#or try a different ttrpg

[heybiji]

ialso love playign superhero ttrpgs can i ask what the Masks ttrpg is? i love finding neww hero themed ttrpgs ^-^ yay!

Ohhh!! Hey! i love getting to talk ttrpg stuff thanks for the question!

MASKS: A New Generation is a superhero ttrpg about teenagers all trying to figure out who they are in a world filled with people constantly telling them who they are and how the world works. It's less about the powers and the fights and more about the emotional journey of the PCs with mechanics that support that. It's a really narratively driven game!

tldr: try it out! it's fun! it's simple! and it's low-prep (apparently, just not for me, but i'm always just gonna do Too Much). you want a system with mechanics that revolve around telling a story? around your character's emotions and how they view themselves? this is the one for you! it's great and i've really been enjoying it!!

First of all, it's a fail-forward system, so the way your character levels (advanced) is by missing rolls. I like this a lot.

There are ten core playbooks that are essentially the classes you can choose from. They each come with their own powers, some intentionally more impressive than others, but it's not about the powers; it's about the core conflict that comes with each of the archetypes. Here are a few playbook examples:

The Delinquent: You've got these cool powers. But everyone keeps telling you how to use 'em. You know what they need? Someone to give them trouble, to make sure they don't always get their way. And hey! You're the perfect her to do it.

The Legacy: You're the latest in a storied heroic lineage, a family that shares a name and a cause. Now, everybody is watching and waiting to see if you've got what it takes to uphold that tradition. No Pressure, right?

The Nova: You're a font of power. Channel it, and you can remake the world into exactly what you want. Unleash it, and you can do miracles. It's wonderful... and terrifying. Lose control for even a second, and other people get hurt.

Your stats are your Labels. They're how you see yourself, and how others see you. The Labels are DANGER, FREAK, SAVIOR, SUPERIOR, and MUNDANE. Different stats help with different Moves/rolls, so for example a high DANGER stat helps you Directly Engage a Threat, while a low MUNDANE stat makes it harder for you to Comfort or Support Someone. Your Labels are constantly being shifted around throughout the game as your character's self-image changes (and that self-image changes a lot, basically the NPCs are just label shifting machines).

The mechanics are fun! Instead of traditional damage, the PCs have Conditions that they take on, and what conditions a character has affects their rolls. The Conditions are Afraid, Angry, Guilty, Hopeless, and Insecure. So if you're Angry you take -2 on your roll to do the move Comfort or Support Someone, if you're Afraid, it's -2 on Directly Engage a Threat, etc. There are multiple ways to clear your conditions but the most straightforward way is to take a particular action, so if you're Angry you have to hurt someone or break something important, and if you're Afraid you have to run from something difficult. These actions lead to some awesome and surprising story beats!

There's some other stuff as well, but that's the gist!

Coming from DND, it took me some time to adjust to something so wildly different in terms of the system, but I've been enjoying it! I haven't gotten to play it as a PC, but running it has been an interesting challenge. I think it's a pretty simple system to work with, and I at least hear it's low-prep (again not for me tho lol). It's mechanically looser than the only other ttrpg I've played (dnd) and requires a lot more decision making from the whole table, so I think in a way it asks more of its players in that way. And the GM role is constantly on in a specific way, because it's up to the GM to listen and call out when a Move is being triggered and a roll should be made based on what the characters are doing in any particular scene.

anyway I can always have more to say but MASKS has been fun. I recommend giving it a shot! And then you should tell me what you thought about it!!

[what-about-yogurt-night]

Here's a drawing I did for a class of my TTRPG character Jared meeting up with his buddy Mudd the Dog😎😎 (Jared's a shapeshifter and Mudd was his first non-human friend :3)

I barely ever draw backgrounds (or dogs for that matter) so I was stressinggg

I purposely didn't model Jared after a specific dog breed cause I like the idea that he looks a little uncanny in his animal forms to the actual animals of those species, also no matter what he turns into (except like bugs maybe lol) he's still got very human eyes and acts just a little bit too sentient for most people's comfort lol

I feel like Jared would be the kind of guy to turn into a wolf in front of a bunch of people not realizing it was a full moon and scare an entire town into thinking they had a werewolf problem for the next 150 years

the text in the drawing is just the prompt we had to use for this project so it's not my own words lol, here they are under the cut tho just in case ya need em:

I followed the same path as I had those years ago, almost step-by-exact-step.

