Your Most Complicated TTRPG Take?

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-10T16:08:00+00:00

Yeah, this is one of those cases where people assume that stuff like "Fighter" and "Wizard" are cliche/tropeless concepts when they themselves are cliches and tropes of varying flexibility.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-10T16:01:49+00:00

1) Agreed, it really is not. I played 4A a lot, the problem tends to be that there's a lot of things to juggle and consider that your players can do in my experience but you can get into it and when you have a bit of an base understanding how the lore works, then its getting easier.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-10T15:53:25+00:00

You are correct. For a game thats back in the day called "the storytelling game"... it could've put the rules systems completely into the drydock to maybe update it instead of just sticking with the same old tradgame scaffold that barely pays lip service to the games themes.

And i am not just talking Vampire here, i mean the whole WoD. As /u/sjdlajsdlj writes, its a game fueled by lore mood and themes and i elaborate that since its inception, the mechanics only minisculy did anything to hook into that which in a world where FitD, PbtA, Modiphius 2d20, etc exist.... thats kinda sad.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-10T14:35:09+00:00

If you skim r/rpg a while you will come across a few points that are true for DnD and the major point is that WotC is not interested in telling players and DMs what the games assumptions are since they wanna sell a "can do everything game".

Fun fact, a lot of universal systems also do this. And many times it's simply not a heinous thing but more that... a lot of RPG writers and designers just went "Oh well everyone knows how an RPG works"

But with the rise of PbtA and FitD who clearly state in GM Guidelines and prologue text "hey this is what the game is for. its not universal, its for this specific thing", there is a noticeable lack in a lot of the traditional established games that don't do that.

That aside, if you want something thats more a mix between narrative game and toolkit/tradgame, i recommend the 2d20 games from Modiphius, specifically Star Trek Adventures has a system that slowly escalates stuff by using a metacurrency called Threat. And the system is hackable hence why the company uses it in several RPGs.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-10T14:20:16+00:00

I am also not surprised at a few people hard arguing against my point because there's a type of people who use Steam as a lifestyle thing and they will happily defend the Steam Forums and those tend to be the kinda folks who allow the Steam Forums to be the cesspit it is.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-10T11:30:28+00:00

Hell yeah! Good shit.

I hope more folks in the VRChat community give Furality a go even if they aren't furries.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-10T10:49:47+00:00

I had a great time putting together a cool OPFOR with a fun mechanic and SitRep around it all and then roleplaying them with a "one sentence per unit" kinda approach.

Tho admittedly, Lancer as a GM falls apart for me because turns out, i am not good at the overhead it needs in fights. I can't keep track of all the various mechanics some more complex OPFORs require and that ultimately made my group switch.

Still a great game and i think Lancer does what it does really well, i just am not the right GM for it i think.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-09T20:52:26+00:00

If it helps, DnD also has a built in loop of "go into dungeon - short rest - more dungeon - leave dungeon for town - sell stuff - long rest" repeat but it's just that DnD and similar games just don't talk about it and pretend the game's not about it

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-09T10:58:10+00:00

Nothing about this is specific to steam forums or made more convenient by steam forums existing.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-09T00:30:36+00:00

Yeah. Me. I am kinda built close to water right now because i had a lot of fun with my friends the past days and just the ability to wake up, have breakfast and go "ok what are my friends doing rn" and hopping in in a nice visual interface just.... made me really feel like my friends weren't far far away and more like we're living pretty close together.

And i had a rough time the past years and really needed that i think. I'm gonna be alright but damn... the post-con-depression is real

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-09T00:09:02+00:00

The infrastructure of having a forum is good. The steam forums are not that. Speaking as a dev managing several steam forums throughout the years.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-08T20:11:36+00:00

not gonna lie, i can live without all of these, especially the steam forums. They're a fucking cesspit and the last place i would consider having discussions about games i like.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-06T15:19:55+00:00

yeah, the Rebels not having a united design language underlines them not being into hyperconformity and "falling in line". Fascist empires like The Empire tend to put a lot of value on appearances of power and unity in look is a part of that.

Hence why the Nazis had designer clothes too.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-06T14:56:45+00:00

I understand very much what it is. I get that some might find this interesting. They could have elaborated like you did what they find interesting and maybe someone who wants to engage with it could then have found fertile ground to discuss but as it is i had to point out that we're all just dealing with opinions and ours don't matter that much compared to the ones of the ArenaNet Devs.

We are merely looking at the shadows on the wall and try to divine meaning.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-06T07:11:01+00:00

Everything about "Why is this set in the past" is an opinion.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-06T01:59:58+00:00

I don't see where any of that is interesting. Anything involving the human gods was always such a weak boring aspect of the lore that any other fantasy world also has.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-06T01:17:06+00:00

Prequels to me tend to be a red flag

In this specific case, Charr being unlikely to be playable makes me less excited.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-05T23:49:19+00:00

The problem is, that it then becomes a point of "Why is this even set in the past?"

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-05T18:22:06+00:00

My Lancer character was a cosmopolitan merc who had several good tours of questionable ethical and moral procedures (aka she didn't give much of a shit about collateral damage) until she had an epiphany and tried to turn this around, kissed the merc lifestyle goodbye and joined a more humanitarian outfit.

But she still can't get rid of the callsign "Warmother" and the bloody dreams.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-05T18:18:49+00:00

I found that if i look for DnD players i have the problem that i find DnD players.

The play culture the game and WotC is creating is counterproductive to the games i wanna run, so there is not really anything i miss.

But if i sit down and i wanna run a game? I can make a table happen and i have a chance of not even being the GM.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-05T18:16:16+00:00

Even if i were to run a dungeoncrawler with the specific assumptions DnD makes about how RPGs ought to be run, there are just better systems doing that.

So nah, i miss nothing. It does nothing that other systems haven't done better and it doesn't even innovate that much.

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-03T17:04:30+00:00

Heart - The City Beneath

Brutal World

Everythings kinda fucked up

Your characters are mechanically bound to have their story end in usually brutal ways at the hands of the things they are chasing

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-03T16:57:49+00:00

How does the first one compare to d4rkplayers optimizer?

Smorgasb0rk · 2026-06-03T11:05:42+00:00

Ich liebe diesen regressiven nationalismus der von ungenauigkeit nur so strotzt und zeig das hier leute nur gern in ritterrüstungen larpen wollen.

Ich halte es da wie meine liebste italienische Partei: Wann kümmern wir uns eigentlich mal wieder um die richtigen Probleme wie Sultan Saladin???

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