wish theyd let you take a silly one during x rays

Recommend me a TTRPG!

context: a while back I made a post asking if it would be annoying or not to list what I'm looking for in a ttrpg and ask for recommendations, and everyone who answered said that people who already play ttrpgs love to recommend them so I should make the post. this is the post!

First, what kind of person are you recommending games to right now?

Skill/Experience: None! Literally completely new to the whole form of games.

What About D&D?: I've played one session of D&D, once, when I was a child, and was basically talked through it by my uncle the whole time and remember almost nothing. I've watched many D20 campaigns because I enjoy improv comedy, but have retained very few of the mechanics after hours of viewing. I'm not interested in D&D.

General Capability: I'm great at coming up with stories, on the fly or with planning. However, I'm absolutely terrible about remembering rules, names, and numbers (esp when it comes to people, locations, dates/time, the order of a long list, etc.). I have memory problems. If I can't reference a piece of information externally every time I need it, I will not be able to use it. I struggle with motivation, concentration/focus, and multiple forms of executive function, as well as fatigue.

This means if it has a long rule-book or a really steep learning curve (e.g. a bunch of classes, moves, mechanics, etc that need to be memorized before the game is effectively playable-- I won't be able to motivate myself to learn all of that because I will forget it and then need to constantly be learning it again), or requires a lot of cognitive work, ongoing throughout the campaign, on a mechanical level (e.g. huge economy of action is a no from me, I'm not gonna be able to concentrate), it's probably too hard for me. I need it to be mechanically easy to play, so my energy can go towards the actual in-game storytelling.

Okay so now what am I actually looking for?

Genre: It'd be cool if it was somewhat flexible to different genres. I'm a sucker for horror, drama, tragedy, mystery, comedy. Not as much into broad political intrigue, romance, or school fiction.

Scale: not looking for anything that's like huge global scale, I like intimacy and even huge horrors being scaled to how people are dealing with it locally and interpersonally.

Realism: It would be really cool if there was a system that could be adjusted on this axis. Like if I could play a horror campaign with no supernatural element and a comedy about a bunch of cats who can talk with the same system? would be rad.

Combat: I'm honestly not super into combat-- I'm much more interested in improv and decision-making. I'm not opposed to there being combat at all, but I don't want it to be the central thing that the rest builds to. There should theoretically be a way to get through the game without combat, so that if you do choose it, it feels like a real choice and has genuine ethical and narrative weight. Or in times where you're forced into it, that powerlessness to have to engage in it is unique and unexpected, and communicates a particularly vicious world or antagonist.

Levels/Abilities: I don't think it should go in one direction! I'd like to see options for learning/honing skills over time, but also potential for disabilities or being limited by trauma. Like I'm not looking for something where the longer you play the stronger and more competent you are. Honestly if it doesn't even have levels that's even better.

Death: I'm not looking for a system that has afterlife mechanics. I'd be more amenable to, for example, a timeloop mechanic if there needs to be a way to bring a character back. But not interested in any afterlife that is implied by the mechanics. like vampires? even ghosts? sure if it's a horror genre thing. But if there's any other dimension that people just pop up in when they die I'm less interested.

Magic: I'm more partial to the sort of magic that is kind of scary, rare, and unpredictable. I'm not opposed to other magic systems, but I want the gameplay emphasis to be on making decisions/taking risks rather than on learning a ton of rules about how to use a giant list of preexisting spells.

Length: Flexibility is cool, but I'm honestly interested in shorter campaigns that tell a tight story, rather than meandering epics of many adventures.

Players: I'd love for a game that can be played with a small number of people. Like if the game could be played with only 3 people-- perfect. If it could be played with only 2 people--even more impressive. I don't want to have to rely on 5+ people to actually line up their schedules in order to actually play.

Effort Distribution: I'd love for players to be really engaged to a level near to that of the GM-- like a game that everyone involved needs to truly co-create. The closer it is to non-hierarchical storytelling (an ideal that can't be achieved with a GM structure but nevertheless provides a guiding direction without the expectation of truly reaching it), the more it interests me.

Price/Supplies: I mean, you know I'd prefer it to be cheaper & require purchasing fewer things overall. I wouldn't completely rule out anything unless it was over $30 USD though. (I think I'd be prepared to shell that out to get started if everything else sounds super promising, but not beyond that even if it sounds perfect).

that's all I can think of for now. thank you to anybody who reads it all this <3

It's tricky recommending RPGs because different RPG rulesets are very particular about the kinds of stories they want to tell and there's not really such a thing as a "universal" RPG despite what Hasbro's marketing team say.

