Techbros: Liberals don't get excited by technology! Me, operating my new barrel cheese grater for the first time: 🤯 This is so cool.

There are plenty of people who would be better served by another system and should definitely open their mind to what all is out there. But, for more people than you would imagine, DnD is exactly the game for them. And despite the oxygen it takes up, it did bring some awesome people into the hobby.

And it was still hungry... for battle!

My new overly reductive TTRPG take is that if playing as a children's entertainer isn't a thing in your TTRPG, I don't want to play it. Adventurer can be my side hustle or whatever but I have to lead sing-a-longs as my day job.

Happy Birthday Luna! May your almonds be full of milk and your enemies fall before your mental prowess.

TMNT prerelease went well despite only 4 players. The set runs like butter and had plenty of really great games. Packs were fun to open too, lots of extra goodies beyond the deck. Gonna build Pizza Face soon.

People out here "Write the game you want to play" and "Your rulebook should be authoritative." But, guys. That's the game I always wanted. A book that supplied tools and let me build rulesets on the fly. I want to build my system to empower people. Sometimes that is as simple as granting permission.

Chirugeon Roustabout Alchemist Capo

Broke my back mid January, on pain meds to make recovery bearable. Caught a stomach bug, having problems keeping pain meds down. Hahahaha I'm in danger.

"Leaf slathered in oil" gotta be one of my favorite food genres. Pesto. Chimmichurri. Caesar salad with extra dressing. Mmmmmm yummy oil leaf.

Why TTRPG writing speaks to my mathematical soul: "Technology" in terms of game design is literally just words and how you use them. My game's character creation system is cool and novel but it's absolutely 100% equivalent to other things, just approached a certain way. That makes it unique tech.

What if a TTRPG had your character sheet on deck of cards you built as you played? What if this deck was also your conflict resolution mechanism? Sounds like an interesting hypothetical. Maybe it would end in... Disaster. 🤔 strangerside.itch.io/disaster-dec...

Everyone posting about MTGxTMNT: This art makes me physically want to vomit. This set is horrible and disgusting. I wanna rip up my collection. Me: I had no idea TMNT was this cool. I have several great Commander adds and maybe a new deck? Should I get into the comics or is that too much?

And just like that, they fired him. Trust in AEG restored, kudos to the CEO for taking a strong stance. Hey guys, next time you head up to your FLGS snag a copy of Sheepy Time, it's a great press your luck game that oozes with an adorable theme. Drop your favorite AEG game in the comments.

Holy shit! Ryan Dancey, AEG's COO just went full mask off pro-exploitation techbro moron. Sad to see the leadership of a company that published games I love be so disrespectful to the human talent that makes those games possible. Really sour end to a bad day I've been having.

Didn't get any of the reading/ writing I wanted to get done on my day off, but I got good rest and made a good meal (chimichurri tacos). It's hard to stay motivated to create but taking care of myself is a win and sometimes that's the only one I get.

Tell me what you guys would think if you opened a TTRPG book and the page borders be doing this shit.

Okay bluesky's algorithm lost track of my cool TTRPG people and I need it back on track. Ummmm Dragon Game bad. System matters (unless it doesn't). Ummmm rules matter (but homebrew also good). Now some keywords... ludonarrative dissonance diegetic mechanism fictional positioning. Discourse. There.

Do you like Slay The Spire and daily word puzzle games, but wish Slay The Spire constantly inundated you with deviously tricky word puzzles? Holy cow is that a specific request but do I have the game for you! store.steampowered.com/app/3531630/...

Question for TTRPG folks: I'm starting a section in my big system rulebook for "Inclusive Gaming" for stuff like safety tools, addressing disability, and respectfully addressing sensitive topics. Do you feel this content is important to address? Why or why not? Any good examples I might draw from?

Nikki Case's "The Evolution of Trust" slots in nicely after the video here to let us think about why modern societal behavior evolved this way: ncase.me/trust/ I did like what she added about us not replacing third spaces (like church) with anything. We lack community building places.

Debating writing a TTRPG but realizing that the source material very much ignores a litany of serious ethical questions that I'm beholden to address *somehow* in the text and not sure how to crack it. Wish I could afford a crack team of sensitivity consultants and maybe a philosopher 🤣

TTRPG Thought: Killing PCs isn't a bad idea because players get attached, killing players is often bad because the GM-antagonist is trying to thwart character goals, and death isn't the coolest way to do that (unless the goal is just "survive"). Don't aim at the PC. Aim at what matters to them.

Really cool itch bundle for a great cause (fighting fascism). Spend ten dollars and you too can have a one of the greatest puzzle games of all time (Baba Is You) and also, like, Escape from Dinosaur Island. Glitter Hearts. Oops almost out of characters. (1400+ games) itch.io/b/3484/no-ic...

I'm pretty sure I'm going to learn solo TTRPG play just so I can test my own system. Is that sad? That sounds kinda sad. Oh well, excuse to buy cool new toys like Mythic.

Checking the DriveThruRPG POD Orders screen for the third time today, caressing the screen longingly: Someday, my prints will come.

"Perpare to DIE" sends you pictures of Inigo Montoya, you wanted "Prepare to DIE TTRPG" /j

So there's a system that functions as a streamlined, smaller take on a Dungeons and Dragon type d20 system and another one where the cool thing is that character sheets fit neatly on index cards and one of these is called Index Card RPG and the other is called Tiny Dungeon. I'm mad. Guess why. 🤣

Yknow what? This deserves boosting. Did PbtA rub you the wrong way but you still want a thoughtfully written and super hackable pulp action system? Fiction first. Fresh remix of the class-ancestry concept. Easy read dice pool mechanic. PWYW but please want to give this guy good money.

Okay guys repeat after me: This is not for me, but I'm sure this is exciting to someone else.

One of my favorite tricks for my TTRPG system was that after coming around on the utility of classes I'm building them in by just building pre-selected templates on point-buy. Point-buy can be classes but classes can't be point-buy. Playbooks are just classes that squeeze your hand a little tighter.

TTRPG advice: Read games you don't have the intention to play. Don't just buy system and content books, try some meta analysis or advice books. You don't like system agnostic stuff? Buy just one and figure out why others enjoy it. Enrich your life by expanding your horizons.

TTRPG conflicts... In high school: Jamie has band Thursdays, Ryan has church on Sunday and Youth Group on Wednesday night. In adult life: James gets his kids every other weekend. You're on a 9 to 5 but Tyler is on a flex schedule at Walmart. Your daughter won't know how to read for 4 more years.

Feeling burned that I got a "TTRPG Design for Dummies" book and the advice feels obvious and condescendingly simple and you'd think that would make me a dummy for buying it but obviously it doesn't because if it did I would presumably then be the target audience for the book.

The more I study TTRPG systems and the different ways that people solve problems, the less confident I become in my own abilities or understanding of the space and the people who occupy it and what they want. How make game? What is dungeon? Am I illiterate? Everything is complicated.

Modern shipping models have RUINED me for getting POD TTRPG books through DriveThruRPG. What do you *mean* my book doesn't exist yet. I thought about it three times yesterday it should show up at my doorstep this morning.

Feeling dejected about my TTRPG system endeavors. The constant doubt of "will anyone actually want this?". I'm gonna keep going though, because I'm learning a lot while writing it. Maybe it's okay to hate the thing you're writing every now and again, so long as it passes eventually.

There were two or three topics I had to beat out of the bluesky algorithm with "Show less of this" and now it's showing posts pertaining to a certain statistics-based programming language and I feel the monkey's paw curl inward for my hubris.

All the "hard" stuff I've struggled with while making games has been managing stress, hyping myself up, motivating, etc. I'm so hard on myself for not getting stuff done but I'm actually awesome at coming up with cool ideas and seeing them through my mental health is just tanking so hard.

For my birthday this year I got an MRI for my broken back and a few poignant retrospectives on the first year of the worst president in American history. Absolutely not feeling it right now. I just wanna make games and play with my friends yo 😭

Went 1-2 at my prerelease. Morgantown is surprisingly easy to counter with just any card that wants -1/-1 counters on it (you feed your opponent resources every time you play an Elf). That Willow... it scares me.

Do you have 2 dollars, a craving for weird TTRPG rule systems, and poor judgement? I wrote up an 8 page mini TTRPG where character sheets are decks of cards you write on to upgrade as you play. If this sounds fun to you, maybe go check it out and leave a comment. strangerside.itch.io/disaster-dec...

I have designed mechanics for several games that have been really damn innovative, and I've done enough research to be confident that my executions were (fairly) unique. I can pick mechanics apart and spin them into newer, cooler stuff in a way that convinces me I might be able to go professional.

Been meditating on a discussion I had about creating-as-expression versus creating-as-problem-solving and it makes me hopeful that my focus on trying to navigate multiple approaches to help other people find what works might actually qualify as a novel (enough) TTRPG idea.

Hot take: This card is actually problematic for rules enforcement reasons. Combo players tend to shortcut and not say they're waiting for the stack to clear when they activate something 1000 times as a courtesy, this card WILL start arguments for dumb reasons.

The formula for forming community (be that online or elsewhere) eludes me. All I know is it's really damn hard and so tricky to find one that actually works with my brain instead of against it.

A big Drive Thru RPG gift card and like two weeks off would fix me.

The left in the US: Hey why don't we implement the highly successful programs that have been saving money and improving outcomes and quality of life in other countries for years now? Them: You fool, that'll never work. Stupid.

Masking a creation that has asked a lot of me in ways nothing I've made has before. But the biggest challenge has still been keeping myself convinced the thing I want to make SHOULD exist. That it brings something useful or interesting or beautiful into being.

Trump closing some "Truths" with the oddly polite "thank you for your attention to this matter" is particularly jarring because I no longer learn about his activities consensually. You did nothing to earn my attention you awful orange troll, I just can't shut you off.