Basements & Beards- Analogue Gaming Thread

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

This writing makes me vomit.

I knew you'd feel that way uwu

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Itch.io follows the way of Steam, being forced by our payment processor overlords to purge foul smut from the site.
This is another tumblr crisis in the making.

(I wonder if the auditors will also notice the various copyright-infringing fan games over there.)

[wulfenlord]

Adult games are forcing the game industry into a spiritual crisis

Actually, it's rabid femcel groups signing petitions to have (((payment processors))) decide what you can buy with your own money, just another group to face the wall when the boogaloo happens.

For some, the sale of games with unsavory subjects does not seem like a hill worth dying on.

Freedom is.

[ebin namefag]

I don't pay for adult or normal games.
Uh, I win?

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Either way you should all get GorgeWorld (aka the furry inflation RPG) ASAP before these evil TERFs are coming for DriveThruRPG, too.

[wulfenlord]

Yuck, shame on Ulisses for carrying the filth to Germany, but my point still stands that you should be allowed to buy it, or vote with your wallet.

https://www.ulisses-ebooks.de/product/484482/GorgeWorld

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Oh, I would defend Ulisses' rights to publish degenerate products with my life.
Though that won't help against Visa/Mastercard.

[wulfenlord]

glorious grognard rage

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

You thought the push for bland company logos would stop at your favorite hobby?! Think again!

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Girl by Moonlight (by Evil Hat)

Playing the Game

I fear I spoke to soon when I said we were gonna tackle game mechanics next time, cause this is about "playing the game" in a more theoretical sense. Oh joy.

RiffingShow

Each time you gather to play, you are improvising an installment in an ongoing story. The director and the protagonists collaborate to describe the fictional world of the game, the characters in that world, and the situation and context in which the characters find themselves.

That's a fucking dry version of "What's a roleplaying game".

It is a layered conversation. Sometimes you speak as an author, describing a location in detail, or a character’s inner thoughts. Other times, you might speak in character, like an actor, addressing another player as if they were their character.

I don't think I've ever seen any roleplaying game talk about describing inner monologues, let alone anyone actually doing so.
Outside of Everyone is John, where the joke is that all the players are voices in the head of the titular character fighting for control.

Also this description is a bit confusing. I don't even know who "you" is? The GM? The players? Everyone?

You might also speak as a member of the audience, describing what you see on the screen, the music, the lighting, or talking about your interests and hopes for the story at large.

"I sure hope there are a lot of little girls in this women's changing room..."

Then we get this picture:

Why is the cat under the table so flat? Did the fat chick sit on it?
And I genuinely can't tell if Horseface is supposed to be wearing tights, or if she just happens to have legs that don't have toe nails and whose skin is inexplicably brighter than her upper body.

It's one of those "Here's what roleplaying looks like!" pictures that some RPGs like to include. Except this one kinda falls a bit flat:

• Typical pictures of this sort are dominated by the table, to make it easier to parse that everyone's roleplaying. Here it's more of an afterthought, and the supposed players could be doing just about anything that requires taking notes.
• The dice blend so much into the table I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't noticed them yet. Also there are only two dice even though this game requires at least five, (and you probably want multiple sets of dice so everyone has dice to grab if need be).
• Traditionally these types of pictures come with a companion piece that shows everyone as their character (and the GM as an NPC), either just sitting at the same table, or being in similar enough positions that you can tell who is supposed to be who. Here are a few examples:
  • From OVA, the other weebshit game besides BESM:
    I too roleplay to fulfill my Galo fantasies
  • From Fate, which Evil Hat released 12 years ago:
    
    You'd never see a black player play a *white* character in Current Year. That GM lady better have a good excuse for this.

Safety

It is important to have safety tools when playing this game.

No it's fucking not.

The story you create at the table will be emotionally driven, at times very intense and challenging.

Dude, it's just a game, not that fucking Chick tract.

If only Marcie had safety tools...

This may mean that someone needs to take a break, change a detail of the story, or gloss over certain parts.

