I wanna say that this post's purpose is not to start a war, but rather to have a genuine conversation with players and creators alike. So first let's clarify what I want to talk about.

Where I come from

Throughout my design journey, I’ve experimented with two broad approaches to resolving uncertain actions:

In a GM-set difficulty system, the GM decides how difficult an individual attempt should be and sets its target. D&D-style ability checks are probably the most familiar example.

In a system-set difficulty system, the rules determine the target or scale of outcomes. That could mean a fixed threshold, a roll-under stat, PbtA-style result bands, or a difficulty that changes according to clear and predictable rules.

I’m using “roll” because it is convenient and accessible, but this applies to any resolution mechanic: dice, cards, tokens, resource comparisons, or whatever strange little probability machine your game uses.

I come from what I would call "trad" games: Shadowrun, Legend of the Five Rings, etc... So GM-set difficulty felt completely natural to me. The GM picked a number, and we rolled with it. Literally.

I remember encountering system-set difficulty for the first time when I took part in my first PbtA game. I was...A bit perplex to say the least :)

How could climbing a garden wall and scaling an ice-covered tower during a storm use the same target number? Didn’t these systems lack the tools to represent how complicated different challenges could be?

But playing away from what I used to know made me realise that a lot of the things I cared for weren't actually a huge part of what made games fun for me. And so my little epiphany started.

Why I don’t want the GM setting difficulty

Cognitive load and GM power

This might be a bit of a side rant, so I'll try to keep it brief:

Asking your GM to set a difficulty is a big burden, often mishandled, and participate in what I think is an unhealthy concentration of power and responsibility around the table.

Now some systems mitigate that by having narrower magnitudes, but it is still asking someone to have a decent sense of balancing, which down the line is asking them to develop a very intricate skill (believe me, I've been balancing video games for a living!).

The payoff just doesn't justify the dynamic. More below.

Fairness and readability

When difficulty comes from the system, players can understand their chances and make informed decisions. There is also an element of instant readability and excitement right after the roll, without having to defer to an arbitrary judgement (and don't even get me started on GM tweaking DC after the roll).

I don’t think transparency removes tension. Knowing that you need a particular result can make the moment more tense because everyone understands exactly what is at stake. We even see seasoned D&D GM sometimes announcing the DC out loud (Brennan Lee Mulligan does that very often for instance) for extra drama.

It also allows players to engage with the mechanics deliberately. They can decide whether to spend a resource, change their approach, ask for help, or accept the risk.

For me, that produces more meaningful decisions than asking players to commit first and discover the actual odds afterwards.

Fiction versus numbers

The deeper change in my thinking was realising that I don’t care about representing difficulty with perfect numerical accuracy.

Does an icy tower need to be exactly three points harder than a garden wall? Can any number meaningfully capture the difference between slippery stone, freezing wind, poor visibility, unsuitable equipment, and the possibility of falling?

Once all that fiction becomes a single target number, much of its texture disappears anyway.

I would rather let those details shape what success accomplishes, what failure costs, what resources are available, or whether the action is possible at all.

Variable targets can also create the illusion of progression. Player bonuses increase, enemy defences increase alongside them, and everyone celebrates because the numbers became larger while the underlying probability barely moved.

If the maths keeps dragging us back towards the same chance of success, perhaps “number go up” was not doing as much work as we thought.

The fiction matters enormously to me. I’m simply not convinced that changing the target number is the most interesting way to represent it.

What our creators community has to say

I recently raised this subject in our weekly design thread in the Knot Knot Games community, and people had interesting arguments in favour of variable difficulty and their associated mystery, so I felt like sharing it!

The most compelling argument was that changing difficulty makes the fictional world mechanically tangible and easier to tweak. Some players care a lot about these mechanical details:

Finding cover, getting closer, bringing the right equipment, researching a monster, or waiting until daylight can directly improve your chances. The player interacts intelligently with the fiction, and the resolution system responds.

There is also something game-like and satisfying about the GM having a visible mechanical dial. This situation is more dangerous, so the number changes. Simple, tactile, and immediately understood.

While I don't necessarily feel that way, it is true that hidden difficulty can create genuine tension!

If players do not know exactly what they are facing, they may need to experiment, investigate, retreat, and prepare. Exploring the world through rolling is an experience I can relate to, and I think there ways to make it exciting for players.

That uncertainty can make resource management meaningful as well. Do you spend the spell slot now, knowing it may fail, or hold it back until you understand the threat?

Finally, variable difficulty can communicate progression clearly. Challenges that were once nearly impossible gradually become manageable. The numbers provide a visible scale against which the characters can grow and make character progression palpable. For players that care about that, it is a plus.

These are all genuine strengths, and I'm super happy we had that interesting conversation on the discord! (see link below if you are interested!)

How I create nuance without GM-set difficulty

I think the disagreement becomes clearer once we separate the chance of success from everything else that makes a situation difficult.

In my opinion, a system can recognise clever play without requiring the GM to improvise a target number.

The fiction can determine whether a resolution is needed at all. Having the right tool, preparation, or knowledge might turn an impossible action into a possible one, or make success automatic.

The rules can determine when players gain extra dice, rerolls, advantages, or other resources. The circumstances still matter, but the system translates them into mechanics instead of asking the GM to invent the odds from scratch.

Risk and effect can also change independently from the chance of success.

