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for a good reason, this is one of if not the most repeated advice for GM prep, at the same time its barely even mentioned how this is done

I usually approach "situations instead of plots" by simply writing simple dialogueless script stories that dont delve into way too much detail for flexibility and improv's sake where the question of "what if the PCs didnt even exist?" are answered, usually one adventure at a time, maybe a few lines of prep for things that are just beyond the horizon

this approach already works for me, but i wanted to know if there were other more convenient ways of doing it

I've been running a mystery campaign for about eight months, and I recently added a section to my notes called "Things the party believes."

Not things they've discovered. Not clues they've collected. Things they currently think are true, whether they're right or not.

It started because of an apothecary.

The party had been investigating missing shipments in a small port town. I'd established that the local apothecary was behaving suspiciously, paying people to make deliveries at night and refusing to let anyone into her cellar.

The actual explanation was that she was secretly buying smuggled medicine for patients who couldn't afford it.

My players, however, had somehow become convinced she was hiding kidnapped people down there.

I had absolutely no idea they believed this.

For two sessions they kept doing things I found baffling. They tried to befriend her assistant. They asked around about missing townspeople. They even spent an evening watching the cellar windows.

I thought they were just taking the investigation in an odd direction.

Then, during our usual recap, someone casually said, "Well, we still need to rescue whoever she's keeping downstairs."

And I finally understood what game they'd been playing.

It was a completely reasonable conclusion from the information they had. Just wrong.

I didn't change the mystery to make their theory correct. Eventually they discovered the medicine, felt like idiots for about thirty seconds, and then immediately started arguing about whether they should help her.

But it made me realize something about running mysteries, and honestly RPGs in general.

I have detailed notes about what NPCs know, what actually happened, who's lying, and which clues the players have encountered.

Until recently, I had almost no record of what the players thought any of it MEANT.

Those are two very different things.

Now I jot down their assumptions whenever they come up naturally. It's been surprisingly useful.

Sometimes I discover they've made a clever but incorrect deduction. Great. That's part of the game.

Other times I discover they fundamentally misunderstood something their characters would obviously know. Like thinking the town only has one exit because I forgot to mark the ferry crossing on the map.

That's not an interesting mystery. That's me accidentally withholding basic information.

Keeping track of the difference has made me much more comfortable letting genuine misunderstandings play out, because I'm better at recognizing the ones that actually need correcting.

And it's hilarious looking back through my notes.

Apparently, at various points, my players have believed that the mayor was dead, the apothecary was running a kidnapping operation, and an entirely innocent fisherman was secretly in charge of the local criminal network.

I'm genuinely curious whether other GMs track this kind of thing.

Not just what your players know, but what they're absolutely convinced they know.

Because at this point my campaign has two plots: the one I'm running and the one my players think they're investigating.

I'm seeing Sword World on BackerKit, but it seems really similar to FB and TS (I'm assuming cause they took a lot of inspiration from Sword World). I'm trying not to buy TTRPGs that occupy the same niche. Is there any functional reason to buy Sword World if I already have Fabula Ultima and Twilight Sword?

Any other non-native speakers struggle with sourcebooks being in english and having to translate all of the content for your players haha? Feels like i get thrice the prep

Any advice would be lovely, i'm running delta green currently

I have exactly zero ideas for campaigns I want to run.

I've only ever run campaigns that at least start from pre-written modules because of this.

Once I have a module, I'm actually ok at expanding on it and fleshing it out, even following on from it with successive stories... I can take a 5-page adventure and turn it into a 50-page campaign, pretty much. Even my first ever campaign back when I used to play d&d, we continued playing for like a year after the written content ended with me writing new content.

But I can't ever come up with that initial kernel of an idea to build out my own thing from scratch.

Am I just boring and uncreative? Is there anything I can do??

Edit: to be clear, I know there's nothing wrong with running pre-made stuff, but writing my own stuff is an experience I really want to have is all.

Edit2: I'm an avid reader, but the only ideas I get from reading are "copy this, but in RPG form". Not anything that's my own...

Incremental stat increases are incremental stat increases, and advantage/disadvantage also alter your dice rolls, but Feats/Perks/Moves/Stunts are little packages that can fundamentally change how a character feels to play.

What are some of your favourites and which RPGs do it best? Which have the most depth or impact and which are just the most fun and flavourful? Which best represent how a certain class or career feel to play?

This post is brought to you partially by DnD and how much it bodges feats.

Hey all :)
RPGs have been my favourite hobby for a long time but i’ve recently kinda hit a slump with what i’ve been playing and wanna try something new. for reference some of my favourite rpgs are (in no particular order): Cyberpunk 2020/RED, Blade Runner, Alien, TWD, Ronin, Delta Green . I’m looking for recommendations for all genres and maybe just a little about it (why you like/ recommend it).

