#not cmwge

[retroactivebakeries]

Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine

[windienine]

befriend rats & kill god in a lush portal fantasy adventure by jenna moran

come on a journey with me?

there - past the scaffolding, past the rafters, up above past the windows and gables and fire escapes, if you make it to the roofs -

you'll encounter environments not of this world. rooftop gardens that have twisted themselves into dense forests, church spires that have , tiled expanses that stretch into the horizon and become meadows, gutter-lakes, deserts, mountains...

you'll encounter them, too, if you really look: the rats.

they want to show you these places, navigate them, map them, study them, know them. they want to befriend you, guide you, tell you their stories and weave new ones where you feature alongside them. if you want to make any headway, up there on the roofs, you'll need their help.

after all,

this is a place where the gods do tread. if they find you creeping about their domains, they will find you, kill you, transform you, dig their hooks into your very soul and never let go.

the rats know a secret.

gods can be killed.

you are the key.

the far roofs, currently crowdfunding, is home to some of the best role-playing game i've ever had. participating in several playtests has completely sold me on its viability as a system. notable are its set of unique oracle mechanics that tie into its freeform roleplay system, determining the physical and emotional outcomes of different events. gather hands of cards and tiles to weave together magic that can alter even monumental fates, fight peril with dice rolls, and collect components for spells and make headway on character advancement by spending time getting to know your companions, both human and murine.

it is, of course, written by dr. jenna moran, best known for previous innovative ttrpg experiences about divinity, such as nobilis, glitch, chuubo's marvelous wish-granting engine, and wisher, theurger, fatalist (WTF).

the philosophy of the far roofs is that dungeoneering is about the journey - the sights you see, the meals you make, the tales you tell, the companions you gain and lose - as much as the monster-slaying. each combat is a descriptive crescendo of the experiences faced up until that point, encompassing everything you've felt thus far. if any of this intrigues you, then, well... come on a journey with me?

[geostatonary]

Version 1.0 of The Far Roofs by @jennamoran is out on backerkit and I'm in love with the new art

[itskobold]

okay i feel like i need to finally finish these

[morkaischosen]

Based on something that went past on Discord, and in the full knowledge of the bias inherent in posting this in the context of the rest of my Tumblr, I'm curious as to the relationships between which of (a specific subset of) Jenna Moran's games people have heard of. We'll obviously get a lot (relatively) of "all three" since I'm posting this in a cluster of jennagamers; the interesting output is the differences in the one and two game responses.

This is loose and informal so I'm not too bothered if an individual's answers are "I've heard the name" or "I have some idea of the premise of this game," as long as you're consistent with your own answers.

The games I'm focusing on here are Nobilis; Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, or CMWGE; and Wisher, Theurge, Fatalist, often abbreviated WTF.

Reblogs appreciated, and notes as to where you've heard about the games would be interesting - part of my thinking here is about the contexts in which the games get talked about. In particular I'd love to compare the dynamics of my corner of Tumblr* against something like the RPGnet crowd, but I recognise the methodology here won't achieve that.

[xavidotron]

Just posted my Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine introductory heist one-shot, To Rob Death’s Dominion. Steal the jewel that justifies existence from the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy, or fall into chaos trying! If you’ve ever wanted to see what the fuss is all about with Chuubo’s but wanted either something bite-sized or something a bit less pastoral, this is what you’ve been waiting for.

[runespoor7]

how do you think JC would deal with the knowledge that WWX wished him into existence to be WWX's best friend/sidekick/shidi, really

[rampagingpoet]

Recently on a Discord server, someone asked about RPG systems that handle player-designed skills well. Specifically, how to balance very broad skills against very narrow skills. Is it always a negotiation? How do we get all the players on the same page? What if one player wants "Embroidery" and another wants "Ninjitsu"?

I've heard this referred to as The Batman Problem. What happens if you just write "I'm Batman" in a skill description? Batman is good at investigation, stealth, martial arts, and having lots of money. There isn't much within yhe realm of human potential that one would expect Batman to be bad at. And sure everyone could write "I'm Batman", but then those skill points no longer differentiate characters mechanically. Steps are needed to either disallow "overbroad" skills, charge more resources for them, or otherwise ensure their breadth does not translate directly into more (or less) power than the system expects.

Off the top of my head one system has an answer: Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine. Jenna Moran solved the Batman Problem not by trying to balance the inputs, but by constraining the system's outputs. The key restriction is that above Intention 2, all skills are equally effective at advancing your goals or doing the right thing. "Be Batman 3" will be applicable in a wider variety of circumstances than "Baker 3", but neither is more impressive or more helpful at anything beyond affecting your immediate surroundings.

If Bruce Wayne wants to "do something really productive that will make his life better", that's probably Batman 4 + spending 4 Will, a major effort. If Amaury Guichon wants to do something productive that will make his life better, that's probably also Chocolatier 4 + spending 4 Will. The specific things they do will differ - sneaking into a building to find key evidence versus practicing a new chocolate sculpture technique - but it's the same Will spend for the same overall effectiveness.

In this way the Batman Problem is rendered moot. Broad skills like "Know Things" and "Do Things" can coexist with narrow ones like "Baking", "Piano", and "Holiday Decor".

[jeeyonshim]

the priest and the demon hunter

[prokopetz]

if you ever got the chance to play chuubo's, which of the pregens would you choose to play? or would you want to build your own character? (in which case, on which arc?)

Assuming you mean the pregens from the Glassmaker's Dragon campaign, definitely Leonardo De Montreal. If we're including pregens from unpublished-at-the-time-of-this-posting campaigns, Jasmine Apocynum might also be in the running, though as far as I'm aware we've only seen her mortal-tier character sheet from the Hallowe'en special – that answer might change based on what her published miraculous-tier build looks like.

(Neither of these answers should be even slightly surprising.)

[franticbindings]

A Chuubo's quest potentially suitable for becoming a werewolf, transitioning, being sent to prep school, finding out you're royalty, getting into shape, changing majors, becoming a superhero, starting therapy, getting divorced, a pregnancy, returning from the dead, etc.

Or I guess, its a quest for exploring what it's like to go through something like that.

This started out purely as a werewolf thing, but then I noticed that what I had was more broadly applicable and leaned in.

This was 90% done, and then I read Annihilation for the first time and was vindicated to find that the character in that book hit nearly every one of the quest goals I already had.

Some of these things are beats that could happen in any kind of story; you'd probably have trouble finding one where the character never notices a change in someone else, but that fact that you're drawing attention to such a thing while on a quest that is about how your character is changing and how they feel about it - that means something!

[retroactivebakeries]

[windienine]

i want to teach you how to play chuubo's marvelous wish-granting engine...

(diceless rpg released by jenna k. moran in 2011)

... in as few words as i can manage!

there's a person running the game and playing the world (here, they're called the hollyhock god or "HG" for short.)

and one or more other people playing several characters who serve as the game's central cast (the player characters, or "PCs" for short.)

if you're one of the PCs, your main goal is to progress through a storyline by earning experience points ("XP") before play, you'll be given a little card with a set of goals on it. this is a quest. it describes the kind of story you're here to tell with your character today.

a quest needs a certain amount of XP to be completed, at which point you earn a reward and proceed to the next quest.

you can get XP in a few common ways:

completing the goals described on your quest card (major goals can only be completed once and give a large amount of XP, flavor goals can be repeated indefinitely but grant a smaller number)

participating in scenes with other PCs and/or the HG, talking to and working with one another and describing how your character feels. (this is an XP action, and you can take one once per scene)

evoking a specific emotion out of the other players that they reward you with XP for (this is called emotion XP)

a scene involves one or more PCs interacting with one another or the world. once everyone's been in two scenes and taken two XP actions, that is a chapter. you tally up all the XP you earned, refresh your resources, and the session is over.

that is the core loop. you try to progress directly on your quest, you spend scenes interacting with other players, and you play into the archetype you've chosen for a few bonuses. finish a quest, unlock a new storyline.

in other words: you have experiences as your character which give them the will to grow and change.

check out this example ^^^

this one's structured for a loner character-- some mad scientist or mage who knows that the world is in danger and is eager to solve that problem all alone.

but... this isn't really a story about singular great men solving singular great problems alone, though. how much can you tell about this character, their conflicts, and where they're headed, all based on the quest structure alone?

your challenge is to:

do the things listed on the card, when possible. take up burdens, structure the weird ominous dreams and portents your character is experiencing, create scenarios where they have to rely on others against their better judgement (quest XP).

spend time with the natural world and/or the other PCs every scene, having experiences that affect your character personally (XP actions).

act as your character in ways that drive the other players to stunned speechlessness, the usual target reaction for this character's archetype (emotion XP).

be loose and have some fun with it. you'll be working with several quests at a time, so try to chain them together and create openings for other players to fulfill their own goals as well.

... and you've done it! those are the fundamental basics of the game!

[geostatonary]

wrote a quick guide to playing in the arknights setting using chuubo's marvelous wish-granting engine. requires some familiarity with both to use.

[itskobold]

[bobertflaming]

Horizon school.