**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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The indie TTRPG scene is often really theory and tastemaker-focused, which makes it easy to lose sight of what the vast bulk of players are actually enjoying or looking for in their games.

I regularly see posts here full of interesting and sophisticated preferences, critiques, aspirations, etc. that contradict the trends and think-pieces in my Bluesky feed. They remind me how broad our design space actually is and how large the various audiences within it might be.

I'll often read a comment like this that expresses a preference I share but wasn't thinking about, which unlocks a door in some project's design that I hadn't even noticed was closed.

It's do-or-die to both make what's in your heart and to stay in touch with the people you're actually designing for, and this sub helps me do both. Thank you!

I have a lot of thoughts about our first session of Stonetop.

I'm hoping to get them all out. Some in this post and some in the comments if people are interested, as I'm still not seeing enough discussion around the game from people who are actually playing it since the "full" release.

Firstly, I'm a somewhat experienced Game Master, I've been running games for my friends for over 15 years. A lot of that was D&D. I've also run sporadic games using different systems. Including PbtA. Some of them very different.

Stonetop doesn't feel that different. At least not in an uncomfortable way.

This new group I've pulled together for this game is made up of my wife (D&D Veteran), one of my oldest friends (D&D Apprentice?) and two friends who have never played a TTRPG.

Obviously as a GM I have to speak in two different languages, one for those with experience and one for those without. Stonetop and my prep for the session made this actually really easy.

Those of us who have taught people to play these games know there is a bit of a balance between pacing a session, teaching rules, and establishing fiction. The "Rules Light" genre in general I've found helps with that balance. But can sometimes lack in crucial areas because of it.

The bulk of Stonetop is flavour.

It's actually unreal. Everything I keep reading makes me stop and physically look away from the page and just get so excited. But I'm not here to grease the game. I'm also not going to start idea dumping.

I want to talk about experiences from the session and if people have any, answer questions.

First observation, Session 0 took A LONG TIME much longer than any session 0 I've run before for any system. The book makes it clear you're not running an adventure the first day. (unless you have that kind of time, then I'm jealous).

It wasn't a marathon session, our newer players didn't really know what to expect, and I'm hoping for longer sessions going forward, but it was just shy of 3 hours.

We didn't even get through character creation. We ended the session with our character introductions done, but for those of you who have read some of the system, all of the questions that flesh out your characters relationships and details, we didn't get to those.

Regardless, I made sure to really hit hard on what people found interesting from the Setting Guide. I have mixed feelings on that, it kind of takes me out of the fiction a bit, but I think mechanically it's super important, and am glad I made everyone read it, and we went over it in the session too.

Because of the way Session 0 is scripted to go, I have so many ideas for Threats and Adventures/Opportunities already.

I think this post is already too long, so if anyone is thinking about running the game, I can go more over my prep to run this (which is the longest I've ever prepped for a new game btw) or any other questions. I am actually super excited to run this game and so are my players.

TL:DR I think it's neat

So, there's a new RPG storefront out there. I am not affiliated with this site in any way, but I think it's worth making people aware of new options. I've had good experiences with drivethrurpg, but competition beats monopoly. I couldn't see any other posts in the sub about this.

They're offering POD via Lulu, and seem to have a not-terrible range for a site that's only just gone live.

I believe the owners are based in New Zealand and are registered in Australia, which will also be relevant to some people who are looking to support non-US businesses at the moment.

I've seen a fair number of systems with social mechanics. I'll let players roll for stuff like persuasion, bluff, insight, intimidate, etc... but when it comes to NPCs rolling against players it is usually defensive, such as a player trying to figure out if a character is lying I'll roll bluff.

But when it comes to social skill checks vs PCs, I never tend to do it. What about you all?

Hi! I'm going to be running Urban Shadows (and PbtA in general) for the first time.

I think I'm going to love this game, but as a European some details don't really feel right if I set it here: the urban sprawl is smaller, there's way less car traffic, and above all there's way fewer guns - if there's a crime involving a knife, even in a "rough"/over-policed neighbourhood, that's already national news in my experience. Where I come from, even police shooting a weapon is rare: gun violence mostly happens in rural areas where people have hunting guns. However, I understand that most of the media which inspires the game (and which I have consumed) is American, so some genre expectations will always lean US-centric.

I want to set my game in Brussels, because I've lived there and because I think it'll be fun to play in the center of Mortal power for the continent. There's some industry in the outskirts which can provide some warehouses or such, but I can also otherwise make the lack of a large urban sprawl work in two ways:

• there's a small forest right up against the south side of the city outskirts, which could be contested territory between Fae and Werewolves, and which is right next to a university campus, which could be a meeting place for Wizards or some Veterans;
• Brussels is very well connected by rail and road to a bunch of other cities in Belgium and the neighboring countries, so if I need a longer distance I can just make up some trouble elsewhere.

The lack of car traffic and weapons, especially firearms, is giving me some more pause. Many archetypes have these as important pieces of starting equipment, special modified ones like the Hunter, or nice cars. Using these often would be immersion-breaking for me and my (also) European players, so I'd like to know, from more experienced MCs:

• if restricting weapon usage to outskirts of town, under threat of national news breaking "shadows" of the supernatural world, unduly depowers characters like the Hunter or if it adds good fun tension;
• if you have run this in cities where it's more suspicious to see cars than people walking at night, and if it loses flavour due to no classic chevy impala or blue beetle car that's as much a character as the people.

If you have any more advice or resources for running Urban Shadows in cities which aren't New York or Chicago or London-sized, I'll also appreciate those! Thank you all in advance.

Lots of games have a class or role that's "the bard" being the face, the musician, or even the storyteller. What's your favorite?

Is damage in Pico always 1 in most cases? If so, how would a player deal more damage beyond enemy weakness?

I'm designing an RPG system with a western setting, designed around being in a gang. The core idea is similar to Blades in the Dark, but I don't really like the mechanics there so it's going to be different. I want this system to be fairly realistic so high lethality is something I want. Even PCs should be able to die from one well-aimed shot. I'm thinking that most fights should be an ambush by the PCs, so that they pacify everyone before even being shot at, but let me know your thoughts.

This week's RPG is Symbaroum!

Have you played it? Have you run/GM'd it? How did it go?

What's your favourite memory from the game?

What's the best thing about the game?

What's the worst? How would you improve it?

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Last week was Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E. Join us again next week for Mage the Ascension!

I kept bouncing off study apps because logging felt like a chore. Built Quest of Mind to fix that for myself, sessions turn into XP, you level up, streaks keep you honest. It's free, still adding features, and I'd take any feedback you've got.

https://questofmind.com/