#caltrop core system

[hopeshearthpod]

And we're back for season 3 yall! Today we play "You All Meet In A Tavern" by Ryan Gregg

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hi folks, it’s Mint.

I’m on a mini-vacation this week so I’m going to be releasing some recommendation posts for things that aren’t related to requests (easy to queue), and I’ll be back to doing regular rec posts when I get back!

THEME: TTRPGs For Palestine.

This is going to be a list of recommendations of games that you can get in the TTRPGs for Palestine Bundle. There’s plenty of games in the bundle that I’ve recommended before, so I’m going to try and focus on games I haven’t talked much about before. You can look at the bottom of this post for some of the greatest hits!

The bundle is on until June 29, so make sure to pick it up before it's too late!

LORDSWORN, by Mareensmusings.

You rode to war at the call of your God, swore yourself to Their divinity as the drums of war beat from every corner of the Pantheon. Standing beside your divinity, Their purpose so clear and noble, you felt immortal. Beside your fellow Lordsworns, you felt your victory a certainty, battle but a trivial formality.

Now They lay dead before you, Their Godblood flowing into the dirt. Already the world lurches in distress, twisting at the loss of a God, one of many to die this day. Your Captain, too, lies broken, entrusting the survivors of your Company to the you. Of the thousands who rode out, you are all that remains of your Company.

Your God is dead. You only have each other now.

LORDSWORN is a GMless TTRPG for 1-4 players of tragic, fragile stories of desperate survival and comradery at the end of the world. In LORDSWORN each player takes on the role of three soldiers who swore themselves to a (now dead) God during the Cataclysm, an apocalyptical battle that saw all the Gods of the Pantheon go to war. With their God dead and the world churning and reeling from the death of the Pantheon, you and a handful of survivors must make the trek back to the only place that makes sense anymore – Home. 

LORDSWORN is a collaborative game that guides your group into the story of a company, of which each player will control 3 Lordsworns. Your characters can be chosen from a list, or drawn randomly using a deck of cards. You navigate the game over four stages: world-building, company creation, the journey home, and the epilogue. The game is designed to be tragic, even if your company makes it all the way home. The core rules are built off of Caltrop Core, which means that you will rely mostly on d4s anytime you have to roll dice, but unlike many other Caltrop Core games that I’ve seen, the system is less focused on chance and more focused on oracles. If you want a game of tragedy that focuses on the story rather than the characters, you might want to check out Lordsworn.

Lamplighter’s Festival, by ira prince.

The lamps have been there for as long as we can remember. The lamps have never been there, and only appear for tonight. The lamps are strange and new — we’re still getting used to them, making space for them in our lives. We know exactly what the lamps mean, and we’ve committed their history to heart. We’ve forgotten what the lamps mean, even if the gravity of it still hums and shimmers around them. We’re deciding what the lamps mean, weaving their purpose in more tightly every year, every season, every eclipse. Tonight, we light the lamps, and we tell our stories about them.

Lamplighter’s Festival is a map-drawing game about a nighttime festival, and the things it can illuminate about the place in which it’s celebrated. It can be played alone, or collaboratively if you like.

Lamplighter’s Festival uses the random placement of dice to draw out a location, at whatever scale you like. You use the pattern that ensues to create locations on the map called Lamp Locations, which you will elaborate on as you play. At the end of the game, you will have not only a festival, but details about the different elements that are required for it to happen properly, and possibly the cultural meanings behind the festival. If you want a game that helps you build a place and a culture around one specific event, this might be the game for you.

A Labyrinth Like Us, by z.w. garth.

The minotaur city of Ut sits in the center of an endless labyrinth. The labyrinth twists and turns, it folds and rearranges. And from its dark halls pour forth monsters, which tear and smash and destroy.

You are a minotaur in your district's Guard. You respond to the waves of beasts that wreck havoc and mayhem—repelling the danger and protecting the afflicted. You carry with you your hopes for Ut's future, and your fears for its present. Rally with your neighbors to protect one another. Carve a home in the labyrinth.

A Labyrinth Like Us is a 2-page roleplaying game in the OSR/sword dream tradition. It requires 3-5 players, including one Keeper, 2d20 and 2d6, and these rules. 

This game is reminiscent of, but not a direct replication of any specific myth. You play as minotaurs in a labyrinthine city, plagued by horrors that they can only face when working together. Your minotaurs use emotions to empower special abilities, which are mainly combat-focused.

The game is only two pages, with one page introducing you to the setting, character creation, and how to play, while the other provides roll tables and advice for the Games Master in order to make the labyrinth feel dangerous and dark. If you want a game that presents you with a challenge but doesn’t overwhelm you with rules, you might want to take a look at A Labyrinth Like Us.

HYPERMALL: Unlimited Violence, by Rat Bastard Games.

Do you hate your boss? Like, REALLY hate your boss? 

HYPERMALL: UNLIMITED VIOLENCE is a mission-based corpo murder TTRPG about assassinating the rich and famous. Enter the consumerist hellscape of THE HYPERMALL where death is cheap and life is cheaper. HM:UV is an unhinged gonzo meatpunk sci-fi dystopia buzzword game for financial geniuses. 

