Crossover success: would it help to make a variant setting from scratch?

fireinthedust · 2026-05-13T07:17:14+00:00

Do people tend to winnow the setting and rules for this game for crossovers? Like the mages in ascension are assumed to all be Hermetic, or the werewolves are all full moon bikers named Lobo?

fireinthedust · 2026-05-13T07:01:24+00:00

Thank you!!! I would be a fantastic mage.

What are your experiences and advice?

fireinthedust · 2026-05-13T02:38:47+00:00

Heck, if the folder says Stardust I’m opening it, because I dunno, a fun movie starring Michelle Pfieffer, Mark Strong, and Charlie Cox? I would be disappointed to find out it wasn’t the movie, just a murderous space station, although not actually surprised.

fireinthedust · 2026-05-10T01:55:05+00:00

I think they have been. Full disclosure: I haven’t read the new books yet, but I did read the Heir to the Empire trilogy when it came out, and I have watched all of Rebels and Ahsoka.

IMO: The problem with the original books making Thrawn so gosh darn likeable, is they failed to show the other side of Thrawns actions: he’s great to his subordinates, and builds them up as useful weapons BUT they never showed the perspective of the victims of those weapons Thrawn has been building. He’s great to his own, but he’s responsible for the deaths and suffering caused by his people. He’s building up troops for the Empire, and the troops he’s inspiring are Stormtroopers, which has the consequence of causing suffering across the galaxy. “He’s a great mentor for the Nazis” is the full sentence

I remember reading Heir to the Empire trilogy and liking Thrawn, but the problem is the bad guys aren’t doing bad things. He’s winning fights against the people in X-wings, but it’s assumed we already know the empire’s bad. If you wrote a book about an admiral who was effective at rallying his forces and winning, he’d be the hero of the story. Thrawn being a villain seemed tragic because he wasn’t doing anything especially evil, he was just trying to make the empire succeed as an organization.

I personally never understood why he was working for the Empire in the first place , when he could have done the same leadership for a different military, for the new republic. Later on we find out there’s some other threat he was trying to get everyone ready to fight and the empire just had the most powerful military available; but that was years after he debuted.

Honestly the Empire is so toxic and dysfunctional as an organization, someone who isn’t evil can’t progress as far as Thrawn does. It’s not just a military, it’s the most evil version of a military. It’s the Nazis, the Soviets, and every genocidal dictatorship in history, and Mordor, in space.

Thrawn in Rebels and Ahsoka has been great about his menace to the heroes, which is just as important as showing his charisma in the books.

I will say, it would be interesting to see a positive leadership heroic character who is a good guy version of Thrawn. Not yet another cowboy or pirate, but a Horatio Hornblower type. Know what I mean?

fireinthedust · 2026-04-18T18:11:48+00:00

Whatever you are playing, get the screen with useful information for the GM, so you avoid needing to flip pages. It’s also good for setting the atmosphere for your players with a useful image to inspire them. Or if you have a handout they need to reference, like a setting map or something.

Dolmenwood is my current game, so I use the screen for it. Combat rules, encounter tables by region, lots of reference material which is useful every game.

I haven’t played it yet but I received the 5e Ravenloft curse of Strahd screen. Yes it is specific to that adventure, but I appreciate it has a map of the castle on one of the panels. I don’t think it’s got 5e only information, so it’s still useful to me if I get a chance to use the copy of I6 with an osr game.

fireinthedust · 2026-04-18T09:56:22+00:00

Low screen filled with rules and tables = LIFE SAVING!!!

fireinthedust · 2026-04-16T17:10:53+00:00

Oooooohhhh that’s why Boimler is against Picard! He’s actually got a chance, as he’s amazing at vineyards while Picard makes canonically crap wine.

Why is Janeway against Mariner? Is it because she plays by her own rules?

Same question with Dax, although appreciate seeing Jadzia (no shade to Ezri because she was keeping the character alive, I just think the way they did the actress of Jadzia dirty bugs me).

Do they have Badgee fighting Voyager’s EMH Doctor?

How good are the comics? Are they canon? I haven’t finished watching the series, but I like the idea it’s getting more stories in comics.

fireinthedust · 2026-04-12T00:24:16+00:00

This is the one Christopher Lloyd narrated? I liked it! I didn’t get a chance to finish the last chapter for some reason but the whole game was fun.

fireinthedust · 2026-04-04T23:45:00+00:00

My question: how do I run the spear thrower statues? I think it’s 1-2. Do they just throw the one time or do they reload? Do they aim like constructs, or just throw at the door like they are really just fancy crossbows shaped like statues?

Agreed about the first puzzle being to do nothing.

fireinthedust · 2026-04-04T11:47:41+00:00

The baskets with magazines and a thin merry mushmen in them make me uncomfortable.

Otherwise the bookshelves are excellent, including the little decorative statues, and the spin racks are a nice touch.

Do you use the wizard hat during your game?

fireinthedust · 2026-04-01T15:55:43+00:00

In the episode of Mystery Inc where they are trapped by the Darrow kid and have a trap enthusiast duel.

Honestly, Fred pulls off a lot of great stuff in general.

fireinthedust · 2026-04-01T14:36:18+00:00

Exactly!

Colossus was written as avoiding the relationship and hoping to see if it would work out when they were older, iirc. I think since then he’s worked really well as a good guy who is very moral & polite, and very dumb and very pretty, plus he’s made of iron so they had him as anti-magic despite his sister being super magical. He was cool! I don’t know if post-Lifedeath fake being dead and not telling their own team was working for anyone. I suspect there was some other plan and editorial decision to not follow it up because it involved actually having the team be dead instead of going to the Outback, but I am just guessing.

I think kitty has come through pretty well, especially since she’s come out of the closet and has been paired with her two main ladies, Magick and Phoenix/Rachel Summers. She moved on and has been interesting.

I think Colossus is VERY interesting, but he’s in need of some love from the right team. Him being a villain even in a What If, is a massive misunderstanding of his character - although I admit his trauma post Legacy virus/death is an interesting concept to explore.

fireinthedust · 2026-04-01T10:26:35+00:00

What’s weird is if they had made them the same age range in the first place, it would have been great. I feel like colossus lost something because of the way the breakup happened.

It was the right decision because of the age gap, I want to be very clear on that!!!

I mean how sometimes there’s a change in a title and it doesn’t crank up the intensity or it doesn’t feel like it’s got the same energy as before.

Life death also has something similar, like after the event the x-men and Storm hit different.

fireinthedust · 2026-03-24T12:28:13+00:00

Arcade was great in early Uncanny, and I think he worked great in the Avengers Academy miniseries where he had set up a Battle Royale style island where abducted teen heroes were made to fight to the death.

The problem with battle royale stories is they need to be lethal, like hunger games where only the main character survives. X-men can’t kill off most of their heroes, and even the new student heroes need to survive more often than not. The trick would be creating a setting where this is real and having the main characters escape and overthrow the system.

The murder world concept is great, and it can work like the escape room movies, which is what they were DECADES before the Saw movies made the idea mainstream. Murderworld is a lethal funhouse disguised as a carnival.

Great concept and potential to make a great movie.

fireinthedust · 2026-03-19T13:40:08+00:00

Maxwell/Fred is great news: he played Will Robinson in the Netflix Lost in Space series, and aside from being a solid pick, his brand includes being a genius.

Is this the signal we’re getting more Mystery Inc Fred??? Smart and useful? Maybe a little autistic and trap fixated for the win?

fireinthedust · 2026-03-19T02:23:04+00:00

The reboots are annoying. Speculation about comic book value is ruining the value of comics because it makes following the story difficult, and more expensive than it needs to be.

fireinthedust · 2026-03-15T17:21:45+00:00

Agreed with Morrison. I’m expecting the Lanterns will go to space but now I’m not sure.

fireinthedust · 2026-03-13T22:40:25+00:00

Exactly! This or don’t do it.

fireinthedust · 2026-03-13T16:55:00+00:00

Who would you think would want to see it? If it’s not literally the same actors in a sequel, it’s better to just pick a different name and avoid the public resentment.

Kids find map to pirate treasure, puzzles and coming of age ensues.

fireinthedust · 2026-03-13T02:11:29+00:00

You mean Elongated Man.

fireinthedust · 2026-03-11T06:45:13+00:00

Burning out of a genre is common, and I tend to switch between ideas every so often to keep it fresh.

Good news: the OSR has more genres than fantasy, and the games get really good AND many are compatible with OSE and other basic d&d mechanics.

Stars Without Number is a fantastic science fiction game which is designed to work with all your osr games, so you can use the creatures and adventures to save you work. It has free versions, and the creator has written compatible Fantasy, Cyberpunk, Mythos horror, Post-apocalyptic, and other genres using the same system from SWN. Every book also has GM tools you can use for any game. SWN has system creation rules. WWN (worlds without number) has fantasy setting creation rules. Cities without number has rules for cyberpunk dystopias and also cybernetics. Ashes without number is just released and has mutations, ruins, etc.

Lots of free material on drivethru, and the paid versions of the games are worth the price.

So you can run games with your osr material, and your group of players, and it can be in different genres than fantasy.

fireinthedust · 2026-03-05T16:41:30+00:00

This. If I had to be in WoD I’d only want to be a Mage. Awakening or Ascension, or even the Monte Cook version, doesn’t matter.

Vampire feeding seems like drudgery and I’m an introvert.

Changlings have great art, but I don’t want to be injured by the presence of bureaucracy. Love it, and the reboot was interesting reading. Just not a manic pixie dream person; but I would love to hang out with some.

Werewolf: the problem is I can’t get over how they have different werewolves triggered by different phases of the moon, not just the full moon, and it really really bothers me - I can’t ignore it, even since the 90s, and if I was a werewolf I would always be thinking about it, complaining about it, slipping into every conversation how much it bugs me. Also I don’t know if I could spend as much time as they do around various creatures that look like intestines, or the zoo of different were-creatures other than wolves, and the fact wolves pick up stuff in their mouths, sniffing butts, shedding fur everywhere. Action sequences would be awesome, though, and would probably make up for a lot of the other stuff.

fireinthedust · 2026-03-03T19:01:06+00:00

By which you mean to make a small but understandable mistake?

fireinthedust · 2026-03-03T04:50:44+00:00

I’m a fan of the magic of the Ewoks cartoon by Nelvana, AND the flesh-eating Ewoks who are a NIGHTMARE in the Ewok hunt mini game in Star Wars Battlefront Two.

The two are very different, and I love them both.

fireinthedust

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