#you can pretty much make your own ttrpg with a story to tell and some friends willing to figure things out as you go along

[yamchaisawesome]

May I also add Cogent Roleplay.

I think there's been some talk about how one of the design goals of One D&D seems to be a focus on making the digital tools more important and given that there's talk inside Hasbro along the lines of D&D having more potential for monetization I wouldn't be surprised if WotC were to try some kind of "D&D as a service" thing.

[txttletale]

bundletober: live. love. die. remember

hello and welcome to bundletober, where i look through TTRPGs i got in bundles like a year ago and see if they're good or not. i will be doing this with no rhyme or reason but i will be trying to do one a day. i'll note whether or not i've played the game in these reviews but more often than not i'll just be looking at the book and offering my first-level thoughts. if a structure or something develops over the month so be it but for now the plan is just to ramble about the game a bit and give an overall recommendation or lack thereof

first of all, the cover (by finbah neill) is really nice. a good cover, a smart choice of font, a couple of masking layers over it, can really go a long way.

the game is one of my favourite types of game -- a single, razor-sharp concept. this game is about one thing: mechs that have fallen in love with their pilots, reminiscing on the time they spent together. it is specifically about that and nothing in it can be separated from that.

i've talked quite a bit (including in the pages of my own game, most trusted advisors) about how i think the text of a game should act as a co-author, prompting you and providing bits of story you wouldn't have thought of otherwise--and as an alchemist, transmuting narrative or mechanical input from the players at the table into a narrative or narrative output for them to engage with. LLDR is much more of the former than the latter--there is no real alchemy going on here, it's very much a co-author, asking questions and inviting a simple pattern of call-and-response.

so what are its contributions in that capacity? LLDR wants to tell intimate stories, love stories--or rather, it wants you to tell them. the meat of the game is the thirty-item long list of prompts that ask you (playing the mech) to recount stories of times spent with your pilot. some of them are pretty standard as romantic prompts go, but some create a real sense of place and tragedy -- "When you couldn't save someone" and "When you helped them pick fruit" stand out for me as being deliciously emotive while being specific. this game is at its best when it is specific, when it seems like it has a specific vision (like a huge powerful war machine and its pilot picking fruit together) and is inviting you to share that vision with it, into its secret hidden places to feel private feelings with it.

the only real 'mechanic' other than these prompts -- the only thing that the game asks you to do other than tell short stories based on them--is "marking your chassis". the game asks you to use eyeliner or marker pen to track, on your body, how many scenes you've played out. i really like this--it definitely does something to set LLDR apart from other small prompt-based games like it. it's the closest thing to alchemy this game has, and it's an oddly physical and located thing for a TTRPG to ask of you. i really like it.

ultimately, this is a five-page RPG with sparse mechanics. that's not enough space to set the world on fire. i think it falters in a few places where there aren't quite enough distinct ideas to fill out every slot on a table that needs filling. but for what it is, the razor-sharp concept goes a long way towards justifying the spareseness and tonally i think it's melancholy and warm in a way that makes me excited to check out more of creator reizor's games.

live. love. die. remember can be purchased as a digital download from itch.io

[utilitycaster]

Skein of Destiny

Now that I've got your attention with a shitpost I do want to plug the article I worked on that prompted it, and throw out some thoughts that are too speculative for wiki articles!

What we know (ie, the canon stuff; much of this is also in the article with citations)

The skein is a physical manifestation of the concept of fate, with threads representing the fate of individuals - Vax and Caleb have both seen it in two entirely different contexts, and Evontra'vir's roots grow into it.

The idea of destiny and fate as a skein/tapestry/weave is nigh-universal in Exandria. It is consistent among worshipers of the Prime Deities (Raven Queen and Ioun both reference it; The Raven Queen's domain includes fate), the Luxon (Caleb sees the skein within the beacon), and nature (Evontra'vir was a druid of the Gau Drashari). Nana Morri, a hag in the feywild, acknowledges it is the Raven Queen's domain, though she has the ability to see it and influence threads beyond her own from an external perspective; Teven Klask (worshiper of a Betrayer God) identifies Fearne as being "outside the knotted weave." Arcane, divine of pretty much all known forms, fey, fiend, and elemental are all united in this understanding in a way they are not really about anything else.

Destiny and fate as understood in Exandria do not mean "all is pre-determined" (as indicated in the shitpost, this is about the interplay of fate and free will, which have always coexisted). The above entities are also united in this understanding. The Raven Queen notes that Vax, as Fate-Touched, influences the fates of those around him in unique ways not merely limited to his choices, but does grant him many choices herself, and tells Percy when he asks her for answers that "There are a great many deeds ahead of you. It's your choice to take them." Ioun says something similar to Vox Machina, and a core tenet of the Changebringer is "Luck favors the bold. Your fate is your own to grasp." The Luxon and Dunamancy are based on the concept of possibility, of many potential paths taken and not taken, and not only do chronurgy wizard spells and the fate-touched ability share certain mechanics, but also permit a do-over, since the future is not yet known. When Caleb observes the threads he sees multiple branches off of them that are implied to be based on possibility (ie, there is not merely one option). And Evontra'vir in episode 3x74 directly tells Bells Hells that while some things are fated to happen, it will be their choice that determines what happens to the gods; it also tells Ashton they are fated to retrieve the spark, but also to bestow it, a choice that is their own.

All three of the main powers discussed (Raven Queen, Luxon, Evontra'vir) also serve to preserve the cycle of life, death, or rebirth in some capacity.

Some thoughts: Honestly the big one is that while the idea of fate vs. free will or of the future being a series of possibilities rather than one definite path is a very common one in epic fantasy (frankly, the idea of Fate as "everything is predetermined" is a bad one anyway in fiction because then there's no point in telling the story), there is a particular ludonarrative harmony to play with this theme in a TTRPG. There is a general path laid out before you, but it is not ironclad, and you can make choices to attempt to change this. Sometimes you will fail despite your best efforts based on factors beyond your control but sometimes you will experience unlikely success. The narrative is shaped by this interplay of possibility/probability and choice.

Some wild speculation: I think a peaceful parting with the gods (ie, stopping Predathos and then Bells Hells making their choices about the fate of Exandria as stated by Evontra'vir) would still preserve this skein fate (as would of course maintaining the divine status quo), but a failure to stop Predathos will destroy it, and the fabric of the cosmos (the roots of Predathos are between worlds; fate connects all of the inner planes). I desperately need to know why Fearne is said to exist outside of fate, because I don't know if that's a fey thing, a Ruidusborn thing, a Nana Morri thing, or something else entirely. I would be shocked if the Luxon doesn't come up in SOME capacity later in the campaign (or perhaps in the Echoes of the Solstice one-shot coming up), and I'm very interested in seeing what other party members might gain as they gather their allies and resources. And I don't think it's coincidence that the two deities devoured by Predathos pre-Schism included Vordo the Fateshaper (nor Ethedok, the Endless Shadow, whose domain of darkness and winter is thematically associated with the cycle of life and death).

[littleplasticrat]

Writer Interview Tag

I'm grateful to have been tagged by @tellmeallaboutit, @my-favourite-zhent and @beesht. Sorry it took so long for me to get around to. Honestly I am blown away that anyone would put me in a 'writer' bucket with the other word crabs

Tellmeallaboutit's interview

My-favourite-zhent's interview

Beesht's interview

My answers below the cut for some NSFW discussion

When did you start writing?

The most recent bout of writing started in December 2023 and was prompted by being insatiably horny for Gortash. This is the first time I've written fanfiction.

I wrote a short novel from 2012-2013 and would put that in the fantasy YA category about a magician who falls in love with a phoenix.

As a kid, I wrote a lot, up until around the age of 16 or so when I realised that I didn't want to live the life of a struggling artist and so set my sights on getting work with more consistent pay than writing books.

I actually do quite a lot of writing for my current job. It's industry-specific instructional writing but I feel that some of the meta-skills are applicable between the two genres.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I really only read horror short fiction recreationally, and I've only written one horror story - which I found super challenging and wouldn't really want to tackle again. Luckily, I'm able to excise the horrors by running TTRPG games and thus don't have to deal with the difficult challenge of making something sound scary.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

I haven't been compared to any writers - I simply haven't written enough stuff that isn't solid filth XD

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

Up until I moved house last week, I had a dedicated home office with a large drawing tablet and my mother's boarding school desk from the 1960s. Until I can get an office set up in the guest bedroom of the new house (I'm in no rush), I'm on my laptop at the dining table downstairs or a local cafe.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

I try to preach that a hobby should be treated like self-care and so not be a source of stress, but I have the heart of a procrastinator and the bones of a perfectionist; if I waited for the muse to strike me with creative stuff, I wouldn't get anything done.

So, if I'm feeling wigged out about life, I'm not going to force anything, but otherwise I have a 'smash it out' approach of breaking down the work as much as possible and going from there. Any writing I do therefore starts life as a series of bullet points of what exactly I want to happen and in what order, and I build out methodically from there.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

The thrill of fancying someone a lot? Horniness? Butt stuff? LOL

What is your reason for writing?

I want to be the freak I want to see in the world.

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

Any comment I get is like JAZZ HANDS. Seriously! It's so flattering to have someone slow down and look at my stuff, let alone acknowledge it.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

I once read a shitty horror novel where the villain was able to destroy the protagonist's life, because she'd read all his books and so knew him. That rattled me so hard! There's no way I'm skillful enough to develop an authorial voice that isn't my own. So, like, don't think about what my disgusting fanfics say about who I am as a person please [jk]

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

I'd say the action is pretty clear, and I can crack a joke at the right time. What more could a reader ask for?

How do you feel about your own writing?

I would like there to be more of it but my art will take priority for now <3

I think most people I know write on here have already been tagged several times, so I shall not tag further.

[witchzoe]

Here are my overall thoughts on Rogue Trader now having played through the game.

The biggest thing is definitely how much it just absolutely nails the Warhammer 40k setting and the vibes. Not only for the Imperium itself, but also for all Xenos races you encounter. Immaculate in that regard.

The companions are all pretty fun and have some interesting stories that develop over the course of the game. There should be someone for everyone here.

The game is a relative straight lift of the Rogue Trader TTRPG, so it is relatively crunchy with a lot of possible choices of different talents, abilities and skills. That allows you to build a lot of different characters, but it can also be a bit overwhelming. I myself just picked the talents that fit into the archetype I envisioned and most of the fights in the game were relatively easy (on Normal difficulty). But I you could tell me that any Talent is overpowered/useless and I would probably believe you.

The additional mechanics of colony management, Voidship Combat and exploration were all pretty fun imo. I liked that every colony had its own storyline that developed as you built it up and changed based on previous choices. I also liked the in-universe story book sequences for events that wouldn't really work in the game itself.

The soundtrack does its job. It helps build the atmosphere and fits well into the game, but it also isn't something I would listen to outside the game.

The voice acting is fine, but I am not very good at judging that so I can't say much on that topic. I do wish that some of the emotional scenes had voice acting.

Normally I am not a fan of "morality points", but the division into Heretic, Iconoclast and Dogmatic as well as you earning points for these orientations makes sense in the setting. And I never really felt that my roleplaying choices were limited.

The game could have used a bit more content in Chapter 4 and 5. But there is DLC on the horizon, so that can change.

I would have wished to a bit more reactions from my companions to my actions. Especially during the Heretic playthrough there were some actions that prompted no reactions, that definitely should have prompted some. Also there was only one occasion on which my Origin/Homeworld was acknowledged in game.

There are still a few bugs in the game. The companion banter is definitely bugged. Fortunately most bugs fell into the funny category and not the annoying one.

Small one but I wish you could change your clothes. As a ruler of multiple planets it is weird to be stuck with the clothes determined by your origin.

The game needs to be gayer. Three of your companions are bisexual, but otherwise there exist no same-sex relationship. Trans people and Enbies also don't exist, not even as an option during character creation.

TL;DR: Fun game that really nails the 40k setting with a fun story and companions. Still a bit bugged and definitely needs to be gayer

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Dude you have no idea how envious I am of your ability to not only come up with a solid idea/plot for a series, but then manage multiple main characters and their dynamics and make it a cohesive, good story. What is your secret. How do you do it. I want to start a series with multiple main characters, but I don’t know where to start. All of your world building is just brilliant and how you manage to create multiple different series all in varying fictional settings, with unique plots and characters, tell me your secrets. Please. And also how you include whump in your work without always making that the focus- >>>. You’re an amazingly talented writer and artist like holy shit.

😭😭❤️❤️❤️❤️🥺❤️❤️❤️❤️🥺🥺🥺❤️❤️ THANK YOU SO MUCH❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I don't know how qualified I am to give writing advice, but I feel like it's important to say I definitely didn't used to be good at ensemble casts

I've written a l o t of ensemble-type stories, mostly because I used to base most of my characters on friends, and wanted to include everyone. And honestly, that can be a good place to start. The styles, traits, hobbies, etc of people you know, or even yourself, can serve as inspiration for characters. And since you've seen these hobbies and habits in action, it can give another layer of life to it :)

Something else that helps, that I actually do a lot, is using the "Five Man Band" trope as a template. The FMB consists of five characters, each with their own archetype, usually working together towards a common goal.

You have your leader (self-explanatory, the one who calls the shots); lancer (a foil to the leader, the one who questions them the most); big guy (either the most physically powerful, or the one who solves problems with fists); smart guy (the one who falls back on intelligence, usually stereotyped as a nerd); and heart (emotional center of the team, usually the most sensitive and/or best at de-escalation).

While only using the listed/expected traits can lead to flat characters, it's a pretty good foundation to start with, that can help you determine how each character fits within the story, as well as how they'd react to each situation. When creating T$$ characters, I started with this and kept building.

Some other things that I think helps when trying to characterize a big cast:

- Have a "cheat sheet" for your main characters that lists things like what phrases they tend to use, how descriptive they are, whether they use big words, what they tend to notice when they're somewhere new, etc.

- If you swap POVs, have them reference hobbies, personal history, family, etc, even if it's somewhat subtle. For example, Character A might compare a new acquaintance to a wizard in their favorite fantasy novel, and Character B might use a lot of bird-themed descriptions and metaphors because their mother was an ornithologist

- Okay, this one is slightly more out there, but playing DnD or other TTRPGs helps a lot. Creating a character and pretending to be them, especially when there are other people around who might spring scenarios on you that you don't expect, is great practice for getting into characters' heads for your writing

- Putting new characters through "what would you do" type scenarios. Not even necessarily writing a whole scene out (though that can help you solidify a voice), but just mentally Putting the Guy in Situations and figuring out how they'd react.

Really hope this was helpful, and thank you again!!

[daisychainsandbowties]

Ooh an ask game! Then, I want to know #1 and #7, we'll throw in #20 so we get a pretty gif, also #2 is a pair so we can't leave that out. And finally, am curious on #17 and #6 to really get expansive words. ^^ Tell us all the juicy pretty Dragon Age things you're rolling about~

thank you so much for asking me these 🥺

1. What was the first dragon age game you played?

i got origins for my ps3 way back in high school. the first time i played it i remember i started as a mage and spammed walking bomb and spent twenty minutes on the first darkspawn boss because he killed everyone and it was just me running in circles occasionally casting a spell on him. very reminiscent of the Arishok fight🫠🫠 i tried very hard to romance Morrigan but i kept making her hate me instead😭 so i went with leliana, HOWEVER my weird eventually friends thing with morrigan inspired the ot3 ship that still haunts me to this day (warden/morrigan/leliana is 🥰🙏😳❤️🥹)

2. Which dragon age game is your favourite so far?

that’s an incredibly difficult question. i think overall in terms of how it made me feel and how much i like the gameplay loop and the environments it’s definitely Inquisition 🥺 a fic of that game kept me alive for a few really really shaky weeks a few years ago (i told myself sternly that i could only read a chapter a night, so i had to get through all the nights until the end of this 550k fic, and then the ending was the epitome of hopepunk and it made me sort of forget about being shaky). so yeah, definitely Inquisition. but i adore all the games😌. i had a lot of fun with da2 but it isn’t as good for my brain to replay over and over (<- guy who actually loves 100%ing the Hinterlands in every playthrough)

6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

ít’s really hard for me to rotate things in abstract like that. i know there’s lots of information but i don’t want to read it or know it before i play the game. i will most likely play as a mage? unless they make that unpleasant somehow 🥺 (i hope not) but beyond that i can’t make myself interested in planning out a character who doesn’t live anywhere (yet). it’s the same with my own fiction writing. i have to understand the world a little before i can create any characters of any substance. i’m really excited to do my first playthrough though! i know that whoever my Rook is, they will love the griffin baby 🥰

7. Which character from the previous games or other media are you most hoping will make an appearance in DAV?

it would be extremely good to see Fenris again, or Merrill. i don’t really trust Bioware with Anders, so i hope he stays with whatever peace he found after kirkwall. i liked seeing morrigan and leliana again so some da2 characters would be neat! oh!!!! isabela would make sense in this because ship captain 😳 i would love to see her again 🥺

17. Are you interested in all the lore and speculation or do you focus more on the games and stories themselves?

oh i LOVE the dragon age lore. i recently got the dragon age TTRPG core book mostly because it has so much lore in it 😳 i find dragon age lore especially compelling, particularly the grey wardens and the blight and how magic and the veil works. my favourite fics are always the lore heavy ones that engage with the themes dragon age tries (and sometimes manages) to engage with.

the speculation is also fun because dragon age fans adore pain and misery and usually conjure up the worst possible way things could go. and that’s great 🥰

20. Post a picture or gif that conveys your current level of excitement for Dragon Age: The Veilguard!

[oliveroctavius]

Hihi! I've been following you for a bit and I really love how informative your posts can be on comics history and meta. Feel free not to answer this If it's a bit weird, but I've been dming a game of Masks (a superhero TTRPG) lately and I thought I'd ask if you had any advice on problematic cliches or ideas to avoid in the superhero genre when writing. Your post on world logic in particular was a big help in framing my thinking there.

