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Two years ago I was burning out hard from 5e. The combat was too slow and too tedious, but at the same time so integral to the intended experience. So we decided to try out some OSR games for a spell. This ended up being a two year stint where we played games like Electric Bastionland, Mothership, Pirate Borg and Shadowdark before finally ending up doing a year long campaign of Dolmenwood. It's been a blast!

Wrapping up our Dolmenwood campaign I was at a bit of a loss as to what we should try next. After two years of carefully tracking inventory through hex-crawls and dungeons I was really open to try something a bit different. Then, the very next day, Ben Milton (aka Questing Beast) dropped a video where his group played the Draw Steel Starter Set, The Delian Tomb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTbeWhngiZQ

I had actually backed Draw Steel when it launched on Kickstarter, but by the time I got my hands on the PDFs we were so into rules-light systems that I barely flipped through it. I was intrigued to give it a go this time.

So this weekend me and my group got leave from our spouses and kids, went to a cabin in the middle of nowhere and spent close to 15 hours playing The Delian Tomb. My short take is this: both me and my players absolutely loved it!

Here's a random assortment of thoughts on the Delian Tomb and Draw Steel after this weekend:

1)

The starter set kicks off with what is basically a computer game tutorial section where you railroad your players through a series of combat encounters, and they slowly get more and more abilities and complexity added. And its a lot to absorb at first. After the first hour I could see one of my players starting to get that panicked "I'll never learn all this" look.

But then, once we had gone through the first two-three combat encounters, something clicked. It was almost a group-wide event, everyone just suddenly "got it". We've played some complex board games over the years and it was that exact same feeling, that moment where the rules suddenly fall into place and the game just gets going.

2)

Once you get over that initial hump the rules are surprisingly streamlined. Most things like cover, high/low ground and conditions usually boil down to getting edges and banes, which are Draw Steel's version of 5e's advantage and disadvantage.

Most rolls are usually rolling two d10's, adding them together and then adding some bonuses or penalties (from abilities, skills and edges/banes). If the total is 11 or less you get a tier 1 result, 12-16 is a tier 2 result, 17 or higher is a tier 3 results. These tier thresholds are always the same and it makes it so that the entire table knows almost instantly if someone had a really good or really bad roll.

Also, like in Blades in the Dark and similar games, the rolls outside of combat can have a more nuanced outcome, making it possible to get for example "success, but with a consequence" depending on the rolled tier.

3)

The combat was a blast. One of my players played a Tactician, a sort of battlefield commander/fighter, and I could just see him scouring the battlefield all the time between his rounds for opportunities to assist other players. Everyone was really invested during the entire combat, planning and strategizing together. For me as the GM my monsters had so many fun abilities that I was really looking forward to my turns.

Ben Milton complained in his video about having to jump between a bunch of different tabs and sheets when running combat, but I actually found it really easy to just jot down the most important information such as HP (called Stamina here) and turn order on a piece of paper and then just use the Encounter Book. I only had three players though which reduced the amount of monsters on the field, so this might have helped in making the combats more manageable.

Draw Steel markets itself as a "cinematic" game and it really managed to become that during the fights. My players just instinctively took to shouting out their ability names when they used them. "Protective attack!". "The Flesh, a Crucible!" It was all gloriously silly. I've never seen them like this during any 5e fight.

Some enemies also are "minions" which share a health pool, meaning that if you damage one with more damage than their health the excess damage is applied to other enemies in the same group. This lead to some really funny situations where we tried to explain in fiction how enemies across the room was killed in the same attack. "So, this goblin was hit by my fireball and was thrown into that stone pillar, which made a stone fly across the room and crush the head of that goblin, which in turn knocked out one of its teeth that flew across the room and through the head of that goblin". Good times.

4)

Draw Steel has this whole system for running negotiations which is supposed to be used during high stakes conversations (say getting the BBEG to hand over the McGuffin). When I first read this system I almost rolled my eyes. It seemed so overly complex for something I consider just standard roleplaying. I was almost dreading trying it out as I suspected it would lead to some very stilted and awkward roleplaying.

