A lot of the stuff that Wizards has done recently has been ludicrous- banning "Crusade" from Magic: The Gathering, etc, worthless and hyperbolic virtue signalling....
But one of their latest canards, the removal of baseline or fundamentally evil races, such as orcs, and recasting them as just humans with different skin colors, is actually a complete rework of the game into a truly shitty form. Future D&D stories and places will forever be tainted by this idiocy; it will never get better, because they don't even understand why the game needed that sort of thing to begin with.
While obviously there are old school systems that don't suffer from this, or reprints of older editions of D&D and the 80s and 90s systems that were contemporary at the time, I want to know... is anyone making tabletop games currently without all the social justice horseshit? Is there anywhere I can go on this?
There isn't a single mainstream tabletop company that isn't full of social justice advocates, no. Keep hard copies of your old rules systems.
Aside from the handful of creators that frequent therpgsite not really. The way that the rpg industry is today disgusts and angers me because it was something that I held dear. The people in charge of most of the major companies have outwardly expressed their distaste for anyone who does not follow far-left ideologies. At the end of the day, we need to create our own settings that people can't turn into mouthpieces for communist ideologues. We have to make new alternatives not simply dwell on the dumpster fire that rpgs have become.
In the spirit of practicing what I preach, I have for the last 4 years, been working on my own tabletop RPG. The basic premise is that the characters take the role of mech piloting knights in a sci-fantasy world featuring a huge mashup of Western religious and mystic traditions (Everything from Kabbalah to Gnosticism). It's currently sitting at somewhere around 350 pages, with 95 pieces of art done and more on the way.
Here's some samples of art:
Mechs : https://ibb.co/749khjM , https://ibb.co/d0VrC7V
Character Classes: https://ibb.co/pQF10vG , https://ibb.co/1szZS49
I'm hoping to send out some pdfs for playtesting sometime in the next few months and get a lovely hardcover edition out sometime next year. If you guys want to hear more I can answer questions as well as post up world details and lore.
Okay but lemme tell you what I'm not hearing in all that.
Mechanics.
This is a problem. Everyone is so eager to world build but what really makes a game is mechanics. So who's are you cribbing off of and what are you changing?
Case in point, Iron Kingdoms d6 should have been the shit but it turned out to be just shit because of mechanics.
The core of the system is d20 using the OGL, I'm not here to reinvent the wheel. The biggest change from mainstream D&D is that it uses a roll-under system with ability scores being used as target numbers for checks, which are raised or lowered based on a number of factors. The driving philosophy for the game design was inspired by games such as savage worlds, god bound and to a lesser extent mutants and masterminds. Some other changes are
Removal of Vancian spellcasting in favour of an mp pool.
Addition of a meta currency that players can use to influence dice rolls.
Character class simply adding a number of premade abilities to a pc instead of totally defining it.
A much larger list of feats and a greater amount of feats given to characters per level. This and stat allotment is where you really differentiate your character.
I have tried to keep character creation and play relatively simple. While MechWarrior, Jovian Chronicles, and Mechton Zeta are fine for someone who wants the armored core experience on a tabletop I opted for something that didn't require quite as much time investment. The aim of the game was gonzo super robots ala Xenosaga ,Rahxephon or Big O rather than more 'hard scifi' mecha series.
Another skull on the skullpile.
Look, maybe I'm unnecessarily raining on your parade. Maybe. I still have my books for Alternity, the primarch of d20, which I bought the week they hit the shelves. In 22 years since, I've seen seen so much low effort trash call itself d20 not out of appreciation for the system but out of a lack of enthusiasm to actually design a game.
You say "I'm not here to reinvent the wheel". At least in this regard you're honest that you only care about the worldbuilding.
Frankly, my advice to virtually everyone who's done what you're doing is they probably should just write fiction novels and try to get published that way.
''Removal of Vancian spellcasting in favour of an mp pool.''
Spell levels per day pool?
"Addition of a meta currency that players can use to influence dice rolls."
You mean like resolve points?
"Spell levels per day pool?"
Spells have levels with varying mp cost. But say you have a mp pool of 15 you can cast 15 level 1 spells that cost 1 point or 5 level 3 spells that cost 3 points or any combination of the two as long as you have the required mp to spend. You aren't stuck with a flat 3 level 3 and 6 level one spells. It's similar to most jrpgs in that respect.
"You mean like resolve points?"
Yes or hero points from Mutants & Masterminds, bennies from savage worlds, etc, etc.
As to whether this plays out well or not only time can tell. Truth be told when I had the original idea I had planned to use an already existing system. The only issue is that as we all know the industry is filled with Marxist lunatics who would do their best to cancel me and take away my access to their rules the moment they found out I wouldn't worship at the altar of Stalin. So I used the tools that were available to everyone without having to A- be beholden to the 'powers that be' and B possess the mechanical aptitude of Richard Garfield or Gary Gygax.
Reception from the players who have given it a shot so far has been good. These are all people I know, however, so the real test begins when it gets let into the wild. At this point in time though, it has become something of a matter of pride. Even if it fails I'm going to be satisfied that I did my best to get something out there. The SJWs told me to piss off and make my own thing so I did.
One last point that I think is worth mentioning. From OPs post I think it is pretty clear that most people's issues with gaming these days aren't the systems that games are running on. Orcs not being proper villains and elements such as crusades being removed from games are a narrative thing. One of the things I am trying to achieve is the creation of a setting that is fun, deep and actually celebrates Western culture instead of shitting on it at every possible turn. If other companies tell their old customer base that they aren't welcome anymore because of their 'whiteness', wrong thing or refusal to be lectured on gender studies in their entertainment time then I welcome these people with open arms since I'm one of them.
I'm also currently working on a book. It has nothing to do with this particular project though as it's simply a collection of short stories that each feature their own setting.
So mechanically the same as Alternity psi points.
Iron Kingdom had a thing where casters (except warcasters) had their powers linked to fatigue, which mechanically functions like an extra damage type applying to casters. Once you get into fatigue debt you can't cast without recovering,
I really should give Alternity a read. I hadn't actually heard of it before today. From a cursory glance, it seems to do a lot of things I like.
Alternity was the last game designed by TSR. After WotC bought TSR, they discontinued it and adapted it into d20 system.
So what did it look like?
Alternity was skills centric. Feats don't exist, and perks & flaws are weak modifiers that ultimately cost or net skill points. The jarring difference is that armor operation, unarmed attack, melee attack, heavy weapons, and ranged weapons are skills, with power martial arts and defensive martial arts as specialty skills to do the fancy stuff.
The basic rules had no magic, but did have psionics. Psionics were treated as skills as well, grouped into four families linked to four ability scores (con, int, per, wil) with overall amount of psionic power being linked to will. Exceeding your psionic power limit incurs fatigue damage.
There were also rules for cybernetics and mutations. Cybertech tolerance is linked to constitution, and mutations had to be balanced between advantages and drawbacks (example: night vision, but sensitive to light; or enhanced strength but inefficient metabolism).
The GM guide provided rough rules for "FX" powers, essentially magic, although it was clearly an afterthought and not part of the main body of rules.
Why would anyone bother making new mechanics when the existing systems are fine? Just pirate 5e books and run your own campaign as you damn well please, like I do. Worldbuilding and developing well-implemented and deep characters is by far the most important thing in D&D, not mechanics.
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve always used a world that was heavily inspired by forgotten realms, I just keep the lore ideas I like and change everything that I don’t. It’s perfectly easy to ignore all the woke bullshit, at my table orcs still are and always will be bloodthirsty savages.
My orcs were always relatively civilised, just somewhat more savage on average - before any of the woke shit told me that that's how it has to be. Probably because my world was (at first) more inspired by WoW's ideas than by old D&D and LOTR, though that's changing as I slowly realise how damn creatively bankrupt WoW's lore is.
I heard the GURPS people are based, also Kasimir Urbanski/RPGPundit but he still cucks on some leftist axioms. Another recent release that came recommended is Maelstrom Rome RPG.
I liked the idea of GURPS but every time I tried it is seemed like such a chore to play
But then again my favorite system is the stupidly broken Marvel Super Heroes with that one big ass table at the back of the book to rule them all.
It really is hard to learn the whole system and run a game if you don’t have anybody to GM for you or at least show you the ropes so to speak. I recommend trying to join a group as a player first, that shouldn’t be too hard to learn.
I play mtg, and for the most part the people I play with (or would, if we weren't all under house arrest because of retardation) are good people and don't care about their sjw bs
I don't generally buy a bunch of stuff. Or if I do, it's older cards and wotc has long made their money off of it. I also shit on wotc and push for changes as much as I can. Unfortunately, most of the community is shit.
Got a link for more info or a tldr on what arc dream has done/is doing?
One of great advantages of tabletop is that it's invite only, private, and that you're not beholden to the whims of any corporation.
Firstly, you need to take ownership of your table. Rule zero, the GM is always right, canon is what I say it is, if you don't like it the door is over here. You have a slew of D&D based rulesets that are free, so no need to give money to woke zombies. Read old school fantasy (Vance, Lieber, Howard,) and read the European myths and legends that inspired it (Norse sagas, The Arthurian cycle,The Illiad, The Oddysey, Kalevala etc.).
Tabletop is about creating your own world and your own rules, and having fun with your friends without some woke oberstrumfuerher screaming at you for failing to include the necessary propaganda points. Quit whining, grab a retroclone and roll your own!