Ludonarrative Dissidents

Diceless RPGs are games that do not use dice to randomize game elements. Many of these games do not have any randomization elements and include games like Amber, Pantheon, and Marvel Universe. Others use randomizers like shuffled cards or spinners. We discuss these systems and how they affect game play and storytelling. Check out the LND website for links to games and more! Discuss this episode on the LND Discord!

The landscape was full of machines and scrap metal connected to the facility in one way or another. Always present on the horizon were the colossal cooling towers, with their green obstruction lights. If you put your ear to the ground, you could hear the heartbeat of the Loop – the purring of the Gravitron, the central piece of engineering magic that was the focus of the Loop’s experiments. The facility was the largest of its kind in the world, and it was said that its forces could bend space-time itself. Scifi artist Simon Stålenhag’s paintings of Swedish 1980s suburbia, populated by fantastic machines and strange beasts, have won global acclaim. Now, you can step into the amazing world of the Loop. Show notes for Season 2 are on the LND website. Discuss this episode on the Ludonarrative Dissidents Community Discord!

Dread is a game of horror and hope. Those who play will participate in a mutual telling of an original macabre tale. The goal of Dread is to sustain the delicate atmosphere that invokes the hand quivering emotion that lends its name to the game. The thrill of a Dread game lies within the tension between desire and loss. Players take on the role of someone trapped in a story that is only as compelling as it is hostile. Discuss this episode on the Ludonarrative Dissidents Community Discord!

Planet Mercenary RPG is a space opera adventure game based on the popular web comic Schlock Mercenary. It contains everything you need to create characters, equip them, and load them onto warships for adventures across the galaxy. Build your own mercenary company and accept all the best contracts. Rescue ecotourists from Eina Afa’s Stormring Sea. Leap between the Pereri Ring’s tethered asteroids in pursuit of pirates. Brave the dark heart of Ellwor’s mechorganic jungle in search of the Greater Meatsnatch. Engineered for speed and simplicity, the Planet Mercenary RPG lets you play out these adventures quickly with three six-sided dice and the 108-card Mayhem deck—a set of story-building, plot-twisting, occasionally explosive elements that can transform even a mundane encounter into a turning point for the entire mission. You and your group will weave magnificent, raucous, and probably hilarious adventure stories, and everyone will enjoy themselves …even when things go terribly wrong. Discuss this episode on the Ludonarrative Dissidents Community Discord!

Call of Cthulhu is the world’s best game of secrets, mysteries, and horror, first published in 1981 and now in its seventh edition. Playing the role of steadfast investigators, you travel to strange and dangerous places, uncover foul plots, and stand against the terrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. You encounter sanity-blasting entities, monsters, and insane cultists. Within strange and forgotten tomes of lore you discover revelations that humanity was not meant to know. If you want to discuss the episode, join our community Discord! 

Initiative systems are an important but often overlooked element in role playing games. They determine who can act and when. They allocate spotlight time for players and influences the action economy of a game. We talk about different ways of determining initiative and if you even need them.

Eclipse Phase is the  post-apocalyptic game of transhuman horror. Humanity is enhanced  and  improved, but also battered and bitterly divided. Technology allows  the  re-shaping of bodies and minds, but also creates opportunities for   oppression and puts the capability for mass destruction in the hands of   everyone. And other threats lurk in the devastated habitats of the  Fall,  dangers both familiar and alien. In this harsh setting, the  players  participate in a cross-faction conspiracy called Firewall that  seeks to  protect transhumanity from threats both internal and external. Discuss this episode in our Discord!

MÖRK  BORG is a pitch-black apocalyptic fantasy RPG about lost souls and  fools seeking redemption, forgiveness or the last remaining riches in a  bleak and dying world. Who are you? The tomb-robber with silver  glittering between cracked fingernails? The mystic who would bend the  world’s heart away from it’s inevitable end? Confront power-draining  necromancers, skulking skeletal warriors and backstabbing wickheads.  Wander the Valley of the Unfortunate Undead, the catacombs beneath the  Bergen Chrypt or the bedevilled Sarkash forest. But leave hope behind –  the world’s cruel fate is sealed, and all your vain heroic efforts are  destined to end in death and dismay. It was created by Pelle Nilsson and  Johan Nohr. Discuss this episode on our community Discord server!

The Laundry Files Roleplaying Game is based on the best-selling  novels by Charles Stross. In the game, you play officers of the Laundry,  that eccentric and underfunded agency dedicated to protecting the  United Kingdom from unthinkable horrors. The Laundry uses the Basic  Roleplaying System - the same system that powers the classic Call of  Cthulhu roleplaying game (so you can easily convert adventures from one  game to the other). As Laundry staff, you're trained to deal with the  weird and ghastly spawn of the Mythos, you're equipped with the best  equipment your committee-approved mission budget can buy, and you've got  back-up on call from the SAS. All of that means you're only  terrifyingly underprepared, as opposed to completely screwed, when the  shoggoth hits the fan. If you want to discuss this episode, join our community Discord server! 

Meta currencies are a type of game mechanic found in tabletop role playing games. They are an abstract resource used by players to affect the narrative but do not represent something in the game except luck, fate, or willpower and so forth. Examples include fate points in Fate, willpower in Red Markets, and Resolve in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. We discuss types of mechanics and why they are used in RPGs. Discuss this episode on our community Discord server!