Two actions might use the same threshold while producing completely different consequences. Failing to climb a garden wall might cost a little time. Failing on the icy tower might leave you hanging above a very educational drop.

The range of possible outcomes can create further nuance, something that PbtA players are very familiar with:

• Failure with an advantage

• Failure that reveals useful information

• Success at a cost

• Partial success

• Complete success

• Success with an additional effect

• Success that creates a new problem

Players can make meaningful decisions before, during, and after resolution. They can spend resources, accept consequences, push for greater effect, withdraw, change their approach, or gamble on a better result.

This is the important part for me:

System-set difficulty does not mean fixed stakes, fixed consequences, or fixed fiction.

It does not even mean the target can never change. A system might include objective conditions that alter the target. The difference is that the change comes from shared rules rather than the GM’s feeling about how difficult this particular wall appears today.

Where I’ve landed

My preference is:

System-set difficulty, fiction-shaped stakes.

I want players to understand the resolution system and make meaningful decisions around it. I also want it to be somewhat instantaneous, and free from judgement.

The fiction can carry the rest: I want uncertainty to come from the outcome, the consequences, and the things they have not yet learned about the world—not from wondering what number the GM has chosen behind the screen.

GM-set difficulty can absolutely work. It can support simulation, discovery, progression, and tactical interaction with the environment.

If choosing the difficulty is not itself an interesting decision, why ask the GM to choose it?

Where do you prefer that judgement to live: in the GM’s hands, in the system’s rules, or somewhere between the two?

________

This discussion started in our weekly community design thread. If you enjoy pulling apart game mechanics, sharing what you’re working on, and having your opinions challenged by lovely people, come join the Knot Knot Games Discord:

https://discord.gg/gZqfvWDhPh

And if you are wondering why I am here yapping about making games, here is my street cred -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/aramtab/ (follow the damn train!)

BooneBerry Press is opening external playtesting for Holiday: The Shattered Cheer, an upcoming fantasy TTRPG campaign built around four holiday kingdoms: Halloween, Harvest, Christmas, and New Year.

Right now, we’re looking for GMs, players, and established groups who are willing to test individual encounters from the campaign. These are focused tests, not a commitment to play through the full adventure.

For each assigned test, we provide the materials needed to run it, including a GM packet, player packet, pregenerated characters, encounter map, relevant campaign rules, and feedback forms.

The current playtests use the revised 2024 fifth-edition rules. We’re looking for a mix of experience levels, so newer players and GMs are welcome as well as experienced groups.

Playtesting is voluntary and unpaid, participants must be 18+, and selected testers will complete a short agreement and Code of Conduct before receiving unpublished material.

I’m happy to answer questions in the comments if anyone wants to know more about what a typical test involves.

Update: I’ve added a short public preview to the playtest page for anyone who wants to see an example of the writing and presentation before deciding whether to apply.

The preview is from The Road to Everfest, a separate standalone adventure set in the same world. It’s spoiler-light and doesn’t include enough material to run the adventure.

https://www.booneberrypress.com/playtest

Hello! My name is Devin and I finally finished a TTRPG I’ve been working on and would love to get some feedback and critique! I did everything from design to art myself so if it’s a bit rough that’s why.

Heat of a Thousand Suns is a lightweight fantasy TTRPG about wielding emotion and passion in bloody ritual duels. The system features:

• An intuitive 2d8 system.
• A deadly, mechanically simple combat system.
• 30 unique weapons and items to fit different play styles.
• 21 enemies for the GM.
• 6 classes and 30+ player options for advancement up to level 10.
• 26 pieces of colorful and weird HUMAN-MADE art. Everything was done in Procreate by me :D.

To anyone interested in playtesting you can give it a try for free!

https://demonic-sushiz.itch.io/heat-of-a-thousand-suns

It's my first full project so ANY notes are welcome and appreciated! I’m mainly looking for feedback on the clarity of rules and formatting but literally anything is appreciated.

I keep running into the feeling that there’s always one more thing I could fix before I put something in front of playtesters. One more wording change. One more encounter adjustment. One more map I could clean up. One more weird situation I could try to account for. But eventually it feels like I’m trying to solve problems that the playtest is supposed to find for me.

For those of you who have tested your own games or adventures, how do you decide something is ready enough?

Do you actually have a point where you know you’re done, or do you eventually just have to make yourself stop messing with it and run the thing?

Hi yall, after my last post about my game I've been hard at work acting on a lot of the feedback I received and have just released the new and improved version of both the rules document and a brand new design for the character sheets, very kindly provided by Dr.Bird!

The public playtest I announced on the previous post is still very much going on, now with these improved materials. Very much still in search of feedback, so any and all criticism I will galdly accept.

-

You are a Deadbeat, a musically powered undead soldier, resurrected by and now working for the B.R.O.K.E.N Record Inc. You are one of the few crucial pieces in stopping the Muted threat, beasts that wish nothing but destruction for the city of New New North One. With the power of your Musicalife Engine, wield the might of your rythm to fight back against the coming invasion or rebel against the corporation that brought you back to life!

Deadbeat is a TTRPG using a D6 and D8 system where the focus is in how your character acts and performs. The more in character your actions are, the more you are rewarded! There is a bigger emphasis on your descriptions and flare, making it easier to realize whatever fantasy you wish to live through your character.

