Trad Games Chat: squabbled over drafts, forked, and disbanded

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Trad Games Chat: squabbled over drafts, forked, and disbanded

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Froghammer posted:

Does this thread know about the Monte Cook Google story? When I get off work I'm gonna give you all the Monte Cook Google story

I don't want to nag, but I want to nag you about this.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2021 23:02

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 22:35

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Kestral posted:

Honestly, with SA's status as the internet equivalent of a historically significant site, I can respect that.

This has probably been suggested, but just on the off chance that it hasn't: could we just get new smilies with the same images as the problematic ones, but with different names? Preserves the existing threads, lets people use useful emoticons without having to Write A Slur.

~~I believe several smilies have already been renamed this way over the past few years, yes.~~

Yawgmoth posted:

There's a not insignificant number of goons who think that the problem with [pick a word] is the word itself rather than the true intent of the person using it, and I think it's funny in the saddest, most ironic way that there are so many tone policing backseat mods on SA in 2021 when just a few years ago that poo poo would get you a ban and/or an ALOD depending on where you were spouting off.

C'mon man, this sort of thing isn't rocket science. If you deliberately create an environment where people are comfortable saying slurs, you... attract people that are comfortable saying slurs. And if you try to call them on that, they can say you're misreading their intent and furthermore how dare you etc and you end up with a roomful of polite bigots who then stand behind their friends, the less-polite bigots, and vouch that you're just being a killjoy when you question THEIR intent.
If we want to crack down on incidental slurs in smileys, go nuts, I trust the logic behind it and the people making the decision and I don't think we're losing something precious by doing it. And I'm saying this as a guy on the autism spectrum who (PERSONALLY, and JUST personally) doesn't feel strongly about the term (I don't say it, because I (1) don't want to and (2) I don't think everyone feels like me and I absolutely don't want to be an rear end in a top hat to them).

edit:

Leperflesh posted:

I pretty much agree with you guys' takes on the sperg thing, and have communicated as much, but essentially it's in jeffrey and the admins' hands now and whenever they get around to it, I hope and will encourage there to be a sitewide discussion that raises issues like those mentioned here. For now though, this is not yet on the menu so the discussion is a bit premature.

Apologies, didn't see this.

Drakyn fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Feb 13, 2021

# ¿ Feb 13, 2021 16:12

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

theironjef posted:

I would like an actually good game with humans alongside dinosaurs. I've read a bunch and every one fails for various crazy reasons. I don't even care much what the theme is, could be JP, could be Dinotopia, could be a mix, as long as the mechanics are good and there's no confederate apologia.

Also the dinos need to be real species, I don't want one where there's an electric baryonix called a Teslasaurus.

Honestly, what strikes me as the most crucial thing in making this work is ensuring that you're making a dinosaur game rather than a game that has dinosaurs in it - you need the dinosaurs to be (1) present by default, (2) integral to the game, and (3) exceptional within the setting and mechanics. Otherwise you end up with Broncosaurus Rex where clearly the whole thing was just taping together a bunch of generic D&D 'big animal' statblocks in between the countless pages of neoconfederate propaganda that was the author's REAL fancy (rare exceptions aside, like malevolent psychic tyrannosaurs being literal tyrant lizard kings), or one of five hundred different pulp fiction settings where there's some dinosaurs in a hollow earth or on mars or whatever but they're just there as background props from the whacky wowie zany land of SCIENCE ADVENTURE!!!!!! or god knows what.
As long as you've got that nailed down, it's a better start than they usually get. Make it a time-machine-guided ecology-designing project like a more specific Microscope; a deanthropomorphized multi-species community-building effort like a village-less The Quiet Year meets the Land Before Time; make it a crunchy squad-based tactics game around playing a rogue group of cloned Albertosaurus running loose in downtown Toronto and evading recapture while finding food; make it about trying to find the safest, fastest way off Isla Sorna circa 1994 with nothing but a broken radio and four stranded retail employees. Just so long as it's actually about the dinosaurs, rather than them being part of the background bestiary in place of deer, bears, and elephants.

# ¿ May 13, 2021 22:06

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Epi Lepi posted:

I have an unrelated to CR question:

If you all wanted to run a game where the players were tourists at Jurassic Park/World when The poo poo Goes Down, and you didn't want to do it in PbtA, what system would you use?

Mr. Maltose posted:

I would absolutely say Dread would be perfect if you're leaning horror but that's very reliant on being physically in one place with a Jenga set and that's not really an option for most people these days.

