How hard is it to create an interesting campaign without backstory? After reading the classic Sword and sorcery stories, I wanted to do something that didn't rely on backstory and was completely focused on the present. But how do you make it interesting?
>>97817618I like games that gloss over or ignore past events, because I like to get to the gameplay as soon as possible and play the game for the time agreed.But, if the game itself sucks, I won't be interested no matter what. I need gameplay that engages me; plenty of character options to choose from, plenty of ways to synergize with my own character's kit and those of the other party members. Plenty of varied enemy types and behaviors to encourage different combat tactics.If it's something like D&D or PbtA, where I need permission instead of being able to choose, I won't like it.
>>97817673>>97817677Yeah, but I have a feeling that someone will definitely complain that the story is too flat and boring.
>>97817618in medias res is a thing you know>>97817742>Your commander is dead, the only way your division can get supplies is through a guarded pass>The commander is ruthless but honorable>goUnless you consider something as barebones and scene setting as this backstory, IDK how that is flat and boring. You dont need some long monologue, just where you are, what your immediate goal is, and the major characters in play.
>>97817742Don't make the story too flat and boring. Alternatively, know your group and run the kind of game you have in mind for people who'd be interested in it. I don't know what kind of an answer beyond "have interesting shit in it" are you looking for here. That's all there is to it. If you can't think of interesting shit that doesn't depend of backstory established beforehand, you probably shouldn't run a game without backstory. If you can think of interesting shit, why do you think your players would find it boring?
>>97817618Make interesting places for the players to explore. Make interesting characters for the players to interact with and talk to. Make interesting monsters/combat encounters to fight. Give the players room to fill out their own characters. Leave gaps and let the players fill them. the story will emerge on it's own.
Bela-Core Edition>Previously, in the Mortal Realms>>97809315 >Official AoS website:https://www.ageofsigmar.com>Downloads, Rules Errata, and FAQs:https://www.warhammer-community.com/warhammer-age-of-sigmar-downloads/>Toolshttps://runebrush.pa-sy.com/warscroll/>Anvil of Apotheosis hero creator:Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>97817412The challenge of doing this would be making it rest in the crook of his arm in a manner that "looks correct." You can see that he has a loose grip on the handle and that his forearm and bicep are taking the weight of the weapon via the head. If you swap a sword blade in there it's going to look weird without some luck and some work to get it to look like it's resting against him in a natural way.
>>97817853I was about to do the "today I will remind them bit" with that god awful standing model. But instead found this cool ass diorama based on that cool piece of art.
>>97817863Even this doesn't completely land for me, although I don't want to seem like a hater. There are badass elements to it, but the handshake grip on the mace just doesn't read as real combat.
Why does the current vampire faction starter set not have a single fucking vampire in itI really want to get a Soulblight spearhead but don’t want to paint 50 skeletons and 0 vampires to lead them
>>97817883It's not perfect, but comparatively to the other one I do actually like it. I still think Hunched Ush is his best state.
Any suggestions for systems built for urban fantasy settings? I know there's World of Darkness but I'm looking for something that is more combat focused and less story telling. Monster of the Week has been suggested to me but I'm just not a big fan of PBTA, the systems just don't feel like a game to me as bullshit as that sounds.
Hate to say it, but pic related is probably your best bet if you want something that is combat focused. It's just a shame that it's by Tom Lancer.
>>97815373MotW is alright if you want to run something looser, but combat is rule of cool and lots of handwaving. You could do an alright Hellboy-style campaign with it, but you only get back what you put into a pbta system, meaning if you aren't feeling it, you won't have a good time.Unknown Armies is more about fucked up magic and Delta Green is more about being off-the-books agents killing Lovecraft monsters. It's actually pretty hard to find some urban fantasy games that aren't also pbta though. You might have to grab a generic system like Basic Roleplay (same system used by CoC and Delta Green) and fashion something to your liking.>>97816551It's not good at any of the things that OP requested, though.
>>97815373Call of Cthulhu using the Pulp expansion could work. Characters are much more competent and survivable, and able to do more fantastic things, and there are rules for playing psychics or mystics.
>>97816551>Tom LancerIs that a short of Tom Bloom, the woke cancer and author of Lancer?
