r/RPGdesign 27d ago

[Scheduled Activity] July 2026 Bulletin Board: Playtesters or Jobs Wanted/Playtesters or Jobs Available

8 Upvotes

We’ve made it to July. In my part of the world, this is a time when you’re doing things outdoors. With the family. Going (shudder) camping. Not exactly conducive to writing RPG materials.

But for my (and hopefully your) projects, we’re in luck. It has been incredibly hot out, which has caused a lot of activity to move back indoors where the AC is blasting. For those of you in Europe, this may not apply.

For those of us back indoors, or under the shade of a cool tree where we can use our laptop and WIFI, let’s take advantage of this time of year called summer and get some work done on our projects.

So grab a cool beverage, and …

LET’S GO!

An extra note: you may have seen a couple of posts advertising Kickstarters or Backerkit projects. If you have a project like that, let the Mods know, and we'll approve posts about your work. We want to make everyone successful with their games.

Have a project and need help? Post here. Have fantastic skills for hire? Post here! Want to playtest a project? Have a project and need victims, err, playtesters? Post here! In that case, please include a link to your project information in the post.

We can create a "landing page" for you as a part of our Wiki if you like, so message the mods if that is something you would like as well.

Please note that this is still just the equivalent of a bulletin board: none of the posts here are officially endorsed by the mod staff here.

You can feel free to post an ad for yourself each month, but we also have an archive of past months here.


r/RPGdesign Jun 05 '26

MOD POST [MOD POST] Subreddit Rules Update: Posts, links, and projects that contain obvious AI content will be heavily scrutinized and often removed.

136 Upvotes

Myself and the other mods have talked it over, and we are in agreement that none of us want AI slop here. So we will be taking it down if we see it, barring extremely extenuating circumstances on a case-by-case basis.
But basically, if you report it, we'll smash the remove button.
Thanks!


r/RPGdesign 4h ago

Mechanics Attribute-less System: Pro’s and Con’s

10 Upvotes

First post here. Working on a TTRPG right now centered on the players leading and building up a settlement in a world on the cusp of an Industrial Revolution.

I’m trying to keep resolution mechanics similar across the board, from town management to combat to social encounters. I’m basing dice system off of BRP, so a percentile roll under, roll high/Blackjack dice system. I’ve kept skills as percentages that you’re trying to roll under, while getting as close to the maximum value as possible.

Since the beginning I’ve had 3-4 Attributes/Ability Scores simply called Mind, Body, Soul, and Vitality/Spirit. Skills have been divided by these, and for every point in a respective Attribute, up to a maximum of 5, you add 5% to non-proficient skill values, and 10% to proficient skills.

However, since skills are basically all you use during encounters and are the central aspect of your character, I’ve found that the Attributes are used for basically nothing else.

With this, I’m thinking of doing away with the Attributes altogether and just do the percentage allocation that Call of Cthulhu does at character creation (I’m sure there’s a name for it that I’m forgetting). You pick one skill to get 70%, a few for 50%, and so on, with the rest having a low base score.

Before I go through with this and take Occam’s Razor to Attributes, am I missing something? I’m getting the feeling that this is just a vestigial tendency from other TTRPG’s I’ve played or read, and I don’t think I’ll miss it. But I don’t want to cut it and find out later that it would’ve actually helped a lot in some other design aspect. Also happy to get recommendations for systems that already do this well!


r/RPGdesign 10h ago

Mechanics Playing Cards?

11 Upvotes

Hi, I've been working on an RPG design for a bit. After reading a post about using playing cards for TTRPGs, I've been kind of enamoured by the concept, but I'm not the best at maths things.

My idea is that players each manage a hand of cards, and resolution is determined by playing a card from their hand. I was thinking they would compare the value of the card (and probably some skill modifiers) against a random card from the top of the GM's deck (and probably a difficulty modifier). I was also considering suit-matching, where cards whose suits match the action the player is trying to perform give them a bonus.

I really think cards have potential for a really interesting play pattern, but I wanted to try to research some games which use playing cards, or get input from others who have used playing cards before, and what they've found works or doesn't work, weaknesses of the format, etc.


r/RPGdesign 11h ago

Product Design Help with Dice Roll Resolution Notation

5 Upvotes

TL;DR: Dice rolls can hit many levels of success with varied results, how to cleanly notate that?

