#any recs? i probably won't be able to get through many more tbh

[misscrazyfangirl321]

I wonder how much Alice in Wonderland content-books, retellings, movies, etc.-I could consume in a month.

HM.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

top 5 ttrpgs for beginners

Sorry that this one took me a bit longer to answer than all the other Top 5 asks :p i wanted to explain a bit of my reasoning behind it and this gave me q chance to ramble a bit about something that bothers me lol

So, first of all I want to talk about what TO ME makes something a good beginner RPG.

Ramble:

I've talked a bit in the past about how I have sort of a bone to pick with the way so many people, when asked for recs for beginner TTRPGs, immediately decide to recommend extremely rules-light/minimalist/one-page RPGs (Hacks of Lasers&Feelings in particular seem to be somewhat popular on this front), when IMO these types of RPGs are at their best when played by an experienced group (or at the very least with least one very experienced player/GM who can provide some guidance to the others). I think a lot of ppl seem to have the impression that simpler mechanics inherently make a game more beginner-friendly, and that thus the most beginner-friendly games are inherently gonna be the ones with the simplest mechanics. And while this is true to an extent (a 700-page RPG with tons of complicated mechanics to remember is obviously gonna be inaccessible to beginners), when you consider that mechanics exist to DELEGATE decisions about the fiction away from the players and the GM so that they don't have to manually arbitrate them every time, there is point where less mechanics are gonna make harder for new players because it means there's more thing they're gonna have to find a way to arbitrate on and decide by themselves, and that's a skill that takes time to develop. An experienced group can probably get a ton of mileage out of a system that essentially ammounts to "the GM describes the world. The players describe what their characters do, and the GM describes how the world reacrs. When the outcome of a player action is uncertain, then [simple resolution mechanic]" but a beginner group is gonna be a little lost. Especially if the game, like many of these types of games, includes practically nothing in terms of GM tools. So I think recommending beginner RPGs solely on the base of how simple they are is well-intentioned but misguided.

(Ramble over)

So, some of what, to me, makes something a good beginner RPG is

Rules provide enough support that the group won't have to constantly be figuring out how to adjudicate stuff on the fly, but they're simple and flexible enough that they're easy to remember and learning them doesn't feel like a daunting task like it does with a certain game (*cough cough* D&D)

Relatively short and uni timidating. Maybe between like 20 and 100 pages. Players should be able to read through the rules and mechanics in one sitting.

Plenty of examples of play, often a good example of play is what makes a game's rules really *click* for a new player.

Relatively quick and painless to start running for the first time. Character creation should be quick and snappy, and if possible a short pre-written adventure (hopefully with some room to be expanded into something larger) should be included within the same book and ready to run out of the box. Even if your group doesn't like using prewritten adventures, having a *good* prewritten adventure can be a huge help in understanding how to write/design them.

Solid set of GM tools and resources (if it's a game with a GM, of course)

Optionally, plenty of compatible material to either use or take inspo from.

So, I think my recs would for beginner games would be...

Mausritter

If any of you have EVER heard me talk about RPGs you knew Mausritter was gonna be here TBH. I've repeatedly talked about it being one of my favorite RPGs and also that I consider it pretty much an ideal introduction to the hobby. I think the woodland critter theme is extremely charming and attractive for people of any age, while the slightly darker elements that rear their head from time to time keep it from feeling too childish.

The mechanics are simple and flexible but still provide enough structure that even a new GM will rarely if ever be at a loss about how to resolve a particular action. They're familiar to anyone who's played a dungeon game while still being extremely streamlined. 3 stats with the main action resolution being roll-under tests, no classes, characters are defined mostly by their inventory, all attacks auto hit and initiative is extremely streamlined, which keeps combat quick and dynamic, etc. And the mechanics are pretty short and esy to digest too, the players' section of the rulebook only takes 18 pages, including stuff like inventory tables and examples of play, and the website features a handy one.page rules summary (which also comes with the box set)

It's super easy to get running: character creation takes a couple minutes at most, and it features both a simple adventure and hexcrawl that can be used right out of the box with plenty of interesting directions to expand for further adventures.

