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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.

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Normally I don't like these kinds of media since I'm already so depressed and miserable, but despite having never played them I can't keep my mind off of the likes of Red Markets, Cy_Borg, and even certain editions of Cyberpunk and Changeling: The Lost. And that candles one I suppose.

Do y'all find anything actually meaningful or cathartic about these kinds of dystopias, ones you're implicitly or explicitly expected to fail in? I personally think if it's all so hopeless, why bother? What meaning do you find in a story like that?

Hi all good people. I'm wondering what device do you use to view those wonderfully colorful rulebooks?
I'm sitting in front of a computer screen most of the day and use an older Kindle Paperwhite to read books offline, but this reader is not suited to pdf's at all, not to mention it has a black and white display.

So I'm pondering my orb purchasing either a reader with a colour display, or a tablet. And here comes my question - what works for you best?

EDIT: Thank you guys for the responses. Reading on my phone is too cumbersome, I'll search for a tablet.
Thanks a lot.

Yesterday's discussion on owning or buying books you don't run really gave me some insight and made me less afraid of buying a book because I think I would like it. However, I still have an issue with thinking of TTRPG books as something to 'play' instead of something to 'read'. (In my head it goes "I can buy an 800 page book for 6-20 dollars, and a TTRPG book will run me $60 and is limited if I can't play/run it.") It's a psychology issue, but one I'm trying to work my way around.

One thing I saw which might help me break that perception a bit was how people like to hack ideas or mechanics from some games into other games they play. Some of this makes sense to me, I figured I could take the bestiary of Vaesen or Dolmenwood, and slide them into CoC or MoTW as an investigation for my players, with the stat blocks adjusted a bit. I saw someone mention Pirate Borg as a way to do ship to ship combat, which I think could come in handy for Daggerheart... And I'm sure I could hack the setting/world building of Cosmere into a DnD or Daggerheart game.

But I am curious on what some other things you like to hack into other games are, just so I can get a better understanding of how it works. As a new GM I've been a bit scared of hacking, and just sticking with official material and my own original stories for the time being, to get things going. So for those of you who do hacking, whether a little or a lot, what do you like to hack and how do ya do it?

So I was browsing some TTRPG shopping sites to buy from, as of my players and I starting to get bored of the current TTRPG we were playing for about a year, I came across the Dune TTRPG. Now I and my group don't know any sort of lore about the Dune universe, apart from some sort of desert planet and The Sandworms, but I thought the concept sounded pretty enjoyable, with sci fi desert cities and such. I was just wondering if it's a good TTRPG for a group that have never read the books or played the game, and if any of you have any tips on running it if it is any good.

G'day everyone.
My latest big project, Fragged Aeternum 2, is now live on Kickstarter 😄

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wadedyer/fragged-aeternum-2-ttrpg

"A violent and dark gothic ttRPG that plunges immortal PCs into the endless city of Aeternum to fight vile Fiends and otherworldly foes."

"After ten thousand thousand generations have each walked ten billion billion years towards the horizon, they shall stand no closer to the city's edge then whence they began."

If you like Bloodborne, eldritch horror, blood-soaked combat, TPKs, being immortal and endless gothic cities, then this is worth your time!

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For those who are new to Fragged:

Fragged is a proudly medium-crunch game (if you can handle D&D and Pathfinder you will be just fine with Fragged). There are no classes - when you Level up, the primary thing that happens is that you gain a Trait (these are the building blocks of your character).

The core resolution mechanic is "3d6 + a bonus vs a target number". Eg: 3d6+2 from your Leadership Skill vs 12. Very simple, but anytime you roll a "6" this is called a Strong Hit and you can do something special - the default Strong Hit option allows you to re-roll a die, but maybe your a psychic and you're talking to someone, you could use a Strong Hit to pluck the surface thoughts from their mind. Of maybe you have a flame weapon in combat, you could use a Strong Hit to set someone on fire or melt their armour.

You Strong Hit options come from your items and Traits.

What Fragged does better than any other RPG (bold claim, I know) is how it seeks to accommodate different playstyles in the same game (I really wish I could show a image in this post... but just bear with me for a moment). As a game designer I'm less interested in you making sure you DPS, Tank and Healer are all working well together, what I want is your rules-light friend, power gaming friend and narrative gaming friend to all sit at the same table together having fun!

Fragged has LOTs of options in the back of the book for building your PCs and NPCs (Traits, weapons, etc...), and next to nearly all of these is an icon for Rule Light, Combo, Narrative, or Mix it Up. These icons do not do anything mechanic, what they do is highlight the playstyle of that option. Eg: A Rules Light option may be a Trait with a few passive bonuses or possible even remove a game mechanic from the game, a Combo option may highlight a more complex option that goes well with other options, etc...

I could go on for ages talking about my game, but I will end this section by saying that Fragged is an artistic endeavor at its core. Not only in its fancy art (which is all human made.... feels strange having to say that, but this is the world we now all live in), but also in that I take great joy in bringing original settings (no licensed IPs) and an original rule system to you. I love to make new things that facilitate our beloved hobby :D

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For those who know Fragged - what's new/different?

