#algie talks ttrpgs

[equalseleventhirds]

Hey, do you have any recs for long form, more serious ttrpg systems for fantasy settings? I feel like I hear a lot about short/definitively-lengthed systems, but I've been yearning for a DnD-esque system without all the baggage of equip loads and complicated Challenge Ratings and other rules-y baggage I don't super care about.

do i! do i ever!

serious & long-form systems do on the whole tend to be crunchier than shorter systems (not always, but generally); nevertheless, i've picked out a........ handful......... ok there's Several, i did try to control and limit myself but u kno.......... games......... anyway, here are some that are considerably less crunchy than d&d but still lend themselves to long fantasy campaigns.

uh. under the cut for. oh god it's so long. it's so long. tried my best to explain them, u see. (which is also why it took me so long to reply lol, sry abt that)

godeater (& godeater 2.0): play in a broken, post-apocalyptic fantasy world, where dead and dying gods warp the land, and you raid their bodies for divine magic to help support humanity. 2d10-based, get weird & funky with it! i admit a small preference for version 1.0, which gave u some loose examples but left much of the worldbuilding and even character building up to u to create; 2.0 has some extra books that go with it that i haven't much looked into yet, but seem to give more solid lore to work with, if u would like that.

when the guilds pay in copper, crime pays in gold: alchemical guilds pay shit wages to use people for magical experiments. go do crimes on 'em with your own magic. d6 base, assign dice to stats to make ur own dice pool; fairly light rules and in fact very little in the way of instruction or hard lore on the gm's side, so better played with an experienced gm who's good at making their own stuff, but certainly campaign material for the right gm!

third empire - violence + beauty: the world sucks, and has sucked for a while, through two oppressive empires and into a third one. you play adventurers who are trying to carve out a little goodness, a little justice, a little vengeance, in the world. y'know. lasers & feelings based, but expanded beyond the original (which also comes with it if u get it!) into more lore, more character choices, very collaborative worldbuilding, downtime mechanics, etc etc.

ruby radiance 6e: streamlined dungeoneering built to let ppl play the way actual play podcasts sound, essentially. d20 pool system, based on trophy mechanics but v much adjusted. lots of choices to make during character creation & leveling, but much much less to keep track of during the playing part. u get it.

wizard pals: all of you are wizards, going on adventures and trying to accomplish your goals in a fantasy world. d12-based, fairly lighthearted (can lean silly but u could use it for more serious if not super grimdark adventures), much worldbuilding left up to the gm, but very simple rules, so.

grimblade rpg: (speaking of grim lol,) action & adventure in a grim fantasy world; things like character creation and rewards (and magic) fully imply a fantasy world, but worldbuilding is left up to the gm, altho there are many tables to roll on to give some help. uses d4, 6, 8, and 10; all rolls are contested rolls, with dice picked based on how serious the gm feels this roll is.

shattered aether: post-apocalyptic science fantasy, you roam around a fucked up magic world and protect ppl from various dangers. 2d6 based, based on the lumen system so fairly combat-forward in a very high-action very cool asskicking way. for some reason the font chosen for this book is murder on my eyes, but if u can get past that (or just zoom in lots and read a bit at a time) it's straightforward, simple, and fun!

familiars of terra: this one may be a little too crunchy, but i love it a lot and rly the most crunch is in character creation and tracking experience, actual gameplay is (imo) pretty easy. post-post-apocalyptic fantasy world, some science fantasy elements depending on where you choose to focus, bcos there are absolute PAGES of lore on this extremely cool and enormous world; you and your party go around with your soul-bonded animal friends to spread hope and healing and also do cool shit. y'know. card-based, again it is probably more crunchy than ur looking for but less abt tracking what you can do during things and more abt tracking experience in order to level up stats, so.

1400 quest: ok that last one was crunchy, this one's very uncrunchy. pick a handful of things and get going! clearly inspired by d&d, but very very streamlined, so things that were pages of mechanics are like, one or two sentences. gm's side of it is like, a handful of rollable tables and then do whatever, so prolly for the more experienced gm. d6 based, but you may have occasion to use other dice. also if you like this one there's others by the same author focusing on other things (1400 mage, sneak, etc), or you can check out others in the 24XX type of games, which started out sci fi but has since been expanded to a bunch of other stuff. u kno.

beast dream: pokemon-inspired game where you make friends with magical beasts and go on magical adventures! d6-based, forged in the dark, so there is a little crunch wrt deciding on position etc and stuff like stress, but the author rly wanted to focus in on letting u adventure and have fun without getting bogged down in numbers and i think that shows, stuff like load and reputation aren't so much a thing.

cognatons: play as sentient, magic-filled automatons doing whatever fantasy adventures your robot heart desires. d4-based, caltrop core, so you get a fairly simple & defined set of actions; less to keep track of, easy to follow.

dethrone the divine: you're gonna overthrow the gods, and also take their places. you're already either divine, semi-divine, or magically powerful in other ways, and you adventure with the goal of gathering power and followers so you can take the place of the shitty gods in power. d6-based, pretty straightforward system, makes characters v cool and powerful, which is always fun.

perilous: do you love dungeon crawls bcos i love dungeon crawls... streamlined and easy to understand fantasy dungeoneer adventures in this one! d20-based, leans towards tags instead of complicated numerical skill stuff to keep track of. go to dungeons, fight monsters, get treasure. simple n good. (adds in some metaplot, like who sent you, how will this affect the people living here, whatever, but rly strong with the very old core of d&d-style 'go do a dungeon' kinda thing, if that's what u like.)

high magic lowlives: ok my latest obsession bcos i'm currently planning a big ol campaign for friends in this one. there are classic adventurers in this world, out there cleaning out monster nests or whatever, but they're usually in the employ of the immortal aristocracy. you? you make your money by stealing from and humiliating the immortal aristocracy, because you're a lowlife. it's a dangerous gig, but isn't it better than going into student debt at wizard school? melds high fantasy aesthetics with like, magical twitch streaming aesthetics. fun as hell. uses all the dice and also sometimes tarot cards (mostly just for character creation, u kno). easy to understand rules, i'm having a great time.

ellipses rpg: setting-agnostic system (make ur own setting!) with simple, streamlined rules and an emphasis on improvisation. d20 based, rly just some very basic foundation and then a lot of encouragement to make things up and do what's fun. so like, loosey goosey & not super structured if you want structure, but could be fun!

unbound: setting-agnostic system but with much more formal structure, got structure around how to collaboratively worldbuild your setting and everything. obvs this means some crunch, but it's still not super crunchy, nice and straightforward rly. lotta character options but not so complex and math-heavy, u kno. card-based system. designed actually for a series of short campaigns in a linked world, tho, so if ur not up for exploring new characters a lot, may not be for you.

#algie talks ttrpgs #i have HUNDREDS of games u don't UNDERSTAND #tried to limit myself. took off some rly more urban fantasy or cyberpunk fantasy or noir fantasy or horror-focused. #took off some more crunchy ones tried to stay with the less crunchy............. #even the ones i took off are STILL not as full of useless-ass rules than d&d but i tried to go for ones with much less to keep track of #took off some ones that are perhaps not as easy for someone moving from d&d eg. gmless ones non-combat ones rly meta ones etc #and still it's like. sixteen here??? which obvs u cannot play all of them lmao #but anyway here u go i hope this helps!! i lov games #long post #just in case the readmore fucks up bcos it's moved itself like three times since i started drafting this

[equalseleventhirds]

This might be an extremely weird ask, but do you know of any ttrpg (or just boardgames, doesn't have to be a strict RPG) derived from Resident Evil (the videogame series) I'm looking for a present for my nephew and these are like the two things he likes

not a weird question at all! i must admit i know only the very basics of resident evil (survival horror fps with zombies); i'll try and help tho!

if he's mostly a fan of the games themselves as like, specific media properties, it turns out that there are in fact three resident evil board games made Officially, in actual collaboration with capcom. (1, 2, and 3). any of those would probably be pretty exciting gifts!

if you think he'd like a horror zombie ttrpg that isn't officially affiliated with the franchise, there's a wide range of those; something like dread, trophy dark, enter the survival horror, or liminal horror might be a fun suspenseful horror, or there's stuff like zombie world, sins, or all flesh must be eaten that have zombies baked in.

these aren't all of them, but they're ones i've either read myself or heard good things about (alas i cannot afford to buy every ttrpg i wanna read.....)

hope your nephew likes whatever you decided to give him!

