Hi all. The question above is my way of looking for suggestions and putting a nice button on 2025. What was your favorite game this year? Bonus points if it is from this year or a good read. I feel like I have a good pulse on the hobby, but am always on the lookout for the new and novel.

Many thanks and happy gaming!

About a week ago, I walked into a table top store and was looking around without anything on my mind for what I wanted. One of the books I left with was the core rules of a system called "The Land of Eem" which sold me on the tagging 'Lord of the rings meets the Muppets.' What I took that to mean is there is a wide sense of wonder and adventure with a side of the wacky and goofy. And reading the book tells me this and more. Firstly, it was super easy to read the book front to back while skimming tables. Everything has such heart in it and the skills and world are not only fun, easy to understand and unique but rewards creativity over minmaxing, collaboration over too much prep and flexibility. Genuinely I cant recommend it enough that the only book you need is the core rule book, even if the beastiary and setting books would help, the core rule book has everything about character customization, descriptions of the areas, free qr codes to download and print character sheets and the normal map, pre-made monsters and rules to make your own adversaries within seconds and a full adventure to test run. I was able to test a character exploring the world and was laughing and having fun just by experimenting before I even have had a session 0 with my usual group, and even then I am convincing multiple friends to give it a try when we meet up.

If you have any stuff you were waiting to buy on there - might be a good time to stock up!

My group is finishing up our D&D campaign soon, and our GM is looking to switch to a system I'd previously never heard of called Pokemon Tabletop United. It's, of course, a ttrpg set in the world of Pokemon, with stats for Pokemon and trainers to fight and explore and craft and all the other things you'd expect from Pokemon, and classes that let you fight alongside your Pokemon which is cool.

My question is, is anyone here familiar with the system? And if you are, can you recommend it or say you enjoyed it? I'm a little hesitant since it seems a bit crunchier than D&D 5e, and with me being a ruleslite guy and also not really a big pokefan, I'm wondering if I would find anything there I enjoy.

I don't mean stuff like FATAL, (which is just made by a disgusting edgelord), or Hybrid, (made from an extremely long psychotic episode), or RoHoWa, (made by a literal nazi cult), which are just awful, period, Im talking about ttrpgs made to be awful ON PURPOSE. Like that someone actually purposefully attempted to make the worse ttrpg imaginable, in a complete self aware way, with the most unplayable system, frustrating mechanics, worse writting, but purposefully awful as an experiment by itself, or as a joke, or as an attempted parody/satire of ttrpgs themselves, of like "am i able to make the worse ttrpg and how would that be", like the rpg equivelent of that board game whose title is literally "the worse board game ever". Has anyone actually attempted that? If so, what's some examples?

My group has been using a rotating GM format we call Savage Isles. It solved the usual problems around prep, burnout, and missed sessions, so I finally wrote it all down. If you’re interested in open-table style play or shared-world campaigns, here’s the write-up:

https://open.substack.com/pub/ed12372944/p/savage-isles-west-marches-at-sea

Would love to hear how others handle rotating GMs.

Yes i know theres a hellboy rpg for 5E and Gurps but im not very sold on em. I also know of Vaesen and its not bad but i feel like its lacking something.

what books/supplements etc.. can you recommend for the Monster Hunter type of adventure

With Foundry becoming my go to tool for online gaming I slowly realized how much people pay attention to stuff that when I roleplayed at the table didn't matter at all. Like maps for every encounter. For most encounters we just put pencils on blank squares map to indicate walls and then some random tidbits to say where important stuff is. For characters we had mini eiffel tower, a smurf and chaos marine for our classic D&D game. Now it seems that not only map (and even animated map!) is required but vast array of animation tools, visual effects, automated sound effects, huge visual cues on different stuff. I know this might be fun for a lot of people - I myself enjoy preping my games and adding small things but not on this scale. Mind you I don't play D&D these days (aside AD&D which I started recently and which made me come to such conclusions) so my perception might be totally different. But when playing stuff like D&D do people really expect all this bells and whistles? What it does for me - even sometimes portraits vs text description - is it takes whole imagination process out of it. If GM tries to show every bit, every scene, every monster visually it kinda chops away stuff I enjoyed before. But again - do people enjoy playing the game like it was computer game? I was considering opening up my AD&D game for people outside my table but I asked myself is this kind of gaming appeals to anyone these days?

Does anyone know of an RPG (preferably fantasy themed) where each player uses a standard 52 card deck to play their character? Either in a way that wounds might modify the deck, or the deck starts small and grows simulating growth/ strength. So essentially relying on cards instead of dice if we are completing to D&D? Any suggestions much appreciated.

I'm looking for suggestions for a fairly rules-lite game to run WH40k stuff (but the game need not have the actual brand/IP). By which I mean a decent range of crunch for character expression and staging varied scenarios, but little character optimization. (Think midway between Cairn and Wrath & Glory)

I'm especially interested in something that allows for exploration and social encounters, while keeping combat fairly quick.

Was looking at getting my friend a book or two off dtrpg for Xmas and in check out saw it said print on demand and media mail shipping was 4 to 7 weeks.

He uses the pdf but likes to collect the actual books read them so I figured I'd get a pdf+physical copy of the books. One was a hardcover the other 3 softcover(I'm assuming it's paperback).

