Hey all,

I'm Amit, creator of Legend In The Mist (LitM) and founder of Son of Oak Game Studio.

I'm 45, I live in Boston with my husbear Mark, and I just had a delicious chocolate croissant (I know, it's not what it's called) from a great local bakery/coffeeshop (Tatte).

So with that covered, I'm ready to answer any questions you may have, especially about Son of Oak, our games, the Mist Engine with its stateless tag-based mechanics, future plans, Legend In The Mist and its creation process, the Hearts of Ravnesdale setting, indie publishing or anything really.

About Legend In The Mist

If you haven't been following, Legend In The Mist is a rustic fantasy TTRPG that is also a universal, description-based game engine which can support any fantasy (or other) setting and includes solo/GMless play in the core rules. It was Kickstarted in 2024 to the tune of $855,000, was voted 2025's Most Anticipated TTRPG, and was the Top-Rated TTRPG of 2025 on DriveThruRPG (the most 5-star reviews). You can try it with the free comic book tutorial , a free quickstart (demo) game, as well as a free 5e crossover guide.

LaunchFest!

Legend In The Mist coming in print next month (yay!) and we're having a big party to welcome it, titled LaunchFest, with daily content drops and lots of events. Ending June 17th, LaunchFest is the last chance to preorder the game at up to 40% off retail price after which you get an instant download of the PDFs and can start playing. (There are also bundles for retailers!)
Check it out here: https://sonofoak.com/pages/legend-in-the-mist-rpg-launch-fest

One of our most interesting upcoming events is a stream this Thursday with YouTube legend Dungeon Dad, discussing the differences between DnD and LitM: https://youtube.com/live/w4mWzQEtAAs

Thank You!

The TTRPG community's reaction to Legend In The Mist has really touched the Son of Oak team so deeply (myself, Alejandra, Eran, Manuel, Kelly, Itamar, we're too many to list...). As creators, especially of a game that's quite different from traditional RPGs, we were just incredibly delighted to find so many players wanted that - a simple, narrative, yet highly flexible and customizable game, where you choose the crunch level in every action and where any conflict can take center stage, combat or not.

This week I was really moved by this review by Darren on DriveThruRPG:

It took a while to work out the rules, which did not seem anywhere near as easy to follow as the book proclaimed. But, wow, when it clicked this product suddenly became fabulous. Character creation is adorable. Superbly presented. I think this is the best game in decades.

Switching to a statless, classless game is definitely a paradigm shift for most traditional TTRPG players (not so much for new players, we've found!), but I was so thrilled that Darren found the magic and creative freedom that await once you make that leap...

Anyway - now to your questions!

**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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Im a teacher who runs my schools D&D and Warhammer Club. The kids want to play dungeons and dragons but none of them want to learn how to play dungeons and dragons. I cant DM a game for all of them because theres too many of them. Ive noticed that the DMs arent even picking up the rule books. The players dont have their character sheets in front of them. Theyre just making up anything and rolling a random dice to decide an outcome. Its gotten to a point where the students who actually know how to play are getting fed up and the students who dont want to play refuse to learn how to play because it bores them. Ive suggested playing simpler games like dungeon world but then they stop showing up to the club because its "no longer dnd" even though they werent playing dnd to start with. Additionally a campaign seems unviable because A if they refuse to learn how to theres no hope of them ever leveling up and B there turn out numbers are inconsistent. Everyone needs to be playing the same game other wise "oh no our GM isnt here today we cant play and cant join the other group because theyre playing a different game to us." Help. How can i dumb down dnd to a level that is engaging and can be learned quickly in a way that a campaign can actually be played.

Being in this hobby, it's quite apparent to me that the GM tends to spend more money and time than players do. And I say this as a forever player.

I'm curious if players do things to relieve the GM of this burden. In my group, the players have bought PDFs or physical books for the GM. We've paid for a Roll20 subscription. 2 of us actually run Foundry servers. What else can we do to make our GMs life and burden on their wallets easier.

What are the rules do you see ignored 90+% of the time? Cross system and system specific.

For me, carrying capacity. Specifically D&D and PF games, usually ignored either mostly or completely. And when it's occasionally enforced, the 50gp = 1lb, definitely forgotten about.

Beyond those, unless it's an integral part of the game, like post apocalyptic and resource hoarding, or is majorly simplified, like Dragonbane (and others) bulk system, it's generally ignored, beyond the ridiculous.

