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91 minute review. We are eating well today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH5-uQj4uOA

Some years ago I was looking for podcasts and shows where they would address other tabletop roleplaying games (ttrpg) beyond Dungeons & Dragons (DnD). I know there are plenty of options but many do not align at all with the perspective I have on rpgs, or we differ in theme interest.

But a thing that stuck with me was a podcast episode where the person reviewing it talked about World/Chronicles of Darkness (WoD) and said something in the likes of: "The game seems interesting but I will put it low on my ranking because you need a different book for each class/race you want to play, like if you want to be a vampire, or a werewolf, or a mage..."

The take was such a miss that it made me physically facepalm. But it brought to the surface a type of problem that people might miss when discussing diverting from DnD to other ttrpgs, which it's the rigid mindset that DnD culture has created. Of course this is a fringe case and what I am laying out might be obvious to many, but I thought I'd put it here cos I have not seen it discussed from this perspective.

Less obvious examples include the notion of what people consider difficulty and the determination of where excitement comes from. For DnD, it seems like conflict and progress both emerge from violence and the risk of death, which makes it so that people unconciously looks for life-risking tropes in the game when trying to interpret the story premise a narrator puts forward. It makes it also hard to treat those moments of physical conflict in any way other than "goal is beat opponent", closing the walls around any other possible outcome of an altercation that has a physical component to it. This culture of narrator challenging players and threatening their character's lives is, I believe, one of the aspects that might contribute to isolating the narrator from the players, and ends up creating an unspoken rivalry between them as seen in shows like Dimension20, where the point is to "ruin some master plan" that the narrator might have, cheating the challenge, "winning" the game, outsmarting the other player (in my opinion, the narrator is a player too).

Another one is the case of applying videogame's materialistic, individualistic mindset to any story as the logical one. This include the culture of looting, raiding, individual increase of wealth, or the idea of calling characters heroes for performing feats (violent or not) that do not involve selfless risks and sacrifice. You might say "but players put themselves at risk of death constantly" but this form of risk emanates from the hustle attitude that is more akin to gambling than heroism. This even makes it so that literary tools and tropes like "a dragon hoard" become a wealth-earning prospect more than the the fable-filled notion of greed that the stories that inspired the tropes sometimes might have meant to convey. These specific aspect (which might actually be many merged into one) also might contribute to the "narrator is the simulator and emulator of the game" expectation, making players reactive espectators of a show put up for them that is even smaller of a role than what an actor would actually have on an improvised show.

Things like loot, combat, and character development follow the videogame recipe and can become the predetermined mindset for all ttrpgs, which might contribute to the difficulty of many on seeing the appeal of non-DnD ttrpgs. Players expect their skills to grow instead of declining with age or staying the same, they expect that every item put in their way is a gift to them to acquire to increase in power, and the expectation that every game is meant to tell a rags-to-riches story of personal capital growth and power.

Just to clarify again, I am not saying it should not be this way or that this is bad. These are fun aspects that have all the right to be present in any ttrpg, DnD or not. I am just trying to develop an idea about other forms of struggles that people might face when jumping from DnD to other ttrpgs that can contribute to a narrower understanding of them, while also limiting the way people can play ttrpgs, that are all about the complete freedom of creating a story and navigating it.

There was a poll a while ago that asked "ttrpg Game Masters" questions about how they organise encounters, how they challenge players, if they sandbox or railroad, etc. But none of these apply that well if you look at a game like the Witch is Dead or Everyone is John. And also shows how this mindset serves as a wall that limits the space in which ttrpgs can be played.

It seems to me, that this mindset puts characters as the players' pets, and the game as "taking your pet out for a walk", where they are brushed, dressed, given treats, taught tricks, pee on constructions, and let out to chase local wildlife. The narrator is there to make sure they do all that.

I think I had other ideas but right now cannot remember them. I would love to read some of the many things I have missed that form inherent part of DnD culture and mindset, that also can become a culture clash when learning other games. Again, I am not against any of it, just stating that these very fun aspects of DnD can be detrimental to imagining ttrpg outside this space, and that addressing them directly or with awareness might make the jump easier.

TLDR: DnD has a bunch of invisible rules and expectations that also make the culture around it harder to open a different approach to stories an ttrpgs when making a leap to other games. What are some you have found and what are your ways to un-learn them?

Basically the title. I am constantly seeing people talk about ttrpgs that i have never heard of and was just wondering where people get to know about all these different ttrpgs. Is there like a blog or a news-site or something different entirely?

The free quickstarts that many systems have are an incredibly valuable resource, both for promoting and learning their game. Whether they're just an adventure with pregens and a rules summary or a full little rulebook in and of themselves, the ability to pick up and try a system at no cost, and without having to peruse a whole book, is fantastic for getting both players and gamemasters into it. With all that said, what do you think are some particular hits or flops among quickstarts, and why?

Personally, I think the Call of Cthulhu 7th one is one of my favorites, somehow containing everything players and even keepers realistically need most of the time while still being conveniently small and nice looking. On the other hand, I'm not a huge fan of the 13th Age 1e quickstart (though I am a huge fan of 13th Age), which while fine for people already familiar with F20 games, explains very little except for how it's different from those, and doesn't include pregens or adventures in its own page count, all together which make it much less useful for introducing newcomers to the game, in my opinion.

The first ever Canada Roles Awards winners will be announced in one week. You can vote for your favourite nominee in 4 different categories.

For general information and links to vote, head to canadaroles.ca

Games were nominated by RPG enthusiasts at Terminal City Tabletop Con (Vancouver), Breakout Con (Toronto), and WPG RPG Con (Winnipeg). They were approved by the committee who also supplied some initial nomiees*. The winners will be announced at CanGames (Ottawa) on Saturday May 16th, 2026.

The webpage linked above has more details on each nominee and links. I expect to share a video tomorrow as well. Here is the list of all nominees and categories:

Visual Design

• A Fool's Errand — B Marsollier, Planet Arcana
• Ringmaster — Pascal Godbout, Spotless Dice Games
• Lady Dee's Grand Ball — Deanna Bird, The One True Ryan Khan
• We Shall Be Monsters — Seb Pines, Good Luck Press

Rules Design

• Dirtbags! — Jean-Luc Lariviere-Lacombe, The Dungeons Key
• A Fool's Errand — J Strautman, Planet Arcana
• Gambit RPG — Robert Shaw, Robert Shaw Taloswind
• Nefertiti Overdrive 2.0 — Fraser Ronald, Sword's Edge Publishing
• Psychic Danger Society — James Kerr, Radio James Games
• Reanimated — Jed Doerkson, Trapped Chest

One Shot and Short Form

• Capricious — Ryan Khan, The One True Ryan Khan
• Going For Broke — Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony
• Kaiju Kontrol — James Kerr, Radio James Games
• First Date Update — Mat Copelli, Role Play Chat Press
• Sock Puppets — Kurt Riefling, A Smouldering Lighthouse
• Underneath — Seb Pines, Good Luck Press

Scenario or Supplement Design

• Join Their Ranks — Jed Doerksen, Trapped Chest for Reanimated
• Emergence — Carson Brown, Single Stage to Orbit Press for Mothership
• Field Guide to Floral Dragons — Verity Lane, Chris Pinch, Jordan Richer, Sebastian Yūe, Hit Point Press for Dungeons & Dragons
• Seven Sealed Spirits — Austin Holm, WatcherDM for Knave 2e
• Speed Run — Jordan Peacock, Sortilege for Cy_Borg
• The Skittering Mines — Lytha Hawkes, Bardic Inspirations RPGs for The Nullham Project

If you have played or read one of these and have thoughts, please share!

If you have a question about the awards, I'll do my best to answer.

*Compose Dream Games is "hosting" the awards site. I (Joshua) am the lead organizer (with input from a committee). Many are games we carry and distribute -- that in no means was part of the criteria for nomination.

EDIT FOR THE KIDS WHO THINK A MAGE GUILD WITH BUREAUCRACY IS JUST WRONG: You don't have to use it. I mean it. It's your world and you can have it work in any way you want. I am not saying you should run it this way. Truth is thou, that this kind of stuff is present in many, many worlds and scenarios of our beloved games, so I think what I explain here might be a nice a idea for a game. That's all.

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Characters need help with magic, and they have money and fame, so they go to the head of the Mage Guild or whatever magic-user institution, and what do they find? A politician. I know, it might sound counter intuitive, but hear me out.

