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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.

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I often hear the phrase 'all style no substance' in reference to Mörk Borg, but rarely is the point elaborated on, hence I'm interested in knowing what 'substance' would those who feel it lacks it want added to the game to make it feel 'substantial'?

Does anyone have any recent experiences and musings regarding Eat the Reich that they would like to share? I've read the main book, the incomplete SRD, and Havoc Brigade.

As an aside; I decided to adapt the engine to a shonen battle anime adjacent setting and was wondering what sorts of weaknesses that folks have identified with the system and possible ways to fix them? Perhaps ideas that could be applied to EtR as well. Or, even best practices to really make the game sing?

I just watched Mystery Quest's actual play of it; I feel like the players didn't fully take advantage of the freedom to describe the carnage. The GM states in a post-game video that he feels like he didn't get to do much as the GM but I feel like he could have harnessed description and threatened the players more.

a. Focus on Newbies and new group. Do not try to convert anyone who is used to 5E to anything else beyond one time writing them: "Hey I am 100% stopping 5E. I will be running XYZ from now on, if you are not interested in that, no worries! But if you are really keen, would love to have you play, let me know please."

Newbies do not have pre-conceived notions of how TTRPG or even "D&D" ""should"" be and have not invested dozens of hours in learning and playing 5E nor possibly spent money on books etc. Especially if you pitch it as "I only run 'Classic D&D', which is way closer to how the 2 creators played it, the books are free or far cheaper, it has modern rules too and it is way less pages, rules and easier to learn than 5E", you likely will get people into it!

b. Westmarches. Westmarches. WESTMARCHES! The BBEG that wrecks most groups is planning, doodling, life-changes, adulting, people quitting (for a 1000 reasons, game system is just one of many) and cancellations.

A pool of at least 8, but better 12, players prevents almost all these problems. It is also means that if 1 or 2 people say "Well, I tried non Hasbro rules/system A and G with you but they are not for me, going to quit and find a 5E group instead", you are not starting over from scratch, you can just keep playing.

c. The recruitment never ends! I have a few posts on Reddit with very clear info about how and what we play (and just as importantly what we do not) on the subreddit of the city where I live. I repost it every 6 months, at least. Because I found out in practice that many people who will join your group,.. do not use the search function, or assume that an old post no longer has relevance. Reddit has worked out amazingly for me, but any and even many avenues, from a flyer at game store to any soc media or messaging apps, or asking people at work, can be great way to find players.

d. To detail how doing all the above worked out for me: been doing it for at least 10 years. In Berlin (big city) I ended up playing with 40 ish people total (at least once) of those, 15 became a hardcore Westmarches group that plays often, until today and which spawned 3 more DMs and campaigns at least and added another 6 players after I left the city. When I am in town, we still play! A few of those people became very friendly acquaintances and I do other nice stuff -besides D&D- with sometimes.

Currently, in Valencia, not a truly big city (800k people) I have had a group that had a total of 25 people, of those 11 remain and also 2 are DMs with own campaigns and w play with some regularity. Always with 5 players and the DM, but having 11 active players in the Westmarches pool, means vacation, illness, adulting, jobs, kids etc means sessions are never cancelled due to lack of players.

We have played: Basic Fantasy RPG, White Box, MOTHERSHIP, Pirate Börg, Mork Börg and a few more. For some years now we have primarily settled on Shadowdark, but all the players would not play 5E for a million bux, they know too much, they love non-Hasbro stuff too much.

I am not saying the above is easy or doesn't take time, but it is very doable. And the sooner you start and the more clear you are about what you do and do not want, the more likely that you will have a blast playing exactly what makes you happy with like-minded people and will avoid DM burnout or even quitting wholesale for months or even years.

So, I'm. hosting a D&D style ttrpg game for me and my friends to kill time at school, and we got pretty deep into our (I'd say) sixth session? And my friends walked into a rift in a town and ended up in a limbo type world, and it was knee deep in some weird fog. And my friend immediately after I said the fog enveloped her; told everyone at the table that something grabbed her leg and is actively pulling her away. But I didn't put ANYTHING in that fog. And after they bested the Mother Mimic that was taking the shape of the church, she suddenly revealed that the Mother Mimic was her biological mother and started "Grieving" by doing nothing to help the team during encounters. How do I tell her to knock it off politely? It's jumbling up the stories and lore I have planned even tho I mentioned derailing too hard without informing the GM (me) was bad during our session zero she just doesn't seem to remember. that or she doesn't care.

I'm looking for a Sci-fi rpg that is designed for exploration and longer campaigns. I'm thinking of something that would allow progression with power, while also focusing on adventure.

For reference, I want to run a space western eventually, and would like a system I can fit into that mold rather than make my own. (I am also okay with tweaking it if needed)

Now, this needs a preface.

I am not a 5e-fan here to be like "hyuk, tried to swing at the king, huh?"

Nor is this a "is 5e dead yet" post.

Like, here is what I already know: 5e is still the biggest game in town, but primarily 2014 and not 2024 edition. The other games came out and have fanbases, but they are smaller and mostly congregate on discord. So, the games SEEM deader than they are because the communities are mostly posting in places where you have to be fans to see. Like, for example, I am a fan of Fabula Ultima (which is not a 5e-killer, I know, it's to make a point) but you wouldn't know how popular it is if you weren't on their official discord already and see all the activity there.

What this thread is about is what games came out, what didn't, and how are they doing?

Here is what I know exists:

1 -Tales of the Valiant: Made by Kobold Games, who did a bunch of 5e adventures. Probably the closest to a Pathfinder 1e for 5e since it appears to almost be a 1-for-1 copy.

2 - Daggerheart: Made by Critical Role, this game is actually nothing really like 5e and borrows a lot from Blades In the Dark, PBtA, and other indie games.

3 - Draw Steel: Made by Matt Coleville, it's more 4e than 5e. Since 4e was originally a reaction to issues in the combat system in 3.5 and 5e is based heavily on 3.5, it basically is history repeating itself from what I've heard with a game incorporating those elements to address the same issues that 5e imported when it used 3.5e as a base.

That's all I know about as a directly post-OGL crisis 5e killer. Not sure if there were more announced than never came out. Not sure how the general audiences are feeling. Not sure if more current/former 5e 3pp are deciding to go out and make their own games, even now, to escape the WotC bubble. Of course, if we use that definition, you get into weird grounds and have to ask yourself if Vagabond or Journeymon counts or not, since they're both developed by former 5e 3pp devs.

Hey everyone,

A couple days ago, I hit a small RPG jackpot at a local thrift store. I have friends who play DnD and adjacent, so I bought the set for the gang.

You can see much of the collection here: https://imgur.com/a/UK5veYX

When I got home, I noticed that all of these books were signed by Gary Gygax. I showed one of my RPG friends and he thinks this is pretty special!

I’m really curious about this! What do you think is the deal here? Were they sold like this (i.e., autographed) through some website, or is it more likely that some collector took them to a Con to get signed?

Most likely I’m just gonna give these away to my pals, but I’d also love to know what a collection like this could be worth to collectors. There’s a certain point where it might not make sense to give them away.

Thank you!

I have lived through some pretty bad shit.

I am a survivor of CSA. The trauma of that was worsened by Section 28 (the UK's anti-LGBT+ laws in the 90s) that created a culture of silence that made talking about what happned much harder through most of my life. Add to that a whole range of struggles to long to list.

RPG play, reading and design were a tool I used to survive in the face of these things. No matter how bad things got, the prospect of the next game helped. Writing notes for a Call of Cthulhu scenario helped, reading a WoD splat book helped.

It has never been something I have used to pretend these problems do not exist; it was not escapism. It was merely rest bite. A few moments

In the current moment...it isn't helping any more. This feels pointless, and "unreal" in a way it never has before. Like an indulgence.

How do I get this back, so I can recharge, and keep going, doing practical things to try to make the moment we are living in suck less?

I saw quite a few references to Paper Buttons in a draw steel thread and i saw it very much as a 'people want to be able to hit a button and skip challenges' thing, but I feel there might be more to this topic?

I'd like to ask what thoughts or definitions you have surrounding Paper Buttons or experiences (good or bad) you might have!

I feel I've been out of the design loop since like, 2021 trpg twitter so I'd like to get some insights!

I sometimes hear about this approach, particularly in OSR-adjacent circles where that seems to be a much more standard modus operandi, the idea of taking some parts of one game (or several, even) with the intent of hooking them up to another, possibly wildly unrelated game.

(The most common example I'm aware of broadly is the generators in Kevin Crawford's Without Number series and other games of his. GURPS and its meticulous detail on any given topic is another.)

It sounds fascinating to me, but the games I play tend to be a bit too tightly integrated with their own parts to really allow that kind of Lego-like modularity, so I kinda wanna know what this experience is like for you Frankensteins of the TTRPG world, particularly in terms of how much 'smoothing over' it requires to make things not feel like they've obviously been stitched together from disparate sources, as that's been a personal hangup of mine in that regard.