You're a CONTRACTOR for SLAUGHTR™ - The Assassination App - and your job is to Murder Your Target Without Dying. You're already in debt. You can't afford unnecessary Resurrections when rent is due, and you absolutely do not have health insurance. GET TO WORK. 

Become a mutated killing machine, a psychic murderer, or a cold blooded cyber criminal. Try your best to make ends meet. Die a lot. Kill cops. Get paid.

This is a game of cathartic violence, with random roll tables to help you build a unique character quickly, pulling from d66 backgrounds and meshing together rules from games like Troika and PbtA. Combat isn’t just physical in this game: you can also fight your opponents in the finacial and social spheres, allowing you to take down someone three different ways.

The really difficult part is figuring out how to kills someone permanently, since there’s a resurrection matrix inside the Hypermall that makes death kind of hard to stick. If you want to unleash your fury in increasingly creative ways, you might want to check out HYPERMALL: Unlimited Violence.

Heaven / Hell, by Joel Happyhill.

Hell, The Underworld, Hades, Yomi, no matter what you call it seems like everyone’s ended up here. No one has any memory of their life before, if such a thing even exists. But one thing rings true, none of you want to stick around.

Heaven / Hell, otherwise known as 2H, is a competitive 1 VS 1 tabletop game set in the underworld. It’s meant to recreate the systems and strategies created by traditional fighting video games, allowing you to mix and mach a number of recognizable fighting game archetypes and optional rules to play your dream fighter through the medium of pen and paper.

Heaven/Hell is more like a competitive board-game than it is a tabletop roleplaying game. Your characters will travel across a board as they do battle with each-other, with distance and positioning being crucial in developing a strategy.

One mechanic that seems to help emulate fighting games is the use of the Underdog Token, which is granted to your character whenever you take a Wound in a round of combat. This Token can be spent in the following round to reveal a new Technique or do something called Flash Parry for a second time. You use this ability to halt another player’s move in its tracks, culminating in a scene that you might see in a dramatic fight where two opponents are holding each-other off with their weapons, possibly snarling at each-other as their faces draw close.

If you want the tactical complexity of a board-game combined with the dramatic moments of high-action tv shows, you might want to check out Heaven / Hell.

Hexfall, by Titanomachy RPG.

Stratus Cay is a floating city in the Rift, a digital quantum dimension at the intersection of the smallest black hole in the multiverse and the concept of becoming. The city is made of countless islands, a hyperreal archipelago adrift in flashing interdimensional lights. An infinite smattering of lives, as varied and precious as the stars themselves.

You are a hyperpowered being who came into larger-than-life abilities because of a profound cataclysm. Heartbreak. Grief. The depths. Physical, emotional, multidimensional–something unlocked incredible power in you. People like you have many names across Stratus Cay, but the most common is “Diver,” a nickname derived from their affinity for falling through the Rift, either on dangerous jobs or just for fun. 

Divers’ abilities run the gamut of even the wildest imaginations, and their extreme power and durability makes many of them reckless thrillseekers. The pay is too good and the thrills too extraordinary to turn down the opportunity to go on a dive.

Hexfall takes the tried-and-true method of hexcrawling and turns it on its side, by making your travel vertical; you’re diving from the edge of a floating island and falling into the Rift, retrieving artifacts, harvesting resources, and enjoying the thrills of free-fall. Hexfall has combat, puzzles, and mysteries for you to solve, but it also gives you space to roleplay and get to know each-other’s characters, using a token system for actions like helping out your fellow divers, and signifying when you want to role-play a narratively significant moment between you and another person.

What really stands out in this game though, is the character playbooks. Do you have wings made out of swords? Do you carry the blessing of a giant? Have you embraced the fungal form of decay and rebirth? All of these are possibilities within various playbooks of Hexfall. If you want a game about thrill-seeking and finding meaning in a world that, as fantastical as it is, still demands you work out why you want to live, you might want to try out Hexfall.

Abominations, by Elliot Davis.

They tried to tell you to stop playing God.  You replied, “Who’s playing?” and spliced in another gene. 

What is an Abomination?

A living amalgamation of various forms of flesh, machinery, and whatever you can stick it together with. Some slimy, some hairy, some are covered in eyes. Others are a knot of tongues and fingers. An Abomination is whatever you can imagine it to be, tossed in a blender and put back together.

ABOMINATIONS is a tactile, GM-less TTRPG for 2-6 players. Using a set of letter tiles and some 10-sided dice, you will create one-of-a-kind monsters of your own design. Then take them into the ring for a fight to the last scraps.

This is a game that feels kind of like a biological version of Robot Wars. Instead of constructing robots and pitting them against each-other, you’re creating monstrous mutating piles of flesh and throwing them in the ring. Your characters are to an extent, somewhat pre-defined: each player chooses a vowel, which represents something of your character’s personality, as well as the secret mutation only they have access to. You play using Scrabble tiles, with each letter granting access to specific mutations, from Guns for Arms, to X-Ray Vision, to a Zipper Down the Middle!

If you want a goofy game of slapstick and body horror, I recommend Abominations.

Greatest Hits

Wanderhome, by Possum Creek Games.

FIST, by Claymore.

Apocalypse Frame, by Binary Star Games.

Bump in the Dark, by Jex J Thomas.

[titanrpg]

today is my last day at my day job (could you do just one favor for me today?)

I'm making the move to turn Titanomachy RPG into a proper indie TTRPG publishing house! and there's a couple ways you can support me. but first:

a few things to look forward to:

physical copies of my games becoming available via @indiepressrevolution!

consistent game & system releases (i'm cooking up a d12 system right now and then i'll have d4, d8, and d12 under my command)

a patreon where i'll be publishing games early, along with exclusive monthly releases, and much more

seeing more of my work in some upcoming evil hat projects

prints of prayer to curse r*n depantspiss, bunny girl osr posters, and perhaps shirts/hats?

ttrpg workshops IRL in the Maryland area

and much much much much more!!

I'm also moving away from Florida in a few days because the governor is trying to eradicate trans people like my partner and me. so I need your help.

if you could do just one thing on this list today, that would be SO helpful:

reblog this post

let indie TTRPG people know i'm available for freelance work

start making a caltrop core game (caltropcore dot com)

follow me here on tumblr and itch.io

spend money on my itch.io

set a reminder on your phone for january 2nd, 2024 with a note that says "join Titanomachy RPG patreon"

if you can do more than one thing on this list, thank you!!

thank you all for your support over the past couple years. i hope to remain worthy of that support for many years to come.

-Lex

[whohasfourthumbsand]

+ In light of passing my exams— and maybe as a means to convince me to sign their contract— my academy gave me wayyy more resources to play with. I have yet to actually print this frame for GR, but here's what we got planned;

-- IPS-N Vlad @ LL6 --

[ LICENSES ]

IPS-N Vlad 2, IPS-N Blackbeard 1, HA Genghis 2, IPS-N Caliban 1

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Titanomachy Mesh, Overpower Caliber

[ TALENTS ]

Technophile 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3, Combined Arms 2, Duelist 1

[ STATS ]

HULL:3 AGI:1 SYS:0 ENGI:4

STRUCTURE:4 HP:17 ARMOR:2

STRESS:4 HEATCAP:10 REPAIR:5

TECH ATK:-2 LIMITED:+2

SPD:4 EVA:9 EDEF:8 SENSE:5 SAVE:14

[ WEAPONS ]

Integrated: Fuel Rod Gun

FLEX MOUNT: Impaler Nailgun

MAIN MOUNT: Impaler Nailgun

HEAVY MOUNT: Impact Lance (Supermassive Mod) // Overpower Caliber

[ SYSTEMS ]

Caltrop Launcher, Synthetic Muscle Netting, Explosive Vents, Auto-Cooler, Enlightenment-Class NHP

+ I haven't gotten much time on the field yet, if you can't tell, so— I'm always open to suggestions.

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Hi! I would like to try my hand at making my own ttrpg, but I have NO idea where to start, tbh.

Do you have any tips? Do you know of anywhere to discuss designing this stuff?

Hey that's super exciting! TTRPG design is a ton of fun and can be super rewarding!

So some general advice, based on what I've learned and also have heard from others.

Start small! Smaller than you think! Diving straight into the deep end with a big ol' fantasy heartbreaker is the road to never getting anything done. So scope out something that you know you can finish. Maybe that's a new class or playbook for a game you already like! Maybe it's an expansion or set of new subsystems! Maybe it's an adventure (though adventure writing can be it's own can of worms, but don't let that stop you hahaha)!

If you want to go bigger, maybe look at hacking a system or engine you like! I'm a huge fan of LUMEN as a fun to pick up and experiment with engine. Also, the LUMEN SRD (system reference document) is a very nice set of "how to do LUMEN games", which is very helpful. There's also other open systems/engines/SRDs like 24XX, Caltrop Core, and Breathless that could be great to look into. Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark are both fantastic engines/systems to design in, but are also much harder to really get the hang of (and while Blades in the Dark does provide an SRD, it's a good rules reference, but not a great "how to" reference).

If at the end of all that, you decide on making your own bespoke system, go for it! See what happens! Try and figure out the focus on what you want your system to do (generalist games are always harder to make, imo), and then really dig into that. But I think starting with SRDs/hacks/expansions is going to be a way better start than trying to do everything from scratch.

Make something and don't worry about ever sharing it! This is also just general artistic/creative advice, but the first things you make prooooobably won't be your best and that's okay! I have loads of early design material and scraps that will never see the light of day, but working on them I learned a lot! If you do want to share things, it's fine to just share it with friends, you don't need to worry about publishing or any of that. Just remember to stay focused and work towards finishing something, because then you can start on the next thing. And the next thing after that! TTRPG design is a skill that takes practice. You can try focusing on one design idea in one project, and then work on a different design idea on the next to build up your skill set.

Play, read, and run a lot of different games! It's like with writing, the more you read, the better a writer you can start to become. You learn a lot about ttrpg design by interacting with ttrpgs. If you don't have regular groups to play/run things with, then try and read a lot of different games of all different systems and styles! All that you're absorbing is going to give you fuel for your own designs, and sometimes you learn something really cool from unexpected places (like, I could not have imagined the impact that learning about a lot of OSR design stuff would have on my own design, even though I don't consider myself a strictly OSR designer).

Don't worry about what other people are making! This is just the "two cakes meme", but even if you find out someone is working on something similar, it is always worthwhile to pursue your own vision.

This is getting long, so I'll wrap up that section and move on to the second question.

I think there's a pretty solid community of TTRPG designers here on tumblr these days, so you can try getting discussions going here! I also do a lot in various discord groups. I personally really like Plus One EXP which is very friendly to newcomers and has pretty active design discussions (I also publish some stuff in print through Plus One, full disclosure).

If you're looking for more spaces, asking around there probably wouldn't hurt either.

I'm also always super down to discuss TTRPG design at like, the drop of a hat. So feel free to shout in my inbox anytime!

Best of luck on your journey, and can't wait to see what you do!

[sprintingowl]

Writing Your First TTRPG

So you want to write your first TTRPG system.

A short thread.

First, you should know that you don't have to make your TTRPG from scratch.

You can always use Mork Borg or Fate or PbtA or Trophy or any other system that supports third party content.

Systems like Caltrop Core even come with tutorial material for how to write your game.

But let's say you don't want any guardrails. You want to make the whole thing yourself. Here's how to do that.

To start, zero in on what your system's about.

Don't worry about genre or style, just find something you think would be fun to tell stories about. Dinosaur bikers. Astronauts in a lover's tiff. Spiders selling hats. Anything.

Now that you've got your subject, the next step is crucial.

Dive right in.

I'm serious. Open up a document and start writing the part of the game that is most interesting to you.

It might be character Classes, or monsters, or even just a basic idea of how you want your game to handle some part of gameplay.

"Food is important! There's rules for hunting!" is a fine place to start.

From there, build outward.

If you've written "Gremlin Class: +1 to Sneak, +1 to Airship Repair", that tells you two things about how your system works.

It tells you that both sneaking and airships matter in your game, and that you should write rules for them.

When writing rules, here are some things not to worry about just yet:

-Are the rules realistic?

-Do the rules work?

Just get some mechanics down. Give people a way to interact with your game.

"Roll a d6. High is good and low is bad" is a fine place to start, but you can get weirder.

Do you want people to roll a lot of dice? Or use dice that get neglected?

Do you want to test something other than dice rolling, like playing cards or flicking a paper football?

Do you want players to have some degree of control over the dice? Can they spend a resource for rerolls, or to simply succeed?

You might end up finding that your dice system works a bit like another game, and this is completely fine. There are thousands of TTRPG systems that have elements that overlap with each other. Nobody has a patent on target numbers.

Once you've got some mechanics, take a look at how they interact with the other thing you built---the thing you care about. This will inspire you to design further.

Add new Classes, new monsters, new subsystems.

Keep designing until you feel like you've written down everything you want to, and then get some sleep.

Yes, really. Put the project down, go to bed, wake up the next day, and edit it.

Your game is going to look incoherent at first, and that's fine. The goal of this editing pass isn't to get it perfect. It's to get your game to the point where someone can read it and make a character.

Once your game is in that state, get some friends to build PCs. Play a session. See what breaks. Go back and adjust your game to fix the things that broke. Then play a bit more. See what else breaks.

If you wrote a really big system, this will all take longer, but eventually you'll find that your system isn't breaking all the time.

At this point, you can keep it for yourself and your friends, or you can distribute it.

Platforms like itchio are great for posting new TTRPGs. Depending on your skillset, you might illustrate your game and put it through layout, or you might just export it as a PDF and post it. Both approaches are fine.

If you decide you want to make your project into a commercial undertaking, you can go to kickstarter or gamefound, or print zines and sell them yourself. Or you can just sit back and enjoy the thing you've made.

--

Coda: This is absolutely not the only way to design TTRPGs, and I'm sure a lot of designers have completely different processes. If this approach isn't working for you, or if there's something you hate about it, go with your instinct and do things different.

[fantasyfantasygames]

This Town Is Creepy

This Town Is Creepy, esmerelda99, 2022

Somewhere in New England, a small town hides its terrible secrets. The rivers surrounding the town, crossed by rickety bridges, exude fog every morning and evening. The forest is both thick and bare of leaves. No phone lines run there, and cell reception is one bar at best. The locals won't talk to you except to warn you away from the once place you're all here to visit. Odds of you getting out alive? Come on, what do you think?

