#ttrpg design
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being a GM is really fun because sometimes you can make your players go through some really traumatic Evangelion bullshit, but other times you can force them to go bowling for no reason
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Haunted by a fantasy world where "adventurer" is handled in the same way as "assassin" in John Wick. An ifykyk secondary economy running on gold coins where everyone knows each other but no one acknowledges the elephant in the room because we have manners about our weird-ass line of deadly desperate dangerous work.
Rolling into town, looking immaculate. Checking into the Inn. Not an inn, or the coaching house, or the traveler's hostel. The Inn. The one that takes my ridiculous oversized coin and says that my room is ready, and will I need to visit the Smith today? Perhaps a meeting with the Vintner? Shall I send up the Gourmand?
"Good afternoon, Master Whicke," the Smith says, putting aside the barrel scraper he's been working on to flip a switch beside the forge. Racks of tenpenny nails and trowels and hammers fold back to reveal the glittering points and edges of a score of swords and axes and spearpoints lit with the flicker of finely-tuned enchantments. "Shall we tour what's new?"
"What sort of occasion are we hosting, Master Whicke?" The Vintner asks, pocketing the coin with a sigh. "A funeral," you say.
"Ah, well perhaps something light to start, then," she says selecting a straight-walled flask that glitters with contained starlight, proof against the touch of the undead. " And something for remembrance," she plucks a small crock of something evil-smelling and phosphorescent. "And then something to really bring down the house." She gingerly selects a double ampoule of energetic looking jellies.
The Gourmand carefully runs his knife through the salted flank of a cockatrice with a pursing of the lips. "So many neglect trail rations, Master Whicke, and it is their shame. Paired with goldenwheat pancakes and carrion honey, a mouthful of cockatrice--properly seasoned of course--will keep the mummy rot at bay, even post-exposure. I have been given to indicate by the Management that your current escapade may make such information useful to you. I will of course wrap your purchases exceedingly carefully. Rot will be your constant companion in the Black Pyramid."
There's something here.
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Was talking about sandbox design in a ttrpg server, and though this is a bit tongue-in-cheek, I think these really are good things to consider when you approach sandbox design in a ttrpg (and elsewhere!)
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This Discord Has Ghosts In It
It doesn't get talked about enough, but This Discord Has Ghosts In It is a rad example of how you can adapt game design to your surroundings.
Basically, This Discord Has Ghosts In It is a digital larp. It's Phasmophobia played by chat. Your group creates a discord server to function as a haunted house, then you all explore it, building new 'rooms' out of channels as you go.
Some players take the roles of ghosts, and are muted but can affect the environment in the haunted house.
Other players take the roles of explorers, and can talk, but the ghosts are all listening.
Discord wasn't built to be gamified this way, but that doesn't matter.
As long as you can guarantee consistent behavior from a thing, you can build mechanics off of it.
Anything in your environment can be turned into a game.
And in this particular case, it's a really good one!
The mechanics lend themselves well to the kinds of pacing, limited communication, and untrustworthy setting that any good ghost story needs.
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Pro tip for world building: if you have an entity designed for the players to fight in combat, don't name it "pirate", "raider," "soldier" or something equally generic. And ESPECIALLY don't name their faction that!
It's much more characterful to give them a place or people that they come from.
Easy example: Fallout 3 vs Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout 3 has raiders, raiders, and more raiders.
New Vegas has Great Khans, Fiends, Powder Gangers, Jackals, Scorpions, Vipers, and Greasers.
All of the above are effectively "raiders" but New Vegas offers 7 different (or at least theoretically different) raider cultures with their own histories, while Fallout 3 has 1, maybe 0, raider cultures.
Even just naming these NPC groups will develop the world because it'll either make the players or YOU, the designer, ask questions about why they are named that.
In short: every NPC has a group they belong to, so at least name the groups.
PS: if you want more game design thoughts from me, my Patreon is here.
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Some of the many bits and bobs and odd and ends that will be filling just one of the Confluence Atlases, this time focusing on the Motley Coast, a region full of pirates, floating islands, science and fallen gods!
What's Chrona, or Tensomancy? And What's that little pin and why won't they wear it? Cure your intrigue on our Twitter, where you can keep up to date with the Confluence TTRPG!
I'm so proud of the work we're doing!
All the above work is mine and the test background by Crislv on twitter!
#anonbeadraws#digital art#ttrpg#confluence#confluence ttrpg#vis dev#ttrpg design#ttrpg art#original art#the motley coast#ephemera#layout design
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Announcing: Restful Actions
(It's here. You can go get it now!)
Restful Actions is a collection of 10 minigames for downtime periods in any TTRPG. They're designed to help players resolve character conflicts, complete goals, heal or explore, and take much shorter shopping trips. (You can, in fact, download the shopping trip minigame as a demo!)
For GMs, the goal is to give you a break, so you can start preparing the next Big Event. The minigames invite players to fill in some details of the world, creating shops, landmarks, even creatures.
You can pick up your copy here:
I've talked about this thing in more detail here:
#understory games#indie ttrpg#ttrpg dev#ttrpg design#ttrpg#ttrpg add on#system agnostic#scifi rpg#fantasy ttrpg#dnd#indie ttrpgs#down we go#rpg#rp#osr#osr RPGs#ai is a plague
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Dumb Small Dog
One page RPG jam.
A simple one-page RPG that helps you embody the role dumb small dogs have in our society. It may require skill and practice.
Built on the Essence system
#ttrpg community#small dogs#essence system#one page#ttrpgs#bark#spencer goldade#monkeyslunch#ttrpg design#game jam#indie games
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Playing Rabbits in an RPG from 1976
(This continues our 2024 series, 10 Games From The First 10 Years. First published in the Indie RPG Newsletter)
It is genuinely surprising to me that in 1976, within two years of D&D coming out, someone published a game about being rabbits. It makes a little more sense when you realize that it was inspired by Watership Down and the designers were, I believe, zoologists or something similar. But having read it, the premise is the least interesting part of this game. It has so many fascinating little ideas.
Bunnies & Burrows is a game about rabbits … but these aren’t just rabbits, they fight, explore, gamble, study herbs, see the future, parley with beetles, find love, have children – and the list goes on. The end result are characters that ironically feel more human than you’d imagine.
As I play more games, I learn about games, sure, but I’m also learning a lot about myself. And a rule of thumb has slowly emerged: I want to play games that lead to interesting, surprising, unique things being said by the players. I’ve sometimes phrased it as “people want to say cool shit at the table”. I’m people.
Bunnies & Burrows starts with D&D as a jumping off point – there’s that old, familiar rolling 3d6 down the line to get your stats. But that’s more or less where the similarities end. You have rules for fighting but it’s not D&D combat – this game is often described as having “the first martial arts system” but what this means is that fighting is mostly weapon-less and involves declaring actions that flow into each other as patterns or c-c-combos. Basically, some actions set up other actions – you can’t Rip into another rabbit unless you already pulled off a Bite & Hold in the last turn. Some actions like Run aren’t possible if you’ve just done a Pin or a Rip in the previous turn and so on. I didn’t actually get to play out a fight but these rules got me grinning.
And the whole thing is like that. The study and application of herbs is meant to be a little puzzle where through trial-and-error and dice rolls, you slowly figure out what’s good for you and what isn’t. The languages and persuasion rules mean that certain characters can become envoys to other species. Because a language can mean the difference between things turning violent and a peaceful negotiation between rabbits and a mother scorpion that has accidentally wandered into their warren.
Don’t get me wrong. Most of these little pieces are eccentric and inelegant – always more convoluted than you’d like but still a major leap forward in playability because in the end, it’s a d100 roll under a target number. All the fiddliness – and there’s a lot of it – lies in the absolutely esoteric ways this game invents for calculating that target number. But I find it easy to forgive this in an old game, especially when the most interesting part of the game doesn’t lie in the mechanics but the negative space the rules seem to create.
The donut hole in the centre of this game – fruitful void? uncrowded centre? – is the question: What is rabbit society like? This is a setting question – or rather, a system of relation question – that is never asked but it must be answered. The mechanics have some opinions. For example, every player picks a profession when they make a character – Empath, Seer, Storyteller, Scout, and so on. Some of this comes from Watership Down, which can, of course, be your ready-made answer – it’s the unstated but obvious setting sourcebook for this game. But if you don’t go down that route, you’ve got a juicy problem: What do we value? What do we despise?
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COMING NOV 22 - CATS KNOW THINGS
CATS KNOW THINGS is a light-hearted game meant to tell a humorous story of intrigue, all while pretending to be a very nosy cat.
But you are no ordinary cat.
You are a very special feline who, through some magic you cannot explain, can communicate with your human, an individual who wishes to make their mark in society by any means necessary. The two of you decide to start a society page, (a very fancy type of tabloid newspaper dedicated to a particular location) revealing the glitz, glamour, and inner turmoil of the town’s most notable individuals.
As the cat you will travel across town, using your stealth and wiles to listen in on the most intimate conversations and encounters. At the end of the day you return to your human to relay to them all the town’s salacious gossip for the society page. The goal is to prepare 6-8 items for the newspaper before your human sends them to the presses for the week.
CATS KNOW THINGS will be available on our Itch.io store at 9am PST on November 22!! Please reblog to get the work out! We're really excited to share this game with you!
#ttrpg#indie ttrpg#ttrpg community#ttrpg design#ttrpg art#game development#mushroom witch games#rpg design#solo journaling game#solo journaling rpg#solo ttrpg#new release
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CELESTIAL BODIES IS NOW OUT! GO GET IT!
Our (myself and @basilisika's) mecha game is FINALLY OUT! Go get it here!
(You may have read my post about The Grid™️ a little while ago. This is that!)
We're running an itchfund to raise a little so we can devote the time and energy to create our full vision of what this game can be. The stuff you're seeing here is only a fraction of this game's potential: please help us get the whole way. In exchange, you'll get the Terrestrial Edition right now (a playable version with the base concepts and a smattering of content to get you started). If you give us a little more we'll make more content for you too! Weapons, factions, and even new Frames entirely are on the table.
(We also have community copies available, and those higher tiers will unlock more too.)
What are you waiting for! Go get it!
#ttrpg#ttrpg design#indie ttrpg#celestial bodies#mecha#indie dev#indie game dev#indie games#ttrpg dev
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Hi everybody! I made a game called All the Witches!! I really wanted to make something magical for the queer community who have struggled with the creators of certain worlds being jerks. It’s an original TTRPG system with some cool deck building mechanics exploring the diversity of witches in fantasy. It would mean a lot if you checked out the Kickstarter here!
The Kickstarter ends this Saturday, April 15th at noon EST!
#ttrpg#dnd#dungeonsanddragons#d&d#indiettrpg#boardgames#witches#witch#tabletop#indie ttrpg#ttrpg design#signal boost#signal b00st#roleplaying#kickstarter
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A bit late, what I was thinking while making one of my favorite pieces of GREED: the attack effect table.
All attacks in GREED have an associated roll, the standard being 1d6. Shotguns are 3d6, there's a Demon attack that's 1d20, etc. They all consult the same table to see what effect the attack has (each die rolled considered separately). A 6 or higher kills your target. An 8 or higher kills them twice. What up with that.
It's absurdly violent. Far, far more deadly than even "realistic" combat would be. Something about that is novel and energetic- a dial is turned all the way up that usually isn't.
Because it's absurdly punishing and unpredictable, GREED becomes a game about negotiations. No one wants to fight unless they're POSITIVE they can instantly kill their target, which is next to impossible to be certain of. The rest of the game, in a way, is about giving you currencies to negotiate with so you don't have to fight. That includes (perhaps is mostly) your abilities; how you're useful to others in the party.
It's a sick perversion of an AD&D THACO attack-table. You consult a table for every attack, but the table is comically simple, and seems to be evil. GREED is an OSR game, so we say.
(this is the most important one) I think it's funny. That is the final criteria for something making it into GREED.
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I love talking about Game Feel in ttrpgs because
what even is Game Feel in ttrpgs.
Like, in video games game feel is a thing and you can point to specific elements of the animation, or feedback, or musical cues, etc etc.
But it is much more, amorphous, in ttrpgs because every table is going to be different. I can point to a mechanic and say it doesn't have enough chew or texture or that Game Feel is off, and just kind of shrug wildly when trying to pinpoint why lol.
Regardless, I think you gotta think about Game Feel in your games lmaoo.
#ttrpg#indie ttrpg#ttrpg design#i was specifically talking about Acquire Asset and how i dont like its Game Feel lol#but its hard to objectively say why
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What Non DnD TTRPGs Feel Like
Okay, quick thread about what playing different non DnD ttrpgs feels like.
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Pathfinder
This is DnD. It feels like DnD. It's like going to a slightly different church. Some of the words used during the service are different, but at the end of it the pulpit turns out to be a mimic and you cast Entangle and summon your direwolf.
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Fate
This is Rule Of Cool with additional rules. The GM has powers to one-up you or lead you into temptation, but you have powers to one-up the GM, and all these powers use the same kind of token that you ultimately shuffle back and forth.
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Savage Worlds
Handwave-style DnD (positive connotation.)
The GM has a lot of freedom to pick genre and setting, and the gameplay is sleeker, rule-of-cool-ier without losing meaningful combat or character building.
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Call Of Cthulhu
You may not be an old librarian, but you sure are built like one. Most acts of violence can flatten you in a couple of hits, but violence doesn't happen often. It's the punctuation mark at the end of a long sentence. Atmosphere and pacing rule over this land.
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World Of Darkness
This is a game about getting deep into your character's headspace. It's about figuring out who they are and roleplaying them passionately. Your backstory choices and powers have a huge affect on how you interact with the world around you.
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Warhammer Fantasy / Dark Heresy
You are Scrumbles McGrumbles, a walking heap of morbidity and washed-up soldiering. You are trying to find your place in a world that's having an even worse day than you are. Your best friend is a ratcatcher. Together you will be heroes.
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OSR (Mork Borg, Mausritter, Into The Odd, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Labyrinth Lord, Cairn, tons more)
DnD boiled down to two components: GMing + Making A Guy. GMing is made as easy as possible and PCs are somewhat disposable, so the story is the hijinks you get into together.
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Powered By The Apocalypse (Masks, Nahual, Monsterhearts, Pasion De Las Pasiones, tons more)
The goal is to get into trouble and stir up drama. Succeeding on a roll with no consequences is rare, but when you fail you fail forward into even bigger, messier drama.
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Blades In The Dark
You go on missions and then return to your base. The missions are about choices as much as about rolls, and you build your base together to make yourselves more powerful as a squad.
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Trophy
Your goal is to lose. Specifically, it's to lose in a dramatic and harrowing fashion that sticks with everyone at the table. Think movies like Annihilation, but as oneshot games.
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Golden Sky Stories
You like everyone at the table with you. When someone does something adorable, you can award them exp. The highlight of the session is someone getting flustered and/or speaking in a squeaky voice.
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Ryuutama
You are going on a journey and helping other people along the way. Important choices include packing lunch, wearing appropriate clothing, and completely filling your canteen. Combat is a cozy, pastel color jrpg.
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The Indie
There are so, so many games that are just completely their own thing, and that I can't squeeze into a single thread. If you discover you like game mechanics and you want to Get Weird with seeing what they can do, there is an entire scene here waiting to welcome you.
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Stuff I Missed
There's lots of stuff I haven't played, or didn't remember in the moment, or absolutely love but it would take a whole thread to explain why I love it. I will do more game recommendations in the future, but you can also comment systems you like below!
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VAST Guides are here!
By using VAST, you can learn how to add accessibility tags for screen readers to your PDFs, by using Adobe InDesign and Adobe Acrobat.
I'm super excited to release a brand new publishing community resource: VAST (or Visual Accessibility Skills Toolkit).
>> WWW.VAST.GUIDE <<
VAST is a collection of short articles aiming to spread awareness about what visual impairments are, and how folks in the small press industry can accommodate them.
The guides are split into four sections:
Visual Impairment 101 explores what visual impairments are, how visually impaired people navigate digital content, and introduces some current language and definitions (circa 2023).
Screen reading PDFs explores the basics of how screen readers navigate through digital content. Includes video examples!
Using InDesign introduces different tools that designers can use to make their documents more accessible.
Putting Into Practice presents case studies of common structures in roleplaying games, and how they could be given accessibility tags using tools covered in section 3. (Coming soon!)
VAST was developed by Brian Tyrrell (me!), and disability advocate and accessibility consultant Yubi Coates. Visually impaired consultants and InDesign experts were brought in to corroborate the guides.
All of the information in the guides is up to date, and we’re committed to reviewing and updating the guides in 2024 and 2025.
This project was completed using a small pot of funding provided by Creative Scotland’s Create: Inclusion program in 2022.
#ttrpg design#indie ttrpg#tabletop rpg#publishing#visual accessibility#screen reader#visually impaired#blindness#accessibility#pdf#indesign#acrobat#adobe#free resources#I always get anxious when releasing stuff#brb going to sit in a corner now#hope you like it!
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