#gm triangle

[aovanart]

running a campaign of triangle agency in the projmoonverse and did some designs for the general manager & some npcs

[barkingbarghest]

Ran a new TTRPG for some friends yesterday and it was a blast! We were playing a game called Triangle Agency, one of the pre-written adventures. I had been anxious about it because I went a little hog wild, writing an entire opening narrative, cuing up soundscapes and music for nearly every location, writing a fake newspaper and printing it out as a prop... My friends gave me such a huge gift with their participation, and also the memory of the first real scene:

Imagine, if you will, four office workers sent into the field together for the first time. They go to an overgrown vacant lot in a scrubby neighborhood of an underdeveloped suburb, to investigate someone's death (body not present), and as they get out of the car... one of them stands in the field and sniffs the air, another scoops up some dirt and licks it, and a third fully gets down on the ground and puts his nose to the dirt. Poor Ivy, the last employee, is just left standing there watching her coworkers sniffing and licking stuff. She's probably re-evaluating her opinion of her coworkers.

[companionwolf]

we finally finalized ARCs for the TA oneshot--

parker?: general manager (gm)

wyatt: whisper / pursued / clown

booker: dream / newborn / barista

the mic: gun / struggling / intern

ct: catalogue / romantic / hotline

[dailyadventureprompts]

So I've been reading Triangle Agency...

For those not in the know: Triangle Agency is a new weird/corporate horror TTRPG heavily inspired by things like the X files, Delta Green, and Control. You work as agents for the titular organization which sends you out to stabilize reality by dealing with various paranatural Anomalies.

Don't think of this as a review, until I sit down at a table and play this system over a few sessions I won't be able to tell you how well it actually works. What I can tell you is what the game is trying to accomplish with its storytelling and mechanics, and what it's trying to do is interesting.

Unlike a lot of TTRPGs I've read, triangle agency is not interested in giving you a system that you can use to tell whatever story you want. Instead I can compare it to a tabletop version of a choice heavy videogame like Disco Elysium or Bg3: where engaging with the story/mechanics will lead you to one of the endings the authors prepared for you. This is not to say the system is inflexible, that you can't put your own spin on it, GMs can design missions however they want, and player choice is a major focus, but as long as you're playing the game you're furthering the meta story.

As such, this might be the first game that I'd consider running out of the box with only pre-prepped adventures, which is shocking considering how much of a homebrewer I am. Instead, I'd be interested in putting a group of players in this game and just seeing what it does to them, though it'd have to be a very specific group of players than my regular ol gaming group.

The ideal Triangle Agency player is one that's got a primary focus on storytelling over mechanics, who're interested in making big narrative swings happen as a result of their choices. They also need to be comfortable with improv storytelling, as the primary means of interacting with the game requires a quick " what if" session to justify how you're moulding reality into a new shape:

Where another game might have you roll your character's strength for something as simple as kicking down a locked door, Triangle Agency has your party brainstorming a reason why the door would be weak enough for you to kick down in the first place: IE the building has a termite problem, and the hinges were subject to poor storage conditions by the contractor who installed the door. Then you roll. If you succeed, the door is knocked down, the building has a termite problem and has *always* had a termite problem, and an entire human being, Gary the negligent contractor, has been spoken into existence. You are likely to meet him on your next mission.

In many ways this is explicitly like Blades in the Dark's flashback mechanic, except made an explicit part of the game world. Your characters have the same reality distorting abilities of the Anomalies they're hunting, and they have to be careful lest they delete whole swaths of their life trying to angle for a better roll.

This is where we get into Triangle Agency's focus on character, and the secondary requirement that players be the type to get invested in their eldritch business blorbo as they are subjected to various corporate horrors™. This is a game interested in change whether it manifests as choice, trauma, or metamorphosis, and the ante for these interactions is your player/characters investment in the world. Part of this is with your character's contacts, NPCs who are as essential to an agent's build as their anomalous superpowers or their job with the Agency. To give extra weight to these relationships, each one is portrayed by another player at the table, which I thought was an ingenious way to not only take the burden off the GM, but also to give players more screen time even when their primary agent is off stage.

That leads me to the genius primary progression mechanic: The choice between whether to spend time with your Agent's contacts, focus on their Agency job, or delve into the eldritch truth of their powers, and how to split their finite time off between them. Here we get player choice, story, and mechanics all tied together in a neat little package as progression along any of these tracks unlock new abilities while also revealing more and more of the game's secrets. Possibilities for the game's story open up/are blocked off specifically with how the players choose to personally spend their XP, and if that's not a feat of game design ( or more aptly, craft) I don't know what is.

Final Thoughts: Despite having a delightful time reading the rulebook/optional mission pack (Seriously, the vibes are stellar) I don't know if I'm actually going to get to play Triangle Agency at any point in the near future. I think getting the most out of this game depends so much on finding the right playgroup for it and then pouring in enough time to unlock one of the endings. I'd want to see the mechanism of it's story/mechanics/drama play out, but doing so is one heck of a commitment.

However, if you've got a group full of storytellers that are up for the challenge and you're looking for something substantial to play next, I don't think I could recommend it enough.

I'm also going to be keeping my eyes out for longform actual plays of this one, I'd love to see what a group of performers could do with this.

[th3-triangl3-ag3ncy]

ORIENTATION TIME

@intern-ko @ghost-esc-tacy @chaosagentinblue

[The three Agents are sitting in the Meeting Room.]

[A Receptionist walks in. She has long, curly, blonde hair. Her eyes are golden brown. As always, she wears the standard Triangle Agency uniform.]

[She turns the projector on.]

???: "For those who don't know me, I am Trinity Canary. Most people in the Agency know me due to my efficiency to get things done. People call me Tri. You will call me your GM."

[modoreadsttrpgs]

Triangle Agency Playkit

A friend and I are planning to GM two concurrent campaigns of Triangle Agency, probably later this year (because jesus christ this game is daunting to run), and I got the itch to try putting the character sheets into a Google sheets file:

There's an introductory sheet using MCG's consent checklist, CATS, and a few random questions I made up. Then there is a tab for the main character sheet, one for the work/life balance tracks, one that combines the anomaly abilities, relationships, and requisitions, and finally one for the welcome questionnaire. Those four tabs are repeated three times, once for each character.

I'd caveat this by pointing out that they haven't yet been used in a game, and may need some refining once they are. Feel free to make a copy for your own game though, and if you do find any issues in play, let me know!

The idea for this was obviously inspired by, apart from just my practical need for an online character sheet, the fantastic playkits from Mint (https://www.tumblr.com/theresattrpgforthat) and others.

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Day one of best french TTRPG Con

Lets start with loot, then games

So nice dice, dice jail, werewolf 5e and The french edition of Mazes ( with free gm screen only for this con)

So far so good, international stuff

Then a campaign plus background and spell cards for Donjons et Chatons (Dungeon and Kittens) a french game where well...it's in the name. This campaign explains why cats can talk and meow-gic exists. Plus the cards are only on sales on cons, nowhere else. (And I learned that an intimation kit should be coming this year when the author signed my book)

A tarot and weapon cards for Knight An Avalon RPG. Plus a free medal for being a knight gm.

I also got my copies signed for 2 books from a friend

As for the day, the weather was way nicer than the reports estimated. No rain for once is nice, especially for an outdoor con.

I gm'd my own game Where the magic never ends. Really nice session in an Arthurian themed park where the spirits of the legend were not happy with the false representation. One of the players pulled fake Excalibur from the stone and the champion of the mascot played too much with his camera (whose click attracted Mordred's attention in the ghost train part)

I also played a playtest of Engrelins, a game inspired by all those little people in big houses media. Basically everything in our every day appliance work because of tiny people. Like one that push the bread out when it's grilled, one that makes the washing machine turn. A bit short , less than the time on the proposition. Still a light system, a fun session.

Tomorrow it's the triangle between Arthur, Lancelot and Guenièvre played with Pasion de las Pasiones

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Triangle Agency

Y'know I used to be categorized as an anomaly

Genre: Corporate Horror-Comedy

Touchstones: the SCP Foundation, Lobotomy Corporation,

What is this game?: Triangle Agency is an anomalous horror TTRPG about employees at a facility meant to contain strange objects

How's the gameplay?: Triangle Agency distinguishes itself from most games via its rolling system, instead of rolling to do an action, character instead ask the agency to change reality around them to do something, meaning that characters can do basically anything as long as its reasonable, no matter how unlikely. For example, if a character wishes to make a traffic jam to stop a car-themed anomaly, they could simply ask the agency to cause a car accident that was caused because someone slipped on a discarded banana peel! but be careful, overuse of this power can lead to two things: Chaos and Loose Ends When a player rolls poorly, they create Chaos, a powerful metacurrency that the GM can spend to cause trouble and boost the anomaly, putting barriers in the player's paths And when a player causes something that is unexplainable, they create a loose end, someone in some way knows about the agency, and you gotta fix that Character creation functions using the ARC system, Anomaly, Reality, and Competency, to simplify: your character has a supernatural power, a real world identity, and a job in the agency, these all give you different abilities that can help you along the way. The game also has a rigid mission structure which is a little too complex to get into here, but players get rewarded on whether they kill, capture, or fail in containing an anomaly, as well as getting graded on their performance at the end

What's the setting (If any) like?: Triangle Agency has a fairly simple setting, there's a shady agency that's in charge of keeping reality in check, you work for it, and you need to hunt down anomalies. Some extra lore is hinted at, but never outright stated for the most part

What's the tone?: Triangle Agency has an overall goofy vibe, things can go sideways and into bizarro body horror, but it overall has the tone of a horror comedy, think like, Inside Job as a good aesthetic standpoint

Session length: 1-3 hours

Number of Players: 4-5 is realistic

Malleability: Triangle Agency's specifics in its setting can be moved around, but a lot of its lore is baked into the gameplay

Resources: character sheets are available, as well as two modules, both crossovers with other systems

I make fun of artbook TTRPGs a lot, but this is imo the golden standard, its a fun game, with a really cute layout thats still fully readable and interesting, finding the sweet spot of aesthetics and utilitarianism

[tesseractrave]

Got myself involved in making some art for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign set in Breath of The Wild!

I initially was just reached out to by the GM for advice and assistance on designing and characterizing a Happy Mask Salesman NPC (which was a huge honor 🥹), but it's starting to look like I might be able to go furthermore insane about this and start helping out with other NPCs, too! Particularly original characters, now, because HMS only needed a new look due to the fact that his original outfit is from a different, older era of TLOZ.

We sat down in a Discord call for a while to talk, and I streamed my art program and helped to sketch out the GM's vision for what HMS would look like in his campaign. It was mostly inspired by the clothing of both the BOTW merchants and the royal family/people affiliated with the royal family, along with the DM's own personal flair and of course keeping as much of the original vibe of HMS's character as possible (though the style of this era has a lot more detail than we're used to seeing on him)!

(Excuse the quality of the proportions/lineart etc. looking more rushed than usual, the first drawing up there on this post is the finished character graphic and took 14 hours to make while this one is only an outfit concept and took around 6 hours.)

His gorget was honestly the hardest part to try to incorporate with the time period and other desired details, so we settled for a general homage of shapes. BOTW fashion has a lot more triangles and zig-zags, so we switched that up, too.

Thanks to everyone in the Whispers of The Wild server who was so kind and welcoming and excited to see my art while I spectated during this week's session! You're all doing so amazing, and this was incredibly fun. I've been very sick and struggling for a while, so this was a breath of fresh air and gives me things to look forward to. I'm glad to be a part of this. 😊

[sprintingowl]

THACO

Over War is a big love letter to classic console strategy rpgs.

It's also a tabletop roleplaying game, which meant some adjustments needed to be made during the design process.

A computer can juggle weird and complex calculations at a rate faster than a human GM, so you can make a computer do Fire Emblem's Hit Rate + Weapon triangle bonus + Support bonus – Enemy’s (Avoid + Terrain bonus + Support bonus) [%] pretty easily. But a human GM is going to leave if you try to inflict that on them.

