Wandering Adventure Party

@Kingu@sakurajima.moe we’re supposed to believe in some circles that that a wafer of bread transubstantiates into the body of Christ. If Jesus is on the toast, I think theologically speaking your toaster just gave you a free Eucharist prayer and you should dig in.

The next historical game I want to try to run is Empire of the Petal Throne. For those unfamiliar, it is the second or third TTRPG (depending if you let the copyright office officiate) to come to existence, and the first published setting (Tékumel).

That’ll have to wait until I can acquire a copy though. #TTRPG

@Elizafox@social.treehouse.systems capitalism excels at the efficient use of resources… /s.

Oh, found an interview

[Tunnels and Trolls] typed it up myself on my Remington 1907 typewriter

That was a pretty old desk typewriter, even back in 1975.

https://poplitiko.blogspot.com/2015/06/tunnels-trolls-creator-ken-st-andre.html?m=1

#typewriter #TTRPG

Anytime I see a document like this though… I want to know what typewriter Ken St Andre used. Alas.

Astute Readers will also note that the poly set back then didn't contain a d10.

I hear a lot people talk about the d20 being "expensive" for its time when it was released, but no one talks about what that means or what the numbers were.

The closest I've found is https://www.tsrarchive.com/cat/tsr-1978.pdf, which you can see has a full polyhedral set for $1.49, or $.89 for 2D20s.

That puts a full polyhedral set around ... the price of a gallon of milk in 1978? That doesn't seem bad at all? Actually cheaper than today. Maybe the situation was way worse in 1975, but I wonder if this situation is overblown and it was more about availability. I know they ran into a supply crunch in the late 70s. I'm curious if someone knows more.

#D&D #DnD #TTRPG

I ran a oneshot of Tunnels & Trolls 1E

It was a fun history experience, even if in today's terms its kinda ... a bad game.

The game itself feels pretty much incomplete. You're going to run into ambiguities and missing rules almost instantly (movement? Dungeon rounds? resolution mechanic? good luck. You'll need it, because luck is the best stat). It feels like what it is: The work of someone who read a copy of oD&D, didn't really get it, and then hacked out something like it based on what he thought it was.

Which given that it was written when the genre didn't know what it was ... is fair. It's got a lot of interesting notions, like how strength and dexterity are casting stats, monster ratings, group combat resolution, a bunch of fun, zany spells, and an entirely overwrought 'berserk' mechanic. It could have used a lot more playtesting though.

Today I couldn't imagine running a campaign in this. Certainly many did, and it must have been crazy. I would get frustrated with it and begin writing out my own hack. I tried to think of what I'd do if I was around in 1975 and trying to run this thing. I think I would have done the same (and with oD&D), but who knows.

Still. We ran a dungeon, laughed, had a good time. I would like to try a later edition of T&T to see the arc of its evolution.

#Tunnelsandtrolls #TTRPG

Green tea, green tea...

@sludgecatheter@outerheaven.club I sympathize. This kind of conversation usually strikes me as some kind of weird masturbatory violence fantasy. The question can be re-framed as, "What realistic fantasies of remorselessly committing violence do you have?"

While people are talking about situations they'd commit these acts in, they're often living and reveling in the fantasy of it at the same time. The answers aren't usually the flex the speaker thinks they are.

We are all victims of an impossible situation.

I am mildly perturbed that Tunnels and Trolls lists “black hobbits” as a potential example dungeon monster. Funnily enough, “misogynists” are on that list too.

I also protest the idea that there was no sense for “balance” in these old school games. Rather, there was just a greater weight of that weird faux-realism game designers can’t shake.

Andre talks about “fairness” in several passages and grant’s rules based on it. So it’s not like the idea doesn’t exist. It’s more that St. Andre thinks that dwarves are a clearly superior species to humans and that’s reflected in their stat line.

I had a good laugh at ~“we wanted to add a glossary, but we decided to leave it to you to save space. If you don’t know what [a weapon] is, look it up”

Finally an RPG writer honest about being lazy and leaving work to the GM.

I can’t really imagine playing a campaign with this rule set. Lots of hand waving, incomplete explanations, some bonkers decisions, and poor layout

But it is an interesting piece of history, and there are a couple of fun ideas. It definitely exists in the space of “games before people knew what the game was” products.

I appreciate that there is a 2013 reprinting of Tunnels & Trolls 1E.

But I hate that it appears to be a scan of type written document. The fading, artifacts, and wacky weight from an undisciplined typist make reading this very unpleasant and hard on the eye.

@Elizafox@social.treehouse.systems You may not wish to answer, because I'm probably going to be annoying by turning to this answer over and over again: So what? Find a place to insert that life. Gaps always exist somewhere.

@sludgecatheter@outerheaven.club

This isn't your bad at all, I'm just neurotic about gassing up my friends since I have so few lol

I do not judge you or myself here. I only know them by this one action. They're a Strawman to me. This is sorta the implicit assumption in all online stories. You're forced to make judgements on the character of a story rather than the actual multifaceted individual, because what else can you do? If all I can know is based on that one interaction then I feel my assessment is fair in isolation. Just as is yours with the greater context.

either you hurt them and they end up nursing a hidden pain that they can't tell you about, or else they tell you the truth and you wind up feeling like a real prick. Winner loses

Totally agree. Insecurity is often self-defeating like this. It forces you into impossible win-conditions.

since if you're like me and prone to self-flagellating over your unforced errors you can end up feeling the whip months later.

This is definitely a problem I face. There are certain things I will hold onto for years, especially if they're unpleasant for me. It's part of why I find this kind of action detestable; it's tricking someone into doing something they would not knowingly choose to do. It's duplicitous, agency-stealing, and can cause real harm. All for a selfish desire or nagging doubt. I'd say you shouldn't feel bad about it, but that's selling a magazine I don't subscribe to.

I wonder if it takes as much effort for everyone else as it evidently does for us.

I have complicated feelings about this. For some people it doesn't take as much effort, not because it is effortless for them, but because they don't put effort into it. They just kinda coast on reflex and desire and don't think about it, and what happens, happens. Like touching a hot stove and thinking a sky-wizard God air-fried your hand, rather than figuring out cause-and-effect. For others, I think they went through the right school of hard knocks enough as kids to learn a feral instinct. For others it is a massive effort. But I feel there is kinda an unhealthy tendency to ascribe some kind of 'it' factor or magic to it in some circles.

@Elizafox@social.treehouse.systems I don't think the goal is necessary to undo. Maybe it's a bit full of myself: but sometimes resistance - even fruitless and otherwise pointless - to the anti-life is the only space you create for a life.

I understand the despondency, but since I seek moments of life, it goes to a place I can't quite follow. I feel its important to have some level of detachment from the outcome, and to be able to subsist on a few moments of because fuck you, world spite.

So yeah, it probably won't work. Maybe it's just pissing into the gears of society for no real gain. So what? Fuck'em. Make some no-name functionary's life miserable, or cut the bottom line a tiny fraction. Fuck'em. Live that life.

@sludgecatheter@outerheaven.club People constantly trying to ambush me like this is what part of what gave me my paranoid defense mechanisms, why I have to think about everyone's motives.

I totally get the desire for honest feedback, but this isn't the way. People only do this when they're insecure about your 'actual' thoughts, and so they often don't have a plan B when it goes wrong for them and they usually end up lashing out over it. It's incredibly unfair for someone to put their friends into a position where they might be tricked or forced into hurting them.

You may have accidentally gone scorched earth on them, but it's exactly what they deserved. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. It's just unfortunate that you had to be hurt in the process.