#animon rpg

[kingboudica]

wip of the boys from the digimon ttrpg campaign my friends and I play on Wednesday nights:)

Laramie, Chandler, Miles, and Quentin

[zakbfree]

I'm absolutely thrilled to announce a collaboration between Animon Story and Break!! RPG! I'll be working with Reynaldo Madriñan/Naldobean Games (@NaldoDrinan) and Carlo Tartaglia/Grey Wizard Press (@MysteriousPath) on a chapter for Legend's Wake as part of a newly revealed stretch goal.

Check out the campaign and help us unlock the collab here!

I, like many others, have eagerly followed the development of Break!! for many years. In 2023, over 10,000 backers helped make the game a reality, and ever since I got my copy I've been absolutely charmed by the vibrant world and illustrations, precise and well-crafted rules, and by just how much fun this game brings to the table.

Rey and Carlo have also been long-term supporters of Animon Story, and we finally organised a proper collaboration. This will be a standalone chapter, usable independently of the main Legend's Wake campaign. Though I can't yet reveal exact details, it will likely include new Break!! inspired mechanics/optional rules, as well as a self-contained adventure/area to explore. Who knows, there might even be a more tangible link between Dunia and Outer World!

Please join me in giving Rey and Carlo a warm welcome to the world of Animon Story, and in the meantime be sure to check out Break!! RPG, and follow the upcoming START Zine Kickstarter campaign.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played ANIMON STORIES ?

By Zak Barouh

Kids and Monsters anime such as Digimon

Jump into the world of Animon with this original tabletop roleplaying game inspired by beloved anime and video games. You'll take on the role of Kids who team up with their very own monster buddies called Animon. Together you'll go on adventures, grow as friends, and maybe even save the world!

[gnomeknight1990]

Just got my physical copy of Animon Story, one of my favorite RPGs and my go-to for any -mon style property (digimon, pokemon, etc)! If you aren't familiar here's a link to the website:

[break-rpg]

A BREAK!! crossover is one of the stretch goals for the Animon: Legend's Wake kickstarter! Follow the link for more info!

[metathefool]

Running a Horror campaign is a tricky thing, because you can never be 100% sure what your players will be scared of.

That is, until I brought out this little friend

Everyone was terrified of him

[thydungeongal]

Hello! I am trying to help a friend find a good TTRPG to play a pokemon based game, and I know that there is a blog around here somewhere that is specifically for rpg recommendations, but cannot remember the exact name or find it, but I believe I've seen you recommend them before. Can you help me out with either the blog name or recommendations of your own?

Thank you so much and I'm sorry for bothering you!

I think the one you're looking for is @theresattrpgforthat! I can however offer a couple of recommendations while we wait for her to answer!

I would recommend taking a look at Animon Story! It's apparently more Digimon than Pokémon inspired but it has such nice presentation and I've heard lots of great things about it! :)

A somewhat wilder recommendation is the Pokéthulhu Adventure Game! While it's a parody mashup of Pokémon and Call of Cthulhu (and a licensed game for a children's cartoon that doesn't exist) if played straight it could act as a good backbone for a serious monster-collecting RPG! Also, it's a fantastic read. It's one of the few RPGs I've seen where players can get bonuses for answering trivia about a TV show that isn't real.

But I think Mint will have more recommendations once she gets around to this ask. :)

[soulmuppet]

Animon Story by @zakbfree is a TTRPG inspired by kids and their monster friends style media.

You'll take on the role of Kids who team up with their very own monster buddies called Animon.

Together you'll go on adventures, grow as friends, and maybe even save the world!

Physical copies available on our webstore!

[theresattrpgforthat]

do you have any suggestions for pokemon-esc monster capture/battlers?

THEME: Pokemon Games

Hello friend, I have already made a post of Pokemon games, which you can check out here! But there are also some games not in that post that I’ll include below.

Powered by Pokemon, by 3dmatt.

Powered by Pokemon is a improvisational TTRPG based on the Powered by the Apocalypse system, drawing heavy inspiration form the Monster of the Week game.

