#numenera — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #numenera, aggregated by home.social.
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CW: Numenera: The Devil's Spine Spoilers
Well, we're running a significantly modified The Devil's Spine. I'm deepening the story with more narrative connections, stakes and morally ambiguous NPCs.
During session zero (which was a custom, self-contained mini adventure) we agreed to not exaggerate with the body horror elements. Numenera is also very much a horror game, which isn't immediately apparent - and in this campaign, especially during a lengthy segment of a trap-ridden tomb, the adventure is designed to turn into a hardcore horror survival with mutations and terrible permanent consequences. So instead I'll introduce more atmospheric horror, more tragic love mystery (as that's part of the narrative), and some datasphere sections (introduced in Voices of the Datasphere).
The other segments include a fun tower climbing action heist against all odds, and traveling to the bottom of the (stormy) ocean, where I'll spice things a up much more.
That being said, the players come from different games, some only DnD, so we are still in the process of adjusting to an equilibrium of styles. We are still at the start: after a relatively peaceful day of guarding an estate, they suddey have parasitic numenera fused into their spines and they are, naturally, freaking out. They will need to figure out how to remove them within 3 or so months. That's the hook and all the good luck to them.
Also, I'm finalising my #Numenera Framework for #MapTools, which is our VTT of choice. That's lot of fun to build.
Are you playing any TTRPGs at the moment?
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CW: Numenera: The Devil's Spine Spoilers
Well, we're running a significantly modified The Devil's Spine. I'm deepening the story with more narrative connections, stakes and morally ambiguous NPCs.
During session zero (which was a custom, self-contained mini adventure) we agreed to not exaggerate with the body horror elements. Numenera is also very much a horror game, which isn't immediately apparent - and in this campaign, especially during a lengthy segment of a trap-ridden tomb, the adventure is designed to turn into a hardcore horror survival with mutations and terrible permanent consequences. So instead I'll introduce more atmospheric horror, more tragic love mystery (as that's part of the narrative), and some datasphere sections (introduced in Voices of the Datasphere).
The other segments include a fun tower climbing action heist against all odds, and traveling to the bottom of the (stormy) ocean, where I'll spice things a up much more.
That being said, the players come from different games, some only DnD, so we are still in the process of adjusting to an equilibrium of styles. We are still at the start: after a relatively peaceful day of guarding an estate, they suddey have parasitic numenera fused into their spines and they are, naturally, freaking out. They will need to figure out how to remove them within 3 or so months. That's the hook and all the good luck to them.
Also, I'm finalising my #Numenera Framework for #MapTools, which is our VTT of choice. That's lot of fun to build.
Are you playing any TTRPGs at the moment?
-
CW: Numenera: The Devil's Spine Spoilers
Well, we're running a significantly modified The Devil's Spine. I'm deepening the story with more narrative connections, stakes and morally ambiguous NPCs.
During session zero (which was a custom, self-contained mini adventure) we agreed to not exaggerate with the body horror elements. Numenera is also very much a horror game, which isn't immediately apparent - and in this campaign, especially during a lengthy segment of a trap-ridden tomb, the adventure is designed to turn into a hardcore horror survival with mutations and terrible permanent consequences. So instead I'll introduce more atmospheric horror, more tragic love mystery (as that's part of the narrative), and some datasphere sections (introduced in Voices of the Datasphere).
The other segments include a fun tower climbing action heist against all odds, and traveling to the bottom of the (stormy) ocean, where I'll spice things a up much more.
That being said, the players come from different games, some only DnD, so we are still in the process of adjusting to an equilibrium of styles. We are still at the start: after a relatively peaceful day of guarding an estate, they suddey have parasitic numenera fused into their spines and they are, naturally, freaking out. They will need to figure out how to remove them within 3 or so months. That's the hook and all the good luck to them.
Also, I'm finalising my #Numenera Framework for #MapTools, which is our VTT of choice. That's lot of fun to build.
Are you playing any TTRPGs at the moment?
-
CW: Numenera: The Devil's Spine Spoilers
Well, we're running a significantly modified The Devil's Spine. I'm deepening the story with more narrative connections, stakes and morally ambiguous NPCs.
During session zero (which was a custom, self-contained mini adventure) we agreed to not exaggerate with the body horror elements. Numenera is also very much a horror game, which isn't immediately apparent - and in this campaign, especially during a lengthy segment of a trap-ridden tomb, the adventure is designed to turn into a hardcore horror survival with mutations and terrible permanent consequences. So instead I'll introduce more atmospheric horror, more tragic love mystery (as that's part of the narrative), and some datasphere sections (introduced in Voices of the Datasphere).
