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I'm looking for something that has the feel of something like Armor Hunter Mellowlink or Battletech, kinda on the grittier or more lethal side- preferably with a solid amount of mech customization, weaponry, crunch, but also that allows the human characters themselves a fair amount of customization and roleplay capability, if that makes sense (ive heard mekton has a lot of problems with the actual rpging of the game, as does the mechwarrior rpg). sort of an equilibrium between the mech as a character/the pilot as a character

it doesnt have to be a "mecha rpg" per se, but the capability to pilot armored suits is a must- I know scifi rpgs like traveller occasionally has these as specialized skills a player can learn, and that might be a happy medium for me.

any recommendations are nice; I'm not feeling lancer or any simple-osr/rules-lite based systems admittedly.

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I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I wasn't sure where else. I checked out GameRec, but I couldn't find it.

Here's the back story. I (24M) 14/15 years ago so pre-2013 received a book from a Christmas charity which I thought was so awesome, it was all about this magic academy. As I grew older and discovered other RPGs only then what I realized what I had. I lost it not too long after I got it, but it's stuck with me ever since. I've long since forgotten the title or much about it, but I just remember it being so awesome and I would really like to find it.

What I do remember about it is that it was entirely set within a magical world, with the contents of the book featuring life in the magic academy, Aldryns? Academy - classes, teachers, etc. The dorms of the academy were shared and the first years had to sleep in very cramped bottom bunks. One of the teachers - I think of illusion magic was a fairy. Spells were casts with wands and to cast them you need to say three worlds with proper wand motion.

Example - Magic Missile - Tumsee, Suesee, Suedot - Waving your wand three times clockwise, then pointing in the center of the circle.

Necromancy is usually considered an evil magic, except for conjuring spirits to commune with. In fact there was a former teacher whose I think was named Aroura? Darkbone(s) who had been fired for preforming illegal necromancy experiments in the basement.

That's all I know about the RPG, if anyone has any information or can provide me with a title I would be very appreciative.

I’m making a ttrpg using Nuts and Bolts, with a little bit of VTM and blades in the dark. It’s about cosmic horror living thoughts pushing into our world. Some humans can capture them into their own minds to become wizards so to speak.

As they use their powers, I want them to loose their humanity slowly but I’m struggling to figure out any mechanical way to do this. The main resource of my game is QUALIA, literally the essential subjective human experience, that these wizards drip feed the cosmic horrors to cast spells.

The matter of the game is sacrificing your humanity for the good of humanity. I know VTM has a humanity bar but I don’t really like just having a number out of ten denoting how nice you are.

Any suggestions would be really helpful. I know I should have it, but I don’t know how to implement it.

Almost in every RPG space and in D&D YouTube, there seems to be the General consensus that grids are just generally bad for combat, combat systems are getting more and more simple with less and less tactical movement and dice rolls involved. It seems that people who enjoy these aspects of the hobby are increasingly regarded as power games or min-maxers.

What are your thoughts on this?

I see a lot of variance on PDF pricing and I’m wondering what people’s thoughts on the variation are. Mainly curious about why some PDFs are almost as expensive as books and at what point do you think, “nah, not for a digital reading product”

at first, sorry for my english and hugs from brazil

so, im running one masks a new generation for my players and it has two npcs that are inspired by goten and trunks

they use two earrings to fuse (i know gotenks dont use potara, i just think that this way is cooler)

soo one player asked me :

"what would happen if i and other character use the earrings?" and i start to wondering : this could work in some way?

I recently got out of a stint in the mental hospital and I was struck by how incredibly little there was to do. We collectively had access to about ten books, a few magazines, half a game of Jenga, and one TV that only played during certain hours. I'm no psychologist, but I am personally of the opinion that brains need to be stimulated to heal. Now that I'm out and feeling better, I'd like to donate to that hospital. I plan to hit up my local used book store, but I also want to donate some games for people to play.

Most people in the psych ward are not there for more than a week or two, which is not enough time to learn and play D&D unless you already knew the rules going in. Now I collect TTRPGs, but I have a strong preference for "crunchy" games and can only think of a handful of games that could be learned quickly and easily in such a time frame. Right now my ideas include Perils and Princesses, Mork Borg, EZD6, and Index Card RPG. That might be enough honestly - not everyone there is going to be interested in TTRPGs anyway, and the bulk of my donation will be books and board games. But I just wanted to know what else might be appropriate.

Any suggestions for extremely rules-light games for beginners?

This question is more towards people who have actually played and DMed the system.

What is your overall review? What are the good things and also the BAD things about the system?

Would you recommend as a replacement for 5e and PF2e?

Thanks!

Bit of a vent/rant/ramble here, and I'm looking for advice on what to do next. I write stuff like this out for myself from time to time, figured I'd post it in case it resonates with others.

I'm done with my current TTRPG group. Overall, they're just too passive, for all sorts of reasons and excuses, for the group to function healthily or have regular, reliable games. I've been GM'ing online since September 2017, starting with D&D 5e and switching to Pathfinder 2e in 2023. In that time, I've cycled through 60-70 people to get to the group I have today: one player's been with me since 2018, another since 2020, and the other two since 2022. I can't really fault my current players too much on reliability, but the lack of camaraderie and effort to actually take interest in these games outside of sessions has worn me down. It's pretty much just me putting in any real effort, I’ve literally handled nearly everything. Since 2023, I've tried extensively to get others to step up and take more responsibility, using all sorts of strategies, but ultimately failed. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

Over the past two years especially, the quality of my own effort and organization has dropped off for various reasons, mostly personal health and life stuff making it tough. But at this point, I've got little left to give in any regard. I know this isn't normal, but from what I've seen online over the past 8 years, it's not really abnormal either --- plenty of people in similar boats. These are good folks in the sense that they're nice and engaged in the moment, but not actually invested, and this isn't unique to my current group. It's something I've run into with a lot of players over time. On reflection, the biggest issue is that, for whatever reason, people in these online games refuse to develop relationships with each other and only connect directly with the GM. So instead of building a real group dynamic or community, you end up with a bunch of one-on-one relationships.

This seems like a common thing with online interactions in general. I'm in a really piss-poor place health-wise and life-wise right now, just trying to get by like most people. If I'm going to keep doing this, I need to find folks who are open-minded, actually interested in playing the game, and willing to develop friendships with the other players. This honestly feels insane to write out, especially as somebody on the Autism Spectrum --- a condition often characterized by poor social development and behaviors (to be fair, I'm turning 28 this year, so...). But it's getting worse. You could blame a ton of things: the pandemic, social media, the continual failure of "liberal democracies" everywhere under the American sphere of influence since the '80s, all kowtowing to the billionaire/ownership class who act like actual fantasy dragons hoarding everything.

I'm someone who, like many other neuro-divergent or neuro-spicy folks, can intuitively feel out others like me - that's not really unique, it's a very human thing, finding your tribe. But these past few years alone, it's been wild with the amount of weird social interactions I've had. Genuinely, it's likely confirmation and survivorship bias, since most socially troubled/awkward/challenged people (whatever PC euphemism works) are gonna resort to easier, less stressful forms of socialization. Over time, I feel like I'm living in opposite world. I grew up struggling to socialize because "normal" folks are generally, in my experience, very impatient and intolerant of neuro-divergent people. But now I'm getting continual cognitive dissonance from the social interactions I've been part of or witnessed over the years --it seems like a lot of people have just become socially autistic, very reminiscent of stuff I've read about pseudo non-clinical "Environmental Autism." But these people, to me at least, aren't actually autistic; they're just socially inept, which is a wild acknowledgment coming from me, since I'm a social fucking disaster.

I digress - huge aside, but I said all that because I've always taken responsibility and keep coming back to the conclusion that it's other people's faults, which I fucking hate doing. To a fault, I believe (or have been conditioned from a young age) in taking personal responsibility for my actions, or at least some when you're involved in something, even if it feels tangential or ephemeral. The biggest thing that bugs me is that I think I intrinsically understand where a lot of this stems from, as I've touched on in this text: it's fatigue, exhaustion, and burnout.

At this point, if I'm going to start again, I'd have to look for individuals or communities made up of people who've GM'ed or run games themselves --- folks who get it and are willing to put in the work. What do you all think? Any advice on where to find those kinds of groups or how to screen for better dynamics?