Basic Roleplaying (2023)

Risus: The Anything RPG is a universal, rules-light tabletop role-playing game designed by S. John Ross and published by Cumberland Games & Diversions. Originally released in 1993, with its definitive version 2.0 published in 2013, the system was created as a high-velocity framework to run casual, humorous, or completely impromptu gaming sessions across any narrative genre. Description Risus prioritizes improvisational storytelling and minimalist mechanics over granular simulation or tactical grid combat. Instead of tracking traditional numeric attributes, skills, or rigid character classes, characters are defined entirely by broad cultural or narrative tropes called "Clichés." The game operates on a high degree of system abstraction, utilizing a completely unified conflict engine where physical combat, intense debates, artistic competitions, and legal battles are resolved using the exact same mathematical pipeline. While frequently utilized for comedic play due to its loose restrictions, the system's structural logic allows it to be scaled for serious or dramatic campaigns. Links drivethrurpg.com - DriveThruRPG store page (Free) risusiverse.com - Risusverse, a community wiki

Nimble is a fast, tactical (and 5e compatible), TTRPG. Your game nights are too precious to waste with slow or fiddly rules! Slay the slog using the best elements from the greatest RPGs around. Nimble empowers players and GMs with more interesting choices, less waiting around, and have more fun playing epic stories Description Nimble RPG is designed to prioritize speed, tactical decision-making, and reduced administrative tracking for both players and Game Masters. The system condenses character sheets and streamlines the action economy to prevent long waiting periods between player turns. Its primary design philosophy centers on accelerating combat encounters without sacrificing strategic depth, utilizing highly lethal weapon mechanics and dynamic monster behaviors. The game is offered both as a complete standalone system and as a modular "rules hack" booklet that can be integrated directly into an ongoing Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition campaign. System Overview & Key Features Fast Combat Don’t waste your time rolling to see if you can deal damage, just roll your damage dice! You deal that much damage. Attacks miss on a 1, but rolling the maximum is an EXPLODING Critical Hit! Exploding critical hits Roll the die again and add it to the total. There is no limit to how many times this damage can stack, except your luck! Instant Initiative Get RIGHT into combat with Improved Initiative rules that get players immediately into combat in a way that serves the story without breaking up the flow. Quick to prep Nimble is quick to prep and easy to run. You've got enough going on while GMing—Mechanics are all designed to be easy to manage and track at the table. You can be ready to run an adventure in as little as 5 minutes! And there's no need to for new players to read though endless pages of rules, teach new players as you play. Easy to balance Easy Encounter Creation. No matter the size of your party—whether you play in a cozy group with just 1 or 2 heroes, or a huge group of 8 or more—Encounters are easy and intuitive to build and balance for just the right level of challenge you like. Craft massive scale combat encounters, down to legendary solo encounters. Strategic Weapon System A subtly DEEP weapon system that rewards thoughtful play. No more, “I guess I’ll pick the bigger one...” Every weapon is balanced to have interesting strengths & weaknesses in combat. Additional links nimblerpg.com - Official website and rules repository

Released in 2014 by Chaosium, Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition is the latest version of the cult-classic cosmic eldritch horror role-playing system originally launched in 1981. The story is based off of the  literary works of H.P. Lovecraft and lovecraftian works. Instead of setting the players up as heroes, the characters are regular investigators who are exploring cults, forbidden knowledge and various eldritch-cosmic entitites and threats. Description Occupations in the game for the characters include academics, reporters, and private investigators. The gameplay loop revolves around uncovering information, analyzing clues, and evading dangers. As the supernatural elements in the game are considered more powerful than the investigators, they have are not expected to actually confront most of the threats head on. Instead they usually have to resort to avoiding or escaping any situation that may arise. Combat is lethal and usually leads to characters getting permanently killed or pushed to insanity (which eventually is the same).  System Overview & Key Features Percentile Framework (d100) Every action is resolved by rolling two ten-sided (d10) dice to get a result from 1 to 100. If you roll is equal to or under your skill rating, the action is deemed a success. This approach simplifies the mechanical process of the game, as there are no complex tables to keep track of and compare to decypher whether it is a success or failure. Pushed Rolls If a character fails a skill check, they may attempt to "push" the roll, allowing for a second attempt. This requires the player to come up with a new, more desperate approach to performing the task. If this subsequent pushed roll also fails, the Keeper describes a severe and immediate negative consequence. Sanity and Madness A core mechanic of the system is the tracking of mental stability. Investigators lose points from their Sanity gauge when exposed to anomalous creatures or disturbing truths. Drops in Sanity result in the character experiencing temporary or permanent forms of madness, which can manifest as new phobias, delusions, or a temporary loss of player agency over the character. Bonus and Penalty Dice To account for situational advantages or disadvantages, the game employs a system of bonus and penalty dice. If a character possesses a distinct advantage when performing a task, an extra d10 is rolled and taking the higher result. A disadvantage means rolling an extra d10 and taking the lower result. Combat Lethality Physical altercations are inherently dangerous by design. Investigators possess limited hit points, and the damage output of both conventional firearms and anomalous entities is high. Recovery mechanics are slow, simulating realistic healing times. This structural lethality serves to discourage combat and incentivize stealth and investigation. Expendable Luck Players can spend points from their character's Luck pool to retroactively lower a dice roll. The points are subtracted on a one-to-one basis until the dice result qualifies as a success. This ensures that the Luck pool is a limited resource which should be used and utilized in the most critical situations. Additional links chaosium.com - Official publisher website and digital storefront drivethrurpg.com - Digital repository for official scenarios and sourcebooks

Hi, there! Welcome to The RPG Gazette, I hope you made yourself cozy! We are Yuno & Șerban, the co-founders of this project. We came up with this idea after perhaps too many early sangrias on some Spanish beach close to two years ago, when we decided that we want to do more for promoting and nurturing the broader TTRPG community. Thus, we decided we will not write that much about D&D, instead focusing on showcasing other TTRPGs, through reviews, news and essays, some of them structured more like opinion pieces and some of them more academic in nature. Links therpggazette.wordpress.com - Official website The RPG Radiocast - Podcast entry

No Lime Light Productions is a YouTube channel dedicated to content surrounding Prosperon: A Bio-Cyberpunk RPG, an independent tabletop role-playing game created by No Lime Productions. The channel serves as the primary hub for official game media, instructional content, and ongoing playtest material. The channel features a variety of content formats, including how-to guides, lore breakdowns, and an extended playtest podcast. These videos are designed to support players, introduce newcomers to the game’s mechanics, and expand on the worldbuilding present in the core rulebook. Lore and Voice Work A notable component of the channel is its series of lore videos. These episodes adapt narrative material from the Prosperon core rulebook and present it in a dramatized format. Voice performances for these videos are produced using ElevenLabs, a subscription-based service that compensates voice actors for the use of their vocal profiles. This approach adds additional atmosphere and characterization to the game’s setting. Playtest Campaign No Lime Light Productions also features a long-running “solo couples” playtest campaign. The series follows the game’s creators through their sessions, capturing the story as it unfolds, the emotional moments that come with it, and the ways they push and test the Prosper system. Over time, the campaign has become a defining part of the channel, giving viewers a clear sense of the game’s tone and how it plays at the table. Links youtube.com - Youtube channel nolimelightproductions.com - Prosperon official website drivethrurpg.com - DriveThruRPG library itch.io - Itch.io page ko-fi.com - Support the project

StarCar is a permanently free linear star systems cartography tool. It enables GMs running sci-fi campaigns to visualize and share star maps with their players easily. It allows a lot of different customizations for orbital bodies, like planets, secondary stars, Ringworlds, Dyson Spheres, and more. GMs can add notes to individual orbital bodies, stars, and moons. The notes can be totally customizable, or use either Traveller or Stars Without Number rules. If they want, the GM can even export a stylized PDF report that details all the notes in an easy-to-follow format. And if the GM just needs something right away? StarCar will roll the dice and generate a totally randomized system: random stars, planets, and even randomized plot hooks. Once the GM is finished, they can export it in a number of different formats: PNG, WebP, or JPG, or with settings like Printer Friendly or Transparent Background. Anything exported is licensed under Creative Commons 4.0, which means the person who makes it owns it. They can even use it in any products they sell, with attribution.