Recent content by talien

Thank you @aco175 for bringing this thread to my attention. The list of my articles is here: RPG Evolution I am blessed. My local library invests in and is commited to our weekly game. They buy the books (which are library reference material), dice, pencils, paper, and provide the room. We even...

Picture courtesy of Pixabay. In the world of public library gaming, overbooking is more than a strategy; it is a survival mechanism. Because I run a free weekly game at the library, I learned quickly the math of the "soft yes," where a forty to sixty percent no-show rate is the standard...

Yes, narrative fiction summarizing what happened. The die hard players absolutely do read them and comment on them, so I know some of them read it (I use Roll20 for this purpose to archive what went before). Good for me too!

It matters for the DM quite a bit.

That's how I run it, basically. It's a living world. People come and go. I adjust on the fly. There's not "hang out in the dungeon" and "oops Bob just disappeared or is on autopilot while we're still in the dungeon." It's very much "stuff happens in town, we go on adventure, we wrap it up by the...

It's a fascinating thing that's on the same spectrum of "Pay What You Want." It's why I get annoyed that PWYW is listed with "free" content on DTRPG. That simple fact (PWYW = on the spectrum of "free") shows a whole mindset around the "entitlement" of free. I have gotten much harsher...

Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Running any free event at a public library is an act of local heroism; running a weekly Dungeons & Dragons game comes with a unique set of logistical nightmares. Unlike a private home game or a paid professional session, a free library program exists in a realm of...

Oh I agree it's for new players -- brand new players. As I mentioned in the hilarious example listed after that point, you can also make characters at high speed -- but when making the character, the person doing it didn't actually know what a plasmoid was, or thought to ask if that made sense...

Yes, my fastest is two hours. Saying that out loud... "hey guys, learn to play D&D! For the first two hours, we're going to show you how dice work and 12 different classes plus 10 species and 16 backgrounds. And wait til you geto the spells!" Funny (and true) story. For a one-shot one of the...

I want to double-click on this: Now that there's 2014 vs. 2024, you can be "right and wrong." You can have the wrong info, or believe you have the info right, and actually not have the info that's appropriate for the current game. What happens if the info is wrong? This can happen occasionally...

You make a really good point. In some ways it's because "reading content" vs. "just in time content" requires different formats. I'd add one more: it's fine for a PLAYER to have "just their view of the rules." It is not nearly as fine for a DM. Digital content tends to serve up only the pieces...

The problem is just D&D is DENSE. Most of the tactical RPGs are (I can't even imagine teaching Pathfinder). The amount of rules I consult that are "oh, that never came up before." It's less so with 5.5E, but still massive. Each class is its own set of rules. 12 classes, plus every species...

Despite hours spent scrolling through digital tools and PDFs, the nuances of the new system felt slippery, like trying to catch smoke with my hands. It wasn't until I brought the game back to the physical table—specifically during my weekly sessions at the local library—that the culprit revealed...

The campaign I'm running is less Deadwood and more The Crucible with religious dwarven ironworkers and human farmers. But my players joke that since they only just turned third level after five months they'll have aged years by the time they hit double digits in levels. This is a feature, not a...

Yes, although now PCs on my Discord channel are planning ahead for their "vacation". To your point, this may be more my concern than the players, but I think they're starting to see the benefits.