Besides D&D, what are you playing?

[John Dallman]

GURPS 4e. Running an Infinite Worlds/Cabal campaign that's coming to its end after 8 years, playing in an occult WWII campaign, and a Monster Hunters in weird Florida campaign.

The Infinite Worlds/Cabal campaign has finished. I'm now setting up a Transhuman Space campaign. The other two GURPS campaigns are still going, and I've joined a 1st level AD&D 1e campaign.

 

[Randomthoughts]

We all love D&D and in this beautiful time, I think most play some of its variants (including PF and PF2).
But there is a world beyond that, so besides D&D what are you playing? what do you want to play?

I'm personally testing Symbaroum and Ironsworn, two really good games.
Particularly from Ironsworn, I think it's the best game I've played in a long time, and its free!

Numerous recommendations drove me to check out Ironsworn. I was looking for something fairly simple that could be run over Zoom for 2 players and this fit the bill perfectly. Went so far and got Delve on drivethrurpg. I created the World, made the two characters with the players and am now waiting for our first session. Almost there...

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

This week we had our second and final Beyond the Fence, Beneath the Grave session for the Fall at Old Uppsala scenario. The old Scandinavian wedding was full of divination, chats with dead men, feasting and drinking, curses and natural disaster!

My players managed a shocking last-minute coup against the Jarl that succeeded almost by accident. One of them, the Skald, wielded a magic banner that promised victory - at the cost of his own death. A lightning strike during the climactic fight (outdoors in a rainstorm) turned the Skald into a blazing pillar of fire and stunned the enemy combatants, so the Jarl was toppled and his teenaged heir took over Old Uppsala.

The funny thing was, the Skald was planning to just bluff with the banner, but then the Jarl's son pulled out a knife and charged, and combat broke out...so the blessed banner was activated!

 

[Fenris-77]

Sounds very cool. Lots of high drama, I like it.

 

[manduck]

I recently ran Offworlders for my group as a pick-up game. It's an Apocalypse World System game that's a space western. Kind of like Firefly or Cowboy Bebop in feel. My group had a blast with it. I just ran the intro scenario from the book and my players ran with it. They had so much fun they couldn't wait to play it again. My second adventure is coming up and it should be fun.

I also picked up pdf copies of The Void and Mothership but haven't had a chance to try them. Has anyone played these? I'm curious about people's experiences with them.

If you're looking for a good superhero game, I highly recommend Worlds in Peril. The same people who have the current kickstarter for Galaxies in Peril made this one. Superheroes in an Apocalypse World System. My group has played this several times. I ran a Necessary Evil campaign (using the fiction of Necessary Evil but WiP rules). Someone else in my group also ran a really great adventure where Superman became a dictator and conquered Earth. The Batman of that world found a way to reach into the Multiverse and recruit the only help he could trust, other versions of himself. So we all played a different version of Batman taking on an evil Superman. Similar to Injustice but with his own twists. My Batman was inspired by Gotham by Gaslight. Instead of technology, he used sorcery and came from the same time period Gaslight was set in. We still talk about that game. Plus if you back a certain level of Galaxies in Peril, you get Worlds too.

If your group likes a little more mechanics in their games, Mutants and Masterminds is still out there too. Character creation can take a while but it plays fairly smoothly. My group always had a lot of fun with that one.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I recently ran Offworlders for my group as a pick-up game. It's an Apocalypse World System game that's a space western. Kind of like Firefly or Cowboy Bebop in feel. My group had a blast with it. I just ran the intro scenario from the book and my players ran with it. They had so much fun they couldn't wait to play it again. My second adventure is coming up and it should be fun.

I read Offworlders last month, but haven't yet run it.
Having a bit of analysis paralysis between Offworlders, Uncharted Worlds, and Impulse Drive for space opera. Also the age old GM quandrary - need to find some players...

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

Well. While the rains at Old Uppsala wash away the ashes of the Skald character, I am planning for a new weeknight minicampaign to replace it: Cthulhu Deep Green, which is basically Cthulhu Dark hacked to run Delta Green adventures in the modern era.

My recruitment post on the Malaysian Discord server I'm on:

Recruiting for: CDG SOUTHERN GOTHIC (Modern Conspiracy Horror)
System: Cthulhu Deep Green (with setting from Delta Green) CTHULHU DEEP GREEN by Dissonance
When: 8pm-11pm, Tuesday 28 April, 2020
Medium: Discord voice chat (webcam optional) on KakiTabletop
Players: 2-4
Content: Supernatural Horror, Violence, Drug Use. We'll discuss player content preferences (Lines and Veils) before we start.
I'll answer any questions you have here.

 

[pemerton]

I am planning for a new weeknight minicampaign to replace it: Cthulhu Deep Green, which is basically Cthulhu Dark hacked to run Delta Green adventures in the modern era.

I like Cthulhu Dark. I've used it for 30s-era Boston and late 19th century London. I've heard of Delta Green but don't know it at all well. I've followed your link to CDG.

EDIT: Unfortunately CDG lost me at 52 pages. One of my favourite things about Cthulhu Dark, as a 4-page PDF, is that I was able to read the players the rules while one of them made us coffee!

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

I like Cthulhu Dark. I've used it for 30s-era Boston and late 19th century London. I've heard of Delta Green but don't know it at all well. I've followed your link to CDG.

EDIT: Unfortunately CDG lost me at 52 pages. One of my favourite things about Cthulhu Dark, as a 4-page PDF, is that I was able to read the players the rules while one of them made us coffee!

These are A5 pages, though, quickly readable. It basically expands on Cthulhu Dark to cover:

• Splitting Sanity into Stress (at 6, get a Disorder and reset to 0) and Insight into the Mythos (at 6, embrace the horror and retire). 3rd Disorder causes Burnout and you retire as well.
• Disorders are treated as responses to traumatic experiences, not conflated with real mental illness.
• You can survive and triumph in deadly combat, but when you attempt something truly unsurvivable, the Handler gives you a horrific vision of how you would perish, then Rewinds if you want to try another approach.
• Physical damage comes in three levels of Harm. Harm 3 is death, so there isn't much margin for error.
• Introduces At Home Scenes and Anchors (similar to the Delta Green RPG) to help you reduce Stress and Harm between missions. Anchors can be Marked during a mission to get a flashback with an At Home Scene benefit, but you will need to work to restore the Anchor later on.
• Character creation and additional character options (up to 1 Specialty Skill outside your Occupation)
• Handler guidance for running the game, campaign design tips, safety tools.
• 8 pages of randomly generated Safe Box contents (emergency supply cache).
• 5 pieces of full-page art
• A few pages of credits and a "coming soon" of adventure modules.

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

Today's downtime scenes in Blades in the Dark: Our creepy Whisper went to the cafe to get practice pretending to be human, then later aced her community outreach roll in Nightmarket, turning the locals against a local cult and making some new friends in the process!

We had a lot of fun with the Hound's project to build ties with Lady Ankhayat at her gamehawking party in the park. It turned into a full blown social score which our crew aced!

Downtime roleplay in Blades is the best.

Of course, next session is going to be a bit trickier since they have to help an undead smuggler find a ship that's been missing for decades...and may be in the hands of the Imperial Navy.