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Brennan Lee Mulligan’s Dungeons and Dragons push is part of a wider trend using tabletop games for political action

Just before their election day, six Los Angeles city council candidates stood on stage at Hollywood’s Fonda Theatre. But they weren’t there for a debate or a black-tie gala. They were there to play Dungeons and Dragons.

Comedian Brennan Lee Mulligan guided the politicians through a short D&D campaign to defeat corporate villains and an evil dragon. Hundreds of enthusiastic fans in the crowd pledged additional donations up to $150 each to give the candidates what is called an “auto crit” for maximum damage to the dragon.

If this sounds like a bizarre merging of politics and play, organizers say it is not. “Most people want to be tapped and told how to help,” said Mulligan, a longtime DSA member and the dungeon master of D&D-themed hit YouTube series Critical Role and Dropout’s Dimension 20. “Then, lo and behold, there’s this new way to participate, bringing the platform I have to bear.”

The DSA-LA show raised $30,000 for the city’s primary election in June; five of the candidates onstage that night either won re-election or advanced to the general in November. The event is just one in a wider resistance movement by players of D&D and other tabletop role playing games (TTRPGs) against the current political climate – ICE raids, attacks on transgender rights and the rise of artificial intelligence. Over the past few years, groups across the country have been playing TTRPGs online and in person to raise money to develop games that express their frustration with the federal government and instruct people on how to help those most affected by its policies.

The title is pretty self explanatory. I’ve always wanted to run an adventure game based on Egyptian mythology. Mythology mixed with historical details. I can’t really execute because I’m new to TTRPG’s.

I’d also love to do a Star Trek adventures campaign surrounding the Hur’q. I’d have to have good GM skills.

Just like the title, I’m looking for a (probably OSR) RPG that gives the same or simar feeling as the original NES zelda, with dungeons, interesting magic items, and puzzle solving. Kinda similar to modern video games like Tunic

James Introcaso of MCDM just created this video to answer much of the confusion regarding his upcoming game Crows and its relationship with the OSR. I found it to be a good intro point for those unfamiliar with that term (which is a LOT of RPG players these days) while still honoring and respecting that community.

His ultimate conclusion is that Crows will have the same relationship to the OSR that Indiana Jones has with pulp adventure serials. It's clearly inspired by that source material and it even uses some similar ideas to create a similar vibe, but ultimately Crows is ultimately it's own thing and freely ignores core pillars of the OSR as its design goals require.

Personally, I think this is just fine, and I appreciate this level of clarity from James (and from MCDM in general) as it helps you quickly determine if their products are what you're looking for at your table.

I’ve been moving more toward lightweight OSR RPGs like Shadowdark and Mork Borg, but I have a player who craves combat. I’m sure he would enjoy a more mechanically combat heroic RPG like Draw Steel, Daggerheart, or D&D 5e with XP for kills, but I’m personally not interested in running more complicated systems like those.

Any recommendations of rules-light systems that are still mechanically fun to run and play and embrace combat as the focus (as opposed to the OSR philosophy of avoiding combat)?

I started playing D&D in 1980, and seeing the discussions examining the nature of role-playing that were going on in zines etc even before that was pretty amazing.

I can't decide if all that critical thinking got drowned out by the D&D juggernaut of the 80s or I was just unaware because I was literally a kid (or some of both).

Not a session. A campaign. Players are regulars at a bar. People come in with various types of baggage. Players help them navigate it.

That’s it.

Take the “the players meet in a tavern” trope to the ultimate extreme. They meet there, and they never fucking leave.

[rant]

Deathbringer is Professor DM's game, based on Shadowdark, it's supposed to be a "retro" game with chainmail bikinis and pig-faced orks.

The kickstarter was funded in 14 minutes, and is currently nearing $1M. The book is $60 (same as Shadowdark). The more premium sets are $250 or $500. There is an ultra-premium set for $1K. Holy heck.

I mean I know that D&D and RPGs in general were created to make money in the first place. The whole thing with AD&D was about cutting Arneson out of royalties (allegedly). And I also see that WoTC is releasing modules at a very fast pace. But the idea that people are dropping 250-500 bucks for what is basically a Shadowdark supplement is just plain crazy to me. What sort of disposable income do these people have?

To me, RPGs have always been a sort of minimalist, inexpensive hobby. My favorite systems only need a handful of dice, a few sheets of paper, some pencils, and optionally some minis or tokens. To me, this genre is kinda like chess: it's not the fancy board and pieces that matter, but what you do with them.

But apparently there is a side of this genre where people are spending such amounts on a single game that equals to what I spend on food for an entire month. I mean, come on! Some great systems (like Cairn or White Box FMAG) are completely free (the pdf is, at least, print on demand is like 5 bucks), and they provide material for YEARS of gaming.

Is the concept of owning stuff just so appealing to these people? Will they really use ALL those fancy bits and bobs in their games? I guess it's none of my business...

Been looking through a bunch of systems to try finding something Evangelion-like, but more in the terms of putting probably underqualified teenagers through the horrors of war. Combat obviously will be included, but that's not really the end goal.

What I've looked at so far:

- Lancer. The juggernaut of mecha rpgs. The problem I have with it is that it looks like the pilot/roleplay mechanics are pretty minimal, while the combat is super tactical. This isn't a bad thing but the lack of roleplay elements (outside of supplements) is kind of pushing me away.

- Beam Saber. I've tried BitD (Scum and Villainy specifically) with a past group and I really wasn't feeling the dice mechanics. That said, I've had a lot of non-5e experience since then, so maybe I can handle it better now.

- Girlframe. A quick look at the preview images looked promising, especially with a greater focus on the pilots being messed up people. Then I found a link to the playbooks. To put it lightly, it's a little... "much". Like I've read through a NSFW game I got through some bundle, but this makes me feel way dirtier.

Probably the closest game I know of flavor-wise would be Masks or Monsterhearts, with the focus of flawed teens being put in A Situation.

Edit: the other concept I had was actually one I'm working on specifically for this flavor. It's PbtA-like, but with pilots getting a number of character traits similar to that of FATE. However the catch is that the players can also temporarily negate a trait with an Emotion to represent the shift in their thinking.

So I'm in the process of planning to run a '30s-pulp styled campaign for my table (Raiders of the Lost Ark energy). Most of our previous experience is D&D 5e and 3.5e and I've long since realized that we'll need to branch out to a new system for this campaign to work. After looking at a number I'm thinking that pulp cthulhu will probably be the best balance of working for this campaign vs still feeling familiar enough that my players don't feel entirely lost. That said, there's one unique aspect that I'd love to include that I'm having a hard time finding resources for: Sky Pirates!

Without getting too much more lost in the weeks, part of my lore involves large flying boats (e.g. the Boeing Clipper) with added gun turrets acting as essentially aerial ships of the line, dueling, conducting boarding actions, etc. For most of the PC actions I think the existing skill checks will work (piloting, mechanical repair, firearms skills, etc.) But I'd love a system for ship to ship damage a little more granular than the planes just having HP. I have a couple of players who want to play engineers and having some (other than just DM fiat) way to distribute damage to various systems (engines, etc) I think could give them more interesting ways to contribute to the combat as support vs just pouring HP into the plane (a la Spelljammer).

Looking online it doesn't seem like there's too much in the way of systems for this sort of thing but I figured I'd ask if anyone had suggestions for stuff that might be in the right ballpark to limit how much I end up having to craft from wholecloth. A lot seem to be focused on individual fighter planes compared to collaborating in a mobile base, which is an entirely different focus. Thanks!

Recently, I've been reminiscing on the past, what my favorite builds were, my most interesting characters, and it hit me like a brick: I've been playing D&D since I was 11 years old... 14 years now, playing basically every Saturday with so many memories. All it took for me was my sister taking me to a comic book store all those years ago. Some greasy old men were in the gaming room in the back, and being the person I was, I was enthralled from minute one of seeing the 3.5 Player's Handbook. The descriptions, the pictures, the idea of BEING a mage, it was all too hard to say no to. And now I'm hooked, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

What about you all? I'm curious what got you started and hooked? What systems, places, and ages you got into this hobby of ours.