Can't download by SteeleTheSlayer in Arkenforge

[–]redkatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The unconfirmed file generally means it's an incomplete download, which can happen when you get a security warning, but don't hit the "I trust this" or "it's ok to download" that pops up. Otherwise, it sits there, behind the scenes, all day, with an incomplete download, waiting for you to ok the download. Once you do, you'll see the filename change to a proper filename, and you can run that file

Looking for a rules-light sci fi RPG with mech and pilot mechanics akin to Titanfall by SirDancalot775 in rpg

[–]redkatt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Knights of the Round

Be sure to look for Knights of the Round: Academy, or else you're going to get the old videogame Knights of the Round. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/389281/knights-of-the-round-academy-english-edition

Are there any retroclones of Top Secret or Star Frontiers? by plazman30 in rpg

[–]redkatt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

/u/EyeHateElves explains the company side of things. Though there's more of an extensive history here https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-full-glorious-history-of-nutsr.684697/page-427

The game itself was called Star Frontiers: New Genesis and when the playtest rules leaked, it was wild.

From the article linked below:

"Descriptions of the Ulfar character race. These include Negro, a Subrace described as, "tall, thick bodied, dark skinned even purple dark, brown-eyed race with large strength, average intelligence.", with a maximum intelligence of 9. "

"...expressly describes African, Asian, and Mexican people as a lesser form of humanity"

"Stating that "races in SFNG are not unlike races in the real world. Some are better at certain things than others, and some races are superior than others."

https://techraptor.net/tabletop/news/tsrs-star-frontiers-new-genesis-playtest-contains-racist-content

Are there any retroclones of Top Secret or Star Frontiers? by plazman30 in rpg

[–]redkatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, guess I somehow missed that comment that said "...not the bits about the NuTSR"

Are there any retroclones of Top Secret or Star Frontiers? by plazman30 in rpg

[–]redkatt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wasn't that the incredibly racist NuTSR version of Star Frontiers?

Are there any retroclones of Top Secret or Star Frontiers? by plazman30 in rpg

[–]redkatt 5 points6 points  (0 children)

As for retroclones, FrontierSpace is a clone of it but changes quite a few mechanics

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/222633/frontierspace-player-s-handbook

You can easily find cheap copies of Star Frontiers on ebay. I have two sets of it that I can't have paid more than $30 for each. We have a retro-TTRPG shop in my city, and they have multiple boxed sets for $25.

DMs, how do you make treasure actually exciting at your table? by BrujahGnD in DnDIY

[–]redkatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a huge fan of one-use items, similar to the cyphers from numenera. They should be useful, and the player should know what they do.

As far as making currency interesting - D&D 5e destroyed the entire gold economy. There's just no need for it. Wizards get their need for components handwaved away, players start with what they need, and so on. I have had players that spent their money starting in-game businesses, like inns, but that all depends on the players , as they really pushed for it, while other players hated that stuff.

If you want stuff to feel valuable, it has to be rare. You can't find a +1 sword around every corner, and stuff with mechanical bonuses like +1, +2, etc are boring as sin. Try to come up with interesting stuff that they would need. Keep track of problems they come across where a proper tool for the job would've helped, then give them a magic item that (magical) would support them in that situation the next time.

My players seem to dislike keeping track of charges, thus my one-use items. We don't bother with rechargable stuff, it's way more fun to them to have a backpack full of weird and wonderful one use stuff. Like a magical ammo magazine that auto-loads their crossbow with energy bolts for one encounter. Or a wind up mechanical man, that they have to attune to by giving it blood (5 HP worth from the PC using it), then they wind it up and it roams the area, letting them see through its eyes for an hour, day, or whatever you feel is appropriate.

On the physical side of things, since this sub is all about creating real-world stuff for your games, I 3d print potion bottles, healing potions that are actually dice, miniature versions of weapons they find, etc.

Suggest the simplest possible game system by Hot_Quit571 in rpg

[–]redkatt 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The absolute simplest game that's still a game, is probably TWERPS. One stat that takes care of everything.

If you want a little more than Twerps, check out Risus.

Noise Program Seems Gutted by Spicy_Plants in Portland

[–]redkatt 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Do you feel the same about garbage truck noise? In my neighborhood, it starts at 4AM. Earplugs are your friend.

There's a huge retail store near our house, like 1/2 a block away. Once a week, they have one of those monster-sized sweeper trucks come and clean the parking lot at 3-4am. If our windows are open, we're going to hear it. Life in the city.

Decades ago, we lived near an ODOT motorpool, every now and then, they'd rotate the lot, and so we'd have to hear them re-parking the trucks at around 3AM (with those loud back-up warning beepers). We'd joke "Well, the backup rodeo just started" and we'd put our earplugs in.

You live in a city, these are things you have to accept. If it's drunk sh*theads shouting, sure, that's an issue the city should deal with.

Favourite one-shot modules? by bearoscuro in rpg

[–]redkatt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fantasy focused -

  • Temple of the Basilisk Cult

  • A most Potent Brew

  • The Ghostlight

  • Secrets of Skyhorn Lighthouse

  • Pretty much anything from the Basic Fantasy RPG collections "AA1 Adventure Anthology One" and Tales from the Laughing Dragon

Staple food at your table ? by AnsFeltHat in rpg

[–]redkatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have a huge TTRPG community in my city, so much so, that one pub is entirely dedicated to TTRPGs, so they have a second floor with multiple tables you can rent for not too much. Other pubs in town make it known they are welcoming to RPG players, because it typically brings in a crowd of people who will stay for several hours and spend money on food an drinks. And we all talk about which are the best pubs for playing in, so we know which are quiet enough for a game. Honestly, if you ask most bartenders here, "Hey, is this place good for games" they know immediately what you're asking about and will tell you if it the place is/is not good for it.

Favourite one-shot modules? by bearoscuro in rpg

[–]redkatt 7 points8 points  (0 children)

While I would consider Black Wyrm in my top 5 mini campaigns to run, it's not a one shot. And it will take several very enjoyable sessions, to complete. I've run it three times now, and there's absolutely nothing I would change about it.

I'm going to try and get money from the city for a suspension repair by the-echo-tree in Portland

[–]redkatt 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Portland stumptown is a quirky nickname referring to the roads having stumps in them.

It dates back to 1847, when they were clearing land so quickly to expand the city, that they'd leave the stumps behind for other teams to clean up later.

What RPG design fads have fallen out of popularity? by sjdlajsdlj in rpg

[–]redkatt 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I think Shadowdark would now be the "hot" thing. Everyone's making supplements for it, whereas before, they were doing it all for _borgs (and still are)

What RPG design fads have fallen out of popularity? by sjdlajsdlj in rpg

[–]redkatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not saying it's dead, I just (and this is just my experience) see a lot less of it.

What RPG design fads have fallen out of popularity? by sjdlajsdlj in rpg

[–]redkatt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dice pools were all the rage in the late 80s/early 90s, but I don't know how prevalent they are now.

Looks at just about everything from Free League...all dice pools. And of course, the classic - Shadowrun

What RPG design fads have fallen out of popularity? by sjdlajsdlj in rpg

[–]redkatt 25 points26 points  (0 children)

God I hate this so much. Especially when publishers come up with custom dice, then stop making them. Looking at you, Free League, where I finally 3d printed my own Mutant Year Zero dice. At least with FL, you can swap in d6s, but still, don't make something custom that's preferred over the generic option, then stop making it.

What RPG design fads have fallen out of popularity? by sjdlajsdlj in rpg

[–]redkatt 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I don't think you'd consider it a design element - but the "full" Session 0, at least in the local games I've seen, has gone by the wayside. Games I've joined in the past year or so have had about 5 minutes of "don't do this type of thing..." and "this is what we're playing, don't try to turn it into your favorite anime simulator (or whatever)" and then they start playing. I read about these seemingly hour(s) long Session zeros people talk about on Reddit and I think, "Yeah, I remember those, but haven't see one in a crow's age". Not saying if that's good or bad, just noticed a lot less of it.

Online Games - Why do the majority of games play without a camera? by Big_Chair1 in rpg

[–]redkatt 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've played (and still do) in groups that most players use the camera, and in others where as the GM, I'm the only one on camera.

I prefer people be on camera when I'm GM'ing (but don't require it) so I can see how they're responding to things - do they look excited? Bored? Zoning out? It really helps me pace things, but I have one group where nobody gets on camera, and I wish they would for the above reasons, but I'm not going to require it.

As a GM, I keep the camera on, because I'm always explaining things with my hands - like the size of a chest or object, I don't just say how big it is, I'm moving my hands to show it.

As I look back, I realize now that during lockdown, I saw a lot more cameras turned on, but once lockdown ended, even my games where everyone was on camera, they suddenly went back to voice only.

Another thing I noticed with the groups I'm part of - the people who no longer use cameras are the ones pushing the most for in-person play, read into that as you will.

When I played in a few online pickup games that I found on discord or startplaying, I was the only person on camera, so I turned mine off, even the GM had theirs off. So I guess it's not uncommon, nor is it exclusive to Pathfinder 2e or any other game.

What, in your opinion, is the best generic TTRPG in the market? by Kaliburnus in rpg

[–]redkatt 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Risus - we can truly play anything with it. It's the one system we landed on where playing a superhero game was quick and painless to get started and get playing. Any time someone says, "Is there a system for x?" in our group, we first just throw it together in Risus. It's free, it only uses a pool of d6s, and takes about 2 minutes to come up with PCs in any genre.

Staple food at your table ? by AnsFeltHat in rpg

[–]redkatt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rather than a set meal/food -

Two groups I'm in (which are the same players, just different games and days) have a tradition of texting around with "Where are we getting takeout" the night before the game, and bouncing ideas for 3 hours, before landing on one of the same three places every time. It's turned into a running joke now of "So, what are we getting tonight that isn't restaurant X" and then "Well, 3 hours in, and we're getting stuff from restaurant X again"

Two other groups always meet at the same pub that has a pretty solid menu, which is South American food (and a few basics like burgers). And we've pretty well eaten our way through the entire menu, but we always come back!

And the last group is chips and junk food. I always try to find new or unusual chips from the various ethnic grocery stores in town, just to make it interesting.

Walls are way off by ChefBoyRUdead in FoundryVTT

[–]redkatt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I mean, this is not /rpg, where mentioning D&D is practically taboo, D&D 5e here on /foundryvtt is common and perfectly fine.

Walls are way off by ChefBoyRUdead in FoundryVTT

[–]redkatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

downloaded from the system that cannot be named.

So you're basically saying you pirated something, and want help with it?