#boarding school rpg

[corpocyborg]

God, I will never not enjoy how surprised nearly all my younger students get when they find out how much I know about video games. Like... but you're my teacher... and you're nearly 30... and you're a woman... how can this be??? 🤯

[slutstarring]

i can’t believe today marks 12 years of me roleplaying on tmblr!! i am old af 😦

[martianmuckraker]

HazMat Hell on Hades III

The danger is supposed to be out there, outside the life support bubble. You are supposed to be safe in here. But someone mismanaged the Colony’s hazardous materials and now the environment within the bubble is as dangerous as the environment outside . . . Hostile Sun Sagas will publish monthly. Each will contain Three highly detailed Maps with unique objectives, clues and deadly hazards. Many…

[mochinomnoms]

I'm curious about the dreams Idia was having about the reader.

(reference to this)

nsfw under read-more, minors DNI!

It's quite silly, really. Idia was never one to yearn for the touch, closeness, the affections of a person. He was fine, being alone. It was better this way. He could cope with his games and shows, online groups and friends filling the void. Besides, why would he want to drag another person into the Shroud curse? It already took one person from him, Idia couldn't stand doing it to another as long as it was up to him. Plus, he wasn't exactly prime boyfriend, let alone husband material (perhaps he did that intentionally).

So, Idia wasn't all too worried when he first started becoming friends with you. You were kinda weird, but a friend to introverts like him! Somehow always a wallflower, but always involved in the chaos of overblots and school. But, you were conscientious of his need for space and privacy; Ortho must have said something to you about his eating habits, cause you started bringing food other than chips, soda, and ramen cups for him to eat, like actual meals. You also liked to entertain Ortho, who liked when you drew silly designs on his plating, which is always a plus in Idia's book. You were sweet, like his favorite ramune soda. Despite having abysmal skills in gaming (which he was all too happy to make fun of you for) he liked having you as his support, watching him on the sidelines and being a cute cheerleader. In exchange, Idia lent you an old gaming computer and bullied tutored you in a few of his favorite games so you could be his squishy healer in raids.

But, he was a bit worried when he started feeling something more than platonic things for you. Then, he was exceptionally concerned when, at the first day of spring, Idia started coughing hydrangeas, which he managed to secretly keep under wraps from Ortho for a few weeks. No, he was downright mortified when, during those few weeks, night after night, he started having dreams of you.

They started off innocent at first: you on his lap, head on his shoulder, as he played the latest RPG. You murmured words of encouragement, sleepily nuzzling your head into his. Another, he was in the board game club, where you cheered him on as he won a match against Azul in some luck-based game. Idia remembers giving Azul a smug smirk as you threw your arms around him and pressed kisses into his cheek. He even faintly remembers one where you simply sat with him in class, fingers lacing through his in comfort as he dealt with the anxiety of being out and about.

It wasn't until he was a week in when the dreams, infested with hydrangea bouquets always at the corner of his eye, that he knew he was utterly screwed beyond belief.

It started off sweet, at first. This time, you were with him at Styx, though you looked a few years older and were wearing a similar uniform to his mother. He was wearing the uniform as well, though it more closely resembled his father's. He was now Styx head, and you, his precious little wife. The domestic stuff was fine, it made his heart rate spike up so much that Ortho questioned if he had a nightmare while sleeping, but it was fine he could deal. You did look cute… as you smiled up at him… leaned up to kiss his cheek… and whisper in his ear…

“Idiaaa~ What if I crawled under your desk and sucked you off? Do you think you could stay quiet? You can, can't you? For me~”

It was fuzzy, when he tried to remember it, but Idia remembers the heat pooling in his belly. Your hands trailing down his chest down to his hips. Your lips following after and pressing soft, slow kisses down and down until—

Idia's flames grew into a burning, hot pink as his face is in his hands the following morning. He'd actually gone to bed at a reasonable time (to him anyway, 3 am was reasonable), and woke up with that in his head? How was he supposed to function? How was he supposed to look at you, talk with you, when the last memory he had was a dream of you sucking him off???

It progressively got worse from there. It was a weird mix of erotically domestic scenarios. You, waking up to him in bed before work, riding him as you cooed sweet words. Another of the two of you heavy petting, his hands groping your ass as you curled your body into his, making out in his office before Idia had to run off to a meeting, leaving you pouting and telling him to, “Hurry back to your needy little wifey~” One of you cooking him breakfast in one of his shirts, before he bent you over the kitchen counter, after which you sat on his lap and hand fed him.

The last one that really freaked him out, which led to him further isolating himself until Ortho dragged him out to the nurse, was one where he woke up to you next to him in bed. You smiled the sweetest smile to him, whispering to Idia how much you loved him, moving over to press a trail of kisses from his lips, to his neck, down his chest and abdomen. Idia was anticipating the same follow-up from his first dream, especially as your hands reached to pull his briefs down before a soft whine, followed by a cry, interrupted you.

