Myself and my group are moving away from the 5th edition and will not be buying the D&D next rule set. The repeated and perplexing decisions from Hasbro are alienating myself and my players. Since the OGL scandal Hasbro just seems to be lurching from mistake to mistake. Is anyone else experiencing ... disappointment with Hasbro and moving away from their products? For me it's almost a blessing in disguise as it's reuniting me with the more story / freeform role-playing games. Which is why I'm playing games like Black hack, White hack, Nimble, Shadowdark, and Old School Essentials.

So as I glance at my shelf I notice that aside from my first system ever (DND 3.5) I have almost exclusively gravitated to games that you can get off the ground with single book. Rather than players guide, a DMSs guide and a monster manual, I would rather a heavy tome like you get with Stars Without Number or Lancer, a novel sized rpg, or a even a little Zine. I got Rifts at Gencon in 2023, mostly because the guy in the booth seemed real cool, but also for the promise that all the old splat books work with this new editions (which payed off since I have been traveling to different old media stores and have been able to find at least three older splats for under 10 dollars). If you were to pick up 5 new rpgs over the next year or two, what release format would be best for you?

I used to be really nervous to run RPGs based on IPs. I hate being Um, Actually'd (dispite loving the show), but this year I ran some games of the Star Trek 2D20 RPG, and this week I ran Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I realized if you give your players enough agency, they keep it on track , and you can just have fun as the dm. I feel like you just need to latch onto a theme that is accurate and a trope or two and you are off! What is an RPG high concept you have been scared to run?

Is anyone interested or already familiar with games like Apocalypse World or derivations from it (Powered by the Apocalypse/PbtA)? I come from a background of more traditional TTRPGs but in the last few years I’ve shifted over to these sorts of systems and games, for various reasons. I also like what games like Fate were trying to do, although for my taste, the mechanics and systems of Fate feel like they still come first. Whereas “Story” or “Narrative-focused” games seem to emphasize the importance of the shared fiction and the characters over the “game” aspects of play. I think they’re a natural fit for groups who prefer more proactive campaigns, but I wondered how other people here feel? I mean, it seems like Forged in the Dark (a la Blades) was a big impetus for the epiphany toward more proactive campaign structures, and FitD games are often considered related if not in the same bucket as PbtA. OSR games are adjacent and related but these are kind of different.

We just had our session 0 where we decided on the game we wanted, and it sounds like a D&D Western is where we are headed. I guess the Dark Tower series was the inspiration for one of the players. I am curious if anyone has any advice on running a western or if they have done so and what the take aways were.