by Whymme

There were the big campaigns of last century; Horror on the Orient Express and Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu, the Great Pendragon Campaign(which was published at the start of this century, but was actually a revamp of The Boy King from 1991) , but that probably won't happen anymore.

The good news is that my group has started with The Enemy Within campaign, with me as GM. I have started this campaign twice before, but both times it petered out before we got to the end (one time we didn't even get a third session). I have books for both the first and the fourth edition, and lots of other material that I can interweave. And a stable group of players, so I think that we can finish it this time.

by sludj

Damn, it was so cool to have a UK-based publisher putting out world-class games, based out of my home town too. Thanks for the great games along the way. Such fond memories of working through the Undaunted games 🙂

by Harblnger

Related Item: Everything but socks! And some of those, too.

It's probably not gonna be a thrashing at all. It's gonna be more of a... question? A lot of questions? Well... some questions? We'll see ;)

by The_Joel

iStillLikeCatan wrote:

Goyourownway wrote:

Yeah, I get wanting to be friendly to new users, we definitely need it to be an inviting event. But without the context it just looked like another crazy lowball offer.

You said you did your share of sniping and low offers when you started and you learned over time that that wasn't appreciated. How did you learn if no one said anything? I think my comment to Saul was constructive not being a jerk.

I don't mind "lowball offers". It costs nothing to just say pass. If anything it re-triggers other's notifications so I get more publicity! No one who have been ragging on people is deputized in the VFM.

I haven't heard anything about my bidding behavior at all. It's hard to believe, but I consider myself a good natured, empathetic person. I can try to put myself in others' shoes to see how they fit. But I'll still snipe here and there. I also have nothing against offering $5 bucks on someone's $15-$20 dollar game if I feel the valuation is off or if it's the max I'm willing to pay to test the game out, they can take it or leave it. We're trying to move board games off our shelves, not get the most profit (ok maybe 25% of the people here are 😀).

Like I said this is the first time I've seen the "community" ragging on people publicly like if they had a badge or something, and I don't agree with it at all. Just be kind and move on.

P.S. if anything we should be shaming those "lowball" discounts! Lowering the price by a buck or two! C'mon man! 😆

Thank you Alex. I get frustrated too sometimes, but I just get frustrated silently on my own. It's less effort to just not respond or say "pass" or "no" than expressing my frustration publicly. ✌️

by JugglinDan

Related Item: Science Fiction Companion

Oh, for the transit time and energy cost decoupling, I did actually think about that. I'm imagining a "point, burn, & coast" system of travel. You make your astrogation plot at the start, choose your vector then burn to get up to speed before coasting along that path with just minor course corrections along the way. Most of the fuel is burnt right at the start, but the transit time is based on how long you coast. That could be a long or short distance but regardless, little extra fuel is required unless the ship is decelerated to investigate something along the way. Then more fuel is needed for another burn to get up to speed. And towards the end of the trip the classic spin and reverse thrust manoeuvre is used to slow down again. The calculated fuel/energy cost includes the fuel required to get up to speed and slow down again.

But I agree, the system is full of holes. It doesn't matter. I just need something that suits the narrative needs of the game, which is uncertainty of fuel use and travel time within bounded limits. The missions I'm generating randomly often have time limits, and the ship has finite fuel. I've chosen the energy and transit time dice values to work with the ship fuel and mission generation to force difficult choices. Completing a mission in time might risk running out of fuel, or I might luck out. Narrative rather than physical rules, and the push my luck element is why I have to choose a fast burn before I know the outcomes.

by OrangeWhip42

Related Item: Everything but socks! And some of those, too.

I can't wait to get a thrashing. ... actually yes, I can wait for that ...

by Christian Nonnenbroich

Aaaaaaaaaaaand we're back. And this might be the most reasonable blog post title I've used in a while. Nothing drastic going on over here, I just didn't have much time to prepare anything for today, because yesterday, I met Schaaf and A. and T., the other two members of our TTRPG group that has been in existence for... I don't know. A long time by now. And we finished our third "Theo, Bruno, and Gregor"-campaign (which only consisted of two sessions this time). And some amazingly funny stuff happened. Most of it connected to imp piss. And Theo's amazing deductive skills. I'll tell you all... Well, some things about it tomorrow. For now, I need to reminisce for a bit, and so I leave you with Schaaf's amazing GM screen again. Here it is:

Great. As said, more about that tomorrow. Doesn't mean that you'll get out of that talk about "Seven To Eternity", Fabian, we'll just postpone that until Sunday. See you tomorrow!

by JugglinDan

Related Item: Science Fiction Companion

The idea of choosing a fast burn before rolling was simply to make the choice when the stakes are higher, without that knowledge. My ship has energy/fuel 15, so the fast burn risks leaving insufficient fuel for a return trip without refuelling. Also, I made no attempt at physically balancing the numbers, or at simulation. It's purely set so that on average, things that are further away take on average longer and use more fuel. There is of course the chance of getting lucky, either with time or fuel usage. I'm not trying to overthink it though.

by Tomcat1304

St Cretin wrote:

I would have liked to run the Warhammer Fantasy Enemy Within campaign as a DM, but lend someone the books and never got them back between all my moves. I am admittedly too lazy to look for them now.

The first edition books were available as pdfs from Cubicle 7 a while ago, probably still in their shop. And the Enemy Within was revamped for 4th ed. and made it to a Humble Bundle including adventures and companions for all the parts. the files must still be somewhere on my hard drive...

Back to the QOTD: Oh, there are many campaigns I'd like to do but likely won't due to the slow pace of sessions. Can't complain about frequency - currently 3 active groups + one PbF. Still, back in school/university times we made much faster progress through our adventures. 🙂

CoC - GMed Masks of Nyarlathotep (3rd & 4th edition) through the NY chapter, we ended at the beginning of London. There's Complete Edition: Berge des Wahnsinns: Die epische Kampagne still to play (have 2/3 of the german Pegasus edition - the one where part 3 is almost impossible to find 😕). And you mentioned Orient Express... worth a look?
Pathfinder - Have played through 4/6 of Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition and just started GMing Curse of the Crimson Throne. And we're in the middle of Strange Aeons online. There's some adventure paths left.
Pendragon - Never got much traction when I tried to GM the starter set last year. But I'd really like to play a campaign. With it's grand scope of events, the game likely suits playing by forum? If someone wants to GM, I'm willing to join as a player.

RPG adjacent - Battletech: It's been more than 20 years since the last battle.
X-Wing minis: They're mostly decoration in the cabinet. Have to get the kids to the table and start Heroes of teh Aturi Cluster

by Barad_the_dwarf

typhoo tea

by Jocab

Coffee

by Jupescavil

I mostly grab my physical dice and roll them on my desk, even online. If I need everyone to see the result, I switch to the built‑in roller and call it out.