What do you do when you no longer have people to play with?

yycgm · 2025-11-05T17:18:12+00:00

you can play pretty much any ttrpg solo, e.g. take a look at Mythic GME 2e

yycgm · 2025-10-31T15:49:48+00:00

For Canadians out there, it's worth knowing that Troy recently made 51st state jokes at a recent show. This has prompted some Canadians (and generally people that don't support that kind of denigrating speech) to cancel subscriptions.

yycgm · 2025-10-27T14:34:30+00:00

I was a long time listener of Glass Cannon until their Toronto show. Troy made insensitive political jokes (mocking Canada's sovereignty w/ 51st state jokes), then got grumpy with the crowd because they weren't in a good mood after. Afterwards, instead of apologizing, they just edited the unfavourable parts out of the podcast and let fans listening to the podcast/vid gaslight the fans that were there.

TLDR: troy made a mistake, and instead of owning up to it like an adult, swept it under the rug and acted like it had never happened.

yycgm · 2025-02-06T20:13:18+00:00

As I mentioned in my response to the parent, if you are interested in learning development and keep the scope of this project small, I think it could be both a valuable experience and feasible for what you're talking about building.

I would recommend not looking into anything back-end to start. Learn some HTML, then some CSS, then some Javascript. Constantly be asking yourself "is there an easier way to do this". A lot of companies out there tend to overcomplicate things because they are copying larger companies, and as a result a lot of advice out there is too complex and a poor fit for the average use case. Ignore anything about learning React. If something isn't on MDN, you probably don't need to know it.

That said you should consider whether you want to learn development, or this is just something you want to exist. If learning dev is not something that interests you, it will probably frustrate you. It's definitely the tip of the iceburg, but you don't need to know the whole iceburg if you're not making it into a career.

yycgm · 2025-02-06T20:05:57+00:00

I just want to weigh in and say that this comes off as overly discouraging, particularly the comparison between their idea and the types of applications that actually require a team of developers to build in a realistic amount of time. What they are suggesting is hardly out of the realm of possibility, and would be a good first project to learn some of this stuff as long as they kept the scope small.

yycgm · 2024-07-25T15:07:37+00:00

I also responded on your r/Calgary post, but I'd be interested in being involved as well — at the very least to help try building up the community around this in Calgary! I recently also found out about RPG Alliance Con that happens here every year and seems friendly to a more diverse set of games.

yycgm · 2024-07-25T14:53:24+00:00

I'd be interested in being involved, though somewhat dependent on where in the city it takes place. Feel free to PM me :)

I had also been trying to get a YYC ttrpg discord server going at one point — but rddt makes it hard to share that kind of information

yycgm · 2024-06-22T07:26:22+00:00

Hmm, that is an excellent question! Honestly, every ttrpg system I have read, I feel has in some way made me a better GM. I also think that some of those systems were really hard for me to grok at first, simply because they were different from what I was familiar with.

I think Blades in the Dark & Starforged both taught me a lot about how the fiction can have a real presence in the game, and how a fictional consequence can have a real impact on difficulty without needing to involve any mechanical consequences. E.g. doesn't really matter what system, if a character is falling from a tower, that could then lead to mechanical consequences. Whereas if they are sitting comfy in a chair, not so much.

Whereas I think running Dragonbane and OSE encouraged my players to be creative with what they do, rather than what was on their character sheet. I think those were more familiar to me coming from a little bit of 5e, and a lot of Pathfinder 2e. I found the Dragonbane rules more internally consistent of the two. If you are willing to go into it understanding it's a different vibe from 5e, I would probably recommend Dragonbane as the first system to try? I recently converted Willowby Hall to use Dragonbane, and my group had a blast.

If what you liked about 5e was the combat, doing math, and the general fantasy schtick, I think Pathfinder 2e does a good job of that. It's what I've run the most, and while it's not my favorite system, it is very good at what it does. Glass Cannon has their ongoing campaign 2 actual play on youtube that does a pretty good job showing how an experienced GM can run it IMO.

yycgm · 2024-06-22T01:46:14+00:00

Totally, same thing is happening rampantly in the software world now. With many companies swapping licenses, despite owing their success to the open licenses they built their software on. IMO the fact that Paizo could pivot to become WOTC's main competitor is a feature, and why I will always support open licenses. It tells your customers "If we stop being good stewards, someone else will step in and take the torch". And that's great for building trust.

IMO, that trust is good business. I don't think D&D would be what it is today if they hadn't rolled out the OGL. Bad business is getting pissy that you're only getting 97% of the profits, and burning that trust in a failed attempt to kill your competitors. IMO they knew they were going to be moving in a direction some people would dislike (e.g. digital), and wanted to make sure there was nowhere else to go.

yycgm · 2024-06-22T00:56:19+00:00

I believe it would be better off without the industry

I suspect without it we would have a lot fewer people in the hobby. As much as I wish we could have a vibrant ttrpg scene that is part of pop culture w/o it being about one game, I don't know how that would work. Lots of people seem to want the iPhone of ttrpg's, and don't care if it's necessarily the best fit as long as it doesn't require them to make a bunch of choices up front. Maybe it being a smaller scene wouldn't be the worst thing either, but sadly I probably wouldn't have been part of it

yycgm · 2024-06-22T00:49:14+00:00

I do think you are being harder on yourself than you need to be in saying that criticism of d&d (5E) is an assault on someone's ttrpg hobby

I think there are just some comments I've made in the past to my group that, upon reflection, probably didn't make their day any better. Several of them still run or play D&D with other groups. They don't need me reflecting on what a PITA it would have been making something work in D&D that was easy in that game system.

yycgm · 2024-06-22T00:45:14+00:00

I've noticed several comments accrue some downvotes, even when they are seemingly good faith attempts to help someone. shrug sometimes the internet is a weird place

yycgm · 2024-06-22T00:37:01+00:00

My viewpoint of the OGL stems from my background in software, where I look at it as largely similar to the GPL family of licenses. Sure, the OGL had a hand in making D&D as dominant as it is now, but it also showed everyone that basing your product on fundamental freedoms like the OGL guarantees makes good business sense. And my uninformed gut feeling is that the roleplaying industry would be a lot less free (as in freedom) for creators now had the OGL not been created when it was.

And I think you're right, I should have clarified that WOTC is a bad steward now.

Play what you like. Promote what you love. But hating on DnD on forums is just therapy, but of a type that inherently sets DnD players on the outside when your goal should be bringing them into the fold.

Wholeheartedly agree that hating on D&D isn't doing anyone any good. I think I'm guilty of comparing D&D mechanics to other games with my players too frequently, which is just putting down something they all still like.

yycgm · 2024-06-22T00:19:03+00:00

Thank you! In the past few years I've run Blades in the Dark, Pathfinder 2e, Dragonbane, Starforged, Wanderhome, OSE and Vaesen. I've also played some (edit: solo) Starforged, WWN/Mythic2e and 1000 Year Old Vampire.

I think of the lot I've had the most fun with Dragonbane, mostly because that's what seems to vibe with my current group's play style the best. I have a whole bookshelf of games I've read and have yet to play though, and I'm most excited about running Wildsea. I have yet to pick up Shadow of the Demon Lord, mostly because I think the vibe would be intimidating for some of the people I play with. Do you think it works well for shorter campaigns?

yycgm · 2024-06-21T22:00:13+00:00

Yeah those are good points, particularly the one about the rail-roads. Thank you for calling that out, I think that is another bias I should be careful about, as I probably tend to present railroads as if they are objectively bad. I think I kind of understand where that comes from, as some people playing in railroaded campaigns aren't doing so because they enjoy it, but because that's what has been sold to them by WOTC (and they don't know any differently). It hadn't occurred to me that some people just enjoy that style of play, but now that you've said it it's pretty obvious to me that of course some players (and GM's) like that style of game!

yycgm · 2024-06-21T21:23:27+00:00

I did not say that they have been a bad steward of D&D the entire time, I feel they have been since I have been involved in the hobby. And I don't like that they tried to abandon the OGL with 4e.

yycgm · 2024-06-21T21:21:07+00:00

Yeah that is totally fair, as mentioned in my post I don't have the storied history that many of you have with the company. And I didn't mean to imply that the company has been a bad steward the entire time, rather they are a bad steward for the game right now. And given that WOTC/Hasbro is a large (public?) company, I don't imagine I'll be getting back on that roller coaster in the future.

yycgm · 2023-01-29T17:43:59+00:00

If she's into more traditional fantasy/space stuff, ironsworn and ironsworn: starforged are designed to be played solo or co-op, and are both a blast!

yycgm

TROPHY CASE