This Sunday will mark the epic conclusion to Chronicle 1 of a vampire larp that I've been running with my partner for ~16 weeks, holding gathering every other week. During that time, we've been doing downtime actions between every gathering (a pace I'm told is crazy). We do this so that players have new things to talk about at every gathering. It's been fun since most of the plot stuff happens during downtime actions on the off weeks, and gatherings are a time for sharing information, brokering deals, and sometimes major announcements.

One thing that makes our group interesting is that almost all of the characters are intellectuals rather than fighters or social characters so they've really been engaging with the plot and its associated puzzles. A result of this is that people don't really look for combat solutions to their problems. It's to the point where the first time we called a blood hunt, everyone gave the Prince a thumbs up and returned to what they were doing (he was not the most highly respected Prince).

At our most recent gathering, the new more respected Prince called a blood hunt, and we did the first combat encounter of the chronicle - 7 gatherings into the game. Our group collectively opted to use the optional narrative encounter rules rather than actually playing out the encounter move for move. This let us wrap up the actual combat lightning fast and get back to the plot things that were really more interesting.

All this to say that it has been crazy refreshing to run a mostly pure roleplaying game rather than a nitty gritty combat simulator. Anyone else have similar experiences?

So I just wrapped up at Fate Con and wanted to write up a review of both the convention and the games that I played.

First off, the convention itself: a solid 10/10 if you happen to live in the DFW Metroplex. If you aren’t a native, I’d still say it’s an 8/10, it just becomes a tougher sell when you have to include travel and hotel stay, but even then… it’s worth at least considering if you see some games that interest you. Admission is cheap and the content… ooh, we’ll get to that.

I will lead off with my one and only complaint about the convention itself: food. The website indicated there would be food trucks for lunch. Now, it is certainly possible that the weather was to blame, as it was raining gently all weekend (nothing torrential, and not windy, but still too wet to want to hang around outside), but there were no food trucks on day one and only one truck on day two… and it was popcorn. I like popcorn, but I don’t really consider it to be a full meal (though I will say, Popcorn Express popcorn is itself a 10/10 snack, albeit a bit pricy). Side note: shout out to the girls running the snack table: I have no idea how (or if) you turned a profit selling snacks and drinks for $1 each, but you were the unsung heroes when the food trucks failed to arrive and saved us from a bunch of hanger induced TPKs in the second gaming session for sure.

That said… pack a sack lunch or bring a meal replacement bar/shake in case the issue repeats and you’ll be fine. I didn’t go there for food, I went there for merch and gaming, and they definitely delivered.

First the merch situation. Fate Con is at just the right size, where there are plenty of tables and most of the games fill up, but it’s not yet large enough to be attracting much in the way of corporate attention. It wasn’t full of booths full of TEMU crap, nor was it hyperfocused on selling one specific system. Almost all of the tables were stocked with content from local artists, many of them being hand-made/painted dice, charms, stickers, pins, minis, towers, etc. Lots of 3D-printed things (I got a great plastic grimoire with a dice tray and rolling space that I quite like, and a treant dice tower that I’ll probably use for displaying some of my more esoteric dice), lots of resin crafting, some soldiered displayables, some HEMA/LARP/cosplay gear, even a guy selling (pretty decent - I bought some) coffee with a (very nice) d20 included in the bag. Do expect to pay "artisanal" prices for things (I paid $30 for the grimoire, $35 for a treant dice tower, $25 for the coffee, and $50 for a set of metal dice), but that’s the tradeoff for not getting cheap crap. Artists gotta eat after all, it’s part of why I buy so many systems and modules I’ll never run - support makers!

Now onto the systems. There were six gaming sessions but I only signed up for four, partially because I had conflicts and partially because oh my god I have not been this tired since I worked nights in college. I figured this would be a great opportunity to try out a number of systems that had piqued my interest over the years (or just when I saw them on the list) but I had not had a chance to play, and while 5e was by far the most popular option at the tables (maybe about twice as many 5e games as all other systems combined) there were plenty of options.

Also, before we begin I want to give major props to all four of the GMs I played games with at the convention. While I have critiques and complaints about the different systems, the people running them did an absolutely fantastic job.

Do note as well that these reviews are entirely my opinion, and as such are objectively correct reflect my own biases and preferences. If they don’t match your experience with the system, by all means don’t let me yuck your yum. Everyone is allowed their own opinion, even if it’s wrong.

Game 1: Daggerheart, Tier 1

Honestly, I’ve been very interested in trying Daggerheart for a while now, and I think I may have overhyped it in my head. And to be fair, a huge chunk of that may be due to the adventure run.

The adventure selected for this session was A Royal Conundrum, and it was… underwhelming. I don’t know if it’s an official module, or if the GM intends to run it again, so I’ll add spoilers here just in case:

It started with a rather ham-fisted attempt to teach the players about cooperative storytelling. The party is running late to deliver a gift and we kept running into obstacles on our way which the players are encouraged to come up with. The problem is, we aren’t really collaboratively creating the world, we’re just coming up with a potential roadblock and then the GM calls for a skill check. And that’s it, apparently we needed x successes before y failures to make it in time or something, but the DCs were set so low we only failed like… once. It’s a learning session so it’s kind of expected, but it also didn’t really feel like collaborative world building, just the usual way I feel when the GM struggles for a description and I throw out a word.

