Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[p1138]

You can even reason rolling in front of them in combat out narratively. The party is trying to kill whatever they're fighting, it makes sense that they get a grasp at how dangerous something is after a few rounds of combat. Watching them shit themselves when I hit on a 3 or something is really fun anyway. It's also fun watching the sword and board fighter know he has some asshole beat when the guy misses on an 18 which is a cool feeling as a player.

Absolutely.

I guess if you're using something like bluff you could use a hidden roll as a DM but more and more I'm getting soured on rolling social skills in the first place. If they say a stupid lie I'm not letting them have it anyway.

For things that players don't even know should be a roll, I'll just do it on my phone, or have a random number list already generated if I don't want them knowing a roll was needed for something. Could be a bandit in the bushes, could be someone bullshitting about how many cows they own.

As far as social stuff goes, if they're actually saying retarded shit and then expecting a dice roll to "fix" their blatant fuck up then no. At the same time if we're talking about a 5e type of system I don't expect the player with a charisma of 20 to actually be able to spit lines like their character, just like I don't expect the guy who has an int 20 character to always be able to say the exact right thing when they pass a knowledge check, just the same as I don't expect the strength 20 fighter player to go bench press a car. They just need to make a reasonable effort when they're trying to intimidate, bluff, seduce, whatever. Afterall, we're probably talking about a bunch of fellow autists of varying degrees anyway that probably wouldn't even be sitting at the table playing a TTRPG if they had an actual real life equivalent of a 20 charisma.

 

[AnOminous]

A backwater in 1500 is not the same as a backwater in 1700 and is not the same as a backwater in 1900. Available technology absolutely matters regarding communication, trade, government, etc. you know... things that an impact a setting? How does the backwater town handle crime? How do they trade? Is it along a route travelled regularly or does someone only go to town every few months? Can a letter be sent? If someone in the village is murdered, how does the justice system respond if at all?

I miss the ancient days when I had hundreds of index cards for every setting with handwritten notes on every city, creature, a batch of NPCs for anywhere the party might end up (even with mini-quests if they decided to stray off the campaign), so any time the party was just traveling and ended up in Retardville, I could just randomly whip out an index card for them to encounter and maybe they'd get a side quest, maybe they'd get in a fight, maybe the NPC would join up.

Most of these NPCs never got used. I miss some of them. I put some thought into them.

Afterall, we're probably talking about a bunch of fellow autists of varying degrees anyway that probably wouldn't even be sitting at the table playing a TTRPG if they had an actual real life equivalent of a 20 charisma.

That's sort of the point of an RPG tho, why would you want to play as what you actually are irl? The whole point is you want to play as some super strong superhero or some awesomely charismatic dude (that you aren't). This is the whole point.

"Ummm. . .I want to play as an autistic retard that nobody likes and just be stupid and really fat and stuff." My answer to this guy is GTFO. This game is for people who want to be the best hero ever, not some retarded fat fag.

 

[p1138]

That's sort of the point of an RPG tho, why would you want to play as what you actually are irl? The whole point is you want to play as some super strong superhero or some awesomely charismatic dude (that you aren't). This is the whole point.

"Ummm. . .I want to play as an autistic retard that nobody likes and just be stupid and really fat and stuff." My answer to this guy is GTFO. This game is for people who want to be the best hero ever, not some retarded fat fag.

You'd think that, but then you get people suggesting throwing puzzle cubes and shit at the table that require the party to solve it and other ridiculous shit to replace dice rolls. Of course the problem with that is if it's a puzzle for some MENSA genius that isn't at the table you end up having to just skip it after frustrating the players, or have it be too easy as to not waste a bunch of time for what could have been an int check or whatever the system equivalent is. I guess making what I was saying a little more clear, yes if the players are just saying dumb shit then tell them to knock it off or just apply it as an absolutely massive penalty do the dice roll, but you've got to give some leeway with bluffs, intimidation, etc. and the results that can come out of players mouths.

 

[Ghostse]

the game has witches living in skulls of dead giants and sky islands nuking each other with warpstone, is that early, high or late middle ages?

