**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.

**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.

What is Break!! RPG

Yes, the exclamation marks are part of the title. Yes, that is great.

This is a British RPG, done by I think two guys down in England – one writer, one artist. That very tight crew shows in the tone of the book – everything feels unified and deliberate, and you definitely feel like it is the specific design of specific people. In terms of theme, this is a ‘JRPG’, ‘anime’ and ‘Nintendo’ themed RPG – there have been a lot of those hitting Kickstarter recently, all with very green grass fields in the art and anime-style characters jumping up at the viewer. The book devotes all its art to furthering that theme – with whole pages devoted to looking like stills from an anime - while the mechanics have nods to Zelda such as Hearts rather than Hit Points. We ran this as the ‘anime rpg’ - complete with fourth-wall breaks, exaggerated reactions, descriptions of ‘how the animators cut corners in this scene’, and timeskips that we cheerfully didn’t explain because neither would an anime bother to – and it frankly worked excellently for that and we really enjoyed that aspect especially.

In terms of the game-line for this RPG – there basically isn’t one. They have the core book, and they are planning on a Kickstarter for an expansion. Right now £45 will get you 100% of the content available.

Who Am I / My context

I’ve been playing TTRPGs for a couple decades, and have played most of the big name games in that time. I generally prefer mid-crunch trad RPGs, ideally with both light narrative mechanics and character tinkering elements. I’m a slut for good art in a book as I believe that the primary purpose of an RPG manual is to excite you enough to actually want to run it.

I change games a lot, so tend to prefer that a game do something interestingly different or have a strong theme rather than just be generic or universal. For Break!! RPG we had a campaign of thirty sessions – we only play for two hours per week though, so that’s maybe closer to 15-20 in-person games.

The Book Itself

Physically, this book is small and dense. I got the deluxe edition – since the creators are here in the UK, I was able to get it for a reasonable price, which is a nice change from general industry trends since the end of Empire Brexit. The physical production quality is superb, and it felt very premium to hold and use. One thing I did find annoying though is that the book doesn’t really lie open very well – the size is smaller (more like A5 than A4) and with the dense paper it meant that the book just didn’t want to stay open on a page. That’s definitely a petty complaint.

Words cannot describe how attractive the book itself is. I’d actually recommend that you go watch Dave Thaumavore’s flick-through video here, as he accurately shows just how delightful the book is to read. There are also preview images on the official webstore here. The delightfulness of the book comes through in two ways. Firstly, the art itself – it’s remarkable just how much there is, and as it was all done by one guy it’s very consistent in feel and quality. However, almost more importantly, the book is laid out in an excellent way – information is concisely and clearly presented in a way that feels like an educational handbook rather than just the huge blocks of text that we normally get. This actually felt a little redundant to me at times – the beautiful presentation was working harder than the actual rules complexity required.

I will sound a note of caution about the PDF, however. This came free with the physical purchase for me, and has enormous amounts of links internally – so many that I actually looked up the keyboard shortcut for ‘back’ in Adobe, just to be able to navigate it better. It was, however, so tightly copy protected that I couldn’t even copy the text to the clipboard. I had to jailbreak it just to add my PC’s ability text to their character sheets – which then broke all the internal links and bookmarks so it was a nightmare to navigate. It’s another petty complaint, but I had to have two PDFs open just to copy NPC statblocks into the VTT from one book, and thus I thought about this issue for the whole campaign. If you are running in-person this won’t be an issue, of course.

Rules Complexity and Feel

As I mentioned above, the rigorous educational-style layout here is excellent and makes the rules very easy to absorb. This did feel a bit unnecessary given how light the actual rules are. What we are really dealing with here is an OSR game, in category ‘reimagining’. You have eight numbers on your character sheet, split into combat and non-combat. The three combat numbers are attack bonus, defence, hearts - so your BAB, AC, and HP for those who remember 3^rd edition days. Those progress up in line with your class and level, with the Champion getting the highest attack bonus and the Heretic having lowest hearts, etc. You roll high for combat – to use OSR terminology, this is an ascending armour class system – and I would say that despite the use of zone combat, the actual game-feel here is within two or three degrees of playing a (non-4) D&D edition, just very stripped back.

The five non-combat numbers are Might, Deft, Grit, Insight, and Aura. Continuing the D&D comparison, that’s the typical 6-stat array but combining Wisdom and Charisma, which is a common enough approach. Those numbers start around 7ish and rise to about 13ish across levels 1-10; you want to roll low for these, as this is a ‘roll under’ skill system. Speaking of skills there are none – but you get three ‘Purviews’ which actually work basically the same as the Experiences in Daggerheart, being words or phrases that you can call upon to claim a dice bonus. What works not as well here however is that the Purviews are dictated by the character’s Background (as you have the usual Race, Class, Background trio), and I found that the players all ended up with three Purviews that heavily overlapped and were hard to use in a wide range of circumstances. I repeatedly offered the players to modify their purviews but they were hesitant on that front, and so instead I just had to be generous and allow some very creative interpretations of ‘absorb a torrent of information’ or ‘moving through tight spaces’ to help players pass a reasonable number of rolls. It’s worth noting that the roll probability is pretty low here, with no in-game source of rerolls for the most part.

So what this adds up to is a game that feels basically like stripped back D&D with a light Zelda-theming in combat, and just a stripped back feel out-of-combat. I found that the players had very few ‘levers’ out of combat in general, even for the non-combat Factotum class, outside of the crafting mechanics which are pretty detailed. In a game like Vampire you have the skill chart and the disciplines that can be called on and let people show off their niches; in a heroic fantasy game I’d probably see players suggest spells or magic item usage to get past issues. Here I kind of just had to keep saying, “roll insight”, which for much of the party was a sub-50% chance roll and so not popular. I ended up doing a lot of skill challenge style stuff, and that was often very fun – an extended chase sequence as the party ran from a huge horde of angry communist goblins trying to “re-educate” them was a memorable one – but ultimately every single non-combat challenge in the game was resolved through the players rolling a D20 and trying to get under one of their stats.

I’ve gone into a lot of detail here because I’m very aware that this is not going to be an issue for a lot of people, so I wanted to explain clearly why I felt it was a negative for me specifically. I’ve been experimenting with the OSR space in the last couple years and it’s likely that this is showing my tastes do not align with that rules philosophy. Oh, I should also mention – the whole campaign people couldn’t remember whether they needed to roll high numbers or low numbers on a given roll – since you want to roll over defence but under stats. This sounds so petty, but genuinely it came up like three times a session, especially when you rolled a stat roll during combat, so it became a very memorable part of the system for me.

Specific GM Issues

I’ve put this under a separate heading since I think many games are specifically harder to run than to play – I always think of 3e D&D and it’s insane NPC statblock expectations here.

In Break!! RPG terms, it’s a fairly easy system to run, but an unsupported one. It also prompts a lot of design work from the GM. For example, you have lots of little subsystems – crafting, world exploration, map-making, relationship bonds – but there is almost no detail given to these things, because they’ve been covered in one page and then the book moves onto the next topic. That means that when you start trying to engage with those systems – in my case, one player got very excited for map making, for example – then basically all the work of creating the content to actually use that sub-system falls on the GM. What the book’s done is given a mechanical skeleton - but frankly I found most of the systems were variations on roll Insight or Deftness, so they were not really helping very much.

Similarly, the book’s bestiary is very short, but the monsters themselves are weirdly overwritten – some are four pages long, with huge swathes of text on habitat and mentality, and ability text that spreads in a way that’s not actually very useful to run. There are only twenty adversary statblocks in the whole book; the designers have clearly chosen quality over quantity, but many of these monsters are weirdly specific (e.g. Zelda Link, Battle Maids, God) so were not easy to use. This meant that in my campaign easily half or more of the monsters are ones that I had to make myself and then try to fit into the unnecessarily detailed template. The numbers side of this is easy enough – pick monster level, use numbers given by a table in the book – but coming up with 2-4 abilities per monster was a significant mental overhead. As mentioned above I ran this game on a VTT, and that honestly did make the workload much worse – in-person I’d likely have just scribbled the numbers and made the abilities up as I went, but that’s not practical on a VTT where that kind of approach breaks down really easily.

Overall, I’d say that in theory this game would be very easy to GM, but in practice you should expect to be spending a lot of time making content for your campaign. I did the same for D&D 5e back in the day (cause all its monsters sucked ass) and I’d say this felt pretty on-par for that, despite the book looking like a much lighter game.

World and Vibes

The world is very lightly drawn. The world map is funny – it’s a d20 rolled flat, so in theory you can randomise location by rolling one. It’s also divided into four sections, determined by the fact that the Sun Machine is broken and doesn’t move any more. That means you have endless sun area (desert, jungle), endless night area (wastelands, fungus forests), twilight land (somewhat more generic fantasy island archipelago), and the mandatory underground land (amusingly locked in a 1930s-style Fascist vs Communist war between Dwarves and Goblins). Each of these areas gets two (2) pages of explanation, plus another four (4) pages of backgrounds that hints at more details for them. I found the world to be fun, but basically a blank canvas. I ran a campaign that was all about restoring the Sun Machine and that was a lot of fun, and I equally have other ideas I could have done in this setting. However, as you might be guessing, I did basically all the world design work for my campaign myself – this is definitely the kind of game where you read a thirty-word paragraph and need to expand it into a full town setting for your session. I had fun with that, and generally do prefer games that give punchy brief setting descriptions as I frankly can’t absorb and use very lengthy ones, but equally not everyone will like that as much. So basically this is the same as I mentioned under the GM section – lots of design work necessary, it just so happens I was happy to do that here.

Overview / TL;DR

I think this game works well as a OSR-style D&D clone which moves into a specifically anime/JRPG aesthetic. It is going to work best for a group where the players are happy with a low complexity level, where character tinkering is lower than D&D but higher than most OSR games – it’s maybe about the same as Shadowdark in that respect. The GM that it will work best for is someone who is happy to take the bones of a world and a game and do their own thing with it, again dealing with a complexity level significantly lower than D&D. The world flavour is good and fun, the art and book quality is immaculate and will make it a very easy sell for most tables, and overall I’d recommend it. We got to the end of our thirty sessions and the table consensus was, roughly, “That was fun, we enjoyed it, but we’re glad to be moving onto more complex games next.”

For my part, I guess the question is would I revisit this? Yes, but specifically only for one of my groups. They are not dedicated charop types and often struggle with the rules complexity in D&D, doing no out-of-session research and preferring to play in a tea-and-cupcakes vibe. This game would probably suit them a lot, and I like it well enough to propose it again.

I really don't know why, but I find this so funny. They could have called it 5.5 from the jump. But someone in marketing thought that'd be a bad idea. So they called it D&D 2024. Which just rolls right off the tongue and is so intuitive to understand.

Finally, they throw in the towel and it's now 5.5.

I've heard it said often that Pathfinder is balanced way better than D&D — specifically in encounter design and scaling.

What specifically does it do that D&D doesn't?

I'm asking because I'm making my own home game, and I'm having a really hard time getting monster difficulty/scaling right, and I'm hoping looking at Pathfinder will help me out.

Edit: I'm realizing almost immediately that I wasn't specific enough. Pathfiner is better balanced because it's so much more consistent, numerically. But besides not using dis/advantage, how does it accomplish that?

What metric is it using to compare the value of, for example, Feature A that gives a PC some terrain control, Feature B that gives a PC a boost on their attack roll, and Feature C that gives a character a pure damage bonus? Does anyone know how it's comparing those against each other, or against the monsters features?

I really enjoy reading TTRPG theory and by far the most useful to me has been the Lazy DM Method by Sly Flourish. I really like the concept of preparing for improvisation, and I love how the method has a lot of flexibility while maintaining cohesion, in a way that lets the GM respond meaningfully to PCs actions and intentions without losing the "spirit" of the game or session.

I've also enjoyed James D'Amato's Ultimate Guide series quite a lot, and it actually made me approach even everyday conversations in a more fruitful way. Supposing meaning, making choices matter, and so on, are really great principles for both roleplaying and everyday interactions.

So I was wondering if you've read some books that follow similar principles but that aren't too redundant with those books.

Hey everybody! Tiny bit of background, I ran a campaign on Kickstarter for Zinequest 1, and Zinequest 2, and I am back around... 7 years later and running a campaign for Zinequest 3.

This is not me complaining about the platform, I really just wanted to illustrate some changes in the space for creators that may be looking at doing similar things, and possibly get some feedback from Backerkit RPG creators if they are here and want to comment!

I think there have been lots of conversation about if the space has changed, and as someone who ran two very similar projects at the beginning of Zinequest and current time, I think it may be interesting to have written out here so here are my turnouts as we are past the final 48 hours of the third project, and wrapping up.

• In 2019 I launched Dead Halt, a staple bound RPG zine, I got 355 Backers and $4,184 in funding. I had 0 following whatsoever, had never made a book before, was not in the RPG space publicly, and spent 0$ on advertising (Indie, what can I say). I had very little art, all done by me, mostly sketches. I had no game, just the promise of one.
• In 2020 I launched an expansion zine for Dead Halt, Happy New Year 1999 and got 236 Backers and $4,763 in funding. I again, spent 0$ on advertising and just used my past project as a place to post about the expansion. I also had like 100 Twitter followers at this point.
• Last month I launched Grum Hall, a sister game to Dead Halt. We are in the final hours and I have 65 Backers and $1,933 in funding. I have over 500 email subscribers, 1,500 Itch io followers, about 150 Instagram followers and around 100 people in a Discord dedicated to our games.

This time around I launched the game ahead of time as a playtest, and the Kickstarter is to finish the game and do a good looking print run. There is lots of art (still done by me, and I'll admit not flashy, but I still think better than what I had for Dead Halt). I still spent 0$ in advertising. There are 5 full zines I have created over the years, so a lot of the "advertising" went towards trying to reach the people with those books.

Again, you can pretty much see the reasons I have the numbers I have, but at the end of the day this is a hobby for me, and I am not planning on quitting my day job to do this.

But- of course I want to see the game grow, and chat with new players and the like, so I'll admit, its a bit of a bummer.

Ultimately, I just wanted to give some stats to show my experience with changes in platforms and the hobby as a whole, and I would love to hear your thoughts.

We've started playing 4th ed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and I was reminded just how much that game is dominated by the Enemy Within Campaign.
It was difficult to find a lets play doing anything else. Which is annoying, as we might be playing that in the future (wouldn't be DMing either).

It's not that it was the only adventure released. There are loads, even for 4th ed alone, I have a bunch from a Humble Bundle. But Enemy Within is the classic example.

So is there another Campaign that comands all the attention for a particular RPG?

For folks who don't know about it, Dying Hard on Hardlight Station: Anthology Edition is a revamp and massive expansion on an earlier, zine-sized Mothership RPG adventure of the same name (minus the anthology part).

I was a writer invited to contribute one of the eleven adventures in this book, and seeing the whole grand scope of this thing now that the Kickstarter has launched, I'm left wondering if there are any other books (outside of Mothership RPG) that are so laser-focused.

Within Mothership, the closest thing I can think of is like A Pound of Flesh, mixed with Hull Breach, Vol. 1. APOF because Hardlight is expanding the station into a much larger space hub like The Dream, and Hull Breach for the anthology part, even though that one's more like a fix-up setting than imagined as a cohesive whole from the start (if that makes sense)?

Personally, I'm more ingrained in the OSR end of games, so I'm sure there's a lot in my blind spots, but what other sci-fi books gives the GM:

1. A multi-star sector
2. Huge hub location (space station or planet)
3. Detailed in-system locations to travel to
4. 10+ included adventures (honestly, even 3-5)

I'm just a freak for sci-fi ttrpg material, and want to (a) learn from other great setting/adventure module examples, and (b) share this book that I think turned out pretty fucking fantastic.

There's a first day bonus, too. The link for the curious: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magnumgalaxygames/dying-hard-on-hardlight-station-anthology-edition

Some years ago, I believe on a cheerful Free RPG Day, I happened upon a short (of course) intro booklet for an RPG set in an alternate version of our timeline, where magic worked (often in somewhat strange ways), but there were also guns, cars, TV, etc.

Among the described classes, was one whose powers all took the forms of Media Tropes. One such spell (being why I'm asking) was called "He's Right Behind Me, Isn't He?" Which was for when you needed someone VERY specific (known to the caster) to come and (hopefully) assist.

To cast it, the mage stood, back to an available door, and began roundly, and soundly trash-talking this person at full speaking volume (or louder, I don't recall), and as the casting time completed, would stop mid-rant, and say (appropriately) "He's right behind me, isn't he?" (or she), and yes, that person was now standing in the doorway.

The description made VERY clear that the person had NOT, in fact, been magically transported to that location, but had, through their own choices (and reasons) traveled to that location at that specific moment, even if they had to have begun said trip HOURS before the spell was started...and would have a perfectly reasonable explanation for their presence...

Google has been no help whatsoever... Anybody have any idea? I wanna show it to my friend...

I run a lot of conventions. GMs tend to blow through their vocal cords over a weekend trying to overcome the noise level in the convention hall. I've tried to manage the noise by running the games in soft-walled, carpeted rooms with a lot of pipe and drape, but that's still not a 100% solution.

In recent years, GMs have been trying to use belt-speakers and mics. They set the speaker on the DM Screen or in the middle of the table, and they talk in a normal speaking tone into the mic. The problem there is that the speaker, while effective for that table, just ends up adding to the din of the room.

Last year at Gary Con, a group of players approached their DM and gave him a microphone. They then loaded themselves up with earbuds and headphones. And they had a very good time. Does anyone know what their technological solution might have been, there? Were they broadcasting across a social application? Or might it have been a conference call on their phones? Or am I getting too modern tech with it, and it was just a simple device for that microphone and those headphones?

Hello fellow keepers of the lore and travelers of dangerous lands,

I am currently creating a TTRPG inspired in Biblical mytholigy (mostly the seven deadly sins and the horseman) and a mix of tarot imagery, aswell as other things.
So the thing is I thought instead of classes like ranger, thief, paladin etc that don't really fit well within the system I am creating I wanted to use the Major Arcana as archetypes.

The main attributes I was gonna use for this campaign are:
Strength, Resistance, Dexterity, Agility, Charisma, Empathy, Magic, Faith, Willpower and Luck.
In a D100 scale as percentages of success Cthulu style.

The main idea is that each card will give the character the maximum level of its attributes based on it's usual interpretation.

For example:

"0 - The Fool" would be a high risk high reward social master, with luck and charisma over the roof, but with limited physical abilities and low willpower.

"I - The magician" would be sort of a magical glass cannon, with high magic powers and low phisical resistance

"XI - Strength" would obviously be a strength (duh) character,

"XIV - Temperance" would be the most balanced of all, and force the character into a true neutral.
"XVI - The tower" was gonna be either a min-max or a very balanced archtype with no luck whatsoever but therefore better stats across the board.

What do you people think? Any suggestions on what other cards should focus on?

Thanks in advance.