The Angry GM

People wrongly think "railroading" means "giving the PCs a plot hook or adventure". That's completely wrong. THIS is railroading (courtesy of Knights of the Dinner Table):

So… I’ve gotten into playing this @RedCross Blood Donor app and I’ve unlocked several badges, but I really want to platinum it. Does anyone else play it? Anyone have a strategy for unlocking the *AB Elite Donor* badge because I rolled blood type O during character generation. The only thing I can think of is donating someone else’s blood in my name, but I don’t know if that will work and I don’t want to lose my account by cheating. It doesn’t look like there’s a TOS forbidding, but you know how game servers are these days. Also curious from anyone who has tried it whether donating blood from someone else can help circumvent the eight week turn timer.

In case you need a direct link... theangrygm.com/open-endedness…

Open-Endedness, Open Challenges, and Hat Theory New General Access Feature This rambling rant covers a lot of ground about the many hats a Game Master has to wear and why you shouldn't worry about worry about open-endedness or creativity when you're writing adventures. Seriously. Read Open-Endedness, Open Challenges, and Hat Theory on the main site right now.

Challenge Or Goal? New General Access Feature Time for an informal little digression from the main True Scenario Designery lessons. I need to help all y'all help you suss out the difference between goals and challenges. Because, as some of my unnamed supporters are about to learn, they're easy to confuse. Read the whole article on my site. You know where to find it.

Just Shut Up About Min-Maxing (Part II): No, Seriously, Shut Up New General Access Feature This is the rant about why Game Masters need to shut up about Min-Maxing I didn't publish two weeks ago. Now available at The Angry GM's main site.

Ask Angry: Too Many Players and Meaningful Apocalypse Games New General Access Feature It's mailbag time. Two questions this month: how to run an open-world game for too many people with too-short sessions and whether PbtA games can provided meaningful experiences. Now available at TheAngryGM site.

@weston_rory Also, given it took you almost a month to come up with that response, it really should have been better than that.

Right. And the only rule the players need to know in a TTRPG is "declare your action and follow my instructions when I try to resolve it." A Game Master that requires the players to know any more than that is a bad Game Master and a TTRPG that requires the players to know any more than is badly designed.

Outside of the minimum assumption inherent to all human social endeavors that you not mistreat other people, a tabletop roleplaying game player's only job — their only responsibility — is to show up and play the game. If you demand any more than that as a Game Master, you are bad and you are wrong and you should feel bad.

@Lumenbeing Most of my analysis would apply equally well to the D&D games I played when i was young and old school was just called school.

@Lumenbeing Very non-significant. It's really just there because I'm sick as shit of getting drawn into dumbass arguments about how "this is just more proof that WotC ruined everything" and "if you would just play 1E OSIRIC the way Gygax told you to, all your problems would be solved."

Without a robust means of dealing with specific injuries built into the system, traps are basically pointless in modern-style fantasy adventure tabletop roleplaying games like D&D.

Big announcement - please spread far and wide! I am seeking external play-testers for One Hour English Civil War, the next game in the One Hour series. Please DM me your email if interested and I will send you all files needed to play-test. Thank you!

@deaflibertarian Plus, if you got them, then every time you’re interacting with a guy, you’ll have to sign “Hey! My hands are up here!” constantly.

"Get implants!" That's what a lot of people "advise" me to do when they learn that I'm deaf. Listen, breast implants will not help me hear.

Checkout the latest quick view for my 4X project! Still a lot to do, like make a decent dev log.... But it's starting to look like something 🎉 #gamedev #GodotEngine youtu.be/s-y7_NaNG3k

@Oli4_VH Wow. That’s looking sharp!

Quick little shake on unit icon click. Soooooo easy with animationplayers!! #gamedev #GODOT

@GMShivers @SeedOilDsrspctr So, it’s about professional clowns?

@SeedOilDsrspctr "What if the face you put on at work was a distinct person unique from yourself"

“You gotta watch Severance.” “Cool, what’s it about?” “I don’t know.”

@HazchemD @marketboob @unusual_whales That would be like negotiating a trade agreement with little Sally’s lemonade stand on the corner. Except at least she’s got lemonade she made from ingredients she stole from her mother’s cupboard.

@HazchemD @marketboob @unusual_whales Wouldn’t work. Penguins are fiercely autarkical. They don’t engage in trade with outside nations in general principle. Except for Australian blue penguins. But what would you even get from that deal? What would even be the point?

BREAKING: The White House has said that 130 countries are currently in negotiations for new trade agreements with the United States.

@unsuperpower And, look, this ain’t even me fighting or being a dick or yelling “wrong.” I bet we’d have a really great discussion if we hashed it out.

@unsuperpower And posts on X are the shittiest way to have a serious intellectual throw down.

Hot take: shouldering the GM with the responsibility of resolving tensions between others is irresponsible of whoever does it, player or online opinionater. "That's the job," is nonsense. GMs run a game, and everyone can resolve their own disagreements unless they're kids.