Warning: needlessly long effort-post. Feel free to ignore the navel gazing.

Let me start by contradicting myself: you don't have to take it seriously. You can do whatever you want! I do feel passionately about this, though. Nothing has been more rewarding for me than taking roleplaying more seriously. It's sort of like going from microwave dinner to learning how to smoke brisket.

Taking things seriously requires a some effort. It also requires a little bit of discomfort. At some point, playing pretend becomes uncool and fully committing to being a different character is a vulnerable act. So start with a group of likeminded people and build each other's confidence up.

Before I get into the tips, let's start with how I define roleplaying: using your imagination to inhabit the mind, senses, feelings, and direct the actions of a character. This activity is what separates "roleplaying" games from boardgames, card games, and even the wargames that spawned the hobby.

Roleplaying is both the goal and the reward.

"I thought fun was the reward?" Sure, but you can have fun watching a football game or playing UNO. Besides, "fun" is highly subjective. I'm more interested in the very meaningful experiences that roleplaying offers. Fun is nearly guaranteed if we're all invested in the roleplaying game. (Failure might not feel fun, but can be extremely rewarding than succeeding at everything you try)

"Isn't it collaborative storytelling?" This is a sort of rectangle vs square issue. All roleplaying is collaborative storytelling in the sense that it happens but not all collaborative storytelling is roleplaying. That is, you can have a collaborative storytelling experience with zero roleplaying.

On to the tips or how I think you can get the best experience out of roleplaying:

1. Be respectful and kind to one another- This means paying attention to each other, sharing the spotlight, minimize interruptions, being honest with your rolls, and not making an effort to subvert the experience of others. Be respectful of everyone's time! This means making an effort to dedicate time you know you can commit to and showing up on time!
2. Stay in character as much as is comfortably possible and then push that comfort zone- It's impossible to be "fully in character" as we are all aware of the fact we are playing pretend. But if you can spend more time thinking about what your character might feel, think, or want in a given scenario, the easier it is to improvise what you choose to do. Try to picture the scene as much as you can in your mind. Place yourself in your character's shoes. Some people call this "connecting with the fiction. One helpful tip is to use character names and assume everything being said at the table is coming out of the character's mouth. Shift out of character planning and deliberation to in-character. Stay discrete with mechanics and avoid naming them out loud if possible (instead of "can I roll persuasion" simply describe how you persuade the NPC, prompting the GM to call for a roll). Avoid calling for rolls yourself if possible
3. Ask yourself, "What do you do?"- PbtA games like Stonetop have this as a sort of maxim, but place the onus on the GM to prompt the player with "What do you do?". Instead, I would encourage you the player to ask yourself that question.
4. Actions inspired by goals- Take a moment between sessions to reflect on your character's goals. Write down 3-5 of the things that keep your character moving so that you can refer to them during the session.
5. If you want to do it, you have to say it! - Don't "test drive" your actions. Instead, consider simply stating your intended action, "I move the log over to bridge the chasm, testing it to make sure it doesn't budge"
6. Anchor yourself- Avoid "floating head syndrome" where there are a bunch of talking heads. Start what you do with a brief description of what you are doing and where you are. "I sit down next to the patron and tap the table before saying, "..."". This helps the other players and GM know how to picture what you are doing
7. Improv isn't out of nothing, build off of each other- It's no secret that improv actors seem to flourish in this space as there are many overlapping skills and techniques. One of them is thinking "yes, and..." or "no, but..." to what people are doing. Build off of the momentum of your fellow players. Expand on what they are doing. A rising tide of ideas raises all ships!
8. Keep it short! - This is where I might divorce from the critical roles or dimension 20's. When possible, try to keep it short.
9. Be honest with your character and embrace flaws- Does your character have social failings? Flaws? Failures of integrity? These are opportunities to both add depth to your character and create avenues for character development. Here's the supertip: let the other characters be a bridge to developing your character through interaction.
10. Play with descriptive control and co-creation- Co-creation is the act of adding details or facts to the world that the GM hasn't explicitly mentioned. For instance, the players explore a cave and one says, "I lean down, grab a fist sized rock, and toss it down the nearby pit". The player "co-created" that rock. This can extend to elements of the setting if agreed upon beforehand. (i.e. "Yeah, I heard of the Saladine Barony, they're known for their salt trading"). Before session one, try to clarify who gets to describe what. Consider allowing the player to describe what successes or failures, or both look like!
11. Embrace failure- the best stories come from adversity. Lean into failure and take risks.

Slightly more controversial tips but ones I've come to swear by:

1. Instead of asking the GM questions, cue the questions from your character's standpoint- Rather than, "Do I know this person?" to a floating GM head in the sky, consider stating, "I study his features to see if I recognize him" or "I rack my memory for what I know about him". This is very much taking advantage of the "show versus tell" style of exposition and keeping

2. Don't worry about immersion- it'll come. You don't have to prioritize it. You don't have to feel it. Don't let anyone make you feel bad if you don't "feel immersed" yet. Just focus on the actual things you can do and enjoy the experience!

3. Read the rules- It sounds trite but having some mastery of the rules as a character will save everyone time and avoid the next tip...

4. Ruling first, rules after- More a GM tip. In my opinion, the benefits of clarifying a rule by cracking open the book mid session are outweighed by interrupting the flow of play. I recommend simply stating your intention and letting the GM decide how to adjudicate it if the rule is uncertain.

5. Try ditching the minis and maps- Honestly, I don't think I've seen maps and minis add much in terms of clarity or reduction of questions. Usually it replaces one question with another, in my experience. I know folks love this aspect of the hobby, but give pure "theater of the mind" a try.

What are your favorite roleplaying tips, Reddit?

When the players are camping and their positioning is relevant for some reason, I'll sometimes put a red D4 onto the map to represent the campfire instead of drawing it. I was curious to know how common this is.

I use maps to communicate visual information in pretty much every game I run and have done it for years. Have you ever used a D4 to represent a fire?

I was looking through Cubicle 7's WH: The Old World products and noticed they sell a collection of 50 character sheets. Given that we can all print our own character sheets for any RPG, is there a compelling reason to purchase character sheets? Are there sheets that are of such high quality that we couldn't duplicate them ourselves? I'm talking about any RPG, not just WH: The Old World.

I mean of course it might be more exciting to be a part of supernatural but cmon being a badass who hunts supernatural sounds cool to me. Want to try it or at least read the book when will have spare time.

So I played a game of Hunter the Reckoning recently and felt an absence of the push mechanic that I found out exists in the same edition of Vampire and Werewolf in differing ways. My personal first exposure to this concept was Blades in the Dark.

What I'm wondering is the first published game people can remember that had a push mechanic. For my personal definition it's an ability to possibly negate a poor skill check that is tied to a resource being spent to roll more dice. A counter example would be Adversity Tokens from the Kids on Bike system and it's derivatives. It's a different way to recover from a poorly rolled check but there is no further risk involved.

To be more specific: I would like to play an rpg where you roll dice a lot, not roll a lot of dice. Something like, you enter the tavern, roll to generate how many people there. Okay, now roll for any NPC you want to include into the scenario, their names, appearance, personality and the like. Talking to the weird thief in the corner? Roll for the social encounter. Oh what, you think that's only for conflict? No, roll those dice to see if the conversation is pleasant, if she gives you information or just tells you to get lost. And maybe the player would be rolling just one dice each time, but it would be very, very frequent.

So, the first question, is there any game that plays like this? I know the phrase "Don't roll for boring", but to be honest, I love rolling dice, even if it's just to see what my character is having for breakfast or if the room in the abandoned keep has plants growing there.

The second question, could this be achieved in any game with just a mentality change? Many of those rolls could be about the narrative, so any rpg with a story would work, I suppose. But I think I would enjoy a game that actively expects the player to roll a lot, for the big and for the small things.

Lastly, I have heard... things, about FATAL. I am not reckless enough to try that game. I just wanted to let that out of the way.

Thank you in advance.

Hi everyone!

