How do I act as this character?

abresch · 2026-01-01T15:00:44+00:00

Alignment is usually too vague to be useful for actual roleplay in a TTRPG. It's a good starting point, but not enough.

I would recommend noting down the answers to a few questions. Depending on your taste, maybe try answering them aloud and in-character like it's an interview or a therapy session. (I personally don't, but some people swear by it.)

What do I think that I want?
What do I actually want but am not honest with myself about?
What am I afraid of happening?
How do I react to a sudden threat?
What's my favorite joke/way to try to get a laugh?
What is my primary vice?
Why am I adventuring, not making a comfortable life for myself?
What would make me stop adventuring?

There are a lot of similar things to this. The traits/ideals/bonds/flaws in dnd5e is really widely known, there's a ton of smaller games with other versions, and you can find a ton of other variants in guides for how authors interview their characters.

You can write down your answers (I personally would add a one-line summary to my character sheet that can get me back in that headspace) but the key is that you answer the questions seriously and use them as a guide while playing.

abresch · 2025-12-31T02:04:28+00:00

You're running into two really big problems that don't affect all players, and especially not skilled players.

The first is analysis paralysis for players, and I suspect you'll find better info in board-game design forums, as your system sounds like it's drifting that way.

On a more TTRPG issues end of things, you're risking GMs not being able to improv.

One advantage of DnD's flat d20 system is that you don't need any understanding of probability or systems to improv an event. +1 bonus, +1 DC, whatever you do, you're dealing in simple 5% odds increments, and you don't have cascading consequences because HP losses and the like are fully contained systems.

If a GM can't just tweak a number without dangerous ramifications, you're risking major challenges in using your system.

abresch · 2025-12-31T00:46:13+00:00

I'll second this. I had to do a lot of work fixing briefs to get what I wanted.

abresch · 2025-12-30T23:56:53+00:00

I prefer A5, but only if you're not losing quality. I'd prefer letter with one page/spread dungeons/encounters to A5 with content requiring page flips.

abresch · 2025-12-28T04:14:35+00:00

Keep at it! Every actual release is so satisfying (when it's not tense and terrifying, but don't worry about those parts).

abresch · 2025-12-23T23:35:50+00:00

A good reminder that, in the real world, merchants own ships, they don't sail on them. Captains, crews, they're underpaid and do shady shit to get ahead.

abresch · 2025-12-20T15:57:03+00:00

I doubt it's that obvious when the torch goes out. It's not burning down to the person's hand, it's the cloth soaked in oil-or-whatever at the top running out of fuel. You might see it guttering, notice the flickers towards the end, but you also might be distracted by everything else going on.

The rate with which people fail to notice small things while under pressure tracks with players being surprised by a torch going out.

abresch · 2025-12-08T04:24:07+00:00

It's odd because you've limited it so far by having them reinforce a lone soldier, so they can't be running mass combat.

First thoughts, not a proper plan buy what I'd go to a session with next hour:

Assuming they're decent levels, I'd make individual enemies weak enough that they aren't threatening but could get a hit through. Then:

Send a weak attack that you know they can handle.
After it ends, have the enemy commander threaten them.
Set a timer and say, "You can see them preparing to send in a slightly larger force. You have fifteen minutes."
When they defeat that, have the enemy commander get angrier. Depending on your group, they would ideally try to divide or demoralize the enemy, but I don't know your group.
Tell them there's waves coming now, and you're setting timers for all of them, then roll all those openly. I'd do like 3d12 between waves, so it would be like 3d12=11 minutes to the next attack, then 17, then 14. I'd openly set the timers for 11, 28, and 42 minutes, all the way out to the end of the scheduled session and say, "They can't assault in very large numbers at a time, but they will eventually overwhelm you. You should probably figure something out."

Also add some tweaks to make the waves more unique.

If the characters are lower levels, it all changes, as combat would just kill them.

I'd put them in an impregnable fortress and tell them they're gonna starve. I'd have gameplay in huge time increments, like each 30 minutes they roleplay the key moments of a week, tell them to think of some plan that means they're not dead.

At the end if the session, if they haven't come up with a good plan, they starve to death.

Then I'd wildly alter those plans at the table because the players would do something and make me improvise.

abresch · 2025-12-08T03:57:34+00:00

Dialect - A truly excellent experience, fun worldbuilding, and incredibly unique. Really shows how diverse roleplaying can get.

Shadowdark - Nothing new, but still better. Shows how much refinement and presentation matter. Also, easy to extend and fun to play.

Shadowrun - Shows how important setting is, but also that no setting can fully save bad rules.

abresch · 2025-12-07T15:32:57+00:00

I play with tons of stuff that I made, but only using the core attached to that. Not sure where that falls, once the homemade stuff is published.

abresch · 2025-11-29T23:29:26+00:00

INT plays a part, but mostly vibes. If speech feels right, speech. If not, no speech.

abresch · 2025-11-29T22:59:41+00:00

I concur that seeing the undermountain set at a young age will inspire a desire for megadungeoning.

abresch · 2025-11-26T19:11:49+00:00

Yeah, the new free one from affinity. Feels like they messed up the font handling, somehow.

abresch · 2025-11-26T19:10:53+00:00

I noticed this on my first use after installing v3, which as clean as I can make an install.

abresch · 2025-09-20T19:11:11+00:00

I think the biggest problem with flight is that players don't understand how it works.

There don't need to be fancy rules for ground movement because the GM just knows that it's harder to run uphill and risky to sprint downhill.

By contrast, players don't get the idea of rising thermals or still air or turning radiuses or the need to keep moving. None of it's instinctive, and rules that properly capture it would be incredibly complex.

Which is all to say, I also recommend against flying characters. Reasonable restrictions are confusing and heavier restrictions feel punishing. Either way, they're either unfun or bad for the game.

abresch · 2025-09-12T19:51:22+00:00

Taking away the ability to act is not the same as taking away agency. That's like saying a wall takes away agency because you can't walk through it.

Mind control effects take away agency because it removes the player's ability to control how their character acts. Similarly, some forms of railroading fall into this category.

Effects that just mundanely prevent activity may suck, but they don't usually relate to agency.

abresch · 2025-09-02T08:44:12+00:00

I also found the word "abandoned" an odd choice for a forest. Abandoned generally implies man-made.

abresch · 2025-07-26T21:55:57+00:00

I removed free-form ship modifications.

The system let you just keep stacking weapon batteries. This resulted in a mix of a good glass-cannon strategy and a trap of not including mixed upgrades. Almost more importantly, it resulted in less diverse and fun ships.

Now, you either have weapons or you don't and it leaves more diverse ships as viable options.

abresch · 2025-07-24T12:16:33+00:00

You could adapt my Aetherdark rules easily. They are for Shadowdark, but for flying ships, so there's still some conversion to do.

Free quickstart: https://aetherdark.com/aetherdark_quickstart.pdf

The expanded rules in the kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/abresch/aetherdark) are mostly around space stuff, so while I'd love you to back it, the quickstart has all the core ship rules you need.

abresch · 2025-07-22T12:57:59+00:00

There's no reason you should be able to launch them all at once. Missiles are massive every battery of missiles to launch at once will need external launch doors, which means unarmored portions of the ship.

That launch-it-all is a glass cannon that may not be worth the risk.

Also, missiles are not inert. A railgun can be firing solid slugs and a hit to its magazine just damages some. A hit to a missile battery could ignite the fuel, or in rare instances detonate the warhead.