I would guess 'Early' because you are illiterate.
"If this a game based in post-Roman/Pre-enlightment Europe"

 

[The Ugly One]

I would guess 'Early' because you are illiterate.
"If this a game based in post-Roman/Pre-enlightment Europe"

Should just ask him how he'd feel if he hadn't eaten breakfast this morning.

 

[ZMOT]

A backwater in 1500 is not the same as a backwater in 1700 and is not the same as a backwater in 1900. Available technology absolutely matters regarding communication, trade, government, etc. you know... things that an impact a setting?

1900 is already industrial age so not even relevant. what is this spastic behavior bringing up a timeframe I was never talking about as some form of gotcha? this isn't fucking reddit.
anyway, up until this point, please explain to me then how people communicated and traded? magic trains? telepathy? or using the same fucking horses and maybe pigeons humanity has been used for literal thousands of years till the invention of the steam engine and telegraph changed all that?

for all those amazing details you deem necessary it's absolute fucking mindboggling how you guys think people have actually lived before the last 250 years. the invention of the printing press really had an effect on horse speed
(inb4 MUH BRONZE AGE - same shit btw).

The basics do matter. How do you even expect the players to describe what the hell they're even wearing if you give them zero information about the setting? Is the shit set in Northern Europe? The Mediterranean? South-East Asia? Even in a one-shot the game still takes place somewhere.

The way you're talking about this is as if you're just expecting the players to treat this shit like a boardgame and not actually bother to come up with characters to interact with anything because I guess you just don't want them to? The characters are just meeples? Usually it's people forgetting the G part in TTRPG, I guess you're just forgetting the RP part.

the same shit they've literally worn for hundreds of years due to limited options. do you expect random bumblefucks to wear fucking imported silk instead of leather and linen because that's the shit they have locally available for a reasonable price, given travel by horse or ship is slow as fuck so everything non-local is more and more rare and expensive? oh wait it has stitching that was only invented in milan in 1463, this so fucking important to my gonzo fantasy setting.
but you're right, maybe I should explain that a location described as being in the frosty mountains isn't a bathing resort so they know to wear appropriate clothing to not freeze to death, all so my literal braindead players that need everything explained can really RP properly this time.

ffs stop being an autistic retard implying I said to NEVER explain anything at all - the whole point you fail to understand is doing (and not doing) shit where it's not necessary. I assume a smart GM such as yourself would've figured out by now doing overwhelming extra work (unless you enjoy it, which is absolutely fine) is a surefire way to piss off your players when you insist on your excruciatingly detailed magic realm or simply burning out.

I would guess 'Early' because you are illiterate.
"If this a game based in post-Roman/Pre-enlightment Europe"

joke's on you, it has magical handguns. now what?
that's the problem trying to fit everything into a box spanning literally 1300 years of human history (late 5th to 18th century, with early middle ages ending in the 10th. but I'm sure you know that)

 

[Adamska]

joke's on you, it has magical handguns. now what?

Neat, so they went to China in say... 12th Century standard. So... early high medieval if I had to guess. I'd like to note that the ancient Romans enjoyed using steam engines to entertain themselves, and automatons and robots have been a concept since Talos, the Bronze Man who was the sentinel of Crete, so you could also argue that warforged and some proto-eberron elements could be done as well in an era you'd not think about. It's actually a factor in why I think a Bronze Age Collapse Demon setting for Chronicles of Darkness would be interesting.

I would however still probably want to know however if we're operating on a Heroic/Mycenaean style level of Bronze Age and swords and sandles, or if we're dealing with the Hellenistic period of after Alexandros' death in either example, when a lot of military strategies, materials, education, sanitation, and a lot of other things improved.

Because it's one thing to have to deal with linen wearing, amulet blessed with natural armored, keen khopesh troopers wearing nubian wigs of striding and riding in on chariots led by pegasi for example vs having to say deal with a smug prick Elf King with war dire elephants and hypastists with returning thundering javelins from Zeus and theurophiloi for example. I'd also be able to probably find access to more learning and goods due to the more developed trade routes.

Same principles do apply in europe's middle ages, given that the early middle is also known as the Age of Migrations for a reason, and that has a different culture, art, resource load, style, and more than the high or late periods alone.

 

[p1138]

1900 is already industrial age so not even relevant. what is this spastic behavior bringing up a timeframe I was never talking about as some form of gotcha? this isn't fucking reddit.
anyway, up until this point, please explain to me then how people communicated and traded? magic trains? telepathy? or using the same fucking horses and maybe pigeons humanity has been used for literal thousands of years till the invention of the steam engine and telegraph changed all that?

for all those amazing details you deem necessary it's absolute fucking mindboggling how you guys think people have actually lived before the last 250 years. the invention of the printing press really had an effect on horse speed
(inb4 MUH BRONZE AGE - same shit btw).

No, the printing press does not impact horse speed. It does impact how information and thus education spread across the globe. As @Ghostse pointed out you might be lacking in that area.

the same shit they've literally worn for hundreds of years due to limited options. do you expect random bumblefucks to wear fucking imported silk instead of leather and linen because that's the shit they have locally available for a reasonable price, given travel by horse or ship is slow as fuck so everything non-local is more and more rare and expensive? oh wait it has stitching that was only invented in milan in 1463, this so fucking important to my gonzo fantasy setting.
but you're right, maybe I should explain that a location described as being in the frosty mountains isn't a bathing resort so they know to wear appropriate clothing to not freeze to death, all so my literal braindead players that need everything explained can really RP properly this time.

It's really not that fucking difficult to add some damned flavor to a game, and provide players some expectations in advance about how things work. The whole damned point is to take the workload off of the DM of being asked questions about minutiae, which in this case would be you but apparently you're too dense to get that. Yes, someone could look up how people in bumfucknowhere in northern europe dressed in the winter in 1463, even if not for describing their character to anyone else at the table, simply for immersion in their own fucking head(maybe you're one of those people who can't picture shit and this is why you can't get a simple concept about immersion and wanting to not be anachronistic? If you are then newsflash, most people don't have that problem).

get over yourself.

 

[Ghostse]

1900 is already industrial age so not even relevant. what is this spastic behavior bringing up a timeframe I was never talking about as some form of gotcha? this isn't fucking reddit.
anyway, up until this point, please explain to me then how people communicated and traded? magic trains? telepathy? or using the same fucking horses and maybe pigeons humanity has been used for literal thousands of years till the invention of the steam engine and telegraph changed all that?

His point if you'd actually read that you're responding to instead of mashing keys like a chimping mongoloid who's run out of his own poop to eat, is that even in 1900 all the effects of progress don't reach all points of the globe equally but there is still progress happening and that will trickle down to even the most obscure backwaters even if its inconsistent.

Even bush-shitting tribes in the Amazon have Band T-shirts and know what Coca-Cola is now. So while the area you're in might not have a telegraph station, if there is one nearby might matter a great deal.

he invention of the printing press really had an effect on horse speed

Again you are a retard, but I figure the non-retards might enjoy having this to crunch in their heads as a "unintended consequences" sort of thing:
The printing press improved the speed of communication by making replicating information faster due to more of it being available. Instead of a single proclaimation being delivered to the town crier, now you have newspapers and gazettes. This increased the speed of the information arriving to places not on the main lines of communication. It also meant a rider could deliver one of several copies of a message - smaller towns that previously might not have rated a horse-back visit now can get their own copies delivered on the way.

And while the printing press itself didn't make horses go faster, it the increased society organization it allowed permitted the building of more roads. A rider traveling along a road will make better time than one going through rough country.

Adding to this, with the increased levels of communication available it incentivized a creation of more "Pony Express" style communication methods. While way stations for messengers to trade out horses wasn't new, the volume of communication allowed now made those stations more important and increased the availability and reach of these networks.

All this translates to riders now able to push their horses since the horse only needs to endure to the next waystation, along roads permitting faster travel. This also resulted in horse breeders breeding horses for higher top speeds and lower endurance.
And all this was only viable because of the increase in agricultural production.

So the printing press did increase the speed a message could be delivered via horse.

So kindly sit down and keep your retarded midtakes to yourself.

the same shit they've literally worn for hundreds of years due to limited options. do you expect random bumblefucks to wear fucking imported silk instead of leather and linen because that's the shit they have locally available for a reasonable price, given travel by horse or ship is slow as fuck so everything non-local is more and more rare and expensive? oh wait it has stitching that was only invented in milan in 1463, this so fucking important to my gonzo fantasy setting.
but you're right, maybe I should explain that a location described as being in the frosty mountains isn't a bathing resort so they know to wear appropriate clothing to not freeze to death, all so my literal braindead players that need everything explained can really RP properly this time.

Who's to say someone didn't smuggle silkworms out of china? Or maybe they are farming spiders. Check mate, faggot.

joke's on you, it has magical handguns. now what?
that's the problem trying to fit everything into a box spanning literally 1300 years of human history (late 5th to 18th century, with early middle ages ending in the 10th. but I'm sure you know that)

That was exactly the point I was making you illiterate retard. Maybe stop jacking off to guys with voice changers pretending to be 12 year old anime girls and read for a change?

 

[Overly Serious]

It's not game over yet! Dice Scum reviews the Alien RPG expansion; Colonial Marines Operations Manual.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jnO-1MCNXmM

A little late to the party. That supplement has been out for a long time. It's pretty decent. The Alien RPG rules are quite simple and broad so you don't really get that much value out of new weapons the same way you would the Arsenal supplement for Shadowrun 4e. Kind of ditto for the new character types, though if you're running a Marine campaign it's useful to have soldier parallels to the core classes rather than use the same Roughneck or Scientist class.

But they wisely realised this and much of the book is expanded background information on the various conflicts, histories and they also add a bunch of UPP vehicles alongside the new UAS ones. There's also a semi-passable adventure framework. You need to fill out the missions a little bit but with a game system as easy as Alien that's not a big task.

They still have the absurdly wasteful page layout of the main game, though.

You'd think that, but then you get people suggesting throwing puzzle cubes and shit at the table that require the party to solve it and other ridiculous shit to replace dice rolls. Of course the problem with that is if it's a puzzle for some MENSA genius that isn't at the table you end up having to just skip it after frustrating the players, or have it be too easy as to not waste a bunch of time for what could have been an int check or whatever the system equivalent is. I guess making what I was saying a little more clear, yes if the players are just saying dumb shit then tell them to knock it off or just apply it as an absolutely massive penalty do the dice roll, but you've got to give some leeway with bluffs, intimidation, etc. and the results that can come out of players mouths.

If you want to role-play warriors having a fight or magicians hurling fireballs, you pretty much have to do that with rules and dice. Because we can't do that in real life. But there's no such limitation when it comes to social interaction or puzzles and both of these things are fun. So I'm not averse to having players do some of this for real. I'll ask real riddles in the game and have the players try to solve them. I will give bonus dice or whatever on a social check if the player goes to the trouble of making a good argument in character, talking effectively, etc.

Of course say that on Reddit and they'll cry murder because this unfairly hinders neuro-divergent people who cannot talk in character or idiots who can't solve puzzles.

That was exactly the point I was making you illiterate retard. Maybe stop jacking off to guys with voice changers pretending to be 12 year old anime girls and read for a change?

"I cast Vicious Mockery."

 

[Ghostse]

If you want to role-play warriors having a fight or magicians hurling fireballs, you pretty much have to do that with rules and dice. Because we can't do that in real life. But there's no such limitation when it comes to social interaction or puzzles and both of these things are fun. So I'm not averse to having players do some of this for real. I'll ask real riddles in the game and have the players try to solve them. I will give bonus dice or whatever on a social check if the player goes to the trouble of making a good argument in character, talking effectively, etc.

Of course say that on Reddit and they'll cry murder because this unfairly hinders neuro-divergent people who cannot talk in character or idiots who can't solve puzzles.

I don't have a hard and fast rule for social interaction stuff. I try to have a common frame work, but it'll vary. Sometimes, if you do a good roleplay or present a soldi argument, no roll is needed. Sometimes the NPC might be fickle and even a good argument might be taken the wrong way 1-in-6 times.

I'm also going to take character and player in consideration. Is the player someone very solid who's been playing their character well and just having an off moment on how to pitch their case to the king? Or is this a chaotic-retarded player who just wants to do stupid shit and is trying to pull something they wouldn't fall for in a million years.

For puzzles, I always make sure there are at least two ways to get through a puzzle. It also depends on the puzzle and context - if this is just a riddle-asking door out of nowhere, I'm going to allow the players to get more help from their character sheet. If this is a puzzle about themed shit that has been pounded into their heads for the past 20 sessions, I'm going to expect them to use their notes and recognize what's going on.
But I'll generally still give hints or give them a correct move on a successful intelligence check. You don't have to be Batman to want to play as Batman.

 

[Overly Serious]

Right. Both you and I understand there is nuance to this. For example, I wont typically penalise someone on a social roll because they say "My character is going to seduce the female orc barbarian". That's not really fair for the reasons you state. But if the same player talks to her in character and presents her an elf mage's skull in which he's scratched:

"My blood is red,
Your blood is green,
But that shouldn't stop us,
Doing something obscene"

then yeah, he's getting a bonus to his roll for making his character and the world come alive. And though I say I wont penalise someone for not being a great role-player, if they're doing a Deception roll and have a really stupid idea that only an idiot would believe, then I'm going to be setting the difficulty higher, naturally. Deception is about being able to dissemble convincingly imo. Not make someone believe that the guy with the pointed ears is not an elf but was in fact in a bizarre ear stretching accident with a mill.

For puzzles, that's decent advice. I agree that you shouldn't have to be Batman to get to play as Batman. But I'll admit I haven't always followed it. If I've thought up a fun riddle, then I want to see them figure it out.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

I don't have a hard and fast rule for social interaction stuff. I try to have a common frame work, but it'll vary. Sometimes, if you do a good roleplay or present a soldi argument, no roll is needed. Sometimes the NPC might be fickle and even a good argument might be taken the wrong way 1-in-6 times.

That's the way I've been running it lately. Mostly going on instinct based on what the players say and do and based on the NPC. Last game I ran I had people come from the prime into the plane of fire, march through an ash covered shit hole and declare themselves prophets of a new god. Their real goal was to assassinate someone but there were also priests of that new god in the party. There was a good roll on their part, made sense, so I let them in to go murder the fucker.

One thing I take into consideration is how new the person coming up with a plan is. I think it's mostly subconscious but if new guy comes up with something perfectly situational like that (which he did and it was) I'm pretty forgiving. Guy could have rolled dog shit and I'd want to let him in. Still conflicted on social rolls in general.

 

[Ghostse]

he's getting a bonus to his roll for making his character and the world come alive.

Agreed; if you do a good roleplay, there will be a bonus and even if you fail with the bonus, the consequences will be less bad.

For puzzles, that's decent advice. I agree that you shouldn't have to be Batman to get to play as Batman. But I'll admit I haven't always followed it. If I've thought up a fun riddle, then I want to see them figure it out.

Here's a more detailed break down of how I did a "Main solution/lesser solution/mulligan".

https://embed.kiwifarms.st/threads/...ames-d-d-pathfinder-coc-etc.737/post-13350225

The general idea is to reward and encourage clever play and intelligent choices, but also make sure the party doesn't get stuck on something stupid.

One thing I take into consideration is how new the person coming up with a plan is. I think it's mostly subconscious but if new guy comes up with something perfectly situational like that (which he did and it was) I'm pretty forgiving. Guy could have rolled dog shit and I'd want to let him in. Still conflicted on social rolls in general.

Yup. Player definitely matters.

Another thing is I'll have sliding scales of failure. Maybe if they proclaim themselves as prophets and flub their roll it just means that the guy they are there to murder shows up with guards and doesn't fully trust them. Murking him is still possible just harder. etc.

 

[Adamska]

A little late to the party. That supplement has been out for a long time.

Given we cover quite a few older games too (WEG's Star Wars for example, the book we covered was over 30 years old), I wouldn't really call a book a hair less than four years being out a really long time. It also is one of the later pieces of the publishing run for the original edition, with only stuff like Heart of Darkness or Building Better Worlds being newer.

We mostly did it because of Alien: Earf coming out, as well as how the beta free-starter version of the new edition is circulating about recently.

