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Hi everyone.
I am a long time dnd 3.5 DM, tested 5e, Pathfinder, Worlds without number, starting Cthulhu next...
but I always wanted to run something in the Conan setting.

I heard different things about the Conan 2d6 RPGs over the years and by now I am wondering if other games do that particular "sword and sorcery" style better than the actual Conan RPG?
I was thinking about Shadow of the demon lord as that seems to be rather gritty and brutal too.

Dark, rare magic+ dangerous at best, I would expect a good combat system, deadly, but also good sneaking options. Not really sure what else toexpect. ^^

But what do you think? If you were tasked to run a Conan themed game, would you actually play the conan RPG for that or pick something else?

From what I remember, the Conan game has a hit table, for where you hit an opponent and what that does to you, you roll a defense against the attack. You also lose your loot after an adventure - pretty much drinking and celebrating it all away. Maybe I am wrong on these though.

I'm into making a campaign for a future team where most of the things will be related to detective/political drama where they need to manipulate/talk/find material for blackmail more rather than fights. Any adviced from DM and people who played such campaigns what i should take into account to not make it overwhelmed for players yet with interesting options?

Something ive never been great at as a DM is knowing how to introduce new players into RPGs without hand holding too much. Especially when players feel a level of imposter syndrome, like they dont belong at the table because they dont know how to play (even though no one else at the table really knows). Ive had a few more people reach out to me about wanting to try things like D&D and i dont want them (or existing players who are still quite new) to struggle, so i thought id open this question up to some more experienced DMs.

I met a gm some time ago, running a game that lasted about two months. They advertised as so, but I figured they were most likely vetting for players for a longer term game. Game was fun, players were cool, GM was flexible and when the end of the adventure came. GM said thanks for playing and closed shop.

Players of course wanted to continue but GM had no interest. I was bummed figured the GM didn't care for one of us or all of us as players and moved on. Within the same day GM posts another ad seeking another group of players with the same time restriction. No more than two months.

Peeked over at another system discord I know they're in and checked their ad history. Same thing with the different system, games no longer than two months. Out of curiosity I dm them "Hey why not just keep the same group and run through all these different adventures you have?"

Their answer was unique amongst GM sensibilities as far as I am aware.

"I don't like playing with the same people over and over. Different people, different experiences, for good or bad. And players in systems with levels tend to want to keep reaching higher levels. I don't care for higher levels, they're uninteresting to me. Also I want to play different systems and I know for a fact some players from your table will never try out a different system like Blades. Even then like I said, I prefer to play with different people."

I’ve been running drop in one shots for five months. I have had two players who have tried to play joke characters or disinterested characters. If it is early in the game, I highlight, “If your character isn’t interested in the adventure, then you want to play someone who is. This is what we’re doing tonight. The other characters are going to depend on you.” This one came up about 2/3 through the game and I just let them act, then moved to the next player.

My question is: Does this ever work? Is it ever enjoyable for more than a minute?

My initial read is no, it isn’t, but maybe that’s just me being grumpy.

To be clear, something like an Isekai or comedy game can totally work. I love Fiasco and my games often have laughs and hijinks. This is, “everyone is going deeper into the dungeon, I’m checking this collapsed tunnel and kicking rocks on my turn.”

Edit: Whoa! A lot of comments! I posted this after the game and went to bed. I really appreciate the comments from posters and subsequent discussions.

Thoughts/Summaries:
1. If a player is committed to the game, their character can be reluctant, but that commitment is important.
2. Jokes often wear thin very quickly, so keeping it fresh (which is why I mentioned isekai) instead of stale is key.
3. A campaign might support more enduring humor, but with drop in one shots, it’s tougher.
4. There are DEFINITELY humor focused games (Paranoia, Fiasco). I’ve learned some of these I bounce off of, and some click.

Thank you!

Hi everyone,

i've recently stumbled upon Lacuna Part 1, 2nd Attempt and went back in time to 2006~2011 when the game was discussed more online to read through actual play reports and try to find any morsel of additional information i could suck up.

I love everything about the Blue City, the concept, the rules - the heartbeat mechanic is damn awesome!

What i'm struggling with is how to actually start running it. I know, the book says the best way to experience it is to play, and i get that.

I've also started to read into the GNS Theory by Ron Edwards, since i saw somewhere that the author was subscribed to those ideals when writing Lacuna.

Why i'm posting now is, i wanted to ping into the void to see whether or not someone who has run Lacuna pongs back with some advise as to how they structured their sessions.
Or if there's additional content (other than the two pdfs [Company Handbook 3.0 and Read Once and Destroy]) you used when running it.

I also welcome any experiences you've had as players!

So recently I have been mulling over an idea for a campaign I've been meaning to do for some time now. I wanted a campaign where my party were either heads of noble houses or important retainers of a royal house. This campaign would have a focus on building the realm and their own influence.

Such positions of power are a deviation from where most campaigns start and would really be a departure from the tables my group play is accustomed to. They are more familiar with D&D, Tormenta, and Fabula Ultima, which are systems that are focused more on individual heroics.

I recently have been giving a small look at the system that was made for Game of Thrones, and it seems very much something up my alley. Still would be a tough sell because it seems way too complex for them to engage with. And as for implementing large-scale combat in other systems, that seems to be a challenge. Fabula Ultima is our go-to these days because of D&D burnout, but that system is way too simple to homebrew that. Trying to turn it into Fire Emblem or FF Tactics has delivered mixed results.

So I wanted to hear people's opinions and recommendations about systems, ideas for homebrew, or how they ran tables that blurred realm building and wargaming with high heroics and roleplay.

Like the title says, I'm looking to run a campaign set in mythic Greece. I would use 5e but I ran into a problem, I love mythology to the point that accuracy is important to me. The main issue I have is that your average hero has no substantial control over magic, they gain control through items or gifts. Does anyone know a game or system that supports a story like this?

As the title says, I love Fronts and Dangers from DW as a session planning framework.
Are there any other frameworks like that out there? Or did any systems, designers develop it further?

I recently found a super cool layout in a book that used the outer page edge color to denote chapters, which meant it was easy to flip to a specific chapter. Then I realized how much diversity mork borg had in their layouts. Which overall got me super interested in layouts recently.

So now I'm curious. What kinds of RPG books have done layout really well vs really poorly? What made them so interesting?

Long, drawn out combats are boring. Button smashing the same attack each round is, too. Here's 3 tips from 13th Age.

1. Miss damage - on a miss you still deal your level's worth of damage, representing glancing blows.
2. Flexible Attacks - Make each die roll have meaning other than a binary hit/miss. Examples with situational bonuses: "on any natural even miss, add additional damage to the miss". Or, "On a roll of 16+ (and when the escalation die is at 5+) 3 allies can add 3d6 bonus damage to their next attack."
3. Escalation Die - each round of combat after the first, add a cumulative +1 to hit bonus. This bonus can be used to unlock abilities, add damage, or help speed up combat.

The escalation die and flexible attacks can be overlayed onto features, abilities, spells, etc. to further increase their potential uses. What do you all think?