@masukomi@dice.camp
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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, 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, to random
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@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, to random
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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, to random
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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, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

I was able to replace my core mechanic with Spiral dice fairly easily, but I've spent hours working on the follow-on effects & it opens some cool options, but also requires changing my game in ways I don't want.

i really REALLY want to use them, but I don't think this is the right game for them.

So, back to my heavily modded Year Zero Engine that - overall - has been working really well.

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

My brain is abuzz with ideas for my game & after analyzing rolls from my solo playtesting I had an important revelation. I feel like it's one of those "should be obvious" things that you don't realize until someone says it out loud.

Depending on the story you're telling, different character builds will have less they can do, & thus their players too.

Or to put it another way, an "inappropriate" build can remove character & player agency.

Example & thoughts on implications in thread.
🧵1/8

masukomi, to random
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This is going to make rolling difficult.

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

One of my biggest gripes with trad games is that they're constantly having players break into the homes of sentient tool building creatures with families and communities (like Goblins) and then slaughtering them because they have things the PCs want or are between them and things they want. 🤦‍♀️

How do people not see how ridiculously racist that is? Why are people ok with perpetuating it?

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

I have a love/hate relationship with Narrative Dice.

I desperately WANT to use them, but most implementations result in one of two scenarios. Either the GM is needing to come up with some ancillary positive or negative effect on essentially every roll OR they can be used for some simple mechanical effect like +1 damage / harm and everyone just ends up using that because it's HARD to come up with narrative "yes but/and" on EVERY roll.
🧵1/7

masukomi, to random
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Discovered that in Me Myself & Die Season 4 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDvunq75UfH8DBmsn76dOzI0js0lhKRuV

Trevor is playing a game he created. Intrigued, I started listening despite being behind.

Initial thought: I LOVE the combination of d100 roll-under system with a "blackjack mechanic".

You need to roll under your skill but also a high as possible without going over.

When you successfully roll to attack one of the dice you already rolled indicates hit location!

🧵 (short)

masukomi, to random
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After that long 🧵 about flow-charts I realized that after having recently consolidated & cleaned up all the rules for MY game, it was actually in a state where it was ready for this treatment.

I'm not done & it's already significantly improved one rule.

🧵1/3

masukomi, (edited ) to random
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@Taskerland commented that my #Dragonbane flow-chart looked "Fiendish". They're not wrong, and I wanted to talk about that. More specifically about the hidden complexity in games & how designers need to think about things differently than players.

Here's a cleaned up version. Don't worry about reading the individual nodes, they're not important to this discussion.

Side note: I'd love to make these for your unreleased game in exchange for money. 😉
🧵1/16

masukomi, to random
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I flowcharted all the stuff related to a player rolling a check (attacking / defending / whatever) in

It looks complicated but I swear to you that this is nothing compared to D&D and most other "trad" games.

masukomi, to random
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I keep coming across mentions of the 13th age Kickstarter & I feel like I’m missing something. I have 13th age & one of the adventures for it. BUT despite the fact that it was created by game developers with highly respected skills, and definitely has some interesting and noteworthy ideas in it, nothing about it made me say “ooh i wanna play this!”

🧵1/?

masukomi, to random
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I think that this is the most important and insightful thing I have heard anyone say about the core Position and Effect mechanic of Blades in the Dark.

In this moment, they are partially talking about how someone comes to understand how the game works, but it is just as applicable for coming to understand what exactly is going on in the current moment of the shared narrative space.

video/mp4

masukomi, to random
@masukomi@dice.camp avatar

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

ancient forest ✅
ancient curse ✅
treasure ✅
FOR DRAGONBANE ✅❗🎉

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

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+" 😉

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, 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, 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, to random
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I’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 system’s actually Good too.

Every time i re-open these books I’m impressed.

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

masukomi, (edited ) to random
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[EDIT 🧵 broke. Here's the previous toot https://dice.camp/@masukomi/112383101665779072 ]

Here's the thing that really surprised me about Gaslight Club. It's 95% rules, 4.5% GM advice, and 0.5% setting. The latter's probably hyperbolic but not by much.

This page is all you get, aside from a few snippets here & there in GM advice sections.

It feels like "Hey you saw Westworld right? Yeah just… you know. Like that."

IMNSHO that sucks. Also, what if you or the players HAVEN'T seen Westworld⁉️

🧵 3/?

masukomi, to random
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I heard an interview with the creator of Gaslight Club (Stoo Goff) . The premise is basically that you're one of the robots in Westworld who's waking up to the reality of your world. Obvously cool storytelling to be had there. Except it's in a 1920's(ish) nightclub.

He described it mechanically as being the "...Year Zero Engine with a few of the influences from Blades [in the Dark], and from Genesys." I was intrigued. I downloaded it.

A few thoughts. 🧵 1/?

masukomi, to random
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I am reading through The Dresden Files RPG and it is truly impressive how much @evilhat ‘s thinking about FATE as well as how to create worlds and tell stories with RPGs has evolved since then.

A huge aspect of this is that they have clearly developed a better understanding of the people who play games like these, and how to guide them through collaborative play and worldbuilding.

masukomi, to random
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While I firmly believe that you need to include the character sheets in your book, I think that filled-in examples like this are awesome. They give you a feel for how they expect you to interact with the sheet and what types of things you will be writing where.

I think a valid argument can be made that since very few people have scanners, & we’re not likely to take our books to the copy shop, there isn’t as much value in a blank sheet.

I prefer both because that means the PDF has one to print

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