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drakeanddice · 2 days

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For the tarot prompts: Death!

Death — Talk about an idea you’d love to make that no-one would expect from you.

Bats, you've homed in on what I think is basically the most difficult question for me to answer on this list and I love that for us.

My typical process is to make whatever I think is fun at the moment, regardless of thematic element or mechanical bearing. I honestly wonder fairly often what a "Drake" game even is. I've built courtly-intrigue Forged in the Dark, crushing folksome space capitalism procedural exploration, ghost cooking, magical girls, magical mecha girls, an OSR adventure zine, a duo grudge-match narrative game, a power fantasy of Captains Planet vs the Fairies, a cozy game of fairy children waking springtime, a tearjerker journaling game about airships, and a BORG about being lost in Fairyland. Aside from drawing from the fairy well perhaps a bit too often, I like to think I'm not a predictable designer. I follow the joy.

That said, I think the solo dungeon-battler with Dead Belt-esque dungeon procedural generation, equippable mix-and-match class abilities, and a patreon-only monthly content-drop dissemination scheme is probably the one no one would ever expect out of me. Navi and I were about 45% of the way through a game called "The Legend of Hexweald" that was basically Chrono Trigger on a table before we got sidelined by FE BORG. It was looking good, but MAN it was a lot of work.

Most of the best bits were carved out to build the skeleton for Heartbreaker Online our forthcoming Forged in the Dark fantasy romp. But one of these days I'm going to open that doc and get super excited about it again. And then you'll all see.

#indie ttrpg #ttrpg stuff #ttrpg dev #ttrpg design #The Game Maker's Tarot

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drakeanddice · 2 days

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Just so we’re clear, the consensus of Tumblr seems to be that my optimal adventuring party will consist of a haunted grad student with autism, an amoral but frighteningly-competent tomb robber, and a sad robot.

I’ve never been less surprised.

#ttrpg stuff #indie ttrpg #cyoa #text adventure

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drakeanddice · 3 days

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Help me choose my party (3/3). I am—and by extension, you are— heading to Chiron’s Doom. I cannot go alone. The game will not let me. Despite my misgivings about all of these strange rakehells, forlorn souls, mad-eyed seekers, and horrible blorbos of sundry makes and models, I cannot make the journey alone. For slot 3 of 3, do I take:

Mr. and Mrs. Whithers, Hero-Caddies: Hard-working hands, callused but artfully maintained and tastefully tattooed. Prim uniforms, pressed this morning and with the insignia of their last employer freshly removed—visible only by the sun bleaching of the fabric save where the former crest lay. Smiles sharp enough to cut and an eagerness summer-lemon sweet and tart. They reach for each other when questions are asked, hands entwining and eyes meeting for a spare heartbeat before they answer.

Ascended Magus Powell, Journeyman Heirophant of the Baelem Monastery: A conservative black robe with a dusty hem. A walking stick that is older than he, lacquered smooth with age and use. A chain of silver prayer beads tucked into his sash. A double snake-tongue tattoo dripping from the corners of his broad and likeable smile. His eyes glittering with kindness and a manic zeal for a god you’ve never heard of.

Fig, a Construct: Expressionless doll’s face with fascinatingly intricate eyes. Luminescent, irising view-finder aperatures. A voice of the legion, previously recorded and more than the sum of its parts. A smell of the kiln, the quenching barrel, and the faintest trace of the abattoir. A palpable sadness. They pull their chair out carefully, so very carefully, and still the wood bears the imprint of their fingers.

#indie ttrpg #writing #writers on tumblr #cyoa game #text adventure #audience participation #Actual play

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drakeanddice · 3 days

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Help me choose my party (2/3) I am—and by extension, you are— heading to Chiron’s Doom. I cannot go alone. The game will not let me. Despite my misgivings about all of these strange rakehells, forlorn souls, mad-eyed seekers, and horrible blorbos of sundry makes and models, I cannot make the journey alone. For slot 2 of 3, do I take:

Zev Sevens, Spear Sergeant late of the 17th Grasshound Irregulars. “I fought a Phippoli, and Timus. Saw action on the Breakers Bay and on the walls of Harvonius. I was there when the ground splintered in Arvenne and the army of Cherne was swallowed by the darkness. Good friends of mine fell into the void where Chiron’s Doom stands today, and we made a promise. Our bones would come home, no matter what.”

Soto Voce, The Last of The Smoke Angels. “I’m not going to mince words with you, seeker. I figure there’s enough lies about Chiron’s Doom that I don’t need to add to them. It’ll be trapped. It’ll be locked. It’ll be hard going. People will die. Wouldn’t you rather avail yourself of the expertise of the best damned tomb breaker to ever walk the world? Or are you going to let the fact that all of my associates died screaming poison that well? They put their feet wrong, leapt before they looked, trusted when they should’a scrutinized. You ain’t an idiot, are you?”

Wee Otto, A Child. “Mum and Da went West already and they’re never coming back. I was too small to go with them. I was too scared. But I’m ready to grow up now. I’m tired of being little and I’m tired of people looking at me like you’re looking at me now. I can do this. I just need someone to give me the chance. Please? I don’t eat much and I’ll keep quiet. And hey, I can do tricks!”

#indie ttrpg #writing #cyoa #audience participation #writers on tumblr #Actual play

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drakeanddice · 3 days

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Help me choose my party.

I am—and by extension, you are— heading to Chiron’s Doom. I cannot go alone. The game will not let me. Despite my misgivings about all of these strange rakehells, forlorn souls, mad-eyed seekers, and horrible blorbos of sundry makes and models, I cannot make the journey alone.

For slot 1 of 3, do I take:

Sparra Simms, a Grad Student from the Alienist’s Guild: She learned eye contact from a book, and is terrified that she’s doing it wrong, so she’s substituting enthusiasm for accuracy. Her robes are grounded with chokewire sigils in patterns that make my eyes water. She needs this job, because her thesis (already written) requires citations and the word of her otherworldly sponsors don’t count apparently. There is no language she cannot speak.

Bottom-Groat Gollivar, an Adventure-Capitalist (and Crux, the Alleged-Mule): Gollivar’s got an easy-going charm that shouldn’t ever exude from someone who presented a list of graves previously robbed as a resume. He’s got stuff, though, and that’s for sure. Most of it, he claims, is actually from Chiron’s Doom, and it wants badly to go back. He’ll sell some to me if I’d like. Crux, however, the not-quite-mule, crunches apples and spits out intact skins. Crux has clearly been to Chiron’s Doom before. Both of them are clearly skilled to have survived this long in their professions.

Marquis d’ Sercasso, Ovin Weems, Old Money and plenty of it: Freakishly well-equipped and startlingly intense for a person bred and raised in the lap of luxury, Ovin has already mapped the quickest route to the entrance to Chiron’s Doom and the Wellspringg beyond. They try to take my hand, tears dripping black from the corners of their kohled eyes. The dreams, apparently, started when they were named heir to Sercasso. They will find the heart of the Wellspring and Old Sercasso will rise again from the mires of the South. Magic will return to the world, and I could be a part of that. Don’t I want to be a part of that? They have more money than God.

#indie ttrpgs #actual play #cyoa #writing #audience participation #text adventure

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drakeanddice · 18 days

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A whole vibe.

You should all go play Laser-Ritter. You will understand.

My vibe as a TTRPG designer? Sort of like this, really.

How about you?

#ttrpg dev #ttrpg design #indie ttrpg

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drakeanddice · 18 days

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My vibe as a TTRPG designer? Sort of like this, really.

How about you?

#ttrpg dev #ttrpg design #indie ttrpg #osr #writing

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drakeanddice · 18 days

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We do this not because it is easy, but because it makes the ghosts quiet for a quarter of an hour.

#writing #ttrpg dev

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drakeanddice · 18 days

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Gnome Paladins are rad. Disagree? I posit the following.

Be a goofy but gallant defender of all that is right, mounted upon a floofy dog.

Played a Gnome Paladin in 3/3.5e and Sir Anastaius Q. Weeble still rates as one of my favorite characters of all time.

Back in the 90s when the Dungeon Master's Guide would talk about changing race/class restrictions, it gave DMs a warning: be judicious about allowing new combinations and always do so as singular exceptions first, because if you allow gnome paladins, suddenly everyone will play nothing but gnome paladins.

I think they might have overestimated the allure of the gnome paladin a tad.

#ttrpg design #monoculture is boring #optimization is a lie #D&D is better when you don't read the rules

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drakeanddice · 19 days

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#hell yeah! #my vote is for Slugblaster but both sound fun

You'll be pleased to hear that the unanimous decision was "both." Going to pilot episode Beyond the Wall and Slugblaster, decide which one we're enjoying more, and then do a 6-10 episode season.

Then we'll decide whether to return to The Patch and Mausritter, Millenium City and Masks, or maybe the wacky world of the fantasy Forged in the Dark heartbreaker I've been working on.

I've just recently been informed that our Friday night group has been playing together for better than five years, which is basically a lifetime for a bunch of internet strangers assembled in the frontiers of Roll20. This goes to show that there's someone out there who wants to play weird games with you.

Finished the season of Mausritter last night. Everyone survived the Battle of Big Stump, but we lost some allies along the way. The Last Chancers (the old glory-hound regiment from Fox Cross) were wiped out almost to a mouse. The AutoMice leader and command structure was taken prisoner for later experimentation by the City Mice. The walls of Big Stump were burnt to a near ruin and the spirit of the Stump (a strange fey abomination sealed away in the dead tree) is stirring. Worse, Fennel's plan to assassinate the Cat Queen Azura did not come to fruition; his poisoned arrow hit, but failed to affect her to the extent that was planned and the follow up shot posed a difficult choice. "Whoever you shoot next will die. Do you kill the Cat Queen or the Marauder Rat?" And Fennel decided that it was better to assure the end of Clooney Splitjaw. So down he went.

