Hi all,

I'm Gareth Hanrahan, author of a whole bunch of stuff (1/2 of Dracula Dossier, Eyes of the Stone Thief, Pirates of Drinax, Darkening of Mirkwood, Hands of the White Wizard, Dagger in the Heart).

Crowdfunding soon is MERRYSHIRE DETECTIVE CLUB, a GUMSHOE-powered game of Halfling Detectives solving murders in a cosy little village.

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/pelgrane-press/merryshire-detective-club/launch_party?ref=GRHAMA

Anyway, as the title says, Ask Me Anything.

**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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I am a cheapskate and didn’t want to pay for the physical copy of the RPG Im running right now (exit: I did pay for the PDF! Don’t pirate RPGs). Instead I printed out a copy at work, punched it with a hole punch, and stuck it in a binder. But what started as a way to save a couple bucks until I could save up money ended up actually being waaay more convenient than having a book ever was:

For one, I can write all over the damn thing. This is really nice for adventures where I want to change stuff- I can just make notes directly in the text instead of having to cross-reference with my notes. But it’s also nice for tracking changes to the world. Players killed Bob the shopkeeper in Dwarf town? Just cross him out on the page.

Second, I can freely re-order pages and insert stuff where I want it. If I print out a monster online I can just put it in the middle of the monster manual in alphabetical order, making it easy to find. If I have a replacement for one of the hexes in my hex crawl I just put the new hex directly in the middle where it goes. If I have an home brew race I just print it out and stick it next to the other races Z Amazing!

Third, It makes the game way more accessible for my players. Previously we either had a rulebook we had to pass around when someone needed to check how a class ability worked, or people needed to have their phones on them. Now? I just print out a copy of everyone’s class snd race and give it to them. They have exactly the information they need right in front of them the whole time we play, which is great for new players. If two players have the same race or class they can sit next to each other and share, like in school.

Fourth, I find carrying around binders overfilled with paper sticking out everywhere just has a DIY, retro punk sort of aesthetic to it. Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea but I like it.

The Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland has inscribed new entries to the National Inventory of Living Heritage; one among them, role-playing culture in Finland. Here’s the inventory entry: https://wiki.aineetonkulttuuriperinto.fi/wiki/Role-playing_culture .

The national inventory is mandated by UNESCO for all signatories of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The point of the convention is to increase the visibility of living heritage and awareness of its importance, and to help ensure its continued transmission. Finnish Government’s article about the new inscriptions: https://valtioneuvosto.fi/en/-/1410845/national-inventory-of-living-heritage-expands-with-22-new-elements .

Finland has one of the most extensive such inventories in Europe, perhaps due to the bottom-up, wiki-based, community-led process. Finnish Heritage Agency article about the 22 new entries: https://www.museovirasto.fi/en/articles/22-new-entries-added-to-finlands-national-inventory-of-living-heritage .

Disclosure: I was one of the people who helped write the application. I run a small Finnish TTRPG studio.

Due to unforeseen circumstances (a US Customs delay, unrelated to FRPG Day itself) the kits bound for the UK are on hold. Sadly, the event will be rescheduled within that region. We will update when we know more.

• https://freerpgday.com

just what the text says! I’m trying to do a sort of flight of games for a group, and find what works best!

We decided to test cyberpunk red before starting a two year campaign in it, and though the sessions were fun the mechanics were not to our liking. I suggested we do this because normally we play light to medium crunch games. BRP is the favourite game of many in the group. I was a player in this game, so this all assumes we played it correctly and the GM was running the game rules as written.

What I found very interesting was how much the game minimized randomness. It’s a single d10 system and some rolls were at around a +13. I think this is cool because it really forces you to specialize and spotlights characters well. If this was a play test for a new game I would have suggested turning it into a single d6 game and squishing the math a bit. It’s a bit much, and with the new way you’d get the same good aspects with less of the negatives.

The flavour of the cyberware is fun and I think it gives the game a lot of style and that is a key component of cyberpunk IMO. If we pick a different game I think we’ll still use the books to grab some cool stuff.

Exploding dice are very cool, but negative exploding dice are not. I get why they did it, but I think it was super clunky.

