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"Let the dice fall where they may!" - Knights of the Dinner Table

Why was my comment deleted? Is this discussion invite only? I'm not sure I've had a comment deleted in the 15 years I've been on RUclips.

playing on a vtt it's like playing a crappy videogame

No lies detected.

How your friend does it is pretty much exactly how I do it in Owlbear Rodeo. Except I do expect people to be able to add their own bonuses to rolls and such (it's Shadowdark, so there's not that much to it). With new players, I really only need about 2-5 mins to explain how they roll dice, and we're off to the races.

Another vote for Owlbear Rodeo. Easy and not a lot of bells and whistles. One of the best sessions I ran with it, I didn't even have the players in the virtual room. I was just sharing my screen. There's also a VTT for ICRPG that's really stripped down and easy to use and you could pretty much use it for any game. In person is still better. Just the personal interaction, the feel of the dice and that stuff.

Discord alone doesn't have enough to keep people focused. Roll 20 is free. The GM can use it to "force" players to see something. Owlbear is free. There is never the expectation of dynamic lighting or fancy lighting effects, or 3d figures. I do ban DDB because i agree that it makes it too easy for people to not learn the game.

Wow, I didn't think I would agree so much with this! TotM for the win! If I need something very low prep is Owlbear Rodeo 2E

I can't find anyone to play shadowdark with so don't have a choice. I try to keep it as basic as possible, just so players can get a rough idea of the map

gridless owlbear rodeo when we're not theater of the mind

Great video. You read my mind dude. The few times I’ve played online has been TOTM on discord. Like you said, it works just fine if you’re playing with people you trust and are on the level with. I wouldn’t consider myself a Luddite, but I agree with you and PDM: DnD is supposed to be an analog game. There’s nothing wrong with current year conveniences, but the learning curve and complexity of VTTs isn’t really my scene either. Like you said, at a certain point we might as well be playing video games instead. I’ve literally been telling myself for years that I need to figure out how to use a VTT. I settled on OBR, but when I realized there was a new version with more features I got dismayed again. 😆 When I played as a kid all we had were the rulebooks, pencils, and graph paper. That worked just fine.

I hate them too, but I have a lot of friends over seas.

It is an initial investment, but I like Tabletop Simulator, but it is mostly to roll dice and the occasional visual aid. It also has secret notes, character sheets, etc. Lots of freebie add-ons by other users as well. Playing Theater of the Mind, my needs and experiences are similar to yours.

I started on Roll20 because it was free and it allowed me to play with people I never would have been able to play with in-person. I miss the days when I didn't need the digital books, and I wasn't expected to use all the bells and whistles just to run the game.

In-person is definitely a better experience.

LotFP wins hands down

This is probably my favorite LoTFP book I own, the DM advice is incredible.

Kick ass review. I was lucky enough to get a physical copy of this a few years ago as well. I always find it frustrating when all the coolest LOTFP books go out of print, etc.

Although I tend to like lotfp modules, I think this is one of the weakest. There are no concrete details, the encounters are that are made to be fun, and most of the module is free essays of things most dm's know or have a way of dealing with. I felt ripped off when I bought this module and spamming wish as you did is probably the only way to "beat" it. Certain advice is dodgy too, even by lotfp standards for lethality. Such as not using ac and just rolling damage in a giant fight, which one giant might have more hp than the entire group and there are multiple giants that interact regularly so they will notice if one is killed. Biggest issue is it is not honest with the buyer about what it is. It presents itself as a module and you do not really get that.

This is how you Win at RPGs. 🤣😂🤣

Awesome review! Probably in my top 3 LotFP books and a very good OSR GM book!

Thank you for the review. This is one of my favorite lotfp books

Slot based ystem for Encumbrance works better for me for two reasons in particular, I always make players to roll for "character perks", and there is one called "Big Backpack" in witch no matter the STR score, the character can carry as much sht as he was STR 18. The second reason, one of my Fighters subclass, Soldier, has two additional slots for encumbrance for free, reflecting how used he is to be burden beast.

@2:50 I disagree, encumbrance can be fun! The fun lies in choosing what limited resources to carry with you into the dungeon. Carry extra armor? Harder to hit but can't carry as much treasure or torches. Carry extra rations? That's more time you can spend in the dungeon, but less armor/weapons you can carry. Etc. It forces players to be creative and adopt different strategies. Perhaps most importantly, it forces the players to coordinate and work together. It's unlikely each character can carry every single item that they will need in the dungeon, forcing them to cooperate to survive. I totally understand not enjoying encumbrance on a mechanical level, but as you point out there are more user-friendly ways of handling it.

