Working on a prototype the last few nights, a choose-your-own-adventure origami fortune-teller (is there a better name for this, I know it as the playground game where someone runs up and demands you PICK A COLOUR).
This was to sketch out the idea of it, so dont scrutinise it too closely or you'll see it doesnt make much sense cos I made it up on the go.
But!
I think I could explore this idea in so many different directions and build some really cool design here. I'm sure people must have made this kind of thing before because now I've stumbled on to the idea it seems too obvious to overlook and theres so much design space here.
Anyway I hope you enjoy your jaunt into the wizard's tower! I recommend adventurers start at #8, but it's not up to me. You can go where you please: pick a number.
Another concept here is that I can use this base as a game for introducing people to the idea of ttrpgs as grab bag tasters of different kinds of rpg mechanics/mediums/genres/adventures etc.
I’ve been playing lots of new games lately and something I’ve really come to appreciate is when a game tells me how to start playing. Usually, this involves giving me a step-by-step breakdown of what the first session looks like. And in my experience, this is a place where a lot of specificity is a good thing. Because I will just ignore anything that I don’t want to do anyway.
Here is an example of what I mean from the wonderful Band of Blades:
This is four simple pages. They tell you how to start your first session, including how to prepare and where the page numbers are for things you’ll need. The latter is particularly essential. They also tell you how the first mission should look - which is a great example of the game itself being designed with the understanding that it needs an on-ramp. (A lot of games don’t seem to think the first session needs to be any differant than the others.)
Now that is quite a simple example. Here's a more elaborate one: In DIE, the “control panel” layout for the spread about the first session becomes a kind of organizing document. It’s like a contents page.
Not only is this spread laying out a laser-focused structure for you to follow, that session structure is deciding where information goes in the book to some extent. I mean, those pages aren’t sequential by accident, right? It’s a very interesting move.
I’ve run both Band of Blades and DIE and these pages were extremely useful to me. With DIE, I was wrestling with a PDF and I'm sure it would’ve been so much better with a physical book. This is the page where your bookmark goes!
And because examples comes in threes, here’s another one from The Between which has an extremely elaborate section on how to run your first session.
The Between’s session one procedure is 13 pages and 15 steps. This seems like a lot but let me assure you, it’s not at all. It is extremely thorough while still being easy to read and reference. It provides you with lots of boxed text to read aloud. Which you are obviously free to use or not. But in that first session, you will probably need a provide a two line introduction to every playbook so your players can pick. Other games would have those two lines in another section about playbooks or maybe on the playbooks themselves. This game does that too. And in those other games, you could collect that information during prep. This game has just done some of that prep for you. And I appreciate it.
Introducing "BARREN", a TTRPG game I'm going to try and work on.
It's a game that is meant to be a meditation on violence, hatred, trauma, hope, and comradery set in a non-specific post-apocalypse.
It's a game that I have been wanting to make for a while as I do some thinking about how violence, while sometimes necessary, is erosive, just like the sands in a desert.
For 5$ you can help support trans rights in Florida and receive 500 TTRPG’s including Wanderhome, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Maharlika RPG, Gubat Banwa, and literally hundreds more.
YOUR GOD IS DEAD, and you’re the unlucky soul tasked with figuring out who killed em. As sheriff, you are working to uncover the truth behind this tragedy before your parish’s rage boils over and makes the situation even worse. There’s someone or something on the loose that can kill a god, and it’s hard to know who to trust nowadays. You know you can rely on your horse, your gun, your faith, and your lawman’s intuition.
Ride carefully, partner. There’s trouble afoot.
I’m super excited to announce that my new solo journaling game is now published - you can find it here! This game was made for the Hints & Hijinx Jam hosted by @pandiongames. If you’re interested, I encourage you to check out other entries - this system is super fun to play (and to write!).
WHO KILLED GOD? is a solo mystery game of divine
catastrophe and small-town suspicion in a Weird West setting. This book
has prompts and mechanics to help guide you, but it is up to you to
follow the clues to wherever they lead, whether that’s to redemption or
ruin.
You play as your town’s sheriff, trying to find the party or parties
responsible for the death of your god. You will explore various
locations around town, meet with townsfolk, and attempt to gather
evidence while getting yourself out of tricky predicaments and tight
spots. At the end of the game, you’ll find out whether or not you were
right.
I’ve played and run a lot of this in the last year. It’s got such a unique setting. Here’s the basics.
Once upon a time, the Verdancy happened: an apocalypse of accelerated growth and acidic poison called crezzerine.
But that was then. This is now.
Now, ships with chainsaw prows and leviathan heart engines cut through waves of treetops. Their wakes disappear as the rapid growth repairs broken branches. Mutated wolves and foxes leap from limb to limb.
You build a character with three main elements: Bloodline, Origin, and Post.
Bloodline is what species you are. Maybe you’re a mothryn, recently emerged from your chrysalis. Maybe you’re an ektus, longing for desert sands. Maybe you’re a tzelicrae whose spiders have just finished sewing a new skin.
(Yeah, this is a weird game).
Origin is where you’re from. Did you grow up on one of the few solid landmasses in the trees? Were you preserved in amber for centuries and now have to contend with a foreign landscape? Did you grow up on the waves themselves, with a family on a fleet of ships?
Post is the sort of role you fill on a ship. Maybe you fight with guns. Maybe you brew strange concoctions that heal the soul. Maybe you carry the mail.
Each of these three elements is made up of aspects. Each aspect gives you a specific flavor, and each has a track associated with it. These tracks can be used for special abilities when specified, or they can be marked to designate injury done to your wildsailor.
Tracks in general are the way to measure progress, whether that be in journeys, in combat, or in projects.
You build your dice pool with Edges, Skills, and then any relevant aspects, resources, or environmental advantages you might have. The Firefly (GM) imposes cut if there are factors making the thing you’re trying to achieve more difficult. Your outcome is measured on a scale from triumph to conflict to failure. And doubles means a twist comes into play!
That’s to say nothing of ship-building!
I really cannot emphasize enough how fun and low-prep this game is. And guess what?
In preparation for the print run, I've upgraded the aesthetic of the game to better represent the grungy world of Hopes & Dreams!
This game is a rules-lite ttrpg where you play as young adults who want to make a difference in a world that won’t let them. Government officials are corrupted, your leaders are broken, and the future looks bleak.
Play in this original grunge industrial fantasy setting where you and your friends haven’t abandoned hope yet. You still have dreams of what life could be, and are willing to fight for it.
