#tabletop game dev

[freakflaggames]

https://freakflaggames.itch.io/girl-time

hey so i just spontaneously generated a tabletop game. check out this blurb:

"Girl Time is a roleplaying game set in an unknown era of Ooo from the show “Adventure Time” in which girls are a noble class of adventurers who quest through the land in search of dames to rescue and treasure to find. Girl Time is more focused on narrative and fun than rules and combat. Situations can change from one moment to the next, and women can do anything."

rules-light, shenanigans-heavy, 20 righteous pages, get your girls (lesbians) together and answer the call of adventure!

on the itch page is a link to the original doc. feel free to comment any feedback and copy for homebrewing!

[warmshadegames]

Welcome!

Welcome to Warmshade Games!  I’m Patrick, an amateur tabletop game developer looking to share my work. 

I’ve been playing tabletop games since my friend introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons in Middle School and a few years back decided to give a go at designing some things of my own. 

I’ll be using this space to provide occasional updates to my projects and keep everything in one place.

[from-the-notebooks]

Do other ttrpg designers do historical research when making historical games?

I have to assume the GURPS splat books had some behind them but I'm just wondering if its weird that I plan to have a bibliography for my cute little Fate hack? I just want it to be accurate as much as possible.

[thecartonizer]

Shouting out into the void for this one but: any tips for someone who legitimately gave up ttrpg game dev because of both stress over not being able to translate my ideas into the dice stuff and the realization i could not logically make a living out of it but now wants to get back at it with risus or a original system?

[damsels-n-dice]

BIRTHDAY SALE

in celebration of my upcoming birthday, my game 'til it kills us is 80% off! that means you can grab it for just $1 for the next two weeks!

'til it kills us is a game about queer activism, community, and the mental health toll of constantly fighting to survive -- all encased in a urban fantasy setting and the wonderful buddy system. each of the game's nine playbooks is focused on a different negative emotion, which fuels that playbook's unique magical powers. will your characters succumb to the corrupting force of their magic, or improve their own life as they fight to help others?

the game is still in playtesting, so i'm also adding various purchase goals to sweeten the deal! my dream here is to get enough support for this project that i have to add even more goals beyond the first six:

at $3, this game gets a proper cover image

at $5, i'll write a PWYW lyric game next month

at $7,  'til it kills us gets a full formatting update (v0.4)

at $10,  i'll add 5 community copies 

at $15, i'll write a (fully-playable) PWYW game by the end of the year

at $20,  i'll write a setting + character companion book for 'til it kills us

if any of that sounds appealing to you, check out the sale at the game link above, or by going directly to my birthday sale page!

[efangamez]

Only 10 days left to snag this AWESOME TTRPG bundle!! 💛💛

Hey y'all! All of the help you've given me thus far has been truly amazing, and I really wanted to thank you for that 💛 I have used the money this far as a safety net for emergencies and to just enjoy life, whether that means going to the movies once a month or buying an Arizona each day with my walk as I build my strength back up.

We are, however, falling a bit short of our goal. I really want to be able to afford therapy more than anything right now, and visits cost about 100 per visit out of pocket with my insurance. So, if I'm looking to get expensive therapy and psychiatric appointments and official diagnosis, it will cost upward of 2,000+ dollars.

Also, I would really like to have some money to pay off my taxes I owe from 2022. I owe, still, about 3,500+ taxes, which I pay off each month. I pay the absolute minimum so I don't have to dig too deep in monthly costs. If I could pay off a chunk of it in one fell swoop, I could save nearly $500 a year and could nip interest accrued from my taxes in the bud.

Finally, and not as important, I need a new desktop computer. My current one is slowly dying, and the fans are giving out. My power supply is also a bit wonky, and my graphics card is and CPU is outdated, meaning I can't stream games well, nor can I play some games that give me solace. It's not imperative right now, but to have this as an option would be wonderful.

So please, if you would, could you purchase a game bundle? It's countless hours of entertainment with your friends for only $25, almost a FOURTH the cost of a AAA video game with HUNDREDS of hours of content. Not only are you snagging games, but you're also helping out a person in need. It's a win win!!!

Snag the games below, and if you can't purchase anything right now, please kindly reblog!

[lorazx]

BABEL IS OUT ON ITCH.IO NOW!

This game has been the last year and a half of my life, and I am very, very proud of it. You can go and grab it on my itch.io page, for $5 USD! A steal for a full 40 page rulebook, including character sheets and playing board.

Hopefully ya'll like it as much as I loved working on it!

Grab it here: https://lorazx.itch.io/babel

[bugbearstew]

CHECK IT OUT HERE

Need an NPC fast in your Root The Roleplaying Game session? Don't worry, I got you! Click the "Generate" button and you'll get an npc!

You'll see your NPC's age, species, pronouns and some character traits. You'll also get any weapon or gear they have, loot or special items, and a request Finally, you'll see a list of "stats." These are just for fun and jokes but they can help you develop the character even deeper!

Have fun!

Follow me on: twitter- cohost- tumblr- bluesky

Art by Millie @diddgery twitter- cohost- tumblr

Thanks to Meg yyako and Owen esspee for code assistance!

Check out Root The Roleplaying Game by Magpie Games

[mayarab]

Did you guys know I make games? Just released a new one today! Come checl "Whimsical Life" out!

Play as a magical being doing odd jobs around the community! It supports solo-play but you can also play with friends!

[goblincow]

Been thinking about this & putting it into practice when writing The Perilous Pear & Plum Pies of Pudwick for a while: thanks to the ever excellent @babblegumsam (who you are probably already following and if not now is your chance to rectify that) for the final straw that made me write this up today. I truly believe if you have any interest in TTRPGs, play, or design you'll get something out of it, it's a further 5.4 mins read from here on out.

--------------------

Play is interaction.

Reading is interaction.

Below I will argue the necessity & usefulness of thinking the relationship between reading & play in TTRPGs as (almost) the exact same thing to unlock a wide & deep potential as reader/player/designer.

--------------------

Reading & play don't have to be the same thing. But you can't play without reading (in the sense of reading representations, images, ideas, concepts, interactions, etc, not just written text), because then there could be no interaction.

Reading and play can both accurately describe a given act or process. For instance: I read a table or piece of prose in a TTRPG book.

I say this because this is an idea that people struggle with, and while I encourage debate around the concept, we first have to agree on some basic building blocks that I hope I'm able to communicate here. For instance, there exists a potential reality in which tabletop roleplaying games are called tabletop reading games and nothing else about them changes (except for the consequential ability to think of reading in ttrpgs as play, and the potential this tool unlocks), because the prerequisite role for all other roles being played in a role-playing game is that of the reader.

This is true for much more than TTRPGs, but if we simply focus on acknowledging that reading & play in ttrpgs can and often are the same thing, then we are able to make informed design choices on this basis that we otherwise lack the agency to make – and which are nonetheless choices that are being made while we miss the opportunity to observe, read & ultimately interact and/or change and/or play with them.

To not think of the relationship between reading & play in TTRPGs in this way is to limit your agency as a designer, reader, player, and ultimately to cause yourself to be unable to synthesise these roles which are deeply inter-related, perhaps more so than they are disparate.

However you define it, Good Design necessitates the application of the right tool for the job. This requires making, maintaining & improving the tools that you have access to. The reader/player relationship is not only one of these, but an integral one that precedes a great many (if not all) of the other tools that you can & do employ as designer/player/reader.

If you allow this tool to remain blunt and imprecise (and especially if you don't acknowledge that it exists and that you use it in every choice you make), what you are doing is making a choice to blunt all of your other tools, even if you aren't aware of it.

This is poor design, poor play, and poor reading,* and I believe that this is true regardless of how you define each of those terms.

*though of course we could - and I think should - argue over the semantics & limitations of my imprecise use of the word "poor" there and the further ideas it smuggles in unacknowledged, but I trust that you will be able to infer what I'm trying to communicate in my use of it and I further hope that by leaving this imprecise application of a tool here in the way that I have used it, it might serve as a good example of the consequences, limitations & potential dangers of applying tools/terms/ideas that might be best described as "too blunt for the job", which is the very thing I'm attempting to highlight & address here.

It would not seem very sensible to choose to limit yourself in this way unless it allowed you access to new tools, which is a choice that you could only make once you are familiar with the central idea I'm presenting here – in other words, if you break the rules without understanding them you are very unlikely to be taking a step forward and much more likely to just be shuffling in place or even stepping backwards.

I hope that this short interaction has unlocked or reinforced your access to a useful tool that will allow you to sharpen your understanding of the play/reading relationship in TTRPGs and in turn refine & maintain your existing tools and your ability to synthesise new ones.

I look forward to discovering with you what new agencies this allows us to unlock, and I hope you take what you have read here and play with it to design new realities that you & I have yet to imagine.

[devsgames]

Hasbro laid off 1100 people, include large numbers from Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons teams.

Most of the DnD folks who Larian collaborated with on Baldur's Gate 3 were fired by Hasbro and are no longer working at the company. You know, Baldur's Gate 3? The game that won GOTY at The Game Awards and was so unbelievably profitable that it caught everyone, even those making it, off-guard?

If you can make an unexpected smash hit that blows expectations out of the water and you're still not safe, then who is?

Anyway, start organizing your workplace.

[weirdmallow]

The level up section from my new TTRPG 'Warped'! Since you play as a whole host of different alternate reality versions of your character in 'Warped', levelling up gives you more control over the chaotic energy of the Multiverse, allowing you to change forms more often, open rifts in space and time and summon variants from different dimensions to fight alongside you!

The game has been a joy to develop and the Kickstarter is currently live with only one week to go if you want to back and play your part in bringing this manic multiverse to life!

[warmshadegames]

Ska's the Limit

Ska's the Limit is a card game where you and your friends compete to build the best Ska band.  Each player builds up a group by playing up to 5 "Band Cards" that can increase the band's Fame, Talent or have other effects.  Each Round, there will be multiple "Venue Cards" dealt to the table which offer a different number of Points.  However, each Venue can only hold one Band at a time and may have special requirements on who can play.  There are also "Song Cards" which have instant effects on the game and "Favors" which can be traded freely between my players or spent towards Venues.

This game is a work in progress for NaGaDeMon (a NaNoWriMo Rebel project).

[mitchelldailygames]

Developer Deep Dive: Arcanists Preview

Oh, Arcanists. What high hopes I had for you.

Arcanists is a game where all players are spellcasters. Think of it like a classic fantasy party of a wizard, a sorcerer, a warlock, and a druid. They travel around using their magic to help communities deal with problems that could range from getting cats out of trees to slaying monsters and diverting natural disasters.

The mechanics go deep on the magic with lots of ways to shape different spells and multiple ways for the spells to do unexpected things. Reflecting on it now, I think the level of negotiation between GM and Arcanists and between players and the rules is pretty high. It worked out OK in my playtesting, but I would understand it being intimidating.

There is a lot I still really love about this game, enough that I might finish it at some point, even if it’s a relatively small release. I think the character creation (which isn’t in the Preview) is really strong. Characters can fit into archetypes while still feeling unique. I think the system for different approaches favoring different outcomes really works. Depending on what approach you prefer, your magic could end up being consistent but rarely surprising or really powerful but chaotic.

I also think the spell system is really cool and goes further into spell creation while still having pretty clear mechanics tied to it than I think I’ve seen in other places. Despite how much time might go into negotiating spell effects, I think it opens a lot of doors for creative problem solving, roleplaying with magic, and playing into disastrous and miraculous consequences of magic gone awry.

I also put a lot of work into the look of this game. I drew lots of runes, drew a decent amount of other art, and worked a lot on graphic design elements. There’s plenty I would probably do differently today, but it was a clear jump forward in my thinking about what a professional product should look like. I think some of that work is good enough that I probably won’t change it when I eventually return to this game.

This game has never gained very much attention, and that’s just how it goes sometimes, but if you check it out you’ll find it comes packaged with pre-generated characters, the rules for using magic, and an adventure. I hope you enjoy!

--Daily

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is a neo-noir investigation-focused RPG with (as you can probably guess from the title) a supernatural twist. Eureka fills several voids we have noticed in the TTRPG space. Eureka supports investigation to a degree we haven’t seen before, ensuring that searching for clues is a granular and player-driven process, but also ensuring that the whole story doesn’t grind to a halt after one single failed investigation check.

Though most PCs will be mundane humans—or perhaps because most PCs will be mundane humans—Eureka also supports playing monstrous PCs, such as a vampire, in a way we have never seen before. This isn’t just a watered-down stat bonus, it’s like playing an almost entirely different game, with all the monster’s strengths and weaknesses to account for while solving the mystery, plus the added incentive to keep it a secret from the other PCs as well as their players.

If you like or are interested in Call of Cthulhu, Monster of the Week, Dresden Files, X-Files, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Apocalypse Keys, or Gumshoe, you’ll probably find something in Eureka to really enjoy.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is kickstarting from right now until May 10th! Back it while you still can!

If you want to try before you buy, you can download a free demo of the prerelease version from our website or our itch.io page!

If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!

You can also support us on Ko-fi, or by checking out our merchandise!

Join our TTRPG Book Club At the time of writng this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is the current game being played in the book club, and anyone who wants to participate in discussion, but can’t afford to make a contribution, will be given the most updated prerelease version for free! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[essence-inked]

I made a thing, and now a silly little idea I came up with a while back has become a short TTRPG game about delivering weird and dangerous packages to weird and dangerous clients, and all the stuff you run into on the road along the way!

Introducing You've Got Mail!

You can snag for free (or pay whatever you think is a fair price) from the link below.