Hey, do you know what filk is? There's currently a small discussion in the filkhaven discord about it
I've been going to sci-fi and fantasy cons since I was a baby so not only do I know what filk is I was exposed to filk before I ever heard normal music
So, on the official D&D TikTok and YouTube accounts, they have a video where they're explicitly emphasizing that the new PHB is the "largest PHB ever", which is an interesting way of marketing towards a target demographic who think the best thing about your book is that they don't have to read it.
The latest PHB is going to be the greatest PHB for people who think learning the rules makes you the devil and that you can ignore the rules anyway which is why the game is good
Because D&D has a combat system that is fun even if you don't 100% get the rules and d20+attribute modifier+skill is an incredibly easy to understand and use dice system.
Would they be better served by another game?
Almost certainly
But they are having fun with it, and its working for them so why should they take the time to learn something else
But the answer is more nuanced than just "I wish people were having a better time with games."
Game design is real and games have their own voices and they are opinionated about what types of narratives they produce. People defaulting to D&D and just modding it endlessly without seeing what else is out there is sad to me because it disrespects the variety of what is out there as well as the value of game design. I want people to understand that even D&D hasn't been made with the specific design decisions implemented out of a pure accident, but even those decisions are opinionated and lead to specific gameplay and narrative outcomes.
The hobby deserves better than having WotC as stewards of the hobby when they are clearly not even interested in the health of their own game and community. Modding and pirating D&D does little to change things since it still feeds into the D&D ecosystem. As such, leading people who may be better served by games besides D&D is always good in my opinion.
This kind of connects to the first point, but I think it's better for the hobby as a whole if we cultivate an attitude of curiosity about what's already been done and what is being done in other games. The attitude that modding D&D is "good enough" not only does a disservice to perceptions of game design as a skill, but it doesn't leave room for people to cultivate an understanding of what games can do. A diet of just D&D will end up coloring your perception of what RPGs as a medium can do simply because D&D makes very specific assumptions about gameplay.
This and also, I have a selfish reason for wanting people to try other games, which is that I don’t like DnD. I don’t really enjoy tactical combat focused dungeon games in general— I see the appeal, it’s just not for me. And it’s absolutely fine for people in the hobby to have different tastes, especially in such a diverse medium. But the fact that engaging with the ttrpg community almost always means wading through seemingly endless posts about the minutiae of DnD combat rules and class abilities is very frustrating. If even people who like playing DnD don’t like engaging with its rules, imagine how irritating it is for those of us who don’t. The problem isn’t that people are talking about a game that they like, the problem is that very DnD specific conversations are being treated as if they’re general, system agnostic ones, and I don’t think DnD-only players even realize those are different things. A part of me thinks that this is at least some part of the 5e antipathy in other parts of the ttrpg community as well, but maybe it’s just me being petty.
The thing about the idea that "rules don't matter" in tabletop RPGs is that, while it's obviously wrong, there's only one relatively narrow sense in which it's actually a problem.
There are basically three major strands of "rules don't matter":
Groups for whom the rules don't matter because they aren't playing a game as we'd conventionally think of it – they're having a freeform RP jam, and occasionally letting a coin-flip decide what happens next for spice. The particulars of rules-based procedures aren't relevant to these groups because they're not following any particular procedures. This is perfectly fine; sure, some players who favour this approach like to go online and write bloviating thinkpieces about how all tabletop roleplayers secretly want to be doing freeform RP, and anyone who claims otherwise is simply too stupid or brainwashed to understand that they're not truly having fun, but that's not doing any harm – it's merely annoying.
Groups who have a narrow idea of what it's possible to do with tabletop RPGs. They'll look at the fact that it's possible to run – for example – a sword and sorcery dungeon crawl and a cyberpunk heist caper using the exact same set of rules, and conclude from this that it must not really matter what rules you use; of course, the real reason this works is because in terms of their formal and narrative structures, a sword and sorcery dungeon crawl and a cyberpunk heist caper are nearly identical. Again, this isn't hurting anyone – if they want to run endless reskinned dungeon crawls in a variety of milieux, that's their business, and the worst that can be said for it is that some people are a little annoying about it.
Groups who do want to play a game with a formal structure, and who recognise that rules have opinions about how the game ought to be played, but think it doesn't matter because if there's ever a disagreement between the game the rules want to produce and the game the group wants to play, the GM can fix it on the fly. This is always going to happen to some extent, because the rules and the group will never perfectly agree about how the game ought to be played, but positioning the ability to repair that disagreement regardless of its magnitude as a basic expectation of any GM is one of the reasons we have so many folks who GM for a year or two, the burn out and never touch a tabletop RPG again.
Basically, "rules don't matter because we don't use them" and "rules don't matter because tabletop RPGs are only one thing" are largely harmless, but "rules don't matter because something something Rule Zero" is demonstrably harmful, and we need to cut that shit out.
#it gets extra super fun and awful when the DESIGNERS OF THE GAME invoke rule zero to spackle over their own acknowledged failures #white wolf loves to pull this shit #wotc seems prone to it too (via @pyr0clast)
Well, the trick there is that neither of them are really being honest about why they're doing it.
White Wolf likes to cite Rule Zero because they've historically suffered from a shocking lack of editorial discipline, sometimes to the extent that different chapters of the same book have been written by different authors who were operating under incompatible assumptions about how the game ought to be played, and who didn't communicate with each other at any point during the process. Like, the exact scenario I'm describing has reportedly happened multiple times.
Hasbro likes to cite Rule Zero because their marketing department is trying to position Dungeons & Dragons as a universal entry-level game where you don't need to understand anything to play, you can just sit down at the table and let the GM tell you when and how to roll dice, but also they want every group to buy every sourcebook. Basically, they're trying to maintain the fiction that the rules are at once completely unimportant to the process of play and so essential that you should buy a three hundred page book full of them every year.
GilaRPGs and the Novaverse : Getting the setting out of the game line
Or What is a game line really ?
Getting out of the game line to develop a setting. What does it mean ? Well there's no better start than an exemple so let's check what Spencer Campbell or GilaRPGs is doing.
Actually no, a better start is defining the terms. Curse you leftovers from uni. So what is a game line ? In the TTRPG scene, it is usually thought as all the games that shares a Name, or all the books that share the same setting AND system. We all know the D&D line even if we sometimes wish we didn't. But there's other lines : Pathfinder, Nephilim, Knight, Vampire the Mascarade, etc...
Multiple editions ? Supplements ? That's a line, don't cross it.
But if games with the same setting and the same system are of the same line, what about game with the same setting but different systems ?
A New Challenger appears : Spencer Campbell, one of my fav. His name is often reason enough for me to buy.
(translation for a future video on my french ttrpg channel)
I could talk about the evolution of LUMEN toward a diceless,healthless system, how every other games influence this transition. I'll leave you waiting on this one.
In short, one of his big games is Nova, inspired by Warframe, Destiny and the likes.
To summarize : Sun exploded. Nobody knows why. Sun shards implanted on the planet. Now the night won't leave me alone.
A Measly lot of years later, the power of these shards can be harnessed, Humanity can continue. Sparks are invented, mecha-armour to explore the Dusk and defend settlements from their many ennemies. Cause we weren't alone when the sun exploded.
Well I said invented but some Sparks......
One of them was inspired by Satan and the only thing we know about it is thus : The Sky went red and it appeard out of the Dusk. Great. No reason to worry at all. It's not like you can't make a horseman of the Apocalypse party with some other Sparks... (something my player actually did, these edgy mfers)
The setting is very succint, it's a small book. But it's the Start of the Novaverse.
No, we can also find Luna and Nest in the same setting. Interesting detail : they focus on two of the enemies' factions found in Nova. And none of them have the same system.
Well that may be a little exaggeration. Dusk also exists with a similar system and on the Sparks side.
Before writing about them, I will note that supplements for Nova exist. Nova Dusk Denizen. Zine sized, each zine on a singular faction with more lore, more enemies, more tactics for the GM.
So
Dusk is the first new game of this Novaverse. The first to use the LUMEN 2.0, now diceless and based on ressources. For me, it's a debate if Lumen and Lumen 2.0 can be considered the same system.
More importantly, this is not a supplement. This is a full game. A modular game (another discussion for the future). Nova's focus was on combat, action. Dusk is not. It is exploration. The monsters usually die in 1 hit. Clearly two distinct experiences.
