The Mad Duke Machinates!

A ttrpg side blog for inspo & ttrpg discussions — main unhinged blog is @kiki-havoc

[ladytabletop]

Wyrm by GilaRPGs

Spencer's got a nice summation of what OSR play should be, imo.

(and it's free!)

[dailyadventureprompts]

psssst, don't tell anyone but the secret sauce of getting your players invested in your TTRPG is to make likeable (or hateable) characters that care about whatever's going on in the plot. Humans are social creatures, and we'll pack bond with anything INCLUDING fictional entities.

[dungeonofthedragon]

RPG Trader: free RPG day bundle

This thing is HUGE! 250 titles in the digital bundle...definitely worth checking out!

Free RPG Day 2026 Bundle on RPG Trader

Over $1,000 worth of digital and print content from more than 250 creators all across the RPG Trader community.

Some Big Titles in this one, including:

Rosewood Abbey

Bump in the Dark

Spindlewheel

APOCALYPSE FRAME

WYRM

Inspirisles

And plenty of Mausritter, Mothership and D&D supplements!

[dungeonofthedragon]

Last day to grab this amazing deal! My post-apocalyptic Tron game, Rollback., is also in this bundle.

[prokopetz]

I've had a couple of people ask for a digestible version of the whole "the real problem with Dungeons & Dragons is false advertising, not anything that's present in its text" thing I keep alluding to, so here's the bullet point version of that argument:

Dungeons & Dragons is owned by Hasbro. Yes, the same Hasbro that owns Monopoly and My Little Pony.

Hasbro wants D&D to be the only tabletop RPG that anyone plays.

In order to accomplish this, Hasbro needs D&D to be a universal entry-level game.

D&D is not a universal entry-level game.

All game rules are opinionated about how the game ought to be played, and as tabletop RPGs go, D&D's rules are more opinionated than most. This is not a flaw, but it's not what Hasbro needs.

D&D is also on the high end of complexity as far as tabletop RPGs go, and it's complex in a way that strongly rewards system mastery, so it's pretty far from "entry level".

Hasbro could produce a version of D&D that's at the very least less opinionated and more entry-level than it presently is, but they don't want to, because they've determined that certain rules features which run counter to both of those goals are critical to D&D's brand identity.

They also don't want to produce multiple versions of D&D tailored for different audiences, because they want every single D&D group to be a potential purchaser of every single D&D product; they'd be effectively competing with themselves for their own customer base if the published game was actually modular in any meaningful way.

So how does Hasbro square that circle?

Simple: they lie. They insist that D&D is in fact a universal entry-level game in spite of all evidence to the contrary, and back their advertising up with sponsored thinkpieces and podcasts and such to "prove" it.

Further, they've spent decades fostering a culture of play which conceals the gap between the game they're advertising and the game they're selling by ascribing any appearance that D&D isn't a universal entry-level game to the incompetence or malice of individual GMs.

The game the rules want to produce disagrees with the game the group wants to play? Nonsense – even the rankest beginner should be able to produce any experience of play using any set of rules, and if your GM can't, they're a Bad GM.

The game is hard to learn? No, it isn't – your GM is merely gatekeeping you. This wouldn't be a problem with a Good GM.

The upshot is that the published rules are more or less irrelevant with respect to achieving the desired experience of play, because they're operating within a culture of play which dumps 100% of the work of making that desired experience of play happen on the GM.

Indeed, much of what modern D&D presents as GMing best practices are really methods of working around the fact that the rules you're using disagree with you about what kind of game you're playing.

(It's not a coincidence that D&D's entrenched culture of play also insists that it's normal for GMs to be miserably overworked and treats GM burnout as a big funny joke, then turns around and loudly wonders why there's a constant GM shortage.)

The trick is, because you're still at least notionally using the rules of D&D, the fruits of all that GM labour are perceived as the product of "playing D&D", not of the GM's hard work.

In essence, Hasbro's business model for Dungeons & Dragons is selling you your own GM's labour with a D&D sticker on it.

It's a very neat trick, if you can pull it off.

Now, at this point some readers may be asking: well, sure, but not all GMs are doormats. What about "killer" GMs who do gatekeep and railroad their players and otherwise act like complete tyrants? I hear horror stories about them all the time.

