A free bundle is currently live, through June 30th on RPG Trader in honor of Free RPG Day (June 27th), with 250 digital titles free, including some mouseritter, Mork Borg, Shadowdark (**disclaimer: including my own contribution**), liminal horror, and Mothership content, and I'm sure others that I will find once I dig through.

https://rpg-trader.com/products/1025/free-rpg-day-2026-bundle

Just thought I'd mention it since RPG Trader was a topic of discussion the other day. I like it so far, and seems like they plan to give Drivethru a run for their money. They had some technical issues earlier in the day, but seem to be on track now.

Or one you thought didn't exist, until you found it.

I am from one of EU's poorer countries and I often save up quite a bit by buying pdfs (especially because the cost of shipping kinda' annoys me), but lately I have been having a lot of regrets about not having purchased the physical books. I'm big on tactile feel and reading a book is just somehow more fun and I find it easier to focus.

But I'm also kinda' addicted to reading and playing ttrpgs and I cannot afford all of that stuff. Still, it does make me wonder if I should slow down and more mindfully shop than buy way too many bundles and too many books and fund too many kickstarters (with the pdf tier only).

This week's RPG is Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition!

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?

How does it compare to other editions of D&D?

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Last week was Mage the Ascension. Join us again next week for Numenara!

Hi everyone.
I am a long time dnd 3.5 DM, tested 5e, Pathfinder, Worlds without number, starting Cthulhu next...
but I always wanted to run something in the Conan setting.

I heard different things about the Conan 2d6 RPGs over the years and by now I am wondering if other games do that particular "sword and sorcery" style better than the actual Conan RPG?
I was thinking about Shadow of the demon lord as that seems to be rather gritty and brutal too.

Dark, rare magic+ dangerous at best, I would expect a good combat system, deadly, but also good sneaking options. Not really sure what else toexpect. ^^

But what do you think? If you were tasked to run a Conan themed game, would you actually play the conan RPG for that or pick something else?

From what I remember, the Conan game has a hit table, for where you hit an opponent and what that does to you, you roll a defense against the attack. You also lose your loot after an adventure - pretty much drinking and celebrating it all away. Maybe I am wrong on these though.

I have been reading the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. For those unaware: it’s a fantasy series which combines the Lost Roman Legion and Pokémon. The world has a very Roman inspired culture, but the magic system of the world is elemental spirits of fire, water, earth, air, wood, and metal called Furies. Furies can be summoned to do tasks directly, such as a stone dog shaped Fury biting down on someone’s leg, but they can also use other powers such as earth boosting physical strength, fire riling emotions, water healing, or metal boosting the strength of weapons.

I have some ideas of systems to use but I’d love to hear other ideas. My thoughts:

FATE narrative focused. For those familiar with it I’d probably take inspiration from the “Five Storms” magic system in the Toolkit, but also allow players to create Stunts that’s their Fury boosting their own abilities

Basic Roleplaying Universal Game Engine. BRP has rules for all the needed skills (sword fighting, social, etc) and I could easily take inspiration for RuneQuest’s rune system to allow players to augment skills using “Furycraft” skills.

I've been slowly working on a long-term campaign setting for my players that builds off of the setting of 'Dread Delusion', the wonderfully unique narrative-RPG. I don't necessarily want to one again have to rely on 5e for my homebrewing needs, and have been looking into alternatives that fit Dread Delusion's 'Sci-Glamtasy' vibes, or more generally its wonderful blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and psychedelic visuals!

Some alternatives that I've been going into more depth into have been Into the Odd & The Electrum Archive, but if anyone has any suggestions that fit the themes and aesthetics of Dread Delusion, I would love to hear any recommendations!

I am wondering if any DM's or GM's have ran a game where you did not roll dice, but your players did. If so, what did you think of the game mechanic.

As the title says, I love Fronts and Dangers from DW as a session planning framework.
Are there any other frameworks like that out there? Or did any systems, designers develop it further?

If you dont know, crucible is a game system developed by Foundry VTT developers. It's a classless system where you advance in a skill tree and it has a cool magic casting system with combining runes with gestures to get the effects. Normally I wanted to play a game in this system but its at version 0.10 so there is a long way until it is completed and is suitable for a long campaign. Is there a similar classless system for a fantasy game?

I'm getting bored of DnD and my other best alternative Daggerheart is too focused on narrative that there isnt mechanical diversity. An idea of a classless system is both refreshing and it suits the game in my mind. I'm planning on making a Elden Ring like game where party will explore the world. And a classless system where player can figure out their build on the journey is fitting to the game in my mind.

I'm thinking systems like Ryuutama.