As I turned the final corner I knew who I'd see before I saw him.

And there he was.

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Thinking about the complexities of a "losing your magic" story in a DnD (and similar) scenerio because what it means completly depends of your class. Because while not everyone is born with magic, everyone can have it.

How for a sorcerer losing their magic is genuinally about losing a part of themselfs, to suddently not being able to do something they always did. Losing your magic is like sudently losing a limb or one of your senses. And how besides being always theirs, their magic is ancestral how it can mean losing a connection with a part of their family history.

How for paladins is about morals. About breaking their vows whatever they are, dealing with the fact that they changed or maybe that morals were always way more complicated than they thought they were. (The Oathbreaker subclass changes things but I think it can work if Oathbreaker is one of the ways to embrace the emotional conflict that took your magic). Is almost phylosofical. Is the what makes Thor worthy?

How for druids, clerics and warlocks are different levels of losing a connection. For druids is with nature, with a force beyond their comprehension but that became a part of you for so long and who are you without this feeling? For warlocks is so many things, is losing a boss, a friend, is the price of freedom, is the loss of whatever you had with the sentient being that gave you powers. And for clerics is a mix, is about if their gods are feelings like nature or beings that talk to them, but whatever it is, for clerics, for clerics is a lack of faith. Is about what happens when you doubt your god, when you can't belive it or in it. Is also about what happens when your god doesn't belive in you.

For bards and mages is the loss of a skill. The bards might have the loss of their playing or voice but even if not, even if is just the magic that is gone, well they, just like the mages, studied hard to be abble to do magic. If for a sorcerer is like losing a limb, for them is like waking up in the morning and noticing your accent changed or that you don't speak a language you once did anymore, is trying to ride the same bicycle you used to go to work everyday and noticing you just doesn't know how.

[katartna]

Dragon Brothers 🌘🌸

[siegecraft]

time for a new intro post—hi, I’m C. J. Linton! You can call me CJ or Case.

I’m a game designer, editor, voluntary forever GM, and the business director of Sly Robot Games with Dominique Dickey (@domsdickey). Our games include:

Tomorrow on Revelation III, about surviving and resisting capitalism on a heavily stratified space station.

Plant Girl Game, about a family of plant children working together with their community to prevent ecological disaster.

The Prince of Nothing Good (upcoming!), a heist about a notorious thief pulling together his crew for one last job in a fantastical and hostile city.

I’ve also written Bring Down the House, which is about ghosts trying to dispose of their home’s latest occupants, and Those of Us Who Know Better, about trans superheroes whose powers come at a price.

I do a lot of things outside of tabletop roleplaying games that I also talk about on here, including:

Dramaturgy and new play development. (My dramaturgy pretty significantly informs my game development and editing practices.) I’m currently working with two playwrights, one working on a sort of adaptation of "A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett that is also an ecological problem play and one working on a very Jewish journalism-y Superman play.

Bookbinding and other handcraft sundries. I am a small part of the sustainable bookbinding, needlework, and papermaking operation run by my partner, Amethyst Alchemist. I make a lot of book cloth, bind a lot of books, and occasionally cross stitch pieces for the front covers.

Fiction, board games, video games, and other writing/media, especially science fiction and cyberpunk, engine building games, critique, and my own work. I am a proponent of a generous but more honest ecosystem of media criticism, and I speak transparently about works that didn’t work for me.  

and I'd love to be doing more editing and dramaturgy, so feel free to get in touch about that.

In most other places, I am @NearFutures: itch.io, Bluesky, Cohost, Twitter. and this is my website, which I am trying to be better about keeping up to date.

[the-witchhunter]

When talking about DnD and TTRPGs, the thing that immediately tells me I should not take someone seriously is if they say something along the lines of "typical 5e player behavior"

say what you want about 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, it has some problems, all systems do. I really like playing other systems myself and think learning multiple is fun and can be an enriching experience, but talking about typical 5e players is such a bad faith take

Mostly it's just "not like other girls" or i guess "not like other Table Top Player" reactivism to the popular thing. But also it always seems to be about stuff I've literally never seen a normal 5e player do. Like, the concept of the "that guy" has been around for ages. This isn't a new thing or limited to 5e, the only reason you see so many is that idiots are loud and noticeable and 5e is incredibly popular.

rant over, yes there was a post and some of the replies prompted this, no it was not even about 5e DnD yet people were commenting about typical 5e player behavior. Sometimes a bad player is just a bad player

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

So I've been trying for a long time to figure out a good, simple way to substitute dice for a deck of playing cards. I made this primarily for the sake of accessibility--I am disabled in such a way that I can't use physical cards, and it is much, much harder to find good offline digital card decks than dice rollers--but I'm hoping it will also be useful for people who don't have playing cards on hand or space to use them.

-

You will need:

A d10 and d6.

Preferably a way to record which cards you've drawn to which pile.

How to draw a card:

You will be rolling from 1 of 9 tables; the d10 is your table die, and the d6 is your result die. If you roll a 10 on the table die, reroll.

If playing without jokers, reroll on a 5-6 result from Table 9. If playing with jokers, roll normally.

The default order of suits is Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs, though you may change this if you want.

The order of numbered cards is Ace to King for each suit, followed by the black joker and red joker.

Roll 1d10 and 1d6.

Table 1:

1: Ace of Spades

2: 2 of Spades

3: 3 of Spades

4: 4 of Spades

5: 5 of Spades

6: 6 of Spades

Table 2:

1: 7 of Spades

2: 8 of Spades

3: 9 of Spades

4: 10 of Spades

5: Jack of Spades

6: Queen of Spades

Table 3:

1: King of Spades

2: Ace of Hearts

3: 2 of Hearts

4: 3 of Hearts

5: 4 of Hearts

6: 5 of Hearts

Table 4:

1: 6 of Hearts

2: 7 of Hearts

3: 8 of Hearts

4: 9 of Hearts

5: 10 of Hearts

6: Jack of Hearts

Table 5:

1: Queen of Hearts

2: King of Hearts

3: Ace of Diamonds

4: 2 of Diamonds

5: 3 of Diamonds

6: 4 of Diamonds

Table 6:

1: 5 of Diamonds

2: 6 of Diamonds

3: 7 of Diamonds

4: 8 of Diamonds

5: 9 of Diamonds

6: 10 of Diamonds

Table 7:

1: Jack of Diamonds

2: Queen of Diamonds

3: King of Diamonds

4: Ace of Clubs

5: 2 of Clubs

6: 3 of Clubs

Table 8:

1: 4 of Clubs

2: 5 of Clubs

3: 6 of Clubs

4: 7 of Clubs

5: 8 of Clubs

6: 9 of Clubs

Table 9:

1: 10 of Clubs

2: Jack of Clubs

3: Queen of Clubs

4: King of Clubs

5: Black Joker

6: Red Joker

-

Methods to efficiently keep track of a deck are another story, and will be one of my next projects, but for now have this in case it's helpful to you. Enjoy!

[equalseleventhirds]

i have GOT to play more oneshots in more ttrpg systems. in fact i've got to run them bcos i am getting out of practice gming and i love gming and i only do it a little bit. also i love to play games. i have more games than i will ever play in my life but i love them and i wanna play them so. oneshots.

not right now obvs i am still too busy to even be online much but. maybe in january when the holidays are done and i can relax a bit. assuming i dont get sick again ofc i have been sick so much. boo.

