What ttRPG are you playing right now/ or are you planning on trying soon?
What ttRPG are you playing right now/ or are you planning on trying soon?
I am interested in what RPGs the people here are playing. Tell me about the cool systems you are trying out or about your campaigns.
I'm planning on two solo campaigns, one with EDGE Studio (originally Fantasy Flight Games) Star Wars RPG. A mix of both Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny further down the road. But I plan on running it during the Old Republic era. I quite enjoy playing the SWRPG/Genesys system. I know the narrative dice is hard to get behind for some people but I prefer it. It feels a bit more transparent what you'll get, plus it's fun to roll a lot of dice so there's that tactile aspect to it too 😁
The second campaign is with Ironsworn: Starforged. I actually want to use this solo game as a basis for my web serial that I want to write in the near future. The system is built with solo play in mind, but it can be played co-op or guided by a GM. IIRC, the original basis of the system was PbtA, heavily modified. Ironsworn was what introduced me to the concept of playing a TTRPG solo! Which was awesome, considering my previous experiences playing a TTRPG with a group keep falling apart for one reason or another...
I also want to try City Without Numbers, the cyberpunk variant of World Without Numbers and Stars Without Numbers. I backed it on Kickstarter and sorta waiting for a slightly more complete version before I dive in. Again, it's something I plan on running solo as well...
I am considering a play-by-post game, likely with the Ironsworn: Starforged system. Largely because of the nature of PbtA games, which tends to give and encourage more agency to players. Plus the support for running it co-op means ideally, no one is relied on as the GM, constantly having to respond to a player's inquiry or action before anyone else can move forward.
Your solo games sound very fun! Genesys and Star wars is very cool. I have the Genesys book on my shelf but never got to run it, maybe some day. I only played the Star wars system with the similar narrative dice on a convention a long time ago. It worked pretty well, I thought it was pretty clear with all the symbols, just had to get used to it. Only downside is having to buy the dice or printing stickers. The dice symbols and colors are very satisfying though. I very briefly read through Ironsworn, with the intention to play it as a group GMless game, but did not really understand how the group is supposed to make the decisions about what happens next. Maybe it is because, like you said, it originated as a solo game.
FFG made their Genesys dice app free a while ago, IIRC. It's not nearly as satisfying as rolling the physical dice, but it's an option! Unfortunately, their Star Wars one is still a paid app. There's one other app, on Android, that also included Star Wars dice, simply called Dice. There's also RPG Sessions, which is a whole toolset, and integrated with Discord if you want to play online.
As for Ironsworn co-op, one of the actual plays I watched had it so that the player speaking at the moment decided on what happens in the world. Kind of a round-robin GM'ing situation. Another idea would be to get everyone's vote, or encourage them to speak up if they have a different idea and vote on that. I used to participate in forum RP, or as I like to call it, "collaborative writing," so both approaches I'm familiar with. IIRC (it's been a few years since I've been in a forum RP), we would write OOC notes if we want to make our intentions clearer, or have questions and thoughts we want input on.
But IIRC, the whole thing around PbtA game is that you're having a conversation with the players at the table...unless that's from another system 😅 regardless, I think it could be a helpful way of approaching a co-op TTRPG!
I love these narrative dice games!
I have played and GM'd a lot of sessions with the Star Wars RPG and plsyed a little bit of Genesys.
Check out the YouTube channel Tabletop Empire. He does a great job introducing players to the Star Wars RPG. There's also and older Podcast called The Order 66 Podcast that's chock full of good stuff.
My group recently switched from D&D 5e to Pathfinder 2e. We are playing through the Beginner box, and after that I'm planning on running Abomination Vaults for them (Shoutout to the TableTop Gold podcast for turning me onto that awesome AP)
I'm currently DM-ing for an Avatar Legends group. It's a Powered by the Apocalypse system and honestly it's great! We love it and it allows us to make great character driven stories!
Each playbook (think class but shifted towards character archetype instead of mechanical archetype) has an inner struggle represented by unique principles, such as Restraint vs Results or Excellence vs Community. During play, the characters shift between their principles in accordance with their actions, but the point of it is to achieve balance: if a character falls out of balance by moving too far towards a principle, they suffer consequences.
