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

[Corn Flakes]

I liked the sound of Hollow Earth Expedition (d6 pool, you need 2 successes for a standard check). Unfortunately, no one wants to play it because it's pulp adventure and most players only want medieval fantasy or very specific sci-fi settings like Star Wars or Shadowrun.

That at least isn't anything new. For as long as I've been playing TTRPGs, the vast majority of people wanted to play medieval fantasy. For a while you had the World of Darkness spergs with their dark urban fantasy shtick (and I had fun with that), but the other genres are very niche by default. I used to see the rulebooks for Five Rings and a piracy-themed RPG on the shelves at the bookstore and wonder just who played those.

No. It's up there with Planescape and Dark Sun as one of those settings everybody talks about, but no one ever plays. And just like those two settings, the world of Rifts is so completely fucked that there's no real way to have an adventure outside of an extremely narrow range of well worn ground.

I can't talk about Planescape since I never actually played it, but Dark Sun despite the limited environment can still run most kinds of campaigns/adventures. It does require a bit of work tweaking things and localizing the threats (druids are going to look quite different in Athas, for example), but it works just fine.

I've heard of Lancer a lot, but never read it deeply enough to have an opinion.

It's really hard to find a good mech game. Most are either really complex (Mechwarrior) or extremely simple (Tiny Frontiers first edition). Others are simply vague, broken, or incomplete. The big problem is how to balance in mech and out of mech combat.

Part of the problem is that people want very granular systems for their mech combat (blowing off limbs, weapons, systems), but they don't want to deal with the complexity that comes with it. To be honest, I haven't found a good one either. I'm a BattleTech nerd, but that's as a boardgame/wargame, not as an RPG.

 

[Ghostse]

I think Medieval Fantasy is the default because of how much ground it covers, and that you can strictly speaking draw from the thousands of years of human history where people were stabbing each other, and the trove of literature with people who can cast spells.

And that as an RPG genre, MF has a base frame work established.
With MF you are beating motherfuckers with swords or spells, and probably doing something with skills. There is a lot of play you get with setting, but you've got a pretty clear idea what you're signing up for; there are some exceptions, but that's the vast majority.
Scifi just covers a ton of ground; is it MF with guns instead of swords and psychic powers instead of magic? Space? Post-Apocalypse? Super Science? Are you starfighters? Tramp Space Freighter crew? Robot pilots? Friend Computer?
Same sort of problem with Pulp.

 

[Kane Lives]

I've heard of Lancer a lot, but never read it deeply enough to have an opinion.

It's really hard to find a good mech game. Most are either really complex (Mechwarrior) or extremely simple (Tiny Frontiers first edition). Others are simply vague, broken, or incomplete. The big problem is how to balance in mech and out of mech combat. Does Lancer do it well?

Bear in mind I only been in a few one-shots, and having actually only read the PDF cover-to-cover twice for these sessions. I also do not have experience with any other mech RPGs to compare to. Instead, I will compare it to what is more familiar to me, D&D 5e.

In LANCER, out of mech combat is mostly narrative. Think more... Hillfolk, where the skills you pick for your character mostly influences the outcome of the choices to make, but they do not otherwise spell out what they'd result in. DM Fiat reigns supreme here. (Technically there IS a pilot combat system, the section itself has a stated intention of making everything feel like a movie, so the DM rules supreme again.) The feeling I got from this is that they elected to not address out of mech combat entirely, save as a narrative wrapper around what they consider to be the meat of the system: mech combat.

From a mechanical perspective, mech combat works a lot like Pathfinder's. Each turn you have a reaction, a full action OR two quick actions, and a move action, that can be done in any order. You may also use an Overcharge action to gain an extra quick action, at the cost of heat (basically, stress on your mech's systems). It's quite elegant, though it can quickly grind to a halt if a mech has lots of ways to interact with an enemy turn. Mechs themselves are quite customisable, where each frame has a varying amount of weapon mounts, system points (SP) and core systems to further tailor to your liking. Coming from 5e, I didn't find it particularly overwhelming, and could pick it up easily once we gotten used to the rhythm.

 

[Corn Flakes]

From a mechanical perspective, mech combat works a lot like Pathfinder's. Each turn you have a reaction, a full action OR two quick actions, and a move action, that can be done in any order. You may also use an Overcharge action to gain an extra quick action, at the cost of heat (basically, stress on your mech's systems). It's quite elegant, though it can quickly grind to a halt if a mech has lots of ways to interact with an enemy turn. Mechs themselves are quite customisable, where each frame has a varying amount of weapon mounts, system points (SP) and core systems to further tailor to your liking. Coming from 5e, I didn't find it particularly overwhelming, and could pick it up easily once we gotten used to the rhythm.

So, robots in Lancer are basically just oversized normal characters with additional customization options? Any rules for blowing off limbs or destroying weapons?

 

[TremendousBoredom]

So, robots in Lancer are basically just oversized normal characters with additional customization options? Any rules for blowing off limbs or destroying weapons?

So every time your mech's HP gets reduced to 0, you take a point of structure damage and have to roll on a chart for what happens. One of the results can destroy weapons or special systems on your mech, so yes but it's not quite the "Ok, you took 5 damage to this location and it blew your arm right off" that you might get with a different system. The game is damn quick playing once you get things down, and the modular nature of mech design lets you come up with some really interesting builds.

 

[Corn Flakes]

So every time your mech's HP gets reduced to 0, you take a point of structure damage and have to roll on a chart for what happens. One of the results can destroy weapons or special systems on your mech, so yes but it's not quite the "Ok, you took 5 damage to this location and it blew your arm right off" that you might get with a different system. The game is damn quick playing once you get things down, and the modular nature of mech design lets you come up with some really interesting builds.

Yeah, that's fine. Looks like they went for speed over detail in the combat system and I can respect that. Combat in RPGs often takes long enough as it is.

Just one final question: when you say "every time your mech's HP gets reduced to 0", do you mean that once you get brought down to 0 you keep taking 1 structure damage and having to roll critical damage every time an attack lands?

 

[TremendousBoredom]

Yeah, that's fine. Looks like they went for speed over detail in the combat system and I can respect that. Combat in RPGs often takes long enough as it is.

Just one final question: when you say "every time your mech's HP gets reduced to 0", do you mean that once you get brought down to 0 you keep taking 1 structure damage and having to roll critical damage every time an attack lands?

No. When you take a point of structure damage, your hp goes back to full. If the attack that structured you did so by more than your remaining hp, you take that damage as well.

There's a build involving a system that can potentially structure more than once easily off a particularly bad hit... but dear lord if that doesn't happen you can dish out the damage.

 

[Adamska]

Usually not my style to announce these before they come out, but for those interested in how awful Thirsty Sword Lesbians is, there's going to be a stream of it in 20 minutes...

It's gonna hoit.

 

[Pig Boss]

Usually not my style to announce these before they come out, but for those interested in how awful Thirsty Sword Lesbians is, there's going to be a stream of it in 20 minutes...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L--qcJsSY8EIt's gonna hoit.

The only good thing to come out of this book.

Now that's a real power stance.

Spoiler: Full image

 

[Pentex]

Tabletop RPGs About Vampire Hunters & Class Struggles​

TL;DR
Socialists and trannies (David Hill of Beast: The Primordial infamy) need their yummy IRL politicalrinos in tabletop. Therefore, vampires are the fash, and must be bashed.

Ever since Bram Stoker created the character of Dracula - an undead vampire who was also an old-world, predatory aristocrat - horror writers and storytellers have used the archetype as a metaphor for oppressive upper classes, with the profession of vampire hunter being an analogy for rebellion and resistance. The following paranormal tabletop RPGs take this metaphor and run with it, featuring game settings and rules designed to cover both the challenges of monster hunting and of direct action and social activism.

