ttrpg
realmofbastions.itch.io
Hello Comrades, Some of you may remember me posting about the TTRPG I have been developing, and some even asked to playtest. I am now at a near finished state with the game and dearly need playtesting input, anyone who wishes to complete a post test questionnaire will receive a free copy of the finished book complete with character art assets! Please do not actually donate money, this is a passion project and when it is finished I will seek money but until then I just want to share it. Even if you do not playtest I welcome any feedback be it editing, phrasing, mechanical, worldbuilding, etc. Any problems downloading it off itch.io let me know and I'll find another way to get you the .pdf. Thanks again! ::: spoiler Questionnaire 1) Tell me about your process of learning the system. What things were easy? What was difficult? 2) What were your most and least favorite parts of chargen? 3) What elements of the game supported your immersion? What, if anything, held you back? 4) What did you feel was missing the the game? Does anything require more detail or explanation? 5) How did you feel about the pace of the game? If you prefer it slower/faster, how do you suggest this could happen? 6) What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? 7) What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? 8) Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? 9) If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? 10) What were you doing in the experience? 11) How would you describe this game to your friends and family? :::
 I think I found the wargame I want to collect and never have anyone to play with lmao
Apparently there's a plot point that involves Gaia creating the Ratkin to eradicate humanity's "surplus population" through disease, which has some very uncomfortable implications, especially in the light of the gross indifference to human life that the ruling class has exhibited in the wake of Covid-19. I realize this is hinged on a lot of assumptions (that this information is accurate in-universe and that Gaia, as the personification of the Earth, serves as a mouthpiece for the creators' environmentalist views), which is why I'm asking.
heltung-storytelling.itch.io
>*They’ve made deals with Those Who Lurk Below to gain power over the world. They’ve poisoned the water. Polluted the air. Contaminated the soil. Sacrificed lives, stole resources, and made tons of money . They’ve done all of that and more. And nobody gives a shit. Drowning in goods and services, people are comfortable enough to ignore the nightmare. And ignorance is bliss. But the consequences are coming. The Deadline is looming over this reality.With each day, the end is closer and closer. They won’t stop. Welcome to the Real World* CORP BORG is a neat Mork Borg hack for the classic sub-genre of the demonic office space. The art is pretty neat, and while there isn't as much 3rd-party support as Mork Borg itself yet, I'm sure that will accrue and it shouldn't be hard to re-adapt other modules to the setting. I've always been fan of TRPGs where you play as decidedly unheroic, beleaguered schmucks (other favorite TRPGs include Delta Green and Electric Bastionland), it's certainly up my alley. I won't have a chance to run it for Halloween due to scheduling, but I hope to try out some one-shots in the near future (here or elsewhere).
www.polygon.com
Why yes I do love it when stuff I like is combined/takes inspiration from other stuff I like tyvm >“So much of what we do in society in general is just amelioration. It has nothing to do with curative justice,” Bloom said. “I wanted to make a game that was about that conversation." Edit: Direct link to itch.io if y'all want it: [Cain](https://tombloom.itch.io/cain)
Hey everyone! I've been running table top roleplaying games for hexbear users for awhile now and have some unexpected bonus free-time the last two weeks of october. I'm looking for anyone interested and available Monday - Friday between October 21st to the 31st. Because of the season I was thinking I would like to run: [Delta Green](https://www.delta-green.com/) , [Monster of the Week](https://evilhat.com/product/monster-of-the-week/) , or [Shadowdark](https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark) I'm in CET so start-times are going to be around 8:00 AM - 1:00pm east coast united states time and last about three to four hours in duration. If a group of folks are available I'm open to a two-shot with the same group. I like to use roll20 as a digital tabletop and have a small discord server of hexbear only folks we would use for voice chat. I will also provide all the necessary rules as well as a pool of premade character to use. If you have any questions or want to sign up please leave a comment or send me a message! Thanks for your interest and happy spooky season. Tuesday 22/10/2024 at ~18:00 CET - 3/4 players Tuesday 29/10/2024 at ~18:00 CET - 3/4 players Friday 31/10/2024 at ~16:00 CET 3/4 players
Did the mistake change anything about the outcome of the fight? No, but telling the players that would be metagaming
Trying to populate an entire town with unique characters but that's a fuck ton of sheets to make. If you've got characters in pathbuilder or screen shots of a sheet I'd love to copy them over. If you want to give them a bit a background I'll use that too. Have your character guest star in another game!
