What are /r/rpg's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

This brings to mind a passage from Arbiter of Worlds that you might find helpful:

>IT’S NOT YOUR JOB TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE HAVE FUN

>When I list the four functions of the GM, the most common response I get is that I’m totally wrong – because “the real job of the GM is to make sure people have fun.”

>Well, I disagree!

>If you’re the GM, it’s not your job to make sure people have fun. The belief that when a player doesn’t have fun it’s means the GM has failed has caused more GMs more grief and heartburn than any other myth in gaming. You can be an amazing GM, yet a player might not have fun. Because whether or not people have fun is going to depend on factors that are outside your control: How did their spouse treat them on their way over? How was their day at work? How well do they roll the dice? Do they play the game as well as the other players? You can’t control these things, and therefore you shouldn’t feel responsible for them. This is Stoicism 101.

>What you should feel responsible for doing is creating an environment in which everyone could have fun. Imagine that you are hosting a party: Your job is to provide the right mix of appetizers, drinks, ambiance, and crowd so that people can have fun. It’s not to act like a clown because Rob had a bad day at work. This is a subtle point, but if you keep it in mind, you’ll avoid a lot of self-inflicted doubt and stress about your role.

> Good luck finding a copy though.

I don't see the problem, it's right here on amazon.

What, you don't have $1500 to drop on a book?

Used to do card magic long ago. Having the muscle memory for classic forces is nice, but if you want to incorporate this kind of thing, there are a lot of super simple to do forces that require little to no practice to do effectively.

Edit: If you want to get into doing this, a great place to start is The Royal Road to Card Magic. Its a phenomenal book for beginners and intermediate skill. It was written back in the 40's and covers a lot of the basic foundations of card manipulation.

I had to look up what D&D Beyond was but I don't quite get it. I need some explanation.

I have an android app that cost me like three bucks. It's a character sheet that autocalculates my numbers and applies them to where they go and even allows me to add some custom content.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wgkammerer.testgui.basiccharactersheet.app&hl=en

I also have a free app for my spell descriptions.

What do I get from Beyond that these apps don't give me and how much does it cost?

Edit: Happy to announce that Android is out!! There's still a bug here and there (especially around emoji rendering) but it runs! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wizardlyllc.lore

To everyone asking for Android: based on your feedback, we made this our #1 priority. For context, the Android version is complete and compiles, but we're fine tuning some performance issues to make sure it runs smoothly on older model phones. Thank you for your interest and I'll post again when it reaches the Play store!

we're still trying to figure out the best way to rename that category to fit all the good times in, folks can check out our efforts here: https://itch.io/t/384953/physical-games-classification-project

There are a few other great sites that are in this category like thispersondoesnotexist.com and artbreeder.com. I find Art Breeder comes up with some great realistic images that I use in my modern games for briefing scenes.

This is one of the better introductory sources: https://www.audible.com/pd/History/The-Celtic-World-Audiobook/B07BHXDXW9

Another interesting tidbit is that one of the reasons we know so little is because the druids were extremely secretive. Almost like a secret society of knowledge-keepers. They could have written things down, but chose not to. If I were designing a "druid" culture for an RPG, I would probably follow that track. Sacred wisdom, secret lore. Less of the "rawr nature magic" stuff. They certainly seem to have filled some kind of intellectual role in addition to their religious one.

Also Paxton is quick to point out that no druid ever worshipped at Stonehenge, which was built long before the Celtic period and the Celts knew even less about what it was for than we do today (which is almost nothing).

These all look like Koplow dice. Fantastic underrated brand, I've not sure why they're not a bigger name in the RPG scene compared to Chessex and others.

But if you're just looking for cheap, "serviceable" polyhedral dice, then Amazon is your friend. A quick search will turn up hundreds of options, but I highly recommend Yellow Mountain:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B014242Q7Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I bought this bundle of 18 polyhedral dice sets on impulse when the price dipped down to $15. Super happy with them. The quality is pretty much on par with Chessex, but at around one dollar per set instead of $7+.

The only thing, I only really had use for a handful of sets. I don't know if I'll go through EIGHTEEN sets over the course of my lifetime! But I've got this giant bag of dice sets now, and it's almost a little comical when I show it to people.

That’s a million dollar question, literally. If there were a formula for defining fun, all games (video, board, tabletop) would be fun.

Some games like Minecraft and DnD5e hit just the right marks to make the authors filthily rich, but no one has ever managed to make more than a few hundred rules of thumb to get there.

If you want to dive deeper into this question, there are hundreds of books about game design available. I haven’t followed the field for quite some time now, but my personal favorite is The Art of Game Design. The author made his name by creating rides at Disney Land.

Yes. They didn't care about scifi vs fantasy. That's the beauty. Read Clark Ashton Smith. Blow your freakin' mind, man. You can find it in the public domain as a PDF and on Lulu for print. For modern descendents checkout Dragonfly by by Raphael Ordoñez. Also Gene Wolfe, obviously.

One, if you've read the big Tales from the Dying Earth omnibus with the original short stories, two Cugel novels and the Rhialto stuff, you've read all the Dying Earth stuff written. (And I'd be surprised if you didn't, because that's the only edition that's widely available for sale.

Two, magic in the original stories is basically based on magic in traditional fairy tales. Our hero goes on an adventure and meets three people who give him three very specific magic items and later on it just so happens the three seemingly impossible challenges can be solved by them. It's a structure that is kinda hard to replicate in a RPG, where the story isn't pre-written to neatly resolve like that...

