Some important context to start with my ramblings:

I (33 f) was born into an RPG household. I have been playing since I was 5 years old, starting with my dad's "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. My first d20 was gifted to me when I was 7. I've played TTRPGs and video games for almost my entire lifespan, but I have only been narrating for a total of 5 years or so. Of those, 2 years have been professional DMing (yes I was hired by a game shop exclusively to narrate RPGs in person).

In all of this time, I've only received harsh judgment and complaints from one specific group of players... the people I consider my very best friends with who I play online (using Discord, no webcams and I think this can be one of the problems)

We also have a very fixed GM (Blue) , that narrates to us for the past 10+ years (and that I know in person for even longer).

Now that the context was given...

I've narrated 3 times to my friends online and all of those experiences went out horribly to say the least:
1 - Once when I started narrating TTRPGs with my own worldbuilding
2 - One Halloween one-shot that was pre-made (Sulphur: A Mystery-Horror One Shot)
3 - And most recently by trying to have my first Daggerheart session.

The first time I was thinking that maybe, since it was one of my first games I didn't do the right things, and maybe I got a bit anxious by narrating my own world. The game went really slow and we barely made it to the end of my first prepared dungeon, but no problems I was expecting some bumps on the road. When asked if they wanted a second session, they completely vanished and proceed to ghost me and ignore me for a while.

I didn't think much of it, we live in completely different time-zones nowadays and it is very hard to make time for RPG sessions so I give up on trying to check if we are still going to keep playing.

A year later, my friends really want to play a Halloween adventure, our fixed GM doesn't want to narrate, but wants to play, so I offered myself to narrating some good old DnD, since we had less than a week to prepare, I choose a pre-made adventure (the Sulphur one, for the tones of horror and mystery). Again the session runs slow, they barely talk with my NPCs and get lost and confused unless I throw the action on them. As soon as there is one major obstacle they completely stop and try to check for a different alternative that requires less action or thinking (except for Blue, but he is not acting as much because he doesn't want to steal the spotlight too much).

After a while, I tried to narrate Root, they say they want to play at first, but gave up once I teach them the rules... 3 weeks of preparations (and learning the system) going to the drain, but if they didn't like the system, what will I do?

And now, almost 4 years after the first time I've narrated to them I try again, now with Daggerheart (because I want to learn the system) and I feel they will enjoy the extra roleplay that the system enables...

For that I get fully made artificial generated characters and backstories, that I manage to fit in the narrative as cohesive as I can. I've asked important question for the players that never get answered and I fill the gaps trying to make a shared world building.
I create a total of 1 NPC to tie them all together, a mentor of sorts that holds a big position on the school the characters go and ask my friends to add him to their lore... One of the players (Green) even gave me his lore completely changed 2 days before the session ;_;

Well, this session in particular goes awfully terrible. This was supposed to be a one-shot, but if they enjoyed the system I would transform into a full campaign and that was what I was aiming at.

I start the session with a short play from one specific character (Purple), she is hunting on the school forest and find something dangerous and that shouldn't be there, but since she is alone, she refuses to investigate further, what is fair point on my opinion and I had many backup plans anyways (Since my player Red is not participating, he goes out of the table to eat something and comes back later, usually when he does that he is hearing with his Bluetooth headphones, so I allow it. This is important for later).

The games goes smoothly with those brief character introductions, and I spill parts of the secret in every introduction. (Yes, it was my mistake to make separated character introductions, but they where fairly quick tbh and I can say that one of my best qualities as a narrator is dealing with parties that are split)

The problems start as soon as they are together.

I let them meet my NPC, that starts to act suspiciously as soon as Red tells him of the dangerous substance she found in the forest (I act in a way that the players did notice he got weird AFTER she presented him with the substance).
NPC hides on his room and Blue (that is stealth) notices he is gone from his room and there is tracks under his window. Blue and Purple start to track the NPC, while Purple and Green stay behind to look for clues (Green is my other player, he is new to RPG so still don't do much on his own).

I keep give hints about the forest, so many hints about the forest, hints about the forest everywhere, even going as far as Green getting a premonition about forest fires and the now missing NPC with the tracks that goes towards the market and the forest (my players showed a lot of interest about the market and ignoring completely the forest, so I think I can make them act by making the place they want to go suspicious and interesting).

