Neil Gow
@omnihedron.co.uk
All the good TTRPG stuff on here
Read my gaming musings: omnihedron.co.uk
Check out Liminal RPG pages: liminal.omnihedron.co.uk and patreon.com/omnihedron
Conventions at the Garrison? Garrison.omniheron.co.uk
Read my gaming musings: omnihedron.co.uk
Check out Liminal RPG pages: liminal.omnihedron.co.uk and patreon.com/omnihedron
Conventions at the Garrison? Garrison.omniheron.co.uk
I have the same feeling about tables with 99-00: Roll again and apply both effects, but which then tell you in detail that if you roll 99-00 again it doesn't count!
Because two mediocre critical effects is fine, but three? Will someone think of the children!!
Because two mediocre critical effects is fine, but three? Will someone think of the children!!
December 13, 2025 at 10:33 PM
I have the same feeling about tables with 99-00: Roll again and apply both effects, but which then tell you in detail that if you roll 99-00 again it doesn't count!
Because two mediocre critical effects is fine, but three? Will someone think of the children!!
Because two mediocre critical effects is fine, but three? Will someone think of the children!!
In the Venn diagram of RPG jokes and Dad jokes, this is pretty much bang on the middle. Well done! 😁
December 13, 2025 at 10:29 PM
In the Venn diagram of RPG jokes and Dad jokes, this is pretty much bang on the middle. Well done! 😁
... On an app! And guess what? It's a Fish and Chip shop. I don't want to have to sign up for an app to get a corned beef patty.
Imagine if a walk-in pizza shop, with a working pizza oven, didn't cook pizzas unless you ordered them online?
Utter utter bollocks.
Imagine if a walk-in pizza shop, with a working pizza oven, didn't cook pizzas unless you ordered them online?
Utter utter bollocks.
December 13, 2025 at 3:26 PM
... On an app! And guess what? It's a Fish and Chip shop. I don't want to have to sign up for an app to get a corned beef patty.
Imagine if a walk-in pizza shop, with a working pizza oven, didn't cook pizzas unless you ordered them online?
Utter utter bollocks.
Imagine if a walk-in pizza shop, with a working pizza oven, didn't cook pizzas unless you ordered them online?
Utter utter bollocks.
The Express? They're the usual culprit, but since we have started to have year-on-year record tarmac melting summers, they only have one weather apocalypse to 'predict' now, and they go hard.
Clearly, none of this would matter if Diana was alive...
Clearly, none of this would matter if Diana was alive...
December 12, 2025 at 7:49 PM
The Express? They're the usual culprit, but since we have started to have year-on-year record tarmac melting summers, they only have one weather apocalypse to 'predict' now, and they go hard.
Clearly, none of this would matter if Diana was alive...
Clearly, none of this would matter if Diana was alive...
There seemed to be quite a bit of masculine cache attached to the intimate knowledge of weaponry which I just couldn't buy into. In later life I learned that whilst we all know katanas can cut through tank armour, if wielded with the right trenchcoat, the Uzi was not actually the WMD people said!
December 12, 2025 at 10:03 AM
There seemed to be quite a bit of masculine cache attached to the intimate knowledge of weaponry which I just couldn't buy into. In later life I learned that whilst we all know katanas can cut through tank armour, if wielded with the right trenchcoat, the Uzi was not actually the WMD people said!
This thread has brought back visceral memories of my youth. I wasn't into 'gun' films at all and was (and still am) constantly bemused by the torrent of references at our table to uzis, AK47, Ingram's, M16, Glocks, katana, shuriken, nunchucks and all manner of stuff.
'Gun' and 'Sword' to me...
'Gun' and 'Sword' to me...
December 12, 2025 at 9:56 AM
This thread has brought back visceral memories of my youth. I wasn't into 'gun' films at all and was (and still am) constantly bemused by the torrent of references at our table to uzis, AK47, Ingram's, M16, Glocks, katana, shuriken, nunchucks and all manner of stuff.
'Gun' and 'Sword' to me...
'Gun' and 'Sword' to me...
I honestly thought it was a Trek thing at first glance
December 11, 2025 at 12:27 PM
I honestly thought it was a Trek thing at first glance
That was my first thought. Or the allure of childhood doesn't translate into a misremembered game state.
December 10, 2025 at 4:45 PM
That was my first thought. Or the allure of childhood doesn't translate into a misremembered game state.
I have no plans in that direction again, but I did do a quick search on here for three obvious search terms and got next to nothing. Clearly not directing what's going on in my head onto the screen ... obviously.
December 10, 2025 at 9:38 AM
I have no plans in that direction again, but I did do a quick search on here for three obvious search terms and got next to nothing. Clearly not directing what's going on in my head onto the screen ... obviously.
With the scuttlebutt I'm hearing about the post Secret Wars landscape, they will be taking a chance to clear out and recast a load of roles to uncomplicate things and make way for more X-Men and FF content. There are going to be a lot of people upset with everything!
December 9, 2025 at 3:28 PM
With the scuttlebutt I'm hearing about the post Secret Wars landscape, they will be taking a chance to clear out and recast a load of roles to uncomplicate things and make way for more X-Men and FF content. There are going to be a lot of people upset with everything!
It's the same gaming with people you have only read online...
December 9, 2025 at 9:27 AM
It's the same gaming with people you have only read online...
The real question is ... What was the Mudslide count?
December 7, 2025 at 6:30 AM
The real question is ... What was the Mudslide count?
