The Stochastic Game

Ramblings of General Geekery

My Dragonbane players finally beat Dead Eyes Cave! One of them was one roll away from death, but the other two made judicious use of their heroic abilities and spells. Getting to the monster’s last 2 HP was quite dramatic!

Quote of the game: “did you blindfold the chicken?”

Three cultists of Sathmog, blindfolded. My players killed them without any remorse. I tried to make them feel bad about it by saying that, technically, the cult of Sathmog has been the traditional faith of the Misty Vale for the past couple centuries, and that the players are enacting colonialist persecution against it... they didn't want to hear it :D

∞

Good morning! You may be happy to know that the good fluffy boy is, as usual, good and fluffy.

A good fluffy boy, laying on the grass at the nearby park, with two of his favourite balls.
The good fluffy boy is rolling around on the grass to make his balls smell good. Yes, that's what's happening.
The good fluffy boy has a chonky fluffy butt.

∞

Everything I Learned About GMing Was With Call Of Cthulhu: Automatic Clues

I got into TTRPGs around the turn of the 1990s and, after my first few games, fell into a long tunnel of Call of Cthulhu gaming. I pretty much exclusively GM’ed Call of Cthulhu from the mid-90s to the late 2000s, including a lot of Delta Green, which back then was a Call of Cthulhu sourcebook.

I wasn’t online much at the time, so all the GMing techniques I picked up during that time were through adventure books, friends, or by myself. I suspect that investigative horror games like Call of Cthulhu are uniquely positioned to force the GM to develop good technique, and that’s sort of what I want to explore here through the lens of my own formative GMing years… and let’s start with “automatic clues!”

Read more…

∞ in Roleplaying Games

This week’s mail call was Free League’s Invincible TTRPG! It looks super great, and will probably be my group’s next “interlude” game, especially if we manage to get together face-to-face.

The Invincible Kickstarter loot: the core rulebook with the special cover, the Starter Set box, and the first issue of the original comic, but with a new cover.
Contents of the Starter Set, including some dice, some initiative cards, a bunch of standees, lots of character sheets, a rules booklet, an adventure booklet, and a few other tidbits. This looks like a Free League Starter Set alright!
A spread from the core rulebook, showing the great-looking layout that makes good use of the comic-book's art and feels very comic-book-y.
Another page spread from the core rulebook.

∞

I just learned that apparently the version of “The Name Of The Rose” that’s on Amazon Prime has removed the sex scene, which would of course be ironic, given the movie’s theme of religiously-driven censorship, if it wasn’t just sad. Once again, piracy is the best user experience.

∞

It’s blackberry season! Go around your neighbourhood and pick a bunch! Remember to taste before taking: some bushes are more sour than others. AFAICT, the more sun exposure (such as south-facing bushes), the sweeter the taste (but I need to look into it properly)

Some blackberries. More picking tips: if the berry doesn't naturally detach with a gentle tug, it's not ripe yet and you can leave it for later!

∞