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[pandiongames]

Substratum Protocol, the Solo+ Apocalyptic Mystery TTRPG by Pandion Games

The Substratum Protocol campaign is nearing its end! There are less than 24 hours left to join over 600 scientists on the expedition to save the planet!

If you haven’t yet, check out the campaign before it’s too late!

There have been some fun updates since launch, including additional artwork by Galen Pejeau, new rules for environmental hazards, and a big story update!

If you want to see what the game is about, we also have a free preview PDF for you on the campaign page.

An Anomaly

During our interview with Rascal News, we realized we had made a fundamental mistake in writing an open-ended mystery: We said what was at the core of the planet, an interdimensional portal. The portal being is now just one possibility. We spent last weekend updating all the writing to now be an anomaly. The otherworldly abilities you get from taking stress are now Anomaly Influences, rather than Portal Influences, for instance. The Expedition can still decide it's a portal, but calling it an anomaly opens up a huge range of possibilities. What is the anomaly that's splitting the earth open?

Is it a massive cosmic egg hatching a world eater as part of a natural lifecycle? 

Did an advance interstellar ship accidentally exit hyperspace at the center of the planet due to a miscalculation, and its damaged engines are holding open a hyperspace bubble? 

Is there a cult of advanced species calling forth eldritch gods with a powerful ritual that consumes planets to power it?

Substratum Protocol is about letting the clues and your answers determine what is really happening, and we think this update opens the floodgates for it.

Depth Sector Deep Dives

In our campaign updates, we have been talking about the different sectors players can visit and their inspiration. These are all available publicly on the campaign - but we wanted to share the Fracture Opening sector with you here.

How the Depth Sectors Work

Substratum Protocol is a collaborative mystery game. The text gives hints and whispers of possibilities, but strays away from definite answers. What you discover and imagine at your table becomes canon to the story and the setting. Each sector shows its location in the Fracture, includes in-universe handwritten notes from an unknown scientist, relevant art, and a table of events - each giving a glimpse into what the sector contains. Scientists can spend as much or as little time in a Sector as they want. When they're ready to venture deeper, whoever leads the way rolls for the Travel Action.

The Fracture Opening

This is the first sector of the expedition experiences. At 1,300 kilometers long, it covers the distance between New York City to Miami, Florida. London, England to Naples, Italy. Melbourne, Australia to Alice Springs. Buenos Aires, Argentina to São Paulo, Brazil. It is massive. Where did the fracture open in your game? What exists teetering at its cliff walls? The world at the surface is a hellscape of the apocalypse, and much of the Fracture Opening is littered with crumbling buildings, detritus, and ancillary debris of civilization. Oceans spilling over the edge seem small in scale. Sitting suspended over it, is the Fracture Observatory. The Fracture Observatory, the home of Mission Control.

Furthest from the anomaly, this sector is rooted most in the reality of the surface. Here, players may find groups of survivors from the cities that tumbled into the great fracture, steam vents, cave ins, and earthquakes make finding solid footing and a reliable path difficult, and even here, strange subterranean creatures may make an appearance. Old research stations, part of the Substratum Protocol's monitoring efforts may still be intact here, and dangerous fast flowing waters threaten to whisk away scientists into massive whirlpools to further below. When we were first designing Substratum Protocol, the thought was that players would start in the action of the expedition and wouldn't really spend time on the Fracture Observatory or on the surface. The Fracture Opening was our way of showing what the surface was going through while still being en route. It is meant to showcase the incredible destruction happening, and give the players a sense of urgency to stop it from getting worse. How do the scientists descend into the fracture before being left to their own power? Lowered on a cable lift? Paraglide down? Or perhaps they are more like hell jumpers, free-falling through the gargantuan opening (or Link entering the depths in Tears of the Kingdom!)?

The title screen fades to klaxon alarms and screams of the world above, slowly giving way to a deafening silence of rushing wind as the expedition descends past the cliff walls into the abyssal black depths of the Fracture Opening...

Join the Expedition!

[pandiongames]

Substratum Protocol, the Solo+ Apocalyptic Mystery TTRPG by Pandion Games

The Substratum Protocol campaign is nearing its end! There are less than 24 hours left to join over 600 scientists on the expedition to save the planet!

If you haven’t yet, check out the campaign before it’s too late!

There have been some fun updates since launch, including additional artwork by Galen Pejeau, new rules for environmental hazards, and a big story update!

If you want to see what the game is about, we also have a free preview PDF for you on the campaign page.

An Anomaly

During our interview with Rascal News, we realized we had made a fundamental mistake in writing an open-ended mystery: We said what was at the core of the planet, an interdimensional portal. The portal being is now just one possibility. We spent last weekend updating all the writing to now be an anomaly. The otherworldly abilities you get from taking stress are now Anomaly Influences, rather than Portal Influences, for instance. The Expedition can still decide it's a portal, but calling it an anomaly opens up a huge range of possibilities. What is the anomaly that's splitting the earth open?

Is it a massive cosmic egg hatching a world eater as part of a natural lifecycle? 

Did an advance interstellar ship accidentally exit hyperspace at the center of the planet due to a miscalculation, and its damaged engines are holding open a hyperspace bubble? 

Is there a cult of advanced species calling forth eldritch gods with a powerful ritual that consumes planets to power it?

Substratum Protocol is about letting the clues and your answers determine what is really happening, and we think this update opens the floodgates for it.

Depth Sector Deep Dives

In our campaign updates, we have been talking about the different sectors players can visit and their inspiration. These are all available publicly on the campaign - but we wanted to share the Fracture Opening sector with you here.

How the Depth Sectors Work

Substratum Protocol is a collaborative mystery game. The text gives hints and whispers of possibilities, but strays away from definite answers. What you discover and imagine at your table becomes canon to the story and the setting. Each sector shows its location in the Fracture, includes in-universe handwritten notes from an unknown scientist, relevant art, and a table of events - each giving a glimpse into what the sector contains. Scientists can spend as much or as little time in a Sector as they want. When they're ready to venture deeper, whoever leads the way rolls for the Travel Action.

The Fracture Opening

This is the first sector of the expedition experiences. At 1,300 kilometers long, it covers the distance between New York City to Miami, Florida. London, England to Naples, Italy. Melbourne, Australia to Alice Springs. Buenos Aires, Argentina to São Paulo, Brazil. It is massive. Where did the fracture open in your game? What exists teetering at its cliff walls? The world at the surface is a hellscape of the apocalypse, and much of the Fracture Opening is littered with crumbling buildings, detritus, and ancillary debris of civilization. Oceans spilling over the edge seem small in scale. Sitting suspended over it, is the Fracture Observatory. The Fracture Observatory, the home of Mission Control.

Furthest from the anomaly, this sector is rooted most in the reality of the surface. Here, players may find groups of survivors from the cities that tumbled into the great fracture, steam vents, cave ins, and earthquakes make finding solid footing and a reliable path difficult, and even here, strange subterranean creatures may make an appearance. Old research stations, part of the Substratum Protocol's monitoring efforts may still be intact here, and dangerous fast flowing waters threaten to whisk away scientists into massive whirlpools to further below. When we were first designing Substratum Protocol, the thought was that players would start in the action of the expedition and wouldn't really spend time on the Fracture Observatory or on the surface. The Fracture Opening was our way of showing what the surface was going through while still being en route. It is meant to showcase the incredible destruction happening, and give the players a sense of urgency to stop it from getting worse. How do the scientists descend into the fracture before being left to their own power? Lowered on a cable lift? Paraglide down? Or perhaps they are more like hell jumpers, free-falling through the gargantuan opening (or Link entering the depths in Tears of the Kingdom!)?

The title screen fades to klaxon alarms and screams of the world above, slowly giving way to a deafening silence of rushing wind as the expedition descends past the cliff walls into the abyssal black depths of the Fracture Opening...

Join the Expedition!

[pandiongames]

Our brand new apocalyptic mystery TTRPG has launched on Backerkit!

Substratum Protocol is a solo+ survival mystery TTRPG utilizing step-down dice and card draw mechanics, Substratum Protocol is playable as both a solo game or guided by a GM.

If you are familiar with our Hints and Hijinx system (Waffles for Esther, Hamsters and Himbos, etc) then this multiplayer mystery will feel familiar!

Make sure to check out the campaign to get the free preview PDF!

The preview includes the first 38 pages of the book. It contains all the rules and how to play, but does not include any of the information about the mystery, clues, knowledge questions, the sectors' events and descriptions, or the character folios.

