@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

bwebster

@bwebster@dice.camp

He/Him
TTRPG designer, founding member of Archstone Press and co-designer of The Years of Adventure RPG

Mostly interested in the NSR but with passing interest in Pathfinder (2e), PbtA, other indie systems, and RuneQuest/Glorantha

I also occasionally boost or post about (leftist) politics, Boston/urbanism, SFF stories, decentralization, skiing/climbing/outdoors

🏳️‍🌈

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

nickdrawthing, to random
@nickdrawthing@dice.camp avatar

Soliciting more advice! This time about NPCs.
My feeling is that West Marches games benefit from being outside of civilization and safety. Danger is the whole point. So it can be difficult to justify the existence of non-hostile NPCs in that setting without undermining the challenges upon which the whole format hinges.

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@nickdrawthing I don’t run WM explicitly, but more general sandboxes, and for that NPCs (and factions) are super important. They’re one of the core pillars of a sandbox game in my opinion (https://archstonepress.com/2023/09/running-your-first-sandbox/). While WM has more focus on exploration, that doesn’t mean you can’t put NPCs in. In fact, I would argue NPCs are a core part of helping to show parts of this world the players are exploring. They can also be helpful for tying together the scattered adventures that make up a WM game

kyonshi, to random
@kyonshi@dice.camp avatar

so a substitute teacher somehow thought it was a good idea to ask my kid's class what their thought about their home country were. They had to write down 4 things.

I am not sure she expected the results, my son's friend (6yo), the little tiny shy mouse that he is, managed to sum it up with: *broken pavement
*dirty streets
*ugly buildings
*people stealing numberplates and just bribing their way out of trouble

good lord, that kid is a natural born cynic if I have ever seen one.

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@kyonshi what does that last bullet point mean? (Asking as an American who’s never heard of a number plate)

nickdrawthing, to fediverse
@nickdrawthing@dice.camp avatar

Are there any blogging services that automatically slice up long posts into 500-character (maximum), threaded posts when you publish? I like the idea of an ActivityPub compatible blog but I know a lot of people (myself included) aren't wild about huge, 10K character posts showing up on their feed.
I can imagine a service like this that provides a clean looking article when viewed on the originating site, but provides threaded posts on the federated TL.
Maybe this already exists?

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@nickdrawthing not quite what you are looking for, but the WordPress plugin for ActivityPub allows you to configure it so that it only posts the first 400 characters of a post, and then adds a link back to your blog to read the rest

kyonshi, to random
@kyonshi@dice.camp avatar

Went to get some fast food with my colleagues, noticed some interesting patterns at Burger King:

  1. Plant-based burgers are now in the main menu and you can customize other burgers with plant patties.

  2. Most offers at the soda-fountain are zero sugar now. In fact from what I saw out of 7 offers only two contained sugar (normal Pepsi and ice tea).

Not sure what it means, but I generally like the way it goes to a less meat, less sugar kind of diet.

bwebster,
@bwebster@dice.camp avatar

@kyonshi Burger King is my go to fast food because they’ve had plant based burgers at every location (in the US anyway) since 2002. And the new impossible whoppers are pretty great too. It’s pretty much the most common fast food place that I can actually eat anything at

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

deleted_by_author

    •
    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking., but I think the answer is yes?

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

    It's been a minute; let's do this again:

    If you are a Tabletop RPG nerd and have less than, say, 500 followers (or think you have less than 500 that are actually active):

    1. Write a post to introduce yourself and your particular nerdery, if you haven't already got one pinned.

    2. Reply in the comments with a link to or copy of that post.

    3. Share, check back to find people you want to follow, all that.

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen glad you’re doing this again, looking forward to finding new people to follow!

    I have an intro post here: https://dice.camp/@bwebster/111841144209128895

    In short, I write and design TTRPGs and adventures as a worker-owner of Archstone Press, and I’m particularly interested in some of these things: #NSR #OSR #RuneQuest #PbtA #Pathfinder #BronzeAge fantasy, #Cairn (and the games that came out of it), and #worldbuilding in general!

    gbhnews, to random
    @gbhnews@mastodon.social avatar

    A little vintage realness courtesy of the reigning monarchs at the GBH Archives.

