Title kinda says it all.
I have Foundry so that’s sweet. Oh yeah, and don’t be afraid to recommend me some obscure ones as well as popular ones.
Let’s see… I like Star Wars, Appalachia, labor movement, Star Trek, the Pathfindner games by Owlcat, Warhammer 40k (syke! but I may get into it due to its increased popularity recently), Arthurian legends, Lord Dunsany, horror, foreign shit (like, foreign novels, foreign games, foreign everything), Chinese stuff, Chinese web novels, etc.
What else, what else… Pluto and other space shti? Eh, idk. Africa, non-European fantasy, noir, neurodiversity/autism, desert fantasy, weird fiction, Gothic literature, Nintendo, dwarves, Ottoman empire, pirates, tropical settings, OMORI, ASOIAF book series, Assassin’s Creed (ig? back then, but i don’t know about now as I haven’t played the recent ones), history in general, sociology, Elden Ring, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, anything like the upcoming Dolmenwood TTRPG, and I guess anything like the Enclave TTRPG.
No to: more Viking shit (Viking shit seems to everywhere and I hate it), Orientalist two-dimensional shenanigans, “you can be the bad guys in this setting… even though they’re technically the good guys now but with a dark aesthetic to them!,” Numenera (I hated the video game), Game of Thrones TV show, zombies, Bethesda Game Studios, and, err, yeah, I’ll leave it at that.
So yeah, now that you know what my interests are, how about I dox myself, yeah?
Okay, look down to see what I look like:
spoiler
lol jk
Okay, gimme your recommendations, of any kind, but mostly of anything that might pique my interest (based on the, well, interests I posted above).
$250 can go a very long ways if you use PDFs. Obviously, games with lots of supplements like D&D or Pathfinder can get expensive.
Honestly, I would just ask your players what they’re interested in, genre-wise and complexity-wise, before committing to any purchases.
I will always recommend Lancer!
It’s a mecha-themed tabletop game with tons of customization and a great emphasis on battle strategy. The combat is super fun and works a lot like a tactics video game such as XCOM. The out of combat gameplay is lighter than most, but still has plenty of stuff to customize and do. The game’s lore is well-written and actually interesting, and a lot of fun to look through (but ignorable if you want to customize, of course). The game also has a ton of free modules and stuff online such as Comp/Con that allows you to customize characters and mechs easily and for free. In fact, the game as a whole is very cheap, and only requires the GM to purchase the books.
Best of all, the Devs are amazing (if they aren’t leftists, they’re very close) and the community is incredibly wholesome and is very LGBTQ friendly. Lots and lots of trans comrades are always talking about the game and stuff on the official Discord. The Discord also has a million free resources like maps and art and all that to make GMing that much easier.
If you want to hold campaigns where trans mech pilots destroy capitalists with heavy weaponry and eldritch-adjacent superweapons, Lancer has you covered!
I’ve always wanted to try out Lancer, but never found a group to play with. I wouldn’t mind joining one now if anyone knows good places to look.
I play with a group in-person (when we can all get around to it), but the Lancer Discord is probably your best bet at finding groups online. I haven’t tried asking myself so I can’t say how easily you can get something set-up, but it’s a great place to ask anything Lancer related. Plus, they’re mostly leftists there (probably Western-brained ones but I’ll take what I can get).
Otherwise, this project called Lancer Tactics just finished its Kickstarter campaign. It’s a strategy video game intending to preserve the rules from the tabletop game. You can play the demo now! It’s pretty fun (if a little buggy). Hopefully they do a solid job on the full release.
but the Lancer Discord is probably your best bet at finding groups online.
I didn’t even know there was an official discord. I’ll definitely check it out.
Otherwise, this project called Lancer Tactics just finished its Kickstarter campaign. It’s a strategy video game intending to preserve the rules from the tabletop game.
Is it multiplayer? In any case, it sounds awesome and I’ll check it out. Thank you for the advice!
Well first of all, if you’re OK with PDFs then you can get a lot of things for free you know?
Pathfinder 2e is, IMO, a better and very fun version of dnd, its a good run-of-the-mill d20 fantasy system with a setting that I enjoy quite a lot with increasing queer writing in it. And ALL the rules are free and easily found and used by going to 2e.aonprd.com/, the official PRD. Yes, aallllll the rules, updated suite quickly when new stuff comes out. Foundry pf2e has great support and very nice to use, and pathbuilder is a godsend for character creation.
There are so many cool and interesting systems to try out there and really you should try them, a lot of them are simple and easy to setup and you can easily get a one shot going to see if you want to keep going.
If you need any PF1 or PF2 PDFs, imu. And in general of you need any ttrpg PDFs of any kind, I’m pretty good at finding them (except the tiny Indy stuff that gets crowd funded, sometimes you can find it but its much harder)
I do want at least some physical copies. It’s just not the same, you know? Without physical copies, I mean. And yes, I’ve consider Pathfinder 2e as well. Increasing queer writing in it? I like the sound of that. I’ll save the link you gave me as well. What is Foundry pf2e, btw? And what does “imu” mean (I’m just curious)? Yeah, I could use all the Pathfinder 2e PDFs as I like to collect them, though I would like some physical copies too.
Also regarding the setting of Golarion and the increase in writing quality in second edition, check out for example the book “Knights of Lastwall” which has badass undead-fighting knights like Clarethe Iomedar (nonbinary) or their badass mother Kalabrynne Iomedar (trans woman) who’s on the cover :
Another personal favourite is the minor god Alseta who is literally the god of transitions, including gender transitions : https://2e.aonprd.com/Deities.aspx?ID=30
There’s a lot of little things that are gradually being added and the younger writers, designers and freelancers or Paizo are very queer.
Damn I meant hmu as in “hit me up”, woops.
I meant the PF2e system implementation for Foundry VTT since you mentionned it. It is one of the best, if not the absolute best, system implementation on foundry. Complete, great character sheets, lots of great automation, very motivated and active community, and now Paizo (the pathfinder people) sell modules and adventures as Foundry modules. The community, and the stuff on Pathfinder infinite or drivethru for example, also tend to sell their stuff as a Foundry module on top of the rest. There’s some really good 3PP stuff for pathfinder 2e now, like all the Battlezoo/Roll for combat stuff which is basically Paizo quality, and has wide popularity (a lot of people use it on foundry and there’s even options for it in Pathbuilder).
Yeah, I was, like, thinking “why does she miss me?”
Anyway, this all seems pretty good. I have Foundry and I’ll soon have the core books for Pathfinder 2e. Sounds good. Thank you!
Fun fact: The entire rules for Pathfinder (both 1E and 2E) are on this website
The only things not present are flavor bits, world information and the pre-written adventures
So, you could get pretty far without spending a single dollar
Fantasy Flight Star Wars is good for Star Wars
FATE is general purpose, good for anything narrative heavy
there are many i could recommend given the time lol
What is FATE? Also, aren’t there two Star Wars TTRPGs? Or do I misunderstand?
FATE is a rules-light, narrative heavy system, it can be used for pretty much any setting or story you want
there are a few star wars systems, the one i linked is the fantasy flight one, which is the best imo
Funnily, there are at least 3 official Star Wars ttrpgs, the Star Wars d6 system by West End Games from before I got into roleplaying, the Star Wars d20 system by Wizards of the Coast from the 2000s, and the current offerings by Fantasy Flight Gaming. If you don’t mind needing to get custom dice, the FFG games are widely considered the best from a moment to moment point of view.
