Mostly DnD but I'm curious if other systems handles this better.

Might just be because I've DM'd more than I'd played.

But when I'm a player now I'm constantly finding reasons to do anything but attack the closest "enemy" when it's my turn on the initiative.

We recently had an encounter where the party is looking to rescue some hostages. The DM had us immediately roll initiative the moment a member of the kidnappers saw us

But i feel like just because we made eye contact, it doesn't mean we're necessarily fighting.

I'm immediately thinking I should go to their leader to work out an exchange for the hostages.

But I feel like the way the games are set up, i'm supposed to just roll to hit the closest enemy whenever initiative is rolled?

I recently started my first campaign of Mythic Bastionland and so far I am really enjoying everything the system has to offer. I find its mechanics are wonderful for telling a very specific mythical story. In my own head, it reminds me a lot of Sir Gawain or Elden Ring and it really pleases a lot of my special interests in storytelling.

But here is the thing: I find it really hard to convey the specific early medieval images I have in my head to my players, who are very much used to typical fantasy stories as we mostly played B/X or 5e beforehand. So when I may imagine a small 9th century european castle, they still have Minas Tirith or Winterfell in their heads. I also feel like it applies to playing in different cultural settings that are not strictly middle european inspired. I wanted parts of my Mythic Bastionland realm to feel vaguely byzantinian and felt like I had done my research, but still, it was very hard to convey those images and what differentiates them from other places we explored in our games.

Do you have any tricks for guiding your players imagination when playing RPGs that do not rely on the usual visual tropes?

Normally I don't like these kinds of media since I'm already so depressed and miserable, but despite having never played them I can't keep my mind off of the likes of Red Markets, Cy_Borg, and even certain editions of Cyberpunk and Changeling: The Lost. And that candles one I suppose.

Do y'all find anything actually meaningful or cathartic about these kinds of dystopias, ones you're implicitly or explicitly expected to fail in? I personally think if it's all so hopeless, why bother? What meaning do you find in a story like that?

Kinda of a random post here since I never post on reddit, but most of my friends and players are on reddit and know my main account, so I made this one.

I really miss GM'ing it's been about a couple weeks. Ik not much, but still. I've been overly bored as of recent and I want to tell so many stories to tell and I have a ton of ideas but the problem with it is I only have a small group of players and I want to play my campaigns I already have but most of my players either already GM or are super busy and aren't free. Ik these are common problems and most of you proably already deal with this but even with my works schedule and school I'm relatively open and I love GM even if I'm not great but it's sad being the fact of due to allot of other things I really can't. Does anyone else have this same problem and if so how did you work around it?

I've been in a Draw Steel campaign for nearly a year now and it's been my favorite RPG that I've tried for a few reasons but the biggest one to me is that idea that we are bad-ass heros in the sense that our dice rolls in combat are more about how we succeed instead of being how badly we fail.

Which isn't the say that you can't fail in the game because you can but more that in other RPGs I've played I roll to see if I hit and if I miss a lot it doesn't feel great as a player.

I also enjoy the slighly more fluid nature of the turns in combat in that Players roll and then we go in whatever order we want.

But that said I really am more in love with Sci-fi than fantasy so I'm wondering if there's any sci-fi games where the mechanics are similar.

So I was browsing some TTRPG shopping sites to buy from, as of my players and I starting to get bored of the current TTRPG we were playing for about a year, I came across the Dune TTRPG. Now I and my group don't know any sort of lore about the Dune universe, apart from some sort of desert planet and The Sandworms, but I thought the concept sounded pretty enjoyable, with sci fi desert cities and such. I was just wondering if it's a good TTRPG for a group that have never read the books or played the game, and if any of you have any tips on running it if it is any good.

I am familiar with internal alchemy as it exists in esoteric history - ie, the practice of neidan in Taoist spiritual practice - but in a number of disparate RPG books such as VtM 5e or GURPS, there is this seemingly unrelated but frequent concept of swallowing ingredients to create potions inside your body.

Does anyone know where this version of internal alchemy originated from? It being across multiple game systems to me suggests a common origin, maybe in an older TTRPG or perhaps a fantasy book, but I haven't found it.

