QC RSS (![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
questionable_content_feed) wrote2025-09-09 10:10 pm
questionable_content_feed) wrote2025-09-09 10:10 pm
Questionable Content
Questionable content
Deeper in the Game (deeperinthegame_feed) wrote2025-09-09 04:38 pm
deeperinthegame_feed) wrote2025-09-09 04:38 pmStressors vs. Conflicts
A thing I see people mix up, sometimes, in games which focus on emotional conflict & drama, is the “stressors” vs. the conflicts.
Let’s use a movie example – Pan’s Labyrinth. The conflict for Ofelia is surviving her abusive stepfather – physically, emotionally, etc. The ongoing civil war, is A conflict, but is not THE conflict for the story; it is a stressor. It is a source of additional problems for her (and many characters, really), but it’s not a thing that she is “fighting” or trying to overcome.
When you shift too much scene time or “camera time” on the stressor, you lose the focus on the emotional conflict. This is very common in RPGs which want to hit the emotional drama of Narrativism, but mechanically only deal with the success or failure of characters within external issues. That is, if all your mechanical levers work with stressor type issues, the emotional part is left untouched and becomes easy to slide off to the side.
I have accidentally slid into this pattern even in Primetime Adventures on occasion, because my long time of play in the 80s and 90s kinda ingrained the bad habit into me.
My only advice for a “general guideline” is that it might be worth writing down somewhere as you play, which things are the core conflict and which things are only stressors – so you can reference it during play and remind yourself to come back to the core point of play.
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QC RSS (questionable_content_feed) wrote2025-09-04 09:53 pm
questionable_content_feed) wrote2025-09-04 09:53 pmQuick On Her Feet
pooping out a window is legal in massachusetts thanks to an obscure 18th century law that is still on the books
Deeper in the Game (deeperinthegame_feed) wrote2025-09-06 02:25 am
deeperinthegame_feed) wrote2025-09-06 02:25 amItchio Game Bundle for Diana – need games
https://itch.io/jam/help-diana-moon-thrive-fundraiser-aid-bundle
Folks are putting together an itchio game bundle to fundraise for my friend Diana. If you have games, zines, or other things to drop in the bundle, please help!
Diana has been the tech master for our Reclaimers streams and has been probably the most active on the RPG scene out of all of us.
Please share with creators you know and thank you if you have anything you can add to the bundle.
QC RSS (questionable_content_feed) wrote2025-09-03 09:55 pm
questionable_content_feed) wrote2025-09-03 09:55 pmThe Somnium Files
Pintsize and Date would get along pretty well
QC RSS (questionable_content_feed) wrote2025-09-01 10:09 pm
questionable_content_feed) wrote2025-09-01 10:09 pmPromises, Promises
Yay stop trying to be coquettish it's weird
Deeper in the Game (deeperinthegame_feed) wrote2025-08-31 08:41 pm
deeperinthegame_feed) wrote2025-08-31 08:41 pmNobi Nobi Sword in Play
This weekend I got to sit down and play Nobi Nobi: Sword with two friends and see how it actually runs. It did not run too far from what I expected, but here’s some thoughts.
First, the set up was easy since all you’re doing is choosing a pregen character type and pulling out a quest to tie things together. There’s no meaningful setting lore attached outside of whatever that card gives you, which, speeds play but also means a lot of “get ready to improvise world details”, which might be a bump for some folks.
Each scene is it’s own thing and I feel like mostly the default mode of play is “don’t think too hard about how this scene ties to whatever the last scene is, or the mission itself”. It’s not impossible to come up with these things, it’s just that it is likely to be the most work or challenge in this game if you’re going to be a stickler about trying to rationalize consistent logic bewteen the randomness.
Because players aren’t making any choice about what the party is doing next, what kind of scene is happening next, it’s the lack of agency you got from a railroaded game without the unifying vision of a GM. On the other hand, because you know you don’t get that choice, you’re not left trying to suss out what direction you should go or if you can do something or not because it would “interfere with the plot”. This is kind of the main thing I felt why this would be a little pick up game but not a great long term sort of experience and that was 100% the experience.
A small, surprising element that appeared during play is that some of the reward cards you get point to building relationship ties with the other player characters. One player picked up “Sensei” which you pick another character to be your mentor; you can use their ability at double power. I picked up “Tsundere” which meant I had to have a crush on another character but allowed me to give them a bonus to their rolls by helping them out. I think tying in “you get stronger relationship mechanics as part of advancement” might be an interesting idea to port to other games, just not randomized through cards, is all.
Overall I’m going to put it in the category of “short boardgame experience with a light dusting of roleplaying”as a game, and certainly not a bad one to start as a light intro to people curious about roleplaying games. Probably not a category most people who frequent this blog need, but if you have a large circle of boardgame friends who have been on the edge about RPGs, this could be a way to open the door for them.
If you find my blog entertaining and valuable, consider supporting me on Patreon.
Deeper in the Game (deeperinthegame_feed) wrote2025-08-30 03:11 am
deeperinthegame_feed) wrote2025-08-30 03:11 amGame Hype: Trespasser
I picked up Trespasser which is a paranormal, post apocalyptic military RPG (specifically zone fiction & military moe). Influences include Stalker, Roadside Picnic, Forever Winter, Girls Und Panzer, and probably a bunch of other things I’m not up on.
Apparently sometime in the future, there’s a big war and despite the hypertech being thrown around, one valley, Corte Largo, is spared – because it has a floating fortress in the sky, Damocles, that calls down strikes with laser targeting systems any time anyone or anything tries to invade.
However, a small number of individuals, Trespassers, have snuck in to try to pry pre-war military and scientific secrets from this place, guided by mysterious operators known as Conductors, who seem to have telepathic/psychic powers.
You play the Trespassers trying to run missions, perhaps for their respective forces outside, perhaps for their own reasons. Many of the chargen options point to characters who have been mindwiped, artificial clones, failed Conductors, and other somewhat weird types being sent into this place. This game also feels like a spiritual cousin to Lacuna, in that you’re playing agents sneaking into a forbidden territory with it’s own set of rules and information and goals given by higher ups you can’t fully trust.
Mechanically it’s fairly light; a simple pass/fail system, combat uses an action point system of Stamina. I feel like the game mostly flies on the setting and concepts, with a light mechanical combat as the mainstay of the systemic part. The ideas are intriguing but I’m guessing the general experience of play depends mostly on the GM’s ability to frame and push the weirdness and clues and there’s not much advice in here. So… it’s going to depend a lot on what you come into the game with and your ability to manage that.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a cool setting and a fun premise, and can structure clue play on your own it might be worth grabbing.
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