The system also has a horizontal progression system, a tight and unique combat ruleset and mechanics geared towards encouraging rp, such as a character marking the "angry" condition making them be less likely to successfully comfort someone. To remove that condition, the character has to either break something important or to vent their anger on one of their friends, or another player might comfort them to help them work through that anger.
I absolutely love it, but then again, I always preferred narrative based games, which might not be for groups into crunching numbers or fighting everything.
Cool! It sounds like the system takes some inspiration from Masks? If yes I should try it, cause I recently GMed a campaign in Masks and it really was great.
Yes, it does! I haven't played Masks yet, but some of my players have and they say the games are pretty similar in some ways and different in others
They're both great games that share the same heritage.
http://apocalypse-world.com/pbta/games/find
PbtA games are my current addiction. Cartel, Monster of the Week, Blades in the Dark, Ironsworn, Root, Legacy... I need to stop buying books.
I'm both playing in and GMing Abomination Vaults for Pathfinder2e. Decisions were made, and my timing wasn't great, so now the party I run is only slightly behind the party I'm in 🙄. The result is it's hard to avoid spoilers for myself. Still, fun is being had by all on both sides, and that's what's important.
I came over from 5e during the OGL debacle. Had previously played PF1e and it felt like coming home. The APs are so much more fleshed out, and the work they've done integrating with Foundry has made life so much easier.
Mind if I ask a bit about P2E? I just haven't played a TTRPG in a few years now but I want to get back into it. I've DMed a ton of games in D&D 5e before. My question being, what kinds of resources were helpful for you and your players to transition over to Pathfinder? Most of my players have only ever done D&D and usually just 5e.
Not the original commenter, but I can give you a little info. For resources, the main source is https://2e.aonprd.com/ it’s the official SRD, for free. All non-AP materials are released there, so for character creation and running your own campaign it’ll have almost everything you need. I haven’t had the chance to play myself yet, my group is at the end stages of a 5e campaign, so I can’t offer much from a players perspective for switching systems, but I hope that link helps you!
Definitely feel free to ask away. Like @dylan said, everything is free online from Paizo except the APs and artwork basically. So all the rules are readily available on https://2e.aonprd.com and elsewhere. Pathbuilder is a great resource for building your characters, though it saves locally so back up or you'll lose it when you close your browser.
Additionally, I highly recommend the beginner box. It's only level 1-2 and can be played in 2-3 sessions, so not much of a commitment. But it does introduce you and the player's slowly to the rules and whatnot, while still being a challenge. Most people then transition to the Abomination Vaults (what we did) because it's located in the same town, so there's already familiarity. But even if you decide to homebrew or do a different path, I'd still recommend starting with the Beginner's Box.
Another tip, especially coming from 5e is don't go changing rules that seem like they don't make sense to you. At least without playing for a while. It's a common thing to do with a 5e mindset, but while they're similar, they're different enough that you should get used to the game before tinkering.
Sadly, Reddit was a good place to find info, but well…
Wow playing and GMing the same module souds wild :D But i bet it might be interesting to compare how it goes in different groups :D
Yeah, I should have waited longer to start GMing it, but my group needed to start something and I was impatient 😅
It has been helpful to see how we did it and then I know what to expect when they try it. They're still new-ish so we often have different ways of approaching it. They're finally learning that crowding it and just attacking three times isn't the best course of action.
I am planning a Monster of the week campaign soon. I really love how versatile PBtA games are, and all the different pbta systems help with specific genre emulation.
That's a fun one. I love how the MC moves can almost force new backstory on to the characters.
Savage Pathfinder and Necessary Evil, I’m a long time D&D player (since the late 80’s) but recently switched over from 5e to Savage Worlds. I haven’t played NE yet, but just got the beta release of the SWADE updates. I really like the fast pace combat and smaller book sizes. I feel there is less focus on crunch (but LOTS of player options) and more on story.
On a side note, are there any Lemmy servers dedicated for TTRPG? Im new here from Reddit and building up my Reddit replacement!!
I have seen a pathfinder server on https://join-lemmy.org. Other than that I think there is a community on lemmy.ml dedicated to RPGS.
https://lemmy.ml/c/rpg yep it is here.
I’m slowly making the transition! Would be nice to be clear of Reddit in the short term!
I have been playing Pathfinder 2e for the last few years. We just finished a Starfinder campaign, and are starting up a Lancer game in it's place. I've wanted to try Lancer for years, so I'm pretty excited for it! :D
Are you playing APs for 2e or something homebrew? I'm a long time 1e veteran who's tables have moved to 2e and we're loving the system so far. I will be GMing Quest for the Frozen Flame for one table but my other hasn't decided on what they want.
I'm GMing Quest for the Frozen Flame currently. It's a super fun AP so far. We're in the last third of the first book.
Oh man... PLEASE go for Frozen Flame. I ran the first half of book 2 of that campaign while my group was in between games. It's perhaps one of the most coveted experiences I've had yet. I absolutely adore what we did in book 2, and from what I've read, book 1 is just as great. The AP is dripping with flavor, and really embraces its setting. I look forward to the day that I get to experience the whole thing!
I've done a whole bunch of 2e stuff. I've run a couple one shots, I've been running Age of Ashes for 2 groups for about 3 years, I've done some off-the-rails homebrew as a result of player choices in those games, and I'm playing in a 2e conversion of Strange Aeons at the moment.
If you're looking to start a new 2e game, I very much recommend getting all of your players at the table together for session 0 to discuss group buy in and rough character themes. Once you have character themes, only THEN dive into mechanics. Unlike 1e, it's much more difficult to build an objectively garbage character in 2e, which means the system is FAR MORE welcoming to building out an idea. 1e (in all of its glory) was so wrought with pitfalls, that if you tried to build from an idea, you had about a 80% chance you'd end that journey with a garbage character. 2e doesn't do that. It's lovely!
Since there's just the two of us right now, my wife and I are playing a co-op Ironsworn. It's been pretty fun but a bit tough at times since you have to think up your own story. The oracles help, but sometimes we get stuck.
We're pretty new to it all so we just chalk it up to inexperience. I'm sure it'll get better.
I'm currently running a Worlds Without Number game for my group which has been delightful, mostly because they've finally started to embrace the idea that they can just, like, try to do things without worrying if there are specific rules for them... Mostly because I can just bootstrap in mechanics if I really want to have them.
There's also the 5e game I'm in, but that one's just standard D&D with the twist being we're basically a traveling band of gourmets.
I have not tried Worlds Without Number yet, it sounds very cool! Having players relax and just roleplay and experiment with their actions can be a very freeing experience. A travelling band of gourmets sounds like a recipe for a lot of humour :D
Oh, the D&D game's been an absolute side-splitter! :D
I'm the party's Cleric, so I've basically become the group's straight-man/responsibility compass so that everyone else can just make repeated questionable choices. Like our middle-aged poison specialist who keeps trying to find flavors that are both delicious and might kill her, or our plasmoid who has to be reminded that they are not allowed to eat people we take as prisoners, or our dynamic duo of a warlock and paladin that keep finding new and exciting ways to get in trouble with the local authorities. All while we do things like discover a lost civilization while trying to catch a rare giant scorpion for its meat or thwart pirates while trying to make it to a diplomatic conference we're cooking the meals for.
And, yeah, Worlds Without Number is a blast. There's even a free edition if you wanna give it a peek sometime. The entire xWN line is basically my system of choice (since the games themselves are generally mechanically compatible even if they're fit for different genres).
I'm running a Cyberpunk flavoured 5e oneshot which has so far turned into a three shot (yes I know I'm sorry I should have used cyberpunk to play cyberpunk but my group already knows 5e and we needed a game quick while our normal DM took a break)
I'm also running Wild Beyond the Witchlight and playing Curse of Strahd and 2 5e campaigns in homebrew worlds.
It sounds like a lot but we don't get to play any of those very frequently! Usually one or two games every couple of months.
Currently running Age of Ashes for PF2e. It's been great so far. PF2e is my preferred system to GM in as it has rules for everything you can think of, which from a GM's pov is great as I can consistently rule the same in each session or in each campaign we play.
Also play DnD5e pbp on a community discord server and I live play Delta Green (Call of Cthulhu).
There are plenty of systems out there to try and I would suggest trying a few of them. DnD is obviously the most popular, but may not fit the type of world / game you prefer.
2e has quickly become my favorite system to GM. Soooo much easier. I'm running some PFS scenarios and converted curse of Stradh. Will be starting quest for the frozen flame soon.
I GMed a game in 5e from level 1 to 7, fully homebrew. It burnt me out. I never knew if an encounter was going to be easy or deadly, things swing so much if you're not willing to do the math and think ten steps ahead.
I did some GMing for Pathfinder 1e. That's a system I prefer to play in, not GM. Ran curse of the Crimson Throne and the player power creep was making it super easy for my players. I had to modify a bunch to not make it a cakewalk for my little power gamers. Ended up essentially re-writing the last book. So pleased at how much easier 2e is.
I've never GMed another system tbh. But from what I've seen playing DnD5e, I'd never gm that.
I may try GMing CoC at some point for a change
How far along are you with AoA? I'm just about to finish book 4 with my crew. I really haven't been drinking the kool-aid with this AP. Book 5 looks decent, and 6 looks fantastic, but MAN it feels like they just forgot to tell the PCs what the actual plot is, throughout like... the entire story.
We're still in book 2. I know what you mean though, Ive added some stuff and changed a few things to make it a little more interesting. I don't think I'd run it again tbh, but I want to see it through even if it kills me lol
I'm huge into Pathfinder, both because I have a podcast playing it and because they have amazing pre-written adventures. Those are great for me since I don't have any time to homebrew.
Their prewritten adventures (and the amount of work they've put into making it work seamlessly with Foundry) helped me make the switch from 5e. I also didn't have the time to fill in all the gaps that WotC left.
My D&D group has been playing 5e Dungeon of the Mad Mage since 2018, probably averaging a session once a month.
More recently I picked up the Cortex Prime Handbook and have been having fun putting together hacks. We're just about ready to try out a light-weight Harry Potter inspired one. I'm also playing around with a Pokemon hack and a more complex hack for a home-brew SciFi setting.
I'm getting ready to play 5e with some friends. We were supposed to start last week, but the DM had a migraine and it got postponed. I've only done a one shot before, so this will be my first proper ongoing campaign with progression.
Just supported the second edition of Knave (an OSR RPG) on Kickstarter, looking forward to playing that with a group when it gets delivered. Also planning on potentially starting an Electric Bastionland campaign to tide over until then.
I'm going to be running Pathfinder for the first time next weekend, for my step-son's birthday. Got the Beginner's Box and have bee slowly flipping through it in preparation.
Good luck! It's a lot of fun for a simple introduction. It'll only take you a few sessions to complete and get you to level 2. Do you have plans for after that?
I'm about to finish up a Pathfinder 2e conversation of the 5e module Curse of Stradh. My players all decided to make my life hard and play as skeletons. It's made for a very unique campaign as I've had to think outside the box for how all the , normally, friendly NPCs would react to undead "heros". There's a lot of undead in the campaign and my players took a feat that essentially lets them try diplomatic solutions with undead before they become hostile. It's made encounters that should be combat into diplomatic missions and what should be safe places with friendly NPCs into high stakes (pun intended) stealth missions with potential for combat. The damsel in distress was horrified when she discovered her heros were undead and now has trust issues. Items the module sprinkles around are all for living heros to fend off the undead, so there's so much less help for my players and some of the help is more of a hindrance or outright deadly for them now. It's completely changed the dynamic of the module in such an interesting way and both my players and I have loved it.
Currently playing in a Theros 5e campaign. I say Theros but it’s really window dressing for whatever random ideas our DM comes up with. It’s so much fun! We’re at the tail end of the campaign but our DM has loads of ideas so he’s dragging it out to get more of them in, which is fine by us. We’ll be moving to PF2e for our next campaign, which I’m really looking forward to. We’ve considered moving the current campaign over with the OGL drama, but most of characters can’t be converted over easily.
You definitely are right to be looking forward to switching to PF2E. I've been running my group through the Beginner Box and we are all loving it way more than 5e!
Dungeons & Dragons 5e. D&D Beyond just make it really easy to do. Previously played Pathfinder and Shadowrun using tools like Hero Lab.
As I've gotten older I really value tools that do a lot of the crunchy rules for us as opposed to having to have a strong knowledge of the books mechanics.
I have been running a very simplified and chopped down version of gurps about surviving a dangerous British town as a group of orphans trying to pay their rent. Its been really fun despite me being rather new to the system and to DMing in general.
I think if I wanted to expand on different systems, I'd wanna try more "toolbox", genre-less types of RPGs, though less crunchy like FUDGE or even risus. I like the flexibility those types of RPGs give in making your own world and being able to pick and choose rules. But i may stick with gurps for now because it already has that and I also like a simulation type of rpg. It has a noice amount of crunch that I appreciate.
I'm currently running a campaign in D&D5e and am playing in two others, there's a Scion campaign that I play in and yesterday a short campaign for Vampire the Masquerade had it's kick off. Additionally I'm currently planning a few shot for TORG Eternity that I'm going to run during summer break with the Scion group.
I'm currently GMing a campaign of Skull & Shackles (a Pathfinder 1E campaign) in Pathfinder 2E and my players and I are having a blast
I was GMing a game of Dungeon World (a PbtA system) with my friends last year. I had to put the games on hold when real life got in the way, but it's a really fun system. It's kind of old now, but I was deliberately looking for a fleshed-out system that was more or less 'Done,' meaning I wouldn't have to buy another book every 4-6 months to stay current. Anyway, It will be fun to return to it and pick up where we left off.
I also want to run a one-shot of DURF as a palette cleanser sometime down the line. It's a free rules-lite, classless TTRPG weighing in at a whopping 12-pages, and has an elegant way of balancing minimal stats with clever inventory management, a stress system to improve roll results, and encourages planning/provisioning before embarking on adventures (it's more interesting than it sounds).
Based on how that goes I may try to get the group to try Vaults of Vaarn, which is somewhat similar but based on Knave, and is a post-apocalyptic setting with an emphasis on exploration. It also has crazy fungal-people, mutants, and robot/cyborg PCs. It reads a bit like if the games Kenshi, Caves of Qud, and Sable all had a baby, with maybe a dash of Mad Max??
Anyway, some fun systems all around.
I've just played DnD 5e for the very first time, and I quite liked it.
I was gifted a collection of Call of Cthulhu books a while back and have been really itching to try it out. I think I'll give the short starting adventure a shot in the next couple of weeks. Other than that I really want to get back into CP2020. Red looks fun but I already have the 2020 source books.
I'm playing starfinder and I love it. Would like to play call of Cthulhu next
DMing the Kingmaker adventure path for Pathfinder 1st Edition. Its been great fun, and I thankfully have the kind of players that like the Kingdom Building rules (with Legendary Game's Ultimate Rulership addition) and the overall vibe of ruling a kingdom. In a few more sessions, the party will enter the War of the River Kings and im planning to really kick them in the balls with it. The past few quests have been pretty solid victories for the party, so now im going to start the war with them on their back foot.
I'm currently playing in a DnD 5e Rime of the frostmaiden campaign, but for the next one we want to switch to Pathfinder 2e. At the moment i'm writing a campaign that could become that PF2 game but i'm not sure if there is a better system for what i have in mind (a single large scale siege in a late medival pseudo-european/HRE setting). Also i kind of want to run the mountain witch and maybe someday i will finish my own cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk system, because I still have not found a cyberpunk game that I actually like.
I'm mainly running my own system, Brighter Worlds, which is based on Cairn, Electric Bastionland, and Macchiato Monsters (with plenty of other stuff thrown in). My primary campaign is a big hex crawl in which I have scattered all of the various RPG modules I've purchased and want to run, and my players wander around causing problems and knocking down wizard towers (they have a strange vendetta against wizards).
Because I'm still playtesting the system we often pause the campaign for little 1-3 session games to test out new stuff, or to test my other game Meteor my "I want to play Mothership modules but would rather be using ITO/Cairn mechanics" hack.
My other group is much more scattered and we do one shots of various stuff constantly, most recently I ran a CBR+PNK one shot that was a ton of fun.
I've been wanting to try Ironsworn since it launched, but I always get distracted 😅