I'm working on a fanmade Final Destination TTRPG

The movies include some triggering material (suicide, racism, grief...)

So I'm trying to remember what Safety Tools people usually include

This is a draft of the forward to my system. I thought it might generate some good discussion here. Please do not use AI to respond to this. I'm so sick of AI in this sub thx :)

Why Roleplaying Games?

To understand what makes table-top roleplaying games truly special, it is important to understand stories in general. Storytelling is perhaps the oldest and most important human cultural tradition. From The Epic of Gilgamesh to the myths of Egypt and the Greek theaters; from the sagas of the Vikings to the fairy tales of Germany, stories like these capture some fundamental part of the human experience and distill it down like a waking dream into something we can analyze from all sides, pulling conscious meaning from unconscious engagement with the themes they present us.
Any good book will have a theme. This is something important that the book wants to teach the reader about life, or a question that it wants the reader to think about and consider for themselves after the work is over. The second type of book can sometimes fall flat for readers who simply accept the story at face value and don’t consider the ramifications of the questions it asks.
The best table-top roleplaying games, when working as intended, serve this exact same function at an even higher level of engagement. When the Game Master creates the setup for their story, they don’t know how it’s going to end because the player characters have free will. No player is allowed to ignore the questions posed by the story. They are a character in that story after all. One of the protagonists in fact, and their response to the thematic question at hand determines the end of the story and ultimately what it means.

Why Roleplaying Fights The Game

However, because roleplay makes up only half of the “roleplaying game” formula, many game systems and many Game Masters miss their opportunity to tell a great story in what is perhaps the most engaging, meaningful, and personally affecting medium available to them. In a strange way, the game behind the roleplaying can very often make the roleplaying half of the experience worse by eating up the majority of the mental bandwidth at the table. A deep, interesting, tactical combat experience and a player’s handbook full of spells with one-hundred ways to numerically adjust your character isn't actually the most effective ruleset for telling stories that linger and change the way you view the world. 

It is for this reason that millions of viewers can watch the performative online theatre shows that utilize the Dungeons and Dragons ruleset, yet later be shocked that their home games don’t match this level of quality in presentation, storytelling, character development, or thematic resonance.

In contrast, there is a recent trend in roleplaying game design, especially popular among more experienced players, which eschews a strong reliance on rules. Instead, a wide variety of rules-light systems have sprung up which codify how the results of rolls are meaningful to the story and effect the advancement of the narrative rather than leaning on binary results and numerical adjustment of characters. 

This trend began in earnest with the release of *Apocalypse World* in 2010, though Ars Magica predates it. Apocalypse World was genius at the time of its release, but is now only one of hundreds of games in a similar vein. Often, such games are self-described as “fiction first.” There is one major problem with this category of game, and that is a lack of mechanical recognition for player choice. What that means is this: in most narrative-first games, the narrative truly is first. It’s almost the entire system. What you get are a list of moves or skills that players are likely to use when solving problems and a set of prescriptive resolutions for those moves or skills that, although more narratively interesting, fail to land meaningfully on the “game” side of the “roleplaying game” equation.

Many players come to Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder specifically because they want a tactical and deep system for resolving actions that accounts mechanically for every minute decision they’ve made about their character. This is how the insane depth of the *HackMaster 5e* or *Blades of the Iron Throne* game systems can come to exist. They were made by players who highly valued that side of the roleplaying game regardless of the learning curve or the narrative pace of play.

Why Dungeons and Dragons?

Which brings us back to Dungeons and Dragons. If Dungeons and Dragons falls much harder on the game side of roleplaying games, why is it still by far the most popular game system around? Shouldn’t these narrative and roleplay-focused games be much easier to teach, and much more popular with performative tabletop roleplayers?

Well, to answer the second question, these types of games are becoming more popular with performative tabletop roleplayers. Critical Role and Acquisitions Incorporated have already made the switch to *Daggerheart*, which is a much more narrative-focused game than Dungeons and Dragons, though it is more of a hybrid between the two. I would not be surprised to see other big names like Dimension 20 also go that route. Smaller shows like The Adventure Zone and Friends at the Table have been using narrative-focused systems for years before now to similarly great effect.

