#Melsonian Arts Council

[vintagerpg]

Everybody’s a criminal. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to Luke Gearing and David Hoskins, the creative team behind the new RPG Swyvers, from Melsonian Arts Council. In a fictionalized, horrible sort of fantasy London full of corruption and wild magic, the only way to get yours is to take it from somebody else. Rules light, with a focus on collaborative play fueled by novel mechanics and decorated in an amazing portfolio of art by Hoskins, Swyvers is gonna knock your socks off (and steal your wallet while you’re lying there). On Kickstarter now, go back it. Or else.

[rpgsandbox]

Swyvers is a light-weight set of rules married to a full set of tools and tables for running a game in the chaotic sprawl of The Smoke, its many districts and The Midden. What a city it is — corrupt officials, looming war, rogue sorcerors, monsters below and nobs above. Violence rests as thick as the smog, nothing is sacred and it’s always bloody raining. 

Swyvers is a game about bastards. You and your gang of criminals scarper through heists and sewers, stalk through the filth of The Smoke and, if you’re lucky, you’ll make it out with a few extra shillings. The whole of this city is your filthy, sickly oyster. 

Player characters are not heroes, they are not saving the world, they are trying to dodge the gallows in as much comfort as they can while giving the two fingered salute to the Crown. But hey, robbing the rich never hurt anyone, right?

This 'n That

Rules and lists of all the tools, weapons, lodgings, dodgy business investments, and hired goons any self-respecting Swyver should be familiar with.

Rules for dogs of all cut and calibre.

Death and dismemberment!

How to have a proper funeral for your mates.

'Orrible diseases.

Bloodsucking aristocrats.

Accurate time keeping records.

How to spend your spoils on carousing for XP.

Getting into deep trouble for your wild nights out, including gambling debts, dogfighting, and jealous lovers.

Take on apprentice Swyvers (Putterers), lead them on heists, and train them to take your place in the event of your inevitable sticky end.

Fences: who they are and how they'll profit from your terrible life choices.

Rules for bribes, leverage and blackmail!

A system for attracting the attention of Knotland Yard, who will, over many sessions, form a case against you and put a stop to your wicked ways.

A complete selection of terrible adversaries including agents of the church, ghouls, hussars, vampires, average humans, and bears.

... and complete rules on generating your own city of 'The Smoke'

The Smoke is the greatest city in the world, the beating heart of an empire. It is filthy and sprawling like a burst pustule left open to weep besides the iron-grey sea. It does have a name, but only the nobs and learned-readers know it. Beneath slumbers The Midden – the interconnected passages of built-over streets, basements, tombs and hidden lairs where criminals lurk, beasts squat and lost wealth resides. An enterprising fellow with a sledgehammer can traverse in any direction they please – not that they’ll like what they find. It is rife with corpse-thieves, cellar-breakers and enterprising businessmen shunned in sunlit places. The rich of The Smoke honour their dead with elaborate crypts, whose morose edifices encroach ever further into the slums – the trap-smiths of The Smoke do fine business from their craft, and the fences keep the money flowing thanks to enterprising tomb robbers.

Every group of Swyvers will have their very own Smoke. The GM starts a campaign by generating the city, starting from a core of districts: the Royal Gaol, the Palace, the Mayoral District and the Docks. From there they follow along Swyvers' generation tables to flesh out and, potentially, endlessly expand their rotten city. 

You will have a unique engine for running your own Swyvers games!

... and a unique and innovative magic system

Magic is not a known factor to the vast majority of the denizen of The Smoke. Rumours of witches abound, but specifics are thin on the ground. 

To cast a spell, put briefly — the caster plays blackjack. 

... and a starting adventure!

A starting adventure is included to get Swyvers moving and involved. Usually they’ll be planning their own heists and crimes, rather than having a justification like this one. Engaged players are happy players and great criminals.

In Blue Cheese, Left to Rot the party rob the Lindsore Estate, uncover their ivy-choked secrets, liberate their ancestral valuables, and maybe solve a few problems and make a few friends or enemies along the way.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Thu, March 7 2024 6:00 PM UTC +00:00

Website: [Melsonian Arts Council] [facebook] [twitter] [instagram]

[jerimee]

inspired by Melsonian Arts Council's Fungi of the Far Realms

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played Troika! ?