I like your point about immersion in the simulation. I was trying to explain this to someone recently, but explained it less well than you. Can't agree that nobody likes encumbrance. I've been running coin-based encumbrance since the 80s (BECMI) and it's rare that someone grumbles about it. The vast majority of my players over the years have understood that making choices that affect encumbrance are part of playing the game well. They get satisfaction from making these choices (fun, but with a different tempo than active play).

LotFPs spell system and expansion s are great. Shadowdark sounds pretty decent. 5e sucks everyone can almost do anything, magic becomes boring, horrible.

The logistics of moving treasure has been the cause of two really neat things in my gaming career. The first was the use of a Magnificent Mansion spell permanently cast on a chest to create a portable headquarters for the party. This trick got used in two different games with about 15 year gap between them. The other big moment was finding a huge treasure hoard at the bottom of a dungeon that we cleared out between levels 1 and 5. The treasure was so large it couldn't be easily moved. We would revisit the dungeon every so often to get more treasure and bring it out. In that time would have been "restocked" due to things coming through a planar rift. In the end we ended-up cleaning the dungeon out, sealing the rift, and installing a staff. It became a domain that we began to manage after that point. One of the bad guys in the late game was an insider on our staff who had been constantly stealing from the treasure horde and funding his own operations. What fun! Also, the use of vehicles (such as carts, boats, coaches) as base camps for equipment and treasure and the use of beasts of burden in the dungeon.

🥳🫂👍🏿 Great talk - I have a table that enjoys using encumbrance (wildly, they find it fun), so I agree that it can add to the game, but I don’t agree that by ignoring encumbrance you were “playing the game wrong” - if you’re all playing the ttrpg you want to play, your table is playing the right way for them - one version I recommend is Mausritter and Deficient Master’s riff on that for dnd - Cairn’s system might be my favorite because of how it’s tightly connected to other mechanics of the game

Encumbrance slots rule. Adding up pounds of gear drools.

I liked the video, though I disagree in part - I don't think it's a misconceptualization to ask how to make encumberance fun. In fact a 2e player asking this back in the day could've come up with a slot-based mechanic and said 'yeah, more fun'! But, I really like your discussion of how immersion can lead to a grander, if you will, enjoyment of the game. And it's still serving as food for thought. Well done and appreciated!

Break ends at 56:06

Great video. I think one of the reasons why DMs started hand waving encumbrance for so long is because of how fiddly it was. I don’t think we used encumbrance at all growing up (but then again I started with 3e). It wasn’t until I got into the OSR that I realized how important it was. I agree that LOTFP and SD’s slot based system is a good way to go. It’s a very easy abstraction that works well for everyone. In as a DM in Shadowdark all I have to do is assign a slot rating to a certain item or group of items. Blam it’s done. When I was last running 5e I tried implementing encumbrance rules by telling my players “be reasonable about the items your characters are carrying and work with me”. That worked pretty well actually. I know that might sound flakey in comparison to an actual rules framework but players (again in my experience) tend to respond well when the DM asks for things like that.

Interesting topic! And even though I didn't like it in the beginning, I think that it is very relevant for immersion and also makes for interesting situations! I also prefer LotFP's version to simpler ones like in Shadowdark

Encumberance? What the heck is that? The party just throws all their trash in the bag of holding and usually forgets to use most of the crap they find. On a more serious note, I really like inventory slots as a way to simplify encumberance without trivializing it.

I like encumbrance, I think it really helps with realism and immersion.

Child care break ends at 1:29:33

It sounds like this Jason fell for the Mercer Effect. If you want your DM to like Mercer and other Actual Play DMs, then the players need to be the others at the table who make the game great. and there are videos from Critical Role of 1-Shots that are very improv. I've been in Willow's spot before. I have an Infamous for Being Awful group I'll mention from time to time with how terrible the group could be. The important thing is that group is in the past and I've found other players and there will be other games and you'll see it can be a lot of fun.

Bathroom break ends at 1:28:29

It might be worth taking a look at Shadowsun and Shadowrim. These are more settings than modules but they are pretty well fleshed out

Heroes of Adventure & a couple other games have a little d6 encounter table for every monster. That's the right way to do it.

Thanks! I'm really glad you enjoyed playing it. When people read it and like it, that's cool, but when it's on the table, that's what really counts!

Another banger published by LotFP! Loving the reviews!

I had been thinking of picking this up. Thanks for the review.

It's amazing how unintersting a video about something I have a great interest in can be so dull.

A lot of what you're saying about magic could be said about fire, electricity, and splitting the atom in real-life history.