I just came across this. It's an awesome, extended version of The Game Master's Apprentice Deck, which is an oracle deck which is excellent for solo and group TTRPG.

This online version, however, has lots of extra features. Look at the buttons across the middle (it's easy to miss that they are buttons) that let you randomize NPCs, dungeon rooms, encounters, etc.

I found this really helpful. I hope you do too.

I've been looking at padfolios to use to store all my solo RPG things in one place for easy transport. Has anyone found something suitable for this? Ideally, I'd want something like this:

• Pocket large enough to store a standard 7 dice set
• Clipboard to hold a dungeon page or character sheet, etc
• Possibly a four ring binder to hold multiple papers
• If, against all odds, there was somethine padfolio-like product that had something that could be used as a dice tray, that would be ideal.

I don't need a builtin calculator which many of them have, though. Also, I don't need card holders.

Any ideas?

I want to run a multi-session supernatural mystery adventure in my game. Evil forces are trying to learn the forbidden arts of witchcraft, in order to get the attention of a long-lost god who is considered by many to be "the devil." The PCs will have to learn and delve into witchcraft themselves in order to stop this from happening. A mysterious mentor will teach them how to use a Tarot deck (Raider-Waite-Smith, if anyone cares) to learn the lessons required to be able to use witchcraft. Seven cards of the Major Arcana (this is Tarot terminology) will provide the vital clues on how to do this.

I think I've got the mechanics of this down. I know about Justin Alexander's Three Clue Rule, and so on. What I'm struggling with is how to elicit the athmosphere I want. If you've seen the movie The Ninth Gate, read the DaVinci Code, or seen the Netflix show Archive 81, I think you know what I'm talking about; that sense of "What the f--- is going on here? I just have to know how this all connects together and get to the bottom of this!" The TV show Lost is probably another good example, but I haven't seen it myself.

Things that I think will help:

• Thematic music. Every time the topic of the Tarot deck comes up, some mysterious-sounding specific song should be played. This trick is used in Wagner's The Ring opera, as well as in the Lord of the Rings movies (for example, the ring has its own theme which is played when the ring is mentioned).
• Frequently giving the PCs new little bits of information which seem to lead them to the conclusions they're hopefully craving.
• I think personal stakes will probably help to keep the players engaged, which in turn will perhaps contribute to the "I just have to know more" feeling I want to elicit.

One trick I can't really use is what the DaVinci code did - it used a story that in some ways sounded so plausible that the reader could think "Wait, could what's proposed in this book actually be true?" That worked in that story, because it took place in the real world and was about Christianity which many in the western world take very seriously. I can't really do the same with my homebrew world which has very little in common with the real world.

So - does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how to accomplish this? Again, it's the atmosphere of mystery that I'm primarily concerned with here, although mechanical discussion would be welcomed too.

I love stuff like this - hexcrawl combined with dungeon crawl. I continue to be surprised by how much Four Against Darkness stuff engages me, depite its simple mechanics.

My friends and I have been playing DnD 5e for a few years now, but now I've decided to start GMing PathFinder 2e. We've played through most of the Beginner Box, and now I want to continue with my own homebrew content. As part of my world, I want to introduce a fighter "subclass" (probably the wrong terminology for PathFinder). What I want is a tribe of warriors who fight without armor (starting at level 2 or 3), and to compensate for the lower AC they get magical tattoos which increase their AC. It will also be possible (when you advance in levels) to choose to add other tattoos with other magical effects).

So my question is: Is this what archetypes are for? Because I don't think "subclasses" are a thing in PathFinder? Or how would I go about this?

The Monsters & Mazes blog has suggested #Hexplore24 to replace #Dungeon23. The idea is to solo play through a newly generated hex each day for a year.

This channel is shaping up to become a really interesting resource in the #TTRPG space. They've already got some good videos from which I've learned a thing or two. I encourage you to check them out.

This is an interesting blog post by @malin@dice.camp about how to weave multiple stories/plots together in an interesting way, which makes it possible to organically "catch" the players even if they wander off in an unexpected (read: unprepped) direction.

This can be used in any #TTRPG, but it can also be turned into a mechanic, built into an #TTRPG. It reminds me of Fronts (I think they're called) in #DungeonWorld.

Hello there, fellow RPG designer!

If you're anything like me, you too love to discuss roleplaying game mechanics, and how they affect gameplay. That is precisely the kind of thing we'll get to do in this community. Personally, I'm currently working on a roleplaying game that I'm so far calling Unified RPG which I sort of think of as a "rules-lite, GURPS-like" TTRPG. So don't be surprised if you see me creating posts about that here in the near future.

But what about you? What brought you to this community? What kind of game are you working on, or what do you want to make in the future? I'd love to hear all about it!

Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Part of what made the 2017 game Zelda: Breath of the Wild so popular was its travel and exploration element. This aspect of the game was exceptionally well designed.