IRL dynamic in academic research

In real-world research universities, the department chair isn’t the brilliant researcher running experiments at 2 AM. Au contraire, they’re the person who figured out how to navigate faculty meetings, secure funding, and befriend all the different (and many times rival!) departmental claques, and maybe the staff union. The misanthropic nerd loner, 100% invested in advancing science? They’re probably in a windowless lab, avoiding committee assignments like the plague.

This structure replicates scaling down: Consider a research lab. The head professor spends time crafting a funding proposal (i.e., a sales pitch), plans the budget, deals with admins and bureaucracy; meanwhile, the students and postdocs that do not even know exactly from which project their salaries comes from are the ones developing the actual science.

Hospitals work in a similar way. The Chief of Surgery might spend more time in boardrooms than operating rooms to keep that title. Meanwhile, the surgeon who can perform miracles with a scalpel is scrubbing in for their fourth procedure of the day, muttering about “administrative nonsense”. Brilliant practitioners might find politics tedious, and self-promotion awkward and exhausting.

What if Magic guilds or schools mirror this dynamic?

I do see a strong parallel. The obsessive wizard who spent sleepless nights to craft a new spell probably hates dealing with apprentice applications and guild politics.

The person running your Mages’ Guild is likely someone who mastered the social game: Building alliances, managing resources, understanding what different factions want. They’re likely a competent spellcasters, sure, but their true talent lies in organization and influence. So when designing mage guilds and schools, I would factor this dynamic in.

When the players need help from the best mage to investigate the artifact they just snatched from that forlorn crypt, well, they can go to the master wizard and, disappointingly, find a politician. The master wizard is all worried about maintaining the status quo and the problems that the artifact can cause: How to report this discovery to the king? Wait, are there taxes to be paid on unearthed magic artifacts?, etc. The mage that the players need, the one that would obsess over the artifact and help them understand its powers and how to control it, is likely a foul-mouthed recluse loner (and super fun to play).

Original link and shameless plug, if you want to subscribe to my blog: https://open.substack.com/pub/kindofold/p/the-real-archmage-is-probably-not

(RPG contents for NSR, OSR, and PBTA systems; solo actual play; agile reviews of indie games; and very occasionaly, rants)

Recently I've played Planet of the Week at the PbtA fair on their server and it good me thinking. Now, don't get me wrong. The game was an absolute blast. The GM was the actual game's creator and obviously understood the system like the back of their hand, the players were great, in particular a very funny one who managed to pull off a gimmick character without getting annoying or tiring at the table (Hi, Slowfia, you were best sloth!).

For those who haven't caught the hint from the title, this takes heavy inspiration from Star Trek, which means that you would expect it to be suitable to oneshots and be episodic in nature.

But the game has a surprising amount of moves that are pretty complicated with the players often having to pick out of several questions or choices depending on what they rolled (similar to Pasion de las Pasiones). This leads to the fact that although it felt really good in play, at least, with players that know what they were doing, we didn't have the time to both explore and resolve the mystery of the domed city, the primitive civilization around it and fix our ship, just the last. And it was so hard to remember everything!

Oh... Because of how the game is set up (roll to see if your ship sustained damage when warping out, etc.) there's a lot of lost time that is still fun time, but means that you cannot fit everything in one episode. You need a two or in the case of our planet, most likely a three-parter. And this was with the GM being really prepped and posting the move text in the server each time we triggered something. I kinda' dread to think how slow it would have been otherwise.

This has me worried about running it at my own table. Like the playbooks are fun. The author clearly knows Trek. But it's not what it says on the label. It is a system that is probably better suited for short campaigns and it's kinda' clunky tbh. If I am going to be in the mood for that, I might try it.

It's just that there aren't a lot of Star Trek with number filled-off going around for those who aren't the biggest lore buffs. There's also an Endeavour, an Agon hack that is pretty good. But idk what else. (Don't get me wrong, Star Trek Adventures is a way more polished game, but if want your own species, it requires more homebrewing). This system makes super easy to make your own unique alien.

Been feeling tired lately of how the d20 system (e.g. D&D or PF) makes half your roles such that remembering a +1 doesn't matter (by which I mean the number on the die is either waaay too high or waaay too low relative to the target number for bothering with the math to really be worth it), so I'm looking for something that has an actual probability curve, like rolling multiple dice on the regular (not just the odd dis/advantage 2d20).

I also want to keep a fantasy setting, with magic, and (at least eventually) powerful PCs. They don't need to necessarily become or be demigods or whatever, but I do want at least some degree of power fantasy here.

I can take or leave an established setting; regardless, ideally I'd like there to be at least a decent array of potential character build options, and while I'm not necessarily against a lot of rules and would rather not be looking at single page rulesets I'd rather not be bogged down too much (i.e. ideally not too much more than 5e/PF2, maybe 3.5/PF1 level at most).

Suggestions?

I am getting close to wrapping up a 3+ year long campaign of the Fallout 2d20 system. I don’t know what to run next or what to do when I wrap up the story.

One player wants to keep on playing Fallout, but after over three years, I’m getting to my personal limit for story for this campaign. The other players don’t have an opinion one way or another. Fallout is really the only property we all have in common. I’ve tried asking my players if there is any games or IPs they would be interested in playing, but all i get are shrugs and I don’t knows.

new to gming and need a system to run for a one shot

the gist of the game is that the you are goons trying to escape from a deranged slasher villain type batman after a job went terribly wrong. something stealth based with minimal combat,rules lite. any suggestions?

TL;DR: Playing RPGs is a fun hobby, so glad I'm back to it! Also a tool to deal with trauma which is helping become a dad.

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I've been not playing RPG for 20-or-so years, after having played a bunch as teen. This year, I got into the hobby again, after stumbling on the Die comics and getting super curious about how RPG had evolved in this past decades.

After having my mind blown, and then getting into an obsessive dive into new systems, scenarios, ideas, I went after play. The quickest route was to go solo, as finding a group and matching agendas really do gets harder with time. I picked Ironsworn as a system and setting, pulled some strings here and there to have a place for a story I'd live to play through and kicked off.

All was fun and well, and I'd been playing through a view adventures when I took a time to look back into what I was creating, and it hit me straight in the nose: I was using these sessions to walk through my own fears, ideas, expectations and unknowns of fatherhood. Basically, I'm using RPG to learn how to dad.

See, my dad died in my early years - I was months away from turning 6 yo, the old fella had a sudden heart attack and laid still, at the doorstep of the front door to our home. He was coming back from work, managed to pull the car into the garage, but never managed to get through the door. This is an image I live with still, and though it isn't a massive pain, it's a lingering one.

Not having him around meant my father figures were dispersed among uncles who were around and helped, and a few other figures (like sports coaches and teachers), but none were THE figure. So when my first child was about to be born, it really got to me that I didn't quite have a model on how to dad. Not a model to follow or to oppose, not one to mirror, to question, to compare. I had - and still, luckily, have - an amazing mom. But I was about to become a dad, and didn't quite have any rails to go on or off of. Shit was scary, ngl.

Baby came, and it was amazing - it's the best thing ever, folks! go have kids -, and the second one is on the way. I'm quite happy and proud as a dad! While the being-a-dad thing is a therapy theme, I noticed it is also a play-theme.

See, my character is a father of two in his late 50s. Both his kids left home and the hamlet they used to live in, dad still there. Kids joined sort of a cult, and with time stopped showing up. Character-dad background vow (this is Ironsworn stuff) is to reunite with its kids before death takes him. Cool-cool-cool-cool-cool, not at all something that is going on (....but what if?).

Ok, let's head on to other adventures! What is my first not-background-vow about? A hunter of our village was attacked and killed while accompanying a healer to an errand! Hmm, what was that about? Turns out the healer was mourning her unborn child at their grave, and the attack was the father's father coming back as a revenant to make that unborn baby the actual heir of their heirloom. This coming-back-of-a-deceased is tied to the cult-thing, sure. Ooookaaaaay now, that's a lot being unpacked through play yea?

And how was it resolved? Welp, once my character's friend decided to adopt a kid and turn that very-much-alive kid into his heir, and show it to his sort-of-undead father, it all became chill. And the kid was child to the hunter lady that was murdered by the undead granpa.

I step back, read all of this. And it's there. A dead father, the unrealized grandaugher/son, the fear of separation, the adoptive father(-figure?), the living a life as a dad and having your children as a beacon of life, etc. All a bunch of questions, fears, traumas, experiences, packed through a hobby. Some of it intentionally added, most of it just coming through as "wouldn't this add depth to this story? Huh, let's see!"