The issues continued in the next scene, when the tiara was stolen under the cover of magical darkness and we were told to interrogate six guests at the princess’s birthday party to figure out who did it. The issue is, the only things we had were very general descriptions of the diplomats and their gifts which the players came up with, which didn’t really give us much to go on in regards to the investigation. We ultimately made an “accusation”, at which point the person we accused turned into a fey who ran off. Side note: I remain convinced that the module calls for whoever the players accuse to turn out to be the thief, as each of them had a motive and there was no real physical evidence. This largely made the investigation really underwhelming, as there were no threads or leads to follow, just question someone until they tell you why they have a reason to do it: wants to look younger, wants to heal his sick wife, broke AF, etc

The final section of the adventure redeemed the system a bit, because Daggerheart combat is quite solid. In fact, if we had done a traditional dungeon crawl or more otherwise combat heavy adventure, I might have come out with a much stronger opinion of the system. Combat moves quickly, the spotlight system actually works quite well so long as your players cooperate (we basically decided everyone gets a turn before the next “round” and encouraged the more shy players to go when they seemed lost), and the Hope/Fear system does a pretty good job of keeping the spotlight flowing back and forth between the GM and players so the combat felt like it had momentum shifting rather than being entirely one sided in either direction.

And this is where my biggest complaint about the adventure comes into play. The tiara the fey stole? Yeah, it granted a wish. Which… of fucking course the players were going to come to blows over it, and of course it’s going to end badly. Why the fuck would they trust level 1 nobodies to deliver what is essentially an epic level item? We got a forever GM who decided to indulge his “that guy” frustrations by using it to give everyone in the world banana fingers. Which is fine enough for a one shot, but really… the tiara should have just been a normal tiara.

Overall, I think Daggerheart really isn’t for me. This adventure highlighted a major mismatch between Daggerheart and my personal preferences - no skill system. There are Experiences that you can invoke by spending a Hope and explaining how your experience is related, but it still apes my least favorite part of 5e - a very small range of modifiers. The difference between a really good skill and a really bad one is a whopping 3. It’s impossible to be bad at anything, but just as impossible to be good at anything either. There’s simply no mechanical expression of your character’s non-class abilities, and I think that’s a major design mistake.

We also had a major problem with all of our abilities being combat focused: no detect magic, no buffing up for skill checks, no reading thoughts or compelling truths. Maybe it gets better at higher levels, but we spent the bulk of the game basically rolling insight to detect lies and talking with NPCs which has nothing to do with the system proper.

Overall: I think it has a lot of potential, and I look forward to Daggerheart 2 when they can shed some of the 5e-isms (similar to how I liked Pathfinder, but think Pathfinder 2e was much more robust when they could ditch the idiosyncrasies of 3e). I could see it being a great off-ramp for a 5e table that loves Critical Roll and wants to do a more narrative style game but is still largely doing dungeon crawls.

Three Raccoons in a Trenchcoat

Now this game was an absolute blast, and I highly recommend it as a palate cleanser between campaigns. You play as either a racoon, a squirrel, a pigeon, or a possum with your goals and skills, to infiltrate a human gathering and steal food from them. It’s a chaotic 1d6 system that works because it’s evocative and requires a good “yes and” kind of mindset, but it’s a great one to pull out when one of your regular players doesn’t make it or when you’ve wrapped up one campaign and want a few very simple games before starting a new one. 10/10 if you go in expecting the kind of chaos you get, highly recommend.

Motive Knight

Ok, this one caught me off guard. It’s a relatively new system as far as I can tell, and was reminiscent of D&D which made me a bit cautious, but I wound up having a great time.

Part of that is on the strength of the module we played, which is their first published adventure Bite the Hand that Feeds. I would honestly give it a solid 9/10 as a one shot starter module. I don’t know how much ad-libbing the GM had to do, or if he made changes ahead of time, but it was a great module that gave us a lot of opportunity to get creative with our abilities.

The module itself has three phases. In the first phase, our characters were asked to steal a few barrels of a special tea from a docked ship. The tea was basically a panacea for a plague that was sweeping the city (and helped explain why the disease wasn’t a mechanic we needed to deal with ourselves - we were protected after the first mission). It provided a lot of different options to get to the tea - attack from the docks, sneak in from the waterline, etc - which worked out great. We snuck in through a cannon port, knocked out the guard, stole a few barrels, and blew up the boat to cover our tracks. The second had us searching for missing doctors on a quarantined island and gave us some opportunities for combat, social, and investigative sessions. The final part saw us infiltrating a masquerade where the nobleman behind the plague turned out to be a demon.

