Foon

Foon, 10 months ago

I like it a lot! I don’t have experience using such mechanics in TTRPGs, though I feel the same way about the disappointment of rolling low. However there’s a few boardgames that come to mind that use similar mechanics, which are great. In Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood you have lots of tokens that you can use to buff your rolls/draws, but if you fail you get back everything you spent and you get to pick a new one on top of that. It actually has an extra sort of luck mitigation on top of that; random results are determined by custom dice, but all dice have a deck of cards equivalent that has all dice sides 3 times. You don’t shuffle them in between draws, so as you go the results get more and more predictable. Would really enjoy having more games with such (bad) luck mitigating mechanics!

Foon, 10 months ago

These minis look great, and I love the writeup of exactly how you got them this way!

I’m a huge fan of the skin of the Spined Devils, that’s pretty perfect. What kind of purple did you use as a base there?

Also really love the peg leg devil, such a clever way to deal with a failed print! And at least in the picture you really can’t tell it wasn’t supposed to look that way at first.

And about the fireball: my advice would be to get bright/light yellow in the recesses. LIke a wash, but then to lighten it instead of darken. It can be a bit tricky depending on what’s underneath it, getting the light colors opaque enough. But for me, that works wonder in giving glow effects.

Really cool work, thanks for sharing!

Foon, 10 months ago

I meant the fireball itself! Object source lighting is tricky, and while I dabble in it, I don’t feel comfortable giving tips about it… But the yellow on the fireball can at least give it the effect of looking like it’s glowing :)

Foon, 10 months ago

That’s wonderful! It’s so good to be able to share something you enjoy, and have others be excited about it too.

I’m curious about your mini one shots though, is that just your partner DMing for you as 1 player? How does that work out?

Foon, 10 months ago

Oh nice, I love Gloomhaven! (and other massive cooperative campaign games.) Which class are you playing? (let’s keep it spoiler-friendly.)

Foon, 10 months ago

I’m not opposed to crowdfunding tabletop games in principle. Even bigger companies might need some guaranteed cash up front before ordering a huge print run of their product. In that respect, it’s basically a preorder.

However, there’s a lot of habits surrounding kickstarters that I could really do without. Arbitrary funding goals and contrived stretch goals (“we can make a game if we get funded at 40k, but now that we have 2m we can give you the game as intended all these extra bits!”), preying on FOMO, overpromising and underdelivering, launching half baked and undeveloped ideas as a kickstarter, etc. All of that just screams to me that their main goal is taking my money, instead of creating an awesome game and being solvent while doing so.

I don’t really do crowdfunding games anymore. Instead I wait until it hits retail, pick up a second hand copy if it doesn’t, or just don’t buy it. There are exceptions to this of companies I trust to deliver, but they’re few and far between.

That said, I kind of like what Cephalofair is doing with their current Gloomhaven campaign on Backerkit. It’s basically a preorder for a bunch of new products that’ll go in production soon, clear information, no extra FOMO bullshit, lots of content creation and events around the new products, and a really good deal compared to MRSP (and historically, their crowdfunding campaigns have been by far the cheapest way to get their products).

Foon, 10 months ago

I don’t play solo RPGs myself either, but just like solo board games, there’s loads of people who enjoy them (such as OP). Just because they don’t appeal to you, that does not invalidate someone else’s game experience and enjoyment :)

Anything you want to share about Risus and what makes it fun in your opinion?

Foon, 10 months ago

I’m not sure, to be honest. I feel like only very few crowdfunding projects constitute “news” (and how do you decide what to include and what not?), and there’s plenty of people who don’t care for crowdfunding at all.

Perhaps better, the person who did an excellent weekly crowdfunding roundup on r/boardgames is also on lemmy. Perhaps we could include their posts here?

Foon, 10 months ago

I’ve been trying to cultivate my home as a place my friends feel comfortable showing up to. There’s a bunch of people (too many) in my life who are going through tough stuff, and lately more and more they just show up for a chat, reading a book in peace and quiet, or sleep over and have a night away from home if they need it.

It’s not so much them being welcome that feels like an accomplishment (because that’s just a given), but rather that they seem to have internalized that it’s OK to ask for help/support and feel comfortable enough with me/us to come here.

As I’m typing this out I’m not sure if this fits in the “betterment” category, but it’s a positive change in my life I’ve noticed and worked on lately, so submitting it anyway. 😊

Foon, 10 months ago

Ooh, there’s plenty!

• Frosthaven with my partner, we have the game set up on our gaming table so we can easily play a session whenever we want to. Which is almost daily.
• Oathsworn also with my partner, it’s a campaign game with epic miniatures and we make sure to paint each new one that unlocks each chapter, so there’s a bit more time in between each of the games.
• D&D 5e with a group of friends, we’ve been playing for over 5 years already. We used to play every other week, but life gets in the way so now it’s once every 3-4 weeks. It’s an amazing entirely homebrew campaign. I play a pretty “normal” Dwarf fighter who’s having an adventure with her whacky crazy friends. I love them all.
• Clank! Legacy with some good friends, although we took a bit of a break from competitive games and now just play coop games when we see each other!

Foon, 10 months ago

I see you've already gotten a lot of great suggestions, but I'll add two more that I haven't seen yet:

• Spirit Island: A fantastic game in which you play a nature spirit defending their island from the invading settlers. Great opportunities for tactical decisions, with very little luck involved. All the different spirits you can play are unique, and make each game entirely different.
• Sprawlopolis: A Button Shy game, this game consists of 18 cards only (it fits in your pocket). All cards have city blocks, parks, and roads on them. You put the cards down one by one, adjacent or (partially) on top of others, and build your city. Each card has scoring conditions on its back, and every game you pick 3, so you always have different goals for winning. Pretty challenging game! It's quick to play and due to its size you can bring it anywhere with you.

Foon, 10 months ago

I see you already play Aeon's End, which would be first on my list of recommendations, I can highly recommend the other content too. It's one of my favourite games, and it plays so well at 2 players (and it's good at 4 players too, just a different experience IMO).

Another would be Spirit Island, an asymmetrical game in which each player is a nature spirit who tries to defend their island from the invading settlers. It's incredibly strong thematically. While the rules are pretty straightforward, it has an incredibly complex decision space and can be a bit of brain burner. The great thing about that is that it really limit alpha gaming, as it's generally too complex to think for other people too. Especially with expansions adding more spirits, adversaries, and power cards, every game is very different.

If you play with your spouse and you like legacy/campaign games, I can also recommend Gloomhaven. Particularly Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is a great entry point into the world and system, and it's a lot more approachable than the main game while still offering a similar experience. There's a second edition of Gloomhaven coming out next year, which is in all respects an improved version of an already great game, so if after Jaws of the Lion you want more , I'd recommend waiting for that.

Foon, 10 months ago

Yeah I'm a bit hesitant to try to switch exactly because of what you describe. I worry that everything is just going to be frustrating because we can do the same things, but just have to do them differently. We did discuss making the switch in our group (exactly because we want to step away from WotC and it seems to offer great gameplay), but ultimately it's up to the DM. I do know they bought a whole lot of source books already, so who knows, maybe soon.

I would love to try different systems for oneshots I run, though, but then to start with I think they need to be very different from D&D 5e so I don't get things mixed up. Any suggestions? 😊

Foon, 10 months ago

It does sound good to make a permanent switch away from D&D 5e in our group, although also a bit daunting. But it's up to the DM, who's similarly on the fence. Who knows, maybe soon.

Do you have any recommendations for TTRPG systems that are very different from D&D 5e? I'd love to try some in a one-shot, but I think I'd need to have it be different enough so I don't confuse things. I feel like over time I've become a walking D&D rulebook and I would probably default to that when I try to do something too similar!

Foon, 10 months ago

What's your favourite thematic/narrative game?

Foon, 10 months ago

Hot dang 8 kids?! You can even play big group games with just your immediate family!

I don't think I've played any of your games, but I took a quick look and they seem pretty cool. What's your favourite part about designing games?

Foon, 10 months ago

Oof that sounds pretty grim indeed. I don't think my players would enjoy that all that much at the moment. It does seem cool though. But I guess I'm looking for something a bit lighter in tone 🤷

Foon, 10 months ago

Ooh War of the Ring is an amazing game. I've only played it twice, but really enjoyed it. It's done so well thematically and it really felt like we were living a story indeed. One of those games, I was playing the Free People, and was getting absolutely slaughtered by the Shadow Armies... But I had the card that let Aragorn bring the armies of the dead, and managed to get everything in order to wipe out a huge number of enemies. My opponent being as new to the game as I was had no idea this card existed, so the look of surprise was priceless!

Foon, 10 months ago

Ooh I like Tokaido a lot! It has such a serene feeling to it. I have it's successor, Namiji, which is also a great game.

My favourite solo game is Spirit Island, it's a pretty complex cooperative game with lots of variability. You play as nature spirits (for example the Ocean, Earth, River, Lightning) trying to defend their island from the invading settlers. All the spirits are really different with their own unique powers. The rules aren't that complicated, but the decision space is huge. It plays really well at all player counts, and it's one of the few games where I think true solo (i.e. 1 spirit only, instead of playing the role of multiple players yourself) is a cool experience.

Foon, 10 months ago

Yeah some of my favourites are from JE too, I particularly like Finder and Downpour. And Lure of the Deep Wilderness, although it's very much dependent on which adversary we're playing against. Although I have a lot of love for the base game spirits too, especially when we're introducing new people to it I tend to play one of my staples Rampant Green or Thunderspeaker. And of course Ocean is awesome, though someone else tends to snap that up quickly!

Foon, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

Just try to let go of the “well I’ve always done it this way” which I know is easier said than done.

Definitely easier said than done... I'm sure I'd really struggle with that.

I think the Familiar example is a great explanation. It really does sound much cooler. In 5e, you don't really get a whole lot of meaningful choices after level 3 or so.

It’s an indie solo journaling RPG called Apothecaria

Based on this description, you seem to have picked up my "vibes" pretty well :D It sounds super cute. I'm not sure about the solo aspect, though. I generally don't enjoy solo gaming as much, and especially TTRPGs are something I do with friends.

But generally, I like whimsical and cute settings. I'm much more of a fantasy person than scifi. Also not looking for dystopian worlds, right now that's not something my group would handle well. Also a big fan of strange creatures (for example the Feywild is my favourite realm in D&D) and animals. Generally looking for more wholesomeness. More "Help the Forest Queen and her pack of magical forest creatures get rid of the creeping blight in the forest" rather than "A cabal of evil people has released a monster that's set to devour all the poor people".

Edit: Also, a strong bonus would be tight rules. With little ambiguity. So players can have clear expectations of the consequences of their actions, rather than just "GMs discretion".

Does that help at all? I'm excited to learn about new systems.

Foon, 10 months ago

It’s not so much a sequel I guess, as a reimplementation of many of the mechanics. This one is themed around taking your boat around the sea, collecting fish and panoramas, and releasing your wish boats into the ocean. It’s a lovely game!