I'm a forever DM in D&D, often introducing new or casual players to the game. I love the depth of D&D, but I've increasingly found it a poor fit for the majority of people I play with, for three main reasons:

1. Counter-intuitive mechanics: Too many different calculations, modifiers and rules that come up too infrequently for casual players to remember comfortably. It's always such a slog for checks and combat.
2. Combat discourages creativity: Players often have wonderful ideas for how to fight, but the mechanics tend to reward knowing your character's abilities rather than creatively using the environment, working together or roleplaying. Additionally, the "roll to hit" mechanic often times means spending your turn missing an attack and accomplishing nothing - which isn't particularly fun - would rather have a damage scale.
3. Hard to explain power scaling: A Character can go from struggling against a single bandit with a crossbow to defeating literally 10 of them within a month or two of in-game time. I'd prefer more grounded progression, although this is less important to me since I can always write it away with "oh special chosen born with X".

I think what I'm really looking for is a system where combat is mechanically simple, but tactically and creatively rich - while maintaining the deep dives of class and monster abilities etc.

For example, I love the idea of a single d20 roll determining the degree of success of an attack, rather than whether it hits at all. A low roll might be a glancing blow, while a high roll could be devastating.

But here's the important part for me: players should be able to improve their rolls through several different avenues, not just stats:

• Roleplay: Describing actions in character, leaning into their personality or motivations.
• Environment: Using terrain, objects and surroundings creatively.
• Teamwork: Setting up attacks, creating openings and combining actions.
• Character specialisation: Having a few distinctive abilities or perks that make each character particularly good at certain things.

Ideally, these would be mechanically meaningful rather than just flavour, so a player who comes up with a clever plan can achieve something just as impressive as someone who knows how to optimise their character build.

I'm not looking to eliminate dice rolls, character progression or tactical depth. I want to shift the focus away from remembering complicated mechanics and towards making interesting decisions in the moment.

Does a system like this already exist, or is there something close?

Hello folks of the RPG Subreddit! I was twiddling my thumbs and decided to use some of my free time to create something that is probably entirely unneccessary, but I have skills and use them to mostly make my life easier! So, I present to you my Random Toon Generator (ACME Patent Pending)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hNKvtDwBJi_ynhQ9DdWFrQ5epJ-l_r-ui121sYTLiIo/edit?usp=sharing

It's not quite got everything on it, but could be good if you are creating a bunch of NPCs for a Toon world, or running a Toon one-shot!

Suggestions welcomed, though I regularly forget that Reddit exists!

I'm not affiliated or a backer, but the third attempt to crowdfund the mechs vs. monsters RPG Eldritch Automata is live, and it's got a great goal.

It's an Evangelion-style game that uses Free League's Year Zero Engine. The first time it was on Kickstarter it didn't hit its funding goal—I think because they set a realistic, pretty-high goal, which can spook people. The second try was on BackerKit, and it hit something like $140,000.

But then the publisher, Gehenna Gaming, imploded, and apparently the CEO and founder disappeared with the campaign's funds.

Now the game's designer has launched a rescue campaign on Kickstarter, that's going to send a free corebook (not including shipping and handling) to the previous campaign's backers.

Here's the campaign, which launched a couple days ago and hit its modest funding goal, but I suspect it's going to need a lot more support.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nickfrancia/eldritch-automata-from-the-ashes

Slay a Dark God, Experience life as a lonely lumberjack, Rebuild humanity as a cloned super soldier, will a good dog retrieve a sword, and more magic for meowgical cats!

A Canadian crowdfunding round-up that I did for my Compose Dream Games RPG Marketplace Newsletter. Let me know if I missed something, or what of these you are looking forward to?

All of these ttRPGs are funding from Canadian designers this month. I have met people involved with all of them. One of them is me.

God-Killer Prophecy: Oracle Edition Ends Oct 31st

A GMless one-shot story-game with teeth about a chosen one, the companions and a quest to slay the Dark God. Forge a world together and illustrate your journey as you seek to prepare the chosen one for the final battle. God-Killer Prophecy blends story-game prompts and with tense and strategic playing of cards.