Lately I've been thinking about the state of the different generic / universal / genre-neutral TTRPGs - systems like GURPS, Fate, Cortex, Genesys, Cypher, and so on.

While Cypher had a big crowdfunding campaign for a new edition and Cortex Prime is likewise looking like it might return to the fore with a new community license and program, most others seem... Not *dead*, but past the golden age of their popularity; GURPS is still slowly trudging along even though the current edition is literally over 20 years old (though getting a core set revision), Fate has fallen off enough that Evil Hat has admitted to scaling down the scope of their newest book release for it, and the likes of Genesys and Savage Worlds are also... Just kinda there I guess?

It's not the bleakest picture in totality, but it's not the days of Fate being the go-to indie TTRPG which was apparently the vibe in the 2010s, and GURPS likewise seemed more central to the hobby in even earlier times.

I hesitate to call generic games dead, but it's hard to shake off the feeling they've lost ground, particularly to games that share underlying frameworks and design philosophies but are otherwise each uniquely designed and not directly cross compatible - Powered by the Apocalypse, Forged in the Dark, Carved from Brindlewood, Told by Wild Words, the Year Zero Engine...

I've always been intrigued by those games, don't get me wrong - one (OpenLegend) was even the first game I got to play and run that wasn't some version of D&D or Pathfinder! But these days it feels like I have much more success and enthusiasm hacking a more pointed game to deliver on a specific premise than by hooking it up to a more generalized and less opinionated system - and given the popularity of aforementioned rulesets without a shared generic game behind them, game designers also seem to prefer that approach.

What do you think though?

Might be a dumb question, but why do many rpgs use hex grids for world maps and square grids for dungeon maps? Why not use the same pattern on both, or maybe the other way around?

I’m going on a first date with a woman who wants to try rpg. She’s into ren faire and romantasy. I was thinking of taking her to dinner then walking to the Barnes and noble down the street to play an rpg. Just her and I. This would be our first time but by the way we communicate with each other I believe it would be enjoyable for both of us. The problem is we don’t know what we are doing. I can’t create a dnd one shot in a day. And I understand we have to pick a character as well. Seems too much for 2 noobs. I’ve researched and found for the queen which I think would be perfect because it’s an easy concept and up her alley with the ren faire. Problem is I’m having trouble finding it anywhere local and I need it by tomorrow. Can anyone help recommend where to find it in short notice or help find another rpg that’s an easy concept and more readily available.

I have always been fascinated with high concept systems. especially from the late 90s early 2000s. by high concept I mean like a system that is made for a heavily unique setting or one that tries to incorporate lofty ideas to varying levels of success. idk if that makes any sense. some more examples would be promethean the created. nobilis. and the far roofs. what are others like this?

In your opinion, considering games that feature a somewhat crunchy and structured combat, which one has the most organic and free flowing, but also not too finicky or slow movement rules?

Ttrpgs have a ton of content out there and I feel like you find a diamond in the rough every now and then when checking out smaller creators. What are your favorite smaller creators that you love?

I've been brainstorming a game, but I'm not completely sure about how I would run it mechanically.

The game itself is based on the idea of different civilizations having different solutions to the apocalypse. Not to solve it, but to endure or survive it, and the characters have abilities and or problems caused by these solutions. It's somewhat inspired by how the different *Chronicles of Darkness* game lines have mechanics that are more or less set in stone, but the lore for each character's Bloodline/Court/Origin/etc. is up for the player or storyteller to come up with themselves.

One example being a character that can manipulate energy of one type or another, with one of the sample stories being a metropolis that set up a magic bell in the middle of the city. Every month the bell would ring and send out a wave of energy that would leech energy from every citizen as it made its way out to the protective barrier around the city, reinforcing it with the gathered energy.

After some time, whether just after the proverbial shit hits the fan, the solutions fail (in this case, the Bell shatters one day and the protective barrier eventually falls apart) which leads to everyone venturing out for one reason or another

I'm thinking of setting up options for what elements the apocalypse has (Volcanic, Glacial, Invasion, etc.) but also possible difficulty changes depending on how soon after the apocalypse the game is set. Choking ash clouds, for example, are going to be much more common just after a massive volcanic eruption rather than 30 or so years down the line.

I had kind of entertained the Year Zero system (from Free League's *Coriolis: The Third Horizon*) because I like the idea of the Darkness Point system letting the GM adding drama to the scene organically, but I don't want it to be as lethal of a game.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!