cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22796007

Ben Robbins (the creator of Microscope RPG) has laid out a few problems they see in the current state of scenes and recently some ideas to tackle those perceived problems (https://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/3449/a-microscope-for-the-people/).

Has anyone tried these yet? How did these changes affect gameplay? Did you like the effect of those changes? And did you make any changes to dictated scenes (I'm asking this because the blog post seems to be mostly focused on acted scenes)?

This is also an opportunity to give your thoughts on the current state of scenes and what could be changed.

(I hope discussion about a specific game is allowed in this community)

In High technology setting, the hacking skill is incredibly powerful, and a shortcut in many investigation scenarios. By hacking the CCTV camera, I could see that Joe did it, by checkin [insert social media] I know were the evil gad guys live.

Either you go old shadowrun-style with a whole mini game where decker can be killed by AI but it's pretty heavy and weird, or you end-up with 3 success on my roll and give a lot of info for just one roll.

What are your trick/house-rules to prevent that ? And how would you actually protect from panopticon. Especially looking how stupid people are in today's real world

Let's Make Better Rpg Currencies

@rpg

https://youtu.be/VADntQSNMB4?si=VUw999G0yZ0x52IW

I'm curious what currency systems my fellow #ttrpg GMs have dreamt up when #worldbuilding.

It's always annoyed me how #dnd's gp/sp/cp currency resembles the USD system so much in the way it is used, despite the fact that IRL a single gold coin would be worth more than my car. Does #WotC think my backpack is worth $8k? That makes no sense to me.

Whilst working on my free RPG system Tellan I've been illustrating 20 additional simple black and white battle maps to use with the system, or any other RPG adventures, if you like you can check them out here: https://coen-balkestein.itch.io/map-pack

The maps included:

• Castle wall and tower
• Tavern
• Village road and houses
• Throne room
• Small alley
• Graveyard
• Tomb
• Old ruin
• Cliff rope bridge
• Mine
• Ship on sea
• Swamp
• Jungle
• Forest pathway
• Maze
• Hallway with rooms
• Dungeon floor
• Circle room
• Hexagon room
• Square room

Curious to hear your thoughts and if anything essential is missing! :^)

(For anyone interested, recently I also released a matching token pack that matches the style of Tellan and the battle maps).

Knave 2E recently had an adventure jam and the resulting adventures were ranked and many sold on Drive Thru. There's now a half price bundle which includes the three highest rated adventures as well as other highly rated entries.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/488167/knave-2e-adventure-jam-bundle?affiliate_id=459455

I am the one behind War Dwarf Salad!

As a little side project I've illustrated 120 tokens for VTT and print and play use in RPG adventures, you can check them out here: https://coen-balkestein.itch.io/rpg-token-pack

I really enjoy illustrating these in my free time, so if you have any suggestions of tokens to add I'm curious to hear!

Currently the pack includes:

• Aristocrat female
• Bard female
• Beholder
• Big dragon
• Bird
• Black knight
• Bear
• Bom
• Book
• Carpet
• Cobra
• Cat
• Cleric female
• Cleric male
• Chicken
• Construct
• Chest
• Crab
• Cube of jelly
• Clouds
• Cyborg
• Cultist
• Dog
• Demon
• Diplomat male
• Dragonborn male 1
• Dragonborn female 2
• Druid
• Dwarf male 1
• Dwarf male 2
• Dwarf male 3
• Elf male 1
• Elf female 1
• Elf female 2
• Emperor
• Ent
• Fairy
• Fighter female
• Fire elemental
• Fish
• Flaming skull
• Goblin male
• Goblin female
• Goblin witch
• Golem
• Griffin
• Grey face alien
• Giant fly
• Ghost
• Hobbit female
• Hooded figure
• Horse
• Human male
• Human female
• Jester male
• Jester female
• King
• Knight male
• Knight female
• Key
• Lich king
• Lion
• Little dragon
• Liquid
• Lizard cultist
• Masked female
• Mermaid female
• Merchant male
• Minotaur
• Mimic
• Monk male
• Mummy
• Mushroom
• Ninja
• Ogre (two heads)
• Orc male 1
• Orc male 2
• Orc male 3
• Orc female
• Orb
• Pirate captain
• Pirate male
• Pirate female
• Plant creature
• Queen
• Rat
• Robot
• Satyr male
• Scientist male
• Scientist female
• Seaweed
• Skeleton
• Snake
• Spider
• Sword
• Tall neck female human
• Tentacle
• Observer
• Tiefling female
• Tiefling male
• Torch
• Tree
• Unicorn
• Vampire lord
• Water elemental
• White knight
• Witch
• Wizard male 1
• Wizard male 2
• Wizard male 3
• Wizard female 1
• Wizard female 2
• Wolf
• Worm
• Yeti
• Zombie

Expansion pack for both MAGNAGOTHICA: MALEGHAST and CAIN

Mud Ghost Estate is a spooky tabletop role-playing game inspired by Hong Kong folklore and urban legends. You play as a group of daring teenagers exploring a haunted public housing estate in the 90s.

Looks like it needs playing cards and jenga bricks to play

I’ve spent the past few weeks working on an introductory one-shot adventure for my free RPG system, Tellan! You can check out the one-shot, A Simple Delivery, here: https://coen-balkestein.itch.io/a-simple-delivery

The adventure is written for Tellan, but it can easily be adapted for other RPG systems. Tellan is available for free here: https://coen-balkestein.itch.io/tellan

All feedback is warmly welcome, as I’d love to keep improving it! :^)

Tons of interesting stuff in here that reflects evolution of the game since its original release. I'm definitely going to be using the new downtime and harm rules. Replacing Action rolls with Threat rolls seems interesting but might be too big of a change for my taste.

I want to run a multi-session supernatural mystery adventure in my game. Evil forces are trying to learn the forbidden arts of witchcraft, in order to get the attention of a long-lost god who is considered by many to be "the devil." The PCs will have to learn and delve into witchcraft themselves in order to stop this from happening. A mysterious mentor will teach them how to use a Tarot deck (Raider-Waite-Smith, if anyone cares) to learn the lessons required to be able to use witchcraft. Seven cards of the Major Arcana (this is Tarot terminology) will provide the vital clues on how to do this.

I think I've got the mechanics of this down. I know about Justin Alexander's Three Clue Rule, and so on. What I'm struggling with is how to elicit the athmosphere I want. If you've seen the movie The Ninth Gate, read the DaVinci Code, or seen the Netflix show Archive 81, I think you know what I'm talking about; that sense of "What the f--- is going on here? I just have to know how this all connects together and get to the bottom of this!" The TV show Lost is probably another good example, but I haven't seen it myself.

Things that I think will help:

• Thematic music. Every time the topic of the Tarot deck comes up, some mysterious-sounding specific song should be played. This trick is used in Wagner's The Ring opera, as well as in the Lord of the Rings movies (for example, the ring has its own theme which is played when the ring is mentioned).
• Frequently giving the PCs new little bits of information which seem to lead them to the conclusions they're hopefully craving.
• I think personal stakes will probably help to keep the players engaged, which in turn will perhaps contribute to the "I just have to know more" feeling I want to elicit.

One trick I can't really use is what the DaVinci code did - it used a story that in some ways sounded so plausible that the reader could think "Wait, could what's proposed in this book actually be true?" That worked in that story, because it took place in the real world and was about Christianity which many in the western world take very seriously. I can't really do the same with my homebrew world which has very little in common with the real world.

So - does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how to accomplish this? Again, it's the atmosphere of mystery that I'm primarily concerned with here, although mechanical discussion would be welcomed too.

I've always dreamed of having my own soundboard as a GM to use during our sessions, so I decided to make one myself! It’s currently a work in progress, but feel free to check it out here (works best on desktop in the Chrome browser): https://oraora.nl/GoblinGrooves/index.html

I'm looking for more inspiration for sounds to add. Are there any sounds you think would be great additions, or are essential to add?

Here are the sounds included so far:

Sound FX:

• Forest ambiance
• Cave ambiance
• Water waves
• Howling wind
• Thunder and rain
• Crackling fire
• Town ambiance
• Tavern ambiance
• Knocking
• Creaking door
• Boiling potion
• Wolf howl
• Monster growl
• Explosion
• Sword unsheathing
• Laser gun shot
• Gun shot
• Rapit fire gun
• Lighting strike
• Wilhelmscream
• Horse running
• Trumpet announcement
• Phone ringing
• Energy charge
• Sinister cackle
• Heartbeat
• Magic sparkles
• Siren

Music (3 different sets for each type):

• Calm music
• Festival music
• Battle music
• Scary music

I make sure only to use music and sounds labeled as Creative Commons 0 or free to use for non-commercial purposes.

Any suggestions for additional sounds or feedback on the website would be very welcome!

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19191261

Newly out from Chaosium, No Time to Scream. This is a collection of three short scenarios for Call of Cthulhu. If you want a little more eldritch horror in your life this spooky season, you’ve come to the right place. These are perfect little nuggets of horror. Each adventure is designed to be played in about two hours or so, and comes with pre-generated characters, full-color maps, and of course, handouts to draw players in.

...

All of the adventures share a common theme: a racing clock. With that in mind, Keepers will find some extra tools to help keep the game moving, as well as some help for adding more investigators for bigger group play.

Here’s a taste of the three different scenarios:

• A Lonely Thread – Something is wrong with Professor Thomas. Unfortunately, you didn’t know that when you arrived at his charming woodland cabin. Can you act in time your friend? Or will a horrific secret devour all?
• Bits & Pieces – A doctor’s body lies next to an autopsy table, and the corpse he was examining has vanished! The only clue is a set of bloody footprints. A devilish game of hide and seek ensues – with gory consequences.
• Aurora Blue – A band of U.S. Treasury agents raid an illegal whiskey distillery hidden in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains. The sun is setting… and that’s when the really bad things come out to play.

It's free to download on itch io! https://coen-balkestein.itch.io/tellan

Tellan is a rules-light, funky, free-form RPG system focused on narrative. It strives to capture the heart of epic storytelling and thrilling battles with simple, fast-paced combat rules and built-in roleplaying hooks. The system is still in development, and I'm very interested in feedback and playtesting. If you have any thoughts to share, I’d love to hear them! :^)

Oh, and Tellan is licensed under Creative Commons, so you’re free to hack it or adapt it into your own system!

Hi, I had trouble coming up with a title, sorry.

So I met 2 people in an RPG chatroom and we decided to start a game in the near future. We've moved to a separate chatroom to start preparing. This chatroom had been previously used by another player on a similar campaign, but was empty.

Soon after, another persons joins the chat. Reading the chat history, they appear to have been the GM for that previous campaign. I waved at their entry, making my presence known. This was their only text message:

Hi ​__. Good to see you back in the game. I'm interested in playing but I'll let you know straight off; I can only play on . Is that okay for your other players?

This isn't sitting right with me.

• No introduction.
• Talking about me like I'm not there.
• A certain attitude in setting terms to a game they're not organizing.
• The person they're talking to can't answer the question, and I wasn't addressed, so what now?

Am I reading too much into this? Is this just they trying to communicate efficiently plus a lack of social polish?

Anyway, I'd love some external perspective.

Edit: thanks everyone, I'm glad I took the time to gather your input. I wasn't sure I was reading the situation correctly and it looks like indeed I wasn't.

Devabhumi is a campaign setting for 5e and Pathfinder inspired by the myths and legends of Ancient India.

This campaign setting will take you to a distant place nestled in between the sea and sky-scraping mountains. It is a land where gods and mortals live together, boons and curses change the destiny of its inhabitants, and senses are easily overpowered by the diversity of the landscape.

This setting book features:

• Devabhumi Setting Guide & Player's Guide PDFs: This project features a full-length guide to the world of Devabhumi, stocked with real-life inspired lore, and a shortened Player's Guide to introduce your players to this world.
• 8 New Races: Playable races inspired by mythical creatures of Ancient India, including Nagas, Asuras, and more! New Karma Mechanic: In Devabhumi, your actions have lasting effects and potential consequences. What goes around will inevitably come around.
• A New Pantheon: Consisting of powerful Devas and Devis, this Pantheon includes 25 total gods with unique domains and boons.
• 30 Unique Weapons & Equipment: A vast collection of weapons, armor, magic items, and miscellaneous items from Indian history.
• 20 Monster Stat Blocks: A legion of monsters, creatures, and spirits inspired by old stories and ancient Epics of India.--

Check out Devabhumi here: https://devabhumi.itch.io/devabhumi