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

A question for the great old ones around here.

I heard a few time that Dragonlance, and in general Weiss/Hickman work was pretty revolutionary at the time, like that it brought D&D out of the dungeon. But I am not really old enough to know the state of the RPG scene at the time, and don't really know D&D (play it like once a decade).

So I am curious whether it was Revolutionary for RPG in general like PBTA nowadays, or whether it was more bringing some modern (for the time) concepts into D&D

It uses the Wretched & Alone system which I know nothing about, anyone played it before

Hey guys, we from Internal Rock Studio are back with a Big Development Update of our Squad Based TTRPG. You can check out here.

If you never heard about us, we made a itchio page for the rule set. You can get a rough idea of what the rule set is about there.

If you want to be kept in the loop you can join our patreon for free, we will make public posts about its development there. If you want to go above and beyond you can support us there, we will use the money to improve the project.

InternalRockStudio out.

Distress Calls is a sci-fi horror micro-RPG centering around the skeleton crew of an understaffed space station, rundown research facility, or underpopulated frontier colony. When outside influences introduce complications, will the party work together, or tear each other apart trying to stay alive?

Clocking in at a single page (double-sided), Distress Calls is packed with robust tables for character & plot generation, and game mechanics to keep players on their toes at all times. Distress, and how easy it is to accrue, will make everyone need to choose their actions wisely.

Distress Calls is inspired by such franchises as Alien, The Thing (and really all of John Carpenter's body of work), Event Horizon, and Outland. The base dice resolution mechanic draws influence from PbtA-based games.

Fuorimondo! is an easy to learn and fun to play table-top role-playing game of out-of-this-world adventures in outer space. It is based on the Passkey System and inspired by sci-fi genres such as utopian space exploration, sword and planet and space operas.

Fuorimondo! features player-centered collaborative role-play, and quick character creation with lots of room for customisation. It provides a variety of prompts and roll tables for generating adventures, alien species, planets, anomalies, spaceships and more!

Whatever your preferred flavour of outer-space adventure, Fuorimondo! gives you the rules and tools to bring it to life at your gaming table.

I don't want to spoil, so won't say much about the plot etc. To me it was a good read. Well written, I went from 16% to 100% in one day. The mystery was delivered nicely, well paced and interesting idea. And I liked the exploration of corp environment at high positions. I think it's not done often at this POV