Here’s something I’ve seen way too many times, both when running games and admittedly when designing them… Many systems, almost all the most popular systems, never realize they’re slowly training players to stop trying interesting things. It doesn’t happen all at once. It’s subtle. It builds over time. A player throws out an idea, the […]
I moved this post from my old website, seeing the new 7th sea is about to drop on Kickstarter I thought it was a good time to do so….. anyways read on my friend! I’ve been having this conversation a lot lately about 7th Sea, let’s talk about it…. Specifically, about going back to the […]
One of the things I’ve always wrestled with in Rotted Capes is how hard do we lean into survival? Because at its heart, this is a superhero horror game. You’re not random civilians with a baseball bat and a prayer. You’re enhanced. You’re dangerous. You can punch through a wall. But two years after Z-Day? […]
One of the things that always bugged me about a lot of RPG combat is how flat it feels. You roll initiative, you take turns, you trade hits, and that’s… kind of it. The scenery doesn’t matter unless someone remembers it. The villain fights exactly the same way at full health as they do on […]
Okay, so here’s the thing: when I started reworking how threats work in Rotted Capes: Second Bite, I wasn’t trying to make scarier or flashier monsters. Honestly? I just wanted them to be easier to throw together and harder to screw up. I’m an engineer at heart, and I love systems that give you guardrails […]
This idea started the way most dangerous rules ideas do: mid-session, half a cup of cold coffee in, watching players do something clever that the rules technically allow… but fictionally feels off. Armor. Specifically, armor that just keeps working. In Rotted Tropicz, the characters are scraping by in heat, salt air, blood, rot, and bad […]