Favorite Problems in TTRPGs

I read this today: https://www.failuretolerated.com/my-favorite-problems and was really motivated to think about this issue.  Attempting to identify problems rather than just discussing solutions. 

My GM and fellow blogger Kevin [read his blog!] and I mostly talk about problems in running ttrpgs.  I think this makes us better as a GM.  We don't accept something is good or even great.  Can we find better?  This is not to say focusing on problems makes us a better GM than others—just to say it pushes us to be better.  

A small list of problems I don't have good answers to are: 

Players Missing Sessions 

I've had a policy of so long as we have a majority—I run.  Other DMs will only run if everyone is present.  There isn't a right answer as neither are perfect.  Not running unless all are available sounds great, until the calendars come out for scheduling the next game.  Yet, only running for some (or most) can cause disconnect from those who miss a session and mess with verisimilitude for those who are present. 

Can There Be a Horror TTRPG?

That is actually horrifying.  10 candles is good—though I think it usually seems to skew depressing and sad.  But do I leave the game scared?  No not really.  And I like to think I'm at least a decently engaged player.  The closest thing to horror I've felt is in the Mothership module "Gradient Descent" where the theme discusses how can you tell you are human v. being a robot.  It was really thought provoking on what it means to be human.  Not scary though—at least—not enough to where I think it fully qualifies as horror.

How Can Combat Engage Players?

Without dragging on.  I do not like crunchy combat systems.  Combat takes forever and I lose the cinematic visual in my head.  But when I ran Dungeon World, the cinematics were great!  But I felt like there weren't enough tactical considerations + I do love putting minis on the table.  Can I have both? 

The Best Way to Store Campaign Notes? 

Good lord is the answer to this probably just use Obsidian.  Or Notion.  Some people like OneNote I guess.  Why does Word work the best for me?  It is not good for organization nor is it conducive to smooth play.  My Chromebook that I use for running the game at the table won't handle Obsidian so I guess maybe Notion is the play?  Obsidian is strong enough to where if I could easily use it on ChromeOS I would.  

On Session Summaries and Recaps

Short post today as well, been reading So You Want to Be a Gamemaster and I am very excited to share thoughts I have [go buy the book!].  But this is just a random musing. 

I get why recaps are good for players—and I get even more why it is suggested the players do the recap—but something to consider is doing a recap for yourself prior to prep'ing the next session. 

Take a moment to try and write a recap as if you were a player in your game.  What would the players find important and likely to remember.  Then you can use that as a baseline on how to structure the start of session.

This can also be helpful for you to anticipate gaps you can fill in when your players recap the previous session.  Doubt your players remember a critical NPC name?  Don't let them get to the part where they all say "I don't remember."  Mention them casually during the recap or presession talk.  Typing up the recap to yourself could also cause you to see points of confusion that need to be addressed.  

Finally it serves as a great reminder to prep for what is important.  What is necessary for the session?  Things that spin off of what happened last session!  Overprepping has seemed to get a lot of pushback in online communities in more recent times, and for good reason, so having a check against that is helpful.  

Last tangent—as a caveat in favor of overprepping—if that is the fun part of DM'ing for you, then by all means do it.  One of my friends over prepares like crazy.  He seriously will spend an ungodly amount of hours for stuff that will never be used, will be written over by next weeks prep, and ultimately disregarded.  But he loves it.  So he continues to do it because it isn't done for his players—it's for him. 

I'll post and discuss my standard prep sheet soon.  I think I've gotten it really nicely to where I can ease myself into the game, similar to how a recap is good to ease the players back into the ttrpg mindset. 

What I'm Currently Reading, All Snug In My Bed

 Short post given it is Christmas Eve! 

I'll have a longer follow up in the next few days outlining what I'm hoping to accomplish in 2024 and a year in review for what I have read & played—but I wanted to give a shout out to a few books that are sitting next to me: 

Fox Curios Floating Bookshop: Really well written solo journaling game that has one of the best layouts I've ever seen [more on this book on a later post].  I've played out ~10 in game days.  I usually am not into journaling games—but the layout really pushes me forward and sets up evocative prompts. 

Delta Green:  I bought this on a whim a while ago due to the really great cover art (I'm a sucker for good cover art).  I don't know yet if I would run it, mostly because I don't think my main play group is a good fit, but it is a really interesting read. 

Redwall: I forget how much I love this book, although I don't think I've ever made it past Mattimeo.  Also a easy book to listen to and paint. 

Black Company:  Casually rereading this as I was listening to a lot of the older MCDM videos during a few recent long drives.

PAX Unplugged 2023

Just got back from PAX Unplugged yesterday and—despite being absolutely exhausted—I cannot wait to go back again next year.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got to play and run a few ttrpgs. I also got to meet a lot of really nice people who share in my love of this wonderful hobby. I'll post below a quick review summary of what I played:

Mythic Bastionland (DM'd; 5 players): 2d6=11. Flavor is amazing and the mechanics reinforce the theme perfectly. My only complaint would be running for 5 made the combat swing easier than I think it is intended—thought I bet with a second crack at the apple I think I could solve that.

The Walking Dead (Player, 6 players) 2d6 = 7. The d6 pool and stress dice mechanic incentivizing "push your luck" was a lot of fun. A lot of the mechanics I didn't see (such as the growing horde) because it was the starter set adventure so I can't comment on that. I didn't like the theme, though I might have 10 years ago. The game also seemed to really want to push player relationship conflict. Which is very apropos with the themes in the show and comic.

Dragonbane (Player; 3 players) 2d6 = 5. I would describe my experience with Dragonbane as PF2e with ducks? Mallards? I don't know. I really don't get the Mallard thing. On topic: too crunchy and I didn't really feel like I understood what those mechanics were trying to reinforce. The starter set adventure I played was a dungeon crawl—but with no tactical room to move and an absurdly deadly/railroady boss. There were some cool mechanics, such as the fact the DM doesn't roll to hit. But I think I would sooner reach for 5e.

I guess at some point I should explain the 2d6 review scale so that it looks less like an obvious reference to the blog title. Which it is. An obvious reference to my blog title. But nevertheless—it is a super fun way to review so that's what I'm going to stick with.

Generally: 6-8 is average. I'll never pick it over anything above it, but I won't groan it that's coming to the table. Anything less than a 5 would be a game I would not play, or at least, would not want to play. Pathfinder 2e for me would be a 4. Too crunchy and too close to a wargame. I'd rather play infinity or Age of Sigmar. Anything above a 9 I would play without hesitation. Mausritter would be a 10. Rules light and flavor heavy. Plus that inventory system is so crisp.

A 12 is not perfect; a 2 is not without strengths.

I'll shout out a small solo game aid later in the week, but tomorrow is Godzilla Minus One!

Return of the Blog!

Hi all! 

It is about to be 2024 and wow did I fail to maintain this at all in 2023... or 2022 for that matter.  A little has changed since my last blog.  I ran an 8 session 5e campaign, 12 sessions of Dungeon World, and am currently 12 sessions into a Worlds Without Number campaign.  I've been lucky to try many new RPGs too: Break, The Walking Dead, and Dragonbane, Mythic Bastionland being the most recent. 

So why did I want to return to blogging?  I just got back from PAX and had an absolute blast.  Met a bunch of people and got to talk a lot about ttrpgs.  I would really like to get back into reviewing the numerous books I've acquired and have more sustained conversations about ttrpgs throughout the year! 

Specifically, I ran Mythic Bastionland at PAX and have a lot of thoughts.  I also bought Old Gods of Appalachia as a last minute impulse purchase.  I don't know much about the cipher system so I'll prioritize reading and reviewing that.

It's late and I'm really exhausted from PAX so this is all for now.  Basically: I want to do more blogging and discussing ttrpgs!