SprintingOwlGameDesigns

  TTRPG writing, editing, layout, design (COMMS open). Games can be found at http://kumada1.itch.io or on Drivethru by searching Rod Reel And Fist. Icon by Cognoscor and banner by Arcandio.

[sprintingowl]

Sprinting Owl TTRPGs

Hi all. I'm a ttrpg writer/designer/publisher, I've written way too many games, and this is a quick guide on how to find them.

Rod Reel And Fist is a feature length 280 page TTRPG about fishing.

Sunderwald is about a world where the best technology is pulled out of an extremely haunted forest... and it's also a game that you change as you play, and you write new rules, classes, species, and monsters into the book, permanently making your own version.

The Dawnline is about vampires and humans that have both domesticated each other and are migrating through the desert, trying to stay ahead of the sun. The core book includes strategy game mechanics for managing your caravan of humans as well as more conventional rpg mechanics for exploring as your vampires.

Cthork Borg is a 1920s cosmic horror pulp adventure, with 120 pages and 10+ published supplements. It's atmospheric and lethal, but it gives the players detailed toolkits for surviving what the world throws at them.

Also, if you're looking for something shorter, weirder, or less graphically refined, I have 100+ other ttrpgs, supplements, hacks, and experiments on itchio. Train giant beetles, steal chicken from The Farm God, visit a cyberpunk restaurant, competitively race slime molds, lunge out of lakes and eat travelers, and more!

[sarahcosico]

the kissy kissy <3

www.sarahcosico.bigcartel.com

[sprintingowl]

I do not go here. I am muppet-neutral on everything but their Christmas Carol, which I think is quite good, but I want to talk for a second about Sarahcosico is casually hitting a PERFECT Klimt and about how all art is in conversation with other art and about how all art is transformative.

Like. This is a The Kiss that is changed by its shift in subject matter, and this is a The Muppets that is changed by its shift in perspective, and the muppet elements have been made ornate by the Klimt and the Klimt has been simplified by the muppets and this is what it's all about. This is the game in full. Lenses in front of lenses in front of lenses until the light that barrels through bores a window into the soul.

Damn fine work.

[anxiousmimicrpgs]

A Most Bloody Devotion by anxiousmimicrpgs

A cannibalistic and romantic OSR game

From the creator of Girl Frame, A Most Bloody Devotion is a romantic horror dark fantasy game about devotion, cannibalism, and gender.

If you want a game where gender matters, beauty (or fear) is as powerful as a sword, and you can eat someone to steal their strength, this is for you!

A short list of things it includes:

A core mechanic involving your Fight/Flight/Freeze/Fawn responses

20 classes, such as the Treasured Daughter, Blessed Corpse, Saint-Stricken Nun, Maidservant, and Black Dog

Claim, a social system for taking Debts, Devotion, and Stewardship over others

Cannibalism-as-advancement

A procedural campaign setting generator, along with several other GM tools

[sprintingowl]

So, an interesting thing Devotion does is that it defines each gender.

Not in terms of who gets to belong to the gender, but in terms of once you belong to this gender what rules are you bound by. How does society position this gender. What is considered good performance of the gender and what is considered traitorous.

This is already rad as hell, but it kicks the doors off a more world-buildy fantasy design space as well, because if you use these same design principles but you create new genders...

Well, you can build your world on a very bone-deep level by figuring out the ways in which it categorizes people.

Look. Let's say you define "charcoal burner" as a new gender. It is assigned to those who are born in or that have associated with charcoal burner communities. Charcoal burners are rugged, unrefined, not to be permitted in polite areas. They are allowed to do drudgerous work and wear thick clothing and considered traitorous if they try to rise in station and---

---hey is gender a caste system?

