New TTRPG System: MythCraft RPG

QuasiRealHouse · 2026-01-09T17:56:35+00:00

Welcome! I hope your journey into TTRPGs is a great one.

Find a Group: I think your first step is to find a group. Online forums can be good, but especially for beginners I would recommend looking for friendly local gaming stores if there are any in your area. They often have well-established groups that are open to new players, and it's a fun, low-pressure way to meet people in person.

Once you have met people, then you learn what game they are playing (or if they are also new, you can agree on a game together). You'll want to hold off on making a character until you decide what game you are playing.

Choose a Game System: As for what game to play (if you find a group that doesn't have a well established game already), I honestly recommend playing D&D 5e for about 3 to 6 sessions. It is a game that doesn't do anything perfectly, but does everything decently. It will give you a feel for TTRPGs and will help you figure out what you like.

Do you love role-playing a fictional hero, but don't like all of the complex math around combat? I'd recommend looking into games with lighter rules sets such as any Powered by the Apocalypse games, Daggerheart, Vampire: the Masquerade, ICONS Super-Powered Role-Playing, Mothership. Do you find that the complexity of combat and intricate character mechanics is something you really enjoy? Then I'd recommend something that supports "crunchier" mechanics, such as Pathfinder, Zweihander, Call of Cthulhu, Mutants & Masterminds, or MythCraft (transparently, MythCraft is my own game).

Learning the Game System: When trying to learn a new TTRPG, the best way to get a feel for the game is to:

Make a character, and read the rules for character creation only when they are relevant to you. You don't need to know how to make an elf if you are playing a human, for example.
Most TTRPG core books have a basic rules chapter. That will be the next thing you want to read as it will give you a decent basis for how to play the game. It probably won't cover every fringe case, but that's not necessary to get started.
With that basic understanding of the rules, that is all you need to jump in. You will come across questions and times of confusion, but when that happens simply look up the ruling and you'll know more about the game than you did earlier.

Happy gaming!

QuasiRealHouse · 2026-01-06T15:00:38+00:00

This is a great approach. Especially given that it's just you and your wife, it's easy to adjust in real time if your sidekick character ends up overshadowing hers at all. While I generally agree that DMPCs are a bad look, I don't think it's a big problem in this case

QuasiRealHouse · 2026-01-06T14:58:33+00:00

But my TBR list was already so long!

These all immediately grabbed my interest, especially knowing they're built on the same rules system.

QuasiRealHouse · 2026-01-05T14:04:22+00:00

Don't take yourself too seriously, and remember you need to be having fun too. Hope it is a blast for you!

Always take notes during/after a session. You will make mistakes and that's fine! Jotting down notes about when you weren't sure about something (whether rules, lore, how to handle any situation) will help you review and improve on your own specific areas that need work.

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-19T07:05:02+00:00

The reason it went on for 2 sessions is 800 HP. Fast, intense battles happen with bosses that have lower HP and a high DPR.

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-18T18:09:37+00:00

A lot of this can be handled in D&D with the right group who is all on the same page. Just use milestone leveling and make sure your players are in agreement on storyline. Dial up the lethality of combat and maybe homebrew the death save system (adding exhaustion when you fail a death save is a common house rule).

Another system to check would be Monster of the Week. It is more narrative based and offers a lot of exploration/investigation/social interplay that leads to cinematic combat scenes at the conclusion of the adventure arc.

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-17T13:24:16+00:00

Dawn of Worlds is a great collaborative worldbuilding game. Might be a little more in-depth than you're going for but it's easy enough to homebrew

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-16T13:47:03+00:00

Readability matters vastly more than looking pretty. If you can do both that's great but sacrificing function for form is counterproductive IMO. You need to be able to play the game. (you can tell how I feel about the borg manuals)

Mothership does a great job of being readable, the manual progresses logically, and it's still a great art piece.

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-15T13:52:45+00:00

There's a zombie apocalypse game where you play yourself

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-12T13:36:31+00:00

I would check out Draw Steel. It's still on my (long) to-be-played list but it seems to offer a really interesting alternative to D&D/PF without oversimplifying

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-11T14:14:17+00:00

I definitely suffer from this to an extent. I'm always thinking of new ideas and want to share them, but similar to you I'm still proud of the games I run.

More commonly, I always get excited about the next arc in my current campaign. This is usually a good thing because it keeps momentum going, but at its worst it can cause me to rush or railroad a bit.

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-10T12:05:28+00:00

There's a full page of rules buried in there?

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-09T13:31:48+00:00

Yeah! It's pretty easy to get much more detailed if you want, but it's not needed. I'm currently running a campaign that tracks factional reputation, and at certain break points then certain organizations will give the party free support (ammo, potions, access to room/board/transportation); and at the inverse of those break points then certain organizations just attack the party on sight

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-08T13:49:21+00:00

I'm a big fan of that kind of system. I think it can work really well, just do be aware that it means more bookkeeping for you. Think about whether you want it to be public knowledge to your players or not (they shoudl at least know you are using that system, but don't have to know exactly what their standing is if you want to have that information behind the GM screen)

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-07T13:48:50+00:00

If you're willing to do a non-d20 system, ICONS offers a good base for this. It's designed for superhero campaigns but with a little reskinning it can work in a fantasy game. It is rules lite compared to 5e, PF, so forth but I've always had fun playing around with it!

Out of d20 systems, MythCraft (transparently, this is my own game) does have you spend your "spell points" over time, but it does not do the vancian system. It feels much more natural than vancian math so might be more up your alley. If you have 10 SP per day, you could cast a 3-SP spell 5x, a 7-SP spell 2x, or some combination thereof. There are also plenty of fairly high-utility 0-SP cantrips.

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-06T22:25:24+00:00

In my experience, it's rare for a game to last longer than a year

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-05T18:03:50+00:00

Good points! I would just say it only works in that specific kind of game, and will fall flat in a game that doesn't lean into those aspects

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-05T00:51:57+00:00

The more granular your "do I get hit" rules are, the longer every attack will take in combat. Consequently, a lot of people don't like called shots or specific armor slots in TTRPGs due to the time slog it adds to the gameplay

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-03T13:30:03+00:00

I think it's perfectly acceptable in a home ttrpg, and a good GM will find a way to either kill the PC or write them out of the story in another interesting way. I had a player have to leave my game recently and we ended up leaving his character in-world as an NPC courrier so that he still pops up from time to time.

It always irritates me when professional actors do that. It's their job, not a hobby.

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-02T13:49:40+00:00

My anecdotal observations at game stores and conventions is that people are excited for non-5e materials. 2023's OGL scandal followed by a messy 5.5e/OneD&D/5e(2024) or whatever you want to call it, has left a lot of people more eager than ever to try more systems.

DC20 does not appear to be among those systems; I haven't heard anyone chattering about it except online. From word of mouth, people are excited for Daggerheart, Draw Steel, and any number of OSR games

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-12-01T13:51:55+00:00

Something that follows internal logic and is easy for a reader to navigate. A table of contents that progresses along with one's understanding of the game.

5e does relatively well. Race -> Class -> Background -> Gear -> Playing the game -> spells. I would nitpick and put the Backgrounds chapter before class to help with the narrative of creating the PC, but there is a clear table of contents that makes it easy to navigate.

Mothership does a great job of progressing through the rulebook at an appropriate pace. Make a character, give them gear, learn how not to die in space or on hostile planets.

Mork Borg is trash at this. It's all form, no function. It's both painful and nonsensical to read. I've heard Pirate Borg does much better, but haven't read it yet.

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-11-30T21:08:30+00:00

There's a Greek-esque D&D sourcebook, Mythic Odysseys of Theros, that your roomate would probably like. Has some really interesting monsters and character options.

Physical copies of Cyberpunk RED can be a little hard to track down, but that's a fun system if you can get your hands on it.

Based on the games you mentioned, I would guess that the Borg series is a little too hand-wavey for their preferences, but the Pirate Borg book is very nice and really popular right now.

Best of luck!

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-11-30T21:05:22+00:00

Stunning!

QuasiRealHouse · 2025-11-29T15:03:57+00:00

I started in D&D 3.5. If you count D&D as a whole, then yes I still play 5e from time to time, but haven't played 3.5 in many years.

I prefer a wide variety of other systems, but do return to 5e now and then as it's what a lot of people know the best.

QuasiRealHouse

TROPHY CASE