i am wondering if u have any advice for people who want to make ttrpgs?
(started working on a newspaper club rpg with a friend a few years ago but i never finished it but i want to try again with that same idea)
hi! i've actually only been making TTRPGs for about 2 years myself, so i'm far from an expert, but i'll try to share some things i've learnt! hopefully some of it is useful to you, or at least gives you some ideas
(the post ended up quite long so it is going under a read more)
1: Consume other stories!
this applies to all sorts of media -- books, movies, tv shows, theatre, podcasts, actual play shows & board games as well as other TTRPGs.
you can get a lot of inspiration in terms of the kinds of characters, genres and stories you want your game to engage with through just consuming a lot of media, even if it isn't gaming related! i also quite like finding specific things i like in a show or a book, and then trying to figure out how i'd convert it to a tabletop medium.
board games are a bit less story-focused, of course, but have the added benefit of providing you with potential tabletop friendly mechanics. things that come to mind are dread using a jenga tower and a number of TTRPGs that take inspiration from card games like poker. you can play games for free on sites like boardgamearena, and there are solo options & tutorials available for many of those.
and of course, finally there are TTRPGs! i assume you already play multiplayer games in some capacity, but reading rulebooks and playing solo games can also both be very valuable. you can find what other people in your genre are doing, get ideas for mechanics and a whole bunch of other useful things. to find TTRPGs without breaking the bank, i'd suggest checking out the free physical games page on itch.io, and blogs like @theresattrpgforthat and @indie-ttrpg-of-the-week. you can also get a lot from charity bundles & game jams.
2: Don't be afraid of SRDs.
i don't know how much you know about RPGs or making them, so for the reference of anyone who doesn't know: SRDs are system reference documents, provided by game designers so that other creators can use their systems to create games & hacks of their own. these come with licenses that explain how you can use the game -- some are commercial and others won't be. as with games themelves, quality and clarity of SRDs can vary, and some have a lot of rules attached!
but basically, i cannot recommend researching SRDs enough. creating an entire system from scratch as a new TTRPG designer is incredibly daunting & can be a lot of work. particularly if you're writing for multiplayer games. finding an SRD that fits any mechanic or tone ideas you have gives you a basis to work on, which you can then alter or expand to fit your specific needs. most of my games use SRDs!
i've used the buddy system for multiplayer games before, as well as creating some hacks of lasers & feelings (not strictly an SRD but very simple and popular to adapt). off the top of my head, there's also: caltrop core, EMERGE8, honey heist, and the horseshoe system. many of these were taken from the one page rpg jam's resource list!
i'll also mention the second guess and wretched & alone single player SRDs, as i'm not sure if you're writing for single or multiplayer! but both of these lists are obviously just a starting point.
3: Start small and get something finished.
many of my first games are no longer available on itch.io, but you can see that the earlier ones on there are mostly one page, solo and/or lyric games. like with most creative stuff, just getting something done at all is often a big concern with TTRPGs! especially when my own longest project ('til it kills us) is 50 pages, and it's still far from the longest TTRPGs you'll be able to find out in the wild.
if you can make this project you'll be working on be short -- ideally between 1 and 10 pages or so, imo -- then do that.
if not, consider trying something else small out as you're also working on this big project. join a game jam like the eternal ttrpg jam or, when it comes around again, the 200 word RPGs jam that runs on tumblr. or hack one of the solo games i mention to do something silly with friends. it doesn't have to be good, it doesn't have to be published or even played, and you probably won't like it that much. but i find there's nothing that makes the big projects easier than finishing a small one to prove that you can write a TTRPG after all.
4: Follow cool people to keep learning!
i already mentioned a few great blogs to follow here on tumblr, but i learn a lot about game design from the blogs i follow on here and the channels i watch on youtube. i won't do too many recommendations as i don't want to spam people with notifications but here's a few.
discord: i'm a lurker in the TTRPG Collective & Chimera Hearts
i'm also gonna mention TheQueerXP actual play podcast, simply bc those guys are really awesome and deserve all the love & attention!
4: Have fun?
idk this one is cheesy but i write TTRPGs bc i do genuinely love every part of the design and gameplay process (except formatting 😭) so i just wanted to say that, like. if you enjoy making games and love what you're making please keep making and sharing them, because people will find them and love them. and don't feel bad if you don't enjoy it, and you find yourself wanting to take a break from your project, or even stop. it's a very different experience to playing or running TTRPGs! and the game will be better if you don't end up hating it.
