An interesting piece about the #ttrpg media landscape: https://personable.blog/media-crowdfunding/
-
@pteryx @Printdevil @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl Similarly I think the conception of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. People aren't not playing GURPS because it doesn't have a dungeon bash ready to go, they're not playing it because they already have a dungeon bash system they're happy with _and_ it has a constant stream of adventures and supplements so they never have to invent anything.
@RogerBW @Printdevil @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl
Exactly. The trouble with GURPS is that it *looks* more intimidating than it is, and it's not obvious to a potential customer not already deep into TTRPGs what it (or most other generic systems) is *for* exactly.Really, cracking the code of "how do you make the concept of an actual generic system make sense to the average person, let alone inspire them to do something with it?" is one of the cursed problems of TTRPGs.
-
@Printdevil @pteryx @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl The vast majority of people I've met who "don't like GURPS" have believed someone else's account of a bad experience (often the same few accounts) and assumed that all GURPS is like that. I honestly think my demo games over several years at various conventions did more to sell GURPS (look, here is a game that you can play in a straightforward way, which offers this bit of detail if you want it) than any special promotion.
I don't like GURPS because I hate it.
Which is odd given the preposterous amount of GURPS books I own.
-
That's because if you can GM, or you are in a group with a good GM - which could be 90% of gamers, you don't spend your time on youtube trying to find out how to GM or wondering if your GM is bad. You aren't the target audience for the beardlord's slop.
@Printdevil @pteryx @foolishowl @Taskerland But I have impostor syndrome and always want to get better at what I do!
-
"Announce what you are going to do in character, not rule parlance" would stop a lot of "i get +3 if wear my trousers which can boil water in a 100 yard radius"
@Printdevil @foolishowl @pteryx @Taskerland (that star wars image) Outside them, right?
-
@Printdevil @foolishowl @pteryx @Taskerland (that star wars image) Outside them, right?
"The curse of boiling trousers" was the least well known of Holmes later cases, after Conan Doyle had abandoned even spiritualism for outré folklore about cursed pants.
-
I don't like GURPS because I hate it.
Which is odd given the preposterous amount of GURPS books I own.
@Printdevil @RogerBW @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl
I've only been in a GURPS game once, and it was pretty obvious to me that the problems I had with it there were partly my really not fitting with the gaming group in general in *any* game, and partly the GM in specific being one of those "gotcha" sorts looking to turn even your Advantages against you (look, I bought the *small* claws instead of the big ones for a *reason*). Neither of which is the system's fault. -
@Printdevil @RogerBW @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl
I've only been in a GURPS game once, and it was pretty obvious to me that the problems I had with it there were partly my really not fitting with the gaming group in general in *any* game, and partly the GM in specific being one of those "gotcha" sorts looking to turn even your Advantages against you (look, I bought the *small* claws instead of the big ones for a *reason*). Neither of which is the system's fault."bought" is were I get lost in points systems weeds and undergrowth.
-
"bought" is were I get lost in points systems weeds and undergrowth.
@Printdevil @pteryx @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl Yeah, though I have a rant brewing about Doctor Who second edition, which gets rid of its great long list of positive and negative Traits, and instead says "you have Distinctions, they're all the same cost, here is no guidance at all as to what makes a sensible Distinction, make it up have fun you novice who picked this up in a bookshop".
-
@Printdevil @pteryx @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl Yeah, though I have a rant brewing about Doctor Who second edition, which gets rid of its great long list of positive and negative Traits, and instead says "you have Distinctions, they're all the same cost, here is no guidance at all as to what makes a sensible Distinction, make it up have fun you novice who picked this up in a bookshop".
Doctor Who is a really bad fit for a generation(s) of gamers who grew up with hit points. The halo effect of "the players kinda don't get exterminated while being are dying in droves around them all the time" is a odd thing in a game. It stands out like a sore thumb.
As I mentioned to @zozo I think a generic "Time Hobo" character might work better in most situations than trying replicate the TV show. Because it's weird
Except the gargoyles.
-
Doctor Who is a really bad fit for a generation(s) of gamers who grew up with hit points. The halo effect of "the players kinda don't get exterminated while being are dying in droves around them all the time" is a odd thing in a game. It stands out like a sore thumb.
As I mentioned to @zozo I think a generic "Time Hobo" character might work better in most situations than trying replicate the TV show. Because it's weird
Except the gargoyles.
