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As someone accustomed to being a "Forever GM," I find myself growing bored when I'm a player. Having one character with one action with potentially minimal impact in a combat, waiting until my turn comes around again, possibly fighting a creature immune or highly resistant to my attacks - it's...

I started playing with AD&D 2nd edition back in 1990. Like many, I got many rules wrong at first (and probably continued to do so for years), but by the mid-1990s I had become a player in a regular campaign and was developing great memories. I would look back to those memories of the cornerstone...

I’ve long struggled trying to find the “perfect” system for my group, as evidenced in my Post-Mortems about various 5E campaigns, Savage Worlds Holler, the recent 8-month campaign in 4E, and a series of indie one-shots including Dread, Monster of the Week, and Alice is Missing. Finally, I...

As is my tradition, each time a game ends, I try to learn from it. This time I'm looking at three palate-cleansing experiences and testing to see how each work with a group that has been fundamentally entrenched in D&D. From My Previous Post-Mortem (following 4E D&D)… “What Next? … Maybe a...

As is my tradition, each time a game ends, I try to learn from it. This time I'm looking at my group’s lengthy (for us) foray into the depths of tactical roleplaying, 4th Edition D&D. This is an overview of my group’s 8-month experience in the system and NOT intended as an opportunity for...

I have a player whose character has a bronze dragon companion. One quirk the player really enjoys is that the bronze dragon's name changes every session. Its name is a pun or play on words, a mash-up of "bronze" and a famous person's name. We have only a few more sessions to go before the...

I have a lot of the PDFs of Age of Sigmar: Soulbound (and even found a used copy of the Core Rulebook at a local store). I'm wondering if anyone here has had first-hand experience with the system. Specifically, my group is looking for... Something a little different than D&D in tone. More...

I'm searching for some nice miniatures that would be detailed enough to paint and display. I have a lot of cheaper miniatures (WizKids, old D&D minis, Reaper, Dragons Hoard, stuff from boardgames), but I'd like something better quality. I also have a resin 3D printer, but I've been unable to...

Among the discussion about Vecna: Eve of Ruin here ... D&D General - (SPOILERS for Vecna: Eve of Ruin) Are My Standards Too High for Adventures?, it's been brought up that it's hard to write high level adventures, or maybe WotC doesn't care, or maybe the best adventures come out early in an...

Not going to lie, I'm going through a hobby crisis right now. I'm wondering if I should stick with it. I'm listing my problem areas, which I seem to face weekly (if not more frequently). Do your brains work like this? If so, how can you continue to enjoy this hobby? I. Players Are they...

To spring-board off my "RPG Exhaustion" and "Character Creation App Dependency" threads, I'm thinking about something that adds to my frustration. The exception-based design present in games like D&D 4e, 13th Age, and Pathfinder 2e. Consider the following 1st-level fighter abilities - which are...

I feel almost too exhausted to write this post. Over two years of two weekly games in different systems with only the occasional missed session. Last weekend, I ran a bonus marathon session for around 8 hours (for different players in another system). This weekend, I ran a game for a drunken...

I am running for two groups who are 100% dependent on character creation apps. (I'm not saying that you cannot play the systems without the apps - just that they're both complicated enough that the character sheets are very hard to parse by people who do not live and breathe RPGs.) [If you're...

What would be the effects of literally removing friction as a way physics behaves in your campaign world? A little background. We're running a very limited campaign that will last until the teenagers leave for college. Their last quest is to get the Book of Law. The megalomaniac ruler of the...

Hey everybody. I've got a quick change of plans and not a lot of time to prep. I'm hosting and running a gaming weekend in a couple weeks for a group of old college pals. Typically, we do this annually, but it's becoming more difficult with each passing year. The original plan was I would run...

I've been asked to run a game for a "May the Fourth" Star Wars Party. The host (who is relatively new to TTRPGs) commented "if only there was a Star Wars version of D&D..." I snatched up a few different systems in my game room: Star Wars d20, Star Wars Saga, Fantasy Flight Star Wars, Starfinder...

I'm (again) looking through Symbaroum tonight. I picked up a set of 4 hardcovers on a Black Friday sale on an impulse, and the regret is real. (Along with the One Ring purchased on the same day - bad luck. But I normally love Free League's products.) In the core book, we have like 70 pages of...

I stumbled across a YouTube video about the improvement of the modern style of boardgames vs. traditional board games. He gives examples of why games like Resistance are better than Werewolf, and Pandemic is better than Clue. And it is making me think about how to apply this thought to TTRPGs...

“Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is...

My groups are experiencing some irregular scheduling during the holidays. One group (formerly weekly) hasn't been able to play two back-to-back sessions since October - due to family emergencies, holidays, etc. When we do go back, we have to catch up with notes, try to get a feel of what's going...