by Whymme

Although in my previous post I argued in favour of a pre-made setting, I'd like to add that starting a campaign by collectively building a setting can be fun as well. I'm thinking about games like The Quiet Year, where, by shared storytelling, you end up with a village that could serve as a great starting point. And with large blank areas around that village, but because of the setting creation process at the start, everyone understands why there are such large holes in the setting - and perhaps those holes can be filled with further shared storytelling.
This would mainly be a good process with very sandboxy campaigns, I think, and not suitable for groups who'd like a campaign that has been worked out in detail from the start.

by NormandyWept

An item RPG Item: For the Dungeon! has been added to the geeklist 2026 RPG Character Creation Challenge

by Derang3d

Related Item: Herald's Call

(A)! (A)! (A)! (A)! :)

by Derang3d

Related Item: Herald's Call

Herald Selenay wrote:

Derang3d wrote:

(A)!

Yep, I got up. But this cough is a beast!

You take care, eh? Drink some [hot liquid of your choice], and maybe a spoonful of honey if you have some :)

by drb1004

An item RPG Item: Pathfinder Core Rulebook (2nd Edition) has been added to the geeklist 2026 RPG Character Creation Challenge

by Lagnis

Pre-made, depending on game length there does not have to be a whole lot, but something we can build on instead of having to come up with a tedious base.

by Maneloblast

An item Board Game Designer: Reiner Knizia has been added to the geeklist 2026 Favorite Designer Challenge

by KubaP

An item RPG Item: Adventures in Arkham Country has been added to the geeklist KubaP's Cthulhu

by leroy43

An item RPG Item: The Book of Collected Rumors has been added to the geeklist [Roger's Reviews] The Complete Collection

by leroy43

An item RPG Item: A Visitor's Guide to the Rainy City has been added to the geeklist 2026 Annual Geek Review Challenge

by leroy43

Philip Reed is a cool guy. Or at least I imagine he is as I've never met him. One thing that he does have, in spades, is imagination.

For a time, and especially over the pandemic, he ran a series of Kickstarter projects where for a couple of bucks you'd get "A Dozen Disconcerting Rumors" or "Six Unexpected Planar Gates". I bought a lot of them, because, hey, for $1, even one of those suggestions has paid for itself, and over the decades I've spent far more for far far worse.

The Book of Collected Rumors then is a compilation of a number of those "A Dozen [insert here] Rumors", which came with a print on demand code, and I bought the hardcover edition via DriveThruRPG.

What you get is 204 pages of rumours, each of which take a page.

The rumours are meant as seeds for ideas that will need to be fleshed out by the game master, but there's simultaneously enough there to scaffold a stroy idea around, and to hook the players. Each page has artwork that conveys the idea, a big bold title, some flavour text in the form of a quote you might overhear at the tavern, and then some expository information about who's speaking. My favourite part is then the True and False prompt, which gives two outcomes for the rumour. If it's true, then X, if it's false then Y.

For example, The Royal Secret on page 59 starts with "Margaret Smitherman, Duchess of Haerford, is an imposter..." There's more to the text, which is then followed with a description Weland Leofgeat, a local dissenter and rebel, who thinks he isn't being overheard. There's a paragraph of what will happen if the players approach him, and then the two paths for the future. Is it true? Or false? And what happens when the players go to find out?

The book, the printed version of it anyways, makes a perfectly find coffee table or bathroom book. Pick it up, reading a rumour will take you a minute or two, and then you can put it away again. Flip it to a random page. There's something to please everyone here - people, places, monsters, buildings, all available to be dropped into any campaign.

by neqis

<div>Box top, 2nd printing</div>