Art in RPGs

March 29, 2020March 29, 2020 / gg no re / Leave a comment

The gamers discuss the function of art in RPGs and enact coronavirus discourse.

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Game in the Time of Corona

March 24, 2020March 23, 2020 / gg no re / 1 Comment

An update about how gg no re is going quarantine mode. We’re still playing, and we should have another group podcast soon. This virus has also opened the door to remote play to us.

Here’s what our Dungeon Academy megadungeon setup looks like now.

What the players see while exploring:

What the DM sees:

For something fun for the players to do while they wait during the school phase of a Dungeon Academy game, I implemented the “map pins” system for the campus map and the map of their dorm. This lets them click on any location and (after a couple more clicks) get some additional info about it: flavor text, images, etc.

You can find out how to do this yourself here on the roll20 forums.

Roll20 Settings

I have found these Roll20 settings to be just what I want.

Page settings

This makes it so that players can only see, at any time, what their characters can see. Previously explored parts of the map outside light radius are blacked out. Definitely possible to get lost.

fog of war & advanced fog of war: off; dynamic lighting, enforced LoS, update on drop, restrict: on

Token Sight Settings

These are under the advanced tab. Set this for each character bearing a torch. Can also create a dummy token and assign it these settings if they drop a torch.

emits 30 feet with 15 feet dim, all players see, has sight

Dynamic Lighting

Here’s what my dynamic lighting walls and doors look like. Walls are orange; blue is doors. You can use the select tool when on this layer to move the door out of the way once opened and move it back once (re)closed.

140 – re:play Dungeon Academy 2

November 26, 2018December 3, 2018 / gg no re / Leave a comment

The Dungeon Academy students attend their first church service, a memorial to the student who was recently murdered under mysterious circumstances. Then they hit the books to try to solve a mystery and enter the first joust of the year, courtesy of the 1971 Chainmail rules.

Be sure to check out our new players page to see who (most of) these voices belong to.

Headmaster Thoughts

I was rushing. I need to take time to let the different locations settle into the senses to get a feel for the campus. Maps and visual aids will help, but that’s no excuse to skimp verbally.

Also, on a research failure, I need to give you something else unrelated that fleshes out the setting. And I shouldn’t tell them the DC of research checks. And everyone who fails (or is in a group that fails) should take stress.

Dramatis Personae

Here are the NPCs featured in this ep:

Secundus, the murdered freshman

Anastasia, Warden of Saints

We don’t have pictures for all the PCs yet, but here’s what we do have so far:

Saggitarius (Tim)

Pluto (John)

Luciana (Mason)

And here’s what the custom trifold character sheets look like:

Group Facing

Player Facing

Player Facing Expanded

And, last, here’s the turn-planning sheet that the players were putting their minis on in order to let the ref know what they intend to do on the upcoming turn:

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Werq Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Church Music:

Get R A T T L E D

October 26, 2018 / gg no re / Leave a comment

Daniel’s put the beta v1 rules of R A T T L E D up on his blog. Check it out:

122 – re:play City of the Crepuscular Queen 0/

June 13, 2018June 13, 2018 / gg no re / 1 Comment

We start our play of Daniel’s homebrew setting and system, City of the Crepuscular Queen. (Warning: mild Bloodborne spoilers.)

This episode starts with a discussion of mechanics and theory, intrinsic vs extrinsic rewards, using drama to structure your game, and giving creative pressure release valves.

Then Daniel moves into orienting the players on the setting, stuff they need to know in order to play their characters.

And finally we set up the first moment of actual play.

Theme music for CCQ is “Monarchy,” the title track of the album from Mosh: https://iammosh.bandcamp.com/album/monarchy

Episode image: public domain

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Hacking PF2 into 5e

March 23, 2018March 23, 2018 / gg no re / Leave a comment

The infamous Pathfinder is undergoing an edition change in the nearish future. Some of the changes are maybe pretty good. Over at his blog, Daniel has written up his thoughts about how you can use some of the more interesting changes in your 5e D&D game.

Link: https://detectmagic.wordpress.com/2018/03/24/pf2-dnd5/

114 – Investigative Horror

March 21, 2018March 21, 2018 / gg no re / Leave a comment

We talk about our experience with Cthulhu-style investigative horror gaming, contrast it with D&D, and get into that theory.

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113 – Hexcrawls, Tomb of Annihilation, and Hot Springs Island

March 1, 2018March 2, 2018 / gg no re / Leave a comment

We discuss how hexcrawls can be compelling and how they can fail, exemplified in Tomb of Annihilation and Hot Springs Island.

Correction: Jacob contacted us to clarify that, while he did do all the layout himself, the art was done by Gabriel Hernandez, Eric Quigley, Cecil Howe, Billy Longino, Jason Thompson, Juan Ochoa, and Ron Guyett. And two others helped with the writing: Donnie Garcia and Evan Peterson.

To get more info about Hot Springs Island: