#2d20 System

[pocgamer]

Bringing Starfield to the Tabletop!

You’re playing it on your computer or console. You’re loving it. You want to bring it to the tabletop. This post is all about bringing Starfield from the screen to the gamer table! Continue reading Untitled

[countzeroor]

Star Trek Adventures RPG Character Race: The Abh

Basically, since I watched Crest of the Stars & Banner of the Stars, I’d been thinking about how I’d incorporate the Abh into the various Star Trek RPGs. After a bunch of thought, I’ve figured out some of how to do it… and I commissioned some art to go with it from Kimberly Odessa! I’ll be focusing on the Modiphius Star Trek Adventures rules – for this post, and I’ll do write-ups for Decipher…

[whatdoiknowjr]

What Do I Know About Reviews: Achtung! Cthulhu Mission: Operation Oberon

We're going to revisit pulp WWII action on the blog today, looking at the most recent Achtung!Cthulhu Mission, Operation Oberon, which takes the agents to Shanghai. #TTRPGs #Achtung!Cthulhu

It’s been a while since we visited the alternate World War II of Achtung! Cthulhu, and I had the chance to read a new adventure, so let revisit, shall we? If you haven’t seen the game yourself, or you haven’t read any of my reviews of the game, Achtung! Cthulhu is a game set in World War II, where the PCs are special operatives attempting to thwart Nazi occultists using the forbidden supernatural…

[shadowsrook]

i think ttrpg adaptions of video games should embrace their source material's worldbuilding and mechanics, rather than just shove the worldbuilding and mechanics into an established system yk

[syscord-out-of-context]

At least we're consistent 😂😂😂😂😂

[135-film]

i think once i get the ball rolling a bit more on my australian fallout stuff, ill make a blog for it :] i want to share my project with da worl

[theresattrpgforthat]

How To Find Cool Games: On DriveThruRPG!

So disclaimer upfront: I don’t use the DriveThruRPG website nearly as much as Itch.io. Some of those reasons are practical (there’s no tagging system, the catalogue is rather D&D saturated,), while others are more… well, shallow (the website isn’t as pretty).

However, DriveThruRPG is a very good tool to have in your toolbox when it comes to finding cool ttrpgs, for a number of reasons, the primary one being that it’s for TTRPGS and only TTRPGs! Let’s get started.

The Search Bar / Categories.

You can start by doing a basic search for a game that you already know about, or by searching for a keyword, like “pirates” or “zombies”. You’ll get titles sorted by “relevance”, so things that have the keyword in the name will show up first. One of the biggest downsides of this strategy is that everything kind of gets lumped in here: supplements, maps, expansions, adventures, character sheets… the list goes on. However, you can narrow down what you’re looking for by using the toggles at the top of the website. I personally usually narrow down search results by selecting “Product Type” and then “Core Rulebooks”.

One nice thing DriveThru has compared to Itch.io is that you can combine categories, so if I wanted to brows say, Gothic Horror Core Rulebooks priced under $20, well I can do that! My favourite categories are for genre, but another set of categories that you may find very useful once you’ve familiarized yourself with some games is the Rule System category. There are categories for systems like the Year Zero Engine, Forged in the Dark, BRP (Basic Roleplaying), OSR, and so much more. There’s also “other systems” and “any system” categories if you want to find something that’s unique or that can be used across games.

DriveThru also has a lot of games published in different languages, and you can narrow your results to see what’s been offered in your language. I think there are more options on this website than there are on Itch, although you might benefit by finding one or two publishers in your language on DriveThru, and then check the publisher’s website from there.

The Homepage

Another reason to check out DriveThru regularly is the sales and promotions. The top banner of the homepage will typically advertise a few things: the Deal of the Day, current themed sales, and special offers that DriveThru RPG wants you to know about. Their homepage also has Bestselling Titles, Most Popular Games Under $5, Newest Games, Featured Titles, and, if you scroll down enough, Personalized suggestions. Unlike Itch.io, DriveThru does a lot of work to show you what’s new, what’s hot, and what’s a really good deal right now, which can all be really helpful things!

