rpg

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

We're back at it again with another Fully Prepped Mini-Campaign; Dragon of Icespire Peak, A level 1-6 Adventure that's a bit frosty! This is part of the Essentials Kit; released between Dragon of Stormwreck Isle and The Lost Mine of Phandelver all created by WoTC.

Dragon of Icespire Peak is a bit different from the other two I've prepped; not only is it more of a sandbox, but it also has the ability to be run with just one player which is a huge plus for those of you who can't get larger groups together! I'll be incorporating the recommendations from both Bob the World Builder and Sly Flourish along with my own tweaks to make this one of the best experiences you can have running this Mini-Campaign!

If you've used my previous notes you'll know that I take adventures such as these and do all the difficult and time-consuming book-to-session conversions so you don't have to! I do my best to include ambiance for every scene, custom battle maps, handouts when needed, spell sheets, encounter sheets, and more!

This may all sound familiar, but seeing as this is a Starter/Essentials Kit, I think it's important to reiterate:

• Read the Adventure: I know surprising, but it can be extremely confusing when you don't know where everything leads to.
• Consider the needs of your group: As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign, you'll have to make tweaks here and there.
• These notes aren't meant to be the end-all-be-all: Tweak to your heart's content, and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things are meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience, though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for Part 1 Phandalin: DM Notes
• Link to: Phandalin Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• A Word document with all my notes including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Custom Map of Phandalin

Over 5 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

Come and hung out with your own personal demons in Nightbound. New Eden awaits you with intrugues, mystery and horror. Everyone is welcomed here, but you may never leave the madness!

Nightbound just launched on Kickstarter, check it out and support this project if you like what you see!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/creativejamttrpgs/nightbound?ref=55vu4d

The poject just funded, now we start the ladder to unlock new streatch goals!

Nightbound is a PBTA urban fantasy game, that takes inspiration from Hellblazer, Preacher, Lucifer and other media. Like other urban fantasy games it’s a deep dive into modern horror with a focus on personal horror. PCs in Nightbound face supernatural threats while dealing with their own personal hell made of guilt, sin and consequences. As a PC you are capable of almost everything, you can kick that demon down with ease but your real enemy are the choices you make and how you choose to use your powers. Most of the time you’ll fail and you’ll suffer for it, but you will always have a chance to make it right and break the cycle of guilt!

We have have already unlocked 4 of our streatch goals which includes 2 new playbooks and 2 new locations for the main game setting. And there’s many more where they came from!

From the Kickstarter campaing you can download a free copy of the quickstart guide so that you can preview the game and try it out.

I'm a huge Talisman fan but I wasn't aware that a new edition was being released, and I thought that others would appreciate the news.

Our indie dev group just released our third playable adventure! This is the climax of a four-part set! It is now available for free on DriveThruRPG!

It’s for a free, open-source game system/setting we made that’s like cyberpunk in a post-scarcity society. Check it out! Honest feedback is appreciated.

A gang of whitehat biohackers suspect they’re being targeted. That threat is about to get very real.

On a sunny summer day, your help is needed escorting a eccentric researcher to a meeting with their collegues. It’s been six weeks since unknown actors staged a daring armed robbery on their laboratory, and tensions are running high. But when this mysterious adversary puts their plans into action, it’ll take all your skills and judgement to avert a nightmare.

This story continues to build on the previous two in its scope, complexity, and challenges to give diverse player and character types opportunitites to see more places, meet more characters, and find ways to use their specialities to help their communities in a story with around 8 - 10 hours of content.

Hi, my name is Khan and I am the person behind Devabhumi. I am of Indian origin, and I have always been interested in non-European rpg settings. There is such a treasure trove of untapped stories, monsters, and legends in Indian Culture, which can provide fresh and unique content for your campaigns.

Devabhumi is a high fantasy TTRPG setting inspired by the history and epics of Ancient India. This setting features: -100+ pages of lore

• A karma mechanic
• 8 new races
• 20+ historical weapons and armor

And much more!

You can check out the project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/silvercompassmaps/devabhumi-a-dandd-5e-setting-inspired-by-ancient-india?ref=clipboard-prelaunch

Our indie dev group just released our second playable adventure! It is now available for free on DriveThruRPG!

It's for a free, open-source game system/setting we made that's like cyberpunk in a post-scarcity society. Check it out! Honest feedback is appreciated.