[charaznablescanontoyota]

A bundle by Marn S., $20.00 for 20 games

hiiii my car needs various repairs, which means i'm setting all my tabletop games to 60% off for the next month or so! or get all of em for $20!

these games include:

toxic divorce reality-hopping simulator

pvp action movie time loop soundtracked by the mountain goats

house of leaves inspired map-making game

journaling game where you’re a slenderverse protagonist

escape space prison with your friends

[thesnackist]

hey did you know Marn also has a bunch of other stuff that is PWYW including (checks real quick) ELEVEN!! count them!! 11!! Playbooks for use with Interstitial 2e - each one is worth a couple bucks at least

not to mention they also have a whole ass hack of Interstitial 2e called MetaFiction which is even MORE metatextual and fully cross compatible as well - that's another SIXTEEN!!! 16!!! FUCKING Playbooks - that's gotta be worth like $25-30 minimum

and Marn is the best in the business her shit rules highly recommend

https://marns.itch.io/metafiction

https://itch.io/c/665398/playbooks

[sprintingowl]

Dreamed I had been added to the team working on the Heated Rivalry TTRPG and I was desperately trying to research hockey to figure out the rules and my plan for doing this was downloading Tape To Tape the hockey roguelike on steam and I was worried because this didn't seem like it would give me a perfect picture of what hockey was, but it was better than nothing, so---

[sprintingowl]

Months later and I've figured out how to adapt Heated Rivalry to tabletop:

Heated 5evalry

[charaznablescanontoyota]

do you guys want to see the worst lemonade i've found so far. it got pretty unanimous dread reactions across the board from my roommates

[charaznablescanontoyota]

this stuff has chunks floating in it. it looks like a straight up bottle of pond water. i'm scared of it.

[sprintingowl]

Do you not crave the algaemonade?

[sprintingowl]

You Bet Your Teeth

Happy Monday!

Here's a horrible short ttrpg about an economy in which you have to gamble your teeth on a teeth gambling app to do anything.

You Bet Your Teeth by kumada1

Teeth Teeth RPG

[elodieunderglass]

My eight -year-old child is staging battles

BAMBOO IS ACTUALLY A GRASS 😭

[sprintingowl]

Okay, can we talk about how good these illustrations are?

Incredibly clear direction of motion, but also like. There's a natural triangle in the one where the panda's swinging his sword? Squarehead's eyes go to the panda, panda's eyes point towards the blade, blade is swinging down towards the squarehead??? Dynamic and consistent and self-contained image????

Also the panda's bamboo car is so good. It's got that sumi-e minimalism, where a few strokes suggest the whole structure, but also that structure is extremely fun. You can see the grass bristling off of it. It's an alive car. The bright red wheels are a lovely splash of contrast.

I wish I had the art knowledge to talk in more detail about this, but I can settle for just appreciating it.

[elodieunderglass]

Awww NO you can’t just come into my notes and GET me!! Oh my goodness

Thoughtful words hit especially hard when they touch on a vulnerability, and I am both painfully conscious of my own artistic limitations, and rather proud of my knack for gesture and expression. This is a very foolish combination to hold in your heart. I plaster over this with a superfast sketchy style - it’s okay that it’s poor-quality; it only took 5 minutes; it’s okay to post because it’s quite obviously a sketch - but it’s super-easy to rip the plaster off and gET mE!!!

[sprintingowl]

Extremely sorry for the Getting but the art is vey good.

And also all art is within limitations. That's the nature of mediums, and self expression, and whatnot. When a piece is really good, the limitations are singing along with it.

[elodieunderglass]

My eight -year-old child is staging battles

BAMBOO IS ACTUALLY A GRASS 😭

[sprintingowl]

Okay, can we talk about how good these illustrations are?

Incredibly clear direction of motion, but also like. There's a natural triangle in the one where the panda's swinging his sword? Squarehead's eyes go to the panda, panda's eyes point towards the blade, blade is swinging down towards the squarehead??? Dynamic and consistent and self-contained image????

Also the panda's bamboo car is so good. It's got that sumi-e minimalism, where a few strokes suggest the whole structure, but also that structure is extremely fun. You can see the grass bristling off of it. It's an alive car. The bright red wheels are a lovely splash of contrast.

I wish I had the art knowledge to talk in more detail about this, but I can settle for just appreciating it.

[sprintingowl]

When The Wolf Climbs In The Window

Can't remember if I've posted it yet, so here's When The Wolf Climbs In The Window.

It's part of my "rent lowering gunshots" era of small ttrpgs about how censorship is deeply tied to and kinda echoes around in people's fears of being othered.

Anyway, take from it what you feel would be most useful to you.

When The Wolf Climbs In The Window by kumada1

One way past writer's block.

[sprintingowl]

Also I'm looking at this and realizing that it's got the cadence of the When The X Does Y AI ads that are swamping this platform and I'm so tired.

When will the digital asbestos be abated from our walls.

[sprintingowl]

When The Wolf Climbs In The Window

Can't remember if I've posted it yet, so here's When The Wolf Climbs In The Window.

It's part of my "rent lowering gunshots" era of small ttrpgs about how censorship is deeply tied to and kinda echoes around in people's fears of being othered.

Anyway, take from it what you feel would be most useful to you.

When The Wolf Climbs In The Window by kumada1

One way past writer's block.

[miraclemaya]

dress up is one of the most important pillars of gameplay that is often ignored by game developers to disasterous results

[sprintingowl]

This is true in ttrpgs as well, and I think that despite the theoretically greater creative freedom in tabletop the situation is actually a little bit worse there.

Because like.

A video game will often have cosmetics. Players like cosmetics. Players will spend money on cosmetics. And even in games where there's stats attached to outfit pieces, there's usually also glamours so that you don't have to be held hostage to a stat-optimized look.

However, a ttrpg that takes the time to list out outfit pieces will usually do so exclusively for statting purposes, and will not have a carve-out for glamours, and may well have a GM that is actively hostile to the idea. "Your AC is as Chain Mail, but you described your character as in a dress. I deduct one million participation points and a goblin eats your character sheet."

Also, ttrpg art tends to have a lot of cool costuming, but ttrpg text---even games with detailed lore sections---doesn't usually set aside time to talk about fashion. The art is left to do that lifting.

I think a big culprit for this state of affairs is that fashion is a deep field with a LOT of technical language, and making a fantasy version of a thing kind of requires knowing a lot about it.

So instead of diving deep into figuring out what kinds of garments a society might create, and in turn what kinds of cool looks players might be able to build with them, there's just a gesture towards the art. You can look like that.

As a result of all this, the point of dress up (being able to express yourself and feel something through choice of clothing) gets pushed into the margins. You can still do it, but the game isn't helping you. At best, it's not interfering.

"X field of art needs to have more Y topic" isn't a thing I think can ever be addressed quickly or comprehensively, but it *does* signal an opportunity going forward. So if you're a ttrpg designer and you're reading this, consider the place of dress up in your game.

What kinds of costumes can players wear? How does the costuming change how they are treated? How does the costuming echo or oppose how their characters feel?

And can you do more to support dress up?

Dress up---like strategy, gambling, ghost stories, and bragging---is a foundational genre of play.

[sprintingowl]

Circling back to say that the foundational genres of play, I think, are:

Dress up, changing your name, scheming, risk, ghost stories, bragging, kissing, running, making a fort, and dolls.

Notably, kissing isn't about kissing. It's about doing things you're not sure are allowed, or that you're not sure you understand.

Changing your name is about having other people treat you as someone else, which is different from dolls which is about imbuing a neutral object with an identity.

Running is not just running, and is almost always combined with scheming.

Risk involves actual monetary or emotional risk, staking feelings, pride, or possessions on an outcome.

Making a fort does not require making a physical fort, but is better when it does.

Also all of these elements of play are fundamental to ttrpgs.

[miraclemaya]

dress up is one of the most important pillars of gameplay that is often ignored by game developers to disasterous results

[sprintingowl]

This is true in ttrpgs as well, and I think that despite the theoretically greater creative freedom in tabletop the situation is actually a little bit worse there.

