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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.

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This submission is generated automatically each Saturday at 00:00 UTC.

The 2004 game Dogs in the Vineyard is no longer available because the creators don't see a way to revamp the setting in a way they're comfortable with.

However, the system itself is really good and broadly applicable. Thus, they gave creator KN Obough permission to extract the system from the setting and publish it as the setting-agnostic DOGS.

Which is now on sale for under $3: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/274623/dogs

So if you were ever interested in the game, or just like to see interesting systems, now's the time to jump on this deal. About 19 hours left at the time I'm posting this.

As always, I am unaffiliated with either set of creators or DTRPG.

Considering picking up something from them

So, I've been interested in rpgs for a while now, and I've noticed that in my school, there's some mini sessions going on at lunch break and it seemed so cool, but then i watch videos of those people with large ass books and this whole thing seems complex to me. Roleplay itself is not a problem since im used to it but the system and mechanics are, im afraid that i might mess something up if i try to play because these systems got a lot of info to read and im afraid i won't memorize the basics, so idk what i should do.

Also I don't really want to be a dm, just being a player for me is fine, idk how to get that insecurity out of me and just start playing.

So I'm looking through all of the GURPS books with some players for giggles, and as we're looking through these books, it's dawning on me one simple question.

How the hell are there so many books?

My question isn't necessarily the why, but just what even allowed the company to get away with publishing nearly 20 books about all sorts of magic, or wizards. Books about specific settings like ancient rome or japan, and just so much more.

There's just so many books, and I do not get the feeling these things are being lazily slapped together.

So what historically has been the business model for these books? Is there an audience of people out there constantly buying every last one of these books?

I am absolutely curious because this is fascinating me.

EDIT: Thanks fellas for giving your various insights and even personal anecdotes. I'm still reading through much of it.

I mainly asked because my RPG night group was just casually looking through the catalogue of books and the further I went down the rabbit hole I just found myself trying to think of how you'd have gotten away with this in the days of print media. Especially with how detailed and researched a number of them seemed to be down to bibliographies.

It seemed far more above and beyond, especially with the sheer amount of books.

Hi all,

I'm looking for illustrations for a game in a bunch of museum websites, and with all the different ways to search them, it's a bit of a chore.

So I decided to make my life a bit easier compiling all the images in a single website... but that was a quick no-go, with all the protection for scrapping websites have these days.

So as a next-best, I created a website where you can input a search term, and it will open a bunch of tabs with that search for paintings and drawings from a bunch of museums that offer them with a free to use license. IT has two tabs, one for Public Domain images, and another for mixed or restricted results.

If you want me to add more museums or resources, or make any changes, let me know.

Hope you find this useful, it has already saved me a ton of time.

Hi,

This is a discussion about narrative-first RPGs. I've been GMing Fate and Cortex for about two years. I have around 100 games in me and every time I come here or in the various discord servers, I feel like i'm not playing these games properly...

It seems to me that you guys are WAY more into the collaborative storytelling part, where everyone has an almost equal way of affecting the narrative. And, it's not that I don't want to, it just doesn't happen ingame.

My players are not spending metacurrency to add story details, or create NPC. We're not creating a world together at session zero where I don't know who the villains are and everyone shime in to add informations about the world. Players are not using metacurrency to change my NPCs goals, or actions.

I create plot hooks and NPCs that want something, and then the players tell me what they want to do. They roll their dice when there's an impact if they fail (or succeed) and then the story moves forward. I don't plan whole stories, of course, but i might have beats that they hit or not, to keep the story moving. Between sessions i think about what happened and how it affects the world.

Side note: My players are having fun, no one is complaining, but I feel like i'm not using the systems at their full potential.

But how do you guys plan your games and GM narrative focus games? I'm very humbly asking how can I improve my GMing.

What's looking interesting to everyone so far in the various zine-game-crowdfunding events?

So far, I've backed Lie to Him (solo RPG about deceit, Backerkit), The Bottle Episode (genre-neutral sitcom game, Kickstarter), and On Call (werewolf who cannot shift, 1-2 player, Backerkit). Budget's already waning but I am curious what other folks have found interesting!

I was a little kid living in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Italy. I was already a nerd. My parents forced me to pick a sport so I would do at least some physical activity away from books and video games. I chose karate. I was terrible at it, but it was that or swimming or soccer; and I hated both of them way more than karate.

In the gym I met this older kid, he might have been 17. He was kind, he did not like bullies. So I looked up at him.

Months went by and I got to know this guy better, as we chatted at the gym. I was playing Hero Quest and reading gamebooks. Back then, my friends and I were already introducing RPG elements in our games: We made up our own lore in Hero Quest, drew the map of our town and fortress, and narrated what was happening between missions. But we did it instinctively, because we had no idea RPGs even existed. The Internet was not a thing yet. (RPGs would have been discussed on mainstream media only a few years later, when echoes of the last, sad wave of the satanic panic eventually reached my country; but that’s another story.)

This older kid was telling me about this game he was playing, called Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. His character was living such incredible adventures! I remember my mother being pissed because it took me too long to get out of the gym after the karate class. This was because I stood in the hallway listening to my friend’s tales of magic, treasures, and slain monsters.

AD&D was not translated in Italian, and I did not speak English. So that Christmas I got BECMI D&D, i.e., the only translated RPG I could get in my small town’s toy shop. I mean, the red box. I remember spending Christmas day learning the game, being mad at fucking Bargle for killing Aleena (names, of course, I terribly mispronounced). A few days later I GMed two of my friends. We were unsure about how many of the mechanics worked and we made a ton of mistakes; but we had a blast, and I was hooked.

Many, many years later, I was lucky enough to play a session with BECMI’s author, Frank Mentzer himself. I felt blessed.

Tonight I am going to play Old School Essentials for the first time, and reading the handbooks made all this stuff come back. (Yeah I know OSE is cloning B/X and not BECMI; it hit my neural correlates nonetheless.)

I stayed in touch with this older kid through the years. I left the small town, he stayed. He died in 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic. It felt like a punch in the gut. I realized I never told him how much I owe him. So, I am telling you instead.

Whole Blog post: https://open.substack.com/pub/kindofold/p/it-all-began-because-my-parents-wanted?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

So has anyone played Punks and Metal Down South 199X RPG? Looks cool like a zine from back in the day. I found it on DriveThruRPG, the sheet looks simple. The sample rules look like it only uses a couple of D6s and you just roll 12D6 for hit points, pick out a punk and start playing.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/383823/punks-and-metal-down-south-199x-player-s-guide

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/383824/punks-and-metal-down-south-199x-gamemaster-s-guide

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/404589/punks-and-metal-down-south-199x-sheet

Hey folks! We're working on After Eden, a post-apocalyptic fantasy TTRPG, and we’re about to assemble a free public preview packet.

The goal isn’t “here’s a finished game.” It’s "here’s enough to run it and feel what’s distinct, so people can stress-test it, tear it apart, and tell us what’s unclear / missing / overtuned."

Here’s what we’re currently planning to include:

Core resolution rules

Resource definitions + rules (the stuff the system revolves around)

4 pregens: Warrior, Specialist, Arcanist, Vessel

2 encounters with the rules needed to run them

1 Crisis, our version of a high pressure skills test, with the rules needed to run it

1 Negotiation scene with the rules needed to run it

Shortened reference sheets for: Actions, Conditions, Equipment, and Wounds

If you’ve made or received one of these before, what did you like seeing in it, what was missing, and what made you (or others) want to see more or back the project?