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I was linked to this article, which I found really fascinating: Using Public Domain Art in Tabletop Game Design I think it's an interesting read and resource, especially with the current discourse around AI art. There are a lot of images that would look great in an RPG book, or that could be...

I'm in a Science Fiction and Fantasy book club. The last few books we read happened to be pretty depressing, and so I'm looking for a way to switch things up. I have always been curious about Solarpunk and other adjacent, more hopeful sci fi, but I know little about the actual books in the...

I have no idea why this came up in my mind, but last night I started assignment my furniture alignments. What are the alignments of three pieces of furniture you have, and why? (PS: anyone who says Neutral, Neutral, Neutral will have to face my Chaotic Evil toaster.) Refrigerator - Lawful Good...

Comic Sans: gnome bard who specialized in childish jokes. Impact: warforged barbarian who rushes and crushes enemies. Helvetica: tiefling warlock who takes a lot of care with their appearance. Your turn!

I saw these great armors made of animals (or just designed like them) at the Fernbank Museum in Atlanta today. What mundane or magical benefits do you think they should grant?

A discussion in another thread made me start brainstorming fun (and not stereotypical) ways to design "warlike" people in RPG settings. Orcs and Klingons may have been novel in their time, but the trope of an entire species sharing the quality of "warlike" is, at this point, a tired one. So...

Hi all, I'm planning a big trip with a bunch of gaming friends. We can obviously split into two groups to play D&D or other games, but I wanted to gather some ideas for RPGs that work well for 7 - 9 players. I do not think 5e, 4e, or 3e D&D or Pathfinder belong on this list. In my experience...

Hey all! This February I'm renting a cabin near the redwoods in Northern California and a bunch of my old gaming buddies and I are reuniting for a three-night get together. The plan is to hike during the day and play TTRPGs at night. It looks like, depending on the day, we will have between 6...

I play with a guy named Kevin who always comes up with amazing character names. In a FATE game about aliens and rebels, he had an alien spy named Jaguar Mirror. In a Dresden Files game set in San Francisco, he had a mystic street tough named Johnny Sausalito. In a long-term 5e game, he played...

Hey all, in this thread I was brainstorming ways to bring the "joy of prep" to Play to Find Out games like Ironsworn. Once I got a few ideas, I started coming up with a new campaign setting for the game. This is mostly just an exercise in fun, though I am planning on introducing some friends who...

Hi everyone, I've been mulling over something lately and wanted to collect some thoughts. I've really been enjoying running Ironsworn games for a small group of friends online, and I want to start running it offline as well. For those who don't know, Ironsworn is a game similar to Dungeon...

How much does news, announcements, or antics of Hasbro and WotC impact your feelings about D&D? 5 = a large impact 1 = a very tiny (or no) impact This thread isn't meant as an indictment or defense of Hasbro or WotC. I'm just curious how much people's enjoyment of D&D is impacted by these...

The Religion in D&D thread made me think about how much I enjoy the RPG storyline of killing a god. It could be a minor god, a big animal like in Princess Mononoke, a tentacled thing from beyond the world worshiped by a cult, or facing off against a major god in their own plane. These stories...

Last year I played a lot of Ironsworn, and it made me fall in love with Story Now games. I did some solo Ironsworn games, then ran some for my friends. The experience of being a GM but not actually knowing where the story was going to go was thrilling! For fun, I'd like to brainstorm some ways...

This next year I'm thinking of running a 5e D&D game online. For the first time, I'm planning on running a game for strangers instead of my friends. The reason for this is that my friends I used to play with (for 20 years) are now in different time zones and busy with their lives. My own life...

Let's say you sit down to play D&D, and the DM has introduced a house rule... There are no mechanical differences between the species. Whether you choose to play an Elf, a Human, or a Tortle, you gain no mechanical benefits. (Let's ignore flying races for right now and say this DM has come up...

Way back in 3rd Edition, my group and I played for a while misinterpreting the Flanking rules. I forget exactly how it went, but we thought that being Flanked meant you lost your Dex bonus to AC. It made flanking extremely advantageous. Eventually we realized Flanking just gave a +2 to attacks...

I'm running a new campaign for brand new players, and last night the Barbarian showed some boredom with using the same weapon over and over again. She started to switch to her rapier, her daggers, etc. And of course, the only effect of this was that she did less damage. Now to be perfectly...

I've been playing a lot of Ironsworn, and one thing I like about it is that "failed" rolls make the world more interesting. For example, if you fail a Gather Information roll, you do learn information... just information that makes your quest more difficult! Let's say you're asking around the...

I'm thinking of trying out something strange as a DM regarding Passive Perception. As it is, I use Passive Perception in two ways: 1) When a character enters a setting, they perceived everything their Passive Perception would allow: hidden creatures, treasures, etc. Usually for secret doors...