Ziggurat

@Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works

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Ziggurat ,

The press release is quite short,
Would be interesting to compare RPG with other hobbies/wellbeing activity.
Is playing RPG better than going out for a hike with your friends ?

Ziggurat ,

With experience, one learn that players will need 5 minutes to destroy 5hours of game prep.
So indeed, sticky notes and bullet points do wonder.

Also, somehow, modern games do wonder at reducing the amount of game prep

Ziggurat ,

Does D&D needs to be saved ?

It has a huge market share, is one of the few RPG generating money. Sure, there is some work for a CEO, but seems more about finding a way to generate more money, than about finding a way to not loose money like 99.9% of RPG out there

Ziggurat ,

Iam not a everything needs a rule it's IMHO the kind of thing which can be handled based on what make sense in the story and what build tensions

Ziggurat OP ,

Works for me

Ziggurat ,

Totally depending on the game/setting/campaign genre. I see the classic you're in a tavern as a bad practice and try to avoid-it (OSR may be an exception). In general, I would address the group consistency/relationship/and why they want to work together as part of character creation, but sometimes I'll start in media res by breaking the PC relax life with a dramatic event

Ziggurat ,

It's interesting seeing "random encounter" coming back in grace, I have the impression that they were universally considered as a "bad practice" for at least 2 decades, and now i see people defending them again. Is it an effect of both the OSR and Rule-light zero-prep ? Or is it that I spend more time on english speaking communities dominated by more "classical D&D perspective"

My issue, and why I (quickly in my GM career) stopped putting "random combat" is that, as a "low combat GM" random combats end-up interrupting the game for no reasons, and end-up being either "clay shooting practice" (So a few easy ennemies to roll some dices without bringing anything to the story) or a "catastrophic event" throwing all the PC plan away as they walked injured out of that fight and will need a lot of in game time to recover which basically breaks the game. If there is a combat, the PC called for it, either by their action or their non action, but not just by "simply existing in the game world"

However, I can totally see how for games with more focus on combat, it can still be interesting, just "not my cup of tea"

Ziggurat ,

Is it an AMA ?

Is it yet another VTT ? How does it compare to other VTT ? Why use this one rather than roll-20/Let's role/Foundry ?

Do you need to program a rule-set or is it a LLM reading a rule-book and turning it into a dynamic application ?

How does it deal with "story NPC" rather than just rules and combat (Remembering who wants want and who has which information ? ) Similar question for lore, which in some games/campaign can be intimidating

How much room does it let to the GM ? Fudging the dice, changing a map/monster on the fly and all the stuff that GM do

Ziggurat OP ,

I often say that the more I age the less combat I put in my game.
It's a tendency that has been ongoing over more than 20 years of game.

Firstly, we had discussion with other players about shooting at target isn't interesting, combat needs to be challenging and dangerous which basically involve removing any easy/useless encounters like this easy ambush to warm-up the party which doesn't bring much to the story, and I slowly evolved to combat still happens every session but it's one big/relevant combat rather than small random combat.

Then, when not having a "student agenda anymore", I had less time to play, when you need to finish the game-night at midnight rather than at 04, you need to cut-down stuff, and this is how I switched to occasional combats rather than regular combats.

In the last decade, I've been doing more and more drama-focused games rather than action focused game making combat even more useless. Even in more classical games, I often end-up skipping the combat, So you're well prepared the terrain have the advantage of the number, the surprise and the terrain, no need to roll the dice. This trends also goes with my players, like recently I had players solving a Cy_Borg one shot only by talking using spies drone (even though it's a game where I would have expected some fight) turn-out that when they understood *PCs are weak, fights are dangerous) they've done everything to avoid-it.

Ziggurat OP ,

I still prepare maps, though.

I almost never use battlemap, but sometimes I prepare map, as they help for more than just combat. A map of the crime-scene sometimes really helps the PC figuring out how the clues say something about the story. Knowing how dorm are organized in the university campus can really help when you want to play campus drama. Thinking about how the "servant can bring food from the castle-kitchen to the ballroom* suddently means that you have a whole network of small corridors which can be used for an infiltration.

And then even though I suck at it it's sometimes quite fun to do

Ziggurat OP ,

Wait, what’s the difference? A grid?

I'd say that the difference is mostly the intended use but you're right a map could be used for a battle or for role-play depending on the circumstance. You may-want to use the map just to fight, or want to use the map to set some "game elements", the tavern has some private lounge on the side, room where you can "buy some love" on the upper floor, and in the basement there is a few cages where the local mafia keep persons who needs to have a talk with the boss (and may loose some finger in Yakuza inspired scene)

Ziggurat OP ,

Sure, looks like I didn't checked the language before posting,

EDIT, I've done the change myself

Ziggurat ,

Pro tip. NPC want to live too offers more alternative to combats, make the one happening more interesting.