The only naive mistake on any players' part would be playing with this guy in the first place Pinging [@UlyssesT@hexbear.net](https://hexbear.net/u/UlyssesT) because I know you hate this stuff too
I have an idea for campaign in my head but I need to find a good system to run it. Main thing I want is a system that would allow people to play humans, humanoids, and non-humans, with enough system and character customization depth to make the differences feel interesting and meaningful. Basically, if a player wants to be a fire magic-wielding phoenix or a psychic cat, they should be able to do that. Ideally the system would also have at least some level of support for typical fantasy adventuring stuff (dungeon crawling, combat, social intrigue, etc.)
idk we can workshop it
Back when I was a kid I used to RP a bit on aol chat rooms nothing serious, dice rolls were usually fast and loose and we didn't use any set systems as they didn't exist for what I was doing (Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy). I found [this](https://rpol.net/) site that hosts PBP with dice rollers set up for different games systems. Wondering if anyone here has experience with this?
Haven't seen everything in here but it looks like a lot. I know fans have been busy with Sword World 2.0 translating that but it's nice the older stuff has a following too. Great stuff for fans of Lodoss War.
[Previous Thread](https://hexbear.net/post/2608163) It's taken a few weeks to start moving peices (that is, the party finally stopped picking fights with librarians long enough to measure time in hours rather than rounds), but since their second night of resting after the murders they have been the targets of *Nightmare* spells, twisting their dreams. Unfortunately that's just been a soft chorus of clucking as they keep succeeding on the will saves, but it did prompt a round of worried discussion between the characters about whether chickens have souls. After a new round of preparations they ventured back into the Gauntlight and started picking fights with librarians again. Also they tried to contradict a ghost administrator and got ghost slapped into purgatory for a moment, but eventually they got back en-route towards the first chicken ghost encounter: the smashed remnants of Krrrterra, who was obliterated with a landslide. Impressively, their first instinct was to go for diplomacy, apologising for killing it, and asking what they could do to help it move on to the afterlife. With a speak with animals spell and a critical success on a diplomacy check, I couldn't just have the chicken fly into a panic and cause a fight, so engaged in dialogue. There were four issues here though: One, while ghosts are normally animated by unfinished business and can only be permanently put to rest by making right the injustices that created them, these ghosts are mostly reanimated by the giant spooky lighthouse that shoots beams of ghosts, so the primary answer is to destroy the 20th level artifact (they are currently level 4). Two, even without the lighthouse, they're motivated by revenge against their killers, so the secondary answer is for the party to be killed by the chicken ghosts. Three, ghosts are often unaware or in denial about their own deaths, nevermind what is needed to put them to rest. And four, chickens are not particularly capable of higher level thought, so the only thing their questioning actually established is that it wanted to eat some worms. So they hit it with positive energy damage until it dissipated. It wasn't a difficult fight, a single PL-1 enemy, because even as a ghost a chicken isn't much of a threat (on its own), but it did teach them some embarrassing lessons about weapons attacks and incorporeal creatures while minorly inconveniencing them, as planned. The ghost chickens have been established as a fun callback, and soon a running joke. Once they start coming back (and in greater numbers), we'll have some good horror cooking and can really start the emotional rollercoaster, but I have to be sparse with details until future updates, as the Goblin Sorcerer's player is reading and I don't want to spoil too much for him. ______________________________________ **New Art** It's bad. You wanna see some cool ghost chicken tokens, go back to the first post. First up, we have Krrrrterra, who was hit with a landslide:  get it? because she was... squashed. It doesn't get better. Hyppokoko, bludgeoned and drowned by a blast of tsunami:  the file name is wetghost.png. like seriously i got no idea And finally, and most [CW: meat]ly, Brrrkit, who was incinerated by a beam of pure heat:  I'm sorry. ______________________________________ **Mechanics** Applying the ghost template to a basic bird statblock didn't get me close to an appropriate challenge for the party, so I altered a [ghost commoner](https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=216) statblock in different ways for all chickens. Krrrterra had the [weak template](https://2e.aonprd.com/MonsterTemplates.aspx?ID=23) applied, the Kinetic Assault ghost ability added, and a handful of minor additions and changes: 
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1672667 > Hello and thanks for the interest, I've been running a weekly cyberpunk roleplaying game for hexbear users for over a year now, and I'm looking for new people to join a heist/anti-corporate aktion/criminal syndicate intrigue campaign. > > The current system is Shadowrun 5e and I can provide all the information to play the game on Roll20 the web-based tabletop simulator we use to play and utilize discord for voice. We'll build a character together to join the existing group of: > > Mafia Orcish Gun-guy > Ex-corporate Human Medical Mage > Ex-corporate Elven Infiltration Mage > Shadowy Human Drone Operator > > We are looking for one to two people to join us on Sundays for three hours starting at 8:00PM CET / 2:00PM EST > > Please leave a comment or send a DM if interested or have any questions > >
youtu.be
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3382952 > Why don't we want D&D characters to die?
I'm not interested in *your* PCs (or PCs you've heard/seen elsewhere), I want to know what the best PC someone else has played at a table with you is. One of my friends doesn't have lots of TTRPG time, so generally just joins the odd fantasy game with the same character at different levels: Himbo Clerrick. Himbo lives up to his first name, being utterly gorgeous (think young Fabio on the cover of some sword and sorcery romance novel), incredibly heroic, and incredibly dense and oblivious, but not to his second name, being a Paladin. Himbo had been a simple monk who had taken a vow of chastity to serve his god, but his incredible looks put the other monks' and nuns' vows in danger, so they gave him some weapons and armour, told him to go fight the forces of evil for his god, and then took a very cold bath. Powered by his devotion to his god and complete asexuality, he now travels the land looking for evils to defeat and goods to do. Now, I'll admit the player has an impressive CV to begin with (experience in film and TV leading to setting up his own media company, Cambridge Law degree, nationally ranked cross country runner, decent jazz saxophonist, amateur boxer, etc), but Himbo inventively combines and subverts tropes in a way I only otherwise see from very experienced players, and the player has been happy to dive into and engage with the worlds *as Himbo* from the word go. Makes a great change from the people whose first character is Half-Elf Ranger #3752 and are scared to say or do anything even when directly asked.
Hey folks, I've put out feelers before, but it's the new year and I wanted to look at offering to run some tabletop RPGs. Right now, I'm feeling pretty open system-wise (although would prefer the lighter-weight side of the hobby) and can help figure out schedule at some point. Also not necessarily looking for a long term commitment, but thought it might be fun to meet some folks and try out some games together.
So I'm in 2 campaigns now and while I was using some shitty AI slop for my first character I feel like I need something better now Any artists who could cut me some kind of comrade discount? I don't have a lot of spare money but I can pay at least a bit Would also take tips on how to make the AI slop better if I can't afford character artwork Thank you
My party consists of five people across multiple states playing using roll20. Because of people traveling for the holidays, all but one of us will be near the same place, so we're going to have our first in-person session, a one-off where they'll have to climb a tower, fighting enemies and solving puzzles. I've set it up where the absent player is trapped at the top of the tower near the big bad and they're going to charge up and rescue him. My idea is that he can overhear what the boss is saying and communicate telepathically with the rest of the party to tell them hints about puzzles or enemy weaknesses and such. He's down to do this by phone or text. Does anyone have any ideas for puzzles that could incorporate the missing member in a fun way?
