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

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

Hi everyone!

I’m a TRPG designer from Thailand currently working on a horror tabletop RPG, Victim TRPG.

The core scenario I’m developing right now features a monster that most Western players would recognize — something classic like the Wendigo or a shapeshifting entity from Western myths.

However, since I’m from Thailand (where TRPGs are still quite new but growing fast), I really want to introduce some of our local folklore and spirits — stories about cursed rituals, haunted dolls, and spiritual possession that are quite different from Western horror.

My question is:

➤ Would international TRPG players be interested in playing horror inspired by Southeast Asian or Thai mythology**?**

Or do you think it’s better to stick with monsters people already know (like vampires, ghosts, or demons) to keep it more accessible?

I’d love to hear honest thoughts from players, GMs, and designers — would you be open to exploring new types of horror rooted in another culture?

Thanks a lot for reading! 🙏

Been working on a horror RPG for the past couple of years on and off. The two core books are split into Player-facing and GM-facing materials (about 200-250 pages each) in 6x9 format.

(Initially, they were intended to be softbacks, but due to the page count, I'm now considering hardbacks.)

I cannot decide conclusively whether to combine them or keep them as two separate books - I really need some feedback from this community!

If two hardcover core books cost the exact same price as a larger combined book, which would you prefer:

Split Player and GM facing books or one combined book?

Keen to hear all your thoughts regarding this!

Disclaimer: I run a TTRPG YouTube channel, but its very small and I make less than minimum wage on it. Also because I really like a particular game system I tend to cover that more and that's led to me talking with the game owners and getting sponsorships or .

Thesis

Part of a slight rant, I feel as though as a GM my main job in a lot of cases is convincing people to try games that they've never tried before. I tend to call this being a "TTRPG Advocate", but a lot of the time it feels like I'm acting as a Salesmen.

When We Were Young

I don't run the same group all the time. When I was in college I played with a consistent group as part of the college's game club (unofficially since it started after the club ended). Funny thing is that I was able to play a lot of games that weren't D&D. Mainly the Red Dwarf RPG (First RPG I got but never played up until that point) and Spycraft 2.0 which my new friends loved (based off of the D&D 3.5e OGL I think).

We'd start playing on the second floor of the cafeteria and sometimes people would hear us laughing and having fun. Then start asking questions and sometimes join in. (Most of the times it was "Oh sorry to bother you")

It wasn't until around 2012 ish that I started hitting a roadblock when it came to running games. D&D was just getting its 5th edition. And that was the only game people at my stores or in my local area seemed to play consistently. I was wrapped up in a 6 year long D&D campaign at that point and it wasn't until around 2018 that I was able to introduce my D&D players to other game systems.

Confession

I hate Fantasy. I had a lot of issues trying to get into D&D and a lot of it was (at the time) what felt like gatekeepy fantasy DMs. Stuff like "Your D&D character wouldn't do that because they are this Class and Race." Or talking about Forgotten Realms lore as if it was the only lore in D&D. It wasn't until I was introduced to Dark Sun that I actually started liking D&D because I suddenly didn't have to worry about the lore of the Wood Elves, Drow, Halfings, Dragonborn, etc...

Introducing non-D&D games

It started with Call of Cthulhu during Halloween. "Hey did you all hear about this creepy game that is a lot more dangerous than D&D, that lets you investigate eldritch horrors? Lets set it during the 1920s and have fun!" Of the 5 players that said they'd join only 2 showed up so we sped through the 7e quickstart's The Haunting. Afterwards the 2 players told the other 3 what they missed out on and next year I got all 5 of them to join for round two.

Don't get me started with Demon the Descent though. I was told by some coworkers that if I like The Matrix I should try out Demon the Descent and I immediately fell in love with it. So much that I put out homebrew material on reddit before even playing the game that people seemed to like. But because it had the name "Demon" in the title I had to peel away at Christian stigma, even though the game was about biomechanical creatures that were the fallen servants of a malevolent being known as the God-Machine and not Judeo-Christian demons like in Demon the Fallen.

Eventually I got there, but the group fell apart and I started running Changeling the Lost with a new group. My sister and a friend from High school reached out to me during COVID and we had fun playing that for a year or two before scheduling conflicts destroyed that group.

At the same time, I started recruiting directly from the source and started a West Marches/Open City style game of Chronicles of Darkness with cross gameline play. Mages, Werewolves, Vampires, Mummies, Demons, etc... It was a lot of fun. We had 3+ GMs all running simultaneous games within the same city. Sadly it fell apart, but for the time it was my favorite game I was running. It was easier to recruit for because most people played prior or were lurkers on a few Discord groups I was in.

New Game Who Dis?

At this moment I've been running mostly Curseborne, but as a new game I'm constantly trying to get people to try it out. I ran a few games when the Ashcan (i.e. demo version) came out. I started running more when the Manuscript copy (i.e. playtest/rough draft version came out).

Specifically about introducing people to new games, when its an established property its easier to get people to be interested in joining a group, but a brand new IP there is a lot of hesitation. It doesn't seem to matter if the people behind the game are veterans of TTRPGs who worked on popular titles before. Often times I am doing a lot of heavy lifting to get people interested, especially if its for anything longer than a one-shot.

I have friends who know me as a GM and like my style. I have friends who share similar fandoms and genre likes. Even then trying to get them to play in my next game in a genre they like feels like I'm a salesman, *slap my hand on the book* "This right here, if ya treat it well, will be with ya for the rest of your life!" (Firefly reference).

Being a TTRPG Advocate

Its tough advocating for TTRPGs. Even when I put out recommendations it feels like people look at me like I'm trying to sell "Encyclopedias" door to door. (Dated reference I know).

Whenever I come across a post hear asking for Urban Fantasy, Scifi, Comic Book, Modern Action, or just non-D&D RPGs I try my best to share my knowledge base in good faith (As I assume all of you do).

To feel like I'm recommending stuff in good faith I often feel like I need to meet this criteria:

• Have played or run the system before. If not, at least know if its popular in the genre the person is looking for.
• Can explain simply the concept/hook.
• Can explain a trick that people use to make the play experience better if needed. (e.g. for Call of Cthulhu I don't use monster stat blocks and instead have players roll Dodge for damage instead)
• Can connect the recommendation to the original ask of the post. (e.g. recommending a game that feels like a JRPG I'd point to At the Gates because the game is inspired by Chrono Trigger and gave me the same brain tingles as playing that game)

Backlash

This is where I want to describe how some people respond to recommendations or comparisons. Even now I can point to my history up above and show my own bias. Note: I've mentioned the names of several TTRPGs so far. And while my preferred games are my history and I can't change that I do get people who get frustrated when I recommend games from time to time.

"Red Dwarf? Oh you are a fan boy." "Oh Spycraft? Why not just play D&D with a modern day homebrew." "Chronicles of Darkness/Curseborne/At the Gates? Why are only recommending Onyx Path Games at this point."

To that last one, I think its the same reason why people constantly recommend D&D with hombrewing instead of games like Cyberpunk or Star Wars. I am familiar with d10 dicepools. I have loved them since I started with Demon the Descent, and even now I'm playing Curseborne and At the Gates because I'm familiar with the underlining system.

I even started making YouTube videos about games I like and reached out to Onyx Path to do media on their Twitch channel. I make next to no money doing that, but its something I like to do as part of my hobby. If I wanted to make money I'd be covering D&D (Which my wife keeps pushing me to do since I monetized parts of my hobby).

Fear

Ask me about any of the games I love and I'll talk about them for hours. But I am afraid to go to local stores. I used to complain about being too far away from stores in my area, but now I'm within a reasonable drive to one and I don't want to go. Mainly because I don't want to play D&D and I'm afraid that advocating for a TTRPG I like is going to look like I'm being a Salesman.

Final Thought:

How do you all feel when trying to advocate for a TTRPG that's not as popular as D&D?

Any advice on trying to introduce a new game to a group of total strangers at a new game store? I want to make IRL friends in my area as opposed to being perpetually online. 😅

I'll start: I love the setting of Cyberpunk Red and the interlock system, but I just wish combat was faster and deadlier. I'd drastically lower SPs before you have penalties applied.

I keep hearing lots about how good it is and am contemplating getting it.

Why is it worth the money?

