**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.

**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.

----------

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

I'm aware a lot of people don't like video games in their TTRPGs around here. If that's you, this post isn't for you.

I'm also aware that TTRPGs lack a lot of the limits video games have, but I don't see why we can't have it both ways.

I'm looking to compile a list of TTRPGs that emulate a style of video game in terms of the feel of that kind of game. I'm not looking for games that are set in the world of a video game but don't emulate its feel. I'm moreso looking for those that mimic the gameplay loop and feel of a video game genre, specific game, or specific game series.

This could be the feel of sneaking around in dishonored, the fast paced skill expression of a boomer shooter and the lack of explicit storytelling, the challenge and skill expression of a souls-like, the tactical combat and party interactions of a CRPG, etc. It's also worth noting that for a game to fit, it should probably check multiple boxes of a given kind of game, not just one.

Of course, we don't neccesarily want the limitations of a video game. Translating to a dififerent medium will never be 1:1.

Some TTRPGs I've found that emulate video game feel:

- RUNE by Gila RPGs (lots of their games seem to fit here) seems to mimic Souls-like video games

- This Fan-made Skyrim TTRPG

- Fabula Ultima mimics JRPGs

- Courage mimics Zelda games

- MOURN mimics Boomer Shooters

- Riftbreakers and its second edition mimic MMORPGs

- ANGELSPAWN appears to be inspired by Diablo

- Arx ObsKura mimics Arx Fatalis

- Ascii Delve mimics old school ASCII based roguelikes and seems to be especially inspired by Caves of Qud

- Fallout 2D20 by Modiphius seems to actually put some effort into emulating Fallout, especially Fallout 4, even if it is very much its own experience

- Fallout by XP to Level 3 may largely use 5e as a base, and while I normally don't like how much people hack it to bits, it actually seems to stand on its own quite well and mimic the feel that playing fallout gives you

- Dragon AGE by Green Ronin is one I was pretty hesitant to include since it seems a lot less tactical than the video game, but it does seem to have a lot of Origins's spirit still intact, even if it has a lot of cinematic elements too

Looking for something very specific, so bear with me for a moment... What I like about Mythras:

• Detailed and realistic combat. I want combat to be descriptive, not abstracted.
• Focus on culture, profession, and religion. I want a game to play in historical or semi-historical settings.
• Steady progression. No HP bloat, no Feats, no levels.
• Possibly with skills. I've not made up my mind yet, but some sort of way to differentiate characters mechanically.
• A grounded feeling overall. Focus on interacting with the world, items, people.

With all that said, why don't I play Mythras? It all boils down to my OSR background: I just look at the Mythras book and get so turn off by all the prose. Rules-lite games have spoiled me and I just can't wrap my head around even Mythras Imperative. I trust that the rules are simple, I really do, but I just can't keep all the information on my brain comfortably (at least not as a GM).

Games I've considered:

• Dragonbane: I like it but the feeling is a little off. I'm waiting for Dragonbane: Trudvang to give it another chance.
• Pendragon: It hits all the right places but the prose is too much.
• RuneQuest: I love it to bits but is just a clunkier Mythras.
• Mythic Bastionland: Very good, but not as setting agnostic as I'd like.

The more that I search games the more I think that I should just rewrite Mythras in a bullet point format lol. Please help me.

To elaborate on what I mean, the first example that comes to my mind is Dolmenwood. You get the books, and you have an entire world provided to you with comprehensive guidance on how you run it, with what appears to be very minimal need to fill in blanks.

I'd love to hear about what games you love that provide you with something like this?

I'm completely open to differing perspectives on the support that feels comprehensive to YOU. Looking at Flail! at the moment and it looks like solid procedures and guidance for making hexcrawls and dungeons with minimal fuss, but I'd love to hear about why that approach speaks to you and how the game(s) you love provide it to you!

I THINK I'm gently bouncing off of a couple of mechanics in Dolmenwood, but am wanting to look in to games that provide this sort of thing. If you love Dolmenwood I'd love to hear about why as well, even though it was my example I'm not intimately familiar with it and don't have experience running it!

Edit: in case it's not clear I'd also love to hear about system/setting combos. Like Mausritter In conjunction with The Estate to give a campaign with interconnected scenarios etc.

I've never been super big into Harry Potter, I mean I've read all the books and seen most of the movies, but I was never a huge fan, but recently I've had this strange niggling urge to run some sort or "Magic academy" game for my players. I want something with either a decent magic system that's somewhat flexible, or something rules light that has just enough mechanics to feel satisfying. I'm also a little burned out on normal medieval fantasy, but matters of setting are entirely for me to tweak. Thanks in advance for your help.

In as much or as little detail as you like, I jist really wanna know what stories other people are currently telling.

Pretty much what the title says. I've had interest in games like Nightbane and Rifts, but it seems like Palladium games have a reputation of having great settings but a janky engine. How much truth is there to that?

Edit: Well, considering the comments, it seems to be an resounding yes lol

I want something that still has the vibe of D&D, fantasy (not necessarily heroic) but is WAY easier on the DM (and maybe on the players too) regarding prep and system mastery (learning curve).

We're going to play digitally, not face to face, and would be 3 players (max 4). System needs to support longer play (something like level 12 in Baldur's Gate 3, which is something my players would be familiar with) and not just dungeon crawling, although I can work with just that. Sessions should fit in 2-3hours, definitely less than 4, with combat being fast when it happens.

I did some research and ended up with this shortlist:

- Dragonbane

- Shadowdark

- Cairn 2e

- Index Card RPG

- Vagabond

(bonus option, Vaesen Mythic Carpathia simply because the Eastern Europe setting would be a big draw)

Can you sell me on (or off) one of these, considering my criteria? I don't own any of them currently, so I would need to purchase it (except Cairn 2e which is free), so value enters consideration.

Extra things that would be nice to have:

- GM doesn't roll

- initiative is not rolled, but also not spotlight based

- preferably no metacurrency

Recently I've been interested in running Otherscape because Cyberpunk+Occult is a pretty interesting combo for me. However, from what I can read online, it would seem that the system is "divise" among people online which is why I came here to ask the opinion of you people on the matter.

But … and this is very important for me: I only want the opinion of people of have both red and played this game, I don't believe that having merely red the book is enough to give an enlightened opinion about the system. Therefore, if you chose to post an answer in my threads this automaticaly means that you swear on your honor that you did so.

Now I feel the need to adress another issue because I just know somebody will be itching to ask me why I didn't post this thread in the dedicated Mist sub, this is because we are on Reddit, and I just know from experience that subs tend to react extremely harshly towards negative criticism even when they are made in good faith, I have nothing personnal against the Mist sub in particular but this risk goes against my goal of finding objective reviews of Otherscape, which is why I chose the general RPG sub which is hopefully a more neutral ground ; now that this inevitable question has been adressed I will no longer comment on this statement, and I ask you to please do likewise.

Obviously the number of games people want to run outpaces the number of games that get played.

But theoretically, somewhere in the world there's four people (or however many the game recommends) that would be up for playing it.

But what game would be the toughest to find those four people? If there's even though to begin with?

This isn't asking for the worst game either. There's at least a small number of folks that'd at least like to see first hand just how bad something like FATAL really is.

This Saturday at Canada's longest-running tabletop gaming convention¹, the Canada Roles organizers announced the winners for the new award honouring Canadian TTRPG designers and artists. To be considered, the game had to be released in 2025, produced by Canadian residents or citizens, and not generated by AI.

Voting was open online to Canadian citizens throughout the Spring, and in-person voting was held at Terminal City Tabletop Convention (Vancouver), Breakout Con (Toronto), WPG Con (Winnipeg), and CanGames (Ottawa).

I'll share the winners and runners-up here². For the full list of nominees, see the website. Congratulations to all the winners, runners-up, and nominees.

Visual Design

Winner: A Fool's Errand,³ B Marsollier, Planet Arcana.

In A Fool's Errand, players use tarot cards to tell an expansive science fantasy story, both in the waking world and the surrealistic subconscious realms. Contend with calamity as you indulge or deny the gods.

Runner-up: Ringmaster, Pascal Godbout, Spotless Dice Games.

Rules Design

Winner: Dirtbags!, Lariviere-Lacombe, The Dungeons Key.

Dirtbags is a sci-fi shooter where you play expendable troopers facing relentless tours of duty.

Runner-up: A Fool's Errand, J Strautman, Planet Arcana.

One Shot and Short Form

Winner: Sock Puppets,⁴ Kurt Refling, A Smouldering Lighthouse.

Make real, actual puppets to ruin a perfectly good puppet show.

Runners-up: First Date Update, Mat Copelli, Role Play Chat Press; Kaiju Control, James Kerr, Radio James Games.

Scenario or Supplement Design

Winner: Field Guide to Floral Dragons — Verity Lane, Chris Pinch, Jordan Richer, Sebastian Yūe, Hit Point Press (for Dungeons & Dragons).

Habitat and lore of Floral Dragons for 5e along with magic items, fungi and poison.

Runner-up: Join Their Ranks — Jed Doerksen, Trapped Chest (for Reanimated).

Footnotes

^{1 - Next year is the convention's 50th anniversary. How wild is that? I love going to CanGames because there are kids just discovering the hobby playing beside people who've been retired longer than some of us have been alive.}

^{2 - I'm not affiliated with the awards -- just wanted to share. Though, uh, I did have an ulterior motivation; see note 4.}

^{3 - Most of these games are available through a variety of platforms and distributors -- itch, DriveThruRPG, IPR, etc. Since the awards were organized by the folks at Canada's indie RPG distributor, Compose Dream Games, I've linked their listings as a little thank you.}

^{4 - That's me! Yay! Let's all agree that it's cool and good of me to share these awards that I won one of instead of sneaky and cheeky.}