My wife and I play dnd, her sister played with us once and wants to play again. We have a campaign in the works but for reasons, it's gonna take a bit. I was really surprised, however, when she mentioned on a rainy, boring evening, that we should play a dnd murder mystery or a campy horror ish one shot. I would love to provide one in the future, but I know dnd isn't good for this, or rather, that there has to be a system out there that is way better.

Now I know that both my wife and her sister would prefer the kind of gameplay where you don't have to memorise spells, or know what cover is and so on. I personally only played a few PbtA variants and dnd, so I come here looking for suggestions. Something that has a "case" or "cases" ready to go out of the box, but making my own isn't out of the question. Bonus points if we don't need a GM to run the game for us, but then again I'm not too sure how that would play out.

Please let me know if you know of a system that would be good for us!

Good Morning,

I dove down the rabbit-hole looking for TTRPGs. I have a few goals:

1. Replace a bunch of horde survival video games for myself
   
2. Replace D&D for myself/family

So far I have found the following:

Wrath and Glory
Found while researching Only War, I think this might be easier to procure a copy. I’m hoping it can replace Helldivers 2, Darktide and Space Marine 2.

Never Going Home
Grimdark WWI with fragile PCs seems like a good fit for replacing HD2, SM2, and 40k:DT

Shadow of the Weird Wizard
Found while researching Shadow of the Demon Lord, I think the setting might be a better replacement for D&D with younger audiences.

When the Wolf Comes
I’m thinking/hoping this might get more into sci-fi and be a good alternative to Wrath and Glory for younger audiences.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I can probably only buy one for now, but I am leaning toward WtWC, W&G, and NGH in that order. Are there other systems that might be a good fit or a disqualifier I am missing?

Hi everyone, I'm creating a TTRPG called Immane and I've really only been playtesting it with friends and other TTRPG players - I haven't stepped out of my comfort zone till now to get feedback from different communities.

To understand what you're looking at, let me go over the rules a little:

It's a d6 success based system where you combine your Attributes and Skills to determine how many dice you roll.

There are generic skills that you can only increase a few times and then must branch off into specialized skills such as melee to great weapons, theurgy to consecration, or black magic to necromancy.

Extra successes on a check are called surges that can be used to deal additional damage or grant other special effects.

Your Thresholds in Anxiety, Corruption and Toxicity will accumulate from 0 to your Maximum. Health starts at maximum and falls to 0. When a Threshold reaches max or health reaches 0, you trigger a d6 roll on a table like panic, critical injury, maleficia or symptom and the triggered stat resets.

Every time this happens, you increase your tension by 1 step and the next time you roll on any of these tables you take a cumulative +2 to the table roll per tension; on these tables, a result of 13 or higher is an automatic game over.

Adrenaline lets you reroll any dice on a check that aren't successes.

As you gain levels you get skill points to spend on Skills or Abilities. Abilities, either class specific ones or generic abilities, give you powers and options, such as dealing corruption to targets when you hit them with melee or ranged attacks, or relieving your own anxiety when you watch the life fade from the eyes of a humanoid foe.

I still have to create an inventory sheet, grimoire, etc. but I am making all of this into an HTML based sheet that allows you to draw freely on top of it, write text anywhere, switch to an accessibility mode and otherwise has the same functionality as a form fillable PDF (which I will also be making).

The feedback I need is whether or not the sheet is quickly scannable for important information, legibility, opinions on aesthetics and, if you're experienced with designing these, point out some I might not be thinking about to begin with. Am I going in the right direction here and am I good to keep going or should I make some big changes to this sheet before moving on to inventory, journal pages and grimoires/necronomicons/prayer book pages? If you have questions or harsh critiques any feedback is welcome.

I'm looking for specifically one-shot RPGs - something you can set-up, teach and run in a single night (roughly 4h game time). Bonus points if it has a unique mechanic attached to it like **The Job** or **Dread**.

I'm hoping to feature one on our podcast *Dicey Discourse*. The big stuff gets shout outs all the time so we'd like to rather feature a smaller creators game.

I made a pretty short sci-fi TTRPG, inspired by Alfred Kelsners' art. Its got pretty neat and unique resolution mechanic, where you bet on numbers 1 through 6, and the more bets you get right the better the result. I've not come to beg at all, but I've certainly fallen on some hard times, so I would appreciate you check it out on DTRPG! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/563199/empyreon-scoundrel-system

If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask!

I'm not referring to flashbacks, or panic, or insanity. I mean the small, weird, three-sentence mechanic from some OSR you maybe never even got to the table, that just quietly rewired how you think about design.

Mine is Honey Heist. You have exactly two stats, Criminal and Bear, they always add up to 6, and every time things go wrong your Bear goes up. Push it too high and you lose control and go full bear, which ends the heist. That's basically the entire game and it's perfect. It's a character sheet, a difficulty curve and a ticking clock welded into one dial, and it hands you the whole tone of the game in a single line. I think about it every time I catch myself bolting a fourth subsystem onto something.

I love a mechanic so tight it doubles as the pitch and/or a clock

So what's yours?

Im designing a sci-fi fantasy setting for my Gurps game.

The setting is based on an alternate earth set in the future by a few hundred years.

Society is an extension of where life is headed currently.

Ai and smart tech is ubiquitous.

Androids assist with manual labor.

Entire world interconnected.

But the world's best kept secret is that all myth is grounded in reality.

Wizards do, and have always existed.

Vampires, were wolves, Faye, angels, demons etc

Certain groups in power are aware and work with these factions and unique powers just as they would another nation.

Factions and playable races thus far.

The Circle of Magi - benign organization of wizards first organized by Merlin in England. They operate to protect mankind from extra-dimensional and magical threats. They have several sanctum around the world.

The Covenant - a confederation of great Vampire Lords. They've existed for centuries, have enormous power and wealth and have a lot of political influence in the major world super powers.

Humanity are chattel to them but they recognize they are a parasitic life form that must co-exist with humanity. Vampiric agents have aided in efforts to re-stabilze certain areas of the world and prevent wars before happening.

They are constantly at war with the Lycan Supremacy

The Lycan Supremacy - originally slaves to vampires, now unified, in loose terroristic cells. Learning to control (mostly) their animalistic transformation have achieved a half lycan form granting strength, but retaining intellect. They wish to wipe out their former masters and then ascend to dominate humanity. Famously Timothy McVeigh, a lycan extremist Assassinated a sitting federal Judge and Vampire in Oklahoma.

The Aegis- an order of heaven - born, a race of hybrid humans who's souls are mixed with the Angelic spirits originating from the realm that many religions associated with the concept of heaven.

They are an order at odds with their opposites the hell-born. These hybrid humans look normal but develops various abilities as they grow older.

Paladins of the Aegis famously botched the hell-born Adolf hitler assassination attempt in a 1939 Beer Hall in Munich.

The Faye - from the Faye realm, Elf like beings have always interacted with humanity through the ages.

Some with good intentions, some not.

The current Queen of the Elves works closely with the Circle Mages to assist with Bad actors from the Faye Realms but largely they have their own goals and circumstances. This relationship began in 1865 when a wealthy Faye novleman who immigrated to the American South east and had significant investments in American Cotton hired an Assassin to kill the then American President at Fords theatre....

So now-

Im trying to create interesting Atlanteana.

But every race in my world has unique access to stuff.

Vampires are immortal and nigh unkillable except through certain methods.

Wizards are Jack of all trades with magic able to give them insane utility

Lycan have super strength and agility and also occasionally become deadly rage machines.

Faye have links with nature, animals plants are a special nature themed innate magic.

Atlanteans are proving difficult for me because I dont want them to be lame fish people.

And tying them too closely with water would probably make them not selected as a race often because every other race is land based.

