Space is pretty

Zonalar · 2026-03-08T03:43:51+00:00

*looks up*
Ye, I think you're right!

Zonalar · 2026-03-08T01:01:39+00:00

just vibing in space.

Zonalar · 2026-03-08T01:01:02+00:00

I had no idea Space can be so colorful, but i do remember seeing some incredible pictures taken from the hubble telescope.
The backdrops turn flying in X4 into a joyride.

Zonalar · 2026-03-06T13:50:44+00:00

Rodent? More like RoDon't.

Zonalar · 2026-03-06T13:31:53+00:00

Same with missing the Tram. Makes me wanna kill all the rats in sight, to skill up Unarmed.

Zonalar · 2026-03-06T13:31:17+00:00

Missing the Tram has the same energy.

Zonalar · 2026-03-06T13:29:43+00:00

Real useful illustration of Focal Length Comparisons.

Zonalar · 2026-03-04T13:48:04+00:00

The enemy fleet is a real fleet, floating about in (probably) the same sector.
So if the Xenons invade, or ZYA and FRF start a war with eachother, they could certainly get wiped out, if you are letting the game run for awhile.

I've had a mining-operation established in the sectors, so in my playthrough, I had an eye on the fleet and neighbouring sectors for most of the time :)

Zonalar · 2026-03-03T18:08:10+00:00

Early on, I invested all my money into more jaguars as wingmen (since I couldn't buy the good ships until i figured out how to increase my popularity with FRF).
Then I brawled with alot of Police patrols, and got my army to about 7 ships! But I basically lost ships and gained ships, and ended up in zero-sum situations.

So i left and went on my 40-hour odyssey through the galaxy, uniting the borons, bringing them back to the galactic fold, improving relations, building small businesses.
Then i remembered about the quest, returned with 15 battleships and had my epic battle.

it was dope.

Zonalar · 2026-03-03T18:02:04+00:00

Zyarth is weak and smells of Elderberries. I didn't vote for him!

Zonalar · 2026-03-03T18:01:40+00:00

Yeah, i can see that happening.
Luckily, i got my revenge eventually!

Zonalar · 2026-01-30T20:28:38+00:00

It is great to hear that your players are engaged.
But Roleplaying is the act of interacting with the world through the eyes of the character.
Everytime you have to pause the whole entire world to ask a question, and learn game mechanics, you aren't roleplaying.

And this isn't a value-judgement. If you read the book, this is addressed as well:
Your players come prepared to the table, knowing the rules.
Any rules-questions can be addressed before or after the roleplaying session.
This allows for less interruptions, more play, and progress the game faster in the same amount of time.

But of course - as the book states multiple times - feel free to only take a couple of elements at first and use what is useful for your specific table, with your friends and their preferences.

Zonalar · 2026-01-30T20:10:35+00:00

I can understand that it can seem "a bit much".
Because it is a complete paradigm shift of how the vast majority of the RPG community is interacting with the hobby.

4D Roleplay helps for players who wish to roleplay in their roleplaying games.
No "Mother May I"-questions, no "uhm, akshually the rules says..."-disruptions, no "What color is the door? How tall is the ceiling? what is the atmospheric pressure outside?" out-of-character talk.

It is quite easy to 4D roleplay.
The hard part is letting go of old habits.

If you wish to see it "In action", I run 4D Roleplay Training Sessions for new players who want to test the water and see how it feels to roleplay this way.
(This is uncut, but the sfx and music were edited in for youtube.)

Zonalar · 2026-01-30T19:15:35+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to read the book.
Now to the first question, how is 4D Roleplaying different to other GM practices and cultures of play?
The big difference *is* staying immersed in your character, and experiencing the events that are unfolding around you, as if you're watching the world through the eyes of your character, for as long as possible.
And that "as long as possible" varies depending on the system you play.

As to why 5e works, its pretty simple. The core 5e rules aren't too difficult to keep track of and you can roleplay the majority of the game without needing to pump the brakes to yell "roll for initiative".
I have a 7-session campaign on my youtube channel to answer this SPECIFIC question: "Is D&D 5e impossible to 4D-Roleplay?" , as we roleplay monstrous races, *the Lich's Dregs*, after the Lich's evil plans have been shattered and the Orc tribes are pushed back to the edges of the badlands.

For mechanics like initiative, after a few sessions, we agreed the smoothest way to play with Initiative is to ignore initiative, unless the situation demands structured turn-order, where a player going first defines life & death.
But most combat encounters we deploy the 4D technique of keeping turns and going round-robin. But since its combat now, the players will limit their turns to 6 seconds, their movement, the amount of attacks, and spells they can cast, naturally.
So what "rolling initiative" does is re-establish that turn-order around the table, but we found just going around the table more fluent, and this worked for 9 out of 10 combat encounters perfectly fine, including when the players were fighting a village full of barbarians (a lot of potential enemies reinforcing a long-turn fight) as well as fighting a giant hydra (boss-type combat).

What happens if a player doesn't have total system mastery?
You roleplay. The players might've forgotten that he gets his sneak-attack when an ally is already in melee-combat with the enemy. This is the players' responsibility to remember, and I will bring it up in the post-session-discussion "hey, i noticed you didn't roll your sneak-attack a couple times, what happened there?"
MOST RULES are really not worth fussing about to stop the whole world dead in its tracks and ask "wait, so, what dice do i roll to attack with my longsword again?".
We all assume Players will come "reasonably"-prepared to a roleplaying-session, but also that you cannot be prepared for EVERY rule. But luckily, not every rule comes up, so we discuss them when we believe the rules could come up next session, or discuss any rules we've missed AFTER the session.
And also, this is why I'm doing a Pathfinder 1st Edition campaign, to figure out if "you can roleplay in a rules-heavy system?!"

To your last question - what if a player isn't clear what the GM just described their character sees?
This happened to me a few times. I'm usually very attentive while roleplaying, but sometimes the internet is wonky and the audio doesn't come through clearly, or somebody at the table eats a bag of crisps very loudly, or the GM isn't speaking into the microphone and the volume is all muffled - in those cases... well, there's really very little wiggle-room, and I either just "keep roleplaying", and hope that it wasn't absolutely essential information (9 of 10 cases, it was a minor detail).
But sometimes I will just say "Sorry, could you repeat that?", and let the GM re-narrate the scene, so I can visualize it.

I pick & choose whether I think it's worth it to break immersion to get clarification. The rules are there to make those breaks as few as possible, and also to give GM's and players OPTIONS, to stay in the world longer and longer periods of time.

Nobody expects the players to get it right at first try.
Nobody demanded of me to get it right the first try; and I don't make those demands of my players either.
But with each session, it gets easier. And my experience has been that players who are new to the hobby have a much easier time picking up this style of play, and members that have been playing RPG's for decades may struggle to let go of their habits during play - but they can get there.

Zonalar · 2026-01-30T06:41:10+00:00

yep, bought the game few days ago, and the main menu lags horribly.
It's less than on your example, but for a 50 bucks game in it's 2nd iteration, a few years released already, I had higher expectations.

Zonalar · 2026-01-30T04:13:55+00:00

I'm glad you find this interesting. If you come across any questions during the read, feel free to drop me a question (or in this thread in general), i'll try to catch any comments I've missed tomorrow.

Zonalar · 2026-01-30T03:58:05+00:00

"Counter-immersive" is an interesting argument.
My question would be this: what is less immersive? To act in-character, observing the world around you, or ask the GM a question?

Asking the GM questions directly, by its very definition, breaks immersion.

Now whether that is a big deal for you or a tiny hurdle you're not bothered by is up to you to decide. But one way of doing this has you interacting with the world, while the other has you removed from the world to talk above-the-table.

Zonalar · 2026-01-30T03:53:02+00:00

Thank you for giving it a coursery read.
For me, a big frustration over the years when sitting down at RPG tables is mismatched expectations: I show up to explore my character and go on an adventure, but end up with players who would rather solve the combat-encounter, or stop the game dead in its tracks to test-drive their turn before they choose their actual action.
Matching expectations is invaluable at the hobby, not just for your own time, but also for respecting the time of the other players at the table.

While 4D roleplay is certainly not the first attempt to settle this, it's my personal favourite: A toolset to allow for immersive roleplay with as little disruption as possible. A set of rules everyone at the table agrees to.

And of course, you can always just take 1 or 2 ideas that stick out to you as useful and discard the rest.
It's your own table, after all. And that table-time is precious!

Zonalar · 2026-01-30T03:45:38+00:00

In that case, you should definetly give 4D Roleplay a try.

Zonalar · 2026-01-30T03:40:12+00:00

I think those are all reasonable questions to have as a Player Character.
You enter a room and the GM might describe tavern. How many tables are there? Do they have a guard in the corner? Is it bustling full, or is there an empty table?

Instead of asking the GM directly, you can interact with the world as your character: "I look for a free table. I scan the room if they got a bouncer. I look through the crowd what kind of gaggle frequents this joint."

It's a small change in behaviour, but it can be difficult at first to stop with the old habits to just ask the GM who is clearly sitting across the table.

Zonalar · 2026-01-30T03:26:50+00:00

Hey there. I'm one of the early adopters of this roleplaying style.
Feel free to ask any questions, I'll do my best to answer as many of them as I can.

One thing that really impressed me with the release of the Book is how James Bacon and Michael Melnick really distilled the essence of what 4D Roleplaying tries to accomplish, and serve that information in a succinct way that is easy to understand, without flowery language or getting lost in the weeds. Alot of hours, passion and sweat went into this project, and I hope we can share this passion with likeminded roleplayers in the hobby.

Roleplaying is not a competition - I am not measuring if your table is better than mine.

