Recent content by Umbran

  1. Umbran

    What Do You Think Of As "Modern TTRPG Mechanics"?

    Don't you ever complain about anyone misconstrued you again.
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    1768068546033.jpeg

  3. Umbran

    Anticipatory Grief (...and transitions)

    Shortly after that post, my wife went up into the Kitten Vortex, where the kitten was on my desk, hiding behind my monitor. My wife started to give the kitten some treats, and apparently between one treat and the next, a switch went off in her little head, and shy went away. Now, she's a...
  4. Umbran

    Anticipatory Grief (...and transitions)

    And, life does go on. Our other cat was showing signs of being lonely, and my wife admitted to feeling a bit of "empty lap syndrome". So, there is now a kitten. Just picked her up today. She's 14 weeks old, and 1.96kg (so, about 4.3 lbs), a shorthair, dilute calico. We have her cordoned...
  5. Umbran

    Penguin Random House Announces New D&D Romantasy Book

    Luis, so you are aware - use of "they" or "them" as an individual, non-gendered pronouns in English goes back to the 15th century, at least - William Shakespeare made use of it, for example. It is not some new evolution by some small group.
  6. Umbran

    What Do You Think Of As "Modern TTRPG Mechanics"?

    You can reskin the entire game, sure. The result will not bear any resemblance to what happens in Pride and Prejudice, however. Making something that matches a genre is more than just having words from that genre in the rules. You cannot change "hit points" to "emotional resistance" and...
  7. Umbran

    What Do You Think Of As "Modern TTRPG Mechanics"?

    By this logic, you can intermingle chess, Monopoly, and Settlers of Catan and say, "just use the rules for the game you want," and have the result be coherent. Technically, we should be able to put all the rules for every RPG ever written together in a big blender, and have what comes out be...
  8. Umbran

    What Do You Think Of As "Modern TTRPG Mechanics"?

    We can approach this with a more extreme example: Would you use the same mechanics to run a game that's supposed to make players feel like their characters are in a Robert E. Howard/Conan novel as in a Jane Austen/Pride & Prejudice type novel? Given that Mr. Darcy never swings a sword...
  9. Umbran

    Vincent Baker on narrativist RPGing, then and now

    I don't think that "beer and pretzels" specifically ties with tactical wargame play, though. It isn't like the world isn't completely filled with pulpy goodness adventure stories that are full of tropes and cliches and not given a whole lot of serious thought. A beer-and-pretzels narrative...
  10. Umbran

    Crows, James Introcasos MCDM Dungeon Crawler RPG

    Mod not: Hey, Michael? Are you, like, spending your off-time crawling around inspecting behemoth junk? Because English grammar, for centuries, has used they/them/their for entities of unspecified gender. So, we are left with either you having an unsettling familiarity with the nether...
  11. Umbran

    How does your group handle an absent player?

    For my gaming circles... When a group is GM and 5+ players, we typically move forward if one player is absent, cancel for that week if there are two or more absent. When a group is GM and 4 or fewer player, and one is absent, we typically cancel for that week. My games are generally on a...
  12. Umbran

    Vincent Baker on narrativist RPGing, then and now

    1) You don't get to decide what "needs" to happen - individual posters don't get to exert editorial control over what others post. Folks who aren't interested in that line of discussion are free to not engage. If too few are interested, that sub-topic will die on its own without your...
  13. Umbran

    Vincent Baker on narrativist RPGing, then and now

    So, we can start looking at that question with another question: Where does the truly casual player fit in in a game that allows high degrees of combat optimization in play? I think the answer is the same - you have to take some care to either make sure the entire table has similar intents...
  14. Umbran

    Vincent Baker on narrativist RPGing, then and now

    We are not limiting discussion to casual players. But explicitly including them. He's asking where do casual players fit in this scheme of narrative play.
  15. Umbran

    Morrus needs to turn off 2-way ignore

    If you've got a personal, individual issue, we ask you to take that up with the moderation staff. This is not the place for a discussion of your particular situation.
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