The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Roleplaying Games] Thank God I Finally Have A Table For Cannabis Potency.
Grunt's Ghosts
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
(Most of this OP stolen from Vanguard's Old Roleplaying Thread)
Welcome to the Critical Failure's General Roleplaying Thread. It's where we talk about playing Elves, Wizards, Vampires, Cowboys, and Robots. It's where we come to argue about our favorite games. It's where we try to make a better game, sometimes.
It's a safe place. Except when the Gamemasters here decide it isn't and you forget to check for traps.
It's where we don't talk about Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. They do that over here.
What Is A Roleplaying Game?
A roleplaying game is a more structured version of what you did when you were young. Part improv-theatre, part board game (though usually without the board), it typically involves a group of people taking on the role of one of more characters and acting out their actions in a shared fictional setting. Most games designate one player as the Game Master, who arbitrates the rules, describes the setting, and narrates all of the non-player character's actions. Additionally, most games use a chance-based method to determine the outcome of conflicts and actions, dice being the most common.
Not All Games Are Created Equal
We are truly living in a golden era of roleplaying games. With so many options, it can be hard to know where to start and which game is the right fit for your group. Before going to your friendly, local game store (FLGS) and plunking down on the hot new game of the week, it might be useful to start by sitting down with your group and discussing the kind of game you want to play. Is there a particular setting you want to explore? Genre? How rules-heavy do you want the game to be? All of these are important questions and there are no right answers. Each group is different and you will likely have to experiment before finding what works.
Additionally, this thread is full of people with a wide variety of gaming tastes and tons of experience. Use us a resource! It's more than likely someone in this thread has played whatever game you're interested in and can answer any questions you may have.
Gamer's Dictionary
Below are the definitions for some common and not so common terms you might encounter in this thread.
Chargen: Character generation; the act of making a character for a game
Crunch: Rules, mechanics; the opposite of Fluff
Crunchy: Math and/or rules-intensive; the opposite of Fluffy
GM: Game master; see also Judge, Dungeon Master
Fluff: Setting/ambience; the opposite of Crunch
Fluffy: Relies on fiction for explanation more than numbers; the opposite of Crunchy
IC: In-Character; typically used in PbP games, this designates that a character is acting
Metagaming: When a player makes in-game decisions based on information their character does not have
NPC: Non-player character; everyone who is not controlled by one of the players at the table
OOC: Out-of-Character; typically used in PbP games, this designates table chatter and things not said by the character
OSR: Old School Renaissance; refers to games and/or playstyles that emulate the experience of the early editions of Dungeons & Dragons
PbP: Play-by-Post; games played via message boards
Storygame: A game that has rules to facilitate storytelling
TPK: Total Party Kill; when every single player character is killed during an encounter
Games, Games, and More Games
Key
-: Rules Light
+: Rules Heavy
Ω: d20-based
§: Storygame Elements
Fantasy
13th Age + Ω
In the 13th Age of the world, adventurers seek their fortunes in the Dragon Empire while powerful individuals known as Icons pursue goals that may preserve the empire from chaos, or send it over the edge.
Players decide which Icons their characters ally with, and which ones they oppose. These relationships, along with a personal history and a unique trait chosen during character creation, help define an adventurer’s place in the world of 13th Age and lay the groundwork for epic stories that emerge through play.
There are also fun new rules for hitting orcs and making them go splat.
Players decide which Icons their characters ally with, and which ones they oppose. These relationships, along with a personal history and a unique trait chosen during character creation, help define an adventurer’s place in the world of 13th Age and lay the groundwork for epic stories that emerge through play.
There are also fun new rules for hitting orcs and making them go splat.
Burning Wheel + §
Burning Wheel is a fantasy roleplaying game first published in 2002. Since then, the game and its supplements have gone on to win critical notoriety, a handful of awards and respect from the RPG community. In 2011, we published the latest edition, Burning Wheel Gold. There are 3200 copies of the current edition of Burning Wheel in print, but over 12,000 copies of the game overall. There are three supplements for Burning Wheel: the Monster Burner, the Magic Burner and the Adventure Burner. There are also two setting books, Jihad — an homage to Dune — and The Blossoms Are Falling — an historic setting for Heian Era Japan.
Burning Wheel uses a simple D6 die pool system at its core. Grab a handful of dice equal to your skill or stat. Roll the dice. Any 4s, 5s or 6s that result are considered successes. You need a certain number of successes to pass tests. The system builds on that simple core to create deep, dynamic results.
During play, the GM challenges a player’s Beliefs. The player overcomes these challenges and drives the story by testing his character’s abilities. A test can be resolved in a single roll or decided in an extended conflict, social or martial. The GM doles out the consequences for failure based on what the player was trying to accomplish. You want to find a woodsman to guide you through the forest — make a Circles test. If you fail he’s suspicious of thieves so he’s shooting first and asking questions later. You want to get some gear — make a Resources test. If you fail you can’t afford it but your rival comes forward with the offer of a loan and a suppressed smirk. You want to convince your enemy to let your friends go — engage him in a Duel of Wits. Structure your argument well, because if you fail, he might just convince you to take the place of your friends in exchange for their freedom. You want that bastard dead? Draw your sword and take him out in a blow-by-blow melee — Fight! Don’t fail this time, though, because it might be your last. You the player decide how far to take it. You reap the rewards and weather the consequences.
In this game, the consequences for failure lead to the next conflict. There are no dead-ends in Burning Wheel, unless it’s a dead-end alley with your enemies lying in wait. The story told is about the path that gets you to your goals. Whether the game is political, military, or a classic sword and sorcery adventure, you decide. You write your own Beliefs about what you want and Instincts that describe how you react. You advance your skills to help you get there and you earn traits that describe how you come out on the other side. One way or another, when you play Burning Wheel, you’re playing with fire.
Burning Wheel uses a simple D6 die pool system at its core. Grab a handful of dice equal to your skill or stat. Roll the dice. Any 4s, 5s or 6s that result are considered successes. You need a certain number of successes to pass tests. The system builds on that simple core to create deep, dynamic results.
During play, the GM challenges a player’s Beliefs. The player overcomes these challenges and drives the story by testing his character’s abilities. A test can be resolved in a single roll or decided in an extended conflict, social or martial. The GM doles out the consequences for failure based on what the player was trying to accomplish. You want to find a woodsman to guide you through the forest — make a Circles test. If you fail he’s suspicious of thieves so he’s shooting first and asking questions later. You want to get some gear — make a Resources test. If you fail you can’t afford it but your rival comes forward with the offer of a loan and a suppressed smirk. You want to convince your enemy to let your friends go — engage him in a Duel of Wits. Structure your argument well, because if you fail, he might just convince you to take the place of your friends in exchange for their freedom. You want that bastard dead? Draw your sword and take him out in a blow-by-blow melee — Fight! Don’t fail this time, though, because it might be your last. You the player decide how far to take it. You reap the rewards and weather the consequences.
In this game, the consequences for failure lead to the next conflict. There are no dead-ends in Burning Wheel, unless it’s a dead-end alley with your enemies lying in wait. The story told is about the path that gets you to your goals. Whether the game is political, military, or a classic sword and sorcery adventure, you decide. You write your own Beliefs about what you want and Instincts that describe how you react. You advance your skills to help you get there and you earn traits that describe how you come out on the other side. One way or another, when you play Burning Wheel, you’re playing with fire.
DCC RPG + Ω
You’re no hero.
You’re an adventurer: a reaver, a cutpurse, a heathen-slayer, a tight-lipped warlock guarding long-dead secrets. You seek gold and glory, winning it with sword and spell, caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark, the demons, and the vanquished. There are treasures to be won deep underneath, and you shall have them.
Return to the glory days of fantasy with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Adventure as 1974 intended you to, with modern rules grounded in the origins of sword & sorcery. Fast play, cryptic secrets, and a mysterious past await you.
You’re an adventurer: a reaver, a cutpurse, a heathen-slayer, a tight-lipped warlock guarding long-dead secrets. You seek gold and glory, winning it with sword and spell, caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark, the demons, and the vanquished. There are treasures to be won deep underneath, and you shall have them.
Return to the glory days of fantasy with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Adventure as 1974 intended you to, with modern rules grounded in the origins of sword & sorcery. Fast play, cryptic secrets, and a mysterious past await you.
Dungeons & Dragons + Ω §
The first Dungeons & Dragons game was played back when Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson chose to personalize the massive battles of their fantasy wargames with the exploits of individual heroes. This inspiration became the first fantasy roleplaying game, in which players are characters in an ongoing fantasy story. This new kind of game has become immensely popular over the years, and D&D has grown to include many new ways to vividly experience worlds of heroic fantasy.
The core of D&D is storytelling. You and your friends tell a story together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles with deadly foes, daring rescues, courtly intrigue, and much more. You can also explore the world of Dungeons & Dragons through any of the novels written by its fantasy authors, as well as engaging board games and immersive video games. All of these stories are part of D&D.
We have a dedicated thread for Fifth Edition here.
The core of D&D is storytelling. You and your friends tell a story together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles with deadly foes, daring rescues, courtly intrigue, and much more. You can also explore the world of Dungeons & Dragons through any of the novels written by its fantasy authors, as well as engaging board games and immersive video games. All of these stories are part of D&D.
We have a dedicated thread for Fifth Edition here.
Dungeon World - §
Combining high-action dungeon crawling with cutting-edge rules, Dungeon World is a roleplaying game of fantasy adventure. You and your friends will explore a land of magic and danger in the roles of adventurers searching for fame, gold, and glory.
Dungeon World’s rules are easy to learn and always drive the action forward in unexpected ways. A missed roll is never a dead end—failure introduces new complexities and complications. Life as an adventurer is hard and dangerous but it’s never boring!
Designed to be ready for you to hack, remix, and build new content, Dungeon World includes systems for changing everything to suit your group including creating new races, classes, and monsters.
Dungeon World’s rules are easy to learn and always drive the action forward in unexpected ways. A missed roll is never a dead end—failure introduces new complexities and complications. Life as an adventurer is hard and dangerous but it’s never boring!
Designed to be ready for you to hack, remix, and build new content, Dungeon World includes systems for changing everything to suit your group including creating new races, classes, and monsters.
Iron Kingdoms RPG +
It is a land like no other, a place where steam power and gunpowder meet sword and sorcery.
The Iron Kingdoms possess a rich history—and a tumultuous future—full of unique monsters, deities, heroes, and villains. Immerse yourself in the detailed world of gritty conflict and sorcery with the Iron Kingdoms RPG. Unleash the power of mechanika, the fusion of magic and machine. Take on the persona of unique character classes, like the gun mage who combines powerful magic with a deadly acumen for firearms or the steamjack-commanding warcaster. Travel through a fantastic world that takes classic fantasy concepts and gives them a new twist with a high-octane rush of steam power and industrial engineering.
Prepare yourself for an experience like no other.
The world of the Iron Kingdoms awaits!
The Iron Kingdoms possess a rich history—and a tumultuous future—full of unique monsters, deities, heroes, and villains. Immerse yourself in the detailed world of gritty conflict and sorcery with the Iron Kingdoms RPG. Unleash the power of mechanika, the fusion of magic and machine. Take on the persona of unique character classes, like the gun mage who combines powerful magic with a deadly acumen for firearms or the steamjack-commanding warcaster. Travel through a fantastic world that takes classic fantasy concepts and gives them a new twist with a high-octane rush of steam power and industrial engineering.
Prepare yourself for an experience like no other.
The world of the Iron Kingdoms awaits!
Lady Blackbird - §
Lady Blackbird is on the run from an arranged marriage to Count Carlowe. She hired a smuggler skyship, The Owl, to take her from her palace on the Imperial world of Ilysium to the far reaches of the Remnants, so she could be with her once secret lover: the pirate king Uriah Flint.
HOWEVER, just before reaching the halfway point of Haven, The Owl was pursued and captured by the Imperial cruiser Hand of Sorrow, under charges of flying a false flag.
EVEN NOW, Lady Blackbird, her bodyguard, and the crew of The Owl are detained in the brig, while the Imperial commander runs the smuggler ship’s registry over the wireless. It’s only a matter of time before they discover the outstanding warrants and learn that The Owl is owned by none other than the infamous outcast, Cyrus Vance.
How will Lady Blackbird and the others escape the Hand of Sorrow?
What dangers lie in their path?
Will they be able to find the secret lair of the pirate king? if they do, will Uriah Flint accept Lady Blackbird as his bride? By the time they get there, will she want him to?
Go. Play. And find out.
http://www.onesevendesign.com/ladyblackbird/
HOWEVER, just before reaching the halfway point of Haven, The Owl was pursued and captured by the Imperial cruiser Hand of Sorrow, under charges of flying a false flag.
EVEN NOW, Lady Blackbird, her bodyguard, and the crew of The Owl are detained in the brig, while the Imperial commander runs the smuggler ship’s registry over the wireless. It’s only a matter of time before they discover the outstanding warrants and learn that The Owl is owned by none other than the infamous outcast, Cyrus Vance.
How will Lady Blackbird and the others escape the Hand of Sorrow?
What dangers lie in their path?
Will they be able to find the secret lair of the pirate king? if they do, will Uriah Flint accept Lady Blackbird as his bride? By the time they get there, will she want him to?
Go. Play. And find out.
http://www.onesevendesign.com/ladyblackbird/
Pathfinder + Ω
Enter a fantastic world of adventure!
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game puts you in the role of a brave adventurer fighting to survive in a world beset by magic and evil. Will you cut your way through monster-filled ruins and cities rife with political intrigue to emerge as a famous hero laden with fabulous treasure, or will you fall victim to treacherous traps and fiendish monsters in a forgotten dungeon? Your fate is yours to decide with this giant Core Rulebook that provides everything a player needs to set out on a life of adventure and excitement!
This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an open playtest involving more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game puts you in the role of a brave adventurer fighting to survive in a world beset by magic and evil. Will you cut your way through monster-filled ruins and cities rife with political intrigue to emerge as a famous hero laden with fabulous treasure, or will you fall victim to treacherous traps and fiendish monsters in a forgotten dungeon? Your fate is yours to decide with this giant Core Rulebook that provides everything a player needs to set out on a life of adventure and excitement!
This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an open playtest involving more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.
Torchbearer + §
Adventurer is a dirty word. You’re a scoundrel, a villain, a wastrel, a vagabond, a criminal, a sword-for-hire, cutthroat. Respectable people belong to guilds, the church or are born into nobility. Or barring all that, they’re salt of the earth and till the land for the rest of us. Your problem is that you’re none of that. You’re a third child or worse. You can’t get into a guild—too many apprentices already. You’re sure as hell not nobility—even if you were, your older brothers and sisters have soaked up the inheritance. The churches—they’ll take you, but they have so many acolytes, they hand you kit and a holy sign and send you right out the door again: Get out there and preach the word and find something nice for mother church. And if you ever entertained romantic notions of farming, think again. You’d end up little more than a slave to a wealthy noble.
So there’s naught for us but to make our own way. There’s a certain freedom to it, but it’s a hard life. Cash flows out of our hands as easily as the blood from our wounds. But at least it’s our life. And if we’re lucky, smart and stubborn, we might come out on top. There’s a lot of lost loot out there for the finding. And salvage law is mercifully generous. We find it, it’s ours to spend, sell or keep.
