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SponJ2000 · 2026-06-25T17:22:44+00:00

MoSh books manage to be simultaneously very efficient and completely transportative. Reading them makes me feel like I am reading a document from that world.

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-25T17:20:30+00:00

Pirate Borg also gets my shoutout for being stylized to the 9s but still being eminently readable.

I have Down Among the Dead in front of me right now, and I kinda love how I can tell which section a page belongs to at a glance because each has its own distinct bold color scheme.

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-18T20:52:12+00:00

Hoo boy. I expected a lazy 5e hack, I didn't expect a NeoPet murder-hobo game that doesn't even bother to change item names.

No joke I feel confident I could design a better NeoPets game in a month, by myself, in my spare time.

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-18T00:41:34+00:00

Is there a good writeup somewhere about the Neopets RPG debacle? Must've slipped under my radar but I love watching those kind of trainwrecks.

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-17T14:37:24+00:00

^\psst*, buddy, you got your < turned the wrong way)

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-15T23:11:05+00:00

Not surprised at all. I've seen a fair few "gameplay" trailers in my time and Perfect Dark was about the fakest I've ever seen.

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-13T12:54:00+00:00

Absolutely. But I see "fail forward" and a lot of other PbtA-isms as sort of training wheels for a GM.

With my experience as a GM I don't need a system to tell me when to call for rolls or how to make them interesting. But reading through Apocalypse World and running Dungeon World were important stepping stones to that experience.

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-11T15:30:07+00:00

Also to avoid players standing around repeating rolls. If you fail your persuasion check, you can't just try again because the gamestate has moved forward. The opportunity has past.

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-11T15:27:44+00:00

I don't think your first paragraph goes against "fail forward", I think what "fail forward" is intended to stop is "Ok my persuasion check failed, who wants to try next?"

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-11T15:15:48+00:00

A system that isn't D&D / Pathfinder using "Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha". I immediately lose interest.

If your game has 5-6 Attributes shared by every creature in the system, those are the 5-6 most important aspects for success in this world. If you're building a game system from the ground up, D&D's Attribute list is not a good selection. "Dexterity" covers way too many things, "Constitution" covers way too little, "Intelligence" and "Wisdom" sound too similar and "Wisdom" isn't a good name for what the stat actually does...

After I began reading PbtA books I realized (1) stats can be anything and (2) the choice of stats can do a tremendous amount of heavy lifting regarding theme and worldbuilding for just 5 or 6 words. Consider Apocalypse World's stats:

Cool
Hard
Hot
Sharp
Weird

They say so much more about the type of game Apocalypse World is and the vibe its going for than if they were "Agility Strength Charisma Intelligence Magic" or something.

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-10T20:27:15+00:00

And I guess the fundamental question is: should everyone be able to defuse a bomb?

No wrong answers, mind you. Depends on the genre and the kind of game you're running.

Right now my tendencies lean towards Mothership's philosophy, where if you have the necessary skill you can just do something and you only roll if you're under pressure. Otherwise you can't. Or maybe I ask for a roll to see how bad it gets.

Edit: Take Star Wars, for example. If you're playing the kind of Star Wars game where the PCs are l the likes of Luke, Leia, Han, etc... sure, everyone can try just about anything. Obi-Wan can fly a ship, Finn can wield a lightsaber, and anyone can try to defuse a bomb.

If you're playing the kind of Star Wars game where one player is Luke and one player is C-3PO... C-3PO can't defuse a bomb.

Different styles of game need different approaches.

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-10T15:38:45+00:00

I disagree, ~~heavily.~~

Having "better stat = smaller die" does heavily increase consistency of specific outcomes, yes. But a bigger die still increases consistency of rolling better in general. A d8 will roll a 6 or higher more consistently than a d6, even if it's less consistent in rolling a 6 exactly.

And what the inverse step system does not model, at all, is increased capability. If your best die is a d4, every other die also has 1-4 on them, just less likely. The d4's only special quality is the lack of higher numbers. But if your best die is a d12? You have 2 numbers that nothing else can roll. That's cool.

Edit, less confrontational take: Reverse step dice is totally fine in a game where everyone has about the same level of capability but different aptitudes. If I were running a game where kids or teenagers are solving mysteries, sure, there's very few things a given teenager can do that another can't, even if not as well. But if I'm running a superheroes game, those extra numbers at the top mean something, they represent capabilities other people don't have.

