my stack rank is #1 Stonetop, #2 Sam Crow, #3 Heartsworn. I've blathered about my reasoning and I would certainly read Sam Crow with interest, just to see how you solve the "everyone's a villain and sometimes you're rooting for the devil" problem.
I'm on the fence but really would be up for any of the options continuing forward.
I just finished up Proper Villains and really enjoyed it!
I found it a lot easier to follow along with Proper Villains than it has been to catch up on Stonetop because I can read each episode from my email and it has been easier to track where I am.
I'm newish to Substack (PTFO is the only thing I read here) so I'm curious to know if there is a better way to catch up on Stonetop. I've found it to be a bit difficult to keep track of where I am when I don't have time to read for a couple days.
I guess I could set up a spreadsheet to track which episodes I have read... That wouldn't be that hard and in fact I'll do that so I will be ready for whichever direction we go come March!
I voted for "That Devil, Sam Crow" at the beginning of the year as I'm partial to Wild/Weird West settings. However, as I mentioned, I enjoyed Proper Villains more than expected and I think I would enjoy reading whatever you put out even if I'm not that on top of things (I think I was only able to vote once for time for Proper Villains).
I've drawn a lot of inspiration from you as I've started down my own actual play fiction path, so thank you and keep it up!
Glad you're enjoying it and finding it inspiring for your own work -- I'll make sure to check it out! :-)
I wish there was better support for serialized fiction, but the primary use case for Substack seems to be political and cultural hot takes, which don't often reward diving into the archives.
Thanks! I'll make sure to let you know when I push something out!
I've noticed that substack feels more like YouTube in that it's always trying to recommend me new articles/people. It has led me to others in the solo rpg realm, like Croaker, so ultimately I can't complain.
I mostly do read from mobile and having a tab open in my browser did the trick of allowing me to read here and there when I had a moment yesterday. I should be caught up in no time! 😀
I do have the mobile app and like that it has a dark mode. I should give it another try and see if it works better if I read more consistently. It seems like when I was busier and only able to read every couple of days the app would reset leading to some minor frustration. Mostly I'm just being lazy and entitled though 😀
I'm new to Substack too, I've just finished reading through the Stonetop campaign and I've been keeping the last episode I'm on open as a tab on my phone browser (to keep track of where I am) and then I can just go back to the campaign index and pick the next episode. So far I haven't found a better way than that to track my progress. It's a shame Substack doesn't seem to have a way to click forward to the next post without going back to the campaign index.
As you enjoyed Proper Villians, I'd definitely recommend giving it a go reading through Stonetop from the start. 🙂
I was thinking that I'd of course go with Heartsworn as an enthusiastic user of Ironsworn (I'm still trying to sort out how to mix the progress moves with other systems too, so that would be wonderful to see), but then I read the Sam Crow description and... Yeah, I'm thinking Sam Crow.
Now, choosing between one of the new ones and Stonetop however is tougher! I want to see you take on something new, but also there's a lot to do at Stonetop as well!
I'm still going with Sam Crow, but only because I threw a d6 oracle and it selected that one.
I'm going to throw at you something else too: do you know the game "The Veil"? It's cyberpunk so that might not be your cup of tea, but for a future foray it could be interesting, I think.
I hadn't heard of The Veil but I just did some googling and it looks like a very interesting PbtA! I've been thinking a lot about how to do a fresh-ish take on Cyberpunk (something that's different than "runners in the city doing jobs and getting roped into a big conspiracy") Might be worth picking up and reading.
If I can ask, what did you find particularly exciting about Sam Crow?
So, what happens with Sam Crow is that you managed to tap in the Vibes of a few of my favourite media IP. Essentially, as I was reading the characters and setting I couldn't help but see hints of The Dark Tower books and other King books in general, of the Control and Alan Wake videogames, some Supernatural, some Mindhunter... That's a huge subsection of my favourite things, basically!
*Deleted the first comment and pasted it back here because I didn't mean to start a new comment thread!
my stack rank is #1 Stonetop, #2 Sam Crow, #3 Heartsworn. I've blathered about my reasoning and I would certainly read Sam Crow with interest, just to see how you solve the "everyone's a villain and sometimes you're rooting for the devil" problem.
Same ranking!
I suspect you'll get your wish -- lots of folks are eager for a return to Stonetop!
100% Stonetop return. Same ranking as Ananda.
I'm on the fence but really would be up for any of the options continuing forward.
I just finished up Proper Villains and really enjoyed it!
I found it a lot easier to follow along with Proper Villains than it has been to catch up on Stonetop because I can read each episode from my email and it has been easier to track where I am.
I'm newish to Substack (PTFO is the only thing I read here) so I'm curious to know if there is a better way to catch up on Stonetop. I've found it to be a bit difficult to keep track of where I am when I don't have time to read for a couple days.
I guess I could set up a spreadsheet to track which episodes I have read... That wouldn't be that hard and in fact I'll do that so I will be ready for whichever direction we go come March!
I voted for "That Devil, Sam Crow" at the beginning of the year as I'm partial to Wild/Weird West settings. However, as I mentioned, I enjoyed Proper Villains more than expected and I think I would enjoy reading whatever you put out even if I'm not that on top of things (I think I was only able to vote once for time for Proper Villains).
I've drawn a lot of inspiration from you as I've started down my own actual play fiction path, so thank you and keep it up!
Glad you're enjoying it and finding it inspiring for your own work -- I'll make sure to check it out! :-)
I wish there was better support for serialized fiction, but the primary use case for Substack seems to be political and cultural hot takes, which don't often reward diving into the archives.
Thanks! I'll make sure to let you know when I push something out!
I've noticed that substack feels more like YouTube in that it's always trying to recommend me new articles/people. It has led me to others in the solo rpg realm, like Croaker, so ultimately I can't complain.
I mostly do read from mobile and having a tab open in my browser did the trick of allowing me to read here and there when I had a moment yesterday. I should be caught up in no time! 😀
I do have the mobile app and like that it has a dark mode. I should give it another try and see if it works better if I read more consistently. It seems like when I was busier and only able to read every couple of days the app would reset leading to some minor frustration. Mostly I'm just being lazy and entitled though 😀
I'm new to Substack too, I've just finished reading through the Stonetop campaign and I've been keeping the last episode I'm on open as a tab on my phone browser (to keep track of where I am) and then I can just go back to the campaign index and pick the next episode. So far I haven't found a better way than that to track my progress. It's a shame Substack doesn't seem to have a way to click forward to the next post without going back to the campaign index.
As you enjoyed Proper Villians, I'd definitely recommend giving it a go reading through Stonetop from the start. 🙂
That's a god idea! I'll give that a try. Thanks!
If you do any reading on your mobile, the Substack app also tracks which articles you've read.
Congratulations on completing the season!
Thanks Croaker!
I was thinking that I'd of course go with Heartsworn as an enthusiastic user of Ironsworn (I'm still trying to sort out how to mix the progress moves with other systems too, so that would be wonderful to see), but then I read the Sam Crow description and... Yeah, I'm thinking Sam Crow.
Now, choosing between one of the new ones and Stonetop however is tougher! I want to see you take on something new, but also there's a lot to do at Stonetop as well!
I'm still going with Sam Crow, but only because I threw a d6 oracle and it selected that one.
I'm going to throw at you something else too: do you know the game "The Veil"? It's cyberpunk so that might not be your cup of tea, but for a future foray it could be interesting, I think.
I hadn't heard of The Veil but I just did some googling and it looks like a very interesting PbtA! I've been thinking a lot about how to do a fresh-ish take on Cyberpunk (something that's different than "runners in the city doing jobs and getting roped into a big conspiracy") Might be worth picking up and reading.
If I can ask, what did you find particularly exciting about Sam Crow?
So, what happens with Sam Crow is that you managed to tap in the Vibes of a few of my favourite media IP. Essentially, as I was reading the characters and setting I couldn't help but see hints of The Dark Tower books and other King books in general, of the Control and Alan Wake videogames, some Supernatural, some Mindhunter... That's a huge subsection of my favourite things, basically!
*Deleted the first comment and pasted it back here because I didn't mean to start a new comment thread!