"We have an offer you can't refuse." Dragonbane stuff remains in my Wish List and maybe -- just maybe -- in 2025 if things get better (budget). But this is an interesting addition to DB. Love the art and efficient tables included inside. Thanks for the video.

Still waiting to hear about the backstory of the lost dice

I found moves very clunky as well, I just ended up switching to world of dungeons. I think blades in the dark will be more to your liking.

9:00 you really pull off the insane lunatic well, seems like you've got plenty of experience playing that part

Isn't Star Wars basically High Fantasy with high technology? It also covers the desire to have technology gettting too powerful (Death Star) and magic getting too powerful (the Sith Emperor)?

Nothing wrong with being a book dragon

5e 🤢🤮

Scary fight! Nice playthrough. Don't worry about the Twin Shot mistake, it happens. When is Frostbite going to find himself a companion? I would have tried to take one of the spiders, lol. Look forward to the next one!

If you liked how M&M was so flexible for character development but didn't get a comfortable grip on their resolution system (all those conditions) then try Champions (Hero System). The M&M creation system is almost a direct port of the Hero System, with M&M dropping a Power Level framework on it. Champions started in '82 and is up to 6th Edition, though I prefer 5th Edition revised. For example, in Champs the basic go to damage dealer was "Energy Blast" (later just Blast) that did damage at range, and you could apply a limitation to make it contact only. M&M has "Damage" as a basic damage dealer that was contact only that could be given range with an extra. M&M uses a d20 while Hero uses 3d6. while many may argue it, the M&M "powers" section is a near point by point mirror of Champions (Hero) powers. I've sat down and compared powers for fun and laughed my a$$ off. Champions (Hero) got a bad wrap because it was the first ever point buy system that used effect based creation system. In a era of the first RPGs where you picked predetermined everything and could fit a PC on an index card, Hero required math (add/sub/mult/div) gasp. Also the people behind Champions/Hero have been adamant for the last 40+ years "that no one will ever play premade anything". So they only offered the rules and supplements that gave you extras (villain's, equipment, creatures, locations) but absolutely no playable world/setting/campaign. And when there were third party attempts they made their "worlds" so detailed and complicated that no one had the time to learn it enough to play. M&M is far ahead of Hero in playable campaign settings. Heck, pretty much every supers anything on the market is miles ahead. But if you actually play Hero, you find that the unified resolution system is easy and understanding he degrees of success, damage etc is very simple and logical. But like M&M, building a unique super with unique powers is a chore.

I ran a Mutants and Masterminds game for a few years and I have to agree with you about all the points you raised about it, both positive and negative. Also, getting a picture from the players to commemorate the game is super sweet, I got one for a game I ran many years ago and It's still one of my most precious little things.

Mutants & Masterminds combat feels like a wargame. I like it but it takes some getting used to.

That's actually a pretty good way to design characters! It steers players away from min/maxing and stat dumping, I'd imagine.

I like the idea of running Pathfinder in Castlevania.

One of my favourite parts is the implementation of the different types of metal for armour providing different levels of protection, just like the game. I would happily steal that mechanic and put it into something else to enable players to buy cheap armour.

Player driven games are the best. Let the rules be and describe your actions. You can describe anything your character might do. How is this a hard sell?

Your employment is coming up for review again...this was too good for a one off

I had a good time playing this Solo, but agreed not as crunchy as far as options like dnd. but not a lite rpg either. Its very good middle complexity game which makes it more ideal for soloing in my opinion as there's not too much to remember. The random monsters attack rolls give you a taste of the unknown in combat and that helps keep things exciting. Thanks for the video!

Four Kallax bookshelves, and I could easily fill 3 more... I don't want to count how many pdf's I have. It's nuts... Must give away crap somehow... The gaming hobby has mostly become acquire rpg rules, scenario books, board games, miniature war games, read them, repeat death spiral. I've went through the cycle of ALL in on pdf's, and now I've swung way back. Just having the books is sooo much better. I love being able to browse the shelves and flip through the books for ideas, etc.. I'm 50 now and I've begun measuring my lifespan in how many games I own am I ever likely to play before I die. :) So how do I decide... ya, not very well. I try to only purchase books that are something special in terms of layout and design (Looking at you Free League books). I absolutely think any core book has to be physical (though a pdf version is nice to have too (when you travel and don't want to carry 500lbs of books). Scenarios and support books I "try" to go pdf with, but I'm also not very good with that. A bit better for speculative buys, vs omg I must get all of the One Ring/Star Wars (i have most of every edition/ruleset ever made)/Dune/Star Trek/etc rpg books. I'm not a hoarder, I'm just not really good at cleaning up and getting rid of things...

I'm trying to play a game in a pdf right now. So freaking annoying. It's not linked. 5 minutes into the game and already putting it away and waiting for the physical books to get here. Ugh, dont even get me started on my board game problem!

ITS NEVER ENOUGH

Are you me?

Ah, this game. Made me want to pull it off the shelf. That's one thing about journaling games, though. They are kind of heavy on the thinking. I can't play them back to back. There is a solo journaling game I really enjoyed, much lighter theme. It's called delivered. Found a physical copy at my local game store, but you can get the pdf on drive-through. You are a courier delivering packages across the universe. Has a time mechanic since you have a time limit to deliver packages, you do skill checks to resolve situations. Nice game.

This play was hilarious! Was great fun to see you struggle at points with missing tables and stuff, which made it feel genuine and honest… and simply how solo roleplaying seems to be. 😊

I was working on my own perfect ttrpg for my style of gming, my current iteration is so similar in core mechanics to BE so I backed it right away )

Bad PBTAs exist, and usually they fail in providing good moves. Avatar Legend, for example, is more about playing specifically the characters from the series and replay their struggles instead of telling stories about people that would live in the world of Avatar. And the combat system is not really designed with a "fiction first" mentality. I hate it

You don't need to "relearn" the system. The system, is always the same: Players and GM go back and forth, until an action triggers a move, then the GM asks for a roll. 6-: Something bad happens to PC; 7-9: Something good and something bad happens to the PC; 10+: Something good happens to the PCs. What you need to learn are the specific moves, and that's more of a GMs job than a player's. The moves are usually tied to the genre the games wants to emulate. That is, the game is not about simulating specific actions, but about rolling for those elements that are usually relevant in a particular genre

Yea, Morrowind! I spent many hours, and made countless new characters made running around in that game (and also oblivion/skyrim). I can see how that would be mindblowing for it to be your first exposure to RPGs! I like your story, it’s definitely a unique approach/trajectory like you said and that makes it special. I can understand where you said you were resistant to D&D for years. I had a slightly different experience where I tried to play it several times over the years but the idea of D&D just didn’t click with how I imagined it being and the experience kept falling flat for me. However, it turned out that ‘old school’ D&D (OSR) was right up my alley! Whatever it was clicked for me, and now I’m pretty sure I’ll happily be playing these games for the foreseeable future.

No. I rarely back things. Especially from already established publishers.

Root RPG just did a new kick start. I’m a player of PbtA but it also isn’t my main jam. I did back it but only at the lowest level. I’ll be getting only the new PDF for $15. I just got my Real Book version of Across a Thousand Dead Worlds and it is gorgeous. I’m about to do a deep dive in that. I got just the regular hard back. I am also writing my own SoloRPG and to release it early next year. Excited for that too.

💯

Hey Sacred, good video! Just found your channel, and I like the kind of content/games you are covering (subscribed). Haha the Brandon Sanderson reference was on point too! So I had initially backed Broken Empires (mostly due to the Shawn Tomkin and Tana Pigeon name drops for solo play lol) but I actually ended up cancelling my pledge... The idea of it possibly being too crunchy for my tastes was something that made me hesitate, and I figured hey better to wait, at least for me, especially with the higher price point. I just find that I really prefer the rules-lite stuff that lets me keep things open ended (kind of like you were talking with bone spear skill example). That being said, I am a big fan of borrowing cool ideas and mechanics (like using the combat zones in board games etc) and maybe we will see some really cool stuff, so I'm not writing it off entirely.

Nice intro

A lot of people get tripped up by the Moves in PbtA games but a lot of people fail to understand how to implement them in the right way. How the universal Moves are Intended to be used is really simple. Players roleplay their characters. IF the player describes their narrative action doing something that then TRIGGERS A MOVE then the GM makes the player roll the Move. Die roll result changes the situation and the Roleplaying continues. The Wrong way to play a PbtA game is for the Player to use the Moves as some kind of action and skill system that they have to look at using like they might do with your typical trad skills game. Players should never direct their roleplaying with the Move in mind. The right way its supposed to go is Its the GMs Responsibility to fulky grasp and understand the action Moves so they know when the players roleplay triggers it. Only the GM can tell the player when to roll. Only the GM can decide when a player triggers a Move. To play a PbtA game well requires the GM to fully understand the Moves of the game so they can best determine a player triggers them.

Treat every pbta game system as its own unique system. They have similarities but are not exactly the same. A pbta game has d6s, level of success, and moves. Additionally they are more native over mechanics. 3:11

Ironsworn took a bit for me to get grasp. The first time i tried it, I walked away for a few months. When i came back to it it made more sense. I dont know if i could play right without a quick refresher though

I just got mine, too. I also had a bit of sticking, but nothing that serious

The one ring is for me what mork borg is for you

Take him out for a trot lol

I had to get a replacement because i had the same sticking problem, but it was bad enough that the pages ripped trying to separate them

Sundered Isles playthrough 🏴‍☠️

10,000% agree with the physical only approach. I do not play RPGs with anything but physical components. Why add more screens than necessary to our lives?

Thanks for the well done video, got my subscription! I got my books recently too, and I have the exact same ink markings on page 30 as you and in that same book I have a red dot on page 55, but that was it, the sticky page problem, I didn't think anything of either till I read the Kickstarter updates (and still don't think of as a big deal, though I had a lot more sticky pages than you). The books are amazing to me, so much good stuff in there (I love oracle tables!), can't wait to have months of island adventuring, if not years. Also I love the artwork, something about the style is right up my alley. Thanks again for posting this, I can relive my own opening now. ;)

I'm also flopping back and forth with this one

Check out Punkapocalyptic if you like Shadow of the Demon Lord. It's the often forgotten Schwalb Post Apocalyptic rpg that uses the same game system. It's awesome.