dannyplaysrpgs

[dannyplaysrpgs]

Indie ttrpgs are a niche subsection of an already niche hobby. At this scale, we're all just people. I might be fiddling away on my dumb little itch games, but the gap between me and the biggest indie designers isn't as big the gap between the biggest indie designers and Wizards of the Coast.

Being into indie ttrpgs on Tumblr is a very funny experience because while you're ambiently considering designing a little game about idk, gremlins growing cabbages or whatever there are people who built this hobby from the ground up with 15 award winning published games and three podcasts and a knighthood from a small European monarchy just doing their thing on the same platform. Imagine this was the case for any other hobby. You go to shoot some hoops behind your house and LeBron James is just there

[dannyplaysrpgs]

i just cant be bothered to get angry about dnd 5e anymore. i see all these posts examining how it sucks ass and im like damn. ive been playing better games for so long i dont even think i can analyze how it sucks ass anymore

[dannyplaysrpgs]

The Hunter/Hunted series on One Shot is the best one since Dillin took over hosting. But I NEED the other player to stop saying "baybeeeee" between scenes. It is killing the serious tone for me, and so annoying.

[dannyplaysrpgs]

On Awards, and the Grief (and Growth) of Giving Up

I made a big life decision at the start of this year I want to unpack here today, for obvious reasons.

As of this year, I made the decision to formally stop submitting my work for any kind of award, event, or industry recognition tied exclusively to a public/fan vote. Further, I would not ask others to submit on my behalf, and would go so far as to ask people not to do so. I'd like to talk about why I made that call and what it means to me.

Before I do, a necessary disclaimer: No shade whatsoever to those who do submit to those kinds of awards, and campaign for those kinds of awards. I recognize the market value in that kind of thing; the personal validation that comes from a group of people announcing you as the best. I see that all, and I'm proud of you for earning that recognition. This is strictly one person's opinion.

With that said, why did I make that call?

The truth is, from the moment I entered the tabletop industry, winning an ENnie was, to me, the benchmark of success. It was the sign that I was good at this. I let it define my relationship to my art. I couldn't stop, couldn't be satisfied, until I held that trophy.

So, every year, I would submit, and every year, I'd fall short, and every year, I'd be crushed.

At times, I could look at the list of nominees and winners and feel confident that we didn't have a chance. Other times, I didn't feel that way. But I was always viewing my work in competition, which warped how I perceived art on the whole.

Eventually, I came to the realization: it's not going to happen, and all aspiring to this platform is going to accomplish is "making me jealous of my peers instead of feeling in community with them." To find real satisfaction with the work, it can't be through that kind of mechanism.

Which is to say: I gave up. I acknowledged "my work is never going to be the kind of beloved that puts me on that pedestal, so all I am doing is setting myself up for disappointment. Better to be personally proud of something, and recognize the contributions made in other ways, than to hold yourself in a system that grinds you down year after year.

There's no shame in admitting you're giving up in something. Sometimes, things are meant to be failures. Sometimes, your best will never be good enough. I can recognize the ways in which my work is special (we hold a world record in Actual Play that will, frankly, likely never be topped, maybe not ever in my lifetime at least), without holding myself accountable to a standard that frankly, doesn't apply to the kind of art I make.

That said, there's also a grief in admitting that.

It's an acknowledgment that, on some level, the goal that I set for myself was a failure. That awards I have previously wanted to win are permanently out of my grasp, that I have failed to achieve a goal. That I, on a very literal level, wasn't good enough to do the thing.

And that's tough. Moreso on some days than others.

But, in spite of it all, I feel great about this decision. I feel like I made the right decision for myself, my work, and my trajectory as an artist.

It has been a profoundly difficult year for me, 2024. For personal reasons I cannot get into publicly. For professional reasons I've spoken about elsewhere (feeling increasingly isolated from Actual Play as an artistic community and industry).

But in this one area--claiming my own satisfaction of the work and using that to guide my own way forward--I am content.

[dannyplaysrpgs]

In the line of helpful stuff for TTRPG creators, a list of resources for art and stock images!

If you don’t have the money, you don’t have to use AI! There are cool people making affordable art!

[dannyplaysrpgs]

3 components of worldbuilding:

1. The author’s kinks

2. The author’s power fantasy

3. The author’s political agenda

Plot and logic optional

[dannyplaysrpgs]

There's a joke about owning a pet. Not so much a joke as an observation that is both clever and morbid. You bring this small, furry creature into your home. It will be foolish and frustrating and troublesome, but also amazing and surprising and beautiful. You will love it unconditionally, and it will love you unconditionally. And if you are very lucky, one day you will ask somebody to come to your home and kill it in front of you.

I wasn't lucky in 2020, and I'm not lucky now. I hate that it's so sudden. I hate that trying to keep her around would be extremely expensive. I hate that even if we had all the money in the world, it's still the best option. I hate saying goodbye in cold, sterile rooms and crying in the parking lot until I'm okay to drive. She hated everything except food, sleep, hunting mice, and me.

She was my first cat as an independent adult. Most of my time in Philadelphia, she's been there too. She's was with me through so many big life changes. And I still didn't even get a decade with her.

Addendum to the joke that is not a joke but a clever and morbid observation: whether you're lucky or not, you're going to do it all again. Because what else can you do?

[dannyplaysrpgs]

1850s Tumblr Dashboard Simulator

👸🏻 girlbossladyjane follow

It really makes me sick to see people giving money to penny weeklies when Franklin's expedition STILL has not been found 😭 There are good men out there trapped in unimaginable temperatures and literally all that's needed is a little more funding for another rescue mission yet all you guys seem to care about are your vulgar little stories...

🧔🏻‍♂️ queerqueg follow

the franklin expedition is dead as hell

👸🏻 girlbossladyjane follow

Disgraceful thing to say but I'd expect nothing less from a M*lville fan

10,558 notes

👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 hartgrindisreal

Sorry for posting so much about Tom Gradgrind/James Harthouse from Hard Times lately. It turns out that I was getting arsenic poisoning from my wallpaper? Anyway I took a seaside stroll and I'm normal now. Check your walls y'all

#whyyy did i assume they were committing unlawful actions together like where did i even get that from lol #hard times isn't even that good by dickens standards tbh

659 notes

🎨 asherbrowndurand

Just painted this

2 notes

ss-arctic-girlie-deactivated18540927

RIP Napoleon... you may have been unable to conquer Alexander's Russia but you sure as hell conquered Alexander's bed

🖼️ preraphaelitebro follow

HERITAGE POST

📝 shakespearesforehead follow

How does this have less than 100k notes you could literally not avoid this post back in the 20s lol

82,170 notes

🌄 loyalromantic follow

poets just aren't dying young in mysterious water-related incidents like they used to :/

#as useless and degenerate as i find 'the living poets' and i'm glad we're finally moving on from them #i have to agree with op in this respect

6,884 notes

🎀 thefopdiaries follow

I finally got a daguerreotype of myself ^_^ Porcelain urn for scaling

📜 bartlebi-thescrivener

i think i hauve consumption

112 notes

🐋 whaler4life

They found oil in the ground??? WTF. THIS IS LITERALLY THE WORSTTTT. FUCK MY LIFE FOR REAL THIS TIME

11 notes

🌿 naturesnaturalist follow

I swear this website has 0 reading comprehension skills. Darwin NEVER claimed we "evolved" from apes like if one of you guys actually bothered to open his new book you'll see all his arguments are backed up by evidence. He actually makes a lot of sense

#sure there's nuance like i don't fully agree with all of it #but his general theory of natural selection seems pretty sound imo

56 notes

🤵🏻‍♂️ byronicherotournament follow

🙈 butchbronte follow

Of course these are the finalists lmao this website is so predictable. Anyway vote Heathcliff if you dont i'm going to assume you're a phrenologist

📖 sapphichelenburns follow

It's not problematic to acknowledge the fact that Heathcliff was a brute like he literally killed dogs in case you forgot. Anyway #rochestersweep

🙈 butchbronte follow

I love the implication here that Rochester never did anything cruel either. He literally locked his wife in the attic and lied to Jane about it 😭 like that was a pretty significant thing that happened

📖 sapphichelenburns follow

And? God forbid women do anything

#why'd you have to pit two bad bitches against each other #anyway i'm not attracted to men but still went with rochester #bc in terms of living quarters thornfield hall > wuthering heights easily

8,027 notes

👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 hartgrindisreal

Not the Russian tsar dying immediately after hartgrind became canon

#i know dickens hasn't technically confirmed it yet but like. SOMETHING was strongly implied ok #see: my previous post #dickensposting

522 notes

👨🏻‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏻 hartgrindisreal

LORD HELP ME. THE BODY LANGUAGE. THE WAY THEY'RE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER. AHHHHHH

#this installment!!! im-- #dickensposting #i can't fucking cope #dickens wants to KILL us he wants us DEAD....

2,309 notes

⭐️ newamerican

Hi guys sorry I haven't been posting lately it's been so difficult getting to California 💀 I'm finally here now though just need to find a pickaxe and soon I'll be digging! :-) wish me luck lol

#gold #gold rush #gold rush grind #california #adventure

0 notes

[dannyplaysrpgs]

Youtube Essays Shill Post

I'm getting close to 1000 subscribers so I'm gonna make a shill post for my channel. I make videos on independent RPGs (no D&D/Pathfinder etc), highlighting narrative moves, the intersection of mechanics and themes, and analyzing them in parallel with books, movies, and game theory. I've had a really great crop of essays this year, and I bet at least one of them will do it for you:

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Spire RPG & Babel: The Monstrosity of Empire, the Necessity of Violence (52 min)

I read Spire: The City Must Fall in parallel with RF Kuang's Babel: An Arcane History, and try to make the connection between Spire's worldbuilding and the British Empire's historical methods of extracting labor and resources from its colonized subjects. I'm especially proud of how I work through the ways in which Spire's Drow are treated as commodities, emulating how Britain's most valuable resource was human beings, and discuss why there's not an alternative available to the Drow except for violent uprising.