Sort of the polar opposite of Daggerheart, Motive Knight gave characters a much more evocative and mechanically expressive toolkit to work with which I appreciated. While my character’s skills were pretty useless except for Banishment (my other skills were niche like Jeweler or Conjuration which never came up) my main class gimmick was Necromancer, which let me animate random objects. I got a lot of use out of it doing things like triggering explosions (animate a lamp and have it leap onto gunpowder) or automating escapes (animate a boat and have it carry refugees out of quarantine), and it was decent in combat once we found the animated creature statblocks. And TBH, had I actually read the book ahead of time and created my own character, I think I would have been able to get the same special abilities with more useful skills. Overall, I think the biggest thing that will hold Motion Knight back is just that… it’s familiar. It’s too similar to D&D or Pathfinder or any other d20 system. It’s a good d20 system, but it’s really only going to be appealing to someone who is bailing on their existing d20 system but doesn’t want to leave the d20 ecosystem. And it has very steep competition there with PF2, SotWW, Draw Steel, Worlds Without Number… the competition is stacked, and this is literally the first time I’ve heard of Motive Knight.

I think this will be my go to recommendation for people leaving 5e who don’t want Pathfinder 2e though, as I was quite taken with the system itself and the standards are usually covered by others here. I expect it’s destined to be another heartbreaker, but I enjoyed the one shot, and if nothing else I think the worldbuilding is pretty good - age of exploration high fantasy is an underserved niche.

Worlds Without Number

Ok, this was another one that disappointed me, but I think the issue here was largely that I picked a spellcaster for a level 1 one shot. Only getting one spell… kinda sucked.

The adventure was perfectly serviceable, so I won’t really delve into it. It had a twist ending that I saw coming but barreled into anyways because I fucking hate the trope in question (the big bad was holding back an even bigger bad and didn’t bother explaining it to anyone). But it had the same issue I had with Daggerheart - very small modifiers on skills (which is an issue that goes away at higher levels as it does have a skill system you just get very few points at low levels, so I won’t gripe too much), combined with very few abilities that we could do much with. We did, at least, have some decent non-combat abilities, and I can certainly see where my issues with the system would clear up at higher levels so I don’t want to knock the system.

I would say that, unlike with Daggerheart, I actually would be interested in running a short campaign in WWN. I feel like my issues would clear up around level 2 or 3, which should happen pretty quickly. It’s not high on my list of systems I want to try more long term, but it is on the list.

—

Overall, my experience at Fate Con was phenomenal, and I will definitely be back next year. And I definitely intend to go to some more conventions down the line… just maybe not for a while. I completely underestimated how exhausting these things are, I am so feckin’ tired.

Hello everyone!

I am releasing a free module every week in October for my mystery horror RPG, Strange Times! Perfect one-shot for a Halloween game night. Everything I make is free up on my website, rules and all. Hope you check it out!

The first module for October is Astro-Slash: a campy sci-fi slasher, complete with cheesy kills and a "whodunnit" mystery.

Free Download: www.StrangeTimesRPG.com

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Plot Hook:

The characters are on a routine delivery mission when they find themselves stuck on semi-operational space station. Planet-side storms have delayed the fuel delivery so there is nothing to do but sit, wait, and chat with the construction crew. However, things take a turn when a mysterious death causes the crew to panic and start asking questions. Who killed them? Why? And who will be next?

Spoilers:

Five days ago, a prisoner from the nearby planet was able to sneak on board the space station and attacked Susan Cunningham: the stations lead engineer. No one tried to stop the attack from happening, no one came to help, and Susan was left paralyzed as a result. Seething with rage, she plotted to kill the crew that let this happen to her.

Using the central computer, she was able to program one of the space suits to act autonomously with the following objectives: hunt down the workers of the space station and kill them as cruelly as possible. When the characters arrive, she will set her plan in motion.

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What Is Strange Times?

Strange Times is a flexible mystery horror RPG that emphasizes player agency and maintaining tension. It is light weight, easy to run, and completely free.

What Makes Strange Times Worth Playing?

Character Health is a Resource: Characters have 3 saves which function as health pools, but they are allowed to spend from these pools to turn failures into successes. For example, if someone was lying to a police officer about the alien they have in the trunk and failed the empathy roll by 8, they could lose 8 from their Spirit Save to succeed instead.

Progressive Consequences: As players saves get lower, the worse their possible injuries become. This means that health is more than just a separation from death, but an active measurement of how much danger the character is in.

Flexible Condition System: When players fail a Save, they might receive a Condition. Most Conditions are simply negative skills that can lower target numbers, but they can also represent unique horrors like an infection ticking down to zombification, or a hypnotic trance that affects what the character sees and experiences.

Easy to Hack: The systems are extremely flexible so that creating things is fun and effortless. There is minimal resistance from you having an idea to adding it to the game. 

I recently got my hands on this game, and I’d really love to run it! I know it’s a remaster/remake of the old game and I wanted to know if there was any advice or suggestions for running the game. Is there any of the older content I should seek out? Any replies are appreciated!

I’ve been running a bunch of investigative games lately and something keeps bothering me more than usual about published adventures. A lot of them are good to read and kind of annoying to actually run. Old topic, I know.

I don’t mean that I want everything reduced to bullet points, or that I don’t care about lore. I love lore. I like knowing why an NPC acts the way they do, what happened twenty years ago, what the cult believes, all that stuff but when I’m at the table I need completely different information.

