A while back I asked for some good podcasts under 5 people and while I found some good ones, most of seemed to focus on dumb jokes and ooc talk, which I am not into at all. I want to listen to a ttrpg and be invested in a story, not listen to some guys talk about gencon. So, any suggestions for me?

I can usually tell what a game expects us to do when somebody draws a sword. I'm much less sure what it expects us to do the morning after.

A few sessions into a recent campaign, our group helped evacuate a flooded town. Great session. Next week we wanted to know whether people had come back, who was running things now, how far word of what we'd done had spread, and whether the damaged bridge would be repaired before winter.

We had very specific rules for what happens if you fall off that bridge. Almost nothing to help us figure out what happens to the town when its only bridge is gone.

And sure, we could improvise all of that. We did. But it made me realize how much of the actual experience of running a campaign lives in the gaps between the procedures the book gives you.

I'm not asking for a tax return minigame. I just wish more core books showed what an ordinary week looks like in their game. Who decides what changes offscreen? How much time passes? What happens to relationships, obligations, factions, livelihoods?

Blades in the Dark's downtime and Pendragon's winter phase are two examples that come to mind. Even a game whose answer is "skip that stuff and start the next job" is telling me something useful about how it's meant to be played.

I don't need every game to simulate daily life. I just want to understand its rhythm without having to invent that part myself.

Which RPGs do you think handle the time between adventures particularly well?

Warning: needlessly long effort-post. Feel free to ignore the navel gazing.

Let me start by contradicting myself: you don't have to take it seriously. You can do whatever you want! I do feel passionately about this, though. Nothing has been more rewarding for me than taking roleplaying more seriously. It's sort of like going from microwave dinner to learning how to smoke brisket.

Taking things seriously requires a some effort. It also requires a little bit of discomfort. At some point, playing pretend becomes uncool and fully committing to being a different character is a vulnerable act. So start with a group of likeminded people and build each other's confidence up.

Before I get into the tips, let's start with how I define roleplaying: using your imagination to inhabit the mind, senses, feelings, and direct the actions of a character. This activity is what separates "roleplaying" games from boardgames, card games, and even the wargames that spawned the hobby.

Roleplaying is both the goal and the reward.

"I thought fun was the reward?" Sure, but you can have fun watching a football game or playing UNO. Besides, "fun" is highly subjective. I'm more interested in the very meaningful experiences that roleplaying offers. Fun is nearly guaranteed if we're all invested in the roleplaying game. (Failure might not feel fun, but can be extremely rewarding than succeeding at everything you try)

"Isn't it collaborative storytelling?" This is a sort of rectangle vs square issue. All roleplaying is collaborative storytelling in the sense that it happens but not all collaborative storytelling is roleplaying. That is, you can have a collaborative storytelling experience with zero roleplaying.

On to the tips or how I think you can get the best experience out of roleplaying:

