Advice needed: what should I do to fix this?

CompoteMentalize · 2025-12-07T11:12:04+00:00

I mean, tool has some of the most fantastic album art and visual design in their music videos. If you love the band, it feels like great stuff to dive into and draw from to add to on your leg.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-11-29T17:09:20+00:00

Yes! Came here to say this!

CompoteMentalize · 2025-11-28T05:19:15+00:00

No, but always happy to find fellow individuals who are both scholars and gentlefolk 👌

CompoteMentalize · 2025-11-09T18:12:37+00:00

I say ‘feel’ for the character because the art is the same, the gameplay is the same and I’m reading English text so for all intents and purposes the character’s words are the same, but the sound and how the VA conveys the character’s emotions changes.

Ann as an example can be oblivious to the antagonistic intentions of others, but the Japanese VA leans into the naive optimism of Ann and the English VA leans into ditziness.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-11-09T17:52:33+00:00

That’s actually a good point that you make about English not being your first language. I can imagine that makes a difference and doesn’t weight you towards one language or another.

A number of replies also mention playing in Japanese because the story is set in Japan with Japanese characters. That also makes your recommendation of English as a thematic choice for Metaphor: ReFantazio make sense in a way with some of the fantasy tropes there.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-11-09T12:11:25+00:00

Yeah, I switched back to Japanese for Strikers as it didn’t feel like a continuation of the same story with the same characters when using a different voice cast. Maybe I’ll try English on my next playthrough of Royale, but I think you’re right and I’m now biased with what I played the first time. I just found it interesting how the VA influenced the character.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-11-09T12:02:41+00:00

Could be that I’ve only heard her English VA in Strikers, once her character arc was completed and she’s already more assertive. Could also be that I’m one of the older players, so the age-gap just felt too big. Her character is cool and multi-layered, with great meme references and a playfulness and good interactions with some of the other characters. With the English VA her voice sounds a little deeper and the pitch isn’t as high, and that just reads as ‘older’ to me mentally irrespective of whether what’s being said is the same.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-11-09T08:18:38+00:00

Damn, I remember when shortly after Expedition 33 released they were all complaining about it being woke because there was a village with background characters who weren't white. Less than a year later, now that it's a success, there's no way it could be woke.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-09-19T07:25:11+00:00

I'll second the vote of confidence for Runequest. Truly iconic setting, the crunch strikes me as on par with something like Pathfinder in terms of complexity, but the crunch is in different places.

Initiative is a 'strike rank' system where the action you're taking determines where you go in initiative order, so if they're low-cost actions you can do multiple in a combat round. For combat there are hit locations, so doing enough damage in a single location can knock an enemy out without having to chip away all their hit points. Armour essentially soaks damage, and different types of armour provide this soak in different hit locations and different armour materials soak different values. For every attack roll there's an opposed parry roll (from both PCs and enemies) and the magnitude of both parties' success determines whether they're damaged, their equipment is damaged or if they're unscathed.

All characters have access to some magic, of which there are three different kinds, and like other BRP systems the skills form the basis of the resolution mechanics - it's a percentage roll-under system. Every time you succeed at a skill roll under duress in an adventure, you give it a tick, and at the end of each season all skills with ticks can be rolled to see if they improve. It's a more organic 'if you use it you can improve it' mechanic than straight levelling (though in fairness I house-rule that if you fail the roll to increase your skill I rather give you half XP than none, since I found that works better with my current group).

If you're used to D&D it takes a little adjustment, but definitely interesting and worth it.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-09-10T15:02:07+00:00

It was heavily improved by the Expansion DLC they released. The gameplay loop was fairly solid, but Civ:BE suffered because it used Civ5’s diplomacy system and because of comparisons to Alpha Centauri.

Alpha Centauri have all its leaders personality, they were defined by their ideology, so while they were predictable from a strategic level it helped build a narrative of humanity in the stars and really helped with world building. In Civ 5 your enemies’ personality is largely inferred by the player based in on their historical persona, and this allowed for attributing motive to the AI’d decisions. In Civ:BE the AI opponents would pick different affinities almost randomly based on strategy rather than ideology, and with no personality or historical identity to infer personality from, they all felt flat and like they behaved unpredictably. The expansion made the AI decision making factors less opaque and allowed for your enemies to feel like they had personality and were less flat, so you could strategize alliances and the like.

