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Neopets has put out an update regarding the ttrpg that Geekify is creating and states that it doesn't adhere to their standards.

Hi, I'm not new to TTRPGs but I am to hexcrawls, I've heard of them before but never fully run one.

The hexcrawl rules I'm using are slightly different from the standard. Mainly it's just because I use 3 mile hexes and crossing them takes an amount of time depending on the category: Clear - 1 hour Tame wilderness - 2 hours Wilderness - 4 hours Dense wilderness - 8 hours

My main question relates to the idea of players getting lost. I want to include it but I'm also not sure as to how, and if I should tell them or not when they do become lost. If I do tell them I feel like them getting lost was basically pointless, but if I don't then I feel like the players may end up getting annoyed as the map they're drawing would end up being wrong and they'd have to keep redrawing it.

I've also heard about the idea of searching a hex to find something interesting, but I'm not sure how I'd clue my players in that a hex might be worth searching? Without just telling them what's there, and also what if they search somewhere that I haven't noted something, I suppose a random discovery table could work for that. What do you think?

Anyone have an especially good experience with any? I prefer simpler rules, don't want pages of guns and their various stats haha

Other than that, I'm pretty open. Regular western would be ideal, not weird west, or anything supernatrual, but i reckon that stuff is easy to exclude.

thanks in advance

I've been seeing a reoccurring question of players asking GM's posting their games in various communities asking if the game is going to be long? And if not most of them retract their interest.

It's a good thing the GM is not asking for a long time commitment for new players right? Or is am I over thinking this?

So I recently had to take a little break from this sub, for entirely valid reasons. And over that time, I realized, how much I'm letting the constant negativity, both in RPG spaces and in a lot of other places in my life, get to me in ways that are not super Duper healthy, and I don't like that so much. I know how to seek out and engage with the negativity, I have no problem doing that, but where do I find the people who aren't getting into that mud, who focus on positivity, on uplifting people? Who's making fun good faith reviews, who's telling uplifting stories, who's just living and breathing the joy of this hobby? Because I need those folks and I don't know where they are

I'm interested in building a network map of the "D&D Alternatives" landscape, with games connected based on how similar they are. To do this, I obviously need some data that quantifies various properties of each game present- I'm planning to do this by asking this community for their input!

These are the features I'm currently planning to use.

• Does it look like they are sufficient to do this? I'm trying to keep the number of properties as slim as possible so that filling out the survey is as quick as possible.

• Do folks have feedback on the inclusion (or lack-therof) of a particular characteristic?

• How many total games do you think you might be willing to give responses for? This is the "short list" I had planned but I'd really prefer to double it if it wouldn't be overwhelming!

• D&D 5e
• D&D 4e
• D&D B/X
• Shadowdark
• Shadow of the Weird Wizard
• Daggerheart
• Pathfinder 2e
• 13th Age 2e
• Draw Steel
• Mörk Borg
• Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Old School Essentials
• Worlds Without Number
• Mythic Bastionland
• Dragonbane
• Forbidden Lands
• Fabula Ultima
• Swords of the Serpentine
• Heart: The City Beneath
• Dungeon World

I mean like Storyteller System where target difficulty might be different for different cases.

When I DM D&D I tend to plan encounters beforehand had and try to make them interesting to players. But I do sometimes hit this point where I know the players are going to win the encounter.

In my last campaign this happened all the time. I'd plan for a "Deadly" encounter XP wise but it was trivial in practice. When I tried to use enemies that used abilities to challenge them the ones I used tended to flat out negate their abilities and create negative play experiences. Like a monster with advantage on Spell saves meant one player was effectively useless. Ane a monster who was resistant to non-magical da.age was similar.

In Mage the Awakening I had players in the past who could trivialize an encounter by putting everyone in a building asleep. But having an enemy like a Mummy who could Rebuke the Vizier to limit their spells to only Self was too penalizing. And I felt I could never really challenge their abilities because Mage grants characters a lot of freedom with spellcasting.

Reflection

Reflecting on what I just wrote the feeling is coming from "disappointing my players" which happens when they feel an encounter is unnecessarily easy or hard. I like it when they feel accomplished because they figured out how to solve a problem, not just pressing attack until an enemy dies. Or worst case scenario until they die.

Example when I was a player

I was a tower shield fighter in a Pathfinder or 3.5 game. We were going up against a large number of ranged enemies. Based on calculations the GM realized that the only way he could damage us was by criting. But there were like 30+ enemies, and there wasn't anyway we could have started the encounter differently, we were a mercenary group and we were teleported into combat directly without the ability to sneak in (he was running the campaign as solely combat encounters and the players all agreed thinking it'd be like heroes vs an interesting encounter a week).

In this encounter I did the math as well and realized that the number of crits he was doing was meant are armor meant nothing and we couldn't take out the action economy enough to survive. I jumped out of cover and buried my tower shield into DR instead of AC. But it didn't matter, I died to 2 crits and he had to retcon the encounter because none of us could kill enough enemies in a single turn before crits ate everyone. He retconed the encounter apologizing for miscalculating how many enemies we could comfortably take on.

It was 3 hours total with 2 of those me knowing the encounter couldn't be won. And I get that same uncomfortable feeling if I do that as a GM to my players.

Me not feeling this way

When I play CofD or Storypath Ultra games like Curseborne or At the Gates, I don't feel this way. I feel comfortable having enemies run away or surrender. Or if a battle is too easy, tossing in reinforcements.

Anyone else feel this way? Any advice?

What are some good systems for tactical combat with various types of warriors and little to no magic? I’ve played Mythras and it’s great for that and it’s still my go-to, but I’m wondering if anyone has any other recommendations. It doesn’t have to be D&D 4E in tactical scope, but something that keeps players engaged and combat more varied than a simple ‘I attack. I roll damage. Next turn.’

I’ve read about Iron Heroes, which looks interesting. Does anyone have any insight on how it plays?

I've been working on my own ttrpg for some time and some of my group players have moved across states. I'm looking for a resource that allows me to make fill-able pdfs (like the ones you can download from wizards of the coast) that I can send them to use as custom character sheets.

Free would be nice, but I don't mind a one-time fee for an application. I just don't want to spend money unless it actually lets me make a good quality pdf with images, text boxes, check boxes, etc. I've wasted money on products that didn't meet my needs before and was hoping others could give suggestions.

Im wanting to GM a game in a world inspired by x-com 2 but have no clue where to start system wise. Ive looked up sci fi/universal systems and got so overwhelmed on where to start. Im looking for something not too complex/easy to learn with a combat system thats not necessarily deadly but would encourage players to play carefully. Any direction you could point me in would be helpful!

Edit: I realize the tone of the game i want to run is similar to andor season 2 with the building of a resistance to the alien forces.