#agon rpg

[noughticalcrossings]

AGON

Our silly little characters going through world-ending trauma at the hands of our DM, for growth.

Kyla and Obstacles, my boy Lacedaemonius, Ophelia, and my most beloved elevated NPC Thessia whose weapon of choice is the smelling salts

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played AGON ?

By John Harper & Sean Nittner

The 300th poll, wow

Agon is a game of ancient Greek legend, where players take on the roles of intrepid heroes sailing home after a great war. Inspired in equal parts by Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and recent adventure serials like Xena: Warrior Princess, Agon follows its protagonists as they sail from island to island, solving problems, helping locals, and slaying mythological monsters along the way.

The 2nd edition gave birth to the Paragon system.

[state-of-beeing]

The Mentor

"Let me worry about the fine print." Elias folded his hands into his lap, "I have to carry my weight around here, after all." Feren scoffed, though the look she shot Elias along with it was nothing but fond. “Come on, Elias. You talk about ‘carrying your weight’ as if we wouldn’t be dead in the water without you.”

So much time has passed since then, but she knows that the words became truer than ever.

[rotshop]

better to reign in yuri than serve in yaoi or something who gaf

[ details / close ups under cut ]

[open-hearth-rpg]

#RPGaDay2024

RPG with well supported one-shots

AGON is, at the heart of it, nothing but one shots. Yes, the game functions as a campaign, with characters wearing through resources, gaining glory, and changing. But that’s the super-structure for one of the most interesting and exciting sets of single-session stories. 

The basic book includes a dozen strong and evocative adventures. Each is an island– with the premise of mythic heroes on an epic journey roll up to the unique story of that island in order to progress but more importantly gain glory through solving problems. Beyond the basic book there’s a huge number of stretch goal islands. 

That means, as a GM, you can find a solid-one shot with the kind of vibe you want to explore. Just going through those short adventures is a pleasure. They have clear objectives but they’re loose enough to allow for varied means of repairing damage and solving mysteries. The GM can find a more physical story, a tale of secrets revealed, or one of moral ambiguity. Reading through the islands and finding just the right one for my mood was one of the great pleasures of running AGON. 

The clean uniformity of the structure and presentation is super attractive. You know quickly what you need to scan for to figure out if this is a story you want to tell right now. If players have wishes about the kinds of songs they want sung about them, you can easily find an island to match. 

Add to that how open and creative the problem-solving can be. I love the abstraction of AGON and how much it gives room to make those single episode stories into a greater who

[volfoss]

Objectively my brain going hey 😁 you should replay Skyrim 😁 is not going to be a good thing for me (gets sooo motion sick and also did devote about 300 hours in like a year to it) but what if I was SILLAY:3

[antisocialxconstruct]

very late to the party on this one but i was thinking about the rpg morality stuff from a while back and i realized that despite the high ratio of 'good option' playthroughs i've seen like. a LOT of jokes from rpg players about quicksaving, murdering everyone in town, and then quickloading.

which is to say it makes me think it's less a matter of doing the 'good option' even in an environment without social consequences and moreso about seeing the fictional/diegetic consequences /as/ 'real' consequences and so feel the need to create a smaller, even less consequential environment to be comfortable doing Something Evil.

if that makes sense.

That does make sense! I feel like that really gets at the root of the divide that was being discussed around the original poll, and this kinda gives me a better way to conceptualize it than I ever came up with at the time.

Like you're saying, it seems like a lot of the "I would never be mean to video game characters" people treat roleplaying games not as a contained zero-consequences environment, but as a vehicle for a direct, personal experience. They would never hurt or kill or be cruel to someone in their day to day, so if the roleplay environment is for them, they're going to continue that standard of behavior. If they do want to do something unethical (or... comically and pointlessly evil lmao) just to see what happens, then first they have to further abstract the setting into something even less "real" than the core playthrough of the game. That "I'm going to come right back to this" quicksave firmly establishes anything you do afterward as Not Real, because you can wipe it all away immediately afterward by loading the save and it's like it never happened.

Basically, that "none of this actually counts" mindset is just how I approach the entire rpg experience 🤷‍♂️ my emotional investment goes as deep as what I believe my character is emotionally invested in, but none of it ever actually means anything to me, none of the Bad Things make me feel bad, because it's not real and it doesn't matter. And now that enough time has passed that I'm not in the clutches of a pointless RSD episode over it, I can say that I still find it really interesting and a little funny that that's apparently the drastically minority mindset at least here on tumblr fgdsgsd

[mapas-fantasticos]

Map of the land of Harmundia (the Twilight Realms) from Agone by Mathieu Gaborit.

[ponett]

unfortunately the conversation about ff16's genre shift has become so completely consumed by arguments over whether or not it's "real final fantasy" that you're just not allowed to dislike it. you're not allowed to express even mild dissatisfaction over it becoming another big budget prestige playstation action game with a skill tree. the fact that mainline final fantasy is so varied is cited to shut down anyone who dislikes the direction they chose for 16 and call them fake fans. that or people pivot to pedantic genre definition shit like "well what does 'rpg' really MEAN, anyway? has ff ever REALLY been a true rpg??" it's agonizing. i am agonized

[theresattrpgforthat]

any ttrpgs for spooky dark boarding school stories? gotham academy, the boarding school: las cumbres, wednesday, that kinda thing?

THEME: Dark Boarding Schools

Hello there, at first I felt like this overlapped with all of my magic school recommendations, but once I did some digging, I realized that there's a lot of big differences! That also means that there was a good number of games I haven't recommended before, so I hope there's something here that fits what you're looking for.

Tangled Blessings, by Cassi Mothwin.

On the eve of your final exam at Brackroot Academy, what mysteries, secrets, dread, and drama will you recall from your last four years of schooling?

Tangled Blessings is a solo journaling or two-player RPG inspired by dark academia media, ghost stories, and graduate school. Featuring a wizarding college, wandering specters, assigned houses, curses, devils’ bargains and more supernatural flavor, Tangled Blessings blends horror and the fantastical to help players craft a story that spans their time at the academy — culminating in one final showdown against their rival.

If your favorite stories ever involved sneaking around an ancient building, uncovering dangerous secrets, studying in a dusty library, practicing spells on the lawn, or making perilous deals with creatures lurking in the darkness… This game is for you.

Tangled Blessings is a game about discovering the dark secrets hidden behind the allure of a secret magical world. You use a tarot deck to determine your character’s placement at the school, the nature of their rival, and the ghosts and creatures that will emerge throughout your years at the school. Each year is represented by a series of card draws, which will represent events that you have to decide how you respond to. If you play this game using the 2-player variant, each of you will play each-other’s rivals, comparing your results to see how the school year affects the both of you. The game culminates in a Final Exam that will determine whether you or or rival comes out on top.

St. Hornbeck, by belsaas.

Welcome to St. Hornbeck College/

Atop a small hill in the woods just outside the small town of Southfield, WI sits a College. Old, copper-rimmed limestone buildings huddle together against the harsh winters, while herds of students wander between them in search of wisdom, kinship and the occasional party. Soon, those herds of students will include you. There are two main reasons for enrolling at St. Hornbeck. Firstly, they have a leading program in the field you want to major in (yes, whatever you may choose). Secondly, there are only a handful of colleges that accept monster-teens in America…

This game relies on traditional teenage tropes to inform your character background, and leans fully into the allegory of monstrosity being a metaphor for young adulthood. Gameplay occurs over a series of scenes, marking various days in the calendar of the school year. In each scene, you can roll for or choose complications related to your monstrosity as a way to invite tension and obstacles for your characters to overcome. If you want to see something that’s a bit darker, you might want to check out this game’s inspiration, by snagging Midnight Oil from Jay Dragon’s Patreon.

Lost Years, by Summerwood Games.

