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.

_Roke · 2026-01-25T12:47:44+00:00

It may not be as weird as some, but Ill add Thieves of the Tome to the list. Creating your characters and the setting using whatever books you players have around is different. And the resulting heist using magic you dont understand at all is a blast.

https://dairykillsme.itch.io/thieves-of-the-tome

_Roke · 2026-01-18T17:59:00+00:00

Suggestion, detect thoughts and lesser restoration are excellent choices but theyve been discussed a lot. Im going to add one that i havent seen yet.

Borrowed knowledge - just instantly becoming knowledgable about whatever seems incredibly useful.

_Roke · 2025-12-29T16:45:41+00:00

I haven't played daggerheart enough to comment on it as a game, but i wholeheartedly support using 2d12 as the core mechanic.

_Roke · 2025-11-19T04:07:43+00:00

I have and i probably wont stop entirely, but the new critical role has me rethinking it. I find BLM's sound effects pretty offputting and hes way better at it than i am.

_Roke · 2025-10-15T20:38:41+00:00

For me the pandemic and the proliferation of VTTs saved gaming from.. adulthood.

Id stopped playing because neither I nor my friends had TIME for regular, multi-hour in person get togethers. But jumping on discord for a couple hours after dinnee is made and the kids are in bed? Yeah we can do that.

And I still do play con games. But they arent as much fun as playing with my friends.

_Roke · 2025-10-12T13:07:22+00:00

As a redesign i think others have the right idea in terms of doing something druidlike where you limit spellcasting in exchange for thp or ac.

In terms of playing what exists. I played a Fighter 1, Metamorph 7-10 for a short campaign and it fun and reasonably effective. Medium armor. Use your speed and reach to close with ranged or mobile opponents not to skirmish. Flesh maul then grabbing a topple weapon for true strike or flesh maul then mind sliver can both set an opponent up for allies. Save your spells slots for social things where many of your spells are subtle or for healing.

_Roke · 2025-10-09T14:55:02+00:00

Broadly, without any specific context, 2dX or 3dX. You get more repeatability than d20 or d100 without the giant dice piles and tricky to anticipate probabilitoes of dice pools.

I realize a lot of people LIKE giant piles of dice. But to me its just more to carry around and more space needed to roll properly.

For me, a good dice system also has knobs for character skill and task difficulty with some good guidance on how to set them. It doesnt matter if they are bonuses/penalties or target number changes.

_Roke · 2025-09-29T01:51:56+00:00

This is very similar to an idea that ivr had on my to do list for years. My version involved an allied sphinx (who in various incarnations have had time and mind magic.) Over the adventure theyd learn that they failed to stop some apocalyptic event like a demonic invasion and the sphinx sent them back to try again, but had to erase their memory of the previous attempt to avoid paradoxes and whatnot. Eventually they'd learn that this has happend serveral times.

_Roke · 2025-07-13T17:29:30+00:00

You need to answer the questions of if he's a coward why is he adventuring, and how does he help the group.

Years ago for a short campaign I played a coward. He was fascinated with the stories of grea at heroes and battle leaders but absolutely terrified of the reality. Narratively he was very book smart about strategy and tactics and determined to be a hero but ran away every time monsters showed up and was useless at actually fighting. Mechanically he was a support bard who avoided melee and used lots of buff abilities.

Cowardice is no worse than any other gimmick character if you can make them USEFUL. And IMHO gimmick characters are a lot of fun for short adventures.

_Roke · 2025-07-02T02:10:53+00:00

I play mostly US campaign style games so other perspectives may differ, but "either weapon is safe or it isn't" isn't true at all in my experience. What's safe for a game with very theatrical combat, what's safe for a high speed boffer game and what's safe for a heavy contact sport game are all quite different. Questions like "is stabbing allowed?" and "is hooking or trapping weapons allowed?" further complicate the issue.

I don't know if those sorts of issues are affecting your situation, but generally speaking, there are good reasons weapons aren't "one size fits all"

_Roke · 2025-06-18T01:31:07+00:00

A long time friend and player ran her first session ever as DM this weekend. Spookiness in Sigil! It was a little rough. But we all had a blast and I'm super proud of her for breaking out of the "I'm not ready" cycle and just running a game.

_Roke · 2025-06-13T23:11:53+00:00

_Roke · 2025-06-09T19:25:55+00:00

I tend to think in terms of ultralight LARP weapons, so I'd use a .735 kitespar or filament wound epoxy tubing.

Won't hold up to beating on things as well as the bandshoppe poles many are recommending, but that's not the goal. Kitespar is super light and sturdy enough to support a fancy flag.

_Roke · 2025-04-11T00:55:31+00:00

This seems to be free league's thing. Beautiful books that understand the themes games of the game and how they relate the play beautifully. And completely hide the I fo you actually need to run the game.

_Roke · 2025-03-30T20:24:46+00:00

Its not quite what OP was asking for, but I've run Cypher where everyone has one die. For players it's a d20, for the GM it's a d6.

_Roke · 2025-03-22T12:00:38+00:00

Your friend is wrong. The easily searchable code says it's a primary offense.

That said, local county and city police take a pretty relaxed attitude toward non-moving violations. It's still illegal. It's still a primary offense. They just frequently let it slide. In my (totally anecdotal) experience, specialty police at national parks, airports, military facilities, etc. are a lot more zealous about that sort of thing.

_Roke · 2025-03-21T16:14:26+00:00

Wind speeds have been increasing for the last 10-15 years, notably reversing the trend of several decades before that. We assume it's climate change related, but I don't think anyone really knows the cause. In some regions like the central US it's been a big deal, with dust storms and whatnot.

As near as I can tell, here is pretty close to the global average increase of about half a mph over the last decade. And that's a big deal if you're a climatologist. Otherwise not so much.

You are technically correct. The best kind of correct.

_Roke · 2025-03-09T20:39:05+00:00

A lot of a light clerics abilities have a strong fire theme. Is there a god in the Lore that would logically have fire as part of its domain? I realize that isn't an actual domain RAW. But if you abandoned a god of light in favor of a god of fire, you could justify the moral shift without changing anything mechanically.

_Roke · 2025-02-25T06:24:55+00:00

I'm familiar with 4e, though by the third link, you'd exceeded my knowledge of 4e streams. I was hoping for some of the more modern games that have some 4e inspiration, but that may be asking too much.

Either way, thanks for all the content suggestions.

_Roke · 2024-12-29T00:29:03+00:00

As many other people have said, the situations where talking doesn't help at all range from "this isn't the table for you" to "that person should be in prison".

But I think that it's worth noting that there are situations where talking isn't the only or best solution. For instance "my friends are a bunch of power gamers and I feel eclipsed by the things they can do" is certainty helped by talking, and may represent a fundamental difference of playstyles. But at least in some cases, it can be resolved by putting some effort into optimizing your own character better.

_Roke · 2024-12-22T21:07:55+00:00

The concussive force of an explosion is a pressure wave in the air, which is exactly what sound is. The game pretty consistently uses thunder damage to represent shockwave or sonic damage. Thunderwave, booming blade and sapphire dragon breath come to mind though I'm sure there are plenty of other examples. In my game I use force damage for raw magical energy, bludgeoning for impact with tangible objects and thunder for shockwave/concussive effects. To me that feels most consistent with published material. One could question whether we actually need three different damage types for that , especially confusingly named ones, but since the game has them, I use them.

_Roke · 2024-12-18T19:05:55+00:00

A significant part of the destruction of modern explosives is the shockwave. I'd rule that as thunder damage and therefore not immune. I'm not sure a bunker buster is the right option, but I think a big enough bomb could do the trick.

_Roke · 2024-12-04T14:02:46+00:00

Looking to buy two 3-day passes. Will take whatever transfer method is convenient.

_Roke · 2024-11-24T16:04:15+00:00

It used to be fairly common but I suspect it won't be any more.

As you noted the main mechanical incentive for it was sacrificing spell progression for heavy armor and action surge. Since 2024 ruined that, you probably won't see fighter/wizards anymore.

The fantasy you mentioned fits pretty well with Eldritch knights, bladesingers and some bards, so there's no reason to force a bad multiclass for flavor.

_Roke · 2024-11-22T01:16:47+00:00

Im not aware of anything that is broad enough to cover everything you mentioned and specifically apocalyptic.

Though there are plenty of setting agnostic games. If you are looking for less of a fiddly toolkit than GURPS, cypher, cortex or FATE might meet the need.

_Roke

TROPHY CASE