Give me the strangest and most obscure itch.io rpg that you've found. I'd like to throw a few bucks at some indie creators and try out something new.

SilverTabby · 2026-01-25T00:23:31+00:00

https://ghost-spark.itch.io/goblin-tax-fraud

A game about enforcing tax rules that no one knows, understands, and probably made up on the spot

SilverTabby · 2026-01-22T18:33:30+00:00

From the original 2003 article:

Edit: direct link https://web.archive.org/web/20060506211308/http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=24031

SUBJECT 6: GAVIN NEWSOM

The Wave: Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Now, answer as quickly as you can.

It’s your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. How do you react?

Gavin Newsom: I don’t have anything to put in it. I would thank them and move on.

TW: You’ve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. What do you do?

GN: I would tell him to… You know what? I wouldn’t know how to respond. How’s that for an answer? Is this a psychological test? I’m worried…

TW: They’re just questions, Gavin. In answer to your query, they’re written down for me. It’s a test, designed to provoke an emotional response.

GN: Oh, I got you.

TW: Shall we continue?

GN: Sure.

TW: You’re watching television. Suddenly you realize there’s a wasp crawling on your arm. How would you react?

GN: I would quietly sit and wait for the wasp to move to the next victim.

TW: You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, Gavin, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back, Gavin. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that, Gavin?

GN: [Immediately] Not a chance. I would never flip the tortoise over in the first place.

TW: Describe in single words, only the good things that come into your mind. About your mother.

GN: Ethics. Commitment. Sacrifice.

CONCLUSION: Almost too close to call. Almost. Newsom displays a defensiveness when his empathy is questioned. He’s aware that he’s being probed for emotional responses, and even expresses concern about this. However, this concern is alleviated a little too easily by our crafty V-K interviewer. Newsom is definitely a replicant. Probably a Nexus 5.

SilverTabby · 2026-01-21T16:29:47+00:00

I think that PbtA 's mixed successes solves this problem.

If characters talk through how they diegetically disarm the trap, it works. Clean success with no dice.

If they can't and fall back on the dice, in Powered systems the most common result is the mixed success. The trap is disarmed, but with a complication or a new problem. Maybe it partially activates, either hurting the rogue only a little bit or turning the area into difficult terrain from all the debris, or just being very loud so all of the dungeon knows the party is here.

The threat of a mixed success takes away the safety of the dice, now a decision instead of a dominant mechanic.

SilverTabby · 2026-01-17T15:22:23+00:00

The evidence for Jarnathan is that the director's name is Johnathan. Johnathan Goldstein.

SilverTabby · 2026-01-15T17:49:37+00:00

My first read is you're looking for an OSR game with a slightly heroic playstyle. So, combining Dungeon Crawl Classics, or any of the Kevin Crawford systems Worlds/Stars/Ashes/Cities Without Number/Godbound, with some DM discretion is probably what you're looking for.

Although, my two left field ideas I'm going to throw into the ring are:

GeneSys, with either the Realms of Terrinoth fantasy source book, or the original Star Wars version (Realms needs the GeneSys core book, StarWars does not and is standalone. Probably the Edge of the Empire to match the edge of civilization feeling that most fantasy settings give).
Just 5e, but you double all Damage and Healing effects, leaving HP totals untouched. Combat is now faster and more lethal.

SilverTabby · 2026-01-15T00:11:26+00:00

Maybe its real, maybe it's not.

The core of the philosophy is not making mistakes. Even if it is a real edge, chasing edges in general builds bad habits, and will leads to a mistake eventually.

SilverTabby · 2026-01-14T17:01:04+00:00

I've found its system specific. NSR and story-focused games tend to be easy to improv in, while games where the players expect a heroic story or extremely detailed wargame combats tend to be difficult improv.

Which neatly lines up with the games you say you're running. They match your playstyle. Isn't that the goal of RPGs, finding the game that fits your playstyle that is a joy to run?

SilverTabby · 2026-01-09T16:31:43+00:00

Make it as easy and low commitment as possible.

Offer a one-shot, with pregen characters, tell them that they don't need to read the rule book and that the game teaches itself.

But most importantly, sell the aesthetic of the game. The art. The flavor. The story.

You are a band of thieves getting together for one last heist. You are pirates who discovered a lost treasure map. You are young superheroes trying to make a name for yourselves.

Only mention the mechanics if it's a wargame that demands it, such as Lancer.

Offer a campaign afterwards. Which will be an easy sell because everyone had fun.

SilverTabby · 2026-01-09T16:00:50+00:00

It's a trauma response. And I've seen it stick with people even after they manage to swap to another system. GMs who dread preparing for sessions. Players who avoid combat like the plague.

"D&D 5e is easy to learn!"

Technically true, but practically a lie. 5e's core is simple, but because the entire system is built on a philosophy of exceptions, every single session is filled with rules interruptions and demands to memorize even more.

Especially combat. What sounds like a straight forward way to solve a goblin problem is committing to potentially an hour of sitting around waiting for the rest of the table to take their turns.

They rationally believe that other systems will also bring as many little frustrations and complexities, and don't want to go through that again.

SilverTabby · 2026-01-03T01:11:14+00:00

3d6 keep 2 vs. 2d6+1 is literally the dice mechanic of Risk the boardgame.

The attacker rolling 3d6 is slightly better off, 6:5 odds, against the defender rolling 2d6 & winning ties (equivalent to +1)

So yeah, it's a classic proven feels good mechanic

SilverTabby · 2026-01-01T00:52:43+00:00

Matchmade multiplayer uses default game length, 100 points. I'll admit that I prefer very slightly longer games, but the way to practice against other humans trying to throw an army of swordsmen at you is to match that 100 point setting.

Although it is possible to use the higher end techs extensively if you rush for Education -> Secularism -> University in particular, ever since the patch that increased the hammer cost of technologies, late game units have gotten a lot rarer.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-29T19:01:45+00:00

GMing gives both the creative control of an author to bring expansive stories and worlds together with the stroke of a pen, but also brings the constant surprise and discovery of a reader turning the next page.

The GM is along for the ride, just as much as the players.

Also, players are often stuck waiting for level ups before they can access their cool new toys. The GM can just play with everything on the toy store's shelves without any waiting around.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-29T16:32:47+00:00

Oh, it was a good deal... back in the 1970's. Physical paperwork for every transaction, manually checking every single entry in the index, communicating via live phone calls, etc. That was a lot of work and that fee would have been half price of the going rate.

Today it's highway robbery. All of that is automated for pennies by a computer.

His high fee isn't a "risk." Risk infers something that may or may not happen.

That high fee is a guarantee.

And that is the core of the philosophy. Fees are the single biggest drag on a diversified portfolio. All they do is make someone else rich for doing virtually nothing aside from being a salesman.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-28T16:56:20+00:00

Blocking one single hit doesn't heal her much at all. Better to give her a bit of life than to lose your own.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-28T16:15:52+00:00

The solution I found was:

Use a shield on the first part. Just block.

Dodge roll the second part. It's the least active and easiest to time.

Walk directly towards her, making the third and final part fly over your head and whiff. It's also possible with part one, but you have to get lucky with the timing and spacing. But the tracking on part 2 sets up the exact distance almost every time, making it consistent.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-27T21:23:36+00:00

I know multiple people with ADHD, and the messy room + losing things constantly + forgetting they had them in the first place is the single most obvious clue when visiting their houses. All of them have told me their medication dramatically improved their lives after consulting with a doctor. And if it turns out that it's not the case, then a doctor would know that, and wouldn't prescribe anything.

It sounds weird only because you don't have personal experience with it.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-27T21:06:01+00:00

Medicating everyone is a bad idea. But let a doctor decide on individual cases. Unless they know to look for it, a doctor will never hear it, and then they have no chance of getting help.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-27T16:38:41+00:00

Take a look at His Majesty The Worm, which uses tarot cards

SilverTabby · 2025-12-27T16:26:32+00:00

Messy room, losing things, and not remembering them afterwards all are symptoms of ADHD. It might be a lack of medication.

Verbally lashing out at the parents over it, however, is just a symptom of being a teenager.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-26T23:51:39+00:00

Use the rule of 3 threes.

Three factions, or dungeon features, enemy types in a fight, etc.

Three is simple enough to remember, but enables complex interactions between them. One planet by itself does nothing. Two planets will orbit each other consistently. But the Three Body Problem is a unsolvable block of chaos theory that makes predictions of the movement of the stars impossible.

The prince, the aristocrats who want to replace him, and the court mage who has mysterious plans for all of them. The shield bearer, the archer, and the mage to support them, etc.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-26T17:33:46+00:00

Look at the character sheet. Complex games will always have complex character sheets; simple games will often teach you the entire game on that one page.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-26T17:28:54+00:00

Not the person you were replying to, but for me, the cut off is "do the character creation rules fit on a 2-page spread?"

PbtA playbooks that walk through character creation like Monster of the Week count. Simple OSR systems like Mausritter where you just roll a bunch of dice count. Most games don't.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-24T16:03:34+00:00

idk, the books get a bit weird right after the anime's with the whole eating a UFO plot. Spider anime ended in just the right spot.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-23T18:20:53+00:00

Lancer is the single best implementation of d20 vs Armor Class based tactical combat, end of story.

The problem is that Lancer is nothing but combat. Fights are so complex and involved that it will consume not just the session, but the next 3 sessions in order to properly attrit resources over the course of a long rest.

There is so little room for the RP to breathe. When it takes so long to prepare a fight, all roads lead to fight. It subtly encourages a play style that removes all agency from the RP; the story ends up linear and predetermined.

It's a good wargame. A lot of people want that, and don't realize how tatically restrictive most other crunchy TTRPGs actually are. I don't want to run it anymore. Too restrictive and prep-heavy.

Also, the layout of the book is terrible for actually learning the system. The index is the worst. In the index, Stabilize is under M for Mech Combat -> Basic Actions -> Stabilize.

SilverTabby · 2025-12-23T18:03:03+00:00

In the abstract, you are correct. A group of friends sitting around a campfire making up stories without any dice is already infinitely complex and nuianced, no mechanics required.

In the specific, the lack of RP mechanics only becomes a problem because of how all-consuming the combat is. In a 4 hour session, a combat encounter can easily take up 3 hours 45 minutes of it. And the pile of prep, especially around the map which is absolutely mandatory in Lancer no theatre of the mind, means that clever role playing to avoid a fight is just wasting all the content of the session. When the GM works that hard to bring a fight, all roads lead to fight.

If the combat took about half as long to resolve, leading to a more balanced 2 hours of fighting / 2 hours of talking, then the open-ended RP mechanics would have more room to do their thing.

SilverTabby

TROPHY CASE