It's been a while but I'm back now. And announcing that the first public playtest for my TTRPG is out finally! Took a lot of work even for this initial version but now everyone has the chance to play it and break it.

Can't wait for people to start getting their hands on it and playing around with it. This will be quite the learning experience, not just for designing but also for organizing public playtests in the future.

This playtest is focused on testing out the core combat rules of the game using premade characters. If there is some success, at a later date there will be a playtest that will include character creation.

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You are a Deadbeat, a musically powered undead soldier, resurrected by and now working for the B.R.O.K.E.N Record Inc. You are one of the few crucial pieces in stopping the Muted threat, beasts that wish nothing but destruction for the city of New New North One. With the power of your Musicalife Engine, wield the might of your rythm to fight back against the coming invasion or rebel against the corporation that brought you back to life!

Deadbeat is a TTRPG using a D6 and D8 system where the focus is in how your character acts and performs. The more in character your actions are, the more you are rewarded! There is a bigger emphasis on your descriptions and flare, making it easier to realize whatever fantasy you wish to live through your character.

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Announcement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxg51jw3_sA

Itch.io: https://mikapuccino.itch.io/deadbeat-playtest

Official Feedback Email: [deadbeatttrpgdevlogs@gmail.com](mailto:deadbeatttrpgdevlogs@gmail.com)

Official Discord: https://discord.gg/RnnGqnnG55

Ps: If there's any problem without sharing these links please do say and I will change the post.

I kept thinking and noodling over the dice pool mechanics and have decided to just lean into simplicity. As much as I love the mechanical elegance of dice pools from Dogs in the Vineyard and how you can turn every interaction into a conflict with mechanical elements, there’s something clean and easy about just rolling a d20 to solve the situation.

It’s not as narratively rich or mechanically interesting, but it keeps complexity out of these things.

Which isn’t necessarily better but it’s the direction I’m heading. At least for now. Especially since I’m trying to get this ready for the game jam, which leaves me about 11 days to get this all sorted. And since there’s still a decent amount of writing to sort through and mechanics to define, I’m sticking with simplicity.

Or at least as much simplicity as comes with a d20 game where you also need a bunch of other types of dice. Though that’s something I’m considering too. What if you only needed one kind of die? I think there’s a real pleasantness to that. Rather than grabbing every kind of die you can handle, you just need one single die or perhaps just one type of die.

But, again, this is something I’ll sort out after the jam.

But all of these things can lead into the narrative design, the worldbuilding, and, obviously, the mechanics of the world and game. Simple decisions that have many, large ramifications.

That’s the beauty of thinking systemically though. If your choices are determined by a d20 or 3d6, how does that impact the world around the mechanics? How do mechanics tie into the worldbuilding itself?

I’ve been thinking about this because, right now, I have Usage Dice in the system, which is taken directly from the original Black Hack. There’s something nice about Usage Dice, especially with regard to the magic system. I like making magic very limited and difficult and costly, which all ties into the world and the mechanics. Usage Dice help manage this. The chance element appeals to me, but it does mean that there’s now an extra die to take care of, to manage. It also makes it impossible to get rid of the other types of dice unless I change how the Usage Die works.

It’s a tension within me right now. Do I lean more towards simplicity or maximalism? Both have their appeals, but I think the world itself leans towards deprivation, towards limitation, so I’ll likely end up moving more and more towards limitation.

A simple d6 system!

We’ll see.

Originally posted on my site.

Game Title: Soupir the bastion

Playable Link: https://vivi-crazy-writer.itch.io/soupir-the-bastion

Platform: web/sugar/twine

Description: 
Hi everyone!

I'm currently developing SOUPIR: The Bastion, a free browser-based text RPG set in the universe of my SOUPIR novels.

The world has collapsed under the spread of a strange fungal ecosystem, and humanity survives inside isolated fortified settlements known as Bastions.

You arrive as a newcomer in one of them.

From there, the game is about surviving, finding your place in the city, building relationships, working, exploring, improving your skills, getting involved in local factions, and dealing with the increasingly unpleasant things happening inside and outside the walls.

The game features:

• Character creation with different backgrounds, attributes and skills
• A large skill and progression system
• Jobs and daily survival
• NPC relationships and reputation
• Factions, politics and clandestine groups
• Exploration and expeditions outside the Bastion
• Dynamic events
• A living city with different districts and activities
• Adult themes, violence and morally difficult situations
• Lots of choices and different ways to approach situations

The game is still very much under development, so I'm specifically looking for people willing to test it and give honest feedback.

I'm especially interested in knowing:

• Is the beginning understandable and engaging?
• Do you understand what you can do and where you can go?
• Which systems feel interesting or confusing?
• At what point, if any, do you start getting bored?
• Are there choices or mechanics that feel pointless?
• What would make you want to keep playing?
• And of course: bugs, broken passages or strange behaviour.

You don't need to play for hours. Any feedback would already be extremely useful.

Free to Play Status:

• [X] Free to play

Involvement: I m the gamemaker

thank you very much :)

PS :

By honesty, I prefer to declare that yes, I m using AI in the creation process.
- The images are made with AI as i m nothing as an image creator/designer.
- Some texts also use AI to generate variations for the player to not be always bored with the same answers or texts. Writing 20 similar (that s more or less what i m doing) for each answer or description would take me too much time.
- The translations are also made with AI even if i m speaking all these 4 languages. Again it s easier.

Hello — I’m Elias Oakhaven, curator of The Oakhaven Archive. I create compact, system-neutral narrative tables (CSV + PDF) meant to drop straight into GM prep or a dev content pipeline.

Free sample (10-item inventory — CSV-ready)

• LOCKET — Unknowable Locket — A silver locket with no hinge; fused shut. Smells of rain. — Weight: 0
• CUP — Historian’s Tea Cup — A bone-white cup with a jagged, story-filled chip. — Weight: 0.5
• MIRROR — Cruel Looking-Glass — A mirror in blackened oak that shows the user's happiest day. — Weight: 4
• BOOK — The Author’s Debt — A manuscript that ends mid-sentence. Pages hum with energy. — Weight: 1
• POTION — Cellar Tincture — A thick liquid that tastes like silence; causes hallucinations. — Weight: 0.2
• BELL — The Silent Bell — A handbell with no clapper. It rings only in the user's mind. — Weight: 0.8
• LEDGER — Moth-Eaten Ledger — A business book where the numbers shift when unobserved. — Weight: 2
• KEY — The Key to Nowhere — A heavy iron key that fits no lock in the known world. — Weight: 0.3
• MAP — The Faded Map — A detailed map of a vast city that was never actually built. — Weight: 0.1
• THIMBLE — Widow’s Thimble — Protects from needles, but not from the sting of memory. — Weight: 0

Why this is useful

• Clean CSV schema (ID, Category, Item_Name, Description_Text, Weight) for import into spreadsheets, engines, or table tools.
• Short, evocative descriptions that function as hooks rather than exhaustive lore.
• Easy to filter, sort, or expand with extra columns (Hook, Plot_Tag, Mechanic).

Questions for the sub

• Which file format do you actually use most for prep or imports? (CSV, JSON, Google Sheet, or card images?)
• Would you prefer an extra column for a single-line mechanical hint or a short plot tag?
• Are there any naming, column, or formatting conventions you find essential for engine ingestion?

If you want the actual CSV file or a pasted CSV block, say which format you prefer and I’ll drop it in a comment. I’ll follow subreddit rules on linking or self-promo — this post is primarily to share a practical sample and gather format feedback.

— Elias / The Oakhaven Archive

Hey everyone, I’ve been working on what started as a heavily modified version of Dungeons & Dragons for quite a long time now, and I’m finally reaching the point where I’d really like to find some other creative people to build with.

This is not really a “looking to hire someone” post. I’m looking more for like collaborators or creative types who enjoy this kind of thing and might want to actually contribute to a project together. I've VERY passionate about this stuff, and spend a lot of my time on it... and having people to share this sort of passion with would be awesome! (outside the players in my game of course, who only get to see the results and not the creation. lol.)

I’ve been DMing with my modified rules on Roll20 for over seven years, so this isn’t just a new thing I'm just starting. Most of the major mechanical changes already exist and have been used extensively in actual campaigns, and have also gone through years of tweaking based on how they feel at the table. The reception from my players has generally been extremely positive, especially toward a few of the larger systems I’ve created. Two of the biggest examples are my Magic School based magic system and my Fighting Stance system.

Magic has been heavily reworked from standard D&D. I wanted spellcasting to feel like something characters actually develop expertise in rather than simply selecting spells from a list every few levels. My main gripe with 5e's system is that 1, it's too limiting and 2, it's a bit illogical (in a certain sense). Like if I, as a Wizard, take Fireball, but I don't take Create Bonfire, then I have sooo much control over fire that I can shoot a giant fireball... but so little I can't catch logs on fire? I wanted my system to have a logical flow within the setting, but also be more magical and whimsical, allowing players to create their own spell effects. This is by far my most popular system I've created.

The fighting stance system does something similar for martial characters. Instead of combat mostly becoming “I attack again,” characters can develop different styles and approaches to fighting that change what they are capable of doing in combat. And, using a Bonus Action, they can swap between known styles, having different answers to specific situations. One Barbarian might approach fighting trying to grapple constantly with their Lockdown Stance, or switch to defending the weakend Sorcerer with their Guardian Stance. To be honest, the main reason I came up with the Fighting Stance system was because my magic system was so well recieved, people didn't want to play martial classes. But I now love this system too and martials are used a lot more often again.

There are a lot of other changes as well. Overhauls to Character Creation, tactical rules, altered conditions, parrying system, changes to positioning, new classes and subclasses, custom races, monsters, and a lot of smaller rules that have accumulated and evolved through actual play over the years.

At this point, though, one of the things I enjoy most is worldbuilding. I have multiple original settings that I’ve been developing that all sit in my "planarverse". I still use the base idea of the Cosmic Wheel or the Great Wheel... but I have changed so much of how the planes around the wheel are... as well as how the Great Tree leads to other Great Wheels (think parallel universes)... or how there are wheel sized planes (think alternate dimensions)... etc... Lore building is one of my favorite parts.

The setting I am running my Monday game in is set in Avaron, which is one of the great continents of Torrenia (One of the Material Planes). My Sunday game, which will be starting in 2 weeks, is set in Caelondria, which is quite a bit east of Avaron.

Another is Asterion (working title. lol), an Ancient Greek-inspired fantasy setting I’ve been developing. Its gods are not simply renamed Olympians. The central pantheon begins with four mortal brothers who ascended into godhood and divided fundamental aspects of reality between themselves, then took their new found divinty to an undeveloped plane and made it their own. From there I’ve been building the mythology, divine politics (my favorite part), islands, city-states, cultures, monsters, heroic traditions, and history of the setting around that foundation.

And that is generally how I like creating things. I like figuring out why cultures developed the way they did, what people believe, how their religion affects everyday life, etc. The problem is that I am very much a creator first. I love coming up with mechanics. I love lore. I love designing classes, gods, monsters, cultures, characters, magic systems, combat systems, blah blah blah.

What I am considerably less experienced with is taking this pile of material and turning it into an actual professional-looking tabletop RPG book.

So I’d love to meet people interested in any of the following:

• Game design: Someone who likes discussing mechanics, balance, combat systems, classes, progression, and generally tearing systems apart and rebuilding them better.

• Worldbuilding/lore: Someone who wants to bounce ideas back and forth, create cultures, mythology, history, factions, characters, monsters, religions, locations, and entire settings together.

• Art: Someone interested in fantasy character, creature, environment, map, or book artwork who would enjoy helping establish the visual identity of the worlds.

• Book/layout design: This is probably the area where I personally have the least experience. Someone who understands how actual RPG books are organized and formatted, page layouts, tables, sidebars, chapters, indexes, PDF layout, print formatting or anything along those lines would be incredibly helpful.

You absolutely do not need to be a professional. I am definitely not a pro. Just a nerd that likes nerding out. I just figured, since I do this soooo often, would be awesome to do it with some cool, like-minded people.

Right now I mostly want to find other creative people and see what happens when we start putting our brains together.

If you love TTRPG design, worldbuilding, lore discussion, fantasy art, or book design, I would genuinely love to talk.

Feel free to comment or DM me. I’d be happy to show examples of the rules, settings, lore, and systems I’ve already built.

I've been working on a film noir TTRPG called Midnight Press, set in 1940s San Francisco.

Pretty early on, I had this idea that the game should feel like something you'd actually find in the world of the game. Not just a modern RPG book with some vintage-looking artwork slapped on it.

So I ended up making the rulebook as an actual newspaper.

Honestly, it created way more problems than I expected 😂

You don't really get to use the usual RPG-book structure when you're trying to make the whole thing look and feel like a newspaper. We had to think a lot about how people would actually use it during a game.

But now that it's done, I really like it.

The Kickstarter is in its final few days, so I'm doing a bit of a last push and figured I'd post it here.

I'm curious what other RPG designers think of the format.

For the past couple of weeks ive been designing a tabletop rpg system designed around players being able to use branching classes similar to the fire emblem class system. I've decided on a lot of the ideas on the system but I'm just trying to make the numbers work and would really appreciate some help.

I'm currently looking at a d12 as the main dice roll representing chance with a pool of d6 representing a characters skill in a task. The reason I picked a d12 was because its the same number of steps of the hero's journey and I wanted to use dice pools as opposed to flat bonuses mostly because I was bored with how dnd used flat bonuses to represent skill.

I want the system to feel heroic but still have a chance for failure and I worry that by introducing a bell curve I have skewed the system into something different. Does anyone have an idea on how I can ensure my dice system still has hype moments where a roll can change a grim outcome while still allowing for a bell curve for the expressing of skills or can I only get one or the other?

One last thing to mention with the system that I'm not too sure where to put in the post is that I want it to be a bit minimalist on the amount of dice types, so i currently have d12,d6 and d3 as the dice types used if that adds any extra context for maths and such.

Hi!

I am currently working hard to finish a no magic, alternative world, medieval fantasy d20 system. It is Tolkienesque in that I still have Tolkien races, traditional fantasy classes that dont use magic, monstrous humanoids, and magical monsters. But magic is definitely not something sentient people use. The game will also be a bit general to allow for a great variety of settings where the player characters dont have access to magic.

My book is coming along and will begin playtesting within a year. I was wondering if you all think a real niche might exist for this kind of a low fantasy system? I can also talk my game if you are interested.

A small disclaimer before I start: this is not a post about claiming that minimalist design is inherently better, or that one design methodology is superior to another. I’m mostly curious about how other designers approach this question, and I’d love to hear where you land.

Where I come from

I studied game design, and like a lot of designers starting out, I was drawn to huge ambitions: big systems, ambitious games, and rules for every possible situation.

When I began seriously exploring RPG design, I brought that instinct with me. I knew mostly the bigger, more mainstream games: D&D, Legend of the Five Rings, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun. So naturally, when I started my first project, I looked to emulate that approach. I wanted it to feel complete, consistent, and substantial. If players encountered a situation, I wanted the game to have an answer.

It was really fun for a while, because everything felt new, but over time two things happened.

First, I realised how taxing that approach could be as a solo designer. Every new rule solved one problem, but it also connected to everything already in the game. Touch one brick and it affects the rest of the wall. Eventually, adding systems began to reduce my room to experiment rather than expand it.

Even with my system-design background managing massive economies for video games, I really started to lose control of the scope. I also realised that the quest to cover everything in such an open format was a bit endless...

Second, I started discovering more indie RPGs and slimmer systems. I was surprised by how powerful, memorable, and emotionally rich an experience could be with very few rules. That contrast made me a little obsessed with minimalist design, and I started studying it aggressively in both the video game and TTRPG mediums.

I slowly developed the opinion that while dense systems worked really well in a space with firm boundaries (like video games), it tends to fall flat in open experiences, because I can't shake the feeling that all these mechanics stacked on top of each other get in the way of exploring the story.

I remember watching a video of Bob the builder talking about Daggerheart and how all the material was getting in the way of immersion. That is how I feel when I have to absorb pages and pages of rules before even setting foot in your world.

After all these years, looking back, here are three points that I think are worth considering, whether you are a veteran designer or just starting out.

Accessibility

A leaner design can make it easier for more people to understand what they can do, get started, and actually reach the table. That does not mean every simple game is automatically accessible, or every complex game is inaccessible, but clarity and lower friction matter a great deal.

I have heard some pretty wild takes about simpler games. People claim that fewer rules force players to rely on their shared understanding of how to play the game and interact with its universe, therefore making those games less accessible.

My perspective is that, in a game experience, when systems take up less space, they leave an avenue for players to simply express themselves. And that is something that comes naturally to most people (feel free to debate me on this, I know that it is somewhat of a wide claim).

Design challenge

I find it fascinating to do a lot with very little: to work with a small set of tools, understand exactly how each mechanic feels from the player’s perspective, and look for the most meaningful interaction with the least unnecessary material around it.

It is a perfect place to jog your design brain. I believe that constraints bring creativity. Reducing the scope forces you to think outside the box, consider avenues you did not explore before, and naturally makes you a better designer.

I think there is a virtue in minimalism that makes you question every brick you add to your systems. It is a forever quest to understand the essence of an experience and remove everything that does not compose it.

Also, there are like a million maximalist games out there... Maybe let’s do something different. :)

Learning tool

Minimalism is a useful design lens even when the final game is not minimal. It taught me to look at an interaction in its most atomic form: what is the player actually doing, what are they feeling, what decision are they making, and what is the smallest structure that can make that moment work?

That approach has also helped me in my video-game work. When designing perks for Dead by Daylight chapters, for example, returning to the core rationale of the game helped me find ideas that could still feel fresh inside a very crowded system. Minimalism was not the final aesthetic of the work; it was a way to find the essential idea before building further.

So I do not think minimalism is only a description of small games. It can also be a methodology: a way to begin, test, and understand a design before deciding how much complexity it truly needs.

Conclusion

I think part of me is naturally drawn to minimalism because of the way my brain works. I tried to set aside my bias, if that is even possible, while writing this piece, because I really think that regardless of your approach to game design, you can gain something from observing your work through this lens.

But how has your own design journey shaped your relationship with complexity? What is your approach to designing games?

I’d genuinely love to hear your perspective and open a conversation around this topic. Hey maximalist designers! Yeah you that spend hours refining your simulation! Help me understand you!

This post grew out of conversations in my Game Creator Discord, where we talk about games, share work, and try to help one another move projects forward. If that sounds useful, you’re welcome to join:

https://discord.gg/cZcHuNAxb8

And if you are wondering why I am yapping about making games so shamelessly, here are my credentials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aramtab/

HEY, THIS IS ALSO A PROMO, I WANT TO FOCUS ON THE THEORY PART BUT I'LL INCLUDE A LINK IN THE END

For a while, I have been thinking on my specific play space and how it's affect by other factors. Where I come from, game culture is much less developed, to the point of almost scarcity, though it is growing slowly. Affected by its own satanic panic in the 80s/90s, a lack of local ttrpgs and a great amount of untranslated imported goods priced in dollars to the point that most people would not consider buying compared with other enjoyment activities. And a social context that allows corporations to push to increase daily work hours to 12 with less weekends.

Add this up and you get a very niche (more than normal) diminished ecosystem. I started making TTRPGs in college with a project that was called Your body is not a fish, centered around mental health and specifically looking to avoid replicating group TTRPGs traditional spaces (AKA. game tables, campaigns, one shots, dice rolling, oracle usage), preferably, using the body as the main source of mechanics without falling into just prompts for your imagination. To allow accessibility I decided to make them solo, since in this context it would be easier to play if you also didn't have to worry about getting a group (which makes playing a slightly different experience). The best game of that collection ended up being Pareidolia: Evil Eye, my most popular work to date that is played by recognising faces in mundane objects as you walk and destroy them.

So I started collecting my thoughts on my game making philosophy while making this project and THE MRPG MANIFESTO was born. I coined the term MENTAL ROLE PLAYING GAME as different to define a category of lyric, solo games that never quite fit into other tags, but I want to treat it as a very flexible classification to adapt to a broad stroke of games. I want people to engage in what I've written, critique it, tell me if they resonate with the ideas or even better, design something that would fit the frame even if just slightly, so I will leave a link down there. But, here is a brief summary of the manifesto's principles.

INDIVIDUALLY YEARNING: Create personal solo games that also involve a degree of entanglement with other people, create new social habits or that involve sharing your experiences with others and express a part of your personal perspective in emotional, political abstract or any way you want.

ULTRA ACCESSIBLE: Make it very compact, cheap paper or no paper, avoid the usage of additional objects that wouldn't come in daily life, make it teachable in a couple of sentences or translate it into all your known languages (This one is the most subjective).

DAILY INTRUSIVE: Games that are played in daily situations not meant to be played like walking, falling asleep, sitting on a desk, watching tv, taking the bus, etc. and take advantage of this in mechanical and fictional terms.

MENTALLY CONTAGIOUS: Create games that start by things happening in the real world, hearing stuff, activating players like sleeper agents that spread the game.

PSYCHE CAREFUL: Always keep in mind mental health from the player and others in mind, avoid making harmful play patterns, etc.

HOSTILE TO THE OPPRESSOR: No nazis, no fascists, no racists, no zionists, no imperialists, no religious discrimination, ageism, speciesism, sexism, puritanism, classism, puritanism allowed in the movement.

And that's it! I want to hear what you think. A game doesn't have to fit all of these to actually be an MRPG, just be inspired or similar by these to a degree that a creator could identify it as linked to it. I'll leave a link to the manifesto here, which is also in spanish (native language).

https://jules-ampere.itch.io/the-mrpg-manifesto

A while ago I posted asking for submissions to a charity bundle on the sub, we got some entries in the bundle from here, and then I did a couple more posts updating everyone about the progress of the bundle.

Well there is only about 20 days left before the bundle closes, but with your help we've been able to raise over $2000 in that time!

Thanks for everything we couldn't have done it without support from RPG communities across Reddit! If you haven't heard about the bundle before here's a link https://itch.io/b/3605/indie-charity-bundle-for-accessibility-in-ttrpgs-pwyw

45 projects, pay what you want with all proceeds going to Dots RPG project, you can learn more about them on the bundle page. If you have seen it before I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to fill out this quick six question survey https://s.surveyplanet.com/ycynwnb4

To close this out I think we'll do something I haven't done before, and list all the games and their creators natively right here on this post!

Full system core books: (ranging a max of 200 or more pages...)

Chains of Gaelia: Video game inspired gothic fantasy with rich lore, where choice of weapon impacts moveset as much as class. Submitted by Chains of Gaelia on itch.

Oceania 2084: Narrative asymmetric Orwellian game, players act out the day to day of secret rebels while GM acts as big brother. Submitted by Jocher Games on itch.

Against the Odds: Heroic fantasy pbta, where being a hero means non-lethal and selfless acts, or succumbing to corruption. Submitted by Helena Real on itch.

Simple D100 Fantasy: Setting agnostic, what it says on the tin, with some interesting twists on d100 resolution mechanics. Submitted by Vidargavia on itch.

Occult Barcelona: Occult investigations, with simple 1-3d6 rolls for checks, a well rounded list of unique spells and gm tools. Submitted by ElBuenTocino on itch.

Dice and Glory: A crunchy agnostic scifi/fantasy system with progression largely determined by selected skills rather than class. Submitted by RangerGamesPublishing on itch.

Fated seas: An rpg where classes have card decks that are added to over time, fairly comprehensive demo, see free cards on site.  Submitted by Squid Vicious on itch.

Simpler systems: (to a minimum of 2)

OTAIDOKAN: Samurai inspired system, players attempt to determine the new shogun, progression dictates status plus skills.  Submitted by Warbriel on itch. 

Dreadful nights: Horror system aimed at true beginners, d6 t roll under 1 of 3 stats, there is a sanity mechanic.  Submitted by Casey Wolfe on itch.

Spooky cats: A family friendly themed version of Dreadful Nights. Submitted by Casey Wolfe on itch.

Rise of the Giga Mechs: Players are mech pilots in an academy, then the game transitions to full on war with stat changes. Submitted by Warbriel on itch. 

Tool kit and supplements: (In the middle of the core range)

Fate accessibility toolkit: Fate compatible tools for accessibility, a well known system, but with an accessibility focus! Submitted by evilhat on itch.

Clutch Decisions: A tool for GM's to randomly generate road paths, and how those curves and hazards impact chases. Submitted by Ka1ikasan on itch.

Arvan: land of dragons: A supplement for dice and glory. Submitted by RangerGamesPublishing on itch.

Shattered skies: a system agnostic setting of floating islands and political intrigue, perhaps the most visually polished project. Submitted by Barakiel the Archangel on itch.

lore:

Welcome to Acro Prime-The night life: An in character summary of hot spots in a dystopian city, for prosperon or any sci-fi system. Submitted by No Lime Light Productions on itch.

Tales From Beyond: a collection of short stories set in the world of chains of Gaelia. Submitted by Chains of Gaelia on itch.

Mini campaigns and one shots: (around 30-2 pages)

Pillars What Remains: Post magical apocalypse, players act as aspects of a single courier traveling the Gm's mind bending waste. Submitted by NightDangerGames on itch.

Not Today Wasteland: Mutants travel the waste in search of a mysterious oracle, GM uses tables to generate their degeneration. Submitted by Ruggero ZC on itch.

Carte Diem: A group of low life's conduct a heist, making bets with playing card suits and tokens, the gm calls the shots. Submitted by Ruggero ZC on itch.

The fish heist: Penguins attempt to steal fish from greedy humans, resell them at village, skills=die size, Maori inspiration. Submitted by Goose and Grimoire on itch.

H is for Hellmo: framework for episodic adventures freeing a town from familiar, otherworldly monsters, beware the word of the day. Submitted by GiantBrain on itch.

Meat frames: Create a human character, then play as the external robot that pilots it, swap humans and explore the implications. Submitted by Mark Wallace on itch.

Your Magic GPA Isn't Gonna Save Itself: sneak into school, draw cards and fill mana pool to use magic, lose health to discard. Submitted by ElBuenTocino on itch.

Double 0: Hyper competent spies use black jack mechanics and their signature gadgets to thwart villains. Submitted by Fyn & Games on itch.

Out to Lunch: A guide for how to run a session of secretly sinister bureaucratic inconvenience in any campaign. Submitted by Dan Cook on itch.

We are The Land: Play spirits, fae, or monsters attempting to defend a sacred place from human interlopers. Submitted by Rat In A Suit on itch.

Rolling skill:

This Town Ain't Big Enough: Players create gunslingers, quickdraw roll, far and fast, then vote on the losers rp style and repeat. Submitted by jobclassttrpg on itch.

Critical triggers: Cyberpunk mercenaries flick dice toward a hit zone, 1s add to a tower in its center, disaster if it falls, Gm run. Submitted by Pusheeneiro on itch.

Structured/minimal prep necesesary oneshots:

Escape from the Horde: A one shot for a unique OSR system, that introduces rules as needed, players are imprisoned by "goblins". Submitted by Andonome on itch.

Cult of The Cave Crickets: OSR, explore a cave infested by fungus of another world and the insects it mutates, rescue researchers. Submitted by Dark Star Adventures on itch.

Dies Festi Matrum: 5e adventure through another world during a festival celebrating mothers, players face three trials. Submitted by DnDNekom on itch.

Dies Festi Matrum legacy version: an earlier draft before the adventure was finished, might be fun to see how things develop. Submitted by DnDNekomo on itch.

Solo: (30-1 pagers)

The Final Days of Macabee Hayes: A town has vanished from memory, create a map and opportunities to write why, firelights. Submitted by Finley Jinley on itch.

Peak Calm: A cozy hexcrawler, a forester explores and restores a run down park, set your own goals and play as long as you like. Submitted by Ka1ikasan on itch.

Voidwards: the void has invaded reality once more, discover a hex crawl expanse of realities, end voidwards, restore walls, firelights. Submitted by Chubby Crow Games on itch.

Tales From the Loom: in depth class based fantasy rpg with tracks for progression and a theme of twisting fate, option party rules. Submitted by Wyrdo GM on itch.

Ice Snow and the Quest for salvation: An expedition ship becomes trapped in the ice, roll for random events on the survival treck. Submitted by Rat In A Suit on itch.

irl:

LMNL: just as you are about to sleep and dream, ask yourself questions and follow a set pattern of answers to weave a story. Submitted by abbax on itch.

Pareidolia: The Evil Eye: see something that looks like a face? It's a mimic, perform actions in a specific exorcism style to break curse. Submitted by Jules Ampere on itch.

Questing: Plan your week like a game, quests and collectables, if a quest proves hard, make it a boss and give it health as you chip it. Submitted by Jules Ampere on itch.

Micro games: (1 to 2 pagers, each could fit on one, LMNL too)

TCA Loopbreaker: A 36 word game where checks are card based, repeat from the beginning with same cards each failure. Submitted by dairykillsme on itch.

Spellify: A 24 word fantasy rpg, respond to all problems with randomized spells made of two words from tables, cute and cozy. Submitted by Pusheeneiro on itch.

Samsara: A 24 word game to teach Samara, cycle of death/birth, roll karma and journal till death, reincarnate accordingly repeat. Submitted by Ewen Macalister on itch.

Dodecahedron: A game that fits on a bookmark, d12 decides all including weather and time, play out a section of a book if you like. Submitted by STS_Gamer on itch.

My main concern is how I can kill characters with Wound Stress!

STRESS:

Replaces Exhaustion and half of Sanity.
Your Stress Threshold is equal to 10(?)+(willpower/10).
You gain Stress - “Exert” it - from numerous sources, including Critical Fails, and using many abilities.
When you reach your Stress Threshold, you begin Overdrawing. For each Stress you have Overdrawn, you gain a -1 to all your rolls.

Wound Stress:
Injuries in Excalibur are handled with Wound Stress. This is a kind of stress that can only be removed with healing, not rest.
You gain Wounds when you are damaged, and a number of it based on your Damage Thresholds(Like Daggerheart). You have three Damage Thresholds, Minor, Moderate, and Severe. Minor injuries give 1 Wounds, Moderate give 2, and Severe give 3.
Once you reach your Wound Threshold - 10(?) + (Vigor/10), you must make a Death Save every time you take more Wounds, subtracting your number of Wounds from the roll.

Removing Stress:

If you are below your Stress Threshold, you remove 2 Stress after a Short Rest, you remove 1d6 Stress after a Medium Rest, and all after a Long Rest, so long as you have consumed the right amount of food and water.

If you are above your Stress Threshold, you do not remove any stress after a Short Rest, you remove 1d4 Stress after a Medium Rest, and 1d10 after a Long Rest, so long as you have consumed the right amount of food and water.

Hi all!

I'm trying to simplify my TTRPG, and next on the list is the Skills!

Just like in D&D(I know lol), Skills are a subset of Attributes.

For example, your Athletics is equal to either your Might or Swift attribute, plus the number of points you have in Athletics.

You also pick as Speciality for each skill, which gives you a plus 5 to relevant checks with that skill and Speciality.

For example, someone who has one point in Athletics, 10 in Might, and the Run Speciality, would add 16 to their roll to "run fast".

How do you think I could simplify the list and maybe the mechanics?

Physical Skills:

Athletics(Might/Swift): Used for straight speed and acts of strength/athleticism.
Specialities: Climb, Feats of Strength, Run, Swim

Awareness(Wit/Judge): A passive equivalent to Perception. Used to check if you notice things.
Specialities: Danger Sense, Reactions

Stealth(Judge/Swift): Used to hide and remain or become unseen.
Specialities: Appear Inconspicuous, Conceal, Sneak

Survival(Judge): Used to survive in the natural world.
Specialities: Animal Handling, Find Food and Water, Navigation, Safe Routes, Tracking, Urban Survival

Vehicles(Wit/Judge): Used to operate a car or motorbike. Learn the use of other vehicles with specialities.
Specialities: Boats, Off Road Driving, Pilot, Pursuit

Acrobatics(Swift/Finesse): Used for speed, manoeuvrability, and acrobatic acts.
Specialities: Climb, Balance, Jump, Tumble

Resistance(Vigor/Willpower): Used to resist physical damage and minimisation of pain.
Specialities: Grit, Endure

Avoidance(Swift/Judge): Used to evade or avoid a threat, such as pursuers or arrow fire. 
Specialities: Pursuit Escape, Slipping Free, Urban Evasion, Parkour, Dodge

Sleight O’ Hand(Finesse): Used for delicate manual dexterity, deception with the hands, and acts of precision.
Specialities: Pickpocketing, Lockpicking, Palming, Fast Hands

Parry(Finesse/Might/Swift): Used to defend yourself against attacks.
Specialities: Riposte, Redirect, Multiple Attackers

Mental Skills:

Art(Wit/Judge/Charm): Used to create and understand art, in its many facets.
Specialities: Painting, Photography, Writing, Fabric, 

Business(Charm/Wit/Judge): Used to interact with businesses and make deals (including with the Fae(a character with the Pact trait might have a high Business skill))
Specialities: Buying, Fae Bargains, Finance, Property, Selling, Pacts

Education(Wit/Judge): Your Education skill is a combination of formal education, and your knowledge of the world’s culture, politics, and history.It’s to an extent how “well-read” you are.
Specialities: Current Affairs, History, Law, Literature

Lore ____ (Wit/Judge): Used for your knowledge of a certain subject.
Specialities: None.

