Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

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The Ugly One said:
"I am starting a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign in an unforgiving world where democracy is unknown, petty tyrants are more common than wise officials, slaves raid the coast, and the dark forests and threatening caves are full of barely-intelligent creatures who were created by dark gods for the sole purpose of causing mayhem.
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I could have sworn this was the set-up to a punchline where the game takes place in Britain...
 
The Ugly One said:
Put out an ad:

"I am starting a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign in an unforgiving world where democracy is unknown, petty tyrants are more common than wise officials, slaves raid the coast, and the dark forests and threatening caves are full of barely-intelligent creatures who were created by dark gods for the sole purpose of causing mayhem. Do not write your character a long backstory, because your deeds and the dice tell the story. Many a notable historical figure has ended his story with, 'and he died to a chance arrow,' and your character may very well meet a similarly ignominous end. Monstrous races will not be allowed, as monsters are created evils in this setting."

The woke are allergic to campaigns where orcs aren't heckin' wholesome, evil is real, and your character isn't a special snowflake. This sort of campaign absolutely filters the worst of them.
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Maybe if you want to make some boring mud farmer OSR nonsense so generic it might put someone in a coma. @Deepland Bystander don't worry too much about filtering people out like this tryhard bullshit, just make it clear what you are going to be running and what you expect of the players. A simple paragraph description with the setting, system, expected acitivities, the theme if you have one, and the expected time obligation. Here is an example:
I am running a Shadowrun 5e campaign set in 2050 California Free State. You will be playing shadowrunners who are local to the CFS, with the campaign localized mostly to southern California around Los Angeles, with expected detours to neighboring states. Tone is Mirrorshades with occasional ventures into pink mowhawk. Character creation will be via Sum-to-10, requirements are: a minimum English language skill of 3, being born in CFS or Ute Nation, no Technomancers or Mystic Adepts. Sessions will be weekly on Saturdays at 5 pm, around 4 hours.
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LovisXVI said:
Maybe if you want to make some boring mud farmer OSR nonsense so generic it might put someone in a coma
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Another advantage of advertising a vanilla D&D campaign is it filters out the annoying spergs who think "pink mohawk" is interesting and unique and don't understand the purpose of a game is to have a good time with other people. Familiar tropes (everybody knows what an "elf" is; nobody knows what "decker" is) appeal to normal people and are good at attracting newly curious players. Your ad, by contrast, is basically crafted in a lab to keep people away:

I am running a Shadowrun 5e campaign set in 2050 California Free State.
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Tone is Mirrorshades with occasional ventures into pink mowhawk.
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Character creation will be via Sum-to-10, requirements are: a minimum English language skill of 3, being born in CFS or Ute Nation, no Technomancers or Mystic Adepts. Sessions will be weekly on Saturdays at 5 pm, around 4 hours.
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Nobody who has never played Shadowrun knows what any of this means. Your ad has already filtered anyone who's merely curious about Shadowrun--let alone anyone who's just curious about RPGs in general--and contextually implies that you're looking exclusively for knowledgeable, expert players. Given how dead Shadowrun is in 2026, your ad will attract maybe two players, one of whom is 37 and still lives with his mother, and the other who insists on derailing sessions with ERP.

LovisXVI said:
don't worry too much about filtering people out like this tryhard bullshit
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Filtering out the weirdos and woke early on is how I've ended up playing with the same group for nearly a decade and made new friends.

Don't take @LovisXVI's advice; he clearly has no actual experience going in cold and attracting new players. I do, and have introduced dozens of people to the hobby over the last 10-15 years, most of whom still play. I have taken the exact approach I outlined many times and have been quite successful at keeping both the pink-haired trannysexuals and the sulky grognards out of my games.
 
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The biggest method I've found for filtering out players is where you go looking (and also what you're playing). If you're playing 5e, unfortunately, you're going to attract troons and redditors. It's the nature of the beast. If you play something a bit older or more obscure, you're likely to find fewer players but of more agreeable sorts, typically. When you advertise, do it somewhere you'd be willing to hang out with the people. I often look for players here on the farms and have gotten multiple people that are just now my friends outside of the game. RPGHQ has a good pool from what I've been told. Places like Roll20 or Discord are hit or miss at best. Avoid anywhere like RPG.net at all costs.

