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Eow Links 40 |
| 2021-10-03 |
Eow Links 40
"Eow" for End Of Week. TTRPG Links I gathered during the week. This is iteration 40.
For more weekly links, head to The Seed of Worlds Shiny TTRPG link collection.
Most of the links below are found via the RPG Planet that Alex Schroeder built and maintains. If you have a RPG blog, please consider joining the conversation.
My favourite post of the week is the Hidden Depths Table by Xaoseeed.
High-speed hex-crawling - exploring with flyers
In my home game the players assembled a flying skiff out of a number of things and set off into the north west of their realms on a quest. The practical challenge here is that at any significant height, visibility ranges are greatly extended so in theory the players can see everything in all the hexes around them.
Hidden Depths table - (6d4, 4d6, 3d8, 2d12, d4+d20)
I had an idea for an 'unlockable' encounter table by switching the dice rolled on it. This could also serve as some sort of chaos index. The key point is that a 2-24 table can be rolled with a bunch of different dice combos from the standard set 6d4, 4d6, 3d8, 2d12, d4+d20.
An excellent idea.
10 questions to Mauro Longo & Two Little Mice (Ennies Special)
Today we chat with Mauro Longo, the mind behind Brancalonia the Spaghetti Fantasy RPG, and the Two Little Mice team, who gave us Broken Compass. Why am I interviewing them together? Because they have a lot in common, such as being Italian and having won a bunch of Ennie Awards two weeks ago!
I am looking forward to get my copy of Brancalonia. I wonder if it's full of inter-regional puns very opaque to non-Italians.
Whenever I have been GM'ing using The Celestial Empire or Oriental Monsters & Magic, I have found that character parties built around a judge accompanied by retainers, bodyguards, etc. have worked really well in a Chinese context.
I had read around 200 core books until finally giving the much maligned D&D a shot. I had believed the anti-hope of haters on Usenet and TBP. “AC doesn’t make sense”, “Levels don’t make sense”, “It’s so unrealistic” etc. And I felt so dumb for looking at it last because it was exactly what I had been longing for all this time.
I like to apply a lingering injury as they reach 0 HP (an optional rule from the DMG, p272).
I want players to consider the possible consequences to fighting before they pull the trigger on a combat encounter.
Reaction Checks. In my opinion they are not that great, at least for how they are traditionally offered. Just having a friendly-to-hostile board to set png's reaction is too little for my taste. Hostile how? And why? And how neutral?
Like... an orc has a pretty even chance of murdering a 1st level character of any class, but an orc is worth a paltry 10 xp. Even if you kill one by yourself... I mean, a fighter has to kill 200 of those motherfuckers to gain a level.
Dave Arneson's True Genius - First impressions
First impressions: What a wonderful and thought-provoking little book. The intricate writing, grand concepts, systems, and scientific approach to a subject such as the invention of role playing games makes this a really unique read. The subject and ideas are fantastic and I eagerly look forward to the expansion of this subject that hopefully will be published in the form of Kuntz' A New Ethos in Game Design.
That book looks mysterious.
How long do oil lamps last for?
1 pint of oil (20 Oz) will last around 40 hours. Not sure how they got 512 for a gallon (1 gallon = 8 pints = 160 ounces = 320 hours).
d12 Moderately Diegetic Magic Systems
Spells are dogs; loyal, easily trained, enthusiastically servile beings native to the ethereal plane. They were once the pets and servants of a higher intelligence, but some ancient catastrophe destroyed their civilization. Perhaps some of these spell-lords are still out there…
Sorry, I'm not into x things post, but this one lured me in.
In today's edition, we look at various hexcrawl videos.
D&D is an imposter in the RPG world
The designers weren't completely explicit in what they were trying to achieve, but it's all there.
Instead, it is the game world and the items in it that shape the character. This reversal feels significant, enough that I am going to give it the name basic materialism.
Princess Mononoke and "DM-Prepared Plots" in Old School Games
See, because the PCs are still driving the story, but the NPCs are also still driving their own stories on the same road. Get it?
The all-mighty index card may be one of the cheapest and most versatile tools in our DM's toolkit. Index cards have been a staple tool for DMs for decades; probably since the beginning of the game.
I love index cards, you can write on them, you can shuffle them, you can turn them into maps and tents, and they are not connected to the internet, so far.
"Race requirements" (B/X) might be the best mechanic for fantasy "races"
It occurred to me that having "minimum requirements" for some races solves lots of these (real or perceived) problems, and creates additional positive consequences.
That's an elegant solution.
Monsters, spells etc are much more mystifying and interesting when you don't immediately blurt out their names when speaking about them. Let the players name these things and stick with those names yourself for extra fun.
Again, one of those list of things post that went past my defense.
Whidou made a beautiful map of the UVG Ultrasound Wastelands.
There is also the UVG restaurant and take-away Cap'tain cat has a menu.
