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Let's talk Aguachile Alley

Postby trigross » Mon Jul 23, 2018 1:47 pm

over the edge is one of the most 90s rpgs of all time

i never played it but it looks goofy as hell and hell i'd probably love it. not bad price for the kickstarter either
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Postby Legion » Mon Jul 30, 2018 7:24 pm



trigross please don't post in this thread

you're not good for my budget

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Postby Legion » Mon Jul 30, 2018 7:25 pm



just kidding, my whole life I've been too irresponsible to have a budget

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Postby fuckyoudad » Mon Jul 30, 2018 7:32 pm

Has anyone heard good things about Star Trek Adventures?
Note: mildly comedic.
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Postby trigross » Tue Jul 31, 2018 9:23 am

haven't played it but the book looks well designed. have no idea about the system (it's modiphus's house system, used for the new conan rpg and also the mutant chronicles rpg). here's a partial in-depth review: http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/hulk-smash/star-trek-the-rpg/

for an osr take i've read through and really like this: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/108104/Starships--Spacemen-2e though obv they don't have the ip. but check this out:

Design alien humanoids with either "original series" or "next generation" sensibilites, or blend the two approaches! There are 100 forehead shapes that may be randomly rolled when a new alien race is encountered.
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Postby nite69 » Tue Jul 31, 2018 11:33 pm

in the next few weeks im going to be playing some non dnd ttrpgs for the first time. first week we're starting small with risus, then we're going to try out apocalypse world
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Postby hector doepos » Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:11 pm

trigross wrote:also i can vouch for some really cool osr products by the hydra collective if you want some "weirder" fantasy stuff: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/140450/Slumbering-Ursine-Dunes, http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/151165/FeverDreaming-Marlinko and http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/183439/Misty-Isles-of-the-Eld - i especially love fever dreaming marlinko for a city adventure


oh my god trigross these look incredible! i'd love to run a kind of 'uncanny urban' campaign one day and these look... fantastic. im so pleased there is substantial literature out there for more alternative fantasy ttg settings.

is the idea that you would use these with whatever engine you are familiar with? would there be a specific engine that you would recommend running these with?

I was considering numenera cos i hate dnd's combat and want to keep mechanics relatively simple.
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Postby trigross » Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:28 pm

i think they are probably stated out for b/x d&d

tbh numenera looked cool but i hate monte cook games (be the wizard!)

if yr looking for non-combat or simpler/non-d&d combat i'm probably going to suggest dungeon world or a recent favorite of mine (also PbtA), fellowship https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17 ... nture-Game
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Postby hector doepos » Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:31 pm

haha, thanks. appreciate it.

im intrigued - could elaborate at all on your issue with monte cooke games?
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Postby trigross » Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:37 pm

well numenera i think sort of seems like non-d&d but ends up just being d&d

also your stats are your hitpoints? oof
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Postby hector doepos » Mon Aug 27, 2018 1:54 pm

yeah, dungeon world might be the way to go. hopefully won't be too confusing to adapt some of that hydra cooperative osr stuff into it :)

thanks!
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Postby ahungbunny » Mon Aug 27, 2018 2:14 pm

went through the beginning of b2 keep on the borderlands with b/x rules with half my regular group

it was great

i'm in love with the moldvay rules, so simple and elegant
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Postby trigross » Mon Aug 27, 2018 2:15 pm

hell yeah

b/x d&d is truly my favorite
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Postby hector doepos » Mon Aug 27, 2018 2:21 pm

how would you compare b/x d&D with dungeon world which vaguely seems to be a kind of 'best-practices' return to old school d&d?
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Postby trigross » Mon Aug 27, 2018 3:09 pm

dungeon world has some design .... flaws, i guess you could say. in that it is sort of attempting to plug "d&disms" into an apocalypse world game and it doesn't always work. at its best, though, it is attempting to do what you always think d&d is going to be - everyone creates this fun story, shit goes wrong, you can do anything. the d&d the mythical cousin told you about.

and then you actually play d&d (3.x and 5e particularly) and are bored shitless because you are waiting your turn and if you're a fighter you just say "i hit it" or if you're a wizard "i cast fireball". and out of combat you can't do anything at all as a fighter and then the wizard just casts the spell that solves the non-combat encounter ("i cast knock").

so the thing with that dungeon world is that it is primarily about telling a collaborative story. it doesn't always work, but pbta games are a completely different approach to roleplaying. so if you can be loose enough and a good enough dm (this is hard), i think pbta games really do work. it's all about asking players about what they want out of the game and getting players to want to create a narrative. again, this can be hard as hell as a dm. you constantly have to remind yourself to ask questions and also have to create a lot of stuff on the fly. sometimes this looseness works and if anyone has ever seen bad improv ... well, there you go

b/x d&d is easier to do this "mythical d&d" with in my experience in that the rules are so simple and elegant (it takes 2-5 minutes to roll up a first level character) that they don't really get in the way of doing whatever the hell you want. dungeon world attempts to do this kind of thing with actual game mechanics: http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/moves/ , while b/x just leaves it pretty open to interpretation (a big motto here is "rulings, not rules"). in b/x you don't get to make an intelligence check to discern if you would know what the arcane history of a symbol etched on the dungeon wall - the dm decides if you do or not, or maybe (if you're me and a lazy dm) asks you to create some meaning for it, or maybe the dm comes up with some rule on the fly. in dungeon world there isn't a skill list (thank god) but you would do the move "spout lore" which is just rolling 2d6+Int.

oftentimes this sort of "emergent narrative" gameplay does just happen because of the simpleness of the b/x rules, and just like with dungeon world, sometimes it doesn't. it depends on what you are looking for - basically no rules or some game mechanics that aren't as "crunchy" as modern d&d but do streamline things a bit.

i will say combat is sort of clunky but works OK in dungeon world. and if you don't really want a game focused on it, i think it would work well.
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Postby trigross » Mon Aug 27, 2018 3:15 pm

it really depends on your group though obviously

I've had a lot of fun playing 5e even if I don't like the mechanics

I'm sure people have fun with numenera and do like the mechanics

I just prefer almost no rules
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Postby trigross » Mon Aug 27, 2018 3:19 pm

but look at fellowship! I haven't played it but it just sounds so cool
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Postby ahungbunny » Mon Aug 27, 2018 6:04 pm

trigross wrote: in b/x you don't get to make an intelligence check to discern if you would know what the arcane history of a symbol etched on the dungeon wall - the dm decides if you do or not, or maybe (if you're me and a lazy dm) asks you to create some meaning for it, or maybe the dm comes up with some rule on the fly.



there actually is an optional rule for ability checks in the expert book (pg 51) that's pretty simple and good, to me: roll your ability score or less on a d20, DM can modify based on difficulty of task
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Postby hector doepos » Tue Aug 28, 2018 12:40 pm

thanks trigross! you've definitely helped me find my starting blocks for DM'ing a lot faster than would otherwise have been possible.

my preference is also for less rules rather than more. osr seems like exactly what i was after. just looking for a basic framework to allow players to get deep in the story.
feel like the DMs (as hip as they may have been on the 5e ruleset) have still been too focused on rules and math for my taste - definitely gets in the way of good, spontneous story telling and immersion.

ended up buying a 2nd hand moldvay basic (b/x) box on ebay. i figure i don't really need the 'expert book', which I hear introduces more archetypes etc. as it could be fun to keep the rules light to encourage more invention. (lmk if that seems like a bad idea tho lol)

some cool resources I have come across.

A quick primer on old school gaming, does a great job of explaining (and selling) the oldschool rpg mindset:
https://files.meetup.com/1571284/A%20Quick%20Primer%20to%20Old%20Skool%20Gaming.pdf

Sword and Wizardry 'Whitebox Rules' by Finch & Brieg
https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1370/46/1370469495471.pdf
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Postby Legion » Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:34 pm



I've seen a lot of Monte Cook dissing online, but have never come across a succinct outline of why people dislike him/his co. so much

I don't think he's necessarily the bugbear's knees, just wondering what it is that drives the ire. edit: Some comments seem to boil down to them releasing too many "gimmicky" kickstarters, which I sort of understand, but I do think they're genuinely enthusiastic about the content they're creating.

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Postby trigross » Tue Aug 28, 2018 1:55 pm

I mean he's fine and very good at selling stuff

The numenera book is beautiful and I was excited about it but the mechanics were not to my taste and the setting just seemed ... dead? I guess. But running a non combat exploration game using it might work for me

Also @hector, look at labyrinth lord, it's a cleaned up version of the b/x rules and is great! But yeah the basic book will get you far. B2 is a great module and my fave is b4 the lost city
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Postby fuckyoudad » Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:01 pm

Had fun doing the sample scenario of Star Trek Adventures with my friends. They’ve never done tabletop gaming and I’ve never dm’d before, but they fucking loved it! We played very light on the mechanics (I didn’t want to slow down the game by looking things up) but it didn’t matter as they got really into the shared storytelling side of it. Gonna work on collecting the rule book, the scenario book and some extras over the next few months unless someone has some PDFs, cough coughToggle Spoiler
Note: mildly comedic.
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Postby trigross » Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:40 pm

i'll keep an eye out for the pdfs

if you don't really care about the mechanics take a look at this - http://www.onesevendesign.com/laserfeelings/
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Postby trigross » Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:59 pm

found the pdfs

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/0w33ywljd1pdt/Star_Trek_Adventures

edit: didn't look too closely and saw that there isn't a core rulebook in here, only quickstart

will keep looking
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Postby fuckyoudad » Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:31 pm

Thanks tg
Note: mildly comedic.
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Postby ahungbunny » Tue Aug 28, 2018 5:38 pm

hector doepos wrote:thanks trigross! you've definitely helped me find my starting blocks for DM'ing a lot faster than would otherwise have been possible.

my preference is also for less rules rather than more. osr seems like exactly what i was after. just looking for a basic framework to allow players to get deep in the story.
feel like the DMs (as hip as they may have been on the 5e ruleset) have still been too focused on rules and math for my taste - definitely gets in the way of good, spontneous story telling and immersion.

ended up buying a 2nd hand moldvay basic (b/x) box on ebay. i figure i don't really need the 'expert book', which I hear introduces more archetypes etc. as it could be fun to keep the rules light to encourage more invention. (lmk if that seems like a bad idea tho lol)

some cool resources I have come across.

A quick primer on old school gaming, does a great job of explaining (and selling) the oldschool rpg mindset:
https://files.meetup.com/1571284/A%20Quick%20Primer%20to%20Old%20Skool%20Gaming.pdf

Sword and Wizardry 'Whitebox Rules' by Finch & Brieg
https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1370/46/1370469495471.pdf


these are cool

i also can't recommend enough matt colville's "history of d&d, one fighter at a time" youtube series in which he rolls up a character in od&d, greyhawk, BECMI, ad&d, unearthed arcana, and 2nd ed
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Postby hector doepos » Wed Aug 29, 2018 10:58 pm

i didnt really connect with matt colviles podcast but this series on the otherhand :ugeek:
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Postby ahungbunny » Sun Sep 02, 2018 10:58 pm

finally got my first real score from the internet: a facebook marketplace post that i had to drive an hour each way to pick up, but i got a whole lot of cool shit for $85

Image

most excited by T1 - the village of hommlet, which is probably my favorite module ever and kind of hard to come by, and D3/G1-2-3/Q1 to add to my D1-2 to complete the world's first supermodule (that i will almost definitely never run). going to sell what i already own as a lot on ebay, hopefully recouping most or all of what i paid for this. i don't see myself ever playing ad&d 1st or 2nd but i really like having these books as artifacts. i remember reading that d&d really took off once the monster manual came out because hardcover books were a lot easier to carry in your backpack and show your friends. the crunchiness also made schoolkids feel smarter and more mature than their age (vs basic advertising for "ages 10 and up")

i'm accumulating a pretty solid repertoire of a/d&d stuff. once i have a chance i'll post my full collection. still looking for N1 - against the cult of the reptile god, B4 - the lost city (even though it's one of the few early modules i'm not very familiar with and would love to be a player in that adventure), and I6 - ravenloft

also dropped $35 on playing at the world and cannot wait to dive into it
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Postby ahungbunny » Sun Sep 02, 2018 11:00 pm

trigross please run a vtt game of B4 i will be there with bells on
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Postby trigross » Sun Sep 02, 2018 11:16 pm

Nice haul dude!

all the 1e material can def be used in b/x.

the 2e stuff not so much but some of it is cool
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