@rdonoghue@dice.camp
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rdonoghue

@rdonoghue@dice.camp

So, I only noticed this bio field existed because someone remarked on its absence, which is a little embarrassing. Anyway, I'm a nerd of many colors - Agile Nerd. Productivity Nerd. RPG Nerd. Bag Nerd. Etc. - an old man, and a dad. Used to be a politics nerd, but there's not much joy in that these days.

Have written some RPG stuff, and I used to blog, but the pandemic killed my soul and it hasn't really grown back.

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

rdonoghue, to random
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I blame Mendez for this, but I spent some of the drive home from Metatopia thinking about Orc Paladins. Specifically, Paladins in the 5e sense, where there are a handful of idealized values that could be summarized as oaths.

It's an interesting exercise, because there's a narrow path to walk between going with something cartoonishly nasty on one hand, and going full bore noble savage narrative on the other.

rdonoghue, to random
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So, discussion with the local group around the role of magic in the D&D movie ended up popping the lid off a bit of old curiosity: What does a primarily martial game of 5e look and feel like? That ended up hybridizing with some "also, how is life in the teens?" And we are now pulling together the bits for a backup game of level 15 martial characters of every stripe, with cheesiness encouraged.

rdonoghue, to random
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One of the mechanics I really like in Baldur's Gate 3 is the way they handle inspiration. Specifically, it had automated the triggers for inspiration to hang off of character backgrounds, and tie into events in play. So, for example, if a character has the "Urchin" background, then they get inspiration when you deal with the leader of the tiefling urchins, or do things that are clever and shady.

They don't unpack this much, so it can SEEM random, but it's nicely deliberate.

rdonoghue, to random
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Conversation earlier today has me thinking a bit about the distinction between open and open source in RPGs (setting aside the topic of not-really-open RPGs).

There are plenty of open systems (that is, systems you can legitimately take and do whatever the heck you want with them) but a much smaller set of open source systems ( @malin keeps a nice list of them here - https://ttrpgs.com/post/foss_list - if you’re curious.)

It's a curious distinction.

rdonoghue, to random
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I just assume everyone knows this, but sometimes I suspect they maybe don't, so:

If someone tels you that they are "data driven" or that they just want to make "information based decisions", the polite response is to nod and move on with full understanding that they are absolutely full of shit, and the only question to answer is whether or not they have successfully fooled themselves on the topic.

(The answer is usually yes. If they're an economist, it's almost certaintly yes.)

rdonoghue, to random
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I really like variable sized d6 dice pools. They are 100% old man gaming technology. Unless you're doing a deliberate WEG homage, it's not a mechanic that gets a lot of tractions with the cool kids. It simultaneously has too much math and not enough math to get real purchase, so I frequently set that love on the shelf.

But, man, I'm getting old enough to give less and less of a fuck about that. I may just go all on on them next time I do something.

rdonoghue, to random
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Bouncing between Sanderson's books and the Forgotten Realms cast something interesting into relief for me.

The Realms are an unquestionably magical setting, with lots of magical things that explain the world. It is a setting for a magical game with lot of rules for magic.

Critically, almost none of the rules for magic can explain the magic of the world.

rdonoghue, to random
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The idea of canon as something that applies to fiction is one of the really unpleasant things the internet has brought us.

rdonoghue, to random
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Hopefully going to get a chance to play Thunder Road Vendetta this afternoon. Pretty excited. Of all things, my delight in the Fast and the Furious co-op game has made me more excited for this decidedly NOT co-op experience.

rdonoghue, to random
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No disrespect to Murder Bot, but I'm so happy to have another fantasy from @marthawells in the form of Witch King.

I have yet to pick up a Wells fantasy and NOT immediately have the game design part of my brain start churning, and Witch King pretty much decided to jump into that particular console room in my brain and start hitting all the buttons.

At some point, some poor congoer is going to end up hearing my extensive opinions of RPGs, Fiction and comparing Wells with Sanderson.

rdonoghue, to random
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Point of random curiosity: In 5e D&D, what do high level characters do?

No snark in the question - I'm genuinely thinking through the feel of high level play, since I've never gotten past low teens at the table. So, I know they can just go into bigger dungeons, sure, and even if they're not well supported, it wouldn't be hard to bring in stronghold building, or Birthright rules.

So my core question is: beyond those things, what do high level 5e characters do? (If anything).

rdonoghue, to random
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I have a weird piece of game design and GMing advice that struck me in the car this morning.

If there is media that you want your game to feel like, I strongly recommend the exercise of writing a summary of it.

This will be an INCREDIBLY frustrating exercise, because you presumably enjoy the media a great deal, and the abbreviation necessary for summary will feel like they fall far short of your vision.

But that’s good, because it forces you to think differently about the material.

rdonoghue, to random
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Ok, gonna literally quote that last boost of the @slyflourish post because it's short enough to fit:

" tip: Give characters something to do in every scene."

This is a really easy one to just read, nod, and keep moving because it seems so obvious, but it's worth pausing a moment over, specifically in the context of D&D.

rdonoghue, to random
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Spent a chunk of time today tidying my RPG collection, largely sorting through uncategorized PDFs. Still have some old bundles to process, but made a really big dent in it.

There are enough different RPGs in this library as to be somewhat overwhelming. The idea that there are literally thousands of RPGs in there, and they're only a fraction of what out there is daunting. It's something I know intellectually, but actually digging through the pile makes it almost overwhelming concrete.

rdonoghue, to random
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Discussing the trade-offs of 5e multiclassing with my players, and it's interesting how much the conversation ends up shaped by which subclass capstones are awesome and which ones are absolute duds.

rdonoghue, to random
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My continued efforts to escape the gravity of the Amazon ecosystem have been escalating as my kid gets older and I face the question of how to share things with him in a manner that is less ephemeral than sharing a login.

It's a constant reminder that the limits of content might be a shackle, they are far from the only shackle. I have tons of non-drm'd content, but managing and sharing it in a way that is not giving him homework remains the biggest blocker for me.

rdonoghue, to random
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I have no objection to debate as a sport, but l have no real place for it’s trappings in the day to day. The reason for this is one of simple game design . Consider these two points:

  • in debate, the act of bringing up an argument demands that it be refuted. As a sport rule, this is fine.

-Brandolini’s law: the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it

The exploit is obvious.

rdonoghue, to random
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Goonies are currently never saying die.

rdonoghue, to random
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Silly 5e thing.

A lot of monsters are spell casters, and are nominally wizards. This would - by setting logic - suggest that they have spellbooks. However, adventure designs tend to leave these out of the loot, which creates a weird situation where there are two main paths:

  1. The DM shoehorns them in, and introduces a bookeeping hedache from the sheer volume of spells.

  2. The GM skips it, and deprives Wizard players of the pokemon element that is one of the class features. (Thread)

rdonoghue, to random
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There was a kind of fascianting Reddit thread about a company whose CTO required all engineering leaders to do one small, simple, junior developer appropriate task that week. https://www.reddit.com/r/ExperiencedDevs/comments/1b89gqf/the_cto_of_my_company_challenged_all_engineering/

On some level, it's just a modern version of requiring managers to spend some time working on the line, so it's not that new an idea. However, what really fascinated me was differences in opinions about WHY you would do this, especially from Very Serious Management types.

rdonoghue, to random
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It continues to blow my mind how much of a pain in the ass it is to try to self-host something like a wiki or a forum. A big part of enshittification seems to stem from the idea that we have no good alternatives, and it’s annoying how true that is.

rdonoghue, to random
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There seems to be a streak of cruelty in video game release dates that immediately follow a 3 day weekend.

rdonoghue, to random
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When I had a kid, I was totally prepared for a certain amount of "That's not Fair!" conversations. They're frustrating, but they're also part of a kid dealing with the world, so you roll with it.

What I had not prepared myself for is that as my kid grew up and I had conversations with other parents about their kids, I came to discover how much the parent side of the conflicts with the kids is also "That's not Fair!", just hidden under layers of coping mechanisms and obfuscations.

rdonoghue, to random
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I am slowly making my peace with the idea that D&D’s incoherence is one of its strongest features, and is a reason why so many attempts to “fix” D&D fail long before the size of the business even enters the picture.

D&D is, ultimately, just enough of an excuse for an infinite toy box of wild bullshit. The imaginary toys are the point, and that’s glorious.

But it’s also super frustrating if you want it to make any kind of sense. Which is too bad, but not enough to stop the fun.

rdonoghue, to random
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Set aside all the other trappings - a huge point of a two week sprint is to come to an understanding that your dev is allowed to go into a dark hole and perform their wizardry, but there is an agreement on how often they will stick their head out of the hole.

Not particularily joking. For productive, creative devs who just want to focus and work, it's a compromise, because "I'll come out when I'm done" gets impractical, fast.

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