I have been pondering, and I think one of the things that frustrated me about the #BitD playbook was it basically says 'make all these choices!' (fine, it is chargen) but then keeps all the other options in constant sight, as if to say 'here's the cool thing you didn't choose!'
I have two #BitD shirts that I think I bought from the official One Seven store. Both of them are fading really bad, and I want to say I've had them for less two years. It's the worst I've seen beyond some cheap shirts I got from Redbubble. They get washed in cold water and dried on low like every other shirt I have. Has anyone else had this experience with Threadless shirts?
I figured I'd do a bit of a #gamedesign year in review for my #2023
2023 was the year of supplemental material for me. Unlike 2022 everything I published this year built on top of other people's games. That's good and bad; on one hand I got the experience of working under other writing styles and engaging with a bunch of different #fitd hacks. On the other it means that my original works were all pushed back.
I'm really proud of the work I did this year (by and large), so let's get to them!
It shipped with a few typos, but really laid out the game how I think about it, and it included game terminology that I know confused me in the early days.
People are always finding it on itch and bumping up my baseline numbers <3
Hey folks, the Bump in the Dark Bundle for Teen Mental Health and Housing #bundle is now live, and features the core rulebook plus 16 other jam projects, including my 3 hunts in "A Song of Autumn".
Bump in the Dark is a monster-hunting #fitd#bitd hack set in a fictional American Midwest area. Inspired by shows like Supernatural, or Buffy: the Vampire Slayer.
I enjoyed using Iron Country's extensive lore and coming up with some wacky mysteries to solve.
My reread of the Laundry Files and New Management novels has permanently worked a number of concepts into my subconscious. Things like the dream roads, how magic works. It's casting the lore of both the #Tribe8RPG and #BitD in a much different light. Ghost roads in Duskvol? Oneiromantic principles in Vimary? The Fatimas as elder gods?
@golgaloth Egads! I don’t really have a favorite, per se, but I have systems I very much like.
#Fudge #Fate, a subclass of Fudge #PbtA, Powered by the Apocalypse, as diverse as the previous two #BitD, a subclass of PbtA, and just as diverse
There are plenty of other systems I could recommend, given some input. You want genre neutral? Setting agnostic? Crunch heavy? Crunch light? Oh so many dimensions to consider. 🙂
Just found out that the BBC did a Les Misérables miniseries in 2018 or so and now I am be grabbing any and all still photos I can for reference in my Blades game!
#RPGaDAY2023
[1] The first ttrpg I ever played was Engel ('Angel(s)') by Oliver Graute, Oliver Hoffmann and Kai Meyer. It’s very rule light and played with tarot cards.
The setting is a post-apocalyptic world with a strong church that has the ultimate argument why you should believe in god – actual angels (the player characters) that fight against the insectoid demons which threaten humanity.
There are some Warhammer-like ideas in it, but where Warhammer is over the top, Engel is tragedy.
#RPGaDAY2023
[7] I nominate #BitD for its super smart flashback mechanic.
Everybody knows situations where a player complains: “But my char isn’t stupid and would have thought of that!”
Sometimes the GM rolls their eyes and says “Ok, I don’t care, you can have it.” or “No, you didn’t say that, deal with the consequences.”.
In Blades you can always have a flashback – but you have to pay the price in stress.
So the game takes something players want to do and gives you a mechanic.
I'm having a bit of an interesting time with Blades in the Dark.
I find the game interesting, even compelling, except that it seems to be slanted to intentionally go against the player more often than not. With my luck on dice- and it is almost Wheatonesque much of the time- we are getting roundly stomped most heists.
We've been playing a fair while and just hit Tier 1. Does it ever hit a point where you feel like things are going, uh... well? According to plan? #BladesInTheDark#BITD
Please respond by saying what sorts of TTRPG things you're pretty likely to either talk about or respond to if you see them.
This can be a list of games (D&D! Tribe 8! Fate!) or categories (the weirdest of indie stuff! NSR! Anything PBtA!), topics (Worldbuilding! Publishing!), stuff you're making, meta-commentary (The State Of The Industry), and so on.
Then maybe share, and if the replies are building up, check them for new people.
@LeviKornelsen Deep into Blades in the Dark and hacking/hacks of that system (just received my CBR Punk package). Also Trophy, Brindlewood Bay, fantasy cyberpunk, weird horror, sword & sorcery, and art and illustration. Long-time member of the official Dark Sun setting maintenance team, and I enjoy talking about Athas, but not so much about D&D mechanics.