It's pretty decent. The Alien RPG rules are quite simple and broad so you don't really get that much value out of new weapons the same way you would the Arsenal supplement for Shadowrun 4e. Kind of ditto for the new character types, though if you're running a Marine campaign it's useful to have soldier parallels to the core classes rather than use the same Roughneck or Scientist class.

It's a major factor for why I knocked down my initial instinct to rate it higher than a good decent, since it only really encourages a few new types of play, and while I think it's nice, the core book already had rules on how to make roughnecks. The new weaponry that came from the Technical Manual, Colonial Marines, the comics, and others are real nice touches, but not critical. I also know that I could do entire runs of players being part of the CRBN teams that have to clean up or use radioactive issues, bioweaponry, and chemical spills. Because that is scary even without Xenos leaping about.

But they wisely realised this and much of the book is expanded background information on the various conflicts, histories and they also add a bunch of UPP vehicles alongside the new UAS ones. There's also a semi-passable adventure framework. You need to fill out the missions a little bit but with a game system as easy as Alien that's not a big task.

This was actually a big reason I liked the book as much as I did, but then I've been really open about how this is probably one of my favorite franchises. The adventure ain't shabby but I see it as more you take the characters, since it's part of this big campaign arc in game about dealing with alien hybrid projects and other black site projects.

They still have the absurdly wasteful page layout of the main game, though.

Oh god yeah; they blow like up to a fifth of a page due to making the text in boxes over the page backdrop. And it gets heinous with the headlines and double page spreads that did not need to be double page spreads. It never bothers me as I read them, but I do know I could've easily cut about 50 pages minimum from the Operations Manual.

 

[The Ugly One]

for all those amazing details you deem necessary it's absolute fucking mindboggling how you guys think people have actually lived before the last 250 years. the invention of the printing press really had an effect on horse speed

Before the printing press, the way an official message got out was via a herald. Heralds did not go to every village, and there were only so many of them. Moreover, if you weren't in the square when the herald announced whatever it was, you missed it. After the printing press, a large stack of notices could be printed up and sent out along every road via the then-new mail service (mail as we know it came into being in the 16th century). Notices stayed posted up wherever (famously, the church door in Wittenberg was a popular place to post things), and so word-of-mouth would move more quickly as well. Obviously, it's not because it magically makes horses move more quickly, it's because you have a far more efficient network with lots more concurrent traffic, and the volume of information that can be carried by a single person goes up a hundred or a thousand fold. The printing press & mail replacing handwritten missives & heralds was a revolution in communication.

the same shit they've literally worn for hundreds of years

Fashion changed throughout the Middle Ages...not as rapidly as today, but people weren't wearing the same headgear in 1400 as they were in 1200. The coif arrives in the 900s. Hose show up in the 1200s. The doublet was invented in the 1400s. This is also when we see the hennin show up. Jerkins arrive in the 1500s. Breeches show up in the 1600s.

this so fucking important to my gonzo fantasy setting

We're talking about historical settings, not gonzo fantasy settings, but for some reason, you seem extremely mad that people running historical settings want some actual history in them. Not every RPG conversation has to be about your personal game.

 

[Overly Serious]

Given we cover quite a few older games too (WEG's Star Wars for example, the book we covered was over 30 years old), I wouldn't really call a book a hair less than four years being out a really long time. It also is one of the later pieces of the publishing run for the original edition, with only stuff like Heart of Darkness or Building Better Worlds being newer.

We mostly did it because of Alien: Earf coming out, as well as how the beta free-starter version of the new edition is circulating about recently.

Apologies - I hadn't actually listened to it when I wrote that and had no idea that you had any involvement in it or anyone here PL'd that much. In that case, I'll take an actual listen to it when I have time.

I've been laying low on any Alien stuff recently for fear of spoilers for Alien: Earthf, though I suspect it will be dreadful and also a headache for me as a GM to incorporate new canon. Without spoilers, how bad is the show? And how much Agenda does it push?

