Tabletop role-playing general chat

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PCG Robin

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When I'm not PC gaming, one of my biggest loves is tabletop role-playing - and I bet I'm not alone around here. So let's chat - what games are you running/playing in? What systems do you like? Are there any upcoming books you're looking forward to? Do you have any questions about the hobby?

I'm one of those people who's always the DM and barely ever a player. I'm currently running a dungeon-crawling fantasy campaign, but with the twist that the party are all just dogs. It makes for some interesting challenges - they're smart, but they can't speak, they don't have hands, and frankly they're easily distracted by sausages. I'm using my go-to system for anything light and action-heavy: Savage Worlds.

As for games I'm looking forward to: I backed Grant Howitt's new game Heart: The City Beneath on Kickstarter, and I'm really excited to get that. Sort of a surreal, scary take on D&D dungeon crawls, where you play a bunch of weirdos trying to survive a Lovecraftian living dungeon. As a big Warhammer geek I'm also eagerly awaiting the new Age of Sigmar RPG Soulbound, though I think I'll struggle to find anyone to play it with me...

What about you guys?
 
Jan 13, 2020
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Have loved Pen&Paper RPGs since I was introduced to D&D in the early 90's. These days I try to stay away from D&D/Pathfinder in favor of less crunchy, more atmospheric systems.

I'm currently playing in an Urban Shadows campaign, a system which I adore for it's ability to evoke 90's Buffy/Blade atmospherics and drama, while still being flexible to tell whatever dark supernatural stories you'd like. Or be a vampire who owns a nightclub (because of course).

The game I'm GMing right now is in a modified GENESYS system, which I've bent to using tarot cards for a magic system. It's super chaotic, improv-y and so much fun! All of my players are new to RPGs, so it's been a blast seeing them all grow into role-players.
 
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I'm the type to roleplay in most tabletop games - I had a BLAST being the Dwarf character in Clank Legacy (an incredible ultimate semi-coop dungeon crawl, btw!).

Mice and Minions was great fun too - with cute characters even the most die-hard non-RP folk seem to get into it. I bet there is a psychological thesis opportunity there, hehe.

I've been roleplaying since I was 4, I don't see this changing any time soon. :)
 
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I have two games of D&D 5e a week, one where I play, and one where i DM, as well as play in a Shadowrun 5e game. My true rare treat though is when I get to run Call of Cthulhu 7e for my friends. It's now a halloween tradition for D&D to pause for october as I run the party through some horror.
 
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These are my recs:

Vurt the Tabletop RPG is based on Jeff Noon's epic 90s cyberpunk novels. It's a Cypher System game like Numenera and was nominated for Best Game and Best RPG at the Origin and Gen Con awards. It's a mix of cyberpunk and drug-fueled dreamscapes.

Cyberpunk 2020 is an all-time classic with a new edition coming out soon. The original edition is super cool but you need to home-brew some rules in my opinion. Hopefully Red will fix this.

The One Ring by Cubicle 7 is a must see for Lord of the Rings fans. So awesome.
 
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I'm so far just a player, though I've been eyeing GMing from afar since high school. D&D 5e Adventurer's League is where I started. I've also collected a decent amount of the Star Wars D6 books, and have spent a lot of time pouring over them.
 
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I've also collected a decent amount of the Star Wars D6 books, and have spent a lot of time pouring over them.

If you're into Star Wars—and willing to take a look at a new system—I really cannot recommend Fantasy Flight's new books enough. Edge of the Empire is a fantastic, immersive game with mechanics that really aid in telling Star Wars stories of heroic adventures surrounded by scum and villainy.

The framework of that RPG—The GENESYS system—is the best thing going in the RPG space at the moment.
 
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PCG Robin

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If you're into Star Wars—and willing to take a look at a new system—I really cannot recommend Fantasy Flight's new books enough. Edge of the Empire is a fantastic, immersive game with mechanics that really aid in telling Star Wars stories of heroic adventures surrounded by scum and villainy.

The framework of that RPG—The GENESYS system—is the best thing going in the RPG space at the moment.