Torchbearer is a riff on the early model of fantasy roleplaying games. In it, you take on the role of an adventurer seeking his or her fortune. To earn that fortune, you must explore fornlorn ruins, brave terrible monsters and retreive forgotten treasures. However, this game is not about being a hero. It is not about fighting for what you believe. This game is about exploration and survival. You may become a hero. You might have to fight for your ideals. But to do either of those things, you must prove yourself in the wilds. Because there are no jobs, no inheritance, no other opportunities for our deadbeat adventurers. This life is their only hope to prosper in this world.
So there’s naught for us but to make our own way. There’s a certain freedom to it, but it’s a hard life. Cash flows out of our hands as easily as the blood from our wounds. But at least it’s our life. And if we’re lucky, smart and stubborn, we might come out on top. There’s a lot of lost loot out there for the finding. And salvage law is mercifully generous. We find it, it’s ours to spend, sell or keep.
Torchbearer is a riff on the early model of fantasy roleplaying games. In it, you take on the role of an adventurer seeking his or her fortune. To earn that fortune, you must explore fornlorn ruins, brave terrible monsters and retreive forgotten treasures. However, this game is not about being a hero. It is not about fighting for what you believe. This game is about exploration and survival. You may become a hero. You might have to fight for your ideals. But to do either of those things, you must prove yourself in the wilds. Because there are no jobs, no inheritance, no other opportunities for our deadbeat adventurers. This life is their only hope to prosper in this world.
Sci-Fi
3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars - §
3:16 CARNAGE AMONGST THE STARS is a high-octane Science-Fiction role-playing game for 2 or more players. Your Space Troopers will kill bugs all across the Cosmos. You'll advance in rank, improve your weapons, slay civilization after civilization, and find out who you are through an innovative 'Flashback' mechanic. Terra's plan is to kill every living thing in the Universe to protect the home world. See where your tour of duty in the 3:16th Expeditionary Force takes you and your friends. Revel in the kill-happy machismo and enjoy a campaign of Carnage Amongst the Stars. Featuring a stunning cover by Paul Bourne, and interior art by writer/games designer Gregor Hutton, 3:16 is a bloody triumph of games design.
Eclipse Phase +
Your mind is software. Program it.
Your body is a shell. Change it.
Death is a disease. Cure it.
Extinction is approaching. Fight it.
Eclipse Phase is a game about Transhumanity and the horrors, conspiracies, and hard times that your character lives in. Set in a place where people have abandoned Earth thanks to the nanobots called Titans, you now spend your days living on space stations, colonized planets, and space ships. Usually you are called to help some shadowy organization called Firewall protect the solar system from some terrible threat, but you may also belong to another organization that wants something else. And when you are tasked to do something that may pit you against one organization or another, the game really gets interesting.
You are really made of two parts, one is called your Ego and it's your personality and all the things that make up you. The other part is your Morph, which is your body. In EP, death is not final for your character, however, it isn't without penalty. Anything you have done since your last "save" could be lost, and your character might wake up in a new morph, weeks later, wondering what happen the reason you died and what will happen to you now. The whole group dying is not only enjoyable, but is sometimes the best option for your character.
Your body is a shell. Change it.
Death is a disease. Cure it.
Extinction is approaching. Fight it.
Eclipse Phase is a game about Transhumanity and the horrors, conspiracies, and hard times that your character lives in. Set in a place where people have abandoned Earth thanks to the nanobots called Titans, you now spend your days living on space stations, colonized planets, and space ships. Usually you are called to help some shadowy organization called Firewall protect the solar system from some terrible threat, but you may also belong to another organization that wants something else. And when you are tasked to do something that may pit you against one organization or another, the game really gets interesting.
You are really made of two parts, one is called your Ego and it's your personality and all the things that make up you. The other part is your Morph, which is your body. In EP, death is not final for your character, however, it isn't without penalty. Anything you have done since your last "save" could be lost, and your character might wake up in a new morph, weeks later, wondering what happen the reason you died and what will happen to you now. The whole group dying is not only enjoyable, but is sometimes the best option for your character.
Shadowrun +
There are cracks in the world. They’re slender, dark, and often cold, but they are the only things that keep you hidden. Keep you alive. They are the shadows of the world, and they are where you live.
You are a shadowrunner, thriving in the margins, doing the jobs no one else can. You have no office, no permanent home, no background to check. You are whatever you make yourself. Will you seek justice? Sow seeds of chaos? Sell out to the highest bidder? It’s up to you, but this much is certain—if you do nothing, the streets will eat you alive.
You can survive—even flourish—as long as you do what it takes. Sacrifice part of your soul for bleeding-edge gear. Push the limits of your will learning new and dangerous magic. Wire yourself into the Matrix, making your mind one with screaming streams of data. It’ll cost you something—everything does—but you can make it worth the price.
You are a shadowrunner, thriving in the margins, doing the jobs no one else can. You have no office, no permanent home, no background to check. You are whatever you make yourself. Will you seek justice? Sow seeds of chaos? Sell out to the highest bidder? It’s up to you, but this much is certain—if you do nothing, the streets will eat you alive.
You can survive—even flourish—as long as you do what it takes. Sacrifice part of your soul for bleeding-edge gear. Push the limits of your will learning new and dangerous magic. Wire yourself into the Matrix, making your mind one with screaming streams of data. It’ll cost you something—everything does—but you can make it worth the price.
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire + §
Participate in grim and gritty adventures in places where morality is gray and nothing is certain. Ply your trade as a smuggler in the Outer Rim, collect bounties on the scum that live in the shadows of Coruscant, or try to establish a new colony on a planet beneath the Empire’s notice.
Grunt's Ghosts on
0
Posts
Kingdom - §
Your Kingdom can be any group or organization that interests you. You could play a Wild West frontier town, a colony ship crawling to a distant star, or a sprawling Empire holding conquered peoples beneath its thumb.
As you play, you'll confront your Kingdom and your characters with Crossroads, critical decisions that may change your community forever. What will your Kingdom do? What will it become? Strive to make your Kingdom live up to your ideals... or watch as it burns.
The Kingdom is in your hands. The question is: will you change the Kingdom or will the Kingdom change you?
Includes over twenty sample Kingdoms to get you started quickly, from the mercenaries of the Banner of the Black Serpent, to the galactic weapon-smiths of Starfall, to the wealthy dilettante mystics of the Eye of Osiris, to the devoted doctors of Sawyer Memorial Hospital.
Kingdom was designed by Ben Robbins, creator of the award-winning role-playing game, Microscope.
For two to five players. No GM. No prep.
Fate Core is a tabletop roleplaying game about proactive, capable people who lead dramatic lives. The type of drama they experience is up to you. But wherever they go, you can expect a fun storytelling experience full of twists…of fate.
Microscope - §
Fledgling nations arise from the ruins of the empire...
An ancient line of dragon-kings dies out as magic fades from the realm...
These are all examples of Microscope games. Want to explore an epic history of your own creation, hundreds or thousands of years long, all in an afternoon? That's Microscope.
You won't play the game in chronological order. You can defy the limits of time and space, jumping backward or forward to explore the parts of the history that interest you. Want to leap a thousand years into the future and see how an institution shaped society? Want to jump back to the childhood of the king you just saw assassinated and find out what made him such a hated ruler? That's normal in Microscope.
You have vast power to create... and to destroy. Build beautiful, tranquil jewels of civilization and then consume them with nuclear fire. Zoom out to watch the majestic tide of history wash across empires, then zoom in and explore the lives of the people who endured it.
Mock chronological order.
Defy time and space.
Build worlds and destroy them.
Gothic/Horror
New World of Darkness
They're real.
In the World of Darkness, there are urban legends whispered into the ears of autistic children by invisible spiders.
What Is The World Of Darkness?
We can’t know when humans first started telling stories, or why. But it’s a safe bet that the first tale tellers used their craft to explain the mysteries going on around them. Indeed, some of the most ancient stories that are still told today grapple with the biggest mysteries of all — life, death, creation, redemption and the ongoing struggle of good versus evil. The World Of Darkness is a Storytelling game, because it’s an opportunity for you to participate in the deeply human endeavor of telling stories.
The stories told in this game are set in the World of Darkness. It’s a place very much like our world, sharing the same history, culture and geography. Superficially, most people in this fictional world live the same lives we do. They eat the same food, wear the same clothes, and waste time watching the same stupid TV shows. And yet, in the World of Darkness, shadows are deeper, nights are darker, fog is thicker. If, in our world, a neighborhood has a rundown house that gives people the creeps, in the World of Darkness, that house emits strange sighs on certain nights of the year, and seems to have a human face when seen from the corner of one’s eye. Or so some neighbors say. In our world, there are urban legends. In the World of Darkness, there are urban legends whispered into the ears of autistic children by invisible spiders.
Old World of Darkness
Superficially, the World of Darkness is like the “real” world we all inhabit. The same bands are popular, violence still plagues the inner city, graft and corruption infest the same governments, and society still looks to the same cities for its culture. The World of Darkness has a Statue of Liberty, an Eiffel Tower and a CBGB’s. More present than in our world, though, is the undercurrent of horror - our world’s ills are all the more pronounced in the World of Darkness. Our fears are more real. Our governments are more degenerate. Our ecosystem dies a bit more each night. And monsters exist.
“Gothic-Punk” is perhaps the best way to describe the physical nature of the World of Darkness. The environment is a clashing mixture of styles and influences, and the tension caused by the juxtaposition of ethnicities, social classes and subcultures makes the world a vibrant, albeit dangerous, place.
The Gothic aspect describes the ambience of the World of Darkness. Buttressed buildings loom overhead, bedecked with classical columns and grimacing gargoyles. Residents are dwarfed by the sheer scale of architecture, lost amid the spires that seem to grope toward Heaven in an effort to escape the physical world. The ranks of the Church swell, as mortals flock to any banner that offers them a hope of something better in the hereafter. Likewise, cults flourish in the underground, promising power and redemption. The institutions that control society are even more staid and conservative than they are in our world, for many in power prefer the evil of the world they know to the chaos engendered by change. It is a divisive world of have and have not, rich and poor, excess and squalor.
The Punk aspect is the lifestyle that many denizens of the World of Darkness have adopted. In order to give their lives meaning, they rebel, crashing themselves against the crags of power. Gangs prowl the streets and organized crime breeds in the underworld, reactions to the pointlessness of living “by the book.” Music is louder, faster, more violent or hypnotically monotonous, and supported by masses who find salvation in its escape. Speech is coarser, fashion is bolder, art is more shocking, and technology brings it all to everyone at the click of a button. The world is more corrupt, the people are spiritually bankrupt, and escapism often replaces hope.
