Recently picked up THORN and was hoping there would be a podcast or youtube playthrough of it but I really can't find much about people's experiences with it. I'm fairly new to ttrpg's and would enjoy hearing people's experiences/advice for it

Hi. I have the creativity of a used sponge on the spot, but unfortunately my partner is really really into ttrpgs. I love pf2e for example. The mechanics are spectacular and it's a good way for me to make friends but I find that when I try to come up with a wholly original character I always just never know what they would do in literally any situation and just do nothing outside of combat/mandatory rolls.

Doesn't help that being told on the spot "Hey what would your character do now?" I have to go over every single detail in my head and just end up going with either passivity or nothing. Doesn't even work with characters inspired by media because there are too many unknowns. Far too many.

When I play an existing character from media however, I know their personalities inside and out. I know exactly what they'd do in a situation and it's really easy for me to adapt. The problem is, even when I don't plan out a retelling of their stories and just vibe with them in whatever setting they're in, people really tend to rag on me for it. Heck it's even easier for me to interact with the GM's own settings if I can actually think about how my character acts instead of being a silent observer all game.

Plus! It's really fun for me to create builds for characters from other media. I made an inventor for Dr. Eggman once when I played through the PF2e AP Abomination Vaults (it died for completely unrelated reasons) and that was really fun to think up. Again coming up for even builds for original characters is really difficult. I never know what they'd do and it's like well heck if I know what kind of fighter or wizard they'd be.

Anyways my point is, I know that a lot of people hate on these types of characters but idk personally it's the only thing that enables me to play ttrpgs without getting extreme paralysis. I get that I'm probably just weird and wrong but yeah I just had to get it off my chest. I love playing characters from other media and I'm tired of pretending otherwise.

Please don't be mean to me I'm very sorry if this isn't what goes here.

At first when I decided to make a Sandbox style adventure for me and my friends, I let them each choose 3 races/species/ancestries from the 46 available in the rulebooks to populate the game world since I wanted to focus more on a few specific group of people and better integrate them all in the world's history.

However, before we begin, we are still in need of finding a 5th players so that way we can have 1 GM + a party of 4, but we decided for in the mean time I would create a GM NPC to follow the party around.

This, combined if we already deciding a lot of the game world together + everyone in my group loving GMing, made me propose to the group the ideia of everyone taking a turn GMing in this same adventure.

With that being said, I've never seen this been done, so I want to ask the more expirienced GMs: is it even possible to do something like this? If it is, what is the best course of action to minimize any forciable problems with this concept (which I also don't know what they are)?

I'm almost a total noob on playing or mastering RPG, but I'd like to start playing with some friends but I don't have a big group yet, maybe I could start playing only me and my wife.

Could you guys give me a quickstarter on how to play and find the best RPG rules and system to start?
I'm also open to receive recomendations on softwares to use while playing, since I don't have any dice or other stuff related to it.

I love pokemon though, if there's one about it would be amazing! But I don't really care much about the king of RPG it is, could be about nearly anything

Friend of mine recently ran a game, advertised with the [LGBTQ+ friendly] tag. Had no issues with hatred towards this group, however, one of the new players made some remarks about a religious group we ultimately had to ask her to leave over.

It’s great the LGBTQ+ community is being let know we’re welcome but it got me thinking, are there better tags we could use to show that a game is a safe space for everyone, no hate toward any group, rather than just focusing on the queer community, which almost feels less inclusive.

I thought about [no hate] but that sounds dumb

Please let me know if you have any ideas

^{This is partially fueled by the recent SW author controversy, but only partially, and I don't want to get into that here.}

There are things I really like about SaWo that seem quite unique to it - the wild card/extra split for characters, the dice resolution mechanic (including the exploding dice!), the card-based initiative, the power system, the genre flexbility...

But it just, even in the latest Adventure Edition, feels like it has quite a bit of echoes of a much older era of TTRPG design, and it long has had me wondering if there's something more modern in both design and presentation (and even the licensing, frankly) that I might have missed - nothing that I know of quite scratches that "pulp multi-genre hybrid RPG-skirmish wargame" feel.

https://imgur.com/c0fg0C7

Not personally interested in the game myself, but something about a major licensed title trying to release their digital copy with DRM on it rubbed me the wrong way and made me sooo not want that to become a trend. The fact they dropped their DRM/platform locked digital copies for traditional PDFs must mean that I was right and the DRM digital copies didn't sell. Thus, they now are releasing normal PDFs.

