"Wow, Surprising. Another Elf."

genesys: genesys is a setting-neutral system that is made to be tailored to whatever world you or your gm come up with. it focuses on the narrative, even using its own dice for this system. rather than using the standard numbered dice, genesys uses dice with symbols representing successes, failures, advantages and disadvantages. the more successes you roll, the greater your success and vice versa. additionally this leads to a Lot of exciting interesting ways when it comes to resolving your rolls. you could roll a success with a disadvantage, meaning you succeed in your goal but something else happens that hinders you or a teammate. this adds a lot of flavor and information to the results of rolls.

the game also emphasizes fleibility and adaptability - it encourages you to tweak the system to fit your setting and needs. classes are simplified, called archetypes that give you starting abilities, which you customize by giving your character ranks in different abilities. also, the system encourages a lot of gm and player collaboration, encouraging players to add details about the world and suggest ideas for how roles play out.

shows to check out that use this system: Campaign: Skyjacks

powered by the apocalypse: pbta apocalypse is a pretty well known system that has a ton of hacks that tweak the core ruleset to a specific system or setting. most pbta settings encourage some amount of collaboration when determining the setting and exactly how your group came together. to play, you only need 2d6 for your rolls which can result in failures, mixed successes, and successes, often with suggested consequences what might happen if you don’t roll well.

each pbta game has playbooks for the setting it uses, often based on typical characters you’d see in that kind of setting, which give your character their moves and asks specific questions relating to the playbook you have chosen for your character to help you develop them further. moves in this game tend to be broad and applicable to multiple situations rather than setting specific limitations and guidelines for how the actions can be used. some fav pbta games:

monster of the week: think buffy the vampire slayer, x-files, supernatural. your team fights a variety of monsters and keeps the average person from worrying about what goes bump in the night. (see: taz: amnesty)

masks: a new generation: teen superheros! you fight the bad guys and save the day with all the complexities of being a teen superhero

dungeon world: setting wise, similar to dnd. high fantasy with magic and swords (see: friends at the table)

monsterhearts: teen monster drama! the various monster skins relate to something your teen struggles with, aka the ghost feels invisible

Ryuu-tama: i picked up this game after my local game shop described it as ‘studio ghibli but a ttrpg.’ i haven’t gotten the opportunity to play it yet, but i love the book and concept behind this system. in this world, everyone at some point in their lives feel intense wanderlust and put their daily lives on hold to go travel and adventure into the world with new people. this game focuses on exploration, friendship, and growth. while there is a ruleset for combat, it is not the main focus. there is action and excitement, but also a core sense of wonder and emphasis on companionship. since you are playing a nomral person journeying into the world, the classes are based off who you were before adventuring - merchant, farmer, and noble are a few examples.

one of my favorite things about this game is the gm creates a special character, called a ryuujin, which has its own character and sheet. ryuujin start out as behind the scenes characters playing a hand in the story, either as a benevelent or mischievous figure. ryuujin collect and record stories, so the exact type of ryuujin relates to the kind of the story you play.

a few others i’ve heard wonderful things about, although i haven’t played or read the full system rulebook:

wanderhome: from the website: “Wanderhome is a pastoral fantasy role-playing game about traveling animal-folk, the world they inhabit, and the way the seasons change.” uses the no dice, no masters system - a diceless system. instead, you use tokens as a way of shifting the narrative between players. it also has a setting with the system and has the option of playing with or without a gm! no combat - wanderhome focuses on other kinds of conflicts and explores a narrative not reliant on combat and fighting

dread: a horror system where instead of dice, you play jenga. your character takes an action, you pull a jenga block. if you knock over the tower, uh oh. your character dies. i personally am fascinated by this use of a physical mechanic to add tension to a game

savage worlds: another setting neutral game. the system is designed to be adaptable to any kind of setting you need. rather than having a number to represent a characters ability in a certain skill, you have a dice - the better you are at that skill, the higher your dice (and essentially, the easier it will be for you to succeed.) if you roll the highest number possible, your die explodes, letting you roll again (and again, if the die explodes). also, you get bennies for good roleplay

blades in the dark: for playing scoundrels and thieves, but in a cool victorian setting with horror elements. expect heists and grifts galore. rather than doing the brunt of planning pre-heist (which then inevitably goes out the window once the shit hits the fan), blades uses flashbacks for planning, using stress points depending on how elaborate the flashback gets

Hullo, Gentle Readers. In this month’s Personal Plot article, we look at the last class from the Player’s Handbook - the Wizard.

Wizards are the original template for magic wielders in D&D, being one of the classes that have been part of the game from the very beginning (although they were called Magic-Users back then.) Their particular style of magic will definitely influence some of the stories we look into telling.

The most unique element of a wizard, as opposed to sorcerers and warlocks, is that their magic is studied, memorized, codified, and largely works the same time every time it’s cast. They don’t possess a sorcerer’s wild magic issues or metamagic flexibility, and they lack the powerful Invocations that can make a Warlock so potent. Instead, however, they gain a massive flexibility advantage; if they can find a spell written on a scroll, inscribed on a wall in a dungeon, contained in a spellbook, etc, then they can add it to their spellbook. With enough time and ink, a wizard could ultimately have every wizard’s spell in the game at their fingertips. Talk about flexibility!

This immediately gives a goal that all wizards are likely to ascribe to - the acquisition of new spells. Since this flexibility is part of what makes wizards unique, it shouldn’t be shocking that someone who wants to play a wizard will be leaning into it. And, as DM, you should be supporting it. If a party’s patron is a wizard themselves, perhaps in addition to a gold reward, the wizard will offer to teach a spell or two to the wizard in the party. Scrolls and spellbooks become treasures that your wizard will likely trade their familiar for. Seeking out a powerful NPC magic-user could be an adventure in and of itself, especially if the PC wizard hopes to make some kind of deal to gain spells from them.

One thing that might be fun would be to restrict players from taking any of the “named” spells in the game. You know the ones I mean…ones named after Melf, Mordenkainen, Otiluke, Bigby, and the like. You could have these wizards be NPCs in your campaign and make a wizard PC who wants their spells have to seek them out and perform tasks on their behalf to gain access to these spells.

You can also let the subclass of wizard go a long way towards telling you what kind of adventures your player is hoping for. An evoker is likely looking for plenty of chances to blow things up, but a necromancer might be looking for chances to explore a necropolis for forbidden secrets. A diviner might want to visit a powerful oracle, while an illusionist may be looking for chances to be a con-man or trickster. Talk with your player about what made them choose their subclass and what kinds of adventures they might most enjoy.

This class also comes with built-in potential for enemies and rivals. Other, less scrupulous wizards might seek out a PC wizard, intending to do away with them and claim their spellbook for the powers contained within. Maybe they try to lure the PCs to a dungeon, intending to strike when the PCs are already beset. This immediately gives all kinds of fun story potential.

If the PC wants to cast a spell with a valuable spell component, you can make an adventure out of finding what they need. For example, plane shift requires a tuning fork that’s aligned to the plane the caster wants to visit or send someone to. But what does “Aligned” mean? In my campaign, we’ve interpreted that as being one that’s made of a material from that plane. This might be something that the PCs have to seek out. Maybe the wizard needs to find a meteorite that fell out of the Astral Sea, or a sword that a devil brought from Hell. Maybe they need to use an existing portal to the Feywild or the Shadowfell in order to enter and find the materials they need. At least the tuning fork to get home should be easy to fashion, assuming they think to do it before they leave.

If I were going to allow anyone to make a magic-item in a campaign, it would likely be a wizard. This can also prompt a “stuff quest” as the wizard goes in search of the components they need to make the item in question. I would also imagine a wizard to be the most likely character to want to devise a spell of their own making. This could also require some hoops to jump through, giving me the chance to run adventures for the wizard and their friends.

A little older art, but this is my DnD sorceress, Delta! She’s a Triton foot soldier who was mysteriously revived after dying in battle.