**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.

If so, was it on purpose or because of time constraints?

The Warriors as in the 1979 movie in New York City with the badass street gangs, the grime and the awesome music. What that means to me in a system would be grounded, fast-paced combat with few weapons, good chase rules, maybe a reputation system for your relationships with other gangs, etc.

The headline clearly indicates I'm not entirely sane, but as a Call of Cthulhu player/keeper/writer, isn't that par for the course?
Even so, some of you may wonder why and how I burned through nearly $1300 while writing a community content creation.

It's kind of a long story, so for the impatient among you, there is a TLDR at the bottom. For the rest, it's a tale about my learning curve as a scenario writer, with a few tips thrown in if you're contemplating writing a scenario.

It all began a little over three years ago when I published my first scenario, The Art of Hygge, via the Miskatonic Repository.
And I did everything wrong!

I had no prior writing experience.
Had no real editor.
Didn't have a layouter.
Didn't spend any money to commission artists.
Having any of the above skills and experience can save you a ton of money and time.

Personally, I have absolutely no understanding of how to do a proper layout.
I can't draw a stick figure to save my life.
On top of that, English isn't my first language, and my grasp on grammar and spelling is rudimentary, to put it generously.
What I did have was an active imagination and a substantial vocabulary coupled with a naive assumption that selling the required 251 copies to make it eligible for Print on Demand would be a trivial thing. I later learned that selling copies on DTRPG is NOT trivial at all.

At this point, it would be natural to assume that my scenario was unsuccessful, but the stars were apparently right, so I got LUCKY in several ways:

--I got an amazing cover, courtesy of Ken Robkin, for free. The kind of cover that caught people's attention.
--I had friends who helped out with interior art, playtest, and edits.
--Maverick Haenze wrote a 5-star review of it and told me to keep writing.
--Chaosium showcased the cover on their social media.
Basically everything lined up, and I managed to sell 251 copies to get it into print, and currently it's a Gold Best Seller.

The upside is that it encouraged me to write a sequel, Lost in Cremation. The downside is that I didn't learn all that much from the experience.

So I did almost everything wrong one more time and again got lucky in all the right ways.
Lost in Cremation also made it into print.
I stayed encouraged, but this time I actually learned a little.
Things would be easier if I had better editorial help, and that maybe spending a little money on better art was not such a bad idea.

My third scenario, Mother of a Thousand Young took way longer to write and publish.
It was part of an anthology, The Year of the Goat, which involved a lot of editing by a professional, rewriting parts of it based on said editing and feedback, followed by more edits.

But the wait and extra work were worth it!
The final product looks damn amazing, and at the end of it I had picked up that professional editing, paid art, and a real layouter made a world of a difference.

So I began spending money on the next scenario I was writing. The vision I had for the scenario and the art in it expanded more than once over time, and I ended up commissioning way more art than originally planned.
In total, it came out to 1 front and 1 back cover, 42 pieces of individual art, and 5 maps.
On top of that, I found a real editor and hired a layouter.
And that's how I ended up spending $1279 on writing a scenario.

There is a bit more to the story, though.
I never had to take money out of my pocket.
All the sales I made from the previous scenarios were on my dtrpg account. In essence, they paid for the publication of my latest, The Horror, and I likely would never have spent that much on it if it were money I had to draw out of my budget.

The upside is that the scenario looks just like I envisioned it. Reviews from R´lyeh described it as having excellent production value, praised the cover, and gave it the Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends stamp. I couldn't have asked for more.

The downside is I have to sell 320 copies to break even
I don't expect to do that; I hope to, but even if I don't, I still feel it was worth it.
I didn't have to compromise on what I wanted to produce. I met some amazing people during the project, and even if I only earn a fraction of it back, it gives me funds for the next project, which means that my writing hobby ends up paying for itself.
I wish all my hobbies did that

The takeaway for prospective scenario writers could be:
Don't expect to live off it, don't even expect to make money.
It's worth it to get a good cover.
Editing and layout are important parts of the final look.
Art is worth including.
Have fun writing

TLDR: I was lucky. I made money on previous scenarios. I found it worthwhile to spend them on a new one.

Me and my group want to play a mecha game in the future. LANCER is our first choice, but being honest I'm looking for a lighter RPG at the moment.

While I prefer crunchier games over lighter ones (currently playing Daggerheart & Tormenta20, a Brazilian version of D&D 3.5e), I've been a bit burnout by too many rules.

With all that, which are good Rules Light Mecha TTRPGs? I'm looking for:

• At least a bit of customization that isn't overwhelming (no 100 pages to create the perfect robot, more like 1 to 5 pages and the rest is reflavoring).
• Fun combat, but not complex combat (Theater of the Mind is okay, no rules for complex stuff like flanking and exact distances is okay, but would still have at least one of two cooler things to do beside move & attack).
• Themed of stories told can be happier and adventurous or more dour and somber, but I won't lie I prefer a happier tone at the moment.

Aside that, I'm open for anything suggesteed

I want to learn from those of you who've learned multiple games and maybe even love learning the rules and all of that. How do you do it? Is it natural or has it grown in you? Maybe experience helps?

