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Gravy Train Robber posted:But lets check out an ADVENTURE DOG Why is this dog jumping out of a perfectly good helicopter? drrockso20 posted:so to give us an actual TG topic to discuss(as much as I'm loving the pet chat), here's a question, what are some original RPG settings you've seen on other sites that you'd want to run and/or play a game in? I once saw a "Amber RPG in Spirit of the Century" setting that was really cool. Nine Princes in Pulp posted:This is an Amber with ray guns, planes that flap their own wings, clockwork-driven trump machines, a steam-driven monstrosity called Morgenstern, and growing fleets of zeppelins with Unicorn and Silver Rose emblems on the side. Five Blades of Bahamut is a 4e setting with airships and Indian mythology in, and I think that's pretty cool. Airships posted:At the heart of each airship is a piece of a fallen star, which gives it the power of flight. The wind is channelled through a series of pipes to the fragment (the “core”) which produces tones and songs which remind it of the sky it once called home. Longing for home, it rises and sings in return.
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Aug 4, 2015 17:20
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Every time I see "this cool fantasy setting that's not just Forgotten Realms but different" all I can think is how much I want to play an Eberron 13th Age game, or an Eberron video game, or really do anything in Eberron that doesn't involve the actual d&d mechanics. Fake e: I have dogs but no cats, should I post dog pictures
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Aug 4, 2015 17:39
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I know I came across a document before of trying to match the various 13th Age icons to Eberron organizations, such as the Lord of Blades instead of the Crusader and the Church of the Silver Flame instead of the Priestess.
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Aug 4, 2015 17:44
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gradenko_2000 posted:I know I came across a document before of trying to match the various 13th Age icons to Eberron organizations, such as the Lord of Blades instead of the Crusader and the Church of the Silver Flame instead of the Priestess. That seems like the exactly wrong way to do Icons for a different setting?
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Aug 4, 2015 17:46
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Captain Walker posted:Every time I see "this cool fantasy setting that's not just Forgotten Realms but different" all I can think is how much I want to play an Eberron 13th Age game, or an Eberron video game, or really do anything in Eberron that doesn't involve the actual d&d mechanics. What's stopping you?
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Aug 4, 2015 17:47
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Captain Walker posted:Every time I see "this cool fantasy setting that's not just Forgotten Realms but different" all I can think is how much I want to play an Eberron 13th Age game, or an Eberron video game, or really do anything in Eberron that doesn't involve the actual d&d mechanics. I want more Dark Sun. Dark Sun knockoffs are fine too.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:37
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gradenko_2000 posted:I know I came across a document before of trying to match the various 13th Age icons to Eberron organizations, such as the Lord of Blades instead of the Crusader and the Church of the Silver Flame instead of the Priestess. I dunno why they would try and do a 1:1 match for each Icon to an Eberron organization/figure, but the idea itself is sound. It so happens that there are exactly 13 dragonmarked houses, so if you wanted to do fantasy corporate espionage you could give that a go. More generally though I think turning the Lord of Blades etc. into Icons is the way to go. That's a pretty good way to adapt the system to the setting I think. It was already D&D to start with so it shouldn't be too much work, and the tone is generally the same.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:43
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The 13th Age Icons are well known mega-NPCs, though, whereas the average resident of Sharn (who certainly knows who the rulers of the major kingdoms are) probably has no idea who the Lord of Blades is. I definitely like the idea of using the Dragonmarked Houses for Icons.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:05
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The mystery and ambiguity surrounding the Lord of Blades and its possible origins is very 13th Age, though. Having no set truth about it is rather nice and lets the GM present it however they like.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:15
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Drone posted:I want more Dark Sun. Dark Sun knockoffs are fine too. One day I will get around to running my 'Tyr City Blues' Dark Sun police procedural game. One day...
