That was a surprisingly disturbing read…

Ah, that was Gimli and Eomer. (Just read it a few weeks ago!)

I remember Gimli talking about Galadriel, but who did Legolas talk about?

Look at solo RPGs! They’ve been around for a bit, but really came into their own during Covid.

I’m a big fan of the Ironsworn/Starforged/Sundered Isles series, which is a fully self-contained RPG you can play yourself, with other players (and no GM), or with a GM guiding people through. Many of the “moves” you make during play let you define the world and plot as you go.

On the other hand, if you have a game system you want to play already, you might look at the Mythic Game Master Emulator. Both of these have systems for generating stories and worlds on the fly, but Mythic is designed to plug into an existing RPG, while the Ironsworn series works some of those details into your character.

Ironsworn is free (the other supplements do have a cost), while Mythic looks to be about $15. Also, the YouTube series Me, Myself, and Die has playthroughs of both, so you can see how they work!

(Edit) I forgot about narrative games! They’re a bit of a different beast, more rolling for prompts and deciding how you respond, less rolling to-hit, as I understand it. Thousand year old vampire is the big name in this space.

What? No, I haven’t played since a few sessions decades ago!

GURPS, on the other hand… Along with Ironsworn, maybe a little Savage Worlds…

The bard might also be the one expected to catch puns

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Hah, I find I can be VERY expressive and creative in GURPS!

I’m a GURPS fanboy. Complexity is determined entirely by how many rules the GM and players agree to - I’ve got a player with dozens of skills and several wonky abilities who plays side by side with an 8-skill player. They both do well, and both have what they want - one character is just more detailed than the other.

The trick with GURPS is to pull in the bare minimum of rules that you need for the kind of game you want. If you don’t like how a rule works? Swap it out!

I’ve enjoyed the Ironsworn line too, for a different feel. That’s a much less complicated system that can also be played GM-less, it works narrative elements into the engine - the story dictates how the rules apply!

GURPS Vehicles had some options that you needed to do a little calculus for, iirc. To be fair, that was an extremely optional add-on, and the calculations were done as part of designing your custom vehicle, not in play!

Their speed/range penalty calculation is also logarithmic I think, but nobody actually calculates that - you just look up the adjustments on the table, which is reprinted all over the place (rulebooks, character sheets,GM screens…)

The red is done for dramatic effect in rodeos; it’s movement they react to. Especially if they’re feeling agitated, as in a rodeo.

Huh, TIL on the snakebite thing. I was pulling that from an old boy scout manual, just remember something about cutting the wound site first.

The red of the cape setting off a bull is a myth, sure; but you still don’t want to wave any capes around in front of a pissed off bull! I’ll stand by how I phrased that claim :p

Most people know about sucking venom from a snakebite, even if they’re not clear on details. They also know you probably don’t want to wave a red cape in front of a bull.

I think there’s allowable degrees, and that it’s table-dependant.

In general, knowing trolls are vulnerable to fire is fairly common player knowledge. I’ll also point out that even in The Hobbit, when the trolls petrified in the sunlight, the narrator says “for trolls, as you probably already know, must be underground before dawn.” This troll vulnerability is common knowledge in middle earth!

I think that if a GM wants a little known vulnerability, they can do a little extra work to make that easier for the players to respond appropriately to. Trolls work far better as a fairly tough monster with a fairly well known vulnerability. If you want that to be different, I’d use a troll variant, and make it clear that these creatures don’t fear fire!

Lol, should have Googled it first after all!

Here I was hoping I could get someone excited to geek out about how all these new-to-me systems play together!

I thought I was at least somewhat in tune with the RPG community, but… I know none of these names.

Anyone in the know interested in enlightening me?

Ten minutes should let them get up to all sorts of shenanigans!

But, fair point on the con save. Pesky resistance…

GURPS Lite is available for free, and includes the basic rules on how to do things, combat, etc. It doesn’t include the introductory “What is a GM?” stuff to save space; though that does show up in the Basic Set. You can extrapolate quite a lot from just what’s in Lite - a lot of the stuff in even the Basic Set that’s not in Lite is corner cases (how far can I jump? What can I shift or drag, instead of lifting?), clarifications (how long does it take me to dig a hole?)… and lots more skills and abilities!

Mook has some very basic combat examples worked through here

In a little different vein, Feral Sword Wielding Wizard has some fight scenes from movies he’s gone through and labeled with GURPS combat maneuvers, so you can see how they work! (Just keep in mind this is with a bunch of optional rules!)

So I’m only familiar with D&D in a general sense… is there a reason the mage party can’t just, like, levitate the barbarian? Seems like then you’d have a very angry, very sturdy BBEG balloon to dispose with as you like.

Hah, it was a while ago when I saw chatter about work being done on that. Nice to see it came along so well!