Search results

I run for groups of size 4-5, and will run if one player is missing, but not two. I use a variation of the "fade into the background" technique: If it makes sense for the character not to be there, they are not with the group and off doing something else. In my Pendragon game, this is pretty...

It will be interesting to see how this compares to WEARING THE CAPE, which is a rather good superhero game in a modern world where supers interact with bureaucracy, can easily accidentally kill people, have serious social and family issues, and can vastly differ in tiers. At the moment, I...

Yeah, exactly. I don't choose games based on it. I enjoyed Numenéra and found the lack of need to roll nice mostly because it meant I could walk around a lot more than usual. I probably wouldn't like it for Pendragon as the game feels much more competitive in nature and the increased swinginess...

It's a term that makes me think of pulp 1970's sci-fi. I have no real interest in that vibe, so I'll just go with "magic", "powers", or similar for my Fate, BRP, d20 or whatever game. I might use the term for a 4-color superheroes campaign as the vibe fits, but that's probably it. I mean, it's...

Just a technical note here: you can run relatively decent AI models on a desktop machine right now. Slower than a dedicated service, but very doable. With a fine-tuned model, a 7 billion parameter open source model can do just as well as a closed source subscription model. Your phone cannot...

A random number generator is a deterministic generator that, given an initial "seed" number, will generate the exact same sequence of numbers. So if you know the algorithm and the seed number, you can predict the full sequence perfectly. This is why they are often called "pseudo-random". So if...

@Thomas Shey is right: I know we all think we are great at spotting patterns, but we are not. We are terrible at it. Saying "I can always tell when a GM is changing some math" is a useless statement -- you cannot notice that you do not notice it! It would require an active test. And you would...

I also use my dining room table for both TTRPGs and for boardgames. I was replacing an oval chipboard and veneer table and wanted a solid hardwood one. So I already knew I was going to to paying out a ton. Overall, very happy I did so. When I ran games with miniatures I would regularly set up...

This may sound like a trivial observation, but I do not see that there is any consistent philosophical difference beyond the obvious one: A good rules-heavy game make a game fun for people who like rules. A good rules-light game makes the game fun for people who don't want enjoy engaging with...

Other people you disagree with: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” - -- Stephen King “The only way anybody ever learns to write well is by trying to write...

If you replicate an existing system, but not as well, or you produce a game that no-one wants ... it's not going to find an audience. If your goal is a vanity project, sure, go for it. But if you want to find an audience, you need to work. That's easy. Yes, you must read a lot. If you don't...

I can't recall if you played LFR or ran a lot of 4E, Celebrim. For a few years there it seemed like every climax combat was a "combat with challenge" and the writers got pretty good at making sure that "kill everything and then do the skill challenge" was not the best option for most groups. 4E...

While inflation is obviously a factor -- a $70 game today would still have cost $40 a couple of decades ago -- it is clear that people are happier to pay more for a more attractive game. One reason may include the aging of the demographic. When I was younger, I would cut counters by hand and...

My mind keeps a mental table of acronyms and their likely maps. This is always evolving (especially now I have started working in the medical data world -- so many acronyms!). For me there has been a slow evolution of the default mapping if RPG: Up to about 1990: RPG = Rocket Propelled...

I run generic fantasy maybe one out of five campaigns, so the probability I will run any D&D-adjacent campaign is low. If I do, I'll run the new edition of 13th Age.

<edit: Deleted as Pointless>

So this is a straight simulationist definition of fairness. It says that the closer the ruling is to the way the "real" world would work, the fairer it is. It is certainly one way to play. Personally, I'm more in favor of a version of fairness which is based on every player having an equal...

Reading the paper, it appears only 7 people used the LLM version, and the LLM had a detailed prompt that had several paragraphs handwritten for the canned module that the LLM was running, and of the 7 players, 3 reported feeling railroaded. Further, the scores for creativity were based on the...

I ran a short campaign in a similar world using FATE. Reasons why it worked for me: Factions, government, rebels, towns, outlaw gangs and other social groups modeled easily in Fate -- lots of support for this Many Fate supplements feature rules for social cohesion, stability and order. I ran a...

I think this would have been a good option for the poll as its also the one I would pick: I have a campaign in mind and the new system supports it better I'm currently running a Middle-Earth campaign, and The One Ring fits the style and genre of Tolkien better than other systems I have used...