The boarding school in this game is any boarding school, every boarding school. The walls are old stone or red brick, the dormitories are filled with young people going through the agonizing process of becoming themselves, classrooms retrofitted with ceiling tiles and modern lighting.

There are spaces of this school that belong only to us students, sacred rites performed in them that mean nothing to others and everything to us. We smoke cigarettes in the basement, make out in the tack room, make meaningful eye contact across the cricket pitch. I will tell you two truths and a lie: no one can take these years from us, none of us will be the same when we leave, no class will teach us more than we learn from one another. Can you see now which one is the lie? We couldn’t.

Lost Years is a Belonging Outside Belonging game set in a boarding school menaced by a mysterious force that threatens to empty the students of everything that makes them themselves. Meant for 3-5 players, it can be played as a one-shot but is most suited for multi-session play. 

Lost Years looks to be a game that focuses on the emotional highs and lows of being a teenager trying to survive in a strange environment away from the eyes of their parents - but still under the control of some form of authority. Your characters will fill the roles of various tropes from boarding school media, such as the Sporty One, or the Witchy One.

Because this game is BoB, the school itself will fill the foreground, with various locations such as the Attic and the Greenhouse being fleshed out by different players around the table. If you want a game that focuses on the themes of dark academia and how they affect the relationships of these students, you might want to check out Lost Years.

Never & More, by Small Stories.

NEVER & MORE is a quick-play roleplaying game and Edgar Allan Poe-inspired hack of John Harper's Lasers & Feelings.

You are the newest recruits of The Society of Ushers, an occult secret society. Your mission is to prove yourself to your superiors, master the rituals required to move up a rung, and learn how to talk to ravens. Your direct superior and teacher, the Belfry-Devil, has finally deemed you suitable to circulate by yourselves amongst greater society, trusting you to remain faithful to the Ushers in the face of attempted poaching, targeted seduction, and superior parties.

This isn’t necessarily a game about academia, but I think it carries similar elements of learning, dark secrets, and hierarchy. Lasers and Feelings games balance your characters between two qualities; in this case, you are torn between your desire for safety and your hunger for knowledge. You can play this as a one-shot or draw it out if you like, just keep in mind that these types of games usually don’t have resources for character advancement, so your characters won’t gain any new abilities - although whether or not they learn from their mistakes is up to you.

Precarious Prep, by Seaworks.

Welcome to Precarious Prep.

Something dark is going on at Precarious Preparatory School, and one detective - your GM - needs somebody on the inside. In the daytime you'll take classes, get to know the students and faculty, figure out who you can trust. The better you do in class, the faster you'll level up. At night you'll investigate the campus, search for clues, and unlock puzzles. Report your discoveries to the detective to gain points.

Instead of having 6 universal stats, Precarious Prep uses a curriculum - the stats your character takes on are determined by the course load you pick up each trimester. The better you do in classes, the more firepower you’ll have in your investigations. Classes can be fully relevant, partially relevant, or irrelevant to the checks you need to make throughout the game, so coordinate with your team and round out your education with a variety of skills.

Precarious Prep uses something called Discovery Points to indicate how close your students are to revealing what exactly is going on at this preparatory school. Your characters use the things they are learning in class to investigate the mystery, while trying to avoid generating enough suspicion to get them kicked out. Many of the rules strive to generate a number of different gambles that the players can take while trying to gather information - will you do something that increases your chances of success while also increasing your chances of getting expelled? Can you get enough information before the school year ends - or before one of you gets killed?

This game is still in open beta, which means it’s free, but also that it might still have some kinks that need to be worked out. The designer is very eager for feedback, so if you take a look at this game, you might be able to contribute to the final product!

I’d Also Recommend….

The Gardening Club, by Wizard of Ox.

[noughticalcrossings]

A Spartan warrior, nephew to the great king Tyndareus, finally on his way home after the fall of Troy, desperate to bring honour to his family’s name and win the heart of his true love…

Character design notes under the cut:

A new character for a new campaign, Agon this time, which I’ve never played before but I’m very excited to start. As usual I’ve gone overboard and spent far too many hours making a semi-accurate family tree for mythological characters and drawing armour.

The designs are copied from red figure pottery, with the scene on the breastplate stolen from a hydria of Perseus (my boy’s great grandfather) fleeing after slaying the gorgon Medusa, held in the British museum. The gorgon insignias on the pauldron are from an amphora of Athena by the Berlin Painter.

Both the swords are actually bronze, the silvery one is arsenical bronze and the dark one is black Corinthian bronze (hepatizon), as is his armour.

Ironically it is actually very resistant to losing its colour through scratches, so you could probably picture Lacedaemonius meticulously re-etching his armour after every battle lest the blackness overtake it, which I’m sure couldn’t be a metaphor for anything.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played AGONE ?

By Mathieu Gaborit (a lot of his books became ttrpg), Sébastien Célerin, Stéphane Marsan and Frédéric Weil

A baroque medieval fantasy set in the Twilight Realms. the players characters, the Inspired cause they were blessed by the Muses, fight against The Masque who wants to plunge the world into perfidy and obscurantism. Poetry, sculpture, painting, dancing and music are actual types of magic.

[high-functioning-artism]

[Conceptualization - Challenging: Success] Looking at the digital canvas, you see a crude facsimile of your own face, freed from 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻. A strange reflection created pen stroke by pen stroke from an utter novice.

Hi hi~!! It's Rei again, here on Day two of my artistic journey! With some more art this time of Harry Du Bois from Disco Elysium! Disco Elysium is one of those games that completely changed my brain chemistry, my second favorite rpg of all time (1st being Baldur's Gate 3), and what I think it did for me is put me in the very uncomfortable position of Harry's shoes.

This man in the start is a saddened, pathetic drunkard. He's a psychotic danger to himself and those around him and yet I felt a deep connection to him and his story. Not that I have ever been black out drunk to the point of amnesia, nor am I even CLOSE to as deranged as him. But the catalyst of Harry's spiral into madness and self destruction being losing the one he loves to most not in a dramatic way, but from a slow agonizing separation hurts me deeply.

I have a saying, I can't love in moderation. I either love with my whole heart or I don't love at all. My loved ones are my world and the idea of spiraling into something unrecognizable due to losing them is something I can very easily see myself doing if I were to lose my special people. Harry Du Bois' fate is entirely in your hands when you play Disco Elysium and I think because of my sympathy I did everything in my power to straighten him up, get him off the booze, lose The Expression, turn him into a respectable member of society. I think maybe in a strange sense it gives me hope that if I ever lost someone like he did I could get back on my feet just like my Harry did.

Alright enough weird rambling~! I'll be doing my absolute best to continue learning and practicing the human form~! Thank you all for tuning in~! Have a lovely day~!!

[ivestas]

hot head

Summary: You threaten a renowned colossi of a sniper and challenge him to fight.

Tags: sniper!könig x sniper!fem!reader, canon divergence, power imbalance(?), mentions of medicinal drug usage, unedited, reader implied to be on the younger side

Word count: 1.2k

Notes: I've decided to experiment more with characterization; I believe many character headcanons and depictions I make are often influenced by my own experiences, which is obvious, but it's hard to grasp when the character your writing is not only the opposite of you in many ways, but likely has a mindset much unlike yours (male, strong, a soldier, of a culture I know little of, etc) I feel like due to my own experiences, I unintentionally feminize and soften these hardened (male) characters... all this to say that if I keep jumping between versions of these characters, its due to this LMAO—also, the major parallels this has to one of my previous konig oneshots was intentional! and, as usual, sorry for the dubious quality, i just wanted to get the idea down!

You were nervous.

It was hard not to bounce your leg, glance left and right, fiddle with anything beside or on you (dog tag, straps of your gear, a random coin), just trying to shake away the underlying anxiety that ate away at you.

But this is your first 'high-stake' mission, and not only that, but you've been handed to by veterans way beyond your league. You felt clumsy among them, severely inadequate.

