On sustaining creativity: lessons from my War of Art

Due to new medication, I'm battling insomnia this week.  So today I want to talk about health, and to share how I sustain my creativity.  This post is inspired in part by this great post on GM burnout, which led me to find this helpful thread, as well.  

I canceled my weekly game to rest and am avoiding driving, but blogging I *think* I can do. We will see. 

Before I get started, you might be asking, what creativity are you talking about Velocitree, what do you know about it?  Well yeah I have a new blog and run weekly games, and a couple small RPG publications in the oven, but I also have a secret day job where for 18 years I have been regularly writing different things, mostly articles, on often-depressing topics.  I work alongside other creators in that field, and we often talk about how we keep going.  So, putting humility aside for a moment, I have experience with maintaining creative output over decades, of burn-out, and life challenges.  

A follow-up: please forgive me for writing an advice post. I am no paragon to be imitated, but this bone-deep exhaustion I feel makes me want to help people right now. If anything I say here works for you, I will be content.  

The War of Art: How I fight

I don't have a lot to say regarding creativity.  What I want to talk about is how I, personally, stay creative in the long-term.  So this is not:

• general advice on GMing (I have only been at it a couple of years)
• about blogging (1.5 months!).  
• on the creative process itself (I am still learning!)  Go read this stuff:
• Character archetypes and NPC templates
• Crafting dungeons and adventures
• Writing a lot, writing a novel in 3 days
• Being creative (plus, blobbins!) and solving writer's block

What i want to talk about today is how I keep going as a creator.  It really boils down to several overlapping habits, for me picked up at different times, to different degrees. Each habit helps with a problem I face as a creator.  In no particular order, the problems, and my solutions so far.  

1) Creating things is emotional: 

I make something new because I love it (either the creating, the created object, or both).  I identify with it, it excites me.  And if you are like me, we clearly see my creation is not perfect.  It has flaws.  Other people see those flaws and come up with more.  The mistakes I made, they make me sad.  Or life gets in the way, pulls me away from projects, out of the headspace or time I need to finish them.  I accumulate projects that never see the light because they are flawed, I lost enthusiasm for them, or both. 

Past failures can weigh me down, make me think that past is prologue, and why bother trying again?  I have been to that world, seen the sights, could write a travelogue.

What works for me, to pull me out of that space, is a few choices that I try to make every day.  

Radical Optimism.  The world is on fire.  Species are going extinct everywhere. Rabid narcissists stoke fear and hate, and the center sometimes seems like it will not hold.  And yet Jane Goodall, seeing a world full of loss, maintained her optimism as a choice.  

Choosing to fight for the world I want, the creations I want to share, instead of listening to the dark and giving up--that's how I try to hold radical optimism.  It keeps me going.

Self-forgiveness.  I tell myself that humans can't learn if they don't make mistakes, and one day I will believe it.  Self-criticism silences writers: I keep reminding myself that that asshole, my inner critic, wants to protect me from sadness.  Those past failures?  Fuel for the future: ideas to mine, lessons learned.  

All this is easy, flippant, to write.  But every fresh disappointment means I do the work all over again in my head.  It's getting easier, slowly.  And if I never produce another thing?  I am still worthy of love, just as a baby is: I don't have to be productive all the time.  

I will never be big-time, or ever achieve all of my dreams.  So be it.  It's all right to be small-time (or 'little-bitty', like this great country song), because I am creating what I can, how I can.  To get my voice out, I just have to kick a little, to do the work, and I am not alone in that (best lyric: "It's too soon for accolades, and too late to quit").  It is what most artists, most creators, do.  

Four things have helped me forgive myself, accept criticism, and keep pushing:

    -Meditation, particularly the 1000s of free meditations from Insight Timer.   

    -Music that grounds me, like the good older country and new americana stuff that helps me see that all people struggle, you are not defined by your worst day, and the broken road you are on will bring you to good places.  

    -Surrounding myself with good people (friends, the family I created lucked into, supportive colleagues).  These people keep me positive, keep me seeing that I am worthy to create.  I just have to meet them halfway.  

    -Getting diagnosed.  As someone who just didn't realize how neuro-divergent I am until late in life, a lot of the failings I have felt great shame over are perfectly normal for how my brain works, shared experiences with thousands like me.  That is most freeing.

It wasn't easy for me to see or accept (also normal), but self-diagnosis is easy now, and got me started.  I have been creative in spite of my difficulties, which when you think about it, describes everyone who ever made anything.  I just see now that my brain means I can't do it like everyone else: I gotta find my own way to Rome, and can stop worrying about not taking theirs.

Finding Community.  Every few months, I get together with friends who do I what I do, and we share what matters to us.  Every few weeks, I have lunch with a friend in my field and we complain if we want to, or gush, or just listen.  Every week, I play creative games with my friends and family and chat with my neighbors about life.  Every day, I hop on supportive Discord and web forums to talk with nice people about this ridiculous RPG hobby.  

Unlike my family, who are always here for me and give me the strength to reach out, each of those different communities is one I sought out in the last decade. Before that, I often struggled alone.  They are all places I want to sustain, as they allow me to realize that I can share, in disappointment or stress or joy, and they broaden my field of view.  To create, I surround myself with creative friends, and learn.

I got a good piece of advice recently, on one of those Discord servers--give up on social media for debate.  Reddit isn't consistently curious or courteous; ENWorld is.  Any place folks feel anonymous serves up bad behavior on the regular.  

I gravitate to in-person and online communities with regulars, sustained by good will and mutual respect. RPG conventions are great for making new, like-minded friends. Just like Coming to America said: "You can't go to no bar to find a nice woman. You've got to go to nice places, quiet places, like the library and church."--except for fellowship, not a wife.

