Before anyone immediately comments "have an adult conversation with your group" or "this should’ve been handled in Session 0", please hear me out. I’m not angry at them. They’re my closest friends. I just feel deeply, quietly pathetic.

I’ve been running our campaign for about seven months. Last week, I had what I thought was an inspired idea for their investigation in the capital. I spent my entire Sunday afternoon writing three separate in-world letters, printing them in calligraphy, staining them with black tea, and even sealing them with actual red wax. I felt so proud of it.

Fast forward to tonight. They finally breach the magistrate’s study where the letters were. I set the real wax-sealed props in front of them with a grin, expecting some gasp of excitement. The barbarian player glanced at them, didn't even break the seal, and went, "Can I just roll an Investigation check to see if the desk is expensive? I want to chop it up." Everyone laughed, the wizard cast Fire Bolt to distract the guards outside, and they moved on.

They didnt even pick the props up. I just quietly slipped them back into my folder while they spent 45 minutes debating whether to adopt a stray goat. I know it’s just a hobby with plastic dice, but man... do I just have completely unrealistic expectations, or is running a game always just an exercise in emotional masochism?

I'm a forever GM and I've noticed something that might sound too mean, but I say with the bottom of my heart. Most players write terrible characters. It's their characters so I usually don't bring it up to them, but most players write characters that are bad for a variety of reasons.

Common reasons I've noticed are that they mistake elaborate backstory for an interesting character, writing characters that are written with one specific character arc in mind, characters who are too mysterious so nobody in the party ends up caring about them, one-dimensional personalities and etc.

This isn't a post about me venting about players, as I would normally just keep this to myself since I don't want to judge and the good lord knows my players could find way worse things to pick apart about the settings and adventures I write.

But then I noticed, when writing settings and adventures, I have lots of guidance. There's tons of advice on how to write a good setting, adventure design and all that. While a lot of this information can be found in blogs, videos and other sources, it can also be found in the rulebooks of the TTRPGs that I'm actually playing. The Dungeon Master's Guide has tons of useful information on worldbuilding, adventure design, setting up campaigns and all that stuff.

Meanwhile, the Player's Handbook's guidance for writing interesting characters is to just come up with a concept. This extends to almost every TTRPG I've ever read, that players just need to come up with a concept without any guidance on how to make an interesting concept.

No doubt, there's tons of information on writing interesting characters from the perspective of fiction writing, but don't think all fiction and improv advice applies to TTRPGs. I think a lot of the bad characters that I've seen came from assuming a style of fiction that doesn't suit most TTRPGs.

With all this, why do you think there isn't much guidance on writing interesting characters? Am I wrong in thinking some characters are better or worse than others?

Personally I predict that Solo TTRPGs are going to grow in popularity, even if only temporarily.
Could be wrong, but making predictions is fun even when they're wrong.

Do you have any predictions? What's your biggest, most bold prediction?

I'm looking for Gothic Horror adventures (not games, I already know the system I will be using, just adventures to adapt to said system), but most of my research run pretty dry.

What I mean by this is : an adventure that takes place in a world similar to our own (not Curse of Strahd, which is Gothic fantasy), if possible within the time period of Gothic litterature (18th or 19th century, but other eras can work at long as it doesn't rely too much on modern technology), with themes and tropes inspired by classic Gothic horror novels (Frankenstein, Dracula, Castle of Otranto, Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde...).

So far I've find a few Cairn adventures that can work if I remove a few of the more fantasy-coded elements, a few Call of Cthulhu adventures where I just need to change the time period.

Do you have any suggestion of stuff that would work? Thanks in advance if you do!

I am looking for some good social systems. Especially if they integrate status or reputation (or preferably both) in the inner working of the system.

Kinda embarrassed to even type this out after running games for so long, but I need a reality check because I feel like a total fraud right now. I’ve been a forever DM for my group for about four years, almost exclusively running 5e and Pathfinder. Whenever the pacing dragged or I got mentally stuck, I’d just throw an ambush at them. Rolling initiative buys you an hour of game time where the system does teh heavy lifting for you.

Tonight we finally tried a Call of Cthulhu one-shot (The Haunting). No battlemaps, no tactical grid, just pure investigation and horror atmosphere. But about an hour in, my players tore through the library clues twice as fast as I planned, looked right at me, and asked "Where do we go next?" And my brain just completely flatlined.

I sat there in dead silence for two minutes, shuffling papers like an idiot. Without a monster stat block to drop onto a grid, I had zero clue how to maintain tension or improvise on the fly. I panicked so hard I basically fast-forwarded them to the basement and ended forty minutes early. has anyone else had this horrifying wake-up call when ditching combat, or am I just fundamentally bad at actual storytelling?

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to run my first session of Inner System Blues from Jason Tocci's 2400 collection and I'd love some help getting started.

Actual plays: Do you know of any recordings, podcasts, or written session reports (AP) of Inner System Blues or other 2400 games? Seeing how others handle the flow of play would really help.

Running the first session: How do you usually kick things off? Do you start with a job from the tables, pre-generate characters, or build the crew together at the table?

Pacing & rules: Any advice on running the dice pool and harm, keeping the cyberpunk vibe without slowing things down, or pitfalls to avoid as a first-time GM of this system?

Any one-shot ideas, prep tips, or links are very welcome. Thanks!

Looking for something dark, horrific and stylish to play with my friends and I, and came across these two. I'm leaning more towards Mörk Borg primarily from a price standpoint (around $25 for the core rulebook and $16 for the GM screen), though I'm torn 'cause I hear Into the Odd has some industrial horror undertones that sound pretty neat. I suppose I'm looking for advice from people who have run either game, if either is really worth it or if there's a third alternative I haven't considered.

The Rule of 3 often gets tossed around when talking about Investigation Encounters or Scenes. The interpretation I commonly see is: prepare 3 clues for your players to uncover a mystery or fact.

For example: A murder happens in a farmhouse, and the clues will be 1. The murder weapon with the murderer's fingerprints is in a haystack, 2. A piece of the murderer's clothing was caught on the door, 3. The murderer's boot print is out the back door. This is an overly simplified example, though, with each clue leading to the identity of the Murderer. Whereas you might have multiple groups of clues, each linked to a different fact about the mystery.

Have you ever had your players miss the 3 clues? And if it did happen, do you know why it did?

I tend to see it fail one of two ways typically. 1. Bad dice rolls on the important rolls (eg fail perception checks to notice a hidden object) 2. GM doesn't have players roll but expects players to say a specific question (eg the player says they investigate the bathroom, but doesn't say they lift the lid to toilet tank).

Please tell me other GMs have had to do this, because I’m sitting in front of my notes right now having a quiet identity crisis.

I have been running a gritty investigative campaign for the past two months. Tonight was supposed to be the session where my players finally pieced together the clues and caught the noble who poisoned the city magistrate. They were sitting around my kitchen table passionately debating the evidence for an hour.

While listening to them, I glanced down at my timeline notes and felt my blood run cold. My timeline was broken. I forgot that three weeks ago, I canonically established that my actual killer was on a military barge eighty miles downriver. My own mystery was completely, mathematically unsolvable.

the players, meanwhile, somehow connected three completely random throwaway descriptions I improvised in session two. They constructed this airtight, emotionally devastating theory accusing the innkeeper. Their logic was so much better than mine that I just put on my best poker face and said, "You solved it." They literally cheered and high-fived. They think I’m teh storytelling god of our friend group, but I'm an illiterate hack who doesn't understand calendar math. Do I take this secret to my grave or am I cheating them by retrofitting their theories?

Halloween sale on our itch shop: 65% off system-neutral offline GM tools (HTML, no install), print-and-play cards/tables, and game SFX/UI packs through Nov 4.

Sale: https://itch.io/s/211593/friedspin-halloween-sale-2026

Shop: https://friedspin.itch.io/

Free taste: https://friedspin.itch.io/friedspin-sfx-lite and https://friedspin.itch.io/gm-oracle-yesno-twist

Happy to answer questions about the offline tools.

Olá, sou novo no Reddit mas é que estou procurando o fandom de rpg em geral para saber sobre algo

Estou Traduzindo e juntando grande parte do conteúdo do Marvel Multiverse (Poderes, armaduras, armas e itens narrativos tudo em um livro geral e traduzido para pt-Br)

Queria saber se existe algum fandom em específico para que possa ver e me corrigir caso tenha algum erro

Não tenho nenhuma intenção de gerar monetização em cima só quero realmente jogar o jogo e unir o fandom BR

Hi! I just released my new game titled SQUIRE.

It's a dark, solo survival TTRPG. Think Star Wars Order 66 Survival meets Warhammer 40k. It's nearly 100 pages of gameplay, with unique character classes, unique villains to hunt you down, and optional journaling gameplay.

If you know the Carta SRD, you use a deck of cards to represent your fallen temple and do your best to make it through the wreckage, avoid (or overcome) attackers, and ultimately... escape! If you can.

Itch: https://bardlight.itch.io/squire

It's on sale for launch week to celebrate Halloween. I hope you check it out! You can use it to run a Star Wars adventure, if you want, or lean more 40k, or make a universe of your own somewhere in between - it's ultimately setting agnostic.

(or if they have an airship, submarine, naval boat or any other vehicle that has cargo and crew)

If you are a crew member of the "Starshine Platypus" you should probably stop reading. ;)

I am GMing an Uncharted World sandbox-ish campaign where the players own a small spaceship with a cargo hold and quarters for crew and passengers. They travel a lot, fly from planet to planet, trade, find or plunder cargo and take in passengers or prisoners on.

Often the party should leave their spaceship behind to explore the sci-fi equivalent of a dungeon, meet with dangerous people or explore a city/spacestation but ingame their characters have a lot of reasons to leave some of their party members on their starship behind.

• They often have valuable cargo and Uncharted Worlds has not a money system instead your main currency to buy new stuff is the cargo itself that you can barter.
• Some NPC passenger that travel with them have a bounty on their heads and are effectively hiding on the ship from the authorities.
• The few NPC crewmembers have all their own agenda and an allegiance to the many factions of the world so they are mostly loyal to the players but in extreme situations might act against their wishes.
• They tend to take prisoners alive and maybe someone should guard them while the party is out adventuring.
• They got really attached to the ship, especially their engineer.
• The main MacGuffin off the campaign is stored on the ship and is to big to carry around.
• The setting has not space magic or beaming technology that could bring the party very quickly back to the ship in an emergency.

I normally try to avoid splitting the party for too long so I would be curious how other GM handle this kind of situations. What do you do to nudge your players out of their vehicle without just telling them "You all have to board the enemy ship now because there will be a big bossfight on the hostile bridge."

What I tried so far ...

• Give them a contact from a friendly faction or a benevolent NPC that can guarantee safe harbor for the ship during the current mission. But if they are in a unknown or dangerous area (which they often are) that does not make so much sense.
• Give them opportunities to hire more crew that could defend their ship and upgrade their stealth and security systems, but powering up the ship and managing crew is not the main focus of the campaign.
• Foreshadow the upcoming encounter so that the party is aware that it is quite dangerous or important and they should probably face it with everyone. But sometimes I want the party be surprised especially when they rush into things.
• Sometimes I embrace it and let them split the party and switch spotlight constantly between the ship and wherever the rest of the party is. Combat is quite fast in the UC system so it is possible to give people on the ship different challenges (crew trouble, surprise cargo inspection, mysterious hacking attempts) while the others are exploring some derelict shipwreck or sneaking trough a space pirate haven. But that is sometimes hard to come up with that stuff spontaneously.
• Give people on the ship direct ways to support people outside the ship with sensors scans, sectornet searches, remote hacking attempts or even the occasional bombardment. Works only if the players are ok to risk drawing attention to the ship.
• Funnily when one of the players are missing their character stays on the ship the party is at peace, because the GM would probably not blow up the ship with an inactive player inside.

Interestingly when I GMed fantasy campaigns where the player party was traveling with a decent amount of hirelings, NPCs and mounts the players rarely had a problem leaving their valuable heavy treasures and beloved horses behind with like 1 wounded hireling behind while they went into a deep dungeon dive.

Hello!

I have recently been thinking about building my own TTRPG system and was looking for inspiration from other ttrpg systems. I have a basic idea of how I want the system to run, but really want to look what other systems are currently out there with similar mechanics to gather a bit of inspiration.

I have been very interested in systems using cards for randomization as i believe such a system could lead to very engaging and strategic combat. Although I would like to use dice for resource tracking, although a pencil and eraser would do just as well. As such, I would like to look into systems and see how they have integrated cards into the mechanics of the game to figure out ways to stock my skill tree.

I am also very interested in using skill trees rather than classes, although a point buy system may also be a reasonable option for me. I want to learn how other designers have balanced the scaling of abilities in skill tree based systems. My specific idea is to have 2 separate skill trees, one relating to physical attributes and one relating to mental attributes, but I would place a little crossover between the 2, such as placing some physical abilities with a mental requirement or mental abilities with a physical requirement.

Thank you in advance for any of the systems you can point towards.

I’m planning on running a reoccurring game at my local store, and wondering if anyone has suggestions for games that will be easy to pick up as a new player. Points for straightforward character creation; bonus points for setting flexibility.

So far, I’m definitely planning to run Monster of the Week, after that I’m considering Pico, FATE, Rapscallion, and maybe Wildsea.

So they just announced a feature film based on iHunt. I am excited based on who they've got working on it. Dunno if this is allowed, but thought I would get other people's thoughts.

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/ihunt-killing-monsters-in-the-gig-economy-movie-1236930441/

I slowly submit to the fact that I rather collect games/books than actually play them (due to a lack of mostly time and no friends who are into TTRPGs). So I was thinking whether it is time for me to order another book while I wait for the next KS to fulfil.
With Halloween at the horizon, the question is probably which horror-themed rpg I should buy - so the two mentioned ones are on my radar now.

The question:
1) which one would you recommend and why?
2) as I prefer rather rules heavy games or games with intricate systems, which one should I select and why?
3) is there a game which I should consider outside of the mentioned ones?

I have an obsession with playing classes that allow me to be a puppetmaster manipulating lil dudes for all sorts of things! From combat to puppet shows. I was inspired by anime like Karakuri Circus, Naruto, and Puppet Princess. Could anyone reccomend some games that have classes that would allow me to play out my fantasy? Please and thanks

I've been thinking about the difference between a villain and an antagonist in tabletop RPGs.

When the party encounters an evil necromancer raising an army of undead, the situation is pretty straightforward. The players might disagree about how to stop them, but generally everyone agrees they need to be stopped.

The characters I find more interesting are the ones who stand in the party's way for perfectly understandable reasons.

Imagine a city official refusing to open the gates during a plague, even though the party desperately needs to get inside. Or a village leader refusing to let adventurers investigate an ancient ruin because the last group that went there got half the village killed.

Neither person is necessarily corrupt, stupid or secretly working for the villain.

They're protecting something they genuinely believe is worth protecting.

And suddenly the players have a more complicated problem than figuring out which weapon does the most damage.

Of course, there's a fine line here. An NPC who refuses everything regardless of what the players say is just a frustrating roadblock. The interesting part is giving them understandable motives and allowing the players to change their mind, negotiate or find another solution.

I especially like when the party initially hates an NPC, then gradually realizes that they would probably make the same decision in that person's position.

So I'm curious about actual experiences from your tables.

What's the most memorable antagonist you've played against or run who wasn't really a villain?

And did the players eventually come to understand them, or did they end up fighting anyway?

There was a thread a couple of days ago that asked for a comparison of Sword World, Fabula Ultima and Twilight Sword. But I think the more interesting comparison would be between Sword World and Last Arc Tactics Analogue.

FabU is structured very differently from SW (narrative focus and creating a world together) while Twilight Sword seems to closely emulate a Zelda universe. I think they fill different niches and won't compete too much with each other.

So the closest competitor to Sword World would be Last Arc Tactics Analogue, right? Both are trying to bring a more simulationist, flexible version of JRPGs to life, and both are currently running their campaigns for an English release.

What do you think? How similar or different are the two, and which one should people back?

Okay so, I would say I am somewhat experienced with d100 systems. I have played CoC 6e and 7e, WFRP 2e and Mothership. I have read (not played) CoC 1e, WFRP 4e and Dark Heresy 2e.

My reasons for listing these is recently I was considering picking up more d100 systems but looking back at it I find that they are different but not better then the other systems I own (in my opinion), they offer a higher degree of granularity when it comes to results, so you can have systems with a higher degree of granularity.

I like CoC because its the first ttrpg I have ever played but I consider Mothership to be much more elegant and interesting mechanically speaking. WFRP and Dark Heresy really benefit from the setting, though WFRP has a cool thing going on with their occupations.

But like, what are the strengths of d100 games I am missing?

It is one i remember seeing on itch.io and it looks incredibly fun. But i cant remember the name of it. Can you guys please help me find it?

Me and my wife are fans of classic horror and slasher films, so for Halloween season we invited a couple of friends over to our house for a game of Shiver (https://www.parablegames.co.uk/pages/shiver), with myself as the Director (GM). I bought the Slasher starter set a year ago but only just got around to running a game with it. I have to say it has a lot of potential in its premise but I was very disappointed. I really did want to enjoy it but for a roleplaying game based on surviving a slasher film, the stakes were very low for the characters and combat was very boring when it did happen. The mechanics themselves did not seem to live up to the theme of the game. And running the included one-shot was difficult with errors in the text and on the character sheets, and very little room for improvising the story based on PCs actions and choices.

Has anyone else tried it? Was there anything you did to improve the game?

Granted I bought this some time ago and I know a Cryptid module has just been released so I do not know if there are any changes in the game to improve the aspects I found to be not enjoyable.

In future if I want to run a horror film themed game I will probably just homebrew something in Call of Cthulhu which is my go-to TTRPG.

We all enjoy playing roleplaying games, that's why we're here.

But there are plenty of other reasons to enjoy a roleplaying game, besides actually playing it.

Worldbuilding, art, stories, dissecting mechanics.

What are your favourite games, if you don't account for actually playing the game? Doesn't mean you DON'T enjoy playing the game, just that you enjoy it for other reasons aswell.