Tumgik
#Trust me I'm a professional
dice-wizard · 2 years
Text
Hey traditional TTRPG game designers. Hey, you. Yeah you. Look at me.
Stop including mechanics that remove player engagement.
What do I mean by this? I mean shit like stunning effects that prevent a character from taking actions and therefore remove a player's ability to continue to participate, abilities that knock out a player character and therefore remove the player from participating in a fight, effects that instantly kill a character (therefore removing a player from participating), and literally any other effect you can think of that ends in the player no longer playing.
Trad designers, our artform is dependent on player participation. People enjoy maximalist, crunchy, tactical games because they're fun to engage with. What's the point of having all these rules if you're going to include things that stop your players from using them??
You're gonna say "oh, but only D&D does this" - no it fucking does not. These rules are everywhere. They're even in Blades in the Dark. Stop it.
Here are some cool alternatives. I'm trying to present these as open ended as possible:
Force a choice between two actions
You can't attack this enemy, but you can attack another, make a movement action, or any other non-attack action
Present a hard bargain
Attacking this enemy means you choose between taking a certain amount of damage or accepting emotional attachment to them, causing issues later.
Present high risk and high reward
Attacking this enemy means incurring extra damage against you if you hit, but if you succeed, you gain a stat boost for the rest of the fight.
Consider stakes other than character death
In many instances this will require rules reconfiguring, but that's a topic for another post. Besides that, remember that if someone's character gets instantly killed in the first round, that player must then sit on their hands for the rest of the session.
Yeah I know "let them play an NPC" is often a "solution" to this problem, but why do that when you could just implement a rule that lets other PCs get the downed character back to the fight - like in Borderlands or Left4Dead (or Gears of War or Vermintide, or...)
Consider how much more exciting that is, and how much energy won't be lost by someone having to literally sit out while all their friends have fun. Furthermore, players make much more interesting and risky decisions when they aren't at risk of losing their blorbo.
The point is to play. Nothing else. Stop shooting yourself in the foot with your own rules.
365 notes · View notes
brinymusings · 2 months
Text
the secret to low screentime is talking to old people for twelve hours straight
0 notes
uncanny-tranny · 1 year
Text
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is planning on changing their regulations for telehealth prescriptions of controlled substances. However, they have opened comments up for people to voice their opinions. You can submit a formal anonymous comment HERE. The comment period ends on March 31st, 2023.
This is an important issue for those who are prescribed controlled substances (e.g., testosterone or ADHD medication) through telehealth, which means it can and will impact trans people on testosterone and a ton of others if this goes through.
10K notes · View notes
quillandinkdrop · 1 year
Text
I've realized that the proper way to write a teenage protagonist is 95% having them look and act like an actual teenager, and 5% of whatever power fantasy you had at that age
1 note · View note
poorly-drawn-mdzs · 6 months
Text
Tumblr media
Been thinking about the X-Files recently. A show I have a hazy, but fond memory of.
878 notes · View notes
akanemnon · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media
Intermission
If I gathered anything from my last post it's that a lot of you guys like Kris with braces and others wondering about the bite mark on their phone case. This one's for you both.
FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT
3K notes · View notes
nicojoe · 6 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
I wrote my own fanscript of THE OLD GUARD 2
The screenshots above are samples...
... I got tired of waiting for Netflix, so:
I tried to incorporate the following:
TOG 2 casting (Uma and Henry) plus some locations where the movie was shot last year (as seen in set photos, etc)
my own personal "wish list" of details, but hopefully in a way that makes sense within the larger story (tried to avoid making it just a self-indulgent, shoe-horned laundry list lol) and in a way that it could conceivably be greenlit by the industry -- ie: I'd have loved to write 2 whole hours of them just hanging out playing board games and reminiscing, but that would never be made into a movie.
a few ideas inspired by some of my favorite meta posts/fan art/etc (some of y'all are SO much more creative than the people actually making these movies, istg) -- try to spot them all!
favorite "action" scenes from the Force Multiplied comic, despite this script not being a true adaptation (it just borrows the broader strokes)
the decision not to make Quynh a villain; she's arguably got a hero arc in this, tbh (the top 1% and their use of institutional/systemic oppression to exploit and control the masses is the real villain, actually!)
no new immortals or explanation of immortality, tyvm; I tried to focus on the Family of Six and their shared history as much as possible.
PDF FILE OF SCRIPT
94 notes · View notes
jaysavex · 1 year
Text
Adventure time around the 'plex
Tumblr media
277 notes · View notes
wander-wren · 2 months
Note
Are you taking a break from writing? No hate or anything, just wanted to check in 💛
not really! i've just been in, to be frank, a pretty bad place mentally. i haven't written a thing since the last fic i posted, which was....8 days ago? which is super unusual for me, i usually write every day or near to it, i've just been laying around like a salted slug for a few weeks. it sucks. i'm not gonna go into detail but we shall say my life kind of imploded in the back half of december/front half of january and i have yet to start picking up the pieces. which i'm very fortunate to even be able to take that time, of course, but it's still not fun.
butttttttt i do have a doc open right now as i try to bang something out. how well that is going is debatable, seeing as i am also currently on tumblr, but i will do my best. and hopefully if i can make progress today it will unstick some other gears and i can get back into writing and all the rest of it!
thanks for checking in, though <3
12 notes · View notes
fuzzyarsonist · 4 months
Text
[ Ding Dong ]
"Dear passengers, we're experiencing minor turbulence. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts."
[ Ding Dong ]
*STARTS SPINNING THE PLANE WITH EXTREME VIOLENCE*
12 notes · View notes
I don't not mean this offensively at all but is blows my mind that you are a lawyer but also writing jjk fics bc I work at a law firm and cannot for the life of me imagine any of the lawyers that work there writing fanfiction LOL kudos to u seriously I know how busy schedues can get due to court dates haha
im working in like. big city criminal law stuff right now and have been told by people in my office that i come off as a very deadpan and straight-laced legal nerd so i don't think the people who know me from my attorney life are imagining me writing jjk fanfic in my free time either
18 notes · View notes
dice-wizard · 2 years
Text
Here are some basic tips that will improve your ability to run games for people just starting:
- Ask your players for some in character goals at the start or end of the session. Encourage them to engage with the current plot. If the plot you've presented involves investigating a monster that's haunting a town, encourage them to make this part of their goals. Then reward working towards it with XP, or something like that if the game you're playing doesn't have experience.
- Always make characters together. Schedule one of those session zeroes you've heard so much about. During that session, insist the players establish the relationships their characters have had with each other in the past. Make sure everyone has an answer for someone else so no one is left out.
- Consistently ask players what they're interested in and what they'd like to see. Then include those things. Sexy goblins? Fights in formal wear? Eligible monsters looking for a date? Relationship drama involving a dangerous ex? Make it a point to work those things into your plot.
- Always be a fan of the characters. You're not here to embarrass them or just inflict suffering. It's supposed to be fun for everyone involved, and you want the heroes to defeat the villains you've spent time on, right? That's the point of a good villain.
- Once you've gotten their goals and the things they want to see, tie those things together. That's way easier than making up all your plots by yourself and your group will be significantly more engaged.
66 notes · View notes
big-gay-apocalypse · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media
honestly..... damian's not wrong
// Batman and Robin (2011) Vol. 3: Death of the Family
24 notes · View notes
beskad · 25 days
Text
.
3 notes · View notes
tosteur-gluteal · 7 months
Text
Guys I swear I'm neurotypical I might be totally foreign to how human beings work but that's not because I'm autistic that's because I'm an alien
9 notes · View notes
trannakinskywalker · 14 days
Text
.
2 notes · View notes