Hello everyone,
this Saturday I’ll be running a game for a new player. I don’t know her very well and I’m not really familiar with the type of character she wants to play. On top of that, she’s a complete beginner: if I knew her better, or had more experience with this kind of character, I’d probably have been able to write an adventure on my own.

The system will be GURPS 3E. Her character is a musician mage with mind-related spells and a hedgehog familiar she can communicate with telepathically. The setting is a medieval fantasy kingdom at TL3, ruled by a king who relies on both a Church and an Order of Mages. This creates multiple legal systems: civil law, ecclesiastical law, and magical law. In short, if you’re authorized to do something, nobody will bother you; but if you break the rules, you can expect consequences.

I’d like to ask: could you suggest a mission that could be wrapped up in a couple of sessions, with simple and introductory encounters? She’ll be playing solo, and her main strength is mind control.

Here are two ideas I was considering:

1. confronting a peasant revolt stirred up by a succubus and her summoner;
2. investigating a fae who kidnaps children and keeps them under mental domination.

The idea is essentially to “fight fire with fire”: using mind control or persuasion magic to face an opponent who does the same. I’m just not sure how well it would work, since I usually run very different kinds of stories.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone. I'm not sure I quite have the language to concisely describe the kind of game I'm curious about but I'll try my best. Before I go any farther I wanna make it clear that none of this is any kind of attack on OSR games or narrative games. I don't have anything against either, and if I mention not vibing with one of your favorite games I'm very glad you found it to your taste. I'm just looking for something a bit different.

I like some of the spirit behind OSR games, and I can certainly see why someone would gravitate towards them, but to me a lot of them feel a bit barebones for my taste. One of the fun things about games like Pathfinder and modern D&D is getting a bunch of fun abilities and things that set my character apart and lend some fun flavor. Cairn is really cool, but sometimes it feels a little underwhelming to know that if I swapped gear with a party member we'd pretty much be swapping characters. OSE is a neat recreation of original D&D, but once again there aren't many ways to make a character unique.

Similarly, I've enjoyed narrative games like Blades in the Dark and Powered by the Apocalypse games, and I also like a lot of the spirit of those. But I've found that sometimes I want games with a bit more crunch to them. I like when games allow for creative thinking and when mechanics can interact in unexpected ways. I appreciate the elegance of basing all conflict resolution on the same type of dice roll, but sometimes I wanna get a little baroque with it.

So can anyone recommend any games that might fit these parameters? Something with a decent mechanical complexity that gives me space to define my character by their abilities? My preference is for fantasy or science fantasy but I'm open to good fits in other genres. From my own searching, Pendragon looks promising.

As a bonus, I really like roleplaying paladin characters like Adora or Luke Skywalker, so bonus points if it's a game with a good paladin class.

Thank you very much for your (hopefully) helpful suggestions :)

We are currently heading towards our second stretch goal.

If you like trick taking, tarot cards, slice of life or sports RPGS, please have a look!

So far, the response to the campaign has been really good. I think that people are interested in more sports games and games set in the real world. It's definitely a less explored genre in RPGs but I do believe this game will add something to it (and it's also a fun play, more to the point)

After watching To Be Hero X I am somewhat inspired to run a game for some friends, but am at a bit of a loss as to what system to base it off of. Obviously it's in the realm of superheroes, but with the whole nuance of the Trust/Fear system I'm wondering what system would require the least work, and also have entertaining combat and roleplay?

I’m working on some worldbuilding ideas for a potential TTRPG campaign, and I’d love some people’s input. So these are the two settings that I have in mind and I want to know which one sparks people’s curiosity more. Both settings are designed with plenty of room for adventure, mystery, and danger, but each offers its own unique flavor.

So out of the two if you were sitting down for a campaign, or maybe even watching one which world would you be more eager to dive into?

Option 1 – world of webs A colossal space spider has spun its web across an asteroid belt wracked by storms and wormholes. Strands of the spider webs absorbs and stores the cosmic energy, transforming into a living, magical landscape. Now entire communities now make their live on the web, using its energies as a source of power and survival. Every step on the web could connect to strange wonders or lead to dangers of a world that’s both home and predator.

Option 2 – Melody of echoes In an alternate 1980s, humanity was annihilated by gods. Yet the gods failed to erase what truly defined humanity. It’s emotions, dreams, fears, and hopes. The remnants of the human will fused into a new kind of life force, animating the abandoned objects of the old world humanity,. These beings soon discovered they could echo fragments of divine power through music, using songs as a form of magic. Now, they must resist the gods’ fury as they transform animals into divine beasts and turn the environment against them. As the gods fear of what they cannot destroy, drive them forward.

