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I have one - Its so cliched everytime someone says it in game I cringe: "Its time for you to seize your Destiny" and all variations around Destiny.

Over a decade ago I heard about a system that used ticks as initiative. actions had different values, so a dagger attack was 3 ticks and a hammer was 11 ticks, so you could stab someone more often than smash them.

Anything like that?

It had a bunch of unique templates in it, like 'half-human' and my personal favorite: the 'relentless template', which gave a monster immortality and the ability to shrug off death/damage, unless it was caused by a singular weakness (think kryptonite for Superman)

EDIT: Found it, sorry guys. It's literally called The Book of Templates: Deluxe 3.5 Edition.

ENWorld is running its annual vote for the most anticipated TTRPG of the year. The list of nominees there is pretty extensive, but I'm curious which—full game, not supplements or scenarios—people in this sub are looking forward to showing up in 2026.

My first thought was Apocalypse World: Burned Over, but with a Kickstarter delivery date of Dec. 2026 I think it's fair to say that's more likely be a 2027 game. So I think I'd go with Hot War, despite the fact that I'll probably never run it.

What about you, if you can only pick one?

I'm very good at running pre-written RPG Campaigns. I end up using the campaign as a springboard and what happens at the end isn't whatever railroad was initially presented.

For the life of me I can't figure out how I'd run a Sandbox without putting in a massive amount of prep work. I even have settings that come with all sorts of random tables and hex locations (Dolmenwood, Forbidden Lands, Outcast Silver Raiders, Oathhammer). Sandboxes aren't just limited to Fantasy - I have a Vampire Shadowdark Hack Sandbox and Esoteric Enterprises.

I'm not amazing at improv (even after decades of running games) - I can RIFF off a good campaign, but flounder when I'm making up a ton of stuff on the fly on my own. My pure-improv stuff ends up being pretty boring, and everything comes out sort of flat (the NPCs are uninteresting, I don't come up with any interesting obstacles/consequences) - which is why I stay away from stuff like Forged in the Dark games.

It feels like I'd have to do a massive amount of prep each week - making my own dungeons (if fantasy), coming up with all sorts of NPCs and Factions and "things to do" (e.g., evil plots they might want to thwart) that have enough "stuff" to be interesting at the table. I've tried "clocks" and "fronts" but have never been able to make them work.

The answer I usually get, which I'm not sure I buy, is "oh, I used to be terrible at improv, but I practiced and now my games are as good as a pre-written campaign - it's your fault you haven't practiced enough." I have tried it a bunch, and my players (and I) can always tell when I'm just improving a bunch of stuff because its sort of boring and halting.

In my opinion, pain should:

• Immediately degrades performance.

• Be separate from Lethality.

• Force dilemma's with consequences.

I haven't come across a TTRPG that does all three.

Hey all!

I recently ran a one-shot of "A fistful of Draculas", a pbta inspired game that can be found on itch.io. The players played Vampire Cowboys and the adventure was about a train heist.

While the players had a blast, from a GM perspective I found a fistful of Draculas a bit underwhelming. It mashed pbta ideas with trad games (enemies are supposed to actually roll to attack, there's advantage/disadvantage like dnd, things like that). It was somehow lacking.

But I LOVED the concept behind it.

I want to run this one-shot again, but with a better system (still pbta or pbta-adjacent if possible, heavy on the narrative and light on rules). Do you have any suggestion?

What I would need from the system:

- players can play as powerful creature (I can add the vampire and cowboy flavouring), with access to cool powers at a cost (that I can re flavor as blood)

- should allow for fast paced action scenes, where characters feel powerful but there are clear ways to give high stakes

- should be easy enough to teach in the first 15 minutes of a session, so shouldn't have thousands of subsystems

- should allow for an easy flavoring from the gm, to create a spaghetti western, a bit gonzo, style adventure with a good dash of horror and splatter.

I know I might be asking for a lot, but any help is appreciated :)​

Hello Adventurers. I am starting a new campaign in a new homebrew world. Each of my PCs is going to have a dream connecting each of them to 1 of 5 Runelords. I have all these dreams prepared but having trouble figuring out a way to bring them together in the middle of the action as they are trying to figure out what these dreams mean

What are your thoughts on these 2 systems? Both D20, kind of same flavor of games (imo).

I enjoy Troll Lord products, but Everyday Heroes seems pretty awesome, too!

Looking for a system for an espionage campaign that would support bombastic Mission Impossible shenanigans (car chases through busy highways, fist fights on type of cranes. Some caveats include: uses a d20 in some capacity (one of my players really likes how they feel), has easily improvved combat encounters that don't take too long, has enough progression for 10-15 sessions.

My friends are embarking on a game using "5 Parsecs from Home" rules, which is a skirmish wargame (think "Firefly" style with small crews) with a thin RPG veneer over the top to link the games together. I'd love the deepen that aspect and place our campaign in a developed RPG setting I can draw from. Would need to have a mix of authoritarian/security forces, pirates, criminal gangs and a bunch of aliens- all the fun! But the game system itself is not relevant to us. Would love suggestions on where that might work best please! Thanks 😎