Відео

It'll get quite a bit louder soon. I figured out something on my phone so it's much louder. Though I don't love the sound, as it's a bit tinny. But it's certainly louder. I can't remember if it's the next video or the one after that where the new setting kicks in.

These books look wonderful. One of my favorite source books for Dragon Lance Fifth Age was its Bestiary. It was like these: less rules more flavor. I might have to get these.

Yeah. An unfortunate side effect of my new recording space was a change in audio that was more extreme than I realized while making these. I'm not a tech guy & this is a no/low effort channel. However, I have figured out a fix for later videos. The first video I recorded with the new audio set-up won't post until January 24th.

Yeah, I'm not sure why the audio is especially bad in this batch of videos. I have to be somewhat quieter in my new recording space, but I was speaking directly into my headset mic. I thought it would pick up better. I later found a setting on my phone that boosts the audio (though I also think it sounds a bit tinny). But the first video with that active won't post until sometime in January, I think. My video operation is very low effort & no budget, but I do want folks to at least hear what I'm saying. Thanks for watching! Happy Holidays!

I only really got as far as character creation and then played around with a few of the charts, before I saw something shiny and I wandered off, as is my way. It seems fine. It's very general, giving you a slight scaffolding that you'll likely need to build on, either with other toolkits or with a lot of your own setting & adventure ideas. Most of the charts for adventure and encounter design are very vague prompts, meant for you to come up with what they might mean. Where Four Against Darkness is very procedural & rigid (at least if you're just using the first book), this feels much more of a loose guideline. 4AD being more restrictive, like D&D with Loner being more free, Powered by the Apocalypse. Is it too much in that direction? I'm not sure.

That could be fun. I still haven't gotten around to cracking into this book. But I did find my original copy of the BRP pamphlet during a recent move. I thought I'd given it away or lost it 20 years ago, so was very happy to find it. Maybe if I can get my act together in the new year, I'll do some videos on BRP. It's a great system and I do want to dive back into it.

Now I just need to read some of this stuff. I'll see if I can work on the gain. It's a headset mic, and I'm still getting used to it. I don't want to blow it out by using my usual shouty voice, but I think I've been overcompensating.

@@matthewconstantine5015 thanks

Thanks!

D'oh! I did forget. It was a nice note, too. Thanks for the compliments. I was hoping to get one with my RPGs in the background, but I don't think I can set up the camera that way. Our new place is very small, and I had to kind of jam those shelves in a weird corner. I think the only other way I could really set up right now would be facing our kitchen & pantry shelves. So, I'm sticking with DVDs for now. Hopefully the videos sound a bit better going forward. My wife changed headsets for her Zoom meetings and the new one is compatible with my phone. So expending only the effort to reach across the table, I've tried to upgrade my sound. Though I may have a few more videos recorded pre-upgrade coming.

When I saw Coriolis, my first thought was that it seemed like an updating of Fading Suns. Sadly, I never picked it up, and the 2nd Ed that's on its way looks different. More Mothership/Death in Space. But I also haven't looked too deeply into it. One day. One day I'll bring Skyrealms to the table. It's one of the games that I used to flip through in the game store when I was first getting into the hobby, and I know images from it (2nd ed, I assume) inspired many of my early games.

When I was a kid in the late 80s, I feel like the game I ran was fairly "sandbox," just by default. I never used modules and I usually ran with only one or two players, so it was a lot of "let's see where things take us." In the 90s, with larger play groups, I feel like it tended more toward investigation/plot point play. I know in the long game of Earthdawn that I played in, there was an overall plot arc, though with input from players and not really railroading. And in a longer game of Deadlands, it was more that we'd wander from place to place and then go through a module. Ars Magica was closer to a sandbox, in that all the players had the opportunity to have a hand in shaping the story and world if they wanted. When I tried to run a Deadlands: Hell on Earth game with a more sandboxy vibe, I couldn't get my players to do anything. They just waited to react. Since getting back into the hobby, I've mostly run Call of Cthulhu or Tales from the Loop, both of which tend to be more plot driven. All that is to say that I love the idea of a more player-driven, sandbox game where the players find and follow whatever threads they want within the larger world. I just hope A) I can find players with the right mindset and B) I'm up to it. My GMing mojo is not as strong as it was before my 15 year break from the hobby.

