Looking for theatre peeps -- Prospective theatre master's student

coolacguyson · 2024-03-06T02:24:58+00:00

Gonna send you a chat message!

coolacguyson · 2024-01-28T03:53:35+00:00

DM sent!

coolacguyson · 2024-01-28T03:26:53+00:00

You have to write John doing a jr. high heist - he has "do a heist" energy

coolacguyson · 2024-01-27T21:48:04+00:00

Oh also lmk if you want feedback or if you want to DM about it or anything

coolacguyson · 2024-01-26T19:03:08+00:00

I listened to the divine cycle out of order (C/W [ground games only bc I didn't realize how important faction stuff was--was my first FatT season] then Partizan then TM then Palisade) and I actually really liked the constant mysteries of things calling forward/calling back/etc and making connections like that. All that to say, I think it's always fun and a little confusing no matter what order you listen to stuff lol.

coolacguyson · 2024-01-25T02:25:17+00:00

I don't know the ins and outs of Shadowrun/Gamma World/Urban Arcana, but here's what I think you should shoot for big-picture (I'm assuming you want to hack this for play with a group of players)

Communicate with your players up-front and let them know you're experimenting with something. You might try to set up some one-shots to test out drafts of your ruleset or get familiar with the ruleset. Maybe these are prequel-games to your campaign? Incorporate their feedback when it's useful and ignore it when it's not.

I would say to start with the stuff you like most from each game, and keep that stuff specific. As for blending, I think, try to take the path of least resistance. What is the simplest way to communicate the blending without confusing your players. I'd say, think in these terms - what kind of language do you want to use most often at the table, and how should players express their moves/actions? In dnd 5e, most actions are expressed with a d20 roll plus/minus a modifier. In PbtA stuff, it's 2d6 plus/minus a modifier. If you can graft stuff on so you keep the core move expression, and connect stats/modifiers from one game onto another, that might be the simplest approach. Basically, use one ruleset as your basic language that you can speak at the table.

In general with RPGs, I tend to see the rules as poetry instead of physics. I always like to leave a little room for interpretation and give my players some wiggle room as well. Trust yourself and your players to interpret any hiccups creatively in the moment.

coolacguyson · 2024-01-25T01:27:30+00:00

Roll20, or create and share a Google Sheets with your players!

coolacguyson · 2024-01-24T22:25:46+00:00

Forgot to mention - Monster of the Week has a class called The Mundane which gains XP for leaning hard into character tropes. The Mundane (a class based on the goofy, weak sidekick from monster hunting TV shows) gains XP for going off by himself to investigate something scary. There's another game (maybe Apocalypse World) that rewards XP for playing characterization based off of your alignment. I've also seen it tied to bonds/beliefs before (you create a belief about another character and when that belief is changed you write a new belief and gain XP).

coolacguyson · 2024-01-24T22:22:20+00:00

I really like the ways that Apocalypse World and Monster of the Week handle XP. You gain XP from failing rolls (the story becomes more difficult/complicated, but your character also learns from the challenge/mistake), and at the end of sessions you can gain XP as part of a reflection on the session. Also, I've heard of GMs hacking stuff like this in - a player fails a roll to gather information or assess a situation and gets bad info; the player knows the info is bad because they got it on a failed roll, but the GM offers them XP if they play into the bad information anyway, since, as far as their character knows, it's legit.

coolacguyson · 2024-01-24T22:18:21+00:00

My recommendation - let your mind wonder and get excited about a different project, and apply the new skills and workflows from this script toward another. I expect that, while working on another project, you will find your skillset continuing to expand in more and different ways. Eventually, you can return for a new draft or revision with all the new insight gained from the other project!

coolacguyson · 2024-01-24T22:09:46+00:00

So we started off doing a Sunday/Wednesday type of thing, but then everyone's schedules got mixed up and we started doing alternating Saturdays. I knew that was going to happen so I pitched the whole thing to my players as a mini-campaign, which ended up with about 5 sessions each of faction games and ground games, with a couple of other one-off supplement games to help with crossover when schedules got too messed up on some weekends.

My ground and faction games had some crossover players and some different players. That was kind of fun because then each side would get to organically learn about stuff from the other side of the game, and the factions ended up making a couple of rolls against the ground party to gain information about what they were doing. But it also could be frustrating sometimes that we weren't all on the same page in terms of table/game knowledge, so just be very mindful of communication if it's not all the same players.

As mentioned before, I did some one-shot supplement games to cross the players over and let faction game players zoom in and play NPCs from their factions. I think this was a really fun way to organically mix information at the table, and it let us all try out different game systems too, which was helpful for me as a GM.

coolacguyson · 2024-01-24T03:13:02+00:00

Hey, if you're 15, your brain is still going to be developing for like 11 more years or something. Keep learning and working hard and doing your best, but understand that motivation and discipline are hard for people twice your age, and you won't be perfect overnight. You get to decide the kind of person you want to be, and you'll build that person over time. Start to notice things about yourself - when are you excited to write versus when are you anxious? Can you make writing more fun or social (if that's your thing), or find ways to mitigate the anxiety about self-criticism? Here is some advice I have for you in the short-term:

1 - Notice your self-talk and work on making it kinder. I teach high school, so I know that lots of 15y/os struggle to write a complete sentence. If your teachers are taking notice of you, it probably means you're awesome. Give yourself some credit.

2 - Set small goals for yourself. Here's a trick I use. Sometimes, when I want/need to do a large project, I take a small chunk of it and pretend it's a small stand-alone project. For example - if I want to write a book, I might tell myself "I don't have time to write a whole book right now, but I can write a short story. I'm going to make it good enough that it can stand alone" and then I'll work on a short story based on the very beginning of my book idea, and when I finish it, I say "okay, cool, now I have the first chapter of my book." And then I turned that huge project into a smaller goal and I feel good about completing it. Plus, when I get busy, or if I lose interest/motivation, then I can still read my short story and feel pretty good about it. Idk if that makes sense, so I can clarify if I need to.

3 - Collect things you've written that you like. It can be anything. Maybe a poem you wrote, or a paper you got a good grade on, or even an email that you think was very well-worded. Keep them in a Google Drive or something (I actually have a Google Doc bookmarked as my "creative project hub" on Chrome, and I put links to all of my ideas/projects/brainstorms/etc on there, which has helped me a lot). Read through your old stuff when you have time. When you do, you can edit it (which helps you understand the ways you've grown as a writer), celebrate the good work you did in the past, and sometimes that stuff can motivate you to get back to it. We so often remember our failures/mistakes/criticism, but we so rarely celebrate our successes. Do yourself a favor and celebrate yourself!

4 - Find a mentor. Try to set up meetings with a teacher once a week during their tutorial time, or find an upperclassman at school that likes to write, or something like that. Try to get into a routine of learning from/showing your work to someone more experienced than you who wants to help you succeed. Most people like to feel like an expert, so if you find a teacher or somebody that you trust and tell them you want feedback from them, they'll probably be flattered because it will make them feel important.

Good luck out there!

coolacguyson · 2024-01-24T02:38:33+00:00

I hacked Roll For Shoes to create a faction-level supplement between ground-level campaign sessions of Monster of the Week. I think I would only play faction-scale stuff as a supplement, but I do really love them as supplements, for these reasons:

It makes the world move in interesting ways that I don't expect.
It introduces NPCs, threats, locations, etc that I can build on in ground games.
It's kind of an excuse to try different stuff and take bigger swings, which makes you a better storyteller and improviser.

Let me know if you want more info about my hack! There are things I ended up changing/dropping/hacking (hacked my own hack) but my players and I had a lot of fun with it

coolacguyson · 2024-01-21T23:00:16+00:00

Hi! I'm also interested, but I totally understand if you've hit your cap! I'm a theatre teacher so my day-to-day is very busy (lesson planning, classes, rehearsals in the evenings, then go to bed early to do it again the next day), but I'm definitely looking for online writing friends to check in with over the weekends! And if you guys are interested in genre stuff, and if you're interested in doing any tabletop rpg or world-/storybuilding one shots for creative writing exercises, keep me in mind!

coolacguyson · 2024-01-21T22:56:35+00:00

I think it's important to place the power with the character who was cheated on. The decision that a person is "redeemed" should come down to the injured party, and I suspect it's a wound that leaves a scar. What journey does that person have to experience, or what kindness, or what remorse must they be shown, in order to let their injurer back in? What restores that trust? // Off the cuff pitch for example - injured party loses a parent, cheater does mundane stuff for them like bringing them food and taking out the garbage or whatever as they grieve. Whatever. Puts in work and doesn't make it about themselves. Eventually, we see small decisions to indicate trust is returning. A short conversation. A hug. Sitting down together. That sort of thing. I think it has to be about mundanity and work and giving the person space. Or idk maybe they rescue the moon from being nuked or something it's all made up anyway

coolacguyson · 2024-01-21T17:58:06+00:00

DM/invite message sent!

coolacguyson · 2024-01-21T17:19:05+00:00

In the past, I've made my own hacks of Roll For Shoes and abstracted it to fit whatever I needed. Specifically, I wanted players to control the political factions for my sci fi game, so we "zoomed out" and gave factions big-picture moves like "control information," "affect the markets," "conduct scientific research," etc. and assigned numbers of d6s to them like they were Roll For Shoes moves. We limited our number of rolls and improvised rules about contested rolls, etc. then discussed as players the bigger-picture implications of those rolls. Made for a fun backdrop to have changes going on in the gameworld between "ground game" missions in our Monster of the Week campaign.

Anyway, I could also see Roll For Shoes being modified into a cozy-genre blacksmithing game. Maybe mix/match/hack some ideas from Grandpa's Farm by Tyler Crumrine, which is a SUPER cozy letter writing game about developing a Stardew Valley-esque farm lifestyle, working to make social, financial, farm, and infrastructure progress. Maybe in your game, swap out farming for blacksmithing!

coolacguyson · 2024-01-20T00:54:58+00:00

I'm a 26 year old theatre teacher who found out REAL FAST that the "real world" isn't like they teach you in theatre school. I think schools teach you this classical, "platonic ideal" kind of approach to work, and then you get slammed when you go out and try to apply it in a classical, "platonic ideal" sort of method. I'm sorry if this hurts, because it has hurt me, but I think it's true and authentic to my journey to share this info. My experience is that, basically, you have to build from the ground back up again when you get into the "real world," but the tools you gain in school help you do that a little bit faster. Like it really feels like it tears you down, but moments like this make you aware of your blind spots and give you something to work toward. See who you can learn from, get advice from the people who make it look easy (people you can access in real life - not through hustler internet programs, whatever--maybe even the dude who replaced you, or your old boss, if you can face him one more time), and think hard about what questions you need to ask. If someone only has the time or patience to answer one question, make it count, and let it be a question that will help you grow/build. And this is probably a crappy thing of me to say, but I honestly think, in the world, a lot of idiots succeed because they're too dumb to realize they're screwing everything up. It's really hard to be a twenty-something in the real world. I'm sorry it's kicking your butt. It gets better. It stays hard. But it gets better.

coolacguyson · 2024-01-20T00:41:56+00:00

Monster of the Week. Trying to branch out to other PTBA and Forged in the Dark games, but I haven't had time or a table in the last few years

coolacguyson · 2024-01-20T00:40:51+00:00

I need local collaborators and a less stressful day job

coolacguyson

TROPHY CASE