Mansfeld (Michał Przygodzki) @Mansfeld@dice.camp

Hello #ttrpg #indierpg ! 😃

I'm Mansfeld, I blog a lot about tabletop roleplaying games and I've created a couple of small TTRPGs. On this profile, I'll continue what I did on Twitter: sharing thoughts and recent works.

You can find my works here:
Blog: https://commonfortress.com/category/english-articles/
Itch:
https://common-fortress.itch.io/
DTRPG:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/20488/Common-Fortress

I've scraped a bit long post in RPGNet, in the rant-thread about playing TTRPG session online. #ttrpg #Autism

Last Mountain Home #fitd session. Second expedition in a year, goal: to destroy some Sand Folks' village.
> suddenly, mighty mythical Roc appears
> get grounded by impromptu device
> get killed, meanwhile Sand Folks ultimately lost

And in the end, referring a question or problem to solve to "experienced GM" just handwaves it into another person. It's "I don't care, none of my business" move. But it's also "the answer were never essential in nature, we just pretend that it is".

For #ttrpgdesign it’s a problem, because designing an instruction which relies on user’s past experience, makes it inaccessible to newcomers or even people who are looking for varied and different gameplay. Hear me out, hacks of various „engines” and „systems”!

We can’t really measure „experience in running sessions” without setting purely arbitrary criteria, yet „experienced GM” trope persists and lives well in TTRPG community. It’s like most of the folks shares an assumption, that „experienced GM” will „emerge themselves” because of a nature of the hobby. And that is one of the symptoms of TRPG Essentialism. Belief of certain root ideas and qualities, which they emerge because „they are what they are”.

Maybe „how much game/systems you ran?” is better to jugde „experience”? This could be it, however, some dude who runs only AD&D 1e since 1980s could be mad about disregarding their experience, to say the least. They can consider themselves as at least experienced in AD&D 1e.

And how many game/systems is enough to „become experienced GM? 5? 10? 50? 100? Who knows?

What does even „experience in TTRPG” mean? Amount of session? Years of practice? So, if you run sessions for 20 years, are you „experienced GM” even if you run 2-4 sessions per year? Or, maybe it’s after some magical number, 200, 500 or 1000 sessions ran?

I’m not going to answer this particular question. The question is „why is even such question in place?” Here is my next point.

One of #TTRPG Essentialism symptomes is a term „experienced GM”. Many assumptions in TTRPG relies on existence of an „experienced GMs” as a solution to many problems, like introducing to the hobby or factoring, why people decide to run sessions.

How to measure this „experience”?

Celebrate your small successes even when you haven't any of it.

This is my fluffy and fabulous submission to One-Page RPG Jam 2020: Alpacas in Alps. A #ttrpg about alpacas living in alpine valley, and how they live like. #alpaca #indierpg

https://common-fortress.itch.io/alpacas-in-alps

In the dawn of #RPGaDay2022, I'd recommend this Vincent's article about RPG Essentalism and RPG Exceptionalism :)
https://lumpley.games/2021/08/23/a-theory-point-rpg-essentialism-rpg-exceptionalism/

It's a bummer to resign from my own campaign (Rebel Crown) due to a mixture of: depression, lack of comfort by playing with the group, the game's failure to be something on their own and actively seeking "fun" with that.

You don't need explicit writings to make up your own "system" (which rules to use/change). It was an enforcement of tons of bad advices, issues and far-right DMs' agenda. In an environment where "only single person has rights to say", minorities will always be at disadvantage.

In regard of "rulz no matter" and Gygaxian origins, you need to always remember that "Golden Rule" about disregarding rules never was about actual free form in running a TTRPG session.

Since conception, it was about power issues to that single person at the table (gamemaster).

Today, players got very emotional over Trade Roll in Mountain Home #mountainhome #fitd. They needed a critical result (4 Treasure) to get enough resources to advance their Hold status. And they roll "two 6s'".

With eight dice. :D

Lads, I've heard that back in Polish People's Republic, folks were using Windows Media Player for their TVs. ;)

[source: some Museum of Life in Communism, in Warsaw].

Some fellow Pole created a #ttrpg game/framework for defending a dwarven stronghold for 12 months.

https://papciogargamel.itch.io/heart-of-the-mountain