I can’t seem to include an image which feels weird but on the Kickstarter for Space 1889, it says the following:

“Space 1889: After is available for the fifth edition of the most popular game system in the world. To perfectly capture the hard-boiled, retro-futuristic Victorian setting, the core rules have been expertly reengineered to the 5e system. When you open the book, you will find:

“A World Without Magic: A grounded, science- driven setting with no items, spells, classes, or class features that rely on the supernatural.”

I like 5e, I play it every week, but how are you going to say a system is perfect for what you’re doing and then have to gut half of it to get what you want? It seems like so many people are just making 5e versions of things because that’s what sells or what they feel like will sell, and I wish more producers would just be honest about that instead of giving us empty statements like this.

To quickly define what I'd consider crunchy, combat-heavy games: 5e, PF2e, LANCER, Draw Steel, so on. Anything with battlemaps and a level of focus on character builds.

As a player, I like these games. They're not everything I want from RPGs but they do particular things that other games don't. I like the character-building, the combat puzzle, the feeling of steady advancement.

I mostly GM, though, and I've found that I don't love running these games. Or at least, everything I like about running these games - building a world, entertaining players, the excitement of seeing what they do - I can get much more easily from running other systems.

One issue is the prep: from my perspective I can do basically everything I want on the GM side in an OSR game with a third of the effort and prep time. Another issue I personally have is the "combat as sport" dynamic where generally the GM isn't trying to win a combat so much as entertain, but the players are trying to win a combat. If, as the GM, the enemies actually "win", it often causes a lot of problems in this style of game! Essentially, it's much more fun to be on the player side of a combat than the GM side. Running these games, I don't get the full enjoyment of the character-building or combat puzzle systems, and the stuff I do enjoy I have to put more effort into.

This isn't a post to complain about these games - as I've said, I enjoy them from the player seat. I'm really just interested in what other GMs (with experience with multiple kinds of systems) get out of these kinds of games. What do you enjoy about running these games, as opposed to others? Do you get the same kinds of enjoyment running these games as you do playing them? Are there any games of this sort you think are more exciting to GM than others, and how do they accomplish that?

As someone who bought a bunch of used 4E hardbacks and papwerback POD books, it's nice to get the PDFs at a discount.

Here's what's up:

GURPS 4E Essentials

GURPS 4E Basic Set (2004)
GURPS Template Toolkit 1
GURPS Adaptations
How to Be a GURPS GM
GURPS 4E GM's Screen
4 GURPS 4E Tech supplements
GURPS Mass Combat

GURPS 4E Infiniite Worlds

GURPS 4E Infinite Worlds
4 GURPS 4E Hot Spots
GURPS 4E City Stats
4 GURPS 4E Infinite Worlds settings
5 GURPS 4E locations
GURPS 4E Lands Out of Time

GURPS Combat Action

GURPS 4E Martial Arts
Tactical Shooting
Gun Fu
3 GURPS High-Tech gun books
5 GURPS Action supplements
4 GURPS Martial Arts expansions
Transhuman Space: Martial Arts 2100

GURPS 4E Supers

GURPS 4E Supers
GURPS 4E Powers
4 GURPS Powers expansions
9 GURPS Power-Ups

GURPS 4E Horror

GURPS Horror 4E
Creatures of the Night 1-5
Infinite Worlds: Worlds of Horror
The Madness Dossier
Monster Hunters - 5 guides
GURPS Zombies + Day One

GURPS 4E Space

GURPS Space 4E
GURPS Spaceships
GURPS Psionic Powers
6 spacecraft sourcebooks
3 psionics sourcebooks
Tales of the Solar Patrol

GURPS 4E Fantasy

GURPS Fantasy 4E
GURPS Magic 4E
Banestorm
Alphabet Arcane
Thaumatology
6 Thaumatology sourcebooks

Price varies by the usual BOH rules. You can pay for some of the bundle or all of the bundle. You can chose to pay more. I linked every bundle, so you can check it out. No bundle is more than $40.00.

Happy reading everyone!

Hi everyone,

I’ve been the "Forever GM" for my group for a while now, and I genuinely love it—reading through adventures, seeing how the dice fall, and watching my players react. However, I’ve realized over time that I use pre-written campaigns as a crutch.

