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Eow Links 54 |
| 2022-01-09 |
Eow Links 54
"Eow" for End Of Week. TTRPG Links I gathered during the week. This is iteration 54.
For more weekly links, head to The Seed of Worlds Shiny TTRPG link collection. There's also The Indie RPG Newsletter, and, for monthly links, The Glatisant.
Most of the links below are found via the RPG Planet that Alex Schroeder built and maintains. If you have an RPG blog, please consider joining the conversation.
My favourites are the post about perception checks and its table rule uncertainty, and the post about RPG play styles part 2. 
No, the real cause of the ruin of the Wild seems to me to be apathy. Not so grand as a Dark Lord, but much more true to life.
Painkiller drugs can restore Grit, but since lazing around for 10 minutes can do so as well without consequences, no one ever used painkillers.
Stars and Wishes – because Feedback is Hard
Stars — At the end of the session, everyone gives some highlights – moments or techniques that they enjoyed.
Wishes — Everyone also gives some wishes, which can either be things they weren’t too keen on, or things they’d like to see more of.
The One Best Way to Make Perception Checks Doesn’t Exist. Here’s Your Toolkit
I used to hope for a perfect method that brought player engagement without revealing metagame clues, but I’ve given up that search. Now I see a toolkit of methods, each with advantages.
The Movies and Stories than Inspired Dave Arneson to Invent the Dungeon Crawl
Meanwhile, on Saturday May 29, 1971, The Black Room (1935) aired on the local station
DM Advice: Give yourself structure
The hardest thing to do is create into a void. When you are making something, give yourself some structure, even if you throw it away later or hate it. That is fine, it gives you something to chafe against and that will help you create.
Cities in Cities - The Grisly Eye
Regardless, gamemasters are well advised against over-preparation. Minimal preparation also conveys the vastness and complexity of the city. There are parts the characters might never see, the mere mention of which might daunt them. Cunningly drawing your players in.
Extremely simple combat maneuvers (OSR and 5e)
before you roll for damage, you can propose a maneuver
On RPG Play-styles, Part 2: Amateur Thespianism
What most characterizes the “old-school revival,” named “OSR” from about 2008 onward, is taking the early D&D books and their rules more seriously than most of the early players did when those early D&D books came out.
Instead of rolling to persuade the gate guard or merchant, doesn’t the prescribed “old-school” emphasis on player skill suggest you should tell the referee how you persuade the merchant, by playing it out?
It's a long and worth reading essay. The conclusion is platinum.
Review: A Practical Guide to Medieval Warfare: Exploring History through Wargaming
interesting anecdotes and behavioural insights to weave into your gaming - things like night raids are hard normally because the defenders know the castle and will douse any lights at the first sign of trouble leaving the attackers to blunder around in the dark or signal their presence with torches (or light spells) and draw fire from archers.
Player Stats for AideDD Character Builder 2020-2021
In any case, it is always great to see data from actively used tools within the hobby to try and understand how people are playing and give some facts to underpin the mountains of anecdotes.
Why Stat Modifiers and Skills Suck in Salvage Union.
the game actively encourages such play through a combination of the flat resolution mechanic assuming everyone is broadly competent at everything they do and the lack of a list of ‘skill buttons’ for players to press to resolve situations.
Each combatant states what they intend to do and grabs the indicated die:
Attack = weapon’s damage die / Cast a spell = d12 / Retreat = d4 or d12 / Simple action = d6 / Complex action = d10
In the Holmes Basic rulebook, magic-users were not permitted to bring their magic books into the dungeon with them, but needed to return home in order to regain their spells
Secret Damage, Wound States and Initiative Cards
When the combat ensues the players write their initiative in the corner of their Initiative card and hand it to me. I roll for the monsters and do the same. These cards are then sorted into descending numerical order and the combat begins.
