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Dumb question. Feel free to downvote, but I don't have a deep history with the ttrpg community. My first game was DND 5e and my first exposure to a bad company was all the WotC garbage with the ogl and other stuff. So I stopped supporting them.

But I was curious if there are others I should avoid?

Either due to rampant harmful corporate greed, a single person that doesn't follow through with kickstarters, or whatever.

I just want to support creators that are a positive for the community/hobby. And thankfully (it seems to me at least) there are a lot more of those than harmful ones, so I just wanted advice on avoiding "bad apples".

Just curious. There are many systems in the world, I wonder why did you choose the one you're using, other than just starting with it

Recently I've started to use a lot more "experimental" music in my campaigns regardless of setting. Before I started doing it I found that my campaigns always just used ambient youtube tracks or things like the Darkest Dungeon soundtrack for fights. Instead now I've been using a lot more diverse tracks to really spice up my sessions and get my players riled up. Some examples:

- The Castle Crashers soundtrack. Notably The Show by Waterflame for any encounter like "High Power PC's vs 18 Goblins"
- Assigning certain factions genres of music has really helped. If you want a faction to seem scary, play something like Dancing On Your Grave by Pixel Grip the first time they appear. The first time I did this my players were terrified to even attempt to fight the single black knight I had appear.
- Going through a travel sequence? Try some Pink Floyd. Playing A Pillow of Winds while the party walks through a desert really established a great feel.
- Have all of your players already heard the videogame/movie soundtrack your about to play? Fuck it, do it anyway. Deep Rock Galactic's RUN! will make any party tense up
- Did someone's PC just die to something incredibly stupid like being crushed by a box? STILLLL INNN AAAA DREEEAAAAMMMM SNAAAKKKEEE EAAATTTEERRR

This is a nerd hobby for nerds. The only way to be cringe is to think that you are. Do what you feel when you feel it. Don't get bogged down in the idea that all of your music has to "fit the genre". Playing more music will make the typical tracks you find on youtube a lot scarier. After 3 sessions of nothing but Rock/Metal your players will be terrified when you play anything from God of War.

If your at a loss for music, here's some playlist that I recently used for my LANCER campaign.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RJD3ZuW0jWsZrso1freT2?si=25cb49722766414d
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2vTtBChFuBhBKer0IFUDir?si=de48110fe5a44ff1
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5gvX5dK0Qv0A6VraU9MKVw?si=a2813750183a4549
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6AL1TZFckAIGyE9yTDccAc?si=cf8f5110ee8d4820

There's a really fantastic bundle of Free League RPGs on Humble Bundle right now. Already own and have read several of these from previous bundles, so I'll add my thoughts after copying the list

Pay at least $25 for these 29 items

• Forbidden Lands: Raven's Purge
• Forbidden Lands: The Bitter Reach
• Forbidden Lands: The Bloodmarch
• Forbidden Lands: The Book of Beasts
• Twilight: 2000: Urban Operations
• Twilight: 2000: Hostile Waters
• Twilight: 2000: The Black Madonna
• Vaesen: Mythic Carpathia
• Vaesen: Mythic Britain & Ireland
• Vaesen: City of My Nightmares
• Vaesen: The Lost Mountain Saga
• Mutant: Genlab Alpha Core Book
• Mutant: Mechatron Core Book
• Mutant: Elysium Core Book
• Symbaroum: Game Master's Guide
• Symbaroum: Monster Codex
• Dragonbane: Path of Glory

Pay at least $15 for these 12 items

• Twilight: 2000: 4th Edition Core Set
• Forbidden Lands: Core Game
• Symbaroum: Core Rulebook
• The Electric State Roleplaying Game
• Dragonbane: Bestiary
• Symbaroum: Advanced Player's Guide
• Vaesen: Seasons of Mystery
• Vaesen: A Wicked Secret

Pay at least $5 for these 4 items

• Vaesen: Nordic Horror Roleplaying Core Rules
• Dragonbane: Core Set
• Mutant: Year Zero Core Rulebook
• Vaesen: Starter Set

Alright, so I love Free League's books. The layouts usually make them really easy to peruse and they often have amazing art. I'm not actually a huge fan of the Year Zero Engine, but there are a few interesting concepts in it still. Dragonbane felt difficult to balance and probably needs some more clarification when it comes to managing Loot, but I had a lot of fun running the Dragon Emperor campaign which is part of the Core Set. I'm extremely interested in Vaesan after watching the Quinns Quest video on it, even with his criticism of the investigation section.

Since I bought the previous Free League bundle a while back (Free League RPG Mega Bundle, Nov 28th 2024), I can confirm that a lot of this stuff isn't new. What IS new:

• T2000 Hostile Waters
• T2000 Black Madonna
• Dragonbane Path of Glory
• All Vaesen content aside from Core Rules
• The Electric State Roleplaying Game

Also worth mentioning that if anyone bought the Fanatical Symbaroum bundle then you also own some of the same content.

Edit: Fixed formatting, added Electric State to the new content section, added reference to the name/date of the last bundle. And a special thank you to /u/DouglasHufferton for adding proper formatting in the comment section.

