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This isn’t entirely a discussion about “bad” adventures, because even great ones can go horribly awry for one reason or another: GM misinterpretation or inadequate preparation, player disinterest, etc. (It also goes without saying that one person’s trash is another’s treasure.)

With all of that in mind, have you ever run or played through an adventure that flopped so hard that it ended a campaign? I don’t mean a total party kill or diegetic narrative event, either: I mean something that killed everyone’s interest in playing any further, left bad feelings among the group, or otherwise made people shelf the RPG.

I had this experience GMing Diogo Nogueira’s “Halls of the Blood King,” an adventure for Old School Essentials. I like Diogo and his work, generally speaking. No blame on him, this was all me.

It is a very loosely structured module, and I think I wasn’t expecting that. It felt fine in prep, but in practice, I failed to find the rhythm.

Things just spun out of control and I wasn’t able to correct them. I had players stumbling around and not knowing exactly what to do, my own problems handling a mansion full of vampires, and finally a player who lost her first character and didn’t take it well.

The whole thing felt awful enough that I ended up declaring a complete do-over. We’d forget it ever happened and move into the next adventure, which we did, but the damage was done.

We shelved OSE and put the characters on ice after the next session. We love OSE, but have yet to return to it. We have been playing other things ever since. We’ll start anew when we do. The player (a new person) who lost her character won’t be returning: That rupture was irreparable.

I’m a forever GM of over 40 years and the last time a derailment of this scale happened was in high school with an adventure I wrote for my AD&D group. I guess things happen sometimes.

Any of you have a fatal flop?

Hey

I watched Resident Evil today - great movie, I recommend it - and it made me want to play a survival horror system.

The only ones I know for that are Call of Cthulhu, but the character sheet too time-consuming to create imo and I wanted something more dynamic, I also heard of Paranormal Order and Alien, but I've never played either of them.

I wanted to know which system you prefer or if you have any other recommendations for me - even PBTA would work.

Returning yet again to the issue of running a duet with a friend, I want to run one where there are mysteries, conflicts, challenges and the like - thus similar to a larger-party TRPG but with just one other person. I wanted to try this idea - my question is: what are the potential pitfalls of this system?

There are three elements to an action the player will take: Tool + Skill/Training + Context

1. If you have nothing appropriate that fits, you fail outright. For example, you don't have a tool for picking a lock, nor the experience nor the time and space to try freely.
2. If you have one appropriate element, you succeed at a cost.
3. If you have two appropriate elements, you succeed.
4. If you have all three, for example a strong weapon, training to use it and the monster is weak to it (contextual advantage), then you critically succeed with a better-than-normal result.

That's it. That's all there is.

So, this - by my reckoning - will make the game more about accumulating items, skills or experiences, and knowledge/lore (which can take the place of 'tools' here) as well as trying to recognise appropriate moments for them. It becomes somewhat similar to a point-and-click adventure game where having access to the right course of action grants progress - and so the game becomes more puzzle-like in its approach. Exploration and investigation should come to the forefront as the player improves their arsenal over time. Tags might be added to Tools to give a better idea as to any conditions where they are advantageous - like [a duelist's sword] might naturally interpret duels as 'Advantageous Context'.

This appeals to me because I have a very big focus on gameplay in the games I run - and by gameplay I mean things that players (and the GM) can exploit. Exploiting openings, weaknesses, lore, secrets, bad rolls, overconfidence, resources, relationships all give a pro-active way of generating the kind of gameplay you wanted, with the consequences stemming from the pursuit of those desires.

There are also genuine issues with running a 1-to-1 campaign of "standard play". Most solo-style games allow the player to make judgement calls on what their challenges will be. However, with a single player, failures can be a lot more catastrophic since there is no safety net for the player making a mistake. There is no one else to bounce ideas off of (in the traditional sense), and so the system has to enable them to piece findings together and make informed decisions on their own.

The worries I have now are:

• This ability to exploit scenarios through the use of Tool + Aptitude + Contextual Advantage is a cold and empty intellectual joy. While players enjoy rolling dice for what they do in the moment, it feels difficult to add spice to the moment when the player is making a calculated decision. Perhaps if they didn't know the scale of the outcome, only its valence.
• Rolling is dangerous because a solo player can make the right choice, fail the roll and then be subject to the penalty without having other people to help evaluate if it was luck or bad decision-making. While I can help, I want to have the potential to phase out support as the player becomes more self-reliant. Given I run dangerous adventures, players can end up in interesting but difficult positions and it's much easier for a solo player to snowball negatively through bad rolls. To be clear, rolls can easily be added to the system (each appropriate element adds 1d6, roll the dice pool Blades-in-the-Dark style) but I want to first try considering without it.But rolling allows for in-the-moment windows of opportunities for action. Enemies waste a spell slot, players fail saves, enemies fail difficult movement - all of these things create dynamic openings for the opposing side to exploit. I wonder where the dynamism would stem from in the system I proposed.
• Progression can exist in terms of the nature of the elements used:
  • Tools being found (items -> spells -> lore ->renown -> promises)
  • The types of Skills gained (Starting skills give way to 'noting down important experiences' and 'being trained in new skills')
  • New Contexts (Physical advantages leading to supernatural charms and blessings and ritual preparations).
    • However, the actual actions the player takes never change. The objects of their consideration evolve but the process of considering itself never evolves. New points of decision-making do not seem easy to add, and the player will largely be using the same ideas in the 20th session as they did in the 1st, but with more complicated entries. I feel like this squanders the opportunity for the player to grow with the adventure - where their insight into the metaphysics of the world evolves as their contact with the world's narrative and conflicts continues (Basic leads to Expert).
• I imagine part of the resolution will involve offering different outcomes and risks in case of failure, akin to the risk + position of BitD. However, I wonder if there is a way of making this flow more naturally - having the player select the kinds of things they're willing to give up if they lose. My only worry is that as the game continues, this will fall apart as the game gets more complex. I can assist but I wonder if that assistance will eventually become mandatory.

While I was looking for insight into the system and possible nuances, I will mention that the module I intended to write was going to be based off of the Hazlan ideas in the VRGTR DnD 5E book, about going to a wasteland teeming with magical toxicity, social as well as physical and mental challenges and secrets that can be exposed to affect the main arch-villain Hazlik. So, the system has to eventually work for that to be delivered.

Insight, thoughts and developments would be welcome. EDIT: the formatting never seems to save on the bullet pointing.

I’m aware only about Mythic Bastionland but maybe there are other games with something like classes and/or character progression with new abilities.

My wife and I came up with an idea for me to GM a one shot for her and some of her friends. We want to do a rules-light system since there will be a couple of folks who have never played a ttrpg before and it’s just meant to last one session. I’ll take any ideas or recommendations any of you all have. Thanks!

Maybe unrelated but we discovered co-op board games last year, we fell in love with the Frostpunk boardgame and how we were together roleplaying as mayors and building up something to overcome a challenge together.

Well, I figured out that the next step is to try an actual table top RPG and see how it goes.

What is the most noob friendly TTRPG that can be played by two people?

The recent reveal of the latest Metroid game, Ravenous, reignited an old wish of mine of playing a sci-fi campaign inspired by the franchise. I don't have anything much specific in mind, just something focused on cool space action and the exploration of dangerous alien planets. I'm not very knowledgeable about sci-fi RPGs so I'd appreciate some recommendations for an adequate system. The ones I know are either too focused on horror so characters are too fragile and combat too deadly (Mothership), or on space-magic (Starfinder), or are just a little too rules-heavy for my taste (Traveller).

Thanks in advance!

To be clear not a shill just excited and want to see this not Kickstarter push further, it already funded the base goal and is just adding stacks of good stuff onto the pile.

The game is called Ink Ribbon, there's a quick start to try and see if it's worth throwing your money at.

Resident evil, last of us, Alan Wake (gods I'm old), eventually if it hits the bigger stretch goal Dino Crisis inspired TTRPG, go read the posts check out and see if you want to add it to your pile of 'will I ever run/play this or will it just be great reading material I can borrow' like I do.

Again, not a shill just excited as a forever GM that loves resident evil things.

I was looking through some of the materials and quick play content for Crows from MCDM and I'm curious what your opinions are.

It seems to me like most of the mechanics are lifted from other RPGs (obvious one is the inventory system is almost a direct copy of Mausritter)

Am I missing something unique or is this just another OSR game?

Hello everyone! I recently bought Girl by Moonlight, and I feel really confused. I bought it because I'm into magic girls, specifically Madoka. And I wanted to play a game for it, yet upon getting it, I feel overwhelmed. I wanted to be a game master for a couple of friends. But I don't really know where to start, and apparently Girl by Moonlight doesn't really explain the mechanics very well for people who are beginners with the Blades in the Dark system, so I came here hoping to get some kind of help.

Hi guys,

The new Witcher 3 expansion and re-release has got me wanting to play in that world again. What’s currently out in the TTRPG space that could adequately run the Witcher that isn’t the official RPG or overly crunchy (I love Mythras in theory, not in practice, on that note).

Ideally my touchstones for this are the level of complexity in the One Ring RPG, or the Year Zero Engine games. So, not too crunchy but with enough meat on them to not feel like I’m running something with a single d6 and a dream.

Thanks in advance!