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**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.

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

I'll be upfront. I played Daggerheart at a con several months ago and it was pretty bad, although this was clearly at least partially the GM's fault. We were presented with a generic dungeon, not much roleplay opportunity, a boring puzzle and the combat sucked ass because the GM wasn't having anything of our creative solutions for avoiding it, railroaded us into it and then it turns out had an extremely poor sense of space and everything felt floaty and non-sensical and I don't mean because it was theatre of the mind. I mean, the GM lost track of which enemy was attacking who and where we were positioned in relation to everything. Also, they forgot how focus normally works in narrative games and a PC just ended up being attacked the whole combat and not doing anything else. Two of the players were very quiet.

I didn't feel like the system was the most appropriate for dungeon delving tbh, despite being a DnD-like (I mean, DnD isn't that good at dungeons but a lot of offshoots are whether they go the OSR route or into tactical grid-based combat). It abstracted resources like torches, wasn't particularly interested in exploration; there wasn't really a feeling of danger.

But it didn't feel like very narrative from my side of the screen either. Not in comparison to Grimwild and definitely not in comparison to something like BitD, The Wildsea, Slugblaster or Wanderhome. Sure, we rolled with Hope and Fear, but I just played my character sheet ensuring I got to use all of my abilities throughout the session. The most interesting was Telepathy and the most boring was probably Slumber (which is so way too easy to figure a use for and a cheese spell. Rally was also just cheese). I guess you can roleplay the songs if you care and I did a lil' speech for the rallying. I felt that the combat wanted to somehow be tactical without having actually enough tactical depth. (I played a Bard, if you cannot tell). I did enjoy the opportunity to be support/utility. But...

I've roleplayed way more even in Dragonbane and Mythic Bastionland too tbh. Maybe it was the nature of the oneshot or just a bad group, but I didn't feel very compelled to. Maybe if the questions and connections mattered it would have been different. I know how important those are in a game like Slugblaster.

Hey guys,

So, you have that RPG that you hate that's really good at something, like, it's not for you, even though you recognize its design merits in accomplishing what it sets out to do as a game, or even something that didn't seem to be exactly the designer's intention.

As an example, I can mention Pendragon:

I don't exactly hate it, but it's a game with all that mechanical baggage related to the Arthurian setting, which just isn't for me.

So, it accomplishes that kind of hyper-niche thematic fantasy very well, and brings a very interesting d20 reinterpretation of the BRP structure, which I love, and adds interesting things like the elegant blackjack.

But playing in the Arthurian era is definitely not for me. I really wanted to enjoy the system, but its whole “flavor” just turns me off.

That said, if someone really enjoys Arthurian themes, medieval English fantasy, etc., choosing Pendragon by the passionate, brilliant, and always competent Greg Stafford would be the best decision.

What about you guys? What game do you hate, but admit that it does something very well?

Thanks everyone for your answers.

My biggest issue with HP, especially in games like Dungeons & Dragons, is that there’s usually no meaningful difference between having 47 HP or 26 HP. As people often say, “the only hit point that really matters is the last one.”

In systems like this, HP tends to function as an abstract number that doesn’t communicate much. IMO, it lacks nuance and rarely produces meaningful narrative impact.

That being said...

Which systems propose something different thant the usual D&D-style hit point mechanism? (Good or bad, it doesn’t matter. The goal here is more to map different approaches to injury and HP mechanics in tabletop RPGs than to find the “perfect” system.)

A few examples off the top of my head (sorry if any of them aren't exactly right, as I'm writing it all from memory):

• Games in the Into the Odd family use "Hit Protection" instead of traditional hit points. Once your HP is gone, damage goes straight to your attributes (similar to Traveller style damage). It’s one less resource to track, and it directly impacts your actions because it affects your attribute checks (or "saves" as the system calls it). Brilliant design, as I’ve come to expect from ItO.

• Equipment slots (or similar) acting as HP: Knave 2e has one of my favorite implementations of this idea. You have Hit Protection similar to Into the Odd, but any remaining damage is represented as blocked inventory slots. The more damage you take, the less you can carry, until eventually you die if all slots are filled. The system itself doesn’t elaborate much beyond that, but I like to imagine those “injury slots” as a way to describe consequences for the character (similar to Consequences in FATE, mentioned below).

• Wound levels: In Legend of the Five Rings (at least up to 4th edition), damage moves you through wound categories. After losing some HP you become “Wounded,” then “Seriously Wounded,” and so on, each with attached penalties. Anyone who’s played games with this knows the idea sounds cool in theory, but IMHO it’s often just a fancy way to watch your character die faster lol.

• Stress tracks and consequences: FATE uses stress boxes that you mark depending on how severe the damage is. You can also absorb damage by taking Consequences instead, which can represent both physical and psychological harm (things like “Injured Leg” or “disoriented”). It’s a very different, highly narrative approach. I like it quite a bit.

If you know of other interesting approaches to injury, damage, or survivability mechanics, I’d love to hear them.

____
EDIT:

I want to thank each of you for your patience and for taking the time to respond here. To be honest, I didn’t expect this post to get so much attention! I think I might have written it differently if I had known it would be received so generously. I fully understand the difference between “Health Points” and “Hit Points,” but I still appreciate the replies that addressed that distinction, since it can help clarify things for other readers.

That said, I’m not looking for a way to abolish hit points. As you could see from my examples, what I’m interested in are different ways of modeling damage, the representation of violence and its effects, etc., I’m really just curious about how other games handle this, and I don’t have any particular goal in mind. It’s simply an informed inquiry with the community about the topic.

Thanks again!

Hey everyone! I’m on a hunt for the perfect TTRPG system to run a game set in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. I’ve gone through a fair share of systems, but none of them quite "clicked" for various reasons.

Here’s the breakdown of what I’ve tried and why they didn't work for me:

• Cyberpunk 2020: Way too crunchy for my taste.
• Cyberpunk RED: It’s close to what I want, but the system feels a bit too cumbersome in play.
• CY_BORG: A bit too OSR. I actually want to roll dice, not spend the whole session trying to figure out how to avoid rolling them.
• Shinobi: (hack of Zaibatsu) Same issues as CY_BORG.
• Blade Runner: The focus feels too shifted toward investigation. Plus, I’m really not a fan of the Year Zero Engine’s "6s are successes" dice pool mechanic.
• CBR+PNK: I’m not into the flashback mechanics or "per scene" checks. I struggle to make that style of GMing feel engaging.
• PbtA: Generally feels too abstract/schematic for me. I’ve realized I’m just not great at GMing PbtA games.

I’m craving minimalist yet deep rules. For me, the "gold standard" is probably Mothership, but I’d really rather not spend weeks kitbashing custom rules for a cyberpunk setting (though I’m getting desperate enough to try).

I’ve also considered FATE, but from what I’ve gathered, it’s likely not my cup of tea either.

Interestingly, the system I enjoyed the most was Vampire: The Masquerade (V5). It’s a large, complex system, but in practice, it feels surprisingly streamlined and minimalist. That said, I haven't played much of the other World of Darkness games.

Can you recommend a TTRPG that would fit the Cyberpunk 2077 vibe with minimal homebrewing?

I hope I don’t sound too picky! I have nothing against the games mentioned above—they just didn't quite hit the spot for my specific table. Thanks in advance for the help!

Halo, Starship Troopers, Helldivers, certain parts of Star Wars, Warhammer 40k, Ender's Game, Deep Rock Galactic, you get the point.

I want to run a campaign where the players are a crew of elite military or corporate soldiers, wielding all kinds of cool tech, heading into dangerous places to carry out missions.

I'm cool with a little bit of extra crunch, but combat should be somewhat tactical and dangerous, with lots of ranged weapons with maybe some special melee ones.

Also the ability to play as an alien or cyborg would be a great bonus.

From the moment I first saw it, I had high hopes for this game, and I will happily blame that amazing cover art for setting the bar so high. Fortunately, Graham Rose and the fine folk at Osprey did not disappoint in the slightest - quite the opposite, in fact.

The Hooded Man is perhaps one of the best TTRPGs I have played, especially if you are a fan of history or the timeless tales of Robin Hood. The game captures that outlaw spirit beautifully while keeping the mechanics simple, elegant, and easy to grasp. Even complete newcomers to the hobby will find it incredibly approachable.

It is also a joy to run as a Game Master. The book provides a wealth of tools designed to make your job easier: a clean and well-organized layout, plenty of helpful tables, adventure hooks scattered throughout the text, and three ready-to-run adventures right out of the box. All of this is packed into a book under 200 pages, which honestly feels like nothing short of sorcery!

All in all, I highly recommend giving this game a try, and I promise you will not be disappointed! But if you are not yet convinced, I invite you to go over our review in which I go into copious amounts of details into the inns and outs of this system!

This campaign is still ongoing, but I wanted to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of this game. It's brought almost 550 hours of delight and fun to our table, but it's also been a real labour of love, requiring a lot of reworking to get it to sing for our group.

The corebook for this game is beautiful but difficult to run from. As the DM, you have to study it carefully and over time you end up a lore master. The biggest hurdle in running a long campaign is the tension between the setting, which is glorious, mysterious, huge, and the mechanics, which are not really built with longevity in mind. Over the years, we've come up with so many house rules to build on the system and make it work for our table. I've also become used to taking the lore and spinning it in a way that works for me.

Our current campaign is what I envisioned as a prequel to the Mercy of the Icons published campaign. Our game is very character-driven, with a sandbox style that encourages players to follow their characters' whims and wishes. As it's going now, I don't see us finishing up soon, and if player interest is retained, I would love for us to go through (a modified) MotI eventually.

XP and Talents

This is where the system fails you most. The world wants you to play a long campaign with a ship that can go anywhere and a crew that can see anything. But the corebook offers you such few talents that players very quickly feel like they don't know where to spend their XP.

I've imported a lot of fanmade talents, and I've made a lot of my own as well. I even made a group of multi-tiered talents inspired by the characters in Firefly. I drop 3-6 at the end of each scenario (which typically run between 7 and 15 sessions), which gives players something to look forward to and offers me inspiration for what this particular adventure could teach.

I've also made a custom language learning XP sink, with 3 different tiers for language proficiences, and a detailed Faction system that reminds players who their enemies are and lets them spend XP to make their friends feel officially part of the gang lol.

I'm quite liberal with XP. I've adjusted some of the XP questions to be easier to get, and I've expanded the icon XP question with leading questions that pertain to each icon's domain. I also make spending XP a bit more difficult; players must be able to justify spending XP on something by referencing something that occurred that session (e.g. taking Observation for spotting something hidden), or have to train it in downtime between scenarios. This ties character improvement to story, and works well for our table.

House Rules/Homebrew

I wanted to give a quick summary of some of the house rules we've come up with to suit our table.

• No Darkness Point generation from travel. It was a pain to track, and frankly I always have more DP than I need. Our table high was 30 at one point, and it typically stays in the 5-15 range. My players generate them faster than I can use them, so I threw this rule away quite early.
• Ties go to the defender in contested checks. This is a recurring issue with this system, and this still doesn't feel like a good solution, but it's the best we've tried. In some situations, a defender isn't always obvious, so it takes up table time to discuss it unfortunately. We did once try a system of 'then count the 5s' for a partial success or a less severe failure, but it didn't feel intuitive.
• A lot of combat reworks. Combat isn't a frequent part of our game, and when it comes up it's almost always a threat. Many players - even four years in - haven't specced into combat for character reasons, and don't plan to. Our table rules include:
  • No crits on supernatural creatures.
  • No praying on armour. Defend before armour.
  • Announce defending before enemy rolls.
  • Attacking someone prone at close range gives +2.
• Medicurgy similarly needed a closer look.
  • Healing without being broken: misusing equipment to treat someone who doesn't immediately need it, recovering HP.
  • Overuse of equipment: If treated more than once in 24 hours, you suffer negative consequences in the form of negative modifiers to your physical attributes. This only applies to ordinary and advanced tier medicurgical technology.
• Rolling a 65/66 crit leeches 5 DP. If 5 aren't available, roll again. Instakill is powerful and tying it to DP made players very aware of when they were entering fights with the dice stacked against them. They can still die from the effects of other fatal crits, but it at least leaves a chance for medicurgy to save them.
• A custom mental breakdown table, with mental crits ranging from exhilaration to a panic attack to coma brain death. I initially had this as '3 MP loss in one instance or falling to 0' but we found this didn't work for our table. We now have it as 'falling to 0 MP, or losing MP and the DM spends DP at the same time to trigger a mental breakdown'. I'm keeping an eye on it.
• Players can activate personal problems, and request I spend a DP on it. I trust my players to pay out negative consequences so this frees up a bit of mental space for me.
• Sending coms through a portal requires a small fee payable to the Bulletin to forward your message via courier.
• We have a special gold star that has to be awarded at least once every 3 sessions, the use of which can negate the generation of a DP. As I said, I always have more DP than I want, except in moments where the players really don't need more trouble because I've already spent them all, and having a reward system gives players' even more incentive to play true to their characters.

