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I’m the owner of a FLGS and a fan of RPGs since OD&D back in ‘77. The shop itself is a very diverse store with miniatures (D&D and Games Workshop), board games, TCGs, RPGs, and lots of other bits. The former owners kept RPGs to the mainstream ones and other than D&D, mainly the core rule books; D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, and the like.

Since I took over almost 4 years ago, I’ve quadrupled the shelf space for RPGs. I’ve brought in other RPGs as I can find them. As a fan of Savage Worlds for example, it’s been virtually impossible over the past 4 years to find the core rules. I signed up to the kickstarter and joined the retailer email list and the only email I’ve received, 2 years ago, was “welcome to the list” :)

Anyway, I do bring in other RPGs and have reached out to Bits and Mortar and gotten that in place plus over at Indie Press Revolution, I’ve brought in several Indie RPGs (Dukk Borg is coming :D ). I’ve also participated in FreeRPG Day. I’ve also instituted a quarterly Learn2Play event for one shot learning about different systems. Aliens (twice plus a month long game), Pathfinder, D&D, My Little Pony, Pirate Borg, Shadowrun (plus a year long game), with Old Gods of Appalachia and Arkham Horror RPGs in the queue (and Dukk Borg coming up).

Heck, we finally got Daggerheart. Our distributor didn’t have it but a second one did so once it was available to us, we brought in 5 copies (well, 4 copies as I always buy one :) ).

Just saying that I’m an RPGer (and gamer in general) and enjoy all the different systems :)

The reality though is core RPG rules are bought by most folks but anything else is bought by just the GM. So we have games sitting for years (seriously) before it catches someone’s eye. I have to be careful and not bring in RPGs that I personally think are interesting as we have to be customer aware. I do want us to be a destination for folks looking for alternatives to D&D so I’ll keep bringing in different systems.

Just realize that games that sit for years, are also tying up funds that can be better used with other products that are more likely to move. “Churn” is a key aspect of owning a shop. But as the owner, it is “my way or the highway” But I still have to be careful.

In character or out of character, from "Women wouldn't be able to swing a sword" to "Ah, yes, the rainbow colored rabbits are thermonuclear explosives" what is the oddest thing you've heard at game?

(As much background or as little as you care to give.)

I wanted to share my experience with the physical core book in case it helps others deciding whether to buy it.

I purchased my copy on August 1st, and after only a few months of normal use the pages have already started coming loose from the binding. I treat my books carefully, so this was pretty surprising and honestly a bit disappointing; especially for a brand-new release.

I reached out to customer support at the Critical Role shop, but they told me the warranty period had already passed. I get that policies are policies, but it still feels frustrating to have a book deteriorate this quickly and not really have any options for repair or replacement.

I’m posting this mainly to give others a heads-up about the durability of the current print run. If anyone else has had similar issues (or if there’s a known fix or replacement option), I’d appreciate hearing about it. I really love the game; I just wish the physical book held up better.

Edit with a picture of the book in question: https://imgur.com/a/WYjgoUE

In search of a megadungeon type campaign in the SF setting, don't care what system it was intedned for...do these things exist? I did some googling and can't find anything beyond Gradient Descent for Mothership and similar, which while cool af, isn't like Rappan Athuk or Stonehells for fantasy games.

I searched for this before posting and found a couple of threads about which video games should have TTRPGs but not the reverse.

For me Coriolis (Third Horizon and maybe another game for The Great Dark) would be something I'd love to see done as a video game. And my ideas are ambitious. I want Coriolis station as a place you can walk around in. Something akin to Cyberpunk 2077. But I also want to be able to go to the various planets and other locations. Some space flight would be ideal. I guess this might be pulled off with an extensive Starfield mod but it would have to have a much darker aesthetic. Also I'd prefer an engine where you actually land the ship yourself not have a cut scene.

What games would you folks want to see?

Update: thanks all for the encouragement and tips. To be. Clear I have no in intention to never have my characters "speak" in person, but more that I'd let less dialogue be the backbone and more, narration setting up the sentences. STILL this is encouraging.

Over time I kinda am getting tired of trying to make a "voice" for my NPCs and villains. Not saying I won't ever speak as the NPCs but I run quite a few games (cause I can) and I'm getting tired of hearing myself do the same voices especially when they aren't very good.

I wanna try dabbling with less outright dialogue and more of Narrating events and rebuttles style, saving the voices for the most important (or silly) responses.

Very much invisioning the narrator from bg3 but more focused around the interactions from the NPCs. Any tips or experiences doing this approach yourselves?

Hello /rpg.

I am looking/recommendations for books or even blog posts that might to more in-depth about the narrative side in a more theory sense or even a more practical for the improvement as me being a gamemaster.

For example, focusing on what could be a compelling story to tell with twists or when to introduce a twist in a smart way and others ideas to elevate the story I am telling to my players.

While gamemastering isn't writing a book, I think that is the kinda of recommendation I am seeking ("story theory"), to broaden my horizontal on how to do a compelling story later with my players doing their chaotic shenanigans.

Thanks for any recommendations ahead.

Basically the title. I'm looking for recommendations. I bought the game a while ago and I like to listen or watch good actual plays before running a game myself.

Wondering if I should get it for christmas. I don't know that much about the first Coriolis, mainly that it was a arabic inspired space game. What would you say is the selling point of this game? And would you say its good?

As a GM, how good are you at taking a short plot hook into a session or campaign?

I usually write down broad ideas then use them later for one-shots sometimes coming up with what’s going on an hour before the session starts. I may not know the truth of the situation but I do ruff of what my players think is goin on. Typically going for you are partially right territory unless it feels like it has to be that to work.

I wonder how many people tend to do that as I seem to play with GMs who do a lot of prep work ahead of time.

Hey, friends. Recently, my group wrapped up a campaign, and it was a blast. I was talking about it with another friend who plays RPGs and mentioned something our GM did that I found really fun.

The premise was that all our characters came from the same small, cozy village. My character was raised by his single father, and another PC was raised by her single mother. During the adventure, we eventually learned that our parents had secretly been dating and had decided to get together at this point because we had both "grew up", essentially making our characters step-siblings. And later it turned out they had even had another child, giving us both a new little step-sibling.

A lot of cool story moments grew out of that twist. But to my surprise, my friend reacted pretty negatively. He said that if a GM did that to his character’s backstory, he’d be pretty upset that the GM “changed” it without asking.

I don’t agree with him at all, but it made me curious about how others feel about this kind of thing: When a GM adds or “sums up” a character’s family/background like that. If you were in my situation, would you have liked it or disliked it?

Personally, it hadn’t even occurred to me that someone might be bothered by it. My fellow player and I absolutely loved it. After talking to my friend, I guess I can see the argument that maybe the GM could have checked with us first... But honestly, I think that would’ve spoiled the surprise.