@Printdevil @zozo @pteryx @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl Well from a gaming perspective I _start_ from the premise of "the old show with a cosmic hobo, not the new show with a junior god who can do Anything".
-
@Printdevil @zozo @pteryx @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl Well from a gaming perspective I _start_ from the premise of "the old show with a cosmic hobo, not the new show with a junior god who can do Anything".
We are not at home to nuWho.
-
We are not at home to nuWho.
@Printdevil @zozo @pteryx @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl "Series 7½" is what I'm playing with at the moment. Basically the series 7 core cast, minus the Doctor, doing UNIT things.
-
@Printdevil @zozo @pteryx @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl Well from a gaming perspective I _start_ from the premise of "the old show with a cosmic hobo, not the new show with a junior god who can do Anything".
I think you could get some mileage in a Time-Travel scenario book that was badges filed off Dr Who though
-
I think you could get some mileage in a Time-Travel scenario book that was badges filed off Dr Who though
@Printdevil @zozo @pteryx @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl Let's start with: do you mean adventures in Historyland where the time machine just shows up at the start and the end, or adventures that are about time travel?
-
@Printdevil @zozo @pteryx @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl Let's start with: do you mean adventures in Historyland where the time machine just shows up at the start and the end, or adventures that are about time travel?
Show up, weird, fix weird, jolly off to the next place. Repeat.
-
@cy @Printdevil @Taskerland @pteryx One of the things I don't like about a lot of multi-player computer games is that narrative and imagery are distractions from game play. I'd say "treated as distractions", but this has been a norm for decades, so designers must be aware of it by now and design accordingly.
It's less an escape from reality than an exaggeration of it, in which you are punished for paying attention to history or sensuous detail or asking questions about what you're doing.
-
@cy @Printdevil @Taskerland @pteryx One of the things I don't like about a lot of multi-player computer games is that narrative and imagery are distractions from game play. I'd say "treated as distractions", but this has been a norm for decades, so designers must be aware of it by now and design accordingly.
It's less an escape from reality than an exaggeration of it, in which you are punished for paying attention to history or sensuous detail or asking questions about what you're doing.
@cy @Printdevil @Taskerland @pteryx I enjoy playing computer games, by myself, in which I'm solving some sort of puzzle, counting tactical challenges as puzzles, but, I'm not particularly good at math, or at puzzles, and it feels awkward and embarrassing to work through them in a group. That's just not the experience I'm looking for.
-
@cy @Printdevil @Taskerland @pteryx One of the things I don't like about a lot of multi-player computer games is that narrative and imagery are distractions from game play. I'd say "treated as distractions", but this has been a norm for decades, so designers must be aware of it by now and design accordingly.
It's less an escape from reality than an exaggeration of it, in which you are punished for paying attention to history or sensuous detail or asking questions about what you're doing.
I like to call them a simulation of reality. Or (you know) a game, because that's what a game is. People who want to escape something don't play games about it.
Trouble is the modern culture has confused gambling for games. You see people playing football, they're practicing at hunting, or fighting, or real things that the game is a safe substitute for. Then the announcers come in and tell you to place your bets. -_- Goes beyond video games, really.
CC: @Printdevil@dice.camp @Taskerland@dice.camp @pteryx@dice.camp -
RPGs are a curious magical thing. Gossmer ideas often handled by clowns. Modern gaming very much a curate's egg.
@Printdevil @pteryx @foolishowl @Taskerland Remembering the point of that cartoon, which people don't get these days because they have never met a bad egg and therefore don't understand how impossible it is for parts of it to be excellent.
-
@Printdevil @Taskerland @cy @foolishowl
Which does make me wonder if TTRPGs were even the kind of thing they wanted to play in the first place, or if their participation in something so *cooperative* was more of an imposition from their perspective. Kind of like how even today, there are wallflower "players" who only "play" because that's what the rest of the group is doing.(I mean, I don't mind audience members, but they shouldn't pretend to be players...)
Hey I'll play board games just because that's what the rest of the group is doing. Which is all I ever get to do. So I think it's fine if someone puts aside their boards once and a while to do roleplaying. The whole thing about groups and cooperation is there's rarely something everyone wants to do.
CC: @Printdevil@dice.camp @Taskerland@dice.camp @foolishowl@social.coop
