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Since listening to those Study Buddies episodes above, I've been hoping to run across more stories of how old games were played. Any recommendations, preferably not by huge weird D&D grogs?
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Dec 6, 2022 10:12
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I've been watching a little of Seth Skorkowsky's module reviews on Youtube. He has a lot of insightful and lucid criticisms of how the designers' intentions don't always work out in actual play. For which he inevitably offers a solution that doesn't actually fix the problem, or makes it worse. In particular, to the tendency of both classic and contemporary Call of Cthulhu modules to demand skill tests for basic progression through the adventure.
But it's refreshing to watch a show by someone who has actually played the things he's reviewing. That was my hope for Ludonarrative Dissidents, which fell completely flat.
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Jan 23, 2023 23:50
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mellonbread posted:I've been watching a little of Seth Skorkowsky's module reviews on Youtube. He has a lot of insightful and lucid criticisms of how the designers' intentions don't always work out in actual play. For which he inevitably offers a solution that doesn't actually fix the problem, or makes it worse. In particular, to the tendency of both classic and contemporary Call of Cthulhu modules to demand skill tests for basic progression through the adventure. Yeah, someone who actually plays things they review in the general trad games sphere is actually head and shoulders above just about everything else. I enjoyed Skorkowsky's reviews of traveller modules.
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Jan 23, 2023 23:55
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mellonbread posted:I've been watching a little of Seth Skorkowsky's module reviews on Youtube. He has a lot of insightful and lucid criticisms of how the designers' intentions don't always work out in actual play. For which he inevitably offers a solution that doesn't actually fix the problem, or makes it worse. In particular, to the tendency of both classic and contemporary Call of Cthulhu modules to demand skill tests for basic progression through the adventure. Yeah. I'm with you that the lack of play (except for Ross, who has played most of the games) and James Wallis' disdain for most anything that wasn't around in the 90s is a bummer for Ludonarrative Dissidents. I've been thinking about writing about RPG reviews in a blog post style (rather than as a podcast) for stuff I've played and run, but it's hard to get a feel for how much interest there is for something like that. It definitely takes more time and effort than most any other kind of review that I can think of.
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Jan 24, 2023 04:09
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Sionak posted:I've been thinking about writing about RPG reviews in a blog post style (rather than as a podcast) for stuff I've played and run, but it's hard to get a feel for how much interest there is for something like that. It definitely takes more time and effort than most any other kind of review that I can think of. What are some things you would review?
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Jan 24, 2023 23:51
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mellonbread posted:Reviews of games that the reviewer had actually played were my favorite part of F&F back when I still posted there. My list for now is Monsters and Other Childish Things, Fellowship, The Quiet Year, Ten Candles, DramaSystem/Hillfolk, and Eclipse Phase (especially the Fate version and 2e). I have some other games I could review like the Yellow King RPG, Dungeon World, Fiasco, Exalted or World of Darkness, 13th Age, and Delta Green - but I feel like those are better known and understood, so they're less of a priority to me. I might write some broader things about overall systems like Gumshoe or the various White Wolf permutations, but this is all hypothetical for now. For a few games (Hard Wired Island, Tenra Bansho Zero, Panic at the Dojo, Mouse Guard 2E, Swords of the Serpentine) it's a good motivation to get them to the table. But I'm not really into writing a review for a game that I haven't played or run.
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Jan 27, 2023 02:27
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Sionak posted:My list for now is Monsters and Other Childish Things, Fellowship, The Quiet Year, Ten Candles, DramaSystem/Hillfolk, and Eclipse Phase (especially the Fate version and 2e). I have some other games I could review like the Yellow King RPG, Dungeon World, Fiasco, Exalted or World of Darkness, 13th Age, and Delta Green - but I feel like those are better known and understood, so they're less of a priority to me. I might write some broader things about overall systems like Gumshoe or the various White Wolf permutations, but this is all hypothetical for now. The KiY RPG looked cool when it was in beta, but I lost interest before it actually came out. It was during that period where all the books were stuck in a warehouse for years. Hillfolk I only know about because of a couple articles on the Pelgrane site. Some of the posts on the Pelgrane blog are better than the stuff they actually put in the published books and modules.
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Jan 27, 2023 06:20
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Awesome, thanks. That's really helpful feedback and good motivation to do this thing.
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Jan 28, 2023 00:38
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Just listened this very short-lived podcast by the title Adventure Tourism. Some guy named Chris Bissette talks to indie creators about their favourite adventure modules. Very chill and positive vibes, I really recommend it if you're at all interested in D&D style stuff. Shame it never went further than four episodes.
