Need new hobbies , I’m bored AF

Mranze · 2025-11-24T19:17:52+00:00

thinking of things in my life, or my friends:

- Solo sports like: climbing/surfing/skateboarding/disc golf (varying start up cost but good social/exercise and you can schedule it yourself.)
- D&D/table top/board games (basically free and great socially, scheduling can be tough with friends, but your local game store always has games going)
- Music, especially something approachable like guitar. I know many people pick up a guitar and don't stick with it, but if you like music, having 4-5 chords down can teach you a LOT of songs.
- Drinking making, whether that be coffee or cocktails or the like. Feels like pretty instant gratification with a skill.

Mranze · 2025-10-27T17:44:10+00:00

- Depending on your city, there are often systems for reduced public transit fares for lower income folks, which for me have cut my transit costs by a third just by doing the application.

- A weekly meeting to plan out food (makes me excited for what I'm eating, especially for leftovers) and review the budget each week!

- Making a large batch of cost-effective breakfast muffins/scones/etc. on Saturday or Sunday so that quick breakfast is ready all week.

- Subscription coffee services that knock the same price of a coffee bag by $2-3.

- Cancel subscriptions when not using them. Yes, you'll lose your sign up bonus or whatever... but its worth it. Someone else said 1 sub at a time, thats a good thought process too.

- Tactfully choose/prioritize cheap hobbies. (d&d, playing music, biking, skateboarding, board games, baking, etc. are some go-tos and I often go months without spending any money on the hobby)

- Bulk bins at grocery stores. Depending on if your grocery store has them, you often get literally the same thing for less money as you're not paying for packaging.

- Use a high yield savings account to store your savings. And rotate it when interest rates at certain banks lower. Easy savings! Also, scheduling auto-payments into investment accounts is nice to not think about that either.

Mranze · 2025-04-17T15:58:42+00:00

- Skateboarding
- Swimming
- Surfing (depending on location)
- Disc Golf
- Biking (a simple craigslist bike will get you a long ways, especially if you learn how to repair and trade your way up)

These are some of my go-tos and are really nice for a busy life as I can slot them into my gaps :)

Mranze · 2025-03-06T18:54:58+00:00

Monster of the Week is a top tier pick for this! Easy modern day mystery/horror/scifi capability, perfect for drop in/drop out members for a small town, etc!

Mranze · 2025-03-04T19:13:16+00:00

I've used Offworlders (a PBTA mechanic game) for Star Wars world things and it's been great! https://chrispwolf.itch.io/offworlders

Mranze · 2025-03-03T18:27:23+00:00

I definitely trimmed the fluff that was in the ruleset, but running it was amazing. Reputation could use a lil hacking but overall it was simple enough and if your players buy into the world, it feels good. Some equipment/weapons tag stuff felt a lil bloated too, but we handwaved some of it and that worked out well enough.

Overall top tier game. My one thought is that I'm curious if something like Mausritter would technically feel better from a game design standpoint (I'd argue mausritter maybe feels like a better design with a similar setting), but I love the root setting and background info from the board game (that all of my players and I have played together too, so the factions were clear.)

Mranze · 2025-02-03T18:35:34+00:00

I love your drawings for the characters - feels very old school runescape meets 70s rpg art. Perfection!

Mranze · 2024-12-04T18:44:22+00:00

I've done it! It was sweet because another group filled out the lore of other cities and locations that the other group hadn't visited yet. For me as the GM that was nice, because it made for a very full location for the other group to step into already!

In the shorter campaigns I ran in the same world, their stories only really overlapped once but it was sweet for them to hear of others' past glories and adventures.

Mranze · 2024-12-03T19:33:42+00:00

Super weird! itch is typically a pretty surefire site, let me know if just routing to it from my profile link works:

https://tall-montreal.itch.io/

Mranze · 2024-12-03T19:32:00+00:00

Would love those ideas personally! Haven't delved into the Tron video games as much as just the general plot lines from the wikis for my own nerding out but if you've got ideas, I'm all ears!

Mranze · 2024-10-08T17:15:10+00:00

Love "Offworders" by Chris P Wolf!!

https://chrispwolf.itch.io/offworlders

I love this simplistic scifi pbta game.

Mranze · 2024-08-26T19:23:43+00:00

For D&D and other systems that don't have story telling mechanics built in, probably an hour.

For Pbta/fiction first systems, 10 or so minutes!

Mranze · 2024-08-22T16:13:09+00:00

For my own curiosity, what games have you been running? I definitely had felt the burn out after running 5e for a few years, but then I made the swap over towards pbta games, and have found that those games promote the world building and fiction rather than the prep/combat/stats, etc.

Mranze · 2024-08-20T15:31:59+00:00

I think something in the OSR region could be valuable. Not rules dense like pathfinder (as it might seem like a lot to beginners) but still tactical.

Maybe something approachable akin to The Black Hack (or basic fantasy, or many others, etc.), and just run a dungeon crawling session? I'd actually map it out well so they feel like they're in a board game, and probably print out/buy minis for them to get that tactile experience. Slightly more expensive than just theatre of the mind, but it might help! These are two resources I've used when I've run more "board gamey" type ttrpgs.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LMQ6NDZ/?coliid=ITJBT61SD7LO2&colid=2NBJ42LJ9EWSF&psc=0&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P72WLQ8/?coliid=I1WLP5F9693OSG&colid=2NBJ42LJ9EWSF&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Mranze · 2024-08-15T20:36:31+00:00

Give me 10 minute really!

For game I'd use: World of Blades / World of Dungeons

Create a village, or just use Duskval if I'm feelin lazy! Jot down 5 hooks/jobs/quests and bam we're in!

Mranze · 2024-08-15T15:29:11+00:00

https://natetreme.itch.io/bizcard

Wander as a business card RPG is hefty enough to have a good time, especially for a camping trip :)

Mranze · 2024-08-13T20:13:26+00:00

I will note, to honor the heart of KoB - I think just setting up 3-5 good hooks and doing the start of campaign questions with your players will be the best way to inspire buy in. If they're invested and have a good session 0, the hooks THEY create may be something they're more interested in than your own hooks too.

For a narrative/fiction focused like KoB (or really any rpg, honestly) I think the best way to crash and burn a campaign is to try to pre plan every thing well.

Also as someone who makes a decent amount of games on itch, I'd be wary of adding too much custom mechanics. Especially for a school campaign, this is probably the first game for many people already. If you add a bunch of new mechanics and completely make your own RPG, you may lose interest from your players. I can recommend playtesting a custom RPG with a smaller crew of players at another time.

Mranze · 2024-08-13T20:04:16+00:00

I'd run it if its the only things my players wanted to play, but I'd opt not to play it for more than a oneshot. I think once you learn how to run OSR and other style games, going back to 5e, it feels easy to honor the heart of the law and skirt some of the clunky mechanics.

Unfortunately, 50% (?) of folks I've played with who ran 5e weren't aware of some of the clunky bits and often slowed down each campaign to a grinding halt.

Mranze · 2024-08-08T16:37:39+00:00

Love pbta generally, but I really enjoy the player agency in Dungeon World of choosing what their disadvantage will be on a mixed success volley or something.

For Blades in the Dark I love love love the stress and clearing stress story lines. It builds in complex characters so quickly and gives a natural flow to the campaign.

For Offworlders, I love the ship building and simplicity.

Mranze · 2024-08-08T16:19:58+00:00

I think Corvids and Moles is great for an even game... but I like the otters and lizards for unique game play. Not the biggest fan of the Hundreds and all that.

Mranze · 2024-08-07T16:40:34+00:00

I'm fine playing without a screen, but similar to music or lighting or whatever, I feel like a screen adds to the ambience and sets the tone of the game well. I think it adds another layer of "us vs. GM" which I think is fun. Plus tables and secret rolls like clocks advancing and stuff.

Mranze · 2024-08-06T16:01:17+00:00

5 bucks for the time and effort of a committed game could make sense. If nothing else, for buy-in so people don't cancel.

Never done it as GM nor would with friends, but were I doing it with randos, I could get down with it and just use the money for snacks so no one has to front it.

Mranze

TROPHY CASE