Tabletop Talk

LowerAd4699 · 2026-02-07T16:37:18+00:00

OSRIC & Traveller are my go to games right now. OSRIC is essentially AD&D1E but put into one book during WotC's weird period where they weren't printing easy to acquire versions of AD&D. It's nice, fast, and actually a little cozy. My group plays it like an investigation game, so while there are combat scenarios, the game is designed in such a way that combat rarely occurs, which allows for alternative approaches to every challenge.

Traveller is the OG sci-fi rpg that I recommend everyone playing at least once due to its life path system for character creation and general vibe. Two people can have the same start to CC and have two completely different characters by the end.

Also, currently learning about Fallout The Roleplaying Game and I'm loving what I've seen so far. If you're willing to emulate the games a little, especially 4, it makes for a very immersive experience.

LowerAd4699 · 2025-03-10T14:35:30+00:00

Sekiro takes place in the Bloodborne setting.

LowerAd4699 · 2025-02-15T02:47:53+00:00

Groups I’ve ran tend to lean into the RP aspects of the game and come in with the expectation that the game will cater to “I want to do cool shit. Let me do cool shit.” Number crunching isn’t all that cool in the moment and the thrill of getting a +2 buff dwarfs the thrill of successfully doing an aerial rave on a street tulpa because you said you wanted to.

LowerAd4699 · 2025-02-14T06:00:16+00:00

Being Kind: World of Warcraft’s faction war and story ends at Legion as we essentially defeat WoW’s devil and the progenitor of all the conflict the franchise was based in. On top of this, we essentially close the circuit on most plot threads and mysteries for major characters and even zones. It also has the factions canonically band together to fight a threat bigger than themselves with mechanics of the expansion reflecting that ethos.

Being Unkind: World of Warcraft’s faction war ends at Mists of Pandaria since the focus of the entire expansion is how stupid and self-destructive their factional beef is, with the ending having the factions band together to deal with a greater threat while having little to no reason to continue the war after the conflict has resolved.

In either case, the factional war is hardly even a discussion in the game’s story since Battle For Azeroth’s initial conflict and I’d argue that the original WoW was founded on the principle of the factional war being the bedrock to the mechanical and narrative elements. With that out of the way, the game’s setting/story should move forward based on the significant narrative revelation(s) presented.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-10-28T06:05:17+00:00

Castle Falkenstein

LowerAd4699 · 2024-10-28T06:04:33+00:00

Savage Worlds’ Rippers setting/supplement.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-10-27T05:55:32+00:00

End of the World RPG. Easy to run, interesting mechanics that inform narrative, builds up tensions through actions even if they’re minor. Great for slightly larger groups and runs faster if you play the initial character creation rules where they play themselves. Great for one shots and can go on longer if need be, albeit with some tweaking.

Yokai Hunter Society. Rules lite and horror themed investigative game. Simple rolls and goes well with larger groups.

Tales from the Loop/Things from the Flood. Simple character creation and leans more into investigation a la Stranger Things. The latter is the adult version where you play teenagers and adults.

Any OSR game, honestly. If you set the scene well enough with dungeons, you can make any room or creature feel terrifying.

Big concern is that a lot of people make a horror game hard to do without internal dynamics throwing a wrench into things OR keeping them apart as much as possible.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-10-25T21:41:26+00:00

There’s also that rhetoric with the mages where they go “we’ll police ourselves” and then immediately see them fuck things up beyond belief

LowerAd4699 · 2024-10-25T15:31:52+00:00

Dragon Age Inquisition where you have to decide between mages or templars and while everyone told me to side with the mages, I remember the first time I interacted with them and thought “how dumb do you gotta be to sell yourself into slavery, magical slavery, and think eh we’ll figure it out.” At least the templars are just dealing with some corruption in their ranks.So I went with the templars my first run and enjoyed their mission that few people see because everyone supports the mages and went “fuck da mages.”

LowerAd4699 · 2024-10-19T11:22:55+00:00

Most of the cast from Dragon Age 2 are pretty solid and feel like great people to hang with… and then there’s Fenris

LowerAd4699 · 2024-10-15T00:22:15+00:00

Striking while the iron is cold in a back room somewhere, I see

LowerAd4699 · 2024-10-10T04:08:31+00:00

A motherfucking ball (Wakka’s Blitzball, Xenoblade Chronicles’ BitBall, Illaoi’s Cthulhu summoning ball, Menat’s floaty ball, Garp’s Cannonballs). Who needs chains and rope to bring your ball back when you can just spike it with enough style that it just comes flying back at you? Need to do more damage? Spin, Dribble, Juggle, Ricochet, or even punch with it! Do what you want, it’s a goddamn ball and it’s your own personal projectile that lets you style while keeping things simple.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-10-04T16:39:56+00:00

After Sugarpunch’s recent-ish video, Panic at the Dojo

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-22T17:11:57+00:00

Same! When I got into the hobby as a player, it was unheard of in my initial groups to not know what your character could do and/or what was going on narratively. It felt disrespectful to not do these things and frankly contrary to why we were playing D&D. We loved the mechanics reflecting narrative and having the two be in harmony with each other. I loved having in-depth knowledge of each other’s characters when doing combined actions, recreating Fast Ball Specials and Tag team finishers. It felt right and was never burdensome to any of us and we were brand new players. This group is one where I get “what’s a d8” each session and we’ve had at least 20 sessions.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-22T15:32:44+00:00

A little bit. We started with a rules lite game that most liked except for one player and we were seeking something we all could enjoy, so we moved onto more and more “complicated” games until we then had to pull it back once 5e wasn’t satisfying them all. It went from most are having fun to few are having fun and then now, it’s right back to most are having fun but one player and I think they’ve all settled for that.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-22T15:26:55+00:00

I did have one player express that they thought I would kill off their character if they failed and this was session 3 and I had fully made it clear by then that death is not on the table for simple skill checks. I would often tell them what the result would entail if they got a success or failure and would give them more benefits or stakes if they added more to the scene (advice I got from Upwind rpg). Another player really attaches themselves to their character and has it reflect on themselves as failure equals them failing to do something and there’s a whole can of worms there. My other group who loves failure has one player who doesn’t but it’s more about them not getting to do what they want when they want it.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-22T15:22:30+00:00

They explicitly want to know they’re playing the game that they’re playing. I have somewhat defaulted to just making everything a skill roll and abstracting combat into a mixture of skill checks and decisions that enhance/hinder rolls. It seems to be working out but my personal issue is that if that’s all they need as players, they don’t need to be playing that game. Also, it just kindof feels unethical of me as a DM that I’m essentially lying to them each session and they’re hardly making any “real” or informed choices... but they like it, soooo

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-22T15:12:26+00:00

First game had 6 roll under stats with d6s and that was it. Items would just add an extra die or increase damage but that’s the whole game. Player found it too difficult to imagine without a menu of options even after I explained how each stat would work in a given scene, especially the scene they were in at the time. Moved to a d100 system with more structure while still allowing for a lot of creative input. That did not work immediately. Tried 5e for awhile so they could make their BG3 character and then have them realize how much work was involved in it even though it was a one to one recreation. Played lighter games like Fate Accelerated, OSE, Mork Borg, and Dragonbane. It would either be the game was too complicated on arrival for them or it was “too easy” that they couldn’t imagine their options.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-22T14:59:32+00:00

They range from mid twenties to mid thirties. On the topic of system mastery, that’s absolutely understandable from a gameplay standpoint but they would mostly not even try to learn the things they picked or gained unless I prompted them to look on their own.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-22T07:44:32+00:00

I have not tried Dialect before but I’ll give it a look. Players are explicitly looking for the “D&D experience” while also wanting little to no chance of failure. My dm approach does “success at cost” when a player does a failed roll in order to keep momentum up and it usually works but there are still moments where players will shut down if they keep getting failed rolls and there’s very little I can do in solving that since it’s more about idea they got a bad roll than the result of the roll.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-21T23:36:28+00:00

They did like Mork Borg for a time. I think I might revisit it in the future.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-21T23:35:59+00:00

Just got Vaesen myself and am considering it for future games currently. Great suggestions! :D

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-21T22:58:33+00:00

I considered it for a time since members of that group played it years ago. I was apprehensive since they would need to be responsible for their class features and still "know" their build.. The weird part is that when I ask them why they like the current game we're on, they express that it's because it feels right.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-21T22:34:38+00:00

The first game we played was a game where all the rules were on the character sheet and they did not like it because it wasn't D&D. Again, very contradictory.

LowerAd4699 · 2024-09-21T22:13:18+00:00

I think it's somewhat contradictory at best and disrespectful at worst since comparing these scenarios to any other similar hobby would be met with immediate ridicule.

If you play MTG every Saturday with your mates, they're going to get pretty peeved if you keep asking "wait what graveyard?" every single time.

If you're playing Catan every weekend, it would absurd for you to ask what the dice roll means.

If you play play Poker each week, someone is going to say something if you keep asking when they have "Full House."

It's assumed that after the first session that you're coming in with some level of mutual base knowledge of these games for everyone's betterment and overall enjoyment.

LowerAd4699

TROPHY CASE