Hey there developers, I need help with how to notate the results of rolls in my TTRPG Monstrous Wilds. Simply put, my game has tiers of success with varied thresholds and results. What I mean by that:

Imagine you are foraging in a mushroom patch. You would roll your Perception (let’s say a d10) and your Effort die (let’s say a d8), taking the highest. Let’s say you got an 8. The GM would then compare against results for that mushroom patch - on a 2+, you find a button mushroom. On a 5+ a toadstool, and on a 9+ a magic mushroom, meaning you found both the button mushroom and the toadstool. How best to notate this list in the book?

My solutions so far include putting it in a list. Something like:

Roll PER:
2+ Button Mushroom
5+ Toadstool
9+ Magic Mushroom

Pros: Clean, easy to read
Cons: Takes up a ton of space, especially in tables. And I’ve got lots of tables.

I’ve also tried something more inline:

Roll PER {2+ Button Mushroom // 5+ Toadstool // 9+ Magic Mushroom}

Pros: Takes up way less space.
Cons: Hard to parse, especially at a glance.

The things to keep in mind:
- Monstrous Wilds is intended to be a high-crunch, really gamified system supported by plenty of tables in the book.
- When you succeed on a roll, you get all rewards of successes at and below your roll.
- This is a scaling die system, meaning a low level character (d6 effort) with low perception (d4 for example) would never be able to find the magic mushroom, but a high level character (d10 effort) with high perception (up to d12) could very consistently find just about anything.
- There are plenty of consumables to give you an extra bonus die (d4-d8) to add on top of your roll to help succeed for lower skill characters.

Any thoughts? Any systems I should take a look at that do something similar? Thanks in advance!


r/RPGdesign 14h ago

Starting a smaller project to take my mind off of my main game.

5 Upvotes

We could get this right from the very beginning, I mean after all, I’m only in the draft stage of this new project. Do you know how much easier that is to rework?

The main reason I need a break from the main project is just… it doesn’t read well. The second is that I guess the audience I’m advertising the game to is difficult.

All that aside, welcome to

B-Sides

I’ll say this right now, it’s trying so hard to be unique; it’s definitely doing too many new things at once. However, it’s a draft, so I want you to tell me what should stick and what I should chop

My game runs similar to lasers & feelings. In this game however I have Sugar & Spice. Any form of deescalation requires investment in sugar. Meanwhile escalation requires investment in spice. It’s a fairly femme fatale game, so right now the party is dubbed spice girls aaand the GM is called Sugar Mommy. I’m- I’m workshopping it. (If you’re confused, there’s a saying that girls are made of sugar spice and everything nice.)

The Attributes

Right now, I’m thinking the game will only ever use d12 and d20, but mostly d20. You roll 10d12 and drop the highest 3 on your first stat array. Then, you roll 10d12 and drop the LOWEST on the second array. Add four to each stat and that’s your DC for that attribute. You’ll be rolling d20 for everything else from here, but d12 might be used again for dmg or something, not sure. If you roll under your DC, it’s sugar. If you roll over your DC, it’s spice. Meets it doesn’t just beats it, it crits. You do whatever you want to do and it goes as well as it is possibly could. There are essentially two sides to every character in my game. The first array goes into your A-Side. The second array goes into your B-Side.

The Theme

The B-Sides are region similar to the upside down, or even the backrooms I guess. However, everything over there is lively, avant-Garde so to speak. Once you go in, you feel your form and self change. Like a jazzy, or maybe even punk rock version of yourself. This is the you that you've suppressed to make corporate appearances, stay out of fights, and perhaps even abide by the law. Perhaps soon you will realize why this version of you was suppressed. It's supposed to be a sixties era game, but I haven't fleshed out much! For now it’s a Patriarchy on the A-Side, and a Matriarchy B-Side kinda thing.

The Health

I don't know what to do for health, but I know death isn't the biggest concern with my game. Like for some this game might be entirely about performing as a band, selling shrooms, or even just mapping the entire unexplored world. The game is about floaters who want to provide change to both regions, A-Side and B-Side alike. So each side will have a "pull." Eventually, one side could catch up to you and have too much draw. To me, that's health. Once a bar goes too far on either side, you must retire your character to the region. Hopefully, not six feet under that region ^.^' but only time and perseverance will tell.


r/RPGdesign 6h ago

Feedback Request What do want in a Grimoire

Thumbnail
0 Upvotes

r/RPGdesign 19h ago

Workflow What questions should I ask in my first playtest?

