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I really love Space Western/Neo Noir of Cowboy Bebop. Not too big and bombastic like Space Opera - I love the more personal story telling. What is the dynamic of being a spacer. Though I would prefer a Harder Sci Fi lens than Cowboy Bebop ever bothers with, so more The Expanse. RPGs with base...

Let's say in video game terms, I enjoy Monaco but don't enjoy Payday 2. Some planning is fun. Tedious planning to to get everything right isn't. And even less fun is being in a 10 min shootout with endless waves of cops. But generally I like Blades in the Dark's execution. The PCs should still...

I mean the other thing than just silently not supporting something is to publicly shame it. And I think its a business model that deserves to be publicly shamed which I am doing here. I think normalizing it is a serious issue of the trends of anti consumer and anti worker righters we have had...

I think most Kickstarters I've backed say they have a nearly complete product that usually comes with a Quickstart of rules. They need the money for layout, additional art and printing/shipping, but I also don't back a ton (my backlog of reading is SO long!). Is this other people's opinions of...

I think I've seen most in the BitD subreddit agree that there are issues around organization and weak explanations in the book. Personally, I didn't feel well prepared to GM after just reading, so I watched dozens of hours of John Harper running the game. And of course no game should require...

Slightly steering off topic but I am interested in more talk of Clocks. Have you guys experienced over-using Clocks? When I read the official Cowboy Bebop rpg, I found it all too clock focused. Every action's success or failure ticks one clock or another. It felt too much disconnection from the...

I haven't found the Playbooks to be very closed or prescriptive. Blades in the Dark was actually originally designed without Playbooks. So Harper actually allows you to take as many Special Abilities outside of your Playbook as you like when he runs it and its an easy bit of Homebrew to take...

100% agree on Harm in BitD. Only one player out of something like a dozen I ran BitD and S&V really engaged with the "drive the character like a stolen car." Most are newer with mostly just D&D 5e under their belts but I did walk them through what the game expects. But Harm (more in BitD than...

It includes my favorite game, Scum & Villainy that hits on being a Space Scoundrel amazingly. I have also run quite of a bit of Blades in the Dark and read through a few other FitDs that were very close to the original. CBR+PNK and Band of Blades are very solid differentiations from the original...

I know there are many here that don't find any mechanics will help support this for them and that is okay, but not the point of this thread. I am interested in what kind of structures (ideally player facing) have made for satisfying stories challenging your character. I've always felt more...

I believe rules are supposed to make the conversation of playing TTRPGs easier. A lot of them end up adding more crunch/complexity than they're worth. But there is a lot of value in having permissions and setting expectations by everyone having a shared understanding what consequences may unfold...

Help me understand where we are disagreeing. We both say the game is about the PCs. We both say, the world doesn't revolve around them.

I feel like I already responded to this. If ASOIAF was a game run by a GM, was the GM not a fan of the characters who died? IMO, no. Nothing about being a fan means you no longer can run the world real and consistent. In fact, if they were mutually exclusive, then it'd be just impossible to run...

I am interested in specific, non-outlier games where my advice without being misinterpreted to mean coddling PCs is not applicable. Much of the point of the advice is that the GM shouldn't actually be adversarial. If the GM is putting on a show of being the adversary, that is entirely different...

Well the first part and second are together - I am a fan of Game of Thrones' characters (except that last season) even when the dice fall and they die. But yeah most PbtA games also have an Agenda of Make the World Seem Real and a rule of Say What the Rules Demand. So you shouldn't hold back on...

Being a Fan of the Player Characters. It means a lot. You aren't antagonistic, you are collaborative leaving room for the players to tell their stories - giving them a chance to signal what they are excited about. You are genuinely interested in following them like you do for your favorite TV...

I think of myself as pretty good at improv-ing interesting consequences after running quite a bit of Blades in the Dark and Scum & Villainy, but when playing Edge of the Empire, those dice could throw you for a curveball. It was pretty exhausting keeping up with them especially with how many...

I think I can boil it down even further to not respecting the fellow people at the table. If everyone is coming from a place where they regard the others feelings with appreciation and support, I think that covers most bad behaviors - even bad fit where they will either flex or understand its...

Always appreciate designers going back and improving the experience. You learn so much especially when you get a whole community playing and discussing their experience, so I love designers who do this. Its very much against human nature to stick to one project for so much time - I know all too...

A player can buy into a premise (even a niche one) but have lots of choice that truly guides the game. Just like how Masks has a very tight focus on teen drama superheroes. Players making decisions is pretty core to Torchbearer - whether it be how they proceed in dangerous environments...