This Town Is Creepy is designed for one-shots and short-run games, five sessions at most. Character creation is a set of pick-lists: age, education level, hobby, phobia, mode of transportation, etc. Some of these (like phobia and transport) are just color, though they obviously impact how things are going to play out. Others affect your rolls. Additional lists help the GM build the town, explain how you all know each other (or don't), and

The system is designed to generate a fairly high number of extreme results, though not to the extent that Caltrop Core is. You normally roll two dice and throw out the highest one. Up to three items from your pick-lists can add dice, and up to two can throw out high results. You use the highest remaining die. A final roll of 1 or 2 is a critical failure, 3s and 4s are regular failures, 5s are successes, and 6s are critical successes. Regular results can add dice on future rolls or create penalties; critical results finish conflicts immediately. It's a very simple system.

One of the designer's hobbies is woodblock printing, and she put it to excellent use in the game's art. Those bare trees and rickety bridges are perfectly represented in black ink and red watercolor wash. There's a great piece showing the town cemetery, complete with crypts. You're never really sure whether a person in the art is stylized or actually a monster.

The combination of lots of crits and a creepy surrounding give you two basic types of game. One option, the one that the game is supposedly written for, is that you don't roll very often and everything is uncertain. The other option, which I am certain my group would end up with, is Scooby Do. Esmerelda99 was well-aware of this. I know that only because, in a brief interview she gave about the game, she said: "Every time I run it at a con it turns into that really old cartoon with the dog."

In the end I'm not sure whether This Town Is Creepy is a very smart person putting together a game that secretly runs exactly how she intended, or a very smart person accidentally making a game that runs the exact opposite way from how she wanted. The great part is that you can run it either way, and if your group is down for it you're still going to have a good time.

Esmerelda99's account on itch got hacked, and now the damn thing is spewing bitcoin nonsense non-stop. Don't download anything from there. It's more frightening than anything in any game I've ever run.

[thecoppercompendium]

Community Copies Available!

I've just added community copies to the two biggest projects I've made to date, Summit and The Curse Lingers! If either of these are of interest to you but you aren't in a financial position to buy them, go grab one!

I've put a quick summary of each (from their respective pages) below the cut.

Summit is a game of climbing, of exploration, and of discovery. With the help of a standard deck of playing cards, you'll make a journey never made before, attempting the heights of a mountain unique to your character. There's no mapped-out route: you'll discover the quirks and dangers, as well as the wonders, of the mountain as you journey ever upwards.

Your character, too, will be discovered as you reach for the clouds. Each night at camp you'll encounter a figure from their life, be they close friends or half-forgotten acquaintances. You'll learn about them, how they know your character, and you'll learn who you're playing as, bit by bit, want by want, memory by memory. Step by step, you'll grow closer to your final goal: the Summit itself.

In this game players take on the roles of Keepers, the few who dare to venture near or into the Temples of the Old Gods. The game is based on Caltrop Core, using a d4 pool system to aid exploration into fragments of the Old World, anything from a busy city street to a school or a hospital.

All this in search of Relics, the sources of the Curses afflicting each Temple. Once cleansed, they can grant powerful boons... if you can survive their Curses long enough to find them.

[mirror-lock]

Hi, I'm Kaiya.

Nice to meet you all, Tumblr! I'm a writer, editor, game designer, and performer in the indie TTRPG space.

You might know me as the creator of Her Odyssey, a solo journaling game where you follow the journey of a wanderer trying to find her way home - or find a new home. Built on the Caltrop Core system by Titanomachy RPG, this contemplative game is played with just a deck of cards, a handful of d4s, and a place to record your journal entries. Her Odyssey has received almost six thousand downloads and is coming to print with all-new art on May 5th!

Or perhaps you've heard of one of my other indie TTRPGs:

Pearl & Provenance, a two-player game about two nameless demigods fleeing the ruin of their old world and creating a new one together

Galatea, a solo journaling game about a living masterpiece struggling to live up to their creator's unrealistic expectations of perfection

Untitled Moth Game, a solo journaling game about a cursed were-moth seeking to rescue her true love (written as a present for cassimothwin)

You, Beyond the Pale, a solo journaling game about being a monster living alone in the wild, bewildered by a world full of mortals

DIY Identity, a one-page two-player game about missed paths in life. Must be played in an IKEA store.

The Traitor Princess, a one-page multi-player game about coping with upheaval and subliminating emotions. Must be played while donating your clothes.

I've also created my own SRD, Aspire, for both experienced and first-time game designers alike to write TTRPGs with! Aspire is built from the design principles that went into my first few games and is set up to provide a framework for narrative-driven RPGs with turning points that change both the stakes and the rules.

And if you're more on the D&D side of things, you may know me as the player of Lilissen, the secretive and frail half-elf from Curse of Strahd: Twice Bitten. Twice Bitten was a 100% Rules-As-Written Curse of Strahd campaign, played by five former CoS DMs and DMed by DragnaCarta, best known for his popular Curse of Strahd: Reloaded guides. The campaign is fully complete as of February 2022 and can be found on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.