Having said that, I've got a couple of games in my library that I think fit as much of your brief as I could manage:

Crash Pandas: A single page RPG about being a bunch of raccoons trying to make it big in street racing by driving the same car. And no, you won't be co-ordinating how well you drive the car together, so your driving style can get... unpredictable. Available as pay-what-you-want on the creator's itch.io page.

Dream Askew: This is a game about "belonging outside of belonging" - play involves creating a queer enclave and navigating the dangers of the apocalypse. It's using the No Dice No Masters system, so you don't need a GM, and it's also a bit about interrogating social roles and relationships. You can get it at Avery Alder's website (the pdf is within your stated budget), and maybe have a look at some of her other games too.

Wanderhome: This one also uses the No Dice No Masters system, but it's about being animals going on journeys through a hospitable pastoral fantasy-style world. Most of the rules are on your character sheet, the places you go and people you meet are all created at the table together so you're all GMs as well as players, and it can be nice a cozy. You can even play it single player - I'm (slowly) doing a single-player story myself. You can get it from Possum Creek Games, though it's a but pricier (USD$39 for the pdf)

You may also find something interesting in these free grab-bags of 200-word RPGs, where literally all of the rules are covered in 200 words or less. There are some here and some more here.

hese Hyalophora cecropia are the largest moths found in North America

part of the fun of the original alien is the horror of the nostromo itself imo. it’s a cell of corporate greed ferrying narrowly-trained workers across barren space. it’s huge and yet claustrophobic, cockpits crammed with machinery giving way to yawning berths dripping chains and water. the supercomputer is named mother in a stroke of human anthropomorphization, but instead of providing comfort or protection, it’s only a courier between its creator and its wailing brood. ripley yells “mother! mother!” at a matronly-voiced computer that speaks calmly over her helplessness. the ship is full of endless details and patterns and unlabeled buttons and dials the audience can’t entirely make sense of; to do anything on the ship is a rigorous, technical process, and we must depend on the characters to know it. the internal mechanics of the ship are so alien that a literal alien can hide among the bits and bobs and not be noticed. it’s great.

I'd like to add the appearance of the craft for anyone that hasn't seen it

Look at that thing. We get used to sci-fi where the spaceships try to look aerodynamic and cool, and the Nostromo went in the exact opposite direction. It is an entire industrial refinery floating through the void, matching the interior of overly complex panels, cramped spaces and chimneys dripping with water, chains dangling and clinking in the factory shafts.

It's enormous. It gives the impression of being understaffed by its sheer size - it doesn't seem to fit that a crew of seven, only two of whom are engineers, can be responsible for this towering manufactory, an implicit reference to the corporate mishandling at the core of the story.

It takes the symbol of antihuman greed - the factory with its barely paid, unsupported, physically endangered workers - and slaps it directly into space. It tells you that Weyland-Yutani did not invent exploitation, but is part of a repeating cycle that never ended even once we commodified travelling to the stars.

Its labyrinthine layout, exposed piping, its ridiculous size, it all gives the alien a perfect place to hide and hunt the crew, as if the alien turns the very ship against its passengers, which Ripley then discovers was an intentional collaboration from the start. Even the vent shafts they believe they can corner the alien in have an unforseen advantage in the alien's favour.

The alien doesn't want them, their employer doesn't want them, even their very ship doesn't want them, and it's the only thing between them and the vacant hostility of space.

I would like to thank my cat Toby for making me get back to work today after lunch.

Earlier in this depressive period he was quite happy to let me lie on the couch napping and crying; he stretched out on me to make himself the best little purring weighted blanket and stayed there for hours.

Today, a day where I am feeling comparatively better and my mind was just being ratty enough to not get straight back to work, Toby got on my chest and smacked me in the face until I sat up, then yelled at me until I went to the computer, and then sat on his heated bed to supervise me sending emails.

Everyone please thank Toby, our household's main functioning executive.

a stained glass living room design by Harris Armstrong

There should be a fanfic writing game called the showrunners challenge where someone writes a story and partway through someone else can play things like "actor leaves after 4000 more words" or "topic now too politically sensitive due to unforeseen world events" or "lost rights to that reference"

I need this to be a real game right the hell now

I do not have the energy do do a full layout right now b/c it is kickstarter season and I am under water, but here's a prototype that can be solo-played (you can also have a friend just pick from the lists if you want that pvp feeling.)

