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

[Aib Ld]

Played a side game of Ryuutama in a new group. It was surprisingly cute with interesting classes. Our mini campaign is like Oregon Trail but with couriers delivering a package to a town.
Since every player is new to the system, the GM bended the GMPC rule of 'observe from afar' by him hanging with the characters group to teach us mechanics in-universe (such as telling the accountant to keep track of the inventory, the fighter how roll for attacks by saying "his aim is off", etc), but still being hands-off.
While not high-stakes like a majority of games I know of, it pretty much excels at what it does: being a traveling focused game.

 

[Hatewerfer]

One of 40k's weakness's, being so vast, is also one of it's strengths. There's countless stories to tell if you're willing to go on the ground for them, and they can range from the tragic to the outright hilarious in absurdity.

Me, I still dream of running Only War like Full Metal Jacket starting with the characters in basic for a session or so before tossing them in a complete boondoggle.

Or better yet, do the 40k version of Southern Comfort...

My somewhat successfully run 40k campaign (Mostly Dark Heresy 2, but used parts from all the other FFG systems due to extreme autism) was my motley collection of players on a shitty hive world doing odd jobs in the hives for an obscure administration that was created by bureaucratic mistake, also with missions and a crappy base in the wastelands between them (which imo are just as cool as the hive cities themselves). It was really more Robocop combined with Judge Dredd and a bit of Mad Max rather than traditional 40k, but like you say that's the advantage of the setting, no matter how dumb and stupid some of the lore is you can just ignore it and tell your own story in a corner away from things you don't like.
Good fun too running a campaign where everyone knows and understands that their character can easily be maimed or killed, but easily replaced just like the intended use of Only War. Some characters retired to non combat roles due to missing limbs/melted faces/mental damage, others were absolutely murdered. One guy was on his 7th character by the time the campaign stopped due to scheduling issues (the bane of all my games), turns out when people have either one or no fate points they tend to die a lot, even against some hive scum lurking around a corner with a homemade stub revolver.

 

[MazonLabs Recruitment Rep]

It was really more Robocop combined with Judge Dredd and a bit of Mad Max rather than traditional 40k

Hell, that's 2000AD coded, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's what 40k was supposed to be anyway.

Another piss simple idea that you can get a good horror game for a couple of sessions out of; the ground level crewmen of a ship who's gellar fields didn't quite work right when going through the Warp....

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

I've mentioned a player who talks about Trench Crusade and other systems a lot while never actually, you know, trying to set something up. Well, the group's GM is away for more than a month, and we went on hiatus until someone in the Discord brought up the possibility of someone else running a one-shot.

Now, I volunteered because I'm usually that someone, and I have a lot of fun running goofy short adventures for people, but this player has been bringing up something called Obojima a lot (it seems to have supplanted Trench Crusade in his head), and at our last meetup he said that he was reading the book and might be ready to run a one-shot during the break. I paid this no mind since he has been such a flake about this shit in the past, (and because everything I've learned about Obujima tells me that it sucks ass and isn't suited for one-shots, and also I am the only person who'd be available who has extensive experience with 5e or even owns a copy of the PHB!!!), so it was surprising when this guy said that he'd be ready to put on a game on our usual meeting-day, but whatever.

The day before we were supposed to meet he stopped posting on Discord and didn't answer a text I sent him. I wasn't going to crunch for a session that might or might not happen, so the whole thing was scrubbed; today he posted on the Discord that the day we were supposed to meet was his birthday and he hadn't had the time to let us know that he wouldn't be able to make it. What a useless piece of shit. I've sent the GM a message warning her that this is basically sabotage, but, unlike this guy, she actually is busy and I'm not going to blow up her phone over it.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Flakes are the worst. It isn't really an issue with other hobbies as far as I know.

As a forever DM, I have a couple of adventures in my back pocket I can run from memory. Character sheets and maps can be an issue depending on the situation.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

Flakes are the worst. It isn't really an issue with other hobbies as far as I know.

As a forever DM, I have a couple of adventures in my back pocket I can run from memory. Character sheets and maps can be an issue depending on the situation.