You can find all my games on my Itch page, and you can find more about everything I do (including voice acting, interviews, TTRPG design advice, Lilissen's epilogue, my mailing list...) on my website.

[sunbeargames]

By success levels, I mean things like a failure/mixed success/success like you might see in games like Blades in the Dark or games built on @titanrpg's Caltrop Core system.

Personal opinion under the cut.

A while ago I got to play Blades in the Dark for the first time and realized that I really liked its core dice mechanics, especially as a GM. Setting a position/effect for the roll feels much easier for me than setting a target number for the players to beat, and feels like it better captures the circumstances of the action.

I'm also just bad at being strict when players miss the DC I set in my head, but that's on me.

Also, when the system is weighted towards mixed outcomes, that feels a lot easier to work into the narrative than binary results. Sure there's all kinds of advice online about running your D&D game so that the players fail forward, but the fact that it's not intuitive is an issue in my opinion.

Curious to hear what you all think!

[rollforfelicity]

It's Creator Day on Itch!

That means that 100% of what you pay on itch goes to the creators! Which means I'm going to talk about the TTRPGs you can buy on itch that I've played since the last creator day!

As soon as I read Orbital Blues by Soul Muppet Publishing for the first time, I was like “oh this game is made for me.” If you’ve ever wanted to play a game that emulates space westerns like Cowboy Bebop, this is an excellent one.

Cantrip by Hipólita uses the Belonging Outside Belonging system to tell stories about young witches finding themselves and their powers in a magical academy. Cantrip’s prompts give little peeks into a rich world just begging to be explored.

Not only is Paris Gondo by Kalum from The Rolistes Podcast incredibly easy to pick up and play, it’s also SO funny, starting with the very concept of playing as adventurers who are trying to survive their journey out of a dungeon with as much useful and meaningful stuff as they can carry. I also have to mention that the Miro board for online play is ingenious. I've linked the English version, but it's also available in French.

My friend @wildjayblue wrote a game that feels as though it was written for me specifically. Totally Normal Human Roommates is a game where you and your friends play as totally normal humans. Like the Nocturnal Human, who has a strong bite and hypnotic personality. Or the Hirsute Human, who is weak to moonlight and silver, just like lots of humans are!

Babes in the Wood by World Champ Game Co. is a game that perfectly captures the feeling of watching Over The Garden Wall for the first time, but also makes you feel SO CLEVER for having told such a good, original story by the end of it.

If you’re a sucker for cheesy holiday movies and you want to play a game that lets you compete against your friends to become the protagonist of one, look no further than Hometown Holiday by @kidnickgames. The mechanics are simple but very fun, and the playbooks perfectly emulate the genre.

Do you have a vampire OC and want to put them through a tough night? Do you want to MAKE a vampire OC in order to put them through a rough night? Bloodless by @enniogoes is the game for you! Bloodless uses the Caltrop Core system and I love that the prompts swing from funny to heartbreaking, and I had an absolute blast when I played.

I love Phoenix Wright, so when I heard about Justicar from @dinoberrypress, I HAD to play it. Justicar is one of those games where the setup portion of the game is as fun as watching the whole thing unravel in the in-character portion. The setting can be anything you want, and the collaborative and zero-prep nature of the game makes Justicar unpredictable and hilarious.

I also want to shoutout a few Mausritter adventuring locations I’ve used from Itch! First up is Temple of the Slumbering Orchid by @imsobadatnicknames2. Running this felt like leading my players through a Legend of Zelda dungeon in the best way.

Drained Temple of the Brackish Basin by brstf has such an unusual concept, and my players had a lot of fun exploring the unique creatures and chambers of this temple, including a very fun little hermit crab character.

I am a huge @mortphilippa stan, so of COURSE I’m going to recommend Tomb of the Slumbering Queen, a creepy, bat-filled Mausritter location. Philippa is the queen of rollable tables (this one features effects from eating strange mushrooms), and her NPC art is charming. While you’re there, make sure to check out Philippa’s other stuff because it’s all good.

I'll wrap up by saying that an added bonus to playing any of these games is that there are REALLY REALLY GOOD one-shots of all of them on YouTube...because I've run them all on stream.

Wait, you're still here?? You're looking for even MORE games to get on itch??? Okay, well check out these two previous threads of game reccs! My 2022 Itch Creator Day thread

My 2021 Itch Creator Day thread

[khttrpg]

V0.2 Release Schedule

Hey all! Apologies for the long period on hiatus. Amongst other things I am now back on The Good Meds (fingers crossed no allergic reaction this time) and have gotten through the worst of several sudden tragedies in a row. So we're finally back on track to talk really seriously about KHTTRPG V0.2! (Sorry for the long wait!!)

Right now, the plan is to have the entirety of 0.2 released by May 31st, 2023 - about a month and a half from today. Whether I will release these in modular bits and pieces up to that point or if I will wait and release it all in May is currently tossed out to the voting populace, but regardless, this will be the final release date for all involved text!

