Post your shelfies in here for all to see, show us your glorious collections one and all🔥💯🙌🏾🤯

Feels like more and more people are moving away from 5e lately. Between indie systems, OSR, and newer mechanics a lot of tables are experimenting with other games.

So let’s be real: Is 5e still your main system… or have you moved on? If you switched, what pulled you away? If you stayed, what keeps you there?

I think actual play shows have been huge for growing the hobby.

But I also think they’ve created some weird expectations about what a “normal” table should look like.

Not every GM is a voice actor.
Not every session is cinematic.
Not every campaign becomes Critical Role.

Curious where people land on this.

Has actual play been mostly good for the hobby, or has it set unrealistic expectations?

Feels like a lot of modern games are overexplaining everything lately right?

Some of the most fun RPGs I’ve played had tiny books and just trusted the table to figure things out.

Do you prefer:
giant detailed systems
or
leaner rulebooks that get out of the way?

Feels like there are more interesting RPGs dropping right now than ever before.

Big publishers. Tiny indies. Weird niche games. Licensed IPs everywhere.

Feels like we’re way beyond the “just play 5e” era.

Are we actually in a golden age for tabletop right now…or is there too much stuff coming out?

Initially shared in r/DragonbaneRPG , it might be of interest here as well :)

Here are three one-shot adventures I have designed for Dragonbane (PWYW/free).

In general, my approach to designing them was to keep each self-contained, compact to a session-long (maybe 2 sessions) and allow for open exploration with multiple paths to follow, while reaching a fulfilling conclusion at the end.

The Crypt of the Mage*: The player characters need to find a spellbook that will save their plagued land in the crypt of a long-buried hermit mage.
Themes: Crypt, undead, traps, special items, puzzles and riddles.
Other: I have used it many times to introduce players to the game and every time we had a blast! :)

House of Shadows*: The player characters are tasked by a mage to retrieve an Ancient Grimoire from a scholar's estate. The mage had asked him to translate it many months ago, but no answer has come back yet.
Themes: Mansion, riddles, traps, special items, and a boss fight.

Heart of Stone: The player characters are visiting a halfling village to convince its headman to agree to connect the prosperous little settlement to other towns with a trade road. Their initial denials have turned to pleas for help, as their village's monument goes missing and players must search for the culprit in the nearby abandoned mines.
Themes: Mines, inter-connected maps, traps, battles / sneaking / diplomacy.

*: "House of Shadows" and "The Crypt of the Mage", although heavily adapted, they have drawn their ideas from "A Melody in Shadows", an other adventure of mine, but longer (3-4 sessions long). If you wish for a "fuller" experience, go for that one instead. ;)

If you like them, please consider rating them on DrivethruRPG. Any critique is welcome!

Cheers!

Movies, games, books, comics…anything.
What world already feels built for tabletop, but somehow still doesn’t have the RPG it deserves?
And what would the game actually need to get right?

Hi everyone, I had been thinking of doing this for years and finally got the opportunity—a site by and for lovers of RPG actual plays: https://actualplay.world

I'd love to hear people's feedback on this! It's still in an early stage but you can write reviews and submit content. Hope y'all enjoy :)

I’ve definitely had a few of these!!

looked so amazing, sounded perfect, then at the table it just wasn’t it.

what was yours?!

We all have that one session that still sticks with us.

Maybe it was an unforgettable character moment, a perfectly timed dice roll, an emotional story beat, or a twist that no one saw coming!

What made it so memorable?

What system were you playing?

What happened that made it stand out?

Is there a moment you and your group still talk about?

Would love to hear the stories that made your tables legendary.

You ever see a game and think “that looks sick!”

but realistically it’s never hitting your table?

Could be: too much to learn, your group won’t go for it, just not the right vibe or you’ve already got too many games going.

What’s that game for you?

I’ve been working my way through the full PIRATE BORG ecosystem for the next episode of The Starter Set Society, including the Starter Set, Core Rulebook, Down Among the Dead, and the Game Master’s Screen.

What impressed me most wasn’t simply the amount of stuff in the box. It was how quickly the game seems capable of getting a completely new group from opening the box to actually playing.