By Daniel Sell and the Melsonian Arts Council

Good question! In theory, troika! Is about fantastical sci-fantasy people exploring the multiverse, but There's been troika! Games about ANYTHING. The way troika content works is that if you make something and go "this is troika content" it is basically now troika content. Anyone can make anything and it's all canon. The setting is very openly "whatever the fuck you want". you can play as a spaceship. You can play as a sentient inkjet printer. You can play as a door to door monkey salesman. You can play as a dog with a gun. There's cowboy settings. There's capitalist bear settings. There's ants heisting a picnic settings. There is so much troika content that I cannot tell you all of it.

This is a game where the teenage mutant ninja turtles can go to a fashion show in the Permian period and that can be your game. Even if you're like "okay. This is too much. I'm just using the Official Official stuff" the numinous edition characters involve robots, locksmiths, children avenging their dead pearents and lammasus, and they're all treated as equal characters. Troika game settings often come written on leaflets and played over a few hours with some pretzels. Troika is a very bizarre game. It's anything, as long as you have a couple d6 to roll.

[technicalgrimoire]

Cloud Empress Ready to Rock!

Featuring Fungi of the Far Realms from Melsonian Arts Council

A big chonky panic die

UVG dice from WizardThiefFighter

And my own cryptic notes!

(seriously, you gotta mix Fungi with Cloud Empress)

[flaetsbnortoriginals]

So I am a bit wild about the introduction to Fortles, by Sam Mameli. Because it's a great example of... well, let me explain. This zine is clearly based on Troika, and wants people who know Troika to know it. At the same time, it doesn't want anyone who picked it up randomly to think 'oh, this is an adventure hook for an RPG I don't play' so it hides that connection in a way that someone unfamiliar with Troika would never figure it out.

I think everyone understands why I absolutely don't want to call it dogwhistling. But you know. Giving information to a section of your audience that understands a subject while hiding it from the general public. Technically.

The intro, written in-character by the fictional author Salvador Moss, goes like this. (I've omitted some parts irrelevant to my argument.)

My name is Salvador Moss, sorcerer emeritas of the College of Friends, sellsword of Melsonia, and befouler of ponds. (...) It gives me great pleasure to present this travelogue of my time spent barge hopping across the hump-back sky in search of a comprehensive understanding of the fortle. This creature is seen in nearly every sphere of creation (...)

The first thing that jumps to the eye to someone who knows Troika here is the word Melsonia. To those who don't know, it just feels like the name of a random fantasy place. One might clock it as a reference, but it's not overt. This is hilarious to me, though, because it's not a reference to a fictional place, but a meta-reference to the name of Troika's publishers, Melsonian Art Council. In fact, by referring to himself as a sellsword, it's a genius way to say he's a freelancer, unassociated with the official publisher.

Right after that, he calls himself a befouler of ponds. Now, this is where I should say that something that aids this enterprize immensely is that the world of Fortles, much like Troika, is gonzo until it leaks, and it's full of weird stuff that feels like it makes internal sense but you don't need to understand right now. Being a 'befouler of ponds' fits right in with this aesthetic. But of course it does, since it's one of the available character classes from Troika. In fact, IIRC, it's one of the first ones, and it's weird enough to be one of the most memorable entries in the beginning of the list, when you're still looking at the classes through awestruck eyes. Its reference is deliberated and rightly made.

I haven't much to talk about the next reference, since it's the same as the previous one, only to a lower degree: it's when he says 'barge hopping'. To someone who doesn't know Troika but figured out the world, it's a sentence that's easily understood as a gonzo fantasy version of backpacking. But Troika fans will have the additional context of knowing that Barges are a setting element, being the name of the round ships capable of moving between worlds.

Speaking of worlds... the coup de grace is mentioning every sphere of creation. That's just a very common turn of phrase, feels very apt for a gonzo fantasy story, substituting an expression that makes different presumptions about the nature of the world, like "all around the globe". There's no way anyone unfamiliar with Troika would figure out that spheres are what the different worlds are called within the setting, and that this seemingly innocent sentence is actually saying that the titular fortles are ready to be dropped in whatever adventure in Troika your hapless adventurers should find themselves in.

Anyway, brilliant book. I love the stoic sea turtle and the banana-carrot.

[smallredrobin13games]

Games I DESPERATELY want to play this year

Making this list to hold myself to account. 