>>97815373What about Fate and Jojo? They both have their RPGs
A thread for everything Dragons. What is the best kind of Dragons for a game. Just the standard, firebreathing scally Dragon? Or is it better for a game to give your players variety?
>>97809581>Warhammer has a wide variety of dragons.BEHOLD, THE VOID DRAGON!
>>97809146thousand sons has wyverns in lore
>>97815414Because it is the common thing. And thats just a common cultural exchange. Happend within Europe too. So did China with Korea and Japan.But Yamata no Orochi is an interesting dragon. Thanks for that info.
>>97705547I found the writing to be lackluster. It reads like a Disney Channel original series with simpleton characters and villains too comically villainous to be taken very seriously. I like dragons, but I wasn't willing to go past the first book. Things may improve after that, but I don't feel like I'm missing out.
>>97812205>>97812672>>97813749Other dragons are a given. I was thinking more in terms of empires, civilizations. Masses of creatures that can exist as long as dragons and rival them in power in their own way, not necessarily being significantly supernatural.Guess I'm trying to write a huge adult dragon as I would an adventurer: what kind of rivals, challenges and quests can he face without it being a straightforward high power magical creature or heroic character. As well as not escalating into all out war with armies.Like giants are pretty good for that. Fae or high power magical creatures seem too wild, momentary challenges.Sentient gryphons or harpy civs perhaps?
Out of Season Snow Storm EditionHere is a thread to discuss trading card games other than the big three.>Build Divide>Force of Will>Final Fantasy TCG>DBZ CCG>Wixoss>Keyforge>Gundam>Legend of the 5 Rings (L5R)>Digimon>Flesh and Blood>Gate Ruler>Battle SpiritsComment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>97817747Apparently, you can't spell Ascent without A Scent.
>>97817522You could have different piles for rarity and each time you open a container you draw from tbe general pile. High value loot can get vacuumed up if you let it.You could even do loot boosters, where you open it with a friend and shuffle it in to the loot piles without knowing what's in it
should I buy a box of warlord
>>97817476It's a shame because the game was fun it just wasn't supported properly, and it launched like within a month of One Piece.Also the card frames looked like shit what were they thinking
>>97817764Its funny how no matter what TCGThe players fucking smell
Why did the Star Wars RPGs never quite take off for the nuQuelsYou'd think there would be a whole new flood of content, but there's just nothing after the sequels.
To add to all the anons correctly assessing the FFG situation I want to add: It's basically a completed system. There is tons of material for enemies, talents, vehicles, gear, resolution mechanics etc. and you are hard pressed to add something new in a meaningful way.Playing as jedi, thief, senator, pilot and whatnot is all covered. It is so good that the genesys homebrews are more often than not just starwars mechanics with the serial numbers filed off.Unless you need an official source telling you that the stat block for Kylo Ren or Glibb Shitto is precicely this and that, I don't see why anyone would need much more for material unless you absolutely have to consume. It's not like the movies introduced particularly new concepts. Vehicles remained the same across the board but with a different paint job .
>>97816940It's just weird how decades ago anyone could pay royalties to Lucasfilm/LucasArts and a Star Wars TTRPG would be guaranteed money to the point where the royalties would be effectively meaningless.A healthy IP capitalizes on its opportunities, and big name TTRPGs have never been conscientious where actual game design is concerned; they just want to put that big name out with a fresh coat of paint.Just look at how many reskins of Monopoly there are, for fuck sake, and that hasn't added anything new in a meaningful way since it's inception almost a century ago.
>>97814166... but Luke didn't know Leia was his sister until shortly after the events on Jabba's sail barge.
>>97814166I have no interest in buying into disney's knock-off when there's already 40 years of star wars content that is more interesting
>>97814854>nobodypalpatineskywalker>Rey is part of the Not Important family from HatredHonestly, would make a better movie.
Knight Panther edition>Resources:WFB: https://pastebin.com/qVGrgwwhWM: https://pastebin.com/EsDAgebaWFRP: https://pastebin.com/inbyBsR6Novels: https://pastebin.com/PFqPDr0H>TOW:https://gofile.io/d/fxFgXShttps://www.warhammer-community.com/downloads/warhammer-the-old-world/>Warhammer Chronicles:https://files (dot) catbox (dot) moe/0xt777 (dot) zip>Time of Legends:Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>97817383>>97817399holy fvckin kino
>>97817383>BonereaperThat's a nicely painted one, but ngl the bonereaper aesthetic has to be one of the worst things GW has come up with. It feels like lazy cad drafting to make skeleton models less spindly & easier to cast, but on top of that it flies in the face of what made skellymans cool which was reusing the bones of what were clearly once monsters & humans- when they're morphed & warped into specific shapes that clearly were never a part of an actual skeletal structure they might as well be made of metal at that point.
>>97817399>Luthor von Drakenborg, fed up and tired of completely dominating Blood Bowl, chooses to wage war with his ancestral bladeWell, the Old World is fucked.
Bros I love Warhammer Fantasy so much
>>97817850A single Cathayan peasant would solo everything in this art btw
What's the appeal of evil women?
>>97817593oops, dropped the dork
>>97816784Maybe.
>>97817603>tfw you will never be her Duck
>>97817630Do you think she sometimes absent mindedly rubs against Transmogrants she's working on?Because that's someone you can be for her...
>>97815288Oh that explains the room temperature takes I end expose to. Fucking algorithm insist on showing me this thing even though I keep blocking its content.
How the fuck are the Lord of the Rings wargame minis still getting made? Those movies were 20 years ago.
>>97805226The movies were that good (still not as good as the books) and the game was great for 20 years, and is till pretty good.>>97810744One day I'll sit down and make an effortpost about how 90% of the complaints about 40k and AOS stem from the fact that neither are true wargames but not today. I do wish this was talked about more.
>>97811706That game has some of the best LOTR art. And some of the worst, particularly in the later sets.
>>97805321stopped watching them after the vtuber shit. Vince Venturella is on thin fucking ice for having that one annoying fuck in his thumbnail
>>97811922>(still not as good as the books)After having heard that Tolkien wrote the hobby as a sort of bedime story for his son, I got the audiobooks and had a great time painting fantasy stuff with them for background. LOTR really was made to be told, not just read.
>>97805321You can't be that hard on them if you remember that they started playing the game in like 2017 (after it was ruined). They never got to experience GOOD 40k. >>97809693>They're MTG fans who pivoted for views.That makes SO much fucking sense. Their severe "old bad new good" skew with everything from sculpts to balance changes / wanting even faster rules update churn than the absurd speed we currently have speaks to a MTG mindset of "fix the current fucked meta with the new set!" of every CCG out there.
Thread #012 Degenerate EditionWelcome to /schreck/ where you can rp your VTM character! For all questions concerning the World of Darkness, please consult the WoDg and CoDg thread>>97733980Previous Thread>>97621954Brief rules>We have no story teller, we are acephali>Threads are v20 based, although the night is long and full of whispers, lies, and half-truths. Decide your own canon but all will not believe you>all nicktuku will be diablerized on sight>all OOC discussion should be spoileredTHREAD QUESTIONComment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>97809672Need to find him a teacher at some point.>>97814457Give people an escape and they'll often surprise you.>>97814951>You do realize if we ever meet in person I obligated to smack you one for blaspheming the Dark Father, right?Everyone gets one for free, it is your due. But at this point between the Tzim Dharma I've internalized and the gods I've seen? The only thing the Dark Father ever did worthy of my respect was leave.
How do I POLITELY invite a Nosferatu to leave the sewer underneath my place without angering them, using another Nosferatu, or making an enemy out of the rest of their Clan?
>>97817128Like you were using that sewer
>>97817237Most of the kine walking through my place won't either, however somebody is going to reach for the surface to feed and eavesdrop at some point in time.
>>97817128fetching? probably not but i am comfy in them. that is all that matters.and ey, we do what we gotta do. >>97817391>>97817128if this is a 'reasonable' extension of a haven you gotta demarcate that shit and KEEP it. paper law don't extend far downotherwise, just ask without being weird. if it matters to your neighbours they'll ask for a favour. give it. its a lot easier to work with mutuals than bad neighbours
Would your human male fighter ever consider getting themselves a nice trad peasant wife and settling down in the countryside?
Kill yourself already, nothing of value will be lost.