Then Spencer crowdfunded and published Luna. Another change. Here we play a Nova enemy faction : The Lunar Cult. Their goal : infiltrate a city and convert its sun shard for holy moonstone. This is not the type of adventures Lumen is built for. So the game uses the Resistance system, from Spire and Heart, a more adapted system.
This rpg also does something I appreciate more and more : One type of story only, we know what we want and we will play it in a fewshot campaign, 5 sessions max.
To go back to the original question, I ask of you : Same lore, same setting, but is it the same line ? It is a different experience and a different system after all.
Last May, GilaRPGs crowdfunded Nest. Back to Lumen 2.0, still an enemy faction : the Corvus Dominion, an avian alien race. And again, a game for fewshots. Since nothing has been published about it yet,I can't tell you more.
Same setting, sorta same system, but another game.
Thus what is a line ? How do you conceive it ? A base game and supplements ? Including the various editions of its base game ?
It's not like I can't use these games for Nova. Here we have two problems for the sparks to solve. How about multitable ? Between Nest and Nova ? Between Dusk and Nova ? The players of one game reacting to the actions from the other game and vice verse ? Wouldn't that be an interesting experience ? Wouldn't you want to try ?
Plus, the novaverse is not Spencer's only setting like this. He also has Obron, starting with Rune, his solo game inspired by Elden Ring and Dark Souls, where we play an Engraved. Then comes Reap, also solo in Obron, same system, but this time, you're a necromancer.
Since the game designer opens his game to 3rd party content (another reason to love him), someone had the great and terrific idea of a Realm that works for both games. Both characters are there at the same time. On the Rune side, you fight the Necromancer. On the Reap side, you fight the Engraved.
Now we leave the Rune system to go back to Lumen 2.0 again, with a group, for Thorn, also happening in Obron. And that's all I will say about it, the game is not completed yet.
I love this concept, especially with smaller games. While not zine sized, Spencer's game usually count around 50 pages.
We can focus our game on one type of story, of adventure in a particular setting, with an apropos system. Then make another game in this setting but for another story, another system adapted to this story. No more breaking your brain to try and make a size fit all system.
Generally, with a game it's the system that gets out of the line. We create an SRD for other creators. (Don't be afraid to use SRDs , they're here for you) It's rarer to take a setting and make a new different game in it.
Imagine the possibilities : Multitables with different games, reacting to each other, especially if they have opposed goals.
There are players who love a setting but hate the system, the types of adventures the base book proposes. Now they can find a game for them in this setting.
It is (or is it ?) a new direction for ttrpgs. The world of darkness games may profess to happen in the same world, but I always found them too separated. It is something I think about when creating my own games. What would happen if I take this and change the system ?
We can find similar ideas in other games.
Starfinder and Pathfinder share the same setting, the same system, bur with different scopes, in different genres.
Spire and Heart : same setting, same system, different stories.
Knight and Parias share the same setting too, for the system, it is the same base, but one is heroic horror, the other is survival of the outcasts.
The french author Vivien Féasson also does something similar with Perdus sous la pluie. 3 games in the same setting but one is an horror experience, one is exploration and settlement building, and the last is Life in the biggest citadel.
Let's see what sort of discussions this causes...
Wait a minute ! Isn't Obron the name he gave to the planet in the Novaverse game Dusk ? What is happening ? What secrets are you hiding Spencer !?
I was on reddit, and talking about how wild it is that the entirety of ATLA occurs over one year, and how the history of the hundred year war has to probably focus so much attention on one year of it, and someone replied, the events of the series are mostly historically irrelevant, and not intending to be rude but like:
The siege of the north, the temporary death of the moon spirit, the moon spirit being resurrected by the death of the norths princess, the KAIJU, the drill, the capture of ba sing se, the attempted invasion during the day of black son, the attempted genocide of Sozin's comet, the return of the avatar, all of the events surrounding how the avatar was able to get that information from the prince of the fire nation who defected and then was able to claim the throne from his sister after a new rank known as PHEONIX KING!! was attempted to be established by the previous fire lord Ozai
I'm not even gonna talk about the discovery of blood bending, the rediscovery of energy bending, the discovery of metal bending, the friggin spirit library being found
"It is too early. The hole is too big. Sadness washes over me when I think that I will never see him again. I have admired him so much since I was a child.
I remember the day he called me by name for the first time, the day you used the word "friend" for me and Kishimoto, I remember being overjoyed with Kishimoto on the way back home. I also remember the last conversation we had.
He was one of those who took the baton from the days when reading manga made you a fool, and created an era when both adults and children could enjoy reading manga. He showed us the dream that manga can go global. It was like watching a hero going forward. For not only manga artists but also the creators in various industries, the excitement and emotion of the time of Dragon Ball serialization must have taken root in their childhood. His existence is like a big tree.
For the manga artists of our generation who stood on the same stage, the closer I got to Toriyama's works, the more I realised that they had a greater presence. Scary. But I am just happy to see the easy-going man himself again. Because we love Toriyama-sensei on a blood level. With respect and gratitude for the creative world he has left behind, I pray for his soulful rest in peace.
May heaven be the joyous world just as you envisioned it." (X)
Hey this may be common knowledge but apparently you can go to your tmmumblr profile, content you see settings, and filter out stuff you don't want to see
Like every site should have this
I've been so annoyed with my feed being clogged with depressing news, Fandom drama, and stuff I actually like that should not be most of my feed
Ozai is so pathetic, like that “take his bending away haha he’s harmless now” trick would never have worked on Zuko, if you took his bending away he’d just grab his swords and come at you twice as hard, Azula doesn’t have swords or anything but she’s pretty good at hand to hand and amazing at talking her way out of problems, Iroh bust himself out of prison with no bending at all, meanwhile Ozai? Gets his bending taken away and then just collapses, doesn’t even try anymore, then just sits in prison and tries to get into Zuko’s head some more, he could have trained up and tried to break out too! But no! Bet he can’t break steel bars with his bare hands. Bet he can’t kick a steel lever in two. Bet he can’t even do a flip.
Also we never really see him do any really impressive firebending apart from when he has magic comet power, I guesss he shoots some lightning at Zuko, but that’s it and Azula is still better at the lightning thing. Azula has blue flames. Zuko can do firebreakdancing and bend with his swords. Does Ozai, who is not 14 years old, have blue flames? No he doesn’t.
He didn’t even do his coup himself, Ursa had to kill Azulon for him! Could have just challenged Iroh to an Agni Kai for the throne but he didn’t bc he knew he’d lose.
And then he only ruled for like 6 years! He lost a war that had been going on for 100 years bc of a bunch of kids.
My cat was hungry so I tried to feed him. More cats started appearing, then a ton of fish, krill, birds, all with litterboxes and habitats set up in my apartment for them.
There was so much crap everywhere, it was impossible to grab the stuff without grabbing crap too.
I was figuring out a system to feed the cats my other animals, since that seemed most efficient.
I've been getting more into Alexander Avila's Are They Gay Series, because of HBomberguy's James Somerton videos. Cannot recommend more, very good analysis, and beyond that it is so entertaining to see the formula of Alexander putting forward what a ship that is only controversial due to the fact it is gay, having to clarify no singular moments or acts makes the characters inherently gay, going slowly mad at the writers and audience of the show due to the sheer amount of thinly veiled gay subtext surrounding the 2 characters, and having to clarify interpreting characters as being gay is morally different than assuming real life people for people with tumblr level reading comprehension.
Really liking Nikhil Clayton's new youtube series. If you guy's don't know, Nikhil is a fairly popular tiktok creator, and gambit stan, who focuses on comic books, he's made a move to long form content on to youtube, the series is called rejeXs, focusing on obscure characters, gives like a classic cracked feel, if you know that channel. Would totally recommend, he also has some older tiktok skit compliations on there which I think are fun
I was reading tvtropes and got on the page about Wizard City, and peppermint butler. It implies peppermint butler in the special was adapted to be much more evil and jerkish then previously portrayed, with him torturing his new self, and I don't agree
The curse Peppermint Butler puts on himself is that of the "intensest intention", I don't see it as a portrayal of how he actually would act towards this new version of himself, but rather it's representative off the obsession and drive to be as good as he once was
As we see in Together Again, eventually Peppermint Butler for the most part behaves as he did before when he becomes old again. Take into consideration Together Again was meant to air after Wizard City, I feel that was the intention that the writers had too
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