Gothic-Punk is a mood and setting conveyed during the course of the game. The greatest share of creating this ambience falls upon the Storyteller, but players should consider their characters’ stake in it as well. The ambience is also a matter of taste. Some troupes may prefer more Gothic than Punk, while others may want equal amounts of both elements, or little of either. In the end, it’s your game, and you are free to make of it what you will. Simply bear in mind that experiencing the world is a shared endeavor, and everything the players and Storyteller do helps make that world more believable. Actions, settings, characters and descriptions all convey the Gothic-Punk aesthetic.
Vampire: The Requiem
Welcome to Undeath
Join the revival of the Storytelling tradition. Vampire: The Requiem invites you to tell your own stories set within the world of the Kindred.
Werewolf: The Forsaken
The world is in shadow. To one side stretches the forest, to the other the city. Your claws are stained with blood. Your senses whisper of prey that runs before you, and of predators who stalk even the likes of you. You hear the howls of your brothers and sisters. Luna rises. Your blood boils. It is time to hunt.
Wolves at the Door
Werewolf: The Forsaken - the game of bestial violence and supernatural terror - is the second core setting sourcebook intended for use with White Wolf's new Storytelling System . Werewolves are creatures of original sin, tainted by ancestral crimes and driven to hunt by the shame of being abandoned.
Mage: The Awakening
Magic exists. Once upon a time, it was the driving force behind ancient societies, and was wildly practiced in public and secret alike.
However, something went wrong. A select few aspired for more, and attained powers beyond earthly comprehension. In so doing, they left the mortal planes torn asunder.
The few who ascended gained godlike powers and rose to the station of The Exarchs. Shortly after ascending, they cast the rest of humanity down into the fallen world. Separating the fallen and the higher realms is a vast maw called The Abyss; where shadows, beasts, and all manner of unclean entities reside.
Anyone practicing magic in the fallen world without proper regard for the limitations of normalcy and reality can expect to get backhanded by a nasty force from The Abyss known as Paradox.
This means magic, once widespread amongst all, is now only practiced by a scarce few, and has to be done largely in secret. Worse, the servants of The Exarchs are many, and seek to keep magic away from the common people. These servants, known as the Seers of the Throne, believe common people are sheep and lack both the right and capacity to use magic.
Player characters take up the role of Pentacle Mages; those who were left behind when The Exarchs ascended, and want magic to be brought back to the common people.
This is no easy feat, of course, since Pentacle Mages not only have to contend with the machinations of the Seers and a magic-ignorant populace, but also the ever-present threat of Paradox, the Abyss, fallen Mages known as Scelesti, and all manner of unknown mystical threats.
. . .
Tenra Bansho Zero
On a distant world in the far future, the Sengoku (Feudal/Warring States) period of Japan is happening all over again- But this time with high-tech weapons, magically powered mecha, taoist magic masters and super-powered samurai.
The focus of the game is on acting out the characters, their backgrounds and, and their destiny in the world of Tenra. The players get bonus points by acting in character and entertaining the other players, which can be spent to boost powers and gain abilities. Creativity, energy, and comraderie is physically rewarded in the game. Spend these gains recklessly, though, and you lose control of your character as they spiral down the Path of the corrupt Asura.
Finally, TBZ is a fast RPG. It was designed to play out like a theatrical production, complete with Scenes, Acts, Intermissions and Coming Attractions. And like a play or movie, an entire story or campaign can play out in its entirety within one 4-6 hour gaming session.
TENRA BANSHO ZERO is one of the first fantasy Role-Playing Games to be translated from Japanese and released in English! It was created, designed, written, and largely illustrated by the popular game designer Junichi Inoue and F.E.A.R. It is currently being translated into English and published by Kotodama Heavy Industries, in cooperation with F.E.A.R. Stay tuned to the Blog for updated release information and news.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I'm like that super villain that likes having all the power but doesn't actually uses it for anything at all.
The thing that I think is weird about Fate is that Fate -- as a generic game -- actually has a very clear genre it's emulating: pulp fiction. You can hack it to run any setting, but it's all going to feel like a pulp novel. In that sense it's both a very good and very bad generic system.
I know this has come up, but searching is hard by phone. Have people been playing Dresden Files Accelerated? Because I can't seem to find it for sale anywhere.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
You don't like crunch then make your own Roleplaying Games thread.
*pushes up glasses*
Letsh me tell you about the custom game I run with my group. It's a gamist-narrative inversion specifically designed to perfectly recreate the experience of being an aquatic carnivorous space panda.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Do I have to play a panda? Can I play a three-headed mongoose with a machine gun that fires french fries?
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I prefer Apocalypse World 2e over Fate Core, which are the two iterations of the rulesets I've played. One negative aspect (ha !) of Fate was brought up by admanb: it's not a generic game ! But it tells you it is. So if you play it in an un-pulp way, which I did, it's not really that good. The few times we did pulpy scenes, it was really good, but the GM said he found it very difficult to challenge us later in the campaign. Also, Fate doesn't tell the GM how to run the game. And fights are super long.
I don't have a particular interest in FATE because I don't like pulpiness, but I consider it a well-designed system. Meanwhile, I despise GURPS precisely because it mechanizes nothing except its own genericness.
