**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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Been interested in a gridded/tactical game. These two newcomers seem to be interesting.5E and pathfinder have too much baggage for me. I usually play OSR stuff but I’m interested in something more boardgamey/tactical. Or should I just play gloomhaven?

any tips on where to start? Bonus points if the art and layout has at least a little inspiration.

I don’t think I’m going to be able to convey what I intend to without coming across as a little insulting, so I apologize in advance.

I shifted to playing ttrpgs online during the pandemic, and while I do think there is a human element lost I overall appreciate the wider scope of players and games available as compared to finding a group in-person. Lacking a dedicated group of hobbyists interested in dabbling with different systems, online recruitment becomes the main way I can find people interested in more niche games.

Now there are always going to be more players than GMs. And with people looking for games online there will be people who are socially awkward and reliant on the anonymity of a screen to behave in ways that would be less acceptable in an in-person social setting. That’s a given. But I’ve recently run into a subset of that problem which is that for more niche game systems that have a majority online following, the people staking out LFG threads/channels are those who have developed some strong opinions about the game that they may or may not have experience playing. Games with a strong collaborative component which these people have been chewing over on their own because they don’t have a group, whose opinions have crystalized enough that they cause friction when a discussion with a group doesn’t match what they’ve imagined.

I would like to find players who are interested in specific niche games and care enough about them to be active participants…but not SO invested that they’ve already decided what they want their experience to be. And I don't know where to go to find those players. Any advice?

I'm endlessly interested in the manifestos written about different styles of RPG play. I'll link below a collection of blogs and books I think play in this space but I'd love any additional links you have in this genre!

Blorb is a style of game really focused on consistency in the world and the GM not improvising at the table.

Principa Apocrypha is a manifesto for OSR-style play, with focus on rulings over rules and player ability over mechanical ability.

The 4D Handbook is a manifesto on playing games laser focused at keeping players in character for as much of the game as possible.

The Game Master's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying is a book that pushes for characters to be proactive and motivate the story via explicitly stated goals. This isn't new, off the top of my head it's part of what makes Burning Wheel special, but here it's given as a guide for any game.

Almost what I'm looking for section

The Open Table Manifesto is a about running West Marches style games. This is more a structure for a campaign, though, and assumes play to be happening in an OSR style.

Don't Prep Plots isn't explicitly a manifesto but lays down clearly guidelines for a certain style of play (or in this case, prep). It is more a guide than a manifesto, however.

The Expressionist Games Manifesto is more a manifesto for making games than playing them.

A Dozen Fragments on Playground Theory is a great collection of ideas pointing in a similar direction but, again, is more focused on design and considering the relationship between player and designer than it is prescribing play at the table.

Games that kind of fit the bill section

There are plenty of games that made their point by doing it through a ruleset. Wanderhome had a lot to say about what counted as play, Index Card RPG openly acknowledges that it's a playstyle wrapped in a system, and enough ink has been spilled about PBTA game design to fill the ocean. If you've got a game that explicitly discusses play style and culture, please tell me about it!

Something I've noticed lately is that I have a harder time coming up with villain motivations than I do almost anything else in prep. Like I can improvise a dungeon layout on the fly, I can pull a random NPC out of thin air and give them a voice, but the moment I need a faction's goals to actually make internal sense, I freeze up and reach for whatever generic "wants power" thing I was already going to do.

What's weird is I don't think the problem is creativity exactly. I think the problem is that I'm too close to the setting. I know too much about why things are the way they are, so every motivation I come up with either feels too obvious or contradicts something I established six sessions ago. My brain just keeps looping back to the same three options.

A few weeks ago I was deep in prep trying to figure out why this particular religious order would be actively helping the people who are slowly destroying the region's food supply. Not doing it for money, not being blackmailed, genuinely believing in what they're doing. I could not crack it. I had a bunch of half-ideas that all felt like I'd read them in a module somewhere. So I just started throwing the core tension at StonedGPT to shake something loose, and one of the angles that came back reframed the whole thing around what the order believed they were saving rather than what they were destroying. Totally shifted how I was thinking about it. I ended up not using that specific idea but it broke the loop, which is honestly all I needed.

The thing I keep coming back to is that the most interesting villain motivations I've ever used were ones where I genuinely couldn't tell if the villain was wrong. Not morally grey in the easy "anti-hero" way, but actually uncertain. Where a player could make a decent argument for the villain's position if they tried. That seems like the bar worth aiming for, but it's also the hardest thing to construct from scratch, especially mid-campaign when you're tired.

Anyone else hit this specific wall? And if you have a process for building motivations that hold up under player scrutiny, I'd genuinely love to hear it.

Life in Imperial Russia was grueling and difficult, even more so if you were forced to live in the Pale of Settlement as a Jew.

I just published my first scenario for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition via Miskatonic Repository! The Missing Rabbi of Berezin is a one-shot scenario set in a Jewish village in what is now Belarus in the late 19th century. These villages, known as shtetls, were under a constant threat of violence from both imperial authorities and their Christian neighbors. The scenario explores that fear, as well as the added terror of the Cthulhu Mythos when Berezin's Rabbi turns up missing on the last day of Hanukkah. The investigators must balance the task of finding the Rabbi with the pressure of keeping Russian authorities out of the shtetl.

The Missing Rabbi of Berezin is written for Call of Cthulhu 7th edition, meant to be easy to run for new and experienced groups alike!

Included with the scenario are six pre-generated Investigators, each of whom is connected with the shtetl of Berezin and the investigation, and two high quality full-color handouts!

You can find it as a PWYW here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/564972/the-missing-rabbi-of-berezin

Hey everyone,

I’ve been thinking about how different RPG systems handle complexity. Some games go really deep with hundreds of pages of rules, while others try to get you playing as fast as possible with minimal setup.

Lately, I’ve been leaning more toward lighter systems—mainly because it’s easier to jump into a session without spending hours reading beforehand.

I’m curious how others feel about this:

Do you enjoy deep, complex rule systems, or do they slow things down for you?

What’s the ideal balance between simplicity and tactical depth?

Have you tried any systems that nailed that balance?

Would love to hear your thoughts or recommendations.

Why do you do it? I ask as a GM. What makes you decide to not follow up on the village with disapearing kids, or not investigate the space station with rumors of a new drug mysteriously making people go crazy. Maybe these things are specifically linked to the "main questline" but as a player, I'd always feel inclined to investigate these things. What makes you say nah, not interested?

Edited:

I wanted to add some clarity here....I'm not necessarily annoying that PCs aren't picking up stuff I've prepped, but just that from a player perspective I would have a hard time leaving an interesting plot hook uninvestigated.

I want something that is high magic, spells are very powerful and very common, but also, you can't just cast a spell within a couple seconds using nothing but somatic and verbal components.

Spells takes considerable time to be cast, 30min at least, and maybe several hours, they require extensive research, correct material components, mastery over the aspect (for example, your fire mastery is different from your water mastery).

But to make It actually playable, several rituals create a sort of magic item or consumable that stores the spell to be used later, for example, it takes 30min to make the fireball ritual, but once complete, it is stored to be used later as a one time cast.

If there are quick spells (only take a few seconds to cast) they're either way weaker than the ritual version, or have a much greater mana/vitality cost.

I have been meaning to actually run Legend of the Five Rings for years instead of just admiring the books on my shelf. I own several 4th edition books and a couple from 5th edition and I like a lot about both, but I am trying to be realistic about time and what will actually hit the table.

I use Foundry and from what I can tell both editions are playable there, but neither has a proper compendium so I would need to put in some work up front to make sessions flow well. Not a deal breaker, but definitely part of the decision.

After digging around I keep seeing a split that I cannot quite reconcile. Most discussions and communities seem to lean toward 4th edition, but when I check YouTube there is way more 5th edition content and actual plays.

From what I understand so far, 4th edition is more traditional and crunchy with a swingy dice system, faster combat, and a lot of the tension comes from the setting itself and the social constraints placed on characters. 5th edition looks more narrative driven with custom dice, stronger support for emotional and mental pressure pushing the story forward, but also complaints about slow combat, awkward duels, and social characters dominating.

For context, I speak Japanese and grew up deep into samurai soap-operas/period-dramas, Rurouni Kenshin, Lone Wolf and Cub, and Kurosawa films, so the setting is a big part of the appeal for me. I have also been playing RPGs for over 30 years, so learning a system is not an issue, but time is.

If you were in my position and actually wanted to get a campaign running without it stalling out, which edition would you choose and why?

Also what do you think is really behind the strong preference for 4th edition in discussions. Is it actually better at the table or just an older fanbase being louder about it?

Silly question, as I was thinking about playing Magic and found the Prisoner's Dilemma card, my mind started machinating "How would a traitor's game work on a tabletop? Would the players kill each other the first opportunity?"

Add my love for Zero Escape, and now it's a need to know info!

EDIT: I better phrase this better, I'm looking for Character Vs Character drama! If players actually get hurt by it would be sad D: