TTRPG Thoughts

Just TTRPG stuff that interests me.

[airkseablade]

My Game(s)

I'm just going to pin a little something here to let people know about my game and its content.

Shepherds is my heavily Trails-inspired hopeful fantasy game about young do-gooders going out into the world, helping people with problems, and wrestling with their own weird issues along the way. It's a Powered by the Apocalypse game, so if you're familiar with those, it should be pretty easy to understand, but I've done my best to make it approachable even for people who aren't.

Fregena on the River is the first of hopefully a few scenarios for Shepherds. Our heroes visit a remote village that is becoming less remote with technological advances, and find out about the less obvious problems as well as the obvious ones.

Dungeons for Shepherds is a mini-expansion for Shepherds; JRPGs tend to feature dungeons, and this supplement gives a procedure for exploring them in a game that contains dungeons, but is not about dungeons.

All proceeds from all of my products are donated to Direct Relief. So please check them out, buy, rate, as you see fit. Thank you!

[marxist--lesbianist]

Everyone deserves healthcare.

Everyone deserves housing.

Everyone deserves healthy food, clean water, and affordable clothes.

Everyone deserves education.

Everyone deserves employment.

Everyone deserves dignity and justice.

[prokopetz]

You should never be afraid to ask tabletop RPG authors dumb questions about their games because that's literally how we tell whether or not what we wrote is working.

[prokopetz]

You'd be surprised how much of effective technical writing boils down to just talking to people and going "okay, that's the daftest thing I've ever heard, but I can see how a very particular interpretation of the text as written would get you there – let's see if I can fix that".

[prokopetz]

I don't disagree with the observation that a lot of folks in tabletop roleplaying spaces don't believe that game design is real (i.e., in the sense that they believe any GM should be able to achieve any experience of play using any system, and refuse to recognise that rules are opinionated about what sort of games they want to produce), but I feel like putting that at the forefront is confusing the symptom for the disease. A lot of folks in tabletop roleplaying spaces don't believe game design is real because they don't believe that games are real.

I've talked in the past about how Hasbro's efforts to deceptively market Dungeons & Dragons as universal entry-level game have fostered a culture of play in which any appearance that D&D isn't a universal entry-level game is regarded as evidence that you have a "bad GM", and how, in order to avoid being a "bad GM", it's necessary to treat it as a normal part of the GM's responsibilities to constantly monitor the outputs of the rules and quickly paper over any gaps between the game the rules want to produce and the game the group wants to play, like a cartoon train conductor frantically constructing the very tracks along which the train they're conducting is riding.

The trouble is that most players aren't stupid, and readily see through the act. They (correctly!) observe that the particulars of the rules don't actually seem to matter all that much, because most of the desired experience of play is the product of the GM's constant interventions, rather than the product of interpreting the outputs of the rules – but instead of identifying this as a problem, they conclude (again, quite reasonably, as they've probably never seen it done differently) that this is what tabletop roleplaying is. The GM merely pretends to be moderating a game; in truth, they're a pantomime-leader whose job is to maintain the illusion that we're playing a game with rules, when in fact what we're really doing is guided improv theatre.

And of course there's nothing wrong with guided improv theatre – it's a fine pastime, and one I've enjoyed myself on many occasions. However, it does put folks who really do want to play a game in a bind, because now there's this insurmountable communication barrier. You can say "I want to play a game, and these are the rules of that game", and receive what seems to be enthusiastic agreement with that premise; however, a significant portion of the people expressing that agreement think they're participating in a bit of kayfabe, like very dedicated professional wrestlers who stay in character even outside the ring.

Critically, nobody is necessarily acting in bad faith in this equation. The folks who don't bother to learn the rules because they think games aren't real mostly aren't fucking with you on purpose; they honestly thought they were yes-anding your improv prompt by pretending to care about the mechanics of play, and when they discover that you really do expect them to do all that fiddly dice math, from their perspective it genuinely looks like you were the one misleading them. It's just a fucked up culture of play garbling all the signals in both directions.

(Note that, while I've identified Hasbro's deceptive marketing as the ultimate source of this culture of play, indie RPGs are hardly innocent of perpetuating it. You only need cast a critical eye on the "Rule Zero" sections of many popular indie games to notice that their authors are all in on the idea that games aren't real!)

