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  1. TheAlkaizer

    What are you reading in 2025?

    I gathered a group to start a new campaign. The initial pitch was a early 11th century England historical campaign using Burning Wheel. I dove back into some of my notes on that period and I my interest slowly shifted towards an earlier period. Either in the first decades of the arrival of the...
  2. TheAlkaizer

    RPG Spotlight: Crown and Skull Volume II

    I enjoyed reading the first volume. It has interesting ideas and I liked the setting. But it's getting more and more difficult for me to justify such thick books. There's just so much rules and content that it would realistically take months to get a grasp of it.
  3. TheAlkaizer

    D&D General Mike Mearls sits down with Ben from Questing Beast

    What he says aside, I love interviewee that go on unending rants; and interviewers that lay them go on. Having just finished the video, I chuckled a few times as I couldn't recall the question a few minutes earlier. Ben: "It seems like in 2014 [...] bla bla bla [...] perception has changed?"...
  4. TheAlkaizer

    D&D General Mike Mearls sits down with Ben from Questing Beast

    Around 15:00, Ben brings up something interesting that I thought about often. For context, I started with 3E, played a ton of 4E, life forced me to focus on other things and I got back with 5E in 2016 before splitting into the OSR and indie RPGs around 2020. Around 2014, I was in the middle of...
  5. TheAlkaizer

    D&D 5E (2024) Do We Really Need Levels 11-20?

    Every time a game doesn't support higher levels, I'm disappointed it doesn't. Every time I play one of these games, we stop playing before these levels. I think it's something I just like having in case of. But I definitely need to stop letting it affect my reading of games.
  6. TheAlkaizer

    Do You Think Open Playtests Improve a Game's Development?

    I do agree that depending on what you're trying to seek, whatever hypothesis you have, different formats of playtests yield better or worse results. But every form of feedback can be useful. It becomes of challenge of data handling more than anything. You can also get incredibly valuable...
  7. TheAlkaizer

    Do You Think Open Playtests Improve a Game's Development?

    It depends a bit on your design intent. If you're making something for your own pleasure without much consideration for potential players, customers, then it's probably not really required. It definitely helps to iron out details and bugs. But that's something you can do on your own over time by...
  8. TheAlkaizer

    Marc Miller's copy of Traveller, original in shrink, sold for $5500

    The Mongoose versions have many qualities. Being well edited is definitely one of them. I do not know if I've seen other books with as many typos, unclear language and conflicting informations; despite their update to their books every couple of years.
  9. TheAlkaizer

    Is Losing your Turn The Worst That Can Happen

    It depends on the length of the rounds. I remember when I was playing a ton of 4E. For all the love I have for that game, the round got very long as we got higher in levels. I remember many instances of my players cursing and losing their cool when, after waiting for like 20-25 mins for the...
  10. TheAlkaizer

    Lord of the Rings Role Playing (Free League 5e)

    I don't know about the 5e version, but the One Ring 2E leans heavily on the concept of patron to give clear objectives to the party. Personally, I like to start my campaigns in media res. Start right in the action with no context and introduce context after.
  11. TheAlkaizer

    Independent Spaces for RPG Discourse

    I will link Yochai Gal's own community. The Cauldron. The Cauldron I'd stay away from social medias because they tend to split people more than bring them together. And even though I like Discord has an app, Yochai has made his point as to why it's not the best choice of a discourse space.
  12. TheAlkaizer

    What are the primary reasons your players reject other systems/settings/games?

    I'm the forever-GM (which I love). So I tend to not be very democratic. Whatever I have interest in running is what I'm running. I don't ask them, I offer them. "Hey, I'm starting a new Symbaroum campaign. Are you in?" If they're not interested, they're not playing. I'm blessed by having a great...
  13. TheAlkaizer

    Presentation and Rules Are Different Things

    I fully agree. I'll add that you can also like the resulting dynamics from a set of mechanics, but dislike the mechanics or the design approach used to achieve it. Some mechanics achieve exactly what they're meant to, but are overly complex in their way to achieve it.
  14. TheAlkaizer

    D&D 5E (2014) Help with kids game…

    Zombies seem like a perfect enemy to have more appear at subsequent rounds if it seems to be too easy. I prefer to underbalance my encounters and have enemies or reinforcements show up. It's quite dramatic too.
  15. TheAlkaizer

    OSR Good OSE/LL/BX-Related Adventures without Evil Humanoids?

    I highly recommend The Frozen Temple of Glacier Peak. It's not perfect, but with very little work it turned into some very fun gaming sessions for me.
  16. TheAlkaizer

    Tabletop creators leave X for Bluesky in droves

    I didn't have any major issues with Twitter. But conceptually what Bluesky offers is more interesting. From my understanding, it doesn't have one central algorithm that pushes content on its users. All the content being generated by users is one long stream and through customizable features like...
  17. TheAlkaizer

    Daggerheart Core Set Covers Revealed

    The art leaves me pretty neutral. But I really like the design of the box and packaging.
  18. TheAlkaizer

    RPGs with good warband mechanics

    Lots of good recommendations. I'll have some reading to do during the holidays, see what works well and what doesn't! I'm open to tinkering with that! Any recommendations?
  19. TheAlkaizer

    How to Tell a Player, "No"?

    Being straightforward, with a little sweetening is generally the way to go. Something like "Your idea sounds really fun, but I'm not really looking to organise a game with such concepts in it. I'm looking to have a more classic fantasy adventure about [...]".
  20. TheAlkaizer

    Fun ways to do a "warlike" people [+]

    For me it's a matter of motivation. Having a specie, culture or group that are very warlike and declare war on others for no reason except to be warlike is kinda boring. It can only become interesting through a very clear goal, preferably in opposition to the players. For example, having a...
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