@elmiko Michael, I think you're absolutely correct that to run a game, you must have at least played the game. 👍

Run a brief adventure where the aspiring DMs experience it as a player first, then do it again letting them see how it was prepped and how it's run from behind the DM screen.

#dnd #ttrpg #dming #dungeonmaster

Cat's la mascarade ce soir.
De bons voire tres bons retours de mes joueureuses.
J'ai eu des chats chaotiques à souhait. On a beaucoup rigolé.
Mes joueureuses m'ont dit que j'avais bien géré l'alternance entre les 2 groupes quand ils ont split the party. Le rythme leur va, ils adorent que le rp ait la part belle.
J'invente des trucs sur le moment niveau regles pq ben... y a pas mal de zones de flou je trouve.
En tout cas on s'est tous bien amusé et c'est le plus important.

#jdr #ttrpg #CatsLaMascarade #meujeutage #MJ #DMing

Looking Ahead

The weather is trying to decide if it’s August or October, my allergies are all over the place, and my social calendar has been busy. But, the coffee has been good and I’ve got books to read! These are some random TTRPG thoughts, let’s roll it!

1. We live streamed an actual play of Monty Python’s Cocurricular Medieval Reenactment Programme this week. My character submitted a letter of complaint to the BBC, annoyed the Head of Light Entertainment, and was shot by Bolsheviks. It was amazing.
2. For the past year I’ve been dropping hints about what I’ve been slowly prepping for my Numenera group. This week things began moving in that direction. I’m kinda psyched, to be honest.
3. I’m getting ready for GameHole Con! I just hope there’s air traffic controllers working when it’s time for me to go. That is not a drive I’d care to make. I hate driving.
4. I used my Kobo Libre Color to take my notes during my Numenera session. I enjoy that process even though my hand-writing makes it look like I’m a drunk doctor. Why did I take notes on my Kobo? Well, first, my iPad is too big at the table so it gets in the way. Second, if I write on paper my hand gets stained and I’ve had enough of that in my life. This is one of the small burdens left-handed people face. I mean, the whole world is backwards.
5. So an ICE raid, featuring Black Hawk helicopters, was unleashed on a Chicago apartment building. There are reports of folks being dragged out of their homes naked and of kids being zip-tied together as they were led outside. Now, those things are monstrous, but they are a symptom of the threat rather than the threat itself. ICE emptied an apartment building with no warrants—just to see who they could arrest. Folks, if a law enforcement entity can bust down a door and drag you outside, without a warrant, just to see if they can arrest you—we are all less safe. And if you are thinking, “Well they wouldn’t do it to me,” then you have missed the point. When rights, which are the assumed pre-existing defaults for human-beings which guaranteed protection under the Constitution, are snatched from anyone then we are all harmed. Oh, and you’ll hear people pointing that that “some of these people were US Citizens.” That is both irrelevant and dangerous. Protected Constitutional rights are guaranteed for everyone who lives in any territory in which the Constitution is the law of the land. Do not allow any of this to become normalized.
6. My EZD6 “Howlmark” mini-campaign continues on Monday, October 12th, at 8:30 PM! Come on out and see what the heroes of Hobgoblin Falls get up to! If you want to catch up the first session can be found at this link.
7. I am enjoying my read through of Star Trek Adventures 2e. There are bits of it which are very progressive and, I admit, some of the editorial decisions had me cocking my head in confusion a bit. But then I remembered the Star Trek had two bridge officers whose presence was radical in the 1960s—a Russian and a black woman who was a commissioned officer. Star Trek has always been progressive, but the bits from the original series were things I was already used to by the time I was growing up. Similarly progressives idea being presented nowadays are newer to me, so I notice them more. We live and we learn.
8. Most of the games I’m playing at GameHole Con are two hour sessions. This is helpful because I end up with more time to roam around doing interviews and recording reflections. I am not sure, however, when I’m going to eat. It’s the little details which vex me. I’m also an introvert so I don’t know who I’m eating with because I always feel like I’m intruding on groups. My psychology is…we’ll call it “interesting.”
9. One nice thing about going to PaxUnplugged is I can commute to it. This means I don’t get the “full experience” because I do try to get home in time for my little’s bed time, but I also don’t need to worry about bringing any purchases home from the convention. I’m trying to pack light for GameHole Con and probably won’t be picking up a lot of stuff. Unless I pack really well, that is.
10. I have somehow managed to almost reach the 1000 follower mark on TikTok. Now in the world of Tiktok that is nothing but,to be honest, even reaching that milestone confuses me because I am just not cool enough for a platform like that. Still, some folks seem to like it so that’s nice.

#DMing #DnD #DungeonsDragons #dungeonsAndDragons #GMing #RolePlayingGame #RPG #TTRPG

Dumbfounded

I’m rather tired of having a year’s worth of crazy happen over the course of a week, the trees don’t appear to be trying to kill be right now (which has me worried), and I’ve been enjoying a lot of yummy coffee. The world may be spiraling, but there’s good things to spark hope. These are some random TTRPG thoughts.

1. Congratulations to Monte Cook Games for breaking the million dollar mark with their recent Cypher Backerkit campaign. And now, it looks like Numenera is going to be revisited as well. Fun times! Question, should I start complaining that Numenera is being ruined now or should I wait until the campaign actually begins?
2. I was so excited to run the first session of my Howlmark actual play campaign. It’s an EZD6 campaign and we’ll be running through my Hobgoblin Falls trilogy. The fun happens every other Monday, beginning at 8:30 Eastern US. Check it out!
3. I visited the PA Renaissance Faire for the first time and it was a lot of fun. I was so close to dropping a lot of coin on some actual gemstone dice but wound up holding off because I’m heading to GameHole Con this month and need the cash. One fun moment was when a random Eagles chant echoed along one of the streets and most of the patrons joined in. I love being a Philly sports fan, even when the Eagles blow a huge lead in the 4th quarter.
4. My sci-fi horror adventure, The Orshin Incident, is going to be hitting Backerkit next year! This is all thanks to my friend, Dave Ward from Grimwood Games and I’m having a hard time believing it’s actually happening. The adventure was written for Indexcard RPG but we’re going to try to offer conversions of EZD6, Ironbound, and Mothership. Dave, thank you so much.
5. In a year where a year’s worth of absurdity happens every week, the last few weeks have been a doozy. The President gave a rambling fit of a speech at the UN. We had another church shooting and the only thing the talking heads are concerned about is the ideology of the shooter (because if he was on “their side” it’s…ok then? I don’t get it). Then we had the Secretary of Defense call every general officer in our armed forces so he could vomit his bloviating ideology to everyone, during which he used the phase “any war we choose.” Which is not getting enough attention because that’s a radical shift in how the armed forces are going to be used. Then the president got up to speak and was shaken by the fact that the disciplined general officers didn’t become a campaign rally crowd, during which he talked about using US cities to train combat troops. Oh, prior to that he bleated out in his fake twitter account about “war-ravaged Portland.” Now the government’s shut down and the vice-president just lied out his butthole about the Democrats demanding free health care for illegal immigrants as a condition for funding the government. the HUD website as a message blaming the shutdown on the “Radical Left in Congress,” which is a violation of the Hatch Act but laws don’t matter any more because we don’t have a functioning administration—we have an endless election campaign running the government. Oh, and the president shared an AI video about some fake medical technology to his fake twitter in which he appeared. And I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface. Also stop shooting people.
6. My friend, Dave Ward (he keeps popping up, doesn’t he?), was able to interview the creator of the Questline VTT. Questline is a lightweight VTT that can be accessed on any device and be usable, which is huge. Last week Dave and I kicked the tires on the setup and came away impressed, while also pining for some features to be implemented to make the VTT feel more functional, and during Dave’s interview with Aelfric, the platform’s creator, addressed our reflections—which was a cool outcome from that rambling stream. I encourage everyone to watch the interview, and maybe go check out Questline for yourself!
7. I love helping folks connect to each other and finding community in the process. I love how—through this channel, my campaigns, and events I’ve run—real friendships have formed that have make folks lives just a little bit better. Two things about this. First, I recognize this may just be an extension of my pastoral vocation—but it could also be part of why I’m a pastor, I love to see folks connected to each other. Second a strange psychological quirk about folks who enjoy connecting others is that, quite frequently, we either don’t feel like we ourselves belong or we think we haven’t done enough to connect folks in community. I don’t bring this up as a pity party for me. I point it out so if you’ve got someone who helps connect you to others in your lives—a GM, a community organizer, a friend who plans all friend group get-togethers, or religious figure of some kind—give them a thank you. Most of them will not know what to do with it and will probably try to deflect the thanks to someone else but, deep down, you’ll warm their hearts.
8. I finally remembered to order my “I liked these dice before they were cool” shirt, featuring the mighty d12. I want to have it for GameHole Con and I hope it gets here. The squirrel brain can be a problem. That moment of focus also prompted me to get both my covid and flu shots so, hopefully, I can keep some of the con crud away. Oh, if you want to pick up that shirt for yourself the link is right here.
9. One of the most enjoyable TTRPG YouTube channels, in my opinion, is “A Squirrel Plays.” Skrat’s reviews are beyond entertaining, and his humor and kindness are things I so appreciate. His game system, NUTS, is also a ton of fun and I’ve been privileged to play it in a couple of actual plays. Go check out his channel, you will not be disappointed. And, Skrat, sorry I keep running out of time to get your interview done, I’ll get you out of the green room soon.

