Hello everyone,

I thought it would be nice to have a dice mechanic for 5e’s character creation with an output more similar to the point buy system, since the default dice mechanic leads to overall higher stats. This could be a system with the same output range as point buy as well as one that still offers the possibility of rolling very high numbers (16-18) but with a higher probability to roll very low than 4d6 drop lowest.

Do you already know of such a dice mechanic? Or could you maybe provide a source for the probabilities of a stat having a certain number in the point buy system, so as to make it comparable to 4d6 drop lowest? The latter would give a starting point to play around with dice.run in order to create a system as desired.

Thank you all very much in advance!

I'm curious about your opinions on this topic.

All scenarios I've run so far have had a minimum of discrimination. (Religious/racist prejudice only against those that were actually fanatic/inherently evil. 'Race' as in 'species', not colour of skin or whatevs.) But I've been wondering what can be done with it as a feature of a RPG world or factions within it. In which cases does discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion etc. make for 'good' story elements, so 'good' that it's worth to actually implement despite it being a horrible thing by design? Granted that all players agree beforehand.

The other thing are (especially historical) terror methods. Again the question: What would justify to use such elaborate cruelty in a fictional setting? This came up when I thought about using aspects of the 'Zersetzung' ('disruption'/'decomposition') in a game as part of the BBEG's tactics. ('Zersetzung' was a catalogue of terror methods applied on people that were deemed oppositional in the German Democratic Republic.) I dropped the idea when I spoke to my players about it and one of them expressed discomfort about potentially having this done to their PC.

Both questions could also be differentiated between entirely fictional settings and those that explicitly try to recreate the life in a stage of real-world history.

Thanks in advance for your input, please be respectful.

Edit: Another distinction that could be made: If used, should discrimination/terror always serve to emphasize someone's evil nature, or could it sometimes be 'rightfully' presented as morally ambiguous as well?

Hope I'm right here with this, sorry if the question is too specific for this community.

Our long-term D&D campaign has reached PC level 17. Now's the time for implementing mechanics that fasten up combat (we all don't like how long it takes), as well as addressing spells that the GM (me) fears to be game-breaking (mostly 9th level spells, full list below).

Sooo... I'd be thankful for any helpful suggestions. My current ideas for the combat aspect include shock damage, Instinct and Morale checks from Worlds Without Number, but those probably don't suffice yet. And I'm having trouble conveying to the spellcasters that toning down some spells is necessary in order to maintain a functional game that doesn't tear apart hours of preparation every session. Feel free to point out any potential counter-arguments to my view on that as well.

I'm really determined to keep this game running. Thank you all so much in advance!

List of spells that require revision or more exact definition (in my opinion): Wish, Meteor Swarm, Invulnerability, Gate, True Polymorph, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Rope Trick

Hello everyone!

The BBEG of our ongoing campaign is not carved in stone yet, so I'm looking for some inspiration. As far as I've encountered them, the overwhelming majority of evil masterminds in pop culture and fiction are male. I'd like to have anything different than that, but at the moment, I can't think of many examples to draw inspiration from.

I don't have a lot of specifications for what I'm looking for. Apart from not being male, they should just be examples of true spite, not someone who can be bargained with. And they shouldn't be the right hand of another greater villain, but stand on their own feet in terms of scheming and orchestrating bad stuff. (So no Darth Vader, but an Emperor. An Empress, actually, or really anything but a dude.) They can come from any genre, media and setting. Favorable if they can pack a punch or two or more, though not mandatory.

D&D has Tiamat and Lolth, Star Trek TNG has the Borg Queen. But other than that, my mind's completely blank right now. I'd really appreciate any suggestions for more baddies to take a look at, characters that help me to get into other evil mindsets than those I'm most familiar with.

Thank you very much!

Hello everyone!

I’ve had some issues with D&D 5E lately and would like to try something else. I’ve thought a bit about what I actually want from a new system and came up with this:

The RPG should

• be universal a.k.a. adaptable to different settings
• be able to include magic of some kind, preferably already offering that option by its default rules
• be balanced between different character archetypes/classes (if such exist)
• guarantee smooth and fast combat (specifically less complicated than D&D 5E)
• guarantee smooth play in general, no constant looking up rules
• encourage role-playing (not necessarily via rules, but IMO D&D 5E neglects RP by its rules being overly focused on combat)
• still offer as much customization options as possible
• be easy to modify if needed and easy to create homebrew content for (e.g. items, monsters)
• be suitable for one-shots as well as longer campaigns
• have an online tool or a clearly structured index to look up rules/other stuff
• already have some homebrew content available on the internet, as well as a platform to discuss rulings

Using the criteria above, I put together a list of potential candidates:

• Adventurers!
• AGE
• Apotheosis
• Cortex Prime
• Cypher
• Dungeonslayers
• Fate (Core, Accelerated and/or Condensed)
• Freeform Universal
• Fudge
• Genesys
• Hero System
• HeroQuest
• Ironsworn
• Low Fantasy Gaming
• Mini Six
• Old School Essentials
• PbtA (and/or more specifically Dungeon World)
• Prose Descriptive Qualities
• Risus
• Savage Worlds
• The Black Hack
• World of Dungeons
• Worlds Without Number
• Whitehack

However, I only read about each RPG briefly… and as you can see, the list is still very long. Do any of the systems named don’t fit what I’m actually looking for or meet the requirements listed above especially well? My goal is to bring the list down to 2-3 RPGs, ultimately choosing from them. Oh, and if you think there is another RPG that I haven’t named, but fits my needs better than all the others: Recommend away!

Many thanks for all your help!

EDIT: added suitability for longer campaigns as a desirable quality