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This isn’t entirely a discussion about “bad” adventures, because even great ones can go horribly awry for one reason or another: GM misinterpretation or inadequate preparation, player disinterest, etc. (It also goes without saying that one person’s trash is another’s treasure.)

With all of that in mind, have you ever run or played through an adventure that flopped so hard that it ended a campaign? I don’t mean a total party kill or diegetic narrative event, either: I mean something that killed everyone’s interest in playing any further, left bad feelings among the group, or otherwise made people shelf the RPG.

I had this experience GMing Diogo Nogueira’s “Halls of the Blood King,” an adventure for Old School Essentials. I like Diogo and his work, generally speaking. No blame on him, this was all me.

It is a very loosely structured module, and I think I wasn’t expecting that. It felt fine in prep, but in practice, I failed to find the rhythm.

Things just spun out of control and I wasn’t able to correct them. I had players stumbling around and not knowing exactly what to do, my own problems handling a mansion full of vampires, and finally a player who lost her first character and didn’t take it well.

The whole thing felt awful enough that I ended up declaring a complete do-over. We’d forget it ever happened and move into the next adventure, which we did, but the damage was done.

We shelved OSE and put the characters on ice after the next session. We love OSE, but have yet to return to it. We have been playing other things ever since. We’ll start anew when we do. The player (a new person) who lost her character won’t be returning: That rupture was irreparable.

I’m a forever GM of over 40 years and the last time a derailment of this scale happened was in high school with an adventure I wrote for my AD&D group. I guess things happen sometimes.

Any of you have a fatal flop?

Hey

I watched Resident Evil today - great movie, I recommend it - and it made me want to play a survival horror system.

The only ones I know for that are Call of Cthulhu, but the character sheet too time-consuming to create imo and I wanted something more dynamic, I also heard of Paranormal Order and Alien, but I've never played either of them.

I wanted to know which system you prefer or if you have any other recommendations for me - even PBTA would work.

Maybe unrelated but we discovered co-op board games last year, we fell in love with the Frostpunk boardgame and how we were together roleplaying as mayors and building up something to overcome a challenge together.

Well, I figured out that the next step is to try an actual table top RPG and see how it goes.

What is the most noob friendly TTRPG that can be played by two people?

My wife and I came up with an idea for me to GM a one shot for her and some of her friends. We want to do a rules-light system since there will be a couple of folks who have never played a ttrpg before and it’s just meant to last one session. I’ll take any ideas or recommendations any of you all have. Thanks!

The recent reveal of the latest Metroid game, Ravenous, reignited an old wish of mine of playing a sci-fi campaign inspired by the franchise. I don't have anything much specific in mind, just something focused on cool space action and the exploration of dangerous alien planets. I'm not very knowledgeable about sci-fi RPGs so I'd appreciate some recommendations for an adequate system. The ones I know are either too focused on horror so characters are too fragile and combat too deadly (Mothership), or on space-magic (Starfinder), or are just a little too rules-heavy for my taste (Traveller).

Thanks in advance!

I was looking through some of the materials and quick play content for Crows from MCDM and I'm curious what your opinions are.

It seems to me like most of the mechanics are lifted from other RPGs (obvious one is the inventory system is almost a direct copy of Mausritter)

Am I missing something unique or is this just another OSR game?

To be clear not a shill just excited and want to see this not Kickstarter push further, it already funded the base goal and is just adding stacks of good stuff onto the pile.

The game is called Ink Ribbon, there's a quick start to try and see if it's worth throwing your money at.

Resident evil, last of us, Alan Wake (gods I'm old), eventually if it hits the bigger stretch goal Dino Crisis inspired TTRPG, go read the posts check out and see if you want to add it to your pile of 'will I ever run/play this or will it just be great reading material I can borrow' like I do.

Again, not a shill just excited as a forever GM that loves resident evil things.