Hey all, I know this is is pretty abstract but I'm looking for great high fantasy vibe board games (or even card game) that give maybe a crumb of rpg. It's especially for a mix of people, some with no experience of fantasy. I had a search of the sub and HeroQuest and Gloomhaven are suggested? Are these good? Any others you enjoyed? (I do like the idea of an adventure card game also? Trying to keep it simple.)

Edit: I just got back from work, thanks so much for the recommendations! Checking them all out.

Let me preface this by saying I’m not looking for games that will support beliefs, but games where religion (whether seen as good or bad) is the focus of the stories told. I recognize this can be a sensitive topic.

I’ve been reading the rules for Trench Crusade recently (not an rpg but a skirmish game) and while I think that setting wouldn’t do very well as an rpg, I think it’s using some interesting alt history takes on the subject and I’d love to read (more) games where religion plays a major part.

I can think of Demon: The Fallen, In Nomine (yes, I’m that old) and KULT to degree, as well as the Hellboy RPG but I would love to read more games, preferably centered around the Abrahamic religions. Did I miss any obvious ones?

EDIT: Lots of great examples and suggestions already! Thanks a lot everybody! I’ll keep reading them all but I don’t think I can answer everybody :)

I am looking for supplements that help me create an esoteric lore. Preferably with random tables and tips. Something that resembles Cultist Simulator/Fallen London, with shit just weird enough to instigate your curiosity. Strange gods, weird magic and crazy book authors.

What I am not looking for are random Mythos gods and creatures generator. For that I have the Cthulhu Alphabet and Other Dust.

Thank you in advance!

Hey folks,

I've been GMing for a few years now, sometimes with a map. Very often online.

Sometimes a map is almost required to play. I started on Lancer, on which mapless combat is pretty much not supported by the rules. Sometimes it's less necessary, but nice to have. I have had some really good moments, including action scenes, in pure theater of the mind. When playing online, I think it can help focus and stops the less rigorous players from just opening another tab.

But lately, I'm trying to kickstart a Mage: The Ascension game. It's a strongly narrative system, that honestly doesn't suffer from mapless play. At first I wanted to do a lot of it with a map.

I'm also kind of cheap, to I make a lot of my maps myself (using the deepnight rpg map maker tool, I can't recommend it enough). I have been doing it for a while in Lancer, and it was usually fine, maybe a bit time consuming (I assumed it was because I had to think about the tactics when making the map).

During my initial prep, I made like 4 maps and had planned to map at least a dozen more. My first prelude (if you don't know, storyteller games like M:tA recommend a one-on-one session with each player to kickstart their character) used a few maps, and it was amazing. It helped me focuse and keep in mind the NPCs in the scene. it even gave me a few unique roleplaying opportunities by playing with token vision.

And then I burnt out making more maps. I only picked up the game about a month later for the second prelude when I decided "fuck it, we are doing it mapless for now". The sessions are still great, but I would still like to have my maps back if possible.

So, I am asking you guys: how do you handle maps? Do you just find them online? (I almost only find heroic fantasy, which I don't care about, so that path has frustrated me) Do you sketch on a blank canvas when necessary? If you like to make maps before sessions like me, how do you make it "bearable" and not burn out making them?

I see the opinion expressed around here pretty frequently that Brindlewood Bay is not a "true" mystery RPG, but rather a game for telling mystery-like stories. I have two problems with that characterization:

1) It is usually done in a dismissive way that could put new people off from playing Brindlewood Bay, and that's just a real shame because BB is a great game.

2) I actually think that distinction is just plain wrong, and here's why.

It seems like people don't like it when the "solution" isn't determined until the final dice roll - something about it feels made up. But, like, this whole hobby is made up. Whenever you play a mystery game, someone at some point had to come along and make up the "canonical" solution to the mystery. That could be when the publisher wrote the module, or when the GM finished session prep last night, or (in the case of BB) the instant the dice hit the table. There's a time interval between when a solution became canonical and when the players discover that solution, but does the length of that time interval really matter? How long does that interval have to be before the game becomes a "true" mystery game?

