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I've been thinking lately about how some characters stick with us long after the campaign ends.

My favorite started because of one mechanic in D&D 3.5 that I absolutely fell in love with: Shadow Conjuration and Shadow Evocation. The idea that you could weave shadows into imitations of other spells was just incredibly flavorful to me. Then I started digging through books and discovered ways to make those shadow spells more and more "real," eventually pushing them beyond 100% reality. The whole concept was ridiculous in the best possible way.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking about the mechanics and started asking myself, "What kind of person could actually do this? What would they believe after learning that shadows could become more real than reality itself?"

That character ended up inspiring an entire deity in my own campaign setting, and years later I'm still expanding on that lore. It all came from one weird spell interaction that captured my imagination.

What's your favorite character you've ever built? It doesn't have to be your strongest or most successful. I'm more interested in the ones that stuck with you. Was it their personality, a memorable moment in a campaign, an unusual mechanic, or something else entirely?

I play in Norway where the vibe at the table is pretty direct. Sex, politics, violence, dark themes, we just go there if the game goes there. Online, especially in English-language spaces, it seems like people are very cautious in what they say, or even which topics to discuss. Which is fine, but: is that what your actual tables look like? Or is there a gap between how people talk about RPGs online and how they play in their living rooms? Not judging, just asking about the distance between the discourse and the practice.

I'm looking for RPGs that have a unique and interesting setting, such as The Wildsea and Ultraviolet Grasslands. I would prefer if they had their own system or had the rules included so I don't have to buy additional books, but that's not strictly necessary.

In general, there are only two scenarios wherein I will have NPCs deceive the PCs in a betrayal-type way:

• The RPG in question is specifically one wherein intrigue, deception, backstabbing, and paranoia are front-and-center. I do not have a personal interest in running, say, Urban Shadows (PbtA) or any of the Vampire games, but if I were to do so, I would put traitorous NPCs on the metaphorical table.

• I am running a premade adventure, and it specifically contains a character who will try to betray the PCs.

Apart from this, I just cannot bring myself to have NPCs deceive the PCs in a betrayal-type way. For one, it is a little inelegant to resolve mechanically; I am not a fan of suddenly saying, "Please roll [social awareness skill] for me," nor am I a fan of the Path/Starfinder 2e method of secret checks.

More importantly, I think it sets a poor precedent and creates an atmosphere of paranoia. The moment the PCs suffer from some unexpected betrayal, which the GM "laid so many obvious hints about" (sadly, they are often obvious only to the GM), the players are henceforth inclined to be paranoid about everything, always question NPCs, always assume the worst of NPCs, and so on, often with extreme overcorrection. Maybe this atmosphere fits some genres, but it is a poor fit for many.

I will give an example that happened just hours ago. I joined a D&D 4e game starting at level 11. The DM specifically denied the inherent bonuses (i.e. automatic bonus progression) variant rule. As level 11 characters, we had a lot of strong magic items.

Our characters were serving aboard a spelljammer. The captain came on over with a big bag and asked us to put all of our weapons, armor, magic items, etc. inside it, because they needed to be warded for entry towards this new world we were approaching: which made sense at the time, given what we were told of said planet. Indeed, our characters all agreed to do so. The DM called for Insight checks. It later turned out that this was a dauntingly high DC 30 check, and we succeeded only after a whole lot of awkwardness. This was the very first check of the game.

Yes, this was a succubus (or something vaguely similar, anyway) who was trying to nab all of our gear. And again, this was at the very start of the game. I do not know. The DM never said that this game would be about intrigue, backstabbing, paranoia, and so on. It would have felt awful had we actually had all of our gear nicked.

What do you personally think?

Just got the Core set w/the cards. What's some of your fav things in it?

Stuff to pay special attention to?

Stuff that can be improved on?

Stuff that a person should definitely 100% read carefully cause it's great for one reason or another?

Also, just want to say in general: It's nice when an RPG comes with the material like cards, maps, etc. Got a love for starter boxes, maps, standees/pawns, etc etc.

It's just some personal research, out of pure curiosity, to find out which RPGs are the most playable.

Hi all. As the question states, I'm looking for podcasts that focus on reviewing and/or interviewing ttrpg designers/their games. I've been looking around, and some have pointed me towards reddit, but most of those responses are several years out of date, and now lead to a bunch of dead ends. If anyone has any recommendations, I would be grateful for your thoughts.

Constantly see posts on this subreddit about people who abandoned d&d for another game but was wondering if the opposite was true for some people

My table and I had a weekly game for about 2-3 years straight. Level 1 to 17 in PF2e. Awesome table energy, players really dig their teeth into the lore and the world (a mix of pathfinder 2e and Legend of the 5 Rings lore. We took a bit of hiatus for a few years and I wrote a three day long finale. They finish off the big bad, save the realm, and then all have a really nice individual epilogues, tying up all the loose ends and giving everything a satisfying conclusion.The players loved it. I had a ton of fun and am proud of the the final product. I am still playing with this group with other campaigns, but I can’t help feel a bit sad after I spoke the last line.

I’ve finished other campaigns before (however more campaigns have started than ended), but I’ve never had a reaction like this. I guess this is probably a good thing in the end.

/vent

Hello!

Since there are often questions on this sub about how much or how little to prep, I thought I'd share my method for prepping as a GM, as it's not one I've seen talked about here very frequently and it may be useful to some of you.

For some background, I'm not someone who has been playing and GMing for years and years. I've run two separate campaigns, one that fell off after about 10ish sessions, and one that ran twice a month for about a year that spanned levels 1-20 in 5e. While my first game had plenty of flaws and mistakes, I learned from those mistakes and refined my method to create a world and experience that successfully captured my players imaginations and led to a really incredible story told by all.

I call this the Catch and Release method of GM prep: 1. Writing everything down in as much detail as you can in a single sitting blitz and 2. Never looking at that writing again.

This method works on a similar level to homework or study. When you sit down to write you will probably have plenty of loosely connected ideas, but those connections can sometimes be tenuous or ill-formed. The first step in the process (the "Catch") involves writing absolutely everything down. Often, as we write, we form stronger mental connections and come up with new connections for the loose ideas in our head. This is because we're engaging with the information in a different way. Think of it like a puzzle, your head is the puzzle box with a hundred pieces in a mess. Writing them out is putting those puzzle pieces together.

As for what I write specifically, it will often be a combination of where the players are right now and everything they can immediately interact with that carries some narrative significance, and any other locations or characters nearby that are significant and that I have not written about in a previous prepping session. (Though, if it's been a while revisting these as they become relevant again is very useful) So that means characters, locations, and obstacles your players are close enough to engage with meaningfully *in the next session.* Don't prep too far ahead of time.

Important note: this is a blitz. That means you should try to get everything out in less than 2 hours. My prep sessions usually went for about an hour, but depending on how used to writing like this you are, it may take more time.

The next "half step" is, *in a different location/file,* collecting any mechanical information. This means page numbers and links to any relevant stat blocks, rules, or run downs for any encounters you want to specifically plan for ahead of time (like a boss fight). This is the only information you'll actually refer to later.

The next step (the "Release") is very simply to put everything you've written, aside from thise mechanical notes, away and not look at them again. At this point you've taken the puzzle pieces, you've structured them into a clear mental image, and now you're ready to run the game.

Often when we try to run the game following everything we've written down as it is written we lose some of our ability to adapt to player choice and freedom. At the same time, when we try to run with no prep at all based entirely off those loose puzzle pieces, we end up having to do the work of putting them together at the table. This, in my experience, leads to a lot of down time where the GM is thinking, pulling information, or formulating responses. This style, as a player, can feel like it lacks the drive and certainty for a more well prepared game.

The Catch and Release method solidifies your ideas into clear mental structures that are tied together in cohesive networks while also maintaining your ability to freely adapt to whatever surprises your players bring to the table. I'm no expert so I can't say it will work amazingly for everyone, but it's worked *really* well for me, and I hope it does for you.

Oh, and one more note: it matters when you sit down to write on relation to your sessions. I reccomend doing your writing session 1-2 days ahead of the game. This is for two reasons: first, you want to give yourself ample time for ideation. You know when you're working or in the shower and you come up with a great idea that you just *have* to include? That's a critical aspect of this process, so you want to do your writing session as close to the session as possible while still giving yourself time to move away from what you write as well.

I've seen animated battlemaps become more and more popular over the years, but the VTTs I used didn't support them back then. Do most VTTs support animated battlemaps now?