The Gaming Den

00dani, there are PbtA games that already do what you want (skip to last pages for basic moves): Undying : https://enigmamachinations.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/undying_sheets_rev020416.pdf Sagas of the Icelanders : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bu0rZikqhMmAGEnhGH3-4bUtAAAz5lss/view?usp=drivesdk...

Assume a game where you play characters AND the factions they belong to, Legacy: Life among the Ruins/Ars Magica troupe style - in a scene you zoom out to a faction meeting (say, you as the Sign of One seeking help from the Godsmen for a move against the Athar), and the other scene you zoom in as th...

Mask_De_H, what's a Carrie situation? I find AW works best when there's this healthy combination of stuff-playbooks and loner-playbooks, like 1 Hardholder for 3 loners (say, a Lugger, a Skinner and a BB) or 2 for 2, or something like that. All stuff-playbooks and the game may end up a dysfunctional ...

I agree with you, Shinimasu, about MH being indeed great at making players act according to it's genre's cliches. What I felt lacking (maybe for not being that familiar with the genre?) was some kinda central, strong premise for PCs to care about or entangle with. Ie: in AW you usually have one or t...

I haven't looked much into Monsterhearts, but the pitch, as I understand it, ie, monsters in high school, is a game I've been wanting to make/play for a good while Hmm, Google says Monsterhearts is an Apocalypse World based game. Did it improve on AW? It depends on what you want to see improved. If...

This was super disappointing in the moment, but now that disappointment is mainly gone by, and now I just want to make The Heist and Adventure Game Made By a Trans. Will be interesting to see, if the finished (if it gets finished) game will be different than one made by an CIS male. I imagine not, ...

Jenna Moran did Nobilis (1st, 2nd and 3rd editions) and Chuubo.
Avery Alder did Monsterhearts and Dream Askew.
Marissa Kelley did Bluebeard's Bride.

I would say these games tend to be different from cis males ones, as they're usually about story and drama rather than action or combat.

Shinobigami is a good example, yes. It feels just like those high level Naruto battles where the ninja are atop trees in one second, over a big canyon the next and inside an airplane in the end. The problem is that the combat system is so much it's own abstract and mechanicist thing that it may feel...

Some adaptations I know: Runners in the Dark , for Blades in the Dark. Shadowrun in The Sprawl , for The Sprawl, a powered by the apocalypse cyberpunk game. Gurps Shadowrun . For fans of Gurps. Not my case, but here you go. SR ruleset is no worse than any modern ruleset really I would say it depends...

Shadowrun is a wondergul setting married with such poor and slow rules that by the third combat turn, everybody will be yawning on each other faces and considering an excuse to get up and go home. It's an 80s product and it shows. My suggestion: get the corebook that most strikes your fancy (I'd rec...

The Shinobigami final PDF was released for KS backers.

Nice words, Prak.

Trying to convince my friends to play a good ol dungeon crawl in Pavis & the Rubble with some beer and snacks in his honor. (well, I'm trying to convince them for a long time actually, but now I have a better excuse hehe)

...last month, in october 11. I'm a big fan of the guy, and always found him one of the best (if not THE best) designers in the industry. He designed or was directly involved in the creation of Pendragon RPG, Runequest/BRP/Glorantha, Prince Valiant, Ghostbusters, Call of Cthulhu and the King of Drag...

Hunger dice are functional unless your GM is actively trying to screw you over. Messy successes should be minor complications, not game-destroying, character ruining gotchas. And if they are, then the problem is with your GM. It's a functional replacement for the critical failure rules, since it do...

Yes, the Overwhelm move through mortal assets is a much better option. Specially if you're the Puppet Master with your enterprise. About the Nightmare Blood Slaves not contributing Blood in combat, you may be right. Our local VtM advisor insisted the VtM analogous have supernatural capacities and th...

Aryxbez, the Sensualist followers are all prey, so can't use blood in a fight like predators do. Same for the Puppet-Master with his (mortal) assets. Also, payment for predators is made in debt so you would be back at the beginning. I could see some cases where another predator would charge real mon...

Combat Minigame also sounds like WoD's whole notion of being encouraged of bringing in a bus of school children armed with BB guns to punk out Werewolves Elder Vampires. Or if being more literal, it'd be hired gangbangers, thugs, fawning cultists, corp assassins, Pile of Rednecks, Pack of dogs, or ...

Agree about the vagueness of those abilities. We tweaked Blood Slave so the Nightmare only pays blood for the 2 last options (make the slave perpetrate vile deeds, and mind control him). Seemed more fair, and with less bookkeeping, this way.

Yes, that's how we came to interpret the rules (after Longes help). But we defined that, no matter how the winning player describes the outcome, if he betrays or harms someone on his own team, his character must hold responsibility for it . So it's not possible to, say, describe a teammate taking up...

Blades in the Dark also has a great lifestyle system that's well integrated with it's main heists aspect. You have a downtime phase with various options to upgrade your conditions, vent off stress by engaging vices (Stress is your "Blood Pool" in the game) which may lead to complications t...

Makes sense, Longes. Thanks.

Never really liked Shadowrun way of doing it, because it added little to the game imo. I'll take a look at SOTDL though, this is the second time I hear good things of it. What about games that are about their lifestyles? I mean the likes of King Arthur Pendragon, Sagas of the Icelanders or Traveller...

That's not actually true and, in my understanding, is the counter-balancing mechanism against gang fights. The winner who waged the most blood decides the fate of everyone involved. Including his teammates. Saying that you won but your teammate got torn to shreds and now can't stop you from musclin...

Urban Shadows seems the better fit for a full WoD (derivative) experience. Undying is more focused on survival and politicking, to the detriment of everything else. About the fight: the winner who wagered the most blood decides the fate of those in the losing side (death or pariah). If you were on t...

If you don't like PbtA you probably won't like this too. Instead of rolling 2d6 and picking your poison, here you pick your poison directly from a list. Here, the 5 archetypes and basic rules: https://drive.google.com/open?id=12CH-uVy6VO64Uep83bTl-Ky580DibHdy Quick summary: The game is a homage to e...