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Brennan Lee Mulligan’s Dungeons and Dragons push is part of a wider trend using tabletop games for political action

Just before their election day, six Los Angeles city council candidates stood on stage at Hollywood’s Fonda Theatre. But they weren’t there for a debate or a black-tie gala. They were there to play Dungeons and Dragons.

Comedian Brennan Lee Mulligan guided the politicians through a short D&D campaign to defeat corporate villains and an evil dragon. Hundreds of enthusiastic fans in the crowd pledged additional donations up to $150 each to give the candidates what is called an “auto crit” for maximum damage to the dragon.

If this sounds like a bizarre merging of politics and play, organizers say it is not. “Most people want to be tapped and told how to help,” said Mulligan, a longtime DSA member and the dungeon master of D&D-themed hit YouTube series Critical Role and Dropout’s Dimension 20. “Then, lo and behold, there’s this new way to participate, bringing the platform I have to bear.”

The DSA-LA show raised $30,000 for the city’s primary election in June; five of the candidates onstage that night either won re-election or advanced to the general in November. The event is just one in a wider resistance movement by players of D&D and other tabletop role playing games (TTRPGs) against the current political climate – ICE raids, attacks on transgender rights and the rise of artificial intelligence. Over the past few years, groups across the country have been playing TTRPGs online and in person to raise money to develop games that express their frustration with the federal government and instruct people on how to help those most affected by its policies.

James Introcaso of MCDM just created this video to answer much of the confusion regarding his upcoming game Crows and its relationship with the OSR. I found it to be a good intro point for those unfamiliar with that term (which is a LOT of RPG players these days) while still honoring and respecting that community.

His ultimate conclusion is that Crows will have the same relationship to the OSR that Indiana Jones has with pulp adventure serials. It's clearly inspired by that source material and it even uses some similar ideas to create a similar vibe, but ultimately Crows is ultimately it's own thing and freely ignores core pillars of the OSR as its design goals require.

Personally, I think this is just fine, and I appreciate this level of clarity from James (and from MCDM in general) as it helps you quickly determine if their products are what you're looking for at your table.

I started playing D&D in 1980, and seeing the discussions examining the nature of role-playing that were going on in zines etc even before that was pretty amazing.

I can't decide if all that critical thinking got drowned out by the D&D juggernaut of the 80s or I was just unaware because I was literally a kid (or some of both).

[rant]

Deathbringer is Professor DM's game, based on Shadowdark, it's supposed to be a "retro" game with chainmail bikinis and pig-faced orks.

The kickstarter was funded in 14 minutes, and is currently nearing $1M. The book is $60 (same as Shadowdark). The more premium sets are $250 or $500. There is an ultra-premium set for $1K. Holy heck.

I mean I know that D&D and RPGs in general were created to make money in the first place. The whole thing with AD&D was about cutting Arneson out of royalties (allegedly). And I also see that WoTC is releasing modules at a very fast pace. But the idea that people are dropping 250-500 bucks for what is basically a Shadowdark supplement is just plain crazy to me. What sort of disposable income do these people have?

To me, RPGs have always been a sort of minimalist, inexpensive hobby. My favorite systems only need a handful of dice, a few sheets of paper, some pencils, and optionally some minis or tokens. To me, this genre is kinda like chess: it's not the fancy board and pieces that matter, but what you do with them.

But apparently there is a side of this genre where people are spending such amounts on a single game that equals to what I spend on food for an entire month. I mean, come on! Some great systems (like Cairn or White Box FMAG) are completely free (the pdf is, at least, print on demand is like 5 bucks), and they provide material for YEARS of gaming.

Is the concept of owning stuff just so appealing to these people? Will they really use ALL those fancy bits and bobs in their games? I guess it's none of my business...

Hello everyone, I was thinking of starting a new campaign with some friends, with me beeing the GM(we have only done a D&D campaign and a Pathfinder one-shot nothing more).

After searching for a few days I've came across a game that interest me,that beeing Root.
The narrative mechanics (which I learned are common in the Pbta system) are very intriguing to me,but i find that the combat,knowing my group of friends, may be a weak point of the game.
Do you all have some reccomendation for a Pbta-system game with some more crunch in the combat (if it's similar to D&D's combat it is the better but i wouldn't set it as a requirement).

Thanks

Been looking through a bunch of systems to try finding something Evangelion-like, but more in the terms of putting probably underqualified teenagers through the horrors of war. Combat obviously will be included, but that's not really the end goal.

What I've looked at so far:

- Lancer. The juggernaut of mecha rpgs. The problem I have with it is that it looks like the pilot/roleplay mechanics are pretty minimal, while the combat is super tactical. This isn't a bad thing but the lack of roleplay elements (outside of supplements) is kind of pushing me away.

- Beam Saber. I've tried BitD (Scum and Villainy specifically) with a past group and I really wasn't feeling the dice mechanics. That said, I've had a lot of non-5e experience since then, so maybe I can handle it better now.

- Girlframe. A quick look at the preview images looked promising, especially with a greater focus on the pilots being messed up people. Then I found a link to the playbooks. To put it lightly, it's a little... "much". Like I've read through a NSFW game I got through some bundle, but this makes me feel way dirtier.

Probably the closest game I know of flavor-wise would be Masks or Monsterhearts, with the focus of flawed teens being put in A Situation.

Edit: the other concept I had was actually one I'm working on specifically for this flavor. It's PbtA-like, but with pilots getting a number of character traits similar to that of FATE. However the catch is that the players can also temporarily negate a trait with an Emotion to represent the shift in their thinking.

Recently, I've been reminiscing on the past, what my favorite builds were, my most interesting characters, and it hit me like a brick: I've been playing D&D since I was 11 years old... 14 years now, playing basically every Saturday with so many memories. All it took for me was my sister taking me to a comic book store all those years ago. Some greasy old men were in the gaming room in the back, and being the person I was, I was enthralled from minute one of seeing the 3.5 Player's Handbook. The descriptions, the pictures, the idea of BEING a mage, it was all too hard to say no to. And now I'm hooked, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

What about you all? I'm curious what got you started and hooked? What systems, places, and ages you got into this hobby of ours.

I have recently been reading Neon City Overdrive, with plans to possibly run it for my next game. In reading up on it, as I usually do, I decided to look for discussion on the system online.

I kept seeing comments echoing the same sentiment: that in order for danger dice to feel like they have a real impact on your odds of success, they need to significantly exceed the number of action dice, often by 2x or more.

I didn't question this at first. The math seems complicated, and I'm no math expert. I even found the original post that I believe people are getting their numbers from.

However, I read that post, and then read the comments. 5 years ago, there was a comment questioning the math. Again, I'm no math expert, so I wasn't sure which was correct, but I looked at the linked GitHub repo and, to me, it seems like this comment is correct. I also saw someone submitted a comment on the GitHub issues page confirming they also believe this math is correct based on their own tests as well.

Based on this, I am feeling fairly confident the original post - and thus the advice I often see online about this game - is wrong. To hit that "70%" sweet spot cited in the original post, you actually generally want to have an equal number of danger dice as action dice. It doesn't scale linearly, but it definitely isn't so exponential that you need to pour double the danger dice out. In fact, if you follow the advice on the original post, I think the players are going to be failing a lot.

Of course, maybe you prefer that the odds be even less than 70%, but that wasn't what the math on the original post was showing.

I am open to being proven wrong, but I wanted to share because as someone just learning this game, I saw this advice all over the place, and if I hadn't found this I probably would have followed it, which could have impacted my game experience in a negative way.

I'm not too familiar with World (and Chronicles) of Darkness, but as I understand the game lines more of less use similar mechanics and rule structures (though apparently Chronicles' game lines are more cross-compatible than World's? again, not too familiar with them), making it theoretically possible to cross over between them while not giving up objective mechanical rigor.

Which begs the question, is there a sort of coherent "neutral" game system based on the White Wolf games that you can adapt to do your own WoD-style stuff with? And if not, what would it take to write a rule framework like that oneself? And is this even a worthwhile endeavor?

Hey all,

Looking to get a campaign going inspired by 90's survival horror ala og resident evils, parasite eve, and silent hill. Im also drawing from 80/90s anime like Akira, ghost in the shell, Angel Cop, and Perfect Blue.

Im thinking Delta Green or FIST, but seeing if there's something a little more specialized.

We're currently working through Mothership and it's Dead Planet module, and a few 5e/pf2e games.

Thanks!