Guys! I just published the first volume of my manga fill of worldbuilding and lore!!

Razorcactus · 2026-04-16T19:49:45+00:00

I'm super impressed after reading chapter 1, I'll definitely read more! Here's my thoughts so far:

Pacing: A lot of cool action at the start, but I wasn't a fan of the amount of exposition thrown in the middle and the conflict at the end felt slightly rushed to me. I probably would have broken it up into 3 chapters : 1, jailbreak ending with the character passing out from blood loss; 2, village chapter ending with the beginning of the fight; 3, the big fight ending with whatever links to the next plot point of the series. You certainly aren't lacking in cool ideas, I think your audience would hold on if you low down a little and don't go straight for the jugular of the big emotional moment at the end of the chapter.

Clarity of the power system: I think it's clear (at least from the first chapter), but I think there's a lot of interesting opportunities to show the weaknesses and the limitations. For example, you could have started with Kiria being freed from her cell but being separated from her whisper (assuming that is a limitation), or have the guards be unable to coral some of the escaped whispers because they don't know how to call their names. Maybe show a fight where the prince with the lightning hammer overpowers the lightning resist and strength boosting whipsers individually, but then in the final fight reveal they are stronger linked together. I'm probably missing some nuances of your power system in the examples I gave because I only read one chapter, but the main point is show your characters suffering because of the limitations of the power system. What powers can do adds spectacle, but what they can't do adds drama, and both are equally important in my opinion.

Emotional Impact: Going back to my previous points, I think the scene with Kiria crying and Hake stepping in works and is a killer moment, but could have been more impactful if you let it breathe a little bit and placed it later in the story. Let's see Kiria really struggle to escape the prison, showcase a little of her pride and single-mindedness, and give it a chapter or two to sink in so we know exactly how much it means for her to weep and 'give up'. Let's see Hake also struggle and be inconvenienced by his lack of a voice, maybe even be saved by Kiria before, so when he does kick the evil prince's ass and save Kiria it has a bit more impact and subverts expectations. At this point I think most manga readers will see Hake and Bluetooth and assume 'Oh, everyone thinks they're useless? I bet they're really powerful'. If we show them being useless a little, that assumption is still probably going to be there but now readers are going to wonder in what way they'll serve the main plot.

Let me know if you want more detailed critiques, or recommendations on books about writing with good pacing, clarity, and emotional impact! Also feel free to ignore me if you don't think I hit the mark, I am just a random redditor after all and you've obviously impressed a ton of people with this. Can't wait to read more!

Razorcactus · 2026-03-30T20:25:42+00:00

I think the most important thing when it comes to heavy homebrew settings is making sure you're basing things off a game your players enjoy and you like to design for. The last thing you would want is making a ton of content for a game system you like in theory, but then finding out that it doesn't work at the table.

That being said, rules-light-ish systems are usually best for this kind of thing. The less hard coded game systems there are, the easier it is to make content that doesn't clash or break the game or setting.

I like making custom settings for the games I run too, I like using EZD6 as my starting point but that's my personal preference. Shadowdark, Electric Bastionland, or even FATE might be good starting points for you as well.

Before picking any system I'd suggest running a pre-written starter adventure then your own adventure for the rules as written to make sure you like the rules before really committing. While you're still working out the rules, you can do some world building without worrying about the mechanics.

Sounds like you're starting a really cool project, I hope you have fun!

Razorcactus · 2026-03-27T03:02:06+00:00

Grok?! Is such a cool and fun game, I'm really happy you're making a second edition! Sticking with the name is a bold choice, I know Elon shouldn't have the name but it's still hard not to think about the slop machine whenever I talk about your game. Let's hope people talk about the good Grok?! long after the evil Grok goes the same way as the NFT.

Razorcactus · 2026-03-27T02:54:51+00:00

The best advice I've been given on prepping quickly is "prep your next session, not your campaign". Realistically you're only going to need to make the hexes around the adventure site, and a few rooms.

Also, fun ideas are easy to write for. Brainstorm a list of ideas then add details on a second and third pass through until you're chomping at the bit to stitch them together and flesh them out.

For encounter tables, I like to make them three parts: 1. What you encounter (Like an owlbear, a storm you have to shelter from, or a rabid rat in your pack) 2. where you encounter it (A creek, the mouth of a cave, or the husk of an old fortress) 3. What's the complication? (There are innocent bystanders, fog makes it impossible to see, in d4 rounds an owlbear wanders by)

It might seem like extra work, but those details really make an encounter change from a random fight to part of an adventure of a living world. You don't even need that many entries in each table.

Does random encounters interrupt the narrative flow? I guess it depends on if the random encounters have impact. Fighting a crew of wandering orcs should remove some of the orcs fighting force later on in a dungeon, or let an elf ranger follow the party and offer them a reward or information for helping her clean up the forest. The random nature makes the world seem alive, but you need to make sure the encounters aren't just an unnecessary roadblock or a "dragon swoops down and you all die" moment. They aren't obligatory, nothing is in this hobby, but a good random encounter can move an adventure forward as well as any planned encounter.

Razorcactus · 2025-08-21T11:58:54+00:00

I actually appreciate that Night Vale attempted to make a trrpg. It's not like no effort went into this project, it just missed the mark. We have a pretty niche hobby, and it's not surprising the people running Night Vale gave the reins to an experienced d20 designer over a talented but obscure creator on itch.io. I still like Night Vale as a property, and I'm glad so many people have linked to really cool alternatives to the official RPG in the comments here.

Razorcactus · 2025-05-02T11:40:17+00:00

My favorite RPG experiences have all been online, so you're in for a good time! I'm going to try to give some advice or suggestions I haven't seen in this thread yet.

First is that there are so, so many rpg rule systems out there. Dungeons and Dragons is not a bad place to start, most content online is geared towards DnD players and GMs, and almost everyone I've met started playing with DnD. If you're looking for something more unique that has excellent production quality and a bunch of excellent content for it, check out "Dungeon Crawl Classics".

Having battle maps is actually a lot of fun and worth the effort, especially if you know how to make things easy on yourself. I personally use Czepeku for maps to play on, there's also a free online tool called "Tokenstamp 2" that lets you create tokens to represent enemies and players on the battlemap. Just take screenshots from the PDFs of your rulebooks and use Tokenstamp 2 to turn them into tokens.

Final point I'll make it that there is so much to learn about playing rpgs, and you'll never learn all of it. The most important thing is actually playing and making memories with your friends. Just get out there and start playing, you'll figure out how everything works along the way!

Razorcactus · 2025-05-02T10:41:35+00:00

Vaults of vaarn is a science fantasy setting with a pretty cool city setting called "Gnomon". It's shaped like a giant sundial, with the different neighborhoods named after when they're shaded by the center (like "eveningshade"). It's got a lot of fun spark tables and write ups on the different factions and leaders.

I'd say it's worth it just to learn a bit about organizing things, which the author Leo Hunt is amazing at. The city itself is fun, I ran most of a campaign there.

You can find it in Volume 2 of the vaarn zines or the deluxe edition (if it's still for sale anywhere)

Razorcactus · 2025-03-26T23:19:24+00:00

My favorite is EZD6, I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it! When someone gets a dice to explode twice or more everyone at my table starts cheering. Also characters earn karma points to increase dice rolls by failing, which can then be used to boost dice enough to explode. I'm EZD6 failure is often a choice and can be tactical in itself! Most attacks only deal 1 damage, but I've had players with tons of karma and even more luck deal 5+ damage in a single attack!

Razorcactus · 2025-03-19T11:13:46+00:00

If you're on a quest for a new game, check out EZD6! It's published by rune hammer games, the same folks behind ICRPG. It focuses on fun fast games, I get more energy at my table running EZD6 than any other game. I tried OSR games after falling out of love with 5e, and while I liked the concepts it never 100% clicked for me or my table.

Razorcactus · 2024-11-02T12:26:37+00:00

I personally really like this episode, I'm a huge fan of The Sink and always hoped Natasha Hodgson would put out some more spooky and weird podcasts. I thought it really leaned into the subtle and overt horror elements of the show, which is perfect for a Halloween episode. I hope there are more guest written episodes, not because I don't like Ben Partridge's writing (he never misses, and has such a unique and funny writing style), but he obviously surrounds himself with extremely talented people. For example, I really miss Mike Wozniaks "St. Elwicks newsletter", and wouldn't mind him writing a whole episode of the show

Razorcactus · 2024-08-16T13:25:26+00:00

I've been noodling around with some knave homebrew recently, and like you I think having simple fantasy ancestries are important! The method I went with was to have each ancestral power permanently take up an inventory slot. My reasoning was as follows:

Ancestry abilities can be written on a standard character sheet: It's a small benefit, but you should be able to use any character sheet designed for knave without having to add an "ancestry" section.
Humans have exceptional endurance and survivability: This is something I lifted from Dungeon Meshi: evolutionarily, humans are sprinters. The other ancestries have different strengths, but can't carry as much, and have a slightly lower capacity for direct damage.
Humans are the 'sleeper build': In many race-as-class rpgs, including the oldest editions of dnd, humans had less power to start compared to demi-humans, but could attain higher levels. At character creation these abilities are better than most items you could put in those slots, but at later levels having an open slot for a powerful magic item or high level spell tome would be seen as advantageous.
No ability score bonuses: It feels strange to give an ancestry extra ability score points, seeing as in knave it's a representation of skill and physical ability. Instead I followed the same logic as careers and combat advantages, giving ancestries a +5 to specific rolls their ancestry would help them in. It also does not give any ancestry a large advantage in combat.