TLDR: I've been given the job of managing what is effectively an TTRPG library of 400+ book, including a handful of new purchases every quarter. Its focused mainly on modern TTRPGs, aka stuff still in print. We aren't trying to collect every source book of AD&D from the 80s. There is a second tab at the bottom with some things I think are missing, but I'm curious to hear if people thing there are some glaring holes/niches/etc... that would be represented by something. Please give me your recommendations and WHY!

The current list is viewable here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eYl5EwLuVSxqdLKO7xVQA-as8ODd_zqO/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112941337794333508003&rtpof=true&sd=true

Slightly longer (not too much longer) version is I work for a tech/engineering company. The founder has been playing RPGs literally since D&D was invented, and wants to fill several shelves in our on-site library with a massive RPG collection. I've been both playing RPGs with him for several years now, and working for him for a bit longer, and he's asked me to manage it. He went ahead and ordered 400+ books, and then is handing it over to me. In addition to my actual job, I'll be the kind of "curator" for the collection, buying new stuff, keeping it organized, helping other people with recommendations, etc... Also, he's asked me to figure out a way to organize it: I'm thinking roughly by underlying mechanics (D20, PbtA, 2d20, Year Zero/d6 Pool, etc...) and then just group by game/publisher, but I'm open to suggestions lol. Thanks!

The first is a collection of John Harper games that predate Blades in the Dark, but seem to have inspired elements in the game or been directly referenced by it; the second is about the many supplemental releases that further detail the Shattered Isles, including a few that are contradictory or outright non-canon.

Do you know about Lord Scurlock's kids? Are any of y'all veteran bulls of the Ghost Lines? Want to hear about some Factions that only exist in a deck of official reference cards?

I was led down this rabbit hole by a surprising number of easter eggs and recurring older elements that showed up in both Deep Cuts and Blades '68. Hope it's interesting for some of the folks here to read!

Looking to run a series of episodic one shots following the basic story of a western movie. Crucially, I'm looking for a game who's mechanics incentivize this sort of story structure. Does anyone have recommendations?

My sisters and I are planning to run a star wars campaign during the republic era as jedi just doing jedi stuff, and we don't like the guardian/consular/sentinel split that's always present in star wars RPGs, as it makes no sense canon-wise.

Problem is, everywhere I look, it seems to be a core part of how jedi are handled by the systems. Is there any system that allows it ? Or that has homebrews allowing it ?

So, I'm a LONG time gamer - started with RPGs back in 1987 maybe, and been playing and GMing since then. I played and ran a LOT of BRP based games back in the day (Runequest 2nd and 3rd, Stormbringer, Elfquest, Nephilim, CoC). Then there was a massive break in running those games, maybe 25 years.

Bought some books of BRP and Mythras some years ago. Ran Mythras a bit and liked it in general, though I have some pretty big quibbles with it (not a fan of hit locations, not super into the Special Effects actually but they're certainly usable and my groups had fun, I hate the mass combat rules).

Then, recently, running a game in Genesys (this is after running many, MANY, systems, mostly Fate Core, Savage Worlds, GURPS and Burning Wheel). Anyway, I was thinking, after this current campaign (which I plan to rap up in 2-4 months), I was thinking, why not give BRP a whirl?

There's something appealing to me in a game that doesn't have special Feats or Edges or Talents - purely skill based. I like the wide range of skills - one thing that bothers about certain games is the smaller skill list; I get ideas from that list!

Anyway, I wanted to ask folks - how do you feel about the game? I'm planning to use in generically, for a Bronze Age political game (I plan to retrofit GURPS or Savage World mass combat for that part), and I think BRP will give a better feel for that game than any of my other games (except for Mythras and maybe GURPS).

So how is it for you? What do you like about it? How is it to GM? For reference (haha!) I have the BRUGE book and the Creatures book (which I just got today, actually). I also have a copy of the old Big Gold Book, and a slew of Mythras books to mine (Core, Classic Fantasy, and others).

Thoughts?

Is there a Tintin RPG, can be old or recent. If there isn't any I think Tintin's world would be a great RPG to explore. What do u think?

This is not a "5e sucks" post or anything. But, 5e is a product that not everyone enjoys.

I saw the new bundle of holding for the 5e Korean, third party setting. I am aware it is also on Pathfinder. But, my first thought was "God, 5e has amazing settings but 5e itself is not the best for them."

Now, converting settings can be easy or tough depending on the setting. I converted Plangea to Dungeon World easily enough. If it really pushes into the standard f20 tropes, then the setting can covert to other games easily enough. Though, it can cause its own problems. Like, Plangea assumes massive spell lists but DW has small lists so a major plot element of Plangea translates poorly for the wizard.

And some preferred systems may require more work. The crunchier and less generic your preferred fantasy trpg, the harder to convert. I assume fantasy trpg since most 5e settings are for, well, a fantasy trpg. Generic systems exist, too, of course. Moving it to Savage Worlds or Fate or Strike is probably easy.

Still, it is sad how many awesome settings are locked only to that game engine. It's where the money is and these settings have production values that cant sustain themselves without the 5e market, but still...

Anyone else feel the same way? What setting be getting you like that?