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I may be a bit of a.... collector at this point. I own rulebooks for like a dozen different TTRPG's, including the bigger ones and multiple versions of those, random solo games, indie games, even a big book of 25+ one shot standalone games.

The problem is that I literally don't even have a gaming group to play with. I haven't even ACTUALLY played D&D in over 10 years.

Just bought Slugblaster and Ion Heart at Pax West today and I'm stoked about them (especially Ion Heart as I might actually get to play it. lol) but I already know I won't be playing any group campaigns any time soon.

To be clear: I'm using "plot" as shorthand for "one or more predetermined events that will come to pass, regardless of fictional circumstances or the actions of the player's characters."

I got into TTRPGs from freeform roleplaying over forums and IRC and such. Something I stumbled on in the process is just how much TTRPG communities seem to dislike them, or even see them as inherently bad! Discussions about plots tend to attract a lot of finger wagging! Even TTRPGs that lean towards the lighter, more collaborative storytelling-y side of things tend to emphasize finding out what happens in the moment rather than plotting it out in advance. I've been recommended to D&D-centric communities before, but even those seem to be gradually adopting a "prep situations, not plots" viewpoint.

By contrast, most freeform roleplaying communities seem ambivalent to plots. Preparing plots is by no means universal! I'd hesistate to even call it a standard or common practice! But it's not at all rare to see ads openly saying things like "I want to roleplay a story where X, Y, and Z will happen" or discussions on how to make something like that happen in practice. Most of the guidance I follow for running plotted TTRPGs comes from, ironically enough, freeform roleplaying communities and my time in them.

I already know a lot of reasons why any given individual might enjoy or hate plots! I'm mainly interested in knowing why this broader cultural divide exists or seems to exist. My initial thoughts going into TTRPGs would be that the systemization and rules would make people lean more towards predetermined outcomes, but apparently not! I know TTRPG communities and especially freeform roleplaying communities are fragmented and decentralized, but I wanted to see if anyone with more experience or knowledge might have some ideas.

NOTE: This doesn't mean "three things you hate and three things you love", I mean one-to-three RPG things you're burnt out on, and one-to-three things you want to see more of.

Tired of (in no particular order)

Anime/Zelda/Ghibli settings: Especially because most of the time they just slap the aesthetics of contemporary Japan's concept of pastoral Europe onto whatever RPG slop of the day mechanics are popular.

Anything Grimdark: Double-points if it's clearly Bloodborne inspired. Like the previous point, it's usually an aesthetic slapped onto OSR-but-different mechanics. These titles also usually are just grimdark, without any sense of irony, satire, or black humor, making them much like the poison swamps of whatever latest game FromSoft put out.

Meta-currencies: Particularly GM-facing ones. The sort of mechanics where you're "buying permission to be a decent GM" (or how it feels to me).

What I want to see more of

Traditional (non-European Medieval) Fantasy Settings: This has been a problem since I was a child, but the fantasy genre isn't limited to Tolkein-esque medieval Europe. 1001 Nights, Alice in Wonderland, Journey to the West, and Star Wars are all fantasy.

Great Book Layout: I'm soo happy that this is becoming more of a staple, and have started to buy books from publishers that care about layout and editing. Also any book that contains an entire subject of rules to one page or paragraph.

Adventures: It used to be that adventure paths were far more common, but even WotC seems to be shrinking away from them in exchange for a glut of settings. Even though I'm unlikely to run Kala Mandala, I will use Reach of the Roach God at some point, for example.

It feels to me that gaming has never been in a more popular place, as I currently have *a lot* of gaming groups on the go (details below). But! I was speaking to one of my friends who recently bemoaned that he can't find a group that lasts longer than a few sessions. I'd invite him to one of mine (he's not a bad player by any means) but my dance card is currently extremely full.

So I wondered what your gaming situation is right now? Here's what I'm currently running:

Right now, I'm running Jadestorm (currently crowdfunding!), SLA Industries, and Vampire: The Dark Ages for my local groups.

For my online (Patreon) groups I'm running two Call of Cthulhu campaigns, Pendragon, two Vampire: The Dark Ages games, one Wraith: The Oblivion, one Victorian Age Vampire, one Kult: Divinity Lost, one Werewolf: The Apocalypse, two Curseborne campaigns, one Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle, and one SLA Industries campaign.

I'm also running Call of Cthulhu for Red Moon Roleplaying (excellent AP podcast).

The local groups and Red Moon Roleplaying are once a week, the online ones are at least once a month.

Across these groups I have well over 40 players. Most of these games have been running for several months, and in a couple of cases several years (I think Pendragon is the longest running campaign at almost three years).

Accepting that my scale of running games is somewhat industrial, how often are you getting to the table?

I feel like it can be a tough line to walk especially when so many people have forever games that they don't tend to want to deviate from. (Cough DnD cough)

I tend to really like a system so when I see games for that system come out I usually know I'll enjoy the system and if the setting grips me I'll grab it. But I know not everyone has the same preferences when it comes to systems, plus not everyone is excited about "another steampunk/cyberpunk/fantasy/etc... setting" when their are options that have big name recognition like DnD, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, etc...

I am running a GURPS game set in Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk.

One of my players has been asking endless questions about the nature of the tech in the setting. "Does wireless hacking exist? What are the limitations of cyberware? What about smart clothes? Can I get a drone? What about smart grenades? Can monowire cut through walls? Why not? That doesn't make sense because realistic [thing]. That's kind of retro-futurist though and I don't like that. What about this thing? How about this?"

Sometimes I have an answer, sometimes I don't. I feel pressured to deliver an answer but sometimes I need to consider the gameplay ramifications of such an answer.

I like this player. How can I gently shut down discussion on things that I can't feasibly answer immediately but the player insists are important to know right now?

Things I want: Portrayal of rebellious/countercultural youth Corrupt world/institutions Not fantastical. The world is believable and grounded. Crazy psionic/magic stuff is rare or can be ignored in this TTRPG system Any amount of crunch is fine

Would cyberpunk red be a good fit?

Hello all!

A couple of days ago, I posted on r/RPGdesign about Combat as War, Sport, and Spectacle. This conversation was linked to a discussion between Dadi and Questing Beast.

Long story short, I have a lot of thoughts on how combat works across different systems and how that all ties in to lethality in combat. My thesis is that there are three kinds of combat philosophies across the TTRPGs I've played: combat as war, combat as sport, and combat as spectacle.

• Combat as war promises lethality, but also ways to stack combat in your favor or circumvent it entirely - the idea is that combat is usually a last resort, and if you're going to engage, you need to win.
• Combat as sport doesn't promise lethality, but does expect the players to engage with combat regularly. When the characters have all kinds of combat tools, that encourages the players to exercise them. This promise falls flat when lethality is present - the players aren't given the tools to avoid potentially lethal circumstances.
• Combat as spectacle promises lethality much like combat as war, but also encourages the players to interface with combat much like they would in combat as sport. This creates some dissonance - the players are expected to willingly engage with an activity that has lethal consequences. Therefore, the GM is encouraged to pull their punches on lethality so that the players continue to interface with combat. If lethality is delivered as promised, it teaches the players that they shouldn't engage... but the system may lack the tools to meaningfully circumvent combat.

Each of these philosophies has their own attitudes about what is appropriate to present as a challenge to the PCs, as well as what the appropriate stakes for these encounters should be.

I want to hear from you guys:

• Do you prefer combat as war? Or combat as sport? What are your favorite examples of systems that do what you like well?
• Have you played in or ran games with combat as spectacle? Do you feel like it's tied to specific games or genres?
• What are the best and worst combat encounters you've experience across any system?

I also made a Youtube video about this subject, and I'm eager to hear your thoughts!

Hello, community! I got some really good suggestions when I asked for pulpy sword-and-planet adventures last time I was here, so I figured I'd dip my toes in again with another hyper-specific request.

There is no shortage of games with trippy, imaginative settings. However, a lot of these games don't really do much to weave that dream-like sense of whimsical, slightly unsettling unreality into the mechanics themselves. For example, Numenera's bizarre distant future winds up handling like D&D but with goofy consumables, and the somber, beautiful Cloud Empress struggles to enforce its themes around the viciously antagonistic Mothership engine.

So, I'm looking for games that achieve the feeling of floating between scenes that evoke a sense of both wonder and mild confusion, where things are just illogical enough to keep players slightly off-kilter, but make enough emotional sense to stay engaged. Something in the tradition of Alice in Wonderland, an 80s fantasy puppet movie, A Wrinkle in Time, or Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Again, not looking for cool settings (those are a dime a dozen), but for mechanical methods to make players feel like they are experiencing an intense trip or especially strange dream.

Please read the other comments before making a recommendation so that you don't all wind up repeating each other. Thank you!

What’s everyone’s favorite ship combat, naval or space?

Ive found a video about SUZi ttrpg and id like to read it myself, but it got taken down from itch. Is there another way to get it?