Slay a Dark God, Experience life as a lonely lumberjack, Rebuild humanity as a cloned super soldier, will a good dog retrieve a sword, and more magic for meowgical cats!

A Canadian crowdfunding round-up that I did for my Compose Dream Games RPG Marketplace Newsletter. Let me know if I missed something, or what of these you are looking forward to?

All of these ttRPGs are funding from Canadian designers this month. I have met people involved with all of them. One of them is me.

God-Killer Prophecy: Oracle Edition Ends Oct 31st

A GMless one-shot story-game with teeth about a chosen one, the companions and a quest to slay the Dark God. Forge a world together and illustrate your journey as you seek to prepare the chosen one for the final battle. God-Killer Prophecy blends story-game prompts and with tense and strategic playing of cards.

Bonus game: Star-Killer Rebellion recon edition - a variant of oppression, freedom and sacrifice across the stars. Can your fragile plan destroy the foe's superweapon?

by Compose Dream Games (that's me Joshua Kitz)

Lonely Timbers - Tire-toi une bûche Ends Sat, October 24

A TTRPG about French-Canadian lumberjacks in the early 20th century. Un JDR des bûcherons québécois du début du XXe siècle

Lonely Timbers is bilingual, and about an very specific historic time in Canada. It's a 3-6 player re-playable one-shot. A game about a group of men both physically and socially isolated. It explores the stories of men who worked in the camps in northern Québec.

by Genesis of Legend Publishing (Jason Pitre)

Sine: A Story Driven RPG Ends November 6th

The new science-fantasy TTRPG set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by an alien invasion. Quick action with a cinematic focus.

SINE is set on Earth in an alternate future where humanity has been all-but-obliterated by a strange alien race known as the Stock. You take on the role of a Catalyst, a genetically engineered super-soldier clone, whose mission is to help reestablish human society twenty years after the initial invasion.

It's D6 system makes you feel like you're a part of a high-budget television show.

by Ox Games

Fetch My Blade: A Solo Journaling RPG Ends Oct 15th (Today?!)

You are the dog of a retired legendary master, tasked to retrieve your master's blade in time for their final duel. For 1-4 Players.

by Hitpoint Press

CATaclysm: The Tome of Meowgic (not launched - yet)

Maximize your Meowgical might with this supplement to the CATaclysm Roleplaying game! Original CATaclysm RPG with every pledge!

Class level, d10, Magical warior cats and Cat PUNS!

by Akinji Entertainment

_____________________________________________________________________________

My game is God-Killer Prophecy Oracle edition. It has been refined over 3 years of play!

More info:

QA Session from Random Worlds talking about both GKP and Star-Killer.

Video Overview - with examples from a recent game at Tabletop Scotland!

To give a bit more specifics the game is about the party's adventure in an SAO style MMO game, the game is run by a group of AI gamemasters who control NPCs and on the spot weave new stories for the players as they see fit (although the players don't know this in character).

It's meant to be a nebulous sandbox style campaign where I use the different AIs as muses for storylines and quests

this setup is meant to allow for a wide birth of possible systems as the only requirements be that the notion of "the characters are actively choosing their progression and can see their HP and shit" wouldn't cause much conflict. Though for this I'm looking for something a bit more gamified and less narrative (like DND 4e or Beacon, both of which are contenders for system of choice rn)

I mean of course it might be more exciting to be a part of supernatural but cmon being a badass who hunts supernatural sounds cool to me. Want to try it or at least read the book when will have spare time.

I'm trying to make a JRPG/LitRPG-inspired B/X hack. I chose B/X as a chassis for my game because it's easy to make classes for, but I'm looking to make classes that are more powerful and feature-rich than standard B/X. To that end, I asked around for B/X clones or B/X adjacent games that have the powerful classes I'm looking for, and one of the games I was directed to was Fantastic Heroes and Witchery. From what little preview there was, it looks to be promising, but I have two questions that need to be answered before I decide whether to invest or not:

1. What OSR system is Fantastic Heroes and Witchery compatible with? (The game doesn't say whether it was built from or compatible with B/X)
2. Are there systems for creating classes, races, monsters, and spells for Fantastic Heroes and Witchery? (I want to be able to create custom powers and special abilities.)

SO RN I'm making a custom PBP system based on an anime (Chainsaw Man) and am doing the lore for the game, but there's one single problem I don't know if I'm adding too much or if it's not enough, so I just wanted y'all's opinions on this (Especially those with the same problems)

The campaign I am currently DMing is ending and I've made three primers for my players to vote on, but I'm not sure if I want to run them in D&D 5e anymore. Please suggest me a different system for each one. I have some ideas already, but I want your opinion. All primers are from D&D settings, but I could adapt if the system proposed has a cool setting too.

Primer 1: Dalelands campaign (Forgotten Realms)

Moander, the god of corruption and decay, was defeated centuries ago, and his body was abandoned in the elven forest of Cormanthor. However, recent signs of corruption suggest he is preparing his return. A group of elves is tasked with warning the elven houses and rallying them against this threat, but first, they must earn the leaders' trust.

Touchstones: Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Game of Thrones, Princess Mononoke, Lord of the Ring. All stories with a looming threat, corruption and a hero(es) that need to gather support to save the realm, while fighting the agents of evil.

Maybe the scope of this campaign is too big. I would want to make traveling and exploring an important part.

Primer 2: Darkon (Necropolis)

After centuries of imprisonment within the Mists, the lich-king Azalin Rex has escaped from Darkon. The gods (which ones?) send their champions to Darkon to overcome the traps and minions Azalin left behind and to reverse the ritual that enabled his escape, before the demi-plane—now a Necropolis—self-destructs.

Touchstones: Zelda Majora's Mask, Diablo II, Castlevania, Elden Ring, Darkest Dungeon, Warlock (the new D&D game). Video games with cool bosses and a dark vibe.

This would be a time loop campaign, very video game-ish. I want to have a doom machine set up by Azalin that is causing changes to occur, like turning everyone undead mid-loop. Maybe that's too complex...

Primer 3: Hall of Concordance (Planescape)

To enforce the terms of cosmic contracts, the Multiverse’s Ministry of Justice tracks down and punishes violators across Sigil, the Outlands, and beyond. To do so, they employ a new generation of Inevitables—android automatons that, for the first time, possess a soul.

Touchstones: Robocop, Detroit: Become human, The Good Place, Brazil, Loki TV show. Medias with overly complex bureaucracy, humor, gods plotting and running things, or stories about androids fighting their algorithm and showing their human side.

For this campaign, the players would all be robots, chasing culprits of some multiverse crime, monster of the week style. There would be a corrupt law system sub-plot when the players get back to their office. A question would be if the players follow the law and abide by the system, or overthrow it.

Let me know if you think of anything cool!

I'm not affiliated or a backer, but the third attempt to crowdfund the mechs vs. monsters RPG Eldritch Automata is live, and it's got a great goal.

It's an Evangelion-style game that uses Free League's Year Zero Engine. The first time it was on Kickstarter it didn't hit its funding goal—I think because they set a realistic, pretty-high goal, which can spook people. The second try was on BackerKit, and it hit something like $140,000.

But then the publisher, Gehenna Gaming, imploded, and apparently the CEO and founder disappeared with the campaign's funds.

Now the game's designer has launched a rescue campaign on Kickstarter, that's going to send a free corebook (not including shipping and handling) to the previous campaign's backers.

Here's the campaign, which launched a couple days ago and hit its modest funding goal, but I suspect it's going to need a lot more support.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nickfrancia/eldritch-automata-from-the-ashes

Hello folks of the RPG Subreddit! I was twiddling my thumbs and decided to use some of my free time to create something that is probably entirely unneccessary, but I have skills and use them to mostly make my life easier! So, I present to you my Random Toon Generator (ACME Patent Pending)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hNKvtDwBJi_ynhQ9DdWFrQ5epJ-l_r-ui121sYTLiIo/edit?usp=sharing

It's not quite got everything on it, but could be good if you are creating a bunch of NPCs for a Toon world, or running a Toon one-shot!

Suggestions welcomed, though I regularly forget that Reddit exists!

I wrote a blog post that started as “how would I run a solo Jedi game,” but I think the core idea fits other RPGs just as well/better than it fits Star Wars.

OSR games are already about the choice to fight: reaction rolls, morale, and the knowledge that combat is dangerous and often the worst option. What I find is usually missing is a middle ground. Once swords are out, it’s typically a binary choice: reduce HP to 0, kill them, or flee/surrender.

So the post sketches a sliding scale. You choose a goal (disarm, injure, or kill) and an approach (careful or decisive), then make one roll. Killing is easy. Mercy is hard, and when it fails, it fails in a direction you chose: careful failures leave the problem with you, while decisive failures cost the other person more than you meant them to.

I think it suits games where violence has real consequences, like when the bandit you spared tells his friends, or the guard you killed had a family in town, without forcing every fight into a fight to the death. It also extends to deflecting attacks and to magic, which the post covers.

It’s system-agnostic and a relatively rough idea, but can be applied to a broad range of games. Would love to hear what you think!

Hey there friends.

I'm a long-time GM, and I've ran a number of systems throughout my time. I'm looking for some more to try out, and I'm itching for recommendations!

I'm currently running three Delta Green games (God's Teeth, Control Group, and a home concoction from The Labyrinth) and it's by far been my most enjoyed system.

I've also ran Call of Cthulhu, Mothership, a number of Mork Borg hacks, Shadow of the Demon Lord (and Wierd Wizard), and soon to be a one-shot with the Sleepy Hollow TTRPG.

I love horror most of all, if it wasn't clear, and I'm hoping to find systems in different settings to try out. Delta Green is phenomenal and it has my contemporary settings on lock, but I'm wanting to wade back into fantasy and sci-fi. I have the ALIEN RPG in my sights for sci-fi, but other recommendations are welcome too.

I don't have a high preference on anything, other than GM support. The only thing I truly ask for is enough GM support to make it enjoyable to learn and run.

Thank you!

Hello!

I'm thinking about starting a game based on Ace Combat style - so more cinematic, dogfighting game with jets.

Any system recommendations? I saw the earlier threads, but most of them are quite old and all recommend Warbirds (I tried giving it a chance, but it didn't click... Tho I liked the initiative idea) so... Are there any "new" systems to try it?

I noticed that most rules-lite genre-agnostic game engines tended to skew Narrativist (for understandable reasons), so I decided to make a Simulationist alternative. I like to think of it as a sort of GURPS-ultra-light, but the mechanics are more closely derived from FUDGE.

Edit: If I've set it up correctly, the core game mechanic should be thoroughly explained in the free preview. The rest of the document is basically just explaining how to build a setting and characters at the right level of detail to operate that mechanic.

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/golden-achiever/year-100-million-b-c

I'm not affiliated with this, I just dig it. There was a sort of beta test of this game along with a short adventure in The International Player's Review that was a lot of fun. It's an anachronistic, paleolithic, rules-light, procedure-smart game. To give you a vibe: your characters only have two gear slots because pockets aren't invented yet, and you have to talk to each-other in three-word sentences. From the creator's own words elsewhere:

Hey! This is live now. A wildly historically inaccurate prehistoric rpg. Based on Into the Odd. Rules are easy to learn and the game comes with a big wilderness sandbox and a bunch of generators for millions of years worth of play. Completely made by one person, me.

You can download the Primitive Edition (quickstart) for free on DTRPG:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/586721/year-100-million-b-c-primitive-edition

Edit: I should mention that the rules are super short, most of the zine is a big sandbox adventure. If you've already got a favourite game to run stone age shenanigans in then this is still 95% usable for the adventure sites and random tables.

Online I often read about "player stance" where a Player thinks and speaks in-character for a single PC, compared to "author stance" where one or more Players discuss how they want the story to develop.

Sometimes the "author stance" is meta-game strategizing. Sometimes it is cooperative world-building.

Those contrasting phrases always felt a bit odd. After all, if I am writing a novel I will often shift into "player stance" when writing about what a single character is thinking, saying, and doing -- but I remain the novel's author even at those times.

Today at the ttrpg table I noticed one friend (who has never discussed these issues) had a different vocabulary. She would quite clearly use a contrast between "I will..." and "Let's..."

When she used variants of "I will..." (perhaps with less certainty "What if I...?" or "I could...") it might be brainstorming as her PC, declaring her PC's action, having her PC signal or share knowledge with another PC, etc.

When she used variants of "Let's..." (perhaps with less certainty "What if we...?" or "We could...") it was never declaring an action unless the GM had specifically asked her to contribute to cooperative world-building. It was always exploring options, and her language always made it clear if this was something being brainstormed by the PCs in-character or some meta-gaming strategizing.

What are your stories about a Player who has naturally noticed the distinction between "I will..." and "Let's..." and used it effectively?

I am running a game of Lancer Battle Group. only one problem, out side of ship to ship engagements characters and roleplay is almost comically basic. I want to run a game similar to classic star trek or battle star galatica. With ship/fleet politics and commanders hashing out issues over call rather than exclusively through guns. I also want to occasionally do ground expeditions with a potential for science and brutal but quick combat. I've thought of completely homebrewing something basic but wanted to ask around to see if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks in advanced!

I've been struggling finding a Friday night game I feel a part of on Start Playing. I love the concept though because I am too lazy to leave my house to meet up and would rather stay home to play.

So I signed up for a game early September and the DM seems really involved. He and I created a character on Roll 20 not using the charactermancer but instead manually entered every detail. He did that with the other 3 players. Then 1 of the players in a different campaign the DM runs acted out in one so he 86d this player from our group. Ok 1st week delayed. But no one joined so we couldn't start. The DM indicates we need 4 players to begin. Period. Now after a month we have 4 players but the new development is a player quit because he doesn't like rolls 20. We are back to waiting again.

I've waited to play 5 or 6 weeks now. At this point my expectations are so fucking high for this game it's insane. I feel like I deserve a HJ just to finish the 1st session if that ever happens.

How long would you wait for a campaign to begin. Or am I being a baby about it.

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is excited for the upcoming fair next week!

For those of us attending, preparation is the key - plan is made, hand luggages are emptied, bank accounts are already whimpering - it’s gonna be a ton of fun.

I got my tickets way in advance, and for all 4 days. And yet, unfortunately, life decided to get in my way. In the end, I won’t be able to visit during the 1st day.

If you know someone who is interested to visit on 22.10, feel free to send me a message :)

Otherwise, I wish everyone to have an amazing time at the fair next week <3

I'm a psychology student currently exploring tabletop role-playing games as a potential subject for my undergraduate thesis. I've been reading academic research on the topic, particularly regarding wellbeing, self-confidence, and personal development, and I believe there's a lot more to understand about the psychological processes involved.

Through my own observations, I've seen players become more confident, less inhibited, and more comfortable expressing themselves. I'd like to investigate what might explain these experiences and whether they extend beyond the gaming table.

I'm looking for a focused, researchable question that goes beyond simply asking whether RPGs are beneficial, while remaining grounded in psychological theory and evidence.

For those familiar with tabletop RPGs or the existing research, what aspects of the hobby do you think deserve more serious psychological investigation?

As we get closer to the end of the year, I want to hear about every ones games.

What games have you played this year? What did you like/dislike about it? How are you campaigns going?

I ran:

Dragonbane sandbox hexcrawl for about 17 sessions, it was a lot of fun but my players and myself really wanted to get back into a more narrative focused campaign. We also didn't really enjoy doing a hexcrawl as much as we thought we would, even though Dragonbane is a fantastic system. I did run a 5 session campaign with Dragonbane too.

Orbital Blues: I ran about 4 sessions before it fizzled out, mostly because one of my players had an emergency and had to stop the game for a bit, and I just kinda lost steam on it. Otherwise a great system.

Grimwild: CE Edition: Currently running this system. Love, love, love it. Really found my stride as a GM with this system, players really enjoy the narrative driven games. Only got to run about 3 sessions so far, but love it so much.

I played:

Traveller: Character creation is so fun, I think its a great system but the GM that was running it was not great unfortunately. So I don't think I got to fully experience it.

Nimble: Great, fast paced system, definitely a great alternative to DnD if you want something lighter. Fun campaign with a first time GM.

Hi, I'm new to the rpg community and I need some help to find a few websites for games.

To make a long story short, I made my own set of rules with some of my friends so we could play, but that has making a few problems for us to find websites that were customizable enough to play our games.

Basically, I've been wondering if there is any map builder that is fairly easy to use (and that does not involve AI lol) and a website that could make the whole damage calculation much easier (I've currently made a phyton code to do them, but I feel running and modifing the code as the party levels up slows all the fights to an anoying level).

I'd be very thankful if you had any resources for this, and even if you don't, thank you for reading :]

Does anyone have any experience of the recently released Blunderbuss rpg? (Link.) I've looked at the quickstart and it seems very light indeed. What's in the rest? Is there much more to it?

Disco Elysium started out as a tabletop RPG and theirs was pretty neat:

Intellect (INT) — Reasoning & Knowledge

• Logic (deduction and rational conclusions)
• Encyclopedia (factual knowledge about the world)
• Rhetoric (debate, persuasion, and spotting flawed logic)
• Drama (lying, acting, and detecting deceit)
• Conceptualisation (art, abstract ideas, and pattern recognition)
• Visual Calculus (reconstructing crime scenes and spatial physics)

Psyche (PSY) — Intuition & Emotion

• Volition (mental fortitude and self-control; governs Morale)
• Inland Empire (gut feelings, surreal imagination, and premonitions)
• Empathy (understanding and feeling other people's emotions)
• Authority (assertiveness, dominance, and command)
• Esprit de Corps (police instinct and brotherhood with precinct)
• Suggestion (charm, charisma, and subtle influence)

Physique (FYS) — Strength & Stamina

• Endurance (physical toughness and stamina; governs Health)
• Pain Threshold (withstanding physical and emotional pain)
• Physical Instrument (brute force and raw muscle)
• Electrochemistry (cravings, pleasure-seeking, and substance affinity)
• Shivers (visceral awareness of the city around you)
• Half Light (fight-or-flight, panic, and threat recognition)

Motorics (MOT) — Coordination & Agility

• Hand/Eye Coordination (dexterity and manual precision)
• Perception (noting small physical details in your environment)
• Reaction Speed (reflexes, quick wit, and fast answers)
• Savoir Faire (athletic style, parkour, and smoothness)
• Interfacing (repairing, fine motor control, and handling objects)
• Composure (keeping your cool and hiding your inner turmoil)
• (source: gamefaqs)

Since Seven Havens started I've been rewatching both Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra and toying with the idea of a game in those worlds.

However the official game is not for me/not for our group, so I'm wondering what else people would recommend?

I'm planning my <edit> online <\edit> group's Halloween one-shot/two-shot, and I'm seeking out underrated or lesser-known sci-fi horror adventures (and systems, too). Specifically:

• No official Mothership modules (third party's fine).
• No official ALIEN adventures (fan-made ones are fine, if there are any).
• No official Delta Green operations (fan-made ones are fine, since there are literally over a thousand of those).

One lesser-known sci-fi horror game I'll nominate is Laughing Kaiju's The Zone, an online (and physical) Stalker/Annihilation-like GMless game about traveling (and losing yourself in) an alien Zone in search of a wish granter hidden in its center. Half a decade after playing it, my players still rave about and reference the strange and dramatic encounters.