Aeternum is still very much a medium-crunch Fragged game to its bones, but it is slightly rule-lighter than my other titles, and a little more narrative heavy (as I feel like this fits the more dramatic nature of the Aeternum setting).

Unlike my other two 2nd edition books, Aeternum 2 is an all-in-one book. Both rules and lore are in a single (slightly fatter) book.

I've changed my font and enlarged my text (I was a little stubborn on this point for Empire and Kingdom 2, sorry).

A GIANT feature of Aeternum 2 is that the PCs are immortal (they come back as spectres for a while after they die, and can be resurrected by other PCs or 1d6 days later back at their home Sanctuary), and the #1 rule of GMing Aeternum is to "not hold back, try to kill your PCs". This makes Aeternum a lot of fun to GM, but also a lot of fun to play as PCs are encouraged to throw themselves at foes self-sacrificially to save mortals and stop their foes.

As death is not the fail state of Aeternum, GMs are encouraged to make the evil villains plans the fail state, Eg: the PCs failing to save an NPC that is going to be sacrificed. And to have the villains plans progress when there is a TPK (and these are not rare).

There is also a corruption mechanic (can't mention the word 'eldritch' in an RPG without a corruption mechanic!!!). This is there to reflect PCs who fall to madness, loose their humanity, give up on life, become a monster, etc.... PCs who have 6 Corruption become NPCs!

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Please let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to share your honest thoughts about Fragged with the community here so that others can make a more informed choice (no RPG is for everyone).

Kindest regards,
Wade D.

Hello, I've been playing fabula ultima, and having fights without maps (most stuff I've played used those for combat, like dnd or the wh40krpgs) is quite fun and interesting.

What other games with an emphasis on combat use those?

Of course more narrative focused games like VTM wouldn't use those, I mean games with a focus on combat, like dnd, pf or lancer.

I'm making a low fantasy adventure and I get that it's cool with art showing the crazy monsters, but I don't have any crazy monsters. Ttrpgs are also games supposed to happen in the players imaginary world, so could illustration potentially take away from the experience by depicting things that was cooler in the players heads?
Or is the art mainly for the GM?

And what should you focus on? Illustrations of NPCS, landscapes, special items? Shouldn't the illustrations be a mix of practical when running, but also making it cool to skim? What are your thoughts?

Hey folks, longtime listener, first time caller.

I'm looking to hack together a setting/campaign that looks and feels like Hellblazer, initially with a small city/urban setting, with a focus on gritty, dark occult, street level magick. As such, magic should feel not-flashy, costly, and hidden. Hellblazer/Constantine influence come from this aesthetic, as well as some focus on investigation and heavy noir vibes. Specifically interested in characters feeling in over their heads, even as they uncover one answer it just opens up to even bigger questions. Also morally dubious themes are a must.

So far I've figured out that I want to use Unknown Armies 2e and 3e for mechanics and campaign building respectively, and I've got some of their sourcebooks to supplement (Postmodern Magick, Break Today, Hush Hush), and some occult textbooks (Crowley and his ilk) to help flesh out aesthetics and terminology. I also have the Kult: DL books.

I'm also really interested in grabbing some supplements from Mage: The Ascension, but am pretty daunted by the size of the library and am unsure how to laser-target what would actually be helpful for me in achieving this setting. I just picked up Orphan's Survival Guide.

So, tl;dr what Mage books should I pick up to help me achieve this world-building project? Not interested in the epic, space-faring conspiracy bits, nor OP super-powered mages, but rather gritty, street level dark occult type magick. Could also be interested in other WoD supplements, though I'm not interested in populating this world with vampires or werewolves (atm).

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

Hey, folks. Back in the day I'd trawl ebay for used RPG books and often buy lots of 3 to 6 books. I went through a long stretch where I had no room to expand the collection so I've been out of the loop.

I went looking today and it's kind of a wasteland. Is there a new online marketplace for used RPG books? Or is it something where I'm going to have to drag myself to a bookstore every year or so and see what's to be seen?

Definitely need to preface this that GMing can just be a hobby that you don't need to spend time improving. This post is just for people who take make believe as a passion (probably too much so).

Also notably these are the skills in-session that are harder to replicate alone compared to session preparation.

Compare In-session GMing to any other skill and its daunting to be able to practice it. A musician who can practice a single 4-bar 50 times in a row by themselves, whereas a GM gets one chance to perform during sessions once (maybe a few times for lucky bastards) per week with completely unpredictable player input.

I see three big challenges:

• You need something asynchronous where you can practice this at any time rather than just during a session. Ideally something that you can pick up and put down when you find yourself with a spare 20 minutes.

• You can't replicate your whole table alone. You need to break down what is a hodgepodge of many skills: narrator, actor, improviser, director/editor/cinematographer, mediator, encounter designer, writer, etc. This way we can focus and do it solo just like the musician.

• You need a way to get feedback. Let's be honest, your typical group of players are not going to provide much.

What do you guys do to practice outside of running sessions?