@SJohnRoss@dice.camp
@SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

SJohnRoss

@SJohnRoss@dice.camp

You examine the S. John closely, but find only a small tag proclaiming him a product of the Frobozz Magic Game Designer Company.

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epidiah, to random
@epidiah@dice.camp avatar

tater tots

SJohnRoss,
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@epidiah I don't disagree.

valthonis, to random
@valthonis@dice.camp avatar

I am all in favor of eating the rich, but I honestly think some of them should be quarantined until we know for sure what the heck is wrong with them. I feel like there’s more than a small risk of there being a “mad cow disease” analogue among the wealthy that we might contract by consuming them, and then we’re right back where we started.

SJohnRoss,
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@valthonis @sennoma I agree and hope the kaiju are willing to agree to this ratio.

PaulCzege, to random

You and I can talk about our lives and actions and selves in the temporal world, and also about our lives and actions and selves in our inscapes of imagined and game worlds. We are real, and alive across them all.

So why shouldn't the most perceptive and alive people in our imagined and journaling game worlds be able to talk about their worlds and the temporal world as well.

SJohnRoss,
@SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

@PaulCzege Some can; that's an oldie. As for should and shouldn't: no such thing in this context.

SJohnRoss, (edited ) to random
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deleted_by_author

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    SJohnRoss, (edited )
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    @clarkvalentine Well, I'm definitely not approaching it as a guide for those devoted to the style. It's built on the premise that the form is worthy of plunder, in the grand tradition of our hobby. I think anyone designing adventures, for nearly any Trad style and for several Trad-adjacent ones,* could swipe useful bits from it.

    HTT is archaeology, in so many ways, and I'm not harboring any delusions to the contrary. 😊

    • Those forms where "an adventure" is a useful unit of design.
    zozo, to random
    @zozo@dice.camp avatar

    finally managed to figure out why I didn't like the clan quest mod and it's that bloodlines' strength is that it remains very evocative while giving few concrete details, allowing the player to fill in the blanks.

    You can create an entire backstory for Sebastian Lacroix based entirely on how his voice actor intones the word "belgian"

    When another writer comes in and haphazardly fills in those blanks themselves, it's incongruous to that philosophy, and lessens the writing of the game as a whole

    SJohnRoss,
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    @zozo This reminds me of how I feel "Ode to Billy Joe," the song by Bobby Gentry, is my favorite work of short fiction ... but the film based on it is awful. Partially it's just not a great film, but in this context, it fills in all the ambiguous/evocative elements of the original song with Definite Answers, and does nobody a service.

    SJohnRoss,
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    @zozo I always think of detail like onions. It's not that onions are good, or onions are bad. It's that there's skill in recognizing the excellent amount of onions in any given context. 😅

    SJohnRoss,
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    @zozo And the important thing about Lore is that it can be made of answers but it can also be made of questions, and those each hit very differently in different contexts, too. In my RPG worldbuilding, I lean VERY heavily into raising thematic questions as my core form of lore.

    chgowiz, to traveller
    @chgowiz@dice.camp avatar

    Where I'd rather have situations than rules...

    https://open.substack.com/pub/chgowiz/p/filling-in-the-holes-in-classic-traveller?r=a4hdf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

    SJohnRoss,
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    @chgowiz I have mixed feelings about it all. On the one hand, in my preferred style of play we like laying the rules aside as often as possible.

    ON THE OTHER HAND, without that psychological or cultural urge we're talking about, we'd have never gotten the most magical page in the history of gaming, where we learn exactly what throws we need to use a vest "without incident." 😊

    SJohnRoss,
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    @chgowiz There's a lot to unpack on that page; it just keeps on giving every time.

    True story: my gaming PDF library keeps this page at the root directory. I consider it a signpost. I keep it constantly in mind as a kind of totem. 😅

    I held the original artwork for the vest in my hand, once. A holy experience.

    catshavenolord, to random

    Finally got around to running some Risus with Toast of the Town from @SJohnRoss and my players had an absolute blast investigating around town and ultimately setting a mansion on fire causing a cloud of hallucinogenic smoke to descend on the city while they had a climatic fight with the main villain. I'll have more coherent thoughts about it when it's not so late, but it's such a good adventure, and it's really interesting thinking now about the commonalities and differences with 1/2

    SJohnRoss,
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    @catshavenolord I look forward to hearing more about how it went; it's always so nice to hear about Toast getting more table-time.

    SJohnRoss, to random
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    Well, The Marvels was super fun. I cried like five times, but lost it laughing at least that many, too.

    I'm squarely in the crosshairs for this flick ... Monica was MY Captain Marvel as a kid (though I loved Carol in this, especially the ways they showed how atrophied her people-skills are), and Ms. Marvel is one of my favorite MCU things so far, so this one hit all the sweet-spots for me. Especially happy that Kamala's family got to stick around as much as they did!

    SJohnRoss, to random
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    When I was in high school, a gamer-buddy and I would skip school to go to the base library, and we'd use dice to select a random book for one another.

    We'd part company for an hour, go to our favorite comfy chairs in the library, and just rummage through the random books. Then we'd meet up and talk about it.

    We only did it a few times, but, in terms of education, each of those days was worth more than a month of the school-days we skipped to do it.

    SJohnRoss, (edited ) to worldbuilding
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    I'm seat-of-the-pants about in some ways, but there's some arbitrary math guiding the scope of . The most important is probably the 1/8th rule, which says I cannot explicitly describe more than 1 location in 8 ... for every building/etc I describe, I need to leave 7 for the GM and/or later development. This is both a maximum and my target, so I'm trying to get very near to that 7:1 ratio but without exceeding it, price-is-right style. [continued]

    SJohnRoss,
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    A second numerical rule is the "Five Excitements" rule, which says that, for each of the neighborhoods, there must be a bare absolute minimum of five reasons I'd be personally excited about PCs visiting there. This one isn't like the 1/8th in that it's not also a target; it's just a ground floor that I'm happy to exceed by as much as possible. Mainly it's to remind myself that even the smallest neighborhood needs to deserve its pages or else be made to sit in the corner until it apologizes.

    SJohnRoss,
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    If you take these rules together, you see why the Five Excitements is a bare minimum. The 1/8th rule implies that I'll be describing 500 or so locations, or an average of maybe 21-22 per neighborhood. If I can't be excited about 5 in 21, then I'm the one who needs to sit in the corner until I apologize! That said, some will be described only briefly, with one or two lines and some explanatory symbols. Others will be given paragraphs or (in some cases) multipage breakout articles.

    SJohnRoss, (edited )
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    For the scope of the city, this is all a bit tight. While Hammondal is a small, barely-regarded city at the edge of the world, that still leaves about a dozen different cultures to be represented in a meaningful way, with enough dimension, identity, nuance and contradiction so we know they're alive, and not just archetypes. Beyond that dozen with a strong presence, there are dozens more with a weaker footprint who still need a nod or three each to feel gameable. That adds up quick. 😊

    SJohnRoss,
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    Beyond these and a few other, more arcane rules I've set for myself, I'm not writing to fit. That is: I have no target wordcount or page-count beyond my usual "enough to get the job done, and no more."

    But all these numbers mean that many locations will be juggling multiple jobs ["reveal X about the Mantoche, Y about the Boranese and Z about the Church influence on the youth gangs through this one shop"] ... which is always how I prefer it. 😅

    SJohnRoss, (edited )
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    This may help clarify why I express disappointment with some city books ["I just read 500 words about a blacksmith and all I learned is that it's a regular blacksmith. Oh, and I know the dude's stats for some reason?"] and inspired by others ["I just read 250 words about a blacksmith and I know three new things I'd LOVE to write an adventure about!"]

    wyrmisis, to random

    So like... what do people talk about on LinkedIn?

    I can't tell if I'm a boomer or anti-boomer for not getting how that particular social network works (outside of the obvious job board stuff)

    SJohnRoss,
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    @wyrmisis Well, I hope I never find whatever state of mind would give me anything more in common with my Dad. 😅 He's a full-on boomer in every literal and metaphorical way.

    phil, to random
    @phil@dice.camp avatar

    How many "D&D but not really D&D" games do you own?
    I'll start:

    • Dungeon Crawl Classics
    • Index Card RPG
    • Old School Essentials
    • Cairn
    • Pathfinder 2e
    • Forbidden Lands
    • ShadowDark
    • Knave

    That's 8, wow. Without counting Burning Wheel and Torchbearer, that could arguably be included.

    SJohnRoss,
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    @phil I didn't say YOU should. 😅 I was just doing a mental count of my own "D&D but not D&Ds."

    I've never paid WotC for one of theirs, but they've supplied me with them despite it all. 🫣

    SJohnRoss, to random
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    The big challenge I usually face when I run workshops isn't explaining causal chains; most people get that pretty instantly. The big problem is getting to the point where causal chains even make sense as a topic.

    The huge hump to get over is to talk a designer/GM accustomed to the tools of low-trust design (objectives, obstacles, encounters, offered choices/menus, etc) to think in terms of problems. It's a tiny thing but it feels HUGE and I sometimes can't guide them to it.

    SJohnRoss,
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    @zorbtrauts Well, there are no bans. It's just about recognizing the difference between LTT and HTT elements.

    But beyond that, yes, problems (both HTT and LTT problems) can certainly center on upcoming events.

    SJohnRoss, to StarTrek
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    deleted_by_author

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    SJohnRoss,
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    @dave @joncounts I think your nan sounds "hilarious." ☺️

    rdonoghue, to random
    @rdonoghue@dice.camp avatar

    There seems to be a streak of cruelty in video game release dates that immediately follow a 3 day weekend.

    SJohnRoss,
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    @vandermore @rdonoghue I think this is literally the intention, yeah with [ anyway]. It's a way to push the premium upgrade.

    SJohnRoss,
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

    @vandermore @rdonoghue I'm still working on the assumption that it'll be a nicely-reskinned version of the same single-player sandbox game they've been re-selling since they dumbed Morrowind down to make Oblivion. 😅 Which is not a complaint; I play the HELL out of it every single time (and I'm doing a Fallout 4 re-play while I wait). But I haven't seen any indications, yet, that it'll be anything other.

    I suspect I'll love it, and mock it, as per usual. 😁

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