Yellow chantarelles on a burrow - The TTRPG network

While out foraging I found a patch of big nice chantarelles, we have a good year for them btw. Then I noticed something strange, a hole into the mound. It wasn’t there last year I know yhat for sure. Well… Looks like I pilfered someone’s nicely cultivated mushrooms. Sorry.

At the Wizard disco - The TTRPG network

Some thoughts on how DnD makes Monsters dangerous compared to Dragonbane - The TTRPG network

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. DnD Monsters tend to have a slew of ways to nullify the PCs disabling abilities (magic resistance, legendary resistance). What those does are forcing the party to spend a couple of rounds having their cool stuff be nullified. For me that is boring. Without it though - CC fest and an underwhelming fight. Dragonbane being a different beast and makes Monsters dangerous in a different way. With way less disabling abilities the PCs fun stuff isn’t nullified and foes don’t get CC’ed to death. So everyone can do their thing. Which Monsters can do multiple times each round (multi-attack but full turns) and their attacks always hits. Think about that - Monsters’ attacks always hits. That brings danger and tension. The attacks are randomly selected lowering the rise of catastrophe, or increasing it as the GM cannot pull their punches. To help the PCs out they have the option to take a defensive action (dodge, parry) which have already led to clutch moments. It comes at the cost of having an offensive action and the defensive action cannot be taken if they already have acted this round. Cost benefit choices whoooo! In a way it goes from Monster dodge (legendary resistance) to PC dodge. And PCs can build for defensive actions. And it can give you a counter attack. Defending is cool. To sum it up. DnD gives monsters staying power by nullifying the PCs cool stuff allowing them to stay fighting. Dragonbane has less disables in general so Monsters have no need to nullify them. So Monsters stay around longer naturally bringing danger the PCs can actively try to avoid.

Hasbro Seeks to Sell IP “DND” and Has Had Preliminary Contact with Tencent - The TTRPG network

Rumours, speculation and hearsay? “Interesting” at least.

This is a triumph in dark sci-fi sandbox adventuring | RPG Review by Dave Thaumavore - The TTRPG network

Dave’s review of Across a Thousand Dead Worlds by Alex T, a gritty horror sci-fi sandbox. >Across a Thousand Dead Worlds is a new horror space exploration tabletop roleplaying game that can be enjoyed as a single player experience, or in a group of up to five players, with or without a Game Master - by Blackoath Entertainment! You’ll create your Deep Diver, using a free-form character creation system, and begin your journey across the galaxy where you’ll discover abandoned research facilities, explore scientific outposts, and traverse other dilapidated sites in search for ancient alien technology. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/431730/Across-a-Thousand-Dead-Worlds [https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/431730/Across-a-Thousand-Dead-Worlds]

The most Texan of all expressions - Y'All - is ungendered and therefore woke - The TTRPG network

Cities Without Number is now released - The TTRPG network

Kevin Crawford’s latest offering Cities Without Number is here. Pretty much more of the same good stuff but this time with cyberpunk flavour. > Cities Without Number is a cyberpunk role-playing game built for sandbox adventures in a dystopia of polished chrome and bitter misery. It’s both a full-fledged Sine Nomine toolkit for building a cyberpunk world of your own and an Old School Renaissance-inspired game system for playing out the reckless adventures of the desperate men and women who live in it. Whether polished metal or flesh and blood, your operators will risk their lives and more to seize those precious things a merciless world would keep from them. Will I run it? No Play it? Most likely no Will I use the frikk out of the GM tools? YES! Link to free version: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/449873/Cities-Without-Number-Free-Version [https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/449873/Cities-Without-Number-Free-Version]

Scene Tags - A way to make descriptions matter - The TTRPG network

Let me begin by making it clear this is not my invention, I encountered the method in City of Mist but I doubt it debuted there. But it is a nifty method. The problem I encounter from time to time is that my players don’t latch onto my descriptions of the scene, not using things in it to grant themselves advantages (bonuses, extra effect etc). Am I perfect? No. Could I do better? Yes. Or I can take my fuzzy descriptions and make them mechanical by introducing them as Scene Tags. Market square during market day would get Crowded-Market-1 and during a festival Packed-Festival-Market-2 indicating that there is a lot of people there and also how much advantage one would get by incorporating it into ones action. Or disadvantage depending. Trying to pickpocket someone? Take a bonus. Following someone? They easily get lost in the crowd - penalty. How dark is the night? Moonlight-Night-1 or Moon-Behind-Heavy-Clouds-2? Traveling through a mountain pass and how deep is the snow? Ankle-Deep-1 or Up-To-The-Dwarf’s-Beard-2? What about that Foul-Voice-In-The-Wind-4? I play pretty much only online so tossing an index card onto the table with the Scene Tag on it is kinda tricky. Instead, depending on how much effort I’ve put into the VTT, I either write it in big bold letters on the scene image/map. Or I put down a virtual index card, essentially a small graphical element to bring attention to it (see post image). One more thing, how much is a Tag-1 compared to a Tag-2 worth? This all depends on your system. City of Mist gives +1 for a Tag-1, +2 for Tag-2 etc. So for pretty much any other PbtA/2d6 systems the same works. For D&D (and other d20 systems) a scheme of +2, Advantage, Advantage and +2. I’ve lost much of my familiarity with d20 systems due not having ran something recently. So someone (everyone?) else probably have better ideas. In dicepool systems an extra dice for each tag level is appropriate. That is the basics of it. But what if the players want to create a Panic!-At-The-Market-3? I’ll write about that some other time. PS. Still recruiting for my small sortie into Swords of the Serpentine, Fridays at 19CEST. [https://ttrpg.network/post/468344]