There’s a trend towards lower speed limits in cities all over the world, but why is this happening? What is the research behind it? And what is the “correct” speed limit for cities, anyway?
Vaesen - Call of Cthulhu but rooted in nordic mythology
Heart the City Beneath - an award-winning complete tabletop roleplaying game about delving into a nightmare undercity that will give you everything you’ve ever dreamed of – or kill you in the process.
In a game a while ago there was a FtM prince turned hosteller. Left court and royal duties due to disillusioned and wanting to do actual good. But then they were a PC and quickly needed some help from granddaddy the king. I wondered what the king wanted in exchange. And it was clear - the royal line continued. In other words get an heir.
I checked with the player that this was an OK path comfort and safety wise. Afterall one way to solve it was for the prince to get pregnant, force upon themselves a gender they did not want etc. We talked about it and had regular checkins.
The moment that made this an awesome world building moment was when I realized magic impregnation wasn’t an impossibility. Nor pregnancies without the biological bits. Because Magic!
Unfortunately we never to to that part before scheduling did its thing.
This brings us back to zones, a good middle ground. Draw rough map, or great map, and on it mark intresting combat zones. Some are separated with emptiness, others by obstacles.
For example a tavern brawl. Zones could be the Bar, Kitchen, Common Room, Balconies, Private Rooms, Out Front and Out Back.
Fighting on the Balconies could be tight, only one in width and with the risk of being thrown off it into the Commonroom. In the Kitchen there would be fire hazards, improvized weapons, knifes and the Stew. Not to forget other ways to spice things up in there. Around the Bar there would be some cover fighting someone on the other side, bottles to be broken and combatants to glide alond the bar for maximum mental damage.
And so on. Make each zone memorable and with special features. Did I mention drawing it out really helps?
The more abstract the map is the more of a support for TotM it becomes. I selfom do a map, rather a flowchart. Quicker, easier and knocks out the last desire to measure things.
Depends on the system. Classical fantasy adventuring? Most if not all sessions. Adventure and Sword&Sorcery? Sometimes, half perhaps. Character drama? Very seldom.
I look at how the system spends its page budget and use that as a guideline. If there is a chapter for combat, one for harm and recovery and one for combat magic then the system wants me to focus on those parts. Also I look at how the players/characters are rewarded and try to have each session hit several of those criteria. So if the only (reliable, non gm-fiat) way to earn rewards if through combat then you bet your sweet ass there will combats each session.
Agter our latest DnD game our regular DM once again thought loudly on how to make dragons have more teeth. And it got me thinking about how Dragonbane handles capital M monsters differently....
Very sparse with such abilities and those that exist generally don’t apply to Monsters. Some only apply up to human sized targets. No hypnotic patterns, hold monsters etc.
Dragonbane leans a bit into OSR aporoaches here in that you will have to work with the GM and the fiction to get things capable of trivialising encounters. But then the encounter vs the Monster wasn’t fought in battle but in strategizing and preparation.
The way DnD is built does require the counter dance. Big abilities are part of its features. So there need to be ways to counter those abilities. That is the (modern?) DnD way.
Or why not simply have degrees of success on EVERYTHING? But as you say it would be a lot of work. Folks have done it, just look at yhe various dicepool system or even Pathfinder 2e.
On a sidenote I find saves boring. I enjoy actively rolling skills much more engaging. And all spells being “attack rolls”.
I’m looking for a better TTRPG experience. Started with AD&D in satanic panic era, left, came back to 5E a half dozen years ago. Got a great group & GM but some things just don’t suit me. For one, wouldn’t mind being done with Hasbro. My biggest issues in D&D? Character regret, & swinginess. Rolling up a character idea...
I would point you to Ironsworn. Possibly also Ironsworn:Starforged, its SciFi adapatation and rules version 1.5e. Nothing wrong with base Ironsworn, Starforged just is better.
While rooted in dark perilous fantasy that can be changed through description and presentation. At its core it’s a Powered by the Apocalypse system, just as Dungeon World is, and can open up that whole ecosystem with highly rated games such as Monster of the Week and Masks: A New Generation. Ironsworn is also free which removes a barrier to checking it out
What makes Ironsworn so great is that while its narrative/light roots from PbtA is still there it structures gameplay much more than others. Part of this is because it it made from the ground up to accommodate GM-less and solo play. So many of those small considerations the GM does are spelled out. Second is Ironsworn’s excellent new take on tracks. Instead of filling it up and once filled it is done it puts the fulfillment in the players hands. Once the fiction is such that it could have been completed the player can roll against its progress and see what falls out. Or they can push on, fill the tracker up more for a more sure result.
