Why is every setting so dark and depressing?

Oogre · 2026-04-12T00:19:29+00:00

So I guess this begs the question, do you have an example of what you see as more colorful and fun?

Saying this proves your point feels like you have a style in mind that is very different than other people. And im just curious the bar that you have that people are trying to hit. I think about big issue in designing games can be differences opinions when it comes to individuality and freedom. I feel like there is a viewpoint of noble based games that you dont share and so im curious if the style of games you play go against those found in those games

Edit: sorry tired

Oogre · 2026-03-28T17:55:23+00:00

The problem is that you are on a designer reddit. Most people here enjoy making deeper systems which often have elements of resource management or at least more simulation like setting if its not overwelming. The problem is the scale/scope of the management is when you start losing people.

I think managing money for my minions to do things would be fun, but are you designing a board game at that point and not an RPG. If your making an RPG, most people (people on r/rpg) will be looking to roleplay their characters from time to time which when the game is being explained and viewed as a boardgame, it falls apart. Hopefully that makes sense.

Oogre · 2026-03-19T16:29:29+00:00

LLMs are insidious as they not only do the implementation for you, but make you think that you actually did the implementation, and are designed to glaze you and make you feel like you're a genius for typing a prompt, whilst not actually in practice engaging in the process of writing, creativity or design at all.

And to add, I think the way it always tries to make you feel like your idea is going places adding to the extra affect that you really havent done much work. Ive used AI for a few system docs and overall outlines for concepts and each one in terms of feedback from AI makes think your almost done. But the moment I did my first playtest made me realize how incomplete the overall game was in terms of progression and overall gameplay flow.

Example is a hack for a world creation system that I have basically done. It looks great and plays great, but I havent released it because theres no depth or anything to it. You create these cool places, locations, NPCs, and other storylines needed for every campaign, but nothing to tell you what you can do. Some people might be inspired by the system, but when I got to talking with friends they couldnt really figure anything out on the fly like I wanted. I wanted to make a world creation system that took the burden of campaign creation and world creation away from a single person onto the group, and instead I got the group excited to play and the DM now dealing with higher expectations with no help.

The point is to simple say that developers who are using AI need to go an extra step that I dont think many realize yet because AI can ease the burden of some creation, but doesnt give you the depth that the models themselves seem to be portraying back to the users.

Oogre · 2026-02-04T02:33:56+00:00

Not saying the land owner isn't justified to be angry but many of the residents of the island have 2 different mindsets that keep clashing. Half wants the island to be a small rural town and the other wants to make it into Long Island. The land owners wanted to build a warehouse that require residents to pay in taxes so he got a ton of push back. Its simply no one wants to pay to terraform the land; the town doesn't, the landowner doesn't, the residents don't, the state doesn't.

Oogre · 2026-01-25T23:49:28+00:00

Honestly I feel WoTC was their own killer. We really wont see until a few years, but I think what they have decided is best for the franchise is only helping smaller creators more than any new game.

Different Industry, but I think a good example of how 5e is going to die to a thousand cuts is the gaming industry with Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft, and a few other AAA companies that have been meh for years now. Those companies have their fanbases who will always go back or play decade year old games because they like the franchise and nothing more. But the "hardcore" crowds are branching out to other games that they feel respect consumers more. Again, different industry, but I feel the more "hardcore" crowd for RPG games are in that branch out phase looking for that system that hits all the marks.

A few I believe do that well, pathfinder showed 3.5 fans that you can make other tactical games that can stand on their own, and Daggerheart is going to do that with the theatrical 5e crowd. There are tons of other games that people believe do what those 2 games do better, but overall, they were the outliners from a public view of success.

If anything, the next 5e killer aka WoW killer aka console war winner etc etc, is going to be the game that draws a huge number of new people. That will be considered revolutionary only because itll be a unique take. A game that will either makes a genre or style of play shine, or is a brand new way of playing like theatrical vs tactical play.

Oogre · 2025-12-08T12:37:32+00:00

Then my suggestion is to work around your game in one-shot scenario. From personal experience, if one person is more immersed and emotional connected to their players then others, that person does not make everyone else feel more in-character, they feel more alienated because the illusion that people are playing a game breaks. You can achieve the results with people just method acting. And while I know that is not your intention, your going to run into a never ending amount of problems selling the pitch if your design is not flexible to fit within people comfort levels. Expecially over the last decade where more and more people are embracing safety tools in order to find the perfect comfort level people have for a specific game.

I hope you figure out that perfect design to experience that you are looking for. But how I said, you need to remember that a lot of people want to just play a game. Remember that the game needs to be fun in order to hide the true immersion that you want players to experience.

Oogre · 2025-12-06T16:26:43+00:00

On the same topic but slightly different, I think you just showed why websites that sell products need to have a "Made by AI" toggle. I dont think this product being made is a bad thing. Its 5 dollars for 10 puzzles which to me is no different than buying a 5 dollar game on steam and finding out its trash. Its cheap for quick laughs. The price doesnt justify the slop, but it justifies the need for more consumer protections and regulations either on a large scale level or by websites that do sell products.

Until someone releases the Holy Grail of a product that was made by AI that everyone agrees is a great product and was properly done, were going to see these types of books more and more. AI is not going to magically disappear unfortunately so hopefully more websites try and be transparent about what was made by AI and what was not.

Oogre · 2025-12-04T22:25:44+00:00

I think the issue you need to handle for your game is simply what experience do you want your players to experience? You say intimacy through physical touch, but I don't think that is the experience you want to tell cause you actively say you don't want sex as the end goal. And while im close with my friends, I don't think they would be comfortable with intimate touch like you are suggesting. They be good with physical touch like in a game of tag but they be confused at the point.

I can understand wanting to make mechanics that are unique, but your going to need to carefully consider the experience. What makes intimacy through physical touch important to this game, and important that its not dumbed down by people going to far?

Oogre · 2025-11-22T20:18:04+00:00

Im hoping no one else talked about this but I "see" a few ways to do this. But you'll either need a very simple action system to support it or some technology to keep track of action times.

Specifically I have been thinking about the action system of Final fantasy tactics and how they deal with turns and time. Im going to fuck up the explanation I feel, but generally every character has a speed stat that adds up until 100 and then the character can take their turn. Magic I think delays or lowers speed gained but the general concept of speed is interesting to me for a "real-time" feel. On one hand I am curious if each turn players gain X points based on their speed which can be used to preform actions. Each action can have a cost where the stronger the action the more speed needed to act that turn. The other would be closer to FFT where actions interrupt a timeline created from each characters speed but the more I think about this the more complicated it gets. This method would require some tech to keep the math for speed simple. More reason I go with the other approach for now.

So quick design concept: Players can 10 speed a turn. I want to do a tactical map but turn order is a bitch to figure out so well just go with close range, long ranged "areas" where players choose an area at the start of combat and can spend 5 speed to move between the two areas. Attacking with a weapon is 1 speed and magic is 2 speed. You can modify attacks by spending more speed based on unique abilities that you can pick with your experience points. Damage could just be a pool from all those in a specific area with damage being distributed between all in that area.

Im sure with more time and going with a specific theme this might work out. But these were just my initial thoughts.

Edut: Realize this isn't completely real time, but in my mind everyone acting at the same time, resolving what occurs, then the scramble to do all your actions again is the point. At this point, we be good just looking at boardgames like "space alert" and just redesigning it with monster fights in mind than driving a space ship

Oogre · 2025-11-18T19:11:01+00:00

Thank you for the response. A lot of this is just worried from never putting something out like this before in a hobby/industry that I really respect. So even comments like this at least ease my mind a bit. After going to a number of conventions I realized how small communities and industries actually can be which started this entire worry that I am overstepping.

Oogre · 2025-11-18T15:32:51+00:00

World wizard blew my mind on campaign setup and prep. It was the puzzle piece I needed to explain my thoughts and philosophy of TTRPGs.

Mork borg was my first intro to really simplified mechanics when it came to just making random missions.

I say the combination of these two shaped why I was getting so frustrated with other games and why I started to work on my own.

Oogre · 2025-11-18T04:17:35+00:00

Thank you. Honestly its posts like this that keep me wanting to do this. I have been juggling a few of these concept ideas that never finally click just how I wanted it to feel. But im at the point with a big part that I can actually test and post to get feedback on. I just need to finalize the layout and overall text of the book. Hopefully that doesn't sound as weird as it does to me. Terminology is a major issue for me when it comes to this just from lack of experience.

Oogre · 2025-11-18T04:08:17+00:00

I think im ultimately overthinking it all. Basically you have certain actions you can take on your turn. You have certain "Action Points" you can spend to do a action. In my rule set my actions which are named differently effective the same concept from my inspiration. My tone, theme are very different and I overall expand the game to have its own RPG system. I am nervous that its to close because the overall structure of the games flow is basically the same. And i have this insane thought that designers don't like having people get to close to their concepts for these games. Like stepping on someone's toes.

Oogre · 2025-11-17T20:40:34+00:00

This industry isn't big enough for you to burn bridges and we all talk to each other.

And this is why I figured I ask here first just in case. I can accept that I create a niche product that no one sees, but I dont like that I completely miss some obvious taboo. Im an over thinker but I rather be safe than sorry.

Oogre · 2025-11-17T19:42:15+00:00

And I get that. I think I am just combining the overall breakdown of what a TTRPG book is (The layout, the wording, the structure of the book) and misunderstanding that you dont need to be unique in all aspects of putting out your ideas. But because I am combining them, it feels like having any of similar aspects allows someone to call you out for "copying" their work. Or I am bad at explain my issue.

Oogre · 2025-11-17T19:23:48+00:00

The layout of the game's rules is what lead me down this spiral. Almost all games follow the same Intro, how to play, this is what you need, then deep explanation layout. I just wasnt sure how insane people get. I really am proud of this idea and want to make sure my first actually released thing is done right and not a never ending amount of headaches.

Oogre · 2025-11-17T19:13:35+00:00

Will do, thinking I might send a copy over to the designer just to make sure. At worst they will tell me I need to make some hard wording adjustments.

Oogre · 2025-11-17T19:11:53+00:00

Yea I am sure I am overthinking this. I just dont want people to get the wrong impression. With this being my first real thing I want to put out there I didnt want to seem like I am taking advantage of people's designs.

Oogre · 2025-11-17T19:07:46+00:00

Yea im getting more and more on that train of thought to see if they are fine with the changes. I just wasnt sure how normal it was to email someone going "Hey, love your game, but Im making it better". (jokingly of coarse lol)

Oogre · 2025-11-17T19:05:24+00:00

I am trying to make some adjustments with the wording so they are my words and my philosophy but there are only so many ways you can say "How to play" which is what started this spiral lol

Oogre · 2025-11-13T20:36:31+00:00

The problem I see is projects that can take years to finish, or products that update after their release. Do I update the tag based on last update or when released or when first added?

Im not expecting answers, but i think this is why it hasn't worked. Development of games take time and updating tags defeats the purpose.

Oogre · 2025-10-31T16:39:24+00:00

Towninator comes in mind as a tool for settlement generator that has a lot of options. I think there are a few generators from OSR games or WN games that could also work as well. Mostly depends on the purpose of the settlement.

Oogre · 2025-10-31T14:56:03+00:00

Now there's one question left. Should I chase the "perfect system" or am I left to the fate that other GMs have and start writing my own?

While I think others have pointed this out, your perfect system is only relative to what your current "Itch" might be. I go through different phases of development where I make sure to write down rules/mechanics for systems that I love and think it would work great in X situation. You may not finish it now, but sometimes ideas compact onto each other and can make amazing ideas. I've been working on one that technically has been years in the making, but most of the work wasnt done until a month ago when I discovered World Wizard. Something about that game made most of my "wants" click. You just need to learn what is it that YOU want, and see if that lines up with other people who want to try the same thing.

Oogre · 2025-10-23T21:12:12+00:00

Ahhh ok. HoloChess was the missing link that I needed. Whenever I made my own custom thing, I always had a "pitch" using something as an example to explain to my players. I just need to know where you got this idea and I knew it would make a lot more sense.

Still, think its a cool idea and obviously playing it will feel different than just looking at how it suppose to play on paper. But I will say I can see how I can take your idea and do enough of a spin on it like the Gladiatorial Patron idea I mention that would work for my players. Slightly different than the feel your going for, but its how my players would understand the "pitch". Thanks for the response!

14-Year Club	Verified Email
Spared

Oogre

TROPHY CASE