2) Creating things is exhausting: 

Everyone gets tired; making stuff is hard work.  When I am excited about something, my mind whirs and I forget to take breaks.  Or when I commit to something (on deadline, or to a colleague), I am crap at planning and then finish in a blur of overtime.  People approach me with ideas, and it's so hard saying no to good, fun things, even when I need to so I can yes to great things later on.  Too many projects pull me too many directions, chopping my time up and making me feel like I am making no progress.   I move at the speed of a growing tree.  And inevitably, as I try to kick my line of work soccer balls down the field and also be a good dad, self-care takes a back seat.  

So, yeah, it's hard.  Here are the things that work for me, to hack through this jungle and get a creative work out. 

Prepare the field.  Everything I make grows from a time and place when I am healthy enough to create.  To do that, I have to prioritize good self-care habits, like rest, meditation, nutrition, and exercise.  Rest is hardest for me, followed by exercise, and sometimes, like this week, good rest is out of my hands.  It's frustrating, but the habits I am building yield at least some quality time each week.  

Not every creative needs health and rest to make amazing works--a survey of the daily routines of hundreds of famous creatives is illuminating.  There's no one way to create--drunk or sober, up all night or in bed before dark, standing or sitting.  But the vast majority of productive artists have consistent creative habits--doing art at the same times, and often. And self-care is what I need to be consistent.

No thoughtless escaping.  With the various pulls in my life, between work, home, and hobbies, I am a champ at escaping into a screen when things get stressful.  That has started to ease, as I have finally tamed my video game hobby by restricting it to small-screen games that don't take much time, like Carcassone.  Being addicted to video games was not something I realized about myself, until some bad news caused me to disappear into Baldur's Gate 2 for ten days straight.  I also read addictively at times (half the night, on a weeknight), but I am making progress there too.  Repeat after me: "We don't start new books after 10 pm, and we don't feed the Mogwai after midnight."  

I still allow myself to escape, but in the directions I choose--towards writing, crafting games, drawing, gardening, and board games.  Choosing an escape purposefully, and limiting the time I spend escaping, is incredibly empowering.  This blog is one-such escape, made possible by deleting Shattered Pixel Dungeon, the best OSR game on iOS (until they finally port Caves of Qud).  Making space for blogging was literally the effort of a decade, with so many setbacks (and great video games) along the way.  

Varying it up.  I thrive on variety, as you may have gathered. Right now I have 250+ tabs open on my tablet, and another 100+ in two browsers on my computer.  The only way I make progress on a creative project to work on it exclusively, but that quickly becomes boring, and work slows.  My sweet spot, it turns out, is to to work on two creative projects in one day, in DIFFERENT fields. If they are the same field (my work projects), I feel like they compete for my mental focus.  But if one is a hobby project, and the other for work, I am happy to write for an hour or two for fun in the early morning, and then transition to work writing before lunch.  It gets my mind flowing, and puts a smile on my face.  

And then, when I am done working and have fed the kids, I consume creative works. I eat articles and books and blogs, drink audiobooks while playing the short video game du jour, chug videos and movies, and devour other people's games, for both rules and art.  This absorbing time both relaxes and inspires me--mixing things up from disparate origins is my favorite way to be creative, mulch for the soul.

Feeling burn-out.  After a creative disappointment, or a big deadline, or just because every week I have players to create for, I get burned out.  I linked to articles at the start of this essay about GM burnout, and I found myself nodding along and taking notes.  I don't have an easy solution here.  

But what I do now when I get burned out, is to slow down as soon as I can, and not pretend anymore that I can push through it.  I stop working on hard projects.  I don't reply to nonessential emails.  I watch comfort shows, read some sword and sorcery or sci-fi series, go on hikes in the woods, do different things, and rest.  Best way out of a rut is to turn the wheels, if you can't be pulled out.  

3)  Creating things is daunting: 

Blank pages, and unfinished projects, are all too easy to look away from.  At some level, all creation is about having enough faith in yourself to believe, that if you keep going, you will finish something worthwhile.  I read the War of Art a while ago, and while I don't think Resistance (procrastination, fear, self-doubt) is a metaphysical force, it certainly is a psychological one for me.  

I avoid starting.  I avoid finishing (more often).  I see flaws all too clearly, and have spent years perfecting projects when I would have been better served getting those ideas out there, learning from feedback and playtesting, and then done something better.  I think I worry folks will think less of me if they catch the weaknesses I see, and so I anticipate their feedback and respond to it. It's emotional shadow-boxing, and if taken to an extreme of perfectionism, paralyzing.  To avoid being stuck, to push myself out of my comfort zone of navel-gazing, I do one thing.

Contemplate death, then work backwards.  If you want a good explanation of how I put this solution into practice, I do recommend the War of Art as a book.  I follow it as best I can, and try to write every day I can, for at least a half hour.  But the one thing for me that unlocked that habit, that made it possible for me to read the War of Art and then, after a couple of years, implement daily writing in my own life?  I kept asking myself what mattered.  Often.  Over several years.  And then, I went to Mexico on a work trip two years ago, and it all became clear.

Having faith in myself is hard; having faith that I will die is easy.  What do I want to get done creatively before then?  Write a fantasy novel?  Yes.  Make a mark on my field of work?  Yes.  Publish a few role-playing game ideas and a creative new game system?  Yes.  Why do these things matter, why are they good uses of my time?  They will bring me great joy and make this world a tiny fraction brighter.    

When Tyler Durden holds a gun to that mini-mart clerk's head and tells him to drop everything and pursue his passion or die, that's inspiring, but it's not a realistic road map.  To create new things, I need to make space in my life by choosing which habits and urgent commitments must be done now.  I now do that by thinking what I want to do by the time I die, and working backwards to daily commitments of time.  Every day I write, I want to be writing a tiny bit of my tombstone and obituary, if you will.  The big end-of-life goals have to come first, be present every day, or I will not make them happen.

