronics are alive, snow white is a vampire, costumes aren't costumes, ice cubes from the ice where Dagon is imprisoned make people go tentacles and danger wonder lurks everywhere. Also Disney songs references! Yeah! The concept here is "What if Disneyland was controlled by Cthulhu?" Also I really wanted to just copy paste the park creation part.
As for the "answer a question with a narrative effect to activate a move" thing... I honestly don't remember where i found this idea...
You can find my game here on itch :
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theresattrpgforthat · 3 months ago
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Thinking about solo or GM-less games, I found myself wondering if there are any TTRPGs that are sort of like Vampire Survivors, or that genre of run-based autoshooters where you collect semi-random power-ups/weapons and face off against hordes of enemies and work to level up/evolve the powers/weapons that you have. It's maybe a bit specific, but do you know of any games like that, or with systems similar to that?
THEME: Vampire Survivors.
Hello friend,
I tried to learn a little bit about Vampire Survivors, but I'll be fairly candid here when I say I'm not sure if I nailed this assignment or not.
Vampire Survivors appears to be a rogue-like shoot-em-up game with special abilities and bonuses applied to your character using upgrades acquired by opening chests.
I tried to spread as wide a net as possible, so I hope you still find something that suits your tastes!
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Blister Critters, by stillfleet.
Take the reins of radiation-blasted animals known as Critters starring in an eco-apocalyptic Saturday-morning cartoon show in this goofy and exciting tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) from Odd Gob Games and the Stillfleet Studio!
Using the innovative Grit System, Blister Critters drops players into a bizarre post-human world of Blisters (mutations), physics-bending Nonsense powers, dangerous feral Beasts, and a near-infinite amount of human Stuff.
Blister Critters is all about getting new stuff, but Stuff in this game is a rather broad category. This includes loot that is mechanically helpful, or loot that is more descriptive, and adds interesting flavor to the world. I think post-apocalyptic games in general can have a lot of fun narrative flavor added just through the gear you can pick up.
That being said, the most common benefits Stuff can give you is either additional damage, or additional protection from damage, so that tells me this is a fairly combat-friendly game. The design aesthetic is also so inspirational, and I think you could get a lot of fun ideas just flipping through this game.
Escape from Hades, by only1marek.
Escape From Hades is a roleplaying game inspired by Hades from Supergiant games which uses a card-based twist on the LUMEN system kit. This game follows the escape attempt of Condemned trying to ascend through the underworld in opposition of its Master.
Condemned players are the could-have-beens of Greek myth, favored for greatness by the Gods but condemned to obscurity by Fate; a warrior who trained under Achilles but died of plague before seeing battle, or an oracle who learned the secrets of Delphi just as prophecy was deemed forbidden.
The Master player holds Hades’ authority, and is divinely charged with deploying the hordes of the underworld's greatest soldiers, criminals, heretics, beasts and monsters to stymie the Condemned's escape from their assigned place in the underworld.
Escape from Hades is a LUMEN game, and I wanted to recommend at least one LUMEN game in this post, because this system is so very good at replicating the feeling of video games, and also provides a very satisfying game loop. This particular game is inspired by the Hades video game franchise, and so the items are inspired by the divine power-ups that you get from various deities.
As written, the power-ups aren't very random, but I think some small tweaks from the game master might be able to replicate randomization if you really want it. Finally, leveling up your powers to feel more and more competent is definitely part of these kinds of games: each upgrade to your character can enhance abilities you already have, making future runs more and more effective at taking out some of the higher-level obstacles.
Blood Neon, by Radmad.
Show no mercy because you will be shown none. Bash and shred your way to glory, and become the one thing the fearless fear. The 11th Realm’s elected monarch has reached into another dimension for profit, creating a golden age of consumerism in the material world. That greed has cost the 11th Realm dearly. Now monsters from a plane only known as the Neon tear through into our reality and wreak havoc on the citizens of the land. The only thing standing between us and annihilation are heroes like you, Neon Hunters who become living weapons. Devastate the enemy, die, and die again, and ascend to new heights of power.
Blood Neon definitely has the feeling of fighting large numbers of enemies at great effect. It's also designed to allow your character to meaningfully progress. However, if you really want to get the feeling of variety and surprise, I think you'll also need to check out the supplement called Atomic Shock. It has new mechanics and rewards, new gear, and new enemies. Probably a good addition if you're looking for powerful gear!
Decree, by Phantom Limbs.