Conclusion
i have no idea if any of this is helpful, as someone who got into TTRPG design through D&D 5e entirely by accident, and whose design philosophy can mostly be described as "hope and pray". but hopefully other people will be able to jump in and share their own thoughts or resources, and i'm happy to help with any more specific questions if you have them, anon! i'd love to hear more about your game :)
So, news is out that I'm one of the developers for Scion 3E, an Onyx Path game where you play as children of the gods looking to write their own legend. The legend & friend Hiromi Cota kindly picked me as her partner for this adventure.
It has been an honor, and things are shaping up for a wonderful new edition.
Writers are telling us that they loved working on the project and fans are telling us that with us at the helm they are filled with hype & trust for the future, so that probably accounts for something.
I won't tag all the fantastic writers that are also around here because it's not my place to reveal their participation at this stage, but this core has a fantastic team behind.
So recently I've started developing a new eldritch horror themed pseudo-system. I call it a pseudo-system because rather than it being a system to be run, it is rather a sort of half-system which clicks onto adventures made for it, unlike most systems which should be solid on their own merits.
My main design goals with this are making it easily learnable, thereby making getting into it and mroe importantly introducing new players easier.
It is meant to incentivize rp, as I feel a lot of eldritch horror-esque adventures occasionally strip away the part where the "normal" roleplay is supposed to go and with it a part of the narrative impact of the players.
An important aspect is also allowing as much flexibility about it, which will make it so that I shan't make classes for it that are universal, though I might make a list which people can take inspiration from/pick options from.
This means that I'll most likely make a level up system, a round structure and attempts.
So yeah, wish me luck
For the record of the Tumblr, let it be known that Shattered Neon is a Furry Game in the sense we got anthros and you can play as them in the game. That being said, I do still think I want to design a truly Bespoke Furry TTRPG at some point. One that really focuses specifically on anthro characters and their struggles/lives/cultures. Shattered Neon has Anthros in it because Human Culture has anthros and is just filled with furries.
I don't think RPGs have anything to do with stats.
I think an RPG, or whether or not a game counts as one, is more about how you can affect it's world or environment beyond just winning or losing.
Like, Skyrim and space Skyrim, for example,are not RPGs. They are a very shoddily made, medieval & sci-fi themed amusement parks.
But neither are any Final Fantasy games, Legend of Zelda games, Shadow of Mordor, the Assassin's Creed series, Genshin Impact, God of War (any of them, even the new ones), Kingdom Hearts (any of them), Diablo, Transistor, or any Pokemon games. These are lovingly crafted roller coasters with various themes, with different additional genres of games therein, unlike most Bethesda games, but not roleplaying games. They're gripping movies, comics, art exhibits, and dioramas with well done and utilitarian world-building.
Or visual novels. And that's not me disparaging these games, just hopefully pushing our evolving language for discussing games in a better direction?
I guess the next question is probably- "What is an RPG by your call then?"
I'd say games like the original Deus Ex, Stardew Valley, Fallout 1&2, Undertale, Pathologic, literally every single Animal Crossing game, Pathfinder/DnD (if your DM has a stable sleep schedule), and Shadow the Hedgehog.
The difference between these two groups is:
group A: Interactive media (games) that are stories, or Games(under the cut), with worlds that only exist to tell their stories or for the player's convenience.
group B: Interactive media that is a world the player is encouraged to interact with as a consistent Character within, or where the player's avatar & actions exists as a character within the world and not just an artifice of design or play.
There is nothing you can do on Final Fantasy VII's Gaea that will impact any part of the rest of the world, besides succeed at a given challenge or die and have another go. Nor in X, IX, or VIII. Locking a world's keyhole in Kingdom Hearts 1 doesn't change the game's state it's the next part of the story and the success state that follows defeating most level's final bosses (or after figuring out a clever puzzle in Traverse Town). Riku can't fail to save Sora at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, you fail to rescue Riku's man, and the game lets you try again until you catch up with canon. Transistor does not care whether you collect certain programs/citizens, the Process [REDACTED] no matter what. Zelda can't not be rescued in any of the series' games where she appears; there are no ways to save the land of Termina except by assisting its citizens in a very specific order. In Pokemon, Team Rocket cannot successfully kidnapp someone's Pokemon on screen, and Team Aqua cannot successfully flood the world.