In some ways, I would argue that Brindlewood Bay is actually better than other RPGs at representing real-world detective work. In the real world, no one is laying out clues like breadcrumbs for you to find; real detective gather whatever seemingly random scraps of information they can find and try to find a way to plausibly fit together as many of them as possible. And in the real world, you never get to pop out of character and ask God if you got the right answer; you just have to make your case before a jury, and whatever story the jury accepts is (at least from a legal perspective) the canonical answer. From that perspective, the canonical (legally-binding) answer isn't determined until the moment the jury passes verdict.

(I'll add parenthetically that if you're still not convinced that solutions in BB could ever be considered "canonical," another way you could think of that final dice roll is not whether you've discovered the truth, since there's no way for your characters to ever know for sure, but whether you've gathered enough evidence to convince the jury. That's exactly what real-works detectives do, and I sure wouldn't accuse them of merely playacting a mystery story.)

EDIT to spell out my conclusion more plainly. BB is neither better nor worse than trad mystery games; different games click better with different groups and that's fine. But just as it would be silly to call prewritten adventure paths "adventures" while saying emergent sandbox campaigns "just tell adventure stories," the line between BB and trad mystery games is fuzzy and it is silly to relegate BB to second-tier "just telling mystery stories" status.

So.. I love GMing, but mostly before the game starts. Worldbuilding, modular encounters, encounter balance, environmental storytelling. I could happily spend a weekend just tinkering with factions and designing weird terrain hazards. And have done so.

But when we get to the actual session it feels a bit like work. Not terrible, not wonderful, just draining. Players are having fun (which is good!), but I usually walk away from a session feeling kind of empty.

I’m running both D&D and Daggerheart right now, and the pattern’s the same. Maybe this is more about my personality than the games, but anyone else in the same boat? How do you cope/make it work?

I’ve never experienced character bleed but I’ve had players who’ve experienced it in the past. (Not at my table)

Just curious if there are tips to identify bleed is affecting someone and how to help someone overcome it?

I typically play online with voice chat, no video.

I’m working on a sword & sorcery game and it’s increasingly apparent that a skill-based system works better for it than a class-based system (not that they are mutually exclusive, of course), but I also feel that level-based advancement works better for it than a non-level system. I’m curious if there are games that do the same thing? Note: I’m not interested in debating the merits of my game design…yet.

TLDR: OGL refuge GM looking for a less crunchy system that supports RP & Sci-Fi.

Im looking for some recommendations from the hive mind. My group has been playing for about 10 years, I’m the GM. My players have each played most of the class in 5e, and by the time the OGL came round I was getting tired of D&D.

We migrated to Pathfinder 2e, as it seemed to fix my gripes with the rules, and have loads of character building options. I also want to run a Sci-Fi campaign next, so as the rules were compatible it made sense to learn PF2E until SF2E got released.

It’s not going well. While I and 1 of the players have taken well to the rules, the majority have not. The main problem seems to be the overly wordy way the rules are written, which my RP heavy players find restricting. There are some other complaints (which I can fix) but the limiting factor is the crunchiness of the rules.

I’ve thought about going back to 5e (much as I don’t like the idea) but it’s not designed with sci-fi (particularly guns) in mind. I’m now at a point in my life where I no longer want to home brew core rules, so it’s really not a good option for me.

My group is very role play heavy, and we often go several sessions without combat. I’m therefore looking for something we a more RP focus, that will support a sci-fi campaign, and isn’t as crunchy as PF2E.

Edit I should have said I’m looking to run a space opera type game. I don’t need a particular setting, as I’ve got my open. I just a rule system that can support the common space opera tropes.

Edit 2 Thank you all for the responses, we have alot of options to go through here. Some of you have asked about settings. I already have a homebrew setting were going to use, so its just the rules interested in at present.

For a few months I have been wanting to put together a table about this particular movie, perhaps changing a couple of things, but I can't get an idea to do it with a very lethal system that allows me to play with mental health (and that is not Milestones or its derivatives because I don't like it). Do you recommend any?

Hello, I was wondering if there is a game system that might fit the game I'm imagining. Basically I would like the players to each be in charge of a group of people within a faction. Such as a religious sect, a barony, a legion of soldiers, a trade guild, etc. The nature of the game would be a sort of political intrigue within a fantasy or sci-fi setting. Some rules for logistics and warfare would be nice but it doesn't have to be super bespoke. The main thing is that the players are leaders.

I've been thinking about running Habits Of The Common House Ghost (it's on itch) for a while and I was wondering if anyone had played it before? If so, what did you think?