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Anyone read any interesting new rpg books lately
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Jun 25, 2021 10:17
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FirstAidKite posted:Anyone read any interesting new rpg books lately Currently reading Sine Requie, an italian RPG that was never translated in any other language. It's "Imagine the 60s but on D-Day there was a zombie apocalypse and now Italy is a theocracy, Germany is still the Third Reich, Russia is a communist utopia, and everything else in Europe is wastelands." I'm tempted to make an F&F review of it, there's quite a few quirks other than the premise. Starting from the fact it's a tall book and doesn't fit any of my shelves, which really pisses me off.
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Jun 25, 2021 11:06
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canepazzo posted:Currently reading Sine Requie, an italian RPG that was never translated in any other language. It's "Imagine the 60s but on D-Day there was a zombie apocalypse and now Italy is a theocracy, Germany is still the Third Reich, Russia is a communist utopia, and everything else in Europe is wastelands."
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Jun 25, 2021 11:12
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Splicer posted:How's Ireland doing? Also wastelands. I forgot Egypt, which has been taken over by the resurrected pharaohs (another kind of zombie, there's about a dozen different types), the US which is not only a wasteland but actually a nuclear wasteland, and Japan who went full isolationalist (no one knows if there's anyone left alive there).
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Jun 25, 2021 11:20
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FirstAidKite posted:Anyone read any interesting new rpg books lately Not *quite*, but I've read The CRPG Book.
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Jun 25, 2021 11:24
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I read an Amazon store page that informed me my copy of Damnation City is worth $185
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Jun 25, 2021 12:48
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FirstAidKite posted:Anyone read any interesting new rpg books lately It's not new but I just started reading Coriolis: The Third Horizon. So far the setting hasn't disappointed me on trying to be 1001 Arabian Nights but in space.
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Jun 25, 2021 12:51
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I've had the entirely stupid idea to run 3.5's version of Sunless Citadel in D20 Modern as a joke "one" shot, for my pre-covid regular group. Their only real experience is 5e D&D with a smattering of other systems I've ran over the years. I'm very curious how badly the two will mesh.
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Jun 25, 2021 13:20
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So I have only occasionally lurked this forum on SA, despite being a massive roleplaying nerd and at this point reasonably experienced tabletop gm as well, but I was recently pontificating nostalgically and wondered if forum play-by-post roleplaying was ever very popular in this community? I mean of the purely creative writing-based variety, as I see there are a number of play-by-post games running, but more inclined towards mechanics and incorporating actual game elements. Recently I was thinking about how I used to do a lot of that kind of roleplaying as a teenager, and how it seems like it was such a weird and mid-to-late 2000s thing that the Internet captured, as all the forum roleplays I know of are dead or dying, except for a few run in specific very popular fandoms that always get an influx of new players, and it seems like something that could have existed on SA at some point over its history. Sorry if this is off-topic. I tried to use the search engine to find any mention of this stuff and only found a few random posts in a previous incarnation of this thread.
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Jun 25, 2021 13:45
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FirstAidKite posted:Anyone read any interesting new rpg books lately Currently reading Gubat Banwa and it looks pretty cool if in need of an editing pass. Other recent favourites of mine (although not new games) would be Band of Blades and the Sentinel Comics RPG.
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Jun 25, 2021 13:53
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FirstAidKite posted:Anyone read any interesting new rpg books lately What the hell is a "book"
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Jun 25, 2021 13:58
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FirstAidKite posted:Anyone read any interesting new rpg books lately I read "The Aesthetic of Games" by Brian Upton recently and recommend it. But that's not exactly an rpg book. As for literal rpg books, I've been mostly obsessing over cheap itch.io games like the 2400 series by Jason Tocci. Tosk posted:So I have only occasionally lurked this forum on SA, despite being a massive roleplaying nerd and at this point reasonably experienced tabletop gm as well, but I was recently pontificating nostalgically and wondered if forum play-by-post roleplaying was ever very popular in this community? I mean of the purely creative writing-based variety, as I see there are a number of play-by-post games running, but more inclined towards mechanics and incorporating actual game elements. Recently I was thinking about how I used to do a lot of that kind of roleplaying as a teenager, and how it seems like it was such a weird and mid-to-late 2000s thing that the Internet captured, as all the forum roleplays I know of are dead or dying, except for a few run in specific very popular fandoms that always get an influx of new players, and it seems like something that could have existed on SA at some point over its history. I don't know a lot about the history of pbp on SA, but I do know that our forum has a peculiar obsession with the Choose Your Own Adventure format.
