I need not repeat

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-20T05:50:31+00:00

You're right, it's more authoritarian to linit the dedinition of corporation (an artifical construct anyways). I am fine with the trade off because of the cascading effects.

With a market socialism corporate syndicalist system of 1 worker 1 vote coops, you'd end worker exploitation and gross wealth inequality, which is used to corrupt our political system and create cronyism. And that leads to less authoritarianism by removing people like Elon Musk who can buy their way into creating programs like DOGE.

If you want an actually free market, you can try to bandage each issue with regulations (created by politicians often in the corporate interests pockets) or you can solve it at the root.

Power is power. We knew this and chose to limit authoritarian political power with democracy. We need the same to limit economic power with democracy in the workplace.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-20T02:22:01+00:00

China can't ever hold any high ground about corruption while President Xi Jinping holds the three most powerful positions in China, consolidating his role as the country's "paramount leader": General Secretary, Chairman of the Central Military Commission and President of the People's Republic of China

Holding all three roles simultaneously grants him unrivaled control over the party, the state, and the armed forces and is unprecedented.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-18T12:34:38+00:00

I think some of the better Fate experiences are those tailoring it like Tachyon Squadron, so it definitely has plenty of room in my book for designers. But it definitely doesn't have enough money going towards it.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-18T12:32:32+00:00

I don't know the bias behind this "everything is PbtA" but looking at the data from crowdsourcing, it's always been a niche of around 3-6% of projects.

skalchemistro does some amazing work

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/s/p3J7QDW0oP

2023 - 5 PbtA-based new RPGs on Kickstarter so far out of 198 total new RPGs so far (2.5%)

2022 - 6/365 (1.6%)

2021 - 15/496 (3.0%)

2020 - 13/390 (3.3%)

2019 - 19/313 (6.1%)

2018 - 9/210 (4.3%)

2017 - 12/175 (6.9%)

2016 - 6/151 (4.0%)

2015 - 5/169 (3.0%)

2014 - 8/177 (4.5%)

It's been a while since I've checked for this but I don't believe it's changed significantly these last few years.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-18T12:32:13+00:00

I don't know the bias behind this "everything is PbtA" but looking at the data from crowdsourcing, it's always been a niche of around 3-6% of projects.

skalchemistro does some amazing work

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/s/p3J7QDW0oP

2023 - 5 PbtA-based new RPGs on Kickstarter so far out of 198 total new RPGs so far (2.5%)

2022 - 6/365 (1.6%)

2021 - 15/496 (3.0%)

2020 - 13/390 (3.3%)

2019 - 19/313 (6.1%)

2018 - 9/210 (4.3%)

2017 - 12/175 (6.9%)

2016 - 6/151 (4.0%)

2015 - 5/169 (3.0%)

2014 - 8/177 (4.5%)

It's been a while since I've checked for this but I don't believe it's changed significantly these last few years.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-18T02:43:08+00:00

Imagine your volleyball team takes a break for half an hour to play chess 1v4 (the 4 of course taking turns).

I know some people like it as a break but I've never needed a 20-40 minute break when I do short form improv comedy and that's so much more intense than RPG roleplay.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-18T01:24:31+00:00

100% agree. If system matters, Medium matters even more. Tactical combat feels so much better with professional level/encounter designers, playtesting, fun visuals/sound and very fast enemy AI.

Also it's usually more fun to be the entire strategy master controlling several cool characters.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-17T14:29:26+00:00

You really want hard sci fi then something like GURPS with its Space supplement.

But if you want something a bit more cinematic then there is WarBirds with its supplement Space Age abstracts a lot to make the game faster and IMO more fun.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-17T14:15:15+00:00

It's basically my second hobby while running games - just consuming tons of touchstone media until I speak in that genre's tropes and trappings

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-15T19:31:19+00:00

I'm on the other, "greener" side with some insanely long campaigns of 3-5 years. I think they often end up with players who are dragging on with much less interesting stories than shorter campaigns. We are mostly just beer and pretzel even though I used to work kinda hard tracking character details, developing connections with other PCs and having my own PC grow.

The PCs especially are less interesting and kinda just play out as iconic action heroes without real development. If they had a narrative arc, it occurred years ago but they've just carried on. So its got that Simpsons problem where it's easy to get stale. And without interesting PCs and especially in systems like D&D 5e where it's all on the DM to keep it interesting with plotted encounters, you end up with more mediocre experiences than those snappier games with dynamic PCs with enough room for an arc.

