TTRPGs

Character Creation

While I'm remaking the World of Darkness Combat system , I'm starting to feel that Character Creation could stand to be a lot more balanced.

But it's more of a Storytelling system. This isn't about killing trolls for gold pieces - it's adult story-crafting.

...that's what I hear the books echo …

System Realism Matters

Sep 2, 2022 · 2 min read · Realtime Blorb Theory

A hundred paces down the dark tunnel, you see dozens of goblins dancing round a fire and singing about eating anything that moves.

At this point the crew begin to plot.

Could we just stay here and shoot at the goblins? We should be able to get a load of arrows off in three rounds.
If we run back to where we avoided …

Two Ubiquitous Fantasy Characters

Aug 18, 2022 · 3 min read · Theory

Every fantasy work has two characters: magic and the landscape.

Landscape

In Earthsea, the water compartmentalizes the locations. Here, Ged grew up. There, he learnt about magic. And every time we want to know more about this land, water provides punctuation to the story and isolates the area.

Middle Earth has a very …

My Session One

Aug 11, 2022 · 2 min read · Theory

Pre-Game

Post a link to the pdf (but assume nobody will read it)
Get snacks (or make dahl if you're feeling fancy - everyone loves dahl)
Put water and glasses on the table
Dice, rubbers (or 'erasers' in American), pencils, and coins
Plan smoke-breaks (even if you don't have smokers)

Intro

Hide the beers until the …

Finding the OSR

Jul 22, 2022 · 4 min read · OSR Theory

My recent background-watching videos covered the Old School Renaissance ('OSR'), which looks to revive a lot of old-school D&D-style play.

I started with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, so a renaissance intrigued me.

Strange Premises

While I've not heard of some of the more egregious rules returning (thieves …

Highlights from the WoD Contest Game

Jul 13, 2022 · 6 min read · White Wolf

I've made an alternative World of Darkness system, where players enter Contests instead of Combat . Here are the highlights from a campaign.

Setting

In Belgrade (in Hungary), in the year 1130 AD, four people fell to the Cainite embrace in a church, and were forced to survive the political machinations of the existing …

Systems and Genre Representation

Jul 12, 2022 · 3 min read · Theory Design

Systems should represent genres, and some do this better than others.

System Excellence

Dr Who

One Dr Who RPG (I forget which) contained an absolutely genius initiative system. The initiative turn-order was:

Speak
Run
Use an item
Attack

This clearly produces unrealistic results. The system cannot allow anyone to …

Show, Don't Tell

Jul 8, 2022 · 2 min read · Theory

Radio dramas often have their characters speak so as to indicate their actions.

Does anyone have an extra blanket? If I get cold I'll wake up with a bad back.

Hearing this, we know

The group is sleeping outside,
the speaker is old, and
the speaker wants to sleep.

I wonder if the group adopting this habit might …

Fixing White Wolf's Combat

Jun 30, 2022 · 12 min read · Theory White Wolf

As established in the previous article , the World of Darkness' combat system sucks. But the right system can make everything better.

(If you want to skip the system explanations, you can just download the revised White Wolf pdf )

No Combat Emphasis

First off, I'm not making a combat system. The World of Darkness …

White Wolf Combat Sucks

Jun 30, 2022 · 4 min read · Theory White Wolf

White Wolf games always mentioned how small their system was - roll a number of D10's equal to your Wits + Athletics (or whatever), and count all the dice which land on 6 or more. The player then reads the dice like so many runes, and the final result would yield detailed information.

0 successes means failure, or at …