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Jun 25, 2021 15:31
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potatocubed posted:Currently reading Gubat Banwa and it looks pretty cool if in need of an editing pass. Other recent favourites of mine (although not new games) would be Band of Blades and the Sentinel Comics RPG.
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Jun 25, 2021 16:12
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Tosk posted:So I have only occasionally lurked this forum on SA, despite being a massive roleplaying nerd and at this point reasonably experienced tabletop gm as well, but I was recently pontificating nostalgically and wondered if forum play-by-post roleplaying was ever very popular in this community? I mean of the purely creative writing-based variety, as I see there are a number of play-by-post games running, but more inclined towards mechanics and incorporating actual game elements. Recently I was thinking about how I used to do a lot of that kind of roleplaying as a teenager, and how it seems like it was such a weird and mid-to-late 2000s thing that the Internet captured, as all the forum roleplays I know of are dead or dying, except for a few run in specific very popular fandoms that always get an influx of new players, and it seems like something that could have existed on SA at some point over its history. I'm not sure if freeform was ever really a thing beyond CYOAs, no.
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Jun 25, 2021 16:19
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Admiral Joeslop posted:I've had the entirely stupid idea to run 3.5's version of Sunless Citadel in D20 Modern as a joke "one" shot, for my pre-covid regular group. Their only real experience is 5e D&D with a smattering of other systems I've ran over the years. It took me like two months to run Sunless Citadel. It's a bit longer than a one-shot. As for system stuff, I dunno. Does the system have any advice on using D&D material?
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Jun 25, 2021 16:21
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Tosk posted:So I have only occasionally lurked this forum on SA, despite being a massive roleplaying nerd and at this point reasonably experienced tabletop gm as well, but I was recently pontificating nostalgically and wondered if forum play-by-post roleplaying was ever very popular in this community? I mean of the purely creative writing-based variety, as I see there are a number of play-by-post games running, but more inclined towards mechanics and incorporating actual game elements. Recently I was thinking about how I used to do a lot of that kind of roleplaying as a teenager, and how it seems like it was such a weird and mid-to-late 2000s thing that the Internet captured, as all the forum roleplays I know of are dead or dying, except for a few run in specific very popular fandoms that always get an influx of new players, and it seems like something that could have existed on SA at some point over its history. There might be a few sort-of-freeform games buried in The Game Room. I don't think it ever embedded here in SA, since a lot of real freeform stuff is rooted in various fandom communities and subgenres SA posters would classify as "cringe" to RP. Those games happened on like, LiveJournal, then tumblr, and now I guess probably discords.
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Jun 25, 2021 17:18
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FirstAidKite posted:Anyone read any interesting new rpg books lately Haven't read it yet, but been made aware of The Magical Year of a Teenage Witch and considering picking it up. Other than that I've hit pretty heavy burnout mode and not really been reading anything. Keeping up obligations to ongoing game but not branching out much and put my solo stuff on indefinite hold.
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Jun 25, 2021 17:27
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Been reading two books. The first is the Solo Wargaming system 5 Parsecs from Home about making a sci-fi company of about 4-6 characters who fight enemy teams like pirates, mutants or Bloodstone Mercenaries and expand their arsenal of weapons /gear through many random tables at the end of an encounter. It provides plenty of ideas for story hooks if you are into writing up your experiences. Inspirations for 5 Parsecs include Mass Effect, Cowboy Bebop and the Foundation series. Also the designer is a goon. The second is the wargame Stargrave. That is about ragtag groups of space farers fighting opposing ragtag groups of space farers over artifacts in a universe that is dominated by balkanized pirate fleets rather than governments or corporations spanning multiworld empires. Made by the same guy who made Frostgrave.
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Jun 25, 2021 17:35
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Ferrinus posted:Its core mechanics are pretty well streamlined, the Charms that go on top of those mechanics aren't that great and like to break their own streamlining rules. Not super appealing as a whole package as opposed to regular 3E, not really possible to patch piecemeal into 3E (except for a couple small but cool systems) because its mechanics are different enough that 3E's existing Charms barely apply. That doesn't sound super great, unfortunately. Coolness Averted posted:So I guess I'm the weirdo demographic that wants d10 storyteller for attributes and abilities, then some storygame stuff or FATE for the rest.  But thanks for the answers everyone.
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Jun 25, 2021 20:17
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FirstAidKite posted:Anyone read any interesting new rpg books lately Been thumbing through a lot of Itch.io games, stuff like Microvania and Ten Million HP Planet.
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Jun 25, 2021 22:20
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DalaranJ posted:I don't know a lot about the history of pbp on SA, but I do know that our forum has a peculiar obsession with the Choose Your Own Adventure format. I think it's just a holdover from when CYOAs where extremely popular in GBS, so much so they all had to be moved to another forum just to stop from overwhelming everything else, it ended up getting it's own cultural inertia. Tosk posted:So I have only occasionally lurked this forum on SA, despite being a massive roleplaying nerd and at this point reasonably experienced tabletop gm as well, but I was recently pontificating nostalgically and wondered if forum play-by-post roleplaying was ever very popular in this community? I mean of the purely creative writing-based variety, as I see there are a number of play-by-post games running, but more inclined towards mechanics and incorporating actual game elements. Recently I was thinking about how I used to do a lot of that kind of roleplaying as a teenager, and how it seems like it was such a weird and mid-to-late 2000s thing that the Internet captured, as all the forum roleplays I know of are dead or dying, except for a few run in specific very popular fandoms that always get an influx of new players, and it seems like something that could have existed on SA at some point over its history. Honestly, I think if you posted in the TG Game recruitment thread, you'd get some bites. We actually have a roleplay going on, where two people sign up as rivals, and then they get cards for writing prompts. I forget the thread, but it's one of DogKisser's. We've also had CYOAs where every person plays their own characters. I used to do a lot of roleplaying online as well, until the RolePlayersGuild put a nazi in charge as an admin, and the politics forum became super anti-trans, pro-nazi, and then there was a lot of uh "weird" RPs, about exterminating the unclean. You can also find non-nazi content on SufficientVelocity, a CYOA and Roleplay community. Free-form play by post roleplaying has actually been somewhat supplanted by CYOAs on the internet to be honest, some people are very high effort posters, and some people are very low effort posters, and roleplays will die if one person doesn't participate. By creating a CYOA you have full narrative control, but other people can participate without killing it if they get bored and wander off. I do my own art for my CYOAs, and host it on my website, and SA has a huge lurker community, I get 2 -> 4 votes on a CYOA, but I have 40 page views per post, and I can verify I get about 30 - 40 unique visitors on every image I post. So if you create something, there's a community that will enjoy reading it. TG has a very loose posting culture, as long as you're not creating something genuinely terrible (like in the triggering / fascism sense) you'll find SOMEONE who will be into it.
