Jaded Gamer - Sunk Cost Fallacy Bullshit

Sunk Cost Fallacy:
"the idea that a company or organization is more likely to continue with a project if they have already invested a lot of money, time, or effort in it, even when continuing is not the best thing to do"

I've seen this term used against gamers who don't want to invest into another game other than the one they are currently playing. Usually when the game they are playing is one version of Dungeons and Dragons or another. When somebody else suggests to a group that they try something else or buy into a new game and the group declines stating they are having fun with what they have, are invested in their characters stories and have invested plenty into what they are using. Many times I also see them say they don't have a lot of money to put into another game, especially one they may or may not like. That is when they are accused of making a Sunk Cost Fallacy.

This is complete bullshit.

Those making the accusations completely ignore one part of definition in particular. The "even when continuing is not the best thing to do" is the part. Who the hell says that a group choosing to keep playing a game they like and enjoy is the wrong thing to do? Who says that switching to something different is the right thing to do (game publishers who have new games to sell will tell you hands down it's the right thing to do but they have something to gain)?

Another thing they completely seem to forget is that Sunk Cost Fallacy is normally harmful to, as the definition says, a company or organization. Not an individual or group of friends. I believe it is up to them to decide if it's a good thing to continue on their way or to switch paths. But some folks sure want to shame them into one direction over another.

Normally they want to send them in the direction of spending more money for their product or a product they support. Which leads us to my final observation on the use of the term in the gaming hobby. It is yet another tactic to push poor people in the hobby out. If you can't afford to switch to new games or buy new products often then you are a problem. This is the line they are feeding under adapted corporate speak and layers of bullshit.

Do not be pressured into changing what you enjoy because somebody tries to convince you that you are wrong. Instead tell them to hit the fucking road and continue along your merry way.

Horror - Cursed items to punish characters

Want to introduce a nasty cursed item in your horror games to punish your players? Roll a D10.

1 – A dream catcher that when put up causes anybody sleeping near it to have vivid nightmares. Any injury they receive in the dream happens to their physical bodies.

2 – A bronze plaque in a foreign language that when translated and read causes the reader to completely forget how to read and write their native language.

3 – Set of brass knuckles that when used in a fight inflict equal damage back on the user as they do their opponent.

4 – An actual human skull that has been made into an ashtray. When ever anyone flicks their ashes into it their bones become ever so slightly more brittle. Eventually after many uses their bones will become so fragile they will break at the lightest impact.

5 – A beautiful tongue ring with a small red gem embedded. When the wearer is asleep all spiders within a fifty foot radius are attracted and rush towards the stud. Biting anything that tries to stop them. This lasts for twenty minutes after the wearer wakes up.

6 – A set of diamond stud earrings that allow the wearer to hear those around them. But not really. What they are actually hearing is false and makes the wearer think others are thinking horrible vile things about them.

7 – A black corkscrew that curses any bottle it opens. When anyone drinks a small amount of the contents they get ill within a few minutes. Soon they start vomiting up a stream of what looks like a mix of blood and maggots which swell and quickly turn into large flat flies that swarm around the person.

 

8 – Thin black belt that once buckled cannot be undone. Within a few minutes it begins to tighten and keeps getting worse. Eventually causing a great deal of pain and internal damage, if left on long enough it will cut the person in half. Cutting it is the only way of getting it off.

 

9 – A dog whistle that when blown causes immediate hearing damage and pain to them and those nearby. Even to the point of causing them to bleed from their ears.

 

10 – A small music box that when somebody winds it up and listens to it they feel completely relaxed and feel no pain. However as the song plays their skin begins to dry out to the point that it will begin to crack and bleed if the music is not stopped.

Horror - Cultists identity in public

How do the cultists identify themselves in public? Roll a D10 to find out.

1 – A tattoo on their left hand.

2 – A specific earring worn on their left ear.

3 – Two lines shaved diagonally on their right eyebrow.

4 – A small scar on their nose.

5 – Thin black headband with a few red lines on it.

6 – Smear of blue paint on their right forearm.

7 – They paint their pinky fingernails a light shade of blue.

8 – A lapel pin with a specific symbol on it.

9 – A blood colored braid in their hair.

10 – They all dress in a specific fashion that is identical to each other.

Horror - Horrible Cursed Candles

Horrible cursed candles - Roll a D10 to see what you get.

This article is no longer free and is available as part of Clandestine Societies Issue One over on DrivethruRPG. 

Horror - The creature feeds on what?

Need to have a supernatural creature with an unusual diet of sorts? Well here is a random list of ten to keep the players on their toes and maybe make them cringe a little bit.

What does the creature feed on? Roll a D10 and find out.

1 – Physical pain of those it injures.

2 – Emotional pain of those it tortures.

3 – Bones but it really loves fresh marrow.

4 – Life force extracted by lacerating the victims skin.

5 – Cerebrospinal Fluid, as fresh as they can possibly get.

6 – Grief and sorrow, which is why they like making lairs under funeral homes.

7 – Human skin, the softer the better, none of that old dried stuff.

8 – Bleach and chemicals like it.

9 – Human ashes.

10 – The fatty tissues of animals, with human being the preferred variety.

Jaded Gamer - Saying Yes

I've seen the line "Never tell them no" when it comes to player requests or actions they want to take. Or also "Tell them yes but...." is another common phrasing for the same thing. It means that you should never tell your players they can't have something or can't do something. All I keep thinking when I see this is "Damn they must not have had any asshole players in their GMing experience.".

