Rump

@lambo_dan94349 @dLsd_25 @DunderMoose @Travis_Fauber @DoomstoneCrom No problem. Combining them gives the ref a bit more control over the milieu and may help drive convergence in the desired way.

@RumpDM @dLsd_25 @DunderMoose @Travis_Fauber @DoomstoneCrom Thanks Rump! You're the best.

Downtime post on the Substack, and I go on a tad of a rant about GOSS, SEEN and Farmdweebing...

@Nobleshield @EricDiaz_RPG If players came into the game without complex backstories, they would accept that their bad play led to their PC death. You can just make a new PC. They are free.

@Nobleshield @EricDiaz_RPG But since “character death is a fail state” for the DM for some reason, the entire premise of the game is thrown out from the start. Decisions don’t matter because the DM won’t let you die, even if it is your fault.

I almost feel like I've been gaslit by the OSR.

@lambo_dan94349 @dLsd_25 @DunderMoose @Travis_Fauber @DoomstoneCrom To combine, ref rolls GOSS and tells the player what to write (true report, misinformation, partial truth, framing, etc)

@DunderMoose @Travis_Fauber @dLsd_25 @DoomstoneCrom I've been reading about GOSS and SEEN. If I wanted to use them in my 1:1 campaign how would I combine the two in practice? Player rolls GOSS and writes SEEN or ref rolls GOSS and player writes SEEN or...? Exciting stuff, thanks for sharing. The Bros are very generous!

When #TheHybroianAge started focusing on naval adventures, I had to learn a section of the rules I was not familiar with. It was sort of the point but mostly it was because pirate games are really fun. With a lull in the naval action, I had the chance to write something. #BROSR

@Nobleshield Yes. Tactical play can be good, but we really weren’t equipped for it.

@RumpDM I also feel a huge part of long combat is using a grid and figures. But haven't tested that theory yet.

@Nobleshield I played a Ranger. “I run over here and target this guy and this guy. Roll attack. Roll damage.” Then I would wait 10 minutes while Greg considered his Bard options (which never involved casting sleep)

@Nobleshield If combat takes two sessions to run, it’s either a days long siege or your group or DM just can’t make decisions.

@Nobleshield Someone else said it, but I enjoyed my time playing 5E back in 2018 but I knew something was missing; the things I wanted in the game I played in were all things being offered by the BrOSR. 5E is an incomplete game.

@RumpDM And both say "if you like anything about D&D after 2000 you're Satan" lol

@Nobleshield This is why “finding the right way to play RPGs” is such a more meaningful goal than “designing the perfect RPG system for what somebody wants.” Because you can’t even attempt the latter until you have finished the first.

@Nobleshield Meanwhile real people don’t have the time or social capital to string their friends along this OSR journey with them. The OSR creator class truly truly truly truly is just a collection of grifters. Players are marks and victims.

@ViktorGorchev Unfortunately this response proves to them that you are a racist. If you were on “their side” they would Expect you to have a private/public crash out where you accuse others of the same, DM someone 30 times in a row Saying you weren’t racist, etc

The clarity and profundity of @Bdubs1776's unassuming statement is the launching point for understanding the cutting edge of RPG conceptualization. Here's how it wrecks a hard-sought conclusion I reached years ago:

My friend worked at Origin Systems. Now, my friend loved loved loved Gauntlet. To the point that he would often talk in Gauntlet-speak. For example, he'd stand up from his cubicle to go to lunch and announce it, "Fred needs food badly." Or when a co-worker gave him something he needed, he'd say, "I've not seen such bravery." Or if the co-worker had bungled something, he'd say, "Exit the room please." If a deadline was coming up, he'd say "Your life force is running out." That sort of thing. Anyway one day a new worker, an experienced coder who'd been in the industry, came to Origin Systems, and settled into the cubicle right next to my friend. Seemed like a nice guy, if a little quiet. Anyway, Fred continued his Gauntlet-speak hijinks for a few weeks. Then, one day Fred spilled his coffee or something and said, "Someone shot the food!" and the new guy cracked. He stood up in his cubic and started violently denouncing Fred, ranting about how Fred was constantly mocking him and he wasn't going to sit down for it any more and Fred better watch himself in the parking lot and and and ... During the rant, Fred came to realize that the new guy was ONE OF THE ORIGINAL PROGRAMMERS OF GAUNTLET! He though Fred was making fun of his game! Fred managed to calm him down, and convinced him that he, Fred, practically worshiped the guy and had no idea he'd been on the game. If he had he would have been quizzing him non-stop about his tasks, buying him coffee, etc. So they became friends. This kind of thing happened more often than you might think in the gaming world back in the day. There weren't that many professional developers so we'd see each other at conventions, or when we switched jobs. And there was usually no more than two degrees of separation. For instance, I only met Lord British himself once, but I knew two men pretty closely who later on went to work for Origins Systems and became top guys there (Fred mentioned above and Andy Hollis). Ask me anything.

@SandyofCthulhu And they’re supposed to outbreed men and age quicker. Orcs only make sense if they are small and comparatively weak to men.

@SandyofCthulhu So now they are huge to demonstrate how powerful they are. But they are also supposed to be exceedingly numerous. But they are frankly too big to have those numbers. Hordes of these guys are roaming the wastes!

I always hated these comparisons, because orcs in Lord of the Rings are really obviously shorter than humans. The huge Uruk-Hai are described as "nearly as tall as a man", with "straight legs". Yet games keep making them taller than human. I'd say there's a good argument in D&D for making hobgoblins and gnolls bigger than humans. After all the base hit dice for those creatures was 1+1 and 2 dice respectively, while it's only 1 die for humans. Anyway. Had to get it off my chest.