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Jun 25, 2021 23:00
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Tosk posted:So I have only occasionally lurked this forum on SA, despite being a massive roleplaying nerd and at this point reasonably experienced tabletop gm as well, but I was recently pontificating nostalgically and wondered if forum play-by-post roleplaying was ever very popular in this community? I mean of the purely creative writing-based variety, as I see there are a number of play-by-post games running, but more inclined towards mechanics and incorporating actual game elements. Recently I was thinking about how I used to do a lot of that kind of roleplaying as a teenager, and how it seems like it was such a weird and mid-to-late 2000s thing that the Internet captured, as all the forum roleplays I know of are dead or dying, except for a few run in specific very popular fandoms that always get an influx of new players, and it seems like something that could have existed on SA at some point over its history. Completely freeform roleplaying, in the sense of a party of players and a GM just telling make-believe stories with no structure, hasn't been popular here at least since I joined up. But there are some very rules-lite systems that have been used from time to time. I played in several PDQ games, for example. I think most goons like to have at least some semblance of an adjudicating ruleset that allows a GM to, say, give players a very high or very low chance of success at something, which is very hard to do with totally freeform RP. Strangely, I think GBS threads (sometimes moved to The Game Room once that appeared) have featured some prop-supported freeform RP, though! Stuff like Microwave's faux-pixel-games, where GBS players would say what they wanted to do ("go left") and then the "GM" would go draw what was there or fill it in or whatever. No real actual rules system, but usually some plan in advance of what is possible within the game space, albeit those plans hidden from the players. We've also had ARGs take place on SA, and those are a kind of freeform RP too. Similarly to the pixel art stuff, those have tended to at least start in GBS. Perhaps most famously, the original slenderman thread was a combined in-character and out-of-character mythology generating roleplaying photoshop thread; but I vaguely remember some more game-focused ARGs too. And then the CYOAs people are talking about, we don't (just) mean a Let's Read of a published CYOA book, we mean GMs running freeform games that are presented like such a book but are actually not pre-written at all.
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Jun 25, 2021 23:08
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Megazver posted:It took me like two months to run Sunless Citadel. It's a bit longer than a one-shot. It probably does, there's the Urban Arcana setting that is closer to cyberpunk/D&D.
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Jun 26, 2021 00:04
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Thanks for all the answers, everyone! I've made a few attempts to embark on different games-based elements of forums culture, like CYOAs or the Battletech thing or the Lone Wolf playthrough (which I think are in the Let's Play forum and not here), but haven't quite gotten caught up in one yet as I've mostly just been reading through backlog. Cool to see people are more than familiar with the concept. It's very true that, as a hobby/subculture, it loaned itself a lot to often cringey fandom, and there has been a lot of garbage tier roleplay across the Internet in all formats, but man there was some fun stuff going on back when there were more original settings and different systems in use. It was also really interesting how there was enough overlap between communities that it wasn't common to randomly come across Internet people from one forum somewhere else. Boba Pearl posted:Honestly, I think if you posted in the TG Game recruitment thread, you'd get some bites. I used to do a lot of roleplaying online as well, until the RolePlayersGuild put a nazi in charge as an admin, and the politics forum became super anti-trans, pro-nazi, and then there was a lot of uh "weird" RPs, about exterminating the unclean. You can also find non-nazi content on SufficientVelocity, a CYOA and Roleplay community. For example, I've roleplayed once or twice on Roleplayersguild way back in the day, and I know that it's been the "fallout" site for a lot of people I've known from other places that have died, shut down, etc. This was all prompted when I randomly came across this ancient fossil from 2006 while I was looking for some old writing projects, which describes the history of one such place on the Internet and generally reminds of how weird the Internet was in the mid 2000s. A lot of people who I knew from there eventually ended up on RPGuild, I think. Leperflesh posted:I think most goons like to have at least some semblance of an adjudicating ruleset that allows a GM to, say, give players a very high or very low chance of success at something, which is very hard to do with totally freeform RP. I think this is kind of what inevitably kills freeform roleplays. There's always a constant pressure between the idea of freeform and the need to implement systems so that there's a logic to everything, and it's impossible to satisfy both ideals, especially on a community scale. Hilariously, combat roleplay was super popular at the site I linked and was literally conceived out of that very blindsight, where people basically tried to write each other into a corner describing their characters' actions abstractly with very loose rulesets. It was as hilariously awful as anything else involving the e-peens of two nerds on the internet crashing together, and basically always ended in flame wars or one person trolling the other into submission and was generally incredibly toxic.