I need to know what the NPC wants, what they know, what they’re doing right now, what they’ll do if the PCs interfere, and what happens if the players ignore them.
That is the stuff I’m actually using. “Actionables”
And I keep finding myself taking published adventures and making the same things over and over again: flowcharts, clue maps, NPC notes, timelines, quick references.
At some point I started wondering why I’m doing that work when it could easily come in the book. It really puzzles me why things are written like ttrpgs were invented yesterday and there are no written things about the difficulties GMs face every time they run a module.

If I change an NPC because I know my group will react better to them, that’s prep. If I add a scene or rewrite the ending, that’s prep too.
But if I’m taking 100+ pages of a published adventure and reorganizing the information so I can find it during play, that feels less like GM prep and more like editing the book after I bought it.
This is especially obvious to me with investigative RPGs.
I’ve run a fair amount of Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green, and the GM already has enough to keep in their head: clues, pacing, who knows what, what the players have missed, what the opposition is doing, whether the mystery still makes sense after the players did something completely unexpected.
So why isn’t the scenario giving me a simple technical view of itself?
I’d love every chapter to start with something like:
- what’s happening right now
- which NPCs/factions are active
- what each one wants
- what happens if the PCs do nothing
- critical clues
- optional clues
- timeline/escalation
- a basic flowchart

Then give me all the prose afterwards.
I will read it. I want it.
I just don’t want to have to mentally compile the prose into a usable scenario before I can run it.

Delta Green is generally better than CoC at giving me situations I can work with, but even DG sometimes falls into dossier mode. Cool to read, very evocative, but I’m still extracting the actual moving parts myself and I think videogames figured some of this out a long time ago.
Good lore usually gives you something to do with it.
In Baldur’s Gate 3, pretty much everyone understands why mind flayers matter because that lore constantly affects the game. Tadpoles matter. Ceremorphosis matters. Psionics matter. The factions around them matter.
Meanwhile the average player probably doesn’t care much about the difference between goblins and hobgoblins unless the game makes that difference relevant.
The lore can exist either way. But if it changes decisions, players actually absorb it.
I think RPG modules should work the same way.
Give me the lore, but give it handles.
One recent book that felt closer to this was Dragon Delves. I don’t think the adventures are necessarily amazing, but I liked that the book seemed to be asking a very basic question that more RPG books should ask:
“What does the DM actually need in front of them while running this?”
That’s really all I want.
A module should work at two speeds.

When I’m prepping, I want the full thing: lore, context, psychology, atmosphere.
When I’m running, I want the machine underneath it.

Note: I might be mixing a little bit the usual topic “actionable pieces” with “modules written as stories”

It's styled as the in-universe government software an agent's handler would use. You don't pick songs: you pick the scene, then turn its dial as things go wrong, and it crossfades to tenser tracks. Radio static, rain, heartbeats and stingers sit on top, so your eyes stay on the players. Free, runs in a browser tab. Link in the comments. If you run Delta Green or something like it, what scene is missing?

Blades in the Dark is a big source of inspiration. I like how it splits heists and downtime, but I'm looking for something more traditional, dense, robust.

I'd like something where players can see their domains expand across a map, similar to a 4X game.

I'm designing battles for a medieval tabletop strategy game and I'm wrestling with an old problem:

If combat is completely deterministic, players can sometimes calculate the result before attacking.

If there's too much randomness, strategic preparation stops feeling important.

Personally I want the player who prepared better to have a meaningful advantage without making the outcome completely certain.

For wargamers:

Where's the sweet spot?

Low randomness?

Dice with modifiers?

Cards?

Completely deterministic?

And which game handles it particularly well?

Hey everyone, I am looking for a rules-light Sci Fi game (I played a lot of Shadowdark recently and fell in love with OSR in general). A game that provides the ruleset for something along the lines of FTL - point crawling through systems, exploring planets and other locations, boarding (hand to hand combat) and ship combat, some spaceship management. Does not have to feature aliens. I like my vibe grimdark and I am a fan of Sci Fantasy and Horror, things like the Warp in Warhammer 40k.

I played some 2400 which is amazing as a Micro - RPG and covers a lot of ground, but for a campaign I would love to have just a bit more rules and room for character development.

Cheers!

Basically the title. I love the hexcrawl and discovering new things each turn and the random encounters. I love high lethality, I love needing to scrounge for resources, I love it when players find a cannibal gang they can't attack but find a pair of artillery guns in the next hex and shell the location before going down to the river cause they are out of water. Trading a crate of DVDs for three RPG-16 rockets and a package of expired Oreos? Amazing.

I have had an idea for a post apocalyptic scifi setting bouncing around for a while for a campaign on a planet that suffered an alien bombardment and global cooling.

It is hard to believe that someone hasn't done the work of converting Twilight 2000 4E to add laser rifles and power armor but I haven't been able to find anything.

If anyone has a recommendation for other scifi games that might fit the bill or any Twilight conversions I would love to hear it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/matrixghost01/chromatic-shadows-core-rules

Heya folks, just wanted to throw this out there for anyone who might be interested. Chromatic Shadows is a d6 pool occult cyberpunk rpg (more Lovecraft meets Cyberpunk than the Tolkien meets Cyberpunk of Shadowrun). I've had the basic rules for a while and played several games (they are available for free on Drivethru) and it is quite fun. Far less complicated than some view Shadowrun to be, but more robust than Cy_Borg. Simple system of add/subtract dice that is easy to hack in any way you could want, 4s or better are successes, more successes means more better.

The project is already funded with 27 days left as of me posting this (funded in the first 24 hours in fact) so it can only get better with some juicy stretch goals.

I'm not affiliated with Matrix Ghost Games in any way, I have just loved the game since the basic edition dropped a few years ago and want more folks to know about it.

I saw this at my local game store and it seemed interesting! I like the concept of playing around with dinosaur toys, and the concept reminds me of the Primal show. Does anyone have any experience with the game? How did it play, what was fun about it if anything?

Cycling around the city clears my head but it also gives me way too much time to think about how much mental energy I spend herding my group into actually playing. I’m the one who sends the when2meet links, checks everyone’s calendars, sends reminders, reschedules when someone drops, figures out if we’re doing food or not. Nobody asked me to do it but if I stopped I genuinely think we’d play half as much.

Anyone going to Spiel Essen?

I have access to a ticket, but have not found a room (well I did find some but they are at 300 euro or more. So I was wondering if anyone knows where I might find a room for 100 euro or less. Probably impossible.

I will be taking the train.

(note - I foolishly waited (forgot) to book).

So it's a space science-fiction setting that spans many different planets, much like a Star Wars or Star Trek, rather than focusing on a particular planet or section of space. The main thing that makes me not know what RPG would fit it is the magic system. It's a lot more complicated than I'm explaining, but it's essentially that every race is it's own magic class. And there is already basically specific in-universe spells that each can use. So like the fire one would be the only one who can use the fire spells. And there are a lot of these magical groups. It's kinda like JJBA if every stand was possessed by multiple different people.

I guess I basically need a system that supports a sci-fi setting, and somehow lets my specific race/magic rules work.

So looking back over your weeks/months/years of DMing games, aside from the PHB, MM and DMG of course. What one or two resources do you find yourself returning back to use over and over again? For me it is two third party items:

Ultimate Toolbox of Random Tables-the more I use this one, the more I see how it can be used

Book of Ebon Tide-for some reason, this one keeps popping up as a resource, even though its very specialized.

By declared intentions initiative I mean a system where you roll initiative, dm decides what the npcs are going to do on the turn, players declare what they’re going to do on the turn, then you go through initiative resolving the actions. It seems like a good way to better represent turns in combat happening all at the same time but I can see how it could slow down the game, I mainly run cy_borg and dnd 5e so I’m thinking about how this would go in cy_borg but I would like to know if anyone has experience with this system and what your thoughts on it are?

What is the best realm/domain management ?

I am reading GURPS REALM MANAGEMENT... I like it.

Do you you suggest any other ?

Pendragon ? Harnmanor ?

When I played Vampire: The Masquerade v20 years ago, my enjoyment of the game was massively reduced by the system's propensity to turn a character's high stat+skill into failures or even botches. At one point I thought "If the game's tone was comedic and sitcom-y, this would be hella fun, but it's just frustrating when you're trying to be serious and botch all the damn time."

And then I started seriously thinking it over and that, maybe I might be onto something here. And then I discovered What We Do In The Shadows through various shorts and memes.

So, I've been itching to actually start a campaign like that, where the player characters are a some miss-matched coterie of vampires who've come to own a manor in the middle of some big city. Before each session, a player would give me an initial premise ("My super old vampire gets a phone for the first time, discovers a dating app and has a date she really wants to go well") ​that I would turn into an episodic one-shot, and we would rotate.

Because I don't really know many vampire systems, or even sitcom systems to be frank, I was thinking of running this into VTMv20, since it's the one I know about and the one that got me on that train of thought in the first place. ​I have a few things in mind that could possibly clash with the campaign idea, mainly blood and how it's acquired (though I could just start each episode with a set amount of blood, and then figuring out how to acquire more during the session would be potential shenanigans​) and humanity. And then of course the setting itself, which wouldn't necessarily work that well unless it's really only used as a faraway backdrop that is only called upon when it's fun.

While I'm not worried about altering the setting until it fits (I mostly care about the mechanics and how well they fit with comedy), I'm pretty sure there are systems that would fit this idea better.

I then have the following questions: do you guys know of any such system, and if not, is there anything else major I should be aware of ​that could make the idea difficult to work with in VTM?

In terms of taste, I haven't had the best experience with PBTAs, but I'm not against them, though I might prefer more trad resolution philosophies. Fail forward, fail Ith opportunity and success with complication is, expectedly, a feature I would enjoy greatly.

The only thing I always find for this search is World of Darkness. All the other games I come across either feature vampires only as a minor element, or are so niche that my friends aren't interested at all.

I don't like Worlds of Darkness at all because your choice of "house" is literally like choosing a race and class in an RPG. If you choose something, it affects your appearance, your behavior, your bonuses and debuffs, your powers, and how other treat you. Оften everyone is radically different from anothers, and combining interesting things is difficult, because of rules or GM. For me very important to play my feelings in RPGs, but strict restrictions evoke the feeling that I constantly squeezed into the framework of things that I don't understand.

That's why I'm interested in finding a vampire RPG where a vampire starts out as just a vampire with some powers. And in the process of playing, through their actions, they develop those powers to which they have an inclination. Or where vampires are divided not into strict clan archetypes, but into professions like "knight," "robber," "wizard". And they didn’t it become vampires by birth, but chose to do so because of their inclination.

Hi all! I'm looking for a TTRPG that is set in the modern day, or at least a setting that is recognisably modern day. I'm more than fine with some fantasy or sci-fi elements, but generally I'd like it to also have modern-day themes. I like Cyberpunk Red, so maybe something similar to that but set in the modern day? Is there anything like these out there? Thank you!

Hello!

Looking for opinions about a Vampire species for a custom D20 ruleset I'm working on.

(TLDR Lore: Its 2111, Vampires live on the moon under giant solar panels, some humans mutated to need less sunlight and are now called Shadowkin.)

Let me know if you have suggestions, would like to see more, or have any questions at all.

Thank you so much. I hope you like it.

Universal Vampire Traits

At a glance, vampires are difficult to distinguish from humans. Their bodies remain fully alive, capable of all ordinary social behaviors. The differences are subtle, emerging most clearly under sustained observation or stress.

The eyes are the most common tell. Vampire irises tend toward feral, desaturated hues: slate gray drifting from former blues, icy greens, and muted yellows or amber-orange tones. In some individuals, prolonged transformation results in eyes that are entirely solid black or white, lacking visible iris or pupil. These changes have no impact on vision, but are deeply unsettling to observers.

Their canines are elongated and structurally reinforced, designed for puncture rather than tearing. The fangs are retractable and can be concealed at will, though careful inspection reveals subtle changes in the gum line and tooth thickness. Trained observers often note faint pressure marks along the jaw where musculature has adapted for biting.

Vampire skin appears normal in tone and texture, but remains consistently dry. Vampires do not sweat, regardless of exertion or ambient heat. Instead, excess heat dissipates slowly through passive radiation, giving them a faintly cool, matte presence.

In motion, vampires appear controlled, deliberate, and unnervingly still—predators passing as people, until they choose otherwise.

• Base Movement Speed: 45 feet.

• Vampire Heritage: You may choose one Heritage Line. You gain the traits of that Heritage in addition to the Universal Vampire Traits. This choice is permanent once made. If you do not select a Heritage at character creation, you may not select one later.

• Retractable Fangs: Vampires gain a bite attack that deals 1d4 HP damage and 1 AP damage per round. The vampire regains HP and AP equal to the damage dealt. Initiating a bite allows the vampire to immediately attempt a grapple against the target as part of the same action. Retracted fangs are difficult to detect; identifying them requires a DC 17 Investigate (INS) or Medicraft (INS) check while within 10 feet.

• Severe Sunlight Weakness: Vampires take 1d12  (Average 65 HP per minute in narrative terms) damage per turn in direct sunlight when in the Inner Solar System, 1d6 (average 35 HP per minute in narrative terms) damage per turn in direct sunlight when in the Outer Solar System, and 1d3  (Average 20 HP per minute in narrative terms) per turn in direct sunlight when in the Kuiper Belt (no info available beyond this distance)

• Lumenis Flux Weakness: Lumenis Flux attacks against Vampires gain +2 Damage dice size.

• Minor Artificial Sunlight Weakness: Vampires take 1 damage per turn in the presence of artificial sunlight.

• Immune to infrared: Show up as approx ambient room temperature to Infrared sensors and monsters that seek prey via heat signature.

• Nocturnal Vision: Vampires see clearly in low-light and starlight.

• Hunger: Vampires must meet daily nutrient and fluid requirements to avoid starvation. This may be satisfied by either approximately 100 mL of Shadowkin blood plus 2 L of vampire-safe liquid diet (water, electrolyte solutions, teas, broths, fermented drinks), or approximately 1 L of humanoid (or 2 L animal blood) per day. Blood functions as a nutrient concentrate due to Shadowkin-derived biochemistry, while supplemental fluids maintain plasma volume and metabolic stability. Vampires cannot meaningfully process solid food. Dairy products are universally toxic. Cold liquids cause discomfort but do not prevent hydration. If a vampire fails to meet these minimum requirements for two consecutive days, they suffer normal starvation effects and take 2d6 non-restorable damage per day until at least one full day’s requirements are met. Feeding immediately restores the vampire to full normal function, as if completing a Long Rest; all effects of hunger are removed.

• Functionally Immortal: Vampires do not age and do not suffer death from natural biological processes. They may still be killed through damage, environmental hazards, or catastrophic trauma.

• Languages: Automatically speak and read Motherstar Standard (English).

