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This submission is generated automatically each Saturday at 00:00 UTC.

I started playing some time last year, and around the same time, I started watching DnD youtube to learn about the game, understand styles of play, and get helpful tips and ideas on how to run interesting campaigns.

In the beginning it was incredible! Hours or content talking about how to play creatively. But now, seems like most of the top DnDtubers are only making doom-and-gloom clickbait like "This is why DnD sucks", "Is this DnD killer?" or "This is the death of DnD", "DnD combat is broken and useless and trash", etc.
They're not always just clickbait. Every time something happens with DnD, it's all the same YouTubers parroting the same 3 sentiments to each other.

I dislike Hasbro as much as the next guy, but I got in a few months ago. It seems like in an attempt at grabbing clicks, the same DnDtubers have made my feed so disappointing and negative.

I get that there are other games out there, and I am sure there are better games, games crafted with more love, care, and attention. But I am just starting out, and this is the game I know how to play. Eventually, I will want to learn other systems. But until then, I'd just like to enjoy some DnD content until I am playing the game.

When I pick up something else, I'm sure I'd love to watch their takes on those games later.

But until then, I would just appreciate them not ruining the fun by making every change from Hasbro into an RPG apocalypse.

Barring a few small creators, I have decided to stop watching all other DnD content.

Sorry for the rant, thanks for indulging me.

The system caught my eye recently. I know my players well enough to know that they would absolutely love the wild stuff you can do just by rolling on the tables, so I know one or two sessions would definitely go over well. But I'm curious...

I gave the core rules a read and also read two adventures. I also often hear DCC describes as OSR, but that's really not the impression I got. The adventures were all in all pretty linear and the leveling is done mainly by fighting monsters. Which is cool because the rules actually look like they support combat more than B/X or Into the Odd, which I've used for dungeon crawl style games up to now.

But I'm not sure what would motivate the players to even explore bigger dungeons, rules wise. You don't get XP for loot as far as I can tell, nor for circumventing problems entirely. It really looks like a monster bash game first and foremost, where straight gauntlets of challenges serve the game much better.

It does look like a tuned up 3.5 more than a B/X thing. So I'm curious what playing/running the game for you guys is or was like. What's the stuff you think about when you play and what motivates your players to do stuff in the world?

And do you have any adventures you would recommend for first timers?

There's a good looking bundle up on Humble Bundle right now, but I've never played this system. I know it's 2d20, but beyond that I've found very little system info. What has been your experience?

Almost every time I read a post by a GM over on horror stories, somewhere in the middle of the post is how tied into major plot points the problem player character's background is. I often see mention that this is the case for every character.

I'm curious how much GMs do this, and like doing this? And how much players expect their character backgrounds to be tied to the plot.

In 20 odd years of gaming, half and half as a player and gm, this is not my experience. I enjoy reading and writing a background. Mine often go longer than expected, maybe a page and a half, so I usually stick in a tldr. But for me, the background is to inform me and the GM of the personality of the character. If it's tied into the story at all, cool, but I don't expect it.

As a GM, I ran a scifi game and managed to sub in someone's old disappeared mentor for a different NPC who passed on info. Nice few minutes roleplay and a new contact, but little beyond. I've never had a player ask for more.

I wonder if it's the rise of the high production value actual play that's influencing this. Often professional actors, with some prewritten scenes, very cool, but a lot of work for your weekly game.

I’ve got to go with either Dave Trampier (1e AD&D Player’s Handbook cover) or GB McIntosh. She did the cover for the original Rolemaster Spell Law box set, as well as covers for various Iron Crown middle earth adventures. I’d love to post a picture of the Spell Law art, but you will just have to imagine it 😁

Hi all! Sharing some of the Google Sheets spreadsheets I've set up for some of the games I've played in the past year:

Wildsea

Wildsea combined party trackers, affinities, inventory, character sheets, and ship sheet

I manage the trackers for the whole group (3 players) so I put everything in this one spreadsheet and it's been really helpful since our paper sheets got cramped and messy really fast. One note regarding tracks—the way I mark a track is to just check a box, and to indicate a burn, I set the checkbox color to red. Not as natural as the "slash / x" method with paper and pencil but it's been fine.

Eat the Reich

EtR Character Sheets (all 6 pre-gens plus a blank)

EtR Game Progress Tracker

The idea of the Tracker is that each row or group of rows is one of the locations and allows you to track the changing Objective Rating as well as Threats. When PCs go to a new location, I fill the tracks with checkboxes, and as Objectives/Threats are reduced, I uncheck boxes.

Duster

One of my new favorite indies. This is a pretty straightforward character sheet.

Duster Character Sheet

Hope this is helpful for anyone, let me know if you have any questions!!

This week's RPG is Shadowdark!

Have you played it? Have you run/GM'd it? How did it go?

What's your favourite memory from the game?

What's the best thing about the game?

What's the worst? How would you improve it?

How does it compare to other OSR games? *Is* it OSR?

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Last week was Pendragon. Join us again next week for The One Ring!

I always like playing characters who are tied to the divine in some way, priests who run churches, clerics running around healing folks with divine magic, that kind of thing. In your opinion, what games have the coolest or most fun options for playing those kinds of characters? What are your favorites?

Hi everyone,

A while ago I read an article about roleplaying in RPGs. The main idea was that no matter what race you play (elves, dwarves, etc.), you're still basically portraying a human.

The argument was that we can only interpret characters through a human lens.

Does anyone recognize this or know where I can find it?

Thanks!

Mountain Resonance is live! The game is completely free, including three one-shots with pregenerated characters set in a world struggling with colonialism.

It is a 1930 alpine survival horror RPG based on the Panic Engine that you likely know from Mothership.

I worked on it for almost two years and collaborated with/paid amazing people to help me make this real. I'm releasing it for free because I believe in low barriers to games and because my life is richer through the games we share. I really hope it brings you joy!

https://licet-bovi.itch.io/mountain-resonance

itch.io link

On itch, there's also a link to my blog Mountain Missive about the game's design that leads to a discord server if you want to discuss the game, as well as a link to the Kickstarter sign-up page because I'll do a print run of an extended version if there's enough interest/sign-ups.