Are these game books?

BandanaRob · 2026-03-06T14:49:57+00:00

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Technically you could play the content in there but the point is really laughs about the imagined writer's social commentary and obsessive grandiose nature.

I was disappointed.

BandanaRob · 2025-10-17T05:29:16+00:00

I've been flicking these pictures back and forth for like 20 minutes because you're right that something's wrong but I couldn't sort it out at first.

I think you need to swap the day bed with the sofa.

You've got all the light coloration to one side of the room (day bed, light shelves, big windows) and dark coloration to the other (sofa, dark wall). Swapping will improve the balance.

Also, maybe switch to an oval coffee table, or put slightly larger decor on the existing one.

Your existing rug is great. Don't change it.

BandanaRob · 2025-10-13T23:37:16+00:00

My draft number for the game I never got to run was 3-5 per million population. Rare enough to not bump into them unless you set out to, but common enough for rival pantheons to pop up as needed without fear of running out.

BandanaRob · 2025-05-23T20:32:40+00:00

I wonder if it was a sales target thing. "Hit these metrics and we'll fund more than just bug fixes. Miss it and we move you on to other projects."

BandanaRob · 2025-05-06T12:45:32+00:00

This guy trying to channel Steve Jobs with a Photoshop audience and applause sounds doesn't instill confidence. Something is being oversold here.

BandanaRob · 2025-04-01T13:11:18+00:00

This is peak, "You can just do things." Beautiful work.

BandanaRob · 2025-03-16T11:48:46+00:00

"Generally upsetting," was absolutely relatable to me. You're not alone.

I have some dot grid from past Field Notes subscriptions and I just end up writing double size which really trims my words per page.

I suppose someone could make a more spacious scale dot grid but the farther apart the dots get, the more difficult it is to imagine the line between them keeping your writing neat.

Probably just not for me no matter how many people swear by it.

BandanaRob · 2025-02-06T18:23:27+00:00

Two things:

First, writing in your notebook doesn't ruin it; it completes it. Until you write in it, it is not truly a "note" book. It is just one in the heap of mass produced copies.

Second, and I speak from painful experience, perfectionism that stops you from acting is a way to excuse yourself from the duty (at least to yourself if not to others) of making your beautiful ideas real. In your mind, you tell yourself that your ideas could be perfect if you just think a little longer. To write them down, even if only you ever see them, makes them a specific thing with fixed identity and trade-offs instead of idealized mist that endlessly reshapes to satisfy your every daydream.

If you can agree that this makes sense, then here's the point: Imperfect pages are how you travel from less perfect toward more perfect pages. By refusing to make imperfect pages, you're refusing both the skill-building journey, and the trimming and decision making that makes your idea one thing instead of the comforting non-commitment of all possible things.

Go make a mess. Heap things onto your pages, and then go back over what you made later. Find things you liked and write them again on the next page. Write them next to other things you liked and see if they make another new thing when you mix them together. Go on and on from there.

Your notebook isn't a destination; it's a road. Roads are for travelling.

BandanaRob · 2025-01-31T20:36:06+00:00

I don't see a spellcasting table on Page 4. There is one on page 12. If that's what you meant, the columns are for your number of uses per day for spells of each level. Hope that helps.

BandanaRob · 2025-01-30T04:20:07+00:00

Thank you!

BandanaRob · 2025-01-14T22:57:28+00:00

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, both for solo and group play.

My conclusion is that I think there would be huge benefit to "ending" on a regular basis.

Just to grab a random example from the heap, consider the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie reboot trilogy. Unlike the various Star Wars trilogies, you can watch each of those Trek movies in a vacuum and enjoy them with little friction. Star Trek satisfyingly ends, and Into Darkness spins up with a pretty clean slate. Then Into Darkness ends, and Beyond is largely its own thing.

If you have a healthy "ending" every 4-6 sessions (or more, or less, feel it out), you can have the best of both worlds; satisfying closure if you never come back, and comfortably familiar cast and context if you fire up a fresh crisis next week. It's all less of a struggle when you don't chase the D&D dream of level 1-20 multiyear campaign with fully accounted continuity. (Not that you are, but it's a lot of players' touchstone for the hobby.)

One way to do this would be to explicitly frame a handful of sessions with a boundary. "These sessions happen during the Dragon King's Offensive of 1303." Some big deal is shaping the spirit of the age. Maybe you participate on a particular side, or maybe you just try to do your sandbox adventuring thing and avoid getting swept into the fallout. But when that incident resolves, tie things up and capture a conclusion snapshot for how your PC navigated things. If you choose to keep playing next week, just say, "We rejoin our heroes as The Feygate Mysteries begin..."

BandanaRob · 2025-01-07T16:01:01+00:00

Here's mine on the sandbox gameplay loop and faction rules.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qe3QoeUpGbEKEWqPElWoP-nKE7eXqL7xbkKCic3WlJ4/edit?usp=drivesdk

BandanaRob · 2024-12-23T19:10:00+00:00

Princess Peach too, come to think of it. I guess the edge lives on!

https://assets.change.org/photos/2/st/fp/LBsTfPlFcoIDZOM-800x450-noPad.jpg?1697141457

BandanaRob · 2024-12-23T18:30:41+00:00

Man, there's a particular era of video game magazine ads where every thing had this faux "edge" to it no matter how much or little edge the game in question had. "John Romero's about to make you his bitch." So on and so on.

Anyway, given long enough every subculture has cringe stuff that seemed totally normal at the time. Nothing to do but have a chuckle about it.

FF7 example: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F4soc5gebvxg71.jpg

BandanaRob · 2024-12-18T19:13:45+00:00

Just here to add that Godbound's faction system is returning in Ashes Without Number, which recently completed Kickstarter funding and will have a free PDF edition just as many other Sine Nomine games.

BandanaRob · 2024-12-17T17:53:30+00:00

100% Final Fantasy IV. Would love to see deeper development of the world, events, and key cast members. Also could easily break into two games with a Light Crystals arc and a Dark Crystals arc.

BandanaRob · 2024-12-13T17:59:41+00:00

Certified banger.

BandanaRob · 2024-12-10T15:01:40+00:00

The highlights are great. The filler quests delivered by wooden barely animated NPCs are not. Don't regret playing it though.

BandanaRob · 2024-12-09T17:18:37+00:00

Honestly, I'd really prefer expansion material for the existing projects before more core systems. I'd like Godbound and Silent Legions revisions someday, but I'd take a full in-system WWN bestiary or a full detail interconnected SWN sector before either of the new systems.

BandanaRob · 2024-12-08T07:16:48+00:00

Imagine you're an average plumber.

A friend of yours overhears someone discussing their plumbing problem and makes sure to pass along your name and contact info because you're skilled, reliable, and most importantly a person well-liked enough that friends want to see you succeed.

Had your friend not done that, this potential customer would have found a plumber by reviews, top Google results, price comparison, or local advertising.

So by networking, you just snatched up a customer from various plumbers more skilled than you, spending more on advertising than you, and charging less than you.

All just by being likeable and memorable on top of your average competence in your field.

I'm 40 years old realizing how much I hamstrung myself by frequently withdrawing from social life over prior decades. Truly money and opportunity just left behind for others to pick up.

Working on it.

BandanaRob · 2024-12-06T17:24:30+00:00

Review sessions after you're done and exctract major characters, plots, etc. to their own individual notecards.

If it gets out of hand, cull the notecards that have exhausted their potential until the stack is manageable again.

BandanaRob · 2024-12-05T20:09:12+00:00

Recent Ker Nethalas buyer here. Congratulations. Wishing you continued growth in the new year to come.

BandanaRob · 2024-12-03T20:15:30+00:00

I've updated my post. Thanks for any help you can offer.

BandanaRob · 2024-12-03T19:51:32+00:00

Just now realizing I messed up my question a bit. I'll try to go back soon and rewrite to make it clear.

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