In this game, most of you are stepping into this world as a human, a trainer! People who face the trials and tribulations of life with a pokemon partner by their side. One of you will be The Keeper. The Keeper will be in charge of starting you down the path of your story, bringing the world to life and portraying the People and Pokemon you meet.

While the dice system is PbtA, this Pokemon game uses type matching just like the video games, affecting how your Pokemon will deal damage and take damage. Your Pokemon will also level up similar to Pokemon levelling-up in the video games, from level 1 to 100!

Pocket Monsters Manual, by Tragos Games.

Pocket Monsters Manual is a roleplaying game about capturing, training, battling and evolving monsters. 

It has a few marked difference from a typical Pokemon game. Monsters have types just like Pokemon, but a player trainer must select two types and from the beginning onwards, may only only use monsters that belong to at least one of the two types. Additionally, most monsters have a Maximum Level - not all evolve to the same extent. Trainers will also tier up, which feels like an analogue to badge collecting. 

There are also familiar hallmarks in Pokemon in this game - monsters faint rather than die, health can be restored in a healing centre or with potions, and type matching can increase or decrease your effectiveness in a fight. All in all this game is extremely rules-light, and leaves most of the world creation to the group or the GM.

Animon Story, by Zak Barouh.

Jump into the world of Animon with this original tabletop roleplaying game inspired by beloved anime and video games. You'll take on the role of Kids who team up with their very own monster buddies called Animon. Together you'll go on adventures, grow as friends, and maybe even save the world!

This book contains everything you need to create unique characters and tell your own stories, with rules designed to encourage and support your creativity. It has beautiful art and unique creatures, with a unique elements system that doesn’t follow either Pokemon or Digimon conventions, but does allow you to create your own unique creatures!

If you want to try before you buy, you can get the Animon Playkit, and if you want more Animon content, you can pick up the Ani-thology (a supplement with adventures for your crew) and the Shutterbug, an additional Kid type for this game.

Pilgrimon, by The Bardic Inquiry.

PILGRIMON is a roleplaying game designed for short campaigns about humans and their monster companions going on an adventure to realize their dreams.

One player will take on the role of the professor and will use the supplied tools to create a changing map for the trainers to explore as well as engaging scenes that will drive the trainers towards their dreams.

Pilgrimon is a slimmed-down Pokemon game, with different creatures that have evolution mechanics and a type-matching table.  It includes different kinds of scenes for combat, exploration, journeys, and caring for your creatures. In this game, it’s the journey that’s in focus more than anything else.

Pokemon Polyhedral: Micro Edition, by march crow.

Pokémon Polyhedral: Micro Edition is an A6 size solo RPG that is narrative lite and dice heavy. 

Roll dice to encounter Pokémon. Roll dice to capture them. Roll dice to level up and evolve them. Roll dice to use your team to defeat Team Rocket, Gym Leaders, and the Elite Four. 

This game uses only the original 150 Pokemon, although you could likely make your own roll tables that have future generations included as well. The battling rules are extremely slimmed down, and uses everything from a d4 to a d20. There are instructions and quick stats for battling wild Pokemon, trainers, Team Rocket, Gym Leaders and the Elite Four! This game is extremely bare-bones, but is likely the closest to replicating the original Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow games.

Pokemon Dungeon Crawler, by Batts.

This is an unofficial Pokémon dungeon crawler. You play as a Pokémon in a world after humans. You get a dungeon delving class (cleric, fighter, magic-user), you get a backpack, a weapon, and you head out on an adventure.

This game plays similar to OSR-style games with a d20, roll-under system. Most rolls are player-facing; Players roll to attack and to dodge while the Game Master uses dice to keep track of the various complexities of dungeon crawling.

This is the only game in this list in which you are a Pokemon, rather than a human trainer. If you’re looking to replicate a bit of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, this is likely the game you’re looking for. The game restricts your choices to 20 1st-gen Pokemon, because each of those 20 Pokémon get a custom sheet. If you want to play as a different Pokemon, you might have to flex your writing muscles!

If you are hungry for even more Pokemon-style games, you can check out the TTRPG Poke-Jam for more games!

[theinstagrahame]

It's time for the Monthly-ish Mail Call Hype Post!

Another set of awesome games I've gotten in the mail, and why I'm hype about them. Because people out there making rad stuff and I'm super into it!

