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It was such a blast to contribute to [The BLUE Files](https://evilhat.itch.io/blades-68-blue-files), and while I eagerly awaited the PDF's public release, I passed the time putting together [the latest](https://injectorseat.wordpress.com/2026/11/05/piecing-together-the-shattered-isles-part-7-the-blue-files/) in my BitD lore blog series about its contents here. I hope folks enjoy the book and the post both! Dozens of incredibly talented people left their fingerprints on it and made something great.

This book has it all: a Demon playbook, a new Crew type and playset for playing out an underdog sports drama across the entire city, militant sex workers, Daggerite revolutionaries, television programs (by me!), movies, music, rocket launches, psychic spies... everything good about B68, The BLUE Files adds more.

I missed the Kickstarter or Backerkit, or whatever-- I wasn't in a good financial position when the crowdfunding was going on. I decided I'd wait for physical books to come out, and ... nothing. I haven't heard very much about it on Reddit, as if it barely existed. So what's going on with it? Did the physical books already come out, or are they stuck in development limbo? They're not even listed on Gallant Knight Games' website, for whatever reason.

I've been going through some GM burnout and while the easiest answer would be to be a player (or god forbid, take a break), I wonder what your easiest rpgs to GM are.

I'm hoping to not have to write a complete adventure or have to read through 100s of pages of pre-written adventures (i hate dnd 5e adventures for this very reason. its easier for me write something myself)

As a recent example, creating my mythic bastionland campaign map was very relieving for my burnout as it was extremely guided.

I think that "JRPG" as an intended genre for a system sounds silly. For example, if someone were to say, "I want a tabletop system based on HoYoverse gacha games," that would rightfully be met with "That is too broad. Narrow down it down to Honkai Impact 3rd, Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, or Zenless Zone Zero first." But people seem to think that there can be such a thing as a "JRPG"-themed tabletop system, where "JRPG" here actually means "half-remembered ideas from turn-based Final Fantasy games played over a decade and a half ago, and the art is anime-ish."

I think that Fabula Ultima, for example, is okay-ish after having played it several times, but the whole "JRPG" theming does not hold much water to me. I must be an outlier, because my primary JRPG exposure is actually Tales, which is action.

A while back, I had a look at Last Arc: Tactics Analogue. It is a hodgepodge of D&D 3.5, Pathfinder 1e, Saga Edition, and D&D 4e. I thought that the rules were decent enough, and I would happily play them. I did, however, find it strange that the author was repeatedly marketing the game as having "JRPG mechanics."

Well, it is out on full on DriveThruRPG, now. The game seems to be selling well. It is still aggressively marketing itself as a "JRPG" system with "JRPG mechanics." Again, I have no problem with the actual mechanics, but it really strikes me as odd that we are repackaging d20 systems from the 2000s as "JRPG" just by attaching vaguely anime-inspired artwork.

I am saying this as someone who runs virtually all of their campaigns with anime-aesthetic art and heavy "You actually do get strong enough to fight gods and change the world" theming, whether it is in 13th Age 2e's Dragon Empire, D&D 4e Eberron, Mage: The Awakening, or something else entirely.

What do you think?

Ever since I've started GMing I've avoided running pre made stuff and I'm not 100% sure why. I think its because deep down in my forever gm heart I want to play in a game before exposing myself to all the content of a pre made adventure. But sometimes its easy to get burnt out having to constantly make stuff on the fly. Do you guys do this too and how did you deal with it?

I'm reading through both versions and thinking through the way gameplay reinforces the themes, as that seems to be what many love DitV for.

During a Conflict, the dice pools once rolled become public information. To borrow the poker analogy used by both games, you're playing with all your cards down on the table. You know who still has an ace up their sleeve and who is sitting on a two and a prayer. In effect, each character is completely aware of how much wherewithal everyone else has left to continue the encounter, and can probably make very well-educated guesses about when NPCs will choose to Escalate.

What does this information openness model in a thematic/characterful sense? Does it reflect something about how the characters are approaching the situation? Does every Dog have impeccable situational intuition for a thematic reason? Is it simply a gameplay convenience to prevent anyone from cheating their roll results?

I assume the game would be worse if the dice pools were secret (otherwise it would be designed that way), but I can't reason out why just from reading the systems.

I'm **not** saying this decision is good or bad. I'm just trying to understand the design intention.

Game: GURPS

World: Homebrew

Genre: High Fantasy

So my problem is that I have the cultures of my world fairly locked in and I want to create gods and explore the cultures more through the lense they put on their shared gods.

But before creating the shadows of the gods as it were I still need to create the gods that cast those shadows (the gods are real)

So I need a template/seed for a believable pantheon or at least something like these are the core domains you need to hit for it to be believable.

