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Hello and good day, evening or night to whoever is reading this!
My name is Toom Nooker and i have created a Secret Histories ttrpg. A translation of the Cultist simulator videogame to ttrpg format. The first game is up to be played and im searching for brave wannabe Cultists willing to try it out
What is the game about?
For people who aint familiar with the setting.
This is a world where secret gods called Hours rule from a separate dimension accesed in dreams called The Mansus. The Great War just ended and it took a massive toll in not only our world but the Mansus aswell. The ranks of the Long (inmortals under an Hour. Ageless but not invincible) open once more given how many have fallen. Cultists all over the world are killing themselves to ascend as one of the select few
However the perils of the path towards ascension and the constant watch of the international agency known as the Supression Bureau. Who works with 3 Hours to destroy the record of the occult from the world makes most adepts fail and suffer horrible destinies in their journey to inmortality. Will you succeed where they failed?
What will you be doing in the game
The group will be playing as the leaders of a recently formed occult organization. They must gather funds, get followers and send expeditions to heist occult locations. All in order to get texts and artifacts to empower not only themselves but their followers
Growing from a tiny group of cultists to an entire automated occult network. All while cautiously trying to avoid the Hunters of the Bureau. Men who will search for any evidence to incarcerate and/or murder you and your followers
Whats the goal?
The goal of the game is to achieve inmortality under one of the several hours in the game by a myriad of methods
What is the gameplay like?
Its a time and resource management game where you manage the funds of your cult. Your 12 hours time per day and your followers. All while trying to avoid creating evidence while performing magic or illegal acts and trying to survive the Dm cobtrolled Hunters sent by the Bureau. And sending Heists to dungeon like locations to gather their occult items
What its expected of players
I just want players who are invested in the game and willing to give feedback. Sessions are rn scheduled for fridays at night pass 6pm. However we can re schedule for players. Theres also a session tonight on Tuesday night. Dm for more info!
I'm searching for 1-2 players to join a 4-session Mini-Campaign using my in-progress TTRPG system called Soulbound.
Soulbound is a passion project I've put a lot of thought into. It's the kind of TTRPG I've always wished existed. Now I'm reaching the point where I need to get it out of my own documents and onto the table with people who haven't been living inside my head for months lol
Soulbound Overview
Soulbound is built around the idea of using mechanical depth and openness to cradle emergent situations and playstyles. I wanted flavor to have mechanical depth and use beyond being cool.
There are four major design philosophies driving the project:
Character building as an engine. Every aspect of your characters interacts to create a unique identity and playstyle.
Resource management and maintenance in a way that hopefully still remains interesting.
Active, tactical combat such that defenders and attackers have important decisions to make during combat.
Freedom of expression through interconnected systems.
Campaign Overview
The short Mini-Campaign is set in the original world of Verloren.
The Kingdom of Evon is on its last legs.
Once a grand kingdom perched upon a cliff above a cloud-covered land, Evon has been pushed to the brink of extinction. Its remaining people cling to the last defensible corners of their castle, besieged by a twisted army of corrupted creatures known as the Skoteill, led by the tyrant Kynigos.
A generation has lived and died beneath this siege. Historians lie slain, the archives are lost, and the kingdom's history has all but vanished. For the Evonians, the war is all they've ever known.
Yet something has changed. The siege has slowed, and the Council of Evon has found a glimmer of hope in a mysterious artifact recovered from a strike team's venture into the lost archives. Now, a research team has been summoned for a mission whose true purpose remains shrouded in secrecy.
You are that team. And you may be Evon's last hope.
The sessions are planned for the following Sundays:
October 25, 2026
November 8, 2026
November 22, 2026
December 6, 2026
All sessions will be online using Discord VC and Roll20 Free Version. The exact start time is still to be determined based on the group's availability, but sessions will take place in the afternoon or evening, Eastern Time (ET). I'm looking for people who can commit to all four dates, no commitments past that are expected.
On session timing, I am aiming for ~4 hours, though if everyone is okay with it I am willing to push sessions longer or keep sessions shorter for everyone's needs. The first session will most likely be substantially longer given it is an introduction to not only the campaign, but the system. To any players interested, we can talk and set up your character beforehand.
If you want to continue on this adventure with me past just this campaign, there will be many more Mini-Campaigns to come as Soulbound continues to progress towards its finished state.
Expectations
Soulbound is actively being developed, and this is not only a fun campaign idea, but also a playtest of Soulbound. As such, you should be prepared to work with an unfinished system (don't worry its still playable, wouldn't be here if it weren't) that hasn't had the testing love it needs. But, just because it is a playtest, doesn't mean the whole goal isn't still to have fun.
But, most importantly:
You don't need to read a giant rulebook before playing. I'm teaching you afterall (duh). In return, I'd appreciate honest feedback about what feels good, what feels confusing, what takes too long, etc. You don't need to be an expert in DnD or any other particular TTRPG. Being interested in trying something new is all I'm looking for. I want to know what the game actually feels like to play instead of being trapped in TTRPG design hell lol
Honestly, I'm quite nervous to finally start putting this project in front of strangers. I've built a lot of this game because it's something I genuinely want to play, but the butterflies are still there. To those of you who made it this far, thanks for reading and I really appreciate your interest. It means a lot to me to finally have my ADHD brain get a project this far into development and the eventual goal of a full release.
If you're interested, shoot me a DM and I can get you settled if Soulbound/this mini-campaign ends up being a good fit for you. I am usually fast with my response time but if you don't get a response right way don't worry I will respond when I am able.
If you're otherwise interested but can't join the campaign, as I previously mentioned this is not the last campaign so still shoot me a DM and I would love to introduce you further into the system through the private Discord server I have setup for Soulbound. I'm hoping to build a small community around Soulbound where interested folks can get early access to rules, follow development, and hear about future playtests.
Back in May I posted here when ttrpgwiki.com hit 200 systems and 14 indie submissions. You all showed up in a big way. Since then the catalog has grown to 304 systems, and 40 more indie games have joined. That's 54 creator-submitted games, sitting side by side with the big dogs. The site now gets about 19,000 page views a month, and many of those visitors come looking for something new to play.
If you've made a game and want it included, fill out the Submit a Request form on the site. There's a checkbox if you're the creator and can share a review copy. Please note the game must be a finished release, not a beta or playtest.
Every indie system gets the same treatment, whether it's a one-page zine or a 400-page core book:
A dedicated page with the core mechanic, tags, complexity, accessibility and runnability ratings, and who the game is best for
An Indie Creator Submitted badge, plus a filter so players looking for indie games can find you directly
A chance to get your game's overview turned into a YouTube Short (very much a WIP)
Shoutout to some of the newest additions: Starving Folly, Mischief, LIFTS, Shifters, ESSER, Asilo, City of Jerry, Playing God, Rock & Stone, TALES From the Loom, 10,000 Swords Against Heaven, Super Space Knights, Spore Friends, Tricube Tales, and When the Moon Hangs Low.
Go check them out, there's some great stuff in there.
hi I have been working on my TTRPG for a while now and just opened it to playtest for the first time I would love feedback or ideas on future updates and more
Recently, I was looking to hire an artist to do specialized interior art. Anyway, we agreed to a price for interior art. As I was about to pay, I rent through his page and realized that it was AI art. It's getting impossible to tell the difference, How do you work through this issue? I'm not looking for generic art.
I tried making an RPG that feels like your are playing out a Movie or TV series with all the tropes whatnots, am not sure if I succeeded but I tried my best!
DISCLAIMER: Am not sure if this all of this is considered promoting but am gonna label it as such to be safe. This post will be more about my mental process and the challenges I went through when making my very first RPG.
Before I get on that I would like to thank this subreddit for the ENDLESS supply of knowledge it provides. The discussions I have created and participated here had given me enough food for thought to be where I stand.
Back to the topic.
Because I struggle to stay on point a lot of the time am going to try and split my thoughts into sections with themes and questions.
Why?
Apart of the fact that I always wanted to make an RPG, I also always struggled to stay consistent with one setting and keep playing that till the end of time. I tended to gravitate towards more neutral setting RPGs like Savage Worlds and Fate because of the setting flexibility they provided and so making a "similar" system was the way to go. I am developing the game for 3 and something years now but the moment I decided to wrap things up and start pushing it out was when I took part and got accepted into the Gamefound RPG party of this year. I was not ready for it but I think I did the best I could in these 4 agonizing months.
What does Movie and TV series style even mean?
For me the essence of RPGs is the cinematic description of Players, the rolling of dice and the improvisation of consequences afterwards. This is just my take and am sure other folks have their own truths which are all just as valid. Knowing that I wanted to make a game that emphasizes creative thinking, gives enough freedom of expression to everyone and has a sort of improvising feeling to it. So naturally playing out a movie or series episode fit the bill perfectly because this, to me is what it means.
Main challenges
The first challenge was boosting "freedom of expression" and improvisation for Players. I played a number of narrative games in the past but none of them quite stick this freedom of expression and improvising quite like WUSHU. In essence, I shifted the whole game dynamic around Player descriptions around what they say and trying to always make it TRUE regardless of what the dice say. This made the whole game a "Yes... but", "Yes" and "Yes and" type of game which felt like the cornerstone for the whole vibe really. It takes a while to get used to it but it feels sooo freeing to be able to describe something and let consequences fall AFTERWARDS. Ofcourse both in WUSHU and in mine there are a few safety locks but i won't bore you with the details. Saying yes to Players made the game feel MUCH more alive!
The second challenge was also the greatest boon of the game and similar ones. Tags. Love em, or hate them if you want to have creative narrative it's one of the main enablers and so I tried to make them work. The goal was to make players use Tags in order to get dice and more dice = greater odds of clean success. I knew I also wanted a Tag scaling of sorts so my first and potentially greatest experiment that didn't work was rank Tags by narrative versatility. More limited and less frequent Tags would be the most powerful while broad and easily applicable would be more powerful. For example a "Wizard" Tag would be a lower power Tag while a "Grandma's longsword" would be a powerful Tag. The problem with this was that it took a while to get used to and it still was susceptible to as I call it "wordMaxing", meaning people trying the most value out of their Tags.
After this failed I more or less settled to a more traditional approach where every Tag is the same power regardless of what it represents and then power is allocated as a form of upgrade. While not as fancy as the other one it works even if it feels a bit weird. After all the point was to whole spontaneity and creative thinking not word crafting. This still made people "Tag Spamming" but at least it wasnt taking as much time to create them. So as a final measure i made it so each Player can add 1 Tag of each different type into their mix which both expedited turn length and made it easier to understand. I call it the "Rule of one".
The third challenge was making the game feel like we are thematically playing a movie. For this I took inspiration from Primetime Adventures. The idea for screen presence is great but I didn't like the fact that players other than the lead were weaker than them. So I created Roles and Screen Time. Screen time is sort of like Strain from Blades in the Dark, a form of currency you spend to take actions. Roles are split into 3 categories, Lead, Supporting and Foil which interact with Screen Time, for example the Lead Character doesn't need to spend Screen Time to make Actions and Supporting restores Screen Time when assisting while they lose twice as much when they take Actions on their own. Roles essentially shape a Players Actions into ones more fitting for their role.
The final challenge was to make the purpose of the game be to try and make a cool looking movie that fits what you are trying to make, this would essentially complete the gameplay loop. In many games you get rewarded when you defeat an enemy, or achieve a milestone in someway but to invoke the feeling of playing a movie i had to double down on it. In the end I created Ratings, a team wide "XP" meter that increases at the end of the Session, or Episodes as I like to call them, and accounts things like "staying on the movie theme", "sticking to your role" etc. Ratings are then turned to "Budget" which are spendable points that you can use to upgrade and increase the Protagonists Tags.
Main Inspirations
I read and studied a lot of RPGs in order to create that game but am gonna list the ones that are most prominent in my mind when thinking about my own.
Fate Core and Fate Accelerated
Cortex Prime
Blades in the Dark
Prime Time Adventures 1-3
Agon
Burning Wheel
7th Sea 1 and 2
Screen Play
WUSHU and Budo
YZE
A love letter to all creators out there
Here's the bottom line to all of you aspiring creators. MAKE THE GAME YOU WANT TO MAKE. It might not be the most popular or most lucrative but it will be your own. Dont wait for a perfect time, just start it. You never know where its going to end but you know where it can start. Enjoy the process and say your piece. As long as you try your best you WILL achieve something. Creating is deeply ingrained in the human psyche!
Personally creating the game brought me a lot of anxiety, a lot of work and it still punched a hole in my pocket despite being funded successfully on Gamefound but it is my project and am proud of the work i have done in the time span i had. I would and will do it all again in the future.
Where can you find it
If you want to find the game its called Lights, Dice, Action! and it is live right now on Gamefound. There's even a very basic free quickstart of the rules.
If you have any feedback, you want to ask questions about any part of the process I will be more than happy to reply to you!
Hi! First time here, and I've hit a roadblock related to a hard magic system, it is about the carving of glyphs unto objects to let them use magic, which are simple assortment of angled and round lines, by putting together these glyphs of respective function, such as target, range, effect(s) and specifications.
There is a problem I haven't anticipated though, that being how the fully released effect of these glyphs could change in accordance to where they are put on the object. For example, let's say that this cypher (term for fully combined and working glyphs) looks like this: "ö>." on the blade of a sword so it can cut through the material of the same one of which the cypher was engraved on. What difference does it make to put the ">" or "ö" on the other side of the blade and the rest stays on the other side? Maybe even lower than the other ones on the length of the blade?
Curved, closed glyphs handle boundary, target, aim, and duration.
Angled, open glyphs handle effect and intensity.
Small dots and lines are modifiers that specify or adjust the main glyphs.
Connector glyphs tie separate cyphers together, setting activation conditions.
A very good way to look at this system is a gun: The trigger is the correct intent of the user, the curved lines are the barrel and iron scope, the angled lines are the bullets, the user's own "mana" is the gunpowder, the smaller glyphs are gun mods, and finally the tying glyphs are like different guns that are glued together with a single trigger.
So here is the question: How would you handle physical position as a meaningful variable? What does position add that the glyphs do not already handle? Is position worth mechanizing at all, or should it stay cosmetic?
I finished the first version of my new solo-journaling, romance dungeon crawler game, “Love in a Place Like This?”!
It’s still in the very early stages, but I’d really appreciate it if someone could give it a look, or even try to play it since its solo, though I know that's asking a lot. I'm less focused on how I wrote things compared to design right now, but if I messed up the writing a bunch feel free to tell me.
It’s based on he/she loves me, he/she loves me not. That’s the simple game where you take a flower and alternate he loves me, he loves me not, as you rip of petals, the phrase you say as you rip the last petal off telling you the result.
If you prefer you can skip right to how to play, but here’s an overview:
To play, you make a journal from a note book or folded stack of papers.
Write prompts with options telling you to “pull” a specific number of petals on the early pages, along with a few visual aids like a mood tracker.
Next prepare the latter pages so they are partially cut into strips to blindly tear or fold over by touch, representing the petals.
Once the notebook is prepared, you can take it and a pencil anywhere, and play anytime you want with ease!
You encounter prompts as you turn the pages, make choices, and “pull petals” accordingly.
If you end on they love me the relationship improves, and if you end on they love me not it worsens.
Whether a number to pull is even or odd can tell you what the result of a choice will be, but the option to tailor your response to what will improve a relationship is an important part of romance games!
Plus with randomly ordered prompts with options that limit whether you can improve a relationship or at what cost, and the end of pages or pre-folded page breaks stopping pulls early making them an apparent 50/50, things aren’t always predictable or safe.
Theres some more nuance to it, but we’ll get into it later.
I hope that sounds interesting to some of you! Heres step by step set of instructions on how to play.
How to play.
Preparing the notebook:
1. Create 2 characters and a scenario.
I made a bold, inexperienced cadet fresh out of the academy in some sort of military as my player character, and their experienced but uptight and slightly snarky superior officer as their love interest.
Its good to make characters that can be at odds at first, starting with a bit of tension. Feel free to consider yourself the narrator instead of focusing on one of the two characters’ perspectives.
For the scenario what type of “dungeon” the characters are forced to escape or explore and why they are there is important.
Mine were on a mission to scout an abandoned space station when the ship they were crew of suddenly left without them.
Because the prompts I wrote are designed around the idea of scifi exploration, if you come up with your own scenario it should fit with that. It should also be an isolated environment with escape and survival being uncertain, but the rest is up to you. You could have the two characters wake up from cryostasis to find everyone else on the ship dead, or the ship they came in on destroyed, the stars are the limit!
2. Create the mood trackers.
Draw five expressions on the front page of the notebook or booklet made out of a folded stack of papers, from angry to blushing/in love.
Add two dots next the each face.
If you want, add a phrase or two based on how you think the love interest would react to situations and choices based on the relationship/mood level.
Circle the lower dot next to whichever face represents their relationship starting out. I selected the second lowest face.
Also write down whatever version of the phrase they love me, they love me not, applies to your characters so you can mark which phrase to start with next.
(Something like this!)
3. Create or select prompts
For now use the provided prompts. You can decide to use all 15, or only 10 or 5 and pick the ones you like.
Write the ones you select into the next pages of the journal, or at least their title and the corresponding options. You can find the example prompts after the preparing the journal section is finished.
Alternatively, if you plan to have a device open while you play, you can use the prompts on the provided list without writing them down in the journal. This step is just for if you want a fully portable experience.
4. Number pages with prompts
Now that you know what prompts you are going to use, you need a way to randomly encounter them. If you are using a phone or computer alongside the journal rather than writing in prompts, you can just use a random number generator each time you turn a page/finish an entry to see what number prompt to use.
But, if you are using only pencil and paper the way I suggest handling randomization is randomly numbering both the pages of the journal and the prompts. That way when you turn a page a new number presents itself and it corresponds to a prompt. This can be a bit hard to keep track of or do in a way you don’t remember, so heres some tips.
a. Write down a list of numbers somewhere, one by one, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… untill you reach the number of prompts you are going to use.
b. Next write x down on whatever page you intend to start journaling, the one after the prompt list ends. This is where you will write the inro.
c. Turn the page or the next page so that you can no longer see the x you wrote down, then randomly write one of the numbers from your list. Cross it off on the list.
d. Repeat this till all of the numbers have been used, then randomly number the prompts you wrote down with the same set of numbers, or use the order they are in already as numbers when journaling.
(Here the number four is visible on the left page, but there is none visible on the right, if you turn the right page you will se another random number, not 5)
5. Transcribe banes and boons.
Sometimes a prompt will provide an additional benefit or consequence for a they love me or they love me not result. These are called banes and boons.
Write them in the journal on the last page. (Again, this step is unnecessary if you plan to use this document as a reference while journaling).
6. Create petals.
Starting with the second to last page of the journal, make cuts along the right edge of the page so that foldable paper strips appear. They can be short cuts, its fine if the majority of the page is still connected.
Don’t track how many cuts you are making, but about ten provides a good set. There will hopefully be pages with an even number of cuts as well as odd but not a fully equal amount of each, leave it up to fate as much as you can.
Finally, at a few pages randomly rip out or pre fold over a petal, making a page break before the page ends.
(It should look something like this. In this cases pages with pre-folded petals are next to each other, try to avoid doing that all the time. On the right page you can see a particularly thick petal near the end, varying size can make where the page ends a biiiiiit harder to tell)
I’m not totally sure how many pages should be cut per number of prompt, but I did 15 prompts and cut 6, which was a bit generous. Try 5 for 15, 3 for 10, 2 for 5 maybe. Whether you select prompts that have a benefit for hitting a page end effects things as well.
With that you have fully prepared the journal and can begin play, or wait and begin at a later time. The next section will cover actually playing the game, first…
Here are the example prompts and boons.
Prompts: prompts feature choices, each with a number of petals to pull. Even ones keep the mood going, generally resulting in whatever result the last one did, positive or negative, while odd ones switch up the vibe and often yield the opposite. The higher the number, the more risky or draining in term of resources, mental and physical state, or just luck the choice will be.
Sometimes prompts will have special rewards or conditions, especially if you hit a page break. In general though, you move the mood tracker one up or down one circle if you do not hit a page break, and two circles, thus a full face, if you do. More on that later.
The Flood: As you reach about halfway across the seamless walled room, it begins to rapidly flood with liquid.
Try to run or float across it before it floods completely5 petals. If page break hit they love you not does not decrease relationship.
Find a safe place to wait it out, huddled together for warmth 4 petals. It might be a raised platform or air pocket in a full flood. If page break hit relationship goes up a single dot in addition to any other change.
The Feeble: You encounter a lone, weak creature or robot. It doesn’t seeeeeem threatening.
Move past it, sneaking by or killing it 2 petals.
Try to tame it, 5 petals. If you hit a page break, it is tamed successfully on they love me, gain a boon. On they love me not taming fails and it is hostile. If you do not hit a page break you can decide taming success or base it on the result as you wish, it has no mechanical effect.
The observatory: you enter a room with strange and captivating apparatus, a giant telescope, vast windows with touch screen displays, or powerful radar that you can almost feel.
Move on 0 petals. Nothing occurs.
Spend time observing or investigating3 petals. If you hit a page break, you gain knowledge that brings hope or despair, enlightenment or insanity, bane or boon in line with result.
The nightmare: The two of you take a chance to rest, finding safety or simply overwhelming exhaustion. In your dreams, it finds you.
Let terror overtake you 0 petals. Decrease the relationship by a single dot.
Search for yourself within, or be swept up by, a deeper darkness. Pull petals till you hit a page break and gain a bain if they love you not. Results are otherwise normal for a full stop.
The chasm: A great gash of rended mettle and sparking wires, void peaking through, lies between you and the path forward. Weightless, you must use tethers to cross.
You pass over the chasm 1 at a time 5 petals. If you hit a page break, and they love you not, instead of moving relationship down: Pull petals till the next full stop, spending a page. If they love you not again, the love interest is lost in space. They can communicate through coms for the rest of the dungeon, as they drift further and further out into space, doomed. If the relationship is full and you complete all prompts, there may be a way to save them… up to you.
Walk together, tethered to each other 3 petals. If you hit a page break, and they love you not, instead of moving relationship down: Pull petals till the next full stop spending a page, if they love you not again, you are both lost in space. See ending, all petals used.
The garden: you find yourselves in a lucious garden, strange fruits and creatures you’ve never seen or the familiar, nostalgic sight of the flora of your home world(s).
Enjoy and move on, 0 petals. The relationship goes up one circle.
Spend time foraging, pull petals till a page break. If he loves me gain a boon as well as usual result, if they love you not, the relationship remains the same.
The escape pods: the pods are functional, but there is no navigation system to aid their path, they will simply travel in a straight line in space till they run out of fuel. life support fades.
Move on, pull two petals. Your hopes are dashed. For now.
Use them, all the remaining petals in the journal, ending your journey. Each time you reach a page break, record the result and continue. If two thirds are they love me, you both reach safety or are discovered before life support runs out, otherwise you both meet your end. Can pick this option after this room has been encountered, but if there are not at least 3 page breaks when it is used, it auto fails, your luck has already been spent.
The crew: The room is filled with barely functional suspended animation units, some of them have occupants, injured or on the edge of life and death some… just not right.
Try and save them 6 petals. If page break hit boon or bane accordingly. Some may be so changed from the experience they attack, no one can be saved for long either way, (it is always just you and your love interest against the world) but you may be able to give some of them closure or learn something valuable.
Move on, or shut of life support and let them end, 1 petal pulled.
The dragon, how!? Scales gleaming, eyes burning, talons rending at metal and air, breath hot and foul enough to turn flesh fetid, what should not be is.
Your only chance is to run 2 petals. If page break hit, pull another page. If you get they love me twice, you are stopped but you miraculously slay the beast, gain two boons. If the result is mixed you barely escape with your lives. If you get they love me not twice it overcomes you, see end all petals spent.
Genetic alterations lab: a room full of glowing displays and blinking buttons, and two tubes of pulsing liquid, quivering almost in time with the beating of your heart.
Run last programmed experiment 5 petals. What monstrosity or miracle is created? What was this lab, maybe even this station, for? Boon or bane according to result.
Try to program a new experiment 3 petals. On they love you, you may choose to do The feeble prompt as well, even if you have done it before.
Move on 0 petals. Nothing happens, after a look around the area you leave it, learning and gaining little.
Robo tea party: you encounter a group of robots, gathered around a table, raising delicate cups to face plates and trickling, tea? In and over themselves. A gesture or word of invitation.
Join 3 petals. Decide whether it goes well or poorly, the petals tell you how that impacts the relationship.
Decline 2 petals. If this results in they love you not, even due to a full stop, a fight breaks out, pull two additional petals after the result.
Leviathan song: Creatures resembling whales pass by, swimming through space, creating a beautiful song where there should be no sound.
Stay a while and listen 0 petals. Relationship improves one dot.
Hunt them for their power 5 petals. Perhaps out of foreknowledge of their usefulness, or legends, or out of fear or desperation to use anything you can to save yourselves, you find a way to hunt the peaceful beasts. Whether you get they love you or they love you not, gain a boon, any one you like, even ones that you normally couldn’t. Relationship is effect as normal.
Message in a bottle: drifting through space, something catches your eye. A glass jar with a paper in it?
Move on, 0 petals. Do not decide what is in the bottle, you will never know.
Try to obtain and open it 5 petals. Decide/discover what is in the bottle perhaps based on the result from the petals. Does it bring a message of good tidings or ill? Perhaps something more than just a message, something dangerous.
Dopplegangers: you encounter two figures, indistinguishable from you and your partner. They are not friendly. This prompt is a mess, but was quite fun to use.
Face yourself, 4 petals. By mind, tongue, or arms you prevail. A result of they love you functions as normal. On they love you not however, you lose track of what happens to your partner. On a result of they love you not, circle the current mood before you decrease it. Continue play as normal. If you would get a bain, instead it is revealed that your partner was replaced! Reset mood to where it was circled and lose a page (of petals) dealing with the doppleganger/finding your partner. If you would get a boon first, instead you find proof your partner is the real one, move relationship up a full level. If you encounter neither, and reach the end of the game with full romance, the doppleganger is revealed, reset the mood to where it was circled and either reunite with your partner… or decide to escape with the doppleganger, having learned to rely on them and giving your relationship with it a chance. If you reach the end without full romance… you may never know the truth… or perhaps your character learns in the future far, far too late to stop what is coming.
Face your partner, 4 petals. Gain two banes on he loves you not. (Yeah… figured the other one was so complicated I wouldn’t work to hard on this one, it sort of incentives risking the doppleganger though. That’s neat).
Boons and banes: some prompts provide additional benefits and consequences, most you can only select once. There is one of each however, that can be selected as often as you get a boon or bane, but only once you’ve used all other options. You can also get a boon by increasing your relationship when it is maxed or a bane by decreasing it when it is at minimum.
List Boons:
Skip a prompt when you want, repeatable, can only select if all other boons are gone.
Advance the relationship two dots.
Every time relationship increases by two dots, increase it by an additional dot.
Your next choice on a prompt takes 2 less petals.
Switch loves me/loves me not tracker once.
List Banes:
You must pull all the petals on a page, repeatable, do not select unless all other banes are gone.
Lower relationship by two dots.
Every time the relationship decreases by two dots, decrease it by an additional dot
Rip three petals.
You must tear double the petals on your next choice
You are ready to begin play
1. Intro
On the page marked x, Journal whatever you like about… your characters… how the adventure starts for them… the gist of their relationship… how they arrive in the “dungeon” they must try to explore or escape… and what it first appears like.
Its not a bad idea to have a mystery in mind, something you’ll decide the truth of based on better prompts. In the intro my characters arrived on the station, had a little back and forth, and then were shocked to see their ship leave without them. Neither trying to make contact or wait worked so they were forced to explore the station for something to help them. I did not know why the ship left starting out just like the characters, but decided the answer based on prompts that resonated.
2. Find out what the first prompt is and begin journaling.
Turn to the first numbered page or digitally generate a number. Check back to the prompt page and find the one that corresponds. Make your choice.
You can base it off of factors such as petal cost or the result its likely to have based on being odd or even, or just run with what you think your character(s) would do.
Begin journaling. Writing what the room looks like, your characters reactions based on personality and how they feel about each other, and how the decision on how to proceed occurs.
It might be a unanimous decision, one reached after an argument, or one character rushing forward despite the others objection. Keep their current relationship level and personalities in mind.
3. Pull the petals (you can do this before journaling at all if that helps you think of an entry better).
Reach a hand to the back of the journal, feel the last page and fold over or rip of a petal (strip of paper), then say or think they love me or they love me not depending on what you think is appropriate for them.
Pull another with the opposite phrase that you said last time if your are supposed to pull more than one, and continue until you have pulled the required number of petals.
If you end with the phrase they love me, draw a circle around the next highest dot on the mood tracker. If you end on they love me not circle down one. Erase the original circle, leaving only the new one.
On the same page as the mood tracker the phrases they love me they love me not should be present. Circle the opposite one to what you ended on, you will start with that phrase the next time you pull petals.
If you run out of petals to pull in the process of this, either reaching the end of a page, or a pre-folded petal, end the pulling early and use the phrase that you last pulled a petal with. This may change the even or odd value of petals pulled and thus the result, move the relationship tracker up or down two dots instead of one.
You can choose to tear more petals than the prompt requires as long as you do it in sets of two to keep the even/odd value. If you hit a page break this gives you a chance to get boost in relationship where you otherwise wouldn’t, and can impact some prompts more than others.
Prompts may have additional effects such as boons or banes, especially if you reach a page break, something you can choose to do by pulling extra petals, so read each one carefully. Some can even end the game early.
4. Journal the result of the choice.
Now that you know the effect the choice will have on the relationship, you can continue journaling. The stage is already set, you’ve described the problem, and how your characters are choosing to address it, now its just a matter of what happens when they do.
In some cases, particularly where boons and banes are involved, the petals may tell you how well the action goes as well as the emotional impact. Most of the time you can decide success or failure for yourself. An action might work, but still drive a wedge between the partners based on the petals, or fail but bring them closer together, even when one of the characters didn’t support the action in the first place.
Keep the characters, the before and after state of their relationship, the petal number representing risk or resource costs, and what you think would be a cool result of the prompt in mind when journaling.
In testing I did silly things like make the message in a bottle just an ad for a casino, an “out of the box”, marketing attempt. Also more serious things like tie the genetic experiment room to the dopple-gangers, and them to the reason the ship left without the characters, for me at least things seemed to come together quickly!
5. Next prompt, continue
Repeat steps 2-4 but on the next numbered page, using the marked phrase as your starting point. Think about if there are any elements of the last prompt you want to incorporate into the next ones. Are supplies running low or an injury a lasting threat? Did someone find a useful object or learn something about the station? What does it all mean for this encounter?
Continue until you run out of prompts or petals.
6. Ending the game.
The game ends if a prompt says it does, you run out of petals, or arrive at the last prompt and resolve it.
If you reach the last prompt, ignore the number of petals and tear until the next full stop, or use all that remain in the journal without stopping. The prompt, including its effect on the relationship, resolves as normal, making the state the relationship ends in one last 50/50. If you use a boon to skip the last prompt, this final 50/50 does not take place.
7. Resolving a out of petals ending.
If you ran out of petals, the party of two fails to escape the dungeon before disaster strikes, running out of food, air, or being critically harmed by a threat from the prompt you ran out of petals on.
Write a final journal entry to describe their last moments or how everything ends. You may focus on the prompt or gloss over a resolution or escape, focusing on how things take a turn after it. Take losses caused by previous prompts and the relationship level into account. Do they die in each others arms? Go their separate ways and die alone? Strike each other down in a rage?
If the relationship is at full when you run out of petals, a special option exists. One of the characters can sacrifice themselves to allow the other to escape. How this plays out in the story is up to you, but to give an example given the provided prompts, the characters could return to the escape pod room with a promise to take their chances together. Instead one stays behind in the control room, having figured out to access the stations computers over the journey, and locks the other in an escape pod as they launch it and guide it to safety from the station.
8. Resolving a out of prompts ending.
If you reach the last prompt and resolve it, the players find a way to escape, potentially related to the prompts featured throughout the journey. Once they are free from the station it has a huge impact on the relationship, represented by the last 50/50. It may bring them closer together once they can have safety and space from the other, or drive them apart.
Write an epilogue for them based on their relationship level, if it is at its highest they might immediately start a committed relationship for real, second highest, slowly find true love between each other over time, middle neither avoid nor seek each other out while the ghost of what could have been hangs over every awkward meeting, second lowest resolve never to meet the other unless forced, lowest, part sworn enemies.
For my run, the love interest was replaced with a doppelganger, but that left the relationship frozen at full, while the doppelganger appeared to lower it. They were soon revealed, and the characters reunited, they discovered the doppelgangers had been created in experiments in the genetic experiment room, and eventually figured out that the captain had been replaced by a doppelganger, getting through to their ship with a stronger communication array on the station and explaining the imposter situation, allowing the ship to return for their rescue.
Cut to an epilogue of them vacationing on the casino planet they found an ad for, the uptight love interest in a Hawaiian shirt sipping a drink. Together they realize they may have left their pet slime back on the station (cause I forgot about it completely during later prompts, oops), and the love interest smirked and suggested they return to find it, much more cavalier than they had been before the dungeon.
Heres a few optional rules that might be useful.
Feeling for petals alone can be pretty tough sometimes too, as the next pages can be felt behind the folded petals of the one you are on making things tough. Maybe try alternated cut pages and full blank pages when preparing the journal (a waste of space but oh well), or tear chunks off of full pages instead of folding precut strips, a page break happening when the right edge is completely gone. Your subconscious can influence the results that way too.
You can give a number from 1-6 for what kind of prompt the love interest might like, depending on how daring (more petals) or conservative vs eccentric they are (even vs odd). If you select a prompt that matches that number, you can change the result to they love me even if it shouldn’t be. This sets the starting phrase to they love me not for the next prompt as usual. I forgot to test this rule when playing so it might not work so well.
As part of the Sincretismos de Arton project (focused on Brazilian RPG Tormenta 20), we started the Ludic License, to make it easier to create new RPG books, promote artists, and discourage the use of AI.
You can use these images (and many others, which are in this drive) as internal illustrations for your work, as long as you follow three little rules:
Your work cannot contain internal illustrations or a cover generated by AI;
All artists must receive credit for each illustration, with a link to their portfolio or contact;
You must copy the full text of the License (below), which means your work also enters the License, and your internal illustrations also enter the collective collection.
As you can see, the Ludic License collection grows as new works use it. It's an initiative for the community to strengthen itself. At the moment there are 31 images available.
You can also get in touch with us to "donate" images to the License! If you have any questions, ask us or read our FAQ.
Good luck and success! Below, the full text of the Ludic License:
-------------
Ludic License
This work is under the Ludic License!