Hello everyone! I recently bought Girl by Moonlight, and I feel really confused. I bought it because I'm into magic girls, specifically Madoka. And I wanted to play a game for it, yet upon getting it, I feel overwhelmed. I wanted to be a game master for a couple of friends. But I don't really know where to start, and apparently Girl by Moonlight doesn't really explain the mechanics very well for people who are beginners with the Blades in the Dark system, so I came here hoping to get some kind of help.

This might be a slightly off-topic type of question (or at least slightly odd) but for folks who have this book, would it be something that would be enjoyable for a person who does not intend to actually play the game? Thinking about this as a fun gift for someone who really likes the Cthulu omniverse and I heard generally high praise for the quaility of this book and the features within it.

Obviously it's mostly about the game and how to play it but I understand there's also just a lot of "flavor" in terms of text and art.

Sorry if this is a weird question not really belonging here in this forum but I thought I'd at least try and see what other people familiar with it might think.

Thank you!

Hi guys,

The new Witcher 3 expansion and re-release has got me wanting to play in that world again. What’s currently out in the TTRPG space that could adequately run the Witcher that isn’t the official RPG or overly crunchy (I love Mythras in theory, not in practice, on that note).

Ideally my touchstones for this are the level of complexity in the One Ring RPG, or the Year Zero Engine games. So, not too crunchy but with enough meat on them to not feel like I’m running something with a single d6 and a dream.

Thanks in advance!

I thought I would reach out the community for some ideas on a system to use for a campaign idea I have and want to run. I am a moderately experienced GM, and I have run or played several systems from high crunch (HERO) to low crunch (Tunnels & Trolls) to highly tactical (Pathfinder 1e) to highly narrative (FFG Star Wars) and places in between. I am looking for the best fit for my idea, not necessarily the best system overall.

I think the biggest hurdle is how I want magic to be presented. So here is the basics of the world/setting and what I want to best represent:

It is an Urban Fantasy story set in the modern world with a hidden history. Magic is real and comes in 4 "flavors", Arcane, Faith, Nature, and Technical/Blood. I want each flavor to feel different. All the typical "fantasy" races (Dwarves, Elves, etc.) and creatures (Werewolf, Vampire, etc.) actually exist as well as Mad Science, and while the players are not necessarily part of the "hidden world" they will each have some kind of connection.

Arcane (Wizards) - Learned through study, has spells for differing effects, but is well suited for flexibility, probably powered through some sort of "mana" pool. I am a fan of the 9 D&D schools but am not committed to it. Arcane magic can be detected through "arcane sight" and those with the skills can decipher the aura.

Faith (Clerics) - Learned through dedication to a deity (any pantheon is okay). A faith user's magic is powered through their dedication to their god and will be more and more difficult based on how much and how often they use their prayers. Faith magic can be detected by those able to hear the sound the prayer (very good prayers will be like a holy choir, and very bad will be quite discordant, etc) and those with the skills can decipher the sounds to identify the magic.

Natural (Druids) - Gained through dedication to the spirits of the elements and land (Think Iron Druid saga). Their power is harnessed through runes, tattoos, and rituals, and is not well suited to spontaneous use, though things may be prepared in advance and initiated later. Nature magic is detected by its scent, and like the others, can be deciphered by those with the skills to recognize the smells.

Technical/Blood (Atlantean) - Power gained through nanobots inherent in Atlantean blood. The power is limited by the characters health, as it uses blood...the bigger the effect, the more the blood. Atlantean magic is amplified/harnessed by Orichalcum. The blood of the caster glows when using the magic, and this glow can be caused inadvertently when in contact with Orichalcum. Unless witnessed when cast, it is very difficult to detect Atlantean magic.

Magic Items should come in two types Specific and General. Specific can only be used by someone with the skills to do so (Harry Potter's wand) and General can be used by anyone (They Live sunglasses).

I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to give as much detail as possible.

I originally thought to use HERO, but even that got wonky with this magic concept. I am currently considering Genisys, or possibly SWADE. That is why I am opening it up to the community for other ideas for systems I may not be familiar with.

Thank you for the assist.

Edit: Thank you all for the feedback. I think I will be going with SWADE for now, with WoD and YZE as backups. Thanks again for all the good idea.