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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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Sorry for the clickbaity title, not sure how else to explain it in 300 characters or less.

Over the last several years, I've gotten really into the Essence20 RPG (E20) by Renegade Games. It's a d20-ish set of rules that they've used for several of their licensed RPGs, including Power Rangers, Transformers, GI Joe, Welcome to Night Vale, and, my personal favorite, My Little Pony.

The system isn't always a perfect fit for the IPs it's using, but it works well enough, and made some very clever choices: for example, it's designed so that the most complicated math you will ever need to do is add two dice together, usually a d20 and a d4-6--even bonuses to rolls are handled by changing the size of the dice, rather than plusses or minuses to the numbers. Character creation was fun and interesting, and offered lots of possibilities for customization. I particularly admired the MLP RPG because it did a pretty darn good job of making non-combat roles interesting and viable in a d20-ish RPG.

E20 isn't as big as the other RPGs that people are into these days, but its fans are dedicated. One of my favorite parts of the game is the tight-knit community, especially the dedicated homebrewers who were finding ways to make the various IPs work together. Want to make an evil sorceress in Power Rangers? Steal the spellcasting rules from MLP. Want to run a post-apocalyptic MLP game, a la Fallout Equestria? Mix the weapons and classes from GI Joe with the race options from MLP. One idea I've wanted to experiment with, but was never brave enough to try: do Captain Planet by giving the teens from Power Rangers the classes and magic rules from MLP.

I've been using the present tense so far in this post, but, if you read the title, you already know the punchline: the game got unceremoniously cancelled last Friday. There's lots of anger, frustration, and grief in the community right now, and, on my part, I know that thinking about it was making me feel almost physically ill.

Here's what happened, more or less:

To some extent, we should have seen the writing on the wall. Despite the fact that E20 had appeared in several Humble Bundles over the last couple years--sometimes even having entire bundles all their own--it felt like the output of E20 content had slowed dramatically. My Little Pony hadn't seen a new sourcebook since early 2025--which was wierd, because Renegade had announced a new book about once every six months. Still, fans were clamoring for more: every couple months, there was a rash of discussion on what content we wanted to see next, how we would write it, all that jazz.

Last Friday, Renegade held their twice-annual RenegadeCon, where they announce all their upcoming products. This time around, Renegade surprise-announced that they would be reprinting the E20 RPG books--but as D&D 5.5 hacks. Essence20 had been shitcanned without warning. Even worse, the announcement didn't mention the MLP RPG book at all, which fans have taken as a sign that they're not interested in producing further MLP content--possibly, says the speculation, due to low sales.

To some extent, I get it. I know that RPGs are a tricky business, and that an MLP RPG probably didn't sell terribly well even for an RPG. But I've been pulling hard for this system since the MLP book was first announced in 2023(?), and have been running games steadily since I first got the MLP book. The Renegade Games Discord has become one of my main hangouts online, and I was always impressed by the creativity and dedication of the fans.

And yet. The way it ended, so suddenly and so definitively, has not been... pleasant. I'll live, and my group will probably end up continuing to play E20 for some time to come. But even so: all my hopes and dreams for what this game could become, given the time, care, and marketing it needed, have come to naught.

If you're interested in taking a look at what E20 has to offer, the CRBs for Power Rangers, Transformers, GI Joe, and MLP (sorry Night Vale) are currently in the "Roll Big Or Go Home 2" bundle over on Humble Bundle. Additionally, most of the books and all of the dice are on, like, 80% off closeout sale over on the Renegade Games store. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you can overlook some level of jank, it's a great time, IMO.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

So I have been curious about this Mythic Bastionland ever since it released but only recently has my Pendragon 6th edition campaign has finished. I love Pendragon, I've run the Great Pendragon Campaign in 5.2. I will run it again someday when the full 6th edition expanded version is released. Knights going mad, dynastic growth, Traits & Passions, Manor management and more. There's so much I adore about the system.

I enjoy OSR too, I have been running Dolmenwood for about 7 months now. What does Mythic Bastionland offer me that Pendragon doesn't? I'm not sure if there's much overlap in the communities but I like the idea of Arthurian Knights in an OSR setting but how does that take form in this system? Or is it just another game in BX/D&D shell because after my Dolmenwood game is finished, I’d rather have something different enough to run.

Would appreciate any insight.

A few days ago, I ran John Harper's renowned rules light one-shot game, Lasers and Feelings, for some of my players, and the story we created was honestly amazing.

