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theaudiovore · 8 months

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For more than a year now I’ve had a concept for a single player TTRPG orbiting in the depths of my mind, slowly accumulating mass and occasionally passing into the Observable Universe that is my conscious mind.

A concept for an Elder Scrolls single player tabletop RPG.

In its present conception I imagine it to be played with some rules, paper and pencil, and a deck of playing cards.

In this game the player will start as a Prisoner, and through their own actions, divine intervention, and the weight of prophecy they will become a Hero.

They will meet their Doom and enter the Tower.

The Wheel turns.

The structure of play will be meant to resemble an Enantiomorphic Event, as all Elder Scrolls stories do.

The Three necessary elements are of course, a Prisoner, a King, and a Tower.

The Prisoner is the player, a person who by destiny or circumstance will rise to fullfill the role of Hero. The Eternal Champion, the Imperial Agent, the Nerevarine, the Hero of Kvatch and Champion of Cyrodiil, the Last Dragonborn, the Vestige. They are noone and come from nowhere, and so they can be anyone and go anywhere. They are Free in ways others are not, while simultaneously being shackled by their prophesied Doom.

The King is the antagonist, the threat to the wellbeing of the world and the people within it. Their power shakes the stones of the Tower and threatens to end the dream that is the Aurbis. Jagar Tharn, Zurin Arctus, Dagoth Ur, Mankar Camoran and Mehrunes Dagon, AL-DU-IN. They enter the story at the height of their power, and so they have nowhere to go but down. They see themselves as the Hero because their pride blinds them to the truth.

The Tower is the prison you must escape, the fortress you must siege, the secret you must learn. It is embodied in every obstacle, it is where you will always return, it is where Doom unfolds. The Staff of Chaos, NUMIDIUM, White Gold, Red Mountain, Snow Throat. It is both obstacle and objective, prison and protection.

I imagine the player character as a collection of Tags that grows as the game progresses. You’ll start by picking some Tags that represent your background, skill set, and Sign. Something like "Dunmer, Thief, Marksman, Charming, The Serpent” or “Nord, Warrior, Axe, Endurance, The Steed”.

Play proceeds by drawing cards from a deck of standard playing cards, 54 cards total with the Jokers included. Each suit would represent a type of encounter. You decide based on your tags and the story so far how the encounter goes, and sometimes you advance a clock. The Doom Clock.

Red suits represent opportunities and advantages. Diamonds for Material (Equipment, Magic, Relics, etc) and Hearts for Living Things (Creatures, Companions, Guilds, etc). Jokers represent divine intervention.

Black suits represent dangers and obstacles. Clubs for Material (Traps, Barriers, Curses, etc) and Spades for Living Things (Creatures, Bandits, Guards, etc).

Red Jokers represent Aedric forces like Yffre, Auri-El, and Mara. Black Jokers represent Daedric forces like Namira, Hircine. and Jyggalag.

You Draw a card and think about how your Tags let you resolve the situation it represents. Most of the time, you can choose to skip a card and ignore that encounter. Perhaps you decide that the danger is too great, perhaps your equipment is better than what you’ve found. Some cards cannot be skipped. Some events advance the Doom clock, bringing you closer to the final confrontation. Some cards advance the Doom Clock even if you skip them.

The Doom Clock represents the passage of time, your steady march to the finale. The Prisoner always confronts the King eventually. It always happens that way. Time is a living being, and while AKA is patient he cannot stay still for long. While the world waits for you, it does not wait forever.

I don’t have much beyond these concepts yet, but I have been thinking about this a lot. I know I want to explore things like Fate, the Aurbic Pattern, Duality, and the Cyclical Nature of Time. I know I want to include elements of the strange deep lore and apocryphal texts that make up the internal mythology of The Elder Scrolls. I know I want to reach for the sensation of a lonely exploration, of being burdened by prophecy, of being the one that the whole world waits on, the axle that the world turns around.

