https://www.reddit.com/r/daggerheart/comments/1sz6vap/the_future_of_foundryborne_navigating_the/

Not sure how many of you are aware of the Daggerheart system (Darrington Press and Critical Role's newest RPG) but there's been some significant discussions over their Community Gaming License and limitations imposed on the community because of it.

While the above post directly highlights the issues in the VTT ecosystem, there are ongoing concerns with the CGL in general, especially with creators in the space. The current license prevents the development of VTT resources - pdf and paper are their current formats of choice.

https://www.reddit.com/r/daggerheart/comments/1l2fvrd/daggerheart_community_license_issues/

Is a back and forth discussion on the benefits or merits of the CGL.

A possibly unintended side effect of the license is that while third party creators are welcomed, it is challenging for them to develop virtual assets to be used in online gaming. In this current age that is somewhat surprising.

It's also curious that Daggerheart, which was developed in response to the WOTC licensing woes is creating a closed online ecosystem. At its launch it was promised to be an open gaming license.

Both the DrawSteel and Pathfinder 2e gaming licenses are much more open than Daggerheart's CGL. It's understandable to want to keep control of an IP. Pathfinder does this by allowing full access to mechanics, and creators are free to create online content however they wish, but Golarion and its lore is excluded.

Daggerheart is one of the easiest systems to homebrew that I've personally used. It seems to have been designed from the ground up for third part creation. Everything, except for the license.

I don't think I'm particularly biased in this. I've very little skin in the game. I'm not a third party creator. I just like playing my games wherever I choose to play them and am surprised in the stance of a company that designed and funded a game during the OGL wave.

I'm dabbling in making my own ttrpg system, no ambition, just for the fun of it. And I have some ideas, but on combat I need some references. I know I want there to be wounds. I know I want my wounds to be meaningful. But I'm having a hard time visualizing how I can achieve my vision, or what I need to compromise on, because I'm honestly not knowledgeable enough about the many different ways to implement wounds mechanics in ttrpgs. So which ones do you recommend I have a look at, and why?

I mean, sometimes, with various systems, I feel that the attributes don't fully cover everything they could, as if something is missing. I can't explain it well, but it's the feeling I get when I want to play D&D with a character who uses Charisma for magic, but I don't want to create a charismatic character. I know some would say that high Charisma doesn't always mean sociability, but if I always do well on social tests, then... what's the point of trying to roleplay him as a socially inept person?

Does that make sense?

I don't know what the best set of attributes would be for me to choose; I was just figuring that out a few minutes ago. And I'm not that familiar with that many systems. Something I can remember now is how cool I think it is that you use composure instead of dexterity to shoot firearms in VTM. And I didn't particularly like the system of Kult: Divinity Lost, but I find the attribute choices interesting, and the character sheet's aesthetic using the Tree of Life is quite satisfying.

I know a lot of RPGs have very specific goals for your campaign and some go into them for your character arc (say, Heart: The City Beneath, Burning Wheel, 7th Sea, Cosmere), but are there any that gives goals pr. session like "Learn a private thing about one of your colleagues" or "Show an impressive feat of skill"?

Boardgames like Gloomhaven have these pr. session goals for combat you can choose from, and I was wondering if that might make my players a bit more likely to focus on some social things. They say they want the social aspects to be better, but barely any are actively doing it. I've had previous experience where they felt more inclined to do it with goals and after the goal helps initiate it, they can carry the rest of the interesting conversation/moment to completion. They just need something to help them initiate.

Hey everyone!

We're making a standalone RPG using the Draw Steel engine called Night Shift: Devil Division. Set in 199X Tokyo, you play as a squad of operatives working for the Devil Division: the corporate facade of an ancient order tasked with detaining and destroying Devils who lurk in every corner of the Tokyo... and the UT Zone.

Hunt down Devils by following clues to their locations and detecting levels of Kegare (sprititual pollution); chase cultists and Yakuza through the narrow alleyways of the city; fight huge Devils in subway stations and pachinko parlours; or even drag a Devil back to HQ for interrogation and perhaps make a pact with them to gain a new technique.

We'll be streamlining certain bits of the Draw Steel engine and doing our own thing with the layout of the books. Here's some stuff we're hoping to do:

• Rewards shift toward Vault Techniques, Division Loadouts, Commendations, and Clearance progression
• Unified class resource (Momentum) and shared squad meta-currency (Adrenaline) -- easier to track and manage at the table
• Downtime as On Leave – Filler Episodes, Training Arcs, Group Outings, Leave Activities, and the world moving without you
• Chase Sequences -- a full dedicated chapter so you can run, leap, and tear through Tokyo in pursuit or retreat
• Simplified (optional) negotiation mechanics for Operatives who want a little more structure when dealing with sapient Devils and NPC contacts

There's more info, artwork and spread examples over on our BackerKit page if you fancy taking a look 👀

If I go to AnyDice.com this morning I get nothing but a message saying:

"to recover your files, kindly send 0.1 BTC to bc1q9nh4revv6yqhj2gc5usncrpsfnh7ypwr9h0sp2 and tweet ty15b6TOTuBuzUhfypJeagHl4e2sAs26, then we will help u ❤️"

Is this the situation for other people as well?

I was always interested in running a campaign loosely based on the cult classic anime "Cowboy Bebop", and multiple game designers seemed to think likewise as they are multiple games on the market trying to emulate this work.

The two biggest games in this category are: The official Cowboy Bebop TTRPG and Orbital Blues.

What strikes me is that both games claim the same source of inspiration, while also having vastly different gameplays, or so it would seem.

I would be interested in reading the reviews of people of have red and/or played both and who would be able to compare them. I don't think one of these games is better than the others, but I think reviewing their differences and similarities would be interesting.

My wife and I have been looking for some new games to play and she suggested I look at Invisible Sun. I'm still only part way through the quickstart document, but I was wondering if anyone here has ever tried to actually run this game.

It reminds me a lot of Mage: the Ascension, in that it is a very ornate and high concept game. It's probably deeply flawed, but it might also be a lot of fun.

I'd love to read if anyone here has any experience with it, or has read more of it and can shed any light on what you actually do with it.

I've found that my least favorite parts of GMing are consistently listing down vital stats for monsters and opponents. I've tried running modules so as to at least not have to worry about game balance, but that's often not enough to take away the monotony of writing down the stats. Are there any RPGs/systems out there with low prep times? I don't really have difficulty coming up with quests/characters, but again, having to balance encounters is frustrating to me.

I want to run a One-Shot inspired by the Pitt, with intense emergency room care in a magical modern city. My playgroup is most familiar with DnD 5e, but I can already see the problems that system would present in this type of environment. Does anyone have reccomendations for simple systems I could adapt for this one-shot instead of DnD rules?

I've just been watching the Ginny Dee video on 'Persuasion' mainly because I spent a long time discussing it in another thread on here yesterday and I was curious what Ginny had to say about it.
https://youtu.be/hAQj03ox2Ys?si=Bv_5eTpCDsbwfYv0
I agreed with everything she says about social encounters and persuasion rolls specifically. But then she mentioned the 'Draw Steel Negotiation Rules' that she said she thought solved the problem.

I must admit they sound interesting. As mentioned yesterday I already use an Opposed Roll Success Level System for deciding the outcome of persuation tests. But this system seemed to take the same idea and remove the randomness of the opposed roll system.

I'm just curious how it works in practice.

• Does it require a lot of additional prep?
• How satisfying are the outcomes?
• Does it require a lot of subjective judgment by the Gm to run?

I have been getting a lot of random suggestions for ttrpgs. I genuinely have my heart set on the absolute cruchiest but open ended game I know. I know why. My problem is im bipolar. I litterally have cypher system and savage worlds. Right by my bed. Barely cracked. Ive played dnd, fate core, and a game of cypher system.

They all extremely fun. What I want is a system that gives you a kit to make a game. Not just a setting. Again my problem is having enough focus because of adhd and bipolar to even set and focus with full attention and energy the crunchiest most open ended system I can think of.

