darkestadam

[darkestadam]

[darkestadam]

Hey folks! I'm crowdfunding a reprint of Hard Wired Island, my cyberpunk TTRPG. Backers can get a discounted physical copy or just a PDF!

Hard Wired Island is a retrofuture cyberpunk game, inspired by 90s anime. It's set on a space station orbiting Earth in an alternate 2020 where a meteorite strike supercharged public interest in space exploration. The player characters are regular Grand Cross citizens doing their best to live their everyday lives while fighting for the station's future.

This 400-page game includes:

An easy-to-learn system where social actions and problem-solving skills are at least as important as hacking and getting into fights.

An alternate 2020 setting in an O'Neill cylinder near Earth.

Descriptions of the many locations of Grand Cross, from the busy downtown Voyager Ward to the high-tech parkland of Mariposa to the Agriculture Ring that feeds the station.

Seven Occupations, including the Fixer, the Hacker, and the Influencer, along with a plethora of character options.

Over 100 detailed NPC descriptions, from corporate heavyweights to android crime lords to just regular citizens of an Earth-orbit city.

A flexible mission prep system that allows characters to adapt their plans on the fly without wasting their earlier efforts.

A wealth system that tracks the financial burdens placed on you by the capitalist system you live in.

A cybernetics system that doesn't dehumanize you for installing augments.

A lot of great art from a lot of great artists.

No genAI because we're not gormless hacks.

The game released in 2021 to great reviews. We sold out of print copies long ago and people keep asking us for more, so now's your chance!

[darkestadam]

[darkestadam]

Oh, that's why I was thinking that.

my father just found out about the murderbot casting and sent me like a dozen angry texts about it back to back, and his take is that for thematic reasons murderbot needs to not be a white man because it is constantly misjudged based on its appearance and assumed to have no real inner life or personhood, which is (1) very insightful, (2) not actually a take i have seen elsewhere in The Discourse so far (though i have not gone out of my way to look for The Discourse tbf), and (3) not remotely what i expected a not-very-online 60something cishet white guy not ordinarily given to literary analysis to say about it??? really caught me off-guard and now i'm also annoyed i didn't think of it. like, i, the litcrit queer am over here going "idk i just think it's the least interesting choice you could make" and he's thinking about the subtextual resonances and/or ways of communicating the marginalized status of a secunit to the audience on a visceral level. goddammit.

[darkestadam]

it makes me feel insane that D&D is so wildly popular among "queer folx" despite it having The Moral Alignment Of Certain Races Over Others as a core mechanic of the game. like this game manages to be shockingly, impressively racist. you don't get to be that racist without trying really hard to be racist.

[darkestadam]

Uk peeps!! Let’s get this going! 🏳️‍⚧️🇬🇧

[darkestadam]

Makes me think of every Street Fighter after SF3 tbh.

sorry no offense to cope i like him but booking hangman oc and jay like morons to lead into a copeland return framed like 'oh now its FOR REAL' is pretty emblematic of why im checked out of aew rn

[darkestadam]

DungeonGal's posts combined with reading Dungeon Meshi have really enlightened me on how a lot of older crawler RPGs do and earlier "d20" games.

Even other types of games have situations formed from logistics are fascinating like Lancer or Heart.

sometimes i think about how one of the most common things excised from D&D-but-without-most-of-the-rules games is carry weight, which makes the bag of holding entirely worthless outside of bringing up the portable black hole fun fact. bizarre phenomena

It is funny yeah. Like, here we have an item whose very existence within the game makes it clear that this is a game that cares about logistics and carrying capacity (even though within the context of 5e carrying capacities are so huge they don't even become an issue) and then people will be like "Hmmm actually I like D&D but I hate logistics and resource management."

It is funny for the reasons you mentioned, like wow this neat magic item is only relevant when you play according to the rules, but also because it is one of the most apt examples of a disconnect between what the rules say you should care about and what people actually care about. And that's sad!

[darkestadam]

[darkestadam]

I usually listen to podcasts when I'm playing videogames with a lot of travel. Especially anything with an open world or the like where there's no dialogue to get talked over.

I have ADHD so I’m immune to podcast

[darkestadam]

The Monarch reminds me of the cartoon Swat Kats. Mostly their firing missiles but the different payloads is where the variety is.

[darkestadam]

Just in case someone in my orbit needs employment.

[darkestadam]

one of my favourite new upcoming GL manga rn, love bullet, about girls who get reincarnated as cupids except they've modernized and now they use guns instead of bows.... silly sounding premise but the visual direction is extremely striking and its been super emotionally impactful to me so far at just 7 chapters out. check out the fan translation on mangadex/dynastyscans and if you like it please buy a copy of it for 5 dollars (guide on how to buy it below) cause the sales are struggling and if it gets cancelled ill die badly,,, thank you

[darkestadam]

Some of my formative experiences are listening to @magicturtle and co's Critical Hit D&D 4e podcast and the role-playing they did during the Tactical combat encounters.

Since @thydungeongal is going through it with the "combat isn't roleplaying" people, I feel like it's worth pointing out that if you're playing a game system with a lot of combat and your big roleplaying moments are happening almost exclusively out of combat, that's a big storytelling problem that's happening.

Here are some classic story beats that most combat-heavy TTRPGs are easily capable of creating with their game mechanics:

The characters are fighting an overwhelming tide of enemies. One of them calls for a retreat, and the characters flee, only to realize that one of them stayed behind, sacrificing themselves to secure their escape.

A character is holding a single use weapon --a pistol with one shot, a scroll, a magical arrow-- and the situation is getting desperate, but that weapon has a hated foe's name on it. Do they use it now to save their friends and give up their one shot?

A character is fleeing from an enemy that has proven overwhelming in the past. Suddenly, they stop, and turn to fight. They are beginning to believe.

Two characters who have been separated for ages are finally fighting together again. They know exactly what to expect from one another, their abilities synergize perfectly, they fit one another. The carnal metaphor is obvious and goes unmentioned, but not unnoticed.

A character is dropped in a fight by an overwhelming foe who doesn't kill them, but tells them to stay down. They know if they get up, they'll die. They get up anyway.

The characters who bicker constantly and seem to hate each other outside of a fight are constantly upping the ante on who can put themselves in more danger for the other in a fight. When death is on the line, true feelings show through.

Filled with rage, one character in a fight is going too far, is being too reckless, is risking too much collateral damage. An ally steps between them and the target. If their bloodlust is truly out of control, then they'll face their friend next.

If you are experiencing a disconnect between combat and roleplaying in your combat roleplaying game, please consider whether you're telling the stories the system is equipped to tell. Because even the less great combat TTRPGs can create stories that rule.

[darkestadam]

robot mecha anime that is almost entirely about all the hundreds of mechanics and engineers that make the mech possible. the actual mech is only ever shown in parts in the bay or as a blip on a radar. the whole this is shot in a way that makes the machine as eldritch and incomprehensible as the monsters it is fighting. maybe it’s set before digital video so all glimpses of it in action are bad angles on terrible analogue monitors. such that you never even really lock down how its anatomy works. the pilot can be there and be important, but like it’s like a weird eldritch horror take on office politics.

[darkestadam]

I wonder if @dragonkid11 has heard of this.

A Planet Shark video has appeared in the wild. I'm so thrilled about it.

[darkestadam]

my name is eva and i'm a tabletop rpg designer from brasil. as you may know twitter, the place where i mainly share my games and my main source of income, has recently been blocked in my here

i would appreciate if you could reblog this post so that i can better share my games and projects on tumblr

my most popular game is called burning hearts forever, it's an open setting pbta about those who wield Hearts, weapons and tools that change shape depending on the scenario the players are playing in. you can check it on the following link