• 38 Posts
  • 174 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 9th, 2023

help-circle
  • I am split on that one.

    A known setting an do a lot for engaging with the player (the cliché about the Vampire players having long discussion about the lore), and the setting is definitely a reason why i would join a game over another, if I see a GM promoting a collective setting creation I wouldn’t apply for that game.

    However, even in rigid setting, there is a lot of room for player brought element. So you’re a Noble ? What does your fief look-like. So you’re a robber ? How do you sell your loot ?, what does your favourite tavern look like which ease the GM job and gives players some control on the game world.

    So While I don’t agree with Build the whole setting together, I definitely expect the players to bring their own elements to the table


  • Take your time, do not show anything supernatural or gore ab initio. Start with a very mundane plot, the first victim is a lawyer who has tie with the mafia, and an affair. So at first something banal and ordinary. Then add minor uncanny elements, that and drift very slowly to the supernatural mystery.

    If everyone believes ab initio that there is supernatural and monsters, you’re not anymore in the fantastic/horror genre









  • Ziggurat@sh.itjust.workstorpg@ttrpg.networkD&D is anti-medieval (2016)
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    IMO, the big American bias in heroic fantasy RPG including D&D is how empty (most) settings are. If you travel (nowadays by car) in rural Europe, you’d find village every 5-10km, turns out that people walking to their field don’t like to spend more than 1h commuting. While on some high fantasy map, you have like 3 day of walk through a dangerous forest, or an endless plain without much settlements.

    Also it’s worth mentioning that many European major roads/highway have been built at first by the Roman, and have been modernized through history. So again, middle age wasn’t as empty, salvage as many D&D settings. Which indeed looks more like frontier era US.


  • A lot of pretty classic but good advise, There is already a discussion on PvP, but here are two cool ones

    Don’t overprepare. I have an inexpensive egg timer. My partner hates its ticking sound. So I use a watch instead. 30 minutes for a session. That’s how much I give myself.

    That one is the biggest killer, beginner GM carefully think about tonight tavern, the innkeeper has a name and a description, the bard is going to tell a story about missing kids, there is even a menu for the night. Except that the PC are like There something weird in that town, May-be their food in poisonous we shouldn’t stay too long in the tavern, you’re right let’s camp in the wood and keep watch Tons of stuff prepared by the GM end-up in the garbage (Or for another session). So keep an outline, and as the author said, everything is a bonus.

    Keep the game running and review rules after.

    Looks like one of the most basic advice. May-be you forgot about how black-smithing works (To take the kind of rules you won’t use any time). But at the end, just find an appropriate skill/mechanics and problem is solved. May-be you missed a point and were too nice/harsh, but at least you didn’t spend 15 minutes re-reading a rules.

    Be consistent and predictable.

    This is IMO the best way to fix 90% of game planning problem, session occurs at a fixed date, not matter who’s there. Worst case, you do a board game, or have a drink. but if you wait for everyone to be available, you won’t play much






  • Eclipse phase does even better

    You wake up in a resleeve pod, you start to slowly get the feel of your new body, you’re a thin girl with butterfly wing? Looks cool you never got used to the smell of that Gorilla hybrid morph you used before. Looking at your arm you see a large tattoo Wang body rental and start to think about how the triad will make you pay while wondering what you do here. You’re muse tells you that they restored a backup from last month, as you&ve been missing for over 2 weeks.

    In EP, a TPK isn’t the end, but the start





  • I almost never use battlemaps and when I do, it’s more a way to provide some decorum and structure informations rather than as a tool for battle. I don’t really get how so many people online are obsessed by the idea of battlemap. Looks like kids this days have it too easy and didn’t started playing at the time where RPG magazine was publishing 3 scenario a month, with sometimes one for a game they play, and had to do without map in general.

    A few idea pointers,

    • I played Ryutama only once, but remember their concept of battle egg which just tell whether you’re in contact, second-line, ranged distance or away using a few circle. Nobody care about your exact distance, but just use some adjective to describe your position.

    • As usual, PBTA and forged in the dark, can use consequences to generate danger, like you open a chest but choose one : Someone has seen you/ A trap trips/ Move to a worse position

    • Even in traditional game, you can describe the dungeon with a few adjectives, and by thinking what it’s for and answer the players question when they ask-it rather than in advance: Can we enter by the sewage ? Well there is a garnison in this castle, it’s near a river, people need to piss and shit, so most-likely there is a pipe going directly to the river, let’s say yes. However people are not stupid so there is some metal bar to block the access, the player can try to break them works as well as doing a map and thinking about the 5 possible way to enter while the player will use only one.