I'm curious what games based on existing franchises/Intellectual Properties.

List of one's I can think of off hand:

• Star Wars RPGs
• Warhammer 40k
• Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar
• Call of Cthluhu (not sure the history on the licensing)

I'd have added Through the Breach RPG to this, but looking online the latest supplements for it came out like a few years back and new ones haven't been made since around 2023, I could be wrong though. It used to be my go to recommendation because they made build your own steampunk model kits.

My criteria for successful Licensed TTRPG is:

• Must be directly based on a book/movie/game/tv show.
• The TTRPG can't have been made prior to the release of the original material.
• Tabletop other than TTRPGs count as non-TTRPG properties.
• The TTRPG must have be curently actively supported either via the company that owns it or fans. This can be a bit fuzzy, but perhaps a new product out within the last 6 months, showing that the game isn't abandoned.
• It doesn't matter if the TTRPG has gone through multiple editions or versions using different rules. (e.g. Warhammer 40k had the Fantasy Flight Games RPGs and now the current versions are "Wrath and Glory" and "Imperium Maledictum")

Any ones you all can think of?

I am aware this is very specific but Id thought I should try anyway

I've had the idea of GMing a game where players form a military unit responsible for exploring an abandoned facility or an impossible space, like a DND party would explore a dungeon in search of loot, or like those movies where a group of soldiers is sent to an isolated location ala Resident Evil 1, DOOM (2005), Aliens 2, etc.

I'm still trying to find a good system for it. My first thought was Delta Green, but I have no experience with d100 systems and it feels more geared towards "open" investigation than dungeon crawling. I also looked up Military game suggestion thread, and it seems most of them are either post-apoc, vietnam war, or WWI/WWII focused and that's not exactly what Im looking for

I usually prefer more FITD or PBTA style games but I'd be down for some crunchy grid-based map combat

Basically I am relatively new to roleplaying. I have been playing for a year and it all started because I started going to some meetups that have a teacher, she teaches us improv tools, writing narrative, new rpg systems, etc. We sometimes play campaigns, sometimes LARPs, etc we do a bunch of cool and fun stuff related to roleplaying. The point is that the teacher invited me to her private roleplay table, and it was fun.

Now, she has invited me for a long term campaign and I started to feel some pressure to perform better. She is an amazing master, has a lot of experience and plans a lot of her campaigns, she writes a ton of lore, characters... She even invented a new language for this new campaign (it has aliens, etc). So I have started to feel some nervousness, like I'm not giving enough, I wrote my character and put effort into that part. But now that it's time to play I feel like I just go and improvise, which is the whole point of playing but I just feel like I could be doing more

I don't know what I could do to show her that I appreciate all the effort she puts into the sessions and the campaign, I am looking for advice on what DM's would like from their players, what could I do to put more effort into this campaign other than simply going to the sessions. Thanks!

This came from a discussion between me and a friend d making a ttrpg, which is an attempt to mix card games mechanics like magic with your more traditional ttrpgs like D&D, using no dice in the proces Thought im and NOT a card game player, I understood his fighting mechanics (pretty much magic, really), but his skill check mechanics (thought i understood) were not only different from the combat by a large margin they didn't felt connected at all (only by the fact both need you to draw cards and see what you get and what tags they have).

During the discussion on how to make it work, this question came to me: Has anyone TTRPG ever made two different mechanics for skills and combat checks? Closest thing we found was Two little Mice Household ttrpg (not the dnd 5e version) combat rules, and the only change ist that it limits the attribute you use (war) but not the skill you want to use, within reason, for the roll, the rest was literally the same as any other check at the game.

So I raise my question again: How common is for a TTRPG to have two different systems for combat and skill checks in the same game?

I'm sorry if this is a repetitive topic or something like that. I looked at the wiki, researched some keywords in the sub and didn't find what I was looking for

I want something very specific. I like that tactical combat like in DnD and similar games, but I also want a game that is not JUST about combat

You can say "but DnD is not just about combat, you can do so much with it!" But when you actually look at the rules its like, investigation? Roll a skill dice. Negotiation? Roll a skill dice. Combat? Pages and pages of rules and even entire books dedicated to monsters for the players to kill

I want a heroic fantasy that dedicates more time to interesting social encounters, investigations (I know gumshoe, but then we have the opposite problem, where the combat is not very good. At least in the ones I know) and if it has mechanics that help you connect and interact with your backstory like the icons in 13th Age, even better!

I know we don't need mechanics to make these things interesting, but when the mechanics support the roleplay it feels so much better

Does such a system even exist? And if it does, does it work well or is it too convoluted?

Thank you in advance!

The introduction, you might say; whether it's titled that or not. Those first ~5 pages vary a lot between games. Often, they are the weakest part of the book, I think. Things like the dreaded "what is an RPG?" section are a drag. Protracted, back-and-forth examples of play tend to live there, too, and those are also often bad. World/setting descriptions or pitches might reasonably go there, but in a world where we are exposed to so much marketing for a game before buying it, isn't that selling what's already been sold? I suppose hyping up the game doesn't hurt, but how do you do it in a way that is complimentary, not redundant?

Personally, I prefer (player-facing) books that get straight into character creation. Mothership does this. "How to play" comes 10 pages afterwards, but doesn't suffer for coming second (third, actually, after "safety instructions.)

So, soon going to run a social/Game of Thrones-esque social/war game in Fate Core. I'm doing prep now; group and I have already discussed major themes and all that. There are five players in the group, and while characters have not been made yet, the group leans towards social and "intrigue" types, with one guy as a martial character probably, so perfect for this game.

Anyway, just as a question to the crowd - how many named NPCs do you usually prep for more social games? In the past, when I run such games (and I run them a lot) I usually try to have three "faces" per faction or organization I think will be important, usually typifying some aspect (hah!) of the group that I want players to see (for example, if I have a noble house, one NPC will be the heir that follows in their father's footsteps, another the brother that thinks this way is all wrong, and their court priest who wants to secure the house with some sort of noble marriage of said heir).

Which means, in a typical game, I might set up, say, 15-20 or so named NPCs. Don't do stats for them (maybe a handful); I generally do this on the fly at whatever level to challenge the PCs.

So how many do you prep? How in depth d you get?

Now I've been scouring the internet far and wide for a Zombie Apocalypse TTRPG and I think I settled on buying The Walking Dead TTRPG. But after looking at the reviews on blogs and such, it's really mixed. If anyone is able to give a overall review (Review the quality of Worldbuilding, System, Etc.) and then give their opinion, that'd be great

Im interested games that focus on things other then combat. Preferably where combat is not a mechanic at all. I get there are degrees of combat, blades in the dark, lancer, and DnD all have combat but timely different degrees and focus. What im interested in are games at the far end of the little to no combat side of the spectrum.

Thanks in advance.

I'm not a backer, so I'm waiting on the game's release. However, I would like to know if the book has a guide on making supervillains? I mean, solo villains and the like.

I am looking for systems that are reminiscent or take inspiration from the old epic fantasy films of the 60s and 70s like Jason and the argonauts or Ben hur. I’m not sure if this is really a thing that exists. I guess maybe barbarians of lemuria could work? I’m not sure

Hey everyone, looking for some advice on a tricky situation with a player who happens to be a really good friend of mine.

I love playing with him, but he has a history of playing pretty selfish characters who prioritize their own solo goals over the group. Now it's reaching a point where it's derailing the game.

To give a bit of context: we’re playing a homebrew system run by a first-time GM. Our characters recently discovered they have strange powers that we don't really understand or know how to control yet. Long story short, we got stranded in a parallel universe where these powers are common, but because there's an ongoing war in this dimension, the locals thought we were spies and threw us in a cell.

The only way out was through a ventilation duct.

Here’s the issue: my friend's character has powers that could have easily broken the vent open for all of us. But he refused to help the group. His reasoning? His character wanted to stay in prison so the guards (who don't trust us, don't know us, and think we're enemy spies) could eventually teach him how to master his powers.

Could that maybe happen way down the line? Sure, maybe. But it would take forever, and our main campaign objective right now is literally to escape and find a way back home as fast as possible.

The rest of the party managed to break open the vent on our own, but only after wasting a ton of time, burning through all our resources, and hitting some extremely lucky rolls. We escaped, and the session ended right there.

Now we're in a terrible spot. Next session, we'll have to risk our lives to go back to the cell area to rescue him. But talking to him out-of-character after the game, he made it pretty clear his character still intends to just sit in the cell and refuse to leave.

Since he’s a close friend, I’ve GM'd for him before and ran into a very similar situation. Back then, the rest of the party basically had to force his character to cooperate, but as the GM, I was completely ready to retire/remove his character if he kept refusing to join the group.

In this campaign, though, I'm just a player. Our current GM is pretty new and still learning the ropes, so I don't want to dump all this drama on her without offering constructive help or a way to handle it diplomatically.

I really want to resolve this without ruining our friendship or making the new GM uncomfortable, but the "My Character Would Do That" mindset is starting to drag down the table.

This is something I think I'd seen others say, but it took me a while to internalise.

I'm running Index Card RPG, and making little tweaks as we go (lumpheads know how it is). I'd never liked the idea of balancing encounters to the party, but couldn't figure out what the measure should be, if not the party, then what.

In the real world it's the environment that has the biggest effect on the creatures that live there, but there are so many variables and so many fantastical creatures to consider it would have taken ages to reason out.

But in ICRPG you have the concept of the Target Number, the main difficulty number you roll against for most actions. So, I've decided to balance against that.

Each area of the city the party is exploring will have a Target Number, which I'll now add to the map so the PCs can make informed choices any where there going. Then when there's an encounter in an area I'll roll a d6 to see how difficult/easy the encounter will be, in the context of the Target. This then tells me how many Hearts, Abilities, Actions-per-turn etc I can put into an encounter.

I'm pretty happy with the idea. Just thought I'd share.

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I'm planning a CoC campain in a old steamship just like Titanic or Lusitania and I like to give a map to my players to move their tolkens on at Roll 20, but didn't found any good set of images to that. All plans I found were black n white low quality or high collored. I want for some nice and good looking representation of ship like that. Do anyone knows where could I find something like that?

Hey folks,

I'm hoping you fine folks can help me. We just finished off a short campaign and are looking to move on to our next game. Our group tends to play a lot of dark fantasy, horror, or games with fairly heavy themes, but one of my mates said he needs a break from that sort of game. So I'm here looking for suggestions on something a bit more lighthearted and fun.

A friend suggested Brindlewood Bay and, while it is lovely, it's really not my vibe (and I'll probably be GM!). I was thinking of maybe The One Ring Starter Set where you play as hobbits, or maybe a more lighthearted Wildsea or Kids on Bikes? Any suggestions would be really welcome. Just something we can play for 3-5 sessions and have a bit of fun without worrying about getting murdered by nightmare abominations.

Cheers!

Shadow Over Mystara is an old D&D videogame made by Capcom set in the titular world of Mystara. Immediately that might make the answer to my question seem obvious - just play an OSR system, right? **WRONG**

Shadow Over Mystara isn't a game where you slowly crawl through dungeons, avoiding combat scenarios and treating them as a last resort. It's a beat em up, so the gameplay loop is all about combat, it's about fantasy heroes killing hordes of monsters.

Just making it clear, I don't want to play an RPG that tries to simulate the gameplay of a beat em up in a tabletop format, but I do want a very combat oriented game.

In my opinion 5e is out of the question, it's just not that good at being a combat centered RPG. I also personally find Pathfinder 2E to be a bit boring. PF2E is not bad or anything, but I didn't enjoy it when playing Kingmaker so I have a hard time believing I'll like it much more in a tabletop format.

Nowadays I feel like the dominant perspective in RPG design (outside of D&D and Pathfinder at least) is geared towards either OSR games or narrative games, so I rarely see new games being discussed that are more combat oriented.

I've heard good things about 13th Age and Lancer so these games are on my radar, but I want to know what **you** would play for this purpose.

EDIT: so as I've been made to know, I actually have experience with PF1E rather than 2E, so the jury is still out on whether I'd like that one.

I often see people throwing this term around. IE, not long ago, I saw someone say they were GMing two campaigns in the same system and identify one of them as "story-driven" which implies the other wasn't. The word "story" has so many possible meanings in an RPG context as to be meaningless to me, so I wouldn't use such a phrase. For anyone who uses this term or has been in games with other people who use it, what do they mean by it?

