**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.

----------

This submission is generated automatically each Saturday at 00:00 UTC.

I was thinking about the upcoming 5.5e World of Warcraft book coming out later this year (which, despite myself, I'm hype for), and how WoW has had around 2 and a half adaptations into TTRPG form so far.

That got me to thinking about other major fantasy or non-fantasy franchises that have gotten adaptations. Including Bethesda's own Fallout, which has an official Mophidius adaptation.

Yet, somehow, through it's 30 year history as a franchise; The Elder Scrolls has never gotten one official TTRPG release. Not a full bespoke system, and not even a d20 adaptation. Just...nothing. Only some fan games and adaptations over the years.

There isn't really a greater point here honestly. It's just kind of mind boggling that a game franchise with such deep ties to TTRPGs in its origin/systems, with a world that seems tailormade for a TTRPG adaptation, just never got one. You'd think there'd have been at least ONE at SOME point, you know?

Anyway, I guess for discussions sake, any ideas on why that is? Any other "seemingly obvious" franchises that somehow haven't gotten an adaptation into TTRPG form?

I've been DMing three dnd tables since august 2025 and one of them is finally coming to an end (the other two probably will be unfinished due to scheduling conflicts).

What makes it feel bad is that two pcs seem to have gone through some heavy flanderization as of late, as one of them just cares about drinking and the other is incapable of not cracking jokes at importunate times.

Another player clearly doesn't care, as he doesn't pay attention to what's happening (the second and third to last sessions heavily featured his backstory, yet when I was recapping he kept interrupting me to ask when this and that happened, and the other players had to back me up because he couldn't remember anything he did!). I've talked to my players about this, but they swear up and down that they're going to get better, but it never does.

They don't know saturday will be the end, they're just aware the campaign is coming to a close, but luckily I managed to sew everything together on the last session so now it's just the last battle and what their characters will do next, so it won't feel like it came out of nowhere.

I'm also tired of DMing dnd, I have nothing against it but I want to go back to Call of Cthulhu for a few months, and also DM Dark Heresy (which I've been playing for a while now at a fourth table).

Edit: After this, I don't plan to DM for this group anymore.

Hi Folks,

this is a little bit of a ttrpg adjacent question. but i feel this is the best sub to answer.

I have been a little bit into exploring different world lores. it has been a lot of warhammer and then star wars. but i am curious what other peoples have been writing up.

any recommendations?

there are a few games that have a reputation for being scary and unapproachable, either because their rules are very dense or their playstyle seems too different from the norm, or just by word of mouth. right now I can think of ars magica - outside this sub, I only see people mention ars magicka to talk about how difficult it is to understand, though in my experience those people have never even read the book. in my experience this reputation often scares players away from even giving the game a chance

what systems do you think have an unfair reputation?

Hi RPG folks!

I’m looking to discover reviewers and journalists from the RPG scene.

Who are your favorites?

Of course, I come from D&D 5e, and one of the things that makes me sad about it is that when optimazing characters, the more attacks you can have is always better than 1 Big Hit normally outside Crit Fishing and stuff (not to the point of Min-Maxxing RP and Fun out of the game, of course. I simple like character building in a game sense).

I like making many attacks and becoming a tornado of pain, but I also like the BIG BONK of a really strong single hit. So I ask you, which are games that:

• Are similiar to D&D 3.5e/4e/5e (medium-high crunch with focus on combat + defined classes with unique vibes and niches)
• Either make Single Big Hits just as good as Multiple Attacks (or even enforces a rule of "Only one attack per turn")
• Favors a balance between Martials and Casters (I prefer Martials and dislike when they outshine Martial both and out of combat in every way)
• Not OSR (Unfortunately, those aren't my cup of tea)
• If possible, have good rules for Downtime outside adventuring into places and killing things (base building, territory management, item crafting, project planning, search doing, social linking, etc.)

I love game mechanics a lot. I also enjoy roleplaying a lot, too. To me, game mechanics serve as the foundation to which good roleplaying opportunities can be built on. However, it seems to me that in a lot of popular discourse surrounding RPGs, there's this tension between "rules" and "roleplaying." The common sentiment of "rules getting in the way of roleplaying" is an example.

Does anyone know why this is?

I've been running TTRPG's since I got a classic DND box in the early 1990's. At the time I was the only one of my friends who had any DND stuff, and even after my friends started getting their own things, they would eventually give or sell their stuff to me as they only wanted to play and not run.

About 8-9 years ago I got back into playing. I tried 5E at my FLGS, but I felt I wasn't invested in the party and always just waiting for my turn (This could be because 5E feels like a slog to me, but who knows?)

I rarely act as a player in games, and have only "played" in a few in recent memory, but I feel like I'm comfortable as a Forever GM. I know I'm ADHD, but I feel like because I have to be "on" and focusing all my attention to all facets of the game, it works because I never have a down moment and am always interacting with some element of the game.

One thing I've come to learn and appreciate as I've gotten more into TTRPGs is that the hobby has it's own language that's been a bit tricky to learn. That's not exactly unique to it though, every hobby I think has a kind of unique language that requires some learning for anyone approaching it for the first time, but with TTRPGs it's been really noticeable for me.

I've spoken before about the term 5E hack having little meaning to me as someone who hasn't played 5E, or understands the issues with it. But I understand that it's a shorthand for those who are more experienced with the hobby/language. OSR has been another term that's been fun to learn, in particular figuring out what it means to distinguish from non OSR games. Narrative vs mechanical has been fun as well, especially with how systems blend the two.

This came to my mind while I was reading some reviews of Renegade's Power Rangers system (Superhero month on Drivethru, I thought about it, Invincible, or picking up some modules for Marvel Multiverse.) And while I struggled with understanding some terms of the language, I read a review which mentioned some issues with the game without using strictly RPG language (namely that it doesn't give a lot of tools for creating Rangers or villains outside the teams/villains established in the book.) And I appreciated that as someone still learning.

Still, today I wanna talk about language in TTRPGs. What are some common terms that you think a newcomer should learn when getting into the hobby? What terms to do you think became 'ingrained' as common language, the way rougelikes or rougelites have been in video games, and what terms do you think are poorly defined in general discussion?

Ok so I'm posting this to vent a bit because I'm feeling down and tired and honestly I don't know how to process this otherwise. I'm also interested in sharing my feelings with other people (specially other GMs around here) and have a conversation about this because it's also kind of a lonely hill to be at rn.

The issue:

As of late I've been feeling very negatively against the general selfish attitude of players and play groups I come across in this hobby. My dissatisfaction with the hobby because of this has been growing to the point of making me just tired and uncomfortable with the very idea of keeping running RPGs. I just don't like how other people/players treat me. It's not even an issue with my current group,. but more of a general behavior most RPG players I interact with engage on.

I've been primarily a GM since I started playing RPGs (more than a decade ago) and I've given my best at every single step of the way, and I've been "successful" at that, in the sense of almost always receiving "praise" on how I GM and how good my games are etc etc. But I've been feeling that "positive feedback" on my GM "performance" is absolutely not enough for me to justify all the effort that I put into it.

What I mean is (Tl;Dr): my players always tell me that THEY are having fun, but am I having fun myself?

When I sit down to play a game (any game not just RPGs) I do it because I like the game itself, or the experience of playing the game. I engage with its systems, I read about it online and theorycraft strategies to play it, etc. I might even try to master it or get good at it if it is a game I particularly enjoy mechanically, or maybe geek out about its narrative/story with other people if it moved me, etc.

The problem specifically with TTRPGs and GMing/Running them is that I'm usually not really engaging with the game in any meaningful way that I enjoy but rather I'm always being pushed into "entertaining" the players instead. Y'know, do the funny voices, teach the rules, do all of the world-building, provide a challenge, provide satisfying narrative elements according to the premise of the game, etc. Meanwhile most players will rarely roleplay their characters, won't learn the rules, won't engage in any meaningful worldbuilding, won't do anything to facilitate a satisfying narrative and will ignore the very premise of the game repeatedly. Instead of a "facilitator" of play, I feel trapped as an "engine" of play and just in a very dehumanized and lonely spot.

Years ago I stopped running D&D 5e specifically because it was mostly a lot of work for me and no fun. But my attempts at trying other games with different people almost always end up boiling down to the same "D&D 5e-ish" behaviour of players just being kinda selfish and pushing the responsibility of the game being "good" or "entertaining" on ME alone. And I'm just kinda... tired.

Even with games that are specifically designed to be collaborative, like most PbtA games or games that REQUIRE collaborative world building per the rules like Fabula Ultima, I find that players always offload a lot of the work to me as the GM or facilitator.

Because of this I've become trapped in a loop of trying new games, having a terrible experience trying to play them because players choosing to rely on me instead of engaging with the game rules/procedures/premises, then burning out and defaulting to playing the same old D&D clones and modules again and again because at least that's just easy for me to run. And I feel like I've completely lost my interest in the hobby at this point.

I even asked my current group what RPGs are THEY interested in playing and their unanimous answer was "whatever you would like to run". This SOUNDS good but always translates to "whatever you would like to run as long as I don't need to learn anything or engage with the game at all and you do everything in your power to entertain me instead".

Imagine asking your friend group if they would like to play Magic the Gathering, they accepting and then having YOU build their decks, track their life totals and tell them what cards to play each turn while you do funny SFX a la Arena after each play, and then telling you they had a lot of fun. (!!).

I'm glad my friends had a lot of fun, but as long as I'm not having fun myself what even am I doing?

It's a lot of stress and a lot of effort to run TTRPGs, and I think it's not a lot to ask to have players stop thinking in their own fun for a second and instead start paying attention to how other people are doing, specially their GM. Literally no one ever asks my opinion on the game we are playing or if I'm having fun at all. Instead I feel like running RPGs is taken like if it's some kind of career or job, while also not being paid at all for doing it.

To clarify a bit, I feel it's (probably) not a me problem either because I've recently been playing solo RPGs a lot and I've had A LOT of fun at that. I enjoy not just the freedom of solo play, but also how I'm not being asked to entertain anybody else and I can just focus on engaging with the game itself.

Anyways. Tl;Dr again is: my players always tell me that THEY are having fun, but am I having fun myself? Most of the time I'm just not.