With players taking on the role of Earth's best remaining scientists, Substratum Protocol is our entry into the Deep Delving Mystery genre (like Subnautica and In Other Waters). 

On their grueling journey to the center of the Earth, members of the Substratum Expedition will overcome challenges, gain clues and knowledge of the interdimensional portal, discover creatures, aliens, cosmic horrors, and ultimately assemble their final hypothesis to overcome the apocalypse looming before them.

The game intertwines hard science fiction with the inescapable, unknowable horrors of an interdimensional portal tearing apart reality.

Features

Purpose-built for solo and multiplayer mysteries

Unique dice and card draw resolution mechanics

Take special Actions whose outcomes can chain together

Collect beaten cards during Skill Checks to power your suit's abilities

A self-contained story, with unlimited possibilities and outcomes

Quickly build unique and interesting characters at the table

36 unique clues to discover, 36 questions to answer

10 sectors to explore, each one stranger than the last

120 events and encounters to surprise and stump your players

Build the Last Hypothesis: When they have learned all they can, the scientists must pour over their knowledge of the portal, construct the Last Hypothesis and enact their plan. Will it be enough?

Made by an All-Star Team of Creators

We've assembled a fantastic team to bring Substratum Protocol to life, including the group behind the wildly popular dwarves in space TTRPG, Stoneburner by Fari RPGs

Illustrations by Galen Pejeau

Editing by Eric Lazure

Developmental Editing by René-Pier Deshaies-Gélinas

Layout Direction from Tony Tran

Writing and Design by Andrew Boyd

Promotion by Alex from Backerkit

[pandiongames]

Our brand new apocalyptic mystery TTRPG has launched on Backerkit!

Substratum Protocol is a solo+ survival mystery TTRPG utilizing step-down dice and card draw mechanics, Substratum Protocol is playable as both a solo game or guided by a GM.

If you are familiar with our Hints and Hijinx system (Waffles for Esther, Hamsters and Himbos, etc) then this multiplayer mystery will feel familiar!

Make sure to check out the campaign to get the free preview PDF!

The preview includes the first 38 pages of the book. It contains all the rules and how to play, but does not include any of the information about the mystery, clues, knowledge questions, the sectors' events and descriptions, or the character folios.

With players taking on the role of Earth's best remaining scientists, Substratum Protocol is our entry into the Deep Delving Mystery genre (like Subnautica and In Other Waters). 

On their grueling journey to the center of the Earth, members of the Substratum Expedition will overcome challenges, gain clues and knowledge of the interdimensional portal, discover creatures, aliens, cosmic horrors, and ultimately assemble their final hypothesis to overcome the apocalypse looming before them.

The game intertwines hard science fiction with the inescapable, unknowable horrors of an interdimensional portal tearing apart reality.

Features

Purpose-built for solo and multiplayer mysteries

Unique dice and card draw resolution mechanics

Take special Actions whose outcomes can chain together

Collect beaten cards during Skill Checks to power your suit's abilities

A self-contained story, with unlimited possibilities and outcomes

Quickly build unique and interesting characters at the table

36 unique clues to discover, 36 questions to answer

10 sectors to explore, each one stranger than the last

120 events and encounters to surprise and stump your players

Build the Last Hypothesis: When they have learned all they can, the scientists must pour over their knowledge of the portal, construct the Last Hypothesis and enact their plan. Will it be enough?

Made by an All-Star Team of Creators

We've assembled a fantastic team to bring Substratum Protocol to life, including the group behind the wildly popular dwarves in space TTRPG, Stoneburner by Fari RPGs

Illustrations by Galen Pejeau

Editing by Eric Lazure

Developmental Editing by René-Pier Deshaies-Gélinas

Layout Direction from Tony Tran

Writing and Design by Andrew Boyd

Promotion by Alex from Backerkit

[pandiongames]

Oh shit, Whispers in the Walls is now available at @indiepressrevolution and is already rapidly becoming our best selling game!

Thanks to everyone for all the love! If you post any of your playthrough journals please tag us! We love reading them!

It's out!

We're so excited to have worked with Overshia and Turtle76 to publish this illustrated solo horror mystery TTRPG!

We offer it in Print and PDF! And it's also up on itchio!

And we already got our first review?? I want to hear more about the lonely crab god!

