Recent content by bsss

I like your framing overall, but I think it has an accidental problem where the conflict is in the context of everyone already having sat down and gotten ready to play, combined with a social tendency that would often, I'd argue, drive people towards "gosh, I'm a guest / I'm a host, I better...

"Local celebrities" might be overstating my take/taste on the matter, but I, like some others in the thread, think that in the milieu of the common D&D world, yes, these bizarre outsiders come with a bunch of potential downsides as mentioned in the OP, but also the potential upside of solving...

I don't know if I agree with the premise that the result of the roll should be ambiguous after the roll is resolved. I also try not to ever roll for the PCs. To maintain ambiguity or lies in the results, I would just rule that anyone trained in, say, Arcana gets their passive Arcana or take 10...

Most recent delivered purchase for me is 13th Age 2E. I've been reading the PDFs for a while while waiting for the physical books, which I believe are now waiting for me on my porch. I have also been really enjoying it and prepping a 2E game. Most recent chronological purchase was HarnWorld...

Cypher (aka Cypher System 2e) by Monte Cook Games

Yeah, it's a genre thing for me. If the focus of the game is dungeon survival, treasure hunting, wilderness exploration, etc., part of the game is decision-making around your inventory, encumbrance, mobility, and so on. Most of my games are more on the "big damn heroes" end of the spectrum in...

Big Eyes, Small Mouth 1e. I loved it back then, and in retrospect, it was even better than I realized.

I guess I am honor-bound from my previous answer to say 13th Age, but I would also like 4e, or 3.5e if I'm blinded by nostalgia. True20 if I'm feeling spicy. I think 4e-style skill challenges could cover well a lot of dungeon exploration scenarios that don't fall into combat blocks and are...

Do you consider 13th Age a clear derivative? (I understand why one would, but I figured I'd shoot my shot.) If allowed, 13th Age. A close second for me would be Cypher System. 13th Age balances the things I want out of a D&D pretty well, and adds good mechanics to support collaborative...

Uh, let's see, recent history + con games... Cypher System 13th Age Savage Worlds FATE RuneQuest Stealing Stories for the Devil The Devil's Dandy Dogs I guess that's 5+.

Also this. I have an idea of what the next couple steps are likely to be, and I'm just as often surprised by the direction the players take, but I'm fine because I mostly just have a bunch of motes of adventure and storytelling to move around and expand on as I see fit, plus my ability to...

Focusing my answer on what I've been running mostly regularly for the longest: in my scifi space game in Cypher System, they are highly player driven sessions where I've developed enough details about the NPCs in order to create a model for their individual reacitons, complications, etc...

Assuming we're not counting things like thinking about the plot (which just happens ad hoc whenever I have idle cycles in the ol' gray matter), I would say I probably get 2~3 hours out of 30 minutes of prep (again not baking in the time spent deciding on next steps). I primarily run the Cypher...

They are more laid back about tickets at Gamehole Con compared to Gen Con, having attended both (Gen Con for decades until recently, and the last few years for Gamehole Con), but one other thing to add, the GM has a table manifest, basically. I was the last person to arrive to a game, and the GM...

I feel like 60 hours/year is a pretty low bar to cross, such that I safely crossed it and my free time for any hobby is at a premium, and I play with busy adults. I honestly thought it was 60 hours/month at first.