Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now! @riseupcomus Twitter profile

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

15 days

His Majesty the Worm is a new-school game with old-school sensibilities: a classic megadungeon experience given fresh life through a focus on the mundanities and small moments of daily life inside the dungeon. Out now! Check it out⤵️

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

1 year

Pascal's Wager is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of I swear

Moe Bible Verses ✝️

@AnimeBibleVerse

1 year

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@riseupcomus

1 month

I am reminded again just how much I like the designs for orcs in Dungeon Meshi I like that they're obviously p'orc coded. (I also like how Laious is like, "Would")

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@riseupcomus

7 months

I am gently kissing the forehead of the reddit poster who had this complaint about The Boy and the Heron, rocking them in shallow, warm water, holding them. Shh. Shh. Shh.

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@riseupcomus

4 months

In Dungeon Meshi, Kuro the kobold. Kobold are dog men. Why is the Japanese conception of kobolds a dog whereas modern D&D depicts them as lizards? (The answer might SHOCK you) (...but probably won't, it's just sort of interesting.) ⤵️

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@riseupcomus

3 months

Christopher Lee made friends with the orcs because they had to be in the makeup chair for 11 hours so he would keep them company because he remembered what it was like to be the lowest paid guy in a film who had to sit in the makeup chair to be the monster for hours and hours

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@riseupcomus

9 months

When I say "Dungeon Meshi is some of the best fantasy you can read today," I'm referring explicitly to the part where the party discusses their respective ages

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@riseupcomus

4 months

Wow, I really like thinking of the Balrog as less monstrous. More fallen angel.

Tolkien Art & Other Beautiful Things

@SeanMac67914982

4 months

Flame of Udûn by Weirling

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@riseupcomus

6 months

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@riseupcomus

3 months

The thing I like the best about Frank Franzetta's EOWYN VS THE NAZGUL LORD is that Eowyn was disguised as Dernhelm, just another one of the boys. Which means that this is how all the Rohirrim were dressed.

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@riseupcomus

4 months

Thinking about old fantasy illustrations has filled my heart with the sorrow of an elf thinking back on fairer days. Gone are the days of fantasy covers graced by oil paintings. Look at the different editions of The Game of Thrones. Look how they massacred my boy.

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@riseupcomus

4 months

This is my *favorite* thing from the GLoG: > Roleplaying If you don't understand that bootless goblins are susceptible to intimidation, and proud dwarven kings are not, you are bad at this game. Common sense negotiations are one of the skills that this game tests.

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@riseupcomus

1 year

In honor of the day, Gandalf smelling that loud

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@riseupcomus

5 months

Dragon Age: Origins had these locked chests scattered around the levels. If you were a thief you could pick them and get a little bonus, like 10g or something. I was playing with my roommate, once, who said "They punish you for not playing a thief." Design implications there.

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@riseupcomus

3 months

I'm mad about how cool the NiNoKuni supplementary book is. I want to make a game like this.

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@riseupcomus

2 years

I am tired of reading RPG pantheons that are Hellenic reskins. I am tired of reading "And then, MY sun god, Daylor, is good and he hates the undead, but--get this--there's also a god of orcs and he's bad." Please give me weird, contradictory, and confusing fantasy divinities.

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@riseupcomus

4 months

In early editions of D&D, a kobold was "like a goblin." In one reference, they were "Doglike." When they were put into the game Wizardry, this is the feature that was latched on. Wizardry was big in Japan. Introduced the idea of dog-men-kobolds to that audience. +

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@riseupcomus

6 months

I have muted the reposted "D&D is Mid" joke from yesterday. Something I was surprised about, being so long in my RPG bubble, was how many people legitimately didn't know where else to *go*. "I want to play an indie game, but what even is the name of ONE?!" A 🧵of my faves:

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@riseupcomus

4 months

Later editions of D&D allow the ill defined concept of a kobold to morph into a lizard-like creature - a henchmen for the bigger dragons. D&D is like running Smashmouth through Google Translate, then back again. (There's an article about all this in Knock!5, actually!)

