**Come here and talk about anything!**

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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.

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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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This submission is generated automatically each Saturday at 00:00 UTC.

**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.

​

----------

​

This submission is generated automatically each Saturday at 00:00 UTC.

My wife has been writing fanfic recently, and got tired of MS Word, so she went looking and found a program called Scrivener.

I was planning on doing some extensive GM prep for a Delta Green game, so I was using and hating obsidian, as usual. Then I looked over on the couch and saw the program she was using...

If you have the money, this program is the absolute, unquestionable GOAT of Campaign prep. Internal folder organization, document linking, active pinable maps, selective sharing, this thing does it all.

Documents for scenes, which hyperlink to documents about characters in that scene, evidence in the scene links to another document with my handouts for that evidence, time lines, outlines, cause trees....

This is an unpaid, announcement that literally Noone asked for, but we should all be using this program. It has increased the speed of framing this game tremendously, and is organized in a way that makes me feel like I actually know what im doing.

/rant

No shade on those who enjoy a more directed narrative experience, with mechanics that enable that, but I've come to an understanding of why I prefer games where stories are more an emergent byproduct of a game, rather than the explicit goal. What I've realized is that in my own life, narratives are something that come together after the fact -- kind of like Kierkegaard's famous maxim that "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." It feels more natural for me to stumble upon or construct a narrative after the fact that to try to nail a particular story beat or vibe in an exact way.

What do you guys think? Again, I'm not trying to devalue the opposite approach, since in the end we're all just playing made up elves and I think aiming for a particular story is totally valid.

Quinn's Quest Reviews: The Boxed RPG Special

In his new video he reviews Desperation, Tacklebox, Lovecraftesque, and City of Winter. Video description:

STOP PLAYING RPGs FROM BOOKS. Story games were not supposed to have rules longer than actual stories. "What are the effects of a night's rest? Let me check the index" - Statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged. They have played us for absolute fools

i.e. not Blades in the Dark

So, I've started watching Leverage series recently, and got in a mood for some heist stuff, with that more lighthearted vibe - less violence, more conmanship, hacking, security system bypass and so on

Game that is usually recommended for heists is Blades in the Dark, but setting and vibe there is quite different, so I got curious if there are options closer to this

Greetings and Salutations, I wish To share with everyone a new Open and Free TTRPG called … Open Adventure Fantasy, (Formerly Called: Cool Name Goes Here Rpg)

Brought to you by Mechanical Muse Here is the free pdf

This PDF includes all the core rules, examples of lineages, Modus Operandi (classes / Professions) Monsters , Spells, loads of GM advice, and some example challenges and more… If you interested give it a download,

There will be Print on Demand versions soon as well as an Expanded Rules Compendium,

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/547274/open-adventure-fantasy-core-rules

Take a look and enjoy,

Note: I am not the designer of this game merely a backer of the kickstarter…and a fan of open gaming…

Also Note: This game was released with the CC0 license.

Additional Notes: This is a free version of the game, It’s a Fantasy TTRPG. The Dice Mechanics are reminiscent of Earthdawn, and with a touch of Savage Worlds. (Die step up pools , with exploding dice mechanics) It was initially created as a response to the now infamous OGL Scandal.

Back in the 90s, West End Games published a newsletter for their Torg RPG, which among other things had adventure outlines. One issue had a scenario facing a necromancer who was integral to the metaplot, and the PCs could kill him. About a year later the part of the metaplot involving the necromancer came to fruition. I was always impressed the climax addressed the potential death of the necromancer, giving the PCs an easier time of things because of it.

Conversely, near the end of Torg’s publication another mini-adventure had the entirety of London at risk of burning down, something mentioned in passing in one of the first Torg adventures now being a major Maguffin, the PCs taking and use of it being the cause of everything. However, my players hadn’t taken the item in question, so the adventure couldn’t have happened.

Over the weekend I got to run a scenario I bought nearly a decade ago for the first time. Part of it involves an NPC from an earlier adventure, one that I only picked up this year. There’s a great disparity between the books, as in the first one he’s a borderline psycho, who will order his men to kill you and join in the fun if you roll poorly with social skils. He’s all sweetness and light in the second book, and there’s no addressing the possibility PCs may have killed him in self-defense the previous adventure.

Two days ago I looked at a copy of an adventure I was a player in a decade ago. Rereading a part I only half-remembered, I realized a character you’re supposed to assist is kind of a walking threat, and it included a section for the GM if your players decided to just kill the NPC instead of helping her. By chance, the next day I got a scenario published around a year later, and it has a full page explaining the events that led up to the adventure. It explicitly states the adventure is only happening because the PCs helped the aforementioned walking threat, so if the PCs killed her then the adventure never happens.

As I was posting this I remembered a three-book campaign Fantasy Flight did for Rogue Trader. The first book introduced a mysterious, unexplained artifact. The second book made no mention of it at all. The third book had some xenos show up regarding it, and the book was written as though the PCs had identified the artifact in the first book; such knowledge could have vastly changed how PCs handled a lot of things in the book, as its true nature was vastly different than what the first book hinted at.

i have no gamers around me this Thanksgiving to share all that with, and needed to tell someone about it. Thank you for reading.

Novice GM here. I'm trying to learn this impossible skill of being a good GM and one area that I have zero skill in is NPC's. I don't know how to talk besides just delivering quests. I would say that my NPC's are cardboard cutouts but it's much worse than that. Do any of you have actionable steps I could build on? I heard Quinns reference a book that said you need your character's to be as deep as a WWE character but honestly, I don't even know how to get close to that. Thanks!

Hi folks.

I'm looking to GM a spy story for my wife, and I'm looking for potential systems, ideally with a campaign I can use to kickstart my game. I'm a bit short on time so the amount of planning time would be limited.

I've looked at previous posts and have seen recommendations for Night's Black Agents (specifically the Solo Ops version), Cold Shadows, Covert Ops, James Bond 007/Classified, and Top Secret. However, I haven't seen this topic discussed recently so I wanted to revisit it.

On its face, it seems like Night's Black Agents Solo Ops would be the best fit, but I'm not fully sold on the supernatural element. Are any of the other ones good candidates for being ran as a duet RPG?

I look forward to your inputs!

What other RPG sales is everyone taking advantage of this weekend?

What System would you reccomend for a detective Adventure? I'm thinking cops, private investigators, maybe intelligence services. No otherworldly mysteries, no magic, no Monsters/vampires/tentacled whatevers. The focus should be on the investigative work (searching the crime scene, forensics, interviewing witnesses, comming up with motives, building timelines...) sprinkled with some Action (chase, fight, defuse the Bomb...). I'm imagining a contemporary setting, but a historical one might work as well.

I'm eager for your reccomendations and war stories