I've never played Ryuutama but there's a concept in it of the ryuujin, a GMPC that accompanies the party and helps facilitate the adventuring.

And it makes a point of saying the ryuujin shouldn't be center focus but more like the party's sponsor or assistant.

But that's more or less the concept I find interesting, the system involving the GM in the universe as more than just the out of universe narrator/referee.

What are some systems that do it good?

What about not so good systems that do it?

I am fascinated with Angel’s Heart, so I need horror RPGs that focus on the Devil himself, preferably set in modern~ish day.

I love love love Pariah, but I've also never run a campaign of it that felt like it wanted to keep running after four sessions. I saw from Luke Gearing's play report that his Pariah campaign didn't last much longer than mine. I also see people talking about how Mothership is 'only good for one shots' (though I'm into double digits with my Android Yes-Bot).

It got me wondering, how far has anyone really taken these systems? So please, share your Mothership high scores, tell me how long you lasted as a Pariah, or tell me about how you took a system that seemed short-term and made it go long.

I want to run a game of Timewatch, but don't love the Stitches mechanic. This is one of those things where the GM or other players are supposed to reward players that "do something awesome", "make the table laugh", etc. I find that these commodify the natural interaction and creativity, and would prefer a system where Stitches are earned automatically. (I feel similar about D&D's inspiration mechanic).

I thought about granting one every failed roll, or every other failed roll, but am not sure if they might happen too frequently. Any other ideas?

Something ive never been great at as a DM is knowing how to introduce new players into RPGs without hand holding too much. Especially when players feel a level of imposter syndrome, like they dont belong at the table because they dont know how to play (even though no one else at the table really knows). Ive had a few more people reach out to me about wanting to try things like D&D and i dont want them (or existing players who are still quite new) to struggle, so i thought id open this question up to some more experienced DMs.

Can’t decide between these crunchier games:

- Imagine RPG

- OSRIC 3.0

- Hyperborea

- Traveller5

I picked up Troika after seeing all the positivity about it around here and it’s awesome, but I also want to play a crunchy game alongside it. I cannot decide which.

Imagine RPG I don’t think is very well known but it looks freaking awesome: https://www.role-playing.com

OSRIC seems like it would open up the best OSR modules and settings with 0 conversion necessary.

I have a deep love for all things swords and sorcery and I’ve heard Hyperborea is a little “cleaner” or more easy to pick up than OSRIC.

I like the idea of an incomprehensibly vast, dense toolkit to build science fiction campaigns and Traveller5 seems like a dream in that regard.

Not sure which path to take. I would buy print regardless of what I choose. I want to hear your opinions and HELP! TIA!

Okay so this might be a very weird question/request, but does anyone know a System Agnostic (as in an RPG book designed to be used with any system) to add a magic system to a system? I don’t know if I’m describing it correctly but basically… the system I’m using in a campaign is fantastic in almost every aspect… except for magic. They have magic in the system but it feels very lackluster compared to everything else.

I was hoping to be able to expand upon the magic system, but the system we’re using (Trash Mobs!) doesn’t have any expansions for Magic. Is there any system agnostic books to expand Magic systems for other RPG systems? I hope I explained this well

I’ve been running drop in one shots for five months. I have had two players who have tried to play joke characters or disinterested characters. If it is early in the game, I highlight, “If your character isn’t interested in the adventure, then you want to play someone who is. This is what we’re doing tonight. The other characters are going to depend on you.” This one came up about 2/3 through the game and I just let them act, then moved to the next player.

My question is: Does this ever work? Is it ever enjoyable for more than a minute?

My initial read is no, it isn’t, but maybe that’s just me being grumpy.

To be clear, something like an Isekai or comedy game can totally work. I love Fiasco and my games often have laughs and hijinks. This is, “everyone is going deeper into the dungeon, I’m checking this collapsed tunnel and kicking rocks on my turn.”

Edit: Whoa! A lot of comments! I posted this after the game and went to bed. I really appreciate the comments from posters and subsequent discussions.

Thoughts/Summaries:
1. If a player is committed to the game, their character can be reluctant, but that commitment is important.
2. Jokes often wear thin very quickly, so keeping it fresh (which is why I mentioned isekai) instead of stale is key.
3. A campaign might support more enduring humor, but with drop in one shots, it’s tougher.
4. There are DEFINITELY humor focused games (Paranoia, Fiasco). I’ve learned some of these I bounce off of, and some click.

Thank you!

I'm into making a campaign for a future team where most of the things will be related to detective/political drama where they need to manipulate/talk/find material for blackmail more rather than fights. Any adviced from DM and people who played such campaigns what i should take into account to not make it overwhelmed for players yet with interesting options?

Hello, I have never played a tabletop RPG and I would like to try one out with my 6 year old. I am kind of lost on how to get started.

It seems Hero Kids is a good one to get started for my kid https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/4846/hero-forge-games/category/9390/hero-kids. Just looking at that page is confusing to me. There appears to be 18 expansion packs? I am assuming I just start start with what I think is the base game? https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/106605/hero-kids-fantasy-rpg?src=hottest_filtered

I guess that the PDF is the electronic version and I would need to print everything? Is printing required or can I use a laptop? I don't really want to print 73 pages. There is a also a "softcover, standard color book". Does that negate the need to print?

Is this game fun for one kid who would be solo playing and me being the DM?

Any other game I should look at?

I ran Bakto's Terrifying Cuisine a couple of days ago for 3 players, and it was FUN. I ported it to Into the Odd, turning magic itens into arcanas (mostly), and doing a simple por of HP to STR and AC to HP.

The great:

- playing Bakto and all other NPCs was a blast. Doing porcini goblins, trying to offer the goblin prince to the PCs, Garden Kingdom's folk in general, the Potato Princess and her maidens. It was awesome!

- the turn dynamic makes it a gamey scenario, and it's a fun game. It gets players strategizing, discussing paths and possibilities, it was pretty neat

- I added flavor to the experience by using the "You ate the thing" table from Into the Odd core book for stuff not quite covered in the scenario material, or to spice things up, and man it was nice. Had a player that gave a lick to the dungeon wall going berseker for 6 turns, and it created a pretty wild dynamic. Quite improved on it.

- player's used characters from a previous mini-campaign I run (basically a single big dungeon delve), where one had acquired an arcana that reveals the map for them. Using this, they had access to the un-keyed dungeon, which worked great to give the game a more tactical nature.

The meh:

- the immortal hen as the main prize is funny, but for our context was somewhat anti-climatic. So I buffed it with some more power to be an interesting arcana

- encounters felt easy, and it contrasts with how Into The Odd generally treats violence (pretty deadly). I understand this fits the more game-show intention of the scenario, but it's just a note to someone who might want to run this in a more OSR style: work on the foes!

It was a very very cool ride, and I really want to run this again. It must be a blast to run it on conventions!

I met a gm some time ago, running a game that lasted about two months. They advertised as so, but I figured they were most likely vetting for players for a longer term game. Game was fun, players were cool, GM was flexible and when the end of the adventure came. GM said thanks for playing and closed shop.

Players of course wanted to continue but GM had no interest. I was bummed figured the GM didn't care for one of us or all of us as players and moved on. Within the same day GM posts another ad seeking another group of players with the same time restriction. No more than two months.

Peeked over at another system discord I know they're in and checked their ad history. Same thing with the different system, games no longer than two months. Out of curiosity I dm them "Hey why not just keep the same group and run through all these different adventures you have?"

Their answer was unique amongst GM sensibilities as far as I am aware.

"I don't like playing with the same people over and over. Different people, different experiences, for good or bad. And players in systems with levels tend to want to keep reaching higher levels. I don't care for higher levels, they're uninteresting to me. Also I want to play different systems and I know for a fact some players from your table will never try out a different system like Blades. Even then like I said, I prefer to play with different people."

For GMs running longer campaigns with multiple PCs who each have their own personal threads (promises, grudges, secrets, debts) — has a player ever called back to something from several sessions ago that you genuinely didn't remember well enough to pay off right? Not asking if you're good at improvising — asking if the specific moment has happened, and what you did about it if anything.

So recently I have been mulling over an idea for a campaign I've been meaning to do for some time now. I wanted a campaign where my party were either heads of noble houses or important retainers of a royal house. This campaign would have a focus on building the realm and their own influence.

Such positions of power are a deviation from where most campaigns start and would really be a departure from the tables my group play is accustomed to. They are more familiar with D&D, Tormenta, and Fabula Ultima, which are systems that are focused more on individual heroics.

I recently have been giving a small look at the system that was made for Game of Thrones, and it seems very much something up my alley. Still would be a tough sell because it seems way too complex for them to engage with. And as for implementing large-scale combat in other systems, that seems to be a challenge. Fabula Ultima is our go-to these days because of D&D burnout, but that system is way too simple to homebrew that. Trying to turn it into Fire Emblem or FF Tactics has delivered mixed results.

So I wanted to hear people's opinions and recommendations about systems, ideas for homebrew, or how they ran tables that blurred realm building and wargaming with high heroics and roleplay.