Because one day, I hope that my family and friends will gather around my tombstone, and tell our stories: about how much i loved them, the creative work of my life, and the fun we had togther.  In Mexico, on Day of the Dead, I walked a crowded cemetery and quietly cried, watching a family remember grave-side, watching people dance to a brass band on the path through the graves, then go back to remembering, tending flowers.

Every country should celebrate Day of the Dead: Mexicans have discovered that sharing memories about our lost loved ones is the only form of life after death that matters. But facing mortality is numbing at best, and mixing joyful celebration with sadness makes that easier.  That's their special wisdom, and why I was crying in the cemetery: it's just beautiful.  So yeah, that's how I write: I face death, plan backwards to now, and then do fun, creative things each day to make it easier.  Creation is always a matter of life or death, and joy when we clear the sill of the world.  

___

Thanks for reading.  Sorry if I got a little earnest there, but if you read this far, hopefully you know I am with you in this fight.  You got this.

Bow to the d12: Two more random ways to glory

Joel over at the Silverarm wrote a funny, yet serious, post advocating for greater use of Her Dodecajesty, the d12. In the spirit of having more d12s around our lives (and Joel has good ideas there), I present to you two additional ways to ROLL MORE D12.

In your typical 2d6 random encounter table*, the top and bottom entries are rare events with <3% probability.  That's where we serious GMs hide all the good shit, the dragons and wizards we WANT to play with but are too afraid to blow up our campaigns with.  

*Unlike talented designers named Beau who claim that rolling on GM-facing random tables has little benefit, I would argue that pre-game or behind-screen rolling on random tables is fun for the GM! We are a player too, and we aren't stuck with a bad roll. But rolling makes us consider possibilities we may not have otherwise thought of, and gets our brains making unexpected stories...

Joel rightly points out that the d12 is a sacred, beautifully-rolling shape that doesn't get enough love.  Plus, we should not do so much math, obsess over realistic play, and save the fun things for a rainy day that never comes.  Life is short, so bring on those dragons, and to quote Joel, "Rolling a d12 makes you smarter, luckier, a better lover."  What's not to like?  

So, without further ado:

Way #1: Queen d12 marries Prince d4 to bring peace to the Kingdom

Do you want BOTH a random table with a flat middle AND extra room on the top and bottom for some rarer darlings to brighten your day? Check out this graceful distribution:

See? This d12+d4 distribution is gorgeous for interesting random encounter tables: roll a d12, then a d4, and add them (or if you hate math and/or are tipsy, just count down the table from your d12 roll). Other people may add bigger dice for a similar effect, but a d4 limits the total options and mathiness and makes me smile, so d4 it is at my table.

A typical d12+d4 random encounter table has possibilities! It's flat from 5-13, and below and above that we can put the very rare stuff that we wish we encountered more often. 2-4 and 14-16 actually add up to 12.5%, so we encounter dragons and wizards MORE often. But that might get a little hairy, so we can use those probability shoulders to include a range of escalation--see below:

2--An angry dragon attacks (the unlikely possibility we GMs were afraid of)

3--Dragon encounter, non-combat (a good reaction roll, a shake down, etc.)

4--Dragon sign (you see marks of its passing)

5 through 13--Ten common and rare encounters, as we want.

14--Wizard magical effects (changing the world in their wake)

15--Wizard, genial (caught them on a tolerant day)

16--Wizard, angry (you have meddled in their affairs...)

The world is wondrous with a d12+d4 encounter table. You are likely to see and talk to dragons and wizards often, but get killed by them rarely...as long as you are properly respectful!

On to:

Way #2: Twin d12s, Love and Hate, create intuitive Reaction Rolls

One d12 twin is black as night, filled with all the dark instincts and desires of a dangerous world. The other d12 twin is red as sunset, filled with love and warmth and understanding.

When you encounter a monster and don't know how it will react (and you may or may not be too tired/drunk to remember the standard 2d6 reaction table), remember the 2d12 twins, black Hate and red Love. Why roll 2d6 for a reaction roll, when you can roll 2d12?

Immediate Attack: You rollled 11/12 Hate and 1/2 Love.

Enthusiastic Friendship: You rolled 1/2 Hate and 11/12 Love.

The statistically wise among you no doubt noted that the odds are the same as the 2d6 roll: what is different about the 2d12?

Because we can do the rest on vibes.  If Love far exceeds Hate, the enemy doesn't attack right away.  If Hate far outweighs Love, it is hostile.  If they are equal or near-equal (they are within two of each other 37.5% of the time), it is uncertain, open to negotiation, or confused.  

Because you get more information in one roll. Love and Hate can be near each other for a variety of values, right? How big those values are tells us how active, agitated, and conflicted our enemy is.  Roll two 1s?  It's sleeping or zoned out.  Roll two 12s?  It's locked on and practically vibrating with indecision as it wrestles with whether to talk to or eat the party.  

Because you can easily lean on the scale. In a dangerous environment, Hate is more powerful than Love, but in a civilized one, the reverse is true. Examples: You could require a 1 on Love and 12 on Hate for Attacks in a peaceful, civilized place, lowering the chance from 2.78% to 0.69%. In a dungeon, a 12 on Love and 1 on Hate could be required for enthusiastic friendship, with the other friendship-number rolls resulting in guarded courtesy. In a large-scale battle between armies, near-ties are meaningless as soldiers make snap decisions--Love 7, Hate 8? Soldiers attack. A powerful spell altering minds, or your party being charming? Add bonuses to Love and/or Hate rolls. And so on...

The d12 is there for you to roll with. Take it up, and achieve ultimate power!!

ALL HAIL King d12

Nimbler: Reviewing Nimble 2e, part 2

This is a continuation of a review.  In part 1, I described what I like about Nimble 2e.  In this Part 2, I outline some things this homebrewer would fix, and give my overall take.