[vulpixelates]

the monday blues are getting me especially hard after a four day weekend of being curled up in bed and playing pretend with my wife 😔😔

daydreaming about the lesbians in our heads SAVE ME

[mik-arts]

after a long fight to rescue her from a dangerous figure from her past, Noore chose to leave the party for her own protection - leaving behind only a note and a devastated Flora

[eelslippers]

That moment when you begin planning for a tabletop session and it can either be a wholesome chill session or a session that ends in someone dying and you have no idea which way it will go

[aliiiiiiice]

here's something even better, the entirety of the Pathfinder 2e rules on an official website so you can play something that isn't D&D 5e

here's a free character builder too

Here is a free pdf of the players handbook

Here is a free pdf of xanathars guide to everything

Here is a free pdf to monsters manual

Here is a free pdf to tashas cauldron of everything

Here is a free pdf to dungeon master’s guide

Here is a free pdf to volo’s guide to monsters

Here is a free pdf of mordenkainen’s tomb of foes

For all your dnd purposes

[a-pheonyx-manifesting]

Another lil' look at my colouring books. 🖍️✨

Goblin Gal- The Process ✨

High Class Orc Lass- The Process ✨

I want to print some little themed colouring books, starting with 'TTRPG'. (All ages, so I make sure the pages are colour-able with crayon.) Ultimately, I hope to reconnect my business relationship with a local dice shop. (I've not been the best communicator so the relationship definitely needs repair but, they used to hold my candles and they make a point to support artists. So, 🤞.) My dad helped me edit the marker stains out but, I think I've figured out a way to stop them so there's less editing to be done. Though I'm sure the pages would still need whitening.

[aidenwaites]

I know NSBU is using a modified version somehow but Kids on Bikes seems like such a fun system

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

does anyone know if there's an existing term for rolls where you're trying to get above (or below) a certain number, as opposed to rolling from a table? i've been tentatively calling them 'scales' in my head as a placeholder, but that feels like it might not be quite accurate. hm.

[equalseleventhirds]

havin a convo w/ someone abt motw and a bad experience they had with it and the thought occurs that (largely bcos it is the game recced most often to ppl who are tired of d&d) most ppl treat it like modern-day d&d

.....or rather, like the version of d&d popularized by actual play shows, which is rules-lite roleplay-heavy game where you hang out with your friends and tell whatever story you like (gayly, usually)

and so they get tired of real d&d with all its. well. its. you know the game. anyway, so then they try motw

unforch motw is, while lighter on rules and heavier on roleplay than d&d, actually a game with a very set story that it is trying to tell: that is, monster arrives in place, group goes on a 'learn about monster' adventure (by researching it in libraries, interviewing witnesses, seeing traces of the monster and perhaps skirmishing with it but not having an all-out fight with it yet, and, key here, the gm providing that information as the players search for it. really providing it.)

and then, after learning about it, to go confront the monster and kill it/subdue it/drive it out of town/whatever

(in, of course, the style of monster of the week shows; you should be thinking really hard about buffy, spn, scooby doo, as you run it. think of each mystery like one of those episodes, with a hard end of the monster goes away forever, they learn a lesson, and then on to the next monster. with some exceptions, but nevertheless.)

like absolutely not meant as a 'if ur not doing this ur a bad ttrpg player/gm', i'm not trying to tell you you're playing it wrong in a gatekeepy way i s2g, but like. motw is so often wildly misrepresented, and i think that's led to, like this person i was talkign to, some ppl having a shitty experience with it, or even just, not quite getting the hang of it and going back to d&d. and if you're playing the game and finding that it's not meshing well with the totally different story you're trying to tell. that's not your fault or your story's fault, but uh....... might be a disconnect with the mechanics.

and it's a good game on its own! but the way ppl treat it is. unfortunate.

also there are other games that will do what you want them to do, if you're looking to tell a different sort of story. u kno. branch out.

...............also frankly as a game designer i'm a little exasperated that it's treated as 'pbta standard' as though pbta even HAS a standard (it does not, it's been adapted in so so so many ways and motw wasn't even the FIRST, go take a look at apocalypse world and view the format totally differently, dammit.)