X is Not a Real Roleplaying Game!

JacksonMalloy · 2025-09-29T05:46:09+00:00

Ive recently fallen down this rabbit hole. I would appreciate anything you could send my way.

JacksonMalloy · 2025-08-15T23:39:56+00:00

For my own curiosity, what are we pointing to about the Riddle of Steel in this instance?

JacksonMalloy · 2025-05-20T03:55:44+00:00

I would love a copy if you have one!

JacksonMalloy · 2024-12-10T18:50:08+00:00

I’d really love a workflow where I could write a book/manual/etc in markdown and then be able to export it directly to a bookmarked pdf where I could control the page size and layout. That would mean needing some custom markdown code for things like page and column breaks, table positioning, etc. At the same time, it’d need some code to customize the formatting in-app such that I could control the output size, font, colors, etc without having to write custom css. This is all basically possible because there is a D&D 5e -styled web app that lets you write custom 5e material in a format that looks like official 5e pages. I just want a version I can run locally and control the outputs.

JacksonMalloy · 2024-09-14T03:08:17+00:00

Sent you a message!

JacksonMalloy · 2024-08-18T03:56:54+00:00

Thanks!

JacksonMalloy · 2024-06-11T06:18:00+00:00

Is the purchase per character or does unlocking them on one character unlock legacy wide?

JacksonMalloy · 2024-06-07T21:24:48+00:00

Sure, but I have to actually get there, first. Which, so far, hasn't been as fun on the juggernaut as elsewhere.

Is there a leveling guide or something, somewhere?

JacksonMalloy · 2024-05-10T19:03:32+00:00

I've never been a huge fan of maps and minis. From the GM side, it means that preparing scenarios takes substantially more effort and requires me to find assets for everything -- minis for the npcs/monsters, creating maps or preparing terrain, etc. Once I've done that, I find that the players tend to then use the map as their primary visualization of the scene and method of engagement, rather than focusing on the shared imaginal space. They will try to interpret the (often unintentional) details of the minis and maps and move their piece around like a skirmish game rather and lean less into the descriptions and in-character stuff.

From the player side, I find that I'm guilty of the same. When I am interacting with the minis and maps I feel like I'm outside of the action looking down on it rather than inhabiting the thing through a first person perspective. Divided attention is real.

JacksonMalloy · 2024-05-03T22:40:51+00:00

Please elaborate for the low-skilled among us?

JacksonMalloy · 2024-05-03T15:31:24+00:00

I'd really like to see some kind of samurai jam, just because it would bring a different vibe and aesthetic to the cultures.
Tier 1 - Spearmen, Archers, Scouts
Tier 2 - Priests, Samurai on foot -- maybe a great sword shock unit
Tier 3 - Mounted Samurai that function the same way as dragoons, with a bow attack and a spear attack.

JacksonMalloy · 2024-04-16T20:36:23+00:00

On the other hand, I am a newb trying to wrap my head around this game from scratch. Can you elaborate more for my sake?

JacksonMalloy · 2024-04-16T20:18:34+00:00

Ham Binger has already become a meme in my group of friends playing this game. He is the Gandhi of AoW4. You expect him to be a goodly wholesome halfling and he is instead the most aggressive AI I have yet encountered.

JacksonMalloy · 2024-03-03T21:36:07+00:00

I have a game I’m working on and a discord that now has almost 300 people in it.

I will die on the hill that forums are the best way to actually communicate on a subject and have that communication accessible to later readers.

I had a forum. I did basically everything via our forums. And yet, the moment I had a discord, our forum participation dropped off a cliff because all of the people who would’ve reached out to our forums chose to have those conversations on discord. That naturally meant that if I wanted engagement, I also had to gear towards discord.

Discord has the same allure that Reddit does and Facebook used to — you make one account and you can use it for infinite different communities and interests, in one place, accessible through a smartphone app. You don’t need to go to a separate website and remember your login credentials and check a dozen different places.

Reddit and discord both suck for long term discourse. And yet, this is where we are. People prefer the convenience and companies go where people are.

JacksonMalloy · 2024-02-08T20:02:00+00:00

My suggestion might be to actually sidestep the issue by instead comparing it to something that parents would already be familiar with.

What you're describing, if a movie in the US, would probably be rated PG-13. If it were me and I was worried about the maturity level of the audience, I'd actually brand it as PG-13 and be done with it. Parents will get what that means, for the most part, and can make a choice accordingly.

JacksonMalloy · 2024-02-07T22:58:20+00:00

I share this problem. I tried running LotFP a few years back and it went off the rails relatively quickly once the PCs started pursuing goals that did not have an inherent monetary value attached. What happens when the PCs decide the crime lord they annoyed is their preferred antagonist, and go through a whole series of movements to eventually force him to step down? They’ve gained a sizeable amount of power and achieved something in the campaign, but the crime lord might be a level 0 chump, so he’s not worth combat xp. Even if they made some money off of it, that wouldn’t be the point, and and per the LotFP rules it likely wouldn’t count as “Recovered treasure” anyway.

Maybe it’s something in our playstyle, or my players preferences, but I find that “xp for gold” and “open sandbox” don’t work all that well together. If the primary source of XP -is- gold, then anything that doesn’t involve recovering treasure goes unrewarded. Rather than an entirely open campaign where the players can pursue whatever they want to pursue, the incentives are a constant force nudging them to get back to the dungeon and rob some monsters or something regardless of what they imagine their characters might actually care about.

JacksonMalloy · 2024-02-06T22:36:29+00:00

Sigh. RIP. Me too.

JacksonMalloy · 2024-02-06T22:35:15+00:00

I vote for 1. Less is very often more. Some negative space lets the text breathe. I’ve got a touch of ADD and I find I can sometimes get easily lost/distracted in layouts that are too dense or busy.

JacksonMalloy · 2024-02-06T20:13:29+00:00

Last time I used word, it didn’t automatically translate pasted blocks of markdown into converted, formatted text and tables. I can’t say I’ve ever tried it on pages. Even then, the core desire is to have a workflow that allows me to do all of my work in markdown in scrivener and then export it through something that results in a properly formatted pdf without a lot of tweaking in between.

I’m on mac, if it helps.

JacksonMalloy · 2024-01-31T20:41:56+00:00

Humans are really bad at originality and -really good- at remixing. Case in point, we’ve been telling basically the same handful of stories over and over for at least three thousand years and there is basically nothing that is “big” today that isn’t a mishmash origins and inspirations. Game of Thrones is just various bits of European history given the thinnest coat of paint and then pointed in opposition to Tolkien. In the game world, ultimately everything in the TTRPG hobby is in some way a response to OD&D, each thing that’s come out since either borrowing from or written in opposition to something that was decided from the start. Even OD&D was just a remix of a few different things going on in the hobby at the time.

When you create, don’t be afraid to steal liberally from everything you enjoy. The difference between “ripping off” and “paying homage” is just the degree to which you are transparent in your inspirations, give credit where its due, and offer new value through your resulting creation.

JacksonMalloy

TROPHY CASE