#featherlight ttrpg

[featherlight-ttrpg]

Playtest Packet Released!

Got a great ask prompting me to release a playtest packet for Featherlight so I just pulled it together! I've put it in a Google Drive folder linked on the homepage of the Featherlight website (https://njlyon0.github.io/featherlight-ttrpg/).

Also, there's a GoogleForm for feedback on your experience with Featherlight also linked on the main website.

Side note: as a very newbie TTRPG dev I hadn't considered a playtest packet at all until someone mentioned it and I found it to be a super useful exercise in identifying the most fundamental parts of Featherlight's mechanics

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hi!

First of all, I really appreciate your work here! I love discovering new games and i have added some to my list based on your recommendations

Right now I'm looking for a solo ttrpg that is meant to be played in extremely short daily sessions. I want to play a little round each morning as if it were a daily wordle or newspaper crossword puzzle. Just a quick dopamine hit without having to commit multiple hours.

I know that with solo games, it is easy to do things at my own pace anyway. But are there any solo games that incorporate short, daily sessions as a feature?

THEME: Short, Daily, Solo Games.

Myrtle Manor, by aiyujellies.

On the edge of the cliffside lies a crumbling manor swathed in blankets of shadow. A cloaked figure darts out of its entrance, a gaping maw, and disappears into the forest, their footprints featherlight and fading in the snow...

Myrtle Manor is a solo journaling role-playing game. It requires a tarot deck, two coins, and a medium to record the story. For every entry, you will draw a tarot deck and consult the oracle for guidance on what kind of person you meet. Each day you will meet a new person.

You’ll want to keep in mind why you’re visiting the manor and what secret your character is trying to find (as well as what secret they are trying to keep). Each entry comes with a section called Mind Your Presence, in which you determine what each meeting means to your character.There doesn’t seem to be a definitive end to this game - I’m assuming you can play for as many days as there are tarot cards in the deck, but you could also tie things up sooner if you find the story reaching a natural conclusion, or whenever you get bored. Definitely worth checking out!

Your True Name, by Pearse Anderson.

Your True Name is a spell-generation storytelling game to play with some choice five-letter words. It is a one-page Lost & Found hack of Wordle, the online spelling sensation, designed to be one-player and played in fifteen minutes or less!

In Your True Name, you become a magic word being Spoken by generations of spellcasters, each of them trying to use your magic and get closer to Your True Name (today’s Wordle answer). The game changes each day with the Wordle and with each player’s guesses, making the replayability endless and a perfect way to generate fun spells for your other campaigns and games. You, as the magic word you inhabit, can travel between the lips of waterfall watchers, bandit-kings, aeronauts, illusionists, and Mage College adjuncts, changing and growing in both power and potential volatility.

This gives you a way to game-ify another morning activity, that activity being Wordle. I was inspired to recommend this game when you mentioned a daily Wordle, because I knew I had seen this game somewhere. You could stay within the same world / character as you play, or hop between characters or bouts of inspiration.

The Bonsai Diary, by Sticky Doodler.

It's 2023, and you plant a small tree seedling, imagining its future. Bonsai trees can live hundreds of years. Who will inherit this living being? What will that person think of you in 2178? Will they think of you at all?

This is a beautifully contemplative game, in which you embody various generations that are all responsible for caring for a bonsai tree (and possibly more). Throughout the game you will find small pieces of facts about trees and notable tree-related history. The game itself is a printable booklet that you will draw in, answering questions about 6 generations and how they came across the bonsai. If you want to continue past generation 6, the booklet contains instructions for longer play.

You Beyond the Pale, by S. Kaiya J.

You don't belong in the mortal world. You live alone, and you have always lived alone. You have yourself, and you have your own territory. The mortals have their own realms, and the mortals have each other. So what happens when the mortal world starts coming to you?

You, Beyond the Pale is a solo journaling RPG based on the Aspire SRD. Take up the role of a unique monster, adrift and alone, bewildered by a world full of mortals. Observe them. Learn about them. Scare them, or leave gifts for them. Make a friend. And brace for when your friend tells the rest of the mortal world about you.

S. Kaiya J writes extremely poetic and thoughtful games, and this one is no exception. Using a deck of cards, you will chronicle the story of a monster who makes a new, mortal friend. The author encourages you to select a prompt in the morning, think about the possibilities throughout the day, and return to the game at night, before you go to bed. If you want a game that draws a story out over a month, this might be the game for you.

Loved in Triangles, by James Shannon.

Loved In Triangles is a solo GM-lessTTRPG about romance, relationships and choices. Through playing you'll explore 6 months in the life of someone deciding whether to stay in their current comfortable relationship or to risk it all on the possibility of something new. The game requires a standard deck of playing cards.

If you want to play a game that deals with a topic that has some weight to it, you might want to check out this game. You will draw cards and your character will have to make a decision about what they want in life when it comes to romance. You can base these characters off of different versions of yourself, inspired by fictional characters, or something else altogether.

You are Autumn, by Turtlebun.

You Are Autumn is a game for one person. It takes only a few moments to play.

This is possibly one of the shortest solo games I’ve seen on Itch. It’s more of a writing or journaling exercise than it is a storytelling game; each day you write about the things you cherish and how they leave you to be replaced with something else. I feel like you could either stick rigidly to the premise of this game, or you could expand on it, create new rules, or use it as part of another journaling game.

Games I've Recommended in the Past

Global Dragon Egg Conservation, by KuumatheBronze.

Also...

You might also want to check out the Lunch Break RPG Bundle, which are meant to be short and quick to play. Not all of them will be solo, but a good number will be! (Limited time only)

[kitkatcabbit]

hooboy

I have a pretty laid back relationship with my DM. We chat about backstory stuff, he’ll sometimes tell me things because I’m pretty good at not metagaming with it.

Some shit has been going on lately with my character, Corrine, and things she’s learned about the man she thought was her father. She’s understandably upset, but has been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, that maybe there was a really good reason he did the things he did. This evening I get a message from my DM, @halethewanderer.

“I say the following as your friend and not as your DM. Be prepared to hate him with every inch of your heart. I-the-DM am maintaining my position as ‘you have no reason to suspect that he’s been this way all along because there are about a dozen things that I came up with which could have made him a sympathetic villain’. I-the-human-being am telling you that Kylar is not a sympathetic villain. He is vile and evil.”

So...yeah. I’m sure this will be great.

[featherlight-ttrpg]

Featherlight XP

Characters can earn experience points either by failing an action or by rolling an 8 on their d8. I just love TTRPG systems where XP is earned by failing and I also like that it doesn't mean you have to just murder everything you encounter to get XP (love D&D but never liked XP-based leveling)

XP can then be spent to purchase bonus "abilities" that grant PCs (A) passive benefits, (B) abilities can be activated at a cost, or (C) abilities that can be activated once per session.

It's been so much fun to develop those abilities and I think I'm narrowing in on a good set of abilities!

[featherlight-ttrpg]

I've been fidgeting with the Featherlight character sheet and I think I've arrived at something that is really nice! Something about the solid line/dashed line/solid line borders is really visually-appealing to me

This is meant to be printed at about the size of a postcard (4"x6")

[featherlight-ttrpg]

Getting to teach myself some graphic design has been an unexpected joy of working on Featherlight (my upcoming TTRPG). This is the graphic accompanying the description for powerful--but temporary--summoned allies

[featherlight-ttrpg]

Featherlight Skills

The core of Featherlight is 4 skills: intuition, knowledge, fortitude, and athletics. When an action is taken against a hostile character, that character can respond either with the same skill or a specific alternate based on the triggering skill (sort of rock-paper-scissors style)

I'm working on a character sheet and a 'quick reference' card to make each 'rock beats scissors' easy to recall

[featherlight-ttrpg]

Indie TTRPG: Featherlight

I'm working on a homebrew TTRPG called Featherlight that focuses on simple, flexible mechanics to be as welcoming as possible to novice players and newbie GMs. It's setting-neutral so you can play your games in any world in which you wish you could spend more time – a favorite book, beloved anime, homebrew that only lives in your head; whatever you want!

Basically, Featherlight is built to be the backdrop for you to take big narrative swings in whatever setting sparks the most joy for your table!

Design by me, Nick (they/them)

I'll post updates on tumblr and on the website I built to host info about Featherlight: njlyon0.github.io/featherlight-ttrpg

[featherlight-ttrpg]

hey im just curious, the rules for your game are pretty small, if youre planning to write a rulebook, what are you going to fill it up with?

Thanks for asking! The rulebook includes more details and examples of the existing mechanics plus some visual aids and a bunch more XP abilities than just what I put in the playtest packet. I also have a nice set of TTRPG safety tools, tips for Featherlight GMs, and two homebrew settings under development with some starter quest hooks and areas/NPCs! Even with all that though I think it’ll be a shortish rulebook (like <100 pages) but I feel like that aligns nicely with the core ethos of the game :)