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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.

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So I received an email from Magpie with the announcement of the Ennies Emporium 2026

We all know that some companies kinda use backerkit as a pre-order store, but if I'm not misunderstanding this, they are now just selling games but as crowdfunding.

I'm a bit shocked because even the FAQ says:

What is Pledging? Pledging in crowdfunding is a commitment to support the creation of a new product or project. Unlike a traditional purchase, you're not buying an item that already exists. Instead, your contribution helps bring a creative idea to life, and in return, you typically receive rewards (such as the product itself) as a thank you for your early support. 

so.. does Backerkit now offer the consumer the same protection as a store or is this still a just crowdfund? If people don't get their products will they be legally entitled to buyer protection?

Is there something I'm missing? Because from my perspective it just seems like a store without legally being a store.

I've never understood the point/appeal of the open world sandbox style. However, I recently had a bit of an epiphany, so here's my attempt at a take:

Sandbox campaigns are about living an alternative life in a fantastical world.

You grow up, find work, develop relationships, go on adventures, travel, craft things, build alliances, etc. However, there's no guarantee this will ever lead anywhere "big" the way a more narrative campaign might. Then again, that's how real life works, too.

Sorry if this seems obvious to anyone else, but it's taken me a long time to realize exactly what the "point" of sandbox / West Marches games are.

I'm one of those people who doesn't understand something until I can put it into my own words.

I realize this topic has been done to death. I got excited and wanted to share.

Two weeks ago, I was a player in a D&D game. We were playing a one-shot, and our friend playing a bard had to sing a song. He made up a really beautiful song and entertained all of us, but even our DM was laughing, he told him to roll with advantage. The rolls came up bad, and the song failed,which made me feel like something was really wrong. Am I just too Fate minded or narrative minded as a player? I know it would have been cool to explain it by saying,the song was nice, but the crowd didn’t like it (or because something unrelated to the song went wrong) so it wasn’t a good performance, but I still felt it was not ok for me.

(English is not my native)

I have a friend who is returning to GM for the first time in years. I see articles on different specific games but what are the best overall GM primers you’ve read in the last few years?

Osprey Games is having a sale of almost all their games. Pretty much everything is 30%-70% off.

https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/discover/sale/osprey-games-july-sale-2026/ (they also have separate Canadian and UK websites)

They have some great hidden gem RPGs:

• Hard City
• Tomorrow City
• Paleomythic
• Sigil & Shadow
• Untamed Worlds
• Crescendo of Violence
• Those Dark Places
• Pressure
• Through the Hedgerow
• The Hooded Man
• The Terror Beneath
• Heirs to Heresy
• Jackals
• Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades
• Romance of the Perilous Land

The sale also extends to their boardgames and wargames like Frostgrave, Stargrave, The Doomed, Dragon/Xenos Rampant, etc.

I'm looking for one, but I can't seem to find anything

I've heard of Girl By Moonlight, but playbooks just always make me feel restricted rather than like I'm making my own character

I'm DMing and designing a ttrpg and was wondering how different games deal with languages.

If the players explore some elder ruins with runes on the walls, encounter a sentient alien being or just a NPC from a different country with no languages in common

I'm trying to put some realism and mystery into investigation adventures and so far I haven't found a solution I liked.

1. "You all speak the same language". Boring.
2. "You have a magic translator". I mean, ok, still gives some room to roleplay and flavor, but else it's just really soft worldbuilding.
3. "You understand some of what the text says... It says..." Can be interesting but misses the show not tell point
4. "You don't understand the language at all" means the players don't get any information at all, uninteresting and loss of opportunities.
5. Fantasy alphabet. Flavorful, usable, unrealistic of course, and might be tiresome if the players are not into it.
6. A solution I just tried with some success: deform the text with some translator or synonym shenanigans, like it would be difficult to understand a text from hundreds of years ago, or the translation from an alien language wouldn't be straighforward.
7. Esperanto! Saga comicbook uses this and I think it's my favourite solution so far. Feels different but not so much, you understand thanks to context and proximity

Any other ideas you have seen around?

pretty much what the title says, what are some games where combat holds a sizable (but not necessarily a majority) level of importance? combat is fun but I prefer a moderate amount of small, quick skirmishes to 30 minute + long fights.

Burner acc for good reasons. Going to be 100%, some of this is just me bitching.

So I'm a GM, I've stopped playing D&D and other stuff like it because I grew out of high fantasy. My current group, made up of some of my friends from HS/College, is cool with it even though one half has never played TTRPGs up until now, another half exclusively plays D&D, and the last half are new and like me who play games outside of the D&D sphere. We all play on discord. They're all nice, we run fun games with each other, and overall we gel pretty well. Just there are some things that make me feel...off I guess?

Recently I invited some of my other friends to play with us (as seen above) and to put it bluntly, they have an issue with me not being able to say no. We had an issue with one of my players and a game we were running. He likes to make very gimmicky and one-note/joke characters, and in the past I just let him because I didn't want to be seen as controlling. This time though I REALLY didn't like his concept (it was some crazy mad scientist in what was supposed to be a grounded sci-fi setting). So I kept telling him to re-think his character because I didn't think it would fit, but he just wouldn't change it. Often justifying it with "it's not a gimmick character, I didn't give him a specific attribute he's good at!" One night when everyone was in VC he introduced his character with no changes despite me asking him three separate times, I'll admit this wasn't the best way to handle this, I got mad. We went into the same song and dance until my friend who was new to the group stepped in to defend me.

Only problem with that was, people took what he was saying the wrong way, thinking he was being pretentious or rude. So they start arguing and one other person goes in to defend the guy's character. Basically being like "oh why is this a problem now? You let him do this before!" Despite the problem being me letting him do it. Another thing of note is that whenever I'd mention this player fixing his concept she'd jump in with "it's fine!" and "he's not doing what you're saying he's doing". She then therapy spoke to my friend defending me and yeah. In the end we settled the argument peacefully, the player understood what he was doing wrong and fixed his character, and we're having a very nice time as a group with little to no friction. In fact the player and my friend are on good terms!

But now I just keep thinking about how much of a doormat I feel like in my group. It's really causing me to re-examine every game I've ran for them. I kinda feel like they don't really like the worlds and stories I put together for them and kinda push me out of the themes I want to run for their own goals. Like once I wanted to run VTM with a gritty crime drama theme and they just turned it into an office comedy.

Idk I'm just ranting but do I sound crazy? Is there anything I should do besides talking to them since I've done that already? Do I just need a new group?

Am I going crazy or was there talk of a FitD game that was being officially made by Evil Hat that was basically Scum and Villany, but all of the lore, philosophy and general aesthetics was (South-East) Asian?

I know of it because a friend of a friend was in the beta testing. Does anyone know what happened to it?

EDIT: The game was Tiān Dēng. Still no clue what happened to it though.

EDIT 2: Tiān Dēng is still in active development - playtesting complete, post playtest revisions through 2026.

I'm thinking of a way to incorporate regular card decks as grimoires for my games.

At first, i thought the shapes could represent a information about the casting, for example, how long it lasts or how far it goes, while numbers and characters represented the effect of the spell.

Example:

Nine = Healing spell

Nine of hearts = Restores life to the brim

Nine of swords = Restores half of it

or:

Swords: Short time, short range

Hearts: Short time, wide range

Clubs: Long time, short range

Diamonds: Long time, wide range

Do you know any system that already does this?