#Role-Playing Games

[thatsbelievable]

[illyanarasputinfan]

Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Magik (Marvel Rivals) Character Sheet (2024) Marvel

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Dan Bress and Ed Konstant - The Book of Sorcery - Little Soldier Games - 1977 (illustration by Bob Charrette)

[lsengler]

IGNIS SCIENTIA | LILIANA VESS | "The Kiss," after Gustav Klimt

(Redbubble)

I started this piece all the way back in April one morning during Chicago's C2E2 and have been diligently and slowly picking away at it until just now, when I'm finally declaring it finished and unleashing it onto the world. A crossover ship from Fandom High , a Dreamwidth-based role-playing game where I play obsessively, we have Ignis Scientia and Liliana Vess caught in a tender embrace inspired by Gustav Klimt's iconic piece "The Kiss."

The time and devotion I put into this piece still astounds me, and I honestly think it may be one of my greatest creations yet, with a big shout out to the person behind our Liliana Vess (I myself am playing Ignis), for all the time and devotion that she's poured into this amazing ship that gives me so much inspiration and joy every single day.

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

RPGs get a reputation for being all about fighting. How does that work if the RPG is solarpunk? Or utopian even? What is an RPG, in the first place? What is the usefulness of a solarpunk RPG? Join us as we discuss these questions and more.

Art from the Fully Automated website used in episode cover is by Sean Bodley as well as a few other artists and this will get updated to credit them when we track them down :)

Links:

You can find Fully Automated at https://fullyautomatedrpg.com/ The Sogorea Te Land Trust: https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/ Solarpunk 2050: http://solarpunk2050.de/ Solarpunk Pioneers Fund: http://solarpunk-pioneers.org/ Coyote & Crow: https://coyoteandcrow.net/ Lunar Echos: https://affinity-games.itch.io/ Neon Black: https://notwriting.itch.io/ Legacy: Life Among the Ruins: https://ufopress.co.uk/legacy-life-among-the-ruins/ Fighting for the Future: https://www.android-press.com/product-page/fighting-for-the-future-ebook “Murder in the Tool Library” by AE Marling: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-in-the-tool-library-a-e-marling/1144354144 “Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto” by Aaron Bastani: https://www.versobooks.com/products/476-fully-automated-luxury-communism “Four Futures: Life After Capitalism” by Peter Fraise: https://www.versobooks.com/products/59-four-futures

[shelandsorcery]

The Ghost Houses of Phylinecra is a system agnostic tabletop role-playing game adventure that pits the players against The Goddess, in a dungeon beset by ethereal predators.

The print and play version of this adventure is available on my gum road shop, linked below.

[stepawayfromthedungeon]

Why I stepped away from the dungeon

I've been saying it ever since 3.5: Play something that isn't D&D. And it seems a large amount of people are now just figuring that out.

But why? Is it just contrarianism that keeps me from wanting to play the biggest, most popular game? I wish. It's more of a multitude of smaller reasons and personal beefs.

Plus, you know, there's the fact that they sent the Pinkertons after that one person. How about their attempts to modify the OGL? And let's not forget what I perceive to be attempts to push D&D into a purely online space, laden with microtransactions and AI, while shutting out smaller game shops. Maybe I'm wrong about that last one. I hope I am.

I hate listicles, but here's a small one.

1. I don't care much for medieval fantasy

That's a pretty easy one right there. It's not that I hate the genre. I liked the LOTR movies. I played the hell out of Oblivion and Skyrim - unmodded, even. And I even own PDFs for three different versions of Pathfinder (1E, 2E, and SWADE).

But overall, I find the genre kind of done-to-death. I'd much rather explore a world of supers, sci-fi, cyberpunk, alternate history, "Weird West," or something else. While a lot of other people were hard into D&D, I was playing TMNT, Robotech, Shadowrun, RIFTS, and more.

Again, this isn't some sort of hipster contrarianism. If you like D&D, keep liking it. Don't let the words of some internet rando sour you on that thing you enjoy.

2. Homogenization

It was really hard trying to get people to try literally anything new in the years of 3.5. I literally had someone look me in the face and say they wouldn't play anything except D20.

It was a weird time to be in a gaming store. It was as if people weren't aware of other universal systems (many of which, in my opinion, were far less clunky).

For a huge chunk of the general public, WotC owned all of the tabletop space. And that felt grimy to me.

3. Clunky

I've played 5E a few times. I do not care much for the system. Having played Savage Worlds, Cypher System, ICRPG, and even GURPS 4E, I just really can't get around a lot of 5E's mechanics.

Savage Worlds' "wound" system does a lot better than incessantly counting hit points, as does Fate's physical / mental stress counter. Even the notoriously clunky Shadowrun has a better way of tracking damage. Ouch.

Honestly, try out some combat or skill tests in other systems, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

4. Supporting small creators

That's pretty much it. Maybe you can chalk this one up to contrarianism, but I like supporting small game studios, rather than large multinational conglomerates.

Moving forward, this will be a general TTRPG blog. I'll be talking about different games and systems, giving tips, and maybe even uploading some homebrew content for anything but D&D.

