Search results

  1. Z

    What makes setting lore "actually matter" to the players?

    Or just actual history, right? Im reading a fantastic book on medieval history and it makes a point of noting how often histories by various of-the-time sources make the effort to create mythical tie-ins for rulers and peoples (check out the Lebor Gabala Erann / "Book of Invasions" which more or...
  2. Z

    How do you like to start a campaign

    As often with your posts, a glimpse for me into an incomprehensible alternate dimension of TTRPGing!
  3. Z

    How do you like to start a campaign

    Always curious about the frequency and hour length of a game like this. Is it weekly?
  4. Z

    How do you like to start a campaign

    All but one of the games I’m running right now build this into the core design. It works so well.
  5. Z

    OSR Errant

    I dont understand this. Pretty much every dungeon-focused game has an emphasis on tracking time, some degree of procedure where you mark down light sources (from Shadowdark's real-time to a more classic "at the end of a dungeon turn"), etc. The reason they're not computer games is because the...
  6. Z

    How do you like to start a campaign

    My two Stonetop campaigns, with a set of provocative questions at a few of the PCs to set the scene ("Judge, when the last kid went missing from town, what made you finally call off the search?"); and then the hook based on the session 0 tensions and threats they had created. Pre-bitten for...
  7. Z

    What makes setting lore "actually matter" to the players?

    I mean some people world build as a creative hobby or passion regardless of if a player will ever see it (or to satisfy their need for a level of detail), but yeah that doesn’t really answer the OP question.
  8. Z

    What makes setting lore "actually matter" to the players?

    A great example is how ethnically and culturally diverse even real-world rough historical analogues were. Travelers travelled, often away from their homes for years at a time (I was just reading an account of an African-homeported Jewish merchant and philosopher who floated and caravened off to...
  9. Z

    D&D 5E (2024) A critical analysis of 2024's revised classes

    And given how much some subclasses require deliberate L1 / stat choice that are very different then others, are many people really going "yeah Imma play a Fighter and then see how I feel at L3" or are they like "Imma play a Weapon master and just passing the time until I hit 3!" Given my table...
  10. Z

    What makes setting lore "actually matter" to the players?

    Yeah? Like, I don't see Session 0 Lines and Veils as a trade off. I wasn't planning to drop sexual assault on the group, nor does it harsh my fun to veil out harm to children or whatever comes up. Asking the players what they want to see within the context of the larger frame I'm already excited...
  11. Z

    What makes setting lore "actually matter" to the players?

    I don't see any trade-offs in the games I'm running, unless you mean that by being selective with who the group comprises such that they're all really into the core conceits so we can coalesce around a shared-table-fun is inherently a trade-off? Like, I put a game and world in front of people...
  12. Z

    What makes setting lore "actually matter" to the players?

    I'm not even sure what this is anyway. There's something really fun about a player going "oh heck, your questions and framing took me down a path I hadn't really thought about for my character at all! Time to reflect on what that means for them."
  13. Z

    What makes setting lore "actually matter" to the players?

    And here I was thinking it meant a form of GMing where everything is sung in Wagner-like operatic verse.
  14. Z

    What makes setting lore "actually matter" to the players?

    I run games that tend to collaborate highly, on lore and other things. At the end of each session, I make sure to collect “stars and wishes” with the latter used to calibrate the game and content. I still: - give the jumping off point for collaborative lore or scenes, and “yes, but/no, but” as...
  15. Z

    Daggerheart General Thread [+]

    Fantastic session tonight, closing out the first "File" / arc for my Tuesday modern urban fantasy table. We opened with the party having just stepped through a painting-portal into Faerie, needing to find a route through the amorphous Goblin Ways (faerie roads! gotta have em) to the unicorn-horn...
  16. Z

    Draw Steel General Thread [+]

    ????
  17. Z

    Draw Steel General Thread [+]

    Was this directed at anything in this thread, or just a generalized grumble? I've definitely seen a lot of this posting on Reddit, but I dont think anything we're talking about here (Hero Tokens are a meta currency that's hard to track and a group-pool that replenishes on session) counts for that.
  18. Z

    Draw Steel General Thread [+]

    Oh, maybe I'll give them as a reward for a sub-montage when I spin those out, since those are usually too small for a Victory... I have a great loathing of vibes-based / GM-granted reward systems so I just never think to do that.
  19. Z

    Draw Steel General Thread [+]

    God are we supposed to give them out too? Yeah that's not happening, haha - although I guess it's a good way to reward a Crit on a random Test! I do need to remind people that they can spend them as a reaction to a big hit to gain a recovery worth of stamina.
  20. Z

    Draw Steel General Thread [+]

    Yeah absolutely. They were happy with spending them on skill checks in the Montage though, once I reminded them that was an option. My group of Shadow/Talent/Elementalist/Conduit is not the most balanced of things, but they're making it work.
Top