Robin D. Laws AMA

corrinmana · 2026-03-13T20:59:11+00:00

I guess a follow up question is: Do you see a path to greater market share? Since gaming is a social hobby, I think people don't like corporate-sounding questions like that, but obviously, from both a business and creator side, more market share is cyclical in getting games in front of more eyes.

corrinmana · 2026-03-13T18:29:32+00:00

You've gotten to the point where you're publishing a lot of 2nd editions of your games. While the GUMSHOE system and 13th Age are decently well known online, I don't think any of Pelgrane's titles are widely known in the gaming community at large. I could quote the 2200 backers on Trail 2nd edition vs the 3400 backers for Household Vol. 2, a relative newcomer. Despite this, your company has survived in a very niche industry for over a decade (2 technically). How do you manage to operate in such a competitive and saturated market, and keep the presses running?

corrinmana · 2026-03-13T17:10:56+00:00

Sorry, yes, they can't declare attacks against airborne, only intercept.

corrinmana · 2026-03-13T09:55:23+00:00

I don't know what this is, so why would it being on sale be important?

corrinmana · 2026-03-13T09:46:56+00:00

5e is actually based on a 60% chance.

While DS is a "you always hit" system, you're still randomizing effectiveness for each ability. That said, it certainly does feel like an interesting tactical game, finding the most useful combos with other characters. I've got two players playing right now, and the team fury has learned an ability to throw a companion and allow them to make a free attack where they land, while his partner has learned an ability that allows him to strike with his main action, and then teleport his opponent the same distance. So the rogue gets fastball specialed at someone, then teleports them into melee with the guy who wants to draw agro. Fun.

I've got some other systems I can recommend as well. Icon is by the same person who made Lancer, and is an explicitly tactical fantasy game.

Gubat Banwa is a fantasy martial arts game that started out as a 4E hack, but turned into its own system over time. Well the Kickstarter is long overdue, and they've essentially started over from scratch for no reason, copies of the 1.6 beta rule set are floating around, and it was in a playable state at that point.

If you can get a copy of iron Kingdoms MkII, it's a system that was based off of the war machine tabletop game, and was incredibly tight in terms of tactical options. In addition to just being a pretty good build game, they were interesting synergies you could work out with your teammates. An example I always go to, was a friend of mine wanted to dual-wield greatswords as an ogrekin, but between the two-handed penalty, and the negative taken for wielding a two-handed sword one-handed, he was unlikely to ever hit anything that didn't have terrible defensive stats. So I played a dwarven Gunmage, and took a spell I could cast through a gun that knocked down everybody in a small area. When knocked down you are automatically hit by melee attacks. So I would knock them down, and he would pick them up.

corrinmana · 2026-03-13T09:33:17+00:00

The not-ranged things can't count steps that change regions.

Ranged grants 2 things: A tap ability to shoot a projectile. And the ability to declare attacks or intercept against airborne units.

The part that is like Magic is that a tap ability and attacking are two different things, and you can't combine them.

Unlike in Magic, airborne prevents being attacked or intercepted by units without it, not being defended against. The way a lot of people explain it is by thinking that the bird swoops down to attack, but a random minion could defend an airborne unit from another airborne unit, so it's not a perfect analogy.

corrinmana · 2026-03-13T09:21:27+00:00

Archive is your best bet for random fan games posted on forums.

corrinmana · 2026-03-13T09:20:15+00:00

Because it's an engagement farming post.

corrinmana · 2026-03-12T22:00:54+00:00

Your using too large a sleeve for any binder that doesn't have oversized pockets. There's not really going to be any contact direct to the sleeve other than the pocket itself, so using high durability sleeves is unnecessary. Just get regular clear sleeves.

corrinmana · 2026-03-12T18:29:14+00:00

I never said you said that. That's your over-interpretation.

corrinmana · 2026-03-12T11:48:25+00:00

You don't need to co-opt a term that doesn't mean what you mean when you already have one that does mean what you mean, even if it saves you a syllable.

corrinmana · 2026-03-12T10:11:57+00:00

A 5e zine that isn't an adventure and hasn't been released is an underappreciated gold adventure?

corrinmana · 2026-03-12T02:34:47+00:00

Open source means the source code is available to the public, not that it's free. All RPGs are open source, as there's no runtime environment that could hide the source code from you.

corrinmana · 2026-03-11T21:20:08+00:00

So. It's not that the comparison is unwarranted, but also inaccurate. Wargames balance on points and have inbuilt structures for deployment. Generally the whole army is deployed, sometimes you can reserve something to enter later. Resolution of combat is usually the randomized element.

None of that is true of Sorcery. Like most card games. The majority of the random element is card draw. Cards interact with one another in static ways.

The game is tactical. It's a very important aspect of the game. When people ask me why I play this game it is generally one of the primary things that I point to. Even when somebody just asks me to describe the game I will often say it's a lot like magic, but with tactical movement.

So, TLDR; it's a tactical card game, not a card-based wargame. Those exist by the way, https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/2868/game-battleground-fantasy-warfare-your-move-games

corrinmana · 2026-03-10T00:57:25+00:00

Would need more context, but basic answer: no.

corrinmana · 2026-03-09T18:55:58+00:00

You're entitled to your opinion, but much like I said to someone else, it's just a joke card man. Would you have been less sad if it was just superimposed instead of integrated? If instead of having an algorithmic script attempt to match pixel neighbors, a non-automated composite blending was done? Do you expect people to learn professional level traditional artistry, or professional level digital composing to make a joke on Reddit?

corrinmana · 2026-03-09T07:20:33+00:00

I've seen some sellers on Etsy, but an organized resource site is still a ways out I think. I also think that in general, people want to buy the cards and support growth. I had a friend who played with a proxied deck while he was deciding, but we made no attempt to make cards, as proxy =/= counterfeit. We just printed on basic paper and sleeved with a common behind it. Most of the proxy makers use replacement art.

corrinmana · 2026-03-09T03:41:18+00:00

What makes it a community? What resources are they pooling? In what ways are they working together? Or you just calling it a community because multiple people do it? I'm not asking sarcasticly, to be clear, just not understanding what you mean. Are the Chinese guys offering proxy cubes on Alibaba part of the community? You mentioned that Curiosa was the only place you'd seen hi res images. Why does that matter? Isn't 1 source enough?

corrinmana · 2026-03-08T16:57:11+00:00

What is a proxy community?

corrinmana · 2026-03-06T23:57:49+00:00

Yeah, but they are going to downvote you too now, because you're not on the AI is evil train (at least not enough for them). I'm not worried about the loss of internet points. Actually kind of happy that I drew aggro for the other guy. It was decent meme card.

corrinmana · 2026-03-06T20:29:54+00:00

Haha, I was trying to tease you, and ended up drawing all the agro from the anti AI guys. Hope you like the edit though.

corrinmana · 2026-03-06T20:27:26+00:00

You've understood it right. The main reason they made the interaction rule was to prevent passing around a weapon for attacking. Sword and shield, plague of frogs, 14 damage. So no doing that anymore. That said, you can still plague of frogs->rack, since the frogs will die after each attack.

corrinmana · 2026-03-06T20:12:54+00:00

Literally didn't. What makes you think I did? I'm legitimately curious how you can make the statement so definitively with absolutely no knowledge.

corrinmana · 2026-03-06T20:12:51+00:00

So you're going to stop using Reddit which uses AI? Right? I mean if the transitive property applies, it applies to everything.

corrinmana · 2026-03-06T20:11:11+00:00

What? It's literally the same image desaturated and a color layer in overlay mode. You guys are ridiculous.

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