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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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"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"

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.

It could be interesting for a lot of you here that Atlas Games just made the Open Licence markdown version of Ars Magica Definitive Edition available for free on DTRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/587463/ars-magica-definitive-edition-markdown-text

This is the complete text of the game, and part of my open license fan-project (I'm not affiliated with Atlas) covering all Ars Magica fifth edition content as Atlas was kind enough to release the entire game Open License: https://github.com/OriginalMadman/Ars-Magica-Open-License

You can find the complete text of the 50+ books on the github, and we're a team of people in the process of polishing them all up for friendly consumption and markdown utilization in markdown readers, webpages, obsidian, using AI or whatever you want.

So if you ever wanted to check out Ars Magica, this is a great opportunity. It's my favorite game of all time, and I also highly recommend the illustrated and layouted version.

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!

Before I go to the trouble of ​writing my own, I'm looking for a heavily magitech influenced setting. I'm really wanting something that's not as fantasy as Eberron but not as sci-fi as Shadowrun. I feel like somewhere between the settings of Final Fantasy VII and XII is the sweet spot.

A setting where you could just as easily come across a hermit in robes that uses healing magic as see a giant magitech airship with a mist cannon flying through the air. Bonus points if most of the world is a dangerous post-apocalyptic wilderness and people live mostly in high-tech arcologies.

Anything out there close to this? I'm not concerned with system, because I'm going to use Draw Steel to run the game in it. I just want to know if I can save myself some time by finding a setting that's already pretty close.

I have a quiet love for philosophy since highschool. I had a course in highschool, it was one of the subjects I chose for my end exams (Baccalaureate here in Romania, a sort of SAT equivalent), I did some philosophy extracullicular in the 11th grade and one of my best friends in this period was a philosophy student and we would talk quite a lot on the subject. Epistemology and Ethics were the two branches I enjoyed the most. I was listening to some episodes of the Philosophize This! podcast when the idea of examining the strange apparent epistemological dimension of OSR games came to mind. Oh and for those of you not aware of the term, epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge, the different kinds of knowledge, how we gain knowledge and the merits of those different knowledge types. Descartes "Cogito, Ergo Sum" is probably the most famous epistemological "test result" let's say.

But what does any of that have to do with old-school D&D?

Quite a lot, actually. I think OSR games are, perhaps accidentally, games where information is king. You don't simply roll to discover whether something is true. You observe. You ask questions. You map. You listen to rumours. You test assumptions. You decide which NPCs deserve your trust. And eventually, you have to act despite not knowing everything. That creates three different kinds of knowledge at the table: player knowledge, character knowledge, and GM knowledge. And the fascinating part is what happens when those three don't quite line up.

So this week on The RPG Gazette, we're going down a rather strange rabbit hole: OSR as applied epistemology.

What does a dungeon crawl have in common with the philosophy of knowledge? Why might information actually be the most important resource in an OSR game? What makes a “fair” dungeon an epistemological problem? And why are rumours, bad information, and getting things wrong actually part of what makes this style of play work?

If you've ever drawn a dungeon map, argued about whether an NPC was trustworthy, or confidently kicked down a door with absolutely no idea what was behind it, you've already been doing applied philosophy.

Going right to the point, I just finished Half Life 2 (As of all of my player played it, saying it was very enjoyable, so I didn't want to be the odd one out) and as of finishing it, I've really wanted to find a TTRPG which fits the dystopian theme of Half life 2. If anyone knows of any, please comment.

Im a big fan of Bungie's game Destiny. Im planning on running a campaign for some friends, not really through any system, i just kinda take what rules i like from RPGs like Cyberpunk 2020, Gurps, D&d 3.5, some from Dungeons & Destiny, and even some rules from Bladerunner.

Was wondering if anyone else has run a Destiny themed game and had any stories, recommendations, or words of caution they wanted to share

Hi. I'm looking for a system with good kingdom building rules to steal for a campaign in another system I'm running.

In short, the campaign turned from "we're demigods sailing through the underworld" to "we're demigods building a fleet-based country in the underworld", and the system (Exalted 3e for those curious) that I'm using actually provides players with powers that let them be demigod kingdom builders. Stuff like magical bureaucracy that works inhumanly fast, rituals to create plants able to grow where they shouldn't be able to, powers to train common folk into elite soldiers in weeks, or abilities that help craft not just magical materials, but in general craft en masse, with vastly reduced need for resources, and without proper tools.

However, there aren't any rules for actual proper kingdom building and managing something like that. Thus far, as the GM I've essentially been running it off vibes, but it's just not working well for us.

So, I thought to just find another system for this part and steal kingdom building mechanics from it. And then I realized I'm not familiar with any of such systems, so... Here I am, hoping for recommendations.

I was running 1e Tomb of Horrors. I wanted to start the adventure off in a controlled way...like Tomb of Horrors is ever controlled.

The party had pretty successfully navigated all the traps and deadly stuff and had made their way to the false treasure chamber/tomb. The one with the famous 50,000 gp couch in it. They could see it down the hallway.

The group "investigates" the hallway. No rolls, detect magic, nothing of substance. They just ask what the hallway looks and smells like.

I am trying to be a nice-guy GM and tell them that the hall has the odor of fear. I figured that would get them to check for traps or do something.

No.

They decide that is good enough. Let's go.

They all walk into the hallway and set off the cloud of fear trap, and every single one of them failed their saves. They all dropped their gear and just ran for like 10 rounds.

It was chaos, and hilarious.

To this day, 20+ years later, people who played in that campaign will still ask if something smells like fear.

I've been putting some of the other stupid/funny table stories we've collected over the years over at r/WorldofStyria if anyone likes this kind of thing.

I’m looking for any ttrpg where the main focus is the playing as a musician, where maybe different instruments or genres act as different classes?
Preferably music is also in some way connected to the game engine, but it’s cool without.