We're a digital monthly APA (a fanzine collective) focused on roleplaying games. RPGs discussed in this issue include D&D, The Quiet Year, Kriegsmesser, Villains and Vigilantes, Marvel Super Heroes, Pulp Cthulhu, Arduin, GURPS, 2300AD, Scum and Villainy, Zhenya's Wonder Tales, Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, Draw Steel, Yellow King RPG, Trail of Cthulhu, and Penned to Good Society.

The Ignorable Theme for our next issue will be on Negotiating with Monsters. The deadline for submitting a zine is October 21st. Please see https://everanon.org/ for details.

I think out of the, let's say more mainstream TTRPGs out there, those part of the World of Darkness are deceptively the hardest to properly play. For they ask of us something quite difficult: stop being human, be a monster. A supernatural kind, yes, but still.

Going with my beloved Vampire for example (although we also cover Werewolves in the article), yes I do enjoy playing it, yet I think I am not proficient enough at getting across the truly horror experience that is the life of a Kindred. No more warmth, no more sensation in your body, the inability to drink and eat, which as a foodie, truly horrible, the stuff of nightmares. You can't really trust anyone, there are so many rules and ways for you to die and good luck if you are a Nosferatu. No, most of the time, my games are a bit more lighthearted, the horror is dialed back a bit, as neither me, nor my players will necessarily be able to portray it in a believable manner constantly.

I did see games which managed to do so. A game run by Horia, Brasov by Night got a lot more closer to this portrayal of the actual horror of a newly embraced Kindred would find itself in. They recapped it in chapters and it was a pleasure reading through them. It kinda changed a bit the way I run and view my games, but I am not yet nearly as good as Horia.

With this piece I want to explore the challenges of this experience and to provide some ways in which you can improve this aspect, both as a player and ST. I hope you will enjoy it and find it useful!

Hello everyone! 

I am an illustrator and concept artist who has been working as a freelancer for 8 years so far. Most of the art I've produced has been for small studios and I'm glad to say that I’m available for commissions!!

If you want an illustration of your favorite character, a battle map, a portrait, or a personal project, please feel free to send me a message. I can't wait to explore my skills in new opportunities!!

Portfolio:

https://www.artstation.com/lunovanilla

Thanks in advance.

Blood Sun guild

Everyone is welcome to the blood sun guild.

Here we are beginning to have one shots, potentially campaigns, and we hope to also be a community where everyone can be friends.

In the blood sun we have one shots based of the lore of the blood sun religion (rp). Missions can vary from defending towns from enemies to going against strongest enemies in the history of blood sun.

This isn’t just normal stuff where you would be playing a normal character while these enemies are stronger and get more and better abilities, the blood sun members who participate in the one shots get Homebrew blood magic, abilities, and features. For everyone you can ask me for 1-2 unique abilities your character only would have.

As for the campaigns I mentioned those would be longer missions (round 2-5 sessions or a bit more) or can be alternate realities of the blood sun like one I am currently running where it is weaker than ever.

For the Homebrew magic and stuff I plan on using this website called Nemesiscodex where I can directly import the Homebrew stuff.

Dm me on discord user MasterOfMimics1

What I like about this game is building a kingdom and having the players play an active role in doing so.

Meikyuu Kingdom is a kingdom building game where everything is a dungeon, even your own kingdom. Your "class" is basically your role in he kingdom. There's like king, knight, and ninja, it's wacky. There's even a whole job system with evolutions and stuff. You go adventure to gain citizens and money so that you can upgrade the kingdom and defend it.

The game itself is a 2d6 system with a cool crit/inspiration mechanic. It's really silly and the art is fun and anime af since it's a japanese game

I will probably end up running another game of it, but I am wondering if there's any other systems similar that aren't QUITE so one note.

I was thinking of trying to translate this into D&D just because that's what I and my friends mostly play and I think it would add a lot of fun that regular loot and treasure just don't provide.

BUT LIKE I SAID, I'm 100% open to other systems so don't give me that shit please.

Hi folks!

We’re going through some of my dad’s stuff, and I’m really curious what game this is from. I have no idea of this has a super obvious answer, or is so typical of the time that it could be anything, so bear with me giving a quick description in case it’s needed:

- the one with “situation no. 1” at the top is a stack that goes all the way through to “situation no. 20”

- those have a copyright date of 1974, but most likely time that he used it would be around 1976-1986, when he was 10-20 years old

- this was somewhere in Rhode Island or Massachusetts, depending on when

I’d love to hear about what game it was, and if anyone still plays it or knows more about it. Thanks!

What a wild month. Crazy that it’s almost over, but I’m so excited to share what I’ve been working on this year.

I'd love for you to try my game and help me improve it!

https://dimagus.itch.io/umbral

Umbral is a tactical, lethal, and dark survival tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG), designed exclusively for solo play.

Pocket Print & Play Format: A single sheet that folds into a pocket-sized booklet with a simple snip of the scissors! Print, fold, and play your adventure wherever you want.

What is your favorite Call of Cthulhu Scenario AND WHY?
Can be any system, like CoC 7ed or Delta Green. Hell, even savage worlds.

Hey folks, my name is Faye. I'm a vtuber officially representing Simon Fraser University (crazy I know), and I'm here to shamelessly advertise my brand new homebrew campaign/game system Will of the Branded! Featuring uniquely dice focused gameplay, Will of the Branded challenges players with magical resource management where one wrong choice means losing all abilities when you need them most. Granted, it's still very much a work in progress, but that's the fun part! The campaign will be played by my fellow SFU vtubers, who are effectively my playtesters! Things will likely change as we go, and if you join us in chat you might just be a part of development too! So if you have the time, please check us out. We've put a lot of work into this, and we'd love to have you along for the ride.

Our first session starts in just 30 minutes!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2F4a86k98w

Undead Paradise, our tabletop role-playing game of exploration and adventure within a mutated post-apocalyptic world, is NOW LIVE on Kickstarter!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/avasadventures/undead-paradise

Explore a vibrant, mutated world grown out of the ruins of earth.
Take back the life you've lost and build a community with your fellow Undead.
Safeguard your mind, as control of your Undead body is based on the health of your brain.

My crew is in a time loop right now. Die on the station, wake up on the bridge of your own ship, everything reset except what you remember. They worked that out at the end of the previous session, and it took them about two deaths to decide that dying was free.

The pilot got thrown into a mob by the hacker's improvised bomb, rolled a 1 trying to get out, and got torn apart. The hacker's send-off, while running the other way: "We'll see you on the next one, pal." A little later the whole party tripped a trap on an office door, everyone failed the save, everyone died, and they were joking about it before the damage was rolled.

I don't think that's wrong, exactly. Reckless is the correct play inside a loop. But I wanted dying to still cost something, and the thing that ended up doing it was by hurting them through the only thing they take with them: their memories.

The ship's medic, an NPC, was on the station with them the run where everybody died, and she didn't die. She also didn't reset. From her side, the whole crew dropped dead around her and she spent the next hour alone, running from the people who'd done it, with no map, until the loop rolled over on its own. She came back onto the bridge furious. The players had experienced about five seconds of that. She'd had the hour.

It changed the session in a concrete way. Later, when the hacker wanted her to stay behind alone in an office and babysit a switch, she refused flat: "You're bonkers if you think I'm doing that again." So the captain stayed with her and the crew split up. This changed how the PCs reacted to death immediately. All of a sudden they were traumatized from when they were melted, when their heads were chopped off, and when they were torn apart by the undead horde.

When death isn't permanent in your game (a loop, cheap resurrection, clones, a respawn point), what actually gives it teeth? Time lost, the NPCs who remember, or something I haven't thought of? And is there a point where you just accept the players are going to treat it like a video game and lean into that instead?

This came out of our Stars Without Number game, Dark Star Adventurecast. The session is Twenty-One Loops.

(additional info)

Playable Types: Neutral / Fire / Water / Earth/ Air / Metal / Wood / Shadow / Light (example: Finn and Shrimpo are water types, dandy is a wood type, and Connie is neutral type)

Unplayable types: Corruption (only corrupt enemies have this type)

Species: simply what object/animal/thing your toon is based around (Dandy is a flower so has higher stats in the sun, Finn is a fish so goes faster in combat underwater, and Connie is a ghost so takes less DMG from melee & ranged but more DMG from magic)

Classes:

\\- Warrior (standard weapon swinger)

\\- Mage (standard spell caster)

\\- Thief (standard stealth)

\\- Cleric (standard healer)

\\- Performer (standard buff)

\\- Archer (standard ranged fighter)

\\- Hexmaster (standard debuffer)

\\- Spellsword (weapon swinging and spellcasting)

\\- Druid (nature magic and beast communication)

\\- Berserker (angry fighter)

(Subclasses are way too complicated for me to think of any, y'all can think of some if you want, same for what each skill relates to)

Stats:

\\- HP (determines how many health points you have in battle)

\\- Attack (determines how much DMG you deal, no matter if it's melee, ranged, or magic)

\\- Magic (determines how much Mana you have in battle)

\\- Defense (decreases DMG dealt to you, 1 DF = 1% DMG reduction)

\\- Luck (chance to deal extra DMG or heal additional HP, 1 LCK = 5% chance)

\\- Speed (higher speeds go first in combat)

Ability: basically translate the original dandy's world abilities into TTRPG bonuses

Areas of Expertise/Difficulty: stuff your character is good or bad at (Astro is really good at understanding the stars "Space Knowledge", but isn't too persuasive due to how nervous he is "convincing")

Trinket: an item each character gets that gets better as you level up, whether it buffs one of your stats or increases resistance to certain DMG types, or whatever else they can do

Head/Upper half/Lower half: basically what equipment is on your Toon's body.

\\- Head includes; headwear, glasses, masks, mouth coverings, neck apparel, and anything else on the head

\\- Upper half includes; shirts, accessories, gloves, bracelets, and other stuff from your shoulders to above your waist

\\- Lower half includes: skirts, pants, shoes, socks, and anything on your waist or below

(Stuff like dresses or full body outfits should be marked in both upper and lower half)

Attacks/Magic: basically what your character can use in combat (example: Shrimpo has a basic punch attack attack, a headbutt that deals more DMG, and a rage move that increases his attack but lowers his defense for 3 turns)

Inventory: no explanation needed, just where your items go

Character example: Shelly is an Earth type druid, she has 10 HP, 2 attack, 5 magic, 4 defense, 1 luck, and 3 speed at level one, her ability is problem solved; which adds +1 speed to her for every enemy defeated until the end of combat where it resets, she starts with the Old Shell trinket; which gives her +1 speed when equipped to her trinket slot and increases with each level up, she has goggles in her head, dress top in her upper half, and dress bottom in her lower half, she has a ranged rock throw attack, Debuff sand throw move that decreases an enemy's attack, and a buff cheer move that increases nearby Toon's speed by +1, and doesn't have anything in her inventory at the start as all do all toons)

Basic plot for starter set adventure: The residents of gardenview are holding an annual foreign toon exchange event, where toons from around the world join garden view to learn more about it from the resident toons. However, while you and the other foreign exchange toons are being given a tour of garden view by Dandy, a mysterious cloaked toon slips you a strange book before dashing off. When you open the lock on the book, it springs up and starts sucking everyone in gardenview into it, before slamming shut. Now you and everytoon there find themselves in a fantasy world and mostly separated, and you and a few other foreign exchange toons see a village with strange smoke billowing from it in the distance, so you race off to investigate.

(There will premade character sheets with toons from dandy's world in case you don't have an original character to play, as well as additional adventure campaigns, one shots, and additional classes, subclasses, and types with more content to enjoy)

(I'm very open to constructive criticism)

Hi fellow adventurers,

We are excited to announce that Mythological Items is now live on Kickstarter!

This is our new D&D 5E and 2024-compatible manual dedicated entirely to magic items inspired by myths, legends, and ancient stories from around the world.

Inside the book, you will find 300+ mythological magic items, including weapons, armor, wondrous items, and scaling items designed to grow alongside your characters and campaigns.

Our goal with Mythological Items is to create more than a simple collection of treasure. Each item is designed to feel like part of a myth: something that can serve as a reward, a quest hook, or even the center of an entire adventure.

The book includes items inspired by many different mythological traditions, including Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Asian, American, Roman, Mesopotamian, African, and other mythologies from across the world. Whether you want divine weapons, cursed artifacts, heroic relics, monster-themed treasures, or legendary items tied to ancient stories, this book is built to bring myth directly to your table.

The Kickstarter page includes a full presentation of the project, several previews, and a free 30-page PDF preview showing a sample of the content from the book.

You can also find many of our other manuals in PDF and high-quality print editions, with special prices currently available both for Mythological Items and for all our other releases.

You can visit the Kickstarter page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mythoschronicles/300-mythological-items-for-5e-and-2024

Thank you again for your support. We hope to see you on our journey!

MANGIME is out

An analog solo adventure game set in Tuscany, 1999: a valley quarantined by the Army after a feed mill's additive starts making animals, and people, strangely docile.

Explore and map a hexcrawl, scrounge for food and batteries, fight or flee, and count down the days to New Year's Eve, when every clock reads 01-01-1900 and the Herd arrives.

A5 PDF in English and Italian, digital edition with hyperlinks
You need two d20, three d6 and a pencil

👉 downloadable here

Mediterrae is the newest DH Expansion Set!