The Gaming Den

I'll echo the recommendation on The Alexander blog articles. And I've found a detailed analysis of the game here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/adventurerules.blog/2017/03/07/adventure-rules-reviews-city-of-mist-starter-set/amp/ While the setting looks very interesting, the fusion of PbtA with Fate-l...

Woah it seems I've hit some exposed nerve or something here. Sorry for that, I'm leaving the thread.

Kaelik wrote:What's up with double shadowrun at 3 and 1 percent? I assume different editions, but which is which?

I wouldn't give much thought to that, as it's just one physical store. These days I would say Amazon and Drivethrough are the minimum benchmark for sales.

@Whysper, look at Cypher "GM never rolls dice". That's PbtA right there. Also, and more important: do you really think it's mere coincidence that Monte Cook adhered to the light-narrative scthick at this moment? Come on. On you never hearing about Mutant Year Zero, Tales from the Loop or K...

@Erik, forget physical store sales. We are in 2019, not 1989. Also, if you want to see the influence of the light narrative school, consider the likes of Blades in the Dark, Fria Ligan Games (Mutant Year Zero, Tales from the Loop, Forbidden Lands), Numenera/Cypher, Beyond the Wall, the new Kult (Div...

It seems like a fusion of Fate and PbtA. Anyone read or played it?

Their cover art's too saturated, those are American cartoon colors This kickstarter will probably deliver before the Shinobigami one that was funded 5 years ago. A shame. I was hopeful that Kill Death Business would come after, but after Andy delays with Ryuutama and Shinobigami, I doubt anyone wou...

@Virgil , I never said there wasn't one-shot or short-term games before the 00s, I said those were the exception in those days, while they've become popular nowadays. PbtA and Cortex are good examples: when in the past we had engines made for short-term play getting this popular and being hacked int...

Paranoia playstyle was an exception by the time it came out, and continued to be until post-00s. So bringing it up actually corroborates Justin Alexander point, in my view.

Another trend of modern design, this time by someone else I've read in the webz, and agree with: I would add: - Explicitly designed for short term or even one-shot play . It's not just the difficulty of picking up a new set of rules that discourages people from picking up a new game; it's also the i...

the hobby was saturated by the simulatiomist-complexity-madness of the 80s engineers No no no! Bad puppy! Not on the carpet! Those aren’t even terms anyone agrees to. Some aren’t even words! If you don't know what simulation and complexity is, I don't know what to say. The hobby wasn’t saturated by...

Tenra Bansho Zero is great. We played a couple sessions of it and had a blast. I agree with your impressions and I think this is a quality of games that are good at genre-emulation . I've seen a similar story about Masks a New Generation: a player who wasn't familiar with the teen supers genre was p...

Yep, but how popular or influential was Amber to the 90s as a whole? Or Everway and Over the Edge for that matter? I think the fact those games began to pop in the 90s (and they began to pop exactly because the hobby was saturated by the simulatiomist-complexity-madness of the 80s engineers) dont me...

JT, perhaps the problem with structures were the non-combat based / more social themes that eventually appeared? The farther from the wargaming roots, the longer it took to authors to create solutions? VtM and Unknown Armies come to mind as examples of games with themes strongly directed at social i...

The 2010s are waaaay worse than the '90s by my reckoning Wut? If anything, 2010's games at least address their central premises with coherent rules, something most 90s games didn't (most of the time). Look again: Pathfinder, Fiasco, Fate Core, The One Ring, Nights Black Agents, Icons, Smallville, M...

70s - the pioneers. Wonky unintuitive rules. Simple - but solid - play structures and premises (the dungeon). DIY because the official rules won't cover everything, or cover but badly. 80s - the engineers. Reaction to pioneers turns into seek for coherent rules turns to obsession with simulation. Al...

Interview with Ryuutama creator: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gNOBswRYQIsnRUZGcp27x1pRi9QB7RfIQnP8hmYx9Vw/edit He talks about inspirations, travel focused Dragon Quest III, Drizzt in the Underdark, an RPG called Traders! Cool interview, thanks. Anyone know the difference between Ryuutama and...

What are the usual problems that such games tend to present in your opinion? Lack of a structure of play is one of them, I think. Which is the case of Vampire the Masquerade IMO. It seems the devs created a cool setting & splats plus a resolution system but never told anyone what players are sup...

Ancient History post is spot-on*. That's the same pattern we have in music, movies, etc. A huge diversity of products sharing the spotlight instead of one or two monolithic ones like in the past. The very spotlights are multiples/diversified these days. *I only disagree that we don't have actual rul...

I agree with you there, Deaddmwalking. D&D and Shadowrun hit the nail in that respect for e.g., with easy and clear play structures. But lots of games from the 90s seem to fail in this respect (Vampire and Unknown Armies come to mind). Why is that? I don't remember any recent game failing in thi...

I'd say that of the Storyteller games Except Werewolf don't deliver on their core premise. Vampire is a dark superheroes game and not a game about politics or personal horror. Exalted is about low-level adventures and not about epic storytelling and kingdom building. Mage is about not casting spell...

Thanks for the link. I'll hear it later.

This is something I feel would greatly benefit the Spire:

https://bladesinthedark.com/sites/defau ... ctions.pdf

Specially with proper mechanics in place to track those relationships and the effects upon it's changes.

@Tussock, About D&D 5e sales numbers. Even ignoring Mike Mearls words, it's not only Amazon and Orr group. According to this article here (http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?4732-How-Did-D-D-Become-a-Best-Seller ) the New York Times, USA Today, ICv2, among others also list D&D books am...

What games are absolutely broken in your opinion? Like in, say, "This is a Supers game" and nothing the game does actually delivers anything resembling Supers. That kind of stuff.

Can you remember some you have read or played that's like that, and why?

Didn't you come here like a year ago, referring Mearls's tweet, and we countered with objective research? Did I? Sorry can't remember, apologies if that's the case. Regardless, it seems from 2017 onward the sources in the article get unambiguously objective, right? Amazon, Orr group, etc. That's th...