jack

Dear people who start a kickstarter project, I am really not an expert at this, so if you have expert advice you probably know better than me already. But as someone who occasionally sees links to cool-looking kickstarters, I can tell you what seems good to me.

On the front page, try to have some sort of prominent summary, ideally two sentences, saying WHAT IT IS and WHY IT'S COOL. Um, maybe that's supposed to be obvious. But seriously, "We have an awesome webcomic, we made an rpg boardgame of it" or "we made an isometric computer game with detailed wizard duels" or "I wrote about about vampires living in london" or "here's a gadget that makes your bike sound like a horse", all of those make me think "oh, cool, can I see more". Even if I've never heard of it before. And many other pitches would make me think "good luck, but not for me".

But I seem to see so many kickstarters that say "here is a brand new BRANDNAME which is exciting and ADJECTIVE and lets you experience ADJECTIVE and ADVERBITY and here's a video for more information". That's fine. Unless you want me to give you money, in which case it has the disadvantage that all that coy non-information doesn't make me think "Yes, THIS random twitter link is the one I must track down the backstory for" it makes me think "why was I here again? *back* "

I'm assured, videos are great for persuading people. But I assume that only applies if people watch them?

To me, a video is saying "Dear technocrats, busy people, people with full-time jobs, people with children, people with smartphones, people under 25 with short attention spans, people with disabilities, methodical people and googlebot, get out of here, we don't want your money or your interest." Fine, you can sell to whoever you want to sell to, but that's excluding a LOT of desirable market shares...

If you already know collective nouns, you learn a lot less from Magic The Gathering, but words which I first learned there include:

Welkin (the sky, the upper air, the firmament, or the Celestial sphere)
Rime (Hoar frost, greyish-white crystalline deposit of ice formed in clear still weather on vegetation, fences, etc)
Whelm (submerge, engulf, as in "overwhelm" and "underwhelm" :))
Sarkan (dragon in Slovak)

Armour Class

Emblematic of 5e reducing the spread between low and high level is something I noticed in the monster manual, armour class is even flatter than other stats, that first level players are generally fighting monsters with AC 12-15, 20 might be possible for something fragile but really hard to hit. But the highest AC in the whole thing is the Tarrasque with AC only 25. Which doesn't mean level 20s are not mythological compared to level 1s, but that they improve in ways other than "bigger numbers", and low-level monsters are relevant for longer.

"Legendary" monsters

I also like what they did with some really tough monsters, like adult dragons. They have two features which make them effective as a large single monster. They have extra actions they take after other people's turns (often a simple attack). That means that combat is more interactive than "ok, you win initiative you marmelise the dragon before it acts" or "ok, the dragon wins initiative, it kills you, you and you" even if there's only one monster.

And also, instead of spell resistance, they have three "legendary points" which let them pass a saving throw they would otherwise have failed. That means, "I mind control the dragon" is never a game-winner, but nor is it completely useless. I don't know why that feels more appropriate than spell resistance, but it does to me -- maybe that it didn't make sense to me that "big and tough" automatically meant "resistance to magic", but "I'm just that epic" fits naturally into "you can't take me out in one hit".

There is still spell resistance in a simpler form (they have a bonus on saving throw) for a few monsters where it's appropriate.

But I also notice, it's one mechanic that stays leaning into a videogame or story-telling mode than a simulationist mode -- there's no in-world understanding of what this is, it just makes things more dramatic, and is explicitly appropriate for large single monsters (I might use the same mechanic for a party of 0th level halflings fighting a troll, but not for a party of gods fighting a swarm of adult dragons).

Stunts in combat

A problem I often had with players first getting into a mechanics-heavy roleplaying system like DnD is when someone does something dramatic like "I jump over the balcony swinging on the chandelier and attack the orc from above". There are no rules for that, really not, and it's easy for the GM to revert to a habit of saying "you can't" or "ok, you roll an attack" or "ok, here's the rules for jumping, no, it doesn't say you get any benefit". You do want to embrace that! (At least in my sort of 50/50 roleplaying, if you're concentrating on miniature wargaming, then maybe not.)

But I read an article that pointed out, if you default to fancy stunts being "make a str/dex check against DC 15, if you do, you get a small bonus to an attack, or another effect like driving them back", then it usually just works -- the dramatic move has a clear advantage, but not such a big one that usual combat is pointless. So it allows a reasonable amount of adlibbing.