Also, yeah, if you can make your ad interesting and accessible to people not familar with your game, do that. I'm running with two players currently who hadn't played Pathfinder for a moment before I picked them up but were interested enough to try, and they've worked out great. Don't be worried so much about new players. Don't be afraid to get rid of or reject players as harsh as this sounds. If someone responds to your ad and isn't a good fit or has some glaring problem, don't feel too bad about telling them no. If they join and eventually become a problem player, also don't feel bad about getting rid of them and trying again. Not only is it your game, but players like that can also ruin it for everyone else at your table. Eventually, you'll find a good, consistent player even if it takes a while. And no player is better than a bad player.

Snekposter said:
I wasn't aware the Scots lived in caves, though.
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My ancestors haven't lived in caves since the 18th century at the latest, thank you very much.
 
I was looking into some old campaigns to get physical copies of books because they're pretty and I much prefer physical and not having to stare at a screen when DMing. So eventually I found myself on goodman games and that gave me pause because it got me thinking, hm where have I heard of this name before... Made me do a quick search on this thread's history and voila, it's on the Don't Do Business With Them list for terminal POZzery.

Close call there, internet racists! Just have to wait for the goddamn Eye to come back up to get my modules.
 
The Ugly One said:
Nobody who has never played Shadowrun knows what any of this means. Your ad has already filtered anyone who's merely curious about Shadowrun--let alone anyone who's just curious about RPGs in general--and contextually implies that you're looking exclusively for knowledgeable, expert players. Given how dead Shadowrun is in 2026, your ad will attract maybe two players, one of whom is 37 and still lives with his mother, and the other who insists on derailing sessions with ERP.
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I have never had problems finding people to play Shadowrun, having introduced all but one player I have run for, to the system and setting. This isn't the Stone Age, and people can look up what the terms mean pretty easily. Either way, if you want to maximize the number of players to choose from, then you might as well run some faggot D&D 5th edition or Pathfinder nonsense. Maybe I don't want people who are so lazy as to not even do basic reaserch on the system and setting they can't be bothered to parse through four terms that can be discerned via quick google search.
 
Deepland Bystander said:
What kind of system or campaign setting that's less likely to attract freaks? I'd like to know what you meant by this lol
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Older, obscure games without newer editions. These progs are posers and you won't get many updoots for playing Pandemonium, Recon or Boot Hill.
Older editions of popular games: more crunch, less "fun" modernity.
Cyberpunk if you really want to but with a twist: a nomad campaign set in the barren wastelands doesn't have the neon soaked megalopolis vibe and the glitzy tranny bars they loved in the video game.
Human centric TTRPGs: they weed out the furfags and the people yearning to play Black Elves with fros.
Pro-LEO games: I only know of Crime Fighter so here you go.
Cold War military or espionage TTRPGs: Commies BTFO.
Pulp TTRPGs: everything except the Indiana Jones RPG is probably too colonialist and White supremacist for them.
Wild/Weird West games: Dixieland or frontier only and pit them against Yankees, Mexicans or Indians. Or let them play Indians but describe the brutality of their raids in great detail.
TTRPGs set in Middle-Earth: they can't handle settings that are morally black and white, patriarhic and firmly rooted in European mythology and Christianity.
Any Star Wars if you run an Imperial campaign: rooting for the Empire was perfectly acceptable until the Disney takeover but the progs have been told that the Empire is literally the Third Reich. It's just the American Revolution in space (nobles, gentry, farmers and rum runners VS snobbish Brits) but don't tell them.
CoC: Lovecraft isn't enough to drive them away but they'll leave you alone if you choose the right setting. Arkham has been pozzed in 7th edition and Berlin is a freak's wet dream but if you run your campaign in a location like the Deep South or a colony they'll most likely avoid you. Always state that you'll run it as a horror game with a capital H instead of Tentacles & Tommy Guns.
Any Conan TTRPG: slavery is ubiquitous and they're drenched in toxic masculinity, racism and sexism.
Empire of the Petal Throne: the creator M. A. R. Barker was an honest to goodness Neo-Nazi.
 
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LovisXVI said:
Start awarding XP for social interactions and good roleplay.
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I always at least award bonus XP for good RP, last session was nothing but RP and they got XP for it. Rewarding role play makes the players care more about it and that makes them care more about their character and the inter party relationships, which makes it even more impactful when you slap the shit out of one during big fights.


Any suggestions for campaign organization? We just started this one and I'm already having an issue keeping track of things.
 
