#tabletop gamedev

[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!

[mightofmerchants]

Some people have asked me if I can publish my mapmaking tools. So I developed a software. 🙂

Here is the result:

[studiohexttrpg]

Are you an indie game designer? Think your project could use a bit of spotlight? Well, you're in luck!

We’ve started a passion project over at the 1sickPuppy team, a digital zine called Not Saved! It’s a monthly zine where we highlight indie creations across geek and pop culture: games, comics, music, art, and much more. Our first issue is out, and we’re already working on the next one. We’d love for you to check it out, discover some cool projects, and maybe even find something inspiring. If you’re a creator yourself, feel free to reach out using the contact form on the bottom of the site! P.S the zine features anything (TTRPGs, music, video games, board games, comics, etc), as long as it's indie! Feel free to share it with other communities.

[anim-ttrpgs]

I and my friends are making a ttrpg for fun, and have come to an impasse. We disagree about the inclusion of an attribute, that dictates the PCs bravery. Therefore I wonder what a gamedev plugged into the TTRPG scene, thinks about mechanics that make PCs act brave/cowardly.

Well if you ask me specifically, I’m going to tell you don’t include anything that can take control of a player’s character away from them, but that does not mean that you can't have any kind of mechanic/stat that governs a PCs fear or stress level.

I personally can’t stand that mechanics that dictate that PCs run away, or dictate that they do anything at all like by falling under mind control, not because I think of the character as myself or some shit like that, I just consider myself to be the person most qualified to know what he or she would do in any given situation, so I’ve never been a fans of passing or failing saving throws or whatever determining if my character takes a certain action or not.

This is not to be confused with, like, regular dice rolls. Rolls to determine if my character can do a certain action well enough to succeed are totally fine, in fact I often want more of those.

This is one of the reasons why the Composure and Tiers of Fear systems in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy work the way they do.

We definitely wanted fear to be something that could affect the PCs and cause them to run away in a realistic fashion, these aren’t supposed to be fearless action-heroes, but I didn’t want it to be just a dice roll and then the GM tells you that your PC has to run away now. So, instead, Composure acts as a “cap” to the PC’s Skill modifiers. Base Skills cannot be higher than the PC’s current Composure level, making them worse and worse at succeeding skill checks the more frazzled and fatigued they are.

This never forces a situation where a player is told “your PC is going to run away no matter what,” but it means that the lower and lower that Composure gets, the more running away or surrender seems like a better and better idea.

That isn’t to say that mechanics that force certain character actions have absolutely no place in RPGs, hell Eureka even has one instance of this with wolfman rampages, but that’s only for one single character type, not a main mechanic which affects all PCs.

It’s well known that I really love AD&D2e, which has tons of that, though I also think that that may be one of the reasons why such a mechanic is so prevalent in TTRPGs in general. I’ve found that for a lot of TTRPGs, if you pick any random mechanic and ask “why is this in the game,” the answer is often some variation of “because D&D did it,” with little thought as to whether it needs to be in this RPG that isn’t D&D, or as to whether it was even a good idea when D&D did it.

Ultimately, study lots of RPGs, and know that there is more than one option besides just "do it the way D&D does it" and "don't do it at all."

[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!

[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

[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!

[kathanglangit]

The First Blade: Balaraw - Winged Dagger

I realize I haven't been explicit about it on here yet (mostly because I'm not the best at keeping all my social media profiles up to date), but I am involved in the development of a Tabletop Roleplaying Game It's called Gubat Banwa- a TTRPG based around tactical grid combat, contemplative war drama, and high-flying martial arts, all of which taking place in an unapologetically Southeast Asian-inspired fantasy setting, developed by @makapatag with art direction by @villain-returns. Initially I developed the script that is used in the gamebook and diegetically in the setting- called Kasuratan- but I'll talk about that elsewhere.

With the Kickstarter launch imminent, I thought I'd do a bunch of Twitter X threads on a bunch of weapons I've drawn for the game counting down the final week before the launch. Then I thought: "Why aren't I posting these on tumblr also, at least I wouldn't lose my mind over character counts over here"- so here we are. These were supposed to be posted as Swordtember drawings, but then the KS launch got moved to October. Most of these blades are of Philippine make, since that is where my knowledge-base is and what I'm comfortable enough to share knowledge about. I thought it'd be nice to share a bit of blade knowledge from some of the cultures that inspired the setting. Without further ado, let us begin with the BALARAW.

Also known as a "winged dagger", it is characterized by its unique shape, consisting of a short leaf-shaped blade driven with the tang out into a hilt with two distinct protrusions, creating three prongs on the back with the tang included.

(Photos from an exhibit at The Met)

They may be held at the hilt like a regular knife, or they may be held in a manner not too dissimilar from how our neighbors in Southeast Asia hold keris. One may imagine it like a "push dagger" for lack of other reference points. It might be likened to the katar as well, in some sense.

(Sketches by the Gubat Banwa Art Director himself) Nowadays, the blade is frequently attributed to the People of the Upstream- the Mandaya group of peoples- though they would have seen much wider use in their day, likely also spanning across what is now the Visayas region of the Philippines.

(Modern rendition by Panday Keiven Tolentino of Itak Mindoro, Photo by Ramon H. Bathan) Something I've noticed from looking at Philippine blades all the time is that symmetrical, double-edged blades like these are rare, here. Blades that lend themselves more to stabbing than anything else aren't very prevalent either, and blades that do not- at first glance- appear to be made with tool use/foliage clearing/farmwork in mind don't make up the majority of specimens. The balaraw is unique in several different respects, and any self-respecting warrior Kadungganan of Gubat Banwa's Sword Isles would do well to mind its bite. The weapon makes an appearance in Gubat Banwa in the hands of the Beast Hunter- one of the many Disciplines ("character classes") whose techniques your character can learn in-game.

The Gubat Banwa Kickstarter launches in 7 days! Check it out here:

We'd appreciate any and all help in getting the word out. Support an independent TTRPG made by a team from the global south, looking to make waves through a fantasy setting where the Southeast Asian inspirations takes center stage!

[iron-cutler]

itch.io is currently running its Summer Sale! For the next two weeks, you can pick up my game WHITE WHALE and my short story collection Hard Hat Required for a minimum price of $2.50 each. If you've been on the fence about picking up a copy until now, there's no better time!

[triplecastgames]

Keep watch at your window; the night is long and comes with teeth. The Hidden Keys Beta v1.1 is now available for pre-order; get it this Friday, 17 January, along with Nightfall, Verse Two: Nights of Blood - the Official Soundtrack of The Hidden Keys.

[vvizardbone]

Bardiche: The blade-to-handle construction gives this polearm a maneuverable yet considerable weight, which translates to a versatile and powerful weapon.

[mightofmerchants]

You need a gate? You are unhappy with the position? No problem. :-)

Feel free to check out my mapmaking tool 'Canvas of Kings'! :-)

[raul-volp2]

Monster Care Squad new Expansion Behind the Waterfall released!!

Explore the Sunken City, meet new monsters, more mechanics, a lot of cool stuff, including more art from incredible artists and me. =)

Get it here:

[ultrapoobert]

[anim-ttrpgs]

Holy crap we went from 90 to 106 followers over the weekend!

Thank you all so much for sharing our posts around! We definitely want to reach as many people as possible and at least get them playing the upcoming demo version even if they don’t spring for the full version. (which you can get for $5 right now on our Patreon; you don’t even have to commit to a subscription, you can just pay the $5 and then cancel after you download it. The subscription just ensures you get all the subsequent updates too as the game continues to be playtested, tweaked, and developed.)

Also, I can’t give you an exact figure set in stone, but based on our calculations it will only take 100 Kickstarter backers to get Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy to its base goal on Kickstarter when we launch it early next year. So, if all of our followers backed it, we would hit the base goal instantly, and move on to the stretch goals which would mean more art by the lovely ladies @chaospyromancy and @qsycomplainsalot. Check out their tumblr pages for an idea of the quality you can expect if we meet our stretch goals.

Once again, thank you all for your support. Now I’m going back to work on those updated monster character creation rules and the the Grievous Wound rules, plus a couple of tweaks based on feedback from the very, very successful playtest where the characters of @kawaiite-mage, @thepleasuregoblin, @kalichnikov, and @horseabortion69 solved a low-stakes “murder mystery” in a haunted house attraction. Only one of them had ever played the game before, but even the new players were able to take to it right away both because they're good players and because Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is easy to pick up but hard to put down.

The October update is gonna be a big one, as it should be for a horror-mystery game. TRYING to get it out before Friday but I can't make any promises.