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

[LovisXVI]

The author of Empire of the Petal Throne did this. A party in his own home game was visiting Middle-earth, and one of the players insisted on being allowed to magically kidnap a hobbit and a dragon (presumably Bilbo and Smaug). The DM gave her an almost impossibly high number to beat, she won, and both characters wound up on a weird planet populated by mutants and aliens.

HarnWorld is also connected to Tekumel, although under the more lawyer-friendly name of Teku. Though HarnWorld is really inspired by EotPT, like the common alphabet, Lakise is obviously inspired by Tsolyani, albeit the setting is much more European and clothed. Related, but I have always wanted to do something in Tekumel, which has to be one of my favorite settings, but it is so weird that it scares off most people. Though I also would want to do all in-character dialogue in Tsolyani, so maybe that is my problem.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

HarnWorld is also connected to Tekumel, although under the more lawyer-friendly name of Teku. Though HarnWorld is really inspired by EotPT, like the common alphabet, Lakise is obviously inspired by Tsolyani, albeit the setting is much more European and clothed. Related, but I have always wanted to do something in Tekumel, which has to be one of my favorite settings, but it is so weird that it scares off most people. Though I also would want to do all in-character dialogue in Tsolyani, so maybe that is my problem.

The Tsurani from Ray Feist's Riftwar book are literally just Tsolyani. The author claimed that the books are based on a D&D campaign he played in and he had no idea that his DM had been using EPT as a source of material, which sounds like total bullshit to me.

(To top it off, Feist's books are way worse than the Tekumel novels... I read Daughter of the Empire and Man of Gold back to back, and I greatly enjoyed M.A.R. Barker's odd, wry writing style. Feist's book, on the other hand, was a slog.)

When it comes to gaming in Tekumel, I don't see why you can't start off with a simple dungeon crawl near a village of common folk who don't partake much in the complex practices of the big cities, there are plenty of those. Give the players a chance to acclimate. Good luck with the Tsolyani dialog, though.

 

[LovisXVI]

When it comes to gaming in Tekumel, I don't see why you can't start off with a simple dungeon crawl near a village of common folk who don't partake much in the complex practices of the big cities, there are plenty of those.

Maybe I should do an ACKS campaign in it?

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

Maybe I should do an ACKS campaign in it?

I've never played ACKS so I can't say, but Barker typed out the original version of EPT in 1974 after playing a few sessions of original D&D with Gygax or one of his associates in Wisconsin. I can't imagine that any OSR system would struggle much at low levels, and one that's optimized for domain play would work great since there is more focus on rank and developing resources in longer running Tekumel games.

You can buy a scan of this version on DTRPG, incidentally. Might be useful,

 

[strawberry15]

That's coward shit.

Why stop at just DND worlds? Why not throw in more fantasy settings and throw in more historical empires as well?

There is an adventure where you need to go to the british museum to recieve an artifact of st. cuthbert from geryhawk.
It had bandist, police cars, thugs, revolvers, tardis and 4th doctor and david bowie.
there is also a ravenlof setting called masque of the red death. i really love it but never played or dmed it.

 

[Thousandislandstare]

What games have you guys been playing lately? I've been running Hyperborea 3e. Really like it.
Planning on running some sort of monster hunting/urban fantasy thing.

 

[Total Norman Death]

What games have you guys been playing lately? I've been running Hyperborea 3e. Really like it.
Planning on running some sort of monster hunting/urban fantasy thing.

Black Sword Hack, and its been very fun. I am a forever DM, my friends enjoyed WHFRP 2E but they are not inclined to learn mechanics or get too serious with RP. Rules are simple enough for these meatheads to hold on to and the pulpy setting I threw together is good for the kind of stuff they want to do. I own a copy of Flayeaux as well and may just take that and BSH and resume our Warhammer Fantasy campaign. Our first foray into OSR stuff.

 

[MazonLabs Recruitment Rep]

What games have you guys been playing lately? I've been running Hyperborea 3e. Really like it.
Planning on running some sort of monster hunting/urban fantasy thing.

Nothing.

Our group's usual GM's been kicked for ghosting us for the third time, one of us had a stroke and is almost 50 miles away getting rehab'd, another has chosen her fucking streaming "career" over us, and I'm hurriedly trying to come up with something worth running for just two people which will likely just be Killteam or some other miniatures game. It's...a mess.

 

[Blarmed&Dangerous]

Nothing.

Our group's usual GM's been kicked for ghosting us for the third time, one of us had a stroke and is almost 50 miles away getting rehab'd, another has chosen her fucking streaming "career" over us, and I'm hurriedly trying to come up with something worth running for just two people which will likely just be Killteam or some other miniatures game. It's...a mess.

PBP domain play. TTRPGs are more than the Fellowship of the Getalong Gang doing another dungeon crawl

 

[LovisXVI]

PBP domain play. TTRPGs are more than the Fellowship of the Getalong Gang doing another dungeon crawl

Could also do Traveller and operate a ship, high port or even a fleet. Trade company based out of a high port has always been a game I liked the idea of.

 

[Judge Dredd]

What games have you guys been playing lately? I've been running Hyperborea 3e. Really like it.

Hyperborea sounds neat as a setting. Don't know much about the game itself other than it's OSR. And I don't even know if that's true since it seems at odds with the setting. How survivable is it?


Talked about it a few pages back, but the DM is currently favouring the Gorge World rule system. Either he's cut out the fetish stuff, or it's not player facing. It's a surprisingly solid rule system. Not sure how much depth it'll have long term, but so far it's working well.