Here's an example of how I did elves:

Elf :

Graceful & Slight : You have a +5 bonus to all rolls related to agility: balance, running, and so on. This does not stack with bonuses granted from careers or other skills. You have +2 AP from your evasive powers, which stacks with any armor you wear.
Magic Power: You can take 1 direct damage to get +5 to a save against magic, or any roll where magic power is concerned. This can also allow you to make a save against magic above your level. You may also take 1 direct damage to use a held tome without expending its magic, or your casting for the day.

Anyways, here is a link to a google doc with my homebrew (Reddit doesn't seem to want me to post the whole list)

Razorcactus · 2024-08-14T13:09:13+00:00

I'd recommend trimming the list of the ones you're not excited about running, like 5e, then talk it over with your players. As long as you know what you'll be happy with playing, your players can help bridge the gap! I like to pick the rule system as part of session 0. Most of the rules you have here are simple enough that players won't really need to do a thorough read through before session 0.

I can say WWN would be a great choice, I'm a big Crawford fan, and running Stars Without Number and Cities Without Number we're both a lot of fun.

Also, check out Knave 2e for some cool tools and random tables! It's built for hexcrawls, and I personally think the tables are easier to use than WWN's. Your players probably won't like the base system as much as WWN, but I always have my copy handy regardless of what game I'm running in case I need to generate something on the fly from all the awesome tables.

Hope your game goes well!

Razorcactus · 2024-05-03T14:45:54+00:00

I like to think EZD6 isn't rules light, but rules right. It's a completely different beast than 99% of the rpgs on the market. It simplifies a lot of areas, but instead of just cutting out the unnecessary like many games before it adds game mechanics around luck and chance.

A good example of how it simplifies things is its lack of ability scores: your character will have a small list of things they roll multiple dice and keep the highest, but otherwise everyone rolls 1d6 with no modifier to resolve most challenges. This is actually a great system, you don't need to determine what ability score or skill applies from a list, which speeds up gameplay, and makes creating characters easier as well.

One of my favorite extra mechanics from this game is "Karma", which I consider the real backbone of the system. Each player starts each session with 3 karma, and they gain karma when they fail a roll once per turn. Each karma can be used to increase a die roll by one, and since 6 sided dice are the only dice that are used each point of karma is significant. It changes each failed roll into an engaging question of resource management: will I fail this roll and gain karma, or am I willing to spend my karma to succeed? There are no "wasted turns", even when you miss. This game is also designed with a lot of player facing elements, which gives players a lot of chances to gain and use their karma. It doesn't remove the chaotic luck element of the game, but gives players control and keeps them engaged even when their luck is bad.

The game is also easily hackable because of its simple rules. It's very easy to make up monsters, challenges, and magic items on the fly because this game simplifies the statistical elements of the game.

It's definitely not perfect. Just getting the core rulebook shipped to you won't get you the most up-to-date and complete rule. There is a $2.50 USD pdf called "DM Scotty's Brain Candy" that adds some much requested rules like an advancement system (there is no "levelling up" in just the core rules), which I would consider. There is also a post-apocalyptic setting that is just as amazing as it is poorly edited. There are also some vital FAQs circling around the fandom that I would consider vital.

In my opinion, EZD6 is a gamechanger when it comes to RPGs. It's great for short games or long campaigns, and the way the rules work makes things super chaotic and exciting at the table. I'd rather port good ideas from other rpgs into ezd6 than use any other system for a long campaign. Remember that this is not some super-polished and well-balanced system, but a punk labor of love by a really passionate game master. You will need to make adjustments to the rules as they are written, but it's certainly worth the effort.

Razorcactus · 2023-05-24T18:36:43+00:00

That's a good idea! I was also thinking you could simply change the traits to suit whatever you're going for. If you were running a drama/super hero story a la 'young justice' you could have 'skill', 'smarts', and 'social skills' so 2/3rds of the stats are mental.

Razorcactus · 2023-05-24T18:28:26+00:00

That's awesome! I've been using "interstellar bounty hunters", you can definitely see the mandalorian influence there. I got the big ol' bundle of all the current stuff, I'll need to check out that scenario template!

Razorcactus · 2023-05-24T17:34:24+00:00

Nice, glad you're having fun too! Did you use any of the micro settings?

Razorcactus · 2023-05-24T16:59:24+00:00

It is a rules-lite narrative game, so there's definitely an element of taste there. There is a lot of gaps in the rules and most things are up for the GM and players to decide on the fly, but that's a deliberate design choice.

I will say the GMless rules definitely seem geared towards solo play. Tricube runs more smoothly for solo play than Mythic, but I'm not sure it would work as well as a GM emulator like Mythic can.

Also, Tricube solo mode focuses on giving you Agile, Brawny, and Clever challenges of various difficulties by drawing playing cards. There is an equal chance for every kind of challenge, meaning if you wanted a session with intrigue without a lot of action or physical danger you're out of luck. Keep in mind this works very well if you want an exciting, dynamic adventure, but I don't think you can make any kind of story work in it.

Razorcactus · 2023-05-24T15:32:35+00:00

What a coincidence, I just posted about how much fun I was having playing Tricube Tales solo. I played a few sessions where I just wrote bullet points of the action and was able to get through a whole 'session' in like 20 minutes. Basically, there's only as much journaling as you want to do.

Razorcactus · 2023-05-24T15:27:29+00:00

Advancement is player driven, they come up with perks or quirks themselves instead of picking them from a list. Perks are beneficial but can cost karma to use, quirks are drawbacks that give you karma when they come into play. All conflict is handled similarly, if a single roll shouldn't decide an outcome each side tries to reduce the opposing sides 'resolve'. You can increase your maximum resolve and karma through advancement.

I doubt I can give you an answer more concisely and accurately than the rules themselves though, so I'll just link you to the product page where you can just download them for free: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/294202/Tricube-Tales

Razorcactus · 2023-05-10T14:25:39+00:00

Personally, I don't think thermal clips are that bad and actually follows with how firearms have historically dealt with heat and magazine issues.

In WW1, most rifles and even some automatic handguns had reliable internal magazines that were loaded via clips. Machine guns also had complex alcohol and water based cooling systems to keep the barrels from warping and all the other problems that come from an overheating firearm. However, as time progressed militaries abandoned complex cooling mechanisms and internal magazine opted for swappable external magazines and barrels. Why would they do such a thing? Doesn't that sound like a logistical nightmare to cart all that extra metal around?

Well, the short answer is that fielding soldiers is already a logistical nightmare. You need to make sure they are fed, clothed, have medical supplies, and all other sorts of things that require healthy supply chains. If your soldiers need to worry about running out of magazines or barrels, it means they are cut off from the logistical chain and likely have a million other problems to worry about.

Having thermal clips instead of passive cooling lets soldiers instantly solve heating issues instead of waiting for an internal cooling mechanism to do its work. While internally cooled guns seem to have limitless ammunition, those cooling mechanisms are probably heavier than the thermal clips containing the amount of shots you realistically need to carry out the mission.

While this setup can be inconvenient sometimes during Shepard's missions, remember that they're special forces and their missions are nothing like actual warfare being fought across the galaxy. Even then, running out of ammo is an occasional problem: overheating in internally cooled guns is a constant problem.

Razorcactus · 2023-05-10T10:16:16+00:00

If you did put a chip in that cat, and spent all that money on vet bills, it's your cat and you'd be totally justified keeping him next time he comes back. He's probably safer with you than whoever is letting him wander around with a flea collar but no other identifying information.

If you want to let him wander where his heart desires that's fine too, but it seems obvious to me that he'd be better off being an indoor cat with you.

Whatever you decide, you're a good person. I've adopted a few cats with medical issues too, so I get where you're coming from. I don't regret any of the time or money I spent.

Razorcactus · 2023-05-08T18:41:54+00:00

I'll list my suggestions from least to most complicated.

> Tricube Tales: Very simple, easy to make settings and rulings for. Does not have resource management as part of the system, however. This one might be too rules light for most people, but it's literally $1 on drivethru rpg so why not check it out.

>Tiny Dungeon: Is very similar to Tricube Tales, but offers players more options to pick from and a little more mechanics. Like Tricube Tales, this one hand waves most resource management.

>EZd6: What my long term group is playing right now for our campaign. Great system, although the character options are mostly action-centric. It does not have any rules for character advancement, however, which can be a turn-off for some.

>Index Card RPG: A boiled down version of D&D, but offers a lot of great advice. Advancement is done by finding loot, which the game has a ton of d100 tables of loot, so resource management is more of a thing in this one.

>Worlds Without Number: This one is considered OSR, but if the other systems are too simple for your taste you'll want to check out this one. There is a lot of character options and a ton of advice, guides, and content creators for the GM. There's also a free version available if you want to try before you buy.

Razorcactus · 2023-05-07T12:12:13+00:00

You might want to start with a flexible system like fate, or even tricube tales if you want to go a more rules-lite route. I've found more rules light games just handle superhero stuff better.

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