The Borg games have a whole morale rules to let the NPC flee, but this can be managed based on what makes sense story wise

Ziggurat ,

I am not really sure what kind of answer you're looking for. Cyberpunk RED is the successor of 2020, a classic RPG (from the era when D&D was called AD&D 2) which was needing a brush-up.

Actually Cyberpunk 2020 is one of the game I played the most (while I barely played D&D) but I wasn't a GM at it. I played Red once or twice, but my first impression is that the great principle are the same as 2020. So here are my 2-3 cenc on 2020.

It's a semi-closed environment. I mean night city is big, but unlike some D&D games were the PC travel the world at each adventure, the PC stay at night city, with the same corporation struggling to control-it, and they'll see the same contact, friend and foes. IMO at least the 2020 rules were lacking on that, but it was something managed RP wise as the PC were getting known in the place. It changes the way the the campaign runs, expect that your PC will make some corpo angry and need to find allies. It's not a political sandbox per se but can quickly evolve in that direction

Core rules are pretty straightforward, like Skill + D10 > Difficulty (in general 15, but can get lower for easy action and higher for impossible actions) , even combat isn't that complicated (It's coming from a time were you couldn't download tons of battle-map with grid online, and would have at best a sketch done a whiteboard). Don't get me wrong, it's not a rule-light game (whatever it means). But it's not that complicated.

I don't know whether they've made chome books for RED, but in 2020 we spent a lot of time lurking at all the crazy gear we could get. The way the 2020 chromebooks were made was also pretty role-play, more like a catalog than a rulebook making it pretty cool for the players. Try to get a copy of the 2020's chromebook if there is no version for red, and let them on the player side.

If I am not mistaken, the RED version finally turned netrunning into something playable (rather than having a kind of solo dungeon for the netrunner who would spend 2h to open a door while the rest of the party was playing tetris). All the 2020 games I played suppressed netrunning for that reason.

Ziggurat ,

I hadn’t thought of that. Needing and looking for allies sounds like a fun arc.

It's pretty easy to turn the campaign from You're in a bar, and someone comes with a mission into so you're in trouble with Biotechnica after stealing the data, and expect solo paid by theme to come any time to execute you, what do you do ? Were the answer is call back the guy from petrochem, and try to see if we can get a place to hide for some time It also eases a lot the preparation on the GM side, because suddenly, the players are the one coming with the scenario (OK that's may-be an over-statement)

Are there any short adventures/modules you’d recommend?

In English, not sure, but there is tons of amateur scenario for 2020 published on the internet, so it may-be a good starting point.

[System-agnostic] Running intelligent and informed adversaries that feel fair

So, I like stories where everyone is competent, and as a GM I try to run my villains as playing to win. My goal is for the players to have a good time, but the enemies will use every resource at their disposal to achieve their aims: they will retreat if continuing to give battle is a bad idea, they will go scorched earth if it's...

Ziggurat ,

Some thoughts, in a chaotic order

In general I try to GM in a philosophy like *NPC are person whose action reflects their "supposed skill level", who don't want to die and act rationally". It makes the whole story more realistic, limits the combat (Because NPC don't want to die). However, the how optimal they act is one of the tools I used to balance the game. Stuff like a sub-optimal combat tactic (not finish the already injured PC) or the good old waiting for the orders

A big issue are the "secret NPC reaction". An option I use a lot (in game with failure margin) is to stack-up the failure margin of the stealth roll, like PC know that they're doing noise,but don't necessarily know how much noise would wake-up the guard, trigger a silent alarm or have the special forces storming the complex (I know Blade in the dark has the clock concept which are similar). A more radical variant would be the PTBA-like consequences like you "do the action but someone acts in the background against you" which help the PC feel the "risk level getting higher" without the binary everything is fine --> A sniper just killed your character sorry. I've seen some game having reputation mechanic which is a way to put a number on how much a faction hate/like you. Which again can be used to increase the paranoia level.

Finally, if the PC understood the story differently than what I was planning, and that it make sense with what happened. I would change the plot to adapt to the PC understanding. Think about improv theatre were you're expected to say yes. If I wasn't clear with setting my scenario and the player go in another direction let's accept it rather than force the party back on the rails. there is obvious limits, like NPC aren't "that stupid"

Imperor , to RPGMemes
@Imperor@mastodon.social avatar

Min/max focused players engaging with campaigns where the Bard single-handedly wins a fight by convincing all enemies to just leave by role playing an adorable bunny with very fluffy ears; before their ultra fine tuned theory crafted mega build even gets their turn.


