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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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So, first off, I'm not Italian. I'm a German that has observed a certain trend that raised a question for me: Is there, like, a large, or at least, a very active, TTRPG-community in Italy that seldomly gets talked about?

I've had it happen a few times now that I desperately tried to get my hands on certain physical books (the Strata Sourvebook for Apire, the Dolmenwood collection and Wilderfeast, to name a few examples), that my usual German online shops just did not have stocked or even on their way. But what I always found was Italian localisations of the same books! And that just piqued my curiosity. As far as I could tell, Dolmenwood, for example, has not been translated into any other widely spoken European languages like French, Spanish or German, but there just is an Italian version.

So, what I'm wondering is: Is the demand for RPGs in Italy just so high that it is worth it for local publishers to localize these books? Are the publishers themselves just enthusiasts that do it even if the profit margin is low? Did I just stumble upon a few choice examples by accident and there actually is no trend like this at all?

If anyone has any insights on that I'd love to hear it. I think the idea of a country in which, for whatever reason, RPGs are just wildly more popular than in its neighbours is just very intriguing :D

Another broad question, but this is one that came to my mind after yesterday's thread, and really excited me. There's a quote from a book I quite like-Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Messy, True Story Behind the Making of Video Games. That I often find myself reciting whenever I dislike any game or system.

"No one ever sets out to make an intentionally bad game"

There were some really interesting tidbits about how often controversial or disliked systems in games were made with a genuine assumption from the design team. This came to my mind with the Alpha for VtM 6E and the controversial addition of a meta currency. The team themselves admitted in a blog post that they had tried to use Drama for the sake of introducing friction to the story outside the story itself, without feeling punitive towards the players. This however, didn't work as intended ("it added needless bookeeping to something storytellers were already able to do without it") and it seems the team will either be revising it or scrapping the mechanic.

Whether you think it's something that they should have known beforehand or not, I think it's a stark reminder that human error is a very real issue when it comes to game design, whether virtual, board, card, or TTRPGs. Very often a bad mechanic* (itself subjective because people like and dislike different things.) was done because the design team genuinely thought it would make the game or system better.

So that's what I wanted to ask about today, what are some mechanics or systems you dislike, and why do you think the designers made it that way? I don't intend for this to be a negativity thread, quite the opposite really. I want folks to be able to take a hard look at what they dislike, and think about how or why it was made that way. I hope it might generate some interesting discussion or appreciation for something you otherwise dislike.

Heya everyone! Reddit tells me that today's my 10th cakeday.

It got me thinking about how fun this subreddit has been for me! I don't comment a lot - and yes, I've self promoted a bit, too - but more than anything, I enjoy reading the wealth of opinions, suggestions, and random tidbits of information that get offered up here.

So, from the bottom of my heart - Thank you all for being a great community and for me so much great stuff to read!

Hi, I’m not from South America and English isn’t my native language, but I’m interested in the world of tabletop RPGs. It’s still a bit of a niche hobby in my country, and since many people recommend playing on English-speaking servers, I’m looking for a friendly place where people like me are welcome.

My English isn’t perfect, but I can understand and speak it, even if it’s a bit broken at times.

I’d be very grateful if anyone could help pointing to a server like that

So today I stumbled across this Index Card RPG. I always considered myself a student of RPGs and RPG design. I’d love to hear some other opinions about the basic game, Altered State, Hard Suit, or any other supplement? I’m reading through the free version now and it’s interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Near the end of the 90's TSR released the role-playing game Alternity, which was intended to be for sci-fi what D&D was for fantasy- only Alternity didn't seem to succeed like its counterpart and quickly folded. What are some people's feelings/opinions on why this occurred?

Hi, I'm a teen DM running Dnd for 14 - 15 year olds and they just wont focus. Currently I've been running Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. The players are my friends from school and they all sound really enthusiastic at school when we talk about the campaign but at the games they just want to chill. Btw, I am someone who is VERY into Dnd. I spend so much time preparing and reading and watching stuff about the game. And It's fine that my friends aren't as obsessed as me but I find it irritating when at the game I spend more time babysitting and trying to get them off their phones than DMing. ​

I really like the group as everyone is so friendly but I don't know what to do. I have kept saying at the start of each session " let's really focus today guys" and " I've got a cool quest planned for today but nothing works". The group has consistently not been getting anything done in sessions, not that they've gone off track and wanted time in a tavern not doing a quest or something but genuinely just getting nothing done. E.g there was an entire session where the characters encountered a band of goblins and hadn't finished the combat by the end.

I do do everything I can to keep up the pace and I have confronted the players but they haven't changed. Writing this all down makes it all sound awful but we do have some fun and it's not as bad as it sounds but sometimes it feels like I'm the only person coming to play Dnd. I know most ppl would think, well the group isn't for you find another group but these are my best friends at school I can't just replace them.

I'm a bit stuck so any advice is welcome :)​

Hey folks! Do you know of any interesting discussions or articles on different GMing Styles?

Also what style do you prefer or do you consider the way you run games falls into?

I think I a lean more towards an impressionist or dreamy, if you prefer, style. What about you?

Just a question for those who have used standees from printableheroes.com

Either I'm missing something, or the standees only have a front view that you are supposed to glue together, is that correct? That would be a bit of a problem, since in most games it matters if I attack from the front or from the back.

Looking for a module or product that can give me some structure to work with to use as a Moby Dick-like "hunt for a bit sea monster" adventure. Don't care what system, although D&D or vaguely D&D-like: Pathfinder, ToV, OSR, etc would probably be preferred. Doesn't have to be perfect either; I just want to have a leg of my campaign structure be around hunting a "white whale" (or whatever other big sea monster I end up using; I'm leaning towards Scylla right now, but that's negotiable). Mostly I'm looking for some kind of interesting structure I could potentially adapt that's better than "get a boat, sail around, and then have a big combat with the monster".