tberton

This is a couple of pages late, but I thought I'd offer some advice here. For determining what move a player should make: read the fictional trigger carefully and think about whether or not the described action fits that trigger or not. If you're not sure, you or the player may not have described the action clearly enough, so go back and make sure you're clear on what's going on. That should help. Also, sometimes players will want to do things that don't require rolls and that's fine. If the potential for failure or complication doesn't seem interesting, just let them do it. In terms of GM moves, don't be afraid to pause and think about consequences. In fact, the book explicitly says that before decided on a move to make, you should take a second to consider whether or not it fits with your Principles and Agenda. Obviously don't take too long at this, but there's nothing wrong with taking a second to stop and think - it can even add drama. Remember, you're playing a game not directing a movie and playing a game well usually requires considered choices. I'm on EDT, but I would be able to swing a CST game and would be willing to GM. What game do you guys want to play.

I actually think that kind of works in the movie's favour a bit. In the book, Bill Haydon (Firth's character) looms much larger than any of the other suspects, to the point where it's obvious that he is the mole, except is so obvious that he can't possibly be the mole. which is why Karla picked him to be the mole. I feel like the director played the same double-bluff on the audience of the film

To be fair about that, Kingdom isn't supposed to have a GM or that many players, so it's not surprising that they had to do some tweaking on the fly.

Oh really? I quite enjoyed those episodes. I don't get the impression that The Quiet Year requires a lot of conflict to work, at least not between the players.

So, it looks like Gormongous, Salacious Snake, SuperBiasedMan, Vulpes Absurda, Twig and myself would be interested in The Sprawl. "Story game" is the term I hear used most often.

I'd be down to play The Sprawl too.

It's worth noting that while Dungeon World isn't nearly as combat-focused on D&D, it's still very adventure-focused - most time is spent overcoming (not necessarily fighting) monsters, delving through dungeons (obviously) and looting treasure. It's very good at that, but that's what it's about. If you want a more relationship-based game, I think Apocalypse World, Monsterhearts and Masks are more about that.

Transistor plays quite differently from Bastion, so you may still like it.

Roleplay Down a Hill.

I would be super down for playing Burning Wheel, although I don't think I'd feel confident enough to run it.

Oh yeah, sorry, those threads were only for making groups, I think. I've only GM'd a very small amount of Dungeon World and it's been with people I know (although two of the players didn't know each other), but I don't know why this would necessarily be the case any more than it is for any RPG. The game may seem like it has very few rules, but the rules that are there support play really well. It also has really good rules for the GM, which is possibly the most important part of an RPG's design.

More substantially, while I'm not aware of any good two-player games, here are a number of RPGs that I would love to play online and would be willing to GM for. Apocalypse World - fiction-first game set in a post-apocalyptic world evocative of Mad Max or Fallout. Dungeon World - based on the Apocalypse World system, but with the flavour and trappings of classic D&D. Monsterhearts - teenage vampires, werewolves and the like finding themselves and navigating life as a young person. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Vampire Diaries. Masks - teenage superheroes finding themselves and fighting supervillains. Think Young Avengers or Young Justice. Urban Shadows - wizards, ghosts, seers and the like navigate the politics of a city with a magical underbelly. Think Angel or the Dresden Files or World of Darkness. Blades in the Dark - a group of scoundrels seeking to make a name for themselves in an industrial fantasy city. Think Lies of Locke Lamora or The Wire.

So, I've been going back through the Mass Effect series because I never played 3 despite loving the first two games. I'm about 2/3s of the way through two right now. I haven't played it since my first go-around 6 years ago. Jesus christ you guys, this game is great. An improvement on the first game in every way, with the possible exception of removing the Mako outright instead of improving it. But still, easily one of my top 10 games ever. I love everything about it. Can't wait to play 3 (also I'm sorely tempted to just replay 2 again once I'm done, I love it that much).

Does TBS still air Friends reruns? I recommend that. Sorry. Real answer: if you've got a Game Boy Advance or a DS, the Advance Wars games are really good. They tend a little toward the "puzzle" end of strategy, but they're really fun anyway. Advance Wars 2 (GBA) is the one to get if you can find it, but Days of Ruin (DS) is also quite good. Also, pretty different than what I think you're looking for but techinically fitting your requirements is Transistor. Yeah, you only control 1 character, but it's got an awesome pause-and-queue-actions combat system and a ludicrously deep ability combination system that might scratch the same issue. Also, the visuals and music are as good as you'll ever encounter in a video game.

There actually is a thread for this in the Multiplayer Networking forum, but this is probably a better spot.

No joke, if anybody on this forum wants to play a Powered by the Apocalypse game or Blades in the Dark or something, I would totally be down.

A follow-up to this: if the Thumbs were looking to add a new podcast to the network, an Actual Play RPG podcast would be fucking great.

I was going to write into the podcast about exactly this. Really, there's an incredibly prolific indie tabletop RPG scene (which mostly congregates on Google+, weirdly enough), which includes the Powered by the Apocalypse games along with a bunch of others. I highly recommend Sean and the other Thumbs check it out, even if it's just for a look at a different type of game design. Tabletop RPG design is fascinating in the similarities it has to video game and board game design, but also in how different it is.

Damn you.

Hooray Sean! Regarding the brief Captain Olimar aside: Captain Olimar does not have a mustache.

Oh man, I had no idea that you guys were doing Runaway until my podcast feed updated! I love me some Alice Munro, but have never read this one (despite hearing that it might be her best). Got it on hold at the library now! Gregbrown, I know where you're coming from in terms of short stories being a weird format. If you want to give Munro another shot, I recommend either Lives of Girls and Women or Who Do You Think You Are? Both are short story collections that follow a single character, so they feel like a cross between a short story and a novel. They might give you more of the development and change that you're looking for. I think the former is more consistent throughout, but the latter has some freaking great stories. Wild Swans in particular. Here's a question that struck me as I was thinking about Munro this morning: why don't people talk about her more often? Even in Canada, even in discussions about women authors, she always seems like an afterthought. Like "Oh, yeah, Alice Munro is great. But we're going to talk about Margaret Atwood or Margaret Laurence". Yet I would argue (and the Nobel committee seems to agree) that Munro is Canada's best writer and one of the world's greatest living writers. Is it because short stories aren't as popular a genre (although as gregbrown says, their certainly popular in academic circles)? Is it because her work isn't overtly provocative or political?

The dislike of anything that smacks of randomness is my biggest (game design) gripe with a large portion of the board game hobby.

Listening to Dan learn about gravity on yesterday's Beastcast was magical.

Oh man, I remember hearing about Love way back in like 2008. I'll check this episode out.

That would have been a real slyboots move from Chris.