I stumbled across a bundle of TTRPGs on Itch.io. There are many TTRPG bundles on Itch.io. Yet this one stopped me in my tracks.
âTTRPGS For Trans Rights â Ohio.â
Hundreds of systems.
Endless Content.
Supporting Trans people.
All for five dollars.
How could I resist?
The problem with buying 100s of RPGs at once is that you never actually read them all. In fact, I was happy to read none of them, and just hoard them like a little ghoul. However, today, May 5th, 2025, marks the dawn of a new era. Henceforth, I will read, every day, some indeterminate number of these ttrpg systems, and review them in full. I will be as in-depth as I can muster, and give each its due attention. My goal? To eventually review all of the 467 systems contained in the depths of this bundle.Â
Now seems like a good time to establish the judging criteria;
All on a scale of 1-5 stars, because thatâs fun.
Originality: Based on how new the concept is! Is it a tired old tale that Iâve heard before? Does it break boundaries? This is mostly based on the idea itself.
Mechanics: Do the rolls make you feel like youâre doing the thing? Does it translate the premise into the table top?
Replayability: Well⌠Can you replay it?Â
Variance: Can you play it a multitude of different ways? Think of classes, which provide different experiences every time, even if they have some core similarities.
Character Creation: Listen. I really value character creation. So I think this is important to assess on its own.
I have decided to chronologue this on tumblr for some unknown reason. Mostly for me. If you, a stranger in the void, have found this, feel free to peruse.
This update schedule is not going to improve Iâm afraid.Â
Anyway.
RPG Time.
Oh great, itâs another hack of lasers and feelings. I gotta read that ttrpg at some point actually, maybe I wonât also dislike this one. This one is a simple premise. Nikola Tesla has been kidnapped. So. You gotta find him.
Who Kidnapped Nikola Tesla makes me feel like Iâve already seen everything indie RPGs can do and Iâve only read 20 (really more like 35 if you count my personal endeavors but I digress).
WKNT is a funky little hack of Lasers and Feelings that centers around the kidnapping of Nikola Tesla. Your character is being sent by the Brits to find him. Itâs winter 1940. Thereâs only so much prologue I can do.
Originality: âââââ
I say this only with the bitterness of my heart and no special dislike towards this one in particular. While Iâve never heard of this idea, and it has some really neat twists that Iâll get to in a moment, it is another wacky and zany take on TTRPGs that has the same VIBE as every wacky and zany TTRPG Iâve looked at so far. Donât worry. I will still be glowing, in regards to the actual content. Just know. I am hiding a great irritation with the standard levels of wackadoodle.
Alright so look, this premise is really awesome, outside of that feeling. Itâs cool, and you actually alter both the reason for his kidnapping and a fun twist on the situation with a die roll (as the GM). Itâs awesome. Itâs especially awesome because it can be anything from Nazis (expected) to Cultists (completely different situation) to the FRENCH? (who are getting him to build them munitions to take back France, in one of the âjustifiedâ reasons for kidnapping. Only in quotes because they still call it kidnapping). This is fresh and exciting! Itâs not only a neat premise in isolation, buta shifting premise that is always at least a mild mystery to the players. Itâs an excellent bit of execution.
Mechanics: âââ
You have a stat array, of sorts, with sliders. Everything is a trade-off. Youâre good at âWeirdâ or âScience,â but not both, and then two other sets of those. The docked points stem from âWeirdâ and âIntrigueâ being odd, unexplained choices for stats. Weird is, I assume, supernatural, given its dichotomy with science, but Intrigue is posed against Investigation, and I do not feel as though that clarifies anything. The other star is because I intrinsically feel sort of middling about the rolling success system, itâs a slightly less intuitive roll-under system and I donât value the stat trade-off as realistic or interesting, just a bit irritating. Also combat rules are lite at best, which isnât horrible, just not great.
Replayability⌠and Variability: ââââ
I might end up lumping these together in the future, honestly, but theyâre very much tied together here, for sure. Thatâs because the replayability comes from the variance! While I donât think this system is particularly good at being replayable, I think that the way they handle variance through dramatically changing the circumstance, thus also ensuring thereâs a constant mystery, is just perfect to encourage people to go through additional runs.Â
Character Creation: ââ
The only weak point. The stats feel underwhelming, you roll for a âcharacter quirk,â you get a âDieselpunk weapon,â and idk thatâs like it. Itâs not impressive. As always, bad character creation is actually the most excusable, since with some extra effort on the players part you can get good characters anyway. But uh. Yeah.
Overall: ââââ
My earlier tirade has largely worn off as Iâve written this review. I really appreciate what WKNT offers, and that it is doing fun things and such, and that itâs NAME YOUR OWN PRICE EVERBODY NAME YOUR OWN PRICE
Check it out or something, for sure.
A one page DieselPunk mystery for 1 GM and 2-4 players.
Hey gamers.
I am no longer dead, more or less. However I have, as many times over, learned the futility of keeping time. I will be keeping review numbers now instead. Also this is technically review #20, not #23, because of the days that I skipped and added to the counter. No more days.
The Sizzle is a 26-page TTRPG that was made for the hot mutant summer jam, which makes, I think, the second one? Letâs give it a read through, and try to get back into these more-or-less-daily. Like every other day. Ish.
