No.3730
Do Digital Card games count??I play hearthstone and recently tried out the closed beta of Legends of Runterra, which was reeaaaally good and fun, can't wait till beta starts again in november
No.3731
Has anyone noticed that 4/tg/ took a massive, massive nose dive in quality after 5e's cultural stink started to fester into the tabletop sphere like a disease?
No.3735
Anybody here play GURPS? Finishing up a heavily homebrewed D&D 3.5 game soon and want to switch my group to GURPS but I'm afraid it's going to be a rough transition.
No.3736
>>3734No, I saw a little about it, I assume it's going to be reddit/leftbook cringe though. I also just don't have much interest in playing leftist themed tabletop tbh. Something about it feels especially weird and LARPlike, tho I enjoy leftist themed vidya and music and whatnot.
No.3737
>>3732You planning on checking out the new one when it comes out, Cyberpunk Red?>>3734I checked out a preview on drivethru, and it seemed…reasonable. The intro said it's ideologically neutral, so there's no assumed ML or Anarchist themes. Which is good.
No.3738
Anyone still playing Netrunner? The new cards the fan made are okay but link/Sunny cards were nerfed pretty badly with Underworld Contracts gone
No.3742
>>3741It is one of most lowly rated rated games in BoardGameGeek. So it is just plebs that love it
No.3745
I've been wanting to run a GURPS space-esque game for the longest time. Maybe settling worlds or something
No.3747
>>3733A Skitarii would be easily made. I'm gonna assume you want to play something like a ranger, since the radiation-poisoned mcmotherfuckers are kinda… hazardous to everyone around them. Me, I'd go with the Quarantined World homeworld because it's fun to have some Mechanicus secrets locked away in your subconscious, the AdMech background for some machiney bits and bonuses & either the warrior or the assassin role. Either one would let you grab a skill-related aptitude from doubling up on ballistic skill - I'd personally grab either knkwledge or fieldcraft.If you're interested in playing a radiation-poisoned vanguard, you'll want to swing by the Ordo Discordia on Discord & grab a PDF of Imperial Automica. It's reasonably balanced homebrew with a whole lot of useful gear & mechanics for radiation related RPG goodness.
No.3748
>>3747>radiation related RPG goodnessnot him but is it accessible game for newcomers? the last time I played any board game was 7 years ago and I didn't even get to finish it properly
No.3749
>>3744I think there is a fan translation for that.
No.3750
>>3749There is. It's so shit though, it may as well not exist
No.3752
>>3751 YES
No.3753
>>3752When Nibba, WHEN!?
No.3754
>>3753 HOW ABOUT THIS HALLOWEEN? SHOULD WE HOST MUMBLE SERVER SOMEWHERE
No.3756
>>3755Who's gonna be GM though? Also we should prepare some standardized character sheets ahead of time and get a headcount.
No.3757
>>3756three unique users engaged in a conversation but not sure if we all want to play. I want to for sure
No.3758
>>3757Make that four.
No.3760
>>3759by polling I implied basic datamining including timezone, preferred time frame, communication software/device at disposal etc
No.3761
>>3759Err I don't have any actual character sheets I was just asking if that's something we should do.Also I'll get right on the game night thread.
No.3762
Hello guys, I'd be interested in playing a TG. Only as a player though, I tried to DM a Genlab Alpha game a few months ago and I started dreading the times the game would come because I had never done enough work (or felt I hadn't) and I started hoping players would be busy so I'd have an excuse to cancel.Ahem… well, so, anyway, I'd like the opportunity to play a TG. Ideally a high-RP one with not too autistic combat but hey I won't be too picky.
No.3764
>>3763Another thing important to point out: my motivation for creating this game is using it as a method of socio-political dialectical research. Essentially taking inspiration from real world events, current affairs, and geopolitical conflict and modeling and exploring them in an imaginary space through collaborative narrative with the RPG mechanics.If anyone knows of any projects similar to this which have been done before I'd love to know about it!
No.3765
>>3763>I'd like it to be quite sandboxy and open but I'm struggling on finding a starting point.Start by outlining the broad strokes of the setting and situation. Then figure out where the campaign will start. Flesh out that area, going more specific as you approach the exact area where the players will start. Then figure out a few points of interest and flesh them out a bit to hook the players. The rest of it is best built as you go. Try to anticipate where they'll go with it and focus on building that. Save yourself a lot of work.Do have some idea of where the different sides in the fight are, what territory they have, and a few specifics. The more vague and in the background something is, the more leeway you have to change the situation as the plot develops. If the players only know that a certain area is contested between two sides, you can keep it that way or pick a side that won. If it's established who has terrain advantage, better armament, etc the story has to make sense in that context. Keep in mind that the more is known about an area, the more likely the players are to pay attention or get involved there. That's just using bait basically. Keep that in mind when deciding how much the players will know. If you give them a map showing different areas, they might know more about this or that town or base or what have you. Mystery is itself a kind of bait though. Don't go full on "nOBodY KnOwS wHaTs HaPpEnNinG hEre" with it, just say "This area is controlled by X and uncontested." Boring areas can become interesting later as the conflict progresses. Areas near the front line would be most dynamic naturally.>Do you think the RP genre could work for something like this that is very non-pulpy?For something that's realistic you are probably better not being too rules-heavy. Even something as simulationist as GURPS isn't that realistic and might get in the way of the story.>>3764If you haven't heard of the West Marches style of campaign you might be interested in that.
No.3766
>>3765Thanks. I think I need to flesh out my factions and stuff to work out how the conflict will progress.Do you have any thoughts on rules lite systems which would work well for a modern setting like the one I'm describing?West Marches looks interesting, good inspiration I think for how to run a sandbox.
No.3767
>>3763Focus on locations and factions. Think of the logical places PCs would go, and add interesting NPCs there. In D&D that's normally taverns and blacksmiths and markets, in your game it might be a barracks, a doctor, a rations distributor. Those NPCs should be fleshed out and have their own interests and conflicts, which you can tie into the different factions. Don't overdevelop shit, because it's probable most of it won't be used, but it's great to have a network of NPCs and locations mapped out and with about a dozen descriptive bullet points each so that your PCs can wander around and do what they want and the world feels developed and full. Don't be afraid to give immediate, pressing goals, it's not railroading or contrary to a sandbox, it gives more weight to the world and gives them more motivation to actually interact with the world and something to do with all that content you provide. If you want me to be more specific or need help with particular ideas or questions I'd be glad to.
No.3768
>>3767Thank you anon. Would be good to bounce some ideas around. I'll have to put a bit more thought into the setting.
No.3772
>>3771>railroading GM gets screwed by mythical 12 critical rolls in a rowstuff of legends tbh
No.3773
Man 5e has got to be, and will probably make the tabletop games a much shittier experience than before. There is nothing good about the design in that shitshow of a game and people will take inspiration from that game and probably infect /v/ shit with it too when Baldur's Gate 3 comes out.
No.3774
>>3773There are some good ideas like inspiration or advantage/disadvantage but they're copied from other things and not used very well.
No.4527
The Polish company D-Day Miniature Studio, which makes toy figures of military personnel, has released a new series called "Red Storm over Europe. Soviet Rear Troops 1944-1946".
https://preview.redd.it/46lp8sxf7kp51.jpg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6791990b95101f750175fc2f26013523b6565aaThe series includes four figures of Soviet army soldiers. Polish sculptor Pawel Krasicki depicted them as looters.
https://preview.redd.it/1px9f4nv7kp51.jpg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7863fc610c99903554929c57764aa88762a10770These miniatures reflect the main idea of modern Poland and the West that the Soviet army didn't liberate the country from the Nazis, but simply plundered it. Meanwhile, if it weren't for the Soviet Union, there wouldn't be any Poland now.
No.4530
>>3773It's sad that wizards has a monopoly on ttrpgs
No.5807
>>5792Always wanted to but time reasons never allowed me to.
Really a fan of the whole 'transhumanist after the collapse' theme, however. It has a lot of potential.
No.5809
>>4530Kinda unavoidable when TTRPGs are dying, kinda.
No.5810
>>3731No, I haven't. I've only noticed more masturbation-addicted /pol/tards and /v/ermin, though.
No.5886
>>3773 I want to get into D&D, what's exactly wrong with 5e? Should I start with 3.5 instead?
