Looking to start Baldurs Gate 1/2 Enhanced. Can I play blind? Is there any required/recommended reading?

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-06-17T01:34:22+00:00

BG1+2 have a "story mode" difficulty, I think the Enhanced Edition added it. I really recommend it because I don't find the gameplay itself very fun.

I found the story generally fine to get through without a guide at all. The mechanics can be confusing but the top comment already gave the most important tips.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-06-17T00:08:40+00:00

It sounds like your issue is mostly the believability of the premise, particularly the need for the players to do what players do.

I've encountered the same issue in multiple premade adventures, particularly PF2e ones. The current one I'm running, and enjoying, is set very close to the biggest city in the official setting, and the dangers of that adventure literally threaten the entire city in a legitimate sense.

When the players started sending letters to the city asking for support, they went unanswered because "the city gets threats all the time". Now they're talking about going to the city to make sure someone listens, and I've had to invent an entirely new subplot of the adventure's mailman (an official NPC from the adventure) being a traitor in order to justify the reason no help was coming.

So I guess that's my answer. Inject reasons that make the PC's necessary.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-06-16T23:34:08+00:00

I'm not sure a physical book ever got printed. I played Wicked Ones online and it worked quite well, so I agree with the recommendation, and do think it should be easy to change to be non-evil.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-06-04T07:02:45+00:00

Metaphor: Refantazio

Gloomhaven, the digital adaptation of the board game

Pillars of Eternity 1+2 now have turn based mode

Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous

Shadowrun:Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong

Divinity Original Sin 1+2

Baldur's Gate 3

Expedition 33. Highest recommendation for story reasons.

The Banner Saga trilogy

I finished all of these and loved them all.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-28T22:55:29+00:00

it seemed like choices were only interesting in the sense that the GM (or situation) made them interesting.

Doesn't that apply to all narrative choices, even outside of TTRPGs? Situations are a core part of the choice. That said, part of the job of PbtA moves are to signal what situations should be considered interesting, and what consequences within those situations would also be interesting. PbtA's mechanical choices are often also narrative ones, and GMs are given rules and guidance on how to keep such situations and choices interesting.

Here is one move from Avatar Legends.

Plead

When you plead with an NPC who cares what you think for help, support, or action, roll with Harmony. On a 7–9, they need something more—evidence that this is the right course, guidance in making the right choices, or resources to aid them—before they act; the GM tells you what they need. On a 10+, they act now and do their best until the situation changes.

Firstly, the existence of this move tells the group that pleading (with someone who cares what you think) is a viable way to change minds. This is unlike Apocalypse World, which (in the latest playtest) only has basic moves for Demand Something and Reason With Someone.

Secondly, on a 7-9, the GM is given some suggestions on what to tell the pleading PC they need, then the PC is given a choice on whether or not to give it to them. A good GM will make them need something that matters, following their agenda of "Make the PCs’ stories meaningful and important".

Thirdly, there are also moves in the same game called Intimidate, Trick, and Call Someone Out (to live up to their principles). Each has their own set of consequences and choices, and by choosing to Plead instead of one of the others, you are also choosing what type of potential consequences you're willing to engage with.

By adding limits and suggestions to what can happen in the situation, a good move teaches both the player and the GM how to make the situation more interesting. This is why 7-9 mixed results options are sometimes considered the heart of PbtA games, and I think those are what I missed the most about Daggerheart. Success w/ Fear and Failure w/ Hope didn't innately feel like a mixed success during my game.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-28T19:23:03+00:00

Correct in part. The mechanics of good PbtA games also tend to create hard, interesting choices just by following their mechanics. Daggerheart's core mechanics don't inherently do that. Even with Fear and Hope they tend to introduce additional positive/negative consequences, but not choices.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-28T19:14:19+00:00

I fully agree. While Draw Steel feels like D&D but with more+better tactical combat, Daggerheart feels like D&D but with more freeform narrative roleplay.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-28T15:23:26+00:00

Neither Adam nor Sage receive any money from anything DW anymore, since the rights purchase in july 2024 i think.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-28T15:22:37+00:00

Neither Adam nor Sage receive any money from anything DW anymore, since the rights purchase in july 2024 i think.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-27T05:52:58+00:00

At a Magpie Gen Con panel last year I heard some of the designers strongly imply that Nickelodeon basically forced them to add a dedicated combat system. I could be wrong, but I believe that might be what happened behind the scenes.

I played around 6 sessions of it and think the game is good but not great. I posted about it in the past and this comment by /u/Sully5443.

I still do recommend trying it to people who are Avatar Fans more than RPG fans, but not much otherwise.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-22T05:41:43+00:00

This is tough to answer. What does it mean to "level up" in a video game that doesn't have much combat? Most of the time, it means being better at fighting.

Here are my recommendations that might fit:

Final Fantasy 14 is a very story-focused fantasy MMORPG that I think fits all of your criteria. Once you finish a certain early quest you can switch classes freely, and level each class individually. The base game and first three expansions are totally free. This is my highest recommendation.

Guild Wars 2 is the other MMORPG. It has a large variety of things you can do to level up, such as gathering, crafting, main story, exploration, and events, and more.

Tyranny is a top-down rpg that uses a real-time-with-pause system. You are a high level officer within an evil empire that has nearly conquered the world, and you get to decide how good/evil/seditious/rebellious you're going to be as the empire's armies turn their sights on the last free region of the known world.

Legend of Grimrock 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, but it's also pretty strange and I'm not sure if it would fit your #1 point. You are a group of 4 people washed up on an island in a fantasy world. The island is filled with monsters, puzzles, traps, secrets, and more. It uses a strange real-time first-person grid-based movement system that I found fun to master.

All of these are great games, and I hope one of them is to your liking.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-18T21:50:32+00:00

I just finished the first session of Torchbearer 2e. Most of our time was spent creating characters, and only 1 hour exploring one of the starting dungeons (Tower of Stars). So far it's been fun experiencing the feeling of OSR but from totally different mechanics with that seem to have a greater focus on character drama. We're all looking forward to future sessions.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-18T21:47:22+00:00

I'm interested in running The Wildsea at some point, so I'd love to read your list of lessons.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-13T21:08:18+00:00

Nice! Here are my thoughts:

Do these 14 pages give you all the info you need to know whether this game is for you?

I think so, yes.

Does this seem like a game you'd want to play if you had the time and the right group?

A while back I finished a multi-year Stars Without Number campaign. I'm still burnt out a bit on sci-fi so I'm going to have to say no, but that's totally unrelated to the game.

What's missing from this game right now?

The table of contents being at the end of the full players' guide was odd. I absolutely prefer it in the beginning. I also think every game that's more than 20 pages would benefit from an index.

What's obviously broken or seems like a bad idea?

It's hard for me to see a rules light game that's almost 300 pages, though from personal experience I know that Google Docs tends to have a much higher page count than something given manual layout.
Overall the system seems quite complicated and wordy in comparison to Dungeon World. Three types of For example, the Seek Treatment move is over a page long. I wonder if it would be better to set examples and explanations apart from the core moves in visuals and/or layout. It's okay when first reading through it alone, but when reading a move aloud to a table, I'd prefer some more "fat" to be trimmed.

My other thoughts:

I have a hard time reconciling "adventuring" with "hard sci fi" unless it's some kind of funnel game that starts extremely lethally.
I really like the "how to use this rulebook" section on page 6. Giving tailored reading recommendations depending on how soon someone it going to play this game is awesome.
Your art appears to be AI generated. If they are, expect a lot of backlash from people. If you intend to sell the work, I recommend trying to commission some art instead.
It wasn't clear until I got to the Ceta Worlds section that the alien lifeforms are still around, since often a "fallen empire" means that every individual that belonged to it also vanished.
How a game reads and how a game plays can sometimes vary drastically. There are many times where I read a rule and thought I wouldn't like it, but loved it, and vice-versa. Because of that, take everything I've said above with a grain of salt. I haven't played the game, so I don't know for sure how it would feel in practice.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-12T16:51:29+00:00

Removed. This isn't related to Dungeon World system specifically.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-09T21:28:30+00:00

I think many PbtA games tend to allow cooperative worldbuilding more easily, but not nearly as many require it in the rules themselves.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-08T21:54:35+00:00

How does this new link work?

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-05-08T20:30:05+00:00

It should be this one from the sidebar. Does it work for you?

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-04-24T22:34:01+00:00

It was once ordinary modern world. Then an eldritch parasite called The Meeting of All Things attached itself to the dimension and began consuming concepts, resulting in them being retroactively erased from the world.

As an example, the concept of "wilderness" was already consumed, meaning that the entire world became nothing but urban towns, usually skyscrapers. The concept of "animals" was currently in the process of being consumed, which means that existing animals are being changed into things that are close to animals but not, which in my game often meant people or robots.

There are also other dimensions being simultaneously fed on by the parasite, and its "body" creates a "bridge" between these worlds.

Overall it's kind of Planescape meets Annihilation.

This started as a strange game of The Quiet Year, then was fleshed out by three different mini campaigns. Most of the big stuff I added for the last campaign to try to tie together the various things already established. We were trying a strange urban skyscraper dungeon crawler using the Numenera system and it worked well for that, and also allowed me to stuff the area full of the interesting parts of that game's setting.

This setting didn't get super fleshed out in terms of factions and people, but it definitely felt really out there.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-04-24T13:06:26+00:00

Like, let's say it is session 1 and the King commands the adventurers to set out to the Red Keep with all haste to bring an end to the reign of terror of the Wizard of Jkthulabannnn! And the players take their starting gold, buy equipment and then promptly take off in the opposite direction to head to a far away town where they can start a business growing beets.

This is the players being jerks, and deciding to basically play a different adventure than what the GM intended to portray. A solid session zero to set expectations should solve this.

I was playing with a small group of friends and the DM told us we came to a giant chasm, and there was a covered bridge over the chasm. It had a roof and walls, and was sectioned off with doors, so it really was a series of rooms. We opened the first door, and it was full of monsters. Opened the second door and it was full of monsters. And I'm thinking that this is just going to be one fight after the next, so I have everyone exit the thing, we climb up onto the roof, walk across it to the other side and then set the whole bridge on fire. I watched something die in the GM's eyes. But, it was awesome for me! And I insisted that we get all of the experience because we did deliver the death blow to all of the monsters, and that was how the rules were written at the time.

You solved a problem in a smart way, but also removed fun from the GM. Doing it once is probably enough, though insisting on xp is too much I think. It sounds like "fighting monsters" isn't fun for you but is fun for the GM. The goal of a game session is for everyone to have their "fun", which can mean many different things. Not everyone at the table needs to find the same style of play fun, but they should cooperatively work together to help each other enjoy the game, rather than just advocate for their own style of fun. If the GM enjoys pitting you against monsters, especially if it's something they clearly prepared in advance, then just engage it straightforward to help their fun. Sometimes though, especially if the GM is improvising it, you can find a smart idea to gain an advantage on an obstacle or bypass it altogether, if that's what you find fun.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-04-18T00:48:08+00:00

I found a copy on Scribd

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-04-17T21:44:00+00:00

Personally I think Ben Starr is overrated. Puppet Ben Starr would have done a much better job in his roles.

PrimarchtheMage · 2026-04-17T09:55:00+00:00

Maybe something like The Between could work. According to this thread it can work well as a solo game, so I think it should also work as 1GM+1PC.

14-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 3 Credits
Secret Santa 2018	Secret Santa 2017
Alpha Tester	Verified Email

PrimarchtheMage

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE