I'm feeling an urge to run a #ttrpg next semester, while I'm still on sabbatical and have the time to make this plausible.
Genre? Probably space opera or fantasy.
System? That's the question. I recently ran FATE and I think I want something a little crunchier, more on the "players face the challenge placed by the GM" end than "collaborative storytelling". I'm interested in a good pre-written adventure.
Candidates:
Savage Worlds. I like the level of detail, as well as the use of polyhedral dice, but the settings and adventures I've looked at (Seven Worlds, The Last Parsec) seem dry and vague.
GURPS. Maybe too heavy? The focused Dungeon Fantasy box is intriguing and has good reviews.
Traveller (Mongoose). Again, the adventures out there look very dry. It sounds like you might get through the first two Marches adventures without any combat. I'm not saying I want a mercenary campaign, but action/adventure works better than extended wandering.
D&D 5E. The obvious, easy answer, but overdone and a bit too Hasbro-y. All other things being equal, I prefer skills over classes.
Dungeon Crawl Classics. Fun to be had from the 0-level funnel and spell misfires, but the 1970s-era worldview is borderline problematic.
Nudge me, Mastodon!
@peterdrake FWIW there's a Bundle of Holding just now with a whole bunch of Mongoose Traveller mercenary-related content.
@RogerBW Ooh, and there's also a nice Mongoose Traveller general bundle and one for Dungeon Fantasy!
I like physical books, and spend way too much time on screens, but I should probably buy more of these things electronically. I can shell out again for the dead trees if/when I actually get a game to the table.
@peterdrake @notasnark @mongoosepub The only ones I've looked at in detail are the first two Marches ones, High and Dry (which I liked a lot, clear narrative thrust) and Mission to Mithril, which has some great individual locations/encounters but leans heavily on "you have to cross this unfamiliar terrain and there will be a bunch of random events/monsters". Actual plays on Whartson Hall.
@peterdrake @RogerBW I'm so close to buying that Dungeon Fantasy RPG bundle. Does anyone know what the profit share is to Steve Jackson Games?
@worldofgeese @RogerBW I don't know, but it says at the bottom that it's (at least in part) a charity fundraiser.
@peterdrake @worldofgeese "Ten percent of your payment (after gateway fees) will be donated to this Dungeon Fantasy offer's designated charity, Direct Relief." I assume the remainder is split between the Bundle and SJGames, but I have no information about the proportions.
@worldofgeese @RogerBW I'm close, too. A big concern is that #gurps characters take a long time to make AND combat is deadly. Won't it be a bad experience for a player when a character they spent two hours making unexpectedly dies?
@peterdrake @worldofgeese Heh, the #IRTD episode coming out on 1 Jan deals with this a bit. DFRPG character generation can go fast; you have a class-like template, and to get it ready for play you basically make multiple-choice picks. Also these starting characters are pretty tough compared with various D&Ds. So I wouldn't be seriously worried.
(Disclaimer, I do write for SJGames, though not (yet?) for the DFRPG.)
@RogerBW @peterdrake I've learned so much from Douglas Cole in the last 12 hours. He wrote most of the DFRPG supplements including Delvers to Grow, which lets players roll characters in minutes at a lower power level and is the most frequently recommended DFRPG supplement out there for new players. He will also happily answer any questions and discuss the ecosystem in his Discord. I'm linking both here for you 👇
https://gaming-ballistic.myshopify.com/products/delvers-to-grow-core-book?variant=42552070865151
@RogerBW @peterdrake he introduced me to his Dragon Heresy system and ruleset that's a modified 5e if you're interested. Big changes to grappling, shields and damage. There's an interview with him about it here https://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/2018/04/19/the-independents-dragon-heresy/
@worldofgeese @RogerBW @peterdrake
I'll add that the DFRPG from Gaming Ballistic are 50% off for electronic and 25% off for physical.
The publication quality is high. A ⏫ w/the DtGr is that rules mastery isn't required to use it. Being able to understand the plain English text description of a package is enough to allow an informed decision. (I have used it w/functionally illiterate players.) usu 15 min from start to finish of char gen.
@RogerBW @peterdrake @worldofgeese I'll note that during the "meat grinder" playtests of Delvers to Grow we had better survivability than any of us expected. We were also able to make a character between the time one died and our next turn.
More detailed report of that session and a follow up starts here
https://kreioslair.gitlab.io/2021/04/30/meatgrinder.html
@peterdrake @worldofgeese @RogerBW
I'll toss my commentary here, but also later in the thread.
There is a corresponding sale on the DFRPG supplements from Gaming Ballistic.
The thing I point people at is Delvers to Grow. It breaks character creation down into to discrete blocks. (Think duplo vs. technic). The equivalent of a 3-5 level 5e character can be reduced to 6 choices using that book. I have run a walkup game in the FLGS using it.
#GURPS
@RogerBW @notasnark @mongoosepub Reviews suggest that most of Mongoose's Traveller adventures seem to provide a loose plot outline and then repeatedly say, "Next they go to this planet. Something interesting happens there. Details are left up to the GM." Are there any that are ... tighter?