Eve ✧ 𝔟𝔯𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔪𝔞𝔵𝔵𝔦𝔫𝔤

I'm running a super casual Into the Odd drop-in game, running The Iron Coral adventure location. It's a real shift from my usual GMing/refereeing style. Just leaning into the tone and strangeness of the environment, which wouldn't be possible without such a crackerjack dungeon, shout out to Chris McDowall.

I think dungeon crawling rocks and is underrated, but that most systems have too many rules for it or too few, and it leads to fewer players thinking they enjoy it as a pillar of play.

1:43amWeb
Show threadEve ✧ 𝔟𝔯𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔪𝔞𝔵𝔵𝔦𝔫𝔤15h ago

Casual gaming is so alien to me as like a recovering control freak. But it's nice to start from a place of "it's nice to hang out with my friends," and "I'm not going to prep at all." The nursed grievances of investment asymmetry, of planning a session that players come to tired or distracted or disinterested... are like, rancid to the soul.

It doesn't mean nobody cares, it just means that I get to follow the table's enthusiasm about without feeling like it's pulling focus from something else.

Show threadEve ✧ 𝔟𝔯𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔪𝔞𝔵𝔵𝔦𝔫𝔤15h ago
It's cool how this can mean some sessions where we have a really fast pace and bang out encounter after encounter (not necessarily combat but contact or conflict) and others where the players sit and contemplate something in and out of character. We had a lot of really fun beats tonight but also like, explored four rooms in three hours. Good time.
Show threadEve ✧ 𝔟𝔯𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔪𝔞𝔵𝔵𝔦𝔫𝔤15h ago
My wife joined the previous session and wasn't into it. Not her first time playing an NSR game, we did a two-shot of Mausritter, but it was more of a social game. We crawled in D&D campaigns, and that was frustrating because it was D&D, which to me is the peak of *both* too many *and* not enough rules. But she found Mark of the Odd dungeon delving too freeform. I wonder whether she would be more into dungeon play if it was more structured, ie. dungeon turns, initiative, more dice rolls.
Show threadEve ✧ 𝔟𝔯𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔪𝔞𝔵𝔵𝔦𝔫𝔤15h ago
I should devote more time and energy to finding the middle ground between our respective gaming interests because I'm obsessed with my wife and I'd love to play with her more. She's a great player and the funniest person I know. She can't *feel* the structure of certain types of game and I think she needs to feel undergirded. Meanwhile, when I'm not running lightweight narrative games, I'm playing a horny dyke in some t-girl's PbtA game. I wonder what can bridge the gap.