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@riseupcomus

4 months

GM Tip: Narrate failures through the competence of the PCs against a hazardous world. They're a skilled thief, but the trap is rusted. They have a glib tongue, but the guard is already being coerced. They're strong, but even a giant couldn't lift this portcullis.

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@riseupcomus

2 months

Here's something about these dungeon areas: There's no way you could swing a sword here. No way to fire a bow. Maybe you could stab a spear?

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@riseupcomus

7 months

This is, of course, my problem with D&D-like spells. When you know a fireball is always 5' x 5' squares, magic becomes a math equation and not a spell. Spells should have limits like "the circumference of a graveyard" or "as far as this bowshot" or "for a year and a day."

wayspell

@wayspell

7 months

@riseupcomus >wanting to apply the scientific method to magic Reddit continues to be awful

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@riseupcomus

10 months

Vermis is an art book in the style of a game guide for a 2-bit soulslike that never existed. It evokes a strong feeling of nostalgia for me, as well as got my mind burning with ideas. I immediately invited a friend over to playtest new bits with HIS MAJESTY THE WORM.

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@riseupcomus

1 month

@othergrahamb Like dog-faced kobolds, it comes from the game Wizardry using concepts from the earliest editions of D&D, while D&D continued to iterate and change in the US. (Picture from original Monster Manual)

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@riseupcomus

9 months

And later Senshi tries to tell Chilchuck (who has three daughters!) about the birds and the bees 😭 (And it's because Senshi is trying to be a father figure because of his fucked up childhood and boo hoo hoo! Its sweet actually!)

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@riseupcomus

1 year

HIS MAJESTY THE WORM's gots jokes

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@riseupcomus

6 months

In HIS MAJESTY THE WORM, the GM doesn't have to prepare a session every week -- that upfront work is done first. But every time the party returns to the City, they have a checklist to review the dungeon and see how it's been changed by the PCs' actions--and evolves!

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@riseupcomus

4 months

RPG magic idea: Casting a magic requires a [game specific] type of resource, but also is fundamentally bad for the world Each spell cast makes the World Tree wither or the Sun Dim 1/10000000th of an amount Would the players ever care?

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@riseupcomus

5 months

I'll say this about Daggerheart: Watching 5E heads discover and balk at PbtA mechanics is very funny to me, personally.

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@riseupcomus

1 year

@ZacmanTheDamned Whatdya mean that He's created not begotten?!

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@riseupcomus

1 year

Dungeoneers kick down wall, find intact Burger King behind it, fully staffed by kobolds.

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@riseupcomus

1 month

@GblnWrrrGames I think there's a panel that explains they implant animal bones for aesthetic reasons

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@riseupcomus

4 months

When players say "But why should my character care about this quest?" they are just performing the "Refusing the Call" step of the monomyth and are good roleplayers actually 😏

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@riseupcomus

1 year

"Show, don't tell" is great writing advice. It has limited uses in GMing. I often find "Telling directly" to be a pretty good technique: "She seems like she's hiding something." "This guy is racist." "You can see a trapped pressure plate."

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@riseupcomus

1 year

Mended a hole in the cellar stairs yesterday

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@riseupcomus

1 year

I like classes that imply something about the world. A knight is more interesting (to me) than a "fighter." A Knight of the Pale is more interesting than a generic knight. A Knight of the Pale wielding a sword of moonshard is more interesting than one wielding a sword of iron

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@riseupcomus

2 months

Just my posts

@dril

10 years

i put years of hard work into getting my torture degree at torture college & now everyones like "oh tortures bad","its ineffective" fuck off

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@riseupcomus

1 year

"Ley lines" is the pseudo-scientific concept of British monoliths being connected by deliberate lines. The word "ley" means "meadow." As the word now has an esoteric bend, I’ve seen RPG books use the word "ley energy," which literally doesn’t mean what I think they want to say.

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@riseupcomus

2 months

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@riseupcomus

9 days

Yesterday, I got to actually run a game with the book I have been writing for 8 years. This makes me feel happy.

