Role Playing Game Mechanics & Ideas

Author: Epic Empires Designer

  • Scars for Injuries

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    Epic Empires Designer
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    Sometimes in your rpg a player is seriously injured and you want them to have some kind of medium to long term consequence as a result. There are games that have tables for these kinds of things but I find a narrative approach can be better unless you’re completely stuck. Ask yourself:How was your character…

  • CairnHammer

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    Gritty old-school 80s British style fantasy role playing game with core rules the same as the Cairn RPG. Play a bounty hunter, grave robber, sorcerer, assassin, spy, barber-surgeon, hedge witch, smuggler, rat catcher, witch hunter, or a range of other careers all filled with that old world flavor and that gritty old school fun. Wield…

  • Cairn: Lair of the Frost Witch

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    In the frozen hills beyond Coalfish Bay, villagers whisper of a cruel witch who commands the storm and steals away the unwary. The frost witch lair is hidden in an old pirate cove, now a frozen glacier. Her lair is riddled with deathless puppets, etched runes that glow beneath the ice, and secrets colder than…

  • One Page Solo RPG Tool Creative Commons

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    I created a solo system including a word oracle for inspiration, a d10 roll under resolution system. random event generator and the success ladder system for longer lasting tasks or scenes. On the other side of the page are Quests, NPCs, Villains, Obstacles, Discoveries, Enemy tactics, and a Location Generator. These one page solo rules…

  • Save vs Poison Or Die?

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    Epic Empires Designer
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    In old school D&D when you got bitten by something poisonous you saved vs poison. If you failed, in most cases you died right there on the spot. It was wonderfully brutal and forced players to avoid directly battling creatures that were poisonous and to be very careful around things like chests that might have…

  • Free RPG Resources

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    Epic Empires Designer
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    Ideas, Tips & Free Tables:http://epicempires.org/ideas/ CairnHammer RPG:Gritty old-school 80s British style fantasy role playing game with core rules the same as the Cairn RPG.https://andrew-cavanagh.itch.io/cairnhammer Cairn: Lair Of The Frost Witchhttps://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/529901/cairn-lair-of-the-frost-witch D10 Roll Under One Page Solo Oracles:http://epicempires.org/d10-Roll-Under-One-Page-Solo.pdf Deadly Secrets Copy Buddy Fantasy RPG:http://epicempires.org/Deadly-Secrets-Epic-Empires-Micro-Game-Letter-Size.pdf It Rises Flooded Mine 1 Page Dungeon:http://epicempires.org/It-Rises-Flooded-Mine-1-Page-Dungeon.pdf Quest Generator:http://epicempires.org/Quest-Generator.pdf NPC & Monster…

  • 2 Simple Steps To Add Narrative To A Solo RPG

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    Epic Empires Designer
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    There’s a very simple way to make your OSR solo rpg session have more of an exciting, engaging, overarching narrative that goes beyond the standard dungeon crawl. So your first quest might be rescuing someone from the dungeon. You might:Encounter the villain but manage to escape.Overhear the villain but avoid them because they’re too powerful…

  • The Power Of Timers To Add Tension To Your RPG

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    Epic Empires Designer
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    Shadowdark introduced the torch timer to stop players wasting time overthinking things during a session. You set a physical timer each time you light a torch. Often you only have so many torches and if you run out you’re plunged into darkness. And in Shadowdark you don’t want to be in a dark dungeon. There’s…

  • The Magic Of Monster/NPC Reaction Tables

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    Epic Empires Designer
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    After you’ve played role playing games for a while, and especially if you play Dungeons & Dragons, you can get a little tired of how monster encounters tend to play out the same way. ‘Roll for initiative’, roll to attack the monsters over and over until they’re dead. That’s great fun for the first few…

  • This Solves The Charisma ‘Dump Stat’ Problem

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    Epic Empires Designer
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    In Dungeons & Dragons and many other games that use similar attributes, players often use Charisma as a ‘dump stat’. They go for low charisma because they know it rarely has much value in combat or other life threatening situations and use any good rolls for other more ‘important’ attributes like Constitution, Strength, or Dexterity.…