Anatexis Starmind

My worry is that The One Ring (TOR) might accidentally lure Players into 'button pushing' style of play where they search their character sheet for a skill to roll to defeat the problem, rather than the OSR style of "Here's what I do" based on the player's own intelligence.

Working hard on understanding "the One Ring" by Free League. I think it's a great game, just different. Very elegant also. Now I need to do some serious playtesting - I'm looking for how it's similiar to Mythic Bastionland or Twilight:2000 in creating emergent story.

Had a breakthrough with 'The One Ring' ruleset. I was working on converting 'the Sunless Citadel' and really struggling. Then the new Starter Kit - Under Hill and Over Hill, arrived. I get it now! The One Ring is NOT a dungeoncrawl (room by room). It's freeform. I get it!

@AutismCapital the displayed types imply one more "The Anakin" who is immoral, but emotional.

This is one of the most important charts that exist.

@YoDanno Why, yes. Yes I did. I loved all these weird rules to try in Dragon magazines.

Did you know that Gary Gygax laid out his rules for creating a half-ogre in AD&D way back in Dragon No. 29, September 1979? Did any of you give it a try? 🖼️ Timothy Truman

@YoDanno @DysonLogos has some masterpieces.

It’s true… Googly eyes for the win

We're 12 sessions into our Twilight 2000 Campaign. The PC's have just liberated a castle north of Krakow. Before attacking it one said "Let's visit the Library in Krakow first - to get floor plans". Genius. Never a better time to play Twilight:2000.

Enjoying Landman but why are we not talking about how Ali Larter is playing Miss Piggy and Billy Bob Thornton is playing Kermit the Frog??

Just been playing Axis and Allies Guadalcanal. What a cracking good game. Tons of bright coloured minis for your planes, carriers, battleships, etc. Against the tropical island background of the map it looks great. It departs from the original Axis and Allies formula in a lot of ways. For one, you have to transport supplies and build airfields. In fact the airfields are how you win. So there's a significant logistical component which I really like. The complicated interactions between the various unit types (land, sea and air, transports, carriers, shore bombardment, etc) and the long player turns have been solved by a very precise sequence of play. In this sequence, both players alternate moving each specific unit type. Transports move first - so you can see where enemy transports are moving before anything else moves. They're ponderous and require planning. Fighters move last - so they function as a quick reaction force. And then battles follow a specific procedure - first air, then sea, then land. The sequence of play has a lot of steps but it resolves so much of the complexity and ambiguity around combined arms in a land-sea-air theatre. The set up, victory conditions, huge variety of unit types and steady trickle of reinforcements also create a very interesting strategoc dilemma for both sides. The US starts cramped into the bottom corner of the map, on Guadalcanal. They need to race to expand and take ground, setting up airfields to get their formidable air force into play. The Japanese start off in control of most of the islands but are heavily dispersed. The map is fairly small but it provides plenty of choices - and taking a single island or airfield, or sinking a single enemy capital ship, can be enough to clinch victory. An excellent light wargame.

I'm starting a new campaign of Purple Haze. I rated this as the best wargame of 2024. It's an epic narrative-driven wargame/RPG where you lead a squad of Marines in Vietnam. In my first campaign I played very cautiously. Tried not to get my men killed but still achieve the objectives for each mission. This time I'm being much more adventurous as I want to explore all the possible narrative threads that can happen in the game. I'm just on Mission 1. My squad has gone down in a helicopter crash and I need to get back to base. A second helicopter went down nearby as well, which I want to investigate. I've taken a battering so far - despite only fighting one battle. My Scout is dead and everyone else is very stressed and wounded. We now have a strercher to carry through the mountains.

That all of us know in our heart that the best and only way to ever remake LoTR is with muppets.

@YoDanno Absolutely. Did he do 'Ned Shakeshaft' in U1?

4th Level assassin Derek Desleigh and his crew of troglodyte cultists surprise the party in their room in their room in The Golden Grain Inn. Holloway’s illustrations just took everything to the next level 🖼️ Jim Holloway, from D&D module N1 Against The Cult of the Reptile God

@SandyofCthulhu I loved Red Dawn so much we're still playing Twilight:2000 today - 4th edition is great.

Do you love Red Dawn 1984? Do you hate Red Dawn 2012 with its idiotic premise? Want a film with a similar vibe - teen heroes fight the baddies, but with a somewhat plausible China-invades-Australia background? Try "Tomorrow, When the War Began" 2010.

Has anyone played the Free City of Krakow (any edition) for Twilight: 2000? Amazing things afoot in our campaign. The team liberated Sgt. Randolph Cutler from a 'Prison' not far from Dobrodzien. Now he is their guide in Krakow as they try to complete Operation RESET. IYKYK.

After 40 years of playing Twilight: 2000 I only learned a week ago that the town of Dobrodzien in southern Poland literally means "Good Day". Which... of course it does. It's so obvious I can't believe I didn't see it. <hits head>

Tonight we do our 4th session of T2K. Ivan (a Russian GRU operative they met) did a little sketch of the Laska-Kaminsky family. Strange portents.

Our T2K4E campaign continues apace. Big thanks to Marco Rafalà for his scenario "The Numbers Station" that we wove in. Get it on drivethrurpg: drivethrurpg.com/en/product/406… And of course, thank you to @FreeLeaguePub ! You made an amazing game.

Twilight:2000 Gamemaster "Okay. It's about 3PM on April 19th. You've freed the hostages the GRU team was holding in the farmhouse. Michael is relieved to see Maria, her two kids, and even the mother in law, Lena. The kids (and especially Maria) are relieved to see him as well. It's a complicated 'family' they have, but nevertheless... You've got a BTR-80A, a few dozen litres of diesel, some alcohol in jerrycans for fuel as well... and you know Soviet reinforcements will be on the way. What do you do next?"