Print and Play

It's probably time that I stop worrying about how much my game and playstyle align with any movements in the broader RPG environment. I'm OK with saying that I'm not OSR and I'm not "modern" either; I'm old-fashioned without being old school, as I said years ago. Although I don't do it as mechanistically or with the jargon of Dungeon World, that playstyle, with fronts, is probably among the closest analogs to how I like to run a game, with rules that are simple and rules-lite. Their convergence with OSR adjacent rules is not important, and is kind of a coincidence in a way anyway. It's not a binary, and it is certainly possible to see weaknesses in and reject the playstyle of the site-based exploration with resource management and other wargamey lingering relics as well as the post-Dragonlance story-driven railroad. Enough about philosophy of playstyle and all that.

What's next for Dark Fantasy X? I have a day off coming up, and because I've been really busy in my time off lately, I think that may be the first time that I really have a chance to make some progress on some stuff. I'd like to go to the library to print my rule set (I tried to print it at home, and my printer skipped some pages and messed up the print job. I was afraid that would happen, so I want it printed at the public library, even if it costs me a few bucks. It's still cheaper than wasting my own ink, I suspect.) Then I can stick it in my report covers (two copies) and have that task done. Secondly, I'd like to draw my campaign map for CHAOS IN WAYCHESTER. That's a long overdue task that will take a few hours, but a relaxed day without much on the agenda is what I need to make it a reality, I think. I draw that on relatively large paper, so I need to scan that at the library too. But if the weather's good, and the timing works out, two walks to the public library is probably good for me anyway. I spend way more time sitting on my butt in an office chair than I'd like.

I'm a little hesitant to do so, but I'm considering putting together a request to find players on the subreddit LFG. Partly because I'm not quite sure how to describe the game in a useful way (see rambling first paragraph above), and partly because I'm a bit leery about what kind of responses I'll get and what kind of people they will be. There may be some requisite trial and error to settle on who I allow to play from the pool of potentials I get; I'm afraid of getting weirdos who want to do their own thing rather than the setting and campaign that I'm attempting to run. I can probably get my son-in-law to play too. Maybe he's got a few friends that he can talk into playing, and will be more like "real people" as opposed to internet weirdos. I'd love to get my oldest son to play, but I suspect that with his schedule he'll have a hard time committing. If I can get 3-5 players that look both reliable and normal and are on board with the premise of the game, then maybe I'll go for it after all. Because I can, I'll probably run this simply on Google Meet with "theatre of the mind" combat and "I trust you to report accurate dice rolls" so I can roll my actual physical dice, which I'd rather do.

I'll post a draft LFG post below. But I'll be a little bit hesitant about actually sending it, at least until I talk to my son-in-law first and get some feedback from him on whether he thinks he can wrangle another player or two.

I've also reverted to my original rune superscript at the top of the banner from what I had. Not that anyone else cares about that, but the one that I had decided on just didn't have the same classic look to me as the Cthulhu Runes font did, which I've used for this kind of thing for literally over a decade now. I'm also considering swapping to the top option here, even though I actually think that I like the bottom slightly better. However, given that the bottom option uses the same font (or at least a very similar one) as the recent ShadowDark game, as well as the much older Labyrinth Lord game (probably where I found it in the first place), I may want to forego having the same look. Even if I do like it a little better. Maybe I can figure out a way to make the top font look a little "messier"; one of the things that I enjoy a lot about the bottom font.

I guess I better decide if I'm going to change it pretty quick before I print my game out. Once I print it, I won't be very willing to change things again.

A couple of the grubby low fantasy type characters who may well make up a typical PC. Here's a draft for the pitch:

[Online][OSR Adjacent][Homebrew][Low Fantasy] Looking for players

Looking for a couple more players for an online group. The ruleset is very rules-light, OSR-similar, but the playstyle is going to be much more like Call of Cthulhu or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay; horror, investigation, and skullduggery rather than dungeon-crawling or site exploration. Think fantasy meets The X-files. Still working out schedule, but I think every other week, on Friday or Saturday evening (Eastern Time) is likely. If interested, post here or DM me and we can work to see if we'll be a good fit together. No prior experience required; I've been running games since the 80s, and given the rules-light nature of the system, I can handle any concerns with the rules. Be prepared to simply show up and tell me what your character wants to do in normal language, without reference to mechanics, and it'll work out fine.

I should probably go update my Google Sites address for the setting too, since I'm looking at actually maybe trying to run the game.