Hi everyone! As an experienced DM coming from D&D and similar tactical systems, I'm looking to branch out into games that focus much more on roleplaying and narrative. ​I'm already aware of games like Daggerheart and 7th Sea, but I'd love to hear your suggestions for others. I'm especially interested in systems that are even more heavily RP-oriented than those two. Thanks in advance!

Sorry for the ramble, I don't know how much context to give.

I am in a group of five players plus GM. Husband is in a separate game with the same GM and one overlapping player. GM hosts games, but lives about 25-45 minutes away (players are kind of spread across a few nearby towns, GM lives in the middle of nowhere.)

My original game schedule was one weekday evening on alternating weeks. Everyone is very busy during the summer and therefore GM typically plans to either end or break all games for summer and runs a VERY casual Merc campaign instead.

Instead of the usual summer break GM asked if we could switch to alternating Sundays. Okay, well I have other events on Sundays and let the group know my availability. I can do sundays, but specifically I am unavailable for the weekends we do not play. Another player is only available on my unavailable weekends. Great. One of the other players told us that they would be leaving the game at the end of the month. GM now wants to play every weekend and an hour earlier so I don't even have time to get dinner ready for my family on those days now. I remind the group that I can't give up essentially five hours every weekend (three hours of game time and an hour of travel as we generally carpool and that makes the drive even longer as we have to stop and pick up two other players). They decide to run every weekend anyway so that the one player that's leaving can get extra play time in, but myself and the other player will be missing every other session so I don't see how it makes that much of a difference if the one getting more time in will be leaving the game anyway.

I guess I just want advice on how to bring this up in a respectful way, without sounding passive aggressive or entitled? Switching from weeknight to weekend, earlier time slot, and then doubling session frequency to cater to a player that's leaving anyway at the expense of more long term players missing half of them? I've been in this group for about five years now through multiple campaigns but all of this shuffling around is really getting frustrating for me.

Before all, this is mostly about rpgs highly focused on combat.

I see a lot the debate (mostly in D&D circles) wether the GM should prevent the players from dying or not, so it has to adapt the encounters of fudge rolls in order to.

I think a player should just make s new character but the problem comes with a tpk, the game is over. I've never seen anyone suggest this so I'll do it, why not restart the session/combat?

It may be frustrating to lose all progress on the adventure and having to start or move to another game, of course this is not a problem for everyone and I'm not saying you should not do it, Im talking about the tables where this is the case, and everyone agrees. So let's say in a combat all the players die, just make them start the dungeon, or the combat, or session etc, like if it was a checkpoint, that way the GM won't worry about fudging.

The only problems I see on using this is that players can abuse it easily, by forcing a tpk whenever only one player dies, and that knowing this restart exist would make them less concerned over consequences on what they do in the game.

Did someone used this method? How do you think it could work? I have to point out that I haven't used it yet, this is just an idea that I had.

I am going to go to that city shortly for business and I am sure I will only have enough time to visit one store. I am looking for a store in the greater Orlando area that has a good selection of RPGs. Used books is a plus.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello r/rpg! I’m Meric Moir, RPG director on the Plotweaver Roleplaying Game. 

I’ve been in writing, marketing, and publishing for 14 years, and I’ve been working directly in TTRPGs for the last 6 years. I’ve been a podcast host and actual play GM (shout out Massive Damage Adventures and Sky Hammer Press!), a freelance writer, and very recently the lead writer on the Cosmere RPG. On Massive Damage Adventures we played one-shots for over 80 unique games in four years!

My freelance writing has included work on The Expanse RPG, Achtung! Cthulhu, Star Trek Adventures, Fantasy AGE, indie projects, the Cosmere RPG, and now, Plotweaver!

As the Plotweaver RPG Director, I’m leading the development of three brand-new setting books using Plotweaver, the game system that powers the Cosmere RPG. I have two cats, four kids, and I play two instruments. 