Something I need to do is play games that may share tonal or mechanical elements with what I want to achieve. In my ~20 years in the tabletop roleplaying hobby I have spent the vast majority of that time with various editions of The Dragon Game and others of its style. It is only in the past 5 years or so I’ve been expanding my breadth of experience, seeking out other styles and modes of play. This thing I want to make is outside my current sphere of competence, so I must increase my reach to match my grasp.

#the elder scrolls #elder scrolls #ttrpg #ttrpg design #diceless ttrpg #arena #daggerfall #morrowind #oblivion #skyrim #eso #elder scrolls online #is mai'q the liar a jack of hearts?#or is mai'q a red joker?#depends on who you ask

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dragonkid11 · 4 months

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HEAT, by David 'Dragon Cobolt' Cobly, is a diceless action ttrpg that acts as a flexible toolbox that can be used to emulate any high action setting, whether with gunfire, magic, or both at once while in space, all without a single need of (rolling) dices!

#youtube #ttrpg #HEAT #Intro #Review #diceless #yes diceless

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theresattrpgforthat · 1 year

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Do you have any game recs that have unconventional ways of determining outcomes (outside of rolling dice/drawing cards?) I remember I once saw one that revolved around candles, and another about rolling marbles, I think... I'm curious what other ones you've come across!

THEME: Dice and Card Alternatives

Hello friend, all of these games use very different modes of resolution! Happy gaming!

Spin the Fishblade, by Marshall Bradshaw.

Spin the FishBlade is the GMless, diceless storygame where players control one fish with a knife by spinning a knife.

It's meant for three to five players to play for one to two hours, telling an outlandish story with some stylized violence. Imagine if Finding Nemo were mixed with an action movie, like Taken, Kill Bill, or Snatch.

Spin the FishBlade is a game made to spoof off of a tweet that came across as (a little) derisive of indie ttrpgs, and is one of a number of games entered into a game jam celebrating the game community’s willingness to commit to a bit. However, it’s also a completely playable game! You will sit in a circle, and arrange items to sit in between each player to act as loci of power. A knife will be spun, similar to a game of spin the bottle, but the goal is to share narration and introduce uncertainty based off of the objects in the circle. Great for GM-less games or a storytelling exercise in a casual setting!

Printweaver, by N.L. Morrison.

Your fingerprints determine your unique adventurer. Explore the wilds and find your own adventure through combat, death, and revival. Your fate is in your hands.

Printweaver looks like a traditional ttrpg in its gameplay mechanics, which use d10s, but character creation is determined by the player’s fingerprints. You’ll determine what kinds of stats you have, and where your abilities lie, by examining your finger prints and following instructions as laid out in the rulebook. The game itself is $10, but if you’re unsure about the game, character sheets and the Shorthand edition are free to download!

DIY Identity: An Odd Bijou, by S. Kaiya J.

There are a million other paths you might have walked in life.

Every one of them passes through this place.

DIY Identity is a two-person game about mutual exploration, co-construction of perception, and missed paths in life. In order to play, you will need to take a trip to an IKEA store. It is recommended to play this game with someone you trust but do not currently live with.

This game uses an hourglass and a room in an IKEA store, and can be played for about as long as you’d like to spend in that store. I’d only recommend you play it with folks if you are both comfortable with them and if you don’t mind playing the game in a semi-public space. The game itself is only one page; easy to print off to fold up and put in your pocket.

Grave Liasons, by Yugie.

Grave Liasons is a PvP roleplaying game powered by chocolate where you play as nosy ghosts trying to ensure that their descendants get matched with the perfect partner (according to them).

While playing, players take on the roles of SPIRITS, who are trying to ensure or prevent a match, and DESCENDANTS, who are just normal people looking for love.

This game is a one-page game in which you will embody both a Spirit and a Descendant, with the Spirits playing ghostly matchmakers and the Descendants, doing their best to find love. When a Spirit’s match goes well, the Spirit’s player eats a chocolate heart! However, be careful - once you run out of hearts you’ll have to beg or steal hearts off of other players. If you want a light-hearted way to celebrate Valentine’s Day, or you just want to eat chocolate with friends. I suggest checking this game out!