Wrangling Lore

This game has serious faction bloat. Part of the fun of the setting is having all of these different parties vying for dominance, so I didn't want to merge or erase any, but it's been a slow process slowly introducing them to the party in ways that feel meaningful. I won't typically include more than one faction in any given scenario, and two if they're directly involved with one another. Our current scenario is the first to have 3 factions involved; one the party has previous ties to, one as a threat, and one as the regional power like a sword of Damochles.

One delightful thing that's come out from play is how deep regional religion and culture can go as players build on their character's heritage. I have a player from Mira who has created an in-depth naming system tied to Icon worship. My Zalosi player keeps their character's fasts during the Segment of the Merchant to Zalos time, despite being in the Kua system right now.

Travelling takes a lot longer than you'd think. It is hard and expensive to portal jump, and the party need good reason to do so. We've played 127 sessions so far, almost every one lasting over 4 hours, and we have only travelled to Kua, Hamura, and Taoan. We've seen a lot of specific locations there, but given each system has planets, with its own cities and biomes, as well as space stations, and interactions in the void as well, it is so easy to get stuck somewhere and stay there. There are countless places I want players to go, but you cannot rush going there and also make it feel realistic and rewarding. When introducing a new location, I want to give a real sense of what it's like there and how it's different from anywhere else they've been, and that takes time to establish. The best part of this setting is how important religion and culture are, so I've found that slower is better as long as it's not too slow. (The players were very excited to finally leave Taoan lol.)

One way to make the Horizon feel like a living breathing setting is to introduce news drops that play once a week or so. This reminds players of what's happening more broadly, and also introduces any plot points for future adventures you want to foreshadow. Since our timeline is set before the events of LVotG and MotI I can also include events like the Marrab Conflict and Zalosi blockade happening in real time. The players also have backstories tied to different systems and locations (Mira, Zalos, the Reach, Dabaran, Algol) and are keen to travel further afield one day.

Small Gripes

I mentioned above, but the corebook is not easy to learn from. Information is so badly organised, and half of what you need is buried in either the Atlas Compendium or the MotI books. I've had so many ways of trying to get past this problem through the years; the best solution I've found is importing all the books to notebook.lm and using it to help me quickly reference where I can find information. This tool is helpful because it can reference the exact page, and you can just go there yourself and learn from the source. I've still yet to complete (or even half-finish) my list of NPCs or canonical talents though. I think it's more trouble than it's worth at this point, honestly.

The setting is gorgeous, and very thematic. But that means searching for art inspiration can be a time-consuming task. My players and I abhor AI-generated content so I spend a lot of time browsing artstation lol. Art is out there! But you have to spend the time to find it. Here are my folders for character and setting inspiration.

Sadaal is difficult to talk about. It's so important in MotI and if you haven't read them, you can't depict it accurately. I honestly have barely touched Sadaal in our campaign. Zalos is also hard to talk about!! I'm lucky my player is so creative and has really brought Zalos culture to life, because the corebooks do not give you a lot. The Atlas Compendium gives a lot of information about Karrmerruk, but Zalos prime is a mystery. All we knew is it has a lot of fish lmao.