Any and all help is greatly appreciated :)

When I was like 11, I was gifted The Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys: Things to Know. Unnecessary gender dichotomy aside, I'll always be thankful for the effect this book had on me. Specifically because one of its chapters is on role-playing games. It's something I carried with me for the next ~5 years until I got to play D&D for the first time, and even now, more than a decade later playing mostly CfB stuff, it still resonates as a seed that pushed me toward what I love. Thought people might appreciate the look into the specifics of someone's love for RPGs. The chapter is just a few paragraphs:

This is not a chapter telling you how to do something --- you'll see why as you read. It's a short essay on role-playing games: what they are and how to get started. There are few inventions of the twentieth century that can combine entertainment with imagination so well.
Dungeons and Dragons was put together in 1972. It is still available from online bookshops or game stores. To get started you'll need the player's handbook, the dungeon master's handbook, some dice, and, eventually, an adventure to play. It isn't inexpensive to start, but after the initial outlay, costs are minimal---it's all imagination and the occasional pencil.
In essence, you buy the books, read them, and choose a character for yourself. There are basic classes like Fighter, Thief, and Magic-user. The character will start out with certain qualities such as dexterity and strength, decided by the roll of a die. With experience, the character grows in power, endurance, and knowledge. The game also grows more and more complex. Fighters win more powerful weapons, Wizards gain access to greater spells. When we were children, we progressed from Basic to Advanced to Expert to Immortal levels, before moving on to battling at a national level and building an empire. You never forget the first time you were exiled from a country you raised from nothing.
You do need a few people for this---it is a social game, which is a good thing. In a very real sense, it is a training ground for the imagination and, in particular a school for plot and character. It may even be a training ground for tactics. If you want to be a writer, try D&D. For that matter, if you want to be a mathematician, try D&D.
The Dungeon Master (or DM) is the one who runs the game. He will either collect or write adventures---literally set in dungeons or just about anywhere. The characters battle the monsters he chooses and either solve his traps or fall prey to them, suffering horrible deaths. The players will develop characters with extraordinarily detailed histories, equipment, and skills.
For us, D&D meant hundreds of hours at school and at home playing with pencils, charts, dice, and laughter. If elves don't grab you, there are many other forms of role-playing---from Judge Dredd, to superheroes, to Warhammer, to a hundred more... but Dungeons and Dragons is still the original and the best.

The line "you never forget the first time you were exiled from a country you raised from nothing" has always stuck in my brain. Recently rediscovering this after finding the book in a trunk, "it is a social game, which is a good thing" sticks out more. A lot of it doesn't really apply to me anymore, but it definitely had an effect on my start.

Started playing some of the Spooktacular TTRPG with my boy for this spooky season. Would heartily suggest it to anyone looking for an easy to learn and play (and cheap!) Ghostbusters style game. I drew up a map of his Grandmothers house and had an Inhabitor possessing all the creepy dolls she keeps in glass cabinets around the house. Was extra fun because I had a bunch of orange paper scraps I cut up and taped over any collateral damage we caused.

Spooktacular is based off the original Ghostbusters TTRPG from the 80's and basically you just need a bunch of D6s (plus one that's unique colored) and players get to roll as many dice as however many points they have in the associated core stat (of which there's only 4). No health, you just reduce a stat for each point of damage taken. It has a meta currency that you're supposed to do a generous give and take with instead of horde and notably is the only way to sink damage. No complicated movement, range, or turn rules. Very much just go with the natural flow and try to make the ghosts spoooooky.

I really just wanted to share the character sheet, company sheet, and some printable cards I made for anyone else looking to play. Mine aren't super fancy but I really wasn't a fan of the provided character sheet and will hopefully save someone else some time. The cards aren't exactly 1:1 from the book, I've added some and made a few edits and minor changes. This isn't a heavy or serious system but I tried to keep them from being broken. Print the cards on 8.5x11 printer paper and sleeve with an old MtG or Pokemon card as the backer.

This could also be repurposed for the Awfully Cheerful Engine (ACE) since they are both based off the same base system, but will need a few minor edits since it has a slightly different stat setup.

Google Drive link

I'm looking to test out Cities Without Number using the free rule set and would really appreciate it if anyone has a Cyberpunk OSR adventure they'd suggest for it.

Ideally it should include some netrunning, combat and social gameplay just to cover the main bases.

Also if anyone has any advice on how to run Cities I'd appreciate it. I've played cyberpunk 2020 and have read and regretted purchasing Red for context.

For the first time ever, this TTRPG from Japan is finally being officially translated into English. It’s been refined over decades, and after spending most of this year giving us sneak peaks here it is.