#algie talks ttrpgs #horror games can be rly fun with the right group but only the right group so i haven't played a lot #i do enjoy em tho......... #also zombies fun

[equalseleventhirds]

hello welcom to algie's occasional game rec, bcos i've been planning a campaign for some friends in a ttrpg system i haven't used before, and like. listen.

if you like the general fantasy 'group of people go out into a semi-lawless magical world and kick ass cause chaos and get loot' of d&d, but don't really enjoy some of the finer morality points of the setting (cough the weird default to being purveyors of fantasy racism and colonialism, sure you can homebrew it out but it's difficult), or wish it had modern stuff (like phones and internet and twitch streamers but in dungeons) in addition to the magic, or want to ignore like half the rules while still having some of the structure (that some smaller indie games don't provide)

high magic lowlives by gemroom games absolutely fucks.

the ultimate villain is the capitalistic, nepotistic, monarchistic system--the one most of the world ascribes to, and proper, legal adventurers work for. but you are not adventurers. you're lowlives; people who maybe could've gone to wizard school and worked off your debt as a pawn of the aristocracy, but have instead chosen to. well. steal from them. because c'monnnnnnn.

you've all got phones with actual game purpose (and relevant rolls to make), bcos you can benefit in-game from gaining online followers or streaming your shenanigans to fantasy twitch. or, then again, you can fuck yourself over. lotta choices, and you are a lowlife, after all.

mechanically, the game is detailed & crunchy enough to provide excellent guidance and character inspiration (character creation is a lot of fun!), but stuff like 'make sure you eat x amount of food and water every day', or having to track actions and special abilities during combat are streamlined out of it. you also get to make up a lot of stuff (like your magic domain & patron! pick whatever! make it work how it's fun for you!), but it provides enough examples to help you get started.

the gm's side is a little more freeform than in d&d--no monster manual, just a quick & easy guide to assigning basic stuff to ur npcs & monsters and then you can do whatever--which may not be a benefit if ur used to the rigid templates of the mm, but allows you to be quick on your feet with unplanned encounters.

also it's just fun. i love a game that lets you cause chaos and destruction and humiliation, but clearly positions you against the incredibly powerful people who would normally, say, hire an adventurer to clear out a cave of kobolds (or other 'definitely always evil' races from d&d) to get at some treasure or w/e. no no, says high magic lowlives, don't work for those people. steal from them. and stream it to your followers on the way.

#algie talks ttrpgs #i'm having a GREAT time #it's crunchy enough for bigger campaign play but also...... u don't need five billion books. u kno. #long post

[equalseleventhirds]

i am currently made of jello but most of my drowsiness from meds i slept off and mom says it's my turn to make a rec list of Other TTRPGS To Play

skipping over some stuff i've seen recced several times (like bitd) bcos everyone knows that already, gotta do other stuff

Familiars Of Terra - play as a human hero and their magical animal companion, traveling across a post-post-apocalyptic world and bringing healing in your wake. genuinely hopeful game, can take a turn for the dark fairly easily but generally cathartic, absolutely astounding amount of lore & worldbuilding. mechanics on the crunchier side, enough to provide interesting character building & good structure for gameplay, but not too-too crunchy, u kno? card-based.

Dwindle - magical cyberpunk in a virtual city that is slowly fading away. focus on community and fighting back against the big corporations leeching away at your city, because maybe you can't stop it dying, but you can damn well try. fairly rules-light and allows a lot of room for interpretation, has unusual dice mechanics that get really very fun when you get into them.

The Dark Below - you want a spooky dungeon crawl? we got a spooky dungeon crawl! exiled from the city above for crimes most arbitrary (as the rules up there are... subject to change), you must make your way through the strange and twisted tunnels of the dark below. those who make it through and find the exit have their exiles ended and can return to their lives, but first they must survive the darkness...... (also if u die/fall to the dark u can elect to join the gm's side and get spooky with it. wanna haunt the narrative? fuck yeah.)

Trophy - speaking of spooky! trophy dark is all about treasure hunters heading unwittingly for their own doom. put yourself at risk, lean into the darkness, betray your companions, and gradually change to suit the whims of the dark forest. trophy gold is adjusted to be a little less doom and a little more adventure. there are also many many MANY trophy dark incursions out there (modules/hacks ppl have made all ready for u to play)

Bubblegum Wizards 2 - in a mixed-up interdimensional sprawl of a city, an infinite number of worlds are mashed together. out of all of them, you are wizards, casting spells with bubblegum and trading cards, hanging out at the magical corner store, and surviving in a sometimes hostile, sometimes beautiful, always deeply weird city.

