I’ve been really enjoying reading the little games I picked up recently, too- The Sundered Lands, the Hollow Hills spinoffs (apparently the whole thing is to be released soon?). I’m really wanting to get some friends together to try them out. As soon as the weather gets nice…
I’ve been plowing through the systems I mentioned above for the last couple of weeks, and honestly, they’re all starting to blur together a little bit. It’s also interesting how much of what people consider to be “core PbtA” elements within those games are, in Baker’s view, entirely extraneous, non-vital elements he happened to slap into AW that everyone else latched onto in addition to (or, more frequently, in lieu of) the “real” meat of the design paradigm.
Definitely interesting. Of course, he’s coming at it from a perspective of “this is what I was trying to accomplish with the design” and most people are coming at it from a perspective of “this is what’s common between the successful riffs on the final design that have materialized”. A bit of prescriptive vs descriptive, maybe?
For sure, but while I’m a violently aggressive linguistic descriptivist, I abhor the death of the author and dedicate myself absolutely to defending authorial intent, regardless of how dumb or bad it might occasionally be.
Fundamentally I rely on Vincent (and Meguey!) Baker to do really cool thoughtful brand new design things, and other people to run with them in a million directions. It’s a system that works.
The Heart is a very cheerful RPG:
It’s worth clicking through to the full thread, which contains some of the bad endings for characters, too :)
With 45’ to go, I have just jumped into Ruins of Symbaroum KS:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/ruins-of-symbaroum-for-5e
So many cool stretch goals unlocked (Warden of Davokar pledge level). And the dark setting adapted for 5E appeals to me. I hope to get to run an adventure at the roleplaying club I joined during lockdown next year (have yet to play face to face with the players but have loved meeting them online).
They are doing an end of campaign Livestream here:
Next on the menu for me is this one:
Coming to KS on the 11th of May.
This is my favourite RPG right now. I was a late pledger to their first KS, it is a fantastically fun game. Finished one campaign with it worked Incredible well for us. Just enough of crunch to make it interesting but light enough to get out of the way while still being nail biting when you roll. Highly recommended, have never played a better RPG for pulpy action.
Awesome. That only increases my anticipation. I was tempted during the first campaign but unsure. Your experience is exactly what I was hoping to hear about it!
There is a good Facebook Group if you are interested in it, the devs hang around there and they really try to interact with the international community. Since they are from Italy its not always easy for them but they are a fun bunch.
Thanks for the reminder I need to finish reading Heart. It’s such a fucked up and cool setting. So differed t from Spire, but you can kind of se how they got here from there if you squint a bit. Too bad I’ll never actually get to play either one, though.
Hello fellow Warden of Davokar ! I am really looking forward to this!
I have a similar limitation. I read early portions of Spire last week, reveling in the atmosphere yet contemplating how much I would have to adjust for the tone to fit the groups I know to play it. I have to enjoy horror and un-heroic games in the reading, not at the table. Anyway, good to know Heart will also leak disturbing literary fluids from the page.
Same here. Free League is putting out some really appealing settings. Their books are wonderfully laid out too. Hard to resist.
The reason I waited so long is that Gothic horror / dark fantasy or sci fi horror (Alien RPG) are genres that will not get played with the family. I really don’t want to be building up a RPG shelf of shame. But the offer was too good to refuse and I really hope to find the time to run it at the club next year.
As for Alien, I need to find a way to play it this year. It looks too good to be left on the shelf.
I’m up for being a player, but mostly only if you it online, and not to big a time commitment ;-)
That could be awesome. I don’t do big time commitments either. Work does that for me. :)
The coming month is a write off. But if I think I can make it happen, I’ll post about it here and see if players are interested.
Could be fun - But yeah, time commitment and time zones are killers for me, but seeing how we are in the more or less same, could work, and could be fun :-)
Not strictly an RPG but…
In about 10 Minutes the new Kickstarter for Broken Compass will launch! Furiously pressing F5.
EDIT Live and funded in under 3 Minutes.