The other segments include a fun tower climbing action heist against all odds, and traveling to the bottom of the (stormy) ocean, where I'll spice things a up much more.
That being said, the players come from different games, some only DnD, so we are still in the process of adjusting to an equilibrium of styles. We are still at the start: after a relatively peaceful day of guarding an estate, they suddey have parasitic numenera fused into their spines and they are, naturally, freaking out. They will need to figure out how to remove them within 3 or so months. That's the hook and all the good luck to them.
Also, I'm finalising my #Numenera Framework for #MapTools, which is our VTT of choice. That's lot of fun to build.
Are you playing any TTRPGs at the moment?
-
CW: Numenera: The Devil's Spine Spoilers
Well, we're running a significantly modified The Devil's Spine. I'm deepening the story with more narrative connections, stakes and morally ambiguous NPCs.
During session zero (which was a custom, self-contained mini adventure) we agreed to not exaggerate with the body horror elements. Numenera is also very much a horror game, which isn't immediately apparent - and in this campaign, especially during a lengthy segment of a trap-ridden tomb, the adventure is designed to turn into a hardcore horror survival with mutations and terrible permanent consequences. So instead I'll introduce more atmospheric horror, more tragic love mystery (as that's part of the narrative), and some datasphere sections (introduced in Voices of the Datasphere).
The other segments include a fun tower climbing action heist against all odds, and traveling to the bottom of the (stormy) ocean, where I'll spice things a up much more.
That being said, the players come from different games, some only DnD, so we are still in the process of adjusting to an equilibrium of styles. We are still at the start: after a relatively peaceful day of guarding an estate, they suddey have parasitic numenera fused into their spines and they are, naturally, freaking out. They will need to figure out how to remove them within 3 or so months. That's the hook and all the good luck to them.
Also, I'm finalising my #Numenera Framework for #MapTools, which is our VTT of choice. That's lot of fun to build.
Are you playing any TTRPGs at the moment?
-
@foolishowl @futurebird @mhoye @darius
In #Numenera there are the (optional) five Tides. Characters fluidly change "attunement" to them based on their actions. The definition of each Tide is by design complex and polysemous. Tidal affinity can not only be the character's "alignment" but can have influence on them, their party and their circumstances.
Incidentally, this mechanic was added to the TTRPG after the developers of Torment: Tides of Numenera invented it to have some kind of alignment system in the video game - one that was a better fit for the setting's philosophy.
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@foolishowl @futurebird @mhoye @darius
In #Numenera there are the (optional) five Tides. Characters fluidly change "attunement" to them based on their actions. The definition of each Tide is by design complex and polysemous. Tidal affinity can not only be the character's "alignment" but can have influence on them, their party and their circumstances.
Incidentally, this mechanic was added to the TTRPG after the developers of Torment: Tides of Numenera invented it to have some kind of alignment system in the video game - one that was a better fit for the setting's philosophy.
-
@foolishowl @futurebird @mhoye @darius
In #Numenera there are the (optional) five Tides. Characters fluidly change "attunement" to them based on their actions. The definition of each Tide is by design complex and polysemous. Tidal affinity can not only be the character's "alignment" but can have influence on them, their party and their circumstances.
Incidentally, this mechanic was added to the TTRPG after the developers of Torment: Tides of Numenera invented it to have some kind of alignment system in the video game - one that was a better fit for the setting's philosophy.
-
@foolishowl @futurebird @mhoye @darius
In #Numenera there are the (optional) five Tides. Characters fluidly change "attunement" to them based on their actions. The definition of each Tide is by design complex and polysemous. Tidal affinity can not only be the character's "alignment" but can have influence on them, their party and their circumstances.
Incidentally, this mechanic was added to the TTRPG after the developers of Torment: Tides of Numenera invented it to have some kind of alignment system in the video game - one that was a better fit for the setting's philosophy.
-
@foolishowl @futurebird @mhoye @darius
In #Numenera there are the (optional) five Tides. Characters fluidly change "attunement" to them based on their actions. The definition of each Tide is by design complex and polysemous. Tidal affinity can not only be the character's "alignment" but can have influence on them, their party and their circumstances.
Incidentally, this mechanic was added to the TTRPG after the developers of Torment: Tides of Numenera invented it to have some kind of alignment system in the video game - one that was a better fit for the setting's philosophy.