I looked on youtube for videos on this, thinking there should be a great wealth of knowledge but I keep finding things that:

Call out dnd gods as stupid

Call out anthropomorphic gods as stupid

Are ok is general presentations on monotheism/politheism but not helpful to write your own

Call out general tropes that I know to avoid in the first place

Are uber specific showcases of the author making gods that don't teach you how to make your own

I haven't been able to find a sort of Hello World base to adopt for my own needs.

For quite some time, I've been thinking about buying an e-reader to read "regular" books. I thought I could also use it during my TTRPG sessions, since e-readers are lighter and smaller than regular RPG manuals.
Do you use e-readers or tablets during your sessions, or just for reading TTRPG books? If so, do you have any recommendations, or would you advise me to just get a regular tablet?

For me it's got to be:

• Red Dwarf the Roleplaying Game - Yes, based off of the Scifi Britcom of the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, and 2020s. Out of print obviously. It plays a bit like Paranoia + Call of Cthulhu. The players need to maintain their Cool against monsters' Fear Factor.
• Men in Black: The Roleplaying Game - A guilty pleasure of mine, I think it uses the old West End d6 system. It was really fun and great for a one shot I ran where the players had to deal with a 4 armed gorilla alien trying to blow up the Bronx Botanical Garden where a bunch of plant like alien ambassadors reside.

As the title says. There was a very specific setting, a fictional country modeled after North America and which was somehow isolated from the rest of the world, definitely something paranormal was going on, and probably under an authoritarian regime. The setting gave dieselpunk/decopunk/atompunk vibes, or was at the very least mid 20th century in tone. The cover of the game featured an analog clock or something very similar. I'm going crazy trying to find info about that one, so help would be much appreciated.

I recently ran Old Gods of Appalachia for the first time, playing "The Luthier's Folly" from the core rulebook. Below are my take-aways and thoughts about the game for anyone curious or considering running it themselves. I have not listened to the podcast.

The best thing about this game is the setting. The wonderfully creepy and colorful world of this alternative Appalachia is just dripping with flavor. The book does a fantastic job of bringing this world to life with some of my favorite art work from a TTRPG, detailed descriptions of locales and people, and even a poster-size map that comes with the game. It's a version of Appalachia where every dark wood, holler, and church could be haunted by some of the scariest horrors you can't wait to meet. Through detailed investigation, exploration of unique locations (the noir-Appalachian city of Paradise is 10/10 cool), and utilization of weird folk magic, the game promises a tense and creepy horror investigation experience.

Unfortunately, I found that the Cypher system betrays that promise. Regardless of the "bloat" that is often the main criticism of this game (with which I agree), the mechanics of the Cypher system and powerful character abilities undercut the horror. Why should I be afraid of the things that go bump in the night when I have a weird little trinket (Cypher) that will tip the scales significantly in my favor every time? Even once I've exhausted its one-time use, the GM has been instructed to give me a new one soon, since that's the core underlying premise of the Cypher system. Horror, at least the form promised by the setting, depends on the PCs encountering adversaries and situations so deeply out of their small-town comfort zone that peeing your pants and running is as legitimate an approach as fighting the horror. In Old Gods of Appalachia, however, PCs feel like Dungeons & Dragons characters that inexplicably wandered into Appalachia to rid the mountains of their horrors. The result is a version of Appalachia that feels more mystical than scary, which is not what I wanted and not what the setting promises.

In addition to breaking the horror, the Cypher system also introduces a difficult challenge for the players: reconciling PC abilities with the setting. Putatively, the PCs live in a version of 1920s Appalachia that, on its surface, is mostly indistinguishable from the real world. Sure, there's a fictional location or organization here or there, but the world and general population look more-or-less how you would expect to have experienced them 100 years ago. That's what makes the horror of the game so appealing: in the dark recesses of this otherwise recognizable place lurk creatures that scoop up West Virginians in the night like boiled peanuts from an Appalachian gas station. How, then, do the GM and players explain the magic and seemingly unlimited supply of Cyphers sprinkled around the world? And how do they come equipped with a intuitive understanding of how to use said Cyphers? We might understand how a recluse that practices witchcraft deep in the woods could understand this magic. But what about our lawyer, our police man, or our school teacher? How have they arrived at their intuitive understanding and use of magic that isn't supposed to exist? While I managed to suspend my disbelief for a one-shot of this game, its not something I would want to maintain for more than a single session. Which is a shame, because this setting would really shine in a campaign.

All-in-all, while Old Gods of Appalachia introduces us to one of my favorite settings in the horror TTRPG genre, the Cypher system betrays it immediately. The result is a confusing experience that favors mysticism over horror and PC heroism over helplessness, opposites of the experience I expected and hoped for. If my group and I ever wanted to experience the horror of this deeply flavorful Appalachia setting again, they would probably be doing so with Call of Cthulhu characters.