Advice from the Blogosphere 2020, by Anne, on DIY & Dragons. There is nothing I have to add. I wish I had kept up my note keeping on good blog posts.
Advice from the Blogosphere 2020
I sometimes post links to my RPG Mastodon account, @kensanata. I usually include a small quote. In honour of Anne’s post, I’ll trawl my own account for links I recently posted. It’s better than nothing, I guess.
And I’d love to see you on Mastodon. 😄
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“Advice from the Blogosphere 2020: So, last year, I started what I hope will become a tradition for myself by posting about my favorite links from the previous year. I built this collection of links as I saw them throughout the year, with an emphasis on saving posts that gave advice about how to do things.” – Advice from the Blogosphere 2020, by Anne, on DIY & Dragons
Advice from the Blogosphere 2020
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I like this concept: pick a random PDF file from your folder and write a short review. So I read a few very short reviews, and followed the link to an older blog post in the same category. The fun part is reading about James’ likes and dislikes. – The RPG Folder I Caught in the Act, by James V. West, on Doomslakers
The RPG Folder I Caught in the Act
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« In 2000-2010 it was still 80% of people joining as a teenager. Since 2015 70% who join are adults. » – Age of D&D new joiners jumped ~5 yrs since 2015 , by Xaosseed, on Seed of Worlds
Age of D&D new joiners jumped ~5 yrs since 2015
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Free Kriegsspiel… «I ran a one-shot over zoom last weekend with characters that looked like this: “You’re a paladin. You have good fighting skills, full armor, a sword and shield - and you can choose either the ability to try healing wounds through prayer, or to try turning the undead. Oh, and you have any 3 standard adventuring supplies.”» – ¹, by Gundobad, on Gundobad Games
It’s … very free. I don’t know whether I like it. I think I need a little more system than just referee fiat.
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This wiki with links to RPG adventures needs more love… Links to Adventures. I just added a link today.
Nearly 100 rooms: “Enchanted gremlins made of cherry pits, trapped devils with whom to deal, treasure to steal, a wizard’s corpse to loot, creatures frozen since the ice age to battle, dinosaurs to let loose, factions to fall into, and at least two rooms where it’s snowing all the time.” – The Cherry Crypts: a big ol' dungeon, by Linden, on Lapidary Ossuary
The Cherry Crypts: a big ol' dungeon
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The URL says 2018 but this is a recent blog post by Eric Diaz about weapons in various editions of D&D. Weapons distinctions - brief D&D history, by Eric Diaz, on Methods & Madness.
Weapons distinctions - brief D&D history
My own personal approach is 1d6 damage for all weapons; but with strength bonuses and magic items you can still make killer melee fighting characters. I do remember that one very strong dwarf with the +2 dagger of speed, giving them two attacks of +5 to hit and 1d6+5 damage.
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Oh, excellent writing advice from Jacob Hurst: don’t write and then A happened, and then B happened, and then C happened. Instead, write A happened but then B happened, therefore C happened, and keep repeating. Apparently from a Trey Parker and Matt Stone interview where they talk about how they structure their South Park Stories. I had never thought about it like that. Backgrounds, Adventures and but therefore, by Jacob Hurst, on Swordfish Islands
Backgrounds, Adventures and but therefore
I wrote a longer response in the comments, here: 2021-01-19 Listening to Burning Wheel Actual Play.
2021-01-19 Listening to Burning Wheel Actual Play
I started listening to @Judd and @seannittner’s Shoeless Peasant podcast. I’m two episodes in and I love how different it is from my games. I’m thinking I’d love to run such a slow and deliberate one-on-one game. I was clearly not ready to play like that a few years ago, but I’m thinking that perhaps now I am.
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“I (Name) swear before the Dragon Council to serve the Guild of Adventurers and no other master for the period of time necessary to achieve the ninth level within the aforementioned guild.” – Adventurer Guild Contract, by Lance Duncan, on 42 Rolls of Duck Tape
Interesting idea!
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Thinking about play styles… I dunno, I used to be a lot more interested in these things. These days I guess everybody should read such a typology at least once so that we can all at least use the same words. But then my take is that enjoyment is a multifaceted thing that I enjoy all the things, some more so, some less so, some more when I do it, some more when others do it. And I think casual players are important for cohesion (like at the work-place, actually).
Knowing Your Players and Their Kicks, Lich van Winkle, on his blog
Knowing Your Players and Their Kicks
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Ah, Melan diagrams to illustrate dungeon complexity… I like what The Alexandrian did, here, taking The Sunless Citadel and illustrating how the Melan diagrams work.
Jaquaying the Dungeon – Addendum: How to Use a Melan Diagram, by Justin Alexander, on The Alexandrian
Jaquaying the Dungeon – Addendum: How to Use a Melan Diagram
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I think that’s as far back as my posts go, the rest is archived offline...
#RPG #Blogs #Old School #Blogosphere
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
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Thanks for keeping the ball rolling!
– Anne 2021-02-07 22:04 UTC
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Interesting follow-ups to play styles:
Player Typologies, from Wargames to Role-Playing Games
Motivations of Hobby Game Players
Player Typologies in Role-Playing Games
– Alex 2021-02-19 16:48 UTC