I wish I had that flexibility, but I have to do at least a little prep, even if it's just flipping through some books and finding a good small dungeon and putting together a cheat sheet with a few monster stats and location keys. The group also has fun with trying out alternate systems, mostly CoC, but I've dug up more obscure stuff. "You're a cat colony, pick your breed and start figuring out a way to take down the pibbles in your neighborhood, and may God help you if you don't illustrate the character sheet, that's what the box is for!"

 

[Lightning's Heraldry]

I never saw the point of needless granularity that doesn't change the game.

Players can spend skill points to increase their stats if they are close to a breakpoint. Also Strength, for example, is your carry weight point for point.

That was my main concern. I thought a level 1 PC has d6 HP, but will have to go and check.

I hate the lethality of OSR stuff. Monsters doing d6 damage to PCs that have d6 HP seems ridiculous.

It is a d6. That is also very fragile. First level PCs are not very sustainable in combat. But the game doesn't require them to perform any combat to get their first level up either. My group did, we survived because I brought grenades and oneshot the encounter. Enemies also have low HP, so the bar applies equally. Once you have your second or third level for playing a few sessions encounters become decreasingly dangerous. Around 7th level they stop being a threat unless the enemy has some form of heavy weapon or psionic ability to oneshot. I played all the way to 10th level and had 1 character die during that time from being sucked out an airlock. Sucks, but you get over it.

That and PCs being useless. even at things they're ostensibly good at.

I very rarely failed my skill rolls at the skills I was actually good at. If you follow the recommended DCs for skills then a character with a +1 in a stat and a skill of 2 or 3 will usually succeed. You shouldn't be throwing out checks of higher than 8 or 9 with any regularity.

warriors also get a +1 attack bonus

Warrior gets a free combat focus, one per combat they can either negate a successful attack or auto succeed (which includes on snapshots), and they get +2hp per level, plus Con mod. They also get more "to hit" than anyone else.
Expert gets a free non combat focus, one per "scene" they can reroll a skill check and they get a bonus skill point every level.
Psychic gets psionics.

Are you reading SWN Deluxe Revised? That is the up to date ruleset.

Aside from encumbrance, what springs to mind?

I didn't like ship combat and you need a spreadsheet to build a ship which is clunky. Psionics are unironically OP as fuck after like 5th level. Nothing forces the GM to hand out cool lostech gear or cybernetics so if you want to interact with those it can be hard or impossible. The number of credits you need to do anything cool is super high. Likewise for customizing gear and tinkering as a skillset, where if you can't get the credit flow the system falls apart. Game probably needed 3.x wealth by adventure or wealth by level guidelines due to how many subsystems are non functional without X credit income.

Would Cities or Ashes be better for what I'm trying to do?

I didn't play those systems, so I don't know.

 

[Brain Problems]

The day before we were supposed to meet he stopped posting on Discord and didn't answer a text I sent him. I wasn't going to crunch for a session that might or might not happen, so the whole thing was scrubbed; today he posted on the Discord that the day we were supposed to meet was his birthday and he hadn't had the time to let us know that he wouldn't be able to make it. What a useless piece of shit. I've sent the GM a message warning her that this is basically sabotage, but, unlike this guy, she actually is busy and I'm not going to blow up her phone over it.

I love people who go silent when you know they're on their fucking phone all day long. I'm at the point if someone wants to participate they will, otherwise fuck em. It blows my mind the lack of basic social grace when it comes to letting people you won't be attending. Pretty sure it's some sort of weird autistic anxiety about communicating with people out of fear they'll be disappointed? Yeah, you flaked that sucks but what's worse is not even saying anything you dumb nigger.

 

[The Bogwater Flows On]

I don't remember them either so they're probably nothing to write home about. The books are nice to have, read and occasionally use for a scenario or two but my guess is that no one runs campaigns in these countries except French, King Arthur fanatics and Slavs. WFRP has a dedicated Polish community and Kislev is half Polish.

I love the additional variety of having places like Bretonnia and Kislev involved in a campaign. Maybe having some sessions where players go to those locations, but Warhammer Fantasy is focused on the Empire because, well it's the big place led by the guy with the big hammer who fights the Chaos people (and Vampires, and each other, and Orks, and their neighbors, and so on).

