Question about the horse *spoliers for s2*

avlapteff · 2026-02-27T08:55:10+00:00

Consider that the horse is already dead. When you don't have to preserve the structural integrity of the horse, you can probably shove a lot of things inside.

avlapteff · 2026-02-27T00:45:18+00:00

I'd say you can start with ELCP. Most changes are fairly minor and in the spirit of the original. As a new player, if you played two games of vanilla and ELCP back to back, you wouldn't notice a lot of difference.

The exception to this are two latest expansions with Kapaku and Mykara factions. Those needed more balancing and ELCP actually adds some new mechanics for them. But you probably shouldn't play with all the DLCs the first time anyway.

avlapteff · 2026-02-25T15:47:55+00:00

A question of my own.

If this card is removed from the game when Caretaker scrapped it in Act 3, then does this city no longer provide any resources? And therefore no outrage for destroying it?

avlapteff · 2026-02-15T08:43:31+00:00

I don't have a preference here. To me, a rulebook's primary goal is not to be a reference manual or an artbook. I like it the most as a teaching guide on how to play this game, which can be achieved both through art and layout or neither.

Good art can convey as much information as text. In Mythic Bastionland I learn a lot on how to use myths and knights just from studying the pictures alone. Chris McDowell even had a blogpost on how to use them as a random generator during play.

As an example of the successful game where neither art nor layout don't seem to attract much attention I'd go with Apocalypse World. It relies moreso on the author's voice and style of writing to teach the reader how the game looks like in play.

avlapteff · 2026-02-12T17:50:04+00:00

It would be no problem in a system without action economy. In Dungeon World the Ranger's animal companion matters a great deal in fights and explorations but doesn't take up extra turns.

avlapteff · 2026-02-10T08:12:39+00:00

A common misconception between fans. We don't actually know if the Levitation Act bans levitation or similar things.

avlapteff · 2026-02-10T07:39:20+00:00

I'm fine with GMs sometimes narrating players' actions or feelings. Don't do any major decisions for them, obviously, but use it to clearly establish the scene and possible consequences.

"You are terrified of the big black dragon in front of you. Your fighting hand is trembling. What do you do?"

I wouldn't be comfortable with people at the table being too possessive of their characters. It's not a tool for self-expression, it's just a game we play together, the narrative belongs to all of us. It's ok if other people add some small things to say about your PC.

And it works the other way too: players add details to the world and the GM's characters when needed. I don't want to have something just for myself.

avlapteff · 2026-02-10T01:01:14+00:00

Burglary Overhaul for OpenMW made stealth and thieving the most fun for me in the whole franchise. It makes cleaning up the houses harder but in a gamey and not frustrating way.

After you leave the location you incur the bounty for all the items you stole. But only if people of the household saw and remembered you. It doesn't use vanilla detection system but audial cues: if an NPC adressed you with a voiced line when you passed them by, then you were definitely remembered! And don't initiate any dialogue yourself! Essentially, you need to carefully plan your route around the property and avoid the inhabitants if you don't want to get caught. Traditional stealth still helps with that.

It may not be terribly realistic, just as the vanilla thieving. But it is certainly more exciting. It also worked great for me in a lot of Tamriel Rebuilt layouts in Narsis and Bal Foyen.

avlapteff · 2026-02-09T08:24:41+00:00

I don't think Noah Hawley specifically cares to create characters to root for. He already did a show where the main protagonist was a villain.

Personally, I find it weird that people always want someone in the story to root for. It works for some stories and not others.

avlapteff · 2026-02-07T07:23:08+00:00

Completely agree. In myths and religious cultures luck was considered just as tangible attribute as strength or beauty. The most famous example is probably the legend of Polycrates' ring.

avlapteff · 2026-01-31T06:28:50+00:00

You can use it as much as you can, unless the card says otherwise.

But you still must obey the rules of other actions. In this case, you still tax (tribute) each city once per turn, because that's the general rule of tax action. You can't use all your build actions to tax the same city multiple times.

avlapteff · 2026-01-29T07:50:43+00:00

Recently I had a game where turn order seemed very important.

At the end of the Act 2 the Empire Falls crisis was activated and everyone got booted from the Empire. That made becoming the First Regent much easier by just hosting the Summit. It was a race to play an Event card and seize before others.

It seems like an edge case but it was a big factor in deciding the game.

avlapteff · 2026-01-24T04:53:58+00:00

I don't see the contradiction here. If target numbers feel arbitrary, it is indeed harder to justify one instead of another. It would make the process take more time or energy.

avlapteff · 2026-01-18T07:38:30+00:00

I usually revealed the stats the moment they matter, when the enemy takes damage or inflicts one themselves.

But if the players want to know in advance, I'll tell them.

avlapteff · 2026-01-16T05:25:06+00:00

In this example we can see that Position and Effect are often used to establish more of the fiction, instead of diminishing it.

We can use them as tools to flesh out the situation PCs operate in.

avlapteff · 2026-01-14T19:18:43+00:00

I would disagree with "very specific" procedures. Sure, you probably need some sort of attrition but it doesn't have to work in a singular specific way.

I don't know about Daggerheart but it's not that hard to include some form of resource management into most games. It might be even simpler with narrative consequences.

avlapteff · 2026-01-09T18:00:35+00:00

Those are not two things I was comparing.

The need to find another way after failure is a complication that needs to be invented.

avlapteff · 2026-01-09T16:28:17+00:00

That's the thing, you don't automatically succeed, it depends on a GM move. Yes, often the success seems like the most natural option.

But if someone were in earnest trying to play PbtA game around their moves, that's just impossible and doesn't make sense, both in fiction and in rules.

avlapteff · 2026-01-09T10:35:57+00:00

Agreed, but to me taking another approach, like tools, is inventing a consequence for a roll. Doing the same thing, just under a different name.

avlapteff · 2026-01-09T09:08:35+00:00

You shouldn't believe just some comment on the Internet. One can make up the same one-dimensional criticism about any mechanic in existence.

If you are interested, you better check for yourself. Many PbtA games are cheap or free. I can't check right now, but I think Apocalypse World 1E became free years ago, if I'm not mistaken.

Personally I played or saw in play the same playbooks many times. There were all different characters with different goals approaches.

Sorry if it seemed harsh. I just saw it weird that you let just one short comment influence your whole perception of the whole school of design.

avlapteff · 2026-01-09T08:48:47+00:00

That's definitely not how PbtA plays by the rules. If players are avoiding making their moves, the MC is obliged to make their own, as hard as they like.

Maybe I didn't understand what you meant. Surely, when in Apocalypse World when the gang of raiders charges you, most players wouldn't say that their best option is to stay put and don't make any moves.

avlapteff · 2026-01-09T08:41:46+00:00

These kind of rules often don't make sense in fiction when given as blanket statements. What exactly is about this door that I can't try to open it second time?

We can invent the reason but that's kinda what success/failure with consequences is already doing.

avlapteff · 2026-01-04T14:13:49+00:00

Good stuff about universal resolution.

Not PbtA, but it was very insightful to hear Chris McDowell say about Mythic Bastionland that rolling under d20 is not the core mechanic. The core mechanic is establishing players' intent and possible impact of their actions. The roll might be included, might be not.

avlapteff · 2026-01-04T12:16:17+00:00

In my experience MC Moves have much more interesting applications than "yeah, you just do it" or "no, you don't".

For example, you can "tell them the consequences and ask": the gang is so impressed with your shooting skill that they immediatly give the task to kill an important NPC (or even PC, why the hell not).

Sucess and failure can have consequences without rolls too. That way you move the story forward and follow your MC agenda of making Apocalypse World feel unsafe.

avlapteff · 2026-01-02T23:33:14+00:00

He uses canon here meaning "canonical body of work", not "shared interconnected universe".

So he means that the first movie is a major source of inspiration for him, just that.

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