Before anyone immediately comments "have an adult conversation with your group" or "this should’ve been handled in Session 0", please hear me out. I’m not angry at them. They’re my closest friends. I just feel deeply, quietly pathetic.

I’ve been running our campaign for about seven months. Last week, I had what I thought was an inspired idea for their investigation in the capital. I spent my entire Sunday afternoon writing three separate in-world letters, printing them in calligraphy, staining them with black tea, and even sealing them with actual red wax. I felt so proud of it.

Fast forward to tonight. They finally breach the magistrate’s study where the letters were. I set the real wax-sealed props in front of them with a grin, expecting some gasp of excitement. The barbarian player glanced at them, didn't even break the seal, and went, "Can I just roll an Investigation check to see if the desk is expensive? I want to chop it up." Everyone laughed, the wizard cast Fire Bolt to distract the guards outside, and they moved on.

They didnt even pick the props up. I just quietly slipped them back into my folder while they spent 45 minutes debating whether to adopt a stray goat. I know it’s just a hobby with plastic dice, but man... do I just have completely unrealistic expectations, or is running a game always just an exercise in emotional masochism?

Kinda embarrassed to even type this out after running games for so long, but I need a reality check because I feel like a total fraud right now. I’ve been a forever DM for my group for about four years, almost exclusively running 5e and Pathfinder. Whenever the pacing dragged or I got mentally stuck, I’d just throw an ambush at them. Rolling initiative buys you an hour of game time where the system does teh heavy lifting for you.

Tonight we finally tried a Call of Cthulhu one-shot (The Haunting). No battlemaps, no tactical grid, just pure investigation and horror atmosphere. But about an hour in, my players tore through the library clues twice as fast as I planned, looked right at me, and asked "Where do we go next?" And my brain just completely flatlined.

I sat there in dead silence for two minutes, shuffling papers like an idiot. Without a monster stat block to drop onto a grid, I had zero clue how to maintain tension or improvise on the fly. I panicked so hard I basically fast-forwarded them to the basement and ended forty minutes early. has anyone else had this horrifying wake-up call when ditching combat, or am I just fundamentally bad at actual storytelling?

Hi! I just released my new game titled SQUIRE.

It's a dark, solo survival TTRPG. Think Star Wars Order 66 Survival meets Warhammer 40k. It's nearly 100 pages of gameplay, with unique character classes, unique villains to hunt you down, and optional journaling gameplay.

If you know the Carta SRD, you use a deck of cards to represent your fallen temple and do your best to make it through the wreckage, avoid (or overcome) attackers, and ultimately... escape! If you can.

Itch: https://bardlight.itch.io/squire

It's on sale for launch week to celebrate Halloween. I hope you check it out! You can use it to run a Star Wars adventure, if you want, or lean more 40k, or make a universe of your own somewhere in between - it's ultimately setting agnostic.

So they just announced a feature film based on iHunt. I am excited based on who they've got working on it. Dunno if this is allowed, but thought I would get other people's thoughts.

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/ihunt-killing-monsters-in-the-gig-economy-movie-1236930441/

Olá, sou novo no Reddit mas é que estou procurando o fandom de rpg em geral para saber sobre algo

Estou Traduzindo e juntando grande parte do conteúdo do Marvel Multiverse (Poderes, armaduras, armas e itens narrativos tudo em um livro geral e traduzido para pt-Br)

Queria saber se existe algum fandom em específico para que possa ver e me corrigir caso tenha algum erro

Não tenho nenhuma intenção de gerar monetização em cima só quero realmente jogar o jogo e unir o fandom BR

I have an obsession with playing classes that allow me to be a puppetmaster manipulating lil dudes for all sorts of things! From combat to puppet shows. I was inspired by anime like Karakuri Circus, Naruto, and Puppet Princess. Could anyone reccomend some games that have classes that would allow me to play out my fantasy? Please and thanks

There was a thread a couple of days ago that asked for a comparison of Sword World, Fabula Ultima and Twilight Sword. But I think the more interesting comparison would be between Sword World and Last Arc Tactics Analogue.

FabU is structured very differently from SW (narrative focus and creating a world together) while Twilight Sword seems to closely emulate a Zelda universe. I think they fill different niches and won't compete too much with each other.

So the closest competitor to Sword World would be Last Arc Tactics Analogue, right? Both are trying to bring a more simulationist, flexible version of JRPGs to life, and both are currently running their campaigns for an English release.

What do you think? How similar or different are the two, and which one should people back?

I've been thinking about the difference between a villain and an antagonist in tabletop RPGs.

When the party encounters an evil necromancer raising an army of undead, the situation is pretty straightforward. The players might disagree about how to stop them, but generally everyone agrees they need to be stopped.

The characters I find more interesting are the ones who stand in the party's way for perfectly understandable reasons.

Imagine a city official refusing to open the gates during a plague, even though the party desperately needs to get inside. Or a village leader refusing to let adventurers investigate an ancient ruin because the last group that went there got half the village killed.

Neither person is necessarily corrupt, stupid or secretly working for the villain.

They're protecting something they genuinely believe is worth protecting.

And suddenly the players have a more complicated problem than figuring out which weapon does the most damage.

Of course, there's a fine line here. An NPC who refuses everything regardless of what the players say is just a frustrating roadblock. The interesting part is giving them understandable motives and allowing the players to change their mind, negotiate or find another solution.

I especially like when the party initially hates an NPC, then gradually realizes that they would probably make the same decision in that person's position.

So I'm curious about actual experiences from your tables.

What's the most memorable antagonist you've played against or run who wasn't really a villain?

And did the players eventually come to understand them, or did they end up fighting anyway?

Okay so, I would say I am somewhat experienced with d100 systems. I have played CoC 6e and 7e, WFRP 2e and Mothership. I have read (not played) CoC 1e, WFRP 4e and Dark Heresy 2e.

My reasons for listing these is recently I was considering picking up more d100 systems but looking back at it I find that they are different but not better then the other systems I own (in my opinion), they offer a higher degree of granularity when it comes to results, so you can have systems with a higher degree of granularity.

I like CoC because its the first ttrpg I have ever played but I consider Mothership to be much more elegant and interesting mechanically speaking. WFRP and Dark Heresy really benefit from the setting, though WFRP has a cool thing going on with their occupations.

But like, what are the strengths of d100 games I am missing?

Hello!

I have recently been thinking about building my own TTRPG system and was looking for inspiration from other ttrpg systems. I have a basic idea of how I want the system to run, but really want to look what other systems are currently out there with similar mechanics to gather a bit of inspiration.

I have been very interested in systems using cards for randomization as i believe such a system could lead to very engaging and strategic combat. Although I would like to use dice for resource tracking, although a pencil and eraser would do just as well. As such, I would like to look into systems and see how they have integrated cards into the mechanics of the game to figure out ways to stock my skill tree.

I am also very interested in using skill trees rather than classes, although a point buy system may also be a reasonable option for me. I want to learn how other designers have balanced the scaling of abilities in skill tree based systems. My specific idea is to have 2 separate skill trees, one relating to physical attributes and one relating to mental attributes, but I would place a little crossover between the 2, such as placing some physical abilities with a mental requirement or mental abilities with a physical requirement.

Thank you in advance for any of the systems you can point towards.

It is one i remember seeing on itch.io and it looks incredibly fun. But i cant remember the name of it. Can you guys please help me find it?

Me and my wife are fans of classic horror and slasher films, so for Halloween season we invited a couple of friends over to our house for a game of Shiver (https://www.parablegames.co.uk/pages/shiver), with myself as the Director (GM). I bought the Slasher starter set a year ago but only just got around to running a game with it. I have to say it has a lot of potential in its premise but I was very disappointed. I really did want to enjoy it but for a roleplaying game based on surviving a slasher film, the stakes were very low for the characters and combat was very boring when it did happen. The mechanics themselves did not seem to live up to the theme of the game. And running the included one-shot was difficult with errors in the text and on the character sheets, and very little room for improvising the story based on PCs actions and choices.

Has anyone else tried it? Was there anything you did to improve the game?

Granted I bought this some time ago and I know a Cryptid module has just been released so I do not know if there are any changes in the game to improve the aspects I found to be not enjoyable.

In future if I want to run a horror film themed game I will probably just homebrew something in Call of Cthulhu which is my go-to TTRPG.

I slowly submit to the fact that I rather collect games/books than actually play them (due to a lack of mostly time and no friends who are into TTRPGs). So I was thinking whether it is time for me to order another book while I wait for the next KS to fulfil.
With Halloween at the horizon, the question is probably which horror-themed rpg I should buy - so the two mentioned ones are on my radar now.

The question:
1) which one would you recommend and why?
2) as I prefer rather rules heavy games or games with intricate systems, which one should I select and why?
3) is there a game which I should consider outside of the mentioned ones?

We all enjoy playing roleplaying games, that's why we're here.

But there are plenty of other reasons to enjoy a roleplaying game, besides actually playing it.

Worldbuilding, art, stories, dissecting mechanics.

What are your favourite games, if you don't account for actually playing the game? Doesn't mean you DON'T enjoy playing the game, just that you enjoy it for other reasons aswell.

11 years ago my crew and I sat down and used Dawn of Worlds to collaboratively make a campaign world. Then we played in it over three campaigns and over 100 sessions.

By making the world together including the species, cultures, factions, monsters, heroes of old, and more, everyone was invested.

People made characters with the species they created. They fell in love with each other’s monsters and wanted to fight them or harvest them. When I showed a monster, the creator would say, “Oh s%#*!” because they knew how tough they made it. And when one campaign ended and we advanced the world timeline by 40 years they knew intimately how to pick up the pieces.

Well, the world may have run its course. I can of course pick Dawn of Worlds up again. But I’m curious if people have other cooperative world/setting creation games you’d recommend.

Hey all, I am for all intents and purposes a total newbie, and have been drafted by my family into GMing RPGs. Exciting? Maybe, trying to learn a lot quickly in preparation.

My personal preference is higher-lethality/higher-consequences systems, but I am looking for some concrete examples of GMs killing off PCs and dealing with the consequences (roll a new character? OK, but how is she integrated into the game in progress? how do you handle the psychology at the table?).

I've looked, but haven't found an actual play podcast where the GM actually lets a PC die. Not in countless Mörk Borg APs, not in Cairn APs. Can anyone provide some tips, or some links, to study materials?

I know about Hollows and I really like what they are cooking with it as far as what a tabletop soulslike could be. But I’m interested to hear if there are games where money, leveling experience etc is tied to the same value or currency.

It feels like Deadlands is the D&D of the Weird West genre. It dominates the space so completely that it's hard for other games to gain oxygen. I'm trying to get a vibe check on whether people would still be interested in a different Western setting TTRPG. As players and GMs, do you feel like there's still a hunger for indie alternatives in this specific subgenre, or do games like Weird Frontiers or Fistful of Darkness already fill the gaps for people wanting a different system? If you were to back a new Western/supernatural Kickstarter, what would it have to bring to the table to differentiate itself?

I'm thinking of hunting down old Cyberpunk 2020 manuals, and I noticed that DriveThruRPG offers print-on-demand editions of the catalogue.

How do they compare to the original books? I don't plan on collecting everything, so I'm wondering whether it's better to hunt for second-hand copies or order the titles I'm interested in from DriveThruRPG. I'd especially appreciate feedback from anyone who's seen both versions in person, particularly regarding paper quality.

I'm looking for a TTRPG system or setting with specific characteristics:

1. It should be mecha or military sci-fi (or something adjacent) with a focus on warfare.
2. The player characters belong to a larger organization or military hierarchy that may have ulterior motives towards the player characters.
3. (Bonus) Not a hard requirement, but it would be nice if the system has explicit rules for relationships and bonds between player characters and NPCs or other player characters.

Basically, I'm looking for a TTRPG that can model the intrigue and dramatic elements associated with mecha or military sci-fi fiction.

Hey,

i've tried to figure it out myself, but I failed. I'd be very thankful for some opinions.
I have never played Deadlands but I need to run a 4-5 hour game for some friends in a few month and thought Deadlands might be fun.

1. This is a one time thing. I don't want to spend 10 hours reading rules. My players won't. Which version should I play? I assume, the newest?

2. I looked up some one shots and "Guess Who's Coming to Donner?" looked fun. But I think it is written only for Deadlands Reloaded. I assume thats not compatible with Deadlands: Weird West (2026).

3. Any opinion what system + oneshot would work well? Should I just not play Deadlands an look for something more rules-light?

Thank you:)

This question is mostly focused at folks who migrated off of DnD into another fantasy system. I only anchor that point as DnD (traditionally) set a very rigid leveling system…EXP charts.

Over time if seems to me that many systems now lean more Milestone centric and I’ve migrated to that method as well since I left DnD.

My question is what does your group feel is the “sweet spot” for leveling? Whether you measure that by encounters (social/puzzle/combat/etc), hours of play, sessions of play, or something else. 

And I appreciate that each game system and each group of people have their own goals and visions, just polling the community on what you guys do.

Right now my group levels up about every session for Level 1->2 and 2->3. About every 1.5 sessions to around 6. Then continue to slowly stretch that out until it’s about every 3 sessions by the mid teens. We only get to play 1-2 times a month and occasionally get a marathon session. Under this timing we can do a moderately sized campaign to the early teens in about 2 years. That feels about the right timing to make new characters, swap GMs, and move on to a new campaign/world.

Thanks for sharing.

Hey Bois
I'm looking for suggestions on systems where firearms (modern ones, preferably) are the core of the game's combat, anyone got any leads?

Some that I already know are Twilight 2000 and Cyberpunk

I'd like to see other options since I'm making a system of my own, but the current version is way too slow if you don't use a tool to calculate DCs, I'd like to try and develop alternatives.

That doesn't boil down to just rolling a akill check now and then + resource management.

It should ideally provide actual non-trivial dilemmas for the Players.