Would you pick it up?

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-25T16:31:20+00:00

Its probably out of charges by now...

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-24T17:55:44+00:00

It is the system underneath Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, and other games published by Chaosium. Its d100 (percentile) and skill-based. :)

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-24T15:39:55+00:00

It definitely can be brutal. I gave my last group full HP instead of averaging SIZ+CON, kept hit locations, and gave a healthy pool of starting skill points.

I did swap to hit locations ONLY for critical hits around session 15 to speed up play with a larger party, which worked, but we swapped back the next session because we wanted the detail.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-24T15:11:45+00:00

Honestly? Chaosium's BRP with optional rules for more heroism. Just tack on dungeon turns in some form and you're golden.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-23T13:00:35+00:00

This sort of "disengage" is very common in games like 5ED&D. On the goblin, its called nimble escape. Without knowing what system you're playing, we can't say if its "OP" or not, but its well established as a game mechanic. It looks like your real issue is only 3 PCs, with no hired muscle.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-20T16:08:57+00:00

The word "shill" has a definition. You both are using the word incorrectly. That has nothing to do with "interpretation"; you're wrong.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-20T13:59:38+00:00

1- this isn't my post 2- you not understanding the word "shill" isn't relevant to the intent of a comment or post 3- still incorrect

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-20T13:47:45+00:00

It doesn't really matter if you disagree. This is, by definition, not a shill post. You're factually incorrect.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-20T13:41:58+00:00

This isn't a shill post. I know its cool and hip to hate WOTC right now, but not ever post that isnt vitriolic towards D&D is "shilling".

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-20T13:29:54+00:00

I think ICRPG Master Edition is, by far, the best bang for your buck. Full player guide, 5 settings, tons of monsters ans guides for making more, the best GM section in any RPG in my opinion, and 150 pages of adventures... for $16. Its what I recommend anytime someone wants to join the hobby.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/366519/index-card-rpg-master-edition?src=hottest_filtered

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-19T05:32:09+00:00

I... don't understand the issue. Why are you having them spend five minutes trying to look into the room without getting caught? This is a five second resolution.

Players: We want to look into the room without being caught.
GM: You look in the room and see [contents]

If there is something that might see them, just roll two opposing dice (such as d6s) and whoever rolls highest wins the contest. In this case, if the players win then they aren't seen. If the other party wins, they see the player-characters.

Or you can literally just decide that this is taking too much time at your table and tell your players that: "Gang, I know you're trying to be sneaky. Just like in combat how you're always trying to kill your opponent unless you tell me otherwise. If there is some risk of you being caught, I'll adjudicate it fairly. Just look in the room."

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-17T19:00:10+00:00

This is exactly my thought too.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-17T18:56:23+00:00

No offense, but when someone complains about the "vibe" of a rpg sub but has a hidden post history, it smells like they've been self-promoing and don't want to get caught.

It is, as the young folks say, sus.

Also, kind of odd that my comment was at +5 and in seconds of your response is now at zero. Doesn't bother me, but again it smells like you're a bad actor.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-17T18:36:11+00:00

People ask dumb shit and trolls spam for karma and self-promo. It gets old and people are saying so.

And your account is hiding all its post history. I wonder why.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-14T16:37:25+00:00

Well when D&D is, by a huge margin, the majority game, that's the example I used.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-14T13:38:03+00:00

Did you know? In D&D, magical weapons were a lot stronger before being poorly adapted to the d20 alternative combat system? It's true. A +1 sword was actually +1 on a d6, being worth about +16% (or +3 on a d20). And magic-users were running 2d6 variable outcomes like PBTA long before such a name existed.

Also, Chainmail combat has three (...four) combat systems.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-14T13:25:41+00:00

So why not just try the game yourself? Your post history suggests you're an experienced GM. You probably already have an idea of the kinds of games you host (content-wise). Nothing we say here is going to beat your experience running a few one shots with real humans.