I've compiled a list of all the updates under the cut so you can see what exactly took me so long! I've also included a few of the things I'm hoping to start working on after V0.2 comes out, life permitting. Examples of some of these will be posted in the next couple days to give a sense of what's coming, but feel free to ask any questions you may have! and keep in mind this isn't everything, just the big things! (:

Core Rules Changes

Major change to how Reducing a CR works, inspired primarily by Caltrop Core.

Addition of Memory mechanics.

Trading out and removal of certain redundant Talents for more useful ones.

Simplification of the Light/Darkness rules.

Less complex and more balanced levelling.

Addition of many, and better integration overall of, Abilities as a core part of the gameplay.

The return of EXP, but in a much simpler, easier to account for format.

Combat Changes

A pretty large, sweeping combat change – trading out of the “Attack Stat” for specific attack abilities that follow a code of Union Cross-inspired Power, Speed, and Magic Attacks; a generally more Ability-oriented combat system.

Complete rehaul of building enemies and how to run combat itself.

General attempts to find a middle ground between “my stats determine I lose this fight no matter what” and “this combat takes 7 full hours and 8 dice.”

A guide for how an MM can “map out” a battlefield to keep track of relative locations without losing the flow.

A specific list of damage types, and minor changes to the list of conditions.

More organized and elaborate options for combat rewards.

Classes

Adding passive abilities to the Keyblade class such as “able to open locks with a visible keyhole.”

Major changes to every class to account for the shift to a more Ability-oriented combat system.

A full recreation of the Witch class based on new Memory mechanics.

Magic

Adding an option to recharge MP through actions on your turn in addition to its passive gain over time.

Changes learning and upgraded spells to AP instead of stat-reliant.

Other

General language changes, typo corrections, addition of flavor text or examples to clarify unclear rules, etc.

Things that Won’t be in V0.2, but are on the docket for the future!

Weapon classes (as of right now, I have over 10 of these on the list to work on! These will likely be first priority after V0.2.)

Expanded shops/items

Gummi Ship rules, Synthesizing rules

NPC Ally rules

Further job classes (currently on list: Engineer, Berserker, Summoner, some sort of class based on Light/Darkness scores and neutrality)

Design updates...making it look pretty......making a functional pretty character sheet...........Art TM (maybe)

A new official name for the system, for "wait a second. this is kind of rude to the KH ttrpgs other people have made" purposes! (The URL will stay. I'm not giving up this prestige.)

[theresattrpgforthat]

I am planning to put up some rec posts for specific systems, with some details about how the rules work. Let me know what sounds interesting to you!

[titanrpg]

you got a minute? I need a favor

Hey everyone, it's Lex. Happy New Year to you and yours!

Today, I have a huge announcement about Titanomachy RPG and its future. This month marks 3 years since I joined TTRPG Twitter. I've met so many incredible people and learned so much from y'all. Your support has allowed me to take one HUGE step in my life. 

I recently moved to Maryland from Florida to get some basic human rights. I also left my job of 7 years to try and live unburdened by selling hours of my life to some random rich guy. And now, I'm taking Titanomachy RPG full-time.

Here I am, already having taken the leap. I have some money saved up, yes, but ultimately I am trusting in the generosity of others to help me build out a life I can truly love.

So yes, this is a Patreon announcement. And there's a link to Caltrop Core below (if you want to make a one-time contribution). But before anyone exits this email, I want to talk about all the cool stuff everyone can expect from me, regardless of Patreon status or donor status. I have a lot of exciting things coming in 2024, like:

a NEW open license d12 system called DODECA!

physical copies of my games becoming available via Indie Press Revolution, starting with NIGHTHAWKS!

more consistent game & system releases

seeing more of my work in some upcoming Evil Hat projects (look for me in the Girl by Moonlight stretch goal zines)

prints of "prayer to curse ron desantis", bunny girl osr posters, and perhaps shirts/hats/merch?

ttrpg workshops IRL in the Maryland area

and much much much much more!!

Now, here's the link to my Patreon before I forget: https://www.patreon.com/TitanRPG

I have an AWESOME founding patron bonus. There are 3 tiers of membership, and no matter which you choose to join today, you'll get a pre-release PDF of GOLDEN BEETLE PLAYGROUND, my Medabots-inspired TTRPG built on Caltrop Core EX.

This bonus is ONLY for people who join this month. After January, I'll take it down to work on the game further (and eventually do a full release later this year). 

For tiers 2 and 3, I'll be releasing one short RPG every single month. These games will remain Patreon exclusives until I can put proper polish on them (or the patrons vote to release their favorites).

There's a bunch more goodies and details on my actual Patreon page. Click that link to see!

Eventually, I'll be putting merch up on that page, so even if you can't support with a monthly pledge, you'll be seeing posters, shirts, hats, all that very soon!

These days, I'm on tumblr every so often, but no other social media. Patreon will be my dedicated page for updates, game mechanics, design discussions, everything! Even if you join at the $3/month tier, I want to provide a ton of value, starting with GOLDEN BEETLE PLAYGROUND!

Click here to see the three membership tiers and support a trans game designer today!