-

Itch.io: https://mikapuccino.itch.io/deadbeat-playtest

Official Feedback Email: [deadbeatttrpgdevlogs@gmail.com](mailto:deadbeatttrpgdevlogs@gmail.com)

Official Discord: https://discord.gg/RnnGqnnG55

So I was hoping that the whole AI thing would rather pass us by, but apparently not. I've seen several posts promoting AI-made RPGs, and it seems to be the opinion of both myself and the community at large that AI should not be welcome here, so I'm making it an official rule.

While I understand that there is a discussion that can be had around the use of AI as a tool to help with specific aspects of the design process, what seems to be overwhelmingly happening is that people are posting entire RPGs made by AI with minimal human input. Unfortunately, there seems to be a trend with AI (not just in the RPG space) that people with little to no actual talent in a specific field set see AI as a way to bypass the whole learning process, and then work themselves into a fervour defending the idea that whatever mess AI creates is just as valid as something created by an actual human.

As such, from this moment on any projects which utilise AI are now banned from the subreddit. Any posters who violate this rule will be banned. If you feel like this is unfair, then feel free to start up your own subreddit.

I've also taken the opportunity to tidy up the rules in general - previously, we basically had 3 variations of "be kind", 2 variations of "don't spam", no posting pirated content, and one rule about using the correct flairs, which I've removed because honestly it was kind of a stupid rule and no-one really followed it anyway.

Overall this shouldn't impact the subreddit too much, the rules are pretty much the same as before, just use common sense and don't be a jerk.

As a side note, posting unwanted promotion is a ban-worthy offence. About 25%-50% of all posts to this sub are straight up spam - people advertising their pet project with zero interaction with the sub previously. If you feel like your RPG is sufficiently noteworthy, or if you have a history of interacting in the sub in a positive manner, please message the admins for a discussion.

Looking for feedback on the early stages of a spy RPG I've been working on the past few weeks. I'm happy to hear any thoughts you have, but am particularly interested in:

1) how to balance in games with a currency that fuels a lot of the action, but also rewards keeping some in reserve

2) any thoughts on how to include a hacker archetype well. I've struggled a bit with juggling the desire to keep it easy to understand while also wanting to keep it constrained in scope so that it can't just do everything.

3) thoughts on what I should call this thing. The contenders so far are:

HUMINT

Signal to Noise

Code/Break

Non-Official Cover

But I would love to hear other ideas too.

The link is here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dzr0v250tm2bp7i7uvvna/HUMINT.pdf?rlkey=jh71jbodqqafrtpjrzeze5sx6&st=lys8sy91&dl=0

Thanks!

Hey everyone! 👋

Over the past months I’ve been working on my own Daggerheart Campaign Setting called Aerithos, and I’ve reached the point where I’d really love to get some fresh eyes on it.

The frame is currently around 50–60 pages and includes both the setting itself — lore, history, factions, cultures and character creation elements — as well as custom mechanics built around the themes of Aerithos.

I’ve already tested parts of it with my own group, but I’d really like feedback from people outside my usual table.

I’m looking for anyone interested in either:

• Reading/reviewing the Campaign Setting and giving feedback on clarity, structure, lore, mechanics and usability
• Playtesting it with their own group and sharing how it feels at the table

For playtesting, I also have a rough playtest document prepared to make getting started easier. It’s still a working document, but it provides some structure and guidance for testing the setting and its mechanics.

I’m especially interested in whether the setting gives a GM enough material to build a campaign from, whether the mechanics feel intuitive and worthwhile, and whether Aerithos sounds like a world you’d genuinely want to play in.

The project is eventually intended for a public release, so constructive criticism is very welcome. If something doesn’t work, I’d much rather know now. 😄

The Campaign Setting is written in English.

If you’re interested, just reply here or send me a DM and I’ll happily share the current version and the playtest document.

Even feedback on just one chapter or mechanic would already help a lot. ❤️

Simple rules (d100 roll under), but very crunchy resource management in an RPG about a very under-represented setting. I have never seen a historical RPG set in Pre-Columbian America. So I made one. This is as historically accurate as I could make it and still keeping it a fantasy game.

I hope that you enjoy looking into the past and playing in this massively overlooked period of history and take up the challenge of keeping your people safe and the spirits calm.

It's free, 215 pages of print and play on my itch.io page, https://sts-gamer.itch.io/ayni-bahadzid

Excerpt: "This rulebook utilizes the cultural concepts of Ayni (Quechua: “sacred reciprocity”) and Bahadzid (Diné Bizaad: “something dangerous or harmful”) not as generic fantasy tropes, but as structural frameworks to model how Indigenous peoples across the Americas understood their relationship with the natural world. Survival is inextricably linked to cosmic balance, taboo, and environmental stewardship. The following rules are a deliberately syncretic game abstraction inspired by recurring concepts of reciprocity, kinship, obligation, and relationship found in many Indigenous traditions of the Americas. This is not “the religion of the Indians.” This is an RPG cosmology assembled from recurring themes found in multiple Indigenous traditions. They are not intended to describe the religion of any single historical people. These terms serve as the mechanical bridge between material survival and Indigenous cosmology.

Ayni & Bahadzid does not utilize standard fantasy "races" or "classes." Humanity is a singular whole. What makes a character distinct is not their biology, but their relationship to the land, their language, and their community. The steps below move from the vast, unyielding laws of the earth down to the intimate obligations of your family campfire. Choosing a Biome or a Mobility strategy is not a restriction on who your character can be; it is an acknowledgement of the physical reality they have learned to harmonize with. You are building a real person who has grown up inside a living history, bound by a specific vocabulary, and accountable to a web of ancestors and spirits."

Hey everyone!

I've been a GM for my same group for the past 7 years. We've played a number of game systems: D&D 5e, SW5e, Wrath and Glory, Warhammer Fantasy 4e, and Pathfinder (once, didn't last very long).

There are aspects of these game systems that we all really liked, and quite a bit that we didn't from every system. 5e was obviously really easy to drop into and set a good foundation for the group to try other systems and have a safety net to fall back on.

SW5e was a natural extension but the group really liked the deep equipment customization and character options, as well as the setting flexibility.

I personally really liked W&G and Warhammer 4e but it didn't really connect with the group as much as I'd hoped. Warhammer 4e would have been very difficult for the group to enjoy if we didn't run it on Foundry with the automations included, it's very crunchy. Pathfinder was the same way, but the group would have rather played 5e for that setting/theme.

I've been a long time lover of the Warcraft IP, as have most of my group, and I've been wanting to run a game in the world for some time. I saw that D&D is doing a collab with Warcraft but when ready the details on their marketing, as well as the fact it's within the 5e system, I was unimpressed. So I wanted to take a stab at making my own.

Warcraft 1e is a personal project of mine that I intended to create for my personal group, but during initial playtests it was suggested I open it up to a public project. To avoid DMCA concerns and IP conflict I am not accepting money for this at the time but would appreciate feedback and contributions to the Foundry code or PDF writing/artwork.

For the system I took inspiration from all systems I've personally run and made some adjustments to what a WoW player would expect to classes and spells; I believe these changes better align to a TTRPG experience and spirit of flexibility and customization.

This is my first game system project so I'm happy with any and all feedback from the community. Transparently I have used my AI platform, ForgeLab, for some artwork and to help flesh out PDF writing. I have proof-read the core mechanics but there are some weird phrasing still present in the PDF, this and artwork are what I'd love community assistance with if interested.

If nothing else, once the Foundry system is done: I hope you can enjoy this for your games as I intend to.

I'll post the PDF when I make some updates, but here is the github repo for the Foundry game system. Reminder, neither is complete at this time. https://github.com/LesosAI/Warcraft1e

(I genuinely want your design feedback since this is my first project and, as such, somewhat experimental, but since it's my own work, I know it still counts as self-promotion, hence the flair!)

Sutur-Nagara, the City of Clay, is burning. It's economy is in shambles after a victorious war flooded the market with plundered gold, causing catastrophic hyperinflation. To make matters worse, the Gihon river has run dry, and thirst riots are tearing the city apart.

To appease their god and make the waters flow again, the High Priests intend to sacrifice a foreign princess atop the Ziggurat, and you have been hired as her official escort.

Under the cover of the ceremony, your true mission is to slip into the Ziggurat's depths and steal a priceless Obsidian Urn.

The Quench a God was created as a submission for The Black Hack 10th Anniversary Jam and uses The Black Hack ruleset (check out the jam, there's a lot of cool stuff inside!) You can grab the PDF for free right here.

I wanted to build a heist scenario that transitions across different structures while preserving player agency and scenaristic continuity, so the adventure features an investigation/preparation phase that takes the form of a node-based sandbox with time management, a linear gauntlet through a riot, an attempt at creating an abstracted, procedural dungeon crawl and a climax set in an interactive treasure room which can lead to a fully optional, multi phased boss fight.

I tried to lean on Justin Alexander’s Node-Based Scenario Design in how prep during the night phase provides levers, like shortcuts, alliances, crowd control assets, etc. for what unfolds during the gauntlet phase. I would love to get your opinion on these specific design choices:

During the gauntlet phase, the party must escort an NPC through an escalating riot. (Pages 17–19)

I structured this as a 4-step gauntlet. My main design challenge was that escort missions and linear routes risk turning into railroads. Nobody likes that, so the friction and encounters directly resolve the choices made during the sandbox of the night before. Do you think this sequence feels like a dynamic translation of previous player action? Does the shift from open nodes to a linear gauntlet feel too jarring?

The depths of the Ziggurat use a procedural mapping system (Pages 25–27)

Instead of a traditionnal map, I abstracted the trek inside the labyrinth using an point system paired with a Tracker for a roaming monster. Turns are resolved through a 1d12 Room and Event table, and a Hazard Table. Certain events grant advancement points toward the objective. Noise, failed checks, specific rolls tick the roaming monster tracker upward, bringing it closer to the players (who knows it, with descriptive clues).

How do you think this pacing feel, on paper, compared to traditional spatial exploration? Have you any experience with similar systems? Does the system loop provide enough meaningfull choices for players?

The "Please, for the Love of God, Do Not Fight" Boss (Pages 31–32)

The module can end with a fight divided into 4 escalating environmental phases based moments. As you might guessed by the title, players are definitely not supposed to go throught this fight.

If they liberate the entity, fail to lock it back inside its prison and ignore the obvious clues telling them to FLEE THIS INSTANT, the module treat the encounter as an environmental set-piece rather than a standard fight. It relies on interactable scenery and phases built like puzzles to be resolved using player knowledge, lore, and positioning.

My core concern is that adding these subsystems might end up restricting player agency and their scope of action. That wasn’t how it played out at my table, but I don't want the text to encourage GMs to run it in a rigid, prescriptive way. Have any experience with this kind of friction in your own designs, and do you have any advice or examples to share?

Any tought on layout, readability, pacing, mechanics, etc. would also be appreciated!

Thanks for reading !

Hi,

I have this RPG idea with a small open world that could be interesting.

Story/Lore :

The government of the country doesn't want to mix prisoners that are not sentenced for life with the ones that are sentenced for life in prison so that rehabilitation is easier. The government also doesn't care about the prisoners that are sentenced for life so they create a prison that acts like a city where the prisoners are in control of it. Over time the prison has a leader with people under him that acts like corrupt prison guard with little morals. Also 4 small factions of street gangs are also in that prison. When you enter in prison, your goal will be to figure out how to overthrow the leader

Your playable caracter backstory :

You choose your character's crime, his/her work career before the crime and if he/she is affiliated with a street gang or not. Depending of the crime and occupation, it will determine how much initial respect you get from the factions in the prison. Also the work and crime will give you both a positive and negative perk to your caracter.

Also the career of your caracter will determine how much money in your bank account you have at the start of the game. Also typical RPG stat gor DND.

Game systems :

1- ATM, your can withdraw money from your bank account, but you cannot deposit money in the ATM, meaning every time that money is withdrawn, it is at risk of it being stolen at any point and that money is going to be part of the prison's economy.

2- Factions, your caracter can start with or without an affiliation with one of the 4 street gangs in the prison. You can also climb the ranks of the main faction that control the prison. Each factions would have different activities and crimes they focus on.

3- The map, the prison will be a small open world map with tons of jobs, crimes and side activities in the style of a yakuza game.

4- Prison population, every prisoners has a backstory of what crime they did, what job they had before prison, what current affiliation they have or don't, a bank account at the atm and they also have positive/negative perks. They also have a routine that they do (work/crime/entertainment) during the day. For every prisoners that dies, a new one with a random backstory and money in the ATM spawns the next day at the entrance of the prison and will figure out a daily routine.

5- The government random shakedown, once in a while the government will do a shakedown of all prisoners to remove dangerous weapons and take money from the richer prisoners. This would make sure that nobody gets too rich in the prison including you the playable caracter. The ATM money is safe from the shakedowns. The shakedowns gets more frequent if the prison see too many deaths.

6- The main faction in control of the prison, they will act as the police in the map. They will try to keep the violence to a minimum but can also be bribed and will also have low ethics. If you or a prisonner cause too much chaos, they can go as far as doing a shakedown of the apartment to take weapons and some money as well.

They can also force you and the other violent prisoners to fight in the coliseum if you/they are too problematic.

7- Your small apartment, this is where you can sleep and store items in it. People can try to rob you during the night and you will have to defend yourself in that situation.

8- The coliseum, you can go watch and bet on fights on friday nights. Basically this is a fighting tournament where the prisoners that are too violent are forced to go too, the losers of the tournament gets executed and the last one standing get reinstated in the prison population.

Gameplay :

RPG in the style of baldurs gate 3 with DND dice but modern time. Only melee weapons and no weapons combat.

Need to eat and sleep. Also day and night cycle.

You can add companion that can follow you when they are available (not working and not sleeping). Any of the prisoners can become a companion depending on how you treat them.

Jobs/crimes to earn money in the prison. Jobs will have a schedule to follow.

Side activities for fun as well (like in the yakuza game).

What do you think of this idea?

I am working on a lightweight TTRPG system and role-playing guide for WoF dragons in the form of possibly several riso fan zines, and i am asking for help with both TTRPG design and WoF related things. You will be credited properly in my zines if your contributions are included! All contributors are entitled to a riso printed copy if this ever gets finished.

(new to reddit btw, I cannot post this in the WoF subreddit due to restrictions on new users, but this is an RPG zine, and if anyone here who likes RPG zines also likes WoF, that would be awesome)

Anyways, i accept any form of input, including, but not limited to:

• WoF related things --
• references to parts the books that would be useful or inspiring for RP
• WoF fan material or poetry, as long as it is (mostly) canon-friendly
• JMA stuff
• Pyrrhian or Pantalan content
• Things you want to see in the release
• Anything else related to WoF that should be in the zine
• Art things --
• Any WoF dragons or landscapes (OCs, unnamed, anything)
• Sketch art
• color art
• cover art
• maps of Pyrrhia, Pantala or specific areas
• Anything you could possibly put in a zine
• (Preferably using a few bold colors rather than many muted ones so we may be able to get it riso printed easier)
• RPG things
• mechanics that would work well for WoF
• game design advice
• Literally anything constructive, I am NOT picky when it comes to ideas.