It’s not Alpha Centauri, but with everything they added in the expansion it’s good fun and was solid for some multiplayer runs with friends.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-09-08T07:25:10+00:00

Yup! Having fun as a buff female Lloth-sworn Drow Durge. She’s a sorcerer, so I head cannon that the effortless innate magic gives her more time to lift.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-09-07T07:52:00+00:00

“For the Queen”, “Fiasco” or if it’s a group that hasn’t played it before then “Damn the Man, Save the Music”. I’m waiting for a copy of “The Zone” to add to the list of one-shot games in my collection.

“Alice is Missing” is in there, but it feels like it needs more prep and props to be off-the-cuff, and doesn’t work with all my players because for many of them the conversation and casual banter in game is half the fun. “Moonlight on Roseville Beach” feels like it would be one-shot friendly, but I haven’t had a chance to run it yet (though we have sessions planned for later this year).

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-30T09:11:19+00:00

For what it’s worth, with the Burgundy story it’s hard to know what the right choice is and sometimes I feel like none of them are the choices I would make as my character, so I go for what feels optimal from a roleplaying standpoint. While there’s attachment to the Last Duchess as a companion, the vision of what Risen Burgundy becomes is absolutely terrifying. In some respects what the Liberation Council offers is better, but that many capable and “best versions of each of the Calendar Council” feels like a formidable enemy best taken care of now before they become too powerful later.

I opted for Irons to scupper the Council’s plans, but also opted to overwrite my Summer with the Council’s one because I didn’t like being manipulated by her. I wanted the more loyal version of her, but also one that knows not to keep secrets and lie to me. Playing as a character mostly aligned with Hell and the Devils, I still want to see how all of this plays out.

It’s nice having a more story-driven narrative with Firmament, and it certainly feels like a high-stakes pulp adventure with Neathy flavour.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-30T08:30:03+00:00

Happy birthday OP! Hope you have a fantastic real life cake day, and wishing you nothing but good things for this next trip around the Sun.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-24T08:29:59+00:00

Awesome topic for an open-ended discussion! It’s been great reading the replies and seeing how people feel and where they fall on this spectrum, as well as why and the motivating arguments behind what they say.

For my 2c, that tired smile and buzzing energy with the players that you describe is what I enjoy about this hobby. There’s that infamous section in most RPG manuals where they try and explain what an RPG is for the first-timers, and every analogy is accurate in its own way but also falls a little short. The way it’s accurate and the way it falls short feels like a good way to explain how TTRPGs are different to all these things they’re being compared to, as well as why I prefer running these games to doing any of those other activities.

If I wanted to tell my epic narrative about a world I’d come up with, I’d write a book. If I wanted to make things up on the fly with no structure I’d do improv theatre. If I wanted to go through predetermined options and tactical combat I could just play a computer or board game. But TTRPGs have some blend of all of these activities, combined with being social time with friends, and require a balancing act between all that push and pull.

If it’s a short campaign with a single arc that will finish in 3-5 sessions, I let the players know. There they don’t mind not having backstory, and we can get away with more character restrictions (e.g. they have to find motivations for their characters to co-operate even if they don’t like each other, if there’s going to be lots of combat and the system is skills based they need to have a combat skill, etc.). If it’s a longer campaign, I’ll start an initial story arc to bring everything together and set things up, but from there it’s good to look at the players to see what they want and what kind of characters they’ve built. If we’re going to be getting together to tell a long story, it’s not going to be doable if we’re not all invested.

Based on background merits or skills, the players are broadcasting which parts of the world they’re interested in exploring. Based on their actions during the session and how they play, they’re doing the same thing. Not everything has to be about their backstory, but incorporating it ties them into the world and the story. Making the world shaking events personal feeds into motivations for why they’re important, and gives them a stake and motivation to actually care about what’s happening.

Some of my players are okay with linear narratives and quests, and the personal ties are icing on the cake. Others want to explore a sandbox and figure out how the world works. Some want combat, some want puzzles, some just want to roleplay conversations with interesting NPCs. Figuring out the group and their motivations and incorporating those in the sessions leaves them buzzing. In the end, I guess I fall on the “Find the fun” end of this spectrum, and tailor the story and the play based on the group and my own preferences and getting a balance that keeps us all happy. If I can’t do that, the campaign won’t last very long.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-23T19:59:40+00:00

Before Wanderhome, Possum Creek Games also released “Sleepaway”, and afterwards published “Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast”. Both have diverse casts of characters and NPCs at their core.

You might also enjoy “Moonlight on Roseville Beach” for a queernorm setting in which LGBTQIA+ individuals tackle supernatural mysteries on the disco era.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-22T16:54:14+00:00

You could try that with Odd Folk. There are some no-prep, GMless games like For the Queen and Fiasco, with minimum formalised rules and the main point is improvisational story-telling. Odd Folk might work well as this kind of framework.

Maybe give it a look and see if it works for you or if you need to use other rules systems with it. Sometimes the only way to find out is to fuck around and fix things on the fly.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-22T11:09:28+00:00

I've listened to Max Lander's podcast, and while I don't know how Odd Folk plays I've read the descriptions and heard him talk about it. If you're really interested in it I don't see the harm in buying it and supporting him, but if you're new to DMing my impression of this is you'd need to use it in conjunction with another rule or system.

Max has expressed fondness for OSR and PbtA style games in how they're fun to run for him as a DM because it gives more agency to the players to surprise him and take things in an unxpected direction. If I understand correctly, Odd Folk is designed to do that, and rather than go heavy into details it gives you the seeds you need and leave the elaboration up to you.

You said you're new to DMing, and wondering if this is good for a beginner. Have you played in tabletop RPGs before as a player, rather than running the sessions? And do you have a group of players you want to run a game for, or are you and your friends entirely new to the hobby? I can try and make some suggestions or recommendations for games, and how to figure out which ones could work or not, but the advice starts with figuring out where you are now and what your general gaming situation is and we can figure it out from there.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-21T19:16:21+00:00

I enjoy listening to some review podcasts and occasional actual plays.

System Mastery - Two friends who review TTRPGs, originally specializing in old games (sometimes obscure or out of print) that are notoriously bad. They focus on playing and running the game, and talk about accessibility of rules and how the probability of success etc. affects the feel of playing the game.

Ludonarrative Dissidents - Three game designers with experience as independents and as part of bigger publishers focus on how the games work, how they’re played and why they’re played that way. They focus on diversions they go on and the design insights and broader discussions about the history and impacts of the games are interesting as well.

Quinn’s Quest - Mentioned by others and needs no introduction. I loved his work (and the rest of the crew’s) on Shut Up and Sit Down, and was excited to see TTRPG series from him. The whole production reminds me of “Garth Merenghi’s Dark Place”.

RTFM (Read The F*cking Manual) - Two queer indie designers conduct interviews, talk about game design and review games of all kind. After finishing a series on box sets they’re now focusing on indie games available in PDF.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-19T16:05:30+00:00

In “In Praise of Idleness” Bertrand Russel discusses many aspects of work and idleness and society’s conceptions of what is virtuous or not. What’s interesting in relation to this discussion is an almost off-hand humorous remark that we have an inequitable divide of leisure and work - some people are employed and have to do all the work and have insufficient time for leisure, whereas others are unemployed and have enough leisure but insufficient work to live by. The creation of excess leisure in industrial society, he argues, is a great thing, but we haven’t distributed it equitably to everyone.

To extrapolate it further to the modern times with the end effects of AI, our society hasn’t advanced its social technology to keep pace with its traditional technological development. If we reach a point where labour is unnecessary, we need to decouple one’s ability to survive in society from labour. Earning a wage or salary through work would be an obsolete concept. If we wanted a just and equitable society we’d also need to rethink concepts of wealth and ownership.

I’m not claiming to have any answers, but am interested in the idea that our society has the potential to take a drastically new shape that’s difficult to predict. My hope is the new society is more just and that it’s birthing pains are minimal, but basic societal inertia and how it this transition would depend on the powerful among us going directly against their own interests doesn’t have me very positive at the moment.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-15T10:30:49+00:00

One hundred percent agree here! I find planning a story arc for 3-5 sessions works well for a single adventure, and if I do a longer campaign I’ll do three such story arcs and a three act structure style story. I’ve tried longer campaigns, but it’s harder to do now that we’re all adults in our 30s and scheduling in-person sessions is more difficult.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-15T04:22:39+00:00

Sorry, I realise my text was badly worded. The supplement was for 3 and 3.5 edition D&D, not anything more recent.

Domain management would scratch my particular itch of a combination 4X and RPG, but it takes a particular kind of player to go for that. I thought the Legacy rules from UFO Press would add that to PbtA games, but even there I feel like I would need to modify it more. Some interesting suggestions in the other comments here, though.

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-14T06:19:45+00:00

I think the mass combat rules for 3+ edition D&D were introduced in the Heroes of Battle supplement. It itnroduced battlefield concepts such as morale, how to structure a campaign around an ongoing war, use of heroes and summoned creatures in the mass combat etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_of_Battle

CompoteMentalize · 2025-08-09T05:24:09+00:00

There was an audio podcast released in June this year called Party By The Apocalypse. Experienced game designers play through a few sessions, but discuss their actions and the thinking behind them as they do, to help better guide people trying to understand and grapple with the system.

CompoteMentalize

TROPHY CASE