He had no clue what to think, as you make a surprised noise, smiling at him, as the following words left your mouth: “The baby's awake, guess we'll have to continue this later, huh?” Dream Idia giggled along with you as the two of you shared a kiss, watching as you rolled off the bed to the bassinet that he was just noticing. He watched as you cooed and murmured soft words to the small, blue-flamed haired baby, reaching their tiny hands for you. But it was the next sentence that bolted him from sleep into a dry sweat:

“Say good morning! Say, 'good morning' to your baba, my darling~”

Idia let out a screech as he flailed out of bed, tangled in his sheets. He was coughing up a storm of hydrangeas when Ortho flew in, panicked and already full of concern for Idia's health. It was then Ortho started insisting that Idia visit the infirmary, much to his chargin.

At least you'd never see him like this… right?

[thydungeongal]

Hey there! I just say your post about dungeon crawlers. I was curious about your second bullet point, "Dungeon-crawling challenge games actually kind of own if you're willing to engage with them on their own terms! There's a lot of potential for cool gameplay if you let go of silly reductive notions like "roleplaying" being just being when you play-act your character or social interaction!" I was curious if you'd mind telling me more about how you feel roleplay should be handled in these types of games. I am genuinely interested to hear your thoughts. :)

Okay, first of all, I have a very broad and admittedly circular definition of role-playing (in the context of role-playing game): role-playing is when you're playing a role-playing game.

As said, it's circular, but ultimately, throughout my years of playing role-playing games I've found that all other definitions are unsatisfying. To conclude that role-playing is the parts where the mechanics aren't used (the roll-playing and role-playing dichotomy) implies that mechanics are somehow inherently contrary to a good role-playing game experience, which is simply untrue, because good mechanics can actually enhance the narrative! Saying that only the social parts of play are role-playing undermines the fact that players will be still making decisions for their characters in various other situations where the personal and emotional stakes can be even greater than in social situations!

Ultimately, role-playing games as a medium are defined by the possibility space, and specifically that possibility space being near infinite. There's an old line I keep bringing up from some painfully twee eighties RPG ad which goes like "Role-playing games are like board games but you can move outside the board!" and ultimately that is the thing that defines a role-playing game. It's a game where the players collaborate in a shared fictional space to produce cool little narratives although sometimes the cool little narratives aren't the point but it's literally like a lil challenge that the players try to overcome by interfacing with the fiction and engaging with the mechanics.

To tie this into dungeon crawlers: even a traditional dungeon crawler is ultimately a role-playing game because it has the players engaging, via their characters, with the shared fiction, sometimes mediated by the rules. A lot of people assume that a dungeon crawler must mean that the gameplay is nothing but a meat grinder, but this is actually ahistorical and not actually reflective of how old-school dungeon crawling RPGs play out!

Even the most basic dungeon is still a location in the setting it's part of, so there is plenty of narrative content to be found there. The characters might just be motivated by greed, but there is plenty of narratively satisfying content that can happen in the pursuit of that goal once one accepts that there need not be a linear narrative where the characters must hit certain story beats, but the story itself can just be "the characters went into a place, explored, interacted with the locals, found out some secrets about the dungeon, fought some monsters." That is still role-playing.

None of this is to say that the play-acting part of play (which I sometimes call characterization) is in any way bad: in fact, it can very much enhance the gameplay. But that is in and of itself not the end-all-be-all of role-playing!

Anyway role-playing is so much more than describing your cool elf kissing other cool elves, it can also be your cool elf finding a cool sword in a dungeon and giving it a name. Dungeon crawlers kick ass because the GM can craft a whole narrative about how the dungeon used to be and then reveal it slowly to the players through their characters finding fantasy audiologs and that is already narratively satisfying in and of itself!

[all-pacas]

one random and irrelevant skill for each fellow:

Foreman is a very good baker and cook. He used to help his mother in the kitchen — she always liked to bake something to bring to church Sundays —and he found the precision that goes into baking relaxing and deeply satisfying. Sometimes he still will bake some cookies or a coffee cake from scratch, but he also finds this skill vaguely embarrassing and so has never shared the results or his ability with any of his coworkers.

Cameron was on the track team in high school and has run several 5ks. She's thought about training for a marathon, but she likes being able to not just run but go fast: the physical strength and skill of a marathon does appeal to her, but her event was always short distance sprints, going so fast you feel like you're flying. She does still make it a point to go running. She vaguely looks down on joggers, although she knows it's irrational.

Chase is pretty good at drawing. Like, not was going to art school good, he's never tried painting or picked up a set of pencils, but he'd draw all over his papers and tests growing up, he's got a good eye for sketching, has to put in effort not to doodle on his paperwork even now. It's really just one more way he fidgets.

Taub is a big reader. He is capable of reading and enjoying Literature, he likes nonfiction, he likes novels, he isn't just someone who says he likes to read but never really does, he actually does do it. He and his wife dipped in and out of book clubs over the years. He's capable of having very smart conversations about books and themes and narration. This never ever comes up at work.

13 is really good at video games. She's not even a huge gamer. She played with her brother growing up, she likes games, but she doesn't own a (checks dates) PS3 or anything. But she is uncannily good at fighting games, racing games, anything that involves reflexes and competition. She is unbeatable at Super Smash Bros, and competitive enough that she wants to kick everyone's ass at it. She finds RPGs and story-driven games interesting in theory and boring in practice. When she plays Sim City, she turns disaster intensity all the way up.

Kutner has an uncanny memory for TV shows and movies and trivia. He's a Fandom Nerd, although without the fandom. He remembers the details of things he watched years ago, he can and will argue character motivation and who portrayed what best. This does not really apply to doctor stuff. He struggles to keep the millions of diseases and progressions he's expected to know in diagnostics straight. But ask him the synopsis of an episode to a show he loves and he's there.

Adams is lowkey a Horse Girl. She had a horse growing up. She rode competitively. She is absolutely aware that bringing this up around House or Chase, who would tell House, or Taub, who would tell House, etc., would be absolute social suicide. She is saving up to buy not just a house, but one with a stable.

Park is really, really good at poker. All card games, really. She's played a lot with her grandmother and her old lady friends, and knows how to count cards, and is basically unbeatable and can rake in money. She'd give House a run for his, although she's a little 'over' it, since basically her entire childhood was spent playing cards and board games with her grandmother, who she loves and all, but, you know. Enough is a enough. She's also aware it's a useful hidden skill to have, in case she ever needs to take her boss to the cleaner's.

[artemisadore]

Engaging with fandom as an adult is so strange having grown up on message boards and fanfiction.net and RPG forums 😭 But Dead Boy Detectives has a hold on my brain and won't let go! And actually has me writing fanfiction again for the first time in over a decade!

But it has me thinking, likeeee...I was nine-years-old writing self-insert ATLA stories in between episodes (S1 Zuko ignited my love of villains lol). I was eleven role-playing Yugioh characters with Real Adults with Real Jobs and would be like, "Ah yes, I too understand stress," but I was talking about studying for a social studies test. I was twelve entering fandom shipping one-shot contests voted on by readers (and doing alarmingly well), but I insisted in my author's notes that all the queer ships "could be seen as friends...or maybe something more if you squint" (and then consequently did not realize I was queer for another seven years lol, but that's a different story). I would write grotesque horror tendershipping fics at night and then wake up and go to Catholic school without batting an eye 😅

As funny as it is to look back on now, fandom is also the first place I explored queer relationships through my reading and writing. Enjoltaire fanfiction during college gave me the words I needed when I realized I wasn't straight. It taught me to take (and give!) constructive criticism at a young age. It has always been a safe place for me to learn and explore and enjoy and create, and maybe it's no wonder I've found my way back to it now as a twenty-seven-year-old with a wife and a house and a job and so much more life lived since way back then.

So all that ranting to say -- fandom is really cool, I was a dark preteen, I'm writing Catwin fanfiction as we speak, and maybe other queer adults can relate!

[jettermelon]

I think this is a week or two late, but there was some fantastic discussion happening on TTRPG Tumblr earlier this month about incentive systems in rpgs - @thydungeongal, @imsobadatnicknames2, and @cavegirlpoems all have good posts that you should read. I’m here though to talk about incentive systems in games more generally. I’m seeing a lot of confusion in the notes of those posts about why they’re used in the first place (and also because I’m trying to articulate my own thoughts about them! I’m still a baby designer trying to figure out how all this works).

So real quick, let’s all get on the same page. Games are a voluntary limitation of agency, right? While playing the game, participants agree that certain arbitrary actions are off limits, while other actions are desirable. Which actions are off limits and which are desirable then create a certain experience. Go Fish and Texas Hold ‘em play fundamentally differently, and create a different emotional experience in their players, despite literally using the same components. The only difference is which actions are off limits, and which are desirable. We then play those games because the emotional space that play creates is... well fun. The whole point of rules in games is to put players in a specific emotional space. 

This same idea can then be applied to more complex or thematic games. For example classic board game Clue loosely simulates the experience of being an old school mystery novel detective. It drip feeds you clues, and because the first player to correctly guess whodunit wins, players are encouraged to make their guess before they’ve mathematically “proven” the solution. Winning at Clue, then, requires some deductive reasoning skills, and when everything’s working it makes you feel like the hero in an Agatha Christie novel. That feeling is the goal of Clue’s design.

Okay, sweet, so we all agree that systems when voluntarily engaged with can create certain emotional states in the player - and those systems can be deliberately designed to invoke specific fantasies (this is what folks mean when they say “game design is real” btw!). Now I want to take a look at incentive systems specifically. So far the games I’ve used as examples all have the same, very simple incentive system: do a specific Thing and you win. Even with such a simple system, you can get a lot of mileage. Again, to win at Clue you have to name the murderer before anyone else. That “before anyone else” bit is key here. It encourages the player to be risky - to try and deduce what the other players know. That way they can make a call before anyone else has the chance to gather enough clues to solve the puzzle through process of elimination. That single incentive system contains most of the game’s fantasy. Change how you win a bit, and the game no longer fulfills its fantasy. If multiple players could win, you would no longer have incentive to make a call before you had literally all the information and therefore no deduction would be necessary. 

Now obviously “winning” doesn’t have to be the only incentive, especially as your game gets more complex. Let's take a step out of the tabletop realm for a sec (there are other board games I could use here, but all that’s coming to mind are fucking Nerd Games™ and I want to keep my examples accessible) and take a look at the most recent Legend of Zelda games. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have incentive systems a lot closer to your typical TTRPG than something like Clue does. Sure, there’s the main quest to win the game (kill Matthew Mercer), but that’s really difficult to do at the start. And also like... not really the fun part of those games. The fun part is exploring Hyrule. And whether you realized it or not, the Zelda designers bribed you into engaging with the fun part of their game. 

Imagine for a second if Breath of the Wild was missing its Shrines, Korok Seeds and sidequests. Literally the exact same game, same level geometry, same backstory, same enemy placement, just no rewards out in the wild. It would kind of suck yeah? You’d get tired of exploring right away, and just play it like an action game. Even if you added back in the parts of the game most of us consider fun (Shrines, Korok puzzles, actual content to find out in the wild) but withheld the rewards which make Link stronger (loot, Spirit Orbs, Korok seeds, etc), only completionists would bother doing any of that. The rewards are what lured us into the fun part of the game - without the rewards the game would have been less fun. Not only that, but it would have lost its core fantasy. It would have stopped being a game about exploring the wild, and turned into a game about killing an evil pig. All you had to change was the incentive system.

I think you're seeing how this applies to TTRPGs now. The things which make a player character stronger (that is to say, gives them more agency over the gameworld) are the things your players will gun for. A smart designer is going to make sure their incentive system rewards play which guides players to the game’s core fantasy. If your game is about being a badass monster hunter, XP for killing monsters is a fine reward structure. If the game is about making your and your friend’s OCs kiss, then you need a reward structure that incentivizes OC smooching. 

Now some of you are protesting “but my friend’s OC and my OC smooch in D&D sometimes! What gives Lucy?” What you’re doing there is called playing pretend (a fantastic pastime, this is not meant as a knock on playing pretend. I do it all the time actually), but you shouldn’t give D&D or its designers credit for that. YOU AND YOUR FRIEND are responsible for that cool story - not WotC. Take credit for the cool shit you and your friends make, don’t give it to some corporation. 

Idfk how to end this uhhhh.... Game design is really cool, and it can incentivize real neat stories when properly utilized. If you’re ignoring your game’s designed reward structure, then the cool stories that come out of it are a result of you and your friends being good at telling stories (seriously go give your GM a big ol’ hug if you haven’t already), not the game. If you are the GM and regularly ignore your game’s incentive systems, there are probably other games which better reward the style of play you want. Love yourself more than you love D&D and life is good. Or whatever

[theresattrpgforthat]

would you happen to know about any ttrpg that could run/emulate the tone of STALKER/Annihilation?

Frail humain beings entering a Fucked Up Zone with the intent if reaching the center and things getting weirder and more dangerous the farther they go in?

THEME: Eerie Fucked Up Settings

Friend I have some truly excellent games for you this week.

TRESPASSER, by Binary Star Games.

The Zone is an area that's been sealed off by a nation or group of nations due to its danger. It's filled with Anomalies, extremely dangerous areas where physical laws like gravity, magnetism, electricity, or chemistry can break down to lethal effect, as well as mutants and things considered impossible.

Like many, you have entered the Zone, but not legally. You are collectively known as Trespassers. Some inside are on their own, some in groups, some part of larger factions. But most want one thing: to reach the centre and claim what it conceals.

This game can accommodate a GM but it isn’t necessary - in fact, you can even play it solo! As this game is inspired by STALKER, I think it’s going to really give you the vibe you’re going for. Troubles in Breathless games escalate as you play, so the longer you stay in The Zone, the worse things are going to get. I definitely recommend checking out this game!

BLOOM, by Litza Bronwyn.

BLOOM is a solo gmless journaling game in which you play a teenage girl trapped in quarantine at a boarding school on an island infected by the Tox, a plague that makes the trees and animals grow huge and hungry, and mutates your body in strange and horrific ways. In it, you will draw cards and write journal entries based on specific prompts in order to craft a story of survival and love.

I’ve read the book Wilder Girls by Rory Power, and it has a lot of the same themes as Annihilation and STALKER, so it might fit the niche you’re looking for. As a solo game, this uses the Wretched & Alone SRD, so you’ll probably want a Jenga tower, and you’ll definitely want a deck of cards.

Navigator, by Micheal Klamerus.

Navigator is a two-player tabletop rpg created for the Just the Two of Us Jam. It's inspired by the movie Stalker and the games Alone Among the Stars, Memoirs of a Barbarian and Thirst.

In this game two players journey into a mysterious, restricted site known as the Zone to find a room rumoured to grant people their innermost desires. One player is The Client, a person who wants to find this room and have their wish granted, and the other player is The Navigator, a person with previous experience navigating the Zone that has been hired by The Client to help them find the Room.

This game is definitely inspired by media such as STALKER, but it doesn’t have to be inspired by that. When I played this game, we decided to go for something a bit more fantastical, but if you and the person you play this with agree on the same inspiration, you should have no trouble experiencing this as an eerie, unnerving, dangerous setting.

Exclusion Zone Botanist, by Exeunt Press.

YOU ARE AN EXCLUSION ZONE BOTANIST. GET IN. DISCOVER AND DOCUMENT. GET OUT.

Another one for the solo enthusiasts, and it’s inspired by Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation. Your character is specifically looking for plants, which you will locate by rolling 2d6. You get a little hex map to track your progress as you play. As you go, you risk being influenced by the corruption of the zone. Your goal is to document as many plants as possible before you become the forest - because if you are corrupted too much, they can’t pull you out. A delightfully time-sensitive game.

The Zone, by Laughing Kaiju.

The digital tabletop storygame of magical realism, mutant weirdness, and collaborative self-destruction.

This is a really cool digital ttrpg, with a physical version on the way. You can play solo or multiplayer, and the website will guide you through play step by step. The game is meant to be collaborative, so everyone will have moments where they direct play. The author also encourages you to play to lose - this is a tragic game, a horror game. The game itself uses a number of cards representing locations, laid out in a spiral to form an abstract sort of map. Each location will have its own scene, probably more. And rather than rolling dice to resolve tasks, you choose whether something is easily doable, or not-so-easy - in which case you pull from a deck. This is where the mutations may come from.

If you are interested in the physical version of this game, they’re currently taking pre-orders on Backerkit!

[nica-my-beloved]

Things I Love and Dislove About Ikemen Games

These are my opinions!

CONTAINS ADULT CHARACTERS

You don't know how much this means to me because most of the time I try finding shoujo mangas I end up with stories that involve high school kids.

I'm a die heart fan of demon romance but majority of the shoujo manga that explores supernatural beings involves a 1000 year old demon king falling in love with a 16 year old high school girl. This sickens me not only because of the age gap but one of the party is a freaking minor.

As an adult, I'm so happy the Ikemen Games doesn't involve younger characters or at least characters that are 'minor' as a romantic partner.

MC's ONLY JOB IS TO SIMPLYFY THE STORY

I have said this before, MCs are just props to simplify the story and characters to us because the writers think we're too dumb to understand what the character is saying. They're like Paimon so that we don't use our braincells to understand the characters better.

I wish they didn't do that and have MCs backstories that describes their personality. I mean, all the MCs want to 'prove' to the male leads that they wanna be 'strong' but I'm tired of this trope.

Why does MCs have to always be innocent and prove themselves? Why does she always want to 'understand' the male leads? Can't we...for once have a romance that doesn't involve MCs teaching male leads true love?

Also STOP give MCs odd jobs! Book stall employee...letter carrier? I mean who is happy and satisfied doing this? How about giving the high-paying jobs like Auditor or Businesswoman or Scientist or etc etc...I know Mai is a fashion designer and businesswoman and Mitsuki is a travel agent turned maid. Alice is a baker and Yoshino is a pharmacist. The only MCs that continues to follow the path of their dreams is Mai and Yoshino.

MATURE ROMANCE

I enjoy seeing two adults slowly fall in love.

There is something different about teenagers falling in love vs adults falling in love. The romance is more realistic. They don't talk about how they're gonna plan their future together or which college they're going to go instead their chat is much more deep and that's refreshing.

NO BAD ENDINGS

Happy endings are nice. Everyone deserves one! But when there are no bad endings, the story won't have stakes.....and when there are no stakes, I can't take any gunshot sounds, blank screen and MCs saying 'Is this the end?' seriously.

Just stop being cowards writers! Put some bad endings!!

FAIR SHARE OF ROMANCE

Although I have played my fair share of Maiden games, majority of them are not that romantic.

I love cute romance moments to lighten up the mood and I really need them. Ikemen games delivers that too well....way too well...

I do have some criticism for random steamy scenes, I don't mind as long as they have context and mood.

The story is not so story focused all the time and also has time for mischievous romance which I like! It helps in calming me down and enjoy at the same time.

BULLSHIT GACHA SYSTEM AND NON-EXISTING GRINDING SYSTEM (Not very F2P friendly)

Even though Genshin's gacha system is shit (you need mf 90 wishes to get a guaranteed 5 star and 180 wishes to get the limited 5 star you want!) I still think it's ways better than the gacha system of these Ikemen Games.

Yes I agree that both the games are different in genre, one is an open world anime rpg and other is a maiden game with gacha mechanics. But that doesn't mean that I have to always pay to buy limited gacha tickets!! At least genshin gives us an open world to explore and grind primos (even though its time consuming)

Yes they do give limited tickets when you enter an event or complete the mission board but that's only ONE TICKET and you need 50 LIMITED TICKETS to get your guaranteed limited 5 star card. On the other hand, they give out many standard tickets but what am I gonna do with it if they aren't gonna update the standard banner?

These games are NOT F2P friendly and if you wanna...like say, want rank no.1 in an event you'd have to save a lot of items.

Ofc I know about the subscription thing and you do indeed get a lot of items, but the most essential thing for me is limited gacha tickets and diamonds because I wanna collect as many beautiful cards as possible and you don't get them from these monthly subscriptions. It's a waste of $5 very month. I'd rather buy a nice hair care or skin care items from that.

INTERESTING SETTINGS

I have my criticism in some of their stories but I can't deny that I LOVEE their story settings. Their premise for each game is solid to the point it makes me wanna actually try it.

This is something I find very rare in 'shoujo' genre.

For example, I don't like Vampire themed games because they suck! (both figuratively and literally) but Ikemen Vampire interests me because they take real historical figures and makes them vampire, which is a really cool idea! You don't know but I'd die to get myself in situation like that because it would be an honor to meet some great historical figures, chat with them and make them lose all their brain cells just like me. I would die to meet especially Isaac Newton and grill him for making those torturous physics theories that gave me brain tumors in my school.

Very cool setting! I can't wait to see what's in store for us in the future!!!

EVENTS ARE INSANELY BORING

I've never enjoyed a single story event from Ikemen Villains. They are boring and makes me fall asleep immediately at chapter 1. I think that kinda spread to Ikemen Prince because I barely open Ikemen Prince app now.

I honestly don't find the stories of these events interesting at all. It always feels like 'I have seen this before' maybe in some other game or some other manga.

And the Collections events.....yeah, I hate them! I wish they never existed!!! They keep the fan-loved characters at the butt-end of the list where 90% of the players don't even make it unless they burn their whole month's salary. I know that's why they do these anniversary elections because I bet if Sariel was the most voted character, his story would have been the most expensive one to get.

VERY LIKEABLE MALE LEADS

This is a personal thing but I love charismatic male leads a lot! Male leads with a lot of suave and beauty! Yes I care about these things when I play gacha games okay! I play gacha games to look at hot guys (because I know I'm never gonna get one in real life!)

But I also love that the devs puts an effort to make them feel good too. So I wanna give a shoutout to them!!! 'KEEP GOING!!! JUST DON'T MAKE TRIGGERING MEN WHO SAYS 'I'LL KILL YOU'!!!

[secretsnowclub]

Snow's TTRPG Class: Lesson #1, a reading list of experimental rpgs

"Go ahead, put anything here," Tumblr says. Well don't you worry, Tumblr. I will put anything here. Just wait and see.

I wrote this article: https://nerves.games/2023/07/26/snows-ttrpg-class-reading-list/

It's got some words in there. Go check it out. OR, just look this list of games and read them. It's your first assignment. These are all games that I think have pushed on the boundaries of TTRPGs and most of them I would consider experimental. They are in alphabetical order.

Adventure RPG (in Need of Translation), Mameli – https://better-legends.itch.io/adventure-rpg-in-need-of-translation 

Apollo 47 Technical Manual, Hutchings – https://thousandyearoldvampire.com/products/apollo-47-technical-manual-an-rpg 

Care for Hecuba, Libre – https://bigstuffedcat.itch.io/care-for-hecuba 

Clay Creatures, Sinclair – https://s-jared.itch.io/clay-creatures 

Disk Horse, Geist – https://fm-geist.itch.io/disk-horse-1-off-to-the-races 

Don’t Lose Your Mind, Baugh – https://evilhat.com/product/don-t-lose-your-mind 

Everyone is John, Sullivan – https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/271276/Everyone-is-John 

Feedback, Slattery – https://adira.itch.io/feedback 

Flying Games, Dragon – https://possumcreekgames.itch.io/flying-games 

Freebase, Thron & Shaughnessy – https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1411822901179.pdf 

I EAT MANTRAS FOR BREAKFAST, Mison – https://mariabumby.itch.io/i-eat-mantras-for-breakfast 

kill puppies for satan, Baker – https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1370/08/1370081361036.pdf 

Lady Blackbird, Harper – https://johnharper.itch.io/lady-blackbird 

Paranoia, Costikyan, Gelber, and Goldberg – https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/224392/Paranoia–First-Edition 

Plot Armor, Black – https://oriondblack.itch.io/plot-armor 

Print Weaver, Morrison – https://nlmorrison.itch.io/print-weaver 

Teen Witch, Adler – https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/variations-on-your-body 

Ten Candles, Dewey – https://cavalrygames.com/shop/ten-candles-pdf 

This Discord Has Ghosts in it, Jobst & Vass – https://willjobst.itch.io/ghosts 

Unusual Esoterica, Unpleasant – https://axesorcs.itch.io/unusual-esoterica-series-1 

We Are But Worms, LaBresh – https://riverhousegames.itch.io/we-are-but-worms-a-one-word-rpg 

Wisher, Theurgist, Fatalist, Moran – https://afarandasunlessland.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/wtf.pdf

If you didn't read the article: this is not a list of best rpgs, or a list of great starter rpgs, or a list of my favorite games! It's simply a list of experimental games that I think pushed the bounds. I think if you're in my internet house (which you are while you read this, welcome in, get comfy, we've got fresh-squeezed water) you should read these and have opinions on them, even if your opinion is "lol, lmao, this is trash." But this is school so you have to put it in a complete sentence of you get an F. Minus.

Bye,

Snow

[blackbirdsnonsense]

I think I'm gonna have to get this Twyla cause I love she comes with D20s.

Also, that board implies she's playing a TTRPG based on Monster High itself.

OK, I've now headcanoned an idea that Twyla made a private RPG of Monster High to help her deal with social situations like Reg Barkly did in TNG.

Then after she became friends with the main boos, they stumbled upon the board & convinced her to start an actual campaign.

They leave based on the school but decide on a new background & play different/exaggerated versions of themselves.

Basically, since no one really likes it anyway, their campaign is G2.

Which explains why it's the more adventure focused series.

Also the reason Ghoulia isn't there is because she's the only one who understands you're supposed to create a NEW character & so that's why we have Moanica & her army of Zomboyz.

Cause Goulia waned to play an evilish character.

It also explains why G2 Cleo is such a goober cause Cleo doesn't really know how to play the game, she just wants to spend time with Frankie.

And why they spend so much time together in that series.

The Maplogue is just their excuse to go different places without having to always go through the steps of it.

It's honestly amazing how much this idea works if you really think about it.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Aita for never making white ttrpg characters?

Title is a little weird, but I play a lot of ttrpgs with friends. I (M19) am white, so is all but one girl in our ttrpg group (F23), she’s Puerto Rican.

Anyways, all the games we play are rpgs based in the real world, whether they be urban fantasy or horror, they’re never in fantasy worlds. I like to explore different cultures, researching them and designing accurate characters for these games. I made a Bangladeshi girl for a MASKS: New Generations game who wanted to be the first desi superhero in America and was attending a superhero boarding school in upstate New York, I made half Iraqi/half Black boy in a homebrew power by the apocalypse game who was raised by his Chinese step-mother and was adopted into a giant extended family that took place in Brooklyn NYC, I made a black camp counselor for a Sleepaway oneshot, and I made a Mexican/Cajun boy for a Monsterhearts game taking place in south Louisiana.

For every character, I took my time and did days of research into backgrounds, cultures, and potential sensitivity issues. The last thing I want is to misrepresent a culture. The Puerto Rican girl in our group, let’s call her “Mary”, has never had a problem with my characters, but I’ve gotten comments from other players that it’s weird that I never play any white characters. I’ve made a white character twice; one for a Ten Candles game who was a 50 year old vet (and I miss him everyday, easily one of my favorite one-off characters because of his intense hatred of the Dallas Cowboys), and one for a homebrew 80’s slasher game who somehow because the first jock to be a final girl (He was too pure for this world, can’t wait to play his reincarnation in an ALENS game)

Our forever GM hasn’t ever had an issue with my characters, she even brings a giant variety of NPCs from all over to her games and makes the whole experience so much fun. The few times she’s made characters, they’ve always had great chemistry with mine and I’ve always had a good time

But, even with Mary’s and the GM’s approval, I still feel off about the comments of the other players. I love my characters, and the research I do for them helps me as a writer as that’s my profession atm. It seems like every time I propose a new character who isn’t white, I get asked “so what part of the world are they from now?” or “aren’t you German? Are you scared of doing a German character?” or other questions like that

I don’t play ttrpgs to insert myself into different fantasies, I play ttrpgs to explore new characters and new settings through different experiences. I don’t want to be labeled racist, but I understand if I’m coming off that way. If I’m voted the asshole, I’ll reflect and learn why. Commenters, deffo tell me how I can be better.

Anyways, AITA?

TL:DR, I’m white, I make primarily POC characters in ttrpgs, my group is annoyed and makes passive aggressive comments each time I do so. Aita for not making more white characters?

🔮

to find this later ^^^

What are these acronyms?

[martianmuckraker]

Hostile Sun RPG Play mat

Just uploaded a feature to the Hostile Sun Itch.io that I hope will make learning and teaching the system easier.  It’s a character sheet that doubles as a play mat for tracking resources. The bottom of the character sheet has graphics representing each of the Alchemy Resource Currencies in the game. Using poker chips, coins or anything similar you can track how many you have of each resource by…

[twst-rose-prisms]

Corrine Enfers' profile

🎮 Bio 🎮

- Dorm: Ignihyde

- Japanese: コリーヌ・エンファーズ (Corinne Enfazu)

- Birthday: February 16th (Aquarius)

- Age: 16

- Height: 153cm

- Dominant hand: Ambidextrous

- Homeland: Island of Woe

- Family: Unnamed Mother & Father Unnamed older brother Unnamed younger sister

- Voiced by: You Taichi

- Other Name(s): Fugu-chan (Pufferfish) (by Floyd) Mademoiselle Sombre (Gloomy) (by Rook)

🎮 School 🎮

- Grade: Freshman

- Class: B (no 19)

- Club: Magical Shift Club

- Best subject: Magical Analysis

🎮 Preferences 🎮

- Hobby: Gaming, Collecting merchandise

- Pet peeves: Socializing

- Favorite food: Potato chips (all flavors)

- Least favorite food: Mustard

- Talent: Multitasking

A gloomy, quiet freshman who always have scars and injuries across her body due to her misfortune curse since her birth. Although she appears like she have no energy to spare or often avoid socialising, she can become an entirely different person if she got motivated or fired up.