Fights are actually really fast without tons of stress tracks, a bunch of available conditions and stacking value stress boxes.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I feel like I've written a fuckton of words in my relatively short time in these thread(s). I got back into RPGs a little over a year ago and have been full-steam-ahead with them since. I recently wrote on twitter that Kieron Gillen's comic Phonogram changed my life, and while that's true it did so by motivating me to drive my creative energies into something -- which turned into RPGs.
Since then I have GMed/organized at least one full session of each of the following games: Dungeon World, Technoir, The Sprawl, World Wide Wrestling, Blades in the Dark, Apocalypse World, Torchbearer, Fiasco, and Dungeon Crawl Classics. We're 17 sessions into our Blades in the Dark game and the peaks of that have been incredible.
A lot of GMing has been about pushing my boundaries: I used to avoid talking in character and doing voices at all costs, and while I'm still not very good at it I at least shift into it naturally. I've also been working on improvisational creativity (bad at it) and planning creativity (better.) Neither of which I was ever much good at.
I'm also super interested in the game design of RPGs since they sit at a crossroads of improvisational play and strict mechanical play*; as a lifelong gamer I've always leaned on the latter, but as a fan of improv comedy the former has also wormed its way into my brain! The complexity and variety of ways to mechanize improvisational play that RPGs cover is a big part of why I write so much in this thread.
*which is in a way a crossroads of my sister and I -- she's a alternative education preschool teacher, and I'm a tabletop gamer and software developer. Not relevant, but an interesting note!
The way the percentages work on the -3/+3 2d6 scale is pretty elegant, especially the way they broke it down with 7-9 and 10+. I like that a standard success is usually going to introduce more challenges. Nobody is ever too OP in this game, the GM's own rules are to complicate your life and introduce danger or hard bargains (in a non-antagonistic way). Other games give you the broken shit when you get to max level, this one gives it to you confidently from the start, knowing that it's not going to put the party on easy street. Fighters can graft every magic item they come across onto their signature weapon, paladins on a quest can become immune to anything, wizards can use a ritual to do anything they can imagine. It's a Wish spell at level 1. But it's gonna be ok.
Similarly, multiclassing is broken in all the right ways. The bard can go on quests and become immune to magic, sure. The ranger can cast wizard spells as long as he's working with his animal companion. The fighter decides he can turn into animals now, why not. Badass.
XP on failure makes so much sense, not just from a real world standpoint of how you learn from your mistakes, but as a method of generally bringing up the success level of anyone who continually fails. If someone's 2 levels ahead of everyone else, he probably earned that by being terrible and maybe now he's gotten a +1 or a good move and will succeed as much as the rest of the group.
Unbalanced party growth, rapid advancement, swift death, and shorter campaigns mean that maybe this is the game that will help me and our group let go of characters more easily. But that'll depend on how the GM runs it.
It's so weird how the rules seem fast and loose, yet there are enough hard mechanics that it feels like it can cover everything, and already covers enough. For a game that's like "I dunno wizard, do something magical, whatever you like," it's also very clear that the GM has their own set of rules that they need to follow, or the whole thing can fall apart.
I bet that's a contentious bit, making the GM respond to player action with specific rules. But I think having things codified like that could really help. I kind of want to run a game. I've GM'd once, and it was bad, probably a result of over-preparing...basically I told a story while the players took actions I expected them to take, and nobody rolled any dice. But in a system with a rule that says, insert something dangerous now, give them a foreboding sign here, I think that would help me immensely. I feel like it would be easier to come up with stuff on the fly when there are rules driving constant complications and twists. No carefully designed puzzles that people aren't in the right mindset to solve...no areas of the world that I discover I made too boring. Something happens there anyway. A player rolled a failure discerning realities, so now something in this room is worse than they expected.
I'm sure a successful game is incumbent on all the players to buy into the fiction and be reasonable, not powergaming. A system like this would be really easy to get into a bad relationship with the GM. "I use ritual to instantly kill the target of our mission from 100 miles away." "Ok, but it will take a year to cast, 3 points of dex and your left arm." But among friends just looking to tell a story, which is what the game bills itself as, I think it could be awesome.
it relies 100% on your group gelling together though and being in agreement on the general thrust of things. it also relies on a high level of trust between player and gamemaster, and a really strong understanding of fictional positioning and narrative structure.
if you like the idea of playing a game where everyone has a high stake in the shape of the game then PBTA systems are where it's at.
Oh yeah, I'm not sure if this is completely what you mean but I like the idea that the GM might encourage players to come up with aspects of the world whole cloth - "you cast Hold Person, but what is a person in this world? Anything humanoid? Anything with a soul?" And some things definitely working that way, like pulling exactly what you need from your Adventuring Gear, or talking about the city where you heard some Bardic Lore and now that city exists somewhere and you can go there.
The Spout Lore move is a likely vector for players to tell the gm things about the world The gm didn't know.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I do not have the right group. Also I would like to play in a game.
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
Dungeon World is rad!
A lot of the elements that you've called out are built into the foundation of PbtA. The partial successes, the high starting power level, shared ownership of the fiction, and especially the idea that the GM also has to follow a set of rules.
