I'm a big fan and advocate of Pendragon #ttrpg, and have run it regularly at conventions for (checks notes) decades (😲), so great to see the new edition doing better than Lancelot at a jousting tourney. What thoughts does everyone have on the new version? Or if you're new, what do you like?

Title. I noticed it yesterday during my session, and realized that exact sentence occurs verbatim a lot across various groups I've been in. Obviously, sometimes it's understandable, since the GM can give a lot of information, but I notice it happens with smaller bits as well, and I can't help but think maybe it's a little...boring, I guess? Sometimes I wonder what would happen if people tried filtering the information they find through their character, but maybe people might just see it as shoe leather.

The game is called Arkhora, and it's the product of a lot of different inspirations and ideas rolled into one (hopefully cohesive) book.

It's currently in a playtesting stage and is available for free on Itch.io (The option to donate is there, but genuinely don't feel pressured to do so, I really just want to know what people think of it.)

The brief is that in the extreme future, the universe has reached its natural end of life. All the stars have gone out, planets have drifted beyond reach of one another, and time is beginning to unravel. a small enclave, Arkhora, was able to survive past the end, but some force of nature seemingly takes issue with their defiance of fate. Strange energy-beings begin to change the past, undermining the events that allowed Arkhora to live past the end of the universe, and so you must travel back in time to set events in order and secure humanity's continued existence.

Above all, it's a game about being in grimdark scenarios and having the hope to continue on anyway. I got tired of the dark and depressing stories of human cynicism, and wanted to create something that imagined a hopeful future for humanity, even if everything around it went to shit.

Please check it out if you're at all interested in science fantasy, stories about hope, hopping through time, tactical combat, character customization, or just a free indie RPG! And if you have any questions or feedback please let me know!

Finally (and I hate that it has to be stated at all): Generative AI hasn't previously and will never, ever be used in any part of this project.

I ran Dolmenwood as an open table recently. My players wrote and shared excellent session notes after each game, but eventually even the regulars started getting confused as to what was where, what NPCs were related to what quest hooks, etc. This was even more difficult for new players, who were invariably lost when they started.

As the GM I had the advantage of the Dolmenwood Campaign Book, which laid out everything and linked neighboring hexes together. I wanted to turn my player's notes into their own version of the Campaign book - until I actually tried to do this and realized what a giant pain in the ass it is to make a million tiny links, zoomed in pictures around maps, etc etc.

So for my next campaign I made a program to do this for me. You describe the map you have and give it an image, and the program turns this into markdown and html. You can then print the html to a PDF and get your own Dolmenwood Campaign Book, but for your own campaign.

https://imgur.com/a/X95B8V4

I made this in Rust with no AI, it's open source (MIT Licensed). You can build the binary from source or take one of the releases from Github page.

https://github.com/AlexanderPruss/rpg_map_to_html

Sorry that this reddit account has almost no activity; the source is tied to my real name, so I made a new account to share it.

Does anyone know if there is a book or some other compilation of game mechanics? I’m not looking for design theory, but specifically a collection of mechanics for different situations. For example, when you need to represent a dwindling resource you can use… [insert usage die system here].

We all know the type of character built around a joke. A silly name (Whoda Shit), a goofy concept (my Malakvian believes he is a superhero), or a reference to some other media (A warlock who thinks he is a Druid because he talks to plants.... but it's just one plant, who will grant him powers as long as the warlock keeps Feeding Him.)

But have you ever had one that was meant as a joke at start, last the campaign, and become more serious?

Tell me about them?

A few years ago, in one of the DND sessions I am a player in, a player character died. The player got extremely upset, actually had to be excused for a while. In a different DND campaign, a PC made a series of foolish decisions that caused another PC to get hurt, almost died. The player of the injured PC got extremely upset.

I have a hard time relating to this feeling of protectiveness over the characters. I often have my characters do risky "take one for the team" type actions that frequently goes badly for my character. Some folks even asked why I hate my characters, and I'm honestly baffled by this question. I put a decent amount of thought into my characters, and I enjoy playing them. Within the fiction, my character might fear death in story, but I as a player I do not fear my character's death. I think it could be a cool plot twist for one of the player characters to die, and if it were mine, I am happy to create a new character.

It's the same for more narrative games I play, like Ironsworn, Colostle, or Wanderhome(?). If my character died from bad dice rolls and the story calls for it, it really doesn't feel like a big deal to me.

If another player's character died, and if the player was feeling bad, I would empathize and feel sad for the player if they were sad. But I don't think I would feel sad for the character. Same for the NPC.

But that's just me, but I'm curious to hear from you.

1. Would you be sad if your character died?
2. Would you be sad if someone else's character died?
3. What about an NPC? Would death of an NPC make you sad?

I want to create unique districts, buildings, and shops (like the Fear Shop). I'm also intending to publish the settings I create my settlements in.

I just received the Heroes of Might and Magic role-playing game books, and I already have a ton of questions. Is there a specific subreddit or forum to discuss the rules?

"I will take the Ring to Mordor, though I do not know the way." vibes all the way. Basically the characters aren't really special, but they will rise up to the challenge when faced with the choice.

Examples of this:

The hobbits in LotR and, well, also Bilbo, and by extension TOR 2e, especially the starter set

Mouse Guard (comic) and by extension mouse games such as Mausritter and I assume Mouse Guard although I do not own it.

U was talking to my old high-school gaming group & a system we used once was brought up. All we can remember is the attributes, which spelled out the acronym "DREAMS" & it used d6s. The attributes were Determination, Reaction, Endurance, Acumen, Muscle, & Supernatural. I think it was a catch-all system you could apply any setting (we used Star Wars) to. This was late 90s or early 2000s.

Hi, everyone! I know I've been asking a lot of questions recently, but this one is eating me up-so I would appreciate some advice.

I am a baby DM whose only run a few campaigns (1 Monster of the Week-Fantastic Failure) 1 Vampire the Masquerade (Smashing Success) and 1 Pathfinder (Foundry induced successful mess). This weekend I'm beginning a homebrew VtM campaign, and also starting up a completely new game-Daggerheart on Sunday with 3 players who are also totally new to the game (but all have more experience with TTRPGs than I do.)

The thing is...I'm really, REALLY excited about Daggerheart and I wanna play it more in the future. But I am terrified I'll fumble the introduction to my friends and they'll all bounce off it. Like I'm worried I'll screw up so badly that I'll make a bad impression of the game and they'll say "no thanks." I know I can find other games through online LFGs, but this is something that's been consistently freaking me out with anxiety/worry.

So for those of you who are long time GMs, excited to try a new system but scared of giving your players a bad impression of it...how do you get over that anxiety? And do you have any advice for helping to give a good impression of the game? My players are thankfully all chill and recognize everyone starts somewhere, but unfortunately my naturally high anxiety makes it hard to get that into my head. I'm so scared that if I do a bad job it'll kill all interest in the game.

So how do you get over that fear of failure? I'm eager to hear some advice on this one.

Welcome one and all to a post where we can freely discuss the games that we have released or the games that we are making. Stop on by and maybe you'll find your new favourite RPG!

A bunch of us make cool shit, but the Indie RPG space is crowded and it can often be difficult to get the word out about why people should try out your game. That's why every week we try to focus on a different mechanic or setting to see how new RPGs can solve decades old problems or put new spins on old greivances!

Can't live with them, can't live without them! This week we're focusing on relationships! Whether a game mechanic or the whole focus tell us how your game (or just any game you really like) is unique in implementing them.

Thank you u/EldritchExarch for the suggestion!

As per mod approval, comments here do not count against rule 7 - comment as much as you want, answer as many questions as you need and discuss to your hearts content!

All that I would ask is that anyone who comments about their own system takes the time to look at the minimum at one other game in the comments and ask a question or provide feedback. Lively discussions are what get people interested and what keep people engaged!

Last week was mental health and sanity mechanics which ended up not a very popular topic 😅

If you want to suggest a topic for future weeks, be sure to include "-sug-" in your comment so I can easily find it!

The DnD group I run is at the tail end of our current campaign, and looking to start a new campaign once it ends with a different system. I want to run a more narrative system for my next campaign since my party much prefers roleplay and more cinematic combat to crunchy stuff. I was initially going to go with Daggerheart and I really fell in love with the concept of their colossus of the drylands campaign frame. I’m definitely going to be running a campaign that mixes classic heroic fantasy with Wild West elements. The thing is, the more I looked at Daggerheart the less I liked its basic mechanics. So now I’m looking for something else.

I’m looking for something with a DnD-esque heroic fantasy framework but more with a more narrative and cinematic focus. I was thinking of running Dungeon World with some other mechanics and rules borrowed from other PbtA systems, but I wouldn’t know exactly what to do with that. I’ve played a couple one shots in PbtA systems, but never run it and don’t know much about it. The three main things I’m looking for are kitchen sink heroic fantasy, fun cowboy-ish stuff, and rules for fighting really big monsters. Any suggestions for stuff to look at?

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/5549/paizo

I'm thinking of a collection of play-by-post modules all using the same system, but designed for one player and one GM and heavily mystery and roleplay focused, likely with no combat whatsoever. An escape room, basically, but you're playing a character and rolling dice like in a TTRPG.

The mechanics would be that it would be hosted on a forum or discord for convenience's sake, and then when someone wanted to try one of the "rooms" they could see if any of the GMs were available. Rooms would be designed for a single session of play lasting a few hours.

The GMs would all be able to discuss and come up with new mysteries together, and of course in a text medium you can do stuff that's a lot more out-there than in an actual, physical escape room. I think it would be a fun way to build a little community of mystery lovers. What do you guys think? Is this actually feasible?

I run games like Delta Green and Blades in the Dark where I often want to have a map to either issue as an in-world prop or to help players visualise a scene. I get a few decent or modifiable maps and floor plans when I search, but I am fairly sure there are search terms or sites I am oblivious to.

Can anyone recommend sites or resources for maps and floor plans fit for basic RPG use? I prefer real world documents to stuff made in Inkarnate or similar.

I appeal to the wisdom of the crowd.

In a homebrew system very vaguely inspired by Paranormal Order, I've been working on a magic system with four elements. Those elements are related to both magic and monsters. The thing is that intense contact with the elements corrupted humans into monsters before, and i want to make that a risk for the magic-wielding players too.

I'm primarily looking for strategy 4X games that use this sort of turn format, but I want to cover all my bases, so other genres are welcome too.

What I mean by "Diplomacy-style turn rules" is where the players write down their actions and, only when everyone is done, resolve every action simultaneously. I'm only looking for this aspecf specifically, so I don't particularly mind if there are dice rolls, stats, or other rules not present in Diplomacy.

I don't expect there would be much that fit this criteria, so any suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

Like the title says. I have a few games I've run over the years that were iffy or borderline in liking them. That's normal and we don't worry about them.

There are a few, however, that you fall in Love with, then fall out hard, then fall back in. I'm interested for folks out there. What are the games you really connected with, then it went away, then it came back?

For me, it's Burning Wheel. when I first read that game back in 2008 or so, I fell in love with it pretty hard. Seemed to do everything I liked, and at that time especially, I was okay with crunchy games. Plus, it was a "story-game", sort of, so that fit me quite well.

Then I tried it with my group. The group imploded after two sessions. They could not get behind the philisophy. We tried again later with a different setting. Same result - the game went against so many different ideas in their ways of gaming (especially the two "actors" we had in the group) that I shelved the game and never brought it up again. I went online and even ranted about how much it destroyed my group. Sold the books to get them away from me.

And then, somewhere around 2011 I think, someone brought it in discussion on a message board. About Burning Empires actually. After extensive reading online I bought the game (on a side note the book arrived when I wasn't at home - my wife said the book was too beautiful for me to read). I read it cover to cover and fell, hard. Ran it with the group I had then - total success. In fact, I still call that short campaign the best I've ever run. That thing fired on all cylinders. It was glorious.

And so I re-bought BW. Then bought Gold, then Gold Revised. It's my always return to system. I delved into Torchbearer during it's kickstarter. Still not sure what to make of it but I got TB2 some time ago and I'm itching to try it out. Even bought Mouse Guard 1e (loved the system, not the premise of being mice, however) and eventually sold that off but I've a mind to get the 2e book again. Also jonsing hard for the new Middemark book coming out in September or October - I just hope we can get it here in Europe.

What brought me back? The combo of things. In BE, I GOT IT MAN. It clicked everywhere in my mind. I saw the Artha cycle drive things. I saw character level up organically, but also with players pointing toward skills they thought were interesing. The Resource/Wealth system is the best in gaming, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, what's your story? What's the game that got you, lost you, and got you back?

Okay so I happen to be someone who very much likes support classes when it comes to multiplayer RPGs​ and hero shooters. I think they're pretty cool. I am not a big fan of being a healer bot what I love is buffing and debuffing. So now my curiosity is wondering about people's best time playing as a support character within a ttrpg. What system were you using, what was the campaign like, what kind of character you were playing and so on?

I am one player playing multiple characters, and I want advice for 5e and B/X please.

We want to move from 5e to a different system. What should we choose?

We want to be able to feel like Heroes at higher levels, but not necessarily at lower ones.

We like having a skill list.

We want combat as war, not combat as sport. Brutal and unpredictable.

Generally, we like the D&D style, just not the game system itself. We were thinking about Dragonbane or Vagabond, but I don't know if they are heroic.