🎮 Unique Magic 🎮

Misfortune Deluxe (呪いの誕生 "Birth of a Curse"): Can inflict her misfortune curse to someone else of her choice for a certain period of time, however, as her curse is deemed very dangerous and could be life-threatening, she rarely ever use it.

🎮 Background 🎮

It all starts with a simple wish, a simple desire to be more successful, more famous in business. The two of them thought that by using such a method, no one will notice or question it, after all, cheating is such a common thing in this world, and not all businesses are pure or genuine. But that also was the start of the biggest sin they could have committed. The ancient spirits immediately took notice of their actions, and it was too late to redeem by then. They got their deserved punishment - their next newborn child would be cursed with misfortune for the rest of this little soul's life. At first, the two of them thought it was nothing too severe, considering how it's just being unlucky... And that was their second mistake.

After all, misfortune isn't meant to be taken lightly.

🎮 Trivia 🎮

Being born with a curse of misfortune since birth, she often gets into accidents or injured herself even with the smallest object or tripped by herself. Because of this she is seen with many bandages or some sort around her body.

She has shark-like teeth and pointy ears, as it's a hereditary trait from her family since they also got the same features according to her. She feels shy to grin or smile most of the time due to this as well.

She also has quite a lot of scars due to the past injuries or accidents in the past.

Her favorite character is called "Mister Pandie the Red Ghost" or Pandie for short, he is a mascot of her favorite game series and she often seen carrying a keychain of him around or just put him in the pocket. She also loves collecting merchandises of him.

Despite her gloomy nature most of the time, if the right "switch" is on, she'll become an entirely different person - more serious, competitive and confident especially if it's with magical shift or playing games. (She doesn't realize how she acts though)

Initially, she was going to join the Board Game club as other clubs scares her, but due to her curse, she accidentally applied to Magical Shift by accident. Although she is actually good at the said activity, her gloomy nature makes people look down on her easily only for them to regret it later on afterwards the moment she got fired up.

She can multitask easily as she's ambidextrous and also quick to memorize or pick up the pace of her work especially if she works alone. However she's bad with working in groups as her anxiety would spike up when she got surrounded by strangers or even with classmates.

Her most favorite game genre is RPG and action-oriented while her least favorite is novel-based or gacha-related as she got no luck at all playing those games.

One time as a kid, she accidentally chokes on mustard by accident when eating and was coughing and crying so hard, hence why mustard is her least favorite food and she is scared to taste it even until now.

Because she often got into accidents, her family have to constantly look out for her since she was little. She doesn't realize this up until hearing a conversation between her parents unintentionally.

[thydungeongal]

Anyways, I gotta get back to work soon, but how about I offer a quick detox? If you don't mind, could you share a story of a time that you were playing a TTRPG and it just worked, exactly like it was designed to work, and everything was perfect - I'd prefer if it was a D&D 4e story, given the context, but I'd love any story.

Sadly, as much as I would love to share a 4e story, the truly sublime RPG experiences I have had have been in completely different systems, which I have mentioned in other posts of mine!

The first one was my run of running a one-shot of Best Friends set in a Finnish gymnasium (school equivalent to, uh, high school, upper-secondary school) with the main characters being second year students. The big crowning moment of second year of gymnasium for many is a tradition know as "Wanhojen tanssit" ("ye oldes' dance" for lack of a better translation) which is kind of like prom in its social significance but is more like putting on a nice show for the parents where the kids dance together in fancy outfits. Anyway, it was the PERFECT framing for a fun coming-of-age story which covered all of their second year, and it had everything! Drama, romance, petty arguments, two of the girls realizing they were gay for each other. It was so sweet. (Oh and of course two of the girls ended up dancing together with the other one putting on a suit and basically butching it up, which given that this was early two-thousand-and-tens would have actually been eyebrow-raising had it happened irl, it was incredibly cute.)

The second was a convention game of Monsterhearts and it was also an absolutely sublime experience. It was a very fun group, with everyone in the group being at least ostensibly cis guys (I wonder what happened to the rest of them? Anyway), but everyone like being immediately on board with the idea of playing out a story of summer camp with a bunch of teenage disaster bisexual monsters. The player who picked the Mortal playbook for his character had played Monsterhearts previously and knew exactly what he was doing: a Mortal in a Monsterhearts game is basically a ticking time bomb, and his character started immediately pulling on as many heartstrings as possible. The game ended with the summer camp center on fire and almost the entire cast of characters dead. My werewolf boy and the witch girl were the only survivors and they dramatically walked away in silence (with my character in wolf form).

During the denouement the MC commented "oh and I didn't even have to use the big monster in the lake." That immediately sold me on the system. Our characters had become the only antagonistic force the game needed, with no need for the MC to do anything besides watch the sparks fly.