It also suggests allowing the target a saving throw. I might just ignore that in the case of one-off stunts, or stunts against minion-enemies, but it says it's a useful balancing feature in any case where the stunt might make a big different ("I want to push the lich off the cliff", "I want to disarm EVERY COMBAT").

The wandering monster table is like the audience members who yell out suggestions on an improv show

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1248/roleplaying-games/re-running-the-megadungeon-part-2-restocking-the-dungeon

The wandering monster table is like the audience members who yell out suggestions on an improv show: Simply yelling out “mime” and “airplane” doesn’t make for a comedy show; it requires the improv actors to create a sketch about a mime pilot making an announcement over the plane’s intercom system for that. Similarly, just having random “giant spiders” attack the PCs because the table says so doesn’t make for an adventure; what you need are giant spiders in a particular place for a particular reason and doing a particular thing.

I definitely used to think "wandering monster, huh, why would you do that?" But now, although I haven't tried it, I can see when it could be a useful approach:

You wouldn't necessarily use this when you know in advance somewhere's important, where you hopefully will plan it in advance.

But consider when you're simulating an area more detailed than you can conceivably plan in advance. OK, you're sneaking into an orc camp. You plan the areas, where most orcs are. But they're also going to be wandering about, getting a snack, leaving to scout, etc. You can't plan every single Orc's hunger level. Probably the best way of giving that effect is to say "about every 5 minutes, some orc wanders SOMEWHERE", and if the players are still sneaking about, roll randomly to discover what the orcs are doing.

And the same if the players are exploring a dungeon larger than 5 rooms; it's big enough the monsters probably do wander about, if you're pretending there's some sort of ecology, and if you assume that, it adds a bit of verisimilitude over just "the monsters wait where they are until you find them". And it can also lead to more interesting exploring -- the PCs are not incentivised to always clear through methodically, but to choose trade-offs "safer to hole up for the night or go deeper while we can?"

And it can lead to awesome moments. Some things are more interesting when they happened by chance, which is why there's a random element in combat. If the giant earthworm blunders across the party when they're half-way through crossing a pit-trap, or an NPC party with the very item the party needed are camped in the first room, and everyone knows the GM decided it, it's just "ah, now the GM is screwing with us". But if it's chance, it can lead to hilarious memories.

I have written a couple of one-shot adventures for DnD 5e designed to be easy and enjoyable and complete in up to 4h, and run one of them for ghoti et al which I count as a success and was really fun.

Is anyone else interested in playing, even if they can't commit to a regular campaign? Especially anyone who always wanted to try roleplying, or experienced GMs who may offer me some constructive advice, but everyone else too :)

If people are, I will put up a poll for scheduling.

I've been browsing the alexandrian blog with various roleplaying reviews and advice. He periodically reposts reviews he made 15 years ago for rpg.net. A couple are funny.

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/category/board-games/page/2

A parody game, including cards such as "Wizards of the Coast. The publishers of a hot new card game. Though they have money, they aren't exactly in the same league as TSR. If they survive Magic The Gathering, look out!"

Which was a bit of a lame joke at the time, but after WotC became a fantasy roleplaying juggernaut buying most other related companies, is funny in retrospect.

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/36320/reviews/rpgnet-review-settlers-of-catan

Settlers of Catan: "hex-based maps from every wargame you’ve ever seen; combinations of resource cards are basically a mechanic from Risk; maintaining diplomatic relations from Diplomacy; variable board set-up from Chess variants; and trading resources from many variants of Monopoly), but the true aficionado will recognize a whole which is greater than the parts."

It's strange to read a review where Settles of Catan is new and no-one knew if it would be as promising as it seemed yet :)

And from rpg exchange: http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/34825/whats-the-inspiration-for-the-owlbear

A question it hadn't occurred to me to ask, why does the rust monster look the way it does? Why the owlbear? Because the designer had a cereal-packet-style bag of mythical plastic monsters from japan that were supposed to be dinosaurs, but took their distinctive appearance for the new monsters :)

Will Supervillains be on the Final?

Manga-style comic written by Naomi Novik and draw by Yishan Li, about a girl who goes to superhero school, has more natural power than most people, but has difficulty fitting in, and is affected by the ongoing fallout of ex-superhero and ex-supervillain politics.

I love this genre, and it's a pleasant example of it, I really enjoyed it, though it doesn't add a lot I haven't seen before. It's fairly short, and I was sad to see promised follow-up volumes haven't appeared.