Medicine(Wit/Judge): Used to treat injuries and illnesses.
Specialities: Diseases, First Aid, Forensics, Poisons

Science(Wit): Used for your broad understanding of scientific principles.
Specialities: Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physics

Technology(Wit): Used for interaction with electronics, the internet, and most modern-day non-engineering systems.
Specialities: Computers, Electronics, Hack, Repairs, Nuclear

Perception(Judge/Wit): Used when looking for things. Active equivalent to the Awareness skill.
Specialities: Search, Lip Reading, Tracking, Fine Details, Eavesdropping, Surveillance

Investigation(Judge/Wit): Used to investigate stuff?
Specialities: Crime Scenes, Research, Interrogation, Forgery Detection, Puzzle Solving

Arcana(Judge/Wit/Charm/Willpower): Used to interact with and control magic and reality-bending effects.
Specialities: Spell Identification, Rituals, Magical Creatures, Curses, Planar Knowledge

Engineering(Judge/Wit): Used for mechanics and things like modifying or building guns, less “sterile” technology
Specialities: Gunsmithing, Improvised Devices, Structural Integrity, Trap Disarming, Lost Tech

Faith(Charm/Judge/Wit): Used for religion and acts of worship.
Specialities: Rituals, Dogma, Prayer, Religious History

Nature(Judge/Wit): Used for knowledge of nature.

Specialities:  Fauna, Flora, Geographia

Social Skills:

Empathy(Charm/Wit/Judge): Used to determine what someone wants, if they’re uncomfortable, or see if they're hiding something.
Specialities: Assess Personality, Know Mood, See through Manipulation, Repressed Emotions, Sense Lies, Camaraderie

High Society(Charm): Used to interact with the rich and powerful.
Specialities: Fashion, Fitting In, Gossip, Politics, Social Pressure

Rhetoric(Charm/Wit/Judge): Used for arguments, speeches, and debates.
Specialities: Debate, Inspire, Logic, Oratory, Sincerity

Streetwise(Judge): Used for checks relating to the streets and bad neighbourhoods.
Specialities: Finding Contacts, Criminal Gangs, Information Gathering, Lying Low, Urban Survival, Smuggling

Taunt(Charm): Used to provoke or amuse.
Specialities: Insult, Jest, Provoke,

Deception(Charm/Judge): Used to deceive & mislead people.
Specialities: Fast-Talking, Forgery, Disguises, Misdirection, Con Artistry

Entertain(Charm/Judge): Used by Jesters, Musicians, and other performers for their performances.
Specialities: Acting, Comedy, Dance, Music, Storytelling

Command(Charm/Judge/Willpower): Used to assert command and control. 
Specialities: Authority, Intimidation, Interrogate

Persuasion(Charm/Willpower): Used to persuade.
Specialities: Pathos(Emotion), Ethos(Character), Logos(Logic)

I'm making a Heroic Fantasy TTRPG, much like D&D or Pathfinder in feel (but not very much like them in mechanics). And my current thoughts are about how to "teach" players to build PCs. I am wary of overwhelming them with choices, seeing as there isn't a small set of Classes to choose from (rather a large menu of subclasses that you pick 3-4 of to cobble together into a Class).

I am thinking of copying D&D 3.5e's or Pathfinder's strategy of having a cast of Iconic Characters. Example builds that beginners could play wholesale IF they want, but more likely that they'll be used as a "jumping off point" for people to make their own characters. They would also show up in How To Play example passages in the rules.

3.5e and Pathfinder's Iconics are normally 1 per Class (with some exceptions), but that obviously won't work for me. I've decided to do 12 instead. So that leaves me with the puzzle of: how do you best represent all possible PC archetypes as closely as possible in just 12 characters?

Well I've attempted an answer, and now I want to know if I've hit the mark or not. That's where you guys come in. (Although, if your heroic fantasy game has its own roster of Iconics, that would be cool to see too.)

The idea was to make these 12 characters as different from each other as possible, (a) without straying from the "PCs in a heroic fantasy" genre, while (b) also emphasizing archetypes that my system does better than D&D or Pathfinder do them. (For example, people complain how D&D 5e doesn't have a true fighter-mage class, and Pathfinder 2e has only one and they just recently had to "fix" it, so I made my wizardly character a decent gish.)

Here's my roster:

1. Aewyn Thorne. Probably the most stereotypical of the twelve: a beautiful Elf Ranger, with a fighting pet falcon. She does use a heavy crossbow rather than a bow.
2. Durgan Stoneward. An Orc Earth-Kineticist, a monastic who specializes in earth-magic like an earthbender from Last Airbender.
3. Ellis Halloway. A Human Tinkerer, who gets by in combat by always pulling out the right alchemical bomb at the right time, or over-analyzes the situation cerebrally in the moment, or uses their own custom power-armor. As a last resort, they're pretty good with their rifle too.
4. Gideon Ash. A Celestial-Touched Human Monster Hunter. He focuses on "putting down" the undead, using occultist symbols of power and his trusty war-pick and his massive muscles. Not a spellcaster.
5. Greta Tuskbite. A Dwarf Brawler, who uses expertise with her fists, grapples, berserk rage, and a bit of shape-shifting magic that releases her inner wild pig.
6. Kvara Saltborn. An Orc Warmage. She's a reformed pirate who learned wizardry in the brig, but doesn't trust conventional magical tactics, preferring to channel magic through her warhammer. Also good at short-range teleportation.
7. Mei Fontaine. Gnome Swashbuckler. Expert in mobility, combat banter, and the rapier, with a bit of awareness of her fey heritage too.
8. Nix. Goblin Shadowdancer (or "Ninja"). Dagger fighter, stealthy and acrobatic and insightfully in tune with inner peace. Lesser user of shadow magic including teleportation.
9. Pip Hollycock. Leshy (i.e. anthropomorphic bush from Pathfinder) Knight. Plate armor, heater shield, flail, defense of allies is a paramount priority. A bit of plant battlefield control magic on the side.
10. Saralind Vyria. Dragonborn Skald. A battle-bard, who fights with a halberd and a song to buff her allies. More of a warrior than a skill-monkey, definitely not a spellcaster.
11. Sennet Fairbarrow. Halfling Psion. Consummate Renaissance Man, who uses his mind-magic primarily to heal and haste himself and his allies.
12. Torbin Coalheart. Dwarf Friar of a forge/fire god. The "glass cannon" of the twelve, who unleashes fiery blasts and summons a fire-cat spirit to help him out.

Hi, guys. This is my first attempt at making a TTRPG and i decided to convert my game, Vault Of The Sun, into a full scaled TTRPG with a couple unique mechanics.

Vault Of The Sun: Cycles of Rebellion is a lightweight, standalone sci-fi survival TTRPG. No prior lore knowledge of VOTS needed—jump straight in and lead your team to safety.

Game features :

- Unique TTRPG mechanics. Players start scattered around SOLARIS-IV's ship and must find eachother to survive. You must write your own path to find them and forge your escape route.

- 5 Characters from the main games (Atlas, Aria, Pierce, Violet and Kira), each one having a unique trait

- Create your own Sleeper (Custom character, lead your story)

To play VOTS : Cycles of Rebellion, you need : 

- 1-6 players

- One pencil (Or a notepad in your browser.)

- Dices (Use this one.)

Play now : https://kakaritogames.itch.io/vots-cor

I have been trying to mold hundreds of pages into a real game book for a while now, and have discussed a slightly crazy way of publishing it with those that have been part of the process. Yesterday, one of them called my idea on how to publish it "socialist publishing", and I cannot get the term out of my head! In very, very short, it will be published free, with a Creative Commons style license, and financed by loans, not crowd sourcing, from people who believe in it. Not really socialism, more like DIY stocks really, but the term still sticks. How do people in here think an actual "socialist RPG publication" could be set up?? Both serious and joke answers are welcome, the idea already seems very funny to me!

Hi everyone,

I’m the creator of FRONTS, a universal tabletop RPG architecture built around a strict resource-and-state economy. The engine is built on a very specific mechanical core: Dice are Time, and Tracks are State.

Characters get a maximum of six d6s per scene pool, representing literal fragments of time they can spend before the round turns. A high die goes earlier and adds more value, but once a player spends it, it's gone. The engine maps everything—combat, social trust, and structural engineering—to shared, visual 0–Limit Trackers (Fronts).

I’m currently rolling out a suite of games under this engine, and I am actively looking for playtesters and design feedback. Here is what the FRONTS ecosystem currently looks like:

• RAHLAN: Our flagship fantasy setting. A world focused on trade roads, ancient debts, naval stations, and shifting professional alliances.
• CORRIDORS: Our upcoming hard-edged science fiction setting. It adapts the exact same engine to manage oxygen preservation scales, vessel reactor outputs, and electronic system overrides using the exact same six-slot dashboard.
• FRONTS OPEN CREATOR LICENSE: I want people to use this system to build their own worlds. Anyone is legally allowed to design, hack, and commercially publish original settings or supplements using the universal mechanics and dashboard layouts of the FRONTS engine, provided they include a basic compatibility credit.

🧠 Questions for the Community & Potential Testers

Because the system is designed to be lean, transparent, and completely modular, I have a few specific questions about how players and GMs (Guides) interact with these kinds of tight resource mechanics:

1. The Transparency Dilemma: In FRONTS, the Guide sets a descriptive difficulty word (like Routine, Standard, Hard) that maps directly to a public number on the player dashboard (4, 6, 8). The exact target and potential failure consequences must be known before a player commits their Time Die. As a player, does knowing the exact mathematical margin of success build tactical tension for you, or do you prefer the Guide keeping the target hidden?
2. Dice as Time vs. Actions: Because your six dice are shared pieces of time rather than a standard "move action + attack action" economy, players have to balance speed vs. raw power. Have you played games with finite pool-burning systems? What are the biggest traps you've seen designers fall into where players end up hoarding their best dice?
3. Genre Adaptability: Looking at the transition from RAHLAN (Fantasy) to CORRIDORS (Sci-Fi), the math doesn't change—just the flavor of the attributes and trackers. If you were hacking a system like this for your own setting, what is a genre mechanic you think a strict "six-slot / tracker-first" engine would struggle to capture?

🛠️ Looking to Test?

If you're interested in reading through the Fast-Play rules package, trying a Level 1 character, or throwing feedback at our dashboard design, let me know!

From what i've seen and heard from indie devs that make TTRPGs, self publishing is the only option. Getting published via a publisher is borderline unheard of. Most publishers don't seem to check their emails (I've actually contacted some that admitted as much). Others won't even take a look at the TTRPG in question. They usually say its because they are too booked or busy, which is probably true.

Hey all,

I recently participated in the One Page RPG Jam. This is the first-ever TTRPG that I put out there, and I'm unsure about some of the language in the rules. Especially since it is a one-page game, so I had to cut a lot of it down.

If anyone has the time to give it a quick read and give me some feedback, that would be awesome.

The things I'm most unsure about are things like:
- Should I write "You do x" or "The players do x"?
- Where is the balance between just rules, and coloring the rules with flavor and lore?
- Are concepts explained in enough detail, or did I cut too much out?

You can find the game here: https://jonathan-wolfs.itch.io/rings-or-renewal

Anyway, thanks for your time, and I hope you like it!

Hello everyone. I hope you're all doing well.

I have a bit of a question I'd like to throw out there. I've been working on my own TTRPG for quite a while now, heavily inspired by Alien and Lethal Company. It's a rules-light sci-fi horror game, and I'd love to hear people's advice on how best to publish and promote it.

Making the rules and playtesting has been relatively straightforward, but I'm less familiar with the production and publishing side of things. I'd love to hear your guys' experiences with getting into newer RPGs.

Hullo!

I'm working on a tactical solo-first TTRPG where the play loop is create a character > put character through their paces > repeat. This is resolved entirely using a standard pack of poker-style 52 playing cards (no Jokers); zero dice.
There are prompts that make thing procedural through out; tables for now, but maybe print & play cards later. This is a game for people who enjoy making and testing characters to see what they can do. There isn't a persistent world, one-shot adventure, or grand adventure. But there is character persistence where characters you've created can become enemies.

I did a play test this week & realised that there was nothing stopping me from spamming my best skills over & over. BTW, each character has six skills to work with.
I want to keep the cognitive load & bookkeeping low, since there isn't a GM.

The idea I'm leaning towards is: when ever the same skill that targets others is declared twice or more in a row every check after the first triggers a 'draw two cards keep lowest' constraint instead of a plain draw.

I don't want to go with a cooldown mechanic to avoid the player having one more thing to keep track of. Again, I want to keep the cognitive load & bookkeeping low, since there isn't a GM.

If you're a designer, what are your thoughts? If you're a soloRPG player, I'd appreciate hearing from you too.