That's the second trick: these are not opposites. The GM as human Xbox and the GM as tyrant of the table both represent the GM doing all the actual work of making the game happen. The latter isn't the outcome that Hasbro wants, but it's a logical conclusion of the position the want the GM to be in.

[neonir]

This is a post dedicated to appreciating the best spell in D&D 5e:

Now I know what you’re thinking:

“Well obviously that’s the best spell in the entire game, but please, please wont you tell us why in vivid detail?”

Yeah okay, lets do that.

So first up, boring stuff. 90 feet of range, sure, cool, that’s pretty groovy. Longer range than a lot of spells actually. A minute possible duration, also solid, 10ft radius, pretty good, aoe crowd control is great, even better at higher casts. 1 action. Fine, cool.

Now we got that shit out of the way, lets start drinking up the delicious goddamn nectar that is the power of taking away the one goddamn braincell your enemies have all been sharing this wholeass time.

LETS DIVE INTO THOSE JUICY ASS RANDOM EFFECTS. BECAUSE HAVING A SPELL WORK THE SAME WAY EVERY TIME IS FOR BORING ASS NERDS.

So say they roll a 9 or 10, they get to act normally, so this ain’t the best. This isn’t good, this works for them right?

WRONG.

This is to lure your dm into a false sense of MAINTAINING CONTROL.

THE DM DOESN’T CONTROL THE GAME ANYMORE.

NO ONE DOES. WELL ALMOST NO ONE.

THIS FUCKER DOES. WE’RE PUTTING OUR LIVES IN THIS FUCKERS HANDS AND TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THIS FUCKER CRAAAVES THE DEATH OF YOUR ENEMIES.

So next we have 7-8. Which I like to call: The Mario Party effect.

Chances are when you cast this on a group, you probably had a few of those goons next to one another. Enemies like to be close to one another, they’re friends, they get along.

OR AT LEAST THEY FUCKING USED TO.

NOW THEY BEAT EACH OTHER TO DEATH FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT. NO ONE KNOWS WHY.

THE DICE MADE THEM DO IT.

Or they might not be next to anyone, in which case they may as well have rolled a 2-6, a roll I like to call: Time out mode. This is what the dice rolls to make you earn your keep, it can’t do ALL the work killing all these people for you. Sometimes, it’ll just make all your enemies stand around not doing anything for turn after turn after turn.

Until they roll a 1. Now, you might be thinking “Move in a direction, that’s not that bad.” That’s because you don’t know.

There is a truth to confusion. A hidden reality within the dice. It hates them. It truly, truly hates the people it gets used on.

When they roll a 1, if the dice can kill them

It will.

It will have them run off cliffs, into lava, into attacks of oppotunity, it’ll run wizards into the loving embrace of your barbarian, it will feed the hapless mooks into the wall of fire your wizard made. If you have a woodchipper out somehow, it may as well be a goddamn black hole because they’re sure as shit not going anywhere fucking else.

So I know what you’re thinking now, you’re thinking:

“Wow Neonir, that sure does sound like a cruel and unjust lesson from god to inflict on your DM alright!”

And you’d be fucking right.

But you don’t quite understand.

These are but a few of the strongest enemies in the game, if you have a look, you’ll see they have a few immunities, there are more like them, some have immunity to other things, but you’ll always notice one thing. One thing missing from these lists.

Yeah.

It can work.

On anything.

Anything can be forced to run around to the benny hill theme, slapping its buddies and staring at stars.

I have not yet found a SINGLE. DAMN. THING. That you cannot confuse into submission.

Poisoned? Hah, maybe if you’re level 3 and fighting rats.

Charm? Can’t play with the big boys.

Paralyzed, cool, but still pretty much even chances of the target being immune at this point.

But confusion?

You could look your god in the it-damned eye. And you could say “Roll a fucking D10.”

[pwbi]

holy shit you monster

[elzebrook]

Well I know what all my first 4th level spell slots will be.

[mikkeneko]

this was the post that inspired me to make Confusion  my first 4th level spell and let me tell you, I have gotten a lot  of mileage out of it

I think the greatest hit so far was casting it on an enemy boss that was approaching, by air, via Nightmare. the spell hit both the boss and the horse. the boss saved. the nightmare didn’t.

the nightmare rolled “make a melee attack” on the confusion table.

the DM ruled that the best way to interpret that, under the circumstances, would be that the horse tried to throw its rider.

contested strength check. the horse saved. the boss didn’t.

the boss took a 1000m trip straight down to the cobbles. he didn’t have any flying options.

