Hi friends! I was hoping for some advice. In my head, I’ve collected a lot of “settings” some of which are mired in very complicated or just terrible game mechanics. Some were just so niche that I knew I would never gather enough interested people to play (and now are super obscure). So I’ve always wanted some way of bridging them together (also, I like the anachronistic juxtapositions, and potential fun “advantages” characters might have in gathering abilities and things from different realities, à la Time Bandits). I guess a more traditional reference for D&D fans is Planescape? I think the downside to this kind of meta-setting framework, though, is a kind of “analysis paralysis” that happens when someone is presented with what is ostensibly limitless options (I would like to give Players a choice of reality to base their character). The other side of this is goal setting, though. I keep wondering, now that I have lots of Indie TTRPGs that are easily hacked, do I just explore each universe separately, maybe stringing them together thinly, suggesting they’re all set in the same shared multiverse (which ironically seems a bit cliché now in a world that has an MCU, etc.).

I am running something next week that is just ripped straight from the pages of Dune Messiah (pro GM tip literally no one will notice if you do this). It got me thinking: What are the books you've read (I'm thinking Sci-Fi/Fantasy but I guess anything) that you feel have had the biggest influence on the way your games run? For example: I wouldn't say they're my favorites, but the old REH Conan pulp stories have had an outsized impact on how I run games. I love the mystery of the wilderness and the idea that magic is ancient and dangerous, and I love that the action is usually driven forward because Conan is trying to steal something or kill someone, and not because the action finds him and he gets wrapped up in it. What comes to mind when you think about SF/F books and the way you play and run your games?

If you've been around you probably have seen me talk about the wild amount of games that I have played. I am wondering what rule or tool did you steal from an RPG that you use or want to use going forward? I played Bunkers and Badassses this year and I love the badass moves. For a more cinematic game, you can let players completely break action economy once per session, and you just give it a particularly high dc to do so. Other players can kick in their use to lower the DC if the fictional positioning supports it. For example you can do multiple actions in the same Action but need to balance not only the difficultly to generate the DC but also how many actions it would normally take.

I've been finding a lot of playlists online recently to use in my game after 6+ years of using the same few, and it got me thinking about what I use to set the mood at the table. I don't usually mess with lights, so everyone can read their character sheets easily, but sometimes if there's a big session going on, I'll make a little prop or play a sound bite. I pretty much always play music these days---I've found it actually keeps my players more focused on the game, and less likely to chatter about something else and get sidetracked. What about you guys? I know a few people on here make really, really cool battlemap aides like terrain and minis. Is there anything else you've used to great effect? Or just a cool story where something worked out really well?

I've been sitting on the AD&D Planescape books for awhile and haven't found a decent system to run it in. Does anyone here have recommendations? I know D&D 5e releasesed their update for Planescape but I feel it removes much of the weird (plus those books cost an arm and a leg these days). I've considered 13th Age as the Icon system and character creation elements fit the setting really well, but does come with a lot of upfront labour writing of writing up a document of new Icons.