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EDIT: I've added all recommendations so far to an itch collection that can be found here: Strange Reddit Recommendations

I'll keep adding new items to the collection as they come in. I'm definitely buying a handful of these.

I want to run something new and unusual, and discoverability on itch still sucks, even after all these years. I know there's a ton of great games on there, after buying a few of those massive bundles, but I'd like to find something that's really out there. Let me start with an example:

The Day We Leave Our Forests To Die In Beautiful Silence is a diceless tabletop rpg about a strange and wonderful elven civilization being threatened by 'the Grey.' It is loosely based off PbtA mechanics, and is designed to tell a story-focused game about tragic elves facing the end of an era.

I've been trying to find the right group for this game for a while. The story that comes out of it will be extremely specific, but also hopefully have a strong emotional impact. I'd say that it's closer to Belonging Outside Belonging / No Dice No Masters than it is to PbtA, due to how its token economy replaces dice, but it does have a GM with a short list of principles. It clearly assumes that you're experienced in running this sort of game, which is exactly what I would expect of most replies to this question.

I definitely don't want responses limited to narrative-focused games like this. I'd love some weird OSR, or something that's harder to categorize. This even includes modules and settings that try to be relatively system-agnostic.

Bonus points if it's not part of one of the large itch bundles, because I know people have been looking closely at the contents of those bundles, but also because I'd like an excuse to give a new sale to someone that shared their passion project.

I’ve seen a lot of people reviewing Draw Steel commenting that they love the combat but once combat is over, they don’t feel the system is engaging. But almost no one seems to expound on exactly why they feel that way.

While I understand that some systems truly are just Tabletop Combat games, this take has me extremely confused because I don’t feel the Draw Steel system is any less oriented toward roleplay than D&D is. At the end of the day, roleplay at my tables is generally entirely nonreliant on rules absent occasional skill checks (which Draw Steel has). If anything, the negotiation system and skill challenge rules add a lot to non-combat encounters that I’ve felt D&D has struggled with quite a bit in my TTRPG experience. The only compelling argument I can imagine is that Draw Steel lacks a ‘Dungeon Master’s Guide’ book, which isn’t as much a game design flaw as a development problem.

Can someone who has this gripe provide some more context on why they feel this way?

(Context: I’ve been playing D&D for almost a decade and watching Matt Colville almost as long as that. So, huge fan of both systems but with a bias toward wanting to replace my campaign with Draw Steel in the future.)

Basically the title. But this has to be an RPG you've actually played (or run). A game that has been hyped up to you in some fashion. You played it. But you just didn't understand the hype.

For example, I've played Mothership twice. I thought it was... fine? A perfectly fine game. I'd be willing to play it again if my group wanted to, but there was nothing about it that stood out as remarkable to me. Obviously, it has garnered a lot of interest and a vibrant community. So it's speaking to people. Just not to me, I guess.

I got The Traveller Book, and I'm reading up to run a sandbox game with some local friends.

Anyone have tips for that kind of game?

I'm debating a complete sandbox, where everyone just rolls up characters and they're stuck on a planet and then they wander the stars for credits, or something with a more overarching/focused setup.

What RPG would you recommend to play an Eberron campaign that is not DnD 5e? I prefer games with some level of crunch

Or just any GM you enjoyed playing with. Something that I take into almost all of my games is that I allow the players to narrate their kills. My first DM did this and I remember it as a highlight - especially during the long combats of D&D 4e. What are some things that have passed on to your table from others?

As in the best NPC, Campaign, Moment or Lore you have come up with?

Mine would be the first time I went to run a horror campaign focused on werewolves in remote Austrian village in Medieval Europe. I spent so much time crafting atmosphere and scenes, that a player actually told me he felt afraid of the world. Been chasing that high.

As someone who hs been writing and designing content for D&D 5E for a while now, I still feel the long sting of the OGL situation and, honestly, the fatigue of continuing to pay into the Hasbro machine.

That said, I do still enjoy 5E. I still play it, and I still create content for it.

Note: I also enjoy other games like Shadowdark, Mythras, OSE, Warhammer the Old World, etc.

Many have started or considered upgrading to the D&D 5e 2024 rule set. I started looking for systems that are easy to port to and from 5E. RPGs that use the familiar d20 core, ability scores, and overall feel, without requiring heavy conversions or asking players to relearn everything from scratch.

That part was important to me. Not everyone wants to learn a brand-new ruleset, and a lot of players are perfectly happy with the bones of 5E, the just want alternatives that feel familiar and are not tied to Hasbro machine. So my focus was easy to port, able to use the D&D 5e content, rule books, adventures.

I ended up finding a few solid options and put together a short blog post about them.

My personal favorite is Nimble, very lightweight, very easy to port from 5E.
My second favorite is Tales of the Valiant / Black Flag, which is about as close to “5E without Wizards” as I think you can get.

You can read the full post here: Real D&D Alternatives

I would love to hear your thoughts, especially if you think I missed anything or if you have some recommendations.

I’ve often sought ways to enjoy my library of full size pdfs on my phone, but it’s never quite right. Even epub versions frequently have misaligned or missing images. The accessibility features on my phone really help me.

Can anyone recommend some good content formatted intentionally for viewing on phones? My tastes are more indie / rules light / one page rpgs but I’d be interested in OSR, mega dungeons, pbta, whatever.

But it's about Greek Myth, you say? How can this be even close to the series?

1- The play cycle is visiting islands. They are supposed to be episodic, but you can totally put several islands in a trenchcoat to tell longer arcs.

2- This is a cooperative AND a competitive game. Playful competition to seek glory and have their name increase and be remembered. As...you know, everyone on the main crew wants to some degree with their big dreams.

3- The bigger your name, the more powerful you are. Does this sound like the bounty system?

4- Purely narrative system. You can say wild shit as long as is in the fiction and your dice support it. Characters don't need to min max to be useful. A challenge could be solved by a scholar as well as a swordsman. You just need to explain how. It doesn't even need to be on the same day, a challenge can last for days in fiction.

5- One Piece characters already have epithets to some degree. Devil Fruits can be epithets, Haki can be an epithet, every defining trait you can think from a character can be an epithet.

6- Remember how some characters always have more stakes in the fate of the island. A leadership role represents that

Oh, but what about the gods? One piece doesn't have gods like Greek myth. Well, you don't even need to use the names of the gods, just their attributes. Make a flashback recalling why you have that attribute favorable in that moment.

If you want to still give names... make the players crew admire the straw hats (Barto style) and call the precision of Ussop or the Ingenuity of Franky or something like that.

Aside from maybe (huge maybe) the Vault of the Sky advancement, you can literally use the game as written. No need to homebrew anything. No need to change anything.

Anyway. That's the post.