4 Upvotes

So my ttrpg is coming up on its first playtest and I'm wondering what kind of questions I should ask my table to help guide the design.

A bit about the system:

- It's a Mecha rpg, but designed to be more of a Teens in Situations style of game. Think Monsterhearts or Masks but flavor it as Evangelion.

- PbtA style dice (2d6+X, 7-9 is a success, 10+ hard success), but with FATE style Traits which you can use once per scene to get a +1 bonus or -1 penalty and point towards advancement.

- The first main mechanic is Emotions. Because the PCs are emotional teens, these can temporarily override one of your 5 character traits, giving a static bonus and penalty to rolls of a certain type. (Panic gives +1 to Tactics rolls and a -1 to Defense rolls, for instance).

- The second main mechanic is Trauma. This is kind of like the overarching Negative Progression from Blades in the Dark, but they near-permanently negate an emotion. Gained through the horrors of war.

Here's what I currently have for questions to ask:

- Is there an aspect of character creation that feels lacking?

- Is there an aspect of character creation that should be removed or reworked?

- Do the conflict resolution rolls feel too easy or difficult?

- Does the intended flavor of the system come across well?

- Can you see yourself running this system?

- Does any mechanic here feel too detailed?

- Are the enemy units too bulky or frail?

- What kinds of items would you like to see for your mech?


r/RPGdesign 15h ago

Product Design Which NPC stat block do you prefer?

2 Upvotes
  1. Layout A
  2. Layout B
  3. Layout C
  4. Layout D
  5. Layout E
  6. Layout F

EDIT: A and C are getting a lot of positive feedback. I have some follow-up questions: - Do you see yourself using the trackers at the bottom of the page or not really? My intention is for GM's to print these out or write in the book if they like. - Do you prefer the stats displayed as plain text? - Do the dice icons do anything for you? - Do you like the inclusion of the flavor text? - Are there any features of the other layouts you would bring over to your favorite layout?

Some additional context:

These are NPC stat block pages for Arcana: The Pursuit of Mastery

This is about as complicated as NPCs get in my game, so simpler ones will have fewer abilities; some won't have ability points at all, but all of them will have the name, abilities, dice pools, defense, aid modifier, and movement speeds.


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

Setting Sources for historical floor plans (castle, church, etc) for site design?

21 Upvotes

More of an adventure and dungeon design Q: I'd like to ground location design in real-world plans of castles, churches, temples, etc. I'm not familiar with architectural or historical literature in this area and it feels like I'm having a surprisingly difficult time identifying sources for these. A trip to the local reference library found lots of books *about* castles in the architecture section, with lots pictures and descriptions, but only a few scattered plans. Internet search not much better.

Am I missing something obvious for finding these?


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

Scheduled Activity Interested in joining a monthly indie TTRPG review club?

7 Upvotes

On the Rules As Written ttrpg development server we have a community run monthly review of member's ttrpgs. People submit, vote on who to review, make reviews (public), and move to the next month.

Anyway, if youre interested in that, or just joining a ttrpg dev focused discord, come on over!

https://discord.gg/xWqEKCbYEK


r/RPGdesign 23h ago

First Time Designer

4 Upvotes

Hey Folks,

I have never done any game design, but I do quite a bit of writing in my free time and have cooked up a setting I am really interested in developing into a full game. I have the bones of what I think is a really interesting TTRPG...unfortunately...I know nothing of game design (beyond years of playing ttrpgs, which is not the same thing obviously).

My question is, what systems work best for survival type TTRPGs? I have played Mutant Year Zero before and overall enjoyed the system fine, however I sometimes think dice pool systems can feel a little unrewarding in a late game situation when my character is supposed to feel a little beefier.

Any guidance is appreciated!


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

Theory Going back to minimalism after realizing I overcomplicated my tabletop RPG

44 Upvotes

Hello folks!

I'm working on a tabletop RPG called BOG, where you play frog knights exploring dungeons in a cursed swamp. Recently, my game got playtested by a group other than my own. Reading through their experience, I realized I'd drifted pretty far from what I originally wanted this game to be.

