← Feed

Posts

• Post #4307713

  In #HTTRPG #AdventureDesign, there's a firm "floor" for complexity & nuance of the playground: viable PC approaches must be innumerable, with at least a dozen consciously considered by the designer (they needn't be explicit in the module, though!) There is also a "ceiling," because we're here to support the GM, not _drown_ the GM in detail. This is why an understanding of problem-quallity and even individual fact-quality is im...

• Post #4307712

  I haven't been a #GURPS gamer in decades, and I've no desire to return to it as a GM, but I learned valuable things from my GURPS days and they've been bubbling up a fair bit lately. Got a little bump of nostalgia seeing the promotions for the 4thEd Basic Set finally being available as a single book. I won't be getting it or learning 4thEd (still) but it's nice seeing it trundle along in some form. #TTRPG #RPGFogey

• Post #4307711

  A big, weird part of what I'm up to this year is teaching myself, to give myself, and accept from myself, the permission to do industry-level work instead of Cumberland-level work. Not universally of course. That's not allowed to touch a book like Hammondal: Light of the Candle Islands, or the campaign book. But with the plan for the compost/sketchbook ... I can just write the way I used to for White Wolf or Pyramid etc, and not be ashamed. Theoretically. 😅 #TTRPG

• Post #4130030

  HTT from 3 perspectives: As a GM, I'm confident the PCs will be roleplayed completely and authentically, and I commit to providing an environment where we get rich tactical gameplay from that alone. As a player, I'm there to roleplay the heck out of it, and I hope the GM prepped something fun, something meaningful to the party, with so much for the PCs that there's little need to drag me (the player) into it to make it a game. As a designer, my only job is supporting the above. #TTR...

• Post #4126169

  Some conversations I have about HTT find me defending how violent the play can be! Most of the games I run: violence is rare. The PCs solve problems with every crayon in the box so they're not stuck with the red one. When violence _does_ come up, it's powerful: an exclamation mark rather than a comma. But it also varies by genre, by PC group. My gangster runs went fairly red. But the distinction between "pacifistic" and "doesn't force violence" is apparently sl...

• Post #4051485

  Today's HTT article doodle is about an issue that gives a lot of the Workshop participants pain: ways to design an adventure with a villain, without the villain becoming a tactical chokepoint. The good thing is: it's a fun topic. The bad thing is: it's a topic that makes almost no sense unless you're already interested in supporting HTT play. 😂😭 Ah well. It'll be another article for the compost folder. 😁 #AdventureDesign #HTTRPG #TTRPG

• Post #3684941

  Since all my fantasy stuff is unapologetically space opera in cheap renfaire cosplay, and thus concerned mainly with the modern world as it is and might become, I often find myself pondering _majestic high fantasy matters_ like "the fantasy equivalent of a punch-card for a free hoagie." #TTRPG #WorldBuilding

• Post #3268738

  Sometimes I sustain myself with the fantasy that someone _has_ recently published an RPG thing for gamers like me and I just haven't heard of it yet. #TTRPG

• Post #3268737

  In RPG adventure modules both old and new, it's rare (not unheard-of, but rare) for the adventure to offer the PCs a chance to help others directly. Lots of indirect. Plenty of assurances that if the PCs Retrieve the Thingy and Defeat the Opponent, that helps. In high-trust designs (both old and new) there are more chances to help directly. Which is something I should probably mention more often than I have. I need to remember my own reasons for loving scarecrows in RPG design. 😆...

• Post #3268736

  There are a lot of topics where #HTTRPG Game Masters that I've known _lean_ a certain way, even though those leanings are not themselves HTT matters. Most tend to appreciate genre-agnostic systems, for example (Hero, Fudge, etc) even though there's nothing intrinsically high-trust about them. Any trad system is suitable for HTT. While it's important to separate those things from HTT for clarity's sake, I also need to be less apologetic about them. #HTTRPG

• Post #1749537

  Thread: A potential workshopper was asking if I'd be running more HTT games on the YouTubes someday, and ... probably? No current plans but I'm sure I'll get around to it again someday. I haven't sought it out for a few reasons: (1) High-Trust Trad is just an approach to trad. It _looks and sounds_ like a regular RPG, because that's exactly what it is. The biggest difference is in the adventure design. We don't have a special handshake or anythin...

