The Critshow

Mutants & Masterminds is a superhero role-playing game written by Steve Kenson and published by Green Ronin Publishing. The current 3rd Edition, which also serves as the engine for the DC Adventures game, was released in 2010. It is highly flexible, point buy system that allows players to build any superpower they can come up with, from classic caped crusaders and vigilantes to cosmic entities and mystical sorcerers. The system it directly evolved from is d20 System (2000) Description Mutants & Masterminds' game mechanics use a highly modified version of the d20 System. All characters in this game, from heroes and villains to the average person on the street, are defined by eight abilities, basic traits each character has to a greater or lesser extent. Abilities tell you how strong, smart, and aware a character is, among other things. The abilities are: Strength, Stamina, Agility, Dexterity, Fighting, Intellect, Awareness, and Presence System Overview & Key Features The Single d20 Engine The system is a true d20 engine. The twenty-sided die will be the only one you will need for the rest of the game. Every roll happens with the d20 as the baseline and then various bonuses and modifiers are added or subtracted. Point Buy Character Creation There are no random rolls for character creation. Players are given a budget of Power Points based on the campaign's Power Level. Every ability, from super strength to immortality, has a specific cost per rank, enabling high amounts of character customization and forging your unique superhero (or -villain). Effects Based Power Design Instead of a list of hundreds of pre defined spells or powers, the game uses Effects. If you want a fire blast, a freezing ray, or a telekinetic shove, you simply buy the "Damage" effect and apply descriptors like "Fire" or "Cold". This allows for endless creativity in how powers are themed. The Toughness Save vs Hit Points The game completely eliminates Hit Points. When a character is hit, they must make a Toughness resistance check. Failing the check results in cumulative penalties. A minor failure causes a "Bruise" penalty to future saves, while a massive failure can result in being dazed, staggered, or instantly knocked unconscious. Power Level Caps To keep the game balanced, the Game Master sets a Power Level (PL) for the campaign. This acts as a ceiling that limits the maximum total of a character's attack bonus, damage, defenses, and skills. This prevents one player from being mathematically untouchable while others struggle to contribute. Victory Points and Heroics Players can earn Victory Points (formerly Hero Points) for roleplaying their character's complications, such as a secret identity or a specific weakness like kryptonite. These points can be spent to reroll dice, recover from injuries, or use "Power Extractions" to perform stunts they haven't officially bought yet. Additional links greenronin.com - Official Green Ronin Publishing website d20herosrd.com - Official Mutants and Masterminds System Reference Document

Released in 2014 by Chaosium, Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition is the latest version of the cult-classic cosmic eldritch horror role-playing system originally launched in 1981. The story is based off of the  literary works of H.P. Lovecraft and lovecraftian works. Instead of setting the players up as heroes, the characters are regular investigators who are exploring cults, forbidden knowledge and various eldritch-cosmic entitites and threats. Description Occupations in the game for the characters include academics, reporters, and private investigators. The gameplay loop revolves around uncovering information, analyzing clues, and evading dangers. As the supernatural elements in the game are considered more powerful than the investigators, they have are not expected to actually confront most of the threats head on. Instead they usually have to resort to avoiding or escaping any situation that may arise. Combat is lethal and usually leads to characters getting permanently killed or pushed to insanity (which eventually is the same).  System Overview & Key Features Percentile Framework (d100) 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. Pushed Rolls If a character fails a skill check, they may attempt to "push" the roll, allowing for a second attempt. This requires the player to come up with a new, more desperate approach to performing the task. If this subsequent pushed roll also fails, the Keeper describes a severe and immediate negative consequence. Sanity and Madness A core mechanic of the system is the tracking of mental stability. Investigators lose points from their Sanity gauge when exposed to anomalous creatures or disturbing truths. Drops in Sanity result in the character experiencing temporary or permanent forms of madness, which can manifest as new phobias, delusions, or a temporary loss of player agency over the character. Bonus and Penalty Dice To account for situational advantages or disadvantages, the game employs a system of bonus and penalty dice. If a character possesses a distinct advantage when performing a task, an extra d10 is rolled and taking the higher result. A disadvantage means rolling an extra d10 and taking the lower result. Combat Lethality Physical altercations are inherently dangerous by design. Investigators possess limited hit points, and the damage output of both conventional firearms and anomalous entities is high. Recovery mechanics are slow, simulating realistic healing times. This structural lethality serves to discourage combat and incentivize stealth and investigation. Expendable Luck Players can spend points from their character's Luck pool to retroactively lower a dice roll. The points are subtracted on a one-to-one basis until the dice result qualifies as a success. This ensures that the Luck pool is a limited resource which should be used and utilized in the most critical situations. Additional links chaosium.com - Official publisher website and digital storefront drivethrurpg.com - Digital repository for official scenarios and sourcebooks

SAKE is a traditional tabletop roleplaying game with a touch of strategy game. It is a crunchy, modular, d20 point-buy game set in an early-modern fantasy world, with detailed systems for domain-building and overseas trading. Description In SAKE, you play the ruler of a domain, a merchant prince, a pirate lord or start as an adventurer with the goal of rising to power. You delve into dungeons, explore pockets of the Otherworld to find treasures, make pacts with fickle gods, study dangerous magic, scheme to assassinate rivals, trade to gather resources and raise an army to fight wars. SAKE is a full point buy system, which means all character development happens by buying skills and abilities using EXP gained from your character's personality traits and events during gameplay. SAKE is designed to take place in an early modern (fantasy) world, with muskets and plate armour, cannons and galleys, rising capitalism and waning feudalism. With magic and gods mixed in. The game's rules support more serious types of campaigns, like balancing between different political interest groups when playing domain ruler, or deciding how far one is ready to go when meddling with gods or magic for power that could save their party and/or domain. SAKE comes with its own world – the Asteanic World – but it is by no means exclusive to it. It can be used to play in other early modern fantasy worlds, or even in Earth's similar historical period. Additional links sake.ee - Official website drivethrurpg.com - Full book