Have you played THE LIBRARIAN'S APPRENTICE ?

By Dan Bronson-Lowe

The Librarian's Apprentice is an all-ages solo journaling RPG that takes place in an infinite library. Take on the role of the titular apprentice and, together with your familiar, journey through the Great Library in search of six documents requested by your Librarian.

Osiyo! My name is Sahoni and I'm a queer indigenous writer and game designer. Did you know I have a patreon on which you can help support my game design endeavors? Get credited, early previews, playtest invites and even copies of everything I put out depending on how you back.

I'm about to start the second round of playtest for my upcoming game "Protect The Sacred" . So now is the time to get in on this.

Protect the Sacred is an anticolonial pulp wonderwork adventure in the style of things like indiana jones, tintin, johnny quest, and tomb raider where you play people with folkloric powers working to protect, preserve, and reclaim a world of magic on the terms of the people they belong to. Explore otherworld dungeons fromed by from stories that need to be told. Repatriate artifacts after stealing them from an evil wizards horde. Have a long night of karaoke with the local magical community afterwards. This is a game about intangible culture, your connections to it, and telling stories (in an adventure coating.)

Have you played The_Bookmark

By Village on Stilts

Usher ancient machines toward sentience using only tomes from a fallen civilisation - aka the books from your bookshelf!

wip. im testing out some art stuff for a ttrpg im working on…

a new underside dev diary is out for patreons, this time about the game's social skills and the philosophy behind why i picked the ones i did! if you're not a patreon but still interested in keeping up with underside's development, then fortunately the last dev diary (as well as all the ones before it!) are available for everyone.

(underside is my work-in-progress dark superhero ttrpg focused on exploring trauma, escalating conflicts, and fast-paced action based around cool power interactions more than statblocks in the vein of worm or invincible. i've been working on it for about two years now and released a much earlier draft under the name capes in the dark--i'm currently hoping to release a feature-complete playtest pdf this summer!)

if you subscribe to my patreon, you'll get to see these weekly updates as they come out, as well as a weekly scrap of writing, poetry, or game design. and you'll also be trapped in my torture labyrinth :)

Squadron Reporting In: BTE Overdrive - Pilot Talismans

Greetings, Dan here!

One of the main goals for Beneath Twisted Earth: Overdrive was to provide GMs and players with supernatural options for their campaigns. This encompasses several additions across multiple aspects one of which we will be discussing today in the new option for players, Pilot Talismans. Dating far back in the histories of soldiers, but popularized in the media back during the 1940's is the concept of a soldier's talisman. Some manner of charm that brought them good luck while they were far from home, facing the horrors of war. Most related are the talismans that WWII pilots would carry with them on the sorties. This could range from a lucky pair of socks, to a photo of a loved one, or a trophy from a past brush with death. To get real for a moment, it's something I can relate to as I keep a pair of sunglasses I found at the beach on the day I almost lost someone important to me. It's this sort of story that brings meaning to such objects an in the case of BTE, tangible power.

Pilot Talismans will offer roleplaying opportunity for the players through the meaning the talisman holds to their character while also providing a minor mechanical benefit while the object is with them in the cockpit of their mech. To help illustrate what sort of talismans and benefits players can equip their pilots with, I've included two examples from BTE Overdrive below:

Book of Creed: If damage from a critical hit would drop the pilot to 0 HP, the book is destroyed instead and the pilot's HP remains unchanged.

Game Piece: If a mech piloting or weapon skill check is failed by one point, it succeeds instead.

When taking a Pilot Talisman, players will be encouraged to come up with the nature and background of the object. Will their book of creed be a religious tome passed down in their family, or a book of philosophy they hold dear because it helped them through a personal tragedy? Will they carry a rook from their childhood chess set, or an Ace of Spades from the deck of cards used to win their mech in poker? This talisman will help to provide added personality to the pilot while providing them a benefit they will swear by, even if it's negligible enough for others to dismiss as sheer coincidence.

Next time, we'll move from new pilot options to the expanded mech options that will be available in the expansion. What better place to start that with Utility Systems and the new abilities pilots will be able to equip their mech with? Until then. Thank you for your interest and I look forward to seeing you at the launch of the premium versions of Beneath Twisted Earth and the launch of Beneath Twisted Earth: Overdrive.

Have you played REMEMBER FRANKIE ?

by Rhodrick Magsino

"Remember Frankie?" is a storytelling game about creating a shared history at the crossroads of memory and fiction for 3-4 players. Players will reminisce about an imaginary person using real memories - playfully twisting the facts of their story to create a thematic veil of mystery.

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.

Tell us more about ur crush! ^.^

I’m so shy… maybe 1 fact. My crush is born on the planet of forests.

An harpy, a griffon and a Hydra from Cairn 2E bestiary, now live on Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1557907976/cairn-2e-boxed-set/description

I saw a post talking about how Terry Pratchett only wrote 400 words a day, how that goal helped him write literally dozens of books before he died. So I reduced my own daily word goal. I went down from 1,000 to 200. With that 800-word wall taken down, I’ve been writing more. “I won’t get on tumblr/watch TV/draw/read until I hit my word goal” used to be something I said as self-restraint. And when I inevitably couldn’t cough up four pages in one sitting, I felt like garbage, and the pleasurable hobbies I had planned on felt like I was cheating myself when I just gave up. Now it’s something I say because I just have to finish this scene, just have to round out this conversation, can’t stop now, because I’m enjoying myself, I’m having an amazing time writing. Something that hasn’t been true of my original works since middle school. 

And sometimes I think, “Well, two hundred is technically less than four hundred.” And I have to stop myself, because - I am writing half as much as Terry Pratchett. Terry fucking Pratchett, who not only published regularly up until his death, but published books that were consistently good. 

And this has also been an immense help as a writer with ADHD, because I don’t feel bad when I take a break from writing - two hundred words works up quick, after all. If I take a break at 150, I have a whole day to write 50 more words, and I’ve rarely written less than 200 words and not felt the need to keep writing because I need to tie up a loose end anyways. 

Yes, sometimes, I do not produce a single thing worth keeping in those two hundred words. But it’s much easier to edit two hundred words of bad writing than it is to edit no writing at all.

Hello TTRPG Folks!!

I'm going to be running a long-term Masks podcast and am opening up applications now! More info in the link!

My first set of paper print at home DnD minis are available on DriveThruRPG! https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/473388/Miss-D-Drawss-Base-Pack-Paper-Minis

...

Hi all! Welcome to my art and tt rpg design blog. You can find updates here on my art, my game design progress, and my storefronts. I’ll also occasionally reblog other creative work I find interesting.

Welcome aboard!

NAME GOES HERE: a Newsletter

Reading: Old Gods of Appalachia TTRPG by Monte Cook Games, Starter Villain by John Scalzi, The Secrets We Keep by Shirley Patton

Finished Reading: Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Future by Naomi Alderman

Podcast: Unwell

Playing: God Hand (PS2(on PS3(Thank God Hand for PS2 Classics)))

Making: Zines and Doom Levels

Writing: Project E

Word Count: 168317

TLDR: EfanGamez needs food help badly! CHEAP TTRPG BUNDLE! Working on working titles. The, frankly, crowded writing scene and AI intruders. ADHD and unfinished proj… Wingspan is so cute and so fun~ We’re Here because We’re Here because… Mekborg and Steel Psalm want YOU!

An indie TTRPG designer needs help badly! EfanGamez has put all of their paid TTRPGs and supplements together into a tidy little bundle and is currently offering it for $25USD on their itch.io page! This sale is on for another 19 days as of the posting of this newsletter and I HIGHLY encourage anyone interested in trying out TTRPGs that are out of the norm to take advantage of this deal. Grim and Mourn are two first-person-shooter-inspired TTRPGs that I can recommend in particular.

I have been working on Project E, the working title, of which she’s had many. Just recently, I decided it was necessary to completely rewrite every bit of dialogue for the main villain, allowing him a more gradual, consistent descent into madness. It’s going well, and progress is happening. I want to touch on something in the first sentence of this paragraph. It’s FASCINATING to me how some stories get their names with minimal teeth-pulling. Hell, I’ve had stories who received their names BEFORE I wrote a word of them. But Project E has gone through so many iterations of names that I’ve sort of decided to keep this working title until I’m done and maybe even after Beta Readers have had their turn. I know the name will come when it’s meant to. Part of my problem is the book is about a very specific theme, its plot has some consistent elements, and its setting is vivid… but to wrap up enough of these separate elements together in a title is proving… troublesome.

Trying to get your work out into the world as an author (in ways where people will actually see it that is) is SO freakin difficult. The market is saturated now more than ever. We, as writers, not only have to “contend” with our fellow writers but now with AI as there is an influx of AI-generated content being submitted to journals and magazines around the world. I am glad I am not in the publishing industry right now. But, nevertheless, I have submitted to two anthologies this past month. One bigger name bi-monthly and one niche market which was INSANELY fun to write. Hopefully, something will come of them. But if not, what do you do? We, as writers, continue on. We heed the call in our hearts and minds, we sling that ink and continue forward, one lie at a time.

Speaking of which, I have so many unfinished works XD I tend to post about something I’m working on then distraction occurs and all of a sudden it has been a month and I have totally forgotten about the project I had been working on. I have no doubt picked up something new or something old and once-forgotten. ADHD brains often feel like a quagmire, hard to pull thoughts through, sometimes you lose them altogether to the deep dark, sometimes they resurface, grimy and forgotten… what was I talking about again?

Last month, my little TTRPG group didn’t meet as several folks were unavailable… so instead we got the remaining few of us together and I got to play Wingspan for the first time! What a blast~ It was certainly complicated starting off but the rules become pretty easy to grasp after about two rounds of play. After that, when you’re about one round from the end is when it becomes clear how you’re supposed to plan for the ending if you’re intent on winning. Or of course, you could just enjoy all the beautiful birds, the weird facts, and the wonderful time shared with your friends.

I am a long-term Nerdfighter. 2012 era. If you are unsure of what this means, I’ll briefly explain. John and Hank Green are two authors/ YouTubers /philanthropists/ podcasters/ educators/ nerds/ TBFighters (I could go on… these guys are PROLIFIC) and they have been vlogging since 2007 and around that vlog (originally meant to bring them closer as brothers which I think is/was/whatever a resounding success) has grown a community called Nerdfighteria, among many other things. They have recently started a “good news” newsletter called We’re Here. “A nice little email for people from Earth.” I highly recommend signing up. These humans have continued to make the world less sucky by their presence and their actions. It’s beautiful how these massively powerful, famous, and influential creators are using their network to support folks in their extended community and using their community and influence to make so much good change in the world. Please go check out We’re Here and Vlogbrothers.

Speaking of community and supporting one another, DMDave is starting a Kickstarter for two books! Mekborg, which seems to be Warhammer 40k grimdark meets Battletech, is/was/whatever designed by John K Webb who has a LOT of design credits for the magazines Broadsword and Sidequest. As well, there’s Steel Psalm, designed by Dave himself, which from the name I’d presume is the same setting, but using wargaming rules similar to Forbidden Psalm (Also big recommendation). The Kickstarter is launching April 16th and the best part? When it’s done, the digital copies will go out immediately and by June or July the books will be shipped out (depending on how long printing takes) as the books are already finished! I’ll fully admit DMDave probably doesn’t “need” help to get the project funded, but the more support there is, the more likely projects like this will be created in the future!

Support weird. Support indie.

Fellow birds, we are in danger! Humans are building something wicked. With whirring machines and strange hats. That's why you've been chosen from your flock. To stop their plans and save our beautiful rainforest. So join your comrades. Welcome to The Bookworm Circle!

What is this?

The Bookworm Circle is a one-page rules-lite game in which players play as birds from an endangered rainforest. Their goal as birds is to infiltrate human society to stop the human project that is endangering their rainforest. To infiltrate, they will use their magic bookworms to take the human form of a book character.

"During the [...]: Quickly deduces that [...] having seen [...]. Straggling spectators follow [...] to [...], sending for [...] two loyal sons Jason and Jonas (one a parish Constable, the other a parish Gong Farmer) while [...] provokes allies among the crowd [...]. Wants: To use the opportunity to [...]."

TPPAPPOP says ACAB

The Adventure Log is feature-complete!

You can play with JUST the log. It has all the information you need and records every detail.

When you submit it with your high score, it's much easier for judges to validate your run.

(trying rounded top corners, edged bottom corners)