Leon Atkinson

RPG Author and Toolist ( Fractional CTO ( 30 years doing Internet apps. DM for consulting.

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

I am a fractional CTO who builds TTRPG random generators for fun (https://t.co/Qp5ysvz1XD). 18INT is my consultancy. Open to new clients. I've been helping CLX with web architecture and security for 15 years. I prefer free software free and rules as written.

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

@MrQuestX Tosasth, a city of undead elves that the common folk derisively call toe-sauce.

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

Notes about Name Blender works: https://t.co/3ytA8gR8tF

Plugin source: https://t.co/X8oUEoZxUH

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

One Dice Six now has a Name Blender tool that uses Markov Chains to mix up unique, plausible names from a given source list. #ttrpg #dnd #osr

I built this as an open source WordPress plugin in case anyone else wants to drop it on their own site.

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

Fools confess with complaints.

That's slightly better than Emerson's, "To complain is to confess." Not as funny-sounding as "Wat de gek ook zegt, hij praat altijd over zichzelf," which is what I think @adamcurry often says on No Agenda.

h/t Vox Popoli

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

@Crossface02 @archon Every time the rules aren't followed, it degrades immersion.

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

@LibertyForAll19 I'm with you on player autonomy. Maybe there's nuance to incentives because getting XP for killing monsters is an incentive, but if the DM was giving out goodies on some emotional basis, it would be a perverse incentive and the same as railroading. Is that what you mean?

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

Another example of encounter generation from One Dice Six
https://t.co/y7U2yFeRnd
#dnd #osr #ttrpg

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

Given Traveller's skill system, do you have tips for making it more satisfying? Try to reject PCs with too much skill overlap? My home group is trying classic Traveller for the first time, and it's not been super compelling for me, though I'm not sure niche protection is the reason.

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

It's Sunday, so let me dunk you in this river and wash away the mistake of thinking there's only one kind of immersion in #dnd

https://t.co/Cb5EOsKnvW

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

Thanks for pointing to that. Super fascinating! Now I'm contemplating a campaign with exactly zero Personal Characters. It could be wrecking an Aristotelian mean, where there's some perfect balance between these two types of PCs. Or it could be eliminating some unwanted behavior where the player becomes so engrossed with the PC that they suffer over any significant setback.

You know the thing where the PC fails a poison save and just dies. The 10yo player cries, understandably, and learns not to take it so seriously. When the 30yo player rage quits, it's harder to accept or correct.

OTOH, investing oneself as the owner of a PC and grinding him up the XP ladder is widely considered the big motivation for playing at all, for D&D anyway. Could it be that getting to 20th level isn't really how you win D&D? Could it be that the adventures you have are the real reward, even if some of them are tragic?

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

Traditionally, PCs may switch control between ref and player, but does "campaign character" imply control switching regularly between players? IE you played Conan last week, now it's my turn. Will that break players of counterproductive possessiveness?

[Mr. Wargaming @NotJonMollison]

A concept like 1:1 time takes power from the GM. He is contained by the same clock as the players.

The Docket abjures the player-GM distinction.

The campaign character lets everyone take the wheel of an NPC.

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

@yum_dm It's an acceptable patch to the unintended consequence of immunity to magic weapons, but letting the monsters deal with it can be more interesting. Without this HD rule, werewolves are all carrying silver daggers to settle internal disputes, right?

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

@ThoughtDoctor @adamcurry @THErealDVORAK You might be listening to the decoy show, the one that just plays Fox News reruns. If you send in a sizable donation, your podcast app will download the genuine version. If you don't believe me, just try it.

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

@RuleOfThule God bless them donkey workers!

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

@THErealDVORAK @lucyshow11 The obvious explanation is "it's the water",

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

"As a Dungeon Master you WANT players who are doing this, because such players are ENGAGED ENTHUSIASTS...the kind that will put YOU through the paces, forcing a DM to up their own game. This makes game play just as exciting for you as it is for them."
https://t.co/Iu05d0wYdA

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

Metagaming is a virtue.

[Leon Atkinson @leonatkinson]

@dhh There's an inverse relationship between capacity for imagination and feeling threatened by AI.

[DHH @dhh]

The reason agents are so good at Linux is that all 40 million lines of kernel code was part of the pre training. Along with every other open source dependency. This really does make every obscure error message shallow, and the system completely malleable.