**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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Hello! I am currently leading as the president of my high school D&D club (keeping the D&D club name for recognition). After leading the club for a year, I realized many of the club members didn't use the bulk into D&D's ruleset. It mostly boils down to: roll a d20, high numbers succeed, low numbers fail. Some of the players seemed to not be interested in learning D&D's complex rules: One group enjoys goofy and silly campaigns, another into narrative gaming.

They seem to lean toward medieval and heroic fantasy, sci-fi, or random campaign ideas that they have on the top of their head. A vast majority of them are beginners who only heard about D&D.

I'm thinking of presenting 3-5 ttrpgs to suit the tastes of everyone in the D&D club without overwhelming them with options. One for narrative and story games, one for beer and pretzels play, one for beginners who don't know where to start, and D&D for brand recognition.

My current thoughts are:

D&D

Maze Rats/Cairn

Freeform Universal

Feel free to recommend more if you want.

Which 3-5 ttrpgs would you recommend to present to the club, and why?

What should be my philosophy with picking TTRPGS?

TLDR: it was a fun time, can't wait to play it again!

Every month or so, I run a one shot or very short campaign in a new system for some friends of mine. I heard of Triangle Agency several months ago on Quinn's Quest and although he and a few Reddit threads listed complaints, I couldn't stop thinking about how it sounded like a perfect game for me and my group to cut loose. I put together a lame corporate PowerPoint complete with royalty-free generic company background music to teach my players the rules and introduce the setting, and then we jumped into a one shot using the pre-written adventure, Dead Quiet.

As a GM, I found it pretty liberating to have all of the rolls be initiated by the players. Essentially, any time there's a risk of danger or something going wrong, it does go wrong unless the player decides to use one of their special powers and rolls a success. This made for some hilarious moments where, for example, one of the PCs hopped in a car and described driving super fast to their first destination - so of course I narrated how they immediately got into a car crash. Later, when they went into a police station, they thought about calling in a bomb threat on a nearby building to have lighter police presence in the station, only to realize they would almost assuredly fail. But what they could do instead was ask the agency to go back in time and cause the creation of a foreign extremist group, thereby creating someone in the present day that is actually threatening to blow up a building nearby. This game is hilarious.

The downside to them rolling is that each time they roll, they generate a bit of chaos for me as the GM to spend as a bit of metacurrency to throw wrenches in their plans. At one point, for example, they had one player sneak into a house and be about to let the other players in, only for me to spend a bit of chaos to have them forget how to unlock a door. Which of course led into another rube Goldberg series of wacky hijinks to walk them through the process while avoiding detection by a spooky monster they were stuck inside with. I thought the chaos system was great for reminding me that I can and should be regularly messing with my players at a good pace - there's a nice balance that comes from their rolls generating chaos which fuels more obstacles for them to roll against to solve to generate more chaos.

One of my favorite aspects of the system was actually having my players play each other's important NPCs, who would occasionally show up throughout the mission to cause more problems. All of my players definitely understood the assignment and took every opportunity to mess with their fellow players, honestly more than even I would've myself.

Overall, I'd recommend this game with a caveat: you really need to be able to trust your players. The game puts a lot of power over the narrative and the rules in their hands. It really makes the GM feel like a middle manager - guide them as best you can, but if you try to control everything yourself you'll probably go crazy.

Often it is new players who ask for advice when they're just starting out, but rarely (in my personal experience) do I find veteran / experienced players asking this question.

What's a tip or trick you'd pass along to an experienced player who already has a good grasp of TTRPGs? What wisdom would you share with someone whose been in the hobby for years or decades?

For example, for me personally at least. I think it's really important to be open to change. My advice to experienced players is to always try to discover a new system or explore a new aspect of a system you're familiar with, big or small. There are so many great systems out there to learn and experience with new mechanics, ideas, and narratives. For those who want to stay on familiar ground, try new classes or species you haven't gotten to explore yet. Adventure in new settings. Play around with character archetypes or choices. Explore how far you can take a tool set or dive into a new kind of background you've never played.

I think there is so much joy to be had in the discovery of something new.

Curious to hear everyone else's thoughts on this!

So I have been a long time Warhammer Fantasy tabletop player and I am getting to DMing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Warhammer The Old World Roleplaying Game. While I am not as experienced in TTRPGs as I am with tabletop wargames, I started with DnD and branched off a little to pathfinder and some other games. But where does WHFRP fit in with overall popularity? Just curious. I seems like it is not nearly as popular as DnD but it is for sure not a niche game, I mean it's been around for a long time. Just want to know your thoughts. Bottom line I am really enjoying it simply because I love the world and lore. Thanks.