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I've only heard of DnD, and didn't realise there was more to TTRPGs. For a long time, it was a distant fascination to me. Then, during a school trip to the mountains, I was invited into one of the rooms. I only observed an existing group fighting a troll in a dungeon. I remember that one of the characters threw a piece of pie at it, which was part of the loot they found. The troll caught it mid-air with its mouth and became god-like. I thought to myself that the dungeon master was not good at all, which was weird since I had nothing to compare them to.
A few years later the first #Numenera echoed through my bubbles. I managed to get it from the seven seas and immediately understood the richness of TTRPGs beyond the mainstream. I fell in love with such games there and then.
It was again years before I got a chance to be part of a DnD group, and again years before I was a game master of Numenera (of which I now own most of the books). My first adventure involved the tumourous beasties that plagued a small town after people were deconstructed for skills, and an epic NPC called Nex, whose masks kept changing to symbolically amplify his communication.
Recently I also dip into other fun stuff, such as Mausritter, Wanderhome, Fall of Magic, etc. I really enjoy leaning heavily into everyone's imagination at the table and just going weird with it, with the welcome challenge being keeping it coherent. Now I'm eyeing Sig Manual of the Primes, and exploring Amber Diceless and Nephilim, which reward exactly that kind of imaginative commitment.
I'm also experimenting and creating my own games at my secret hideout, but this is easier said than done.
-
I've only heard of DnD, and didn't realise there was more to TTRPGs. For a long time, it was a distant fascination to me. Then, during a school trip to the mountains, I was invited into one of the rooms. I only observed an existing group fighting a troll in a dungeon. I remember that one of the characters threw a piece of pie at it, which was part of the loot they found. The troll caught it mid-air with its mouth and became god-like. I thought to myself that the dungeon master was not good at all, which was weird since I had nothing to compare them to.
A few years later the first #Numenera echoed through my bubbles. I managed to get it from the seven seas and immediately understood the richness of TTRPGs beyond the mainstream. I fell in love with such games there and then.
It was again years before I got a chance to be part of a DnD group, and again years before I was a game master of Numenera (of which I now own most of the books). My first adventure involved the tumourous beasties that plagued a small town after people were deconstructed for skills, and an epic NPC called Nex, whose masks kept changing to symbolically amplify his communication.
Recently I also dip into other fun stuff, such as Mausritter, Wanderhome, Fall of Magic, etc. I really enjoy leaning heavily into everyone's imagination at the table and just going weird with it, with the welcome challenge being keeping it coherent. Now I'm eyeing Sig Manual of the Primes, and exploring Amber Diceless and Nephilim, which reward exactly that kind of imaginative commitment.
I'm also experimenting and creating my own games at my secret hideout, but this is easier said than done.
-
I've only heard of DnD, and didn't realise there was more to TTRPGs. For a long time, it was a distant fascination to me. Then, during a school trip to the mountains, I was invited into one of the rooms. I only observed an existing group fighting a troll in a dungeon. I remember that one of the characters threw a piece of pie at it, which was part of the loot they found. The troll caught it mid-air with its mouth and became god-like. I thought to myself that the dungeon master was not good at all, which was weird since I had nothing to compare them to.
A few years later the first #Numenera echoed through my bubbles. I managed to get it from the seven seas and immediately understood the richness of TTRPGs beyond the mainstream. I fell in love with such games there and then.
It was again years before I got a chance to be part of a DnD group, and again years before I was a game master of Numenera (of which I now own most of the books). My first adventure involved the tumourous beasties that plagued a small town after people were deconstructed for skills, and an epic NPC called Nex, whose masks kept changing to symbolically amplify his communication.
Recently I also dip into other fun stuff, such as Mausritter, Wanderhome, Fall of Magic, etc. I really enjoy leaning heavily into everyone's imagination at the table and just going weird with it, with the welcome challenge being keeping it coherent. Now I'm eyeing Sig Manual of the Primes, and exploring Amber Diceless and Nephilim, which reward exactly that kind of imaginative commitment.
I'm also experimenting and creating my own games at my secret hideout, but this is easier said than done.
-
I've only heard of DnD, and didn't realise there was more to TTRPGs. For a long time, it was a distant fascination to me. Then, during a school trip to the mountains, I was invited into one of the rooms. I only observed an existing group fighting a troll in a dungeon. I remember that one of the characters threw a piece of pie at it, which was part of the loot they found. The troll caught it mid-air with its mouth and became god-like. I thought to myself that the dungeon master was not good at all, which was weird since I had nothing to compare them to.
