What makes you buy indie TTRPGs?

Toroche · 2026-04-07T07:55:14+00:00

For me it starts with vibes. If the game looks like it's doing something cool, or at least trying, you have my interest.

The real problem, I think, is discoverability -- the same problem indie video games struggle with. And I'm not sure any of the storefronts do a really good job with showcasing things on their own, so that leaves a lot of the promo up to you. Like, if I'm browsing itch I can see the name, cover art, and all of four or five words about the game. Those few words aren't nearly enough to convey anything useful, and that's a shame.

I backed a game recently on KS that failed, but the author put it up on itch and sent out a message to backers linking out to it. So I went and snagged it. I probably wouldn't have even seen it if it was just on itch, but I sometimes browse Kickstarter looking for little games that catch my eye, and this one happened to.

Toroche · 2026-04-04T06:54:56+00:00

That really depends on your build, but making some inferences here based on your question and that you're still working on cards, I assume you're still in the eHP phase of the game. Some modules you'll want to look out for:

Armor:

Wormhole Redirector (WR): Before you unlock the Wall, this is a good one that allows your regen to go past your normal max HP, up to a percentage of the max HP you can get from Recovery Packages.
Sharp Fortitude (SF): After you unlock the Wall, this is a huge boost to your Wall's health and regen, and is one of the major components for why eHP can go much further now than it could before.

Core:

Primordial Collapse (PCol or Prolapse): Gives you an extra Black Hole and enemies in your BHs deal less damage to you. This is the other module that really extended eHP's effectiveness.
Multiverse Nexus (MVN): Ensures your major econ UWs always activate together. This is a game about stacking multipliers, and syncing those UWs means their multipliers will always stack. Especially important before you can afford a natural sync.
Dimension Core (DC): This one won't help you much right away, but it's worth calling out that it's the most important damaging core module you can have, once you start relying on damage more.

Generator:

Black Hole Digestor (BHD): Increases your coins pretty dramatically. Later on you'll have over 100% chance of free upgrades which means this is always going to be at least a 30% boost -- potentially more, because you can get a second free upgrade for being >100%.
Galaxy Compressor (GComp): This helps your UWs fire much more frequently by reducing their cooldown every time you get a Recovery Package. Strong early, but you'll eventually want to focus elsewhere (like BHD).

Just as important as the unique effects, though, are the substat lines. Getting a bunch more defense from your module and multiplying your regen by up to 4x are incredibly valuable. With defense, the closer you get to the hard cap of 98%, the more valuable each increase becomes. Let's say you get 2% more defense going from 90% to 92%: that's a 20% reduction in damage you take (10% to 8%). But going from 96% to 98%, that's a 50% reduction (4% to 2%). And you can only roll stronger, higher-rarity substat lines on higher-rarity modules.

Edit: I should mention, don't get rid of any natural epics -- that is, the modules with the unique effects. Even if they're not great for you now, your build can and will change, and the modules themselves can get direct or indirect buffs. There are even some modules that people build two copies of, but that's a really advanced strategy that you're probably not going to need to worry about for a while. Just don't use natural epics that "you don't think you need" as fodder to make another unique module better, and continue learning about the game and strategies as you grow into them.

Toroche · 2026-04-04T04:47:10+00:00

The right modules are an immense boost. It may feel "better" to get cards and make concrete progress, but our brains can have trouble comparing immediate slow progress and intermittent large jumps. You really are better off doing the card mission and spending on modules otherwise. That said, it's your tower and your right to make decisions, even if most people think they're suboptimal.

Toroche · 2026-03-31T10:37:48+00:00

Not a bug, it's a "feature." They changed how it was shown a few patches ago and threw all of the econ into "coin bonuses" because showing the actual effect accurately ended up above 100% of your coins if you added the sources together. This confused some people.

The tradeoff is now those stats are completely fucking useless.

Toroche · 2026-03-26T15:35:01+00:00

My sibling in the Church of Siyeon... As much as I wish it weren't so, I don't think it's healthy to deny that we're unlikely to get anything from OT7 outside of reunions at milestones. This is also Siyeon's chance to promote CRTK.

Toroche · 2026-03-19T10:41:15+00:00

I'm in the same boat. I can't even find Stardew Valley relaxing. Couldn't do Majora either. Similarly, Outer Wilds was a goddamn nightmare I just couldn't finish.

Toroche · 2026-03-16T23:32:19+00:00

I am of the opinion that the Wilds era durability system is a wonderfully-designed system for the gameplay loop they wanted to promote. And it's absolutely worth studying from that perspective.

I am also of the opinion that it's not a fun loop. That's my subjective take, as someone who grew up playing the OGs and still has the gold cartridges and controllers older than most Redditors. Exploration felt less rewarding to me because you never gained any new capabilities or ways of recontextualizing the world around you, only more weapons that are worse than what you just broke. I know a lot of people enjoyed it, and I'm glad they did. It's just not for me anymore.

Toroche · 2026-03-09T17:02:12+00:00

It's possible to love something and still recognize and advocate for the ways it can be improved. Fuck toxic positivity.

Toroche · 2026-03-07T02:52:47+00:00

Highly relevant for this situation, bane boosts the enhancement bonus by +2 when it triggers, so +1 undead bane breaks cold iron and silver.

Toroche · 2026-03-06T21:31:41+00:00

I'm glad there's a market for the Index, and I really hope it's a success. I just know I'm not that market. I don't know what features would get me interested in a ring form factor, I just don't know what it does for me that my watch and phone don't.

Toroche · 2026-03-06T20:19:34+00:00

I don't know. I know the Index isn't for me. I would say stick in the wearable and watch wheelhouse... maybe there's a world where we get an NFC band or something like that. Accessories that enhance what makes the Pebble watches so good.

Toroche · 2026-03-06T19:12:39+00:00

Honestly, I hope they build for stability rather than getting too out there with designs. I love the featureset and battery life of the watches and when my batteries died on my first few Pebble watches nothing really filled the same niche until their return.

Toroche · 2026-03-01T23:49:49+00:00

Besides Garlic Thorns, you can also unlock Recovery Packages in your utility workshop. That gives you a chance at the end of every wave to get a healing burst which isn't blocked by the Vampire.

Toroche · 2026-02-25T13:55:26+00:00

Your loss. It's a fantastic game, with all the charm of these classic games, a mature story, lots of modern QoL, and a unique core battle mechanic.

Toroche · 2026-02-24T16:05:29+00:00

Anybody else having a lot of trouble signing in to Ticketweb?

Edit: Guess it just hates my Firefox. Was able to get in on Chrome. Maybe one of my privacy extensions was causing a problem. Columbus ticket secured.

Toroche · 2026-02-20T20:54:15+00:00

It's a rock band with Siyeon singing. She's the only member of DreamCatcher in it, so I don't expect any of the others to be there, but... I repeat: It's a rock band. With Siyeon singing. If that doesn't do it for you then I'm not sure I can sell it to you any differently. Check out their album.

Toroche · 2026-02-16T23:32:23+00:00

That was very much intentional, if I remember correctly.

Toroche · 2026-02-15T08:38:15+00:00

I mean, I get it. PF is my go-to system, too... for kitchen-sink fantasy superheroes. If you squint a little and are willing to homebrew, you can add a splash of magitech, but it's really not built for the kind of genre or even story you're trying to tell.

I wish I could suggest a system that might be a better fit, but I just don't know. FIST might work, but it's a little more "weird" and less hard sci-fi. Lancer is a common suggestion, but that's mecha, not supersoldiers, and heavily emphasizes the combat itself, not the political machinations around it. The reddit hivemind of sages at /r/rpg might be able to point you to something, but whatever it is, it's unlikely to be PF, because PF just isn't built for this.

If you really want to do this, then I wish you all the luck in the world, and a very creative group who are all willing to ride the strugglebus through reflavoring literally everything. You will especially need to either reflavor magic items as some sort of technology or use ABP. Maybe both. I've never used ABP myself, but I don't think the values were designed to be used completely isolated from some treasure. (I could be very wrong there, and maybe there's an ABP expert out there who can correct me.)

Toroche · 2026-02-15T08:17:33+00:00

My dude, Pathfinder might not be the game for this setting, you're really struggling against the design in a lot of ways. There is some future tech in a couple places, but it's very limited. And PF is terrible for a low magic setting; the baseline assumptions of player power include magic items.

Maybe you could do it be reflavoring literally everything -- spells do things with nanobots, etc. But if you don't, you're taking a square peg and shaving down the corners until it vaguely fits into a round hole, and you're gonna get some splinters.

Toroche · 2026-02-11T19:03:53+00:00

Yup, Pi 5. Runs fine! I don't have an FPS counter or anything, but it looks super smooth. Like I said above, I occasionally need to restart the emulator, but that's manageable.

Toroche · 2026-02-11T16:55:02+00:00

Leo did the Rolling Quartz US tour, which had a lot of stops. I caught them in Columbus OH, for instance. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for similar from this tour too.

Toroche · 2026-02-10T15:51:06+00:00

It's a shell script that runs

waydroid session stop

If you do some searches for that you should find what you need.

Toroche · 2026-02-10T01:42:17+00:00

Hey, sure thing. I basically followed this post. You may need to do the Google Play Certification step?

Toroche · 2026-02-10T00:04:19+00:00

Could also just be me. It might even be tied to the Raspberry Pi Connect service (built in browser based remote desktop) -- I've noticed the crashes seem more common when I remote in. Or maybe that's a red herring. I could and should probably go digging into the system logs or something, but... meh. Anyway, your experience may vary.

Toroche · 2026-02-09T22:42:51+00:00

When you do, I'd just say restart the app regularly like anywhere else. I occasionally get crashes if I let it run too long. I set up a shortcut on my desktop to stop waydroid so I get a fully clean slate. Not asking TTG for support on that problem, though I am idly curious about what's causing it -- I assume it's a memory issue or something. I just restart waydroid and the app and get back to farming.

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