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Tesqovara

@Tesqovara@dice.camp

“Tropic skies, primordial mysteries, what more could one ask for?” - HPL

Ostensibly my account for old-school TTRPGs and their ilk. Your mileage may vary.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

deinol , to random
@deinol@dice.camp avatar

Knocked out a quick Knave spell generator at work.

Needs a little cleanup before sharing code, but here’s some sample output.

Nauseating Gate
The Remarkable Spark Column
Irolo's Dismal Deciphering Beer
Borgarot's Darkening Obsidian
Asterwin's Magnificent Communicating Mask
Gilux's Blossom Spike
Gathifex's Beautifying Oatmeal
The Ghastly Awakening Blade
The Bizarre Fungus Spray
The Subtle Excruciating Ink

Tesqovara ,
@Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

@deinol Does Knave have any mechanical effects behind these or is just a name generator? I’m not familiar with the system at all. I like the Subtle Excruciating Ink, sounds like something Kafka would use.

SJohnRoss , to random
@SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

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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    • Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @SJohnRoss Chill was burned into my DNA as a teenager. My friend only had a few of the books, but they left a huge impression.

    Not that I was consciously blown away by them for any reason, but it was one of the few games that worked their way into my dreams.

    There's no other specific game I can remember sitting down and playing in a dream

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @SJohnRoss Yeah, it was so vividly a Chill game too in the dream. A few years later we found the Chill board game, Black Mourn Manor, that resembled my dream, so we made some custom tiles and rules for it! I wonder if they still have it?

    dysonlogos , to random
    @dysonlogos@chirp.enworld.org avatar

    Yeah, I've got my wizard staff RIGHT HERE.

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @dysonlogos NOBODY fucks with the Ancient Order of the Fightin' Wizards!

    chgowiz , to random
    @chgowiz@dice.camp avatar

    Interestingly, what's jazzing up my mind for more TTRPG creation has been just sitting down and reading some good books. My backlog of pulp and 60s/70s sci-fi is coming in handy!

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @chgowiz I think I find more inspiration in the pages of old books than anywhere else. What are you reading? Or would that be giving something away?

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @chgowiz @SJohnRoss Yeah, travel is the great teacher. I also love old books about the places I travel!
    Like Bill Watterson said, “There’s treasure everywhere.”

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @chgowiz Those all sound interesting. I've never really read much hard sci-fi outside of the classics.

    Is that THE Expanse everyone has told me about? That got made into a TV show? It sounds kind of fun.

    Tim_Eagon , to random
    @Tim_Eagon@dice.camp avatar

    This morning, as I was laying on the couch watching my son draw, I was reading a review of an adventure by Bryce Lynch. While criticizing florid prose, he wrote "Adventure writing is technical writing and has a different set of rules for how to present information." I'm inclined to agree with this statement, even though I've never really thought about it in those terms. Thoughts?

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @Tim_Eagon I think mostly they just need to be well written. Its also kind of hard to take Bryce seriously when his own writing style is sloppy as hell.

    Tesqovara , to random
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    Here is a D100 Random Events Table my late friend Crow wrote for their campaign world. I thought I'd type it up and share it instead of letting it sit in a box forever. I think it was written in the 80's.

    System neutral. Probably most useful for big campaign worlds.

    https://thelastthrow.blogspot.com/2024/05/crows-random-events-table.html

    Tesqovara , to random
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    Nicely done, Steven Moffat.

    Tesqovara OP ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @SJohnRoss I completely agree. They do a nice job a balancing out their respective, shall we say, excessive or indulgent tendencies. All of my favorite RTD-era episodes are the Moffat-penned ones.

    I remember me and my friends watching The Doctor Dances when it aired and freaking out because the show was actually so good! As lifelong Dr Who fans and gamers, we had way too much emotional energy riding on the revival's success. Look at it now.

    chgowiz , to random
    @chgowiz@dice.camp avatar

    Yep, for some folks, the rules are RULES.

    For others, they're more like guidelines.

    Probably easy to see which camp I'm part of...

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @chgowiz @DM_Zeppelin
    I feel like the kid in that meme:
    “You guys are playing with rules?”

    SJohnRoss , to random
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

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

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    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @SJohnRoss @theomriches This was the approach of my old friend, the ICE author Tim Taylor. When we were young he let us use character sheets to satisfy our childish low trust urges and teach us how to play, but eventually we just had dice at the table.

    He wrote a few adventures for Shadow World that I'm not sure are strictly high-trust themselves, but he games he ran in the latter part of his life definitely were.

    Tesqovara , to random
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    With all the major life changes I've been going through lately, it's got me rethinking this hobby and my capacity within it.

    My blog is stagnant, I wasn't sure what to try and write about that actually mattered to me, but some ideas came.

    So I swept out the cobwebs and rebooted it, new name and all.

    I've even got some interviews coming up, keep an eye out!

    https://thelastthrow.blogspot.com

    #TTRPG #OSR #Arduin #DCC #LotFP

    Tim_Eagon , to random
    @Tim_Eagon@dice.camp avatar

    So I did end up watching The Crow last night. I sometimes forget how overwrought and earnest 90s art could be, but I loved nearly every minute of it (the visuals, action, and soundtrack mostly) - it was like being transported back to 1994.

    #TheCrow #Film #Cinemastodon #1990s

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @Tim_Eagon @famousblueben I still have my old VHS copy somewhere, I’ve been meaning to dig it out one of these days and rewatch it.

    deinol , to random
    @deinol@dice.camp avatar

    What are some of the best space adventures you’ve ever seen, for any game system? What made it great?

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @deinol Here's one I played through as a youth that I loved.

    Our original fantasy-world characters became embroiled in more and more science-fantasy over the years and eventually took to space, going full science fiction / horror for years with this module (and others sprinkled in), exploring durandrium mining possibilities in the "Haunted Galaxy" of Dark Space.

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @deinol @montecook I'm just now realizing how hard it is to get. I'm glad I inherited our GM's old copy (with its bazillion bookmarks in it).

    A few copies on eBay, none on Noble Knight. A lot of the old ICE stuff isn't in PDF form because of licensing unfortunately.

    I hope you dig this up! Time Riders is also a hidden gem.

    deidungeon , to random
    @deidungeon@dice.camp avatar

    I found this spectacular creature in a Judges Guild adventure. The Gorgriffspidrascorp!

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @deidungeon @chgowiz @doctord71 Ok, now THIS is kinda like the daemon-spawn that flew alongside your airshark-pontoon in the Arduin game.
    I love Judge's Guild.

    Tim_Eagon , to random
    @Tim_Eagon@dice.camp avatar

    I just backed:

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/the-abzu/the-lesser-key-of-the-sandestin-a-zinequest-double-feature

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @Tim_Eagon Its cool to see the Rainy City stuff getting expanded!

    chgowiz , to random
    @chgowiz@dice.camp avatar

    It would be lovely to see some wildlife recovery and elk to populate the Midwest again.

    https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/wapiti-walkabout

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @chgowiz Interesting read. You ought to see the herds out west sometime, one of these days I hope to get an elk tag.

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @chgowiz The concept of “farm-raised” elk for “hunting” is so bizarre to me. I grew up where people would set up a month-long hunting camp deep in the wilderness, with a few different family members and friends cycling in and out as work schedules allowed. But I guess a lot of people can’t imagine roughing it like that.

    LeviKornelsen , to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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

    •
    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen I started an old-school rpg blog recently. Feeling a lot of disillusionment about the hobby at the moment however, so I’m kind of on the fence about putting anything out there. So might not be worth adding:

    Deathfrombehindrpg.blogspot.com

    SJohnRoss , to random
    @SJohnRoss@dice.camp avatar

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

    •
    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @BigJackBrass @SJohnRoss Alternately you can start lobbing bombs at everyone like that recent Katt Williams interview.

    salvaterra , to random
    @salvaterra@mastodon.art avatar

    from first sketch, to isometric sketch, to final linework.

    a map fragment commission

    drawing of a strange city on a swamp comprised of circular platforms with tents above it and some big funnel-like towers. there is a gnarled tree with thorns on its branches instead of leaves.
    drawing of a strange city on a swamp comprised of circular platforms with tents above it and some big funnel-like towers. there is a gnarled tree with thorns on its branches instead of leaves.

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @salvaterra You make it look so easy.

    SymbolicCity , to random
    @SymbolicCity@dice.camp avatar

    Assuming bad faith on Alexander's part is probably unnecessary, but this article sows enough doubt that I'll be sticking with the term Jaquaysing until someone demonstrates to me that she actually requested that he take her name out altogether: https://diyanddragons.blogspot.com/2024/01/xandering-is-slandering.html

    Tesqovara , (edited )
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen @CatDad @SymbolicCity This whole thing is a bunch of no-talent white men arguing about their egos overtop of the achievements of a talented trans woman. Disgraceful, disrespectful, she doesn’t need to have her name dragged through this drama for their benefit. More people should just learn to STFU.

    chgowiz , to random
    @chgowiz@dice.camp avatar

    Thoughts from the previous boost...

    I've always approached my campaigns from that perspective and have resisted (as best I can) the efforts to over-mechanize my table. It's probably why I take AD&D and start stripping out, or replacing, with things that make sense for my settings.

    I think when RPG designers in the 70s discovered that consumers wanted more detail in rules, more "official" settings, they were surprised. Of course, they went with the money.

    1/2

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @chgowiz I think Judges’ Guild was one of the first to start publishing adventure supplements, and their success convinced TSR to do the same after they had been resistant. Imagine if Bledsaw had made a fortune and was able to print well-edited JG adventures in nice hardcovers, rather than on cheap newsprint that starts to disintegrate after 40 years.

    Maybe Gygax would have never left for Hollywood to chase rich people’s money and TSR would still be a rpg-rules company? And no Dragonlance!

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @chgowiz I have no real feeling about DL one way or another. I know it’s the popular whipping boy for a lot of OSR folks. What does CSIO stand for? I do love the old JG modules. I’m not sure anything can fully resist the inexorable force of commodification, especially in America. Which by its nature eliminates the interesting rough edges and subsumes the anti-perfectionist originality into bland homogeneity.

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @chgowiz I don’t have physical copies of the Overlord or World Emperor yet, but I do have these:

    kensanata , to random
    @kensanata@tabletop.social avatar

    @kyonshi writes about the oldest (and federated!) RPG forums still around, using net news tech.
    “From what I can see the first two messages on the brand new group net.games.frp were sent out on the 12th of January 1982. To give you an idea just how early this was: it was before the abbreviation RPG became common, people were still talking about Fantasy RolePlaying instead, so even today the group-names use the abbreviation FRP.”
    https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/01/12/the-oldest-ttrpg-forum-on-the-net/

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @mdhughes @chgowiz @kyonshi @kensanata Arduin is actually the Original FRP, Gargax and Arbyson just ripped off Hargrave to make D&D.

    Tim_Eagon , to random
    @Tim_Eagon@dice.camp avatar

    My BiL was late sending his Christmas gifts, so I got another gift card today. Even though I’m not super interested in 5e right now, I’m thinking about getting one of Andrew Kolb’s literary-based setting books. I’m leaning towards Oz, but I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts about either it or Neverland.

    Also, I’m thinking of getting a DCC module to round out my order. I’m open to suggestions!

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @GrumblingGM @Tim_Eagon Queen of Elfland’s Son looks good. I’ll probably never get a chance to play it, but it sounds fun. And having more modules based on Lord Dunsany is always a good thing.

    I don’t know if it’s available, but The Chained Coffin by Michael Curtis is a must.

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @Tim_Eagon @GrumblingGM A Manly Wade Wellman fan in the wild?? You have good taste.

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @Tim_Eagon @GrumblingGM An Arkham House edition? That's a prize.

    I just looked it up on eBay, even the cheap old paperbacks from Ballantine are going for ~$100 depending on condition!

    chgowiz , to random
    @chgowiz@dice.camp avatar

    If you're a Ral Partha fan or just a fan of old miniatures, this post on the Ral Partha Legacy page might be of interest! Jacob is doing some fantastic work in resurrecting old sculpts!

    https://www.facebook.com/RalParthaLegacy/posts/pfbid0bVaZxhftn2pJo5k1nHqtfswzGmmxv7K4kHt1QceYkiNnt6ECuUdRTS4dhhJDfrNFl?cft[0]=AZXRJssLCpKUgxO2_V_4k2DgB_QwtVCulNVzaQSp2OEF7Ns8qbe7zKVAFajjwZb4zVayT7WPpl4C7D3cx4x_Cx6WRoW1XqWyws1WbjqbRygAEveVnK36XwnCZqc6lTCyn9jmys58lE7OACWjw3I-6OOfDFWJoMyaFZ64I80HfUq1V6mPT6jzsicY6sNuJ3wr92o&tn=%2CO%2CP-R

    Tesqovara ,
    @Tesqovara@dice.camp avatar

    @phf @chgowiz That looks like the spear the wounded Corsair is chasing Sidreed around with on top of the tower.

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