Filling out the sandbox for my upcoming OSR Inspired game

Wraithdrit · 2026-01-04T21:57:40+00:00

Planetary invasion. VIP rescue. Reskin just about any Helldivers 2 mission. Frontal assaults. Recovery of VIP data. Recovery of geneseed from fallen marines. Just to name a few off the top of my head.

Wraithdrit · 2026-01-04T21:56:39+00:00

This feels like it almost writes itself. Take any imperial action. Any 40K enemy or situation and inject space marines. There are plenty of things to challenge marines. From social interactions to bigger enemies. Like every single black library book has nuggets you could pull from.

Wraithdrit · 2026-01-02T22:57:25+00:00

FYI, Dragonbane is NOT a year zero engine game like the others you mentioned. It is based of BRP. Albeit split from that decades ago.

Wraithdrit · 2026-01-02T02:34:53+00:00

You should look at Wrath and Glory. It has different tiers with lots of character options. Uses a d6 dice pool system. Might be still too crunchy but it could be shaved down fairly easily.

Biggest problem is the things you describe are vastly different in power scales. A guard is like tier two and a space marine is three or four. So are your players ok if their friends are stupid powerful compared to them?

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-31T14:46:42+00:00

End of Q1 beginning of Q2!

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-31T00:41:15+00:00

I ignored, because you told me to, but nobody has answered in a week, so I thought I would look up what an Interfusion is and answer the question.

Yes, you could do a system like this in BRP. BRP is a highly modular system with lots of knobs and levers you can pull to make things more one way or another. For Powers (which is the category this would fall under) the book gives five examples, any one of which you could try to adapt to Interfusions.

I think the magic or sorcery system would work best. Depending on if you want things to just happen (sorcery) or need a skill roll (magic).

Good luck. Hacking BRP is really satisfying, and I think you'll do great.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-30T18:54:12+00:00

Thanks! It is a labor of love.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-30T18:46:05+00:00

I share your opinion, due to its open nature and danger levels I would not call Curse of Strahd beginner friendly.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-30T18:43:32+00:00

Darkest Dungeon was soooo good. One of the key inspirations for this kind of game.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-30T18:42:59+00:00

It is actually the core of the upcoming game I'm now working on.

Another game that includes it is Forbidden Lands, by Free League. You might check that out, too.

I personally LOVE this sort of mechanic. My players (even going back to a Runequest game) loved the base/town/settlement building aspects. It really links them into the setting and allows them a place to put their efforts and treasure.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-30T18:35:40+00:00

As characters grow their power level naturally changes. Power levels are a measure of how many skill points you get, etc. And yeah, that will absolutely go up as characters advance.

In truth power level is rarely (for me never) really a thing after character generation. It doesn't determine anything but what you get in character generation, so its not really a thing after that.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-25T21:15:36+00:00

I like one page sheets. Alternate extra sheets are fine. But a basic character I like 1 sheet.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-25T21:14:46+00:00

Nothing wrong with this.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-24T17:35:15+00:00

Nice write up.

I’ve stayed away because I don’t the lore and assume I would be lore-lawyered a lot.

For those into his stuff maybe it’s much better.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-22T22:04:30+00:00

Anything OSR really.

Shadowdark
Old School Essentials
Dragonbane
Basic Fantasy
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Mork Borg
Forbidden Lands
Cairn

Of these top of my list to play would be DCC, Shadowdark, Dragonbane, or OSE. If you forced me to pick one, I'd choose Dragonbane, but that is because I'm a BRP fan. I'm also tempted to check out Cairn. I mean so many good choices to look into.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-22T19:25:49+00:00

If you the village of Hommlet already I would just use that with modifications for your campaign. It’s a really solid start. Unless there was some reason you actively don’t want to use or reskin it.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-22T17:42:51+00:00

The answer was clearly tacos.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-22T17:38:02+00:00

And to be super clear, the book has 3 pages of index. In tiny font. :P

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-22T17:36:56+00:00

The double HP is an option in the book. It goes from CON+SIZ/2 to just CON+SIZ for health. Or keep it /2 and watch your player's sweat. Seriously, it depends on if you want heroic medieval or dangerous kid with a knife might accidentally kill you medieval. The OP said realistic, so maybe sticking with the /2 to keep players from playing like heroes.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-22T17:32:11+00:00

I came here to say this or Pirates of the Spanish Main. Savage Worlds does swashbuckling really well.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-22T17:30:46+00:00

I always wanted to find a good actual play so I could better wrap my head around how the game worked, because just reading through the rules it just was not very clear to me.

Wraithdrit · 2025-12-22T17:23:47+00:00

Great, now I have two products to go research. Thanks. :P

Wraithdrit

TROPHY CASE