[julietstmoon]

Stray Thoughts on George Kamitani and Women in Vanillaware Games

I'm not getting into it yet because I want to play more and do more research on their games, but I think there might be something to discuss about George Kamitani's feelings on women, besides the tired "he's a sexist objectifying freak!" stuff that gets lobbed at him all the time.

Princess Crown prominently stars a lady, and is set in a kingdom that's a matriarchy.

Odin Sphere, from what I've played so far, has quite a bit about gender roles and the horror of women losing their agency. If a Valkyrie commits treason, she's stripped of her rank, put to sleep, and made someone's wife, and it's treated as the most horrible thing that can befall a woman of that status.

And while I dislike how Muramasa treats Momohime (note: have not played the true ending yet), that also has themes of women losing their agency.

And I think that's super interesting, especially from an auteur who more popularly gets seen as the sexist coomer bait dev because of Dragon's Crown.

[legionofmyth]

Rifts Dimension Book #14: Thundercloud Galaxy: All the tech you’re NOT allowed!

🚀 Discover the advanced technology of the Thundercloud Galaxy in Rifts Dimension Book #14 by Palladium Books! From powerful spacecraft to innovative gadgets, explore the cutting-edge tech that defines this incredible galaxy. Watch now to delve into the futuristic world of Thundercloud Galaxy! #RiftsRPG #ThundercloudGalaxy #PalladiumBooks #TabletopRPG #SciFiFantasy #RPGTech #RolePlayingGames

Rifts Dimension Book #14: Thundercloud Galaxy Rifts Dimension Book 2: Phase World Explore the advanced and futuristic technology of the Thundercloud Galaxy from Rifts Dimension Book #14 by Palladium Books! 🚀 Discover the cutting-edge tech that powers this incredible dimension. Watch now to unlock the secrets of Thundercloud Galaxy’s technology! In this video, we delve into the sophisticated and…

[concoctionboy]

So I'm currently at Gen Con, which if you don't know is a big game convention in Indianapolis. (Which is why I may not be posting much for the rest of this week.) If you're surprised that Gen Con would allow a slime made of living potion to attend the convention, the fact is that they do not; it's a humans only thing, or at least a people that can pass for human, which… I really can't. I mean, I spend most of my waking time human-shaped, but I'm still… green and translucent, which as far as I know are things that humans pretty much never are. But it turns out the convention hall has a pretty extensive ventilation system, and it's not hard to listen in on the panels from there, and as for the exhibit hall, well, I can come in through the vents and look at stuff after it's closed. I mean, sure, it's not the same as being able to fully participate and ask questions, and I can't really interact with anyone except the other creatures hiding in the vents (of which there are a lot more than I would have expected), but I mean I guess I can still sort of count it as attending.

Anyway, I "attended" one panel put on by Jared Sorensen (of Memento Mori Theatricks) and Sam Roberts (of the Ludological Alchemy podcast) called "You Can't Do That in RPG Design" where participants designed their own quick role-playing games and then kind of briefly playtest each other's games. And I couldn't have anyone playtest my game because, again, I was hiding in a vent, but I'm actually kind of happy with the game I came up with. Which was of course about slimes.

But I do think it needs a lot of playtesting. So anyway, if anyone might be interested in playtesting an RPG about slimes, let me know. It won't be right away, because I mean the version I have was conceived and written in about twenty minutes and I need to polish and expand it before I'd want to send it out (okay, sure, during the panel it was the quick unpolished versions of the games that were tested, but I mean that was just the nature of that panel), but when I have it in a slightly more presentable form it could definitely use some playtesting.

[ryunneldred]

Clearing the Western Ramparts | Dragon Age: Inquisition Pt. 43

[sexerxes]

Hot take: The original game design mentality behind Dungeons & Dragons and the Forgotten Realms is almost more "wild west" than fantasy. It's a heavily Americanized interpretation of the fantasy tradition laid down by Tolkien and a unique application of mythology and medieval life. This is less visible now than in 1st ed but it carries over. The idea of "a group of adventurers facing increasing threats for increasing loot" took over the mainstream organically.

And because of that, there's a great reward in breaking habits and trying to de-Westernize (as in de-Wild Westify) your fantasy world in any way. Maybe none of you characters care about adventure. Maybe there's no loot to be gained and no levels to be increased. Maybe that tribe of native goblins isn't evil by nature. It's a game of imagination!

Don't let D&D define role-playing for you!

[whimseysthrone]

Worldbuilding: a swashbuckling campaign

I reviewed The Three Musketeers: D’artagnan recently, but I only realized I hadn’t yet reviewed it because I was deep in the process of creating a T3M inspired setting for an RPG. I knew I wanted the intrigue, the swordplay, the ambition, and the thrill of being small players discovering a much larger political game. So I hunted for and pulled out the themes that felt crucial to T3M’s fun, trying…

[silentwisher-feed]

Introducing Two Brand-New Tools: Character Sheet Generator and Military Roleplay Shipping Manifest Generator

Hello, everyone! Hot on the heels of my recent announcement about the new suite of tools, I’m back again with some exciting news. I’m thrilled to present two more additions to my toolbox: the Character Sheet Generator and the Military Roleplay Shipping Manifest Generator. Character Sheet Generator: The first tool I’d like to introduce is my Character Sheet Generator. This tool is a game-changer…