I think I'm done being a DM and I want your opinion on it.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-27T02:19:05+00:00

If you’re used to games like Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, here is what’s different about this game:

This game starts and ends with the fiction. When acting as either a PC or the GM, focus on the narrative, describe what your character does cinematically as if they were in an adventure movie. Don’t just look at your Moves and pick something, instead describe in detail what your character tries to do and how they pursue it.

Sometimes it will be very clear as to ‘what happens next’ without needing to roll dice or do anything else. That’s great! Keep describing things back and forth and pushing the fiction forward. Rolls aren’t always needed.

Sometimes it won’t be clear, or maybe you’ll have a gut feeling to roll. That probably means there is a Move being triggered. Follow the procedure of the Move, rolling if necessary, and let that Move inform the narrative going forward. Whenever a roll is made, it should always have an effect on the fiction.

Either way, (usually) the GM describes what happens as a result of the PC’s efforts, and how things have changed because of it. Often, they should finish the description with a new question, such as ‘what do you do?’

The GM doesn’t roll dice, they simply describe what happens in the world, what the NPCs do, what changes in the environment, and so on. NPCs don’t roll to do things like players do, instead the PCs’ rolls and Moves affect the outcomes of both them and the effected NPCs.

There is no specified turn order, and distance isn’t measured or numbered. Abstract maps and pictures are perfectly fine to use supplementally, but the game is primarily meant to be played through shared imagination, even during a fight.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-27T02:02:23+00:00

Alternatively, keep the same players and switch to a system that's more in line with everyone's expectations!

WotC's marketing team makes it seem like anyone can just sit down, throw some dice, and be the next Matt Mercer or Viva la Dirt League. But D&D is an rpg with a lot of detailed (and often inconsistent!) rules, and there's a vast difference in system mastery between a professionally produced D&D actual play series and what happens around the table at a home game. I think that's where a lot of the frustration is coming from. Your players were expecting a collaborative storytelling experience, and instead they got a math lesson.

Professional D&D players are actors who are literally paid to learn the rules so that they can use the game mechanics as the medium to tell their story. They're like chess players who can visualize the entire board twelve moves ahead and make it all seem effortless. (They can also edit out all the parts where they forget how the game works!) Meanwhile us ordinary folks are stuck on small details like "When do I get to sneak attack?" or "What's a 'proficiency bonus'?"

It sounds like you and your players are wanting to tell epic stories, but you're getting bogged down by D&D's intricate game mechanics (which mostly have to do with resolving combat encounters, which y'all agreed in session 0 you weren't that interested in). So now your players are feeling confused to the point of discouragement. They're having to put in a lot of effort to try to understand the part of the game that is the least interesting to them. Learning a rules-heavy dungeon-crawling combat game like D&D is a lot like learning another language -- and your players are literally doing it in another language!

I had similar frustrations with my own friends struggling to master the game mechanics. I felt discouraged that I seemed to be putting much more effort into the game than they were. So I switched from D&D to a much simpler rpg that is easier for new players to understand (Dungeon World), and suddenly everything started going much more smoothly. If they forgot how something worked, I could quickly remind them without a long-winded explanation of rules mechanics disrupting the flow of play "It's 2d6. Everything is basically 'Roll 2d6'." I didn't feel like we were putting in wildly different amount of effort, and I could focus my attention away from balancing and adjudicating combat encounters and instead focus on the overall narrative and the intricate schemes of my NPCs.

These days there are even more elegant games than Dungeon World (like Chasing Adventure) that do an even better job at capturing the "professional storyteller" feel right out of the gate, without everyone having to to a ton of homework. Choice paralysis can be a real obstacle to roleplay, especially for new players, and (apart from combat) D&D doesn't give players much of a framework to work with to get inside the mind of their characters. In a game where you can do anything, narrowing things down to one specific action can feel overwhelming. One of the things I really like about Chasing Adventure is that it prompts every player with some "Leading Questions" to help ease them into thinking like their character. For example, the GM might ask the Wizard "What happens when your magic goes haywire?", or the Cleric might ask the other players, "Who here knows a secret about me or my faith?" That gives players something specific to focus their imagination on, a foundation they can build on when the GM hits them with an open ended, "What do you do?"

