rpg

The wish spell. Genies. Deals with devils. Even lower-ranked abilities like suggestion-type spells, depending on how they're used. It's a classic trope of RPGs that someone will use some sort of magic or magic-like ability to force someone else to do or believe something, or cause something to happen, but for that thing to not necessarily go in the way the person who did it intended.

What's your favourite story in a game you've been in where something like this happened?

First, let me apologize if there is a better way to write the mods directly. I am relatively new to Lemmy and while I saw the modlog banner, it doesn't lead to a message option.

I am wondering how strict the rule of "Limit Self-promotions" is in regards to what defines an active member. I would love to invite a ttrpg creator to this community both to plug their game (kickstarter) and to maybe create a Q&A or something similar at the same time. They do share a lot of helpful information regarding rule design, world building, play testing and publishing on youtube and I am sure this community could profit from that as well.

However, obviously I wouldn't want to invite someone just to get them banned for not being an active member before.

TL;DR: Can you self promote without previously being an active member if the self promotion includes a significant contribution to the community for example by discussing topics of game design, publishing etc. with the community?

What campaign archetypes (e.g. defeat the dungeon boss, rescue the princess, heist) exist that can work in a really short campaign, ideally a one-shot?

Interested in stuff that can be used for any system, but suggestions for cool game-specific campaigns that can be generalised are also welcome.

Welcome to the Molten Coliseum, an arena known for its particularly vicious games that keep the audience at the edge of their seats. Their most popular game is called the Trial By Fire, where fighters must race to the highest platform while battling each other before the lava gets to them. There is only one winner of this game.

This Coliseum encounter features 8 phases which depict the arena slowly flooding with lava. Multiple platforms provide temporary safety, which the fighters can climb through ladders. Rickety bridges connect the platforms. The ultimate goal is to get to the centermost platform, which is the only place that does not get flooded. Only one fighter may stand there.

Foundry VTT modules with pre-built walls and lighting are available to Gamemaster patrons.

Download the first two phases for free here.

Welcome to the Molten Coliseum, an arena known for its particularly vicious games that keep the audience at the edge of their seats. Their most popular game is called the Trial By Fire, where fighters must race to the highest platform while battling each other before the lava gets to them. There is only one winner of this game.

This Coliseum encounter features 8 phases which depict the arena slowly flooding with lava. Multiple platforms provide temporary safety, which the fighters can climb through ladders. Rickety bridges connect the platforms. The ultimate goal is to get to the centermost platform, which is the only place that does not get flooded. Only one fighter may stand there.

Foundry VTT modules with pre-built walls and lighting are available to Gamemaster patrons.

Download the first two phases for free here.

I am running Werewolf the Apocalypse game and one of the bad guys has a spirit (machine thinking spirit, specifically an AI) bound in the center of town. It is reading people's thoughts to learn from them, and it is also masking reality from them (they think everything is going good, while things are not actually good).

The player characters have started talking with it directly. I am trying to come up with AI responses (without actually using AI) complete with lots of hallucinations. I did a web search for AI hallucinations and all of the articles focused on images rather than text.

Token help?

I am going to be running a Star Wars game on Foundry in a few weeks, and I need 6 tokens for six different BBEGS that I am going to plop in front of my players all at once. Two of these are going to be very visually distinctive and impossible to create with any character profile generation tools I've found online.

How do you guys handle character tokens for unique-looking characters? I do not want to resort to ChatGPT if I have other options.

@rpg

#rpg #ttrpg #StarWars #EotE

First published in 1989, Sword World RPG was created by Group SNE and quickly became Japan’s most influential tabletop roleplaying game. Built on a distinctive 2d6 system and renowned for its emphasis on teamwork, structured play, and accessible storytelling, Sword World has been a cultural force for over 35 years, inspiring novels, actual-play series, anime adaptations, and video games.

Quickstart marks the first step toward the game’s full English debut, which will be launched via crowdfunding early next year

What interesting mechanics exist out there?

I don't mean just "here's a new way to roll combinations of polyhedral dice", or "here's a new theme overlaid on a standard progress tracker", or "here's stress with another name".

I mean, actual new conceptual mechanics that produce new and interesting behaviours in-game. Things like CoC's push rolls, or Slugblaster's Beats/Character Arc, or Blades in the Dark's Flashbacks (these might not be the first games that those appeared in, but the point isn't the game, it's the mechanic).

Interested particularly in what those new mechanics bring to the table in terms of player interactions or story development.

There are games that have a "big fish in a big pond" feel - e.g. sandbox D&D games, or a "big fish in a small pond" feel, e.g. games with contained campaigns/missions.

There are also games that do a "small fish in a small pond" feel really well, e.g. Fiasco.

Are there any games that do a "small fish in a big pond" feel well? e.g. games where the players are not outstanding heros, and where the world feels big - not only spatially, but also socially and politically?

Edit: lots of good suggestions so far, but maybe I could have added:

• it's fine and good if the small fish somehow end up having a big effect
• it would be amazing if the big-world had well fleshed out other goings-on. Ideally some mechanics that let all players contribute to this feeling, so it doesn't depend entirely on the quality of the DMing

Edit 2: title, to avoid all the computer game suggestions. I guess the community name isn't hint enough, huh?

