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I can't think of a clearer, snappier title for this, so forgive me if it's not immediately clear what I'm on about. But fundamentally I've been thinking about the sliding scale between a TTRPG which tries to mechanically copy a different genre versus trying to embody the "feel" of what makes that genre what it is.

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The specific example that got me thinking about this was the many "I want to run a JRPG-inspired/fantasy anime-inspired campaign, how do I do this" and how the go-to systems - Fabula Ultima, Break, etcetera - focus on trying to mechanically reproduce the technical bits of JRPGs like "guys standing in a line" combat, complex job systems and mechanised status effects and elemental weaknesses and a focus on trying to give some form of the video game experience adapted to TTRPG form.

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Whereas when I've run "JRPG inspired" campaigns the focus for me has been embodying the parts I feel best adapt to TTRPGs - the tropes and aesthetics, so perhaps high fantasy with lots of technological progress, a party of generally high status and disparate heroes who all excel in their field in some idiosyncratic way, visual shorthands like airships and floating cities and so on. And in terms of storytelling themes the broad-strokes political allegories, personal rivalries embodying ideological arguments, themes of progress versus preservation, environmentalism, external evils corrupting people and countries, that sort of thing. Those are more important to me if I want to communicate "JRPG" in a campaign than the system having precise mechanics for birds being weak to wind and immune to earth, or a class specifically called Dragoon or whatever.

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It feels a much more PBTA ethos, which does a good thing with your playbook being as much your narrative role in the story and guiding your RP in that direction.

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The other classic for this is mecha - is it more important that you track heat and missiles and radar range and all that on a turn by turn basis (your Lancers and Mechwarrior and so on) or does it matter more that your mech can do *a role* and it does it as well or as inadequately as the story needs to be dramatic and tell a story that *feels* like a mecha anime.

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I'm not judging either approach - personally the very reasons I don't enjoy Fabula Ultima are the very reasons I'll go to Lancer or Battle Century for giant robots (because for me the joy of robot fighting *is* tactics and tinkering with your build, but the joy of JRPGs is the journey and the aesthetics and the outspoken storytelling).

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And I guess it holds true in other genres - I'm less of an expert but, say, Spycraft or Gumshoe versus Brindlewood Bay in terms of how a TTRPG can emulate mystery stories.

Edit: I guess I forgot to add the actual questions here - do some genres work best in TTRPG format as applying themes and aesthetics to a more generic system because their appeal isn't necessarily in the nitty gritty of how they work but more how they make you feel? Is this just a narrow issue for the people who want to emulate video games in tabletop form? Have you tried running games in these sorts of spheres and how did you do it?

Hi everyone, first post here. Heard about the The Dracula Dossier and I was thinking about asking my group to give it a try. The only problem is...how much material does the setting have? I looked on the Pelgrane website but I keep finding new additions and supplements to the series. Anyone who has any list of necessary and unnecessary materials? TIA

I have talked before about how this subreddit seems to recommend the same few dozen games, so I would like to earnestly, genuinely try an experiment to spin things in a different direction.

Recommend an RPG that has not been mentioned in this subreddit (except for this very thread) across the past month: ideally, not even by you yourself.

One way to do this is by using Reddit's built-in search function. Type in the name of the RPG, and sort by new.

Another method is to run a Google search like:

[name of RPG] site:reddit.com/r/rpg

Then, use Google's search filter to set a time for the past month.

This can be any game, preferably one that you have actually played before. Even a small, one- or two-sentence pitch should be fine.

I will start.

Project Rebirth is a gridless tactical combat game about playing not-quite magical girls. I say "not-quite magical girls" because Project Rebirth is a fork of Magical Burst ReWrite, which is a fork of Magical Burst (a game that had other forks, such as the original author's own Magical Fury, which went in an entirely different direction from Magical Burst ReWrite and Project Rebirth).

Sadly, Project Rebirth never made it past its beta phase before its author lost interest. But even in its eternal beta state, it is a perfectly playable RPG.

While there are noncombat rules covering both mundane and magical actions, the focus of the rules is battling "Revenants," monsters of incredible mystical might. The game is calibrated towards three PCs, hence the three combat archetypes of Striker, Guardian, and Tactician, though there are rules for two or four characters. There are no real positioning mechanics; instead, the focus is on juggling resource pools and intelligently applying 1/battle or 2/battle abilities. There is no bestiary, but GMs are given firmly codified rules on how to create Revenants, as well as a menu of special abilities to choose from.

I played and GMed Project Rebirth several decades ago. I do not know what I would think of it now, in 2026, but I remember it being a satisfying tactical combat game.

First of all, I’d like to apologize for any grammatical errors. English is not my first language.