You know, if you think that players are these fair creatures that can't even handle bad improv, how come all of the playsets are dystopian, if not outright post-apocalyptic in nature? You wouldn't have to worry about traumatizing your players if this game had a fucking Ojamajo Doremi playset.

There are many tools that can help to keep you and your fellow players safe, and support them in setting boundaries or managing the content of the story. If you have been playing together awhile, your group may already have some tools they prefer. If not, do some research online (a search for ‘RPG safety tools’ will provide a good starting point), and choose a toolset that works for your table. This may require some practice and experimentation, especially if some of the players have not used similar tools before.

"Safety tools are very important!"
"I never knew! Where can I get these wonderful tools?!"
"I don't fucking know. Just google it, LMAO."

This is certainly a different vibe than the previw of the Tomb Raider RPG, which listed and explained multiple different safety tools with examples of play.

It is also important to not expect the tools to do all of this work for you.

Blasphemy!

Simply having tools available will not automatically make your play safe. It is also necessary to foster a culture of consent, with clear and open communication between each player. Safety is a shared collective responsibility of all players, to one another and to themselves.

Or you could just sit together and figure out beforehand that rape scenes will probably not go over well.

Materials of Play

Nothing too wild here. Paper! Pencils! Players! The Rules!
This is a bit weird, though:

If you are playing online, you could play using a virtual tabletop, in which case you might still want to take notes or use a paper sheet to help with your own bookkeeping.

LMAO just use a notepad software.

Setup

The first step to playing the game is choosing which series playset you will use. This decision is best made by consensus, with all players present.

Come on, it'd be fun to have the players guess whether they are playing in Sailor Moon in Fascist Police City-State or Post-Apocalyptic Meguca.

Talk about things that excite you in the various series, and share any boundaries or reserva- tions you have as well.

"Why is there social justice shit in my Sailor Moon ripoff setting?"

And now the examples of play start being about one playset each (aka the Sailor Moon or mecha one), instead of being multiple short ones in one text box.

(I'm gonna shorten the two main example playsets with "Abyss" and "Stars" for clarity.)

Anya, Bev, Claire and Dylan decide to play Girl by Moonlight together.

Bev wants to be the director, and the others are happy to be the protagonists.

Of course they're happy. These narrative RPGs are a bitch to run as a GM.

(Also I think Anya, Bev, Claire and Dylan are supposd to be the four yokels from that one picture.)

They start by choosing a series playset together, and decide to play At the Brink of the Abyss because they are excited to tell the story of a world in crisis, at the tipping point between redemption and dystopia. While this description could apply to several of the series, they want the story to have a hopeful tone, where pure hearts can triumph in the end.

Or you know, it's because they want to play a magical girl campaign and this playset is the closest one to about 95% of all magical girl series.
And again with the pretentious writing. How do you think the brainstorming for this went?

Anya: "How about... a world in crisis!"
Bev: "At the tipping point between redemption and dystopia?!"
Claire: "Marvelous idea! But I want something with a more hopeful tone."
Dylan: "I guess we need some... pure hearts to triump at the end of this bad boy"
Everyone: "Excelsior!"

Nobody talks like this. It'd be more like this:

Bev: "Let's play a magical girl campaign!"
Dylan: "Sounds gay. Aka I'm in!"
Anya: "So there are like pseudo-settings we have to choose? And why is one of them about giant robots?"
Claire: "Just pick the one that sounds the most like Sailor Moon."

Once you have selected a series, follow the series creation procedure on page 104. This involves answering a set of questions to help define the world of the story more clearly—players collaborate to build details of the setting, supernatural adversity, and the specific situation of the main characters. All the players participate in answering these questions, regardless of their role.

Narrative RPGs always think they're deep and clever by having you answer some dumb questions.
And how about leaving some shit as a mystery? The players don't need to know everything at the start.

The group takes turns asking each other the questions from the series playset. Sometimes the most exciting answer is obvious, and other times they talk through different options and possibilities. Soon they have created their antagonists, a court of squabbling petty gods who rule a fractured stellar empire.

That sounds a lot like Steven Universe. Do the players have to know the antagonists in such detail beyond "You're gonna fight alien invaders"?

They also start to build a picture of their mundane world, a rigid authoritarian place that values tradition and abhors community.

Or how about we just play a typical magical girl story without having it set in Fascist Police City-State?
And WTF does "abhors community" even mean? Why is everything so fucking flowery?

Midway through series creation, the protagonists will be prompted
to choose character playbooks.

Don't. Tell me. When to pick my class.
Though I've seen worse, tbh. There are like d20 derivatives out there that tell you to pick your class - or at least your general character concept - before you even roll your stats.

The protagonists’ characters exist in relation to various elements of the setting and situation, and making those characters in a vacuum will lead to trouble once you bring them to the table.

This is allegedly about magical girls, so you can't really go wrong with making a schoolgirl between 8 and 15 years.

By creating their characters after most of the setting and situation are established, the protagonists can make a cohesive and connected group of characters. These characters are a part of their world, and are tied to it and each other through their relationships and shared histories.

Wow, that's actually not terrible.
Though I just noticed: where is the group theme? Almost all post-Sailor-Moon magical girl series are team-based, and with a team comes a unifying theme*. Is this not gonna be a thing here?

*) I'd say the biggest exception is Meguca because that's just about solo Megucas doing whatever the fuck they want. Though even here there's a bit of a theme going on because every Meguca uses a weapon of some variety.

Claire chooses the Harmony playbook because she wants to have music be a central element of her character.

Oh, so there's a Bard class. I guess that's why they don't even bring up group themes, since it's not really a thing to have a song-based magical girl in a series that doesn't revolve around singing.
Though I guess you can have everyone go Harmony to play the Symphogear/Macross matchup of your dreams.

She names her character Raven.

Is that her civilian name, or her Meguca name? 'Cause it's a bit cringe for the former, and a bit lame for the latter.

Anya wants to play a bombastic character, so she picks up the Enigma.

I suspect this is the Attention Whore class.

Her character’s name is Fawn, but when she wears a mask to hide her true identity, she is known as the Midnight Quill.

I think this (alleged) magical girl game has a class whose gimmick is having a secret identity.

Dylan chooses the Outsider so that he can play a foil to one of the other characters.

This must be the Nerdlinger character. So we have a diva, and attention-whoring lone wolf, and some socially-awkward dude. How are they even hanging out with each other?

He names his character Hawk.

Oh, so you're also gonna name your character after a bird? Be creative, man. Claire will never sleep with you if you're just copying her character like that.

The same group might instead play On a Sea of Stars, because they want a story about institutions and survival (and also giant robots).

It's the giant robots. Nobody plays a mecha game because of some high concept themes that don't involve the giant robots.
You think people care about Gundam because of the "War is bad" message? No, they care about it because Mobile Suits are fucking awesome.

Here, they create their antagonists, the Leviathans, engineered space-faring creatures that turned on their creators.

I have a feeling that white cis het scum engineered them.

They create their mundane world, the remnants of a solar authority holding the last of humanity in stasis, clinging to the promises of their failed terraforming project.

Are there any alternatives to terraforming? Huge space habitats like in Gundam? I feel you're intentionally portraying them in the worst possible light here.

For this series, Claire wants to be the Guardian. Her character is Himna, a revolutionary who lives by a strict code of non-violence, and wants peace with the Leviathans.

How did you become a mecha pilot? Sure, there was some hint earlier of you getting drafted, but it sounds to me you would've ended up as Soylent Green long before they tossed you into a real cockpit.

Dylan chooses the Stranger. He makes Van, a disgraced military pilot who secretly loves Himna, but is duty-bound to serve the solar authority.

Who cares. You're all mecha pilots, aren't you?

Anya plays the Time Traveller. Her character is Surt, an explorer who recently returned from the stars only to find the world he knew is gone.

>Time Traveller
Don't tell me there's a fucking Homura class.

Cycle of Play

Similar to Japanese tabletop RPGs (but worse), the game is split into multiple distinct phases, which together form an episode, which can ideally be completed in a single session.
The phases are: obligation, downtime, mission and fallout.

Obligation

So for some reason they decided to split the "do civilian stuff" section into two phases. This is the, well...

In the obligation phase, we see the protagonists in their regular lives. They work through mundane difficulties and oppressions, the ever-present pressure of a hostile world

The Being Meguca is Suffering phase.

And suddenly we're back to examples of play including both example settings.

Raven sits through another music class, playing patriotic marches and stern orchestral music under the strict gaze of her teachers.

I was joking when I brought up classical music.
Maybe don't be a music student in Fascist Police City-State? Do you like need a loicense to upload mixtapes to SoundCloud?

Himna endures military drills, training to slay the majestic Leviathans she once swore to liberate.

Nobody cares about your boner for the genetically-engineered space tentacle monsters.

Downtime

This is the part of "do civilian stuff" that isn't suffering.,

In the downtime phase, we follow the protagonists as they eke out moments of solace and hope, despite the pressures we saw in the obligation phase.

I can't imagine Raven ever recovering from the marching band music.

The downtime phase is an opportunity to see the world that might be, if the protagonists can change things for the better.

It's by it's very nature shit that is already a thing in the world, unless the characters are hallucinating.

Raven skips curfew to meet her friend Fawn at an underground dance hall.

I guess this setting has been Footloose all along.

Himna visits Surt in the infirmary, she holds his hand while he sleeps.

I don't think Surt is in any way, shape or form capable of giving their consent to this.

Mission

The "Get shit done" phase.

In the mission phase, the protagonists set out to make that change. Preparations and connections made in the downtime phase are transformed into defiant action. This is where the drama and tension of the game peak, and the protagonists take risks and face peril in the hope of realizing their dreams

Or a monster pops out, but I guess that's less pretentious.

Raven and her friends search for the Nebula Crown, an ancient relic that might help their cause.

What does it do? And what is your cause? Will this crown restore the Fascist Police City-State's enlightened monarchy?
Maybe these examples would make more sense if I had the backer-exclusive Jumpstart, but fuck that noise.

Himna and her fellow pilots scramble to their engines, desperate to stop the leviathan ICARUS.

That sounds like the opposite of what you want to accomplish, but whatever.

Fallout

Deal with the drama and general suffering that came from the mission.

The fallout phase exposes new complications and antagonism. It shows us the consequences of the protagonists’ struggles, and foreshadows struggles to come.

Everything must always create more drama. Got it.

Raven claimed the crown, with the help of her friends, but what was the beast that hunted them in the ruins? Will the crown lead the beast to them?

This sounds like a typical Asshole GM move.

"We claimed the magic crown!"
"At night, the crown's guardian tracks you down and kills you in your sleep."

The pilots drove the leviathan back, but now face discipline from their commanding officers who wanted ICARUS killed.

So are all mecha pilots pacifists? These evil space nazis should really pick their pilots more carefully.

We also get this:

The fuck kind of expression is that on the fat neckbeard? Is he jerking himselff off right now?

There's no explanation, and no art style or recognizable characters that would associate this with one of the four playsets. They just wanted you to know that cops are bastards.

(Though I guess this is for that Sailor Moon playset, as it is the most "normal" one and kinda assumes that cops are the real Dark Kingdom.)

Episodes and Seasons

Since they already call sessions "episodes" when it's convenient, they also refer to a series of episodes leading to a big finale as a "season".

The season always ends with a significant confrontation against the series’ adversity, after which the circumstances of the protagonists are dramatically changed.

But of course nothing changes for the better. Because the show must go on.

Between seasons the players have a chance to reflect, change roles, make new characters, and return to the story with fresh eyes and new goals.

Make new characters?
Oh right, this is a apocalypseshit. There is no long-term character development.

Player Agenda

This is basically just a set of universal guidelines for "enjoying" this "narrative" "experience".

Play to find out what happens

Approach the game with excitement for what might happen, and not with a plan for what should happen.

Didn't we already overexplain the bad guys and everything before the game even started?

Approach the story with an open mind, and embrace change, failure, and uncomfortable outcomes.

Unless I play my safety tools correctly.

Be a fan of the other players

This shit again.

Get excited about what the other players are doing.

They have to earn that shit, mate.

Listen when they speak, take an interest in their characters and contributions.

Paying attention to the other players sounds like a no-brainer, tbh.

It is every player’s responsibility to think beyond their characters, or their own story. Leave space for other players to fill, and make contributions with other players in mind.

This would also be a no-brainer if this was an actual magical girl RPG about actual magical girl teams.

Reveal your inner world

You want me to come out or something uwu ?

When portraying characters in the game, include descriptions of their emotional world. Whether directly in what they say or do, or indirectly through description, give the other players a window into the thoughts and feelings of characters you portray.

Uh-huh.

Feelings matter in this game, so bring them to the surface and let them be an active part of play. By speaking these things aloud, you give the other players an opportu- nity—to better understand your character, and also to respond in ways that help explore, and further illuminate, your character’s true self.

I didn't know this was a group therapy simulator.

Hold on, but lightly

It is natural to invest emotionally in the characters, and to hope for their stories to turn out a certain way

Especially if you're a troon player who requires all of his characters to troon out, too.

It is important, though, to remain flexible when the story takes unexpected turns.

I'd say the almighty safety tools will have the final word here.

Understand the characters as complete people with flaws, not as perfect vessels for wish fulfillment. Let them make mistakes.

Similarly, do not be precious about the narrative itself. Be willing to let go, and permit the story you are telling to be a mutable, living thing.

I'd very much like the story to mutate into something with less forced identity politics, thank you very much.

Keep hope in your heart

Even as the characters face overwhelming adversity, it is essential that the players keep hope in their hearts.

The players? It's just a game, man.

Hopeless play robs the characters of their potential, and makes for cynical stories.

Then why are all the playsets dystopian nigthmares?

See things through a queer lens

Dis gunna b gud.

Queer content enriches the experience of play, and is fundamental to the themes and the inner workings of this game

How and why?

The protagonists are uncertain and fluid in their identities, and defy monolithic cultural expectations concerning gender and relationships.

I'm pretty sure it is for me to decide how "uncertain" and "fluid" my protagonists are, thank you very much.

Antagonism will echo these themes as well, showing tragic outcomes of the same journey, or dysfunctional, selfish reflections of the ideals the protagonists are pursuing.

Wait, are you suggesting the evil nazis aren't faceless, dehumanized blobs I can bash without remorse?!

This queer lens extends beyond identity — ways of being — to include ways of acting, and seeing.

Act like a flaming homosexual, and see rainbows everywhere. Got it.

Look for ways to reframe the stakes and possible outcomes of conflict to include mending, care, and connection.

So you want me to come up with alternative queer facts?

Humanize and embrace the other.

LMAO. And you try to target this at the "Bash the Fash" crowd.

Reject limiting binaries, and explore more complicated answers to questions of identity, love, and community.

I think I'll stick with the KISS principle.

Gaze into the broken mirror

Regardless of the role you are playing, take an interest in the game’s adversity.

I mean, all playsets include mandatory suffering...

Let your character have flaws and vulnerabilities that provide opportunities for the other players to follow through on.

"My flaw is that I really like Harry Potter."

Consider the ways in which the protagonists are complicit in, or a reflection of, the evils they struggle against.

Shouldn't that once again be the job of the pre-game worldbuilding session?

Don’t worry about failure, or getting your characters into trouble, because that’s where all the fun of the game happens.

I'm pretty sure the game mechanics make this impossible to avoid, anyways. "You succeed, but also fuck up in a way" is the default outcome for actions in this sort of game.

Next Time: Now we're gonna tackle the actual game mechanics.