The World Was Young

The best campaign settings aren’t written. They’re played.

Overview

The World Was Young is a collaborative, worldbuilding card game. By marking a shared map in response to prompts with different combinations of Tones and Verbs, you build the history of a game setting over three Ages, creating lands, peoples, conflicts, and legends together. The end result is a deep setting ready to play in your favorite TTRPG system.  TWWY replaces the GM-generated, seldom-read background doc with a deck of cards and a table full of creative voices. Players and GM share the creative load, and the gap between player knowledge and character knowledge shrinks.

Session Negative One

Session Zero has improved TTRPGs by increasing communication between players and GMs. It helps ensure that everyone is on the same page about safety, the type of game being played, characters, and more. But it doesn’t solve a major pain point. Even if they’ve read the twenty-page setting background from the GM, players arrive at Session Zero as outsiders. The problem is that players need to create characters that are native to that world. How do we bridge that gap? How do we overcome that outsider status? The World Was Young brings players into the worldbuilding process from the beginning, increasing their investment and ownership of the setting before the game even begins. The twenty-page setting doc is replaced with an hour and a half of group worldbuilding. The result isn’t something that the players read. It’s something that they helped write. Players can weave their characters into threads they helped spin across the history of the world. Maybe their PC is the last of a civilization of Orcs destroyed hundreds of years ago. Or perhaps the descendant of a forgotten monarch. Whatever the choice, the table has an understanding of that character from the beginning. When the GM references the ancient civilization of sentient Axolotls that was destroyed a thousand years prior, she doesn’t have to lore-dump anything; the players already know about that civilization.

Reviews

Sorted by:

No reviews yet.

Login to leave a review.

Other entries

enCounter - TTRPG Encounter & Initiative Tracker
Tools & Platforms

enCounter - TTRPG Encounter & Initiative Tracker

English
Free
Universal
enCounter is a free, open-source encounter and initiative manager designed for tabletop RPG game masters. It provides a dedicated DM Console for preparing and running encounters, along with a separate Player Display that can be shown on a second monitor, television, or gaming-table screen. Game masters can track initiative, rounds, hit points, combat status, conditions, resources, hidden enemies, and other encounter information while controlling exactly what players can see. enCounter also supports reusable character and creature libraries, Saved Encounters, Scene and Combat presentation modes, visual countdown timers, encounter backgrounds, portraits, and local Soundscapes with music, ambience, and prepared sound cues. The Player Display can switch between STAND BY, Scene, and Combat modes, allowing it to be used before and during combat. During initiative, the active visible combatant is automatically centered for players, while the DM Console can follow the current turn without interrupting other encounter edits. enCounter supports multiple tabletop RPG system profiles as well as generic TTRPG play. It runs locally on the user's computer, supports Windows and Linux portable releases, and includes local backup, export, and import tools. The project is currently in Alpha and is actively being developed based on real tabletop use and community feedback. enCounter is released under the MIT License and is available free of charge.

Read more

Dicey Discourse
Actual Play & Podcasts

Dicey Discourse

English
Actual Play
Are you tired of only hearing about Dungeons and Dragons? Would you like to learn about the plethora of other games out there? Well, so did we! 4 nerds try out a plethora of Tabletop Roleplaying Games! We got action! We got comedy! We got games you haven't even heard of! Stop on by, maybe you'll find your new favourite game! New Actual Play episodes every other Sunday at 22:00 EEST! Character Creation and Post-Mortem episodes are uploaded outside of the regular schedule.

Read more

Basic Roleplaying (2023)
Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Basic Roleplaying (2023)

Rules-light
Chaosium
Rules-medium
Basic Roleplaying is the venerable "D100" engine that has powered Chaosium’s greatest hits for over four decades. Originally appearing as a slim booklet in 1980, it was most recently revitalized as the Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine in 2023. In 2026, it stands as one of the industry's most important open-source platforms, released under the ORC License, allowing independent creators to build and sell their own games using its legendary, time-tested mechanics. Description BRP is a "genre-neutral" toolkit that discards character levels and rigid classes in favor of a pure skill-based system. Whether you are playing a Bronze Age warrior, a 1920s detective, or a futuristic mech pilot, the core experience remains the same: your character is defined by what they can do. Because it uses percentages (e.g., "I have a 65% chance to climb this wall"), it is widely considered the most intuitive and "transparent" RPG system for new players to understand at a glance. System Overview & Key Features The Universal D100 Engine Every action is resolved by rolling two ten-sided (d10) dice to get a result from 1 to 100. If you roll is equal to or under your skill rating, the action is deemed a success. This approach simplifies the mechanical process of the game, as there are no complex tables to keep track of and compare to decypher whether it is a success or failure. Organic Character Growth There is no "Experience Points" system in the traditional sense. Instead, when you succeed in using a skill, you mark a "Skill Check" on your character sheet. At certain stops in the game/story, the player rolls to see if the character improves in those skills, meaning your character evolves based specifically on the actions they performed (and succeeded at) during the game. Modular Rule Design The Universal Game Engine is designed with variations and systems to choose from. GMs can choose whether they prefer to just use "Hit Points" or add a more detailed wound system with "Hit Locations" for more realistic tactical consequences. Systems for Magic, Sorcery, Mutations, or Superpowers (depending on the setting) can be added, instead of being baked in the core mechanics, ensuring the mechanics always fit the theme of the game. Deadly and Tactical Combat BRP combat is grounded and dangerous. Unlike high-fantasy games where adventurers have a vast health pool, a single strike of a sword or bullet in BRP can be fatal. This encourages players to think creatively and use mechanics and terrain to their advantage. Talking their way out of situations is often seen as more reasonable (and survivable), than just treating every conflict as a forced combat situation. The ORC License Revolution By introducing to the Open RPG Creative (ORC) license, BRP started a wave of third-party "Powered by BRP". This has expanded the system into new genres like Cyberpunk, Wuxia, and Cozy Fantasy, all supported by a single, unified ruleset and system, compatible with most themes. Compatibility with "The Big Three" Because the core mechanics have remained the same since the beginning, a monster or spell from a 1980s supplement is almost always compatible with the modern 2026 engine. This gives GMs access to one of the largest libraries of pre-written adventures in tabletop gaming, spanning Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, and Pendragon. Additional links chaosium.com/brp : Official BRP Universal Game Engine portal basicroleplaying.org : The primary community hub and "BRP Central" forums

Read more

Looking for a group?

Find a tabletop group to join or players to invite. Groupfinder is a free looking-for-group platform. By players, for players.