**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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Before anyone immediately comments "have an adult conversation with your group" or "this should’ve been handled in Session 0", please hear me out. I’m not angry at them. They’re my closest friends. I just feel deeply, quietly pathetic.

I’ve been running our campaign for about seven months. Last week, I had what I thought was an inspired idea for their investigation in the capital. I spent my entire Sunday afternoon writing three separate in-world letters, printing them in calligraphy, staining them with black tea, and even sealing them with actual red wax. I felt so proud of it.

Fast forward to tonight. They finally breach the magistrate’s study where the letters were. I set the real wax-sealed props in front of them with a grin, expecting some gasp of excitement. The barbarian player glanced at them, didn't even break the seal, and went, "Can I just roll an Investigation check to see if the desk is expensive? I want to chop it up." Everyone laughed, the wizard cast Fire Bolt to distract the guards outside, and they moved on.

They didnt even pick the props up. I just quietly slipped them back into my folder while they spent 45 minutes debating whether to adopt a stray goat. I know it’s just a hobby with plastic dice, but man... do I just have completely unrealistic expectations, or is running a game always just an exercise in emotional masochism?

Kinda embarrassed to even type this out after running games for so long, but I need a reality check because I feel like a total fraud right now. I’ve been a forever DM for my group for about four years, almost exclusively running 5e and Pathfinder. Whenever the pacing dragged or I got mentally stuck, I’d just throw an ambush at them. Rolling initiative buys you an hour of game time where the system does teh heavy lifting for you.

Tonight we finally tried a Call of Cthulhu one-shot (The Haunting). No battlemaps, no tactical grid, just pure investigation and horror atmosphere. But about an hour in, my players tore through the library clues twice as fast as I planned, looked right at me, and asked "Where do we go next?" And my brain just completely flatlined.

I sat there in dead silence for two minutes, shuffling papers like an idiot. Without a monster stat block to drop onto a grid, I had zero clue how to maintain tension or improvise on the fly. I panicked so hard I basically fast-forwarded them to the basement and ended forty minutes early. has anyone else had this horrifying wake-up call when ditching combat, or am I just fundamentally bad at actual storytelling?

Hi! I just released my new game titled SQUIRE.

It's a dark, solo survival TTRPG. Think Star Wars Order 66 Survival meets Warhammer 40k. It's nearly 100 pages of gameplay, with unique character classes, unique villains to hunt you down, and optional journaling gameplay.

If you know the Carta SRD, you use a deck of cards to represent your fallen temple and do your best to make it through the wreckage, avoid (or overcome) attackers, and ultimately... escape! If you can.

Itch: https://bardlight.itch.io/squire

It's on sale for launch week to celebrate Halloween. I hope you check it out! You can use it to run a Star Wars adventure, if you want, or lean more 40k, or make a universe of your own somewhere in between - it's ultimately setting agnostic.

So they just announced a feature film based on iHunt. I am excited based on who they've got working on it. Dunno if this is allowed, but thought I would get other people's thoughts.

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/ihunt-killing-monsters-in-the-gig-economy-movie-1236930441/

Olá, sou novo no Reddit mas é que estou procurando o fandom de rpg em geral para saber sobre algo

Estou Traduzindo e juntando grande parte do conteúdo do Marvel Multiverse (Poderes, armaduras, armas e itens narrativos tudo em um livro geral e traduzido para pt-Br)

Queria saber se existe algum fandom em específico para que possa ver e me corrigir caso tenha algum erro

Não tenho nenhuma intenção de gerar monetização em cima só quero realmente jogar o jogo e unir o fandom BR

I have an obsession with playing classes that allow me to be a puppetmaster manipulating lil dudes for all sorts of things! From combat to puppet shows. I was inspired by anime like Karakuri Circus, Naruto, and Puppet Princess. Could anyone reccomend some games that have classes that would allow me to play out my fantasy? Please and thanks

I've been thinking about the difference between a villain and an antagonist in tabletop RPGs.

When the party encounters an evil necromancer raising an army of undead, the situation is pretty straightforward. The players might disagree about how to stop them, but generally everyone agrees they need to be stopped.

The characters I find more interesting are the ones who stand in the party's way for perfectly understandable reasons.

Imagine a city official refusing to open the gates during a plague, even though the party desperately needs to get inside. Or a village leader refusing to let adventurers investigate an ancient ruin because the last group that went there got half the village killed.

Neither person is necessarily corrupt, stupid or secretly working for the villain.

They're protecting something they genuinely believe is worth protecting.

And suddenly the players have a more complicated problem than figuring out which weapon does the most damage.

Of course, there's a fine line here. An NPC who refuses everything regardless of what the players say is just a frustrating roadblock. The interesting part is giving them understandable motives and allowing the players to change their mind, negotiate or find another solution.

I especially like when the party initially hates an NPC, then gradually realizes that they would probably make the same decision in that person's position.

So I'm curious about actual experiences from your tables.

What's the most memorable antagonist you've played against or run who wasn't really a villain?

And did the players eventually come to understand them, or did they end up fighting anyway?

There was a thread a couple of days ago that asked for a comparison of Sword World, Fabula Ultima and Twilight Sword. But I think the more interesting comparison would be between Sword World and Last Arc Tactics Analogue.

FabU is structured very differently from SW (narrative focus and creating a world together) while Twilight Sword seems to closely emulate a Zelda universe. I think they fill different niches and won't compete too much with each other.

So the closest competitor to Sword World would be Last Arc Tactics Analogue, right? Both are trying to bring a more simulationist, flexible version of JRPGs to life, and both are currently running their campaigns for an English release.

What do you think? How similar or different are the two, and which one should people back?

Okay so, I would say I am somewhat experienced with d100 systems. I have played CoC 6e and 7e, WFRP 2e and Mothership. I have read (not played) CoC 1e, WFRP 4e and Dark Heresy 2e.

My reasons for listing these is recently I was considering picking up more d100 systems but looking back at it I find that they are different but not better then the other systems I own (in my opinion), they offer a higher degree of granularity when it comes to results, so you can have systems with a higher degree of granularity.

I like CoC because its the first ttrpg I have ever played but I consider Mothership to be much more elegant and interesting mechanically speaking. WFRP and Dark Heresy really benefit from the setting, though WFRP has a cool thing going on with their occupations.

But like, what are the strengths of d100 games I am missing?

It is one i remember seeing on itch.io and it looks incredibly fun. But i cant remember the name of it. Can you guys please help me find it?