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@riseupcomus

2 years

help

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@riseupcomus

1 year

PERFECT, NO NOTES

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@riseupcomus

2 years

If you are familiar with the word “geas” from D&D, it might interest you to know that it's a Gaelic word for “taboo.” In Irish mythology, a geas (pronounced "gaysh") would both grant someone who kept it vigor/magical power, but breaking the geas would spell doom. Small 🧵

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@riseupcomus

6 months

Cardboard standies > plastic minis Sorry I don't make the rules (yes I do, I am The Dungeon Master) ((Art by Chris Schweizer))

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@riseupcomus

1 year

“You suck for a long time and then get to be overpowered” isn’t game balance and I’m tired of pretending it is.

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@riseupcomus

3 months

Here's an old roleplaying game I don't see talked about a lot: Tales of the Crystals. Released in 93 for at young girls, it was - like an RPG - a play-aide. It had a cassette with the instructions and story, different roles (leader, healer, etc.) and a crystal voting mechanic.

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@riseupcomus

5 months

Let go of the illusion of balanced encounters. Be free. A dragon is an appropriate challenge at 1st level or 20th level. Either the challenge is "sneak by" or the challenge is "fight" or "drop a rock on its head" or "riddle with it." Let the world breathe. Let chaos reign.

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@riseupcomus

3 months

I got this book for Christmas. I absolutely loved it, heartily recommend it. In addition to charming art, the WORLDBUILDING in it is something else. If you can afford the art, telling me about your setting through images + captions is the best way. No more pages of lore dumps!

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@riseupcomus

2 years

My whole life is an attempt to write a single page of an RPG half as good as the introduction to combat in Unknown Armies

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@riseupcomus

4 months

I love when the magic sword is a surfeit of light, lit by its own inner glow. I love it. Top tier sword design.

HolBolDoArt🏳️‍🌈(COMMS OPEN)

@HolBolDoTweet

4 months

The Leech Knight

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@riseupcomus

1 year

Here’s a🧵of my GM utility belt. These are some of the best supplements I have to run my games, at the table or during prep. Drop yours below to tell me what’s most valuable for you!

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@riseupcomus

2 years

HIS MAJESTY THE WORM is a new-school game with old-school sensibilities: the classic megadungeon experience given fresh life through a focus on the mundanities and small moments of daily life inside the dungeon. Coming SOON!

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@riseupcomus

8 months

"Hey, does my character know this?" is something I care a lot about how an RPG handles. In HIS MAJESTY THE WORM there are three levels. 1: Yes, everyone does 2: Only certain people know this 3: No, no one does Your Motifs qualify you to be level 2. Nothing is rolled, BUT...

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@riseupcomus

2 years

Yes thank you to wife for this fetching shirt

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@riseupcomus

9 months

The longer I run games, the more I'm in the camp of "Just Tell Them." Tell them the lore. Tell them there's a trap ahead. Tell them that the NPC is lying. The lets you get to the fun part faster.

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@riseupcomus

9 months

If you read old books of spells, they're not uhhh D&D spells It's all like "200 spells about removing warts" and "to get a married man to love you" and "to get pregnant" and "to not get pregnant" Nobody is casting fireball

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@riseupcomus

5 months

Quinns Quest: "Can I make a public service announcement? If you have only played D&D, you have no idea how easy it can be to learn other games." PREACH! PREACH!

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@riseupcomus

7 months

Love this line from Vemis II "All demons were gods once. It is man who puts crowns on our heads and holds axes over our necks."

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@riseupcomus

7 months

@StefanEJones @NMamatas Just use 5E it can do anything /s

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@riseupcomus

3 months

Rewatched Phantom Menace this week. Here's my fixit: Sith aren't just "dark Jedi." Darth Vader had a lightsaber because he was a fallen Jedi. Sith are sorcerers, like the Emperor. Keep the sword and sorcery knight vs sorcerer motif. Also give Obi-wan a motorcycle steed.

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@riseupcomus

5 months

In HIS MAJESTY THE WORM, iron is countermagic. You cannot cast a spell if you're wearing or carrying a significant amount of metal. Moreover, you cannot be targeted by spells if you are wearing metal armor--neither boon nor bane. (How's that for a martial vs caster divide?)

Nerdy Stoner

@StonedNerd314

5 months

Why aren't wizards smart enough to figure out how to wear armor?

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@riseupcomus

2 years

Exalted is my “500 hours played, do not recommend” TTRPG. What’s yours?

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@riseupcomus

4 months

I haven't used Perception checks in my game for years and every day I wake up happy and well moisturized Ask me anything

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@riseupcomus

11 months

Putting this in my RPG brb

depths of wikipedia

@depthsofwiki

11 months

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@riseupcomus

5 months

Too many of y'all missed the design implications and just wanted to tell me about Dragon Age. Which is, like, fine. I like Dragon Age. But it wasn't what I was thinking about.

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@riseupcomus

6 months

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@riseupcomus

3 months

Wow WotC is under arrest

Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

3 years

I am hereby declaring #RPG cover art of human warrior, dwarf warrior, and elf sorceress back to back against an overwhelming force of goblins to be illegal.

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@riseupcomus

3 months

This is what I was talking about

Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

3 months

In His Majesty the Worm, there's a meaningful divide between "scholarship" (represented by Cups) and "magic" (represented by Wands). A wizard is not someone who is educated. A wizard is someone who has magical power. They are probably stupid as shit.

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@riseupcomus

1 year

When you are running a TTRPG, here is a question to ask that can help you get on the same page as your players: If a PC tried to run along the railing of a bridge, then jump down on an enemy, would he get a bonus, a penalty, or resolve the attack normally?

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@riseupcomus

5 months

Yooooo the alpha of the Moria supplement for The One Ring 2E just dropped for Kickstarter backers

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@riseupcomus

4 months

It's not about real world charisma or social skills. But saying "I try to convince the king" is like saying "I defeat the werewolf." Deciding the *approach* of how you use your character's skills, physical or social, is what's fun. Blog post ⤵️

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@riseupcomus

11 months

Watching the dndnext subreddit reinvent 4e in real time has been *wild*.

Tomer Abramovici

@BudgetCommander

11 months

It's funny how in recent years the dnd subreddit has evolved into simply wishing 5E had a whole bunch of changes without realizing that 4E was literally everything they are wishing for, and it was a colossal failure. Coming from a 4E fan: WOTC ain't doing that again

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@riseupcomus

8 months

A few games based on properties (like GoT or Dune) have a default set up where the party plays as a lord's retainers, going out to do their quests. This is such an underrated framing device for RPGs. It lends so much to classic adventuring paradigms. More games should do this.

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@riseupcomus

3 months

You can't write if you don't read. Read lots of stuff. Reread the classics. Read new stuff. Read your friends' stuff. Read stuff that inspires you. Read stuff that makes you so mad that you didn't write it first. But ya gotta read.

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@riseupcomus

2 years

As you work on your #dungeon23 projects, I propose Sersa Victory’s Cyclic Dungeon Generator to be as worthy a canon-text on dungeon mapping as Jaquaysing the Dungeon. (It’s free! Link in comments!)

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@riseupcomus

2 months

Coming back to this area when I unlock bombs

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@riseupcomus

11 months

Darkvision for some (but not all) PCs creates a wonk experience for dungeons at the table. “In the darkness, you see a tentacle slither…” “I HAVE DARKVISION” If dungeoncrawling is the name of the game, remove darkvision and give different folks different *weird senses*

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@riseupcomus

7 months

@nickdipietra THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS PICTURING

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@riseupcomus

6 months

"I like D&D because the combat system is fun and gives me lots of choices. But I wish it was about mechs." In Lancer, you build mechs and pilot them against rival factions. Customize your powers, and carefully wade into complicated combats.