 

[Ghostse]

The day before we were supposed to meet he stopped posting on Discord and didn't answer a text I sent him. I wasn't going to crunch for a session that might or might not happen, so the whole thing was scrubbed; today he posted on the Discord that the day we were supposed to meet was his birthday and he hadn't had the time to let us know that he wouldn't be able to make it. What a useless piece of shit. I've sent the GM a message warning her that this is basically sabotage, but, unlike this guy, she actually is busy and I'm not going to blow up her phone over it.

Jesus christ fuck that dude.
That would be a friendship-ending level event (I know you aren't exactly friends but you know what I mean)

this player has been bringing up something called Obojima a lot (it seems to have supplanted Trench Crusade in his head), and at our last meetup he said that he was reading the book and might be ready to run a one-shot during the break. I paid this no mind since he has been such a flake about this shit in the past, (and because everything I've learned about Obujima tells me that it sucks ass and isn't suited for one-shots, and also I am the only person who'd be available who has extensive experience with 5e or even owns a copy of the PHB!!!), so it was surprising when this guy said that he'd be ready to put on a game on our usual meeting-day, but whatever.

tl;dr: Obojima is an absolutely fucked premise of an impossible objective, which is they want to make "Studio Ghibi: the RPG (but also massively woke)". This task would normally virtually impossible and anyone who understood both games and the thing they are attempting to profit from would realize the draw of the source material is the exploration of the unknown; the "Ghibli verse" worlds don't hold up for longer than 45 seconds under any sort of scrutiny of their underpinnings, but it doesn't matter because the narrative never explores their feasibility, and no one cares because the storytelling is usually good. Unless you are doing a CYOA thing, you control the narraties and can't stop player from picking at the seams. The best you could hope for would to do a PbtA sort of "vibe design" thing; you create a general framework/conflict resolution mechanism and publish self-contained, stand alone adventures.
But these Portland retards decided to just go ahead and make sure everything was maximum ass by ensuring that their product was 5e compatible.

Its like a *Borg project only instead of B/X its 5e and its cutesty animu fantasy instead of "college band metal".

The *Borgs are also retarded but people (with zero IQ and taste) seem to like the "vibe" and treating them as artbooks the products aren't very expensive so w/e. This looks fairly pricey and mostly wordswordswords

I love people who go silent when you know they're on their fucking phone all day long. I'm at the point if someone wants to participate they will, otherwise fuck em. It blows my mind the lack of basic social grace when it comes to letting people you won't be attending. Pretty sure it's some sort of weird autistic anxiety about communicating with people out of fear they'll be disappointed? Yeah, you flaked that sucks but what's worse is not even saying anything you dumb nigger.

Yeah that's the part that always gets me. You know they are on their phones 24/7 they are just willfully ignoring you because of claimed social anxiety and conflict avoidance.

 

[Manly_Brony]

I love the additional variety of having places like Bretonnia and Kislev involved in a campaign. Maybe having some sessions where players go to those locations, but Warhammer Fantasy is focused on the Empire because, well it's the big place led by the guy with the big hammer who fights the Chaos people (and Vampires, and each other, and Orks, and their neighbors, and so on).

Spears of the Maiden (Tilea) and Swords of the South (Estalia) are two online, unofficial 2nd edition books you might want to check out. And yes the Empire can get a bit boring unless you run single race campaigns in the Moot (Halflings) or Laurelorn Forest ("Imperial" Wood Elves). That's why I chose Empire adjacent Marienburg this time. I love the Fimir and my party might travel to Albion too. I haven't decided yet.

 

[MazonLabs Recruitment Rep]

Spears of the Maiden (Tilea) and Swords of the South (Estalia) are two online, unofficial 2nd edition books you might want to check out. And yes the Empire can get a bit boring unless you run single race campaigns in the Moot (Halflings) or Laurelorn Forest ("Imperial" Wood Elves). That's why I chose Empire adjacent Marienburg this time. I love the Fimir and my party might travel to Albion too. I haven't decided yet.

Out of curiousity; did anyone ever writen an official WHFB module set during the Totentaz of Sylvania where Vlad Von Carstien locked everyone in the castle and turned it into From Dusk Till Dawn except the vampires win?

If not, there's you a scenario....

 

[Konigsberg]

The day before we were supposed to meet he stopped posting on Discord and didn't answer a text I sent him... today he posted on the Discord that the day we were supposed to meet was his birthday and he hadn't had the time to let us know that he wouldn't be able to make it.

What an absolute fucking shitbag. This isn't the fuckin' 40s anymore, you don't need a telegram or carrier pigeon to let people know that you're going to be late or can't make it, send a fuckin' text ya lazy bastard!

If there's anything that's gotten the most speds thrown out of our gaming group it's being an inconsiderate cunt about showing up to the game. This is almost universally people who don't give a rats ass about anyone else's time but their own and unless you or someone else is in the hospital this is usually an instant ban from our games. I can't even understand the mindset that allows people to do this on a regular basis.

I love the additional variety of having places like Bretonnia and Kislev involved in a campaign. Maybe having some sessions where players go to those locations, but Warhammer Fantasy is focused on the Empire because, well it's the big place led by the guy with the big hammer who fights the Chaos people (and Vampires, and each other, and Orks, and their neighbors, and so on).

And yes the Empire can get a bit boring...That's why I chose Empire adjacent Marienburg this time. I love the Fimir and my party might travel to Albion too. I haven't decided yet.

If you want a lot of variety for a WFRP campaign may I suggest the Lustria sourcebook for WFRP4e? I don't think Lustria was ever covered in older additions so it's all new stuff for New World adventuring. Adds places like The Vampire Coast, Skeggi (An old thriving Norse colony in Lustria), The Citadel of Dusk (High Elf colony at the bottom of the world) and living/ruined Lizardmen Temple Cities as adventure locations, as well as some rules for the PCs to build their own New World settlements.

 

[Manly_Brony]

If you want a lot of variety for a WFRP campaign may I suggest the Lustria sourcebook for WFRP4e? I don't think Lustria was ever covered in older additions so it's all new stuff for New World adventuring. Adds places like The Vampire Coast, Skeggi (An old thriving Norse colony in Lustria), The Citadel of Dusk (High Elf colony at the bottom of the world) and living/ruined Lizardmen Temple Cities as adventure locations, as well as some rules for the PCs to build their own New World settlements.

Unofficial 2nd edition supplements for playing Lizardmen exist but I only used them once to design enemies for a one shot in Leopoldheim which is penal colony of the Empire in the Southlands.

 

[East_Clintwood]

Skeggi (An old thriving Norse colony in Lustria),

The fact they named an overseas colony after one of the most famous/popular, very much not overseas, British holiday destinations still gets me for some reason.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

A short update on the guy: I asked him if he would have something ready for our next game, and he replied that he should have an introductory session ready the day before and would let me know by then. (This is for a one-shot, meaning two sessions max, not an ongoing campaign...)

He dropped to one word answers ("OK", "understood") when I answered that the group needs at least three days' notice and he couldn't keep us in suspense like this, especially not me since I'll be the one running the table. I think most of us can guess who'll be running the table next time we meet...

Spoiler

By the way, I understand that this sounds like Discord drama, but this is a group which only plays IRL; Discord is just what we use to keep in touch between sessions.

I love people who go silent when you know they're on their fucking phone all day long. I'm at the point if someone wants to participate they will, otherwise fuck em. It blows my mind the lack of basic social grace when it comes to letting people you won't be attending. Pretty sure it's some sort of weird autistic anxiety about communicating with people out of fear they'll be disappointed? Yeah, you flaked that sucks but what's worse is not even saying anything you dumb nigger.

This is basic real world interaction shit, I'm sure there are episodes of My Little Pony that teach this to kids yet a man in his 30s can't seem to grasp it.

Obojima is an absolutely fucked premise of an impossible objective, which is they want to make "Studio Ghibi: the RPG (but also massively woke)"

I've never watched a Ghibli movie and never will, but yeah, nothing I've learned about them leads me to believe that they add up to a coherent world that you can play an RPG in. 5e is also designed for a specific kind of play that is violent and centered on conquering people and seizing valuables, I don't get the impression that Ghibli movies are like that.

But these Portland retards decided to just go ahead and make sure everything was maximum ass by ensuring that their product was 5e compatible.

5e compatible = more sales. Sure, they could adapt a more generic system or come up with something of their own, but this is already a novelty which is only going to be bought by a small number of people, you're not gonna get a lot of impulse buys with a mystery system people know nothing about. This is why OSR publishers all put out stuff that is cross-compatible as well.