For those who don't know, Lasers and Feelings is a one-page RPG available for free: https://johnharper.itch.io/lasers-feelings

It's a sci-fi game with a very simple core mechanic:

• You have a number between 2 and 5
• If it's a higher number you're better at LASERS, if it's a lower number you're better at FEELINGS
• Whenever you do something risky or uncertain, the GM tells you to roll Lasers (roll a d6 and try to roll UNDER your number) or Feelings (roll a d6 and try to roll OVER your number)
• If you do some preparation, or if you are an expert, or if someone helps you, you get a bonus die for each of those, and can stack
• 1 success means you barely do it, 2 successes means you do it well, 3 successes means you do it with a bonus
• If you roll exactly your number you get LASER FEELINGS, which is a success but you also get to ask a question of the GM to get unique insight into the situation

And that's literally it. The one page comes with basic character creation rules (choose a style, i.e. hotshot, alien, savvy, etc.) and a role (envoy, scientist, doctor, soldier, etc.) and your character's goal in life, which can inform some of the bonus dice and of course how you play your character, but otherwise that's it for the mechanics. Then there are some random tables for the GM to generate an adventure.

I started by giving my players a primer: this is a rules light game, which means that you get as much joy out of it as you put effort into it. The fun scales with initiative and roleplaying effort. This isn't a game where you can sometimes have an off day and lean on the mechanics more, because there are no mechanics to lean on (this ended up not being strictly true, because the bonus dice mechanics ended up being quite important to our game, but at the beginning it definitely felt true). You gotta bring 100% of your energy to roleplaying your characters — and boy my players did.

My four players created their characters in 10 minutes, then we did the "two strengths and one flaw" for the spaceship, and then I rolled up an adventure on the spot and we started playing it out.

I've written up a full summary of our session here if you want to read it, but what I will say is that the character and spaceship creation, brief situation primer re: the Raptor spaceship and Captain Darcy's situation, and the random tables to generate the adventure did a lot of heavy lifting to help us immediately get into the right mood and mindset for the game.

My players were improvising interesting fictional details for their characters (our hotshot pilot had a beloved cat who become absolutely central to the adventure) just as much as I was improvising interesting voices and descriptions throughout the adventure. They were roleplaying in clever and creative ways with one another as much as my NPCs. They were able to grasp that this is a game that just allows players to create facts about the world (if the GM is ok with that of course) and started making up things when needed (like the aforementioned cat, or one of our two android players randomly shouting during combat "OUR ODDS OF SURVIVAL JUST WENT UP 2%!").

In the end, we told a story that was absolutely hilarious (one player messaged me after saying he hadn't laughed this much in an RPG session in a long while) while also having some tragedy and heart. I think one thing that made it work was the absolute trust my players had in me to be fair in a very GM-vibe-y game that allowed me to kill off a couple of them at the end on "success with consequence" (only 1 success) results for very high-stakes situations. But just as much it was because of how much the simplicity of the system is inspirational.

Now do I have an amazing group of players? Yes, absolutely, and that makes a huge difference for a truly rules light game like this. All the same, John Harper is quickly becoming my favorite game designer because of how much he can inspire us with very little mechanics and setting information. With a few deft words, he has us going for 3 hours. (Chris McDowall has a similar strength.)

I don't think it would work for every group per se, but for groups willing to commit HARD to the bit and treat the fiction with equal amounts of seriousness and levity, it will sing.

So, if you're searching for a great one-shot game to play, consider Lasers and Feelings. Incredible super fun game and we had an amazing time.

The indie TTRPG scene is often really theory and tastemaker-focused, which makes it easy to lose sight of what the vast bulk of players are actually enjoying or looking for in their games.

I regularly see posts here full of interesting and sophisticated preferences, critiques, aspirations, etc. that contradict the trends and think-pieces in my Bluesky feed. They remind me how broad our design space actually is and how large the various audiences within it might be.

I'll often read a comment like this that expresses a preference I share but wasn't thinking about, which unlocks a door in some project's design that I hadn't even noticed was closed.

It's do-or-die to both make what's in your heart and to stay in touch with the people you're actually designing for, and this sub helps me do both. Thank you!

Did you ever play a session where one person spoke to the GM for everybody else, like they describe in ye olde D&D?

If you did, bonus points for saying what year it was.

What are some examples of support NPCs who genuinely contributed to an adventure and made it more interesting for the party without stealing player spotlight or limiting their agency?

Recurring NPCs can end up drifting into DMPC territory, so I’m especially curious about instances where that didn’t end up happening. What made the NPC work so well? Was it their role, limitations, personality, party relationship, or just excellent work by the GM?

I have a lot of thoughts about our first session of Stonetop.

I'm hoping to get them all out. Some in this post and some in the comments if people are interested, as I'm still not seeing enough discussion around the game from people who are actually playing it since the "full" release.

Firstly, I'm a somewhat experienced Game Master, I've been running games for my friends for over 15 years. A lot of that was D&D. I've also run sporadic games using different systems. Including PbtA. Some of them very different.

Stonetop doesn't feel that different. At least not in an uncomfortable way.

This new group I've pulled together for this game is made up of my wife (D&D Veteran), one of my oldest friends (D&D Apprentice?) and two friends who have never played a TTRPG.

Obviously as a GM I have to speak in two different languages, one for those with experience and one for those without. Stonetop and my prep for the session made this actually really easy.

Those of us who have taught people to play these games know there is a bit of a balance between pacing a session, teaching rules, and establishing fiction. The "Rules Light" genre in general I've found helps with that balance. But can sometimes lack in crucial areas because of it.

The bulk of Stonetop is flavour.

It's actually unreal. Everything I keep reading makes me stop and physically look away from the page and just get so excited. But I'm not here to grease the game. I'm also not going to start idea dumping.

I want to talk about experiences from the session and if people have any, answer questions.

First observation, Session 0 took A LONG TIME much longer than any session 0 I've run before for any system. The book makes it clear you're not running an adventure the first day. (unless you have that kind of time, then I'm jealous).

It wasn't a marathon session, our newer players didn't really know what to expect, and I'm hoping for longer sessions going forward, but it was just shy of 3 hours.

We didn't even get through character creation. We ended the session with our character introductions done, but for those of you who have read some of the system, all of the questions that flesh out your characters relationships and details, we didn't get to those.

Regardless, I made sure to really hit hard on what people found interesting from the Setting Guide. I have mixed feelings on that, it kind of takes me out of the fiction a bit, but I think mechanically it's super important, and am glad I made everyone read it, and we went over it in the session too.

Because of the way Session 0 is scripted to go, I have so many ideas for Threats and Adventures/Opportunities already.

I think this post is already too long, so if anyone is thinking about running the game, I can go more over my prep to run this (which is the longest I've ever prepped for a new game btw) or any other questions. I am actually super excited to run this game and so are my players.

TL:DR I think it's neat

Before anyone makes the “haha just read the book haha” joke, I’m asking this because a long time ago I read a book about how to read books — hilarious, I know — and one of the points it made was that different types of books require different ways of absorbing their content.

So I wanted to know if there’s a better way to learn new RPG systems, especially with the goal of running them, faster than just reading the book from beginning to end.

I know the usual advice: start with the core mechanic and character creation. But, as a bit of a mea culpa, knowing how to create a character and knowing that PF2e is basically “d20 plus bonuses” hasn’t really helped me feel comfortable running it. Same thing with Scion 2e and its stunts.

So I wanted to ask: do you use any specific method to learn new systems faster, especially from a GM perspective?

So, there's a new RPG storefront out there. I am not affiliated with this site in any way, but I think it's worth making people aware of new options. I've had good experiences with drivethrurpg, but competition beats monopoly. I couldn't see any other posts in the sub about this.

They're offering POD via Lulu, and seem to have a not-terrible range for a site that's only just gone live.

I believe the owners are based in New Zealand and are registered in Australia, which will also be relevant to some people who are looking to support non-US businesses at the moment.

Basically as the title - there are a lot of dice mechanics out there. This isn't strickly about 1d20 vs 2d6 vs special dice - but more specifically about dice resolving general skills/traits.

I'm curious which systems have the best spreads and ability to adjust difficulty based on context. Which ones seem very flexible to many situations and leave lots of room for degrees of success.

Edit: Should have said favorite - I know there isn't any 'best' in the objective sense. Just trying to get an idea of mechanics I haven't thought of.

I have recently got closer to the PbtA sphere and finally got the idea of it.

Now what I would love is to find the right game.

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I am looking for a dark and low fantasy setting, possibly iron age kind of medieval era with chance to lean into heavy medieval horror (like Gunmetal Gods or Between Two Fires).

I really like political intrigue and difficult decisions similarly to A Song of Ice and Fire (I know, you heard this before.)

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I don't mind much the system itself, cause I never played any of them!

But I'm familiar with a few systems: blades in the dark, ironsworn, Apocalypse World, Lumen, Charge, and even more indie like Caltrop Core.

I would prefer something without modifiers (so no 2d6+stat), but if I find the perfect match, I dont care about this much.

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As long as is "inspired by the apocalypse", or "not OSR", more narrative.

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I already made my researches and I already have a list of things that are similar but maybe dont fit exactly, so please feel free to give your opinion on them, if you have one you particularly recommend and why, or if you have an other entry!

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Trophy (Dark/Gold)

Ironsworn

Root

Monster of the Week Medieval (yes it exists)

Bloodstone

Fey Fire

Free from the Yoke

The Sword, The Unspeakable and the Crown

Wolf Head

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