by Serpentine_C

I post session reports for more of a selfish reason: so I have a place to look back and remind myself where I am in a campaign. Others reading it is kind of a side benefit. This means I focus more on the in-fiction story and less on the game mechanics, so I guess I'm letting down dysjunct, unfortunately. I will note things out of the ordinary though, like if the dice rolled exceptionally well or poorly or a character was down to their last hit point or something.

I find it hard to track a series of session reports when they're posted in separate threads so I haven't read very many other than my own. I post all my reports from the same campaign as replies in a single thread, which I gather is not what most people do here. I have found that only the first post in the session report thread gets many likes, so I assume most people don't read past the first report in a series, or don't subscribe to the thread and aren't aware there are more posts in the series. Maybe most people only watch the "sessions" widget on the front page?

I'm open to being convinced I'm doing it wrong. :)

by latindog

I've never really done this on my part. I've played Serenity (a kind of Space/Western mashup) and Shadowrun (a Cyberpunk/Fantasy mashup) but these were already pre-mashed for me.

by latindog

For better or for worse, I'm not really here to work at this. I have routinely GMed 4 different RPGs in weekend cons (which takes a bit of rules study, scenario refreshment, minis and map planning etc.) I wouldn't do it if I didn't find it more fun than work though.

by latindog

I tend to be very sparing in handing items of real power out.

by latindog

Absolutely. I participated in a one shot player vs. player "Last Man Standing" set of challenges in 5e game in the summer of 2025. It was basically all combat, trap avoidance and, in the instance that got my character killed, blind bidding of resources to sacrifice (I decided to roleplay my selfish, self-aggrandizing warlock and refuse to give any tribute to an underworld goddess -- apparently that was the wrong move).

by Rachel Carpenter

I'm tired, but I got a lot done :geek_grin:. There's now a low-ink (poker-size) edition of Mugs of Madness and the 9-card expansion More Mugs, More Madness is available (full color pnp and in the TTS, no low-ink just yet). Whew.

You can check out all of the caffeinated chaos here: [WIP] Mugs of Madness (1p, 15-30 min, ages 14+, a 20-card game of chthonic chaos...and coffee!)- 2026 Solitaire Print and Play Contest entry (Components Ready!)

I've got playtesting to do and feedback to address and lots of other things to get done, but- it's been a productive day. I'll take the win. :geek_grin:

Here are some of the new cards:





Happy Tuesday and happy playing!
-Rachel

Thank you for reading my blog. If you liked it; then please click the green thumb [microbadge=23724] at the top of the page. If you really liked it; then please subscribe. And follow me across social media with my Linktree:
https://linktr.ee/rachelncarpenter

by latindog

I have used AI to generate PC images for RPG characters including banners for PbF games on this site. Before AI, I just found images on the internet for that purpose. I also use resources like Roll20 and D&D Beyond which may or may not have AI elements in their features (I'm not trying to imply that those websites use AI in this way - I honestly have no idea but wanted to note that I do use the websites to facilitate my RPG playing and might be unknowingly using more AI than I realize).

by govmiller

ATLAS: Tutorial Floors

Page 15. Well, the small corner that's left...

The Second Floor
This is the 5th (of 9 as I count) sections. It is much like The First Floor, but with a few more things...

Anyway, the bit on page 15 is mostly an intro telling players/crawlers that this is the last tutorial floor and time to pad those stats and gather that loot.

Page 16 starts with Popularity. And right away, I've got thoughts...

Is this aimed at GM's/AI? Is it aimed at players? Keep those in mind...

If you've read the books, this the way crawlers get extra stuff: Be popular. This section (it is much longer than just about any other section) talks about building popularity, and then references the 4th floor (not even part of the starter kit!) and then talks about the interview shows. This last bit contains a reference to the Campaign Toolkit which IS part of the starter kit. Since this stat (popularity) becomes part of the game on the second floor, you'd think there'd be a place to track it on the basic character sheet. If there is, I couldn't find it. (Side note: I've seen a few comments on the campaign page. This is one of those items that may change between now and official publication.)

There then follows a short listing of things that GIVE popularity, followed by a short listing of some things that REDUCE popularity. It ends with a sending the reader to the main core rulebook to see the details on popularity.

Back to my question above: I'm not sure who this is really aimed at. If you're familiar with the books, this is more of a reminder of what's to come. If you're going to be the GM/AI, it may serve to confuse you.

And another tiny complaint: There's a single subsection: Sponsors and Benefactors. It was hammered into me (back in the day when I was doing journalism in high school) that if you have a single sub-head, you MUST have at least a second. Now I've seen my fair share of textbooks and other 'professional' publications that don't follow this. So, I'll just get on with it...

This is part of the Popularity section and talks about when crawler popularity gets high enough, folks will sponsor the crawler. That means more loot for the crawler.

Still on page 16. The next section is Locations.
The first major sub part is Interviews outside the dungeon.
This is followed by several short sections on Production Trailers and then what I think must be an editorial oversight...

There are 3 shows identified. The first is the normal block text, but the next two are italicized block text. I have no idea why. The three shows identified are: Dungeon Crawler After Hours with Odette, Death Watch Extreme Dungeon Mayhem, Dungeon Crawler Word: Earth. Each has a paragraph talking about the show.

The next section (we are now on page 17) is Hallways.
Like the First Floor, there is some info on the hallways, but that is very brief. Neighborhoods follows with sections on the Krakaren and Kobold neighborhoods.

The last bit of page 18 and this part is Quests.
Like the First Floor, a few quests are highlighted:
Defying Grabbity
Trick a Mob
Solo-leveling

That's it for this post & the Second Floor.

by big_booboo

That's interesting. I have been guilty of cleaning up a little bit after the fact. Sometimes I accidentally contradict myself, and feel like it would be embarrassing to let that through to the final report. Maybe I should leave the error in and just make a note of it.

Here's another question: if your primary goal is to get a sense of game play, do you read more than one session report in a series? I have noticed some very long session report series.

by woodnoggin

HilkMAN wrote:

Fortunately, the last one is above 12 minutes, so I can skip that.

:Laugh: I couldn't resist adding it because it's one of my favourites. The meandering middle section is probably not great for exercising, though.

[Q]How did you even create this list? Any kind of automation going on?
I have all my CDs ripped onto a music server. It was just a case of moving the files into a WinAmp playlist and using that to produce a text list, ordered by song length. Actually, I already had that text list saved from a few years ago (there are probably a few more long songs in my collection now). I removed several tracks that were too repetitive or slow.

by VolcanoLotus

Lux_Bux wrote:

Never used it, never will.

This is how I feel at the moment, though I try to avoid “never”, especially when it comes to technology.

I remember when the iPhone first came out. I thought it was a toy. Had absolutely no interest. Avoided smartphones for the first few years until my aunt gave me an old Android when she upgraded. I still thought it was a toy. But when it died, I replaced it with a new toy.

Now, here I am, after a day at work making iPhone apps, typing to you all on my iPhone when I could be doing something in the real world.

I agree with most of the negativity about LLMs in this thread. But, if I’m honest? The reason I don’t want to use the tech for a hobby like this is because I don’t want to normalize it for myself. It doesn’t seem like much of a leap from “rule clarification” to “create setting” to “my Kickstarter is on the GeekList under AI and everyone is mocking it and I’ve forgotten why”. Best move is not to play.

by dysjunct

KatharinaKuo wrote:

I like to skim through session reports to learn about new systems or get a feel for a system. I also always find it interesting to see what’s being played and how other people play. Therefor I appreciate it, if session reports also include some infos on the mechanics and the player's thoughts.

If I just want to read a good story, however, I reach for books instead.

That's where I'm at as well. Books are better at telling stories than the average session report. Or at least, books that make it through the editing/publishing gatekeeping process, compared to session reports which have the not-very-limiting geekmod process to go through.

If I read a session report, it's because I want to understand how a game plays at the table. A story, told after the fact -- and often embellished, or better in memory than in the moment -- does not really help with this. And of course any game might produce an amazing story depending on the people at the table. So I want to be able to connect the dots between what happened in the narrative, and how the game facilitated this.