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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.

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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Came a cross this the other day, and it was so cool I have to share it with you!

https://great-castles.com/floorplans.html

(No affiliation, just a cool thing that can be useful for all of us :)

I read a lot of TTRPG books. I’d love to play all of them, but realistically I might just not fit them into a lifetime you know?

I’m also a sucker for those occasional “list the greatest ever RPG campaign” threads. I know it’s subjective, but I read them anyway.

I’ve been reading the excellent The GM’s Guide to the Enemy Within on the Careless Conjuration blog recently, and every time I read a new instalment, I keep thinking “how has TEW got such an amazing reputation when it’s so deeply flawed? What is it about TEW that people love so much?”

There’s obviously a few different answers but thinking about that got me to thinking about creating a database that scores and ranks campaigns against a variety of criteria.

I’ve had a go at that for fun and used some tech to help fill in the gaps of things I’m not as familiar with. And I thought I’d share it for a few reasons:

1) I’d love thoughts from people who know these campaigns very well. What do you think is good about certain products? And what is bad? Why?

2) What other campaigns should be included here? I'm not interested in dozens of different D&D or Pathfinder or whatever system product. I really only want the cream of the crop. But tell me what I should add.

3) What do you think about the categories and scoring system? Anything else that should be included?

On the subject of scoring system, I broke it into 3 major categories, with 6 parts of each.

Narrative & vision

· Storyline Quality & Narrative Depth

· Scope & scale

· Narrative cohesion

· Narrative pacing

· Villains [& NPCs]

· Genre fulfilment

Player experience

· Player agency / freedom

· Iconic set pieces

· World depth

· Motives & character hooks

· Replayability & dynamism

· Mechanical variety & activity diversity

GM experience

· Utility/ usability

· Layout, ergonomics & information architecture

· Prep tools, aids & cheat-sheets

· Troubleshooting & off-the-rails support

· Rules system & encounter balance

· Peripherals, visuals & handouts

More details on what those actually entail, and what denotes a different score in the doc.

There’s some weighting in there too, so all of these are not equal. A good storyline is a lot more important than how much it help it gives you for players who go off-track. In my opinion.

Obviously there’s scores and numbers, so there is a ranking. But that’s not really the point. And this is deeply subjective, so there’s no best or greatest. If your favourite product is #37 here, then just ignore it. If you think the #3 one is trash, that’s cool too. I’m not trying to tell anyone what to think. I want your opinions and reasoning, and I’ll use it to improve this tool.

The doc is saved here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Q4vpRttoF96un6t8EcLfyhPD7OJ5_agWEng2HzLa00k/edit?usp=sharing

No, you can’t have edit access. But if you want to make a copy and adjust as you see fit, go for it. And tell me what you changed.

While a more focused game is better, some times I do want a Medieval Knight, Saintly Cleric, Shogunate Samurai, English Gentleman Thief all together fighting the horde of Pirate Orcs with a mix of Viking iconography and Laser Weapons they got com a Cult of the Lovecraftian gods in the "Totally not Egypt" Egyptian Desert.

My only gripe is when it just falls into tropes, cliches and (worst of all) xenophobic steriotypes in a world where Medieval France & Industrial Germany & Anime Japan & The Wild West are kingdoms one next to the other.

I like when there is this weird mish-mash of concepts that have gotten the proper development to not just be a funny hat on a person but a complete, full culture that has an explanation to exist in the world.

These are all the blogposts that were made for the Indonesian TTRPG Blogwagon, which ran from 17th of August to 10th of September.

I used the opportunity to rally the Indonesians and international TTRPG hobbyists to create gameable blogpost related to Indonesia.

Enjoy!

I DM Dungeons and Dragons games, and have finally cajoled the table into trying Stargate RPG. I understand that it is a variant of DND 5e, but how different is it? Is it close enough to DND that I could plausibly run it as game master without much experience of it?

Do you prefer skill lists in rpgs to be organized alphabetically or by category (ex. Social Skills, Academic Skills, Combat skills etc.) ? Why? I'm talking specifically about d100 rpgs but this can be about any system really.

A while back there was an interesting discussion brought up to me about the difference between people who play TTRPGs, and TTRPG fans. One being folks who treat TTRPG night as a casual hangout, and another who actually enjoys the hobby of TTRPGs and trying out new systems, mechanics. Most playgroups usually have a core of games they play (right now with my group, it's Daggerheart and VtM 5e.) But I admit as a GM, I'm curious about trying out new systems...which leads to my question-

"What is it that first catches your interest in a new system?"

Is it the mechanics? The concept? The people behind it? The artwork? A communal interest from the playgroup? I've had a few experiences with that myself, Daggerheart got me on board because it promised to be more focused on narrative building...and being published by the biggest RPG Live play group was an added point of interest. We got into Vampire because my players were all eager to try it, but couldn't find a GM willing to give the system a go. In the future we may do Mutant Year Zero, because one person in our play group mentioned wanting to play it. And I know there's an interest in Cyberpunk held back by scheduling limitations...

More recently, I've found it's artwork and setting that are what's got me interested in trying more. Vaesen is #1 on my list due to my love of folklore and mythology, Pirate Borg for Piracy, Dolmenwood for Fae myths, Coriolis The Third Horizon for Arabian Nights mythology...I'm trying to find a game based on hunting Youkai (aside from Ryukou's Guide to Youkai since I sadly can't find many reviews for it.)

I'm curious about what it is for more folks across the board, both die hard TTRPG players, and folks who are here more for the gathering.

Forever GMs, do you sometimes feel like you can never go back to being a player?

I've tried being a player in a handful of games over the years and I feel as though I can't do much more than one-shots as a player.

During long-term campaigns, I tend to notice when pacing is off. Like when players spend too much time preparing before opening a door or getting hung up on a minor detail.

What the title says really. Given the price of books and international delivery especially (I live in a non-English speaking country) I was thinking of running a few games that I have the PDFs for without buying the physical books.

Has anyone tried this? It is annoying trying to find tables or reference rules during a game like this? I prefer books with post-it notes and bookmarks but it would save me a lot of money if I could switch to PDFs and my iPad.

I have a character that I really liked; her personality was close to mine, so it was more comfortable to play her because she ate whenever possible, especially chicken because she was a fox. So she ate whenever she had the chance, and she ended up making quite an impression on me. Is there a character you identify with so much that you never forgot them, and even after the campaign ended you kept remembering them?