#How to Prepare for a TTRPG Session •

[jeffs-gamebox]

Six items ready to be inserted into any Dragonbane campaign. Compatible with any fantasy tabletop roleplaying game with minimal conversion required. Have fun!

[s-che]

a game where we hurt each other

Last month, I played perhaps the most intense TTRPG session of my life as part of the Dream Library’s discussion of Bluebeard’s Bride, a game of “feminist horror” (more on this later) published by Magpie in a gorgeous print edition. Over the course of the month of October my guest lecturer/collaborator @marvelousmsmolly I collectively hosted three sessions of what was by far the most challenging game the Dream Library has ever discussed. 

We came to Bluebeard as the second part of our fall semester covering games of intimacy and monstrosity — a unit which began in September with Avery Alder’s Monsterhearts 2 and is continuing this month with Vampire: The Masquerade (If you want to get in on the VTM discussion and future semesters, please, come join). Both Molly and I suspected that Bluebeard was going to be both a quieter month and a riskier text — but opted to play through it anyway, albeit with some tools in place to make sure everyone knew what they were getting into with a book that doesn’t pull many punches. And with all that, the first two sessions went... fine? We had some lumpy pacing, some conflicting styles of play, some questions about how a game that really seems to encourage player bleed can possibly be played online, but for the most part things were fine. Not great, not bad — not worth the anxiety we’d had about them.

And “fine,” of course, doesn’t make for interesting conversations, so Molly and I took a step back. We talked about what was going wrong: a sense that neither of us quite felt comfortable hitting hard enough, even though we asked players ahead of time and at the start of sessions to tell us what was off the table. A frustration that player choice had trended towards the Bride as a detective/hero and not someone embodied in a world of horror. A confusion — once again — over what it means to “shiver with terror” in a discord call with some friends online. Out of that conversation came a new idea: rather than two more one-shots, Molly took some time to charge up a spirit bomb and put together some more formal prep, then recruited a group she felt could get together for a more curated experience. She wrote up her own excellent thoughts on what went down — along with a lot of session details — but you’ll have to join the Dream Library for that. 

The result of all that curation and preparation was that on October 23rd a group of four trans women — Molly, @jdragsky, our friend Mars, and I — sat down to play Bluebeard’s Bride knowing exactly what we were in for. We would be playing a transfem Bride, Bluebeard would be cis, and we would be hitting transfem-specific horror as hard as we possibly could. 

I’m going to quote from Molly’s reflection, where she wrote:

“Another really great aspect of running this game for this table is there was such a clear feeling that we all understood, wordlessly, what was going on... There are some moments in Allison Rumfitt’s gothic horror novel ‘Tell Me I’m Worthless’ where it felt like the author, a trans woman, was dropping phrases knowing exactly how her transfem audience would react... This had a twofold effect of both giving the players a chilling moment but also, a very brief but appropriate separation between fiction and player where could all grimace and be together in that discomfort before pushing on. People knew what I was doing. The problem with the original game is it doesn’t really want to discuss the politics of what “feminine horror” means. Because of this you’re really lacking some focus. I think a table of cis women could actually play bluebeard’s bride in the way we did last night and have it hit hard for them if they approached it correctly, I don’t think our experience was uniquely elevated by our trans reading, however that was one of several tools we used for that elevation.”

Setting aside the strengths and weaknesses of the original text, that sense of shared experience was key to our game and key to allowing us to hit — and get hit — really hard and trust that our coplayers were there with us. Compared to our earlier efforts (prioritizing safety by taking things off the table via lines/veils) tightening the topical scope from an ambiguous “feminist horror” to a specific transfeminist horror in the context of a chaser bf, in the context of an economic disparity, in the context of the medical pressures of transition in the contemporary U.K. allowed Molly, our lovely host, to hurt us knowing that we were all in it together and choosing to play this game. It transformed the horror from an obstacle in an adventure game into a thing we were seeking out: a pleasure/pain we asked to feel. 

In a games discourse that is — understandably — interested in protections which might be implemented anywhere, including at cons and home tables with much less of an art-and-politics interest, safety tools are often thought about as a negative thing, a preemptive cutting away of all the things which might end up hurting us. I think that’s part of why people can have a hard time filling out a lines/veils list in advance of a session. What are all the things in the world I’m sensitive to? What are all the contexts in which I’m sensitive to them? Good sensitive or bad sensitive? Sensitive enough to cause a scene? Sensitive enough to make it off the table? 

In place of that — and in a table with a really remarkable amount of trust — this final Bluebeard session leaned in, hard, to the things that hurt us. That was the game. Molly wrote a lot about kink in her reflection, and I think she was right to do that. The point of the game was to hurt each other and to feel, and it was a better game for keeping that in mind. It was an actual horror game, and not just a game with horror aesthetics. I agree with Molly that there was nothing essential about having an all-transfem table — I think what we did could be done by anyone, even with the base Bluebeard’s Bride. What was essential was having a table where we all trusted each other enough to play a hurting game and to know that we were there on purpose. It elevated Bluebeard’s Bride into a really fascinating, messy experience — one I can’t wait to play again.

[forlorn-plushie]

Styles of Prep - Games that Care

Yet another of the lies that Wizards of the Coast has sold TTRPG players, which they've bought into wholeheartedly, is that there are different styles of preparation, and all are valid for every game (because both are valid for D&D, and D&D is right for every game, of course.)

I'm gonna go over a couple games I've run, and explain that actually they all care about the type and level of preparation the GM does.

Indie games are often honest and open about what they want. To take a high-prep example, I recently ran Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy. It is not subtle! In the narrator section, right after the introduction, it says "We cannot advise you strongly enough to use prewritten adventure modules". It's not just there - throughout the rules, there's an emphasis that the situation, the state of the world at the outset and thus at every time that follows, is known and rigid. Eureka is a mystery game - the who, what, how, why, and more are all set in stone. The narrator is forbidden to change the scenario on the fly.

Eureka is very forceful of this because the authors, writing a game for mystery investigations, are well aware that it's damn near impossible to make a coherent mystery up on the fly. I'm sure they've tried. I've tried. It's impossible. Something will contradict, and you won't notice until well after the players have reasoned from that contradictory information. It can be done, but not well, and the mental load on the GM is going to kill them.

It's not a genre thing - Eureka is a game about the act of solving mysteries, but so in Brindlewood Bay. I don't have experience with Brindlewood Bay myself, but I do know that the GM doensn't have a real mystery ahead of time - there's a move which is rolled to determine whether a theory is correct. Both are mystery games, but they approach them differently - and each makes a vastly different demand of the GM's preparations.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Eureka, more in line with Brindlewood Bay in fact, is just about every Powered by the Apocalypse game. Apocalypse World is very clear about what to prepare, and it's more or less the opposite of Eureka: "Daydream some apocalyptic imagery, but DO NOT commit yourself to any storyline or particular characters."

The rules actually tell you to start on what would typically be 'prep' during the first session: "Work on your threat map and essential threats". It's more like note-taking, at that point, just placing the names of stuff that gets mentioned in the session. After that first session, and between each other, you do some real out-of-session work, solidifying the notes you made into Threats.

I won't go into it at length, but Dungeon World is much the same - though there's no 'map' for threats, as characters are expected to be far more mobile, the system of solidifying problems that were mentioned in-game into problems with some mechanically attached descriptors is much the same.

