**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.

Which ttrpg or board game do you have not so much for its rules or to play it, but for the pretty pretty art?
This is NOT a dig on those games, but they happen to be games you have where the art is the main draw for you.

Mine is Vaesen! Utterly gorgeous, tons of lovely and spooky art. The system isn't bad, but it isn't what got me to get the book. I've had friends who have never played RPGs go straight to looking through that one.

I have talked before about how this subreddit seems to recommend the same few dozen games, so I would like to earnestly, genuinely try an experiment to spin things in a different direction.

Recommend an RPG that has not been mentioned in this subreddit (except for this very thread) across the past month: ideally, not even by you yourself.

One way to do this is by using Reddit's built-in search function. Type in the name of the RPG, and sort by new.

Another method is to run a Google search like:

[name of RPG] site:reddit.com/r/rpg

Then, use Google's search filter to set a time for the past month.

This can be any game, preferably one that you have actually played before. Even a small, one- or two-sentence pitch should be fine.

I will start.

Project Rebirth is a gridless tactical combat game about playing not-quite magical girls. I say "not-quite magical girls" because Project Rebirth is a fork of Magical Burst ReWrite, which is a fork of Magical Burst (a game that had other forks, such as the original author's own Magical Fury, which went in an entirely different direction from Magical Burst ReWrite and Project Rebirth).

Sadly, Project Rebirth never made it past its beta phase before its author lost interest. But even in its eternal beta state, it is a perfectly playable RPG.

While there are noncombat rules covering both mundane and magical actions, the focus of the rules is battling "Revenants," monsters of incredible mystical might. The game is calibrated towards three PCs, hence the three combat archetypes of Striker, Guardian, and Tactician, though there are rules for two or four characters. There are no real positioning mechanics; instead, the focus is on juggling resource pools and intelligently applying 1/battle or 2/battle abilities. There is no bestiary, but GMs are given firmly codified rules on how to create Revenants, as well as a menu of special abilities to choose from.

I played and GMed Project Rebirth several decades ago. I do not know what I would think of it now, in 2026, but I remember it being a satisfying tactical combat game.

It's a Deadly one, but should be useful for a night or two of fun.

https://logen-nein.itch.io/caverns-of-the-shimmering-peak

I can't think of a clearer, snappier title for this, so forgive me if it's not immediately clear what I'm on about. But fundamentally I've been thinking about the sliding scale between a TTRPG which tries to mechanically copy a different genre versus trying to embody the "feel" of what makes that genre what it is.

​

The specific example that got me thinking about this was the many "I want to run a JRPG-inspired/fantasy anime-inspired campaign, how do I do this" and how the go-to systems - Fabula Ultima, Break, etcetera - focus on trying to mechanically reproduce the technical bits of JRPGs like "guys standing in a line" combat, complex job systems and mechanised status effects and elemental weaknesses and a focus on trying to give some form of the video game experience adapted to TTRPG form.

​

Whereas when I've run "JRPG inspired" campaigns the focus for me has been embodying the parts I feel best adapt to TTRPGs - the tropes and aesthetics, so perhaps high fantasy with lots of technological progress, a party of generally high status and disparate heroes who all excel in their field in some idiosyncratic way, visual shorthands like airships and floating cities and so on. And in terms of storytelling themes the broad-strokes political allegories, personal rivalries embodying ideological arguments, themes of progress versus preservation, environmentalism, external evils corrupting people and countries, that sort of thing. Those are more important to me if I want to communicate "JRPG" in a campaign than the system having precise mechanics for birds being weak to wind and immune to earth, or a class specifically called Dragoon or whatever.

​

It feels a much more PBTA ethos, which does a good thing with your playbook being as much your narrative role in the story and guiding your RP in that direction.

​

The other classic for this is mecha - is it more important that you track heat and missiles and radar range and all that on a turn by turn basis (your Lancers and Mechwarrior and so on) or does it matter more that your mech can do *a role* and it does it as well or as inadequately as the story needs to be dramatic and tell a story that *feels* like a mecha anime.

​

I'm not judging either approach - personally the very reasons I don't enjoy Fabula Ultima are the very reasons I'll go to Lancer or Battle Century for giant robots (because for me the joy of robot fighting *is* tactics and tinkering with your build, but the joy of JRPGs is the journey and the aesthetics and the outspoken storytelling).

​

And I guess it holds true in other genres - I'm less of an expert but, say, Spycraft or Gumshoe versus Brindlewood Bay in terms of how a TTRPG can emulate mystery stories.

Edit: I guess I forgot to add the actual questions here - do some genres work best in TTRPG format as applying themes and aesthetics to a more generic system because their appeal isn't necessarily in the nitty gritty of how they work but more how they make you feel? Is this just a narrow issue for the people who want to emulate video games in tabletop form? Have you tried running games in these sorts of spheres and how did you do it?

I play dnd mostly but I have a world I want to build and people tell me that it don’t fit into dnd so I would help if I could get some help finding a TTRPG that fits
“This is going to be a little back ground my world is still very big work in progress. The city is like a 1930s era Gotham very dark. Magic has kind of fallen off as long with most of the other races, except for humans which now populate most of the world. There are still people who can use magic, but they must pull from a living creature and turn that into a magical fuel very similar to the book Dark Son and its magical system.
Now to the main problem/question I don’t know if I should add guns to my world. I was originally planning on doing it and limiting the players HP to give them the feel on how powerful guns are, but as I was talking to one of my friends he bought the idea of just guns, not existing in this world being like skipped over in the history. I would like some peoples ideas and what they would do.” This is the world I would like. Please and Thank you for the help.

Think of something like warhammer 40k or dnd, but simpler if possible? i would like to play either with my parents or my older brother (because i dont have friends). I need something cheap-ish thats easy to pickup and pause to return to later. I dont want something that will ruin the family but i also dont want something too complex.

What will you suggest and why so?

Hi everyone, first post here. Heard about the The Dracula Dossier and I was thinking about asking my group to give it a try. The only problem is...how much material does the setting have? I looked on the Pelgrane website but I keep finding new additions and supplements to the series. Anyone who has any list of necessary and unnecessary materials? TIA

Just as stated, me or a friend want to run a game for a group of up to 5 players (including facilitator) and everyone was keen on the idea of being hotel staff members. We are not quite sure if we want it to be a little comical or mundane, or if there should be a touch of the strange and supernatural.

Ruling out Call of Cthulhu because we have run this system for a couple of games. No Monster of the Week. We have also tried Wanderhome and it's alright.

Any suggestions will be appreciated!​

EDIT Wow I didnt expect a lot of responses in a short amount of time. You guys are amazing! A lot of games we will be researching.

First of all, I’d like to apologize for any grammatical errors. English is not my first language.

I'm looking for a new system for a campaign I have in mind. Basically, I pitched a campaign to my players featuring silly, cartoonish villains, in the style of Despicable Me, They loved the idea and came up with some really cool concepts, like a genius dog who wants to pee on the moon to mark his territory, or a mild inconveniences villain who would do things like chew up all his gum and then put it back in the package, among other ideas of characters. I was happy they liked the idea, so I told them I’d look into some hero-based systems to build the campaign around. So here I am, do any of you have a superhero or even villain system that would fit this campaign concept? I have a few things in mind, like Mask: New Generation, but I haven’t read up on the system yet. Any suggestions are very welcome.

I'm looking to play some games with samurai duels, gunslinger duels, jousts, gladiator fights and other duels.

This is for a game group with 3-7 players (3 always show up, 4 that can't always make it, so it fluctuates) so we don't want to spend a very long time on each duel (especially for cases where they all might have duels at the same time or in short succession), but still have the option to give a duel a lot of narrative and emotional weight (like when finally facing the target of your revenge).

Anyone have any recommendations you could explain a bit?

my character dies? cool! i cant wait to play a new one! this npc dies horribly? woah that was a brutal death. im not fcked up about it. thats just the way i play. i LIKE characters, but they're just fun little pawns to see get into trouble, not realtable people i project myself onto.

oftentimes trouble can start at the table because the DM wants me to "invest more" or my coplayers are upset i don't care abt the lives of random npcs or dont care abt putting my character in danger. it gets annoying and feels like they want me to play like them and not like me.

if get it if i was being intentionally obnoxious or destructive, but im not! i roleplay, i strategise! but im here for the game more than the story, and i just wish that playstyle was more respected by my friends.

im not gona leave the group cuz its not that big of a problem, but i just wanna know im not crazy. anyone relate?