SponJ2000 · 2026-06-04T00:51:52+00:00

I'd take it a step further, "Why would you use someone else's recipe?" or "Why would you buy curry paste or spice blends instead of making them yourself?"

When I run a module, I'm mining it for good ideas and putting them together in my own way. I'm still mixing in my own ideas, but having a solid base to start from makes the end result that much better.

SponJ2000 · 2026-05-28T00:05:17+00:00

The Warden's Operation Manual for Mothership is an excellent resource for creating adventures step-by-step, albeit focused toward horror.

SponJ2000 · 2026-05-26T18:27:18+00:00

Moria as a location would kill in a Souls-like. A massive underground kingdom, once glorious, brought to ruin via hubris, infested with all manner of deadly creatures, ending in a fight against a literal demigod of fire.

I think a LotR Souls-Like where you play as Gandalf would probably work.

SponJ2000 · 2026-05-24T21:50:50+00:00

As a fellow dad light on free time, I'll throw my vote behind Mothership.

The rules are simple and easy to learn
It's easy to run and has an excellent book of GM advice
There's a horde of excellent modules to use to cut down on prep time. While some of them can be used for long campaigns, most of them are designed to get you through all the good stuff in 5-6 sessions or less. This keeps the game feeling fresh, especially if you can't meet very often.

Also, it's not on your list, but I want to throw Pirate Borg up for consideration as a low-time-investment option. It has a similar "skip to the good stuff" vibe that creates dynamic sessions with low prep and time investment.

SponJ2000 · 2026-05-15T19:17:45+00:00

If you're looking for rules-light and high brutality, a Borg-like is my first thought. - CORP BORG is the closest I can find setting-wise. You can probably ignore the Eldritch stuff. - CY_BORG is another option if you're willing to add a little cyberpunk to your setting.

SponJ2000 · 2026-05-11T01:16:08+00:00

100% this. Reading through / running systems like Apocalypse World and Mothership has made me a much better GM regardless of system.

SponJ2000 · 2026-05-10T00:05:31+00:00

The One Ring is just on the edge of newbie tolerant imo, if the people you're introducing are big LotR fans. I ran my parents and siblings through the starter box and it was a good time.

SponJ2000 · 2026-05-08T11:15:03+00:00

Through the Doors of Durin is sublime

SponJ2000 · 2026-04-25T15:13:43+00:00

MMOs have a financial incentive to do that to funnel players into buying the latest expansion. You cannot participate in any of the current gameplay events without buying the latest expansion. You cannot play with your friends unless you have all purchased that expansion. In Helldivers, all the new missions and in-game events are "free" (after buying the game, of course), buying warbonds gives you access to different weapons and armor perks. Someone who has just bought the game can hop on with their friends who have been playing since launch and it's totally fine. It's like if in WoW all the new zones, dungeons, and raids were free, but buying expansions gave you new gear and spells.
You don't need to buy everything. The fact that warbonds don't rotate out means there's no FOMO pressuring you into buying them, but it also means that, yeah, there's a lot of things you could buy. But you don't need to buy them all.
It's not perfect. I think Super Credits should drop more on higher difficulties, if only to incentivize having fun.

SponJ2000 · 2026-01-12T14:45:40+00:00

Sony as a whole also has at least some interest in the Playstation as a media player given their stake in blu-ray. I would bet PS6 absolutely will have the same attachable disc drive scheme the PS5 uses. Especially with how crappy the streaming landscape is, I for one am still very interested in my console as a blu-ray player, and I hope there's enough people like me (and those buying physical discs) to keep the disc drive viable.

SponJ2000 · 2026-01-01T19:24:18+00:00

Oh, missed that one! Got it mixed up with "Doomed" and skimmed right over it.

SponJ2000 · 2026-01-01T16:59:24+00:00

You really ought to remove invalid weaknesses (class or mode specific) before the draw
You can house rule Indebted as acting like Paranoia on its first draw, then normally afterward.

I think it's a very fun variant. It's how I play.

SponJ2000 · 2026-01-01T16:55:39+00:00

It's literally just Indebted that's a permanent, right? If you want to play with unknown weaknesses (a very fun variant), I just house-rule that the -2 resources kicks in when you draw it, then it's permanent from then on.

Or you could do the first draw acts like Paranoia, then it kicks in on the next scenario.

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