Now, on to the elephant-sized dragon in the room - Dungeons and Dragons. The game itself is, truthfully, quite honest about this. It's the marketing team and the community, having fallen for their propaganda, who pretend low-prep is a valid way to play Dungeons and Dragons.

The 2014 DMG, correctly, focuses on prepared play. It asks DMs to consider "Do you like to plan thoroughly in advance, or do you prefer improvising on the spot?", but everything in that book is either rules text or preparation guides. Mostly the latter.

D&D, as it has existed since 3rd edition, (this is what I have experience with - I can't speak to earlier editions, except to note that there are alot of modules in their time and in the OSR tradition) is a game that thrives on prep. Even if that prep is procedural - tables of encounters and wandering monsters for an area, for example - it's impossible to run the game from nothing, without a lot of background, and have it work.

Imagine not knowing D&D, at all - you pick it up, read the non-list rules (so skipping most of the classes, races, spells, feats, backgrounds, weapons, etc) in the PHB and DMG, and try to run a game entirely improv from the rules and vibes. You'd quickly end up scouring the monster manual for appropriate encounters - and the game, by the rules, demands appropriate encounters! There's a budget system! It's a game about killing monsters and does a lot of math to try and make sure it's challenging without killing player characters.

D&D, at least in the books, is pretty honest about what it wants from preparation. It wants a lot! The playerbase pretends otherwise, but they're wrong. I've yet to find another game that tries to lie like this. Eureka wants you to use modules. Apocalypse World wants you to wing it. I have yet to find any game that actually doesn't care.

[dailyadventureprompts]

So I've been reading Triangle Agency...

For those not in the know: Triangle Agency is a new weird/corporate horror TTRPG heavily inspired by things like the X files, Delta Green, and Control. You work as agents for the titular organization which sends you out to stabilize reality by dealing with various paranatural Anomalies.

Don't think of this as a review, until I sit down at a table and play this system over a few sessions I won't be able to tell you how well it actually works. What I can tell you is what the game is trying to accomplish with its storytelling and mechanics, and what it's trying to do is interesting.

Unlike a lot of TTRPGs I've read, triangle agency is not interested in giving you a system that you can use to tell whatever story you want. Instead I can compare it to a tabletop version of a choice heavy videogame like Disco Elysium or Bg3: where engaging with the story/mechanics will lead you to one of the endings the authors prepared for you. This is not to say the system is inflexible, that you can't put your own spin on it, GMs can design missions however they want, and player choice is a major focus, but as long as you're playing the game you're furthering the meta story.

As such, this might be the first game that I'd consider running out of the box with only pre-prepped adventures, which is shocking considering how much of a homebrewer I am. Instead, I'd be interested in putting a group of players in this game and just seeing what it does to them, though it'd have to be a very specific group of players than my regular ol gaming group.

The ideal Triangle Agency player is one that's got a primary focus on storytelling over mechanics, who're interested in making big narrative swings happen as a result of their choices. They also need to be comfortable with improv storytelling, as the primary means of interacting with the game requires a quick " what if" session to justify how you're moulding reality into a new shape:

Where another game might have you roll your character's strength for something as simple as kicking down a locked door, Triangle Agency has your party brainstorming a reason why the door would be weak enough for you to kick down in the first place: IE the building has a termite problem, and the hinges were subject to poor storage conditions by the contractor who installed the door. Then you roll. If you succeed, the door is knocked down, the building has a termite problem and has *always* had a termite problem, and an entire human being, Gary the negligent contractor, has been spoken into existence. You are likely to meet him on your next mission.

In many ways this is explicitly like Blades in the Dark's flashback mechanic, except made an explicit part of the game world. Your characters have the same reality distorting abilities of the Anomalies they're hunting, and they have to be careful lest they delete whole swaths of their life trying to angle for a better roll.

This is where we get into Triangle Agency's focus on character, and the secondary requirement that players be the type to get invested in their eldritch business blorbo as they are subjected to various corporate horrors™. This is a game interested in change whether it manifests as choice, trauma, or metamorphosis, and the ante for these interactions is your player/characters investment in the world. Part of this is with your character's contacts, NPCs who are as essential to an agent's build as their anomalous superpowers or their job with the Agency. To give extra weight to these relationships, each one is portrayed by another player at the table, which I thought was an ingenious way to not only take the burden off the GM, but also to give players more screen time even when their primary agent is off stage.

That leads me to the genius primary progression mechanic: The choice between whether to spend time with your Agent's contacts, focus on their Agency job, or delve into the eldritch truth of their powers, and how to split their finite time off between them. Here we get player choice, story, and mechanics all tied together in a neat little package as progression along any of these tracks unlock new abilities while also revealing more and more of the game's secrets. Possibilities for the game's story open up/are blocked off specifically with how the players choose to personally spend their XP, and if that's not a feat of game design ( or more aptly, craft) I don't know what is.

Final Thoughts: Despite having a delightful time reading the rulebook/optional mission pack (Seriously, the vibes are stellar) I don't know if I'm actually going to get to play Triangle Agency at any point in the near future. I think getting the most out of this game depends so much on finding the right playgroup for it and then pouring in enough time to unlock one of the endings. I'd want to see the mechanism of it's story/mechanics/drama play out, but doing so is one heck of a commitment.

However, if you've got a group full of storytellers that are up for the challenge and you're looking for something substantial to play next, I don't think I could recommend it enough.

I'm also going to be keeping my eyes out for longform actual plays of this one, I'd love to see what a group of performers could do with this.

[gmbencompetence]

Join a Spooky D&D One-Shot:

The Lost Souls of Grimmstone Manor

Looking for a macabre mystery this Halloween season? A fan of appalling puzzles and blood-curdling brain teasers?

I invite you, then, to solve the many mysteries within Lady Helena Grimmstone’s manor. Your deceptively simple task is to identify each spirit within, as well as how they died. Keep a sharp mind and perceptive eye, though…. The haunts within grow ever so aggressive when misidentified…

This one-shot, inspired by Return of the Obra Dinn, combines my joy for puzzles with a love of the eerie. So be prepared for what lay ahead… or perhaps the next adventuring party will be solving the mystery of your ghost… 👻

This Macabre Mystery...

Is Beginner Friendly! Newbs and veterans will be at ease here!

Has tables for every time zone!

Can be a great way to learn D&D (or TTRPGs in general)!

Has hidden Halloween Easter Eggs. Can you find the classic horror monsters hiding within the manor?

Has art by Faerthingale: Commission them here!

Is at a safe, welcoming table by a professional GM who has run nearly 1,000 TTRPG sessions

Find a table here!

[toy-dragon]

Part of my New Years Resolutions involves trying to play more of the ttrpgs in my collection, and tonight I just finished running the first session of @anim-ttrpgs 's Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy.

Now, looking at this book (October public beta for most I bet) it looks intimidating. 600+ pages with a lot of rules.

I read through it in chunks during my work hours, small bits at a time with a few big reads on my computer. I read through certain sections again, trying to figure out how all the rules slot together in the abstract.

Then, a hilarious opportunity happened in their patreon server, people wanting to play Eureka, so I volunteered. I figured, hey why not. This could be a good time. I got an older converted module they run in their public book club and spent the time setting up and asking a handful of questions about certain bits.

Admittedly, I was a bit nervous to run it. It has been a while since I ran a game for people I didn't know well, and I felt a bit under prepared despite my preparations and note-taking.

Eased my worries a bit that a few of my players had run it before, and was getting really excited about all their characters as they were sending me their ideas and thoughts about them.

After tonight, I am shaking everyone by the shoulders to go play it, oh my god. Not only was it really easy to run, I had such a good time despite my stuttering start to the game. While I was a bit disorganized in the initial start, trying to get my legs under to set up the first scene, it was wonderful watching everyone start having their characters interact with the funeral and each other and it felt very natural. Setting up Roll20 so that everyone was using GM rolls, so only I saw all their results, but would talk about rolls required and would hurriedly whisper them their info or answers to their question if it was a bit more complicated than a yes/no. And if you're like "Hey, what about their rules about Splitting the party? That seems incredibly weird?" At first, yes, I thought that too initially, but knew what they were emulating, but it didn't quite click reading it. We played in Discord, so I set a time limit of about maximum 10 minutes each separate group just to try to give enough breathing room and still keep it snappy. I had players deafen themselves as needed and then would ping people if their turn was up. I see posts from players saying how wonderfully helpful this is to keep track of things and stay in the session, and how it leads to relationships developing wonderfully. As the Narrator, it was actually super helpful for me! Because it would help both with breaking up the scenes neatly, but also helped to get into the heads of the NPCs around the investigators in different scenes, especially when time had passed. One scene had some of the investigators running off on their own while the rest stayed behind at a funeral to talk to an NPC to try and figure out more things, and then later on two of the investigators accepted her invitation to the after funeral dinner and it was so helpful to be like "Okay, so she's at dinner with family and a friend of the deceased. How is her mood now and how willing is she to talk about certain things vs how willing she was while at the graveyard." So so so helpful in my opinion. Beautifully well done. The investigators ended up at a Denny's and it was such a fun scene because someone brought up the possibility of haunted houses and started a wild argument. Afterwards, we ended just after the investigators made plans on splitting up for next time. Wonderfully made game. Please go play or even just read it. I had such a grand old time and can't wait to see what happens to this plucky and oddball group of investigators

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Beta March 1st Update

We have just recently released the March 1st update to the public Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy beta on itchio!

This is one of the shortest spans of time between two big beta updates, but the changelog is still pretty expansive, a lot of quality-of-life stuff, clarifications, typo fixing, lots of focus on bug-hunting in general, so overall this version should be much easier to understand.

The biggest new additions are a bunch of new art pieces, and we finally finished the Module Writing Guide in Chapter 7, so you can use all 10 steps to help you get your Eureka Mystery Module Game Jam submission ready.

Now, we can finally start moving forward at speed again on copy-editing.

Full changelog below

CHANGE LOG 

Copy-editing Progress: Thoroughly copy-edited up to p. 302. Half-ass copy-edited up to p. 322.

Don't forget, we also released Eureka adventure modules “The Eye of Neptune” and “FORIVA: The Angel Game” into free beta on itch.io!

WHOLE BOOK

Removing Examples of Play for time and more importantly page count reasons. There is a small chance they may get added back in. 

CHAPTER 1 

Added an example of very rare circumstances where Ticks can just pass from a task without a roll or Scene change. 

Adjusted some phrasing in “Be Prepared to Lose”

Added “Approaching this Game” section

Added that if a Tier of Fear fear comes up mid-session that your investigator does not have on their sheet, you add it to their sheet in the tier that it makes sense right there mid-session. 

Made it more explicitly clear that failed and partially succeeded investigative rolls should not give false information.

CHAPTER 2

Edited a mistake in the Chemistry Skill 

Clarified that a character cannot have multiple instances of the same Trait 

Clarified that even with the Did You Know Trait, an investigator can still gain bonus Investigation Points from other Traits. 

Fixed a typo in the optional fears in the tiers of fear section

Slapped in a section that better explains how the character sheet works, will fix this up later

Clarified that My Glasses Trait gives a Contextual bonus and clarified Go With Your Gut

Moved “Creating NPCs” from Chapter 7 to Chapter 2.

Really cleaned up “Creating NPCs” and “Morale” and made it much more clear

Added Sunscreen to item list, for vampires. 

Added a toolbox to the item list.

Added an option for trivial items to cost 1 Tick instead of a Wealth Roll. 

Raised the price of campers and RVs

Added a section of the item list for additional property

Split First Aid Kits into three separate items, representing different levels of preparedness. 

Added Emergency Medication, such an epinephrine, to item list 

Added prescription medication to item list

Added clarification that unless stated otherwise, most items include the means to use them, such as cameras coming with film. 

Clarified that the WP price of vehicles includes the fuel to power them

Added more drugs

Added a paragraph about how WP costs are decided and how one might adjust them for different places or time periods. 

Added a note about legality for weapons other than firearms

Increased the WP cost of certain electronics 

Added remote control drone to item list

Added a separate item list section for Medicine.

CHAPTER 3

Clarified Epicenter Initiative and fixed typos

Added a lot more bullet point summaries

Clarified falling damage.

CHAPTER 7

Finished the “Setting the Stage” section

Cut “Connections (Optional Rule)” for now. We might put it back in later, but the thing that this rule does is something that most groups have little trouble doing on their own, and we really need to reduce page count.

Moved “Creating NPCs” from Chapter 7 to Chapter 2.

Reordered chapter 7

Removed “Character Moments (Optional Rules)” for now, might put it back in. 

Removed “Car stalling Out” Might put it back in. 

Removed “Clues direct the party” and “Clue redundancy”, might put them back 

Finally completely finished the mystery module writing guide but it still needs editing

Clarified that converting some “investigation” modules from other games is not as easy as it should be. 

More art has been added.

CHAPTER 8 

Fixed typo in the Wolfman “Unstoppable” section

Fixed it so that the Wolfman “Just Built Denser” section does not make wolfmen inherently be super tall

Fixed typo under the Curse section of Changeling

Clarified how the Manifest Weaponry Mage Ability interacts with other Traits.

New hunting table entry added (this one was from a submitter, those slots are still open, you can email us about getting your own custom hunting table entry at anim.contactus@gmail.com)

Added another new fan-submitted hunting table entry. 

Fixed typo in “Where Does the Blood Go?”

Clarified Telekinesis mage power and gave it an effective range.

Clarified that dogs can’t own dogs. 

Even further clarified that talking dogs are dogs. 

Fixed typo accidentally saying that there were four types of investigators. This was because Mage used to be a separate category on its own.

Changed the default modifier for the Composure roll that vampires must make upon being exposed to sunlight the first time each Scene from +3 to +5. They will still potentially lose a lot of Composure to sunlight because this roll is also modified by the huge negative modifier that is affected by how much coverage they are wearing, but when starting at +3 it was taking way too much Composure for the monster type that has the least options for restoring Composure. 

More art has been added.

[utilitycaster]

I think that discussions of TTRPGs would be much more productive if the advocates of moving from D&D could separate out the ideas of "WoTC is part of the massive Hasbro conglomerate which engages in the shady capitalist practices massive conglomerates do"; "D&D is not suited for every single type of story or gameplay style"; and "here's how to pick a different TTRPG that suits you needs" because as I've said many a time like 99% of them are just trying to sell you on their favorite game, which might be out of print, prohibitively expensive, something no one around you is interested in playing, or is just as bad if not worse a fit for what you want to do as D&D.

I also think said conversations would be more productive if acknowledging many people came into TTRPGs via Actual Play but would be willing to branch out if you weren't the world's most condescending dickhead towards them*; if people considered the hard truth that if you're fluent in D&D and own the materials and have a group already the pitch for Pathfinder specifically actually becomes much harder, not easier; and, as always, if people tailored their recommendations. I agree that heists or space operas or low-combat social games don't play well in D&D; they also don't play well necessarily in your favorite game that you recommend for everything that isn't magically better or more versatile just because it's from a smaller company.

Anyway the point is if you just want to whine about D&D being a dominant force be my guest but you will probably lose all but the most impressionable/desperate for the validation of strangers portion of your D&D-playing audience. If you're actually interested in changing minds and not jacking off to how much cooler and better you are be prepared to ask or answer these questions:

Is D&D genuinely a bad fit for what they want to do, or are you just an intrusive hater?

What is the person you're trying to convert interested in doing at the table? This is is a complex question that covers genre and tone; session-to-session gameplay such as combat vs. RP balance but also (for example) granularity of rules; and overall scope of the game (eg: is this something that you can play a long-term campaign in with character progression? Or is it fairly static and intended to be a few sessions at most?)

What games are accessible to them? This means within their budget (unless you advocate for pirating from small indies, which will not really help with the whole WoTC dominance situation); within what they and their table have time to learn (or, if they are looking to get into games in the first place, what they might be able to find a group for); and again, I can't believe I have to say this but I really do because I've seen it multiple times: whether the game is in print.

Have you considered gently directing them to their friendly local gaming store with answers to the second and third questions above and unleashing them upon a person who knows the gaming scene in their area and (while I've dealt with a Comic Shop Guy or two in my time) is less likely to call them a dumb bitch to their face if the answer ends up being "I'll stick with D&D"? Again, is this about them having a good time? Or is this about you?

*the best way to describe this, since I've been talking a lot about people attempting to claim the status of the systemically oppressed, is that a lot of non-D&D/non-AP fans of TTRPGs on Tumblr act like they are an oppressed class and it's like Kevin, you are a white sysadmin Monte Hall Games fanboy, you are not oppressed by the girlies making Keyleth-inspired D&D characters. You are not part of the more popular fandom and indeed dislike it; this does not make you of a lower class.

[elrathor]

Any first time Storyteller tips?

Sure! First, a couple of things that apply to most tabletop roleplaying games:

Manage your expectations – I'm not saying it won't be fun; it certainly will be, but no beginner will be as skilled at storytelling as Matthew Mercer, Jason Carl, Matthew Dawkins, or others when they start out.

Don't be afraid of storytelling – It's easier said than done, but no matter how well you prepare, you will make mistakes, forget something, or handle a ruling incorrectly. It's likely that your players won’t even notice, or if they do, they won’t think it ruins their fun.

It's about the group experience – There are many aspects of TTRPGs you can focus on. Some groups might even be a little competitive, enjoying the challenge of overcoming obstacles you set for them. However, no matter what style of play you and your players enjoy, it will always be a collaborative effort. Everyone— not just the storyteller— shares the responsibility of making it fun.

Start small – The temptation to dive headfirst into a sprawling story in a setting like Chicago, interacting with everyone and planning a 50-session epic, is strong. I don’t doubt your skills, but you’ll likely learn so much during the first 10 sessions that you’ll want to adjust your approach, change some world-building, or try something new. It’s easier to do this when you’re not in the middle of a two-year saga.

Now, some tips more specific to roleplaying in the World of Darkness:

Session 0 isn't optional – You’re likely playing within the World of Darkness, a setting where the dark side of humanity rears its ugly head as you tell tales of horror. There are plenty of guides on how to organize a Session 0 out there. My main advice is to make sure you know your players’ (and your own) boundaries, even if you think you already do. Especially if you think you already do.

NPCs are important – In fantasy games like D&D or Pathfinder, your players go on adventures and explore dungeons. In the World of Darkness, NPCs are your "dungeons." Let your players get to know them, and allow the characters to grow from those experiences. To do this, you need to understand what an NPC wants (their motivation), what they have, and what they are willing to give to achieve their goal. The amount of detail you need depends on the length of your story and the importance of the character within it.

[thydungeongal]

I've been going through your d&dposting with great interest and your posts about dungeoncrawling reminded me of my first dungeoncrawl experience and how much radically better it was than my first two campaigns in 5e. My first campaign in 5e was an urban adventure using the Waterdeep Dragon Heist module and it was sooo much prep that I ended up using very little of even after almost 10 sessions. My next campaign was a kind of Dragonlance-y style overland adventure that was much more successful but also super stressful cause I was pretty much improvising new setpieces and destinations for the PCs in real time.

Then, like a year later, I ran a dungeoncrawl in Into the Odd and it was maybe the best RPG experience I've had, no stress and virtually no prep for me whatsoever. Dungeoncrawls are awesome because there's a clear gameplay loop for both the players and the GM, which goes a long way to preventing that frustration where the player's expectations for what choices they can make differ from what the GM has prepared (i.e. "railroading"). And that's because a dungeon is a delimited network of finite nodes with obvious ways of navigating between nodes. After that game, it made it so much clearer to me why dungeoncrawls were the origin of TTRPGs and how much a lot of trad games lack an understanding of the importance of having a defined gameplay loop compared to the OSR or storygame movements.

Yeaaaah! :) and to be clear, dungeon crawls are not the end-all-be-all of tabletop RPGs, but they pretty much are what D&D and its surrounding games excel at! As you said, there are plenty of games out there that have clearly defined gameplay goals and as such are not a headache to facilitate, because the facilitating player knows what the game expects them to do! With D&D, once you move outside of the dungeon crawl genre, the game itself gives you absolute dick fuck all!

Anyway, I'm glad you've found my posting interesting! I love dungeons! We should send all the boys into dungeons! With luck they'll come back no longer boys!

[jeffs-gamebox]

No plan, no matter how well-thought out or intricate usually survives contact with the players. Plan carefully, but be prepared for the unexpected. Play the game before the game and have fun with it. This is where the hidden fun of Game Mastering truly lives.

[ritunn]

TTRPGs to Try in 2025

For the past 2 years, I've gone over TTRPGs you can check out each year! This year is no different and I want to take a look at some great indie games to consider running, reading, or playing yourself this year. All games are linked to their Itch page in the title.

1. Beacon

Beacon is the perfect tactical TTRPG to fulfill all your Final Fantasy needs as you take on the role of chosen ones of your world to fight against an ever present darkness unique to your specific reflection. Running on a similar system to Lancer, but with refinements that take it to the next level, and downtime activites such as opening loot boxes, there's a lot of fun to be had with it! Fabula Ultima recently released its final atlas this year and is the ever popular top TTJRPG, but if you're looking for something that functions with a stronger wargame aspect with just as much narrative fun and character customization, consider giving Beacon a look. Perfect for those of you who love JRPGs and enjoy the many D&D 4e shootoffs we've gotten recently.

2. Stewpot

Recently released from Evil Hat, Stewpot is a cozy, yet melancholic narrative focused game where you take on the role of retired adventurers. Together, you run and operate a tavern while leaving your old life behind in a variety of minigames ala Warioware that allow for a mix of freeform and structured roleplaying. Through them, you'll slowly acquire more experience as a townsperson until eventually you get into the rhythm of things and your story ends happily. Your old life is behind you, one that was full of adventure, but a new one ahead, plenty of tales to await you. Excellent to play at the end of a high fantasy or scifi campaign or by itself, Stewpot is the perfect recipe for setting up how your characters' ends, as bittersweet as it may be.

3. Worldwizard

A worldbuilding TTRPG you'd often find in another book entirely, World Wizard, inspired by the ever popular Dawn of Worlds, is an amazing new tool and simply fun game to play before starting a campaign to build a world to explore and adventure in together. Going through 4 ages, players take turns adding things to a hex map. It may be civilizations, divine avatars, land masses, historic events, or more! The structured way it uses a point system allows things to stay down to earth, but ever interesting as you and your group work together to make something you can all be invested in.

4. Last Tea Shop

A melancholic game for just a party of one, Last Tea Shop has you take on the role of a tea shop owner at the border between the living and the dead. As you roll for various qualities like days past and the current weather, you'll meet customers, spirits on their way to the beyond, and prepare them tea and listen to their tale. You do this by consulting the weather and following question prompts, asking them and answering them. Eventually, they'll have to go and they'll leave some ingredients for you, but who you'll see next and when is a mystery.

5. Dust of the Traveled Road

You are from the Dreaming City and you were drawn to the Waking Gates, now, you venture to Journey's End, a dream beyond a dream. Taking on a role between Knight, Adept, and Magus, you and your party make your way through various scenes and scenarios unlocked based on your choice of traits between Arms, Knowledge, and Magic of which you have 2 (one based on role and allowed to be the same as your role's trait). As you travel from destination to destination in any way you choose along the branching path, you'll collect dust, experience of how you've changed and grown on your journey. The journey will eventually come to an end, but will you be the same upon reaching it? An excellent narrative focused TTRPG for groups who love roleplaying and fantastical fantasy settings, Dust of the Traveled Road is incredibly easy to get into and a campaign only takes a couple of sessions. No game will ever be the same twice with the branching map and role system... and your own interactions of course! Great for oneshots.

[greyplainsttrpg]

5e Villain Arc 6

There is a sentiment that I hear/read a lot when engaging with the darkness (read as D&D discourse) (and by D&D, I specifically mean Wizard's of the Coast's Dungeons and Dragons). "High level caster SHOULD be more powerful than martials, however they should be reasonably close together for gameplay."

Here is the thing: I don't agree. In fact, I think this sentiment is fundamentally wrong. In order for you, the reader, to firmly empathize with this part of the argument, it was necessary to build to it via the other frameworks established in the previous villain arc posts. The main thesis of this argument is that "Magic is anti-creative gameplay." However, I will interrogate this thesis with alternative argument that is more strictly on topic...

This Post is about the Caster/Martial Divide in 5e

Part 1: Why martials suck conceptually.

Imagine this scenario. You are playing a monk. In the game, there is a dragon. If the DM plays this dragon with the intelligence that a several-century old being would have, what are you supposed to do to pilot this monk to defeat the dragon?

This is a genuine problem that is worth trying to solve. Even if this is a Level 500 monk, they still only have so many tools on their character sheet that has any counterplay to a well-played dragon. Sure, a Level 500 monk could destroy a dragon if they could get their little kungfu-fighting hands on it, but good luck.

Instead, consider a level 10 wizard. What can they do to fight a dragon? Quite a lot, actually. Recently, the larger TTRPG discourse calls these options "paper buttons." The player can push the paper button on the character sheet, cast a spell, and there we go--we are immediately making progress. What does the monk do? I don't know. It depends on the context. What kind of dragon is it? Where is its nest? Is the objective to kill it or is the dragon just an obstacle? These are things that a character without pregenerated, potent options has to consider when dealing with complex problems.

Despite spellcasters having, like, pre-wrapped solutions to problems, spellcasters are generally considered to be "more difficult" than martials. I think this comes from the idea that "having more options" is equivalent to "more difficult to do." Because there is more text, surely this means it must be harder to play. This is fundamentally untrue. I suppose that there are "more" decisions to make as a spellcaster-player in various parts of a session. In a vacuum where neither the player nor the character can predict the upcoming situation (or if they got spells randomly) then I would be more willing to compromise with this argument. It would be tricky to know when you should or should not cast your probably shit spells in a situation that you cannot predict.

However, in practice, how smart do you REALLY need to be to prepare fireball? Oh, there is a magical buff being applied to the boss? Gee, I WONDER if I should cast dispel magic or counterspell? Decisions decisions. If all the spells in the game were like create water and rope trick, then spellcasters would be on equal-ish footing with martials in complexity of actual play.

Let's return to the monk and the dragon. I ran a session in my my own system, Simplains, where the objective was to "get a dragon egg." Spellcasting in Simplains is limited, so everyone was playing essentially as martials with some special features (that are technically spells). How are they supposed to get a dragon egg? Their solution was to:

Go to a dragon scholar and learn more about dragon eggs.

Acquire a letter of introduction from this scholar for a young (not yet egg-laying) dragon.

Go to the young dragon an find out if there are any dragons willing to sell their eggs.

Determine what the mature dragon is willing to trade for an egg.

Turns out that a mature dragon doesn't really need any more wealth, however she does need a dragon partner to lay fertile eggs, which she does not have.

Create a dating profile for the dragon and seek viable, compatible partners.

I have to point out that I did not plan this. This was not the "intended" story path. There was no story path for this quest (I am not against playing or running more linear games as a rule). The Players largely directed this gameplay themselves.

This is objectively way funnier than:

locate object or scry (dragon egg)

teleport

invisibility

done

This is, perchance, a "style" difference between me and modern DM/GMs. As you can probably tell, I am a bit of a grognard in that, in my opinion, the point of playing TTRPGs is primarily to solve fantastical problems with unusual tools. The text of the rules are a necessary medium to facilitate and moderate gameplay.

When I read D&D Reddit or other social media, I see that somewhat similar stories will appear as "CAN YOU BELIEVE MY PLAYERS DID THIS LOL XD SO RANDUM." This is regarded as players "going off the plot." GMs might stop this sort of behavior because resolving it would take too long compared to the concise adventure that they wrote where they do a heist and steal a dragon egg. Why do all this work? "The tools to your success are right there on your character sheet!" If 5e DMs banned (or heavily restricted) spellcasting, I guarantee that these kinds of events will happen more often in their games. Magic is actually depriving the DM and their players of fun via access to easy, carbon-monoxide poisoning induced solutions. It's okay little buddy, you don't have to think. Go ahead and push that paper button and feel the trickling dopamine from the satisfaction of killing another 15 goblins with another fireball on another day of another session of playing Hasbro's: Wizards of the Coast's: Dungeons and Dragons (2014).

Part 2: Why martials suck practically

The caster/martial divide has existed for a long time in the history of Dungeons and Dragons. The early idea for the divide is that casters start off very weak in terms of health, combat prowess, and even poor spellcasting access and make up for it if they survive to later levels. There are a number assumptions baked into this that I actually do not fundamentally disagree with.

The caster has to live long enough to be good.

The life of the character is the responsibility of the player and the whole party.

In this thinking, the spellcaster surviving is not assumed (because no-one's survival is assumed). Spellcasters are weaker but they have the POTENTIAL to be good (but still vulnerable). Keeping the character alive is a priority for the party. Because, while every problem can be solved conventionally in older games, having a wizard around really helps in specific situations. It is really important to stress how poor spellcaster survivability was. In the first version where Classes have different HP, Spellcasters had a grand total of 1d3 HP per hit die. While the damage is also somewhat lower in these older editions, it was not that much lower. 1d3 is terrible. They can't wear armor, they can't use real weapons, they have horrific THAC0, and their spells aren't even that good. Fighting Men, on the other hand, are excellent. 1d10 Hit Die, weapons that actually do damage, armor, magic weapons and armor, THAC0 that works. This is amazing in OD&D. The goal of the game in OD&D (more often than not) is to use the Spellcaster and the Cleric to put the Fighting Man into position to beat the dungeon boss. The Fighting Man breaks down the locked door, kills all the monsters inside, picks up the treasure of gold, and then drags it back out of the dungeon so the Cleric can heal them. The Magic User deals with the booby traps and allows the Fighting Man to circumvent as many fights as possible (via spells like Sleep or Pass-wall).

The gampley loop of OD&D (and similar games) is therefore:

Magic User casts spells to avoid conflict.

Magic User Runs out of Spells.

Fighting Man has to get everyone out of a fight.

Cleric heals Fighting Man.

Rest and try again next in-game day.

It's obviously not always exactly like this, but that is the intended game-loop (more or less). In this version of the game, the Fighting Man played as critical a role to party success as the Magic User (and the Cleric). However, what if, and hear me out, we gave the magic user more health; added several universal mechanics to make sure everyone can get more health; made the magic powerful, plentiful, and accessible to most classes; and then made it so the Fighting Man equivalent also did not get better THAC0 (equivalent)? Wouldn't that be EPIC!

This is related, of course, to Villain Arc 3 (the Beastmaster Ranger one). D&D is limited in its thinking that spellcasters can have access to supernatural abilities and that martials should be grounded to generally what is physically possible. As per that post, and of Villain Arc 4 where I discuss the unbounded/utility elements of Strength in past editions of D&D, this is simply ridiculous. Furthermore, the fact that Cantrips, which Casters can do an infinite number of times ALSO scale with the Caster's level whilst also being a full Caster is ridiculous. Let's talk about Cantrips.

I know the counterarguments to the Cantrip issue. 1) They do not have flat modifiers to damage; 2) they often require saves for 1/2 damage; 3) they are not strictly as good as martial extra attack. My counter-counterarguments are 1) So? 2) So? 3) So? These points do not fundamentally resolve the issue that Cantrips present in the game--undermining resource management of Spells. Also, I'd like to point out that the only Martial that receives more than a single Extra Attack (no strings attached) is the Fighter. This means that Cantrips might outperform the total number of attacks made by the Barbarian, Ranger (not technically a full martial but LMAO) or the Rogue (without Sneak Attack). To get equal or more damage at higher levels, the Paladin HAS to use Divine Smite (a spell slot) to keep up with Full Casters (not using a Spell Slot).

If Cantrips existed to 1) smooth out the difficulty curve of playing a low-level Full Caster (who should have AT MOST 1d6 HP) and 2) provide consistent utility, then I would not actually have an issue with that. If Fire Bolt did a constant 1d10 damage, that would be fine for me. I'm not such a grognard that I believe Full Casters should suffer at low levels in every system they are present. I am, however, against undermining the gameplay purpose of a Full Caster. Martials do not have to worry about resource depletion while Casters do (as far as spells go). That should be the advantage to a Martial: It always JUST WORKS. Martials should be reliable, consistent, non-gambling characters, and Full Casters should be high-risk high-reward utility glass cannons. If you take out the risk of being a Caster, you only get reward. Compare this to the boon/bane (or pros/cons) divide of the Martial. The Boon/Pro is that everything they do just works (or should; bounded accuracy/d20 moment). The Bane/Con is that they are limited in what they can accomplish. Martials have few ways to escape their Banes (and are actually more limited than they used to be in many ways), and their Boons are not even as valuable/potent; both in isolation (due to a variety of factors, but bounded accuracy in particular) and in comparison to the Full Casters.

Usually when talking about Martials, the discussion revolves primarily around the Barbarian, Fighter, and Monk. However, we cannot forget what they did to my beautiful baby boy, the Rogue/Thief. I love this Class. It is my favorite Class in all D&D games. I love the skill-monkey playstyle, and the fact that the skill-monkey got shifted to the Bard in 5e devastates me--mostly because the Bard, themselves, is now a Full-Caster. For the Caster/Martial divide, I actually want to bring up the AD&D Thief Class. Behold:

These Thieving Skills are present in AD&D and 2nd Edition, but this version comes from 2nd Edition (because I am more familiar with it). If you read Villain Arc 4, then you are familiar with Bend Bars/Lift Gates. It is also a percentile roll, and the result is that the Character can perform any of a wide range of super heroic strength feat. The Thieving Skills share more in common with BB/LG than they do with the modern "Stealth" and "Perception" skills of 3rd edition onward. While those Skills are based on these, the WotC equivalents to Thieving Skills are horribly nerfed. This is for several reasons:

Thieving Skills are easier to succeed at most levels: So long as the Character is investing points into the Thieving Skills they plan to use, the Thief is likely to succeed at them pretty easily starting at like Level 3 or so. They flesh out their skills after around Level 5 or so to be more balanced and useful. This is to say that the Thief Skills are not bounded into the same funnel that every action in 5e is.

Like BB/LG is SUPERHUMAN, Thief Skills are similarly SUPERHUMAN: Let me be clear--there is a big difference between "Move Silently" in WotC D&D and TSR D&D. In WotC, it just means that the Character succeeds without making easily detectable noise, however creatures can counter it with Perception. Not so in AD&D. When they say Silently, they mean as per the spell, Silence. Better, even, because it cannot be detected via magical means. The Thief is BETTER THAN MAGIC. They are impossible to detect. This is essentially repeated from Villain Arc 4, but it is important to repeat it here in this context. This applies to all the Thieving Skills in ways that you may not expect. Some examples:

3. They are locked to Non-Casters: While other Classes do get Thief Skills, no other Class gets all of them or any of them with the same potency. Specifically, Wizards and Priests (the overarching categories for Full Casters) have no access to Thief Skills. This is because the drawback of playing a Full Caster is a lack of access to renewable options in exchange for resource-based flexibility. You do not NEED a Thief in the party, but having a Thief means that the Wizard/Cleric do not need to step in to fill the important role that the Thief serves (meaning they cannot invest into the things that make them better). Since WotC changed Skills around, this has not been true, and thus the Thief is not nearly as useful going forward.

This is not an immediately obvious without deep knowledge of the game, but the asymmetric leveling system of AD&D (2nd in particular) also means that Thieves level up much faster than any other Class. This means that they get their utility options online before any other Character gets theirs. This has shadow-buff ramifications for the Thief in other ways as well, but those are not strictly relevant here.

Moving on from the Thief back to the warriors, one of the things that is interesting in older games is how one can use their attack more flexibly.

Yes, you can execute battle-field tactics with your attack. These options are laid out in more detail in Combat and Tactics, but the principle of trading an attack for some sort of utility has always been present. This is a huge (but sneaky) buff to Fighters in particular. Fighters get weapon Specialization which grants them access to more attacks per round than any other character in the game. In addition to the obvious and consistent improvement having more attacks generates, this also means that Fighters in particular can shuffle around a battlefield and resolve niche utility nonsense with their unbounded THAC0. One of the funniest things Characters can do with their Attack is to grab objects out of an opponent's hand. Have an enemy with a dangerous staff that turns people to stone? Well, it's the fighter's turn, and he/she/they move(s) 120 YARDS and Grabs the staff from the stupid, weak wizard's pitiful arms. THEN, with your next attack, you can quarterback the quarterstaff (hehe) to your own Wizard, and now THEY'RE DRIVING THE BUS. You can also do all these actions with you off hand with a penalty because every Character can choose to attack with their off hand as well. Epic gameplay.

In these ways, martials can circumvent their lack of flexibility from not having Spells by being pretty useful/reliable in other situations/contexts. With the limited scope of what an "Attack" is combined with Bounded Accuracy and generally not that many attacks, you end up with some pretty lame martials who cannot get much done.

Part 3: Conclusion

Martials have been progressively stripped of all the things that make them useful, powerful, unique, flexible, and interesting. At the same time, casters get more HP, more instantly rewarding spells, and benefit from saving throws being wacky in this game.

Wait a minute. I haven't talked about saving throws. OH NO.

Part 4: WAIT A MINUTE SAVING THROWS

Remember the part earlier where Saving Throws were mentioned as if that fucking mattered for nerfing Cantrips or Spells? Surprise, I'm circling back to that now because this post will never end. I've been working on this for weeks. Yeah, Saving Throws in this game SUCK. Each Character only gets proficiency in 2 of 6 saves? With bounded accuracy? En esta enconomía? No fucking thank you. Okay, say for the sake of argument that you are not a fucking idiot and you know that there are 3 real saves in this game (Dex, Con, Wis), 1 pseudo-real save (int) and two absolutely fake saves (Cha). Most monsters you fight have a similar spread to characters in that they only have proficiency in one to three saves (not counting legendary resistance). Okay, now just look at the monster and GUESS which saves it probably doesn't have. Players can prepare Cantrips that target one of each major Save type and just spam them without push-back. In practice, I know that it is more difficult than just that, but among a whole party it isn't. With a full party, there is always one Character AT LEAST who can sit back and spam the most braindead fucking option imaginable. For spells that are AC based, bounded accuracy makes AC so low on average that the Player doesn't have to think either. And spells do non-physical damage. Wait a minute...

Part 5: Elemental Damage

CANTRIPS USUALLY DON'T DEAL PHYSICAL DAMAGE which many monsters resist. Brought the wrong weapon? I guess you're not really damaging the skeletons today. The Caster? Just spam a different cantrip. Don't worry about spending spell slots little buddy. Everything is going to be alright. The world is your oyster, and martials can dance and sing your praise as you bedazzle them with all the problems you can easily solve that they can't. "Oh, but you can just bring all the weapons you might need." Sure, but no. Due to the limits of Magic Item Attunement, it is not reasonable to expect every martial to bring every kind of weapon necessary to fight every kind of monster when the wizard just really does not have to deal with it at all. Also, does the monk have slashing hands? Yes, I know they can use Slashing weapons, but has anyone ever seen a monk use a weapon before? That is the most vestigial class element that I have ever seen.

Part 6: Hey, that's the same as this Villain Arc!

Thanks for sticking with me for this long post. This has been the most "old man yells at clouds" one yet, but I actually got to some analysis at the end there. I have always liked martial characters, and the obvious Caster/Martial divide was one of the things that caused me to have such a bad time playing and running 5e before writing my own system.

I am not sure how many more true villain arcs I have left in me. I do not want to discuss the play-culture too much in these arcs specifically because my focus is solely on the game mechanics. I might start my "5e Revengeance Arc" soon, which is the parallel to this arc that goes through the logic of how and why Greyplains is a specific response to all the things that frustrate me in 5e.

Anyway

#transright

#freepalestine

#buymybook

Previous Villain Arc

Next Villain Arc Post:

[dailyadventureprompts]

Tableskills: Making a Game of It

Recently I learned a bit of an unspoken truth that I'd brushed up against in my many years of being a dungeonmaster that I'd never seen put into words before: If you want to liven up whatever's going on in your adventure, figure out a way to engage the players in some kind of game. It's simultaneously the best way to provide a roadblock while making your player's victories feel earned.

This might seem redundant, since you're already playing d&d but give a moment of thought to exactly what portions of d&d are gamified. Once you learn your way around the system, it becomes apparent that D&D really only has three modes of play:

Pure roleplay/storytelling, driven by whatever feels best for the narrative. Which is not technically a game, nor should it (IMO) be gamified.

Tactical combat with a robust rules system, the most gamelike aspect.

A mostly light weight skills based system for overcoming challenges that sits between the two in terms of complexity.

The problem is that there's quite a lot of things that happen in d&d that don't fall neatly into these three systems, the best example being exploration which was supposed to be a "pillar" of gameplay but somehow got lost along the way . This is a glaring omission given how much of the core fantasy of the game (not to mention fantasy in general) is the thrill of discovery, contrasted with the rigours of travelling to/through wondrous locations. How empty is it to have your party play out the fantasy of being on a magical odyssey or delving the unknown when you end up handwaving any actual travel because base d&d doesn't provide a satisfying framework for going from A to B besides skillchecks and random encounters (shameless plug for my own exploration system and the dungeon design framework that goes with it).

The secret sauce that's made d&d and other ttrpgs so enduring is how they fuse the dramatic conventions of storytelling with the dynamics of play. The combat system gives weight and risk to those epic confrontations, and because the players can both get good at combat and are at risk of losing it lets them engage with the moment to moment action far more than pure narration or a single skill roll ever could.

I'm not saying that we need to go as in depth as combat for every gamified narrative beat (the more light weight the better IMO) but having a toolbox full of minigames we can draw upon gives us something to fall back on when we're doing our prep, or when we need to improvise. I've found having this arsenal at hand as imortant as my ability to make memorable NPCs on the fly or rework vital plothooks the party would otherwise miss.

What I'd encourage you as a DM to do is to start building a list of light weight setups/minigames for situations you often find yourself encountering: chase scenes, drinking contests, fair games, anything you think would be useful. Either make them yourself or source them from somewhere on the web, pack your DM binder full of them as needed. While not all players are utterly thrilled by combat, everyone likes having some structured game time thrown in there along with the freeform storytelling and jokes about how that one NPC's name sounds like a sex act.

A quick minigame is likewise a great way to give structure to a session when your party ends up taking a shortcut around your prepared material. Oh they didn't take that monster hunter contract in the sewers and instead want to follow up on rumours about a local caravan? The wagon hands are playing a marble game while their boss negotiates with some local mercahnts, offering to let the party play while they wait. The heroes want to sail out to the island dungeon you don't have prepped yet? Well it looks like the navigator has gone on a bit of a bender, and the party not only need to track them down but also piece together where they left the charts from their drunken remembrances as a form of a logic puzzle.

Artsource

[theresattrpgforthat]

do you have any metafictional ttrpgs? or any ttrpgs about nothing (being about the concept of nothing or literally not having something they're "about")?

Theme: Metafictional TTRPGS / Games About Nothing.

Y’all are really pulling out the stops for these requests, huh? I’m not entirely sure if what I pulled up actually counts as metafiction, or as games about nothing, but I hope you find something close to what you’re looking for here.

Feedback, by Adira Slattery.

This is a drawing and survey taking game.

You will be expected to draw some chairs.

You will be expected to take some surveys

.Requires the use of a printer for the surveys.

And at the end you gotta email me.

So good luck...

This is a game about drawing a chair. And then taking a survey. And then drawing a chair. And taking a survey. And so on. It’s an exercise that’s meant to be both repetitive and reflective. It’s hard for me to determine what this game is about, because a) I haven’t played it and b) I suspect it’s going to mean something a little different for each person who plays it. It’s possible that for some people who look at this game, it might be about nothing.

Undeath of the Author, by quinntastic.

A meta mini-game designed for Troika.

This is a game in which the author is both dead and not dead - they are undead, and it is up to the group to kill them. The author is the author of the game, and the group is responsible for figuring out how to go about and kill them. (Of course, the author is willing to tell you, the GM how they can be killed, but they don’t want you to tell the players. You can keep a secret, right?)

Beach Episode, by Legendary Vermin.

BEACH EPISODE is a microgame mix-in for your regular table-top RPG group. Players take  their current characters, quickly adapt them for a rules-light session, and commence to run an anime-inspired, beach-themed adventure. All you need to play is at least 3d6 and an established set of characters.

This is a game that is about nothing in the sense that it isn’t really about anything. It follows the style of the anime beach episode, asking you to take recognized characters, probably from an ongoing campaign, and giving them a moment of rest, relaxation, and (probably) nothing plot-relevant. It’s great for encouraging players to delve into who their characters are without feeling worried about the consequences.

Meta Society, by Small Stories.

Meta Society is a game about playing a game of Good Society created for the April Fool's Day Good Society game jam.

This is a game about playing a game - specifically a game of Good Society. When you play, you’ll describe fictional players interacting with a fictional setting, using safety tools and talking about what they did and didn’t like about each session. This requires a copy (as well as experienced knowledge) of how to play Good Society, but I think if you have had the experience of playing Good Society, this might also be something you could adapt to make it a metafictional game about playing a different ttrpg.

DIE: The Roleplaying Game, by Rowan, Rook & Decard.

You’re dragged into a treacherous fantasy world made from your own fears, doubts and desires. There’s only one way to escape - but with limitless adventure within your grasp, would you even want to?

In DIE: The Roleplaying Game, you play a group of authentically flawed people from the real world who gather together to play a game and are trapped in a magical realm. What are they prepared to sacrifice to escape? What are they prepared to sacrifice to stay? This is a TTRPG inspired by a comic book, about people who play games, finding themselves being drawn into a game. Your characters will be interacting with a fantasy world of their own creation, knowing that it is a game and yet being drawn into it deeper than they could have ever imagined. If you want to hear this game in action, My First Dungeon has an excellent season from Mar. 31 - May 26 of 2023.

The Waiting, by J.N. Butler.

A one page GM-less roleplaying game of suspense for 1 or more players.

The Waiting is inspired by the anxiety caused by waiting for the unknown.

In The Waiting you play as a character in a setting where it hasn’t happened yet. It is definitely going to happen, but no one knows when it will happen. Until it happens, there is only The Waiting.

What are you waiting for?

This feels like a game that could be about nothing because the thing that is going to happen will not happen while you play the game. The game is specifically about the time in which the thing has not yet happened - you just know that it will. The game occurs as a series of rounds, over which players describe what their characters are doing. When the event that the table creates happens, you have one final round of play and then the game is over.

This might also be a great tool for dropping into another game, if you’re like me and you like pairing your TTRPGs like cheeses and fine wines.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Sorry if it's a silly question, as I'm still reading the book and haven't gotten to the full scope of the Narrator's job yet, but how 'long' are Eureka! games designed to go on for in-world wise - and more importantly, how alive are Investigators supposed to stay, generally? For context: I'd like to do multiple smaller investigations that are part of a larger conspiracy, individual mysteries that may fail or succeed at being uncovered, that give out pieces of what's actually going on. And, because progression (level-ups, new toys/weapons, etc.) are a big part of what appeals to my players, I think they'd prefer to keep their characters relatively alive to enjoy the benefits, and not replace them through multiple investigations. Is Eureka! able to be played like that? A broader campaign with "meta"/character progression for not being brash and getting yourself killed?

Like most TTRPGs they are billed as “highly lethal,” the truth is that Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is really more “potentially lethal.”

Every character has 5 Penetrative HP and they die instantly if this hits 0, and any bullet deals 4 Penetrative Damage. The most common handguns in Eureka are capable of firing up to 4 bullets in a single action, so yeah, PCs can die pretty easily. They can also kill pretty easily, and it is up to them, not the GM, to make sure they don’t get killed.

Despite this, having played Eureka myself about... 15 times maybe? I have never once personally seen a PC death.

A good number of PCs have died in other people’s Eureka games that I know of, but off the top of my head it feels like around a third of those were killed by other PCs.

The thing is, when the players know the game is lethal, and the PCs know what they’re doing is dangerous, they both tend to be very careful, and a good lethal game will provide lots or mechanics that allow PCs to mitigate the danger. For instance, Eureka is primarily about investigation. The chances that the PCs will get involved in a shootout in any given session is very slim. Most Eureka adventures end up having between 0 and 2 instances of violent danger across the entire adventure. Additionally, that combat is mechanically deep. It is this depth that allows the PCs to make smart and informed decisions that make them less likely to die. For instance, cover mechanics and incremental range penalties that make those 4 bullets each a lot less likely to hit.

As for in-world length, that really depends of course, but we find that many of the game’s mechanics are best suited for adventures that last about 2-14 in-game days. The stuff that characters do in Eureka is usually a short, but extraordinary period of their lives.

That doesn’t mean that they can’t return for another aventure later, it just means that if you’re going to try to run a real big mystery, running it as several smaller mysteries is definitely the best way to do it. Just make absolutely sure that no one of those smaller mysteries needs to be solved or completed a certain way, or in fact needs to be be completed or solved at all, for anything about the larger mystery to work. In Eureka, success is never a guarantee.

This is a good thing, because it means that accomplishments are real, but also, Eureka is deliberately set up so that there’s entertainment value in seeing the PCs involve themselves in and be affected by the mystery, regardless of if they succeed or not, or even if they survive.

Another thing that you as GM I’ll need to do to run this kind of campaign is to make sure you know ALL the facts of the mystery before it starts. This is not something you can make up as you go along. This doesn’t mean coming up with the plot or how the PCs will solve the mystery, in fact you as GM shouldn’t interfere with that all, but you need to know exactly what the bad guys have done, are doing, and will do, and what evidence their doing has left behind. This means you’ll be prepared for whatever the PCs start snooping about, and if they do ask a question you didn’t anticipate, you’ll be able to answer from a place of knowledge informed by the existing facts you did write, rather than making something up completely.