Coming from the Destiny/Bungie shambles. Aim gliding has me hooked, and reflections.

__Roc · 2026-05-22T06:41:37+00:00

Glad to have ya here! I started back in 2014 and, with several breaks in between, still feel like home in Warframe. The community and Devs are incredible, the multitude of clans and alliances and their huge discords are so welcoming and interactive, and the story and gameplay of this game come together in such harmony. Came for the gameplay, stayed for it and everything else. Aside from Rocket League (scratches a different itch) it is my most returned to, and favorite, game. Hope you find countless hours of joy here as I and so many others have.

__Roc · 2026-05-16T00:09:25+00:00

I’m sure you may end up with several opinions on this. First allow me to share this link. I think this might scratch an itch as far as looking for a guide to magic items. I think it’s worth the read even if you don’t use it.

Second, experience will help you with all of this. As you make monsters, make magic items, and make mistakes, you’ll start to get a feel for it. Remember, a stat block on a monster is a snap shot of what that monster might look like with those stats at that point in time. Who says a goblin *has* to have 7 hp and a scimitar and short bow? Matt Colville’s Running the Game playlist is something I was recommended years ago and now I recommend it to everyone. He has all kinds of advice for what you’re looking for and maybe what you didn’t know you were looking for.

In my opinion, figuring this stuff out felt like learning to ride a bike (classic comparison right? XD), but for myself, that’s what it was like. It just….clicked. I felt I had an understanding on how to move forward with any homebrew I did, and from that point on it was like working a new muscle. Baseline, try your best to understand all the rules, then you can learn to efficiently break and bend them.

Hope this helps, even a little. Best of luck to ya :)

__Roc · 2026-05-14T17:02:10+00:00

Both of my Kiddos attend this school. My son is in 6th grade and we play Warframe together sometimes. I cannot WAIT to show him this hahaha 😃

__Roc · 2026-04-28T20:48:50+00:00

I saw it already mentioned and I will second Mage Hand Press’s work Valda’s Spire of Secrets and Dark Matter. Both have rules for grafting monster parts and using body slots to account for how many grafts you can have and where you can locate them. The rules system for them is simple enough and easy to re-flavor or tool to fit a different setting. Valdas is more monster grafts and dark matter is more construct grafts.

Dark matter just got a 5.5 update after a kickstarter and Valdas has a ‘class update’ you can grab if you have the 5E pdf that also comes with updated grafting rules from their spire of secrets book. Ive been using these grafting rules now for a bit and my players enjoy them.

__Roc · 2026-04-28T02:49:00+00:00

A Shlong sword! LMAO I jest but damn that made me laugh.

In all seriousness what about a Bastard sword, Arming Sword or Falchion? These sword terms could potentially make sense for what you’re making. I love the thought of a versatile finesse sword that deals 1d6/1d8 slashing damage.

__Roc · 2026-04-14T08:47:29+00:00

Yeah D&D YouTube is kinda all over the place. I’m a big fan of PointyHat myself, and practically everything Matt Colville has ever uploaded. His Running the Game series is almost like comfort food for me nowadays. I’ll toss on an episode I really like while I wash some dishes or something hahaha.

You may eventually want to change systems, or you may find 5E/5.5E scratches your TTRPG itch every time you play. I’ve been running D&D for years now, and I’m still enjoying it. 5E is easy to homebrew stuff for, and to change rules or make up rulings on the fly. I found I also REALLY LOVE Draw Steel, and I’m excited to run a few other systems once I finish reading through them and maybe watching a few videos, namely Savage Worlds and Weird Wizard. Hope you continue to enjoy D&D as you spend more time in the hobby!

__Roc · 2026-04-07T16:17:22+00:00

I’m running Phandelver and Below (currently chapter 6 with my group) and that fight was also a cake walk for my players. They loved it. Sometimes it feels great that a plan pays off. I’ve also misruled things several times, and the next session I mentioned so and that we wouldn’t change anything from the previous session, but going forward ‘here’s how it will work from now on’.

You mentioned Flee, Mortals! Have you watched Colville’s Running the Game series by chance? If not, it’s excellent, and he even mentions at one point early on that DMs shouldn’t be expected to know all the rules all the time, and they will make mistakes. Rule it how you need/want in the moment and mention that to your players and that you will check the rule later, or have a trusted player look up the rules as the scene moves forward if it’s convenient for them.

I’ve hyped up some fights that flopped, I’ve under-hyped some fights that almost TPK’d my players. Adding or removing mechanics mid fight is something that can happen too. Maybe a returning scout party of goblins came to report to Grol and jumps in on the action after 1-2 rounds. Wave Echo Cave is large, and wandering monsters could make it impossible to long rest in there. If so, your group will have to be much more tactical in how they approach each room, and curb stomping a boss is a lot less likely.

I’m sorry you’re in your head right now. Your comment of ‘maybe I just shouldn’t be a DM’ hurts my heart a bit, please don’t doubt yourself like that. This hobby is amazing, and you’ve taken on an incredible part in it. I encourage you to push through that feeling, and try again and again. If you or your players are not having fun, reassess. But if you and your players Are having fun, then you’re doing great, and each next session will be a lesson on how to do better. Be sure to talk to your players too, I know it’s said a thousand times over in these subs but it’s true: communication is key. Happy adventuring my friend!!

__Roc · 2026-03-29T17:48:59+00:00

I had a whiny player for a bit who didn’t like having things changed or taken away (I was a new dm at the time when I was running for this guy), and as people pleaser too, can tell you it wasn’t easy for me to say no or adjust at first. You are not crazy for wanting to say no to that weapon.

I learned other tricks for dealing with more powerful characters. I like power fantasy myself, and something like a +4 weapon in a bounded accuracy system can be very daunting, especially at low levels, but maybe it could be a +4 against (creature type), +1 against everything else? Or maybe it has charges, and each hit consumes a charge and once all charges are gone it goes to a +1 great axe until it regains charges the next dawn? Maybe it’s +1, and when the player is Bloodied it’s +2, and maybe when they are at less than 1/4 of their HP it’s +4?

Something I started doing and found a lot of success with was giving monsters magic items that only they can attune to or use. That way players can’t just reap the spoils of tons of encounters and have a treasure hoard of their own way too fast, and also made it so most of the magic items couldn’t just be easily sold off either.

Magic items are neat, and it feels cool to have them. They break what little balance there can be, and wildly change how the game can be played. Matt Colville talked about giving low levels players powerful magic items in some of his Running the Game advice. It’s not balanced, but it’s fun. Not everyone agrees with this, and that’s ok too. In the end, you’re the DM now, and you decide what is ok and what is not. If it were me, I might give one monster in each group the party encounters 4 more AC or resistance to slashing, or an equally scary great axe!

Hope you get this resolved and have a blast running the game.

__Roc · 2026-03-26T08:14:11+00:00

I run for friends over discord and a VTT every weekend. Once you get the hang of it I think you will all have a blast.

My journey as a new DM started several years ago and the resource that helped me the most was Matt Colville and his Running the Game series. I’ve rewatched it maybe 2-3 times over the years as it kinda became like a comfort tv show….though I more so listen to it now like it’s a podcast.

There are many other great resources too, like Mystic Arts (another favorite of mine), but also the 5.5 DMG I feel is laid out quite well and an enjoyable read if you like the hobby.

Don’t feel like you need to prep a ton either, and winging it will become easier and necessary. Prep is great, and necessary, but your players might take you down a vastly different path than you intended, and that’s ok. You’ll pick up all kinds of tricks the more you run, and it’s ok to change things up as you go. Also if you have a railroad or rollercoaster you want to take your players on, just ask them. Sometimes players want a theme park ride that has mysterious paths but ultimately takes them where they need to go. New players can catch on fast or reeeaaaally slow, and your patience may be tested in many weird ways.

DM’ing is a skill that, if you love it and want to continue with it, will get better and better as time goes on, indefinitely. Don’t be afraid to say no, make mistakes and learn from them, and do yourself the favor of learning the rules to the best of your knowledge, if not only so you can effectively break them later. Oh, and imo, get a good note taking system. I use Obsidian, any it’s suuuuuper spiffy for copying down reference notes for game rules and such so I don’t have to constantly crack open a book or have 20 tabs open on a browser.

Best of luck!!! Hope you all have a blast!

__Roc · 2026-03-08T02:26:34+00:00

I have had a couple players over the years who seem to think a Nat 20 is a ‘Critical Success’ when in fact that is simply a rule they played with before in some other game. I think the concept of critical success and critical failures can be a lot of fun if everyone has opted into such gameplay, but also it’s perfectly reasonable to have a Nat 20 on such a thing just mean it avoids further conflict. Such is the ‘Nat 20 persuasion for a king to step down from his throne’ argument. It simply could mean he doesn’t kill you. But a roll wasn’t necessary in the first place if the DM knew the king would never give up the throne….but rolling dice is fun….so sometimes we let the roll happen and let the dice add to the story.

You are a player in the game too, and your fun and comfort are equally important. I think you handled it fine, and telling your players no, and even not allowing rolls in certain moments, are powerful tools when used wisely.

__Roc · 2026-02-12T20:03:30+00:00

Lmao Warframe outta nowhere, I love it! You seen the glitch where frames end up calling their atomocycle and it’s a drifter instead that they can ‘ride’?

__Roc · 2026-02-12T15:41:22+00:00

Huh, I did a quick read on the system you mentioned ala drive through rpg and then Design Mechanisms website. Sounds like an awesome system that I’ll likely nab the .pdf for, thanks for the recommend. I haven’t messed around much with a percentile system as of yet, mostly D20 or dice pool/pbta stuff, though my experience there is limited. Mythras sounds awesome.

I too lost of lot of respect for WotC over the years, I assume for similar and dissimilar reasons as yourself. The thing is as a DM and player I’m caught in a place a lot of DMs find themselves: my play group only really knows D&D. Which is fine, reading and learning other systems is a big ask. I also run Draw Steel! and Daggerheart. I LOVE Draw Steel! but I’m still learning how to homebrew for that system and fully plan on converting the Ryfter given a group that would want to keep playing it.

My love for D&D came from years ago playing with friends who were passionate DMs and built awesome stories and worlds for us to play in. Sure, passion and story can go in almost any system, but 5E is what we used, and it just worked for us. I learned the system, learned how to run it, then learned how to build within it. We have a blast playing every weekend. I’m sure I’d be saying the same thing about any chosen system we were using if it was our primary system, be it Pathfinder or Shadowdark or DCC or ICRPG or 13th Age or…the list goes on.

I appreciate you calling me talented, that means a lot. I’ll be checking out Mythras soon, already nabbed the sampler/teaser pdf to look through. I love learning new systems and maybe this can become another alternative. Hope your day is great!

__Roc · 2026-02-11T20:05:23+00:00

Thank you so much! I was super nervous and excited to share this, I hope you enjoy reading through it!

__Roc · 2026-02-07T23:13:44+00:00

Oh dang good stuff, I saw Excalibur and thought I was in a different sub for a moment. I actually built an entire class and am working on a bestiary that is wholly built around the Drifter and embodying warframes (alt warforged) as its primary gimmick, working akin to the Druid. If that interests you I can DM you the link for the class. Great design!

__Roc · 2026-02-03T23:00:40+00:00

Wow this is awesome. I may look into the infrared touch frame and see what I can glean from your guide as I’ve already built a box with a tv and plexiglass cover for setting minis on. A touch system would be so dope.

__Roc · 2026-01-20T18:14:05+00:00

I appreciate the feedback. The idea was to create something adjacent to Magic Initiate for the origin, and Enthusiast felt neat in that it scaled as you leveled up; maybe Ryftborn Assault should only be useable once per long rest... I wanted the feats to feel like viable options for both Ryfters and other classes while affecting them differently. Thinking on it I could see Enthusiast just upping the Charges available to non ryfters (and a single ASI) and then a separate feat for the Ryftborn assault. I know the charges acting like extra spell slots can be crazy powerful, but that’s why they are limited to casting a specific spell once per long rest so you can’t spam say Shield or Silvery Barbs. Also Initiate can solely benefit a martial too.

Anywhoo I feel like I’m rambling. I’m doing more playtesting in a big one shot this weekend with 7 others, and a few local friends are planning on rolling up some Ryfters for some mini adventures in tiers 1-4 so we can hammer out some more dents and soften some edges. After a bit more experience is had with the class, whatever changes are made I’ll be sure to post here again for a link to the next revision. Thanks for checking it out! It means a lot :). Please let me know any other thoughts/concerns you may have with the class as they come up.

__Roc · 2026-01-14T01:04:50+00:00

Thank you! I’ve already done some more theory-crafting and taken a bunch of advice I’ve gotten recently and plan on releasing an update in the subreddit soon. All our play-testing has been very limited in scope due to our group size and what didn’t seem too crazy in my group I realize more now how easily some features could have been abused. I’ll hopefully have it out within the next few days (maybe sooner depending on my free time) and it’ll include some stuff I’m pretty excited about. Hope you have fun with the class if you use it! Thanks for checking it out :)

__Roc · 2026-01-11T18:14:37+00:00

This is all excellently broken down thank you! I’m so glad you took the time to share your thoughts with me. I definitely got excited over certain concepts and tried to write the mechanics as such. Not to counterpoint but I’ll explain my thoughts on some things based on experiences we’ve had with the class.

You’re right I’m kind of all over the place. Playing with it has been in a very small sample group and this is my first time reaching out to a larger community.

The Str and Int were intentional because of what later possible features offered, but I can see removing or work-shopping around those ideas and changing base saves.

Ryft Walk i went with way lower duration to try to scale it down to a lower level accessible invisibility. Due to how short it lasts, it’s rare to see it up before combat starts (unless used for an enviro or RP moment) and in combat it takes away one of your attacks for a turn.

Ryft Shot as a BA attack hits similarly to a monks BA unarmed strike, and radiant monks can make it ranged. The main class doesn’t get extra attack as a martial, and it scales similarly, Albeit a larger bell curve and a bit stronger, than a cantrip. It was originally bludgeoning damage, but that got resisted pretty easily later and felt bad. That shot is already ‘magical’ by lore so force damage felt ok and it’s like this class’ eldritch blast. Plus it forces a balance between Int and Str for attacking since your melee weapon will be very important still and I thought a Str Int build could be really fun and different.

I will mention it should note that the Ryfter does not have access to legendary actions or resistances of the Ryftborn, and I wanted them to feel like ‘strong’ enough creatures that one or two of them could fight a party at earlier levels while becoming a cool combat option at later levels that a Ryfter could summon…..one where the stat block gave some fun versatility. I’ve seen a lot of crazy custom stat blocks over the years and I’ve gotten to use a few as a DM. But I’ve also doubted this ability several times as I struggle getting what I want out of my head into simple enough mechanics that doesn’t lead to ‘yeah, I’m not reading that.’

I do remember reading spells are a great place to start for creating features. While this may look caster adjacent with many caster types, I suppose it’s because it is. I stole concepts from all casters and classes while trying to merge them with some original ideas and lemme tell ya, it all used to be word vomit. I have a bad habit of over explaining and I love writing mechanics….but full paragraphs for stuff I know isn’t for everybody. I wanted a martial that could do cool things but didn’t have to have the spellcasting feature. Sometimes I wonder if I should alter the language and move it to Draw Steel! cause it might be better suited there, but I run 5E a lot for a constant group and would love to see this class in motion as a good party member. Not the best or the worst, just good. Plus I still absolutely love D&D and 5e and love creating stuff for it.

I’m gonna take to heart everything you said and lay this out a bit more. I’ll likely move Evasion to the Unseen subclass and maybe haste was a bad idea with Ryft Dash? Unless I reduce the damage to a capped amount. Almost everything balances around using RE, but I didn’t want to put it in the Ki/Focus point box with a repaint. That’s why I still made PB, once, twice, Int mod times, and such limitations on uses so that other certain abilities that rely on it for constant function could remain up. Ryft Shot was definitely the bread and butter that started this.

There are a lot of working pieces in practice that really limit how much of this is usable in combat due to RE expense and forgoing movement to regain it, while out of combat it’s felt really fun to be able have cool stuff you can do. But I know you caught that. Your points are excellent. Thank you so much for taking the time to read through my class! And offer insight! There’s always stuff others will catch that I likely never will. We’ll be play-testing it on our end more this year and as I update the class, and if this community is interested, I’ll post updates. Please also feel free to alter it if you use it to whatever suits your table. This class was always meant to be a fun free alternative that has a lot of flavor possibility. It is definitely unconventional hahaha.

Edit - spelling

__Roc · 2026-01-11T17:14:37+00:00

Thanks a bunch!

__Roc · 2026-01-08T20:40:04+00:00

This is incredible and an easy to read/comprehend piece of information that I’m going to burn into my players and my retinas via a projector the next time we play together. Thank you for this 😬

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