But in Shadow the Hedgehog; the president can be spared and his life determines how the rest of the game's story plays out; you can steadily work to destroy the world with the Black Arms and feel the progress of the invasion as you complete more of their missions. In Pathologic, failing to cure a patient doesn't send you to a game over screen, the patient just dies. Sometimes your patient is important to you and their death will have disastrous consequences, sometimes not. In ACNH, everything you can do changes the game's state in a meaningful way, there are almost literally no meaningless actions you can take in that game (or any animal crossing game). In a solid Pathfinder/DnD game, unless your party fights and dies to the last man, failing to kill the Lich or Evil king means that they get to take over that town or city. Some tables don't even run TPKs back, that specific world just gets worse and you either abandon it to its fate or have to make new avatars to re-enter a world that's likely grown more hostile because of the failure. In the original Fallouts, the only real "game over" fail state in those games is dying. Everything else is simply a choice to make, or a consequence to avoid. Likewise in the original Deus Ex, JC Denton's actions decide whether the [REDACTED it's old but go play the game] play out as planned, whether [seriously go play it] live or if the [please, you won't regret it] get their way. Each potential reality in these games, doesn't meaning you just lose, but that you now have to account for new circumstances in the world of your own making.
I don't think a game doesn't become an RPG because it has stats, or levels. Those are just conventions of the media of games as a whole. A game is more or less of an RPG based on how internally consistent and independent of the player its world is. I think our language should reflect that that too, but considering that this genre of game comes from the original pen and paper RPGs, I don't like giving the most faithful successors to their heritage a name that doesn't include the words RPG in it. I'd rather call the first group of games "Immersive Movies" and give the term "RPG" back to the second group. But if we must call both groups kinds of RPGs, I want to suggest replacing WRPG vs JRPG, with RPGs vs "VRPGs" or Virtual Ride Playing Games (or Vibe Role Playing Games), seeing as the first group is more akin to a book/movie/play/amusement park ride that you read or ride through than they are games where you meaningfully play the role of a character.
If that makes sense? Replies/rb as are welcome as comments, I had the thought on stream and I've spent all day working to make it more coherent than the babbling that usually rattles around in my brain, but I couldn't make it any shorter than this. So idk, let me know what you think. I'm eager to hear from other devs, or just players for that matter.
Also, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH, this isn't me shitting on any game I've mentioned except for Skyrim and space Skyrim. I'm not using RPG as a title of prestige, or saying any of these games are worse than the others except for Skyrim; I'm only saying we should probably re categorize them. Roller coasters are good things when they're well made.
A Dark Souls inspired ttrpg and collaborative storygame.
Here's another new project, even though we're still at the beginning of the year. This time it's a dark souls themed one-page game that I made for crystalthefool's Soul-Lite Jam.
My project turned out to be very ambitious, so I preferred to create this one-page game with the material I had finished.
So here a first prototype totally free.
Collaborative worldbuilding
Exploration rules
Fiction focused Character creation
Narrative oriented combat focussed on player agency
the new version of my game, 'til it kills us (v0.4), is out now! for the next two weeks, you can check out all 50 pages of my passion project for only $1, with some bonus spending goal benefits as well!
but, you might be asking, what is 'til it kills us? it's a dark urban fantasy TTRPG for 4-6 players, written, edited & playtested by yours truly. focused on themes of queer activism, mental health, and balancing your goals with your safety, it uses the buddy system to encourage players to work together. though, of course, there are also benefits for leaning into the darkest parts of your character instead.
and what's new in this updated version of the game?
the brand new cover
additional traits that add character diversity & customization
new relationships to add drama to your team dynamics
new home base features to expand your team's headquarters
a system for setting task difficulty
increased risk of complications, misfortune & other shenanigans
and much, much more!
so again, if you want to get this new version (and all future versions) of 'til it kills us for only $1, and earn some bonus content for the game, you can check it out at the top of this post, or at the link below:
A sale by Damsels & Dice, 80% off 'til it kills us