[dare-to-dm]

I made my own custom version of the Confusion spell which involves rolling percentile dice and includes a unique effect for every number below 80.

It’s technically no more debilitating than the original version. There’s still a 20% your character can act as normal, a 20% chance they attack something, a 10% chance they flee and a 50% chance they basically can’t do anything useful. But it’s full of a bunch of wacky specific things like “Target begins yodeling” or “Target becomes afraid of the color green and actively attempts to flee green things”.

Anyway, my friends and I always bust out the custom version of the spell when it comes up because it’s more fun.

Except we’re starting to get a little leery of it because my version of the spell has a surprisingly high body count now. It’s even been involved in a TPK. The gods of random chance are apparently not on our side.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Adventure: In the Garden of the Wyrm

The castle at Lillyford has sat foreboding and overgrown for generations, the lair of a serpentine dragon who's laid claim to it's sprawling gardens and the river it overlooks. None so far have been brave or strong enough to oust the beast, but perhaps you and your foolish friends are lucky enough to make up the difference.

Hooks:

Most people know well enough to avoid the land surrounding the verdant castle, not only because of the dragon but because of the strange and hostile plant life that's said to thrive in its corrupting presence. A low level party in the region may be contracted to help uproot an invasive patch of poisonous blooms or predatory vines, a teaser for what's to come once they set their sights on the dragon's own garden.

The river traders have had enough. For decades they paid tribute to the dragon to avoid it plundering their barges and still had to deal with it plucking cargo and deckhands into the water whenever it got bored. They're willing to pay, and pay well, for a group of hunters to go in and gut the beast, and will even use their influence to support whoever does it taking ownership of the keep.

Alternatively, have the party enter the scene a few weeks after the hunters failed to kill the dragon, having given up their employers before they were eaten sending the dragon marauding through the waterways looking for revenge. All water traffic throughout the region has stopped as the traders and ferryfolk have gone into hiding, throwing the local economy into chaos.

Someone very important is sick and the hard to find cure just so happens to be a plant known to have been growing in the Lillyford gardens before the dragon arrived. While a frontal assault is out of the question, they could sneak in to pluck it from among the dragon's hoarded horticulture. Surely it won't notice a single missing specimen, right? ..... Right?

The Fortress was once known far and wide for its gardens, cultivated by generations of lords and ladies who traced their lineage back to a questing knight, who earned their station by presenting their liege with a flower obtained from the realm beyond the sunrise.  The seeds of that flower became the first planted in the castle’s garden, and began a collection of exotic blooms that the family expanded on throughout the decades. 

All wonders attract admirers, and among the lovers, herbalists, poets, and perfumers, the one who most admired the gardens of Lillyford was a dragon by the name of Pyrithi, who one day emerged from the river and presented himself at the castle gate, demanding that the owner of Lillyford surrender the keep and all its contents to him. When the owner and their men fought back, Pyrithi unleashed a foul breath which sickened their lungs and corroded their armour. Pyrithi did the same to the door of the keep, and threatened worse to those still inside, using the fallen and debilitated protectors as hostages.  

Since that day none but the dragon have set foot in Lillyford, who has supplemented the original gardens with several species of poisonous and/or maneating plants. Should some brave heroes manage to slay the wyrm, they will not only have the thanks of the now-exiled nobles of Lillyford, but also the fame granted to those who protected the keep’s heroic legacy. 

Art

[elandrawssometimes]

Only just realised I never posted this dumb doodle from 4 months ago. Here's pocket, ex-adventurer street alchemist NPC from my D&D campaign. He's the cheapest alchemist in Parvumarx!

[grammery]

The remains of a mid-16th century church known as the Temple of Santiago is visible Friday from the surface of the Grijalva River due to the lack of rain near the town of Nueva Quechula, in Chiapas state, Mexico.

[lucy-harker]

28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE (2026) dir. Nia DaCosta

[oldschoolfrp]

Ork glyphs, from Waaargh the Orks, a Rogue Trader supplement by Nigel Stillmann & Bryan Ansell, Games Workshop, 1990

[cabbageheadgames]

Capture miracles in a new utopia.

Paintings of The Long Forgotten is my 2022 artgame.

Roll on a 4D20 to explore and paint scenes from a solarpunk world. Find sustainable painting materials in a post-industrial utopia, try new art styles and witness how your world is changing.

I updated it with new community copies and a color version 3 years later.

You can claim a copy for FREE on my Itchio.

[theresattrpgforthat]

What timing on opening these --I was just thinking I had one for you. I'm looking for TTRPGs that can be played in a very short amount of time, very little setup on the player side, and are appropriate for middle and high school students! I'd love to run some games at the library, but have a very small allowed window in which to do this.

THEME: Great for Students, Very Short.

Hello there! I put you to the front of the queue because I wasn't sure how urgent the request was, so I hope this is still a timely response!

I tried to focus on games that could be appropriate for students and had very little in the form of rules. That being said, the downside of little rules is that there's not quite often a lot of GM guidance, so it might be good for you to read these a few days before you plan to run them.

Additionally, I recommend some places to find One-Page games at the bottom of this post, because I think you're going to get some very fruitful possibilities there beyond what I just recommend today.

One Spell Wizard, by noxnightly.

In this game, you are a wizard who only knows one magical spell for some reason. You’ve only learned the one and for some other reason use it for everything that you can think of. Will you be able to survive an entire dungeon this way?

It's easy to streamline character creation when all the other players have to do is write one spell! To succeed in One Spell Wizard, you roll 2d6. The closer you get to a 6, the better your success - 5 or 6 points away is an utter failure. The game encourages descriptions of how exactly your spell goes right or wrong, which I feel like me a very fruitful and fun exercise for a number of school-age kids.

As for generating challenges, the game has a quick little d6 table that uses a Mad-Libs style of creation to determine what the players will be up against. I can see this game turning well and truly goofy with this! If you want to give your players a customizable experience that is sure to generate a case of the giggles, I heavily recommend One Spell Wizard.

Super Unnatural, by Sam Robson

You are investigators specializing in paranormal problems. You have been hired to solve a mystery at a famously haunted apartment complex. Together you'll perceive, question and research your way to the answer- hopefully without becoming cursed in the process.

24XX games are another series of games that, as a system, are quick to pick up and play. Super Unnatural is specifically focused on spooky ghost stories, and I know that if given the chance, a lot of kids are more than happy to jump into spooky themes.

As for the style of game, Super Unnatural has three character investigator types, three basic skills, and a series of tables to help GM's create a problem of the week in a few seconds. The idea behind many of these games is to give you a few basic tools and then jump into the story as quickly as possible. If you want a spooky option for your group, consider Super Unnatural.

The Summit, by BATTLEAXE GAMES

Climb the White Fang mountain, and discover the long lost secrets that lie hidden at the Summit!

Take the role of an Explorer—an adventurer, survivalist, and mountaineer. Work with your fellow Explorers to climb the mountain and reach the top, before succumbing to frostbite, injury, or worse. After all, this is no ordinary mountain.

Breathless games have a pretty concise loop, and The Summit runs on Breathless. You need a pack of various multi-sided dice, and a few print-outs, and you're good to go! The Summit is designed to be a one-shot that lasts 2-3 hours, since a horror twist on a fantasy game, so I feel like death is a possibility.

The thing that makes Breathless games pretty concise is the Taking A Breath action. At various times throughout the game, the crew can pause to take a breath, which allows everyone to replenish their resources, but also introduces a new complication. In other versions of this system, I think you could even call the end of each session every time the group stops to take a breath. There are a number of different Breathless games, so if you like this idea, you have plenty to check out!

Elevator Dogs, by Blind Archivist.

ELEVATOR DOGS is a 10-minute, fast-paced, trigger-happy live-action RPG where 3 to 6 players portray a group of anonymous criminals who have just stolen something valuable in a chaotic mission. There is no fixed objective; the interesting part is seeing how the game unfolds and how the characters end up after the 10 minutes it takes for the escape elevator to reach the ground floor of the skyscraper. But I guess surviving is a good starting point.

A game with a timer! Elevator Dogs is meant to be 15 minutes long, tops, from prep to end. The game is also tiny, something you can fold up and keep in a mint tin. This game might be a great introduction for anyone who hasn't role-played before. Alternatively, it's described as a great filler game.

Shepherd's Lantern: Sheep Dog Quest, by Rogue Wave Arcade.

The sheep have been kidnapped by wolves. Are you a bad enough dog to rescue them?

For players that want animals and light-hearted themes, Shepherd's Lantern mixes child-friendly subject matter with a tactical style of play. This is a one-page game based on LUMEN, which is known for both rules that are easy to grasp and a tactical build that encourages strategic thinking.

I think you can teach this game fairly easily, while still allowing complexity to enter the experience. While you're playing sheepdogs, combat is still at the centre of this game; the setting gives your dogs a reason to be out there getting into scraps. If you want to encourage your players to problem-solve, you might get a lot out of this game.

Quest It, by Eulen Luda

If you were made out of paper, in a world made out of paper… How would you fight paper evil?

Quest-It is a role playing game about sticking Post-Its all over yourself and embodying paper champions fighting evil in a world made out of fiber, glue and ink where neon-cities, ancient castles and gigantic spaceships are all mixed-up.

I love games that find new and easy ways to incorporate a physical experience, and Quest-It does exactly that. Your character in this game is built up of special abilities called Power Post-Its, which are literally post-it notes stuck to your body! You take them off and slap them onto a table when you use them to try and do something risky.

The game itself is a standard fantasy game, with Trials that can deal damage to your characters, boilerplate templates for adventures that the GM will need to build onto, and treasures in the form of new powers every time you defeat a significant quest. One of my favourite things about this game is that when the group overcomes a challenge and fells an enemy, the players have to write their accomplishment on a Post-It and stick it onto the GM! Additionally, unlike some of the other games in this list, Quest-It includes some solid advice for the GM, giving you some short-form steps to follow to help you run a dynamic game.

The Gardening Club, by Wizard of Ox.

Welcome to our very legitimate high school club where we don’t actually do a lot of gardening! We are open to everyone: cheerleaders, talking vegetables and even people who actually garden. We only have one rule: keep our true agenda a secret. Grab a nice cup of herbal tea, water the cacti and search for clues. We must get to the root of things!

You are a group of high school students who, despite being different from each other, have an interest in common: solving mysteries.

Since a detective club would be too on the nose, you made a “gardening” club as a front. Each one of you has different abilities you can use to get to the root of things, as well as code-names that give special powers.

Can you work together and find out what is going on?

The Gardening Club prioritizes characters that are the same age as your prospective players, and it also makes character creation very quick and easy. The game comes with character cards and special abilities that you can print out and distribute so that your players have to do very little writing. Your players roll for a code-name, which gives them a unique one-use ability, as well as a general vibe for their character.

The game looks like it can be played faster or longer depending on how often the players draw clues. You need a deck of cards to generate each clue, and in order to gain a clue, a player needs to make a successful roll on a d6. In order to solve the mystery, players have to sort the clues they gather on a deduction tree to ensure all of the pieces they find form a larger picture. There's technically a lose state, as you can fail too often and land everyone in detention, which makes The Gardening Club feel like it's partially a roleplaying game, and partially a board-game.

If you like the format of this game, you might also check out Urban Legend Club, by onemorepotatochip, which is a one-page game that inspired this one!

Other Possibilities…

The Best Job On Earth, by Hilander.

Cephalopod Squad, by The Mirage Company.

The 2023 One Page RPG Jam

The 2024 One Page RPG Jam

THe 2025 One Page RPG Jam

If you like what I do and want to leave a tip, you can check out my Ko-Fi!

[roberttingle]

annoying when shows set in the medieval period have the women with thier hair just long and unstyled and out . girl go put on your wimple girl 🤦‍♀️

[elvensilk]

like there are so many fun medieval hair and headgear options, it's so boring just seeing loose beachy waves meant to appeal to 21st century beauty standards

put that hot prince in a gay little hood with an ostrich feather or so help me god

[munchy-k]

ive always rly liked the idea of a member of a group of adventurers having what everyone assumes is very well trained hawk and then at the end of their journey its casually revealed that thats actually just his buddy whos a shapeshifter and just rly likes being a hawk

[munchy-k]

the guy also like thinks everyone knows bc he never tries to hide the fact that the hawk is a person but everyone assumes hes always just joking. like the others being like "damn its crazy how he knows exactly what you want him to do its like he knows english or something." and the guy is just like "well yeah thats his first language so ofc he's fluent??" and they all go "haha good one" and move on, leaving him confused

[munchy-k]

they just think hes a quirky guy that really loves his pet and says things like "the 9 of us" even tho there are clearly only 8 people! he just cares about the bird so much he counts it as a group member haha !

