#tabletop game dev

[warmshadegames]

Been a bit since i did anything, do i participated in the Game Jam for Riley Hopkins' Interstitial 2e. I'm really proud with how this came out and think I did a good job filling out the character archetype I was going for.

I'd recommend checking out the Game Jam here and looking at all the cool playbooks other people made.

[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!

[anim-ttrpgs]

Y'all state in the Eureka rulebook (at least the version I have) "In our experience, the more preparation,the better, no matter the genre." I was wondering if you've expanded on that anywhere? I've been rambling in my drafts about how different games talk about prep, including PbtA games which often state outright that you should only make limited preparations.

Yeah this is something that it would be a good idea to expand upon, because “GM prep” is word that has been so diluted and corrupted by D&D5e and its toxic critical role play culture, where “GM prep” means “they will do this, and when they do, the music will be timed just right and the battle map will be so impressive, etc.” PBTA is telling you to avoid prep because it doesn’t want you doing that kind of prep (and no good RPG does). This can work for PBTA for a number of reasons that I actually don’t want to get into in the interest of time but it has a lot to do with the pure genre emulation and the limitedness of the playbooks.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, however, cannot get away with this because it is both a much more expansive “toolbox” game and because it is explicitly a mystery-investigation game. There are many other games that do also really benefit from the type of prep that Eureka wants from its GMs, such as dungeon crawlers, but Eureka needs it the most.

But the kind of prep Eureka wants isn't “they will do this and when they do it will be perfectly timed and look so impressive,” it is “what if they do this? What if they do that? What if they do some other third thing?”

A Eureka GM needs to have something ready for the shed behind the house, in case a PC decides to go to the shed behind the house, because this is a mystery game. You can’t just improv it, if you make something up on the spot, then and that thing doesn’t perfectly adhere to the facts of the case, the case can be ruined. That’s why we push for using adventure modules so much, because they’re literally designed to do that prep for you.

TL:DR

TTRPGs are games where anything can happen, so instead of being extremely meticulously prepared for one possibility, a good GM is moderately prepared for a wide variety of possibilities. In a game where “the facts” not 100% lining up doesn’t fully matter or isn’t likely to be pried into, you can get away with lower prep in each of your possibilities you’ve prepped for, but in a game where “the facts” and tiny little details are all that matters, you should have a high level of preparedness for each possibility, and the best way to do that is to use an adventure module.

[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.

[faeriedaez]

Reading @anim-ttrpgs's Death Bed and an evil smile slowly grows across my face as each of the mechanics click into place. I can't quite explain, but I have never had an experience like reading an ANIM game. As a chronic GM my mind instantly fills with ways to push these mechanics in fun ways to challenge players. The games really justify themselves in such a way that you feel your own comprehension of TTRPGS as a medium expanding with each turn of the page. It's an absolute TREAT to read!

If you're interested, Eureka is the place to start, it's the most finished, and is sort of required reading for the other less finished games.

[mallowmaenad]

Poisoned Apples 1.0 Release

Well here it is, my first published ttrpg, I plan on making the document prettier and more organized with illustrations but as it'll be in a game jam bundle I wanted it out in a playable state in a timely manner. I hope all of you fucked in the head girlies who dont leave their houses enjoy it, I made it for you, I made it for me, I made it for every magical girl that probably should've gotten more therapy and head. Good luck.

[ratinasuitproductions]

I've just revamped my TTRPG "The Trains of the Glorious Republics of the People"

If you enjoy TTRPGs where you play as a train crew in a fictional 1930s totalitarian state then this is the TTRPG for you. The TTRPG now has artwork and a fresh new layout. I hope you enjoy it as much as my friends and I had making and playing it.

[dericbindel]

There Is A Hole In Your Chest - 36 Word RPG

There is a Hole in your Chest and it Swallows every thing.

This is a game about loss, grief, anxiety, dysphoria, depression, dysmorphia, and every other part of you that guts you with a gnawing, aching void, something that feels like it will never go away.

It can also be about having an horrifying chest-mouth.

Here is my entry for the 36 Word RPG Game Jam!

[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?

[ultimavela]

Today I realized that this month marks one year since I started working on this game. Maybe too much for something that was supposed to be a side project :S

Here are a few things about this game I called “No Peace for the Heathen”.

*I made two new oirgings (“classes”) :), they are at the end of the post -> “Survivor” and “The sorrow of many”.

Is Isla Chica at the end of your life? Or is it real land to grab with your hands? Or maybe a lie you tell yourself to do what you do? Would you do anything to reach its shore?

A very rough first take on the character sheet and how each part of it relates to the rules of the game. Just to give an idea of the game and in what context these eight origins are used.

THESE ARE THE ORIGINS YOUR CHARACTER MAY HAVE:

Half-Ivunche

You are half human, half aberration. You were kidnapped as a newborn by the witchcraft order “La Mayoría” to be bred into an Ivunche; a legendary creature protector of the caves of witches, magically mutated, of extreme force, resistance, and fury, with one of their legs bent and tied to their neck from behind.

You were rescued by a free witch and grew to become a titan among humans, taller and stronger. Because of the magic that mutated you, you lost one of your legs, which has been replaced by a beautiful wooden carved prosthetic made by the witch who rescued you.

You are unable to use magic and you are immune to it.

Your compulsions is: Violence or Fear.

You are better at being: Strong (+3), Resilient (+3)

This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):

Rescue a newborn from being an Ivunche to clear your debt with fate.

Kill the ones that kidnapped you when you were a newborn.

Find a worthy place of power to bury your adoptive mother's ashes.

Rescue your mother from Prime, the Inquisitor's city.

What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).

Ash revenant

Your family was burned to death by one of the many groups of conquistadors that had arrived from the north. You don't remember which king or which god they were serving. Every year is someone new, some new flag that has come to replace the previous one. For you, all of them are just the same. You are alive by something that some call a miracle, but you know it to be a curse. You woke up from the ashes of your town. Your body healed from the burns. The memory of the pain as a white, high-pitched light in your mind. Your eyes and hair are gray as ash. Your blood is pumping with a voracious desire for revenge.

You are immune to pain, and your flesh can’t be burned.

Your compulsions is: Cruelty or Martyrism.

You are better at being: Resilient (+1), Agile (+1)

This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):

Kill someone of importance to the conquistadors.

Burn to the ground one of the conquistador’s towns.

Engrave the names of your family in the walls of Port Salvation, the first conquistador fortification, with the blood of one of their generals.

Ransack a dead-holy-wheeled-town, then burn it to the ground so it becomes forgotten.

What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).

Mutilated Artisan

You were a master artisan, an artist. Conquistadors enslaved you to build a giant idol in the name of their man-king-god. You refused, and so they cut off your hands. You were thrown like a dead rag into a common pit. But you were faintly alive. You built two weapons to replace your hands. You became a weapon forged by their cruelty.

Your hands are weapons that do damage like short swords. They are your hands, not something you carry. You know how to forge and repair your weapons.

Your compulsions is: Vengeance or Superstition.

You are better at being: Sneaky (+3).

This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):

Burn one valued idol of the man-king-god.

Craft one last beautiful thing.

Cut the hands of those who cut yours.

Steal and destroy a relic from a (dead or not) holy-wheeled-town.

What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).

Exiled Witch

You were a witch from “La Mayoria”, the society of witches that inhabits the Underbelly. Hungry for power and knowledge, you revealed your book of flesh to an Inquisitor for the promise of an old scroll from his lands. He assured you that it concealed secrets beyond the grasp of “La Mayoria”. You sold the secrets of witchcraft for this promised power.

But he broke his promise, and he killed as many witches as he could. He hanged them in front of the cathedral of his town, using the book of flesh you gave to him as proof of their wickedness.You know magic, and you have learned the six secrets of “La mayoria”, but you are a pariah among the witches of your land, a traitor.

You can cast as many spells per day as your Imposing. You know as many magical mutations of the blood as your Imposing.

Your compulsions is: Cowardice or Curiosity.

You are better at being: Imposing (+1), Observant (+1)

This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):

Recover the book of flesh you gave to the inquisitor.

Kill the inquisitor with whom you made the deal.

Recover the bones of the witches that were killed because of you, and return them to the Underbelly.

Steal the witchcraft secrets that the inquisitors keep in Prime.

What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).

Orphan of the Sea

You are a child of the sea, a sumpall. There was a time when you swam in her embrace, breathing from her, and feeding on her tempestuous might. You were royalty among the beings of nature. But madmen from the north hunted away the ones like you. You stayed behind, stranded on the shore. You lost your scales, and your tail became two long legs. You have a faraway memory of happiness and power. You desire the sea, and you have tried to be embraced by her more than once. But the fear of death was more powerful, and you broke through its surface to return to the island. Now it all seems like a dream from a previous life.

If you sing, your voice is like a spell. You singing makes people be in a dream like state.

Your compulsions is: Lust or Dominance.

You are better at being:Imposing (+1), Sneaky (+1)

This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):

Learn the name of the place where your people escaped to.

Build a ship with the name of this place and give it to someone who has lost their home.

Burn a ship of fishermen and take pieces of their bodies to be buried beneath dry earth, so their spirits linger between land and sea, in eternal sorrow, without belonging to neither.

Bring havoc and devastation to Port Salvation.

What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).

Stranded pirate

You were a king of the seas. You sold your people for a bigger and faster ship. You made deals with conquistadors, and you were cursed by the seas for this betrayal. You can’t sleep because when you close your eyes, you see the faces of the ones you betrayed.

You are immortal, and when killed, your body evaporates, reaping naked in the last please where you pissed. But seawater burns your body and if you are killed at sea, you will be gone for good.

Your compulsions is: Greed or Pride.

You are better at being: Sneaky (+1), Observant (+1)

This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):

Trick and scam those conquistadors with whom you made deals.

Use the treasures from the conquistadors to forge enough weapons for a small rebel army.

Free from slavery the child of those you betrayed.

Sabotage or destroy the docks of Port Salvation.

What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).

Survivor

NOT DRAWN YET

You are an islander. A wanderer driven by pleasure, adventure and curiosity. You live in the now. You have seen the weapons carried by those invaders from the north, their practices, their cruelty and their violence, and in them you have seen just another change of season, another wave of an immense, impassive sea that has come to pulverize and transform the shore. You change your skin like the great ancient serpents, you take what you need to survive, you learn from the invaders if necessary, you use their violence, their pride and their cruelty to your advantage. Exalted, you witness change.

If you have lived through tragedy, you don't talk about it. If you have suffered, you move on. But it builds up inside you, even if you don't want it to. Because you have ears and eyes, you see the blood on the ground, you hear the screams of those like you. But you tell yourself that it is not your turn, not if you are skilled, if you run with the speed and agility of the great serpents, creators and destroyers of worlds. You tell yourself, “I will endure.”

At moments of conflict between different groups, you have a keen eye to know what side has the upper hand. You have an easy time convincing others that you will betray your “cause” if you have to.

Your compulsions is: Cowardice or Apathy.

You are better at being: Resilient (+1), Sneaky (+1), Observant (+1)

You may not be looking for Isla Chica yet, you may have heard about it, as a haven, as a place of respite and endless pleasures, perhaps, as conquistadors say of it, a magical kingdom of infinite treasures.

But your tragedy has not crystallized, your tragedy is yet to come, and when it does, you will brew your beliefs of what is necessary to find Isla Chica.

The grief of many

NOT DRAWN YET

You don't know what or who you are, as day by day, your flesh and memories are in danger of changing to something new.

Every time you change, the only thread of unity is the memory of the recent events, perhaps you will remember days, months, but before that, the echos of all of those you have been are a turbulent sea, and your present “self” is just one louder voice in the chorus of the many you have been.

Every time you wake up, there is 1 in 6 chance that you will become someone new. You remember what you have experienced in-game, but everything before that is somehow blurry, and the memories of the person you are at that moment are just a little clearer.

Your compulsions is: Masochism or Kleptomania.

You are better at being: Roll 2d4-4 for each tactic, and then add +2 to one tactic. Do the same every time you change to someone new.

You may not yet be seeking Isla Chica, you may have heard of it, as a haven, as a place of respite and infinite knowledge.

Your tragedy has not crystallized; it may be yet to come, or it may be the reason for your eternally changing nature.

Past or future, when your tragedy reveals itself, you will brew your beliefs of what is necessary to find Isla Chica.

[bingsoo-jung]

TTRPGs and Violence

Not everything is radical, let’s stop pretending like it is.

A lot of people in the TTRPG space don’t like me. About a year ago I more or less set fire to the handful of bridges I had built in this space in order to make a statement about the genocide of Gaza. In the past year as I protested my way across my college campus, graduated, and joined up with a mutual aid group, I have never once regretted this.

However, I do regret not being more clear with what I meant when I did it. So, let’s begin with a bold statement, people in the TTRPG space often discuss colonialism and resisting colonial narratives, but draw the line at actually resisting colonialism. The TTRPG community has decided that ‘revolutionary’ narratives are non-violent ones because many people subscribe to the idea that violence is inherently colonial and not simply a tool of colonizers. But no liberation has ever been achieved without violence, and the decision in the TTRPG space to say that anti-colonial and revolutionary stories should be non-violent ones exemplifies why TTRPGs often struggle to hold its own against other storytelling mediums. Not because of the inherent nature of TTRPGs, but because of the culture that has formed around them.

Stories, at their best, are vehicles of discussion about the world around us. They are ways to comment on the complicated nature of reality. But simply deciding the best path of resistance is a path of consummate niceness and pacifism — not one of violence and care — ignores those complex realities. It’s been decided that there is an acceptable amount of fury that can be depicted, but that fury ought to be toothless. Thus to reinforce that narrative, stories about war are always set after the war, they’re about healing from trauma in a better world. They’re about how we become better when all the fighting is done.

But the fundamental fact of reality is that those things aren’t done. Colonialism hasn’t ended, it’s just shifted forms, wars still occur, and there is an active ongoing genocide even now. I live in a country which has elected a wannabe-Hitler, and a South African billionaire who made his money from slave labor did a nazi salute at his inauguration. We live in an actively hostile and cruel world for POC, queer people, disabled people, and so many others. But we are pretending as if we don’t.

Thus not only are we engaging in pretend when we’re acting, we’re engaging in pretend in the metanarratives surrounding which stories do and don’t get told. We’re acting as if these stories which talk about healing from trauma are responses to the reality we live in, where the trauma-causing events have passed. But they haven’t. The traumatic history hasn’t ended, we’ve just grown blind to it.

To this day I can name one Actual Play off the top of my head which depicted violent resistance, yet I can name a number of movies, books, and TV shows which have, despite them being under far greater censorship. APs have chosen to self-censor not because the TTRPGs don’t exist, but in the hopes of being palatable, yet still wish to be viewed as radical by their community. This is done by choosing to not depict the PCs as engaging in violent resistance, and not portraying that violent resistance in a positive light. Instead most ‘anti-colonial’ stories are post-colonial ones about how ‘leftover anger’ from traumatic histories can make you cruel.

This is not to say that stories sent after colonization cannot be radical, but for them to be radical the violence used to achieve liberation cannot be ostracized and made into something that characters need to ‘heal from.’ That killing the colonizer who massacred thousands or even millions actually is on the road to hell and is something that can mar the soul. In doing so we vilify the justified anger of the colonized. We tell each other ‘don’t be angry at the injustice that happened to you.’ But Kira Nerys from Star Trek: Deep Space 9, or Cassian Andor from Andor don’t need to heal from the violence they caused, your TTRPG characters don’t need to either.

Furthermore, we treat actions that are not liberatory actions as being liberatory. No, you getting better opportunities is not liberation. No, former soldiers healing from trauma isn’t liberation. No, voting isn’t liberation. Liberation is liberation. Anything else isn’t, and shouldn’t be considered that. That isn’t to say those things important, but they aren’t equal to it. As Ismatu Gwendolyn would say, we’ve made a spectacle of liberation, we’ve made it something you can eat and consume and say ‘I engaged in liberation, my instagram feed says so! Look at this liberation meal I had!’ But in doing so we’ve failed to actually produce any stories which could meaningfully contribute to discussions of what resistance should look like and how it could be achieved. We’ve hampered our imaginations to foster a palatable leftism in favor of a useful one.

But what use is calmness, when the anger is correct? When things are wrong and fucked up? Why not tell a story about your anger? The want for violence isn’t always bad, what matters is when and where it’s used. Yes, indiscriminately murdering orcs is weird and speaks to the tendencies towards bioessentialism in D&D, but demanding we always negotiate with fascists because ‘they’re people too’ is just tolerating fascists. There is nuance and context to violence that matters, and by stripping those things from how we portray it, our stories become the worse for it. We do not trust in the viewer to come to conclusions for themselves, or to know where the line in the sand is, nor do we trust in the performer-creatives to be a rational person.

Perhaps most irresponsibly, instead of building infrastructure that would allow us to tell these kinds of stories we’ve instead cast it to the performer-creatives to take the emotional burden upon themselves. Why don’t we bring on intimacy coordinators to set boundaries and create safe environments to tell these stories? Why are things like decompressing and session zeroes optional and not obligatory? And why have we not innovated more robust and professional safety tools as this space becomes more and more of an industry? In doing so we’ve inherently made TTRPGs a less safe place that would allow us to tell more serious stories. The limitations are not solely of what stories we’ve deemed acceptable to tell, but the lack of systems that would allow us to tell them. This is not to say that if you don’t have access to these systems you shouldn’t be telling stories, but the lack of them nevertheless speaks to a greater issue in the TTRPG space, a fundamental unseriousness that impacts our very ability to be more radical in our imagination.

I don’t really know if I want to see more narratives around violent resistance in the TTRPG space. I’m not sure if the same people who have rejected such stories and the importance of them really have the capability to tell them, or if they will simply just make it work. But I hope to see new people use stories to galvanize people, and to innovate new futures. I not only want to see stories that say something, that give us new possibilities, but also new systems put in place that support creatives in telling these stories. Things like bleed should not be solely up to the performers to handle, but something that resources are budgeted for just the same as streaming assets, hardware, and so much else. If we want to create a space where people are emboldened to tell all kinds of narratives then we need to actually facilitate those spaces, not just say ‘I would like to see more kinds of stories told.’

TTRPGs are not producing stories in the vein of Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, or even Deep Space Nine because we’re so focused on being better than our anger, but also trying to recreate the success of stories in other mediums. We reach towards a moderate middle ground based on the past because it’s healthy and reliable. But that ignores that oftentimes a good story not only makes the viewer feel something, but challenges them. The inherent nature of nostalgia is a conservative one which idolizes a forgone idealized past that never could have existed, and in constantly trying to recreate or pay homage to other stories, we continue to hamper our innovation.

There is such great potential to in TTRPGs as a medium, from their collaborative nature, to their real-time storytelling that provides a space for people to experience emotions and possibilities in real time, to, frankly, the lack of censorship that other mediums of art experience. They can push us to imagine and act quicker than if we were simply writing a novel or screenplay. But if the TTRPG space is to grow we must move beyond our unimaginative and anti-radical tendencies which idolize a non-violent nostalgic past, in favor of dreaming a sometimes violent radical future.

With all my love,

Theta S. Chun.

[morimox]

Once again "oobh i got plany off time" got the better of me and I procrastinated and started on a game jam SUPER late, lmao. But I'm actually really proud of what I was able to create in such a limited amount of time. Destroyed my sleep schedule, but hey, I made something! It's a MÖRK BORG-compatible creature supplement available for free or PWYW on itch. If you enjoy it, please consider donating~

https://morimox.itch.io/shrouded-sovereign

[twoconfusedgamedevs]

I made a little pixel doodle of my most recent DnD character, a baby aarakocra bard! She plays the lute and the harmonica, has bells around her feet, and writes terrible, terrible songs. Below is a version in which I remembered birds do in fact have tails, and the original sketch of her I made during a session. TBH, I would love to find a way to stick her in our video game eventually -M

[anim-ttrpgs]

A couple of reviews for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy.

[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!

[goblincow]

GREEN MILK | #008 | save vs despair — mörk borg: a holistic retrospective

:// A little over a month & 14,000 edited & well-considered words later, SAVE VS DESPAIR is complete to read in its entirety.

If you have any interest in TTRPGs or ever wondered what Mörk Borg's whole deal is – this is for you.

I approached it as a writing exercise & design analysis to understand what's so special about this game and art object, and I'm really proud of both this piece and what I learned for my own practice.

If you're invested in the TTRPG scene I'd appreciate it if you shared this with anyone who might enjoy it.

Our artform deserves as much high-quality analysis as we can cultivate, and the fact that I stumbled into writing what is currently the most thorough analysis I could find (which still has huge gaps in its perspective & approach) of one of the most successful games to emerge from the scene in recent years indicates that there is a need to encourage more writing like this.

In a perpetually collapsing digital infrastructure where so much of our design writing is ephemeral and lost to time (I've heard ancient tales of The Forge & Google+ eras, Discord is an unreferencable void & I really hope someone wiser than me is archiving all these podcasts) I hope that longer form writing might represent an opportunity for the ideas we have now to still be accessible (in one form or another) in years to come.

—

Too much patting myself on the back? Maybe.

But it's good writing and I think you'll get something out of it.

Personally I learned that cross posting on multiple platforms is exactly as fun as it sounds (I thought the whole point of starting a newsletter was to avoid this crap in the first place) and by the end of the month I just wasn't posting the illustrations I was making or sharing the last 2 (?) individual parts here as they went up after burning myself out on instagram.

So for the sake of my poor microwaved brain, if any of this interests you: