**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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Seriously me and my BFF were at the funeral for her mother and these fuckers decided, knowing it was the funeral because we told them in advance, to decide to come at us and tell us to kick us from the game without giving a reason, and then called us immature for asking why we were kicked.

It'd be one thing if this was the first time I got some of the worst ttrpg experience in my life from a VTM game but it's not. I've tried to play in a couple dozen VtM games since I first tried at the beginning of this year, each one has been worse than the last.

This isn't the straw that broke the camel's back, it was the fucking pickup and there were four dozen bricks thrown at that fucking camel before this. I'm done trying to play this game, it atracts nothing but the worst people of all ttrpgs.

Looking at the website today was really disheartening. The entire front page is full of near identical "books". The same shamefully gross covers that have been popping up every single day! Can we put pressure on Drivethrurpg as a community to finally end this?

I'm curious about general feelings on Daggerheart. I'm relatively new to TTRPG, I've played in the past but it's been years.

I've heard mixed opinions about it, I don't know a ton about Critical Roll besides having seen the shows and listening to a couple of the podcast live play episodes. But I'm surprised with the amount of negative things I've heard about it, not that they're super negative, but more negative than I figured a game being made by the defacto live play group would have. But maybe being a good live play group doesn't translate to game design.

The more loose turn order of the game sounds pretty interesting to me and actually like one of the more well executed parts of the game.

The reason I'm asking for this is that I currently am suffering from a Werewolf The Apocalypse bug. Like I'm just thinking a lot about Werewolf The Apocalypse and Werewolf The Forsaken and how much I miss certain aspects of Werewolf The Apocalypse, its environmental theming being one of them. And I'm just wondering if there's any good games that have that environmentalist theme that Werewolf The Apocalypse does.

Curious of anyone's opinion on these two games. Looking into getting one of these as I appreciate the narrative focused and more grounded fantasy style. I enjoy games that add strong narrative potential while also allowing unique ways to create and develop characters narratively and mechanically.

If anyone's played one or both I'd love to hear your thoughts or a comparison between the two.

Thanks!

Today Games Workshop announced a new Necromunda ttrpg. I think this is the first time they've gotten into ttrpgs since at least the first Dark Heresy, and arguably since their groundbreaking work in the late 1980s.

They've clearly always cared about ttrpgs, with their current partner, Cubicle 7, producing 5 or 6 games in their settings. And who knows if C7 knew about this new game? Let's leave that aside for the moment

What matters most, I think, is that this new ttrpg will include miniatures, and I think it's fair to say GW do the best miniatures.

So - are miniatures very important? Is this a Big Deal? From my perspective miniatures and ttrpgs are separate hobbies, but what do I know?

Hey folks, I've taken over development of the Masks module from the very talented philote (Joe | ephson), who has become too busy to support it. I'm a long-time user of this module and I've ironed out most of the kinks that I could find. The module is of course still free.

Here's all the stuff V2 has that V1 did not:

Rolling & move automation

• Conditions apply themselves. Each move knows which condition penalizes it — the roll dialog marks and locks that one and hides the rest, so nobody has to remember which condition hits which move or mis-applies one.
• "Take a Powerful Blow" and "Burn" count conditions correctly — these roll + conditions marked rather than taking the usual -2 each, and the dialog now does that automatically.
• The roll dialog is skipped when there's nothing to decide. It only appears when you actually have a choice to make — a Label to pick, forward/ongoing/hold to spend, or tokens to use.
• A "Mark Potential" button appears on the chat card whenever a miss tells you to mark Potential. One click, visible only to the character's owner and the GM, greyed out once Potential is full, and it disappears once used so it can't be double-clicked.
• Moves that fold several rolls into one now ask which you're making — "Connecting the Dots" and "All the Best Stuff" prompt for the roll you want instead of guessing.
• Moves that let you roll a basic move under your own Label now ask which one — "No Powers and Not Nearly Enough Training" and "Kirby-Craft" prompt, then show that basic move's results.
• Playbook-specific Labels are rollable. Moves that roll + a playbook's own Label (rather than one of the five core stats) now work directly, including playbooks whose Label is tracked as a grid of checkboxes rather than a single number.
• Label-swap prompt. Moves that grant it — currently the Soldier's "A Higher Calling" — offer to roll with that Label instead of the move's own, whenever it applies.

Team Pool Tracker

• A dedicated Team Pool sheet with plus/minus controls and the current total shown in the actor's name, so it's readable straight from the sidebar.
• Every player can spend from it, not just the GM — it's shared by default.
• A post-to-chat button to announce the current pool to the table.

Adding moves to a sheet

• Picker dialogs instead of blank moves. The "+" on Playbook Moves and Adult Moves now offers a list to choose from — moves from your own playbook, from another playbook, or the five core-book adult moves — instead of creating an empty move to fill in by hand.

Look & feel

• Dark mode is now per-player and applies instantly, instead of being a world-wide setting that needed a reload. Each player picks their own.
• Five dark palettes: Midnight Indigo (the new default), Noir Teal, Deep Navy, Graphite, and Auburn — the previous reddish look, still available.
• Five light palettes: Daylight (the existing look, still the default), Dusk, Verdant, Overcast, and Ink.
• Follows Foundry's own dark mode.
• Chat cards and the chat pane restyled in both light and dark — readable titles and subtitles, result links that wrap instead of overflowing, consistent move bullets and chips, and matching styling in the chat popout, notifications, and the new picker dialogs.

Languages

• French translation, based on the official 500 Nuances de Geek translation by Guy Blavin, with the publisher credit in the sidebar switching to 500 Nuances de Geek under French.
• Spanish and French cover all the new features above.
• Fixed condition automation silently not working outside English — it never fired in Spanish.

Content fixes

• The Nova playbook's Advancements list is fixed.
• Move text and roll setup corrected across the compendium — including moves that used to list their options twice on a chat card, once as text and again as clickable choices.
• Existing characters are updated automatically. These corrections reach moves already on a character sheet, so nothing has to be deleted and re-added by hand.

Compatibility

• Foundry v14 support (with PbtA v1.2.0+), and ready for v15's removals.
• Older combinations still supported: Foundry v13 with PbtA v1.1.23 and Masks v1.8.x; v12 with PbtA v1.1.15.2 and Masks v1.7.6; v11 with PbtA v0.9.7 and Masks v1.6.3.
• Fixed the custom login-screen background never actually applying.

The module can be found here, as before: https://foundryvtt.com/packages/masks-newgeneration-unofficial/

I've been thinking of running a darker, gritty superhero game recently, but I'm not sure which system to use. One of the big ideas that I want to incorporate is the idea that all powers have some serious "realistic" drawback. For example, a character with super strength will simple punch through a speeding car if he tries to stop it with his bare hands. Or I have an idea for a character who has super speed, but the energy required for using it for more than a few seconds at a time (and cognitively processing a sped-up world) can literally kill her from exhaustion. (As a story element, she has to eat at least 10,000 calories a day to survive a sped up metabolism.) Moreover, running into a building or tripping while going at super speed could easily kill her from the force of the impact. So I guess, my idea would be "You have superhuman powers, but if you're not careful with them, the powers can kill you or others!" Traditional superhero games like Mutants and Masterminds and Hero tend to create more "larger than life" heroes ,and power drawbacks are rarely directly harmful to the character or bystanders. Does anyone have any suggestions for a system that could emulate a variety of powers, but make them dangerous?

I want a noir fantasy rpg system, with elves, orcs, and all that classic medieval dnd fantasy like, but ambiented in a classic noir scenario, like carnival row

Rules similar to something like call of cthulhu but less brutal and more investigative

Is there something like that?

3 sessions into my first campaign as GM. I went in wanting a really detailed, lived-in world — big descriptions of buildings, fleshed-out NPCs, quests you find by talking to NPCs or piecing together overheard rumors. Basically the stuff I always wanted more of as a player.

The problem is my 5 players clearly just want to get moving. I could see eyes glazing over last session every time we hit a conversation-heavy scene. I do make them roll dice (perception, Sense Motive, etc.) so it still feels like a ttrpg, but I do not think that is working for them.

I don't want to ditch all the detail — I still want the world to feel full and reactive. I just don't want players to have to talk to every NPC to unlock what they can actually go do.

I am thinking about just dumping the useful stuff up front when they walk into a room, like:

"The family in the corner needs someone to clear goblins out of their house. The half-orc by the door is watching everyone but clearly doesn't want to talk to you. You overhear two rumors: X, Y."

Then if they want to dig deeper into any of it, that's on them, not required.

How do you keep the world detailed without forcing players through a bunch of RP just to find the next thing to do?

My favorite go-to RPGs are Pathfinder 2e and Starfinder 2e. I love the tactics and strategy and lore and well written adventures. It's great. But, PF2 and SF2 really lend themselves to prepping a pre-written adventure, or sitting down to write my own. They tend to require maps and planning encounters and picking out loot. I love it, but it's work.

What I'm really itching to do is stretch my improv muscles. I used to do improv comedy shows, and I miss that fun and spontaneity. I want to find something that is low prep, or even better, zero prep. My dream is to be able to spin together adventures on the fly. Action! Suspense! Danger! All off the top of my head, inventing as we go. I'm also quite a fan of heists; I've rewatched Leverage more times than I can justify. I also don't want the system to be too light; I still like mechanical crunch, and I want my players to have interesting choices for their characters.

Given my love for heist stories, I've been considering Blades in the Dark or Scum and Villainy. Is Band of Blades any fun? Another possible avenue I was considering is Outgunned - it seems designed for high action impromptu games. I've also been following the design of Dungeon World 2; would something like that or its predecessor scratch my itch for a low/zero-prep action adventure game?

I'm wondering if folk have any other suggestions or ideas. I do understand that "help me figure out what I want" is an inherently broad question, I'll try to answer questions and comments as often as I can.

edit: Luckily I already own Blades in the Dark, Scum and Villainy, and Outgunned. It sounds like those are well recommended. I'll keep my eyes out for a good deal on Spire and/or Heart. I'm curious about the official Leverage RPG, but I'll see how well Blades does for that style first.