Today's Weekly TTRPG is... the one you'll make!
I feel like a lot of the time I go on tumblr I see people with very creative ideas but no outlet, its a shame. Fortunately, there's a lot of resources out there for people willing to look! and I have some right here that you all can peruse at your own leisure
"I wanna make a TTRPG but I can't draw!" While right off the bat this is a bad excuse because you can make a ttrpg with no art, if you really need images to go along with your ttrpg you can always look at public domain images! A lot of ttrpgs use public domain/free to use images in them in order to demonstrate certain mechanics. some mix it together with image editing for very unique aesthetics such as Cain, where Abbadon's unique and strange art style is mixed with backgrounds of real images to emphasize the alien nature of the creatures within. Some public domain image archives include: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/ https://pdimagearchive.org/ https://www.notion.so/Smithsonian-4aa88cb5861b49738eca711a81b79a1d?pvs=25
"I'm not super experienced with Game Design!" This is a valid excuse, but one that can be fixed! As well as a lot of TTRPG discords having game design channels and people who would gladly help you with Game design questions and basics, there's also plenty of resources out there for learning how to make fun and interesting games with relative ease
https://levikornelsen.itch.io/the-deck-of-rules This is one of my favorites, it gamifies the process of making a game by turning key points in your game's design into puzzle pieces to put together
https://levikornelsen.itch.io/cycles https://levikornelsen.itch.io/fundamentals-of-tabletop-roleplaying https://levikornelsen.itch.io/manyfold While less Fun than the Deck of Rules, these documents by Levi Kornelsen go over basic game design principles and getting started on your own TTRPG, its a worthy read for any aspiring developer
"I wanna make a TTRPG but I don't wanna make a full system from 0!" That my friends, is where SRDs come in. SRD stands for System Reference Document, and they are extremely stripped down versions of pre-existing games meant for developers to be able to use said SRD in order to create their own original game, WOTC famously had a very very loose SRD named OGL... until it didn't! which caused a months long debacle about copyright and fair use, leading to the creation of ORC, which is Paizo's (which is like the DemSoc alternative to WOTC) response to their OGL, and I haven't really seen much from that front so far but thats for another post. Below are some SRDs, if I'm missing any assume its on purpose and I personally despise the developer as a person
https://bladesinthedark.com/basics Blades in the Dark is by itself a TTRPG about being a group of criminals planning heists on rich people and growing your own faction. Its SRD is best used for games where players control factions, and games that are narrative-heavy while still wanting a focus on episodic "Missions"
https://far-horizons-co-op.itch.io/brinkwood-srd Brinkwood is about being a group of Fae hunting aristocratic vampire barons to free society in a very "eat the rich" fashion. I actually have never seen a game using the Brinkwood SRD, but I like Brinkwood so I'm sure you can do some fun things with it :)
https://sealedlibrary.itch.io/wretched-alone-srd As we all know I despise solo games and think we should throw all journaling game devs into a pit (this is a joke.), but Wretched and Alone has an SRD that you could use to make a simplistic but fun Journaling game
https://gilarpgs.itch.io/slayers-creator-kit Slayers is a TTRPG about being monster hunters in an endless city , and it has a very open and solid SRD to make games in its style. Slayers is a simplistic combat heavy game so keep that in mind if you're gonna make something for it
https://gilarpgs.itch.io/lumen LUMEN is a toolkit used by GilaRPG's series of Warframe-inspired ttrpgs... Lumen, I'll give you a warning here: Lumen seems simple on its surface but if you treat it like a barebones plug-and-make engine you are going to make a very very bad game, you need to really focus in and make everything around the basic die rolling and rules interesting and complex.
https://litzabronwyn.itch.io/you-have-two-stats This is just a guide on making Lasers and feelings type games, simplistic one page TTRPGs with one stat, I think if you're just starting out making a quick and dirty Lasers and Feelings hack is the best place to start out
"Where can I find more not mentioned in this post?" Well, the website https://thegiftofdice.notion.site/TTRPG-Resources-e0245b455a1042a0abb5f3953719ef9f is a massive archive of TTRPG resources that you could peruse on your own time! This list is just a collection of some of my favorites.
Now go out there and go make your brave little toaster inspired OSR or whatever the hell you people want to make, just don't forget to send it to me when you're done!