**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.

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Just wanted to say how much I love RPGtrader. It's like a new competitor to DriveThruRPG but it's so much nicer to use. Even its appearance is so much more pleasant.

There are SO MANY tags for filtering by system, tone, setting, player count and community tags to go even deeper. RPGTrade also does a good job of showing what's recently been posted, what's trending, what's popular. It's fantastic!

I have already uploaded one project myself to it, and I want to finish more just to put them on RPGtrader. It's so much nicer to use as a creator than DriveThru or Itch.io I highly recommend it. Please put everything you have made on RPGtrader so I can buy it there instead, thanks!

"Why We Changed the Name of Shub-Niggurath

The decision to change the name of Shub-Niggurath to Shub-Gorath came from a few different considerations, both in and outside of the game’s world.

One reason was the feedback we saw online. Some people pointed out that “Shub-Niggurath” could be hurtful to some audiences, particularly when considered alongside Lovecraft’s own views. We want everyone sitting down to play our games to feel welcome at the table, so this was something we took seriously. Although Lovecraft scholars concur “Shub-Niggurath” was not derived from the slur, unfortunately it is one of those words that sometimes triggers automatic content filters. This is something known as the “Scunthorpe Problem”. Since our games and campaigns are promoted and discussed across many different platforms, we wanted to avoid creating an unnecessary obstacle for players and the community simply because of a character’s name.

There is also a little bit of in-world reasoning behind the change. Old Ones Origins takes place in an age long before humanity, when these entities existed without the names and titles that human cultures would later give them. Names such as Mother of All or Black Goat are therefore not necessarily the names these beings would have used for themselves.

So why Shub-Gorath? The name comes from Shuma-Gorath, a name associated with Robert E. Howard’s contributions to the mythos. Bringing elements like these together feels very much in the spirit of how Lovecraft, Howard, and other writers built these interconnected worlds in the first place: borrowing ideas, adapting names, and combining elements from one another’s stories and mythologies. Shub-Gorath grew out of that same creative tradition.

We feel like names given to beings that existed long before humans—and long before the languages we use to try to describe them—can evolve. Shub-Gorath is still Shub. She is still the same Old One, with the same place in the cosmic conflict.

We also understand that for some players, staying as close as possible to the original names is an important part of preserving the legacy of these characters. We don’t have a simple answer that will satisfy everyone, but we felt it was important to be transparent about why we made this decision rather than leave the change unexplained. We’ll continue listening to the community as we consider the best way forward.

The Stars Bear Witness.

Chaosium Board Games Team"

So looking back over your weeks/months/years of DMing games, aside from the PHB, MM and DMG of course. What one or two resources do you find yourself returning back to use over and over again? For me it is two third party items:

Ultimate Toolbox of Random Tables-the more I use this one, the more I see how it can be used

Book of Ebon Tide-for some reason, this one keeps popping up as a resource, even though its very specialized.

My latest game is out - and unfortunately since it's an erotic RPG it's hidden from itch's search function and front page, and also can't be shared on the itchio subreddit, so I'm just trying to share it where I can. I'm really proud of this one.

The game is directly inspired by Mickey 17, and was originally titled "Nasha Barridge Stopped a Fascist Regime by Wanting to F\ck Her Pathetic Boyfriend Crazy Style and You Can Too"*

a two-player game about wanting to f*ck each other so bad you save the world about it, using a modified version of the classic card game war.

Hi all! I'm looking for a TTRPG that is set in the modern day, or at least a setting that is recognisably modern day. I'm more than fine with some fantasy or sci-fi elements, but generally I'd like it to also have modern-day themes. I like Cyberpunk Red, so maybe something similar to that but set in the modern day? Is there anything like these out there? Thank you!

By declared intentions initiative I mean a system where you roll initiative, dm decides what the npcs are going to do on the turn, players declare what they’re going to do on the turn, then you go through initiative resolving the actions. It seems like a good way to better represent turns in combat happening all at the same time but I can see how it could slow down the game, I mainly run cy_borg and dnd 5e so I’m thinking about how this would go in cy_borg but I would like to know if anyone has experience with this system and what your thoughts on it are?

I'm usually a BSG/Stargate kinda person when it comes to sci-fi, but recently I've really been really into the more "grounded" settings of The Expanse and Firefly. I'm wondering what a good TTRPG that focuses on more hard sci-fi would be?

I'm looking for something that allows for a roleplay-heavy experience centered around a starship crew, preferably something a bit simpler (or with a very established player base I could learn from) since I'm relatively new to DMing, and with more focus on smaller-scale human exploration than aliens and galactic wars and stuff like that.

Thanks so much!

edit: yeah okay, firefly isn't really hard sci-fi - i just like the lack of aliens and cool culture

When I played Vampire: The Masquerade v20 years ago, my enjoyment of the game was massively reduced by the system's propensity to turn a character's high stat+skill into failures or even botches. At one point I thought "If the game's tone was comedic and sitcom-y, this would be hella fun, but it's just frustrating when you're trying to be serious and botch all the damn time."

And then I started seriously thinking it over and that, maybe I might be onto something here. And then I discovered What We Do In The Shadows through various shorts and memes.

So, I've been itching to actually start a campaign like that, where the player characters are a some miss-matched coterie of vampires who've come to own a manor in the middle of some big city. Before each session, a player would give me an initial premise ("My super old vampire gets a phone for the first time, discovers a dating app and has a date she really wants to go well") ​that I would turn into an episodic one-shot, and we would rotate.

Because I don't really know many vampire systems, or even sitcom systems to be frank, I was thinking of running this into VTMv20, since it's the one I know about and the one that got me on that train of thought in the first place. ​I have a few things in mind that could possibly clash with the campaign idea, mainly blood and how it's acquired (though I could just start each episode with a set amount of blood, and then figuring out how to acquire more during the session would be potential shenanigans​) and humanity. And then of course the setting itself, which wouldn't necessarily work that well unless it's really only used as a faraway backdrop that is only called upon when it's fun.

While I'm not worried about altering the setting until it fits (I mostly care about the mechanics and how well they fit with comedy), I'm pretty sure there are systems that would fit this idea better.

I then have the following questions: do you guys know of any such system, and if not, is there anything else major I should be aware of ​that could make the idea difficult to work with in VTM?

In terms of taste, I haven't had the best experience with PBTAs, but I'm not against them, though I might prefer more trad resolution philosophies. Fail forward, fail Ith opportunity and success with complication is, expectedly, a feature I would enjoy greatly.

Hey everyone!

I have a quick question about what I should do with my gaming group that I play in. A little background:

So, i just moved to a new state and I ended up walking into a tabletop store thinking it was a video game store. I didnt want to be rude and just walk out so I start looking at all the products and actually found myself really fascinated with the display case that has all the painted models in it (a happy little accident i guess). I talked to an employee who pointed out that there is gong to be a "TTRPG for beginners" game that is going to be happening soon. I figured since I dont have any friends in the area I might as well sign up.

A couple weeks later we actually started playing. I was very excited and nervous about the whole thing and I was hoping I was prepared enough for the group. I showed up with my character sheet, dice, and even some artwork of my character i drew up (it wasnt very good..) everything was going great for the first couple of sessions and I really enjoyed myself and learning about this character i created in this amazing world.

After about 4 sessions the DM asked the group (just 3 of us) if we would be okay if we added 2 experienced players from his other game that finished up. None of us saw the problem so we all agreed. The new players seemd nice at first and after a couple of games I noticed that they would use some odd language.

So in game, we had to take over a stronghold that was being run by goblins. Standard quest, i guess. Once we get to the stronghold the new players started calling the goblins derogatory terms for Jewish people. I asked what they were implying and they just looked at me and said something along the lines of: "Big noses and greedy". They continued to use the verbiage even when they were killing the goblins.

That upset me pretty badly, but I kept my mouth shut because im the new guy and didnt want to piss everyone off. I spoke to the DM after and asked him if the new players always say stuff like that and he insured me that they were just messing around. A couple days later one of the new players posted a antisemitic meme in the group chat and made a (in my opinion) not so funny joke about the goblins.

That sort of stuff makes me uncomfortable. Should I talk to the DM? Or the players? Or leave the group? Im nervous about it because I am Jewish and dont want their cruel jokes pointed at me.

Anyone have any suggestions? Thank you!

EDIT: Holy smokes you guys blew me up! I went to work and now on my break and im a bit overwhelmed! I sent a text to the DM saying that I wont be joining any more of their games and just told him that I was uncomfortable with some of the language being used. I plan on telling the employees at the store just as a word of caution. Thank you everyone for the support. Hopefully i find a new group soon! I honestly enjoyed myself until the new players came.

I’ve always wanted to run an Exalted-like game where the players have demigod-like powers(think Kratos) and are fighting mythic people across the world.

Here are some systems I’ve come across and why they didn’t work for me.(Note I’ve never played any of these.)

Exalted- Too married to its setting. I want to run this hypothetical game in my own custom setting.

Scion- I actually haven’t heard much about this game and it might work if I’m able to reskin the origin of the PC’s powers, I still want to give players some wiggle room on the origins of their power, also I’m wondering if it’s possible to run this game in a more medieval-esque setting.

Now I do have 1 hard non-negotiable, and that is I don’t want NPC creation to be like PC creation. One good example is Mutants and Masterminds. I’m not a huge fan of buildcrafting and I much less want to do it for every single npc/monster.

Another thing to keep in mind is that I do prefer traditional rpgs over narrative rpgs, you can still recommend a narrative rpg just do know that I do prefer systems with some crunch to combat at the least but I am willing to try something new.

Thanks for reading this and your suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I'm going to be playing on a superhero campaign soon that kinda could allow me to play this kind of character, someone that is dumb as rocks with a gold heart and that speaks in thirdperson of himself and refers to others by their names when talking to them.

Any advice on how to play a character like this? And any ways to avoid falling into it becoming a single one-off joke that will be better to replace eventually?