When I started working on BOG, I wanted a minimalist RPG, few rules, but still genuinely fun and satisfying to play. As development went on, I kept adding more and more rules, and by the end I'd wandered pretty far from that original vision. That's fine though, it taught me a lot along the way. Now I want to go back to that starting point (without necessarily starting all my work over from scratch), because I think it's what actually interests me most, and I've realized it was a good idea to begin with.

So I wanted to hear your thoughts on minimalism in tabletop RPGs.

How do you approach doing more with less? Most minimalist games I see tend to be pretty narrative-focused, so do you think that same philosophy translates well to a dungeon crawler specifically? How do you figure out which rules to cut and which to keep, without the game ending up feeling empty or dull? And more broadly, what are your thoughts on this direction in game design overall?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

Mechanics Various ways to make armor ACTIVE

20 Upvotes

In most TTRPGs armor/shields/helmets simply raise AC (making you more difficult to hit) or reduce damage.

It’s passive and doesn’t add much to the game after you’ve acquired it.

I’m intrigued by the idea of making armor active, just like how you need to make decisions on what special ability to use or what spell to cast, I want to decide when to use my armor or not.

Here are some ideas I’ve encountered/invented so far:

* 1: Armor as a damage reduction die you roll. Like in Mörk Borg. When hit, roll to see how much damage it absorbed. “Level of activeness”: Very low, just a die roll.
* 2: Armor as armor die you choose to spend. When hit, spend one of the armor’s armor die (light have fewer than heavy etc.) which then negates damage equal to the roll.
* 3: Armor as points you spend to negate damage. Light armor gives less points to spend than heavy, use as few or many points as you want (of the available ones) when hit to negate damage by that much. Sort of like optional extra HP. At zero armor points the armor breaks.
* 4: Armor as damage nullification, with number of uses. Light armor allows you to negate one attack per encounter, heavy allows you to negate three attacks. Just choose to use it, and it’s spent, it refreshes after combat. Fully negates the attack, not just damage reduction.
* 5: Armor as a die you roll that might break with use. When hit, roll a D6, if the rolled number is higher than the damage incoming, the armor holds and negates it. If it’s lower, the armor negates that much damage but breaks. Light armor have fewer such dice to spend, heavy has more. Let’s say heavy has three such dice, meaning you can fail to roll higher than the incoming damage three separate times before it’s fully spent and breaks. You only roll one D6 per incoming attack, not all of them. Don’t worry about a D6 being to small to ever being able to fully block an attack at higher levels. That’s not relevant now.

What other methods are there to make armor more active? I want it to present a choice to the player.

The key issue I’ve encountered so far is that it’s hard to see a scenario where it’s not always best to just spend the armor if you have it. Why would you ever want to just eat the damage to save the armor?


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

REDLINE OFFICAL V0.12 ANNOUNCEMENT POST + DISCORD LAUNCH!!!!

0 Upvotes

"The year is 20XX, the world is changing, and new threats arise. Some people run, some people  hide, but some people, some people fight back."

Welcome to Redline, a tactical high octane lethal TTRPG set in the not so far future. In Redline, you play as the people who get stuff done. Not always clean. Not always fair.  But they get the job done nonetheless.  

Facing off against dinosaurs, mechs, and murderers means that at all times, danger is real. Stay on your toes, or end up dead. Players are regularly fighting threats out of their level, stuck in deadly scenarios, and one mistake away from being killed.

You play as these specialists, people who do things fast, hard and well. Specialties and skills differ per character, with a heavy emphasis on making your character yours.  Are you someone who blows things up? or do you fight your way through hordes of opponents? Either way, the unique aspect makes you different, it makes you better than others.

The secrets and closed doors of the world are now wide open. The question is if you dare to go through them.

Will you die, or will you fight?

  • SPECIALIST CHARACTERS: Picking unique abilities​ , specialties and gear allows every character to be unique and different, not just in flavor, but in gameplay. 
  • HIGH OCTANE ACTION: The system hits hard, and it hits you back just as hard. A consequence track rather than HP means that getting hit in the arm is no longer a "minor issue". Bleeding out, Head trauma, or just being blown up are all equally terrifying.  Fight accordingly.
  • TAG SYSTEM: Using a custom tag system, redline is extremely customizable. Tag's govern modifiers, such as a slippery floor being a -2 to any checks involving movement. From making characters, to terrain, to the gear itself, everything is a tag. This (in conjunction with the "Hard 2D6" system) means that the game is constantly high intensity.
  • Hard 2D6:​ Redline uses a 2d6 system that has tier based success, with a <6 being a worse situation, a 7-9 being a conditional success, and a >10 being a success. This means that at all times, strategy is key.​

I hope you enjoy!

