I wouldn’t quite put it that way. Sandbox is one approach for immersive sims, not a requirement. Immersive simulation is about how things get resolved, more than how they’re structured. TTISG GMs can put the PCs in a particular location & situation, as long as they’re still free to wander off #ttisg
Interesting take on "old school" & the "OSR"--what if the defining characteristic of the OSR is the "sandbox" (or, as Jeff Dee might put it, the #TTISG sandbox)? (1/4) 🧵
I suspect these folks (I include myself) would be better served by @jeffdee.bsky.social‘s coinage of #TTISG (TableTop Immersive Simulation Game) as a genre of TTRPG, rather than OSR?
Right. “Traditional” only identifies the way things have been done. It doesn’t invite a conversation about *why* things were done a certain way, or what people liked about the way things were done, or how what they liked might be done even better. #ttrpg #ttisg
… this would seem to foreclose on the possibility of additional innovation in the #TTISG (TableTop Immersive Simulation Games) field. & I think we are a long way from that yet! (2/2)
Not for the first time, I am surprised to see that @jeffdee.bsky.social’s tremendously useful #TTISG (TableTop Immersive Simulation Game) hasn’t caught on in the TTRPG world. What gives, groovers?
The #ttrpg catchphrase “rulings over rules” bugs me. It’s not wrong, it’s beside the point. GMs make rulings when rules are absent or poor because we’re at a tabletop not a computer. Designers must still ask 1) what rules are needed and 2) how to make ‘em good enough not to need over-ruling. #ttisg
Any of you groovers know of a Powered by the Apocalypse/ Forged in the Dark, Fate, or other "storytelling" TTRPG that supports Industrial Science Fiction?
(FWIW, I'm counting Those Dark Places as "Trad" or a #TTISG -- along with Mothership & Hostile.)
I like square grids for dungeons (& large building interiors), and hex grids for wilderness. For city maps, whichever grid type best handles the particular city’s layout. Interested in hearing other opinions. #ttrpg #ttisg
After a 3 year break, I’m returning my attention to #tekumel. First up will be a re-release of #bethorm, my own #ttisg set in the world of Tékumel. With a few typo corrections, a refined initiative system, and a disclaimer about the despicable MAR Barker. bethorm.com
Every GM can put together an adventure for an existing game system that they’ve learned. Not every GM can design a good system from the ground up. #ttisg #ttrpg
There’s no eliminating the GM from traditional #ttrpg s (except at a steep cost in immersion). But there IS room for supporting GMs with simulationist mechanics.
Yep, this is me blathering about my beloved ‘tabletop immersive simulation’ approach to TTRPGs again ;-) #ttisg
Under the #ttisg playstyle of #ttrpgs it's inappropriate for a player to control multiple characters. It pulls that player's focus out of *their* character, harming immersion. It's better if NPCs who follow a PC are controlled by the GM. This also enables them to act like real people (not robots).
Work continues on Tales of the Unseen, the monsters campaign / sourcebook for V&V3: Mighty Protectors. I can finally see the end of the writing in my future 🙂
The main thing remaining is all the history and geography of the Abomination Realm. Then, the artwork!
#vandv #ttrpg #ttisg
#ttisg design advice: keep your mechanics as straightforward as possible. Your players are there for the adventure, not to fiddle with dice gimmicks. Give them some options (slow & careful, quick & dirty, etc) and then answer the questions: did they succeed or fail, and how well or how badly.
Whether they have to or not, in my experience the vast majority of players want their characters to succeed. My post addresses the tendency of many players to think that complex / difficult / tricky actions are *more* likely to succeed, when in fact the opposite is true - at least in #ttisg RPGs.
In a #ttisg, as in life, complex / difficult / tricky actions are LESS likely to work. IF you succeed, THEN the spectacular results you hope for can occur. So before trying to run up the dragon’s back & stab it in the head, consider your PC’s skills & the embarrassment & time wasted if you fall off.
Last night @talzhemir.bsky.social ran a great playtest session of Tales of the Unseen, my upcoming monsters campaign sourcebook for V&V3: Mighty Protectors. Combining elements of Lovecraftian horror, Robert E Howard, and Pokémon! Our good monster PCs saved the world once again. #v&v #ttisg #totu
I don’t play tabletop RPGs to “tell stories”. I play TTRPGs to *have an adventure*. That the adventure at the table may be told as a ‘story’ afterward, is beside the point. I want RPG rules which facilitate experiencing an adventure. Not rules to help me ‘tell a story’. There’s a difference. #ttisg
I’m running a *third* #ttisg campaign, ‘cuz we have friends who need it (they haven’t gamed in years), and ‘cuz I can’t stop myself. It’s very low-powered supers (aka’ Mystery Men), using V&V3: Mighty Protectors but not set in the MP Multiverse. Tonight they battled evil baseball guys in their lair.
Self-immersion exercise for #ttisg players. Try this a few times during your next game. Close your eyes and visualize the situation your character is in, as if through their eyes. If you have aphantasia, try imagining the weight of the weapon in their hand, or the sound their footsteps make instead.
I’m not saying I’m a #TTISG (TableTop Immersive Simulation Game) fan but I’m looking for a Napoleonic game that makes me plot ship courses on charts with a pair of compasses. Nautical Mathematics? Yes, please!
I’m also looking for books on early 19th century handwriting.
Any folks have recs?
Tonight @talzhemir.bsky.social runs her test of my upcoming V&V3:MP-based #ttisg, Tales of the Unseen. PCs are good monsters protecting the world from the shadows. My PC is Prof. Blackburn, a human mage who became a monster by investigating Lovecraftian horrors. He teleports & has a mental blast.
Tabletop Immersive Simulation Game. It's an RPG playstyle & design philosophy, borrowing back from Warren Spector's 'Immersive Sim' computer game genre (which is an attempt to bring something more like the ttrpg experience to computer games). Click here to read all of my posts about it: #ttisg
/2 Of course that all seems simple and obvious. That’s fine; #ttisg isn’t an attempt to re-invent the wheel. It’s a measuring stick for analyzing the wheel, for getting back to what was originally good about it, and for using that perspective to help make new wheels which are equally good or better.
At a minimum, role-playing consists of seeing the game world and reacting to it from the perspective of one’s character. For this reason, #ttisg design’s primary goal is to facilitate that. By plausibly resolving in-character actions, while minimizing out of character distractions.
Sounds similar to what I'm trying to do for #ttisg design. Which hasn't so much 'petered out', as been diluted by mechanics from other playstyles. A consequence of #ttisg never having been clearly defined in the first place.
In discussing the tabletop immersive sim rpg playstyle, I've repeatedly contrasted it with story gaming. Another playstyle which #ttisg is *not*, is FKR (Free Kriegsspiel Roleplaying). The main difference is FKR's blanket opposition to mechanics, while #ttisg embraces mechanics as a helpful GM tool.
Huh. is it that you think 'simulation' necessarily implies 'realism'? If so, I assure you it doesn't. I use the #ttisg approach for *superheroes*. Can't get much less 'realistic' than that. It's just about giving the setting internal consistency and treating it as if it has an objective existence.
#ttisg isn't a new trend, exactly. I'm writing down, analyzing and fleshing out a very *old* RPG playstyle. It goes all the way back to the early days of the hobby. But it never really had a name before, and I had to call it something in order to talk about it. So the acronym, at least, is new :)
