itch.io

"This game was inspired by..."

Waiting for Godot: Am I a joke to you?

Can't speak to how it runs yet, but it looks fantastic. The art is slick and charming. The layout is clean and usable for the table. The crawl is lean and tight. Lots of treasure to find. 

I've been a Knave 2e GM for some time, and this seems like it'd be a fun one for my table.

I'm particularly smitten with the Daturus Demonia and using it's format as inspiration for drugs in my own future modules.

I LOVE what you've done here and with your other two entries into the Wenderweald.

I do have a question for something you may have left ambiguous on purpose. This dungeon in here (Citadel Bloodroot) should be something that can slot into the hexcrawl from issue 1 right? Any pointers as to where it should lie? With Neven's Skull being the prize,  I had initally mistaken it to be Faithmire, and maybe I could just say that the Citadel overlooks the dead village in the hex, but it also seems like the siege of Thurn's Citadel is implied to be more recent than the fall of Cloudmire.

in that same vein, would you be able to answer where the Knight of the Corpse Trials might take place? It seems like it might sit in that hex just southeast of Crescentcroft, but that feels too close to another populated hex, to my mind at least. But maybe that's alright.

Thanks!

I edited a 3rd question in, maybe after you had already answered.

3. For spells and "use magic" effects which require ranged attacks or otherwise seem to do damage, is there a standard for that (like 1d6 usually?), or is that just going to be one of those "high trust" factors?

I'll start with: I said this on Reddit, but the experience of reading this has been so magical.

I have a couple questions:

1. The Boss Barbarian's "Heart" ability and the Reveler Warlock's "Eighth position" read "...you don't use HP." What does this mean? I presume because they get extra injury slots that they are supposed to be able to get injuries but my understanding is that you need to take HP damage to get an injury. Is the intent just that you only take injuries on hits that *would* deal 8+? I presume the GM can also make special abilities for monsters that just do injuries instead of damage but I just wanted to get some clarification in case I'm missing something.

2. For wizards and rerolling starting spells, it's not clear to me on what the rerolls should be. The sentence

> You can reroll up to five spells within your major.

Seemed to mean that if a spell is within your major, you can reroll it. But the implication of that would mean that you are unlikely to keep spells of your major because you'd reroll to anything else. With that thought in mind, is it supposed to be that you can reroll any 5 spells into a spell that's within your major?

3. For spells and "use magic" effects which require ranged attacks or otherwise seem to do damage, is there a standard for that, or is that just going to be one of those "high trust" factors?

Awesome! That makes a lot of sense with the Kickstarter coming next year.

Is entrance #5, Roddy & Rowdy's getting an update or are we going to leave that blank?

Interesting. I haven't been able to read the whole blog post, but I'm glad that you agree that people who like playing Monopoly desperately need help. 

I dunno how interested in a high level D&D version of this I would be as I probably don't play enough for it to be useful to me, but it seems pretty cool. I guess this is where you're going to start narrowing and lose people like me. Not that you probably mind, it seems like this is an area you're interested in exploring as a passion which is pretty cool.

I'm not particularly attached to the OSR or the purity of it, but I think I can appreciate what you're trying to do and say. Creating a more focused OSR is an interesting goal and its kinda neat to see people congregating around that idea.

Personally, I like the rules-lite approach surrounding the OSR, and the "just play" attitude I tend to see in these spaces online. As someone who started at 12 years old with 3.5e, I don't have the original experience or nostalgia with OD&D or B/X, but I've enjoyed the simplicity and charm. And the fact that PCs don't start off with 10 page backstories, something I was often guilty of which completely blocked my ability to actually play with a group.

I've come to realize I just don't care for the focus on "Narrative" and "Role-Play" in capital letters (PbtA, FATE). Those things tend to be exhausting after a while for me. Fast and procedural play really seem to work for me in actual play which is why I've enjoyed things in this space.  

I do wish the categories were clearer so I could understand who and what I'm engaging with online, but at the end of the day if I'm enjoying a game with hp, ac, str, int, wis, dex, con, cha, and xp, and its in a dungeon, I'm playing D&D and that's good enough for me. I don't really care what its called as long as me and my friends are having fun.

Also: Are you still writing on that Simulacrum blog? It seems like the last post was in May 2022.

 I like the DIY feel of this, but who is this attacking and why? It feels a little weird tbh to be gatekeeping OSR/NSR stuff. I guess I might be a little bit out of the loop, but what defines Artpunk? And what defines OSR to you? I agree the term seems to have been diluted today, but I'm trying to parse what your goal is here.

I mean this with the utmost sincerity. This is the first I'm finding of the No Artpunk thing.

EDIT: I should have read the essay at the beginning of the book first.

Simply put, would you agree your thesis is that "A lot of OSR material tends put style over untested substance."?

If so, I think I agree.

I like the idea of following the root of the hobby had having a shared b/x language. I'm not a creator so I have very little skin in the game either way. But it seems to me like the dilution and uninspired creations in the Artpunk movement just happened as a consequence of it becoming large. It's just Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crap). I don't think it's necessarily a consequence of not having a shared system or ignoring the lessons of Gygax and other older creators.

Once your No Artpunk movement becomes large enough, will you criticize it as well?