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idkcumiguess said:
I always at least award bonus XP for good RP, last session was nothing but RP and they got XP for it.
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My group always let the DM decide when to level up or not depending on the feats we manage to accomplish instead of the traditional 'defeat x or do x, gain XP'. For example in our current PF2e campaign I'm the DM, and my buddies party are hunting for some Witch that stole necromantic secrets from a city-state full of of necromancers and unleashed a big dicked ritual spell, which caused a bunch of undead to rise within a wide area. They spent two sessions hunting her down that lasted hours, and they couldn't rest properly because undead of all kinds were everywhere. So I told them, you can keep going but you will be exhausted (debuffed), but if you manage to succeed I will level you guys up early, or you can play it safe and retreat. They chose to keep fighting. They did find her after mowing a bunch of undead down and nearly lost the fight, but managed to barely pull through. I was genuinely impressed and they had a great time. Just what I prefer personally.
 
Mister Uno said:
My group always let the DM decide when to level up or not depending on the feats we manage to accomplish instead of the traditional 'defeat x or do x, gain XP'. For example in our current PF2e campaign I'm the DM, and my buddies party are hunting for some Witch that stole necromantic secrets from a city-state full of of necromancers and unleashed a big dicked ritual spell, which caused a bunch of undead to rise within a wide area. They spent two sessions hunting her down that lasted hours, and they couldn't rest properly because undead of all kinds were everywhere. So I told them, you can keep going but you will be exhausted (debuffed), but if you manage to succeed I will level you guys up early, or you can play it safe and retreat. They chose to keep fighting. They did find her after mowing a bunch of undead down and nearly lost the fight, but managed to barely pull through. I was genuinely impressed and they had a great time. Just what I prefer personally.
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This is a fine way to do it and I believe is referred to milestone leveling in 5e. I tend to use a mix, next session should be very important in my game and I am considering giving a level depending on how it goes even if they are 500xp or so away from leveling, PF2e.
 
idkcumiguess said:
This is a fine way to do it and I believe is referred to milestone leveling in 5e. I tend to use a mix, next session should be very important in my game and I am considering giving a level depending on how it goes even if they are 500xp or so away from leveling, PF2e.
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Eventually I want to try something like this or go full xp gain, but I'm still fairly new to DMing and milestones are just a bit easier to do while I worry about the more important stuff. Completely forgot this was a 5e thing (I really don't like 5e).
 
idkcumiguess said:
Any suggestions for campaign organization? We just started this one and I'm already having an issue keeping track of things.
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What is the problem you are having? Keeping track of npcs? Plotlines? Places? It might be worthwhile to get Foundry VTT if only as GM screen you can write in and keep track of stuff with.
 
I've found that milestone leveling does a really good job at helping stories pace out better than flat EXP does. It helps keep the pace if you have a party that's highly optimized builds or have clever players that force you to throw higher CR beasties at them. It also prevents that "oh just shy of levelling" angle, and means you have to give less of a shit about challenge ratings so long as the monsters and humanoids give interesting or decent challenges. It also means that they are more in the zone for Big Things, which usually is how they get their next level.

Just don't be overly stingy with levelling them and factor in what is a Big Thing that would count as a good milestone and it works. It's what my current campaign does.
idkcumiguess said:
Any suggestions for campaign organization? We just started this one and I'm already having an issue keeping track of things.
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I use a mixture of notes in word documents for either my important NPCs, or homebrew, or a few other things I need to remember. I also tend to plan out only a couple of sessions worth of material at best with any firmness to avoid temptations to railroad and to account for how your plans often get shucked and jived by your players.
 
Adamska said:
I've found that milestone leveling does a really good job at helping stories pace out better than flat EXP does. It helps keep the pace if you have a party that's highly optimized builds or have clever players that force you to throw higher CR beasties at them. It also prevents that "oh just shy of levelling" angle, and means you have to give less of a shit about challenge ratings so long as the monsters and humanoids give interesting or decent challenges. It also means that they are more in the zone for Big Things, which usually is how they get their next level.

Just don't be overly stingy with levelling them and factor in what is a Big Thing that would count as a good milestone and it works. It's what my current campaign does.
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I'd alternate item rewards with levels, that way you can manage a smooth progression without it feeling too long between improvements. Giving all of them (armor, weapons, accessories and levels) at once can result in huge lurches and make it harder to maintain challenging but fun encounters.
 
Manly_Brony said:
I use pencil and paper for everything but most GMs I know upgraded to OneNote or Word.
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Google office suite is also very good option, as you can connect various things together, and tabs on docs has been an incredible boon to my organization. The fact that I can also take notes while on the go or away from home also helps keep it my default option for rpg planning.
 
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