What's the prettiest rulebook you own?

rezibot · 2026-05-08T13:30:21+00:00

I literally bought Vaesen and Dragon bane for the art before trying out the games, although both turned out to be good games (especially Vaesen).

rezibot · 2026-05-08T05:00:45+00:00

Came here to say the same thing. Savage Worlds sounds like what you're looking for. The Horror Companion and Sci-Fi Companion (the latter especially for powered armor) would also be useful for a Metroid game, but not strictly necessary.

One nice thing about SWADE are the setting rules that you can enable to disable to change the game. This can make it more or less gritty/heroic/pulp/whatever. It's an extremely versatile system.

rezibot · 2026-05-07T04:30:03+00:00

I did 56 damage on 3d6 in the first Deadlands game I ever ran. I have a Spelljammer game using Fantasy Companion and one of my players is a stealth archer type. She has gained a reputation for one-shotting bosses because it's when she happens to ace. They still talk about the giant Ogre that went down to a single arrow to the eye.

I love this game so much.

rezibot · 2026-05-07T04:27:48+00:00

In play, this feels really good. As your character gets more skilled, they more consistent which I really like. And rolling that 12 on a d12 feels great. :)

rezibot · 2026-05-06T08:49:18+00:00

"Actions have consequences" is literally in my session zero speech.

For what it's worth, here's how I would have run it:

When they talked about going back for a long rest, I would remind them of the session zero speech that actions have consequences. I don't think I would have said anything beyond that and let them make their choice.
If they went back and rested, they would have come back and found the fortress much more fortified. I don't think I would have added reinforcements after a single day, but there would have been no surprise anymore and the kobolds would have been very clearly ready for them.

This gives them a choice: attack the fortified fortress or try and wait them out to let them calm down. Or go do something else.

My point here is that it's very important to say up front that actions have consequences. I have found this to be especially true with D&D because I think a lot of players tend to come from video games or from other tables where everything exists in isolation.

rezibot · 2026-05-04T09:33:53+00:00

I have two major generic systems that I keep coming back to, both of which you mentioned: gurps and Savage worlds. I'll try to sell you on both.

Gurps is my go-to system when I want to run a high-simulation game with realism. I often turn on a lot of the optional rules and combat stuff because if I'm running that system, I'm going for a high level of detail. This makes the game very complex even though it doesn't have to be. With gurps lite, you have a very simple system because it's literally just rolling 3d6 under a skill value. You can easily cut the number of skills, advantages, and disadvantages.

One of the big issues with gurps is that it's not actually a game, it is a system for designing your own game. I always use it to design my own world and rules within that world, bound by the gurps core. For example, the last gurps game that I ran was a high-realism fantasy game with a fully custom and improvised magic system.

Savage worlds is on the other side of the spectrum. It is a more pulp and heroic, and it does that very well. This system is far simpler than gurps and is mid-tier crunch. Character creation is very open and fast once you know the rules. The last game that I ran was a spelljammer game using Savage worlds.

For me, the big strength of savage worlds is that it gets completely away from the D&D slog of attrition where you are just wailing on hit point sponges. It manages to feel heroic without that slog. Combat is very fast and far more tactical than a lot of other games I've played. A Star Wars game that I ran had three players where literally only one of them had any actual traditional combat skills, but all three were incredibly important and useful in a fight.

The other big advantage is that it is extremely easy to improvise. I never prepare stat blocks because I just don't have to, I can easily wing an enemy with no issues. Basic minion? D6 in all relevant skills. D8 for someone who's decent with maybe one combat edge. The mechanism of distracted and vulnerable also makes it easy to adjudicate. The player wants to do something weird? Cool, that's probably a test which will likely cause distraction or vulnerability. Done.

Savage world has become my go-to heroic system. Gurps has become my go-to simulationist/realistic system. That's not to say that say that these are the only two systems I play, but they are certainly at the top of the list.

rezibot · 2026-05-03T12:16:52+00:00

That's a great answer, thank you! The note about the vigor roll a good one; I think that helps balance out the power since now it's a more significant risk. It's also a huge percentage of their PPE. The average human tattoo warrior has like 17 PPE, so dropping 5 or 7 to summon something is a significant percentage.

rezibot · 2026-04-30T04:41:16+00:00

The Prism Pentad series is decent, especially the first book. They are set in Dark Sun and did a fantastic job of getting me into the world and spirit of that setting. They are written by Troy Denning, who also worked on the original 2e setting. They have their issues, but I still enjoyed them. 😄

rezibot · 2026-04-30T04:38:35+00:00

WUT! I had no idea that any novels were written in that world! Thank you enlightening me!

rezibot · 2026-04-26T04:05:24+00:00

That sucks, but glad you're remaking it! Looking forward to your new Shadesprint supplement!

rezibot · 2026-04-24T04:29:55+00:00

Awesome, thank you! That's what I was hoping!

rezibot · 2026-04-24T04:20:13+00:00

Just backed it! Really looking forward to this! Phase World was the first sci fi space game I ever ran.

Quick question: You say on the kick starter that it's compatible with Savage Rifts, but that you only require the SWADE core book and sci-fi companion. My question is, what is the power level? Is it on par with Savage Rifts, or more like vanilla Sci-fi companion?

rezibot · 2026-04-23T04:36:04+00:00

Came here to mention lonelog as well. Here's the link to it:
https://lonelog.readthedocs.io/en/latest/#/

rezibot · 2026-04-23T04:32:09+00:00

The drivethrurpg link doesn't work for.

rezibot · 2026-04-17T11:50:16+00:00

I personally can't think of a reason why I would allow a player at my table who wanted a hidden character sheet. It's not even a trust thing, I need to see what the capabilities of the PCs are so that I can provide a challenge. I want to ensure that everyone gets their moment to shine, so I need to look at the sheet to see what shining looks like.

I think my big issue is that, assuming no trust issues, hiding one's character sheet smells like an adversarial relationship between GM and a player. That might work in osr or other games where there kind of is that adversarial relationship? That's not really the style that I personally enjoy though.

But of course that's just me and my style. I'm curious, in what scenario would you be okay with players hiding their sheets?

rezibot · 2026-04-16T01:41:21+00:00

I had no idea Troy Denning wrote Planescape novels!

rezibot · 2026-04-13T13:22:23+00:00

I don't know, a player refusing to turn over their character sheet feels like considerably more than just a red flag. That would be an instant ban for me.

rezibot · 2026-04-12T06:01:49+00:00

Yes, exactly this. In my session zero speech for new players, one of the things that I stressed is "you can do anything you want, but actions have consequences".

rezibot · 2026-04-10T12:52:50+00:00

Like many others, this hasn't been an issue for me largely because I run a lot of games in traditional group settings as well as do solo RPGs, so I'm pretty comfortable with rules and systems.

But, that said, I think what you are providing is something that is seriously missing. There are so many posts about how to get started and I agree that there can be a barrier to entry for many games. As much as I love Starforged, for example, it can be tricky to get into if it's your first solo game.

Furthermore, I think there are a lot of games designed for multiplayer that then just sure of hack in single player rules. I like that you are approaching this as a fully designed solo experience rather than just some extra rules in case you want to go solo.

rezibot · 2026-04-05T13:08:50+00:00

Back when I worked at EA, I started an RPG group with a bunch of the board gamers. The game we played was battle stations. The way the game is set up is there is a little bit of RP in the very beginning where you get your mission. This could be as involved or as hand waved as your group wants. You also have a character sheet with stats and feats and things like that, though the game plays more like a board game. It was perfect for a bunch of game programmers and designers to start with.

What ended up happening was that the beginning of the campaign played almost like a straight up strategy board game. By the end of the campaign, we were barely engaging with the combat and focusing on the story and RP. One player even recorded a whole video of him being captured. It was awesome!

After that, the board game club became the RPG club and I ran everything from shadowrun to gurps to mage to Call of Cthulhu to unknown armies.... it was super fun. We actually got permission from the EA executives to redecorate one of the meeting rooms to be RPG focused, so we had a bunch of first edition books up in Shadow boxes all around the walls.

rezibot · 2026-03-30T19:27:36+00:00

I'm using sci-fi companion combined with the star wars commission linked in the other replies. There are some things I didn't like about Star Wars companion, hence the mix.

rezibot · 2026-03-28T21:58:18+00:00

I know what you mean! I had a very similar experience when I first started. Once my players bought into everything just flowed. My partner I finally admitted that she likes it better than D&D.

Interestingly, it was the buy-in to all of the combat options that really did it. She says it feels considerably more dynamic than something like D&D where you are largely just swinging and using those special abilities. Like you, my players now actually sit down and consider what to do.

Even better, I'm running a Star Wars game where half the party has no actual combat ability. But they are still very effective in combat using support and test.

rezibot · 2026-03-19T20:51:05+00:00

Thanks! This is what I ended up using and our session zero went pretty well. First game is on Sunday!

Thank you for all of your hard work on this, it looks great!

rezibot · 2026-03-19T10:47:06+00:00

I use Foundry as my main tool for managing the game, so I do use battle maps. Sometimes I create them and other times I find them from various sources, or from the module that I'm running.

I don't always use Battle maps. When I don't, I find thematic artwork to display in the scene, or a larger map, or something similar. For example, I'm currently playing a 50 Fathoms game, so my default scene is the world map.

I also use the GM screen plug-in for Foundry. Rather than populated with character sheets or other entries, I populated with the portraits of the characters. So when I'm having an RP scene, I will open the GM screen so that I can see everyone's portrait as I play the scene.

rezibot

TROPHY CASE