No.5892
>>5886>what's exactly wrong with 5e?<Bounded accuracy (small bonuses to skills and attacks) makes it hard to feel really good at anything
<d20s are too swingy, and combined with the above problem it's way too common for characters to fail at what they're good at and succeed at what they're bad at
<Not many options; still only a dozen classes, and most classes have one subclass which is clearly the best
<Totally built around combat, can't really handle running a game based on exploration, intrigue, etc.
<Massive HP bloat makes fights take forever at higher levels
<Regaining all health, spells, and class features on a long rest means you can go from dying and useless to fully healed by sleeping for eight hours, incentivizing players to blow all their resources on one fight and then retreat and rest
<Caster supremacy; wizards have a million ways around every situation and lots of ways to fight, while fighters can only hit stuff
<Lots of the game's elements, like multiclassing, feats, and magic items, are officially "optional", meaning the game isn't balanced around them even though 99% of DMs include them
<Supplements released at a glacial pace compared to past editions
>Should I start with 3.5 instead?3.5 has its own problems. It's insanely unbalanced (caster supremacy is a much bigger problem than in 5e), and while it has a lot of options (unlike 5e), 90% of those options are shit.
But here, I'll give you the advantages of 5e:
<By far the most popular game; probably over 90% of all games are 5e, so you'll never have trouble finding a group
<Very beginner friendly
<Competent (not amazing but good) at what it's meant to do, i.e. if you just want to go into a dungeon and kill stuff you'll probably have fun
<Fairly well-balanced; even though casters can do a lot more than martials, casters aren't really "stronger," just more versatile
No.5899
>>5892 <d20s are too swingy, and combined with the above problem it's way too common for characters to fail at what they're good at and succeed at what they're bad at
<Not many options
<Totally built around combat, can't really handle running a game based on exploration, intrigue, etc.
<Massive HP bloat makes fights take forever at higher levels
<Regaining all health, spells, and class features on a long rest
Heh, just like modern video games.
No.5903
>>5886Even as someone who simps for 3.5, I will tell you that it's not exactly an intuitive system or anything. I just like it because of it's "intangibles" and the fact that it's a system with a lot of homebrew and a playerbase (nowadays) that will usually accept some version of homebrewing.
Basically it's an oldfag haven, the same reason why people play the older versions of dnd
No.7361
What is your response to radlibs trying to shame you for playing fantasy RPGs because they're racist, colonialist, etc.?
No.7529
Anyone play TCGs or CCGs?
No.7665
I'm thinking of running a campaign in an industrial/steampunk fantasy setting, a lot like arcanum.
The theme will largely focus on the societal aches of switching from agrarian to industrial, nobility struggling against growing capitalist influence, and the workers getting caught in the middle.
A huge emphasis will be placed on the 'monstrous' races, mostly orcs, as professional standing armies that can get around quickly on trains make the old nomadic raiding lifestyle challenging, forcing them to integrate, and be societies punching bag.
We'll have communist orcs, fascist dwarves, and Elven eco-terrorists.
I'm still trying to pick a system, but GURPS seems the most likely, despite the fact I've
Never actually ran a game in GURPS.
No.7680
/tg/ is the most leftist kind of gaming available and should be promoted, dont have to spend a penny on materials if you dont want to, and best of all you can play your entire life without having to deal with the bullshit design philosophies or liberal/reactionary political undertones that some company is pushing. Download pdfs, find a printer somewhere, use diceapps or scavenge dice from other boardgames. Encourages actual socialization and building bonds among people irl, no capital owned media directly mediating your interactions.
Down with vidya, up the tabletop!
No.7681
>>7361my response is that i like tabletop games because me and my friends can do what we want without having to give a fuck about brands and brandcucks doing dumb culture war shit
No.7683
>>3736Agreed, it seems pretty silly. I'm not against weaving political themes into games in a mature way but roleplaying as le epic hero leftists feels like escapist cope for not doing much IRL.
No.7698
>>7683>feels like escapist cope for not doing much IRLBy that standard we have to get rid of all videogames.
No.7703
>>7698No theres nothing wrong with vidya or escapism in general, but channeling your leftist feeling into games and scratching the itch that way does seem fairly counterproductive imo
No.7704
>>7703Not him but I fear that forgetting about politics or leftism when I engage in a hobby will make me less resistant to liberalism in the long term
No.7706
>>7703Leftism is utterly fucking dead and buried, it makes no difference whether you play a videogame or go in the streets, it's the same effect on the world.
No.8765
>>7361"Excuse me but my fantasy setting is explicitly decolonial and all the fantasy societies have a rich and vibrant culture without being romanticized."
>>7665Sounds neat. Most fantasy tends to sit in the medieval tech level though, so not a lot of systems would fit.
>>7680True, also in my experience players like to do rebellious or revolutionary shit in roleplaying games for some reason.
No.8766
>>7361I haven't thought about it because I don't keep a radlib living in my head rent free.
No.12128
Should've probably expected the lancer fbi.gov to be a stable "USSR/GDR/PRC/DPRK bad".
At least the game itself isn't unplayable.
No.12132
>>7361Tell them to get a fucking life and learn about historical accuracy of medieval-feudal settings.
Also I tend to incorporate various leftist ideas or factions in my fantasy stuff.
No.12133
>>7665>communist orcs, fascist dwarvesBut anon, the Dwarves are the communists!
No.12152
>>7665I'd advise not to do x-race goes down y-ideology path. I'd recommend starting by thinking out a skeleton (doesn't need to be deep) of the lore that happened before the industrial revolution. Then choose where and by whom did industrialization started. This should give a good idea where it spread first, and who will become the "imperialist core". Then look at which races encounter it, when and how, and try to think out how in your mind they would react. Don't want to hijack the setting, but some ideas: elves encounter it close second, they are sceptical, but seeing rising power of [first to industrialize], they start industrializing as well, mainly by decree of elven elite, which then creates a massive societal schism as elven ecologist culture (and possibly also their magic) is thretened with extiction.
No.16787
>>16786sounds a lot better than varg's tabletop
No.18085
>>18080>skill requiredTo simplify it a bit, deck construction is generally the harder part rather than actually playing it. You can look up some champion's deck build and just copy it. Brainfog is a killer in games like these though so you might suck even with a stellar deck.
>cost0 cent if you have access to a charge-free printer. All the cards can be conveniently found online and printed out.
No.18086
>>18085huh, you can just print out the cards? i didn't think of that
>Brainfog is a killer in games like these though so you might suck even with a stellar deck.yeah that's what made me quit playing hearthstone, i just couldn't think a few steps ahead or i was sticking to my plan too rigidly. do you think it's a good idea to practice with the free online game before challenging people irl?
No.19413
>>19412it's easy to make them corporatist or fascist.
just make the worship of ancestors translate into children being on literal debt bondage to "repay" their parents and "society". the distrust of outsiders etc will do the rest.
you can do a lot of things with them.
No.19428
>>19412>MRAP>bolt action rifles??????
No.19429
>>18785the jacobin sounds most promising to me
No.19430
>>7665>>19412>>19413Why not both? Why should dwarves or any race for that matter be a monolith? Why their society should be immune to class conflict?
Dwarves proles rising up against bourgeois dwarves who in turn prop up fascists dwarves.
No.19432
Every time there's a thread on /tg/ about how steampunk is just a boring meme genre compared to the themes explored in cyberpunk, and barely anything beyond aesthetics, ie gears on tophats. And every time someone suggests the obvious, that the abuse of working poor, class struggle, unions and revolutionary thought, and a industrial society built upon an existing nobility, royalty, and imperial wars of aggression, are all integral parts to a setting inspired by Victorian England. And every time, that posters gets called a commie and to fuck off and how boring it would be.
It's just interesting how people can easily accept cyberpunk including things like militarized police and powerful corporations that control most of society for the sake of profit and produce invasive dangerous technology, where the main characters are usually at the bottom of society, but refuse to see it in steampunk. Maybe because it's more obvious? Because steampunk isn't as developed so you have to spell it out for them?
No.19446
>>19432TBH, those themes are rarely explored in steampunk works from what I've seen
No.19604
>>19593I mean there is plenty of racist references on the game since it is based on the century where "race science" was a respected branch of the sciences, but I'm not so sure whether that means the devs were nazis. In fact I'm pretty sure there are quite a few communist allusions, like a quest in which you help a labor strike and stuff like that.
No.19625
>>19604I never played it, I just know a lot of altright types like it. But then again, there's plenty of times they misinterpret fiction and praise someone who's clearly meant to be in the wrong.
