Welcome one and all to a post where we can freely discuss the games that we have released or the games that we are making. Stop on by and maybe you'll find your new favourite RPG!

A bunch of us make cool shit, but the Indie RPG space is crowded and it can often be difficult to get the word out about why people should try out your game. That's why every week we try to focus on a different mechanic or setting to see how new RPGs can solve decades old problems or put new spins on old greivances!

They're big! They're mechanical! They're all around pretty badass... or extremely traumatizing if you're going the Evangelion route. This week we're focusing on the Mecha genre! So tell us how your game (or just any game you really like) is unique in this setting.

Thank you u/AppropriatelyHare-78 for the suggestion!

As per mod approval, comments here do not count against rule 7 - comment as much as you want, answer as many questions as you need and discuss to your hearts content!

All that I would ask is that anyone who comments about their own system takes the time to look at the minimum at one other game in the comments and ask a question or provide feedback. Lively discussions are what get people interested and what keep people engaged!

Last week was "Post-Apocalyptic"

Next week I plan to focus on a mechanic instead of a setting so if you want to suggest a topic for future weeks, be sure to include "-sug-" in your comment so I can easily find it!

**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.

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

After a few years here, I've come to know many of the big names in the TTRPG scene, but now I'm curious about the truly indie games: the stuff you find without warning by random, play it only to find a hidden gem of a game.

I unfortunately haven't done so myself, only have played the more famous stuff as of now, but I want to make a list to try out!

Do you know of any games where combat is a meaningful part of the game, AND you can make characters focused on non-fighting abilities, AND these non-fighting characters still have fun in combat?

For example, imagine a knight and a bard (or a Witcher and a bard) where they travel together and encounter fights but the bard sucks at fighting, but still gets fun things to do in combat rules. Not like DnD 5e where the bard is very capable in a fight on their own. Or for example someone plays a trailblazer/mapper that is great at wilderness traversing and knowing which plants to eat and avoid, but sucks at fighting, BUT the game gives them something fun to do in combat.

I've seen a few posts recently about superhero TTRPGs and they made me realise that, while I'm a big comic book fan, I've never really enjoyed superhero TTRPGs. I can't put my finger on it. I loved making characters in M&M 2e but only got it to the table once. I bounce off sci fi as a GM, but that's because I'm less comfortable running sci fi games - I'm still happy to play them though. With supes, it's one of the few genres in TTRPGs that doesn't excite me.

Do you have any genre or type of game you just bounce off? Just don't enjoy it, or can't get excited for it?

One of my hobbies is finding rpg rule/source/splat books and reading them…I must have read hundreds by now…but which ones are fun and engaging? I don’t mean fun as in funny but like…enjoyable

Hi everyone,

What are the pros and cons of Genesys? What are your experiences?

Is it crunchy?

Is there a new edition?

Is it a popular game or more of a niche rpg?

Is there a Genesys community on Reddit or elsewhere?

Many thanks for your input!

(I've played Warhammer 3rd edition both as player and as GM, so I'm familiar with narrative dice (which I thought was just fantastic!))

So, in my country(Brazil) RPG/TTRPG is a "nerdy hobby" still, but, since Ordem Paranormal, this scenery is changing and I want to join the wave creating a "RPG club" in my hometown.

The thing is: I need newbie friendly games.

CAIN catch my heart since my first read and I feel it's a rule-light system to introduce some people, but what others players think?

Obs: English is not my first language, sorry.

It's been six days and I am still cringing over my first real DM experience. I did a one Cthulhu one shot, Uncle Timothy's Will that was fun.

I created a Home Brew in Ireland or thought I did. An hour and a half into it and I was through most of my prepared stuff. I ended up yanking something I had planned for the next session. The group I play with are awesome players, heavily into role play, and usually leap into combat. They avoided every bit of combat so there was some lost time. You know it's a sad play when fighting leprechauns is the high point. To be fair, I tweaked the leprechauns actions so it was fun and challenging.

The group was really reassuring, but I feel it was dismal.

Anyhow, I am tweaking my campaign and would love suggestions on how to make to more fun. I'm going to try and offer a crawl of a haunted mansion so they can find items to get to their next destination.

Starting with a Home Brew was a big mistake.

Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi!

Ages ago when I first got into d&d I picked up Against the Giants: Liberation of Geoff. I never had many groups to play with as a kid so it sat on a shelf.

We formed a group about 8 years ago. I finally got to run against the Giants in 5th edition a couple of years ago. Now we've been doing Descent to the Depths of the Earth, but using Draw Steel as the engine.

It has been some of the most enjoyable high fantasy I've run as a DM in a long time.

The Wild Words SRD talks about this concept like this, even though it's hardly unique to those games:

When using different types of scene, you may want to aim to create a loop - a set structure that the game follows, something to mold the story and action of play around. You might choose...

A Core Loop

This sets scenes as happening in a specific order, so players always know what's coming next. Core loops hold structure first and narrative second - the story is still important, but it will follow a particular set of repeating beats.

Streets By Moonlight follows a core loop - characters have time to prepare and investigate, then to confront whatever they've discovered, then to recover from the confrontation's aftermath. Once sufficiently recovered (or perhaps before), a new investigation begins.

A Fluid Loop

With this method specific types of scene will reoccur, but in an order that is dictated by the narrative. This puts the story and the decisions of the players and GM at the forefront of an experience, but might be more difficult to balance mechanically (as certain characters may be better suited to a particular type of scene, but the story could lead play away from those scenes occurring often).

The WIldsea follows a fluid loop - basic scenes, montages, and journeys happen whenever they feel most appropriate, allowing variable length and frequency of different modes of play. A session may be a series of linked basic scenes, with no special mechanics, or it might be a single long journey, or anything in between.

Streets by Moonlight, for the record, is not a real game that exists (the Wild Words SRD has a few made-up ones to illustrate some design examples), apart from some notes on Felix Isaacs' Patreon, and only after he wrote the SRD, but that's not super important to this post; For some real examples of games with 'core loops', there's things like Forged in the Dark games (like Girl by Moonlight's obligation/downtime/mission/fallout cycle), or Carved from Brindlewood games (like The Between with its dawn/day/dusk/night phases).

On one hand, a fixed gameplay loop may feel inflexible, artificial, or board game-y to some (even as a fan I will ocncede they have downsides); on the other hand, it lends itself well to certain styles of fiction, and I found it an absolute delight to prep for since it's so predictable and sustainable (and in games where one of the phases is a mostly player-directed downtime, it basically means I only need to prep for every other session at most). Several of my Forged in the Dark campaigns would not have gotten to the finish line if I was doing things in something more freeform and thus a little more unpredictable, though I have had decent success in a Wildsea game as well.

Statistically, most games out there are 'fluid' under this dichotomy, but I think there's real value in the focus and structure like this. What do you think, though?