So the first thing I did with Over War was decide that there would be no hit calculations. If you're going to be running around with a blob of 6+ characters per player, you do *not* need to also be worrying about accuracy and equipped weapon and armor class and whatnot.

Attacks in Over War just hit, and they just deal their damage to their target. Where things get complicated is in what type of damage they do and who they target.

Default targeting is just whoever is in front of the attacker. But archers can shoot into the back row. Mages can fireball everyone. And healers can (out of necessity) target their own unit. Better, broader types of targeting are more expensive, and there are even ways to change your enemy's targeting. With the right choices, you can turn their big blast-casting aoe archmage into a less impressive single-target poke.

In a game where everyone controls only one character, you might not want to design things this way. Over War's simple targeting and damage works because a player can have five of their characters knocked out and still limp away to heal---and because players can reshuffle their formation and change out the types of characters in their unit when they do.

This keeps players in control and lets them keep making decisions, even when they're in a bad spot.

You *can* still drop the Attacks Just Hit mechanic into a more traditional system, and there are osr titles that do, but this changes the central question of combat from "can I roll well?" to something else. Think about what you want that something to be, and pick something interesting.

[probablyfunrpgideas]

Pseudoscience

Bad Idea: your miniature has to be accurate to your character, based on the principles of phrenology. If you become trained in the Deception skill, increase the size of the mini’s deceitfulness region on their head.

Good Idea: ask your GM for a myth, idea, or popular tale that is hard to prove or disprove. Then have your character pick a side and try to seek out the truth! For example, Mariner Molly believes the world she lives in is shaped like a triangle instead of a square, and plans to sail around the whole edge to find out. Even if you don’t find proof that convinces everyone, you’ll have some interesting adventures along the way!

[argumentalist]

After spending the better part of two weeks on that last build I wanted something quick, easy, and relaxing. So this week I'm building the RX-79[G] Gundam Ground Type from 08th MS Team.

So... When I started on this kit I figured it'd be pretty similar to the Ez8 I built a little while back - they're both from 08th MS Team after all. But I didn't realize the Ez8 was HGUC155 and the RX-79[G] is HGUC210. There was something like four years between those releases and it shows.

There's a weird, murky transparent green runner for the eyes. It's not the normal vibrant green I'm used to seeing. Not that it really matters - those eyes are getting covered with a sticker.

My first instinct was to reach for the paints instead of the stickers... But I wanted something quick and easy this week - so, stickers it is!

And, honestly, the stickers aren't bad in this kit. The only sticker I'd really call "color correcting" is that yellow 'v' in the crotch. Everything else is shiny foils for the eyes or cameras... Or some little triangles here and there.

There's some surprisingly good color separation in the chest. The only sticker on there is the white triangle.

Good assortment of accessories in this kit... The two closed/holding hands, an open left hand, and a trigger-finger right hand. Shield, beam rifle, machine gun, 180mm cannon, beam rifles, and the backpack.

That backpack is a huge upgrade over what we got with the Ez8. The clampy bit that the backpack hooks into is actually articulated.

While we only get the one trigger-finger hand, the machine gun and beam rifle can be held in either hand.

The beam sabers can store in the legs again, just like the Ez8. And the 180mm cannon breaks down for storage in the backpack.

There's also a simple sheet of marking stickers... Just a few numbers to indicate exactly which unit this is.

This kit is fantastically poseable. Great articulation. Nice and strong. If anything it's too strong. It felt like I was fighting some of the joints to get things positioned the way I wanted them.

Unfortunately that trigger-finger hand is pretty fragile. It kept popping apart while I was trying to pose the kit. I think I'm going to have to tighten that hand up a bit. But you only really need to use the trigger-finger hand for the 180mm cannon.

Overall this is a really, really solid kit. Great fun. Superior to that Ez8 in pretty much every way. It makes me want to pick up the Master Grade version. And another couple HGs too... And a couple of the GM Ground Types as well, so I can properly-replicate Karen's "GM Head".

[cryptcttrpgs]

TTRPG blog time! To make me use tumblr more!

Main blog: @cryptcness

Mostly here to reblog my players' awesome stuff or my ramblings about new systems!

