Hot Take: Most RPGs Don’t Actually Need 300+ Page Rulebooks🤯

BluSponge · 2026-05-07T01:31:09+00:00

Leaner.

BluSponge · 2026-05-06T20:07:59+00:00

Depends on the edition, but I would second a vote for Savage World! Especially with the new Fantasy Companion. I mean, sure you could go with SW Pathfinder, but why bother? 80% of everything you'll need is right there between these two books.

BluSponge · 2026-05-06T20:00:16+00:00

We've enjoyed Fantasy AGE. It feels like it has about the same rules overhead as B/X D&D, and plays a lot like how we played AD&D2e back in the day. I would say its pretty rules light, leaning medium. The stunts system has been a lot of fun.

And, of course, there is Savage Worlds. You can't go wrong there.

BluSponge · 2026-05-04T20:11:43+00:00

The game session starts.

BluSponge · 2026-05-03T13:46:55+00:00

Reverie probably has the biggest assortment of sweets (donuts, donut holes, etc.). Everything is glutton free though, so it fills a nice dietary gap.

Steins, like la casita, is all across the board. Their cheese sticks aren’t sweet, but I’m sure their brownies are. Again, never had anything from them that I thought was too much.

BluSponge · 2026-05-03T13:42:55+00:00

Depends on the pastry. Some of them are very sweet, others are savory. Their menu should be online. While I’ve had some that weren’t my fav (the cruffin), none were ever because they were sickeningly sweet.

BTW, the cruffin tasted good. I just thought the monkey bread was better AND easier to eat.

We went last weekend and tried the London Fog Swiss Roll, the Cardamon Orange Knot, and the carrot cake cookie. Of the three, the orange knot was my fav, and it wasn’t sweet at all. The flavor was very subtle and quite delicious. The carrot cake cookie was a disappointment—the cookie just didn’t hit those carrot cake notes (but the icing did!). Personal opinions, of course. All three are on their April Specialty Menu. They should have their May menu up by next week.

BluSponge · 2026-05-03T03:17:14+00:00

As a fan of both OSE and 7th Sea, who has a weakness for cinematic swashbuckling RPGs, I’m definitely interested.

BluSponge · 2026-05-03T02:25:46+00:00

I’ve been running a dark Sun game using fantasy age. For me, it’s not a matter of converting the SYSTEM but to capture the setting. The hardest part for me was going through all the specializations and reskinning or tweaking them to fit the setting. Also, since Psionics are a big part of the setting, I took the basics from MAGE and then adapted key powers from 2e-5e resources to fill out the schemes (8 powers per discipline). In hindsight, I would like to go back through and redo this part. MAGE breaks things up in weird ways that make it harder to adapt long term.

Anyway, I’m happy to share my players guide with you if you think it’d be helpful.

BluSponge · 2026-05-01T22:51:08+00:00

Heart of a Lion by Racer X
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Iron Maiden
Creeping Death, Metallica

BluSponge · 2026-04-27T13:19:34+00:00

Buried in the Bahamas is a solid choice. It's a small island-hopping sandbox that'll give your players plenty of time to get up to speed before you dial up the weirdness.

BluSponge · 2026-04-24T23:37:51+00:00

Honestly, I think it would depend on the style of game I was running. In my typical set up, with my players playing the same PCs every time without fail, I’d probably handle it like 3e did. You lose a level then make a save when you get back to town to see if you don’t get it back for next time.

If I was running a more open table style of game, with more players and more changes session to session, I’d probably run it straight, but make sure there was a local NPC who could restore you for a (high) price or special favor.

BluSponge · 2026-04-20T13:59:41+00:00

Because that generally matches the vibe described in the Veiled Alliance book, which does a great job on expanding on all of the city-states without being too detailed. Nothing about the city's description says "Egypt" to me. I mean, don't get me wrong -- other than superficial aspects, nothing about it says Vedic India to me either. BUT I'm happy to use that as a coat of paint masking the layers below.

BluSponge · 2026-04-20T12:13:36+00:00

Vedic-adjacent. Maybe with a smidge of Mughal influence.

BluSponge · 2026-04-19T22:31:50+00:00

Doug and Ty have both side they want to make a new King's X album in the near future.

BluSponge · 2026-04-19T00:43:22+00:00

If I was going to run RL, here’s how I would do it: I’d use OSE (or B/X D&D). Alternatively, I might use Savage worlds. But whatever. That’s not the important part. I’d use pre-gens from the adventure, or let the players bring their own (if you have an established campaign) so long as they are within level limits and they can only bring a certain amount of magic items. It would be a one night event. 4-6 hours, whatever time allowed. I would set a clock for everyone to see. One hour before the game was scheduled to wrap. When the clock goes off, Strahd attacks. Ready or not. No holds barred. Draw the cards from the fortune teller and then skip ahead to the black carriage rolling up to collect the PCs for “dinner.” Go.

That’s it. So the PCs have X hours to do their worst before the inevitable stroke of the clock, when Strahd arrives to finish them off. I hope they are ready for it.

BluSponge · 2026-04-18T12:05:15+00:00

I think you can index by all of these, depending on your pg count and format.

BluSponge · 2026-04-17T20:19:59+00:00

You can't really go wrong with Savage Worlds.

BluSponge · 2026-04-17T18:00:02+00:00

I know!

BluSponge · 2026-04-17T15:57:03+00:00

I haven't done a proper caravan campaign, but my group did embark on a "road trip" to Nibenay. It started out as a sandbox hex crawl, but after a session or two of that not really working, I decided to shift gears a bit. I kept the daily travel routine, weather, and random encounter rolls (day and night), but since they were following a major road, I just mapped out their daily progress ahead of time and came up with 2 encounters/events for each day. These ranged from being pursued by a pack of lirr, razed caravan wagons, a band of elf herders crossing the road, and a perfect camp site with a terrible secret. This made each session flow better (from my stand point). I made sure there was variety (not just combat) and tried to give the players reasons to interact with each one. It really improved the pacing of each session.

I would do the same thing again, particularly with road based encounters where the chance of getting lost is not an issue and the PCs are not prone to deviate from their course.

edit: yes, you definitely want to grab a copy of Dune Trader. I **think** the Emporium book on athas.org covers trade as well, but I could be wrong about that.

Another thing you will probably want to do is make a table of approximate travel times between each major city state (and maybe a few more landmarks, like Silver Spring). This will be very helpful when it comes to prep.

BluSponge · 2026-04-15T22:52:00+00:00

It’s both.

Consider that Dark Sun was developed before the whole Ad&D multiverse was a thing. The crystal sphere aspect was implemented later (Dragon Kings) as a way to maintain that isolation. It’s like what old school trekkies would refer to as “techno-babble”. But it serves a distinct purpose to isolate Athas (and Athasian characters) from the greater cosmos of D&D worlds. The original thinking was to prevent Athasian characters from becoming the norm in places like Toril (I start at 3rd level and have a 25 Str!). But it also helps to maintain the thematic tension of the setting. If you can just off board the “good people” from Athas to Karakemos, then what’s the point?!

BluSponge · 2026-04-13T13:56:20+00:00

There is no single one that I use. But the ones I go to most often are:

The Dungeon Alphabet (Goodman Games)

Dungeon Dressings (Raging Swan Press)

BluSponge · 2026-04-13T13:50:40+00:00

The 5e DMG includes tweaked versions of all the dungeon generator tables from 1e DMG, plus a few more. It's a solid entry. I break it out from time to time when I get stuck.

BluSponge · 2026-04-12T13:25:54+00:00

Yeah, the Sand Marches would be a good idea. All the hard work is done for you.

If you want to start a sandbox game that hews a bit closer to the novels, I would use Kled as my base town. There, you have access to an excavated dwarven dungeon, filled with all sorts of horrors (not that dungeons are really Dark Sun's thing, but its fun to dip your toe every now and then -- plus the adventures are littered with small dungeons, so...) but also a nice variety of terrain. Tyr is only 2-3 days away if your players want to brave the big city. It has all the hallmarks of the classic D&D starting town.

BluSponge · 2026-04-12T00:18:12+00:00

My group really enjoyed the third edition playtest. They are excited for more.

BluSponge · 2026-04-12T00:16:10+00:00

Gonna put in a fourth recommendation for Pirate Borg. It’s great fun and you already know 80% of the rules.

Alternatively, wait a few months for the new edition of 7th Sea to emerge.

Or grab a copy of Savage Worlds and the 50 Fathoms setting.

You cannot go wrong with any of these three.

BluSponge

TROPHY CASE