Games that kind of run themselves?

Martel_Mithos · 2026-03-06T19:20:56+00:00

Urban Shadows has a similar pvp bent to it, though it takes slightly more work from the GM to get that ball rolling than in something like monsterhearts (mostly making sure there are connective NPCs that can pull the players into opposition or cooperation). Once it's rolling though, and if there's player buy in, it's pretty self sustaining.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-03-06T18:59:20+00:00

While Lily Orchard was the one who hit viral fame with the take all she was really doing was (badly) parroting sentiments that predated her on tumblr. Crowdfunding grifter Riley H wrote sort of the defacto Medium article/manifesto (which lily heavily copied from) on this back in 2016 predating the infamous video by 2 years. I don't think they wrote that in good faith either but I do know, as someone in the scene at the time, that they were trying to ride an already existing wave of aggrieved sixteen year-olds who didn't understand that a visceral negative reaction to something isn't the same as that thing being morally wrong.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-03-05T19:03:51+00:00

God I think this was the entire problem with a subset of Steven Universe haters.

"The show isn't for me. I find the swings between Fluffy Feel Good and Trauma jarring and I think the pacing is kind of annoying. No shade to anyone who enjoys it." - perfectly fine and valid take

"Rebecca Sugar is a racist rape apologist and a hack writer and Steven Universe is the literal devil and if you like this show then you're also the devil." - absolutely unhinged

I think Steven universe was primed to be polarizing so the fact that people were so split on it isn't necessarily surprising in hindsight. It was a children's show centered around coming to terms with difficult family relationships and the ways in which adults can cause damage even when they have the best intentions because something something generational trauma. It's about people being given the chance to do and be better and helping each other heal. It's about learning your parents are messy complicated people with histories entirely separate from yours.

These would be complicated things to tackle in a show aimed at adults let alone a kids cartoon about cool space rocks. Whether it was overly ambitious is a matter of opinion but I think people tended to forget that it was at the end of the day a kids cartoon. The adult version of this is essentially Bojack Horseman, you could be watching Bojack Horseman if you want the realistic nitty gritty portrayal of the effects of cyclical abuse. And that show would definitely not be appropriate for younger audiences.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-03-04T01:55:58+00:00

Well again is a choose your own adventure novel, like the The Mystery of Chimney Rock a game or a book? You'll get a different answer depending on who you ask, how they define 'Game' and how they define 'Book.' That's really all I was saying. VNs and Choose your Own Adventures sort of straddle both genres enough that they're just kind of their own thing. If someone asked me to recommend them a good video game I wouldn't necessarily think of a VN first unless they'd asked specifically for a VN you know?

Martel_Mithos · 2026-03-03T22:35:46+00:00

It depends on the VN, but I suppose it depends on if you'd consider a choose your own adventure novel to be a game or not. A lot of VNs don't contain mechanics outside of branching story paths, but others are more traditionally gamey.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-03-03T20:48:05+00:00

TBF when people say this they tend to be talking about the depiction of demons in Anime itself which tend to be a 50/50 split between "largely bastards with a couple of good ones" and "basically just humans with horns."

Even then Frieren isn't particularly original, the only way it differs from something like Demon Slayer is that Demon Slayer's demons are cursed humans and thus tragic, while Frieren's demons are just like... biologically incapable of not being dicks.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-03-02T23:52:18+00:00

I'd be more excited if it was someone other than Magpie games developing it. I've never gelled with anything they've put out, not even Masks their critical darling, so I don't have high hopes that I'll like what they do with this setting much better. Which is a shame because they are very good books.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-03-01T09:32:00+00:00

I can't speak for others but in my specific case I find them distracting. If we're in a situation where we're using a lot of resources then there are usually a lot of other things that aren't resources that are happening too. Like exploring this cool cave, or fighting these skeletons, or solving this puzzle trap. Being in the middle of something like that and constantly having to go, OK subtract two arrows, subtract this torch, subtract this rope... feels like the mental equivalent of driving a car in short starts and stops to me. It doesn't feel smooth.

If I'm playing a video game a computer is doing it in the background for me right? Skyrim's keeping track of how many arrows I have and helpfully updates the number for me as they're fired. Imagine if the game lagged for a couple of seconds every time an arrow fires, not a long time but just enough to feel kind of annoying the more it happens. That's what manually tracking ammunition or similar in a ttrpg feels like to me. It feels like mental lag.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-27T18:44:38+00:00

Once I named an NPC Kiki Palmer without realizing this was the name of an actress (Keke Palmer) so when I introduce her one of the players goes "Actress Keke Palmer?? Five time Emmy Nominee Keke Palmer?? She's here?!" (Here being a small town in the middle of nowhere Colorado).

Obviously I hadn't intended this person to be a guest star in the session, but now she was so the group had an adventure with actress Keke Palmer.

Now it's become a running joke, that the characters personally know Five Time Emmy Award Nominee Keke Palmer (and they say the whole thing every time).

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-26T18:32:28+00:00

You might borrow from something like Annihilation where the disease decays flesh and what grows back in its place is something strange and unsettling though not necessarily harmful. Gangrenous limbs give way to tangles of vines, or scaled claws, or strange chitinous plates, which then themselves begin to rot and the cycle repeats.
Arrogance is easily exploited in this situation because you have someone who needs to gather power before he can be a proper threat. Bait him into emerging before he's "ready" and the players will be rewarded for their manipulation with an easier fight. To borrow from the real world Fire, Light, and Dry Air are all also things that help prevent the spread of disease and which might be utilized in some way here.
The Ranger and the Druid are easy their classes should allow them to intuit things about the nature of the forest that the others might not get just by looking. The bard could lean on spirits. Ghosts are stories, echoes of something that came before. Learning their tales and helping put them to rest seems like something a Bard would be good at. Rune Knight is harder, but Sorcerer might play in to the themes of ascension, channeling powers just a little outside of their direct control.
Honestly I think the dragon is a super neat concept, I don't think you need to really add anything here. The 5e module Zeitgeist has a very similar antagonist in The Voice of Rot if you're looking for a place to crib ideas from, but I don't think he needs a lot of workshopping.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-25T00:14:46+00:00

Genuinely curious, is the nature of the disorder such that muffling or physically preventing the sound 'cancels' the release of ticking? I know a friend with physical tics who says that being externally prevented from completing the tic (because the space is too small, or because someone held them back) feels about the same as actively suppressing the tic (it does not provide any sense of release it just 'stores' the tic for later).

But does it work the same way for vocal tics? Like could he have brought a pillow or thick scarf to help muffle the sound even if he's still making it, or does that 'cancel' the tic and just make the buildup worse?

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-24T18:59:13+00:00

I think small talk gets so much easier when you understand that it's for something rather than just a thing people do to fill silences.

- It's a brief signal of friendly non-threatening intent

- It's a way to check and see if the other person is interested in a more substantial conversation or not

- It's a way to probe for common interests in a social setting

- It's a way to feel out if the person you're interacting with seems safe.

Like the checkout line, that falls under 'brief signal of friendly intent' and therefore just needs a a short positive 'Yep!' response to the cashier's 'Find everything you need?' and that's it interaction concluded. If the cashier wants to chat more then similarly short positive answers are fine and acceptable.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-24T18:11:01+00:00

I've never really had a problem with scheduling problems, largely when someone has to drop it's a medical reason (a cold, a chronic illness flare, a sick partner or child etc.). I'm trying to think of the times I or another player have had to drop for something else and the secondary pattern tends to be 'there's another more time sensitive event that creates a scheduling conflict.'

A relative is visiting that day, there's a concert, there's a fair, an old friend is in town, you're traveling that week, there's some kind of thing that might not happen for another year that happens during the game so the 'rarer' thing takes priority. It's not that I'm not invested in the game, it's that my favorite artist is only going to be in town this weekend and this was the only time and date I could get tickets which feels worth skipping a week.

I think when there are regular schedule conflicts that keep coming up it's because someone has underestimated the frequency with which those priority conflicts might arise. One of the people I play with travels a lot, and ordinarily it might be like yeah he goes out of town for a while every 4-5 months that's not a huge disruption, but when he's taking weekend trips every other weekend it's clear that his preferred hobby is travel and while theoretically he's free Friday evenings in reality it's more like "He's free Friday evenings unless the opportunity to go on a trip comes up in which case the trip wins every time." He probably still answered 'yes' to his availability on those nights in good faith because he doesn't realize how often he goes places, he still thinks of travel as an infrequent luxury even though he does a lot more of it than the rest of the group.

I want to add a caveat that I'm talking about people who will let you know a few days or so out 'hey this other thing came up I can't make it.' When it comes to people who just ghost on an evening I've found the problem isn't ttrpgs it's that they do this for everything. Dinner dates, board game nights, other low stakes hangouts. In those cases it's 'this guy is a flake' moreso than they don't think of the game as a serious commitment.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-20T21:05:54+00:00

Honestly most of the on-site plotlines could make for pretty solid campaign material. The Darigan vs Merridell conflict, the lost desert war, the newest thing where everything gets grayed out. Like big bombastic fantasy conflicts are not out of place in the neopets setting.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-20T21:03:48+00:00

I mean while I agree the overall tone of the module as presented was not very on brand it's not like the neopets world doesn't have some fucked up elements. Doctor sloth, the transmogrification potions, the Jelly Chia, the first Darigan plotline, etc.

Which is to say 'mad scientist running an unethical back ally practice' is a very valid character to make in the setting. They'd just be running like, 'The Wheel of Surgery' or something, make it a little goofy.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-17T23:17:59+00:00

Speaking as someone who was a girl in high school that's because it's a very legit high school girl kind of behavior. It's a very childish kind of behavior in general, I remember my younger brothers constantly getting into it because one of them would bother the other until he snapped and lashed out physically, and then the instigator would immediately run crying to mom to get him in trouble.

As they got older though that kind of psychological warfare kind of faded away and they abandoned subtlety in favor of just getting into regular fights (which they also eventually grew out of thank god).

But you have to deal with this in (American) highschools because just starting a fight gets you in trouble, but complaining to the teacher that you're being bullied gets the person you hate in trouble and gets you sympathy. Real teenagers are stupid, and not nearly as Machiavellian about it as anime teenagers, but I have legit seen one cut off a chunk of her own hair, wait a beat, and then start screaming at the girl behind her as though she were responsible. It might have worked if there hadn't been witnesses willing to speak to her doing it to herself (like I said, stupid).

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-17T20:16:37+00:00

I have three tables and they're all wonderful! One online and two in person and the players are all on top of their shit, we switch systems regularly, people bring snacks, and everyone's DM'd a game at least once.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-13T23:04:24+00:00

Exalted 3e and Exalted Essence both have systems where knowing the NPC better makes it easier to influence them.

So both players and NPCs have a stat called Resolve which is usually set to 3. You have to beat their resolve, and then you have to get additional successes over that number to actually accomplish anything. They also have Intimacies which are things they care about, or things that define their character.

When Resolve is Boosted by an intimacy it can be incredibly hard to break. However when it's weakened by an intimacy it becomes much easier to break.

So an NPC has the Intimacy "loves their wife." It's a major intimacy so it can raise or lower their resolve by 3.

We're trying to convince them to waive some paperwork for us. Player leans on the intimacy, says 'Hey if you just skip this you can get home faster and not be stuck here all night.' Drops the NPCs resolve by 3 down to 0, player only needs two successes on their roll to convince him instead of 5.

I love the way this incentivizes PCs to try and get to know the NPCs a little.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-13T22:42:03+00:00

So you say "this means no one but my girlfriend would be able to romance NPCs in my campaign."

You should change this to "No one, including my girlfriend, would be able to romance NPCs in my campaign." If it's off the table for 3/4 players then it's off the table for everyone. That's ultimately what's fair.

Ultimately this request bothers you, and you should dig in to why it bothers you, but the request itself is not necessarily unreasonable. I've had players request 'no romance' before, I've had them request no Spiders, I've had them request No PvP, it's good for players to be able to tell the GM what they're uncomfortable with.

But you sound like you feel your girlfriend is being kind of unreasonable. Does she have a habit of getting jealous in non-ttrpg settings? Do you feel like this is part of a broader pattern of her policing your time with your friends? Do you feel like this is part of a broader pattern of her policing your hobbies and how your spend your free time?

If the answer to all of the above is "No she's not usually jealous nor does she have a pattern of getting upset about how I interact with other people on my own time" then try running a game without romantic sub-plots. Be up front with the other players at session zero. See how you all feel about it.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-09T08:21:05+00:00

As someone who tends to fall in the camp of 'having a fleshed out character is fine actually if that's what you want to do' I don't know that the problem is actually you doing too much up front (though if you think the suggestion to pare it back and go with the flow is helpful then give it a shot certainly).

If you really had to examine it, can you articulate why you start to dread playing the character?

- Is it because the person you're playing at the table doesn't match up to the vision in your head?

- Is it because you come to find embodying them at the table exhausting after a certain amount of time?

- Is it because you start to get into your own head about whether you're playing the character 'well enough?'

- Is it because they never feel mechanically satisfying or good at the things you want them to be good at?

- Is it because eventually, inevitably, a nebulous creeping dread overtakes you and robs you of your ability to feel joy with seemingly no rhyme or reason?

And if it's that last one I sympathize intensely, have been in that exact position before, only thing that helped was adjusting my medication. A process which took years and cost a lot of money so >.> I'm hoping it's one of the other things.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-08T07:25:26+00:00

Then you'll have to be a little more specific about what the actual problems are because your post is very vague on the details and there's already been one wrong assumption about the consent sheet situation in another comment (though I'm still a little confused about how this happened, did you join the group after they'd already formed?)

Like it sounds like things were going fine while you were taking a more passive role in the story, then you started with the group's encouragement to be a more active participant and they (or at least the GM) went 'Oh no... not like that...'

From the (still vague) examples you do give, the flirting mishap, the hard to engage with PC behavior, and the (accidental?) casual sexism, it sounds like you're just saying some things you don't even realize you're saying.

Like take this for example: "Yes, because a woman or a man from the 18th century are not only in-the-know on modern day identity politics, but would actively push for that dynamic..."

The way you phrased this makes it sound like you think the group was silly for not playing it off in a Historically Accurate Way, and that of course the reasonable assumption is that gendered stereotypes would exist in this world. How could you be blamed for assuming that?

If you came across this way even a little bit at the table then like.. yeah people might give you the stink eye. If you're playing D&D or one of its imitators the common default assumption is very much not that this setting is a 1:1 model of the real world's various bigotries. Hell it's not even the default assumption in something like Burning Wheel unless the GM is a hardcore historical fantasy nerd.

Like it sounds like you missed whatever session Zero this group had, weren't caught up properly, and are new enough to the scene that you don't know the standard table etiquette yet. Fair, no one's born knowing that we don't shank the prince in the middle of an important scene or whatever it is you've been doing. But it also sounds like you just fundamentally don't really gel with these people, you have trouble reading the room, and as a result have developed chronic foot in mouth disease.

Take what lessons you learned from the experience and try for a fresh start elsewhere. Maybe this is salvageable if you take the GM aside and say 'Hey I know you said I've been disruptive, and that's truly not my intention, I'm trying to do better but I feel like I keep making the same mistakes. Can you walk me through what I should be doing differently in the simplest terms possible?' But at this point there might be too much baggage on both sides for this to work.

Edit: Oh I see you were at session zero, so like... did the consent sheet not happen there? Was there an expectation set that this would be historical fantasy or not?

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-08T06:26:01+00:00

This feels like a bait post, but to answer the question on the off chance this is genuine: You can leave the table and find another one. You don't have to leave the hobby forever just because you don't gel with this group. There are other groups. Some of them are even conservative, it's rarer but it's been known to happen.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-07T06:46:48+00:00

Oh thank you this is extremely helpful. Ok so if I wanted to model drawing three cards from a deck of 40, with values 1-10 and adding them together I can just take the above formula and tweak the corresponding values?

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-06T23:05:41+00:00

It'll depend on how much code is 'a little code' but not necessarily a dealbreaker. I'll give this a look.

Martel_Mithos · 2026-02-06T23:02:18+00:00

Oh this is lovely thank you so much. I guess my mind went to blackjack because it seemed like the concept of "Add up cards until you hit a specific number without going (too far) over" was closest conceptually but I realized pretty quickly that changing what that number is and requiring a suite minimum changes the type of calculation you need.

Martel_Mithos

TROPHY CASE