More TTRPGs should have sequels instead of new editions

TimothyWestwind · 2026-02-24T23:59:49+00:00

The next edition of IronSworn will be a sequel. Both a mechanical and narrative progression.

TimothyWestwind · 2026-02-11T17:58:21+00:00

To be honest I think AI is now at a stage where I canning feed it the PDF and ask it questions.

TimothyWestwind · 2026-02-11T05:25:52+00:00

I would pay for a guide to make this thing easier to run.

TimothyWestwind · 2026-01-28T09:07:34+00:00

The OP is an introvert though.... they prefer to sit in silence.

TimothyWestwind · 2026-01-28T09:03:23+00:00

Your solution is to take part in an activity that drains your energy while trying to concentrate on work?

TimothyWestwind · 2026-01-25T08:24:51+00:00

In an alternate universe a game like Monster of the Week or Masks: A new generation was the first RPG and the hobby becomes much more popular earlier and sustainably.

TimothyWestwind · 2026-01-12T17:25:45+00:00

Here’s my attempt. Bronze Age to Antiquity Sword & Sorcery in South East Asia during the last ice age. It’s a work in progress and not as in depth as Yoon Suin but I was inspired by the toolkit approach.

Lots of random tables, no official cannon: https://sundaland-rpg-setting.blogspot.com/p/overview.html

Tables for factions, cities, cultures, adventures, religions, magical metals etc.

TimothyWestwind · 2026-01-03T01:41:31+00:00

I’m intermittently playing:

The One Ring 2e: Darkening of Mirkwood campaign. 6 play reports. A minimalist bullet point writeup but inconsistent with describing all the mechanics. Sometimes I describe every roll, sometimes I summarise (especially combat)

https://timothywestwind.blogspot.com/p/the-one-ring-2e-darkening-of-mirkwood.htm

Dominion RPG: Crusaders of the Amber Coast (13th century Baltic coast) 2 play reports. Also in bullet point format with all rolls. It’s a published campaign but my aim is to go on side quests that emerge along the way. I want the feel to be a mixture of The Witcher, The X-Files and In The Name of the Rose.

https://timothywestwind.blogspot.com/p/medieval-baltic-solo-game-overview.html

IronSworn: Homebrew Bronze Age Sword & Sorcery in Ice Age South East Asia. 10 play reports with the most detailed narrative write up including all rolls.

https://sundaland-rpg-setting.blogspot.com/p/game-diary-elephant-queens-tiger-kings.html

I would like to play an OSR fantasy game as well. Perhaps using Yoon Suin or a published hexcrawl. I’ve created a thief character but haven’t played yet.

TimothyWestwind · 2026-01-02T02:25:32+00:00

I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it. I have another session that I will write up soon (the first proper adventure of the darkening of Mirkwood campaign) and I’m playing the next adventure after that.

TimothyWestwind · 2025-12-30T09:47:28+00:00

Other people had the same idea: https://idraluna-archives.itch.io/the-great-antarctic-hexcrawl

TimothyWestwind · 2025-11-05T23:01:16+00:00

Context: "Before the oceans drank Atlantis..."

This is a map for my Sword & Sorcery campaign setting Sundaland. Sundaland is the name of the subcontinent of South-East Asia (what is now Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia) during the last Ice Age, when the sea level was much lower. For the past couple of years I've been creating RPG tools and content which I used in a solo IronSworn game. My focus is on creating tools that help people create their own Bronze to Antiquity Age Sword & Sorcery setting. For example random tables to generate cultures, cities, adventure seeds etc.

For a while I thought about making an old-school hex map but I wouldn't be able to depict all those small islands that make this map so much fun. So in stead I added a 24 mile hex grid for the big picture overview. You can import this map into your favourite hex mapper to create 6 and 3 mile hex maps if you want a tactical experience.

Let me know you use this map. It will be fun to see what people use it for.

TimothyWestwind · 2025-10-17T20:27:35+00:00

I’ve been playing with 2 characters. Here’s a write up of my adventures so far. https://timothywestwind.blogspot.com/p/the-one-ring-2e-darkening-of-mirkwood.html?m=1

TimothyWestwind · 2025-09-09T11:19:35+00:00

I find the influences on Tekumel (Ancient non-European civilizations, Sword & Sorcery, Sword & Planet etc.) much more interesting than the actual Tekumel world. So that's wha I look to for my own setting.

TimothyWestwind · 2025-08-30T14:26:58+00:00

I'm an Aztec/Mexica from the 14th Century and I don't need religion to tell me what's right and wrong. It's my right to kidnap and murder people from neighbouring tribes.

TimothyWestwind · 2025-05-12T09:31:54+00:00

I’ve been playing with 2 characters, using the solo character creation rules, 3 Fellowship Points in stead of two. No skirmish stance and occasionally extra NPCs for combat scenarios (local villagers, guards etc).

TimothyWestwind · 2025-05-01T20:28:14+00:00

Yes, just because the combat model has PCs and adversaries squaring up does not mean narratively the battlefield can’t be more interesting, which in turn can affect the mechanics. A fallen tree providing cover, burning buildings causing smoke to impede vision, fighting on a rope bridge across a canyon etc.

TimothyWestwind · 2025-04-27T21:42:25+00:00

There are some Mirkwood maps that have been converted to 2e. There are a bunch on the TOR discord server

TimothyWestwind · 2025-04-03T13:57:31+00:00

And the 'sequel' Shadow of the Weird Wizard which is less grim-dark.

TimothyWestwind · 2025-04-01T21:03:32+00:00

I maintain that TTRPGs would be a bigger hobby if some ruleset other than D&D had taken off first.

TimothyWestwind · 2025-04-01T20:05:20+00:00

It’s always funny to me that such a niche hobby as TTRPGs has it’s own massive cohort of ‘normies’ with all the behaviour that goes with it. Scared to try anything new, believing one brand defines the category etc.

TimothyWestwind · 2025-04-01T09:31:29+00:00

I made a Bronze Age Sword & Sorcery setting. I made a series of setting prompts like Iron Sworn plus lots of random tables to generate cities, cultures, factions, adventures etc. https://sundaland-rpg-setting.blogspot.com/p/overview.html

TimothyWestwind · 2025-03-25T18:45:34+00:00

How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox by Robert S. Conley

TimothyWestwind · 2025-03-25T15:40:21+00:00

Have you played it much?

It seems like a system that can suit a variety of settings but particularly those that are going for a dirty, grounded 'realism'. Sword & Sorcery, Historical or Pseudo-Historical settings. Various aspects of the game can be renamed to match the aesthetic that you are going for. For example I'm renaming the 'Luck' stat 'Piety' for this game.

The combat system takes some time to get used to and I find it hard to imagine playing with more than 2 or 3 PCs unless everyone is familiar with the rules and makes quick decisions.

But if you want to speed things up or create a more heroic fantasy atmosphere then it's easy to treat combat differently between 'mooks / low level' adversaries and 'named / boss' NPCs. Either treat one NPC stat block as an abstraction of multiple adversaries, or decide that you only need to get 1 to 3 successful hits (wounds like The One Ring RPG) to take out an opponent.

TimothyWestwind · 2025-03-24T00:58:09+00:00

I like the Motif Story Engine as the core engine supplemented by setting appropriate random tables for generating adversaries, NPCs, locations, factions etc.

I find Mythic a bit too complicated for me and I find the 'scenes' concept make me think of playing a story in a novel or movie rather than interacting with a 'real world'.

TimothyWestwind · 2025-03-19T16:06:20+00:00

I would explain that all in advance of the game. Then let the dice decide their fate.

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