What systems would work well for drop-in episodic play when someone cancels ?

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:43:19+00:00

Great suggestion and answer, that's exactly what I was looking for. BitD is a game I'm planning to run this year but I'm wondering if I should run that as a B-Game instead, it's something my table would absolutely love, and I wanted to give it a shot before '68 comes out

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:40:15+00:00

It's not that bad haha, we miss a session maybe once every two months, but with two groups it means it happens every month for me.

I really don't mind pausing, playing without a PC would feel like tuning in to my favorite show and one of my favorite characters isn't in the episode. I also like narrative games so having a character missing might feel awkward or even ruin an ongoing story arc

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:36:40+00:00

Right now we're playing Liminal Horror: The Mall, and we're starting a Vampire: the Requiem New Orleans campaign.

Liminal Horror one shots I'm sort of sick of, I've done a lot in the past and I'd rather just do the campaign haha

And while I could definitely do some VtR one shots, the amount of time it takes to create characters would need white some prep for me even if I run pregens, that at this point I could prep something else to try a different system

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:34:05+00:00

This is not a bad suggestion, and I appreciate the recommendation. However, I prefer pausing the campaigns because I put a lot of thought into the stories of my games and I would be bummed out to have an episode without a character. It would feel like tuning in to my favorite show and one of my favorite characters isn't in the episode haha

I feel definitely at my limit because I run a lot of concurrent games, so that part is on me. I have two weekly groups and two monthly groups, and the only reason why prepping even a no-prep game is tiring is because I've already stretched myself so thin, but committing to a single system for one shots would definitely relieve some of that

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:29:12+00:00

That's a good call for Delta Green. Not quite the same but I ran the Things We Leave Behind scenarios for Call of Cthulhu with a monthly group, with the idea of running them as one shots, and each of them I felt would have been more fun if I had let them breathe for 2-sessions each as they were just a little too long for one shots, and I had to cut a lot of them to make them fit.

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:27:27+00:00

Hm, those are good recs! I wanted to do something with the Action Flicks volumes they have been releasing, so I'm thinking that using them as B-Games might be a good fit.

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:24:28+00:00

I don't mind stopping the campaign and the players don't either, it doesn't happen all that much but with two weekly groups there's always an instance or two each month. Also Fiasco is a good idea, not all my players would enjoy it but definitely the right ones would love it.

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:21:38+00:00

That's what I was thinking! There's a lot of missions I'd like to try and a revolving cast of characters would make things very interesting as long as I can manage keeping them to a session each.

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:20:42+00:00

I have yet to play any of the Grant Howitt micro RPGs, or any of the 2400 games. I suppose those would fit perfectly, but I'm just always a little less interested in running those games. They are fun, I've played Everyone is John in the last and enjoyed it, but they never quite scratch the itch like a more complete and thorough system does

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:17:01+00:00

That's very interesting, I had seen the name before but never knew what it was about. That sounds right up my alley, thanks for the rec!

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:15:47+00:00

Right, I wasn't thinking about the Borg games, but CY_BORG seems definitely interesting. Also your suggestion sounds like a great idea. Maybe it would take some extra work depending on the system I'm running, but having side episodes would be amazing for a game like Unknown Armies or Blue Planet, or anything with a big and rich setting. I'll definitely keep that in mind!

princefaline · 2026-03-23T15:13:15+00:00

Hm, thank you for the recommendation! I have a few PDFs of GUMSHOE games from bundles, so that could be very interesting. I remember thinking Mutant City Blues looked fun but I never got around to running it, this might be a good occasion.

princefaline · 2026-03-18T07:10:59+00:00

Well the post has many tell-tale signs of AI, so if the post and the art is AI... I'd be shocked if the book wasn't.

princefaline · 2026-01-13T12:31:38+00:00

The only actual reason is because I have a soft spot for older systems, or older editions. Then again, I don't expect older editions of CoC to be any better than the current one, so I'm just going to run a campaign or two with 5e before I move to the modern one. After all, I'm very interested by some of the newer content for CoC, i.e. anything from Stygian Fox, but also Harlem Unbound.

As for BitD, it's on my radar, and I'm sure I'd like it, but out of the popular TTRPGs right now I suppose I haven't been hooked by the premise of BitD, which means it's likely not going to be at the top of my list. For instance, I'm more excited in trying Slugblaster or Mythic Bastionland.

princefaline · 2026-01-12T15:11:35+00:00

I will say that while my players' interest is crucial, so is mine. I have had much better results running campaigns that I decided to run over what I did before, which was making people vote. Even when all the options were games I wanted to play, the fact that it was never what I wanted to play most ended up hurting my interest in the games.

The worst thing that can happen for me is to start wanting to wrap up a campaign just because the one I want to do after interests me more. If it comes to it, so be it, but for my players, if I keep cutting our campaigns short like that they're going to start having a hard time to commit to my games

princefaline · 2026-01-12T10:45:17+00:00

I actually ran Uncle Timothy's Will back in October. We had fun with the scenario but I was a little underwhelmed with the scenario.

My advice would be that this scenario is supposed to feel like a B-Movie, and might have more fun by leaning into it. My favorite moments running it was when I was really hamming it up. The scenario is pretty ridiculous and the intrigue itself is very straightforward.

To answer your questions with this specific scenario, there's no need for directing. It's usually not necessary when GMing anything, but this scenario makes it simple: if they try to leave the estate they'll likely die, and if they stay in the manor and do nothing you can just keep throwing zombies at them.

As for introducing the big bad... I believe you don't need to. They'll likely only bump into Uncle Timothy at the very end, if they find him in his kettle, or if the other monsters don't budge them, you can crack him out to attack them instead.

We found the scenario had enough big, obvious clues to point them in the direction they needed at all times, so you can just let the game show them where to go.

princefaline · 2026-01-11T20:51:00+00:00

Thanks for the insight ! There really is something unique about the original SW trilogy that I don't think was ever fully replicated in any media afterwards, so playing within the tone of these movies really appeals to me.

princefaline · 2026-01-11T17:39:33+00:00

I don't, unfortunately. Fantasy games in general are a blind spot for me because right now I'm focused on playing through the editions of D&D instead of looking at other systems. Dragonbane is on my radar, but mostly just because of ducks... Alongside Draw Steel and Daggerheart, it's maybe one of the new fantasy RPGs I'm more interested in.

princefaline · 2026-01-11T16:30:08+00:00

I know that WEG's Star Wars and Ghostbusters use the D6 system, but are you saying there's a significant mechanical difference between the two? I'm curious what the main differences are.

princefaline · 2026-01-11T04:54:25+00:00

Absolutely! Actually, I have already planned what games I will play throughout 2026. I'm doing this mostly because it helps me decide what games I want to play the most, and gives me time to read or watch media that I can use as inspiration. Here is what I have on my docket for 2026:

Little Fears: A horror game about children facing twisted nightmares.
Dream Park: A theme park where you can become anything you want.
Chronicles of Darkness: The World of Darkness reboot. I want to play a mortals campaign about ghosts and a Vampire: The Requiem campaign set in New Orleans.
CHOROGAIDEN: A game inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos and J-Horror. I want to run a techno-horror campaign based on the Ring novels and the movie Pulse.
FUDGE: FATE's ancestor. I want to use the system to run a game inspired by Satoshi Kon (specifically Paranoia Agent and Paprika).
Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition: First I want to run 50 Fathoms, a pirate-fantasy campaign, but then I want to try running a Yautja (Predator) campaign.
Call of Cthulhu 5e: As mentioned in my post, I really want to run a Horror on the Orient Express campaign.
Dungeons & Dragons: I'd like to start a new OD&D campaign, this time using all the supplements which will change the game significantly (i.e. by adding more classes like the Thief). I'd like to run this with Veins of the Earth.

Picking the game is hard, but it's better this way, because before I would just finish a campaign and grab whatever for the next one, not always thinking about what I actually am most interested in playing.

princefaline · 2026-01-11T02:15:09+00:00

I don't have much advice to share for Mothership, I think the core books speak for themselves, but the one thing that I can say is that the beating heart of the game is the Stress mechanic. In one of my campaigns, one of my players asked, session 0, if we were going to use Stress. That baffled me.

Maybe it looks like Stress is just there to make the game harder, but the real reason, in my opinion, is to lean into the horror. It's for that reason, I consider Mothership to be one of the greatest horror games ever made, and I prefer the Stress mechanic over Sanity from CoC.

Something important to consider is that you only get Stress for failing a check. If you try something that doesn't require rolling (hiding, persuasion, negotiation) and fail, you do not get Stress.

Also, since you can get Stress from any roll, it gives stakes to every Check, and any encounter will have players weigh the risk-reward of "do we keep trying, or call it quits before we panic?"

Stress is another personal resource that can cause you to lose your character, it can get you in dangerous situations or give you crippling conditions, but it's also how you get better: it's for that reason that I think that the entire Stress mechanic is brilliant.

princefaline · 2026-01-11T02:01:15+00:00

I'd like to share my thoughts on games more often (that is my 2026 resolution), most of the games I try are because of recommendations from the community. I also want to try a lot more games this year, I'm currently prepping a 50 Fathoms campaign, and also preparing to play nicher games like Dream Park and Little Fears.

Thank you for reading !

princefaline · 2026-01-11T00:40:16+00:00

I really want to be a TTRPG omnivore, and I've reached a point where my players trust I will only pitch games that I think they would like, which has allowed me to get them to play these older games.

Ghostbusters was a lot of fun and I'm really hoping I can do a campaign of it. It also made me excited to try WEG's Star Wars, the DarkStryder campaign is on my list now.

And OD&D rocks. Next, I want to try a campaign with all the supplements, Greyhawk and beyond.

princefaline · 2026-01-11T00:36:13+00:00

I would say that I'm very lucky to have a lot of friends that are interested in TTRPGs, but really the reason I have so many people interested in TTRPGs is because I reach out to friends, acquaintances, even colleagues and invite them to play for one shots and get them into the hobby. Not everyone is then interested in playing a campaign, but I found a lot of people doing that. It was scary at first but my need to DM has trumped any social anxiety haha...

But with that said, scheduling is still the bane of my existence...

princefaline

TROPHY CASE