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Taskerland

@Taskerland@dice.camp

UK-based writer, critic, and photographer. Primarily interested in #horror, #ttrpg, #OSR, #NSR

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Taskerland , to random
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Interesting session last night. Still processing what happened but it turns out that my group really hates pre-generated characters.

I think it's broadly a product of my encouraging them to be independent and to have agency. Present them with a adventure where there is literally none and they bucked.

They compared the scenario to a murder-mystery dinner, discussed walking away, then discussed group suicide. Things only settled when I improvised a problem they had to solve.

Taskerland , to random
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Hmm... Call of Cthulhu one-shot struggling a bit. Group not appreciating the pre-gens. Taking a few minutes to re-group.

Taskerland OP ,
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@SJohnRoss That's a lot of grave-digging

Taskerland , to random
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These days, everything seems like an invitation to join a cult. And not a good cult either.

Taskerland OP ,
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@SJohnRoss I have never been comfortable being anyone's disciple... But then nobody has ever tried to tempt me with tacos and coffee.

Taskerland , to random
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I should stop being rude about Chaosium really... but they should stop putting out underwhelming, over-produced, and over-priced product.

Taskerland OP ,
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@SJohnRoss At least they don't appear to be a missing stair anymore. The stories that emerged about the Krank years were shameful really.

Taskerland OP ,
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@SJohnRoss Oy in a financial sense tho

Taskerland , to random
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Having read a book about the absurd hardships of jungle exploration, I would be tempted to implement some robust survival rules into my next fantasy game.

I would grind my teeth learning the rules but I suspect I would laugh quite a lot watching my players manage escalating drifts of debuffs as they desperately scavenge for food and water.

Taskerland OP ,
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@SJohnRoss No problem 😊 knock yourself out.

Taskerland , to random
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Thinking about Pendragon , I am reminded that the Welsh book had this really cool adventure where the characters are made captains and handed this castle that turns out to be a ruin surrounded by hostile factions.

PCs had to try and secure alliances, hustle for supplies to rebuild the castle, and hold the line until the army turned up.

One of my favourite mini-campaign set-ups: Here is a theoretical pot of power and prestige, good luck turning theory into reality!

Taskerland OP ,
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@SJohnRoss It's just a classic campaign structure. Also really useful for encouraging less-experienced players to view settings less as a series of missions and more as dynamic real places.

Taskerland , to random
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Remember when Benedict Cumberbatch was in almost every film? That was a weird five years.

Taskerland OP ,
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@SJohnRoss Yes... He's another one who was in everything and then disappeared. I do wonder what's going on with Hollywood casting. Anya Taylor-Joy is currently going through it.

Taskerland , to random
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I mean... I don't like storygames personally but I always feel like I get something from interacting with and listening to storygame people as they're thoughtful and aware of the existence of different approaches and aesthetics within the hobby.

Taskerland OP ,
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@SJohnRoss I like Fiasco a lot too. I can imagine myself as a newbie encountering Fiasco and wanting to engage with the hobby but people telling me to read 400 page rulebooks in order to 'master a system'? I would not have stopped walking.

I think the Forge soured me on storygames for a very long time but my interactions with post-Forge storygamers have been more positive

Taskerland OP ,
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@SJohnRoss Looking back at the Forge, I am aware that there is a distinction to be made between in-group (we are all on the same page) and out-group language.

Not being in the in-group, Forge language looked bad but it wasn't directed at me. Problem is that I think the Forgies confused in-group shared assumptions with the shape of the world.

They mapped their sensibility but that was never the full picture

Taskerland , to random
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I don't generally pay that much attention to 5e stuff but occasionally on here you get a big whiff of the culture of play surrounding that game (or at least how it manifests itself online) and just... No.

I am definitely reaching the point where I feel like they're in a different hobby.

SJohnRoss , to random
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I will definitely never have the time to do this, but I would absolutely love doing a limited podcast series or blog series where each entry/episode is a reimagining/redesign of a classic Low-Trust Trad adventure to High-Trust Trad standards.