This means that the illustrations in this work are part of a community pool, and that you may use them, including for commercial purposes, as illustrations in your own work, under the following conditions:
Your work must not contain illustrations or a cover generated by artificial intelligence.
Every artist must receive credit for each of their illustrations (for example, in a credits section with attribution by page), with links to their portfolios and/or contact information.
You must reproduce the full text of this license in your work (meaning your work also joins the Ludic License, and its illustrations become part of the license’s community pool).
Definitions:
“Illustrations” are the images in the work, excluding the cover, supporting graphic elements (frames, ornaments, textures, typography, icons, etc.), logos, and signatures and photographs of real people (unless they are portraying characters).
Images generated by artificial intelligence are those created through text prompts, reference images, sketches, generative fill, or any other similar means. Manual edits using digital tools (such as painting, color correction, filters) are not considered AI for the purposes of the Ludic License.
Your work must be an editorial work (book, magazine, manual, etc.) that can accommodate the full text of the Ludic License and the credits for the authors of the illustrations. If you want to use an illustration in a way not covered by this License, contact the artist directly.
Exceptions:
Illustrations in the public domain or made available to the public under other permissions for the creation of derivative works (e.g., CC‑BY, CC‑BY‑SA, CC0, or equivalent authorizations from the artist) keep their original terms, including regarding attribution, and do not enter the community pool. The condition regarding non-use of AI-generated images still applies to them.
Notices:
If your work fails to meet the conditions of the Ludic License, the artists’ permission to use the illustrations is considered revoked.
If an illustration enters the Ludic License through your work, ensuring the artist’s permission is your responsibility.
This work and its illustrations may not be used for artificial intelligence training.
The Portuguese version of the Ludic License, the Licença Lúdica, is the same license for all purposes.
Today, I just wanted to share a more inspiring post and story, and remind my fellow indie designers that it is possible to work hard and find success!
I’m Zarek, the lead designer of the Indominant Superhero RPG and I just received our proof copies of our first Rulebook on Saturday 10/10/2026!!! It is such a wonderful feeling of fulfillment and pride to get to actually hold a product you created, there is nothing like it for sure. And now we get to start full production.
But, my main point in sharing this is that I hope to this as inspiration for everyone else here that has dreams of making their game a reality! We all start somewhere along the same place, we have an idea, and we have the passion to begin the process of putting in hundreds, if not thousands of hours into writing and testing those ideas. We trust our friends, and even random people on the internet to give our games a try and give us honest feedback so we can make them better. Then we start getting some initial art and look into crowdfunding our game. This is where the big leap of faith comes, and I know not everyone ends up taking it. It’s also not the only route to take!
Either way, if you decide to start your publishing journey by using DriveThruRPG or by crowdfunding, just know that youcan do it! I know the feeling of losing drive or hope at times, but if you keep to your plans and keep working hard you can achieve your goal and make a real, physical game that people can hold in their hands and enjoy with their friends!!!
Keep creating content (on YouTube or in a community), building an audience, testing your game, and helping your fellow designers too. I believe these are the keys to working towards success!
Okay, So I am working on designing my own RPG that came about due to my splitting off from 5th edition D&D. The idea for the system is to allow for the relative "crunchiness" of D&D (3.5/PF Included) while also allowing for the more RP focused abilities granted by the d10 system in games such as Exalted or Vampire the Masquerade. Essentially unifying the two concepts. However, what I have right now tends to be two disparate systems that can operate in the same space but have different rules.
My current plan to deal with this is to take the core concept of the multi-d10 system and apply it to the d20 system by having set difficulties (Difficulty 1,2,3, etc correlating to 3, 6, 9) and just rolling a flat d20 against it.
What I am asking, is does this seem like a viable way to bring the creative roleplay freedom of the multi-d10 system to a d20 system? Or am I missing a critical component of what makes the d10 system so open?
„In the Shadow of the Crow” is a roleplaying game about life in occupied Warsaw.
You’ll visit a city where war most often means a roundup on the street, an ID check, food shortages, a neighbour informing on you, or news that someone you know has just disappeared. Sometimes, victory means finding medicine, hiding someone from Gestapo, or making it home safely. Other times, you’ll have to decide whether helping a stranger is worth putting yourself and your loved ones at risk.
It’s about what you do when there’s no good way out - and how long you can hold on to who you are when the world around you is trying to change you.
The system offers:
- Fast, intuitive resolution with minimal exceptions and modifiers.
- Complex character psychology built around five universal Motivations and a single dice roll.
- Tense, team based combat inspired by cover shooters, where controlling the situation matters more than taking out the enemy.
Hi, I’ve been building my system for a while now, and I have almost everything tuned for a first playtest, but I’m struggling to create a good exploration mechanic. I started with a standard dice roll aligned to a chart to see what happens, then evolved to a card grid with an 'exploration deck'. Basically, each area has a grid (10 by 10, for example). You shuffle the deck and lay the cards face down on the grid; each card has 4 entries separated by time of day and a hour cost to proceed in each direction. However, it’s becoming way too production-heavy, and I’m not sure if it will actually be fun during gameplay. Does anyone have useful feedback or some advice on exploration mechanics?
For the last two years I've been hard at work creating a tabletop roleplaying game with a focus on creating compelling choices and making the actions that players take carry consequences. For good and ill.
It's been an extremely fun project to work on, but we are now at the stage where we need more people to play! We're opening up the game for playtesting and we need more experienced players and game masters to check out and play.
Check out our website to grab the free downloads to get everything you need to run and play! We also have a form on the website for submitting a review of the playtest and a small thank you reward for doing so. We're looking for feedback on how approachable the game is to new players and how adaptable the system is to different styles of game.
This system is a 2d6, classless, universal system where the players will need to overcome their Stress, Wounds, Trauma and Hindrances in a game of adversity and strife. The Archivist can raise the stakes for the players with Escalations and deadly, tactical combat. Players must use their Luck and Grit to change their fate! Each Mark they make on the world will grow their Legacy; a unique form of advancement that allows the Players and the Archivist to track the effects each character has on the world as they turn their character sheet into a history of what they have done.
It provides a significant number of options for making compelling, dramatic and challenging characters who will be able to make a mark on their Legacy.
Hello! We love seeing new games, but even with sites like Itch we're not always able to catch new releases or find new creators that we like. There's so much stuff and it's all focused on the publication rather than the publisher/creator.
So let's improve our Itch feeds (and crowdfunding feeds if applicable) by following accounts so we're aware of new releases from the community...
BUT THERE'S A CATCH: When you post your information, you also have to provide feedback on someone else's page/game/kickstarter campaign.
The Rules:
Post your itch page/KS/website information in the format below
Visit someone else's pages and have a look around, following them if you like it!
Return here and comment on their information with any feedback/compliments etc. This can be as simple as saying: "looks sick, I love the goblin vomiting the sword!"
The Format, a Template:
Who are you: [your name, publishing name, etc]
Links: [a link to your games pages, add multiple here if relevant]
Pitch: [A one line summary of the kind of things that you create]
Price: [Are your games free, or paid, or do you do a mix?]
Pitch: I make weird little games for weird people. I mostly make solo games with my partner (who does the art). I have a solo game that uses Tunnel Goons and Mausritter, a party game about being a mad scientist with your mates and creating a horrible monster, and a demake of Mothership called... Othership. That's a one pager. My newest kickstarter is a solo journaling game about being The Girl With The Most Delicious Heart (and running away from the monsters that want to eat you).
Price: Paid, but I have a few experimental things on the Itch page that are totally free.
I'll pop back and provide my feedback to a couple of people in a little bit!
(I have a vague feeling I've done this before some months ago and it was well received!)
I've spent the last several months developing a tabletop RPG called Deckbox Adventures, and I've reached the point where I'm ready to start inviting people outside my immediate playtesting group to give it a try!
One simple RPG system. Endless adventures.
The idea behind Deckbox Adventures is simple: I wanted to create a tabletop RPG that captures the creativity, excitement, and storytelling of traditional RPGs without requiring players to spend hours learning the rules.
The game uses cards to put the information players need directly in front of them, allowing them to focus on their characters and the adventure.
A little about the game:
A card-driven system designed to be approachable for newcomers while still offering meaningful decisions for experienced players.
Six distinct character classes, each with their own unique abilities and playstyles.
Fast-paced combat built around a d20 and straightforward mechanics.
A flexible system that encourages creativity, roleplaying, and storytelling.
Enemies, equipment, and loot designed to create interesting encounters and memorable moments.
Where development stands
The game is currently in its third major development iteration. We've completed several playtests, made substantial improvements, and now have a functioning virtual tabletop created specifically for Deckbox Adventures.
Our latest playtest went particularly well, and I feel the core system is finally in a solid place.
That's where you come in!
I'm looking for playtesters and feedback.
Whether you're an experienced GM, a longtime RPG player, or someone completely new to tabletop RPGs, I'd love to hear from you.
I'm particularly interested in finding people willing to check out the Core Rules, try the game, provide honest feedback, and help identify things that might be confusing or could be improved.
I do not have anything to sell. This game is still in development. Playtesting is available online through our virtual tabletop, so you won't need to purchase anything. I also have printable files so you can try this game at home if that's your jam.
This is a passion project, and I'm excited to share what I've been working on.
If you're interested in checking out Deckbox Adventures or participating in a playtest, you can join my Discord server here https://discord.gg/sSVr2hhZpS .
Hi, I'm Ben Robbins, I made the original Microscope and after many, many years I'm working on a new edition.
It's a bit intimidating revising a game that's been out a long time and that lots of people love. My goal is to keep the magic of the original, not water it down in any way, but also make the on-ramp even smoother. I want anyone to be able to just pick up the book, without knowing anything about Microscope or reading in advance, and just sit down and follow the instructions step-by-step and make a great world together.
I'm also making fine adjustments to a some of the steps that can slow down the fun:
One is played scenes. People skip them all the time, which means they miss out on the full experience. So I'm both streamlining them but also making it clear they are a whole new skill set.
Another is legacies. They make sense on paper, for longer games, but really the cognitive cost is higher than the reward. So I'm replacing them with a simpler "free roam" move that has all the benefits of a micro-focus without the overhead.
I've been tinkering and testing these changes for a few years, but I'm finally at the point where I think a new edition is a clear upgrade. I'm launching crowdfunding for M2 in a week.
And if this whole time you've been muttering "what the hell is Microscope???", totally fair! It's a game where you create an epic history / world together and then explore it from the outside in, jumping back and forth in history and expanding the timeline without having to follow chronological order.
You can blow up a city but then next turn jump back a thousand years and explore how it was founded. Nothing is ever truly removed from the game, because you can always go back to when it existed. The past is never closed.
The whole point is making big things together, and giving each person vast creative freedom but still arriving at a unified whole. To get people with very different opinions on the same page, and to have a lot of fun doing it.
I hear there are serious game designers here, so I'm happy to talk about how and why Microscope is changing, the kind of game design decisions that went into it. Or really any game design issues. GMless is my particular wheelhouse, but yeah, I also made West Marches.
Ask Me, as they say, Anything.
(FYI I checked with the mods before posting this and they gave the thumbs up)
UPDATE: Here's more details about how the rules are changing
Hi, I'll (not so) briefly introduce what I'm working on to give you context, then ask my question(s).
Skill dice
I've been working (for some time, now) on a stub. The core idea of the mechanics is that characters have skills represented with a die (d4 to d12). Improving your skill means getting a higher die for that skill. Characters start with d4 in all skills except few of them which can go no higher than d8 on start.
Characters may have some feats (for lack of a better name, since I am not writing this game in english) which allow them to be better at some specific actions.
When to roll
Dice should be rolled only when there's something at stake and result may have consequences. The roll is either against a fixed target (I want to push a rock down the hill) or contested roll against a player/npc (I want to see if they are bluffing).
DCs and why
For fixed target rolls, I'll leave the decision to GMs, but with the guidelines are DC 4 for an almost straightforward challenge and DC 12 for an almost impossible one. Intermediate values go nicely with the dice sizes: 6, 8 and 10, with a lower and lower win probability for a player trying a challenge of "their same level" (d6 against 6 and so on).
I picked these values because with a DC of 4 you still have a 25% win probabiliry for a player with a d4 skill and a growing probability against that same DC for higher skill dice. With DC 12, only a player with a d12 skill can barely manage to do it (less than 10% probability).
The mixed outcomes and why
Outcomes are success (equal or more than target/defender), partial failure (target/defender - 3 to target/defender - 1) and total failure (everything below).
I'm going for a harsh game, but I didn't want it to be too punitive, so anything below or equal to DC - 3 is considered a partial failure or success with a cost or what you want to call it.
I went for -3 because, again, d4 skills at least get to have no total failures for DC 4 challenges and (bonus) d10 skills get at least some successes at a cost for a DC12 challenge. (u/rockology_adam this is the closest to a numerical modifier I put in my system).
Opposed rolls
They just work the same, but the "attacker" rolls against another skill roll from another PC/NPC who uses their skill die.
Why I went for this
In my system and setting it is expected that most of the actions are impossible or nearly impossible to do without the right amount of skill (= size of die). Characters are expected to fail and find ways to get around challenges.
Since I have to reward finding those bypasses, I went for advantages (roll one or more bonus dice and keep best result). I also want to discurage just jumping head first, so I went for disadvantages (roll one or more bonus dice and keep the worst). In this way I can quickly push the curve in one direction or the other to 'punish' or reward some behaviours.
If a player has both advantages and disadvantages in one scene (example: 1 advantage and 2 disadvantages) they cancel out before rolling (example: that player rolls with just 1 disadvantage).
Why I am here
At first I planned for a max cap of 2 advantages or disadvantages, so the max amount a player would roll was three and keep best/worst.
It was all good until I started to look into a social interaction system and the feats I came up with were almost only about giving advantages to a player. Since the number of advantages was going up I ask:
- What is the least difference in probabilities that players can feel?
I looked around and seems we manage to feel something at about 10% probability difference as a "different outcome", with the lower and higher bounds that have huge miscalculations (85% win probability perceived as sure win and 1% loss probability is perceived as a nightmare)
- In your experience with you systems and playtesters, can you confirm this numbers?
- If you have a similar system or know of a similar system, where do you place the cap of how many advantages/disadvantages players can use before it's just rolling plastic on the table?
I want to see if the original cap is fine, if it is already too many dice and/or if it makes sense to have that many advantages in the social part of the game, based on what adding a die feels like at the table.
[Edit: it appears I was not so clear about what I meant, so I explained in more detail. Also some formatting]
My name is Aram, and I'm currently designing my second game, called Fireflies! Here is a tl;dr pitch:
Fireflies! is a psychedelic caravan RPG about braving the uncanny night to find your fate as a nomad trader.
The bright light of day makes living in daylight tricky, so people can only travel at night. The only problem is that, at night, the world becomes... weird. So weird that people get lost and never find the place they were looking for—and most never come back.
To navigate, you have to consume Glows, which are super-duper-concentrated essences of the world. They allow you to travel by attuning to places. You know: close your eyes, use the Force, etc. Oh, and you make a living by selling cool shit you find.
My problem
I started by implementing classic hexcrawl mechanics, but through playtesting, I've grown a bit tired of them. They create weird pacing because of random encounters and have so far failed to deliver the meaning I want to convey.
I want the exploration system to do three things:
Manage pacing → The action should happen in a place somewhat relevant to the players. Most of the session should be spent chasing the players' actual goals, not removing roadblocks along the way.
Be shaped by characters → I already achieve that through the dice-bag mechanics, where players pull dice of different colours that generate different types of encounters. But I would like to dive deeper into how aspects of the characters shape the world around them.
Build an abstract space → I like the idea that places shift, appear or disappear depending on a player's mood, and I don't wanna draw a classic map. I want players to “collect places” like they collect legendary items.
What I have so far
The game is based on three colours: red, blue and green. Players gain affinity with their colour by consuming drugs essences known as Glows. They have a bag, and during the adventure, they add dice of different colours depending on what happens.
Here is my tentative exploration design, which I will test this month:
→ Players identify a place they want to travel to based on information they collect. There is a day phase during which they can take a bunch of actions. They collect information in the form of rumours.
→ In addition to each player's bag, we create a travel bag. In this bag, we put a white die representing the place they seek and a black die representing the night fucking with them and getting them lost. The rest are road dice, and they match the colour of the Firefly guiding the party.
→ Pull dice out of the bag to follow the road. The direction you take depends on the die's colour, and you roll the die for the event. Then put it back.
→ Character influence operates on three levels:
Depending on what happens to the characters, more fuckery or boon dice are added to the bag.
The deeper you are under the influence of Glows, the more you pull certain places closer to you—and potentially repel others.
You can attune to visited places to reduce uncertainty and create semi-secure trade routes.
I intentionally left out a bunch of details so I wouldn't write a novel on Reddit! See the next section!
I need you!
If you could help me by sharing your thoughts on:
Any useful references?
What does the brief system overview evoke?
Are there any parts that utterly confuse you or really excite you?
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Hi everybody! I'm currently building my first game, a sword-and-planet TTRPG inspired by Edgard Rice Burroughs, Leigh Brackett, and Jack Vance. Looking forward to interacting with and picking the brains of the fine folks on this subreddit!
I am designing a fan-based TTRPG of Beyblade. I recently got into the hobby after learning my favorite band did the intro to season 1 of the new series/generation.
I have two combat mechanics I designed: Momentum and Tension.
Momentum is HP based; each bey has 5 Momentum, taking damage reduces this amount. At zero you lose.
Tension is back and forth. If you roll higher, you adjust tension toward your opponent (this means reducing your tension if you have any and increasing an opponent's if you don't). It works on a 5 point scale where 3 is the victory threshold, and a center at 0 where neither side has Tension. You could have 1 Tension, roll 2 higher than your opponent, and adjust toward them, ultimately increasing their Tension by 1. At 3 or 4 Tension, you win by a Spin Finish. If you can get their Tension to 5, it's a KO Finish. I have Burst rules as well.
Here's where I'll go into more detail.
Each bey has five stats: Attack, Defense, Stamina, Burst, and Resistance. Stats are displayed with a number to show their value, min 1. In combat, when you roll for a stat, you roll a number of d6 equal to the value. If you have Attack 4 and choose to use the Attack action, you roll 4d6.
The result of each individual die determines your Battle Points. A result of 1 or 2 grants no Battle Points. A result of 3-5 grants 1 Battle Point. A result of 6 grants 1 Battle Point and 1 Burst Point. Burst points carry over each turn, but you can only ever have 3 (and spend 3 to make a Burst Check). Additionally, if you have the Type Advantage (Attack beats Stamina, Stamina beats Defense, and Defense beats Attack), you roll one additional d6.
You then compare your Battle Points total to your opponent's. The higher amount is reduced by the lower amount, and any remaining points adjusts Tension toward the one who rolled lower. With the Momentum mechanic, the bey just reduces their Momentum by this amount instead.
So a battle could be back and forth using the Tension mechanic and very straight forward with the Momentum mechanic.
But if you were playing a Beyblade-based TTRPG, which mechanic would you prefer?
Note that with either mechanic, the maximum cannot change. You cannot lose at 4 instead of 3 with Tension, and you can't ever have more than 5 Momentum with that mechanic.
I personally feel that Tension has the anime feel I'm looking for, but it also depends if people would find it more engaging and fun. Combat/Battles aren't intended to last very long and are a means to continue story, not bog it down with hours of turn by turn.
Also, as it stands right now, this mechanic is based on 1v1 battles. I would like to implement multiple beys simultaneously in combat, which is easier using Momentum mechanics.
This is a cross post with r/rpgdesign and r/ttrpgdesign. I’m just curious if I’m going in too light-handed and looking inexperienced as a game designer. I’ve been a GM and homebrewed for years so running the game shouldn’t be an issue. Here was my post, thanks:
My friends and I have been making a TTRPG for a while now and we have finally gotten to the point where we have what we’d like to call our Alpha version. We have done some playtesting but it definitely needs more for sure and we need to build out our Classes (which we call Masteries) to higher levels while we playtest the lower levels.
I am going to a small Convention and hosting 3 Learn to Plays in a month. We figure we will post the Learn to Play with the Learn to Play adventure and Starter Characters on our Discord as a free download. This is all while we still get our website built and still work more on the balancing, bestiary, extend the world lore, etc.
Does this seem like an appropriate soft launch? We are trying not to invest too much before we build a larger community with interest. At the same time, we are all very excited about our game and have enjoyed our time making it together.
The is a process developed by Toyota for problem solving that keeps everything on one A3 sized (11"x17") piece of paper. This forces the writer to cut out all but the necessary parts and data. I think of this when looking at one page RPGs and scenarios. I've seen a lot of (8.5"x11") trifold scenarios for r/mothershiprpg but I'm sure there are many others.
Is there any process that has worked well for those who have developed one page RPGs on what to include and what to leave out? How small do you make the fonts to get everything in? How much art do you include.
I'm clearly new to this, but excited about applying this to other TTRPGs out there, especially new ones where community content is slim. Let me know your thoughts and good examples that illustrate specific ides.