I’ve always heard of the netrunner issue where everyone is playing the game, and then the netrunner goes into the system and plays their own game. I played the netrunner and I felt kind of bad that the spotlight was on me for so long when I’m already a very roleplay heavy player. If you’re going to put someone in the role of the netrunner I suggest picking the wallflower player or someone who is hesitant to grab the spotlight. I could see this being a great tool for spotlight management that not a lot of games have. I might have been playing the class very poorly but netrunning felt more dangerous than being in a gunfight.

I really don’t like the armour system. I get wanting armour to slowly degrade, but the way they do it is tracking intensive.

Our group is usually fine with high amounts of skills, but this list felt pretty excessive.

We are thinking we are going to switch to something else for the main campaign.

It's been a while, but after getting to play some Lancer games, the itch to GM the system is returning. Unfortunately, my last forays into doing so produced games that died because the players just didn't talk to each other. They would use Pilot Skill Triggers to avoid any dialogue and as a shortcut to obtain whatever they needed. They would tell me, "I got the thing Player X needs. What next?" instead of having a moment to talk to their fellow player.

That type of occurrence was the pattern no matter the context or result of their actions. The only time conversations happened, either in first person or third person, was when I was an NPC. That got draining really quickly.

This happened across three Lancer games. There was one player among the 12 who tried, but after the first session they understandably left because the vibes weren't there.

When screening players, I talked to these folks, and they all said, "Yeah, I would love to RP." But if you know the state of the Lancer community, players are desperate for games and would consider joining games that completely wreck their sleep schedules just for a chance to play. So lying is not above them.

I take their words at face value and see how it actually unfolds in play.

So I ask for aid from the wider community on how I can alleviate these RP issues through in-game aids.

I'm about to print spare copies of my purchased materials simply because I have this (justified?) hang-up?

I've plenty of friends who fall on both sides of the fence.

Hi,

I feel regretful that I don't have my Traveller 1st black box anymore in my collection. I was wondering if anybody could help a nostalgic GM out, and tell me if I can get the black box anywhere? I mean, if it could be the latest edition but boxed the way the original was, that's be ideal..

Hello, everyone!

My group will likely be concluding our Pathfinder 2e campaign in a few months, and so I'm looking into potential alternatives for the next one. I've checked the wiki and read through a few systems, and there are a couple that look promising, but I figured it doesn't hurt to also just ask the experienced folks.

We're currently playing Pathfinder 2e, and we've also done oneshots in Lancer and Daggerheart. I'm also pretty intrigued by Urban Shadows.

Obviously, it's fine if a system doesn't match every item on the list, but I'm looking for the following:

Genre and setting

• Compatible with a collaborative homebrew setting, primarily in and around a city-state.
• Low-medium fantasy: magic is uncommon, but becoming more accessible thanks to a revolution in communication.
• Accordingly, the era is flexible. The printing press is a must, but we're open to both historical and contemporary settings.
• Humanity is the default, but there can be some "human-passing" ancestries among them (e.g. vampires or changelings).

Gameplay

• We'd like a healthy mix of intrigue, exploration and combat. Mechanics for politics are a plus.
• We spend a lot of time on cities, environments and NPCs. Rules for these should ideally be narrative-first, not mechanics-first.
• Player characters can grow to be elite, but not superhuman. Think Odysseus, not Heracles.
• Combat should be dynamic, tactical and fun. Variety, both turn-to-turn and between combats, is important.
• We play online on Foundry, so support for that is a plus.

Thanks in advance!

A free bundle is currently live, through June 30th on RPG Trader in honor of Free RPG Day (June 27th), with 250 digital titles free, including some mouseritter, Mork Borg, Shadowdark (**disclaimer: including my own contribution**), liminal horror, and Mothership content, and I'm sure others that I will find once I dig through.

https://rpg-trader.com/products/1025/free-rpg-day-2026-bundle

Just thought I'd mention it since RPG Trader was a topic of discussion the other day. I like it so far, and seems like they plan to give Drivethru a run for their money. They had some technical issues earlier in the day, but seem to be on track now.