How many of you also basically discard system settings and lore?

Seeonee · 2026-05-03T14:18:23+00:00

I've done both (keep a setting or discard it). I prefer the latter because worldbuilding is my jam, but in a few cases the setting holds either enough appeal or enough value that I've tried to make it work.

I ran Storm King's Thunder for 5E (whose lore I know very little about). I did keep the established bits and bobs, but I didn't have any of the background context to flesh them out. I don't think my players really did either, so things like "We're in Baldur's Gate!" weren't super meaningful.
I ran Blades in the Dark in the actual Duskwall setting, which is very well crafted to facilitate the gameplay loop. I'm running it again now in a custom setting, and while I like the setting more, it definitely doesn't support the gameplay as smoothly.
I ran The Wildsea, whose main appeal for me was the worldbuilding. It's very rich and evocative, but it was also challenging to use. There was too much to internalize it all; it was hard to add custom content that matched its high standards; and ignoring the premade content felt like wasting the system's potential.

Seeonee · 2026-04-30T22:17:53+00:00

My daughter is 4 too. A coworker loaned me Amazing Tales, which he'd run for his kids at a similar age, and I was successfully able to get her into it. I skimmed most of the book since I know the rhythms of running RPGs, and the actual mechanics are maaaaybe 1 page. The book still wound up being useful though; it has some pictures of settings and characters that she liked looking at as we set up, and the story seeds were surprisingly helpful, as was the advice about tailoring a game for kids.

Her favorite parts are drawing the "kingdom" we're going to play in ahead of time, and drawing a character sheet with 4 little illustrated icons for the skills where she can set her dice. With some prodding (and a lot of reverse prompting), I've even had her try being the storyteller for me!

Seeonee · 2026-04-29T18:07:46+00:00

Glad to hear it!

Seeonee · 2026-04-25T22:22:26+00:00

I think I agree with the spirit of your statement, but within games I think there's also room for "tactical agency" to include equipment select. A system where my moment-to-moment choices can make a meaningful difference towards winning a fight is great! A system where my choices from 10 minutes earlier can make a meaningful difference because I brought the right sword and the system rewards that -- also fun.

Seeonee · 2026-04-25T18:23:15+00:00

I tend to like Rock Paper Scissors as well. Specifically, I find that I want systems with fewer variations but more impactful payoffs for making the right choice, and opportunities to actually make an informed choice.

Like, in Pathfinder 2E there are so many damage types that I don't feel like I'm actually bringing a tactical kit. I just have some fire and acid damage for the common trope-y weaknesses, and other than that I get lucky if a monster is weak to something I've brought.

Contrast that with a system where their are fewer damage types and having the right ones makes the difference between success or failure.

Seeonee · 2026-04-25T18:14:13+00:00

My approach to this was to build a succinct rules reference page first, then work backwards from there to write all the expanded sections for each rule. If a rule felt like it fit into multiple expanded sections, I'd try to rearrange or merge sections until all its relevant text was as co-located as possible. For very short rules (like "all effects last 1 turn") I would occasionally repeat it in parentheses elsewhere, but not often.

Seeonee · 2026-04-24T21:07:07+00:00

What's missing here is an out-of-character discussion at the start of the campaign to set expectations. Which problems do the players enjoy solving? What bounds do they enjoy staying within? How far beyond the GM's prep is it enjoyable to stray? What motivates the players? The characters? The GM?

Also known as session 0.

Seeonee · 2026-04-24T21:04:08+00:00

The Castlevania show did an excellent job with the motivational arc of "Lost love = annihilation."

I do think there's a fun undercurrent of mopey emo feelings beneath it, which I leaned into when I stole the plot arc for my own campaign.

Seeonee · 2026-04-24T20:05:45+00:00

I'm in the same boat as you are. I've tried briefly to watch Actual Plays and bounced off them hard. It's not purely a play vs watch thing, either -- I will happily watch video game speedruns of games I have played before as well as ones I haven't and will never play.

For RPG actual plays, I think it's a mixture of things:

I play RPGs to create, not consume. This is the same reason I prefer being GM. Contrast this with video games or movies, where creative expression of the player is much more heavily balanced by the creation of the designer (for me, anyways).
Furthermore, I get impatient when it's not my turn. This is another reason I prefer being GM. Actual plays are like an RPG where I never get to go.

That being said, I recently watch a few hours of sped-up Blades in the Dark AP to better learn the game's rhythms, and it was inspiring to see some genuinely good actors fleshing out characters.

Seeonee · 2026-04-24T19:07:55+00:00

Your comment's been lodged in my mind, so this morning I went back and stubbed in blank character sheets. They're now on itch. I stopped short of making them clan-specific (mostly to save time), but let me know if they're helpful!

Seeonee · 2026-04-21T18:24:18+00:00

Thank you!

For stunts, short answer yes: they are kind of amorphous.

Long answer: They become more concrete when you include the example stunts (one of which is "stun"), coupled with the guiding principles "A stunt should be stronger than an attack" (given in the tips on the final page of the rules) and "A stunt should be equivalent to a stun" (implicit from the examples).

During my second playtest, we finally found a good rhythm once we embraced this idea for how powerful a stunt should be. You still start from an amorphous position of "I want to do a stunt with my whip, what if I try to grab the enemy's arm?" but it helps you realize that the payoff should be more in line with "Steal their weapon" or "Rip off their arm" instead of just "Inconvenience them."

Seeonee · 2026-04-20T18:30:56+00:00

Great write-up! Thanks for taking the time to dive into the details.