In practice though it went swimmingly. An NPC in a negotiation is expected to have *very* defined motivations, and the negotiation will always end on a set outcome like "No, but" or "Yes, and". This actually provide a nice structure to guide your thought process when roleplaying a character, making choices for them and ruling the outcome of important conversations. The gamey parts of the negotiation were also easy to keep track of, so they didn't require much brainspace at all. I found that the conversations flowed just as naturally, and the players said that they really liked that the conversation had a structure they could influence directly with their abilities when they couldn't think of the "right words" to say.

5)

The Delian Tomb adventure itself is fine. It's a pretty generic fantasy adventure. Reminds me a lot of when we played The Lost Mines of Phandelver actually, which was our very first roleplaying experience.

I suspect the book itself could be a lot more streamlined though. There was *a lot* of scrolling up and down, left and right, trying to find information when outside of combat. For someone who has spent the last two years reading and running the books of Chris McDowall, Kelsey Dionne and Gavin Norman I have probably become extremely spoilt on good organization! It also might be that the OSR just lends itself better to terse writing? I don't know. There was just this continuous sense that the book should have been easier to use at the table.

For example, when the heroes went to a new place in town I was so used running Dolmenwood where I would find all the important information about the place almost instantly, with a structured box for each important NPC providing information about their mannerism, looks and wants.

In the Delian Tomb every place in town has almost a small novel connected to them. Information about the building itself, what is happening, what could happen in the future, suggestions for tests to roll and information about the NPCs such like looks and motivations could pop up almost *anywhere* in that text block. I'm a fast enough reader so we're used to keeping the flow even when I check stuff mid-session, but in the Delian Tomb I found myself asking the players to take literal snack breaks while I read through stuff.

This might be mostly an issue with this being a starter set that tries to help new GMs, and so other Draw Steel adventures might be a lot easier to use.

Also, the read-aloud texts spread throughout is probably a lot more useful if you are a native English speaker, but for someone that runs games in another language I really prefer having shorter text, preferably bullet points, that I can expand on instead of trying to basically translate a full paragraph from English in the middle of a session.

In conclusion:

I am interested to see how the system turns out when we leave the starter set behind, especially in the amount of prep for each session. I also suspect Draw Steel lends itself more to linear adventures and less sandboxing, but we'll see. All in all we're really excited to continue playing Draw Steel for now!

The founder of Game Science, and frequent attendee of Gen Con who would tell you if you were not using his dice, you were cheating, passed away on April 15th according to his Wikipedia page.

I believe Lou was responsible for the dice included in many early tabletop games. He was the first one to make dice made of significantly better plastic, so they would chip after a few years of use.

Welcome to my review of Shadow of the Weird Wizard.

After wrapping up a 50 session, level 1-10, campaign using this game, I can confidently call it my absolute favorite D&D style heroic fantasy game. It's a must have for anyone dipping their toes out of 5e and a wonderful alternative for tables like mine who have fallen out of love with 5e, but want the style of my play that modern D&D promises. I've been able to successfully pitch this game to players hesitant to try something new, making it my gateway game to introduce people to the broader TTRPG space.

For my table, it is the best at what it does, which is fulfill the promises of 5e, but better: tactical combat, heroic class fantasy, and minimal barrier to entry for a broad audience. It does this by making small adjustments to the 5e formula that add up to an incredibly streamlined game that is more than the sum of its parts.

On release, Weird Wizard got a lot of flak for being an uninspired generic fantasy mutation of modern 5e. The book itself didn't help as it had some poor art pieces that were fixed later on. The layout is passable, but the art direction and visuals don't really catch your eye. In the sea of 5e kickstarter supplements and knockoffs, lavish visuals, player facing splatbooks, and strong gimmicks seem mandatory. The game definitely fails to sell itself, but shines the moment you dig an inch deeper.

The game is a no-nonsense best bang-for-your-buck workhorse. Weird Wizard was never trying to be a reinvention of the fantasy genre or even a particularly creative take on it. It is what new players think of when you offer to play D&D with them. It meets those expectations perfectly then exceeds them when you realize how well it executes on its premise.

Weird Wizard hits my exact Goldilocks zone of what I want out of D&D. It preserves buildcrafting and tactical combat without reaching Pathfinder levels of crunch. It stays streamlined without reaching OSR levels of low fidelity. PCs are heroic and powerful without combat getting bogged down or character sheets exploding out of control. The spells range from simple like fireball, to very fun and creative like entering people's dreams or time traveling into the future. While certainly not the most balanced, the magic feels much more creative and playful than what I've seen from D&D. For a small team, the core rulebook and bestiary offer an outsized amount of content that will last years at the table.

The rest are details that I think make this game.

• Instead of picking out the minutiae of skills, weapon, and tool proficiencies, PCs pick a single profession at creation which is a general job description of what they'd be good at. Out of combat competencies are instead agreed upon between player and GM. Outside of combat, the game gets out of the way and lets me handle the RP.

• The rolls are much less swingy than 5e. PCs start off fairly competent and only get more consistent as they level. The game combines situational Advantage/Disadvantage with permanent skill proficiencies in the form of Boons/Banes. They stack which allows for more teamwork in layering buffs/debuffs. Critical successes happen at 20 and above, plus 5 higher than the target's defense. Crits slowly become reliable for classes that rely on them. Crit fails occur at 0 and below, which means they only happen when PCs make a really poor decision outside their training or after being hit with multiple debuffs.

• All PCs get access to Attack Options so non-casters can reliably inflict status effects or forced movement. Martials get to do this and inflict damage. Martials also get Bonus Damage which is either spent on a hit, or can be spent for more attacks to guarantee at least some damage to avoid that feeling of a wasted turn.

• Multiclassing no longer flips between optimized meta builds and combat ineffective RP builds. The 10 levels are organized into 3 tiers that require multiclassing at each tier: Novice, Expert, Master. Adding an Expert caster path to your Novice martial path means you get full access to the most powerful Expert spells. The trade off is that PCs who began as casters get more spells and are more consistent.

My favorite details are in the combat. They encapsulate the genre and themes of the setting perfectly.

• Initiative requires constant monitoring and engagement from the players. Enemies always go first unless a PC spends a reaction to go first for that round. PCs can get their Han-shot-first moment or save the reaction to Dodge. Just like in movies, the heroes start off reacting on the backfoot, but slowly the tide turns in their favor as they start Taking the Initiative to finish off enemies before they can take their turns. In an ambush, PCs can't Defend themselves, but they can still Dodge, Withstand, and Cover each other.

• All excess damage from a single attack is lost when the PCs get downed, improving their odds of survival. At the same time, many Master tier AOE spells also instakill anything below a max HP threshold. You can still show off your BBEG if you really want to.

• The Frightened condition, magical or not, doesn't limit movement but still gives a debuff. The heroes can always choose to face their fears head on, knowing the odds are against them.

• Anyone can Cover Ally to switch the target of an attack in place of a nearby ally and they can Defend to make a Luck check when hit. On a 10 or above, or 55% chance, the hit turns into a miss. It's balanced by Weird Wizard having dozens of ways to get around it including guaranteed damage spells, AOEs, and multiattacks. It's usually better to just attack. These two would be used most often by dedicated tank-DPS combos or during those movie moments where the heroes try to stay on their feet after being hit by the villain's telegraphed super attack. Even failing the luck check, the heroes aren't down permanently.

Taken as a whole, these simple mechanics naturally encourage those storybook moments I crave. From the beginning of their journey to the very end, the heroes can always make the choice to protect their loved ones by facing their fears, even against foes far stronger than them. They'll need the luck of heroes to succeed, but knowing this game, luck is on their side. They are heroes. Not because of the cool powers or the big numbers. It's the literal actions that they take.