When you land on a game, you’ll be able to see whether or not DriveThru sells physical copies, some basic information like book size, rule system, publisher & author, and a blurb describing the setting and other general information about the game. DriveThru has a side panel with “Customers also Bought”, which is great for showing you things that you might like, either because they surround the same theme, they work for the same game, or they are in a similar genre. (Another thing that Itch isn’t quite as good at.)

You’ll also be able to see (and leave) reviews for game, including the ratings left by other people who have picked it up. Occasionally I’ll find really useful information in the reviews, as reviewers might talk about mechanics they love or loathe, or recommend styles of play that they feel the game matches.

Finally, like Itch, DriveThru will let you know if you’ve already bought the game, and provide you with a download shortcut.

Publishing House Pages

Larger publishing houses typically have their ttrpg content sorted very nicely for you on their publisher pages, to help you find the things that you want. Modiphius is a great example, sorting Star Trek, Dune, Fallout, and their 2d20 games all in special categories.

Many publishers also have a Community Content section, which is great if you’re looking for assets, new adventures, hacks of a game system and some very reasonably priced (or even cheap) game additions. Similar to Itch, DriveThru has a Pay-What-You-Want feature for many games, although, unlike Itch, most PWYW titles require that you pay a non-zero amount.

Newsletters

When you create an account on DriveThruRPG, you can sign up for various different kinds of newsletters. Some come directly from DriveThru itself: this includes the Follow Your Favourites and Deal of the Day options, as well as weekly/monthly newsletters carrying information about new releases, special promotions, and (often) a free ttrpg product of the month.

However, on top of that, when you purchase a game or follow publishing pages, you can also get emails about new releases specific to those creators, as well as updates if a new version of a game you bought has been added. Often if it’s a game you already bought, this means you own the new version too - something that DriveThru has in common with Itch!

The Follow Your Favourites announcements will line up with whatever you’ve chosen to follow on the website. I’ve asked for updates about new Core Rulebooks, and I also get updates from the Onyx Path and a few other places where I found games I really liked. I also check the Deal of the Day offers fairly regularly; sometimes there are really really good deals offered and if it’s a game you know or like, then you don’t want to miss out on a sale!

Wishlists

DriveThru allows you to add games to wishlists to look at later, and even gives you the ability to sort your wishlists, although the process feels harder to look through than Itch does; I think it might be a UI issue.

However, because it acts like a wishlist, you can move games from the wishlist into your cart and vice versa, as well as move the games to another list. One really nice thing about the wishlist section is that DriveThru will alway show you when something you want is on sale, and how much it is normally - Itch does this too, but in this case, DriveThru is much easier to read!

I mostly sort my wishlists into Core Rulebooks and Supplements, because I don’t have nearly as many games bookmarked on DriveThru. If it exists on Itch, I store it on Itch - but there are plenty of other, “someday’ games, that I want to be able to find again in the future.

Your Library

DriveThruRPG has an app that you can download onto your computer or your phone, and it basically acts as a library that you can look through. In both the webpage and the app, you can sort your purchases alphabetically, from new to old, by publisher, by whether or not they were updated, and using similar categories as the search bar on the store front.

Free things can definitely be found here, even if they’re harder to look for. On DriveThru, most free products are things like character sheets, playtest games, or Quickstarts. However, some publishers do put up their stuff for free. Whenever I can get a Quickstart of something interesting, or if I find something being offered for free, I add it to my library. Free games are how I got started in ttrpgs, and QuickStarts are wonderful introductions to a system that usually give you a good idea of what the game is going to feel like.

Conclusion

Overall, DriveThruRPG is great for folks who like certain big publishing houses, and folks who like a good deal. I personally usually end up on the site because something in my emails caught my eye, which is the opposite of how I navigate Itch. DriveThru was my home base before I discovered Itch.io, so I still have a little fondness for the website, even if looking through it is a little bit of a slog.

One thing that might be a bit of an annoyance is that if you own something from a certain company, they might be able to send you a lot of emails for every sale and new product. If this becomes too much, you can choose to opt out from those publishers.

If you don’t want to have to actively engage with the website as much as say, Itch, DriveThru’s email system is also a big help. You can customize your subscriptions to match what you’re interested in, and then just check your emails once in a while to see what’s on offer. After a while you’ll also learn about yearly events, like the Summer Sale, which often provides big discounts on a lot of different games.

DriveThru is also a great place to start if you’re looking for print versions of games: I don’t know what shipping is like to places outside Canada, but I definitely appreciate that it’s an option, and sometimes all you need to do is find a game or publisher - once you know that it exists, you can google that publisher, check out their website, and figure out the best place to order from there.

[thydungeongal]

Hi do you have recommendations for someone wanting to play a fallout tabletop? Are there systems you’d recommend? If it makes any difference i’d be setting it in my hometown, not in an established location that the series has covered.

I've answered a similar ask a few times but as always Tumblr's search function is dogshit. Anyway, there is an official Fallout RPG based on Modiphius's 2d20 system which is a good workhorse system, but I am not otherwise familiar with it. But here's some alternatives:

After the Bomb by @aaronsrpgs is a rules light post-apocalyptic RPG that takes heavy inspiration from Fallout. If you want to get playing with minimal fuss, I highly recommend this one!

Other Dust is another good one, but it lacks some of the weirdness of Fallout. The system is a very serviceable old-school D&D based hack, but the real selling point here is the multitude of tables and procedures for generating content to populate the world with. However, the D&D DNA is a bit strong, and I feel the D&Dness of the system might not exactly service the goals of a Fallout inspired game.

Atomic Highway is not a bad one. It's free and I have played in a game of it that was modeled after Fallout, set in our hometown. As far as the system goes it's not my favorite one, but there's a lot of worse games out there and as stated it's entirely free.

Now, all of those are pretty traditional adventure type of games, where you can expect a party of post-apocalyptic freaks doing quests and stuff. If that's what you want, then those are some good options. But if you want something like. A prestige TV drama with an ensemble cast set in a post-apocalyptic world, I would recommend checking out Apocalypse World. It's what spawned the whole "Powered by the Apocalypse" framework and I feel the original still does a lot of things right in a way most games that utilize the framework just fail to capture. This one will require some readjustment from players if you're coming from a trad adventure game direction where games are expected to be like "a party" doing quests and so on. Apocalypse World is good if you want to basically play out a character-driven drama set in a post-apocalyptic setting. And it's quite good. The implied setting of AW is however quite different from Fallout's, so if you want to play something that is explicitly set in the Fallout universe then this one's not a great fit.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played Star Trek Adventures: Captain's Log Solo Roleplaying Game ?

By Michael Dismuke, Jim Johnson, John Kennedy, Thomas Marrone, Aaron M. Pollyea, and Al Spader

BOLDLY GO WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE

“THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS THE UNKNOWN; ONLY THINGS TEMPORARILY HIDDEN, TEMPORARILY NOT UNDERSTOOD.” -CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK

The Captain’s Log Solo Roleplaying Game is a 326-page, full-color standalone digest-sized rulebook that provides a complete, streamlined version of the award-winning 2d20 System used for the Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game, which you can use to create your own Star Trek stories with a dynamic character formed from your own imagination.

Whether you are venturing into the cosmos alone, conducting Galaxy-spanning missions cooperatively with friends, or exploring the unknown with a gamemaster facilitating your adventures, use the guidance and random tables contained in Captain’s Log to generate countless hours of memorable adventures in the Star Trek universe.

Create an original character and then use the tools in this book, combined with your fertile imagination, to fashion your own fascinating Star Trek-style stories. Play in any era of Star Trek - from the 21st century to the 32nd century and everything in between. Explore strange new worlds, new civilizations, and all the wonders of the universe!

What will you discover while exploring the final frontier?

The 326-page, full-color digest-sized hardcover Captain’s Log Solo Roleplaying Game features:A streamlined 2d20 ruleset that enables countless ways to play. Lifepaths and roles for any type of character, not just Starfleet captains. Story-driven solo gameplay that promotes drama in a safe space. A Star Trek primer including society, technology, and eras of play. Rules for creating or randomizing your own starship or starbase. Options to play the game solo, collaboratively with friends without a gamemaster, or collaboratively with a gamemaster Guidance on implementing the rules and telling your own stories. Over 100 random tables and storytelling matrixes usable in all kinds of games, including alien worlds and polities, allies and enemies, mission themes, maintenance downtime, and so much more! Available in four different covers inspired by your favorite Star Trek eras: the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine/Voyager, and Discovery. The interior content is the same for each version.

