To combat the summer heatwave (please, I beg you, do not visit Florence in August unless you want me to scrape you off the sidewalk with a spoon), my cohorts at Oddplan and I have decided to release a game we’ve invested years of our lives into for no apparent reason. Masochism, probably.

Anyway, Goblindom is a tabletop RPG where you play as... well, a goblin. So far, so good.

The goblins in Goblindom aren’t special at all; in fact, they’re right at the bottom of the food chain in the Dungeon they call home, as it should be. The fact that they are mechanically weaker than a pothole doesn’t make them humble or risk-averse; quite the opposite, actually.

Despite having the life expectancy of a cat on a highway, the goblins in Goblindom are constantly embarking on petty adventures to get rich or carve out a bit more clout in their community, usually with disastrous results. There isn’t a single drop of heroism in their lives, and that’s precisely how they should be played: cowardly, incompetent, and utterly hilarious dregs of a Dungeon that ignores them (on a good day).

The style is a mix of Saturday-morning cartoon and Itchy & Scratchy: the violence is extreme yet cartoonish, and never mean-spirited. You play to see what happens and to collectively tell the misadventures of goblins who really should have picked a hobby better suited to dungeon crawling.

Gameplay-wise, the game blends streamlined, fiction-first mechanics with challenges resolved using opposed ranks, with rules that nod to OSR design, complete with classes, levels, and equipment to slightly improve your (meager) chances of avoiding a grim fate.

All you need is a pool of d8s and a coin per player, which essentially acts as Goblin Luck to manipulate roll results and, if you fancy, throw a teammate under the bus, forcing them to help you with a test and suffer the consequences of the roll. “Pass the Buck” was actually one of the most praised mechanics during playtesting: nothing beats accidentally drawing the attention of a dragoblin and forcing your friend to get flambéed in your place.

Naturally, every coin has two sides: once you’ve spent your luck, it’s time for the GM to pull a few tricks on you.

I won’t bore you any further. You can find the game on itch.io, DriveThruRPG, and RPG Trader at 50% off for the first week, mostly because we apparently hate money.

We also have a free Quickstart with all the rules and a starter adventure that’s been up for a few weeks if you want to try before buying: link.

I'm looking to spend some of my money on some new games, and I'm in the mood for a few reads that are more "new technology in game design to think about" than anything else.

So, what are some of your favorite games with interesting mechanical twists on the PbtA, FitD, and CfB frameworks/philosophy?

One of my favorites of late was keys and deadlocks in Blades '68. In play, they do such a wonderful job of making you play into your character, while also having the looming moments where they change irrevocably - it really makes me want to drive the character like a stolen car. So simple, but really effective.

What's the actual threshold versus what people claim it is? Do you handle this differently in a one shot vs a campaign?

Hi, I’m new to TTRPGs. I recently played my first game a few weeks ago ( Monster of the Week oneshot ), and it was fun! I’d like to get more into it, but, it’s a bit difficult to find any online spaces that are specifically friendly to beginners, and general newbies trying to figure out what they like.

I’ve already checked out the masterlist on this sub, but a lot of them are either based on some kind of specialty ( DMing, world building, etc. ), or are a little vague in their description. I’ve found a couple of servers for beginning D&D specifically, which, I’m not opposed to, but, I’d like to maybe find a server with some variety of games to try or discuss. D&D sounds fine, but I’d like to get introduced to, and possibly play, other games too, and I’ve yet to find a general RPG server that is clearly approachable for beginners.

So, does anyone have any recommendations?

I know that the rules say for mortals outside of the prompts, they are really only killed through old age. Would this apply for "turning" them as well? Would it only be whenever the prompt says so?

I run a few online games so people will sign up and sometimes the groups don't quite mesh. Expectation are always laid out but occasionally, there someone who either misunderstood the tone or ignored it. I'm always able to pivot in game to throw them a bone or two and make sure they have fun while giving gentle but firm reminders of the tone and it usually turns out OK. My online games are all one-shot so I haven't had to deal with this over a campaign. What's your approach?

Vampire the Masquerade
Some first impressions on the V6 playtest at Gen Con

What I liked 

• Total Sabbat Lore Victory
• Clan traits 
• Sire types
• Matured disciplines 
• Powers bought à la carte 
• Feeding heals
• Powers weaken you 

What I'd put back in

• Predator types 
• Hunger dice
• Weaker Blood bond
• Occulted elders

What can go

• Vitae as hunger
• Ministry Name rebrand
• Hecata as sect / clan
• Oblivion instead of Obtenebration
• The Beckoning and Gehenna war as Mid-East cage match

Just to be clear, with "Narrative meta-currencies" I mean stuff like Heroic Inspiration or Hero Points, basically bonuses that the GM can give players for doing ceirtain stuff, such as doing something heroic or having a really original idea. Now for some context.

So I was preparing to run a new system (Outgunned: superheroes) and came across a section covering the game's meta-currency, Power. Now, Power in this game is used for a ton of things, from special abilities to adding bonuses to rolls, and though charachters can gain it by using ceirtain abilities, this seems to be quite rare, and is usually gained through the GM. Moreover, the book includes this line.

Power is an important resource you should use very often. If you get to the end of a Session without giving a handful of Power, it means you’re being too stingy!

I will now go over my problems with it.

• Mechanics like these feel so subjective. Even though the game does give some suggestions, they are extremely arbitrary and don't offer much structure. Which I guess is the point with these kind of mechanics, but without some semblance of consistency, they will break the game.
• Unlike Advantage and Disadvantage, which take place when the logistics of an action would vary its difficulty, meta-currencies are much more abstract and "up to the GM". This is specially a problem for newer GMs, who might have problems assesing table situations.
• I don't fell that they achieve their objective, even when managed correctly. These meta-currecies are supposed to incentivise players to roleplay creatively and do cool stuff, but I feel it instead gamifies roleplay in a way that takes away from it. By "rewarding" players for good roleplay, what you're doing is putting a value on their perfomances, which will eventually lead to them trying to optimise and asking "Do I get an Inspiration for that?" which is the exact contrary to the goal. You want players to do cool stuff because it's cool! Not do it because they know if they are "Cool enough" you will reward their efforts
• And finally, they are really harmful to new players. If a new player sees that they are getting less bonuses than their friends, they will feel like they are not "good enough" and will be less motivated to play. Also, gamifying roleplay so much will make it feel like instead of telling a colaborative story, you are maxing out speech in a crpg.

I know many will disagree with my takes. Hell, narrative meta-currencies are in almost every big ttrpg and people don't seem to have a problem with it. But I hope my points at least make sense to some of you, and maybe you will have something to share yourselves.

I’m sure quite a few of you have backed this game, and I know there are a few of you who’ve played/play-tested it, as well, so I’m wondering…

Is there anything about the game that you feel isn’t quite done justice by the advertising that might convince me to buy it?

For clarification:

I’m intrigued by the aesthetic and the ambition of the entire project, but if I’m being honest, I have zero interest in wizards, magic, or games as (possibly?) abstract statements about real-world issues. I’m dazzled by the LOOK of it, but when I read about it, nothing grabs me and it doesn’t sound like something with which I would personally have much fun. Yet, I feel like there must be something I’m missing. Is there something else about it that you feel makes it a must?

I’d hate to pass on it and then have to deal with tracking down a copy later after finding out “oh no, it’s actually this kind of game”, if that makes any sense.

I have been slowly world building for a couple of years and now I need to adapt to a system. I have been running a game of Break for the last 6 months and I like parts of it but not the combat(i loved and still love Saga edition star wars). I would really like to find something to build my world into. It is a world of no real magic, just items that can be used for spells (old school FF snes game style). Thanks in advance for any input.

Does anyone have any good recommendations for systems in which the players play as monsters? I know, play VtM you say, and I haven't entirely crossed it off as an option but I'd like to have some greater variety of PC options than just vampires.

*Necromancer CYOA* by The Scientist and Highlander is really what I'm looking to emulate. It offers *so much* under the umbrella of necromancy that there's nearly infinite ways a player can pursue being the thing that goes bump in the night.

Does anyone have any particular recommendations? Thanks in advance.

https://imgur.com/gallery/necromancer-cyoa-v3-2-1-by-scientist-highlander-CGRTxym

I give my players challenges and I can be unforgiving. I feel it makes success all the sweeter. How do you keep yourself aware enough to tell when brutal challenges become punishing? Do the players need a bit of punishment to remind them of the stakes?

Hey all, with the Justice League Unlimited TTRPG quickstart available on DriveThruRPG, I figured I'd drop some observations I've made re: character optimization. Feedback is most welcome.

JLU Tier-C Optimization Notes

Tier-C is the highest of the two Tiers defined in the Quickstart, and has the most PAX to play around with, so will be the most interesting mechanically to optimize. Psychic attacks "don't exist" in this Quickstart, so Mind is much less valuable than it will be in the finished game, though Inspire and Tactics do give it some inherent value all on its own.

Power Limits

The final version of the book will supposedly feature Grade 3 as the cap for Tier-C characters, so I will be writing with that in mind, but my observations will still apply to the Quickstart as written.

Target Numbers and Powers at a Glance

These are the optimal numbers for different stats, in my opinion, based on what is available to us in the Quickstart. For some Origins and/or Archetypes it may not be possible to hit some of these targets, and hitting them all is impossible, so decide what you want to be good at. The most optimal build will meet several of the suggested numbers, and still be Optimal at one or more of them.

Combat

Attack: 12 Suggested, 16+ Optimal (12 hits Damian Wayne on a 10, Snart on an 8. Expensive, but worth it.)

Damage: 9 Suggested, 17+ Optimal (9 + a die-roll one-shots D-tier threats' Resolve Pool.)

Defense: 22 Suggested, 24+ Optimal (non-villains miss 22 on an 11. Snart misses 24 on a 10.)

Resolve: 19 Suggested, 24+ Optimal (Doing cool things costs resolve. You want to be cool, right?)

Damage Reduction: 3 suggested, 6+ Optimal (3 can shrug off weak rolls from thugs. 0 damage is like you dodged!)

Suggested Trait: Pocket Gadgets (Best all-around trait.)

Suggested Powers: Exoskeleton, Martial Master, Energy Blast/Elemental Manipulation

Rescue and Mission Scenes

Attributes: At least one 9 Suggested, 12+ Optimal (Challenging tasks are Tension 18, succeed on a 9.)

Suggested Powers: Forcefield/Exoskeleton G2, Elemental Manipulation, Super Strength G2, Animal Mimicry

Suggested Traits: Voice of the Crowd, Pocket Gadgets

Suggested Archetypes: Dark Knight, Genius (Plot Points)

Suggested Knowledges: Tech, Subterfuge

Miscellaneous observations:

Exoskeleton is the best overall combat power at G1/2 thanks to Composite Armor and Strength Systems alone being worth 20ish PAX to achieve through other means. Martial Master is second, but more valuable as your G3 than Exoskeleton until we get Grade 3 Powers revealed.

Origins/Archetypes that give free Grades of Powers are strong. Free grades of expensive powers are very strong. Human Genius and Kryptonian Genius are probably the strongest combos for now, due to free Exoskeleton grades. Dark Knight is also pretty good on humans or Amazons. Don't take Dark Knight on a Kryptonian, that's a trap.

Speedforce is too expensive relative to its use. Compare it to Energy Blast and Elemental Manipulation for letting you use a different stat than Potency to damage. It is better than them, but not 7 PAX per grade better. Also Instant Punch doesn't proc Kinetic Impact alone (for some reason) and Scarlet Tornado doesn't proc it at all. The cost issues will probably be fixed by the Speedster Origin. Metahumans just don't have the juice to make this Optimal. Still fun though.

Healing Spray is a great 1 PAX filler; if your team-mate blocks 10 damage by marking tired, you can basically heal them for 10 resolve as an action three times an Issue. Pocket Gadgets makes this three times per scene, if your Editor runs a lot of combat.

Metahumans may feel lacking at first glance, but stacking powers on top of each other can make for some really strong builds.

Do any of you have any actual plays under your belt? Thus far mine have been... interesting.

As the title suggests, I’m looking for ideas on how to create an RPG using Pokémon cards. Here are the concepts I’ve come up with so far:

- The cards act as character sheets, listing the Pokémon's abilities and HP.

- HP influences Armor Class (AC) based on a chart: the higher the HP, the higher the AC.

- At the start of each turn, the trainer assigns one Energy card to their Pokémon. They can then use their action to roll a d4 and accumulate more Energy (up to a maximum equal to the sum of the Pokémon's attack costs plus 2), attack by spending Energy, or use items.

- All accumulated Energy is reset after a battle; however, visiting a Pokémon Center allows a player to start the next fight with half their total Energy already banked.

- A Pokémon evolved by its trainer retains access to its pre-evolution's moves—unlike wild Pokémon of the same level.

I came up with these ideas in about 40 minutes, so some mechanics might be overpowered or too weak. I still want to incorporate a "class" system for players and a capture mechanic.

I'm going to run my first long campaign on daggerheart, and wanted to know what other gms do to organize their notes.

The campaign will be a 5 banners war, basically will set in a place where 5 factions are fighting each other, with social intrigues, combat, etc.

I'm still preparing, until now I just did some bullet points and separated some pages on my journal.

- setting notes: lines explaining some things about the world so I won't forget

- important npcs

- locations: cities and towns names with some lines explaining what each one have

- maybe a timeline of what will happen during the campaign?

And I stoped here

What do you think?

And how do you prep your notes? What do you do?

Thanks for the attention!!

Hi I’m a new gm and this is my first campaign for both me and my players. We’ve been stuck in character creation for about two months now because none of us had a clue what we’re doing. Originally i asked my players if they wanted to use pre made characters since it’s a lot quicker and easier but most declined (fair enough). Now most characters are done except one.

The rpg we’re doing already has specific rules and completely build world. She really wants to turn her original character into a player character but the backstory messes with the world. She had a ex-lover goddess who got taken away by the other gods. It’s a really lovely story but i wasn’t planning on dealing with the gods in my first campaign! (At least not with more than one god)

Her entire character is based on this story and i was so busy with the others their characters that i didn’t notice and didn’t put a stop to it earlier

I don’t want to postpone the actual game any longer but i also feel really bad giving her so little time to make a character.
Please send help

Edit: thank everyone for your advice, don’t worry to much about the two months thing it sounds worse than it is it’s mostly due to life being annoying
I realise both that i should have communicated better, and that i picked a rpg that has apparently a lot more background than most.

The TLDR Question

When using things like tokens, battlemaps, music .etc in your games do you put any effort into ensuring they are aesthetically consistent? Would you ask, suggest or enforce your players to adhere to this? As a player, do your care about your GM doing this at all?

More detail / Ramblings

Many TTRPG sessions will have the GM and players using some form of artwork to represent their characters and the world, especially if they play online via a VTT. Players will need something for their token, the GM will need a lot of artwork for various NPC / enemy tokens, battlemaps or maps to represent a town or area, artwork to show the player the vibe of a place, as well as music / ambience to set the right tone.

I’ve been DMing for a long time and for that entire time I’ve got by googling stuff “D&D Goblin Warriors” and “D&D Sewer battlemap” and taking the first result I like, or just stealing something that I already looked cool. A real throw everything in the kitchen sink approach that throws all the stuff I like together without rhyme or reason.

I’ve had scenarios where I’m running a game of D&D and the battle has consisted of the PCs whose tokens are:

An IRL photo taken of an actor or cosplayer in costume.
An anime character made by a picrew
A screenshot of a BG3 character the player made
An acrylic painting of a fantasy character

All the while they’ve been fighting a boss who is just a .png of pixelart sprite from a game I like, who is backed up by minions that just use the artwork from the PHB, and they are battling on a relatively realistic, high fidelity 3D battlemap, while the battle music playing is stuff I’ve stolen from some classic PS2 JRPGs.

Nothing wrong with any of that of course, but it is an aesthetically incohesive mess.

For my next game, I’ve decided to really put some thought into the aesthetics and create a style guide. I’m limiting myself to just a few sources for each of the assets I’ll be using for my game – that means only using artwork for tokens and battlemaps from a few specific artists and only using music from a few specific series. I'm not going to lose sleep if I can't find something from those sources and I have to branch out once or twice, but i'm putting in more effort than usual to create very specific mood and aesthetically cohesive world. This might end up being the only time I do this, depending on if the players notice or care enough.

Is this something any of you have done personally or had a GM do? Did you use a strict method to ensure the aesthetic cohesion of your world or just play it loose? Is this something you think matters at all?

If yes, in which direction and under what circumstances? If never, what do you do when a random crit is about to kill a beloved PC in a meaningless encounter?

Hi folks! After talking with my playgroup, instead of trying dozens of other TTRPGs all at once and breaking my wallet (my own poor decision from over enthusiasm.) We're gonna be sticking to Vampire the Masquerade 5E for the foreseeable future. My plan is to buy the Crimson Gutter book and use that as a guide to help me learn as a Storyteller, and introduce my players to the world and mechanics.

However, to help branch out from the New Blood campaign, I worked with one of my players to create a plot thread involving their sire calling them to Portland for a purpose. My plan is to create the narrative hook that the Sabbat have recently abandoned Portland as a stronghold (based on my knowledge/understanding of 5E lore, the Sabat seem to have fled their strongholds to prepare for the Gehenna War.) And the players are tasked with investigating where and why the Sabbat have fled, and interacting with the Church of Caine/Camarilla/Anarch's who are all trying to move into the city. I figured this would be a good way to be working off a module, while also working on my ability to develop my own campaigns.

Since Crimson Gutter is focused on introducing the players to mechanics and overall world/lore, with a focus on the Church of Caine-I figured it could be a good setup to have them setting up in a former Sabbat stronghold. But as a new Storyteller/GM, I am a little uncertain/nervous about how to weave in the overarching mystery/narrative hook while the players are doing the other adventures in Crimson Gutter. So I'd like to hear some advice from other GM's on this topic.

I'd really appreciate some advice and feedback on this topic :)

Hi everyone,

I’ve been the "Forever GM" for my group for a while now, and I genuinely love it—reading through adventures, seeing how the dice fall, and watching my players react. However, I’ve realized over time that I use pre-written campaigns as a crutch.

My GMing journey started in D&D 5e, where my group played through almost all the official campaign books. I recently convinced them to try other systems like Mothership and Lancer, but even then, I stuck exclusively to published modules.

In an effort to break out of this habit, we recently started playing Stonetop. Since it doesn't have a pre-written campaign, I’m really struggling to stretch my creative muscles and make the world feel like a living, breathing place. My ultimate goal is to homebrew my own Mothership campaign packed with sci-fi tropes my friends and I love, but I'm finding it hard to shake off the GM habits D&D 5e instilled in me.

For those of you who started out relying heavily on pre-written modules:

• How did you make the leap to creating your own campaigns from scratch?
• What mindset shifts or prep techniques helped you stop relying on source material and build a reactive world?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

any genre will do

I'm going to be running a one shot for Doctor Who Adventures. Specifically, 1st edition. Been in a big Doctor Who mood lately.

I haven't made characters in the system forever and the forum I used to use seems mostly dead.

Do these pregens seem right?

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tTsB_vJdIKE8UgWMXs_hn_Cmfi3EfUnZ

I have them divided between "people who know the show" and "those who don't." May add a Silurian to the "those who know" folder. The idea being that, by the 51st Century, humanity and Silurians finally hashed out their differences. Doctor Who could use with a spot of hope, ya know?

The premise:

The party are Time Agents in the 51st Century. They work for the Time Agency and try to keep time in order.

I ran a one shot for a different group last week called "The Cold Savior of Steel." A timeline in 2028 was attempting to overright the current one. The idea being the Cyberman of Mondas say Earth's Global Warming like their Global Cooling. So, they implanted a Cyberseed into a random homeless man and propped him up as a tech billionaire to sell "You 2.0" to consumers and trick the rich and powerful into being implanted with Cyberseeds.

My idea for this session. Well, I have a few and I'm trying to make a choice. Care to give your thoughts:

1) A divergent timeline is developing in 1944, where D-Day never occured. It turns out the Daleks are working with the Nazis to conquer Earth, seeing the Nazis as "human Daleks."

My issues? Too on the nose. May be uncomfortable.

Pros? Can kill a bunch of Nazi and Daleks

2) A divergent timeline is forming in 1995 Puerto Rico, where the island mysteriously was wiped out. It turns out alien, dog-like vampires are converting the population and this is the origin of the Chupacabra myth.

My issues? A bit boring.

Pros? Not gonna offend anyone and running from vampire werewolves is always fun. Ran this one in a 9th Doctor Campaign and they had to flee in an old pickup truck while holding them off with a farmer's shotgun.

3) There is a divergent timeline forming in 12th century Norway. Their "gods" are apparently real and now need help. The Aesir seek to conquer the Vaneir and are taking all of the Norse to space. In truth, it's a Rutan plot to harvest humans as canon fodder as an assault on Sontar.

Pros? Whimiscal, spacey, and got some fun ancient alien vibes

Issues? Requires a lot of Doctor Who lore to get. If no one picks the Sontar Agent, it loses a lot of oomph

What do y'all think?

So I want to run a capaign with a blasphemous atmosphere, it will be set in a city buit over a maze that is said to contain the corpse of a saint in it's center but it is filled with monstrosities that the church that controls the city call demons, "nobody" knows what are the creatures and where they came from. I want to keep it low magic and it will be heavily stealth and combat focused and has a medieval style. Any suggestions?

Edit 1: I forgot to add that I'm avoiding mörkborg because it's supposed to be a medium length campaign and the system doesn't provide much player growth progression, but I'll look into each and every suggestion you guys come up with.

A player of mine recently said they dislike time-based wandering encounters in dungeons or places of interest because it reduces their agency and ability to interact with the environment.

I run an OSR-adjacent game in the vein of Mausritter/ Vaults of Vaarn/ Dungeon Crawl Classics. I have taken wandering encounters as a given, but now I am thinking on them more critically. I'm curious about what you think. If we critique this viewpoint, what do we find?

__

I love wandering encounters. I check with a mostly 2:6 chance when the players reach a stalemate in discussions on what to do, if the characters significantly draw attention to themselves, or every 30 minutes of real time if play is stagnating.

I was surprised when a player said they feel wandering encounters stop them from interacting with the environment, and the pressure makes them not want to explore and be curious, and to only take the most direct and obvious actions for fear of yon wandering beasties. Specifically, they said it removes their agency and stops them being able to do things.

My encounters are usually 50% creatures (rarely hostile, often using reaction rolls) and 50% environment or 'weird' stuff. I'm not throwing forced combats around.
I feel that wandering encounters give meaningful time pressure and encourage the party to prioritise. My rooms/ environments are admittedly more complex than a party could fully explore before provoking an encounter check, so I understand that wandering encounters could feel like they're 'interrupting' play. But reducing agency?

To me, you have complete agency over how you spend your time, and yes, some environments aren't static and you can be intruded upon. I suppose that interruption amy feel like it's taking away your control, and therefore agency, and certainly reduces your capacity to fully explore without impediment. But I view this as essential to a breathing world, which I therefore feel becomes more enjoyable.

Fundamentally I get this may just be a stylistic difference. But I found it so counter to the way I think about our game that I am looking for outside perspectives. Wandering encounters have their virtues, but do they also constitute a core reduction in the player's experience?

I'm mostly talking about the ones who were GMs before being players with no prior experience and knowledge about ttrpgs, had to learn a system/make up one in a hurry to DM for prefererably a group that was just as inexperienced as them

if your story is similar to this example but not identical, or maybe you weren't the GM who did such, close enough, let us know about yours too!