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Aug 4, 2015 19:42
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drrockso20 has gotten me thinking: what makes for a good presentation of a setting? This is definitely going to be a matter of personal preference, but I'm curious to see if we can pull any best practices together for pitching a game world, whether it's to our groups, to internet at large, or for publication. The peak of "let me tell you about my setting" has to be the Guide to Glorantha and its ilk: whole books that are pure setting, presented in almost academic detail. It's the dream of every gamer who's ever played a great homebrew and wanted to share it with the world, but the sheer volume of information is so intimidating that it seems better suited to being a reference volume than to selling new players on the setting. Bailywolf of the aforementioned Long Stairs, Mythos Supers, and dark psychosexual forest faerie tale commentaries on gender essentialism always hooks me with what are essentially a series of evocative 1200-1500 word essays that spiral deeper and deeper into the setting details, until you realize you've consumed 15,000 words on surreal Underdark spec-ops teams fighting P-zombies. I'm a sucker for these, but because they have no real structure and are at the end of the day just the musings of the author about whatever in the concept catches their fancy, they rely heavily on the reputation of the author. There's god knows how many "Setting Riff" threads posted weekly on RPGnet, for example, but unless they're started by someone I can trust to go somewhere good, they rarely make it to my reading list. On the other end of the spectrum, Robin Laws' Hillfolk has its ~5-6 page "series pitches" with a strict format: two-paragraph nutshell setting pitch, list of example characters, half-page to page-and-a-half setting overview, brief discussion of themes, another page of "tightening the screws" scenario hooks, a list of names, and occasionally some miscellaneous bits filed away at the end. This is professional stuff, well-organized and focused on getting you precisely what you need to jump into the game ASAP. They do that well, and for some of the pitches all you need is that page of setting details: I've consumed the necessary media to do a game centered around a modern emergency room or a fantasy thieves' guild without doing too much extra reading. But that strict format really chafes when you want to present something drawing on more obscure sources, or that's just plain weird. Reducing Glorantha, Ehdrigohr, or Tenra Bansho Zero to a series pitch format would suck them dry. That's especially problematic for me, because aside from being a fan of truly weird worlds, the setting I'm considering writing up for public consumption is exactly that sort of high-context thing that demands an easy "in" for new players, but loses what makes it special when stripped down. So, what hooks you into someone else's setting? And if you've written up something for the public that was well-received, link it. Shameless self-promotion. Do it.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:46
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I always point to the first half of Aberrant as being the game that hooked me with its setting based on sheer presentation. It is all told from an in-universe perspective. News stories, interviews, blog posts, forum posts, all of it is used to show the world and how it changes as the result of superhumans suddenly showing up. There are a few great comics that are representations of TV shows and are just fantastic. You get everything from internal memos of secret organizations with ominous codenames to an ersatz Hunter S. Thompson that apes his gonzo journalism while giving you a rundown of the world. There isn't a whole lot of out-of-character exposition and the majority of the setting is presented from the perspective of the people who live in it. And strangely for a White Wolf book, there is no real into fiction, instead we get straight into the action with the inciting moment - a transcription of a radio transmission with a doomed space station. Even the other two games in the line, Trinity and Adventure! have opening fiction, and I haven't seen another WW book that does this. Sometimes I'll just open up Aberrant and read the front half because of the conspiracy plot that is threaded right there through it, which is pretty engaging all by itself. Completely opposite that, I love the world guides to the Forgotten Realms, Eberron and Golarion. Maybe I'm just a huge nerd but those CIA World Factbook headers with population numbers and demographic breakdowns are something I love to see. I realize that it is pointless, but those kind of breakdowns do help me get into the idea of the world. A more modern and streamlined take on this is in 13th Age, where you get a basic overview of the world, some things that may or may not be true, and it leaves a lot of it in the GM/players' hands to fill in the blanks. Something I've always wanted to try is sorta a blend of the two. A world guide written by a character or institution within the world. A CIA World Factbook that is written by a sort of unreliable narrator. You could go full Marco Polo with it and have it be written by a traveler who exaggerates and makes up larger than life tales and doesn't always get things right. Or you could have a scholarly writer who is piecing all this together from stories and field reports and often gets things wrong, preserving the mystery of the world.
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Aug 4, 2015 20:02
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inklesspen posted:Why is this dog jumping out of a perfectly good helicopter? Throwing a dog into the middle of the ocean is the most environmentally responsible way to dispose of it once you're done.
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Aug 4, 2015 20:17
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Serf posted:Something I've always wanted to try is sorta a blend of the two. A world guide written by a character or institution within the world. A CIA World Factbook that is written by a sort of unreliable narrator. You could go full Marco Polo with it and have it be written by a traveler who exaggerates and makes up larger than life tales and doesn't always get things right. Or you could have a scholarly writer who is piecing all this together from stories and field reports and often gets things wrong, preserving the mystery of the world. Just don't go all Erin Tarn with it.
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Aug 4, 2015 20:27
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inklesspen posted:Just don't go all Erin Tarn with it. Don't you put that evil on me Ricky Bobby
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Aug 4, 2015 20:31
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My GenCon Blurry Recollections:
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Aug 4, 2015 20:45
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I'm sorry the evil body pillow salesmen ruined your event.
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Aug 4, 2015 20:46
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TheLovablePlutonis posted:I'm sorry the evil body pillow salesmen ruined your event. You aren't, and they didn't.
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Aug 4, 2015 20:49
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Captain Foo posted:ettin plz change thread title to TG August Cat Thread thank
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Aug 4, 2015 20:55
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As for Eberron in the 13th Age, this is what the creator had to say on it. It's not super useful. As for that brief Ennie chat, the Ennies are a popularity contest. The big names are always going to stop the awards because the majority of the hobby never really goes past D&D and Pathfinder. They kind of are just a huge joke.