Especially since you've been paired with the master class sniper, König.

The mission, according to Aksel, is 'simple enough' for the two of you: you guys will be planted in opposite areas of the enemy base and shoot down and provide back up if stragglers come out or reinforcements come.

But, again—first fucking mission ever that's something as intense as this, and not only that, again, you were paired with König.

You hadn't said anything though, merely nodding to the instruction with a swift 'understood, sir!'

Though you couldn't deny it: it was eating at you, and with your mind clouded with so much thought, it was difficult determining if your hands were gonna be steady enough to shoot (even though it didn't matter because the mission was taking place next week).

While you were busy mulling and agonizing over the hundreds and thousands of ways you could fuck up, you hadn't noticed a certain man making his way to you.

It was only when he spoke that you realized there was someone near. Head shooting up, you spoke quickly, not quite processing right away who it was.

"Yes?"

And then it hit you:

It's König.

It shouldn't have been much of a surprise—it's only natural for pairs in mission to discuss the details and set some sort of plan beforehand; it's practically protocol, actually.

But still, it surprised you. Still, you were able to shake off the surprise quick enough for his words to properly register when he spoke.

"You're nervous."

König said the words with no ire, no disgust, no nothing. It was an observation, plain and simple.

"I... suppose I am, sir."

A puff of laughter—or was it just a scoff? Snort? "No need to address me as 'sir', I'm not your superior."

"Sorry. It's hard to when, you know," shut up. "you're kind of... legendary? I mean, master sniper and all," please just shut the fuck up. "You're kind of like a superior in a skill sense? You know in those rpgs when like—"

"I get it."

You laughed awkwardly, refusing to look at him directly.

"May I give you a piece of advice?"

You looked at him then. "Yes?"

"Cut the rambling short. Although I don't mind it, many others could and will use it against you—it's better to be blunt and honest rather than shy and all over the place." He lifted a finger. "One presumes and sets dominance," he lifted a second finger. "The other presumes and sets weakness."

You were a little offended by that. "Okay but what if I just stabbed them? Can't call me weak after that, even if I start stuttering like Porky Pig."

"..."

"...sorry."

König laughed, and this time, you could properly identify it as one; it was throaty, almost raspy. "I see now—you're a loose-lipped girl. Either a mumbling mess or a sharp-tongued harpy."

"That a bad thing or a good thing?"

"It depends; say I use it against you, will you commit to your word and stab me?"

"I... won't?"

"Then no longer are your words a threat to me, because I now know you're just bark and no bite—"

"I won't because we're comrades right now, but I'd stab you the moment my contract ends!"

Fuck. Fuck.

You did not just threaten a man nearly twice your height and thrice your muscle mass—

"You'll stab me when your contract ends?" He echoed. Amused.

Amused.

"Yeah, dull knife and all—cut you like butter." You rose from your seat, almost chest-to-chest, staring up at König with a glare.

He met your glare with crinkled eyes.

He was looking at you as though you were nothing but a petulant, whiny kid.

"Foolish girl," his voice was light, chiding. "You're barking at the wrong man. Surely you can see that?"

"You're awfully cocky, aren't you? Why not challenge this 'foolish girl' to a spar and prove your worth?!"

"Hmm... okay. I see why not. Perhaps a good hit or two will set you straight, no?"

It took you everything not to (try to) body-slam that fucker.

World renowned sniper or not, you're gonna kick his ass to the goddamn dirt till he's nothing but a pulp of fabric and blood.

---

The two of you were quick to make your way outside, somewhere far enough where no one would see the unregulated fight, but close enough for the safe-house to be in your line of sight.

Sand whipped and pushed at you, the sun was scorching and degrading, but you held still; you were determined to kick König's ass—even if he's huge, you know how to fight big opponents, you trained rigorously to.

König stood two meters from you. He cast a long shadow, light kissing the top of his metal helmet. "The rules are simple enough; whoever keeps the other pinned down for five seconds win and we only use the military-issued knife. Is this fair?"

"Fair."

"Good," he nodded. "Start."

The sand made your footwork unsteady, but not enough to throw you off; light on your feet, you moved close to König, knife unsheathed.

He didn't pull out his knife—in fact, he hardly moved, merely pivoting from time to time from your swings.

You swung your blade forward, aiming for his vest; again, he easily dodged, and with your outstretched arm he pulled you forward.

You could hardly register the movement; one second you were on your feet, and the next you were flat on your stomach, sand in your mouth, and blade far from your hand.

You couldn't move: your wrists were tight in König's grip, his knee digging into your lower back. You tried wriggling your legs, but his knee dug deeper until you let out a pained wheeze.

Then, a moment later, he continued pushing his knee deeper. The sand burned your skin.

1...

2...

3...

"Okay—fuck, okay, stop—you win! Happy now?!"

4...

5...

He finally moved his knee. The shadow that cast over your body was gone.

"You should be happy, maus." He sighed somewhat dramatically. "Had it been any other man, I'm sure he would've been thrilled to harm a pretty girl. Many have twisted minds."

"I'll jus—eugh..." you spat out sand, flipping over and sitting on your ass, propping yourself up with your hands. "I'll just stab those ones, then—and wait! Why'd you say that? That's super creepy, and what does 'maus' mean—?"

"Enough of the blabbing." König said. "And 'maus' means mouse."

"Mouse?"

"Yes, because you chatter away like a little mouse. I like mice."

"You're..."

"Weird?"

"Weird would be underselling it," you muttered, getting on your feet.

"Hm. At least my severe 'weirdness' cured you of your anxiety."

You were ready to snap out an insult, but... he was right.

Your hands weren't shaking anymore. They were steady. You could trust them.

But you couldn't give him that. "Weird assumption, weirdo. I just had a lot of coffee."

"...it seems I've failed to cured you of your tongue, though.”

Childishly, you stuck out your tongue. "Loser."

He merely huffed a laugh at that. It didn't anger you as much as before.

Actually... it didn't piss you off at all.

He really was a weirdo. Nothing like the image you had conjured of him before. (You liked this version of König better.)

AO3

Masterlist

Requests are open

[catbatart]

Did a little age-doodle of Agon! But I forgot one crucial fact...

I AM BAD AT DRAWING KIDS

Anyway, enjoy the RPG character Trauma:tm:

[open-hearth-rpg]

#RPGCovers Week Eleven Agon John Harper (2020)

I didn’t mention this earlier when I listed Blades in the Dark, but I honestly hadn’t realized that Harper had done all of the art and graphic design for that. I’m actually stunned now that I know he did the amazing work on this volume too. I love how iconic this cover is. And again part of that comes from the super smart design of the logo. The font here is thinner, echoing the lines of curl work on the helmet image above. It blazes out– it smartly has the brightest point of the orange there at the top of the G & O, making it seem like a centerpoint of the fire happening behind the black. 

The whole image looks like a stencil against a fire– maybe a campfire in the night, which would explain the greens/teal to the left hand side. It’s not exactly chiaroscuro (a word I had to look up), but it's something close to that. The shape of the helmet emerges from the figurative design lines. They criss-cross in different directions. On the right, the color dominates over the black, on the left it is more inverted with dominant black– but it is not symmetrical. Though the shape of the helmet as a whole feels even, it is unbalanced in several ways. 

The colors on the top two thirds create the illusion of lighting. I’ve been painting a look of miniatures recently, using zenithal techniques to work more with hue and shadow. It looks effortless here. 

And I don’t know why, but the fact that the crest of the helm seems to bleed off the top of the cover feels dynamite. That's one of my favorites. And that’s even before we get inside and look at Harper’s absolutely amazing images for each of the islands. I could spend a week just talking about those. I enjoyed Agon when I ran it and every time I look at the book again, it is the imagery and cover that create a burning desire in me to play it again.