I’ve been in the last few years collecting a bunch of what people seem to consider some of the best big adventures/campaigns out there. Some just to read (I get a lot of fun from just reading them honestly), some hope to play with a group (Masks Of Nyarlathotep which I already played partially once and hope to restart with a new group soon, Impossible Landscapes, Curse Of Strahd), some im going to play solo (I’m starting Darkening Of Mirkwood, will eventually play The Great Pendragon Campaign).

WFRP’s The Enemy Within seems to be a legendary campaign that has almost universal praise. But it’s 10 books and quite expensive. I love the warhammer fantasy world and have a bunch of material for both 3e and 4e, but is this campaign really worth getting? I know it’s quite old and the new edition has gone some way clean it up and modernise it but is all the praise mostly from nostalgia blinded grognards or is it genuinely one of the greats that everybody should experience?

10,000 SWORDS AGAINST HEAVEN is a Dark Science Fantasy Cultivation TTRPG set in the Thunderbolt Materialist cosmos of THE TRICHILIOCOSM. A southeast asian esoteric marxist-leninist technoccultic tropical gothic science fantasy take on xianxia and spirit cultivation. Play as kung fu commies, daoist grenadiers, buddhist gunwitches, digital devil wizards, all against the heavens.

It is inspired by the likes of EXALTED, MAGE: THE ASCENSION, FADING SUNS, ARTESIA, MYTHRAS, and SYMBAROUM. Games that are more simulationist than not, which preoccupy themselves with building mechanics that simulate the world rather than emulate a genre or a story.

Mechanically, it spirals out of the foundation of EXALTED 1E's Quickstart (d6 dice pool, small core number of traits, a track for power), mixed with GODBOUND's Effort system, ARTESIA/FADING SUNS' large number of Traits and Skills (represented through Traits, Gear, and Licenses) and a simulationist-esque style of play that grows out of OSR/NSR world-first gaming.

Its two main subsystems are SOCIAL PLAY (which is a dance of Leverages and Disposition) and LIQUID STEEL ULTIMAVIOLENCE (which is a dance of interrupts and actions). Both of them I've made effort to integrate into the world rather than be separate minigames that you "load into" when interacting with them.

The game's main aesthetic is something I like to call THUNDERBOLT MATERIALISM. A weird, occult realist esoterick tropical gothic techno-occult vibe that invokes the likes of BOOK OF THE NEW SUN, MARATHON, VAMPIRE HUNTER D, LORD OF LIGHT, BAS-LAG TRILOGY, DISCO ELYSIUM, ARMORED CORE, and GHOST IN THE SHELL.

10k SWORDS eschews narrative-first, story-generating mechanics in favor of a more traditional conceit, where Players play characters that live and breathe in a world, not chained to Narrative Trope, Story Mold, or Dramatic Expectation.

The mechanics themselves are a lot more rules-lite than its forebears, taking a page out of OSR and NSR traditions to aim at the goal of these simulationist games while wielding a different weapon. To come at the same target through a different, player-friendlier means.

Mine was the time the fighter cut his own hand off to spite another player (all in character) and led to one of the most fun mechanics during that campaign: prosthetic limbs. What was a memorable loop you got thrown through that ended for the better...or worse?

Name says about all of it, but to elaborate - I recently remembered a very nice game I played through a couple of times called Ghostwire: Tokyo. In that game you play as a guy possessed by a spirit of a supernatural detective and try to save Shibuya and your sister from a currently ongoing invasion of ghosts from the underworld. While I really liked this game in concept, I feel like it didn't go far enough in some places, so I'm looking for a system where I can do something similar.

Systems I considered, but ended up deciding against are:

CAIN - at first it felt like a no-brainer, but then I realised this game isn't made for such settings

Mage: The Ascention - I know I can technically run this game outside of the WoD setting, but still it is very much focused on magic, while I want magic to be one of the options available for the players

Shadowrun - two reasons. First - I don't have any books; second - I sure fear no man, but this game is absolutely terrifying to me

To summarise, the game I hope to find will:

1. Be set or at least support a modern urban environment as it's setting

2. Be either primarily horror-themed or will have capacity for it

3. Have both magical and non-magical options for players to build their characters

And optionally not be too crunchy, both for my own and my group's sake

Thank you in advance for any recommendations!

After browsing some of the answers in this sub, it may have made me more overwhelmed 😅. Got a lot of ideas (thanks!) but almost too many 🤣🤣

So, I’ve played Dark Heresy, Witcher, and DnD 5e, with DnD being my least favourite system of these. I loved the grittiness, the brutality, and the feel of “just” surviving that Dark Heresy and Witcher offered. Also, the combat for both games was fun, especially Witcher. I’ve found Witcher is definitely my most fun game to play and run.

But I’ve also been looking to expand into other TRPGs, especially as the flaws in Witcher become more and more apparent. It’s a little too killy and the alchemy system is ass among other things. I’m a big Star Wars EU fan so WEG Star Wars has been mentioned to me more than once. I also know there’s some good ones like Ironsworn, Pathfinder, and Blades in the Dark. Any help would be really lovely.