**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.

https://app.alchemyrpg.com/marketplace

I'm not affiliated with Alchemy in any way, I just got an email about it. Free VTT Day is an initiative created by Alchemy RPG.

The 2026 collection includes the following all for free:

• Blades in the Dark, Evil Hat Publishing.
• Degenesis Core Set Enhanced Edition, SIXMOREVODKA.
• Call of Cthulhu: No Time to Scream, Chaosium.
• City of Mist Starter Set, Son of Oak.
• Heckna! Campaign Setting (5e), Hit Point Press.
• The Veiled Lady (5e), Loot Tavern.
• Mountain Realm: Rustborn, Cryo Crypt.
• Swordlender: Where Heathens Roam, Cryo Crypt.
• Into the Wilds: Fey & Fell Map Pack, Tom Cartos.
• Industrial City Motion Overlays, The Kinemancer.
• Fluffy Folio Volume 1, Fluffy Folio.
• Fluffy Folio Volume 2, Fluffy Folio.
• Magnus Starship (Scene Pack), CZEPEKU.
• Magnus Starship (Map Pack), CZEPEKU.
• Oasis Expedition (Scene Pack), CZEPEKU.
• Oasis Expedition (Map Pack), CZEPEKU.
• Swamp Graveyard (Scene Pack), CZEPEKU.
• Swamp Graveyard (Map Pack), CZEPEKU.

Just thought I'd pass the word along. Not sure if you can bulk collect, I had to collect redeem one by one for the products.

So recently we talked a bit about roleplaying in Finland, due to the whole UNESCO living cultural heritage thing. It got me thinking, what's the scene like for you, wherever you're from? Is DnD the biggest game? What other games are played? Do you typically play domestic games or foreign imports (translated or not)? What's your domestic industry like - what kinds of games do designers in your country make? What are your cons like?

I got the scarecrow mini for free RPG day and it reminds me a lot of Samhain from The Real Ghostbusters which has inspired a one-shot where my players will take on Samhain the spirit of Halloween. I want a system with decent enough combat to warrant using minis. Doesn't have to be a Ghostbusting system I'm even open to just using D&D 5e but I'm wondering if there is a system that would work better. I have experience with 5e, daggerheart, candela obscurea, and the kids on bikes games.

I've played cyberpunk 2020 and red. RED had better hacking rules because they were actually gamable, but still felt like the netrunner was never fully a part of the party, and monopolized a ton of time. In most cases, I'm okay with a simple hacking check then moving on, but when the party's plan hinges on this, it feels bad to just do a single roll and say yes/no. So what are the best Hacking rules you've seen. Bonus points if the ideas behind them are portable to other games.

See title. Not BAD sessions, just okay or mid ones.

To be really clear, I don’t want your theories on what happens at other tables, you can’t actually know that for sure.

But yeah, whether you are primarily a player or GM, I’d love to hear why for you some sessions have been just kinda “meh”.

Edit: It's wild to me that y'all comment and engage on the post but then don't upvote it so more folks see the stuff you like

I remember as a kid that we all had a lot of patience for looking up rules that I could not remember as the DM off the top of my head at the table because we were invested in the inner trappings of the game and world being simulated. This was D&D 4e. We wanted to play honest-to-God D&D and dammit we were going to play it as close to RAW as possible.

Those friends and I have long since parted ways as we grew up and moved to different states. However, I'm curious about your tolerance for looking up rules at a table when you're trying out a new game. Do you prefer that the referee do a "rulings over rules" approach and get on with it, only to double-check and clarify later, or do you prefer the game to move forward by virtue of looking up the rule and proceeding accordingly? I've experienced both over the years. Probably important discussion for a "session zero."

For me, if I'm playing a meaty tome of a game, I assume that players who are also digging it would be happy to ensure that every rule possible is being followed, for why else play with that rule set? Might as well use a much lighter chassis with more room for GM fiat if that's what you're after, I figure.

What are your experiences or preferences?

Surrealism might even be the wrong word. I’m imagining a game set in the world of a David Cronenberg movie like Crimes of the Future, eXistenZ, or Videodrome.

HOWEVER, I’m pressed to think of a system that would mechanically support it and not get in the way too much. Lots of rigid mechanics wouldn’t work, because that’s too literal. A lot of the meta-currencies I can think of don’t feel right, because they’re about “winning”, which wouldn’t be quite relevant here.

Is there some system out there that supports ambiguity, complexity, blurriness, and a kind of literary intent?

Anyone else picked this up? The dungeon delving seems pretty cool and I LOVE the boss monsters they created. I know PBTA is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I really like where they landed with the combat and faction mechanics for this one.

A few years ago, I started building my own system. I had a friend who used to watch what I was putting together. Her suggestions were always about shaping a part of the system to be closer to D&D – and I didn't want that, but I kept going anyway.

She moved to another city and we stopped talking as much since we used to talk more in person. So I went back to doing things the way I wanted. Despite her tips turning the system into something more generic, she had great insights that I appreciated. But without her around, I had no one to analyze the system and discuss it with me, so I started talking to AIs – not to create, but to analyze.

In both cases – my friend and the AI – there was a serious problem in common: how was I going to sell this? They'd say no one would have fun with this kind of roll, this kind of fantasy, this and that. And that drove me crazy. I lost my sense of direction and did exactly what my friend used to do – I removed things I thought were cool because they didn't "make sense," I gave up on things that other systems hadn't already done, and I was inflating my system with fantasies that didn't even fit the game because I "should have something to please every type of person."

I still loved building it, but I was under pressure – I couldn't take references I liked, I couldn't do things the same way as other systems, I had to simplify my stuff, I had to make an extremely detailed rulebook with art and blah blah blah.

Until I realized: what my imagination wanted couldn't be sold as something good on a large scale. Then it hit me – from the very beginning, I didn't want to make something to sell. I wanted to make something for my friends. To fill it with references we all like, to copy mechanics without worrying about copyright, to make something small-scale just for us. And that didn't make everything I had already done any 'less valid' or 'less artful.' I tortured myself for months with this mindset that I, alone, had to balance things on a gigantic scale, that I had to surpass famous systems – I even started hating other indie systems and only looked at them to see what I hadn't done in mine.

Anyway, I just want to remind you: if you're going through this, even if you're planning to sell, you don't need to treat yourself like a company. You don't need to set aside what you think is cool because it's "too complicated" or whatever. People play Yu-Gi-Oh like it's simple – your system, they'll handle it. And remember why you're doing it – whether it's to have fun, create new mechanics, tell your story, or even sell – but don't treat yourself like a billion-dollar company with an experienced team.

Edit: When I talk about making something unique and complex, I don't mean making something sloppy or with bad design and saying "it's fine" – no. What I meant was innovations that might seem bad to people who never step outside the norm – not things like F.A.T.A.L.

Pls don’t answer any classically terrible games (RHW/FATAL, for example)- it’s a genuine q.