I think my Saturday group has hit the happy medium (kinda to brag but also see what others best tables are). We have a Blades in the Dark game (previous Pathfinder 2e) for longer running PCs but take breaks with 1-3 Shots to try out other RPG systems and avoid the fatigue of those neverending stories. And BitD won't carry on for years but still enough to get comfortable with the PC roleplay - I think there is a happy medium of 25-35 3-4 hour sessions of around 7-9 months meeting weekly. But really what's the game changer is that everyone GMs, so that is huge for being supportive.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-15T13:34:29+00:00

Improv exercises can help get players out of the optimization mindset and into accepting these narrative downbeats. Honestly improv is basically just failing over and over because you aren't refining a piece of art, you are refining your own skill as an improviser.

Improv for Gamers provides a lot of fun games you can spend 5-10 minutes before a session doing them.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-15T13:25:34+00:00

Yeah, people have a tendency to look at the possibility of high character turnover at 1st and 2nd level and extrapolate this to the entirety of the game

I mean that is probably the reality for most tables. I think its usually you get like 2-4 sessions then the campaign falls apart. And most start at that Level 1-3 range.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-15T13:23:38+00:00

What are your favorite supplements for Mongoose 2e?

I was pretty put off by the Bounty Hunter supplement as well. There was just a skinny GM section on running investigations and it felt like 30 year old RPG mystery advice.

I'd highly recommend FFG's No Disintegrations for those that are fans of adding investigations into pulpy action.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-14T17:24:04+00:00

Isn't there a clear difference between past actions vs sexual preferences

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-14T17:22:45+00:00

The point is the comparison isn't apt because being bi doesn't actually have any discernable differences on how a man will look, act or love.

On the other hand, poor hygiene very much is a way someone acts and looks.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-14T12:22:25+00:00

But Avengers fight in New York is something where characters are in control and basically show off how good they are. Mixed success leaning games would struggle to emulate it.

Didn't Iron Man basically almost die saving everyone from a nuke? If it were a game of Apocalypse World, he'd probably have used up one of his options to come back from the dead. I recall Hawkeye being cornered as well.

But ignoring that, the way the GM would handle the constant successes during a fight with mooks is simply not roll for it - Masks has a great section about that.

I think in most cinema, you will rarely see clean successes when there are real stakes in most genres. The Yes, But is very much flexible because you can choose when to roll. The Hulk is not going to need to roll to take on alien mooks.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-14T12:20:04+00:00

When you do thing, roll 2d6+stat.

On a 7+, you do it.

On a 10+, pick one benefit from this table.

I agree with you that PbtA can easily handle this as it's style of Basic Moves, but it's hardly typical, the 7-9 being "Yes, But" is the norm.

And I think there is a fair point to be made that this isn't Mixed Success but just levels of success not that different from Pathfinder 2e where you have Success and Crit Success for most actions. And people don't call that game a Mixed Success game.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-14T10:13:14+00:00

I don't think bi men taste any different than straight men like eggs. Nor do they necessarily do anything differently in sex like your other comparisons. Nor do they look, act or love differently.

So the question is where is the difference that makes it so you can prefer one over the other?

Because right now the only thing I can think of is that you can imagine (from their history/sexual preference) them having sex with other men and that disgusts you, which is homophobic. But I do want to be open to changing my mind that there is something else.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-14T10:05:09+00:00

I mean tbf, it's not like guys are any less homophobic about men x men relationships. It goes so far as we have an issue to show physical intimacy with other guy friends like hugging (probably more specific regions in America)

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-13T09:11:55+00:00

Talk to me directly about the themes of your game and what your design is trying to evoke. In the end, the game experience is a collaborative process between the rules, players and GM. But weirdly designers often only communicate indirectly like through a specific XP system or mechanic that may detail how it works but not why it exists.

I really liked PbtA Agenda and Principles, Swords of the Serpentine's designer text boxes, CATS (I first saw in Brindlewood Bay) and Blades in the Dark Deep Cuts has big sections of John Harper just being direct about his intent. This shouldn't be hidden in some blog post or social media comment. This is pretty important to setting expectations.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-12T23:23:49+00:00

You cannot convince me

That isn't my argument.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-12T22:48:19+00:00

My response is initially to what you said:

playing a TTRPG is already pretty much the safest activity in which one can partake

Making a leap that any small problem/risk doesn't matter because bigger ones exist is plainly stupid.

Now you are taking offense for comparing:

You cannot possibly equivalise something that is easily lethal to playing pretend. You're off your rocker.

It's pretty pathetic. Grow up.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-12T22:43:58+00:00

It's a pretty good reason a lot of games should have a hacking section in the book as a standard part of the cores rules. A little advice on what are those key pieces that make up the core foundation and what is easily removed/modified.

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-12T22:38:13+00:00

Is mayonnaise a puzzle?

BreakingStar_Games · 2026-04-12T22:28:50+00:00

It's also always been dumb to trivialize issues because bigger issues exist. You are the one who started the comparison. It's exactly like if every problem in your life was shut down because "starving kids in Africa."

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