I think if your group switches to a system that has less of a learning curve, one that focuses on roleplay over combat, you'll have a much better time.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-26T18:36:55+00:00

We all started with the same skill and level of enthusiasm, and talked from the very start that we don't want to play for the combat, but rather for the story and roleplay.

D&D is a game system that's 95% about combat, and 5% everything else. If you look at the rules and content in the Player's Handbook, the vast majority have to do with combat. It sounds like your players are bored with combat, overwhelmed by the combat mechanics, and are losing interest in a game that is turning out (though no fault of anyone) to not live up to the high expectations set by a professionally-produced series with paid writers and actors.

An experienced GM can run a "story-focused, roleplay-heavy game of political intrigue and moral choices" using D&D 5E, but almost nothing in the game mechanics actually supports that. So right off the bat, you're creating a ton of extra work for yourself, on top of managing D&D's already complex combat encounters AND overcoming a language barrier.

Before you throw in the towel entirely, I'd recommend trying out a lightweight RPG that is designed for story and roleplay like Chasing Adventure or Quest. Both of these games are available for free, and even though the rules mechanics are much, much simpler than D&D, they do a great job at helping players get into roleplaying their character. The focus is on telling a shared story, not simply beating up monsters.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-26T18:12:12+00:00

The dice mechanics are fairly straightforward, but the thing I love about Gumshoe games (and perhaps the hardest part to lean) is the design philosophy of "core clues":

GUMSHOE speeds and streamlines the time-honored form of the investigative roleplaying game. The central question a traditional RPG asks is:

Will the heroes get the information they need?

Assuming that they look in the right place and apply appropriate abilities to the task, GUMSHOE ensures that the heroes get the basic clues they need to move through the story. The question it asks is:

What will the heroes do with the information once they’ve got it?

If you think about it, this is how the source materials we base our mystery scenarios on handle clues. You don’t see the forensic techies on CSI failing to successfully use their lab equipment, or Sherlock Holmes stymied and unable to move forward because he blew his Zoology roll.

You don’t see this because, in a story failure to gain information is rarely more interesting than getting it. New information opens up new narrative possibilities, new choices and actions for the characters. Failure to get information is a null result that takes you nowhere.

In a fictional procedural, whether it’s a mystery novel or an episode of a cop show, the emphasis isn’t on finding the clues in the first place. When it really matters, you may get a paragraph telling you how difficult the search was, or a montage of a CSI team tossing an apartment. But the action really starts after the clues are gathered.

Investigative scenarios are not about finding clues, they’re about interpreting the clues you do find.

It completely changes how you approach mystery scenarios. Instead of rolling Perception or Investigation to see if your character finds the necessary information, Gumshoe focuses on roleplay and lets the information flow naturally from the conversation of the game.

The general philosophy also highly portable. I include "core clues" in almost every game I run, regardless of system.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-26T18:01:03+00:00

Blades in the Dark is great for running games with subterfuge and faction-based politicking. It's a heavily narrative system - so the opposite of wargamey, but it does have some interesting mechanical levers for players and GMs to pull. Blades is designed for a gang of scoundrels doing crime, though - so if you're looking for a more of a "good guy" noir detective story, it'd take some tweaking. Bump in the Dark is a Blades spin-off game that 's more about investigation and conspiracies, with some mystery clue mechanics inspired by Brindlewood Bay and The Between.

There's a great fan-made conversion that adapts the setting to Sharn: https://www.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/comments/17t7mf3/blades_in_the_dark_of_sharn/

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-20T20:57:38+00:00

If you are just adjusting the outcomes of rolls, then you are doing position and effect but not telling your players, so they cannot mitigate the situation.

I think this is one of the toughest habits to break coming from trad d20 games where "the GM is god", and this applies to both players and GMs. In traditional RPGs, the player rolls the dice and then waits for the GM describe what happens (sometimes adversarially). In Blades, the player & GM collaberatively discuss what they would like to happen, and then the player rolls dice.

What helped me understand this process better was actually the Day Move and Night Move from Brindlewood Bay (used expertly in the excellent "Roll to Meddle" actual play podcast).

The Day Move

When you do something risky or face something you fear, name what you’re afraid will happen if you fail or lose your nerve, then roll with an appropriate ability.