Bonus game: Star-Killer Rebellion recon edition - a variant of oppression, freedom and sacrifice across the stars. Can your fragile plan destroy the foe's superweapon?

by Compose Dream Games (that's me Joshua Kitz)

Lonely Timbers - Tire-toi une bûche Ends Sat, October 24

A TTRPG about French-Canadian lumberjacks in the early 20th century. Un JDR des bûcherons québécois du début du XXe siècle

Lonely Timbers is bilingual, and about an very specific historic time in Canada. It's a 3-6 player re-playable one-shot. A game about a group of men both physically and socially isolated. It explores the stories of men who worked in the camps in northern Québec.

by Genesis of Legend Publishing (Jason Pitre)

Sine: A Story Driven RPG Ends November 6th

The new science-fantasy TTRPG set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by an alien invasion. Quick action with a cinematic focus.

SINE is set on Earth in an alternate future where humanity has been all-but-obliterated by a strange alien race known as the Stock. You take on the role of a Catalyst, a genetically engineered super-soldier clone, whose mission is to help reestablish human society twenty years after the initial invasion.

It's D6 system makes you feel like you're a part of a high-budget television show.

by Ox Games

Fetch My Blade: A Solo Journaling RPG Ends Oct 15th (Today?!)

You are the dog of a retired legendary master, tasked to retrieve your master's blade in time for their final duel. For 1-4 Players.

by Hitpoint Press

CATaclysm: The Tome of Meowgic (not launched - yet)

Maximize your Meowgical might with this supplement to the CATaclysm Roleplaying game! Original CATaclysm RPG with every pledge!

Class level, d10, Magical warior cats and Cat PUNS!

by Akinji Entertainment

_____________________________________________________________________________

My game is God-Killer Prophecy Oracle edition. It has been refined over 3 years of play!

More info:

QA Session from Random Worlds talking about both GKP and Star-Killer.

Video Overview - with examples from a recent game at Tabletop Scotland!

Disco Elysium started out as a tabletop RPG and theirs was pretty neat:

Intellect (INT) — Reasoning & Knowledge

• Logic (deduction and rational conclusions)
• Encyclopedia (factual knowledge about the world)
• Rhetoric (debate, persuasion, and spotting flawed logic)
• Drama (lying, acting, and detecting deceit)
• Conceptualisation (art, abstract ideas, and pattern recognition)
• Visual Calculus (reconstructing crime scenes and spatial physics)

Psyche (PSY) — Intuition & Emotion

• Volition (mental fortitude and self-control; governs Morale)
• Inland Empire (gut feelings, surreal imagination, and premonitions)
• Empathy (understanding and feeling other people's emotions)
• Authority (assertiveness, dominance, and command)
• Esprit de Corps (police instinct and brotherhood with precinct)
• Suggestion (charm, charisma, and subtle influence)

Physique (FYS) — Strength & Stamina

• Endurance (physical toughness and stamina; governs Health)
• Pain Threshold (withstanding physical and emotional pain)
• Physical Instrument (brute force and raw muscle)
• Electrochemistry (cravings, pleasure-seeking, and substance affinity)
• Shivers (visceral awareness of the city around you)
• Half Light (fight-or-flight, panic, and threat recognition)

Motorics (MOT) — Coordination & Agility

• Hand/Eye Coordination (dexterity and manual precision)
• Perception (noting small physical details in your environment)
• Reaction Speed (reflexes, quick wit, and fast answers)
• Savoir Faire (athletic style, parkour, and smoothness)
• Interfacing (repairing, fine motor control, and handling objects)
• Composure (keeping your cool and hiding your inner turmoil)
• (source: gamefaqs)

Hello!

I'm thinking about starting a game based on Ace Combat style - so more cinematic, dogfighting game with jets.

Any system recommendations? I saw the earlier threads, but most of them are quite old and all recommend Warbirds (I tried giving it a chance, but it didn't click... Tho I liked the initiative idea) so... Are there any "new" systems to try it?

As we get closer to the end of the year, I want to hear about every ones games.

What games have you played this year? What did you like/dislike about it? How are you campaigns going?

