#patchwork world

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played PATCHWORK WORLD

By Aaron King

"All the worlds ended together: heavens and hells, kingdoms and wastelands, and everything in between. As they broke apart, the Heartless Princess saved the bits she could, shoving them together and crowning the resultant Patchwork World with her Icy City to hold it all together."

Patchwork World is a no-playbook, no-stat fantasy game; unusually for a Powered by the Apocalypse game characters are crafted by simply picking moves from a huge list of 70. Your character might be able to turn into cats, or maybe a whale ate their parents, or maybe they own a tavern. It's fun.

[ostrichmonkey-games]

📖

📖 My favorite class or playbook from a game.

I'm gonna cheat slightly and pick out some stuff from Patchwork World, because any time to talk about Patchwork World is a good time.

Running counter to general PbtA tradition, Patchwork World lacks full on playbooks! You pick out a handful of moves from a large and delightful lists of moves to instead build out your character. Build your own playbook, more or less.

So, in lieu of a playbook, here's a few of my favorite moves (that would make up a playbook);

Anyways, go play Patchwork World.

ask game

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

My latest essay is on @aaronsrpgs “Patchwork World!” I talk about how in an indie sphere where everyone is struggling to create, this game reminds me that words and heart are the most important part of the hobby.

Transcript here.

[aaronsrpgs]

Patchwork World is a weird fantasy game that mixes principles from powered-by-the-apocalypse (PbtA) and old school renaissance (OSR) games. I wrote it for people who prefer or need simple character sheets and rules and for people trying to move away from D&D. I’ll go into more detail about each of the bolded terms below.

1. WEIRD FANTASY is the genre description I settled on because the game is fantastical, it’s about fantasizing about a better world, and it doesn’t draw from the same fantasy traditions as D&D.

Instead, I wanted to recreate the feeling of playing games like Zelda: Link’s Awakening or Super Mario World for the first time. I drew inspiration from books like Hav by Jan Morris, Iceland’s Bell by Halldór Laxness, Circe by Madeline Miller, and A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar. I wanted the game to feel like my favorite surreal comic books, like Krazy Kat by George Herriman, Rudy by Mark Connery, and the works of A. Degen.

In Patchwork World, you can burst into a herd of cats, be haunted by your troll grandma, speak with birds, and tend a crystalline garden.

2. PbtA: Patchwork World draws on the principles and system originated in Apocalypse World by Vincent and Meguey Baker and the “roll with the questions” iteration created by Brandon Leon-Gambetta for Pasión de las Pasiones (one of the finest RPGs ever written).

Players (including the GM) have clear principles to help them get started, like being a fan of each other and being open to change. Players have a lot of power over what a session will look like based on the moves (special abilities) they pick for their characters—a group that owns a castle (the Castle move) and can burst into cats will have a much different approach to problems than a group with a Magnificent Weapon and a bunch of curses.

And rolling with the questions means that every time someone makes a move, they have to consider the state of their character, both emotionally and fictionally. You have a better chance to avoid danger if you made an ominous prediction about it, for example, and you’re more likely to win a fight if you’ve witnessed your enemy acting unjustly.

3. OSR principles are tailored around “old school” gaming and are often phrased as in opposition to newer “story games” like Apocalypse World. But looking at the headings in the classic Principia Apocrypha, one of the building blocks of OSR culture, there’s a lot that aligns! And a lot of stuff I love.

Embrace chaos, telegraph lethality, subvert expectations, build responsive situations. These are all principles I love, and I tried to give the GM advice and tools to do this. There are lots of tables to roll on in Patchwork World to build strange places and drive the strange occupants of those places.

It’s also really easy to make a character in Patchwork World, much like in OSR games, because...

4. SIMPLE CHARACTER SHEETS & RULES! I run games for people with full-time jobs, people with kids, people with ADHD and memory issues. And it can be such a barrier to say to people like that, “We’re going to have a bunch of fun! But we’ll have to reference this big book, and you’ll have to parse this tiny text, and if you want to be a cool wizard, you’ll have to flip back and forth between even more complicated rules.”

Patchwork World has no stats (thanks to rolling with the questions) and no classes. Making a character is as simple as choosing two moves (and if I were richer, I would have printed them on a deck of cards so players could just have them that way) and describing who they are.

(And because I embrace chaos, there’s also a table to roll for random moves instead.)

Other than their two moves, players will need to reference a simple sheet to track their wellness and experience and a sheet of basic moves that everyone has. And you’ll only need two six-sided dice to play.

