seen from China
seen from Australia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Russia
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Australia
seen from Taiwan
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
It occurs to me that it's pretty impressive that Order of the Stick has been going so long that it started by making jokes about transitioning from D&D 3E to 3.5, and just kept going while in the outside world we went to 4E then 5E and now 5.5.
Go read check out Unchained Mysteries by Jesse Burneko
An Alternative To Clue-based Scenario Design.
I recently was altered to and read a treatise called Unchained Mysteries, and it’s incredible that I had never heard of it before. It’s not a TTRPG, but it is a treatise about TTRPGs, particularly mystery investigation TTRPGs, and how bad they have been for the past 50 years at actually doing investigation gameplay.
For the roughly two years since we went public with Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, we have been fighting a war, an idealogical war on TTRPGs as an artform declared by monopolistic corporations, parasocial “”actual play”” shows, content mill YouTube channels and the loyal adherents of the above. The generals of this vast army, whether they consciously realize it or not, have a financial incentive to teach you that game design is not real and that it doesn’t matter. A consumerbase that understands game design or what a TTRPG is on even the narrowest, shallowest level is one where some people might sometimes choose to play something besides the most popular and heavily advertised game on the market when they are able to recognize that it does not suit their needs.
To this end they teach you “just ignore the rules when they get in the way of the story,” and “a good GM can make anything work.” They task the GM with putting on a one-man show so that people who do not like the kinds of experiences created by the rules of the most popular game do not ever have to engage with the experiences of playing the most popular game, but still buy all the most popular game’s products, and most importantly never buy anything else.
It’s been an uphill battle, but we have been able to carve out a little outpost for ourselves, convert others to the Game Design in Real faction, and occasionally make contact with like-minded individuals who fight for TTRPGs to be treated as a unique and meaningful artform and game, not just an annoying book that gets in the way of your improv session, as most self-identified fans of TTRPGs have been taught to treat them.
Unchained Mysteries is one of those times we discover a powerful ally, and it has been some real wind in my sails, lemme tell you.
As a TTRPG game designer, it really wears on the mind to get the same comments over and over and over from people who don’t even know enough about gleeblor to understand the position they’re taking, that all boil down to the same thing: Telling me that my work, and the work of others trying to design TTRPGs, is, at best, completely meaningless, because the rules we write shouldn’t be assumed to affect anything, that the right way to play TTRPGs is to just ignore the rules and make it up as you go. At worst, they get offended, and demand to know “why I’m trying to tell them how they should play the game” in the instruction manual for the game. And come at me with shonen hero monologues about how as an artist I have no right to even want people to engage with my art the way that I intentionally designed it to be engaged with, let alone have the audacity to express that desire. People’s right to not think about anything and put in the least possible effort for the quickest, shortest gratification is sacred, especially because game design isn’t real, so there’s no way that following the intent behind the design could lead to a more meaningful experience than just running off vibes.
And all this with the financial stress of being unable to keep a “normal” job due to disability, making my art my main source of income on top of the constant reaffirmation that large amounts of potential customers have been taught that the kind of art I’m best at and most passionate about, art that is really really trying to provide a particular experience through its design and intent, is the most undesirable kind of art, if they even know that kind art exists within the medium of TTRPGs at all.
Sorry about all that.
Anyway, it would have been cool to find such a well-written piece of writing that agrees with Eureka’s stance on investigative TTRPG gameplay on one point.
It would’ve been really cool to find such a well-written piece of writing that agrees on two points.
The points made, the problems highlighted, and the solutions proposed within Unchained Mysteries are about a 90% overlap with Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy’s, and presents them even more convincingly. (Which is to be expected, since it exists only to make these points rather than also being a whole game.)
If you’re interested in the arguments Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy makes and demonstrates about game design, give Unchained Mysteries a read.
If you like D&D and want a space opera/science fantasy adventure with a retro vibe, I highly recommend that you watch this video and check out the Kickstarter.
New google doc for my D&D 5.5e homebrew where you play as dogs (and sometimes cats, foxes & wolves) in a post-humanity world teeming with magic. Perfect for fans of Warrior Cats, Survivor Dogs or similar fantasy xenofiction series!
Canine Shall Inherit The Earth (D&D 5.5e Homebrew) I had a little idea concerning my post-humanity canine xenofiction fantasy video game pro
In particular, I just updated it with more info concerning possible encounters! (Mostly other animals, but you may get jackalweres, undead dogs or werebear/boar/rat/wolf dogs as well)
This homebrew includes:
Overhauled Race/Species system: dogs are classified into 8 "Breed Groups" based on the AKC's classifications (although the Hound group is split into Sight Hounds and Scent Hounds; and non-AKC-recognized breeds are allowed to be used), specific breeds can get their own Traits aside from the Breed Group-wide ones. Foxes, Cats and Wolves are also available to play.
Specific Mixes: allows you to mix up to 4 dog breeds (including wolves) and get any combination of 4 Traits from them
New names for specific items (light/medium/heavy armour being analogous to small/medium/large animal hides here)
You can tell I'm genuine about my "please try a system other than modern D&D at least once" thing and not just pushing my pet system(s) because most of the time when I recommend other systems for modern D&D players, they're actually systems that aren't really my thing.
For example, a lot of people try to play D&D as a narrative game, going for a sort of authored-feeling narrative experience. That's not really my jam in TTRPGs these days--right now I'm much more into what this post by @anim-ttrpgs calls "challenge games" but that's not really how a lot of modern D&D players actually want to play. (Though I have a hot take brewing that 5e/5.5e actually plays a lot better if you treat it that way.)
But I'm not about to tell you that you shouldn't like or want that. Instead, I can suggest games that will actually help you achieve that, like Fellowship, Ironsworn, Wildsea, or even Daggerheart--the kinds of games where I can go "oh yeah that's good, not For Me but really good."
I want to help people have the TTRPG experience they want most, even if it's not the one I want, y'know?
El Meteorón is a Barbarian with the Entertainer Background.
His name originates from his favorite move: Elbow dropping his opponents from the highest point possible (I like to abuse falling damage).
Can't wait to play as him soon!
Im going over my dnd character again and I am once again reminded that getting in a barfight in dnd with a 2024 monk sounds like a fucking nightmare. Even if they're not a Drunken Master their punches probably hit like a fucking hammer (2024 ups the damage dice by default to a d6 and makes it a d8 at lvl 5) and by default they can attack at least twice a turn with a maximum of (at lvl 10) 5 punches in 6 seconds. And let's say you cheat, pull out a fucking war hammer, and hit the monk. Deflect Attack can negate a lot of damage (to the point you often need to hit a monk twice in a round to do damage). It's just wild.
Regular ass combat is also a pain against them but I'll save that for another time
Which Edition of D&D had the best design/artwork of a Blue Dragon?
First Edition
Second Edition
Third Edition
Fourth Edition
Fifth Edition
Fifth Edition Revised