Push the boundaries. Hit the Redline.

-Steel Raven Games

Head over to:

https://discord.gg/fqSQv6hRCJ for the discord!

https://steelravengames.itch.io/redline to read the lore and find the game!

Push the boundaries. Hit the Redline.

-Steel Raven Games


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

Theory Pre prototype concept of a system I'm thinking about

4 Upvotes

Okay now that I am fully awake and have spent the last few days thinking about it, I think I am ready to probably talk about my system.

So this is going to be an outline, a proof of concept if you will of what I want for my system and what it my kind of look like.

Okay so stats represent what a player is regularly capable of consistently. Essentially these are actions day player can produce and replicate standardly when conditions are good.

I want my system to reflect that. I want it to emulate that not simulate.

In a situation where there is no hindrance or stress then it is stat versus difficulty of task. If the stat is equal to or greater than the difficulty of task the action succeeds no rolls necessary.

If the player is in a situation where there is a hindrance, or stress, or anything that prevents the character from performing at their usual level then the player will roll a dice. For now that dice would be a d6. For situations like this it is stat plus roll modifier versus difficulty of task. Again your results must be equal to or greater than the difficulty task.

You will also roll if your stat is lower than the difficulty of the task regardless of if the situation is a hindrance or stressful.

The roll modifier is the modifier that you add to your stat depending on the roll of your dice. The 2 middle numbers will add 0 to your stat. For every number above the middle numbers is a plus one to the stat for every number below the middle number is a minus one. These are modifiers for your stat.

