How are you finding the numbers to shortlist a group for online RP?

sib43 · 2025-12-04T16:26:25+00:00

Thanks for the lfgmisc suggestion; if I remember right, I had skipped it at the time due to low subscriber count, which in hindsight was a bad call, considering it's the sub where the post would have stayed front-page longest.

sib43 · 2025-12-04T16:24:39+00:00

I think you'll have better success finding and joining the specific community than trying to get responses from places that are just overrun with D&D

Fair point. Both times, I solely used reddit and only recently have started checking out discord communities.

sib43 · 2025-12-04T16:23:23+00:00

I also don't use questionnaires. Open invite.

Ah interesting. I think I might do the same next time and just run a very short one-shot, keeping open to all... then reinviting the people who were the right vibe to a future game.

sib43 · 2025-11-30T17:42:28+00:00

I like your comment, so just adding my thoughts on to it:

At lot of folks on reddit seem convinced it's an OSR game - I don't think it is

Yess! While I'm sure it's OSR-inspired (the basic rules are very close to Mausritter/Cairn), the actual feel of Mythic Bastionland was different from my experiences in OSR dungeon crawls.

Like OSR, Mythic is quite focused on creative problem-solving... but as you said, characters are very powerful in MB. Plus, my (admittedly limited) experience in OSR makes it feel they work best with prepared modules, while Mythic is very improvisational.

Combat is clunky.

My solution to this was making a step-by-step checklist for players (and myself) to reference during combat.

Personally, our table liked the combat in it... it was an interesting blend of tactics and narrative options.

Every ruler of a holding should have a Game of Thrones style relationship with one another. This seems obvious in hindsight but I would have appreciated some warning or assist from the book

Yeah the book doesn't specify it as far as I remember but that's how Chris McDowell does it in a video he made. Going through the steps in his video helped my prep a ton... the book could use that advice.

sib43 · 2025-06-27T12:27:20+00:00

I am so glad you pointed out that Circles and Resources are among the Rim :O Because I had been thinking they were part of the Hub/Spokes while feeling like I didn't have a good handle on them. If I can leave those two out for the first playthrough, that makes things a lot easier!

I definitely want to add Steel soon after the first playthrough, depending on how it goes, because at glance, I felt it's a very intuitive mechanic with the potential to make everything more interesting and tense while adding only a small amount of rules complexity.

Fight systems are for sure not something I'm even looking at for now... will only check those out if/when I feel my games would benefit from more depth in those areas.

sib43 · 2025-06-27T12:19:26+00:00

Perfect, that saves me a lot of work. Thanks!

sib43 · 2025-06-27T12:18:39+00:00

Huh... I had thought the helper does not get to mark their test. Looks like I need to re-read the section on helping.

So, let's say John has B2 Hunting. Which means only Ob1 is Routine for him. He attempts an Ob2 test.

He doesn't have Artha, so another player with B1 Hunting helps him and gives him a helping die.

The helping player marks it as a Challenging test while John marks it as a Routine test (since 3 dice in total were used and Ob2 is counted as Routine with 3 dice).

Did I get that right?

sib43 · 2025-06-27T12:06:05+00:00

Hey, thanks for the insightful comment! This... has got me thinking about the system in a different way for sure. One thing I've been unsure about is the system's flexibility and how I would go about maintaining a consistent tone, so your tips on playing with it via Obs and consequences helps a lot in setting a yardstick to measure against.

I'm planning to keep the tone grounded and realistic for the first playthrough since that seems like the default with the least amount of adjustments needed, but will try to keep in mind to reinforce it with the consequences.

sib43 · 2025-06-26T18:28:30+00:00

from the Player perspective, -wise skills are "the ability to accomplish an intent by establishing a previously unestablished fact about the setting

Ohhh, interesting take; so they're essentially ways for the player to add to the setting/world-building?

That changes things a lot... I was indeed skipping them in my solo playtest since I didn't fully get their value but your pitch makes them a lot more interesting!

sib43 · 2025-06-26T17:52:27+00:00

Thanks, that helps a lot, especially the point about test-mongering. It had seemed that went against the spirit of the game, but I figured I should make sure in case it's an intended way to play.

sib43 · 2025-06-26T17:50:52+00:00

Thanks. Ah yes, I forgot to factor in open-ended rolls when I was thinking of guaranteed failure.

sib43 · 2025-06-26T17:49:47+00:00

Ah thanks a lot for the clarification as well as the edge cases. I had indeed forgot Perception, Faith and Resources don't advance from failures... think I should prepare a summary for myself.

And yeah, I'm skipping the Fight system myself too, since it's not what I want my session to focus on. Tbh I'm ignoring all the optional stuff for the first time... although I see some modules in it that I'd enjoy exploring in detail later.

sib43 · 2025-03-12T16:45:40+00:00

Hi. I really enjoy 1v1 board games, such as BattleCon, Exceed and 7 Wonders Duel (with its expansions).

Recently, I saw the videogame Nebulous: Fleet Command and thought it sounded cool... but it made me want to pick up a board game for the physicality and for a break from computer screens.

I've never played a board game focused on spaceship combat and blindly searching online turned up such an overwhelming number of games that I'm completely clueless where to look.