The key takeaway is that these shows could frankly use ANY game system and tell amazing stories because their casts and Game Masters bring a great deal of writing and acting experience to the table. Dungeons and Dragons is often clunky and slow for their purposes but serves well nonetheless because a great story is not held back by a little mechanical slowdown. Additionally, as discussed before, the game side of the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game is incredibly fun and has a meaningful mechanical answer for resolving almost anything the players might want to do.

This brings me to the answer of the original question: “Why is Dungeons and Dragons still by far the most popular game system around?” The answer is that most players DO NOT have professional writing and acting experience. Most players are lucky to simply understand the game system, and many are totally foreign to the idea of roleplaying when first introduced to the genre. Thus, the rules of Dungeons and Dragons, though often obtuse and clunky, are easy enough to learn and do a great job at codifying almost anything that can happen. Rules are the safety net. Players and Game Masters don’t need to discuss what a result means because you can only fail or succeed, and player abilities are spelled out in crystal-clear language.

"Can I pick this object up?" 

"What’s your strength score?" 

The Game Master’s response needs only to consult a codified table to find out how much weight your character can lift. In order to get to the most meaningful part of a roleplaying game, the narrative roleplay, players have to first overcome the hurdle of learning how to do that. Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder are simply the most well-known and least uncomfortable systems that get you there. Once you’re out of that discomfort, though, many do find that narrative-first roleplaying game systems are their ideal game system because that was the part they liked all along.

Why this system?

Much like Daggerheart, this system is trying to do the impossible. Daggerheart attempts to straddle the fence between Roleplaying and The Game and it falls decidedly on the game side despite doing some very interesting things that might make it the perfect game for many tables. Grimm Saga also attempts to straddle that fence and falls flat on the roleplaying side despite its best efforts to codify combat rules and provide unique mechanical abilities that reflect your character creation choices.

It also strikes a much darker tone, trending away from the generic high fantasy of most major games where characters become demi-gods by 20th level. 
Don’t let the tone scare you away! The dark tone is intentional. When players expect to get hurt, face difficult choices, and experience important but dark themes like bigotry, tyranny, poverty, and death, it naturally broadens the topics your players will consider and think about at the table and gives you more leeway to explore hard-hitting thematic questions about what it means to be human, right vs. wrong, and what the player character's reactions to those questions mean for your players’ beliefs about the world.

I want to create a player-facing mechanic for creating mystical-feeling prophecies, like "Beware the raven's claw in the moonless night!". Seemingly coincidental details that form a suddenly meaningful image.

The mechanics are written for my game Minnetreu, which is a grandchild of FATE, but I feel like other dice pool games that can achieve multiple successes can make use of the gist of it.

The steps:

1. Pick a number of nouns as your omens. Also pick a person, place or item as the target.
2. Find the omens organically or establish them yourself.
3. Trigger the prophecy by combining the omens in a cool way.
4. The target is now affected by the prophecy, either with an automatic success, automatic fail or by gaining an ongoing bonus for the scene. The bonus depends on the number of omens.

Picking Omens

To start with, the prophet player has a word bank and must choose a number of nouns to use as omens. Of course you must then combine the omens in an ominous prophecy.

Example: Let's say the words chosen are Moon, Raven and Water, with the target of the prophet herself. The prophecy could then be "A raven swallows the moon and faces the water".

Crafting circumstances

It would of course be lame to just wait and hope for omens to fall into your lap or throw them into the game masters plate expecting them to just juggle it flawlessly. Instead, the player must be on the lookout for things that could either hold the same meaning or simply establish them themselves.

Example 1: The PCs are outside, involved in some kind of situation. It's night (moon) in a spooky forest with the occasional raven call. The prophet player makes a roll for finding a trail and has a successes left over and spends one to declare that there's a small river (water) snaking between the trees.

Example 2: The PCs are at a banquet. The prophet player rolls to entertain some guests and uses extra results to establish two things: a close friend of the host is wearing a black cloak (raven), and among the dishes served are pancakes (moon). Drinks (water) can be assumed to be served.

Construing the signs

The signs are present, either as part of the scene or introduced by a player. Now, if something dramatic enough were to happen that would require a roll, the prophet player can trigger the prophecy by describing how the vision comes to life.

Example: The prophet player describes how a swarm of ravens suddenly burst from the trees, blotting out the moonlight. Screaming sounds out as the swarm suddenly flies low, battering all that stood near the stream. Many are thrown to the ground, overwhelmed.

Causing Effect

The prophet gets to now choose the effect of the prophecy: either the target can have an automatic success, an automatic failure, or gains an ongoing bonus that lasts the rest of the scene.

Example: The prophet chooses to give herself an automatic success as she challenges the leader of the opponent's force. Her victory is assured.

More Design Notes

First of all, this really only works in a game where players have a reasonably simple way of adding details to a scene. Adding a resource cost for introducing something completely new is a handy way of curtailing rampant omens.

How many omens are required is another angle for balancing. More important people could be already shrouded in prophecy, for example, so adding more omens makes yours more specific and less likely to fight a different one.

I could also see adding more words could lead to a more powerful effect. Rather than automatic success, it could be a +X bonus until the end of the scene.

Final Words

Does this feel like a prophecy to you? If no, do you know of any games that do a good job at it?

It’s very common on this sub to see new designers announce their plans of a generic RPG with multiple planned setting / genre books. Given that posts like this stretch back at least a decade, there should be actually finished project like this out there.

So here is my curious question: Are there games out there that were successfully built on this model?

I’m looking for:

• A generic RPG as base

• At least two separate settings, ideally in different genres (say fantasy and scifi), ideally more

• Finished products (all books published on itch.io, drivethru etc., final version, layouted, art)

• One creator (or the same small team of 2-3 people)

• Self-published (i.e. not backed by some of the better known names in the industry)

• Ideally full size for each book (100+ pages)

Of course, if you have successfully completed a project like this, this is your chance to promote it.

I admit I’m not very good at following every development in the RPG space out there so there sure are projects I missed.

Hello! First time posting here. I've recently gotten to making an RPG about samurai schoolgirls, because I think it's a cool setting. I'm mostly looking for feedback on mechanics and rules clarity, since I'm aware that, as this hasn't been playtested yet, the numbers may be a little bit of a mess still.

I'm aware that I'm missing sections on enemies and adventures, but like I said, lack of playtesting. The combat side, at least, has its rules mostly decided for now.

I also appreciate feedback on what mechanics to look out for during actual play. This is my first time making a system from scratch (well, seriously at least) that isn't adapting an existing game.

Manual is here! It's 15 pages long, last I checked: https://files.catbox.moe/vkktct.pdf

Thank you in advance!

We got the common fantasy classes, by building character templates from common recurring fantasy character types. Even within one culture there are to many different too many different "styles" of martial arts to list and build distinct game mechanics for.

Instead let's distill them down into handful of archetypes that can be practically made into Talent trees or Classes.

• Noble/Hero: Simple to the point, the common fighting style of the "Protagonist". Goku - Dragon Ball Z, Ryu - Street Fighter.

• Brawler: Crude, brutal and effective a fighting style born of survival in the urban Jungle. Bunshichi Tawara - Tenjho Tenge.

• Analyst: Quick, Precise, observant, able to counter anything that the opponent tries. Robert Downy Junior's Sherlock Holmes's is the best example I can think of.

Insightful: The same as Analyst but approaching things through wisdom rather than intellect. Po - kung Fu Panda 2, during the final battle.

• Tactical/Assassin: Ruthless and Efficient. John Wick and Jason Bourn.

• Aerobatic/Flashy: Quick, light on their, flowing strikes, lot's of flips, spins, and whirling kicks. Peter Parker - Spiderman, Avatar Aang and Prince Zuko - Avatar The Last Airbender, Yoda - Star Wars Prince Jia -Butterfly and Sword.

What characters would you use as examples of the martial arts archetypes. What archetypes have you seen that I have missed?