masukomi @masukomi@dice.camp

It occurred to me this morning that Forbidden Lands is another example of a Post Apocalyptic (PoPoc) game that doesn’t _feel_ PoPoc. 🤔

Oddly, our smallish town actually has a decent FLGS with RPG stuff. However, I'm sorry to say that the game store I mostly spend my money at (Noble Knight Games) is 999 miles away.

This is for a few reasons:
1. they have old out of print stuff i want
2. they ship for cheap, and I don't want to go inside places during covid.
3. when i DID go in our store it always smelled vaguely of body odor from folks who played there. 😝

Post-covid i hope to buy in-print stuff locally, despite the smell.

Question: is Numenera a “post apocalyptic game”?

Obviously yes if you want to be pedantic because 8 “Worlds“ have risen and fallen before the current one, BUT it’s so long after that, that it doesn’t feel like a PoPoc* setting. At the same time there constantly scrounging interesting objects from past people’s, like a PoPoc. 🤔

* PoPoc = post apocalyptic, courtesy of The RPG Review Board podcast.

Naming adventure modules like clickbait:

* Necromancers HATE this hidden trick for restoring power to the ancient gods (for levels 15+)
* This Kobold makes 6500GP a day, find out how! (for levels 1-5)
* This everyday potion ingredient is KILLING adventurers (for levels 6-10)

via Ursidice on twitter: https://twitter.com/Ursidice/status/1526939233436434435?s=20&t=GiQsop0JPipAgMutUkc7gA

FYI There's a really nice Bundle of Holding now for Cypher System & Numenera

Cypher's a great generic system. Numenera's a great sci-fi+fantasy setting that Cypher emerged from.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/CypherMega

One of my pLayers... not pRayers. 🤦‍♀️

Another unexpected delivery today 🚚 📦

One of my prayers is a big fan and suggested she might be willing to run a game of this. Although she just started a new job so the possibility has been dramatically reduced

That being said, I'm unsure how I feel about The Collectors. I don't think they add to the world, and they feel a bit cheesy and unsatisfying to me.

They're basically alien bad guys responsible for the event. They're capturing "metahumans" in an attempt to reverse their fuckup.

If I ran it i think i'd strip them from the setting entirely. Literally everything about them feels implausible and unsatisfying to me.

I read The Origin (for #cyphersystem) by Bruce R. Cordell this weekend

If the blurb on the site sounds good, then buy it. It's really well done. My only note would be that the intro adventure at the end requires a GM who a) can track lots of little moving pieces b) has high confidence in their knowledge of Cypher System.

The adventure is good, well written, & appropriate for the setting, but the start could go badly for new GMs.

https://www.montecookgames.com/store/product/the-origin/

I THINK (knowing a little bit about layout and font creation)... that one of those is actually filled circle and one is empty circle and this book just has TERRIBLE EDITING.

Of course, that doesn't help because _i don't know which is which_, and I really don't want to have to keep reading this until i can eventually derive the meaning like a linguist studying ancient languages without a translation.

I no longer care if this game is good. It can !@$# off for all i care.

Logically i think i can derive now that cross hatched means ...tokens that might be filled in circle or empty circle, but i still don't know what either of those is, and i really shouldn't have to derive the meaning of the core symbology of the game.

note that "Z" and "b" which were claimed to denote success and complications HAVE NOT BEEN USED SINCE MENTIONING!!!

the next page goes into detail about "tests". This paragraph relies highly on the 3 symbols, which still haven't been defined, aren't defined here, and result in a description of the core mechanic which is totally effing useless. I add a number of filled in circles that correspond to my hero's traits.... BUT WHAT ARE FILLED IN CIRCLES?!? and then i draw a number of.... of what? wtf are cross hatched circles and how do i draw just those?!

omg it got worse.
Next page was the glossary. Cool. a glossary up front.

Oh look. It uses 3 new visual symbols THAT ARE NOT DEFINED!!!

note that the last thing said it used "TWO different colors" and now we've got 3 different icons which i can only guess are supposed to be the TWO colors. Why are there THREE?!?!

Why does it say i draw cross-hatched circles from the bag in "Test" and then in "Success" it says i drew empty circles from the bag?!

WHY DO THE AUTHORS HATE PEOPLE?!

also note that "tokens" "complication" and "success" are supposed to be visually significant, and distinguished by a different color and different font, except it's a very similar color and the font isn't radically different looking either.

arrgh.

a) this isn't rocket science
b) essentially everyone's eyes start failing eventually. Do you not want to be able to read your own crap as you age? Do people who need glasses not matter?

Wait. What?!?!

How to confuse new players:

Step 1. Choose completely unrelated symbols/ to represent a concept.
Step 2. Use inconsistent typography amongst those symbols. Upper and lower case in this case so that they're harder to recognize visually.

W. T. F. ?

For bonus points the core mechanic is completely unusable by the blind, & potentially unusable by colorblind folks. 🤦‍♀️

TIL they made a game based on the CHEW comic using FitD rules. It sounds like you play FDA agents trying to crack down on illegal chicken smuggling (makes sense if you're familiar with CHEW). Not clear if everyone gets special powers or not.

Sounds like ridiculous fun. Very tempted to pre-order.

https://www.imagininggames.com/

There's an overview video on the linked pre-order page.

Side note: the comic book's very entertaining.