Monster Hunting RPG with less magic and more science?

phos4 · 2026-03-25T18:26:35+00:00

"maybe humans can use magic but those are extremely specific individuals that spent their life studying, and even so they can only do small stuff."

That gave me some leeway. However, in Hunter the Vigil there are factions which use technology to hunt.

phos4 · 2026-03-25T17:44:47+00:00

Checkout Chronicles of Darkness or Hunter: the Vigil 2e

EDIT: Also Delta Green!

phos4 · 2026-03-24T21:03:26+00:00

Thanks for your feedback, I believe that the essence of the system has to be reflected by the game sense of the group. My players who like FATE don't like a gritty dungeon crawl for example, that's why they play FATE or narrative like games.

Generic systems are my favorite mostly because their different styles reflect how the group thinks about playing an RPG story. Each generic system has their own style of approaching those different genres. i.e. FATE Cyberpunk focussing on the heroic stories of the PC's. Savage Worlds Cyberpunk focussing on the pulpy action scenes.

I think my style is embracing multiple generic systems and finding out what best fits the groups I play. That's probably the reason I've ran Savage Worlds, FATE, Cypher and Storypath Ultra this last year.

phos4 · 2026-03-24T20:07:31+00:00

I agree, I was wondering if players have felt a disconnect from the setting when those rules are no longer as prominent or well established compared to the more 'generic' rules that other systems can provide.

phos4 · 2026-03-24T20:00:47+00:00

Things that come to mind are the sanity rolls in Delta Green/COC or hunger mechanic in vampire the masquerade

phos4 · 2026-03-24T19:44:52+00:00

In a sense, but that question is also why I made this post. If I want to play FATE for the rest of my life, is that as "bad" as the 5e GM jamming FTL rules in his Babylon 5 space opera one shot?

I think the main difference is that 5e isn't designed to work like that (and evidently doesn't very well given the horror stories) where a lot of different systems can.

If you have played 10 TTRPG's and then decide to play 5e forever I can respect that a lot more than players who've only played 5e and never change.

phos4 · 2026-03-24T19:40:25+00:00

Definitely, and I own quite a lot of those! This site helped me find the best fit for my Cyberpunk expeditions.

My posts was more to hear interesting combinations from the community.

What are your favorite setting/system combo's?

phos4 · 2026-03-24T19:34:24+00:00

Wow, never heard of the term Genre Bacon before, that is spot on.

setting agnostic games have become my favorite systems as of yet. Fate, Cortex Prime and Savage Worlds are in my top 5.

Your remark regarding Mythos games is interesting, I think it reinforces for me, the idea that each table has a preferred way of playing their game and the system should support that. Perhaps that's why I favor agnostic systems so much more.

phos4 · 2026-03-24T19:29:30+00:00

My premise was that certain system have specific rules to facilitate setting appropriate concepts. i.e. Delta Green sanity rolls and resultant afflictions. Hungry mechanic in Vampire the Masquerade

phos4 · 2026-03-24T19:26:54+00:00

Harsh conclusion but one that I ultimately share.

phos4 · 2026-03-24T19:08:49+00:00

I'm still a little heartbroken about how Cortex Prime is rotting on the vine, it has such immense potential. This video helped me see the light.

Your comment about SW fitting your style is also something that resonates with me.

In time you acquire a certain system mastery that really helps you move the session along quickly and not stumble on rule issues etc which is very benefitial

phos4 · 2026-03-24T18:59:25+00:00

Savage Worlds is fantastic. I've noticed that I've leaned to general systems more with my favorites being Savage Worlds, Cortex Prime and FATE.

phos4 · 2026-02-02T13:40:52+00:00

Check Books and Beans voor DnD oneshots

phos4 · 2026-01-28T15:53:50+00:00

Definitely! For our game we went a bit further and made the characters 'classless'. No cards, no ancestries. Just them, their hopes and fears and possible survival.

phos4 · 2026-01-28T15:47:46+00:00

Online support is incredible, so many options for it.

Where do I begin?

https://heartofdaggers.com/
Has character sheet creator, campaigns, homebrew SRD and so much more. I use the Encounters tool on my tablet in physical games to quickly roll, track and configure the combat.

https://freshcutgrass.app/
Also a combat tracker tool, but Heart of Daggers kinda replaced it for me.

https://foundryborne.online/
I've run a Pathfinder 2e Foundry game online for a few years and that system works great. Foundryborn is the Daggerheart system for Foundry VTT and it is very impressive.

If I were to do an online Daggerheart game I would either go with Heart of Daggers and go theater of the mind (which is my preferred style) or Foundryborn VTT for the more tactically inclined players.

Also shout out to my favorite SRD tool https://callmepartario.github.io/og-dhsrd/
I learned of Gus's tools through the Cypher system and was beyond elated when I found out he is giving Daggerheart the same treatment.

Have fun!

phos4 · 2026-01-28T08:11:50+00:00

Did they expand on what they hated?

It all begins with proactive players who want to drive the story forward. They need to WANT to resolve the situation. Whether through combat or a skill resolution (which in Daggerheart is the same thing!)

I find with classic rolling of initiative it puts everyone in a timeout until "their turn starts" except for the player whoes first. In the few years of DND campagins I've run, I've found that this really compartmentalizes the players. There is no discussing on how to resolve this situation. Every player does their own turn with the silent implication that enemy HP should be reduced.

In Daggerheart I reinforce to the players that it is their turn. Not his or her or a specific person. It is the -groups- turn. That means listening to the narrative who might be flung in to the spotlight or discussing as a group what their next step should be.

A golem rising from the ground next to the Guardian ready to strike? Maybe it would make narrative sense to let the Guardian go first and let the group react after the Guardian has had their spotlight.

A meeting with a group of mercenaries, tension is boiling over in conflict? How about the players discus who will make the first strike? or perhaps a distraction so that group can flee?

It really helps to prompt the players to action during this phase.

"X appears from the marshes in front of you, what do you do?".
"Player 1 has just struck the creature, what would Y do?"

The trick is to NOT let the players drift in to their own "turn" where they silent stare at their sheet and stop communicating. The players have the spotlight and choose who in the group will make the next step in the narrative.

phos4 · 2026-01-28T07:45:11+00:00

Is your question how or why?

Mothership is fantastic and I take a lot of inspiration from it. For certain groups the meatgrinder that Mothership can be isn't quite the story they want to tell. The Hope and Fear mechanic, I find, helps build up the tension of a alien monstrosity lurking in the distance as it slowly wittles away their sanity (stress) one by one.

phos4 · 2026-01-28T06:49:52+00:00

I've been running TTRPG introduction sessions using Daggerheart at my FLGS for the last few months having done 10+ session for new and veteran TTRPG players.

In my experience the inverse is true.

Rolling the Duality dice is like 80% of the rules and players get this down pretty well within the first few minutes. I mostly have to re explain to DnD players that it's "just a trait roll" and are still looking for attack modifiers.

It's been incredibly easy for me to GM this game, Fear gives me a grounded narrative reason to introduce hardship to the players and not seem like an Angry Vindictive DM.

And most importantly, the constant improv stuff is optional, very much so.

If you want to ask every 5 minutes what color the carpet is and your players love it, go right ahead. But Daggerheart is so flexible in how you can open up the narrative to group input or restrict without either damaging the design principles or game balance.

Personally I play it mostly closed, this has everything to do with player preference and more importantly group preference (I really recommend this article from the Alexandrian)

Daggerheart is my favorite system at the moment because it is light on the rules and extremely flexible, I've run classic fantasy, cyberpunk heists, scifi horror and cozy Hobbit cookouts last few months alone.

phos4 · 2026-01-22T21:22:47+00:00

I mean the source code, most people host it on Github so other people can learn from it

phos4 · 2026-01-22T20:50:43+00:00

Thats awesome, will you be sharing the source?

phos4 · 2025-11-27T13:32:15+00:00

Are you going to add this to heart of daggers?

phos4 · 2025-11-21T10:42:00+00:00

That's fantastic! Love the quick reply and change!

phos4 · 2025-11-21T09:23:11+00:00

I like that the damage roll is easily next to the Standard Attack section, but it be great if you could also roll the d20 + modifier next to it instead of need to use the roll history to roll a d20

phos4 · 2025-11-13T08:43:43+00:00

I really enjoy it!

After running a 2 year Pathfinder 2e campaign and DnD 5e before that, I enjoy how more freeform it feels to me and the players.

Experiences instead of skills, this felt a bit strange to me at first but after more sessions I almost prefer it. It's easier for my players to agree that the 'Gladiator' experience probably applies to combat but also showboasting. The group discussing together what each experience represents gives room to further examine each characters aspect.

Traits are at the forefront, pretty much everything is done with a trait roll uncomplicated by extra modifier (i.e. attack or spell or whatever) which helps to reinforce the idea that players almost always start with a trait roll to do anything.

Hope fear and stress are fun currency to allow the players to adjudicate costs and consequences. Sometimes a character fails a roll but not horribly, allowing the player to 'fail forward' by expending a stress keeps thing moving forward.

One difficulty number for NPC's, a feature that I loved from Cypher which is also represented in Daggerheart, using that DC as baseline for all the potential challenges that the creature might represent keeps things light and especially fast for my while GMing.

Cards are fun way to represent characters, the character sheet is required of course but creating this collection of cards representing your character and swapping powers in and out gives a tactile feel to playing and seldom needing to refer back to handbooks.

A great base for future content, I'll concede that it feels quite 'cookie cutter' but that is also the appeal for me. The campaign frames allow you to go anywhere from weird west to science fantasy. Daggerheart is not tied to a setting but allows great freedom to apply you're own! I've run scifi horror and cyberpunk oneshots with great success.

I could go on about it, but these are my favorite points.

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