Real RPGs, none of that new fangled computer bullshit

[The Brain]

I played For The Queen, one of those card-prompted free form RPGs. It was great fun, I haven't played that kind of RPG before. No prep and lots of story in a short time. Nice.

[Syt]

I played For The Queen, one of those card-prompted free form RPGs. It was great fun, I haven't played that kind of RPG before. No prep and lots of story in a short time. Nice.

Have you tried Fiasco? It's a great base for single session freeform RPing, and it has tons of free modules out there.

[The Brain]

I played For The Queen, one of those card-prompted free form RPGs. It was great fun, I haven't played that kind of RPG before. No prep and lots of story in a short time. Nice.

Have you tried Fiasco? It's a great base for single session freeform RPing, and it has tons of free modules out there.

Haven't tried it. But it's not impossible I might, I think one of my gaming groups has played it.

[The Brain]

I read The One Ring: Ruins of the Lost Realm, which describes Eriador in late TA. In many ways it's fine, nice layout and illustrations, but in some ways it feels off. For instance, there's an adventure site where the PCs can find [SPOILER]a stash of important items from Fornost that Arvedui had to abandon in his flight. This would seem like a major find to me and most PCs, and you expect there to be interesting unique artifacts, not necessarily combat stuff but cool stuff, with potential for further adventure to bring it to interested parties or similar. Except they have all rotted away and there's only some gold details left that can be collected for a monetary reward. Wut? Yeah cause not finding cool old stuff is soo Tolkienesque.

One basic problem of the The One Ring RPG is the setting, near the end of TA. Yeah you can meet Bilbo etc, but the land is so very empty. They even resurrected Tharbad just to have a city to present. The old MERP had as its main setting TA 1640 (IIRC), which made for a more lively world, and with greater freedom. NB it wasn't the only era, for instance the Moria module was set after the Dwarves left.

[Sophie Scholl]

Yeah. The timing is a little rough for TOR. I absolutely love the system and it was an amazing one to play in as a player (and from what I've heard to gm, too), but the timing is meh. Especially with the focus on the North so much. The original plan for 2nd edition was to be set in Gondor, but they changed it.

I still hope to one day run a campaign adapting some of the MERP and other ideas/eras into either a fall of the North Kingdom/Arthedain campaign or a fall of Minas Ithil campaign. The latter seems to have been done in the second Shadows of Mordor game I think? Which... makes it a bit of a pain to re-do, but also means there is a lot of great content for visuals of things. Also, there is the MERP book and map for Minas Ithil (which I own). Ultimately though, I think it would be a lot of fun and provide some amazing rp possibilities to have the party be part of the contingent of Hobbit archers sent from the Shire to the Battle of Fornost.

[Syt]

New DnD Player's Handbook will have pre-order bonuses and early access.

[Valmy]

Man I hate having to use digital D&D books. A necessary evil but damn I would hate having to have to rely on that for core rulebooks.

Early access 

Do we get to pay to playtest it as well?

[Jacob]

I'm completely off the Hasbro D&D train. It's all indie, DIY, and old school for me these days - D&D or otherwise.

[Valmy]

Yeah I play 2nd edition when I do play. 

[Solmyr]

There's a bunch of Runequest/Glorantha books on Humble Bundle, including Guide to Glorantha that is normally $50 on its own. https://www.humblebundle.com/books/runequest-chaosium-inc-books

[Sophie Scholl]

I think I'm going to try getting into Pathfinder. Apparently the second edition and more recent updates have made it far friendlier to more casual play and a lot less super crunchy. I really appreciate Pazio's commitment to queer representation. 

[Jacob]

There's a bunch of Runequest/Glorantha books on Humble Bundle, including Guide to Glorantha that is normally $50 on its own. https://www.humblebundle.com/books/runequest-chaosium-inc-books

Holy shit, I'm so getting that. Thanks!

[Jacob]

I think I'm going to try getting into Pathfinder. Apparently the second edition and more recent updates have made it far friendlier to more casual play and a lot less super crunchy. I really appreciate Pazio's commitment to queer representation. 

Curious to hear how it's a lot less crunchy and friendly to casual play. I'd be interested in hearing your review when (if) you've given it a bit of a whirl.

[Syt]

Humble has a big bundle of Gary Gygax stuff: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/lost-works-gygax-books

Includes his Hexcrawl stuff, and his world builder book.

Also, a bunch of Star Trek RPG books: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/star-trek-adventure-rpg-first-edition-collection-modiphius-books

[Sophie Scholl]

There is a D&D exhibit opening soon at the nearby Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY that looks like it will be a lot of fun to visit. That place is such an amazing experience. I really need to go again. ...and again.