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Aug 4, 2015 20:58
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Alien Rope Burn posted:You aren't, and they didn't. Fair enough.
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Aug 4, 2015 21:03
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Covok posted:As for Eberron in the 13th Age, this is what the creator had to say on it. It's not super useful. Okay, the Lords of Sharn idea is cool as hell. I would totally play that. I mean it's not a bad guide overall. I think the core idea of finding what you want to focus on and figuring out who your Icons are from there is a decent way of adapting the mechanic to settings not designed around it. In this case, rename them Factions and you're golden. Also I like the idea of a secretive or mysterious Icon. I've used one in my game and it did pretty well.
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Aug 4, 2015 21:09
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Alien Rope Burn posted:My GenCon Blurry Recollections: Which hotel? So I can plan accordingly next year. As I mentioned in the Gencon thread Park Place/Candlewood is a pretty good deal if you're on a budget and don't mind the 2 mile shuttle ride, free wi-fi, a ridiculous amount of space (could sleep 5+ easily) we called it the Motel 6 Presidential Suite. Alien Rope Burn posted:Biggest regret: Not meeting the Spirit of '77 guys. Should have made more of an effort to, but a lot gets lost in the mix. Should've gone to more seminars, but I overdid with those in previous years and it really goes along with the above; there weren't a lot of products I was hyped for that got GenCon exposure. Likewise my biggest regret was not gaming with goons. Somebody played in my Saturday session, and he introduced himself to me, but I've already forgotten his name.  So if you're out there unknown goon, thank's for playing!  I semi-crashed the private Kickstarter party and got to talk to Luke Crane a bit, super nice guy. We talked to a couple distributors and it looks like we'll have So77 in stores and at conventions in 2016.
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Aug 4, 2015 21:44
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Bucnasti posted:Which hotel? So I can plan accordingly next year. It was the Hilton Indianapolis Hotel & Suites on 120 West Market. I think you could get wireless, but it was $25-30 a day? Their information on it was confusing and unclear, and the website kept redirecting me to pages I couldn't access because I hadn't paid for wireless when I tried to find out more. I think you could get access in the lobby, at least? At the end of each exhausting day the last thing I wanted to do was lug my heavy laptop all the way back down to the lobby, tho. On the other hand, it was a 8 minute walk to the convention center, which was generally a good thing. (One of the subtle benefits of driving in is being able to more easily dump purchases or other extra weight back at the car, tho.)
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Aug 4, 2015 22:07
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Alien Rope Burn posted:The Zak S walkout, lauded by his supporters as some sort of victory (because of course it is), is a sign poo poo's changing.[/list] At the risk of unleashing g.txt what happened?
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Aug 4, 2015 22:23
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I'm jealous you got to meet Stolze. I brought a copy of A Dirty World since I signed up for a Delta Green game run by him but I guess it was cancelled or something? He never showed up.
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Aug 4, 2015 22:30
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So I have been listening to The Adventure Zone and lately it's been just a tour of awful DMing. The second-last episode ended with the DM calling for the same roll over and over in hopes of inducing a failure, and then when the player passed every roll, the DM seized on a part of the player's description to justify forcing down that failure he so obviously needed by fiat. This latest session they encountered the bad guy and tried to talk her down calmly before being pushed to combat. She then practically took the whole party out in round 1 before the GMPCs showed up to save the day by... talking her down calmly. It's still the funniest AP I've listened to, but the "listen to my story the way I planned it" DMing is coming through pretty strongly. Who else is listening?
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Aug 4, 2015 22:33
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He won some awards and a contingent of people including Cam Banks walked out, about "three rows" of people. Fred Hicks supported it on twitter but I don't know if he was there. The funny thing that Zak S himself and others have pointed out that the number of copies of Red and Pleasant Land sold is fairly small and doesn't match up to the ENWorld userbase at all (like 2-3k copies sold and 20k votes cast), which means the ballot box was stuffed in some sense by people who never read it (or who just pirated it, a possibility I haven't seen commented on elsewhere). In theory, it shouldn't be possible for it to win, but it did. Something weird went on but it's not particularly clear what.BlackIronHeart posted:I'm jealous you got to meet Stolze. I brought a copy of A Dirty World since I signed up for a Delta Green game run by him but I guess it was cancelled or something? He never showed up. I rounded the Arc Dream booth like eight-twelve times over the course of the con before I met him on the final day. I had playtested for him in the distant past and really wanted to meet him in person, so it was great to have that finally happen.
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Aug 4, 2015 22:49
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so I rediscovered these old advertisements for Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, and I have to say I think there's the seeds for a Modern Fantasy campaign here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Mf2mp6fms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9zvIJyF4M8
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Aug 4, 2015 23:43
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Alien Rope Burn posted:He won some awards and a contingent of people including Cam Banks walked out, about "three rows" of people. Fred Hicks supported it on twitter but I don't know if he was there. The funny thing that Zak S himself and others have pointed out that the number of copies of Red and Pleasant Land sold is fairly small and doesn't match up to the ENWorld userbase at all (like 2-3k copies sold and 20k votes cast), which means the ballot box was stuffed in some sense by people who never read it (or who just pirated it, a possibility I haven't seen commented on elsewhere). In theory, it shouldn't be possible for it to win, but it did. Something weird went on but it's not particularly clear what. In all likelihood it's a Sad Puppies situation.
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Aug 4, 2015 23:46
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Jimbozig posted:So I have been listening to The Adventure Zone and lately it's been just a tour of awful DMing. The second-last episode ended with the DM calling for the same roll over and over in hopes of inducing a failure, and then when the player passed every roll, the DM seized on a part of the player's description to justify forcing down that failure he so obviously needed by fiat. I do. I put this in the MBMBaM thread but I'll be glad to discuss it here. Griffin is a below-average DM on a lot of levels - much of that attributable to him being new at it - but he does a couple of things very well: 1) He never lets the momentum flag. Ever. Once his players start to bitch/get bored he immediately explains everything or rushes them through to the next scene. He is not a pixel-bitcher and this is so, so, so very important. He also has a player (Travis) who has a very low tolerance for downtime and forces him to react and he usually does so admirably without punishing him (the end of the last episode not being the norm). 2) He tosses the rules in the garbage whenever they get in the way of something interesting (since it's D&D 5e this is a good thing) 3) He doesn't do big lore dumps. His exposition is short (10 minutes, absolute tops) and relatively punchy. No huge amounts of NPCs to remember, no stupid off-screen politics for the players to care about. It's a very player-facing campaign and this is a good thing that a lot of DMs fail at. His weaknesses mostly come from generally having no knowledge or background in the craft outside of "I'm gonna run D&D!" which means he designs lovely adventures and lovely mysteries.
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Aug 5, 2015 00:02
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Megaman's Jockstrap posted:I do. I put this in the MBMBaM thread but I'll be glad to discuss it here. Yeah, you're right on about all of that. He knows his stuff when it comes to making a funny podcast for sure.
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Aug 5, 2015 00:23
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Doc Aquatic posted:Throwing a dog into the middle of the ocean is the most environmentally responsible way to dispose of it once you're done. Do not insult dogs, that's even worse than insulting most other things that I like... Oh, unless someone is referring to Shiba Inu's because everyone is getting them because of the doge meme and don't know how to actually handle such a difficult animal Bedlamdan fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 5, 2015 00:49
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Bedlamdan posted:Do not insult dogs, that's even worse than insulting most other things that I like... The dog is jumping out of the helicopter because he's a RESCUE DOG. He is a GOOD DOG. Check out the link if you click on adventure dog to see the full set of him saving people. Dogs: TRUE HEROES Also before the month is through I think I will start a Ryuutama game (with dogs) simply because I love the Oregon Trail aspect of it.
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Aug 5, 2015 01:55
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A Red & Pleasant Land Is a quite original setting. It deserves the awards it got.  Edit: A simple google search turned up this comment by ZacS http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?p=845684 quote:Quote: Adam Jury is a Posthuman Studios member. That's all I know. Looking for conversations from the other side of the coin on who was there/who left. Why am I getting all these MMA sites? Edit: Why the hell am I finding nothing else on this topic but that one site? Helical Nightmares fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 5, 2015 02:27
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Helical Nightmares posted:Edit: Why the hell am I finding nothing else on this topic but that one site? Because no one else really gives as much of a poo poo as a site built on the discarded trash from other forums?
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Aug 5, 2015 03:22
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Posthuman are good people, that's heartening news.
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Aug 5, 2015 03:23
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Slimnoid posted:Because no one else really gives as much of a poo poo as a site built on the discarded trash from other forums? Nah. Evidently most of the complaining and walkout was on twitter.
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Aug 5, 2015 03:24
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Slimnoid posted:Because no one else really gives as much of a poo poo as a site built on the discarded trash from other forums? But enough about SA bwahahahaha!
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Aug 5, 2015 03:34
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Helical Nightmares posted:A Red & Pleasant Land Is a quite original setting. It deserves the awards it got. Adam Jury is good people from my vague recollections of the few times we hung out in the late 90's, and Posthuman Studios tries very hard to be inclusive while keeping the Zac S and Pundit types out.
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