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Coolness Averted posted:TG 20015: LOL we're the grognards now! The first one was unironic too.
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Sep 19, 2018 22:17
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also drat i didnt expect to see "badwrongfun" in the tail end of 2018, but thats just how it is in this bitch of a world i guess
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Sep 19, 2018 22:18
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Countblanc posted:also drat i didnt expect to see "badwrongfun" in the tail end of 2018, but thats just how it is in this bitch of a world i guess Time is a snake eating its own tail.
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Sep 19, 2018 22:23
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Don't worry, by 20018 Dungeon World will be in again with the release of its 213th editon, and everyone will talk about it until all the joy has been sucked out and someone gushes about a new D&D derivative at the end of the month.
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Sep 19, 2018 22:28
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Countblanc posted:also drat i didnt expect to see "badwrongfun" in the tail end of 2018, but thats just how it is in this bitch of a world i guess I mean hey, I didn't expect my stupid thread title to be used in a weird argument I'm not following, but here I am and here it is.
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Sep 19, 2018 22:46
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dwarf74 posted:I mean hey, I didn't expect my stupid thread title to be used in a weird argument I'm not following, but here I am and here it is. Honestly, I have no clue what this argument is or is about. Somehow I didn't even realize there was an argument going on. I'm dense, yo.
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Sep 19, 2018 22:54
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Kestral posted:Friends at the Table is also a classic example of a dysfunctional table with a GM and players who simply cannot get on the same wavelength about tone, at least if COUNTER/Weight is anything to go by. When every episode of a campaign begins with GM-written quiet introspective narration over somber music, you know what the tone of the game is supposed to be. And when play in that campaign is what you'd expect from a cast with a professional comedian in it, and full of characters like "Drillbot Taylor" and "Lazer Ted," you're constantly reminded of how the players are struggling (or often just not bothering) to engage with the kind of narrative they ostensibly signed up for. In that respect, it's still a good learning experience for seeing how not to match a campaign premise and a group of players. (Older topic from this morning because I was at work all day and they actually made me do my job. The bastards.) Yeah, I disagreed with you then and I still disagree with you now. I just fundamentally disagree with all of your points about them being dysfunctional. They are constantly making sure everyone's on the same page and working together in all aspects of characterization and world-building. This is obviously a group of friends who are committed to telling a cool story. Yeah, Keith tells some jokes, but they roll with it and keep inviting him to play so it can't be too much of a problem, plus most of the really silly stuff he does is in the second season. Where he's expressly playing this weird goofball manchild who was never really socialized cause he grew up in happy fun holographic Hogwarts. And even then he gets pretty intense and has some pretty dark bits in the very end of the season. Also, all of your examples come from COUNTER/weight and none of their other stuff, and you only reference things that happened early on so I don't know how much to trust you as an informed participant. Like, I'm really not trying to gatekeep cause that's gross and dumb and stupid, but I think it's fair to say that someone who has a limited exposure to something could get a very skewed and inaccurate idea of what something is like as a whole. I could reference that thing with the blind men and the elephant, but instead I'm going to be a lot nerdier : if you only every watched that one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where her mom dies, you'd probably think the show was way, way, way, way, darker than it really is if you watched all/most of it even very casually. (Yes I'm not spoiler tagging that. It's a 20 year old show. There's a statute of limitations.) I specifically mentioned their Blades in the Dark season called Marielda : City of Light because it's a beautiful grouping of tone and gameplay and expressing the tone through the gameplay and back and forth between all of the players. It's collaborative kind of steampunky fantasy Ocean's 11 and it owns. Also just cause you seem to always harp on the music not matching the tone, I got to link the music from Marielda cause it's my go to example of a song perfectly matching the tone of a game. Austin has a short opening monologue to some background music that I like, but you can skip ahead to around 1:10 to just hear the main theme. Can you listen to all those clarinets and seriously look me in the eye and tell me that you don't want to rob a train with a sawed-off magic wand? If I sound harsh, keep in mind that you're one of my favorite posters. It's why I find this so baffling and bother to post about it.