Ok, look, the PC is the pepper pot and the monster is the bottle of HP. The flanking PC is the apple core and the other monster is your mobile phone. The threat zone is the beer mat....
December 6, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Ok, look, the PC is the pepper pot and the monster is the bottle of HP. The flanking PC is the apple core and the other monster is your mobile phone. The threat zone is the beer mat....
That one slapped me in the face like a fish - they'd had a really good run since the 'rolling to hit with a fireball' thing!
December 6, 2025 at 11:46 AM
That one slapped me in the face like a fish - they'd had a really good run since the 'rolling to hit with a fireball' thing!
Just call it Brown Ale, like we do.
I went to Uni in Lancaster. My college had four bitters: Thwaites, Webster's, Boddies and Stones iirc. If you wanted any peace from the Bar Steward, you drank bitter. He was... idiosyncratic
I went to Uni in Lancaster. My college had four bitters: Thwaites, Webster's, Boddies and Stones iirc. If you wanted any peace from the Bar Steward, you drank bitter. He was... idiosyncratic
December 5, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Just call it Brown Ale, like we do.
I went to Uni in Lancaster. My college had four bitters: Thwaites, Webster's, Boddies and Stones iirc. If you wanted any peace from the Bar Steward, you drank bitter. He was... idiosyncratic
I went to Uni in Lancaster. My college had four bitters: Thwaites, Webster's, Boddies and Stones iirc. If you wanted any peace from the Bar Steward, you drank bitter. He was... idiosyncratic
detail to the document and sometimes see where I had got it wrong in the design, when it came to play. That experience informs the design too.
Playtesting is product testing and as such is vital to the process.
Playtesting is product testing and as such is vital to the process.
December 5, 2025 at 10:13 AM
detail to the document and sometimes see where I had got it wrong in the design, when it came to play. That experience informs the design too.
Playtesting is product testing and as such is vital to the process.
Playtesting is product testing and as such is vital to the process.
I tend towards crucibles rather than pathways, so you can never cover every possibility. When I write my brief Liminal case files for the patreon, they tend to be untested but also simple.
The Caliburn Chronicles, however, is written, played, edited and then posted. That shakedown allows me to add
The Caliburn Chronicles, however, is written, played, edited and then posted. That shakedown allows me to add
December 5, 2025 at 10:13 AM
I tend towards crucibles rather than pathways, so you can never cover every possibility. When I write my brief Liminal case files for the patreon, they tend to be untested but also simple.
The Caliburn Chronicles, however, is written, played, edited and then posted. That shakedown allows me to add
The Caliburn Chronicles, however, is written, played, edited and then posted. That shakedown allows me to add
..and stops you looking like an idiot and giving the gamers who have trusted your product a Bad Experience. Remember, even a free product has an intangible, non-financial cost of time, effort and social capital when organising a game.
Adventures? I'm a little more lassez faire on, myself.
Adventures? I'm a little more lassez faire on, myself.
December 5, 2025 at 10:13 AM
..and stops you looking like an idiot and giving the gamers who have trusted your product a Bad Experience. Remember, even a free product has an intangible, non-financial cost of time, effort and social capital when organising a game.
Adventures? I'm a little more lassez faire on, myself.
Adventures? I'm a little more lassez faire on, myself.
'It's not been playtested' is easy to say, hard to prove and nicely casts a cloak of incompetence over the designers when something missed in playtest comes around.
Internal (by the designer) and external (without the designer) testing is critical. Designers make mistakes. Testing shakes them out..
Internal (by the designer) and external (without the designer) testing is critical. Designers make mistakes. Testing shakes them out..
December 5, 2025 at 10:13 AM
'It's not been playtested' is easy to say, hard to prove and nicely casts a cloak of incompetence over the designers when something missed in playtest comes around.
Internal (by the designer) and external (without the designer) testing is critical. Designers make mistakes. Testing shakes them out..
Internal (by the designer) and external (without the designer) testing is critical. Designers make mistakes. Testing shakes them out..
The same is true of complex trad RPGs to an extent. Famous exploits and combos like Wish/Simulacrum and the CoffeeLock from D&D are examples. Does that mean the game wasn't playtested? Absolutely not - open playtests like Unearthed Arcana for D&D and The Void for DH are a thing nowadays.
December 5, 2025 at 10:13 AM
The same is true of complex trad RPGs to an extent. Famous exploits and combos like Wish/Simulacrum and the CoffeeLock from D&D are examples. Does that mean the game wasn't playtested? Absolutely not - open playtests like Unearthed Arcana for D&D and The Void for DH are a thing nowadays.
Are we seriously, in 2025, questioning the need to playtest games?
I used to be a lead playtester for a CCG with no rotation policy. When the number of sets got into double figures it became increasingly difficult to spot obscure combos formed from the interaction with a forgotten card from set 2
I used to be a lead playtester for a CCG with no rotation policy. When the number of sets got into double figures it became increasingly difficult to spot obscure combos formed from the interaction with a forgotten card from set 2
December 5, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Are we seriously, in 2025, questioning the need to playtest games?
I used to be a lead playtester for a CCG with no rotation policy. When the number of sets got into double figures it became increasingly difficult to spot obscure combos formed from the interaction with a forgotten card from set 2
I used to be a lead playtester for a CCG with no rotation policy. When the number of sets got into double figures it became increasingly difficult to spot obscure combos formed from the interaction with a forgotten card from set 2