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Hi everyone,

A while ago I read an article about roleplaying in RPGs. The main idea was that no matter what race you play (elves, dwarves, etc.), you're still basically portraying a human.

The argument was that we can only interpret characters through a human lens.

Does anyone recognize this or know where I can find it?

Thanks!

I always like playing characters who are tied to the divine in some way, priests who run churches, clerics running around healing folks with divine magic, that kind of thing. In your opinion, what games have the coolest or most fun options for playing those kinds of characters? What are your favorites?

We talk about combat in RPGs a lot here, but I was wondering how important the presence of combat in a rules system, or a campaign, is to your enjoyment personally.

For example, must a game have an detailed combat minigame for you to even consider playing? Do you like combat, but maybe prefer it more abstract? Would you shun a game with no combat rules, but be happy to play a non-combat campaign of a game with rules for fighting? Do you not care, and are happy to play any game regardless?

It's idle curiosity, by the way. I'm not doing research, or attempting design by committe. I'm just interested in your opinions.

Hello! I have been gaming since 2022 and for all of that time, I have played and ran games solely online. I have run a few games and am pretty used to it but have decided this year, I wanted to turn over a new leaf and find people in my town to game with. As I start, I wanted to ask, is there anything too different about dming games in-person vs. online that might not be obvious to someone who's never done it.

I'll be running a PBTA game that's theatre of the mind so I wont worry about props too much beyond dice and character sheets.

So any of the big names in gaming have been there forever, D&D, CoC, WoD, Traveller etc. It can be hard to have the time to even look at anything else.

What are some games that you like, but you'd recommend something else because it's better (in your opinion) I'm one more aspect, like mechanic, lore, runs smoother etc?

Jumping to mind for me is D&D 3.5 is great, but Pathfinder 1e is better as they improved and streamlined the mechanics... obviously this is an easy one.

It's something I wanted to see if other people share the same feeling. I'm not trying to shill or trash the systems I'm about to mention, it's just something I notice: 90% of systems have completely boring and underwhelming monsters/NPCs.

Take a dragon in D&D (5e), for example. It has 3 attacks, it flies, and every now and then it breathes fire. So a fight with a dragon usually comes down to it staying close in melee, maybe flying around, and if the GM is feeling cruel, picking up players and dropping them from a ridiculous height. Sure, the GM has full freedom to play hit and run, but the dragon is going to boil down to exactly that.

The same goes for OSR systems, though I get that the design philosophy there is to keep things simple. The only systems I've read that made me look at monsters and boss fights and genuinely think "okay, this is really cool" were Draw Steel, Nimble, Dragonbane, CAIN, and Pathfinder 2e, though I find that last one a step below the other three.

Am I wrong for wanting monsters that are more fleshed out, with more going on than just "it hits, it bites, sometimes it flies, that's it"? I don't want stronger monsters for the sake of steamrolling my players. I want monsters that are interesting to run. And the system doesn't even need to be crunchy or gamist to pull that off: CAIN is fully narrative and has great monsters, Nimble is super simple and has great monsters.

Running interesting monsters and crafting an appropriate challenge for my players is part of the fun for me, at least. Yet I see most systems simply not caring about that aspect. My own table is a good example of this: my players love the way my monsters do unexpected and varied things, but that's because I spend most of my prep time rebuilding them from scratch. The final fight against Strahd had his entire stat block redone. I gave him a second and third phase, while also giving the players opportunities to use their abilities, and players who had run that campaign before said it was one of the best finales they'd ever had.

So anyway, does anyone else feel like monster design is the part that most systems just... leave behind?

Looking for an RPG that has:

• a push-your-luck or gambling mechanic
• and/or a mechanic that all players can call on at any time, but it has the potential to backfire

For example:

OUTGUNNED
You roll for matching numbers. If you get matching numbers, you may re-roll the non-matching dice. If you do not get any additional matches, you fail the roll.

PERILS & PRINCESSES
You have a pool of d6 “Gift Dice” that you can roll to add to your regular d20 roll. If you roll a 1 to 3 on a Gift Die, you keep it. If you roll a 4 or 6, it is lost until you take a rest but you get the +4 to +6 bonus. If you roll matching numbers on your Gift Dice when you're rolling 2d6 or more, something funny or bad happens to you.

SLUGBLASTER
You can yell “CHECK IT” on any d6 roll when you are attempting a trick to gain XP. On a 1 to 3, bad stuff happens if you miss. On a 4 or 5, you gain the XP, but something bad still happens. On a 6, you succeed and gain XP.

As the tile says, I’m looking for a game that would work well for a monthly 2-hour game night with various players coming in and out each month.

A few candidates:

Monster of the Week (sprinting through each myster)

Shadowdark

For me, I have a few things that come to mind.

• My Cyberpunk RED players are in post-apocalyptic Seattle, full of cyber-zombies. They have to climb over a scaffolding set a hundred meters in the air between two 'scrapers to avoid a horde. It's raining, they just lost a friend and they have to roll savethrows on dexterity to not slip and fall to death. There is ambient music in the background, the players are very anxious. Each roll can be their character's last. And when they all make it, it's such a reliefe. It took maybe 30 minutes to run the scene, but it was so worth it.

• We're playing a Marvel Heroic RPG campaign set in the '80s (maybe some of you remember me asking for some tips to make the aesthetic more authentic. Thanks, it helped a lot!). My players (Nico Minoru, Dazzler and Speed, all students of Midtown High, with Peter Parker being their teacher) are helping fugitive Cap and Falcon get the Winter Soldier out of New York. Suddenly, every speaking is transmiting the code for Bucky. And Nico goes for it and rolls to a) deafen James, b) get into his head and get rid of the sleep agent stuff. And she is IN. So his head is a '40s bar full of different Jameses and Buckies. They're all afraid of two things: a monster behind a door trying to break out (the Winter Soldier) and the little Bucky from WW2. And Nico spends about half an hour talking to him. And together they help the Winter Soldier to stop and give him a new mission: to do what Steve would do in any situation they're in.

There is more where that came from, but these are the first that came to my mind while writing this post. Can't wait to hear y'all's stories!