I am sorry if this is something basic that has been discussed to death before but I feel like I need to get this out of my system before I ruin friendships by wishing centuries of humiliation on people for the way they play pretend. I had a casual chat with a friend and fellow GM about our current campaigns and worldbuilding. At some point beast races come up and I mention I like gnolls and give a few short details about their society in my setting. In response I get an explanation that he can't have this kind of characterization because of Goebbles level bullshittery about how beastmen are inherently savage and destructive and basically a swarm of pests that has to be put down. And how this is necessary in order to address the moral issues of what to do with beastmen non-combatants. Essentially giving players moral license to commit genocide and still be considered "good" in-universe. It felt so fucking unreal seeing how normally chill people can almost reproduce word for word the vile shit that Zionists are using right fucking now as a justification for mass murder and not have a single moment of "oh shit wait wtf am I saying". I had to step away from the keyboard and calm down. I hate how concept of "sapient creatures that are completely and irredeemably evil and are specifically designed to be slaughtered" is seen as something completely normal and even expected. Gygax was a piece of shit genocide enthusiast who deserves to rot in hell and it's high time that we move on from colonial plunder sims with dragons and obligatory *others* that exist only to be killed and looted. You are building an imaginary world and there are no limits. The genre is literally called imagination. There is no excuse for consciously designing entire species that are designated for slaughter and reproducing some of the vilest ideologies ever thought up by humans as a pillar of your worldbuilding. That's it I guess. That's the rant. Thanks for reading. I am doing my best trying to give positive portrayals of non-human societies in my games and also trying to get my friends to play other games that aren't built from around breaking into others' homes to kill them and take their stuff.
yewtu.be
It's not a game out here. "In point of fact it's the truth! They are killing off characters that deserve to live, prematurely, because they can't roll the saving numbers that are required!" - Colonel Louis Zochhi, Game Science
I am SICK of having my incredible accomplishments (rolling dice and making up stories about them) dismissed as mere "luck". I HATE listening to people complain about how badly they roll. Today, I am going to reveal to you the secrets of how to make the most of your rolls and pull off incredible gaming achievements: # rule 1: Believe in the Heart of the Dice Just like Yugioh from hit children's cartoon series *Yu-gi-oh!*, you need to believe in your dice, and they need to know that you believe in them. When they roll poorly, don't swap them out, keep using them, demonstrate that you believe they can do it. Punishments like Dice Jails won't help them reform their behaviour, so instead show the dice you care for them: cradle them in your hand, even when you don't intend to roll; find them private furnishings where they can relax with their closest friends between sessions; whisper affirmations to them while they're sleeping - show them you love them. **DO NOT FUCK THE DICE**: Not only will it result in a very embarrassing hospital visit where you have to explain that you proceeded to engage in sexual intercourse with one or more small polyhedrons despite being warned not to by an owl that's a professor, but it will also result in a permanently awkward vibe between you and your dice, and you'll have to get rid of all of them and buy new ones that don't know about the whole dice-fucking situation. # rule 2: Stack the deck Just because you're doing something dangerous doesn't mean it has to be difficult. Did my Paladin manage to 1v1 a Purple Worm despite the party giving up all hope because I rolled nothing but 20's? No, he won because 5e's rules are so unbalanced that he didn't need to roll higher than an 8 on a d20 to hit. Also a moment of tactical genuis where he leapt down its throat so it couldn't keep hitting him with its incredibly damaging tail sting, but mainly the low chance to fail. You can't expect your dice to always bring out their absolute best, so give them lower targets they can hit consistantly. They will appreciate it, and pay you back by giving it their all when it really counts. NB: You may find people claiming that this is a simple matter of probability; These people work for Big Statistics and are liars. Your dice do have feelings and appropriate targets are important for their growth. # rule 3: Once you do take a risk, make it an outrageous risk Dice can't resist the tension of a high stakes roll, so raise those stakes as high as you can. Dramatic tension is key to keeping a die's interest, so if you need a really high roll for a plan to work, make sure it's really life or death. Imagine the scene: A colossal dragon blue dragon is swooping and attacking a ship, far from land, surrounded by churning waves. A handful of arrows and magical rays fly from the deck, but if they are hurting her, she's undeterred - she seems determined to see this ship and its inhabitants reach the bottom of the ocean. On the deck stands a Minotaur Warden, frustrated as the dragon's speed keeps her far from his reach. He eyes her as she lines up her next swoop, starts running to where he thinks she'll attack, and takes a mighty leap - but where? If you think he might grab her leg to hold on, or onto her wing to pin her and bring her down, you do not undestand drama. He jumped directly into her mouth, so he could hit her in the face. Obviously this prompted her to crunch down on the tasty morsel, but the dice were determined to see him live long enough to see his absurd scheme though, so, clinging onto consciousness by a handful of HP, he was still able to deliver one final blow with his warshovel. Of *course* the die rolled a natural 20 and ensured it was a killing blow. In a situation that tense, who *wouldn't*? Just like you, the dice want something to really get excited for - you just need to give them the opportunity. # That's it. Encouragement, achieveable goals, and stimulation. That's everything you need to almost guarantee your dice will always give you their best numbers. They will of course sometimes make mistakes, but these 3 rules will ensure that those mistakes never spiral out of control, and a critical success is never too far away. _______________________ mods I don't know what the hell this is but I needed it out of my head so feel free to delete
Rant spoiler-ed below, because its mostly just complaining, but it feels like a lot of games lately have added 'gamified xp' to their systems, and I don't understand the appeal at all. The most positive any player I've talked to has felt about the systems are 'meh, I could take it or leave it', with most slightly disliking them. So, mostly, I'm looking for people that like these kinds of mechanics (I have to assume they're out there if so many games feel like they're adding them), and what you is it you like about them. But I feel like Milestone XP just makes the most sense for any traditional coop party RPG. ::: spoiler rant I like trying out a bunch of different systems, and there's a lot to like, especially with a lot of the smaller games out there. I do like there 'narrative' approach ttrpgs feel like they've been taking recently, but between Chronicles of Darkness, ICON, Forged in the Dark, Apocalypse world, etc., and all there spinoff systems all having XP be earned for specific actions in game, its just a pain in the ass, that takes me out of the action. I mostly GM, but I strongly prefer milestone XP. For some of the above games, its easy enough to gut their bespoke XP systems out of it, and just have players advance over time, but in several of them, it fucks with the overall balance, since several actions are 'bad', but made worthwhile because they earn XP. But I don't like the feeling of interrupting game to award point, and adjudicate character advancement. And I hate systems that have players advance unevenly. There's always going to be a certain degree on uneven-ness in player attention, of rules mastery, and of spotlighting. As GM, its important to manage those so that everyone gets a chance to shine. But it just feels like increasing that workload for the GM, to need to additionally pay attention to the XP, and try to drag or XP share the players that don't find those systems engaging to not mechanically fall behind. And as a player, I tend to have higher system mastery and attention than the others I play with, and tbh it feels bad to end up with more XP because of that. But also, it feels bad to knowingly pass up free XP by purposefully not engaging with those systems. ::: Really, only Call of Cthulhu and Paranoia feel like their gamified XP fits, and that's largely because the games are *supposed* to feel hopeless and unfair, and in the case of Paranoia, gamified and playing favorites.
Cover of T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil. Love his work, shame he died so young.
Love Parkinson's work. Been digging his D&D stuff. I used to know him from the Everquest boxes.
[Taken from FRC1 - Ruins of Adventure](http://www.easydamus.com/FRC1.pdf)
Maybe it's about a system, a specific mechanic, lore, builds, types of players, ttrpg-adjacent products - whatever they are, share them.
I like solo play, was wondering if I can spice things up by throwing an LLM in the mix. The way I tried currently becomes messy real soon, so I was wondering if someone who's successfully tried something like this could give me some pointers
Forgotten Realms Flow