No.19627
>>19625You absolutely can play as a nazi-type asshole, which is what they must love about it; but that's the point: you
can play like that, but you don't have to. There are lots of different paths, and afaik the game does not condone nazi shit. Sseth has a video about the game which is suprisingly in-depth, and also shows this racist side quite explicitly (given the /v/-like humor he is known for), so watch critically.
No.19628
>>19627I watched it when it was new, and discussion does pop up more when he discusses any game.
>(given the /v/-like humor he is known for)Let's be clear, that's usually just racism, he definitely leans right and as do most of his viewerbase.
The usual thing I see being reposted is that orcs have a terrorist liberation movement and are also being bred by greedy rich gnomes who kidnap human women and have them raped to breed more orcs. You can see the obvious parallels here.
No.19634
>>19593they should add Friedrich Engels to this game for maximum lulz
No.19635
>>19593Weren't most of the books in the game and the gnome conspiracy questlines just parodies?
No.19665
>>19635Even if they are what's to stop someone from just being like "this, but unironically."
No.21530
>>21410Good video on how much of a shift WotC is inducing by trying to define D&D as a virtual tabletop game first and foremost, both in terms of impact on the game and in terms of the business implications.
Gotta love monopolies.
No.23114
Have you ever houseruled a system so much that it now barely resembles its original incarnation?
No.23116
>>23114Does it count if you understand the rules so poorly that you basically aren't following them? That's how I and a lot of other people started playing lol.
Am currently "homebrewing" a system that is actually more like building one from scratch, but I'd still call it a homebrew because it's mostly deriving components from several other systems.
No.23121
>>23116>Am currently "homebrewing" a system that is actually more like building one from scratch, but I'd still call it a homebrew because it's mostly deriving components from several other systems.What's it going to be about?
No.23122
>>19628>The usual thing I see being reposted is that orcs have a terrorist liberation movement and are also being bred by greedy rich gnomes who kidnap human women and have them raped to breed more orcs. You can see the obvious parallels here.Half-ogres, not orcs.
No.23124
>>23121>What's it going to be about?Setting-agnostic or "generic" system, and some setting modules to go with it, including a fantasy one and a solarpunk one. Focused on broadly applicable mechanics and integration/balance between moment-to-moment and longer time scales (like OSR games). Core mechanics split between multiple pillars: action, roleplaying, exploration, and management. Meant to be simple and intuitive to learn but with modular depth.
No.23125
>>23124>Core mechanics split between multiple pillars: action, roleplaying, exploration, and management.By "split", would you happen to mean mode segregation (character abilities for one of these neither depend on nor influence abilities for other modes)?
No.23126
>>23125Most abilities are associated with one of the four but usually have applications in other contexts. But IMO that's less about innate character abilities and more about the structure of how the game is played and when you prompt players to make rolls, e.g. do you ask for a roll to navigate to a location vs just assuming they do and skipping to the action. That's a distinct aspect of OSR games is restoring the old school D&D mechanics for the structure of adventures rather than just being rules for encounters connected by whatever the GM contrives.
No.25589
What ways to differentiate [races/species/being types] other than characteristic/skill bonuses/penalties and special abilities have you encountered and/or implemented?
No.25593
>>25589it should play into roleplaying, species should have different speech patterns, cultures, religions, also they should be treated differently by NPCs. Of course there are people who break with their 'ancestral' culture but that should also be something that is RPed.
No.25595
>>25589You should probably distinguishe race/species/etc from culture. Bonuses and penalties to skills make more sense for the latter because that would relate more to things you are likely to learn in a given society.
Other than the answers given, I would say innate qualities work best when they are specific and distinct, like dwarves being better at resisting poisons or elves being able to see farther without range penalties. Think of what kinds of adaptations would suit this creature for where they live (whether they evolved or were created). Any distinct traits should probably be unheard of in humans but maybe not in other animals. You should also think about how these differences are likely to impact culture. Like the dwarves being resistant to poison could lead to pic related.
Another good question to ask is what makes humans distinct? Usually humans are treated mechanically as the most generic race without anything special to set them apart (often replacing that part of design with just "more choice" for other parts of character creation). But there might be particular qualities humans have that other species do not, and which should be reflected mechanically by reducing the "baseline" stats and rules below the human level on certain things. For example, in real life humans beat all other species at endurance running, so you could incorporate that by reducing the overland travel speed of most characters from the default and giving humans a boost that puts them back up at "normal."
No.25607
With the players seemingly moving away from current edition D&D, one might say that tabletop RPGs are headed for… multipolarity.
No.25614
>>25595> so you could incorporate that by reducing the overland travel speed of most characters from the default and giving humans a boost that puts them back up at "normal."Bonuses like that aren't very good because unless you are playing a party full of humans, you are not gonna see that bonus in action. Party travels at the speed of the slowest character. Bonus that doesn't work 99% of the time probably shouldn't even be considered as such.
No.25616
>>25614That's a fair consideration, but it was just meant to be an illustrative example. A more practical implementation might be giving humans resistance to any fatigue-related effects. However, the main reason for that particular advantage is bipedalism and temperature regulation through sweating, so it probably wouldn't be unique to humans among fantasy races.
Some other ideas:
<Humans are more social than others, maybe by having reduced penalties to communicate without a common language or across cultures.<Humans make better connections, getting a bonus to making people like them or faster advancement on the reputation or similar social track.<Humans are better at learning, earning bonus experience points for certain things like observing others gain XP or by tinkering with things. No.25629
>>19412>fascist dwarvesCome to think of it, how would you present a race that's above capitalism, feudalism, communism? The only thing I can think of is having a race that lives in a post-scarcity via magic - they can just conjure whatever they want (except for services from "lesser races" and each other).
No.25679
>>25629Now that I think about it,faerie creatures already are like that in pathfinder,they also lost empathy because they're immortal and unaging,so think murder is a fun side activity. (they just respawn in the fae world,unless killed there in the first place,then they're dead)
No.25694
>>25629>Come to think of it, how would you present a race that's above capitalism, feudalism, communismThey never developed a class society or developed something different. For fantasy races it makes the most sense to do this based on the aspects that make them different.
Elves live forever so the original elders hold onto power indefinitely. Instead of producing heirs they just keep having offspring, who they keep loyal to them. Controlling reproduction is still important but for different reasons - only the elders get to reproduce, because the more generations removed you are the less loyal you are.
Dwarves are so focused on crafting by nature that they don't need class to emerge for them to start producing a surplus, and because they all bond over their common drives to mine and craft, they naturally lean toward a planned economy accumulating treasures and devices. Their greed might make them vulnerable to the kind of people who became early capitalists in human society, but without an already-existing feudal state to seize, the wannabe capitalists lack the power to do primitive accumulation or to proletarianize other dwarves, making capitalist production at most an oddity on the periphery of dwarven society. Through their tendency to tinker and dig, they are most likely to start burning coal and to develop the steam engine, leading to steampunk communism. However, they also tend to be insular and knowing the kinds of things that the capitalist dwarves get up to, are extremely protective lest early industrial technology proliferate among other races who lack the worker-centric ethos of dwarven society.
No.25698
>>25694>who they keep loyal to themBy means of?
No.25700
>>25698That's up to them, but probably the least resource intensive is infantilizing the kids emotionally and making them desperate for parental approval that motivates them. Maybe that's why elves reach maturity at a much older age, too. The more kids you have the more they have to compete for attention but also the more opportunity for rebellion, so there would be a balance to strike.
The thing about being immortal is you have plenty of time, and you don't need to have a high birth to maintain your population because nobody dies of natural causes. So the leaders of the society can personally keep raising a new generations of mommy's boys and daddy's girls as necessary. You don't have to rely on some ideological apparatus or state institution if you can personally raise your people the same way generation after generation. Elves would have the least dynamic society by far, and probably be continuously speaking basically the same language and holding the same ideology with thousands of years of continuity.
Elves tend to me more magically inclined as well, which means the elders would have more time to master magic than entire civilizations of other species. They wouldn't even need mundane psychological abuse. They have charm spells and such. In a really extreme version (like the drow perhaps) they might dominate person so much that younger generations don't even form individual identities and their society is more like an ant colony than a human-like culture.
No.26929
In Spirit Island, does the fact that we play as wondrous spirits, as opposed to the island's inhabitants proper, detract from the anticolonial struggle?
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