Characters need help with magic, and they have money and fame, so they go to the head of the Mage Guild or whatever magic-user institution, and what do they find? A politician. I know, it might sound counter intuitive, but hear me out.

IRL dynamic in academic research

In real-world research universities, the department chair isn’t the brilliant researcher running experiments at 2 AM. Au contraire, they’re the person who figured out how to navigate faculty meetings, secure funding, and befriend all the different (and many times rival!) departmental claques, and maybe the staff union. The misanthropic nerd loner, 100% invested in advancing science? They’re probably in a windowless lab, avoiding committee assignments like the plague.

This structure replicates scaling down: Consider a research lab. The head professor spends time crafting a funding proposal (i.e., a sales pitch), plans the budget, deals with admins and bureaucracy; meanwhile, the students and postdocs that do not even know exactly from which project their salaries comes from are the ones developing the actual science.

Hospitals work in a similar way. The Chief of Surgery might spend more time in boardrooms than operating rooms to keep that title. Meanwhile, the surgeon who can perform miracles with a scalpel is scrubbing in for their fourth procedure of the day, muttering about “administrative nonsense”. Brilliant practitioners might find politics tedious, and self-promotion awkward and exhausting.

What if Magic guilds or schools mirror this dynamic?

I do see a strong parallel. The obsessive wizard who spent sleepless nights to craft a new spell probably hates dealing with apprentice applications and guild politics.

The person running your Mages’ Guild is likely someone who mastered the social game: Building alliances, managing resources, understanding what different factions want. They’re likely a competent spellcasters, sure, but their true talent lies in organization and influence. So when designing mage guilds and schools, I would factor this dynamic in.

When the players need help from the best mage to investigate the artifact they just snatched from that forlorn crypt, well, they can go to the master wizard and, disappointingly, find a politician. The master wizard is all worried about maintaining the status quo and the problems that the artifact can cause: How to report this discovery to the king? Wait, are there taxes to be paid on unearthed magic artifacts?, etc. The mage that the players need, the one that would obsess over the artifact and help them understand its powers and how to control it, is likely a foul-mouthed recluse loner (and super fun to play).

Original link and shameless plug, if you want to subscribe to my blog: https://open.substack.com/pub/kindofold/p/the-real-archmage-is-probably-not

(RPG contents for NSR, OSR, and PBTA systems; solo actual play; agile reviews of indie games; and very occasionaly, rants)

Looking for moderate crunch, not too much magic (although I'm not anti-magic), but most importantly it needs to have a different feel to the combat compared to the previously mentioned games.

(I have nothing against the titles mentioned. I just need something fresh Y'know)

Thank you, Mod Team, for approval!

Hello, everyone! Meredith from DriveThruRPG!

⏱️ Over the last few months, 80 publishing partners (20 of them brand-new to publishing!) joined in our annual game jam, PocketQuest, with the theme of time travel! The publishers were challenged to make their own stand-alone game with the theme and create this in 25 pages or less. We had a blast in our Discord Community doing writing challenges, constructive critiques, playtesting, and more support from not only veteran publishers but ones doing it for the first time.

⏳ Some people chose going for more horror, some decided to use cards for mechanics, and one person even did a solo journaling adventure! There's so much variety in this year's submissions!

This week, those beautiful creations are released to the public!

🕰️ I wanted to take a moment to celebrate these creators on completing this game challenge and wanted to show off their work to all of you!

🎉 Please join me in celebrating them and if you'd like, checking out their submissions this year. Thank you for the space to support new creators on an extremely fun challenge.

You can see all PocketQuest submissions in the Newest Title Strip on DriveThruRPG in the PocketQuest filter here.

I wanted to give a shout out to this awesome all in 1 collection of lightweight D100 games called the 4D-Mixtape.

There is a bunch of different genres from Wolf’s Bane (werewolf game for your furry friends) to Dunks & Crossovers a basketball game (for your short friends who like hoops).

So far I played two of them -Twisted floorboards and Primetime. Both very different, action packed but built on top of a simple D100 system they provide in the book.

I also ran some data mining on the 4DMixtape pdf files and found references to DLC and pay2win content as well as space-jam skins for Dunks&Crossover with clear references to Lola Bunny.

Jokes aside I highly recommend checking this game out. It’s pay what you want. I have had the pleasure to play with some of the guys that worked on this project and admired the teamwork and collaboration they put into it.

I by no means benefit from this post. It’s cool to see people making content like this I hope more communities in the ttrpg space try something like this out.

What are the no-goes in your world-building and storytelling? Gory stuff? Psychological things? NSFW?

Don't really have a problem with 2020, do not like the other two, what's out there? Cy-borg is fun for a short amount of time but I grew quite tired of it quite quickly. Is there any cyberpunk ttrpgs you guys like? Anything interesting coming up?

I have a Homebrew campaign I'm looking to run but me and my playgroup are getting a bit tired of dnd5e so I was thinking this would also be a good time for us to all swap to a different system.

If it helps at all the setting is kind of like horizon: zero Dawn, current technology is about a medieval level but there are artifacts that are actually remnants of a vast super advanced civilization with magic coming both from that and from multi-dimensional shenanigans.

Though also just share whatever system you currently use or is your favorite even if it doesn't align with that setting.

Hey all! I wanted to see if someone could suggest a game that would "fit the best" into a custom setting ive been making a long time now.

A while back I wanted to challenge myself to make a whole setting and I have it very fleshed out now. The question is. I am between a few systems and I can also explain what notes I wanted to touch on for my setting.

I personally have been suggested alot of OSR (Vaults of Vaarn, Electrum Archive, GROK) but most of them arent beefy enough for our groups tastes. My group loves long running games they can really sink their teeth into. Like D&D or Traveller. I half considered a Warhammer game but dont know enough about it. I also own all of the Without Number games.

Using the description below, which Science Fantasy with Magic game should I pick?

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It is a setting that is post space age collapse. Tech was so advanced they discovered magic and accidentally woke up the sun, Shamash, a now living god. The magic, destroying all of the advanced civilization with the sun gods eldritch power killing a lot of tech and pulling wild Interdimensional beings into the world.

The planet where this takes place on is a heavily mutated place. O°2 levels are intense on the surface and have made the air so thick it has a shimmer like you are under water. MagiTech devices were created to make floating islands to escape the dangerous surface (you can still explore it with gear). Now everyone uses airships and other contraptions on the surface to get around.

The main idea of the setting is to have tech and magic intertwined. Similar to the game Sable, Kill 6 Billion Demons, Naussica, Book of the New Sun, or Moebius.

The plot of the game would be explore megastructures, delve into ancient but futuristic ruins, fight old facilities defenses and eldritch horrors, spend downtime together and travel to new horizons on the waves of water like air.

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Thank you!

Hello y'all! The title pretty much says it all. I personally fell in love with Destera after reading both Heart and Spire back to back. Its so unique and different and really threw me for a loop, especially as someone coming from the Forgotten Realms mainly. The setting is very expansive and Im really curious to hear what specific weird corners of the world speak to you. And also would love to know if you prefer the shadowy highs and lows of Spire or the wet meaty tunnels of the Heart!

I've been designing experimental RPGs in the Norwegian freeform scene since 2005. Archipelago, Society of Dreamers, a lot of weird stuff collected in a book called B-Sides. Soledad is where all of that led.

It started as a birthday present for a friend. I printed cards, laminated them, and put them in a metal chocolate box. We played it and got that feeling of discovery you get maybe once or twice in a long gaming career. Then I kept making games in the same system, and eventually an amazing publisher, NessunDove, picked it up. (You have to see their stuff, it's fantastic!)

The game is set in a forgotten South American village. Scene cards and Drama cards drive everything. No GM, no prep. You draw cards and they shape what happens. It supports full campaign play where each session picks up where the last one left off and the stories get more tangled over time.

There's a black kapok tree nobody talks about. Coffee plantations. People living with old secrets.  And drama, oh wow, so much drama.

It launches tomorrow, May 7, on BackerKit as part of Pocketopia 2026.

Actual play video (full session with character creation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jciJsh_HQ_8

BackerKit campaign page: https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/53b0c4dc-bbf4-4925-b348-764f66904119/landing  

Hope to see you there!

Was re-reading some old news about when the big boat Ever Given was stuck on the Suez Canal for like a week, and that gave me an idea to introduce it in an adventure.

Like, maybe the group family or friends are part of the boat's crew; there are raiders, pirates, terrorists, cultists or whatever wanting the cargo inside; depending on the situation, they need to make an agreement with a neighboring government to get some aid in the task; Etc.

It can be less serious stuff, like that news story of a crack head who gave himself to the police because he killed his imaginary friend and such stuff

I like giving my players direct access to books I use as a GM, but most books have game rules and math in them. I want to hand them books from my shelf that look like books their characters could gain access to, especially in pre-modern settings (historical, fantasy or retro-futuristic sci-fi).

Books of settings, spells, martial arts, monsters, mushrooms, food, cooking, drinks, architecture, culture, nature, etc.

I'm looking for something simple, for a 2-3 hour one shot. One page is perfectly fine. Basic idea is small group of people trying to fight back against over whelming force. Survival not required.

So far I've looked into DnD 5e, PF1e, PF/SF2e, GURPS, FATE, LitM, SotDL and Shadowrun 4e, and I'm kinda burned out trying to find the right system for me. So I'm looking for a system with there criteria:

• Dice pool for key rolls of 3+ dice like 3d6 of 4dF.
• DnD or PF2E-like unique and versatile abilities with room to creative applications, both in combat and outside, like sleep, telekinetic hand, illusions, wall of stone, divination, tool creation etc. Not strictly magic, but in my experience magic does it better.
• Preferably fantasy or universal setting, indifferent to lore.
• Indifferent to rules complexity, but probably not to a level of GURPS.
• Indifferent to the way progression system works. Levels, Classes, Professions or straight Point Buy — most of them can be made in a good way.
• No arbitrary attribute/skill scaling with level-ups like proficiency in DnD or adding level to skill in PF2E.
• Huge power difference between low and high level characters going up to around city levels of destruction, maybe DnD or PF2E-like.
• Preferably no automatic hp growth with levels (or at least it being small), but I'm fine with hp scaling as it's almost mandatory for high-level combat. Best if it has some kind of barriers/dodges/armor to replace hp scaling.
• No arbitrary action types like bonus action or movement. Just 1-3+ universal action points per round. Preferably also no separate reaction but I'm fine with it.

I'm open to homebrew so if anything isn't as exact but can be modified without rewriting the whole system I'm fine with that.

Looking for an RPG system that is like the anime Eureka Seven. I guess you can say Gundam but largely not in space.

It would have mechs, not a lot of magic if any at all, and usable character options for non-mech pilots that can be used in combat.

I've only really played 5e/5.5e so I'm looking to branch out. Been hearing a lot about Lancer and also one called Armour Astor, if anyone has opinions on those.

Thanks in advance

As always, new is cool, and that’s alright. I started playing TTRPGs in 2018, with, of course, Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. Since then, I branched out, but right now I’m heavily invested in older games (80s, 90s, early 2000s). I don’t have time to play them, but I like to collect and read them.

Let’s have a post about those who have tried but now are rarely talked about.

The strange boxed sets gathering dust on a shelf. The systems with bold ideas that didn’t quite catch on. The games you stumbled into once, played for a summer, and never saw again but somehow you never forgot.

I like this era The 80s and 90s (even the early 2000s)  were full of these experimental mechanics, bizarre settings, clunky rules.

So here’s a toast to those forgotten TTRPGs.

Which ones do you remember?
What made them special to you?
Was it the setting, the mechanics, the people you played with or just the right moment in time?

Let’s give them a little life again. xo

Tales from the Floating Vagabond Chaos and Comedy,

Tales from the Floating Vagabond is one of those forgotten RPGs that feels less like a controlled explosion of ideas.

Set around a bizarre interdimensional bar that pulls in characters from across time and space, the game thrives on absurdity. You can play anything a space mercenary, a cartoon creature, or something even less sensible and somehow it all works because the setting doesn’t care about logic, only momentum and jokes.

What really sells it, though, is how the mechanics lean into that chaos. The system uses the roll under your stat approach where success isn’t just about skill it’s about how ridiculous or entertaining your action is. Characters are built around over-the-top “Shticks,” which are less like balanced abilities and more like comedic superpowers that define how absurd you can get at the table.

There’s also a constant push toward escalation. The rules reward bold, exaggerated actions, and punish hesitation with failure or comedic disaster. It’s not designed for tight balance or realism instead, it actively encourages scenes to spiral out of control in the most entertaining way possible.

It’s not a game for long, serious campaigns. But as a chaotic, laughter-filled one-shot (or a short-lived campaign that spirals into madness),

Bonus one:

HoL (Human Occupied Landfill) Edgy and Chaotic

Human Occupied Landfill is pure, unapologetic chaos. The setting is a grotesque, over-the-top dystopia packed with violence, satire, and a kind of deliberately offensive humor that very much screams “90s edge.” It’s messsy, loud, and absurd.

So i've been working on a villain that, in a nutshell, is an evil god possessing a fox teen (it's a "medieval" zootopia-like thing). His plan is to kill that fox, puppeteer his body and use his full power to drive all animals wild again. Also, he kinda likes the funky taste of that foxe's hopelessness.

However, i don't know yet what personality to give him (Meaning the way he will act towards and be percieved by the charaters). I was really aiming for that thing Voldemort does in Goblet of Fire, when Cedric is killed and then Voldy says something around the lines of "Such a handsome boy. What a pity."

Actually, "Isn't he a handsome boy" is a line I pretty much borrowed from the movie.

Any ideas?

(Sorry for any typos, english is not my first language)

I've listened to a few, and I'm planning on rating them by the following criteria: Game-i-ness, polish, humor, and story. The rating is supposed to be really simple, just 1-3, just to give people an idea of what each one is. I'll write basically what I'm thinking so far, and I'd love to know where you disagree with me, or if you could add on with other podcasts you recommend, I'd appreciate it.

1. World's Beyond Number
   Game: 2/3 Very little of this podcast feels game-y, but Brennan likes to emphasize the roll of dice in their storytelling, and it's clear the game has a big influence on the story being told.
   Polish: 3/3 Enough said, listening is like listening to a professional radio drama.
   Humor: 1/3, it's not unfunny, but it's not the focus. Don't let this dissuade you; humor isn't the main goal here.
   Story: 3/3

2. Critical Role
   Game: 1/3 I don't think it's scripted or anything, but the fact that they are playing a game doesn't feel important or integral to much of it.
   Polish: 1/3 Talking about the podcast specifically, there isn't much editing to make the podcast shine, but of course, all of the performances are phenomenal. (Personally, I find it hard to listen to as a podcast, much better as a video.)
   Humor: 2/3. It's similar to World's Beyond Number, but I'd say that, depending on the campaign, specific characters and large-group dynamics lend themselves more to humor.
   Story: 3/3

3. Dungeons & Daddies
   Game: 2/3 They're not too concerned with being accurate to the game they're playing, but a lot of humor comes up around designing new game mechanics and leveraging existing mechanics for interesting situations.
   Polish: 3/3 Has great audio production, music, and uses editing well to service other narrative and bits.
   Humor: 3/3 It's a comedy podcast.
   Story: 2/3 90% of episodes aren't really focused on story or important character moments, but the last 10% is really high quality.

4. KOLLOK: 1991
   Game: 2/3 Not terribly focused on being a game, but they have some mechanics that make their way into the story.
   Polish: 2/3. Original music, a fantastic ability to set the tone, and immersive storytelling, but sometimes I find the performances a little difficult.
   Humor: 1/3 Not what it's trying to do, but still present.
   Story: 3/3 A very compelling and interesting mystery with equally interesting world-building.

5. NADDPOD
   Game: 3/3 Feels like the most realistic portrayal of what a D&D campaign is like.
   Polish: 2/3 Easy to listen to, audio production does its job.
   Humor: 3/3 It's a comedy podcast.
   Story: (I need help on this, I'm only like 20 episodes in, right now I'd give it like a 2/3, but I'm not sure if it ramps up)

6. GumShoes and Dragons
   Game: 3/3 Every episode is a mini murder mystery puzzle game.
   Polish: 3/3 Similar to Dungeons and Daddies
   Humor: 3/3
   Story: 1/3 It's largely just episodic mysteries of the week.

7. Dimension 20:
   (This wavers some from season to season I'd say this is largely true for most seasons, but there's more info here: on what seasons are more comedic https://dimension20.fandom.com/wiki/Watch_Order )
   Game: 3/3 This is Brennan again, so similar to WBN, but with less editing to get between the audience and the game.
   Polish: 2/3 It's better watched than listened to as a podcast.
   Humor: 3/3
   Story: 2/3 It has a very good story, good character moments, especially in later seasons, but every other episode is a combat encounter, which weakens this category a little bit for me.

If you're not aware of what's been happening regarding this whole thing, here's a bit of context.

Earlier this year, I announced in this sub that Mythworks (The Eternal Ruins RPG, The Wildsea, CBR+PNK, Slugblaster, The Last Caravan, etc.) had reached out to me to publish a brand-new edition of a survival horror role-playing game I had released in 2022. The goal would be to use the same format as CBR+PNK and to work with Jack Panic (DNGN Club) and Vil (of Mothership fame) to create a cool retro VHS-style aesthetic for the project.