Thank you for your support over the past 3 years. I hope to remain worth of it for many more years to come.

All my love,

Lex Kim Bobrow

Publisher, Titanomachy RPG

P.S. Here's the link again. Take a moment to check out the page please, and if you can't contribute, please tell your friends! I've lost touch with so many people after leaving Twitter, so any help in getting the word out is 10000000% appreciated!!

P.P.S. If you could reblog this post ASAP, I'd really really appreciate it. Thank you!!!

[medicengonzo]

Hacking RPG Systems: Die4 A Minimalist Oracle Module for MOSAIC/FRESCO

Stumbled upon a couple of manifestos for RPG rule-system design and thought i'd give it a try hacking and homebrewing.

What really got me was the modular thinking it involves in both manifestos (Outcstretching in the FRESCO acronym). I really liked the idea of creating my own game simply by adding together rules like they're Legos or Mario Maker assets.

I kept reading both manifestos and thought that FRESCO Flexible improved a lot of MOSAIC Strict rules, but also that the rest of the rules were non-contrarian between Manifestos.

Theoretically, you could make a FRESCO Flexible ruleset that is also MOSAIC Strict.

And since no manifesto bans me (i think) from inspiration on other CC BY licensed toolkits i came up with one that hacks Caltrop Core and Diedream systems into a minimalist contradiction-inducing dice-based oracle.

I drafted a write-up as an experiment but it contains sections that make me unsure about them aligning to MOSAIC Strict. I want to discuss this briefly as a testament to my ideas on these concepts when drafting the rules.

Is using parts of other systems under CC BY licenses considered referencing other games? Does it break the Independent rule?

I based most of the text on the Caltrop Core SRD by TitanomachyRPG with influence from other resolution systems. The rules are literally a hack of different systems that I´ve been using for my own RPG playthrough and wanted to share as a module. I haven´t added any new systems; I´ve just hacked existing ones together. I claim no direct authorship of any part of this system, my authorship comprises only of putting them together.

Now, I had the question if this broke the Independent rule MOSAIC Strict enforces by which you are forbidden to reference other game texts. Here I want to argue that in my interpenetration of the restrictions hacking other systems in fact does not break the no-reference rule.

It is an established philosophical fact that new knowledge is always based on previous knowledge; this basically entails that it is impossible to come up with an entirely new and unique idea/rule. Even the MOSAIC Strict ruleset has built on previous ideas and knowledge even if the author is not explicit or even aware of it. Even any text (like mine) written to be in accordance with the Attested/Registered rule would be a reference to another document as inspiration. Because of this, inspiration from other systems cannot be disqualifying.

As an addendum to the previous point and to be totally clear about my text I say this: The restrictions in MOSAIC Strict do not explicitly forbid me from including attribution texts required by the CC-BY license. This means that any MOSAIC Strict must also accommodate attribution properly.

How i interpret the rules all this is about the system being independent from other factors in a concrete game. I think this because the text makes so much enphasis on not referencing a concrete game´s quantified state; no dexterity points or hp from concrete playing characters.

I was almost about to break this rule when I realized what it really meant. In the first draft of the text, the number of dice rolled depended explicitly on character stats, which counts as quantified state. I changed the text to instead leave the decision of how many dice to roll up to the player. My new rule doesn´t reference stats but just asks the player to choose the number of dice "as appropriate for the difficulty of the play." With this wording, i not only stopped referencing game state but also stopped referencing a narrative gameplay at all (not making assumptions is part of the MOSAIC rules). You can use my resolution system on RPGS or on any other game.

These are all my arguments on why my text passes both MOSAIC Strict and FRESCO Flexible.

Rant is over. Peace!

[corsairesix]

Sorry if you've already talked about this, but what non-D&D systems would you recommend to newbies, especially aspiring DMs?

“What system should I use?” is an almost impossible question to answer sight unseen, so I’m gonna talk about the systems I’ve made games from and what I like about them.

Caltrop Core is a very simple d4 system by @titanrpg . At its core, it’s easy to pick up. Players try to do something, they roll some d4s, and the gm describes how the situation changes based on how successful the roll is. Different games add different mechanics to this core idea. My game Orphans! is pretty simple mechanically because it’s based on kidlit; you don’t calculate how much hp Violet Baudelaire or Sticky Washington have, their situation just changes as they succeed or fail. On the other hand, The Dreaded and the Deep has two different types of, well hp basically, don’t worry about it, and also stats for how long you are compelled to stay at sea, stats for your ship, etc. But generally all these games are pretty simple.

LUMEN is a action tactics system by Gila RPG. If you’re interested in a more combat-focused game I recommend it. Most LUMEN games also have stat blocks that tell the GM the types of “behaviors” each enemy has, and keywords for how they mechanically function. It makes it a lot easier for new gms to run combat. Also, certain games like NOVA and my own FIRMAMENT have combat set up in a way that “balance” is more forgiving (and balance is more sided towards the players anyway), so you don’t have to worry about accidentally killing your players because you can’t judge combat encounters like in dnd.