• Post #1749536

  I have never regretted making this graphic Christmas-themed. Should I, though? Probably. In fact, I promise to. I don't mean I'll change it. I'll just pencil in a few moments of regret. 😸 #HTTRPG #TTRPG

• Post #1749535

  Okay. I _finally_ found an HTT Traveller scenario! It's arguably a case of "HTT by virtue of being a seed," but ... it feels legit to me. Multiple problems; the facts aren't one-dimensional (social stuff, motive stuff, an exploitable dependency, etc) and it's definitely both open-ended AND open-middled. It's "The Dam," for MegaTraveller. Challenge #49. Designer is Kevin Scrivner ... who worked for Iron Crown, making this sudde...

• Post #1749534

  Got a fun email from a computer game developer interested in turning a Risus thing into a computer game you could play via Steam and whatnot. I'd be all for it, but of course it's not up to me. 😆 I passed the email along to Big Dice Games and we'll see if anything comes of it. I think the oddest thing I ever licensed Risus for in my day was a _card game,_ which never happened. Well, that and the clothing boutique chain decor, which _did_ happen. 😮 #RisusRPG

• Post #945523

  One of the many fun parts of treating history as a dumpster into which I dive for fantasy tidbits, instead of a source of rules to be followed: Sometimes I'll come across reference to some historian who's been totally debunked, _utterly discredited_ by modern scholars for wrongheaded assertions about how something worked in ye olden tymes. I get SO excited to track that discredited work down and absorb it as a source. 😂 #TTRPG #WorldBuilding

• Post #888711

  Pondering the Starfleet Academy news. I think the cancellation is the best possible outcome now that Star Trek is owned by Trump loyalists. I'm also glad that they'll still air the already-shot Season 2. I like the show a lot; I look forward to seeing the next/final season. But honestly I'd rather see it go, than see it transformed into something its new owners would like. I hope they sell Trek off, and that not a single episode or film is made under Ellison. #StarFle...

• Post #888710

  A lot of the process of #Hammondal design is a mad back-and-forth between NPCs and communities ... the Virid who keeps the seed library is stressed because her son fell in with a shady crew, who are actually doing secret work for the prince, who's being a pain in the ass to the theater community, there's a Mantoche crusading against that, etc. But then there's the peaceful stuff like building out the cycle-of-the-seasons article. I like those parts; they're snugg...

• Post #666903

  They finally posted the Colbert Questionert from the night Sandra and I went to the show several months ago! At the beginning, when Colbert mentions Rose Byrne, there's a tone/pause referencing an earlier moment in the taping when Conan got her name wrong, and Stephen thought it was hilarious and insisted they'd leave it in the broadcast. They didn't really leave it in the broadcast, but that's why he says "Rose ... Byrne" like that. 😆 https://...

• Post #666902

  For Pi Day, we tried a new pizzeria, and it had a bunch of old boardgames, and I kept staring at the Laverne & Shirley boardgame. 😮 It's not "Ages 7 and up," a family game. It's "Ages 7 to 14." Sorry, Mom and Dad. Sorry, fifteen-year-old sibling! For you are _too worldly and sophisticated to enjoy the Laverne & Shirley game!_ You'll just have to play Booby-Trap* while we 7-to-14s make with the Schlemiel and/or the Sch...

• Post #666901

  I know nothing about the new Firefly Animated Series except that it's a continuation. So, I'll just say into the ether how I hope they use Alan Tudyk: Jayne brings a boyfriend onto the ship to bunk with him, and it's played by Alan. Jayne isn't good at relationships, so every 2-3 episodes he brings on a _completely different_ boyfriend, also played by Alan. Partly because this lets Tudyk's range shine and mostly to make Baldwin uncomfortable. 😄 #Firefl...

• Post #656288

  I want to follow a social media account that just posts RPG clickbait headlines. Not articles! Just headlines. YOU'VE BEEN SEARCHING DRIVETHRURPG COMPLETELY WRONG. WE TRIED THE FIVE BIGGEST SUPERHERO RPGS. THERE WAS A CLEAR WINNER. THE TERRIBLE THING YOU'RE DOING TO RUIN YOUR CLIFFHANGERS. MILLENNIALS MAKE THE WORST COMEDY GMS. HERE'S WHY. WE ASKED SEVEN PRO GMS THE BEST WAY TO GENERATE A RANDOM NUMBER FROM 1 TO 12. THEY ALL SAID THE SAME THING. Stuff like that. Som...

• Post #471244

  Let's try to cram #HTTRPG #AdventureDesign into one toot. The Duke Meany examples demonstrate a simple idea: Some facts constrict the viable range of PC approaches; some facts expand/multiply that range. In this context, we likey multiply-ey. The Duke Meany examples have just six supporting notes each, which is enough for a seed but not quite enough to call a ready-to-run scenario. But 30-90 well-designed notes? Solid one-nighter. Make it something the PCs will be passionate about. #T...