@masukomi@dice.camp
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

masukomi

@masukomi@dice.camp

👉 Senior Back-End Dev. Seeking Remote Position 👈

Autodidactic, Autistic, ADHD, Trans 🏳️‍⚧️, programmer who loves thinking about TTRPGs.

If you're interested in hearing my random thoughts about life, programming geekery, 3D printing, and cute pics of my dogs and cat, then follow my other account at https://connectified.com/@masukomi

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

masukomi, (edited ) to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Looking for info & gossip re current landscape for TTRPG creators:

Bunch of "larger" publishers like @mcg seem to have turned to & stayed there (kickstarter tools suck(ed) so it makes sense).

got some interest when it re-launched(?) & seemed great as a backer but I almost NEVER hear about anything launched there.

Feels like Most folks are wandering back to .

Can anyone explain or shed any light on what the deal with any of this is?

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

I've been continuing to playtest my game via solo-play‡ & I just discovered that one of the people in our tiny party is secretly a priestess of a long forgotten healing god(dess)! She was already village herbalist & the dice were like "yeah, but..."

I'm so excited!

I think she's possibly a little uncomfortable revealing this as we come from a village of heretical atheists, but we've just encountered one of her gods forgotten(?) shrines!

Squeeee

‡ via @TanaPigeonWMG 's Mythic GME of course

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Really cool looking cosy(ish) Solo Journaling RPG launching next month from Parable Games.

ION Heart - A Lo-Fi Solo Mech TTRPG. Create your own worlds to explore and journal the experiences of you and your mech throughout the galaxy. Teach your mech's AI brain, the ION Core, what it means to be alive!

If you follow on backerkit they give you a free quickstart to check it out before launch.
https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/f52cb6b7-f380-4a28-a901-07aef593e3bd/landing?mc_cid=fb25abe4ef

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Just checked https://startplaying.games/ out of morbid curiousity. Still impossible to search for "not D&D" games which leaves it 100% useless for me because I'm not going to search with every single not-d&d option they list since most of them have zero games available.

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

FATE continues to be something of a Holy Guide for me in developing my game. There are SO many aspects‡ of it I love.

BUT every time i think of playing it I think about this graph, & the implication that the dice are only barely introducing any variance. 60% of the time you will roll whatever your stat is. 80% of the time you'll roll your skill +/- 1.

I feel like why are we even bothering to roll?

And then I think about stunts.

‡ 🤭
🧵1/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Stunts are what set your character apart. They're the special thing they can do, and that's awesome.

BUT they are limited to

  • use X skill in a non-standard context
  • add +2 to a roll in a limited context
  • minor rules variant.
    Frequently something like take this normal rule/behavior & replace it with that normal rule/behavior in a limited context.

That's pretty much it.
🧵2/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

You can describe your stunt in myriad ways, but at the end of the day it's almost always the same 3 options & they don't feel special to me.

Maybe this is like the scene in the matrix where Cypher says "I don't even see the code. All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead."

It may be, but I think it's more than that. I feel like Genesys' Talents & Savage Worlds' Powers are ultimately very similar solutions.
🧵3/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

I think they're both ultimately just a collection of common levers that you choose from to create a new one & then flavor it as you see fit.

Scrolling through SWADE i'm seeing stuff like: targets get a -2 penalty, raise / lower a skill by 1, add +2 to a roll, you get to do a minor thing no-one else can do (divination), etc.
🧵4/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

BUT it feels cool. It's not nearly as flexible as FATE, because everything's predefined, but because there are more levers to pull & pre-defining things lets you present each one in a cool way, it FEELS cool, AND it doesn't feel like regardless of what stunt/power you have it's ultimately just the same 3 things.
🧵5/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Divination is a great example of this. In FATE you'd probably say something like "once per day you can spend 1 Fate point & roll <skill here> to contact the spirit world" and that TOTALLY works, but that doesn't sound NEARLY a cool as this.

🧵6/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

I think the takeaway is that the more generic your system is the more levers you need to provide for use when defining the things that make characters special.

This means that players wouldn't be able to easily & quickly create their own stunts, but maybe that's ok. There are ways to compensate & balance that out.
🧵7/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

You can also see that how you present a thing to a user makes a huge difference. My FATE "divination" ability above is boring. SWADE's is cool, but the real difference is presentation not mechanics.

Deflection's like this too. It SOUNDS cool, but folks are unlikely to write something that cool sounding during FATE character creation.

Also, it's easy to choose from a list of cool things. Creating an ability & deciding the levers it pulls at teh table with friends? Not so much.
🧵8/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

re & probabilities.

If you just reset your 🧠's perspective such that it expects to roll whatever your skill is minus one, then 80% of the time you'll be correct, or better than correct.

Kind-of like how the Ubiquity system uses d2s and allows you to always just take 1/2 of whatever your score is instead of rolling.