 

[Henri Barbusse]

5e compatible = more sales. Sure, they could adapt a more generic system or come up with something of their own, but this is already a novelty which is only going to be bought by a small number of people, you're not gonna get a lot of impulse buys with a mystery system people know nothing about. This is why OSR publishers all put out stuff that is cross-compatible as well.

Legend of the Five Rings RPG 5e was going pretty well, successfully restarted the setting to get new people into it after 4e was burdened by years of schizophrenic plot driven by CCG tournaments, and dice roller apps made copyrightable weird dice beareble. Then they got a bad case of sensitivity readers, decided that focusing on extremely exaggerated feudal Japan aka the main draw of the game was colonialist and put out a stillborn DnD 5e compatible version. It's basically on life-support now and it's doubtful the final book that would round up the supplements to focus on all the major clans will ever come out.

 

[Konigsberg]

Unofficial 2nd edition supplements for playing Lizardmen exist but I only used them once to design enemies for a one shot in Leopoldheim which is penal colony of the Empire in the Southlands.

The Lustria book does actually add options for playing as Skinks as well, along with a bestiary of Lustrian monsters to throw against the party during jungle exploration. So if you need Lizardmen, reskinned dinosaurs or tropical diseases to torture your party with the books got you covered.

The fact they named an overseas colony after one of the most famous/popular, very much not overseas, British holiday destinations still gets me for some reason.

GWs old habit of reusing or barely changing the names of real-life places into fantastical hellscapes always got a chuckle out of me.

and he replied that he should have an introductory session ready the day before and would let me know by then.

Bruh c'mon, making a short 1-2 session adventure even from scratch does not take that much work that they gotta be dropping a ready or not on your gaming group the fuckin' day beforehand. GMing is work, we've all done it, but it's not that much work that it's up in the air if you'll be ready for a 4-8 hour game after more than a week of prep time.

Also, he told on himself.
>today he posted on the Discord that the day we were supposed to meet was his birthday and he hadn't had the time to let us know that he wouldn't be able to make it
>should have an introductory session ready the day before

Well shitbird which is it? Was the game cancelled because you couldn't make it or was it cancelled because you somehow still don't have something ready to run? This is a near 1-to-1 repeat of a guy and his excuses we kicked out of our own group.

Legend of the Five Rings RPG 5e was going pretty well, successfully restarted the setting to get new people into it after 4e was burdened by years of schizophrenic plot driven by CCG tournaments, and dice roller apps made copyrightable weird dice beareble. Then they got a bad case of sensitivity readers, decided that focusing on extremely exaggerated feudal Japan aka the main draw of the game was colonialist and put out a stillborn DnD 5e compatible version. It's basically on life-support now and it's doubtful the final book that would round up the supplements to focus on all the major clans will ever come out.

I was actually looking into L5R 5e the other day, and I was shocked at how unhelpful their actual website is for finding L5R books to buy. You go to the Roleplaying games section, click on a book you're interested in, and it takes you to a page that just describes the book, if it's a hardback, if it's in color, how many pages it is, with no fucking indication of where to buy the book or its MSRP. On a couple pages you might be lucky and they'll tell you the pdf is available on DriveThru but zero mention on where to get a physical book. I'm more than willing to admit my reading comprehension can be iffy when I'm in a hurry but these goofy bastards seem to want you to jump through extra hoops and use any website but their own to find and buy these books. No wonder it's not doing too hot.

 

[Adamska]

The day before we were supposed to meet he stopped posting on Discord and didn't answer a text I sent him. I wasn't going to crunch for a session that might or might not happen, so the whole thing was scrubbed; today he posted on the Discord that the day we were supposed to meet was his birthday and he hadn't had the time to let us know that he wouldn't be able to make it. What a useless piece of shit. I've sent the GM a message warning her that this is basically sabotage, but, unlike this guy, she actually is busy and I'm not going to blow up her phone over it.

If this was an online game I'd still consider this shit, since you should at least give a few hours warning if you're cancelling. At the very least you should give a warning if you aren't sure you'd make it, and sure as shit should mention if things come up before the game.

Meeting up in realspace? You should give a day's advance just in case, especially if you know it's a drive to get to location. This guy is scum.

 

[Imperial Citizen]

Nazi. Furry. RPG. 'Nuff said. Let's examine this shithole.