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

masukomi

@masukomi@dice.camp

๐Ÿ‘‰ Senior Back-End Dev. Seeking Remote Position ๐Ÿ‘ˆ

Autodidactic, Autistic, ADHD, Trans ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€โšง๏ธ, 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, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Watching the latest Dungeons & Discourse video about Hasbro hobbling D&D Beyond (greed again) and she keeps saying "artiFISHer" instead of "artificer" ("sir" sound at the end).

I'm not sure what an ArtiFISHer is but i absolutely want to see one. A character who artfully fishes? Someone who makes art WHILE fishing? I don't know, but i want to find out and encounter them or have one in my party.

https://youtu.be/ga-A4bcC_1Q

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Fragging Unicorns has released v1.0 of to backers. After reading v0.6a I'm excited to dig into this again. They've done SUCH a good job. It's inclusive. Characters are tied to their community & protectors of it. Class issues feel believable.

The world is wild with gods and species and cyberpunk and somehow they made it all feel believable & plausible.

the kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fraggingunicorns/subversion

TanaPigeonWMG, to random
@TanaPigeonWMG@dice.camp avatar

The softcover, POD version of MM Compilation 5 is now on DriveThru. I'm really pleased with how this book looks :) The Mythic and AC One-Pagers are in it together, which I like.
Hardcovers should be out in a couple of weeks! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/465925/Mythic-Magazine-Compilation-5

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@TanaPigeonWMG thanks for not waiting for the hardcovers. The colors may not be as nice on the softcovers, but i really do prefer the practical aspects of holding and using the softcovers.

Also iโ€™ve been utterly failing to read the digital versions so Iโ€™m excited to see this compilation and the impending next one finally coming out.

You make good stuff. I want to read more of it. ;)

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Free League just released an adventure module for Dragonbane! "Path Of Glory"

ancient forest โœ…
ancient curse โœ…
treasure โœ…
FOR DRAGONBANE โœ…โ—๐ŸŽ‰

Currently pre-order for release in June. This is an update of something released for the original Sweedish version of Dragonbane.

https://freeleaguepublishing.com/shop/dragonbane/path-of-glory/

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

went to check on one of the Monte Cook crowdfunding things via Backerkit and I have to say that I am DEEPLY impressed with how much worse backerkit's UI is than kickstarter's.

Add to it the fact that for years they continued to have a Creator centric login & completely ignored the fact that 99% of the users were backers. Meanwhile folks worked in the background to make a UI that set them up as a competitor, with all the lessons learned from years of watching Kickstarter andโ€ฆ they flubbed it.

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

So, the reason I was looking at Star Wars - and other games - was because I'm questioning the whole point of "Character Advancement" in games that aren't power fantasies.

There are many games where you're just a "normal" person or "Normal+" ๐Ÿ˜‰

Why do so many of those games have "advancement" or "levels" or whatever? Is it just because it's become expected? If you're not playing a Power Fantasy then why do characters just gaining power and capability at an impossible rate?

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Why do we think it's enjoyable to play a one or two session story with a character who never "levels up". We watch action flicks where the physically fit hero never becomes more than that. Yet, unless it's a "cozy" game or a one-shot game, everything has rules driving characters to become more and more powerful or competent.

Why are action / adventure RPGs so obsessed with leveling? Is there something wrong / non-fun about just playing cool characters doing cool things?

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

It's obvious why Power Fantasy games focus on thisโ€ฆ but most of the other games?

Call of Cthulhu seems to be well respected and considered "fun" but its characters are ALWAYS outmatched and never become better. The rules are like "well, I guess you could spend some time going off and training a skill..."

I can't decide if character leveling is just an unnecessary habit we keep repeating because it's what players expect, OR if I'm missing something obvious.

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@jens yeah I've no problem with "hey, your character spent a month studying X? Bump that stat or add that skill." In fact, that could be great for the character's story arc BUT ... "oh, you killed some baddies / solved the mystery so suddenly you're more buff / intelligent / have a new superpower ... just โ‰๏ธ it makes no sense.

Also, in traditional games we have fun playing AND we level up NOT we have fun playing BECAUSE we level up.

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Side note: in games like D&D character leveling COMPLETELY undoes the Narrative validity of the Big Bad they're trying to defeat.

big bad: "I've spent my whole life training and gathering power for my evil dominion! Muahahahah"

PCs: "Huh. We were typical peasants a week ago, but then we spent a week murdering kobolds in that dungeon over there and now we can kick your ass. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ"

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@VladTemper yeah... i just... I just don't get WHY we keep inserting it everywhere. MCDN Game? D&D? TOTALLY makes sense. Everything else? Why? Why do we do this?!

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@isaackuo Let's assume you're right (i think you are). The next question seems to be "will players be disappointed if it's not there? And if so, how hard is it to get past that?"

