#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:

[omivel]

The external struggle of table top gamedev is balancing how much fun state heavy stuff can be, and how much of a pain in the ass it is to keep track of.

[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.

[devsgames]

Can we please challenge people to stop saying "D&D" when they're actually referring to concepts which apply to "TTRPGs" or "roleplay" on the whole, because it undermines a whole genre by attributing its importance to one franchise made by a corporate monopoly.

We don't say "Call of Duty" instead of First Person Shooter, or "Candy Crush" instead of Mobile Game so we really shouldn't do that for D&D.

[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!

[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.

[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:

[technicalgrimoire]

Newsletter subscribers and discord enjoyers get a sneak peek at our next book: Overpowered!

"Overpowered is a new way to speedrun your favorite rpg modules. Manage your dice, use good strategy, and post your high score to leaderboards!"

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/JUWu4gDutf

[mightofmerchants]

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

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

[nitrosodiumaltcontroller]

Rough Idea Generation - Card Games and Board Games

While I usually just do three ideas and choose one after a little deliberation, the brief this time feels very open-ended, and I want to create a good amount of ideas for both video games and more physical ones.

Game 1 - Battle Cards

The idea for this game is somewhat inspired by my vague understanding of Magic: The Gathering, despite the fact that I have never played it, and only know a few rules - this will be rectified with more research if I decide to create this game. Two players will start with a small deck, drawing more from a pile at the end of their turns. During their turns, they can play any cards from their deck, which will be primarily monsters with their own abilities.

This is an example of what the cards could look like. They have an Action value in blue, and a Health value in red. The Action value represents how many moves that card can use - the player could play Maul twice, or Terror once, before their turn ends. The square next to each ability reflects the dice score (six-sided) required to successfully play the action. For example, Maul requires a score of two or more, so rolling 1 means the action fails and must be reattempted. Health would be displayed using tokens per enemy, but other token modifiers could be added, such as extra Action points or a +1 to every dice roll. These could also be "relic cards" or something similar, which are played either before or instead of monster cards. Perhaps each player has a few choices on their turn: the placing phase, where they use Relics or place new monsters onto the field; and the battle phase, where they choose a monster card to use until its abilities are exhausted. The accessibility of the game will come to light with no overt colour-coding. The base card I made is not great for this, but realistically a final version will use stripes and other patterns to signify what represents what.

Game 2 - Compact Wargame

This idea for a game mostly comes from my prior attempts to make "Chess 2". I like chess for its simplicity, but I always thought some more mechanics could make it interesting. Some pieces being able to shoot, having territory control, and city-building mechanics are among my various ideas I want to replicate. And you might say, 'if I want to play a wargame so much, why don't I just play something like Warhammer?' And the answer is that it (and games like it) are way too complex and expensive.

Here we can see that a starter set is 112 dollars. To justify that amount of money, you need to be very invested in the game and setting. Meanwhile a chess set is only about ten pounds. I think this is something of an unseen accessibility problem: financial accessibility. If you are disabled, you have probably already spent a lot of money on all the previously mentioned accessible controllers and addons, and you probably do not want to spend a hundred pounds' more. Then there is the issue of space. The more complex a game is, the bigger box it comes in, and the larger space has to be cleared to set it all up on a table or floor. This is difficult enough for most people, but if you are disabled and space is already taken up by ramps, handrails and other household modifications, storage becomes a problem. I should specify, this is not a game overtly made for disabled people, but its simplicity will make it easier for everyone to play it. My main mechanical ideas involve resource management through certain tiles that generate resources as long as you have 'captured' them with a piece, larger units like siege towers and ballistae being able to be constructed using these resources, and the ability to make squad stacks by literally stacking pieces on top of each other. They will be like draughts/checkers counters with symbols on top to reflect their class. Once again however, this is all preliminary ideas, and may be changed.

Game 3 - Modern Day GURPS

For some context, GURPS is the Generic Universal Roleplaying System, which is a one-size-fits-all system for tabletop games. It can be used for any setting (fantasy, sci fi, etc), and while I have never used it, research has told me that it is very in-depth and complex. Any possible skill a character may need to use, from computer operation to shipbuilding, is added as a separate attribute. While this sort of thing does make it universal, it will also require both GM and players to keep track of a lot of numbers. I want to create a similarly universal system, but a much simpler one - something for people that have never done any sort of TTRPGs before. My main idea is that attributes that will fluctuate regularly during a campaign, health, mana points, armour etc. will be displayed using counters, meanwhile more static skill-based attributes that only change every few sessions will be written numerically on a character sheet. Items such as weaponry, armour, and story-relevant trinkets will be represented by cards, showing relevant information such as the amount of damage a weapon will deal. Enemies will also have cards that detail their HP and damage, but these will mostly be for the GM. I plan for the cards to have fairly simple and easy-to-replicate designs, so that a GM can create more themselves for specific uses.

The game will probably use a square grid system to calculate range. Characters and enemies will probably be represented by fairly abstract tokens, just to show where they reside spatially. Of course, being a universal system, anything can be used. Accessibility-wise there is no real gimmick - I will just refrain from too much colour-coding.

[vvizardbone]

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

[ultrapoobert]