NathanKlas

YOU ARE TWO Or three, or more. It depends how you split it. Most everyone has a chip in their brain and an augmented-reality display playing over their vision. Names and important info float above people’s heads, and their words are translated seamlessly into your native language. [or if youre cool you use subs not dubs] Extremely personalized ads beam directly into your brain as you wait for your payment to process at the bodega. [or again if youre cool you shoplift it and use a digital cypher to obscure your body from the cameras] And if you get into a firefight, you’ll be relying on your cybersecurity to protect you just as much as your flak jacket. [or and stick with me here if youre cool youre the one hacking into their brains and making them shoot their friends] Thanks, Vic. The point is, your digital self is just as important as your physical self. But it’s more than that. The chip in your brain connects to a computer that’s either imbedded into your body or lugged around i...

This is the second part in a series where I look back on work I've done in the past, pointing out what worked, what didn't, and what I'd change if I did it again.     See Part 1: Glass Hound in a Glass House... Relief This is a Delta Green scenario that I wrote for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario Contest , an annual scenario writing contest with a 1,500-word limit (excluding stat blocks and other supplementary material). It won second place that year, which was crazy. This one is a bit artsy, a bit personal, and was originally a 6,000-word first draft, so there's plenty of talk about summary writing . For convenience's sake, especially for mobile users, I'm going to reproduce the text of the scenario here in black, and put my commentary in blue . You can find the original scenario here . The Title Again, the title carries a lot of weight. If I had called this "Operation Black Hole" or something, I doubt as many people would have bothered to click on it. Som...

I'm of two minds regarding mechanical resolution systems. On the one hand, people will find a way to have fun with anything. Have you ever seen people get excited and yell while playing Trouble? It's a terribly designed system, and people love it anyways. Likewise, there are a number of D&D 5e hacks that should really be using a different system, but people have a blast playing them anyways. Fun doesn't care about your facts.  Do what you want ! On the other hand, systems can tremendously shape the way a game plays and feels, and I care a lot about them. After years of trying to accomplish dungeon crawls in D&D 5e, my first game of Into the Odd felt like heaven. The rules and the content are so crisp and they merge so harmoniously at the table. Turns out, all that OSR theory has an impact in play. Who knew? So it's both the most important issue a TTRPG can resolve, and also literally doesn't matter. I have decided to treat it like it matters to satisfy the d...

I started a Cyberpunk Red campaign last year on a whim while it was my hyperfixation of the month. I threw myself into prep, taking notes on the factions, districts, and NPCs of Night city. I helped my players expand the lifepath system into elaborate backstories for their grungy little blorbos, which I then connected to a red-string board to reverse-construct a grand Militech conspiracy that happened to overlap with Arasaka family drama during their first mission. The PCs took their MacGuffin and DMPC to the Afterlife, and snuck out just as the sun was rising and a hit squad was coming for them. And then my wedding was coming up, and a pause turned into an indefinite hiatus when another game came out of hiatus. We only played two proper sessions, but I look back on them very fondly. Those were some of the most kick-ass sessions I've ever run as a GM. They also made me never want to run Cyberpunk Red again. The combat was janky and slow, proceeding at a 5e speed but without gimmick...

Night Trails was my submission to the 2025 Delta Green Shotgun Scenario Contest . It didn't really make a splash, and I think that's because I had to cut it to the bone to get it under the word count. I'm not complaining, I did it to challenge myself, but I think I found the limit. When I first started practicing summary writing, I learned the difference between the fat and the meat: do you really need that elaborate backstory if the players have no way to learn it, and it doesn't really change the scenario to learn it?  Then I pushed myself further, and learned that there are different kinds of meat: an NPC can be described in 6, 60, or 600 words. How many do they really need, and how much can be left to the imagination?  With this product, I learned that underpinning that meat is bone, and with an elaborate enough structure that bone adds up to a lot. I had multiple bespoke mechanics, a 3-location investigation, three procedurally-generated areas each with a travel ...

Here are my reviews for the  2025 Shotgun Scenario contest . This is probably the last year that I do this, I enjoy the work but it's a huge amount of work to do every Christmas break, and takes up a lot of free time that I'd like to spend elsewhere. Regardless, I got snowed in this year and had a blast as always, and now have even more Shotgun Scenarios prepped to go at a moment's notice. Enjoy! Link here .