Vampires, particularly the European mythical creatures popularized by Western fiction, are metaphors for many social fears: fear of strangers, fear of disease, fear of the night, and fear of predators both animal and human. Early depictions of vampires in folklore portrayed them as grotesque corpses who crept from their graves at night to drink the blood of victims as they slept. The "vampire as oppressive aristocrat" trope then appeared in 19th century popular literature, with vampire characters like Dracula, Lord Ruthven, Carmilla and Varney displaying a haughty disdain for the human populations they manipulated and fed upon.

The arrogance of aristocratic, oppressive vampires in fiction and their smug sense of superiority towards the "cattle" they feed off makes it all the more cathartic when mere humans drive stakes through their hearts, chop off their heads, or burn them to a crisp. The following monster-hunting tabletop RPGs fully embrace this catharsis in gameplay, while also providing moments of social commentary more nuanced than simply "kill the rich vampire."

Vampire-Hunting Tabletop RPGs - IHunt

#iHunt The Tabletop RPG
iHunt, an urban fantasy RPG built using the FATE system, takes place in a modern world with hidden magic and supernatural creatures and is focused on lower-class Millennials who take monster-hunting jobs using a phone app called iHunt. These gig-economy protagonists may be hunting monsters for money rather than grand ideals, but iHunt is full of social commentary about the impact of late-stage capitalism on marginalized communities. Gameplay, accordingly, is half about researching, tracking and hunting monsters and half about struggling to pay rent, trying not to get bankrupted with medical bills from hunts gone wrong, and other social struggles that make monster hunting feel like a walk in the park by comparison.

Vampire-Hunting Tabletop RPGs - Brinkwood: The Blood Of Tyrants

Forged In The Dark RPGs Brinkwood the Blood Of Tyrants
Blending together elements of gothic horror, dark fairy tales, and Robin Hood myths, Brinkwood: The Blood Of Tyrants is a Forged In The Dark RPG about a haunted kingdom ruled over by cruel, vampiric aristocrats, with players taking on the role of hunters and rebels who fight back against their tyranny, powered by special masks enchanted by faerie magic. In this "Castlepunk" RPG's setting, vampires are uniquely portrayed as alchemical immortals who prolong their life using special elixirs brewed from quicksilver and fresh human blood. To become human again, a vampire merely needs to stop consuming their elixirs of immortality, making vampirism in Brinkwood: The Blood Of Tyrants a continuous choice to commit violence against human beings for the sake of power and immortality.

Vampire-Hunting Tabletop RPGs - Clown Helsing

Vampire Hunting Class Warfare RPGs Clown Helsing
Most depictions of vampires in popular media like to play with the rules of vampirism, giving vampires different powers, weaknesses, and characteristics. In Clown Helsing (via Dicebreaker), a narrative zine RPG, vampires can only be slain after being humiliated in a hilarious matter, making clowns their natural enemy. Players take on the role of vampire-hunting clowns upholding a centuries-old duty to slay creatures of the night using the power of laughter. To do so, they must couple a rock paper scissors-based conflict resolution mechanic with special abilities called Schticks, anti-vampire fighting techniques centered around slapstick and traditional clown humor. Clown Helsing doesn't explicitly focus on the theme of vampires as social oppressors; humor, however, has always been a tool used by lower-class communities to "punch up" at their oppressors, and the majority of clown archetypes are characterized as working class transients, rustics, and anti-authoritarian "fools."

Vampire-Hunting Tabletop RPGs - The Hammer And The Stake

Vampire Hunting Class Warfare RPGs The Hammer And The Stake
The Hammer And The Stake takes place in an alternate history where Dracula is a fascist dictator ruling over a vampire-controlled police state in central Europe, and players are members of various vampire-hunting resistance movements trying to destroy their undead oppressors. This RPG's tense gameplay is supplemented by bold artwork styled after socialist propaganda posters from the 20th century. An interesting narrative element of The Hammer And The Stake is how it explores the challenges of collective action - that is, how fractious revolutionary movements must transcend their ideological divides in order to achieve the ideals they do hold in common.

Tabletop RPGs About Vampire Hunters & Class Struggles

RPGs about working class vampire hunters.

screenrant.com

https://archive.is/y7AHY

 

[Snekposter]

Gameplay, accordingly, is half about researching, tracking and hunting monsters and half about struggling to pay rent, trying not to get bankrupted with medical bills from hunts gone wrong, and other social struggles that make monster hunting feel like a walk in the park by comparison.

You know, (thank you to whoever recommended MHI to me), that's already a book series. Oh wait, its about independent contractors battling an asshole Federal government that is just as incompetent at fighting unspeakable horrors as it is doing anything else, and yet just as unwilling to stand back and let actual competent people handle things out of arrogance.

 

[You Bastard Guy]

Tabletop RPGs About Vampire Hunters & Class Struggles​

TL;DR
Socialists and trannies (David Hill of Beast: The Primordial infamy) need their yummy IRL politicalrinos in tabletop. Therefore, vampires are the fash, and must be bashed.

Tabletop RPGs About Vampire Hunters & Class Struggles

RPGs about working class vampire hunters.

screenrant.com

https://archive.md/y7AHY

Hellsing rates this L for Late and Loser-like.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

So tabletop stuff has been getting the retarded political sperging treatment a lot lately but I think at the end of the day it means nothing. The key to playing these games is that you play them with a group of friends who cooperate to have a fun time. The mongoloids they pander to are incapable of maintaining this. They may be able to set up a discord game and run on roll20 for a time but eventually the lack of social skills and staggering autism will eventually dismantle those games.

The big thing about gaming for me is that I make friends with the people I game with. I've played and ran campaigns that have lasted for years on a weekly basis that would not have held up if I wasn't friends with the people I was playing with. I've been in two weddings and have attended many more with people I met because I liked rolling dice with them. I've discovered weird personal lolcows too but I don't really play with them anymore... just keep tabs on them through twitter.

My point is, whatever the system you're playing doesn't really matter. When you know enough to just like the people you're gaming with you'll figure out how to have fun. It is my belief that insane programmer socks wearing autists can never maintain an interest in the hobby for long and because of that we're all going to be okay.

 

[robobobo]

The thing is, I've never once heard of anyone even considering playing any of those fringe games. Except for people playing them for youtube clicks over how shit they are. I've played a whole fucking lot of games over the years, lots of systems, lots of settings, some homebrew stuff, online, in person, and I've never seen any ad for, "Want to play joyless slog where everyone's a troon and Republicans are vampires, looking for players."

Like, these things are being printed, and they're getting kickstarter money from idiots, but I'm pretty sure they aren't being played.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Like, these things are being printed, and they're getting kickstarter money from idiots, but I'm pretty sure they aren't being played.

You know those old, extremely specific magazines that never made it past issue #2?

Kind of the same thing. You make more money coming up with the concept and attracting investment than you do actually selling the product.

In short, it's kind of a scam. But a clever one, because while no one will actually get their money back in entertainment by actually using your product, you delivered a product so no one can try to sue you for it. And if you use an "open" system like FATE or Apocalypse you don't even have to spend any time or money writing rules, doing research or playtesting the damn thing. Pay your freelancer artists a pittance compared to industry standards, pay your fellow "writers" only slightly more, then pocket the rest and go start your next Kickstarter campaign even though you made literally 10 times what you asked for and even after expenses you have money to release the project three times over.

Really, for people who rail against capitalism they're pretty good at exploiting it.

 

[Adamska]

Tabletop RPGs About Vampire Hunters & Class Struggles​

TL;DR
Socialists and trannies (David Hill of Beast: The Primordial infamy) need their yummy IRL politicalrinos in tabletop. Therefore, vampires are the fash, and must be bashed.

