Justin Alexander Profile picture
Mar 23 5 tweets 2 min read
Something that surprised me in the poll yesterday was that there are many people who divide TTRPG characters into PCs, NPCs, and Enemies.

Then I figured it out.

It's video games corrupting the youth.

In video games there are CGI blobs you talk to and CGI blobs you fight.
Strahd: NPC or Enemy?
Smaug: NPC or Enemy?
Spike: NPC or Enemy?

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More from @hexcrawl

Mar 24
On several occasions on the road to Bazzoxan, Call of the #Netherdeep has food so good that it gives you temporary hit points.

Yeah. I'm gonna need the recipe. This savory dish is a heart...If the characters take a lo...
I've checked my copy of Heroes' Feast, but no such luck.

amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS…
We're continuing the Let's Read of the Critical Role campaign book. Backtrack to the beginning, or follow along across the Barbed Fields to the gates of Bazzoxan.

Read 49 tweets
Mar 22
Let's talk about the Rival adventuring party in Call of the #Netherdeep.

Clockwise, starting lower left: Galsariad Ardyth, Irvan Wastewalker, Maggie Keeneyes, Dermot Wurder, and Ayo Jabe.
We're doing a Let's Read of the adventure. You can start at the beginning by popping over here:

I've mentioned previously that these NPCs are given great back stories and personalities, which are then expertly presented in 3-4 paragraph briefings. Each also has an individual goal to pursue.

Very easy to pick up and play. Lots of varied opportunities for cool interactions.
Read 29 tweets
Mar 21
In our Let's Read of CALL OF THE #NETHERDEEP, it's time to leave Jigow and head to Bazzoxan.

But here's a question for you:

Why are we going there, exactly?

Don't bother checking the book. It doesn't know.
The Let's Read starts over here if you'd like to begin from the beginning:

After the Festival of Merit, one of the Elders of Jigow invites the PCs to breakfast. Image of Microsoft's Clippy saying, "It looks like you
Read 24 tweets
Mar 20
We're still in Jigow and we're about to go play some games at the festival.
We're continuing our Let's Read of Call of the #Netherdeep. You can jump over here if you want to read from the beginning.

The PCs can win medals for triumphing in various contests. One of these is a medal formed from pieces of a tortoise (awarded for successfully herding horizonback tortoises).
Read 41 tweets
Feb 17
I'm going to treat this as a survey/history.

1974 D&D
Traveller
GURPS or Champions
Paranoia (1st Edition)
Vampire the Masquerade
Amber Diceless Roleplay
Burning Wheel
Apocalypse World

Wrap with a comparison of D&D 3.5, 4E, and 5E, looking at how they responded to design trends.
1974 D&D. It's the beginning. Baseline for everything that follows.
Traveller (1977) does triple duty for me.

- Insight into what the first generation of RPGs responded to 1974 D&D.
- First science fiction game.
- Includes a Lifepath system, giving us a first step in looking at approaches to character creation.
Read 24 tweets
Feb 16
Headline-itis is an understanding of the world based entirely around headlines (short summaries inherently lacking nuance, context, or any of the signifiers necessary for determining truth or meaning).

It is made much worse by social media algorithms tuned to promote outrage.
"Man jailed because his brakes failed" creates far more outrage than "Man jailed for killing multiple people after deliberately driving past multiple ditch zones that could have avoided the tragedy", and so THAT'S the version of reality that is aggressively spread by algorithm.
This doesn't even require malicious intent on the part of the headline writers (although it can; and there are obvious incentives for them to do so).
Read 5 tweets

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