The main criticisms of Dungeon World are in the areas where it hews close to D&D. The stat system doesn't mesh with PbtA particularly well, and the six-stat Defy Danger is an awkward patch to fix those issues. There's also an openness of scale to PbtA that Dungeon World doesn't hit: in Apocalypse World a single Seize By Force roll can represent anything from a single shotgun blast, to an all-out gang war, whereas Dungeon World's basic moves don't have that versatility. That said, Dungeon World gets a lot out of evoking that classic D&D feel, so the weaknesses are well worth it.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I think the familiar elements would help people who are used to D&D and have never done anything different. But also for me personally I like the tropes. Otyughs and Grey Renders and Magic Missile.
It's not like any of it is that big of a deal, it's just my opinion that that stuff wasn't necessary and doesn't fit the PbtA style elegantly.
Playing 5e currently and it is rather charming in an old school way, I think
Not something I'd ever want to play for ages and ages or more than, say, once a decade but still
Right now we're playing 5e as our weekly game. One guy, the GM, is a 5e and DnD veteran as well as loads of other stuff. But then two players have never played DnD (and they've played loads of games for years, just never DnD), I've played it a bit but only rarely, and someone who has played a 2nd ed game what, eight years ago or something? And that's it.
So for us it's odd because for me the game does have a degree of old school charm because of the Baldurs Gate RPGs I played, but for three members of the group it's basically just a game. And I say this because last session we were talking about it and they were saying how it's okay but that they don't really think classes and levels are a good idea at all and it's so strange, really. Like, for these people point-buy systems like WoD and Shadowrun are literally the baseline.
I don't find PbtA particularly compelling myself, but it can be hacked into excellent games. And then there's DW, which is terrible. It's bad on multiple levels.
regardless of its flaws, it and Monsterhearts were the first games that said yes, this Apocalypse World game can be transformed into other genres and will make magic happen (if you're into story gaming)
I'm pretty terrible at improv, though, and I feel like my sessions of Dungeon World that I'm running so far have been *eh*. We have a lot of fun in character generation and filling in back story and such, but I'm having a really hard time both responding creatively to player failures, and to get my players to buy into the fantasy that is Dungeon World. This has not mapped 1:1 with people's experience levels, either. I have 2 brand new to TTRPGs players, 1 of whom took immediately to describing his actions, the other is locked very steadfastly into picking from the move lists. I have 2 experienced D&D players, and same, 1 jumped right in and one didn't. And one person in the middle who is loving it.
I think I'm struggling right now to make everything feel real and cohesive, but I can absolutely see that if you have a good grasp of narrative structure, tropes (and how to successfully subvert them), and are good at improv on the spot, DW seems like it would be a blast. Right now, I feel like a mediocre, at best, DW DM. But I'm still trying to run it and see how it goes!
I think this is an excellent observation. One of the things I've noticed from digging into OSR games is that classic D&D encounters were fiction-first and improvisational, but none of that was represented in the mechanics. So most modern D&D players were never exposed to it. The increasingly elaborate combat mechanics of 3E/4E/Pathfinder almost feel like a patch over being unwilling or unable to write a decent DM's guide.
By codifying those elements Dungeon World teaches you how to play classic D&D, just with different mechanics.
But seriously, DW takes all of the worst aspects of its component parts and doubles down on them.
If you wanted to introduce someone who's only played D&D to storygaming I'd probably pick Masks. It's familiar material for most people and it's almost painfully clear which heroes each archetype is emulating.
If you absolutely need D&D-style conceits, Heartbreaker World is a much cleaner game (in that it hews more closely to AW as designed).
Personally, my opinion is that the best version of D&D is 13th Age.
I've read like every guide available to running better D&D and Dungeon World combats, and the most success I've had in DW running combats essentially work roughly like this (keeping in mind that this is generic advice, and sometimes fiction demands you do something else):
Default: Alternate between a player attempting something, and monsters *threatening* something. I open most combats explaining essentially a threat posed by each group or individual NPC in the area, and then throw it to the players to see what they do about those threats.
From there, I bounce Player->Monster->Player repeat until something big changes.
Then, if someone does something fictionally huge, and the dice also follow, I let a second player piggy back on that action if the dice say it went well, or if the dice say it went poorly, I make a decidedly hard move (usually following from the failure itself being somewhat of a soft move).
But just judging from the number of threads on Reddit/forum/guides to how to run effective/fun/challenging combats in DW, yeah I'd say that *some* kind of mechanical structure to tag onto the PbtA framework might be appreciated by folks. However, the more I run DW, the more comfortable I am with the lack of rounds / discrete turns. It lets my players basically tell me the type of things they want to accomplish, and then we resolve that until something either goes hugely right or catastrophically bad. I find that a lot of time, combat is almost indistinguishable from other disasters and problems facing my players, in that I try to just shine spotlights around the table and let people try stuff until they either fail or succeed.
Now if only there was some mechanical help for figuring out just what kind of impending doom you forecast to your players....
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
The problem that I have is that I want everyone to be able to do play but at the same time I don't want to step on toes. Trust me, I got interesting things I want to do, I'm a fucking dwarf wildman who fights with his bare hands ripping and tearing at shit while wearing an armor made from kneecaps. But the nice guy in me doesn't want to interrupt or steal the light from others who also have equally interesting things they want to do. Which is why I think initiative is important to have in group combat systems.
Which works great if everyone is equally gregarious. Or when there are enough cool things to go around.
High intensity situations like combat can be tough for less outgoing members of the group to get input into, I've found. At least without some sort of cyclical check in system.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.