Unnatural Twenty

A great value RPG, check it out here !

GNS and the Big Model TTRPGs consist of three pillars, Gamism (use mechanics to have an enjoyable game), Narrativism (tell an interesting story), and Simulationism (create a credible story). Players can enjoy each to lesser or greater degrees, and some games are better at some than others, or are generally recognized as such. I recently realized that I like the Gamist part of games to be light enough that I can get down to playing pretty quickly, the Narrativist part is something I try to contribute to, and Simulationism means adhering to genre conventions, not trying to overturn them. GNS Theory at the RPG Museum Challenge versus Genre The most important thing in some games is to maintain the expectations of the genre, so that the story that is created seems appropriate. In other games, the genre informs some things, but the most important thing is to have fun in whatever way drives the characters to achieve their own goals. I don't think I really care about challenge

Which RPG have you played the most since August 2016? I haven't played much in the last year. I played two online sessions of Microscope and one face to face. I ran two sessions of the Sprawl, and about six of the Black Hack, both of which followed on from games of Microscope. I played Call of Cthulhu and D&D5 at a convention last December, and last week I played the first session of a new campaign of Spellbound Kingdoms. So I guess the Black Hack is my most played game in the last year.

I found myself wondering about a game like Pathfinder, that by now has a very long list of playable classes and races, and something like the Black Hack, which has no rules for races at all and only four classes. At first glance it looks like Pathfinder gives you more options for classes, since it has rules for hundreds. But in the case of races, the Black Hack actually gives players more options. Since there are no rules for races, the number of racial options is truly infinite. In Pathfinder there is a need to have rules for your race, so you tend to only choose from the options that are already there. Does having only four classes make the Black Hack limited? Again, you can use the warrior class in many many ways, it's possible to use it to describe many different types of martial characters. What I think I'm realizing is that, going into a new campaign, I don't want there to be a book that lists all the options for race, class, homeland, skills, and so on. I want

Gameplay tends to be about what you do in a computer game at any given moment. A game might involve stealth, shooting, driving, jumping, crafting, trading, or social gameplay elements. A game that is all about driving might have competition, maintenance, upgrading, repair, and design gameplay elements. A strategy game might have base building and resource management as gameplay elements while another might not, but have research and development among its gameplay elements. So what kind of gameplay elements do TTRPGs have? What kind of things do you find yourself doing for periods of time within a session? There’s combat, fighting, violent conflict, different to this is warfare, when characters are involved in large scale combat, there’s stealth and evasion, also there’s conversation, negotiation, deception, persuasion, seduction, there’s management and planning, and you could have research, learning, investigation, exploration and discovery, as well as choice and argument. Gam

I think gameplay is a term that gets used in computer games all the time, but I’ve never noticed it used in reference to tabletop RPGs. Maybe there are bigger marketing budgets and more review sites for computer games, and the use of language to describe different types of gameplay have arisen to discuss those games. The language used to describe TTRPGs seems to discuss them at the rulebook level, at the campaign level, or at the session level. The equivalents for computer games would be the product level (e.g. Tomb Raider), the game level (e.g. my first play-through of Tomb Raider) or the session level (the time I spent playing Tomb Raider today). If I watch a promotional video for a new computer game, I’ll generally see all the major gameplay elements of that game in action, so I’ll know if the ones I like are present. I think publishers of TTRPGs don’t describe their games in the same way, they try to appeal to customers by talking about their mechanics, or the setting they use

I realized that what I want to achieve from all my experimentation with RPGs is to settle on a system, group of people, and a setting, and then play one campaign forever. I don’t feel like I know a set of rules that I can do that with yet though, or at least a set that will enable me to do this with the people I know already. One problem I recently came to understand about D&D is levelling up. I find the changes from low level to high level come too quickly, and change the dynamic of a campaign too much. My current solution to this problem is to pick a starting level for the characters, and then stay there. Everyone gets comfortable with the abilities that they have, and nobody expends any effort wondering about what feat to take next level. Characters develop if the players let them, and they can come across new equipment that enables new abilities. Another game I’ve been playing is Lords of Gossamer and Shadow (linked in the sidebar). It’s a diceless game, so I imagine t

I’ve been talking to people recently about getting new games started, and I find I often run into a little problem. I’ll be trying to nail down what the game is going to be about, and I’ll mention “the story.” This seems to be a problem for a few people I’ve come across. They don’t want to have a GM write “a story” and then have them stroll through it. But I’m looking at the story as being the events that happen. After the campaign is over, if you tell someone about it, that’s the story. Every RPG will involve events, and anytime you talk about your last game or last session, you’re telling a story. It just seems like some people don’t like using that word to describe the game. They don’t mind an RPG being called a game, but they do mind it being called a story. It’s even worse when I talk about the story before we even start. If I imagine the campaign as a revenge thriller then that’s the kind of story I expect will be created out of the campaign. If we say we’ll play a pirates g

A flash riot occurred today at the monthly cosplay gathering at the Copenmalm Main Square. As the prizes were being awarded disgruntled non-winzers, dressed as KravOS personnel, stormed the stage and attempted to mock arrest three prizewinners, who were dressed as McWales Cyberrugby players. The ensuing scuffle caused the collapse of the stage and eight injuries, as well as untold damage to various costumes. The situation escalated when actual KravOS personnel who were providing security to Coschamp Nielsson were drawn into the riot. A KravOS spokesbot was characteristically blunt when it stated later that their personnel had done their job and no more. The Northern regional final of Starcraft 4 took place at the EcasinO Golden Pyramid late last night. Despite problems with the elevators the capacity crowd cheered local favorite EzergzeR to victory in a tight match against her long time rival Und1ne. Blizzard announced that next year’s regional finals will be held in the same venue,

