Joey Haeck joins Daði and Magnús to talk about the Wizards of the Coast Union, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, AI, and the industry as a whole!

Sign the UWOTC petition and help make our games better: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/uwotcpetition/

▼ INDEX ▼
00:00 Introductions
02:51 Waterdeep Dragon Heist
08:23 Joining Wizards
14:53 The Broadsheets
17:38 GenCon Announcements
19:09 United WOTC
54:36 How to Help

I put the full ruleset on Google Docs, but below is a Markdown version of the sections relevant to the dice system. I've been working on this for 3 or so months, and my buddies and I have played maybe 5 games with it. We like it a lot! I feel like the core mechanics and the math behind them tell a super intricate story despite being so simple, which I think is super cool. What are your thoughts?

Who am I?

Players need only decide one thing when creating their characters: which dice they use. All characters are represented by exactly two and nothing more.

The first is known as their Action die. Pick the one that best fits your character.

• Strong, powerful, and tough characters use a six-sided Action die.
• Charismatic, charming, and attractive characters use an eight-sided Action die.
• Agile, dexterous, and swift characters use a ten-sided Action die.
• Intelligent, thoughtful, and quick-witted characters use a twelve-sided Action die.

The second is known as their Approach die. Pick the one that best fits your character.

• Forceful, reactive, and fiery characters use a six-sided Approach die.
• Disciplined, courageous, and willful characters use an eight-sided Approach die.
• Sharp, perceptive, and attentive characters use a ten-sided Approach die.
• Meticulous, level-headed, and careful characters use a twelve-sided Approach die.

The rest is up to you! Your character can look, act, and carry whatever you want — just be sure to check with the Narrator first.

What happens when I try?

Players will automatically succeed in most of their endeavors, but those that involve some level of difficulty or risk are determined by the rolling of dice. All such actions belong to one of four types: Forcing, Consorting, Finessing, or Engaging.

1. To Force is to use raw, physical strength. One must roll between four and six to successfully force.
2. To Consort is to persuade, deceive, or otherwise communicate with others. One must roll between five and eight to successfully consort.
3. To Finesse is to maneuver one’s body in a precise, swift, and calculated manner. One must roll between six and ten to successfully finesse.
4. To Engage is to interact with an object using intense focus and care. One must roll between seven and twelve to successfully engage.

When attempting an action, the player rolls both of their dice. One successful die typically results in a successful action, two typically an overwhelmingly successful action, and zero typically a failure. However, the relative ease or difficulty of the task at-hand may change this.

…and if someone tries to stop me?

If ever two or more characters are in direct competition with one another, the players may choose to enter a Contest. During which, all parties take an action to win, with the character yielding the highest degree of success coming out victorious. If multiple characters yield the same degree of success, and the Narrator is unsatisfied with a tie or stalemate, they alone may roll again.

What about when lead starts flying?

Players typically act freely and without order, but the Narrator may enforce turn-based actions if the provided structure is desired. The most common such case is combat.

Turn-based encounters are divided into Rounds. During which, all participants take a single action and note the number rolled by their Approach die. This becomes their “initiative” for the round.

As the players roll, the Narrator creates a list of every action and its degree of success, using the initiatives to order them from lowest to highest. Upon completing the list, the Narrator reads through it and describes how the Round unfolds. If an action becomes impossible due to the outcome of a previous one — such as the death of a character — it is simply ignored.

Once the Narrator is finished, a new Round begins, and the cycle repeats.

How bad is it, Doc?

If ever a character is inflicted with a physical injury or mental affliction, they mark an unmarked number on their Wound or Stress tracks, respectively.

Until the character is healed of their infliction, rolling a number marked on either track means their injury flares up or their composure cracks, triggering an immediate narrative complication alongside the action’s outcome. Rolling a number that is marked on both tracks increases the severity of said complication. If either of a character’s tracks is completely filled, their body or mind has reached its limit, and they are permanently removed from the game.

Each track consists of numbered slots matching the values a die can roll. The size of your Stress track is equal to the number of sides on your Approach die. The size of your Wound track is equal to 18 minus that of your Action die.