I don't know how much I can reveal without risk of power levelling, but he's running a 1920s pulp game with mythos elements. I've recently had a bit of a chewing out over non-optimal actions. To play a quick game of AITAH. The PCs are on a missing person case. We find the missing woman who, obviously in a trance, attacks us. All the PCs except mine immediately whip out their guns and start blasting. The players complain when I said I grab the nearest blunt object and attempt to hit her over the head. Supposedly I'm "nerfing" myself.

 

[Ghostse]

It's a surprisingly solid rule system.

I read it for the plot.

 

[Thousandislandstare]

Hyperborea sounds neat as a setting. Don't know much about the game itself other than it's OSR. And I don't even know if that's true since it seems at odds with the setting. How survivable is it?

It is OSR, although it's a bit different from other games in the style, it's mainly based on AD&D, rather than B/X.
The Setting isn't really at odds for old school TSR era D&D, it's got a little more Science fantasy, but the world itself is still very much rooted in the Sword and Sorcery and pulp elements from Appendix N (Think Robert E Howard, Jack Vance, Fritz Lieber, Clark Ashton Smith)
The game is little bit harder than something like 5e of course, especially early on. Encounters are riskier for the players typically.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I read it for the plot.

I haven't read it at all.

It is OSR, although it's a bit different from other games in the style, it's mainly based on AD&D, rather than B/X.
The Setting isn't really at odds for old school TSR era D&D, it's got a little more Science fantasy, but the world itself is still very much rooted in the Sword and Sorcery and pulp elements from Appendix N (Think Robert E Howard, Jack Vance, Fritz Lieber, Clark Ashton Smith)

So it's a meat grinder, but not a meat grinder?

 

[Konigsberg]

Nothing.

Our group's usual GM's been kicked for ghosting us for the third time, one of us had a stroke and is almost 50 miles away getting rehab'd, another has chosen her fucking streaming "career" over us, and I'm hurriedly trying to come up with something worth running for just two people which will likely just be Killteam or some other miniatures game. It's...a mess.

Sorry to hear all that man, hope your buddy in rehab is alright.

If you'd like something easy to run for small parties, try Call of Cthulhu. It lends itself very well to small groups since combat isn't the focus anyway, so you don't need a minimum party size to fill out roles for the sake of balanced encounters, and with fewer players in a group each individual player gets to engage more with whatever investigation you have going on. It's also pretty easy to learn on short notice.

 

[AnOminous]

If you'd like something easy to run for small parties, try Call of Cthulhu. It lends itself very well to small groups since combat isn't the focus anyway, so you don't need a minimum party size to fill out roles for the sake of balanced encounters, and with fewer players in a group each individual player gets to engage more with whatever investigation you have going on. It's also pretty easy to learn on short notice.

Especially if they already know d100 systems. It was pretty deadly so I'd have everyone generate multiple PCs and have a number of NPCs in the party as well, generated with the same method as PCs, partly to have a somewhat well rounded party for serious campaign play (like the boxed set campaigns they used to have), and a side benefit was dropins would have someone to take over.

I'd often play with just two players and I don't think I ever did with more than four.

 

[MazonLabs Recruitment Rep]

Sorry to hear all that man, hope your buddy in rehab is alright.

If you'd like something easy to run for small parties, try Call of Cthulhu. It lends itself very well to small groups since combat isn't the focus anyway, so you don't need a minimum party size to fill out roles for the sake of balanced encounters, and with fewer players in a group each individual player gets to engage more with whatever investigation you have going on. It's also pretty easy to learn on short notice.

Heh, you don't have to sell me on Call of Cthulhu, I've been a Keeper since the 90's for that game. One of the few games I actually prefer to run instead of play.

 

[Thousandislandstare]

So it's a meat grinder, but not a meat grinder?

You could call it that. It's a bit a easier than AD&D or even DCC (from the little bit I've played of it) it's much more difficult than 5e or anything like that. What's ur preferred system if you don't mind me asking? are you an OSR guy?

 

[Judge Dredd]

You could call it that. It's a bit a easier than AD&D or even DCC (from the little bit I've played of it) it's much more difficult than 5e or anything like that. What's ur preferred system if you don't mind me asking? are you an OSR guy?

Fatal

It depends what I'm running. I was a big fan of Savage Worlds for a long time, though most people don't like it. Character creation is too complex for normies, some struggle with "shaken" as an abstract rule, and veterans of d20 games keep thinking they've solved the rules by putting every skill at d4 (no matter how often I tell them a raise is not a crit).

As for other favourites, it's tough because Tiny d6 has some serious issues, but I run it a lot. I like Nimble as a smoother 5e, but never really get to run it.

I like heroic characters, action, and adventure. I like some of the ideas of OSR, but I keep bouncing off them. Ranted a bunch in the past, but the whole "party of gongfarmers who die horribly every adventure" meatgrinder mindset is completely at odds with what I want. "We lost 4 PCs and 8 hirelings to an uneven staircase" is funny as an anecdote, but ruins the game after as players just hide in town and send hirelings to do everything. And every time I get over that criticism and am told OSR isn't like that, something will come along and return me to factory default, like the near TPK stairs story.

I want TTRPGs to be this


Instead, OSR is obsessed with this, exclusively.

(I'd include an image of Traveller here, but the official art all shows exciting things, not rusted ships and crippling debt)

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

Instead, OSR is obsessed with this, exclusively.

I recognize that from the DCC CRB, and DCC is absolutely abysmal when it comes to this stuff. Gamers are lured in by the art and a handful of genuinely good ideas, but most players will never get to the interesting stuff if they start at zero.

The core fans actively discourage DMs from starting a game at a higher level, too. You're just a 5e fanboy if you think your players might want characters who do more than fall on their face for the first five or six sessions, just go back to watching Critical Role and leave the gaming to the real gamers!