Because like.

A video game will often have cosmetics. Players like cosmetics. Players will spend money on cosmetics. And even in games where there's stats attached to outfit pieces, there's usually also glamours so that you don't have to be held hostage to a stat-optimized look.

However, a ttrpg that takes the time to list out outfit pieces will usually do so exclusively for statting purposes, and will not have a carve-out for glamours, and may well have a GM that is actively hostile to the idea. "Your AC is as Chain Mail, but you described your character as in a dress. I deduct one million participation points and a goblin eats your character sheet."

Also, ttrpg art tends to have a lot of cool costuming, but ttrpg text---even games with detailed lore sections---doesn't usually set aside time to talk about fashion. The art is left to do that lifting.

I think a big culprit for this state of affairs is that fashion is a deep field with a LOT of technical language, and making a fantasy version of a thing kind of requires knowing a lot about it.

So instead of diving deep into figuring out what kinds of garments a society might create, and in turn what kinds of cool looks players might be able to build with them, there's just a gesture towards the art. You can look like that.

As a result of all this, the point of dress up (being able to express yourself and feel something through choice of clothing) gets pushed into the margins. You can still do it, but the game isn't helping you. At best, it's not interfering.

"X field of art needs to have more Y topic" isn't a thing I think can ever be addressed quickly or comprehensively, but it *does* signal an opportunity going forward. So if you're a ttrpg designer and you're reading this, consider the place of dress up in your game.

What kinds of costumes can players wear? How does the costuming change how they are treated? How does the costuming echo or oppose how their characters feel?

And can you do more to support dress up?

Dress up---like strategy, gambling, ghost stories, and bragging---is a foundational genre of play.

[joelhappyhil]

Dollhouse Page

I've decided to put up an Itch page for Dollhouse so that the playtest file can be hosted somewhere other than the kickstarter page, feel free to follow it if you want to be notified about updates from here on out!

Dollhouse by Joel Happyhil, blk_ivv

a management TTRPG

[decolonizedungeon]

Decolonize Dungeon Season 2 Starts July 10th!

We're so back! Time to go even deeper into the depths.

So now's the perfect time to start watching or catch up! Fro a quick summary! Decol is a satire of old school roleplay and a genuine story of displaced cultures!

[hanakogames]

Chinese women are paying for romance - and they know it isn’t real

In China, young women are paying hundreds of yuan to experience scripted romance, fuelling a booming industry built on manufactured intimacy

more fascinating chinese role-playing stuff

(The first question my LARP friends asked was "Are they doing aftercare for this?")

[sprintingowl]

Oh! This is the logical progression of romance jubensha! Plus sort of also the concepts from host cafes / paid dating. Plus also kinda the scripted, viewer participatory romance that folks get from VNs and reader x fics.

I'm not super duper knowledgeable about jubensha, but if an overview is useful the quick version is that it's popular small group larp where the venue provides the props and rules. As of the early 2020s, iirc there was a push to regulate jubensha (due to queer, nongovernmental, horror themes, etc appearing in some,) but I don't have a strong understanding of how/if this really changed the culture of play.

I don't really like the article's moralizing title ("American men are paying for videogames, even though they know Frog from Chrono Trigger isn't real") but it's fascinating to see a slightly different culture of play grapple with the same problems as ttrpgs, larps, forum rps---just heightened by the financial motive of the shop and the fact that direct physical contact is happening.

I def agree with the larp friends asking "are they doing aftercare for this?" An up-front "don't catch feelings for the performer" disclaimer is kind of a flimsy talisman when the performance is then meant to pilebunker its way through your reservations and cause you to experience profound emotional bleed. But aftercare might also not be the first thing a service industry thinks of---you make money based on who you can hook, and how many people you can churn through the venue. Profit first, safety second---although safety is thankfully still placing.

Also, the love interest being an NPC in a love companion game adds an interesting dimension to things.