A few years later the first #Numenera echoed through my bubbles. I managed to get it from the seven seas and immediately understood the richness of TTRPGs beyond the mainstream. I fell in love with such games there and then.
It was again years before I got a chance to be part of a DnD group, and again years before I was a game master of Numenera (of which I now own most of the books). My first adventure involved the tumourous beasties that plagued a small town after people were deconstructed for skills, and an epic NPC called Nex, whose masks kept changing to symbolically amplify his communication.
Recently I also dip into other fun stuff, such as Mausritter, Wanderhome, Fall of Magic, etc. I really enjoy leaning heavily into everyone's imagination at the table and just going weird with it, with the welcome challenge being keeping it coherent. Now I'm eyeing Sig Manual of the Primes, and exploring Amber Diceless and Nephilim, which reward exactly that kind of imaginative commitment.
I'm also experimenting and creating my own games at my secret hideout, but this is easier said than done.
-
I've only heard of DnD, and didn't realise there was more to TTRPGs. For a long time, it was a distant fascination to me. Then, during a school trip to the mountains, I was invited into one of the rooms. I only observed an existing group fighting a troll in a dungeon. I remember that one of the characters threw a piece of pie at it, which was part of the loot they found. The troll caught it mid-air with its mouth and became god-like. I thought to myself that the dungeon master was not good at all, which was weird since I had nothing to compare them to.
A few years later the first #Numenera echoed through my bubbles. I managed to get it from the seven seas and immediately understood the richness of TTRPGs beyond the mainstream. I fell in love with such games there and then.
It was again years before I got a chance to be part of a DnD group, and again years before I was a game master of Numenera (of which I now own most of the books). My first adventure involved the tumourous beasties that plagued a small town after people were deconstructed for skills, and an epic NPC called Nex, whose masks kept changing to symbolically amplify his communication.
Recently I also dip into other fun stuff, such as Mausritter, Wanderhome, Fall of Magic, etc. I really enjoy leaning heavily into everyone's imagination at the table and just going weird with it, with the welcome challenge being keeping it coherent. Now I'm eyeing Sig Manual of the Primes, and exploring Amber Diceless and Nephilim, which reward exactly that kind of imaginative commitment.
I'm also experimenting and creating my own games at my secret hideout, but this is easier said than done.
-
I've seen the Gradient Descent, good stuff. I'm not too big into megadungeons, though I do own the Jade Colossus and that is a fantastic book. The dungeon generator in particular is so well executed. But I'm a bit biased towards #Numenera so :blobcatshrug:
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I've seen the Gradient Descent, good stuff. I'm not too big into megadungeons, though I do own the Jade Colossus and that is a fantastic book. The dungeon generator in particular is so well executed. But I'm a bit biased towards #Numenera so :blobcatshrug:
-
I've seen the Gradient Descent, good stuff. I'm not too big into megadungeons, though I do own the Jade Colossus and that is a fantastic book. The dungeon generator in particular is so well executed. But I'm a bit biased towards #Numenera so :blobcatshrug:
-
I've seen the Gradient Descent, good stuff. I'm not too big into megadungeons, though I do own the Jade Colossus and that is a fantastic book. The dungeon generator in particular is so well executed. But I'm a bit biased towards #Numenera so :blobcatshrug:
-
I've seen the Gradient Descent, good stuff. I'm not too big into megadungeons, though I do own the Jade Colossus and that is a fantastic book. The dungeon generator in particular is so well executed. But I'm a bit biased towards #Numenera so :blobcatshrug:
-
Ran a one-shot of #Numenera today. It was fun, but I always find the deep lore of the setting a little tough.
I understand it's not necessary to use the lore, and I can set my game in a wholly unexplored region of the Ninth World, but I still find its presence in the book a bit weighty.
I think I prefer the looser world building of something like Vaults of Vaarn, a somewhat less detailed science fantasy world. There's quite a bit less detail, more a mood than an atlas.
I've considered just using Numenera/Cypher rules in a #VaultsOfVaarn setting.
-
Ran a one-shot of #Numenera today. It was fun, but I always find the deep lore of the setting a little tough.
I understand it's not necessary to use the lore, and I can set my game in a wholly unexplored region of the Ninth World, but I still find its presence in the book a bit weighty.
I think I prefer the looser world building of something like Vaults of Vaarn, a somewhat less detailed science fantasy world. There's quite a bit less detail, more a mood than an atlas.
I've considered just using Numenera/Cypher rules in a #VaultsOfVaarn setting.
-
Ran a one-shot of #Numenera today. It was fun, but I always find the deep lore of the setting a little tough.
I understand it's not necessary to use the lore, and I can set my game in a wholly unexplored region of the Ninth World, but I still find its presence in the book a bit weighty.
I think I prefer the looser world building of something like Vaults of Vaarn, a somewhat less detailed science fantasy world. There's quite a bit less detail, more a mood than an atlas.
I've considered just using Numenera/Cypher rules in a #VaultsOfVaarn setting.
-
Back in the day and after being amused by #DnD from a distance, I was there to witness the rise of #Numenera. It uplifted what I liked most about DnD - the vivid storytelling - and sidelined the tactical battles (not that there is anything wrong with that if well executed). I'm not a veteran from the times when the genre was conceived, but I have been around enough to know that this is nothing new in #TTRPGs, or the philosophy of various sciences for that matter. The approach to unshackle human creativity through effective guidance is an age-long quest that led to the experimental, narrative-embedded nature of #NSR, and especially established the "weird" as a label genre.
Though while we say weird, we do mean conventionally inexplicable and often far-out worldbuilding instead of a real genre. The genre itself of the "weird" is often a mixture of horror, heroic fantasy, post-sci-fi, some kind of grit and followed by a peculiar flavour. This borderless mixture of styles with self-confident abandon that subjects all other aspects of the medium is what The Bride! was to me. It puts the genre tropes to the side to favour contemporary techniques that enliven the subtleties of what we are as beings.
#Stellaris is one of my favourite video games because through the sheer volume of mechanics, content and striking just the right balance between the abstract and suggestive nature of its presentation, it nails emergent narration to such masterful dimensions that the player keeps building the story, the very world of their playthrough, even after shutting the PC down and doing other, unrelated tasks. The main mechanic, despite the intricate interstellar society management system, is the memetic story evolving in the player's head. One of my most cherished empires from years ago - the United Hearthsea - to this day makes me actively ponder how its story might have continued developing.
The Bride! and other similar movies work with the observer in a similar fashion by respecting the viewer's agency. They are more than what was put on film, their stories fuse with the spectator's soul more so than the usual, much more cohesive content. This is not easy to pull off, as such attempts sometimes end up in the camp territory, or are oftenly forgotten.
The modern DnD adventures all have a clear structure of what is to be done and how. Sure, the game emerges through the interaction of players, but the framing is what holds it together. Numenera, and some other daring games (such as Sig: Manual of the Primes) flip this idea around and give the players much more to associate. They do this by centring the world first and distributing the influence over its threads among all players at the table.
When I go and play DnD 5.5e at meetups, I miss this trip of the mind, the emergent storytelling of alternative realities screaming in our heads and hearts, and mechanics that adapt to this way of playing, instead of whipping the tale into moulds inherited from times when true alternatives were scarce.
I crave all the daring experimentation in gaming. I want more creative catalysts that trust their own integrity enough to offer agency that can bring out the suppressed parts of ourselves to light. So that we can observe them, play with them, and finally embody them - everything between the divine and the monstrous.
2/?
-
Back in the day and after being amused by #DnD from a distance, I was there to witness the rise of #Numenera. It uplifted what I liked most about DnD - the vivid storytelling - and sidelined the tactical battles (not that there is anything wrong with that if well executed). I'm not a veteran from the times when the genre was conceived, but I have been around enough to know that this is nothing new in #TTRPGs, or the philosophy of various sciences for that matter. The approach to unshackle human creativity through effective guidance is an age-long quest that led to the experimental, narrative-embedded nature of #NSR, and especially established the "weird" as a label genre.
Though while we say weird, we do mean conventionally inexplicable and often far-out worldbuilding instead of a real genre. The genre itself of the "weird" is often a mixture of horror, heroic fantasy, post-sci-fi, some kind of grit and followed by a peculiar flavour. This borderless mixture of styles with self-confident abandon that subjects all other aspects of the medium is what The Bride! was to me. It puts the genre tropes to the side to favour contemporary techniques that enliven the subtleties of what we are as beings.
#Stellaris is one of my favourite video games because through the sheer volume of mechanics, content and striking just the right balance between the abstract and suggestive nature of its presentation, it nails emergent narration to such masterful dimensions that the player keeps building the story, the very world of their playthrough, even after shutting the PC down and doing other, unrelated tasks. The main mechanic, despite the intricate interstellar society management system, is the memetic story evolving in the player's head. One of my most cherished empires from years ago - the United Hearthsea - to this day makes me actively ponder how its story might have continued developing.
The Bride! and other similar movies work with the observer in a similar fashion by respecting the viewer's agency. They are more than what was put on film, their stories fuse with the spectator's soul more so than the usual, much more cohesive content. This is not easy to pull off, as such attempts sometimes end up in the camp territory, or are oftenly forgotten.
The modern DnD adventures all have a clear structure of what is to be done and how. Sure, the game emerges through the interaction of players, but the framing is what holds it together. Numenera, and some other daring games (such as Sig: Manual of the Primes) flip this idea around and give the players much more to associate. They do this by centring the world first and distributing the influence over its threads among all players at the table.
When I go and play DnD 5.5e at meetups, I miss this trip of the mind, the emergent storytelling of alternative realities screaming in our heads and hearts, and mechanics that adapt to this way of playing, instead of whipping the tale into moulds inherited from times when true alternatives were scarce.
I crave all the daring experimentation in gaming. I want more creative catalysts that trust their own integrity enough to offer agency that can bring out the suppressed parts of ourselves to light. So that we can observe them, play with them, and finally embody them - everything between the divine and the monstrous.
2/?
-
Back in the day and after being amused by #DnD from a distance, I was there to witness the rise of #Numenera. It uplifted what I liked most about DnD - the vivid storytelling - and sidelined the tactical battles (not that there is anything wrong with that if well executed). I'm not a veteran from the times when the genre was conceived, but I have been around enough to know that this is nothing new in #TTRPGs, or the philosophy of various sciences for that matter. The approach to unshackle human creativity through effective guidance is an age-long quest that led to the experimental, narrative-embedded nature of #NSR, and especially established the "weird" as a label genre.
Though while we say weird, we do mean conventionally inexplicable and often far-out worldbuilding instead of a real genre. The genre itself of the "weird" is often a mixture of horror, heroic fantasy, post-sci-fi, some kind of grit and followed by a peculiar flavour. This borderless mixture of styles with self-confident abandon that subjects all other aspects of the medium is what The Bride! was to me. It puts the genre tropes to the side to favour contemporary techniques that enliven the subtleties of what we are as beings.
#Stellaris is one of my favourite video games because through the sheer volume of mechanics, content and striking just the right balance between the abstract and suggestive nature of its presentation, it nails emergent narration to such masterful dimensions that the player keeps building the story, the very world of their playthrough, even after shutting the PC down and doing other, unrelated tasks. The main mechanic, despite the intricate interstellar society management system, is the memetic story evolving in the player's head. One of my most cherished empires from years ago - the United Hearthsea - to this day makes me actively ponder how its story might have continued developing.
The Bride! and other similar movies work with the observer in a similar fashion by respecting the viewer's agency. They are more than what was put on film, their stories fuse with the spectator's soul more so than the usual, much more cohesive content. This is not easy to pull off, as such attempts sometimes end up in the camp territory, or are oftenly forgotten.
The modern DnD adventures all have a clear structure of what is to be done and how. Sure, the game emerges through the interaction of players, but the framing is what holds it together. Numenera, and some other daring games (such as Sig: Manual of the Primes) flip this idea around and give the players much more to associate. They do this by centring the world first and distributing the influence over its threads among all players at the table.
When I go and play DnD 5.5e at meetups, I miss this trip of the mind, the emergent storytelling of alternative realities screaming in our heads and hearts, and mechanics that adapt to this way of playing, instead of whipping the tale into moulds inherited from times when true alternatives were scarce.
I crave all the daring experimentation in gaming. I want more creative catalysts that trust their own integrity enough to offer agency that can bring out the suppressed parts of ourselves to light. So that we can observe them, play with them, and finally embody them - everything between the divine and the monstrous.
2/?
-
Back in the day and after being amused by #DnD from a distance, I was there to witness the rise of #Numenera. It uplifted what I liked most about DnD - the vivid storytelling - and sidelined the tactical battles (not that there is anything wrong with that if well executed). I'm not a veteran from the times when the genre was conceived, but I have been around enough to know that this is nothing new in #TTRPGs, or the philosophy of various sciences for that matter. The approach to unshackle human creativity through effective guidance is an age-long quest that led to the experimental, narrative-embedded nature of #NSR, and especially established the "weird" as a label genre.
Though while we say weird, we do mean conventionally inexplicable and often far-out worldbuilding instead of a real genre. The genre itself of the "weird" is often a mixture of horror, heroic fantasy, post-sci-fi, some kind of grit and followed by a peculiar flavour. This borderless mixture of styles with self-confident abandon that subjects all other aspects of the medium is what The Bride! was to me. It puts the genre tropes to the side to favour contemporary techniques that enliven the subtleties of what we are as beings.
#Stellaris is one of my favourite video games because through the sheer volume of mechanics, content and striking just the right balance between the abstract and suggestive nature of its presentation, it nails emergent narration to such masterful dimensions that the player keeps building the story, the very world of their playthrough, even after shutting the PC down and doing other, unrelated tasks. The main mechanic, despite the intricate interstellar society management system, is the memetic story evolving in the player's head. One of my most cherished empires from years ago - the United Hearthsea - to this day makes me actively ponder how its story might have continued developing.
The Bride! and other similar movies work with the observer in a similar fashion by respecting the viewer's agency. They are more than what was put on film, their stories fuse with the spectator's soul more so than the usual, much more cohesive content. This is not easy to pull off, as such attempts sometimes end up in the camp territory, or are oftenly forgotten.
The modern DnD adventures all have a clear structure of what is to be done and how. Sure, the game emerges through the interaction of players, but the framing is what holds it together. Numenera, and some other daring games (such as Sig: Manual of the Primes) flip this idea around and give the players much more to associate. They do this by centring the world first and distributing the influence over its threads among all players at the table.
When I go and play DnD 5.5e at meetups, I miss this trip of the mind, the emergent storytelling of alternative realities screaming in our heads and hearts, and mechanics that adapt to this way of playing, instead of whipping the tale into moulds inherited from times when true alternatives were scarce.
I crave all the daring experimentation in gaming. I want more creative catalysts that trust their own integrity enough to offer agency that can bring out the suppressed parts of ourselves to light. So that we can observe them, play with them, and finally embody them - everything between the divine and the monstrous.
2/?
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Back in the day and after being amused by #DnD from a distance, I was there to witness the rise of #Numenera. It uplifted what I liked most about DnD - the vivid storytelling - and sidelined the tactical battles (not that there is anything wrong with that if well executed). I'm not a veteran from the times when the genre was conceived, but I have been around enough to know that this is nothing new in #TTRPGs, or the philosophy of various sciences for that matter. The approach to unshackle human creativity through effective guidance is an age-long quest that led to the experimental, narrative-embedded nature of #NSR, and especially established the "weird" as a label genre.
Though while we say weird, we do mean conventionally inexplicable and often far-out worldbuilding instead of a real genre. The genre itself of the "weird" is often a mixture of horror, heroic fantasy, post-sci-fi, some kind of grit and followed by a peculiar flavour. This borderless mixture of styles with self-confident abandon that subjects all other aspects of the medium is what The Bride! was to me. It puts the genre tropes to the side to favour contemporary techniques that enliven the subtleties of what we are as beings.
#Stellaris is one of my favourite video games because through the sheer volume of mechanics, content and striking just the right balance between the abstract and suggestive nature of its presentation, it nails emergent narration to such masterful dimensions that the player keeps building the story, the very world of their playthrough, even after shutting the PC down and doing other, unrelated tasks. The main mechanic, despite the intricate interstellar society management system, is the memetic story evolving in the player's head. One of my most cherished empires from years ago - the United Hearthsea - to this day makes me actively ponder how its story might have continued developing.
The Bride! and other similar movies work with the observer in a similar fashion by respecting the viewer's agency. They are more than what was put on film, their stories fuse with the spectator's soul more so than the usual, much more cohesive content. This is not easy to pull off, as such attempts sometimes end up in the camp territory, or are oftenly forgotten.
The modern DnD adventures all have a clear structure of what is to be done and how. Sure, the game emerges through the interaction of players, but the framing is what holds it together. Numenera, and some other daring games (such as Sig: Manual of the Primes) flip this idea around and give the players much more to associate. They do this by centring the world first and distributing the influence over its threads among all players at the table.
When I go and play DnD 5.5e at meetups, I miss this trip of the mind, the emergent storytelling of alternative realities screaming in our heads and hearts, and mechanics that adapt to this way of playing, instead of whipping the tale into moulds inherited from times when true alternatives were scarce.
