I am interested in what RPGs the people here are playing. Tell me about the cool systems you are trying out or about your campaigns.
I am interested in what RPGs the people here are playing. Tell me about the cool systems you are trying out or about your campaigns.
I’m planning on two solo campaigns, one with EDGE Studio (originally Fantasy Flight Games) Star Wars RPG. A mix of both Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny further down the road. But I plan on running it during the Old Republic era. I quite enjoy playing the SWRPG/Genesys system. I know the narrative dice is hard to get behind for some people but I prefer it. It feels a bit more transparent what you’ll get, plus it’s fun to roll a lot of dice so there’s that tactile aspect to it too 😁
The second campaign is with Ironsworn: Starforged. I actually want to use this solo game as a basis for my web serial that I want to write in the near future. The system is built with solo play in mind, but it can be played co-op or guided by a GM. IIRC, the original basis of the system was PbtA, heavily modified. Ironsworn was what introduced me to the concept of playing a TTRPG solo! Which was awesome, considering my previous experiences playing a TTRPG with a group keep falling apart for one reason or another…
I also want to try City Without Numbers, the cyberpunk variant of World Without Numbers and Stars Without Numbers. I backed it on Kickstarter and sorta waiting for a slightly more complete version before I dive in. Again, it’s something I plan on running solo as well…
I am considering a play-by-post game, likely with the Ironsworn: Starforged system. Largely because of the nature of PbtA games, which tends to give and encourage more agency to players. Plus the support for running it co-op means ideally, no one is relied on as the GM, constantly having to respond to a player’s inquiry or action before anyone else can move forward.
Your solo games sound very fun! Genesys and Star wars is very cool. I have the Genesys book on my shelf but never got to run it, maybe some day. I only played the Star wars system with the similar narrative dice on a convention a long time ago. It worked pretty well, I thought it was pretty clear with all the symbols, just had to get used to it. Only downside is having to buy the dice or printing stickers. The dice symbols and colors are very satisfying though. I very briefly read through Ironsworn, with the intention to play it as a group GMless game, but did not really understand how the group is supposed to make the decisions about what happens next. Maybe it is because, like you said, it originated as a solo game.
FFG made their Genesys dice app free a while ago, IIRC. It’s not nearly as satisfying as rolling the physical dice, but it’s an option! Unfortunately, their Star Wars one is still a paid app. There’s one other app, on Android, that also included Star Wars dice, simply called Dice. There’s also RPG Sessions, which is a whole toolset, and integrated with Discord if you want to play online.
As for Ironsworn co-op, one of the actual plays I watched had it so that the player speaking at the moment decided on what happens in the world. Kind of a round-robin GM’ing situation. Another idea would be to get everyone’s vote, or encourage them to speak up if they have a different idea and vote on that. I used to participate in forum RP, or as I like to call it, “collaborative writing,” so both approaches I’m familiar with. IIRC (it’s been a few years since I’ve been in a forum RP), we would write OOC notes if we want to make our intentions clearer, or have questions and thoughts we want input on.
But IIRC, the whole thing around PbtA game is that you’re having a conversation with the players at the table…unless that’s from another system 😅 regardless, I think it could be a helpful way of approaching a co-op TTRPG!
Ooh i did not remember about the app, and I might have heard about RPG sessions, but never used it, thanks, it might come in handy :D
The solutions for coop GMing sound very useful as well, I can see it would work with Ironsworn too. I am quite new to Gmless games, I have tried some, but those that i tried were pretty “crunchy” about who and at what point decides which plot points.
I’m glad I could help!
Running co-op can be rather tricky, especially if the table is used to the traditional GM + players setup. It’s a different paradigm. Perhaps one way to ease people into it is to have a hands-off GM that encourages the players to come up with things. Another thing is to really leverage those oracle tables in the book. If no one at the table can come up with anything, but have questions, then Ask the Oracle or roll off of the Action/Theme table.
I also have a few Gamemaster Apprentice decks. This is the base deck. There’s an online version as well! They look complicated but it does come with instructions on how to use them. This could be a way of breaking past any creative block or disagreements.
Not sure if your group tried this already when y’all set out to run a co-op game, but a session zero where everyone talks about how they envision a co-op game runs like (among other meta-discussions) could help get everyone on the same page about how to move the story forward. Might help to codify some of it if your players are more comfortable with clear-cut boundaries and restrictions?
I hope you don’t feel like I’m pressuring you into trying co-op again with all these solutions I’m posting. It’s just stuff I’ve thought about due to my interest in running one myself! But if your group does plan on running one again, I hope you find success 😁
Edit: one more thing! I’ve seen it suggested that co-op games should be of a smaller group size, no more than 3-4. 3 is the optimal, IIRC. It’s easier to come to an agreement when the group is smaller.
I love these narrative dice games!
I have played and GM’d a lot of sessions with the Star Wars RPG and plsyed a little bit of Genesys.
Check out the YouTube channel Tabletop Empire. He does a great job introducing players to the Star Wars RPG. There’s also and older Podcast called The Order 66 Podcast that’s chock full of good stuff.