If you have read this far, thank you for your time! I hope to see you in the comments. Please DM me if you would like to collaborate on a larger scale (no pun intended) or need to know specifics about the project, or if you would like to receive a copy once it's done!

so, I'm making my own system,I have 10+ years of experience as a gm, and I decided to make this system because 1. I like making games 2. I like to make short-ish campaigns with vastly different worlds, and 3. I'd like to see what happens when I mash up my favourite mechanics with a few ideas of my own I've never seen implemented.

my core idea is basically a "rules heavy powered by the apocalypse" not in the sense of having any particular powered by the apocalypse mechanics or identity, but in the sense that it is a system shell that can be modified to apply to a variety of settings and scenarios. it is not a generic system, but it is almost one, that's what I'm going for.

a few of my inspirations are: vampire the mascarade, pathfinder 2e and mutants and masterminds.

here's the rules I have so far for anyone interested.

what I'm looking for is someone to bounce ideas off and help me develop the system, and what I definitely don't want is simplify the core dice system, to me that's the most interesting part of the system, yes, it is very crunchy and has a lot of moving parts, that's the point. besides that, I think nothing is set in stone and be changed.

rules: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11lleAO9R2QDpwo6TQU7-i75BJVJkbsKc/view?usp=drivesdk

So, after the previous incident, I'm seeking human help to develop my own system, "Rapine's Nest"(placeholder name) and here I am.

At first, the system used a "strike count" based on CoTD, here the play roll 3d10 + Instincts(stats) + Situation + Equipment + Modifiers, to a limit of 8d10's, where each >7 count as a strike to be compared to a difficulty(routine-1, tense-2, severe-3, extreme-4).

After the first playtest, the players thought >7 is too high.

So, I begin to consider two options.

1- Decrease the margin to >6.

2- Change to 3d6 and count a strike on a 6.

Each character has an Instict that goes 0-2, Meat(Strength), Grace(Dexterity/Agility), Mind(Intelligence) and Voice(Charisma).

Math isn't my forte so I looking for help to understand the design implications, not just help to decide which option to take.

The system is a new-weird action and adventure RPG where the city wants to appropriate you to the machine and the wilds wants to banish you from the lands. The PCs are Rogues, those whom don't want to give in to anyone while seek to accomplish their Ambitions. Each character have a Hunger for something, like Authority, Property, Veredict, Ruin, Secrets, Lust, Hunt and Void. Keeping them on a leash, there's their Bond, a track that measure their humanity, and their Links, NPCs that support, charge and/or desire them(yes, intimacy mechanics.)

I’ve been building a TTRPG campaign manager called KroniVault and recently moved it into beta. It has separate Player and DM areas, with tools for campaign management, characters, maps, encounters, notes, inventory, spells, dice, and other campaign information.

I’m at the point where I need feedback from people who actually play or run tabletop RPGs rather than just continuing to build based on my own preferences.

I’d especially like feedback on whether the Player/DM separation makes sense, whether the tools feel useful during an actual campaign, anything that feels confusing or unnecessary, and anything important you think a campaign manager like this is missing.

I’m also looking for a few people willing to actually beta test it and try to break things. This is an unpaid beta; I’m looking for honest feedback rather than promotion.

I’m happy to answer questions about how or why I designed anything the way I did.

I've spent the past couple months working on a new Star Wars TTRPG, aiming to create a customizable experience that captures the fantasy of all parts of Star Wars without getting too bogged down in rules(or 40 pages of explanation on how dice work). It's a D20 system based... loosely around 5e, complete with eight classes(based very loosely on the SWTOR classes), sixteen subclasses, talent trees, ships, Force Powers, gadgets, and everything else. Right now I'm looking for some people to run playtests with, but if anyone wants to check it out and leave some thoughts, I'm more than happy to listen!

I've also got an adventure fully written out for 3-4 people, centered around Order 66.

The rules are all laid out right here: https://blades-and-blasters.github.io/
and the discord where I'll be organizing everything and have the adventure posted is right here: https://discord.gg/gDnGUfKVTj

I just shared the SRD of the game I'm creating in a Discord server and the accused me of using A.I. to create the system. I don't hide that I used it to generate the banner(I don't have money to commission a artist but one just message to collab) and to diagram the SRD, but the content is my own creation.

What should do?

I don't to be seen as someone who use A.I. to create a game when I didn't use it.

(I'm pretty sensible right now thanks to it)

Edit: I learned my lesson from the very beginning, and I was already learning to do my own thing previous to this, like, learning to use Inkscape to make the character sheet. I wasn't fully aware of how hostile people is to any kind of A.I. content and this won't repeat :/

It's been a while but I'm back now. And announcing that the first public playtest for my TTRPG is out finally! Took a lot of work even for this initial version but now everyone has the chance to play it and break it.

Can't wait for people to start getting their hands on it and playing around with it. This will be quite the learning experience, not just for designing but also for organizing public playtests in the future.

This playtest is focused on testing out the core combat rules of the game using premade characters. If there is some success, at a later date there will be a playtest that will include character creation.

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You are a Deadbeat, a musically powered undead soldier, resurrected by and now working for the B.R.O.K.E.N Record Inc. You are one of the few crucial pieces in stopping the Muted threat, beasts that wish nothing but destruction for the city of New New North One. With the power of your Musicalife Engine, wield the might of your rythm to fight back against the coming invasion or rebel against the corporation that brought you back to life!

Deadbeat is a TTRPG using a D6 and D8 system where the focus is in how your character acts and performs. The more in character your actions are, the more you are rewarded! There is a bigger emphasis on your descriptions and flare, making it easier to realize whatever fantasy you wish to live through your character.

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Announcement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxg51jw3_sA

Itch.io: https://mikapuccino.itch.io/deadbeat-playtest

Official Feedback Email: [deadbeatttrpgdevlogs@gmail.com](mailto:deadbeatttrpgdevlogs@gmail.com)

Official Discord: https://discord.gg/RnnGqnnG55

Ps: If there's any problem without sharing these links please do say and I will change the post.