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Sep 19, 2018 23:31
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Xiahou Dun posted:Can you listen to all those clarinets and seriously look me in the eye and tell me that you don't want to rob a train with a sawed-off magic wand? Can confirm, train robbery/old west with guns replaced by wands is a really great hook, haven't listened to that podcast but I ran that as a short game nearly a decade ago and friends still talk about it. And I'm a lovely DM, so I can imagine someone who actually preps could make it sing.
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Sep 19, 2018 23:37
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Tonight’s game was not my best showing. Longass stressful day meant I had a complete lack of imagination at the table and I couldn’t think of anything but the obvious, and I couldn’t make anything particularly fun or interesting happen. Struggling a bit with Dungeon World, actually, and I could tell my players weren’t getting into it towards the end (looking at phones etc).  I’ll take the next couple weeks to convalesce and review the system...I feel like I missed something obvious. But yeah, no fun tales tonight.
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Sep 20, 2018 01:18
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Pollyanna posted:Tonight’s game was not my best showing. Longass stressful day meant I had a complete lack of imagination at the table and I couldn’t think of anything but the obvious, and I couldn’t make anything particularly fun or interesting happen. Struggling a bit with Dungeon World, actually, and I could tell my players weren’t getting into it towards the end (looking at phones etc). These things happen, but I don't think you should let it stress you out. Most players are just happy to play, and what feels awful to you may still be passable for them. Otherwise, well, they're more than happy to cut you some slack if you have an off day. Provided they're not dicks. I think my worst GMing experience was with Legends of the Wulin. It wasn't the game's fault, the players just weren't into it. The worst that happened was that they told me they'd much rather get back into doing 13th Age, so that's what we did.
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Sep 20, 2018 01:31
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Yeah, it wasn't awful, just nowhere near as good as I could have done. Oh well. Imma re-read some stuff.
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Sep 20, 2018 01:51
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Pollyanna posted:Tonight’s game was not my best showing. Longass stressful day meant I had a complete lack of imagination at the table and I couldn’t think of anything but the obvious, and I couldn’t make anything particularly fun or interesting happen. Struggling a bit with Dungeon World, actually, and I could tell my players weren’t getting into it towards the end (looking at phones etc). It's hard for the GM to 'create fun' such as it is with PbtA, it really does require player buy-in. See how it goes next time, but don't be afraid to try something with a bit more crunch for them to cling to if they're having a hard time with the improv.
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Sep 20, 2018 02:03
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Joe Slowboat posted:I'd like an AP podcast that's primarily about friends actually negotiating what they want out of a game, working together to understand complicated or novel rules systems, and sometimes having to X-card out of the room for a bit. To expand on this, going through the session zero and the 'what are we playing and why we are playing it' is often the hardest part of running and rpg and every single AP podcast skips that and goes without it. I would love for one of the big AP to set this out and explain how their cake is made before they go in.
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Sep 20, 2018 02:12
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kingcom posted:To expand on this, going through the session zero and the 'what are we playing and why we are playing it' is often the hardest part of running and rpg and every single AP podcast skips that and goes without it. I would love for one of the big AP to set this out and explain how their cake is made before they go in. 100%. Session 0 (and sometimes 01 and 02) are the most important sessions because if everyone is not on the same page it's super lovely and stressful and not everyone's having fun.
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Sep 20, 2018 02:19
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*cough*FriendsattheTable*cough* But like seriously they not only usually do session 0, they often do two. Like one for the whole world, then another for characters. Often hours long. gently caress, for one game they literally played a several session long run of a different game collaboratively making the setting. For another season they had a faction game they stole from Stars Without Numbers and than combined with Microscope so they could play out what happens on the larger scale and it would subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) tie into the main narrative in the smaller scale cyberpunk anime game they were playing. Sorry I keep gushing, but it's a very good podcast. (Although if we're being honest I'm not super into the current season and I bounce off of it hard and I'm hoping they switch to something new soon. But I can still acknowledge it's good poo poo, I just am not super into the setting/genre as a taste thing.)