Now, Mausritter takes most of its mechanics from Into The Odd, so a lot of its virtues come to it, but I think the few changes it made DO make mausritter most beginner-friendly, such as its inventory system which makes inventory management into a genuine challenge without having it devolve into a slog of tedious book-keeping, and the incorporation of a streamlined version of GloG's magic system, which manages to still be simple and easy without being as loose and freeform as the magic system from a lot of OSR games of similar complexity (which can be initially daunting to new players)

But what REALLY makes mausritter shine IMO is the extremely solid set of GM tools. In just a few pages mausritter manages to provide simple rules, procedures, generators and advice for running faction play, making an engaging hexcrawl, making adventure sites, and generating stuff like treasure hoards, NPCs, an adventure seeds and overal just a ton of useful stuff that takes a huge load off of the shoulders of any beginner GM.

Cairn

Lets say you're into Mausritter mechanically but your players aren't into the whole woodland creature theme and want to play something more traditional. Cairn is also built on Into The Odd's system, and takes inspiration from some of the same sources, so it's very similar mechanically. It does feature some significant differences regarding magic, character advancement, and how injury and healing work, but overall it's still mostly the same system under the hood, so a lot of what I said makes Mausritter a great introduction to the hobby mechanically still applies here (quick and flavorful character creation, dynamic and streamlined but dangerous combat, etc). It's also a classless system that features msotly inventory-defined characters, but aside from the option to randomly roll your gear, the game also offers the option of picking a gear package in case you wanna emulate a particular fantasy archetype.

Now, Cairn is a much more barebones document, and doesn't even feature examples of play or an explicit GM section with resources for running the game, which breaks with the things I said I look for in a beginner RPG. However, in this case I'm willing to forgive this because, first, Cairn's website features a plethora of first party and third party stuff that isn't featured in the book itself, including examples of play, GM procedures and tools, modular rules, and a wealh of conversions of creature stat blocks and adventures from D&D and other fantasy adventure ttrpgs.

And Second, something different that specifically distinguishes Cairn as a good example of a beginner RPG is how it explicitly outlines its philosophical and design principles, and the principles of play for both the GM and the players before it even shows you any rules, which is something that I think more games and ESPECIALLY begginer games should do. IMO the whole book is worth it just for that little section.

Troika!

Troika is a game built on the Fighting Fantasy system (which originally was less of a TTRPG system and more of an engine for a series of choose-your-own-adventure books) with a really interesting pseudo-victorian space opera weird gonzo setting which is a load of fun. It has very simple 2d6 mechanics, with characters having three stats (Stamina, Skill, and Luck), and being mostly defined by their inventory and the special skills from their background. Character creation is quick and snappy. The game gives you 36 weird and extremely creative character backgrounds, but creating a custom background is as easy as coming up with a concept and the names of a couple special skills that support that concept. It also has a very unique initiative system which might be a little divisive but which I DO find fun an interesting.

While it lacks many of the GM tools I praised Mausritter for, it makes up a little bit for it with an initial adventure that does a wonderful job at naturally introducing the weirdness of the setting, and which at the end presents a ton of opportunities to segway into a variety of urban adventures.

Now, a lot of beginners come into RPGs specifically looking for a D&D-type fantasy game (which is a problem because D&D is a pretty bad option for a beginner RPG) so for those types of players I would recommend

The Black Hack

The Black Hack is probably my favorite game for doing D&D-style fantasy roleplaying. It's a game that at its core uses the original 1974 white box edition of D&D for inspiration, but modernizes, reimagines, and streamlines every aspect of it to be one of the most simple yet elegant D&D-like experiences out there. For example, TBH uses the six stat array that all D&D players know and love, and with the same 3-18 point range, but does away with the attribute score / attribute modifier dichotomy, instead building its entire system around the attribute scores, with all rolls in the game being roll-under tests for a relevant attribute (including initiative, attack/defense rolls, and saving throws). It also innovated some extremely elegant mechanics that went on to be very influential for other games, such as its Usage Die mechanic as a way to streamline keeping track of consumable resources. Basically, it's like if D&D actually played the way it looks in cartoons and stuff: character creation doesn't take 3 hours, every combat encounter doesn't take five hours, and you can place some emphasis on resource management without the game making you want to tear your hair out with boring bookkeeping.

And one of the coolest things about it is the way it handles compatibility. Despite taking loose at best mechanical inspiration from D&D and playing very differently from it, TBH is intentionally designed to be compatible with a wealth of old-school D&D material. While it very clearly stands as its own distinct game, it's designed in such a way that you can prety much grab any creature stat block or adventure module written for any pre-3e version of D&D and use it in The Black Hack with little to no effort in conversion required.