Godeater - the gods are dead and dying. they are also enormous quantum-magical places sprawled across the world; within them are worlds all their own, also dead and dying, and releasing all kinds of fucked-up dangers as they do so. most people survive in the spaces between them, just barely; you are godeaters, people who venture into these twisted worlds to bring back the magic necessary for survival and growth--bits of the gods themselves. (godeater 2 now out!)

this is now so so long so a few others:

Spindlewheel - tarot-based storytelling

Songs for the Dusk - hopepunk forged in the dark

Glitter Hearts - magical girls time

Songbirds - knights help dragons deal with their feelings~

See You, Space Cowboy - cowboy bebop the game

Dark Designs in Verdigris - adventure through a fallen oz

Weasel Overdrive - be a magical noir sorta person in an uncaring cyberpunk metropolis

Weird Weird West - the wild west, but weird. c'mon.

have i got more games than this? you betcha!!! this was just a skim through some of the games i could think of off the top of my head. y'all there are so many. so many.

#algie talks ttrpgs #i will never ever play every game there is to play but i lov them so many #lotta ppl makin game rec lists i gotta also do it. i gotta. i GOTTA. #maybe i will do more game rec later if i remember more. u kno.

[equalseleventhirds]

while we r all reccing ttrpgs, i think it's important especially for ppl who have only played dnd or who haven't played ttrpgs at all and are looking to play, to note that in addition to, y'know, safety, using safety tools can help you & your group figure out what games work or don't work for you

like yes obvs the safety is the more important bit, but if you start with your session zero, talking abt what you want & don't want in a game, that helps you know what games work for this group; and then post-game discussions of what you liked & didn't like will help even more. and ofc these do require you to have & play a game first, but when you're exploring different ttrpgs and trying to find one that fits, trying different games and talking about them will be helpful, and safety tools provide a useful structure for that.

(if you've never used safety tools for ttrpgs and don't know how, please check out the ttrpg safety toolkit, a wonderful compilation of some of the most commonly used safety tools for ttrpg players, curated by kienna shaw and lauren bryant-monk. bcos roleplay can get intense and, more than the story, more than the game, it's important that everyone feels safe and comfortable as you play.)

#algie talks ttrpgs #like there's some games that i won't play even tho they're very cool bcos i know they'll upset me #bcos they get too intense with certain themes for me #and there's some games that i won't play except with very specific groups #and also doing debriefing and/or stars and wishes rly helps me as a gm #to find out what my players liked/disliked so i can grow #and to pick games in future that will be enjoyable for this specific group #like this is just a bonus on top of helping us be safe. but feedback good. feedback useful.

[equalseleventhirds]

so it's been several months since i made this post abt giving success-with-consequences to players who do the annoying 'well i succeeded that means i can do this superhuman thing'

and u kno, i do stand by it for problem players (and it can be a fun strategy if ur upfront w/ non-problem players, it makes for some interesting results)

but i have been hanging out in ttrpg spaces reading posts again (i know, i know) and u kno.... sometimes, as a gm, when u call for/allow a roll? u just gotta be prepared to give straight-up success to ur players. sometimes they get to win, and that's okay. not everything u make for them to fight or persuade or w/e is so powerful & special & vital to ur story that u can't let them do the thing. and if they can't, talk to ur players!! tell them, hey, due to this situation, you will not be able to fully succeed; here's the kinds of partial successes i can offer if you still want to attempt and roll high enough.

and this does apply to adventures too; it's ok for players to win. like, i love to end on a cliffhanger, and the easiest way ofc is for the villain to escape...... but that's just the easiest way. and doing it all the time is defs too damn much, or the players never feel like they're winning, and that's frustrating. (as noted in that one leverage episode, you can't forget about the rage quit.) sometimes they have to beat the villain. sometimes they get to kill the villain, or lock the villain up in jail, and then they can go on to bigger badder villains (and maybe come back to question the villain in jail: look, new information source!)

or if the villain does escape, give them another win. save the town. learn the vital information. get the amazing weapon. etc. mix success into ur failures.

like i defs have made this mistake w/ adventures before, and all the time i am learning things. but sometimes it's easy to get so caught up in your own story and ~being mysterious~ that you forget that, while ttrpgs aren't about winning, it still feels good to win.

(caveat that this does not apply to things like trophy dark or ten candles, where the goal is to lose, and everyone goes into it knowing that. it's also ok to play like dnd or other ttrpgs this way! as long as, again, everyone goes into it knowing that they're playing to lose. communication key etc.)

#long post #algie talks ttrpgs #tryin my best to get back into gming again bcos god it's been a while #been reading advice posts and question posts and complaint posts and u kno what........... u kno what. #i got places to grow. u kno. learnin things all the time. #................also if anyone ever wants to play things hmu i'm so busy bUT ALSO #playing games :)))

[equalseleventhirds]

honestly a big part of me as a ttrpg nerd is just shakign ppl and going 'you will like a different game more!!!! this game does not serve your needs!!!!'

like i've defs had games i chose and ran go poorly bcos the mechanics did not support what the group wanted. but! this usually happened bcos i wanted to play a game and had no idea what the group wanted. so in fact, the game did not serve our needs.

#i've also ran games that didn't do what i as the gm wanted #have had to homebrew to make up for it and it's been forced yeah #have also had times where i just got stuck on the mechanics and wasn't having a good time #i am not a perfect gm or player or game designer or game recommender. u kno. #but there are SO MANY GAMES and so often........ others will serve ur needs more than the big popular ones. obviously. #algie talks ttrpgs

[equalseleventhirds]

havin a convo w/ someone abt motw and a bad experience they had with it and the thought occurs that (largely bcos it is the game recced most often to ppl who are tired of d&d) most ppl treat it like modern-day d&d

.....or rather, like the version of d&d popularized by actual play shows, which is rules-lite roleplay-heavy game where you hang out with your friends and tell whatever story you like (gayly, usually)

and so they get tired of real d&d with all its. well. its. you know the game. anyway, so then they try motw

unforch motw is, while lighter on rules and heavier on roleplay than d&d, actually a game with a very set story that it is trying to tell: that is, monster arrives in place, group goes on a 'learn about monster' adventure (by researching it in libraries, interviewing witnesses, seeing traces of the monster and perhaps skirmishing with it but not having an all-out fight with it yet, and, key here, the gm providing that information as the players search for it. really providing it.)

and then, after learning about it, to go confront the monster and kill it/subdue it/drive it out of town/whatever

(in, of course, the style of monster of the week shows; you should be thinking really hard about buffy, spn, scooby doo, as you run it. think of each mystery like one of those episodes, with a hard end of the monster goes away forever, they learn a lesson, and then on to the next monster. with some exceptions, but nevertheless.)

like absolutely not meant as a 'if ur not doing this ur a bad ttrpg player/gm', i'm not trying to tell you you're playing it wrong in a gatekeepy way i s2g, but like. motw is so often wildly misrepresented, and i think that's led to, like this person i was talkign to, some ppl having a shitty experience with it, or even just, not quite getting the hang of it and going back to d&d. and if you're playing the game and finding that it's not meshing well with the totally different story you're trying to tell. that's not your fault or your story's fault, but uh....... might be a disconnect with the mechanics.

and it's a good game on its own! but the way ppl treat it is. unfortunate.

also there are other games that will do what you want them to do, if you're looking to tell a different sort of story. u kno. branch out.

...............also frankly as a game designer i'm a little exasperated that it's treated as 'pbta standard' as though pbta even HAS a standard (it does not, it's been adapted in so so so many ways and motw wasn't even the FIRST, go take a look at apocalypse world and view the format totally differently, dammit.)

#algie talks ttrpgs #not to go 'play a different game' at ppl who are starting to leave d&d and go to motw #when i have spent so long telling ppl 'play a different game' wrt d&d #but not every game will support every story!!! even if it's recced to you as 'if you don't like d&d try--' #listen. listen. if you don't like d&d. there are thousands of games. millions even. #they all do different things. find one that does what you want. #you may not know!!! it is ok to ask ppl also. it is ok to try different games. u kno.

[equalseleventhirds]

the more i grow & learn as a player & a gm, the more i feel like for me, gming is most fun when you make clear to players that yes, they may attempt any action they want, and even succeed at it--but they can't dictate the consequences

one of the problems ppl talk about is shitty players going 'well but a nat 20 means i can do anything', to the extent that they do legit impossible things. and ok, that is shitty behavior, & should be curbed with properly discussing rules with ur players and saying hey, i know this is funny, but it's not fun to break the game like this, and it's also not how the game works

but if, for whatever reason (players just being assholes, or someone legit thinks this game-breaking action is feasible & then they succeed) you are in this situation, just. let it happen. and then let there be consequences.

like i think one of the examples of shitty players is like, 'i rolled a nat 20, i shoot an arrow all the way into the sun and put it out'

well, ok. you shoot an arrow all the way into the sun. you don't put it out, the sun has more hit points than that, but ur down an arrow.

.....and then many sessions later, bits of the sun start falling (it's high fantasy, we can do that). or sun aliens come for a visit, and they're mad you killed their leader. or, or, or.

make it fun! work it into your story!

will it stop players from being assholes maaaaybe not, and tbh if they are not respecting boundaries fuck 'em and find a new group, but you'll have more fun with it this way. and fuck over players who are being dicks. and, if well-meaning players do stuff beyond what works in your game, you can mitigate the effects without taking away the victory of a really good roll from them (bcos just saying 'you can't do that' or 'you try but it doesn't work at all' kinda sucks after a good roll), plus plant the seeds of a fun adventure later.

*pls note that one exception to the 'you can't do that' bit is like, if they are crossing a boundary you're uncomfortable with wrt game content. at that point it is less 'that is impossible' and more 'i am not comfortable roleplaying this', but again that is a thing to communicate, pls use safety tools in ur game!! a lot of stuff from my early d&d sessions wouldn't have happened if we'd used proper safety tools; my players sometimes tried to do things i didn't want to roleplay, and then i took it away from them kinda abruptly. communication! is! key!!

#long post #algie talks ttrpgs #i think a lot abt things. anyway i will get to gm a game sooooon so i am thinking abt.......... things. #disclaimer that this is a thing that i prefer to do and it's not for everyone #but GOD is it fun for me personally

[equalseleventhirds]

additionally and unrelated but i recently gmed a couple of oneshots for different groups using bubblegum wizards 2, which is a delightfully silly system, not particularly crunchy rules-wise but has some good structure to it.

the setting is The City, and infinite and magical expanse of all possible cities which have been merged together bcos interdimensional shenanigans. the players are wizards, meaning they do magic by chewing bubblegum (for power) and putting things in cards, which they can then summon (a la cardcaptor sakura, pokemon, etc). all their magic is summoning-based, but in a city with vampires, ghosts, magical or just weird animals, and anything else you can imagine in it, there's plenty of interesting and powerful stuff to catch & summon.

#algie talks ttrpgs #had fucking blast playing it with some silly silly friends doign silly silly adventures #rly does lend itself to the nonsensical and absurd so easily bcos like. infinite city??? crabsolutely.

[equalseleventhirds]

have recently become somewhat enamored of 'what's so cool about' style games

(being hacks of 'what's so cool about outer space', and there was a whole game jam for them and there are so. many. games. if you bought any of several different fundraising itchio bundles you probably own one or two of them already, and many are free or cheap.)

as a system, these games tend to be very rules-light and simple to play; rather than stats it has one base die roll and you add modifiers to rolls based on like, what you're good at, what helpful items you have, etc. character creation is essentially setting up what you're good at helpful items etc. on the gm's side, also simple mechanics, and most of the games have some good plot hook ideas for folks who need them. improv-heavy ofc, which i know is intimidating for beginners sometimes, but i do enjoy games where you can just say things without worrying about monster stats etc.

the games run the gamut from the original space adventure to superheroes to weird fantasy to realism, so it's your pick wrt genre; some of them have an additional mechanic or two, which also keeps things fun & fresh if u play several of them.

anyway, excellent oneshot game material, a little something for everyone, easy to pick up and play on short notice. i like em.

#algie talks ttrpgs #got a new sorta game rec for ppl sooooo

[equalseleventhirds]

to be fair, what with its roots in kingdom hearts, interstitial has some shounen flavor, especially wrt playbook tropes

however it is designed for worldhoppimg adventures about the human heart and stuff, not for tournament arc, so.

#algie talks ttrpgs #it's a p good game altho I don't recommend it for ppl unfamiliar with pbta #but it's fun if u wanna play with existing properties a lot

[equalseleventhirds]

Okay so this is GM anon, to answer your questions: as a friend group we definitly lean towards sci-fi and adventure, as in we enjoy movies in those genres so we know and enjoy the conventions thereof. Horror too, but in the style of Scream watch-alongs, or watching scary movies to make fun of them (and hide that you're feeling creeped out) no actual like gore or serious contemplative horror. I don't really know if it's better to go with more serious of more silly games, I was def looking at the more silly stuff bc the serious ones feel really awkward to me (but that might be informed by the fact that most serious RPG's I've heard are longform? The actors get really deep and attatched to their characters and I can't really picture feeling that intense? But maybe I'm just biased to think that short games are always more comedic and silly?). I think I'd prefer more rules/guided games to start with, I think it'll help with getting started and not freezing up when you can't think of something. I think puzzle games or like a heist or mystery sound great! Social interaction too, that's def one of the plus points of RPG's and games over watching something, that you're spending the whole time talking to eachother. Tbh I really don't know what would be best to focus on, I'm just spitballing, I just think something with a clear goal. We usually have at least a couple of hours time together, but it's not necessary for a game to last that whole time. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this!! I'm in a different timezone, it's actually pretty late for me so if I don't answer any follow up questions, it's bc I'm sleeping LOL

hi again gm anon! glad u did not wait up for me bcos it took me a while (i have...... many games), but here is a handful of recs for you!

first up, i think generally caltrop core games might be p good for a beginner; it's a very simple d4 system with very structured rules (how much depends on which game, but generally it's turn-based with set actions to choose from). there's still room for roleplaying & improv ofc, but it's easy to keep a handle on the table. there's been a caltrop core game jam with lots of submissions before, and ofc u can browse the tag on itch, but something like crystal souls or cursed confections might be fun for your group!

futuristic scifi 'group of thieves/scoundrels/rebels/etc do a mission' games are also very popular (i own like........ 20? 30? some are cyberpunk and some are spaceships and just. lot of em.) and also generally have a decent structure to work with (altho less turn-based than caltrop core, usually). a lot of them are geared towards longer campaigns, but can be done as a one-shot if you ignore some of the between-missions stuff. or do it as a post-mission cooldown thing. u kno. (lots of them are sorta forged in the dark based, but the slightly less complex ones i think are good for beginners; fitd can get really involved, but there are also simplified ones!)

you might enjoy offworlders, off the grid: resurgence, xanadu, subway runners, what's so awesome about hacking the planet, weasel overdrive, make our own heaven, bubblegum wizards 2, or dwindle.

and finally, i do love a dungeon crawl; keeps everything to a relatively small & defined space, but you can get weird with it (npcs in a dungeon? yeah! timespace fabric folding in a dungeon? yeah!) and it's a place to do all the puzzles and riddles and inexplicable creature encounters you generally don't get a chance for in a 'here you are in A World' sorta game. also, easy to keep short (my game sessions tend to run 4+ hours for oneshots, but in a dungeon crawl you can just. skip to the last room lmao.) games designed for dungeon crawling tend to lean more horror (if they don't lean..... d&d, basically), but i tried to pick ones where you can either take out most horror elements, or choose to play them lighthearted and chill/campy. you may like crwlr, the dark below, or the empty house.

.......and that's some basic game recs for your group; should be fine for 3-4 players, or even for one-on-one play if you can't get everyone together, altho that's not the ideal. as far as games specifically designed as two-player games, i know there are a bunch of them on itch, but most of them are gmless (usually asymmetrical gmless, but still gmless), and many of them lean heavily emotional (altho some are silly!). i'm not sure if you have different requirements in mind for a two-player game; lmk and i'll see what i can do? altho probably not until after this weekend, i got some stuff to work on for school T_T (this is....... part of why i'm not actively looking to gm rn, even tho i waaaaaant to. too many school.)

oh also podcasts! i know there's more than this around, but you can always check out oneshotpod for shortform games of many kinds! international podcast month also has some oneshot ttrpg episodes; i gmed a game of dwindle this year that was lots of fun! i'll poke around for more sometime, but for now i rly gotta get some sleep lol.

#long post #algie talks ttrpgs #hope this helps anon!!!! i am. love games.

[equalseleventhirds]

been reading through apocalypse world for game designing reasons bcos i haven't actually before (in spite of playing Several Many pbta games)

and maybe it is bcos it is the second edition but it's honestly kinda notably different even mechanics-wise from a lot of the most popular pbta games? like, wildly more intricate and strange than motw, for instance, often in ways that i find very interesting and am thinking abt how to incorporate into things.

but also just in general a very interesting and cool game, with rly fun mechanics and some fascinating worldbuilding built into its mechanics, i like it a lot. should play it sometime.

#algie talks ttrpgs #algie might make ttrpgs #since that is why i was reading it #i do like it a lot! now. am i ever going to write a properly powered by the apocalypse game #that follows the sort of now-standardized format ppl have developed based on this? #no. my god. of course not. #for one thing the strictly defined basic moves are not as fun for me when i am designing #i do like playbooks tho. sometimes. in ways. u kno. #anyway i DID get distracted from my new project bcos i clicked over into where i'm working on tcly//tcweya #which is pbta ish. ......ish. #so u kno. checking up on how things work. contemplating what i will use and what i will change and how and why. u kno. #many thought head full

[equalseleventhirds]

actually yeah, let's talk abt this:

so often i see avid d&d players talk about how much they love d&d, but also how much they hate the math, the little complicated rules, or the fighting of d&d. and like, bro, i get it. there's a lot of math that i don't always feel like doing. there's a lot of complicated rules i also ignore sometimes. the fighting does in fact take too long and is full of math & complicated rules & generally is not that engaging.

but if you are playing d&d as Mostly Just Roleplaying, have you considered: play a different game.

i do not mean this in a gatekeepy 'oh you're not a real d&d player' way! i mean this in a 'd&d actually fucking sucks for the style of play you enjoy, there are better games that you will like so much more' kind of way! bcos it does. it's the biggest-name ttrpg, but that doesn't mean it's the best one.

and especially for ppl who love roleplaying and hate combat, d&d is designed to focus on combat. like, it started as an adaptation of a wargame. it's expanded over the years, and players take it and reinterpret it to fit their needs (and actual play podcasts may be behind some of this, bcos a lot of them ignore the littler rules in favor of Story). but you don't have to, bcos there are games out there already suited to your favored style of play. i promise. you might have to look around to find them, but they exist.

like i know d&d is very fucking cool Aesthetically, but there are just as cool aesthetics in some other games. you can even still be a tiefling in some of them, as @vaultedvagabond pointed out.

#algie talks ttrpgs #listen to me.......... try other games #you COULD spend hours homebrewing and altering d&d rules to fit how u want to play #but you could also. just start with a game u want to play. #not rn bcos my work computer won't FUCKING let me on itchio #and when i get home i have to do school bcos i have essays to write #and then i have...... i have so many thigns to do #but AT SOME POINT probably in like 2 months i'll have enough free time #that ppl can come ask me abt game recs for specific styles #altho! i am not the absolute best person to ask! #i like spend a lot of time lurking in the indie ttrpg creation scene #but there are ppl way more involved than me who know way more #probably have already made lists of games by style of play #go look it'll be fun

[equalseleventhirds]

thinking about blades in the dark and the gotdamn simplicity of ‘you hit this limit of stress and cannot continue; you drop out of the scene and return during downtime’ (with ofc consequences for taking that much stress)

compared to d&d and the fucking. hit point math and death saving rolls and unconscious vs dead (and unconscious vs dead)

like ok yes the d&d version is probably good for certain styles of play but bitd is so much more streamlined

#algie talks ttrpgs #i'm thinking about............ games #also harm is a separate thing from stress and harm (usually) does not kill you! #harm and stress both lingering & needing to be healed slowly is also more realistic than d&d 'sleep for 8 hours and ur fixed' #altho prolly rough for relatively new players who are used to like. vidya game mechanics. #i do kind of wish there was a system to heal a little bit over time without it using up ur downtime action #and having downtime healing be for bigger healing #but tbh that may just be my failing as a gm #possibly when i give harm i am too willing to assign level 1 harm for a minor injury #i must. consider things. #and the stress/vice mechanic is so integral to the game that like #of COURSE ppl should be indulging a vice frequently.... obviously...... that progresses the story & character development......