Not GURPS: I'm Interested in Blogging again

I've been updating PseudoBot regularly still, but haven't blogged for a while. I'm kinda interested in doing so again. This is just a metapost with a few details of what has happened in my real life recently, and if that kinda boring minutiae is not your cup of tea, then there is no reason to see what is beyond the break. One important thing to note: from now on, my pronouns are she/her.

Cross-Post: GURPSDay Summary and Reflections

Taking it easy.

Another month down, almost halfway there.

Post-Mortem: The Year So Far

So, we are one third through the year. In that much time, I have seen the end of four games; well, the end of my relationship with them at least. I don't know if the conclusion or end of a game is necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, it needs to end, and as long as people are mature about it, it means that perhaps things can get better from there for all parties involved. This post is kind of a lessons learned. I think a lot of them are "preaching to the choir" and/or that kind of limp-wristed advice that every single "how to be a good GM" post has ever parroted, but you know, sometimes you can't comprehend the writing on the wall until you've seen it for yourself. Without further ado, let's see if I learned anything helpful.

Cross-Post: GURPSDay Summary and Reflections

Art.

I stopped doing these weekly because I've been only posting once or twice a week, so here's a kinda month-wide metapost.

Social Contract: Silly Romperoo

Kinda like teamwork, but
meta!

So, after a bit of self discovery through running my first online game with random(ish) people, I think I am now prepared to hash out a social contract, which is as follows:

Fundamentals: The Social Contract

The social contract that should
be enough, but sometimes isn't.

The "Social Contract" is an idea that floats around in Tabletop Gaming about what is expected, in a meta sense for players and the GM. It is closely related to campaign planning, but subtly different; where campaign planning deals with designing the specifications of the campaign or adventure and has direct mechanical or narrative consequences on the game, the social contract is everything that happens outside of a game. In a perfect, ideal world, amongst adults, no one should need to nanny, coddle, and reprimand players, but sometimes there are shades of gray, or a misunderstanding of what is and isn't expected, rude, and polite. Today, I look at a list of questions one can ask themselves and the group while preparing or running "session 0," that might help things go smoother down the line.

Meta: I won a thing

I was super excited I won, because I thought that meant I wrote something cool. Found out it was a random drawing. Oh well, at least I got a prize!

Cross-Post: GURPS Day Impact on Game in the Brain

The blog was mentioned on Game in the Brain, which is an honor, because the heady theory and design talk over there is always a fascinating read to me. Kinda fun when someone you admire says nice things about what you write. Here's hoping to your continued blogging and success, friend.

Advantage: Serendipity

I've never seen this,
but I've always liked the title.

Serendipity is a pretty difficult advantage for me to wrap my head around. I mean, compare the advantage very similar in concept and theme Luck, and it is a whole different ballpark. Luck has a very hard coded mechanical specific benefit to it, and Serendipity has a really wibbly wobbly soft and mushy benefit. Which kinda stinks, because I really like the concept of Serendipity, explaining the idea of lucky coincidences as a component of what defines a character is pretty swell, and there are a lot of characters in fiction that are repeatedly saved by Deus Ex Machina, so it is not an unusual element either. Today, I'm going to dissect this advantage and try to make sense of it so I can make it consistent.

Cross-Post: GURPSDay Summary and Reflections

GURPS!

The weekly post is up, and that means time for some reflection and meta!

Cross-Post: GURPSDay Summary and Reflections

GURPSday!

It's GURPSday, let's take a look at what is going on in GURPSlife and GURPSfashion this week.

Cross-Post: GURPSDay Summary and Reflections

10,000 Get Edition

It's that time of week again where I get meta. It's GURPSDay!
Let's take a look at what happened in the last 7 or so days.

Figures: My girlfriend bought me some Lego Minifigs so I can have a bit more variety.

The pirates and the skeletons wear
the same hats. #deepestLore

Not much to say, but thanks! Since people like photography with the session logs, and I've been using humble army men, and skeletons and pirates, my girlfriend got me some Minifigs to spice it up. It's both our birthdays this month! It was this set by the way.

Cross-Post: GURPSDay Summary

So, this is what happened in the wild world of GURPS. My take, after the break.

Comparison: Calculating Melee Attacking Proficiency in different RPGs

Because I've recently been looking at other systems for inspiration to understand more clearly what GURPS does well and what it does not do well, I've decided to catalog a few side by side examples of combat from a few other popular systems. This post is trying to be objective as possible, with the caveat that I really like GURPS, so it is nigh impossible to be objective. The systems I have decided to compare, besides GURPS

• D&D 5E - Dungeons and Dragons is the anchor point for most people; that is, I feel like a lot of people will describe a system by saying how it does x better and y worse than D&D, so this is natural.
• Fate - An alternative generic role playing system that gives a great amount of narrative control to the players. Mechanics exist in favor of telling a good story and playing compelling characters.
• Savage Worlds - Another generic system, somewhat of an "in-between" for GURPS and Fate.
• Ryuutama - Just for giggles, a system that I've been learning that focuses on telling slice-of-life style fantasy stories rather than sword and sorcery battling and dungeon delving, but has a simple combat system nonetheless.

I hope this post is a (mostly) impartial, informative, and enlightening look at the complexities of various battle mechanics from several popular systems (and Ryuutama)