PETITION: “Stand with Dungeons & Dragons and Magic Workers Forming a Union!” https://actionnetwork.org/forms/uwotcpetition/

United Wizards of the Coast (UWOTC) website: https://unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/

Rascal: ““Too bad, make it work”: Unionizing staff describe crunch culture and creative oppression within Wizards of the Coast” (Oct. 15, 2026): https://www.rascal.news/too-bad-make-it-work-unionizing-staff-describe-crunch-culture-and-creative-oppression-within-wizards-of-the-coast/

Wargamer: "Wizards of the Coast rejects D&D union effort, says it’s “not neutral” (Oct. 15, 2026): https://www.wargamer.com/dnd/mtg-union-not-recognized-by-wotc

PETITION: "Stand with Dungeons & Dragons and Magic Workers Forming a Union!" https://actionnetwork.org/forms/uwotcpetition/

United Wizards of the Coast (UWOTC) website: https://unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/

Rascal: ""Too bad, make it work": Unionizing staff describe crunch culture and creative oppression within Wizards of the Coast" (Oct. 15, 2026): https://www.rascal.news/too-bad-make-it-work-unionizing-staff-describe-crunch-culture-and-creative-oppression-within-wizards-of-the-coast/

Wargamer: "Wizards of the Coast rejects D&D union effort, says it's "not neutral" (Oct. 15, 2026): https://www.wargamer.com/dnd/mtg-union-not-recognized-by-wotc

It's always tricky to get people to try a new TTRPG. Here's what has worked for me.

This is second narrative approach. I had access earlier as a backer and I think this one is actually good

Rolls are still d6 but I didn't see a way for the pool to get higher than 16. It's much lighter on crunch than core

Many systems have these or similar rules. I'm sure folks with a broad library of games will find this old hat. But porting them into a rather traditional game has made it so much more fun for the table.

When you make a check for something, and the dice say No, the players have options.

Dramatic Failure: Something goes wrong that makes the situation Worse, but you get XP or similar for it. Set off an alarm. The would be pickpocket mark is more than just a little old lady. Whatever you all can come up with, so long as it makes the situation worse and more complicated. You don't get what you actually wanted, and the hazards are real, but at least you get something.

Succeed at a cost: You get what you want, but something undesirable happens. Set off an alarm when opening the door. Jump the chasm but drop your backpack. Whatever you all can think of, so long as it makes things worse. You get what you were after, but...

Just Fail: You can't retry. This solution is blocked off. No dithering on "what if I...". You can't pick the lock. You can force the door or find another entrance, but you can't just keep fussing with it. Let's keep moving.

This has been working great. When the players fail, we usually get something exciting instead of a dead end. It has really sped up the pace of the game, even if sometimes it sends us down wild tangents that rose out of failures.

I think some players would hate this. Probably in part because it's all pretty zoomed out. These are player choices, not character choices. But that's where I like to sit in RPGs - a writer building a story more than an actor living a role.

I don't think I would be happy going back to a vanilla dnd-like where the dice just dropped us off at dead ends.

This was not on any of my 2026 bingo cards.

title

And maybe a little summary of what your game was ?

This site is cool in its own right. But as well as that, if you zoom in on somewhere relatively small like Indonesia or Malaysia, it looks like animated searchlights around an enemy encampment at night.

Whole roast boar, meat pies, cases of wine, and far too much cheese. These are the things we give thanks for in the Feast Hall.

Happy Thanksgiving (the Canadian one, that is) to everyone. We are providing our first bonus release for you, the Feast Hall. Whether it was a casting of Heroes’ Feast, an invitation by a local lord, celebration for the recent victory, or any other occasion to gorge themselves everyone should find something they like at the table.

Feast Hall Scene List Long Table - Full Feast Long Table - Set Long Table - Empty Adventurer Seating - Full Feast Adventurer Seating - Set Private Table - Empty

This is a fully free release! Follow the link in the comments to download all the variations, in both standard and high resolutions.

So I have Metro : Otherscape already. I saw that humble bundle have bundle for it and was hoping to get my hands on Cairo and Neuro but they’re not here.

Maybe they didn’t get out from the kickstarter but it’s been more then a year since their successful campaign.

Did someone here kickstart it ? Did you get your books ?

Survey results can be found here. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Wo3fvUcY2f_KVaW5CoBMOKvetakrnXMy

I sometimes hear Worlds Without Number being mentioned, but it's usually as a world-building tool, since the main book has lots of good tables for that. I rarely hear anyone talking about it as a game.

I only really learned what it is recently. It's a lot like Old School Essentials but with a proper skill system (you can choose which skills to increase when you level up, etc) and a feats system (although they call them "foci") which you can use to customize your character.

