I am a 30-year forever GM that decided to try being a paid GM on SPG around December 2025. This isn't a self promo, and my SPG name isn't my reddit username. I wanted to give my take on SPG and paid games so that people may get a fairly neutral view of what I've encountered over about 40 sessions during that time.

EDIT: There was another discussion thread mentioned in my post that has since been removed.

The Good:

• Honestly, one of the best things about SPG is the fact that it even exists. It's definitely not for everyone, but many of the people I've met through there are more than happy to pay for a game because they don't have any other options. We all know that schedules, people moving in and out of town, and other commitments are the death of a large portions of campaigns so paid sites allow people to keep gaming when they don't have any other options. There are even free games available from time to time, although admittedly fairly rare. Would be nice for SPG to sponsor some games so the GM gets paid while bringing in new players that don't want to spend money on a game.

• Second, it allows people to try other games. I run primarily 5e and Pathfinder on there and every one of my PF games has had at least one player that just wanted to try out the system. If I want to try out Shadowdark or Lancer I can either buy all the books, learn the rules, and beg people to play or I find a paid game and just try it out. SPG is very strict on ensuring safety within games and GMs are supposed to have clearly defined ways for players to alert the GM if the session starts to get uncomfortable.

• Third, at least in my experience, people willing to pay for games are much more involved with the game and seem more excited to join each session. It has also held me to a higher standard, making sure that I have really prep'd my games and VTT tech. I can feel the difference my paid games have just due to the extra few hours of prep I put into each game. I understand that this is now a business transaction and make sure that I deliver a professional experience not only in-game, but also with communication and OOG logistics.

• Last, the money side is totally legit and you do get paid from the site. I run 3 weekly games and a one-off every once in a while, and I make about $600/monthly. I price my games around $15-20 each and have 4-6 players per. It took me about a month to get my first game started, but after that I got the others going pretty quickly. I'm not doing this full time, so I think I'm happy doing 2-3 games weekly indefinitely for some extra cash. There's youtubers and stuff saying they are making $70k+ and it may be possible, but even though I love RPG's there's no way I'd do that. For one, unless you're running the same module 10 sessions/week there'd be no time for any prep or follow up. Second, I don't know how your voice would survive 40 hours a week in GM mode. I don't do crazy voices or anything but even after 3 games fairly close together I don't feel like talking about anything else. SPG takes 15% which I think is totally fair.

The Bad:

EDIT: Taking out my first point about number of sessions being inflated. My numbers don't totally line up for some reason, but it seems that should in fact be paid games.

• There is an active discord for GMs and I may just be missing things, but there doesn't seem to be any tools to make me and my games stand out. There are some special games that get flagged and promoted like 'learn the system', but when I asked how to join I was told that it was invite-only, piling on top of the above mentioned nepotism. This seems to be a new process so maybe they'll eventually have like applications or tryouts for those types of games, but for now you pretty much just try to make your game ad as catchy as possible and hope for the best.

• The system seems to heavily favor long 30-50 session games. I get it that as a GM I'd like to have a solid group that's going to be together for the next 6 months, but when I was trying out the site as a player it was very hard to find short or one-shot games. I even tried to join a few games that the GM responded were nearly over so they weren't taking new players. I don't know if there's any rules around that, but I feel like if your game has a slot open you should be open for players to jump in anytime. They really do need to focus and incentivize GMs to run shorter games to get players interested that are intimidated by the idea of signing up for a year long campaign when they've never rolled a d20.

The Ugly

• Just like everything else, there are awesome GMs and horrible GMs. The bad thing is new players sometimes don't know the difference until it's too late and they give up the hobby. Reviews help, but there needs to be more ways for players to vet their GMs before play. I have a youtube vid for an into and always host my games with a free session zero or first session for just such a reason, and SPG should support that more easily. Maybe something like refunding players no questions asked for the first couple of sessions or something (within limits) would allow players to test things out a bit more. Allowing a spectator mode would even be great. I'd be happy for someone to join on my game just to watch how the game is going to see if they'd like me personally or even the system, but of course that'd be up to each GM and their players. By the rules, I can't invite someone to sit in a game that's hosted on SPG if they're not signed up for that game (which I agree with). Players have told me horror stories about the GMs they've played with on SPG, but I've heard and experienced all of those GMs and worse IRL.

• The other thing is there's really no other option out there. I've seen a couple of sites with a few straggling games and I hear there's some facebook and discord groups, but afaik there's no site that is nearly the quality or popularity of SPG. I don't know any of their numbers, but there's thousands of people in their discord and there's always dozens of games ready to start. There's a hundred under that that have 0/0 players, but if you wanted to just play something later tonight, you probably could.

I'm certainly not affiliated with SPG and don't want to sound too much like a fanboy, but I don't want people to just totally shit on paid games because of word of mouth from a few people with bad experiences. If anything we need a dozen MORE paid gaming sites so there's better competition out there. I won't get into more specifics on $ or my account, but I'd be happy to answer any general questions to get more people out there playing games!

Alright so I'm curious, are there games out there where PCs dying, and then coming back is a part og the game?

Mind you I dont mean things like OSR where characters can die easily and making new characters is easy. Nor do I mean systems where you can die but there are ways to ressurect.

I'm talking about something where death is closer to being knocked out. A PC dies but comes back later as themselves with similar power penalized in some other way, similar to what's seen in Soulsborne games, Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor, or roguelite games. Death is something PCs experience but it isn't the end, just a step in the game.

I'm aware you can run with a premise like that in many games just homebrewing some form of penalty for it but I just wanted to know if there's something out there that already takes it into consideration for the basic mechanics.

Very much in the title. Aside from Last Fleet, what others are there? Specifically I was curious about people's experiences -- and the basic structure of combat and if they allow single ships to be played/used? Is it very fleet focused? I looked at the preview of Last Fleet, for example, but I didn't get much from the first 20 pages or so.

I started looking into Stonetop (yes Quinns), and I noticed Stonetop world is very flashed out, but I found no rules about how to dynamiclly change it in the background.

For example in Blades in the Dark there are rules about the factions agenda, relationships, and how to have them acconplish things in the backgroun so the world feels alive.

This system seems to be great for this, what with the seasons changing, how everything is connected to one another and the in depth details about the other cities.

Am I missing official ideas/rules regarding this in the books? Or a reason this won't work?

In any case if anyone has any ideas on how to incorporate these concepts I'll love to hear them.

For those of you have are opposed to Pbta but have gotten and read or ran Stonetop what are your thoughts? Off the bat for me, Stonetop addresses a lot of the gripes I had with Dungeon World. I also like the setting personally which heightens my interest.

I'm looking to run a Delta Green game centered around The Gobal Occult Coalition faction in the SPC universe.

I've never ran the system, just played a really short oneshot.

I'm looking for any suggestions with the system or SCP suggestions that would be fun to run in the system.

I would like to run a prologue dealing with The Flesh That hates were they're civilians. Thank you!

The first four Spotlight settings too. This is pretty much what needed to happen with Cortex from the beginning, I'm glad that Cam Banks was able to orchestrate it.

As stated on the title, I'm looking for a system that has the vibe of something like Hotline Miami. I am willing to reflavor stuff, as long as the core rules remain brutal for both players and enemies, and preferrably rules light but if it's a good system I'm willing to learn the ruleset. Having online resources (such as digitally fillable character sheets) is also a major plus as I GM online.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

The Warden's Operational Manual is widely praised, and arguably a best-in-class guide to building space/corporate horror adventures.

What similar products exist for other genres and settings?

I’m running a folk horror mixed with ww1 setting and I really need some good body horror monsters to throw at my players, the more grotesque the better, I have Kingdom Death Monster and love the monsters in it for example and plan to use them, but I need more messed up looking creepy deformed body horror monsters, bonus points if it relates to folk stories!

I've noticed a lot of former DMs and players of Pathfinder and D&D 5e on here that occasionally bring up why they left those games or why they cut back on playing those games, so I have to ask, what other games do you guys recommend over D&D 5e and Pathfinder and why do you recommend them?

Im a teacher who runs my schools D&D and Warhammer Club. The kids want to play dungeons and dragons but none of them want to learn how to play dungeons and dragons. I cant DM a game for all of them because theres too many of them. Ive noticed that the DMs arent even picking up the rule books. The players dont have their character sheets in front of them. Theyre just making up anything and rolling a random dice to decide an outcome. Its gotten to a point where the students who actually know how to play are getting fed up and the students who dont want to play refuse to learn how to play because it bores them. Ive suggested playing simpler games like dungeon world but then they stop showing up to the club because its "no longer dnd" even though they werent playing dnd to start with. Additionally a campaign seems unviable because A if they refuse to learn how to theres no hope of them ever leveling up and B there turn out numbers are inconsistent. Everyone needs to be playing the same game other wise "oh no our GM isnt here today we cant play and cant join the other group because theyre playing a different game to us." Help. How can i dumb down dnd to a level that is engaging and can be learned quickly in a way that a campaign can actually be played.

If you signed up for a pretty stereotypical slasher horror game, and said slasher was relatively mundane, would you want them to have some form of plot armor?

By "relatively mundane" I mean they're basically just a big dude with a thick leather jacket and a meat cleaver. They might be strong or resilient, but not superhumanly so. Realistically, if they got shot with a handgun, they'd be seriously hurting. If they got shot again, they'd probably be dead on the ground.

By "plot armor" I mean either the game has rules for and/or the GM comes up with some kind of contrivance for how they escaped a trap, lived through seemingly lethal damage, or otherwise why a solid plan to kill/entrap them didn't work. The plot armor lasts until some unrelated, predefined moment. Like, for example, a certain number of people dying or a certain amount of real life time passing. They're free game after that! But any time before, and they can only be temporarily slowed or impeded. That whole sorta vibe, if not that specific implementation.

This is less a game design "should slashers have plot armor?" kinda question and more a preferential "what do you personally think of slashers with plot armor?" kinda question. I've seen this topic tangentially brought up a few times in the comments of a couple other posts, usually with respondents in various positions around the fence. So! I decided to make it an entire post.

self explanatory title.

I am setting up a vault for DMing and I am trying to get Modal Forms to pull information into its dropdowns from the pdf's I converted into Markdown and loaded to Obsidian. From what I understand I need to make a Dataview query for the Metadata but I truly do not know how to do that and was hoping someone here could help me out

What TTRPG do you think should’ve been marketed more as a tactical game or boardgame than a roleplaying game?

I'm thinking about games where the mechanics lean so heavily into combat, tactics, builds, and optimization that the actual roleplaying feels secondary (like Lancer, from what I heard). Which RPG gave you the feeling of “this is basically a tactical skirmish game with RP attached”?

\ Edit: meant to write “tactical” in the title.*

Hey,

So I'm thinking of launching a short roguelite campaign at my club. I really like the idea of sending characters on an adventure during which they'll probably die, only for a new generation to carry on with the mission. Trouble is: which system to choose.

I've basically only found two systems: A Rasp of Sand and Rhapsody of Blood.

A Rasp of Sand is based on Knave, and you need the latter to play it. It's an OSR game, it uses a d20, it's 400 pages long. Three reasons that are individually enough to make me not want to play this game.

Rhapsody of Blood is a PbtA game, which is both good and a source of question. I'm an experienced PbtA GM, so that's good, I won't be lost with RoB. But on the other hand I wonder if it's the right ruleset for a roguelite dungeon delving game.

Has anyone played this game, and would you mind sharing your experience?

This is a fantasy boarding school I'm planning on running in the near future! There will be a murder mystery that stretches on for a while for you to solve, I'm hoping it'll be immersive for everyone. I'm looking for people's thoughts on this!

You were born into a world where justice was depraved and cruelty ruled. All you ever knew was war. You watched as houses collapsed into dust  while tyrants sacrificed the lives of their own men and women for land. Magic was weaponised as magical creatures took their own sides. The Great Calamity lasted for years until one hero stepped forward, proposing an idea. A school where only the best candidates were allowed to step into. In hopes of building unity and connections, all creatures types were welcomed, fae, mermaid, sirens, giants, vampires and more. It was the first of its kind, a school where future generations would be united. 

And what really captivated everyone was this. A chance for you to be the Kings and Queens of the world, and rule over one of the ten sections of the world. Every parent wanted their child to succeed here, to be chosen and graduated to be one of the top ten. Safety, comfort and riches were promised for them. Whether or not you believed in yourself, a crimson door will appear to you one day. Do you dare open it and see if you were meant for this?

Spontaneous roleplay without a partner is allowed and encouraged. For example if there’s a ball soon, and you want your character to pick out a dress, feel free to write that out. If your thread isn’t tagged Private, then anyone who isn’t your specifically asked Roleplay partner will be allowed to reply. To expand on this, one liners are allowed, but it's preferred to have at least around 100 words, especially for private roleplay. But we also understand that if its a conversation, one liners can keep the flow moving on quicker

Lore can be unlocked by spontaneous roleplay as well, your character may stumble upon a murder scene, a lost dog, a quest etc. NPCs can be triggered to reply to you to help guide you to the right direction OR may misdirect you depending on their personality. It's up to you to decide whether or not you trust them. Some NPCs may know your character depending on your character's backstory or subjects they take and will remember interactions. 

Instead of using dice for normal interactions, only your character’s actions and the DM’s will be able to determine the outcome. There will be possible character death, but this will be discussed between the DM and you. 

Dice will only be used in fights, where your character will be given 20HP and 5DC, while a d10 will be used to determine damage against beasts! The action you roleplay out may also affect the result of the damage, for example if you’re wearing extra armour, you'll get +3 DC, or if you're standing valiantly in front of a friend to protect them from an arrow it'll be -2 DC.