Seriously if I told some players I've had over the years "Yes" on some of the things they wanted to do I would probably be out of the hobby by now. Just from stress alone. I mean there have been things that go against all good taste, things that would make other players just get up and leave and things that would just suck all the fun from a game except for the person wanting to do it.

So my advice is this "Be ready to say no when the player is being an asshole.", pretty straight forward and simple.

Now I have seen the say yes work in amusing ways. One GM whom I hold in high esteem would ask us to submit a 'wishlist' for new characters. A list of things we want our new characters to start the game with. He would then go through and check off what we can and can't have. Every now and then we would toss in something for fun (I asked for the Devil in a Dorito bag but didn't get it). One player asked for a thermonuclear warhead in a trailer hooked to his vehicle.

The GM said yes, sure, you can have that.

Later I asked why he allowed that. His response was simple, "He wants his character to live so what is he going to do with it? He can't set it off without killing himself." Yeah that was a brilliant move by that GM.

WthC Starting Gear

What a workers starts with day one on the job.

First they get some living basics provided to them by the city. A cheap two room apartment, medical assistance coverage, a weekly paycheck. The apartment is in one of many blocks that were made specifically for the workers so they are near a public transit center. Also each block has a grocery and bar/restaurant at the base level.

They are given five pairs of their basic blue coveralls, a bullet resistant vest, five sets of undergarments, belt with utility attachment hooks, two pairs of work boots and gloves, two ball caps, one hard hat, one air mask and an ID card with holder as their uniform package. A utility knife, basic 9mm sidearm with three eight round magazines and a holster, a multi-tool and a communication headset. Also included is a wallet version of their ID Card, a public transit card, medical card and a pay card.

Finally they get a City Connection Unit. This resembles a cell phone and how the city sends orders to their crews and for their crews to contact the switchboard for job related tasks. There is a built in messenger that includes the rest of your crew but is only supposed to be use for work related reasons.

Anything that needs replaced, repaired or a request for something essential that may have been over looked can be taken care of by filling out the proper forms. How long it takes before somebody actually looks at those forms is anybodies guess. Not even to mention that somebody can always deny everything for pretty much any reason.

WthC City Locations part one

The City itself.

The City is impossibly huge and seems to go on for an eternity in any direction. New levels have been built up over old ones leaving them dark and isolated. Roads weave throughout this mess of architecture going down through tunnels and constantly splitting off like a mockery the human circulatory system. Also the tubes shuttling high speed trains are webbed through the entire thing as well. Everywhere you go there are people, even in the darkest deepest sections there are those desperate few scraping out an existence on whatever they can. Some have never been far up enough to have seen daylight their entire lives.

A few highlights.

The Mass. There are various portions of the city that have grown up so high that the section stands above the surroundings like small mountains. Each of these is called a 'mass' for short, usually named after what has caused the build up. GovMass is the central location for all government buildings, CorpMass is one that houses a major corporation, DeadMass is a giant mausoleum located far in the desolate outskirts, and several others.

The Fields. If you travel far enough out you eventually come across the fields. Aqueducts, holding tanks, sectioned off areas of water that are miles long. With housing for workers built in pillars that go straight down into what were supposedly oceans at one time. Now it is all used to grow and harvest biomass like seaweed, rapid growth worms and various other lifeforms genetically created to be sources of food. The fields feed the city.

The big sink. One area of the city is constantly slipping away, straight down. A giant sinkhole slowly pulls more into it at a rate of an inch or two a year. Massive structures are partially pulled down inside, their tips still reaching for the sky. There are stories of people climbing down through the rubble and coming across things they cannot describe, things that some say are coming from the other side of the big sink and into the city.

WtcC technology distribution

As per usual the future is here, it's just not evenly distributed.

Technology is one of the biggest gaps between those at the top and those at the bottom. This is very apparent to the characters who are given only the basics of what is necessary to do their jobs. As the cost of equipping them with the latest and best tools is deemed to costly, especially given the low survival ratings for new work crews.

In the area of weapons they are typically given old fashioned slug throwers instead of the more advanced laser and micro projectile armaments. Using caseless ammunition as a cost saving measure, with durable frames and low jam or misfire designs they are high end standards.... of a style of weapon that was passed up decades ago. Anything else beyond that is issued out 'as needed' per assignment or once the worker gets to a specific level of promotion.

Medical care is also very standard. Medical kits that are issued in their vehicles are basically useful for stabilizing an injury with a few injections to help a worker continue on with their job until its completion. A major injury resulting in loss of limb or organ are usually replaced with a cybernetic replacement instead of vat grown full genetic one.

Communications gear usually in the form of headsets or 'sticky' wearables. However they go through a set of older towers and commo lines that are woven through the city like veins. Some areas these connections are sparse, broken or downright non-existent. If they are lucky their vehicle has a base unit that is somewhat better and can get a signal out even when the work crew is ten levels down in an abandoned subsector of the city.

Personal protection gear is somewhat restrictive and doesn't cover all the body. Limiting hard plates to the larger sections of the body like the abdomen, chest and upper legs. They are, however, given decent boots and gloves as injuries to those parts of the bodies seem to affect the completion rate of assignments the most.

Now this doesn't mean that a worker cannot have better equipment. They may buy it themselves if they can afford it or come across it through other means. The City does not cover lost or damaged personal items in these cases.

WthC Skills part two

How rolling skills works.