Climbing

The game has a climbing mechanic, which means that you can basically go anywhere in the game world; there is nothing to stop you, not even mountains. Once you have reached the summit of a mountain, you are often rewarded with a beautiful view.

Spotting something interesting in the distance

Everywhere you go in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you will see something interesting to do or explore. Once you have climbed a mountain, you typically see several other interesting places you could go. And once you go to them, you will spot other interesting things in the distance.

Flying

Once you have altitude, you can fly forwards and slowly downwards by using a glider. This means that it is often easy to get to interesting locations once you've spotted them from your mountaintop vantage point.

Towers and fast travel

Dotting the landscape of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are towers. Once you have reached and climbed a tower, you will be rewarded with a map of the area around the tower. Each tower, however, has some sort of challenge associated with climbing it. At any time, you can instantly teleport to any of the towers that you have conquered in this way, which is a reward in itself, and makes it easier to get from A to B without constantly having to traverse the same area. This makes long journeys less repetitive and tedious.

Shrines and Korok seeds

Scattered through the landscape are also Shrines (which, when completed, upgrades the player character in various ways). You can also come across Korok seeds which are hidden - either physically under a rock, or sometimes behind a small challenge like "hit ten targets with bow and arrow within this set time limit". The Korok seeds can be used to increase your inventory space, which is sorely needed in this game.

Analysis

This is the feedback loop of exploration in Zelda: Breath of the Wild which makes exploration a rewarding experience.

1. You see something in the distance that looks interesting, and thanks to the climbing and flying mechanic you can be pretty sure you can reach it.
2. While traveling to that destinations, you are likely to also stumble across things which are also interesting, such as Korok seeds.
3. When you do reach your destination, you can be certain that it is in fact interesting.
4. When you complete a tower, which is the central point in each area, you are rewarded with a map and the ability to fast-travel to the top of this tower (from which you can easily glide to other nearby locations), which reduces repetition of already consumed content.
5. Once you are done at the destination, you likely can see other interesting-looking locations in the distance, and the cycle repeats.

How to replicate in tabletop roleplaying games

The following aspects are important in order to be able to replicate this experience in roleplaying games.

Location interconnectedness

Each location should be connected to at least one other location. This can be done in many different ways:

1. A road sign at a crossroads which point to three different towns in different locations.
2. At one location, you could find a treasure map which leads to another location.
3. Letters, notes, or journals found in one location could contain references or even directions to other locations.
4. Location B could simply be visible from point A, such as a town being visible from a mountaintop or from the top of a tall tree.
5. Let's not forget simply having an NPC at location A talking about something enticing at location B.

Random discoverability during travel

While travelling, it should be possible to randomly stumble across interesting locations or events. This can be accomplished either by having hexes pre-populated, or by using random tables to generate content on the fly - this is harder to do and slower, but it requires less preparation on the part of the game master.

A middle ground between pre-populated hexes and content generation on the fly at the table is to just pre-generate a small number of locations without pre-placing them in a hex. Instead, once the dice determine that players have discovered something interesting, pull (or select randomly) from your pool of pre-generated but hitherto unused locations, and place them wherever the players are. You might also want to make sure this type of location fits here - optionally, you could have separate pools for "forest locations", "mountain locations", etc. Just make sure to make a note of where you placed the location afterwards for consistency's sake, so that you can keep your world consistent in future sessions. This can also make the sessions more rewarding for the game master, as they are in a sense "discovering" what lies where along with their players during play.

Locations should be interesting

As a designer you can do everything else right, but if the locations you reach are uninteresting, then it was all for naught. There are different kinds of rewards that you can provide players with for finding a location:

1. Combat. Lots of players enjoy finding a bandit camp that they can clear of bandits.
2. Information. By finding a location, players can learn of the existance of other interesting locations through maps or other means as discussed above, or they can learn of the plots of their enemies.
3. Lore. Some players straight up enjoy reading lore about your world.
4. Allies. Coming across a hidden camp of outcasts in the forest gives players a chance to forge new alliances, and can also provide new plot hooks.
5. Loot. Players always enjoy finding a hidden cache of loot in the form of a chest, or perhaps as the belongings of a dead adventurer.
6. Experience. You could also simply award players with experience points for finding a new location, to encourage exploration.

Consider allowing fast travel through already explored locations

To avoid the tedium of repeatedly travelling through the same areas over and over, consider allowing fast travel through and to areas that have already been explored.

1. A horse-and-carriage network can allow travel between towns that have already been explored.
2. Fast travel via gryphons as in World of Warcraft is also a possibility.
3. Good old teleportation also works. Perhaps you need to have seen the destination first in order to be able to properly visualize it, and that's why you can't teleport to locations you haven't seen before. Perhaps teleportation is only available between specific designated teleportation circles, which prevents players from bypassing problems by teleporting past them.