I crave all the daring experimentation in gaming. I want more creative catalysts that trust their own integrity enough to offer agency that can bring out the suppressed parts of ourselves to light. So that we can observe them, play with them, and finally embody them - everything between the divine and the monstrous.
2/?
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Had a fun Sunday.
Ran a fairly successful session of #Numenera and will probably have a follow up game, possibly a short campaign.
Afterward, I caught a showing of John Woo's "A Better Tomorrow" at a local movie theater.
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Had a fun Sunday.
Ran a fairly successful session of #Numenera and will probably have a follow up game, possibly a short campaign.
Afterward, I caught a showing of John Woo's "A Better Tomorrow" at a local movie theater.
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Had a fun Sunday.
Ran a fairly successful session of #Numenera and will probably have a follow up game, possibly a short campaign.
Afterward, I caught a showing of John Woo's "A Better Tomorrow" at a local movie theater.
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Keep up the good work folks! The new #Numenera kickstarter from #MonteCookGames has now passed the original.
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/numenera/updates/38414?ref=bk-noti-project-update-38414 -
Keep up the good work folks! The new #Numenera kickstarter from #MonteCookGames has now passed the original.
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/numenera/updates/38414?ref=bk-noti-project-update-38414 -
Keep up the good work folks! The new #Numenera kickstarter from #MonteCookGames has now passed the original.
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/numenera/updates/38414?ref=bk-noti-project-update-38414 -
Keep up the good work folks! The new #Numenera kickstarter from #MonteCookGames has now passed the original.
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/numenera/updates/38414?ref=bk-noti-project-update-38414 -
Keep up the good work folks! The new #Numenera kickstarter from #MonteCookGames has now passed the original.
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/numenera/updates/38414?ref=bk-noti-project-update-38414 -
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/numenera
A new Edition of the Amazing Numenera RPG is being Funded
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https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/numenera
A new Edition of the Amazing Numenera RPG is being Funded
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https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/numenera
A new Edition of the Amazing Numenera RPG is being Funded
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https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/numenera
A new Edition of the Amazing Numenera RPG is being Funded
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https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/numenera
A new Edition of the Amazing Numenera RPG is being Funded
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We head back to the Ninth World and take a closer look at the new edition of Numenera coming soon from Monte Cook Games for the Cypher System. https://ttrpgfans.com/numenera-new-cypher-edition/ #Numenera #MonteCook #montecookgames #ninthworld #ttrpg #tabletoprpg #rpg
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We head back to the Ninth World and take a closer look at the new edition of Numenera coming soon from Monte Cook Games for the Cypher System. https://ttrpgfans.com/numenera-new-cypher-edition/ #Numenera #MonteCook #montecookgames #ninthworld #ttrpg #tabletoprpg #rpg
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We head back to the Ninth World and take a closer look at the new edition of Numenera coming soon from Monte Cook Games for the Cypher System. https://ttrpgfans.com/numenera-new-cypher-edition/ #Numenera #MonteCook #montecookgames #ninthworld #ttrpg #tabletoprpg #rpg
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We head back to the Ninth World and take a closer look at the new edition of Numenera coming soon from Monte Cook Games for the Cypher System. https://ttrpgfans.com/numenera-new-cypher-edition/ #Numenera #MonteCook #montecookgames #ninthworld #ttrpg #tabletoprpg #rpg
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Hey all; tonight I'm talking all the TTRPG things, but largely @montecookgames and #Numenera, with Cypher Unlimited
https://www.twitch.tv/cypherunlimitedliveCheck it out at 9pm EST
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Hey all; tonight I'm talking all the TTRPG things, but largely @montecookgames and #Numenera, with Cypher Unlimited
https://www.twitch.tv/cypherunlimitedliveCheck it out at 9pm EST
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Hey all; tonight I'm talking all the TTRPG things, but largely @montecookgames and #Numenera, with Cypher Unlimited
https://www.twitch.tv/cypherunlimitedliveCheck it out at 9pm EST
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Hey all; tonight I'm talking all the TTRPG things, but largely @montecookgames and #Numenera, with Cypher Unlimited
https://www.twitch.tv/cypherunlimitedliveCheck it out at 9pm EST
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Hey all; tonight I'm talking all the TTRPG things, but largely @montecookgames and #Numenera, with Cypher Unlimited
https://www.twitch.tv/cypherunlimitedliveCheck it out at 9pm EST