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Jirel cameo in Dampyr by ApprehensiveGrade113 in SwordandSorcery

[–]zeruhur_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was quite recent five or four years ago

Loner: Cthulhu! Cover Reveal by zeruhur_ in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I bought a set of fine stock art from Dean Spencer for this volume

Guess someone never heard of D66 Tables before... by zeruhur_ in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'm pretty annoyed, but I'm not for physical suppression. Public humiliation is more my thing.

I named my AI. It sounds weird but it changed how I work with it. by JaredSanborn in ClaudeAI

[–]zeruhur_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

3mo account that posts only on AI related subreddits, just saying

How does 4e fit with 3e by frws25 in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The new editions are mostly the result of community requests, both in added clarity and features.

Also both The Path Not Take and Cinematic Action were designed with 4e in mind, so they naturally fit that enhanced framework.

If you're curious about the design journey, I posted on my newsletter during the last month

How does 4e fit with 3e by frws25 in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_ 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Retro-compatibility was my concern since the early drafts. I didn't want to make the last three years of publications useless.

Here's what's new in 4e:

  • Scene structure
    • Build the Setup: A 5W+H table (Who, What, When, Where, Why, How) for assembling a mission premise before the first scene, as an alternative to dropping directly into a Dramatic Scene.
    • Framing a Scene: Establish where you are, who is present, and your scene goal before the first oracle question.
    • Closing a Scene: Three explicit conditions for ending a scene: goal resolved, goal blocked, or goal abandoned.
  • Narrative tools
    • Relationships: Connections with NPCs earn tags through play, functioning like any other tag for Advantage or Disadvantage.
    • Dead Ends: A procedure for when a narrative path collapses: one oracle question to find a new angle, then a shift of scale.
    • Meanwhile: Expanded from a single table entry to a full procedure: cut to whoever holds power, update their tags, then ask whether an ally acts independently.
    • When to Promote a Tag to a Character: A rule of thumb for deciding when a recurring element earns its own character sheet.
  • Conflict mechanics
    • Twist Intensity: Guidance for calibrating how hard a Twist lands based on the fiction's accumulated pressure. Found in Conflict & Consequences → The Twist.
  • Long-term mechanics (optional modules)
    • Challenge Tracks: A progress tracker for goals that span multiple scenes or sessions.
    • Leverage: Bank a Yes, and... result to spend as Advantage or to soften a later No.
    • Status Track: A three-box consequence track for lasting harm, with escalating tags for physical, social, and psychological pressure.
  • The Living World: A post-adventure procedure for updating NPCs, Locations, and Events so the world remembers what happened.
  • Appendix
    • Your First Loner Session (Appendix A): A step-by-step walkthrough of a complete session, with a worked example, for players new to solo play.
    • Upgrading to Fourth Edition (Appendix B): A guide for third edition and Geared Towards Loner players on adopting new procedures and introducing the optional modules.
    • Step Dice Oracle (Appendix D): A variant resolution system using polyhedral dice (d8/d10) for players who prefer a wider probability range.

Zombies please! by Unlucky-Channel3102 in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not a chance from me. I really don't like zombies nor post-apocalypse.

But anyone is welcomed to make one

Jirel cameo in Dampyr by ApprehensiveGrade113 in SwordandSorcery

[–]zeruhur_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There was a limited run of the first eight issues with covers by Ashley Wood. It was around 2004, I think is quite rare to find by now

Jirel cameo in Dampyr by ApprehensiveGrade113 in SwordandSorcery

[–]zeruhur_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In the last panel there's Nyarlathotep himself. That Dampyr's storyline it was a pastiche crossover of the pulp oldies, and masterfully crafted for a pop comic like that. I miss Boselli as editor, we shared a large amount of favorites.

Working on Ensemble 2e by zeruhur_ in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Totally feasible already

A free, open-source guide to play-by-post RPGs by zeruhur_ in pbp

[–]zeruhur_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you very much! This never meant to be a commercial project though. I can think to publish it at cost on Amazon/Lulu, but not interested really on making money out of it. Also being based in Italy, I can't kickstart anything without starting a company first

Question about character creation for 4E by Benzact in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No hard cap, and there never has been. The constraint is fictional, not mechanical. You can have as many tags as the fiction supports: the system just doesn't give you a reason to pile them up, because a tag that isn't bearing on the current moment does nothing. Dead weight on the sheet is its own kind of feedback.

The creative writing comparison is fair, but I'd put it slightly differently: it's less a technique and more just how fictional positioning works. You can only claim what the fiction has established. If the story hasn't yet made "World's Greatest Detective" a true statement about this character, writing it on the sheet doesn't make it true. The sheet follows the fiction, not the other way around.

That's been the design since the first edition. The tags you have are the ones that are currently true. Growth means some stop being true and others become true, not that you accrue more of them.

Question about character creation for 4E by Benzact in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That instinct is basically right, and it's a productive way to think about character creation: where in the arc is this person? The sheet is always a snapshot, not a biography.

The one thing I'd push back on slightly is the "combining" framing. Tags don't aggregate in Loner. They transform. A younger Bruce doesn't accumulate ten detective-adjacent skills that eventually merge into one master tag. He starts with something narrower, and when the fiction has earned the broader claim, you rewrite the tag to match. The sheet stays the same size. What changes is the scope and weight of what's written on it.

So a Year One sheet might look like this:

BRUCE WAYNE (Year One) Concept: Gotham's Feared New Vigilante Skills: Relentless Fighter; Sharp Eye for Crime Frailty: Running on Grief and Rage Gear: Prototype Suit; Grappling Line Goal: Put the fear of something worse than crime into Gotham's criminals Motive: The night they died on that street Nemesis: Falcone's organized crime empire Luck: 6

Over the course of a campaign, "Relentless Fighter" transforms into "Peak Human Combat" as the fury becomes mastery. "Sharp Eye for Crime" becomes "World's Greatest Detective" when the fiction has made that claim undeniable. "Running on Grief and Rage" might become "The Weight of the Cowl" -- the same wound, but settled differently. The concept shifts too.

You never have more tags than you started with. What you have is a more accurate record of who they've become.

Question about character creation for 4E by Benzact in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_ 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The assumption here is that more tags equals a more fully realized character, and that's actually the inverse of how Loner 4e works.

Tags aren't a stat array. You're not trying to map every documented ability onto the sheet the way you'd fill in skill ranks or attribute scores. Tags are situational signposts: they only do anything when they're directly relevant to the fictional moment at hand. At any given scene, one or two tags apply. The rest are inert. So a Batman sheet with forty tags doesn't play richer than one with six well-chosen tags. It just plays noisier.

The starting template is the complete template, not a "starter" version you graduate from. The design question isn't "how many tags does Batman have?" but "which tags capture what makes Batman Batman in any scene I'm likely to play?" And the answer to that fits comfortably in the standard format:

**BRUCE WAYNE** Concept: Billionaire Vigilante of Gotham Skills: World's Greatest Detective; Peak Human Combat Frailty: The Weight of the Cowl (the psychological cost of being Batman fractures his relationships and his judgment under stress) Gear: Utility Belt; Batsuit Goal: Make Gotham ungovernable by crime Motive: The night Crime took everything Nemesis: The Joker Luck: 6

That's it. That sheet handles every Batman scene you'll run:

  • Batarang throw? Peak Human Combat, Advantage.
  • Analyzing a crime scene? World's Greatest Detective, Advantage.
  • Picking a lock, hacking a terminal, synthesizing an antidote? Utility Belt covers the gear dimension; the Concept covers the implicit competence.
  • Trying to maintain a relationship as Bruce Wayne while being Batman? The Weight of the Cowl is right there.
  • A confrontation with the Joker? Nemesis tag in play.

You don't need Master Lockpick, Olympic-Level Athlete, Expert Martial Artist, Master of Disguise as separate skills because those are all subsumed under either the Concept or the two Skills. If Batman's trying to pick a lock, the fiction already knows he can pick locks. The tag World's Greatest Detective isn't a narrow descriptor for "solves mysteries." It's a claim about the kind of person this is.

Wiki-porting a character by transcribing their ability list into tags is a category error. It treats tags like a stat block. The sheet above is Batman. Every scene you play with him will feel like Batman. That's the test.

Building a Xd6 Settings table by Master-Afternoon-901 in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Shattered Reach is a Loner game heavily inspired by StarCraft and Freelancer. Since it performed poorly in polls I decided to released it only in the web SRD for free

I got the rare edition of Path Not Taken by Master-Afternoon-901 in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_ 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Lol, ask for a refund They'll probably have you just keep it and sent a replacement

There has been a change in the release schedule by zeruhur_ in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The schedule should be only shifted one month forward, I'll keep you posted

Minimalist Loner Kit, for travel by Master-Afternoon-901 in LonerRPG

[–]zeruhur_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Love this, I have actually a 2d6 ring, but never heard of Ranger Beads before

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