The thorns:

And now we come to the part of this review where (if anyone reads it), I may get some angry notes from Nimble 2e fans.  For there are things about this system that are not quite my favorite flavor of ice cream, that prick at me.  Four of these 'thorns', I think I can prune with some armchair homebrew.  The others are style choices that just aren't my cuppa joe, like strawberry ice cream, and I encourage you to ignore my take if you don't agree. 

Four things I would prune:

_________

1)  Defend and armor don't seem real to me.  You can Defend once per turn, at any time, as a reaction.  Defending applies your Armor and Dex to the incoming attack, reducing its damage.  But here's the thing--Armor now doesn't exist for the rest of your turn, like Schrodinger's cat-mail. Even if you are wearing plate armor, you can only use it to reduce damage against ONE attack.  First goblin tries to stab ya?  He fails.  That next goblin, and the next one?  They line up, it's Sunday dinner and you are the full-damage turkey.  

You might be thinking, "This is real, defending against more than one enemy is hard!"  And if this doesn't jar you out of the fantasy, awesome.  But it does for me.  Historically, armor was handy in melee, great scrums of people thwacking on all sides with axes and spears.  Armor should help protect your back at all times, even when you are not actively defending or parrying.  

This also leads to unrealistic situations.  Example: Pally is level 3 with +2 dex, and wearing a chain shirt and iron shield (15 armor). Bobbi the goblin is attacking with a scimitar (1d6+2) and gets one attack.  If Pally Defends each turn, Bobbi would have to explode twice to even damage Pally—odds at 3%.  But add one just more gobbo, and suddenly Pally is getting damaged each turn. Huh?

When I posted this puzzler on the Nimble Discord, folks characterized a goblin as an angry child with a big knife, dangerous only in numbers. But this is unsatisfying ex post facto reasoning--the game mechanics are glaringly unrealistic in this edge case. No more so than HP I suppose, but I am of the camp that believes any angry idiot with a sword is dangerous to a swordsman, even by accident. In DnD 5e, with Pally's AC at 16 and Bobbi at +4 to hit, Bobbi has a 45% chance to damage Pally. And if Bobbi crits, Pally is in trouble. This is more real to me.

So, I want two things from Nimble 2e here. I want armor to matter for every attack, and I want Bobbi to be able to damage Pally, dammit. So here's how I would homebrew Nimble 2e to make armor feel real to me:

A) Against every attack, Armor has passive defense (2 light, 3 medium, 4 heavy). This is not added to your Defend roll, but subtracted from other hits you receive.

B) Let's make Monster Criticals more similar to PC criticals--they still can't bypass initial armor from Defend (unless they exceed it), but let's say that the exploding dice damage portion bypasses armor.

So if Bobbi crits, Pally's Defend reaction stops the first 1d6+2, but Bobbi's second exploding 1d6 can damage Pally through his medium armor. He now has a 15% chance of damaging Pally a little, and a 3% chance of decent damage. Good! He's still going to lose, but it's a realistic fight.

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2) Square-counting movement and kiting.  Grids are useful to me in big combats for approximation, but I don't like playing on a strict grid. Nimble 2e is focused on grid play, with all distances in numbers of squares.  However, it does have conversion rules for range bands (Close/Near/Far) in the GM guide.  Good so far. 

Unfortunately, with the three-action economy, Nimble 2e also has a kiting problem.  Move in your full move, attack, back away full move.  If the monster moves less than you, it will never be able to attack you in melee--only PCs have opportunity attacks.  Here's some simple homebrew to stop kiting in its tracks:

A) Using a grid: Once you have entered melee range, getting out is difficult terrain because you have to face your opponent.  In other words, leaving melee range, you can only move half of your number of spaces, backing up or sidling sideways, on guard.  This is how I ditch opportunity attacks in 5e.  

B) Using range bands: When you approach to attack, you move from Near to Close (1 Move).  Leaving, the same in reverse (1 Move).  But when you leave Close, it ceases to exist as a range band for your opponent.  The opposing fighter can then advance across Near to Close in one move to catch you up, in 1 move.   

_________

3) Assess has three serious issues.  As an action, Assess allows you to make a skill check (DC 12) and then either ask the GM a question, -1 on incoming attack rolls against you, or +1 to your attack die on one attack.  But it is rarely the optimal choice, the '5e Grapple' of Nimble 2e.  

First, if you want information, then it's a useful action, but it runs the risk of pulling people out of the fiction.  Middle of the fight, GM is describing the ghoul's slavering jaws and screams, player Assesses, 'How much HP does that ghoul have left?"  Instant balloon puncture of the ambiance.  

Second, if you want to receive less damage, awesome, do Assess.  But what happens if you fail your Assess skill check?  Nothing.  Crickets.  For a game that prioritizes having something interesting happen every turn, this is an odd design choice.  Why isn't there a fall back 'something helpful' that happens if you fail your Assess check?  

Third, if you want to do more damage, using Assess to +1 on one attack is only slight better than attacking again.  Let's compare attacking with daggers (1d4) three times to Assessing, then attacking twice.

Attack x3: First attack average is ~3 damage.  Second attack misses 44% of the time, so ~1.6.  Third attack misses 58% of the time, so ~1.  Total of 5.6 damage on average, and your chances of critting are 25%, 6.25% and 1.5%.

Assess/Attack x2:  If you pass the Assess check, first attack can't miss, so average is ~3.28 damage.  Second attack (d4) misses 44% of the time, so ~1.6 damage. Total of 4.9 +1 (Assess) =5.9 damage, with critting at 25% and 6.25%.  

In short, Assess leaves you with slightly more damage on average, and you can't miss.  But if you fail the Assess check***, you just do less damage.   That means on average, you will do less damage with Assess. 