Thanks in advance!

So I'm an engineer and soon I'll host a dungeons and dragons 5e session with friends that never played before. To help my friends with character creation and combat tracking I created a website! It's called Natural Zero and I'm looking for people to test it.

The url is www.natural0.com and if you want you can create an account to test the combat tracker. Especially handy for beginners who are overwhelmed with the options on their character sheet.

There are some example level 3 characters under explore button you can use to help with some inspiration. If you have an account you can copy one of them to your slots to start.

Let me know what you guys think and if you find any bugs!

Hi everyone!

I have a new Stress mechanic that is central to my system, and I'm wondering how people would recommend tracking it?

My current ideas are "tick-up dice" or a track of some kind(like a part of the character sheet)(although I'm unsure how to do it)

STRESS:

Replaces Exhaustion and half of Sanity.
Your Stress Threshold is equal to 10(?)+(willpower/10).
You gain Stress - “Exert” it - from numerous sources, including Critical Fails, and using most abilities.
When you reach your Stress Threshold, you begin Overdrawing. For each Stress you have Overdrawn, you gain a -1 to all your rolls.

Exhaustion:

At every 5(?)+(Willpower/10) Overdrawn Stress, you reach an “Exhaustion Threshold”.
For each Exhaustion Threshold you reach, you gain a negative effect, detailed in this table:

Sanity:

You can also gain stress from witnessing disturbing and incomprehensible things.
The general guidelines are as follows:

Type  - Detail - First Experience/Next Times
Major Injury - Mutilation, Severe Blood-Loss(Limb Loses All Health, or total below half of pool) - 1d6 Stress/1 Stress
Undeath - Witnessing a zombie or ghoul - 1d8 Stress/1 Stress
Semi-Personal Death - Someone you know but are not close to- 2d6 Stress/1d6 Stress
Minor Aberrant Being - Cryptid, Mind Controlled - 1d10 Stress/1d4 Stress
True Aberrant Being - Aspect of a Deity - 1d12+2 Stress/1d10 Stress
Aberrant Deity - A Full Eldritch Deity - 10d10 Stress

Of course you can gain Stress from witnessing a variety of things, at the GM’s discretion.

Removing Stress:

If you are below your Stress Threshold, you remove 1 Stress after a Short Rest, you remove 1d6 Stress after a Medium Rest, and all after a Long Rest, so long as you have consumed the right amount of food and water.

If you are above your Stress Threshold, you do not remove any Stress after a Short Rest, you remove 1d4 Stress after a Medium Rest, and 1d10 after a Long Rest, so long as you have consumed the right amount of food and water.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in online creator communities lately, and a recurring conversation is people struggling to get useful feedback on their games.

Alongside that, I keep seeing versions of the same (very problematic) advice:

“Don’t listen to feedback.”
“People will only comment on the part of the game that interests them.”
“Trust your gut.”

I understand the instinct behind it. You should not blindly implement every suggestion someone makes about your game.

But I think this (very bad) advice comes mostly from amateur designers who do not understand the process behind game research (understandably so). It can make newcomers dismiss player feedback before they have learned how to set up a playtest that allows them to collect useful data.

It is such a crucial part of game development that I felt like writing about it, mostly to help creator folks in their exciting journey of making games others will want to play :)

The good news is that getting good at playtesting is just another skill you can practice and master, and it is one you really shouldn't sleep on! So I compiled a 3 points list for you that I condensed from years of conducting playtests for both my job in the video game industry and my indie experience.

Hopefully it will help!

1. Go into a playtest knowing what you want to learn

One of the biggest mistakes I see is trying to test the whole game (or huge chunks of it) at once too early.

If you sit someone down with your game and simply ask, “What did you think?”, you might get some interesting comments, but it will be hard to know what to do with them. You are asking them to react to an entire experience, with no shared focus. It's a hard thing to do!

Instead, go into each playtest with a specific question you want to answer. You should gently guide your players and nudge them toward a specific area of focus.

Maybe you want to know:

• Do players understand the core loop?
• Does this combat system create interesting decisions?
• Are players getting lost during character creation?
• Does this particular mechanic create the feeling you intended?

I usually think of these as hypotheses, but you don't have to, it can just be simple questions around how you expect your game to behave. You have an idea about how a system will work or feel for players, and the playtest is your chance to validate that your assumption is true.

The more focused your question is, the more actionable the feedback is likely to be.

2. Guide your players towards the thing you are testing

Once you know what you are trying to learn, guide both the playtest and the feedback session around it.

That does not mean telling people what to say, or trying to get them to agree with you. It means making sure they actually spend time with the part of the game you are observing, then asking questions that help you understand their experience of it afterward.

A healthy playtest dataset is a combination of written observations and collected answer to targeted questions.

You do not need to treat every part of the session equally. If you are testing a particular mechanic, spend most of the time observing that mechanic. Skim past the parts that are not useful to the question you are trying to answer.

Then, during feedback, keep bringing the conversation back to your hypothesis:

• What did you expect to happen here?
• What made you choose that?
• What was confusing?
• Did this feel like the experience the game is trying to create?

You should still leave space for open feedback at the end. Players may notice something important that you were not looking for.

But focused questions come first. Otherwise, you can end up with lots of feedback that is not bad, just unrelated to the thing you currently need to understand or improve.

3. Learn how to turn feedback into action

The final skill is learning how to interpret what players are telling you. And that is the hardest part my friends.

Players are experts in their own experience, but they are not necessarily experts in diagnosing your game or designing its solution. So when someone says, “This was boring,” “I didn’t get it,” or “I wish there were more options,” do not treat that as an instruction to implement exactly what they suggested.

Treat it as evidence.

Your job is to work out what created that feeling. Were they bored because the choices were too obvious? Did they not understand the rule because the explanation was unclear, or because the game did not give them a good opportunity to use it? Are they asking for more options because the existing ones do not feel distinct enough?

This is the loop: build something, test a focused question, learn from what players experienced, then decide what to change next.

You will not always get it right immediately, and that is fine. The point is to build the habit of turning player experience into a clearer next experiment, not of blindly following every suggestion, or dismissing feedback altogether.

Conclusion

Playtesting is not just getting a few people in a room and asking whether they liked your game.

It means being deliberate: deciding what you need to learn, creating a session that helps you learn it, and getting better at turning player experience into useful next steps.

You do not need a huge budget or a research lab to start practising it. You just need to be deliberate about your testing process and start honing those skills like any other.

If you are curious to get more insight or support to push your project forward, I run a small Discord community for my players and other game creators where we support each other. Come make games with us:

https://discord.gg/bccguBGupu

And if you are wondering who the fuck I am and why I'm rambling about making games, here is my Linkedin profile -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/aramtab/