Scampir

The podcast “On the Shoulders of Giants” (@osgpod) released an episode covering Armor Astir: Advent, and had solicited character sheets to discuss in their show! I asked if it was alright to submit a sheet for a custom playbook, was told it was cool, and sent in sheet for a character I played in Armor Astir: Advent named Muspelheim Jazz.

They loved it and that made me really happy! Getting feedback on ttrpgs, or any kind of writing, can be really hard. Something that caught my attention though is that there’s more to the playbook than the Google sheet I used, so I wanted to post some stuff from the second pass on the playbook that serves to explain what’s going on with The (Baccentian) Guide.

catch it now http://osgpod.com

If you have a custom playbook on Itch.io and it’s not on here, let me know and I’ll add it!

I’d like to start Demo’ing my ttrpg Exilium some time in the next few months. Does anyone know of spaces that are open to that?

I am a casual onlooker/granted GM permissions to a Pokemon RPG game that some of my friends are playing. I get to bounce stuff off the GM, and shitpost with them in the discord, since it was the one we used for Curse of Strahd last year.

As I'm catching bits and pieces of the game, I'm noticing something that bugs me, and the behavior it encourages.

1. Getting pokedex entries counts towards progression, called Honors, which are also earned for gym badges, contests, and other things.
2. It encourages the "touch trading" behavior, which I feel like is awful for a game based around Pokemon.

The reason for my distaste is that when I think "A Pokemon game", I'm thinking more of emulating the show. The game rules though want to emulate both the show and the video games. And that's where the disconnect is with me. The game puts the 'mon you catch at like, ranking 1 or 0 Friendship (out of 5 I think), and trading it resets it to the same low level, so there's 0 punishment for doing it. I see everyone go "OK, I got this, you got that, we'll just trade these two Pokemon around so everyone gets them" and maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, that sucks to me.

It feels like a bad thing for someone who just wants to catch and befriend some critters.

To me, the prime opportunity for ttrpgs in the current world is that we can take ownership of media we enjoy for personal play. I can play a hobbit without having to jump through the hoops of Tolkein's estate. I can play a jedi without consuming a product mediated by executives. I get to tell a story about things that I love my way. It makes me happy.

But there's more to it. Sometimes things need to move along in a certain way for my brain to release dopamine. Sometimes, there are things that can happen that take me out of the experience.

Here are a few example things that keep me engaged:

1. Engaging in Character
2. Hearing one Character's opinion on another
3. Music

Here are a few example things that take me out:

1. Having to make Rulings on edge cases
2. Silence and Pauses
3. Having to consult character "builds"

So, supposing that we could all come to the table understanding what contributed to making ttrpgs an enjoyable experience, what happens when we start using a ttrpg?