Hi,

I’m looking to run an RPG based in the Deathlands series by James Axler; it’s actually multiple authors using that pen name but anyway…

Probably a long shot that someone else has read those books but regardless, I’m wanting to get some suggestions for TTRPGs that would fit that world. The PCs would be a team similar to Ryan Cawdor, Kristie, JB, Doc, Jack etc.

For those that aren’t familiar, to give a simplified idea it’s post apocalypse, nuclear war, where creatures and plant life are mutated, chem storms abound, weird and wonderful anomalies wait round every corner, and desperation reigns. Just before the ‘world ended’, there was experimentation into teleportation (think Star Trek transporters) and even time travel, albeit to a very limited extent.

I have heard about a few games that might fit, such as Earthdawn, Mutant Year Zero, Twilight 2000, Savage Worlds with Darwin’s World, Fallout obviously, Gamma World, or Ashes Without Number, but I only have experience with Savage Worlds and Mutant Year Zero.

So, what are your thoughts? Suggestions to look into? I know I don’t want GURPS, it’s just too ‘dry’ for me, I’ve tried a few times to get into it but can’t.

I was rewatching the gem that is KAOS on Netflix (although they cancelled it after 1 season as usual), and felt that the setting is super interesting. The modern spin on classic greek myth. Are there any games that would fit that sort of setting?

I know that a game suggestion would much more depend on the type of game you want to run, but for now this feels like a much sunnier world of Darkness, but just checking if anyone has any cool ideas.

KAOS Trailer in case anybody doesn't know what I am talking about.

I currently play and run D&D 5e and play VTM 20th. I’m looking to try out some new ideas and want to run a superhero-themed adventure, but I’m not sure which system to choose.

I’d like to know which systems are the most beginner-friendly or easiest for a first-time GM to pick up. It would also be a huge plus if the system is supported on the Fantasy Grounds VTT platform, since that’s where I play and run games.

So I'm planning to run a Marvel Multiverse one-shot based off the Thunderbolt adventure on Free RPG day. I'm pretty excited because I like all the character sheets in the core rulebook! As a GM I was always do better with sample templates to work with and dissect! That mixed with the 3 d6 dice system and it being Marvel centric seems really fun!

However, when I looked at this sub-reddit I was surprised that it had kind of a crappy reputation. People were arguing it was a crappy system. And of course Mutants and Mastermind was recommended instead.

I've tried to get into Mutants and Mastermind several times.. It's crunch just kills me. Not to the point I'd never run it but this game system looks a lot easier from a distance. In addition, the Marvel multiverse community seems pretty passionate about it!

So for those who didn't like it what are the issues? If it's balance problems what makes it difference from Mutants and Masterminds or other superhero games balance problems? Part of what put me off on MnM is despite it's detail it was very easy to break.

Feel free to recommend another game as well!

I know there's Hot Springs Island. Are there other great system neutral settings out there?

I introduced my partner to DnD recently. We have been running through She really enjoyed doing tasks and exploring but she struggled with combat. From talking, it seems like shes not big on the idea of fighting.

Someone gifted us Wanderhome. It is very different from what im typically used to playing so im not sure if I want to take on that task while introducing a newbie.

Anyway, if anyone knows of some good duet rpgs or prewritten that dont involve as much combat, i would love some suggestions.

I've had a growing desire to play a new cozy TTRPG but my group wants combat to be a core focus on the game still. We have all played Ryuutama and don't feel like going back to that right now. What other games fit this bill?

Questions for creative GMs and players...
I've tried and enjoyed running 5e games with my own grimdark homebrew rules but I'm wondering about running some classic basic scenarios with an approximation of CoC Dark Age 7e rules, where hp are set, sanity (morale) is an issue and magic is hugely nerfed (spells based on MP).

Your basic humanoid monsters are akin to Cultist cannon fodder whilst giants and dragons become creatures like Ugs and Hunting Horrors...

Has anyone tried anything like this, what was the experience like and do you know of game-breaking problems (apart from TPKs, etc)?

EDIT: Responders, please stick to the questions. I'm not looking for alternative game systems! CoC has all I'll need in this.

Thanks in advance.