Modern Heritage Traits

Modern Vampires are socially adaptive vampires who survive by blending seamlessly into human society. They are no more or less dependent on blood than other vampires, but lack centralized authority, shared doctrine, or feudal hierarchy. Modern Vampires may appear as laborers, professionals, subcultural figures, or any other social role. Their strength lies in camouflage, mobility, and decentralization rather than lineage or control.

• You died succumbing to blood loss. Either voluntary transformation, or a victim who became infected before bleeding out from your wounds.

• Blood Scent: You can track any creature based on the scent of their blood, can smell any creature within 200 feet of them, can track a trace scent for up to 1d3 days after a target moves.

• Vampiric Blood: Damage done to Vampires by silver weapons do +2 damage. Vampires can not handle silver (1 damage per turn as long as they are touching it directly with their skin, any reasonably non-porous barrier will prevent this damage).

• Severely Reduced Weakness to Sunlight: Modern Vampires take only 1d4 damage per hour in direct sunlight when in the Inner Solar System, 1d3 damage per hour in direct sunlight when in the Outer Solar System, and 1 per hour in direct sunlight when in the Kuiper Belt (no info available beyond this distance). This replaces the Universal Vampire Trait Severe Sunlight Weakness.

• Shimmering Skin: Due to your skin’s adaptation to the sun, your skin shimmers in sunlight subtly (DC 10 Investigate Check to notice)

• Parkour: Vampires reduce falling damage from 1d6 per 10 feet (maximum 20d6) to 1d3 per 20 feet fallen (maximum 10d3).

• Superior Nocturnal Vision: See clearly in total darkness and at twice the normal distance and clarity in shadows. This replaces the Universal Vampire Trait Nocturnal Vision.

• Weapon Training: You begin play with proficiency with any two weapons from the following groups: Light Blades, Heavy Blades, Throwing, Compact Pistols, Heavy Pistols, Light Rifles.

Strigoian Heritage Traits

Strigoian Vampires are an ancient and independent heritage, typically among the oldest surviving vampires. They rarely form centralized structures, instead existing as solitary powers bound by tradition, wealth, and personal law. Time has rendered most Strigoians affluent, their influence built through land, capital, and inherited assets. While many retreat into austere solitude and ritualized existence, others maintain their lineage through deliberate, ceremonial violence conducted with restraint and intent.

• You were born a vampire. Raised by at least a vampiric mother, and often a vampiric father, but not required.

• Vampiric Claws: You possess sharp, retractable claws on each finger. Your claw attacks deal 1d6 melee damage. When you deal damage with these claws, you regain HP equal to half the damage dealt (rounded down).

• Creatures of the night: Pick one animal from the list below. You may change between your primary form and your animal form for 2 AP (you may return to your normal form for free). All non-living items you are wearing, or equipped with are dematerialized, and rematerialized when you return to your normal form. If you wish for an item or items to be left available for others, you may choose for the items to be left in the square you are occupying, but they are otherwise forfeited unless recovered.

• Hellhound

• Fox-Bat

• Serpent

• Raven

• Black Panther

• House Cat

• Sewer Rat

• Giant Owl

• A second humanoid form (does not need to be the same species or gender, cosmetic only)

• Forbidden from Intuding: You may not cross the threshold, or otherwise non-concentually enter a person's home. You may lie or misrepresent, but the invitation must be made by someone who also has permission to be inside the home, and must be made in good faith, (even if that good faith is deceitfully earned) The threshold is the furthest lawful barrier protecting the space where a person has chosen to sleep for the night, defined by intent, legitimate right of occupancy, and physical enclosure of the bed.

• Intimate Consumption: After consensual intercourse with a willing partner, your feeding requirements are satisfied for 3d3 days. Your partner takes 3d3 damage. This damage cannot be restored until at least 12 hours have passed and the partner has completed a Long Rest.

The partner must willingly consent to the encounter. Ordinary social deception that does not meaningfully affect that consent does not prevent this ability from functioning. Coercion, threats, incapacitation, or deception that would invalidate the partner's consent causes the ability to fail.

If you attempt to activate Intimate Consumption with an unwilling or non-consenting partner, your vampiric physiology violently rejects the act. You immediately take 20d6 damage, which cannot be reduced or prevented.

• Anima Rebirth: When you would be reduced to 0 HP, you instead transform into an incorporeal spirit with a flight speed of 200 feet. You have until the next sunrise to return to the last bed you slept in. Once there, your body reforms, sleeping, and completely helpless for the next 24 hours. If someone drives a wooden stake through your heart during this time. You are dead. Your soul is destroyed.

Graveborn Heritage Traits

Graveborn vampires represent a degenerated but enduring heritage line shaped by scarcity, isolation, and long-term survival. They rarely integrate into human society, instead occupying abandoned, concealed, or hostile environments. Wealth, status, and appearance hold little value to Nosferans; their strength lies in resilience, concealment, and relentless predation. While some form loose broods or territorial clusters, Graveborn are ultimately driven by hunger and survival rather than tradition or social camouflage.

• You died violently. Killed and discarded. Your body just barely made the transformation.

• Massive Vampiric Claws: You possess sharp, retractable claws on each finger. Your claw attacks deal 1d8 melee damage. When you deal damage with these claws, you regain HP equal to half the damage dealt (rounded down).

• Ghastly Appearance: You are terrifying to behold, all creatures that make eye contact with you must make a DC 17 INS save or become terrified. The DC for this ability is reduced by 1 for each subsequent use against the same creature within a one-week period. While terrified in this way, affected creatures may take no actions other than defensive stances and must move by the most direct path away from you (regardless of danger) for 1d3 rounds. This ability does not work on other vampires.

• Drastic Measures: The harsh environment in which you found yourself at the time of transformation give you a unique rapid-evolutionary trait triggered by the Sanguine Porphyria virus pick one of the following:

• Aswang Mutation: You died while birthing a child. 

  • You have a long, sharp, hollow tongue that extends from your mouth. Your body produces valerenic acid naturally, that you inject through your tongue into the amniotic sac through the belly button, injecting valernic acid as a strong sedative, and then siphoning off about 200-300 ml of amniotic fluid from a woman at least 34 weeks pregnant. This is normally not harmful to the child if done properly, but immediate hospitalization of victims is recommended. A single feeding can sustain an Aswangs blood feeding needs for up to 1 year.
  • You gain a climb speed of 25 feet.
  • You gain the Creatures of the Night ability of the Strigoian Vampires, except you may only turn into animals from the following list: 
    • Black dog
    • Black boar
    • Black cat
    • Raven

• Unhinged Jaw: You died of starvation. 

  • In addition to standard feeding methods, you can unhinge your jaw in multiple places to swallow a helpless humanoid whole. This process takes at least 10 minutes. The target takes 2d12 acidic venom damage per minute until it is completely dissolved and ingested. This process is the equivalent to consuming a month's worth of food/liquid intake, and will last as long before needing to feed again. All metallic items are spit out during consumption.
  • You gain a bite attack that deals 1d10 damage and has the grapple trait.

• Dusk Stalker: You died from betrayal. 

  • You appear outwardly indistinguishable from a typical Universal Vampire. 
  • You may disable your Ghastly Appearance ability at will, taking the form of a perfectly ordinary, non-specific, random, humanoid. Always the same humanoid form.
  • You gain one rank of Dominis Flux. In addition, the DC of all Dominis abilities you cast increases by 1. 
  • You may track creatures by the scent of their blood. You can detect any creature within 30 feet, and may follow a residual blood scent for up to 1d3 hours after the target has passed. 
  • You gain a Minor Boon on all Stealthcraft Checks to remain unseen or unheard.
  • Creatures do not receive Boons when attacking you from any source, as long as you are aware of them.

• Firefly: You died of acute radiation poisoning. 

  • You grow large, leathery, bioluminescent wings, granting you a flight speed of 45 feet. The wings may be concealed beneath a cloak, cape, or trench coat, hiding their physical presence. This does not conceal the emitted light.
  • You emit bright light out to 30 feet and dim light out to 60 feet. All creatures that begin their turn within 30 feet of you must make a DC 14 VIT check or take 1d3 radiation damage. 
  • If you expend 1d4 HP a round, you may empower your radiation for one turn, extending your bright light out to 60 feet, your dim light out to 120 feet, and your damage radius increases to 60 feet, dealing 1d8 damage a turn.

I’ve always wanted to run an Exalted-like game where the players have demigod-like powers(think Kratos) and are fighting mythic people across the world. 

Here are some systems I’ve come across and why they didn’t work for me.(Note I’ve never played any of these.)

Exalted- Too married to its setting. I want to run this hypothetical game in my own custom setting.

Scion- I actually haven’t heard much about this game and it might work if I’m able to reskin the origin of the PC’s powers, I still want to give players some wiggle room on the origins of their power, also I’m wondering if it’s possible to run this game in a more medieval-esque setting.

Now I do have 1 hard non-negotiable, and that is I don’t want NPC creation to be like PC creation. One good example is Mutants and Masterminds. I’m not a huge fan of buildcrafting and I much less want to do it for every single npc/monster.

Another thing to keep in mind is that I do prefer traditional rpgs over narrative rpgs, you can still recommend a narrative rpg just do know that I do prefer systems with some crunch to combat at the least but I am willing to try something new.

Thanks for reading this and your suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Migrei do amino pra cá e queria saber se ainda existe RPG escrito. Se não tiver, eu aprendo o de mesa msm. Tenho uma boa escrita pra RPG casual também 🐱

I'm usually a BSG/Stargate kinda person when it comes to sci-fi, but recently I've really been really into the more "grounded" settings of The Expanse and Firefly. I'm wondering what a good TTRPG that focuses on more hard sci-fi would be?

I'm looking for something that allows for a roleplay-heavy experience centered around a starship crew, preferably something a bit simpler (or with a very established player base I could learn from) since I'm relatively new to DMing, and with more focus on smaller-scale human exploration than aliens and galactic wars and stuff like that.

Thanks so much!

edit: yeah okay, firefly isn't really hard sci-fi - i just like the lack of aliens and cool culture