Notices by Symbolic City (symboliccity@dice.camp)

@clarity
— For new ideas, I usually dig a layer or two down in posts that crop up in my RSS feed. Blogs you follow tend to fall into predictable patterns, but if follow the links they're talking about, challenging stuff crops up.
— I put up a small TTRPG prototype a few weeks ago, hoping to get some feedback/criticism: https://symboliccity.itch.io/sacred-beasts Nothing yet, but I know it takes people a while to get games to the table, even when they're excited about them.

@clarity Ooh, good call. (Though I haven't yet gotten around to the sequels.)

@clarity Oh, definitely Borges! But closer to home, I think Dunsany is also a good reference point for style. And William Morris maybe? Even Tolkien sometimes just lapses into, "And then they talked for a long time about orcs, and here's a summary of what Gandalf told them." I doubt very many readers had a hard time imagining how that scene played out.

@clarity A lot of this is compounded, I think, by the blow-by-blow nature of modern genre fiction. Every thought is noted. Every conversation is presented in full. Every impression of a scene is detailed. And since a lot of people hone their sensibilities for role play on the genre fiction they read, it feels natural to lean on that style when they GM. But reading is a very interior activity, and what we do at the table is much more exterior, and benefits from a different language.

@clarity Reminds me of a bit of advice that's often given in NSR circles: Tell your players when their characters think they're being lied to.

A lot of times, the GM instinct is to try to make the NPC sound fishy and let the players sort it out for themselves, but that stuff can fly right past even clever players. Just say, "Alcestis tells you she didn't see the murderer's face, but something about her claim seems a bit off."

@clarity Blades in the Dark rules should apply. The GM says, "Your character is pissed about this," and the player interjects, "Nah, that doesn't sound like Filbo Boggins, they'd be intrigued and a little turned on," and the GM has to roll with that feedback.

@clarity @LeviKornelsen There's been an influx of duet games, too. Not as many as solo games, maybe—in part because there have been some moderately popular solo frameworks, like Wretched & Alone. But if you want two-player games, I'd recommend checking out Rori Montford's recent games: https://montfordtales.itch.io/

I don't really agree with the perception that Powered by the Apocalypse-type games are particularly good at genre emulation. I don't even necessarily think Apocalypse World is a particularly focused example of the post-apocalyptic genre, and to the extent that Dungeon World is more faithful to its genre, that strikes me as a liability rather than as a strength. The #PbtA games I like best tend to be idiosyncratic, if not downright bespoke.

@seanbala @fediversereport @theverge @davidpierce I think the way the word "app" gets thrown around in there is potentially confusing, but I do like that it works on explaining the fediverse as a whole before it brings Mastodon into the mix.