Professor Dungeon Master has invited YouTube D&D Content Creators to take a break.

Link to the Professor’s video here.

I thought this was a brilliant idea. I’m mostly an indie TTRPG guy, myself, just in blog form/ Way before half the Dungeons & Dragons bandwagon fell off I became frustrated with some of the shenanigans at Wizards of the Coast. Don’t get me wrong, there are dozens of settings based on 5E that I love. Fateforge, Mists of Akuma, Anime 5E, Iron Kingdoms, and Level Up are all 5E, but not really 5E. I will bang the drum for those and many more.

Let’s not forget Shadowdark, which had over a million dollars on Kickstarter. I love any setting with a built in excuse to crawl around in dungeons. Speaking of, I love Dungeon Crawl Classics. Even though it’s loosely based on 5E, the game Everyday Heroes is amazeballs and I haven’t discussed it enough on my blog. If you love fantasy, there’s also the game world of Aihrde from Troll Lord Games for 5E as well as Castles & Crusades. I would also be remiss not to mention Warhammer Fantasy RPG at some point. Links for all of these games/settings will be below.

My schedule is filling up pretty fast, and we’ve only discussed fantasy games.

Someone recently remarked that playing something besides D&D can broaden your horizons and maybe even make you a better D&D player. Exploring different genres and different play styles is also very healthy. I’ve been trying new games and new systems since high school and I never get tired of cracking open new TTRPG books.

No hard and fast schedule this month. Just a loose bullet point list of games I’ll be covering at some point this month down below. Please expect me to talk about Power Rangers, GI Joe, and Transformers RPGs. I have two or three Cypher System game settings/campaign ideas on my huge number of back burners. I should definitely do some things with ICONS this month. I miss the superhero genre and Power Rangers doesn’t quite scratch that itch.

I’d also like to mention my combined horror setting that uses a little SCP, Call of Cthulhu, and Monster of the Week. The campaign that lives in my head is astronomical compared to what’s actually written at this point. I should probably be ashamed of myself. (*LOL!) But Des Moines by Night/Tales of the Des Moines Remote Viewing Society will continue and ramp up all the way into October. I never really get tired of horror, but I know some players are a bit sensitive to it.

Last, we haven’t talked much about space games.

I have Scum And Villainy RPG as well as Hunt the Wicked and an overwhelming, burning urge to run a Star Wars themed game right now. What if we rewrote the whole saga starting with Episode 1? How cool would it be if Vader never happened and Palpatine never made it to Emperor. We definitely won’t be getting to anything after Episode 6, though. (Disney, Ugh.)

Last, I’ve had this awesome idea for a Mecha Space game. (My title!) I’m still struggling with a system that will work for it, though. My latest in a string of candidates are FATE, Cypher System (The Stars Are Fire,) and Mecha Hack. I’m trying to find just the right amount of crunch for the mecha and starships to go with the Battlestar Galactica style of drama I have cooked up. I want every battle to have meaning, every new place to explore to be exciting, and the social interactions to be a mix like any good mecha anime would have. Then I just need to recruit a cast, which might require me to go online to a Virtual TableTop. (*Scared Jeff noises.)

I’m not a paid sponsor for any of the games I’ve mentioned. There are dozens more I could talk about, including some obscure ones from the 1990s. I haven’t touched on some of the real classics, yet. I love TTRPGs. I love indie TTRPGs.

Here’s that list of links I promised:

  • Here’s the generic link for DrivethruRPG.com in case you need it.
  • FateForge from Studio Agate. This is probably one of the best Kickstarters I’ve ever backed.
  • Then there’s Mists of Akuma, which is the most intense campaign I have seen since the dawn of 5E. (That, and I can’t seem to find Tenra Bansho Zero in an English dead tree edition that I can afford.)
  • Anime 5E has been reviewed on my blog here before. I still think highly of it.
  • Good old Iron Kingdoms Requiem from Privateer Press is originally a D&D 3.0/3.5 setting. Love it.
  • Level Up: Advanced 5E from EN Publishing is probably what the 5E revision should look like.
  • Shadowdark, by the Arcane Library, went over $1 Million on Kickstarter. Just… wow.
  • Dungeon Crawl Classics by Goodman Games is a pleasure to design monsters and dungeons for. Even though I haven’t made anything official for them, the stuff I’ve toyed with on my blog has been fun. It’s my default fantasy game right now.
  • Everyday Heroes by Evil Genius Games is D20 Modern done for the 5E era.
  • The World of Aihrde is a setting for both 5E and Castles & Crusades from Troll Lord Games. It’s old school cool.
  • Warhammer Fantasy RPG was originally Games Workshop, currently made by Cubicle 7 Games.
  • Power Rangers, GI Joe, and Transformers by Renegade Games along with a lot of other amazing TTRPGs. I rarely shut up about any of these games as they are a blast from my childhood. I get more excited with every new release. If I gotta back a Hasbro license, at least the company making the game is okay. (*Sorta.)
  • The Cypher System by Monte Cook Games has become one of my absolute favorite games because it is exploration and social interactions first. Combat is not usually a major concern.
  • I absolutely have to mention ICONS by Ad Infinitum is still my favorite supers game. I know Marvel is doing yet another iteration, but I refuse to abandon this masterpiece by Steve Kenson and Dan Houser. (*Steve Kenson is totally my hero.)
  • SCP the TTRPG is a unique game and interesting system by 26 Letter Publishing.
  • The ever present Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium has been around for decades and still going strong.
  • Monster of the Week RPG by Evil Hat/Generic Games is another one that I rarely stop talking about. So good!
  • Scum And Villainy is another Evil Hat game that always deserves mention.
  • Hunt the Wicked is a bounty hunting RPG gem by Sigil Stone Publishing is worth checking out.
  • FATE is a classic Evil Hat TTRPG which does so much.
  • The Mecha Hack by Absolute Tabletop is one of the best mecha games ever made.

Thanks for stopping by today. Please try a new TTRPG this month. If you’re a hardcore 5E gamer, take a break and try something new. I appreciate you no matter what game you play.