@rpgmemes

Admiral Picard asking "What is the point of creating this fantasy?"

Ziggurat ,

Quick reminder that player shall be encouraged to use creative way to avoid combat.
Fast talk, charm and even money are valid way to get rid of ennemy. Stealth and contacts are great way to avoid them

Ziggurat ,

To give you some thoughts (as I was telling you to post on a generic community, note that if I played some shadowrun v3 and a lot of cyberpunk 2020 a while ago, I am not a shadowrun guru)

My scenario-writing tip is to write down what happened, who is inlvolved, why and so on. Looks like you've done most of the work here. You know that some person are on corporate oil rid and want environmental activists to take the blame.

Based on that information, and on the fact that shadowrun is a cyberpunk game, and you need to keep the punk inside, meaning corpo are evil, environmental activists are the good guys (and never thrust a dragon). you don't want the environmental activists involved at first, you want the player to find out that it's a case between corpo where they find-out that the good guys are the victim. Letting more room for a moral dilemna for the PC. Do they want to let the world know the truth with the risk to get in trouble with the corpos an law. or do they want to protect themselves by repeating the narrative about bad environmental activists who are just eco-terrorists ?

Ziggurat ,

(btw, you marked your comment’s language as French, so somehow I can see it only in my “mailbox”)

Oops put the wrong flag then, sorry for people using a screen reader.
Interesting that it works here, because in some instances comments in a different language than the main thread are blocked

Ziggurat OP ,

New hardware, so wanted something moving a bit faster than debian,
and I thought it was the opportunity to switch from Ubuntu is an old African word meaning I can't configure Debian to Manjaro is an old African word meaning I can't configure arch :)

Ziggurat ,

I just have 2 boring large binder with my "old character sheets" and a small cardboard one I use for my current game. I lack drawing skills to customize it, but now I feel like I should add some stickers

Ziggurat ,

dice are only there to make noise behind the GM screen

Rules are just suggestions

PC death shall not be the result of bad dice roll, but a consequence of player actions one of my classic fudges to avoid it is to suppress the critical rule, and to replace single die system by multiple dices to have outcome easier to predict

Ziggurat ,

Come to the dark side, we have cookies

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/924cff3d-4892-415f-ba8c-caa81ff57370.jpeg

Ziggurat ,

Hope I’m right here with this, sorry if the question is too specific for this community.

I think the community is small enough to not get split between 4 sub communities. I don't play D&D but can't help much ?

Have you tried to evolve toward a more ? Strategic management game ? I assume that at this level they aren't anymore the one crawling dungeon but the one hiring NPC to to do. That they own a whole continent if not a whole plane, and even though they could use the nuclear option the political/diplomatic consequences might be to big. (think about real world, and how nuclear power still loose conventional war because of the political price of launching a bunch of nuke and turn a hostile country into a radioactive wasteland) Now is it what your PC want to do ? That's another issue

Ziggurat ,

And this is how, at a LARP, the cute alchemist touched my dick, after it was cut from my body.

True story, and that's how I had a characcer becoming the great godly eunuch

Ziggurat ,

That's a classic critic against D&D if one stroke of knife is deadly IRL it should be in RPG.

That said, 3 players means a GM so just cut in half and you get 4 piece including one for the GM

Ziggurat ,

I agree that D&D will always exist, I am just personally uninterested in the direction the game is going with the OneD&D

I'd be careful with that. When D&D 3E came out, AD&D 2 wasn't cool anymore compare to other games, and many people weren't really playing it or heavily modded. Remember how everyone was playing Vampire in the00's and how nobody plays it anymore ?

It's very easy to change game, and many GM/players do every so and on. The question is whether more people move to D&D than from D&D. If they try to squeeze too much money out of D&D they can easily go in the more people leave. Well with D&D being above 50% market share even if they loose 90% of their player base, they'll stay a big name in the RPG world. However, would a company keep investing in a product were the revenue stream is falling (even if "still existing" ?) Investor tend to be quite pragmatic and when an product line doesn't make enough money, they tend to get rid of it.