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Sep 20, 2018 02:28
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The one problem with that is that if you're not personally involved in session 0s, they are super boring. In fact, the part of RPGs that isn't the action and character banter itself is super boring if you're not the one playing it. RPGs are a lot more fun to play than listen to, unless it's the kinda stuff that gets animated on Youtube. Like I was hoping to dive immediately into dungeon crawling and grabbing treasure and poo poo for my current game, because I like getting to the action as soon as possible, and dungeon crawling is only about action. Sometimes I just want poo poo to happen, dammit.
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Sep 20, 2018 02:37
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Agree to disagree? They make good settings/characters.
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Sep 20, 2018 02:39
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Xiahou Dun posted:Agree to disagree? They make good settings/characters. I haven't listened to Friends at the Table, so I'm speaking about session 0s in general. If I'm not contributing to a session 0 or if it's not my players' session 0 I don't care, get to the head smashing 
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Sep 20, 2018 02:41
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I listen to podcasts for banter and the context of the banter is less relevant to me than the quality
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Sep 20, 2018 02:42
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Xarbala posted:I listen to podcasts for banter and the context of the banter is less relevant to me than the quality Agreed, Cum Town ftw
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Sep 20, 2018 03:13
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Plutonis posted:Agreed, Cum Town ftw i mean when you're right, you're right
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Sep 20, 2018 03:24
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This is really dumb and random and off topic, but I just vaguely remembered that there was something awesome and hilarious about how the Ducks in Glorantha worship Humakt that involved someone wearing a fake duckbill? But I can't actually remember what it was. Was it that they pictured Humakt as wearing a fake duckbill but being human? Made other Humakti wear a fake duckbill? I swear this is real but it's surprisingly hard to google and I feel like I'm having a stroke here.
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Sep 20, 2018 03:56
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Xiahou Dun posted:Agree to disagree? They make good settings/characters. My issue is that Session 0 to generate characters and setting is really different from pre-game social efforts to make the group function. Discussing tone, style, engagement and expectations explicitly and frankly, talking about lines and veils and so on, all the things that one can do to make a game work that have nothing to do with specifics of setting or mechanics.
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Sep 20, 2018 03:56
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Joe Slowboat posted:My issue is that Session 0 to generate characters and setting is really different from pre-game social efforts to make the group function. Discussing tone, style, engagement and expectations explicitly and frankly, talking about lines and veils and so on, all the things that one can do to make a game work that have nothing to do with specifics of setting or mechanics. Yeah that they do off the podcast but specifically reference/summarize in the beginning of session 0.
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Sep 20, 2018 04:02
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I think I have an idea for my game to make it easier for the players to get invested. Split sessions into explicit scenes, maybe about 2 or so per session where a scene 1. immediately relates to the players and 2. immediately gets us into the action. This might help prevent the “2 hour shopping trip-slash-villager inquisition” problem and helps us get to the meat of the game while bypassing the boring poo poo. As soon as the game starts to drag, cut the scene, narrate how some poo poo goes down, and dive straight into the action of the next scene.
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Sep 20, 2018 04:11
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Xiahou Dun posted:This is really dumb and random and off topic, but I just vaguely remembered that there was something awesome and hilarious about how the Ducks in Glorantha worship Humakt that involved someone wearing a fake duckbill? But I can't actually remember what it was. There might be something like that in the setting but there was the event in king of dragon pass where another tribe is pissed you're so friendly with the ducks so they tar and feather one of your villagers and put a fake bill on him. http://kingofdragonpass.wikia.com/wiki/Tarred,_Feathered,_Billed
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Sep 20, 2018 04:14
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I remember that event but I swear there was a different thing from the Ducks’ perspective. But I might also be insane.
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Sep 20, 2018 04:26
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I'm pretty sure I've also read that the ducks worship Humakt wearing a duck bill, you're not going insane.
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Sep 20, 2018 04:34
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It's not Humakt wearing a duck-bill, it's Death-duck. Original deity, do not steal.
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Sep 20, 2018 04:49
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iirc all the duck gods are just duck versions of the core orlanthi gods
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Sep 20, 2018 04:58
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 New blogpost for The Next Project is up! Today, we're talking about the origins of the skill system -- Skillsets, Attributes, the math behind it, and what influenced these (and other) design choices. Ultimately, with these designs, I'm always trying to improve and iterate on D&D, or avoid some of its pitfalls. So this post talks a lot about some of the perceived problems, and what sorts of answers this system provides for them. If you're interested in talking about the game's designs, all goons are invited to join the TNP Discord.