[prokopetz]

#ohhhh this is really good analysis #also i think large scale super professional actual play podcasts n shit are a big part of this #cuz imo that was a Lot of peoples main engagement with ttrpgs back in the day (about a decade ago) #and a lot of people thats still their Main TTRPG Experience #and like. those tend to be even less Game Like than the average dnd campaign #like a lot of that shit is in fact. scripted. and made to be more cinematic for the audience etc (via @st4rshiptr00per)

Yeah, big name "actual play" podcasts that pretend they're not scripted and workshopped to hell are a big contributing factor, though I wouldn't classify them as distinct from Hasbro's marketing apparatus so much as one of the most visible arms of that apparatus. The fact that Hasbro isn't paying them directly doesn't mean they aren't serving the brand.

(The weird part is that I get the impression that some of them don't even know it. Sometimes it seems like Brennan Lee Mulligan genuinely doesn't realise that best practices for running a game of Dungeons & Dragons as a kind of performance art for a paying audience are very different from best practices for running a game of Dungeons & Dragons for your three buddies in the GM's dining room.)

[prokopetz]

@hayeseveryone replied:

Maaaaaan. So I'm DMing two DnD 5e games at the moment. One of them is a high level combat focused megadungeon with very experienced players, while the other is more open and has more RP with a mix of experienced and new players. I always feel way more drained after a session running the latter game than the former. And I think you really helped me see why. I'm DEFINITELY having to do a ton of track-laying while running that game, because it's such an unfocused game. I feel way more like I have to be an entertainer who's always the one responsible for my players' fun, rather than expecting them to make their own fun using the rules of the game, like the players in my other group do.

Quite so – that's the central paradox of the rules-heavy-versus-rules-light debate: provided that the game the rules want to produce agrees with the game the group wants to play, a rules-heavy game may actually be less demanding to run than a rules-light one. A rigorous framework of play can be a very effective means of distributing the workload of making the game happen; if you play your cards right, the players won't even notice they're taking a load off the GM's shoulders by making their own rulings, because to them it just feels like drawing the obvious conclusions.

[prokopetz]

I feel I should also emphasise something that was only lightly touched on above: that this disconnect isn't just an issue on the player side. Many first-time GMs also trip over the whole "D&D is a universal entry-level game, therefore its rules can produce any desired experience of play, therefore you're a Bad GM if this ever appears not to be the case" complex and quite unwittingly end up in a position where they thought they'd be moderating a game, but what they're actually doing is leading a guided improv theatre troupe – and the latter is tremendously more demanding than the former. It's certainly not something that's reasonable to expect a complete novice to navigate as their first experience of play.

There's a reason that first-time GMs burning out so rapidly that their game only lasts two or three sessions and never running one again is a problem that's largely unique to D&D, and this is a big part of it.

[tinytablepodcast]

Help Us Choose Our Next Game

Welcome back to our third Tiny Table Game Poll! We once again received so many lovely submissions and we need your help to narrow them down. We will be taking the top 3 games to Patreon for our patrons in the Mini and Micro tier to vote on

Shepherds:  A game of young do-gooders struggling with their issues as they work together, become friends, and strive to protect the peace and happiness of ordinary people.  Pour your heart out in a heroic speech, discuss your fraught relationship with your father, and offer entreaties to villains so blinded by their own pain and frustration that they can't see a path forward in a game where the power of friendship is real and tangible. Embrace the JRPG melodrama in an easy, dynamic Powered by the Apocalypse format. Available on Itch.io here.

Clutch: This TTRPG is centered around being tactical and crafting interesting builds without having to use a spreadsheet. All options are supposed to be interesting with very little bloat or useless options. WIth also heavy emphasis on survival mechanics. In this game you can play anything from a cowboy to a psychic warrior that uses telekinesis to wield 4 swords at once. All while traveling across the land fighting monsters. Check out the game here: https://matthew-bradford.itch.io/clutch.

Dawn of the Orcs: Dawn of the Orcs is a GMless dark fantasy worldbuilding and roleplaying game. You play as the magical technocrats who create the first Orcs as weapons of war, modify and improve them over time, and tell the story of how the Orcs become their own people. https://lymetime.itch.io/dawnoftheorcs 

Extra Ordinary: Extra Ordinary is a tabletop roleplaying game where you play kids with extraordinary powers on the run from danger in the ordinary world. It is a game of belonging outside belonging, a dice-less and GM-full game system that uses tokens and the players’ imagination to create a narrative-focused and roleplay-heavy story. https://jaztice.itch.io/extra-ordinary

MechTale: Mechtale is a rule-lite TTRPG aiming to offer mech customization while also keeping gameplay simple. If you want a mech game you can learn and teach to your players easily, this is your game! Besides that, it is quite accessible, only using d6s to play, a pencil, and a piece of paper, so c’mon! Give it a try! https://mooniestarstruck.itch.io/mechtale

Spindlewheel: Spindlewheel is a tarot-like interpretive storytelling game where you weave a story from card to card. Using a poetic oracle deck that features archetypes from tarot, fairy tales, and the turn of the century, interpret spreads of cards to generate a world and its characters. Then, use those same cards to unfold the story as the desires of those characters collide and change the world. To find out more, visit https://teacabbage.com/spindlewheel!

Pilot Episode: Pilot Episode is a ttrpg about the past and how we remember it. You play actors on a 1950s sitcom who find themselves trapped within the sitcom's world, forced to recreate the pilot episode of the sitcom and entertain the mysterious and otherworldly Live Studio Audience. https://smallredrobin13.itch.io/pilot-episode-the-quickstart

Branded for Sacrifice: Branded For Sacrifice is an original dark fantasy roleplaying game set in the world of our video game by the same name. Play as a solo-RPG or with friends, and create a Branded warrior from scratch, then go out and slay the Demons that plague the planet! Roll D6 for attacks, wipe out hordes of enemies at once, and generate piles of loot while you learn more about the mysterious mark that's appeared on your body and what it entails. https://fracturedgems.itch.io/branded-for-sacrifice-ttrpg

Deathcap Sauté: Death Cap Sauté is a GM-less one-shot TTRPG for 2 to 5 players. Players will compete in a deadly cooking competition in the weird post-apocalypse to gain the favor of the elusive Shroomp Lord! Using a simple push-your-luck dice system, face-off in 5 unique cooking challenges to see who will come out on top! https://junkfoodgames.itch.io/death-cap-saut

Echoes from the Frost: EftF is a journaling rpg set in a world that has already ended, consumed by a relentless force known as the Frost.  In the face of assured oblivion your character carries a fragment of the past, a skill or piece of knowledge too important to lose, navigating the frozen wastes for a year as they search for a way to pass it on to future generations.  A dark game that is primarily about hope, it is played with only 3d6, a journal, and your imagination. https://fragileasglass.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-from-the-frost.

Which Should We Play?

Shepherds

Clutch

Dawn of the Orcs

Extra Ordinary

Mechtale

Spindlewheel

Pilot Episode

Branded for Sacrifice

Deathcap Saute

Echoes from the Frost

Voting ended onFeb 26

If you submitted a game to us and don't see it on the list, don't fret! We will be hosting many polls like this and your game is still in consideration. If you game is on here and isn't chosen to move on to our next poll, also don't fret! We may add it on to the next poll again.

[formerlyluckymanticore]

Reblog if you will never. Ever. Use AI in your writing.

[dungeonofthedragon]

Nowhere Home: expanded adventures

The Nowhere Home expansion is coming along nicely. Now at 25 pages (and still growing), it introduces optional rules for those who prefer more structured storytelling.

Character arcs for multi-session stories! Gain a reward each time you tick off a moment in your chosen arc.

A simplified character growth mechanic for one and two-shot games.

The option to play as a monster who was always a monster, rather than a human who has been turned into one. Deal with themes of isolation and the struggle for connection as you play a demon, fey, or any other inhuman entity you can imagine.

Insights, Secrets and Tension: new elements to encourage deeper group dynamics.

2-3 new settings to explore.

Don't own Nowhere Home? It's currently $1.99 USD in the Itch winter sale! You can check it out below and grab it at a great deal before the expansion drops.

Nowhere Home by Sam Robson

A game of outcast monsters whose only home is each other.

[thydungeongal]

I think a lot of the issues with dnd players ignoring the way the game is meant to be played stem from a lack of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusory_attitude

Oh I don't think D&D players are exactly lacking in a Losery attitude (me and my gang of cool dungeon crawler girls in leather jackets high five each other)

(on a serious note, I briefly skimmed that article and I do agree: I think D&D, as the biggest game on the market, suffers from a lot of misaligned expectations as to what the outcome of the game is supposed to be, and a lot of people end up ignoring the specific limitations and strengths of D&D in order to force that outcome, and in doing so often end up ignoring where a lot of "game" is)

[prokopetz]

I think a big part of it is also that being positioned on the market as a universal entry level game requires both the game's text and its culture of play to flatly deny a lot of basic stuff like "a game whose rules are designed to produce a narrative will be opinionated about what kind of narrative its rules ought to produce", or "not all styles of play are compatible with one another at the same table", leading to a big chunk of the game's fandom genuinely never having had the experience of playing a game where the narrative the rules want to produce and the narrative the group wants to explore agree with one another, and concluding that constantly fighting against the former in order to produce the latter is both normal and inevitable.

Or, in short, I think what we're looking at isn't so much a refusal to adopt the appropriate lusory attitude, nor a refusal to recognise that doing so is necessary in order for the game to operate in the first place, but rather, a marketing-driven misconception that having a hostile relationship with the game's basic procedures of play is the expected and appropriate lusory attitude.

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Hearts of Wulin by Age of Ravens Games

A Game of Wuxia Melodrama, Powered by the Apocalypse

I am in A Mood right now, and no one can stop me

Genre: Wuxia, Xianxia

Touchstones: Wuxia films and novels, fantastical Chinese martial arts stories

What is this game?: Hearts of Wulin is a game about playing out the melodrama of a Wuxia story

How's the gameplay?: Hearts of Wulin is based on the PBTA system of rolling, roll 2d6 a 7-9 is partial success 1-6 is failure and 10+ is full success, its playbook system has characters choose a playbook and then a role, if a character is "Aware" they're playing a wise character, but whether they're a scholar, mentor, or traveling teacher is up to the role they pick! Characters additionally invest stat points in stats representing the classical Chinese elements, so a character who fights with graceful strokes of a paintbrush might be good at their Water stat, while a brutish character who uses a hammer might use Fire, the interesting part is that moves don't have a predetermined stat, instead the GM chooses which element is most appropriate for that roll!

What's the setting (If any) like?: HoW has a few different settings in its expansion, but the default setting is a fictionalized version of ancient China, where roaming martial artists fight each other to determine who's the best, and where Hair and Butterflies are valid weaponry for the average combatant, the game gives plenty of guides for people unfamiliar with the genre

What's the tone?: Melodramatic stories in ancient China, played completely straight, comedy and humor have their place but they're there to complement the drama, not obscure it. Characters will fight tooth and nail for the hand of beautiful maidens, die on the battlefield for petty reasons, and kiss under the moonlight in secret affairs.

Session length: 3-4 hours

Number of Players: 4-6 players including the GM

Malleability: Normally I'd give this game a pretty low malleability, but a supplement named Hearts of Wulin Worlds adds in multiple new very interesting settings, including swashbuckling France, 1900s Chicago Chinatown, and a more Silkpunk vibe (Look it up! Its a cool genre!)

Resources: As a PBTA game it shouldn't be particularly hard to make custom character sheets for this game, the game provides you with sample scenarios, settings, even recommendations on movies to watch for inspiration

I don't care what you like, Wuxia films are cooler than that, and this game perfectly encapsulates what I want in a ttrpg based on one, for the most part at least

[txttletale]

people often talk about how d&d 5e is a horrible starting point that makes players struggle with other systems and that's true but it also does this for GMs. so many people i know had their first exposure to ttrpgs through d&d 5e and so view any GM or facilitator role with absolute dread assuming that it is an unpaid game design role that requires not only hours of prep every session but also to carefully micromanage every aspect of the game to singlehandedly balance it for the specific outcome of 'the party wins, but, like, it feels difficult' while simultaneously remembering everyone's rules for them & being treated like a substitute teacher

[airkseablade]

I made a character keeper for Shinobigami...

Because this game needs more love and attention.

You can find the character keeper here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j32rm7pcepEasRFI0KBQRmDQu0QltJKavAqz2At-Y78/edit?usp=sharing

I'm pretty proud of how it came out -- the battlemap tracker was an especially interesting exercise.

[ladytabletop]

The 12 Days of Itchmas 2024

Jumping feet first into this blogging thing by proposing an idea I’m calling THE 12 DAYS OF ITCHMAS In large part this was inspired by conve

Join me in celebrating itch.io creators for the next two-ish weeks!

[theresattrpgforthat]

Mint's TTRPG Library

Here is a list of links to the Collections I add Itch.io games to on the regular, where I often go to in search for games to meet folks' recommendation requests.

These collections are large and unwieldy. I'm not certain that they're easy to navigate, but if you want to do some browsing, you certainly have options!

Systems

Belonging Outside Belonging Breathless Caltrop Core Charge Descended from the Queen Firebrands Forged in the Dark Honey Games (Honey Heist) Into the Odd Lasers + Feelings LUMEN Par-AGON (Paragon System) PbtA Push Together We Go Troika (A bunch of Troika supplements) Tunnel Goons (AKA Goon Games) What’s So Cool About _?

Genre

Adventure - With Pulp! (Westerns, Dinosaurs, Spies, Time Travel) Bittersweet Futures (Post-Apocalypse) Botanical Adventures (Plants) Bring Me The Evidence! (Mysteries) Cogs and Steam (Steampunk) Delicious Delights (Food & Cooking) Dirtpunk (Revolution, Rebellion, Fighting) Eras Both Real & Imagined (Historical, Faux-Historical) Everyone Loves A Competition (Competitions, Sports) Fae and Fen (Faeries & Goblins) Fangs, Fangs, Fangs (Vampires) Grim & Gritty (Gritty & Grimdark Fantasy) Hearts & Threads (Romance) Manners & Mischief (Social & Political) Mechs and Tech (Mechs & Robots) Modern-Day Mishaps (Modern-Day Setting) Monsters & Mutants (Monsters, Monster Hunters, Pokemon - simulators) Neon Lights & Cyber Nights (Cyberpunk) Oh So Anime (Anime & Manga themed) Paranormal Activity (Ghosts, Cryptids, Death) Pastoral & Cozy (Cozy Games, Witch Games) Paws and Feathers and Scales (Animals) Sorcerous Intentions (Magic-Users) Stars and Science (Science-Fiction, Space) Sword & Sorcery & So Much More (General Fantasy) Teenage Hijinx (Teenagers) The Sea Calls (Oceans, Aquatic, Pirates) With Great Power (Superheroes, Magical Girls, Fantasy Superpowers)

Other

Abstract Games & System Bones (SRDs, Genre-less) By Pen and Paper Played (Epistolary Games) Funky Fresh Flavors (Miscellaneous) GM-Less Solitary Adventures (Solo Games) System-Neutral Settings (Adventures & Settings) The Art of Creation (Collaborative World-building) Two Can Play At That Game (Duet Games)

[roleplaysolovinoiu]

If you have a game on itch.io and want to help Ukraine, I’m waiting for you.

Hello to everyone reading this. My name is Serhii, and I’m from Ukraine. I’m a huge fan of various TTRPGs, a researcher of systems and worlds. Right now, my friends and I are organizing a charity jam Bundle for Ukrainian Hospitals for all creators of TTRPGs, video games, and other projects to help rebuild destroyed hospitals in Ukraine together with the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation.

If you have finished projects, you can submit them to our jam until November 4th. After that, we’ll launch a charity bundle with a price starting from $8 and up, depending on what’s in the bundle.

If you’d like to join and help, we would be very grateful!

[prokopetz]

I understand why a lot of fantasy settings with Ambiguously Catholic organised religions go the old "the Church officially forbids magic while practising it in secret in order to monopolise its power" route, but it's almost a shame because the reality of the situation was much funnier.

Like, yes, a lot of Catholic clergy during the Middle Ages did practice magic in secret, but they weren't keeping it secret as some sort of sinister top-down conspiracy to deny magic to the Common People: they were mostly keeping it secret from their own superiors. It wasn't one of those "well, it's okay when we do it" deals: the Church very much did not want its local priests doing wizard shit. We have official records of local priests being disciplined for getting caught doing wizard shit. And the preponderance of evidence is that most of them would take their lumps, promise to stop doing wizard shit, then go right back to doing wizard shit.

It turns out that if you give a bunch of dudes education, literacy, and a lot of time on their hands, some non-zero percentage of them are going to decide to be wizards, no matter how hard you try to stop them from being wizards.

[prokopetz]

It wasn't just the hoity-toity ritual magic stuff, either. Popular media often frames a fundamental opposition between the Church and practitioners of the Old Ways™, but on the ground, any given medieval European community's foremost practitioner of traditional folk magic was likely to be the village priest. And again, they very much were not supposed to be doing this. There were some very pointed letters going around reminding people to cut that shit out, not that we're naming any names, Jeremy, and no, "if you invoke the saints first it's fine" is not going to fly with the bishop.

[prokopetz]

I feel like a lot of folks in the notes are missing a critical piece of context here because they're not clear on what the Church's official position toward magic actually was during the Medieval period.

In brief, the idea that magic is a. real and b. Satanic was not the party line for the greater part of the Middle Ages. Obviously the particulars varied both regionally and over time, but for the most part, the official position of the Church was that there is no power but God's and magic is fake. The Church's principal objection to the practices of divination, spirit-binding, etc. was that they were fraudulent, not that they imperilled one's soul. Sometimes this was even carried to the point that accusations of witchcraft would result in the accuser getting in trouble rather than the accused; after all, if your neighbour is pretending to do wizard shit, that's fraud, but if you actually believe your neighbour is capable of wizard shit, that's heresy!

The hardline "magic is the work of Satan" stance that most folks are thinking of when they think of magic and the Church wasn't particularly widespread until very late in the Medieval period, and is really more characteristic of the post-Reformation era – which adds an extra layer of hilarity to the aforementioned local clergy doing wizard shit, because from the perspective of their superiors, the problem was less "oh no, our priests are consorting with Satan" and more "god fucking damn it, our priests keep scamming people with this wizard shit".

[redsparrow12]

The Catholic Church, desperately penning their 500th letter to local clergy:

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP TELLING PEOPLE MAGIC IS REAL

[prokopetz]

The really funny part is that, by all accounts, some of the priests involved didn't even want to be doing wizard shit. Allegedly, they more or less got pressured into it by their congregations, who expected wizard shit of them and wouldn't take "no" for an answer.

[king-of-fuffies]

This feels like a concept for some sort of game hack or subsplat for that hypothetical game about peasants doing tax evasion.

[prokopetz]

If I ever write my hypothetical peasants-doing-tax-evasion RPG it will absolutely include "priest who's hiding their practice of folk magic from the local bishop" as a playable archetype.

(To be clear, if you played as this archetype your magic would have no concrete effects, but the willingness to perform it would serve as a high-risk-high-reward social currency.)

[thydungeongal]

What's a cool RPG I should be aware of

[dungeonofthedragon]

Shepherds (jrpg heroics), Wicked West (supernatural westerns), Hearts of Wulin (wuxia melodrama) and Protect the Child (monsters looking after a human child with special powers.)

[thydungeongal]

I've talked a lot about the specific types expectations that post-TSR D&D encodes in its players and I do think it's funny how some of the stuff I talk about sometimes seems to feel, like, huge and revelatory to people.

"What do you mean not all RPGs assume the player characters to be an adventuring party that goes on adventures together? What are they even supposed to do if there's no adventure?" Assume that D&D is like an Avengers film, about a group of heroes assembling and going up against adversity to save the day. A lot of games are soap operas, where the players create the central characters, pro and ant agonist alike, and then they're thrown into a powderkeg together.

"If there is no challenge rating or similar mechanic, how is the GM supposed to know if a given combat encounter is something the player characters can overcome?" A lot of games don't have combat encoded into the game as an activity that characters are expected to partake in just to demonstrate their strength. In fact, if combat does happen in lots of games it's usually as a last resort and something that requires an active player choice for it to happen. You won't get ambushed by bandits who are willing to fight to the death for no discernible reason just so your characters can demonstrate their strength and get one of their daily intake of five combat encounters a day (or whatever number games assume these days idk).

"Wait, there are modes of play besides combat that can have deep and granular rules? How can such a thing even work?" It can and it rules.