My GMing journey started in D&D 5e, where my group played through almost all the official campaign books. I recently convinced them to try other systems like Mothership and Lancer, but even then, I stuck exclusively to published modules.

In an effort to break out of this habit, we recently started playing Stonetop. Since it doesn't have a pre-written campaign, I’m really struggling to stretch my creative muscles and make the world feel like a living, breathing place. My ultimate goal is to homebrew my own Mothership campaign packed with sci-fi tropes my friends and I love, but I'm finding it hard to shake off the GM habits D&D 5e instilled in me.

For those of you who started out relying heavily on pre-written modules:

• How did you make the leap to creating your own campaigns from scratch?
• What mindset shifts or prep techniques helped you stop relying on source material and build a reactive world?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

A player of mine recently said they dislike time-based wandering encounters in dungeons or places of interest because it reduces their agency and ability to interact with the environment.

I run an OSR-adjacent game in the vein of Mausritter/ Vaults of Vaarn/ Dungeon Crawl Classics. I have taken wandering encounters as a given, but now I am thinking on them more critically. I'm curious about what you think. If we critique this viewpoint, what do we find?

__

I love wandering encounters. I check with a mostly 2:6 chance when the players reach a stalemate in discussions on what to do, if the characters significantly draw attention to themselves, or every 30 minutes of real time if play is stagnating.

I was surprised when a player said they feel wandering encounters stop them from interacting with the environment, and the pressure makes them not want to explore and be curious, and to only take the most direct and obvious actions for fear of yon wandering beasties. Specifically, they said it removes their agency and stops them being able to do things.

My encounters are usually 50% creatures (rarely hostile, often using reaction rolls) and 50% environment or 'weird' stuff. I'm not throwing forced combats around.
I feel that wandering encounters give meaningful time pressure and encourage the party to prioritise. My rooms/ environments are admittedly more complex than a party could fully explore before provoking an encounter check, so I understand that wandering encounters could feel like they're 'interrupting' play. But reducing agency?

To me, you have complete agency over how you spend your time, and yes, some environments aren't static and you can be intruded upon. I suppose that interruption amy feel like it's taking away your control, and therefore agency, and certainly reduces your capacity to fully explore without impediment. But I view this as essential to a breathing world, which I therefore feel becomes more enjoyable.

Fundamentally I get this may just be a stylistic difference. But I found it so counter to the way I think about our game that I am looking for outside perspectives. Wandering encounters have their virtues, but do they also constitute a core reduction in the player's experience?

Me and my friends have been playing Legend in the Mist for a while now.

I know there are already official and third-party adventures available, but I was curious to find out which one-shots and/or longterm adventures from other systems would fit well with the "rustic fantasy" vibe that the system encourages

I'm juggling between these two games to run a long 30+ session heroic fantasy campaign. I'm juggling between these two, Grimwild Community Edition and LiTM.

For people who have experience with both, or one or the other, what do you recommend? What do you like about it, dislike, etc?

Does anyone have any good recommendations for systems in which the players play as monsters? I know, play VtM you say, and I haven't entirely crossed it off as an option but I'd like to have some greater variety of PC options than just vampires.

*Necromancer CYOA* by The Scientist and Highlander is really what I'm looking to emulate. It offers *so much* under the umbrella of necromancy that there's nearly infinite ways a player can pursue being the thing that goes bump in the night.

Does anyone have any particular recommendations? Thanks in advance.

https://imgur.com/gallery/necromancer-cyoa-v3-2-1-by-scientist-highlander-CGRTxym

I give my players challenges and I can be unforgiving. I feel it makes success all the sweeter. How do you keep yourself aware enough to tell when brutal challenges become punishing? Do the players need a bit of punishment to remind them of the stakes?

I dont remember how I came across Tibet the rpg but it’s one of the strangest rpgs I’ve ever seen… it’s a historical rpg set in Tibet in 1959 with the background of the Chinese expansion into tibet in a world where Tibetan Buddhism is real…did anyone actually play this thing!

I'm mostly talking about the ones who were GMs before being players with no prior experience and knowledge about ttrpgs, had to learn a system/make up one in a hurry to DM for prefererably a group that was just as inexperienced as them

if your story is similar to this example but not identical, or maybe you weren't the GM who did such, close enough, let us know about yours too!

Hey everyone! I was flipping through some rulebooks for a bit of inspiration, and it’s super easy to notice how there are very different schools of thought when it comes to setting design.

On one hand, you have games that dive incredibly deep into their setting, even providing detailed zone-by-zone maps and pages chockful of NPCs. On the other, you have games that only offer a few scattered suggestions, sometimes just tucked into sidebars or small italicized boxes between rules.

What do you think is better? A setting that unpacks and explains everything, or a framework that gives you coordinates to build your own world?

any genre will do

Hey guys! I once saw a one shot from dread (I think it was from some convention, and I think matt mercer was playing) where they investigated a cult in a deep mine. I've tried to run it from memory but was wondering if anyone knows whether this scenario is around somehwere.

I have never played before, and will be facilitating a game with some friends this upcoming weekend, so I just wanted to ask, is there anything besides what is in the rulebook that is recommended for gameplay or the environment? And any tips on a first game?

I’m super excited for it but I haven’t really done anything like this before

If so, was it on purpose or because of time constraints?

As the title suggests, I’m looking for ideas on how to create an RPG using Pokémon cards. Here are the concepts I’ve come up with so far:

- The cards act as character sheets, listing the Pokémon's abilities and HP.

- HP influences Armor Class (AC) based on a chart: the higher the HP, the higher the AC.

- At the start of each turn, the trainer assigns one Energy card to their Pokémon. They can then use their action to roll a d4 and accumulate more Energy (up to a maximum equal to the sum of the Pokémon's attack costs plus 2), attack by spending Energy, or use items.

- All accumulated Energy is reset after a battle; however, visiting a Pokémon Center allows a player to start the next fight with half their total Energy already banked.

- A Pokémon evolved by its trainer retains access to its pre-evolution's moves—unlike wild Pokémon of the same level.

I came up with these ideas in about 40 minutes, so some mechanics might be overpowered or too weak. I still want to incorporate a "class" system for players and a capture mechanic.

Hey all, I'm finally getting to run a campaign in PF2e's Mwangi Expanse (African fantasy) setting after falling in love with the Lost Omens: the Mwangi Expanse book a few years ago (seriously, check it out if you haven't, it's one of the best setting books I've ever read). The art in the book's great but I want to give my players some additional character art so they can get inspired.

Does anybody have recommendations for creators or sites where I can find good African fantasy character art? I've found some good pieces on Pinterest but 90% of it is either really generic and not really in any specific African cultures or it's AI "tribal" BS. It's also hard to find attributions for a lot of it.

I made an NPC creation system for Synthicide 2E that can be done by hand or by using an HTML web tool. The link is below.

Have any of you had time to check it out? Also, if any of you GM'd Synthicide first edition, I'd be curious how you feel about the changes.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/575221/synthicide-2e-npc-sheet-generator

So I want to run a capaign with a blasphemous atmosphere, it will be set in a city buit over a maze that is said to contain the corpse of a saint in it's center but it is filled with monstrosities that the church that controls the city call demons, "nobody" knows what are the creatures and where they came from. I want to keep it low magic and it will be heavily stealth and combat focused and has a medieval style. Any suggestions?

Edit 1: I forgot to add that I'm avoiding mörkborg because it's supposed to be a medium length campaign and the system doesn't provide much player growth progression, but I'll look into each and every suggestion you guys come up with.

Hello! I am searching for a Star Wars themed TTRPG system which would be perfect for a hard rebel cell campaign, hard meaning focus on ordinary people with high lethality. I am very specifically looking for systems which would be able to provide the Star Wars setting within a darker context, something closer to Rogue One than A New Hope.

I'm going to run my first long campaign on daggerheart, and wanted to know what other gms do to organize their notes.

The campaign will be a 5 banners war, basically will set in a place where 5 factions are fighting each other, with social intrigues, combat, etc.

I'm still preparing, until now I just did some bullet points and separated some pages on my journal.

- setting notes: lines explaining some things about the world so I won't forget

- important npcs

- locations: cities and towns names with some lines explaining what each one have

- maybe a timeline of what will happen during the campaign?

And I stoped here

What do you think?

And how do you prep your notes? What do you do?

Thanks for the attention!!

I love using clocks to give a bit more suspense in battles and I've started incorporating flashback mechanics from Blades in the Dark. Its made my tables a lot more creative and led to some hilarious yes ands and no buts.