An adventurer is facing a mind-bending medical crisis. Are you prepard to join the rescue party?

Psychonaut Psilosybe Vulgaris has fallen into a catonic state while testing a new psychadelic. Now her doctor and friends need the aid of some daring and capable first responders ready to do whatever it takes to find a cure, before her mind dissolves away to nothing!

As the second published adventure within the Fully Automated! solarpunk game catalog, Psychonautica is written for new players who are ready for a more free-form adventure. Unlike the short and simple demo mission, this one has twists, turns, and opportunities for GMs and players to tell stories with a bit more freedom.

Respond to a medical emergency! Explore the wild mental dimension of neurospace! Meet a wilder, wider world of characters in a story that stands on its own while planting the seeds for an even more climactic sequel!

We don't have much lemmings talking about larp, and as I am moving forward in the prep of my next game, I thought about sharing some my tips/thoughts On this thread, I will focus on the typical "2-3 day heroic fantasy larp" with 80-200 players and some faction/PvP mechanics. The larp scene is pretty huge, and not all of my points my transpose to what you play nor your local game culture. So take it as a blog post with my view on-it, which may not fit yours

Expect that the logistic team will fuck up

If the writers fuck-up, you end-up with a boring story, if the NPCs fuck-up you end-up with wrong information. But in both case you end-up drinking and eating with your friends in a costume. Not that bad. On the other hand, if the only drinkwater tap is after the orc camp, or if the cook under-estimated how hungry the player are you end-up thirsty and hungry, add the lack of sleep and the fun week-end turns into a nightmare. So please plan to have extra water/food (also a whole ham on the table is a great diplomacy tool) worst case, you end-up storing some leftover at home after the game.

Another classic one in larp with "toilets" is that the toilet end-up clogged at the end of the week-end. So plan that you may-need to manage otherwise.

Finally, even though it's not a fuck-up from the logistic, plan for any possible water and adapt your playstyle. You may have temperatures above 40 or heavy rain, and sometimes both at the same game. So have a hat in your kit, extra socks, and choose the right shoes if rain is expected.

Self care

It's a bit linked to the previous point, but as much as beer can be refreshing and spiced wine can help negotiation, it doesn't hydrate. Bring water and drink water.

Force yourself to get some sleep, Game never stops, it usually get a bit quieter between 3 and 9 but that's it. However, I would seriously advise to still try to get some sleep. It can be tempting to keep playing until the dawn, and then be dragged in the day-game. But at a point the lack of sleep will catch-up, especially when you're driving. I don't tell you to get your 8h of sleep per night, but 8h for the whole week-end isn't reasonable either.

If you're not comfortable with something, or feel that a situation is physically dangerous speak-up. Can be the battle "near the stairs" which would make sense in a real combat but is a great way to break some legs in a game, can be the torture scene which is bit too realistic. speak-up if you see something dangerous physically or emotionally, most player would try to find a reasonable way to do it.

In game

Avoid the not my problem attitude, if you catch a plot hook pull it. It may not be your character main goal, but if some "game opportunity" come to you, take-it or (especially if you play a busy character), delegate to someone from your faction.

In the same category, in case of doubt say yes, you might have missed who was the great priestess of the sun, or that you had a side quest about building an orphanage. Also, sometimes, it's obviously "a trap" but the proper attitude is so what Yes you'll end-up jailed, tortured and executed, but you'll have more fun than sitting in the tavern

On the character

Remember that combat is a very small fraction of a larp. So you don't need to play a warrior in heavy armour to have fun. There is plenty of game where I didn't pulled a sword (and sometimes didn't even carried one)

Remember that you need a character you can play for 3 days, avoid the "loner type", or the "weird accent that you cannot keep on the long term".

Try to match your character with your faction, either by asking the faction which hypes you which kind of character they need or by asking the factions who would need the kind of character you want to play.

Character do die, especially the ones with some visibility, so have a second kit ready in case off.

Gear

Thrift store are a great ressource for a beginner kit, it may not be fully period appropriate but can be a generic costume basis (linen trouser/skirt, pirate-shirt) at a cheap price (well nowadays thrift store got trendy)

Layering works damn well. get a neutral basis layer, add stuff like doublet/cape to give a style to your character, and finish with accessories. Obviously expect that anything you'll bring to a larp will be lost or damaged. Make-up and hairstyle can do a lot for a character to.

Depending on the faction/character, adding some uniformity helps a lot. 10 persons with the same green/white cape/tabard looks way more impressive than 10 persons with random costume even if each one is way better than the common costume.

Remember that you're not doing cosplay, you'll be moving with these clothe, so try to craft some robust stuff. In the same category, unless you can afford decend larp shoes and the game-site permit it, better wearing some leather hiking boots and keep your feet safe and dry than twisting your ankle in period appropriate shoes

You never have too much pouches, try to keep your "out of game" stuff in a pouch, and keep the in-game items in another.

Print some "out of game sign" so you can indicate a robber visiting your camp which crates/boxes are "out of game"

Ok time runs out, I feel like I already wrote a lot, pretty sure some of you will have stuff to add, or stuff that do not apply to their games (which is fine), so I stop the thread here

I'm always on the lookout for run inspirations. But many Shadowrun missions were hit or miss

As a hardcore roll20 hater, I'm not too happy about this. Hopefully this at least makes R20 better and demiplane won't just be killed off in 6 months.

Hello everyone,

We are nearing the end of my first TTRPG campaign and in a few weeks, the DM is starting a homebrew. I joined this one half way through and a friend slapped together most of my level 7 character for me, a basic fighter. For this new campaign I'm hoping to have "more to do" in and out of battle so I'm looking for class advice.

I want to play a support class but I've been feeling overwhelmed by the class options. All I know is that I want it to be beginner-friendly support that can heal but also do more - like damage, buffs, or debuffs. Doesn't have to be all 3!

The group gave me a few suggestions but there was so much back and forth about how complicated they are, I thought I'd pose the question here.

Can someone help point me in the right direction on a simple support? Any help would be appreciated!

Has anyone looked at it? How streamlined it really is? Is this overhaul cohesive?

Pretty sure it happened to everyone, you lacked time to prep tonight session, and now the first player just arrived

Bonus point if you explain how to do it when tired.

The question is discussed in this podcast episode.

Cynthia Williams is out at WotC, which begs the question: If you were hired as the new CEO, what would you do to right the ship of game and sail us all to safer waters?

Here are two blog posts in response to a video and it's all about the old discussion if systems matter.

Here the question is slightly different: How do systems matter?

If an RPG system puts a great focus on combat (like 5e), does that make the game focus on combat? Alternatively, does it relieve the GM from combat simulation and instead let's them focus on other aspects (roleplaying, drama, improv, story, exploration, etc)?

...and why haven't you run it yet? :D

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12847215

Hello, im a new GM and im looking for places to get digital battlemaps. Im looking for ones that are compatible with roll20.

Alien RPG Starter Set has a discount currently. I think I've heard somewhere that it's doing some things well but I don't remember what & where. And I very rarely can get answers to my questions from description or reviews.
Does anyone have experience with it?

• How the system works? (d20/d6 pool/special dice/similar to X/etc)
• Rather crunchy or narrative?
• Are there some system elements that play into the feel of the setting?

Cthulhu Hack, the simple and accessible Mythos tabletop roleplaying game from Just Crunch Games. This fast-playing standalone investigative game, based on David Black's minimalist fantasy RPG The Black Hack, pits ordinary people against the sanity-shattering horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. With simple Save die-rolls and three resources (Flashlights, Smokes, and Sanity), Cthulhu Hack deftly supports published Investigations and campaigns for any Mythos RPG. Learn the whole system in 20 minutes, teach it to your players in five minutes more, and in another five their characters will be ready for a slow spiral into self-destruction.

That piqued my interest, so I thought I'd share

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/8481417

GamesRadar+ can exclusively reveal that Modiphius, the studio responsible for tabletop adaptations of Star Trek, Fallout, and more, is working on a Discworld TTRPG.

Having secured the rights to the beloved series with an agreement from the late author Sir Terry Pratchett's estate, Modiphius is already at work on a Discworld roleplaying game "around the city of Ankh-Morpork and the wider Disc." This will hit Kickstarter later in the year.

Dubbed 'Terry Pratchett's Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork,' it's the first tabletop RPG to use that setting in almost 30 years. (To be precise, Discworld's last pen-and-paper outing was in 1998.) While it's unclear whether this version will use a new system or utilize one from the best tabletop RPGs, Modiphius promises "to publish tabletop games that honor the humor, satire, and darkly entertaining fantasy series."