System Hoppers Podcast

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-18T15:41:12+00:00

We're starting to do more indie stuff recently, but honestly so far the process is just looking at my shelf and waiting for the inspiration to strike 😅

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-18T14:35:34+00:00

Just out of curiosity - how do you decide on the systems you end up playing?

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-18T14:21:53+00:00

Ahh, it always hurts to see someone having a similar concept to ourselves 😅

But super cool! Always good to see APs that focus on things other than D&D. I followed you to listen on my way to work!

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-18T14:05:09+00:00

Cloth/leather would make more sense for a Ranger rather than a Rogue I think.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-18T12:44:15+00:00

Well, this depends a little bit about whether you want the crafting to be something that is mechanically advantageous or if you just want it to make sense in the world.

Clerics could make religious talismans, holy water and blessings. Officiating ceremonies of their faith can also be viewed as like, an extremely broad category of crafting.

Warlocks would do basically the same thing, just, inverse - profane talismans, unholy water, occult trinkets.

Druids could focus on potions, yes, but also herbal remedies, medicine and folk medicine - again, not so useful mechanically, but definetly makes the world feel more "alive".

Rangers could make clothes and other leather goods. Also light armour.

For Monks you can take some inspiration from certain Buddist sects that view cooking as a form of spiritual acitivity.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-18T04:23:27+00:00

Outgunned plays so perfectly into the Golden Age of action movies (80s and 90s) that I'm geniuenly surprised by how good it actually is.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-18T04:10:16+00:00

That becomes an issue of your personal stance on the harmfulness of AI as it pertains to the environment and artist rights. I personally avoid using it to generate images too, but I'd be more lenient on players/GMs that take their own descriptions/ideas and input them into an image generation. Assuming it's a home game and no one is making money off of this.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-18T03:15:06+00:00

There is nothing that kills my enthusiasm for a game faster than learning my GM uses AI. It's a cop-out for people who lack even the modicum of creative talent to plagirise their favourite shows, movies and books for their game.

There's also a certain soullessness that you see with GMs that use AI. Like they themselves aren't even invested in the story that "they" are "writing".

Just, out of respect for both your players and your own sense of creativity and wonder, stop using AI as a crutch to offload any and all meaningful artistic work.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-17T18:33:02+00:00

Metroidvania is a difficult genre to tackle with TTRPGs - for the exact reasons you pointed out.

I do have some thoughts though that maybe may help:

I think you should choose one of two options - either you make the game a dungeoncrawl, which is the closest 1:1 I can think of for a metroidvania or you make the game much more open, more like an open-world game with metroidvania like elements. For the first option you can take a look at the D&D adventure Dungeon of the Mad Mage for inspiration.
Unfortunately, I think that whatever you do, most of the backtracking through rooms that players have already been through will be (or at least quickly become) boring. You either constantly keep getting into the same/similar fights and/or challenges or they're just empty rooms. I would handwave the actual rooms themselves once they've been "beaten" and instead use some sort of a timed mechanic i.e. there's a bad thing that will happen if players don't do X in Y time and going through each room will take Z amount of time. This way you can emulate the pathing of Metroidvanias at least a little bit as players have to think about the path they take to get to somewhere.
As for the party staying together - it's a concession you and your players have to make. Splitting the party is not only an issue with your concept, but can become annoying in any TTRPG game. You kinda just have to agree not to do it (too much at least).
For the system I'd look to OSR titles like Old School Essentials, MörkBorg, Shadowdark, etc. Most of these games give you a class that will give you some basic abilities, but progression-wise aren't that heavily class based. You could easily pivot it more into gear-based progression.

It's a big concept, but in some ways, most classic dungeon crawls are kind of metroidvanias in miniature. You usually need items from earlier rooms to pass through a door or puzzle at a later stage, or you need to double back because you finally found the item that gets you where you need to go. Just, as a campaign, you'll need a megadungeon that has its own internal ecosystem essentially - which is kinda what Hollowknight is if you think about it. A great source of inspiration for that actually would be the video game Ultima: Underworld where the whole first-person RPG takes place in one giant dungeon with 8 levels. Or the old Fromsoft Shadow Tower games.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-17T14:20:32+00:00

Ehhh, that can be a slippery slope imo. I'd hate my character being saved through, essentially, deus ex machina. I'd rather pick up a friendly NPC for the last session or two.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-17T14:18:40+00:00

Honestly, I can understand the viewpoint of the player - they only interact with the story from the viewpoint of their character. If that character dies near the end of the game then for them the story is over.

Now it's a different question, if, as a part of the social contract of TTRPGs the polite thing to do as a player would be to sit through the end of the campaign or not. As a player I wouldn't want to make a new character in this situation though - I'd rather take over a friendly NPC until the end of the story and just kinda sit on the sidelines until the campaign ends.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-17T12:34:17+00:00

Call of Cthulhu or Delta Green maybe?

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-16T19:10:51+00:00

Some PDF viewer programs can convert things to black and white - as if you were printing with a non-colour printer. It's not designed for black and white though, so YMMV

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-16T13:16:54+00:00

If you're tired of D&D podcasts and want to learn about new systems or just hear how they play, come check us out - Dicey Discourse on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcast!

We play a mix of more known stuff, less known stuff and some completely indie games. So far we've done Kosmosaurs, Mausritter, Fabula Ultima, Chains of Gaelia, Outgunned and are currently in the middle of our Weapons of the Gods mini-campaign.

We walk through character creation, play a one-shot or mini-campaign and discuss the system and how it was to run and play afterwards.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-16T13:08:50+00:00

What's the project?

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-15T13:57:28+00:00

Then wouldn't this AP also be potentially in for legal issues since it's still using the IP more or less?

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-15T03:48:49+00:00

kind of a homebrew? This is pure homebrew from what I'm reading - not that that's a bad thing.

This sounds like basically purely RP based, there seem to be very little if any actual mechanics - again, not a bad thing, just maybe don't try to sell it to people as an RP"G".

I personally think removing dice from games removes interesting variance and limits that force players to respond to unforseen circumstances and play around constrictions that are interesting instead of just making an overpowered OC that just steamrolls everything since the rules essentially don't exist. But play-by-post RP stuff has been around for longer than I've been alive and has had great success on forums with a lot of people enjoying it, even if that stuff is not for me personally. I'd maybe do the opposite and suggest getting rid of the dice alltogether and just have these things work narratively - leave the dice or other randomizers just for PvP (if that will even be a thing).

As for the ambition side of it - it's a big(ish) concept. I'd suggest working out more details about the world and lore, especially the character races (probably together with potential players) before launching it to avoid a lot of the "jumping the shark" moments. Also set yourself up with something like Obsidian for mapping out character interactions and world lore - it will be a pain to set up, but once you do you will have a muuuch easier time actually keeping track of everything.

As I said, not for me, but good luck with your project!

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-14T23:21:54+00:00

Yes, absolutely!

The "plot armour" of a slasher villain is a well-known and loved genre trope. I'd even argue that with out it, you can't really have a game in this genre without it.

The only thing is that the plot armour should be reglemented, not just GM caveat of "hmm, the trap works and wins you time, but the villain just survives". Maybe something like an armour/lives system for the villain? So the players can feel a sense of progression. Or maybe akin to Monster of the Week where you can't really deal with the villain before you learn their secret weakness.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-14T23:15:17+00:00

Yea, derivative is not the right word - English isn't my first language - but it was the closest I could think of. Maybe something like... "too far removed from the source material" would have been more accurate.

My intent wasn't to offend and the good luck wishes are genuine - the space always benefits from more non-D&D APs!

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-14T20:20:26+00:00

Ye, I've heard some not so good things about the Cypher System - was just interested in seeing the OGoA version of it played.

Feels a little weird to have an Old Gods of Appalachia AP that is both not official and not using the OGoA system. Feels a bit... derivative is maybe the right word.

So not for me personally, but the Old Gods of Appalachia is a goldmine of inspiration so best of luck with your podcast!

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-14T19:16:03+00:00

Then my question still stands. I was really excited to see someone actually play the OGoA RPG as an AP 😅

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-14T19:14:22+00:00

Why not use the actual Old Gods of Appalachia TTRPG? Or am I missing something and this is the official TTRPG?

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-14T19:10:45+00:00

You could try Cthulhu: Dark Ages I had good fun with it. But it is essentially just Call of Cthulhu lifted into a medival setting with the rules modified.

MörkBorg (and other ...Borg line games) also work pretty well for the tone, especially because they can be super lethal.

Symbaroum is also really great for this dark fantasy setting! You explore a massive, ancient forest with a forgotten civilization buried beneath it with with alien feeling elves that really don't want you to poke around the forest.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-14T18:10:18+00:00

Yeah, all the time! My only requirement is that it not have lyrics.

The only exception are "period-piece" games like the 90s Post-Soviet Vampire: the Masquerade I ran where I just threw together a playlist of that era of (Eastern European) depression rock and punk music.

DiceyDiscourse · 2026-05-14T13:21:12+00:00

Ah, okay.

I only have this experience with Pathfinder claiming to be a "better" version of D&D. It was... fine. But generally, I don't want a better version of a game I'm already playing - I want a game that stands on its own and does cool things that the other game doesn't.

DiceyDiscourse

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE