#rpg overview

[legionofmyth]

Rifts Dimension Book #14: Thundercloud Galaxy: All the tech you’re NOT allowed!

🚀 Discover the advanced technology of the Thundercloud Galaxy in Rifts Dimension Book #14 by Palladium Books! From powerful spacecraft to innovative gadgets, explore the cutting-edge tech that defines this incredible galaxy. Watch now to delve into the futuristic world of Thundercloud Galaxy! #RiftsRPG #ThundercloudGalaxy #PalladiumBooks #TabletopRPG #SciFiFantasy #RPGTech #RolePlayingGames

Rifts Dimension Book #14: Thundercloud Galaxy Rifts Dimension Book 2: Phase World Explore the advanced and futuristic technology of the Thundercloud Galaxy from Rifts Dimension Book #14 by Palladium Books! 🚀 Discover the cutting-edge tech that powers this incredible dimension. Watch now to unlock the secrets of Thundercloud Galaxy’s technology! In this video, we delve into the sophisticated and…

[adam-trademark]

Download

(January 1, 2020)

[morsrattus]

The Big Pent Collection Post: Secret History of the Horse Sun

It has been pointed out to me that I haven't actually ever written a post explaining what the hell Secret History of the Horse Sun is. So, uh, doing that now!

The Fuck's A Glorantha

Glorantha is a TTRPG setting attached to one of several rulesets for the games Runequest, HeroQuest, QuestWorlds or other names which I've probably forgotten. It is a vaguely Bronze Age-ish world focused around religious fantasy and spiritual power rather than traditional medieval stuff, as it was designed by anthropologist and practicing shaman Greg Stafford. I think it's pretty cool! But it is largely focused on an area named Dragon Pass, where a bunch of guys called the Orlanthi live. They're a mix of Vedic, Celtic and Norse ideas thrown into a stewpot, and they're cool and all...but there's other regions, and not all of them are particularly well written.

Like Pent

Pent is a very large steppes plain - somewhat larger than the entire nation of France, maybe five or six times bigger than Dragon Pass - which goes criminally underused by Glorantha. It exists solely as a place for horse nomads to rampage out of and threaten the people the game actually cares about, and as an origin point for historic figure Sheng Seleris, mighty warlord who conquered the Celestial Empire of Kralorela (read: Not China, generally poorly written) and almost destroyed the Lunar Empire (the primary villain nation of mainline Glorantha these days) before the Lunars defeated him and imprisoned him alive in the depths of Tax Hell.

Pent is a grassland steppe vaguely based on Mongolia and Sheng Seleris is vaguely based on Temujin, the Chinggis Khan. This is an area of IRL history and culture that deeply fascinates me and which I love reading and talking about. So I looked at Pent and its generally boring or outright bad writing and decided it needed to be done better.

As such, I started Secret History of the Horse Sun, a total rewrite of Pent as a location and culture. It is heavily based on Mongolian, Tibetan and Central Asian Turkic cultures, backed by my academic research on these areas but very much fictionalized and changed to fit the world of Glorantha and its preexisting mythos. This work is not an accurate representation of real world Mongolia, Tibet, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, ancient Scythia or anywhere else on Earth, though it is my goal to be as respectful of these real world places and peoples as I can be in my portrayal of a fictional culture similar to them.

This post is intended to collect my work on the project into a way that is easy to understand, read, and link to. Below, posts will be divided up into categories based on what they're about. If anything confuses you, please feel free to comment or send an ask or whatever - I love talking about my work and am happy to explain stuff.

The actual work is set shortly before the rise of Sheng Seleris, as I think this is the most interesting time for Pent; it has retconned a number of details to make things more interesting for me, though, like the Winds being gods despite it being pre-Sheng. I will eventually be writing a guide to adventuring before and during Sheng's rise.

Eventually.

The Pentan Gods

The first part of the project was a writeup of the Pentan pantheon, a group collectively known to the Pentans as the First Herd. These are writeups in the HeroQuest 2e/QuestWorlds system, and are mechanically usable in that system, but because the mechanics are highly narrative and descriptive, each writeup is also a description of the god and their cult within Pentan society; in Glorantha, religious cults form much of the bedrock of all societies.