First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

This is exactly the sort of book I like, about someone living their life over several times, getting tangled up in the plots of other people in the similar situation, someone screwing up the timeline and causing future cataclysm, and fight between time travellers.

It touches on themes I find interesting in this sort of thing -- how much you meddle with time, and what happens? do you care about the lives of people you know are going to just come alive again? And it uses its premises on what does and doesn't allow an immortal to return well in crafting the overall plot. I would have liked more "now lets try a do over with more information" a la Groundhog Day/All You Need is Kill, rather than descending into standard-ish thriller territory, but it's still good.

( Spoilers )

I fixed our side gate! Well, sort of. I'd always been annoyed the latch didn't quite close, so you had to close the bolt to keep it from blowing open, which made it hard to open from the garden side. And I just couldn't bend it back into place.

But then after some thought, I decided when it was first fitted it must have worked, and I couldn't see how it could have changed much, and realised the answer was: the gate sticks a little, but give it a hard shove when it was closed, it closes completely against the jam, and the latch falls into place perfectly.

Oops :) But progress :)

My laptop is getting flakier and I think I need a replacement. Anything fairly modern will probably do, I want to use it primarily as a home machine, but that I can easily move it around the sitting room when I need. I'd like to be able to run games from the last few years occasionally, but probably not the latest releases.

Has anyone (cjwatson?) bought a new computer recently, what did you get?

Not great weather, but there's bits of sun. If it doesn't start raining shortly I may risk trying jesus green swimming pool this afternoon, let me know if you want to join me.

Velveteen

Seanan McGuire's superheroine short stories, feely available online although the format is a little inconvenient. These are really fun, if you like that sort of thing at all they're well worth reading. Thanks to ghoti-on-lj for reminding me they exist and I should read them!

They're short and a bit tongue in cheek which suits SM's style well. Being a superhero has been branded, standardised, commodified and marketed by some firms, one of which now has an near-universal monopoly. The heroine, with her "animating stuffed animal powers" flees from her old employers, and doesn't find a quiet life.

There's a little bit of what I especially like, of exploring powers.

As with most of McGuire's stories, something about the consistency or worldbuilding just aggravated me, but much less so in these funny, human, and short stories.

Pendragon Protocol

These urban fantasy books reminds me a little of rivers of london, London-based procedurals about an organisation affiliated with the british state but not technically police or intelligence services, who are modelled after reincarnations (sort of) of the knights of the round table.

The main character is an established knight who gets in over his head when internal politics starts happening.

There's lots of "exploring the basic concept and how it turns out to be more complicated than people think", which is done well. It's a bit more complicated than "reincarnation of", it's a bond that can change, but that's enough to sell the idea.

Again, it's quite British based. Mentions of oxbridge colleges, non-white britons, class warfare, uneasy tensions between idealism and the establisment status-quo which are not handled perfectly, but better than many books.

Uprooted, Naomi Novik

Squeee! This is really good, I'm glad she tried writing something after Temeraire. Definitely read it.

Agneieszka, a young village girl, is unexpectedly chosen to serve the wizard called The Dragon who is lord of the valley, the greatest wizard in the country but retreated to this rural seat to take responsibility for holding back the ominous encroachings of the wood.

Lots of different sorts of magic, well world-built. Focus on Agneieszka rather than soldiers and experienced wizards, without idolising her. Realistic tensions between people with generally well-meaning goals but selfish or short-sighted or otherwise naturally imperfect. Peels back the world to slowly to reveal where the wood came from, etc, etc, in a way that most books save for the tenth sequel.

I like the way there's a distinction between an informal, intuitive sort of magic and a rigid formalised academic sort of magic, but unlike many books, it's not massively gender-essentialised.

Infidel

A film about a british muslim man who finds out he was adopted and born to a jewish family. It could have been excruciating, but Liv recommended that it was surprisingly touching. And captures a feel of british jewish society and british muslim society imperfectly but better than most films. It is embarrassing, but more towards the Evelyn Waugh/Monty Python end of the spectrum than the Adam Sandler/Reality TV end of the spectrum -- I found that a bit difficult, but it was clearly sympathetic to all the characters even when they were acting out badly. And it was really funny in places.

It fits my heretofore unmentioned heuristic "watch every film which features Leo Rosen's Joys of Yiddish" :)

(As usual I own most of the books but rented the film.)