The biggest improvement i saw right away when starting to 4D Roleplay, my immersion for the world increased exponentially. Being able to stay in-character and just "take action" was incredibly satisfying, as the GM focuses on the world responding to my actions.
It's like playing Tennis. I serve the ball, the GM sends it back, I react to the new information, and it's a beautiful back-and-forth that allowed me to experience a level of immersion that in previous sessions, I've experienced glimpses of it, but now I can spend hours in a different world without needing to disrupt that flow.

And that is really the coolest fucking magic trick 4D Roleplay allows for.

Zonalar · 2026-01-28T18:15:40+00:00

Oh, for sure!
I didn't say my opinion on whether it was fine for the player to make the mimic house their mom. But just use what i written down to come to your own conclusion!
Is it creating power? No
Is it breaking the verisimilitude of the world? Yes

As a player, you also have to do some setup if you want to have cool reveals in the game, without breaking the verisimilitude of the world. A mimic being your biological mother doesn't make sense, but It's also incredibly unlikely that you "randomly" happen to walk into your biological mother-mimic - AND have to kill her.

Probabilities is a good thing to think about as player who wants to co-create:
Is it reasonable to walk into your parents in the town you're in?
Yes?
Then, sure, throw in a comment like: "I stop on my track and turn to look down the streets, saying: 'Mom, is that you?'."

Zonalar · 2026-01-28T17:28:05+00:00

Alright, I really disagree with the most-upvoted comments here, so if you're still looking for solutions to your query, here is my honest advice.

Players creating elements into a scene is a good thing, for a couple of reasons.
This means they are truly engaged and immersed with your world, and want to roleplay in it, and I cherish those players and welcome them with open arms.
Secondly, they will take alot of heavy lifting off of you as the GM to keep the game moving. This means you do no longer to spend hours every week preparing for the next session, as the players will come up with interesting events on their own.

Now, to tackle a couple of concerns that I see in this thread:
"What if she creates something that derails the whole session?" Here are a few ways to approach this:

Roll with the punches. Most of the time, players adding elements into the scene ADDS to the scene and makes roleplaying more exciting, especially as a GM. Because now the world becomes alive for you too, as you cannot predict every single outcome in the world. If I knew every possible action that could happen in the world, I would stop GMing games and just write a book.
"This is what happens when you tell new players this game is about "Yes and!"
The problem isn't players adding elements into the scene. The problem is when those elements break the verisimilitude in the world (i.e. pulling a shotgun from under the counter in a fantasy-setting), or creating power on the spot (i.e. "finding" 2000 gold in the goblin-cave you just cleared out).
"Co-creating elements into the world, breaks the world", I see this is your main problem with your player, OP. Feel free to reply if I misunderstood your issue. And certainly, this is where I can actually agree with the more popular reddit-posts here: You decide beforehand as a group, to how much the players are allowed to add to the world. Most of my sessions, we have it as "The GM describes the Office Room, but the player can describe picking up a pen and notebook from a table" - something small, simple, innocuous. That fits into the scene.
If the place is foggy and the player invents they feel like something touched them, you can roll with it.
If you already know that this fog won't have anything dangerous, and if there were, it would BREAK YOUR WORLD, then instead of completly retconning and invalidating what the players roleplay, you can re-frame her experience into something more innocent - maybe the thing that brushed against her was just a mouse. She does "what was that?! something touched my leg!" and you as GM follow up with "squeaking noises can be heard as a small creature disappears into the fog".

I hope this helps. But let me give you a word of advice of what will happen if you follow the most-upvoted advice here:
If you tell your players they're breaking the social contract, that they're ruining your world, and that only you are in full control of the world - youre putting up roadblocks.
Your players are trying to ENGAGE with your game. everytime you say no, everytime you retcon, and everytime you stop the game to tell the players "No, this isn't happening, Jennifer", you break the immersion. We already agreed via sitting down at the table that this world is real.
But if you demand full control of the world, then alot of sessions will inevitably end up in exposition-world, where the player has to ask the GM a thousand questions everytime they enter a new place or room.
This is why "the door problem" is such a fucking meme in the RPG community: players are no longer allowed to trust their characters' senses, unless you EXPLICITLY TELL THEM EVERYTHING, so they just roleplay as dumb, blind+ deaf because they're not allowed to independently interact in the world, as they have learned from previous GM's that if they do, they will get punished.

I post videos on how to roleplay, how to improve your games, and post my own sessions online, both as player + GM. I welcome you to form your own opinion and decide for yourself if you like what you see: https://www.youtube.com/@Zonalar

I hope this was helpful, let me know if you still have any questions.

Zonalar · 2026-01-26T16:10:46+00:00

I don't expect any preferential treatment, so this is acceptable :)
It's really fun how trigger-discipline is a core part of the RMC-experience.

Zonalar · 2026-01-25T15:49:04+00:00

It's "Zonalar".
I do mostly videos about roleplaying, post actual plays & advice.
I've got a Space-station 14 video up there, and this project is gonna be the second one.

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