Showrunner's Challenge By Runawaymarbles (also sorta by sprintingowl)

Begin writing a fanfic. It is a feature length television program being watched every week by thousands. There is no plan. The industry is in shambles. The writer's room is barely hanging on.

At the end of each chapter, roll a d12.

1 Everything at once. Roll twice, use both. If you get this again, keep rolling. Your only way out is to stop getting 1s. 2 Product placement! The next chapter must center (and subtly promote the features of) a product belonging to the most recent brand you've seen. 3 Fan favorite. Your most recently mentioned character (or named object) is now beloved by the audience. You must give it a bigger part in the story, a special destiny, or an important new romance or friendship. If you get this twice for the same character or object, the adoration cools and you must go back to treating the character or object normally. 4 Executive meddling. You must change to a different genre. You cannot go back to a genre until you have changed genres three times since then. 5 Audiences are craving more coziness. The next chapter must be completely low stakes and set you at ease. 6 Audiences are craving more suspense. The next chapter must take place entirely in a single location, ideally just a single room, and build tension with every exchange of dialog. 7 Audiences are craving more action. The next chapter needs to involve at least one extended fight scene, and the weapons must be the last three objects mentioned. 8 Audiences are craving more romance. The next chapter needs to involve a deep, sappy confession of either love or admiration between two characters that have not previously been romantically involved. 9 Go to the most recent line in your fic that references a brand. Due to ongoing legal action, that brand cannot be mentioned again, but you score 1 audience point every time you allude to it in a way that paints it in a negative light. 10 The two most recently mentioned characters' actors have, IRL, gone through a VERY messy divorce or friend breakup. You cannot put them in the same scene, but they must both remain relevant parts of the show. If you get this with the same two characters again, they reconcile. 11 The most recent negative event (stabbing, poisoning, banishment to jupiter) is now the center of a very real IRL news story. You must immediately pivot away from all plotlines involving it and, if possible, also find away to apologize for even thinking to include it without breaking character. 12 The most recently mentioned character's actor has decided to leave the show. You must write them out in the next chapter. If you are brave, also roll a d12. 1--6, they were well loved and their sendoff must be as flowery as possible. 7--12, they were despised by the cast and crew. Mulch them.

You win if you can complete the fic in a state of relative coherency.

Alternate Game Mode: TV Digest Version

Don't write full chapters, just summaries of what happens in each chapter.

Alternate Game Mode: Realism Edition

Start your fanfic with your own telling of the first episode of an existing show, then proceed from there.

@itsjuneofallthings

Yes, you've successfully dodged allegations of monarchism by having the heroic princess decide to abolish the monarchy and institute representative democracy in the last five minutes of the game. Bravo.

Now give us the sequel where every prospective heir in a thousand-mile radius comes out of the woodwork claiming she's not allowed to do that and her actions should simply be construed as abdication, five different people declare themselves King, the nation plunges into civil war, and the ex-princess has to ninja around murdering all of her would-be successors in order to make the transition stick.

(on blind date) oh youre from omelas? i heard that was a pretty nice place. always kinda wanted to live there myself. shame the kid thing stopped working before i had the chance to move out there. have they figured out how to get that system up and running again? not to your knowledge? ah well. probably for the best, i feel like people would be super annoying about that. even out here any time you meet someone from omelas theyre like 'yeah i walked away.' like ok? the kids still in there tho like. glad your conscience is clean i guess? people eat that shit up out here tho they buy em drinks and say like 'yeah that was the right decision it mustve been so hard to give up all that to do whats right.' i dont get it man. sorry im rambling. how'd you like living there? what? it sucked? huh i guess it wasnt all its cracked up to be. so when can i see you again?

(on second date) would i have saved the kid? hahaha! oh, no, its just that thats always been a thought experiment around here. yknow, 'would you save the omelas kid, possibly causing harm to everyone in the city, or would you let the kid suffer, sparing the citizens but definitely causing harm to the kid?' kinda like the counterpart to the trolley problem. i bet it would be too awkward to catch on in omelas itself so thats probably why you didnt know. but usually its just a circlejerk of people saying 'yeah i would save the kid, the city can probably run itself, probably nothing would happen, theyre probably all complicit anyway.' kind of a base refusal to engage with the thought experiment. anyway no i wouldnt have. i know things are mostly fine now, it wasnt like catastrophic in retrospect, but there was no way to know before. i wouldnt have risked it for one kid. and frankly i still wouldnt have, knowing what we know now. like its still a nice place but theres more than one kid suffering now. kickstarting that earlier is mathematically cruel. no, i wouldnt change my mind if i knew the kid. its easy to say i would, but ive got tons of friends suffering that i cant do anything for.

(minigolfing (no longer dating because they realised they leaned more masc than im attracted to but the split was amicable)) wait you were the omelas kid? ill be honest i dont know what kind of reaction youre comfortable with here. like i feel like everyone would be so weird about it. what would make you feel most comfortable? ... for real? i see. well that explains why you agreed to a second date after that lol. can i be honest with you though? i think thats bullshit. i get why youd need to hold onto that while you were in there, but like. you need to let yourself grieve, dude. maybe it was for the greater good, but that doesnt mean it wasnt also fucked up and unfair. youre kinda clinging to this idea that it was a noble sacrifice, but theres nothing noble about trauma inflicted on you by others. especially if you couldn't stop it. yeah i know what i said, and i stand by it, but youre allowed to be selfish. youre allowed to say you didnt deserve any of that shit, that someone shouldve helped you, omelas be damned. they cant put you back in there anymore. its over. you can take off the armour. you can learn to live. there, there. let it all out. yeah, sorry, you guys can go ahead of us, they're gonna be a while i think.

She's not interested in participating in the day

Doylist explanation: They keep making new electric mouse pokemon because they're frantically trying to recreate the success of Pikachu. Or at least because it's tradition at this point.

Watsonian explanation: A major predator of rodents is birds of prey. A mouse that can deliver electric shocks to flying-types has a much higher chance of living to produce more offspring. Thus, convergent evolution fills this niche in every region. "Pikachu" is just the pokemon universe equivalent of "crab".

My preferred mode of transportation~ on a giant steampunk koi blimp

My cat just climbed up onto the bed next to me, sneezed directly into my ear, swatted me on the forehead, and left with the satisfaction of someone who just crossed the last thing off a to-do list.

I don't care about Dungeon Meshi otherwise but "Tallmen" is SUCH an elegant solution to placing humans in a fantasy setting that it's still blowing my mind. Just the term itself is enough to instantly recontextualize humans. They're no longer the default race. They're those big goobers with long legs, striding about all the time. I can so easily envision much more interesting relationships between humans and non-humans because of it. Like perhaps "tallmen" are stereotyped as shepherds by other races because they can watch over their flocks better, or as vagabonds because they are better suited to long travel on foot. And of course, they don't *literally* have to be taller than everybody else, they were just the tallest around whenever the label became the norm, or something like that. I just feel like it's so much better than what I've seen in settings like D&D that go "and humans are the... adaptable, generalist people :)!"

#for my own worldbuilding projects I always love associating humans with fire #I kind of hate the generic mcblandrace thing humans always got going on while elves are nature incarnate and dwarves are stone and metal #I conceptualize it thus. a race's elemental affinity is tied to the first friend of that race #dwarves made their homes and hid from predators in stone caverns and mines #elves lived in harmony and attunement with nature and the forests #and were affected by their element dwarves are craggy and tough like stone and age like rocks. elves age like the trees and take it slow #but humans? we are the beings of fire. it was not the caves that protected us nor the trees of the forest #fire was our first friend. in the primordial darkness it burned and cast away the shadows and frightened beasts of the night #we use it to cook our every meal and need it in a way that influences every aspect of our culture #as civilization began it was used to forge our tools and weapons. it heated our homes. the energy we take for granted was all fire #even today electricity is still predominantly made by fire #and we are as fire. swift-lived but terrible. a hungering devouring force which seeks to consume all the resources around it to expand #a human will never have the longevity of an elf or a dwarf. but the flame burns bright #much like the shifting lights and shadows of a bonfire the empires of mankind rise and fall with a terrible dramatic swiftness #compared to the relative placidity of elves and dwarves (via @the-warlock-syndicate)

#yes fire is terrible blah blah but its also warm. it can be nice and cozy and it can save you and be your friend #i dont think theyd think otherwise #humans would be like that feral dog you find in the parking lot in terms of danger to comfort possibility ratio #could be your best friend forever. could be horrible. its a human. a tallman (via @salsa-di-pomodoro)

[Image ID: A Tweet by "lordnugget420" that reads: "saw someone say that ship wars aren't a thing anymore the other day and tbh I think dressing your ship wars up in therapy speak and pretending it's actually about ethical concerns doesn't make them any less ship wars" End Image ID.]

Rules: