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I've started asking players a slightly different question during character creation, and it's produced some of my favorite NPCs.

Not "Who would mourn your character if they died?"

Who would be genuinely inconvenienced if they just failed to show up tomorrow?

The distinction sounds silly, but I've found that it gets people thinking about their characters differently.

I was preparing a small-town mystery campaign and asked everyone this before our first session.

One player said his character helped an elderly neighbor carry firewood every few days. Another said she was supposed to cover the evening shift at her uncle's shop. The third had borrowed a horse and promised to return it by Thursday.

Nothing dramatic. No murdered parents, secret enemies, ancient prophecies or elaborate personal quests.

Just three people who had something to do next week.

A few sessions later, the party was considering staying another night in a dangerous area to investigate something.

The player with the horse suddenly said, "Shit, I told him I'd bring it back."

Everyone laughed, but then they actually started discussing whether they should send word back to town.

That was a completely unplanned bit of roleplaying, and I loved it.

I've noticed that characters with enormous tragic backstories can sometimes feel weirdly disconnected from the world they're actually adventuring in. Their entire past is important, but nobody in the present seems to expect anything from them.

Meanwhile, giving a character an ordinary obligation immediately suggests that they existed before session one and will continue to exist between adventures.

I don't use these obligations as surprise punishments. If someone says their character promised to help repair a roof, I'm not going to burn down the village because they missed an afternoon.

It's more about making the world feel like it has a place for them that isn't reserved exclusively for heroic deeds.

And honestly, "Who is expecting you on Thursday?" has given me more usable material than several pages of backstory ever did.

I'm curious whether other GMs deliberately create these kinds of mundane connections, or whether you prefer to let them emerge naturally during play.

So, as a preface, I usually really strongly dislike prewritten adventure modules - I struggle reading through and prepping them, and get a lot of anxiety around keeping things 'on track', so I've generally shied away from the big, linear adventures you see for games like Pathfinder.

There is however, one format that seems to mentally work a lot better for me, which is what the OSR game Mausritter uses for its boxed sets like The Estate or the upcoming Junk City, along with some 3rd party offerings that follow the same formula - a central campaign booklet (8-36 pages in Mausritter's cases) outlining the main premise and overarching location, its factions, and the like, with various smaller adventures keyed to specific locations throughout the area, each basically a three-panel pamphlet.

That feels a lot more digestible and flexible to me, without feeling like there's any one prescribed way for things to unfold. I want more of that!

(I know the key word here is 'sandbox', but I've struggled trying to read some ...traditionally-written sandboxes before - I'm not particularly eager to try running Kingmaker).

The question is - do any other games structure their modules in a comparable way? I'd love to know of anything similar - it doesn't have to be the same form factor of booklets and pamphlets, but a clear framework for short adventures that add up to a larger narrative sounds really enticing!

Just out of a curiosity.

I suck at running heists. I've even tried to run blades in the dark but I just suck at designing heists and they often devolve into unexciting skill checks. Clearly I'm missing some structure or template for them.

Are there any GM books that talk about that. For example, I love the way the mothership GM manual talks about designing horror adventures.

I'm about to run a heist session in nimble (arasaka raid cyberpunk iykwim)

To preface this I should explain that I am more looking for a system that would need absolutely no computers or tech at the table, but still be crunchy enough for that to be fun. I have no issue with making things for my table and I am hoping for any input to find some streamlined system that is easy to play and run, but has some crunch for the players.

I make a lot of things for my games, so I absolutely wouldn't be against making things like a player sheet booklet like I’ve done for D&D, Nimble and 2D20 Fallout.

Hey all. I'm looking for systems that suit a particular playstyle. Specifically I'd like a system that could support fantasy adventures, like questing and monster slaying and such, but without forcing a power curve that ends in "fight god" like 5e does. Some suggestions I've heard include 7th Sea and Ryuutama, but I'd like to get some more options to look into as 7th Sea looks a bit more pulp than I'd like and Ryuutama is a bit too cutesy.

Forever GM by choice here. My current long term campaign is on break and nearing the final levels, so I'm looking towards my next. I've always been more in to SciFi than Fantasy, so that's where I'm looking. If I'm pouring my energy in to another long term campaign, I want the perfect system. But that's where I'm running in to problems.

The main things I'm looking for are:
1. Interesting combat, something deeper than "roll to shoot" then end turn.
2. Character building with meaningful choices every level, that doesn't kill you before Level 1.
3. Weapon customisation like suppressors, holographic sights and extended mags.
4. Decent variety of conventional weapons rather than wall to wall energy weapons.
5. Not strictly tied to a single setting. I'm a chronic worldbuilder and like to run my own settings.

My current main option is Star/Pathfinder. This hits the first 2 points dead on and I have some experience with the system. I have issues with point 3 and especially 4, but with system knowledge and a lot of time to prepare I'd look in to homebrewing some new weapons and customisation options. Point 5 is easy enough outside of the minor effort to pick a Deity list.

Another game I've played is Fallout2d20. The combat is interesting with Called Shots and Action Points, the character building is solid for a classless system and the gear customisation is fantastic. But running anything other than Fallout requires reskinning the entire game from top to bottom, without mentioning the range system. So this one isn't an option but might give some context, hopefully.

Many of the games I've found with solid weapons have puddle deep combat disguised by being "hyper lethal". But I want to run something combat heavy, with planet hopping mercenaries/adventurers, not a game where combat must be avoided at all costs. I've looked through the suggestion list and from the rules I've managed to find nothing has jumped out. Which is really the main problem, there are many good and highly recommended SciFi RPGs out there that don't fit my awkward preferences.

I'm fully prepared to be told there's nothing out there that fits 100% and Starfinder is close enough to my ideal system. But I have to ask, am I missing something?

Thanks for any help.

I have been looking for a good spy rpg ever since watching Andor and was lucky enough to find several The Spy Game books in a charity shop. It's great but very action hero-y and I was looking for something a bit darker.
Heard someone mention Delta Green in a different thread (which would actually be perfect for running a The Secret World based game) but I'm looking for something that isn't supernatural based.

I'm thinking of running a classic "Town above a mega-dungeon" type campaign with a multi-generational cycle where adventurers delve into a dungeon, clear out some of the rooms of monsters, but then eventually perish. A generation passes, the townsfolk go through the cleared rooms to collect resources from the dungeon, upgrade the town, then send in a new group of adventurers that are a little better trained and better equipped than the previous one.

I'm all for homebrewing, but I'm wondering what system would be the best starting point for this type of game. Any suggestions?

What the Title says. I have the rule book for [Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/431991/basic-roleplaying-universal-game-engine?src=hottest\_filtered). There is a LOT I like about it.

I also realize that the system is just that, Basic. Game Masters are encouraged to tweak the system to do what they want. With that in mind.

Does anyone have any advice on how to add Abilities that would normally come from Classes?

Many Class Abilities could be duplicated via just letting a character use a Skill. A Ranger/Druid's skill with Animals could be handled via skills.

Any kind of Magic from Wizards/Sorcerers/Clerics/etc can just be Spells.

But then you have things like a **Berserker Rage**. My first thought would be to make that some kind of **Super Power.** But I also don't want to limit myself to just what is in the Basic Rulebook. So I thought I would ask if anyone else had a different solution.

Thank you in advance!

Hi, guys!
I'm currently working on a ttrpg as a hobby/personal project and it's partially inspired by certain anime (in particular products like Solo Leveling and DanMachi) and I wanted to ask if someone knows about other anime-inspired games.

Mostly I feel like I need more inspirations beside the classic D&D and other very basic ttrpg I played recently, so any suggestion is welcomed.