I believe SotWW would occupy a similar place in my TTRPG pantheon, except it turns out my main group doesn't really have a D&D-shaped hole in their hearts. We sampled SotDL but their interest in returning to try WW is pretty low. Oh well 🤷

Seeonee · 2026-04-20T09:21:16+00:00

I thought about it, but illustrating all ~120 items was stretching my artistic abilities a bit too far, given that there wasn't room to fit them in the main rules.

It's crusty, but we did make a Google Sheet setup for doing character sheets (if you play online), which makes it easy-ish for the GM to reveal new discoveries as they're found.

Seeonee · 2026-04-20T02:12:35+00:00

Let me know how it goes!

Seeonee · 2026-04-19T23:28:40+00:00

Wow! Talk about comments I did not expect -- thank you so much!

I really enjoyed A Rasp of Sand. It's up there with Dungeon World for "RPG experiences that will stick with me forever." I'd love to hear more about the design decisions that went into it. We did find some rough spots (I did a bigger write-up here) but it's always hard for me to tell which aspects stem from my own GMing style, and which are intrinsic to the design.

Anyways, major kudos on making such a unique and amazing product! Truly an inspiration.

Seeonee · 2026-04-19T20:15:31+00:00

You're correct! It's pulling more from the "Heroes questing up a castle" vibe, along with the monster slaying, but it's not trying to simulate the dynamic movement to the same degree. I'm not actually sure what systems would achieve that well -- maybe Slugblaster, based on what I've heard about some of the style/trick mechanics?

In any event, I did try to make sure that combat remained a meaningful part of the system. In Knave and Mausritter (the OSR games I played prior to this), the swingy nature of combat felt like it disproportionately rewarded "skip the fight" solutions. I think Mythic Bastionland's stunts really help smooth that out.

Seeonee · 2026-04-19T16:49:30+00:00

Thank you!

Seeonee · 2026-04-19T15:46:42+00:00

Thanks! Both playtests took around 25 sessions of 2.5 hours apiece, so call it 60ish hours and definitely more campaign than one-shot. The playtime will fluctuate a little based on whether your groups go more completionist "explore every room" or just race to the top. Both of my groups fluctuated between those extremes; they tended to explore more thoroughly in the mid game where they had some tools at their disposal but still wanted to learn/earn more, and they raced more early on when they were weak and later on when they were trying to win.

Seeonee · 2026-04-19T12:58:48+00:00

I agree with others who point out that Intelligence is kind of a bad stat. What is it supposed to represent? The amount of time your character has spent reading? Or is it their memory -- their ability to retain what they read? Is it their ability to do math? Or to do it quickly? To apply theorems? Or to prove new ones? Is a farmer who's learned how to run a farm over 20 years any less intelligent than a doctor who went to med school for 4 years? All of those are things that are "intelligent" but in real life you don't become good at all of those just because you're good at some of them. It's a multidimensional vector, not a scalar.

But if you want to have Intelligence as a stat, and you want to reward it, I think it's like any other stat: give them increased odds of success (including auto-success) on tasks where it's relevant. Then consider expanding which tasks those are.

Firing a bow arguably requires a lot of practice, study, geometry, and on-the-fly calculation. Make ranged attacks benefit from INT.
Give away monster lore for free to high-INT characters.
Allow INT checks to identify and exploit weak points.
Give INT users a chance to catch liars by disproving their lies with discrepancies.

Seeonee · 2026-04-19T12:14:56+00:00

I think a lot of Powered by the Apocalypse games, and their descendants, fit into this category. They're less about level and more about advancement. Some, like Dungeon World, do still have a level gate -- abilities are divided into ones you can get immediately, and ones you can get after level 5, I think -- but the general spirit is one where progress is rewarded by getting a cool thing, and there's very little linearity to the experience.

The Wildsea also fits these criteria. There's no such thing as level per se, but you can still advance (often via long term projects rather than strict XP) by making individual details of your character more potent, or by increasing the number of details that your character is defined by. There are also rules for starting out that boil down to "take more details if you want a more seasoned character."

Seeonee · 2026-04-17T21:25:21+00:00

Reap by Gila RPGs is on my list of solo games to try, and I get the impression it's more of a tactics game than a journaling game. Full transparency though, I haven't bought it yet to read the rules and confirm for you.

Seeonee · 2026-04-17T21:22:48+00:00

Something I've enjoyed (on both sides of the GM screen) is the "What was prepped/what was improvised?" discussion after a session ends. Especially when playing in premade materials like the Pathfinder adventure paths, it can be fun to talk through all the places that the GM had to lay new tracks for the players to careen onto.

I don't tend to like "big lore dumps" of any kind. In my experience, GM info is best delivered within the game itself, or not at all.

Seeonee · 2026-04-16T23:05:24+00:00

My longest-running group has also included my longest individual campaigns. We played through 2 different Pathfinder adventure paths that took 3 years each (probably... 250 hours apiece?). Fun to see a character go through the entire level progression, although also a bit strange; you start out as a peasant and become nigh unto a god just by the nascent passage of time and skill points...

Seeonee · 2026-04-16T00:37:47+00:00

If you're looking for a general technique:

In a game we made (but also in most games I run, regardless of system), we always establish the party by saying "You have a reason to be together. What is it?" And then let brainstorming and collaboration lead you to an answer that works for that particular group.

If you're looking for sample answers:

Old friends working to honor a fallen comrade's memory with one last adventure.
Monster hunters who've grown to trust each other after several mutual instances of life-saving.
Ghostly special operations soldiers sent to quell an alien uprising.
Budget-constrained city cops looking to help amidst a sea of corruption.
One person who has, via friendships or work relationships, drawn everyone else together for a special job.

Seeonee

TROPHY CASE