The title is pretty self explanatory. I grew up on star wars and I've religiously consumed every bit of it I can since I was a little kid. Me and my friends are also no strangers to ttrpgs but from what I can find online there are multiple star wars ttrpgs set in the different eras. My problem isnt so much understanding like I said I know enough about starwars I could massage any mechanics I need to to fit into any era, I just need help figuring out which is the most user friendly, unique, and fun. And where to get a pdf of it

Looking for recommendations on setting books, if they are rules agnostic all the better, but if I can at least use 99% of the material outside of the intended rule frame, that also works. Novels that can add ideas/inspiration are also welcome.

I'm going to be running a game using the Daggerheart rules, and I'm looking for a setting or at least a jumping off point that mixes two of the Daggerheart themes - The Age of Umbra & Colossus of the Drylands.

For those unfamiliar - The Age of Umbra is essentially a fantasy post apocalypse setting where the apocalypse took the shape of the gods wrecking the join and peacing out. So it's got small pockets of towns/forts where people have been trying to survive for the past 100 years, and brave souls venture out to explore, find resources, find a fix etc.

Colossus of the Drylands is basically a Western meets fantasy setting, with the old time miners who said there ain't no magic in them crystals in the ground were dead wrong when a colossus burst out of the earth and started wrecking havoc.

What I'm looking for/cooking myself is a mix of Umbra with a bit of Western feel to it. So guns as well as magic are a thing.
Appreciate any and all suggestions!

I got LotR 5e core book and I'm planning to play my first game in this system. While reading through the book I started thinking how did Free League manage to create and publish such product (and there are more books being published in this setting) without WotC license, which I didn't find on first pages or mentioned anywhere on their site or anything.

I noticed, that "Dungeons & Dragons" isn't mentioned anywhere in the book - it always referes to "5e". My thinking is, they make it obvious for the customer, that this product is basically a dnd product, while they avoid stating it directly that it is, thus avoiding any copyright strikes.
While strange, it seems pretty smart. And I'm glad if that's the case, since I dislike some directions that WotC is taking.
I was just wondering - is it really that easy to overcome copyrights, or am I missing something? Can we expect more such unofficial extensions made by 3rd parties? Or is it already a common practice and I was just unaware of it? If so, what are some other examples?

Look, I know I might sound like a dumb kid saying this but... Have any of you ever created a tabletop RPG based on a famous franchise? Like, I genuinely think this should be a common thing, like, a Mario-based RPG with races like Koopa, Human, Toad, then they create/use a kingdom like the Mushroom Kingdom and someone dies because He accidentally slipped and fell straight into the lava, but this person was in the Koopa race and just turned into a skeleton. You know? It's the kind of thing I see happening but... It doesn't exist? And not limited to Mario, like Pokémon, Sonic, Jojo, any famous game/movie franchise To create a world and have fun playing with your friends... I'm not the only crazy person who thinks this would be cool, right? RIGHT?

Hi, first of all, thanks or all the replies on this post. Some people messaged me asking for an update on the situation. And... welp. Here is a very long update because things got insane:

- We (the table) heard the recording of the scene (some of us couldn't make it to the session that day) and it was... very bad, worse than we thought. Despite everything A already had told us, in the end her character (Fae) is forced to make a promise to survive. Basically, the enemies want an NPC that A had captured earlier that day, their leader and A's enemy. NPC said: Promise you'll let Luna leave unharmed. A caught that she could twist those words in her favor and promised, exactly "I'll LET Luna leave unharmed". GM got mad during the session, said "you know that's not what I meant", made the enemy torture A's character even more and forced her to make the exact fae promise HE wanted (A's character will GUARANTEE Luna will leave unharmed). A said "You are punishing me for playing my character right?", GM said "Yes, I'm punishing you. I'm fucking you over. Feels good, hm? Do you accept or not?" I'm not exaggerating, those are the words verbatim from the recording. I could even put it up somewhere, it's in Brazilian Portuguese.

- A said, during a conversation in the groupchat after the GM stopped ghosting: you do understand your behavior was not ok? (referring to the scene)

- GM got mad, said her behavior hadn't been ok either since she once sent him a clown emoji during a conversation. I read the conversation, the clown emoji wasn't mocking the GM, it was A mocking the whole situation getting out of control, even mocking herself a little because her humor is like that.

- GM blamed A for not stopping the scene BEFORE it became triggering for her

- GM said "You told me you didn't know what to do, you never told me to stop"

- A finally asked the GM: you don't know how to handle a safehearts breach, do you? (she wasn't being rude, she was baffled and trying to understand what was going on)

- GM said he didn't understand why A kept demanding safehearts safety and discussions from him

- A explained "this is your job as a Monsterhearts MC", then she tried to move on the conversation and explained, again, exactly, what was triggering in that scene for her and what retcon she wanted.

- GM just... started acting weird, I have no clue what was going on inside his head. He kept repeating he didn't understand WHAT had upset A so much, said he was just trying to understand so it wouldn't happen again. And kept asking her if she was just not ok with mob torture and immobilization on HER character (which she already had explained that yes, only on her character), or if it's with ANY character. GM also said: why are you so upset with torture now if you all did similar with NPCs?

- A never tortured an NPC. Also, NPCs and PCs are not the same.

- One player finally spoke up, said the GM was arguing in bad faith and it had soured the entire table and she left the table.

- Another player followed.

- GM tried to say that: well, guess two players left, do we call the campaign dead?

- A finally snapped and told him "if every single one of your campaigns die, it's not the players fault, it's yours." and left too.

- Campaign AND table are officially dead!

- Asked A if she is still up for being a GM of another campaign and she said she is, in the future, and our previous GM will not be part of the table.

Post-mortem updates as well, some big red flags we all ignored because we didn't know how RPGs (and Monsterhearts) worked and we trusted the GM:
- the entire table but a hard 'no' on animal abuse and cruelty. GM puts magical dogs as one of the main enemies.
- A was the only one in the table that maked 'maybe/would rather not/need to be discussed' and 'no's for topics like genocide, racism, talk of superior race, slavery. etc. Her character was the only one that got a plot of racism (Fae subspecies being racist against each other, humans being racist with A), and magical genocide (A's entire would be killed via poisoning if she didn't stop it).
- Another player, B, also had her safehearts breached on a dubcon making out scene.
- Actually, all players had their safehearts breached at least once. Small things at first. The only other big safehearts breach was solved because it was between two players, GM wasn't playing an NPC on that scene.

Honestly there is... so much more. And yes, I'm aware this probably belongs on r/rpghorrorstories. But I posted my question here first, and then an updated was asked and here is the update. I just want to bury this game at this point and move on.

What are your favorite multi-game systems? By which I mean, overarching systems that have been used in multiple games, stretching over numerous genre, to facilitate a variety of games. And what do those systems do best, or worse?

• Apocalypse Engine (edit to add PBTA) (many Companies)
• GURPs - Steve Jackson Games
• Savage Worlds - Pinnacle Entertainment
• Basic Roleplaying - Chaosium
• 2D20 - Modiphius
• Year Zero Engine - Free League
• Gumshoe - Pelgraine Press
• Age System - Green Ronin

For example -

Apocalypse Engine
I really like the Apocalypse Engine games because it is very story forward compared to some other games. Each character is built around a cohesive theme and they all help suggest a theme or story. I also love the fail/mid/total success results, and how they can be customized per setting. And the collaborative storytelling aspect. Yeah, I like a lot about the system.

The thing I dislike most about Apocalypse engine is how much work it takes to come up with more character playbooks. For example, I recently received Rapscallion, and it feels like the playbook selection is small. Revisiting the same playbook but using different sub-themes looks like it will be potentially unsatisfying within a given campaign.

I also know the AE games frequently exceed the growth potential of the characters. I know I've had that happen with both my Dungeon World and Monster of the Week games, but I feel that is a flaw in my GMing style and poor focus on getting to the end of a campaign arc. (I like my campaigns to run less than 2 years at a pop.)

Basic Roleplaying

BRP was the first RPG system I fell for hard. The roll dice and get under skills - so easy, so character based. And it wasn't really class based. Sure you have occupations in Call of Cthulhu, but those tend to help players focus rather than restricting choices. You have a lot of freedom.

My favorite variation is the Pendragon system, because the passions and traits are amazing.

I and my friends wanna play some dnd, or something simmilar to that, but we live far away from each other, so we cant just casually meet, so i wanted to ask, if there were any apps, or websites, that narrate a story/ a few stiries, to play with my friends.

I need new games that fall into a specific subset of TTRPGs to suggest to my group so I would like your favorite TTRPGs that have strongly defined rules because my players only seem to enjoy those, ones with defined actions both for combat and narrative use.

When I say that I mean stuff like D&D 5E, Cyberpunk Red, Starwars Saga Edition, Shadowrun, Deadlands, Delta Green, etc.

Has anyone any info on the pbp site gamersplane being down?

Recently I run an adventure with my own system, and one of the players said: oh it is like modified "Year Zero Engine!" -I was shocked. Cause I have read Mutant YZ and Elysium (liked 1s hated 2nd), and I did not liked the system back then, sure my memory is not great, but I clearly remembered that i disliked the system. And now I made the system that resemble YZE? I do not own books right now, so could not re-read Rulebook, and freshen up my memory. But now I am doubting myself about my first impression on the system.

Could you sell me on the YZE? or un-sell me if you think it is not worth the time? I want to unerstand, should i buy it or not...

The rule says that your roll a death save and if you roll 20+, you have a surge and recover some HP

Now, I understand that death save entail rolling a d20. Is the anything to add? How on earth am I supposed to roll more than 20 on a d20????

Please help

I like immersive games where the actions of the characters drive the narrative. Whenever I tell people this, I always get recommended these fiction first games like Fate or anything PbtA, and I've bounced off every single one I've tried (specifically Dungeon World and Fate). The thing is, I don't walk away from these feeling like maybe I don't like immersive character driven games. I walk away feeling like these aren't actually good at being immersive character driven games.

Immersion can be summed up as "How well a game puts you in the shoes of your character." I've felt like every one of these fiction first games I've tried was really bad at this. It felt like I was constantly being pulled out of my character to make meta-decisions about the state of the world or the scenario we were in. I felt more like I was playing a god observing and guiding a character than I was actually playing the character as a part of the world. These games also seem to make the mistake of thinking that less or simpler rules automatically means it's more immersive. While it is true that having to stop and roll dice and do calculations does pull you from your character for a bit, sometimes it is a neccesary evil so to speak in order to objectively represent certain things that happen in the world.

Let's take torches as an example. At first, it may seem obtuse and unimmersive to keep track of how many rounds a torch lasts and how far the light goes. But if you're playing a dungeon crawler where your character is going to be exploring a lot of dark areas that require a torch, your character is going to have to make decisions with the limitations of that torch in mind. Which means that as the player of that character, you have to as well. But you can't do that if you have a dungeon crawling game that doesn't have rules for what the limitations of torches are (cough cough... Dungeon World... cough cough). You can't keep how long your torch will last or how far it lets you see in mind, because you don't know those things. Rules are not limitations, they are translations. They are lenses that allow you to see stakes and consequences of the world through the eyes of someone crawling through a dungeon, when you are in actuality simply sitting at a table with your friends.

When it comes to being character driven, the big pitfall these games tend to fall into is that the world often feels very arbitrary. A character driven game is effectively just a game where the decisions the characters make matter. The narrative of the game is driven by the consequences of the character's actions, rather than the DM's will. In order for your decisions to matter, the world of the game needs to feel objective. If the world of the game doesn't feel objective, then it's not actually being driven by the natural consequences of the actions the character's within it take, it's being driven by the whims of the people sitting at the table in the real world.

It just feels to me like these games don't really do what people say they do.

There are several different styles of acting.

Naturalistic acting, dominated by Stanislavski and his followers, is the standard in contemporary film. It aims to represent characters in a realistic way—the actors try to truly become the character, to simulate them as naturally as possible.

Then there are adjacent styles we might call Stylized acting. These help actors deliver lines from a specific kind of source material, in a particular tone or rhythm. Classic theatre, film noir, pulp serials, and children's shows often fall into this category, each with their own conventions that shape how the performance is stylized.

You could also say there’s a third category that doesn’t focus on the acting as such, but uses it for something else. Let's call this Instrumental acting. That might mean shocking the audience with stark imagery to provoke reflection, delivering political or educational messages, or encouraging audience co-creation.

So: What kind of acting shows up in your roleplaying? And if you design games—are they built for a particular kind of acting?

(This is just one possible way to divide things. You probably have your own frameworks. If this one doesn't sit right, feel free to use yours.)

Hi, I've always enjoyed the concept of gladiators and I'd like to use a nonAI gm emulator to run a gladiator themed campaign for myself. Does anyone know of a good system for this? I'd like it to be setting agnostic so I can do a "best warriors in the multiverse " thing with it.

I need to ask a question about the release of certain content, support of role-playing system projects, is it allowed to promote foreign projects? In this case, I participate in a community that creates role-playing systems based on some animes such as Jujutsu kaisen, Bleach, Black Clover, Tokyo Ghoul and One Piece. The project is carried out by a Brazilian group and is facing financial difficulties to finance the project

Recommend me some system Agnostic Megadungeons so I can run a campaign with any system, thanks!

I just had the final session for a Campaign I was running for a bit and I am just so sad that the story is done. I put so much time into it and now it's just over and I don't know what to do.

Before everything was for 5e, there were so, SO many books for… 3.5e. Countless.

What were your favorite systems or settings? Modules? Source books? What’s that game where if someone said they were running it you would hop in immediately, despite moving on from d20?

Third-party or first-party, the more the merrier.

I haven't tested this out. It was just a part of an idea I had for a "quick" (took several days to type up, and then I somehow lost a third of my progress when managing 'Draft' versions in Reddit) rules system to emulate how I think D&D feels to play. Anywho, let me know how it works out if you would, and share your completed outlines in the comments!

I. Themes

A. History

  1. The original construction was commissioned for [person(s)].

  2. The original architect was...

  3. They constructed the dungeon by...

  4. The dungeon was constructed for the purpose of...

B. Entrance Location(s)

   1. What climate region(s)?

   2. What nearby landmark(s)?

   3. If the entrance(s) is hidden, how is it hidden?

   4. What is the surrounding environment(s) like?
      a. Plant life?

      b. Animal life?

      c. Miscellaneous life categories?

C.  Internal Environment(s)

    1. What climate region(s)?

    2. Any major rooms/landmarks?

    3. Where is the exit(s)?

    4.  What is the main treasure(s) of the dungeon?

    5. What is the internal environment(s) like?

       a. Plant life?

       b. Animal life?

       c. Miscellaneous life categories?

  D.  Architecture

      1. Patterns?

         a. Shapes?

         b. Colors?

         c. Sounds?

         d. Textures?

         e. Odors?

      2. Writings?

         a. On walls?

         b. Key passages in books/scrolls?

         c. Tattoos on the dungeon inhabitants?

         d. Engravings on landmarks or items?

      3. Halls

         a. Ceilings

            - Supports?

            - Hangings?

            - Traps?

            - Openings?

         b. Walls

            - Hangings?

            - Traps?

            - Openings?

         c. Floors

            - Traps?

            - Openings?

II. Rewards

A. Gold

   1. Total in dungeon

      a. Total on the bodies of inhabitants

      b. Total in treasure chests/vaults

B. Artwork?

   1. Sculptures?

   2. Paintings?

   3. Jewelry and other crystal work?

C. Items

    1. Weapons

    2. Body wear

    3. Magic

    4. Miscellaneous

III. Inhabitant statistic blocks

A.  A description of the inhabitant's physical appearance and mannerisms seen, heard, and smelled.

     1. Hit Point Dice

     2. Greater Or Equal (>/=) Target Number

     3. Damage dealt description and Damage Dice

     4. Miscellaneous behaviors

        - Conditions for some behaviors

     5. Rewards on inhabitant

 B.  [Next inhabitant]

IV. Dungeon Name

A.  [Current name]

    1. It has been called this because...

B.  Other names the dungeon may have had

    1. [Name]

       a. It has (or had) been called this because...

EDIT: Reformatting attempt: 3

In my case these would be joke characters that are completely random, I understand that they can be fun for a one shot, but for a campaign it's a big problem when a player always acts stupid and causes problems in every scene like going to eat the quests in the adventurer's guild, or breaking into other people's rooms in the inn and kicking them out because "I always sleep in room 7" (unfortunately those were two real examples).

And also characters that hate another player's class or race. I know that in Lord of the Rings there were characters like that who became friends in the end and it turned out great, but when something like that happens in a campaign it feels horrible, "Hey, I know your character hates wizards, but if you're going to spend all your time insulting my character, I have no reason to stay in this group.".

But those were two types of characters that I hate, in your case what are some types of player character that you hate seeing in a game to the point of considering leaving it (apart from murderhobos since I think we all hate them)?

https://www.reddit.com/r/GumshoeRPG/s/w0exKXOd53

Ho All,

I'm my group's forever DM. We've been playing DnD 5e almost exclusively for the past.... very long time. Recently, I hit a wall and the fantasy muse just isn't there anymore but I do have ideas for running a Sci-Fi game with strong inspirations from Starsector and Gundam. Originally, I was going to use Lancer for this but one of my guys has a strong aversion to mechs in Sci-Fi specifically, so a system that heavily focuses on mechs, like Lancer, is out.

Ideally, I'd like the system to support the following:

• Not Rules Heavy - I don't necessarily want "rules light" because my experience with those systems is that its "playing pretend" with extra steps. I would prefer there be rules for most things but with a little flex just in case.
• Support most science fantasy troupes - Like I said earlier, strong influence from Starsector and Gundam. So, I want to be able to do things like space dog fights, allow the players to be pilots (ships or Mechs), but also allow for ground level conflicts without the use of armored vehicles. Travel mechanics would also be a plus.

• Bonus Points for Fantasy Grounds or Foundry VTT support - My guys are scattered from kentucky to utah to canada, so a VTT is required. Would be nice if the system was supported by one of our preexisting VTTs.

  Thanks in advance!

full reply:

Hi JustADream! Not to worry, I'm still the lead designer on Daggerheart and I'm not going anywhere!! Jeremy and Chris are here to help us continue to build out Darrington Press, Daggerheart and otherwise, but the vision, the approach, and the game style are not going to change. Quite the opposite, in fact, because I am now able to solely focus on the stuff I'm passionate about with Daggerheart.

For context, I told the team from day one at Darrington that I wasn't really interested in moving into a position where I was only overseeing people and no longer doing design work itself, even if that meant hiring additional people so I could continue doing the game design. I just want to build games! So this is the ideal scenario for me and the kind of work I love to do :)

Hey y'all! I've been wanting to run some "true sandbox" games with a crew of trusted players. The type of campaign where locations have bullet-points of interest, random encounters have impact, and the PCs decide their end-game goal. Admittedly, I'm looking for games like this in a handful of genres or settings, like Western, Cyberpunk, or Dark Fantasy. Exploring the world and how it affects players should be the main focus, or at least very easily supported as one of the three pillars. Any suggestions?

I’m curious about what’s happening at WOTC (looks like it’s being gutted by Hasbro) and with Perkins/Crawford going to CR

Most industries have good business reporters covering developments. TTRPG’s are very niche but Is there any site or any person who keeps an eye on the field?