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I've had a grand time of running a bit of the Pirate Borg starter box over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised by one of the physical components they include: a lovely poster sized print of the treasure map characters find as part of the main quest.

Here's the twist - the module gives you explicit instructions to stain it, burn the edges, rub dirt on it and then rip that thing in half to give players one piece of said map as the reward for exploring their first dungeon.

I hadn't read the adventure to prepare the map for my players ahead of time but I rolled with it. I said to my players "Are you ready for this shit?" and tore it in front of them. Honestly it was pretty hype and shocking for all of us.

I remember an old Matt Coleville video on his deck of many things, but I haven't seen too many other examples of this idea of including real objects relevant to the game. What are some cool examples of physical props you've seen for RPGs?

OK, so... I have been asked to run a one-shot at an '80s-themed event. The players will be from a local gaming club and have at least some familiarity with TTRPGs, though not necessarily the game being run.

But what should I run? Should I go with something from the actual '80s? Something '80s-themed? Or just run whatever? I am completely stumped. The event is in 6 weeks and I don't have a lot of work, so I have more than enough time to learn a new game. The most recent games I have run were Wildsea, Blades In The Dark and Vaesen, if that helps.

I see so many rule books coming out that have full page, full color illustrations, as well as every PAGE of the book not just "white" but a printed shaded color with some sort of marginalia whether it's celtic ribboning, crumple marks, whatever to make it look 'real'.

As I understand, the printing costs at a 10k book run for full color 400 page hardcover (A4) is something like $10-$20 per book. Not to mention the significant savings in art costs - a B&W lineart from a professional artist is what, $200? vs a full color image $500? $1000 depending on the artist? PER PRODUCT.

And then so many systems say you need a player book, a dm book, a monster book a setting book, etc?

It is not worth it.

Not only is it not worth it, I suspect it's doing a better (worse) job of undermining imagination, locking-in a particular narrow vision of what this creature looks like or how that sort of character should be.

Black and white lineart is FINE & ADEQUATE for purpose. If I had a choice between a rulebook being "pretty" and $20 in my pocket to buy ANOTHER product, I know which I'd choose.

Hey there, after years of playing dnd with my group i've been running a mixed-splat Chronicles of Darkness game (mage, vampire and werewolf) and we've found out that it's the best kind of ttrpg for our group. Particularly, we like:

• The skill-based system where you buy what you want with XP instead of being locked in a class, which allows for a lot of character customization. (very VERY big emphasis on this, and also a good XP system is ESSENTIAL for me. The Beat system in Chronicles is phenomenal for this reason, because you dont just gain xp by defeating stuff in combat or the DM deciding that you level up, but it's your choices and actions that determine how much you advance)
• The focus on the intrigue and social aspect of the game, so lots of social rules and social/investigative abilities for players, as opposed to a relentless focus on combat and combat abilities. Still, we need good rules for combat
• The power level being somewhat grounded and never reaching epic scale (im so tired of campaigns where the players face gods or world-ending-threats)
• The narrative being driven by the players and their characters
• if possible, I'd like if the players weren't beings with specific innate powers or "chosen ones" (kinda like the CofD splats) but normal people that learn and grow and suffer to become powerful

I'm basically looking for something that fits these criteria but is also a game in a fantasy setting like DnD. I appreciate any suggestion.

I'm starting to get into Obsidian and I'm discovering that there are a ton of RPG plugins for it.

How do y'all use it for your RPGs (especially as DMs)? Are the RPG plugins worthwhile? Interested in hearing about how you structure your vaults and use tags if you don't use the plugins.

Just a tiny ttrpg hot take. I see a lot of folks trying to recommend systems and using mechanical simplicity as the only criteria for beginner friendliness. I think we can be more helpful to anyone trying to break into this rather intimidating hobby by being a little bit more specific.

I got into ttrpgs as someone who loves math and logic and puzzles, but was terrified of role play and improv. For me, a crunchy system was WAY easier to break into. I had more scaffolding, more preset ways to interact with the world, and honestly sometimes I used the rules of the system, calling for a roll or asking a rules question or something, to kind of hide behind and give myself a break from long role play scenes. From there I was able to get comfortable and now I love both crunchy games and looser ones.

I think newcomers are often scared of both the "figuring out the rules" part of ttrpgs AND the "roleplaying and improvising" part. But while there are infinite resources to figure out the mechanics and rules, improv skills REQUIRE practice, and are much harder to help someone with through a reddit post. A newby willing to put in time can eventually figure out any rules system with maybe a book and the internet, but they won't get comfortably roleplaying before doing it.

I'm sure LOTS of people are more scared of math than acting even if they are scared of both. But this is something to keep in mind if you're trying to help a beginner. If you're talking to an experienced theater kid who hates math, point 'em towards a rules light system, but a video game nerd who never talks to anyone may find more complex rules to be less intimidating. Maybe link them to this post, to help them figure out themself where they want to start on the spectrum of super crunchy to super loose games.

(Even in my less math-savvy friends, I've seen lots of players use rules questions or calling on a game mechanic to "break out" of moments when they get overwhelmed in roleplay. IE, in a dnd game, when I give someone an intense line of dialogue and they aren't quickly sure how to respond, they might go "uhhhh, can I roll insight?" or something similar. I think this is a really really useful type of interaction that lets a player slow down play. It falls somewhere on the hierarchy of "tools for helping players establish boundaries and stay comfortable" because let's face it, no amount of healthy table dynamic will fully alleviate feeling of "I don't want to bother others by asking for x thing that would make me more comfortable". But also make sure new (and old) players know they can ALWAYS call for a break directly!)

How would you recommend approaching the series? What is your favorite game?

I had played a lot of games before but WoD have overwhelmed me with options.

I'm looking into Savage Worlds, and it definetly intrigues me. My only concern with the system, is how Fast & Furious is combat really? Is it much faster than 5e?

If not, any other setting agnostic RPGs you would recommend?

So I have been interested in Powered by the Apocalypse games for awhile, but I seem to keep bouncing off of them. And I think it really comes down to the idea combat being treated like a scene, just like any other interaction and typically being resolved via a single roll to see how things go (usually with a mixed success).

In comparison to other RPGs that treat combat as an action-by-action moment, PbtA kind of wraps the whole thing up in just a single dice roll, and it's never quite felt satisfying to me.

Do folks happen to know if there are any Apocalypse Engine games that instead do round-by-round combat or is that just not something anyone has tried to create?

They know the relic to do something along the lines of "For 24 hours, changes all creatures in a 10 mile radius into various Beasts, who appear as shadowy, colorfully hand-drawn animals. Terrain changes to match- forests may be scaled up, cities may become burrow/prairie/treetop villages" Big ((GM DISCRETION)) disclaimer slapped onto the back of it of course. It changes the world into a storybook with storybook logic.

My/their intention is that this change would allow them to take a different angle at an upcoming danger, simplified greatly here-- a citywide system of many magical nodes all connected to a heavily-guarded underground vortex guarded by a small army; in 1 day, the nodes will trigger and each will funnel magical force from its area, effectively killing off or draining much of the city.

The storybook version would be different-- perhaps a redwall-esque story about a giant tree with a pit of eels and snakes below its roots.

My party is excited at the prospect of turning a gritty, protracted race to save the city into a more improvisational, cartoonish adventure. They only get one of these in the entire campaign and they want to use it here. I'm looking for the right system though. To use their regular stats eliminates the whole encounter concept, using their Beast stat sheets makes it a little boring. I'm looking at games like Lasers & Feelings, which could be changed into something fitting the setting easily, but I don't want it to be so lightweight that it's not interesting. I'm looking for a game that's a good balance of cartoony and easy to set up, while still having stakes and unique characters.

Any thoughts?

Looking for a rich, meaty feudal Japan game. I would appreciate any opinions or comparisons on these systems. There’s a good deal right now on one of them.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/RisingSun2026