The Sizzle is a pretty decent âpre-bakedâ ttrpg, made for a jam, with the intent to expand it out to greater things. Not finished, but playable, according to the rulebook. I will say, as an incredibly positive note, this could be a finished one and itâd fit in alongside some of the better ones weâve looked at. I will be reviewing it as a finished one, since these are the complete rules currently published, but note that this is effectively a starting point for the rating, with real potential to go up!
Originality: âââ
I mean, hey, look, I have in fact seen TTRPGs do stuff like this, and this one in particular is not bringing the most new ideas into the mix. It feels very fallout adjacent, and mutating due to UV rays is a somewhat generalizable idea. Nothing it does makes me feel like itâs brand new, but itâs a nice take on a familiar concept, so Iâd put it around 3.
Mechanics: âââ
So, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that this has a pretty intuitive system. You always roll 2d6, one âpositiveâ dice for you and one ânegativeâ for the opponents, adding your relevant modifiers, and if you roll higher than your opposition, you win. The combat system is intuitive, with the BEST initiative system Iâve ever seen. Initiative is based on the combat circumstance and relevant skills. The example given is in an ambush, the stealthiest would go first, trailing down that list until you get to the least stealthy. I have some questions about that in practice, but none in theory, itâs tight. The damage system is taking stress and injuries (here written as consequences), which is always one I liked a bit more than straight HP. Some downsides though, are in the stress system and, as usual, the mutations. The stress system mentions it can be mental damage, like getting through a hard conversation, but I found that to be unexplained, compared to clear-cut combat differentiations. You can probably reason it out, but itâs less precise than I would hope. The mutations are intended to be super open-ended, placing them into five categories that may as well be cosmetic, and with the ability to chain them to get âstuntsâ which are entirely decided by the GM (here The Hot One, but Iâm gonna stick with GM). The author does not want to outline a âmutation economy,â which is fair, but I think underwhelming. TTRPGs are all about trying to solidify the world of fantasy into more mechanically interesting formats, and this one just feels like itâs⌠undercooked. Iâm worried this, of all things, will be left open and directionless rather than refined and nuanced. A great example of how to do open-ended up still mechanically interesting mutations might stem from Mutants and Masterminds (which has an incredible power system in almost every iteration, to my knowledge) â and I would love to see this game steer in that direction (not exactly, but you catch my drift).Â
Replayability: ââââ
Despite being pre-baked, and seemingly more one-shot focused, with a vague world as of yet, I wanna give it a â . I think that it could very reasonably be used as the skeleton of a long campaign, and will award that 5th star inevitably when all the lore pieces fall into place and give the DMs some real meat to work with. As it stands though I think its (relative) lack of originality is actually a boon, thereâs so much source material to draw inspiration from (like how DND can stem from Tolkien, or Arthurian Legend, or [as a separate thought, unrelated to literature] really any mythos of the older world, depending on how you wanna flavor it). Anything apocalyptic could be the basis for Sizzle, so long as it retains some sun flavor.Â
Variability: âââ
It only has a three because itâs pre-baked. This could be higher or lower in the final. Right now I think you could do a lot of different things with it, but as it doesnât lend itself to any themes particularly well (though the book is written in a light, âcoolâ tone), it feels like a jack of all trades master of none, but like⌠if that jack was also not averaging a 6/10 but a 5/10. It doesnât have its own setting yet, so it works for kind of whatever, and does fine in whatever. This is the only category I will be fully lenient on it being an early version of, because I do think you CANNOT make a judgement call on something this UNintentionally open-ended. If it IS intentionally open-ended, that will be reflected in the final project, and itâll probably be a 4 star from me, Iâm leaving it here for now. Maybe I shouldâve gone for a question mark, but eh.
Character Creation: ââ
I mean with my complaints about the mutation you probably saw this coming. Generally lower. I like how Traits, like âall brawns, no brains,â become mechanically impactful, but other than that itâs just stat distribution and empty mutations, and without a world you canât give them meaningful stories (not in a way that ONLY this system can provide anyway)
Overall: âââ
I like The Sizzle. Itâs the hot new thing on the block â er, well, strictly speaking itâs a year old, I hope thereâs more updates on it, none as of this year. Iâll be looking at this one closely, I think itâs got real promise, especially since Iâd be giving it a 3.5/5 if I was a coward (Iâm not).
The Sizzle is name your own price on itch.io. Go check it out, highly recommend.
It's a Hot Mutant Summer With This Irradiated Post-Apoc Mutantfest
Unburied is our first with content warnings, so let me share them with you really quick-
Content Warnings: Violence, Death, Human Remains, Body Horror, Possession.
Skip this one if those rub you the wrong way, otherwise, letâs unearth this post-apocalyptic zombie ttrpg.
This is like, really alright. Maybe the most alright one Iâve read so far. And just to be clear, I donât mean alright as in best, I mean this is the most 8/10 one Iâve read. Not outstanding, but incredibly solid. Letâs talk about it.
Unburied is a post-apocalypse TTRPG that takes place after the Unburial, when the dead spontaneously emerged from their graves. There are four different types of undead, those being Ashes (clouds of dust, like those cremated), Cadavers (more traditional zombies and skeletons), Rots (living embodiments of putrefaction) and spirits (operating through possession usually). The game is really about living in the apocalypse, having rules for a traditional GM and player dynamic as well as solo-play.Â
Originality: ââââ
So, this one might be a zombie apocalypse TTRPG, but the four different types of undead, and them ALL being completely unkillable (theyâre unkillable btw) makes them feel new and interesting. I think maybe Iâm scoring them a little high, but honestly itâs just a fresh take on an old concept with very thoughtful levels of specificity in their discussions of how the world works as a whole.Â
Mechanics: ââââ
These are actually pretty well done. So it works with a more standard DC system, they call it a challenge rating. If youâre doing something risky, you roll the challenge. Itâs a d6, plus 1 if youâre using an area of expertise, plus 1 if you prepared, and plus 1 for each person helping. Now, the challenges range from 5 to 24. You may notice that at merely 5, even when youâre using an area of expertise and prepped, if youâre alone youâre looking at a 33% chance of failure. This, I think, is awesome. Hereâs why. Firstly, it heavily motivates group tactics and teamwork, and you get some real rewards for planning. Secondly, it makes the whole thing feel pretty desperate and maybe even a little hopeless, which is great for the setting. The astute among you might notice that in a five player game (this is a five player game max) itâs still near impossible to hit the highest levels of the challenges with everyone working together. Well, you can also take a sacrifice (breaking equipment, estranging a friend, etc) to roll an extra d6. The system seems, on its face, to somewhat necessitate making semi-frequent sacrifices, which is also baller. If you arenât prepared, or you donât have teamwork, or if youâre just unlucky, you will be making sacrifices just to succeed. And thatâs awesome. This is a really cool way of incorporating the tone into the rolls. The point off actually comes from a general failure to address stuff like injury, which I feel is pretty important in the context of an apocalypse. People are probably gonna get hurt, and that probably should have mechanical impact, so⌠But other than whatâs been omitted, everything here is great.
Post-Script: Hey, I forgot to mention this, and Iâm not gonna lower the score, but the solo play rules are only okay. Thereâs a small handful of prompts, with no tips for setting Challenges (something the game lacks generally, now that Iâve noticed), and I think that it doesnât really work. They feel tacked on, being present on the last page and not discussed in enough depth for my cuppa.
Replayability: âââ
I could see this being a longer campaign, given that even just inside of the game itself it has really rich things to look into. What caused the Unburial? Will the players defend this settlement? Do they have loved ones to find? While this, in rules as written, is a singular goal, I donât see why you wouldnât move to the next goal after one or the other. The downside is, well, it doesnât have any progression. I think thatâs alright, not the worst for sure, but between that and the simple (even if pleasantly fitting for the theme) mechanics, itâs enough for me to bump it down from 4 to 3 stars.Â
Variability: âââ
Itâs got good variance within the system. Like sure, itâs always kind of going to be the same tone, but you can do a couple different things in that realm. If nothing else thereâs a lot of differences depending on the type of undead that you have to fight, and it seems like the game promotes fighting one specific type at a time. Which is good! Itâs neat, it works, makes things feel different each time.
Character Creation: ââ
The real Achilles Heel of this game. It has character creation, based on how you survived the Unburial, which gives you one specialty. It also asks you to come up with occupation, age, gender, etc, all very good stuff, all very necessary, but thereâs not much in the way of mechanical creation. Usually Iâve complained about too many mechanics and not enough characterization, but this time I think that the characters have too little guidance in terms of fitting them into the world of Unburied itself. It is serviceable, to be sure, another 2.5 star situation, but itâs what Unburied is the worst at. And if your weak point is âitâs okay,â youâre doing something right.
Overall: ââââ
I really like this one. Itâs simple, sweet, mechanically interesting and coherent, and itâs got some stuff I havenât seen before in the sacrifice system. I do think it has weak points in character creation and solo rules, but those are really more nitpicks than anything else.
Unburied is normally 10 dollars, but is 50% off for the next week or so. I think this oneâs worth your time if you have any interest in the realm of the undead.Â
HEY YOU
DO YOU HATE CAPITALISM?
DO YOU HATE HOW THEY PUT CHEMICALS IN THE SODA THAT TURN THE FRIGGIN FROGS GAY?
WELL WHAT IF THE CHEMICALS MADE YOU AN X-MAN INSTEAD?
Mutant Mixology is an anti-capitalist TTRPG where you play as a mutant that has gained powers by drinking soda poisoned with like - radiation or something. Also mutants are called mutts, which I wanna give credit to. Itâs great for theming. Mutant has become such a relative neutral term thanks to its exposure, but mutt carries pretty heavy negative connotations, which works for playing the underdogs hated by society.
Originality: âââââ
This gets five stars because itâs all the best of a bunch of ideas. The soda is what makes you mutate, which is a point. Itâs about saving a beach, which is a point. Itâs anti-capitalism, which is a slight twist on the mutants as social commentary genre. I havenât seen one thatâs super explicitly (and specifically) anti-capitalism, usually itâs hitting at social issues rather than economic/systemic ones, but maybe I just need to read more. Either way, it gets five stars, those points will make up for its later lack of variability.
Mechanics: âââ
The mechanics work just fine, you roll a certain number of die to interact with the âvaluesâ present in the scene. Primary values are your main objective, like a volleyball investor game, and secondary ones give you bonuses for the rest of the scene if you lower them to 0, like changing the DJ to âunapproved tunes.â You have 6 stamina, corpos try to lower your stamina and keep the value scores up, etcetera. You get to go through âtempo,â which is like initiative if it was awesome. You pick the next person to go, if you pick an ally they get a bonus, no repeats (so you have to get through everyone once, canât just switch back and forth between 2-3 allies, enemies MUST go before someone goes twice in a scene). They are pretty nifty, but they lack a lot of flair. There are sodas that give you specific mutations, and those mutations, mechanically, do nothing, at all, which is super disappointing, they donât even interact with stats. You could homebrew that, but as a reminder, this is reviewing rules as written.
Replayability: âââ
I could see this being a little campaign deal. I think it struggles to provide a system that has enough meat on its bones to provide a compelling campaign, and that it works best as a relatively brief series of games rather than one that lasts ages. I also donât think the mechanics provide enough variance or strategic value to really encourage creative problem solving, and they donât have mechanical depth to encourage strategizing, so it seems like the scenes would be bland after a while. There are also no official rules around stuff like downtime, which sucks, I always like hearing more about what characters âshouldâ be doing in their offtime, or between missions, or even how they find out about their missions in the first place. For something with a pretty specific setting, it can be weirdly nondescript.
Variability: âÂ
I mean. Itâs hyper specific. Again, not a bad thing, just notable.
Character Creation: â
Now, this is a really low score, and one might wonder why. The reason stems, in large part, from the fact that your characters consist primarily of 3 stats (fine) and 6 energy. Every character has six energy. I love systems that enable you to express traits about a character in their stats, and this one lacks that, just being 3 stats since the 6 is generic (and also doesnât change, thereâs not like levels or anything, so Iâm not even sure how you would increase difficulty, thatâs more marks off replayability). The soda is a neat concept, but without proper execution, itâs not really sticking the landing.
Overall: ââ
This is another 2.5 stars if I was a coward, but I deal in whole stars here, and if push comes to shove I will round down. I really like the ideas at play in this system, but theyâre expressed in ways that feel less thoughtful than I would hope. Less intentional than I would hope. Tempo is cool, but is it something that works specifically in Mutant Mixology? The sodaâs neat, but do mutations even matter if they donât come up in scenes (mechanically)?
Mutant Mixology is free, and prides itself on being pick-up and play. To that end, it succeeds immensely. Despite the rating, know that I really like this one, and would recommend you pick it up at some point. With a little homebrew I think it could even jump all the way to a 4 star system, so⌠check it out.
Play as beach dwelling mutants rebelling against corporate gentrification.
Hey sorry for dying, new job is draining and Iâve been busy with other hobbies. I will continue to do this. But the dates might get a little fuzzy.
Also, this is the real name of this TTRPG. Itâs two pages. Pretty untested, written for a jam, listen, if it sucks, itâs still getting a glowing review. Have you seen the title?Â
Oh no.
Itâs not very good. I can't give it a glowing review.
Guy Fieriâs Bisexuals is a cooking show a la Hellâs Kitchen, but with less shouting and more GAY! Itâs adorable, in concept, consists of three phases: cooking, dating, and judging. All players are monsters, with Fieri as the token human. Which is awesome. Unfortunately, as it stands, it needs more time in the oven.
Originality: âââââ
Listen, for a concept like this, Iâd be cruel to not give it the highest possible rating. Guy Fieri in a proper cooking show is cool, I like the fantasy twist, itâs beautiful. UnfortunatelyâŚ
Mechanics:â
I am going to just post the full statement below. The document says its free for commercial use (and Iâm not even making money off of this), and most of itâs on the game page anyway. Let me put it simply: The mechanics DONâT WORK. Itâs a roll over system with stat numbers that, as written, mean you NEVER FAIL EVER, because you have to roll over your stat number (of 1-6), and you also add that stat number to your roll, meaning if you have a 1, you can ALWAYS ROLL OVER because if you roll a 1, and add 1, thatâs two, so you win, congratulations. Not only that, you only get six points to distribute among the four stats, which means even if the system worked, youâd be bad at everything.Â
Replayability: âââ
I could see doing this a few times, probably, I think itâs reasonable to want to play it again, maybe with different groups of friends, though honestly I could see myself playing with the same friend group a few go-rounds. Itâs good, replayable, not infinitely, but for sure.
Variability: ââ
So technically you can select different dating activities, and do different meals, and whatnot. Within the system and its provided lists, thereâs only six, so youâd have to get creative, and itâs a very clear tone and style of game every time. I have come to realize that less variability, though, is not strictly good or bad, just worth noting.
Character Creation: âââ
You pick pronouns, the monster you are, and a goal, and some skills, assign some stats, itâs good. Not immaculate, not anything inspiring, but it works, and the goal ensures you have some meat on their proverbial bones (since you might end up being a literal shadow, thus lacking literal bones).
Overall: ââ
Itâs bloody raw!
Guy Fieriâs Bisexuals is a cute game that has all of the ingredients for success, but has assembled them in a way that makes it completely unplayable as of present. I would love to see something in this style that works a bit more, or explores the concepts more deeply.
GFB is name your own price on itch. Check it out, if only to mourn how close to being good it is.
a reality tv ttrpg of simultaneous cooking and dating
Remember Under the Willow, or Willow, as I will be shorthanding it, is about a date. Just the one. One date to under a willow tree. Yep. This isnât going to be a glowing review. You roll a dice to determine how your character feels about the memory, roll dice to determine various things, and thatâs it, about it anyway.
Originality: âââ
Iâve never⌠quite seen it done this way. Through a memory, and with an emphasis on the tree. Itâs nifty.
Mechanics: â
I mean you just roll a d6. Thatâs it. It doesnât feel remotely like it pulls forth the idea of the themes it wants to explore. Itâs more like a writing prompt than a game, except itâs also not an especially strong writing prompt.
Replayability: â
I just couldnât see doing it more than once.
Variability: â
Itâs the willow tree every time.
Character Creation:â
Has nothing for it.
Overall: ââ
I dunno man. Itâs worth playing once. Itâs a duo RPG. Go play it with someone you wanna date. Date them in the game. Swoon em. Something like that. I, for one, am not overly enthused. It was for a jam, which probably explains it at least partially. I am unwilling to give it one star because it's still neat, I don't actively hate it, and it's got some nice, calming vibes that I haven't gotten to talk about much. It's a very lax TTRPG, great for something to take your mind off some stress and be sentimental.
It is name your own price, and very nicely styled (the rules look good), so I dunno, give it a go. Itâs short if nothing else.
Part 2 of making up for lost time, letâs clown around.
This oneâs awesome.
Clown Around is about getting to the top of a comically large business building and telling a CEO to leave your circus alone.
You play with a bunch of other clowns, have a clown specialty, the stats are related to clowns, you get items, and itâs a simple D6 system.
Originality: âââââ
I mean yeah clowns are popular but did you make a clown TTRPG? Statistically unlikely.
Mechanics: ââââ
Are they the best Iâve ever seen? Not⌠really. The rolls are a d6, with a 1-2 being a fail, 3-4 being a mixed bag, 5-6 being a real success. The way in which you use each of the four stats (hand tricks, pantomime, japery, and Tumbling) is like, mostly clear, but a little more grey. Itâs super simple, but it works for the tone, and the real reason it has four (nearly five) stars is because they so clearly mesh into the theme. It doesnât feel like a new coat of paint over something already existing, itâs building out a new, lighthearted game, and itâs just a very charming usage of the dice and the items and everything. Also, repeated failure is punished by becoming a sad clown. In practice this sucks, but itâs a cool idea. And if youâre too violent you become a scary clown. I like this. Neat way to tunnel the players into a course of action while feeling thematically appropriate and not forced.
Replayability: ââ
Oof, sorry. Yeah, I mean. Iâll talk more in variability but itâs kind of gonna be the same thing every time, canât imagine doing it a whole lot, itâs very clearly just the one thing. Itâs the coolest one-shot, but uh, just a one-shot.
Variability: â
Sorry. I mean itâs hyper specific. Weâll get back to the good stuff I promise. This RPG gives you the WHOLE premise for the thing, though, itâs module-like in structure narratively. Thatâs fine! I still have good thoughts on it, but itâs very niche. Theoretically you could homebrew it to be something else, but thatâs outside this one.
Character Creation:âââââ
You pick a class, but itâs a type of clown. Rodeo, Circus, Mime, or Harlequin. Isnât that AWESOME? Also, you get to pick a personal bonus and some items, and thatâs cool. I dunno man I love it, it feels great, maybe they shouldâve emphasized some more about design or something, I just canât bring myself to whine about its flaws.
Overall: ââââ
This is legitimately a great one-time game to play. Sure, itâs probably one-time, and you wonât be telling deep stories or writing epics with it, but itâs fun, it bleeds charm, and I think itâs worth looking at. While its simplicity is a great strength, its relative lack of mechanical depth and hyper specific setting and tone hold it back from being literally perfect. Right now though, I might even still argue itâs perfect for what it is. The Sad Clown does kinda suck, since if you get unlucky you just lose your specialty bonus, but hey. What can you do? We canât all be Lost Among the Starlit Wreckage.
Clown Around! Is name your own price on itch. Go buy it. This stuff rocks.
Hello gang, I started a new job yesterday. So I didnât. Do. The Post.
Donât worry Iâll put down TWO today.
Still no Parsec. Letâs start with Punk Rock Soup Kitchen. Do I even need to explain?
I mean it is what it says on the tin.
Originality: âââââ
I havenât heard those four words in this order before.
Mechanics: ââ
So, here are the mechanics. Five stats, new variations of them, you assign a dice to each, from d4 to d12, DM sets Target Numbers (TNs) that are effectively numbers you have to hit to succeed. Combat is based on strength in numbers. Dice explode (you roll an additional die on crits). So why is it so low? Itâs flavorless. It doesnât make me feel like Iâm in a soup kitchen. The TNs feel worse than just a roll-under mechanic, for instance. The section on GM dice is really losing them a lot of points. In a game with so few and so little in the way of mechanical nuance, having a bad spot can be a death knell. In it, the NPCs are expected to roll dice representative of their strength. Including the idea that a mayor (presumably a major obstacle) should roll a d20. The problem is that higher dice doesnât mean better, just more variance. Like yeah, on average it might be better, but itâs one dice, you arenât getting the average. Strong opponents (mentally or physically) should be rolling multiple dice, or the game shouldâve committed to not having NPCs roll dice and stuck with TNs exclusively.Â
Replayability: âââ
I could see this lasting a while. Itâs a neat system, super straightforward, and if you like it, you could play a fun, modern, anarchist-based game for a while. I donât think any part of it makes it intrinsically bad for that, if anything the simple shell makes it ideal.
Variability: âââ
So. The mechanics, purely, are not locked into the genre. But letâs assume that we are stuck within the genre. Thereâs plenty of things to change inside the small realm of social justice radicalism. Yeah!
Character Creation: â
Thereâs only one line for it smh. They use the word âetcâ in it. This is the only major L.
Overall: âââ
I mean it is borrowing mechanics from other RPGs, but I think thatâs understandable, no shade, it borrows well. I like the emphasis on strength in numbers. I like the theme. Itâs just a little flavorless for my taste. Itâs a well-cooked chicken breast with salt. Itâs fine. I just thought it would have more.
Punk Rock Soup Kitchen is name your own price. Check it out if youâre interested.
Evening all! Wanted to comment that I saw the number of people giving this blog attention go up a bit and thatâs really cool! Iâm glad to see other people stumbling onto this place. I hope I continue to find other strangers that need TTRPG recommendations
Anyway. Still not doing Parsec, itâs late and I have a job starting exactly tomorrow, so I will be doing a shorter one. Also skipped some stuff, it wasnât a TTRPG, this is about 26/467.
Anyway, letâs open our medicine cabinet.
This game is awesome.
So Elf Named Percocet is simple. You need a medicine cabinet, an arbitrary number of dice, and some pen and paper. It is the single-greatest thing ever (not really, but I love it). The way it works is you consult one piece of medicine. This determines your name (active ingredient), a gun you have (it inflicts whatever the side effect is, i.e. extreme dizziness or lethargy that immobilizes, etc), number of bullets (doses in a 24 hour period), and how long you have left to live (how often you take a dose). Now, I might personally change some of these specifics around, but at its heart this game leads with the idea that medicine is ânamed after the elves that died to create them,â and takes a not-so-subtle position against humanity and industrialization. This is shown in the fact that you are, intrinsically, an ecoterrorist, thatâs your goal.
Oh, hey, a little note because I didnât actually mention it on my initial pass, this game is also a shitpost. Like it was submitted to the â2024 Shitpost TTRPG Jamâ and has the description of âmedicine cabinet gaming.â Now what variety of shitpost is it? The awesome kind. Yes, I am gonna take this one seriously. I love it.
Originality: âââââ
Hey. I couldnât have come up with this. So.Â
Mechanics: âââ
So you may be asking: What is the actual gameplay like?
Hilarious, is the answer. When you âdo something risky,â you roll a dice (larger die for larger doses, smaller die for smaller doses), and you then hope for a big number. Big number wins, small number loses. When a scene ends, advance the clock of your death. When you die, you start narrating as the primary narrator, before that everyone just informally takes turns. Being realistic, this is incredibly vague, and while the bones are there, itâs not super clear how anything is supposed to work. This does, however, contribute to the way this entire game sorta feels like a trip, which I really think must be intentional. I know Iâve given more mechanically thoughtful games lower scores, but the straightforward nature and fast-paced game style makes it feel deserving of recognition.
Replayability: âââ
I wish I could give it more, but this is definitely a once-in-a-while thing. Itâs not intended for a longform campaign, given the death clock that is at most like. A day, if the medicine is very infrequent. Itâs more like a quick pick-up game than a drawn out one, and I couldnât see doing this super often even then.Â
Variability: ââ
NOOOO THESE SCORES ARE SO LOW NOT MY GOAT.
It railroads your goal and character creation, so you canât change it up much. You could change the aspects of industrial society you try to destroy, maybe, but overall I think it strikes me as a slight variance. This game is always gonna occupy the same themes and feelings and thereâs not too much wiggle room.
Character Creation: âââââ
I refuse to give it any less, legitimately inspired character creation. Basing so much on one medicine and extrapolating out all these bits and pieces is just awesome. It makes me feel like I should give it a go, even just for my own personal writing. I dunno, I kinda love it.
Overall: âââ
Elf Named Percocet may be a little incoherent and concerningly specific, but the niche it is occupying is one that it fills with gusto and power. Something about it just carries a lot of weight, the themes itâs discussing are interesting, the way it handles them confronts it directly, unflinchingly, I mean the words âFascists fuck off and dieâ are written at the bottom of the page and honestly this whole thing just bleeds moxie. I know it's a joke in some sense, but this appeals to me spiritually, and I'd feel disingenuous if I didn't acknowledge that. This game fucks, I don't even care about authorial intent.
Elf Named Percocet is free on Itch. Please. Itâs a one-pager. Please look at it. This is easily one of the gems in this list.
Quarters and Crushes is a one-page TTRPG that centers around the 80s, specifically an arcade, and specifically romance, hence, Quarters and Crushes. This game - this game sure exists. So, the idea is that you create a character, and then you exist within an arcade, and thatâs it. Thatâs the whole system. It uses a simple straightforward d6 resolution system. I dunno.
Originality: ââ
Iâve never seen a TTRPG do it, but I think thatâs for good reason, and reading over this one did not change my overall impression of it. Itâs taking the bare minimum from its concept and applying them to some dice rolls. I can think of few things more played out than the 80s in popular culture, but if I could, an arcade in the 80s would be up there.
Mechanics: ââ
Alright, listen. The mechanics of this game are a d6 resolution system. You roll an amount of die that starts at one, goes up if you have help or if youâre prepared/good at the thing. You pass by rolling above or under your number, your number being anything from 2-5. If youâre quarters-ing, you wanna roll below, and if youâre crush-ing, you wanna roll above. I like this. Itâs super simple, very straightforward, but effective. This is also EVERYTHING the mechanics cover. Thereâs not much in the way of mechanics. Itâs sorta just. Nothing. I like whatâs here, but itâs very little, and it doesnât make me feel like a teenager in the 80s.
Replayability: ââ
I just canât see a longform game of this.
Variability: ââ
Itâs really specific. Technically you can change the âproblemâ of the arcade, but itâs still a pretty narrow lens, and I donât think thereâs a lot of wiggle room in this one.
Character Creation: ââ
You choose a style, an accessory, a number, age, and character goal. Thereâs not a lot here, with only one mechanical implication in the ânumber.â But also, thatâs not a lot. I just feel like this is something where the player has to do most of the heavy lifting if the characters are going to be interesting.Â
Overall: ââ
Itâs fine. Itâs a one-pager. It has a somewhat played-out aesthetic, nothing super interesting. Itâs name your own though, so if you think that you wanna be a teen in the 80s, go for it.
Hey, no post today. I know I JUST said it was important for me to do these, and I meant it, but I just got back from uni and everything feels hectic and I need a *little* time off. Just the day -- Tomorrow I'll be back to it. Look forward to either a rambly complaint about a game about teenagers and arcades, or a longform discussion of a sci-fi rpg.
So this is technically not the correct one for today but itâs late and this one is promising to hold my attention more than a longer, more ânormalâ one. It's more important to me that I do this daily as a borderline mindfulness excercise than that I do it *right,* so bear with me if the quality drops a little.
Pipe Dreams is a TTRPG about skating. Like Tony Hawk. Thatâs what they say. So this will have to keep me up long enough to make this post.
Okay it didnât hold my attention. What, you want me to lie to you? It was 70 pages of radical sk8r bits. âSk8r energyâ is actually a great way to describe this entire thing. It really does feel like itâs channeling stereotypical skater vibes. Not a diss. Just an observation.
Pipe Dreams is Tony Hawkâs Pro Skater, but as a TTRPG. You make a skater and you skate. You get it.
Originality: âââââ
Normally this would fall under âthing that is based on something but Iâve never seen a TTRPG do itâ at four stars, but like. Itâs skating. I wouldnât have imagined it was possible. They can have this one.
Mechanics: ââââ
Taking from Ironsworn, the game uses challenge die and trick die (your die) and you compare the two to see if you succeed at the trick. There's no specific dm, only the scorekeeper role which gets passed around for narration and keeping score from tricks. Tricks have scripted difficulties, earn you a specific amount of points, and there are combo multipliers. You also get hurt, and thereâs an injury compendium with various impacts. Thereâs a progression clock system. All in all itâs really well done. What I understand of it looks really good. Iâm not in love with some of the mechanics to do with characters, but Iâll get into that with the later section.
Replayability:âââ
Because this game is meant to be played as a quick, arcade-action style thing, I wanted to give it five stars. However, I canât do that. Why? Because Iâve played TTRPGs. There will be the obligatory rules argument, there will be people that donât understand or that need help or that are just Being Evil. This rating stems not from the intended playstyle, which would give it a five, but a pessimistic take on how the game might actually play out. I am not super trusting in âquickâ TTRPGs, not due to them, but due to the nature of those playing them.
Variability: â
This is fine. I would normally harp on this but like, itâs a skating game. Itâs exactly what you want if youâre playing a skating game.
Character Creation: âââ
I feel like you make a spreadsheet more than a character. Thatâs one thing about this system, it does feel like an arcade game. Thatâs fine, donât get me wrong, and if you like that concept it does that very well. But you donât create a character, or a narrative, you make a skater to do the skating tricks and get a higher number. It encourages, implicitly, a minmax style of gameplay, due to being competitive, while lacking enough variance to make that feel super viable. Whether thatâs good or bad is up to you, I just think having three âstylesâ and stats plus a list of tricks only allows for so many different builds. At some point something is just the âcorrectâ build, no? Perhaps not, but it strikes me that way.
Overall: âââ
Pipe Dreams is a TTRPG in the sense that older video games are RPGs, broadly. You donât make a character, you optimize numbers, and those numbers fulfill a role. To be clear I love stuff like Final Fantasy or Fire Emblem, which I would describe as stat optimizing simulators in their earlier games. This is fine, if thatâs what you want, I am not personally enthused about a TTRPG that plays like an arcade game. This is, though, very much intentional. The authors knew what they were doing and they knocked it out of the park.
Pipe Dreams is like 10 bucks on itch. If anything Iâve said has been interesting, pick it up. Itâs, as seems to be the case for so many of these, not to my personal taste. But the game has an excellent, well-defined identity, and is doing some super unique stuff with its style and gameplay loop. I would highly recommend if you do, indeed, want to do sick tricks (by rolling copious amounts of dice).
How many of these do you think thereâs gonna be?
Today, we are doing 18/467, having skipped a few. Here are the ones I skipped:
TERF Defense: Itâs about defending your house from TERFs. Itâs like tower defense given some card-based rules, itâs based on Gambit, which is a system I donât know. I just didnât find it super interesting is all.
Seek the Worm, For Their Treasures Are Great: Words donât do it justice. Go look at it yourself.
Whimsynautâs DND 5e Quiz: Cool, not a TTRPG.
Aesthetica!: Concentration, I donât wanna play concentration.
So I am getting on a train today, to go home from Uni, and I was looking over todayâs reading so I could make the blog post in the morning, before getting on the train. Like the child I am, I forgot that some TTRPGs have words in them. This is a 154 page TTRPG. I will be posting from the train, apparently. This intro is being written as of the morning, but it will be posted much later Iâm sure.
UPDATE:
Itâs been two minutes. But. This is a Game Masterâs Book. I was curious, so I went to the store page, and yep, there is a corresponding Playerâs Book, and yes, it is in the bundle. So today is a 2-for-1, Iâm reading 300 pages of two books, and finishing off 18 and 19 in this 467 PILE. I figure itâs unfair to not read the PB at the same time as the GMB, so yeah. Strap in.
What if DND was more problematic than it already was.
Sorry, I have to be that one friend thatâs too woke today. Mhar Fantasy is a perfect encapsulation of ye old fantasy systems, featuring casual racism (a feature DND also shared until recently) and Gender Essentialism (that oneâs fun).
Look. If youâve played DND, you know this one. Itâs claim to fame is that it is more inspired by political and relational motives rather than âhigh fantasy.â Itâs not some âhollywood B-movie,â itâs taking notes from âArthurian legendâ instead. Which just seems- I mean. I like B-movies. I love them, in fact. So.Â
Originality: â
If your main points of comparison are DND and the legends of Camelot, you are not doing anything I need to know about.
Mechanics: âââ
Now you might think Iâm being too mean to this game. I will take this section to explain, in part, why I am not being too mean, because there are MECHANICS that correlate to some of the things Iâm being mean about.
For starters, a positive. This uses a roll-under-system, the combat is intended to be lethal, I actually would steal these mechanics rather than play 5e combat. They have parries! They do overcomplicate things in ways I think could be simplified but overall combat seems super engaging and I dig it. Thatâs about all I dig.
Now let me give you some hits from the mechanics I donât like.
You have to gender your character, with an implied male-female dichotomy.
The above is a perk.
This counts as a mechanic, itâs in a stat block. They donât even let the demons be gay, can you believe that.
Replayability: ââââ
Yes, you could play a campaign with this.
Variability: ââââ
I mean itâs pretty locked in against violence and high fantasy shenanigans, but itâs got variance within the actual theming, especially with the world lore that it dumps across some several dozen pages between the two books.
Character Creation: ââââ
Thereâs a lot of neat systems in here, actually. I would recommend glancing at it. I wonât even remove a point for gender since I already covered that. Oh, wait, you guys donât own it and it costs money, so... I should give an overview of what I like, huh? Er. Uh. Itâs got archetypes instead of classes, so thereâs nuance within each âclass,â itâs got interesting takes on the way you go about buying things via an initial point system, it has flaws as a game mechanic and talents, too. Itâs got a lot going for it. I should also really take a point off for race. Trust me. The races kind of suck. Thereâs goblins, and the goblins are warlike and ânaturally aggressive,â and treat women like âchattel.â And then the cat people have a vaguely buddhist religion, with the âSeven Paths of Truth.â And shamans are exoticized and belong as a religion to goblins. And Christianity is also here, and THAT belongs to humans, of course.Â
Overall: ââ
I just donât feel like being charitable today. This one has cool mechanics to some degree but is so snooze-inducingly long (Iâve expressed my preference for light rules, but if you like it, this one does have some meat), filled with lore that makes my eyebrows raise progressively higher, and just bringing nothing interesting to the table in any way other than applying mechanics in a SOMEWHAT new way. I should be clear, rollâunder is not a new concept. Neither is parrying. I just like the way they did it. What I donât like is just how⌠generic and⌠ânormal,â it is. Does that make sense? TTRPGs are for nerds, but this bundle I expected a certain kind of nerd appeal, as well. I mean, itâs for the queers (me), so, like⌠come on. But this contains all the regular implicit biases and lack of scrutiny of itself and the inspiration its drawing on that I would expect rrom a generic TTRPG. Itâs accidentally built a setting where despite the fact that it wants to create a âmorally greyâ scenario, it still has, in lore, extreme differences that are biologically programmed into each group, as well as SEVERE gender essentialism which really bothers me for obvious reasons.
If you are not That One Friend Who is Too Woke, give it a read. Itâs not a bad system. If you wish DND was (mechanically) good, then scrap as much of this one for parts as you want. If youâre looking for something even slightly new, you can skip this one.
