Being real? I appreciate the ppst, but that article is pretty crap. I've been playing ttrpg games since the eighties, depending on exactly how you define things. I've been forever DM for most of that.
I have literally never had a conversation about rpgs that mentioned any of that. The first one in particular is a given anyway, because they're games. Even improv has one rule.
Again, glad you posted it because despite thinking the article is crap, it was enough to start a discussion anyway :)
Mileage varies, I guess. I’ve also been playing since the eighties (late Seventies, really). I’ve been a forever GM for most of that (not a forever DM, though). I have not been particularly active on game design forums, but still have seen every argument on this list someplace at least once a year, since at least the Forge era (so, about twenty years or so). Less often recently, maybe. Way more often earlier.
*Ten things that will pad out my list of generic rpg book topics. I definitely didn't start with a clickable title and then fumble coming up with the ten things.
That would be nice, if well done. Their survey gives me the impression they know nothing about Discworld and hope to get focus points from fans to sell more books. They also seem to have a few big licenses they are cashing in. Does anyone know their work and if it's any good?
I've read a few of the OSR books they published. Hard to judge a publisher from a small set of their catalog tbh, and they have a pretty wide catalog. Especially since I've not actually read any of the licensed RPGs they've put out.
Would like to take a look at the Homeworld and Dune books though.
@Scio@Nariom Modiphius put out very good products. Star Trek Adventures is the best Star Trek rpg created. 2d20 mechanic is flexible. Momentum is marmite, I happen to love it, but metacurrency is a mindset. Infinity is 2d20 with the crunch dialled up. Dishonored blew my mind where they jiggle it so that intent is stats.
All aside, they do licences thoroughly and wth respect. GURPS Discworld plays it straight. A One In A Million Chance At Adventure goes Noir Mystery. They're testing their take.
If you ignore WotC as being in its own league, a handful of companies are now the “top tier” of RPG production. I’d include Mophidius there, with Paizo and Evil Hat, maybe Chaosium. Their products have extremely high production values and large (by TTRPG standards) followings.
The are mostly known for 2d20 games (Star Trek Adventures, Dune), Dragonbane, Forbidden Lands, Mutant: Year Zero, and now publish some more classic titles (Twilight: 2000, Kult).
Being able to distinguish settings and systems may be useful. Forgotten Realms is a D&D setting, but it's for several D&D systems (versions). D&D can generally be played without regard to the Forgotten Realms and still work. But playing 40k as a system without being in the 40k setting is pretty much impossible. Some systems (GURPS, FATE, d20 modern) are super generic and divorced from settings entirely. Others share an underlying base system (PbtA, or Mork Borg) but the setting layers its own systems on top of that base.
In the end, you're going to have a hard time sorting things into a hierarchy, so it's good you're using tags.
Yeah, systems will be tags as well, since there's some games that have had multiple versions put out in different universal systems or across editions. I've also been leaning on RPGGeek for getting individual RPG mechanics for another set of tags (dice pool, cards, attribute-based, class-based, etc). It's going to be quite a bit of work to actually go through everything, but til now I've just been using alphabetical folders and that's just been tedious and feels too limiting. It's been interesting researching some of the different RPG lines that I don't get as much exposure to and seeing some of the history of RPG games in general and how the hobby has developed over time.
I would have the top level tag "Rulebook" and put "Core Rulebook" as a sub-tag. Under Rulebook also have "Player Handbook", "GM handbook" and "Splatbook". Keep the rules together.
Also tags for your dominant systems (ex DnD, PbtA) including "System Agnostic". Perhaps add subtags "Pre-made" and "Generators" under "Setting". Publisher tags? Language? Decade/year of release? Have played?
TagSpaces is a cross-platform file browser that operates very similarly to a regular file browser except it supports tags
If you're just using Windows files.community does something similar with a tighter integration with Windows
The benefit of both is that all their organization features sit on top of the regular file system so you can continue using the organization you have already
Is this really a normal amount of prep for 5e? With Paizo adventures I've only ever read the adventure in advance, collated some bits of information that are spread through the adventure so I can forshadow them, and made some brief notes on NPC accents. I can't imagine a group of players for whom prewritten dialogue would help me in the game, and I just use the book/pdf for actually running rooms and events. This is closer to the level of prep I do for adding in extra content or doing entirely homebrewed adventures.
Committing forces to someone elses operation is risky, especially if you don't have contact with whoever is already on site. In the Shadowrun world there is a real risk that the force attacking the platform is not ideologically allied and is in fact one of MCT's competitors, or even MTC itself trying to manufacture an excuse to strike ecoterrorist assets.
If you want them involved however involve them. They don't have to be perfectly paranoid, or unwilling to exploit the situation, maybe sending another spirit ahead to make contact. They could even have had their own op already past the go point, storming the platform from the sea faster than the HTR could have got there, then bring in the HTR via the air to make things more interesting.
I haven't considered the "you don't know who you are messing with" angle. Good point
sending another spirit ahead
Well, from shadowhelix and a few books I understood that eco-terrorists in Europe might-or-might-not have connections to Sea Dragon. So I was thinking about sending them a Saltwater Serpent
@sgtnasty I am not a fan of how 'swingy' d20 can be. For things like combat when there will be lots of rolls, it's fine. It averages out. But if you get to use your one skill only once per session, it really sucks.
@sgtnasty I'm currently running one Pathfinder 2 game, prepping for a game of Protect the Child (a forged in the Dark playtest by @mintrabbit ), and writing up for play my own Fate Condensed setting.
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