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This started out as a bit of a joke with friends, but as I considered it, I realized this could be a viable business idea, and wanted to gauge the thoughts of people in the rpg/coffee communities to see what they think before I waste my time. I live in a growing, mid-sized town with a growing (but still small) collection of coffee shops, and only one RPG store that I am aware of. The bigger town near us has a much greater variety of cafes, and a few more game stores.

Here’s the basic pitch: A cafe focused on 3rd wave coffee and homemade syrups. Attempting to produce high quality drinks that are accessible to and enjoyable for the average cafe goer, as well as a connoisseur. We would offer standard cafe seating, but also have 2-4 soundproofed rooms with seating for 5-8 to be rented out for RPG gaming sessions. We would sell standard RPG items (books, dice, maps, minis, etc), but also have items available to be used while renting a room.

Optional ideas to pair with this:
- Space for vendor sales/art (I’ve already had a potter offer to make dish ware for the cafe)
- Food/drink discounts for groups renting rooms
- Room rental discounts when reserving multiple dates
- A 10-10 schedule to combat the major issues most small cafes have with being open only while their customers are at work
- Community events (paint nights, classes, open RPG events, etc)

Let me know what you think/if you’d use something like this! The goal would be to have this space be welcoming and accessible to everyone, not just RPG enjoyers. I’d love to see friends meeting for coffee and students studying as well! Any insight is welcome, including reality checks. I’m aware that cafes aren’t typically especially profitable in their first couple years, so it may not be possible since I certainly do not have the deep pockets required to live off of a break-even business. Might be a reach, but I’d love to hear thoughts!

As the title says - what's your opinion on systems that actively penalize players killing or torturing NPCs as an activity? Less so "killing this specific important npc causes problems" and more so "killing in general destroys your sanity/makes you a monster/criminal in-universe and people hate you now."

Systems where you don't fight random bandits to the death for a few coins every session and have it be forgotten in a moment, and have to be way more mindful about what you do or else you have permanent, or at least long term problems.

Thoughts on those systems? Do you like them or not?

Does anyone here have any tips on making non-combat / the transition between important scenes actually interesting for someone who doesn't know how to do that?

Most of the time I play I feel like it's not too interesting what happens - its mostly "you go here" "the house is dark" "you pick up a thing" "you leave" "you go to another place"

And when I try to describe the places better it still feels like it just... Doesn't really add much to the interest part? Like, you can be great at describing a room, but if the room itself is boring, it will remain boring even in full detail.

And I'm trying to figure out good ways to make the middle/transition situations interesting, but most of the time it is still: go here - look at place - talk to npc - go to another spot - look at place, etc.

My players don't complain, of course, and even tell me that the sessions are fun, but I still feel like I'm somehow lacking as a DM because surely just entering a room and talking to an npc isn't that fun? I just want to make sure it's the best it can be.

Any tips would be appreciated.

Hi, I don't know if this is the place to ask this, but I have been playing TTRPG for like 12 years and just recently started GMing.

Some time ago, people from my friend group, with whom I play, went to a paid RPG session, mostly because we don't have that much time to get together, and that gives us a weekly way to play.

The thing is that now one of those players insists that we should do everything thinking about saving time. I get that we don't have that much time, but he now tries to advance scenes even while failing rolls. An example:

We were playing MOTHERSHIP RPG, and a monster fused the player tranquilizer gun into his armor because he failed a roll. He started insisting that the monster should be paralyzed because it took the gun, and he kept insisting on it (an unknown alien species being affected by a human tranquilizer), and that we should just go ahead, that the monster should now be vulnerable and we should win the fight.

He is an optimizer focused player (he even sent the group a video defending how he plays), and he just waltzes through all the sessions, like: "I came, I shot things. Oh no, you said I failed, but I haven't. I just missed a roll, and that shouldn't have happened!" and more things like that. "Oh, an NPC I don't like, I shot him." Sometimes he takes control of his turns and everyone else's turns just because "he wants to get through because of time."

On a campaign that I have pitched to the group, he said we don't have time for "political gameplay," just because I pitched an antagonist that isn't evil, just an antagonist (that's why it is political. He might be right, but does evil things because of what he believes in).

I don't know, as a new Gamemaster, how to deal with that, but I feel like I'm being criticized for not giving things to them on a silver platter. I also have some fault, as I'm new, but this is draining.

Hi all,

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I’m trying to find RPGs that are built more around prompts, tables, procedures, evocative questions, or structured improvisation than around heavy rules or fully prewritten adventures.

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What I’m hoping for is a game with a fairly simple core system, something that can be learned quickly. I’d like the prep to be minimal, with the book doing a lot of the heavy lifting through random tables, scenario seeds, locations, situations, or other tools that give the table something to improvise from.

I am confident in my ability to improvise as A GM; so vague promps are okay.

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Theme doesn’t really matter to me at this point. Fantasy, horror, sci-fi, pirates, superheroes, vampires, weird exploration — anything is fine. I’m mostly curious what’s out there, because I’m not very familiar with this kind of design yet.

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I’m especially interested in games that work well for a one-shot or a short run of a few sessions, rather than something that needs a long campaign to really get going.

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Basically, I’m looking for games where the book feels like a kind of prompt engine for play, while still leaving room for the GM and players to discover the story at the table.

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One important thing: I do want a traditional setup with a GM and players. I’m not looking for GM-less games like Fiasco, since I want to be the GM myself.

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What would you recommend? Thanks in advance.

I've slowly been working on this for a long time, but with a baby and studies, plus very little experience, it's taken quite a while. It's a simple game, 44 pages long, based on the Mörk Borg system, but deviates quite a bit, especially when it comes to the style.

I've loved Mafia movies for as long as I can remember, as a small kid I watched Bugsy Malone on repeat, and in my early teens I just circulated every mobflick I could find. Now, with my largest passion being roleplaying games (except for my beautiful daughter of course), I thought it was time to combine those interests. Kind of surprised by the lack of a proper mobgame, except for Gangbusters which I've only read about, and haven't been able to track down a copy of.

Anyway, it's not the grandest of games, but I'm still really proud, and hope someone else will be able to enjoy it too! With a budget of $0, it's filled with a mixture of public domain art, and custom made art by a fantastic local artist and his brother,

Also, it's PWYW, so costs nothing for anyone who wants to check it out!

I recently started a Dnd campain with two friends, and i'm the Master.

We are near the end of the first "Arc". Dnd can be pretty complex, and we are very busy people (university/job), I discovered Nimble 5e and seems like a friendly version of Dnd. So I'm curious, can i use the Forgotten Realms setting and switch the system to Nimble? Is possible? Will it cause problems?

Thanks in advance and sorry for any eng mistakes, not my main language!

P.S. One of my friends is absolute novice in dnd and doesn't really know well the rules yet, so the switch is also for him to play something more easy.
I just want to make it easier for everyone to learn how to play so we can play more often and with less hassle. If it’s not worth the effort, I’ll buckle down and study Dnd more thoroughly!

Two big bundles went live recently with a huge variety of games, comics, fiction, even some maps.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/featured_promotions?promotion_id=RPG_26_TGOI

Looks like stuff from Chaosium, Evil Hat, Onyx Path, Green Ronin, Arc Dream, R Talsorian, Goodman Games, Pelgrane Press, Catalyst and some indie folks too.

Hey !

I'm searching a tarot deck to use in a TTRPG (His Majesty The Worm).
But i've mostly found "classic" tarot deck.

Anyone has recommandation for more fantasy/gritty tarot decks ?

I've been recently playing with the idea of running a game with my regular online group with more of an episodic structure. The group has grown larger and everyone wants to play just not always at the same times.

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I would love to be able to run a game with the kind of structure of a TV show where certain characters go together on certain missions and every week you get to see how different combinations interact with each other. I am a roleplay person first and foremost so I would love a structure that allows character relationships to bloom across multiple disconnected episodes. I'm inspired by stuff like Scooby Doo, star trek and Buffy

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Does anyone know of any games that mechanically support this kind of gameplay loop?

You know any RPG class that's about metagame? Like altering values, changing dice results, breaking the 4th wall — not necessarily knowing it's a game, but something like Monika from DDLC or Flowey from Undertale? Of course not omnipotent or invincible, but I wanted to move away from simple magic and go in other directions.