[itsmissing]

design comm for a bioluminescent wizard

[psychhound]

been hard at work on some new ttrpg accessibility initiatives through chimera hearts!! we're doin good work there if folks want to join us to help solve issues in the ttrpg hobby :)

two new pages up on my website ! one is a checklist on how to make ttrpg rulebooks more accessible. the other is the launch page for an initiative to get more indie ttrpg audiobooks in production, including a list of currently available indie ttrpg audiobooks

check em outttt ^^

The Accessible Rulebook Checklist

by Luka Brave For the last several months, I and several other indie TTRPG enthusiasts have been tackling big challenges found in the tablet

TTRPG Audiobooks for Accessibility

by Luka Brave Part of the mission of indie TTRPG volunteer network Chimera Hearts is to make TTRPGs more accessible. Reducing the barrier of

[psychhound]

the accessible rulebook checklist now has resources on itch!! pdf and epub copies of the checklist, plus logos if you want to show your readers that your rulebook was designed with accessibility in mind :)

Accessible Rulebooks by PsychHound

resources to make TTRPG rulebooks more accessible

[damsels-n-dice]

i am wondering if u have any advice for people who want to make ttrpgs?

(started working on a newspaper club rpg with a friend a few years ago but i never finished it but i want to try again with that same idea)

hi! i've actually only been making TTRPGs for about 2 years myself, so i'm far from an expert, but i'll try to share some things i've learnt! hopefully some of it is useful to you, or at least gives you some ideas

(the post ended up quite long so it is going under a read more)

1: Consume other stories!

this applies to all sorts of media -- books, movies, tv shows, theatre, podcasts, actual play shows & board games as well as other TTRPGs.

you can get a lot of inspiration in terms of the kinds of characters, genres and stories you want your game to engage with through just consuming a lot of media, even if it isn't gaming related! i also quite like finding specific things i like in a show or a book, and then trying to figure out how i'd convert it to a tabletop medium.

board games are a bit less story-focused, of course, but have the added benefit of providing you with potential tabletop friendly mechanics. things that come to mind are dread using a jenga tower and a number of TTRPGs that take inspiration from card games like poker. you can play games for free on sites like boardgamearena, and there are solo options & tutorials available for many of those.

and of course, finally there are TTRPGs! i assume you already play multiplayer games in some capacity, but reading rulebooks and playing solo games can also both be very valuable. you can find what other people in your genre are doing, get ideas for mechanics and a whole bunch of other useful things. to find TTRPGs without breaking the bank, i'd suggest checking out the free physical games page on itch.io, and blogs like @theresattrpgforthat and @indie-ttrpg-of-the-week. you can also get a lot from charity bundles & game jams.

2: Don't be afraid of SRDs.

i don't know how much you know about RPGs or making them, so for the reference of anyone who doesn't know: SRDs are system reference documents, provided by game designers so that other creators can use their systems to create games & hacks of their own. these come with licenses that explain how you can use the game -- some are commercial and others won't be. as with games themelves, quality and clarity of SRDs can vary, and some have a lot of rules attached!

but basically, i cannot recommend researching SRDs enough. creating an entire system from scratch as a new TTRPG designer is incredibly daunting & can be a lot of work. particularly if you're writing for multiplayer games. finding an SRD that fits any mechanic or tone ideas you have gives you a basis to work on, which you can then alter or expand to fit your specific needs. most of my games use SRDs!

i've used the buddy system for multiplayer games before, as well as creating some hacks of lasers & feelings (not strictly an SRD but very simple and popular to adapt). off the top of my head, there's also: caltrop core, EMERGE8, honey heist, and the horseshoe system. many of these were taken from the one page rpg jam's resource list!

i'll also mention the second guess and wretched & alone single player SRDs, as i'm not sure if you're writing for single or multiplayer! but both of these lists are obviously just a starting point.