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Feb 24, 2023 16:24
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Listened to the RPPR game design discussion from late last year, where they talked about what changes they would make if they did a 2e of their games. Red Markets
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Apr 6, 2023 23:11
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https://systemmasterypodcast.com/2023/06/13/system-mastery-254-savage-worlds-rifts/ I enjoyed this one so much that I went back and listened to the Rifts episodes, both of 'em. God help me, I want to play in a Rifts game now.
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Jun 15, 2023 15:51
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It really sold me on savage worlds with the first episode and then rifts with the second. That burn mechanic is :chefskiss:
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Jun 15, 2023 16:00
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When Savage Worlds first came out I did not want to play it. The main reason for this is that people who liked Savage Worlds could only promote it by repeating the phrase "fast and furious" on message boards ad nauseum. Yes, I'm petty.
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Jun 15, 2023 16:03
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Halloween Jack posted:https://systemmasterypodcast.com/2023/06/13/system-mastery-254-savage-worlds-rifts/ I don't even have the creative juice for maintaining my Call of Cthulhu game but same. Also Jef I'm the one person who is a patron and remembers Buck-O-Nine songs.
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Jun 15, 2023 16:05
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Halloween Jack posted:people who liked Savage Worlds could only promote it by repeating the phrase "fast and furious" on message boards ad nauseum. Was there a Fast and Furious setting book or were they talking about the mechanics
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Jun 15, 2023 16:17
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Ominous Jazz posted:Was there a Fast and Furious setting book or were they talking about the mechanics The slogan for a while was "Fast! Furious! FUN!"
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Jun 15, 2023 16:26
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Ominous Jazz posted:It really sold me on savage worlds with the first episode and then rifts with the second. That burn mechanic is :chefskiss: I have since been informed that the Burn mechanic was contributed to the game by John Wick, which I guess means he's useful for something besides keeping a cowboy hat about six feet off the ground. Lumbermouth posted:I don't even have the creative juice for maintaining my Call of Cthulhu game but same. Hell yeah. Jon was unclear on what I was doing so I subjected him to Jennifer's Cold and Drink and Fight after we stopped recording. Dude has ska in his soul so he couldn't stay grumpy.
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Jun 15, 2023 16:29
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Lumbermouth posted:The slogan for a while was "Fast! Furious! FUN!"
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Jun 15, 2023 16:35
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If I need an (entirely subjective) mild-to-medium crunch system these days I go with Savage Worlds because it can honestly do about anything.
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Jun 15, 2023 16:40
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Dawgstar posted:If I need an (entirely subjective) mild-to-medium crunch system these days I go with Savage Worlds because it can honestly do about anything. Is there a good superhero savage worlds?
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Jun 15, 2023 17:04
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Ominous Jazz posted:Is there a good superhero savage worlds? The Superhero Companion is pretty good! The only place it kind of falls down is emulating high levels of super strength but other than that it's fine.
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Jun 15, 2023 18:01
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“Stomp” is a dialectal variant of “stamp”, but it’s 200 years old and is minor enough you’d never notice it without the spelling. It’s really just how far back that vowel is ; if you say “stomp” and “stamp” back and forth you can even feel the single, slight difference as it moves in your mouth. Compared to the differences between RP and Standard American it’s meaningless.
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Sep 19, 2023 22:46
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Neat! Wrong thread?
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Sep 20, 2023 05:06
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No just me being bad at theory of mind lol Sorry. They discuss that at length on the most recent System Mastery because the game used the phrase “stamping grounds” as a term. I wanted to give people some context. (And also because listening to someone wonder something you know the answer to and you can’t respond is a unique kind of psychic pain.) In retrospect, that was an absolutely insane way to post. My bad.
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Sep 20, 2023 05:24
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Her name is Molly Millions. I'm really fascinated with the settings that are often just kinda sorta implied in some of the games System Mastery reviews. The Lawnmower Man has this low-key cyberpunk thing going on where networks are air gapped because everyone's afraid of psychic hacker AI cults. Starfaring takes the post-Scattering era from Dune to its furthest logical conclusion. I love the idea that all space navigate involves Psi and you have to watch out for giant psychic Cthulhus floating through space.
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Sep 21, 2023 14:55
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Halloween Jack posted:Her name is Molly Millions. Ahem, she also goes by Sally Shears and Rose Kolodny. Sure I have to rely on Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, but drat it I was right about the Sprawl trilogy for once. theironjef fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Sep 21, 2023 17:12
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gently caress! I'm owned!
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Sep 21, 2023 17:22
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mellonbread posted:[*]Condense the massive lore writeup nobody ever read down to just the high points Red markets had hundreds of pages of lore than I skipped. It was also depressing to play, since its creation/release straddled the 2016 election of Donald Trump and economic disaster horror felt a lot more escapist under Obama.