If you bring your friend to a romance jubensha, you either have some knowledge of your friend as a person before they step into the role, or you at least have some expectation you'll see your friend again after they step out of the role. This creates dual incentives for treating your friend like a person during the game, not just like their character. But a store worker who's NPCing your love interest is... maybe less implicitly a person because you don't know them. And, conversely, the character they're playing becomes even more person-ish as a result. The less you know the performer, the more you're seeing only the character.

I think this style of gaming is really cool, and I think it's interesting to see that safety, intensity, and commerciality are three sides of the larp triangle that DO NOT get along.

I also think a toned down love companion game could maybe clean up at a convention if they managed to thread the pricing needle, and I'm super glad to see game design that's built around addressing people's emotional needs.

This was a really solid read and I have no idea what it's going to do to my ttrpg writing.

[junipart]

FROG IS REAL TO ME, DAMMIT

[sprintingowl]

At last a customer for my Frog Chrono Trigger themed jubensha.

[sprintingowl]

Fine fine fine people asking for romantic Frog Chrono Trigger jubensha this is the best I've got:

Bafflingly Buff Bullfrog Boyfriends by kumada1

bodacious buds befriending the befallen

Also I don't feel quite right doing promo just for myself, so please check out Hanako Games' all-timer GL VN about worker placement and mystery solving:

Black Closet on Steam

Command your minions to solve mysteries and cover up scandals in a high-class boarding school, where the competition is cut-throat and image

[hanakogames]

Chinese women are paying for romance - and they know it isn’t real

In China, young women are paying hundreds of yuan to experience scripted romance, fuelling a booming industry built on manufactured intimacy

more fascinating chinese role-playing stuff

(The first question my LARP friends asked was "Are they doing aftercare for this?")

[sprintingowl]

Oh! This is the logical progression of romance jubensha! Plus sort of also the concepts from host cafes / paid dating. Plus also kinda the scripted, viewer participatory romance that folks get from VNs and reader x fics.

I'm not super duper knowledgeable about jubensha, but if an overview is useful the quick version is that it's popular small group larp where the venue provides the props and rules. As of the early 2020s, iirc there was a push to regulate jubensha (due to queer, nongovernmental, horror themes, etc appearing in some,) but I don't have a strong understanding of how/if this really changed the culture of play.

I don't really like the article's moralizing title ("American men are paying for videogames, even though they know Frog from Chrono Trigger isn't real") but it's fascinating to see a slightly different culture of play grapple with the same problems as ttrpgs, larps, forum rps---just heightened by the financial motive of the shop and the fact that direct physical contact is happening.

I def agree with the larp friends asking "are they doing aftercare for this?" An up-front "don't catch feelings for the performer" disclaimer is kind of a flimsy talisman when the performance is then meant to pilebunker its way through your reservations and cause you to experience profound emotional bleed. But aftercare might also not be the first thing a service industry thinks of---you make money based on who you can hook, and how many people you can churn through the venue. Profit first, safety second---although safety is thankfully still placing.

Also, the love interest being an NPC in a love companion game adds an interesting dimension to things.

If you bring your friend to a romance jubensha, you either have some knowledge of your friend as a person before they step into the role, or you at least have some expectation you'll see your friend again after they step out of the role. This creates dual incentives for treating your friend like a person during the game, not just like their character. But a store worker who's NPCing your love interest is... maybe less implicitly a person because you don't know them. And, conversely, the character they're playing becomes even more person-ish as a result. The less you know the performer, the more you're seeing only the character.

I think this style of gaming is really cool, and I think it's interesting to see that safety, intensity, and commerciality are three sides of the larp triangle that DO NOT get along.

I also think a toned down love companion game could maybe clean up at a convention if they managed to thread the pricing needle, and I'm super glad to see game design that's built around addressing people's emotional needs.

This was a really solid read and I have no idea what it's going to do to my ttrpg writing.

[junipart]

FROG IS REAL TO ME, DAMMIT

[sprintingowl]

At last a customer for my Frog Chrono Trigger themed jubensha.