Sandy Petersen of Call of Cthulhu fame helps break down one of the more pernicious questions in the TTRPG community:
Looking at the date that video was posted helps in giving it some context… or does it?
I was wondering why it was so long when I saw the timestamp.
“Fake Shemp”. Priceless.
Terrific stuff. Thanks!
OMG.
The thing most of those articles aren’t mentioning is the guy who runs the podcast in question is on the board of directors in a major debt-collection company and the scion of (and employed with) a family that are pretty questionable landlords (see for example https://www.bradenton.com/news/coronavirus/article241521731.html )
So maybe not the coolest dude. (Also the podcast doesn’t actually sound that great to me apart from having the good sense to invite in Jeff Goldblum. But I haven’t listened to it, so maybe I’m wrong.)
Oh wow. That sucks. Thanks for the heads up.
I mean, it’s possible he is not personally awful. But, well. I wouldn’t bet on it.
Got my hardcover copy of the Powered by the Apocalypse She-Ra and the Princesses of Power simulator, Thirsty Sword Lesbians in the mail today, and silly name aside, it is absolutely gorgeous and wonderfully produced. The Kickstarter massively overfunded, so April Kit Walsh and Evil Hat were able to afford oodles of gorgeous art.
The theme is super over the top and absurd, but I utterly love it. I’ve got several friends who I’m dying to bring this to the table with.
God the character designs are just. . . YES
Great high-level summary of the game, and more gorgeous and amazing art.
Every game needs a “No Fascists or Bigots Allowed” section IMO :-D
I get a strong “Steven Universe the Movie” vibe there for some reason.
It’s great to have the Thirsty Sword Lesbians book in hand. I ran most of an adventure from the PDFs, my first time with any Powered by the Apocalypse system. This was online; note that the Roll20 character sheets are excellent. Everyone was really into the game. TSL is energetic, positive, character-anchored, and, yes, thirsty.
So, truth be told, I’m in the planning stages of a campaign that sits squarely in the middle of Glitter Hearts, Masks: The New Generation, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians mechanically (and I’ll be cribbing from all three liberally), in order to tell a story that’s equal parts She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Voltron: Legendary Defender, Steven Universe, and Power Rangers for some IRL friends I trust to get into the proper mood for it. It’s not gonna be as thirsty as TSL, but big parts of this game are directly on-target for what I’m aiming for.
Tomorrow is my birthday so I decided to treat myself by backing at the deluxe bundle level. Now I just have to wait a year until my next birthday for the books to arrive!
The KS is doing kinda well…
Vincent Baker recently posted a final PDF of both The Wizard’s Grimoire and related game The Wolf King’s Son to his Patreon (and I assume the Wizard’s Grimoire KS, at least for the former). Urge to do a thread play of one or both and/or an Ironsworn run rising…
The Wizard’s Grimoire, for those unfamiliar, has the person playing the game take on the role of a fairly limited wizard who has stumbled across a new grimoire in some fashion. They have some basic “exertions” with which they can interact with the world, and they are trying to unlock portions of this grimoire via listed criteria…but they are not allowed to read those sections until they have unlocked them. The world they are interacting with is guided by friends whom they have given free handouts as to how to respond to the player’s questions and actions. It’s a bit Sundered Lands, an earlier project he did designed to work well in formats like the late Google+.
The Wolf King’s Son takes a similar approach to play but of course has a different theme.
Thanks for the support!
Exceeding expectations, to say the least.
Just jumped on board for the Ironsworn Starforged. Looking forward to learning to play it.
Anyone wants to do some co-op let me know.
Yeah, I got the Wizard’s Grimoire pdfs from the KS last week. I’m not on his Patreon, so i haven’t seen WKS yet. I did pick up Sundered Lands, and his couple of Under Hollow Hills games (Half-a-Fool and Midsummer Wood), too. I think at least one of the games in SL is specifically designed to play on message boards?
Getting back to this, if you want to read some thinking on the subject, Vincent Baker has been doing a series of game design essays on his site (funded via his Patreon), and the latest one is directly relevant.
https://lumpley.games/2021/04/07/powered-by-the-apocalypse-part-6/
A sample.
Here’s Ursula K. LeGuin: “ Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing. “
What would it mean to start with PbtA, but to swap out Apocalypse World’s model of conflict and replace it with…
- A model of relating?
- A model of finding?
- A model of losing?
- A model of bearing?
- A model of discovering?
- A model of parting?
- A model of changing?
How would you design your basic moves so that they don’t create emergent arenas of conflict, but instead create emergent ways of behaving , including conflict as just one among others? So that they don’t (just) clarify and escalate conflict, but clarify and deepen all the ways the characters behave and relate? How would you design your playbooks, what would make this character unique from that character in their ability to relate, their approach to finding and losing, parting and discovering, their capacity to bear and to change?
Come look at this, let me show you something.
Cool stuff.
This series has been AMAZING reading material tbh. Baker is thoughtful as fuck and a great designer. Can’t wait for the Q&A :-)