[ZERO-FAITH PITCH, LOOKIN FOR ART/MUSIC/PROGRAM TTRPG FRIENDS FOR A GAME PROJECT]
Gameās about fun, but conveys the feeling of Playing Your Friendās Much-Worldbuilt Campaign Setting. Itās got a lotta and Fallout Ā½/NV in it, with a dense companion system that each conveys a feeling of a friend Working Through Something Real, and negotiating it through tropes, pop culture, and the Punk aesthetic, dumped out into something that registers as CN Elf Gunslinger 6 to the world. At the table, itās deeply intimate and kinda awkward, but in a game, you can savescum. Thematically, Itās superficiality and consumption being a vector of entry for some incredibly deep shit in the marginalia, as well as countless hidden cruelties. Itās what makes Steampunk steampunk, goth goth, etc. Itās counterculture as Tabletop Game, in the most leading of terms. The core party sticks together, though, no matter where the journey takes them.
My intent is to use the bones of 3finder without stepping on any copyright toes, and mod it to the gills. Thereās an OGL license that Paizoās generously paid largely forward for the edition on which Iām drawing inspiration, and once the lineās legally clear weāll give plenty of space- no Fluff, just Core, Crunch, and Homebrew. Iāve been pruning alien brand identity out of my games for two decades, and I aināt done yet.
Itās a system that benefits immensely from automation, and thereās copyright room there, as well as room for expansion and modification, which will be extensive. Obviously moneyās not getting involved until developmentās well, well prepared, and I plan to plan extensively. Iām a NEET, I have a lot of time and energy to waste and plenty of experience laterally organizing and writing, but I still got long term bills, so the cause is as personal as it is altruistic. I got training, Iām ready to make this shit.
Never made a game but played a lotta D&D? Letās fuckin go, chums.
Design wise, I intend to use my experience in the d20 system to cook up ludonarrative design thatāll work as well as a game even if it werenāt about something. Thatās especially a collaborative effort. Iāve got nearly 20 years experience in 3finder. I know how it ticks and what to cut. But of course itās adapted to a vidya game and aughta function on itās own as a Slightly Crunchy RPG for someone whoās never touched a die with more than 6 sides. Thereās BIG build room and progression is character-centered and story-connected. Respecs are free for a good reason I wonāt disclose. You can rebuild the party from the stats up if you want, but itās all still centered centered around their inherent abilities and customizable trademark trick weapons and magical classpects. I want to do The Funny Dog Man proud, but keep an edge. I plan on avenging the spirit of 2015 kickstarter and emerging humbled and cannier. Also Iāve been pondering launching this for 10+ years, and now Iām one of those Pandemic Grindset people who are prizing another push for indie dev out of some Real Shit we all need to reckon with. Many are doing this as they discover themselves The game aināt that navel-gazey, but thatās where Iām coming from as a writer. In can be done, it has, and Iāve been taking notes on fellow zero-faith development projects, as well as a personal delivery that takes the act seriously, so itās gonna be a narrow, polished experience. The individual story will reflect that.
It is dedicated to the cyberpunks who fight against injustice every day of their lives.
I want to stay away from āGame Is Metaphorā. No, game is game. Game must be fun. Writing is metaphor. Setting, sparing any details, is bleak and gothy, with magic and guns and swords and scientist-gods. It leverages themes, but itās not an overt narrative device or dedicated satire. Thereās ludonarrative framing. Itās a game about your brain and healing it.
I call the surrounding genre of heavily tabletop-sourced RPGs āDicepunkā and the game GRAVEN.
Itāll combine the looting, remixing and composing of a Material Identity essential to TTRPGs, and sparked aesthetically where that hits punk rock, Persona 5 UX. Of course thereās a character creator as deep as money goes and graphics will bear (you can upload your own character icon), and visual styleās a love letter to your Deviantart OC and Your D&D character when You, Too were Going Through It, using things like Critical Role where thereās a delightful, slightly voyeuristic thrill a waifu sim that cuts through the exploitation with an unexpectedly heartfelt tone and dynamic. of cooking up a dream team party that riffs off each other and foils you, reinterpreting the character itself via class-changing and respeccing. We know the numbers are a metaphor for reality, and realityās fluid, and that agencyās in your hands. Youāre building a dream table and everyone feels like Your Buddyās Character. Itās gotta be as calculated as it is heartfelt, and Iāve got Ideas.
Stranger Things for Zillenials, to normies.
Itāll apply storytelling lessons from games like Pillars of Eternity, Pathfinder, the D&D CRPGs, and New Vegas. Real low-tech design with clear bones and lateral mobility for days in story and character, derived organically (tied heavily in with the story and defined as the player discovers what it means to be āfromā somewhere).
Zoomers are growinā up, I think weāre ready to finally negotiate the nostalgia of being a Weird Nerd of the prior era. The kids are alright. Now that weāve got a sample of your brain on the internet, weāre finding history repeats, and a generation rediscovers D&D, magic, nerds, and big swords as another begins to wax nostalgic. If you want to explain your teen years (or your present 2x Puberty Combo, letās say) to your normie nerd parents, or reach out to these kids fucking up the same way we didā me too, bud. Letās do it.
Itās obviously not a game for kids, but a couple of the party members are teenaged and thereās some time passing, so theyāll grow up, but wonāt be romancible. Everyone else is though, probably. At the table it makes for HIGHLY dodgy play, but, youāve thought about it, cāmon. Swinging at fellow twentysomethings is a good call.
Itās horny-ambivalent, but has a lotta eggs of meaning in it, and sex, class, gender and desire are as much a part of the aesthetic tapestry as is violence. Misogyny and Homophobia are on the way out in the setting, but it takes place in a particularly repressed culture. The goal is allās handled textually with appropriate narrative distance; itās obnoxious and inappropriate to have preached at you from one end of the table while youāre trying to figure some shit out, samesies for a vidya game where the PC is also alienated from the context. So, very much there without being overtly explicit. The intent is not to court controversy, but skirt and negotiate it. The Prototype is The Matrix, not Yiik.
Thatās the FEEL. As to what itās about, well, mumās the word.
There is a sharp hook, which I am obviously withholding until Iāve roughed it out more, but Itāll give it legs for getting Backed if Dam it Bload Up without being a lmao meme game. Weāre making a classic for somebody, here.
Otherwise, Iām lining up a punk project from the script to the team. Capitalism puts pressure on everyone but Authority bad, Fun good. Accessories and a dense character creator, freely respeccable party roles and as many options as is viable. This should be a game that Baby Edgelord You would pick up and shit their pants. To get the word out, I look to get mutual aid and plugs from other OGL people, Streamers, D&D Podcasters and more, as we have something more to pitch.
Backing technique is old hat now, and how to do itās well-documented, and Iām planning for that occurrence; who hasnāt thought of merch options for their setting? Game will be deadly serious, team identity will be cheeky.
If money happens it will be accepted with deep and abiding terror and fund development, not initial concept. Iāve thought about that too, and been paying a lot of attention.
Like, Iām kinda psyching myself up as we do this, and Iāve been scratching my head for close to a decade about how to launch a Zero-faith game, so this is a request to build a team. If you have plenty of talent and drive for implementation but youāre working retail, Iām there too. None of us should have to work for free, but Iāll be putting as much in as possible as proof of a concept that can survive development, with as much dibs are due for something as superficial as a premise.
I donāt wanna put anything out in the ecosystem that aināt on the right track, but yāknow, welcome to Dis, motherfuckers.
Anyway, Iām gonna shower the Grindset off. Letās scheme together! Ghoulchan#1312
Indie wins through collaboration. Moar Pending.
Rise and grind, wageslaves.
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