It's messy with Hasbro, but it doesn't mean that it'll be good if someone sees that they can make more money through movies/video-games and paid VTT than by publishing good TT RPG

Ziggurat ,

For boardgame, sometimes, since covid not much anymore (need to find back a slot in my agenda)

For RPG, I am lucky enough to have a large club in my city, so I have access to a better place to play for a cheaper price than a game shop

Ziggurat ,

It’s one of only two properties Hasbro has that makes any money at all.

How comes that Hasbro can make money with D&D ? We know that most of the RPG end-up costing money to their author or bringing them a revenue way under the hourly minimal wage. I know D&D is big and expensive compared to other RPG, so hopefully they bring money. But basically with the 3 base books, you have a few 100 hours of play for 5 persons. So doesn't look like a good investment for a large company.

I mean, yes there is Baldur's gate and the movie. but looks like the kind of IP which can be worth nothing in a decade if you don't keep the game alive

Ziggurat ,

I'm pretty hyped the Fate of the Eclipse which is an official port of Eclipse phase in the FATE system, but I haven't played it. There is so many stuff I'd like to play and so few time

Ziggurat ,

It's a great news, Let's hope they come back to the root of Warhammer FRPG, and don't turn in the D&D pitfall about publishing tons of books. When I was young, we WFRPG was very popular because you had all to play in one book, (and great published campaign) while D&D was like 3 almost mandatory books to play.

Also Warhammer is still an incredibly popular setting. At least on my enlarged area, warhammer larp are like the most common setting. (The rest being custom setting), it's a setting everyone knows (even without playing the miniature game) and pretty well suited for RPGs and LARPs

Also, one of my favourite image

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/fa8134d3-5c87-4e20-a564-f3c18e0157de.jpeg

Ziggurat ,

But I do think Blades is my favorite “rules light” system

I've read "Beam saber" which is supposed to be Forged in the Dark, and I wouldn't call it "Rule light", the core is simple, but there is like 200 pages of rules, with "position", "consequences', flash back, downtime. Looks pretty heavy for a "rule light" system

But I still need to play-it to see how it runs, feel like there is a lot of "unique" concepts and that we'll need 2-3 one shot to get a feel how it runs

Ziggurat OP ,

Interesting, because I wouldn't thought about D&D/Pathfinder as game easing the GM job but indeed, well written module/campaign are really helpful, especially for a busy GM. Also a well balanced system is also a great tool

Ziggurat ,

Unlike heroic fantasy, there isn't one big sci fi games.

At the moment, I see mostly people playing Alien and Coriolis. I played only a couple of one shots, so have no strong opinion on them. But Alien's tension mechanic is neat.

Eclipse phase has an amazing lore, However, the system sucks, if you like the lore get the FATE of the eclipse version, not even that FATE is great, but it's a functional system unlike the D100 one

Ziggurat OP ,

A few thoughts on my side.

  • The sniper : At a shadowrun game, created a sniper with an interfaced gun, like never miss a target, it’s pretty cool, I stay at long range while providing cover to the PC. This turns out in The PC are having fun doing the mission, my character stays out as support, time to play tetris because for the next 2 hours I won’t do anything
  • The Malkavian : If you take the VtM lore as written, it’s great you’re dangerous, wise, borderline frightening and could explode at any moment. Practically, it’s hard to play madness properly, especially on a frightening way, it’s even harder when you’re the clan without clear “combat discipline” meaning that other PC won’t really fear you, and without a GM giving you “secret informations to handle”. I tried a few time but never got a satisfying result
Ziggurat OP ,

Some of my plan

  • Run a Mecha campaign, still not sure on the game, currently reading beam saber, which looks quite heavy for a “rule-light” game
  • Play a heroic fantasy larp, Since covid I’ve been more in high immersion parlour game
  • Find a seat at a World of Darkness table
Ziggurat OP ,

get into space RPGs. Anyone got any recommendations?

I played a lot of Fading Suns at the start of the century, we’re closer from Dune/Babylon 5 than from Star wars or Star treck in term of concept. The game isn’t new (well there was a 4E released recently), and Is a game from the late 90’s whose authors worked on Werewolf the Apocalypse this simple sentence tells a lot about the game (Faction who hate each other, imminent doom and more) if it’s your stuff go for it.

I played a couple of one shots of Alien and Coriolis, worked fine but I don’t know enough the game to have a hard advise on it

and as I said, I plan a Mecha campaign, Lancer seems to combat/crunch heavy so I plan to try Beam saber soon

Ziggurat OP ,

Unrelated question but for my culture

Set in the near future, it centers on junior high (middle) school-teacher

Is the Junior-High / Middle difference a regional split ? Or a administrative/legal jargon versus everyday’s dialect ? thing ?

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