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I was on Giants In The Playground today and I saw a thread on their forum that caught my eye. It was about casual perspectives that are often lost when discussing games online.

Most of the thread got hung up on mechanics so I decided to just jump to the end and give my own take. I thought it may be an interesting conversation starter here:

A casual perspective easily lost is that many casual people don't really play D&D as a game.

As a game dev, one bitter pill that I had to swallow was the reality that most people do not actually care about game mechanics. Which hurt, a little.

The 5e wave -- emboldened by Critical Role & COVID -- are mostly casual gamers who see D&D akin to Fortnite, Dead By Daylight, Fall Guys, and other social games. Sometimes, insultingly called "Friend Slop."

There is a first layer of casual where players are pretty much fine as long as the game is a good enough excuse to hangout with their friends. They just want to hangout with an activity to drive conversation. All the "friend slop" titles are no different to them than a poker night. It's just an excuse to hangout.

These mega casual players are probably the majority of the current hobby.

After that, you got the people who do care about it as a game, but only surface level. They want to make a cool build or have some fun specific to D&D...but, if you sat there and got really deep into game dev, they'd tune out.

Want to chat about making Toph Beifong in 5e? They'd love that. Want to talk about class balance and the game design philosophy underpinning 5e that means you can't ever actually feel like Toph ---- because the game can't let any one person be that good, especially at low levels, since it ruins the point of team balance and challenging combat design & D&D uses a specific effect system when compared to the freeform nature of bending so you'd likely need to borrow Star Wars Saga's Use The Force Check OR play a game with freeform magic like Fate or Cortex or PbtA ---, they tune out.

That group is smaller, but probably the second largest group of players.

We are in the third, fourth and fifth groups. People who really get in the nitty gritty on games, people who play games other than D&D, and even people who make our own games. And we are probably the smallest groups. Our encloypedic knowledge of gaming history, our discussion on mechanics, our lists of game recommendations, etc. is weird to the other two groups.

Not that we should divide nor should there be animosity. Just a reality we like this game and hobby for different reasons. And that can preclude us from enjoying things that they can easily enjoy. And they may not appreciate the things we enjoy because things like ludonarrative synergy or more engaging gameplay is not why they are in the hobby.

Edit: Inb4 we go on a tangent on how to do Toph in 5e.

XP, milestones, character points etc…. What is your preferred method of character advancement?

Inspired by this post and the endless deluge of videos talking about them. I don't think I've ever actually seen or heard of one being used, it's always endless hypotheticals about their "storytelling potential" or whatever, when the format (when kept to a strict 5 rooms) seems very limiting.

Hell, even the smallest dungeon I've personally ran was 6 rooms (Bloat, from Mork Borg). Idk I've always thought they were a silly idea.

And we're back with the next episode of our Chuubos Exocolonist actual play:

Episode 8 - (YT, Podbean) - Our Exocolonists celebrate Vertumnalia, compete against kids five years younger than them, and try convincing the adults that breaking the rules was actually a good thing they did and they should totally be trusted for that...

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I've been looking for a good place to go for video reviews of TTRPGs. Any suggestions?

Mothership is going to be my group’s first foray into sci-fi and horror, and I’m so excited! However, in the Quinn’s Quest review (in which he showers Mothership with praise), his biggest complaint was that the game doesn’t do anything to support character growth.

I figured this is because Mothership feels more well suited for a one shot (or multi-shot) since characters will die, but…I’m sure there’s something I can do about this?

I want my players to not play caricatures or horror stereotypes because I want their deaths to feel BIG when it happens! So what would you do?

What tools or strategies do you use to give more character care and muscle to systems that do nothing to support that beyond what you can bring as a GM?

I played *years* of this TTRPG in college (2008-2010) and I cannot remember the name of it. Maybe someone here might know 🤔

The rule book was a light blue-ish background with a single male on the cover.

In the game you can play as multiple races that have angel or supernatural ancestry. I played a character that had to roll after a conversation or whoever I was speaking to would forget they just saw/spoke with me.

I have tried many variations on Google- maybe someone here has an idea? Help!

EDIT: Solved! You're all awesome! It was Anima: Beyond Fantasy 🤩

Hello, I am looking to run the famous scenario Jailbreak by Greg Stolze, but I see there are two different versions, an older Unknown Armies edition and an Elemental edition. I have no experience with either systems, but I do run a lot of Delta Green as a vaguely similar tone to UE.

Running it with experienced rpg nerds, but not looking for anything rules dense.

I'm planning on buying a physical copy of a system I'm interested in, but I've never bought from this page before.

I want to know how "safe" it is to buy from them.

I'm from Mexico, as far as I know they do deliver here, I think the delivery cost is 6 dollars or something, but I'm kinda nervous.

Anyone with experience regarding delivery outside of the US and UK?

Edit: thanks to everyone who answered, all of you have been quite helpful, I'm going to take the chance and place my order in the following days.

Let me better describe what I mean: One of the things I love in video games that I'm seldom able to capture in TTRPGs is the feeling of making a fun build for my character. NOTE: I don't mean a fun backstory, lots of systems have a great way to build out character history, I mean a fun build in the sense that it feels like individual pieces of your build are synergizing with each other to make something greater.

Here is my dilemma, I've felt this in games like DnD or pathfinder, you can make some really cool builds that feel like what your character provides in combat is a little more "unique" even though ultimately you're still just doing bigger damage numbers.

When I have run more narrative focused systems like PbtA, it feels like a better fit for my players, but we're all missing that buildmaking element.

Is it possible to have fun/diverse buildmaking in a game without having a lot of number crunch? Or will you inherently need a system with more crunch to actually feel like you're making something with some synergy and not just adding exciting flavor to your +1 to hit?

Thanks for any of your thoughts on the subject! If you think of any games where you have particularly enjoyed the "buildmaking" aspect, please let me know!

So I run this campaign that lasts now for about 8 sessions or more. We have fun. I had some issues but corrected them and I am getting positive feedback. I am inspired and have vague design/plot in my head. For the current "chapter" I made whole city with plothooks leading to solving current arch and to Explore.

The problem is, I am burning out

I have bought foundry because roll20 had some issues but it seems so overhelming and unintuitive. Above that I am getting tired with system we started in - SWADE. I have never run anything else. I have read a lot of books, had long break when I did not run or play anything and of all systems I came to SWADE because it was easy to create custom species and magic systems.

Problem is I feel like not liking it anymore. I struggle with making fights. They are either too easy or too difficult. Enemy is either mook or elite/Boss. I was defending SWADE over dnd but now I miss some good old HP and feeling of progres. That said I don't now what to do. Making stuff for system I don't enjoy is tiring especially when I have to handle all of it with foundry I am not accustomed with yet.

I don't want to abandon campaign and neither do my players. I would like to change system - but for what? I cant find something that customizable. Maybe something narrative would be nice but my players prefer traditional gameplay and I don't know any of those anyway

Thanks for reading all of it. I will appreciate all advice