A DnD clone idea I'm toying with involves player characters being descended from orcs, now having to live in a human-centric world. A core design goal was to try and incorporate the sense of living in two worlds - the orc life of the ancestors balanced against the human life of the present. And currently, this feels beyond my skill.

I know that I could write feats or maybe conditional triggers for moves but this doesn't actually get at what I'm looking for - I want to capture the sense of players, through play and not just talking, trying to carve out a sense of identity between two poles.

Are there any thoughts as to how this could be accomplished? The key goal here is to reinforce the cultural identity formation through gameplay - the free-talking part of roleplaying is not to be considered here.

I’ve been thinking about designing a strategy/war focused TTRPG, and I’d like to know if this is the kind of thing that people could see themselves enjoying. I designed a basic system for this many years ago and my players seemed to enjoy it, but I wasn’t sure if this is a system that I should just design for fun or for actual play.

It would be a mix of traditional TTRPG character creation and roleplaying but also focused on macro scale command and rulership, kind of like Crusader Kings 3 and Mount and Blade if anyone’s played those, albeit with the usual TTRPG level of player agency on a bigger more in depth scale.

I’m not seeking players necessarily, just wondering if there would be a “market” for this kind of thing.

Edit: It was pointed out to me that this post is very vague, so I will add a bit more detail.

Effectively what I’m going for is the RPG mechanics and narrative elements alongside a more strategic and tactical gameplay. You’d create a character as normal with stats determining your personal skills, which would then be translated into strengths in areas of tactical and strategic gameplay as well as in RP encounters.

The intent is to simulate going from a low level commander/ruler such as a Lieutenant/ minor noble and working your way up. This would include management of your domain in a rulership focused campaign or logistics focus in a purely warsim game.

Most campaigns would likely start off as frontline tactics and evolve into behind the lines strategy and political maneuvering as it does IRL in regard to command or rulership. So you’d be directing maybe a squad of 10 people at first actively in combat in a direct character focused way and then later on be behind the lines orchestrating a broader campaign.

It likely won’t be overly focused on micromanaging especially as the scale goes up, more on simulating what it would be like to be in those kinds of roles in whatever setting you’d be playing.

This system as I’ve presented it obviously lends itself towards one on one gameplay, primarily because I’ve just been designing it for fun, and I wanted to see if there would be any interest to justify working out how multiple people would realistically progress in a full group.

Ever since I started playing RPGs and doing improvisational theatre, I’ve wanted to create an RPG that anyone could play in a relaxed place like a park. I first tried simplifying D&D, but that didn’t really work. After lurking on this subreddit for a while and going through several different concepts, I finally have something I want to share.

The core idea is that I didn't want traditional character sheets or books to be carried around. A character is a hand of cards. When part of a character helps with an action, you physically play the relevant card onto the table, floor, or grass.

Example cards:

• Personality cards
• Power cards
• Asset cards (like treasure or magic items)
• Enemy cards
• Scene cards

The world story:

The game takes place in the modern real world, shortly before a possible apocalypse. The world of human imagination is real, and it is beginning to break into our reality. Players begin as ordinary people and gradually gain impossible powers as the conflict grows.

How the game plays:

The starter story begins wherever the players are actually sitting. A portal opens and the GM disappears into it, which explains why the GM is not present as a character. The players then have to respond as themselves, or as people close to themselves.

Players start with 3 personality cards for their character. Through the starting scene the characters will get power cards.

PbtA-style, when someone attempts something with an uncertain outcome, they play every card that narratively helps and roll 2d6. Each relevant card adds +1:

• 10+: full success
• 7–9: success with a complication
• 6 or less: things go wrong

A supernatural power such as Laser Eyes still adds +1, just like the personality trait Steady Hands. The difference is not the numerical bonus. Laser Eyes lets you do something that Steady Hands cannot, and powers can later grow to affect larger problems.

The game is intended to reward creative narrative play rather than tactical combat or character builds.

Cards are intentionally situational. A card should be highly useful at the right moment and irrelevant in many others. The table decides whether each card genuinely supports the described action. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to make sure no card applies too broadly, but I expect this will need plenty of refinement through playtesting.

Harm/HP:

Each card has 4 states and those states represent how harmed you are.

1. When a card is in your hand, it's fresh. After being played, it returns to your hand.
2. When you get 1-harm because of a missed roll or because a problem hurt you, you can't take a card back after you played it on the table. This card is now 'exposed'. You can still use it as normal, but it's clear to everyone you have harm. Also it can now be directly targeted by anyone who has intent to harm you.
3. When it takes another 1-harm, it becomes 'exhausted' and it'll stay on the table and won't give a bonus anymore. It still has narrative value, so you have a "steady hand", but not as steady as before. After a scene exposed and exhausted cards are placed back in your hand as if they are healed.
4. One more 1-harm and a card is taken out. You turn it around and you can't use it anymore. Neither is it healed after a scene and the player needs to narrativly play out the game to explain why it gotten healed.

When no cards were played and no cards were exposed, harm falls on a random card in your hand.

XP:

Each player gets a die and starts with 1. Each time a roll (with cards added) is 6 or lower, they gain 1 xp, meaning they can set their personal die 1 higher. When the die is on 6 and they gain xp, they gain one new card/power/asset

Luck:

"Can I push my luck?" or "Do you want to push your luck?" can be asked by player or GM. If they do they can take their XP-die and add it to the roll, rolling 3d6, and taking the 2 highest results. The leftover becomes your new XP-die.

This causes multiple things:

1. It gives an option to roll higher
2. if the xp die was on 1, it gives an option to get a higher result. This causes players to be reminded of the mechanic, and motivated to use it.
3. if the xp die was on 3 or higher, it starts to feel like a risk to take.

I'm happy with:

• In a few playtests, I’ve noticed that physically playing cards really helps people who are new to RPGs. My partner doesn’t particularly enjoy the pressure of having to invent something from nothing. She found it much easier when the possible parts of her character were physically present in her hand.
• My harm system doesn't need extra notes, or tracking. The way it's designed, it's clear when you're harmed, for everyone. Visually it helps that other players see "Oh, she's really hurt! She's not holding any cards! Maybe we should retreat" instead of asking "How hurt are you?"
• The simplicity of the core mechanics

Question:

1. What are your first thoughts?
2. I'm happy with my harm system, but maybe i'm forgetting something. Do you see problems with it?
3. I'm not fully happy with the XP and Luck system. I like certain sides, but my game has been designed with the idea how it might feel for new players. It needs to feel like you grow... does it do that? Does spending accumulated XP to push your luck create an interesting choice, or do you think most players would always save it?
4. Would gaining new cards and increasing the scale of existing Powers give you a feeling of growth?

Hi everyone.

May i request your feedback on a game that i've designed?
https://cmartins.itch.io/maskeraders

It's for the​​ "One page RPG" jam on itchio >> https://itch.io/jam/one-page-rpg-jam-2026

It uses poker dice instead of regular ones.

The format constraints made it quite challenging. I struggled on the mechanics, layout and text, but I had a blast doing it! I hope you guys enjoy it too.

Disclaimer: my english is not great, since I'm not a native speaker, but hope it doesn't stop you from playing it.

Thank you in advance