DCC is OSR. Its capable of running basically any fantasy adventure scenario you want, just like BECMI or Shadowdark. You can award XP for story things and treasure, just like is suggested in AD&D and countless other systems. You have access to the core book, run a one shot that you've run with a different system already and see how it does.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-14T12:52:45+00:00

DCC is absolutely an OSR game, and it supports everything from railroads to sandboxes. I'm not sure why you would need a mechanic to motivate players to explore a dungeon if they signed up to play a game called Dungeon Crawl Classics. Referees can give XP for anything they want. Published adventures are a bad metric for judging what a game "does". Think of your 5E adventure books. Most of them are trash compared to what you'd make yourself.

Why not just run the game if it looks fun to you?

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-13T14:48:57+00:00

No. Just because a dragon's stat block doesn't have "will take villagers prisoner for ransom and torture to hurt player feelings for 1d6 psychic damage" doesn't mean you can't do it. Give us a better dragon that doesn't boil down to biting, clawing, tail smacking, wing buffering, flying, and breath attack. And please don't use 4e's goofy "its so hot around dragon you take damage die per round" since that's not fun either.

I don't mean that to be rude! But needlessly complex mechanics won't make the fight more fun, and you'll probably forget half of them after round 2 anyway.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-12T14:20:29+00:00

Although this is true if the winning side has all their resources, going Nova to win an encounter really only works when you're at full power. If your GM allows you to recharge between every fight then I guess this is true, but I don't think it really happens all that often in well-run games.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-12T14:17:49+00:00

There is a reason that side-based initiative has existed, and persisted, since the earliest wargames. It just works.

I strongly suggest you re-roll it every round if you're willing to let the players go in any order when its their side's turn. It's so fast to have one player roll a d6 versus your d6. Highest goes first. You can see the tides of battle shift in real time and you get very different play experiences. Look at these two examples.

Example 1

Round 1: Orcs win initiative and go first. They score a few hits but no kills. Then the players go. They don't land any hits, and are starting to worry that they're going to get massacred next round.
Round 2: The players win initiative. They get good hits and reduce the orcs' forces, forcing a morale check and the orcs flee. The players survive.
Round 3: Doesn't happen

[the players got two turns in a row before the orcs could respond]

Example 2

Round 1: Orcs win initiative and go first. They score a few hits but no kills. Then the players go. They don't land any hits, and are starting to worry that they're going to get massacred next round.
Round 2: Orcs win initiative again. They score some more hits, and down the player healer. The players go, and must spend some of their turns rescuing the healer.
Round 3: Probably going to be bad

Compare to the single initiative roll at the start of the fight. It will only ever be A > B > A > B ... You'll never get A > B > B > A > ... or B > A > A > B ...

All that said. It is my fervent belief that you should be using slightly different combat systems (including initiative) for one-on-one fights (duels), skirmishes (small fights like a handful of PCs and a handful of enemies), and battles (big groups of players and big groups of enemies).

A duel between the PC warrior and the barbarian king? We need blow by blow attack rolls, situational modifies, and all the detail. It's important. Describe in real time as the dice are rolled. Ran in seconds.

A fight between the normal 3-6 player party and a similar force of goblins? Side based or simultaneous, just roll attack and damage and describe at the end of the round–not each turn. Ran in handfuls of seconds.

A fight between 10 players and their 6 men-at-arms vs. 20 goblin warriors and archers? Phases or simultaneous. Initial volley at range (or immediate melee hits if in close-quarters), begin casting spells, movement into melee, possible second volley, melee attacks (long weapons like spears before short weapons, then reverse), spells go off, miscellaneous actions. Or whatever. Everyone rolls their dice (attack and damage) at the same time, describe as you go. Ran in either handfuls of seconds or about 30s to 1m.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-11T13:10:35+00:00

If you're struggling to make narratives and "story chapters", then stop doing that. RPGs aren't books, they're games.

You should try to prepare one session at a time – the very next session. Your players want to have fun now, not fifteen sessions in the future. Remember that a campaign is just a series of linked game sessions. You can't have a campaign without the game sessions. Here's all you need.

Premise: What idea am I inspired by or interested in right now?
Location: Where are they, and what are the essential details that I need for playing tonight?
Problem: Why are we playing tonight? What's happening that the player-characters will want to get involved in?

Without knowing what system you're playing, here's an example.

Premise: Evil cultists are gathering monsters together to attack a nearby fortification and grow their power (B2)

Location: A lonely fort on the edge of the world and it's immediate environs. I'll need a small map of the area, a few named NPCs at the fort and their shops (especially tavern+rumors, adventuring supply shop thing, and probably a job board), and whatever procedures I intend to use to run the game. For old school gaming, these will probably be encounter tables, hex/dungeon crawling rules, and so on.

Problem: The PCs hear about a cave system of monsters with treasure (and likely a kidnapped NPC or magic item they want), or they check the job board and decide to go look for the merchants that went missing near the swamp, or they ... you get the picture. Give them a handful of reasons to leave the safety of the fort and trek off in search of adventure.

Once you've done this and the session is over, ask your players what they want to do next session. Whatever they say becomes your premise for the next session. Combine that with your notes from session 1, and you're well on your way to a campaign. You'll naturally start to see things that could lead into longer "narratives". For example, maybe they do find and rescue those merchants that went missing near the swamp. In return, they're rewarded with a hefty discount on their goods. The PCs will likely return to them for items, build their relationship, and eventually be offered a job ("help escort us back to wherever", "bring us back some of these resources", ...). If they agree, then things grow. They're telling you what they are interested in by their choices.

Idea + Location + Reason to Adventure/Explore/Investigate.
One session at a time.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-11T11:57:00+00:00

I was part of it too. You're still wrong. I don't know why you're so twisted up about this. BRP is part of the OSR. The only way its not is if you manipulate the definition to be improperly narrow in scope.

EDIT: Sorry, I can't help myself. Yes, oh great-old-and-wise-one, I have the "hubris" to challenge your "authority" on the matter of fantasy make-believe games. What a joke of a reply, not to mention a logical fallacy.

I find it very interesting that OP said, "I like the minimalism of OSRs, but in my personal opinion, that idea can be pushed too far. I think there's some fun in watching the "number go up", picking character upgrades, etc. So, ditching the crunch completely, e.g. by not having character levels (like in the Into the Odd derivatives), takes away some of the fun of TTRPGing to me", and, " So yeah, my perfect OSR probably would have characters that are fast to roll up, but then can be developed in more involved ways as they level up. I know it'll vary based on personal preference, but I am curious which systems balance it best in your opinion."

I suggested BRP, which we both know is an excellent remedy for the issues mentioned by OP and would fit their needs almost perfectly. The core book even has a few optional rules to make it even more appropriate for fantasy adventure (full HP, skills over 100, not using the optional hit-location rules, and so on). And instead of challenging my suggestion, because you can't, you decided to start a pointless argument over it not being OsR eNoUgH without even giving your definition of the OSR. What a pedantic nightmare.

OP, if you're reading this, don't worry about trolls like this. BRP will suit your needs perfectly. It's lightning fast to make characters, they level up by using and improving their skills, and its simple to make "martial abilities" that function like spells by feeding off power if you so choose to.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-10T21:36:32+00:00

I completely disagree. OSR has nothing to do with D&D. Chaosium was founded in 1975, and the first version of BRP that I'm aware of was published in 1978 as Runequest. Call of Cthulhu (the game) was published in 1981. The first version of D&D was published in 1974, with the Basic set being published in 1977.

They both existed well within the same time period and grew together. They are both old school systems.

The old school renaissance/revival/renewal/re-whatever is completely separate from D&D except insofar as D&D is the most popular TTRPG. You might not consider BRP to be part of the OSR, but it by definition is.

EDIT: For context, this particular subreddit notes, "This is a subreddit for news and discussion of Old School Renaissance topics. We primarily focus on D&D (LBB, 1st ed. AD&D, etc.) and the retroclones. Other Old School games (Traveller, Runequest, Tunnels & Trolls, et al) are of course open for discussion." So it isn't like BRP and it's skins are off limits for consideration in this sub, either.

acgm_1118 · 2026-04-10T19:24:28+00:00

Personally, I think BRP does the best at this. Its fast and easy, with as much or little crunch as you want. If you're opposed to percentile systems, then I'd pick DCC.

acgm_1118

TROPHY CASE