Currently playing:

Legend in the Mist, GM

D&D 5.5e, playing Mugrim and Shitbocks

City of Mist, GM

Weekly Oneshots

Recently Finished

Mausritter, played Joules Fritts

City of Mist - HADESCorp, GMed

ALIEN, playing Hemlock

City of Mist, playing Luke Knowles

Other games I'm always thinking about:

Triangle Agency

Call of Cthulhu

Monster of the Week

Legend in the Mist

Discworld RPG

ALIEN RPG

Delta Green

Monty Python RPG

Monsterhearts

Pendragon

Timewatch

[arsene-inc]

A 1st trimester of ttrpgs

Playing

15 sessions played, 7 as a gm

9 different games : Donjons & Chatons, Goblin punks, The Sitters, Nobi Nobi, The Dark Eye, The great emu war, Wilderfeast, You must sneak human remains into disneyland (+ homebrew of a gm)

Mainly One shots, A lot of campaigns ended in january

9 sessions in french, 5 in english

March was the busiest with 7 sessions

The irl ttrpg club helps get regular sessions, but A.N.I.M rpg book club and Pagers are also regulars.

I mostly play with groups of 4 ( including me), but the top was 7 for The Dark Eye.

3 sessions in one day thanks to a local con where I was a volunteer gm

Future play

A mini campaign of Werewolf 5e will start soon

Another mini campaign started at the club, Cthulhu meets Noah's Ark

For a con at Kaysersberg, I will propose Where the Magic never ends? (my game), and an Arthurian inspired game of Pasion de las Pasiones Anim rpg book club should finish the current game soon, so thats another one coming soonish, but it's up to a vote which game will be read and played

On various discords and venues I have people interested in Thirsty Sword lesbians, Triangle Agency, World Wide Wrestling, Nova

The paused campaign of Knight may start back up again for a new season

I really should try to play more solo games during my train travels or lunch breaks.

Publishing

I have published Where the magic never ends at the start of January.

We managed to reach the first goal of 100$ and so I publish a bestiary for the game in February.

At the time of writing we are 55$ away from the next goal of more theme parks to explore. I have already contacted some friends to commission some theme parks. I have hope that the goal will be reached and the new pages published during the next trimester.

We also managed to pass the 100 downloads mark

I am working on developing the "create a park" section while also thinking of ways to make a mini campaign possible instead of a serie of One shots.

[th3-triangl3-ag3ncy]

ORIENTATION TIME

@flightless-pigeon33

[The Agent is lead to a Meeting Room.]

[A Barista enters the room and turns on the projector.]

[He wears the usual Triangle Agency outfit. He appears to be Asian, black hair and blue eyes. His hair was partially dyed blue.]

???: "Hey, Agent. Thanks for being patient. I'm so sorry that it took so long to get this set up. The Agency is a mess at the moment, as you can tell. Protocol says that I should be saying that it isn't always like this... But the truth is, The Agency does fuck up. A lot. And when it does, things become very stressful. Anyways, my name is TERRANCE CYANROTA but you can call me TERRY or GM."

[findroleplay]

hihihi I'm doing a brief intro to simplify things, for more details please check out my carrd which is linked below<3 but I'm Chainsaw! 22|She/Her| EST| 18+ only! But I prefer my partners to be at least 20. Can provide writing samples if requested. I only write on discord

Looking for OCxCC, doubling! I'm a fan of AUs and putting characters through shit. Angst fills my soul but I do like to break it up with moments of sweet romance. The type of shit that makes your teeth rot off. Very much a hurt + comfort fanatic. I can write poly and love triangles, I actually like both so hey, I'm up for it.

Since I double, I'll do whatever you want (within reason) on your side. I don't judge. Of course, if I'm uncomfortable with something I'll let you know and please feel free to do the same with me. I'm also in favor of our OCs interacting. All I ask is don't make crazy moves with my characters WITHOUT discussing it to me. I don't like GMs, this is a collaborative hobby so collaborate with me.

Fandoms that I have interest in rn: Honaki: Star Rail| Blue Lock| Overwatch| Marvel Rivals and more! Check the master list!

https://chainsawco.carrd.co/

Feel free to DM or like this post! 🥂

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