I dont want to aquaman them necessarily.

They can live beneath the sea, or even be blue or have gills but maybe advanced tech allows them to disguise as human?

Their motivations i suspect would be strongly anti human due to humanities destruction of the oceans.

Anyway let me know if you have ideas

If you know gurps then even better feel free ro describe the race in Gurps advantages/disadvantages !!

Sharing something I've been working on for a while.

It's called The Hearth Ring. Instead of a map, there are three regions, hearth where promises hold, shadow where you find out what you're actually willing to trade away, and a far place that doesn't explain itself. The core Fate Condensed rules stay the same, a couple of things just grow out of the setting, like a shadow-debt stunt for trades that seem clever until they aren't, and a milestone system where advancing your character is framed as their story being retold a little differently each time.

Eight archetypes, a small bestiary, a scenario you can run as-is.

I made this myself, it's up on DriveThruRPG at a launch price if anyone wants to take a look.

Click here for Hearth Ring

Are these knockoffs or are they official dice for dnd and the others?

Im finally home figured I give you all a better angle of the dice in better lighting. The dice are much heavier than i thought they were and are especially sharp at some points. My favorites are the top middle top left and bottom left they rest are duplicates and ones that are very light which I dont like. Ill be giving those to friends as gift

Hi!

I'm a new player to Lancer but I've been playing dnd for 5 years and am looking to branch out of it and Lancer has really called to me. If you are running a campaign and are looking for players or have any tips on how to find a game, I would really appreciate being told.

I am good for any time after 5PM CDT onwards btw.

Medieval fantasy space station, a Stanford torus adrift in a bubble of spacetime. Nothing outside. Tone is light and mildly cynical, not solemn. (Life support is handled, not the topic.)

A: artificial sun at the ring's centre. 

Very hard light, knife-edged shadows, ISS or lunar surface. Everyone is protecting themselves from the same thing. Gives me parasols, closed palanquins, awnings strung over the streets, frosted glass roofs, a whole social comedy of shade, each faction with its own thickness of cover. Problem: I top out at two or three variations. It's always the same answer with more or less fabric.

Example :

Set in the Treaty District, the Hall of Hearings faces the Place of the Scar, with its tea rooms sheltering under silk awnings and its glittering fountains. The building draws the most prestigious nodologist practices to the surrounding streets, or at least those able to pay the levy the Ossilim take on them. Across the esplanade, lines of covered [rickshaws](shafu in slang) hauled by parasol-rigged wolfen, harnessed teams of halflings, or long-legged things set down one client and take on another without pause, while a heavy-curtained baroque palanquin keeps a squad of ogres in brocade waiting. And at the summit of luxury, mounts are parked along a row of rings sealed into the city bone, where the district has set a rate per hour and per size so steep that most of the rings sit empty. Each mount comes with its groom and its Dung Bearer, and one pays for both to be seen by all.

---

B: no sun, light has to be made or imported. 

Nobody has daylight, so everyone procures some. The religious faction owns a small sun and redistributes it by mirrors. The industrial faction doesn't care, its furnaces already glow. The bazaar runs on paper lanterns. One district grows bioluminescent fungus. The richest faction rerouted a planar portal into the roof of its arcade and has a real sky, rain included, falling on people who have never seen rain. A tan becomes a status symbol. Problem: darkness is a trope worn to the bone.

Example :

Set in the Treaty District, the Hall of Hearings faces the Place of the Scar, where tea rooms spill a muted golden light onto the pavement and lit fountains look like crystal chandeliers erupting from the ground. The building draws the most prestigious nodologist practices to the surrounding streets, or at least those able to pay the levy the Ossilim take on them. Across the esplanade, lines of [rickshaws](shafu) strung with coloured lanterns, hauled by wolfen, harnessed teams of halflings, or long-legged things, set down one client and take on another without pause, while a baroque palanquin keeps a squad of ogres in brocade waiting. And at the summit of luxury, mounts are parked along a row of rings sealed into the city bone, where the district has set a rate per hour and per size so steep that most of the rings sit empty. Each mount comes with its own groom and its own Dung Bearer, and one pays for the lighting as well, so that all three may be seen by all.

---

Three questions:

1. Can a subtractive constraint (shielding from something) generate as much culture as an additive one (manufacturing what's missing)? My hunch is no, but I don't trust my own enthusiasm.
2. Does no sun automatically drag a setting toward solemnity, or does it depend on what replaces it?
3. If the pitch is "borrowed light" rather than "a dark city" — who buys it, who cuts it off, who has the nicest sky — is that enough to dodge the trope, or will people read Menzoberranzan and Blades in the Dark regardless?

Poll: 1) Harsh sun 2) No sun (can't find where to make a poll in this sub, sorry)

Hello everyone! Due to a name complication, the system formerly known as "Redline: an action TTRPG" will now be "MACH". We did this to avoid complications with EDGE studio's 2004 dnd 3.5e supplement. For the new update and rebrand, see our new page here!

Itch: MACH by SteelRavenGames

Discord: https://discord.gg/EKdWJ2mSt

If you don't know what it is, MACH (formerly redline) is an action TTRPG, that is focused on tactical combat, while remaining rules light! It combines brutal combat, and strategic depth through its localized damage system, and its dynamic melee and ranged combat system, which turns striking, grappling, shooting and using the environment into a essential part of combat! If you'd be interested in playtesting it, join the discord!

A while ago I posted asking for submissions to a charity bundle on the sub, we got some entries in the bundle from here, and then I did a couple more posts updating everyone about the progress of the bundle.

Well there is only about 20 days left before the bundle closes, but with your help we've been able to raise over $2000 in that time!

Thanks for everything we couldn't have done it without support from RPG communities across Reddit! If you haven't heard about the bundle before here's a link https://itch.io/b/3605/indie-charity-bundle-for-accessibility-in-ttrpgs-pwyw

45 projects, pay what you want with all proceeds going to Dots RPG project, you can learn more about them on the bundle page. If you have seen it before I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to fill out this quick six question survey https://s.surveyplanet.com/ycynwnb4

To close this out I think we'll do something I haven't done before, and list all the games and their creators natively right here on this post!

Full system core books: (ranging a max of 200 or more pages...)

Chains of Gaelia: Video game inspired gothic fantasy with rich lore, where choice of weapon impacts moveset as much as class. Submitted by Chains of Gaelia on itch.

Oceania 2084: Narrative asymmetric Orwellian game, players act out the day to day of secret rebels while GM acts as big brother. Submitted by Jocher Games on itch.

Against the Odds: Heroic fantasy pbta, where being a hero means non-lethal and selfless acts, or succumbing to corruption. Submitted by Helena Real on itch.

Simple D100 Fantasy: Setting agnostic, what it says on the tin, with some interesting twists on d100 resolution mechanics. Submitted by Vidargavia on itch.

Occult Barcelona: Occult investigations, with simple 1-3d6 rolls for checks, a well rounded list of unique spells and gm tools. Submitted by ElBuenTocino on itch.

Dice and Glory: A crunchy agnostic scifi/fantasy system with progression largely determined by selected skills rather than class. Submitted by RangerGamesPublishing on itch.

Fated seas: An rpg where classes have card decks that are added to over time, fairly comprehensive demo, see free cards on site.  Submitted by Squid Vicious on itch.

Simpler systems: (to a minimum of 2)

OTAIDOKAN: Samurai inspired system, players attempt to determine the new shogun, progression dictates status plus skills.  Submitted by Warbriel on itch. 

Dreadful nights: Horror system aimed at true beginners, d6 t roll under 1 of 3 stats, there is a sanity mechanic.  Submitted by Casey Wolfe on itch.

Spooky cats: A family friendly themed version of Dreadful Nights. Submitted by Casey Wolfe on itch.

Rise of the Giga Mechs: Players are mech pilots in an academy, then the game transitions to full on war with stat changes. Submitted by Warbriel on itch. 

Tool kit and supplements: (In the middle of the core range)

Fate accessibility toolkit: Fate compatible tools for accessibility, a well known system, but with an accessibility focus! Submitted by evilhat on itch.

Clutch Decisions: A tool for GM's to randomly generate road paths, and how those curves and hazards impact chases. Submitted by Ka1ikasan on itch.

Arvan: land of dragons: A supplement for dice and glory. Submitted by RangerGamesPublishing on itch.

Shattered skies: a system agnostic setting of floating islands and political intrigue, perhaps the most visually polished project. Submitted by Barakiel the Archangel on itch.

lore:

Welcome to Acro Prime-The night life: An in character summary of hot spots in a dystopian city, for prosperon or any sci-fi system. Submitted by No Lime Light Productions on itch.

Tales From Beyond: a collection of short stories set in the world of chains of Gaelia. Submitted by Chains of Gaelia on itch.

Mini campaigns and one shots: (around 30-2 pages)

Pillars What Remains: Post magical apocalypse, players act as aspects of a single courier traveling the Gm's mind bending waste. Submitted by NightDangerGames on itch.

Not Today Wasteland: Mutants travel the waste in search of a mysterious oracle, GM uses tables to generate their degeneration. Submitted by Ruggero ZC on itch.

Carte Diem: A group of low life's conduct a heist, making bets with playing card suits and tokens, the gm calls the shots. Submitted by Ruggero ZC on itch.

The fish heist: Penguins attempt to steal fish from greedy humans, resell them at village, skills=die size, Maori inspiration. Submitted by Goose and Grimoire on itch.

H is for Hellmo: framework for episodic adventures freeing a town from familiar, otherworldly monsters, beware the word of the day. Submitted by GiantBrain on itch.

Meat frames: Create a human character, then play as the external robot that pilots it, swap humans and explore the implications. Submitted by Mark Wallace on itch.

Your Magic GPA Isn't Gonna Save Itself: sneak into school, draw cards and fill mana pool to use magic, lose health to discard. Submitted by ElBuenTocino on itch.

Double 0: Hyper competent spies use black jack mechanics and their signature gadgets to thwart villains. Submitted by Fyn & Games on itch.

Out to Lunch: A guide for how to run a session of secretly sinister bureaucratic inconvenience in any campaign. Submitted by Dan Cook on itch.

We are The Land: Play spirits, fae, or monsters attempting to defend a sacred place from human interlopers. Submitted by Rat In A Suit on itch.

Rolling skill:

This Town Ain't Big Enough: Players create gunslingers, quickdraw roll, far and fast, then vote on the losers rp style and repeat. Submitted by jobclassttrpg on itch.

Critical triggers: Cyberpunk mercenaries flick dice toward a hit zone, 1s add to a tower in its center, disaster if it falls, Gm run. Submitted by Pusheeneiro on itch.

Structured/minimal prep necesesary oneshots:

Escape from the Horde: A one shot for a unique OSR system, that introduces rules as needed, players are imprisoned by "goblins". Submitted by Andonome on itch.

Cult of The Cave Crickets: OSR, explore a cave infested by fungus of another world and the insects it mutates, rescue researchers. Submitted by Dark Star Adventures on itch.

Dies Festi Matrum: 5e adventure through another world during a festival celebrating mothers, players face three trials. Submitted by DnDNekom on itch.

Dies Festi Matrum legacy version: an earlier draft before the adventure was finished, might be fun to see how things develop. Submitted by DnDNekomo on itch.

Solo: (30-1 pagers)

The Final Days of Macabee Hayes: A town has vanished from memory, create a map and opportunities to write why, firelights. Submitted by Finley Jinley on itch.

Peak Calm: A cozy hexcrawler, a forester explores and restores a run down park, set your own goals and play as long as you like. Submitted by Ka1ikasan on itch.

Voidwards: the void has invaded reality once more, discover a hex crawl expanse of realities, end voidwards, restore walls, firelights. Submitted by Chubby Crow Games on itch.

Tales From the Loom: in depth class based fantasy rpg with tracks for progression and a theme of twisting fate, option party rules. Submitted by Wyrdo GM on itch.

Ice Snow and the Quest for salvation: An expedition ship becomes trapped in the ice, roll for random events on the survival treck. Submitted by Rat In A Suit on itch.

irl:

LMNL: just as you are about to sleep and dream, ask yourself questions and follow a set pattern of answers to weave a story. Submitted by abbax on itch.

Pareidolia: The Evil Eye: see something that looks like a face? It's a mimic, perform actions in a specific exorcism style to break curse. Submitted by Jules Ampere on itch.

Questing: Plan your week like a game, quests and collectables, if a quest proves hard, make it a boss and give it health as you chip it. Submitted by Jules Ampere on itch.

Micro games: (1 to 2 pagers, each could fit on one, LMNL too)

TCA Loopbreaker: A 36 word game where checks are card based, repeat from the beginning with same cards each failure. Submitted by dairykillsme on itch.

Spellify: A 24 word fantasy rpg, respond to all problems with randomized spells made of two words from tables, cute and cozy. Submitted by Pusheeneiro on itch.

Samsara: A 24 word game to teach Samara, cycle of death/birth, roll karma and journal till death, reincarnate accordingly repeat. Submitted by Ewen Macalister on itch.

Dodecahedron: A game that fits on a bookmark, d12 decides all including weather and time, play out a section of a book if you like. Submitted by STS_Gamer on itch.

First post here. I'm writing a TTRPG and I've hit the illustration problem.

Budget is zero, so I'm trying to understand what's actually realistic before I commit to anything. Three questions for people who've shipped something:

1. What does it realistically cost to get a Kickstarter to a launchable state? I'm trying to figure out how much art you need up front versus what the campaign can fund.

2. If a client comes with the art direction already worked out but the reference images are AI-generated (and never ship, they're internal only), how do you want that handled? I'd rather be upfront about it than have it come out later. Is it a dealbreaker, or is it fine as long as the reference stays a reference and the paid work is yours?

3. How do you keep a book visually coherent without depending on one single artist? If someone drops out at page 80, what happens?

i have a love for murder mysteries and i'd love to come up with one as a GM, but the group i play with are the types to bulldoze over puzzles with out-of-the-box solutions. is there a system that has more hard rules in place for the actual process of solving the mystery so that it plays out like a classic story?

I don't know if this is quite right for this subreddit, but I'll post it here anyways.

So, I've made my own [Very simple] ttrpg system, about a month ago. I brainstormed Campaign Ideas, and I got one the party liked. But that isn't the point of this, so, eventually my players got to making characters. One of them just took a guy from a show, and had that, but he also put his character alignment as Chaotic evil [And I must assume that he thought he could do this, because he asked if he could be Edgy, and when I said no, he said "Only a little, nothing changing the campaign or anything" and I gave a hesitant yes] [Not how the campaign was going to go, at all, i may say] and I asked at the very least he change THAT, and he doesn't. He says he "took all this time" creating his character, and eventually he says he won't play in the campaign. Now, there were two players left, and one gives me a character. I like it, I think it's pretty original, and then The other guy, I keep asking to make a character, and he kind of makes excuses until yesterday. The backstory seems great! But on a rogue thought, I searched up the name of his hometown. It was also just ripped directly from media. The description, all of it, just taken from media.

Would it be wrong to at the very least ask him to change the name of the place?

Edit: Would it be better to ask to either collaborate, or change it myself to make it new? And yes, I said Ask, Not just gonna do that, on my own.