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I'm looking to share some preferences on your favourite TTRPGS, where the mechanical complexity (or absence of it) perfectly matches the theme/setting they try to portray.

I'll give some example of my current favourites. Feel free to add cathegories based on your experience and preference:

- Horror/Investigation: Mothership.
Simple in rules (like all OSR), but has the BEST gm advice ever.
I still use its suggestions as baseline for all my stories in any rpg i gm.
I exclusively run it using its modules as they are probably the best in the market quality wise

- Heroic Fantasy: Draw Steel
This one makes you feel like a true hero.
The closest thematically to DnD (in the sense that it is high fantasy), it plays very differently though, since instead of an "attrition" games (your resources go down until you are forced to rest), it is a "momentum" game (meaning you become more powerful the more "victories" you accumulate, resetting at rest). This means that the players are incentivized to always push themself to the limit until their HP permits it.
Also attacks don't miss ever, which means that they will be forced to rest eventually, no matter what.

- Pulp: Savage Worlds Adventure Edition
This is my personal favourite to gm, because you can literally improvise any encounter on the spot and it will work, and the meta-currency (the "Benny", a poker chip) is fantastic.
Character progression is horizontal: PCs become better at doing more stuff, but no encounter is ever trivial. It is also class-less: you customize you PC with features ("Edges") that you gain almost every level.
The meta-currency is essential to minimize randomness (the dice mechanics can feel very swingy), and I love that it gives a way for the players to influence the story, especially when they are willing to pay (literally) to do some crazy idea they have. It makes it feel earned.
Excellent for homebrews, excellent to fight lots of little guys, requires some house-rules to do solo boss fights (check out this comment it you're interested in doing that)

- Vibes: Blades in the Dark / Mythic Bastionland
These are two heavy hitters on the atmosphere they create.
Blades make you in a band of industrial punk criminals. Perfect heist game, very improvisational: you pay "stress" to have flashbacks that resolve a problem during the heist instead of having to think out a solution before, so you're always in the action.
Also it's Zero prep-time for the GM. The settings does the heavy-lifting (lots of pre-gen factions and locations that react to the players action).
Mythic is great for its random tables. I recommend rolling randomly for your PCs (they are arthurian knights fighting esoteric horror), since all of the option are extremely flavourful. Less improvisational than Blades, but still highly improvisational.

Newbie friendly: Lady Blackbird / The Witch is Dead
Both excellent one-shots for new players, rules-light and quick to the action.
Lady Blackbird is classic steam-punk adventure sillyness. Character are some flavourful pre-gens and the system allows the player to choose some world-building aspect when the GM asks them ("Lady Blackbird, you know magic: do only nobles like you knows it, or is it more commonplace in the Wild Blue?" stuff like this)
The Witch is Dead (or anything else by Grant Howitt, really) is an excellent on-page rpg. Players are the witch's familiars and have to defeat the witch hunter that killed the witch. I like to GM this straight, serious and dramatic, but it is very open to silliness. Very fun for people who are learning the ropes of rpgs

These are my recomendations, what are yours?

Here in Salzburg, we ended up using a WhatsApp community to keep track of local one-shots. It works surprisingly well, but it made me wonder how other local TTRPG scenes handle this.

Discord? Meetup? Local game stores? Clubs? Facebook? Reddit? Something completely different?

What actually works where you live — and what tends to get overlooked?

Sometimes it sucks to fail a roll. But other times, it gets fun. Glorious, even. So I'm curious, what are some games or mechanics that make failure really satisfying?

I’m looking for a tabletop RPG that I can play as an adult (32f) with my dad (69m).
I’ve been spending a lot more time back at home with my dad and I’m looking for a TTRPG to spend meaningful time creating and reminiscing with him. I know there’s a whole bunch of 2 player RPGS based around conversation, memories, and bonding out there but most seemed to be angled toward couples.
The only ones I can find based around family connections are more for younger children and family game nights.
Looking for something that an adult child can play with their Dad for an evening of bonding, learning more about each other, reminiscing on our life and adventures together while creating something new!
Any suggestions are appreciated!

Thank you! 🌻

I don't just mean mechanics and lore. I mean games where the GM has to interpret rolls and manage the setting, but not write plot from session to session.

I'm thinking games like Blades In The Dark, Mythic Bastionland, Stonetop, Apocalypse World, Slugblaster.

I'm in a large local TTRPG group where there's many weekly one shots, and at least a dozen ongoing campaigns. Unfortunately (IMO) the vast majority of what is played is DnD 5e. A few members of my group have expressed interest in trying out some one shots with universal systems, and I've agreed to run a couple.

I've played Savage Worlds, and while there were some elements of it I thought really worked well, I hated the combat and some of the fights seem to drag on forever. GURPS honestly just seems too intimidating to attempt to run. I'd have to play it at least once to get a feel for it and I don't know of anyone in my group who's played it or even has the books. FATE is...maybe it was just the way the GM who ran it for my group the one time I played it, but it just felt so completely devoid of challenge or consequences. It was like we were having a sloppy improv session with some dice rolls that really didn't mean anything.

Have there been any new universal systems in the last few years that are rules-light, to rules-medium, that are easy to create characters, and have novel concepts for truly running any genre/story in and still being cohesive and a lot of fun for players? Are there any older ones that fit the bill?

I'm planning on doing a short prison break campaign set in the modern day. And I don't want it to be too complex because I'm just filling time while my main campaign is on hiatus.

Not combat heavy, and free is preferred

Chaosium vice president Michael O'Brien and Call of Cthulhu creator Royce Wilson (co-author of the coming Call of Cthulhu release Tools of the Trade) are special guests at KaijuCon 2, taking place in Nagoya on October 24th.

www.chaosium.com/blogmichael-...

kaijucon.org

Hello fellow gaymers.

I am going to be starting a new fallout themed campaign set in post-war Toronto using the Gamma World 4E system for my group/friends soon. I have already gone over the core rulebook and I think that I understand the basics of the system well enough as I have gone over the 2E AD&D rulebook before and have played BG1&2, which it seems very similar to GW4E; albiet more streamlined. I am running for a group mostly consisting of people with a background in 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, who have agreed to try a new system. I am very enthusiastic about playing this system because it looks so cool, fun, and awesome.

I do wish to clarify that I am not a new DM. I have years of experience running 5th edition, I have done 2e one shots before, and I have done shadowdark before.

However since this is a very new system to me I wanted to ask:

1. Does anyone know good WRITTEN additional resources besides the core rulebook that might help me in running the game?
2. Does anyone know if anyone has made a good monster manual for Gamma World 4E or for a system that is easy to convert to Gamma World 4E (besides the 2E AD&D Monster Manual) that fits the themes of Gamma World?
3. Are there any common house rules for this system that I should consider having in my game?
4. Does anyone have advice for running this system?
5. Does anyone have advice for introducing new players coming from 5E to Gamma World for the first time?

I would be very grateful for any advice, resources (written), or information that people could share with me.

Thank you everyone.

EDIT: Gamma World 1992, not 2010

Less “This isn’t even my final form!” and more like having a dramatic moment in combat where you reach a new permanent height in power?

Sounds like a stupid question, but I know one of them has neomorphs and one of them is about fighting the aliens from Prometheus. So which of them is just a straight "xenomorphs hunting the party" adventure?

Going to do an Alien RPG oneshot on October 31st for another fan of the movie series.