#DMing #DungeonsDragons #dungeonsAndDragons #GMing #RolePlayingGame #RPG #TTRPG

So Much Chaos!

Last week was rather busy, the trees have it in for me, and I’ve been staying up too late which requires more coffee (there’s always a silver linking). Because of all this I missed a week of random thoughts, but I’m back and ready to do. These are some random TTRPG thoughts.

1. I was able to play Clever Cool Crazy, by RPGs vs. AD founder Glen Finney. The system is interesting because it encourages players to describe their intended actions as vividly as possible so they can get bonuses. We also played it in the B5 universe, which made it even more fun. I got to meet Zathras!
2. My CypherCon game was amazing. Here’s a run down. The party started out in the home of one of the character’s parents, who decided that they were rich and disapproved of their choice to go adventuring—so we started in an 80s teen coming of age movie. They were then recruited by a giant penguin to find their child, stole the family’s horseless carriage, and convinced some toll goblins that they had EZ Pass. Before they were able to camp for the night a tornado swept across the area and one character got tossed way far away, but survived—kind of. That night one player attempted a grift by picking a fight, but it all blew up and they ended up in a general bar rumble—which was amazing. The next day passed without incident, until the group disturbed a mass of vampire bats while setting up camp, so they were forced to fight them off. On the third day they reached their location, only to discover a giant stalk growing out of it which climbed up to the clouds. They climbed it, of course, and at the top they found a field of clouds. There were odd crops growing in distant patches and a small house a short distance away. In the house they found the baby penguin being watched by a kindly old man that most of the party realized was their home town’s mayor, but one player triggered an intrusion and ended up blurting out their realization that the mayor died two years earlier. This, of course, led the big bad to drop their disguise and attack, which was a lot of fun. The group defeated the demonic entity, saved the baby, and pilfered an artifact from the house, a wand of flame-throwing, before heading home. But before they could get far the clouds became dense and they all passed out, only to wake up in the sitting room where the adventure had begun, moments after the butler left to get them refreshments. The wand, however, was still in a character’s pocket and a note appeared on the table which read, “Thank you.” 90% of that was rolled up during the session, 9% was the bar fight the group invented, and the final 1% was the dream (which didn’t really come into being until the giant penguin and beanstalk both showed up as a result of table rolls). It was a lot of chaos and such an amazing time.
3. I had a friend in town recently and when we were figuring out what to do he mused, “Do you have a game store we can visit?” I thought that was a wonderful idea so after a morning walk to get some coffee we hopped in the car to visit Top Deck Games in Cherry Hill, NJ. I wasn’t going to buy anything because I’m trying to save up for GameHole Con, but as soon as I walked in I saw they had Daggerheart in stock. I’ve been wanting to pick it up for review so, into my hands it went!
4. EVmux did a fine job handling the actual play of Clever Cool Crazy. As a bonus, I can actually set up all my scenes, and in a pinch even run a stream, from my iPad. So that’s very nice. It’s far less expensive than things like Streamyard, though to get all the features I’m looking for I’d need to shell out a good amount of cash. Why am I not just using OBS? In a word, bandwidth. I don’t have enough to drag in four or five players via vdo ninja with any sort of quality. Also, I got tired of having to kludge through highlighting comments. I just wanted it to work.
5. When people gang up on the Internet to get someone cancelled it’s scary looking, but it’s free speech. Unsubscribing from a channel is free speech. Saying you think Charlie Kirk’s ideology was despicable, and the cause of his death was ironic given his own statements on some gun deaths being “worth it,” is free speech. Charlie’s penchant for being a provocateur was free speech. Jumping to conclusions about Charlie Kirk’s assassin—either his background or ideology—is free  speech. And it’s free speech to call such snap assumptions unwise at best. I’m especially looking at all the folks who insisted he’s a groyper, here, since they seem to be the folks who think I’m on their “team.” Saying you’re happy he’s dead or that you don’t have any empathy about it is free speech, and so is me unsubscribing and disassociating from people who do that—because I think it’s poisonous. The moment the FCC threatened to use the levers of its power to punish speech which angered the regime free speech suffered a direct attack from the Federal Government. Watching right wing voices decry what happened to Jimmy Kimmel has been interesting. Also, media conglomerates suck and are damaging to our society—a statement which is also free speech. And Kimmel getting back on the air in 100% of US markets is Free Speech telling the fascists to take a long walk off a short pier.
6. I was just going over the likely charges I’d accrue through Lyft trips at GameHole Con and figured out it’s better for me to rent a car. Some extra freedom will also be pretty nice.
7. I’d like to offer some perks for superchats during my “Howlmark” actual play stream. Perhaps giving a Boon, a Bane, or Karma? I’ve never tried this, do you have any ideas?
8. If you’re looking for a really cool convention in the Philly Area check out PAGE 3, January 15-18. The ratio of special guests to attendees is off the chart, so the chances of bumping into the likes of Professor Dungeon Master, Kelsey Dionne, Baron de Ropp, and other notable folks from the hobby is very high. I’m going to be there running Sentinel Comics RPG and Into the Odd, sitting in on a panel, and doing some interviews for the event. Check it out!
9. I was granted PaxUnplugged Media badge, and I’m looking forward to seeing what folks have going on this year! At the last PaxU I had a bunch of scheduled interviews, which cut down on my wandering time, but it was amazing to do some longer-form chats. I’ll have to see how things shake out this year.
10. My next personal goal as a channel is to hit $100/month income. In the grand scheme of YouTubers that’s small potatoes but it feels like a nice marker. Hitting it would pay for my streaming software, let me back a few more kickstarters, and free me to pick up some games and other software I’ve been wanting to check for a while. As far as mid-life crisis go this one is rather benign, and I’m glad that I get to contribute something back to this amazing hobby in the process.

#Babylon5 #DMing #DungeonsDragons #GMing #RPG #TTRPG

Why Kyle Thomas’s Division 7 Campaign on Tabletop Bob Is a Must-Watch for D&D Fans https://popgeeks.com/kyle-thomas-dnd-dm-tabletop-bob-division-7/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #DnD #TabletopGaming #RolePlayingGames #DungeonsAndDragons #DMing

I Go A Bit Mad

This is Random TTRPG Thoughts #88

Not only has it been quite the year this past week, Fall allergies are already beginning to creep their way into my sinuses. But I have coffee to break through both the stupidity of the world-at-large and the brain-fog spawned by vindictive trees. These are random TTRPG thoughts.

1. I had an absolute blast running Monty Python’s Cocurricular Medieval Reenactment Programme this past weekend. It’s every bit as gonzo as I hoped it would be, and playing all the NPCs is so much fun.
2. I’ll be on the A Squirrel Plays YouTube channel this coming Saturday to play a game of NUTS. Speaking of which, I need to make my character for that. The fun begins at 6PM Eastern!
3. I’m about half way through writing my review of Dream and Machines, and it’s reinforcing my thought that its world-building is amazing.
4. I’m still working my way through the first volume of Playing At The World, but I’m blown away by two things. First, the sheer number of chance encounters and fortunate happenstances that were necessary to see role-playing games become a wide-spread phenomenon is amazing. Second, when I first opened the Moldvay Basic Set back in the day I had no idea how new the hobby was. To me, it was something that must have always existed because it was such a cool idea that made perfect sense.
5. So let’s see. This week we’ve got National Guard picking up trash in DC (great use of the money it costs to deploy them), some of them are now armed because the Orange thinks fear is the only way to rule. Orange’s appointed head of the CDC, Susan Monarez, has been fired because…and this must have shocked Orange Man…she kinda thinks the best way to run the CDC is via scientific evidence. In the wake of her firing, three prominent officials have resigned in protest. Brain Worm guy is limiting access to updated COVID vaccines this year because, somehow that’s “common sense” in his bizarro reality. Orange Man keeps insisting that he’s not a dictator, but maybe people want a dictator. He’s threatening to activate National Guard in other cities—all of which have Black Mayors and lower per capita crime rates than a lot of major cities in so-called “Red States.” Hmmm, I wonder why Orange Man is targeting them? 
6. I’m committing myself to writing an adventure for The Electric State RPG during the month of September. With any luck I’ll get it written and be able to run a session or two of it before my Sabbatical ends!
7. Last night I was bored, so my friend Dave and I rambled on and on and on during an impromptu live stream. During our chat I brought up my three Howlmark adventures for EZD6 and how I’d like to get them published. This gave me the idea to live stream the trilogy on my channel! So, with any luck perhaps we’ll all get to take a trip to the lovely town of Hobgoblin Falls.
8. In other news someone decided to shoot up a Catholic School church during its first day Mass and killed two little kids (and injured many more). The shooter put in for a legal name change several years back, which I’m sure is going to do wonders for the mental state of conservative TV pundits looking to give people their daily dose of irrational fear, “Look at what the trans-person did, you aren’t safe!” OK…here’s the deal. Can we, and I’m just spit-balling here, not shoot people? Or, as a father of a school-aged child who is married to a teacher and has another child who is a teacher, not shoot children? And maybe can a feckless congress get their heads out of their rear-ends long enough to come up with a solution to help reduce gun violence which doesn’t involve turning life into an armored fortress? And do not give me the “well a good guy with a gun” nonsense—cause now the shooters aren’t even going into the places they’re shooting up. See, I’d like my child to grow up in a world where things like windows in public places weren’t a reason to be scared for his life—and that is not too much to ask. Folks, if you are experiencing a desire to deal with your trauma by inflicting violence on a world, I have a whole shelf of games to do that where no one gets killed and maybe they can help you arrive at the realization you need to deal with whatever’s going on. This all seems like a better path forward to me for some reason.
9. OK, show of comments. How many of you were shocked that I managed to make the last point into a TTRPG random thought? I was kind of surprised, myself.
10. So I’m planning on taking my latest comic book adventure, which I’ve run in both Cypher System and Streamlined Superheroes, and developing a version for Sentinel Comics RPG. If I publish them would you like all three versions bundled together or as three separate releases?

#88 #DMing #DnD #DungeonsDragons #dungeonsAndDragons #GMing #RolePlayingGame #RPG #TTRPG

I wrote and DM’ed some cool non-standard scenarios in my homebrew #DnD campaign recently. https://asymptomatic.net/posts/2025-08-22-two-experimental-rpg-sessions-that-reinvented-my-table #DM #RPG #DMing #ttrpg #RolePlayingGame

I Was Confused

This is Random TTRPG Thoughts 87

My last overnight trip of the Summer has ended, I have purchased more whole bean coffee from roasters near my trip destinations than I have room to store, and it’s going to rain all week. But yeaterday I got out for coffee and uninterrupted reading, I returned to a quiet house, and my brain experienced enough electrical charge to trigger thinking. These are some random TTRPG thoughts.

1. Playing At The World is a fascinating read, which I recommend to anyone who is interested in the hobby.
2. I am running Monty Python’s Cocurricular Medieval Reenactment Programme this coming Sunday at Brewery Thirty-Three in Riverton, NJ. 5-8 PM and seats are “first come, first play.” I am very excited to run this game!
3. I have started chuckling at comments insisting that there has got to be rules governing the whole of the game, or it’s not a game at all! Maybe I’m just seeing them more now because I’ve read The Elusive Shift but, that argument has been made since the 70s—and, the games which don’t have rules for everything are still games.
4. The one thing I haven’t liked about using my iPad as my mobile productivity tool has been the lack of a map-making program for the platform. But I recently discovered the app MapMe for battle map creation. It even has pencil support and is able to import Dungeondraft asset packs! I’m going to be playing around with this.
5. So this past weekend I was in Gettysburg, PA and I saw a person wearing a tee-shirt which read “We the people” and then had “1776” emblazoned underneath. I have to say that confused me so much it hurt my brain. I also saw someone wearing “Alligator-Alcatraz” MAGA merch hanging out with someone wearing a Bible church shirt. I have no idea why they were sitting together, maybe the Bible church guy was trying to inform the cultist he was in a cult which worshipped cruelty. I doubt it, but it would be nice if that were the case.
6. Dreams and Machines has an interesting concept called “truths.” These are a bit like status tags in other systems, but they are leveraged to play a larger role in a scene. I can’t decide if I’m leery of them or like them, so I’ll have to run a session or two to test them out! I do have to say that I appreciate how they can be used as narrative effects first, which only affect the mechanics of the game by added Threat for the GM to use…some time.
7. I got invited to be part of a live stream at the end of the month, which was cool. The invitation was made with the statement, “Hey Loser, what are you doing…[insert date]?” The fact that this contact felt comfortable enough with me to start a conversation like that is something I cherish. It’s the type of familiarity that you have to build in order to be authentic. For the record I responded, “Being a loser, I guess, why?”
8. I’ll be running Sentinel Comics RPG at Gamehole Con! 1 PM on Friday, to be exact. I’m a tad nervous, to tell you to the truth. Actually, I’m nervous any time I run at a convention because I do not feel qualified.
9. Streamlined Superheroes has inspired me to create some “action” scenes for my superhero games which are focused only on interacting with non-heroes. Inquisitive reporters, fans wanting autographs, hecklers, and local authorities would be some fun foils for the heroes. A bit like J. Jonah Jameson and Spider-Man going having their back and forth scenes in the comics. In Streamlined Superheroes it could be a matter of hitting the structural points of the scene to navigate successfully, and failing to do so in a set time could trigger some consequences. In Sentinel Comics RPG they’d be represented by obstacles which need Overcome actions to bypass, and the twists produced could be hysterical. I’m going to ponder this more for my next adventure, because it could be a fun way to drag the character’s non-hero identities into the adventure.
10. Sometime in September I’d very much like to run The Electric State. Maybe I’ll even live stream it!

#DMing #DungeonsDragons #dungeonsAndDragons #GMing #RolePlayingGame #RPG #TTRPG

Game Watching

This is Random TTRPG Thoughts #86

The house is quiet, coffee has been brewed and sipped, and I’ve got a whole half-hour before I need to get moving for the day! As the morning fog lifts my consciousness is bombarded with flashes of things it has difficulty comprehending, which are then shoved into my mental catalog in no particular order. These are Random TTRPG Thoughts.

1. I am bummed that we were unable to run Monty Python’s Cocurricular Reenactment Programme this week (get well soon, Brian). But I am grateful to my players who rolled with the punch and joined in for some Streamlined Superhero fun! Do not mess with Sally.
2. I finished Tabletop Role-Playing Therapy this week and, it is a very good book. Also, if you check it out for yourself, understand it’s from a professional press. Books like that are pricey. I’m on to Playing at the World!
3. I have grown to love easy on-boarding games. I entered the hobby with B/X D&D, so I guess I’ve always loved easy on-boarding games—but games like Into the Odd and Streamlined Superheroes reduce character creation so much play can begin in about five minutes. These are perfect convention games.
4. We will have a few players out this week for our Dragonbane session, so we won’t be playing that system this week. But we will play something.
5. So the President takes over the DC police citing a made up crime-wave. The Texas GOP is trying to give themselves more congressional seats “because we can,” and other so-called “red states” are following suit. California has declared that they’re going to do the same as a Mutually Assured Destruction move, which has other so-called “blue states” following suit. The Texas GOP has basically said, “Screw you, we do what we want” and the Governor of New York has declared they are in a state of war. Oh, and the regime apparently doesn’t like free markets and is instead embracing state capitalism (if you don’t know what that is, look at China). All this is at the feet of Trump and his paper-thin skin because this is what autocrats do—they try to seize every lever of power and then delegitimize opposition so they can pull the levers to keep power. Don’t let the fascists have an easy time of it.
6. I really would like to pick up Gunslinger Knights from Monte Cook Games, but I’m saving up for both GameHole Con and the Cypher Evolved crowd funding…so I’ll have to wait a bit. My review queue is long-enough as it is, anyway!
7. I need to run The Electric State for a live stream soon. Now…what could I write for a scenario?
8. The adventure we ran for Streamlined Superheroes this week was written for my “hobby lunch” group, which is running Cypher System Superheroes. It took maybe 15 minutes to convert. The adventure is a follow-up to my Sentinel Comics RPG adventure, though that adventure takes place in the fictional “Old River City” instead of Philadelphia. My goal is to write five or six adventures to use and make them for all three systems. That way if I want to run a superhero game I can have my choice. And I know people want me to check out Tiny D6 Superheroes…it’s on my radar!
9. I need to figure out what Monty Python’s Cocurricular Reenactment Programme adventure I want to run at Brewery 33 on August 24th! The fun starts at 5PM in Riverton, NJ and it’s “First Come. First Play.”
10. It amazes me how many of my current connections have come through the TTRPG hobby. There are people I know, friends I’ve made, and contacts established all because I enjoy sitting around to shape a cool story with other people while rolling funny dice. I love it because it connects me with people cherish story. And not just tell a story, recognizing they are part of a story. Very cool.

#86 #DMing #DnD #Dragonbane #dungeonsAndDragons #FreeLeague #GMing #MonteCookGames #MontyPython #RolePlayingGame #RPG #superHeroes #TTRPG

Hey Players!

And other musings.

This is Random TTRPG Thoughts #85

It’s the first full week of my actual sabbatical, I’ve found that setting an alarm is a good thing for my personal well-being, and morning coffee is a wonderful personal ritual. As my brain boots back up I’m experiencing flashes of non-contiguous cognition. These are some random TTRPG thoughts.

1. I have to give a shout out to channel members My Ear Trumpet Has Been Struck By Lightning (yes, that’s the real user name) and Agile Monk. During an impromptu live stream last Saturday the two of them gave out a number gift memberships to other viewers, and that meant a lot to me. I’m pretty sure neither wants a shout out, but I felt compelled to recognize the kindness.
2. I made a Dreams and Machines character to test out the process and it is dead simple. I do wonder if characters don’t have enough mechanical differentiation to make them feel unique in conflict situations, but I’m going to play around with it more. Expect a members-only live stream of the process soon! Don’t worry, it’ll go public a bit after.
3. I’ve enjoyed helping the players make their Monty Python’s Cocurricular Medieval Reenactment Programme characters for the live stream on August 11! I need to get the thumbnail done so I can schedule it!
4. I’ve been trying to set up a summer Sentinel Comics RPG campaign for my little, and some other local kids. Yesterday I figured out why this has been so difficult. We’ve been doing the “when we have free time” method. This does not work. I know it does not work. I knew it doesn’t work before we started trying to play. I have no idea why it took so long to dawn on me that I was running into a wall on purpose.
5. For folks who are playing in campaigns I will pass on some advice which, if you follow it, will make your GM’s day. Pay attention to the game world. You’ll meet fun NPCs, discover possible adventure hooks, and pick up clues about things happening in the background. It’ll also lead to a more engaging session than if you just wait around for the next thing to go murder hobo on. Yes, it will also put you into, “Oh no, what do we do now?” situations. But that’s half the fun of role-playing!
6. The anti-vax, unqualified, head of Health and Human Services is cancelling grants for mRNA vaccines. A couple of things on that. No, mRNA vaccines do not change your DNA. Yes, they work. Also, vaccines do not cause autism. I’m also reminded that this is the same guy who enjoys swimming in polluted water. I’d love to see governmental immunization decisions taken out of the hands of an ideological quack.
7. Congratulations to the folks behind The Land of Eem and Monty Python’s Cocurrcicular Medieval Reenactment Programme on their Ennie wins! I’m excited to see your awesome work being recognized! I am also petitioning the Ennies that my friend, Doug Shute, should be required to wear his “Red Doug” outfit for the awards ceremony in perpetuity. It’s iconic.
8. I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna make a bad mirror universe goatee out of brown card stock and record some videos while wearing it. I just need to find the right subjects…
9. I need to find some time to run a Tales of Argosa adventure. Like Shadowdark before it, this game has me excited to play a D&D derived system again. If you haven’t checked it out, its well worth a look.
10. Most of my Numenera group has reached tier three and are rather powerful. The fun thing is, because of the way abilities work, I can still create a lot of tension for them without much of a problem. I just have to lean into the weirdness that is the Ninth World. It’s one of the things I appreciate about the game. The characters are powerful, but they are far from invincible.

#DMing #GMing #RolePlayingGame

World Builders

This is Random TTRPG Thoughts #84

It’s muggy, my vacation is over, and I had to mow the lawn which is one of my least favorite things to do. On the other hand, I’ve had some good coffee and the house is relatively quiet. Between the weed induced allergy-fog and the stimulation of the most wonderful bean my brain is on the fritz. These are some random TTRPG thoughts.

1. I spent the better part of a day inputting all the player-focused data for Monty Python’s Cocurricular Medieval Reenactment Programme into an early module for FoundryVTT. This meant creating every accoutrement, retainer, and “Spiffing Serious Ability” as objects in Foundry. It wasn’t hard, but it was time-consuming! All this so people would have an easy way to roll the funny dice.
2. Dreams and Machines is a master-class in world building, and I do like the 2d20 system. I am wondering if the pronounced non-lethality undermines the dangerous world Modiphius created, though. I think I need to play it to find out! I do want some novels set in the world, though.
3. Here are two truths. First, there are so many cool games out there. Second, I have do not have enough money to get them all. I also don’t have the shelf space for them all but, really, that’s a problem I can overcome.
4. I cannot say how pleased I am for Shadowdark creator, Kelsey Dionne. She’s one of the most kind and genuine people I’ve in a hobby which has a lot of kind and genuine people. When Roll For Combat added Shadowdark as the third system they support for their books, I was excited. When Professor Dungeonmaster announced the Deathbringer was going to be made to work with Shadowdark I was psyched. Kelsey got to make something that captured people’s interest, and I can’t think of a person I’d be more glad for that to happen to. 
5. I’m shocked, truly shocked, that the “keep your politics out of gaming” folks who pop up in the comments have a strong tendency to be MAGA. I am totally surprised by this, I would not have expected this at all. Really.
6. Cypher is evolving! I’m actually kind of excited for the updates coming to the system which will now be just be called “Cypher.” This is the first edition change I’ve been through for a game for which I’ve got some emotional attachment. I need some advice, though, at what point should I start complaining about Cypher being “ruined” and declaring my allegiance to “true Cypher System?” I mean, if I’m gonna live through the process I want to get the full experience.
7. Join me, and some friends, at Brewery Thirty-Three on August 24 from 5-8 PM for an “Open Adventure.” We’ll have two tables going, Vaesen and Monty Python’s Cocurricular Reenactment Programme. It’s first come, first play, so make sure you get there early! I even picked up and extra set of the Monty Python dice for the occasion!
8. If you go here, at least as of when I wrote this, you can get the full PDF of Monty Python’s Cocurricular Reenactment Programme!
9. I have to hand it to Monte Cook Games. They have handled the roll-out to their Cypher Evolved announcement really well. They made sure third-party creators and media outlets had a heads up on the upcoming changes, they’ve written design diaries about the changes and why, and have be responsive to their community’s questions. They’ve also assured people that their already-purchased books are “largely compatible.” The biggest change is how NPCs and monsters inflict damage, so I’m rather interested to see what the rest of that “largely” is.
10. I am reading Tabletop Role-Playing Therapy at present and it’s fantastic. It’s opening section is so helpful for understanding the dynamics of what goes on around the table during a session and gives an overview of some of the psychological factors at play. Now, I’m reading this book for the marginal connection chaplaincy has with therapy—and it’s been most helpful. At the same time I’m also feeling I need to be very careful with whatever lessons I draw from the book, because I am not a licensed therapist.

#84 #DMing #DnD #DungeonsDragons #dungeonsAndDragons #GMing #RolePlayingGame #RPG #TTRPG

Low-fantasy D&D aliens?

@rpg

I want to stick aliens 👽🛸 into my next D&D campaign. My idea is to have little grey men show up in a flying saucer and abduct the party. However, I'm worried that this is too comprehensible for the average #DnD character. I want the PCs to be confused, but not the players! What's the weirdest alien you've ever thrown at your D&D party?

Side note, I also want to give the baddies #mechs. How do I mechanically handle this?

#DM #dming #ttrpg #scifi #fantasy #mech

The Games We Play

It’s Friday, I’m still on the vacation portion of my sabbatical, and yet I still feel like my productivity has fallen off. But the coffee is poured and my head is abuzz with the strange phenomenon known as “thinking.” These are random TTRPG thoughts.

1. I really wanted to get my Rust and Redemption review out this week, but when the little wants to play a tower defense game together it is hard to say no. The first draft is about 90% written, however, so expect it soon. This has been fun to write!
2. A big shout out to my friend Martin, also known as “Daddy Rolled a 1,” who suggested I move the bulk of my merch sales to Spreadshop. He was so right! If you have not checked out the Daddy Rolled a 1 YouTube channel you are missing out. Martin has some fantastic long-form videos on the history of the hobby, and D&D in particular. He is a fantastic researcher and presenter. Go check out his channel!
3. Due to holidays, travel, and schedule implosions my Dragonbane group’s been on hiatus since June. We’re shifting next week’s game to Wednesday, which is good because one of my players declared he’s going to withdrawal.
4. You ever notice how Donald Trump, whenever gets pinned on one of the many shady things he does, “Doesn’t know anything about it?” And then, like clockwork he takes out his metaphorical laser pointer and says, “LOOK OVER THERE, CHASE THE DOT!” I find it interesting that, this time, a significant portion of his cult isn’t chasing the dot. So much so that Speaker Johnson had to take his ball and go home early this Summer.
5. I’ve done some rambling live streams the last couple of weeks as I try to get used to this new platform I’m using.  I have two things to say about these. First, it’s rather fun to ramble on, stream of consciousness, every now and again. Second, I’m grateful for all the folks who drop by in chat for these unannounced streams.
6. Because of my work at PaxUnplugged I’m on the press list for a number of game developers. At present they are all sending out some really cool opportunities for folks who will be at GenCon, and I’m finding myself a tad jealous! For everyone going to GenCon I wish you all an amazing time, have some fun for me while you’re there!
7. My Numenera group had its monthly session at our local brewery this week. It was the first time I’d not called ahead to let them know I was coming  so I was wondering what they’d think about me taking over several tables to set up. I didn’t need to be worried. When I showed up with my bags the woman at the bar said, “Are you having another game night?” When I said yes she added, “Great! Have fun!” Brewery Thirty-Three is a fun place, run by folks who want to be a boon to the community, and no one is getting drop-dead drunk. Every time I’ve gone there’s families with kids, folks watching a game on the TV, and friends catching up over a pint while they eat whatever food they had delivered. Good times.
8. For its part the Numenera party, known as “Murder Fire 13b,” had an eventful session. They traveled to an abandoned city, only to find a tribe of peaceful abhumans had taken up residence and considered it a sacred place. Instead of trying to bully their way through the diminutive residents, who were about two feet tale and had enlarged heads, they had a respectful conversation and agreed to make an offering to the tribe’s deity, “The Caretaker.” To do this they had to travel two days to a nearby volcano, which had a huge lava pool in the crater that did not give off any heat, and offer two cyphers by tossing it in. Weirdness happened, The Caretaker accepted their offering, and after some discussion agreed to help the group get back to the city faster than they had travelled out to the volcano. This was important because the group had about a week before a giant creature returned and squashed an entire town, time was of the essence. What followed can only be described as a fast moving vehicle fight scene from a 90s-era beat em up video game like the sewer surfing level from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The group arrived back in the sacred city, recovered the last piece they needed to rebuild a machine to defend the threatened town, and got back with three days to spare. After repairing the device they summoned a kaju, manned a defensive turret during an epic battle, and saved the town from burning down. That, was fun!
9. Monte Cook Games has been sending out updates regarding upcoming changes to The Cypher System. It’s been interesting watching the community react. At the start there was a bit of panic, but I’ve watched it shift toward cautious optimism and even excitement. For my part, I’m rather interested in how MCG is going to speed up character creation, and am outright excited by the “dials” they are adding to the game to tweak things for different genres. A pulp hero, for example, can get buried in a landslide and then dust off and continue on the adventure. The upcoming changes to Cypher System seek to make the ability to run that sort of game easy. They sound fun!
10. Speaking of Brewery Thirty-Three, we’ll be holding another Open Adventure evening there on Sunday, August 24th! The adventures will run from 5-8 and right now we have two tables ready to go. My friend Josh will be running an amazing game called Vaesen, and I’ll be running Monty Python’s Cocurricular Medieval Reenactment Programme. I even got a second set of the funky dice for the occasion! Seats are first-come, first-play so come on out if you can! And if there are any other tables running I’ll make sure to let folks know!
11. And here’s a bonus random thought. On Monday, August 11th, DM Tales will be hosting an actual play of Monty Python’s Medieval Reenactment Programme run by the game’s lead designer, Brian Saliba! The fun will begin at 8:30 PM Eastern. And, later in the month we’ll have a game of The Land of Eem run by the Elder Goblin himself, my friend Jorbin! More on that as details are finalized.

#DMing #DnD #DungeonsDragons #dungeonsAndDragons #GMing #RolePlayingGame #RPG #TTRPG

I Love Narrative First Games

When the minutia is removed, I find imaginations tend to soar.

https://youtu.be/hw4pQlVdhqQ

#CypherSystem #DMing #GMing #Numenera #RPG #TTRPG

Chaos Joined

This is Random TTRPG Thoughts #82

It’s Saturday, I’ve not gotten anywhere near enough sleep this week, and after a week of “vacation food” I crave veggies. But the house is quiet, the coffee is brewing, and I’m feeling relaxed. My confused brain doesn’t know what to do with this state of being, and is throwing out random sparks which send me off on to interesting rabbit trails. These are random TTRPG thoughts.

1. I finished helping a new player create his Sentinel Comic RPG character two nights ago, and I ran he and his dad through a bank heist scenario to demonstrate the mechanics. There were thugs, a minor villain named “Quickdraw,” weird shadow-bats created by a twist, and money falling into a greedy crowd after a “robber bot” almost got away. It was a lot of fun and, afterward, the new player asked, “Can we play another one?” Great start.
2. I am now reading the Gamemaster’s Guide for Dreams and Machines. Up to this point in the book I’m wondering why it exists. Must of the first 40 pages is reprinted content. I’m reading the faction write-ups now and, while expanded from the same material in the Player’s Guide, there’s nothing in the extended write ups that the players shouldn’t know. I may change my mind but so far it feels like the game should have been one book.
3. I’m skimming through Rust and Redemption as I work on my review of the book and am reminded why I enjoyed reading this book so much. It’s wonderful fodder for anyone wanting to run a post-apocalyptic campaign or write a post-apocalyptic scenario. I’ve also been reminded why I’m drawn to some forms of post-apocalyptic fiction over others. Books which help me have personal insights like that always get a thumbs up from me.
4. As I was running that bank heist scenario two nights ago my little came down from bed and ask, “Are you playing without me?” I told him I was just running something to show how the rules worked to the two folks at the table. He nodded and went back upstairs. Last night he and a friend joined the chaos and the new group stopped a tech heist perpetrated by the minor villain “Input.” It was his friend’s first time playing any kind of role-playing game and when the scenario was over I asked her, “Did you have fun?” She said, “Yah, I want to play this again.”
5. I got a compliment on my “I Break Bell Curves” tee-shirt while out for Ice Cream this week. Right after that we were interviewed by a local news channel, which was fun. I guess I’d have to call that a “branding win.”
6. So, let me get this straight. Trump ran for office on nothing more than fear-mongering, which catered to conspiracy theorists, and got elected. The conspiracy theorists who helped elect Trump have demanded that the “Epstein List” be released so everyone can see who the pedophiles are. Pam Bondi said she had the list “on her desk” ready to go out and was reviewing it. But now the claim is there is no list, Tump’s grabbed the leash of his MAGA-influencer lap-dogs to get them to shut up, and he’s declared that anyone still demanding the list’s release is a former supporter. Oh, and the Justice Department released a video of Epstein’s cell, to prove no one could have entered it, which had about three minutes removed. This is not normal.
7. The “Roll Big Or Go Home” mega bundle still has two days left as I write this. I’ve resisted buying it so far because I own many of the games in the bundle, but it’s so tempting! I do want to check out the Dr. Who RPG…
8. When the vacation portion of my Sabbatical is over I’m going to begin doing some “members only” live streams. I’ve got a ton of games I’d love to make characters for, so I think it’ll be fun.
9. If you take your little to the beach and tell him, “Just go up to your ankles,” know he will not just go up to the ankles. A change of clothes is a must-have and we did, in fact, have a change of clothes for the soaking wet little.
10. I want to try running some actual play streams on my channel over the next couple of months. I really want to test out how well Lightstream works. I’m thinking Streamlined Superheroes would be a nice, light, start. Monty Python’s Cocurricular Reenactment Programme and The Electric State would also be good. If there are any games you’d like to see from my list of reviews, let me know. It would be fun to see what would interest folks.

#82 #DMing #DnD #dungeonsAndDragons #GMing #RPG #TTRPG

Streamlined Superheroes

In celebration of IndieRPG month, I want to introduce you to a little game you probably have never heard of. This is my look at Streamlined Superheroes by John Fredericks of Sharp Mountain Games.

Full Disclosure

Full disclosure, John Fredericks is a friend of mine who both ran this system at, and was a sponsor for, Ecclesicon 25 back in March. He also sent me a copy of Streamlined Superheroes for free to see what I thought of it, but I went out and purchased a copy soon after I finished reading. I’m under no obligation to say nice things about the game, nor did he pay me for my thoughts. This is my free and fair review.

Core Mechanic

The core mechanic for Streamlined Superheroes is, well, streamlined. For checks Players roll a d20 + and add their attribute score. If the result is 10 or greater the check is successful.

On a successful check an effect die is rolled. This will reduce the target’s Hit Points if it’s an attack, or Hurdle Points if the attempt is made against an obstacle—such as a trap or a doomsday device that’s begun a countdown. When the target hits zero, it is defeated.

Both checks and effect dice can be rolled with both advantage and disadvantage, two of the same die are rolled and either the higher or lower number is taken.

For opposed checks both parties roll. If only one side is successful that party wins the check. If both parties succeed, they roll an appropriate effect dice to see who wins.

And, that’s pretty much the game in a nutshell.

About Characters

All characters have four attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma. Players assign an array to these attributes during character creation: 3, 2, 1, and 0.

Characters also have a combination of four powers or skills, chosen by the player, to which an array of die types is assigned: d12, d10, d8, and d6. While it’s common for characters to have three powers and one skill (which is from their “regular” life), there’s no mechanical difference between the two. A hero may be all skill-based and be able to play with other characters in the game without any problems.

Characters begin play with 20 Hit Points, though if they take a body armor power or equipment the maximum number of whatever die type to which the body armor is assigned is added to their total. A player who takes a d10 body armor power, for example, begins with 30 hit points.

Both skills and powers are , with the exception of body armor and anything listed that is equipment, narrative only. If a character has a concept in mind and wants to change the narrative description for the power, no problem. When the power is activated the assigned die rolled, just as with any other power or skill. Only the in-game description changes.

If a player wants their character to have a weakness, like being afraid of the color yellow, then the character will get an additional d6 power or skill to use. Powers or skills based on gear are considered a weakness because the tools can be lost, stolen, or broken.

If a character ever wants to attempt something for which the character is not trained they may do so, but their effect die is a d4.

Characters advance by GM discretion, usually after a significant adventure. Each time they do so they may raise the amount of one attribute (to a maximum of 8) or increase one of their effect dice by one type (capping out at a d12).

About Combat

Unless surprised, which is determined by GM discretion, the default initiative in the game is for the players’ side to go first, from there combat alternates between NPCs and PCs until everyone has had a chance to go.

Inflicting blows on villains and dealing with hurdles uses the core mechanic as described earlier. In sticky situations, however, another hero may attempt to help another character with their action. The helping hero makes an appropriate check, called for by the GM, and if they succeed the hero being helped gets advantage on their attack check and advantage on their effect dice. Even if the helping hero fails their check, however, the attacking hero is still granted advantage on their check.

Characters who become ensnared by something need to inflict damage on the ensnaring force in order to break free. This  is equal to the effect die’s value when the snare was unleashed upon them.

Design

Streamlined Superheroes has a minimalist and clean design. It’s not flashy, but it gets the job done. John is working on some changes to apply after the game’s been out in the wild for a bit, so I expect it to be updated in a near future.

Streamlined Superheroes is designed to appear as though it was a relic from the 80s, with two columns of full-justified text and a single font for the entire book (except for the sample Heroes’ names). It’s all no-frills, and it works.

The body and heading fonts are an easy-to-read serif font. Call outs sport a simple grey background. Headings are a larger, and heavier, version of the body font, and there are three levels. The footer contains nothing but the page number, and there nothing in the header.

Artwork is not plentiful, but what does exist is nice. It’s all either John Fredericks own art or public domain comic pieces from bygone eras.

It doesn’t try to break new ground, it just works. That’s not always a bad thing.

Play Report

Streamlines Superheroes was so easy I decided to run a game of it only two days removed from reading it. How did it play? Pretty good!

Character Creation was as fast as I expected. The players assigned their attributes and picked their skills and powers without a problem, and thought up how their characters acted (as well as their super hero names) as we played.

Once players got used to the concept of effect dice, which took all of a couple minutes, they were narrating their actions with a lot of fun flare. Here’s a few examples:

• Two heroes teamed up to freeze a couple of bank robbers in place.
• One hero magicked some restraints against another.
• One of the ice-power heroes described creating ice cube boxing gloves to punch a villain.
• Another grabbed a robber and teleported him out to the police, and his quantum based powers shunted any target that hit 0 hp to another reality for a bit.
• Because one of the players purchased a Mazda the day of our game, they decided that a Mazda CX was the group’s vehicle of choice. Why? Because they were sponsored by a local dealership. Their tank always rode with his head sticking out the sunroof.

I would run this again, it’s a blast. But there are a couple of things I’d change.

First is the ensnaring rule, which allows for the target to make an DEXTERITY check to avoid. This made it feel like to much of a toss up, and the players eventually decided to punch things because it worked better (and I didn’t want to TPK the party in the first scene, so I pointed that out). I brought this up to John and he said that was a rule he’d tried many different variations of. He’s going to try to run it without that DEXTERITY check to see how it works. Because the ensnarement roll creates hurdle points I think that’s a pretty good idea.

Second is initiative. Alternating between heroes and adversaries is simply, but I ran with six players and it ended up being ungainly when the number of adversaries is matched the number of heroes. It became even more ungainly when the characters ended up in three different locations in the scene! What I ended up doing, by instinct, was grouping all the adversaries who were both in the same space and same type into the same initiative. It felt more natural and sped things up.

Having an effect die roll an entanglement’s harder points, however, is wonderful. Two of my players successfully grappled some guards, but one of them only rolled a 1 for their effect—so I described him as having a tenuous grasp. This, in turn, brought another hero over to assist.

I like this game. And it may be the best “pick up and go” Superhero TTRPG I’ve seen yet. I think Sentinel Comics RPG better overall, but not by much!

Conclusion

Calling this 17 page book is “no-frills,” is an understatement. Streamlined Superheroes is a game which can be taught in minutes, character creation is fast and flexible, and the game is designed to move. Folks may scoff at its light-weight form, but Streamlined Superheroes feels very “comic book-ish.” And that’s about as high paise as I can give a super hero game.

If you want to pick Streamlined Superheroes up from DriveThru, you can get it for a whopping $2.99. This is well worth picking up.

#DMing #DungeonsDragons #dungeonsAndDragons #GMing #RolePlayingGame #RPG #Superheroes #TTRPG

Free Your Game—Run Cypher System

One of my favorite systems to run is Monte Cook Games’ Cypher System. Cypher powers two of my current campaigns, Numenera and Super Heroes. Today I want to share some of the reasons I love running the game, as well as one aspect of the system which I think could be a roadblock for new players. And, while I did receive a small grant to product some content for Monte Cook’s realm over on Moonbeam, I have received nothing from the company to write this post. I just like the system.

What I Love

There is a lot to love about GMing a Cypher System game. And these three are my favorite.

The Levels

Everything in Cypher System has a level, and I mean everything. These range from 0-10 in most cases, and the d20 target number for any check is the level multiplied by three. Astute mathematicians have already figured out the problem with this set up, because levels 7-10 are actually impossible to roll on a d20. How’s this work, then?

It works because before the roll is made the player is able to manipulate the level. If the character has an applicable skill, they can reduce the level by one or two. If they are using a beneficial tool they may lower the level by one, it’s called an asset. If they are attacking with a light weapon they can lower the level by one since they aren’t as difficult to maneuver. If they decide they want to try extra hard at the task they can spend some ability points to put effort into an attempt. Each level of effort applied lowers the level by one, and the amount of effort you may apply is capped by the character’s tier. A character may assist in an action, even if that’s only to hold their flashlight up while someone picks a lock or reads a book, and that’s another asset which lowers the level by one. And characters can use terrain to their advantage to lower the level by grabbing the high ground or taking cover. By manipulating the level in these ways the target number can be dropped into a possible, or even likely, success.

This may sound complicated, but I’ve not found it to be so. Any time I’ve run Cypher System things have worked fast. And they only accelerate the more comfortable people get with the game.

Intrusions

In Cypher System games the GM makes no rolls, which can be a bummer. On the other hand, a game master is able to alter the world by intruding on the narrative. These intrusions can occur out of the blue, or than can be a direct consequence of player actions (characters who throw their muscle around a settlement may encounter a patrol of guards who didn’t exist before that moment, for example). GM intrusions aren’t always by GM fiat, however, any roll that comes up a 1 triggers a GM intrusion which function much like a fumble in other system. When the GM does introduce an intrusion on their own, however, there is a reward to soften the blow. When triggering an intrusion the GM gives out an experience point to the player whose character will be impacted by it, and that player awards a second experience point to another player at the table.

Experience points in Cypher System are a valuable meta-currency which have uses beyond advancing the character. An XP may be spent to refuse a GM intrusion. Experience may also be spent to trigger a re-roll on any roll except a 1. Finally, an experience point can be spent to introduce a player intrusion into the world which offers the party a benefit. This last is up to GM discretion, and can be refused if the proposed intrusion is overpowered or doesn’t make sense, but the option is fun because it makes the players part of the world building.

In one game I ran I had a player action start a fire in an apartment building, which they needed to address. This led to some amazing antics. In another session two of the PCs stood near a standing stone I’d already described as being targeted by lightning. The two players made a poor assumption that the lightning had struck because the group had been messing with something and when I asked a player, “So, who do you want to give an experience point to?” He responded with, “Oops” just before seeing his character launched twenty yards as the next bolt hit.

My players have used intrusions on me, as well. During the fire I mentioned above one player created an “aqueduct” (it was in the lowest part of the city so it was actually grey water management) to help put out the fire. In one of the few fantasy sessions I’ve run using Cypher System one player used an intrusion to establish a prior relationship between their character and a goblin who was trying to get them to pay a toll.

Intrusions take the in-game narrative in all sorts of interesting directions. The guard the group was sneaking past can turn at just the right moment to discover a sneak and sound the alarm. A character can remember a contact they had in a settlement who might be able to provide information. Or a trap might be sprung on an over-cautious party. That’s only the start. Intrusions are a blast.

Reduced Prep Time

Running Cypher System doesn’t require a great deal of time copying out stat blocks or jotting down damage from traps. A dangerous area, or a dungeon crawl, can be as simple as mapping out the general locations out and then populating it with obstacles of specific levels. Level 2 kobolds,  for example, may block the entrance to their settlement with level 5 traps.

Dealing with the traps is straightforward. If the players want to detect or disable the trap they will have default target number of 15 before any pre-roll modifications to the level. Since the trap is level 5, it does a base 5 points of damage.

Dealing with the kobolds doesn’t require much more work, and a GM never even needs to look at a stat block. They’ve been given level, so the target number to hit the creatures is 6. They also, by default, have 6 points of health since that’s their target number. They are smaller creatures and probably use their claws or light weapons, which means their attacks are faster, so defending against them is a level 3 check. Light weapons do two points of damage. At that point the kobolds in the crawl are basically done but, because they are communal beings, they tend to attack in packs when their traps fail. So four of the creatures may be combined as a single entity for combat. This gives them a base level of 3, or level 4 when attacking, and their combined attacks do medium weapon damage—4 points. They’ll also get  health bonus based of their combined level, yielding 9 health. This is cool because a if a GM decides to throw 20 kobolds at the party, which could become cumbersome, they only show up as 5 distinct groups in the combat. Encounters can feel massive, while remaining mechanically simple.

Once a GM gets used to assigning levels to NPCs, and inventing creatures on the fly, session prep for Cypher System is reduced to creating a compelling hook and a specific goal. More can be built in advance, but it isn’t needed if a GM is comitted to riffing off the player’s actions. Now, I love using pre-existing adversaries for both stock Cypher System and Numenera because they’re designed well and the artwork is terrific, but not using them doesn’t slow me down even a little bit.

Potential Roadblock

As much as I love running Cypher System, and Numenera in particular, the game’s biggest roadblock is positioned at its on-ramp.

Character Creation

Cypher System characters are formed from a sentence, “I am an [adjective] [noun] who [verbs].”

The noun, or “type,” is the simplest of the three aspects—because there are only a few from which to choose. Numenera, which is a separate game powered by the system, has six types when using the two books from the box set, while stock Cypher System has four. These types cover typical archetypes like a mighty warrior, sneaky scout, enigmatic wizard, or charismatic bard. It’s straightforward, but then come the options.

There are fifty adjectives, or “descriptors,” in the Cypher System rulebook. These reveal a bit about the character’s background, and grant a character some one-time benefits. These can boosts to stat pools, skills, or a combination of the two—and sometimes the benefits are offset by personality quirks and hinderances. Numenera has nearly as many descriptors, but they are split over two books, so searching through them to fit an envisioned character takes a bit of work.

The verb, or “focus,” is even more overwhelming. A focus is a guide to what type of actions a character is driven toward, and they grant new benefits each time a character increases their tier. By my hand count there are just over 90 foci in the Cypher System rulebook. GMs are encouraged to whittle down the number of available foci to those which best fit their campaign, but even still the sheer amount of information is a lot. By contrast Numenera has only fifty-eight but, again, these are split between two hefty books.

It’s a lot of data, and as players try to figure out what options they’d like to consider they will find themselves flipping back and forth between many pages. The potential to be paralyzed by the sheer number of options, or become lost while flipping between chapters, is significant. That’s not to say the character creation process is difficult, it is not, it’s just a lot.

Having said all that there is a huge but coming up.

First, Monte Cook Games has addressed the character creation data flood with an excellent character creation tool on their web site. The tool is not a starter option, nor is it pay-walled. It is everything that’s in the core rulebook plus all the options which are added through their “white spine” genre books. And Monte Cook Games does this because the entirety of their game and genre supplements is in the system reference document they make available for free. Creating characters using the creation tool is fast, fun, and clear. There is no page turning and GMs can ensure characters fit their campaign by inviting players to a group and limiting the options which can be used during the build process. But it gets better. After a character is built, players may use the flexible web interface as their character-sheet. Or they can export out their created characters to a PDF. Or they can be exported as a JSON file and imported into FoundryVTT. It’s well-done.

At present you cannot build characters for other Monte Cook Games which use their IP, such as Numenera. Sort of. There is, after all, a great deal of overlap between the types, descriptors, and foci between Numenera and base Cypher System. If you are careful with the options you select you could probably get to a character who is very close to a Numenera equivalent—any differences can be fixed using the web-ui after the standard process is completed. Monte Cook Games is also hoping to bring their separate IPs to the character builder in the future. The additions will be behind a paywall, but the convenience might be worth it. At any rate, check out the Monte Cook Games’ character creation tool, it’s amazing.

Second, Monte Cook Games has announced that they are revising Cypher System in a way which keeps folks’ current books usable but makes character creation easier. Now, people in the Cypher community are a tad anxious about this announcement because MCG fans tend to buy many MCG books for their shelves. For my part, and I have no inside knowledge regarding the upcoming shift1, I’m kinda of excited. I know how dedicated Monte Cook Games is to their community and screwing over their player base just isn’t their MO.

Third, I have enjoyed the in person experience I’ve had helping my Numenera group build their characters. They loved using the prompts to see how their characters were linked, and the fiction they created during the build process has had a huge impact on how our campaign has evolved. So while the creation process is a lot, it’s also fun. And that’s cool.

Conclusion

Cypher System is my second favorite game to run right now, second only to Dragonbane. And, to be honest, the difference between the two is a coin flip. I love how fast it is to create challenges for players, I think intrusions are fantastic, and the level system is fast and intuitive. If you have not checked out Cypher System or Numenera it’s very much worth a look. You can pick it up over at Monte Cook Game’s website. The books aren’t cheap. The Cypher System Rulebook is $76.99 for a book/pdf combo, and the two-book box set for Numenera is $129.99 for the same. But, Monte Cook’s SRD is available for free, and there are some excellent starter kits for both base Cypher and Numenera which are under $30. Check this one out.

1. Since writing this, I was given a very small amount of information from Monte Cook Games, since I cover the system. I can’t go into specifics, beyond what has been revealed by MCG already, but I’m even more excited. ↩︎

#DMing #dungeonsAndDragons #GMing #MonteCookGames #RolePlayingGame #TTRPG

Free Your Game

Running Cypher System can help free your imagination.

https://youtu.be/8YqkrDwaYHw

#CypherSystem #DMing #GMing #Numenera #RPG #TTRPG

My Favorite Games (2025 Update)

My best-performing video over the past year has been My Favorite Games. Well, I’ve played a number of new games since I posted that video, so I thought it was time for an update.

Introduction

The games included in this list are ones I have played over the past year since my previous “favorite games” video and they have to be available to pick up as physical copies. So, while I have played a session of a game called Nuts, by Skrat from the A Squirrel Plays channel, it’s not eligible. I also haven’t played a session of one of my favorite games over the past year because I’ve been running other things, so Basic Fantasy RPG doesn’t appear on it. Go check out those games, though, folks, they are way fun—and Basic Fantasy RPG has one of the best communities in the hobby.

10. Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme

I was given a review copy of this game by Exalted Funeral, but was so impressed by it I went out and purchased the Head of Light Entertainment Screen for myself. I’ll also be purchasing another set of their odd dice.

What can you expect in The Programme? You can expect Monty Python. The world is dangerous, the denizens will drive characters loony, and the mechanics are simple. But, the GM will play different personas, which impacts game play, and beshrewments can send the entire table into something completely different. Watch those demerits, and get ready for a good time! You can pick up The Programme at Exalted Funeral for $50, but I recommend also picking up the HoLE screen for $33, as  well as a set of their peculiar dice for $25.

9. Land of Eem

The Land of Eem has mechanics which bear a kinship to Powered by the Apocalypse games, with narrative twists and fail forward obstacles so the game is always moving. The world looks like someone combined the Muppets and Lord of the Rings, and it’s as subversive as you’d expect from The Muppets. If you’d like a game that’s light hearted and fast, but still has a good amount of depth, give Land of Eem a try.

There is a free QuickStart guide, but the beautiful Core Rulebook will set you back $40. I’d recommend going for the Deluxe Box Set—which includes a GM screen, a map, a terrific bestiary, and a mind-blowing setting book. That runs for $150.

8. Forbidden Lands

Forbidden Lands has wild lore, robust exploration, fun stronghold building, and a meta-narrative that’s there if a group wants to use it. The game also runs off of Free League’s excellent Year Zero dice pool engine, so game play is fast and dangerous. I ran a crawl of this a few months back because we had an off week and I wanted to toss something from Forbidden Land’s “Book of Beasts” at the group to see what they’d do. One character came out alive, mostly due to poor life-choices, but we had a blast getting to the end. This is a game I have not played enough.

If you want to pick up Forbidden Lands, you can pick up its beautiful box set for about $65. This set comes with a Player’s Handbook, a Gamemaster’s Guide, and a frame-worthy map. I’d have loved to have dice included in the box set but the two A5 books are hardbound stitched binding, have faux leather covers with gold foil imprints, and book ribbons. My only complaint about the game is I want to show off both the box and the books on my shelf.

Check this game out if you enjoy some grit that is challenging and fun. Oh, and it also has a fantastic FoundryVTT system.

7. Tales of Argosa

I just reviewed Low Fantasy Gaming’s successor, Tales of Argosa, on my channel. “Wow.” It carries over the low magic setting of its predecessor, while also incorporating a number of improvements to the system which were made in Pickpocket Press’ second game, Lowlife 20290.