Games I’ve recommended in the past

Witches Brew, by C.R. Legge. (Tea!)

Clown Helsing, by Planarian. (Rock, Paper, Scissors)

#game recommendations #tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #dnd #diceless #cardless #asks

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hearthtabletop · 1 year

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Oh shit, It's the Hearth Podcast! The first six episodes are live! Featuring @margintext, @swanofmischief, @nyessagaming, Faye, Dan, and Noah.

#actualplay #podcast #diceless #indiettrpg #hearth #ttrpg #horror #adventure

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gwiggs · 2 years

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Pelt is one of my all time favorite characters ever because he was abandoned to live in the Wilderness Dimension when he was a small child so he grew up to be a savage caveman in a land full of giant animals that are all actively trying to eat him.

And then, after he had long since lost his mind, his uncle (a demigod) found him and revealed that Pelt was a demigod too, and one of the many heirs to a kingdom at the edge if the infinite multiverse.

So now he's an uneducated caveman stuck trying to navigate a high stakes game of courtly politics. Hes had to investigate two political assassinations and he looks like this.

Art by batshaped.

#Amber Diceless RPG #Pelt #my special boy #OC #TTRPG OC #original character

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magicturtle · 1 year

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Are ttrpgs without dice still games?

#rodrigo #rodrigo on youtube #ttrpg #diceless #Youtube

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keftiu · 1 year

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i just released LAST BLADE OF ATLANTIS, a one-page diceless, GMless storytelling game about a doomed fish warrior in a dying age, as a submission to the lovely little Fishblade Game Jam. it's PWYW - check it out!

#ttrpg #diceless #gmless #fishblade #atlantis #game design

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haveyouplayedthisttrpg · 1 month

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Have you played MY MOTHER'S KITCHEN ?

By Fleit Detrik

You wrote the original family cookbook.

But that’s all you know for sure. Your spirit lives in your recipes, passed down from generation to generation. Gather up memories and use your powers to heal, harm, or move on. Who will finally achieve your wish and set you free?

My Mother’s Kitchen is a solo journaling game about traditions, change, and cooking. Transform your future to remember your past with a new tarot card system that mixes creative prompts with tactical thinking.

#ttrpg #tabletop rpg #poll #poll time #usa #2020s #indie ttrpg #indie rpg #my mothers kitchen #solo ttrpg #diceless #diceless ttrpg

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thepenandpaperarchive · 9 months

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2-0000-0019 - Rosette Diceless

by Future Proof Games

A genre-neutral system built for equal use at the tabletop or for use with Live Action Roleplay. It is built to be GM-less and focused on improvisation, emphasis on story, and consensus between players.

Rosette Diceless is available on itch.io for $9.99, or in a bundle with Rosette Diceless Companion for $11.98.

#ttrpg #future proof games #rosette diceless #pen and paper archive #game highlight

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nemospecific · 1 year

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Millennial Apartment Hunters was a good investment, more people should buy the game.

#ttrpg #diceless #millennial apartment hunter #it's just an exercise in describing bad places and being silly

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txttletale · 9 months

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the exile collection: three short ttrpgs to support a struggling trans woman

hi everyone! i've recently been left without housing & while i'm lucky to have friends willing to let me sleep on their couches & i won't bore you all with the sob story it's not an ideal situation and i need funds pretty badly to get through this season in exile. as such, i've released the exile collection, a pay-what-you-want collection of three one-spread tabletop games.

each of the three games is short and to-the-point, with a light-hearted tone. two of them are GMless. they're perfect little oddities to play on a free night with your friends. you can get them for free but any donations will be helping me survive the next couple months and so would be super appreciated

RIDE ON SHOOTING STAR is a fast-paced comedy action game based on FLCL. play as a bunch of weird girls and one exasperated kid as you combat a mysterious phenomenon and grow as people and all that sappy sentimental shit we all did in middle school.

