I should add that neither of these games lasted beyond a session. And I think THAT is what proves that it's not a great game, especially for beginners. I guess if you already exist with just like D&D rules in your head well keep playing it and have fun.... but it drives me nuts that's all most people know about ;____;

I've played D&D with 2 completely different groups of people, both beginner TTRPG players. One group was more story focused & one was more combat focused, and I can say with complete certainty that neither group had a great time playing D&D because it's not really a fun game lol.

The story focused players did a LOT of work to make both their characters and the setting interesting, but basically ignored 90% of the rules in order to do so. And our first session was basically a 4 hour meet up of dice rolling, trying to figure out powers & game mechanics, assigning horses, gods, weapons and adventuring packs. It was grueling and confusing, and we used literally 10% of what we did in game.

The combat focused game was just encounter after encounter of monster fighting, in which we all took turns rolling dice, and during which non-combat focused PCs were basically limited to doing nothing after using 1 or 2 powers. No matter how you frame it, going around and rolling dice over and over while a harried GM is focusing on subtracting and adding damage is just not that fun.

And I will say that both of these groups put significant effort into creating tokens, creating background stories, and helping players understand the rules. So it's not like the players weren't invested. I just don't think the system is fun.

ANYWAY IT WOULD BE GREAT IF ANY INDIE TTRPGS WERE TRANSLATED INTO SPANISH IM BEGGING YOU. I WILL DO IT MYSELF IF YOU WANT ME TO BUT PLEASE DO MEXICO A FAVOR!!!!!!!

I've played D&D with 2 completely different groups of people, both beginner TTRPG players. One group was more story focused & one was more combat focused, and I can say with complete certainty that neither group had a great time playing D&D because it's not really a fun game lol.

The story focused players did a LOT of work to make both their characters and the setting interesting, but basically ignored 90% of the rules in order to do so. And our first session was basically a 4 hour meet up of dice rolling, trying to figure out powers & game mechanics, assigning horses, gods, weapons and adventuring packs. It was grueling and confusing, and we used literally 10% of what we did in game.

The combat focused game was just encounter after encounter of monster fighting, in which we all took turns rolling dice, and during which non-combat focused PCs were basically limited to doing nothing after using 1 or 2 powers. No matter how you frame it, going around and rolling dice over and over while a harried GM is focusing on subtracting and adding damage is just not that fun.

And I will say that both of these groups put significant effort into creating tokens, creating background stories, and helping players understand the rules. So it's not like the players weren't invested. I just don't think the system is fun.

I think a lot of folks in indie RPG spaces misunderstand what's going on when people who've only ever played Dungeons & Dragons claim that indie RPGs are categorically "too complicated". Yes, it's sometimes the case that they're making the unjustified assumption that all games are as complicated as Dungeons & Dragons and shying away from the possibility of having to brave a steep learning cure a second time, but that's not the whole picture.

A big part of it is that there's a substantial chunk of the D&D fandom – not a majority by any means, but certainly a very significant minority – who are into D&D because they like its vibes or they enjoy its default setting or whatever, but they have no interest in actually playing the kind of game that D&D is... so they don't.

Oh, they'll show up at your table, and if you're very lucky they might even provide their own character sheet (though whether it adheres to the character creation guidelines is anyone's guess!), but their actual engagement with the process of play consists of dicking around until the GM tells them to roll some dice, then reporting what number they rolled and letting the GM figure out what that means.

Basically, they're putting the GM in the position of acting as their personal assistant, onto whom they can offload any parts of the process of play that they're not interested in – and for some players, that's essentially everything except the physical act of rolling the dice, made possible by the fact most of D&D's mechanics are either GM-facing or amenable to being treated as such.*

Now, let's take this player and present them with a game whose design is informed by a culture of play where mechanics are strongly player facing, often to the extent that the GM doesn't need to familiarise themselves with the players' character sheets and never rolls any dice, and... well, you can see where the wires get crossed, right?

And the worst part is that it's not these players' fault – not really. Heck, it's not even a problem with D&D as a system. The problem is D&D's marketing-decreed position as a universal entry-level game means that neither the text nor the culture of play are ever allowed to admit that it might be a bad fit for any player, so total disengagement from the processes of play has to be framed as a personal preference and not a sign of basic incompatibility between the kind of game a player wants to be playing and the kind of game they're actually playing.

(Of course, from the GM's perspective, having even one player who expects you to do all the work represents a huge increase to the GM's workload, let alone a whole group full of them – but we can't admit that, either, so we're left with a culture of play whose received wisdom holds that it's just normal for GMs to be constantly riding the ragged edge of creative burnout. Fun!)

* Which, to be clear, is not a flaw in itself; a rules-heavy game ideally needs a mechanism for introducing its processes of play gradually.

unquality content

don't mind if i do *toodles over to 4 episodes of hxh that i've already watched & clicks play*

honestly to have lots of projects going on at the same time and having to follow through and believe in yourself..... i'm lucky, i'm tired, i'm happy, i'm lucky

high, eating chicharrón & guacamole. they said make it a great day.

kabru is one of my favorite characters in dungeon meshi bc he is literally insane he is amy dunne level, platinum blonde, cool girl monologue crazy. he has the fallout VATS overlay floating in front of him during every mundane interaction just in case he needs to behead the kroger cashier

my dealer: got some straight gas 🔥😛 this strain is called “ekumenical mission to gethen” 😳 you’ll be zonked out of your gourd 💯

me: yeah whatever I don’t feel shit

me 5 minutes later: dude I swear i just saw a sarf agent in the kemmerhouse

my buddy estraven pacing: argaven is lying to us

sadly i am a little bit annoyed about having read those spoilers bc i was enjoying being in a "well who even really knows what nen is all about" way of existing & now i'm like oh well i guess it's... x...

accidentally read hxh spoilers & just sitting here like, wow... really? wow..

accidentally read hxh spoilers & just sitting here like, wow... really? wow..

this scene makes me feel like i hit my head really hard

i like jack's hxh demon world theory just bc as someone who has not watched hxh, it really seems like a plausible explanation to what's going on....