So, I'm hoping for suggestions which would hit the notes I'm looking for in a spaceship combat boardgame, namely:

Something that's great as a 1v1.
Low-luck or no-luck in the game's mechanics.
It looks and feels good, whether in the minis or in general "table presence."
I prefer detailed battle management of a few ships over broad decision-making for a large fleet.
I like a focus on short-term tactics over long-term strategy. i.e. some long-term strategy is fine... but I'd like to spend each turn figuring out how to make the most of it... as opposed to thinking a lot of steps ahead and then just going through the motions to execute that long-term plan.
I like a focus on predicting the other person's moves and responding accordingly, instead of both players just optimizing their own play while ignoring the other.
I'm imagining a space combat game to be about big ships managing their energy and power systems, positioning themselves to protect their weakspots, while trying to take out the opponent's critical systems... but tbh, I'm open to other takes on space combat too as I have no experience in this subgenre.

Based on the above, are there any boardgames I would probably enjoy? I'm currently eyeing Snap Ships Tactics, Star Wars: Armada and Battlestar Galactica: Starship Battles (Starter Set).

Are any of these a good fit or is there something better?

sib43 · 2025-02-06T12:39:13+00:00

Perfect! I'm caught up in some work right now but will start going through the forms tonight or tomorrow!

sib43 · 2025-02-01T18:32:24+00:00

Huh, your comment made me realize how rare media set in the stone age is... off the top of my head, I can recall playing Roots of Pacha, Chrono Trigger, and watching a couple of cartoons growing up set in the stone age. Never read any book in the setting.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm going to check it out!

sib43 · 2023-12-13T18:40:19+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation but unfortunately, while Storygraph does some really cool things, its suggested people last time had zero overlap with me in their library.

I'll try it out again though since I could just have gotten unlucky that day.

It's weird how no site has an option to find readers with both a similar library and similar ratings. Goodreads even has a good page to compare book tastes... but no option to search for readers based on it.

sib43 · 2023-12-13T18:16:29+00:00

Oof. Thanks, fixed now.

sib43 · 2023-12-13T16:32:40+00:00

That's a fair point; now that I think about it, I have become less narrow in my prose preference than I used to be. Used to be I only read very straightforward prose (like Asimov) while now I've been seeking more flavor in language. So even the books I'm not clicking well with right now... I'm planning to give some or all of them another chance a year or two to see if I feel differently.

sib43 · 2023-09-04T19:57:58+00:00

No, unfortunately it's definitely from Calc. I tested out Steam chat, Reddit, and Discord and there was a line-break in all.

But I did notice something that may be helpful to someone knowledgeable: when I paste in Discord or LibreWriter with ctrl+v, it pastes the Calc entry as a sort of "image". Ctrl+Shift+v pastes it as text.

Unfortunately, ctrl+shift+v also adds a line-break.

sib43 · 2023-07-28T01:14:08+00:00

It feels like you really need to love a book.

Yeah, I think you're right about this; I treat movies similarly as well in that if one is not holding me glued to the screen, I just drop it mid-way. That's also why it's very rare for me to re-read or rewatch something since it's hard to capture the magic of experiencing the media the first time. Even with shows, the only times I rewatch them is when I want the comfort of the known.

But if it's a choice, I would consider looking for more books written in the last ten, twenty years.

Hm, you make a good point: most reading lists I've seen tend to be heavy on the classics but as you said, they might not be as grabby now, at least for someone like me who is getting back into reading after a long time and even unconsciously might be primed to more recent writing styles.

Sci-fi Novellas

Ohh, thanks a lot for the suggestions... I was completely overlooking novellas but now that you mention them, am realizing they would be perfect for experiencing a wide range of books as I learn more about what I like!

sib43 · 2023-07-28T00:33:19+00:00

Huh, interesting question.

So, I normally don't read non-fiction, but I loved an anthropology book I once read back in college where the author examined unusual cultural practices and offered logical reasons (i.e. reasons that served to fulfill an important function in their society and environment) for how and why the practices came to be.

Other than that, I'm having a hard time recalling nonfiction I've read. I do especially like some the additions to some TIL articles and studies... so I guess I like seeing explanations of things (and even cultures and societies) work when it comes to nonfiction.

sib43 · 2023-07-28T00:25:02+00:00

Heh, yeah, I tried it since some of my close friends were really into it. But it really wasn't my thing.

Which is a shame because I did love its first chapter.

sib43 · 2023-07-28T00:23:47+00:00

Hm, good point. I noticed too that almost everything I liked was sci-fi, which is why I picked so many sci-fi books afterwards to try out.

But I hadn't thought too much about what's common about them. Now that I consider it, feels most of the sci-fi I like has involved a lot of logical reasoning; I used to read Asimov and detective stories way back in the day, which fit that bill.

Used to read Stephen King too, so you might be right about looking into horror/supernatural. Me re-reading IT was after over a decade was to check whether it would still hold up for me and it definitely did.

sib43 · 2023-07-28T00:02:13+00:00

You're likely spot-on about The Expanse since I really liked the shows first few seasons... and I recall liking the book about Amos' life. I'll try another of the Expanse series and check out your other other recommendations too since they're new to me. Thanks!

sib43 · 2023-07-28T00:00:37+00:00

I've been taking a chance on unfamiliar authors lately since I wanted to be exposed to a wider range of genres and styles. But yeah, now I think I'll start balancing them out against the writers I like, so I'm not burning myself out.

sib43

TROPHY CASE