THE MOST HAUNTED DOLL IN THE WORLD is a comedy horror diceless game about being a family of clueless homeowning dipshits getting your asses kicked by a super fucking haunted doll. based on all of those fucking terrible haunted doll movies.

EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED is a gonzo nonsense investigation game based on the dirk gently series. play an agency of freaks and burnouts investigating a confusing mystery built from a bunch of weird elements, drawing bizarre and convoluted connections to keep the plot thickening.

if any of those appeal to you (or you just want to help me out) you can get the exile collection here.

#tattletxt #ttrpg #indie ttrpg

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indie-ttrpg-of-the-week · 3 months

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Trans made TTRPGs

Due to… recent events that I would rather not talk about, today's post is a highlight of different tabletop games made by trans peeps! These games are fantastic in their own right, of course, but you can also know that they were made by incredibly cool and attractive people

(Also, these are flyover descs of the game, they'll get more in-depth singular posts later, this is because I am lazy)

Perfect Draw is a phenomenal card game TTRPG that was funded in less than a day on backerkit, it's incredibly fun and has simple to learn hard to master rules for creating custom cards, go check it out!

Songs for the dusk is fucking good, pardon my language, but it's a damn good post apocalyptic game about building community in a post-capitalist-post-apocalypse-post-whatever world. do yourself a favor and if you only check out one game in this list, check this one out, its a beautiful game.

Flying Circus is set in a WW1 inspired fantasy setting full of witches, weird eldritch fish people (who are chill as hell), cults, dead nobility, and other such things. It's inspired by Porco Rosso primarily but it has other touchstones.

Wanderhome is a game about being cute little guys going on a silly adventure and growing as the seasons change, its GMless and very fun

https://weregazelle.itch.io/armour-astir Armour Astir has been featured in here before but its so damn good I had to post it twice. AA demonstrates a fundamental knowledge of the themes of mech shows in a way that very few other games show, its awesome

Kitchen Knightmares is… more of a LARP but its still really dang cool, its about being a knight serving people in a restaurant, its played using discord so its incredibly accessible

https://grimogre.itch.io/michtim Michtim is a game about being small critters protecting their forest from nasty people who wish to harm it, not via brutal violence (sadly) but via friendship and understanding (which is a good substitute to violence)

ok this technically doesn't count but I'm putting it here anyways cuz its like one of my favorite ttrpgs of all time TSL is a game about baring your heart and dueling away with people who you'll probably kiss 10 minutes later, its very very fanfic-ey and inspired by queer narratives. I put it here because its made by a team, and the expansion has a setting specifically meant to be a trans "allegory", so I'll say it counts, honestly just go check it out its good shit

https://willuhl.itch.io/mystic-lilies

Mystic Lillies is a game inspired by ZUN's Touhou Project about witches dueling powerful foes, each other, and themselves. Mystic Lillies features rapid character creation and a unique diceless form of rolling which instead uses a standard playing card deck.

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/141424/nobilis-the-game-of-sovereign-powers-2002-edition I… want to do a more general overview on Jenna K as an important figure in indie RPG design, but for now just know that Nobilis is good

https://temporalhiccup.itch.io/apocalypse-keys Apocalypse Keys is a game inspired by Doom Patrol, Hellboy, X-men, and other comics about monstrousness being an allegory for disenfranchisement. Apocalypse Keys is also here because its published by Evilhat so its very cleaned up and fancy but I love how the second you check out the dev's other stuff you can tell they are a lot more experimental with their stuff, this is not a critique, it is in fact a compliment

Fellowship! I've posted about this game before, but it is again here. Fellowship has a fun concept that it uses very well mostly, its a game about defining your character's culture, and I think that's really really cool

Voidheart Symphony is a really cool game about psychic rebellion in a city that really does not like you, the more you discover for yourself the better

Panic at the Dojo is a phenomenal ttrpg based on what the Brazilian would call "Pancadaria", which basically means, fucking other's people shit up. Character Creation is incredibly open and free, meaning that many character concepts are available

Legacy 2e is a game about controlling an entire faction's choices across time, its very fun

remember to be kind to a trans person today! oh also don't even try to be transphobic in the reblogs or replies, you will be blocked so fast your head will spin

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temporalhiccup · 9 months

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✨ A game I wish more people were talking about.

Okay SO I seriously SERIOUSLY don't know why people aren't talking about or playing GODSEND. I crash into people's conversations all the time with HELLO HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT GODSEND ITS GREAT WHAT YOURE TALKING ABOUT IS IN GODSEND LETS PLAY IT.

Godsend is cool for SO SO many reasons but here are a few bullet points:

The premise of the game is that the world is coming to an end: there are only so many ages of divinity and humanity left before the apocalypse. So as gods and avatars, you must do what you can to make things go your way, and there is nothing left to lose.

Everyone plays two characters! You play a god, but you also play the human avatar of another god PC of another player. I have seen AMAZING moments when players have acted AGAINST THEIR OWN OTHER CHARACTER because of the DRAMA and it was AMAZING EACH TIME.

But why two characters? You play as one God that sees through all the ages and will be there at the end of days. But with each new age, you play a different human avatar, one who carries out the will of another god. So TECHNICALLY YOU GET MORE THAN TWO CHARACTERS EVEN HOW AMAZING IS THAT.

In general, why aren't there more ttrpgs where you get to play more than one character? Why does the GM get all the fun, huh?

This is a PbtA game but it is DICELESS. DICELESS PBTA. DO YOU HEAR ME. The vibes are impeccable, the execution breathtaking. Basically as gods and avatars, it is not a question of if you are able to do it: you do it! You perform miracles! You defy destiny! You see the threads of destiny! But at what great and terrible and EPIC cost?

Here are examples!

A couple of BASIC moves you can do as a God:

A couple of BASIC moves you can do as an Avatar:

So your stats as an Avatar are how many narrative bonuses or penalties you get when you make a move. DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN. WHY AREN'T THERE MORE GAMES DOING THIS. I AM LOSING MY MIND.

Anyway every time I have read/played this game I have turned completely feral, and I don't know why we're not talking about Godsend. Please go check it out, you may already have it if you bought the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality three years ago.

#asks #monsterfactoryfanfic #godsend #pbta #rae going feral here #godsend makes me so fucking feral each time

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theresattrpgforthat · 17 days

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TTRPGs for people with dyscalculia?

THEME : Dyscalculia Friendly.

Hello friend, I’m going to first point you to the Math-Lite Chaotic Murder Hobos recommendation post I wrote up a year or two ago.

What I understand about dyscalculia is that in can affect the ability to do mental math, but I'm not sure how much it affects number recognition. I have a few games here that ask you to read the faces on a die, but I don't think any of them expect you to do any addition. I hope you find something fun on this list!

Cats of Catthulu, by Joel Sparks.

CATS OF CATTHULHU is the beloved rules-light roleplaying game in which the players take the part of ordinary cats, secretly defending human civilization from the Chaos Cults of the other animals. All the players have to do is act like cats, while the Cat Herder arranges exciting challenges for them—anything from snacky time to daringly interrupting dire rituals.

In Cats of Catthulhu, the way the story will go is always a mystery. You and your friends play to find out what happens. One person, the Cat Herder, arranges the secrets and situations, and sets the scene, but even they don’t know where the night will end. The players take the role of individual, ordinary cats. All you really need to do is act like a cat.

It might be a bit difficult to get your hands on them, but the original dice for Cats of Catthulhu don’t have any numbers on them; instead, they have sad cats and happy cats. Whenever a cat does something, they roll 2 of these dice. Rolling a Happy Cat is a success; rolling a Sad Cat is a failure. The reasoning behind these dice is: cats can’t do math!

If you can’t get your hands on cat dice, you can use any old d6, and regard 1-2 as Sad Cats and 3-6 as Happy Cats. You’ll also want to get some kind of physical token to use as Treats, which are player currency used to allow free re-rolls. Cats of Catthulhu is great for groups who are mostly getting together to just have a fun time, ready to act silly and get into all kinds of shenanigans.

DUSK, by Gila RPGs.

Equipped with the latest suntech, you are tasked with venturing out into the Dusk, and helping bring a new dawn to humanity. The Dusk does not want you there.

Good luck.

In DUSK, you play as Shards, survivors on the planet Obron after the devastating nova-event that saw your world destroyed. Now you wield powerful technology fueled by pieces of your dead sun, in hopes of surviving another day. DUSK uses the LUMEN 2.0 system, and is a diceless RPG focused on resource management rather than luck or chance.

As a diceless game, DUSK feels a lot different from a number of other diceless games, and I think that’s because of the style of game it’s working off of. LUMEN games are more about strategy than they are about narrative, and in DUSK that’s carried forward in the form of Suntech, items that require energy to power and provide specific advantages.

DUSK is still a relatively new game, but the designer is prolific in the amount of quality work he’s released in the past - and so when he says that there’s more to come, you best believe there’s more to come. If you’d still like to roll dice but you like the idea of the setting in this game, you might want to check out NOVA, which also uses the LUMEN system but gives you dice to roll or LUNA, a game about cultists trying to destroy the moon. Both of these games use pools of d6’s and ask you to look for the highest number, so I don’t think there’s that much math involved.

CASE & SOUL, by Briar Sovereign.

CASE&SOUL is a lightweight tabletop game for telling action-packed stories in the mecha genre. CASE&SOUL is designed for one-shots and short to mid length campaigns. Speed through a lightweight downtime; hire freelancers to pad out your Crew’s skills on missions. Customize your playbooks with SOUL moves, and enjoy a cut-down FITD gameplay with just the essentials for fast and flexible sessions.

Forged in the Dark games use a dice pool, rather than abilities with modifiers. You add dice from various places on your worksheet, and try to roll at least one 4 or higher. Rolling a 4 or 5 is usually a mixed success, and rolling a 6 is a complete success. Personally, I’m a big fan of games that use dice pools, as I’m also not a fan of trying to add up all of those numbers, and having to just look for the single highest dice helps speed up action resolution.

At the same time, Forged in the Dark games can have a lot of moving pieces at once, especially if the GM wants to track a large number of factions, or players want to plan multiple-stage missions. CASE & SOUL advertises itself as a slimmed-down version of these kinds of games, but I can’t tell whether or not that is the case when I look at the character sheets. What intrigues me is the CASE and SOUL tracks; I think your CASE is your Mech, and it receives Harm differently than your SOUL, which is an interesting way to measure how much your mech is (or is not) part of you.

Keyforge: Secrets of the Crucible, by Edge Studio.

In the center of the universe hangs the Crucible, a gigantic artificial world created by the enigmatic Architects and home to countless beings and cultures. Here, impossibly advanced technologies mix with arcane powers to make for a setting unlike any other! Uncovering the secrets of this mysterious world will take all your skills—but the potential rewards are boundless…

Explore this world of boundless opportunity in Secrets of the Crucible, a new sourcebook for the Genesys Roleplaying System set in the KeyForge universe!

You’ll need the Genesys Rulebook for this one, because the main reason I’m recommending Secrets of the Crucible is because of the dice system. Genesys dice don’t use numbers; they use symbols that represent success and failure - and they also have symbols that deepen the nuance of each roll. You can roll advantages or disadvantages that calibrate exactly how much you succeed, as well as triumphs or despairs that give you the same kind of highs and lows as a Nat 20 or a Nat 1 in D&D. This means that each roll tells you so much more about what’s going on around you than just whether you open a door or sweet-talk a guard.

As for the setting, Keyforge is originally a card game published by Fantasy Flight games, about a world called the Crucible, full of secrets that various factions are competing to unlock. It reminds me of the worlds of Magic: the Gathering or League of Legends, with various settings that look very distinct from each-other, and represent different styles of play.

SHIVER, by Parable Games.

WHAT IS SHIVER?

SHIVER is a tabletop roleplaying game that lets players bring their favourite scary movies, spooky tv shows, and horror stories to life. Ever wanted to play through the plot of your favourite film on the tabletop? Or wanted to make sequels, prequels and original stories in the worlds of pop culture you love? SHIVER lets you play that!

SHIVER is setting neutral allowing you to play any story, anytime, and as anyone. Want to play a game of teens in survival mode against a zombie horde? Kids on Bikes who dread exploring a haunted house on Halloween night? Or perhaps a medieval monster hunter looking for a werewolf, vampire or mage? SHIVER can deliver stories and characters for anything from cult pulp classic to Cthulhu fuelled eldritch mystery.

The designer of SHIVER set out with the goal of making games easier for his friends, who had similar struggles with games that had too much math involved. Players roll six-sided and eight-sided dice with various symbols on them, looking for the symbol that represents their character's strengths. The more difficult the task is, the more of the required symbol you need. The game itself is recognized as a class-act horror game, good for everything from pulp-action to gothic fiction to slasher horror. If you don't have the special dice, you can substitute with d6's & d8's, or you can use the free Dice Roller designed for this game.

Tournament Arc, by Biscuit Fund Games.

Are you looking to experience the triumphs and defeats of Space Hyper-Basketball? Need to feel the epic highs and dizzying lows of card games in the post-apocalypse? Want to face the trials and tribulations of the cheese-rolling World Circuit?

Tournament Arc is your very own collaborative sports anime experience, made in the diceless Belonging Outside Belonging engine popularized by games like Dream Askew and Wanderhome. In every thrilling episode, you’ll play the part of the Team as they negotiate the complexities of their daily lives, explore a collaboratively created world, and, most importantly, play the Game.

Tournament Arc is both diceless and GM-less, and is designed to tell stories about teambuilding and competitive sports, although the setting appears to be pretty flexible. The Belonging Outside Belonging game system provides each character type with prompts, and sorts those prompts into different categories. Usually there will be some things you can always do that generate tokens as well as narrative obstacles, and then other things that you can only do when you spend tokens - and as a result, also help characters confront those narrative obstacles. If you have players that like having something tactile to keep in their hands as they play, you might like Tournament Arc.

Warehouse Bitches, by Darling Demon Games.

The Time Worm arrived as it was prophesied just as the crown fell upon his head, and all potentials collapsed into a single haunted citadel, which you call Hex City. You are transgender punks and goths from earth, and in this place your powerful hearts make you witches, daemons, beast-people and arcane architects. We bide our time, smoking and drinking, playing video games and eyeing the crumbling walls of our enemy, The Lord of Olympus.

In Warehouse Bitches, you play as one of the titular warehouse-dwelling trans folk in the hellish Hex City. In this GMless Belonging Outside Belonging game with a unique coin-flip mechanic, you'll wield magic, build allies across the city and fight back against the bastards in subtle ways.

I’ve already explained a bit about how Belonging Outside Belonging works, but Warehouse Bitches adds another layer by using coins as tokens. Using coins, your options are different depending on whether or not the coin is on Heads or Tails. The moves on your character sheet are not just differentiated between Strong and Vulnerable, they’re also differentiated between Heads or Tails, and you must have matching sides of the coins showing in order to be able to use those moves. Characters also have Magic moves, which require the player to flip every coin they currently hold, and reassign those coins based on whatever side they land on.

Warehouse Bitches has only 4 playbooks as it stands now, so a group of 4 players is probably the largest group that can play the book as it stands now. The game is GM-less, but looking at the rules, I think it would be possible to have someone pick up the GM role in order to introduce complications and narrate the actions of various other factions in town. Similar to other BoB games, there are zones that have various elements and details that need to be decided as you play, which will also help provide events and interesting features that keep the game fresh and exciting.

#indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #tabletop games #dnd #asks #indie ttrpg #math-light #math-lite

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