r/rpg

I combined all the data based on the player and group posts on Groupfinder to create an overview of the current state of LFG/LFM trends.

General number one is still the obvious one, but the non-D&D top 10 might be interesting.

I'm running ICRPG (again, I just can't quit it).

And I'm thinking of switching to side based Initiative for combat. I used to worry that it wasn't very realistic having one side so all their actions, but having watched some Actual Play where its used I think it looks like genius.

If you let the PCs pick the turn order it makes turn order a tactical decision, allows players to really build a mini-battle-plan each round, and keeps players more engaged throughout the round.

Also, I'm thinking of using 'whoever acts first, acts first', instead or rolling for Initiative, not for everything, just where it seems sensible. (I can't remember whether that's from Professor DM or Nimble).

Have you tried Side Initiative, what do you think of it?

I'm looking to hear some of the "universal truths" that pop up on posts all the time that you think are simply not true. The stuff you hear so much and don't agree with, that makes you start to question how you've played or GM'd for years.

I feel some of these come and go over the years, like the "yes and. never say no," seems less common these days.

My current one is "If you want to tell a story, write a book." Sure, a GM can absolutely design with a small frame, that's story wide open to player influence, it's actually my go to as a GM. But that's not always the case. Many GMs who write their own games or prewritten have a fairly linear game to run, and the game is about the journey to defeating the BBEG, not just the endgame.

I will qualify that by linear, I don't mean in tracks.

I'll also mention, that I'm lucky enough that 80%+ of the people I usually play with are occasional to regular GMs (myself included), so this is my view from playing a lot on both sides of the screen.

Edit: I should probably have added, when I see these "Truisms," they are usually one line posts with zero context or explanation.

In the world, Magic and magical creatures were all obscured and unknown
Rare, personal and isolated events

Fae in their own secret world

Friends and celestial reserves only to our imagination

Humans in their own wars and things

And then, suddenly in a catastrophic event, worlds merge

And what was once the stuff of Legends and fantasy becomes "real"

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Suddenly common folk awaken with magical powers

Deprived men suddenly become monstrosities befitting their nature

Some among the pious claim to listen to the voice of gods better than never before, and bring miracles to the world, but each hear a diferente versión...

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Monster of myth appear and everything is at chaos, and people of the fringes speak of misterious kingdoms in distant, unexplored Woods and caverns

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Besides berserk, My main inspiration was castlevania
I love how that Game makes classic ( and often considered boring) monsters into bosses
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And it brought into My mind the idea of making a setting where everything is relatively new and humans have to survive things they never thought off

Thinking to base the humans on a 18th or 17th Century or just 10th to 14th

I'm not affiliated with this project (though I did write something small for their previous Backerkit campaign for The Between), but have liked the game for years and want to help them get across the finish line.

Public Access is a game of analog horror and tainted nostalgia in the fictional town of Deep Lake, New Mexico. The players take on the role of the Deep Lake Latchkeys, young adults returning to their hometown in the summer of 2004 to investigate a vanished TV station, but their search will lead them to all sorts of other Mysteries: cursed arcade cabinets, a possessed childhood friend, lights in the sky, voices in the walls of a suburban development, a demonic anti-crime PSA mascot...

As a Carved from Brindlewood game, these Mysteries are pre-written scenario sandboxes without canonical outcomes - players assemble the Clues they find into their own solutions, adding a ton of replay value and wildly-different resolutions each time.

You can check it out here!

The big special offering with Public Access is Lost Transmissions, optional bonus Mysteries that re-cast the Latchkeys as alternate selves during new points in time (often as homages to classics from other horror subgenres) - they might become college kids on a cannibal-infested '80s road trip, paranoid military scientists at the height of the Cold War, or even wasteland survivors centuries after the bombs have dropped.

This crowdfunder has hit over 30 stretch goals already, and the bonus content is all already written - purchased from community releases and contest winners. I had a lot of fun running the game's previous edition last year, and a lot of people noticed the game after its favorable Quinn's Quest video recently.

Hi there,

ever since watching Orb: On the Movements of earth, ive been thinking about running a similar campaign for my group.

Now my question: Do you know any good prewritten campaigns that deal with institutional religion?

Bonus Question: I like how in Orb everything revolves around an idea that if proven would question a lot of current worldviews and is thus to dangerous not to keep in check. Any ideas what kind of "idea" would be fun to challenge the fantasy pantheon in a nuanced way?

I want my next campaign to be an "Open Table" thing where players can drop in or out based on availability. You can't make it Saturday? No worries, we will see you next time or the time after. The sessions will begin in town - then proceed with exploration and dungeon crawling - then end back in town. There may be some sort of explorers guild (or something similar) that all characters are members of, so if you are not present then your character is on another mission elsewhere. I also want something published that I can modify to add my own stuff into with ease. So, based on the reviews I'm seeing, I'm thinking Dark of Hot Springs Island. I love that it is system neutral. It appears that all of the GM work that needs to be done is that exact work I WANT to do. I especially love the idea of the player's guide that is an actual book. --- So the only thing left to figure out is the system. 5e 2024 is the system most of my players are going to be familiar with, so it is the leading contender. There's also the idea of using a VERY simple system that is similar to D&D but stripped down - like ICRPG. I would REALLY prefer to avoid anything with very distinct rules from 5e just based on player familiarity (so things like roll under mechanics or non-d20 rolls for checks are out). So, does anyone have some good advice for simple changes to 5e 2024 that might make it more appropriate for Dark of Hot Springs Island, or have any experience running this with a simple d20-based system? Thanks in advance!

Is GURPS a good system to run a simple, no dnd/no magic game set around surviving a societal/civilization/grid collapse?

Is there some system better than GURPS?

Our long time Call of Cthulhu group regularly has breaks where we play other systems and one-shots to give our Keeper time to prep for upcoming story arcs. One of my friends is really into Powered by the Apocalypse games, like really into them. Me, not so much. I've been in the hobby since the 80s and have played a wide variety of systems and mechanics and I used to say "I've never met a system I didn't like" but I don't say that anymore 😬

Now, I've have limited experience with a couple of the PbtA systems, and they've all been one-shot stories. My friend who really loves the system has only started GM'ing recently, but since they are my friend I really try to lean into the sessions with earnest but always find myself frustrated by the outcomes. We've played Monsterhearts, Kult, City of Mist and Monster of the Week. Kult frustrated me the most, which is odd because that would be the setting that would most interest me as a player. MotW was my favorite, but by this time I knew I didn't like the game play very much so I just went with it, and my character resonated with me and my friend so just playing them was fun and humorous.

Why don't I enjoy the systems? I find them 'vague' rule-wise, I find the cooperative story building tedious at times, and I find the success mechanic unsatisfying (in which I mean most rolls are failures of some sort and requires constant 'gaming the system' to give you a better chance for success). I see how the coop storytelling could be amazing, but IMO it requires both GM and all players to always be 'on' and in their most creative states which just doesn't happen in my experience.

What nuances am I missing? What mindset am I not adopting that would make these systems click for me? How do you have a good session if say two players just aren't 'feeling it' that day and you've got limited coop storytelling building?

I feel like theres way too little combat as sport games and ive only been able to find osrs.

Im basically looking for draw steel, nimble or dnd 5e alternatives but in a non fantasy setting

Basically, I'm looking for systems or standalone resources that allow players to build and grow their own faction. I'm less interested in faction mechanics themselves (e.g. handling factions during the gm turn) and more in player's agency within the faction. Something where their actions impact the future of the faction directly (be it through resources, relationships with other factions, numbers of followers etc).

I'm just a fan of the game, and I want to make sure that folks know about it! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gauntlet/public-access-analog-horror-mystery-ttrpg

I love the premise of Wolves Upon The Coast and am looking to run something very similar as a second group game, get to know more people in my area kind of thing. The problem is that I really do not like D&D style games or their mechanics and the "fruitful voids" of OSR/NSR design really grate on me as a GM. That leaves me in a bit of a quandary because new people generally ask for "D&D".

I was thinking of running GURPS Lite. throwing together some templates and random tables for character creation to make things more fun and easy on the players but it's a lot of work that I might be spending preparing a hexcrawl. It might be the only "sane" choice for me but I figured I'd ask if there was a more bespoke game which might fit the premise. Just for fun.

Now, I probably know 99% of the games that will be recommended (all the popular darlings and new hotness), including the person who's going to throw out Hillfolk, but I'm here to see if there's a 1% suggestion that might fit a gritty, diegetic, largely historical viking/northern European adventure circa 800AD in the same vein and simplicity as GURPS Lite.

my players have only played dnd 5e before and I'm thinking bout running either mage the ascension 20th anniversary edition or deviant the renegades. advice?

Hi all - I'm looking for a space RPG (likely playing zoom w/ friends) that is more in line with expanse, firefly, bsg, away missions for star-whatever rather than looking at flight mechanics, travel time, etc. Or just a fun cyberpunk.

Basically, want a whole new background world that's sci-fi'ish that's low overhead to get in to. Key criteria: premade content, easily online, easy ramp (known rules or just easy), something where we can just start having fun, including the DM.

Only 1 player has long RPG experience and I've DM'd only a bit, so ease, AND premade scenarios are critical. I'll lose them with major complex ramp-up (or non-action paced) and I'll lose myself if I'm responsible for an ounce of creative world building.

I'm seeing the following around, but have no idea how they translate to the above? Coriolis (firefly but middle eastern vs chinese/western?), maybe something in savage worlds (last parsec for firefly, 7 worlds for expanse?), StarFinder, "stars without number", "the stars are fire", The Expanse by GreenRonin, Cyberpunk Red, Traveller (someone said go for 1st edition), Lancer, ironsworn:starforged, gurps, Esper Genesis (5e based?)

I know that there are tons of awesome indie or elegant ruleset games out there - we're just not there yet. Easy or quickly transferrable, fully written "ready to go" scenarios avail, zoom compatible.

There's a whole massive list at https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/scifi/, but impossible to assess which hit the above criteria.

Hello y'all,

I hope you're having a nice morning/day/evening.

I feel like (anecdotally, of course) in rulebooks you'll be told to put interesting things in the environment to engage with, and maybe some suggestions, but never really robust examples. Like, yeah, I've seen bar fights and skirmishes in the woods and such, but it would be helpful to have a resource or guide that helps you consider all/many elements you should include in any given environment/scene. Additionally, considerations on PCs might choose to engage with these elements.

I appreciate any insight on this matter. Take care!

Started GM'ing sometime in the 80's and coding professionally around '97. Around the beginning of March I was running a game and my players went a direction I was totally unprepared for (you know what I'm talking about, lol) and I had to whip out a new map fast. I knew which map I wanted, but my VTT wanted me to stop, open an import window, upload the map to their cloud library, tag it and set grid options before I could even show it to the table. The momentum at that point was dead.

This wasn't the first time I'd encountered the situation but for some reason it was the first time that it clicked with me that most VTT's (all of them?) treat GMs like we don't know how to organize our own assets. I mean, I've never met a fellow GM who uses a computer to run their games that doesn't have some kind of preferred file structure for their maps and tokens so they can find their content quickly.

So, I've decided to build something that respects me and my players time. I'm calling it Solarsteinn. It's a local desktop app for IN PERSON ttrpg's. There are no browser tabs cluttering your screen and filling up your computers memory, and personally, I'm sick of subscription-based web apps, so there will be none of that with Solarsteinn. More importantly, there isn't a proprietary asset library - it just points at the folders you already have on your machine. For folders that aren't pointed (like something you just downloaded to your computer on-the-fly) just drag-n-drop it to the app and BAM! your map is live.

I'm spending the weekend tearing apart my prototype code to clean up the architecture, but I want to get input from fellow GMs and players who have to deal with us (yeah, I know you guys think we're a pain more often than not!) to make sure I build this right: What's the one clunky VTT feature that consistently ruins the vibe at your table?

Im familiar with a handful of games that use a Noun + Verb mechanic for magic, but are there any games out there that use a similar mechanic for the entire resolution system?

Hello everyone, the title mostly says it all.

I am a huge fan of sea monsters, krakens, serpents, giant fish, you name it. If they are huge or from the deep sea, the better!

As the resident GM of my group, I feel its my duty to throw more of these fantastic beasties at them! So Im looking for any sort of game systems / adventures focused on or featuring titans of the deep! Doesn't matter the system, as long as its good!

Thanks in advance, Im looking forward to making all my players avoid the ocean in all of my games from now on!