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Recently got back into Dungeons & Dragons after a long break, and I forgot how fun it is with the right group. Last session, we were supposed to quietly sneak into a goblin camp, grab a stolen relic, and leave. Instead, one failed stealth check alerted everyone, our cleric tried to talk our way out of it, and somehow we ended up starting a fight we definitely weren’t ready for.

We spent the next hour trying to survive, making bad decisions, burning spells too early, and laughing at how badly the original plan fell apart. That’s what I enjoy most about D&D. Even simple missions can turn into memorable stories because of the people at the table.

I’m sick of feeling like a computer. I get bored preparing a session and running it because I always do it the same way: I bring scenes that the players will move through. Obviously, I make changes between sessions and try to make the players’ decisions matter, but generally there’s already a preset ending (or endings) and I just guide the players to where I need them to go. A – B – C.

I’m looking for another way to approach sessions where I feel like a participant instead of just reading paragraphs I prepared beforehand. I want to improvise together with the players, make decisions in the moment, and see where they lead us instead of having everything predetermined from the start.

All the adventures I’ve read are A – B – C. Even open-ended ones like Dolmenwood boil down to reading or presenting whatever is in the hex the players are in. I almost feel like I could become another player and play without a game master.

A system I’ve been looking at is Blades in the Dark, but honestly I’m completely lost—I don’t know how these games are actually run. People also say Vampire works this way, but I don’t know what I, as the GM, need to prepare and what the players need in order to move around this improvised world.

How can I move from running pre-planned, linear adventures to a more improvisational style of GMing where the story emerges collaboratively with the players?

If I were to pick one game each to use for a one-shot based on these 20 John Carpenter movies, I would choose thusly:

• Dark Star - mothership
• Assault on Precinct 13 - d20 modern
• Halloween - slasher flick
• The Fog - dead of night
• Escape From New York - twilight 2k
• The Thing - alien rpg
• Christine - monster of the week
• Starman - the electric state
• Big Trouble in Little China - feng shui
• Prince of Darkness - pulp cthulhu
• They Live - street wolves
• Memoirs of an Invisible Man - risus
• In the Mouth of Madness - call of cthulhu
• Village of the Damned - trail of cthulhu
• Escape From L.A. - apocalypse world
• Vampires - hunter: the reckoning
• Ghosts of Mars - cyberpunk red
• The Ward - kult: divinity lost
• Someone's Watching Me - quietus
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch - gurps

Please let me know if you have any thoughts or, especially, if you have any alternate suggestions for system/movie pairings.

Hey all,

I'm searching for somewhat of a rules light system to run a planescape campaign. There will be some combat, but I think most of the sessions will be more investigation based (i.e. trying to role play and figure out what is happening).

Another issue is that I just don't have as much time to prep when I was younger. So a more rules light rule set would mean I dont have (as much) to generate stat blocks for a tactical brawl between sessions.

I was thinking ICRPG but I would like to know your suggestions so I can dive deep into the rabbit hole.

My problem is that I just can't stand all the waffling. I Just tired watching the official actual play for Mazes, and it takes them 46 minutes to get to the adventure. thats almost a 1/3rd of the way through the stream. I so miss tabletop, even though they mostly did board games.

Anyway that's my first world problems complaint for the day.

How does Dungeon Worlds and PbtA games do in open-table games?

So i just finished watching Quinn's Stonetop review and it's very good so I happily bought the PDFs. The idea of growing a home and community together with your crew is wonderful.

That said, I've been planning an open-table Dolmenwood campaign with a fictional explanation to why the PCs end up back in the nearest safe haven at the end of each session... I know I should probably get on with it and start that Dolmenwood campaign, right?... HELP

EDIT: Yeah, I'm just gonna start that Dolmenwood campaign XD Thank you for the advice!!

I dont think there is any ttrpg like this, but it may be fun if there is one.

preferably you can be under any nation.

Hello everyone,

I was thinking to start a campaign with my friends for a gritty sci-fi setting.

In the last month I've been totally hooked on Rimworld, binged The Expanse, and remembered StarCraft and Firefly with nice melancholy (Firefly has always been one of my fav shows)

Therefore I wanted to look for a ttrpg system suited for what I want to do, still haven't written the setting but I'll make a list of what I am interested to for a sci-fi campaign, maybe you can help me finding the best game for what I have in mind; I have already looked on some similar threads but there are so many suggestions that I don't really know where to start since I have not all the time of the world to read every system.

WHAT I HAD IN MIND FOR THE SETTING:

- Mainly human focused, NOT a space opera. But maybe having some sporadic non intelligent alien menace such as insectoids (like Zergs, Arachnids, I like the sci-fi trope of insect aliens)

- Focused on a crew of misfits, my idea was giving the freedom to the players of assembling a nice crew and the Ship they go on should be a main character of the campaign, such as the Serenity or the Rocinante

- Somewhat space western, I like sci-fi with low technology, or gritty realistic sci-fi like the one in The Expanse

WHAT I LIKE AS A SYSTEM:

Mainly narration focused with high level of customisation. I don't like complex mechanics, I value narration and PC development first and foremost, but I like also a good level of customisation.

Especially ship customisation ;)

Savage Worlds is my favourite ttrpg HOWEVER I just finished a campaign in my fantasy setting which will continue later on, therefore I want to try new system, otherwise I would've stuck to SWADE Sci-Fi companion and wouldn't have written this thread.

Idk if you have something in mind. Reading in some similar posts I have seen suggestions for Traveller, Scum and Villany or Coriolis, and many other games.

Thank you in advance :)

PS: Already looked at game recommendations but there were a lot of options in the "crew" section and I don't really know what would be the best for me

If you're not familiar with the trench crusade setting, it's basically "all quiet on the western front" plus satanic cultists and mutants who ate the cloned flesh of Jesus. The lore is really good, consider looking at it if you like darker settings and religious imagery.

I'm looking for a system that has satisfying gunplay, preferably with a lesser focus on magic. Machine guns, gas attacks, really showcasing the 'industrial' nature of combat.

So far, I'm aware pathfinder has guns but they aren't implemented the way I want and would need very heavy homebrew to work. Another possibility might be warhammer fantasy roleplay, but I've never run it before.

Anyone have suggestions for systems?

Ultra-lethal OSR dungeon crawls, diceless games, “fail forward” narrative play, solo RPGs,... Give me the things that usually get eye-rolls when mentioned. Tell me why I should actually try them.

Hi all,

I love the idea of Stonetop. I've been following it for a while, and Quinn's review has made me definitely very keen. However, I'm not really a fan of PBTA systems, I find it very restricting and constricting (are those the same thing? Anyway, you get what I mean). Whereas I find Grimwild very open and free, and the players in my group that I am currently running it for love it.

For anyone who is familiar with both - would it be possible to use the settlement mechanics and systems, but blend in Grimwild's characters and dice system etc? Stonetop is eye-wateringly expensive for a PDF, and I'm not opposed to paying it, but I want to kow first if it's usable while stripping PBTA out of it.

Any thoughts, guidance, opinions would be very welcome!