**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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This submission is generated automatically each Saturday at 00:00 UTC.

**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.

----------

This submission is generated automatically each Saturday at 00:00 UTC.

Like the minute it was announced with star wars and WoW it just clicked and answered every question I had about this. I know essence 20 isn’t particularly popular on this subreddit but as someone who really enjoyed the line and thought it fixed a lot of issues I had with 5e it just hurts even more to know that it’s just to make more slop for dnd beyond. Even ignoring just how much none of the settings actually fit into 5.5e frame of character creation it just sucks to lose someone to corporate greed and as someone who primarily played the power rangers line I’m not even garenteed anything as we only get it if gi Joe and transformers does well. And we never got the magic sourcebook that was teased at the end of the monster manual for power rangers instead I get a maybe on a second edition of porting the game to a worse system. Fuck this man I’m just tired and beat

TLDR: what mechanics have you grown to appreciate RAW and has made your experience more enjoyable by engaging with them as written.

Something I commonly see in many games is how swiftly people wanna house rule away something before they even try it. Trying different games and being more respectful of author intent has given me alot more appreciation with what the text can bring to the table without me doing anything.

Lately my game of choice, Cypher (2nd edition) has really started to click at my tables for me in a way that wasn't before and it because i was able to really gel with what the books were trying to feed me.

Without going into intense detail, Cypher can come off like players always win; everything your characters do will or should be a success. BUT that's not what it has to be nor what it wants to be. YES cypher puts the onis of success more in the players hand than in other games BUT at a cost. The trick is to let that cost slowly rise over the adventures, creating tension within the players to not only use their character skills and abilities, but rely on their friends or magic items more and more, of which everything has limitations to.

If by the end of an adventure my team saved the princess, killed a demon, and recovered the shiny golden brisket, but none of them have any recovery rolls nor resources to spend on any more rolls, even if they took no damage (cause both c1 and c2 can be death spirals) then i consider that an exciting climax to a session now. I made them consider every option and work for every success. And my table soften reflect that back to me.

There's many more games for me to tap into and find and id love to see what mechanics you guys had initially struggled with but now find its integral to the experience the book tries to show?

Obviously, I use pre made statblocks but sometimes I just can't find the one that "fits". I've come to love making the monsters as much as the npc or even (some) PCs. If you make your own, what's that process look like for you?

Dungeon crawls usually have a lot of violence (especially CRPGs), but I'm looking for a dungeon crawl with low or no violence. Basically, something that is going to have a lot of the same feelings and vibes but just without violence and combat.

Note: I know lots of OSR games that treat combat as a failure state / fallback position when other methods fail. For purposes of this question, I'd like to exclude that from this question as being part of the low-violence category. (They're fun but I've got a ton of those already.)

EDIT: For clarification, I'm fine with traps and other similar types of dangers. In real life, a trap that shoots spears at whoever passes would be violence; for this question, I'm not.

So I’m finally quitting my Daggerheart campaign after another terrible session (short version: GM who thinks his only goal should be building fear and never letting us make any choices that deviate from his rails or let us roleplay and two players who boss everyone around and have main character syndrome). And the thing is, while I have done a oneshot with friends I really enjoyed, this group has made me never want to even hear about Daggerheart and especially age of Umbra.

Conversely, I think one of my favorite gaming experiences was a Songbirds oneshot. Cause I had a FANTASTIC group. An engaged GM and other players who were “yes and” ing, everyone was happy to share the spotlight…but the system, while really creative and the vibes are immaculate, it’s a bit of a mess

so it got me thinking: has anyone else had otherwise fine systems that you don’t want to play because of bad experiences or alternatively, systems that you don’t think are that good but you had a group that made you really like it?

for a more neutral example: I actually really like draw steel but here’s how every group around me that tries to run it goes “oh you’ll love the system! it even has a great starter adventure that acts as a tutorial!” “oh, schedules didn’t line up!” next group “oh you’ll love the system! it even has a great starter adventure that acts as a tutorial!” “oh schedules didn’t line up!” …I have killed that same set of goblins 4 times. we can never get a group to last more than one session, lol. I’m like a kid at an old video game kiosk playing the same demo over and over.

Hi there! I have recently been struggling with pacing, I feel like I take too long when introducing plot lines or just spending hours in interactions. I mean, players don't have any complaints but I personally feel like after weeks I barely have moved on in the great scheme of things. Anyone else with this issue?

Just like the title says. Are you a pen and paper note take or do you use digital tools? Laptops or recordings? Or do you leave the notes up to the players?

I had someone say in my game that they didn't know something was going to be important which is what made me think of this.

I take detailed notes but I also expect my players to take notes so its not on me to constantly remind them.

PS I also give them access to a pretty detailed recap.

I'm a new storyteller/GM for VtM 5e, Pathfinder, and Starfinder. I've done tutorial campaigns for MoTW and Marvel Multiverse before with the same playgroup. And something I've realized is that my friends/only playgroup are very chaotic, and quickly turn any campaign into a comedy. And..I love it.

As hard as it can make things sometimes, I love the absolute insanity of it all. While I'm struggling to read the rules, they're bickering in character or finding...creative solutions to failed roles. It's honestly a lot of fun, and I don't want to discourage that in the future.

But I am a new GM as I said, and I can struggle to keep the story on track, even when reading from a sourcebook or tutorial. I wanna make my own campaigns one day, but I am nervous I won't be able to keep up or guide my players because I'll have made a very railroad campaign that can't handle going off the rails. (I know being a DM involved improvisation though.)

So for more experienced playgroups who also have a playgroup that can be chaotic and goofy (affectionately.) how do you develop your own campaigns when things can go off the rails? Either tonally or just the players somehow fumbling every clue you lay out for them? I really want to make sure I can host in a way that supports my friends, so I'd appreciate some feedback ^^