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@riseupcomus

1 year

There’s a tremendous generative lift gained by including cool sounding nonsense in your TTRPG. (This is why the “Clone Wars” were cooler before they were explained.) Put weird combinations of words together and watch your setting pop off. +

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@riseupcomus

3 years

Little GM tip: Most players are used to GMs killing characters in their backstory to provoke an emotional reaction. Try the opposite! Your mother sends you a letter and a beloved childhood trinket. Your former master bequeaths you their sword. Your sister visits! #ttrpg

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@riseupcomus

4 months

BRB making a dungeon layout

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@riseupcomus

5 months

Very happy people are getting into Dungeon Meshi. DID YOU KNOW I made a little game inspired by Dungeon Meshi? Revisited it recently. There's stuff I like here. Small 🧵

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@riseupcomus

5 months

Me: I'm not like, the anti-D&D guy, I'm the pro Indie RPG guy. Partner: You should tweet that, they'd like it. Say that your wife told you the idea. Be a wife guy. Friends...

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@riseupcomus

10 days

8 years ago, when I was writing HIS MAJESTY THE WORM, I took a lot of inspiration from a webcomic called House of Orr. Despite the fact its website had gone dark, I listed it as an inspiration in the book. Reader? The author saw that note AND PUT IT BACK UP! houseoforr . com

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@riseupcomus

9 months

If you're designing an RPG with a stun condition ("Lose a turn, wait"), go take it out. That shit's not fun. Alternative condition: On fire. Spend an action to put yourself out or lose 1d6 HP.

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@riseupcomus

1 year

The Breathing Mermaid problem describes a situation in RPGs where some character ability solves a problem you didn't know you had. "With the Tracking feat, you can track." Could I not before? Avoid rules that are defined by negation.

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@riseupcomus

1 year

The thing that gets me when people ask questions about RPG settings like, "In a thousand years, did nobody try X" is...no. A yoke revolutionized modern technology as we know it. For 1000s of years, plow technology was *worse.* The change to a yoke was simple but huge.

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@riseupcomus

9 months

A problem with necromancers is that I want necromancer NPCs to have limitless skeletons and skeleton-adjacent friends, but I want PC necromancers to have a normal amount of minions are you kidding me Greg no you can't go into the dungeon with 200 skeletons

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@riseupcomus

6 months

"I like D&D because I like fantasy. I wish it was a bit more like Tolkien and less like Monty Python." Beyond the Wall is inspired by LeGuin and Lloyd Alexander. It's designed to be played by real people with real lives. 0 prep adventures. Lifepath character creation is a blast.

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

8 months

I think these two things are true: 1. GMing is not a secret skill. It's fun and easy. Everybody can do it. 2. You can get better at GMing. Every time you do it you learn something.

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

1 year

John Boorman, of Zardoz fame, wrote a film treatment of LotR. It has many batshit ideas in it, but here's one I kinda like: dwarves have ancestral memory, and can remember the deeds of their ancestors, old passwords, and the paths through forgotten citadels.

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

2 years

"Oh boy! A +1 sword! I'll factor it into my to-hit bonus and promptly forget about it. Wowee, this is the most magical experience ever!" +1 swords are boring as shit. Here's what to do about it. (Blog post in comments)

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

4 months

In a recent episode of Between 2 Cairns, a mailbag question asked "What books should I look at to learn graphic design." My answer is: Cookbooks. Like RPG books, they thrive on efficient info design. They need to be usable and beautiful and interesting and user centered.

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

1 year

There’s a scene in the GRRM book A Feast for Crows that's a good example of “social combat," by which I mean a social puzzle. A short 🧵about how to use social puzzles in RPGs +

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

7 months

Remember confirming crits? That shit sucked. You think it's gone, but the principle of "Roll again to see if you *actually* succeed" is still pervasive at many tables. "Yes, you snuck past the guards once, but roll AGAIN for stealth." Don't do that. Let it ride.

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

1 year

The first John Wick uses a great storytelling tool: “I gave him an impossible task...the bodies he buried that night are the foundation of what we are now." You don't have to tell me what that is. It's better left unsaid. Do this while running games.

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

28 days

The new Moria book for The One Ring 2E is the most definitive supplement on the subject to date.

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Joshy McCroo - His Majesty the Worm Out Now!

@riseupcomus

11 months

By default, no NPC should be outright hostile. In The Hobbit, the 3 trolls wanted to let him go (at first). Use Reaction rolls to see if the dragon is hungry, sleepy, or amused. Every encounter is a roleplaying encounter, unless the dice + player actions determine differently.

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