    Nothing, and we mean nothing, stops the marathon greats.

    grainy, timestamped footage of an old TV broadcast shows two men, one with a microphone, recounting a story from the 1935 Boston Marathon.

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @gbhnews is that Kenmore Square? Wow it really used to be car free for all! And I thought it was car-centric today 😂

    bwebster, to random
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    Gardens of Ynn (remaster) Kickstarter is live! One of my favorite adventures, and a super inspirational work for me and a lot of others I’m sure. Instant back for me. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soulmuppet/gardens-of-ynn

    bedirthan, to DnD
    @bedirthan@dice.camp avatar

    Why is it that none of the main settings for have canal cultures?
    There may be single cities that are Venice-like, but there aren't the regional canal systems common to England, the Low Countries, Germany, France, Iraq, Egypt, Mexico, China, etc during the times that inspire our games,

    Long boathouses!
    Tow cables!
    Backgrounds for operating the barges and such.
    A peoples who swim a lot.

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @bedirthan others have mentioned some great points, but one I don’t see is that D&D was heavily influenced by westerns and the myths of the Wild West, which has plenty of room for overland travel, but no room for canals (or water-based travel, or even water at all really). Canals also imply civilization, which D&D is notoriously allergic to (to its own detriment, in my opinion)

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @bedirthan absolutely agreed! I’d love to see more of it. For my own part, I’m definitely going to be including more canals in my settings now that you pointed this out (I have a whole province called “The Riverlands” which is absolutely begging for some canals)

    bwebster, to Astronomy
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    It’s surprisingly hard to find any solid sources on how many stars might exist within the Local Bubble (a 1,000 light year-wide region that our solar system sits near the center of). I can find sources on how many stars exist within around 50ly, and estimates of the entire Galaxy, but anything in between that seems impossible to find scientific sources on. Would love if someone can point me towards any resources on this!

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @galaxy_map @nyrath that’s fair! I think we have different purposes though, I’m mostly interested in getting a total count of stars within a certain range that could potentially support life, which limits it to pretty much just G and K type stars I believe. I assumed I could extrapolate that from total star counts, but maybe it is easier to go the other way and just search for counts of those star types

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @galaxy_map @nyrath ah, good to know about the distribution, thanks! I can try to look for that figure, it does seem easier to find than the other things I’ve been looking up

    wasabiisoft, to random
    @wasabiisoft@dice.camp avatar

    mastodon feels extremely dead. i have the feeling 90% of ppl who follow me or others don't even use the app anymore. maybe its just the nature of the site since likes aren't important here but idk. i don't have the feeling that ppl on here actually connect the way they should without an algo

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @wasabiisoft it’s definitely been a little quieter here lately, I think with bluesky opening up to everyone some people left here for there. Personally I still have trouble keeping up with my timeline here though, so it’s definitely still busy amongst the people I follow. Part of that is that I try to keep following new people whenever I see someone post about something I’m interested in

    bwebster, to random
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    So uh, what are the alternatives to Wordpress for self-hosting a blog? Bonus points if it’s more efficient and I can put it on a cheaper machine

    flyrefi, to random
    @flyrefi@dice.camp avatar

    A contradiction: Character drama is by far the main thing that gets me excited to play RPGs. But I gravitate to OSR styles of play instead of games that are designed for character drama.

    Why is that? Well I think other systems and approaches that are designed to force dramatic situations end up feeling to me like exactly that... forced drama.

    I think the most compelling drama feels organic, natural, internally consistent. You should be able to feel the domino effect in-fiction.

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @flyrefi I agree, but I also think there is more that could be done in OSR/NSR games to explicitly support character-driven play. That’s not to say it should force drama (which I also dislike). But there is more that we can be doing to have character drama in the NSR, and I think it’s a space that hasn’t been explored enough. And I think if it was explored more, we could create some really really interesting things

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

    The Guide Principles for WeirdGlass, draft version, at the link.

