**Come here and talk about anything!**

​

This post will stay stickied for (at least) the week-end. Please enjoy this space where you can talk about anything: your last game, your current project, your patreon, etc. You can even talk about video games, ask for a group, or post a survey or share a new meme you've just found. This is the place for small talk on /r/rpg.

​

The off-topic rules may not apply here, but the other rules still do. This is less the Wild West and more the Mild West. Don't be a jerk.

​

----------

​

This submission is generated automatically each Saturday at 00:00 UTC.

I have been asked to run an intro one-shot RPG for some work colleagues at a team retreat. I have some options already, such as a Shadowdark funnel for level zero characters, but curious what options might come to mind in this Reddit.

Was re-reading the Backerkit page to Toon 2E (https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/steve-jackson-games/toon-the-cartoon-roleplaying-game) and still wondering if SJG has any plans to update the feel and tone of the game. When Toon was first released in 1984 the target audience would have grown up with (mostly) 1970s and earlier cartoons. Lots of Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, and Hanna-Barbara silly animals (yes, there were “adventure” and “teen mystery” cartoons, but the majority were still of the silly cartoon hi-jinx variety).

Looking at the world now, what (IMO) the target audience should be would have grown up with a very different type of cartoon. Adventure Time, The Regular Show, Sponge Bob, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and others. Will the genre that Toon was appeal to a new audience? The Backerkit page doesn’t imply a lot of tone and feel changes. Has anyone heard anymore than what’s posted there?

I'm looking for any/all recommendations of games that don't rely on the GM making a 'plot but instead rely on loops or the PCs' precarious position in the setting, to generate a plot as the PCs progress.

I'm thinking Blades in the Dark, or Vampire. Where the mere act of surviving makes trouble.

I'd love to hear about a cyberpunk slice-of-life game, or a D&D procedurally generated dungeon game. Things like that.

Thanks.

I had a very serious debate with a GM friend about creating the worldbuilding for a campaign before starting it:

He was against generating everything from scratch. In his words, no player is interested in knowing what constitutes your story: culture, politics, legends, or how nations communicate if it's a table where narrative is paramount.

All this is based on the idea that players are only interested in doing what they want, and that spending time creating things only leads to future disappointments, because precisely: players don't care about your world, they only care about creating their epic stories.

My point of view is that, yes, to a certain extent he's right, but it's also good to hope that the world where the story is generated is of interest to the players. Because at the end of the day: their actions have repercussions on the world they inhabit.

What do you think about this?

So I’ve long been a big fan of Golarion as a setting (if not Pathfinder as a system.) However since D&D: Honor Among Thieves, BG3, and reading some of the novels, I’ve been delving more and more into Toril. I was always vaguely aware of the world, especially in relation to the Great Wheel cosmology, but I was never as big a fan of it compared to Golarion.

Part of it was that few things really jumped out at me when I skimmed the lore of Faerun itself compared to Golarion’s Inner Sea where the map is practically a kitchen sink pop-up book. It wasn’t until I started playing, running, reading, and otherwise researching the lore of FR that I really started to appreciate that it was so layered and with a lot of mystery and surprise.

Which both in of themselves can be good or bad depending on who you ask. Do you want a setting where it’s what you see is what you get or something a bit more opaque?

This isn’t meant to ask which is better or even necessarily which you prefer. (Though that’s welcome as a summation.)

It’s more a question of what do you all think are the pros and cons of both Golarion and Toril as settings for heroic adventures?

"Orthogonal factions" in RPGs refers to groups with goals, methods, or philosophies that aren't directly opposed but exist in different dimensions (like a crime syndicate vs. a religious cult vs. a neutral merchant guild), offering complex interaction, shifting alliances, and genuine player choice beyond simple "good vs. evil," adding depth to campaigns by creating potential allies, enemies, or wildcards with unique motivations. I made a list with 7 advantages of having these type of factions in a setting.

The 7 Core Advantages of Orthogonal Factions

1. Beyond Binary Choices Players aren't forced into constant A or B dilemmas; this eliminates moral fatigue.
2. Conflict Through Overlap, Not Hatred Clashes arise from intersecting goals and competing interests, rather than pure ideological hatred.
3. High Player Agency Solutions consist of negotiations, workarounds, compromises, and clever positioning.
4. A Credible, Living World Factions operate with an internal logic that exists independently of the player.
5. Sandbox-Ready and Sustainable The world autonomously generates new conflicts, even without player intervention.
6. Intrige and Diplomacy as Core Mechanics Information, reputation, and timing are just as critical as combat or violence.
7. Existing "Between Factions" Players can naturally occupy the space between groups, taking on roles such as double agents, mediators, or power brokers through relationships.

What do you think?

I’m going to be running a campaign for a small group of friends that is Outrun/Synthwave/Miami Vice themed. It will be relatively grounded and gritty, mostly focused on investigating a big mystery with some combat mixed in. I’m looking for the world to not have a magical backbone, but some spellcasting can be flavored as “retrofuture tech” if necessary. The only true magic will come as a surprise to the players at the end of the campaign, wielded by the BBEG.

For right now I’m considering Kids on Bikes because I like its narrative focus over mechanics, but I’m also considering FATE Core because of its flexibility. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Continuing to work on my Horror RPG; after the response received from my previous query (have cut the core book/s to a single 300 page book - for those with eidetic memory), I've come to find the sage wisdom here invaluable.

I have a question for you regarding Introductory Adventures (quickstart modules) - do you prefer them to be included in the Core book or as a (free) standalone PDF?

The prewritten module (we call them "Flicks") is shaping up to be about 64~80 pages in length, and due to the amount of content per panel - margins have had to change. This makes the Core book feel a bit weird; with the layout shifting towards the end of the book.

Do you prefer the initial module to be a separate, completely free PDF? Or would you rather have the module included in the Core book?

Hi everyone,

Eons ago, the Pyromancers website had a fantastic map-sharing tool that worked with Flash. I used to use it to play play-by-post games over forums and chat. But alas, browsers changed, and for security reasons, it ceased to exist.

Back then, I created a similar page for myself... and until now, I didn't notice other people were also using it. I know the numbers are peanuts on a grand scale, but considering I never share it (apart of the games I play), having 200 visits a month kinda surprised me.

So I thought... well, maybe more people would find it useful if I shared it more.

And here I am.

Just to be clear: This is a free tool. No ads, no revenue, etc. It's just for the joy of sharing within the hobby. Also, I know darn well there are plenty of more ambitious VTTs out there... so what are the benefits (at least for me)?

1. No database. All the info is stored in the LINK you share with other people. That means I do not have to worry about space, databases, migrations, or whatever. It’s just a tiny PHP script on my site and should work for a loooong time.
2. No accounts needed. Just share the link. That's all. Play on chats, forums, emails, etc.
3. Turn History. Because the info is in the link itself, in forum play you can easily check previous turns to see where a token was. Or just follow the adventure link by link.
4. Simplicity. Put a background URL, put some tokens (or default ones). Save and share. Nothing more, nothing less.

Anyway, here is the link: https://cyberpunk.clon01.net/maps/play.php

Have fun. Or not. I'm not your mother.

If something breaks, let me know.

For context, i am planning my campaign, and in the middle of the campaign, all the magic in the world will be sealed in crystals around the world, classes that use magic would cease to exist (or at least not be useful), but the players would still be able to get a hand of these crystal fragments and cast spells using them, is there a system that let's u do that? Magic for every class? The part of making magic hard to obtain can be done by me through the narrative, i just need a system that makes magic usable by every class

Someone please tell me if and what ttrpg uses a different style of leveling outside of EXP. If I'm being honest I don't actually have a real clear picture of what I mean by that, but what I can say is that I am referring to something that does keep progression and the tracking of character progression outside of the grind of EXP, and something that isn't just milestone. I want to read the various different ways this is accomplished