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Sep 20, 2018 05:31
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fool_of_sound posted:iirc all the duck gods are just duck versions of the core orlanthi gods 
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Sep 20, 2018 05:35
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Halloween Jack posted:I really want to do this, but it would basically require a) finding my perfect D&D ruleset that's built around tactical combat but not too much work, and b) making this interact with a "domain management" system where you're tracking the fame and success of yourself and your team. I think The Nightmares Underneath could work pretty well for that purpose with some rules tweaking and a healthy amount of reskinning
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Sep 20, 2018 07:36
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Xiahou Dun posted:
No. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enuOArEfqGo Follow the related links, especially to the Star Wars Suite.
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Sep 20, 2018 07:53
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Xiahou Dun posted:
Aren't wands already kind of short?
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Sep 20, 2018 10:36
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fool_of_sound posted:On the whole through I think highly produced ones are probably corrosive to the hobby, since the games that listeners play in won't be A) run by and for professional comedians and B) scripted and edited. They warp expectations in the way all idealized media do, except new players don't have any actual experiences to compare the idealized version to. On the other hand they probably do get more people to try tabletop games so maybe it's a wash. Yea, this is a concern too. It's also as others have noted, that a lot of the OOC discussion about game flavor and player investment can take place "off camera" where it's not apparent - and that in the case of a "big" podcast, a player might accept something they would never be happy with in a regular game, if it's bringing in viewers. I'm pretty sure that if Dragon Friends were a real group there'd be arguments between Alex Lee and Michael Hing over the latter hogging spotlight time and story triggers over the former, for example. But in a podcast, that becomes an appealing part of Michael Hing's PC character for the listeners, so it sticks. (Although to be fair, Dragon Friends has never claimed to be AP.) I didn't follow Counter/Weight but for all the complaints about Lazer Ted, just look at the amount of fanart etc. of that character and think how unimportant having your campaign's flavor tilted would be compared to getting that kind of engagement from the players, let alone the public. hyphz fucked around with this message at 12:39 on Sep 20, 2018 |
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Sep 20, 2018 12:34
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hyphz posted:Yea, this is a concern too. It's also as others have noted, that a lot of the OOC discussion about game flavor and player investment can take place "off camera" where it's not apparent - and that in the case of a "big" podcast, a player might accept something they would never be happy with in a regular game, if it's bringing in viewers. It'll guide style of play, sure - but no, new players are not idiots who can't tell the difference. This is a silly and groggy concern.
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Sep 20, 2018 12:45
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I think podcasts get more interested people into the hobby, often from diverse backgrounds that traditionally have never felt welcome playing, and that's a net good. I do find it kind of painful when it's all focused on 5e and my social media feeds get filled with people lavishing praise on the game, but a lot of podcasts have been diversifying and featuring smaller indie games, too. And that's also done great things for those games: https://twitter.com/fredhicks/status/965626402467909634 (You can click through to see the full tweet chain)
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Sep 20, 2018 12:57
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i got into rpgs by listening to the 4e penny arcade podcasts and thinking "i could do that" and i wasn't wrong
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Sep 20, 2018 12:59
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dwarf74 posted:This is no more a concern than watching Tom Brady and giving up on football because you'll never be that good. To put it another way, GMs have historically had no trouble building up unrealistic expectations of roleplaying game grandeur in their heads only to have their aspirations dashed, even before podcasts and actual plays were a thing. I'm sure everyone here has a handful of stories about playing in a game (or attempting to run one) with lofty ambitions of being some sprawling epic campaign for the ages full of drama and excitement and comedy that was actually funny only for it all to implode about three sessions in due to various reasons. The last time I played Reign at the tabletop the GM went to the trouble of writing up all sorts of handouts and setting guides that he'd written up himself, without any prompting from anyone else I should add, he just seemed really, really into it. Game lasted two sessions and then he decided he didn't want to run it after all.
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Sep 20, 2018 13:00
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