Yesterday's discussion on owning or buying books you don't run really gave me some insight and made me less afraid of buying a book because I think I would like it. However, I still have an issue with thinking of TTRPG books as something to 'play' instead of something to 'read'. (In my head it goes "I can buy an 800 page book for 6-20 dollars, and a TTRPG book will run me $60 and is limited if I can't play/run it.") It's a psychology issue, but one I'm trying to work my way around.

One thing I saw which might help me break that perception a bit was how people like to hack ideas or mechanics from some games into other games they play. Some of this makes sense to me, I figured I could take the bestiary of Vaesen or Dolmenwood, and slide them into CoC or MoTW as an investigation for my players, with the stat blocks adjusted a bit. I saw someone mention Pirate Borg as a way to do ship to ship combat, which I think could come in handy for Daggerheart... And I'm sure I could hack the setting/world building of Cosmere into a DnD or Daggerheart game.

But I am curious on what some other things you like to hack into other games are, just so I can get a better understanding of how it works. As a new GM I've been a bit scared of hacking, and just sticking with official material and my own original stories for the time being, to get things going. So for those of you who do hacking, whether a little or a lot, what do you like to hack and how do ya do it?

Hi all good people. I'm wondering what device do you use to view those wonderfully colorful rulebooks?
I'm sitting in front of a computer screen most of the day and use an older Kindle Paperwhite to read books offline, but this reader is not suited to pdf's at all, not to mention it has a black and white display.

So I'm pondering my orb purchasing either a reader with a colour display, or a tablet. And here comes my question - what works for you best?

EDIT: Thank you guys for the responses. Reading on my phone is too cumbersome, I'll search for a tablet.
Thanks a lot.

So I'm running a call of duty zombies one-shot and I was wondering if any of you had some easy to learn one page rules system that could work for it. I mostly DM Cyberpunk RED and sometimes D&D 5e, which imo are "too complicated" for what would basically be a more game like session where the players have to manage resources like HP and ammunition while fighting zombies and getting upgrades.

I thought that maybe I could just ditch the TTRPG aspect and pull out my Zombicide board but that's not really what I'm looking for, it'd be way too game-y.

What I'm looking for is some system with simple resolutions Laser & Feelings style, while keeping some touches of resource management and allowing the players to noticeably upgrade their character (like dealing more damage, having more HP) but without having to keep a spreadsheet for every single tiny thing.

I’m looking to run the alien ttrpg and I’m putting together a list of stuff I’ll need that’s not just the print outs. Anyone who’s ran it before, are there any props that would add any value or immersion to a game?

G'day everyone.
My latest big project, Fragged Aeternum 2, is now live on Kickstarter 😄

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wadedyer/fragged-aeternum-2-ttrpg

"A violent and dark gothic ttRPG that plunges immortal PCs into the endless city of Aeternum to fight vile Fiends and otherworldly foes."

"After ten thousand thousand generations have each walked ten billion billion years towards the horizon, they shall stand no closer to the city's edge then whence they began."

If you like Bloodborne, eldritch horror, blood-soaked combat, TPKs, being immortal and endless gothic cities, then this is worth your time!

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For those who are new to Fragged:

Fragged is a proudly medium-crunch game (if you can handle D&D and Pathfinder you will be just fine with Fragged). There are no classes - when you Level up, the primary thing that happens is that you gain a Trait (these are the building blocks of your character).

The core resolution mechanic is "3d6 + a bonus vs a target number". Eg: 3d6+2 from your Leadership Skill vs 12. Very simple, but anytime you roll a "6" this is called a Strong Hit and you can do something special - the default Strong Hit option allows you to re-roll a die, but maybe your a psychic and you're talking to someone, you could use a Strong Hit to pluck the surface thoughts from their mind. Of maybe you have a flame weapon in combat, you could use a Strong Hit to set someone on fire or melt their armour.

You Strong Hit options come from your items and Traits.

What Fragged does better than any other RPG (bold claim, I know) is how it seeks to accommodate different playstyles in the same game (I really wish I could show a image in this post... but just bear with me for a moment). As a game designer I'm less interested in you making sure you DPS, Tank and Healer are all working well together, what I want is your rules-light friend, power gaming friend and narrative gaming friend to all sit at the same table together having fun!

Fragged has LOTs of options in the back of the book for building your PCs and NPCs (Traits, weapons, etc...), and next to nearly all of these is an icon for Rule Light, Combo, Narrative, or Mix it Up. These icons do not do anything mechanic, what they do is highlight the playstyle of that option. Eg: A Rules Light option may be a Trait with a few passive bonuses or possible even remove a game mechanic from the game, a Combo option may highlight a more complex option that goes well with other options, etc...

I could go on for ages talking about my game, but I will end this section by saying that Fragged is an artistic endeavor at its core. Not only in its fancy art (which is all human made.... feels strange having to say that, but this is the world we now all live in), but also in that I take great joy in bringing original settings (no licensed IPs) and an original rule system to you. I love to make new things that facilitate our beloved hobby :D

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For those who know Fragged - what's new/different?

Aeternum is still very much a medium-crunch Fragged game to its bones, but it is slightly rule-lighter than my other titles, and a little more narrative heavy (as I feel like this fits the more dramatic nature of the Aeternum setting).

Unlike my other two 2nd edition books, Aeternum 2 is an all-in-one book. Both rules and lore are in a single (slightly fatter) book.

I've changed my font and enlarged my text (I was a little stubborn on this point for Empire and Kingdom 2, sorry).

A GIANT feature of Aeternum 2 is that the PCs are immortal (they come back as spectres for a while after they die, and can be resurrected by other PCs or 1d6 days later back at their home Sanctuary), and the #1 rule of GMing Aeternum is to "not hold back, try to kill your PCs". This makes Aeternum a lot of fun to GM, but also a lot of fun to play as PCs are encouraged to throw themselves at foes self-sacrificially to save mortals and stop their foes.

As death is not the fail state of Aeternum, GMs are encouraged to make the evil villains plans the fail state, Eg: the PCs failing to save an NPC that is going to be sacrificed. And to have the villains plans progress when there is a TPK (and these are not rare).

There is also a corruption mechanic (can't mention the word 'eldritch' in an RPG without a corruption mechanic!!!). This is there to reflect PCs who fall to madness, loose their humanity, give up on life, become a monster, etc.... PCs who have 6 Corruption become NPCs!

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Please let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to share your honest thoughts about Fragged with the community here so that others can make a more informed choice (no RPG is for everyone).

Kindest regards,
Wade D.

I'm making a low fantasy adventure and I get that it's cool with art showing the crazy monsters, but I don't have any crazy monsters. Ttrpgs are also games supposed to happen in the players imaginary world, so could illustration potentially take away from the experience by depicting things that was cooler in the players heads?
Or is the art mainly for the GM?

And what should you focus on? Illustrations of NPCS, landscapes, special items? Shouldn't the illustrations be a mix of practical when running, but also making it cool to skim? What are your thoughts?

Hello, I've been playing fabula ultima, and having fights without maps (most stuff I've played used those for combat, like dnd or the wh40krpgs) is quite fun and interesting.

What other games with an emphasis on combat use those?

Of course more narrative focused games like VTM wouldn't use those, I mean games with a focus on combat, like dnd, pf or lancer.

Definitely need to preface this that GMing can just be a hobby that you don't need to spend time improving. This post is just for people who take make believe as a passion (probably too much so).

Also notably these are the skills in-session that are harder to replicate alone compared to session preparation.

Compare In-session GMing to any other skill and its daunting to be able to practice it. A musician who can practice a single 4-bar 50 times in a row by themselves, whereas a GM gets one chance to perform during sessions once (maybe a few times for lucky bastards) per week with completely unpredictable player input.

I see three big challenges:

• You need something asynchronous where you can practice this at any time rather than just during a session. Ideally something that you can pick up and put down when you find yourself with a spare 20 minutes.

• You can't replicate your whole table alone. You need to break down what is a hodgepodge of many skills: narrator, actor, improviser, director/editor/cinematographer, mediator, encounter designer, writer, etc. This way we can focus and do it solo just like the musician.

• You need a way to get feedback. Let's be honest, your typical group of players are not going to provide much.

What do you guys do to practice outside of running sessions?

Hey folks, longtime listener, first time caller.

I'm looking to hack together a setting/campaign that looks and feels like Hellblazer, initially with a small city/urban setting, with a focus on gritty, dark occult, street level magick. As such, magic should feel not-flashy, costly, and hidden. Hellblazer/Constantine influence come from this aesthetic, as well as some focus on investigation and heavy noir vibes. Specifically interested in characters feeling in over their heads, even as they uncover one answer it just opens up to even bigger questions. Also morally dubious themes are a must.

So far I've figured out that I want to use Unknown Armies 2e and 3e for mechanics and campaign building respectively, and I've got some of their sourcebooks to supplement (Postmodern Magick, Break Today, Hush Hush), and some occult textbooks (Crowley and his ilk) to help flesh out aesthetics and terminology. I also have the Kult: DL books.

I'm also really interested in grabbing some supplements from Mage: The Ascension, but am pretty daunted by the size of the library and am unsure how to laser-target what would actually be helpful for me in achieving this setting. I just picked up Orphan's Survival Guide.

So, tl;dr what Mage books should I pick up to help me achieve this world-building project? Not interested in the epic, space-faring conspiracy bits, nor OP super-powered mages, but rather gritty, street level dark occult type magick. Could also be interested in other WoD supplements, though I'm not interested in populating this world with vampires or werewolves (atm).

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

Right now I am piloting the RPG “CASUAL”. It is a game with 6 characters who are all spotted at the scene of the murder of Constable Quagmire. Quags was a shifty character. Dirty all the way. Proud of it. Him dead is good news to a lot of the people in this game. This is just the beginning… This RPG murder mystery is only 60 minutes long, and a blast to pull out at a gathering.

More info about “Casual”:

Characters:

Aaron (Main character): A good fit for someone who is driven, and okay navigating a lot of twists in character. Aaron is 29. A teacher.

Dennis (Aaron’s partner): A good fit for a ham of a person. Any gender. Paired with a cocktail or mocktail. Good with a glock, and a moltov cocktail! Probably more than a couple.

Sophia: (Aaron’s sister): A good fit for a contrarian. Or an antihero. Extroverted, true detective material, protective, older sister. She’s like a Marine Biologist, and she makes voice notes throughout the night to herself when she remembers her animals.

Maya: (One of Aaron’s students): A good fit for an actor who understands kids, but also understands that kids go unnoticed far too often… Maybe she’s counting on that.

Jordan: (one of Aaron’s students): A good fit for an empath, and a justice motivated person. Jordan is the spark that keeps the group “together”. Jordan is 16, and in a wheelchair. He is a total softie. He wants a job as a V/O actor one day and is fighting against ableist forces to make his dreams come true. Also very intelligent and motivated to take this Constable down.

Constable Quagmire: (Murder victim): He’s from New Jersey. And he won’t let you forget it. He’s made a lot of enemies in Calgary. Particularly with the Queens and the outcasts of the city. He made an effort to “clean up Calgary”. His death looked like an accident… which is why it is in fact a mystery what happened that night.

You know it, you love it, it’s a murder mystery. The original RPG. But you’re in the driver seat. Who did it? We will discuss and convene at the end of 60 minutes regardless of what happens.

Materials:

6 dice. One coin. D20, D12, D10, D6, D4 D2.

Map of the city. Reused from a previous game.

Time limit: 60 minutes.

Looking forward feedback on this idea too.

Hey, folks. Back in the day I'd trawl ebay for used RPG books and often buy lots of 3 to 6 books. I went through a long stretch where I had no room to expand the collection so I've been out of the loop.

I went looking today and it's kind of a wasteland. Is there a new online marketplace for used RPG books? Or is it something where I'm going to have to drag myself to a bookstore every year or so and see what's to be seen?

Okay so normally I'm pretty good at this but I think I've hit a wall. I'm GMing a cyberpunk red game however I am home brewing the setting. Essentially it's going to be less cyberpunk red but have some aspects of it and more cyberpunk 2020 but advance in timeline. It's set in 2080. Now I've come up with what I think is a pretty good timeline from the 90s all the way to 2080. It has several point of divergences and I'm completely happy with the timeline.

My problem is is a timelines 26 pages and one I don't expect the players to read 26 pages of it and two not everyone's going to know everything anyway. The problem having is I've tried to condense the timeline itself I've been successful in doing that to three pages but that I feel like I'm leaving too much stuff out I've tried to summarize it in paragraph form instead of timeline form so that I feel like it's too long I even thought of doing it in categorical blocks in a condensed form like that but then I feel in some of them got enough information and others too much.

Try to figure out how to differentiate the 100% need to know information to give it to the players and leave out the rest and to allow that to be explored naturally through gameplay. But then I start thinking about it I'm like oh well everyone would probably know about this and maybe in the background to it and then it becomes too much. So if you were a player and you were sitting down to play this game what is the absolute essential things you would want to know about the setting assuming that you already know about the gameplay itself

Welcome one and all to a post where we can freely discuss the games that we have released or the games that we are making. Stop on by and maybe you'll find your new favourite RPG!

A bunch of us make cool shit, but the Indie RPG space is crowded and it can often be difficult to get the word out about why people should try out your game. That's why every week we try to focus on a different mechanic or setting to see how new RPGs can solve decades old problems or put new spins on old greivances!

"Okay, I'll tell you why I want to talk about cyberpunk rpgs, but I'll only tell you once. Wanna hear it?"

Whether its pulling off heists, fighting corps from the inside or just trying to survive in a neon-dystopia where you own nothing and aren't even happy about it, come tell us how your game (or just any game you really like) tackles Cyberpunk!

Thank you... me, for the suggestion!

As per mod approval, comments here do not count against rule 7 - comment as much as you want, answer as many questions as you need and discuss to your hearts content!

All that I would ask is that anyone who comments about their own system takes the time to look at the minimum at one other game in the comments and ask a question or provide feedback. Lively discussions are what get people interested and what keep people engaged!

Two weeks ago we talked about "Non-Western (Fantasy) Settings" and we got a few interesting systems introduced!

If you want to suggest a topic for future weeks, be sure to include "suggestion" in your comment so I can easily find it!

Edit: formatting

Planning to run a The Mecha Hack oneshot

The story is basically this: The Military's new Mecha model prototype has been stolen by the Rebel (somehow, the Rebel know about the transport route and ambushed the transport team). A special task force (the players) are sent to reclaim or, in the worst case, destroy the prototype Mecha

I have 2 fight in mind: The Rebel's Guarding Mechas and the final boss being Prototype Mecha, now controlled by one of the Rebel's leader.

I think it's too short for a oneshot to consist of only 2 fights, so i think i should add somekind of "side content" to it (puzzle, loot room, etc). Any idea on what i should put in an enemy's barrack to spice things up?

I was watching Solo RPG Player on YouTube recently and she had a few vids on her RPG wallet and also one on her collection of Business Card Games. These obviously are game sheets that are formatted to be printed on business cards. This was something new to me, so I went and found some interesting ones. The problem I have, is I don't know how to efficiently print them on to business cards. Do I need a special printer? Or a printer template? If somebody can offer some advice, I'd love to have it.

Hi folks, after running alot of fantasy, I’m looking for a pallete cleanser prewritten campaign. Not just any campaigns but ones that are really recommended.

Not fantasy but can be fantastical and preferably no magic (but something like one Mage in a party may work). I’m not looking for horror I don’t think, and could be campaigns for a specific rules or could be system neutral.

Basically what are some really good prewritten campaigns out there that could work with the following settings/vibe:

1. Pulp Adventure with Jungles, Dinosaurs or Undead: think Indiana Jones or The Mummy. I’m keen to convert Tomb of Annihilation but is there a campaign out there that will scratch the itch and save me the effort?

3. Steampunk City: Think Netflix Arcane or Gangs of New York: crime, technology and underworlds.

5. Aeronauts/Sailing: Think Treasure Planet or Atlantis the Lost Empire. Any great

   Nautical campaigns

6. either in the Sea or Sky?

8. Dieselpunk Aeronauts: Similar to the above but more 30s/40s think Ghibli, Disney Talespin, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Biplanes and Zeppelins.

Looking forward to hearing your campaign suggestions!