Ran a very fun combat session today for my Margreve campaign.
One of those fun encounters where there were multiple objectives and several moving parts! Players had to rescue captives from chambers, and some of the captives were already rolling death saves when combat began.
Having the players exist in a world where things are happening behind the scenes is so much more fun than a static-staged set.
Listened to an episode of Ludonarrative Dissidents that helped me understand the point of #pbta rules being divided into "moves", little routines that you invoke like a #DnD spell. It's training wheels for insecure GMs. Apparently really effective wheels. I have been a messianic megalomaniac GM since I was twelve. I am not the target audience of these rules.
@taki I'm talking specifically about why the PbtA rules are organised into moves. But I understand the other aspects that you underline. My personal taste though tends to GMing 40-page intricate investigative scenarios in Delta Green and Gumshoe games. You can't improvise a good mystery novel. #ttrpg
My daughter’s birthday is in full effect and while the girls enjoy themselves in the pool, I finally decided to pick this up and jump into the Wayback Machine, set it to 1993, and see what all the fuss is about this game. 🤘🏻😊
@orcusdorkus Historically, the first RPG book to be full-color on every page, and thus worthy of blame for many things. 😆
It's a fun design, though. Very much Marshal Law with the serial numbers slightly smudged, but nice biting satire throughout. It lives up to its unlicensed premise. ☺️
It's on my list of 200 RPGs I'm happy to GM if asked.
RPG tip from the archive: Interesting scenes have a lot going on in them. Goblins stealing canoes and blowing a horn to call a t-rex right after the characters left a dungeon.
Ganz prinzipiell: warum sollte mensch ein System aus diesem Jahrtausend spielen, welches das Spielgefühl der 1970er Jahre vermittelt, anstatt ein System aus den 1970er Jahren?
Ich mag bspw. #DCC und #Shadowdark sehr gerne, aber das ist eine der Fragen die ich mir durch meine Beschäftigung mit #ODnD aka #0e und #SwordsAndWizardry schon stelle.
Issue 3 of Wanderer Bill’shttps://lkh.sdf-eu.org/wandererbill/grenzland/ just landed in my mailbox yesterday, with, among other things, an NPC class written by me (“The Anointed of Abyssal Slaughter”). It mostly was me combining the given topic of the issue with an interest in NPC classes a while ago.
The ‘zine also contains a one-page dungeon by Alex Schroeder (“The Crown of Neptune”), a game report (“Schiffbruch”), rules for sailing ships (“Salt’n’Tar”), and another scenario (“Eingekerkert”), the latter three all by Wanderer Bill. The ‘zine is a mix of German and English, and you can get it for the phenomenal price of free at the website.
(he does have a few more physical copies for 7 Euros left over though)
First and most obviously, #folklore enthusiasts, as well as those who are interested in German history and culture.
I also hope that #ttrpg players find these of interest - I am one of these myself, and the old German folk tales I am translating often have the same chaotic energy that the best role-playing game sessions have.
And finally, those with an interest in #storytelling in general. We should all try to find inspiration in those who came before us, and these stories break a lot of modern storytelling conventions which we take for granted.
(Note: Yes, I know I am a day late with this, but I still wanted to get my two cents in.)
The original game Fantasy Wargaming: The Highest Level of All (or just Fantasy Wargaming in some editions) was a 1981 book by Bruce Galloway, a clear variation on Dungeons and Dragons, based on Galloway’s home rules. Unlike it’s competition it was not afraid of using actual historical concepts like astrology and occultism in it’s descriptions, although it also was written so densely it was hard to make sense of it in any shape or form by someone not already familiar with roleplaying games. And, well, it was called Fantasy Wargaming.
Which made this a problem, as the game was published both in the UK and the US by mainstream publishers obviously trying to break into the nascent TTRPG market. The most available version was most likely the one published by the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club, which made the game available to many people who did not have any experience with roleplaying games before.
Unfortunately one has to say, as the game’s size (300pgs) and conceptual denseness made parsing the book quite a feat, meaning if people used this as an introduction to roleplaying, it might not have been very successful.
The Story of Fantasy Wargaming goes into this, and into the development of the game. It could have been a bit more thorough and a bit more critical, but for what it is it’s a nice look into the environment that created it. And well, it’s free.
(I learned about this book from an episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast which had the author on and talked about this project. Well worth a listen)
I think the one thing we have all learned from #WotC this years is that corporate controlled creativity, even when done by good people, isn't nearly as good as what people come up without that company overlord telling them what to do.
Let's continue to support the smaller folks of the #ttrpg industry. Those are the ones who still care about the hobby beyond just dollars.
RPG tip from the archive: Watch the movies that fit the theme of the adventure you're running to fill your head with ideas you can improvise as you run the game.