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I've just been watching the Ginny Dee video on 'Persuasion' mainly because I spent a long time discussing it in another thread on here yesterday and I was curious what Ginny had to say about it.
https://youtu.be/hAQj03ox2Ys?si=Bv_5eTpCDsbwfYv0
I agreed with everything she says about social encounters and persuasion rolls specifically. But then she mentioned the 'Draw Steel Negotiation Rules' that she said she thought solved the problem.

I must admit they sound interesting. As mentioned yesterday I already use an Opposed Roll Success Level System for deciding the outcome of persuation tests. But this system seemed to take the same idea and remove the randomness of the opposed roll system.

I'm just curious how it works in practice.

• Does it require a lot of additional prep?
• How satisfying are the outcomes?
• Does it require a lot of subjective judgment by the Gm to run?

It feels weird to have some of my favorite IPs suddenly get TTRPGs. Last year it was Cosmere RPG by Brotherwise which essentially boiled down to a reskin of DND/Pathfinder. Could’ve been a homebrew but with Sanderson writing. The mechanics of the game itself didn’t feel very unique or different.

Now it’s Dungeon Crawler Carl by Renegade. And there’s not much information on the backerkit. What information there is makes it seem like just another DND reskin with little mechanic difference.

Am I wrong? Are these just cash grabs based on the IPs popularity? I really want to back the Carl RPG cus I love the IP but I’m worried it’s gonna essentially be just another dnd homebrew for 200$.

Edit: I’d like to note that while I’ve played every game on the top 100 of board game geek, I’m relatively new to the TTRPG scene so my frame of reference might not be great. I’ve played grizzled and cosmere rpg but have played DnD since a kid. I don’t particularly understand the nuances and differences between the TTRPGs tbh. They all kinda feel like DnD (skill check games) but with very slight changes to the mechanics. Cosmere had the plot thing but again it didn’t feel different enough to me, but maybe someone could explain the difference in a way I might not have got?

So I've been working on a TTRPG sourcebook for a while now, and the setting is basically everything I wish existed when I got into tabletop: a world rooted in Turkic and Central Asian shamanic traditions. Tengri cosmology, spirit realms, clan politics, figures like Erlik Han and Asena. No elves, no pseudo-medieval Europe — just a mythology that's been sitting underrepresented in this hobby forever.

The vibe I'm going for mechanically is somewhere in L5R territory — Roll & Keep, exploding dice, rolls that feel like they carry emotional and spiritual weight, not just "did I hit the goblin". L5R nails that tension between duty, honor, and personal cost in a way that feels inseparable from its dice system.

But here's the thing: this is a commercial project, so I can't just lift L5R's system. I need something with a solid open license — OGL, Creative Commons, ORC, anything clean.

Systems I've already looked at:

- 5e SRD (CC BY 4.0) — mechanically solid and has a massive player base, but it just feels like a western fantasy engine no matter how you reskin it

- Year Zero Engine — open license, the push mechanic creates real tension, definitely in the running

- **Ironsworn SRD** — genuinely love this design but it's built around solo/GM-lite play which doesn't fit

- Genesys — narrative dice are exactly the vibe, but FFG's commercial licensing is a headache

Has anyone here built something on an open system for a non-western setting? What worked, what didn't? And are there systems I'm completely sleeping on?

Appreciate any suggestions.

Anyone played the Conan rpg from Monolith? What would you rate its complexity? Are there enough mechanical options to attract players who love things like Draw Steel and such? Does the system and flavor fit to S&S expectations (I realize that is messy these days, which source material does the game invoke well?)

I am wanting to start a Lovecraftian eldritch horror game. Both of these systems are exactly what I am looking for. I am just not sure which to go with.

Call of Cthuhlu has a vast history of decades of material. Tons of resources and modules out there. It is completely open and gives me the ability to go anywhere with any story.

Arkham Horror seems a bit more modern. The material looks very professional and well done. I like that there are modules that comes with handouts, maps, and such. It lets me be a bit more lazy.

I have played Call of Cthuhlu but not Arkham Horror. How is its system? Does it work well?

What is your opinion? I am kind of tied here and dont know where to go.

Thanks.

Any suggestions are helpful, whether its suggestion systems that homebrew could hit that feel with or other assorted things.

I read the core book but I haven't played it.

It's the only mecha game I personally know where not every player is a pilot. Which is a very interesting element, since most mecha ttrpgs struggle to combine in and out of cockpit action.

So I want to ask people who have tried it: is this style of play actually working well in the game?

I'll preface this by saying that I'm a white dude who's been playing tabletop rpgs for over 15 years, but I've only recently noticed this in my most recent game.

About 4 months ago, I decided to try out Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition. No one at the table has ever played before, but we've gone 18 weeks without missing one session. It's so much fun and I LOVE running the game! We're usually more of a fantasy table, so I've loved being able to play around in a more contemporary horror setting.

When we first started up the game, I noticed right away that the vast majority of the characters, player characters and their Touchstones, were all men. Not a big deal or anything, just an observation. In an effort to sort of "balance things out," I've tried to make more of my SPCs women.

The big thing I've noticed, is that my Coterie seems to dislike my female characters significantly more than the male ones, even when it doesn't necessarily make sense. The players seem more distrusting and disrespectful of female SPCs in general. What really boggles my mind about this is that two of my four players are women themselves! Yet they seem just as likely to dislike or dismiss the other "women" in the game.

Has anyone else noticed this before? The craziest thing is that we've all been friends for years, and I'd say we're a pretty progressive group. I wouldn't in a hundred years expect any of these people to be genuinely sexist or anything, but it's becoming a noticeable enough pattern that it is starting to effect the way I write new characters and plot hooks into the game.

So what do you guys think? Has anyone here ever experienced something similar at your table? I haven't overtly called it out or anything yet, as it feels a bit odd to be offended on behalf of a bunch of fictional characters. Is this me experiencing the unconscious biases women face for the first time?

any novel you have enjoyed connected to a ttrpg? not things like "the call of cthulhu for that rpg" but for example: the strahd novel, the delta green novels etc..

Is there any RPG where you play as a monster (possibly more towards Fae/Fey/Changeling/Wendingo/Folklore monster hidden in a urban fantasy setting THAT IS NOT WORLD OF DARKNESS/Whitewolf?

I would like something separate from white wolf possibly, I am not a fan of their shared universe.

I heard already of Curseborne, but is not quite right what I'm looking for.

UPDATE: Thanks for the amazing options and suggestions, yet none of the options really allow for pure changeling/folklore creatures, mostly all games about vampires and werewolves (folklore too, sure, but I'm looking more into the forest kind of creatures)

A troubled past? A goofy voice? A heroic demeanor?