Pick one from Traveller, one from Twilight 2000, one from RuneQuest, etc. Have a "season" of six, probably.

Would be fun. Will not do. 😅

How to Adapt a Trad RPG Adventure for High-Trust « Temporarily remove all presumptive elements. All the “fight scenes” and other loops, all the puzzles and riddles, Videogame Choices, menus, dongle-slots, ex- clusionaries, obey-to-proceed moments, player-facing cruft, and storytelling elements. Rip ‘em out, hard. * Whatever is left is the heart of the adventure. Center it, augment it, flesh it out until it's enough to engage the PCs for at least a full session. Make sure it ticks all the quality boxes you value, make sure the stakes are relevant to the PCs, and examine approaches to eliminate anything optimal that would flatten tactics or diminish characterizing potential. If there aren’t at least three problems that make the grade, you may have to add or expand some. Usually, the seeds are already there; they just need some TLC. © Now, you can stick the presumptive elements back in, as fun bits of fluff. Place them where the PCs can choose to engage if it suits their approach. Since you've already made sure to have a complete adven- ture without these elements, you can be as selective as you like when deciding to re-insert them. Keep the best, ditch the rest.
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    • Taskerland ,
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    @SJohnRoss Speaking of horror games, was there not a particular Call of Cthulhu anthology that you really liked? Before they went full low-trust?

    Taskerland ,
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    @SJohnRoss That has been my approach too. Recent CoC supplements are not great and the scenarios are frightful.

    Taskerland , to random
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    No shade or saltiness intended but yesterday's discussion of rpg blogs did little to dislodge my sense that there is altogether too much blogging about encumbrance and initiative going on.

    This is also partly a reflection of the fact that I don't engage with rules on that level at all: I use games as they are and cut out the boring bits until I reach a point where I realise I'm using the game as a fig-leaf for FKR.

    I have never swapped an encumbrance or initiative system out for another.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss I suspect that high-trust is a pre-requisite for FKR to work. Otherwise everything would devolve into disagreements about protocols

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss My instincts tend towards FKR-style play and the mechanical stuff is usually there so that the players have a tangible hand-hold on the fiction.

    Risus was my go-to system with my old group for years because the mechanics and character creation options were tangible enough to ground the fiction but open enough that I could make rulings rather than consult rules 😊

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss I think it's also why I tend to shy away from settings that aren't either contemporary or quite vanilla as a starting point. Easier for players to grab hold of and make assumptions about.

    Taskerland , to random
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    I have never got that much enjoyment out of the 10 Candles as story games don't really work for me but I think it's a really important game as it teaches D&D-pilled people that sometimes the best outcomes involve losing and getting you character killed.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss Paranoia was so good for that style of play... speed-running total clone death:

    "That's a strange thing to say Comrade Computer, do your diodes need checking?"

    "Look... just because you're wearing a fancy blue uniform it doesn't mean that you're actually in charge!"

    Taskerland , to random
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    I must admit... I have lost a lot of faith in the power of online 'conversation'.

    I used to see it in terms, not dissimilar to that DS9 episode where Nog talks about the Great Material Continuum - You dip into other people's ideas and you let them carry you along.

    I feel that the late '10s really put an end to that as it seems like sharing ideas ends with you getting yelled at by people who either can' t understand or have a vested interest in not understanding.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss I have definitely learned quite a bit... Often from people who have walked similar paths to me in the past and are in a position to say 'look at x'

    I used to believe in the power of people hashing stuff out en masse (bigger spaces = more participation = broader range of ideas) but I just don't anymore.

    Good stuff can happen but I am a lot more aware of the risks and the emotional load of operating out in the open.

    Taskerland , to random
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    Was reading the synopsis of the Scourge of the Slavelords.

    I remember playing it back in the day and it concluded with a TPK so acrimonious that it literally ended a friendship.

    I read the synopsis and realised that I didn't even make it as far as the end of the prologue... shit.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss GURPS Greyhawk? Shit dude... That is a weird pitch

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss I'm not that familiar with Grayhawk and I suspect that my feelings about the setting are probably shaped by the fact that I played AD&D at exactly the time when TSR were dumping Grayhawk in favour of Faerun.

