**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.

After a conversation with a friend yesterday, I got suddenly curious about a general category of TTRPGs I'm not sure I have a convenient label for other than what I assume is the granddaddy of them all, Gamma World - games set in weird science-fantasy worlds far in the future and/or after some manner of apocalypses, filled with all kinds of mutants, psychics, robots, maybe aliens, strange technologies, and probably more than their fair share of strange playable nonhumans.

Some examples (besides GW itself) would be things like Vaults of Vaarn, Cloud Empress, and The Electrum Archive; at a stretch you could probably also include things like The Wildsea and Songs for the Dusk, and in other media this would be video games like Caves of Qud, Nuclear Throne, maybe Fallout, or the Ghibli movie Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Anything else that I've missed?

So first off, I'm not dying. At least, not that I know anyway but I am buying a shit tonne of new books at increasing frequency. I am just hooked on cool mechanics and amazing stories. Having only run a handful of Mork Borg games and being 70% of the way done with CoS, I'm beginning to think that despite being a millenial, I'm doing that boomer thing of filling my house with crap that I value immensly but will be thrown in a skip as soon as I snuff it.

The issue is, that once I read one book of a system that seems exciting, I tend to end up accumilating more and more. Delta Green and Mothership have a shelf almost entirely to themselves at this point because they will not stop producing the paper and ink equivalent of crack.

And since completing campaigns obviously takes longer than reading a book, my eyes have wandered over new areas of interest such as Pendragon, the One Ring and Call of Cthulhu.

I went on holiday to the Netherlands and came back with £250 worth of RPG books ffs. That was a week ago. Masks of Nyarlathotep is currently sitting in an online shopping cart along with the Grey Knight campaign for Pendragon. I have never run CoC or Pendragon. Why am I buying campaigns? Masks of Nyarlathotep takes years at some tables!

Or even houserule to replace it with something else.

Due to some disputes and altercations, Our group's opinions on BattleTech has kinda soured and is looking for a new giant robot game to play, I have been hearing about Lancer for a very long time and I am curious about what it offers, although I am willing to hear about other games that I can use my BattleTech minis as well.

This week's RPG is Dune - Adventures In The Imperium!

Have you played it? Have you run/GM'd it? How did it go?

What's your favourite memory from the game?

What's the best thing about the game?

What's the worst? How would you improve it?

.

Last week was Ironsworn. Join us again next week for Triangle Agency!

I started playing d&d from 3.5 and also played enough of 5e. It has a lot of cool stuff, but also a lot of stuff that I hate. It's difficult to check new systems and judge them without actually playing a little and there are a lot of them... I'm sorry for a lot of words here, but if you have some time can you guys recommend a good system based on my specific nitpicks?

1. I hate that a lot of stuff is there just because it was always there, not because its good game design. Like fireball is intentionally OP because its iconic and sort of a "brand" and taking any alternative feels bad. Spell slot system just feels outdated and too cumbersome for new players. I want the system to be built with good game design in mind, not "we have to save 50 year old legacy" bullshit.
2. Whole system build around resurrection being a common tool. Death is not dramatic, its just a resource. Also because of that i have to come up with bullshit reasons why specific important npc or backstory character cannot just be brought back. Or why nobles aren't just reviving everyone important for them every day. Death should be important and dramatic narrative moment and permanent. And i can't just homerule "there is no resurrection magic" because the whole system is built with resurrection as resource in mind and I would have to rebalance all of it basically making my own system.
3. Opportunity attacks kill all dynamics in combat when dynamics is already one of the weakest parts of ttrpg. Its a stupid mechanic that leads to "come close, do not move, roll dice until one of you is dead" the optimal tactic which is extremely boring.
4. Improvising cinematic cool shit is usually less optimal in termns of raw rules. Its always better to strike with your longsword than smashing a chair into enemy's skull because "improvised weapon is d4 and longsword is d8". This discourages creativity.

5.1 Tons of "you don't get to play the game" effects. I could see "mind control" effects kind of fun if you just tell your player "now you get to pvp legally, have fun". but stun/paralise? okay, you took time out of your week/month to come play the game and now you just sit there for half an hour doing nothing while other players take their turns because you failed a save. Or maybe even more if you fail your consecutive save. Great game design guys.

5.2. Roll to hit is basically the same shit. Fighter waits their turn for 20 minutes after all spellcasters doing their shit, rolls 5 and 7 on his two attacks and can go make coffe feeling he didn't do anything.

5.3. Saving throws are weird too. Either you wasted your only 5 lvl slot and nothing happens, or enemy just stunned you (see 5.1). I get it that "save or die" effects are less common now, but they just became "save or suck" and you still don't get to play the game even if your character sheet is still technically there. Maybe some gradation system could be cool, dunno.

1. A lot of character archetypes just suck in terms of player fantasy. Wanna be a cool necromancer? Okay, you can summon...1 skeleton. When you're at least lvl 3. And after 1 round of combat he is dead and you're just slinging fire bolts again. Wow, thats definitely what I imagined when I wanted to play cool necromancer. Sure...

2. DMG says the system balance is build around 6-8 medium difficulty encounters per long rest. When you're trying to play anything other than tightly packed dungeon crawl (but remember, D&D is not just dungeon crawl anymore, its versatile system and you can play any type of game with it!!!) you usually have on average 1 meaningful combat per day. So either martials feel shit because spellcasters go nova every time, or you have to come up with bullshit 6-8 combats per DAY, which take several sessions. Wow, we've been playing this campaign for a year and it's been...3 days in game time? and all pcs are suddenly demigods now even though we _just_ entered this dungeon. Sure you can tell "use gritty realism rules", then its the other way around. Your wizard casts their 5 spells in 1-2 in game days...and the rest of the week just spamming firebolt and feels like shit. Maybe we could balance character classes without spreading them between "short rest based" and "long rest based" so I as dm dont have to fucking juggle this balance myself every time I try to make a story?

3. It feels like lvl20 is there mostly for marketing purposes trying to sell you godlike power fantasy? who actually plays at these levels? All i ever see online is people saying its basically impossible to make actually good games at this point and system is just broken.

4. Lorewise its cool that humans live 80 years and elves live 700. But I do not buy that an elf with 250 years of life experience would find any common ground with an 18 year old human. Have you ever tried to communicate with people 10 years younger than you? It already feels like talking to a toddler, imagine 250 year difference. And also they both get to cast 2 spells a day? Come on...

5. Can I have a cost for every magic item please? If I want the "they are rare and not really tradable" feeling that dmg tries to force on you, I can do it myself. But why the fuck do I have to actually come up with item cost myself if i need to?

What I actually like:
11. Complexity level for new players. 5e made it reasonably easy to learn the game. I would be okay with a simpler system, but probably not more complex one.
12. Large bestiary of cool thematic monsters made over the years. But I could just steal these into a different system...
13. (dis)Advantage system is pretty cool
14. Its kind of actually good in being middle ground base for different types of games. Yes, it sucks in lots of specific ways, but in general it feels like you can combine different elements into a single game fairly well.
15. 5e has made a good job in lowering the amount of random "+1" effects that I have to track for every little thing. pathfinder sometimes feels like im doing math homework instead of actually playing the game.
16. I like rolling dice other than just d6s. Although my favourite d12 is still too rare...
17. I like generic heroic fantasy as main focus of the system

I mean, technically I could come up with homerules fixing these things...but I feel like it would be easier to just fucking make a new system from scratch. I mean there has GOT to be a system that already exists and doesn't have these problems?
Thank you so much if you read this far.

FOUND IT! I cant believe it but I found it! It is called Blood Dawn! It was in a cache of pdfs sent to me by one of the GMs in the original discussion. Thanks to GMBob!

I have been a Forever GM for over 40 years and run dozens of systems, in house and at cons; over the years, they kinda blur together, especially the indie ones from the 1980s. I did Twilight Run, Stalking the Night Fantastic, Kin, Stormbringer and so many others; mostly short run or one shots. Anyway, I recently got into a conversation with a couple other old skool Forever GMs and the topic of odd cyber/magic blends in ttrpgs came up. Already too long story short, there is one that is sticks out in my memory - the setting details, not the name. That's why I am posting; hoping someone else ran it, played it or just happens to have read it and will throw an old dog a bone.

What is remember is, the PCs were a group of survivors (from an underground bunker, I think) who were now sent above ground/out into the world to help bring civilization back to the warring tribes after a total world apocalypse. I think it was a few generations after and, for some reason, they wanted to remain completely secret about where/who the PCs come from. The thing that stands out most is they had a 'magic' system of sorts that was basically cybernetic (possibly nanites) implants that allowed the PC to do various 'magic' stuff, the strength/success of such was based on the proximity of a transmitter/tower/whatnot (may or may not have been linked to remaining satellites). I remember it saying their fingernails were metallic and there may have been vein like wires visible just under the skin (not sure of that bit). So, basically, these towers transmitted the energy/signal/whatever between each other and around themselves (kinda like ley lines) and the PC tapped into this to do their tricks, which the savage survivors considered magic, in hopes they would accept the PCs as guides/prophets/wise wizards and allow them to lead the unwashed masses back to the glory of old earth (or some such high minded plan).

I know this isnt a lot to go on and it's a long shot that anyone will remember such a obscure game but, still, worth a try. Thanks in advance to anyone who has any idea or can even point me to a good source for info on failed 80s rpg. Feel free to reach out privately if you prefer.

EDIT: it is not Metamorphosis Alpha or Gamma World; not The Morrow Project or HOL (Human Occupied Landfill). Thanks to everyone who has suggested and please, keep em comin!

EDIT: this was not released by any of the big companies; it was a single book, short run, indie game. I do remember it was hard bound, glossy cover...might have had 'Red' in the title; not 'red dawn' but maybe something close.

The other I was diggging through some old RPG stuff on my e-mail, and I found one with a lot of [dead] links for threads and notes about the game. Two bits called my attention: "Budo: Hard Style Wushu" and the first go at "Cavaliers of Mars". Both of them take the Wushu chasis and take it to a different direction.

I'm feeling quite nostalgic now. And it makes me wonder, were there any other games out there powered by this simple narrative system?

My friends are much more interested in storytelling and character-driven fiction than in combat heavy, tactical gaming style.

We ran session 0 using Questworlds and that game seems to have everything I'm looking for: high character customization, lightning fast player onboarding, one very broad resolution mechanic and rules engineered only to tell a great story together.

It's basically an even simpler version of Fate, perfect for my players who have almost never played an RPG before.
My question is: are there people also playing in that "fiction first" style who ended up disappointed by Questworlds? What aspects of made you switch to another system?

Basically what it says in the title. I accept game recommendations (and is the flair I choose) that are based around being play in a Megadungeon, if they exist.

But also I am mostly looking for anything that serve as examples, aide or even just theory around megadungeons as a concept.

It is fascinating but also I feel overwhelming, and seeing examples and people talking about it helps me to adjust my brain.

Thanks!

Random thought occurred to me while I was rewatching some old gameplay. Any suggestions on what would be a good game to use? Could either be a generic game where you build it like GURPS or maybe re-flavor an existing one.

Personally, leaning on twilight 2000. The setting seems already perfect for playing small scale in a ruined world. Challenge would be creating the actual bad guys like combine soldiers, hunters, striders, and potential xen life like antlions and zombies/headcrabs