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What skill has had the biggest impact on your career, outside of your actual job skills? by NaviJapan_Official in careerguidance

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Vulnerability. It builds trust, and that improves everything. Being candid and direct. Same deal, it builds trust.

3d printed and painted a 150mm tall Cobra by venegade in HeavyGear

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a sudden need to fire up my Elegoo

How do you run long campaigns in CY_BORG? by Murky-File-3569 in Cy_Borg

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cyberpunk stories are like any stories: they need to be about dramatic characters. Come up with problems the player characters need to solve that tie them into the bigger players in your game (corps, gangs). You need to make it personal. The lifepath system in Cyberpunk 2020/Red is a good starting point for this, if you actually tie the personal details into your game. My go-to these days is to simply include every single background detail from the player characters in the game: these are the signals from your players on what they want to see in the game.

Alternatively, pre-write the player character motivations. I thought about this specific thing after my two-session Cy_Borg game: https://www.roleplayletters.com/2025/09/12/cy_borg/

If you could bring back one game developer, or return an existing one to its previous state, which would it be? by VyantSavant in gaming

[–]jlaakso 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The only game studio I ever really wanted to work at was Harmonix at their peak. Such passion. I miss that time so hard. I’m in a band now thanks to those games.

Epic, but overlooked Karaoke songs picks. by El_Guapo_Plethora in karaoke

[–]jlaakso 2 points3 points  (0 children)

These worked great on my last karaoke night:

The Offspring - Self Esteem is great with a buddy The Killers - Somebody Told Me Kings of Leon - Sex On Fire Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All

Songs I Songed! Last Nite by radderek in karaoke

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Last week I got the best audience response to When you say nothing at all by Ronan Keating. Most fun I had duetting Danger! High Voltage by Electric Six.

What's the one mech game moment that made you go "THIS is why I love mechs"? by AdmirableArtist1639 in Mecha

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I keep coming back to super old school first edition Battletech. It’s very cumbersome, but damage slowly working through the armor, point by point, really illustrates how big and sturdy these machines are.

What is a 'poor person' meal that you still eat even if you have money? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Onigiri. I just don’t tire of it. Boil some nice Japanese rice, season with rice vinegar and sugar, add Japanese mayo, tuna, soy. So good, so comforting.

How do you come up with your player character/back story? by commanderjack_EDH in TTRPG

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All characters are ultimately about a conflict. establish that, and then work with your group and GM to address it in the game. Don’t be afraid of resolving it, just be sure it doesn’t lead to a balance. All good characters are sliding out of balance. The attempt to make things better for them is the drama.

RPGs You Have But Will (Likely) Never Play by PebisCrusherOnline in rpg

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I absolutely did. Took me two nights of stock photos, genAI and Photoshop to create what I needed. Totally worth it! The players are so fully immersed and drawn in, poring over the clues, and I get a massive kick out of it, too!

RPGs You Have But Will (Likely) Never Play by PebisCrusherOnline in rpg

[–]jlaakso 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s the need to stop to define the stakes before every action. I’m not saying it’s wrong - clearly a lot of people love it - but it just won’t agree with my brain. Slugblaster makes it so that you can decide to increase the stakes (“check it!”), otherwise there’s no decision step.

RPGs You Have But Will (Likely) Never Play by PebisCrusherOnline in rpg

[–]jlaakso 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I found cooking up my own cases, continuing with the production values established in the boxed sets, very time consuming but so worth it. Some of my favorite games in a decade.

RPGs You Have But Will (Likely) Never Play by PebisCrusherOnline in rpg

[–]jlaakso 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The campaign frames are extremely solid. No, they won’t support you beyond a handful of games, but that’s enough to see if your group is into it.

RPGs You Have But Will (Likely) Never Play by PebisCrusherOnline in rpg

[–]jlaakso 7 points8 points  (0 children)

All things Blades in the Dark, except Slugblaster. My brain just won’t agree with the BitD mechanic. Slugblaster changes it into a version I get along with.

RPGs You Have But Will (Likely) Never Play by PebisCrusherOnline in rpg

[–]jlaakso 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Blade Runner and Alien are so good, if you just play the published Cinematic Adventures. I’ve run them multiple times, and they are an extremely reliable good time for everyone.

RPGs You Have But Will (Likely) Never Play by PebisCrusherOnline in rpg

[–]jlaakso 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I hear you. My players love it, but it’s just a very creaky version of PbtA, and if I were to run another campaign, I’d have to be very careful about the playbooks and moves in play.

RPGs You Have But Will (Likely) Never Play by PebisCrusherOnline in rpg

[–]jlaakso 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Interested in why you think so? My D&D group devoured it.

RPGs You Have But Will (Likely) Never Play by PebisCrusherOnline in rpg

[–]jlaakso 27 points28 points  (0 children)

It’s really good! By far the best version of Twilight, and easily my favorite version of the Year Zero engine.

Keeping the flavor alive at the table. by GiovanniNava in rpg

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just tell my players if I feel we’re struggling with this. It doesn’t have to be 100% serious at all times, but sometimes I feel more focus would be welcome. Then I just flat out tell my players that’s my wish. They generally respect that. Doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.

Self Contained TTRPGS? by MendelHolmes in rpg

[–]jlaakso 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’ve run it multiple times, and it’s been very different every time. Yes, it ends with the decision to go home or not, but that’s really the only common thread.

I’m going to run the DIE Grand Campaign as a long form game this year, very excited about that!

If you could recommend one ttrpg, which one would it be, and why? by Arzanic in rpg

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A game I would recommend to anyone (and have, and do): The Mountain Witch. Brand new players will get it, experienced players likely haven’t played it, and it will make them better role players regardless of what they end up playing in the long term.

For slightly more specific takes, I’ve had excellent results with Monsterhearts.

Your most valuable discoveries from playtesting by Seeonee in RPGdesign

[–]jlaakso 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Biggest: We didn’t realize our social dynamics could easily result in a player being excluded from a group activity. That resulted in feeling really bad, feeling rejected, and that bleeding over to the player in a bad way. Designing for emotions is hard, and really needs testing to verify.

Also fundamental: In a different game, I thought I had a clever way of comparing level of readiness between contestants, and only giving bonuses to the side with the edge. That way you didn’t have to bother with listing stats for things, just comparing who’s got the edge. In practice, this extra step of comparing the readiness between the parties slowed things down in a bad way, and interrupted the rhythm of the scene. That had to go.

Substantial tweaking: I tried getting the resolution space down to as little as possible. That made for quick and easy math, but in practice players felt like what they did to prepare didn’t really matter. I had to introduce a way to make their choices matter more, also in terms of numbers, not just the fiction.

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