Three - but the Dying Earth RPG, which, as you might surmise, is the RPG based on the series, tries. AFAIR, they just go "ok, you have X casting slots, you could have potentially memorized the following spells, when you want to cast something you just go 'oh I happened to memorize The Nipple Dissolving Whimsy earlier today' and mark off one slot'. (Although this might not be the case in every edition of the game?)

Anyway, in conclusion, read more Vance, he's fantastic. I recommend Demon Princes.

The 2017 edition is pretty fun. There's a whole mechanic with cards for combat and mutant abilities but it's honestly pretty superfluous.

And the communists are now terrorists. But I just make em commies anyways.

DUDE THERE IS! THAT'S SUCH A GOOD IDEA!

That's pretty cool. You could use the infinity blade warriors for the characters if you want free textured characters.

I'm pretty sure you can use the basic ue4 animation with them as well, although it won't be perfect.

[](/GNU Terry Pratchett)

I'm calling the winner now.

Space Marine Librarian. The adventures of a person (or persons,) in powered armor fighting to keep noise down and ensure proper sorting and checking in/out of books.

I'll make it if you don't.

Edit: I made it.

Bastard Magic is a system-neutral magic system of 30 spells, specifically designed for thieves and general criminal activity. All are at roughly the power level of 1st level spells or cantrips in 5e.

FATE Core seems like a glaring omission.

Also Kingdom, which is lesser-known but awfully interesting. I recommend checking it out, particularly if you like Microscope, Ben Robbins' other game.

Now, side note: Why on Earth are you questioning Chaosium's right to a Kickstarter campaign, but not Pinnacle's? Savage Worlds seems as healthy a brand as ever, and just from online observation I'd guess it has as many or more players than Call of Cthulhu, and way more available supplents. Moreover, Deadlands as a brand and setting is an outright classic, well-known, well-played, and beloved. So why are you okay with Pinnacle reaching out for your hard-earned dollars, but not Chaosium?

Also, it's my understanding that the authors of the new CoC edition approached Chaosium (not the other way around) and were basically told that if they figured out the bulk of the playtesting, authoring and funding of the thing, Chaosium would print it, almost like a big-budget version of one of their crowdsourced Monographs. I may be oversimplifying or outright incorrect, but I believe this is basically the case.

In any case, I'd argue that Kickstarter is a place where companies or individuals can spitball ideas safe in the knowledge that if the demand isn't there, they simply won't have to make it. And in that world, if people are okay handing over their money to individuals with the capital to create a prototype of something like this, surely funding a project by a relatively small-press publisher in a niche market should be okay.

EDIT: Yes, it includes The Haunting, a very well-regarded introduction to the game. It also includes two completely new scenarios, not to mention more rules updates than literally the last five editions combined. Just to be fair.

Patrick, Veins of the Earth is a very evocative work that has a well-crafted aesthetic prose throughout. When I had the pleasure of meeting you at Gen Con, you were reading Ligotti's Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe. I have enjoyed it quite a lot so far. What other literature do you have to recommend—and what does Scrap recommend—keeping in mind the aesthetics of Veins but not necessarily the content? (i.e., literature not so much about caves but that will beautifully creep you the fuck out?)

Everyone will recommend different things for different reasons. Regardless, the most important decision when picking your first RPG is the genre of the game (fantasy, space fiction, horror, cyberpunk, superheroes, etc). Recommendations become more pointed and useful once a genre is picked.

However, my unqualified recommendation is Call of Cthulhu. Based on HP Lovecraft's work, Call of Cthulhu is a game about investigators solving mysteries and unraveling conspiracies involving the Occult, alien, and Unnatural (and possibly going insane in the process). It has a fantastic starter set that includes the rules needed to play, all the dice you need, a choose-your-own-adventure style mystery that teaches you the rules, and three additional mysteries to run for your girlfriend (or that your girlfriend can run for you).

They can also can contain swear words
And they can serve as valuable Public Service Anouncments

That is awful. I wish that table could get a taste of what it felt like.

Reminds me of a multi-part story of a lady who found a DM looking for players. The DM and his GF, plus her and some other random guy I think. He was at least twice as bad as what was here. I wish I could find that story.

Found it!

What you'll need:

-Dwarf Fortress Get it here

-Fantasy Map Maker Get it here

-Photoshop

Launch dwarf fortress, enjoy the little intro, and then select "Create New World." Hit ESC to continue, and once you're at a new screen, hit the left arrow to select a small world size (The Map Maker works with small worlds by default, but the image I linked is from a large map, an option you can set later in Photoshop and described in the info.txt), now hit 'y' to create the world.

Sit back, because an entire world is being created, mountains raised, rivers and lakes created, and erosion occurs as the game runs through the first years of history in this world. Once it's done, accept the map, and then go to "Start Playing" and select Legends. From here, you should use the info file in the Map Maker folder to tell you what to do, by pressing d and exporting/renaming the detailed maps it needs.

If you follow the rest of the Map Maker info file, it should work! Enjoy your awesome looking fantasy maps. Dwarf Fortress is also an awesome game, and definitely worth your time.

