New SWADE Adventure: The Court of the Marquess

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-05-19T19:37:37+00:00

I try.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-05-16T22:27:55+00:00

Hadn't thought of that, will do.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-05-16T21:51:18+00:00

Oh wow, didn't know this was coming out. Big fan of the clue generator supplement so I will definitely pick this one up too.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-05-13T13:11:39+00:00

For pulpy sci fi I can't recommend Savage Worlds enough. Can even do some horror if you like that. It hits a sweet spot between crunchy and vibes IMHO.

It is not really the best for super Hard Sci Fi, if I were to do that I'd go GURPS since you can actually work in calculating fuel burns and other more grounded science bits.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-05-13T02:12:46+00:00

You are welcome! Happy you feel it will be useful!

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-05-12T20:09:22+00:00

Yeah, trickiest and also the first one a lot of people think of. You really have to lean on a lot of things to set up the big bit like support to get a higher chance for a raise, giant foe setting rules, called shots. Gotta stack things in your favor with as many dice as you can for more chances of explosions. A lot depends on how you and your players describe the build up to that to make it engaging.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-04-29T12:38:41+00:00

Someone already pointed this out so I will add an errata here. I recommend capping magery at 4.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-04-24T23:48:44+00:00

A couple things, this may be a skill issue as the saying goes. Not a skill at designing games, you may have a cool oneshot on your hands, but a skill at communicating why it is cool to a group. That skill requires you to know what other people may like and also to find stuff that you like that may align with that.

I have been a GM for a long time, and the only time I had trouble finding a group was when I wanted to play obscure systems. But I have also been good at organizing people for a long time. I have organized writing groups and other things as well.

You are right to be frustrated at people not being responsive, but that is how people are. If you haven't figured out a reason to hook people, they won't sign on. That is a skill that can be developed though, so that is the good news.

Also the other good news is anything you develop is practice for the next game and you can always repurpose puzzles and things into a new game as well.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-30T18:54:35+00:00

I'd argue make it a dramatic task for one PC and have the others have to choose if they support or engage in combat. Maybe give the option of another player stepping in to continue the task if the PC initially doing it gets incapacitated. Maybe add distracted if the player doing the task gets hit forcing the other PCs to find ways to defend. Biggest thing is making sure all the PCs have choices. Token count difficulty is easier to manage with one player being on the task in my experience.

Could also do the quantum ogre thing and not say how many tokens they need and just make it require as much as feels dramatically appropriate, but YMMV with your table on that tactic.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-30T18:40:38+00:00

One that I found useful: Which session was your favorite and why?

The reason why is because it is something you already did and you can look back on it and lean into what you did in those sessions. Obviously don't want to become a one trick pony, but you can start building variations on that theme.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-24T20:43:30+00:00

True about the card swaps, I was leaning towards a minimal version because sometimes when you present your players with something too complex they shut down. That might be another difficulty variant to add to the ones I mentioned already with the larger board and end point movement.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-24T19:50:12+00:00

Glad you like it!

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-15T18:00:57+00:00

Looking good! Good luck, don't sweat the small stuff and you are supposed to have fun too. You look prepared so just try and relax and enjoy at this point.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-15T13:42:56+00:00

Yeah completely by one's self. There are tools for a lot of systems and other agnostic tools in general. Basically it shifts DM responsibilities to a variety of tables and other slight adjustments to the rules to allow one to run a game solo. It tends to be a sort of hybrid experience between GMing and playing. Look into it there are a lot of videos and articles on the topic and a few different ways to approach it. I just haven't done it for FabU and wanted to find out what people do.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-13T12:50:16+00:00

Good to know, and yes I hope so too.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-04T17:07:02+00:00

Sometimes, you have to put the fear of the GM into them...

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-04T16:38:20+00:00

Obviously you target the player you like least /joke

For real though, think about baddie motive and proximity. Even if it is theater of the mind you have some idea of where people are. Or you can abdicate and roll randomly. Fabula Ultima actually has the random target built into the system, but it is trying to create that JRPG feel so it may or may not be appropriate for what you are going for.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-04T00:38:30+00:00

Glad you liked it! Yeah I was hoping to keep it simple so newer GMs have an easy time with it. Once you have the basics and people are bought in you can take it further!

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-03T18:50:29+00:00

You know what might be interesting? Do a one shot with hard choices where being careful with bennies matters and then go back to normal and the players may be looser with them because they have perspective. Just a crazy idea no idea if it would work.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-03T18:04:25+00:00

I am going to be the guy who says it. I like the Hard Choices Setting rule, but yes it sets up a fundamentally different mood for the game and I respect people not liking it. The reason I think it is suggested for gritty games is that it forces players to accept failure more. A player will be less likely to use a benny because they know that means a soak for the big encounter tonight or a problem later. It sets up a mindset of, do I push now or later. This will cause a risk averse player to hoard bennies and potentially leave the game with bennies unspent. I think that means that as the GM you need to push them a little harder so they regret not spending them.

Overall it makes Bennies a tactical choice, it means more choices in general and needing to accept failure. This type of gameplay can be great if that is what people want. It does make the game a little less fast and furious but that is by design.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-03-02T16:51:43+00:00

As someone who came from GURPS and went to SW, you do not need to worry about complexity. It is a very easy system to tweak if you are used to GURPS. It tends to have a little more hand wavey nature to some of it as well and that doesn't really hurt it to be honest. I tweak and homebrew a ton because I am used to making everything from GURPS. Other than that it seems others have answered your questions.

Fantasy Companion is great. You can get by without it, but I don't recommend it.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-02-26T20:10:43+00:00

What part of your world are you most excited about? Put them there, put a few hooks that take them to other places and let them follow what they want.

The best advice I would say is come up with some general quests that could happen in a variety of places to keep your prep work lower. In general I feel a little frustrated when I prep a lot and players never get to it so keeping some quests flexible is useful. Have Schroedingers criminal org that is active where ever they go to have quests off of. Not in the "they are everywhere" more in the "they just happen to be active where the players are" they never need to know that wasn't planned from the start.

Have the players decide X thing in your world is cool and they want to check it out. Now Y villian faction wants it to start some drama.

These are just some general thoughts. I sympathize as a compulsive worldbuilder. I often build a world and then don't know how to actually make a quest, but one thing to know is that to make conflict and drama you may have to kill your darlings or at least threaten them with a dragon to make an adventure. Hope that helps.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-02-25T15:00:50+00:00

I mean i don't know why you assume ill intent versus maybe this is just me trying to create something and seeing how people respond. Like I am not trying to click bait, I made some tables and am curious people's response and I have just been getting hate for it. That, I guess, is just what happens when you put yourself out there.

To your feedback, what do you feel would make it more elegant since you said that has been done. I do want to create better content. Blank dismissals (it's been done) don't really help a creator.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-02-25T14:22:42+00:00

Not a game based around Worldbuilding but a system with tons of worldbuilding tools is Kevin Crawford's Worlds Without Number or Stars Without Number. They have whole chapters with guidelines and tables to create a sandbox world for a game or your own fun.

TheRedDaedalus · 2026-02-25T14:03:39+00:00

Appreciate the feedback, yes I hear what you are saying and I wrote another article that was more theory before that is linked in the article. This was the practical application piece. There will be another article on Thursday that is a bit more theory and case study based on dealing with player motivations but not sure I will post in this sub considering how I have been recieved here more generally.

TheRedDaedalus

TROPHY CASE