All resolution will be done by rolling a specified number of D6s and keeping either the lowest or the highest depending on the skill level of the character. Skills come at four different levels: basic, skilled, adept and expert. The die rolls for each level are below.

Basic – Roll two die and keep the lowest.

Skilled – Roll one die.

Adept – Roll two dice and keep the highest.

Expert – Roll three dice and keep the highest.

Difficulty of a given task ranges from 2 (easiest) to 6 (hardest).

Being specialized in a skill allows you to reroll one die if you wish. Except in the case of Skilled then you are allowed to add an extra die to the original roll and keep the highest.

Now as I've mentioned before all skill levels are shown as being performed under stress. So if you are attempting an action in a pretty much stress free situation it becomes easier to succeed. If you are doing the action at the normal speed and pace you may add an extra die to the roll (except at basic in which you subtract a die). But if you state that you are taking extra time and working slowly then you may add two extra die to the roll (except at basic where you now roll as if you are skilled). If you are rolling dice equal to or less than the difficulty of the task then you automatically succeed.

Various other modifiers may come into play from equipment used and abilities.

You may attempt to perform a skill without having it at the GM's discretion. However these are done by rolling three dice and keeping the lowest and no modifiers may be put in place to help.

WthC Psionics quick overview

Psionic abilities.

A small fraction of the populace has begun showing signs of psychic abilities. At first thought to be a hoax or some sort of fluke, but after years of testing it became apparent that is was a very real thing. So a good chunk of money was dumped into research, categorization and potential uses for those with these special talents.

First thing the City decided was that it was to risky for these gifted individuals to walk around without a way to pick them out of a crowd. Put into place for this was a tattoo that is given to anyone with psychic abilities that goes down the right side of their face in what look like small lines with a few jagged edges, also known as “The Branding”. Anyone with facial recognition gear can get a read out of that persons psychic abilities and their strengths.

Then those of low powered abilities were assigned to the CWD rather quickly. Which in turn helped increase the success rate of the work crews a few percentage points. Thus bagging a few higher ups some nice bonuses and promotions while keeping the number of psychics loose on the street to a minimum.

Anyone with much higher powers were moved to a facility deep inside the R&D facilities jointly operated by the City government and corporate powers. What is done with them is unknown to the general populace and most are never heard from again.

What they failed to note was that in a contained testing and research area a persons psychic abilities didn't grow in any meaningful way. They stayed at the same level with no change. However those who are out in society, interacting with a myriad of people every day slowly get more control of their abilities and see an increase in them. Something about being out among the people pushes the growth.

WthC what the characters do

What the characters do.

In Welcome to the City the players take on the roles of people who have signed up on the City Works Division (CWD). This is the section of city works that take on the more dangerous an unwanted tasks throughout the megalopolis that is known as The City. Their applications are chosen because they have special qualifications for this type of work and because they have few, if any, family ties. The later is because the city administrators don't want lawsuits from surviving family members to come about.

Because the CWD has a rather high casualty rate.

They are given a basic pay per month and are given assignments by their higher ups. There is no 'pay for completion' except for the rare bonus that may be attached to more delicate operations. You get a weekly paycheck, health insurance, your work clothing consisting of overalls and whatever gear you are deemed to need for a given assignment. Welcome to the blue collar world.

Assignments may be something as mundane as directing traffic and clearing storm drains. However you could also be sent out to quell a mob that has turned violent or hunting down an unknown creature that has started killing off civilians. You have have to direct traffic while another group is in a gun fight with that mob in the same street.

Base level CWD workers are all given the same colored blue coveralls. Local slang has even gotten around to calling the entry level folks “Basic Blues” as a result. As you progress up the ladder and get promotions your coverall colors will be changed to reflect this.

All workers are assigned to an Assigned Task Crew with a letter and number designation. The overturn in basic blue crews is pretty high. But if enough survive then they may put in a request for a Task Crew name change of their choice.

WthC supernatural and occult one

The supernatural and the occult.

I want to make this some really nasty stuff. Not the kind of the thing the players will all be using. It's mainly employed by the Corporate higher ups, ultra corrupt politicians and a few cults thriving in the underbelly of the city. Some of them may use it a little bit but the cost will be great and in the end they are being manipulated into becoming something less than human.

The corporate powers are almost completely under the control of a group of beings called the Nepenthean Council. They are very close to being what most religions would call demons or devils. Exchanging power and control to their loyal subjects in exchange for making the world a more terrible place filled with suffering. It's pain of the masses that the Nepentheans feed off of, the more the people suffer the more powerful and gluttonous they become.

The politicians and downtown cults are also gaining power from the same place as the corporate powers but not from the main Council. They are serving the lesser creatures of the Nepenthean realm who hope to eventually rise in power among their own. It is a constant battle for survival and more control with constant infighting and backstabbing.

Characters who decide to trade their own humanity to the Nepentheans for personal gain will receive a special attribute called 'Corruption'. The more they give into doing whatever they are told or urged to do the higher their Corruption will go up. Eventually losing touch with humanity and even reality itself and being handed over to become NPCs in the City.

WthC Skills part one

I'm a fan of skills and skill lists in games. So I'm going to be using them in Welcome to the City. Instead of going insanely detailed with hundreds of possible skills for every different type of weapon, martial art, etc I'm going to apply a broad definition. Like 'firearms' by itself instead of having to buy 'shotgun', 'pistol', 'long arms' and all of that separately.

The extra layer of detail that I will be adding is specialization. For example a player may give the characters firearm skill an extra notation giving them a bonus for using that particular weapon. Such as 'Firearms: Pistols'. They still can use all firearms under the base skill level but when they are using a pistol they get a bonus.

Something I'm stealing from Unknown Armies is the 'under duress'. Where your level of ability in a skill is represented as how well you do it in a stressful situation. Naturally if you're picking a lock at home for practice then your chances of succeeding are going to be much higher than if you are doing it while being shot at. Now in most games you aren't going to be rolling dice when your character is just at home or when they have all the time in the world. So it's much less time consuming to add in a bonus in those rare peaceful situations rather than tossing on negatives a lot more often.

Cash Strapped 11-10-19

On this installment of Cash Strapped I'll be directing you all over to Archive dot org where you can find some interesting magazine collections.  A nice little look back at what has quickly become a dying breed among the gaming hobby.

Ares Magazine. Published between 80 and 84 by SPI and then TSR.

The Space Gamer Magazine. Published by Metagaming Concepts and then Steve Jackson Games. Later adding Fantasy Gamer to the title off and on. Not every issue is up but it is a nice little selection.

Different Worlds Magazine. While it's not collected as nicely and there are only a handful of issues it is a nice step back to the older days of gaming.


If you like my Cash Strapped posts don't forget to share them around, reblog, tweet, whatever.  Also if you wish you can help support this blog through some of the links over on the right.

The Banana Splits Movie

The Banana Splits Movie.

Buy it on Amazon.

Watch it on Amazon Prime.

Seriously I want the time I spent watching this back. Take a kids show from the sixties and turn it into a horror and gore movie. That should be entertaining but somehow they manage to screw it up completely. Supposedly this is based off of a rejected Five Nights At Freddy's script. I would say it's more than supposedly because it's quite obvious really early on. Also it's also obvious why this script was rejected... it's fucking terrible.

The writing, the acting, the special effects... all of it... terrible. Even the way the movie is shot is bad. None of it in a “so bad it's good” kind of way either, more of a “so bad they should have just tossed it in the trash” kind of way.

Some things were obviously done to be kinda funny. Like the guy who gets his face burned by a spray can flame thrower... and their goatee survives the flame. But all of these moments came across as really dumb. The continuity of the writing was laughable. There were times the robots moved around like they do in the old show and then for no reason suddenly walk all stiff terminator like and even have accompanying robot movement noise. Also they are near indestructible at one moment and then damn near just fall apart in another.

Really I could go on for a lot longer. But in the end all I can say is don't waste your time with this movie. I can't even come up with a joke at the end of this because of the sheer shit show that it is.

Cash Strapped - 10/26/19

Time again for another trio of links for Cash Strapped gamers. This week I'm giving you three OSR titles that are priced at 'Pay What You Want' so if you do have a little bit of money to give to hard working creators you may do so.

White Star: White Box Science Fiction Roleplaying from Gallant Knight Games. Taking the simple White Box system out of the dungeon and to the stars!


Black Pudding #1 the first issue of an OSR style ezine from Random Order Creations. Also there are plenty more issues after this one that are also Pay What You Want.

The Transient Bazaar from Gorgzu Games. A generator of weird magical items in an ever changing marketplace.




If you have any suggestions for cheap or free products to be listed in future posts just mention it in the comments section.

Please check out my other Cash Strapped posts on my blog for more free, cheap and discount resources for those gamers who don't have a lot of money to spend.

Jaded Gamer Diary - Reclaimer Kickstarter Canceled

Well a rather cool sounding RPG Kickstarter called 'Reclaimer' had to be temporarily cancelled due to a very unforeseen circumstance. One of their artists was doing photo kitbash work and used images that they did not have permission to use. Which is a pretty shitty thing to do if you ask me because the artist doesn't just put their own reputation on the line but that of the person running the project. Not to mention financial costs involved as well.

Here is the full statement on the Kickstarter page.

Not to be clear Chad, the guy behind the project, even asked the artist if they had all rights to the work and was told yes. Also remember the artist is evidently "a professional who does concept and marketing work for a AAA game studio". So you would think that the artist would be honest about this. Guess not.

As for the image in question that is obviously using stolen photography work.

Below is the kitbash image that was presented on Kickstarter to be used in the game:

Now below is the actual photograph used as seen on the photographers (Danny Duong) Instagram page.

While yes that is some really nicely done kitbash work it is still very obvious that the photo from Danny Duong was used as the base. This will make it harder for other artists who do kitbashing to get trust in the small gaming community in the future. As it becomes rather difficult to tell what is legitimately used and what is not.

Hope to see Reclaimer get back on track with a replacement for this artist soon.

Cash Strapped - Drivethru Scavenger Hunt

It's Halloween season so that means the usual big sale at DrivethruRPG and their hidden free goodies throughout the OBS sites on their scavenger hunt. Below is a list compiled from this rpgnet thread from users MatchstickUK and The Fast Hero (now with updates from users Lucky and Knarf).


DrivethruRPG

1. Halloween sale page: pumpkin: 5E Halloween Mini-Dungeon: The Horror of Ochre Grove
2. All titles pumpkin: Seers and Roebuck: Dustbuster of Holding
3. My address: pumpkin: (5E) BASIC02: A Frightful Time
4. Select how I want to be contacted by publishers: Witch Hat: ETU: Brewhaha
5. Change newsletter, deal of the day and follow your faviorites settings: Witch Hat: Deep Magic: Chaos Magic for 5th Edition
6. Genre Horror: pumpkin: The Measure of a Man (Master)
7. First page: Witchhat: Castles & Crusades Night of the Sprits
8. About us: pumpkin: Doomtown Reloaded: Print & Play Demo
9. Product Reviews: Pumpkin: Mothership: Player's Survival Guide
10. Order History - Sanctuary of Belches for 5th Edition

DrivethruComics

1. Front Page - Kids on Bikes - House on Poplar Court
2. Halloween Sale Page - Unstoppable Origins #1
3. About Us - Death Vigil #1
4. My Library (All Products) - God the Dyslexic Dog Volume 1
5. Horror Genre Page - Charismagic: The Death Princess Volume 1 (Collected Edition)
6. My Address - Tales from the Evil Inc Archive: Halloween (Oct. 2013)
7. Current Newsletter - vs. Stranger Stuff: Send in the Clowns Special Edition
8. Select how I want to be contacted by publishers - Punk Mambo #1
9. Change newsletter, deal of the day and follow your favorites settings - Cradlegrave

DrivethruFiction

1. Front Page - The Weird Fiction Megapack: 25 Stories from Weird Tales
2. Halloween Sale Page - Outbreak: Undead 2nd Ed - Intro Manual
3. About Us - The Book of Apex: Volume 1 of Apex Magazine
4. My Library (All Products) - Cabaret of the Grotesque
5. Horror Genre Page - Royden Poole's Field Guide to the 25th Hour
6. My Address - Star Trek Adventures: Remnants
7. Current Newsletter - Achtung! Cthulhu - Fiction - The Trellborg Monstrosities
8. Change newsletter, deal of the day and follow your favorites settings - Monster Academy: I Will Not Eat People
9. Contact Options - Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein

DM Guild

1. Halloween Sale Page - Songs of Aedragard
2. About Us - Circle of the Feydark 5e
3. My Library (All Products) - Curse of the Gumdrop Ooze - Revised & Expanded
4. Horror Theme Page - The Little Astralnaut
5. Current Newsletter - Dread Domain: A Cleric Archetype
6. My Address - Spooky, Scary Skeletons
7. Contact Options - Nightfall
8. Products Awaiting Review - The Tuskcracker Threat: An Orc Wereboar Cult
9. Wishlist - The Awakened One: An Otherworldly Patron for D&D 5th Edition
10. Reviews - Secrets of the Blind Palace
11. Newsletters and Follow Your Favorites - College of Silence
12. DriveThruRPG Library App Download Page SNEAKY !) - Headless In Hanneford
13. Edition > Basic/Expert - Blood in the Woods
14. Order History - Snazzlegob Flobwanger's Box of Tricksy Treats

Storytellers Vault

 

1. Halloween Sale Page - Death Vigil #1
2. My Library (Updated Only) - God the Dyslexic Dog Volume 1
3. Reviews - Legacy of Lies: A V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart
4. Game Line Vampire the Requiem - Seers & Roebuck: Dust Buster of Holding
5. Game Line Werewolf the Forsaken - When Will You Rage
6. Game Line Dark Eras - Pax Britannia: Anno Frankenstein
7. Products Awaiting Review - Reap the Whirlwind Revised (VtR 2e)
8. DriveThruRPG Library App Download Page (SNEAKY AGAIN !) - Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Player's Guide
9. Wishlist - Hearts on Trial: Changeling the Lost Second Edition Jumpstart
10. Contact Options - Charismagic: The Death Princess Volume 1 (Collected Edition)
11. Newsletters and Follow Your Favorites - Monster Academy: I Will Not Eat People
12. My Address - The Shining Host
13. About Us - Bygone Bestiary
14. Order History - Yours to Keep A C20 Jumpstart

 

Cash Strapped 10/12/19

This weeks trio of links for Cash Strapped gamers is another mix of old and new.



Relics and Ruins is a newer entry into the OSR style of gaming. Mixing in some newer ideas in with the old to come up with a fast and fun game.

The Big List of RPG Plots from Cumberland Games is a classic. A must have for any GM's toolkit.

The Crisp Line is a world for use with FATE. A futuristic genepunk setting where DNA is made to be modified.



If you have any suggestions for cheap or free products to be listed in future posts just mention it in the comments section.

Please check out my other Cash Strapped posts on my blog for more free, cheap and discount resources for those gamers who don't have a lot of money to spend.

 

Cash Strapped - a trio of suggestions

This week on Cash Strapped I offer up a trio of links.  Two of which are more old school and the other to a game that has roots in both traditional and newer age style of play.

So without further ado here we go.

Adventures in Filbar. A rather large collection of products for OSR style games, mostly adventures which are color coded by party level. The average cost is pretty cheap plus they have several free ones for you to look at before you invest in others.

CC1 Creature Compendium. Hey who doesn't need more monsters to throw at your players on game night?  Here is nice selection to pull from at the low cost of zero, all stated out for OSR play.

Soulbound: Dark Industrial Fantasy. A game about wielding randomly generated, arcane weapons which are bound to one's spirit. It is set in the golden age of invention, a time plagued by giant fauna and corrupted demigods. As hunters of the inhuman it is your duty to slay these beasts. 360 pages of rpg all for the price of pay what you want.



If you have any suggestions for cheap or free products to be listed in future posts just mention it in the comments section.

Please check out my other Cash Strapped posts on my blog for more free, cheap and discount resources for those gamers who don't have a lot of money to spend.

Jaded Gamer - Cortex Prime prediction

This time I'm making a prediction.

Cortex Prime is going to crash and burn in the format they are switching over too.

In a recent announcement from Cam Banks the rights to the Cortex system are being sold to Fandom which does D&D Beyond. Their plans are apparently to follow that same release format. No pdf sales but instead you use an app to access all the material. Also no mention of actual dead tree formats either. The only pdfs they are releasing is to meet the requirements of the Cortex Prime Kickstarter backers. After than anybody new will have to download an app to get access.

Didn't Iron Kingdoms try that once upon a time? If I'm not mistaken that crashed and burned as well.

I think the only reason DnD Beyond is successful is because of the sheer size of the fanbase. Cortex does not have anything near that.

Nobody wants to be restricted to access through an app program that they really don't have any control over. There are several different pdf reasons out there for a reason, because people like variety when they view things. Also they like to pull open the book without having to be connected to the internet.

They are going in the opposite direction of user friendly. It will hammer the accessibility of the system and people will go elsewhere. ALSO when you make things harder to access it just drums up more piracy of your product. Look at Palladium Books, people were pirating the hell out of their stuff when they refused to release pdfs.

Anyways once the full release via their app comes out and it's the only way to get the game it will drop in popularity like a rock. Very few new people will be coming in and those who are fans are going to drop it because of the app access. Then they will finally break down and release pdfs again just to keep the line feasible. Hopefully it will be salvageable at that point.

Cash Strapped - Gaming Aids

How about a nice little collection of various gaming aids for GM's and players alike. Just take a look at what you can use here as there might be the diamond in the rough you've been waiting for. Not so much of a theme this month but a nice bit of variety instead.

Hex Paper Generator
River Village from Iconic Maps
A Dice Rolling pdf
Your New Critical Fail Roll Chart
Dark Fantasy Religion


If you have any suggestions for cheap or free products to be listed in future posts just mention it in the comments section.

Please check out my other Cash Strapped posts on my blog for more free, cheap and discount resources for those gamers who don't have a lot of money to spend.

Jaded Gamer Diary - Consent in Gaming meltdowns

Okay it's been a really funny few days in the old online gaming communities. Monte Cook Games released a pdf called 'Consent in Gaming' and suddenly a bunch of fucking monkeys began throwing feces so fast it looked like a literal shit storm. Everybody from Tarnowski's little gathering of antisocial misfits to folks deep in the OSR movement were up in arms. I've never seen so many morons crying out how this was going to ruin gaming or that it's something the SJW folks are pushing on all of us to invade the hobby. I mean some really, REALLY, stupid shit was coming out of folks.

I never bothered reading the Consent in Gaming thing because... well because it came from Monte Cook Games and I don't ever bother to read anything they put out. But I got the general idea of it from between the screeching of angry basement boys. Really I don't see the need in using it because I do this wild crazy ass idea I call "talking to my players about the type of game I'm going to run beforehand" that has always worked really well for me.

But I did thing of an alternative that I think would work better. Instead of the players filling it out and the GM having to filter through five or six different peoples issues ON TOP of all the regular work they have to put into into a game.  Let's have the GM fill out a form which shows what kind of topics and issues will be in their game and then the players can read it and chose if they want to play or not. So the GM can run the kind of game they want and get the types of players who are okay with it while players can find the games they are suited for much easier as well.

I call this wild ass idea "Being up front with players on what your game is about".

Cash Strapped - Talislanta

Oh the classic world of Talislanta. Those of you old enough to remember probably think of the 'no elves' ads from back in the day when hearing that name. Probably one of the more unique settings of the old school era of game design. It bounced through several publishers, multiple books for it have been released and even multiple systems. A busy few decades for a RPG that never quite broke out onto the map for many gamers.

But now it's back in the hands of the original creator and he's decided to give away all the old material for free. Or you can even get Print on Demand version of the books through DrivethruRPG.

Visit the main website of www.talislanta.com for a good chunk of history and information about the game. Along with links to downloading all the books you could ever want for it.

Or go to the DrivethruRPG section for Talislanta and get the free downloads there or order physical copies of the books.



If you have any suggestions for cheap or free products to be listed in future posts just mention it in the comments section.

Please check out my other Cash Strapped posts on my blog for more free, cheap and discount resources for those gamers who don't have a lot of money to spend.

Cash Strapped - Eclipse Phase

 

 

 

Thanks to Robert Kosten for pointing out that Eclipse Phase offers their first edition core book and tons of supplements for free. For those that don't know this game is an amazing transhuman scifi setting that captures a lot of unique elements and rolls them all into one. Highly recommended.

You can find the free downloads at this official blog for Rob Boyle.

Also be sure to check out the official Eclipse Phase website.

Plus you can find all their products up on the Posthuman Human Studios LLC page on DrivethruRPG.


If you have any suggestions for cheap or free products to be listed in future posts just mention it in the comments section.

Please check out my other Cash Strapped posts on my blog for more free, cheap and discount resources for those gamers who don't have a lot of money to spend.

Cash Strapped - Supernatural and horror

This week we are presenting a small selection of supernatural and occult goodies. From complete games to resources for use in whatever you may be running.

CJ Carrella's Witchcraft from Eden Studios. Get the full rulebook for absolutely nothing.

Delta Green: Need to Know. A 50+ page quickstart for the Delta Green rpg, including character generation. Gives you a good idea of the full game before you buy it.

The Shivering Circle. A complete game meant to bring players into the realm of British folk lore. Rules light, completely free and is under the Creative Commons license.

47 Villainous Cults, Orders and Guilds. A straight up resource for groups to thwart your adventuring parties. Pay what you want pricing.

If you have any suggestions for cheap or free products to be listed in future posts just mention it in the comments section.

Please check out my other Cash Strapped posts on my blog for more free, cheap and discount resources for those gamers who don't have a lot of money to spend.

Cash Strapped - Basic Fantasy Roleplay

One of the best things that came out of the OGL SRD for Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 was the amount of 'retro clone' games meant to mimic the older DnD editions. Inside of that system at it's core is most of the old original mechanics of the game. Just strip away all the new additional stuff layer by layer until you get it down to what you want and then just rewrite what is missing.

Now one of the best of these retroclones, in my opinion, was the Basic Fantasy Roleplay system. Chris Gonnerman put this together along with several volunteers and put out a very nice looking book, for absolutely free. Even the print versions are available 'at cost' meaning they generate zero profit while getting them into the hands of fans as cheaply as possible.

Currently three books are available over on DrivethruRPG.

Basic Fantasy RPG 3rd Edition
The Basic Fantasy Field Guide
Iron Falcon Rules

Then you can also find downloadable adventures and resources over at the website for the game at basicfantasy.org.  So go and get your old school adventuring on with these wonderful books.

Please check out my other Cash Strapped posts on my blog for more free, cheap and discount resources for those gamers who don't have a lot of money to spend.

Jaded Gamer - encouraging piracy

Nearly everyone in the online tabletop gaming knows that piracy of pdf products is a problem. It's all to easy to get a copy of nearly any game book on the market for absolutely nothing but the time it takes to do a few mouse clicks.  So why would you want to taunt the part of your customer base that is willing to pay?

R. Talsorian just did exactly that. the pdf for the jumpstart kit for Cyberpunk Red popped up on DrivethruRPG the same day as the physical version went on sale at GenCon. The pdf price of fifteen bucks is already enough to make a few folks think twice about spending that much on something that isn't even a full ruleset but a light version of a ruleset. Then at GenCon you give out coupon for fifty percent off that pdf to those who buy the print version BUT you will not be giving that discount to any one who buys it when it becomes available through distribution channels.

That's just telling people to pirate your product. "Can't go to GenCon then we don't care about you." is the message and the result will undoubtedly be "Give them a discount but not anyone else then we don't care about giving you anything at all.".  I can hardly blame anyone who goes this route.

Personally at this point I'm pretty much done with supporting Cyberpunk Red in any shape or form. So I won't be buying, or pirating, I will just do without.

Cash Strapped - Free Quickstarts

Sometimes you need to get a taste of a game before you decide to drop your hard earned cash on it. This is where quickstart rules come in real handy.  This post will be continuously updated whenever I am made aware of something new to add.

Advanced Fighting Fantasy
Basic Roleplaying
Blue Planet: Recontact
Call of Cthulhu 7th edition
Devil's Run
Ghosts of Albion
RuneQuest
Sla Industries 2nd edition
Space: 1889
Upwind


Please check out my other Cash Strapped posts on my blog for more free, cheap and discount resources for those gamers who don't have a lot of money to spend.

Cyberpunk Sunday 001

Recently it an attempt to break out of my gaming funk that I've been sinking into I've started working on my own game once again.  I'm going for something cyberpunk with some supernatural horror thrown in because I like it. So I broke out a composition notebook and started writing out notes instead of trying to keep track of it on my computer as I get distracted way to easily.

Quick setting notes:

I want magic to be there but it's some really dark stuff. This isn't going to be Shadowrun, there is no casting lightening bolts at your enemy. I'm looking more towards a Kult influence. Rituals that require various kinds of sacrifice, blood magic and things that can go horribly wrong if there is an error. The general populace is unaware of it's existence.

Way more punk. There will be no going on missions for the corporation to collect a paycheck. The players will be the ones fighting the powers that be. Almost a revolutionary type of movement.

The government is completely corrupt being ran by corporate powers. Those corporate powers are being controlled themselves by demonic like entities not from our plane of existence.

No defined timeline. Not going to lay out a year by year history of how the world got to where it is. It's going to focus on what it is like right now and what can you do to change that.

Focus will be on the street level type of games. Fighting for survival of yourself and for others who can't protect themselves.

Next weeks update will be what I want out of the game system. Or at least what I think I want at this point.

Cash Strapped - Magic for DnD

Welcome to my first 'Cash Strapped' post on my blog. These posts will be for those of us who are rather limited on how much we can spend on our table top roleplaying hobby. Linking to places where we can LEGALLY obtain free or discounted resources for our games.

So for this first post I will linking to a collection of items over on DrivethruRPG for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. Wizards of the Coast was releasing pdfs for using various Magic the Gathering planes in 5th edition rules up until the most recent Ravnica block. These were called the Plane Shift series and are completely free. Even if you are not a fan of the Magic settings they are great resources to have your GM toolbox.


Plane Shift: Zendikar
Plane Shift: Innistrad
Plane Shift: Kaladesh
Plane Shift: Amonkhet
Plane Shift: Ixalan
X Marks The Spot A Plane Shift Ixalan Adventure


If you have any other suggestions for products to be put up in future Cash Strapped posts please just let me know in the comments section below.

Jaded Gamer Diary - PbtA fans think they are elite

A collection of quotes seen posted up by PbtA fans as they love to down on other games but hate it when people down theirs.

