TTRPG: Eureka Investigative Urban Fantasy
Creator: @toy-dragon on tumblr, https://artfight.net/~voiddragonqueen
Character's Artfight Page: https://artfight.net/character/8355515.zilya-petrovna
Fun Facts:
1. She is on a cross-country road trip to see her great granddaughter.
2. She tends to adopt younger people during mysteries and looks after them.
3. Her becoming a catgirl was relatively recent and she has thought she was the only weird occurrence.
Character Sheet:
The sheet is significant because her skills and traits make how she investigates mysteries different from other characters. Her best skills focus on social interactions with other characters, and her worst are around her ability to be physically capable in a more direct way. She's older in a way that makes her more fragile. She is a calming presence to those around her. She loves helping people. She's a catgirl, which comes with its own challenges and a need to hide that fact from other people.
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TTRPG: Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy
Creator: @galileo156 and @galimation on tumblr , https://artfight.net/~Galileo156
Character's Artfight Page: https://artfight.net/character/7125877.lil-zak
Fun Facts:
He was dared to solve a series of murders, after annoying his roomates by deducting who ate his last slice of pizza
His roomates call him Kid or Goat, as they are each associated with an animal (Like Badger and Fox)
He is surprisingly knowledgable about — and surviving in — nature
Character Sheet Clipping:
Shown here is Zak's inventory, the items he carries on his person, and the items located at home. Based on how much is on-person one might be able to tell how closely guarded that little rascal is about his stuff and himself. Having an oversized jacket with many pockets definitely helps with all that.
I want to pay special attention to the Rosary; his Comfort Item. Lil'Zak has a trait called Comfort Item, that allows him to gain a bonus for Composure Rolls (Eureka's Stress Mechanic) as long as he carries a particular item with him. For him it's a Rosary that he's had with him since he was dropped off at an orphanage and carried with him to the present. He didn't really believe in the faith, just carrying it around as superstitious protection, but during the module I played with him he might just have started believing in angels. You never know what secrets other Player Characters are hiding
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TTRPG: Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy
Creator: @sophibug on tumblr, https://artfight.net/~biffertyboffertyboo
Character's Artfight Page: https://artfight.net/character/8360428.josie-moore
Fun Facts:
She only just figured out she's gay and she has a LOT of internalized homophobia to work through
She LOVES cars, especially her car, a 1949 Pontiac Silverstreak, which she maintains herself despite her disability
She went to Barnard for a year and saw Rothko's Yellow, Cherry, Orange, and has been obsessed with abstract art since.
Character Sheet Clipping:
Every Eureka character has 3-6 traits that define their character, and the traits are really, really good. A lot of people have started writing these little phrases to encapsulate how a trait applies to a character. Josie is neurotic. She's obsessed with numbers, she breaks down if she lies, she never lets things go once she cares about them even when they are actively detrimental to her health. She's also privileged and sheltered. All of that is set up to lead to an interesting collision when she starts investigating a mystery. (It is worth noting the grievous injury isn't a trait; I put it there because it's convenient to reference).
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Finally got to try out Eureka combat properly and the group I was playing with all had pretty much the same response to it: "oh my god this is so much better than DND, this is actually fun and engaging!"
Of course Combat isn't the *focus* of Eureka, but it's so well designed that, when it does happen, its so much fun to actually do, it's no replacement for a system that's combat focused, I don't think that would work, but that's kinda the point, the combat feels rooted in the system and flows very well with the rest of the game and actually feels like it makes sense the way stuff happens, big fan!
Last Sunday I hosted a game of Eureka by @anim-ttrpgs two friends of mine, there was supposed to be 3 but one couldnt make it, oh well you all know how it is with scheduling, it still played quite well with two people though, this system is actually really good for smaller groups from my experience with it so far.
We were playing horror Harry's haunted house, a premade module that comes with the free download of Eureka from ANIMs itch.io site! Check it out if you haven't yet and support them if you like Eureka!
Both of these friends of mine were new to the system and I had only narrated a single session of Foriva the Angel game before so I was breaking new ground as well and we were struggling a bit to RP while learning a new system, still a lot of fun though and honestly I think Eureka is pretty easy to get into, dont let the large pagecount on the rulebook dissuade you, its simply not done yet and gas some editing left to be done on it.
I don't wanna spoil too much, but the players had a lot of fun giggling about their own characters stubbornness and resulting consequences such as tumbling off a small balcony and bumping their butts.
In the end my players told me they really liked it and would be willing to play some more and while they did NOT correctly solve the mystery of horror Harry's haunted house they had a lot of fun with it! I also found it mostly smooth and pretty easy to run and I think I managed well enough. My players enjoyed that they felt more like theyre driving the game then in DND where it's often hacking and slashing or freeform rping until the DM puts the next thing in front of you (our personal experience) and they enjoyed the partial successes as well, they even made use of their Eureka towards the end wich they managed to scrape together enough points for and that helped them get to a conclusion, even if it was the wrong one xP
All in all a successful session and I think Horror Harry's haunted house is a EXCELLENT introduction into the game ,with low stakes it showcases allmost all major mechanics (except combat) and is easily finished within a single session if about 4-5 hours, take it as a sort of tutorial for both narrator and players and you will have a decent idea of how this game plays amd what to expect from it!
Hey! This is a break from what I usually post about but recently I've been helping playtest a really cool ttrpg system called Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy that has a free demo out now that I think is a really exciting fresh system built from the ground up (it's not a PbtA or BitD hack!).
It's an urban fantasy/horror investigator focused system that can work for anything from roughly 1850 to modern day or even near future - although I've found the system extremely flexible and great for anything with a heavy investigation focus making it great for any mystery or espionage focused campaigns even in sci-fi or fantasy with only a few easy GM tweaks. In addition to the great narrative mechanics it has a simple combat system where one bullet is enough to bring down any human, PC or NPC, with a bevvy of optional rules to add tactical depth. The current shareware demo includes a very fun low stakes adventure module in an escape room-haunted house with 4 pregen characters, great for learning the system. (I've run through it and found the mystery and puzzles clever and challenging while still being intuitive)
It also includes a nearly complete copy of the rules and I absolutely recommend checking it out here and also giving the studio a follow at @anim-ttrpgs. In the readmore below I'll go over some of the things that I personally really like about the system as well as what you'll get if you back them on Patreon which will get you fantastic monster rules and additional adventure modules.
I find Eureka to be the perfect medium between narrative focus and crunch, with every mechanic encouraging roleplaying and reflecting the narrative you want to tell and the party's place in it.
- The investigation system immensely streamlines the mystery solving process, rewarding both clever success by the party but also allowing them to fail forward.
- combat is punchy, quick, and lethal where one bullet is enough to incapacitate any human, encouraging caution and incentivizing nonviolent problem solving while also making combat when it does happen thrilling, impactful, and not a fucking slog.
- plenty of optional combat rules! You can run it extremely simply and add new rules as you learn, allowing for granular, realistic combat where every bullet counts and the chaos of irl gunfights are captured very well, the highlight of this being the "woo rolls" that make sure every shot does /something/ meaning even characters with low accuracy won't just ineffectually whiff their way through combat. Anyone with a gun or a knife is dangerous!
- the full version includes lovingly detailed monster rules with extremely flavorful options for vampires, werewolves, and building your own monster PCs and NPCs.
- the studio plans to provide continued support for the game by releasing adventure modules over time, either as Patreon rewards or normal purchases after the full release.
The only main downside/tradeoff of the system imo is that as a mystery focused module it is not something you can roll up and run with 30 minutes of prep for an original campaign. However the availability of modules mitigates this for time strapped GM's, and frankly aren't you a little tired of your sessions being 80% GM improv anyway?