So at GenCon this summer, I was lucky enough to run SCIRE, the CBR+PNK Megagame, for Mythworks! It takes place during the Day Zero lockdown of the arcology known as the Self Contained Industrial Residential Environment (SCIRE), where a mysterious Event has changed its residents and the world forever...

I coordinated the team of GMs for the 30+ players (including three cosplaying VIP characters!), as well as the global events and mechanics which slowly unlocked over the game’s four-hour runtime.

It was nuts! And we’re about to do it again at Pax Unplugged but even bigger.

Here are some of my takeaways from our run at GenCon:

• Designing for Emergent Gameplay is Key

I have a fair amount of experience running more traditional megagames. They tend to be preloaded with plot and answers. Emergent elements are inevitable when you have an ecosystem with that sheer number of possible inflection points. SCIRE’s core experience is a narrative TTRPG, so I wanted to lean into the philosophical strengths, not work against them. Players had ownership over their story and mechanical innovations, so that becomes what the game is about, big and small.

• Picking and Choosing Timed Events

Part of the design conceit is that the GMs are locked down into their in-fiction Districts to maintain the RP verisimilitude. Eventually, however, the players are able to unlock the ability to travel between areas to explore, investigate, or enact their plans. It’s also common for megagames to have big, timed game turns ~about 45 minutes in length. We didn’t do that. The question is always how to balance the structure with its chaos.

• Know When to Bring It Home

You need to trust players and trust the process. And it all works when the players individually care about their personally-defined goals. So the pacing of beginning, middle, and end is extremely important to focus on, even with everything else going on at once. And while there isn’t a Big Giant Game Clock™ visible to players, I AM watching the time. Elements are getting introduced on a schedule or being adjusted as we go.

• Leave Time for the Debrief

I’ve had experiences with past megagames where the showrunners make it all about themselves. So I’m reluctant to jump on the mic too much to tell players what the game is or means, especially at the end while everyone is still reeling from the magnitude of it all. Instead, I think it’s important for the players to have time to debrief, decompress, and, if they’re up for it, tell their story to everyone else who participated in the game.

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And we’re expanding SCIRE to 60 players for PAX Unplugged! We still have some tickets available which you can check out here.

If you’re coming to Pax Unplugged or thinking about going, it’s a great “bigger” con IMO because the emphasis is more about putting on events and playing games. Here’s the link: https://unplugged.paxsite.com

We hope to see you there!!

I am looking for a game that balances combat and roleplaying. Like I game that is not just fight after fight, but it is not just a drama about your career. I am looking for things like

• A for section of fighting moves
• It is not just about impressing the audience, but does have roleplaying aspects.
• They have character creation.

I have been inspired by the fantastic Mystery Quest channel to get into TTRPG’s, and I will be GM’ing a game this weekend hopefully! I am wondering what game I should start with, I’m really attached to Call of Cthulhu as it’s what’s most commonly played on that channel and I feel I know it best, but neither myself nor my friends know all that much about Cthulhu lore (I definitely know more than most and more than them, but still only cursory knowledge).

Should I run Call of Cthulhu as a first game? What tips/tricks should I follow? And finally, if there are other games I can run, what are they? I’d prefer to use something relatively rules light, as the idea of very long combat scares me when trying to introduce my group to the idea of ttrpgs.

Thanks for any help!

EDIT: I should also mention that this would be my first time ever playing a TTRPG as well, so it’d be my first time managing a game.

What are the best and shiniest new TTRPGs you all have been playing lately? I'm curious to see what is out there and what the current favorites are! I'm still newer to how much variety there is and just would love options. Mechanics that flow together would be ideal as it makes my brain happy when they all interact, but it's not a requirement just an ask.

Looking for recommendation for modern action games where you can play as a top tier agent, bit still realistically be injured as any other himan, meaning stealth and trickery is the preferred game style... in other words, I'm looking for a game to simulate the Metal Gear Solid games.

I'm familiar with F.I.S.T, but I'm looking for a game with a bit of crunch where you can really feel like you're taking advantage of the different systems to shift the scale in your favor and pull off these tense operations, rather than have a very loose and narrative game about super spies.

Looking forward to hearing your recommendations (including the GURPS ones)!