    It's a lovely idea to play your way out of a setting using a different ruleset though.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss I've come to appreciate un-detailed and un-adorned settings that manage to be evocative. My mind has little room for lore... I just want a fictional space where people can be inspired to make some questionable silly creative decisions.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss Ooooh... Interesting! What's your beef with factions?

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss I always really liked Last Unicorn's weird extrapolations. It's always nice to be surprised by RPG mnaterial pertaining to stuff you are already familiar with

    epidiah , to random
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    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    Taskerland ,
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    @epidiah Do it!

    Taskerland , to random
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    It's interesting how the dominant title seems to change every so often.

    A few years back, the default starter game was Lamentations of the Flame Princess, then it shifted to Old School Essentials, and now I get the impression that it's shifting to Dungeon Crawl Classics.

    Not really sure why this happens... Lamentations had the Zak S thing but OSE haven't messed up and I don't get the impression that DCC has suddenly started doing noticeably better work.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    This is also a problem with the RPG scene's lack of critical hinterland... It is hard to get a sense of who is putting out the best work as the pool of discussed adventures is always really shallow.

    LOTFP and OSE have famous adventures but they're all a few years old now. Are people nowadays more likely to go it alone than work with publishers? Has their output declined?

    The more recent LOTFP adventures I have read have all felt very gimmicky. Thematic focus yielding narrower texts.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss I think critical engagement tends to cut across parasocial lines in a way that people find uncomfortable at best and disruptive at worse.

    It is also an expensive hobby to adopt if you are not already in the habit of buying random modules and sourcebooks.

    It's something that everyone would benefit from if it existed but it is really hard to start and maintain.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @vdonnut @deinol It just reminds me of garden centres.

    Taskerland , to random
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    The Bluesky feed is fascinating as it shows how many people seem to have passionate views on the OSR based upon someone else's Twitter rant and a butt load of weird projection.

    At the moment, two lads who acknowledge that Traveller is not an OSR game, are basically harassing some dude for validation because he went low-key viral with a well-phrased observation about the OSR.

    Utterly bewildering.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    The one lesson I took from philosophy is that 75% of arguments stem from people using the same words to refer to different things.

    Social Media made this worse by creating an ocean of arguments best summarised as 'I strongly feel that this word should refer to X, why does everyone else persist in using it to refer to Y'

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss 100% true, but people wishing others would conform to their wildly idiosyncratic head-dictionaries won't change that 🤭

    Taskerland , to random
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    One thing that occurred to me last night is that I have never been turned on to a game by the release of a new edition.

    Conversely, I have often been turned off games by changes made with the release of new editions.

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss It's interesting that it mostly works in one direction.

    I think it's because 2nd edition changes can be sufficient to undermine my vision of a game but they're never radical enough to kindle interest in a concept that didn't engage me in the first place.

    Taskerland , to random
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    Some lad on here gearing up for a gangbusters campaign. I had so much fun with that game back in the day...

    I remember playing a deranged Evangelical beat cop who would do things like hold a car full of rowdy college guys at gunpoint and force them to sing 'Onward Christian soldiers' he also locked a bunch of mobsters in a burning speakeasy and opined that 'God will reclaim his own'

    Taskerland OP ,
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    @SJohnRoss Such an eccentric game too... All the different XP-generation mechanics so everyone worked cases from different directions before coming together to bring it home!

    Da_Gut , to random
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    Mind you, my wife had never seen an episode of Columbo. She has now.

    #tv #Columbo #peterFalk

    Taskerland ,
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    @Da_Gut Thing I love about Columbo is that while Falks had a glass eye, Columbo did not. So that glass eye is literally acting. @Tim_Eagon

    Taskerland ,
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    @Da_Gut @Printdevil @Tim_Eagon Yeah... Fantasy Columbo is an entirely legit character to play.

    Those types of PCs only get funnier when the characterisation starts to slip and you wind up with the mental image of Columbo cutting off someone's head or getting into a drunken arm-wrestling contest with an orc barbarian.

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