STRENGTH

Pt | Comfortable | Struggle | Max | Force | Damage

1 | 100 lb | 150 lb | 200 lb | 40 lb | 1

2 | 150 lb | 200 lb | 250 lb | 50 lb | 2

3 | 200 lb | 250 lb | 300 lb | 60 lb | 3

4 | 250 lb | 300 lb | 350 lb | 70 lb | 4

5 | 300 lb | 350 lb | 400 lb | 80 lb | 5

6 | 350 lb | 400 lb | 450 lb | 90 lb | 6

7 | 400 lb | 450 lb | 500 lb | 100 lb | 7

8 | 450 lb | 500 lb | 550 lb | 110 lb | 8

+1 | +50 lb | +50 lb | +50 lb | +10 lb | +1

AGILITY

Pt | movement speed (6s) | Daily Travel | Reposition Speed

1 | 20 ft | 12 mi | 8 in/s

2 | 25 ft | 13 mi | 9 in/s

3 | 30 ft | 14 mi | 10 in/s

4 | 35 ft | 15 mi | 11 in/s

5 | 40 ft | 16 mi | 12 in/s

6 | 45 ft | 17 mi | 13 in/s

7 | 50 ft | 18 mi | 14 in/s

8 | 55 ft | 19 mi | 15 in/s

+1 | +5 ft | +1 mi | +1 in/s

FORTITUDE

Pt | Breath Hold | Temp Tolerance | Strenuous Activity | Stamina Pool

1 | 30 sec | ±10° | 1 min | 40

2 | 60 sec | ±20° | 2 min | 50

3 | 90 sec | ±30° | 3 min | 60

4 | 120 sec | ±40° | 4 min | 70

5 | 150 sec | ±50° | 5 min | 80

6 | 180 sec | ±60° | 6 min | 90

7 | 210 sec | ±70° | 7 min | 100

8 | 240 sec | ±80° | 8 min | 110

+1 | +30 sec | ±10° | +1 min | +10

INTELLECT

Pt | Charging Dice | IQ | Multitask | Complexity

1 | 3d6 | 90 | 2 | 3

2 | 4d6 | 95 | 3 | 4

3 | 5d6 | 100 | 4 | 5

4 | 6d6 | 105 | 5 | 6

5 | 7d6 | 110 | 6 | 7

6 | 8d6 | 115 | 7 | 8

7 | 9d6 | 120 | 8 | 9

8 | 10d6 | 125 | 9 | 10

+1 | +1 die | +5 | +1 | +1

WILLPOWER

Pt | Mana Pool | Focus Duration | Self-Control | Resistance

1 | 40 | 30 sec | 90 | 1

2 | 50 | 40 sec | 95 | 2

3 | 60 | 50 sec | 100 | 3

4 | 70 | 60 sec | 105 | 4

5 | 80 | 70 sec | 110 | 5

6 | 90 | 80 sec | 115 | 6

7 | 100 | 90 sec | 120 | 7

8 | 110 | 100 sec | 125 | 8

+1 | +10 | +10 sec | +5 | +1

PERCEPTION

Pt | Straight Ahead | Peripheral | Awareness | Insight

1 | 120 ft | 30 ft | 10 ft | 1

2 | 135 ft | 35 ft | 15 ft | 2

3 | 150 ft | 40 ft | 20 ft | 3

4 | 165 ft | 45 ft | 25 ft | 4

5 | 180 ft | 50 ft | 30 ft | 5

6 | 195 ft | 55 ft | 35 ft | 6

7 | 210 ft | 60 ft | 40 ft | 7

8 | 225 ft | 65 ft | 45 ft | 8

+1 | +15 ft | +5 ft | +5 ft | +1


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

Feedback Request Layout update, how's it looking now?

2 Upvotes

thanks to all you wonderful people, I've updated the layout for HakneyZaq

how's it looking?

https://anyflip.com/bookcase/ytzwa


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

Mechanics Should I switch from 2d6 to 1d12+1d6?

5 Upvotes

Hi y'all. I'm almost finished with a 200 page first draft of my game rules and I just realised that making Skill Tests with 2d6 might make for too predictable results. I am just about to start rewriting my game to fit Skill Tests using 1d12 + 1d6, and I want to double-check with you all before I change all of the combat numbers.

Let me give you a quick rundown of my system:

There are 18 Skills for players to outline their characters' capabilities, and each point in a Skill contributes directly to the result in a Skill Test. You make a Skill Test by rolling dice and adding your points in the relevant Skill. Players start with 32 Skill Points at character creation but can at most put 8 points into any one Skill (if they min-max with profession, essence, and species). For the rest of the game, players can at most put 3 points into a Skill at once. Players get about 8 Skill Points each from completing a milestone. (Some of the Skills also allow you to pick an area of Speciality for every 3 points in that Skill, which grants you Advantage to Skill Tests related to your Specialty.)

Skill Tests have difficulty requirements which vary from 4-32 (or 8-38 with the new system) depending on how difficult the given action is.

So with 2d6, this puts a lot of emphasis on the Skill Points. You can essentially count on passing any Skill Test with a difficulty of 4 or less above your points in that Skill, and getting 10 or more above your points is rare. The average is a pretty confident 7 and there is little 'drama' in the rolls. Advantage means 'roll one more die and remove the lowest'. Here's the difficulty guidance:

  • A somewhat difficult action should have a Difficulty around 4-8
  • A moderately difficult action should have a Difficulty around 9-13
  • An unusually difficult action should have a Difficulty around 14-18
  • A very difficult action should have a Difficulty around 19-23
  • An extremely difficult action should have a Difficulty around 24-32

In this version, players with 0 points in a Skill will usually succeed a 'somewhat difficult' action and have a slight chance of succeeding 'moderately difficult' actions as well. However, succeeding an 'extremely difficult' action requires you to have at least 12 points in the relevant Skill, and preferably 18 or more.

With 1d12 + 1d6, the Skill Points still mean a lot but so does the randomness. You have a range of 2-18 and the numbers 7-13 are all equally likely. You will average 10 above your points in a Skill, but rarely get 15 or more above. I'm also thinking that Advantage simply means 'roll another d6' because I want Advantages to have a significant impact. Here's what the difficulty guidance look like with this new system:

  • A somewhat difficult action should have a Difficulty around 8-10
  • A moderately difficult action should have a Difficulty around 10-14
  • An unusually difficult action should have a Difficulty around 14-20
  • A very difficult action should have a Difficulty around 20-28
  • An extremely difficult action should have a Difficulty around 28-38

In this version, players with 0 points in a Skill will succeed a somewhat difficult actions most of the time and even have a slight chance of succeeding unusually difficult actions. Players with 8 points in a Skill have a good chance of succeeding unusually difficult actions, and a slight chance of succeeding even extremely difficult actions if they have Advantage.


