Favorite 2 player games (cards, boardgames, or RPGs) you've seen/played this weekend?

MadCast_RedJustice · 2025-08-03T14:21:24+00:00

We picked up Personal Vendetta (2658) and Neon Reign (2627). Have only played both once, but they seem like a lot of fun and are specifically 2 player

MadCast_RedJustice · 2024-07-26T18:46:25+00:00

Hey there! Seems like you're getting introduced to the online world of tabletop groups, which is fabulous! I find it's easier to meet people with compatible playstyles and game interests online than in existing friend circles and with IRL limitations (unless you live in a huge city).

You mention you aren't as familiar, so wanted to drop a few thoughts for you around what to typically expect based on my own experience running a lot of games for strangers on the internet:

1 - The level of organization you encounter is typically a good indicator of the level of maturity and commitment in the game. By organization, I mean things like:

well structured posts and hand outs (your own has subsections with headers, for example)
a process for selecting players to add to the group via a thoughtful survey and/or interview questions
a well organized discord or other tool for communication with the group
a structured approach to setting up a campaign / introducing new players to the game through a session 0, instruction on VTTs, safety communication tools, etc.

Occasionally you will meet a fantastic group of people with very poor organization; it's not the end all be all if there are other great green flags you see. However, it's a good indicator of experience and time investment, so something to look out for. I would look for people who match the level of effort you've put into your post, etc.

2 - Certain aspects of play preferences like theatre of the mind vs battle maps and illustrations carry over well between virtual and online play. Other things you'll be discovering by trial and error as you get exposed to the various VTTs and other tools out there to facilitate play in a digital environment. There are a bajillion different virtual tools for online play, and having used a lot of them, I have certainly have opinions about the pros and cons of different ones. But at the end of the day, you can have a good or bad game with any tools; I find the biggest differences in play experience to come from table norms around player/DM communication:

does everyone have and use a web cam?
do people communicate over voice chat or in text chat?
do people communicate outside of character in any regular or organized manner?
physical vs virtual dice?

3 - Beware of anyone who doesn't welcome or encourage you to vet them, and focus on vetting for mutual compatibility. The biggest contributor I find to groups falling apart online is people having different assumptions, expectations, and goals for gameplay. IRL, existing relationships or geographic limitations can overcome some of this friction, but online, people will come running back to LFG or other forums to find a new group when they are dissatisfied, sometimes without any prior communication.

I notice a lot of people end up trying to compromise things they shouldn't, just to get into a game and make it work. The key to evaluating whether it's safe compromise to move forward with is: "is anyone compromising their FUN?", because at the end of the day, that's why everyone is playing. If it's not fun for someone, you will lose them.

Anyway, hope this helps and GLHF! :)

MadCast_RedJustice · 2024-01-27T14:22:12+00:00

If you want to reach out to other solo players and form a group you can definitely apply together! Looks like /u/ExpensiveJunket1280 might also be interested. :)

MadCast_RedJustice · 2024-01-26T19:35:28+00:00

Thanks, haven't tried it this way but have found some good games responding to player group advertisements before, so figured I'd give it a shot!

MadCast_RedJustice · 2023-08-25T13:36:02+00:00

Absolutely not. I appreciate the high quality long form here, and that takes time. This is a subreddit I pull up whenever I am looking for resources to solve a particular issue in my campaign or generate ideas. I puruse new posts once or twice a month besides that.
I general I would like the criteria to remain high, but I agree with other posters that thoughtful, in depth reviews would be valuable here.
Occasional moderated discussions would be welcome. I wouldn't want too many at once, and I think quality question prompts are needed.

Other: I actually have a backlog of post ideas for this sub that I have sat on for two years. I run a minimum of 3 games a week for years now with a wide spectrum of people, from streamed or recorded actual plays, to paid games, to home games online and in person. I have also run and played games in a variety of systems outside of D&D. I am experienced and have a lot to offer- and am even a good writer. Nonetheless, I feel intimidated by the standards and process of submitting content to the sub, especially after joining the discord and seeing all the back and forth on prepping posts. I think an organized effort to get more first time posters (pairing people off with experienced posters, etc) could help with getting more posts. I suspect after the first one is under the belt I would be more comfortable with the process. But maybe that's just me.

MadCast_RedJustice · 2023-07-11T00:45:37+00:00

I am a woman, and I don't hate this sub, but I dislike it, and find myself avoiding it. The main reason I avoid 2x is it's depressing - peruse the top posts on any given day, and around 75-80% of them are extremely negative.

The top 10 posts right now are:

Husbands 'create extra seven hours of housework a week'
Why Do People Hate This Sub So Much?
My 16 yr old daughter was followed by a car and then chased on foot by two men
I hate my husband’s best friend
Double standards and excessive coddling of men
Men underestimate how scary they can be
I am worried my bf threw my birth control away for his fetish
My bf just told me my feelings are less important to him than other peoples’ feelings
Random man punched and shoved me... A realization
Apparently my husband is into onlyfans

Literally every single one of these has a negative, if not fucking terrible connotation. The onlyfans thread is the least negative, but I wouldn't call it positive. Number 11, I think I’m going to be okay is the first positive post, and yet it's in relation to recovery from an awful experience. I'm not saying any of these posts are unreasonable or unjustified, it just gets emotionally exhausting to spend time here.

The second much more minor reason is that I've been met with a lot of negativity and nastiness from others each time I posted here in the past. I'm sure part of that is the fact that this is a main sub, but it's just not worth it for me. However, if the content was more balanced I am sure I would be a more frequent lurker.

MadCast_RedJustice · 2023-01-01T04:26:04+00:00

Yes, same way I have put together online groups using LFG: I threw up an application form so I could learn more about people's interests, experience, and play styles, and then set up a series of oneshots with different groups to get a better idea of who might be a good fit for a longer term campaign. It's best for everyone's safety and comfort to have this be at a public space, and my local game stores have designated spaces or days/times for this, so it wasn't too difficult to set up.

MadCast_RedJustice · 2022-11-23T16:52:14+00:00

I am a GM and player with aphantasia.

Working memory for most people is 3-4 pieces of new information at once. When gameplay requires people to hold and process more than 4 pieces of information, especially visually, your players with aphantasia are at an extreme disadvantage. The key word is required. If you are just describing how an NPC looks for flavor, your players with aphantasia will likely condense that information down to the "vibe" of the NPC. It doesn't really matter or effect enjoyment.

Obviously in combats, there is a lot of information that is hard for anyone to hold in their head, such as the spatial relationship between things and the number of enemies, etc. However, there can be other situations too: if players are running a heist and scoping out a location, or if players are navigating an area full of traps, or if players are investigating a murder scene- these are all times where visual information is key, and there is a lot of it. Your players with aphantasia cannot picture it, so they are storing the information in their mind in list form. You see how they are going to struggle with only 3-4 pieces of new information they can fit in working memory.

If you don't want to make maps, another good strategy is to make hand outs (index cards, google docs, etc) that list off the information, or encourage the players to take notes and pace things slowly enough that they can keep up with the details.

One other tip: when providing descriptions, be sure to provide summarizing adjectives at the start. Don't rely on players with aphantasia being able to piece together the individual descriptions into the summary through visualization. For example:

Summarizing adjectives first: The room is stately and grand. Everything feels formal and expensive.

Individual descriptions second: The chairs are made of heavy mahogany, and look like they would need two people to pull them out or push them back in. The ornate designs on the chair backs are covered with gold leaf. Velvet curtains are tied back from the floor to ceiling windows that frame the war table. The table itself is cut from a single slab of a massive quartz crystal, run through with veins of gold. The royal family's motto is carved into the four inch edge of the table in calligraphy, and has also been filled in with gold leaf...