Up front, I have to say that while it can feel good to reconstruct stories with the Problematic Clichés picked out, don't knock yourself out. Tropes are symptoms or funhouse mirror exaggerations of real world ideas. I spend so much time poking at them because I think it's enlightening re: real life unspoken assumptions, not because I think you can "solve" the genre, you know?

That said I love thinking about world-rules. Masks' RPG rules, from some poking around, look pretty open to where roleplay leads which is very cool. If you wanted to catch your own hidden rules writing out scenarios, maybe you'd find some of these questions helpful:

How are the heroes expected tell the bad guys from the good guys? (Visible signs? A symbol? Are these things voluntary? Do they only know the difference if told? Who tells them?)

Is there something a villain could do (if roleplay led there) that would make them no longer a villain? Is there something a hero could do that would make them no longer a hero?

What ideas about justice (laws, arrests, offenders' rights) are being borrowed from the conventional legal system?

Do any of the genre-fiction words used have medical or anthropological origins? Are there real people who could fit those descriptions?

Are any human NPCs disposable or single-purpose? (Are the heroes expected to only fight or only talk to them? Would anything in the story change if they died?)

Even if the heroes know what/who they're fighting against, do they know what they're fighting for?

There aren't really specific answers I want you to have to the above questions, it's just a place to start thinking. Good luck with your game!

[myowndesertplaces]

I know a lot of people are frustrated with seeing old PC's or feeling like we are spending too much time on a particular arc during the BH campaign. I think the best way to engage with Campaign 3 is to recognize that it's more theme and plot driven than character driven. This is going to affect the pacing and storytelling of the campaign, and it's why we shouldn't hold similar expectations for arcs, characters, and story beats with a character driven narrative like C2.

The themes are pretty simple: fate, destiny, and choice (anger/rage/violence were also prominent early in the campaign). Can you make your own path in a world controlled by fate? Where does choice factor into destiny/fate? How has previous choices affected the current fate of our party?

Once you realize this is what's driving the narrative, it makes sense why past PCs are so heavily involved in this story.

Also their inclusion in the story shouldn't be a surprise at this point. They established in the first episode that this campaign would be interconnected with previous campaigns: Three members of EXU joined C3, Orym and Laudna's story have direct ties to VM, and Betrand brought the group together. In addition to that, FCG exists because of the Mighty Nein's actions 6-7 years ago. Ashton would be dead if Essek hadn't stolen 2 beacons, and if Yeza hadn't discovered how to extract the potion of possibility. Plus we've already visited Whitestone.

As for why this campaign feels like one long continuous arc, it's because it is. The only breaks we've had from this "arc" were to rescue Laudna and visit the Gorgynei. Even the trip to break into the museum for Hexum included new Ruidus lore. We've never experienced a campaign where every character's backstory is directly connected to one major story. Yes, even Chetney, FCG, and Laudna can trace their roots back to the Ruidus/Ludinus/solstice story in some way. The closest example of interwoven backstories from previous campaigns would be Beau and Veth's connection to Isharnai. It's as if the only way to prevent another apocalypse is to bring these wildly different characters together by an unknown force... Fate.

With all that said, it's perfectly fine to be disappointed with the narrative. Focusing on theme is a departure from past campaigns. I believe most of us were expecting a character driven story, especially from a DnD campaign. Themes have always played an important role in the show of course (that's how story telling works), but it hasn't controlled the pacing quite like this. We saw it at the end of C2 when the cast wanted to end the campaign with an arc about found family and redemption instead of exploring all other character stories. It worked because ultimately that was the story of the Mighty Nein, and we already had a strong connection with the characters.

I think it's also fine to question whether a multi-year TTRPG campaign is the best medium for a theme or plot driven narrative instead of a character driven one. But, if your theme is fate and choice, I think having the story directed by dice rolls and player choice is an interesting way to do it.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with disliking the story or comparing it to past campaigns. You're not a bad fan. But I worry too many folks, 16 months in, are still expecting a story like C1 or C2, and it's only going to lead to further frustration.

[cursedvibes]

Besides jjk, what other media do you like?

Hm, if we're talking about completely different media (not manga, I mean), I'm a pretty big fan of the Warhammer novels, especially Warhammer 40k. I like the universe overall, but I haven't played the ttrpg yet, only watched a match when I was very young, and I still couldn't bring myself to spend loads of money on figures and painting kits....so novels it is. But there's great stuff there, so I'm not complaining in the slightest.

Warhammer has a pretty divisive reputation, in part deserved, but by having Adeptus Mechanicus (ultra-religious cyborgs) and Necrons (pseudo-ancient egyptian space robots) be my favourite sections and avoiding anything Space Marine and Horus Heresy (most popular novel series), I seemed to have dodged the most toxic parts. There are actually parts that I would say are really progressive. It's certainly the only time I've read a novel (Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah) with a genderless mc that uses neopronouns and where the story doesn't focus on ver gender/identity.

I just really like how versatile the universe is. Sci-fi with prominent horror elements and an abundance of species and societies, where you can tell basically every kind of story you could think of. The epic battles against Tyranids (space locusts) or Orcs are most commonly known, but you can also have stories about your average citizen in a hive city or some Mechanicus researcher on some far off planet. Stories about non-humans are thankfully also getting more numberous. Recently there was a great book series about Necrons that explored their origins and culture and likened their forceful transformation from humanoids to robots to dysphoria, which was really interesting (there are also actual trans people, a trans woman and a nonbinary person).

What I especially appreciate about Adeptus Mechanicus in particular is that I have an abundance of mad scientist stories, that not only feature the appropreate amount of horror, but also lack tedious romantic subplots (most Warhammer stories do) and also talk about neurodivergency, their negative perception and oppression by the Imperium ("regular humans") and a bunch of gender fuckery. You have vaguely humanoid shaped piles of walking metal with deep booming voices, who use she/her pronouns and everyone roles with it because who would dare to question her? Or there's one Mechanicus ambassador to the Imperium, who used technology to have the appearance of a young attractive man because that makes negotiations easier. We don't know what the ambassador used to look like and it's never considered important. Or a tech priest who gave himself the voice of his favourite opera singer. A tech priestess who made herself an armour with boobs and wide hips. While others might choose to become nothing more than a brain in a tank, she chooses to project femininity and we never find out what she looks like underneath because how she wants to be perceived is more important. I just really like that diversity.

But unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way and the most loud and notorious fans are the ones who live out their white supremacy wet dreams through the Imprium and particularly Space Marines, not realizing that worshipping and dying for a corpse is actually a bad thing. Having an inquisition, that functions as a xenophobic thought police isn't something you should strive towards. But power suits cool, so....

You actually see this big divide in the book reviews. For example, I have read pretty much all Titans (big robots you can pilot but that have their own feral consciousness, kinda like Eva) novels currently out and the majority of them have female leads, prominent female characters or just female pilots in general. It's not a big deal and I never see anyone comment on it in reviews. Then we got a Horus Heresy novel focused on Titans and the Warhammer bros went apeshit because the main characters are a squad of all-women pilots. Calling it man-hating and toxic feminism and all that. To be fair, single-gender pilot squats are pretty rare, I never encountered them before, but it's just one, kinda culty, group of a mother and her daughters (not all biological). And it's really just the pilots who are women. Those Titans, especially the bigger ones, have an entire crew inside for maintenance, assistance, mechanics etc. and those people have all kinds of genders. They also never say they hate men, it's just a tradition. One woman hates one particular man, but that's because he's her ex. Nothing dramatic. But of course those fans don't care. I'm just glad they apparently aren't reading the other novels.

So yeah, bit controversial, but I've read a lot of great Warhammer novels and trans people being Warhammer fans is by now a bit of a meme. I actually had a few dates that started out as "holy shit, another trans person that's into Warhammer!" Quite funny.

[roxfact]

Inventories in TTRPGs

I tended to use twitter as a place to just dump my thoughts on TTRPGs and the systems within them, and I hope to do much the same here. In this spirit, I’m going to ramble about one of my favorite overlooked systems in TTRPGs, inventories, and use two games that I’m quite fond of to illustrate how they can be used to reinforce the themes of a game. Even games that I quite like often have very boring inventories. The most traditional route is of course listing all of your belongings, with weights listed next to them in pounds. Whenever you pick something up, you check against some kind of “carry limit” to see if you can take it with you. This is often tedious, and doesn’t really reflect how someone carries themselves and their possessions in the real world. In the real world, how someone protects and uses their possessions says quite a bit about how they relate to society at large. It’s pretty trite at this point to say that character sheets tell you a lot about a game and what it’s about, so let’s look at the character sheet for a game called Torchbearer.

Torchbearer is a dungeoncrawling game in which the traditional murderhobo playstyle of D&D is embraced and deconstructed. The player characters live at the edges of society. They are vagrants and outcasts. Third children, who were too dull or disobedient or unlucky or ambitious to learn a craft or inherit a fortune or till the fields. They are trapped in a cycle of poverty where they dungeon-delve for the funds needed to rest in town to recover from the trials of dungeon-delving. They will adventure until they either truly strike it rich or die an ignoble, painful death. They tend not to have permanent lodgings, and must carry their belongings and property on themselves, or stash their property in safe places called Caches. Each object takes up a particular number of slots (1 or 2 usually) based on its bulk. Backpacks have more capacity than satchels, but take up 2 torso slots, forcing you to make decisions like choose between heavy armor or space. You are rewarded for creatively lashing your gear (carrying a dagger on a necklace around your neck, or keeping your spell components in bracelets or wrapped in an amulet-fetish) A large idol found in a cave might take up 4 slots, which usually means two PCs using both of their hands. Sacks can be carried empty as 1 slot, but can be filled with items and carried if you aren’t afraid to go without weapons. Here are some filled in Torchbearer inventories, as examples

I love this system. I love being allowed to shed useful gear for gems and coin. I love the dilemma of having too much to carry but being afraid of my hard earned gear getting stolen or damaged if I leave it alone too long. I love how weighty and physical it feels, knowing exactly where on my character everything is stashed and lashed, having to drop out of a combat stance to carry a torch or a lantern. but what if you want to play a character who is not on the edges of society, who isn’t unhoused, maybe even one who owns not just property but capital? Let’s look at the Burning Wheel inventory!

In the Burning Wheel, you truly Live in a Society. Most of character creation is following your life story, the jobs you've worked, the people you've met. Your property is more than what is on your back. They're your investments, they're your debts. They're listed in the same region as your relationships because of this. They exist outside of you. Weight is often ignored, it is generally assumed you carry what you would need and have a home to keep your things in.

Money is similarly abstracted. Instead of individual coins, one keeps track of cash dice, loans, debt. You often wont even use currency when acquiring something, instead rolling your resources (a stat based on leveraging your relationships and reputations). In this abstraction, the Burning Wheel seeks to simulate the complex gift economy of the pre-capitalist world. And it's fun! You don't fiddle around with weight or conversions and yet you still are guided by rules. Instead of seeking gold, you often are left seeking patronage.

When making a tabletop rpg it is tempting to gloss over the bookkeeping and inventory management, but in many ways, your inventory is the primary way that players interact with the material world. So much of life is based around what one owns and what one wishes to own,  and how you keep track of that informs the player on a lot of assumptions. Relegating it to a bunch of empty lines on the back of the sheet is, at best, a wasted opportunity.

[goldensadnessdolphin]

That's been rattling in my brain a bit. I think a big part of that was distance to the audience.

HIMYM was a pretty closed off thing. Yeah, it was big and all, but there was barely anything to grab onto and have a conversation about. Talking from a mainstream cultural perspective:

GoT had it's houses people would sort themselves into. HIMYM had Neil Patrick Harris as pretty much THE character that carried the show. Mostly because it was good enough for the rest of the cast to just bounce off of them specifically. I'd bet that more people could quote all house slogans of GoT than tell you more than one significant difference character difference between *has to check wikipedia* Ted and Marshall. Hell, I barely watched both series equally much (a few episodes at a friend's place) and even I can tell you that the House Stark had a wolf as their crest. There is a level of branding and emotional investment expected in GoT and (likely) actively avoided in HIMYM.

The second major difference is merch. GoT had merch versions of EVERYTHING. Without looking them up now, I'd wager GoT had their own Monopoly set, blind bags, funkos, maybe even a TTRPG or other niche market product. If they felt extra spicy, they might've even made a video game? What did HIMYM have in comparison? What COULD they have that would go beyond the logo so you can tell people you like the show? I can't remember ever hearing any catch phrase that entered the zeitgeist. Definitely none that I'd immediately connect with HIMYM. Fuck, Big Bang Theory at least had BAZINGA! There was no real emotional connection to the series for most watchers. And I assume, that was by design.

I'm gonna get unnecessarily deep into some real meta stuff under the cut, so if you're leaving the train here, leave with this hypothesis: HIMYM needed to stay background noise or else they could not have been producing the show for as long as they did. You wanna know what that means? Come with me into the wonderful world that lies beyond:

The big restriction of episodic TV and especially sitcom type media is you can not leave the start of the episode by the end. By which I mean, episodes are produced in a way that a casual watcher can expect the characters to be the same at the start of ep 01 and ep 126. The Simpsons could not have Bart age, the Golden Girls could not have one of them die, The Nanny could not be permanently fired/find a different job. Yes, there are some changes you can make, but those have to keep the character and central tension at the same place. The Nanny (spoiler) did at some point kinda sorta actually hook up with her boss, but it was treated as a very off-and-on relationship if memory serves. Their professional lives and power imbalance was still the biggest obstacle. Bart has to stay young to be mischievious. His pranks would hit a lot differently (both for the character and their effect on others) if he was 17 or older.

Things like this are a necessity to air the show in effective perpetuity. Any major change MUST be explainable by a sentence or two at most. Because that way, you as the audience know exactly what to expect and the writers can't stray so far out of character that the next episode's writer struggles to tell their story. That is the reality of the business of these shows: Writers, more often than not, would write individual episode scripts instead of season spanning archs.

That also makes it way easier on the actors. If you change the character or base conflict regularly, you are causing your actors to need a lot more prep to deliver the change to the needed quality. That's just not possible, since these shows generally give the actors the script the day they shoot it. Being able to act in those conditions is a very specialized skill you have to pull off. It's one of the big reasons you don't really see soap/sitcom main cast in anything else, even after the show has ended (NPH being the exception that proves the rule)

Coming back to HIMYM. They likely targeted being background noise. If I remember correctly, around the time that they began, a lot of established soaps/sitcoms were either finished or going into their last seasons. While audience tastes were changing, there was a gap in the market. A gap that could be exploited if it drew as many people into watching it regularly as possible. For that, they needed to be knowingly bland. No major edges, no big drama, no strong emotional core. They were specifically riding on two things: The titular mystery and being just interesting enough for people not to flick away when it was on.

Which is entirely opposite to GoT and why it's actually very puzzling why it washed away as it did. GoT had an incredibly dedicated and active fanbase. Yeah, the ending was shit, but that would generally mean people would be loud about it being shit. How they'd fix it, what exactly went wrong, "watch until Ep. X and then stop watching, that's a better ending". That certainly happened, but it left no mark. It's like the fans were ashamed of ever liking the show.

So, there you have it. The thoughts of someone who grew up with sitcoms and now wants to tell people how insane it actually is for sitcom characters to live for 20 minutes more-or-less Groundhog style instead of us getting a momentary glimpse into their life.

remember how utterly inescapable how i met your mother used to be with the memes and references and barney and bro code and wait for it... and then the finale was so hated it vanished overnight

[mimics-dom]

When you're too good for your own good

I run plot camp for a horror mystery LARP in my area. I am one of 5 members of the team, but I head the department This is not the first time I have headed a plot/storytelling team for a LARP. Previously I spent 3 years running stories for a horror fantasy LARP. Back then, despite having on average 3 other people on my team, I pretty much ran everything on my own. It wasn't because I didn't trust the others. I mean, half the time I didn't. There were only 2 people who I felt actually understood the assignment (funny that, they were also the two people who ran ttrpgs. Forever DMs unite) But what this meant was that when I left that LARP there was an extreme downturn in content for the first year or so after because I had been juggling all the plates for years and hadn't really allowed anyone else to help me. I am trying not to make the same mistake again. So the LARP I am currently running has big bad entities, some good, some bad, some neutral, and at first I was in charge of them all because I built them so I had the best mental image of how they worked. But I have been working on my trust issues and have been trying to give those around me more responsibility. So yesterday I was talking to my husband, who is also part of this LARPs plot team and I tell him: "I think moving forward I want to put you and Tron* (Not a real name) in charge of Entity X." He disagreed and told me he thought I should keep it. When I asked why he told me that when he and Tron had taken over Entity X because I was busy doing something else that they did not get the same reaction out of the players that I do. That they can be charming and convincing but they can't honey words they way I do. Well actually originally he just said that I am the better liar which made me laugh because I am a TERRIBLE liar. I have no filter so the truth is much easier for me than a lie. So he had to explain what he meant. And I get what he means. When I play Entity X I dip into the deep well of knowledge I have concerning the personal gaslighting that the narcissist I have had in my life have used to prove to themselves that they were right and I just use that to my advantage since Entity X spends a lot of time quietly convincing people to do bad things because... well... because.

So I am sharing the burden of Entity X with Tron (They are super charismatic which is great for this kind of BS) letting my husband basically fully take Entity W so I have more room on my plate for other things.

Here is a picture of the resin skull I made that represents Entity X I actually really love the coloring of it

[cyanlastride]

can i tell you a story? for my own good, not yours. you have no obligation to listen.

im warning you now, its an unpleasant one.

the summer before grade 10, i made the best choice of my life. i was feeling a bit lonely, and inspired by my dad to try playing D&D. finding myself lacking real-life friends -- it was the summer, you see, the most barren and socially isolating time of the year, beating even christmas break -- i took to Roll20, an online forum where people meet and start TTRPG groups, dnd5e being chief among them. now, i grew up very closely to the internet. club penguin, nexuiz/xonotic, planeshift, i grew up socializing with people online quite often. but internet forums, even as dull as reddit, werent really my thing. hell, i only got this tumblr account recently. so, making the spur of the moment decision to make a roll20 account and reply to an LFG for new players was really quite a leap for me. a complete shot in the dark.

but it paid off. we had a bit of a rocky start after our first GM ran off never to be seen again, but one of the players stepped up to be our new GM and we played almost every week for almost a year and a half. i forged a strong bond with both the players and the characters -- at the time, i didnt really distinguish between the two. we had some close calls, a lot of near misses, and my character even died once. our party had two paladins, and i was one of them, so resurrection wasnt too big of a deal. eventually, though, we bite off more than we could chew, and land in some pretty hot water. specifically, an underground church full of rats. how we ended up there and the mighty battle that took place are wonderful and thrilling stories for another day. we had to stop the session mid-battle, i dont remember why, but we picked it up the week after. when we came back, we were prepared to fight to the last. if either myself or the other paladin survived, we could resurrect the party with the diamonds on the iron band i had forged around my wrist. if any of the other party members survived, they could bring the bodies up to the surface and get help. we just had to win the fight.

now, being a new player playing pretty much a pre-gen'd paladin, i went the standard plate armour plus sword and board. this made my AC suuuper high, enough that enemies could only really hit me on a roll of 18+. also, if they rolled a nat 20 against me, i had a magic shield that would absorb some of the blow and actually heal myself and my allies for a couple turns. so the only way they can actually hurt me reliably is if they rolled 18 or 19. i was facing off against some random rogue that i didnt know and didnt care to know. if i landed one solid hit on this lady, i could smite her into oblivion. she was a goon, basically.

a goon that rolled three 19s in a row.

a goon that killed me, and any chance i had of saving my friends.

rolling an 18 or a 19 on a 20 sided die is 1/10. rolling three in a row is (1/10)^3, or 1/1000. one in a thousand. that sounds small, right?

fate and chance make mockeries of our lives more often than anyone cares to admit.

we kept playing after that, made new characters, but the loss was real. that probably sounds stupid, especially to people that have had real people close to them die, but to me, my closest friends of the past year were gone because of a stupid chance.

ive taken small risks more seriously since then. i dont drive, and i stare drivers in the eye when i cross the street. im not scared of dying, but i want to see it coming.

when covid started, i spent a lot of time staring death in the face.

not my own death. i was/am unlikely to die from covid. i barely even go outside enough to be at risk of catching a cold. im young, and im healthy.

my parents are older, and less healthy. my mom is a highschool teacher.

ive spent the last 4 years thinking every so often about what i would do if they died. ive treated it as a real possibility that something could happen to them. ive been mentally preparing myself. even now that we're mostly out of the covid danger zone, that preparation remains.

i never considered what might happen if only one of them fell ill. when my dad messaged me that my mom was going into emergency surgery, i could handle that. when my mom was moved into the ICU, i was glad. she is getting the care she needs from experts and professionals, and shes doing okay.

when we get the call that my dad's father, who lives in a resthome in another city, hasnt been seen in two days and that the ambulance just drove away without loading anyone in the back, i can handle that. to be honest i really didnt know my pappa that well.

when my dad, my stoic old dad, breaks into tears after starting the sentence "they can't both die..."

thats harder.

one in a thousand.

its not as small as you think it is.

thank you for listening. my mom, my dad, myself, we're going to be okay.

[implausiblyjosh]

Building a TTRPG

Fuck it. What if every time I open this word doc i take screenshots and show the world what I'm doing while making a TTRPG.

I'm finally working for real on this Star Trek TTRPG I've been wanting to do forever. I own a copy of the modern official one, but it's just not what I'm looking for. I feel like the design philosophy is focused too much on "numbers," and I wanna focus on "bullshit."1 What I want is to feel like we are making episodes of Star Trek TV at the table, as opposed to filling out the Memory Alpha wiki. There's a focus on numbers and "canon" stats in that game that I simply don't care about, it reminds me of the Dragon Ball Z Anime Adventure Game and how Power Level was a for-real stat in that game. It's a fundamental disagreement on what the designers like about Star Trek and what I like about Star Trek.

With all that said, I really like Powered by the Apocalypse as a framework for this kinda thing. I feel like the way "Moves" work in that framework helps focus on the narrative you're building with your friends, and also the "When this happens, do this thing" approach is really easy for me to wrap my head around.

First thing I wanna think about is who the characters are. At this point I wanna think about this on two vectors: what you do on the ship, and who you are. With Star Trek these are both really easy to map out, especially if you're considering this from the perspective of the TV shows. My current list is split like this:

Position:

Captain

Number One

Science Officer

Security Chief

Chief Engineer

Head of Medical

Communications Specialist

Helmsman

Heritage:

Human

Vulcan

Klingon

Android

Romulan

Mixed

The way I imagine this is that Position is the Playbook, the one-per-table aspect of the character that gives you level-up Moves and the like. Heritage gives you two Moves that are unique to the Heritage, but they aren't limited to one-per-table. Everyone can play Androids, only one person can play Captain. Also, "Mixed" is there so if you want to play someone like Spock, someone who is Human & Vulcan, you can take one Move from both sides of your Heritage.

Next I want to outline what each of these means and what they focus on. For example, Number One says "Second in command, moves provide boosts to the rest of the crew." When I start making Moves, I want to keep that in mind for every Number One Move I create. Similarly, Android says "Constantly exploring what it means to be a person" and I will keep that in mind when making the two Android moves.

One other thing I wanted to notate on this doc real quick before I forget is this idea I've been thinking about, which is "To be [BLANK] is to [BLANK]". I want this to be something that gives XP, similar to the end of session questions with Fellowship. Something I did in my Pokemon TTRPG WIP is have end of session questions where answering yes marks XP on your character sheet, which will help encourage certain types of play. For example, "Did your actions improve someone’s life?" was a question, because that's the kind of Pokemon stories I wanted to encourage. If improving someone's life gives you XP, players should do that more often.

Anyways, I want to start thinking about that now, and I want this aspect to be something defined by the Player. Thinking back to Fellowship, something I love about the Bonds in that game is that you're encouraged to describe your Bond in your own terms. In a game I'm playing I have a one-word bond with one of the other PCs and also some pretty silly ones with NPCs and I'm encouraged to make those Bonds whatever as long as they resonate and help tell the story of the game we've been playing. With the "To be [BLANK] is to [BLANK]" aspect, I want Players to think about what being Vulcan/Android/Romulan/Etc. means for them as a person. Data's idea of being an Android and Lore's idea of being an Android are very different, Pike's idea of being Human is different from Picard's, and Tuvok and Spock have different ideas on what it means to be Vulcan. I want that to help be a driving force to play, and to help mimic the ideas presented in the source material.

There are two more things I want to at least name & outline: the flow of play and starship creation.

Starting with Starship creation, I'm taking another page from Fellowship. In one of the expansions there are rules & mechanics for creating a ship and how every PC gets to choose an aspect of the ship from a big list, and I think it's a pretty fun idea. In a similar vein, while everyone can pick one optional room/add-on/upgrade for the ship, there will be a set of standard rooms/features. For example, The Bridge or Transporters are standard features of starships, but a Holodeck or a Theater are optional and add a Move. I feel like the standard features don't add Moves so much as just let mundane things happen, like the Mess Hall allows for easy and free access to food of your choice, whereas the Hydroponics feature might give you a Move based on using plants or growing things to solve a problem. Additionally, I'd like to tie the features with the HP system, where if the ship gets hit you mark HP lost by disabling a feature of your ship.

For the flow of the game, as stated above I want to mimic the show in terms of this flow. My idea is that you start with The Mission, where the GM explains what the mission of the session(s) is (ex. make first contact with a planet). Then you go to the Officer's Log, where a character basically opens "the show" in-character by explaining what the mission is in their own words, what they're excited about, and how they're preparing for the mission. Then you Complete The Mission, where you play to find out what happens as the GM throws complications at you as The Mission progresses. Finally, you do your Downtime scenes where the Players do any small scenes they'd like with other PCs or NPCs and then your Wrap-Up where you ask your end of session questions, mark XP for every yes, and level up characters if possible.

And with that, I've got the barest of bones on what I want from this TTRPG. I want it to flow similarly to the TV shows, I want it to focus on characters and what they believe about the universe, and I want it to be driven by narrative bullshit over numbers. I think we're on the right path so far!

---

1- Speaking of, I made a two-page JJBA TTRPG where "bullshit" was one of the stats. I think stat was some of my best design work.

[birdylion]

Okay so it was actually really good that I wrote my own adventure, as the one in the book is based on an existing short story, which one player brought up almost immediately in the pre-game discussion about how common a certain knowledge was. I was so relieved about having my own adventure, let me tell you.

The game then went really well all in all. My players solved the case and brought it to a satisfying conclusion about 15 minutes before midnight, which was perfect timing.

The case I put together was pretty straightforward, only slightly more complex than the one in the rule book: More people, but still just one location. That was good, because it meant the players could linger in the scenes and act on their own accord without me having to rush them. I'd estimate we had a total of 4 hours game time, with 1 additional hour of preparation: going over characters, going over the core rules.

I think I'm really going to write the case up and put it on ao3 so that others can use it as inspiration or just plainly play it.

Overall impressions of the game:

The character creation is really simple and pretty straightforward and can be done in mere minutes. On the other hand, it lacks depth and while you can inject some life into the characters, you can't really build strong profiles or specialists. Depending on your preferences, that's a pro or a con - we thought it's well suited for oneshots, but we're not sure about the long-term potential of character development in this system. But most of my players love rule systems where they can be very specific and do niche stuff. For me as DM it was very useful to quickly build NPCs

The idea is that associated investigators solve the "minor" mysteries that come up during usual Folly/police business and are basically invisible against the backdrop of the main storyline. That means unless you're going AU (which is always possible), the cases will always be rather small scale mysteries if you play it as oneshots. I think the argument can be made that you could theoretically link several mysteries into a campaign, but again as you're playing apprentices and associates, you're not going to be on, say, Peter's power level and not on his level of epicness. In fact, the rulebook says that Peter's stories often work because he's at the right place at the right time, or knows the right people, which you can't count on for an RPG mystery in which you need to have clues that the players can follow from beginning to end. So a case file for the ttrpg is more likely to be the grunt work of police work.

I think the game gets much of its strength from just ... spending time in this world. Be specific about places and people to create an atmosphere, and it's going to work well

We came to the conclusion that it's a nice and easy system for a short/oneshot mystery game, but your knowledge of the books/of the world plays a major role in your immersion and what you get out of it. We had 1 player who knew the books really well, and 2 who knew them casually but weren't fans. They all had fun following the clues and solving the mystery, but in mystery games, you tend to if not play, then at least think meta, i.e. you think about what a possible solution could be, even if your character has no clue. And that part is more interesting if you as a player know the lore of the world. In other words: if you as a DM want to play with the rich worldbuilding of RoL, I'd suggest doing it with people who love the world. If they just don't know it as well, make sure that the case is engaging on its own. (Somehow, I managed to do both sufficiently in my case. I don't know how, but it worked.)

All in all, really nice way to spend an afternoon and evening! We won't be doing a whole campaign - after all we have another one running together, in an other system - but it's a really easy system to get into, and as such an easy system for casual play and for short and quick adventures. So we might be doing another oneshot again when the opportunity arises.

Today I'm DMing for the first time in, oh, about 10 years. We're playing a oneshot of Rivers of London ttrpg with a bunch of friends (as well as eating raclette and celebrating the new year). In a burst of over-ambitious creativity, I decided to write my own adventure instead of using the intro one from the book. Let's see how that goes. I'm a bit excited, a bit nervous, and mostly looking forward to spending a good time with my friends. Also I do think that the case is quite interesting.