***Let's say you have a 35% chance of failing your Assess check (+4 on the skill check).  

So I want Assess to avoid pulling people out of the story, to have a fallback benefit if the skill check fails, and to be consistently worth it from a damage perspective. Here's my Nimble 2e homebrew for that: 

A)  To avoid gamist questions, have a table rule that all Assess questions have to be from the perspective of the characters, not players.

B) When you Assess, you can make a skill check to lower damage or ask a question.  But if you fail that check, or just want to increase damage, you can do that without a roll.  

C)  If you Assess to increase damage, you actually raise the size the damage die, and you crit on either the original or new max value. For example, from 1d4 to 1d6, you crit on 4 or 6.  Your chances of a crit now go up when you Assess (from 25% to 33%).****

****The math holds up with bigger die sizes. 1d6 to 1d8, crit on 6/8, 17 to 25% crit.  1d8 to 1d10, crit 8/10, 12 to 20%.  1d10 to 1d12, crit on 10/12, 8 to 17%. Interestingly, if you Assess, the high-end crit damage of a 1d4 (now 1d6) weapon is higher than that of a 1d10, but with lower average damage and a 1:6 chance to miss instead of 1:10. And you can dual wield daggers, giving you advantage on your 1d6 roll and damage output which beats a 1d12 weapon in some ways.

These homebrew tweaks turn Assess into a reliable tool for high single-strike damage for small weapon wielders. As an added bonus, smaller weapons, once arguably worse, now have the potential for greater damage at the cost of greater miss chance. That's a fun rules change!

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4) A graft: we need stunts! and Hindered rolls!  If there is one criticism of Nimble 2e combat actions, it is that they are a fixed menu of options, with less room for creativity than some might like.  If there is another, it's that Advantage and Disadvantage have huge, swingy impacts on outcomes (especially on the smaller-than-d20 damage dice).  They are a big stick, and sometimes you want a twig.  So let's bring in Stunts and Edges/Hindrances.

Graft #1: Stunts are tricks PCs do in combat that make life harder for enemies, but that often don't do additional damage by themselves.  See Fighter Mighty Deeds in Dungeon Crawl Classics (easily implemented in 5e), Gambits in Mythic Bastionland, Exploits in Tales of Argosa, and Battlemaster manuevers in 5e (but for everyone).  It's freeform combat, and it makes fighters fun, but I like to make stunts possible for everyone (fighting classes just being better at it).  

But how to implement a stunt mechanic in Nimble 2e?  First option, we can use a cousin of these simple rules from the Old Skull Blog:

A1) If a player crits, they can choose to do a combat maneuver (swing down onto an enemy, disarm them, knock them down, push them off a cliff, etc.).  The affected enemy can choose to either take the additional crit damage, or be subject to the maneuver.  The GM just makes a reasonable call for the enemy each time.  

Alternatively, we can make enemies save to avoid being subject to the maneuver against their will:

A2) If a player crits, they can choose to do a combat maneuver (swing down onto an enemy, disarm them, knock them down, push them off a cliff, etc.) if they forego their critical damage.  The affected enemy must make a skill check to avoid being subject to the maneuver, with the DC equal to 5+critical damage.  

If you want to get fancy about it, you could give non-magical classes option A2, and magical classes option A1.  

And once we graft stunts into Nimble 2e, it's easy to adjudicate their impact.  The normal consequences of a stunt could simply be to impose disadvantage on the enemy's rolls next turn, or anything approved by the player and GM.  If you want to try to push that goblin off the edge of the cliff, roll for it!

Graft #2:  When you Assess to increase damage, the Core Rules call it "Increase the Primary Die Roll against a target by 1."  Boy that's a mouthful.  Given that we supercharged using Assess for damage above, let's give going up a die size a better name: an Edge.  

Numerically, gaining an Edge is a less impactful benefit than gaining Advantage: in our homebrew, going up a die size raises mean damage by 1 and crit chance by 8%. So you could gain an Edge using Assess, or, like advantage, the GM could grant an Edge from good positioning, using a special dragon-killing arrow, etc.  If you got two Edges, well, go up the die chain, and count multiple possible crit values (my dagger (1d4) with two Edges rolls a 1d8 and crits on a 4/6/8.  Not bad!  One possible dice chain:

1d3 - 1d4 - 1d6 - 1d8 - 1d10 - 1d12 - 2d6 - 2d8 - 1d20 - 2d10

What goes up, though, can also go down. Disadvantage is a pretty big whack in Nimble. With a dagger with 1 disadvantage, your odds of missing rise to 44%. If you want to have a smaller negative impact, give the PC a Hindrance.

B) A Hindrance is the opposite of an Edge, you go down a die size. If you crit, you must roll a second crit to confirm it, otherwise you do not explode the damage.

With a Hindrance you do 1 less damage on average, with a greater miss chance. And the odds of critting with a Hindered shortsword blow (d6->d4) are 6.25% (1 in 16), worse than the 16.7% of a normal shortsword but better than a shortsword with disadvantage (2.8%).

Things that are not my flavor of ice cream:

These takes are (even more) my personal taste, so I will keep this shortish.  The Hero book is gorgeous and inspiring, and lays out some creative, interesting, and fun classes.  As might be expected, they include traditional 5e class equivalents, but there are novel takes on class tropes, coupled with very fun mechanics.  And yet, the Hero Book is my least favorite book of the three.

Why?  The classes are 5e levels of intricate, very combat focused (there are very few utility spells and out-of-combat powers), and in a couple cases class powers strike me as a bit disassociated/video-gamey (e.g., Taunt: for aggro).  But given that this ruleset is trying to woo 5e and PF2e fans, none of that is a surprise.  

I suppose my initial dislike for the Nimble 2e classes stems from two sources.  First, Nimble 2e nicely boils down the 5e design into four small pages per class, and this distillation made me realize I don't personally like complex, power-crafting 5e-style classes any more.  I guess I now want simplicity, coupled with lots of customization options and creative, flexible spells.  Honestly, I thank Nimble 2e for the epiphany!  

