Role Playing Games

Hello everyone! I don't have much experience, but one thing I learned while playing Troika! with my friends is that the more I prep the more forced the game will feel (at least to me). I think it has to do in part with the fact that I will more or less voluntarily try to steer players towards content I prepared (it's some kind of sunk-cost fallacy I think) and in part with me kind of knowing what to expect, making the game less enjoyable to DM. The best sessions have been the ones where I had two or three ideas and winged it, building upon what the players did or said and generally improvising. The biggest con to this approach is that it's hard to keep everything consistent and I'm constantly afraid of contradicting stuff I said before or just plain forgetting it. I want to start taking notes, but I'm also afraid of being distracted from the players while I jot down stuff. So I ask you what are your tips for a more immediate, "plug and play" style of playing. I'm not too interested in having a balanced game or telling intricate overarching plots, and I enjoy strange situations that require creative thinking the most (plus cool worlds and creatures/NPCs). I would love to find a way to start playing out of the blue like one does with boardgames (well, the casual ones everyone plays)

I am curious what house rules people play with when the game. This is mostly aimed at the 5E crowd but I am still curious what changes people think are so necessary there are House rules added for them.

In 5E we always played with Drinking a Potion was a bonus action if you had it 'on your belt'. Meaning everyone would have one potion they picked to be in a 'ready' state.

In 13th Age we allow a Potion to be drunk as a Quick Action if the player makes an Easy Save, on a fail they have to roll the save again on their next Quick Action.

In 5E we basically ignored Encumbrance and just made a judgement call is something was 'too much'. (13th Age already does this in the rules)

For a while now I've really been into an old Star Wars system called Saga Edition that I appreciate greatly for its ability to really customize a character. A major part of that customization comes from its use of a talent system instead of most other systems that automatically assign class features, and I'm curious if there are any other ttrpgs that use talents.

I'm pretty sure the Dragon Age ttrpg also uses them, but what other systems do, and are any of them still actively being produced?

Naturally, some games naturally lend themselves to more therapeutic uses than others; a game like Call of Cthulhu, where characters encounter horrors beyond space and time, may run counter to the goals of therapy, for example. Nevertheless, role-playing games, whether played online or in person, have proven to be highly beneficial for their players’ mental health. The games exist outside the pressures of everyday life, where normal rules don’t apply, allowing players to reflect on what is and what might be.

Looking to see if anybody has seen any MUD-related communities on any Lemmy out there.

Want some inspiration for wizard NPCs?

this is one of the largest and most comprehensive updates to the game yet, and I think the game will finally be in a content complete state and a stable testing state.

What is the Cypher System

The Cypher System is a setting-agnostic tabletop role playing game system designed by Monte Cook Games. It's less crunchy than D&D while still having a bit of math for the nerds in your party. Setting agnostic means it can be played in any setting and still make sense. You supply the story, Cypher is the mechanics. If building a whole new world isn't up your alley, then you can always try one of the currently published settings.

Old Gus' Cypher System Reference Document (OG-CSRD) aims to be an easy-to-use reference when running or playing a Cypher game.

The Cypher System Rulebook is a thick tome with a lot of stuff in it, but as it's setting-agnostic not all of that stuff is needed. You won't need any of the space or robot stuff if you're doing a fantasy game, for instance. That's where the OG-CSRD comes in handy. Ctrl + F your problems, or use the swanky hyperlinks. It's easier to navigate than the PDF version of the rule book, and it doesn't take up shelf space.

Settings

Monte Cook Games has released a number of settings. These add flavor to the base system and turn it into a full game. Most have a few premade adventures included to get you started. All settings require the Cypher System Rule Book (or OG-CSRD) to play.

Godforsaken - Sword and Sorcery

The Stars Are Fire - Sci-Fi and Space

Stay Alive - Spooky Horror

We Are All Mad Here - Alice in Wonderland Flavored

Claim the Sky - Modern Hopeful Superheroes

The Origin - Modern Gritty Superheroes

Unmasked - Eighties Dark Superheroes

First Responders - Exactly what it sounds like

Gods of the Fall - Celestial Fantasy

Predation - Time Travel and Dinosaurs

Stand Alone Games

There are also a few TTRPGs running on the Cypher System. Some are published by Monte Cook, others are licensing the system.

The Strange - You're basically an MTG Planeswalker

~~Old Gods of Appalachia - Eldritch Hillbillies~~

Vurt - Cyberpunk with questionable intimacy

Shotguns and Sorcery - Fantasy Noir

Upcoming Games

These aren't out yet, but the hype is real. It's Kickstarter and some untested creators, so bear with them.

Old Gods of Appalachia - Eldritch Hillbillies

Tidal Blades 2 - Fish, people, and fish-people

Harrow: The Blighted Plane - Burning Man Crystal Punk

Ptolus - Much loved, much less pronounced

And Many More

I mean, probably. I don't know everything, so feel free to add to the list.

Edit: I'm from the future and forgot that Old Gods of Appalachia isn't out for y'all yet. Fixed

Let's make a list of magic items that are flavourful and interesting! I'll start us off.

1. A fine tablecloth which, when placed on a table, conjures food, plates, and cutlery. The food is different every time, but always delicious and high-quality, conferring a minor rest/morale bonus. The table is always impeccably set. The food and everything else disappears if anyone at the table commits a breach of etiquette, no matter how minor. The tablecloth then has a cooldown period before it can be used again. (Depending on how clever your players are and how much you like watching them suffer, the tablecloth might have the relevant rule embroidered on it until the next time it's used.)
2. A pair of bracelets which, when worn, make all non-magical animals friendly. They don't allow for communication or taming -- "friendly" does not mean "subordinate", and the animals are still animal-level intelligent. The bracelets also make nearby animals friendly to each other: if you're petting a rabbit, a wolf will just nuzzle up next to it.
3. A laser gun that does no damage, but which causes its target to believe that whichever limb it hit was destroyed or severed.
4. A tamper-evident magical lock: fairly easy to pick, but the person attuned to it (or anyone who knows the activation phrase) can tell when it was last opened by touching it.
5. A clockwork bird that will fly in a path the user sets when activating it, but has no collision avoidance capability.
6. A fortune-telling implement (marked bones, crystal ball, etc) which doesn't provide any sort of divination ability, but makes other people believe the predictions the user makes with it.
7. An enchanted flare-gun that will draw a line in the sky between the user and the closest sapient creature that isn't within five meters.

So, I've been running the PF2E beginner box, which is like a tutorial adventure, for a group of 5 people (we play as long as at least 3 show up). The players had the option of playing any of the pregen "iconic" characters for Pathfinder. So far, we've had a fighter, witch, monk, swashbuckler, and summoner. Of those, only the witch has any sort of healing, and the witch player couldn't make our session last night.

The players went into this room that is meant to be like an optional miniboss (but there isn't really a way for them to have known that). The miniboss is this fire elemental rat that is supposed to teach you how "persistent damage" works. It's a very tough fight, and the elemental has a lot of defensive options like a cloud of smoke around it. Eventually the rat killed two party members (the swashbuckler and the monk), and one more (the fighter) went unconscious but didn't die. The last player (summoner) got chipped down to like 3 HP but was able to drag the fighter out of the fight to safety.

I think it was a good learning opportunity for the players that you need to be tactical and work together in PF2e, since they basically just all tried to attack the rat in melee. It also shows the value of having support characters in the party.

Going forward we are going to complete the beginner box, the two players who lost their PCs are going to play new pregens (bard and investigator). I'm hoping the players don't get too disillusioned with PF2e because it is very difficult at times.

I'd love to hear other Pathfinder GMs' thoughts. I'm still new, so it's possible I was doing something wrong, but I think I ran that fight the way it's meant to be run.

I was playing D&D 5e up until January. Then, with the OGL fiasco I decided to try learning Pathfinder 2e. I have been playing through the Beginner Box for that and I like it a lot more than D&D already!

Hi, welcome to the rpg comunity on lemmy.ca. Let's talk games!