And it doesn't hurt that for those of us who remember the "before times" having big three ring binders is strongly reminiscent of those early school-days and playing rpgs from notes kept in those.

There is an incredible joy in finding old artifacts of play. Maps you drew, character sheets, notebooks full of campaign notes and so on. I think more games should generate remnants as part of play like that.

I think your solution is genius ^_^

Aside from being a huge fan of Scavenger's Reign — this is a woefully undeserved niche in games I think. Finding wonder and exploration (that you're not inventing yourself) is a pretty cool experience. Can't wait to see what you cook up.

Also who doesn't love a good crab-dog? ^_^

My friend grinning wildly over finding some old monster manual 3-ring binders in our outing to a used bookstore. Pointing to an entry for a Kraken.

This brings me joy. I'm not sure if you know, but the original Monster Manuals for D&D were all 3-ring binders. And you'd just add new monsters to them periodically.

I'll try! A key thing in planetary survival stories (Scavenger's Reign, or Subnautica for ex.) is the characters learning and observing their surroundings. Is this part of the alien landscape wondrous, or is it hazardous, or both?
1/4

My art, digital. A women sleeps in the hands of a giant skulled God

Rest. May you dream of wolves- 2021

Say more about this learning about them bit <_<

A meme with two images. The first is an image of a city on fire with an apocalyptic blaze labeled "The World:". The second is a pic of Will Farell yelling "DO YOU NEED ANY..." with "RPGs?" clearly edited in at the end.

It me.

Excellent blep.

But you could also just mail the creator and ask. It's less of an overhead than organizing interviews, matching timezones, etc. :P

I think you'd be surprised at the audience. It's probably not huge, but many people that end up designing games start along this path right? This is the questions you first ask before you find yourself jotting down notes and before you know it ... ^_~

Yep! But also (more importantly in my opinion) who gets to influence/speak in the conversation. On a 6- it's the GM/MC. On a 7-9 both the player and the GM. On a 10+ it's the player.

It's a marvelous topic for blog posts, design discussions, and interviews though! You should start a "Why This Number" podcast where you just interview designers and ask them stuff like that ^_~

The players and GM reading the book don't really need to know why that number is there to run it, and the extra information (and corresponding probability, statistics, and graphs) is clutter that doesn't relate to running or playing the game per se. It's overhead/noise in that context.

I think there's a dissonance here between player and designer here.

While in many cases there is a good reason (or its: "I dunno, I copied it from this other game whose designer put it there for a reason") , the discussion of the math or why that number is chosen should probably be elsewhere.

I also assume you know the 6-, 7-9, 10+ breakdown on PbtA probabilities yea?

The only problem I have with The Pitt is the fact that we don't have a Pitt: Night Shift show already.

No shade on The Pitt (though it's very heavy this season), but the night shift cast has so much charm and chemistry.

This was back when "Rogue" was certainly a thing but not so much Rogue-likes ^_~

Though megadungeons and people "restarting" in the make-a-new adventurer way were the standard game template in the early RPG days. (aka: "Rogue" more literally)

A long (long) time ago I ran a Call of Cthulhu campaign that always started with folks waking up with their stats reset and the same chain of events. We'd play for a session or two and when things went sideways... things would rewind.

This is almost impossible to explain to folks without having been through the actual crucible of publishing.

I live in this space T_T

I suggest the HR or DMV zone :P

I feel called out ... but also <_<

Dang that looks good!

TTRPG systems, at their core, are frameworks of creative restraints, posing imaginary exercises you wouldn't undertake otherwise.

House-ruling games out the gate avoids the confrontation of expectations & robs you the opportunity of switching frameworks, making you default into a "standard game".

Just curious — how do you delineate Blades vs Forged? Is it just a personal label by the author or is there some internal heuristic you use? (I ask as I'm curiously adding some stuff up for the totals pie chart)

Despite it's flaws, the widespread popularity of that show really gives me hope for a new generation of little pirates ^_~ If you need a show with a protagonist who channels that bugs-bunny energy and punches the system ... it's not a bad example.

This may depress you more — but the jester role these days is usually filled by late night comedians and the like. Honestly some of the better reporting is being done by a few of them.

Sadly not as many in this archetype in the kids section of things. Except for Luffy. No, I'm not joking.

I was going to say #2 because (maybe) 3 and definitely 4 are superhero games and #1 may involve hunting vampires ^_^