Second, the Nimble 2e classes are relatively rigid and set.  There are only two subclasses each, by design.  The spell list is small (for now) and you can change up your powers regularly in-game, which means each time I make a Shadowdancer for example, I will use the same pool of powers.  

Now, it's absolutely impossible for a single creator to anticipate all the different class visions character crafters want to fill--what they should do is make it EASY for anyone to play in their playground.  For example, the GLOG has 100s of class templates because it's a snap to make one.  And I salute Nimble 2e's efforts in this direction, with a wonderfully direct and comprehensive free Creator's Kit that outlines class design principles.  While I still think Nimble 2e's overall complexity around character powers makes class creation daunting (check out the length of the character-leveling table in the kit), it is clear they are trying to meet homebrewers more than half-way.

To add another personal preference, Nimble 2e has inherited 5e's Red Queen leveling, in that all numbers must go up every level (more math!) so that PCs can keep up with ever harder monsters.  Level-appropriate encounters are much easier to calculate in this system, but still a must.  I honestly wonder if this game might be just as much fun to play for me if I skip leveling up heroes and monsters in terms of their stats and HP.   

To round out my list, the game needs new material, sold not as individual classes or monsters, but in big, reasonably priced collections.  I hear a Kickstarter is coming later in 2026, and to paraphrase a fellow restaurant critic, "I am not quite in love with this food: serve me more of it please." 

So, do I want to play it?

100%, I want to both play and GM Nimble 2e this year.  But I think I will run it as a one shot unless my table revolts and refuses to go back to 5e.  Personally, the inner Frankenstein in me wants to bolt the Nimble 2e combat system onto something with simpler (or no) classes, like Knave or Shadowdark or Mork Borg.  

But if you find yourself nodding along with me at the critiques in this last part, and don't plan to make an excursion to Nimble-land with me this year, let me close by saying that the Game Master Guide is a good return on your money, even if you never plan to play Nimble 2e: great advice, great ideas, and concise as a blade.  I would put it up there with the Mothership Warden Operation Manual as a great beginning GM guide, for any fantasy system.  

I wasn't paid for this review by anyone, and if you don't like it, please write an article on your RPG blog about why I am wrong (don't have an RPG blog?  Start one!).  Or comment below, if you must.  Thanks for reading!

Nimbler: Reviewing Nimble 2e, part 1

I received Nimble 2e for my birthday in October, about time I reviewed it here.  Nimble started out as a 5e rules hack to make it faster, but Nimble 2e is its own game--a bastard child of 5e, Pathfinder 2e, and Into the Odd.  

Like Into the Odd, you don't roll to hit, you just roll damage.  Like Pathfinder 2e, you have three actions that refresh on your turn, to move, attack, assess, defend, and so on.  Like both 5e and Pathfinder, there are a plethora of character skills to track, distances to remember, and detailed class powers to unlock as you level up.  For three little A5 books, there's a lot here to unpack, so strap in!

In part 1 of this review, I go over the things I liked ('roses'), and how I would like to see them in other games.  In part 2, I discuss the things that I didn't like as much ('thorns'), some armchair homebrew I created for that, and my overall take.  

The roses:

1)  The attack roll mechanic is exciting!  Not rolling to hit speeds up combat, it is possible to miss (especially when you have disadvantage, which stacks), and exploding dice make every roll tense and fun*.  

*How it works: when you attack, you just roll your damage dice (say a 1d6, for a short sword). If you roll a 1 you miss, 2-5 you do damage, and on a 6, your dice "explode" and you roll 1d6 again and add it to your total damage (and so on--in theory you could do infinite damage).  If you have one or more cases of disadvantage on your attack, your attack (rolling 2d6, or 3d6, etc., take the lowest) could easily miss with a 1.  

So we assume player competence in hitting things, but the mechanic also models both A) that all heroes miss once in a while, and B) a single hit can kill even a dragon (looking at you Smaug!).  Weapon choices are consequential (1d4 dagger explodes more often than a 1d12 two-handed sword).  Combat is risky (when enemy damage explodes).  

2)  The three action economy: players have meaningful tactical choices.  Many OSR games lock players into specific actions: one attack, one move, maybe one reaction. 5e takes that formula and adds the bonus action.  

What that formula doesn't do well is simulate choice.  If I don't want to move, why can't I stay here and attack again, or react twice instead of once?  "Stop complaining!" I hear you say: just do the action options the game gives you.

And choose what options?  Barb walk toward monster.  Barb hit with sword.  Barb don't have cool reaction power.  Barb turn over.  Glory to Crom!  

Much ink has been spilled on ways to spice up adventure game combat, either by encouraging stunts, creative solutions, and alternative combat goals (see Dungeon Crawl Classics, and many OSR blogs), and/or by giving your players tactical challenges and loads of powers to solve them with (see Draw Steel, The Monsters Know What They Are Doing, Fabula Ultima).

But in most of these cases, you are working against the fundamentals of the system--if you are not creative or experienced, you use your simplest attack, you move, you react.  There is a limited set of built-in base moves that are interesting to do.  

Nimble 2e, taking a page from Pathfinder 2e, gives you three actions to spend any way you choose--even when it's not your turn.  You have choice in what you do, from the start.  And you have varied options--beyond Attack and Move, you could Cast a spell, Assess a monster to gain a mechanical advantage on a later attack, Defend yourself from an attack, Opportunity Attack, Interpose yourself to take a hit for a nearby friend, and Help an ally.  

Even without considering powers, with base Nimble 2e, we have tactical choices obvious to even the most casual player.  Should I Assess and then Attack once with more power, then save an action to Defend from the dragon's counterattack?  Should I run three times to escape the medusa? Or should I attack three times (with increasing disadvantage each attack), cutting down the kobolds?  As the party tank, do I want to hold my Attack this round so I can Interpose for the wizard, who is spending all his actions this round on a long spell?  

