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**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.

I had a "idea" for a adventure which is kind of funny to me.

it's a medieval fantasy adventure, with exploration, combat, the nitty and gritty but The thing is... Everything in the setting is basically from minecraft.

I Will not mention that IS, or any squared shaped creatures and try my best to describe some of more unusual mobs without actually saying what they are.

But the creatures, equipment, enchatments, items is basically ripped off from minecraft but ttrpgified and probably with some add-ons from some mods I like. (little bit of magic, etc.) .

The mechanics will the based on it too... Using a HP system that only is restores when eating with a full stamina bar or using potions, said stamina bar that is consumed for doing tasks, armour and equipment with breaking time... But with stats and other things that a usual ttrpg have.

I will breeze throw the details and say things like they are normal to the world, "You open the chest and inside it is a sword, made of Iron, but, it as a faint glow to it when you hold it you feel a slight unnatural warm... You slash the air and some sparks of fire come out of it." (Fire aspect 1 iron sword.)

I Will try to say things like the locals in the world would... Like:

"The night brings creatures wich desapear in the day..."

"You see this group of 5 grey skin men, there's a Elegant brutality in their demeanor... What they all have in common in clothing is large black fur overcoats. carrying crossbows and axes, affar. One of them in the middle carry some kind of flag..."

Or "Beware the Tall shadow that lurks in the florests..."

I will avoid using maps and only theater of the mind until they discover the truth...

I think it will be when they see a Creeper and it blow up.

WHEN they discover the truth, I will let them use some of the game mechanics or etc and make their new perception of reality part of the plot

It will be a quest to find a "A secret Artifact able to control reality." (a command block.) Or To kill the Ender Dragon.

So! This "Thought experiment" is running throught my head all week... What are your thoughts?

This post was originally going to be a comment response on another thread. But I figured it may do better as its own discussion post. (And to be very clear, I have no beef/heavy disagreement with OP. Just an opinion).

The original comment stated (and is linked):

"As a forever GM, the secret reason i am never a player is that 95%+ of GMs suck."

And was followed by comments of varying levels of agreement or not. I'd like to add a slightly different (But noticeably distinct) take on this:

A lot of GMs are trying to run games in a ways that don't fit their strengths; and it doesn't work for them as a result.

What I mean by this is, new GMs/DMs will try and get into the hobby based, usually, on being inspired by someone or something. That could be a popular actual play, or their friend running a game for them. And somewhat similar to all new creatives (writers, poets, artists), they try and replicate what they enjoyed, rather than find their own way of doing things inspired by what got them interested.

The example coming to me is from my own life: I'm a forever GM who has had a lot of friends and players try their hand at GMing over the years. To varying levels of success. And while a lot of this can just be boiled down to "New skills take work to learn" (And GMing IS a skill). I also think, in retrospect, a lot of it was down to the players taking queues from their previous experience (As in, my table) and trying to replicate that.

But thing is, I GM in a way that is fun for the group, yes; but also in a way that allows ME to have fun. So I focus on the parts of the hobby that bring me joy; and I think in part that joy and interest becomes evident in play. But when people try and replicate what I'm doing, they're not finding their own "voice". Like I've had players straight up say "Oh it seems intimidating to come up with a world like you do" and I have had to, repeatedly, tell them to just NOT do that. I get way too in-depth with my worldbuilding cause it's basically my sub-hobby. Don't do what I do cause it's what you've seen, try and find your own thing! And that applies to everything about a GM style, from whether or not you use music, or what system you run.

Beyond my table, you can see this in the quasi-infamous Matt Mercer/BLM effect; where tables try and emulate popular actual plays in a way that is often cited as "cringe" at best. Since they're essentially emulating a style that isn't their own, while ALSO lacking the literal decades of acting and game skill to back it up.

But I find that the new GMs that do the best are the ones who do their own thing early, find their own way of running games that makes them energized and have fun but is wholly their own.

So, to build off the original post. I think a lot of GMs aren't hitting as high as they could on quality; because they're trying to replicate what they're used to/what got them in the hobby. And I think those players/new GMs would probably find a lot more success if they worked towards what makes THEM unique GMs, instead of thinking they have to do things a specific way because "that's what they've seen before"

TL;DR

A lot of GM's aren't as strong as they could be, in part because they're too focused on replicating what they think they "should" do based on either previous table examples, actual plays, or whatever they have experienced before. And they'd be much better off trying to find what makes them as GMs strong and "tick" rather than replicate GMs or strategies that aren't them.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Do people think I'm onto something here, or am I delusional?

The link below is just one of the many RPG games I saw. There’s probably more than a 100. Figured id share.

Firefly, the space western tv show is trying to come back in animated format. They seem to be in need of a "home" yet for the tv show, so they've started a campaign to give visibility to the project.

To help a bit I wanted to start this debate. I guess that the obvious answer is to just use Traveller, but just in case...any better ideas?

BringBackFirefly

Right now, this is more of a theoretical discussion, nothing I’m planning to do right now, but I was thinking about some of the older tropes about teenage farmer kids who end up getting thrown into end of the world type scenarios, or you know, hobbits, or whatever.

Most games I’ve seen either have you started heroic pretty quickly or you start off as a zero but you power up really really fast.

I’m thinking more of something where you start off week and you develop a little slower, but I’m not sure if something like that would even work without their being an extreme risk of fatality, cause I wanna plan on that other trope as well where despite everything the designated heroes of the story just seemed through luck or whatever to get through it until they actually start to become competent.

And I started wondering if there was any system that would really reflect that.

My first thought was basic role-play, but if you start off week, your low percentile numbers are going to be meaning that you’re not going to succeed in a whole lot, and without some form of mitigating factor, when a threat rises up, that may proved to be very difficult.

I suppose I can always have the player characters the titular hobbits or whatever and some NPC guardians they also play, representing like Aragorn and company, but that doesn’t feel like what I’m trying to get to.

The other problem though is, I’m not sure if there really is a way to do this, other than maybe taking an established game and include some home rules like luck points or something.

I’ve heard that there’s a couple that starts off that way, maybe shadow of the demon lord and Warhammer role-play, but I’ve heard the former starts off pretty low but characters end up super powerful by the end and not quite what I’m looking for, I’m not sure about Warhammer role-playing

So they have it, just wondering if any of you has any games that you think might fit this?

Never have tried making a character that speaks rarely or at all but I want to try out something different at some point on solo games and wanted to know if someone else has tried making a character that speaks little if not nothing to everyone else around them, be someone who is mute or just doesn't enjoy talking that much to others.

Hey, I have been a GM for quite a while. I also have just over two months left in my college city before going back home for work.

I am thinking of of running some one shots on basic fantasy 4e in a shop that recently opened. Just something for all of my friends who are interested to join plus some other people that want to learn. Do you have any tips for how to set it up ?

Would you say it's even worth it since it will be just around 8 one shots ?

Hi this is sorta a last ditch effort for finding something and I haven't seen anyone post about it so here goes-

Year ago around 2021 I was introduced to this rules-lite and d6 based ttrpg where you played as an undead character with an animal head sewn onto you. it was this grimdark aesthetic and it was very flexible, like a few pages long at most. your goal was to find out whoever revived you and rediscover your previous identity or something like that. I've been trying to find it again ever since.

if anyone has any idea of what this ttrpg may be please let me know!

EDIT:

it's been found! thank you to u/karkadu for finding The Scourge! you can find it in the comments

Was it a "fade to black" or something different? Did you have to keep track of stuff? Were there any odd penalties or conditions?

Looking through past posts I see a lot of people asking for or giving advice about how to run the game when the party splits, and how to stop the party from splitting. What I'm interested in though is how you create a situation where the party splits without railroading them...so I'm not talking about a trap that splits the party, or having the BBEG teleport them to different locations. I'm talking about just creating situations where splitting up is the best option (or at least a good option) to accomplish their goals.

Will it always work? Maybe not. Players have a way of finding solutions you don't expect. No plan survives contact with players after all. But that's fun too!

Why would you do this? Dramatic tension, mixing things up a bit, adding some challenge, getting characters alone together for some roleplay opportunities you wouldn't get otherwise...or just subverting the "never split the party" advice for funsies. Etc.

Here are the ideas I've come up with myself. Full disclaimer, I haven't play-tested any of these. I'm just pondering this concept as I think about my next campaign.

1. The party needs to search for something or someone and can't possibly cover every location they need to search in the allotted time. Maybe the mansion has ten rooms but they only have 6 game turns to search. For this to work you have to be transparent about how much time they have and what the scope of the search is in order for the party to do the math and realize they might have to split up. Then someone in the party gets to say the classic line, "If we split up we can cover more ground!"
2. Similarly, the party is chasing something or someone and come to a fork in the path, with no clues which direction the quarry went. I suspect though that in this example a lot of parties would flip a coin instead of splitting up. Again a sense of urgency and transparency is key.
3. They need to do two things in different locations at the same time. I.e. the classic video game puzzle where you need to pull two levers at once, but in this case the levers are in two different locations. This is probably the most direct and effective, but in a lot of situations is just gonna mean your thief going off on their own. That can be good too. Thief players love a chance to shine. So how do you do it in a way that forces them to actually split? Maybe stealth isn't an option. Maybe each objective requires multiple characters, or specific, non-stealthy characters, to be present.
4. A variation of number 3: they need to go after an objective but leave some people behind for some reason. Maybe they need to protect something they can't bring with them. A simple example would be staying with someone caught under some rubble while the others go to get help.
5. They need to go after an objective urgently, and the fastest method of transportation can't take them all. Like Glorfindel putting Frodo on his horse. Maybe there aren't enough horses, or enough teleportation scrolls, or they're too heavy for the hoverbike. It would have to be abundantly clear that it's an emergency; it has to be clear to the party that if they decide to walk or muck around looking for more horses they won't make it in time. I think that also as the GM you have to make sure that whoever gets left behind doesn't feel left out; they have to have their own little adventure, and maybe get a glorious dramatic entrance when they do arrive later.

I'm curious what your thoughts are about this. Have you have tried or experienced any of these? How did it work out? What other methods have I missed? Or are there any good specific examples of any of these?

Edit: some clarification: I'm running Break, which is an OSR style game. I'm not allergic to other types of games and would run a narrative game if I wanted that type of campaign. I'm thinking of this in terms of something you might do once or twice in a much larger campaign, so you wouldn't change systems to do it.