Stage 99 Games

Tabletop Games by Mike Chenoweth

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Oh, and it occurs to me that I was in such a rush to get this off the ground and also pack for my trip that I forgot to include the cover art done by @cammy-jayyy. They did a fantastic job of incorporating the elements I provided and capturing my vision, which was "sitting around a campfire, but some thing is very wrong." (The original piece does not have the darkening effect near the top; I added this to help the logo stand out -- it may not have been necessary but to my faulty eyes it was.)

For those of you who like to stock your shelves with games, no, there's no print option available at the store pages, since that involves working with software I don't have, but the downloadable file does contain everything you'd expect in the book's interior (except a table of contents -- couldn't quite get that to work in Google Docs where this was put together), and doesn't this piece make a great eye-catcher?

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Introducing: Our Horror Story

Hello there, it's been a while. Quite a while, in fact. Many things have happened since the release of Nitro/Carbon a couple of years ago. I gpt degrees from college. Got a job. Got busy. Got blind. But I am pleased to announce that in the midst of all this, I have completed my next game and it is ready for release. No, it's not one of the half dozen games I was already working on, it's something entirely new because that's the way inspiration goes sometimes. I am pleased to introduce to you Our Horror Story.

Our Horror Story is currently available from my games page at Itch,io (link here), and it should within the next few days show up on DriveThruRPG (link here) as well. They have thi review process they go through nefpre anything can go on the website.

Simply put, Our Horror Story is a collaborative storytelling game. You and any number of fellow gameplayers gather around and use randomly assigned prompts to tell a horror story together. Prompts have values assigned based on the perceived difficulty of working them into the story; the higher the value of the prompt, the more it's worth when you bid to be the next person to add to the story. Blood might only be worth 2 in bidding while Crib might be worth 8. Didn't make it in this round? That's okay, take a breath and take a token -- a little trinket worth extra points during bidding. If you successfully add to the story, you lose all your tokens, so every time you're edged out in making an addition, you're closer to working your way back in.

Not sure whether you want to focus on the terrorized or the terror that stalks them? We take care of that for you. Each player can be randomly assigned a Role at the start of the game. These help guide the player's actions and how they tell the story. They're kept secret until the player decides to reveal their Rp;e and take appropriate action. And every Role has a grand purpose. The Killer instills fear in those being pursued, Survivors work to find a way out in the best interests of the story, and Victims...die. That sounds like a bad thing, but it's not. Victims are the backbone of any good horror story, and here they get to shine, for Victims get to choose and narrate their own method of death, making it as grisly, ironic or tragic as they like. And because they are Victims based on role assignment at the start of the game and not the result of some dice roll in the middle, dying is not a sign of failure as it might be in some other role-playing games. It's a huge opportunity for success.

Events are included to change up the rules and tone of the game as they get revealed. Like Roles and most of the rest of the game, they are optional.

And if your group is having a hard time coming up with an idea to kickstart, we have you covered there. Included are five 1-page Story Settings written by our very own @docholligay. You want to be hunted in the woods, killed by your inherited house, or tormented by beings from another dimension? She's all over that.

Also included in the book are tips on how to play the game and varuous characters, houserules and suggestions, and even some of my own personal philosophy on gaming as a storytelling medium. Because artwork is an important element in bringing in some players, it features a great cover by Tumblr and Instagram artist @cammy-jayyy.

And the best part? Like all my other games, it's free. I'm not here to make a ton of money, I'm here to make games that hopefully some folks out there enjoy at least a little bit as much as the many I've enjoyed, myself. If you read this far, then thanks for your attention and may the best stories be yours.

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Announcing: Nitro/Carbon

Just in time to ring in the new year, my latest game, Nitro/Carbon, is now published and available on Itch.io (link for all games here) and DriveThruRPG (link for all games here).

Yes, that's my artwork there. No, it's not good, but I never claimed to be an artist. (On the other hand, I think the logo came out well.)

Nitro/Carbon is a card game. This is a bit of a departure from what I've been releasing, but new can be good. You won't need any roleplaying skills or acting, desire and patience to look up character powers in some table, or gauging odds with dice. What you will need is the ability to accept an absurd premise -- cut-throat composting in the apocalypse -- along with decision making and utilization of limited resources.

A standard 52-card deck is required in order to play the game. If your house doesn't have one of these, you should stop reading this post immediately and rectify that issue before continuing on with life.

This is a rules-light entry, with the actual guidelines for play coming in at only 5 pages. It's intended to be easy enough for casual players to pick up quickly while allowing for some strategy and tactics. Quick reference sheets are also included for usage during gameplay.

As with all of my other releases, it is free, so at worst you're out the amount of time needed to download and look through it. But I hope that you will get a bit more out of it than that. Enjoy.

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Introducing: Race the Sand

I am pleased to announce that my next game, Race the Sand, has been published on both DriveThruRPG and Itch.io; it is still under review and approval on DriveThruRPG, so if that is your TTRPG shop of choice, give it a few days. Race the Sand is free. In fact, I have it set not to allow payments on those two sites.

