**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.

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

**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.

In most fantasy games, information spreads through taverns, wandering merchants, or messengers on horseback.

In Powder Keg, it spreads through radio broadcasts.

Entire nations stop what they’re doing to listen to frontline reports, political speeches, casualty numbers, or rumors about Crown Fragment incidents. Governments censor broadcasts. Journalists become military assets. Some war correspondents are honestly more influential than generals.

I ended up really liking how it changed the feeling at the table.

Instead of:
“You hear rumors in a tavern…”

it becomes:
“The evening broadcast is interrupted by reports of fighting near the Nordmark frontier.”

It makes the world feel bigger and more connected, especially during wartime.

I’m curious how other people handle communication and information flow in settings that aren’t traditional medieval fantasy.

I cannot remember any from the top of my head but I’m sure they exist, like treasure chests hidden in plain sight.

If you actually ever played them, share your experience!

tldr: I ran a one shot adventure with 3 friends, the length of one evening was as intended by the authors, had reduced the number of enemies, yet the players thought nothing happened and the fight was too long. Now I'm not sure what to do.

I bought BSH because I liked the art and the inspiration the designers had (Karl Edward Wagner, etc.). My group is pretty new to ttrpgs and I decided to be the DM, since someone has to. We've been playing video games for close to 20 years together, among which are rpgs like Baldurs Gate 3 and many others, so we're not new to rpgs in general.

So, in the 1. zine for BSH there is a one shot adventure intended for one evening with a handful of players. It starts the group on a road toward a small town iirc, where they meet a group of armed men with tools for excavation - shovels, pickaxes, etc. One guy has a map and they're obviously waiting. That guy warns the group not to go towards the town since something is going to happen.

Turns out they bought a map that shows the location and time of a meteoric impact, which hits an inn just outside the town shortly after the players talk to him. The NPCs go towards the crater and retrieve the meteor. Angry townsfolk show up and the players learn, that an astronomer in the town should have warned the town about the impending impact.

The PCs follow the mob to the astronomers tower and learn that the town hadn't paid her, so she didn't warn them. The players help the astronomer and get rewarded with a map showing the next impact. Meteoric metal is precious and can be made into a strong weapon, so they go into town, gear up and spend a night at the local inn where they talk to and armwrestle with a couple of locals; one player decides to seduce a bar maid.

The next morning they hire 2 locals and a trader with a wagon from the town square and head to the spot indicated by the astronomers map - a cursed gold mine.

At the gold mine, the meteor hits the rear part of the mine. Inside, there is a main corridor from which a couple rooms - containing cursed gold, skeletons, and a hammer - branch off. The room at the end contains the meteor. If the players pick up the meteor, the skeletons (the workers) rise and begin to work on the mine, hastening its collapse. If they pick up the hammer or any of the gold, the skeletons rise and attack. In either case, the dm rolls a usage die representing the instability and on collapse the players must make a dex save to escape or suffer 6 hp.

Now for the actual events: the players rappelled down the meteor 'shaft' where the meteor was still glowing with heat. Two NPCs came after them, and started preparing the meteor with shovels and pickaxes (all stuff the players bought in town), while the guy with the horse wagon was waiting up top to pull it up with the rope later. The players explored the mine and picked up gold and the hammer, and the skeletons rose up and fought the players all the way to the main room where the NPCs were working. The players held off the skeletons from entering the room, the meteor was pulled up using the wagon and the PCs along with it. The NPCs died and the mine collapsed.

I added some stuff spontaneously and the players came up with the rope part. The next part would be finding the anvil the hammer, which is possessed by the spirit of a smith, is paired with, and find a smith that can forge a weapon from the meteor.

Now, the session ran pretty smoothly for the first ttrpg we ever played. However, afterwards I asked for opinions and there were two main issues:

one player said it was boring since "nothing really happened", another said the fight lasted "for 2 hours", which is very exaggerated.

Re. the first complaint: the adventure is supposed to "keep the players busy for one evening". It took us around 4 hours, including character creation, etc. So, the pacing seems fine. It might have been too linear, idk.

Re. the second complaint: The zine describes the number of enemies as follows: "There seems to be an unlimited supply of skeletons. As they go down, more take their place. Make the players aware of this by describing hordes of skeletons pouring out of every gallery." I had already reduced the number of skeletons to 6 or so.

I might have been a bit "railroady" since I had only prepared this adventure, not the surrounding world, when the players wanted to kill the first group they met to get the map, then kill the astronomer to get more maps to sell them - which would have resulted in me having to improvise everything else that would have followed.

I can understand the fight seeming too long since in BSH all weapons do the same damage, and the combat rules are simple. Yet I'm surprised that apparently "nothing" happened. Is this a shortcoming of an admittedly linear adventure?