Rolling feels pointless / predetermined.

To me it makes more sense to just throw away the dice in those situations & use something like No Dice No Masters.

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@fabiocosta0305 sure, and those are good suggestions.

However, like i showed, it's not a question of IF you can create one, but how much cooler the SWADE one sounds even if it's ultimately VERY similar.

The fact that your examples are both +2 to X kinda reinforces my other point that all FATE stunts are just the same three thing.

Ex.
them: I've got a cool FATE stunt that....

me: Lemme pause you right there. It gives you +2 to a roll doesn't it?

them: uh... yeah.

;)

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@daniel commented that they prefer running games that don't require tons of VTT prep.

I have thoughts, specifically around the value of VTTs (or table equivalent), even in games that are GREAT for Theatre-of-the-Mind style play.
🧵1/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Even if we set aside accessibility things like aphantasia‡ describing the shared narrative space in a way that everyone "gets" all the time is essentially impossible.

You regularly end up with player saying something like "i jump in the way" and the GM going "uh, you can't. you're halfway across the room"

‡ literally no ability to visualize things in their mind.
🧵2/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Even if we have no tactical map, putting tokens out in their relative positions to each other in the scene eliminates the vast majority of these problems.

It sucks to be a player trying to do something that - in your mind - is totally plausible & possible, and then find out that the way you're visualizing the scene is COMPLETELY wrong. It just makes you feel dumb/ignorant, and that's BEFORE you realize you just said a "dumb" thing in front of a group of friends.

🧵3/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

It sucks to be the GM, and have a cool scene come to a crashing stop because you discover what your players are visualizing and what you are visualizing are radically different and incompatible things.
🧵4/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

There's also the value of imagery to set the scene. I can say "it's like walking through a Guatemalan rainforest" You hopefully know what it's like to be walking in a forest‡ but the forests of rainforests of Guatemala are nothing like those of North America (even the one in Washington).

‡ if not, please try to fix that ASAP.
🧵5/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Showing players an image from within a forest that resembles your fictional one changes everything. Here's a WELL-used forest path in northern Guatemala for example.

You see this and think "ugh i'm gonna twist my ankle" You might realize that you can't safely "run away", because the path will trip you, and everything beside the path makes you move at a snail's pace.

🧵6/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

VTTs Don't need a lot of functionality For a while I was using the Runehammer VTT (now Index Card VTT (ICVTT) requires Patreon support to use as a GM). It had support for background image, tokens, & a bunch of dice you could click on to roll, and not much else.

It was so bare bones. I had to do fog of war by dragging a bunch of cloud tokens over the areas they couldn't see yet.

WE LOVED IT. My players were actually kinda sad when we switched to Foundry VTT.
🧵7/8

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

to summarize:

  • shared narrative positioning is HARD. Putting tokens out is hugely helpful. It helps scenes flow smoothly, and gives players the mental tools they need to avoid saying "dumb" things.
  • evocative imagery also helps everyone get better understand what you're trying to convey.
  • You don't need shiny bells & whistles. VTTs Like ICVTT & Owbear Rodeo prove that you can have a ton of fun with hardly any features.
    🧵8/8
masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Question: Why does it seem that there is an inverse ratio between how fancy a VTTs web site is, and how easy it is to actually find out what games it supports?

Like holy shit trying to get a list of systems that Alchemy or Let's Role supports? Good luck. ugh.

You'd think they'd be like "Hey look! You can play all these awesome games!" but no. They're like "look! Pretty pictures & MAYBE whatever game we're promoting today"

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@malin "After Marty McFly burns a Warhammer novel.."

SO MUCH YES!
🤣

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

In 2 days 9th Level Games is launching a crowdfunding campaign for "City of Skull"

short version: Mazes (RPG) meets West Marches in a quest to retrieve magical items in a last-ditch attempt to save the last city… your city.

➕ assorted new shiny things for Mazes itself.

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/af6922b9-ca96-4a40-8855-9bfa70e7b968/landing

The problem is, I WANT IT NOW!!!!

Mazes is just a wonderful rules-light dungeon crawler with truckloads of personality that I love.

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Update re Mazes & City of Skull:

After a fruitless search for VTTs that supported it, I reached out to 9th level Games & Heather responded saying that Roll20 currently supports Mazes & when City Of Skull is released Alchemy will also. 🎉

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

personal thoughts on that:

  1. Unless I missed some recent overhaul† using Roll20's UX is awful compared to all(?) the alternatives, but i get it... it has a HUGE number of players because it was there first.
  2. Alchemy looks great, but it's so shiny that I'm like "don't trust. too pretty. it'll disappear without warning‡, or business wonks will find some way to screw us."

--
† entirely possible
‡ disappear when VC 💸 dries up or someone decides its not profitable "enough"

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