Argosa uses a roll-under check system, which is my favorite way to play a game, but it’s combat system is the same d20 roll high many TTRPG players will find familiar. Despite the familiarity, Tales of Argosa stands out through a phenomenal exploit mechanic that is what 5e bonus actions should have been.

Tales of Argosa is very much an old school game but it’s not a retro-clone. Nor is it simple a distillation of modern mechanics which has old-school potency brought to the fore. It’s familiar, while being its own thing, and I love it. Check out Tales of Argosa if you’re looking for a game that’s fast and dangerous, but where the characters also aren’t overly squishy. You can pick it up at DriveThruRPG, a hard back copy costs about $45.

6. Shadowdark

Shadowdark is, at its core, a distillation of modern mechanics with some twists blended in to give it an old school feel. And the combination is brilliant. Torches run in real-time, so players can’t sit around dithering. Magic is roll-to-cast so a player has to question the wisdom of unleashing a spell in a particular moment. Sheets are spartan, so players need to spend more time interacting with the world instead of paging through their copious abilities. And initiative is always on, so attention seekers have to share the spotlight. I ran a Shadowdark gauntlet of zero-level characters last fall and it was amazing.

Shadowdark is an excellent bridge between old school and new school play. It’s terse presentation is clear and engaging, the artwork is a perfect vibe, and everything you need is in one book. Check this game out if you want to introduce folks who have only ever played Dungeons & Dragons 5e to some old school tropes. You can pick it up from The Arcane Library for $59.00. And if you’re worried about the game being supported, not only is Kelsey Dionne creating additional content, several other creators are following suit. There are new classes, the game’s been shifted to space, and monsters abound. This game is both good and popular. And it’s well deserved. Kelsey Dionne is an amazing person. Had I run Shadowdark more this past year I may have swapped it with the next entry on this list.

5. Into the Odd

When I first read Into the Odd I didn’t get it. It didn’t seem there was enough to it to function as a fun game! But I returned to it later and found I was more ready to comprehend how it’s designed.

The rules are so lite they can be missed with a blink! There are no to hit rolls, HP replenishes in each room, but the strength score drops when any damage taken exceeds HP and that remains. Movement is abstract. Keeping track of time is abstract. Wandering encounters help build an adventure’s fiction. And characters die, a lot. Into the Odd is a game where running and hiding from, tricking, or avoiding danger rewards a party with more dangerous spaces to investigate. Now, it’s not limited to dungeon or wilderness crawling, there are some lite rules for running a business or managing detachments of soldiers, so Into the Odd anticipates a widening experience as play continues. But it starts with crawling. And the lucky ones survive to delve a second time.

Into the Odd has become a favorite one shot game because I can have players roll their characters up at the table and be off and running in minutes. If you’re looking to try out a dungeon crawler, or looking or for some excellent tables to flesh out a world, check this game out. It’s a ton of fun and a nice change of pace. You can pick it up through Free League for around $45.

4. Sentinel Comics RPG

I first picked up Sentinel Comics RPG when it showed up in a Prime Day sale list for a ridiculous price in 2024. Since then it’s been listed for various sale prices, even as low as $9.99. This caused me to fear the system was going to be orphaned, which proved to be true. The game’s publisher, Greater Than Games, was recently shuttered in response to the tariff crisis. This is a shame because the game is phenomenal.

Sentinel comics is the first super hero game I played which felt like a comic book since the old TSR Marvel Game back in the 80s. Everything is narrative. If a player has a teleportation power and wants to use it for an attack they narrate how they do that. They don’t need a feat, there are no power points to spend, and there’s no formulas to tell people how much of an effect they can have. Instead, the player describes how they want to use their teleportation power, connects it to a quality the character has, and then adds in their current status. Each of these elements has a die assigned to them and, if a character does a “basic action” they use the middle value as the result. If they use one of their abilities, which are ways characters may use powers which have a bit of guidance, they use the dice that ability indicates. It really fast.

But what makes Sentinel Comics RPG shine is how barriers to success are dealt with. If a character is faced with any obstacle—a forcefield, a hostage being held, some bystanders standing under a falling building—they must be dealt with through an Overcome action. To deal with the obstacle the collected dice are rolled, and the result is read. But the way the results are designed means players will often have to accept a twist to be successful in the attempted action. A character might teleport through a forcefield, for example, not knowing that it was keyed to their dimensional signature. The character succeeds passing through barrier but it shocks them as they pass through and now they are hindered for a turn or two. The Overcome action is the heart of Sentinel Comics RPG.

If you enjoy Super Hero RPGs pick up Sentinel Comics RGP while you still can! As of this writing it’s on a fire sale for $20 at Greater than Games. Amazon also still has the excellent GM kit on sale for $25. The GM screen alone is worth it.

3. EZD6

EZD6 is a game of gonzo fun, present danger, and ridiculous moments. DM Scotty, who is the brains behind the game, designed it because he wanted a game that didn’t need math. It really is easy, I can have people versed in the rules in a few minutes, and if we forget anything during the briefing we can just tackle it when the situation arises.

For all its simplicity, however, character creation is fun. Different inclinations give the character a leg up in certain situations, hero paths grants some boons and abilities, and character aspects help flesh out their personality. Scotty has also created some additions to the system, including a full post-apocalyptic version, which extends the core ideas while keeping the simplicity intact. He’s currently working on a horror version, which I was able to play in, and it’s awesome.

If you want a game that is “grab and go” and sets the players imaginations free, EZD6 is a game I recommend. I love it. You can pick up a hardback/pdf combo at DriveThruRPG for around $25.

2. Cypher System/Numenera

Imagine a game where all the crunch was done before the roll. Everything in the game has a level, to make the level beatable players apply skills, spend points from their pools to give extra effort, or utilize a tool they have at their disposal. Once the final number is reached, it’s multiplied by 3, and that’s the target on a d20. Oh, and it can be played with any genre and in any setting, with minimal tweaks to the core system.

That’s Cypher System, and it’s amazing. Right now I’m using it to run a lunchtime super hero campaign once a month and have run a couple fantasy-themed one shots as well. I’m also looking forward to testing out more genres using Cypher System in the near future.

The Cypher System Reference Document contains all the mechanical information you need to run the game, and that includes their “white spine” genre books. So you can dive in to Cypher without having to lay down any cash if you want (but the books are beautiful, and look wonderful on a shelf). 

Cypher’s publisher, Monte Cook Games, also has some distinct IPs which are not found in the reference document. The best known of these set a billion years in the future in the Ninth World. Numenera is science fantasy at its finest. The world is a weird mix of high technology and mediaeval fantasy. The game is set just as civilization is growing back from whatever caused the last world to collapse, an unknown number of years ago, and there are hints everywhere that the current batch of humans haven’t been around on the planet all that long. My campaign’s been going on for just about two years and I love the weird things the party encounters.

If you want a flexible system with fast mechanics that’s designed to be narrative forward, check out Cypher System. The core rulebook is about $77 for the hardback and PDF. For Numenera I recommend the two book box set, which costs about $130 for the book/PDF combo. There are also some starter sets for both systems, which can be found on Monte Cook Games’ web site. These cost around $30.

1. Dragonbane

Dragonbane is one of the first products Free League sent me as a review copy, but that’s not why it’s on the top spot of this list. It’s in the top spot because Dragonbane is amazing. In fact, I love this game so much I’ve picked up a copy of the box set to give to one my friends.

Sometimes people will call the Dragonbane box set a “starter set,” because that’s what most box sets are these days, but that’s a misnomer. The Dragonbane box set is the entire game. It includes the full rulebook, blank character sheets, creature and character standees, some pre-generated characters so a group can dive right in, a full adventure book, a reversible battle map on which terrain can be placed (but it is paper, don’t draw on it), and a set of lovely emerald-green translucent dice. And how much does this cornucopia of TTRPG goodness cost? The core set can be purchased for about $56!

Why do I love Dragonbane? Well, it’s a skill based system with roll-under mechanics. Magic is rare, but powerful, and combat is fast and dangerous. The game is fair, but it’s unforgiving if players don’t learn to make good choices. Also, monsters are both unpredictable and deadly. All this combines to create a game where negotiation needs to be on the table whenever possible, and retreat needs to be an option. That might not sound fun to folks who are used to a “clear the room” mentality, but I have so much fun seeing what my group gets into. They’ve befriended a troll, gotten swept up into an ancient conflict, and have forgotten that they are just a bunch of armed people and have no actual authority to do any of the things they do.

They’re even beginning to learn how to keep their party alive, well…most of them.

If you want to try something that scratches a fantasy itch, has players roll the familiar d20, but which also breaks away from concepts like armor class or hit point bloat Dragonbane is a terrific go to. My group has been playing it ever since our Basic Fantasy RPG campaign wrapped up and it’s a ton of fun.

#DMing #DnD #DungeonsDragons #dungeonsAndDragons #GMing #RolePlayingGame #RPG #TTRPG