The Demiurge is slain, and the Lords of Sol have vanished. Now, we only have each-other, and the ruins that lie beyond our walls.
Decree is a roleplaying game in which you and your friends play as a party of post-human adventurers, who have set out to delve into the great ruins of our solar system far into the future, in search of lost technology and ancient knowledge. It features a simple and intuitive 2d6 resolution system inspired by Classic Traveller and Chainmail, fast and lethal combat, a wealth of character creation options, and a bounty of tools and gadgets to aid you in your delves.
This game is still fairly early in play-test, which means that it's free to download. Each class in character creation includes a d10 table that you can roll on for gear, so you already start out pretty randomized. The game also has an artifact list that the GM rolls on when the players pick up more loot; some artifacts provide mechanical boosts, while others give you money for purposeful power-ups.
At the end of the day however, the gear in this game doesn't hold nearly as much relevance as the narrative, and the focus of the game is primarily exploration, although I feel like combat might come in at a close second.
Sweet Revenge, by World Champ Game Co.
You may be dead but you’re not quite done living. Journey downward through spirals and circles of Hell, laying waste to any demonic beast that stands in your way. Use the method you died to inform your inventory and abilities on your violent quest. Face off against a trove of fallen angels, giants, infernal beasts, and more on your way to confront the devil and demand your final wish be answered… if you don’t succumb to your darkest traits along the way.
Sweet Revenge is a tabletop roleplaying game for 2-6 players including a Grave Master (GM). The Dead make clever use of their wonderful cabinet of items, the fragments of souls they claim, and the powers of the 7 Deadly Sins in lieu of stats to dive into the depths of hell. Each region is controlled by a powerful demon with whom The Dead face off (if they survive long enough) to make their demand.
Your starting inventory is determined by the method by which you died, which feels very unique and helps Sweet Revenge stand out. You're fighting the forces of Hell in this one, which I think is on par with the overwhelming forces you face off in Vampire Survivor.
Sweet Revenge indicates that it pulls much from OSR-style games, which means that your inventory and items (which are dropped randomly) will be about as useful as the players can make them. A lot of things you find in the game won't have concrete mechanical bonuses - instead your players will need to rely on their own creativity to make the most out of what they find. What I'm really interested in is how the game replaces character stats with the seven deadly sins, which you need to lean into if you want to use your dark powers.
Sweet Revenge comes with a couple of circles for you to get started in, including some enemies for the players to face off against. If you want not just a game but also a guiding scenario to help you learn as you go, you might like this game.
1000 HP Planet, by Sandy Pug Games.
Last week, the planet turned evil and killed every single person on it except for you and your friends. Every ocean became a crushing fist smashed against the cities of the world, and every volcano was a loaded gun pointed right at a cowering humanity.
You and your buds are heroes. Super powered beings with near godlike powers. You’re wizards who have unlocked the secrets of the universe, martial artists who can control every atom in their body, and genius inventors who’ve broken the limits of science. And you’re gonna kick the planets arse for killing everyone you’ve ever met.
But you have a dark secret.
You know why it happened.
Maybe you are why it happened.
Play to find out.
TEN MILLION HP PLANET IS COMING FOR YOU!
10 Million HP Planet is GM-less and fast-paced, with damage to your own character abstracted and damage to the planet counted meticulously. You can leverage pretty much anything that you describe on your turn to improve your dice rolls, and deal massive damage to the gigantic, terrible planet.
This game is about dramatic anime-style fights, with mooks who fight for you to provide ambient damage, conditions that you can fill to multiply damage or add dice, and power colours that synchronize to provide combat currency to buy or activate special powers.
One caveat: the game as written was originally meant to be a little bit unplayable. That doesn't seem to have stopped fans, judging by this fan-made Google Sheet to help you keep track of your die rolls. If you want a big, dramatic, larger-than-life game that's primarily one big fight, you probably want 10 Million HP Planet!
You can also check out…
My Hellbusting Games Recommendation post, which might have some overlap.
I have yet to find a game that does randomized power-ups like Numenera, whose Cypher System consistently gives players interesting short-term abilities that are very effective.
Lancer has character development that is very purposeful, but as you build your mech you can do a lot to make your character very effective at one or two things, which can feel so so so rewarding in play.
Plasmodics focuses a lot on mutation, which is something that I think can be really fruitful if it's randomized. The game page also mentions uncovering artifacts, which can change the world if you find them. Artifacts won't be common, but I think they're probably very impactful.
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