5. MOVING AWAY FROM D&D is hard! You get invested in those big books and the time and money you’ve spent on them. You’re invested in the stories you’ve told. I get it. But D&D ended up actively pushing against a lot of what my weird friends wanted to do in a game, and we’d either have to follow the rules (meaning stuff was less cool), write new rules (more homework for the DM), or toss the rules away. And if we did that, why bother using them in the first place?

If you’re moving from D&D to Patchwork World, you can still play an elf wizard, a human fighter, a dwarven barbarian, or anything else like that. You can have cool weapons, fancy magic, and roguish charm and stealth. Just choose those moves and get going.

But you can also be an elf barbarian without having to worry about balancing your stat bonuses. Or you can be sneaky and cast spells without having to make it to a level three subclass or deal with multiclassing. And my hope is that once you start getting weird with that stuff, you’ll only get weirder.

6. A FINAL WORD: Making Patchwork World was an intensely personal experience for me. I was writing it in 2020 and 2021, in the rise of COVID and the aftermath of my city’s police murdering George Floyd a mile from my home. I was thinking about building communities in a broken world. I was struggling with the solitude of lockdown, away from my joyfully radical and queer communities. I was thinking about how much I’ve changed and how much I still want to change. So this is a game with rules for building communities, for mutating, for going on dates and making friends.

But you can also have a cool sword that takes memories or an eyeball helmet that sees through walls. Players have been grubby raccoons, otherdimensional children, necromancer puppets, and sullen teen busboys. This game has brought me a lot of joy! Maybe it can bring you some too. (It’s free, btw.)

(Doing a little post here about each of my games so that they’re around for me to reblog or link to. Reblogs welcome!)

[chronivore]

Patchwork World Sixth Edition by Aaron King

[krazycat6167]

So @somerandomdudelmao made a version of their sona in a dystopia (inspired by @tapakah0 doing the same to theirs) and the person in this ask named the robot C.A.S.5 and I thought, ‘well then there’s at least four other C.A.S. units out and about in the world’ leading to this being the end result! It was a lot of fun to come up with the different customizations each C.A.S. unit has.

also, the design for C.A.S.4 (Cash) was partially inspired by @mobiitez post.

Doodles:

[pitske]

Air Fryer <3

[bluedesignwall]

I got some extra stitching time in this morning while watching the first game of the rugby World Cup. The rugby didn’t work out too well for us but the bonus stitching is all good.

[thebirdmanhewatches]

Going feral about hinndredd and hinndredd Louie really all the hinndredd characters and versions of characters it’s where a lot of the older ideas regarding when hinndredd was on earth went along with the door lore, the Hamilton rip-off, the older version of current earth patchwork back when he was just a original patchwork reboot and not his own thing inspired mildly by bojack horseman, the older nightmare fuel reboot and associated lore, thauriel, Magnus tilby, more distilled and combined forms of characters that are sometimes somewhat demigod esc, the tower with myself at the top of it, azazel/cult on his endless quest to dig a pit, the scp characters, Magnus tilby, stuff regarding the origins of bauddalins, both types of joy(which ended up basically zombies without me noticing), every dropped plot thread that has ever existed, Magnus tilby

[thygoddessouijathicc]

PROPER Intro Post

Hi I’m a Ouija!

I stole the format for this post from my Buddy @davidthephoneguy

I’m an artist, writer, and hopefully someday animator from Canada working on OC projects and stuff.

I have too many sonas, and the one in the image is a new one I call the Ouija Clown Creature.

Follow my OC project at @patchworkheartouija !

These are all my current fandoms but I come and go between em.

I don’t have any other alts of relevance but check out rift and stuff.

Peace!

[marypsue]

Coldplay's 'Viva la Vida' has been applied to everything from the MCU to Naruto, but I have to admit, the first time I really heard the lyrics, my immediate first thought was 'oh, this is about Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume'.

[smolghostbot]

GT July: Intimidate (1)

Can We Stop And Rewind?

Decided to do two entries today, both snippets from Patchwork Melody: Spring, Patch and Melody's first meeting story. This is the lower-intensity one, the other (posting in a bit) is very whump.

Context: Melody has brought Patch inside to help them with a sprained arm, but they both have very different ideas of what's going on.

Word Count: 800

Character bios in my pinned post

CWs for accidental ableism (discussed and apologized for) and mentions of kidnapping (a genuine misunderstanding). Also some swearing on Mel's part but if that bothers you this is not the blog for you.

========

Suddenly, their giant captor stood up and walked away. The sprite instantly became terrified. Were they getting something to punish them for their silence? Were they finally dropping the nice facade?

Eventually, the human came back to the table with a large book. Placing it down gently, so as not to scare the tiny creature with a loud thump, they began to flip through the book.

"Okay… pointed ears say an elf, but your ears aren't really very… elven. Maybe you're a mousefolk? But you have no tail… or if you do, it's a tiny one hidden under that little robe of yours… I did find you outside of my house, and your outfit looks a bit ragged… uh, no offense, of course. Maybe you're a brownie? I have some milk in the fridge, would that get you to talk?"

They could only look at the human with a confused look. What was she going on about?

"... No wings, so you probably aren't a fairy… unless you lost your wings. Did you ever have wings, little thing?"

The confused sprite only shook their head in a slow "no".

"OK… well, I probably… uh… should have gone for something more professional than a D&D guidebook… I think I still have my old college textbooks around here somewhere… gods knows those things are way too expensive to chuck…"

The human left, and took several more books off the shelf after a few minutes of looking around. She flipped through each book, taking what felt like forever, muttering to herself as she went.

"We're miles from the nearest forest… you clearly aren't invisible… Definitely don't look human… Those clothes don't look at all suitable for living in water… it's… maybe technically nighttime? But you weren't leaving a gift… unless… you were actually planting seeds! Is this backpack full of seeds?"

The small sprite instantly went into a panic as the human looked over to their backpack, frantically shaking their head in a no, and praying that the human didn't try to dig into the bag. They already had to fix it up after… the last human they met. Luckily, this human seems to have had no plans on that and continued digging through the books, becoming more frustrated over time.

Eventually, they seem to have hit their limit, and threw their head back in agitation before speaking in a more aggressive tone than they had previously. "Ugh! Why won't you just say anything!?"

-

Melody noticed a knocking noise on the plastic container her little "guest" was in, and saw the mysterious little thing clearly trying to get her attention. As she looked over at him, she saw him frantically motioning with his hands over his neck, in an X shape. His mouth was moving, as if speaking in an exaggerated way, as if to make it easier for her to see that no sound was coming out of his mouth. He clearly looked scared, probably threatened by her voice raising. Her eyes lit up in both realization and embarrassment.

"Oh my gods. You aren't just being silent to be difficult… you can't actually speak, can you?" As he nodded a yes, Mel lowered her head into her hands in shame.

"Shit, I'm such a dick. That's what your little hand motions were, oh my gods you were signing! My dumb ass was sitting here thinking you were trying to cast spells or something, ugh, I'm such an idiot! Maybe not everything about this situation is silly and fantastical, Mel, maybe he's just mute and you're being insensitive like always."

Their head raised and their face shifted into a goofy expression as they began to cheer with a clearly sarcastic voice, "Yeah Mel, yeah, woo, get upset at a mute guy for not speaking, like a COMPLETE ASSHOLE, hell yeah, casual ableism, woo!!"

The human hung her head in embarrassment again before continuing to berate herself, putting her head in her hands.

"Ugh… I swear, I didn't know, if I had known I would never… I'm not some, like, prick, I swear. Oh my gods, I'm so stupid. Way to make a first impression, at least I know you can't hex me or whatever because I would be so cursed right now for sure."

If the sprite could communicate at the moment, and wasn't still terrified of this human, they'd have some strong words about how kidnapping is also not a good first impression. However, they have no intent on insulting their captor, despite the clear look of regret already on the human's face. They remain still, waiting for the human to compose themself.

[redratt]

Molly & her cousin, Patch Bratovich.

In WoD, Molly is a Tzimisce and Patch is a Bone Gnawer Hillfolk Ahroun.

In Chronicles of Darkness, Molly is a Circle of the Crone Gangrel Acolyte (who ditched the Invictus), and Patch is an Invictus Nosferatu backbreaker. Molly would have taken Patch with her when she left, but Patch wasn't there at that particular domain.

The Prince of that area probably had Patch sent specifically there as a result of Molly cutting loose.

[vansfriend]

Vans Authentic VR3 PW LX

[bluegrasslullaby]

Circus Of Angels Character Introductions!

PLEASE NOTE: this isn’t all the characters! there are four note characters who are yet to be designed and given personalities, and their intros will come in the future! along with characters i have chosen to keep a secret for now!

Michellis Angelez: The Circus’ darling ringleader! (All Pronouns)

She’s eccentric, but rather sweet. A little too sweet. There’s a certain fake-ness to everything about her that makes him almost uncanny. Their inability to not stare with it’s many, many eyes doesn’t help.

