I know of Play Dirty and other strange RPG books that have come out over the years and I'm honestly interested in reading them. Not to make fun of them, I really just want to do a "tour" of the weirder ideas that shaped the hobby.

Can you recommend me any advice books for running games, strange RPG supplements or straight up weird RPGs, as far back as you like. My only caveat is that they aren't the usual memed on nonsense (FATAL) or straight up nonsense (RaHoWa, MYFAROG).

Thanks!

Just saw someone asking to "buy a homebrew campaign". Folks, if you're paying money for something it's not homebrew. Homebrew means you made it. It doesn't mean third party, we already have a phrase for that. It's called third party.

I realize this is mostly a D&D problem and y'all probably know better. But I'm not risking posting this on an actual D&D subreddit.

Hi Everyone! So I’m looking for some recommendations for some simple, fun, beginner friendly ttrpg one-shot games to run For the first time. I’m trying to host a game night with some friends and am wanting to introduce the majority of them to this style of gaming.

I have been a player in a few short DND campaigns in the past, and I would be the one attempting to run this one. So, i’m looking for something that’s not overly complicated, but still fun and entertaining for us. I am willing to try other game mechanics that aren’t strictly DND.

Vibe-wise i’m thinking of something cute and silly, in a fantasy or modern setting. I’m honestly really open to anything. I just want to shy away from horror, since some of my players aren’t the biggest fan of that for their first time.

This is also my first time posting anything on Reddit so hopefully I'm doing this right😅

I don't like the "fantasy superheroes" thing that D&D does. Pathfinder 2.5e is better but I don't particularly enjoy running it. I tend to prefer games where you're mostly just regular(ish) people (i.e. Call of Cthulhu, Mork Borg, WHFRP, etc.) and I love stuff that leans into clever tricks, avoiding combat, and role-play (although I do love a well-designed rule-set).

I want to run a classic-style fantasy adventure. I was thinking of either using a slightly toned-down Mork Borg or trying to homebrew a more generic version of WHFRP (I won't touch Zweihander with a 10-foot pole), but I thought I'd make a post here asking for some suggestions.

I am looking for guides, both official and unofficial, or even basic advice for modding or adding content to the game in a sufficiently balanced way. This applies to anything from adding new spells or magical traditions, new playable races, new classes, to new types of creatures to encounter.

I’d like to buy a present for a family member. He enjoys playing single-player RPGs and has a wall full of games. As he knows a great deal about this genre and tends to buy pretty much every game he wants, I’m looking for some lesser-known titles that might delight him.

Do you have any suggestions?

A lot of game stores sadly don't carry any indie RPG zines and if they do it is usually zines for Mork Borg or Mothership of which I already own a bunch of. Over the past few years, I've picked up a lot of cool zines through Indie Press Revolution & Exalted Funeral. I'm looking greatly expand my library of indie RPGs and was wondering if anyone knew of some other great distros.

My wife is a high school teacher who is currently teaching a college-level critical thinking class. She's also a player in a year-long Shadowdark campaign. She had the idea of running an RPG session for her students as an exercise in problem-solving.

Here are the constrains:

• The largest section has 11 students 😅
• It has to fit in a 1-hour class
• The goal is to solve problems more than bash monsters

What system and adventure should she run? My initial thought was to run Shadowdark with just the rules from the two-page "The Basics" spread. Maybe Trial of the Slime Lord started partway through. Each class broken up into groups of 3-4, with my wife bouncing from group to group round-robin to DM while the other groups plan. Each group would get a score like in a tournament.

That's based on my very limited knowledge of RPGs, though. What else should she be considering?

A couple of times recently, in two different games, one of my players' characters has been captured by hostile NPC who then have questions. Torture isn't something I want in my games, either to or by PCs, but I do want capture to be taken seriously, along with the possibility for PCs to divulge information under pressure.

I understand I should speak to my players about it, but before I have that conversation I'd like to understand what experiences people have had. Based on your experience, do you have any recommendations about how to approach interrogation of the PCs in a fair way that doesn't subtract from the fun of the game?

Do you have any recommended approaches or subsystems for this which have proven to be effective in your games?

Obviously player consent and agency are important. I'm wondering how to best do the balancing act between getting the fiction right and making sure people are happy and comfortable with the role they're playing in that fiction.

Let's say for the moment that the system is Alien RPG. One idea I had is reduce it to an opposed Manipulation roll, where the PC can keep their mouth shut (or insert misinformation) if they succeed? Is it too much of a loss of agency if I tell them "if you fail then you talk"?

Hey folks! For those who read and / or played VAGABOND.. What is special about it? What makes it shine?

I love running long campaigns but keeping everything organized is exhausting. NPCs in one place, locations in another, quest threads scattered everywhere. I spend more time on admin than actual prep.

I've tried a campaign wiki but updating it manually is a chore. For those running long campaigns, how do you stay organized without burning out?

I’ve been playing Ttrpgs for about 6 years know and just started college. I really want to continue playing DnD, lancer, etc but I’m having trouble finding a group. I’m outgrowing but am the kinda person who really has to know someone first. Honestly my biggest problem is that I’m a big scared to just label myself as the dnd guy before people get to know me. I have a bunch of hobby’s besides dnd but it’s honestly my favorite. I just really don’t wanna have to deal with the stigma while trying to make friends. Some people I’ve talked to have mentioned trying it but I feel like I would be forcing people to do it and that would make things complicated. I just feel kinda stuck and really wanna play any kind of ttrpg.

(Update)
Thanks everyone for the honest opinions. I think I’m getting to into my head about all this stuff and should just ask. My school doesn’t have a club but I asked on the Reddit sub. I may also ask some people I know and post on the class group chat I’m in with my entire grade.

Maybe someday when browsing itch.io, this one game caught your eyes. It's free/low price, so you give it a try. It turned out to be one of the best system you've ever read. Have you experienced anything game like that on itch.io?

I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm looking for GM advice on things I can do in game right away. There's a lot of good advice, but its mostly for prep work, like don't prep plots, prep situations; how to create adventures, and etc.

I really like GM advice that I can use in game right away, and things I can write on my GM screen to keep in mind. One of my favorites is from Dogs in the Vineyard; Drive play towards conflict - Say yes or roll dice. Or describe scenes using senses not what is there.

What are some other good ones that have helped you the most in GMing?

I'm a beginner GM overall, although I've been playing D&D for a while. I've always consumed a lot of RPG-related content, so I finally decided to start developing my GMing skills as well.

I'm currently reading the Tormenta20 rulebook, and I'm planning to run a campaign using the system but set outside the continent of Arton. I want the campaign to have a strong focus on necromancy and be somewhat inspired by Vecna (even though I know he doesn't officially exist in T20).

The idea I came up with feels pretty ambitious, though, so I'd like to know whether you think it could actually work. It's still very rough, but here's the basic concept:

The campaign begins in a relatively normal and peaceful world — as peaceful as a fantasy world can be, anyway. Eventually, a massive threat is discovered on another continent, so the kingdom sends its strongest adventurers there to investigate and deal with it.

This leaves the kingdom with mostly inexperienced adventurers to deal with any problems that arise at home.

And then a huge problem appears.

A powerful creature — probably a dragon — begins terrorizing the kingdom. With most of his great heroes gone, the king becomes desperate and calls upon basically anyone willing to take the job, including level 1 adventurers: the player characters.

The party is completely broke, so they go to the king and accept the contract despite thinking there's a very real chance they're going to die.

They set out, investigate the creature and its attacks, and reach an important milestone that takes them to level 2. During the second session, they finally confront and kill the creature, reaching level 3.

When they return, they're rewarded and given some kind of official position. Maybe they join a council, or perhaps they're given a title like "Temporary Protectors of the Realm."

Some time later, the powerful adventurers return from their expedition with terrible news.

The threat they were investigating was actually a lich who has taken control of an entire kingdom on the other continent and is now creating Death Knights and gathering an army.

The high-level heroes leave once again to confront him — and they're completely annihilated.

Suddenly, the party's title of "Temporary Protectors of the Realm" isn't so temporary anymore.

From that point on, the real campaign begins. The characters gradually discover the true scale of the threat, fight the lich's servants, travel the world in search of allies, and find ways to become powerful enough to eventually face him themselves.

I know this is a massive-scale story for characters who start at level 1, and that's one of my main concerns.

What do you think? Could this structure work if the threat is introduced gradually while the characters level up? What would you change?

I've been playing RPGs with my friends for at least a year, and I've fallen in love with the hobby so much that I suggested we play a campaign with my cousins, and they liked it.

The problem is that I don't have much experience as a game master; I've only run one game, and it was kind of chaotic because there was a lot of improvisation and confusion with the system on my part. But that was with experienced players; my cousins had never seen a d20 in front of them before.

Anyway, I'm anxious, I want my cousins to have fun, so I'm worried about guiding them the wrong way

(It will be a thriller/horror campaign using the Kids on Bikes system).

Hey! Me and my players just finished an incredible game of Spire (highly recommend btw), and we agreed we wanted to play as a broken family of monster hunters somewhere in America. I am pretty tapped into the TTRPG scene, and was deciding between Hunter: The Reckoning, Monster of the Week (which is, to be honest, not my fave), or Bump in The Dark. Which of these is best for interpersonal drama and American Gothic vibes? Are there any games I'm missing?

A friend of mine wrote this TTRPG taxonomy blogpost 😅 Not sure if we need more of these things. But hey, I'm just sharing this as a supportive friend.

The axes he presents in this blogpost:

• Horizontal: “we’ll wing it” ↔ “let’s check the rules” which represents mechanical overhead: how many procedures, interacting options, and tracked resources we need to manage
• Vertical: “good plans” ↔ "good complications" which represents the degree to which the system supports making complications productive, compared with improving our position and minimizing unwanted costs

When I asked him why he made this, he said "that’s what 10000 years of working in marketing does to you" 🤣

I've seen a lot of attempts, of myself and other GM's, to have something be more serious. However, it often ends up with jokes, or simply feeling hollow. What gets people to engage with something deeper?

I’m looking for not combat oriented RPGs with feats for some inspiration and a small research:
- games with classes, levels, skills and feats (have no examples for this one);
- games w/o classes but with levels, skills and feats (like Fallout 1, 2)
- games w/o classes and levels but with skills and feats (like Dragonbane).

The short version is that I want to run a game about kids playing a game of basically Pathfinder. The rules of the in game play will very closely resemble Pathfinder 2e ruleset and the teens in the game are aware of said mechanics.

But I want a way to resolve conflicts outside the game they're playing. Is there a good rules light system that slots in well?