    I would appreciate any thoughts!

    https://levikornelsen.wordpress.com/2024/02/22/weirdglass-guide-principles/

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen these seem pretty reasonable to me at first glance. Tells what’s important for the game. Curious to see how it looks with some of the tables filled in, that would be pretty important to the overall feel I think. But if these are just guiding principles to expand on, I like it

    bwebster, to DnD
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    I’m trying to find a blog post that I read a while ago, and hoping someone here might be able to help. It was about 5e vs OSR, and how the OSR is built for GMs, but 5e is built for players. It talked about “play beyond the table” or something like that, basically the type of “solo play” that a GM does in prepping for a session (worldbuilding, making NPCs, building dungeons, etc.) and how players don’t get that type of play in the OSR, but do in 5e thinking about builds.

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @timmymac found it! It was a Reddit post, unfortunately, but here it is. “Lonely Fun” is the term I was looking for. https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/10rztmf/the_osr_lonely_fun_and_why_i_believe_many_dd/

    monkeyslunch, to random
    @monkeyslunch@mstdn.ca avatar

    Anyone have any good resources on Point Crawls?

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @monkeyslunch what sort of resources are you looking for?

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @monkeyslunch the Hill Cantons blog by Chris Kutalik has some good stuff, here’s one example: http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2012/01/crawling-without-hexes-pointcrawl.html?m=1

    Chris wrote Slumbering Ursine Dunes, which is a great example of a good point crawl. I’m sure @Wizardthieffighter has probably written some good stuff as well, UVG 2e would be my next example of an excellent point crawl and how to do them write.

    I also like Emmy Allen’s depth crawl stuff which always felt pointcrawl adjacent to me. I can find some more links!

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @monkeyslunch here’s @Wizardthieffighter talking about “Schematic Dungeons” which I would say is relevant: https://www.wizardthieffighter.com/2018/diagram-dungeons-and-the-golem-warehouse/

    Mostly though the Hill Cantons blog is where I see the most pointcrawl stuff from the early days (and maybe where the term was coined? Not sure about that).

    I’d love to see other stuff people find about pointcrawls too though, I love them and don’t see enough talk about them!

    nickdrawthing, to DnD
    @nickdrawthing@dice.camp avatar

    I've really never run a classic dungeon crawl. My first game as a player was a dungeon (4e's Keep in the Shadowfell) and as much as that edition and module left much to be desired, I feel nostalgic for it.
    If a guy was planning to run a short dungeon crawl with a goal length of 4-6 sessions, what would you suggest?
    Extra data points:

    • I'll likely use TBH or OSE
    • I'm not wild about tons of puzzles, but can tolerate a few
    • A fun overarching story is a great bonus
    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @nickdrawthing Hole in the Oak combined with Incandescent Grotto! Written for OSE, not really any puzzles as far as I can remember (a few traps though), they fit together well and should be right around your target session length. There isn’t a strong built in story so to speak, but there’s enough there to build one very easily

    LeviKornelsen, to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

    Gonna go fly away in about half an hour, but: A stray thought:

    1. D&D DMs are often the ones who care about the rules most.

    2. People who care about the rules a lot often want to tinker with them.

    3. It's never been easier to become an small-press/indie designer.

    4. There's apparently a DM shortage.

    5. Obviously, they're all running off to make their own things.

    Yeah? Yeah?! No. Probably not. But maybe?

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen I left 5e behind pretty quickly after trying my hand at GMing, and now I’m making my own game, so I would say that checks out in my anecdotal experience!

    bwebster, to random
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    Birthday gifts from my partner (and courtesy of Pandemonium in Cambridge). The quality on both of these is excellent, and the Mausritter box set is so cute. I took a break from creative stuff for my birthday this weekend and just relaxed, which was nice, but of course I couldn’t get away from TTRPGs entirely 😂

    bwebster,
    @bwebster@dice.camp avatar

    @thopan the cool thing about Stygian Library (and to some extent Ynn as well) is that it can really fit into just about any campaign. I’ve run it in sci fi (Stars Without Number) and Fantasy, and I even had a friend run it in a Godbound campaign (with some modifications). I think every game I’ve GMed has been connected to the library in some way lol

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