@@matthewconstantine5015 The Discord community I’m in has identified this passive player persona quite acutely. While it’s been a behavior forever, of course, I think that the quickening of the entertainment culture (mobile devices, push notifications, live service games, streaming media) over the last twenty years has tuned a larger cohort towards what I call “amusement park” tabletop roleplaying. These players don’t really want agency, or risk, or consequences. Rather, they want the _illusion_ of those experiences for which they are happy to suspend their disbelief. I picked up The Sinking Tower module for _Dragonbane_ on Free RPG Day, and I think it’s a perfect example of what some of my friends are looking for and would appreciate in this style of play. For my part, I have negative interest in this mode so I’ve been investing more time in games like Traveller and Dolmenwood. I am eagerly looking forward to the _Ars Magica Definitive Edition_ Kickstarter later this month…

In my stumbling way, I don't think I said who put it out. It's from Swordfish Islands, and if you order it from them direct, I believe the PDF comes free. I'll have a follow-up video next Monday with a related item.

The other items in the box (videos posting over the next couple weeks) were what I was trying to get in the eBay auction. This and another item were just a "bonus." This video was recorded a couple months ago, and I actually just finished reading The Tomb of Black Sand a few days ago. I really liked it.

The typeface sure looks like something from a game book my dad would have had. Reminds me of some original Judges Guild material. I've actually read this since recording the video, though I haven't written my review yet. Seems pretty well done.

I loved The French Dispatch. Another of his movies I haven't seen again since it was in theaters. One of these days. I'm actually moving soon (after 16 years!), so I'm hoping that will mean more consistent internet service at my new place.

@@matthewconstantine5015 Hope your move goes smoothly, and without incident. I always manage to have some toe, knee, or lower back mishap due to a lack of discipline on my part!

@@paulbigbee Thanks! My back is already unhappy with me, and that's just from packing. My wife is springing for movers for the main part of it. We're both too old to be hauling a couch down steps or whatever. But even so... Yeesh. What's scaring me is that even though I've been downsizing my book & DVD collections for the last few years, and with more urgency lately, I still have so bloody much stuff. It feels endless. But I guess 16 years is a long time to accumulate, especially if you're not really paying attention. I'm going to have to substantially cool it on getting new stuff once we're installed in the new place, because it's pretty small. But that's probably a good thing. And it might force me to have better content on this channel, since it won't just be me looking at stuff I just picked up all the time.

@@matthewconstantine5015 Going a bit deeper instead of “wider” would be great, especially given your fine taste in non-Seattle RPG choices!

Thanks!

Yeah, I've heard 4e was well made/well designed. But also, I think you're right. Not my style of play. Everything I've seen from it, 90% of which is probably from its biggest defender, Matt Colville, leads me to believe I would not like it at all.

@@matthewconstantine5015what makes you say that

@@vast3394 I'm not much into combat generally and I find tactical combat in RPGs excruciating. Typically, if a combat lasts more than a couple rounds, I start to tune out and get bored. If a gridded map comes out? Forget about it. And from everything I've seen, 4th Ed is very heavy on tactical combat on gridded maps. D&D already facilitates and emphasizes a fantasy I don't especially enjoy (monster slaying/kicking in doors & stealing all the stuff). So the idea of playing a version that cranks all that up really doesn't interest me. I'm also not a fan of balanced encounters or even balanced parties, or the sort of superheroic High Fantasy of it all. It's the same reason that, even though I'm sure it will be very well designed and I wish everyone involved great success, I have no interest in the new MCDM RPG Draw Steel. Having tactical combat as a core element of the game is just not going to be my thing.

@@matthewconstantine5015 What games do you mostly play

@@vast3394, my go-to is Call of Cthulhu, and I'm generally a fan of Basic Roleplaying and all the other various games that use it. Back in the 90s, I played stuff like Fading Suns, Star Wars (WEG), Castle Falkenstein and Ars Magica. Since getting back into the hobby in 2019, in addition to Call of Cthulhu, I've really enjoyed the Year Zero games, like Tales from the Loop and Alien. I've been playing Traveller for about 18 months and enjoying that much more than I'd expected. The closest thing to D&D I like is Dungeon Crawl Classics, which isn't really my normal thing, but it has managed to win me over.