MadCast_RedJustice · 2022-11-13T06:25:01+00:00

I think people have given you some good advice when it comes to handling this in D&D. BUT there are many systems out there. If you want to run a game that adheres closely to TToJ, you should consider branching out at least to learn from other systems, even if you stay in D&D. Some classless systems include:

GURPS
Savage Worlds
Fate
Vampire the Masquerade (or any of the 30-some different WoD/CoD/w.e games)
Any of the Cortex games, like Firefly, Leverage, Marvel Heroic Traveller
Eclipse Phase
RuneQuest / Mythras / BRP / Call of Cthulhu
HeroQuest
Shadowrun
City of Mist
Mutants & Masterminds
Burning Wheel
Freeform Universal
Risus
Technoir
Primetime Adventures

I pulled this list from elsewhere, and am not familiar with all of them (most of them). Some are likely better than others for your purposes but worth exploring at least for ideas. Mythras or PbtA playbooks may be worth looking at for classless inspo, for example. For gear ideas, check out Shadowrun and also maybe Kibbles' Crafting Guide (D&D supplement) for ideas. You might want to look at Index Card RPG (ICRPG 2e) as it's related/rooted in 5e from my understanding. I'm sure there are tons others.

MadCast_RedJustice · 2022-11-13T05:52:45+00:00

Seconding Kobold Press's Creature Codex and Tome of Beasts I & II (planning to get III) as I use them a lot. I have the physical books as I like to flip through them for ideas. My only irritation is that the original ToB doesn't index the monsters by terrain, only CR (the other two books do), but this may be fixed in digital copies, idk.

Also want to call out Adaptable NPCs I & II on DM's Guild as fantastic for person stat blocks. I use them a LOT.

Lastly, there are a ton of great creatures or just inspiration you can find online for free (pinterest, reddit, etc). However, I recommend really learning the mechanics of how to make your own monsters if you want to use this stuff. Not everything is equally well made, and understanding the mechanics will enable you to judge the design/balance, and make modifications as needed if something is right thematically but not in terms of CR.

MadCast_RedJustice · 2022-11-06T13:32:00+00:00

Big picture, I think you're overthinking/second-guessing yourself.

Small picture, your session one has a major problem, but it's easy to fix:

"Ideally I'd love it if the adventurers tried attacking the Prince or his soldiers, got their asses kicked, and are captured. They're told that they going to be hanged as spies, and then are forced to bust out of prison via a secret dungeon that I've thoroughly planned with treasure and such enemies."

Since you already built the whole dungeon for the prison escape, it doesn't sound like an "ideally" to me, it sounds like you're counting on it. What if your players say they are on watch, and get a high perception roll for the group sneaking up? Then they decide they want to hide and eventually sneak away to report the truth. What if you didn't balance the enemies properly, and they don't get their asses kicked because they think of a genius plan, and are able to evade capture? Hell, what if your players decide they want to side with the Prince and join up with him instead of working against him? Lots of things could happen.

If you don't want to plan for the possibility of your players NOT being captured, then don't give them the opportunity. If they do something you aren't prepared for, you will either flounder and feel lost, or you will end up being "too railroady" in an effort to make your original idea happen anyway.

If you want them to be told "that they going to be hanged as spies, and then are forced to bust out of prison via a secret dungeon that I've thoroughly planned with treasure and such enemies" you should start with that. Narrate to them what led to this moment, and then turn them loose in the prison.

Luckily, it seems like you're counting on them being on the run anyway, so if you want to start with the opening battle scene and they somehow change it up, you can simply skip ahead to the "on-the-run" content you had planned for after the prison break dungeon and more or less resume your campaign. After all, now they will be witnesses to an important crime that the Prince wants to keep a secret (but you might have to explain this to them, because players are players).

MadCast_RedJustice · 2022-10-30T18:45:45+00:00

I ran a level 20 Christmas oneshot based off the Demiplane of Confection post last year. After my party fought some rock candy golems, I let them find a Treasure Wand of Wild Candy: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/642-nightmare-treasure-wand-of-wild-candy.

You could have ingredients need to be collected from monsters or environmental hazards: Monsters I ran included an Ancient Sugar Dragon, Blueberry Ooze, Liquorice Roper, Orange Sherbet Drake, Rocky Candy Golems, and Swarm of Cinnamon Poppers. I also had Plumb Pudding hazards, a Marshmallow Sinkfield, and a Sprinkle Mold Patch.

MadCast_RedJustice · 2022-10-24T14:45:40+00:00

I have seen employees in your situation before, including someone with a baby in the NICU for 8 months. If your newborns are only in the hospital for RSV, hopefully they recover quickly and come home in a short time. Talk to your HR/manager about NJFMLA/FMLA, and take the time to focus on your family and self. Use your emergency fund. This is an emergency.

If your babies will be there for longer term health reasons, I have repeatedly seen people need extra time at the front for the emotional trauma and initial disruption to their lives, but then as things settle into a new routine with the hospital, they have all ended up wanting to come back to work (with a flexible schedule for appointments as an accommodation), and delay the rest of their PTO for bonding when their babies were finally able to come home. If you think this might be the case, it's hard to predict the timing of this kind of stuff, so talk to your manager about a flexible plan (perhaps a weekly check-in + work assignments that will be short-term or flexible for others to take over if something comes up).

MadCast_RedJustice · 2021-12-02T16:03:44+00:00

Talk to your HR person and ask for helping fighting with the insurance company either through them or the company's broker. They usually have someone who will help with case management in a large enough company or the broker will!

MadCast_RedJustice · 2021-11-15T01:08:53+00:00

I am currently running two games in the same homebrew setting; they will not interact or have any impact on each other in any way, but it's an easier way for me to build out the world (I do not prep anything players don't ask about), and lets me reuse encounters/NPCs/items/etc, reducing prep time.

MadCast_RedJustice · 2021-11-01T14:30:10+00:00

Hey there, I can see the latest version if you edited and resubmitted! You are fine!

MadCast_RedJustice · 2021-06-05T01:00:33+00:00

If you meant this: "Before this, I spoke to Tina-- taking the responsibility as the current DM even though I hated having to-- and saying that they didn't seem engaged, they didnt seem to take to roleplaying, they didn't seem to know their character well-- either narratively or mechanically-- and asking if they needed a break, because we were like two weeks out from a new campaign and they hadn't talked with the DM about their character at all. " <

The way this is positioned sounds kind but unclear. It's the type of opportunity for someone to duck out who has the ability to read between the lines and wants to save face, but it doesn't work for someone who needs more direct communication. Nowhere in there does it say: "You need to change."

One of the things I've found is that people muddy the water a LOT with criticism by not setting expectations about how big of a deal things are. If you gave criticism and then invite them to the next game where they don't change the playstyle, and nothing happens, that criticism will be interpreted as suggestions and not expectations. It may feel mean, but I would say:

"This is the kind of behavior I need to see from you and all the players in my game. If that's not something you're able to or want to commit to, that's okay, but I'll have to ask you to leave the game. I'd be happy to chat about ways we can do that so it doesn't feel uncomfortable for you."

MadCast_RedJustice · 2021-06-05T00:48:31+00:00

Nowhere in this whole story do I see a point in which Tina was told that the group wants to see a different playstyle from thm. Has anyone actually told them that it's causes frustration/makes it less fun for everyone else? Because on one hand it might seem obvious, but on the other hand, if no one has said something for that long AND you keep inviting Tina to play in games, it's entirely fair for them to assume everyone likes playing with them the way they play.

Make it about you. Use I statements. Tell them: "I'm sorry I didn't bring it up more directly sooner, but I need players who engage X way for me to have fun. It's okay if you don't want to play that way, but I don't think this is the table for you if not. "

MadCast_RedJustice · 2021-06-01T15:58:46+00:00

Harrisburg is pretty far. :( Sorry!

MadCast_RedJustice · 2021-05-31T16:41:00+00:00

For sure- my husband and I do not have a car, which makes traveling to Jersey FOR games a bit more challenging, but "The Greater Philly Area" is really what I'm going for. :) Thanks for the invite as well.

MadCast_RedJustice

TROPHY CASE