The Tabletop RPG thread for cool people who roll dice

[TheLimoMaker]

Been attempting to write my own homebrew as of late for when I eventually can have people over to play.

Writing it has been a lot of fun, especially since I've been basing the archipelago it takes place in on the world of Tales of Earthsea as a foundation (and who doesn't enjoy reading Earthsea?)
The archipelago surrounds a large mountain in the middle of the sea and it begins to crack like an egg, with monstrosities pouring forth into the lands surrounding it.

One of my favourite things about writing this is definitely the world building; having the archipelago be an off-shoot from the mainland (which is in the midst of its own troubles) really lets the players feel like super important cogs in a wheel.
They get to craft their own portions of this world's history.

The main issue that I think all homebrew peeps run into is making sure the world feels expansive but the campaign remains focused... But not TOO focused because otherwise it's restricting.

Walking that fine line is difficult when writing the campaign because you need certain things to happen to maintain interest but also have to make sure the players create organic stories.

 

[taterchimp]

I have been doing a West March style campaign with friends since the start of the pandemic and its been pretty fun. Basically, whoever is free to play comes and attends what is effectively a one shot that takes place in the set up world. Actions can change the lay of the land, but there isn't really a big bad guy or larger plot lines. I think we started at level 6 and are nearing level 11.

Our last campaign involved rescuing a political prisoner from a skull prince. When we made it to the skull prince our Forge Cleric summoned his god, Ormagoden, which played a ripping guitar solo so awesome its face melted off. The rogue, who has been dealing 30-40 damage per attack with no resource cost at all, felt it was 'overpowered' which was cute.

 

[RolanberryPrins]

Trying to find a good system to duet with the girlfriend that keeps my interest enough that I want to keep running it. Tried Star Wars, Deadlands, and Call of Cthulhu, but my GM style is very based off player input (and the consequences thereof) so it's been really tough trying to run games for a person new to RPGs who also is in the "burn it down" phase of being a player. I've found that you can't really give serious consequences to a player who just burns the next thing down and doesn't care if their character dies.

Maybe a GMless game that would allow you two to duet would work better as you could interact with her and build up something together. Ironsworn can be co-op (and is free). Star Crossed and Hot Guys Making Out go more narrative driven and would break the cycle of murder hoboing their way across the countryside. https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/twoplayers has a full write up on 2 player games and has another article on co-op rpgs. Might be worth a looksee

 

[Nova]

I'm gonna plug Voidheart Symphony, which I think a lot of folks here on a video game forum will dig. It's a fork of Legacy that draws primary inspiration from Persona 5. Lorewise, it's a direct sequel to the Castlevania-inspired Rhapsody of Blood setting: the Castle has evolved over the centuries, no longer choosing a single Regent, and instead granting Shards of itself to numerous Vassals, like the Palaces in P5. I can't speak for anyone else, but personally, "Persona 5 as a sequel to Castlevania" is 1,000% my aesthetic.
I was playing in a campaign run by the author herself, which just wrapped up recently, and it was a ton of fun. There's a lot of cool stuff happening in the indie RPG space right now, and I'm really glad I backed the KS for this one.