3)  Monsters are the right kind of simple.  You have Minions to make your heroes feel heroic, Flunkies to not kill your noob players, regular monsters, and powerful Legendary boss monsters that act after every hero's turn (what action economy issue?).  

Monsters have simplified rules for Armor and Crits and Saves to make them quick to run, with all-in-one stat blocks (I hate having to go look up spells and powers mid-game).  And its a snap to convert monsters to this system from 5e or the OSR.  

But in addition to being simple, Nimble 2e monsters often have fun powers that  that can make them a tricky puzzle to fight.  Kobolds attack more when one dies, so how to defeat them without killing them all?  Bullettes burst out of the ground and immediately grapple a target, then drag it down to bury it.  Flying creatures grab, fly up, and drop you.  Ghouls automatically daze you on a hit, taking your actions one by one.  

Sometimes the monsters are a touch too simple for my taste--I want challenging abilities for every monster (if the Nimble 2e monsters and Flee Mortals and the Monster Overhaul had a baby, I would adopt).  And I wanted more monsters in the main GMs guide...but it does contain top-shelf GM advice on running and homebrewing monsters, so there.

4) The third-party license is open-source and welcoming.

Hats off to a creator who doesn't mind folks putting their stuff on the internet for free, re-using their language verbatim (within reason) in third-party works, and so on.  This game is builder-friendly!

Is Nimble 2e OSR?

Few OSR games have more than a two-move economy--none have player options this intricate.  But Nimble is streamlined similarly to many OSR/NSR games (e.g., the rules are not all encompassing, plus some realism like requiring long safe rests to recover from serious Wounds) so it rests in an in-between place between 5e and the OSR, a "New Wave of Heroic Fantasy" (herotansy? herowave? neohero?) game alongside Draw Steel, Daggerheart, Vagabond, and Grimwild.  

Overall, I love the attack roll mechanic and would like to play it in more games.  Given that most to-hit chances are around 50%, you could take any OSR game, double the hit points of PCs and monsters, convert AC to damage reduction**, and have the same experience on average, coupled with moments of sheer joy/terror when the dice explode.  

**Both Pirate Borg and Nimble 2e contain similar advice for converting Armor Class to armor.  Pirate Borg says AC 12 is unarmored, 14 is light armor (-d2 damage/hit), 16 is medium armor (-d4 damage/hit), and 18 is heavy armor (-d6 damage/hit).  For monsters, Nimble 2e says AC <14 is unarmored, 14-17 is medium armor, and >17 is heavy armor.  

For the three-action system, the only thing missing that I see is a mechanic for stunts and explicit encouragement to think outside the character sheet, and that can be homebrewed in.  I also don't know a key question: how speedy is the three-action system is in practice? Will my players get bogged down by choice paralysis?  I do know that I am looking forward to testing a pruned version of Nimble 2e out at my table.

For more on what I would tweak about Nimble 2e, stay tuned for Part 2 of this review--the thorns...

d48 OSR Shadowdark Quirks: PC challenges

For my Shadowdark homebrew, I created feats for fighters, thieves, priests, wizards, and all classes.  Feats are meant to be even-level customization options, and also may be given out as treasure, story-rewards, downtime training, etc.  But also in my system, characters may learn a Feat at 1st level if they choose a Quirk: a challenge facing their PC.  

Quirks are an option during character creation, but could also be acquired during play.  In general, if characters want an extra Feat at level 1, I require they roll for a Quirk (or select an impactful one).  

If a player does not want a particular Quirk for any reason, they can re-roll or select another.  Once they have chosen, they should honor their Quirk’s impact on roleplay (e.g., see ‘Compulsive Liar’) or replace it with another one.  

I encourage players to play Quirks respectfully: they are meant to add depth and texture, not make other players uncomfortable.  Quirk selection is a good time to have a discussion about what a table is comfortable with occurring in-game. These Quirks were designed to hinder PCs and/or make them fallible, while avoiding body-shaming or mean role-play: if you think any of them are not hitting that goal, or use language that could be taken as demeaning, I value your feedback.  

Quirks are sorted into categories.  If you are rolling for a Quirk, first roll 1d8 for the category, then roll within each category.  Alternatively, if you wish to roll with less randomness, you could select your category and then roll, or roll three Quirks and choose, etc.  

1- Personality 
2- Background 
3- History
4- Condition
5- Body
6- Habit
7- Belief
8- Magical or weird

If you like these Quirks and/or Feats, consider buying me a coffee in the new year as I launch my first RPG publication, a Shadowdark supplement with all 100 feats gathered, plus another 30 general feats to share, and 130+ fun Quirks to further customize your characters.  If you want to be notified on launch, email thorn at dreamshrike.com or subscribe to this blog.

So here's a partial list (48) of concerning Quirks for Shadowdark and OSR characters:

Quirks

For general interpretation, especially for Quirks, checks are distinct from attacks.  Solo reaction rolls are done only if the PC is alone; otherwise, group reaction rolls are affected.

 
1- Personality 

1- Chatterbox: You talk too much, and a bit too loudly. You attract attention when you are traveling, and give things away without meaning to.
2- Compulsive Liar: You lie about everything--even the small stuff. And you won’t back down.
3- Coward: You scare easily. If a check against fear or intimidation is needed, you have disadvantage.  You adventure with a lucky charm to be brave; if you lose it, you roll with disadvantage and flee if alone and threatened, for a full day--until you really believe another thing is lucky.  What is your charm?
4- Dim: No matter how smart you are, you make uninformed decisions, forget facts, and are easily swayed.  Roll with disadvantage on knowledge checks, non-spellcasting INT checks, and against magical persuasion.
5- Forgetful: You can’t remember things when it matters.  Additionally, each session, pick one important thing to forget for that session.  The GM must approve your choice, write it down for them.
6- Greedy: You have a hard time resisting the lure of coin.  If treasure is in reach, roll WIS (DC 12) or go for it--even when it’s clearly a trap.

2- Background 

1- Bumpkin: Disadvantage in cities on any checks tied to urban life--and, if solo, encounter checks inside cities.
2- City Slicker: You don’t get nature. Disadvantage on foraging and, if solo, encounter checks outside cities.
3- Cannot Count: You can’t handle numbers above 10. INT checks involving counting or value fail.
4- Cannot Read: You are illiterate. You cannot read scrolls, signs, or books without magical help.
5- Decadent: Unless pampered between adventures, roll all checks with Disadvantage for the first 4 hours of the next adventure.
6- Faction Enemy: A powerful group wants you dead. Once per adventure, GM may trigger a bounty or ambush.

3- History 

1- All My Exes: In any town or city, there’s a 1-in-6 chance an ex shows up with drama, debt, or danger.
2- Bankrupt: You can’t keep coin on you. You lose or owe half your treasure between adventures unless you successfully hide (2 in 6 chance) from creditors.
3- Beholden: You owe someone powerful. They will call on you: refusal brings consequences.
4- Blackmailed: Once per session, an NPC may leverage your secret against you. Refusal brings social fallout or danger.
5- Exiled: You’re banished. If recognized (1-in-6 chance in known lands), you’re jailed or chased out.  
6- Huge Debts: Half your earnings must go to pay back what you owe, mailed or deposited regularly (quarterly? Weekly?). If you skip a payment when in a town, someone comes to collect.

4- Condition 

1- Arthritis: Disadvantage on DEX checks when it’s cold or damp.
2- Combat Paralysis: At the start of any combat, make a CHA check (DC 15). If you fail, you can’t make an attack for 1d2 rounds. You can move and aid allies, but you shy away from shedding blood.
3- Hemophilia: When you take weapon damage, take 1 extra damage.
4- Immature: You are either mentally or physically young--too young to be out on your own, let alone adventuring. Your rolls have Disadvantage when handling 'grown-up’ issues, like haggling or intimidation.
5- Mad as a Hatter: You’re insane. Work out how with the GM. Need inspiration? Roll another Quirk.
6- Migraines: 1-in-6 chance each dawn that you spend the day with Disadvantage on all INT checks until you rest.

5- Body 

1- Bad Ears: Disadvantage on all hearing checks.
2- Bad Eyes: Disadvantage on sight-based checks--this can affect you CLOSE or FAR, your choice.  Glasses can fix this quirk, but then select another.  
3- Bad Nose: Disadvantage on all smell checks.
4- Blind: You cannot see. All sight-based checks fail; melee attacks are at Disadvantage unless CLOSE and unmoving. Monster sight attacks don’t affect you. Take two Feats instead of one.
5- Clumsy: Disadvantage on DEX checks when moving fast, doing fine work (e.g., lockpicking), or under extreme pressure (e.g., jumping a chasm).
6- Deaf: You can’t hear. Fail all sound-based checks, and you have Disadvantage on WIS checks to detect ambushes.  You can read lips out to Far, and you are immune to attacks involving sound (e.g., a harpy’s song).  

6- Habit 

1- Addict: If 24 hours pass without your fix, most checks are difficult (DC 15 or greater).  If a week passes, you have disadvantage on all attacks and checks.  What are you addicted to?
2- Alcoholic: If you go a day without drink, all checks are at Disadvantage until you drink again.  For one hour after you drink each day, you have Disadvantage on all checks.
3- Drunkard: Each day, roll 1d6. On a 1, if it is feasible, you’re drunk from a late bender-with disadvantage on rolls involving coordination, balance, and communication.  
4- Firebug: You love fire a bit too much. Set things alight even when it’s stupid.
5- Flirts Constantly: Make a DC 15 CHA check to hold it together for a scene, otherwise have disadvantage on CHA checks when you’re trying to be serious or professional.
6- Fool’s Tongue: You’re a natural at cutting words-but you can’t turn that off.

7- Belief 

1- Arrogance: You are clearly better than your inferiors. Roll with Disadvantage in any social interaction and social reaction roll, unless you are being flattered on purpose.
2- Condescending: When you are alone or speaking, you have disadvantage on CHA checks and social reaction rolls with anyone of lower rank, class, or station. 
3- Delusion: You believe a blatant lie. You act on it. Disadvantage on WIS checks tied to judgment or intuition even tangentially related to that lie. 
4- Fanatic: Your enthusiasm for a topic is absolute. Pick a topic.  Everyone else is wrong not to love it too--and you let them know.  You will not behave rationally or responsibly when it comes to your fan-dom.
5- Misinformed: You believe something false, and act on it. INT checks to recall facts or lore loosely related to this topic are at Disadvantage.
6- Naive: You have disadvantage on checks to detect lies, trickery, or illusion. You can’t help but trust people.

8- Magical or weird 

1- Blighted: You never gain Luck tokens.
2- Creepy: Animals don’t like you. Disadvantage on checks and reaction rolls dealing with animals, domestic or wild.
3- Disloyal Followers: Your henchmen will betray, desert, or blackmail you at the worst time. GM decides when.
4- Evil Lineage: You descend from darkness. Disadvantage on all CHA checks and reaction rolls with unfamiliar good-aligned NPCs.
5- Hideous: Your face or form is cursed. Disadvantage on all CHA and solo reaction rolls not involving intimidation, unless it’s a good friend or unlikely love.
6- Leaves Evidence: Every crime you commit leaves a clue. GM decides what.

 

These quirks have not all been playtested.  If you playtest them and/or have feedback, please email thorn@dreamshrike.com or comment below, and thank you!