Yu-Kargzant, the Sun Khan, God Above Gods

Basko, the God of the Bad Death, Lord of the Dark Shamans

Dostal, the God of Bow Hunting

DuTukhos and Arcos, the Gods of the Arcos River

East Sting Wind, the God of Bandits and Crime

Erissa, the Goddess of Healing

Eyritha, the Herd Mother, Goddess of Herd Animals That Aren't Horses or Sheep

Galana, the Chooser of Khans, Goddess of Horses

Golden Bow, the God of the Good Death, Lord of the Bright Shamans

Gor Gorma, the Goddess of Terror, the Malign Earth, and Vengeance

Hurfor, the God of Secrets and Law

Hyalor and Gamari, Man and Horse, the Good Ancestors

Issaries, the God of Trade and Mules

Kargzant, the Light Khan

Lozarl, the God of Impure Fires, Mining, Labor and Asses

Manurl, the God of Cats and Trapping

North War Wind, the God of Death

Oria, the Goddess of Earth

Pole Star, the God of Strategy and Warfare

Samnal, the Bad Ancestor, God of What Not To Do

South Rage Wind, the Storm Bull and Chaos Killer

Sirdaryo, Goddess of Wrestling and the River Sirdaryo

Tarhel and Heltar, the Gods of Sheep, Clouds and Weaving

Tepekos, the God of Smiths

Tholm, the God of Falconry

West King Wind, the Storm Khan

Whirlwind Fool, Raven, and other Tricksters

Elyu-Ene, the Emissary of the Winter Gods

Pentan Cultural Overview

This collection of posts was written to try and provide a broader understanding of Pentan culture as it exists without wholly being about the religion. While religion permeates every aspect of Pentan life (and Gloranthan existence in general), there is life outside of the gods, after all.

Horses

Age

The Ancestral Peoples of Pent

Food and Daily Life

Fashion

Law

Love and Hatred

Slavery (CW, uh, Slavery)

Sports

Warfare

Non-Pentan Peoples

The Khuruldan

Life from the Pure Horse Perspective

Life from the Kargzanti Perspective

Life from the Four Winds Perspective

Hsunchen and Qa Ying

After I finished the above, I decided I needed to properly detail the non-Pentan cultures in and immediately around Pent. The first grouping I began to work on were the Hsunchen of the Shan Shan mountain range east of the Pentan plains. The Hsunchen are a type of person in Glorantha - "beast people," human beings who are able to transform into animals due to their worship of ancestral beast gods and spirits. Within the Pentan area they are not considered to be human, either by themselves or their neighbors, and could broadly be compared to werewolves, werebears, etc. They are largely non-agricultural, often viewing intensive agriculture as a violent assault on the living earth, and have societies roughly based on the animals they consider to be their kin. The Qa Ying are winged people also called the Wind Children, and are potentially descended from literal winds or are possibly eagle Hsunchen, or a mix of both in the past who became one thing.

The Qa Ying

King Violent Wind, God of Rulership and Storms

Merciful Rain Consort, God of Clouds and Water

Inner Wind Sage, Spirit King of the Wind Spirits

Blazing Wings Hunter, God of Hunting and Ancestral Raptor God

The Lo Fak Yak Folk

Lo Fa, Ancestral Yak Goddess of the Lo Fak

Undrung, God of Draconic Mysticism and Seeker of Mystic Truths

Yi Da, Spirit Yak and God of Shamans

The Lo Fak also worship their own version of Storm Bull but I didn't do a full writeup because he's very similar.

The Chen Ga Snow Leopard Folk

Chen Gar, Ancestral Snow Leopard God of the Chen Ga

Freezing Wind, God of Winter

Snow Woman, Goddess of Mountain Peaks

The Hsa Tiger Folk

Hsa Black Stripe, Ancestral Tiger God of the Hsa

Yumaryu, the God of Light and the Sun Spear Man

Gods of the Cat Brothers, Shared by the Hsa and Chen Ga

Bieti, the Mountain Witch and Patron of Shamans

Sakkar Swordtooth, God of Fear and Hunger

The Ri Si Woodpecker Folk

Ri-si, Ancestral Woodpecker Goddess of the Ri Si

Cucul, Cuckoo God of Shamans

The Damali Deer, Antelope and Gazelle Folk

Damal, the Ancestral Deer, Antelope and Gazelle God of the Damali

The Gord-Un Marmot and Gopher Folk

Gord, Ancestral Marmot and Gopher God of the Gord-Un

Spala, Spirit Zokor and Patron of Shamans

The Orathorn

The Orathorn are the only real sorcerous group in Pent - a small order of necromancers led by the immortal sage Orathorn, granted an imitation of immortality by his magic. They seek the conquest of Death, hoping to grant immortality to all humanity, that they might be free to pursue their true power and goals rather than be bound to what the Orathorn see as slavery-in-afterlife to gods in exchange for power within a paltry mortal lifespan. Most Pentans consider them horrible monsters for, among other things, their casual use of undead, their casual blasphemy, and their terrifying power...insofar as most Pentans ever deal with them, anyway. They are still sometimes hired as mercenaries by those Pentans who are less concerned by prohibitions on the use of sorcery, and they believe their selflessness will be vindicated...eventually.

Orathorn Overview

Principles of Sorcery and the Sorcery of the Zaburi

Sorcery of the Talari, Horali and Dromali

[spewagepipe]

The Evolution of RPGs: Little Wars

Ever since toy soldiers have been widely available, a common way of playing with them is to line them up and fire toy projectiles at them. In 1913, science fiction novelist H. G. Wells published Little Wars, a codified set of rules for a wargame based on this toy-soldier-projectile concept. Wells' rules were highly anachronistic in terms of simulation, and were chiefly concerned with keeping the game light and easy for its presumed target audience of young children. Though Little Wars was not the first set of rules for a toy-soldier-projectile wargame, it was the seed from which decades of similar wargames emerged. This lineage of wargames bears significance to the later design culture of RPGs in only one key respect: the wide use of "folk" and DIY rules. The wargamers of this niche did not really play any one consistent or standardized "game" (except, perhaps, in tournament contexts). Rather, they developed a shared pool of common practices and rule-sets from which they would construct new games on an ad-hoc basis. Especially through the 1950's and 60's, it would not have been terribly unusual for a given wargamer club to locally design a completely unique game for every new scenario they wished to play. Wargamers meeting new opponents from outside their local circle might need to do some negotiation to settle on a balanced design before playing. Occasionally, popular clusters of rules would see publication in the enthusiast zines (the typical pre-internet method for communication between isolated gaming groups), and it's through those that we can trace their evolution back to Little Wars – but it's better to understand them as a continuous, collective trend, rather than as a succession of discrete titles.

Click here for the index of my Evolution of RPGs posts.

[alacodes]

Midnight Abyss

The matching overview code for the Dark Temptation Lesson Code. It is quite simple with the space for your as well as your AT's face claims, a place to introduce the class, write about the requirements of the course and put down the information about your Owls.

Keep the credits and if you have any queries you can contact me at ala25.

Code: https://pastebin.com/9sWNfh0e

[fogaminghub]

https://www.fogaminghub.com/post/strengthening-bonds-a-fragile-alliance-in-rise-of-the-ronin

🌟 Calling all Rise of the Ronin fans! Dive into our latest blog post about the pivotal mission A Fragile Alliance. Unlock strategies to strengthen your bonds and navigate intense brawls while forging alliances with the Satsuma and Choshu clans! ✊🔥 

[germality]

Empyreal is an upcoming single-player sci-fi third-person action RPG with hand-crafted dungeons that have randomly generated loot and enemies. The game looks pretty cool and you can try the demo right now.

[thydungeongal]

Cairn is very cool. More games should just have sections dedicated to sitting the player down and spelling out how to play the game, not just in a "these are the rules" type of way but also in a "this is what the game expects of you as a player" style.

Not only does it address antisocial play (the sort of stuff that gets valorized in supposedly funny RPG memes) it also makes it clear that the Warden's (the GM in this game) role is not to fuck with their players. It is so cool.

The overview and principles section is well worth a read. Some of it is not applicable to every game because it is heavily opinionated towards the type of game Cairn is, but it's still a good read.

[satoshi-mochida]

Digimon Story: Time Stranger announced for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC - Gematsu

Publisher Bandai Namco and developer Media.Vision have announced Digimon Story: Time Stranger for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam). It will launch in 2025.

Here is an overview of the game, via Bandai Namco:

About

Digimon Story: Time Stranger is an RPG with monster-taming elements that explores the deep bond between humans and Digimon in an epic story that unravels the mystery of the world’s collapse. Embark on an adventure that spans across the human world and Digital World, collecting and raising a diverse array of Digimon to fight in turn-based battles.

Key Features

An Epic Story of Connection – Take on a mission to uncover the mystery of the world’s collapse, where chance encounters with unique characters will shape your journey across time and parallel worlds—and change fate itself.

Adventure Between Worlds and Time – Journey between the parallel human world and the Digital World: Iliad where Digimon reside. See the Digital World and its intricately detailed realms like never before, with interactive elements and special quests to explore.

