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Role-Playing Games (RPGs) - such as the most popular and well-known Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) - are a fun, communal activity that a group of people participate in to tell stories, use their imagination, and experience incredible fantasies! Come and learn the skills and strategies to make you table-ready for the important role of the gamemaster, the judge, and facilitator of the game and the world the game exists in. It will be taught by Chris Tatum, current Vice President of NerdLouisville, a forever gamemaster, and CFO of Lurking Fears, LLC, an event management company that specializes in RPG marketing and RPG conventions. The course will be four, 1 to 2-hour lessons and will include an exercise at the end of the course where students will complete and present an original RPG scenario synopsis and “hook” (introduction) to the class.
This 2024 revised edition of the 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook is perfect for creating characters! It also explains core rules of equipment, spells, feats, backgrounds, species, combat, and more.
The Learning Commons also has the 2014 edition.
"It's happened. The zombie apocalypse we all feared. You have been traveling along the highway looking for food, shelter, any sign of life. After so many hours, days, or weeks of coming up with nothing, you come across something. A single Waffle House standing sentinel against the setting sun. You enter. You are greeted by a waitress, and as you sit, the sound of an oncoming horde of undead comes from outdoors. Within seconds the building is surrounded, the windows and glass doors shuddering against their pounding fists. The waitress, the cooks, and the customers all exchange looks, you all know what to do. Survive the night." ~ creator Dan the Baker
"In Cats of Catthulhu, players take on roles of a variety of ordinary-seeming cats fighting conspiracies of cosmic chaos. Mighty spirits such as Snarlyathotep, slimy Phatphroggua, and Hastpurr of the Yellow Eye inspire their cultists to destroy civilization - but that's where all the comfy furniture is! One person acts as the Cat Herder, arranging the secret plots, challenges and rewards, and guiding the others through the process of making an adventure. Rules are light and quick, emphasizing player cleverness and the fun of being feline. There's plenty of darkness and chaos in the world, but our fuzzy heroes can handle it!... Usually." ~ creator Joel Sparks
"The Great Depression of 1929 brought wide unemployment and increased the price of books in London, especially the rare ones. You have taken advantage of this situation by looking for those rare books and selling them to unusual collectors (it isn't your concern what they do with them).
Your usual methods include frequenting auctions and estate sales, but "special" books often involve dealing with theft, smuggling, cheating and grave-robbing... but, hey mate! It's a tough world and you need to survive..." ~ creators Mundos Infinitos
"This might possibly be the Dumbest thing I have ever made. Based on two random words given to me during a Twitch stream on Fandible Office Hours ("Banana" and "Light") I constructed the concept of this complete mess of a game in about a minute. Compiled mostly from notes written on bar napkins and voice memos on my phone, the world of Banana Light is not to be taken seriously in any way, shape or form. Honestly it's mostly a vehicle for watching a group of people say "Shit, wait, who has the banana?" It's just a game about time travel, boats and bananas. I'd like to think it has a-peel." ~ creator David Donnelly
"The Cat Hack is a traditional role playing game, played with paper, pencils and dice, where the player characters are all cats. The Cat Hack is based on The Black Hack by David Black, which in turn uses that Original 1970s Fantasy Roleplaying Game. This base was added to and subtracted from to get something a bit different, a bit streamlined. Some familiarity with the original is assumed.
SETTING? The basic premise of this game is that cats have a unique relationship with the supernatural, and protect humans and other animals from things that others cannot even see. Whether the cats are dealing with Lovecraftian entities, ghosts, faeries, spiritual parasites that encourage mental illness, or something else, is up to the GM." ~ creator Kirt A. Dankmyer
"Marvelous Mutations & Merry Musicians! is a game about a Band of travelling mutant musicians, who travel from town to town, performing concerts and doing whatever it is they like to do besides that. Maybe exploring those ancient ruins, maybe helping communities solve their problems, maybe just drinking and destroying their rooms at the local inn.
What once were post-apocalyptic wastelands are now once again filled with life.
People, not-people and once-people roam the distorted landscape between populated areas. Some are friendly. Some are lonely, or dangerous, or boring. Some of them defy everything you think of as the laws of nature." ~ creator wendi y
"Feathers is a game of angels, fallen into our world, wandering in unfamiliar, fragile bodies, looking for a people, places, and selves they can find comfort in. It’s about being divine inside, and learning to own and love what’s on the outside. It’s about the connections that keep us warm, and how we become the people we want to be. Heaven is lost to them, never to return, but there are undreamed of joys and tragedies to be found among the flock here below.
In case it isn’t clear: this game is deeply queer, and is a pretty transparent metaphor for being transgender. You’re not here to wallow in misery, even though the characters are likely to hurt and get hurt along the way. This story, just like ours, is ultimately an optimistic one." ~ creator Thursday Garreau
"Wanderhome is a pastoral fantasy role-playing game about traveling animal-folk, the world they inhabit, and the way the seasons change. It is a game filled with grassy fields, mossy shrines, herds of chubby bumblebees, opossums in sundresses, salamanders with suspenders, starry night skies, and the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine.
You might be a tamarin who dances with small and forgotten gods, a leporine mail carrier who relies on moths to get packages where they belong, a little lizard with a big heart and a mysterious past, or a near endless number of other thrilling possibilities. No matter what, we're always travelers - animal folk who go from village to village and get to see the length and breadth of all the world of Haeth. The seasons will change as we play, and we will change with them.
Wanderhome is built on the Belonging Outside Belonging engine. That means there's no dice, no math, no Game Masters, and no complicated rules." ~ Possum Creek Games