All that said I can totally understand the appeal of trad gaming and the like where it sits nicely between role playing and tactical combat.

So according to this one people who like trad games aren't full roleplayers.

I happen to love PbtA. It is, arguably, my favorite game system. Further, I share some of your preferences. I generally hate class-based systems. I love elegant game mechanics.

Hey I guess only PbtA has 'elegant' game mechanics.

In my experience, players (including, regrettably, me) frequently come up with terrible, boring and unclear concepts for their characters when left to their own devices, so I feel like trading in broad archetypes improves playability substantially.

Oh so the playbooks are saving us from our terrible, boring and unclear selves.

I disagree. There have been massive changes in rpgs and the relationship between players, GMs, and world building/game playing.

Another person who thinks changes that have been going on in the gaming hobby for well over two decades are something that PbtA is responsible for.

Jaded Gamer Diary - convention exclusives

Game Company: We've made some really neat goodies for our game line.

Fan for decades: Cool, where can I get them at?

Game Company: They're a GenCon exclusive so only at GenCon.

Fan for decades: But I can't begin to afford a trip to GenCon. Hotel costs alone are way out of what I can pay for.

Game Company: Sorry to hear about that. But great goodies for our game line so that is good news!

Fan for decades: Not when you can't buy them.

This sums up my feelings on 'convention exclusive' stuff from game companies. Some of us scrape together what we can to buy your product already. Travelling, hotel costs, eating out every meal for an entire weekend, etc are just something we cannot afford at all. So stuff like this is a giant 'fuck you' and a punishment for not being financially well off enough to satisfy you.

So don't be surprised when we stop buying you stuff all together.

Jaded Gamer - Industry vs Hobby

I'm about done with the 'industry' side of the table top gaming folks in online communities.

A good portion of these people are not good for my mental well being. It's hard enough being poor without having a somebody shaming you because you can't afford their products. Or telling you that you should be thankful how cheap they are when you can't even afford them in the first place. Saying that you are one of the problems of the gaming hobby and that by not spending a bunch of money you are instead promoting piracy.

Yeah screw those people.

I'm more interested in interacting with the actual hobby side of the table top gaming folks.

You know the ones who don't give you crap when you can't afford the big new shiny and may direct you towards a cheaper alternative. Who run blogs and give out content for free, maybe asking for donations but never demanding them. People you can kitbash setting and system ideas with over the course of a week and there is nobody staking claim to what is created.

Yeah I belong with those people.

Jaded Gamer Diary - UK Expo meets uber creepy GM

Okay over in the UK this weekend was the UK Games Expo, a pretty big gaming convention that I had heard a lot about (nearly every bit positive). Bunch of gamers getting together and having a good time. But then a tweet rant out over on Twitter that got a lot of attention.

Just had the worst rpg experience of my life. Signed up for a Things from the Flood game and the GM decided it would be perfectly all right to have all our characters kidnapped and gang raped without discussing it with anyone first. Told us he enjoyed the shock factor of it...

Yeah that's pretty screwed up. Quickly word spread and folks were firing off messages to the con about how this could happen.  Thankfully the folks at the UKGE were on top of things and took care of it pretty fast. The shitbag GM was located, ejected from the con and banned for life. The players were tracked down and apologized to by the staff.  You can read their full account of the issue here.

Turns out the guy was known for being a creepy POS but had evidently kept off the radar long enough that nobody spotted him attending. People were applauding the con, the people in the game who came forward and generally the thing came to about the best end that it could.  Until....

THE BBC CAUGHT WIND OF THE STORY.

Then thing pumped into overdrive rather quickly. As with any bad news about the hobby that makes it on to the 'regular' new channels everyone started talking. It got real busy real fast. Of course this leads to folks like Jim "rape is great" Desborough who will jump into any controversy in hopes of getting more attention defending the GM. Of course the double standard creep that Jim is he's angling in from the 'free speech' and 'horror gaming means anything goes' points. Even going as far to paint the guy as the 'real' victim in this issue. But what do you expect from a guy who doesn't understand a single thought about boundaries and lines that don't need to be crossed.

 A few others have chimed up in the guys defense, just not to full on dumbass level like Jim. Thankfully even on some of the worst game forums out there they are the minority. It did give me a good time to update my block lists though.

Didn't share the name of the original tweeter in case they don't want anymore hassle, if they want to be listed that person can let me know in the comments. Also if anyone would like to comment the name of the GM in question please do so.

Jaded Gamer Diary - the latest undercurrent in the hobby

Well there is a new undercurrent going through the social media aspect of the hobby right now. This time it boils down to "Don't do anything for fun, only for money".  While this may seem rather harmless on the surface there are people throwing some dislike towards anybody who offers up content for free. Claiming they are the reason for the problem of low wages in the gaming industry.

This comes right on the tail end of the undercurrent in which people were trying to shame poor gamers out of the hobby. That was all started because some people said a hundred dollar pdf product was way out of their range to afford. People flipped their shit and suddenly poor gamers were the reason for every problem including piracy and low pay.

So what this really looks like is some folks stepped back and rethought up a different angle to go after us no good poor folks.  Guess they figure by shaming people out of producing free material because it's what they love to do then the poor gamers will all leave as well. 

I really don't buy into the 'movements' that are basically people telling others what to do. Then giving them a hard time when they don't want to change. It's a hobby and a passion for some. You want better pay, then start up a project and set an example by paying people better yourself.  Leave those who are happy in their little corner of the hobby giving away their ideas alone.