#ttrpg

The early #d20 era of #dnd was wild. #TTRPG publishers would create a setting or a supplement on pretty much any conceivable topic and rush it to market, causing a massive glut of products. And, as a result, the quality of these products was... variable.

I've never really investigated how Hamunaptra: Egyptian Adventures rates in this regard, but the boxed set is still among my belongings.

The Midnight #ttrpg setting for #dnd had an interesting premise: "What if Sauron had won the War of the Ring"? And I actually played a short campaign in it.

But ultimately, I found it too depressing - I prefer settings where there is actual hope. Heck, even Call of Cthulhu offered chances of victory, however temporary they might be - and an opportunity to escape the horrors, however brief.

There are plenty of weird postapocalyptic #ttrpg settings out there, and Tribe 8 has to be one of the weirdest.

I do appreciate that, unlike with Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear line, this book actually lays out the entire possible future metaplot in advance - not in much detail, but enough for a GM to work with.

Considering the over-the-top action of the comics, the character stat blocks in GURPS Girl Genius were surprisingly down-to-earth. While the main protagonists are indeed powerful, they are still fairly reasonable, and not out of the range of "pulp action heroes" and the like. #GURPS #ttrpg

I have sold of much of my physical collection of #ttrpg books. But I am still reluctant to part with my copy of the first Forgotten Realms Campaign Set... #dnd

Vaesen is a game that should be right up my alley, considering it's a #ttrpg based on European #folklore and set in the 19th century - i.e. the topic and time I am studying myself.

Alas, so far I have been unable to find the time to actually read it. But hey - if anyone wants to write a Germany sourcebook for it, I am available as an expert consultant. 😉

Most #dnd / fantasy #ttrpg settings out there seem to be vaguely based on Europe and European cultural assumptions.

However, most religious conflict in these settings seems to be based on conflicts between the followers of different gods. What I'd like to see more examples of is conflict between followers of the same god(s) who interpret their faiths differenty.

I mean, consider the conflict between Catholics and Lutherans in early modern Germany, which ultimately led to the Thirty Years's War - arguably the most traumatic war in the country's existence, eclipsing even the World Wars in many respects.

Such conflicts between different theological interpretations of the same faith have thus plenty of potential for conflict - and thus stories. However, you do need to make sure that the gods of your setting won't settle theological disputes directly...

It's fair to say that this sourcebook on the "Mwangi Expanse" - the "not-Africa" region of Golarion, the setting of the #Pathfinder #ttrpg - is much better than the portrayal in the previous edition of Pathfinder, which drew upon lots of unfortunate "Dark Continent" tropes (including "Apartheit-era not-South Africa").

What I particularly liked that each region had its own cultural narrative - a story that served as its "founding myth" of sorts. This not only served as a cool bit of flavor, but also distinguished it from the more "conventional" regions north of the Inner Sea.

When the German licensees of the #Shadowrun #ttrpg developed their regional expansions for Germany, they tried to cram as much stuff as possible within the comparably small region of Germany.

And this included an entire nuclear wasteland...

Another one in the category "Weird #TTRPG That Time Forgot", Nephilim was a game where the player characters were reincarnations of supernatural creatures reborn in the modern world - though with a rather weirder basic concept than the "World of Darkness" games.

Who else has this #ttrpg , and who bas played it?

Not the easiest work to read, but very useful if you want to leave some Eurocentric thinking behind.

#ttrpg / #StarWars fans: Read about its central concept of "teotl" if you want to add some coherent philosophical underpinnings to "The Force" of Star Wars!

I bought Weapon of the Gods based on the recommendation of a friend, but I never really read it, and it doesn't seem to have had much staying power in the #ttrpg fandom - or at least, I haven't heard anyone talk about it in years.

Does anyone remember it, and has actually played it?

One of my long-running aspirations is to design a (#dnd -style) #fantasy #ttrpg setting that features truly vast cities, of a size comparable to modern-day major metropolitan areas.

As a result, I've accumulated a number of books that try to examine the structure and layout of cities - what makes a modern city a city, instead of just focusing on any single town. This particular book offers layout views of streets and buildings of major cities - without labeling them - so that readers can get a feel for their structure instead of getting bogged down in the details.

While I haven't bought it, I am curious - how did the latest incarnation of #Planescape deal with the Factions?

#dnd #ttrpg

I'm not sure if I will ever be a friend of diceless #ttrpg , but reading Nobilis was an experience that was as fascinating as it was trippy. In either case, time well spent!