#ttrpg design

[molombo]

Where's the African mythology?

The Kickstarter is live now!

[anxiousmimicrpgs]

One thing I've been doing for Girl Frame (my mechspoitation/lesbian mech pilot ttrpg) is basically trying to make rules for the characters that get in their way more than they help them

I've been reading Jay Dragon's Expressionist Manifesto, which talks about tension between what the player might want to do and the rules of the game. Rules not so much as an aid but as a restriction that has to be fought against or worked around to achieve your player goals

That led me to the special play for the Mockingbird Girl Playbook:

[hypotheticalprose]

The lancer memes inspired by @vexwerewolf became instantly iconic in part thanks to the wide variety of fonts and keywords used in the original RPG rulebook. When you look at this image:

It’s immediately clear what the creator has done, and it’s hilarious. Turning rules text into personality-filled commentary is inherently funny. It also lends itself to creativity, because you’re working with relatively small fraction of the english language and sometimes have to use unusual syntax, which is also funny.

This format has become so ubiquitous among Lancer players that for many people the style has become synonymous with the game system itself. Most people these days probably have first heard of lancer through one of these memes.

What I find especially interesting is what other community this meme format has found its way into. “Lancer-style memes” were in vogue for a while on the subreddit for the Warhammer 40K skirmish game Kill Team, which features a similarly keyword-heavy, variable-font rulebook.

Here’s an example by u/DrokonFlameborn:

(I love this because he’s right, it’s extremely funny playing imperial navy breachers and having your 19-year old grenadier toss a breaching charge that casually obliterates two 1000-year old space elves while your friend can only watch in horror. Fuck you and your Power-Ranger-ass elves Goose.)

Ahem. Anyways. It’s like seeing someone speak the same language in a different accent.

The thing is, as much as I love this format, it will probably remain terminally niche because it requires a kind of rulebook design that is pretty rare. This makes me sad, because I love these memes with all my heart. That being said, if anyone has examples of other communities using this format in their own way, please let me know.

[dm-the-paz]

Hey remember those d100 tables I hastily made a week or so ago thanks to a suggestion from @probablybadrpgideas ?

Well I made an improved 2.0 version and made up 50 items for you to have a play with! I even included illustrations and an NPC!

This is my first time uploading to dmsguild, so hope I've gotten it correct. Please enjoy!

Download Pay-What-You-Want here!

[junkfoodgames]

The Frog Squad is out now!

It is a tiny 3-player ttrpg and card game about Frogs destroying a data center and uses mechanics inspired by the trick-taking game Hearts.

I made it for the Lean Green Zine Jam.

Check it out! Sharing is greatly appreciated!

The Frog Squad: Hearts Against the Machine by Junk Food Games

a 3-player ttrpg and card game about frogs destroying a data center

[cabbageheadgames]

1d100 cigarettes chart. 🚬

[milton-chamberlain]

This is part of my graduation work at the university! I'm working on developing a design for a tabletop role-playing game.

[onesuchself]

I was telling a dude about a TTRPG project I'm working on where you play as wizards whose magic is incapable of harming living beings, so you must find non-violent methods of solving violent situations, and his immediate response was, "You're alienating too many players! The game should be about finding loopholes in the magic rules so you CAN kill people!"

I don't think I've ever had such a visceral reaction to a single sentence.