Heart RPG, Annihilation, and Sangfielle: Brainworms all the Way Down (38 min)

I follow the themes of compulsion, infection, and dissemination of a supernatural intelligence that I found both in Heart : The City Beneath and in Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation. It's kind of gross, but if you like reading about parasites, strange urges, and transformations that destroy the self, you'll probably be into this. I also make a few references to Friends at the Table's Sangfielle season, if you're a FATT fan.

Apocalypse Keys and Desperation to Belong (15 min)

Apocalypse Keys is a really interesting game, but it's also the most emotional game I read this year? It's all about heartbreak, longing, and trying to hold on to the people you love, even though you know you'll lose them in the end. The essay is also very much tied up in my feelings on diaspora, faith, and what it's like to be excluded, except for the home you make for yourself. It's also like, undeniably queer in a way I think a lot of folks will relate to.

The Endings of Hellwhalers and the Fewness of the Saved (28 min)

Okay I actually talk about being an ex-Catholic a lot, but this is my most explicitly religiously-inspired essay. I compare the text of Hellwhalers and its interpretations of Christian hell to the actual Catholic doctrines of hell, including the sermon that eventually made me break away from the Church altogether. If you like whales and religious trauma, please check this out.

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Please consider taking a look at my channel! I hate having to beg for viewers, but there's just no other way to build an audience, and I'm really proud of the work I've done this year!

[dannyplaysrpgs]

Heroes Of Lite

Hey. Do you like Fire Emblem?

Heroes Of Lite, by nattwentea, is a feature length tabletop adaptation that somehow manages to be both extremely faithful to the source mechanics, quick to run, and easy to learn if you've played a little 5e.

It's also packed with cute custom art, and the clean layout makes it easy to read.

Most of the fan rpgs I see are legally distinct, which lets them explore new territory, but by being overtly a Fire Emblem game Heroes Of Lite also does something that I think is important, which is synthesis.

HOL pulls in elements from early Fire Emblems, later Fire Emblems, even the gatcha game, and translates them to running in a tabletop environment in a way that feels authentic to the series. There's even a savescumming feature (Divine Dice) that lets players use preloaded numbers on certain rolls.

I ended up stumbling across it because a friend in my 5e game asked if there were any Fire Emblem ttrpgs (asking this in my presence is a mistake) and I went on a several hour research crawl. I'm glad I did, and I wanted to shout it out in case anyone else here was looking for something similar.

[dannyplaysrpgs]

ough. transness as a form of possession. collapses into dust

[dannyplaysrpgs]

Also, the fact that certain classes just straight up get more HP than others. Even if HP did factor in willpower or stamina or luck or whatever, why would the classes that are the most physically active get more than the classes that aren't? It has to be the amount and quality of meat.

I love the whole Hit Points Not Meat Points thing with D&D because like. Okay I guess that saying "HP is an abstraction of your physical and mental durabilty and your will to fight etc. when you lose HP it doesn't necessarily represent taking physical damage, it can also represent getting worn down by the fight" can be a nice-sounding way to handwave away why D&D characters tend to become damage sponges as they level up, but then the book refuses to commit to that idea in any meaningful way and never describes HP in any terms other than physical damage anywhere beyond that one paragraph.

And then D&D fans who swear by that one paragraph will hear someone say that HP makes no sense and they'll be like "no bro HP makes total sense as long as you keep in mind that hits aren't actually hits, damage isn't actually damage, and healing isn't actually healing"

[dannyplaysrpgs]

it’s still hot out. time to romanticize the bleak mid-winter

[dannyplaysrpgs]

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

[dannyplaysrpgs]

"Liminal" means "boundary" as in "the veil is thin here"

Liminal spaces are places that feel dreamlike, fuzzy on reality. Their boundaries are unstable. A bus station at night. A long desert highway. A bridge over a river.

They do, however, have an opposite; the Proximal space. These are places that feel far too real, extremely defined, boundaries that seem to override natural forces like time or space. Large warehouses without windows, identical chain stores at disorienting hours, your home after a nap of indeterminate time.

[dannyplaysrpgs]

the best thing you can do to make your ttrpg good is to give it a specific point of view. knowing the limitations of that point of view will free you from the burdens and exhaustion of having to write as a perfect exhaustive external observer while also creating a stronger text that people can remember and connect with

[dannyplaysrpgs]

To a homophobe, even the most chaste kiss on the cheek between gay people is exactly as disgusting and degenerate as a hardcore BDSM orgy hosted in the town square, so you may as well ally with the BDSM orgy enthusiasts to throw bricks at the cops who are going to try and arrest all of you together anyway.