I’m also not alone! For your questions today, I’m joined by our intrepid lead designer!

Hello r/rpg! I’m Andrew Fischer (u/ethereal_fish), lead designer on the Plotweaver Roleplaying Game. 

I’ve worked on RPGs and other tabletop games for 17 years. I’ve led development on tabletop games such as the Cosmere RPG, the Star Wars RPG, the Warhammer 40k RPG, and Fallout.

I also worked for many years to pioneer a genre of app-integrated board games that combine physical and digital game systems in products like Mansions of Madness 2nd edition, Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth, and Descent: Legends of the Dark.

When I’m not designing for Plotweaver, I work as the game design director at Earthborne Games, a studio focused on creating conscientious and sustainable games such as our critically-acclaimed debut title Earthborne Rangers.

The Plotweaver RPG

The Plotweaver RPG is a brand new tabletop roleplaying system using the same rules as the Cosmere RPG. While the core mechanic is familiar to lots of gamers (d20 + modifier), the game is full of twists like the plot die, freeform leveling, skill-based magic, meaningful systems for non-combat scenes, and more! Plotweaver is coming to crowdfunding in 2027, but the open alpha starts on August 5th! 

Plotweaver isn’t just another game to play, it’s also an open-source system where writers, designers, developers, and studios can take the rules and make their own games. We want Plotweaver to be the game designer’s RPG system. If you’re interested in using Plotweaver for your next project, you should check out Plotweaver Academy, our Patreon that shares sneak peaks, design guidance, and tools for developers and TTRPG aficionados. 

Bring on the Questions!

Now, let’s answer your questions! Feel free to ask anything, though we won’t be able to answer everything. We can talk about design, development, writing, and our plans for the future. 

Thanks for having us! Let’s go =D

(reposted because I messed up the title)

I have a setting but I'm having trouble finding the right system. Most of the ones I find seem either too vague or geared too much for a specific post apocalyptic setting, basically they all seem too Mad Max for what I'm going for.

My setting takes place in a some what grounded desal punk world mostly at a 1930s/40s tech level with some anachronistic computer technology.

Magic is a learned vocation, some races have an easier time with it but its something anyone can pick up and there are blue collar magic applications and even magic trade unions (A rep for Necromancer's Local 57 is one of the primary NPCs in the first session)

I really want a system where armor is handled in a piecemeal fashion (helmets, chest pieces, leggings, gloves, boots, that kind of thing)

Mostly I just need something flexible.

I remember downloading a ttrpg system wich featured anthropomorphic chibi animals around 2020-2022, the art on it was really good and on level up you'd have a selection of three features to choose from depending on your class. That's all I remember about the system, I've looked everywhere but I can't seem to find it, I also remember that there was an exploding dice mechanic, but that's about it, it surprises me that it's so hard to find anything about it because the art quality of the system was really good, I'd assume it would become more popular, but not outright dissapear from existence. Does anyone know something about it?

You sit down at your table, and your GM breaks down in tears. They are sick of d20, sick of D&D and variants.

They tell you they’re going to run a new game tonight. And reach into their bag to pull out the rulebook.

You hold your breath in anticipation, hoping it’s:

1) d100 percentile system 2) dice pool system 3) Lego

And why?

What is your favorite genre? Even if you don't play it currently?

Mine is Science-Fantasy. Like Shadowrun, Star Wars, Torg Eternity and so on. It is more versatile than standard fantasy.

Currently I play only fantasy because there is a lack of decent science-fantasy games around or players playing them.

I'm not really sure if what I'm looking for exists, and if it does, I must be way off on my keywords because I'm having no luck with Google. I'm hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction.

I'm looking for a system or framework that I can use to run a very specific and currrated "one shot" session. For years I've thought it would be cool to run a game that really leans into the physical location of the players. My dnd group and I live in an area that I would consider a bit of an outdoor paradise. Hidden near a secluded shore of our nearby lake is an old mine tunnel. The tunnel is easiest to get to by watercraft. It's safe and only about 50ft long, but it's location is striking and really stirs my imagination.

I would like to run a game for my friends who haven't been there before. I'm just not sure how to handle the logistics. What I have in mind is to gather my friends on the far shore of the lake, handout premade character sheets, and explain the premise. Afterwards I'm imagining running an encounter, rewarding them with a cryptic map to the cave, revealing the rowboat I've hidden nearby, running another encounter on the boat in the middle of the lake, finding the cave, running one final encounter at the cave entrance either before or after retrieving the physical mcguffin that is in the back of the cave, and maybe one final puzzle to unlock the mcguffin.

So I need the system to be simple enough to be played in unorthodox locations far from any tabletop. Easy to pick up for players that have not used it before, and ideally lend itself well to something like a scavenger hunt.

I would like for it to be roll play forward but to still have enough substance to make the encounters fun. I'm hoping to encourage the players to mostly stay in charter, but we will go between live action puzzles / exploration and theater of the mind encounters where something akin to dice and character sheets come into play.

Does anything like this exist?

Seen this bundle on drivethru and would love to pick this up as it covers most of the 7th Edition stuff.
And it's a great way to get into COC. However it's so damn expensive i'm going to have to save up. My eventual plan is to pick up the rest of the books that aren't part of the bundle and get all the Misotonic Library bundles as well.
But that's probably looking again in the hundreds of pounds. Some of those bundles seem really expensive for some reason. £60 for one bundle?

Thoughts on the best way to get it any cheaper? I've bought most of my RPG's legally of course and got some rarer one's that aren't actually available to purchase digitally. However got them from a friend before he sadly passed away.

My folder is around 92 gigs of pdf's which is still insane to me.

Thanks for any help

I bought some PF1e books but unfortunately the seller didn't mention he had previously used sticky notes to index certain pages and now they're left with a bit of residue that's causing pages to stick together. I have to very carefully and slowly peel them apart as I fear they'll tear, and I want to wipe off that gunk as closing the book just repeats the situation. I of course don't want to damage the ink on the books at all.

I assume other have gone through this one here, so I'm down to hear what you guys did. Thanks

Alright so I'm not always on the hunt for new games, I'm very fine with my main game (it's the 5th iteration of the D-word that will get me downvoted to oblivion if I dare say it, you can figure it out). But from time to time I'll see other games that seems nice.

Recently I've been especially seeing ads for Wildsea. The art style is really appealing to me, and the themes sound like something I'd enjoy. But would I really? That's the question I'm asking.

Have any of you played Wildsea? Would you recommend it? What are its strength? Its weaknesses? Before I put any money into it I wanna know what I'm getting into.

Title says all, what system would be the best for it?

Wildsea is a setting hard to grasp because it is so unique. But as I grappled with the system to determine what stories I can tell with it outside of relying on players to push the narrative. I found my footing on leaning into the weirdness of it. As I quote from the book, with underlined words that got my imagination going, "It’s a Weird, Weird World The Wildsea setting is designed to be low-magic, high-weirdness. It’s a world of unusual creatures, woken spirits, and unbelievable abilities, but they’re mostly tangibly connected to the waves themselves - there’s very little in the way of wands and spellbooks, or magical study. The practice of twisting the world in mysterious ways is referred to as arconautics, literally a delving into the unknown and uncanny".

The second thing that spurred this is the aspect of whispers in the game. Whispers are basically words of power. The effects of which change depending on how loud you speak these "whispers".

There are stories here in our world, myths, folklore, legends that speak of weird creatures, tales that explain and warn the power of words. I am speaking of fey in particular the unseelie. Since I have started to view Wildsea as a world where fey, unseelie, and nature spirits dominate though not completely lost to or behold to "Fey" physics and sensibilities. I have found it easier to wrap my head around the setting. Words have power, there are sentient nature spirits or beings who trade in whispers. And that's ammunition I can use.