The first edition of the game is a pretty barebones 20-page booklet that just describes the basic game mechanics, since it was assumed you'd probably be using D&D creature stat blocks and adventures with it anyway, but the second edition was significantly expanded with a bestiary, expanded GM procedures and advice, and tool for creating anything you could want: Hexcrawls, towns, dungeons, quests, treasure hoards, NPCs, dungeon rooms, traps, secrets doors, etc. plus a short premade adventure and even a few premade unkeyed dungeon maps that you can take and key yourself if you're in a pinch for a map, which as you all know, I think GM tools are an important part of a beginner game.

The game only includes the 4 basic classes from old-school D&D (fighter, thief, cleric, magic user) but the community has made several supplements adding back more modern classes.

Now, if you're that type of player that wants a D&D-like experience and you want an alternative that's still beginner-friendly but doesn't deviate as much from D&D's design, I would suggest:

either Basic Fantasy, or Old-School Essentials (or any good retroclone of Basic D&D tbh)

BF and OSE differ a bit from each other but at their core they're both attempts to repackage a relatively faithful but slightly modernized version of the 1981 Basic/Expert D&D set, retaining mostly the same mechanics while ditching a few of the aspects that might seem counterintuitive to a modern audience (such as descending AC, which I personally don't mind but I udnerstand why a lot of people find it confusing). I'm recommending these bc I think if you're gonna play any actual D&D product, the B/X set represents D&D at its most beginner-friendly (character creation is at its quickest and simplest, combat flows faster and remain itneresting due to doing side initiative rather than individual initative, the mechanics forsurprise, stealth, and dungeon exploration actions such as looking for traps are streamlined to simple D6 rolls) while still being recognizably D&D and these retroclones put in a bit of an extra effort to make them even more accessible to modern audiences.

Now, just like The Black Hack, these retroclones are limited in their race/class choice to the classic old-school D&D human/halfling/elf/dwarf and fighter/cleric/thief/magic user, but in the case of Basic Fantasy, the community has made several race and class supplements, some of which are showcased on the official website, and in the case of OSE, the OSE: Advanced addon reintroduces many of the modern classes and races that were originally introduced in the Advanced D&D line.

Have in mind that this list is pretty limited by my own tastes and experiences. I'm very aware that the very specific type of game I tend to play and like and experiences inroducing some of my friends to the hobby completely color the scope of what I can recommend as a good beginner RPG, and that that scope is significantly limited. I also like more narrative storygame type stuff, and I don't doubt that some of them would also make a fantastic introduction to the hobby (some PbTA stuff like Ironsworn, Dungeon World and Monster of the Week comes to mind) but my experience with them is not significant enough for me to feel confident in telling which of them are good beginner RPGs.

Also note that there are several games that I consider to be more MECHANICALLY beginner-friendly than the ones I listed here, but that I avoided mentioning specifically because they offer extremely little to no support in terms of GM tools, which I think is an important and often overlooked aspect of beginner-friendliness for any game that includes a GM! But they still might be worth checking out. These include games like DURF, FLEE, OZR, A Dungeon Game, Bastards, Dungeon Reavers, Knave 1e, and Tunnel Goons.

[panlyv]

Hey Dawn! Idk where else to ask this but do you have any Classic Chanonpom Fics to rec me? Idk where to start 😔

hi anon!!! i hope you are well! and sorry for taking a while to answer, i wanted to reply to u right away but uni and work have been enslaving me 😖

ANYWAYS!!!!! ah yes *disney villain laugh* yes i do have them hehehehe

a warning: this ask will probably be a little long bc i have no restraint when it comes to talking about my favourite fanfics, especially when they are the gifted related, so im very sorry beforehand lmao but let’s get into it!!!!!!

ok let’s start with probably one of my ultimate favourite chanonpom fics written by the one and only love of my life alexa @scrubbfantine 💞🥺 the fanfic was based on these very extensive tags i wrote on one of alexa’s web weaving posts and when they really wrote it i deadass started crying lmaooooo but the fic in question is ‘is this too much to expect’ and.... i re-read it basically every month, it makes me so stupidly happy and warm 🥺🥺🥺 im so So lucky to have an amazing friend like alexa who writes SO WELL and made this little something for me 🥺 please read this fic anon, it has the gifted kids being just kids, it has domestic chanonpom, chanon being a flirt and pom being so happy he doesn’t know what to do with himself. it’s just. perfection

moving on to ‘small things are spectacular sights’ written by the supreme chanonpom clown king himself rahul @petekaos !!!! this is one of the most wholesome things ive ever read and it fills me with joy just thinking about it 🥰🥺 the dynamics between the kids and pom are EVERYTHING and rahul is able to do this thing where you can Feel how much chanon and pom love each other by the way he writes them. it’s magic!!!!!!!! this fic helped me get through the end of tgg and tbh rahul would make every gmmtv scriptwriter unemployed if he wanted to, those people really need to read rahul’s work and start taking some notes smh chanonpom had so much potential to be So Good but ... u know how it went down. there’ll be more of rahul’s work in this ask but let it be known that he basically invented fix-it fanfics with what he writes for chanonpom

ok nowwwww it’s ‘a privilege to know and forget’ also written by alexa, and GOD. alexa can write the BEST background fics(???) like take a scene from the actual show and they make it BETTER. and that’s what a privilege to know and forget is, a look into what could’ve happened the day pang and wave face pom in the warehouse and force him to remember all the things that tormented him still but that he couldn’t name. it’s angsty and i LOVE me some angst. this fic is chef’s kiss

anon are you ready to cry but also die of happiness??? then ‘my weary heart has come to rest in yours’ is for you!!!!!!!!!!!! another one of rahul’s great masterpieces, this is set when chanon and pom were at ritdha and it’s lowkey an enemies to lovers au (tho as rahul stated in the tags of the fic, pom doesn’t really hate chanon, he just wants to believe he does). it’s a very enjoyable read and it will make you smile like a dumbass sometimes, but hey. it’s chanonpom. no one can help it

next we have ‘out of the blue’, which is one of the many interpretations of how chanon and pom reconnected after pom regained his memories (because we pretend s2 canon doesn’t exist ❤️). written by a legend (alexa) as the secret santa gift for another legend (rahul). the dialogue here is just ........ idk man. makes me feel a Lot. and it’s the Only way for them to reunite that would actually make sense, because chanon would NEVER do what he did. NEVER. wtf was that ooc clownery ❤️ but we don’t need to worry about that bc alexa’s got our back

.........ok *deep breath* im sobbing just thinking about this one. since we started this off with one of my absolute faves, let’s end it with The Number One chanonpom fic in my heart: ‘even if the world changes (can you promise we won't change?)’ aka the aftermath fic

this fic is Very Long. but it's totally completely 100% worth it. rahul..... idk he channelled all the hurt, the longing, the pain, the fear, the hesitation that both chanon and pom feel after the way they crossed paths again in tgg

it's absolute brilliance anon. i SWEAR. ive never read anything that made me feel as much as this fic did. again, as i said before, rahul just. writes chanonpom in the rawest way, he makes you understand and feel all the unspoken feelings between them, their love that is so repressed because they are scared but also so unbearably loud it almost drives you insane.

the aftermath fic is the BEST fix-it you could ever ask for ever in your life. it gives chanonpom the ending they deserved, which wasn't easy, but that they fought for. it begins with the balcony scene from ep12 of tgg and the way that exchange should've been, and what should've come after it.

i need to stop myself before writing a whole love letter about this fanfic, but it's just so incredibly good, anon, that i could talk about it all day. in fact i did, and still do lmaoooo all of these pics are memes i made after i read it because rahul deserves the hype and i need every single soul on earth to read it idc if you haven't seen the gifted just. READ IT.

seriously anon please Please do yourself a favour and read the aftermath fic. it has hurt/comfort, an amazing character development, food as a metaphor for love, chanon and pom slowly learning how to let the other in and how to forgive each other and themselves for all that happened, and of course, it has the gifted kids being basically chanonpom's actual children. which reminds me.... as if all this wasn't enough, it also has the most wholesome epilogue of all times

OK. OK ok im done. i just can't help it when it comes to the aftermath fic. but

i wish i could add all the memes i made for the aftermath fic but tumblr is homophobic and limits me at 10 images smh......

anyways!!! i hope you can enjoy these fics anon and please let me know your thoughts if you do end up reading them!!!!!