Strategic Turn-Based Battles – Enjoy dynamic turn-based combat that combines strategic elements with evolved battle components. An incredible variety of Digimon and deep customization options provide limitless ways to approach the challenges of battle and reveal the strength of the bonds formed with your Digimon.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

English

Japanese

[theresattrpgforthat]

How to Find Cool Games: Newsletters

Plenty of game designers and other folks in the ttrpg space are using newsletters to keep people updated on their work. Newsletters are a great way to talk about what’s fascinating to you, give people snapshots of the things you’re working on, and offer links to freebies or extras for folks who are interested in your work. They also remind folks that you’re out there, making cool things.

I follow a number of different newsletters, and they offer different formats depending on their focus and the platform they use. But here’s what you can generally expect from a newsletter:

Updates on a designer’s work. Designers and small publishers will release updates on what they’re working on, including snapshots of works in progress, updates on crowdfunding initiatives, and pieces of art they may have recently finished or received.

Musings on aspects of design and play. Some game designers and prominent bloggers may release newsletters simply to talk about pieces of games that they’re excited about or ruminating on; how specific mechanics elicited special moments at the table, emotions or themes they’re hoping to invoke in their game projects, or perhaps talking about elements of a game book that make it interesting or enjoyable to read.

Reviews. This might be after playing a game or simply reading it, but interacting with other people’s games isn’t just a fun activity, it often also sparks thoughts about what the author values or doesn’t value in play. These reviews might include a brief overview of a game’s rules, highlight special moments in play, or cover more practical issues, such as the safety tools on offer, or the way the game layout affects their reading experience.

-Talking about the gaming hobby in general. This might include various perspectives in the hobby, like how colonialism affects steampunk games, or common experiences people of colour might have in a gaming space. It might also include safety practices and why the author finds certain practises helpful or unhelpful. There might also be ruminations on the business of game design, such as how to learn layout, how to network with artists, and advice on how to deal with the crowdfunding process.

So, with that in mind, let’s talk about some various newsletters that I’m subscribed to, and what I’ve gotten from them!

The Indie RPG Newsletter. @indierpgnewsletter

The Indie RPG Newsletter is the current project under the pen of Thomas Manuel, who’s also the host of the Yes Indie’d Podcast, as well as a writer for Rascal News (which we’ll get back to later). Thomas uses this as a place to talk about what’s getting him excited in the indie scene, as well as provide links to other people talking about cool game things; every newsletter has a section called Links of the Week . This section points you to some fun conversations happening in various ttrpg spaces. I think The Indie RPG Newsletter is a great jumping off point if you want to see what else is going on in a number of different spheres, and Thomas also has some really lovely insights into various mechanics that he’s interacting with as he tries out a slew of games at his table.

Rascal News.

The newsletter for Rascal News isn’t really a standalone thing - it’s an arm of the website of the same name, an independent team of journalists focused on news related to the world of TTRPGs.You need to create a free membership with the website in order to get these newsletters, but it’s a nice little window into not just the hottest news off of the press - various newsletters also carry links to their Announcements section, which is for the most part free to read, and contains a lot of updates about new and exciting ttrpg projects - including crowdfunding campaigns, podcast announcements, awards ceremonies, and special sales or bundles on offer. Currently the Rascal Team consists of Rowan Zeoli, Chase Carter, Caelyn Ellis - and, as previously mentioned, Thomas Manuel!

More Seats at the Table

More Seats a the Table is an email newsletter dedicated to highlighting games made by game designers of marginalized genders. It includes not just roleplaying games, but occasionally board-games as well, and each issue contains links to current crowdfunding initiatives, as well as advertisements that have been submitted to the newsletter through their submission form. This newsletter is straightforward and to-the-point, showing you a few games with quick blurbs - no more, no less. If you want news about games without a lot of fluff, you might be interested in More Seats at the Table.

Indie Press Revolution. @indiepressrevolution

Indie Press Revolution calls themselves a “network of quality creator-publishers”, and works to make people’s games available both through their online website and at various conventions. They also partner with retailers in acting as a distributor, bringing indie ttrpgs closer to your hometown! However, IPR also has its’ own newsletter, the IPR Revolutionary, which includes featured products, news related to various tabletop events, pricing updates, pdf updates, new stores added to the network, and links to oodles and oodles of crowdfunding projects. If you want to know what you can get in on right now, this monthly list of projects is a great collection.

5. Individual Designers: a short list.

If you’re a big OSR fan, you might find something in the Questing Beast newsletter, which is fairly regular and includes links to sales, reviews, and ads for games from various sponsors.

The Jar of Eyes Game Gazette has some really really good advice for game designers in their archive. I haven’t seen a lot of recent updates, but if the author starts sending out letters again, I think my eyes will be glued to the page.

Watt, the designer of Cloud Empress, has a regular Cloud Empress Newsletter that’s mostly focused around Watt’s work - but in the tradition of various popular OSR games, the exciting thing about these kinds of games is that there’s consistently new stuff. Watt includes little freebies in each newsletter, from roll tables, to small expansions, and little pieces of art. On top of that, Watt is quite happy to showcase work by other designers, especially projects that they have small parts in, as well as highlighting things that are currently giving them inspiration, such as movies, video games - and tabletop roleplaying games.

Asked Questions by Hendrik ten Napel, dives into specific games and game experiences that are making the author reflect on how the games direct his play. Some of his recent letters include an examination of Under Hollow Hills, how to create dramatic triangles between characters, and a loving review of Old Morris Cave, written by Tim Hutchings.

Dinoberry Press, a collaboration between Nevyn Holmes and Julie-Anne Muńoz, has a newsletter that gives you updates on what the designers are up to, how their games are coming along, and highlights projects that they’re excited about. Yes, it’s a form of marketing, but marketing is how you get info about new games! I followed them specifically because I am interested in their latest game, Little Wolves. You can sign up for their newsletter at the bottom of their website.

You’ve probably heard of Dave Thaumvore if you’re looking at ttrpg content on Youtube, and his attached newsletter has various subscription tiers - but I just subscribe to the free one. He does publish some content related to D&D, but he also sits down for interviews with designers; you’re likely to find high-end games from bigger companies being featured here. The most recent newsletter features a review with the designer of the upcoming game Flux Fantasy.

Christian Sorrell’s Missives of the Meatcastle is a little infrequent, but his updates are professional, thoughtful, and full of goodies. He includes little freebies for subscribers, alongside updates about his own work - both his passion projects and the projects of others that he writes for. His most recent update, titled "In Defense of Fiction", was a really insightful look into the ways prose can make a game more readable, and therefore more enjoyable to anyone reading a game book.

Cloven Pine Games has a newsletter that is fairly infrequent, but occasionally sends out updates on things that they have a hand in making, as well as news about game-adjacent events that they are involved in - such as awards shows, or game conventions. Their latest issue takes about Root and The Between, which are two projects that they had a hand in designing.

CJ Tucker has a newsletter for @crackerjackalopegames, which includes a regular roundup of “Things I Liked This Month”, as well as various musings about the connections they’re making across games and various media. Some of their newsletters that stand out to me include a review of NASA’s TTRPG adventure, using Breath of the Wild as inspiration for world building, and the concept of a house as a character (which led to the design of their game, ABODE.)

Tim Hutchings Makes Games is a newsletter by the author of Thousand Year Old Vampire, a solo game about a vampire who has lived so long that they can’t hold on to all of their memories. His newsletters consist of updates on things he’s working on, and events that he’s participating in. I think these kinds of newsletters can be great for other designers to follow, because it’s kind of a sneak peek into all of the various ways you can get involved in the scene, as well as provide snapshots of the kinds of considerations you might need to make as you try to promote your game. You can sign up for the newsletter at the bottom of the website.

Also...

A number of ttrpg creators also have free Patreon tiers which come with newsletters, including Possum Creek Games, Goblincow (@goblincow), and Penflower Ink. Not all of these posts will be public, but the ones that are will get sent to your email. (And of course, if you pay into their Patreons, you get all the posts.)

Honorable Mentions

9th Level Games

The Twenty Sided Newsletter, a partner newsletter for My First Dungeon.

Monte Cooke Games

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Trans made TTRPGs

Due to… recent events that I would rather not talk about, today's post is a highlight of different tabletop games made by trans peeps! These games are fantastic in their own right, of course, but you can also know that they were made by incredibly cool and attractive people

(Also, these are flyover descs of the game, they'll get more in-depth singular posts later, this is because I am lazy)

Perfect Draw is a phenomenal card game TTRPG that was funded in less than a day on backerkit, it's incredibly fun and has simple to learn hard to master rules for creating custom cards, go check it out!

Songs for the dusk is fucking good, pardon my language, but it's a damn good post apocalyptic game about building community in a post-capitalist-post-apocalypse-post-whatever world. do yourself a favor and if you only check out one game in this list, check this one out, its a beautiful game.

Flying Circus is set in a WW1 inspired fantasy setting full of witches, weird eldritch fish people (who are chill as hell), cults, dead nobility, and other such things. It's inspired by Porco Rosso primarily but it has other touchstones.

Wanderhome is a game about being cute little guys going on a silly adventure and growing as the seasons change, its GMless and very fun

https://weregazelle.itch.io/armour-astir Armour Astir has been featured in here before but its so damn good I had to post it twice. AA demonstrates a fundamental knowledge of the themes of mech shows in a way that very few other games show, its awesome

Kitchen Knightmares is… more of a LARP but its still really dang cool, its about being a knight serving people in a restaurant, its played using discord so its incredibly accessible

https://grimogre.itch.io/michtim Michtim is a game about being small critters protecting their forest from nasty people who wish to harm it, not via brutal violence (sadly) but via friendship and understanding (which is a good substitute to violence)

ok this technically doesn't count but I'm putting it here anyways cuz its like one of my favorite ttrpgs of all time TSL is a game about baring your heart and dueling away with people who you'll probably kiss 10 minutes later, its very very fanfic-ey and inspired by queer narratives. I put it here because its made by a team, and the expansion has a setting specifically meant to be a trans "allegory", so I'll say it counts, honestly just go check it out its good shit

https://willuhl.itch.io/mystic-lilies

Mystic Lillies is a game inspired by ZUN's Touhou Project about witches dueling powerful foes, each other, and themselves. Mystic Lillies features rapid character creation and a unique diceless form of rolling which instead uses a standard playing card deck.

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/141424/nobilis-the-game-of-sovereign-powers-2002-edition I… want to do a more general overview on Jenna K as an important figure in indie RPG design, but for now just know that Nobilis is good

https://temporalhiccup.itch.io/apocalypse-keys Apocalypse Keys is a game inspired by Doom Patrol, Hellboy, X-men, and other comics about monstrousness being an allegory for disenfranchisement. Apocalypse Keys is also here because its published by Evilhat so its very cleaned up and fancy but I love how the second you check out the dev's other stuff you can tell they are a lot more experimental with their stuff, this is not a critique, it is in fact a compliment

Fellowship! I've posted about this game before, but it is again here. Fellowship has a fun concept that it uses very well mostly, its a game about defining your character's culture, and I think that's really really cool

Voidheart Symphony is a really cool game about psychic rebellion in a city that really does not like you, the more you discover for yourself the better

Panic at the Dojo is a phenomenal ttrpg based on what the Brazilian would call "Pancadaria", which basically means, fucking other's people shit up. Character Creation is incredibly open and free, meaning that many character concepts are available

Legacy 2e is a game about controlling an entire faction's choices across time, its very fun

remember to be kind to a trans person today! oh also don't even try to be transphobic in the reblogs or replies, you will be blocked so fast your head will spin

[legionofmyth]

The Rifter #11: Hidden Answers That Could Boost Your Gameplay

Could the Q&A in The Rifter #11 be the key to unlocking new adventures in your Palladium RPGs? 🔑 Find out how these insights can impact your games today! Don't stay in the dark when answers are at your fingertips. Watch now! #TheRifter #PalladiumBooks #RPG

The Rifter #11 Rifts Ultimate Edition Unlock invaluable insights with our analysis of The Rifter #11’s Q&A section and discover how it impacts your Palladium Books games today! Join us as we reveal answers to burning questions that could enhance your gameplay and storytelling. In this enlightening video, we delve into the Q&A section of The Rifter #11, uncovering clarifications and expert advice…

[adam-trademark]

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSOne Classic)

(August 3, 2018)

[morsrattus]

Pentan Cultural Overview: Fashion

Pentan clothing has followed the same basic trends for a very, very long time. While styles and trends come and go, they rarely vary all that far from the baseline designs for reasons of function. Almost all clothing is made from wool of various kinds, with leather used for armor and accessories and silk or brocade found in higher quality, more prestigious outfits due to the expense of importing it from Kralorela.

Pentan culture is, by and large, rather conservative about fashion. Showing significant amounts of skin is considered lascivious, as is showing hair. The hands and face are the only body parts commonly kept uncovered, and the use of veils and face-concealing hats or masks has passed in and out of fashion at various periods.

The style of underclothing is highly variable, and is almost never seen outside of one's spouse, parents and children. It is typically functional rather than decorative, intended to keep the wearer secure and warm. Wraps or simple tunics are common and usually undyed, though the deliberate hint of a dyed wrap or undershirt would be taken by most as distinctly forward. Pants tend to be plain and warm, but because they are typically visible at the knee or below, they often receive embroidery and dying.

The chief garment, worn by both men and women in Pent, is the deel - a sort of overcoat. It is wrapped around the body, typically with the left side covering over the right and held in place with several clasps - one under the armpit, three at the shoulder, and one or two at the neck. It is generally accompanied with a large silk sash or leather belt, and objects are stored in the "pocket" created by the flaps and belt. Women traditionally wear the deel more snugly and closer to the body than men, but the design is otherwise very similar.

A deel is usually wool, but may be made from fur or leather. The finest deels are either silk or cashmere. The specific designs of the deel often rely on local traditions, with each tribe maintaining its own variations on the edging of the coat and the clasp designs. Deels are often heavily embroidered or dyed, especially the more expensive and well-made ones.

The deel is generally paired with tall and highly decorated leather boots with pointed, upward-facing toes; in winter, they are worn over thick felt socks, but in the warmer parts of the year, they usually aren't. These boots have very thick soles and are quite rigid.

Hats come in a variety of styles and designs, some extremely elaborate.

Colors, Weaving and Embroidery

Cloth in Pent is typically made on backstrap or ground looms, which can be easily transported and quickly set up or broken down. For many weavers, patterns are kept simple, using only one kind of dyed thread, but very skilled weavers are known for producing complex brocade or cloud cloth. Particularly complex patterns are kept secret within families, taught using special mnemonic techniques that correspond to strings of beads. Some of the more complex can only be taught by using blessings from Oria, Tarhel and Heltar to store a divine spirit inside a set of beads, allowing the spirit to memorize and repeat the pattern out, as the actual string would be prohibitively large.

This technique is used both for brocade patterns and for cloud cloth patterns, in which individual yarn threads are bundled in patterns and then tie-dyed, sometimes multiple times, and then set into a pattern together for weaving. Brocade tends to produce a crisper look and may integrate gold threads if the tribe is wealthy enough. Cloud cloth is so-named for the distinctive blurring along color edges, though it is considered a mark of skill to control the blurring for artistic effect.

Silk must be imported from Kralorela, and because of the intense expense and time required to create cloud cloth and brocade, they are rare outside of wealthy families as well. Likewise, some colors are much more common than others due to availability. Reds are typically made from cochineal and lac extracts from insects, or from powdered madder roots. Yellow is sourced from larkspur flowers primarily, but also from scholar tree flowers along the Kralori border. Blues are made from indigo-bearing leaves. Other colors are made from mixing dyes when possible, but otherwise rely on import and are therefore signs of wealth and influence. Most rare dyes are brought in from Kralorela, and are highly prized.

Most clothing is made from simple wool cloth, and most tribes have neither the time nor wealth to create large quantities of brocade or cloud cloth. Despite this, Pentans are famous everywhere they go for the intricate decorations on their deels and textiles due to widespread practice of embroidery. When any Pentan with weaving skill has little else to do, embroidering cloth commonly fills the time, and almost all clothing has an embroidered pattern on it somewhere. Clothing for children often have especially crowded patterns, laden down with protective symbols and imagery. The patterns generally become simpler and more elegant on adult clothing, as adults need less protection. Trends in patterns vary over time and distance, ranging from abstract geometric patterns to imagery of horses, eagles, or other significant animals, to runes and holy symbols.

The Story Yurt

Every tribe maintains a Story Yurt, a sacred yurt in which the ancestors live when visiting their descendants. It contains no furniture, but instead houses the Story Tapestries, which bear the history of each family in the clan in the form of embroidered images. The base of a Story Tapestry must be made from the finest silk or cashmere, and each year makes up a single line of panels upon it. Every year, each family chooses their best weaver to embroider the important events that happened to the family, adding them to the Tapestries. To be chosen to embroider a Tapestry for the year is one of the highest honors a Grandparent can bestow to their kin.

When a family joins a tribe, they bring their Story Tapestries with them, transporting the legacy of their ancestors to their new tribe. When they leave, they take their Story Tapestries, removing their ancestors from the tribe alongside them. When a Tapestry runs out of room, a new cloth of the highest quality must be found to be the next, and often the entire tribe will help prepare and pay for the cloth, for the value and beauty of the Story Tapestries affects the entire tribe.

Ancestral magic is bound into the Story Tapestries. Embroideries which are well made and especially beautiful and truthful earn the blessing of the ancestors, bringing good luck in the coming year. Lies or deceptions on the Tapestries earn the ire of the ancestors and curse the family with bad luck - or worse. The Tapestries also provide the medium by which ancestors may visit the tribe. During the Sacred Time, the spirits of a family's ancestors will leave the Underworld to inhabit the Tapestries and observe their descendants. If they choose to communicate outside of prophetic dreams, they may call on the tribe's magic to animate the figures in the Tapestry, appearing as glorious figures embroidered on the air itself as they step from the Tapestries.

Generally speaking, ancestors only manifest this way when exceptionally proud or exceptionally angry. Proud and happy ancestors will often gift magical power and blessings to their descendants, empowering the tribe and then returning the magic they borrowed to manifest after giving their praises. Angry ancestors are much more dangerous, for they will not only complain endlessly and lecture their descendants about what they have done wrong, but will leave and take the magic that animated the Tapestries with them, cursing their descendants with weakened power for the coming year.

Hats

The average Pentan wears a hat at all times in public. Long hair, often intricately braided and cared for, is common in Pent, but it is never seen by the public. While facial hair is worn openly and proudly, the hair on one's scalp is considered private, intimate, even sensual. Hair is shown only to family and lovers. Therefore, Pent has developed a vast array of hats. They are worn even during wrestling, racing or battle.

Everyday hats are most common, made from felt, leather, or wool. They are worn to protect against the elements and are usually simpler, or at least least expensive. Ornamental hats are saved for special occasions.

I could probably provide a list of hats but it's the thing that has kept this post unpublished for a very long time.

[anim-ttrpgs]

as someone too poor to buy rpg rule booklets, I was looking into your game since it appears to be free to play. Was that correct, or did I misread it. (I think its pay what you want)

I was wondering if there was a good place to learn the basic rules. Like a youtube channel that might explain the difference between stats, and when they are applicable. I have never played a tabletop rpg, so the entire concept feels a little overwhelming.

I was also wondering how easy can the game be made. My only potential gaming group at the moment is one that finds monopoly overwhelming. Which means I probably need to look into playing online, or find a way to play single-player.

I know you’ve already had these questions answered by joining our discord server but I wanted to give it a public answer anyway for the sake of anyone else in the same boat.

First of all, yes, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is free if you want it to be free. The beta is pay-what-you-want, which includes $0 if that’s all you can afford.

As for a YouTube video explaining the rules, the best we can do for that is direct you to the Tiny Table podcast. They do get a couple of rules wrong while they play(as most people do the first time they play any particular RPG), but the rules overview will give you the basics. Those basics won’t be enough to start playing from scratch, but they will at least prime you for what you’re about to read in the rulebook.

The only real way to learn to play any RPG is to just read the rulebook, and then play it, continuing to reference the rulebook as-needed while you play.

This may sound intimidating, but it’s really not. Most RPG rulebooks are not massive unreadable tomes, and the ones that look like they are, like Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, are really not as intimidating as they look. Yes, the page count says 700 pages, but only about 200 of that is super important to read before you start playing the game, and, since we use big font and have a bunch of pictures taking up space, as far as word count goes that’s really closer to about 120 pages of actual text, then about 40 more of combat rules. The rest is optional rules, homebrew guidelines, additional character options, and lists and tables and stuff. It’s easy, just go through a few pages at a time.

I actually think that Eureka, despite being a dense and crunchy game, is a very, very good starting point for first-time players of TTRPGs, because it not only tells you the rules, it tells you how you’re supposed to approach the rules, what the rules mean and what their purpose is, and it even breaks down a lot of the math for you. Most games just tell you the rules, but don’t actually tell you how to apply them. Many shorter games will tell you even less, which is why I think it’s not a good idea to start people off on one-page RPGs.

Finally, the best place on the Internet right now to get online TTRPG groups that are safe, respectful, and compatible is the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club.

There’s nominations and we vote regularly on a game for everyone to read together and then play, with groups put together based on schedule compatibility, but there’s also a section for just putting together any game at any time, and it gets a lot of use. I know you already know this because you’re in it by now, but to anyone else reading this who has the same question, here’s an invite link.

[fogaminghub]

🌟 Visions of Mana Adventurers! 🌟 

Chapter 5 is here and the stakes are high! Learn how to defeat the Benevodon of Earth and empower your heroes with the Lumina Lantern! Dive into our comprehensive guide to survival against Garethe. Your quest to protect the Mana Goddess starts now! 🌍✊