But again, when I try to make things a bit hard by saying "The tracks are starting to get obscure here and you feel about to lose the NPC" my players give up immediately on the chase, what is corroborated by Red "calling" them and asking them to go back.

Red doesn't let anyone do anything, because he feels lost "We can't do anything in this situation" he says often (even when the other players are telling him that they should investigate and that the NPC is doing weird). As is our dynamic and Red is the queen bee, no one does anything without his consent.

Being honest here, all of my action was outside of the house since that was the house of the NPC and Green and I wanted it to stay as a base of operations for the party later (another mistake, I feel like I should had anticipated that they where going to choose to stay closed inside all times), I had things prepared for the market, the forest and even an arena, but not really the house. But hey, I am good at improvising and I know the NPCs and how they would react in that universe and what they would have at home, so improv I do.

Since they don't leave the house, I bring NPC back (as if not had happened wink wink), and instead of talking to him they keep discussing the fact that they can't do anything. So on a last desperate measure I make the clouds go dark and the NPC faint with so many clues that my players KNOW he is under a curse and CANNOT talk about whatever is happening on the city/ forest.

At this point, the adventure comes to a complete halt. I stop the session, ask for 10 minutes and when I come back I lay down for them ALL of the clues, on which player Red gets really upset because I did not told him specifically about the clues of the fire on the forest.

My 5 hour long one-shot became a 8 hours long game and that have never happened before to me, everyone was tired and I just wanted to end that torture that had became the game.

---
I've asked for some criticism and the things they told me were:

- Revise the lore so the mentor is more important, because they did not know their mentor was powerful and important (since the start I was telling them that he was their main mentor and specifically chose the players) they said they did not have a strong connection with the NPC that was literally the foster father of one of the players (From Blue)

- Only the characters where good, all of the rest where shit (with those words) (From Red and backed by Purple)

- They hated the system with all of their might (understandable, we played so many different systems together since we know each other).

---

After that session I was feeling pretty bad, it had been a year since last time I narrated RPG and at first I was thinking that I was rusty and trying a new system was maybe not something interesting to do when I was so rusty.
But the more I think about it the more weird to me it gets.

No one ever complained this much about my sessions. Everyone always complimented my narration and the fact I like to make everyone shine a little bit. I wrote compelling mysteries and living worlds. And my favorite compliment is that everyone feels welcome and even the most shy of my players feel compelled to interpret their character.

I may not be the best DM out there, but at least I was honestly trying to give my friends a good time, and I left feeling like the worst DM on Earth.

There are many things I feel that I could do different, but at this point how much of it is me trying to cater to their needs and how much is me just trying to make a baby's first adventure by over-handholding? I don't want to tell them HOW to solve the problems, but they appear to not act if the solution is not absolutely clear to them, even when I escalate the situation because they are not acting.

Is the lack of cameras the problem? Is me the problem? Or is it purely the friends dynamic that got too rotten to be salvaged? I feel that it is a combination of the factors.

Tl;Dr - My players lack of investment on my games can be a symptom of a deteriorating friendship and sometimes that is fine, even when it is frustrating.

PS:
- English is not my first language, some people seem upset for me using the word "narrating" as a synonym to GMing.
- We do have sessions 0 through group text chat, it worked well for those 10+ years we know each other..
- This game session only made me realize that the whole group dynamics may not be that healthy, but there is a lot more to that that doesn't fit to the RPG subreddit.
- And yes, I am used to run my own one-shots and campaigns and work at a store when I had a very strict 4 hours per session, I got pretty good at determining how long a session last with an average group. The session lasting 3 hours more than expected is a BIG outlier to me.
- And no, they don't cause as much trouble when it is anyone else GMing for them.

GURPS has gotten a bad wrap for being overly complex and generally unfun, and for some that might still ring true. However if you already use VTTs like foundry, and or character sheets on your laptop there's no reason to not check it out.

I think the negative view of gurps comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what GURPS is. It's not its own system in of itself, rather a toolbox for you to create your own system "powered by GURPS". All of the rules outside of "Roll 3d6 under your skill" are entirely optional.

If you love to homebrew you have a powerful tool in the trait system, which allows you to mix and match enhancements/limitations to handcraft abilities tailored to your concept. If youre a dyed in the wool role player you can also take drawbacks that give you more power but also have clearly defined rules that will effect how your character plays and gives opportunities for further rp.

Gurps Character Sheet is everything DnD beyond wishes it was, while it unfortunately not available on mobile, it has references to all the rules and if you have the PDFs it links everything to them, letting you look deeper into a particular skill or talent on the fly.

I play IRL but from what I've seen the system plug in for foundry is lovingly crafted to make running gurps as easy as possible. You can even import GCS sheets directly into foundry so you don't have to manage two sheets.

If you're tired of maxing out a skill or ability and still failing from bad luck the probabilities of a 3d6 system makes it so as you bring a skill over 11 the chances of you failing get exponentially lower and vise versa. In short success and failure at a given task less to do with luck and more to do with how your character is built.

The Character Point system lets you drop feed power to your PCs and let them improve their character to their whims rather than a rote leveling system.

Right now my PCs are: An amorphous slime guy the size of Andre the giant that can slide through small gaps and into buildings through pipes, An OCD vigilante called The Sanitizer, an illusionist/nail tech use acrylics are the source of her power, a mad scientist/gadgeteer who can make gadgets for any situation (with some risk of malfunction of course), and a crust punk vermin druid who summons rats and birds to fantastic effect.

If you want to know more about the system I would check out GURPS federal agent and Chris Norman, the latter being a direct developer of the GURPS foundry system and iirc the gurps character sheet program.

TLDR:if youve ever spent hours home brewing or trying to make your own system in literally begging you to check out GURPS

My go to games are:

Fantasy: Pathfinder 2nd edition
- 3 action economy
- the whole feel of the game world
- APs are very good, quality writing
- crunchy, but feels very satisfying and balanced
- Paizo is one of my all time favorite publishers

Science Fantasy: Starfinder 2nd edition
- aforementioned reasons
- perfect blend of fantasy, science and humour
- color-usage in books (that main purple color is just amazing!)

Universal TTPRG system: Cypher system (currently diving myself into 2nd edition)
- pool management is awesome and refreshing
- can be explained in like 5 minutes
- cyphers are really great to solve problems, give powers to your players' hands
- player facing rolls (I love a game where I don't have to roll as a GM)
- Monte Cook is just an amazing company.

I don't have go to games in the following genres at the moment:
- Dark fantasy
- Horror
- Sci-fi (Traveller might be the one, but I am not sure yet)
- OSR (currently trying out a couple)

Following up on a previous thread about mechanics that are disliked, today I want to hear from the people who have played a lot of TTRPGs on what they think the best implementation of a mechanic they normally dislike is. Is there a game where you think encumbrance actually works? a Metacurrency that actually does meaningfully contribute to the game? Or some other system that you normally hate but, for one game in particular-it clicks for you?

Really excited to hear what folks have to say on this one!

It's one of the thickest rules books I have ever seen! I was going to post pictures, but that doesn't appear to be an option.

First impression is it's very well done. Hard back with full color glossy pages. Hope to dig deeper into it in the coming weeks.

​

I saw it together with a GM screen and other accessories for really cheap in a shop where I live.

But I don't know much about the system, I searched on Google, and it sounded interesting to me. The setting caught my attention.

But I also wanted to ask the community about it, is is a fun and nice ttrpg?

Thanks for the attention!!

Looked at Wrestling TTRPGs and all of modern ones are out of Kayfabe which I think is silly so would like one in Kayfabe (If you don't know the terms I'm just looking for one that portrays it as "real")

I recently heard of Solo September for the first time, and decided it would be super fun to give some Solo TTRPGs a shot this month. I’ve played/run heaps of different group-TTRPGs, and a couple of smaller duo/solo games like Tangled Blessings, Starforged and Thousand Year Old Vampire alongside my partner, but I haven’t really dabbled in any solo games all on my lonesome.

In the spirit of Solo September, I’ve suggested that my partner and I each pick out 4ish solo games to play - aiming for one a week - and chat about whatever games we end up playing by the end of each week! Kinda like a cute little solo-ttrpg book club.

So, the big question is: What Solo TTRPGs would you recommend I look into?

Willing to have a look into game of pretty much any genre - cozy, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, mechs, etc.! :) But, I am only interested in human-made TTRPGs, so please do not suggest anything that incorporates AI.

Thank you, in advance, for any help! Have a successful September, everyone. <3

I’m running a shortish (like 4-5 session) super hero game for my friends soon and the part I’m having the most trouble with is coming up with a name for the major city the game will take place in.

Coming up with names has always been my Achilles heel but this one feels extra hard for some reason.

Hey, everyone. If you like tactical RPGs and fighting video games, you might like Fight! 2nd Edition. Right now, we're running a Kickstarter for our new supplement, Fight! Button Masher. This new book streamlines the chargen process so you can have a complete Fighter built in only a few minutes. The book also provides a streamlined version of the combat rules to make the game faster to learn and faster to play. Finally, it has a starter adventure with pregens so you can get started right away.

Please consider checking out the Kickstarter here.

If you are unfamiliar with Fight!, ask me anything.

The forthcoming Broken Empires RPG has a d100 roll-under/roll-high mechanic, an interesting “blackjack” take on roll-under mechanics. What are some other games that do interesting things with roll-under?

I love the 40K setting and I love ttrpgs. So the next logical step is a 40K ttrpg! Are they good? I know they are pretty old school.

I'm trying to find a lofi scifi rpg released recently (2-3 years) that was about you raising a family of explorers in space.

I recall one of the main mechanics was the ability to deposit your apprentices at different planets for training which functioned as upgrade mechanics. Your "family" also had different roles you could place them into.

The art direction of the book was abstract pastels. A children's book style, so to speak.

I'm worldbuilding for a pen and paper comedy-horror sci-fi RPG campaign for my friends that involve them playing as severely underpaid "Manager Workmen", in a dystopian future where all labor has been delegated to little sentient bauble-headed cartoon robot people, but a computer virus infects them and turns them into murder-bots with unexplainable sci-fi psychokinetic abilities, and they've got to uncover the source of this madness! The entire game isn't supposed to solely revolve around them managing the robots, but a large chunk of it initially is.

I'll list several aspects of the game in hopes of being directed to some TTRPG systems that might be good for inspiration. I don't really NEED to find a system for every single one of these, but I'd like to really see what's possible!

1. Sci-fi detective stuff

Since humans are basically useless for labor, they serve as 'detectives' doing all kinds of odd jobs for the Company that rules over their world. usually the sentient robots are sent first to deal with any sort of ordeal, but when that doesn't work, (usually detected by their "life signal" going off,) the Manager Workmen have to gear up and go out to deal with things themselves. If they handle things nicely, they'll get a bonus paycheck!

1. Psycho-robot experiment research stuff

Also, there's another part of the game where instead of focusing on developing a construction project, they have to manage a select few 'test subject' robots to further research the deadly computer virus, experimenting on them and such, even conducting interviews with them. Here, tons of different effects could happen, with the goal of trying to research a 'cure' for the 'virus'. The players could sometimes delegate these investigations to other researchers, but sometimes if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself. There's a risk of the drones going 'psycho' and breaching containment, with the players needing to go out and manually fight to stop the breach before things get worse. There are other lower researchers who can die by their mistakes, so I want for a 'morale' mechanic to be at play, even for individual NPC researchers to lose their mind completely. (I suspect I'll have to be the most creative here, but if there're systems I can look to for inspiration on this as well, that'd be great!)
They'll also have to go on expeditions to gather resources to maintain their facility, have specific machines built, etc.

1. Post-apocalyptic survival stuff

   There'll be a post-apocalyptic survival game at play where they have to travel across the ashes of a dead world while lone killer robots constantly search to take the lives of the last humans alive. They'll have to both make sure they evade being tracked by their hunters, and scavenge for simple resources to stay alive.

2. Combat system suggestions

Though they start as basically just regular bums failing at jumping across ledges because it's funny, I actually want to eventually allow the players to be more 'anime-badass' as the story goes on, unlocking their own abilities and combat styles later on. Wanna let them get creative there, allow things to get really extreme. But I don't like number-crunchy combat systems like DND, I mostly prefer text-based CRP. I love when battles feel like playable fight scenes instead of videogames. I'd have no problem just letting combat be almost system-less turn-based, with me functioning as the referee. But here, I'd love it if there were some system in place to make things feel a bit more firm and fun.
In terms of combat, badass anime melee stuff could be a thing, but there could also be sci-fi guns they could use as well.
Early on, encounters will definitely be very environment-based as these robots are going to mess with lights, threaten to kill other workers, etc. And for the most part, all they'll have are simple firearms that would certainly work if they could at least see who they're shooting at. So a system that focuses on those elements would be cool, if there are any.
Later on battles are going to be a bit more 'badass' and extreme, but I plan for them not to forget what they learned as regular workmen, using their knowledge of how this science-fiction world is built to their advantage as they battle greater and greater eldritch abominations created by this godforsaken virus.

Sorry if this was a bit too long-winded and hard to read, I've got ADHD and I resent the concept of language. Thanks in advance for anything and everything!

I've been wanting to run a Silent Hill style mini campaign with my players for a while (I think they'd really enjoy the roleplay opportunities!), but I really cannot find one. I did find a TTRPG which is set to release in april which is part of a set of three other TTRPGs, being part of the VHS series (If you want the link to the main page of the website detailing this set, you can click on it here), though the VHS series doesn't seem very customisable for homebrew. If there any other ones which are particularly good, please recommend them!

The Backerkit campaign for Criminal Spirits is now LIVE!

If you don't know Criminal Spirits from my earlier posts here, Criminal Spirits is a 1920s Urban Fantasy game using my Glorious Fate rules, a simplified version of Fate Accelerated. The 12 page rules are available for free here. In Criminal Spirits, you are the staff and supporters of a new speakeasy in New York City, the first speakeasy run specifically for ghost, faeries, witches and other magical creatures. You and your found family strive to keep the speakeasy open and achieve your ambitions despite the mob, the police and your own customers.

Thank you everyone here for all of the feedback on the character sheets and speakeasy. If you haven't seen the final character sheets, you can see them here. Your Speakeasy will be one of the first chapters shared with backers in October.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this, and to make a complete setting book for this world.

Hi!
I wanted to see what everyone recommends for three different power levels/play styles for fantasy one shots. The requirements would be:

1. Fairly easy to teach on the spot for a new player

2. Characters can be made at the table.

3. Smooth for the GM

4. Easy to run a 3-5 hour one-shot

Each game should be separated into the three levels.

1. Peasant with a fork

2. Competent Heroes

3. Heroic (5eish without the headache)

Let’s hear the three games you recommend! Add in a one shot for it if you have something. Thanks!

My brother is a therapist who works with children and asked me about resources for finding an age appropriate ttrpg group for an elementary schooler. My first thought was to call local LGS and see what they say, but that felt like a long shot. Does anyone know of any resources to find groups like that?

A new modern war game system just launched on Kickstarter. In the game, players create a character (s), then lead a team into a modern war COIN setting (fictional or real), where their every action or decision changes the campaign ecosystem (through three tracks: Insurgency, Local Trust , or higher Command) around them. Few actions, if any, are positive across all three. On the KS are links to a free quickstart PDF and their Foundry VTT to test the system.

The campaign system is a way to link sessions together. What environment would you be interested in gaming? Urban, jungle, desert?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1331324804/outside-the-wire

Now I just had a look at the VHS series's website, and it looks good. The games look well made, the concept is great, but it looks really awful at homebrew. If anyone could give a proper opinion on it, please do (If anyone wants the link to the TTRPG's main website, you can click on it here)!

Are there any generators which will generate climate / biome / weather information after entering map information? There are plenty of great resources like Donjon for generating the maps themselves, but I'd like to automate the climate data. It takes an awful long time manually determining things like rainfall patterns or seasonal temperature variation.

Thanks in advance.

I feel this has been asked, but I've got a small question or maybe it's a big one.

I'm working on some Video Game inspired 5E Modules, right now it's Slime Rancher. I want to create custom character sheets for these module(s). I'm unsure how to go about it and trying to find someone to help/commission has proven not very fruitful.

I'm tempted to ask some of my friends for their art and Photoshop skills, but I don't want to be a burden on them and drag them down to my silly projects. 😅. Also, some of those modules I intend to make gifts for them and don't want to ruin too much of the surprise.

I guess what I'm asking is if anyone knows of some tools to make these characters sheets happen or if I'm truly destined to ask them for more assistance than I already have?

If anyone is willing to help too, I'd truly appreciate it or even a guide towards the right direction I'll take. I know I found someone on Etsy who makes custom character sheets and I send them a message - still no response. I'm just truly at a lost here.

I'd really love some assistance.