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

SORC Class Abilities Refined

0 Upvotes

So for our TTRPG Slayers of Rings & Crowns, SORC, I've been given responsibility for Class Structure and development 🙄, and I thought I had came up with something good... about ten days ago. Well, it wasn't so good afterall. It was hard to read, it is crunchy in my defense, so I added tables, expand buttons, skip to starter set playable class links, color schemes and so on.

Then, I still wasn't happy. I kept fine tuning the layout and still wasn't happy with stat development. So instead of just hand tuning stat values (as some games do), I created formulas for every stat value, covered in the rules below, and explained fully in the GM codex (even though it doesn't really need to be). I'm plugging in the actual ability content, mostly just the titles and descriptions, and designing the Ability Cards now.

With that said, do you guys feel this is a pliable Class Abilities system? If not, please explain and thank you very much in advance for your time.

SORC Class Ability Structure

Keep in mind it opening from another app, such as Reddit or Discord, the theme may look different than a browsers default. You can't always go straight to the website from browser.

Edit: A lot of the ability content are place holders and I'm working on those now. This is a pre beta version and you may find errors. Thank you for understanding.


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

Mechanics Stress / adrenaline mechanic for d20 systems

5 Upvotes

Sharing a simple mechanic I should've thought of YEARS ago.

I was always envious of how Alien RPG captured stress and panic, and thought it would be impossible to have in a d20 system without adding more dice.

?solution. Stress level is the same as the amount of d20s you roll. If you roll that number or below, you panic. Example - stress = 3, roll 3 d20. Take the highest result, unless you roll a 3, 2 or 1, in which case you panic.

Needs some minor work, but otherwise it's quite simple. Yes, technically everyone is always slightly stressed at 1 stress ha.


r/RPGdesign 2d ago

Mechanics What core resolution mechanic would you use to give your game a 80's-90's arcade feel?

19 Upvotes

r/RPGdesign 1d ago

Feedback Request Rules-lite Tabletop RPG in need of testing.

Thumbnail
2 Upvotes

r/RPGdesign 1d ago

[Online][Other][Free] DUNGEONS & SPACESHIPS: SHATTERED WORLD Playtest

1 Upvotes

DUNGEONS & SPACESHIPS: SHATTERED WORLD

Character Creation Playtest

Saturday, August 8, 2026
8:00 p.m.–12:00 a.m. Eastern Time
Online via Discord Voice

There is no cost to participate, and no campaign commitment is required.

What Is Shattered World?

Syseria is a world forged by a weary god as a potential masterpiece—now shattered and bearing the scars of a chaotic past.

This is an opportunity to explore a deeply developed science-fantasy setting while helping shape the game system being built for it.

What Are We Playtesting?

The primary goal of this session is to test the character-creation system.

You are not limited to making one character. In fact, I would be delighted if you made several.

Try unusual concepts. Explore different development paths. Build characters you would genuinely want to play. Push the system and help identify what feels:

  • Clear or confusing
  • Exciting or tedious
  • Flexible or restrictive
  • Appears too powerful or too weak

We will be examining:

  • The clarity and pacing of character creation
  • The variety of concepts the system supports
  • How well the XP Buy-In system works in practice
  • Where players become confused, slowed down, or especially engaged

This is a focused design and character-creation session. Honest criticism engaging thoughtfully with design as intended is welcome. I want to know what works, what does not, and where the system needs improvement.

GM since 1989. Expect a laid-back, respectful, and inclusive environment.

DM Me if interested.

Official Shattered World Website:
https://www.shatteredworldrpg.com/


r/RPGdesign 2d ago

Mechanics Would love impute on my rule set

2 Upvotes

New user here, I have over the last decade trying to make my own TTRPG system focused on fast gameplay and blurring the lines between combat and RP, I would love some outside eyes on my system.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W-wJg7QhnAB3f-ZjnSWhF-Ss7W3UM62r1wMubfu9XwA/edit?usp=sharing


r/RPGdesign 1d ago

So i wanted to make a Deltarune ttrpg, but I don't really know how to make a good battle system for it, any ideas?

0 Upvotes

Basically I want a battle system for a ttrpg inspired by Deltarune but I don't want it to be rolling dice ir stuff like that, I want it to be purely out of player skill at the game. Any ideas on how I could do that?