3: Start small and get something finished.

many of my first games are no longer available on itch.io, but you can see that the earlier ones on there are mostly one page, solo and/or lyric games. like with most creative stuff, just getting something done at all is often a big concern with TTRPGs! especially when my own longest project ('til it kills us) is 50 pages, and it's still far from the longest TTRPGs you'll be able to find out in the wild.

if you can make this project you'll be working on be short -- ideally between 1 and 10 pages or so, imo -- then do that.

if not, consider trying something else small out as you're also working on this big project. join a game jam like the eternal ttrpg jam or, when it comes around again, the 200 word RPGs jam that runs on tumblr. or hack one of the solo games i mention to do something silly with friends. it doesn't have to be good, it doesn't have to be published or even played, and you probably won't like it that much. but i find there's nothing that makes the big projects easier than finishing a small one to prove that you can write a TTRPG after all.

4: Follow cool people to keep learning!

i already mentioned a few great blogs to follow here on tumblr, but i learn a lot about game design from the blogs i follow on here and the channels i watch on youtube. i won't do too many recommendations as i don't want to spam people with notifications but here's a few.

tumblr: @psychhound, @anim-ttrpgs, @indierpgnewsletter, @indiepressrevolution, @crackerjackalopegames

youtube: Five Minutes, Not 5e & A.A. Voigt

discord: i'm a lurker in the TTRPG Collective & Chimera Hearts

i'm also gonna mention TheQueerXP actual play podcast, simply bc those guys are really awesome and deserve all the love & attention!

4: Have fun?

idk this one is cheesy but i write TTRPGs bc i do genuinely love every part of the design and gameplay process (except formatting 😭) so i just wanted to say that, like. if you enjoy making games and love what you're making please keep making and sharing them, because people will find them and love them. and don't feel bad if you don't enjoy it, and you find yourself wanting to take a break from your project, or even stop. it's a very different experience to playing or running TTRPGs! and the game will be better if you don't end up hating it.

Conclusion

i have no idea if any of this is helpful, as someone who got into TTRPG design through D&D 5e entirely by accident, and whose design philosophy can mostly be described as "hope and pray". but hopefully other people will be able to jump in and share their own thoughts or resources, and i'm happy to help with any more specific questions if you have them, anon! i'd love to hear more about your game :)

[psychhound]

this advice is a really good starting point!!

some additional things:

i really recommend the dice exploder podcast & discord server!! i've only been in the discord server for a little while, but the culture is lovely & there's a lot of in-depth conversations on game design & mechanics. the podcast deep-dives into mechanics for different games each episode. i have disabilities that stop me from reading a lot of ttrpgs, so being exposed to many other games & mechanics from other people really helps!! if youve only played a small handful of games, it's really hard not to be iterative

secondly, i'm going to echo something @j-richmond has said that i really agree with - making your own systems will be better for your games and help you grow as a designer way more than defaulting to SRDs or hacks! (disclaimer is that im fully not against SRDs and hacks as a rule - i've made them myself and the horseshoe system SRD mentioned above is mine)

its kind of like ... if you only ever color in coloring books, you will probably develop better hand-eye coordination and you will learn more about the utensils youre using to color and maybe even shading and color theory. but you won't learn how to draw. you can only ever create images that are pre-developed for you and inherently iterative. you have to create your own images if you actually want to be better at drawing, and while using references is a common & needed part of learning to draw better, you'll still be developing your skills way more and growing as an artist if you're making drawings yourself

now, some people just really enjoy coloring and don't want to be an expert artist, and that's fine! more power to them! for most people, ttrpg design is very much a hobby they do whenever they have a little free time and then they put it on itch in case other people are interested

however, if you want to be a good game designer, you've gotta actually design your own games!! some people start with an idea (characters/plot/setting/genre) and then figure out how to build mechanics for it. very often, for me, i come up with a cool resolution mechanic and then build a game around it

i also started my first handful of games by trying to make games that my individual friends would like, which gave me a jumping off point & a lot of joy when they liked it!! my early games are all original mechanics (the terminology for this is a "bespoke" system - an original system designed for that specific game) and theyre all incredibly varied, and thats why!! i was like okay whats a good game for friend A. now whats a good game for friend B. etc

now, reading SRDs is a good way to learn about the various different mechanics already out there, as well as seeing whats popular. but too much of the fun is in actually designing bespoke systems for me, so i dont use SRDs all too often :) theyre just flexing different muscles!!

hope you dont mind the addition, damsel! but im pro-bespoke all the way 💪💪