I'm looking for a new system for a campaign I have in mind. Basically, I pitched a campaign to my players featuring silly, cartoonish villains, in the style of Despicable Me, They loved the idea and came up with some really cool concepts, like a genius dog who wants to pee on the moon to mark his territory, or a mild inconveniences villain who would do things like chew up all his gum and then put it back in the package, among other ideas of characters. I was happy they liked the idea, so I told them I’d look into some hero-based systems to build the campaign around. So here I am, do any of you have a superhero or even villain system that would fit this campaign concept? I have a few things in mind, like Mask: New Generation, but I haven’t read up on the system yet. Any suggestions are very welcome.

I'm looking to play some games with samurai duels, gunslinger duels, jousts, gladiator fights and other duels.

This is for a game group with 3-7 players (3 always show up, 4 that can't always make it, so it fluctuates) so we don't want to spend a very long time on each duel (especially for cases where they all might have duels at the same time or in short succession), but still have the option to give a duel a lot of narrative and emotional weight (like when finally facing the target of your revenge).

Anyone have any recommendations you could explain a bit?

my character dies? cool! i cant wait to play a new one! this npc dies horribly? woah that was a brutal death. im not fcked up about it. thats just the way i play. i LIKE characters, but they're just fun little pawns to see get into trouble, not realtable people i project myself onto.

oftentimes trouble can start at the table because the DM wants me to "invest more" or my coplayers are upset i don't care abt the lives of random npcs or dont care abt putting my character in danger. it gets annoying and feels like they want me to play like them and not like me.

if get it if i was being intentionally obnoxious or destructive, but im not! i roleplay, i strategise! but im here for the game more than the story, and i just wish that playstyle was more respected by my friends.

im not gona leave the group cuz its not that big of a problem, but i just wanna know im not crazy. anyone relate?

pretty much what it says. a true detective/disco elysium style inspired campaign. styley, surreal, and supernatural.

We're a little more than half way through 2026. What games have you been playing, as a player or GM? What has been your favorites this year so far? How are your games going in general?

I got to start my Dragonbane hexcrawl at the beginning of this year and its been a blast. We all love the system so much this might be our main fantasy rpg from now on

I got to finish an Orbital Blues campaign, about 12 sessions and it was super fun, but didn't feel like it would be good for any longer campaigns. But overall really enjoyed the troubles and blues system.

Both were played with me as a GM

I'm interested in hosting a fantasy-like world for my player group. So far, they have really enjoyed Delta Green, but I want to mix things up and do something different between campaigns.

I want a more fantasy-adjacent world, and I don't like D&D or anything of that sort, so I came here for suggestions.

I've thought about running Cloud Empress, but it just doesn't "click" for me personally. It's still an interesting game, but it doesn't have much appeal for me.

Some games I personally love are:

Qin: The Warring States (only played)

Mörk Borg (and many of its Borg derivatives)

Cloud Empress (mentioned earlier, have only played)

Delta Green (my all-time favorite. I'm actually trying to find this other game like it where you're normal people confronted with anomalous things. It was made by a popular creator, but I can't remember what it was called, something to do with cryptids and anomalies, huge sanity system.)

His Majesty the Worm

And many media-adjacent settings and systems like Dune, Fear & Hunger, etc.

My mom has been really interested in trying ttrpgs since ive played dnd and kids on bikes with some friends and has asked me if she could also play sometime. I offered her to join me and my friends but she feels like that would be weird.

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But Dnd and kids on bikes doesnt really seem doable for 2 people. So I was hoping people might have some ideas for ttrpgs that we can try together?

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Hello, I'm a tabletop enjoyer of 4.5 years. It's been my main hobby as of 4 years. I tend to gravitate towards systems that are complex and have lots of depth. I also find myself preferring games influenced by D&D 4e. (13th Age, Trespasser, Icon, Beacon, Pf2e, Draw Steel)

A while back I picked up a Pathfinder 2e hack called Pathwarden. https://ghost-spark.itch.io/pathwarden I then got news of the creator's Genre-Agnostic d20 RPG, Warden. https://ghost-spark.itch.io/warden . I really like them both, despite them not being the kind of game I'd normally run or play. This has got me curious about genre-agnostic systems. So I want to ask some questions:

1. What is it that makes systems like Warden and other genre-less games (Cypher, Cortex, Fate, Gurps, Genesys, Strike!, Questworlds) shine? Is it different for each system?
2. I've read some previous posts discussing the importance of these types of systems being "toolkits." Do mechanics matter more, or less for these systems?
3. What makes you like one genre-agnostic system over another?
4. How do you use them differently than games with set genre expectations?