Tabletop RPGs About Vampire Hunters & Class Struggles

RPGs about working class vampire hunters.

screenrant.com

https://archive.md/y7AHY

The crayon eating retards who deem themselves Blue Curtain analysts took a literal shitpost game and tried to make up bullshit to validate it.

On the other hand, Clown Helsing sounds amazing, and I'd probably play Hammer and Stake at least once, since I do like old socialist art about as much as futurism and Duce Dracula is a weird/cool concept.

 

[You Bastard Guy]

Kind of the same thing. You make more money coming up with the concept and attracting investment than you do actually selling the product.

In short, it's kind of a scam.

I’m pretty sure a lot of the shit sold on DriveThruRPG are actually money-laundering operations, or at least “alternate ways to donate to genderqueer creatives.”

 

[Corn Flakes]

I’m pretty sure a lot of the shit sold on DriveThruRPG are actually money-laundering operations, or at least “alternate ways to donate to genderqueer creatives.”

If we're being honest the ultimate purpose of any kickstarter project is to make money. But there's a difference between doing what these people do and what, for example, Ian McCollum from ForgottenWeapons does.

Even if both are out to separate you from your money in some way, these "game designers" do it with cheap pandering and just enough effort (and bright colors) to maximize returns, while Ian does deliver a product that clearly had a lot of effort and time put into it. I respect the latter way more than the former, because I'm getting a lot more bang for my buck paying 80 bucks for a collector-grade book on guns I'll never see or own in real life, compared to dumping 5 bucks on a game I'll never play (even if it didn't insult me for being white, straight and comfortable with having a dick).

I'll guarantee you, the bottleneck for those "games", the thing that pushes the release date back the furthest, is 99% of the time going to be the art. The systems are already done, the writing and editing can't take more than two weeks to anyone with even a vague grasp of the English language (even more so since they seem to like recycling their text between projects), the only thing they truly have to rely on other people for is art assets. If these books didn't need illustrations to convince their "target audience" that they were full of "beautiful" LGBTQIA+++ characters, they would be getting released faster than Chuck Tingle ebooks.

 

[BIG BILL HELL'S]

You know, (thank you to whoever recommended MHI to me), that's already a book series. Oh wait, its about independent contractors battling an asshole Federal government that is just as incompetent at fighting unspeakable horrors as it is doing anything else, and yet just as unwilling to stand back and let actual competent people handle things out of arrogance.

The best part is that Larry Correia is a major TTRPG nerd, and that he published his own MHI RPG using the Savage Worlds system. I bought a copy, but I have literally no idea if it's good or not because I haven't played it (and probably never will).

 

[You Bastard Guy]

If we're being honest the ultimate purpose of any kickstarter project is to make money. But there's a difference between doing what these people do and what, for example, Ian McCollum from ForgottenWeapons does.

Even if both are out to separate you from your money in some way, these "game designers" do it with cheap pandering and just enough effort (and bright colors) to maximize returns, while Ian does deliver a product that clearly had a lot of effort and time put into it. I respect the latter way more than the former, because I'm getting a lot more bang for my buck paying 80 bucks for a collector-grade book on guns I'll never see or own in real life, compared to dumping 5 bucks on a game I'll never play (even if it didn't insult me for being white, straight and comfortable with having a dick).

I'll guarantee you, the bottleneck for those "games", the thing that pushes the release date back the furthest, is 99% of the time going to be the art. The systems are already done, the writing and editing can't take more than two weeks to anyone with even a vague grasp of the English language (even more so since they seem to like recycling their text between projects), the only thing they truly have to rely on other people for is art assets. If these books didn't need illustrations to convince their "target audience" that they were full of "beautiful" LGBTQIA+++ characters, they would be getting released faster than Chuck Tingle ebooks.

I get what you’re saying, but there are far too many low-effort “101 things found in a modern criminal’s pockets” or “100 Asian Names” pdfs for it to be a coincidence.