For people who play pen and paper RPGs at a physical table, do you use a tablet or other digital device for roll tables, generators, character sheet or reference tools?

If you do, what do you use it for most often?

If you don’t, is that because you prefer paper, want fewer distractions, or just don’t need it?

I’m curious where people draw the line between physical play and digital support at the table.

I'm currently running a Delta Green game and I'm thinking about taking a page from Triangle Agency. For those who don't know, in DG, you have bonds which benefit you in various ways, one important way is that they help you stay sane at the cost of damage to that bond. The game intends that when you have a chance, you have a "home scene" where that damage plays out.

In Triangle Agency, the relationship characters of your PC are set to be divided between the other players and/or GM. That seems like a really good way to handle the bonds too as currently every time there's a home scene in my DG game, 2 players are sitting out while I do something one-on-one with the last one. Of course, this won't change the total number of players sitting out a scene, but it'd give me a chance to focus on getting the next scene ready and stuff like that.

I'd still need to coach them and give directions, but I feel like this would be a good idea.

Is there any reason this would be a bad idea?

Have you done this in your games (even if it's not Delta Green)?

Are there any pitfalls I should look out for?

Hello! I’m preparing for my next campaign and would love your recommandations for an rpg system :)

The players will be a mix of newcomers and veterans. After talking with them, I’m looking for a high fantasy setting, with some tactical depth (either mechanical or narrative is fine, as long as there is player agency in combat).

For myself, I would love to discover a new rulebook, so anything besides what I have already played would be appreciated:

- Aventure

- BESM

- Broken Tales

- Daggerheart

- Dnd 3.5e & 5e

- Fate

- Legend of the Five Rings

- Mouse Guard

- Pathfinder 1e & 2e

- Warhammer Fantasy

- World Without Numbers

The campaign will be homemade, I’m aiming for 10 sessions long, more if we’re having too much fun. I haven’t decided the precise campaign frame yet, I thought it would be depending on the ruleset.

Thank you very much for your help!

I've been playing Deadpilled for the 2nd time with some friends and it is so wildly cathartic. Any other cathartic games you have to recommend??

edit: for the record, I am friends with writer of Deadpilled and they are running the game I am playing so this might be too promo... I'm not totally sure on the new rules. But I really do wanna hear about other people's games!

Hey all, looking to hear from some people who have played these kinds of games to figure out which is the best for my group. Any advice would be appreciated. The things I'm looking for are:

1. Characters can be teens without breaking any core assumptions of the system

2. Takes place in the real world (or real world-adjacent) early 2000s, or is easy enough to change the time period

3. Reasonable amount of lethality. Death can come for the characters, but I would like most of them to make it to the end of a 10-15 session game.

4. Characters have no supernatural powers, at least from the get-go.

5. Level of crunch ranging from the high end of rules light to medium. I usually run Pathfinder 2e for these players, and we want something lighter than that but still able to sink our teeth into.

The systems I have in consideration are:

1. Call of Cthulhu. Fits the supernatural investigations aspects really well, not sure if the lethality is too high (I'd probably try 7ED, if it matters).

2. Things From the Flood. Perfect for the age range, time period, and desired lethality, but seems firmly sci-fi and I don't know how hard that would be to hack out.

3. Kids on Bikes. The only one of these systems I've played, it's perfect in just about every way except for one. It's a little too rules light for my group, and the lack of progression is a downside for us.

If you have any experience with these systems I'd love to hear from you, or if you know of any other ones that would suit us, throw 'em out there.

One of my players is in the process of making a new character for my Savage Worlds campaign and wanted to make a Squad Leader kind of guy (I.e., has a few allies who can accompany and fight with him in combat).

If it's summoning creatures to fight for you instead as a mechanic, I'm open to it! Just looking for inspiration on how I can come up with more fun mechanics for him to work with.

Nominees were announced! (I do not work with IGDN nor do I have any games nominated, just sharing the news)

Was roleplay involved? Did you hang out outside of gaming? Still with them or no?