Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Paradox Mystic]

Basically "No white heros saving thems po' nigga orcs"

You know these people would throw a temper tantrum though if someone decided to maliciously comply with this logic. "Sorry little orc girl, but we don't do commerce with your race, guess you'll have to pull yourselves up by your bootstraps and fix your evil dragon making everything worse problem yourself." said Chad the Human Paladin

 

[Obstacle]

There is a very simple solution to this. If someone at the table brings up that colonialism is bad, all you have to do is make the X "I'm triggered" symbol and say how treating it as bad is triggering for you.

Because its in the rules, they have to stop saying its bad.

Watch them release an errata that clarifies it was intended as a "racial ability" for "Players of colour".
Whites can take a knee instead.

 

[AnOminous]

There is a very simple solution to this. If someone at the table brings up that colonialism is bad, all you have to do is make the X "I'm triggered" symbol and say how treating it as bad is triggering for you.

Because its in the rules, they have to stop saying its bad.

Except that's not how it works in Clown World. You can't apply their rules back to them because if you do, you're instantly a Nazi, and suddenly their fake rules no longer apply.

 

[Anonitolia]

any advice for trying to find/run a game in TTRPG No Man's Land? I'm not interested in DND 5e but that's the only thing anyone in a 100 mile radius wants to play, assuming they want to play at all.

Been trying to find other systems but I don't know where to look. More interested in "group storytelling with gameplay based on character progression" than the dungeon-combat sim stuff DND's based around. I don't entirely see the point in the latter during an age where we have hundreds of thousands of video games to streamline and enhance that experience for the friendless and/or bored, anyways. I basically only know, vaguely, of Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, WoD (all of them, oddly enough), ATLA the Roleplaying Game for its controversies, not its gameplay, Cyberpunk, and Shadowrun but haven't been able to find more than vague synopses of their premises.

Curious to know if I'm missing some very obvious gold mine of TTRPG content that can help me learn more or find a good place to meet other players. My search engine has been leading me in circles with constant redirects to DND wikis or related materials instead of bothering to consider that I might mean something else when I mention "ttrpg" or "tabletop game" in my inquiries. I tried using Discord a few years back but have since abandoned the prospect due to the neverending torrent of degenerates that make finding important shit impossible and attempts to ask around futile among other grosser side effects of that awful platform.

Open to any advice basically, getting very desperate. I've been searching since before the pandemic and haven't had much luck. Many thanks in advance to anyone who can impart some good advice.

 

[ZMOT]

The latest supplement for Legend of Five Rings 5e has a section on performing anti-colonialism at the table.

edge is french iirc, so it was only a matter of time.

the new arkham horror rpg leads with this

Except that's not how it works in Clown World. You can't apply their rules back to them because if you do, you're instantly a Nazi, and suddenly their fake rules no longer apply.

x-rules state you can't discuss it, you talking about it keeps triggering the victim which would count as mental abuse. it's usually coming from some suburban limpwristed soyboy or libshit white woman, so your victim status trumps theirs. bonus points for making a public scene and/or going above their head afterwards in true progressive fashion, like getting them store banned only telling one side of it.

you just need to know how to play it.

The people behind Ecclipse Phase are geniune anarchists

I think anarchists are their on breed of stupidity, however they ARE more realistic and aware about stuff, they just decide to deal with it differently. leftists live in this constant alternate reality without any common sense to the point biking through turkey thinking everyone saying it's dangerous is committing hatespeech and then get raped in the process.

 

[Adamska]

edge is french iirc, so it was only a matter of time.

the new arkham horror rpg leads with this
View attachment 6818869

By their own logic, they need to divest themselves of both IPs since they're French and have no clue about East Asian or New England culture, since they're clearly profiting off of cultural exploitation and stereotyping.

 

[Revelator]

edge is french iirc, so it was only a matter of time.

the new arkham horror rpg leads with this
View attachment 6818869

Cosmic horrors from beyond the stars isn't anachronistic because Lovecraft was ALIVE during that time when he came up with the Cosmic Horror genre. Considering he based it on the Golden Dawn and other occult religious groups which were prevalent at the time, I'd say it's pretty on the nose.

Oh, and female scientists and LEOs existed, they were just rare and really, really good at their jobs. It wasn't until Hoover became head of the FBI and booted the woman agents in 1923 (causing all LEO agencies, even local PDs) to follow suit was it considered "men only."

For the record, women cops at the time mostly fulfilled the psych functions. They mostly talked down jumpers and dealt with children and victims, or sometimes used them to calm down heated men since if the man hit her every male cop in a 3 mile radius would beat the absolute tar out of him. Not to mention they could use the eras sexism to their advantage in undercover work.

 

[Blarmed&Dangerous]

any advice for trying to find/run a game in TTRPG No Man's Land? I'm not interested in DND 5e but that's the only thing anyone in a 100 mile radius wants to play, assuming they want to play at all.

Been trying to find other systems but I don't know where to look. More interested in "group storytelling with gameplay based on character progression" than the dungeon-combat sim stuff DND's based around. I don't entirely see the point in the latter during an age where we have hundreds of thousands of video games to streamline and enhance that experience for the friendless and/or bored, anyways. I basically only know, vaguely, of Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, WoD (all of them, oddly enough), ATLA the Roleplaying Game for its controversies, not its gameplay, Cyberpunk, and Shadowrun but haven't been able to find more than vague synopses of their premises.

Curious to know if I'm missing some very obvious gold mine of TTRPG content that can help me learn more or find a good place to meet other players. My search engine has been leading me in circles with constant redirects to DND wikis or related materials instead of bothering to consider that I might mean something else when I mention "ttrpg" or "tabletop game" in my inquiries. I tried using Discord a few years back but have since abandoned the prospect due to the neverending torrent of degenerates that make finding important shit impossible and attempts to ask around futile among other grosser side effects of that awful platform.

Open to any advice basically, getting very desperate. I've been searching since before the pandemic and haven't had much luck. Many thanks in advance to anyone who can impart some good advice.

There's an entire world of interesting RPGs, and it's just what suits your interest. If you get someone willing to break from 5e, you're just as likely to get them to play Fall of Delta Green (1960s Cthulhu X-Files) as Dogs in the Vineyard (postmen/itinerant judges in an alternate 1800s where not-Mormons formed a breakaway state in the American West).

If you have a local games store that isn't just a funko pop dispensary, take a look there. See if they have a bulletin board, or ask them if they have an RPG night. If it's not too weird and you have a college or university nearby, there's a near 100% chance they have some kind of RPG club. Find out when meetings are and most of them, at least when I was in school, are cool with nonstudents hanging around.

Read about a bunch of different systems, watch videos, read the rulebooks, and sell potential players on vibes. You might have to sit through a couple sessions of 5e (a fate I do not envy) to build rapport before you pitch, but you'll get there eventually.

 

[Battlefield2142EU]

Reminder: Hasbro has been using the same buzzword for damage control. Video games and movies flopped or underperformed = fastest selling. Suicide squad kills the Justice League, Star Wars outlaws and Dragon Age the veilguard all use the term fastest selling X in the series. Even journalists used the term the fastest selling film in the series to defend Ghostbusters 2016. The longer Hasbro and WOTC use the term" Fastest Selling X" in history with 6E D&D without showing real numbers. The more suspicious you should be of funny box office accounting. Whoring an IP to slot machine companies is usually a sign of an IP losing its luster. That's why licensed characters are used in slot machines to be Casper the friendly ghost-related characters or characters from TV shows from the 50s and 60s. Officially licensing Dungeons and Dragons to slot machine companies smells of desperation on WOTC's part.

 

[Deus Exica]

any advice for trying to find/run a game in TTRPG No Man's Land? I'm not interested in DND 5e but that's the only thing anyone in a 100 mile radius wants to play, assuming they want to play at all.

If you really cannot find anyone within a friend group, check local game stores. If that doesn't work, see if a local college campus has a way for you to advertise a game or something.

I don't know where you work but I used to pick up coworkers from time to time or join their games. We weren't like the best of friends or anything but it was better than randoms usually.

More interested in "group storytelling with gameplay based on character progression" than the dungeon-combat sim stuff DND's based around

Good luck. I would honestly say, just play DnD, you don't have to do a ton of dungeon diving or traditional questing. If a fantasy setting is not your thing, maybe go elsewhere, but if you just want medieval but with maybe more talking you'll probably be fine with DnD.

 

[Anonitolia]

If it's not too weird and you have a college or university nearby, there's a near 100% chance they have some kind of RPG club.

lol, I'm actually asking about this because the only nearby uni used to have one... from 2020-2022, after which it died a painful and quiet death because everyone involved was just a 5e trendhopper who didn't want to branch out. I've been trying to revive it with no luck; basically nobody is interested.

HOWEVER, a new games store just popped up nearby that I only noticed when I went searching after you mentioned it, so maybe there is hope! The few nearby have in fact mostly been Funko Pop dispensaries or comic shops first and tabletop shops second, but given that this one is outright advertising itself as a game store it might actually live up to the hype.

Will report back with results.

And thank you for the offhanded mentions of those systems. Dogs in the Vineyard sounds fucking wild and I'm definitely going to give that a look.

 

[Blarmed&Dangerous]

And thank you for the offhanded mentions of those systems. Dogs in the Vineyard sounds fucking wild and I'm definitely going to give that a look.

There is so, so much more out there than D&D.

Blades in the Dark: Play a gang in a setting that is basically Victorian London with ghosts. System is very, very simple - I would say too simple personally, but a lot of people love it.

Deadlands: Horror western where the Civil War never ended because native Americans summoned demons. You can secretly be a zombie and not know it. The wizard-equivalent class is a card-shark who learned that the rules of poker are a coded secret ritual to make a deal with the devil. Have to play blackjack against Satan every time you want to cast a spell.

Delta Green: Call of Cthulhu but you work for the government. Has three settings: the "Agency" Era (fully-fledged government department, 1928-1970), the "Cowboy" Era (the agency has been disbanded, but you didn't stop fighting, 1970-2001), and the "Program" Era (Post-9/11 antiterrorism legislation quietly reactivates the agency. The Cowboys don't trust the new Program, and so operate simultaneously. Which one do you actually work for? 2001-Present). Clunky system with some cool adventures, like "The Last Equation" where the villain is a math problem.

Night's Black Agents: You're spies who accidentally discover a supernatural or otherworldly conspiracy - the game and its rules are highly modular, as in each section of the rules has four "options" the GM can pull from to tweak the feel of the game, tons of options for the setting, highly unique every time its played.

Paranoia: Very silly game. You're clones living in a massive facility run by a corrupt AI that is somewhere between GLaDOS and Clippy.

Ten Candles: Simple one-shot horror game. Very few mechanics, zero prep. Light ten candles, use ten d6s. Any time any player wants to do something, roll all dice. If they get even one six, they succeed. Any dice that roll a one get taken away. If they ever fail, blow out a candle. Move to the next scene with 9 d6s, etc.. "Character Sheets" are a stack of notecards with character traits that were established collectively. Players may automatically succeed (or get a reroll, I don't remember) by burning one of their cards. The final card is their name, and requires their character to also die.

Twilight 2000: Hexcrawl through wartorn Poland or Sweden if WW3 took place in the nineties.

There's a ton of stuff out there. Maybe just spend some time skimming something like the big list of stuff on 1d4chan (now 1d6chan for soy reasons): https://1d6chan.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:Roleplaying

 

[Revelator]

Paranoia: Very silly game. You're clones living in a massive facility run by a corrupt AI that is somewhere between GLaDOS and Clippy.

It's worth noting if your GM is worth anything Friend Computer will be more Clippy than GlaDOS.

 

[Adamska]

Blades in the Dark: Play a gang in a setting that is basically Victorian London with ghosts. System is very, very simple - I would say too simple personally, but a lot of people love it.

Personally not the biggest fan of this one myself, but that's because it's still at the end of the day a heavily retooled PbtA engine that tried to fix the worst flaws from its design. I don't quite think it suceeded.

That's not to say games using either this one or PbtA can't be good; I recently found a good PbtA game in the form of RVMA which does a fine job with the dogshit system it chose to use. It's just I'd probably just suggest say... Call of Cthulhu over Blades, since I feel it nails the same vibe just as well.