Troika by the Melsonian Arts Council

Kenzie’s Project by StargazerSasha

Stealing the Throne by Nick Bate

Sealing The Fate by nickwedig

Final Girl Support Group by Live Real Press

Malware Mayhem by Starshine Scribbles

Eyes On The Prize by Ira Prince

Spoken Through Petals by Monroeroe

Time To Drop by Marn S.

Prole by Highland Paranormal Society

Ghostbox by Marx Of High Water

22 Minutes by Valistarri

Zealots of a Loving God by che

Drama! Drama! (And The Queen) by Fateful Seven

Maybe I’ll reblog this post and let you know when I play them!

[chronivore]

Swyvers by Melsonian Arts Council

[thegaminggang]

Score the Troika! Roleplaying Game Absolutely Free - https://thegaminggang.com/save-money-on-games/score-the-troika-roleplaying-game-absolutely-free/...

[fortheking16]

Newest Bundle of Holding - Troika Worlds Bundle - September 12, 2022

Newest Bundle of Holding – Troika Worlds Bundle – September 12, 2022

Newest Bundle of Holding – Troika Worlds Bundle https://bundleofholding.com/presents/TroikaWorlds/. Ends October 3, 2022 BACK TO THE FRONTIER HIGH Through Monday, October 3 we present the new Troika Worlds Bundle featuring recent acid-fantasy supplements and adventures for Troika! from Melsonian Arts Council. Since January 2021, when we presented the core Troika rulebook and many supplements,…

[vintagerpg]

Getting lots of actual playtime in lately. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu’s fresh off his first session of Troika and he’s keen to share his impressions. It’s weird and easy and did we mention weird? 

Art by Andrew Walter.

[dandibuja]

The million spheres have not been counted, it’s just understood that there are a lot — countless by every useful standard. Eventually, in a future further from now than the birth of the Monad is from here, the hump-backed sky will fold in on itself and one crystal sphere will remain. On that sphere will be the last culture, the Ven, pale skinned, dressed in rubber and peaked caps, spending the time left before the Monad rests in obscure and pointless pursuits. Their arts can do anything but prevent the End of All Things. Some amongst their race, not content to wait, fling themselves and some small portion of their arts back through time to live in a more vigorous era. There they try to achieve some imitation of their old lives, setting themselves up as demi-gods and tyrants obsessed with preventing the future they fled.

Troika! — The Melsonian Arts Council

[gentlyouttatime]

some games i've been messing with lately:

headless guide by peach garden games - you seek treasure and are following a ghost who knows where it is, but your character has to keep silent. played with cards & dice

animon story by zak barouh - kids with monster companions who can evolve and fight bad guys (a familiar concept). it's not single-player so i've just been making ocs and trying to design good mons (my favorite original mon goes from sheep > capricorn > chimera)

lineage by g johnston and wash your hands games - make a monarchy family tree. played with dice

troika! by melsonian arts council - role playing game where you roll a d66 to pick a class. also not a single player game so i've been messing with characters (eights and keie, the doorcerer and key wizard, mantle the swordswoman, rumi the weird scientist) and i love them.

icon by tom parkinson-morgan and massif press - role playing game where your class is a cool and anime-as-hell. also also not a single player game but i am still thinking of characters. names are hard

wanderhome from jay dragon and possum creek games - anthropomorphic animals traveling around. very fun to make characters for (lotus my beloved tired ex soldier wolfman!!)

[zigmenthotep]

Checking out Fungi of the Far Realms from The Melsonian Arts Council, an entire book of fantasy fungi. Also one of the strangest and nicest books I own.

[nerdtrekdotcom]

Something Stinks in Stilton (OSR) (Patreon Request)

Something Stinks in Stilton (OSR) (Patreon Request)

Something Stinks in Stilton (OSR)

This module clocks in at 29 pages (laid out in 6’’ by 9’’/A5), already not accounting for front cover, editorial, etc.

  This review was moved up in my reviewing queue at the indirect request of my patreon supporters  – more on that below. My review is based on the softcover version, which is a saddle-stitched softcover with pretty solid and thick paper –…

[techhenzy-blog]

Troika SRD

Terms Anyone may publish free or commercial material based upon and/or declaring compatibility with “Troika!” without express written permission from the publisher, the Melsonian Arts Council, as long as they adhere to the following terms: If your product declares compatibility with Troika! you must state the following in your legal text and on any websites from which a commercial product is…