Just to warn both of you - it sounds like Fantasy Flight have recently let go all their RPG writers so I'd expect them to drop support for all their RPGs in the near future.
 
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If you're into Star Wars—and willing to take a look at a new system—I really cannot recommend Fantasy Flight's new books enough. Edge of the Empire is a fantastic, immersive game with mechanics that really aid in telling Star Wars stories of heroic adventures surrounded by scum and villainy.

The framework of that RPG—The GENESYS system—is the best thing going in the RPG space at the moment.
Just to warn both of you - it sounds like Fantasy Flight have recently let go all their RPG writers so I'd expect them to drop support for all their RPGs in the near future.
I guess I have to give it a shot, belsaas! I've heard good things about the FFG system since it was released. My love for West End Star Wars comes mainly from its D6 system and the connections it has to EU novels. When Timothy Zahn was writing the original Thrawn trilogy, he was sent a bunch of West End SW source books as his technical/lore guides to the universe and used them extensively, which is a nerdy detail I just love.

Thank you for the heads up, Robin. I remember some discussion taking place about this on the r/boardgames subreddit when the news dropped. It sounded like there was hope FFG might contract out their RPG writer work instead of just dropping everything; do you think this is a possibility?
 
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Just to warn both of you - it sounds like Fantasy Flight have recently let go all their RPG writers so I'd expect them to drop support for all their RPGs in the near future.
I love FF and was really interested in the Genesis (sp?) system and Star Wars games. but after reading through the rules, with the dice a aaah god, I had to put it down.
 

PCG Robin

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Thank you for the heads up, Robin. I remember some discussion taking place about this on the r/boardgames subreddit when the news dropped. It sounded like there was hope FFG might contract out their RPG writer work instead of just dropping everything; do you think this is a possibility?

Fingers crossed. I can't claim any insider knowledge but the impression I got was they're basically jettisoning the parts of the business that aren't very profitable (they also killed their videogame division) in favour of those that are (FFG make a killing on board games), possibly to prepare it to be sold.

The two things about FFG that make me less than optimistic are:
a) Even a big, successful RPG business will still only be making peanuts when you look at the bigger picture. In FFG's case, they make good money on their board games - from an investor point of view, why bother messing around with RPGs too if they're less profitable? Similar thing happened with Games Workshop about 15 years ago - they dropped all support for their RPG stuff something like a week after their latest release sold out on preorders, because even doing as well as it possibly could it was still nothing next to selling minis.

b) A lot of FFG's successful RPG lines are based on big licenses. Typically those agreements are ridiculously expensive and don't take into account the relatively low profits of RPGs. I suspect they pay hand-over-fist for something as big as Star Wars, and thus need to be going hard on it to make it worth their time. If they do continue putting out a slower stream of freelanced stuff going forward, I wouldn't anticipate any of it being licensed - it'd be much safer to do that with original properties. Unless their license for Star Wars wargames and board games also covers RPGs? In which case this might not apply.

I might be completely off-base on all of this though! I hope I am. I've had my misgivings about FFG's RPGs in the past, but I've also had a lot of fun with them, and I think they've been a really great, vibrant addition to the scene.
 
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Mknott

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We try and get together weekly for rotating sessions.

We've got an Arkham Horror LCG campaign ongoing at the moment that is an absolute blast. It's the third one we've done and I can't recommend it enough. Be warned, it is totally unfair and there are sessions where you will be overawed at how much nonsense the game pulls out to kill you. All in keeping with the theme.

Along the same lines, Mansions of Madness is still one of my top experience games. Just good spooky fun.

We also have a D&D campaign that I'm running. RPG's have been my oldest love for tabletop sessions and the group I play with have never done it before, so I get to see them realise they have absolute freedom within reason and fall in love with the storytelling side of things.

On the FFG side, don't be afraid to pick up a box and run an adventure. It's extremely fun and pretty much a complete line at this point. Just getting Edge of the Empire will give you a great Star Wars experience that you can customize and have a lot of fun with. Just having a few sets of the custom dice means you can always delve in a little when you want to via cheap PDF's or running a custom adventure.

It's a really fun system and great for thematic play.
 

PCG Joanna

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Currently a part of a bi-weekly Call of Cthulhu campaign and loving every second of it. Also helping a writer friend beta test a table top RPG of his. He recently released one as well, which I'm currently learning. (It's called The Great American Novel, if you're interested.) I also love table top games like Ten Candles and Bedlam Hall—one-shot games. I also just got the rule book to Cyberpunk 2020 and currently trying to get a group together for that. I've taken a break from Vampire: The Masquerade after playing it for over a decade, but I'm sure I'll return to it at some point. Lots of exploration going on in the table top world for me!
 
I'm in a few on again / off again campaigns for Earthdawn, Exalted, and Shadowrun. I have to say I think I enjoy the systems for Exalted the most. I have all the core books and supplements, for those, and for Vampire the Masquerade. Gotta give it up for old school White Wolf.

Roll20 works out great for distance gaming, highly recommended if your group hasn't checked it out yet.
 
Not to long ago I started a campaign (your typical fantasy setting) for my nephews, but instead of using an older system, I invented my own using a hybrid of the AC/AP system in Divinity: Original Sin 2 with a simplified GURPS character sheet. I opened up for some flexibility depending on how they are playing, so if I feel that I have made a too hard nut to crack or a fight is too complicated, I tune it down a bit on the get-go. I use different ambient sounds depending on where the adventure is set, as a way to give it a bit more realism and fun for the youngster.

My hope is that I manage to make it enjoyable and not too strict, as that was my experience when I was first introduced to tabletop games. I also have to add that I am horrible at calculating, so I reckon that might also have something to do with just that.
 
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Any other DMs/GMs here? I'm running a session (5e) for the first time next week and I'm curious to see how other people run their encounters. I'm trying to adopt a minimalist approach in life and therefore don't want to overburden myself too much with minis or anything like that, but want something a little more visual than imagination.
 

Mknott

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Any other DMs/GMs here? I'm running a session (5e) for the first time next week and I'm curious to see how other people run their encounters. I'm trying to adopt a minimalist approach in life and therefore don't want to overburden myself too much with minis or anything like that, but want something a little more visual than imagination.


I've swung the extreme opposite direction recently and made scenery and minis for our sessions one of my main hobbies. It's a kind of madness that just gets deeper the more you delve into it.

A dry erase grid map is perfect for what you're after. It gives you flexibility over all your encounters with barely any setup or storage. The official one is actually pretty decent.

For PC's, NPC's and creature's you can use tokens. Google search gets you a massive amount and you can either print off the ones you like and stick them to card or pick up some of the packs online. I'd highly recommend a mix of visual and imagination where necessary. If an encounter is going to be relatively quick, or mostly social, then you can run it without setup.
 
Any other DMs/GMs here? I'm running a session (5e) for the first time next week and I'm curious to see how other people run their encounters. I'm trying to adopt a minimalist approach in life and therefore don't want to overburden myself too much with minis or anything like that, but want something a little more visual than imagination.

For IRL sessions, I always used a dry erase map, different coloured pawns for the players and Scrabble tokens for the monsters (using appropriate letters whenever possible). I also had some random other game pieces, like checkers, in case I needed to put something else on the map.

However, I think for most minor encounters you can just do it in your imagination. Pausing the game to draw out a scene on a map is not really necessary if the combat is really straight forward anyway. If you're going to use a map, only do so for encounters where the terrain and positioning actually matters.
Unless your players really prefer a map of course and don't mind waiting for it to be set up.
 
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Oh, I just started DMing a new game last night! My players want me to be involved, so they make me create a character to be in the party. I treat him as an NPC and let the party talk to him or let him gently push them in a certain direction if they are really struggling to figure something out. Well, he's a monk who worships the moon, and another party member is a paladin who worships the sun... let's just say when they were left alone together for the first time, their interaction was pretty hostile. I'm excited to watch and see if they'll eventually grow to like each other or if something else happens.
 
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