1. Be respectful and kind to one another- This means paying attention to each other, sharing the spotlight, minimize interruptions, being honest with your rolls, and not making an effort to subvert the experience of others. Be respectful of everyone's time! This means making an effort to dedicate time you know you can commit to and showing up on time!
2. Stay in character as much as is comfortably possible and then push that comfort zone- It's impossible to be "fully in character" as we are all aware of the fact we are playing pretend. But if you can spend more time thinking about what your character might feel, think, or want in a given scenario, the easier it is to improvise what you choose to do. Try to picture the scene as much as you can in your mind. Place yourself in your character's shoes. Some people call this "connecting with the fiction. One helpful tip is to use character names and assume everything being said at the table is coming out of the character's mouth. Shift out of character planning and deliberation to in-character. Stay discrete with mechanics and avoid naming them out loud if possible (instead of "can I roll persuasion" simply describe how you persuade the NPC, prompting the GM to call for a roll). Avoid calling for rolls yourself if possible
3. Ask yourself, "What do you do?"- PbtA games like Stonetop have this as a sort of maxim, but place the onus on the GM to prompt the player with "What do you do?". Instead, I would encourage you the player to ask yourself that question.
4. Actions inspired by goals- Take a moment between sessions to reflect on your character's goals. Write down 3-5 of the things that keep your character moving so that you can refer to them during the session.
5. If you want to do it, you have to say it! - Don't "test drive" your actions. Instead, consider simply stating your intended action, "I move the log over to bridge the chasm, testing it to make sure it doesn't budge"
6. Anchor yourself- Avoid "floating head syndrome" where there are a bunch of talking heads. Start what you do with a brief description of what you are doing and where you are. "I sit down next to the patron and tap the table before saying, "..."". This helps the other players and GM know how to picture what you are doing
7. Improv isn't out of nothing, build off of each other- It's no secret that improv actors seem to flourish in this space as there are many overlapping skills and techniques. One of them is thinking "yes, and..." or "no, but..." to what people are doing. Build off of the momentum of your fellow players. Expand on what they are doing. A rising tide of ideas raises all ships!
8. Keep it short! - This is where I might divorce from the critical roles or dimension 20's. When possible, try to keep it short.
9. Be honest with your character and embrace flaws- Does your character have social failings? Flaws? Failures of integrity? These are opportunities to both add depth to your character and create avenues for character development. Here's the supertip: let the other characters be a bridge to developing your character through interaction.
10. Play with descriptive control and co-creation- Co-creation is the act of adding details or facts to the world that the GM hasn't explicitly mentioned. For instance, the players explore a cave and one says, "I lean down, grab a fist sized rock, and toss it down the nearby pit". The player "co-created" that rock. This can extend to elements of the setting if agreed upon beforehand. (i.e. "Yeah, I heard of the Saladine Barony, they're known for their salt trading"). Before session one, try to clarify who gets to describe what. Consider allowing the player to describe what successes or failures, or both look like!
11. Embrace failure- the best stories come from adversity. Lean into failure and take risks.

Slightly more controversial tips but ones I've come to swear by:

1. Instead of asking the GM questions, cue the questions from your character's standpoint- Rather than, "Do I know this person?" to a floating GM head in the sky, consider stating, "I study his features to see if I recognize him" or "I rack my memory for what I know about him". This is very much taking advantage of the "show versus tell" style of exposition and keeping

2. Don't worry about immersion- it'll come. You don't have to prioritize it. You don't have to feel it. Don't let anyone make you feel bad if you don't "feel immersed" yet. Just focus on the actual things you can do and enjoy the experience!

3. Read the rules- It sounds trite but having some mastery of the rules as a character will save everyone time and avoid the next tip...

4. Ruling first, rules after- More a GM tip. In my opinion, the benefits of clarifying a rule by cracking open the book mid session are outweighed by interrupting the flow of play. I recommend simply stating your intention and letting the GM decide how to adjudicate it if the rule is uncertain.

5. Try ditching the minis and maps- Honestly, I don't think I've seen maps and minis add much in terms of clarity or reduction of questions. Usually it replaces one question with another, in my experience. I know folks love this aspect of the hobby, but give pure "theater of the mind" a try.

What are your favorite roleplaying tips, Reddit?

Community tips:

1. u/ithika has a great tip: " My roleplaying is pretty basic in the scheme of things. I like to start off with one thing. Everything is a reflection of the one thing." and using that single idea to develop your character out of it.
2. u/schillMcGuffin finds maps to be helpful. And, you know what? I agree that they absolutely can contribute to roleplaying.
3. u/Logen_Nein (best username in the thread) keeps it simple: "Just have fun"
4. u/thetruerift says "get to the point" and that's great advice! Sometimes folks think "talking in character" means to go on long monologues. Keep your descriptions, dialogue, and actions succinct! It keeps the session moving.
5. u/zerocool gives the excellent advice "Be a fan of the players" which applies as equally to your fellow players AND as a GM philosophy.
6. u/VianArdene gives some great tips on using voice and physical movement to aid in finding your character.
7. u/Kiliantill says to keep "yes and..." reasonable and offers some great advice on rewarding player creativity.
8. u/Airk-seablade points out rulesets matter and some rulesets might get in the way of roleplaying!

By that I mean the futuristic diplomacy, where many humans have become so advanced that they can reliably read body language, communicate with their allies with covert hand signals, imprint commands on a person with their voice, calculate large numbers in their mind and other such wackiness. This makes spycraft very complex without being too out there. It's a sort of subdued magic, where training and human evolution has pushed our limits rather than computers or aliens. And so I'm looking for a game like that, where social interactions are central and refined to a superhuman level.

TL/DR: Received Backer PDFs, eager to talk with other folks, but there's not a dedicated community for this yet. Looking for folks to talk about the game, rubber-duck my reading and analysis.

Did a quick search, only found discussion of using GURPS or other systems for the setting, not much talk about the official system. I received my PDFs last week, and it's a lot... more than I expected. How does one turn a third person cover-based looter shooter RPG/MMO into a tabletop game?

I'm not nearly smart enough to present opinions on mechanics and math, though I do appreciate inclusion of a table that shows odds of success for combinations of difficulty and dice pool size. The resolution system is interesting/concerning. Rolling a 1=crit fail? Cool. Below target= fail? That tracks. Rolling a 10 (max)= crit success? Absolutely. But only an exact match to target is a plain success; rolling over the target is a "Tour de Force", a success "plus". "Purely narrative...don't give mechanical effects..." but still the Coordinator/GM is supposed to narrate the effects granting the group more info, an "edge over the enemy" or some other narrative benefit/bonus, not just "you succeeded". Considering that a crit success has this AND a mechanical benefit, and the average target is 7; per the included probabilities table, I expect to be providing this narration about 60% of the time. Sounds like a big demand on the Coordinator to keep adding more.

I do like other elements; while it is a tactical game with positioning and cover mechanics, the TTRP is not purely combat. Significant emphasis is placed on elements like social networking with survivors, including foes when you may have to negotiate cease-fire. There's also a lot of focus on the psychological trauma Agents experience. Post-epidemic environment means not only are they going to see unpleasantness but sometimes have to be involved in it; going against individual or agency values means time required coming to terms with it, having discussions with squadmates to restore balance.

There's also a track for team cohesion; the more successful missions, and the more downtime spent socializing as a team, the better they'll perform. While XP is awarded individually, it can be pooled to purchase squad development and improvement. Individual advancement is a la cart; using earned XP to purchase specific Agent improvements, just as squad improvements can be purchased.

Gear/weapons/combat is... interesting to read. Not as granular as I expected, fairly abstract. All weapons of a given class have the same stats, so a coach gun is the same as a Beretta 1301; an FAL is the same as a CAR-15, a S&W 500 is the same as an FN Five SeveN. I see WHY they did it that way, but I'm not sure I love it on first read.

When the players are camping and their positioning is relevant for some reason, I'll sometimes put a red D4 onto the map to represent the campfire instead of drawing it. I was curious to know how common this is.

I use maps to communicate visual information in pretty much every game I run and have done it for years. Have you ever used a D4 to represent a fire?

There is some chance i'll be spending the next yeah or more in China, living and studying language. I am sure that Reddit is a wrong place to ask this, but still - i am aiming to continue my hobbies there and play TTRPGs (in English yet, later in Chinese).

Do you know if RPGs are played often, what systems and settings are popular there? What platforms to research?

Hi everyone!

I'm a forever DM in D&D, often introducing new or casual players to the game. I love the depth of D&D, but I've increasingly found it a poor fit for the majority of people I play with, for three main reasons:

1. Counter-intuitive mechanics: Too many different calculations, modifiers and rules that come up too infrequently for casual players to remember comfortably. It's always such a slog for checks and combat.
2. Combat discourages creativity: Players often have wonderful ideas for how to fight, but the mechanics tend to reward knowing your character's abilities rather than creatively using the environment, working together or roleplaying. Additionally, the "roll to hit" mechanic often times means spending your turn missing an attack and accomplishing nothing - which isn't particularly fun - would rather have a damage scale.
3. Hard to explain power scaling: A Character can go from struggling against a single bandit with a crossbow to defeating literally 10 of them within a month or two of in-game time. I'd prefer more grounded progression, although this is less important to me since I can always write it away with "oh special chosen born with X".

I think what I'm really looking for is a system where combat is mechanically simple, but tactically and creatively rich - while maintaining the deep dives of class and monster abilities etc.

For example, I love the idea of a single d20 roll determining the degree of success of an attack, rather than whether it hits at all. A low roll might be a glancing blow, while a high roll could be devastating.

But here's the important part for me: players should be able to improve their rolls through several different avenues, not just stats:

• Roleplay: Describing actions in character, leaning into their personality or motivations.
• Environment: Using terrain, objects and surroundings creatively.
• Teamwork: Setting up attacks, creating openings and combining actions.
• Character specialisation: Having a few distinctive abilities or perks that make each character particularly good at certain things.

Ideally, these would be mechanically meaningful rather than just flavour, so a player who comes up with a clever plan can achieve something just as impressive as someone who knows how to optimise their character build.

I'm not looking to eliminate dice rolls, character progression or tactical depth. I want to shift the focus away from remembering complicated mechanics and towards making interesting decisions in the moment.

Does a system like this already exist, or is there something close?

Something that captures the original delight and magic of your first introduction to fantasy books and RPGs.

Maybe I've just played a lot and the truly magical feeling(s) is just dulled nowadays, but is there a system and/or setting you feel helps capture that true delight you had when you read your first fantasy book and were taken a way to a land of magic?

I was looking through Cubicle 7's WH: The Old World products and noticed they sell a collection of 50 character sheets. Given that we can all print our own character sheets for any RPG, is there a compelling reason to purchase character sheets? Are there sheets that are of such high quality that we couldn't duplicate them ourselves? I'm talking about any RPG, not just WH: The Old World.

I'm currently being the Game Master for a Pathfinder Second Edition campaign, and my players would like to add some sort of Base Building mechanic into the game. The base game does come with some similar things such as building settlements or entire nations, but something with a smaller scale such as a standard barracks, fortress and so on tend to be treated as a loose narrative thing more than anything.

Are there games or supplements which you like that have a fun and engaging base building mechanic? Both for the purposes of porting rules over into our table, and to learn about other systems which I haven't played yet to try out with my friends. Ideally, I'd prefer something which works in the context of a high fantasy setting, but it isn't mandatory.

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 be more specific: I would like to play an rpg where you roll dice a lot, not roll a lot of dice. Something like, you enter the tavern, roll to generate how many people there. Okay, now roll for any NPC you want to include into the scenario, their names, appearance, personality and the like. Talking to the weird thief in the corner? Roll for the social encounter. Oh what, you think that's only for conflict? No, roll those dice to see if the conversation is pleasant, if she gives you information or just tells you to get lost. And maybe the player would be rolling just one dice each time, but it would be very, very frequent.

So, the first question, is there any game that plays like this? I know the phrase "Don't roll for boring", but to be honest, I love rolling dice, even if it's just to see what my character is having for breakfast or if the room in the abandoned keep has plants growing there.

The second question, could this be achieved in any game with just a mentality change? Many of those rolls could be about the narrative, so any rpg with a story would work, I suppose. But I think I would enjoy a game that actively expects the player to roll a lot, for the big and for the small things.

Lastly, I have heard... things, about FATAL. I am not reckless enough to try that game. I just wanted to let that out of the way.

Thank you in advance.

So I played a game of Hunter the Reckoning recently and felt an absence of the push mechanic that I found out exists in the same edition of Vampire and Werewolf in differing ways. My personal first exposure to this concept was Blades in the Dark.

What I'm wondering is the first published game people can remember that had a push mechanic. For my personal definition it's an ability to possibly negate a poor skill check that is tied to a resource being spent to roll more dice. A counter example would be Adversity Tokens from the Kids on Bike system and it's derivatives. It's a different way to recover from a poorly rolled check but there is no further risk involved.

Hello everyone,

I plan on running The Shrike for my gaming group in the near-future, and I was wondering if anyone knows of or has created a more robust chart for generating Horned Masks that are worn by the devils of that disconnected layer of Hell. I'm sure the party is bound to come across and/or pilfer plenty of them as they journey through the campaign, and the chart included in the book is a little anemic.

I'm not above making them myself, but wanted to see if anyone else has already put in the work. I also wouldn't mind any other suggestions or useful aids to make GMing this particular campaign a little easier.

Thanks again,

For context - I've been running dnd for 8 years and dipped my toes into FATE and Candela Obscura.

I currently have a group of enthusiastic psychology students who want me to run some oneshots for them and expect it to be loosely psychology-adjacent. I have a degree myself, but not quite sure how to interpret this request.

It's clear that they aren't interested in dungeon crawl or heavy action, so I'm willing to explore more options focused more on social and introspective play, but don't know where to start.

Any suggestions? Preferably with some pre-written one-shots, but not required.

I want to introduce RPGs to less fortunate and educated folks who I've managed to teach a few board games but aren't great at creative or spatial reasoning and don't speak much english (translations don't help, fewer terms to reference does).

The point is to introduce them to another fun thing while keeping it as easy to dip their toes in the water as possible, while still having enough substance to feel like they are playing a game.

Just looking for suggestions! Would be awesome if you also explained what makes it accessible - for players specifically, even if that means heavier lifting for the GM.

EDIT: Here are things that cause difficulty for this target demographic - please read and consider these before mindlessly throwing out a random rpg name if you want to be helpful to the discussion - Too open ended - if their characters have nothing they are super lost and have no idea how to engage. Eg mothership. - RP and related solutions are extremely hard for them to come up with. - Fantasy, let alone sci-fi settings, have way too many specific terms and reference that make them inaccessible. - Having a lot of mechanics is FINE is the GM aka me bears all of the weight - the goal is to give the players mechanics they can engage with while keeping it as light for them as possible. Stat checks, saves etc are fine - stacking abilties, effects etc are not.

I'm a long time player, newer GM who is trying to up their performance. I'm only doing one shots right now, all from modules. I'm good at acting out the NPCs, doing different voices, remembering the rules, and reacting to the players' decisions (mostly). The areas where I'm seeking improvement are in pacing and getting lost where we're at/keep having to refer back to the module, which is "dead air" in the game and as a player I hate that.

What do you GMS here do to prep seamless, engaging sessions? If you're doing a prewritten module, do you write up notes for your game in your own words? I've considered trying that and adding a timeline that I track as we go through the action, so I'm aware of what's occurring in the background as the players are progressing (which would be useful in a game like Delta Green). Do any of you guys use notecards, or some other way of tracking things on the fly? I'd appreciate any advice!

I used to get a bunch of ads for them years ago and i was impressed how much money went into the stage production, but never ended up watching them

Is anyone aware of a list/generator with a bunch of supernatural events that could be part of a PC's background that may have led to them being interested in investigating the paranormal/triggered interest by a faction that might find them of use? Thanks in advance.

So, I started a new campaign with my group after a year hiatus and we were introducing a new member since one of our original friends moved away and he was getting really into our D&D-like ttrpg and of course I was happy, but after their first town, they just started killing every single thing they find </3

Movement in the bush? Fire bolt!

Band of goblins just sleeping? Fire bolt!

Elvish merchants? Fire bolt!

basically, if it had sentience, they'd pillage and kill em' don't get me wrong it's funny, they even had close calls in said combat encounters and we all had a good laugh about it, but I worry that at some point they're gonna grow accustomed to the murder hobo lifestyle and it might make the campaign more boring if they kill every NPC they find even slightly suspicious... Any tips fellow GMs?

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)

Hi everyone! I'm the creator of Hideous Hiss, a project making dark ambient music and atmospheric soundscapes for tabletop RPGs. My tracks cover horror, mystery, sci-fi, and dark fantasy, and are designed as seamless 10-minute loops for use during sessions.

My latest release is Thick as Night — a slow, uneasy piece built around a deep, steady hum and unnerving strings. Occasional timpani strikes and scattered low-string staccatos disturb the calm. It's intended for those moments when nothing seems to be happening, but the players can sense something is wrong.

Listen on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAQwbPBVn0A

If you'd like to use the track in your own games, you can get it here:

• DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/588819/Thick-as-Night--Dark-Ambient-Music
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hideoushiss — access the full music library and new releases.

I hope some of you find it useful for your next horror or investigation session!

So I keep seeing short format videos on various platforms where people pretend playing TTRPGs to usually humorous effect. I'm sure most people have seen these (not talking about actual play, but short joke videos about TTRPGs).

One thing that I've noticed occasionally happening is that the GM/DM/whatever has their screen upside down. I even remember seeing a video where the GM started the session by flipping the screen upside down, eliciting a clear reaction from the players around the table.

What's going on there? Clearly the upside down screen is code for something, but I have no idea what it's about or what it is referencing. Can anyone clarify the issue for me?