Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Tom Bombodildo]

So expectations are very different but it's also a whole other culture. Which is why I'm wrapping up my last game and hanging up the hobby. To me it's something I enjoy doing with friends. It's not enjoyable to run for an alien group who I don't know or have anything in common with outside of it.

See, maybe I've had unbelievable luck, but when running something long-term for public tables/a table of randos, there's always at least one person that I can pick out as being suitable for a game with friends (at least as a good player; not everyone is as fond of racial slurs as we are) and some people have been integrated into our friend group this way and play with us regularly. Even the people that didn't integrate I still play with every once in a while online. It's why I was so surprised when everyone my brother tried to play with or run for was incapable of a good game. I think you can partially filter this out by forcing people to play something other than DnD 5e, but that's a battle in and of itself.

 

[Active User]

What is TZU an acronym for?

 

[ProphylacticMagician]

Random question for GMs: how do you break up the montany? Say for D20 systems you have combats and skill checks to work with for most encounters, I have a group a players who like these things but also really enjoy something different now and then. Idle RP is always fun but it’s just that, idle conversation without progressing any goals. My players also aren’t really the puzzle type, they just don’t enjoy them.

Also, if this question has been asked before please point me to it.

 

[Judge Dredd]

What is TZU an acronym for?

My mistake. The game is called Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. Or ZAU for short. I always see it capitalised.

 

[Ghostse]

Random question for GMs: how do you break up the montany? Say for D20 systems you have combats and skill checks to work with for most encounters, I have a group a players who like these things but also really enjoy something different now and then. Idle RP is always fun but it’s just that, idle conversation without progressing any goals. My players also aren’t really the puzzle type, they just don’t enjoy them.

Also, if this question has been asked before please point me to it.

Depends for every group.

Sometimes I'll have some mysteries worked into the plot where figuring them out early gives them advantages later. But that might be too close to puzzles for your group.

Borrow a page from BECMI and start to give the players organizations that they lead. Give them underlings to direct, politics to play, organziations to manage.

Or even it just normal D&D encounters, mix it up. Have a dungeon with politics between factions - do the players side with the kobolds, gobins, or the bullywogs? Can they talk the Orcs into taking the Gnolls for them? Do they try to convince the dragon the necomancer who set up shop in the other part of the dungeon is going to be betray him, or do they try to see what sort of reward the necromancer would offer them for helping him create a dracolich?

And I mean, I guess in a very real sense:
At the end of the day, we're just playing pretend. the only real goal is having fun. Now, sometimes having means having a story set out and progressing it. But if the party just dicks around town and not getting much done, if everyone - and remember the GM is part of everyone- is having fun doing it...

My mistake. The game is called Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. Or ZAU for short. I always see it capitalised.

> Title character is a nigger with stupid hair and body paint

Yeah bro, fire that player.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Random question for GMs: how do you break up the montany?

I don't feel qualified to answer this as I don't remember having this problem, but on reflection, that might be a good thing.

First and formost, you're not limited to combat and skill checks. There's tone, theme, game length, structure (is it mission based, exploration based, dungeon crawl). as well as other things. I've run games from modern horror to high fantasy, Victorian London, James Bond, and soon I'm running a fantasy wild west themed game. My games generally run until level 12 or so, since that's the point where they naturally seem to end, and when I start to tire of the setting. Even within a fantasy setting, you can go grim dark, historic, silly, sci-fi (Barrier Peaks), and many more.

With combat, there's lots of ways to mix it up. It doesn't have to be much. Tight hallways where PCs can't shoot through each other, a guy on a platform or rooftop out of melee range, a wild magic area, or a set of stairs that are difficult terrain unless the PCs leap down them. This kind of advice is generally frowned upon online as it screws over particular players, but I never had a problem with it, and neither did any players as far as I know. The melee fighter would be screwed by window crossbow guy, but in practice it breaks the monotony of running up and swinging their best weapon. I'm also a fan of removing player gear. Disarm, rust monster, mimics, things of that nature. The fighter now has a choice. Does he draw his backup club, or does he make a run for his +1 axe that was just thrown across the room.

This can extend to entire adventures. Escort quests, rescue missions, a race to find some magical item, having to fight enemies with non-lethal means, whatever. Yeah, these are basically the same combat and skill check combo, but they feel different.

Another thing I'm a fan of is utility at a cost magic items. My favourite being an item that grants advantage on a roll, but disadvantage on the next two rolls. Others are weird consumables. Spell scrolls basically, but rethemed to be weird items like statuettes or a necklace. That way the players can choose to use it or sell it. Consumables are great because they don't derail campaigns. They can derail an adventure or trivialise a big encounter, but rarely more than that.