College edition>Banshttps://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/banned-and-restricted-march-23-2026>NewsThe Pro Tour and Magic Spotlight Series in 2026:https://www.magic.gg/news/the-pro-tour-and-magic-spotlight-series-in-2026Metagame Mentor: The Final Four Standard Regional Championships of Early 2026:https://www.magic.gg/news/metagame-mentor-the-final-four-standard-regional-championships-of-early-2026>Spoilershttp://www.magicspoiler.com/https://mythicspoiler.com/Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
>>97817661>using the old pest tokenwhy
>>97817661Why are there commander cards in the main set then.
JOTC just announced the new UB only format, Otherworld
>>97817668Poorlands
>>97817707LETS FUCKING GO!!!!DEATH TO UW ANDIES!
Simple rule to improve and balance wizards in OSR games: they can only memorize one casting of a given spell per day. You have 3 third level slots? You can cast one Fireball, not 2 or 3. Don't know any other 3rd level spells? Better go find some spellbooks. Hope you make your % chance to learn spell rolls (I won't bother addressing faggots who let wizards automatically learn new spells). God forbid you have to get more creative with your casting.
>>97815029>You forgot they also had one of slowest XP/Level progressions.Very good point, added to the list.
>>97816374>no reason why the rod of disintegration isn't in the first dungeon.Because someone would already have it if it was
>>97815205They are dumb. There are other ways to balance casters that don't involve half the party being underleveled or having to use shitty XP-based progression like it's an MMO where the players can fuck off to kill 1 XP rabbits for 60 sessions to level up.>Skill Points are dumbThey aren't dumb, but they could have been handled better I think to prevent modifiers from getting out of hand so quickly. That said, I fixed this easily with my overhauls of 5.5's classes, Rogues get 6 proficiencies, Fighters get 5, other full martials get 4, half-casters get 3, full casters get 2, and you pick any skills you like from the list. Bards also uniquely get 3 given their weird support caster-rogue shit (but they lose access to Jack of All Trades. That is instead given to Rogue at level 1).
>>97816374Verisimilitude isn't realism, it's internal consistency.
>>97801330And that's why 5e players like yourself should be banned.
>mimimi, humans don't have their own feature, mimimi, we have to invent somethingNecromancy right here. When was the last time you saw non-human necromancer, lich or vampire? That's right, they practically don't exist because other races are simply inferior when it comes to necromancy and those non-human undead are so pathetic that everyone forgets about their existence in 5 minutes . Except for that one orc, but even he understood that he was worthless and therefore got himself a human body to finally become a full-fledged lich. So yes, here is your feature humans - necromancy, you know that I am right, you can't run away from the truth forever.
>>97817535>The Exception (Bretons): Bretons are the primary exception, being the result of centuries of interbreeding between Aldmer (elves) and Nedic humans, though they are considered more human than elven today.Ok tourist.
>>97817553>your slop should countIt didn't.>not mineOnly if you accept mine.
>>97816567Have you tried not being a bigger retarded nogames than OP? Non human undead always existed in D&D
I've sometimes wondered if the general absence of non-human fantasy skeletons or zombie models is an indication of a potential gap in the market or that they just don't sell.
>>97816932Dude that pic is from a game called minion masters I remember saving that ages ago, its not the usual suspect.or at least not one of his coms
>produce indie module>send it to a few youtubers who review modules and have a decent reputation for independent thought>hey, I've seen some of this guy's videos and he has never once mentioned being paid>send free copy>get email from his agent quoting a price for a reviewWhy are they all like this?
>>97817193The reviewer gets paid for his videos and through Patreon/PayPal/Superchat/etc regardless of what he's reviewing.And that aside, TTRPGs have effectively zero monetary value. There's no other product on the market that expects payment for something you have to create yourself; imagine if you paid $200 for a LEGO set, and the company told you to mold the bricks yourself? Imagine if you paid $500 for IKEA furniture, amd they told you to chop the trees, plane the wood, and forge the connector bits? That would be unacceptable. So why then pay $10-$20 for a ruleset you're going to be expected to either ignore, rewrite, or add to?There is no acceptable answer. The best "games" are those made to preference by their individual groups, and no "game" is suitable for anyone beyond their origin group.
>>97817445holy schizo tangent batman
>>97816639So, this is fake then? Cool.
>>97817462Your concession is accepted.
>>97817492“Concession accepted” is the mark of a person with a losing argument, hope this helps