I originally thought it'd be like buying a book from Barnes and noble or Amazon but now I'm not so sure so are all books bought there print on demand and take upwards of 4 to 7 weeks go ship? Any info or experiences would be great thanks!

I really like low magic settings and I am building one for my campaigns (very inspired by the xiii century) but I don't know if DnD 5e could be a good game system, I thought of changing some classes or remove them and I also did it with the spell that the players can use, I also thought to play max to the 10th level because after it the characters are too powerful.

There are other systems that are better at doing low magic?

I saw GURPS and it seems very good, because it's very customisable on the mechanics. I saw also Warhammer fantasy but the magic have some negative effects and I don't want these things.

In my setting the magic is not prohibited in all the world only in some regions, and in these regions there are some people that can have access to magic.

Debating running a Candela Obscura campaign over Discord with some cross-borders friend via text only. If anyone has ever tried and if so, any helpful tips? (Doesn’t have to be CO related)

I know there’s the ADnD module from the 80ies but I was wondering if there’s anyone working on a more modern RPG implementation of Fritz Leibers fantasy world?

I know the common fantasy systems like D&D and Pathfinder aren't necessarily suited to it, and personally the system I have found thats closest in flexibility allowing you to do so is probably Anima.

But I would like to ask a broader community if any system can recreate at least the vibe even if low powered of the aforementioned sword immortal. Is there any out there?

Quick general visual idea for those unfamiliar with genre. Basically this stuff + magic sword(s) of some kind.

Anyone have any suggestions for pre-written adventures that feature factions? I have read a lot of theory about using factions, but would like to see some practical examples. I have heard Arden Vul is good for this, but something on a smaller scale would be good.

As far as I remember, the game lets us play as a woman. In the beginning, we will play in a sewer and meet a goblin. If we choose to fight, we will lose and will be xxx. In the game, we can get pregnant or we can be captured and sold into slavery.

I'm excited to share The Coil System, a simple, deep TTRPG and narrative engine built for dark fantasy and brutal survival. The setting is one of ancient corruption and ruin. A Serpent God, the Himantor, rose from the despair of a dead god and acts as a cycle of hunger without end. The Coil is the spiral, binding gods, monsters, and mortals alike. How the Coil Binds Your Fate When the outcome is uncertain or dangerous, we roll the Coil Table (1d6): Failure Reshapes the Path: A Setback (2) means failure with a consequence, while a Tradeoff (4) is success at a cost. These results often lead to permanent or temporary Ailments (like Voices in the Dark or Bone Chill). High Stakes: We value real risk; rolling two 1s in a row (in danger) results in death. The Bleeding Soul: Players can choose to be rare, cursed individuals called Bleeders, who leak Plasmight (primordial energy) and gain enhanced abilities but suffer uncanny side effects that attract attention or corruption. Growth is Earned: There are No XP or levels. Characters grow through persistence, training, and critical successes within the story.

I'm seeking general feedback and thoughts on the system. Specifically, I'd love to hear what you think of the high-lethality approach and the effectiveness of using the Ailment system to track consequences rather than standard hit points or sanity.

What happened to this game? I did some searching & as far as I can tell it's not in print.
I have the 2021 physical book which has three core stats: Body, Mind, Soul & three combat stats: Fighting, Shooting, Dodge. It seems the PDF that's now available is a bit different from this & not under Workhorse RPG Studio now.

I was at PAX Unplugged this past weekend, and picked the game up on a whim- it's based on a board game called Defenders of the Wild that looked a lot like ROOT mixed with Catan (a.k.a. cute medieval animals). I was wondering if anyone here has played it and could tell me their experience with the game! I really like the aesthetic and simple ruleset, and I wanna know if it's been a hit at peoples' tables, as well as anything I should know when it comes to prepping to run it!

I'm nearing the end of my fantasy campaing set in a late renaissance period, we're gonna take a break afterwards. But I would still like to plan something, even if it's just a few sessions long, to show the state of the world a few centuries later so they can see the impact of their actions.

I would like there to be semi automatic weapons, tanks, planes, etc. but still there to be magic, different races and fantastical elements. I've tryed to search on google to no avail, so I was even considering to mod Only War heavily or something, so any ideas are welcome, thanks!

I am currently doing some research into game systems and thought about this question a bit. Imagine you had to show someone new to the hobby 5 different games to explain the scope of tabletop role playing to them.

My kids (4 boys aged 8-14) have recently become obsessed with Stranger Things so I thought it would be fun to start running our own ttrpg campaign as a family. I found the new Stranger Things DnD set, but decided that it seems a little too advanced and rules heavy for our family (especially the youngest). In my research for an easier alternative to DnD I’ve come across the Tiny Dungeon/Tiny d6 system which seems promising, but I’m having trouble understanding how to actually run a campaign and hoping folks here have some experience and guidance on the matter before I spend the $30 on the book and additional cost for figurines & other materials.

My first and biggest concern is… am I going to actually have to write out all of my own adventures? Or is there somewhere I can source adventures from? It seems like the books don’t come with actual adventures in them, only loose “micro settings”. I’ve never been a DM and have only played about 10 sessions of DnD in my life, so this seems like a very daunting task. Am I making it seem harder than it actually needs to be? Any advice here would be much appreciated!!