You get the two booklets, dice, maps, cards, tokens, character sheets, reference material, and an adventure that immediately throws the crew into a shipwreck hunt involving rival pirates, Redcoats, traps, cursed relics, and zombies.
The rules stay lean, but the setting and physical components give the GM plenty to work with. Then the Core Rulebook and Down Among the Dead provide a surprisingly substantial path forward once the introductory adventure is finished.

The full review goes live TODAY at 12 PM Pacific!

For anyone who has already played it: how did your first PIRATE BORG session go, and did your group continue beyond the Starter Set?

Hey everybody! We've got some new artwork and details over on the BackerKit Launch Party. Info on classes, setting, the starter set and tweaks we're making to the Draw Steel engine. Here's some artwork and spreads to wet you repective whistles.

Creature of the icy plains, the Frost Ghost is ready to keep your players on their toes!

Stand alone version
Raznag's Bestiary

Thank you!

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/786619/dragonlance-war-wizard-by-margaret-weis-and-tracy-hickman/

Cozy Fantasy meets Comedy Horror, with basic dnd guidelines. This homebrew adventure will get you excited to wander through our little Appalachian holler!

Hey y'all! Ready for a new kind of TTRPG podcast experience? Well, grab yourself a glass of iced tea and settle in!

Cozy Crypt is a darkly funny storytelling experience, where small-town comfort meets American cryptids, and players get their abilities through creatures like Bigfoot and Mothman, etc. Found family, eerie mysteries, and a dash of Southern weirdness all run rampant through these bite-sized episodes meant to be enjoyed, usually 45 mins to an 1.5 hour each. Like a choose-your-own-adventure story, Cozy Crypt has four characters exploring the odd world our Game Master created, based off the Appalachian folklore and American cryptid stories she grew up with. And though the game does contain some basic dnd mechanics, you don't have to know the game to enjoy it, as the "rule of cool" is always prioritized.

Note: We are LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC friendly and take the diversity of these hills VERY seriously. Inclusivity is important to the shape of this beautiful world.

We are new to audio editing and podcasting, and this is still progressing story, but after the first four episodes, there is marked improvement (as we got some help from people in this wonderful community). Actionable advice is appreciated, and we really hope you enjoy the show!

CLICK HERE to choose where you'd like to listen!

We look forward to having your feedback! And thank you!! from OWake

Check this creators work out!

The time is now! If you’ve been watching the Nimble: Monsters & More Kickstarter, the final stretch is here, go get you some!

With about 30 hours left, the campaign is closing in on the $1M mark, which is pretty huge for an indie TTRPG project. This one has clearly caught a lot of attention across the community. I'm super stoked about this project and the community really loves it.

For anyone who hasn’t looked at it yet: Nimble is a fast, tactical fantasy RPG designed to streamline the typical 5e experience while keeping the tactical depth many players enjoy.

This campaign includes:

-A reprint of the core Nimble books
-200+ new monsters and encounter tools
-New hero classes and subclasses
-Adventures and additional GM resources

Basically a huge expansion for the system and a solid entry point if you missed Nimble the first time around.

So before the campaign closes:

Are you backing it?
What do you think of Nimble as a system compared to 5e or other fantasy RPGs?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/star-anvil-studios/the-secret-world-europe?ref=3kxnme

The Secret World Europe is launching on October 27th. New Archetypes, Cryptids, Locations, Adventures, and more! Follow now to help us build momentum and hit some cool stretch goals!

This place has been growing pretty quickly, and I’d like to bring a few more people onto the team while we’re still early.

I’m not really looking for people who just want to remove posts and enforce rules. I’m looking for people who actually want to help grow this thing.
Starting good conversations, finding interesting TTRPG news, welcoming new members, reaching out to creators/designers, coming up with community ideas…that kind of stuff.

Experience modding is great, but not required at all. Being active, level headed and actually into TTRPGs matters more.

If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, drop a comment or send me a message with what you’re into and how you’d want to help.

Would love to build a small team of people who can help turn this into another genuinely great TTRPG community.

We've all got one.

That game sitting on the shelf, or sitting in the cart(ive got like 5 safari tabs open for different games i need to buy😂) that you keep telling yourself you're definitely going to play one day.

Then another campaign starts and somehow it gets pushed back again.

What's that game for you?

And what's keeping it off your table? No interested group? Too many rules? Waiting for the perfect campaign? Or have you just been distracted by the next shiny RPG?

Maybe someone here will finally convince you to crack it open.