It does have a weird class system, though. It's based on three base classes: Mage, Expert, and Warrior. There's also Adventurer, but what that basically means is being multiclassed. So from those three classes you customize your character to become more specialized. Want to be a monk? Sure, pick the Warrior class (or the Expert class if you want more skill points) and then pick the Unarmed Combatant feat. It gives you better unarmored AC, and makes your unarmed attacks basically as good as a sword, etc. There are other foci which basically turns your Mage into a cleric, and so on.

I also find the combat to be better than, say D&D 5+E, with more types of actions to choose from in combat.

So, like the title says - to me, this game is great. And it surprises me that I see so few people talking about it. The basic edition, which has about 90% of the content of the full edition I think, is free on DriveThruRPG (non-affiliate link).

Many of us are enthusiastic worldbuilders. And many of us worldbuilders also try to make our RPG settings "original".

Yet there is a danger to making a setting that has too many unique elements. After all, the setting isn't just for the game master, but also for the players. They need to understand the setting enough to play convincing characters that exist in that world, and act accordingly. And the more setting information they have to absorb to do so, the more difficult it will be to get buy-in from your gaming group.

Personally, I think settings work best when there are a few strong, central unique elements that support strong themes on what the setting - and the campaign - are supposed to be all about, scaffolded by numerous familiar, common tropes from the intended genre (such as science fiction or fantasy). This should help convey the information the players need most effectively.

But I am curious how you see this issue. Do you regard this as a problem at all, and if so how do you approach it?

Whenever I run a published Mutant Crawl Classics adventure, I like to create a monster reference sheet for use at the table. It lists the stats for each creature and has check boxes for hit points. It saves time having to flip through the module, and gives me an easy way to keep track of hit points.

I've just created two more. One for Mutant Crawl Classics #2: A Fallen Star For All, and the other for DCC Day #4: Crash of the Titans. Free to download:

https://polyhedralnonsense.com/2026/10/03/some-more-monster-sheets-for-mutant-crawl-classics/

Since I am already a heavy BookWyrm user, I have decided to create my own BookWyrm list for my RPG books. This is incomplete, and focuses mainly on my physical books - I have bought several thousands of digital RPG books over the years.

Has anyone created similar lists, and if so where are they?

Questing Beast has a RPG Playstyle Survey. Please share. All data will be released once survey closes.

Knave and Maze Rats were created by Questing Beasts. I really like the tables in Knave 2E

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/42689778

Hi, I'm Jacob Coffin, you might know me as the guy who posts solarpunk postcards, worldbuilding research, and other DIY/zerowaste projects sometimes. But that's all been something of a side project for me for the last two, almost three years. My main project has been researching, writing, playtesting, and making art for a TTRPG campaign, and we're finally launching it!

I should probably let the blurb we wrote introduce the thing:

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A buried secret can stay dangerous for a long, long time… 

An investigator has a hot tip: rare waste. Dangerous to the environment and valuable on the reclamation market - a remediation co-op is already standing by to remove the contamination and restore the surrounding land. But time is running out to find it, as what’s left of the town is deep in a deconstruction boom. 

In Buried Treasure, players travel off the edge of the map to the mostly-abandoned town of Comity, New Hampshire to find an industrial dump site left over from the Global Climate Wars. But as work crews are in the process of removing the abandoned buildings and roads, there isn’t much time left before the trail disappears. It’s gonna be a challenge. But at least no one is going to be trying to stop them. Right? 

Buried Treasure is the long awaited second campaign for Fully Automated! Filled with interesting characters, locations, and plot hooks, this story has 20+ hours of content to delight solarpunk aficionados and newcomers alike! 

This adventure features: 

• Original (human-made) art! 
• An immersive rural solarpunk setting with resourceful homesteaders, radical work crews, and a village made from repurposed McMansions!
• Maps, evidence, and an environmental sampling mini-game!

If that piques your interest, this is definitely for you! And if it doesn’t, you should check it out anyway because it’s free! As always, share any questions, feedback, and stories with our growing community on Discord, Mastodon, and slrpnk.net!

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Like all the other solarpunk stuff I make, this campaign is CC-BY, so it's absolutely free. You can grab the files on DriveThruRPG, itch.io, or just download them from my folder here: https://mega.nz/fm/DVsiDC7b

I As a Player Character in Nobunaga's Black Castle, you are already dead. Nobunaga killed you and sent you to Hell. But your heart burned for vengeance, burned so hot that now you are back in this world. You have one overpowering desire: kill Oda Nobunaga!

Nobunaga’s Black Castle is a complete tabletop roleplaying game by Japanese designer Yusuke Tokita. Green Ronin, under license from CONOS, is publishing Nobunaga’s Black Castle in English for the first time.