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Hmmm, not so much trying to "redesign" the character, so much as help the player find better alignment with the goals of the campaign. The player has struggled at times with what I perceive to be remnants of "trad" gameplay sensibilities that run counter to the "platonic ideal" of how FFG Star...

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look! This is a good question. It wasn't so much the desire to improve gear, accrue funds, etc. that was problematic. It was definitely more the manner and attitude towards it. I, in most cases as a GM, am more than willing to let characters spend money...

So I had an interesting conversation with one of my players immediately following last week's gaming session. We're currently in the heart of an FFG Star Wars / Genesys system campaign using Edge of the Empire. The player in question has a long, long history of RPG play but almost exclusively...

Well, in a discussion about balancing encounters, creating "fair" fights, and the role of players and GM in meeting expectations around those subjects, it makes sense to investigate what, exactly, is demanded of the players. My experience with GURPS overwhelmingly points to the fact that...

You've just described in once sentence why GURPS has never, and will never be more than a fraction of 1% of the overall game playing population. Well done.

My favorite system, Savage Worlds, has 2 very specific breaking points that can be exacerbated by extreme optimization---difficulty to hit (Parry) and difficulty to damage (Toughness + Armor). And what makes it worse at times is that the two are often correlated. PC builds that optimize high...

And I'm telling you it makes absolute sense once you experience it, is 1000% completely possible, and results in a very specific, highly enjoyable gameplay experience when you do. I mean, sure, I could be lying to you. Maybe I didn't really have any of those experiences playing solo Ironsworn...

The fundamental misapprehension you're having here is that in the style of play we're talking about, the very existence of the "Old Elf Tree" should be fundamentally tied to something absolutely core to at least one of the PC's described motivations, instincts, beliefs, desires. Finding the the...

Because it teaches you how to be both a player and GM at the same time --- which conceptually forces you to adopt the same kind of mindset that a "non-director" GM would take when playing Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, Blades in the Dark, or Ironsworn. Why would you play a solo RPG if you...

I literally DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU to download the Ironsworn PDF for the price of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING---literally $0.00, free, gratis. Then read the rules from page 1 through 109, and then sit down and play a solo session of the game for 90 minutes. What you will experience, if you approach it...

This statement is quite obviously coming from a place of ignorance with regards to PbtA adjacent gaming, particularly my favorite iteration, Ironsworn. With the help of my players and a small set of prompts, we could build a "six competing noble houses" game together, in session, in about 45...

My group is actively playing Edge of the Empire as we speak. Just in the last 2-4 months, Edge Studios issued reprints of all of the core 3 books (EotE, AoE, FaD). They are available on Amazon now with the Edge Studio imprint, and 3 different local FLGSes in my area (I just moved from Seattle...

My two favorite initiative systems, both already mentioned: Savage Worlds: Using a standard 52-card deck + Jokers, deal a card to each player + NPC or NPC group. Highest card goes first. Discard all cards at the end of the round and continue dealing from top of the deck. Special: Jokers are...

Thank you for this. You totally captured what I was trying to say in my response much more succinctly. :)

@Retreater I've read through this thread a couple of times, and it really does sound like CRPGs are the answer for this group. Their preferences all seem to point significantly away from what tabletop RPGs offer as their core value proposition. The whole point of a human GM is to create those...

A) That sounds like my own personal RPG hell. I don't think I'd last more than 2 sessions trying to run a game for a group with that particular set of preferences. If there's a far opposite end of the spectrum for what I want from RPGs, that bullet list is pretty much it. B) You already tried...

This is such a good question! So, I found with Ironsworn that it was still okay to do some prep. I had no issue prepping maps, names of places/locales, NPC names, things to find (weapons, artifacts, etc.). The thing I had to keep reminding myself was that I needed to keep some options /...

Ironsworn is also 4 years younger than DW. But just in the last 2 years, Ironsworn had a $347k Kickstarter in 2023 for Starforged, and a $200k Kickstarter for Sundered Isles this year. Dungeon World's kickstarter didn't even crack 6 figures ($82k). Sundered Isles by itself is nearly 3x the...

All true; can't disagree with this general sentiment. Having more, improved choices for RPG is certainly preferable to the alternative. I guess I'm just skeptical that there's really any significant latent audience just waiting in the wings for DW 2.0. But I suppose even it's just say, 1,000...

This is sort of a head scratcher, to be honest. It's now 10+ years since initial release. It's been saddled with a massive black eye from one of its original creators. There's now a long line of successors / add ons in the same creative space (Stonetop, Perilous Wilds, Freebooters on the...