 

[Janusz z Gliwic]

Anyone here played Star Wars d6?
I'll be running campaign soon, and one player decided he wants to play clone deserter. It will be good for narrative when other players discover who he really is (I hope they won't metagame it from his stats/behaviour), and it will tie him to some important NPCs but I'm not sure how to handle his attributes. Unlike other species, clones don't get min/max attributes but rather need to break down 2d6 into pips and add two at most to set attribute value. Problem is, being PC adds extra six dice but I can't find anywhere how to apply them to clone - two extra dice is all it takes to give him two extra pips on every single attribute. I'm not sure how to proceed with that, at first I figured I could allow him to just add two pips to all attributes which will leave him with total number of starting dice higher than human but won't allow him to level them later.
How would you handle it?

 

[Adamska]

Random question for GMs: how do you break up the montany? Say for D20 systems you have combats and skill checks to work with for most encounters, I have a group a players who like these things but also really enjoy something different now and then. Idle RP is always fun but it’s just that, idle conversation without progressing any goals. My players also aren’t really the puzzle type, they just don’t enjoy them.

Also, if this question has been asked before please point me to it.

Genre shifts in style do a lot of good. Shifting to horror, or a detective style noir, political scheming, or even something as silly as Iron Chef all can be done with. It's more just what you can cook up than it is monotonous.

Changing up adventure structures also help. Looting and tomb robbing's great, but you can flavor it as archaeology, cleansing a tomb of the undead, taking bored rich NPC snobs on a tour for profit, trying to find ingredients to build your dark army... it's creativity more than anything else. Or you can rip apart and reassemble from splats.

That works rather well too.

 

[ZMOT]

Part of me is tempted to say "fuck it" and make up my own game, but then it join the countless OSR games languishing in obscurity on DriveThru and Itch. And I'd have no way to really play test it. If there's interest, I can start a thread and crowd source ideas from KF, but if not, then it was a stupid idea anyway.

testing? that's so yesterday. just make a point how you give GMs the freedom to do whatever they want for any possible rule questions, if there are even rules for that at all!

but seriously, just putting something out is still better than have it sit in a drawer, putting it out doesn't mean you think it's worth money (you can still put it under PWYW). or just create your own blog, even if it sounds boomer af.
or if you feel cheeky you could check the license of some existing stuff, if it's something like CC (because capitalism sucks) just make your own reimagining of rahowa. it's 2024, remakes are all the rage. or go even further, mechanics can't be copyrighted yet, if you keep it loose enough and avoiding any specific names technically you could blatantly copy anything (just put in an anecdote about getting inspired by X as a kid in the intro or something, then it's a "homage". also helps with searchtags for stuff like "soulslike" and stuff).

> Title character is a nigger with stupid hair and body paint

Yeah bro, fire that player.

fwiw the outrage about that game is simply collateral from the SBI thing. remember when people constantly tell woketards to make their own game instead of shitting up existing properties fans love? then turning around making a big deal about their original games with MUH WOKE MUH SBI is completely retarded. what, people expect a game by woketards NOT be woke and full of grifters? why they'd need those grifters is anyone's guess tho, they're are not ignorant whiteys after all and thus automatically know all their history and shared experience and whatnot.

in any case I much rather have them do this because it still requires an ounce of creativity than shit like bodyguard of persia.

 

[Ghostse]

fwiw the outrage about that game is simply collateral from the SBI thing. remember when people constantly tell woketards to make their own game instead of shitting up existing properties fans love? then turning around making a big deal about their original games with MUH WOKE MUH SBI is completely retarded. what, people expect a game by woketards NOT be woke and full of grifters? why they'd need those grifters is anyone's guess tho, they're are not ignorant whiteys after all and thus automatically know all their history and shared experience and whatnot.

in any case I much rather have them do this because it still requires an ounce of creativity than shit like bodyguard of persia.

Bix nood shhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

in any case I much rather have them do this because it still requires an ounce of creativity than shit like bodyguard of persia.

That's the problem. They will make original woke shit...then still screw up existing properties anyway. By this point, people are just sick of woke shit and will shit on anything that's woke.

 

[Overly Serious]

That's the problem. They will make original woke shit...then still screw up existing properties anyway. By this point, people are just sick of woke shit and will shit on anything that's woke.

Yeah, the point of Progressivism isn't to build a new place for themselves, it's to tear down existing structures. The reason being that Progressivism is a tool of subversion mostly. It's about breaking continuity of a culture. That's why statues have to be torn down.

 

[EleventySeven]

What gods in RPGs are fun or interesting?

I never cared for fictional pantheons, and when a setting book opens with "here's 27 gods, their domains, and who worships them" my eyes glaze over and I skip the section. Which is all the more strange there are entire expansion books on the subject. So far, the only gods I found interesting were in Starfinder. Abadar and Triune. Being the god of money and civilization (and space Amazon) and a machine god that invented The Drift (the games equivalent of The Warp).

I've been told that DnD used to have a god of love that did wedding and matchmaking, but was never mentioned in 5e for being problematic in current year.

There was also a moon god that Spoony said everyone would choose for convention games because they were OP.

For my second game in the same universe as the 1-20 Pathfinder campaign Alabama Gamer mentioned, I'm introducing two gods built out of the corpse of the god of magic which effectively converts Pathfinder into a Dualist religious system as essentially an overgod of positive energy (capital G Good) and negative energy (capital E Evil) where all the other gods must make some acknowledgement to them, although neutrality is a choice in and of itself.

I imagine a non-aligned class of gods will form with many of the lawful evil and chaotic good deities paying some amount of tribute to both for various aspects.

 

[Judge Dredd]

fwiw the outrage about that game is simply collateral from the SBI thing. remember when people constantly tell woketards to make their own game instead of shitting up existing properties fans love? then turning around making a big deal about their original games with MUH WOKE MUH SBI is completely retarded. what, people expect a game by woketards NOT be woke and full of grifters? why they'd need those grifters is anyone's guess tho, they're are not ignorant whiteys after all and thus automatically know all their history and shared experience and whatnot.

It's more that they made a game, the game was SBI trash, nobody bought it because it was SBI trash, and then journos/twitteratti had a tantum blaming the games failure on people who don't want SBI trash.

 

[ZMOT]

That's the problem. They will make original woke shit...then still screw up existing properties anyway. By this point, people are just sick of woke shit and will shit on anything that's woke.

the difference is I wouldn't call everything with a black protagonist woke, because from there it's only a small step calling the old blade movies woke or something. I got nigger fatigue as much as the next guy (even more so after play ryse son of rome recently, the feeling I jumped dimensions playing a 11 year old game almost gave me whiplash), I just don't think lumping everything together reactionary is helpful.

It's more that they made a game, the game was SBI trash, nobody bought it because it was SBI trash, and then journos/twitteratti had a tantum blaming the games failure on people who don't want SBI trash.

see, that's what I mean. it was made by a black dude, about a black dude looking for his father or something with an african folklore motif that isn't fucking wakanda. all SBI does is inject black people everywhere and write mediocre characters whining about evil wypipo (wouldn't put it past them doing that shit even in that game), they couldn't have made it worse than it already was. why should I waste energy getting outraged about that? tbh I have more people seen shitting on it with the same arguments than anyone defending it. beyond that it should be judged like every other game.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

the difference is I wouldn't call everything with a black protagonist woke, because from there it's only a small step calling the old blade movies woke or something. I got nigger fatigue as much as the next guy (even more so after play ryse son of rome recently, the feeling I jumped dimensions playing a 11 year old game almost gave me whiplash), I just don't think lumping everything together reactionary is helpful.

I mean, I get your sentiment, and largely agree with it, but people have been trained into a pavlovian response at this point. Knee jerk reactions are inevitable when you see the state of media. And sometimes, you just got to call a spade a spade.

 

[ZMOT]

I mean, I get your sentiment, and largely agree with it, but people have been trained into a pavlovian response at this point. Knee jerk reactions are inevitable when you see the state of media. And sometimes, you just got to call a spade a spade.

oh don't get me wrong, most people are retarded. it's just that you get more people to listen and the normalfags on board when your goal is "I want better written characters and stories", not "I want less niggers in my media" - even if the result is the same.

 

[Judge Dredd]

see, that's what I mean. it was made by a black dude, about a black dude looking for his father or something with an african folklore motif that isn't fucking wakanda. all SBI does is inject black people everywhere and write mediocre characters whining about evil wypipo (wouldn't put it past them doing that shit even in that game), they couldn't have made it worse than it already was. why should I waste energy getting outraged about that? tbh I have more people seen shitting on it with the same arguments than anyone defending it. beyond that it should be judged like every other game.

It's not outrage though. It's indifference. Even if we remove SBI and race from the game, it's still a metroidvania with pixel art graphics and a 2deep5u story. ie. An over saturated genre that fails to generate interest.

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

Random question for GMs: how do you break up the montany? Say for D20 systems you have combats and skill checks to work with for most encounters, I have a group a players who like these things but also really enjoy something different now and then. Idle RP is always fun but it’s just that, idle conversation without progressing any goals. My players also aren’t really the puzzle type, they just don’t enjoy them.

Also, if this question has been asked before please point me to it.

When I was still doing stuff with design and TT RPG's and I was play testing stuff with the group of people I was designing it with we had a lot of crafting systems and other stuff that were quite a large amount of time that would be really boring to have in a session so that's what the players characters did usually between sessions people would actually make like 5 pages of PDF's of stuff they'd send me but they wanted to do

 

[AnOminous]

It's not outrage though. It's indifference. Even if we remove SBI and race from the game, it's still a metroidvania with pixel art graphics and a 2deep5u story. ie. An over saturated genre that fails to generate interest.

That's the real problem, and whining about it being "woke" is a bullshit reason to freak out about it. Plenty of games have black people in them and it isn't woke. Look at l4d2. It would be weird if it didn't have black people in it considering where it is.

It's "woke" when it's ridiculous, like replacing Doomguy with a groid for no reason at all or just turning every redhead woman into a groid.