Recent content by dbm

In my gaming group I have one friend of about 43 years, and two of 39 years. So I would definitely say TTRPGs help support friendships. I think this is particularly relevant for men as we seem to focus our friendships around doing things together.

It hasn’t finished cooking yet but The Broken Empires will be a new ’sim-lite’ RPG when it arrives. This is a new system which aims to be simulations but without going to extremes of detail that would slow down play. It’s uses a d100 ‘Blackjack’ mechanic for its core resolution, with most...

Class and level versus point-buy is a fairly well established spectrum of character system. There are definitely different degrees, though. GURPS is completely free of mechanical constraints, only what the GM decides. HERO has the concept of restrictions on points in different categories to...

I’ve just started trying out solo role-playing as I currently have some spare hobby time available. I have quite a few solo board games and have been enjoying those but they are more limited than TTRPGs. Having watched some solo RPG gaming on YT I was already familiar with the concept and...

I’ve just started solo role-playing. It’s a really interesting experience, like being both the GM and player at the same time, though using oracles means you aren’t totally in control of what happens as a GM might be.

Changing things up definitely helps me recharge batteries. I am fortunate in having two long-term, stable groups (with a large overlap between them). In total we have about 4.5 rotating GMs so we all get to play a big chunk of the time. The groups are also open to playing a range of different...

RM character creation is certainly its own thing. One time, a player joined our group so made something like a fifth level ranger and jumped in to play. Unfortunately they hadn't noticed you need to buy skill-levels in hit points (‘body development’) so they went down in the first round of...

I think it depends on what the hypothetical you is taking enjoyment from. If you want mechanical variation and novelty of mechanical challenges (and the GM isn’t interested in making new things) then there will be a point where you feel there is nothing new left to experience. Some systems are...

Those stats look right. The mechanics are presumably designed to encourage people to push…

Radiance is great, the production standards are off the chart as the author is a professional publisher. I don’t personally get 4e vibes from based on reading (never played it). But a lovely thing to have in the collection. I wouldn’t consider it ‘Urban Fantasy’ in the archetypal sense either...

Probably the longest running campaign I ever played in used RM2 with all the companions. We played once or twice a week for several years in a continuing campaign, though there was some character loss along the way. We played all the way up to about 60th level IIRC so a lot of the crazy top-end...

I prep outlines and then (like 90%+ of GMs) adapt to the players at the table. I probably prep-to-play a ratio between 50% and 100%, so between 30 mins and an hour for each hour of gaming. Most of that is reading any adventure I am using, tailoring encounters to the group, writing down headline...

The conversion seems to be being done by Mike Underwood, who was part of the Daggerheart development team.

Not an RPG but definitely RPG-adjacent, the Lone Wolf: Vengeance of the Kai board game is in its last three days currently. It’s 230% funded and chasing down the last couple of stretch goals. The game has taken inspiration from some modern classic board games, including Star Wars Rebellion...

For me this would say GURPS, full on rather than ‘just’ Dungeon Fantasy but pulling heavily from those assets for inspiration on the character side and for monster stats. GURPS allows for small amounts of progress to be awarded each session without ending up at Demi-god status when the GM...