**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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For example, I really like Modern Age from Green Ronin, but one of the rules I always ignore is speed. A character has anywhere from 10-15 Speed, i.e. can move up to 10-15 yards in a single action. Even if I plonk down a map or scribble the combat zone on paper, I'd be hard-pressed and extremely annoyed if I had to guess exact distances.

Most of the time I either ignore it, use it as a +- modifier for chases or just do what 13th Age does and say that everything is either nearby or far away. Now I'm thinking, maybe I'm doing it wrong? There has to be a reason why and how people use exact speed attributes in a TotM game. So I'd like to ask those that use it, like it and wouldn't want to play without it: how do you make it work for you?

Essentially what the title says. I already have way too many games, and I know that Son of Oak holds fairly regular sales anyway, so this is unlikely to be the last chance to get the game at a reduced rate, but what other reasons are there not to buy it or at least to wait, especially if those reasons are specific to this game. Has anyone here played it and either not enjoyed it, spotted weaknesses or identified the kinds of player/GM it definitely would not be for? I'm not asking for it to be trashed, just for excuses to keep my money!

In Pathfinder's Divine Mysteries, Paizo introduced the world to Atrogine, a god born of the wishes and dreams of a reclusive coven of witches.

In Dragon 293, Wizards of the Coast talk about Small Gods, like:

Lomeriseh, an intricate mosaic. The mosaic, which stretches over thirty yards in each direction, is composed of a seemingly abstract array of magic tiles. It is an artifact whose purpose is now forgotten, and has achieved a level of sentience and power that allows it to influence its environment. The elves worship the mosaic as a god, praying to it for good weather, protection from their enemies, and healing, all of which the artifact can provide. It, in turn, is very protective of its people and will not hesitate to intervene if they are threatened.

Are there any OTHER gods in the TTRPG worlds like these?

My brother and I have been GMing since the early '80s .. we both still run games regularly, and we both tinker with system design on the side. Lately we've gotten kind of obsessed with one specific question that we are noodling on:

Are phones/tablets/laptops at the table a tool or a distraction?

I've seen it go both ways. I've had sessions where a player having their character sheet and notes on a tablet kept things going. And I've had sessions where somebody was checking texts during the every other big moment. As a GM I lean on a laptop pretty hard (scabard.com, quothgm.com, my brother uses ddb and Foundry to project maps on the table/TV, doc for notes etc etc) behind the screen, but I'm never sure if what works for me would work for anyone else.

So I'm just trying to understand how other people actually do it. Like whatever you use. What's open on your screen mid-session? What do you wish worked better? When does a device help and when does it suck?

Curious about both sides of the screen — GMs and players.

Some stuff I'm wondering about :

• GMs: what's actually open on your device while you run? Notes, maps, music, dice, rules reference, something else?
• Players: phone, tablet, laptop, or paper? What lives on the device vs. what stays on the table?
• What's the thing your current setup can't do that you keep wishing it could?
• Has a device ever genuinely wrecked a moment at your table? What happened?
• If everyone at the table is on a device — does that connect people or isolate them?

Appreciate any honest takes, including "screens have no place at my table" - all good.

also strategy and diplomacy. Something like the players start as low level adventurers, but then one gets title and some land and then it becomes about defending it, diplomacy, recruiting henchmen, expansion, making wise decisions to balance factions and interests, marriage and heirs, etc.

I'm referring to:

• High Noon at Midnight
• Neon Rain
• Claim the Sky
• It's Only Magic
• Rust and Redemption
• We are All Mad Here
• The Stars are Fire
• Godforsaken
• Stay Alive!

All of their descriptions are hitting real good. Genres that don't often get general setting guides. At this time I don't have interest in Cypher. Maybe that'll change based on the changes presented in 2e, but for now I'm looking as them as general, non-Cypher, reference books.

Do they offer good value as general genre references, or would most of their content fall flat outside of Cypher games?

I primarily really like using these books or at the very least worlds without numbers as a GM tool.

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I'm seeing that a lot of people really push for stars and cities and soon to be ashes, For those who have fiddled with the without numbers books as GM tools If I'm primarily making like a fantasy steampunk adjacent campaign series, what are some things from cities and stars that I would absolutely gain benefits from even if primarily fantasy is the genre my games live in.

Sometimes, the party has to leave the dungeon before they’ve completely explored it, satisfied their objective therein, etc. Alternatively, the party has “finished” the dungeon and either they (or the GM) does not want to backtrack through all the rooms they’ve just cleared, instead “evacuating” (whether to the dungeon entrance or even back to town) instantaneously.

In either case, TTRPG groups/systems may have some designated mechanic or procedure (sometimes called an escape roll, sometimes not) for allowing the party to leave the dungeon without actually having to backtrack. Some megadungeons are even designed with the idea that parties will end each session back in town, no matter where/when their dungeoneering for the day has concluded.

My question to you is, how do you (or your group) or your preferred system go about handling the “leave the dungeon” bits of play? Why is this the mechanic/procedure you prefer and/or have come to rely on?

I am looking for high-powered, heroic, non-simulationist, tactical combat RPGs similar to Fabula Ultima or 13th Age 2e.

I like grid-based tactical combat RPGs. My favorites include relatively well-known titles like D&D 4e, Path/Starfinder 2e, and Draw Steel, and more obscure titles like Tailfeathers/Kazzam, Tacticians of Ahm, level2janitor's Tactiquest, and Tom Abbadon's ICON.

Still, I concurrently find myself also wanting to run gridless tactics. Two systems I have tried extensively are Fabula Ultima and 13th Age 2e. Of the two, I like the latter significantly more. Sure, 13th Age 2e does not have as much build customization, but I find that the moment-to-moment, turn-to-turn decisions are significantly more interesting than in Fabula Ultima. (Also, I am just not interested in Fabula relying on opaque combat information at all. I would much rather that challenge be intrinsic to the enemies, rather than arise from lack of knowledge.)

I have been keeping a combat diary of my 13th Age 2e game here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HQC2x2FfjnBDZDaicQDCLWO2-R6xMyUAa_rJcMABpfw/edit

Nevertheless, I would still be interested in giving Fabula another try. I would like to see how much more tactical (if any) the combat is with the new Bestiary and its boss mechanics. This ambition of mine is a doused by my one most tactically savvy player burning out on Fabula precisely because its tactics are not particularly in-depth, though.

So now I am looking for alternatives. They need to be high-powered, heroic, and non-simulationist (i.e. not gritty, not GURPS). They need to focus on tactical combat, and emphasize abstract distances (i.e. no grid, no concrete distances). Ideally, there should be a very well-stocked bestiary.

I have been running Daggerheart on the side. We are currently 6th level. I do not find its combat all that tactical.

I have considered Cypher, but I am waiting for its new edition.

What games come to mind?

Addendum: Sentinel Comics is one of those RPGs I would have found nearly perfect, were it not for its combat balance being on the shaky side. It has very little in the way of character advancement, too, and I like it when the PCs gain stronger new abilities as the levels rise: abilities that were once gated off behind high levels.

I have tried getting into both Exalted 3e and Exalted Essence. Just not for me in any way, system or setting.

Funnily enough, I know of a Fate tactical combat hack. I have tried it once. It was okay, but it was still Fate at the end of the day, and Fate is not particularly well-suited to tactical combat.

Are you more of a "stop the psycho wizard from using the soul of the sun to dominate the world" kind of guy or one who "wants to catch the shmuck giving Batman gadgets to bank robbers"?

So for a bit of context. I am running a Warhammer fantasy campaign, it’s a unique fantasy setting in that it’s set in the late renaissance period with gunpowder weaponry. For allot of my maps I’ve used the fantastic K.M Alexander brush sets for towns/ cities and the over world but am curious if there are any such packs when it comes to NPC portraits? Just a giant folder with public domain portraits that people have converted.

I hate AI and I feel going this route will give a sense of believability.