It's a space opera game, you have to suspend your disbelief a little. But sometimes, little details do still frustrate me. Why oh why did they choose AU to be the deciding distance? Why is everything so strangely scaled in space? I choose not to think about it. Or to think about how Mira is a real star that is inaccurately depicted. Or how this society can have artificial gravity but no sensible communication systems. Really, all of the tech tiers are difficult to get your head around - it's this fascinating but absurd combination of medieval and futuristic that will constantly have your players asking "Can I do this? Does this exist?"

And lastly, although this is more of an observation than a gripe, the supernatural features heavily in our games. We've always had at least one mystic in the party, and the group chose archaeologists as their starting concept. Although none of them are scientists, they wanted to find out mysteries in old ruins. So there's a lot of throwing in dark creatures and mysterious techno monsters, and studying up on the history of the Portal Wars, and desperately trying to fill the gap in the lore about the Portabuilders. (I know TGD is supposed to answer that question, but it should have been addressed for DMs in TTH, too.)

So that's my campaign!

It's my pride and joy, and I'm blessed with really reliable committed players who all have similar playstyles that are heavy on roleplay. We've taken short breaks when I'm worried about burning out, and we play as long as 3 of my 6 players are available, which has kept the pace consistent and attendance regular. The story we've told together is dramatic, epic, dark, and beautiful. I look forward to our sessions every week.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! I initially wanted to do an AMA but that seemed kinda silly when I have no idea what the interest level for running a long Coriolis campaign is. Still, I hope TGD doesn't eclipse TTH because it is a fascinating setting with endless possibilities. I hope people continue to find inspiration in Kua and beyond.

I'm looking for a "Goldilocks" solution to combat here.

I want to move away from the multi-hour slog of traditional systems, but I don't want combat to feel reductive to the point of being just another skill check. At the same time, I want players to still have meaningful tactical agency, but the entire conflict is resolved in one go.

More specifically, I'm curious about TTPRG rules that handle combat as a single round (narrated as an action montage, perhaps). Some examples I'm already familiar with:

• Tunnels & Trolls: Group dice pools vs. monster rating
• Blades in the Dark: Action rolls with Position/Effect to set the stakes of a full scene
• Burning Wheel: The Bloody Versus system
• Legend in the Mist: Can kinda sorta mostly do something like this with the multiple ways the system approaches its dice checks

Are there other games that use a montage or one-round approach to conflict while still giving players tactical options? I'd love to learn how other designers have approached this.

I'm interested to see what peoples thoughts are on whether I should continue with my TTRPG group or leave at a convenient time. The group is 5 people, which I consider to be just right, if we picked up another person it would help my decision greatly.

I've been playing DND with the same group for going on 12 years and with the current make up for about 5-6 years. I like all the players and we rotate DM responsibility, well, another person and myself rotate. I have two main issues that make me want to leave the group:

1. I am tired of DnD 5E. We are currently in the low teen levels and the plan is to go to 20. The campaign story is pretty good, so its not a setting or story telling issue. I feel like my character is maxed out and there isn't much of a path forward to make the character more powerful; only minor tweaks here and there. We've played some Pathfinder 2E and Starfinder; both of which I much prefer, but I have run both of those campaigns and would likely be pushed to run the next campaign in either of those systems. I asked about swapping our current campaign over to Pathfinder 2E and there wasn't an appetite for it; which is fair. DnD, even the refreshed rules, still has many flaws in it that I am just done with.
2. I have other stuff I would prefer to do with the time allotted to DnD. If a session gets cancelled, I don't really feel all that bad about it and in some cases hope it does get cancelled. My main reason for going is that it is pretty much the only social interaction I get outside of work or home life. I generally have at least an okay time while at the game.

I think in an ideal scenario, I would take off 6+ months, however long it takes for them to finish the current DnD campaign, then come back with a Paizo game or something not DnD as long as I am not running the campaign.

Hey all,
I've been reading through the core rulebook and preparing my own campaign within Spire world. I know the setting is unique in a multitude of ways, but i was curious if anyone has recommendations of media that could help inspire an idea of this Dark Urban Fantasy world?