tl:dr; post-2015 influx of new gamers has continued the long run trend of more women joining TTRPGs; forum participation moving towards matching play at tables.
A recent post from the D&D Research Wizards showed a significant uptick in female players that aligns with Hasbro saying ~ 40% gamers now female in 2019. I wanted to track this back through time to see if it there was a shift in the trend.
12 February 2021
10 February 2021
Blog Challenge: A World in 13 items
Originating from Trilemma Adventures.
Things found:
1. A well worn book on the genealogy of dragon blooded nobles
2. A glass globe filled with a swirling, caustic mist
3. A master piece painting showing an ominous demonic figure atop a throne, its face obscured but a burning gaze still follows watchers. The title of the painting on the frame is burned away
4. An archaic set of armour, well maintained, centuries old, damage patched by skilled hands
5. A cannister with an address on the top, a gathering place. It contains a small sea creature, drowned in hag tears, that emanates loathsome energies
6. A series of tightly furled papers, once tied around a birds leg, scratched with coded phrases
7. A finely trimmed dress, skillfully reworked to make an old style shine anew
8. A well worn ring, a ducal seal of power
9. An invitation, words clumsily copied by hands that do not know that language
10. A great baked mushroom, flat and a half meter across, laden with herbs, cheese and choice cuts
11. A finely carved ivory dart, etched with arcane runes of concealment
12. A short stick with an exquisitely cooked sliver of chimera heart, set across the top of an ornate goblet of fine wine
13. A dragon effigy, the size of a canoe, carved with holes to make a fearsome wail as it falls through the air and handles to be gripped along the sides
For other entries in this see:
Sundered Shillings
Colours of Pentagrams
Nothic's Eye
Archons March On
Filth Pigs Abbatoir
Numbers Aren't Real
Haruspex Hovel
Dungeon Anthology
Cosmic Orrery
Things found:
1. A well worn book on the genealogy of dragon blooded nobles
2. A glass globe filled with a swirling, caustic mist
3. A master piece painting showing an ominous demonic figure atop a throne, its face obscured but a burning gaze still follows watchers. The title of the painting on the frame is burned away
4. An archaic set of armour, well maintained, centuries old, damage patched by skilled hands
5. A cannister with an address on the top, a gathering place. It contains a small sea creature, drowned in hag tears, that emanates loathsome energies
6. A series of tightly furled papers, once tied around a birds leg, scratched with coded phrases
7. A finely trimmed dress, skillfully reworked to make an old style shine anew
8. A well worn ring, a ducal seal of power
9. An invitation, words clumsily copied by hands that do not know that language
10. A great baked mushroom, flat and a half meter across, laden with herbs, cheese and choice cuts
11. A finely carved ivory dart, etched with arcane runes of concealment
12. A short stick with an exquisitely cooked sliver of chimera heart, set across the top of an ornate goblet of fine wine
13. A dragon effigy, the size of a canoe, carved with holes to make a fearsome wail as it falls through the air and handles to be gripped along the sides
For other entries in this see:
Sundered Shillings
Colours of Pentagrams
Nothic's Eye
Archons March On
Filth Pigs Abbatoir
Numbers Aren't Real
Haruspex Hovel
Dungeon Anthology
Cosmic Orrery
08 February 2021
Shiny TTRPG links collection #3
Third weekly round up of interesting things this week, inspired by weaver.skepti.ch to help remember good finds from each week. Last one found here.
The giant, meaty better version of this post for all of 2020 on DIY and Dragons. https://diyanddragons.blogspot.com/2021/02/advice-from-blogosphere-2020.html
Something I love which is distilling down settings to spot the archetypes that can then be harvested for your game. In this case, Film Noir for D&D.
A fun little set up for 'levelling up through feasting' - its the Goblin Laws of Gaming: Rat Kebab edition!
The giant, meaty better version of this post for all of 2020 on DIY and Dragons. https://diyanddragons.blogspot.com/2021/02/advice-from-blogosphere-2020.html
Something I love which is distilling down settings to spot the archetypes that can then be harvested for your game. In this case, Film Noir for D&D.
A fun little set up for 'levelling up through feasting' - its the Goblin Laws of Gaming: Rat Kebab edition!
06 February 2021
Festivities as a social depth-crawl
I had a big social event session coming up so I decided to steal the idea of a social depth crawl and see what I could do with it.
Theory set up: how to use the depth crawl system to throw in some randomness to the players progressing about an event. It is not just a simple point crawl because there is the potential to roam between locations rapidly and for others to also move about. The refreshable nature of a depth crawl is good for this.
Elements
- timeline
- key locations (~5-7)
- NPCs to interact with
Starting with a timeline, I decided to go with 5 phases - arriving, apertif drinks, sit to table and start, main course, after dinner. This 'how to do parties' entry on Alexandrian has a discussion of phases but I wanted more randomisation within my phases. Further, instead of an iterating list with +1 per phase like a classic depth-crawl, as there would be fewer phases but potentially multiple 'encounters' within a phase, I decided to go with adding a d4 per phase to cover a 1-20 list.
Next for locations - entryway, library, ballroom, dining hall, backyard and labyrinth - these were to provide a back drop for the encounters but passage between them was not hazardous, simply the trigger point for an encounter. Mainly to make life easier for myself I figured out how each looked to provide backdrops for whichever phase the players were in and where they went.
Theory set up: how to use the depth crawl system to throw in some randomness to the players progressing about an event. It is not just a simple point crawl because there is the potential to roam between locations rapidly and for others to also move about. The refreshable nature of a depth crawl is good for this.
Elements
- timeline
- key locations (~5-7)
- NPCs to interact with
Starting with a timeline, I decided to go with 5 phases - arriving, apertif drinks, sit to table and start, main course, after dinner. This 'how to do parties' entry on Alexandrian has a discussion of phases but I wanted more randomisation within my phases. Further, instead of an iterating list with +1 per phase like a classic depth-crawl, as there would be fewer phases but potentially multiple 'encounters' within a phase, I decided to go with adding a d4 per phase to cover a 1-20 list.
Next for locations - entryway, library, ballroom, dining hall, backyard and labyrinth - these were to provide a back drop for the encounters but passage between them was not hazardous, simply the trigger point for an encounter. Mainly to make life easier for myself I figured out how each looked to provide backdrops for whichever phase the players were in and where they went.
04 February 2021
Prepping flavour-filters to improv Spelljammer systems
tl:dr; my workflow for populating systems to allow worlds to be improvised for fantasy world-hopping.
First recapping 'why bother at all' - what is a Spelljamming campaign supposed to be like?
- people like how it snaps onto any setting.
- weird aliens, vast, strange space and cool ships are important.
- the 'space swash-buckling' atmosphere was mentioned a lot (in posts pre-5e).
- a solid minority liked the odd celestial mechanics, space travel rules and the tool kit to allow exploration.
Overall this reads as a mandate to turn up the dial on what makes Spelljammer unique. Then collecting feedback points from people that have written about running Spelljammer campaigns there are a couple of points to keep in mind:
- that ship combat can be a grind if ranged bombardment only is used.
- that the vastness of space makes time between encounters dull.
- running games with unrestricted long distance travel is a pain in the neck for DMs.
So together I read all this as a charter for 'getting the big, weird setting right' - making it feel huge and strange without the scale making it a boring grind. We have swept up existing content on encounters but need a way to make it specific to your system, so here we will talk about how to create the 'flavour' filters to allow you to rapidly adapt to the party rocking up in a different sphere. This is also my general 'quick and dirty' world building process.
First recapping 'why bother at all' - what is a Spelljamming campaign supposed to be like?
- people like how it snaps onto any setting.
- weird aliens, vast, strange space and cool ships are important.
- the 'space swash-buckling' atmosphere was mentioned a lot (in posts pre-5e).
- a solid minority liked the odd celestial mechanics, space travel rules and the tool kit to allow exploration.
Overall this reads as a mandate to turn up the dial on what makes Spelljammer unique. Then collecting feedback points from people that have written about running Spelljammer campaigns there are a couple of points to keep in mind:
- that ship combat can be a grind if ranged bombardment only is used.
- that the vastness of space makes time between encounters dull.
- running games with unrestricted long distance travel is a pain in the neck for DMs.
So together I read all this as a charter for 'getting the big, weird setting right' - making it feel huge and strange without the scale making it a boring grind. We have swept up existing content on encounters but need a way to make it specific to your system, so here we will talk about how to create the 'flavour' filters to allow you to rapidly adapt to the party rocking up in a different sphere. This is also my general 'quick and dirty' world building process.
02 February 2021
Review: Knock! #1
tl:dr; a gorgeous best-of selection of old school gaming wisdom and new inspirations in one handy codex. First of many, we can hope.
I backed the kickstarter for this "Adventure Gaming Bric-a-Brac. Being A Compendium of Miscellanea for Old School RPGs" and it just turned up in the mail. I love it - the design, the density, the content picked to go inside it - it is stuffed full of chewy goodness and a treat for anyone who likes either OSR blogs, RPG magazines or any other such compilations of options and ideas to bring to your game. Almost certainly there are things for your table in here.
I backed the kickstarter for this "Adventure Gaming Bric-a-Brac. Being A Compendium of Miscellanea for Old School RPGs" and it just turned up in the mail. I love it - the design, the density, the content picked to go inside it - it is stuffed full of chewy goodness and a treat for anyone who likes either OSR blogs, RPG magazines or any other such compilations of options and ideas to bring to your game. Almost certainly there are things for your table in here.
freshly arrived copy, cover by Tim Molloy
01 February 2021
Shiny TTRPG links collection #2
Second weekly round up of interesting things this week, format lifted from weaver.skepti.ch to help me remember the good things I find each week. First one found here.
More sections of Gossamer as this city building/map making effort hits the 75% complete mark. I continue to be astonished at the quality of map work Bearded Devil cranks out.
Similarly, I am loving the new Kontext d6 project from Lizardman Diaries, with 'Weird Fantasy Danger' generators to go with the previously released NPC and location generators.
A good thread by James Introcasos on how to ease people into trying new games.
More sections of Gossamer as this city building/map making effort hits the 75% complete mark. I continue to be astonished at the quality of map work Bearded Devil cranks out.
Similarly, I am loving the new Kontext d6 project from Lizardman Diaries, with 'Weird Fantasy Danger' generators to go with the previously released NPC and location generators.
A good thread by James Introcasos on how to ease people into trying new games.
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