The Second Edition adds:

10 new illustrations

Completely redesigned layout

Built in player journal

Extensive editing and fixes

New rolling tables to help generate rooms and items Look at all these cool spreads. :D

[pandiongames]

Something has changed for both of you. You’re connected now.

Apotheosis is a duet game between a mostly forgotten god and the first person they’ve been able to reach in a long time. Together they are navigating towards a goal, one they hope they are sharing. But they are very different, operating in separate worlds each with their own rules. The god is driven. They need Something. The person they’re reaching, their prophet, might be but they have to balance that with the mortal life they were leading before they heard the gods call.

The Apotheosis rulebook contains core rules and mechanics based on the Badger + Coyote SRD by @pandiongames , the playbook for The God and The Prophet and suggestions for how to start your adventure. All you need to play is the rulebook and character sheets, a pencil, and 4d6.

available on itch.io or ko-fi

[pandiongames]

Oh yeah, the second edition of Whispers in the Walls is coming soon OUT NOW! Fully illustrated this time!

And with a built-in player's journal to document your adventure.

[pandiongames]

It's out!

We're so excited to have worked with Overshia and Turtle76 to publish this illustrated solo horror mystery TTRPG!

We offer it in Print and PDF! And it's also up on itchio!

And we already got our first review?? I want to hear more about the lonely crab god!

The Second Edition adds:

10 new illustrations

Completely redesigned layout

Built in player journal

Extensive editing and fixes

New rolling tables to help generate rooms and items Look at all these cool spreads. :D

[pandiongames]

It's out!

We're so excited to have worked with Overshia and Turtle76 to publish this illustrated solo horror mystery TTRPG!

We offer it in Print and PDF! And it's also up on itchio!

And we already got our first review?? I want to hear more about the lonely crab god!

The Second Edition adds:

10 new illustrations

Completely redesigned layout

Built in player journal

Extensive editing and fixes

New rolling tables to help generate rooms and items Look at all these cool spreads. :D

[pandiongames]

We released Whispers in the Walls 2e today! It's available in Print and PDF!

Oh yeah, the second edition of Whispers in the Walls is coming soon OUT NOW! Fully illustrated this time!

And with a built-in player's journal to document your adventure.

[pandiongames]

The Magus & The Oracle

or, my yearly ZineMonth breakdown waiting to happen

Here we are! I can finally spill the beans on what I'm working on for ZineMonth 2024. This year NessunDove is joining forces with award-winning designer @momatoes for the first-ever English print of The Magus, the solo ttrpg about pathos, arcana, calamity, and the infinite loneliness of power... Plus a brand-new addition in the form of The Oracle: a 78-card inspiration deck designed to provide visual and storytelling prompts for The Magus, ttrpg systems, and all acts of storytelling.

I was overjoyed to work on the Italian edition of Magus back in 2021, and it was the first ever print run of the game. Now it's time for a new and improved English edition, with a new layout and updated rules that keep The Magus's narrative-driven crunch intact but supplement it with a new source of endless inspiration.

If you're in the mood to tell the tragic story of a sorcerer's quest for arcane mastery, do follow the pre-launch page on Kickstarter and help keep my anxiety at bay by making number go up.

[pandiongames]

Oh yeah, the second edition of Whispers in the Walls is coming soon! Fully illustrated this time!

And with a built-in player's journal to document your adventure.

[pandiongames]

Oh yeah, the second edition of Whispers in the Walls is coming soon! Fully illustrated this time!

And with a built-in player's journal to document your adventure.

[pandiongames]

do you have any metafictional ttrpgs? or any ttrpgs about nothing (being about the concept of nothing or literally not having something they're "about")?

Theme: Metafictional TTRPGS / Games About Nothing.

Y’all are really pulling out the stops for these requests, huh? I’m not entirely sure if what I pulled up actually counts as metafiction, or as games about nothing, but I hope you find something close to what you’re looking for here.

Feedback, by Adira Slattery.

This is a drawing and survey taking game.

You will be expected to draw some chairs.

You will be expected to take some surveys

.Requires the use of a printer for the surveys.

And at the end you gotta email me.

So good luck...

This is a game about drawing a chair. And then taking a survey. And then drawing a chair. And taking a survey. And so on. It’s an exercise that’s meant to be both repetitive and reflective. It’s hard for me to determine what this game is about, because a) I haven’t played it and b) I suspect it’s going to mean something a little different for each person who plays it. It’s possible that for some people who look at this game, it might be about nothing.

Undeath of the Author, by quinntastic.

A meta mini-game designed for Troika.

This is a game in which the author is both dead and not dead - they are undead, and it is up to the group to kill them. The author is the author of the game, and the group is responsible for figuring out how to go about and kill them. (Of course, the author is willing to tell you, the GM how they can be killed, but they don’t want you to tell the players. You can keep a secret, right?)

Beach Episode, by Legendary Vermin.

BEACH EPISODE is a microgame mix-in for your regular table-top RPG group. Players take  their current characters, quickly adapt them for a rules-light session, and commence to run an anime-inspired, beach-themed adventure. All you need to play is at least 3d6 and an established set of characters.

This is a game that is about nothing in the sense that it isn’t really about anything. It follows the style of the anime beach episode, asking you to take recognized characters, probably from an ongoing campaign, and giving them a moment of rest, relaxation, and (probably) nothing plot-relevant. It’s great for encouraging players to delve into who their characters are without feeling worried about the consequences.

Meta Society, by Small Stories.

Meta Society is a game about playing a game of Good Society created for the April Fool's Day Good Society game jam.

This is a game about playing a game - specifically a game of Good Society. When you play, you’ll describe fictional players interacting with a fictional setting, using safety tools and talking about what they did and didn’t like about each session. This requires a copy (as well as experienced knowledge) of how to play Good Society, but I think if you have had the experience of playing Good Society, this might also be something you could adapt to make it a metafictional game about playing a different ttrpg.

DIE: The Roleplaying Game, by Rowan, Rook & Decard.

You’re dragged into a treacherous fantasy world made from your own fears, doubts and desires. There’s only one way to escape - but with limitless adventure within your grasp, would you even want to?

In DIE: The Roleplaying Game, you play a group of authentically flawed people from the real world who gather together to play a game and are trapped in a magical realm. What are they prepared to sacrifice to escape? What are they prepared to sacrifice to stay? This is a TTRPG inspired by a comic book, about people who play games, finding themselves being drawn into a game. Your characters will be interacting with a fantasy world of their own creation, knowing that it is a game and yet being drawn into it deeper than they could have ever imagined. If you want to hear this game in action, My First Dungeon has an excellent season from Mar. 31 - May 26 of 2023.

The Waiting, by J.N. Butler.

A one page GM-less roleplaying game of suspense for 1 or more players.

The Waiting is inspired by the anxiety caused by waiting for the unknown.

In The Waiting you play as a character in a setting where it hasn’t happened yet. It is definitely going to happen, but no one knows when it will happen. Until it happens, there is only The Waiting.

What are you waiting for?

This feels like a game that could be about nothing because the thing that is going to happen will not happen while you play the game. The game is specifically about the time in which the thing has not yet happened - you just know that it will. The game occurs as a series of rounds, over which players describe what their characters are doing. When the event that the table creates happens, you have one final round of play and then the game is over.

This might also be a great tool for dropping into another game, if you’re like me and you like pairing your TTRPGs like cheeses and fine wines.

[pandiongames]

Oh yeah, the second edition of Whispers in the Walls is coming soon OUT NOW! Fully illustrated this time!

And with a built-in player's journal to document your adventure.

[pandiongames]

Geek Gamers on Youtube is covering our Dungeon Year Journal and how she is using it in 2024.

She does a fantastic deep dive on all the features of the Journal, too!

If you're a designer or solo player, check it out:

What is the Dungeon Year Journal, you ask? It is our journal for creating one a world, community, dungeon, or anything else you'd like one detail a day for a year!

And it comes in two sizes! Condensed, with weekly spreads, and a large A4-sized 204 page journal with a dedicated entry for all 365 days!

[pandiongames]

Geek Gamers on Youtube is covering our Dungeon Year Journal and how she is using it in 2024.

She does a fantastic deep dive on all the features of the Journal, too!

If you're a designer or solo player, check it out:

What is the Dungeon Year Journal, you ask? It is our journal for creating one a world, community, dungeon, or anything else you'd like one detail a day for a year!

And it comes in two sizes! Condensed, with weekly spreads, and a large A4-sized 204 page journal with a dedicated entry for all 365 days!