Pitch: Rolemaster-based wrestling RPG called "We Want Tables!"

You’ll probably want to create a whole stable of wrestlers in case of your character inevitably having to take time off due to grievous injury.

What if, instead of dying on the cross for our sins, Jesus died on the cross in order to be isekai'd into a fantasy world to become a mighty hero of light and righteous king, founding a religious order of knights who would become known as clerics?

It's so close to one of the plot of the manga Drifters where one of the antagonist is Jesus who became the "Darklord" of the oppressed orcs and such monsters, and is waging war on the humans of that world he got isekaied into. Also Joan of Arc and Scipio are here.

That’s pretty close, but in my thing he’s got a cool sword and psionic powers.

Here’s a silly poll. Based on everything you can glean about me from this bloggy thing,

I was going to make this about Vampire but alas, I could not enter enough options on the poll.

There's probably some margin for error on this accounting for Tumblr Reding Comprehension, but we're doing magick here, not science, so who cares? Let's go over the Top 5 results and see how well they match with reality.

5. Verbena

As an actual real life witch I would've been pretty disappointed if this didn't make the top 5. But you might be surprised to learn it is not my fave!

4. Euthanatoi

Yeah I don't really know where this one came from, someone who voted for the Vivian the Death Cultist please enlighten me.

3. Cult of Ecstasy

I don't use any drugs, which includes alcohol and coffee. So this one was just way off.

2. Virtual Adepts

Come on, you really think I'm that terminally online?

1. Order of Hermes

This is the most rigidly hierarchical of the traditions (it did spawn the Tremere, after all), so it's not a very good fit for an anarchist. But someone in the notes did connect it to that tradwizard look with the robes and pointy hat and I can certainly get down with that. Alas, not the right answer.

So which one is my favourite? Drumroll please…

Friend, you are not just on Tumblr. You have a /reputation/ on Tumblr. You should not be surprised by this.

Oh no. Will my reputation at least grant me discounts in the weapon store?

Different subject now, but D&D 3e is interesting in its approach to prep because the game explicitly tells you or at least strongly suggests that you should use the party's average character level as a baseline for prepping content and give them a bunch of encounters with a pretty wide range of Encounter Levels. But it also explicitly suggests prepping at least some Overpowering encounters. Encounters that if the party charges blindly into, they will most likely die.

I actually think 3e was kind of cooking with this idea. However. 3e is exactly not the type of game you want to have these types of encounters in unless you have specifically signposted to your players that not all encounters are beatable.

This largely relates to those recent discussions about incentives and how games can basically encourage certain behaviors through their structures. D&D 3e was a pretty massive shift in terms of how the combat rules were structured in the sense that while D&D as a game had always rewarded smart, tactical play, the rules had always been kind of zoomed out (makes sense, because they had their origins in a wargame), D&D 3e was suddenly a very zoomed in, tactically satisfying skirmish game that rewarded tactics on a micro level.

D&D has always been opinionated about combat but D&D 3e made combat the most tactically satisfying part of the game and finally finished what 2e started and basically made combat the thing that granted most XP by the book. So of course now you have a situation where engaging in combat is fun for the players while also rewarding characters with growth.

So you might see how the idea that each adventure have a mandated quota of Overpowering encounters may not be in line with that goal, especially since character creation is now a pretty complex minigame which isn't exactly fun.

I do still think they were kinda cooking. I think there is something to be said for adventure prep where adventures are prepped as basically little theme parks with "you must be this tall this level to ride" written at the door, and with those Overpowering encounters there as a spice, provided they are signposted. Alternately, something similar to 3e in structure but with guardrails to make sure that even if the players end up accidentally sending their characters into an impossible encounter it can always be salvaged with the expenditure of resources or something or other.

And in the context of a sandbox setting consisting of multiple overlapping areas with different encounter levels and locations with their own encounter levels, those Overpowering encounters are no longer just there to be ignored: they're content that can be returned to at later levels. Thus making the world more organic. And I think that's actually really in line with 3e's immersive sim style design.

Like. The combo of "combat is the most fun, tactically satisfying activity in the game" and "character creation is time-consuming" is not a combo that lends itself well to gameplay where characters might eat shit if they accidentally gauge the opposition wrong.

While what you’re saying is true, creating a character in 3rd Edition is actually surprisingly fast! Although you kinda have to come out of the Builder Stance to do it, and I somewhat suspect the designers did not anticipate that being a thing when they made the game that way.

This store in Finland sells this whole "make your own board game" set and I'm like. This could actually be fun to use for prototyping an RPG actually.

It includes a Twister style spinner and I'm not sure if those have ever been used in TTRPG design. Well, it's up to me to figure it out now since I ordered one.

Gacha mechanic.

This store in Finland sells this whole "make your own board game" set and I'm like. This could actually be fun to use for prototyping an RPG actually.

Are you even serious about the hobby if you don’t have a bunch of random game junk lying around?

I find the sentiment of "Any game I play turns into a queer game" frankly insulting. Like, okay, I understand it doesn't come from that kind of place: it is ultimately not borne of "I want to undermine the efforts of actual queer creators who are actually making textually queer games." The chain of cause and effect is usually just reversed: people don't flock to D&D, the most popular game on the market, out of a sense of a need to "queer it," they flock to it because it is the most popular game on the market and then decide that they need to queer it.

It is ultimately cope borne out of individualism, a sleight of hand where they hope that people will buy their framing of playing the world's most popular RPG as somehow revolutionary because they have the gay Midas touch to turn any game they touch queer.

And like don't get me wrong it is also hostile to actual game design: the idea that an individual can simply transform a game that doesn't interface with queerness in any meaningful way into a queer game simply by association kind of implicitly states that game designers actively working to insert themes of queerness and marginalization into their games are doing a bunch of work for nothing. Don't those idiots realize that you don't actually have to game design these things? You can just play D&D and it'll turn queer!

And ultimately there is very little I, an individual trans woman writing words on a blog, can do to get people to stop playing D&D. Goodness knows I've tried, but sadly the mind control doesn't seem to be working. But I would like us to practice some intellectual honesty: I would like people to consider for a moment whether D&D, the game of some dragons in some dungeons, actually has anything meaningful to say about the queer experience or whether you just projected that meaning onto it, and that it might be actually better to elevate games made by queer and marginalized people than try to delude ourselves into thinking that the game made by a huge capitalist corporation "belongs" to the queer and marginalized folks now.

There’s a distinction that some of these people are likely failing to make: your campaign might be queer as heck, but that doesn’t make the game queer. And you should give yourself credit for doing all the queer lifting there.

Because, like, the game exists outside your table, and has its own qualities independent of who’s playing it. So don’t mistake what you’re doing for what the game is doing.

They aimed the Satanic Panic at the wrong game.

As the final participants of the Monarch's Melee are carted off the field, the crowd scrambles to take their seats at the lists. The Witch-Queen takes her seat in the royal pavillion, and the trumpeters blare out a triumphant tune. The royal herald steps forth as the crowd goes silent.

"Hear ye, Lords and Ladies, and common folk all, 'tis time for our main event, which is for the Realm's Heavy Horse Championshiiiip!"

A tourney officiator holds aloft the mystical and mighty Girdle of Champions for all to see. The crowd roars, then goes silent as the herald prepares to speak once more.

"Introducing first, riding in on Good Old Lad, from the Barony of Burnglade, weighing in at one thousand one-hundred and three gold coins, Siiiirrrrr Konstantyyyyyn!"

As Sir Konstantyn rides out and raises his shield, Sable, a burning tree proper, the crowd erupts into loud boos. The knights of Burnglade have won themselves no love from the common folk by enforcing the baron's excessive taxes.

"And his opponent, riding in on Shadeheart, hailing from parts unknown, weighing in at one thousand one-hundred and two gold coins, Siiiirrrrrr Elomeeerrrrr!"

As Sir Elomer raises his shield, Azure, a garb Or, the crowd erupts into enthusiastic cheers, especially loud the squeals of several recently rescued princesses.

The two knights take their places at opposite ends of the lists, and ready themselves for the first ride of the joust. The officiator raises his hand, then drops it, as the trumpeters announce the start of the contest, and both knights ride forth!

Sir Konstantyn raises his shield and takes aim at Elomer's shield, fess pale. Sir Elomer steadies himself in his saddle and likewise aims fess pale on Konstantyn's shield. With a thunderous crack, both lances shatter on impact, and both knights are thrown off their mighty steeds!

As the dust settles, Sir Elomer stands. Sir Konstantyn attempts to stand as well, but clutches his side in agony and drops to a knee. The panel of judges renders their decision: 9 points for Sir Konstantyn, but 19 for Sir Elomer!

The crowd erupts into deafening cheers as Elomer is handed the Girdle of Champions. He removes his helmet… nay, her helmet, as a locks of golden hair cascade out. There are murmurs in the crowd. Why, 'tis the Lady Elowen, one of the Witch-Queen's handmaidens! Sir Konstantyn angrily demands that Elowen be disqualified, and the tourney grounds descend into chaos!

This has been a silly little story written around two of my friends playing the jousting rules from Chainmail. I wanted it to go for more than one ride but you can’t script sports.

Don’t forget to stop by ye olde merch shoppe for our latest tapestries, articulated dolls, and emblazoned tabards from your favourite knights!