​EcasinO reported record profits for the month, citing the Cyberrugby WL final match and the Andersson-Perez-Taggart MMA fight as major draws to the Golden Pyramid. A spokesbot revealed that the annual conference of McNations will be held at EcasinO next month, as well as the Northern regional final of Starcraft 4. While major events contribute heavily to footfall, the spokesbot repeated last month's claim that daily rake far outstrips the money made from such events. The bot also revealed that the casino was switching its elevator services from Otis-ESA to S-Kalyay, citing failure to meet response time agreements as the reason. A spokesbot for Otis-ESA spewed the following: The meeting of response targets is paramount to our business, we wish EcasinO well and are confident that we will work with them again in the future. ​ Lavanchy-Grovaloi Media GmbH announced they had acquired a nine hundred and ninety nine year lease on the KFSA tower, vacant for seven years. Michelle Grova

(This is the first new report for the game of the Sprawl that I'm running) Nokea announced today that they were shutting down their internal security wing and contracting all their duties to KravOS. The changeover was effective immediately from the announcement on Noweb. A spokesbot for Nokea said that the partnership would allow Nokea to concentrate on their core businesses of research and design, while taking advantage of the expertise and efficiency of KravOS. When asked by @fenr1s what prompted the changeover, the spokebot spewed the following: All outstanding debts will now be collected by KravOS. KravOS is a security firm that formed during the Lever-Heinz War, with personnel from former military and state-sec organisations. They have partnerships with Armani Beretta, LG, and the Vatican Bank. The partnership with Nokea is expected to bolster their communications and cybertech, while providing the latest smart weapons to their personnel. The partnership was denounced a

Here's a list of the RPG books I've purchased on Lulu.com . Petty Gods: Revised & Expanded Edition (Premium Softcover) KEFITZAT HADERECH - Incunabulum of the Uncanny Gates and Portals The Night Wolf Inn Whitehack – Second Edition Booklet Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls Stonehell Dungeon: Into the Heart of Hell Augmented Reality Obscene Serpent Religion The Nightmares Underneath (Paperback) RPGS - Your Fantasy Toolkit Supersetting v1.6 (Softcover) Mythic Russia (paperback) Yoon-Suin Fire On The Velvet Horizon As for things I may get in the future... Deep Carbon Observatory Perdition Hubris: A World of Visceral Adventure Microscope Hollowpoint

I was just thinking over the idea that my characters tend to be simple and cliche, when I read this post on Reddit . It seems to sum up what I was going to write so I'll keep it brief... Sometimes players have very subtle ideas about their characters, but that subtlety doesn't come across at the table, and the other players are unaware that the character has the characteristics that their player thinks they have. A good test would be to ask the other players, after a few sessions of playing together, "What is my character like?" The descriptions you get will be a good measure of how your character might be perceived in the world, rather than how you imagine them. It ties in with your ability to act; if you envision your character as a tough talking hard man, but the other players describe your character as friendly and courteous, maybe you need to simplify your characters until you can pull off the kind of acting you aspire to. Some games have mechanics for things l

In response to this post , here's a list of RPGs I've played (in order, mostly). Maelstrom Dungeons & Dragons Dragon Warriors Rolemaster Vampire: The Masquerade Call of Cthulhu Deadlands D20 Advanced Fighting Fantasy Pathfinder The Dresden Files Microscope The Black Hack Lords of Gossamer and Shadow

Looking back at my post on Boundaries I had the idea of setting a 'no combat' boundary for a game. In a game that devotes a lot of pages to damage, attacking, healing and defense, I think it would be a major constraint, one that many players wouldn't want to try. The benefit would be the ability to focus on other aspects of the story, including other types of action and danger. There could still be traps, stealth, natural hazards, rivals, enemies, success and failure, just no direct combat. If enemies are massive monsters or whole armies, then it wouldn't make much sense for a small group to want to fight them anyway. The threat of violence can still exist, but we just don't play through any fights. So for example, a scene might find the heroes trying to sneak through the camp of the enemy army. The tension comes from the knowledge that, if discovered, they are surrounded by armed enemies. If they somehow fail to get through undiscovered, they'll have to su

After reading this post I remembered a plan to blend a few different campaign settings together. I have Yoon Suin, Qelong, The Nightmares Underneath, Weird New World, and I could add Spears of the Dawn. I can fit all these on a map of the real world, using these settings as fantasy versions of their real counterparts. I don't know if any group would ever visit them all though, but given enough time a group might trek all the way across Europe and Asia.

I got my hands on quite a few RPG products in 2016, some new ones, and some older ones. Looking ahead to 2017, I have some plans for what I want to run or play. So far I've run two sessions of the Black Hack online, and I'm running a Lords of Gossamer and Shadow forum game. In terms of rule systems I want to try, there are the following. Dungeon World (run) Whitehack (run) Troika (run & play) De Profundis (play) The Nightmares Underneath (run) Shadowrun (run & run!) Eclipse Phase (play) It looks like I'm not too keen on playing RPGs at the moment, I'm more interested in running them. I also have plenty of ideas for creating custom rules and settings, so I'll hopefully make a few more posts about these. I think what I want most is a group of people willing to try out new things on a weekly basis, and the time to play once a week. Those are my two RPG goals for the year.