>but also less freedom.

this is just flat wrong my friend, and I'll tell you why. your players are allowed to do anything, as long as you allow it, or give them the avenue to do it.

part of what makes DnD, and any tabletop rpg great is that as the GM, you are the arbiter of what happens.

personally I play pathfinder, however, I know from experience getting started and playing is much easier in 5E as it's quite a bit more streamlined. I'd say go with 5e and the beginner box

it's got plenty of content, and if you're buying on amazon, the books are around the same cost as pathfinder.

if you are dead set on pathfinder though, don't let me stop you, I love the system, but I just wish it had less number-crunching and interacting systems.

Edit: its out for Android now! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wizardlyllc.lore

Whoa, I hadn't thought of that. It shouldn't be too long. Check back around the end of the month! You can follow @lore_rpg on twitter for updates.

A few of the thinks you list above actulaly exist see:

• Donjon, this is a set of online random generators.
• AdventureSmith This is an android app which contains multiple random generators.

If anyone's interested in a third comparison, I got 10,000 d20 numbers off of random.org. Here they are with their percentage of deviation (calculated the same way as the article):

1: 501 (0.2%) 2: 499 (0.2%) 3: 477 (4.6%) 4: 499 (0.2%) 5: 505 (1.0%) 6: 497 (0.6%) 7: 544 (8.8%) 8: 556 (11.2%) 9: 501 (0.2%) 10: 465 (7%) 11: 456 (8.8%) 12: 474 (5.2%) 13: 510 (2.0%) 14: 465 (7%) 15: 512 (2.4%) 16: 502 (0.4%) 17: 490 (2.0%) 18: 497 (0.6%) 19: 496 (0.8%) 20: 554 (10.8%)

So, if you're really concerned about randomness and don't care about the feel of the dice, you have an online resource. Me, I'm happy enough to just be sitting around with a good group of people and telling a story.

You are not looking for a just name, first how legal is your substance?

• Official Name like BF3 or Buckminsterfullerene
• Popular Name like Buckmin, First Stage, TAE (trial and error) or XP
• Underground Name(s) Juice, Gatorade, Lightning, Boost, Band Aid, Swift, Tonic, Temp, Test - usually these names are trying to hide true meaning under something innocent like tea, grass, dust, powder

For random chemical generator https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/2023277/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_chemical_formulas

Play Dungeon Crawl Classics or Mutant Crawl Classics.

https://www.amazon.com/Unusual-Approved-Dungeon-Crawl-Classics/dp/B00YLSWZGO

I'm using something similar in a campaign I'm running. I trimmed the [Grog of Substantial Whimsy](http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Grog_of_Susbtantial_Whimsy_(3.5e_Equipment\)) down from its original 1000 items to a more manageable 400. Mainly I tried to eliminate anything game-breaking, a lot of the duplicates, some stuff that didn't seem as well-suited to 4E as 3.5, and anything that just didn't sound like fun (for my group and myself, instant death effects are not fun).

The modified list is available here: Revised Grog of Substantial Whimsy

Since my campaign is played online via MapTool, I also added it as a lookup table with some associated macros, making it much quicker to look up an item in the list.

That's not the definition of a protagonist. The protagonist is merely the main character of a story. You can have a protagonist without an antagonist.

Depends on what he means by "random" - not to mention there are services (e.g. http://www.random.org) that generate their RNG numbers from sources of physical randomness (in their case, atmospheric radio noise; random.org is actually slightly more random than nearly all actual dice).

I also have an argument for how a dice and a PRNG (pseudorandom number generator, one that generates number entirely through software) are logically equivalent, but I don't have the time to write it up properly right now.

Not a single character I gave predates the year 1900 (20th century). The Shadow premieres in 1931, I believe, and Doc Savage in 1933. John Carter is 1914, I think, and Tarzan is 1911 (though John Carter is an ex-Confederate soldier and Tarzan is rooted in late 19th century British colonialism). I could be mistaken on the exact years, but I know those are close.

"Weird 30s" is fairly accurate, all things considered. The thing is that more people associate this wacky over-the-top stuff with pulp than this.

EDIT: And to clear something else up, the movie "Pulp Fiction" has almost nothing to do with pulp on the whole.

Let's get some science up in this post! Hopefully people see this, I did 200 rolls on the die to check for the average value and standard deviation. I've put it all in a spreadsheet HERE. There's even more info to be found about die statistics HERE.

TL;DR This shapeways die at least, conforms to regular d20 behavior with a very good standard deviation.

DND 2E Al-Qadim

Pathfinder: Legacy of Fire, Khatapesh: City of Dark Markets.

Novel: Throne of the Crescent Moon https://www.amazon.com/Throne-Crescent-Moon-Kingdoms/dp/0756407788

and this looks like fertile ground to mine https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/2gzj6w/fantasy_novels_with_a_sort_of_arabian_setting/

Re: cheap dice. There are some nice no-name sets like this one on Amazon where you can buy five full sets of dice (plus dice bag) for $10.99. I generally use Chessex, but I bought a couple of these sets, and they seem nice.

I've set up a document that is something like this if you'd like to check it out and, if you feel that you want to, add to it. I've been meaning to add more depth to it as of late as well. It's not all non-combat encounters but, focused just on traveling in general.

Edit: Oh, and I should add that multiple redditors have worked on this document, not just me.

I was running Star Trek Adventures for a while with my group, but we found the rules were getting in the way of the game after a while so one of my players and I made our own hack, combining L&F with some elements of inspiration from STA.

The Result: Phasers & Feelings

Check out Foundry VTT (https://foundryvtt.com/) - my group used to use roll20 but we have been very happy switching. Main reasons:

1) only the DM pays (and only once) to get permanent access
2) you get dynamic lighting included
3) Foundry just works more smoothly, and has lots of modules to help customize things, and minor thing
4) the connection is directly to the DM's computer, no 3rd party website involved.

This makes me really sad that you've never had an awesome dungeon crawl. If you can find them, check out the stuff that svdpress has done. Some seriously fantastic dungeons absolutely dripping with flavor. "Fane of the Heresiarch" and "C1: Crucible of the Gods" are two of the best adventures I've ever played.

They can be found here.

If you're looking for a free alternative to InDesign, you should have a look at Scribus. It's open-source and there is a not-really-huge-but-really-friendly-and-always-happy-to-help community. Basically, it allows you to do pretty much anything you would do with InDesign but without the expensive licence.

And I remember seing some tutorial on YouTube a few months ago about someone working on the design-part of his own RPG with Scribus. It shouldn't be really hard to find if you're interested in it.

Here's some things that might help get you started.

Potion is from the french word pocion which is derived from the Latin potionem or potio. All of which relate to the term drink or drinking. Related is the Greek word pinein which means "to drink"

A common term for what you're looking for that's related to Alchemist is apothecary and refers to a shopkeeper who dispenses medicine. It's derived from French, Latin, and Greek as well. You can see the details here. Of interest is the base dhe- which means "to put, to do."

You might want to look at mixing some of these terms together to create a word that is feasibly correct and matches your world. Apothecary itself is a term to consider. Or you could mix in etymological forms of the word "magic" with apothecary (see here)

I guess I'll start:

Mini Six Mouse Guard

I love the concept behind the Burning Wheel and its derivatives, but the whole system was just too heavy for my group, and I wanted something that was easier to GM. On the whole, it's pretty easy to convert Mini Six to just about any setting, and I'm really pleased with how the rules ~~are turning out thus far~~ have turned out.

~~Fair warning, this is a living document, and everything in it is subject to change at any point (I'm working on the gear section right now actually, since the stats just don't work as they are).~~

Edit: I'm finally done editing in all the details from our last session, and I feel confident enough that this version of the document is balanced enough to call version 1.0 so I made a PDF of it. Feel free to keep replying with any ideas/critiques that you have though, obviously it can only get better!

Edit2: Now with a character sheet!

None of those are the simplest.

The original Star Wars RPG is simpler than any of them.

And Scum and Villainy is my favorite Star Wars game ever and is even simpler than that. It's also my favorite Firefly game ever.

Dungeon World (and other similar Apocalypse World hacks) fit the bill.

• Use 2d6 for ~~everything~~ Edit: for most things, but not everything, as corrected below
• Softcover book available
• Can be purchased from Amazon

I second the recommendation for FATE elsewhere in the thread as well, though Dungeon World is a bit more of a traditional D&D-themed game.

Look for washable child-safe ink. It should basically be much the same stuff as wet-erase markers or washable crayolas. Something like this maybe.

Recommend doing a test run too, if you or a friend have a sacrificial mat, dab a tiny dot of ink on the corner and let it dry and sit for an hour then try to wash it away.

For those practice the Lazy GM style of prepping, he has a notion template for campaigns that i've found works pretty well.

Believe it or not, there are way more games that have only a couple of books than there are games with huge piles of expensive books. A few games to consider beyond the ones already mentioned:

• Dungeon World -- $10 PDF, $25 physical book, self contained, though a few supplements exist
• Ryuutama -- $14 PDF, $35 physical book, self contained, and some supplements may eventually exist
• Fate Accelerated -- Free PDF, $5 physical book, self contained. Lots of other Fate products exist, but none are needed.

​

Honestly, there are vast numbers of games available at places like DriveThruRPG and Itch.io, for wildly varying prices (Some as cheap as free) as long as you are willing to sift through things a bit and content yourself with a digital product. If you want a physical book, prices go up a bit, but nonetheless, many games are pretty affordable.

Savage Worlds is 9 dollars on Amazon for the softcover. It's a universal roleplaying system that is a lot of fun. Get that and a set of dice for 15 dollars and you're good to go.

Archivist Elements is great for randomly generating stuff on the fly. It's fully offline and is far and away one of the best random generators I've used because of the variety and detail of its content. It's medieval fantasy-based, but system agnostic so you can use it for any version of D&D, Pathfinder, or other systems. I use it regularly to come up with stuff I didn't know I needed, or as a base to expand on or tweak when I'm creating a session or world. You can save or screenshot stuff in-app.

Here's what it does:

• Banners (randomized background, crest, and colours)
• Playing cards (standard or tarot)
• Characters (name, alignment, appearance, personality, magical ability, handedness, backstory, argument style, and identifying features/quirks)
• Deities (also very detailed, with domains, activities, artifacts, holy days)
• Items (armor, books, herbs, jewelry, misc. goods, potions, weapons, or any combination thereof in differing amounts)
• Maps (cave, dungeon, grid, or tunnel tiles)
• Names (for characters/locations/other, with a variety of styles)
• Omens (random minor but unusual sights/sounds/events)
• Plot hooks (in the form of rumours)
• Rooms (by building or room type)
• Settlements (by size, with leadership type, GP limit, law system, population, and demographics)
• Taverns (with map, current population, brawl chance, notable patrons and rumours)
• Weather (actual and perceived temperature, clouds, wind, precipitation)

In terms of creating a world, the main things it doesn't do, which you'd have to find elsewhere, are countries, organizations, and world maps - mainly because those aren't really things you need on the fly.

Dictionary.com

>an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside.

The English language thinks that's a legitimate use for the word rape.

I also wouldn't want to play in any of your games because I'd have to be on constant edge that anything I say might offend you.

A couple of years ago I actually wrote an RPG for another redditor that was looking for a campfire RPG. Maybe you'd like it too? You can see the original thread here.

Get yourself a copy of the XP edition, it's a little cut down from older versions but very clean. The first chapter is Red clearance, so if you want to play in a game you can read the first chapter, get the gist, get into the spirit, and not have anything spoiled for you. Also watch Brazil by Terry Gilliam.

As for getting a group together that has never played the game... Hmm... Best bet is just to ask them if they want to play a game that is one part 1984, one part suspense thriller, and one part Bugs Bunny. If you are the driving force, I recommend you run the game if nobody else steps up. Nothing quite makes people want to run a game of Paranoia quite like playing in one.

If that don't work, creep around Roll 20.net and see if anyone is running an open game.

As requested, here are some blank templates! For those who want to tweak stuff, here is a zip containing a layered .psd, a .pdf and a high res png (that should cover everyone!). For those just wanting the name removed, here is a high res png.

For behind the scenes stuff, check here: https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted

You will have to do some searching, but wikis, blogs / cmses, note taking tools, chat tools (slack clones, etc), and more can all be leveraged for your gaming.

If you find some gems, it’d be great if you came back and told us about them!

I suggest looking into ghost for blogging, mattermost for chat, Joplin for notes.

There’s also Obsidian, which is free as in beer and local: https://obsidian.md/pricing

Perilous Wilds is a great resource for locations, dangers, items, regions, whatever. There's also a web app for it that you can use to generate prompts for stuff on the fly: https://perilous-wilds.geekwire.net/welcome

You could also grab the app Adventuresmith; which is a collection of free resources to generate a wide variety of stuff for RPGs of all kinds: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.steavesea.adventuresmith&hl=en_US

It depends a huge amount on what system you are GMing, which makes this hard to answer. Some systems assume you will prep a lot, some assume you will do virtually no prep (and don't work very well if you do prep), etc.

The only book I know of that I would recommend generally is <em>Play Unsafe</em>. It's a very, very fast read, and is filled with concrete advice on what to do moment-to-moment while GMing. Learning tips on prep and all that can be helpful, but as a new GM, the hardest thing isn't organizing prep, it's the actual moment-to-moment thing you have to do at the table, and Play Unsafe is full of really fantastic advice about what you should actually be, you know, saying.

I'd love to "play" this, it sounds awesome.

You know what, guys? We have to play it, not just wonder how awesome this game would be so I'm starting this. Right fucking now. (Well, not really NOW, I'll create the wiki tonight when I get home). If you're interested, send me a message or answer here and I'll note your username.

I'll try to come up with some decent ground rules for deadlines and such (I don't expect anyone to be available 26 days straight). If you have suggestions, fire away.

UPDATE : IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE! ~~Anyone wishing to join us will need a Google account : you will need to send me your Google account info so I can add you~~ We're full, sorry guys! Still, anyone willing to simply read the entries will not need an account.

If you want to join, do it quickly! There's already about 15 of us!

use a roulette wheel instead of a die?

Alot of the comments here recomend an automatic death on a 1 or whatever. That isn't neccesary. You don't have to make the game harder to make it more stressful. EG: Darkest Dungeon has a mechanic called "deaths door" meaning that when you hit zero hitpoints you are now on deaths door and any blow can kill you. In reality this mechanic makes the game easier. It's different for tabletop games, but the norm for video games is that death happens immediatelly at zero HP. The mechanic makes the game easier, and more stressful.

Also you need not mess with mechanics to generate stress. Doing things like attacking the party while their hp is low, usually with pretty weak enemies (although the party shouldn't know that) or using enemies that inflict nasty status effects. One I usually steer clear of due to it being unfair, yet highly effective, is the threat of permanent harm. Enemies that do permanent damage to players stats or hitpoint maximum, or who can destroy players gear. Threatening a players gear is often more effective than threatening their characters life. (once again, use sparingly because you want to create stress, not anger.)

Lastly I find that you can even create stress by siding with the players. Whenever a player dies, make sure to look through the rulebook for any minute loophole that may result in them not actually being dead. Give them a few moments for their death to sink in, and then drop the bombshell: "oh, joe blogs, you might not actually be dead.... Yeah see grenades do less damage at the edge of the blast radius, can you roll d6 - 2?"

For babies...get some big dice and continue to play. Babies pick up the concept of rolling dice pretty easily. They are big, colorful and make a satisfying clacking noise when they drop them in the dice rolling tray. It keeps them occupied, they are in a social group, and they are involved with the family.

Big D20

Big D6's

> most starter sets are usually 100 dollar or more boxes

Not sure where you get this info from.

• D&amp;D Starter Set is $20

• upcoming Warhammer FRP Starter Set is $30

And those are just the two with "Starter Set" in the name.

As a general rule, if you are new to something, don't mess with Kickstarters for it. Just wait till it hits retail.

If you are interested in City of Mist, the core book is already out (and the stuff that will be coming from the kickstarter will be compatible with it). There's also a free quickstart version of the rules you can check out (basically like a demo version).

You are looking for the newish genre LitRPG. A tremendous example of which is Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe on here as /u/salaris

Here is the blurb from GoodReads.com: >Five years ago, Corin Cadence’s brother entered the Serpent Spire — a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire’s trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire’s goddess.

>He never returned.

>Now, it’s Corin’s turn. He’s headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.

>If he can survive the trials, Corin will earn an attunement, but that won’t be sufficient to survive the dangers on the upper levels. For that, he’s going to need training, allies, and a lot of ingenuity.

>The journey won’t be easy, but Corin won’t stop until he gets his brother back.

It is incredibly readable, I couldn't put it down. There are definitely some criticism to be made of it, but no more than a lot of other fantasy stuff that is well regarded and eminently readable.

I've been creating new systems ever since college in 1993 (When I discovered RPGs). Some have been little more than optional rules overlaying another system (2nd Ed D&D and 3rd Ed D&D). Some were whole new systems. Several were well received by people. In the end I abandoned most of them. I dont even remember how they worked...

I was looking for a certain feel and play style. I never ended up liking any commercial RPG in its whole - but found a lot of ideas I liked. That led me to my current RPG system. I tried to take what I liked from D20 (3rd ed, SW Saga, 4th Ed), Savage Worlds, and a few others.

I ended up with a d20 mechanic for action rolls (skills, attacks, etc) - all based on the same scale (Roll a skill vs an attack will work fine). I use d6s for damage. No other dice. No classes, no levels. You learn how to do things as you earn experience points (Idea taken from build point type games). Characters have a very limited number of hit points (Usually only 1...) - though actually taking such a wound is more difficult than it appears intuitively.

For what I want the system to do - it is just about PERFECT. It feels lethal so players don't jump into combat as the best option (If you have a hammer, all problems look like nails) - Creatures are always a threat - and monsters are unique and VERY dangerous seeming. I keep some very basic info on the system at:

https://sites.google.com/site/doulairen/Doulairen/sixth-age/rpg-system/

Foundry does have the ability to code your own game system. If you're familiar with modern JavaScript programming it might be worth a look. There is a list of currently supported systems here. They are all community built, so your mileage may vary.

If you wanted to make your own system they have a getting started article up on their website.

Megatraveller 1 - The Zhodani Conspiracy.

Megatraveller 2 - Quest for the Ancients.

I have played both games years back, and I remember them both as being pretty good, with cool stories. If you can get past the (very) old graphics, they're definitely worth checking out. Also, both games are officially abandonware now, meaning that it's free and legal to download them from the links above. Enjoy!

Just in case you haven't heard of Thingiverse, they have a little bit of rpg stuff. Better searching will probably yield more.

If Makerbot's claims hold, the Replicator 2 is going to be one of the better home 3d printers you can get. Other printers are going to require far more work to set up (Reprap) or are generally going to have thicker layers (i.e., worse resolution) unless you spend lots and lots of money.

If you care about open source hardware, the Replicator 2 doesn't look like it will be. That might not be official, though.

1. https://www.scribus.net/ has a similar toolset to InDesign but is open source. Alternatively, since Adobe CC turned to a subscription model, you ought to be able to pay for a single month of InDesign for like $20.
2. People go to school for years to learn editorial design. Personally I don't think there's an easy way to learn this quickly. As such I'd recommend picking a book you think is roughly similar with regards to style & content and adapt it to meet your requirements.
3. If you're having this commercially printed, learn about the difference between RGB and CYMK colour.

Ren'Py is decent for making visual novels, and god knows how many of those get success on Steam. But as a tool, I can't see it being of much use.

I suggest Twine. With it you can create an interactive fiction of sorts, without having to deal with graphics and coding. Try it out!

Step 1: Talk to your friends. It's the best place to start.

Step 2: look for a Friendly Local Gaming Store. Often times these places will give RPG groups a bit of space to play.

Step 3: if the previous two steps fail to net you a group to play with, subreddits like r/lfg may be a good starting point, as are sites like Meetup.com or even Roll20.com for online play.

Step 4: be patient - if you keep looking, you'll find people to play with. Eventually.

I just found out about an old boardgame called Thunder Road - basically an extended post apoc chase scene simulator, Mad Max with serials filed off.

I need to take a look at the rules, but grafting the rolling map concept onto AW as an aid for visualizing fictional positioning... That might bring Drivers to the forefront and be a killer cold-open to hook players piqued by Mad Max.

I understand from your comment you don't like railroading, but I'm not sure what to do with that. You cast railroading as inflicting harm on the players (consensually or no), but you don't say what the GM is entitled to do (without consent I mean).

It's not exactly masochism to expect the GM to provide exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement. I expect that arc in my fiction, and appreciate it in my RPG's. To get that satisfying arc I have to cede some restrictions in what options are available to the characters. I've certainly read articles that implied sandbox games are the best of all possible games, and imposing the narrative arc on a campaign or session is anathema to a sandbox game, but honestly games without that arc have felt flat to me, on both sides of the GM screen.

To put it another way, in Vonnegut's story diagrams, there are just a handful of common diagrams, because for whatever reason, only some shapes are commonly satisfying, and I don't think they regularly manifest by accident.

It's a kickstarter project. It looks pretty cool, but I'm not enough of a biology nerd to get excited by literally fighting diseases.

I have now looked it up, and the first usage of "Murderhobo" was (1) about a decade ago, and (2) a year before anyone ever said "Woke" as in socially-aware.
Cites: https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/3djm4k/where_did_the_term_murder_hobo_originate_from/ https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/woke-meaning-origin

It's a cute & evocative phrase, imho.

No money, you say? Here's some options for you:

Basic 5th Edition D&D rules: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

Better yet, just look through these: https://www.slant.co/topics/2163/~free-tabletop-rpg

It's not a traditional RPG but they may be interested in Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands. Rather than playing out freeform actions and rolling when necessary, the game is a series of tightly-framed scenes, like minigames. But it's intended to play a very Gundam-like story, with giant robots, politics, and personal drama. "Fight with your friends. Ally with your rivals. Fall in love with your enemies."

[https://payhip.com/b/jGPB](Murderous Ghosts) by Vincent Baker.

Is a 2 player rpg where one player takes the role of a person lost in some spooky place and the other player takes the role of the GM and characterizes the ghosts that inhabit the place. The goal of the player is to escape and the goal of the GM is to be scary and murderous. It uses a deck of poker cards for mechanic resolution which makes it very interesting.

Definitely give it a try. I played it with my wife and we had a lot of fun.

If you won't be too perturbed by my opportunistic self-promotion, you might get a kick out Straight to VHS. The theme? Bad movies.

You can view and download it for free here: https://www.scribd.com/doc/250721177/StraighttoVHSv0-2-3

In 5e, a Cleric or Paladin may create holy water by performing a Special ritual. The ritual takes 1 hour to perform, uses 25 gp worth of powdered silver, and requires the caster to expend a 1st-level spell slot.

But you wouldn't know that by just looking at classes, the PHB only mentions it in the description for Holy Water in the Equipment section. They don't exactly make it easy to find. I've been playing a paladin for 3 months only to find that out two days ago.

Whoa there, cowboy.

1. You will do just fine. No, seriously.
2. Don't aim too high. Use some simple adventure where players have to, for example, meet some old friend, arrive at his town only to find out that there's some ghost walking the street, or something. Simple, plain adventure, nothing fancy, works very well. Actually, you could use some official adventure for other system, like D&D or Pathfinder to harvest the ideas, replace monsters with those from W,R&M and it'll be ok.
3. This might help you: https://jumpshare.com/v/xhYe5tsJ34VhdI9hJeOM
4. Understand that it's about mutual fun. It's ok to make mistakes, it's ok to not know, it's ok to laugh mistakes off. You're there with your buddies, they know you're fresh at this, they will help you.
5. You WILL do just fine.

Cheer up, good luck. :]

my suggestions would be..

• dungeon world the brilliant character sheets give everyone a unique character and its easy to follow to fill in, easy to GM (you have your move list) and there is the brilliant "dungeon world guide" for GM's to just "get it"

• fate accelerated im still getting to grips with fate, but accelerated just looks brilliant, its pay what you like on evil hats website, it lends itself brilliantly to story playing rather than rules lawering, and can see it'd be great for new groups who arnt set in thier RPG ways

• my fantasy lasers and feelings hack becuase i made it... ok not just that.. lasers and feelings is such a good scifi RPG, just a tiny bit of crunch, like a single corn flake, but its done elegantly, we had ALOT of fun with it, so i couldnt help but make a fantasy version.. (link below)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9GuL4_ENTf8OWV1OWg0dkpFOUE/edit?usp=sharing

You may want to give "Playing at the World" by Jon Peterson (https://www.amazon.com/Playing-at-World-Jon-Peterson/dp/0615642047) a read. The emergence of RPGs as a k ow them required a few different things.

This got me unreasonably excited and I went to find where I could buy it -- long story short, amazon has another package on its way to my home now.

For anyone else who wants it, let me save you the google search: https://www.amazon.com/Diablo-II-Awakening-Advanced-Roleplaying/dp/0786916125

And it would be rude of me not to include my own pitch - a furry green/solarpunk fantasy world based on Kipo, Zootopia, and Laputa. I'm usually neck deep in dark & grim stuff, so I'm using this challenge as a bit of a palate cleanser for gaming with my 5 year old son.

Here's how Week 1 of the challenge looks when fleshed out:

https://www.notion.so/3skulls/Gygax-75-Challenge-b342a1b0b5c246288b9848194f84586a

How about some alternate rules on how to mix two potions together?

And how about some herb encounter rules, to help him find interesting and esoteric ingredients?

D&D 5e has free basic rules and there are plenty of dice rolling apps out there so you don't have to pay anything to get started. Also, there's Roll20 for free play online.

As for finding a group, go check out /r/lfg

> At first, I tried to talk the player out of it and told him more about Vecna as the lich god, the history of the hand, the eye and the head, etc.

You should point him at the Official Church of Vecna, Reformed website.

Out of curiousity, have you played Paranoia?

I've always wanted to do a fantasy conversion where everybody plays the bumbling minions of some evil overlord.

From the Paranoia manual: What if DnD was played like Paranoia?

https://smile.amazon.com/Dry-Erase-Index-Cards-Reusable/dp/B073K3CY52/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&amp;keywords=dry+erase+index+cards&amp;qid=1624458189&amp;sr=8-5

Fifteen Days in Neon City is a campaign for Cyberpunk role-playing games. I wrote it using the free Wired Neon City rules but is easily adaptable to any rules set you prefer.

234 full-colour pages packed with excitement!

Here are 15 detailed city districts, 24 full-colour maps, 48 linked adventures, over 100 illustrated businesses and locations and numerous NPCs, 25 of which are illustrated with full-colour portraits.

Along with the book you get access to high-resolution files of all the artwork; maps, NPCs, adversary cards, and illustrations along with a separate list detailing all the NPCs and 15 issues of the local news sheet.

Fifteen Days in Neon City PDF

Fifteen Days in Neon City book

Yes, I admit I didn't retype the entire theme of Vance's work. It's too complicated for me to do justice to it by doing so. If you're interested, Amazon has the entire collection on Kindle! I really recommend it.

So, in this context a mosaic stone is like a glass pebble used for decorating. Kind of like these. The mosaic stones were meant to be thrown into the center of the table. They make a really loud clacking noise when they hit the table. They usually work great, but she was getting dizzy and panicking, so she threw it a bit wild.

The kickstarter for Drinking Quest Trilogy Edition just wrapped up (successfully) a couple days ago. You can still get the individual games on their website, and I'm sure the Trilogy Edition will be available to buy when it's complete as well.

5e monster manual is really ordinary. Lots of monsters that are bit bags of hit points with mutliattack, no special abilities.

Look at an ogre, a d&d icon https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Ogre#content

No abilities nothing that screams, "I'm an ogre". Could be replaced with any other mini and use the same stat block

Actually, they both have podcasts. Sage LaTorra's is Another Question, in which he and cohost Adam "No, the Other Adam" Blinkinsop answer a listener question where the answer is one roleplaying game or another.

I was about to upload my own RPG to itch.io and I saw someone I follow had reviewed this game, it sounded interesting so I read it. I really want to play this now, its so cute and the rules are quick and simple. I don't think it would be great for multiple sessions but it sounds like a very fun one shot. I thought someone here might like it.

Firm but fair, always. Your paladin believes everyone deserves a second chance; if he's in a group with an evil character, the paladin's going to do his best to turn them back on the right track. He doesn't always have to preach; he simply lives as an example of a better way to do things. He should work to develop a bond with the others; when they do something evil, his disappointment should mean something.

The world's not black and white; the paladin knows that the best use of a rogue in battle is to let him sneak up and stab someone in the kidneys. But he still accepts surrender and offers quarter.

One way to get a strong handle on your character and perhaps put the group's worries to rest is to organise your paladin's code of conduct. Every paladin's got a code and you can make one as loose or as strict as you like. This file will probably help: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6DRPuzSxp5iWGhqSEoxNzhKMmM/edit?usp=sharing

Get in touch with your GM and hash out the details together. Once it's done, you can show it to the others, so they know that your paladin isn't going to take their heads off for every minor infraction... just the large ones.

1974: Dungeons and Dragons. Gygax and Arneson bring fantasy and wargaming to limited tabletop skirmishes, creating the premier popular roleplaying game.

1975: Tunnels and Trolls. Ken St. Andre creates a "accessible alternative" to Dungeons and Dragons. Creating a competing market.

1976: Bunnies and Burrows. Sustare and Robinson create a Watership Down translation of Dungeons and Dragons. Seen as a joke to most, and intellectual genius to others, it was later given a GURPS version in 1992.

1977: Chivalry and Sorcery. Simbalist and Backhaus create a "more realistic version" of Dungeons and Dragons, creating the strongest competition to the game.

After that the markets pretty much exploded. Games, games everywhere. Many clones and modifications to the OSR have come and gone. Tunnels and Trolls was one of the first. It was right out the door the year after D&D. So a lot of people have a fond memories of it just as they have of D&D. Plus the Kickstarter looks awesome.

There’s a module for Foundry VTT that allows you to display PDFs in the Foundry. It’s a full-blown PDF viewer so there’s search and bookmarks as well. https://foundryvtt.com/packages/pdfoundry

I usually use Xodo to extract pages out of the books, then use PDFfoundry add them to the VTT

Selecting text out of a PDF is always going to be a pain because it all comes down to how it was laid out in whatever authoring software that was used to create the PDF file

• In Between

• Seedfall

I consider both of those complete. I probably won't return again to Seedfall, but In Between is being revised and expanded. It also, for some reason, became popular enough in Poland for someone to contact me and ask if they could translate and distribute it. It's CC, so I told them to go for it.

My list of games that are incomplete is much larger. Of particular note are:

• Flow - Diceless, generic, designed specifically for PbP. More or less complete, but requires playtesting.

• ORE Trek - Star Trek adapted to the One Roll Engine. Far from completion, but cool enough for me to bring up.

• Dungeons & Destiny - A mashup of D&D and Fate that warped into its own thing. Around 60% complete, mostly lacking in content. This one is currently in progress.

• You Don't Have to Be Crazy... - A weird corporate RPG. It's based around playing out 8 hour workdays in a bizarre office environment. Think Ugly Americans + Better Off Ted + The Office. It utilizes a magic eight-ball when communicating with Upper Management. This is my side project that I work on when I run out of steam on whatever my main one is.

• Apathy - This was my heartbreaker. It was a clunky behemoth of a game set in a post apocalyptic earth. It bears mentioning because it is complete, I'm just somewhat embarrassed of it these days.

There are quite a few more floating around in binders and computer folders. I don't bring them up because they never reached the point where they got passed the playing around with an idea stage.