Before the printing press, the way an official message got out was via a herald. Heralds did not go to every village, and there were only so many of them. Moreover, if you weren't in the square when the herald announced whatever it was, you missed it. After the printing press, a large stack of notices could be printed up and sent out along every road via the then-new mail service (mail as we know it came into being in the 16th century). Notices stayed posted up wherever (famously, the church door in Wittenberg was a popular place to post things), and so word-of-mouth would move more quickly as well. Obviously, it's not because it magically makes horses move more quickly, it's because you have a far more efficient network with lots more concurrent traffic, and the volume of information that can be carried by a single person goes up a hundred or a thousand fold. The printing press & mail replacing handwritten missives & heralds was a revolution in communication.

To add one more point to the list, with more communication leading to a more networked and integrated nation, it became more common to be able to swap horses at way stations, leave the tired ones there and pick up fresh and carry on riding / your carriage. That had always been a thing but used to be just the king's men sort of thing then later started to become more of a thing other services might engage in like messengers and couriers.

 

[Adamska]

I've been laying low on any Alien stuff recently for fear of spoilers for Alien: Earthf, though I suspect it will be dreadful and also a headache for me as a GM to incorporate new canon. Without spoilers, how bad is the show? And how much Agenda does it push?

Its biggest sin is it's boring and most of this season is going to be ponderous attempts to do build up, with the violence and alien bits mainly being to get you out of a coma. It tries really hard to play with sci-fi themes, but the line delivery is middling to poor, edits are rather jarring and it is more comparable to Ghost in the Shell or Alita Battle Angel than anything Alien related.

There's stuff there to possibly like, but I'm not sold on it really.

To add one more point to the list, with more communication leading to a more networked and integrated nation, it became more common to be able to swap horses at way stations, leave the tired ones there and pick up fresh and carry on riding / your carriage. That had always been a thing but used to be just the king's men sort of thing then later started to become more of a thing other services might engage in like messengers and couriers.

Don't forget improvements in shipping; sea travel made big strides throughout the period too, ranging from learning how to build newer skeleton hulled ships that could hold shape better, to building larger fused masts that allowed more sails to catch the wind more efficiently. A cog would be a sorely different beast in terms of supplies, but much more importantly speed compared to say a 16th century fluyt or a 17th century schooner. Hell, even cogs depended on when they were built; older ones used clinker-built designs while newer ones may use a carvel line.

That actually influences performance and speed, as well as size limits. Heck, the caravel and its formatting alone changed how hull construction worked in the Mediterranean Sea compared to the Phoenician joists of old, which made ships tougher and more reliable for long travel.

 

[p1138]

We're talking about historical settings, not gonzo fantasy settings, but for some reason, you seem extremely mad that people running historical settings want some actual history in them. Not every RPG conversation has to be about your personal game.

Even in a gonzo fantasy setting, there's nothing wrong with giving players some info so they can still fill in minor details for the sake of the game or even just on their own. Ethnicity, what do people eat, how do they dress, types of boats, language used, etc. Especially in bumfuck nowhere northern european gonzo fantasy in the 1200s, some chinaman showing up in silks punching and kicking people with something that looks like kung-fu should still be out of place and elicit some weird reactions from the local villagers.

Of course how we went from historical setting to a gonzo fantasy one-shot that still takes place in bumfuck nowhere also makes little sense, but even then there should still be something about the setting unless it really doesn't matter if a player shows up dressed like an 1850s cowboy to medieval europe.

 

[Fuck Bankers]

if you have a low-stakes rural oneshot where the local baron is up to chaotic evil nigger shit, the tax policy and technological level of the neighboring nation (unless you start the industrial age) is pretty irrelevant.

I already said that in an earlier post. Setting details are for long term campaigns.

the other is the debate if a society that has access to magic where you can people headshot with a pebble at the flick of a wrist would ever invent guns in the first place.

"quantity has a quality all it's own."
- Russian Steel man

To change subjects from how autistic you should prep the game setting. Has anyone ever run a wilderness dungeon? it's an idea from Into the Wyrd and Wild. This is where you zoom into a hex on a hex map, give it a few small locations within with enemies and loot. I'm working on one for the map that I posted before. There are some bandits along a river route that keep attacking supplies to the main starting city. Plus local flora and fauna.

Interesting Bandit's Keep video about making one.