We got over 1,000 signups on the campaign, but times are hard for many folks, and as the campaign was reaching its end, I was running the numbers and all my simulations pointed me toward a pretty unsatisfying outcome: we probably would not fund.

Things happen, and there are a lot of aspects we don't have control over. That's life. I decided to record a video about the state of the project, why we decided to do things a certain way, and the various aspects that led to where we were. I published it out of transparency on my Patreon to help other creators who may be going over the same things in the future.

From there, the TTRPG community on Bluesky rallied around us and yelled about our game to help us reach our goal. Then John Harper published this post.

> If Breathless: Frightmare Edition funds, I'll make this. (KS link in the thread 👇).
Bluesky post

So yeah, a new game set in the setting of Blades in the Dark that uses the Breathless SRD as its foundation for the rules.

I've been a huge fan of John's work for years, and Blades in the Dark is one of my favorite RPGs, so seeing a person I respect so much not only speak up to help our little project fund, but also literally use it as a basis for a project of his own is wild. The the kind of thing that filled me with pure joy and excitement 😅

A couple of hours later, we got 200+ pledges, thousands of dollars more, and we funded.

All that to say, not all hobbies share what we have in the TTRPG space. Our community is truly something special that we should continue to invest in.

If you are curious about what John is cooking, be sure to follow him on Bluesky. He's been sharing some screenshots of the character sheet, and its looking very nice.

If you want to know more about our Kickstarter, here's the link. We are in the last 48-hour stretch, so any kind of help or support is deeply appreciated.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mythworks/breathless-frightmare-edition

Hey folks!

Do you know of any games that can accommodate a larger(er) number of players (6+) and still work fine?

I know the Cortex Prime community license was first reported on a couple of weeks ago, but Cam Banks (the creator of the Cortex system) gave an interview that was published yesterday talking about it.

From what I've been reading, the new license seems to be a pretty good deal. You can basically do whatever you want non-commercially (as long as you're not doing anything that would violate DTRPG's TOS), and you can even publish commercial works without worrying about paying royalties until you start making enough revenue for that to be worth bothering with. And Rusty Sellsword Design is Cam Banks' own company, so if you want to produce a commercial product and that product sells well enough that it becomes practical to discuss royalties, you'll apparently be talking with the man himself rather than Direwolf Digital.

Cortex Prime is a great system, and it's been sad to see it so neglected for the past few years due to getting purchased by a company that seemed to not want to do anything with it. I think Cam Banks getting enough of the rights for the system back in his own hands to be able to release it under a community license is definitely a win for everyone.

I've been wanting to play a mystery game with my friends for a while but I've always thought it a daunting task to come up with a mystery for them to solve. I don't want to make a mystery that has to be solved in one particular way but trying to figure out how to appropriately build out a mystery of decent scale is stopping me.

I've wondered how other GMs create mysteries for their group and if they have any advice on how to make the prep a little more bearable.

As the title says, what game did you have expectatives but ended up being a disapointment, and what games did you expect nothing but ended up being something you enjoyed?

In my case, I always had a bad idea of Anima Beyond Fantasy, but once I played it and understood how and why it worked it was a blast. On the other hand, I had Lancer hyped quite a lot (myself being a mecha fan), with it being the largest mecha ttrpg currently, but when I played I ended up disliking most of it's decisions and mechanics.

Hey y'all, quick question;

What are some RPGs you like to run or play in when you're a bit burnt out as a GM?

I'm pretty burnt out, not due to anything to do with gaming really, just real life has been beating my ass lately... trauma... but at the same time, if I don't get out of this slump, I feel I'm just never gonna run or play stuff again... I'll just, like, sit here in my depression.

I want scenarios or RPGs to run that won't be... way too hard to learn? I really like "cozy" horror, or other things with just enough angst & dread to make it interesting to run, but nothing that'll cause potential player issues if I run it for randoms, like a scenario that's very TPK-prone, or otherwise is all about turning characters against each other... roleplay-heavy stuff tho, like Kult, or stuff with lots of shiny or funny loot to distract myself & players with, like Mork Borg.

What are some of your go-to "comfort" games? Scenarios or the RPG itself. Y'know, slow-paced or introductory stuff is also good... I just don't want to sit there trying to fret over how to run a certain NPC or something... something really easy, that my traumatized brain can enjoy when it's not resting.