It was a pretty big month. A lot of stuff arriving coincidentally at the same time, not all from crowdfunds, but still a really exciting collection. Let's dive in!

Beam Saber: I've played this one, and just started a campaign. Plus listening to Friends at the Table play it in Partizan (Which I legitimately cannot recommend highly enough). Mech Anime Forged in the Dark! It's genuinely a fantastic game.

Coriolis: A friend in a Discord server was clearing some room on their shelves before moving, and offered a few titles up. I wound up with three of them, this and the next two. Initially, they told me the box would only fit two, so I debated between Coriolis and DCC, and ultimately picked Coriolis because the sci-fi universe it takes place in seemed unique compared to what I've really experienced. An exploration-driven, Middle Eastern-inspired universe sounded really fascinating.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: I first became aware of DCC early in my TTRPG career, and was honestly mostly intrigued by DCC because of its use of Weird Dice; D3s and D5s and whatnot. I've heard mostly good things about it, and haven't done nearly enough Dungeon Crawling in my day, so I was quite pleased when it turned out this would also fit in the Discord Friend's "get it out of my house" box!

Last Fleet: This was the game I'd wanted from the pile. I'd recently backed Wreck this Deck, also by Black Armada, and have played Flotsam. I was intrigued by the pitch for this one, so it was the definite from the Discord friend.

Hull Breach: Mothership took the indie RPG scene by storm, and this book looked fantastic. I still haven't played Mothership, but honestly having this makes it feel like I could just about pick it up and throw anyone in. It's packed with scenarios and extra content, in a really great package.

Animon Story: I've been searching for the right Pokemon-themed RPG for a while. Too many of the ones I have seen spend a lot of time on the combat system, which I honestly find the least exciting part of the franchise. I want to explore and meet cool little guys. I confess I haven't read this one, but what I've heard of it sounds way more inspiring than most of the ones I've looked into.

The Hexcrawl Toolbox: I have The Bottled Sea and the Undying Sands from Games Omnivorous (Plus Vaults of Vaarn and Isle of Ixx). This box looks like an incredibly expansion of those ideas, and it's such a great package.

Enoch's Wake: Big fan of R. Rook games, ever since I had Richard on my (defunct) podcast to play a session of Moonlight over Roseville Beach. Enoch's Wake is a fresh take on a science-fantasy setting, and I really wanted to dig in and check it out more.

Sanctuary and Sentinel: I've followed Meghan Cross' work in the scene for a while, and it's all great. I love stories about lone sentinels guarding something long beyond the point of its relevance, and listening to how the two games intersect on Party of One really sold me that the Kickstarter had been a good investment.

The Book of Gaub: I will admit, I fall straight into peer pressure. I've heard about the Book of Gaub, heard all good things, and was really intrigued by the premise. It's honestly not even a game supplement per se, as much as it could function as an in-world text and concept, with annotations to make it usable in a game. The writing is fantastic, the art is great, and I really can't wait to find an excuse to bust it out. (I may or may not be trying to squeeze it into that Beam Saber campaign...)

Aberrant Reflections: Another that I'd heard really good things about, but also I had heard the words "puzzle dungeon" used pretty close to it, so I absolutely could not pass it up. It's been a great year for adventure content, so I am intrigued to get stuck into this one.

A Butterfly Dies and Cocoxoca: Primal Quest grabbed my attention because I don't feel like we see a ton of work in the stone age setting. A Butterfly Dies seemed like a really interesting premise, drawing on Mexican myths and murals to give a perspective on that world that I hadn't seen before. Cocoxoca was a pamphlet adventure that I thought would make a fantastic add-on.

Viva la Queer Bar: As someone starting to explore their queer identity, this was honestly a no-brainer. I'm honestly hoping this could be my first Descended from the Queen game played (I've got For the Queen, and have flipped through the cards, but still haven't brought it to the table). Again, heard incredible things about this game, so can't wait to check it out.

Guild: I did say earlier that I've not gotten enough dungeon crawlers in my background. I've been kicking around some Discords with Disaster Tourism in them, and have been watching this grow with interest. It came with so much stuff I really had to, packed a lot into two zines, a bookmark, and a tearaway pad.

[shihalyfie]

I imagine you haven't heard, but there is a tabletop rpg called Animon Story that is apparently inspired a lot by Digimon. I'm playing it right now and I can definitely see some influences, but it is making me wonder about other games as well. Are there any other games that come to mind when it comes to the themes of Digimon outside of the franchise itself?

I'm unfortunately not super familiar with tabletop RPGs myself (real life stuff never worked out in such a way that I got to play one), so it's hard for me to really answer this question. I know that in Japan, Dungeons & Dragons is not very popular due to the fact it uses 20-sided dice and Wizards of the Coast has a copyright on the d20 ruleset that won't allow it to be translated (not to mention Japanese translations of early iterations were terrible), so things like Call of Cthulhu and games that only require 6-sided dice are more popular. There's also a thriving indie tabletop culture there, so people are more likely to make their own than to play D&D.

The most I can think of is that D&D has the famous Law/Neutral/Chaos alignment system that was adopted by Shin Megami Tensei, which Digimon takes blatant cues from for its Vaccine/Data/Virus attribute system, but beyond that I'm not sure...

[bonelessnerd]

I find your tagging system fascinating /pos would you care to elaborate on/explain it?

Oh well tbh its mostly just for my own refrence, the majority are inspiration stuff for various ttrpg games id like to run some day. This'll probably ruin the mystique, but here's some of the most common ones-

Dungeonpunk- more of an aesthetic or vibe, for the sort of stuff i think would be neat to see in a western fantasy style game like DnD. Sort of a mix of eastern artist's take on the genre, stuff like fromsoft games or old fantasy anime and rpgs, plus that sort of casually anachronistic vibe. Ive described the energy as being like, dungeon crawling with a sword and shield, but while also wearing a hoodie and sneakers. Saved for inspiration not just for dnd, but other ttrpgs like Fellowship, Dungeon Bitches and more.

Motw- Monster of the Week, a ttrpg you may be familiar with based on urban fantasy mystery series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Supernatural. Two of my other tags, Curiosity and Pierce Cove, are for different campaign ideas ive got. Curiosity is set in a small tourist trap town of the same name in the middle of the Nevada desert, and takes inspiration from stuff like Resident Evil, The X-Files, and the SCP Foundation. Pierce Cove is set in a dying east coast town beset by mysterious fog and missing persons, inspired by Stephen King's It, Silent Hill and The Magnus Archives

GBG- Ghoul-B-Gone, a Ghostbusters-pastiche short story i wrote a while back and still consider expanding on

Apocalypse World- inspiration for a campaign of the post-apocalyptic ttrpg of the same name. My particular idea is for a world plagued by creeping, ever expanding masses of meat and flesh, taking inspiration from TWD, Mad Max, Annihilation, and Dogscape

Strain- personal project, sort of a biopunk bodyhorror version of shonen battle anime like One Piece or MHA

Tendies- inspiration for a game of Tendencies: Spirits and Glamour, a ttrpg created by a friend meant to emulate battle anime like those mentioned above, but especially Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Also my de-facto fashion tag.

Masks- for teen superhero ttrpg Masks: The Next Generation. Also a general purpose superhero universe and worldbuilding inspo tag

Lancer- Started out as a tag for the mech ttrpg Lancer, but became a general purpose mech, robot, spaceship and cyberpunk tag.

WoD- World of Darkness, well-known urban fantasy ttrpg brand. Im more compelled by the worldbuilding than anything else, and while vampires and werewolves are what the setting is more famous for, im mostly interested in Changeling the Lost and Promethean the Created, as well as the fan games Genius the Transgression and Leviathan the Tempest.

Mons- a general category for funny monster befriending and catching, digimon and pokemon esque stuff. I put stuff here that inspires my ideas for two radically different games, Animon and Monsters And Other Childish Things, so the tone might rapidly oscillate

Voidheart- inspo for Persona-inspired ttrpg Voidheart Symphony. Debated creating a tag for this one for a while, as i used to just fold it into other tags like Motw, Tendies and Dungeonpunk

Slasher- honestly just a tag for slashers, im just kinda intrigued by the idea of them as a monster archetype in the same vein as vampires and werewolves and such

Gulm- a character I made for an god rp game that I grew quite fond of, a primordial ooze god of life. I use the tag for all sorts of nature, specbio, and paleoart as well as vaguely elder god type stuff that reminds me of it

Zorn- similar oc, an evil wizard god of knowledge and magic, a giant eyeball squid that was also his world's moon. Tag is just for stuff with his vibes.

I may have missed some, or left out the most self explanatory ones. Hope that clears stuff up, sorry if it was a long and unfulfilling read!

[zakbfree]

Rascal News announcement for the Break!! x Animon Story crossover!

[enddaysengine]

Animon story is out there! PDF is $15. If you reach out to Zak you may be able to swing a deal too. It’s a great game!

A couple months ago, one of the kids at the daycare brought in a D&D starter set and asked me to DM a game for him and some of the other kids in my class. Now, I had considered doing this in the past, but written it off for a variety of reasons, mainly asusming it'd be a couple days of chaos before the kids get sick of all the math involved and lose interest. But if a kid broaches an idea and others seem on board, I feel it's kind of my duty to at least try it.

So far my assumptions have been... mostly correct? Like, 70% of my predictions have come true, it is chaos, ten-years olds are the most murder-happy murder hobo PCs you could possibly imagine, and they've really been pushing my improv skills to their absolute limits with the choices they've made (and the constrictions I have on me as a daycare teacher). But they haven't gotten bored with the math, and they absolutely love playing the game still, which is nice. I like it when my students are passionate about something.

Anyway, I bring this up because seeing how children play with D&D canon has made me realize one critical fact:

D&D needs a Mons Game spinoff.

Kids love monsters. This is not my bias, it is something that has been categorically proven to me in my four years of working at a daycare. Every kid loves the idea of weird, impossible creatures, and they love the idea of befriending a whole horde of those creatures even more so. One of my kids in the daycare D&D campaign is making it his goal to find and tame every monster he can find in the kid-friendly monster manuals I bought for the class. He wants a Tarasque and a Bullete and an Owlbear and on and on and on, and keeps proposing tactics for capturing them based on his time playing Ark: Survival Evolved, a game where you can tame dinosaurs and mythic beasts while trying to survive a wild world full of danger and obstacles.

And it turns out that, while the mechanics of D&D don't support this, the philosophy of how its settings are structured according to those mechanics does. D&D is filled with hundreds of wild and imaginative monsters, all with distinct appearances, habits, adaptations, and environmental needs. The need to make the "dungeons" part of D&D interesting has required it to build really interesting monster ecosystems, and, much like mons games, the need to keep players buying new content has resulted in them building a vast library of creatures, because selling $50 books containing a slew of new monsters is a pretty guaranteed way to get money. D&D may not be a mons game, but it's accidentally made its setting perfectly suited to be one.

And what a money-maker that would be! Skew it more towards a child audience in tone, use simpler mechanics so kids can hop into it without spending, say, three solid weeks of afterschool daycare time crafting character sheets more or less one on one, and you'd have a game that would easily hook a younger audience while planting seeds of interest into the bigger game.

Of course, there are already indie TTRPG mons games, and I imagine some of them are actually good, but unfortunately they're not exactly easily obtainable on a daycare teacher's budget. And, you know, they wouldn't let you make a team of a bulette, an otyugh, a gray render, and an owlbear.

But then again, Wizards of the Coast continues to be absolute bastards, so maybe this idea is too good for them. Which makes it a good thing they're never going to read this blog post.

[gnomeknight1990]

Hey everyone, it's my birthday today, and if you'd like to get me a present, you can back the kickstarter for Afterschool Wonderland, an Actual Play podcast of @zakbfree 's incredible digimon-inspired tabletop roleplayong game Animon Story, that I am proud to be a cast member on, run by Cat McDonald, the GM of the award winning podcast Sword of Symphonies.

The kickstarter also includes a supplement for Animon Story featuring the setting and NPCs from the series, so you can bring the City Spectacular home with you!

Please help us make this show a reality (and get paid for our hard work on it)!

Also like I said it is my birthday so...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peachgardengames/afterschool-wonderland