With the Ennies fresh on everyone's mind, I figured this behind the scenes peak at how major book prizes (e.g. Pulitzer) are awarded might be interesting, despite the post itself being tangential to RPGs.

https://rebeccamakkai.substack.com/p/book-prizes-dont-work-how-you-think

From discussion on the Ludonarrative Dissidents stream a couple months back, it sounds like the Ennies work the same way as Rebecca describes for other book awards.

TL;DR- you effectively pick the nominees (at least) when you pick the judges thanks to the insane workload and timeline.

G'day all.
I know this can be a difficult topic to discuss.

Before I get to the point I want to say that 100% see the bind Mods are in, as many indie creators are desperate to promote their work (increasingly difficult due to enshitification of social media, communities retreating into online silos, and just so many new games being made), Reddit has rules (they want creators to buy adds), and many indie creators not communicating in good faith (ie: they just so happen to mention their game in a comment, or they just so happen to ask 'does anyone know of X super specific type of game?' that just so happens to align with what their game is).

Its a mess, we all get it.

I guess I just came here to let you know that this Subreddit has earned a bad reputation in many indie creator circles as a place that only likes a few very specific indie darlings, and is actively hostile to new creators. And not just because of Mods, but also because of how the audience here talks. So often indie games are ragged on here, the slightest slips by a creator talking about their work gets their comment removed, etc...

RPGs are unlike ANY other game hobby because the steps from consumer to creator are so damn close. Every indie creator is just a GM who has taken their passion to the next step, just as many GMs are just a Player who has taken their passion to the next step. For me, I LOVE to see how the sausage is made, I WANT to hear from creators about their processes and what they're working on. Just as I want to hear about GMs and Players about their process and what they're games.

I don't have an answer for this. I don't know where creators can go to connect with new audiences, I don't know how to Mod a large subreddit in a way that keeps it healthy. I guess my only suggestion is for maybe a weekly 'Indie Game Free-for-all Discussion' post?

I just hate to hear so much negativity from creators towards this Sub :( Bums me out.

Oh, mighty hive mind. I come to the seeking answers.

*Short version.* What’s a good system to run medieval fantasy superheroes in?

*Longer version.* I’m listening to The Devils by Joe Abercrombi. The Elevator pitch for that book is: “The Suicide Squad but in medieval fantasy”. it’s intrigued me to run the same idea as a game, but I can’t think of a system that works. But I can’t think of a good system that I know that works. Any suggestions are most appreciate. Bonus points if the system uses the rules to push the themes of The Suicide Squad.

Honourable mentiones: GURPS is a good fit but combat takes to long in fantasy. FATE is another great choice but does not gel with my group.

So, I'm thinking of writing something based on Scooby-Doo and I'd love a premade campaign to base it on. My plan would be something that starts with them graduating high school, back when they're waiting for college acceptances and on vacation. After that, they would form a ghost-hunting group and be freer to explore other cities, etc., with something big happening in the background while they solve mini-mysteries, like in Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc and with a 60s series vibe. Does anyone know of a premade campaign where I could develop this idea?

This question has come up for me in multiple games: how do we resolve double duty dice attack mechanics when the PC uses a ranged attack and the antagonist has no ranged attack?

Right now, I am playing Monster of the Week (MotW), but it's come up in Blades in the Dark, and Band of Blades. I'm sure it comes up in other games.

Unlike some turn-based games where the PC makes a move and then the antagonist characters run by the GM then make moves, these games have the PC's roll a die or dice and the outcome determines not only if the PC succeeds but also if the antagonist characters succeed on their attacks. Here is a simple example from MotW:

The hunter (PC) takes their bat and swings it at the werewolf. The player rolls 2d6 and adds their tough modifier resulting in a value of 7. In this scenario, the hunter successfully bats the werewolf, but the werewolf also successfully claws the hunter. If the result were 13 instead, the werewolf may not have harmed the hunter at all. The mechanics in MotW are ever so slightly more nuanced, but this is accurate.

So far so good. However, how do we resolve these mechanics when the PC uses a ranged attack and the antagonist has no ranged attack? I roll my eyes at the player who takes a gun and announces that they suffer no harm because they are out of range despite the dice dictating otherwise. There is plausibility, but they should still suffer some consequences. I'm not sure how to square this, however.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.