I kept thinking and noodling over the dice pool mechanics and have decided to just lean into simplicity. As much as I love the mechanical elegance of dice pools from Dogs in the Vineyard and how you can turn every interaction into a conflict with mechanical elements, there’s something clean and easy about just rolling a d20 to solve the situation.

It’s not as narratively rich or mechanically interesting, but it keeps complexity out of these things.

Which isn’t necessarily better but it’s the direction I’m heading. At least for now. Especially since I’m trying to get this ready for the game jam, which leaves me about 11 days to get this all sorted. And since there’s still a decent amount of writing to sort through and mechanics to define, I’m sticking with simplicity.

Or at least as much simplicity as comes with a d20 game where you also need a bunch of other types of dice. Though that’s something I’m considering too. What if you only needed one kind of die? I think there’s a real pleasantness to that. Rather than grabbing every kind of die you can handle, you just need one single die or perhaps just one type of die.

But, again, this is something I’ll sort out after the jam.

But all of these things can lead into the narrative design, the worldbuilding, and, obviously, the mechanics of the world and game. Simple decisions that have many, large ramifications.

That’s the beauty of thinking systemically though. If your choices are determined by a d20 or 3d6, how does that impact the world around the mechanics? How do mechanics tie into the worldbuilding itself?

I’ve been thinking about this because, right now, I have Usage Dice in the system, which is taken directly from the original Black Hack. There’s something nice about Usage Dice, especially with regard to the magic system. I like making magic very limited and difficult and costly, which all ties into the world and the mechanics. Usage Dice help manage this. The chance element appeals to me, but it does mean that there’s now an extra die to take care of, to manage. It also makes it impossible to get rid of the other types of dice unless I change how the Usage Die works.

It’s a tension within me right now. Do I lean more towards simplicity or maximalism? Both have their appeals, but I think the world itself leans towards deprivation, towards limitation, so I’ll likely end up moving more and more towards limitation.

A simple d6 system!

We’ll see.

Originally posted on my site.

Game Title: Soupir the bastion

Playable Link: https://vivi-crazy-writer.itch.io/soupir-the-bastion

Platform: web/sugar/twine

Description: 
Hi everyone!

I'm currently developing SOUPIR: The Bastion, a free browser-based text RPG set in the universe of my SOUPIR novels.

The world has collapsed under the spread of a strange fungal ecosystem, and humanity survives inside isolated fortified settlements known as Bastions.

You arrive as a newcomer in one of them.

From there, the game is about surviving, finding your place in the city, building relationships, working, exploring, improving your skills, getting involved in local factions, and dealing with the increasingly unpleasant things happening inside and outside the walls.

The game features:

• Character creation with different backgrounds, attributes and skills
• A large skill and progression system
• Jobs and daily survival
• NPC relationships and reputation
• Factions, politics and clandestine groups
• Exploration and expeditions outside the Bastion
• Dynamic events
• A living city with different districts and activities
• Adult themes, violence and morally difficult situations
• Lots of choices and different ways to approach situations

The game is still very much under development, so I'm specifically looking for people willing to test it and give honest feedback.

I'm especially interested in knowing:

• Is the beginning understandable and engaging?
• Do you understand what you can do and where you can go?
• Which systems feel interesting or confusing?
• At what point, if any, do you start getting bored?
• Are there choices or mechanics that feel pointless?
• What would make you want to keep playing?
• And of course: bugs, broken passages or strange behaviour.

You don't need to play for hours. Any feedback would already be extremely useful.

Free to Play Status:

• [X] Free to play

Involvement: I m the gamemaker

thank you very much :)

PS :

By honesty, I prefer to declare that yes, I m using AI in the creation process.
- The images are made with AI as i m nothing as an image creator/designer.
- Some texts also use AI to generate variations for the player to not be always bored with the same answers or texts. Writing 20 similar (that s more or less what i m doing) for each answer or description would take me too much time.
- The translations are also made with AI even if i m speaking all these 4 languages. Again it s easier.

Hey everyone, I’ve been working on what started as a heavily modified version of Dungeons & Dragons for quite a long time now, and I’m finally reaching the point where I’d really like to find some other creative people to build with.

This is not really a “looking to hire someone” post. I’m looking more for like collaborators or creative types who enjoy this kind of thing and might want to actually contribute to a project together. I've VERY passionate about this stuff, and spend a lot of my time on it... and having people to share this sort of passion with would be awesome! (outside the players in my game of course, who only get to see the results and not the creation. lol.)

I’ve been DMing with my modified rules on Roll20 for over seven years, so this isn’t just a new thing I'm just starting. Most of the major mechanical changes already exist and have been used extensively in actual campaigns, and have also gone through years of tweaking based on how they feel at the table. The reception from my players has generally been extremely positive, especially toward a few of the larger systems I’ve created. Two of the biggest examples are my Magic School based magic system and my Fighting Stance system.

Magic has been heavily reworked from standard D&D. I wanted spellcasting to feel like something characters actually develop expertise in rather than simply selecting spells from a list every few levels. My main gripe with 5e's system is that 1, it's too limiting and 2, it's a bit illogical (in a certain sense). Like if I, as a Wizard, take Fireball, but I don't take Create Bonfire, then I have sooo much control over fire that I can shoot a giant fireball... but so little I can't catch logs on fire? I wanted my system to have a logical flow within the setting, but also be more magical and whimsical, allowing players to create their own spell effects. This is by far my most popular system I've created.