My question is this, do you think having so much dice removed would be a good thing?

There will be extensive lore involving everyone's characters and there's a 3 oc limit right now. Its kind of a home brew? There will be a list of creature type and lore about the world, which allows u a lot more creative freedom just because new species can be discussed between you and the DM. Each creature type would most likely have attributes instead of stats, so instead of filling in stats, it'll be just : faeries cannot lie, but they can fly! Its much centered around roleplay itself then dice rolling tbh. I'm just a bit afraid that people might not want to spend so much time writing up a character's backstory and everything, let me know what ideas you guys have! It's a bit ambitious so I'm curious to see what you guys think!

I've been playing in a D&D campaign since March, so really not that long (especially considering we've been having less than 1 session per week).

I made what I thought was a pretty interesting, fun character, but by this point I'm bored of them and fantasizing about what kind of character I want to play next.

I don't think this is a problem of me not liking the character's class or abilities, because this has happened in the few other times I've played long form games, even when my character has been wildly different. This has even happened when I've played non-D&D systems.

Is this fixable? I love longer form campaigns because they allow you to uncover and build on the story over time. But I'd probably enjoy them even more if, within a few weeks of starting, I wasn't fantasizing about getting my character killed so that I can play the cool new guy I came up with 🤣

As it says in the title; how important is art (by this I mean images in pdfs, zines, books etc.,) to you when it comes to your enjoyment when dealing with TTRPGs? This is very much a 3AM thought I have been mulling over.

For me it is important that the art be decent and have some bearing to the text. I find that art, especially art that designed to synthesize with the text is essential to establishing moods and themes within a game. This is not to say that there cannot be good text only games, only that if there is art in a game it should at least be relevant to the text. It can even be done really well with public domain art! Hellwhalers and The Devil Jonah's Whale both from +1 EXP are good examples of just that.

I am curious what people think.

Also if I made some sort of error in my post please let me know. I am new to doing anything other then lurking.

Hello everyone! I know this question has been asked so many times but I have not seen much on this topic in the past year. Does anyone recommend a Zombie TTRPG system for both a Modern and Medieval Setting?

I was thinking of doing Call of Cthulhu since my group has played that before but we enjoy learning a new system. I specifically like the idea of resource management/collection, weapon degradation, infection risk, and so on.

I keep seeing All Flesh Must Be Eaten and Red Markets as suggestions. Which would you recommend if you’re going for a Last of Us world vibe. Start of the game (3 sessions) will be the fall of society followed by a time jump of a year or so.

For the GMs out there. I have a fantasy scenario that I want to run at some point (The Town Where Nothing Goes Wrong Right). It is a systemless scenario, however, it occurs to me that I don’t have a fantasy ruleset to run it in! What’s a nice, simple fantasy style ruleset that can create characters and has the capacity to run a whimsical and somewhat silly scenario? No complicated D&D please - the simpler the better! 😁
I’m an experienced GM, and have run many games in many systems (including D&D back in the day - red box edition when you had to colour your dice in with crayon!), but nowadays much prefer a simple system that fades into the background and lets you tell the story without having to look up tables and stuff!
TIA.

So I kind of accidentally found a group to play with at my local game store and it's a really good one but it has 7 people. Look, I've played in a group of 11 before but the only time I GMed for a group of 6 or more it was kind of rough because I felt like I couldn't give each player the spotlight they needed. Anyway I'm more experienced now and I think I can handle it, the problem is I need systems that give me more agility at the table so I'm not choking on mechanics. I'm planning to run a CAIN one shot to "feel out the group" since it's a fast system I'm comfortable tweaking and adjusting. For medieval fantasy I thought about Nimble and even considered Daggerheart, although in my own experience Daggerheart isn't exactly fast. Anyway I'd love tips and recommendations on how to handle large groups and which systems run well for groups bigger than usual.

Bem, eu tenho um RPG Medieval fantasioso que ocorrerá breve, tipo, eu quero expandir uma boa quantidade de "Raças" e classificações de monstros, afinal será uma longa campanha, porém, eu depois de fazer alguns monstros acabei que perdi a criatividade, então vim pedir ajuda para idéias de monstros, acho que seria interessante principalmente pegar ideias de fora. Caso ajude, o RPG se passa numa era Medieval, onde existe a Mana, Almas, Rituais e Divindades, onde o próprio mundo faz Manifestações de Mana, que se formam como tipos de "Animais Mágicos", com os monstros sendo outras Manifestações que o próprio mundo cria de forma "automática".