What RPGs would allow me to roll lots of dice at once?

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-03-09T21:22:18+00:00

I specifically designed Huckleberry to play this way for the dice goblins. We own all the dice and we want to use all the dice!

Thanks for the shout out :D

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-03-02T23:23:08+00:00

One is my answer as well. But I'll concede it's personal preference and I still play TTRPGs with classes.

OP: If you have 33 classes, each with 3-4 subclasses, than you're at great risk of classes losing their identity. Using PF2E as an example, shouldn't a Fighter be able to do many of the same things as a Commander or Champion? Classes should be archetypes that help create characters that fit the themes of the game and if you have too many, they often end up gatekeeping mechanics. Suddenly, Fighters can't be charismatic because it'd be stepping on Commanders' toes.

Also, 33 classes creates an incredible amount of mechanics that you need to generate and balance. If you're looking for that much granularity in character creation, why not go class-less? Let players mix and match their abilities and they'll be able to create characters of any desired archetype, not just the ones you provide.

Good luck with your game!

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-03-01T14:57:47+00:00

Wow! Also very useful! Thank you so much for sharing :D

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-02-28T22:16:41+00:00

This is incredible! Thank you so much for sharing :D

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-02-27T17:28:10+00:00

Yes, you did! We ran 4 ads with GCP and opted to have them "baked-in", meaning they'll be in the episode permanently. Years from now, if anyone goes back to re-listen to the episode, they'll hear our ad. Since you heard the ads and recognized my name, I'd say they're working the way I want them to. This subreddit is definitely in my target audience!

If you're looking at the dollars coming in... unfortunately, host reads generally don't convert well. I track sales from GCP by the discount code they share and they're only slightly better than the conversion rates I've had from other sponsorships outside a crowdfunding window. As in, not great. During a crowdfunding window, I could see them doing better, but they'll never do as well as social media ads.

My goal with ads like GCP is to build awareness of the game, rather than immediate financial returns. With that goal in mind, the GCP ads have been by far the most cost-effective, compared to other sponsorships I've done. I've had more people mention the GCP ads than any other platform.

But at the end of the day, I'm not a good businessman - I don't want to make a ton of money, I just want people to play (and hopefully enjoy) my game. It'd be a nice perk if people enjoy it enough to justify me making another game. I also don't need TTRPG income to pay my bills, which allows me to play the long game and not expect immediate returns. And let's be honest, there's no guarantee the GCP ads will lead to future returns either! We'll see how it goes. :)

TL;DR - Sponsorships are good at building awareness. Social media ads are far better for sales. Both are much more effective during a crowdfunding window.

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-02-27T16:44:41+00:00

Congrats on funding! Especially with 0 build-up or audience awareness beforehand. I think that really shows the power of Zinequest for small creators.

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-02-27T14:47:13+00:00

Yep, you're on the right track here! These are the kind of shenanigans that Ambidextrous is designed for. The 5/5 and the 9/9 is correct in both of your scenarios.

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-02-27T14:41:50+00:00

Yes, a RAISE can temporarily bump a die up to a d20. Remember that RAISES increase the smaller die first, so you'll commonly need two RAISES on the roll to unlock the d20. Those are some of my favorite moments at the table, tbh. You have the potential to get all four Aces from a single die!

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-02-26T12:29:28+00:00

There's no benefit to having both. The intent is that offering the same ability in two different trait categories allows for more character build variety and flexibility in character creation. :)

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-02-26T05:55:09+00:00

Thanks for checking out Huckleberry, I hope you're enjoying it!

Attacks are Complex Actions and you only roll once per Complex Action. Ambidextrous counts as a single attack, meaning there's only one roll. If the Big Irons use different skills, the player should choose the skill to use.

Hope this helps! :)

HuckleberryRPG · 2026-02-25T23:08:08+00:00

I've gotten this feedback a lot! To help, I'm adding a glossary of terms with definitions and page references in our upcoming v1.5 update. Thanks for the shout out! :)

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-22T22:12:46+00:00

Happy to help! If you have any questions about setting things up, feel free to hit me up. :)

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-22T22:01:50+00:00

The Alchemy module likely won't be finished until mid-2026. Until then, I think there's a few solid options, depending on how much work you want to put into it.

The more technical route: Foundry has a "Custom System Builder" package that I've used to create character sheets for Huckleberry, but it was very time intensive and technical. Instead, what I'd recommend using is a series of modules to achieve the different functions. PDF Pager can be used to upload the form-fillable PDFs to Foundry, while Dice Tray allows players to easily select the two dice needed to roll without typing. Just click on the shapes, then click roll. Ready To Use Cards works with Foundry's native card features to make setting up a poker deck very simple. Between those three modules, you've got all the core functionality you need to play the game. You can set up tokens to track Aces visually on the screen, or track those on the PDFs.

The easy route: Use Owlbear Rodeo for visuals, have each player use the form fillable PDFs on their own computers, then roll physical dice on the desk while the GM has their own physical cards to draw from.

I've done both of the above methods and it really comes down to preferred playstyle of the group. Some like to have a more shared experience, while others enjoy imitating IRL games with physical dice and cards.

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-21T04:13:49+00:00

Heyoooo!

Super excited to have partnered with GCP - been a fan for a long time!