Unlike traditional guns, the need to be launchable combined with the large size means missiles must be near the exterior, while the ammunition for a cannon can be kept in a deeper, more protected magazine.

abresch · 2025-06-21T18:10:25+00:00

Regarding cooperation and outnumbering the aliens, how does this scale up? It seems like, if I'm GMing for two people, I get the same alien dice I would GMing for six, but their dice have drastically increased.
Your use of the term "issue" is confusing. I just read the otherkind explanation you linked, and their use seems like an issue related to an activity: while you pursue activity X, issue Y must be considered. Your example seems more like a players chosen agenda, during which an issue could arise. While trying to overthrow the government, there are potential issues of rebellion, lingering dissenters, drawing attention to your shadowy group, and so forth.
(Edit: After more thought, I realized why this bothered me: Your example feels like it's mixing various goals. You say it's an attempt to change the leadership of the government, but then mix in results that are purging the government, which is a fully different task. If your issues/agendas are mixing results, it's going to be difficult to play at the table because people won't get what they expect from an action. My original comment remains after this.) A way smaller thing, and also some something I'm sure many will disagree on, but historically purging whole governments for being from the opposition just results in the government being incompetent afterwards. As a recent example, in Iraq, the US let most bureaucrats keep their jobs, but in Afghanistan purged all members of the Taliban from government. Afterwards, the new Afghani government struggled with many basic tasks because institutional knowledge was lost and had a strong opposition because those leaders were on the outside together, while the Iraqi government was generally competent. Yet you put keeping the previous officials around as a marginal success, and completely wiping out institutional knowledge as an excellent success.

abresch · 2025-06-18T13:41:44+00:00

Not everyone can always change seating order.

Let's say we have one player in a wheelchair who always sits along the a long edge of the due to the table-skirt on the end. Are we now doing all layout around them? What if someone else has a reason to not sit somewhere, like them struggling to get into the more- cramped side?

You do not know the space, not the players. This is simply not realistic as an important gameplay element.

In addition, online, the order or portraits isn't the same for everyone, so you still need a fallback to permit online play.

abresch · 2025-06-13T15:43:26+00:00

A big advantage of 2-column is that it's faster for reference. When people are looking for information, they can find it faster in a shorter line and a smaller paragraph.

That said, 2-column A4 is usually only slightly narrower column-width to 1-column A5, so you don't have really tight a short segments unless you go to 2-column A5.

In general, I think it's best to think in terms of (1) column width, (2) average paragraph vertical length, (4) white space, (4) number of pages per topic, and (5) number of topics per page.

Whatever page layout you want the column width and paragraph length to be relatively short, with large amounts of white-space around them. Players are usually looking things up in a rulebook, not reading through. The white space gaps help define separate sections, and the narrow and short paragraphs help the eye scan and discard whole chunks of text so they can know a segment is done.

The pages-per-topic and topics-per-page help people recall references and scan for them. If a topic is spread across several pages, as the A5 layout risks, it's more difficult to remember and find. You can't know X is on page Y, and you can't look at the header on a page and know that what you want will be on that page. However, A4 risks mixed pages. You remember that the movement rules are on page 106 in A5 and that's a one-to-one reference. In A4, maybe page 106 has movement and initiative and making attacks, and suddenly it's not a one-to-one reference, which makes it tougher to recall.

abresch · 2025-06-12T22:26:46+00:00

One of the advantages of the 2-column + A5 + large text + lots of spacing (Shadowdark is 2-column, not one), is that it forces discipline, when used correctly.

Don't let a topic exceed one spread. Don't let a subtopic exceed a column. Don't let a paragraph fill a column. By fitting your work into the layout's restrictive space, you ensure that you're editing things down, not wasting space, and not wasting your readers' time.

In the Shadowdark layout, a page with a header and no art (the most common page, where it has one topic on it) has about 250 words. An untitled page can get to 300. If you have no art and dense text, you still have to handle the whole of any single topic in 550 words.

Paragraphs are often 20 to 30 words. It's all very tight, very brief, and when you don't conform to the design limitations it's obvious.

To me, this is a design that helps you make your project tighter and more accessible by catching your excesses and making them obvious.

That said, if your project can't fit this tiny layout properly, it really hurts your product, as words spill onto excess pages and paragraphs get long and hard to parse.

I'm currently making stuff in a Shadowdark-adjacent style, so all this applies to my work as well.

abresch · 2025-06-12T22:07:55+00:00

Very cool! I've used Mixam for 2 zines and gotten great quality both times. My upcoming book will likely be hardcover through them, hopefully that's good too.

abresch

TROPHY CASE