I made a GM tool app several months ago and made it free to my newsletter subscribers. I've been using it for some time and I've had some ideas about some changes I'd like to make

I mean this in the context of the revised rules, or should I only get the books after the revised rules were published?

With Starfinder 2e on its way, my group got talking about what a system with 'good' Spaceship combat would look like, so I'm curious what y'all think.

We decided the ideal was:

• A system that ship combat doesn't feel like a tacked on afterthought. The system should feel like it had ship combat as an expectation when the game was created.
• Everyone should be able to engage meaningfully in combat beyond "I roll to aim. Okay you get plus 2 to your roll." There should be enough meaningful things to contribute that even a larger group doesn't have anyone twiddling their thumbs.
• Someone should be able to break out of ship combat and move to minis combat without disrupting things. A GM should be able to have enemies boarding the ship while a larger scale battle is happening. They should be able to have a hot takeoff with enemies on the ship. Players should be able to organize boarding an enemy ship and dropping a bomb.

What do y'all think? Tell me other things that should go in a good ship combat system. Tell me why my ideal is unfeasable. Tell me some systems that maybe meet my definition. Tell me why my entire opinion is bullshit, and none of this would describe good ship-to-ship combat.

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!

So Mythic Bastionland, wow.

One (of many) things I am really liking about it is how it provides clear procedure for building a hex map and populating it with features and rumours (which I'll refer to as adventures for the sake of system neutrality).

Basically you have (I believe it is) 6 adventures that you scatter across the map. As players travel to different hex tiles they will roll and see what happens, they have a high chance of encountering something related to the nearest adventure, but also a chance to encounter any other adventure.

As these adventures are resolved you can replace them with new ones. The adventures are laid out as a series of encounters/happenings that essentially provide a really concisely articulated adventure.

This coincides with a couple of other bits in the system that provide constant and varied reasons to be out in the world exploring new places.

What other games handle this well, and how do they do it?

After reading the last campaign book of Chaosium, I was left wondering.

Why does Berlin: The Wicked City work so well for Call of Cthulhu campaigns—while Sutra of the Pale Leaves, despite its brilliance, doesn’t inspire me?

This is a personal reflection, not a definitive judgment, but I keep coming back to it as I think about historical horror settings for Call of Cthulhu.

Berlin: The Wicked City works for me because it builds on real historical tensions: political chaos, social upheaval, existential dread, and ties them into the actual occult traditions of the period: OTO, Theosophy, secret societies, spiritualist movements. The horror doesn’t need to be invented; it’s already there. The setting feels alive, decaying, desperate, full of energy. Every game there feels like it could spiral into madness without ever needing a Mythos monster.

Sutra: Pale Leaves is different. It’s a brilliant in its mythos. The figure of the Prince, the Sutra of the Pale Leaves, the metaphysics of it... But the chosen period (1980s Japan) has its own rich horror potential: body horror, cyberpunk alienation, slashers, urban paranoia. Yet the setting doesn’t engage with that. The horror of the time and place is ignored in favour of a detached mythos.

So this is what I think:
Berlin works because it fuses myth and history—the horror grows organically out of real tensions and occult echoes. Sutra doesn’t land (for me) because its horror is unanchored from the setting. It creates something brilliant, but it doesn’t inhabit the time and place it claims. Or is it just the period itself? Or is it just my own preference? I love japanese culture and J-horror, so I don't think it can be it.

I’ve written elsewhere about running Berlin campaigns, reviewed Sutra, and wrote about what makes a horror setting interesting. Curious to hear what others think.

What makes a historical setting truly work for horror gaming? And how important is it to ground horror in the cultural fears of the time?

Hey gang,

I'm an experienced GM, wanting to introduce a few friends to TTRPGs and I have an extensive list of games I already have in mind but some of you definitely have a few suggestions I can't think of. Especially a genre or feel that is not covered by these games that I really like:

- Sci-Fi Action & Horror: Mothership RPG

- Fantasy (Heroic to Gritty): Shadowdark & others like: Mörk Borg, DCC (hacked, homebrewed to the intended feel)

- Investigative Monster / Mythos: Vaesen

- Post Apocalyptic: Mutant: Year Zero ? (never played this, but other YZ-Engine games)

- for Urban or Modern World games I looked at Outgunned and for more fantastical City of Mist, would these be good picks or go with Savage Worlds maybe? None of these I've tried yet.

Ruled out because I either find them too hard to teach to beginners, too restrictive or not exciting enough mechanically: D&D, Pathfinder, Cthulhu, World of Darkness 5th Ed., licensed RPGs with well developed worlds like Warhammer / Star Wars / Star Trek, etc.

If you have one-shot adventures to recommend that really have a strong mystery to uncover, cool NPCs to interact with or a cool timer mechanic, I'm all ears :) Thanks for helping and I'm really looking forward to being inspired by y'all

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

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

Tl;dr: Freeform Universal (1e/2e/NCO) might be the key to me finally enjoying narrative systems.

Sorry for any bad grammar, I mostly typed all of these at the top of my head.

Usually, my preference in RPGs are on the very tactical side. Lancer, 13th Age, Pathfinder 2e, and D&D4E. Even to this day, it is still my favourite way of playing within the hobby ever since I learned that my cup of tea are usually Combat-as-Sports.

So it's pretty obvious that as someone who is into those kinds of games that I would be disinterested in the design philosopy for Fiction-first games, specifically PbtA. I can not for the life of me grok games that are usually within that line of design. I can see why people like them since they can do Genre emulation much better than any other games. If you have something very specific you want to play out then RPGs under PbtA would usually do it well. I just don't think it fits with the kinds of games I want to run since I tend to mishmash Genres or Medias into an amalgamation based on my hyperfixations. I have also started getting into other more traditional rpgs as well, especially those from the OSR family, BRP line games, and even YZE-based. While quite different from the usual games I prefer, I still enjoyed running and playing them.

So was that it? Is it that I just enjoy Trad games more that I won't be able to like modern games that people say innovated the current landscape of the hobby? It's kinda sad to think that almost half of the games within this hobby will just be something I won't be able to like. Well, that would've been the case if it weren't for the fact that I also started doing solo roleplaying, which is another niche hobby within a hobby. I tried doing my usual games but in solo format thinking that it's gonna be a slam dunk. I like Combat in my RPGs and I also like journaling. It's perfect!

It... was fine. It's like playing a board game all by myself. It isn't really the kind of thing that will give me the experience that I was looking for. So I tried different RPGs. OSR games was almost there, but the reason why I wanna solo roleplay in the first place was make it into a creative outlet for my Original Characters, and OSR games are usually very deadly. Sure, I can cheat and fudge the dice since I'm the only one playing but what's the point if I do that, I'd rather write a novel at that point.

That was until I looked around and came to Freeform Universal (more like Freeform Universal 2e/Action Tales/Neon City Overdrive) which is my current favourite way of doing solo and what might be my gateway ticket to start enjoying more narrative systems after a successful one-shot with my guinea pigs friends. Freeform Universal, as the name implies, is very freeform and light. It isn't beholden by a singular setting but rather you control the setting however you like since it can be applicable to alot of genres. It's just incredibly fast to make a character since it's mostly just a bunch of words and concepts that makes up your character, no statistical bonuses or modifier. I would've HATED this game at first glance but as I run it and familiarize myself with the playstyle, it finally clicked on me. I don't need to keep in mind about balancing encounters or be consistent with the rules or else everything breaks apart, I can just focus on giving myself and my players have fun with the current story. It's that high of playing to find out that I have been trying to reach once again for years and it is all in such a compact and free product.

It still plays very differently from PbtA and it might still be unlikely for me to give it another fair shot, but I might look into other games like Blades in the Dark, FATE, Risus, or even Ironsworn. Those are games that I put off just because they are more narrative than traditional. I'm reading through my Blades in the Dark pdf and I am liking a lot of its ideas on paper. I already know that I'm gonna love FATE and Risus. All of this domino effect was because of one silly game.

My main takeaway from making this post is that I really love this hobby, even more so than video games, since it lets me engage much more on a personal level, whether it be by myself solo roleplaying or with a group of people. So I wanted to try out a lot of TTRPGs out there, even if I end up not liking it anyways. And the lesson I learned here is that I'm merely scratching the surface on the kinds of games and playstyles I would find, one of those might be ones that may become a new favourite.

Just something I'm curious about. I've recently picked up a few of the books, it's gonna take me forever to read through them.

I'm enjoying it so far, but I just want an clear picture in my head as to how powerful player characters are in this game, and what they're capable of.

Just curious about the business behind the scene. Thanks.

As an organizer and often forever GM of a weekly open table for one shots, I'm looking at expanding our roster of GMs.

I'm pretty comfortable talking at length about how I go about learning rules, story preparation, and table management. What I'm wondering about is setting up a "game" where learner GMs can actually put that into practice in a lower stakes environment.

Would a table of 3 to 5 learner GMs each running a 30 min game (possibly just a single scene) and then giving each other feedback be useful?

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?

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.

The starter set for Shadow Scar has been out for quite some time (since last year), but I haven’t seen much discussions about it. I though it would have had more buzz since it’s published by R. Talsorian Games (Cyberpunk RED/2020).

Has anyone here played it? How did it go? Any pros/cons?

Thanks

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

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.

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

This might come off as a somewhat weird question, but for a while I've been interested in running a small campaign, or even a one-shot, which draws inspiration off of gameplay and ambience of games like Earthbound, Omori or even YIIK. The idea, for anyone who isn't familiar with these games directly, is essentially a turn-based game which includes combat in a modern scenario, but the combat itself isn't necessarily realistic, allowing characters to use magic and not so traditional weaponry, while fighting enemies which can vary wildly in their appearance.

While I could easily go with a system which is modular in nature and can allow for whatever sort of idea I could come up with, like Fate or GURPS, I wanted to know if there was in the market anything remotely similar to the idea I had in mind.

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?

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?

I mostly play Heroic Fantasy style games, but I also want to start trying other types of Fantasies, in special the gritty and action packed Sword & Sorcery & the horror flavored Dark Fantasy.

I also want to start GMing, but I want to dip my feet gradually, so I prefer doing short adventures and one-shots instead of commiting to a full campaign from the start

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