This book is a standalone product.

[benpaddon]

My current home recording setup is great for podcasts, less so for VO and audiodrama. It's time to upgrade.

So why not hire me? I'm available for the following gigs:

Writing! Hire me to write for your thing. I've written or ghost-written for a number of clients, and have written for my own projects including Jump Leads, PortsCenter, Hot Quest, and The Game of Rassilon.

Script notes! Have you written something you want feedback on? I'd be happy to read it and give notes, feedback, and constructive criticism.

Voiceover! Yes, my home setup sucks at the moment, but it's good enough for podcasting and it'll only get better. Or, hey, if you're recording in a studio in the LA area... (note: I will not cross the SAG-AFTRA video game strike picket line)

Standup and/or event hosting! This one's trickier because I'm based in Los Angeles and, y'know, maybe you're not! But let's talk anyway.

GMing or DMing your tabletop roleplaying game! I was the GM for The Game of Rassilon for three seasons, ran Hot Quest for FilmJoy, and have GM'd the majority of our live shows. I've GM'd for a number of different systems including D&D 5e, Doctor Who, Monster of the Week, numerous 2d20 games from Modiphius (e.g. Star Trek Adventures, Fallout), and countless indie systems. If you're looking for a GM, either for a private game or a streaming thing, hey, hit me up!

Being British! Look, I can't help that I'm originally from the UK. But I can monetize it. Possibly. Hire me as a British consultant for your writing, or whatever. We'll figure that out.

Interested in any of these services? Got something else in mind? Hit me up! I'm available, affordable, and golly gosh darned talented.

Don't want to hire me, but still want to help? You can always throw some coin in the tip jar:

paypal.me/benpaddon

patreon.com/benpaddon

[vurthshistorian]

My bank account is going to hate me this month.

I've made my excitement for the Cosmere System known on my Posts about Stormlight Archives, however, I must bludgeon you further.

I love the works of Sir Terry Pratchett, I've read a good chunk of the Guards Series, A few Wizard Books, and Mort. So now with Modephus at the Helm who have done fantastic works with the 2d20 John Carter and 2d20 Conan Games, I have complete faith that they're going to deliver Nothing Except the most Fantastic RPG for Us, who like Discworld.

Their Main Physical Tier is $50 and comes with The Core Rules, The PDF of the Core Rules, and The Octerine Dice set. Compared to other kickstarters I've backed, bang for buck, it's worth it.

The reason why My Bank Account is going to despise me is because of Confluence: The Living Archive. I've had my eye on this the entire month. I've been flipping through Instagram and my backerkit waiting for their backerkit to launch. This looks to be a small company TTRPG and from the art on the Kickstarter alone they have my Interest and my Money.

Their Main Physical Tier is $80 but comes with Lots of Goodies that make that pricetag worth it.

[open-hearth-rpg]

“Why Do Your Actual Play Videos Look Like Ass?”

ROUGH BUT FAIR

I got asked this, albeit indirectly, back in January. At the New Year’s Open Hearth Community meeting someone relayed they’d heard this comment about our Actual Play videos. This referred to not just my channel, but our community collection of actual plays built up over eight+ years. 

It’s a lot of sessions. A lot of games. My stuff alone is over 1000 sessions over dozens of systems. 

And it’s a fair question. They might stumbled on to one of our video roundups or seen a session shared. I can understand their reaction, especially if they’ve watched heavily produced and edited videos like those from Critical Role or Dimension20. Or even if they’ve followed one of the many talented teams who stream on Twitch or elsewhere with seasons, transitions, and nice visual templates. They’re all great watches– especially streams featuring indie games and diverse casts.

So what’s up with us?

Answering that question takes a little bit of set up and explanation. 

The short answer: You know that reliable YouTube repair video recorded on a phone by someone in their garage? That’s us. 

The long answer…

WHAT THE WHAT IS OPEN HEARTH?

We’re an online tabletop rpg community. We’ve been around in some form since 2016. Game facilitators post series and sessions on our calendar and people can sign up there. Every game’s run under our code of conduct and has to use a layered set of safety tools. Our GMs teach any rules and while we lean into indie and storygames, we also have folks who love OSR and more trad-leaning games (like my runs of 2d20, GUMSHOE, Imperium Maledictum, 13th Age, and the like). 

We have a patreon which gives backers a 48 hour window to sign up for sessions before they’re open generally. But we also have folks running games specifically for new players which set that aside. We’re always looking for ways to get new folks into sessions– like the open gaming events we do a couple of times each year. After folks have played with us a couple of times, they’re welcome to post their own sessions and series. We also do irregular “Game Facilitator Camps” to help people learn and polish their online GMing skills. 

Since the beginning some of our GMs have videos of our sessions and collecting those on our YouTube channel. Game facilitators mention in their event description if they plan to record. Not all sessions are recorded and posted. It’s not a requirement. In most cases, players can say they’d rather not be recorded– and in all cases a GM needs to confirm before posting any session publicly. For example a couple of times I’ve had folks ask for me to trim out personal info or emotionally fraught moments from a session. 

All of these recordings are rough. They’re the raw play of the session: unedited and wysiwyg. I’m recording from Zoom, some folks use Streamyard, and a small group of the more technically savvy use OBS+. On occasion I remember to pause the recording over breaks or during character creation when everyone’s tooling away on their sheets. But generally it’s like sitting in the room while someone’s running a home game. They’re messy, mostly on topic, trying to get to grips with the rules, figuring things out together. 

And I love it for that. They’re not polished. A comment made in connection with that “why do your APs look terrible?” question suggested we were some kind of ‘elite gaming association.’ I fear that impression might come from my posting a lot of game thinking, history, and analysis in our social media feeds. 

The truth is that I post those things in a desperate bid to have content. In our community we mostly talk about what games we’re playing and what games we want to play.

Bottom line: we’re a bunch of folks getting together to play our elf-games, make silly voices, and try to tell fun stories together. We’re trying to do that in a way that’s inclusive, takes safety seriously, and evolves over time. 

So why post actual play videos in such a state? I have some answers, in order from most important or probably least important…

FIVE REASONS

First, these videos shows how a particular game actually works at the table. Our community plays a lot of different games– I’d argue one of the largest collections of different systems. It serves as a great resource if you’re curious about a game, setting, or system. Most of us who record include our session zero as well as play sessions. So you get to see what’s involved with that, how to manage set up, and the kinds of collaboration which happens. You also see, warts and all, the rough patches and stumbling blocks. 

For example, I love Hearts of Wulin, but building Entanglements takes a lot of work during character creation. Don’t get me wrong: it's also the most important. Entanglements up the conflicts and plots you’re going to explore. But it requires you to both do some heavy creative work and listen to the other players at the same time. Sometimes I manage that phase really well– sometimes I forget that it has a higher cognitive load. Then I have to lean in and help folks navigate creating those. 

In a similar way, our AP illustrate the flow of play. What does resolution involve? How long does combat take? Where do folks get bogged down? That’s useful and can tell you if this is a game you’d be comfortable playing or running. Beyond that you get to see how much people seem to be enjoying and engaging with it. We present the naked truth of the game. All the rough edges remain and I think that’s great. It’s not for everyone— especially if you like a more polished presentation.

Second, you get to see safety tools in action. If you want to know how GMs carefully present a layered set of safety tools, watch a couple of session zeros. Different game facilitators will approach this in different ways, but we stress that GMs explain and actually implement a couple of tools. In my case I use Lines & Veils as a baseline, the X-Card as a reactive tool for resetting & calibration, and Open Door so folks know they aren’t trapped in a game. You can see how these tools don’t present a burden, don’t get in the way, and do enhance play. It reduces some of the worry people may have about joining a group of strangers online. It isn’t perfect, but these tools offer a baseline. I’m a white dude with all the privilege that brings, but I wouldn’t join in a random online game unless I knew tools like those were in place. 

Third, like other online streaming games: curated, edited, or otherwise, you get to see good GMs and players in action. It’s a great way to learn and pick things up. Not necessarily the full-on art of theater and improvisational acting, but what good play looks like. How you move the spotlight around. How you work to bring others into your scenes. How you collaborate to build a setting and vibe. How you handle end of session debriefs and feedback. That’s useful and, I think, confidence building. 

Fourth, and more selfishly, these videos are a decent advertisement for our community. It’s a decent and cheap way for us to keep our name out there. Beyond the videos, as I mentioned above, people can listen to these sessions as podcasts now. It’s also a way for us to boost the work of designers. It’s not a review, comment, or five stars but it does show how much we’ve enjoyed a particular game. I always dig it when I see designers resharing sessions, I hope it helps them increase their audience. 

Fifth, I like having those videos out there because they celebrate our GMs. They’re the engine of our community: folks who enjoy running games and put in the effort to entertain and engage a group of folks. We have amazing game facilitators and what strikes me is how different their approaches can be. I learn something new whenever I play with another GM here.

But on a related note, I will admit that I like having cover for my vanity. By placing my sessions alongside others, I manage to conceal how much my posting these sessions is an act of ego. I’m more than a little vain about my GMing.  

STARS AND WISHES

Overall we hope to be a useful and accessible resource for folks playing ttrpgs online. We hope folks will find their place in this hobby. If someone comes and plays with us, that’s great, but we’re more interested in just getting people to play anywhere. 

If you want to check out our collection of Actual Play Sessions, like and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

If you’re interested in just listening to sessions, you can subscribe to our podcast.

If you want to see the Playabl calendar app we use for organizing

If you want to find out more about our community, see here. 

We have Discord we’re working to do more with.

[antescompany]

[ID. Illustration of a bust depicting a Romulan from Star Trek. She has light skin, a messily shaven, purple-dyed mullet, and an assortment of piercings in her ears and on her brows. She has tattoos of flowers visible on her neck. She is wearing a yellow Starfleet uniform and has four pips of rank on her uniform collar. She is grimacing. End ID.]

In other news, I've started sinking my teeth into Modiphius's Star Trek Adventures RPG. It's quite lovely! I am always surprised how well the licensed Modiphius 2D20 games turn out, and a little shocked at how many similarities this particular one shares with their Dune RPG (which is also a really good game!). Here's my captain, Vish! She's a bit miffed about having to play PR on the neutral zone border.

I do think there could be a little bit more in terms of systems which seek to recreate the particular narrative flow of the show structure itself, but I suppose when you're making a system that's designed to replicate a dozen different shows and movies, that's sort of a demographic death trap.

[bleongambetta]

A singular rite in the life of a tabletop designer is the creation of their D&D heartbreaker. I’ve held off on it personally, in part by making near-misses like RADCrawl, but the siren song has proven to be a little too powerful and thus I’ve started on extremely temporarily named BL-G Hack. It is just coincidence that I’m additionally trying out blogging at the same time, after reading a Twitter (X?) thread with discussion of how much in the indie space is lost to Discord.

I’m starting from a framework of what I want the game to feel like and how I want to work on the game.

What I Want The Game To Feel Like

In terms of the table experience, I want the game to feel like playing a mostly theater of the mind D&D. I’m a huge 4e apologist, but for this I want to try to capture what it felt like to play D&D as a kid and we goofed around with world and city maps, but didn’t usually get out the grid for combat. I want to evoke some of the Catalogue TTRPG feeling, but ideally with choosing things pretty quickly. I want for characters to feel powerful and be able to do cool things, without feeling like bags of HP.

There’s definitely some merging of PbtA and D&D that I’m aiming for; but I don’t want it to feel like PbtA. I’m aiming for resolution systems that give interesting results, not full on Moves. You roll d20s.

I want to have players battling monsters and feeling like badasses. I want the game to feel ‘gamey.’ I’m developing a set of toys that tell a fantasy story.

I want to simultaneously have the joy and excitement of playing a West Marches game while avoiding the feeling of ‘go out and conquer.’ I love looking at a map, exploring it, battling things, and grabbing riches… but I don’t want to casually recreate the same approach of D&D of ‘orcs are evil, we are allowed to take their stuff.’ Balancing that is a little fiddly, but I think I have a solution that I am comfortable with.

How I Want To Build This Game

I want to approach this game in the style of blogs, Dragon magazine, and tiny splat books of the 3.5 era. Scenarios, skills, abilities, classes, monsters, etc should be able to be relatively stand alone; the kind of thing that I can sit down and crunch something out over the span of a lunch break or two. I think I’m going to try to keep barrier to entry on this low, the intent is to let people explore what kind of D&D I like to play.

That said, I’m aiming to be able to after initial release have some fun with zine-size releases that give some locations, some monsters, class options, etc. I’m actually truly hoping to get a group together to actually PLAY this game and have that playing inform design… but, let’s stay realistic here.

Core Systems

So, without further delay… the first bites of The BL-G Hack.

Characters have stats, probably six of them, probably the same D&D stats. When a roll is called for, the player rolls at least a d20 and tries to get under their stat for a hit. A basic roll is d20, a proficient roll is 2d20, and there may be higher bonus dice than that.

One hit (rolling under your stat) gives you a partial, marginal, or barely managed success. Two hits (rolling twice under your stat or your stat exactly) is a full hit, a heroic hit. Three or more hits (rolling thrice under your stat or an exact roll plus an under) is a truly superheroic hit.

Characters have classes, which give them proficiency in some scenarios which allows them to roll two d20s instead of one. They also give them a couple of Abilities that allow them to do cool things and a table for starting equipment. When characters level up, they’ll get new abilities which can come from any class or situational ones. Character classes will be specific (think prestige classes from 3.5 rather than base classes), but hopefully pretty mix and match.

Between adventures, are Map Phase and Company Phase. The GM will run the Map Phase where dark forces move, quests and landmarks are added, and the map is revealed by the player’s actions. Additionally, some player abilities will allow them to be invited to Map Phase or give input into Map Phase. Company Phase is run by the players, where they can share equipment, spend gold to roll for purchases, and take downtime activities.

Call to Adventure

The world is misted in a choking miasma; remnants from the Shattering when the death of gods sent magic running wild, slaughtering and corrupting all it burned over. In few seats of power the mages who did not succumb to the falling produced the Dimlight crystals that hold back the corruption and prevented all life from being burned out. The spells that produce these Dimlight artifacts destroyed the mages who cast them, turning their bodies into haunting, crystaline statues that radiate safety. In larger cities, where mages worked in circles, the protection may extend over neighborhoods. In rural areas, where only a single adept worked the protection may be as little as a room.

The world in miasma is dangerous; elemental monsters and corrupted humanity feeds on all who dare delve into the mist. The very air stings to breathe where Dimlight doesn’t clarify it and can have worse effects. There are refugees in the miasma and small enclaves that have gained access to Dimlight, but most are clinging to a solitary existance separate from the world. Those who live in cities where Dimlight is more plentiful have can live more normal lives, though communication with other cities and wealth remain exclusive to the hands of nobles and the wealthiest merchants.

The world just changed; Dimlight has been miniaturized. A new generation of Dimlight spells can be created without killing it’s user and requiring significantly less space for the artificial crystal. Dimlight torches offer the greatest possibility, an opportunity for adventurers to delve into the miasma and destroy the godsplinters that corrupt the land. The world is still dangerous, even when the miasma pulls back the monsters remain. But there is no end to the treasures that could be gained; abandoned riches, incredible power, and reclaiming homes long lost.

Roadmap

Currently I've got this, four out of five starting character classes, and some ideas that I've got to get into paper. The actual PDF of it is probably a little bit off, but I'm hoping to have an accessible, playable version available soon.

If you'd like to get it as soon as possible, consider backing my Patreon where I'll be doing an announcement post with a link soon! There'll be an itch page too, but it'll need to be more final before that.

So what do you think? Wanna play some BL-G Hack?

[mutantlord]

Critical Hits for Hacking Attacks Ink Art from page 68 of The Mutant Epoch RPG Expansion Rules

[Dice rolls of 01] Roll 1d10 Outcome of a Critical Hacking Attack

Roll result 10. System Overload! The target CPU suffers a cataclysmic override and bursts into flame amid a shower of sparks. The CPU takes 1d100 data damage and whatever installation, vehicle, body or container it occupies loses the next 1d6 turns and takes 2d20 endurance damage. If the harm from either of these two damage rolls is enough to finish off either the CPU or the body, then the target is fried and ‘dead’ and cannot be occupied by another digital being.

From the Mutant Epoch RPG Expansion Rules Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0994923791

[135-film]

genuinely if i made my australian fallout project public would anyone give a crap