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Sep 24, 2023 07:07
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Xiahou Dun posted:“Stomp” is a dialectal variant of “stamp”, but it’s 200 years old and is minor enough you’d never notice it without the spelling. It’s really just how far back that vowel is ; if you say “stomp” and “stamp” back and forth you can even feel the single, slight difference as it moves in your mouth. I listen to System Mastery on Thursdays and was like "oh I get what that post was about now."
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Sep 24, 2023 08:31
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The monotone “weeeeeen” over System Mastery credit songs still gets me every time. Thanks for continuing to do it!
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Oct 18, 2023 13:07
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The Shut Up and Sit Down guy made a new show for RPG reviews. SUSD did a few RPG reviews over the years, both in video and in text. They were generally good because the reviewers had played the games they were talking about, which is absolutely vital and unfortunately rare.
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Feb 1, 2024 23:57
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mellonbread posted:The Shut Up and Sit Down guy made a new show for RPG reviews. Obviously given what I do, I disagree, but you know. I have enjoyed their board game stuff in the past so it sounds good to me.
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Feb 2, 2024 00:01
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I've been thinking about it since it's been a topic on the last couple of shows, and as someone who likes most games I play but has trouble understanding mechanics by just reading the books, the person who reads the books and understands and then reviews the mechanics is a lot more helpful to me than someone who's played the game telling me if they liked to play it. Because I'll probably like the game if I play it too (hell I like Starfinder) but knowing a game is mechanically sound helps me steer my group towards games (who are less plugged into the scene, man,) that have good mechanics because my friends do care about that part.
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Mar 1, 2024 07:23
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It is amazing how recently this thread was bumped yet I was utterly unable to find it when searching manually or with the Professional Aid of the Search Feature(tm) Plus I just finished reading the Elusive Shift so was delighted to see I can now listen to a 2-hour podcast of people discussing it that was linked last page! Last page, in 2022. Hmm Also I know the thread title is funny but as someone who will never understand the appeal of listening to/watching other people play games I am very thankful people wanting to just talk about cool things exist in the tabletop gaming sphere. I hated it when JEREMY made me watch him play his Commodore 64 in 1990 and I hate it when people make us watch them have fun now!!!
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Mar 8, 2024 19:46
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Rick posted:I've been thinking about it since it's been a topic on the last couple of shows, and as someone who likes most games I play but has trouble understanding mechanics by just reading the books, the person who reads the books and understands and then reviews the mechanics is a lot more helpful to me than someone who's played the game telling me if they liked to play it. Because I'll probably like the game if I play it too (hell I like Starfinder) but knowing a game is mechanically sound helps me steer my group towards games (who are less plugged into the scene, man,) that have good mechanics because my friends do care about that part. My opinion is super biased but in general I find that hearing an AP or a review of a game as review of a game session mostly just tells me if some group of internet strangers has a really good GM or not. I find that when I hear about a game that was super good (when I have read that game and know it's middlin' to bad) then it's only a matter of time before I hear "And the GM barely used the rulebook at all, we just RP'd a lot!" Which you know, that's great, definitely aspirational squad goals and all, but definitely more a review of some person's improv capabilities instead of a review of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs or whatever.
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Mar 8, 2024 22:23
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Rick posted:I've been thinking about it since it's been a topic on the last couple of shows, and as someone who likes most games I play but has trouble understanding mechanics by just reading the books, the person who reads the books and understands and then reviews the mechanics is a lot more helpful to me than someone who's played the game telling me if they liked to play it. Because I'll probably like the game if I play it too (hell I like Starfinder) but knowing a game is mechanically sound helps me steer my group towards games (who are less plugged into the scene, man,) that have good mechanics because my friends do care about that part.
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Mar 8, 2024 23:57
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i think if you have a good sense of system mastery you can tell and make an informed argument without having played it.
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Mar 9, 2024 00:42
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I read and play a lot of new systems (I've got a try-out-a-new-system-every-month game) and I generally find that if I don't like something on a read, my suspicions are usually confirmed when we play. When a game surprises me it's usually when we actually play it and I discover I don't like something that didn't really catch my attention during the read.
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Mar 9, 2024 11:17
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I'm the same way, sometimes I ignore my initial feelings because I really like the setting but it's usually a mistake. The biggest one that comes to mind is Feng Shui 2nd edition. I thought the setting was cool so I gave it a shot even if the book seemed to be spending a lot of paragraphs justifying certain choices. It turned out that those choices were bad. One of the things that I only notice when I'm actually running the game is if the book's layout is any good. There's definitely been a few systems where the mechanics were okay but the book was so poorly laid out that looking up anything would grind the game to a halt and make me wish I was playing anything else.
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Mar 10, 2024 02:36
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The bit about how it’s okay to have useless skills on your character sheet made me insanely angry. It’s wrong, in the same sense that “2+2=5” is wrong.
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Mar 11, 2024 21:07
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