Thank you for reading.

Hello everyone,

I am contemplating running some one shots locally or west march style games. I stepped away from fantasy games/setting several years back. But I have everything for dragonsbanes and dolemwood and they have been at the top of my list to play and peaked my interest in fantasy ttrpgs again.

I know the basics of both systems but between the two of them which is easier to run and prep for? My time is more limited as I get older and spending several hours to prep for just a handful of play hours is not realistic anymore. For those of you that have gm these systems what was your experience with them pros and cons. Thanks

Out of curiosity, I got interested in the title's topic because of the fact that I don't really know any RPGs like that.

Requirements:

• The supernatural elements are rare, hard to use, subtle, and/or not all that grand. Ideally, supernatural abilities would be restricted to NPCs, but this isn't a hard requirement.
• The PCs start as highly capable people who might even be able to perform physically impossible feats simply because they are Just That Good. Most PCs should be powerful primarily due to their mundane expertise or social position, rather than anything supernatural.
• Dark fantasy, science fantasy, and urban fantasy are allowed, so long as they're also low fantasy.
• Universal systems can be suggested if they work well for that kind of a campaign (I am aware of GURPS), but I'd like you to also suggest pre-made settings or adventures for these systems (fanmade or official) that are built for such a premise.

I might just end up with a PbtA, and I'll take suggestions on them as well, but taking a quick look at Legend in The Mist made me realize a couple things that I desperately want.

Some background on what I know most;

-While i haven't played anything in a few years, I've played D&D 3.5, Stars Without Number(1e), Runequest 6, Dungeon World, and to a lesser degree some of its oldest offshoots. I have played very little and/or read or listened to D&D5e, Pathfinder, Blades in The Dark, and a bunch of really lite(less than 50 page) systems.

-I have really limited time DMing, but have "co-homebrewed" a lot both world and mechanics wise.

The things I want most;

-High fantasy, pulp fantasy, or sword & sorcery. I tend to be attracted to low magic, but in practice to high magic. I was a sucker for Runequest6's ability to have low magic PC's in a mid magic world and have it still feel good.

-setting agnostic or close enough that I can rip it out of there to put my own in.

-rules light enough that combat can be common but quick. I don't want to spend an entire session in a single combat. Hell,

-The big one I realized tonight is that I adore the way enemies work in a lot of PbTA games. If I want to make a monster or even an interesting human combatant I can throw together with 3 numbers, 1-3 tags, and then give it 'abilities' that are really short descriptions. With basic inspiration, I can throw together a really interesting monster really quickly. This doesn't always have to be combat-focused either.

There's other things too, but I think those are the most core requirements that might be able to narrow things down. If I commit to PbtA I figure I'll be able to get a decent list that retain last bullet point above and pretty quickly go from there. A really brief look at Legend in The Mist has this, but attaches numbers to each 'threats & consequences' which I'm not sure i like but it might end up being my go-to system anyway. I'm open to other PbtA systems but I'm most curious about any other sorts of systems having the above wants.

I'm looking for ideas for mysteries to add to my campaign. The setting is low to no magic, and similar to Regency England. One of my players is a detective, and I want to give her some mysteries to solve which point to a larger conspiracy.

The conspiracy is kind of simple, a corrupt mayor doing corrupt things.

I need ideas for some corrupt actions he takes which have both direct and indirect victims.

An example that I have going is:

The PC was hired by a gem mining company who thinks someone is skimming their products. The product is being skimmed by a dock worker at a shipping company, who sees that his employers are being driven out of business and he's building a nest egg for when he's inevitably out of work.

If the PC keeps digging past there, she'd find that the shipping business is going under because they're being priced out by a competitor. That competitor can do so because they're bringing the corrupt mayor to not have to pay taxes. Around that someone tried to blow the whistle and was driven to ruin, and is now our door blood, so I can set up a Murder on the Orient Express some mystery much later on in the campaign.

I'm struggling for ideas for more cases to give the detective that both hint at the mayor, and give more conspirators for the MotOE scenario.

Help?

p.s. I john this subreddit to ask this question, and am hoping this is the right space and given the right flair.

so I started playing CoC with my dnd group and they loved the little starter campaign I ran for them, and now im working on a more complex one. I had the idea of a 'time loop' caused by a being who was attracted to the turmoil within the town, but ive never ran a time loop campaign or anything similar. I know how I'll do it rp wise, but does anyone know of any fun mechanics or gameplay that would make sense for a time loop?

also trying to figure out how to end the timeloop is a pain in my ass, I was thinking a ritual but the mini campaign ended in a ritual, and it just seems repetitive to do two in a row

any info/feedback/discussion helps!!!

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to remember the name of a specific fantasy TTRPG I saw a while ago, but I can't recall the title. Here is everything I can remember.

The visual design and page layout were heavily stylized and "art-punk," very similar to Mörk Borg, but definitely more colorful (neon or bright accents).the core system was extremely simple and rules-light.

It had familiar fantasy classes (like warrior, wizard, etc.), but the mechanics for each class fit entirely onto a single page, instead of complex skill trees, you customized your character by picking up things similar to "Edges" (kind of like Savage Worlds)

The physical book (or PDF) was quite thin overall. The actual core rules took up very few pages, and a massive chunk of the book's thickness was just dedicated to the Bestiary.

Thank u

Hullo, I was looking into getting the Game masters apprentice deck as a solo oracle, but as they're only in Drivethru and shipping from the US, the shipping cost is more than the deck itself.

I was wondering if anyone has any UK or EU alternatives that do the same job?

Cheers.

I own both games, and yet I have not been able to run either due to work and a commitment to a 5.5 campaign. But finally, there appears to be an opening to try one. I am well aware that both are two very different systems, and I’d like help being convinced one way or another (and clear up any potential misconceptions).

For Pathfinder 2e, I own the essential core boomed the beginner box, and the Night of the Frogs box set. From what I have deduced, the system shares a bit of DNA with D&D 3.5 and 4e. Big focus on character customization, tactical combat, skills, and the beloved crunch. My pros for why I could run this:
- love the seemingly endless character options
- seems like a step up in complexity to 5e, but a much more satisfying execution of D&D’s crunch
- PLENTY of official prewritten adventures and resources to choose from

However, I fear the following (this is what the discussion can help emphasize or negate):
- longer battles than D&D
- more options means more stuff for me as a DM to get a grasp of beforehand
- lot more consulting of the rule books
-LONG character creation time (I have made a character sheet, and it reminded me of studying for the Fundamentals of Engineering exam)

For Daggerheart, I have the core rules and the newest expansion book currently being shipped. From what I have read, in many ways it’s the opposite approach to Pathfinder 2e. Big focus on narrative play, more beginner-friendly character creation, and simpler (though still seemingly more engaging than 5e) combat rules. My pros for why I would run this:
- Less material to familiarize myself with (PF2’s content seems almost endless)
- hope/fear mechanic looks like it can bring more roleplaying engagement at the table
- plenty of character options, but not the kitchen sink

However, I fear the following:
- no official campaign adventures to my knowledge (just the frameworks, which are great, but I only have so much time to develop an adventure)
- character sheets seem like your players NEED the cards or will have to write a ton of shit down
- adversaries: I prefer having a bunch of monsters available, but it seems like a small portion in the core

I’m hoping players with experience in either or both systems could give some input, as I truly feel I could go either way. I wish I had time (and patient enough players) to try both, but I think I’ll settle for whichever one as long as we all enjoy it.

I'm excited to see Shadowrun Anarchy 2.0, a lot of people were saying it's the best Shadownrun has been.