So all-in-all Ironsworn is a system born in the narrative PbtA tradition that further structures gameplay. A great system for questing campaigns.
It could be that Hadbro only licence the “video game” part or all dynamic electronic content (beyond, vtts etc). But I’m not sure how much of a cash influx that would give Hasbro.
The mythology of my world is an interpretation of Glorantha. Pretty much near eastern bronze age. So there are Gods abound, with their respective cults. Most/all cults have rites and mysteries for those deeply devoted. None have came up in play so they are secrets even for me.
A set of secrets/mysteries that I’ve started working on are the Nysalorian secrets. According to Gloranthan lore when Nysalor was born/created Time stopped to allow the birth. So yeah Nysalor is a big deal. The Nysalorian secrets I’m divining are about the nature of Godhood. I don’t know how deep I want to go with them, I could make them the very blueprints of Creation. Perhaps I should tie them to my meta-loredump mystic society/cult Followers of the Blind Idiot God.
I settled on using Zotero (meant for academia, but whatever, it does what I need) for cataloguing/organizing my ttrpg pdf hoard and I’m trying to set up some top-level tags to make it a bit easier to sift through what I’m looking for. One set of tags will be genre tags (fantasy, sci-fi, horror, etc), with another level below...
I would have the top level tag “Rulebook” and put “Core Rulebook” as a sub-tag. Under Rulebook also have “Player Handbook”, “GM handbook” and “Splatbook”. Keep the rules together.
Also tags for your dominant systems (ex DnD, PbtA) including “System Agnostic”. Perhaps add subtags “Pre-made” and “Generators” under “Setting”. Publisher tags? Language? Decade/year of release? Have played?
I’m usually a C2 sort of guy, but through bad luck and (my own) poor performance, I’ve begun my Sunday morning with a B1. Whilst a bad start to the day, I’m determined not to let it ruin what could be a good Sunday....
What is the "Correct" Speed Limit? (Not Just Bikes) (www.youtube.com)
There’s a trend towards lower speed limits in cities all over the world, but why is this happening? What is the research behind it? And what is the “correct” speed limit for cities, anyway?
The most natively spoken languages in Pakistan (dormi.zone)
What RPG have you been dying to run?
…and why haven’t you run it yet? :D
What worldbuilding moments are you most proud of?
How To Be A Dragon – Dealing with wyrm infestations (@fishtrouts) (64.media.tumblr.com)
Dealing with wyrm infestations 1...
Jesse bringing geometry to the table (ttrpg.network)
How much combats in your game ?
Just a general conversation thread,...
Hard Worldbuilding vs. Soft Worldbuilding | A Study of Studio Ghibli (www.youtube.com)
enjoy (sh.itjust.works)
Some thoughts on how DnD makes Monsters dangerous compared to Dragonbane
Agter our latest DnD game our regular DM once again thought loudly on how to make dragons have more teeth. And it got me thinking about how Dragonbane handles capital M monsters differently....
What’s right for me?
I’m looking for a better TTRPG experience. Started with AD&D in satanic panic era, left, came back to 5E a half dozen years ago. Got a great group & GM but some things just don’t suit me. For one, wouldn’t mind being done with Hasbro. My biggest issues in D&D? Character regret, & swinginess. Rolling up a character idea...
Which wetland are you? (mander.xyz)
Bog bae 100%%%%
Their ideas are as interesting as they are frightening (ttrpg.network)
I once had a player that wanted a Decanter of Endless Water just to waterboard people 😳
Hasbro Seeks to Sell IP “DND” and Has Had Preliminary Contact with Tencent (pandaily.com)
Rumours, speculation and hearsay? “Interesting” at least.
What are some of the secret religious rites in your world?
One real-life example is the Eleusinian Mysteries.
TTRPG Product Category terminology?
I settled on using Zotero (meant for academia, but whatever, it does what I need) for cataloguing/organizing my ttrpg pdf hoard and I’m trying to set up some top-level tags to make it a bit easier to sift through what I’m looking for. One set of tags will be genre tags (fantasy, sci-fi, horror, etc), with another level below...
It's time we had this conversation. (feddit.uk)
I’m usually a C2 sort of guy, but through bad luck and (my own) poor performance, I’ve begun my Sunday morning with a B1. Whilst a bad start to the day, I’m determined not to let it ruin what could be a good Sunday....