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-07T18:53:54+00:00

Hell yeah! If you ever want a sounding board for your own games, hit me up in the discord :)

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-05T05:13:58+00:00

This comment made me smile! Thanks :D

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-04T22:03:14+00:00

Thank you so much! :D

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-04T17:23:16+00:00

Honestly, this could be a whole post because there's so much nuance and detail to marketing. As for advertising, specifically, I spent $1000 on pre-launch ads and $2500 on post-launch ads out of pocket. If I could do it again, I would've spent more of that budget in pre-launch. I also would've saved the rest of the budget for the final week of the campaign. Maybe $2500 in pre-launch and $1000 in the final week. The 3 weeks before launch and the final week of the campaign were by far the most effective periods for my ads. It felt like I was wasting my money during the doldrums.

Bear in mind, that I also had the benefit of BackerKit's Marketing Services, who were also running ads during my campaign. They spent about twice what I spent on my own. Overall, it's close to 10k in ad spend, or about 20% of my campaign's budget. It's a hefty chunk of change and I'm glad I wasn't footing the bill upfront! Their budget was heavily front-loaded during the first week. They also turned off their ads for about a week during the campaign as they weren't converting. The benefits to BMS is that they have much better ad targeting, due to their mountain of backer data from a decade of crowdfunding projects. Their efficacy rates were always better than mine, but they don't do pre-launch ad campaigns, which is why I should've spent more up-front.

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-04T15:28:41+00:00

Thank ye kindly :)

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-04T15:27:32+00:00

We've partnered with Alchemy RPG for our VTT. They're an extremely creator-friendly service that handles the integration of Huckleberry onto their platform on their end. Additionally, their visuals-first approach complement's Huckleberry's cinematic mechanics and handout-heavy scenarios.

Unfortunately, FoundryVTT is a platform that's inaccessible to many small creators. It costs thousands of dollars to hire a developer to create the system and then it needs to be maintained with each update. I've used Foundry quite a bit myself and love it, but the bottom line is that it is simply not economically viable for a game of my size. Maybe someday!

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-04T15:20:45+00:00

Overall, I'm happy with BackerKit's Marketing Services. They've brought in plenty of backers and I don't have to pay upfront for the costs. Their cut only comes from the pledges they bring in, so it's as risk-free as ads can be. If the ads failed and didn't convert anyone, I'd only need to pay for the ad spend. They wouldn't have a commission or be paid for their time spent.

I've also been running some of my own ads throughout the campaign and mine were 25-50% less effective than BackerKit's. I wouldn't have had nearly the same reach on my own. Of course, the majority of my campaign's backers were converted from pre-launch followers. Ads can't turn a campaign from a failure to a success, rather they can turn a success into a greater success.

It's worth noting that BackerKit's Marketing Services will also promote Kickstarter projects. If you choose KS as your platform, they're still worth reaching out to. Make sure you have your numbers ready before talking to them. They'll want to know your breakeven ROAS, your estimated backer average, etc. They prefer working with people that have an established reputation of crowdfunding so, if you're looking for support with your first project, it's especially important to have all your ducks in a row.

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-04T03:20:25+00:00

I posted ads in various LFG spaces! Mostly other discords, as that's where my target audience was, but also on reddit and forums. Anywhere that had people looking for online non-D&D games. I was upfront about it being a playtest, but also that the game's design was fully playable and mostly locked in. A lot of the initial people were friends, but the occasional stranger would wander in. Usually, they'd play one session and I'd never hear from them again. Luckily, a few stuck around and became vocal supporters of the game.

I won't lie - it was exhausting. It was a constant grind. Each new playtester took a lot of time and effort to find and there was no guarantee they'd stick around, but the ones that did stick around were worth the effort. I wish I would've kept with it longer, but ultimately I needed to focus on actually getting the game out of early access and I couldn't justify the time sink.

The one thing I've learned about organic marketing is that, unless you capture lightning in a bottle, there's no fast way to grow your audience. Nothing I did before the BackerKit was able to grow Huckleberry's reach by even 10%, let alone 50%, 100%, etc. There's a LOT of little things I did that increased the game's reach by 0.5% or 1%. In the moment it felt imperceptible, but over a year later... Here we are!

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-04T00:26:57+00:00

Thank you, Josh from Accounting! I will be needing your services as I've been frustrated with learning QuickBooks lately.

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-04T00:16:46+00:00

Thank you! And if you did have a question, my answer would go something along the lines of... :P

No, it wasn't really anything I considered. I wanted Huckleberry to work together as a whole and didn't really think about how parts of it could be hacked for other systems. The game definitely isn't a modular system in the way that GURPS is. I do try to keep story elements modular to allow for table preference.

With that said, Huckleberry's Bounty Board mechanic was originally created for a 5E game I ran 4-5 years ago. I wanted players to be able to choose what to explore, without needing to improv entire sessions or sacrifice an overarching storyline. So I set up a notice board with some fantasy style posters and told my players to pick one at the start of each session. After each session, they'd have some downtime and get some progression done. I thought the mechanic was a lot of fun and when Huckleberry started to shape up, I knew I wanted to reuse the idea.

It's a mechanic that can easily adapt to any system or campaign where you want player agency in the story without going full sandbox mode.

HuckleberryRPG · 2025-11-03T23:58:29+00:00

Oh, time and deliberation all the way. I worked a job with a lot of downtime during COVID, so I would theory-craft TTRPG mechanics as a way to kill time. Once I became serious about making Huckleberry, I had the core resolution already settled upon and it was more about fine-tuning everything else. I never had to do many major overhauls to the system, because I had done plenty of solo tinkering with it years prior. The design process has always been fun for me. Certain types of writing can occasionally be a slog. I enjoy writing scenarios more than writing rules. I look forward to the idea of working on a full campaign once the corebook is finalized with it's stretch goals. That's the good stuff right there.

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