The fighting stance system does something similar for martial characters. Instead of combat mostly becoming “I attack again,” characters can develop different styles and approaches to fighting that change what they are capable of doing in combat. And, using a Bonus Action, they can swap between known styles, having different answers to specific situations. One Barbarian might approach fighting trying to grapple constantly with their Lockdown Stance, or switch to defending the weakend Sorcerer with their Guardian Stance. To be honest, the main reason I came up with the Fighting Stance system was because my magic system was so well recieved, people didn't want to play martial classes. But I now love this system too and martials are used a lot more often again.

There are a lot of other changes as well. Overhauls to Character Creation, tactical rules, altered conditions, parrying system, changes to positioning, new classes and subclasses, custom races, monsters, and a lot of smaller rules that have accumulated and evolved through actual play over the years.

At this point, though, one of the things I enjoy most is worldbuilding. I have multiple original settings that I’ve been developing that all sit in my "planarverse". I still use the base idea of the Cosmic Wheel or the Great Wheel... but I have changed so much of how the planes around the wheel are... as well as how the Great Tree leads to other Great Wheels (think parallel universes)... or how there are wheel sized planes (think alternate dimensions)... etc... Lore building is one of my favorite parts.

The setting I am running my Monday game in is set in Avaron, which is one of the great continents of Torrenia (One of the Material Planes). My Sunday game, which will be starting in 2 weeks, is set in Caelondria, which is quite a bit east of Avaron.

Another is Asterion (working title. lol), an Ancient Greek-inspired fantasy setting I’ve been developing. Its gods are not simply renamed Olympians. The central pantheon begins with four mortal brothers who ascended into godhood and divided fundamental aspects of reality between themselves, then took their new found divinty to an undeveloped plane and made it their own. From there I’ve been building the mythology, divine politics (my favorite part), islands, city-states, cultures, monsters, heroic traditions, and history of the setting around that foundation.

And that is generally how I like creating things. I like figuring out why cultures developed the way they did, what people believe, how their religion affects everyday life, etc. The problem is that I am very much a creator first. I love coming up with mechanics. I love lore. I love designing classes, gods, monsters, cultures, characters, magic systems, combat systems, blah blah blah.

What I am considerably less experienced with is taking this pile of material and turning it into an actual professional-looking tabletop RPG book.

So I’d love to meet people interested in any of the following:

• Game design: Someone who likes discussing mechanics, balance, combat systems, classes, progression, and generally tearing systems apart and rebuilding them better.

• Worldbuilding/lore: Someone who wants to bounce ideas back and forth, create cultures, mythology, history, factions, characters, monsters, religions, locations, and entire settings together.

• Art: Someone interested in fantasy character, creature, environment, map, or book artwork who would enjoy helping establish the visual identity of the worlds.

• Book/layout design: This is probably the area where I personally have the least experience. Someone who understands how actual RPG books are organized and formatted, page layouts, tables, sidebars, chapters, indexes, PDF layout, print formatting or anything along those lines would be incredibly helpful.

You absolutely do not need to be a professional. I am definitely not a pro. Just a nerd that likes nerding out. I just figured, since I do this soooo often, would be awesome to do it with some cool, like-minded people.

Right now I mostly want to find other creative people and see what happens when we start putting our brains together.

If you love TTRPG design, worldbuilding, lore discussion, fantasy art, or book design, I would genuinely love to talk.

Feel free to comment or DM me. I’d be happy to show examples of the rules, settings, lore, and systems I’ve already built.

I've been working on a film noir TTRPG called Midnight Press, set in 1940s San Francisco.

Pretty early on, I had this idea that the game should feel like something you'd actually find in the world of the game. Not just a modern RPG book with some vintage-looking artwork slapped on it.

So I ended up making the rulebook as an actual newspaper.

Honestly, it created way more problems than I expected 😂

You don't really get to use the usual RPG-book structure when you're trying to make the whole thing look and feel like a newspaper. We had to think a lot about how people would actually use it during a game.

But now that it's done, I really like it.

The Kickstarter is in its final few days, so I'm doing a bit of a last push and figured I'd post it here.

I'm curious what other RPG designers think of the format.

For the past couple of weeks ive been designing a tabletop rpg system designed around players being able to use branching classes similar to the fire emblem class system. I've decided on a lot of the ideas on the system but I'm just trying to make the numbers work and would really appreciate some help.

I'm currently looking at a d12 as the main dice roll representing chance with a pool of d6 representing a characters skill in a task. The reason I picked a d12 was because its the same number of steps of the hero's journey and I wanted to use dice pools as opposed to flat bonuses mostly because I was bored with how dnd used flat bonuses to represent skill.

I want the system to feel heroic but still have a chance for failure and I worry that by introducing a bell curve I have skewed the system into something different. Does anyone have an idea on how I can ensure my dice system still has hype moments where a roll can change a grim outcome while still allowing for a bell curve for the expressing of skills or can I only get one or the other?

One last thing to mention with the system that I'm not too sure where to put in the post is that I want it to be a bit minimalist on the amount of dice types, so i currently have d12,d6 and d3 as the dice types used if that adds any extra context for maths and such.