I'm really not sure what I can do differently: I had reduced the number of enemies already, the combat system is already quick and simple, and the adventure should take up one evening. The only thing I could have done was to reduce the enemies even further, and the players could have played quicker - but I shouldn't cut roleplaying in a tavern short to get on with the main adventure, I think.

Any tips? Should I change the rpg system? That wouldn't be an issue.

I don't think there are lots of prewritten adventures for BSH, and I'm not sure if I should start writing my own so soon.

Wanting to up my dungeon design game and I want to make a mega dungeon, so I'm looking for some inspiration.

I've always wanted use a tarot deck as like a fun, thematic tool to use as a sometimes alternative to dice (ie: occasionally players can choose to pull from the deck instead of rolling and the interpretation of the card adds a lot of extra depth + consequences + importance to the moment on top of the randomness of the card)

However a lot of people take Tarot seriously and I do not, and I neither seek to hurt anyone's feelings nor get their preconceptions in the way - I'm not going to be learning how to use it properly so that might lead to some misconceptions/miscommunications

I know alternatives exist, I can't name any but I've seen them out there, and I'm sure there's suitable 'decks of artful esoteric bs with multiple interpretations that aren't strictly aping tarot' out there as well - but I don't know what they are.

Can anyone recommend any?

I'm not talking, say, Deck of Many Things where the cards have specific effects.

I know it would be largely trivial to write 52 folk-deities/omens/arcana in a table but I want the tactility of a beautiful, threatening deck on the table as well

Thanks!

I'm a major tabletop newbie and I'd love some advice. I was planning on trying my first time at DMing with an adventure of Deadlands for a few friends. I spent a good deal of time learning the ins and outs of SWADE and getting a lot of content prepared, but then I fell in love with Cyberpunk. I know there are a few options out there to play a Cyberpunk adventure in SWADE but I'm also not against getting into RED if it's a fairly better experience for the setting.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Also I hope this is the right place to post this sorry if it's not!

Hi,

In Kal-Arath, some monsters have a damage formula written like this:

(d6/a)x2 - rd

What does this formula mean?

Also, many enemies have special abilities listed in their stat blocks. Are there any conditions for these effects to apply, or do they happen automatically every round?

Thanks!

Hi all. I started DMing dungeons and dragons for my friends in 2023, but in the past year I've been moving towards running sci-fi themed games in the setting I have been building for many years, as sci-fi is my real love in fiction. So far I've run 2 GURPS one-shots in this universe for my friends, and they had a great time.

I want to continue to write more oneshots in the setting, and eventually build a campaign. I feel a little lost trying to find information to help with building the games however, as all of the resources I have gone to in the past have been fantasy-based, and don't always translate.

This is basically just me putting out a feeler for what I should be looking into to make my games better.

Youtube channels that offer worldbuilding and game planning information would be great, I've watched a few but they tend to be fantasy focused. (sometimes I don't enjoy videos because they feel too "pushy"-- i prefer suggestions for improvement rather than a straight up "this is what you need to be doing" approach.)

Blogs with relevant resources would also be helpful. Some general things I feel I need to improve with are: coming up with situations and obstacles for the players, laying out "dungeon"-type oneshots (building a location in a way that makes it interesting and explorable for players), and managing larger areas like cities.

The last thing I would like to request guidance on is if there is a better system I could be using for combat. I like the GURPS skill system, but the combat is a little too "realistic" for my desired cinematic style of game. Is there another sci fi combat system that I could be integrating? I don't know where to even start looking for one.

Thanks for all help that can be offered.

Hello, hello everyone! I hope that all of you are having a fantastic day so far. My name is Dani, and I have been doing this for about 7 to 8 years now. I have been running multiple systems such as DND, Savage Worlds, Cyberpunk Red, and Warhammer Fantasy, etc., but recently I have been feeling the urge of the sea, and after doing some research, I came to find out about Honor + Intrigue and got my players to agree to do a one-shot! I was wondering if there's anyone who has run the system before and can help me understand a couple of things where I'm having trouble, possibly get into a VC over on Discord to talk about it and hopefully become friends!

At the moment, the burning questions I have are:

I understand that there is a limit to how many guns a ship could have. But, the more guns they have, does that number add as a flat bonus to the damage, or is it like extra dice? That is what got me confused.

Do you start with four careers and allocate levels, or do you just choose four?

It says in the core rulebook that if a ship rolls a six on damage, they inflict serious damage to the player characters. But, is that like a critical injury table I missed, or did they take some bit of damage?

Feel free to add me on discord or message me on Reddit

nexoelius

This week's RPG is Neon City Overdrive!

Have you played it? Have you run/GM'd it? How did it go?

What's your favourite memory from the game?

What's the best thing about the game?

What's the worst? How would you improve it?

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Last week was Star Wars FFG. Join us again next week for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying [4th]!