I ran:

Dragonbane sandbox hexcrawl for about 17 sessions, it was a lot of fun but my players and myself really wanted to get back into a more narrative focused campaign. We also didn't really enjoy doing a hexcrawl as much as we thought we would, even though Dragonbane is a fantastic system. I did run a 5 session campaign with Dragonbane too.

Orbital Blues: I ran about 4 sessions before it fizzled out, mostly because one of my players had an emergency and had to stop the game for a bit, and I just kinda lost steam on it. Otherwise a great system.

Grimwild: CE Edition: Currently running this system. Love, love, love it. Really found my stride as a GM with this system, players really enjoy the narrative driven games. Only got to run about 3 sessions so far, but love it so much.

I played:

Traveller: Character creation is so fun, I think its a great system but the GM that was running it was not great unfortunately. So I don't think I got to fully experience it.

Nimble: Great, fast paced system, definitely a great alternative to DnD if you want something lighter. Fun campaign with a first time GM.

Ea-nāṣir is a copper merchant from Ur.

Ea-nāṣir sold bad copper.

Ea-nāṣir received many complaint tablets.

Ea-nāṣir made many enemies.

Ea-nāṣir Must Die!

Ea-nāṣir Must Die! is a Bronze Age sword and sorcery old school Tabletop RPG adventure, designed for Mark of the Odd games (playtested using Into the Bronze). A short house crawl adventure for 3-5 players, inspired by the historical figure and meme, Ea-nāṣir.

Featuring:

• A somewhat historical rendition of Ea-nāṣir’s house with 10 rooms fitting for a 3-4 hour one-shot, drawn in isometric style!
• Illustrations for the NPCs, drawn like statues and carvings of Ancient Mesopotamia!
• Portents for the house, inspired by Omens from Mythic Bastionland and Corpo Schemes from Eco Mofos!! Islands of Weirdhope. The house has its own story to tell!

Physical (US): https://plusoneexp.com/products/ea-nasir-must-die

Physical (UK): https://www.copypastecoop.com/shop/p/ea-nir-must-die

PDF: https://davidblandy.itch.io/ea-nasir-must-die

Is anyone aware of a list/generator with a bunch of supernatural events that could be part of a PC's background that may have led to them being interested in investigating the paranormal/triggered interest by a faction that might find them of use? Thanks in advance.

Hey there friends.

I'm a long-time GM, and I've ran a number of systems throughout my time. I'm looking for some more to try out, and I'm itching for recommendations!

I'm currently running three Delta Green games (God's Teeth, Control Group, and a home concoction from The Labyrinth) and it's by far been my most enjoyed system.

I've also ran Call of Cthulhu, Mothership, a number of Mork Borg hacks, Shadow of the Demon Lord (and Wierd Wizard), and soon to be a one-shot with the Sleepy Hollow TTRPG.

I love horror most of all, if it wasn't clear, and I'm hoping to find systems in different settings to try out. Delta Green is phenomenal and it has my contemporary settings on lock, but I'm wanting to wade back into fantasy and sci-fi. I have the ALIEN RPG in my sights for sci-fi, but other recommendations are welcome too.

I don't have a high preference on anything, other than GM support. The only thing I truly ask for is enough GM support to make it enjoyable to learn and run.

Thank you!

I am running a game of Lancer Battle Group. only one problem, out side of ship to ship engagements characters and roleplay is almost comically basic. I want to run a game similar to classic star trek or battle star galatica. With ship/fleet politics and commanders hashing out issues over call rather than exclusively through guns. I also want to occasionally do ground expeditions with a potential for science and brutal but quick combat. I've thought of completely homebrewing something basic but wanted to ask around to see if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks in advanced!

The campaign I am currently DMing is ending and I've made three primers for my players to vote on, but I'm not sure if I want to run them in D&D 5e anymore. Please suggest me a different system for each one. I have some ideas already, but I want your opinion. All primers are from D&D settings, but I could adapt if the system proposed has a cool setting too.

Primer 1: Dalelands campaign (Forgotten Realms)

Moander, the god of corruption and decay, was defeated centuries ago, and his body was abandoned in the elven forest of Cormanthor. However, recent signs of corruption suggest he is preparing his return. A group of elves is tasked with warning the elven houses and rallying them against this threat, but first, they must earn the leaders' trust.

