Advantage on Arcana

Overview

ADVANTAGE ON ARCANA is the blog of Christian Hendriks, focused on ttrpgs including but not limited to
D&D 5e https://groupfinder.gg/library/dungeons-dragons-5e-2014
, Fate Core, Chronicles of Darkness, and other people's
OSR https://groupfinder.gg/library/old-school-renaissance-osr-2000
or rules-light homebrews. Current topics often involve the Planegea setting. Recurring topics include emergent narrative. Former topics included the creation of made-up literary works or scenes for your games.  ADVANTAGE ON ARCANA frequently participates in the RPG Blog Carnival. A fundamental principle behind this blog is that bringing our knowledge and expertise from other areas of our life to the gaming table improves the hobby for everyone.

Reviews

Sorted by:

No reviews yet.

Login to leave a review.

Other entries

Blades in the Dark (2017)
Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Blades in the Dark (2017)

English
Heist
Evil Hat Productions
Blades in the Dark is a heist-themed tabletop roleplaying game system about a crew of daring misfits  on the streets of an industrial fantasy city. Published by Evil Hat Productions in 2017 and designed by John Harper, it introduced the highly influential Forged in the Dark rules engine. BitD revolutionized the heist genre in tabletop gaming by pushing players straight into the act, eliminating the "planning phase". The system it loosely evolved from is Apocalypse World Description In Blades in the Dark, players are part of a criminal organization in Doskvol, a grim Victorian era city. The city is protected by a wall of lightning, to keep any threat on the outside. Players create their characters as either smugglers, thieves, assassins or cultists and explore the criminal underworld, perform dangerous heists, manage gang warfare and grow their criminal organization. The game focuses heavily on narrative momentum and failing forward. Characters are competent but flawed, constantly accumulating stress, trauma, and heat from the law as their gang rises to power. System Overview & Key Features Action Roll (d6 Dice Pool) The core mechanic uses a pool of six-sided dice(d6) based on a character's action rating. The highest die result will determine the outcome of the action. 6 is considered a full success, 4-5 is a partial success with a consequence, and 1-3 is a failure. Rolling multiple full successes is considered a critical success. Position and Effect Before every roll, the Game Master explicitly states the character's Position (Controlled, Risky, or Desperate) and Effect (Limited, Standard, or Great). This transparently communicates the exact stakes and potential fallout of the action before the dice hit the table. Stress and Resistance Characters have a Stress track. Players can spend Stress to give themselves for extra dice when rolling. They can also use it to assist an ally, or fuel their special abilities. Players can also spend Stress when facing any situation or consequence the GM throws at them, this makes the characters very skilled, but forces them to consider when to spend it. The Flashback Mechanic Instead of spending hours planning a heist, the crew simply chooses a target, picks a detail, and jumps right into the action. Later, they can use Stress, to envoke a flashback moment, where they explain how they had already planned for such a situation, or had "solved" it beforehand. Progress Clocks The game uses circular progress tracks called Clocks to visually represent approaching danger or the progress of a complex task. A clock might represent the alert level of the city watch, the structural integrity of a safe vault, or the patience of a rival gang leader. The Crew as a Character The criminal organization the players run has its own character sheet. The organization gains experience, levels up, claims territory, and unlocks special abilities, ensuring that the gang's rise to power is just as mechanically significant as the characters' Additional links evilhat.com - Official Evil Hat Productions website bladesinthedark.com - Official System Reference Document and rules database

Read more

SPIEL Essen
Tabletop events

SPIEL Essen

Europe
We are the world's largest public fair for board games and bring together passionate game fans with national and international exhibitors in Germany in the heart of the Ruhr area. Here you can discover new titles from all over the world, enjoy the company of other gamers and above all play as much as you want. Because playing is in the heart of SPIEL. Thousands of new releases, which will be shown and sold for the first time, are waiting for you in the city of Essen. Explainers will help you to start playing right away, authors will sign their works and are happy to meet their fans.

Read more

Omniarole
Tools & Platforms

Omniarole

English
Spanish
French
Omniarole is a simple world-building platform that runs in your browser on phone or laptop, so you can prep and play wherever you are. Players can use it too, to manage their own character sheets, synced in real time with the DM's campaign.

Read more

Looking for a group?

Find a tabletop group to join or players to invite. Groupfinder is a free looking-for-group platform. By players, for players.