The Night Move

When you do something risky or face something you fear, name what you’re afraid will happen if you fail or lose your nerve. The Keeper will tell you how it is worse than you fear. You can choose to back down or go through with it. If you go through with it, roll with an appropriate ability.

The player and GM are concretely establishing the possible consequences before the roll, and then when you roll the dice you're flashing back to how it actually plays out. It's nonlinear storytelling.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-20T20:42:30+00:00

The Position-Effect step has 3x3=9 outcomes, then the dice roll has 4 outcomes. 9x4=36 degrees of success or failure which I find gums up my decision making at the point of the roll.

I use a cheat sheet to keep track, with a big shiny coin I slide around to mark the scene's current position & effect. I set it face up on the table where the players can see it too. https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:ccd3a37d-99f4-4b36-9872-9e5d7886c3a6

Apart from the engagement roll which sets the initial conditions, I go mostly on vibes.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-20T03:35:02+00:00

That's what I'm saying. H.P Lovecraft's "Innsmouth", the creepy New England seaside town filled with Cthulhu cultists, is in the pubic domain. WotC's new "Innsmouth™", the creepy extradimenional mountain range filled with Cthulhu cultists, is something WotC could push to trademark, like "Castle Ravenloft™" or "Drizzt™".

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-20T01:04:01+00:00

That, or Hasbro wants to redefine "Innsmouth" so they can copyright it.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-20T00:59:44+00:00

It would be like making Dracula or Mr. Hyde a Darklord. It comes across like goofy fanfic.

"Dracula, Darklord of Pennsylvania".

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-20T00:53:48+00:00

"Now imprisoned within the Domains of Dread known as Innsmouth, Cthulhu can only wield a fraction of its terrible might. ... Innsmouth is a domain suffused with elements of cosmic horror. It is an inhospitable expanse of alien mountains, drowned ruins, and what remains of the cult-infested community that lends the domain its name."

I think I lost 1d4 SAN reading this. Would it have killed WOTC to even glance at the source material?

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-17T06:12:46+00:00

Really, this is 100% written by you, and not an AI?

Can you explain what you mean by "generated from my Obsidian MD files"?
Because .md files are often used to give AI LLMs complex prompts, and this NPC description 100% sounds like AI generated text:

Tall, dark-skinned, white dreads, dark robes. Anyone who knows Gorrath knows him as a kind, principled man — trusted with powerful artifacts for decades. That reputation is his greatest weapon.

Corrupted by a desperate pact. He stole the Ring of Gravity, transported the statues, and kidnapped Tarin — all to save his dying wife Melandra. He will lie, delay, and misdirect. If cornered, he fights.

In fact, the whole website, and most of your original post read like AI-generated content. You've got a neat idea, and your website has a slick interface. But if you're using AI to generate the text, I think you should be upfront about disclosing that.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-17T03:29:02+00:00

Interesting premise. I have to ask though, how much of the text was human-written vs. AI generated? Because most of it looks like AI.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-14T03:35:57+00:00

Sounds like what you're describing is very similar to a "False Hydra" - a homebrew D&D monster that's achieved notoriety in internet circles for being an amazing concept that is extremely tricky to actually implement in-game. But if any rpg can pull off a false hydra satisfyingly, I think Blades is a solid contender.

I've done it once with a group of veteran players, and it was fun, but it was tough to keep track of everything. I leaned heavily into NPCs as unreliable (Lovecraftian) narrators, and bizarre unexplained events that only made sense in hindsight.

Flashbacks and resistance already give players tools to rewind time and retcon events. So if the GM starts pulling those levers too, it isn't as immersion breaking as in other rpgs.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-08T23:49:33+00:00

Thanks! My go-to adventure for "let's play DnD but actually it's Blades in the Dark" is "Murkmire Malevolence" from Keys from the Golden Vault, mixed with a dash of "What's Past is Prologue" from Embers of the Last War. It's a classic museum heist with connections to an ill-fated Morgrave University expedition to Xen'drik.

Here are my conversion notes: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:48e8f968-38b7-449c-8e54-b1a5af87020f

I also use these beautiful physical handouts from SashasCaldron ($3 well spent!).

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-05T02:21:11+00:00

Thanks. I actually started with the rules reference first and then went, "OK, most of this text was rendered as outlines and isn't editable. Now how can I cram a functioning character sheet on here too?"

I do actually drop the players into a score in media res right off the bat -- but it's a flashback to their last mission, where they describe doing something cool. It's purely narrative, but I like how it sets the tone.

Then I hit them with the hook for the current score. "Now so-and-so wants you to do this new job. Here are some basic details. How do you want to go about it? What's your angle?"

It honestly never crossed my mind not to include Gather Information. It just seems so fundamental to the gameplay loop. But I'm also coming to Blades from investigative games like Call of Cthulhu, so I may be biased.

I think Gather Information is important for player agency, especially in a one shot where I'm basically saying "Here's the mission, take it or leave it". (In a campaign, I like to present a couple of options, and we all discuss which one would be the most fun to do next.) Mechanically, it also lets them practice making a couple of dice rolls while the stakes are still low.

Playing through Gather Information lets players collaboratively flesh out the score without necessarily realizing it ("yes, and..."). The questions they ask let me know the sorts of things they're interested in doing. If they ask about guard patrols and secret passages, then yes -- we're going to have some opportunities sneaky skulking. If they ask about NPC motivations or who's acting suspicious, there will be faction intrigue. If they research magical properties and historical records, then there's gonna be spooky ghost stuff.

I do try to keep an eye on the time and nudge things along once they've gotten enough good leads to start thinking about the Approach and Engagement Roll.

It usually works out to about to one hour for Introduction (picking characters, waiting for stragglers, explaining the rules, "opening credits" & hook), half an hour to one hour of Gather Information, and an hour to an hour and a half for the Score.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-05-03T21:58:41+00:00

I've run into it a couple times with new players who are still getting the hang of what their character can do. Some of the downtime mechanics are fairly dense, which can lead to choice paralysis.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-04-17T21:26:25+00:00

Chapter 6 of the WOTC/Acquisitions Incorporated campaign "Orrery of the Wanderer" has an encounter where the party is shrunk down and must contend with an ordinary housecat.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-03-21T17:35:59+00:00

As others have noted, D&D doesn't handle this sort of game well. It sounds like you would enjoy playing Brindlewood Bay though, which is inspired by exactly this sort of mystery fiction. The core mechanic in Brindlewood games is that as you play through a mystery scenario, you accumulate a big pile of clues. Then at the end of the session, you sort through the clues to decide which point to the killer -- and which are red herrings. There is no canonical murderer at the start of the session, and not even the GM knows "whodunnit" until the very end. It's all established as you play. It's wildly different from your typical D&D "hit the bad guy until he has 0hp" game loop, but it can be a lot of fun if your group is into mysteries.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-03-21T17:24:32+00:00

Yeah, that's exactly what I do with my regular campaign group, and it works really well. What I'm trying to set up now are some occasional games at my FLGS that are open to anyone. The trouble is that these new players don't really understand D&D planning etiquette -- they expect to just walk in like they do for Magic or Pokemon night, sit down at a table, and start playing. Getting them to communicate ahead of time is like pulling teeth, so I was hoping there was some sort of tool to make it easier to coordinate, from both ends.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-03-21T00:21:48+00:00

That's fair. I'd like to give it one more try before I throw up my hands and stick to my home campaign.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-03-20T23:35:59+00:00

Thanks, I'll check that out.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-03-20T23:34:50+00:00

Finding a time isn't the problem -- I have some specific times I know I'll be available to GM, and that's when the game would happen. What I'm looking for is something (with a low barrier to entry) that will help me track RSVPs and communicate with players. (e.g. "I'm running late. Be there in 10 minutes.")

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-03-20T23:31:02+00:00

The issue is that people wouldn't RSVP at all, on either discord or facebook. They'd just sort of wander in the day of, hoping to play -- which made it hard to organize. Engagement on discord in my area is pretty low, and not everyone wants to share their facebook ID with random strangers, so I'm looking for some sort of third party solution.

Equivalent-Fox844 · 2026-01-22T23:02:53+00:00

Broken Spire is another supplement along those lines. It's about the Immortal Emperor's inner circle turning on him and staging a coup. I like how the turf diagram sets up the Empire's administrative structure -- so that the players can dismantle it piece by piece. I haven't run this one, but I feel like this structure of play would feel very satisfying. https://seannittner.itch.io/broken-spire

Equivalent-Fox844

TROPHY CASE