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Jun 26, 2021 00:46
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Forum Freeform I'd say just migrated to discord rather than died, it's pretty popular on that venue.
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Jun 26, 2021 00:58
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Tosk posted:I think this is kind of what inevitably kills freeform roleplays. There's always a constant pressure between the idea of freeform and the need to implement systems so that there's a logic to everything, and it's impossible to satisfy both ideals, especially on a community scale. Hilariously, combat roleplay was super popular at the site I linked and was literally conceived out of that very blindsight, where people basically tried to write each other into a corner describing their characters' actions abstractly with very loose rulesets. It was as hilariously awful as anything else involving the e-peens of two nerds on the internet crashing together, and basically always ended in flame wars or one person trolling the other into submission and was generally incredibly toxic. Groups I know who've done in-person freeform in the past always got around this by having the roleplay happen in an IC situation where it was hard to do much beyond talking (specifically, violence was out of the question) and having players periodically submit turnsheets describing what they were using their skills to do. Kind of like taking the structure of Diplomacy but instead of a defined victory condition of "conquer the world" players had fleshed-out characters with a more complex set of in-character motivations and goals, and also instead of armies some of them had spies or were religious leaders or captains of industry or something.
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Jun 26, 2021 09:52
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Countblanc posted:What the hell is a "book" It's like a physical version of a pdf and it scrolls sideways instead of vertically. I've been reading the rulebook for this bug rpg I got through kickstarter, it is called Cuticorium. https://usducktape.itch.io/cuticorium   I don't really get to play the tabletop rpgs I buy books for but I still enjoy reading through them and I really like the artwork in this one, there are so many cute/neat pics in it to draw inspiration from.
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Jun 26, 2021 23:36
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oh no, an adorable bug game, one of my many weaknesses How do the mechanics feel?
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Jun 27, 2021 00:38
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Leraika posted:oh no, an adorable bug game, one of my many weaknesses I've read that the mechanics are similar to PbtA but I don't know to what extent since I'm not familiar with PbtA enough to say either way. The main idea with the game's mechanics is this "web" system where a "web" is basically information. The area within the vicinity of the magic crystal has pacifying effects so that bugs who get closer to it become less bug-like and more human-like while also becoming more and more pacified to the point that violent crime is just not a thing that is possible. This is a bit of a problem since there are 3 kinds of bugs: predators, plant-eaters, and decomposers. Predators can't kill within the crystal's vicinity so to prey they need to leave the city and find food that way. Plant-eaters are so numerous that they can't have a regular supply of food within the crystal's vicinity so they need to head out search for food or grow food further out in unsettled areas. Decomposers can only eat dead stuff and since violent crime around the crystal is nonexistent they need to head outside the crystal's influence to find food. The crystal gives you self-awareness and with that you gain 4 things. 2 are Features (which are just biological tools you have, like bioluminescence, antennae, wings, spinnerets, etc) and you can have any combination of those features you want even if there's no real life bug with the same features. You can have more than those 2 features visually but the 2 specified features are the ones you have enough self-awareness of the actually make proper use of in various Scenes. The other 2 things are 1 shame and 1 desire. You carry a shame from your time as a bug from the before-crystal times and the crystal has granted you a the self-awareness to actually desire something. Webs are essentially just information but they are your currency and your health and your knowledge and influence of surrounding areas and bugs. To know yourself and have awareness of yourself means you have webs on yourself. You can lose these webs and, at 0 webs, you either revert to a mindless and frenzied bug or, more likely, you just die. You can have webs on others that represent the degree of influence you have on them or influence in them. Having webs on a location lets you have more knowledge of it and even claim an area as your own so that any scene that takes place there you can just pop into like "sup guys I'm in this scene now." You can trade webs as currency and various moves/actions/feature-skills will also influence webs in some way.
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Jun 27, 2021 02:21
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Tosk posted:Thanks for all the answers, everyone! I've made a few attempts to embark on different games-based elements of forums culture, like CYOAs or the Battletech thing or the Lone Wolf playthrough (which I think are in the Let's Play forum and not here), but haven't quite gotten caught up in one yet as I've mostly just been reading through backlog. Honestly Tosk hop in the CYOA discord. It's called that but there's really all manner of stuff in this vein you might find a niche for, including a bunch of GMs who write a lot of them. If nothing else you'll find people you can bounce ideas off.
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Jun 27, 2021 05:28
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FirstAidKite posted:I've read that the mechanics are similar to PbtA but I don't know to what extent since I'm not familiar with PbtA enough to say either way. This sounds amazing.
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Jun 27, 2021 05:39
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Sounds kind of like a version of Hollow Knight's setting except without the tragic-yet-inevitable apocalypse.
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Jun 27, 2021 05:44
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Boba Pearl posted:We actually have a roleplay going on, where two people sign up as rivals, and then they get cards for writing prompts. I forget the thread, but it's one of DogKisser's. We've also had CYOAs where every person plays their own characters. I missed this earlier, but if anyone is interested in freeform-ish action figure bashing, check out Not Even Light Escapes. It's the next step above totally freeform, with minimal guidance in the form of prompts that two players use to generate a world, a shared history, and then eventually tear apart until only one wins. Xiahou Dun posted:This sounds amazing. Also this, wow, that's very my jam.
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Jun 27, 2021 05:48
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:Sounds kind of like a version of Hollow Knight's setting except without the tragic-yet-inevitable apocalypse. The creator definitely drew inspiration from Hollow Knight when they made Cuticorium, though I've heard that the game Bug Fables is a lot closer in tone and coincidentally is also about a bug society that formed around a magic crystal that gave them sapience. The actual location itself is pretty neat too. Or rather, I wasn't expecting an indepth guide to the location itself and I'm easily impressed so I'm glad they have a map with a bunch of different unique locations with names and purposes.   e: I also appreciate that the character sheet has an area for pronouns and that the game is supportive of lgbtqia+ sapient bugs Dunno how to feel about idolfly though  Some clearer info from the source about what webs are so you don't have to dissect my mess of a post to figure it out  Trans caterpillar  Busking crab  Just really wanted an excuse to post those last couple FirstAidKite fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Jun 27, 2021 |
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Jun 27, 2021 06:51
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FirstAidKite posted:
  This Web thing seems a little like it has the same word for multiple things, but it also reminds me of Fallen London in a way.
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Jun 27, 2021 08:23
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Nessus posted:
Hold - A currency you generate using a specific move that allows you to spend it on things specific to that move Strings - A currency generated against a specific target, usually another PC or NPC, that allows you to spend it on different moves to do things related to that target. Webs - A currency generated against a specific target, which can be anything (Your PC, another PC, an NPC, a location?) depending on the move that generates Webs, that allows you to spend it on different moves to do things related to the target. ?
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Jun 27, 2021 20:49
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Shrecknet posted:I read an Amazon store page that informed me my copy of Damnation City is worth $185 
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Jun 27, 2021 23:28
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Payndz posted:My curiosity about how much a copy of The Keep On The Borderlands would cost on eBay to replace the one I sold decades ago is now making me really, really regret selling my orange-cover-with-B&W-art copy of Tomb Of Horrors for about £3. Gazeteers are my bane. I had loads of them in perfect condition and sold them all. Have mostly replaced them, but still missing some.
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Jun 28, 2021 01:07
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FirstAidKite posted:The other 2 things are 1 shame and 1 desire. You carry a shame from your time as a bug from the before-crystal times and the crystal has granted you a the self-awareness to actually desire something. You hosed up a perfectly good wasp is what you did. Look at it. It's got anxiety.
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Jun 28, 2021 12:27
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BrainParasite posted:You hosed up a perfectly good wasp is what you did. Look at it. It's got anxiety. I'm looking and it has something alright, but I don't think it is anxiety 
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Jun 28, 2021 12:43
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