We got a neat medals at the end of Star Wars scene following the battle with the assembled survivors of the army that the Wayfinders led to victory. Azura leaned in to each in turn as she settled medals over their necks.

"Birch, valorous marshal and captain by blood and toil of the battlefield, wear your rank with pride. We name you First Sword of the Stump. May tales of your valiant heart echo, and may we requite your love one hundred fold."

"Bindi, flame of innovation, burning when all hope fades. We have seen your leadership among those with no stomach to fight. Urchins became an army. The gates burnt but never fell. We name you Firebrand. What is burnt may sprout anew. May we never forget."

"Fennel. Archer, rootwalker. The next time you draw a treacherous shaft, steady your hand, and DO. NOT. MISS."

Smash cut to credits.

Next week we decide on whether to switch over to Beyond the Wall or Slugblaster for our between seasons interlude. Either way, it's going to be weird teens getting into situations and I'm stoked.

#play more games #ttrpg community #indie ttrpg #it took two weeks to assemble this crew #which doesn't sound like a lot #until you try to assemble a D&D group and it fills up in 6 minutes #Wait the two weeks #Well worth it

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drakeanddice · 21 days

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Hey! Did you know that if you get your games on Itch.io, you've got a handy-dandy list of things that you can review? It's true!

If you go to your Library page, you'll see that tucked into the left-hand column is a "Things to Rate" button. Click it and be presented with all of the cool things you've gotten but have not rated.

Whenever you get the chance, click that button and clear out some of the backlog! The nearest I can tell, ratings are part of the arcane algorithm that sorts and orders the games on Itch (along with Views, Downloads, Age, blood type, star sign, and so on). Every Rating gets your favorite stuff just a little more visibility.

But even more than that, it lets the very real person who has made the thing you've enjoyed know that you liked it. And I really cannot overstate how much that means. Some days it's what keeps me doing this.

A call to action: review games you love!

If you enjoyed an independent TTRPG you played recently, go give a review! It takes less than a couple of minutes and can really help the creators of the games you love! I've just reviewed a few of my recent favourites (Exquisite Biome, RUNE and I'm Sorry Did You Say Street Magic) and wanted to encourage others to do the same!

I'd love if people reblogged with their favourite games, I'm always looking for more to check out!

#indie ttrpg #ttrpg dev #itch.io #rating stuff is objectively sexy

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drakeanddice · 22 days

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One of the neatest gaming experiences I've had in recent memory was appearing as my Dead Belt persona, Chariot, on the official Void 1680 AM pirate radio station.

This game has a submissions form for your playlist to be broadcast by Ken's official pirate radio station. And a bank of "callers" who have submitted their voice to play the roles of the anonymous late night voices who've called in to your show. How fucking cool is that?

If you haven't heard of it, now you have. I encourage you to check it out.

Have you played VOID 1680 AM ?

By Ken Lowery

With a deck of cards, a six-sided die and a stack of music, you will build a 12 song playlist, invent and interact with Callers to your show, and evolve their stories in a single session or ongoing play. No matter their motivations, they simply must be heard. In that way, you are very alike.

#The great lost episode of the podcast I keep failing to update #Chariot out #Dead Belt True Tales of the Gasping Frontier #Indie TTRPGs #solo ttrpg

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drakeanddice · 23 days

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It does not matter how many books I write or times I remind myself that I make my living by making words get up and dance for others amusement. One thing remains the same: there is nothing quite like getting your RP server character submission approved without any required changes or corrections.

#Writing #RP #but srsly

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drakeanddice · 24 days

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Court of Blades is a tabletop RPG that takes place in a fantasy renaissance city-state populated by scheming nobles, court magicians, and dashing duelists.

Explore how players manage intrigues, scandals, reputations, connections and more in my flip through!

youtube

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drakeanddice · 26 days

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Public Notice

If you boop, I boop.

You boop again, I'll superboop you.

If you continue to boop, you catch a block.

General amnesty extended to all those who were not aware of the rules. I got shit to do today.

This is not to say that I don't love you. It's only to say that I need to set a limit on how often I let the blue number distract me.

Also I will almost immediately forget who has and who has not booped me.

#General spoilsport notice

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drakeanddice · 26 days

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I think I saw the Sekiro parry sparks on this one.

how much do you roleplay offline?

What are you a cop

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drakeanddice · 26 days

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It's okay, y'all. I can get us out of here.

I focus my senses (going to Push for two Stress) and search for secret doors, running my hands along the seams in the stone and carefully tapping with my serpent's fang (ticking Load) to try and suss out any hollow areas. Is there a Devil's Bargain here?

no. Yourew not allowed to enjoy d&d. ifg you are out there and enojying a game of 5e my elite squad of pbta warriors will crash in yhtough yourt windows and get a mixed success on their roll, allowing them to flawlessly handcuff and arrest you but at the cost of describing to the GM one dream they will never achieve,

#ttrpg #Forged in the Dark

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