Race the Sand is a collaborative, cooperative storytelling RPG system set around trying to achieve the most fantastic, absurd, creative, difficult or otherwise noteworthy feats in adventures, because that is the only way to even temporarily save your entire world from destruction. The ultimate powers of the universe responsible for all existence, have grown bored and are leaving, and with them reality is crumbling. Only by doing the amazing or unheard of can your heroes (or villains) hope to entice them to remain just a little bit longer.

The game is rules-light (only 15 pages), and features both quick character creation (even faster than Dextra's) and an easy to understand dice system, using two six-sided dice and a static, easy difficulty for all actions -- at least until others at the table modify your circumstances to make your effort both more impressive and harder to pull off. And you want them to! That's the only way to catch the attention of the almighty powers. By spending influence tokens, players can make dragons hungry, set rope bridges on fire, reinforce closed doors, make enemy wizards summon reinforcements, and more. If the action succeeds, your group gets to keep the tokens; fail and the universe remains unimpressed. Only through amassing enough tokens by the end of the session can your group succeed in their task, but you can get a good story out of it either way.

Race the Sand was written over the summer and represents a general acknowledgement of the distressing world in which many of us find ourselves today. Between rising international tensions, economic stagnation, climate change and other concerns, things can sometimes feel hopeless. But playing Race the Sand will hopefully remind us all that, unlike the world expressed within the game, we are not without hope. Also, it's a grand excuse to go absolutely big on your adventures. And it's free. I hope you will enjoy.

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Dextra is now Free

After long consideration, I have made the executive decision to make my previously released game, Dextra, free of charge going forward. This change has been implemented on the game's pages at both Itch.io and DriveThruRPG.

This was not a choice made lightly, but it reflects the realities of publishing tabletop games -- at least of this casually developed nature -- in the market today. Competition is fierce and nothing short of a dedicated career in the field is going to yield long-term success, especially among paid games. It's also simply more important to me that people potentially play these games than pay me for them. (Those who still desire to pay something have the option at both sites to do so.)

I wish to thank those of you who made purchases of the game previously. There are no logistics in place to process refunds of this manner, but know that your interest and support meant a lot to me and continues to do so.

This realization notwithstanding, I am continuing to design games and will continue releasing them. In fact, some of you might be a little confused at this post; after all, you never followed "Stage 99 Games" -- I know that because I just changed the name of this Tumblr blog to that from "Dextra RPG." Stage 99 Games is the imprint under which I will be releasing games going forward.

The meaning behind this name is somewhat esoteric and I may explain it later for the few who care, but for now I will say that it is really hard to come up with a decent name for your publishing unit that isn't already taken. Like, really hard. DriveThruRPG has over 560 studios that start with the letter "A" alone.

Of course, you can't have something like "Games" in your name and only have one game out there. So, you may expect to see a post about my next game shortly.

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Meet the Artist: Sam Jendresen

Despite my own personal views that we play games for mechanics, lore, the cameraderie of friends and other reasons that generally have little to do with looking at pictures in a book, art plays a tremendous role in role-playing games. Often, for people to even look at your game in a digital storefront, you need cover art.

So, when I was creating Dextra, I knew I wanted to have some art for the cover, and I knew exactly who I wanted to create it. Enter friend and family member Sam.

Note: Artist rendition stolen from Instagram. Actual Sam may vary.

Sam's colorful and whimsical style made her a perfect choice for illustrating the cover of a game designed for telling fantasy based stories. Her patience in working with me to get the exact feel that I wanted was also quite welcome. I had previously been the benefactor of Sam's art before. She is the official artist for my line of terrible meads, all of which feature renditions of my niece dressed as a bee.

She has also applied her talents to such amazing endeavors as transforming our pets into D&D/Pathfinder characters. For your consideration: our cat and dog, chaotic rogue Hot Pocket and benevolent cleric Mina.

If you proceed to Sam's Instagram site, which I recommend, you'll find she has numerous pieces that have nothing to do with me, including one of my personal favorites which I think was put up on the local Art Walk and I think wound up going unpurchased (this astounds me).

If you saw the cover of Dextra and thought "oh, nifty" or the like for even the briefest moment, that was due to Sam. If you're interested in seeing more of her art or letting her know how great it is, follow one of the links above.

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Free RPG Day Copies

Please do not reblog.

As part of national Free RPG Day, which was yesterday, there were some complimentary copies of Dextra added to the Itch.io page where the game is available and, as of this writing, there are still a couple copies remaining. And as followers here, you get the first official notification of them. If you've been interested in the game but unable to swing the purchase yet, now is your chance.

(This post will remain up for posterity, but the free copies probably won't last the day.)

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New Character Sheets File

A new file (Dextra Character Sheet Array) has been added to the game on both Itch.io and DriveThruRPG, containing six character sheets for use within your Dextra game sessions. The first of these sheets is the general concept which the basic game was designed around, and which is already included in the Core Guidebook. The remaining sheets are variations on this model, adding and removing various sections and pieces of information to tailor the experience to non-supernatural human experiences (particularly horror), military adventures, zombie or disease outbreaks, apocalyptic and survival scenarios, and even playing as an outright monster.