I know there's a few other games that do this setting too. 1879, which is like a bastard blend of RIFTS and Shadowun, has a London splat for example, and you could easily play it like that too.

Deadlands: Horror western where the Civil War never ended because native Americans summoned demons. You can secretly be a zombie and not know it. The wizard-equivalent class is a card-shark who learned that the rules of poker are a coded secret ritual to make a deal with the devil. Have to play blackjack against Satan every time you want to cast a spell.

And I'll just warn if you don't like progtard devs, you won't like Deadlands because they've tried several times in trying to walk back the CSA and the usual "sorry we're white" bullshit people tend to get sick of.

 

[Blarmed&Dangerous]

And I'll just warn if you don't like progtard devs, you won't like Deadlands because they've tried several times in trying to walk back the CSA and the usual "sorry we're white" bullshit people tend to get sick of.

I mean, not MODERN Deadlands of course. I don't think I've even seen any Deadlands stuff written post 2008.

Evil Hat (Blades in the Dark) is famously turbopozzed as well, as is the author Jim Harper. There isn't too much overly gay shit in the game itself though

 

[The Bogwater Rises]

People mentioning Blades in the Dark has activated me. I found the Space Opera version "Scum and Villainy" at a game shop for cheap and gave it a shot. I liked it, but the more I learned about how gamey the system is the less I liked it. It almost has the freedom to make it more freeform but not quite and all the rules want to lock you into the Minor bit of faffing > Preparing for heist/adventure > Heist/Adventure > Payout and consequences. It has a lot of little things in it I like, but every time I've gotten to play in a game of Blades/SaV it feels more gamey than I personally like.

Before I keep going on a faggy tirade I'll say I think it's a really good one shot system/random adventures kind of game but doesn't feel right (to at least me) for long term campaigns and stuff like that.

 

[Anonitolia]

There's a ton of stuff out there. Maybe just spend some time skimming something like the big list of stuff on 1d4chan (now 1d6chan for soy reasons): https://1d6chan.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:Roleplaying

Oh holy shit, something like this is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much!! No wonder I couldn't find shit, if 4chan is seriously the best resource for this stuff nowadays it makes a lot of sense. Quite the tragedy though. It's such a shithole, I try to avoid going through it at all costs.

 

[Blarmed&Dangerous]

if 4chan is seriously the best resource for this stuff nowadays it makes a lot of sense.

Well... it's a long story.

1d4chan is very old. You'll likely find articles talking about stuff in 2008-2010 as though it were the present. It spun off of /tg/, but it's owner/founder turned into, in his own words, "a turbo SJW," and actively tried to sunset the site (such as delisting it from search engines so that reactionary filth wasn't the first thing people see when they're getting into the hobby). He'd neglect the site and it would break for months. A group started talking about cloning and rehosting it, but they wanted to remove terms like "writefag" and "retard."

Some controversy ensued, 1d4chan finally went down and never came back up, and someone threw a mirror up as "1d6chan" and claims that they only removed "less than 1%" of the old content "to comply with the hosting services policies." I haven't done a thorough review of what that 1% was, but I'm not optimistic. Regardless, this shell is the best we have.

 

[40 Year Old Boomer]

Just chiming in to say the creators of Blades in the Dark should have their thumbs removed for creating a system where they suck all the fun, creativity, and joy out of planning a heist and replace it with randumb dice rolls.

 

[Adamska]

Evil Hat (Blades in the Dark) is famously turbopozzed as well, as is the author Jim Harper. There isn't too much overly gay shit in the game itself though

I'd rather set myself on fire than buy it, specifically because Evil Hat was the one that published it. Fuck Evil Hat; they're cynical scumbags that shat out Thirsty Sword Lesbians for the lamest grift of all time and it's all for human shield performative purposes. I have no interest in rewarding them for trying to throw consumers under the bus.

Just chiming in to say the creators of Blades in the Dark should have their thumbs removed for creating a system where they suck all the fun, creativity, and joy out of planning a heist and replace it with randumb dice rolls.

That was one of the things that I did notice that was for the worse compared to other games because a game like Shadowrun, which also is all about heists, allows you to skull sweat without dice roles. The RNG was for the skills needed for your op to work, which is the better take.