It's too bad about the likely difficulties Mr. Maltose brings up because this was what I did a billion years ago for my family, which was directly inspired by Shrecknet's version of Jurassic Dread. Both of them leaned a little horror-comedy-ish, although of course that's not an automatic given and frankly I can imagine the tone wandering a lot depending on how good the players are at Jenga.\

edit:

mellonbread posted:

Would help to know what tone and mechanics you're shooting for - a DCC style bloodbath with a troupe of expendable characters? Something more like CoC where the characters are fragile, but can spend "luck" or other metagame resources to divert death?

This would also be important yeah. Like, what Jurassic Park are we talking here? The original film, with a small cast of humans and dinosaurs and a lot of tension but a low body count and the humans having almost nothing that can hurt the animals head-on? The Lost World, where there's tons of goons and guns but they mostly just die in droves due to being out of their depth? The original BOOK, where the park warden has a missile launcher but there's like thirty+ raptors so it doesn't mean much if he explodes four or five before losing the ammo and having to hide in a drainpipe and there's nameless staff members being eaten just offscreen constantly?

Drakyn fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Jul 13, 2021

# ¿ Jul 13, 2021 19:08

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

KingKalamari posted:

For Alien: The Stress mechanic where players accumulate stress dice, which are rolled alongside their regular dice for skill rolls and allow the chance for extra chances at success but also also open up the increasing possibility of causing the players to fly into a Panic when a 1 is rolled on them, very accurately captures the feeling of rising tension and anxiety within the films themselves. The game also uses asymmetrical mechanics for human and xenomorph NPCs, which makes the xenomorphs feel like a much more powerful and alien presence. It also includes a very well designed "stealth phase", where the players are exploring an area while potentially being stalked by hostiles (Who are controlled by the GM and have their own, separate mechanics for this phase of play), which really captures the paranoia from the scenes in the first movie where the crew is trying to find the xenomorph.

This is a few days old but I'd like to hear more details on the stealth stuff if that's possible? That seems like the kind of thing a LOT of fiction-influenced rpg setups could make good use of.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2021 17:54

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

KingKalamari posted:

Sure, I just need some time to get an effortpost together.

Thanks a bunch, no rush on my end so don't feel pressured.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2021 16:23

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

KingKalamari posted:

Alright, I've got some time now, so let's get to that effort-post I promised on the Stealth=Phase mechanics of the Alien RPG.
[...]
While this is going on the characters may have to deal with either Active or Passive Enemies. Passive Enemies are ones that are not immediately aware of the characters presence and are automatically detected by characters in the same zone or in line of sight of them. Unless a character tries to remain hidden or move stealthily Passive Enemies will automatically detect them. Get past Passive Enemies undetected or sneak attacking them is typically handled by an opposed Movement test against the Passive Enemy's Observation. More threatening are Active Enemies - These are enemies that are aware of the PCs presence and are typically actively hunting them. Active Enemies remain hidden from the PCs by default unless they attempt to attack the PCs, The PCs directly scrutinize the area that they are hiding in or the PCs detect them with a Motion Detector. If an Active Enemy wishes to attack a PC they make an opposed Movement test against the PCs Observation skill in much the same way as a PC sneak attacking a Passive Enemy.

The other big thing is that Active Enemies are not elements that the GM can just pull out of thin air: Once the Stealth Phase begins the GM starts controlling any active enemies, who must abide by the same general rules of movement as the PCs. NPCs like Xenomorphs might have slightly different capabilities than the PCs (For instance, there are several different types of xenos in the game that are capable of moving through more zones in a single turn than a PC), but their position is actively and concretely tracked by the GM throughout the stealth phase. The game recommends the GM have a separate copy of the map set up so they can use tokens to secretly track the positions and movements of Active Enemies.

This leads to a very tense, nerve-wracking game of cat and mouse between the PCs and the Active Enemies they're facing, where they know they're being hunted but don't necessarily have an idea of where the thing hunting them is. Trying to track the movement of active enemies, avoid crossing paths with them and predict where they're going to go becomes an integral part of the game during stealth mode.

Thank you. I mentioned it earlier and haven't changed my mind with this post: this sort of streamlined mix of hunt-and-hunted rules strikes me as the sort of secret sauce a LOT of genre emulation could make use of. My brain is broken, so I usually default to thinking of Jurassic Park - although in fairness the raptors share a sort of horror niche with the xenomorphs - but there's plenty of critters that strike me as benefitting from a more lengthy run up than 'make a stealth check to see who ambushes who.'

edit:

Imagined posted:

I thought the correct way to play Baldur's Gate / BG2 was to quicksave every ten feet for the entire game and keep going that way until you wipe on a fight a couple of times, then sigh, reload once again to the save right before the fight, and slam the button on all the spells and scrolls you've hoarding and never using throughout the entire game.

Close. The correct way is to do this until you wipe over and over again then still refuse to ever use a consumable and just brute force your way through everything by mindlessly slamming dispels left right and center and LoSing nonsense.

Drakyn fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Jul 26, 2021

# ¿ Jul 26, 2021 00:50

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

mellonbread posted:

It's fun to put things into simple, evocative boxes, even if nobody agrees on what exactly those boxes mean.

I'm very angry at how thoroughly this encapsulates humanity.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2021 20:22

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Tulip posted:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3902681&pagenumber=1&perpage=40

Dominions is an impenetrable video game that makes excellent LPs

I am now legally obliged to deluge you with a sampling of clown units from the clown mod for noted game for clowns: Dominions 5.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2021 01:24

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Halloween Jack posted:

That's just FYAD

I seem to recall the guy who wrote the Clowns mod for Dominions 5 may actually have an account somewhere on SA, but I could be out of my mind. Either way I think that sort of undercurrent (communicating entirely through 'reflexive systems of acausal meta-irony', JESUS) is deliberate.

GetDunked posted:

Esteban is chaotic evil.

Esteban is chaotic evil because he makes everyone's life worse for no good reason; neutral evil because he's selfish to do so, and lawful evil for using the persecution of Tragic clowning to loophole his way into being even more of a Tragic Clown.
In conclusion, Esteban is a land of contrasts.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2021 17:17

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

OpenlyEvilJello posted:

Originally ported by another goon but later updated by Mu., who added new content such as

oh my god i forgot all about this

moths posted:

Did we ever find out where that Barrier Peaks UFO came from?

I believe in the DM backstory info for the module it says it was a spaceship from sci-fi RPG Metamorphosis Alpha (which apparently was some sort of quasi-precursor to Gamma World?) that got yoinked through a wormhole and spit out in Greyhawk's universe.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2021 22:51

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Leperflesh posted:

regarding D&D character creators from last page...

The creator posted on the last page was, indeed, included on a CD-ROM with the 3.0 PHB. It looked good and worked well, so of course, we weren't allowed to keep it.

I'm not sure which surprised me more, that I remembered its music or that it's on YouTube.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2021 18:09

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

dwarf74 posted:

Still unclear but it involves Vengeance and Beauty and Trickery!

It's a bit extremely late for this but your shark god sounds like a wobbegong, which sit on the ocean floor hiding (Trickery) by pretending to be gorgeous piles of coral and sand (Beauty) and then react to people stepping on them by biting their feet off (Vengeance with a side of rear end in a top hat).
Here's one. Notice how vengeful, tricky, and beautiful it is.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2022 00:07

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Andrast posted:

I am the target audience for splat bloat.

If you don't know the slang this post becomes something frightening to see in the light of day.

# ¿ May 7, 2022 15:57

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Ratoslov posted:

Splicer posted:
Now factor in that with enough time and effort and murdered goblins she can reliably reach a stage where she could probably beat up her god in a fist fight.

which is a pretty awesome hero epic for a religion, tbf.

Jacob almost had it, but didn't grind quite hard enough before he made his play.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2022 15:59

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

I'm well aware that not everyone cares as much about dinosaurs as I do, but this kickstarter still feels worthy of reposting simply based on the authors: a team of goddamned paleontologists (including paleoartist Mark Witton) are doing a 5e dinosaur supplement.

[...]
Nathan, who I used to teach back in his undergrad days, approached me about illustrating this book at Christmas last year knowing full well that I don't do the whole tabletop gaming thing. My entire experience with such gaming was condensed into one evening about ten years ago, so everything I know about it comes from cultural osmosis. I believe it involves a traditional fantasy setting, dice, campaigns run from behind little cardboard houses and... Jeremy Irons? He's part of this somehow.

Fortunately for us all, Nathan wasn't interested in my knowledge of RPGs. Instead, he wanted my art so he could create a 5th Edition supplement featuring modern, scientifically-informed takes on prehistoric animals. There are, I understand, already some dinosaurs in official D&D canon, but they're apparently pretty "standard" and not especially accurate to their true palaeobiology. Realising that the reality of dinosaurs is way more interesting than their pop-culture stereotypes, Nathan wants to bring a diversity of extinct animals to your campaigns, each with stats and abilities inspired by their real anatomy and hypothesised behaviours. He's also taking inspiration from palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of specific geological formations to create new, science-informed worlds for your quests to take place in. Furthermore, he's creating palaeo-based player races that should be new and interesting, not predictable and familiar. With this supplement, you'll be able to play as folks inspired by azhdarchoids or obscure ornithischians rather than generic "dinosauroids". I'm sure we're going to meet all these goals. Even writing as I am � someone totally ignorant of this vast topic � I'm pretty confident that there aren't many palaeontology 5th Edition projects being guided by four published, PhDed scientists. If you've ever felt your tabletop campaigns were lacking a Yutyrannus ambush, a surprise encounter with Gigantspinosaurus or a Microraptor player companion, this is the book for you.

To bring all this to life, Nathan has full access to my artwork portfolio and is also commissioning me to do new pieces, both of species I've not yet painted as well as new works showing adventurers interacting with scientifically-credible extinct animals. You can get a flavour of what the latter will involve from the cover, which has already been painted and (provisionally) designed, below (NB: a professional designer will be putting everything together next year, so what you see here and at Kickstarter is only indicative of the final product, not finalised book content). This piece was very much a collaborative effort: I can handle dinosaur art well enough, but Nathan's got a tight grip on the more fantastical content and is steering me accordingly. I was thoroughly told off for including an orb staff in an earlier iteration of this image, which I now understand is the tabletop adventure equivalent of legwarmers.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2022 14:13

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Libertad! posted:

Neat! IMO this would go well with Planegea, a prehistoric 5e setting recently released by Atlas Games.

It'd certainly be an interesting juxtaposition; Planegea seems to be very much pulpy prehistory-as-she-is-pop-culture to the hilt, while DDD looks to aim specifically at bringing scientifically-up-to-date portrayals of the animals (and their environments) into the game without dulling down the rules into 'this is an animal of x size.' It's not to say the two are violently mutually exclusive, but there's potential for some interesting contrasts there.
And it looks like the DDD guys agree because they popped up on Planegea's reddit.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2022 00:52

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Xiahou Dun posted:

Ah then maybe I'm misreading your post because what I'm objecting to in specific is that you seem to assuming that this has to be as part of some kind of narrative free space (the conversation to keep using PbtA terms) while I'm arguing that there's good mechanical space in there. I don't think legalistic arguing about properly citing which spells may or may not do cool-ranch damage is a particularly fun implementation of that design space, but that's not the only way it can go. Another way to think about it would be like having a rigorous way of balancing FATE aspects.

Also I thought about "igniting", decided using a gerund was a coward's way out, then tried out "ignite-itory" which had the mouth feel of a razor slug. Uggh. Really weird gap in language...

gently caress!

Thank you for freeing me from my own silly trap. That was secretly a very thoughtful Christmas present.

If it makes you feel any better, once when I was around twelve both my sisters simultaneously forgot how to spell 'of.' Tentative theory was 'o-v-e.'

# ¿ Dec 24, 2022 17:53

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

CitizenKeen posted:

Speaking of tactical RPGs, Grant Howitt and Chris a Taylor have a playtest out for Hollows, their tabletop Souls-like deconstructing toxic masculinity.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/123DDx8T2J5oYzoCWXl7dH5eQqPV988P9?usp=sharing&mc_cid=9fa278c82d&mc_eid=UNIQID

I've read through this - not particularly carefully, but completely - and I'm curious if someone who knows anything about this sort of stuff could elaborate on this point because I'm sure I'm missing a lot of it. Of the bits I think I noticed, most obviously and unmissably there's the Weapon descriptions, which are full-bore disturbing.

The Bludgeon posted:

Yo u ar e s t ro n g . Yo u ar e t h e s t ro n g e s t . Th e a l p h a . A p e r f e c t mac h i n e .
An i r r e s i s t i b l e fo rc e . Th e wo r ld b r e a k s aro u n d y o u . Do n �t h e s i tat e .
Do n �t t h i n k . De s t ro y t h o s e wh o wo u ld t r y to s l ow y o u d own .

(Like it says, the weapons lie))

More symbolically, I'm guessing it comes through strongest in that 'anchoring' the Lord of a Hollow (basically catching their soul in a spooky jar and freeing them from being trapped in their worst form) is both more difficult AND more rewarding than simply murdering them to death and thereby defies what the rest of the game is pushing where murder-or-be-murdered is the whole of the law and the only way forwards. Simultaneously, although the game makes it extremely clear that Hunters are doomed to eventually turn into a Hollow themselves no matter what, it also points out that successfully anchoring a Hunter AFTER they do this is the only way for a Hunter to permanently escape being a walking nightmare-murderer-come-nightmare.
So your character's surroundings and background all tell you you're an evil screwup, your most powerful tools tell you appealing lies about how much better than everyone else you are because you can use them to cause harm, and the easiest way to continue forward and gain power is to mindlessly hurt things until you turn into exactly what you're fighting... or you can go out of your way to do the hard work of dragging other people out of their own misery and your friends can do the same for you and you get to escape the cycle.

Please tell me the bits I'm completely wrong about and or missing entirely, I'm earnestly curious.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2023 03:33

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Lemon-Lime posted:

Not sure why you feel you've missed something - I'm fairly sure that reading is correct.

I'm tired, habitually, unobservant, and rambly :p Though the second fits right in with not noticing I got something's point correctly.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2023 14:22

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

sebmojo posted:

Blubbersworn

# ¿ Jan 7, 2023 21:52

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

sebmojo posted:

https://mobile.twitter.com/RobertGReeve/status/1496621153426755592

That author was also the source for d&ds displacer beast, though that monster sucked the potassium out of people rather than laying eggs.

Beyond the obvious inspiration Alien takes from this that everyone already discussed there's also an incidental parallel to the xenomorph being a Freudian penis monster: the generic Manly Scientific Rational Future Men of this story nickname and persistently refer to the catlike monster that is mass-murdering them as 'pussy.' Combine this with the fact that the story stoutly refuses to admit the existence of people with vaginas and I think you've got a decent--sized thesis on subtext just waiting here.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2023 23:05

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Lemon-Lime posted:

Do we have a solo journalling RPG thread anywhere?

If not, what are the coolest sci-fi/fantasy solo journalling games out there?

They're a school of design I've got zero exposure to and I'd like to fix that gap in my knowledge.

I have no idea on specifics of how good they are in contrast to their peers, but there's a free system called Wretched & Alone that was adapted from the mechanics of a specific game called The Wretched, which is a super cheerful journalling game about uh

Wretched posted:

The Wretched is a solo journaling RPG played with a deck of cards, a tumbling block tower, and a microphone.

You are the last surviving crew member of the intergalactic salvage ship The Wretched. Adrift between stars after an engine failure, your ship was attacked by a hostile alien lifeform. The crew are dead.

You thought you had won. You launched the creature out of an airlock, and that should have meant safety.

It didn�t.

and I only heard about either of these because someone used the system to make a game called Clever Girl, which maybe, just MAYBE, is inspired a little itty bit by a certain Spielberg movie that I'm compulsively curious about.
So if you want to draw cards and find out what horrible things you have to deal with and then write them down maybe that's something to look into?

# ¿ Mar 16, 2023 00:58

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

'Degenerate,' sadly, doesn't work quite as well for that purpose.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2023 04:21

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Thanlis posted:

Niven�s pretty bad. He�s just much quieter about it.

I mean, nowadays he's a LOT louder than Pournelle :v:

# ¿ Jun 28, 2023 14:56

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Splicer posted:

Animal Handling and Animal Care are separate skills because

Animal Handling leads a horse to water and Animal Care persuades him to drink it.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2023 19:56

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Eat, Pray, Love, Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2023 12:31

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

Leperflesh posted:

Does Flying Circus also model the total loss oil system of the Sopwith Camel, which constantly sprayed the pilot with an aerosol of castor oil that - allegedly - gave them such bad diarrhea that pilots would drink gin before flying as a countermeasure?

See this is exactly the kind of poo poo that Peanuts kept from us about historically accurate ww1 air combat.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2023 18:30

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 22:35

Drakyn: Dec 26, 2012

PuttyKnife posted:

He is a biologist trying to be a humanities scholar while actively avoiding the humanities. He would be less misinterpreted if he actually sat down and engaged with all that. It�s super frustrating to see him fumble through a number of well established concepts because of it. Could have been way more widespread if he had.

Anywhere I could read up on the issue you've described here? You've got me very curious.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 14:29

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Trad Games Chat: squabbled over drafts, forked, and disbanded