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From tabletop RPGs, I mean. I have been gaming essentially continuously for 40 years. I have and am writing freelance for the industry. I run games at cons and at home. And I am just... I don't know, exhausted with it? Unable to find the joy in it? I don't know. If you ever took a break so you...

First and foremost: why the + ? Simply put, I don't want this thread to be about "no video game can replace TTRPGs." That's may be true. I might even agree. But arguing about it will just obscure the real question. And that real question is: if a computer or video game were to replace your...

I did a search and could not find a recent thread, so I thought I would start one. Here we have a thread to share bits of natural history and geography we have discovered that are powerfully inspiring for TTRPG campaigns. The only real rule is No Human Construction. I will start with this: The...

This came up in another thread and I wanted to spin it off for its own discussion. When talking about TTRPG mechanics and how the medium has evolved and advanced over the last 5 decades, are there specific sorts of mechanics that you consider more "modern" than others? Where do you draw the...

SImple rules: change one or two words in a song title to make it about D&D or D&D adjacent things. Examples: Master of Mimics, The Ghoul of Tom Joad, Waterdhavian Rhapsody. Like that. Go.

So we can turn it to silent.

As the title says, this is a dumb idea but it might be an interesting thought experiment. What if instead of "health" or "willpower" or whatever, Hit Points were explicit Plot Armor points? And what if once that Plot Armor is gone, your character dies? NOTE: This would be a PCs only rule. It...

With a couple of notable exceptions, such as Pathfinder 2E, it seems like the TTRPG industry has been trending toward simplicity for years now. But with the recent releases of Daggerheart and Draw Steel -- medium and heavy crunch system respectively -- maybe the pendulum is swing back toward at...

I keep going back to this idea of running a campaign heavily inspired by X-Com and similar tactical RPG video games. To be specific, I mean highly detailed grid based combat missions, with base building, gear upgrading, character advancement and some "story" advancement happening in between. (I...

This thread is intended to largely be from a design perspective. As such we can talk about both official classes and subclasses, as well as whatever 3PP classes and subclasses may have appeared thus far. I am interested in what you thinks works and doesn't work -- but very importantly WHY. If...

The other Star Wars threads got me thinking about this, but I wanted to open it up to fan creations, edits, theories and fiction in general. What examples of the above elevated a piece of entertainment for you? I will explain with one of the first things that popped to my mind:

EDIT FOR CLARITY: I mean to ask you, personally, what makes something a classic TO YOU. I am not asking you what you think makes something a classic to society or audiences at large. Note that this is a question about your own personal preferences and views, not about academic or critical...

Sometimes, you buy a game because it has a great look or is a genre or subject matter you like, or some other reason OTHER than to play or run it. Or, you meant to play or run it, but it never happened, but you still really like the game. What game is that for you? Did you mean to play/run it...

I thought it would be interesting to talk about things in the cyberpunk genre, from television shows and novels to TTRPGs and video games. I am going to start with two statements that might be a little controversial. 1) Westworld Season 3 is a really good cyberpunk story, and (probably more...

Some games have really great subsystems and mechanics that can be used in other games. What's your favorite? How do you adapt it? I really like the Dragonbane initiative system. It is a simple set of cards going from 1-10 that get doled out to the PCs and any monsters/groups of monsters. Boss...

At the suggestion of @Whizbang Dustyboots I am listening to the wonderful Empire of Blue Water, and (unsurprisingly) it has me thinking about TTRPG campaigns centered around pirates. So, tell us about yours! What game system did you use? Was it "realistic" from a logistics and sailing...

I am currently preparing a convention game in which the player characters are superheroes in a aetherpunk/magictech city (using Daggerheart) and one of the key conceits is that the PCs (and the villains) are the only "superpowered" characters in the setting. Basically, the PCs will be 5th level...

A spell name, a class, an adventure, a monster, whatever. Change a letter or a word. Make puns. Commit word crimes. You know how this works. Ex: Magic Mussle.

Spinning this out of the 6E thread because, well it isn't about 6E. Anyway -- much is often made of "player skill" and "OSR" and how modern games are just button mashing. I don't really buy this as a generational divide: I think people in the 70s could rely on their character sheets, and I...

On a scale of 1-10. EDIT: where 1 is the worst and 10 is the best. Just a simple, non-scientific poll. Of course, if you have more nuanced opinions, that's what the thread is for! EDIT: Also, I made sure you can change your vote, for the wishy washy among us.