by Christina_Oates

DJBunz27 wrote:

Is there any best practice to posting games in the math trade that are already posted in the VFM? Like, would adding +remove+ to VFM postings while it's up for math trade consideration be okay?

I'm browsing through the forums and info on it, but all i see is "DON'T list both VFM and math trade at the same time"

If you look back in this feed starting October 10 you’ll see discussions about how to do this.

by Alexander Beetle

wmshub wrote:

jjwhite103 wrote:

dysjunct wrote:

Police Aim to Tackle Butt Lane Anti-Social Behaviour

Am I the only one left wondering what Butt Lane Pro-Social Behavior looks like?

Try not to wonder about that.

This is (genuinely) right where my parents-in-law live - an adjacent road.

When my children were younger and we went to visit their grandparents, they found "Butt Lane" hilarious.

My wife claims never to have registered it as funny when she grew up near there. Possibly because "butt" was a less recognised term in British English language then than it is now.

by kingofanything

An item GeekList: 2027 Language and Culture Challenge has been added to the geeklist 2027 Boardgaming Challenges Overview

by DJBunz27

Is there any best practice to posting games in the math trade that are already posted in the VFM? Like, would adding +remove+ to VFM postings while it's up for math trade consideration be okay?

I'm browsing through the forums and info on it, but all i see is "DON'T list both VFM and math trade at the same time"

by Maawdawg

A new GeekList has been posted Flea Market 193: It is always Black Friday somewhere Flea (November 2026)

by Sweety_liesje

An item GeekList: 2027 Explore Diversity Challenge has been added to the geeklist Sweety's Challenges 2027

by Sweety_liesje

An item GeekList: 2026 Autumn/ Spring Mushroom Challenge has been added to the geeklist Sweety's Challenges 2027

by DeCarabas

Cheelara1 wrote:

For 2 days only Sunday Nov 1st and Mon Nov 2nd Buy 2 get one free. Lowest priced game free. If can be the same price such as buy three $5 dollar games one of them would be free.
Click here to view all my items available for sale

Is the auction I won this morning included in this?

by Moonlight_Fox

The current QotD is relevant to solo players, I think: QOTD NOV 1: What can a traditional RPG campaign learn from solo and journaling RPGs?

by Moonlight_Fox

The two modern approaches to solo play I'm most familiar with are journaling games, and

I... Don't know how useful journalling games are going to be for fully traditional RPGs, but games there is a heavy overlap in journalling design and games such as For The Queen, Desperation, Alice is Missing, or Dialect - While I think there are differences in what makes for a good prompt in both of these style of games, journalling games and that style of GMless group game live and die on the quality of the prompts.

I also do think that mechanics from journalling games could be ported over into that style of GMless game - Maybe you could start each act of a prompt lead game where every player gets to customize the deck that the next act is going to be using as per Koriko, thus subtly influencing the gameplay by adding more of the sort of prompt you want to see, or place a token on a bingo board to modify a prompt with a twist as per... Koriko again, actually... Allowing you to customize the prompts to your liking.

I also think that you could approach world building - or character creation - with a series of semi-random prompts, which could either be played by the GM as a solo game or by the group as part of session 0, since games encouraging you to make a setting together have become more prominent and that's something that prompts can probably help facilitate happening as a group. Go round the table, draw a prompt, add something to the world based on that prompt.

In fact, I think Orbital Blues solo rules has a 'fold' option which, if taken, leaves you with a PC to insert into a group game with an unusually detailed backstory, and Sentinels Comics character creation is almost a journaling game in and of itself: Just add optional prompts alongside the randomly rolled options to either write answers to or think about when you decide which of the... I think usually three.. you want to take.

The problem with those last three paragraphs is that you are essentially having to make a second game to package into your game if you attempt those - Orbital Blues solo rules are a supplement, and I don't know how reasonable it is to embed that sort of thing... But, hey, Traveller practically does it for character creation, albeit an older 'roll on tables to see what happens to you' style of solo design.

As for oracular games - How valuable for GMs robust random tables can be. Yes a d100 table for tavern names is fun and I am never going to say no to that sort of specific table. But I'm only ever going to use that if my players encounter fantasy taverns modelled on British pubs, and if I get unlucky every tavern in the campaign might be called "The Drowned Fish". Something that would be more useful? An establishment descriptor table, with 100 adjectives that could describe any restaurant or drinking establishment - Keep the adjectives relatively generic, and then allow me as a GM to take what I roll from two rolls on that table, combine them for a two word descriptor (Which could be Quiet Quiet but that tells me something), combine that with what I know about the setting, the genre, the town, and even the current happenings in the game - The fictional context - to create something from my brain I wouldn't have thought of without the little nudge to help my neurons fire. (And, you can go more specific the more specific your game is - An appropriate table for 'you can play any setting and genre' is going to be different from 'any fantasy setting' to 'medieval fantasy' to your specific medieval fantasy setting.)... And I'm probably going to roll a good general "Descriptors" table more often than I am to go looking for the specific table, as long as your tables are robust, a general table of descriptions - of actions as well if I decide something should happen but don't have much of an opinion on what.

There's a reason I consider Mythic GME 2e my favourite prep tool. And it's not the mechanics of Mythic GME 2e, or even all the specific element tables. It's that Action table and Descriptor table. Descriptor if I'm unsure what something should look like, which might get me "Curiously normal" for example (the big tables are two d100 tables that work in conjunction), the Actions table... When I'm using it in prep rather than for a random event in a solo game is something I sometimes use for NPC motivations even though I'm sure one of the NPC tables probably has something more specific to that, and can come up with things like "Overthrow burden" - And sometimes use Mythic to supplement more specific tables in my prep. "Hm, I have an idea of what that might be but I'd like to roll on mythic to see if it provides a second option for interpreting what this creature is trying to retrieve because I have an idea but I don't know if I like that idea."

(But, also, my other takeaway from oracular games is that if you have a set of robust random tables for GMs, adding a solo mode can be fairly straight forward from there. A trigger for random events and yes/no oracle of some kind would be what I'd be looking for after you've got that)

And, in less modern solo design... But a 'turn to page X' style CYOA book can help tutorialise mechanics, as illustrated by Chaosium's use of Alone Against The Flames for CoC 7e, making it a free PDF and explaining mechanics when you first encounter them, the Solo Comic Adventure for Legends of the Mist, and I believe at least one of the PF2e starter sets.

by TomTomThePipersSon

By having exciting things be discovered 😄

by IronJawa

An item Session: The Cardiff Boys, Lost in the Lone Lands: Part XXIV - Finish the Fight has been added to the geeklist Cardiff Boys: Lost in the Lone Lands