Tabletop Gaming
So, after a lengthy absence due to life challenges and other distractions, I have decided that I need an outlet other than that offered by the "socials". I've started up a blog. Very 2000's, I know. I think perhaps some of the aesthetic and values of those early post-millennial years are overdue for a revival. Maybe only a personal judgement, or perhaps one that might find resonance with others.
I've recently tried putting some videos up on YouTube. I have found it harder than I expected.
Here is a quick rant about D&D's ten worst rules. It has received very mixed results -- I expect that I offended some people who play DnD, which wasn't my attempt. there are some fundamental problems with the rules, so I thought I'd have a bit of fun. Do the Greeners have any suggestions for things I can do to improve my videos?
Sure, Facebook has been around more than ten years. But it was around ten years ago that Facebook gaming chat groups became the dominant medium for gaming discussions (in my view).
I'll start with......
PREPARATION SHAMING
OP: "The best adventures come from the players' own paranoid conjecture. I'm such an edgelord I hardly ever prepare anything for my sessions, I just let my players give me ideas. Who's with me?"
Comment, or add your own "Ten years of Facebook has given... "
The Scene: Yesterday's Game - D&D 3.5
Average party level 7th (ish)
Player joins the game who was not present at the start of the current scenario
New Player: "Who can I play? I didn't bring many of my character sheets"
DM: "I run Sandbox D&D. Bring whoever you like who is in town."
New Player: "Keeper of the Campaign Timeline, who do I have in town at the time of this adventure?"
Keeper (that's me): "Well....there's Dude X. He's in town at the moment, at a loose end."
It turns out New Player has Dude X's character sheet.
Dude X is 14th level.
When I started roleplaying many years ago, there were very few examples of what a game was supposed to be like. The official written adventures published by the various roleplaying companies were for the most part, absolute garbage. There was little-to-no actual story, rampant amounts of magical items, and other things that I really didn’t like. Obviously, this is my opinion, but I have never met a gamer who didn’t agree with this sentiment.
Gary Gygax famously relates the inception of skills into D&D as a result of having a character cross a river and someone asking "Can my character swim?" Since then skills began to creep into D&D and other RPG's at a furious pace. Eventually, most games added some skills or even made skill-based systems -- dispensing with classes altogether. Most gamers accept the premise of skills blithely, seeing them as another thing that their character can do and fail to recognize that some skills take away player agency from the table.
A reflection on the ideals of the sandbox gaming style in the context of a multithreaded RPG campaign.
“I have a job for you.”
Those six words brought a flush of adrenaline as Luna sat up and snapped her slender fingers, grabbing everyone’s attention. The group of friends fell quiet and shifted their eyes to the willowy elf.
“I’m listening.”
The silence was filled with the high-pitched fweeep of gas as the troll tried to stifle a fart. A chorus of groans sounded as everyone moved to cover their noses.
Since the birth of role-playing games the core statistics have become enmeshed and entrenched into almost every set of rules. On the surface it seems reasonable to attach values for a character's "vital talents" and use these as the basis for building a repertoire of actions. Unfortunately, in most systems, the statistics are a source of imbalance, create unnecessary complexity, and stifle creativity.
