#like a really little guy

[fantasyfantasygames]

Under the Eaves

Under the Eaves, Rooftopper Games, 2013

"Rooftopper" is the name for a very small race of fae who live on rooftops in the Shadowmarch series (one of Tad Williams' better works). It's therefore appropriate that Rooftopper Games made Under the Eaves, where you play exactly that.

Your characters live in a large late-medieval city. You're only a few inches tall, tiny enough to live off crumbs and dew. Only a few "big folk" know you exist. Most have heard of your kind, but think you're just a rumor in their gritty, low-fantasy world. Meanwhile, you live a life of high adventure, sneaking behind flowerboxes, sliding down rain gutters, fencing with needles, and weaving esoteric magics with cobweb-covered crow bones.

Character creation is done through flowchart that looks like a grape trellis. You pick your starting points with a family and a calling. You trace a path to the advancements (grapes) you want, and if you can reach it from more than one starting point you get more benefit out of it. Each advancement comes with a sentence or two of backstory. They're well-written, but they don't always mesh together perfectly, so you'll probably have to throw out some of them. When you're done you'll have a few broadly applicable d6 dice pools that intentionally overlap in some areas of specialty. You might have 3d6 in Acrobatics and 2d6 in Fighting, which would give you 5d6 in dodging things. Gear either adds more d6 to your dice pools, or sets a minimum or maximum roll for your actions or your opponents'. The system as a whole is fairly traditional, with hit points and resisted rolls and stuff. No falling damage, though.

The GM section includes a d100 table of possible adventure seeds, with the intent that you roll twice to get the "second-act twist". For instance, you might start trying to find a crow who captured someone's child, only to find out that there's a rat invasion coming and you have to figure out how to handle both of them. Perhaps there's a curse on the town and you're trying to find out why, but it turns out the witch is being blackmailed by thieves. Not all of them make sense (the rat invasion is being blackmailed by thieves?) but you can usually get something that works with another roll or two. Honestly, "the thieves who are blackmailing your friend are being blackmailed by thieves" is pretty great.

The game's art is generally an asset. There's a map of the city as a whole, with a zoomed-in area for the "Home Roofs". Layout uses some non-standard fonts but generally to good effect. Some pieces were done by an artist who is fine but whose work doesn't fit with the others, and two have a weird brightness/contrast issue.

Overall the game could use a bit more polish, but I enjoyed it. Most of the people involved in its creation went on to do cool stuff in future games. If I were them I'd be pretty proud of having this as a first work. I'd love to see a crossover between Under the Eaves and Chuubo's Far Roofs setting. Who wouldn't love to play a swashbuckling sprite and their swashbuckling rat mount/companion?

Under the Eaves was Rooftopper Games' only publication. There are a few small hard-to-find supplements that were mail-order only, each describing a particular location or organization. Their website is shut down and their DriveThru account boarded up a while back due to not so much a legal dispute as there being no clear decision as to who was supposed to run it after the company closed. If you write to the authors they'll still gladly send you PDFs.

[humming-fly]

was thinking about that one blind professor post earlier today and how well it applied to the aptly named Team Dark

(really 'Team Dark' just sounds a lot cooler than 'Team Saves-On-Electricity')

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

autograph exchange

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The squad of all time has arrived on scene.

[cookiedough77]

ok like you know those things where they have ladybug and chat noir dress nice to go "undercover" or something at an event like a fancy part or something-

yeah so ladynoir.... but its dress chat noir and suit ladybug

i drew them again but better go look LOOK NOW

[wasyago]

tango doodles

first you make up a guy and then you struggle to draw him correctly

[lilybug-02]

This is Pixel, my Porygon2. She gets really excited when touching carpet - like hilariously so. I always figured it was because real life textures are kinda new and exciting for a digital creature. @realpokemon

[sillaysii]

A LOT of Ultrakill kitties from twitter !! I forget to post here sometimes sorry!!

[loolilyumm]

Agent 3 interrupts the Octo Expansion character selection screen (not clickbait)

[egophiliac]

Your first initial impressions of any Twst character vs your current feelings about them?

honestly, my perception of pretty much every character went through some metamorphosis of "this guy looks like a jerk" to "oh, he's a stupid jerk? now hold on." it's all about that balancing act between a dark brooding asshole and a dark brooding asshole who is also totally ridiculous, and it really does make ALL the difference.

perhaps most ironically, I've mentioned before that I was absolutely not into the Diasomnias at first, because the impression the website gave pre-release was somehow even less favorable than for everyone else and I was mad at Lilia for getting my hopes up for a token girl). and then we got their stories and, well, I kind of just haven't stopped thinking about them since. 🤷

also, I went in thinking that Crowley was going to be. y'know. competent at his job. a helpful guide. a mysterious yet caring mentor figure, a fitting leader for this band of delicate young magic waifs with their fancy little magic outfits and their perfect, perfect hair. I've never been so glad to be wrong.

[rhinestonesox]

Half-foots are highly discriminated against in the world of dungeon meshi.

They have a difficult time living in places outside of their own territories because places where larger races live aren’t built for their size and crowds can be dangerous.

they’re the least valued race by long lived races because their life spans are the shortest out of all the races. this means that they’re dehumanized and often considered disposable. their superior senses make other races use them as “lures” when hunting succubi/mermaids (usually dying in the process).

They’re often mistaken for/treated like children because of their appearances, and because of this they have a difficult time getting jobs because it’s assumed that they’re immature/can’t handle it.

Because of this, when living outside of Half-foot territories they’re forced to get money by any means necessary (often resorting to crime), so other races stereotype them as “cunning” “greedy” and “manipulative”.

On top of that, members of long lived races who tend to fetishize them.

Even the name “Half-foot” is discriminatory.

Ryoko Kui does a fantastic job at world building.

But even after all of that, im not gonna stop talking about how bad i wanna put Chi Chi in my pocket.

[puppppppppy]

this place is so fruity

[phantasmatoucan]

SOME HEA AND SMITTEN STUFF

[zorangezest]

thanks for listening

[hattiestgal]

Just girls being girls

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Look what we've become.

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