This map pack features 120 total map tiles that are split into two themes - Forgotten Caves and Ancient Temple. There are transition tiles included to connect both themes.

Each map is aligned to the center of the x-axis, y-axis, or both, which you can use to mix and match the maps. The tunnels match in size and placement, allowing for easy connection!

Download the first 5 tiles for free here.

A good-hearted farmboy falls in love with a vampire or someone from a family of necromancers and decides to become a famous necromancer to impress their family.

I like the idea of a good natured idiot who goes around helping people by raising animals for farm work, maybe not even aware that some people think his work unholy. Allways having stories about the misses back home that reach from cute and mundane to bat shit crazy. "'Twas the first time I looked into their eyes, that I felt absolutely hypnothised " "we met when I was digging out a well and that cutey came and said they could use the help of someone who can use a shovel "

As I have been browsing RPG communities on Lemmy, Facebook, and Reddit, I have noticed some of the slang that I used to hear is not present much in these discussions. Now I know over time, slang and lingo do change, and I want to know more about your experiences in it. One of the terms I used to hear was "fish-malk", referring to players that take on a character to be goofy, silly, and "random". They were usually useless and made playing the game for the rest of the players rather difficult. So what lingo or slang terms are you using in your groups, or terms you just don't hear anymore?

From what I've read, the system sounds interesting. It's cool that this bundle contains a bunch of settings, too bad Cybersworn is not in

Have you ever learned things from playing table top RPGs (or other story games) that you've been able to apply in other areas of life, outside of gaming?

Heya,

I am working on helping my partner approach the concept of TTRPGs. She is curious, but definitely not ready to try it with other players. As such, I am looking for a system which lets me DM for her, while making for a comfortable enough experience for a singular player.

Things I am looking for are: Should include combat that serves to support the narrative, not to slog down the pace There should be a way to include magic abilities to model a character who is a sorcerer or wizard or such. It should be open enough to help encourage her building a sense of "I can do anything as long as I can reasonably imagine it in the situation", rather than just trying to stick to explicit options

I have started watching Me, Myself and Die recently and certainly have been enjoying the pacing, but the system used, at least in the first season, seems to be difficult to make work with a high fantasy character, which is quite important in this case.

Any recommendations? If need be, I am also happy to homebrew some stuff, as long as I feel like the balancing is easy enough to do.

Thanks for reading!

Hey, Lemmy!

I’m a somewhat experienced TTRPG designer and my latest project is an RPG based on the first generation of Pokémon games.

You can download the complete game for free here:

https://heavenlyspoon.org/pocket-monster-adventures/

My focus was on ease-of-play and simple prep. Many of the other Pokémon RPGs out there seemed to involve a lot of overhead—especially for the GM. I prefer a more improv-heavy game, and having to do a lot of prep makes that basically impossible. 

Sticking to gen 1 made it so I could keep the scope small enough to allow for simple encounter tables, pre-prepared Pokémon sheets for every Pokémon, and a simple set-up for every Pokémon controlled by the GM.

The game is designed to be played with one GM and two or three players, and every aspect of the original games has been changed where needed to accommodate this.

I don't know how much interest there is for this kind of thing, but hopefully at least someone will get some joy out of it!

Do you remember your first character death? Was it memorable?

I usually GM, and NPC deaths don't hit as hard. I don't even remember my first. I lost a warlock in a D&D 5e game, but we were high level so raise dead was just right there. Not very impactful.

Last night, I had a player's first character death ever in a game I've been running. It's sort of Shadowrun + World of Darkness, using Fate for the rules. The player had learned a kind of magic I stole from Unknown Armies: If you take big risks now, you can do more powerful magic later. Blindly crossing a busy street might be a mild charge, but russian roulette would be a major charge.

The players were trying to investigate a warehouse for plot reasons. This player ends up by himself in the basement while the ground level is on fire (for player reasons). He finds an armed goon, a guy dressed like a doctor, and several unconscious people wired up to a machine.

The player goes, "I'm going to russian roulette for a charge."

I go, "Are you sure? It's all or nothing. No take backs. You get a major charge, or you die. You'd roll 1d6, and on a 6 you lose."

They go, "Hmm okay." The player tries to threaten the goon, but the dice don't favor them. Now they're in a slightly worse position, mechanically.

The player goes, "I'm going to roulette" and just rolls the die. No more discussion. It came up 6.

The rest of us are like, "Wait, what? You just..? Right then? That's so... anti-climactic."

I wasn't sure what to do. I hadn't expected them to so casually go for the big score! I thought it'd come up in a big climax scene, not a fully escapable conflict with an unarmed goon!

We talked a little about ways forward that keep the character but don't cheapen the mechanic, but the player was like, "No, I rolled the dice on it and lost. His brains are all over the floor now."

The player had to go sit on their own for a little while. They're thinking of rejoining as an NPC they'd worked with, but said they absolutely do not want to use magic again.

This is one I'm going to remember for a while.

If someone was interested in understanding as much as possible what the world of TTRPGs and story games had to offer, which 5 games would you suggest they play first, and why?

Ideally this would include a broad array of mechanics, themes and settings.

Inspired by a discussion over at !rpgmemes@ttrpg.network : https://lemmy.world/post/33918016/18604654