As mentioned in the file, these sheets may be updated from time to time as inspiration strikes and as requests are received from the public. You may want to check back every few months to see if there's something more suitable to the stories you want to tell, and if you have a particular need, drop us a line at [email protected].

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Now Available on DriveThruRPG

Dextra has been cleared and published on DriveThruRPG, and is available at this link. If you were waiting for it to drop on this particular storefront, wait no longer! I apologize for the delay in availability, but it may have been a little more warranted than I initially thought. Contrary to what DTRPG states on their correspondence about the approval process, it appears they actually read the entire file submitted before letting it go through, which is admirable. They also provided me their own review:

"This is a wonderful system that equips tables with a framework of rules they can build off of and utilize to create collaborative stories together. Character creation is uniquely designed, with all players contributing. The reference sheets at the back are incredibly helpful and guarantee ease of use at the table."

Though the preview images and options differ between DriveThruRPG and Itch.io, the product itself is the same on both sites. As always, thanks for your interest and support.

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First off, I want to thank all of you who have made purchases of the game, all of you who are following me now, and anyone who just comes here in the future and potentially sees this post. Your interest and support mean a lot to me (just as the same does for other creators out there). I just published the game yesterday two days ago, I don't have any updates to announce at this time (although as always I have bunches of projects being worked on, some related to this, some not), but today I'll tell a little story about some of the philosophy I used when deciding to make this game. I want to talk briefly about Sword of Kadash.

What is Sword of Kadash? I'm not surprised if you don't know that game. Very few people these days do. This was a computer game released way back in 1985 by the now-defunct publisher Dynamix. I played the Commodore 64 version. It is a top-down action RPG which has you wandering a large dungeon, gathering weapons and armor and scrolls and items and fighting off enemies along the way. There are hidden passages, invisible walls, traps and secrets to find. It's a long game and very difficult to complete. There's no story except for brief tidbits at the very beginning and very end of the game. I love it to this day, although it has been many years since I last wandered its halls.

What does Sword of Kadash have to do with Dextra? Nothing. The two games have virtually no overlap in terms of game mechanics, visual stylings, lore or intended audience. However, Sword of Kadash served as an inspiration for Dextra by reminding me, decades later, that a game which likely had modest sales and was almost forgotten about by the public at large can still have significance, even if only for a select few individuals. Most of us know at least one game (or book or movie) like Sword of Kadash, which has long since fallen out of popularity or even common knowledge, yet still sparks in us that sense of wonder or thrill we felt when we experienced it. That was the goal I held close in my thoughts as I worked on Dextra. The tabletop RPG market is a highly competitive realm now, especially in this era of ready self-publishing, and a rules-light game with a focus on telling stories instead of character theorizing and combat is at least something of a niche entry. Dextra is unlikely to ever be a chart-topping title. But it could serve as an inspiration to someone else, fill someone with that sense of wonder, demonstrate to them that their success doesn't have to be measured purely in terms of the number of sales achieved, but in the impact you can have on even a select few individuals.

If, twenty years from now, even a handful of people think back upon Dextra and say, "I remember some really cool times with that, I wish I could make people feel that way," I will have succeeded. And then I hope they go on to do the same thing themselves.

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Dextra Community Character Project

One of my favorite parts of Dextra is the concept of character creation. The collective chaos from handing sheets around the table is, to me, a very refreshing change to the standard methods of selecting and filling out the options (limited or not) of your own character.

But some people just flat up don't like character creation. That's fine. I can't agree with that mindset, but I support it, certainly. And sometimes people just don't have the time to create new characters, even with methods as easy as Dextra makes it. If some PCs have just unexpectedly died and snappy replacements are needed to keep the story moving, taking a break to pass papers around may not be what the table feels like.

With that in mind, I had an idea that might not only allow members of the public to get a taste of the character creation process (albeit a slightly distanced one), but also generate a number of characters organically that will be made available to interested parties as a free download.

If this sounds like fun to you, I invite you to follow the link below to some Google spreadsheets containing blank fields for 40 characters of various fantasy RPG staple classes, as well as some blank ones in case people want to get a little crazy with it. Various instructions are included as to how best to fill these out and, for those of you who don't have a copy of the game, brief information on the various character aspects is also provided.

The Dextra Public Character Sheets listing can be found at this link. It's not the prettiest, but I will be putting the finished details into actual Dextra character sheets to be added to its download sites.

I look forward to seeing what the internet can bring to life. Happy character creating!

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Welcome to Dextra!

This is the official Tumblr account for the Dextra RPG, published by Mike Chenoweth. At this time, there are no other official or authorized social media accounts.

Follow this Tumblr account if you are interested in any news regarding the game, free resources for use, or public answers to questions asked.

Have a question? Send an ask to this Tumblr! Have something more personal, complicated or problematic than appropriate for Tumblr? Drop an email to [email protected].