Lots of people, perhaps his own followers, think he should use her power for more important things rather than running a circus, but they could care less! After all, they can hardly argue with him. Perhaps that’s why it gets away with it all.  

Atticus: The shapeshifter! (He/Him)

Atticus is Michellis’ closest friend. As stated, he is a shapeshifter, although he prefers to stay in the form of a cat. He keeps a watchful eye over the circus when Michellis is away.

Lindsey Angelez: The seamstress! (Any Pronouns)

Lin is a very short teenager who works as the seamstress for the circus. Despite this, she’s much more interested in becoming a doctor instead. He is Michellis’ favourite, but that’s probably a lot to do with the fact that they’re his child.

Ticket, Blush, and Chef: They are strange humanoid creatures that Michellis created to take care of “less important” jobs. They are named after their occupations (ticket selling, doing the performers makeup, and cooking), and are known to unsettle guests and workers.

Lovely Scarrow: Just some clown. (He/Him)

It make sense that someone such as Lovely is putting his clownery to work instead of wasting it as a bartender! At least, that’s what Michellis thinks. 

Formerly good friends with Michellis, Lovely now holds quite a few grudges against him. He is the only performer that doesn’t live at the circus.

Pepper Penaluna: The doctor! (She/Her)

The youngest child of a Michellis worshipping family, Pepper was “taken in” by Michellis after her older sibling’s careless boyfriend accidentally had her take some…substances.

Despite being only 15, Pepper is the circus doctor, and is quite good at her job. Despite being one of the best off at the circus, she’s always felt the need for something more…

Hamantha Glass: The contortionist! (He/She/It)

Hamantha is the contortionist at the circus, but there’s something off about him. Perhaps it’s due to being a zombie, but he’s quite aggressive towards other performers. Unable to talk, she communicates through signs.

Ashley and Willow Gogo: The conjoined twins! (She/They for Ash, He/It for Willow)

Unfortunately for these two, Ashley and Willow are polar opposites, which cause them to (quite literally) butt heads a lot. While Ashley is nice and polite, Willow is quite mean and rude. The two work in the mirror maze together.

Spider Cider: The tightrope walker! (She/it)

Spider is a mystery to even the other performers of the circus. She disappears before and after shows, and smiles even in the most grim of times. It almost seems like Michellis himself doesn’t want her there…

Emily Stabber: The ribbon dancer! (They/It/She)

Emily is the newest addition to the circus. Formerly living in the woods with their dad, it’s had quite the trouble adjusting to her new environment, with all the loudness, the smells, and the way they are now forced to dress. The oddness of the people there don’t help.

Patchwork Fleshton: The magician! (They/He)

Unable to remember their real first name, he goes by Patchwork after waking up in the circus with rabbit ears sewn to their head. Understandably anxious all the time, Patchwork has a tendency to come off as quite snappy, like his good friend Willow. Unlike Willow however, they usually end up apologising. They also hallucinate pretty frequently.

Mirror Luck: The unlikely aerialist! (Mirror Pronouns) 

Mirror used to visit a lot of people each day, but after successfully being pressured into joining the circus by its uncle, Michellis, he barely has the time to visit just one. 

Mirror finds Michellis’ decision to make him an aerialist quite silly: after all, he’s a mirror! if anyone’s cut out for working in the mirror maze, it’s him!

He’s often used as the circus’ therapist, due to being able to properly understand everyone there, much to its dismay. 

And of course, we have the ghosts!

Calliope Mika Rosalind: The cleaner! (She/He)

Calliope is a very sweet ghost that works as the cleaner for the circus. She can’t see very well, because, you know. He’s missing his eyes. But she does her job well enough. 

Calliope only really talks to Mirror, as he’s quite insecure about how high her voice is anyways, and the fact that Mirror is the only one who can understand what she’s saying, due to being stuck talking in reverse. 

It’s worth noting that despite Michellis being the reason she talks backwards, doesn’t have eyes, is devoid of almost all colour, and trapped at the circus, he is not the reason Calliope is dead.  

Salem Mercury: The former magician! (He/Him)

Salem used to be the magician at the circus, but after a little altercation he had with Michellis, he now haunts instead. However, Salem is still rather fond of Michellis…..a little too fond, if you ask me. He’s known for annoying performers and visitors, and for his carelessness about how terrible their situation is.

[zaerog-infinity]

thinkin bout makin these goons a lore pair.. aaah idk