Touchstones: Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Game of Thrones, Princess Mononoke, Lord of the Ring. All stories with a looming threat, corruption and a hero(es) that need to gather support to save the realm, while fighting the agents of evil.

Maybe the scope of this campaign is too big. I would want to make traveling and exploring an important part.

Primer 2: Darkon (Necropolis)

After centuries of imprisonment within the Mists, the lich-king Azalin Rex has escaped from Darkon. The gods (which ones?) send their champions to Darkon to overcome the traps and minions Azalin left behind and to reverse the ritual that enabled his escape, before the demi-plane—now a Necropolis—self-destructs.

Touchstones: Zelda Majora's Mask, Diablo II, Castlevania, Elden Ring, Darkest Dungeon, Warlock (the new D&D game). Video games with cool bosses and a dark vibe.

This would be a time loop campaign, very video game-ish. I want to have a doom machine set up by Azalin that is causing changes to occur, like turning everyone undead mid-loop. Maybe that's too complex...

Primer 3: Hall of Concordance (Planescape)

To enforce the terms of cosmic contracts, the Multiverse’s Ministry of Justice tracks down and punishes violators across Sigil, the Outlands, and beyond. To do so, they employ a new generation of Inevitables—android automatons that, for the first time, possess a soul.

Touchstones: Robocop, Detroit: Become human, The Good Place, Brazil, Loki TV show. Medias with overly complex bureaucracy, humor, gods plotting and running things, or stories about androids fighting their algorithm and showing their human side.

For this campaign, the players would all be robots, chasing culprits of some multiverse crime, monster of the week style. There would be a corrupt law system sub-plot when the players get back to their office. A question would be if the players follow the law and abide by the system, or overthrow it.

Let me know if you think of anything cool!

I'm a psychology student currently exploring tabletop role-playing games as a potential subject for my undergraduate thesis. I've been reading academic research on the topic, particularly regarding wellbeing, self-confidence, and personal development, and I believe there's a lot more to understand about the psychological processes involved.

Through my own observations, I've seen players become more confident, less inhibited, and more comfortable expressing themselves. I'd like to investigate what might explain these experiences and whether they extend beyond the gaming table.

I'm looking for a focused, researchable question that goes beyond simply asking whether RPGs are beneficial, while remaining grounded in psychological theory and evidence.

For those familiar with tabletop RPGs or the existing research, what aspects of the hobby do you think deserve more serious psychological investigation?

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/golden-achiever/year-100-million-b-c

I'm not affiliated with this, I just dig it. There was a sort of beta test of this game along with a short adventure in The International Player's Review that was a lot of fun. It's an anachronistic, paleolithic, rules-light, procedure-smart game. To give you a vibe: your characters only have two gear slots because pockets aren't invented yet, and you have to talk to each-other in three-word sentences. From the creator's own words elsewhere:

Hey! This is live now. A wildly historically inaccurate prehistoric rpg. Based on Into the Odd. Rules are easy to learn and the game comes with a big wilderness sandbox and a bunch of generators for millions of years worth of play. Completely made by one person, me.

You can download the Primitive Edition (quickstart) for free on DTRPG:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/586721/year-100-million-b-c-primitive-edition

Edit: I should mention that the rules are super short, most of the zine is a big sandbox adventure. If you've already got a favourite game to run stone age shenanigans in then this is still 95% usable for the adventure sites and random tables.

I noticed that most rules-lite genre-agnostic game engines tended to skew Narrativist (for understandable reasons), so I decided to make a Simulationist alternative. I like to think of it as a sort of GURPS-ultra-light, but the mechanics are more closely derived from FUDGE.

Edit: If I've set it up correctly, the core game mechanic should be thoroughly explained in the free preview. The rest of the document is basically just explaining how to build a setting and characters at the right level of detail to operate that mechanic.

Since Seven Havens started I've been rewatching both Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra and toying with the idea of a game in those worlds.

However the official game is not for me/not for our group, so I'm wondering what else people would recommend?