Victor, a Rascal certified game designer

250ish followers, so I have one quarter of a hater.

I also don't understand game convention panels. One year at a con I decided to prioritize going to panels, to see what the fuss was about. I still don't understand.

Every day I'm thankful that I didn't have to learn English as a second language. The exceptions have exceptions.

I'm always fascinated by what mechanics game designers decide to explain.

Troika has half a page on drowning, but specifically says the table has to decide how many small items fit in a single inventory slot. There aren't even any examples or advice.

Games?!? In this economy?!

I don't *think* they've officially declared campaign 4 is dropping 5e. That said, I'll be shocked if they keep using it. I can't imagine dropping a major new system and then not using every available opportunity to promote said system.

Similar thing happened in a murder trial of all places. The victim's wife played an AI video of the victim during the sentencing, after conviction. Shockingly the judge allowed it. The defendant is planning to appeal the sentencing, because DAMN of course he is.

This applies to so much. There's a role playing game called "LOOT". How do you Google for that?!

(This post brought you by forgetting that people suck and browsing a public RPG Bsky feed.)

This thread is great, because I went on the exact same journey.

I read it and thought, god damn this is complicated! Why is this even here?

Then I realized it's to keep HP values low, while still allowing players to roll damage.

Then I played DH and realized it's actually a pretty simple system.

An unasked for opinion: People who brag on social media about their TTRPG character committing violence are a walking red flag.

I watch only Marvel films and remakes of movies from last century. Cinema is dying!

Advertise your account with a gif? Don't mind if I do.

I have my Bluesky homepage set up to only show posts by my mutuals. Every week or so I get bored and start browsing some of the TTRPG feeds.

Then I remember most people on the Internet suck and I go back to hanging out with my friends.

Stonetop is wonderful. It's my favorite maximalist PbtA game. It's a big game with a ton of moves. The moves have moves!

My only complaint is that it's been "about to come out" for years now.

(quote post bc op was commenting on a post with limited replies)

Oh hey, I've done this!

thisisvictor.itch.io/performance-...

(I wrote this four years ago, never played it and never revisited it. You've been warned.)

Why support a billion dollar corporation when you can buy better games and put the money directly into the designer's pocket?

21) I'm running out of opinions. I dunno, dice are overrated or something.

20) That said, there's a space for maximalist game design. But every rule needs to be as good as every other rule. That gets harder and harder as the size of the game increases.

19) Too many game designers think the solution to their game's problems are more mechanics. Usually it's the opposite.

Travel: Ironsworn and Starforged.

Community building: Brinkwood. It's technically FitD but whatever. It has a whole community building downtime mini game.

It's truuuuuuue.

Does a Google . . . THAT'S REAL?!?

Oh shit, gotta add falling damage to Kid Detectives!

18) Stop naming things blank borg. The joke wasn't super funny to begin with and nothing is funnier than Dukk Borg.

17) Too many games waste time on boring things, like falling damage.

16) Modules in OSR games and moves in PbtA fulfil the same purpose. They create boundaries around a fictional space.

15) 9 out of 10 times using an actual dungeon as an adventure setting is just lazy writing. You don't need rooms and hallways to contain your module. Let the players wander through the forest! They might die! That's fun!

I would play the hell out of this as a town or city builder computer game, but personally I'm not that interested in this as a RPG.

But also, check out Back Again from the Broken Land. It's not identical, but similar vibes. It's "what if we made an RPG about the hobbits returning home after LotRs"