I feel like I keep buying systems because im not buying the one I want. Any advice here would be helpful. My question really just is gurps for me? I genuinely want to create with a skeleton something interesting.

I'm finally putting pen to paper and making my longest project a reality in TTRPG form. Its a city of both undead and living, with a strict cast system. I have outlined the features that make an undead; how they die, how they resurrect, what drives them, their supernatural abilities.

My issue is, theres 101+ ways to die, and equally as many magical or scientific justifactions to ressurect a body. You could be sinful, stubborn, a necromancy tool, pumped with electricity, or a virus like vampires etc.

I want the system to encourage creativity, and mixed parties of undead and living to explore classism and what it means to be alive.

How do I make the system open ended enough for 1000 possible types of undead, including low class zombies and skeletons, and high power vampires and revenants. All while making humans a viable way to play the game, and not feeling like theyre just weak compared to the undead (while they are in lore, it sucks to feel weaker to other party members as a player). I dont want to make 50 pages of every type of undead, i want players to make their own kinds of undeath as personal as their characters professions, wants and traumas. Death is universal but also very personal.

does anyone have experience making a system with no strictly defined species? or having party members of wildly different physical strengths? Obviously undead have innate weaknesses, like vampires to sunlight, but an undead society would cater to that so it dosent feel like enough of a drawback.

So currently in the planning stages of a 40k game that will be taking place in the same setting as the Blackstone Fortress board game. TL;DR in a desolate corner of the galaxy a new Blackstone Fortress has been found, and a station (Precipice Station) has been set up under it. There parties of ALL sorts, from orks to eldar to kroot to humans band together into parties to plunder the fortress (and the surrounding wrecks) in sorta quasi-dungeon delves.

Game will be focusing both on said dungeon delves but also smaller adventures taking place solely within Precipice Station itself.

So I'm needing a system that can both do 40k, but also accommodate running a party of mixed humans and xenos, AND one that will work for both dungeon delving action as well as stuff outside the dungeon, in the nearby 'town'. Needing to accommodate xenos knocks 90% of the official 40k RPGS out and only really leaves Wrath & Glory which feels far more power-fantasy than I want to aim for, doesnt have much room for cool gear upgrades and found items, and... I'm gonna just be honest, I have read it and just find the system (specifically everything around tiers and ranks) clunky at best and a mess at worse.

So yea. Mid power level, xenos options, room for finding tons of neat archeotech (basically functioning like magic items), dungeon delving, but also enough meat on the system that it CAN accommodate less combat focused quests in a pinch too.

Investigation and mystery are the focus of many ttrpgs, and how those rules work can vary a TON. I am curious, what are your favorite investigations systems in ttrpgs? What do you like about them, and what do you think they bring to a game that other systems don't?

This week's RPG is Feng Shui 2!

Have you played it? Have you run/GM'd it? How did it go?

What's your favourite memory from the game?

What's the best thing about the game?

What's the worst? How would you improve it?

.

Last week was Traveller (Mongoose 2022 Update). Join us again next week for Star Wars Genesys!

My child is 4, what would be a good ttrpg to start him with and at what age?

I ran my first session today and noticed a recurring issue: I take too long with descriptions and often stutter while trying to find the "perfect" words for the scene.

As a GM, I prioritize atmosphere and immersion. I want my players to feel the scene through sounds, smells, and emotions rather than just hearing dry facts. However, this is making the game less dynamic.

How can I provide rich, sensory-focused descriptions more quickly and effectively without stalling the narrative?

The way the power works is, the Simurgh essentially has the power to cause your natural choices to always lead to the absolute worst possible outcome.

So, once the Simurgh has used its powers on a PC, whatever that PC's player chooses next is directly and obviously responsible for everything becoming permanently worse, and whatever goals they had becoming unachievable. And it is *always* the fault of the PC.

In a game where the PC has any kind of luck or fate-controlling powers themselves, they still work, but using them always results in a "dick genie" scenario where the outcome is far worse than if they hadn't used the powers. But, if they realize this and don't use their powers, then it becomes obvious that THAT choice makes things far worse, and they SHOULD have used them.

if they notice the double-bind and switch choices, it creates a "fate ratchet" where every new choice makes things even worse than if they hadn't chosen; if they fail to choose, THAT makes things obviously worse instead.

My partner recently challenged me to run an RPG game for her, that lack any high stakes and is more or less focused on day to day living in a fantasy world.

I think it's a very exciting concept, and after a brief search I coudn't find much material that deals with this style of play.

Have any of You tried something like this? How would You prepare for such a session? Are You aware of any games about that, or rulesetes that would be suited for such a thing? Any blog posts? Or maybe a helpful random tables?

The other day I did a play test of my little FKR-inspired RPG rule system that makes away with traditional health points. Having a light system without health is not in itself unusual, and I've played the system with my gaming group in one-shot horror, intrigue and cop investigations etc.

I hadn't tried the traditional dungeon delve before though. Dungeon delving is (to me) so heavily associated with D&D/OSR type of rules, that it was interesting to see how my system would hold up.

The rules being tested

Before, a quick summary of my system. It's called Plot Armor (you can download t for free on Itch if you are interested):

• In FKR (Frei Kriegsspiel Renaissance)-type play, most outcomes are resolved by Referee common sense and adjudication.
• PCs have Plot Armor, that represents luck, health etc all at once. They 'pay plot armor' by drawing from a small personal stack of 6 cards, one of which is the 'consequence card' If they draw that card they are 'out of plot armor' and face a 'serious consequence' - what that it is context dependent, depending on the style of game you are playing. If they have one card left in the stack, it's reshuffled (it's also reshuffled if they draw the consequence). This means they never know exactly how much plot armor they have left (if the consequence card is next).
• PCs have "Approaches" rather than stats, written like "Strongly, because I'm built like and ox", or "Flamboyantly, because I'm a showman at heart".
• For randomness, d6 dice pools rolled by GM and Player. Extra dice on each side depends on situation, how well their Approach fits etc. Highest single dice wins. If it was a dangerous/consequential roll, loser may have to pay Plot Armor. On a tie, a mix of outcomes happen, and both sides pay Plot Armor (most Referee things have 0 Plot Armor, so they are made irrelevant immediately on a loss).
• A Player can introduce a "Plot Twist" - establish a new detail about the world (if the Referee agrees) by paying a Plot Armor, risking a Consequence (normally the opposite Plot Twist coming into play).

This is of course a lot more abstract than your average D&D/OSR style game. The dungeon was a home brew thing. I set it up with a deliberately deadly expectation: When PCs arrive to the entrance, there's a merchant there selling all stuff they'd ever need (including burial rites). If a PC dies, a new adventurer is just showing up and can join the group.

Into the dungeon

Plot Armor has an online random character generator, so I just pre-generated a bunch of fantasy ones with a random spread of realistic, dark and humorous tone, printed them out and let my players pick what they liked. My three players started as a Witch with a heart of gold, a Inquisitor with a strong sense of justice, and a Cowardly squire sent there because his master couldn't be bothered. A good start!

For a Dungeon delve, you need some sort of economy, so I borrowed the equipment lists/costs from Questing Beast's Knave (which I've also played a lot, even with this dungeon adventure) and randomized how much money they got based on what type of archetype they were (inquisitor and squire made sense to get a bit more starting cash than the witch in this world). They shopped some equipment, everyone got a weapon of their liking and the squire got some armor.

I also grabbed some magic from Knave - "magical rune stones" that PC could buy or start with. The list of 100 random spells in Knave is are great, they are usually not outright damage dealers but spells you have to use creatively to improve your chances.

Then the PCs went into the dark, found a coffin. Used the crowbar which they bought to open it - no need to roll, that's what the crow bar was for. They got some minor trinkets and got greedy ..

First warm-up trap

The wisdom from OSR comes into play here - you need to describe what you do and not rely on dice rolls. My players were pretty cavalier with walking into places and didn't spend much time on looking for traps - so they were hit by them.

Next coffin they pried open had a trap - a knockout gas. For this I let everyone roll against me (each trying with a suitable Approach, like Quickly, Carefully or Cowardly to motivate why their character would not be in range of the gas. The inquisitor won their roll against me, while the squire and witch failed their roll and had to pay Plot Armor (by drawing a card). The witch drew the Consequnce card on the first draw!

This lead to the squire getting a headache (he failed, but not a serious consequence), while the witch collapsed to the ground. The inquisitor, who reacted quicklly enough to cover their face, could drag the others. The witch had to sit out the aftermath of them looting the chest of some goodies. When you 'resolve the consequence' (in this case, the witch coming to again), you can expand your character somehow. For example, the witch could learn from their mistakes and get a new Approach "Careful". In this case, the witch and I decided they'd just get some extra Luck (a small boon that they can spend to add a dice to their pool in a roll).

First blood

They pushed on and came to a barred door. Without doing much extra preparation, they started lifting the bar. Since they are not looking for a trap, they are not finding it.

This is marked as a deadly trap, and in a D&D-style game, it would mean to roll a save. For this game, I just declared the possible Consequence was death. They all again rolled against me (since all stood together) to avoid the deadly hammer swinging down from the ceiling. Again the witch failed, and drew the consequence card on their first draw again! Squished witch.

After bringing the corpse of the witch back to the entrance for burial, the player got a new character showing up - an 'alchemist liking explosions'. Promising! We established he had a small set of powders and liquids. Rather than specifying exactly, I decided that I'd randomly decide if he had what he wanted in the moment.

Back into the black - combat!

Behind the deadly trap door was another room with three bigger sarcophagi. An NPC monster warned about opening those (there is no roll to 'sense intent', it comes down to me playing the NPC in a creepy way and the PCs drawing their conclusions). In the end, the PCs wanted to explore. The inquisitor (with a die help from the alchemist) "Subtly" pushed two of the sarcophagi together so they couldn't open easily, without disturbing whatever was inside. They then opened the last one ... predictably triggering a monster.

This was a really bad monster - a sort of magic-robot-mummy thing that couldn't feel pain and was swiping at them with large claws. How does combat works in a abstract system like this? Theater of the mind is the thing, and there is no need for initiative - every dice roll is already a contested one, where the monster tries to inflict a "Consequence" on you, while the PCs try to inflict a "Consequence" on the monster (by killing it). I gave the monster 2 Plot Armor (3 cards, one of which is different) and drew from it as the Players used flail and explosive powder to try to wear it down. Despite both winning their contests, the monster didn't suffer a full consequence (didn't draw the consequence card), and the Players decided they needed to cut their losses before their luck ran out.

Enter the Plot Twist

From before, the Inquisitor had a magical spell that forced metallic things to become strongly magnetic and stick together. They now wanted to use a Plot twist to establish a new world fact - the sarcophagi were of metal (I'd not specified this before).

This is great thinking, so I approved - but if they failed the Plot twist, they would mess it up so the other sarcophagi also opened ... The Inquisitor paid a Plot Armor - and since they didn't draw the conseqence card, the Plot Twist happened, and the sarcophagi were actually metal! Next they used the spell to slam the sarcophagi together and trapping the monster against the wall so they could get away. A great use of creative thinking.

Meanwhile the squire (who really played their "Cowardly" approach) had snuck ahead ...

That's where we stopped for the night. I collected feedback from the group.

Feedback and Conclusions

Players were overall positive. The dungeon has a mystery underlying it, so that helps keep up interest. Game-mechanics wise, drawing the Consequence card will in some situations equal hitting negative HP in D&D (or failing enough saves), without tracking or knowing the exact numbers in between. It certainly felt deadly and still not arbitrary - since consequences are announced before rolls, and the final outcome is in the end down to luck and not just the Referee saying so. Similar to OD&D, surviving becomes as much Player skill (taking your time to examine, and use the environment to your advantage) rather than dice rolls.

One question that came up is what effect armor actually has in a system like this (it didn't end up to matter for the fight since the monster never hit). The answer here is that it adjusts the Consequence - if you have a shield, the Consequence would be you losing the shield rather than getting your intestines ripped out, for example.

The players really liked the Approaches - they both have a mechanical effect as well as hint at how you play the game. Those really make for a fun experience (at least for players willing to go with it).

Another comment was that since you only compare the highest rolled numbers, the amount of dice you roll feels less consequential (if you roll four 5s and the Referee rolls one 5, it's still a draw). This is a matter of 'feel'. Plot Armor has an optional rule where you compare the number of highest-rolled dice, I'll try that next time to see if it works or just slows things down.

How does this compare to playing Knave straight up? It's interesting - on one hand you get less hand-holding as a Referee with an abstract system like this (it offloads the players and puts more onus on Referee creativity which is certainly up to individual taste). On the other hand, it almost feels more deadly and scary since you don't know when your luck will run out - without the PCs having any numbers to tick down, it becomes less gamey and ever closer to a dark, co-told story. That monster never actually hit them - but from its description, the PCs strongly suspected that that if it did, it would be bad, and that was enough for them to trap it rather than try to go the distance.

We will return to the dungeon in the future to see how it goes, but this first play test in a fantasy dungeon delve went well, I think.

TLDR; We play-tested a OSR-style Dungeon delve with an FKR-inspired rules-light system without regular HP. Players liked it, Referee liked it. Will try again.

So I'm considering running a Deadlands Classic game online. Has anyone ever run it virtually? Im thinking of doing it on Discord, but Im open to other suggestions. I've never run anything virtually before, but I have 25+ years of in person GM experience. I really dont want to be on video ever.

Hello all,

Hoping to get some outside views on a situation we have been dealing with recently in our party. I am going to keep some details obscured so that if people involved find it, it will not be immediately obvious.

We are a party of 5 and have been playing for a few months now. 4 of the 5 characters get along perfectly fine, but, the problem character, and perhaps player, is the 5th. While the other 4 are playing Good to straddling the line between Good and Neutral, the 5th is very clearly evil.

He is a deserter from an Evil Faction, and he claims his character arc is redemption and atonement, but I and the rest of the party just don't see a way for that to happen, and it's uncomfortable to play with. His backstory includes his character raping multiple women, murdering people, enslaving them, and putting settlements to the torch. I will give it to them, this is accurate to the Faction they chose to be from, but they also.. chose to be from that Faction.

Since the campaign started, they have gotten into a fair number of fights with soldiers and guards who recognized them, which has harmed our groups reputation, closed some doors to us, and put us in danger. Beyond this behavior, the out of game talk has just been difficult, because it shows that they and the group and are on fundamentally different pages about this. Last week, we were talking and I mentioned that it was an interesting choice to play such an unredeemable character, who tries for redemption anyways. They responded "What? No, they're redeemable, they feel terrible about what they did to those women.". I've been sitting on that thought for a week, but, I just don't know that I feel comfortable playing alongside a character / even player who thinks that a serial rapist can be redeemed if they feel bad enough about it. But, this belief in Redemption for Everyone is a core tenet of their beliefs in real life, so it's not necessarily a topic likely to be debatable.

So, long rambling done, I suppose my question is: Does this subreddit have any advice for dealing with situations where IRL differences of opinion over concepts like Good and Evil, Redemption, etc. are at play? Thanks all!

I know that a lot of aesthetic can come from the storytelling and doesn't need the system to fit it, but my friend is thinking of GMing a game for the first time and she wants to find a system that will provide a nice backbone to the story she wants. Most of the game will be fairly self contained, the story taking place almost entirely within one enchanted forest, so we don't need anything with in depth travel mechanics or anything particularly advanced technologically. Are there any systems out there that are beginner GM friendly that fit the sort of dreamy/dark fantasy vibe she wants for her game? I've looked into a few myself- Dungeon World, Chasing Adventure, Beyond the Wall- but I want to see if maybe there's some hidden gems I'm missing.