CoC seems to imply it won't be a problem, which seems to support the claim that "it's just habit"

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@RogerBW @Da_Gut re "everything interesting about your character you have to invent yourself"

that seems solvable by having rules that help make an interesting character and help you character to change or grow over time. That is to say, grow as a character not "become more powerful". Because "I'm powerful" gets old fast, unless you're really into bullying people.

And i'd MUCH rather play a game that was like "hey, lemme help you create and grow an awesome character" than MOAR POWER!!!!

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@Da_Gut I think players like the dopamine hit of the "ooh new awesome" but that's like candy bar instead of a good meal. You LIKE the candy bar, but you don't need the candy bar, and the candy bar isn't actually what made your day enjoyable.

When the story isn't about acquiring candybars to become the candybar king then it's just unnecessary sugar.

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@ian_h_cooper Can you share any details about the current status of QuestWorlds? The last update i see on the Chaosium site is from Nov 2022.

Did they abandon work on it? It seems like it was so close.

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@GoblinQuester @ian_h_cooper oh nice! I only had the PDF. Didnโ€™t realize there was a repo.

Thanks ๐Ÿ™‡โ€โ™€๏ธ

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Of course an Athenian Hoplite would have bronze armor, shield, spear etc. Why would you even bother writing thatโ‰๏ธ EVERYONE knows that. ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™€๏ธ

Uncredited to protect the guilty. ;)

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

I nerd-sniped myself... again
Re the D6 Star Wars system, v1, v2, v2.5

Here's a link to the differences from v1 to v2+
https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/star-wars-d6-difference-between-1st-ed-2nd-ed-revised.274331/post-6018337

tl;dr: minor rules twiddling, rough edge smoothing, introduced "wild die" - a divisive change - fun illustrations replaced with meh pictures

Here's a link to the differences between v2 & v2.5
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/38183/38458

tl;dr: an index! layout changes, logarithmic weapon scaling. minor rules twiddling

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

and... since i'm thinking about this. The core system is open sourced and called Open D6. There are copies available on Drive Thru that come pre-configured for different game types: space, fantasy, adventure, & a bunch of supplemental material.

I don't like them, and except for the Male Gaze aspect of the covers I can't tell you why. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ

Also check out

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Because you can't get it anymore, I wanted to share some screenshots from Lil6 because John Grรผmph did a SPECTACULAR job: rules clarity, accessibility, layout AND the illustrations!

Just chef's kiss ๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿณ๐Ÿ‘Œ
I can't remember a single complaint or bad vibe from when I read this.

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Damn it. Why are these rabbit-holes so deepโ‰๏ธ John made a free Space Opera game based on Mini Six (Bare Bones Edition)! BUT IT'S IN FRENCH! Most of his stuff is in French. Merde!

http://legrumph.org/Terrier/public/jeux-complets/vortex

Also "Taunton & Tie-Fighter" which I suspect is only online because it's in French too & Disney is a US based company staffed by USians who don't know - or care about - foreign languages ;)

http://legrumph.org/Terrier/public/jeux-complets/tauntaun-et-tiefighter

There's a TON of cool looking games - in French - on his site.

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@gbsteve cool. I took 2 years of french, and forgot 99.9% of it, so most of this is inaccessible to me without a lot of time with google translate, and that's.... not great. BUT i turned on translations while I browsed his site and ... SO Much i want to play. ๐Ÿ˜ฟ

Now, if it was in Esperanto I'd be fine. ;)

Bucket List Goal: Write a cool RPG that people enjoyโ€ฆ AND translate it to Esperanto. ;)

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Iโ€™m not sure why but i love the fact that Star Wars D6 was able to accommodate the ridiculously detailed skills, & species, & weapons, & so on, AND STILL be able to fit a full character sheet on half a page.

The systemโ€™s actually Good too.

Every time i re-open these books Iโ€™m impressed.

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@billturner re Star Wars D6 specifically: I've got the reprint of the 1st edition and an original (but slightly worn) 2nd edition.

Aesthetically the first edition is WAY better. In 2nd they were like "let's use lots of pictures from the movies" instead of illustrations, and it's worse for it. If i recall correctly there's one notable rules change in 2nd but also that folks debate if it's "better". I forget what it was though. ๐Ÿค”

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

@billturner I'm in full agreement re paper vs PDF BUT PDFs are great for looking up specific facts, and the books don't have an index! ๐Ÿ™€
[edit: correction v2.5 ("revised and expanded") DOES have an index]

Also, there's no legal source for them, which means that the only source we do have may dissappear at any moment. SOโ€ฆ even if you don't intend to read them now, you might want to grab a copy for later. ;)

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

Remember folks, sneaking up on the enemy is always improved by the presence of a Jazz Wookie

masukomi,
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

@colomon new favorite NPC ;)

I totally want you to "send me pictures" but um... yeah, we don't have that tech yet. ;)

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