Chris McDowall is the creator of Into the Odd, Electric Bastionland and most recently Mythic Bastionland. These games serve as the basis for many other popular games, including Cairn 1/2e and many others.
While a deep dive into what makes these “Mark of the Odd” games tick is certainly in the cards, what I want to talk about today is the advice that Chris gives to game masters in his books. Especially how this advice can make social encounters more fun.
I read and listen to a lot of GM tips and methods from all over the internet. Some of these tips cover adventure writing and how to go about creating adventures.
While I generally don’t recommend approaching adventure writing like story writing, I do recognize that both types of writing have similarities. The youtube algorithm seems to agree. It introduced me to a new concept I had never heard of before: the Story Circle.
I have recently concluded a short campaign using the specialty rules system called GorgeWorld. Its really a testament to TTRPGs that such a system even exists considering how niche this type of material is. Regardless, it exists, I used it, I liked it, and I hope to talk about it for a little bit!
The system is a very simple attribute based system. You have 4 main attributes: Force Learning Agility and Beauty. Your FLAB. With a secret 5th attribute known as Glut! Rolls are done using Fudge Dice (more commonly known as Fate Dice) or D6s. 1-2 are negatives, 3-4 are blanks and 5-6 are successes.
Prompted by my Youtube recommended list, I have recently had another look over at the Pf2e exploration rules.
These rules are fairly free form but at the same time allow for PCs to show off their skills and shine. They also could have a impact in how you prepare your game as a GM if you choose to use them.
Today I wanted to go over two videos made by Best Laid Plans GM Prep. The first one is short and sweet and gives a good overview of his interpretation of the system. The second one is more GM facing and shows how he would go about preparing for a pre written scenario with exploration rules in mind.
In TTRPGs there is a wide variety of play styles. Two seemingly opposed play styles are those that like mechanics and dice rolls and those that like a more narrative focus. In this post I am here to say that this seemly stark divide does not actually exist.
I hope to show more narrative minded players how to have fun in a more mechanical system. I also hope to show mechanical players how to make dry dice rolls into interesting story beats.
Death in Space is a sci fi rpg with a unique setting and a highly streamlined rules set. It is a combination of mork borg (another rpg from the same people) and free league’s Year Zero engine.
I have not played in a group yet, however I have played some solo sessions and have read and re read the book several times.
At its core, this is a sci fi game with some horror elements. I would not call it a pure horror game like call of cthulu. The base setting of the game is something that I think could be called “Nasa Punk”.
Something a little different. I have recently gotten my hands on Gentle’s Dungeon Guide 2 a nice little dungeon generator for Shadowdark. However, it really can be used for just about any fantasy RPG. Using it, I was able to generate a little dungeon adventure that I am going to share here.
Game masters looking for a quick adventure can use this as a base. Players wishing to play this should give this to their game masters and stop reading now! Lest they be spoiled.
The end and start of the year is usually a time for reflection and planning. In this post I wanted to try to put what I currently feel about RPGS into words. I go over where I am coming from, what I personally like, what I am lukewarm on and what I feel is bad for games.
I was first exposed to RPGs in the form of 5e. Long ago when I was in highschool one of my friends ran me and some other friends through a combat using 5e. That night we created characters using an app on our phones and I think we only had one combat before having to leave since making characters took us a good long while. I was immediately interested but, I was never able to get into a group. The friend that helped us make characters did not want to GM and was a player in a full group. I did not know of any other folks that where into that so the idea of playing these games was put on the back burner for a long while.
2024 was a cool year and in this post I hope to go over it a little and also look forward to 2025. I go over the games that I played in 2024 and also look forward to games that I want to play in 2025.
In short, I played a lot of Pathfinder 2e. I hope to keep playing it into 2025. I still have my Kingmaker campaign going and I think we will keep playing that into 2025. My group is actually moving along at a great pace and we might be able to get fairly close to finishing the whole module by the end of next year. If we do, that would be a massive accomplishment!
In a recent session with my kingmaker group, we all got a chance to use the Pf2e Research subsystem. I thought it would not be a good experience but was happily surprised with how enjoyable it was.
Me being me, I started to get ideas of how to use a variant of this sub system to explore a dungeon in a mapless fashion! The subsystem is very simple at its core and turning it into a mapless dungeon procedure is something I am sure others have done before me. However, here is how I would go about making a Pathfinder 2e Dungeon Exploration Subsystem.