Actana

Not burning myself out, and keeping (live) games going for longer than a few months. Of course, I don't think the games themselves are the cause of the burnout, but that's a whole other issue entirely.

I like games and new ideas too much to stick with what I have right now. There's so many new and cool things out there to try out.

An interesting topic. I'm not sure I entirely agree, but I'm not sure I entirely disagree either. Of course there's the standard caveats of "depends on the game" and all that, but I want to take it in a different direction: It's not about the scale of the setting, it's about the scope of the story itself. A setting can be expansive and full of things but still work because the story's focal points are more intimate and immediately approachable. This can be a real problem with a lot of setting books that just present you with a lot of information without any real interest in telling you about what to do in the setting. Most games don't care about vast swathes of history that happened ten thousand years ago, and even when they do they care about one or two specific things. Jade Regent, while I've never played it and can't comment on how it does things in practice, feels like a solid case of this example. The whole caravan trip should be the focus here, to nurture the narratives inside it as the bonds of travel grow stronger, and then use the changing setting and scenery to highlight the characters and stories that are happening within the caravan, instead of going from one place to another to look at the pretty set dressing in the setting and get infodumped about this or that place. I don't know how it handles this, of course, but the idea isn't bad at all, just harder to do well. Making a more intimate setting might be easier in a smaller scale setting, but I don't think it's that much better per se. Just different. There are a lot of emotions to be had in grand sweeping vistas and the idea of boundless possibilities over the horizon and a world that exists "out there". One just has to find a way to hone in on what is important and what the setting is bringing to the game. Making the world feel large within the story of the game is an entirely different thing to telling about how large the setting is, and also a lot harder too. Setting books are very bad at the former, though there are some exceptions too.

Reading novels or whatever other kind of stories, don't care. Use whatever you think is best. First person, third person, whatever. Second person too, if you really want to. Why not. Running games, I use second person primarily, occasionally dip into third person, especially when trying to keep track of several "you's" at once. I also address the characters as much as I can, not the players. Playing text games, I use third person pretty much exclusively for descriptions, but when talking about actions out of character I'm pretty sure I always default to first person. Playing live games, I tend to use first person primarily, but also third person fairly often, especially if matching the other players.

I think every GM should run a game, even if it's just a short one, where death is literally impossible. Not via mechanics, nor narrative. Just a hard "no" on all death. PCs, NPCs, doesn't matter, nobody can die for some reason, explained or not. Why? Because it's a great learning tool to figure out how to make engaging scenes that don't simply rely on character death as an outcome to create tension. Makes all future games a lot better when you apply those same lessons to other games.

On a personal level, my characters need little motivating to find a reason to go on an adventure that everyone else is going for. I can and will, if need be, make up exceedingly convoluted scenarios to make them tag along. Because that's what I signed up for. I hope not to have to do that, but I can if I need to. Assuming the game is about a party and such - plenty of games aren't that and thus don't need much, if any, such contrivances. On the other hand, how much I need to be invested in an adventure is a lot more important to me. I often find that if I feel like my character could be replaced by anyone else and the ongoing narrative would see zero changes, I start to lose a lot of interest in what's going on, and instead it feels like I'm simply going with the motions in an adventure, there not to really be part of it, but just to see what's behind the next corner and resolve it in the way that is most convenient for the game we're playing. Give me, the player, some more influence and give my choices (both in character creation and during play) more meaningful interactions and that's what I really like.

DIE RPG has a pretty cool concept for an isekai game. Based on the graphic novel.

I think an important but somewhat ignored question is "what is a trap?". What exactly counts as "a trap", compared to "a monster", "an environmental hazard", or something else entirely? And when is a monster a trap, and when does a trap turn into an environmental hazard? Or is there any difference between a trap and an environmental hazard? In any case, the purpose of traps is also significant. For attrition based games, traps do operate on a purpose of causing attrition. But what about games where attrition based dungeon crawling is less important? What purpose do they serve there, and how can they be used well then? When building a trap for a game, the best question I can ask (and often do of myself) is "what purpose does this serve, and how do I best highlight it?" That then informs me of the greater goal and gives me a sense of purpose for not just the trap but the entire scene it takes place in. The same goes basically for any and all elements in a game, and traps are no exception.

Due to some travelling and other business taking up a lot of my time, I will have to take a week long break from the challenge. Next Monday I will return with, uhh, something or someone. I dunno. Maybe some more PbtA characters. They're pretty quick.

I made a Paranoia character. No, you're not allowed to see it.

And real quick, a Heart: The City Beneath. Lassajha has gone insane, embedded a hive of bees into her and is now delving deep underground to find the source of the Heart. Some trinket randomization rolled: roll

Today we travel to the Spire, and The City Must Fall. We're playing as a drow revolutionary in a towering metropolis ruled by high elves. Let's see what we get. Made myself an Inksmith, an occult writer, channeler of pulp fiction and sensationalist journalism. Could a man with a gun walk through the door? Sure can! And will! But hey, it's all for the good of a story. Lassajha used to be a liason between the aelfir and the humans from beyond the eastern ocean, studying their technology. Including the printing press. Oh, the printing press. Now free of the shackles of her durance, she now tries to liberate the Spire with the help of newspapers and narratives. Next week, we will delve deeper into the Spire, into its horrible depths to find out what lurks in The City Beneath.

Today we move to Pathfinder 2e. Since it's a D&D derivative, I figured I'd recreate my first proper D&D character I used in a campaign, who was a Warforged knight: As anyone observing may have noticed, I don't really do a lot of fluff text for these characters. I'd rather not spend hours writing stuff I'll never use. These character creations are really quick for me, and I like to keep it that way.

There's no online sheet for Star Wars RPG, so here's a pdf of a character sheet. A Mirialan Soldier: Trailblazer. Once part of a Republic Militia, he has now joined the Rebel Alliance to provide intelligence for the Rebels, and to further the cause of the Republic he once served. An Age of Rebellion character, since I find it's often overlooked.

Here we go. For January 2nd, we have a character from the Root RPG. A wolf ranger, who is a loner. My my, so original. Lacking any other online character sheet, Excel to the rescue!