Victor, a Rascal certified game designer

This is a cursed post.

Schrodinger's clue: Put it wherever they look for it.

I really enjoy switching it up. Sometimes we'll RP then roll, sometimes RP-roll-RP more, and sometimes roll and then RP the result. I'll either pick or quickly discuss at the table before the scene starts.

Blades in the Dark is in a weird spot. It's written as a pretty crunchy game. There are a lot of levers to pull. But also most of those rules are optional. It collapses gracefully, so you can ignore 90% of the rules and it still works great.

I played two sessions of a Motherboard game. It works great, you just have to do some hand waving to make the theming work. Like instead of grasping vines my ranger had grasping cables.

If you read carefully you'll note I used the words "frequently" and "usually". I am aware that dice size is very important to some games.

Niches RPGs aren't entry points because they're not well known. If more people knew about diceless RPGs then more people would start with diceless RPGs. There's nothing inherently difficult or challenging about diceless games.

Anyone can enjoy a diceless RPG. They're not restricted to just "avid gamers".

It really bugs me when people describe BitD as a "D6 game" or Daggerheart as a "D12 game". Technically correct but also but it really doesn't matter.

The type of dice rolled is frequently the least important part of game design. People get really hung up on which dice a game uses and that's usually not a meaningful question.

This is revenge for all the systems you get me excited about.

I really like Trials of the Apocalypse. They do short runs of different PbtA games, then do a review episode to talk about the experience. They're on break right now but should have new episodes sometime.

RuneQuest 3rd Edition. Also the first RPG I've ever played! I'm in the very small minority that didn't start with the Big One.

We doing OSR stories? Last session I rolled for a random encounter and got, "Four lost Yodin sheep." No Yodin nearby, so the players slaughtered one for food. Next random encounter? "Six Yodin tribesmen." We're about to find out how that ends.

I did this recently and stumbled across The Elusive Shift, all about the conceptual origins of RPGs.

D100? No, D∞.

I had a six post thread about exactly that and then I hit the wrong button and Bluesky ate it. I gotta get up the gumption to rewrite it.

Fable makes an incredibly good point. My gender and skin color goes a long way to keeping problematic players in check.

"Fun" fact, I used to run a couple weekly social dances. When I left I handed the organization over to two women. They had a lot more trouble with problematic community members than I ever did. Not because of anything they did, but just because the assholes perceived them as easier to bully.

That's a very fair point! In the context of the post I'm 99% sure they just run a lot of D&D and can't imagine any other way to play RPGs. But I'm sure my white-ness and men-ness goes a long way to keeping players quiet at my table.

The worst I've had was one player who wanted to punch a child NPC. I said, "Sorry, I don't allow harm to kids in my games" and he went "oh that's fair" and we kept playing.

I've been a community organizer for multiple event and organizations for 20 years. I've written multiple codes of conduct for in-person and online event. I've kicked out and banned community members for violating those CoCs. I definitely would have noticed a problem.

Some guy on Reddit doesn't believe that I've run RPGs for 150+ strangers and never had a problem. I'll tell you my secrets:

1) Don't run D&D. Problem players love D&D. I can't explain it, but it's true.

2) Run games at the queer meetup. Gay people are nicer that straight people, it's just a fact.

Imagine aliens intercept transmissions from Earth and this is the first thing they see.

A wolf sized N64 that rips me apart with its sharp teeth? Anything?

*picks up D&D postage stamps*

These are some strange looking princesses.

I'm in my 40s, so I would prefer a human sized N64 to stab me with a katana.

WE ALREADY RAISED OVER $150.

IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN 24 HOURS.

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Read this as "writing in Paris" and I was really jealous for a second there.